Weekly Review

Sunday was sunny with clear skies, and we had a nice trip to and from church!  After church we watched a conference talk and had rest time and then a yummy dinner before our weekly family Skype sessions and a quiet evening.  It was a good day.

Since my MBA class is now over, I really don’t have much work at the university.  This means I don’t go in very much and that much of what I do can be done remotely from the apartment.  Monday morning I got some work done, Jacque did the weekly shopping, and then we went to the underground mall to look around, get some souvenirs, and mostly to just get out of the apartment.  Our first stop was actually to stop by the train station to look at getting tickets to Vilnius, Lithuania.  We were hoping to go on Tuesday and new the times and knowing that language might be a barrier I pre-loaded my iPad Google Translate app with the phrases/sentences I thought we would need.  It kind of worked, but mostly the lady behind the counter was just annoyed/upset that she had to make any effort with me.  After I had waited my turn in line for 5+ minutes, when it was my turn and she saw I didn’t speak Russian, she was done with me in about 30 seconds and then kept motioning for me to move away to let those behind me in line get their tickets.  However, I wouldn’t move and kept trying, so she just ignored me and started helping others behind me.  After a minute of this, someone from line who spoke English came up to try and help me, but the lady behind the counter was not having it.  Thus ended my first attempt to get train tickets by myself.  Tomorrow we will try again and hopefully have a native Russian speaker there with me so things can go more smoothly.  After the train station, we had a nice time at the mall, got a few souvenirs, had a good lunch and ice-cream for treat, and then we came home for a late rest time.  That evening we had dinner and a fun FHE and Jacque and I enjoyed our evening together after the kids were in bed. 

 

Tuesday was another souvenir day.  This time we hit the mall downtown and the outdoor souvenir market, where we got lots of neat stuff.  There are so many pretty things here and we are excited to do a little decorating when we get home.  The kids are also excited to have their own little Belarusian souvenirs!  The rest of the day was fairly typical and we had a nice evening.  

Wednesday was the beginning of the hot weather (earlier in the week was very sunny, just not as warm).  I had a terrible night’s sleep and then was up super early with David and Kaylie, so all together I was running on about 3 and a half hours.  My morning was very lethargic, but we were able to get some things done and then we had our big outing in the afternoon’ we went with Sergei and the senior couple to the Belarusian Folk Village, about 30 km outside of Minsk.  We spent the afternoon there and had a great time.  We had an English speaking guide, which was awesome and she was so nice and super informative.  It was really neat to see how the people lived a hundred years ago and the girls had a great time running around (until the last hour, by which point they were hot and tired and pretty much just complained!).  You can see a bunch of pictures here.  By the time we got home we were all worn out but glad we had the adventure.  We had a quiet evening and Jacque and I went to bed a little early.  

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were fairly nondescript days.  It kept getting hotter and hotter in the apartment, so we tried to get out a bit.  We had a nice long picnic on Thursday at the park and I took the kids to the park for quite a while Friday afternoon.  Mixed in there I was able to get some work done and Jacque and I have been continuously looking at homes online (many very nice homes in our price range, so we are just hoping there is still a good selection by the time we get home so we can go looking and put an offer on one).  Saturday we had the Olympics running on the TV in the background for a good part of the day and we had a pretty quiet day.  The kids have had fun watching some of the events and it is fun to see them get excited! 

Today is another hot day.  The air conditioning at church is going to feel really nice!  Hopefully it will be working today!

Weekly Review

Last Sunday was a bit overcast, which made for mild temperatures and a pleasant walk to and from church (which was great as always).  After church, we had our normal rest time for the kids, then dinner, and then we had three Skype sessions with family back in the U.S.  The kids were a tad crazy by bedtime, as they definitely enjoyed the Skype sessions!

Monday was a rather nondescript day.  Other than the weekly trip to the store for groceries, we didn’t leave the apartment (it was a bit rainy all day).  The kids did have a lot of fun around the apartment.  The girls spent a good part of the day inventing/testing new models of paper airplanes and I spent a good part of the morning grading term papers (ugh!).  The Johns also came over for a bit in the afternoon, after rest time, and the kids always love seeing them.  After dinner, we had a family home evening on scripture study and then the normal evening routine before the kids went to bed.  Then Jacque and I had a quiet evening before going to bed. 

Tuesday was a beautiful day!  After our normal morning routine, I went into work for a while (and also picked up all of our finalized immigration documents—finally!).  After I got home and the kids had their rest time, we went to a live butterfly exhibit.  The kids were in heaven and I think they could have spent all day there.  These butterflies were ginormous and very pretty!  After the butterflies, we went to get some dinner at a traditional Belarusian restaurant and everyone enjoyed the yummy food!  Then we came home and did our normal evening routine before the kids went to bad and Jacque and I had a quiet evening.

Wednesday was another rather nondescript day.  The weather was quite rainy, so we mostly stuck around the apartment and played/worked.  Jacque also made a run to the store to get tortilla chips (the first time we have been able to get them here; thanks to the Johns for the tip!).  So after dinner and the kids were in bed, Jacque and I enjoyed some cheesy chips and salsa (not quite the same as in America, but still tasty)!!

Thursday was a rainy, quiet day.  It was overcast all day, with heavy rain off and on, so we pretty much just hung around the apartment for most of the day.  It was my last day for my MBA class at BSU, so I spent a bit of time doing final grading stuff and getting everything ready to hand back to students.  The final class session was basically a final exam and goodbyes, so it all went well, though it was kind of sad to say goodbye to my students.  The rain really started coming down as the last couple of students were finishing up their exams, so by the time I had everything finished up (including probably 100+ signatures the school needed from me on documents related to the course I taught) it was a huge down poor.  I was not smart enough to bring an umbrella, so I got soaked on the way home.  Oh well.  After I got home, I chatted with a neighbor friend on Skype for a few minutes with Jacque and then we had a quiet evening.

Friday was a quiet day.  I had a pretty rough night with an upset stomach and Jacque was not feeling well in the morning, so we stuck around the apartment and just tried to get some rest amidst taking care of the kids.  I also finalized grades and got everything submitted to the BSU for my MBA class.  In the afternoon, while the kids were having rest time,  I was able to hash out some rough plans with people at the Belarus High Tech Park to do a workshop in Grodno (about 4 hours away from Minsk), with managers from High Tech/IT business and faculty/students from the IT university in Grodno.  As it looks now, the entire family will likely leave on Monday morning (July 30) and return Tuesday evening after a day of workshops and doing touristy stuff in Grodno.  It should be a lot of fun.  Hopefully we can work out the travel/lodging logistics (which the IT Park will foot the bill for).  Friday evening we had a call with our realtor about property disclosure stuff (quite boring) and we also had ice-cream night, which the kids always love!  Then Jacque and I streamed a chick-flick for a stay-at-home date night!

 

Saturday was kind of a dull day; another overcast day and we spent most of the morning just hanging around the apartment.  The sun came out in the afternoon and Jacque took the girls to the park while I stayed back with David.  Then we had a nice evening.  

Today it is sunny with clear skies, so we are looking forward to a nice trip to church in a little bit!  It has been a good week!

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.  

Week in Review

Sunday was a very nice Sunday.  We had our normal morning routine and the headed off for church.  The weather was nice, so the trip back and forth was actually quite pleasant.  We also enjoyed the church meetings and the kids had a great time in primary.  After church, we watched a conference talk and then had rest time, followed by dinner and a pleasant evening after the kids were in bed.

Monday the weather was gorgeous so we spent a good amount of time playing outside.  For the first time, I let the kids take off their shows and put their feet in the fountain by the playground, thinking it would be a good way for them to cool down and have a little fun (also naively thinking they wouldn’t get too wet!).  Within a couple minutes there had been so much splashing that everyone was soaked!  We had a great time and had to change clothes after we got back to the apartment.  The Johns joined us at our apartment for dinner and brought a yummy Belarusian dish!  We had a great family home evening done completely by the girls (Lia—music, Amber—lesson, and Sara—game).  It all went great and we enjoyed having the Johns with us for the evening.  After they left and we got the kids to bed, Jacque and I had a nice evening before hitting the sack ourselves.

Tuesday was Belarusian Independence Day.  We took off around 9 am so we could get to the big parade, and it was good we left so early.  We got there and there were tons of people, check points, and quite a bit of walking before we finally got to the spot we wanted.  The parade was basically a display of the Belarusian military and the kids loved seeing all of the soldiers, tanks, planes, helicopters, etc.  We got back to the apartment in time for lunch and rest time.  After rest time iIt was quite warm, so I decided to let the girls get into their swimming suits and took them down to play in the fountain.  They loved it!  The water is not the cleanest in the world (in some ways kind of like canal water), so I was probably a bit overprotective with them, but we all had a good time and were able to cool off.  After dinner we had a movie night with popcorn and treats and we all had a good time.  Then Jacque and I just hung out and chatted until it was time for fireworks.  We got the three oldest kids up and took them out on the balcony so we could watch.  They were very pretty, but they are also so loud here (like canons going off every time).  It was a good day.

Wednesday was another warm day.  We ventured out to the mall so Jacque could get some cross-stitching stuff and then found a little place that had all sorts of little pastries and treats.  We got something for all of us for less than $3 and it was all yummy.  After rest time I took the kids to the park to play and Jacque also did some shopping.  Our evening routine was normal and Jacque and I had a nice evening after the kids were in bed. 

 

Thursday was a warm day.  After a typical morning of work and playing with the kids, I took off for work and had my long day at the office, with my MBA class in the evening.  I got home before 10 pm and Jacque and I hung out before bed. 

The heat wave continued into Friday.  We had a normal morning and then I went and spent half of the day dealing with immigration stuff.  To say that I am frustrated with the situation is a huge understatement.  It has been very frustrating as the rules and required documentation seems to change every time I go and meet with the immigration officials.  We are still hoping that everything gets taken care of in the next couple of weeks (should have been taken care of two months ago).  We then had a fairly quiet evening in the sauna that is our apartment this week (thank you heat and humidity).  

Saturday morning we were all up early because of the heat and after breakfast we spent most of the morning outside in the shade eating ice-cream and playing.  We then had lunch and rest time and then we spend a good part of the afternoon down at the park too.  After the kids were in bed, Jacque and I watched a live-stream on the internet of her uncle’s funeral back in Utah (we are grateful for technology so we could participate).  It was a very nice funeral and it was great to learn more about her uncle, who admittedly I did not know every well before his passing. 

Today is another really hot/humid day already (and it is only 6 am).  We are hoping it cools down a little soon.

Week in Review

Sunday was a very nice day.  The weather was beautiful (except for about a 3 minute downpour during the middle of church), so the travel to/from church was not bad.  I didn’t have much by way of English translation at church, so I spent most of the 3-hour block reading the lessons/scriptures on my iPad and helping David and/or Kaylie.  After we got home from church, the kids had a snack, we watch a conference talk, and then David went down for a nap and the girls had a rest time (Jacque and I too).  It was a peaceful afternoon, followed by dinner and video chat with Grandma and Grandpa Westover, then the kids went to bed and Jacque and I enjoyed the evening together.   

Jacque did not sleep well Sunday night, so I was up with the kids and we had a nice morning of a mix of playing and work.  At lunch time we went to the playground for a little picnic and the kids had a great time playing.  The weather got a bit worse in the afternoon, so after rest time we mostly stuck around the apartment and also did some grocery shopping.  We had a nice FHE after dinner and had yummy no-bake cookies for treat!  Once the kids were in bed, Jacque and I had a nice quiet evening. 

Tuesday was a good day.  I had my visit to the U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Office, where I spoke to around 30 educators from Minsk Regional Retraining Institute (like Jacque did last month).  It was a lot of fun!  I was home by lunch and then we got kids down for rest time.  It was a little more overcast, so we didn’t dare being too ambitious with our afternoon outing.  We ended up at the dinosaur play land on the top floor of the main train station.  The kids had fun and it was nice to get out.  Below are a couple pics and you can see more here. 

Wednesday was also a rainy day so we stuck around the apartment most of the day.  I was able to get some work done and we also played a lot.  Early afternoon the kids were all up from naps and the rain stopped and clouds cleared for a little bit, so we decided to try going out.  By the time we got everyone ready and packed up and outside, it started raining again, so we changed plans and walked over to the grocery store for a little shopping and to look around the mini-mall on the second floor.  It was raining, so we all got wet, but not too wet so it was kind of fun!  We looked around the shops for a little bit before heading back home.  We had our normal evening routine and Jacque and I enjoyed a quiet evening once the kids were in bed.  

Thursday was another overcast day, and also my long work day on campus (with evening classes).  So we just hung around the apartment in the morning and I was able to get a bit of work done before heading off for campus.  Jacque and the kids just stuck around the apartment and did their thing.  I got home shortly before 10 pm and Jacque and I got ready for bed.  It was a boring, yet productive day.

Friday was a gorgeous day!  After a normal morning, by around 10 am we headed out for the Minsk Botanical Gardens/Park.  It took a while to get there, then even a bit longer to find exactly where we were trying to get to (a lot of construction blocked off certain paths).  We finally got to where we wanted to be and spent the next hour and a half enjoying the beautiful scenery!  We grabbed some lunch on the way home and finally got back to the apartment around 2 pm.  The kids had late rest time and then we played a bit before dinner, followed by Friday ice cream night at the park.  It was a great day!  Below are a few pics and you can see more here.

 

The weather was beautiful again on Saturday.  We had a rather lazy morning, but then we ventured out to the circus in the afternoon!  The kids were mesmerized by everything (lots of acrobatics and trained animals).  We got home a bit late, but we did all of the evening stuff and got the kids in bed and then Jacque and I had a nice evening.  Below are a few pics and you can see more here.

 

Today is another beautiful Sunday morning and we are just getting ready for the day and we will start the weekly trek to church in another hour and a half.  That's all for now.