Snow days

We've had snow for the past week and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I've worked out that in the last 13 months I've experienced 2 full months of snow. 5 weeks in Russia, 2 weeks in January and the last week. That is probably more snow than I've experienced in the whole rest of my previous life. 

Anyway. Andrey has been off school. My school has been open but with very few pupils. In fact today there were only two and one was Rosa.  We haven't been anywhere and I am going mad. 

I took the photos earlier in the week. It has snowed a lot more since then and it's much deeper. The 'cold snap' as the weather men are referring to is as is set to continue for another few days. 

Halloween cookies

Today we had fun decorating Halloween cookies.  I'll admit that I bought the kit from Superquinn. The kids had a great time. How could they not.cookies, icing  and sweets.   I'm really not sure about that black icing though, it dyed everything it touched, fingers, tongues, teeth.

Football Football Football

As soon as I started going out with Ian I knew that football was going to be a big part of my life. It is his greatest love (apart from me and the kids....and the gospel etc, you know what I mean)
Anyway almost as soon as Andrey could walk he was kicking a ball and finally this year he has started to play football competitively. He is in the Corduff football club under 7's . Training is Mondays and Wednesdays with matches every Saturday morning.
Andrey totally loves it. He's not the best player on the field but he's good natured and does his best. He never complains when he's substituted off and is always encouraging to his team mates. So far his team are doing pretty well and have won 3 out of 4 matches.

General Conference

I thought that this year it was time that my kids started to watch general conference. I planned treats an activities and even put up the tent so we could 'place the door of the tent towards the tower (computer).
Due to the time difference the Saturday morning session started at 5pm. It went ok for a while but after about a hour it descended into mayhem.
Sunday was better. I had less treats and activities and it worked better somehow.

Anyway. I guess we're just making habits. Eventually they will listen and learn something.

Dinner disaster

So I got a slow cooker the other day. It's going to change my life. I made soup twice and a lovely stew on Sunday. Today I followed the recipe (from the recipe book that came with it) for Hawaiian   pork. All seemed fine. It looked nice served with rice. But it tasted totally foul. I blame the pineapple. I know sometimes you'll have something that's just ok, not delicious but this was disgusting. Completely inedible.
E8 worth of pork in the bin. Ian went and got chips.

Our ladies hospital

Rosa had an appointment with the cardiac surgeon today. Rosa was born with a congenital heart defect and has had 2 heart surgeries. She met Dr McMahon 6 months ago and had some tests and he gave her the all clear and said she would probably only need annual check-ups. So today I thought it would be routine but during her Echo Cardiogram test he noticed some leakage in two places in her heart. It's probably nothing but needs to be monitored a bit more closely. She had another ECG and a blood test, didn't like either very much especially the blood test. Who like getting stuck with a needle.
The children's hospital is a very surreal place to be in.  You're worried about your own child until you see another poor little one being pushed by on a trolley hooked up to loads of machines with mammy and daddy bringing up the rear trying to hide their terror. I  hope that Rosa doesn't need any more surgery. I don't want her to have to go through that, or me either.

My family

 

This is one of my favourite family photos. It was taken in Moscow the day before we came home to Ireland with Rosa. I love the way Rosa looks to relaxed and at home with us. We had, had her with us in Russia for about 2 weeks full time before this and she settled in so easily.

This is my second attempt at starting a blog. I haven't written on the other one for nearly 2 years. Hopefully I'll be more faithful this time.