Boots.

Nothing puts a bigger grin on my face than when I get a great deal on an awesome pair of shoes. Take for example, my new boots!
I have been scoping out these beauties for about five months now. When I first saw them in November they were full price 509 UAH (64 USD) and I could not justify paying that much for them. I often pop into the store and have kind of kept my eyes on them. About January they went on sale but it still was not enough to convince me ... I do try to be cautious of my shoe purchases, thank you! In early March I noticed they had been reduced again so I tried them on again, but I still could not bring myself to make the purchase. Yesterday, I popped into the store for some short sleeved tops (Hellooooo spring!) and noticed the boots had been reduced again. I fully expected there to be none in my size; seriously, after five months of looking that would be how the story usually ends. But there they were in my size. So I bought myself some red boots ... and for a slamming deal of 130 UAH (16 USD).

Sometimes things like that just come together for me. Haha.

Three Days Above.

Guess what?!? Sunday was 21 March. The first day of spring (the real first day of spring, even though former Soviet Union countries seem to think the first day of spring is 01 March).

Boy, oh boy, we have been experiencing spring!

The last three days have been above freezing during the day and during the night. I have been sleeping with the window open since Sunday night because when you add the warm outside temperatures to the out of control heat in my flat ... it is nearly impossible to sleep.

Life looks a little different with the onset of spring. We have raging rivers of melting snow and ice, there are mountains of mud, all the trash from the last five months of winter is being uncovered to create a blanket of trash on the ground, there is just as much melting dog poop as there is melting snow and the bits of sunshine are quickly turning into whole hours of sunshine! The laundry hung out to dry is actually drying in the sunshine rather than simply evaporating as much moisture as possible during a snow storm. It is lovely to walk on a clear sidewalk and people have begun to emerge from their dens of hibernation.

I love the cool, fresh, crisp air. I love warmth from the sun. I love spring.

They Got To Meet.

A couple of weeks ago my friend E and I were talking and she shared with me the possibility of her getting to visit America. She would be going along with a friend who had to attend a business expo. At the time we were hopeful E could get a visa to go. They processed their paperwork and waited, ran some extra errands to the US Embassy and waited and waited some more. Finally, on two days before they needed to be getting on the plane, E and her friends got notice that they had been awarded visas! Woohoo. She called me and we shared our excitement over this trip.

You see, E and her friends would be visiting two major cities in America. New York City and Las Vegas. Seriously, E was going to get to visit my city! We talked about where they should go, what they should see and where they should eat. I had to be careful not to impart my desire to go places and do things - I really wished I could be going with her! The best part is E was willing to take something to my parents for me!

So Mum and Pop got to meet my friend E! They met up on Monday afternoon and Mum played tour guide out to Red Rock, to Roberto's and to Marianna's grocery!

It is so fun to know that my parents got to meet some of my friends from here. But it made me really sad too. I wished with all my heart that I could be there hanging out with them too. It was hard knowing that E was getting to be with my parents and I was not. Hearing their stores of hanging out with E and her friends made me smile and I even laughed a few times at some of the questions they asked Mum. Oh, they are Ukrainian alright! Haha.

I am so glad that through this trip I was able to share a little bit extra of my life here.

Oops.

Everyone back home knows - if you want it to rain wash your car.

Here is how it goes ... you wake up one morning and there is not a cloud in the sky and you have some extra free time so you decide to wash your car. Plus, the weather forecast is calling for its usual endless days of sun and the idea seems perfect. You then spend the afternoon washing your car; only to wake up the next morning to discover it sprinkled just enough and the wind blew just enough to leave your car a spotty, muddy mess.

I hope I am not at fault for what happened here last night. Although, I expect yesterday, in my taking advantage of the beautifully sunny day and the narrow swath of land that had become snow and ice free to do a little shopping ... I am at least partially at fault.

You see I ventured out and bought these really cool spring shoes (is it really my fault if the shops are selling them?):

And this is what I woke up to this morning - several inches of fresh snow and more still falling:If this was my fault, I am so sorry. You cannot believe how sorry I am. Now, I have to slip my feet into the same boots I have been wearing for the last sixteen weeks (that is 112 days!?!) and head off to work.

"These boots were made for walking ... and that just what I'll do ..."

8 March.

8 March was International Women's Day.

The guys from the youth group at my church had a party for us girls on Saturday evening. It was entertaining. They had planned a few games, prepared dinner and some entertainment, along with a project.

I was most impressed that they made fresh sushi for us. It was quite good and very well made. They even made everyone use chop-sticks! It is a good thing I mastered those a long time ago ... otherwise I might have gone hungry. Whilst the ladies were eating the guys started coming into the room one at a time; each one carrying a scrap of paper with a blessing, wise saying or some other token of honour and a balloon filled with helium!?! I laughed out loud as each one took a turn sucking helium from their balloon and reading the words to us! Some of them were hesitant to suck the helium and were not as successful with the voice alteration as others - but it was hysterical.

One of the other things the guys had were 4x6 photos of spring flowers with a verse on the front. They handed these out to each of us and then asked us to write a wish we might have for our fellow women thru the year. After everyone had written something, the guys collected the photos, mixed them up and re-passed them out. So each woman received a wish of something for the year. Well, here is mine ...The general gist in translation is:
I wish for you to be a really good wife. For you to have many children. And for God to be with you in this.

MmmHmm. Yep. Happy Women's Day to me.