Weekly Review
Last Sunday was another warm
day. We had a typical Sunday morning and
then our trek out to church. Church was nice as always and afterword we had quiet afternoon and evening. It was a good day.
After a very warm night
and little sleep, we had a normal Monday morning. We did get a rather heavy rain for about a
half hour, which I think helped the temperature come down a bit, which was
nice. Once the rain stopped, Jacque did the
week’s grocery shopping while I stayed with kids and we made a fort and also
played trains! After lunch and rest
time, I took the kids down to play at the park, where we spent the next couple
hours enjoying the shade, ice-cream, and the kids roaming around the park and
playing with butterflies! We had dinner
and FHE and then Jacque and I had a pleasant evening together. The big news of the day is that we officially
put our house on the market. We have
felt very conflicted as we have tried to make the decision. We will miss our many friends/neighbors whom
we love. We decided that we needed to
get the house listed during the buying season rather than wait until we get
home. I will
still be at UVU, we are just looking to take advantage of low interest rates
and cheap home prices (hopefully the last move we will need to make?!). We
really like the Springville, Mapleton, Spanish Fork area but we shall see where
we end up.
Tuesday was another
warm day and an early morning (up with Kaylie and David at about 5:30). We had a normal morning and then we wanted to
go out and enjoy the weather a bit. We
ventured out to the largest bookstore in Minsk and had fun looking around. The kids each got to choose a book, Jacque
got a book of poetry (all in Russian) by a famous Belarusian poet, and I got a
neat Belarus map. We wanted to also go
to the Belarus National Art Museum, but our efforts were thwarted, as we
quickly found out that Tuesday is the day it is closed (who knows why
Tuesday)… So we went and got some lunch
and then made our way home for rest time.
After rest time, I took the four girls down to the park and we played
for a good 2 hours, before coming back for dinner and our normal evening
routine. Before bed, the girls also got
to Skype with friends back in Utah, which they always love! After we got the girls down, Jacque and I had
a pleasant evening.
Wednesday was our
second try at the Belarus National Art Museum.
The first thing we noticed once we got in is that this museum is way
nicer than the Natural History Museum is; the difference is like night and
day. Anyway, we enjoyed the
air-conditioning as we looked at some really amazing art (as well as just
enjoying the really neat building housing the art exhibits). After the museum, we got lunch and desert at
a little Belarusian Deli. It was cheap
and pretty good, but the old ladies who clean up apparently didn’t like us
being there with some many little kids making a mess. So we ended up eating outside. By this point,
David was having a complete meltdown, so finished things up quickly and got
home for everyone to have rest time.
After rest time, I took the kids back down to the park for a while and
then we had a yummy dinner and did the normal evening routine. We also had a Skype session with our realtors
and were pleased to find out that we already had multiple offers on the house
(after less than 2 days of being on the market!). So we had several different potential buyers
trying to decide what they were willing to put as their best offer. It was a very pleasant surprise, as Jacque
and I were gearing ourselves up for a prolonged and stressful attempt to sell
the house.
I was up early (5:30
am) with Kaylie and David again on Thursday (it gets light here so early, it is
just so hard for them to sleep in later).
So I did the normal morning stuff with the girls and after breakfast and
everything was cleaned up, I had to meet with Alexander regarding more
immigration paper stuff. On the way home
I swung by the store and picked up a few food items and then I spent the rest
of the morning working from home.
Thursday is normally my long day, but I did not go in to the office for
most of the day. Instead we decided to go on a picnic... However, on the way out to a picnic, the entire family got stuck in the tiny, hot
elevator in our building... Screaming baby and 2 year-old, crying 4
year-old and 6 year-old, and stressed out mommy and daddy... Our 8
year-old was probably the only one that remained calm... We were
trapped for about 25 minutes before maintenance workers were able to get
the doors open... then we enjoyed our picnic!!
We had another Skype
session with the realtors before my class and we found out that we had 4 offers
on the house, the highest being 5% higher than our asking price! The paperwork got sent over, we signed and
returned, and by Friday morning Minsk time our house was under contract! We can’t believe how fast everything went and
now we have to turn our attention to finding a new home (we will be able to
stay in our Lehi home until Sept. 30, so we will have a month and a half after
returning from Minsk to get into the new home).
After the call with the realtors, I had to run off to class. It was presentation day for the MBA students
to presenting the findings from their semester projects. We finished class a bit early and I got home
in time to catch the tail-end of Jacque’s Skype session with our neighbor. Then it was off to bed.
Friday was our 10-year
anniversary! I cannot believe we have
already been married for 10 years! A lot
has happened over the past decade. We
had a morning outing to the famous chocolate shop and then lunch out (another brief trapped-in-the-elevator experience too!). We came back for rest time and had a quiet
afternoon before Valya came to babysit and Jacque and I enjoyed an evening on
the town! We visited the big bookstore
in downtown Minsk, then yummy dinner, and then we planned to go back to the
botanical gardens, only to find out that the park closes at 8 pm. Instead, we just walked around and talked as
we enjoyed the pleasant evening weather.
It was a very nice anniversary!
Saturday was a very quiet
day. The weather was quite overcast (a
welcomed change with cooler temperatures) and we enjoyed a casual morning
before I went off to teach my MBA class.
After returning home, we had a nice quiet evening; a nice end to the
week!
Today is a very pleasant, mild day and we had a great time at church and now are back at the apartment resting.
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