A January Saturday....

Last Saturday we had a pretty busy day. Lisa picked me and Sierra up at 8:45 a.m. to have breakfast at IHOP then go to the International Gem and Jewelry show. I have never been but Lisa and her mother-in-law Nella go every year. Lisa buys such beautiful stones and semi-precious stones for Nella to make necklaces with. Her collection is just beautiful! I should take pictures of some of her items...but anyway. This was a first for me and CC and I didn't really know what to expect. If I learned anything... it's to walk around and price FIRST then go back and buy. It was kinda hard to do with CC constantly telling me look over here, no here, let's look there, why didn't you go here, it's only $3, it will match my other five strands..... you get the point. I missed several booths but went home with some very pretty things and one VERY maxed out credit card!

The jewelry show was in the Lila Crockrill theatre. We parked at the Grand Hyatt downtown and walked through the hotel into in the theatre's meeting rooms. There was a short walk outside along San Antonio's river. I took the opportunity to take a few photos....of course. I'm a blogger...my camera is ALWAYS with me!
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This is a mural on top of the back side of the hotel.... (I love that blue sky)

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This is the restaurant in the hotel. There are beautiful chandeliers and painting and glass art work all over the hotel. It's truly breathtaking!

Lisa and I are planning to each take a day off in April and spend the day downtown, lunch here is definately on the agenda!
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This is going up the escalator from the ground level (river) to the lobby of the hotel. It's a beautiful collection of glss butterfly thingys... too pretty!

This was actually inside the Lila Crockrill theatre. The entire sculputure (if that's what you call it) is composed of soda cans.... Sierra nearly went nuts when she saw this. She now wants to save all of her Dr. Pepper and Diet Dr. Pepper cans to make on huge giant Dr. Pepper can. I've been throwing all the cans away.... that plan, my friends, will just NEVER happen!

The river...... It was chilly and windy that day. But it is so pretty there I couldn't help myself. I HAD to take pictures!

CC and Jakob. Jakob has a little crush on CC and we were teasing them that they both were wearing stripes that day. It was so sweet...before I took the photo Jakob fixed his hair and straightened his shirt....

CC took this picture of me and Lisa. Sierra already knows... when she takes a picture of us it has to be from the chest up! Come on, I KNOW I'm not the only one who does this!

Now it my and CC's turn.

After the jewelry show I took Lena to buy her a skateboard (that will be another post) and then get ready to go to Sergey's 37th birthday party. I wasn't too psyched about going because the last time we went Emil had wwaaaaaaayyyyyy too much to drink and it was one awful ride home.

Anyway, Ida prepared a beautiful table full of delicious food and you guessed it....vodka!

One of my favorite Russian dishes was present.....shuba! By the looks of it, it was a favorite of everyone's! There is hardly any left!

Dolma's made a suprise visit... along with different types of salads, breads, red cavier, borzheneena, smoked salmon, steaks smothered in cheese and mushrooms. It was super delicious...and the best chocolate cake I have EVER had!

Though the guys drank, they behaved and everyone enjoyed themselves! Here is Arkadiy, my Papa Bear and Lisa's husband, Stas.

And of course the birthday boy, Sergey.... here with Arkadiy. Lisa and I thought it was quite funny how both look like they are thinking, "Get this picture over with!"The following night Emil decided he wanted some more Russian foods and I was craving more red caviar, so at 8 pm we loaded up and headed to Ali Baba. Oh man....we bought two bottles of Tarhun... the best drink you will ever drink. It's a summer-type soda made from tarragon. We bought the bologna with pastachios, lavash, ikra (2 jars), Armenian cheese (it was gone the next day) and four of those pizza-like things..one with meat and one with cheese. Oh and Emil found this Russian cream cheese that he used to eat when he was little. It was sooooo good! The girls love the Russian foods... I came home from work and Sierra was on her bed with a long oval plate with the jar of caviar, lavash bread, Russian cream cheese and some bologna. That makes me so happy that she is so diverse in her choices!

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Lena has been so happy with her skateboard. I can't get her off of it! However, my little baby was holding my laptop and skating to the kitchen to give it to me.... yes, horrible idea! Considering our luck with laptops these past few months.... And it was inevitable...she nearly dropped it, catching it on it's way down, but now my "a" key is not striking as it's supposed to....again! I will be posting pictures of her skateboarding and the new family toy soon!

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I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! We have mostly just lounged around the house.... playing. What are you doing? Anything exciting going on?

Vodka Swap.. replacing vodka w/ water!

We were having a nice sushi dinner at Lisa's house last Saturday. One wife decided that the guys were drinking too much vodka... sooooo.... she poured the vodka out, put it in a different bottle and filled the vodka bottle up with water!

Too funny! Watch as they figure it out..

Show and Tell Friday - Russian Picture

I am finally participating in Cindy's Show and Tell Friday at her beautiful blog, My Romantic Home. It feels sooooo nice to be back at it. I can't wait to look in on everyone else's blogs and see what treasures they are showing!

I have showed you some of my many Russian items here....and I am going to show you another treasure of mine. I have always been fascinated with Russia and read many books on Russia. When I was very young, like nine or ten years old, I would make my mother take me to the library in my little bitty country town and I would check out what few books on Russia they had. I would read them over and over and over! One of the books had photos of old farm houses and dachas. I found one that I really fell in love it! And then I did something really bad.... I tore the picture out of the book and I swore that when I was old enough to have my own home I was going to frame this picture and put in somewhere in my home!

And I did.... here it is. I love the dark, old withered wood. I love the snow on the rood and the tall beautiful fir trees. I love everything about this picture and I just look at the windows and try to imagine the parties that went on there.... the good food that was made and the stories that were told. I would love to be able to go back and spend just one day in that house. I wonder if this house is still there.

This is the back of the picture. It has a description of what would have been on the opposite back page. In my mothers handwriting in pencil at the bottom is written' "The tales the old dachas have to tell invite attention from every window. This one near Leningrad, Old house at Lisy Nos (Fox's Nose)"

A close up for you.

So now my Russian picture sits on my fireplace mantle.

And I love it there. Do you think I should put it in a darker frame or is this light wood ok?

I often think about how my life turned out. I am now married to a Russian man, I didn't know that he was Russian when I met him because he is shorter and darker than what you would expect a Russian to look like. He is actually an Armenian Russian. I have learned to cook their food, I love their music, I know most of their language.... I still have issues with some parts of their culture, but after 15 years we've worked through about 90% of it!

I thank you so much for stopping by my blog and seeing my Show and Tell. Don't forget to stop by and see everyone else's show and tell! I hope you all have a wonderful three-day weekend!

Do you have anything special planned? Saturday we are going to a jewelry and bead show. Sunday I'm going to get my painting framed that I purchased at an art show last Sunday. So look forward to those posts!

Christmas/New Years Pics... & It's COOOLLLLDDD!!

Everyone is alseep ... the house is quiet....and I have a few moments to finally upload a few of our Christmas and New Year pics. And because I am half asleep still you get the New Year pictures first!

BUT-------> let me first start by telling you it is SOOOOOO cold outside. I jumped up out of bed to put the trash out. I bundled up with long socks, my fleece pajamas (of course), long sleeve shirt, big heavy brown coat and a nice case of bed head covered up by a red beanie. I took the trash out and was only out for two, maybe three minutes. I walked back in and my face was actually burning it was soooo cold! So I turned on my laptop, looked at the temperature...and my friends, here in San Antonio we are at 16 degrees! In my sixteen years I have NEVER seen it get that cold here. I wanted to blog it because I want to remember it. It might not happen for many, many more years to come.
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New Year 2010

We decided to take this New Year's Eve off and stay at home. When we spend New Years with the Russians they believe you need to stay out and celebrate until the first sun of the year comes out....which means we usually stroll in around 6:30 - 7 a.m. Not happening! Especially when I woke up at 5:30 the previous morning to go to work! And my body usually wakes me up two or three hours later anyway so it really just makes for a messed up and wasted day. Since it was a three day weekend I did not want that to happen!
So Emil made some wonderful ground meat shish-kebobs and beet salad. I made mushroom salad and bought a wonderful bottle of champagne. We had a fruit cake...delicious! And we played the Wii all night!

My last picture of 2009 with Lena...

We danced to the music medley they played shortly after the midnight.... for us when the elevator reached the top floor of the Tower of Americas. Even Luigi celebrated with us!
Then the girls decided to kill some zombies in the mall.....

Lena and Emil's last photo together in 2009...

There was for once a really nice picture of me and Emil, but of course my camera errored it out so it wouldn't even download and I had to delete it! Sometimes I really miss my old roll of film cameras! (And of course I posted my resolution at the very bottom of this post!)

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Christmas Dinner 2009 at Lisa's house....

This year Lisa did a small dinner at her house for Christmas. It was so nice with just close friends and Lisa and I are so close, she feels like family. (Sometimes she even slips up and calls me "sis.")

We did the white elephant. There were some funny gifts, wonderful gifts, empty-bag gifts... but don't worry, I ran to the car and got the gift! Emil and Lena were running the show!

The kids played all night!

I brought my karaoke machine... almost EVERYONE sang. Lisa and I sang the most, Elvira, Friends in Low Places, I Will Survive, Margaritaville, Achy Breaky Heart....you name it!

My Papa Bear loves singing his Frank Sinatra!

The ladies gossiped and the men drank....

And everyone ate and ate and ate!

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We had a really nice time celebrating with our friends but I really like just being at home. I usuallly can't wait to get home to my pj's, my Charlie and my bed! I forgot to add above that my New Year resolution is to be a better friend. I don't call back when I say I'm going to. I usually just don't answer the phone, thinking I will call back when I get more time. Then days go by and I feel bad and end up not calling back for many, many weeks sometimes. I need to change that. A real friend should be able to pick up the phone anytime.... even when it's not convient. I want to be THAT friend. I started with Gala... she is so wonderful and sadly, the one I usually push to the back the most. I also pick up more when Lisa calls. And I do call back. I am really trying, no matter how tired I am or how much is going on... to give that person calling me even five minutes if that's all I have. I want to be a better friend and I hope 2010 gets me there!

Abdelkrim's 2009 Visit

Twenty four years ago my uncle began conversing with a doctor/scientist about his many conditions, one of which was Lou Gehrigs disease. They wrote letters back and forth and talked on the phone. I'm not sure how Danny (my uncle) found Abdelkrim or through which medical organization, but a friendship was made.

(Sierra with Abdelkrim. He said his colleagues inthe lab will think she's a movie star!)

My uncle then met a woman and found a pen-pal in her. Again letters went back and forth and something more than friendship evolved. Once he saw their relationship was getting serious, he asked my mother if she would be interested in writing to this doctor Abdelkrim Alileche. She said she would and they have had a wonderful friendship ever since.

(Lena kept wearing his houseshoes. It was the sweetest thing ever! Abdelkrim said he was going to send her a pair for her birthday!)

The first time Abdelkrim visited us he flew in from France where he was working. My mother, my sister and I drove to Houston to pick him up. It was such a HUGE deal for us. Us, from our small little country town of 5000 people, driving to Houston to pick up a scientist flying in from France! I remember being in awe at all the different people. I had NEVER in my life seen such a diverse number of nationalities. In my town we had white people, hispanic people and black people. And that was it! In the next town an hour away there was a Chinese restaurant, so when we went there we saw a few Chinese people. And Abdelkrim was flying in from Paris, he was from a country in Africa called Tunisia. This was truly a huge event for us.

(The table was ready for his visit with his favorites...lamb-kebobs!)

A reporter from our little town newspaper interviewed him and my mother. Yes, it made the paper. Imagine that... it was such big news in our little town, his visit made the paper! He continued to visit periodically. I don't think he visited when he was in Australia, but once he started working here in the states he has been coming every year. One year he came two times! I even had the privelege of working with him in New York. It was such amazing work and truly a time I will never forget. Since I was little he would ask me if I was going to work beside him in the lab and I would always say "yes... we're gonna work with anthrax!" He would laugh and tell me I was crazy this was too dangerous. When I went to NY he would not tell me what we were working on except that it was cancer (his specialty) and I would have to wait and see til we got in the lab the next morning. Imagine my suprise when he told me we were killing different cancers with anthrax. My dream had really come true! I could see myself working as a scientist and feeding cancer cells, recording the data and examing cells under the microscope. I loved sitting at the hood and dropping the anthrax into the petri dishes of cancer... my hands shaking so much.... the only thing seperating me from the anthrax was a ventilation system under the hood and nothing else. I loved the excitement.... I loved the work... it was a dream!

(Abdelkrim was really ready to dig in!)

Abdelkrim has remained and will remain not only our friend but a part of our family. We don't always agree with what we think or feel but he always brings a different perspective to things. He has come down to earth ALOT since we first met him. We laugh that the short time he was in NY he became VERY Americanized! He even throws in the occassional curse word. He is fun to be around and interesting to listen to. Next year will mark 25 years of friendship between him and our family. He is planning a huge party. He said he will begin sending the equipment for cous-cous a few months in advance so that everything will be here waiting for him. He wants our whole family together and I hope we can make that happen for him.

(Mom and Abdelkrim in front of my winter tree)

He loves Emil so much. They talk hours and hours about politics and science. I swear I hear them exchange the same story three or four times over but they enjoy it and laugh hard like it was the first time either one heard it! He wants Emil to be his assistant chef for the party and my mom to be the other! I get to make the coffee... yippee! Well, I do love my Keurig!

(Abdelkrim with this best friend, my Papa Bear, Emil. These two love talking and going back to their home countries... the stories they tell are funny, sad, interesting and sure to keep you listening!)

He also loves the girls. He has gotten to see them grow up. I love it because now he asks Lena if she is going to work with him in the lab and she says yes. Then he tells her, "You know your mom worked with me in my lab." I hope my girls will get to experience that. It is something they will NEVER forget....!

(Lena was pooped out from all the food and excitement. She didn't get to tell him good-bye but I have a feeling Abdelkrim and his "little devil" will be having many phone conversations!)

My uncle ended up marrying the woman he was writing. They were married for some time. And most of that time she was good to him. I think he lived as long as he did because she was a huge health nut. At least that's the way we saw it in my little town. People just didn't take vitamins to be healthy and take herbs and eat vegetarian. That wasn't normal. If you were sick you took vitamins to get well... herbs.. well most people down there probably smoked it...not used them for medicinal purposes and vegetarianism....not down there! My lord NO! Sausage rolls, steaks, deer hunting, you name... vegetarian just wasn't part of the menu! So Danny lived longer than doctors thought he would. However, paralysis took over most of his body ...well all of his body. At the end he had to put a pencil in his mouth and punch letter on a raised keyboard. I don't call that living. And the wife? Well, she met a preacher. The way the story goes, she asked my uncle if he wanted to go for a drive, which apparently didn't happen often because of the difficulty. He did and she drove him.....straight to the nursing home. She dropped him off, divorced him shortly after and left with her preacher man. We have never heard from or of her again. My uncle just gave up on life and refused all his medicines. He died eventually. He wanted to see Dr. Kevorkian...the death doctor as he's known. I know people have their opinions about this and I respect them. However, I saw my uncle at the end and how he suffered. It wasn't living. His mind was 100% alive and well and active... his body was gone though. I can't imagine living like that. So I think he should have had the choice to end things with the help of a skilled doctor. It would have been so much more humane than the slow death he had to experience from refusing his meds!

But my uncle left us with lots of fun memories, good stories and a friendship with Abdelkrim. It's amazing to look back through all this and see how life takes us through twists and turns and many fun and exciting adventures along the way. Who would have ever thought that a small family from a small, small town would develop a friendship with a doctor who has worked on AIDS/HIV with Gallo and assisted in developing a drug to prevent the spread of HIV in the body... and who has made huge strides in the cancer field. Who would have thought that I would have traveled to NY alone... to work in his lab.... and who would have thought that he would come for his yearly visit to see us....but mostly for Emil's lamb -kebobs and conversation!

Who would have thought it would have all started here.... twenty four years ago?!

Red Rooster Antiques (Part 3)

I am finally sitting down to wrap up my posts on my and CC's little day trip to New Braunfels to Red Rooster Antiques. Part 1 and Part 2 have alot more photos of the beautiful things inside the antique store... these photos are the cute things we saw walking around the town square.
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Right across from Red Rooster was this house. It was all decked out in Christmas decor. There were life size carollers, a life size sleigh and horsey, lights and decoration everywhere. Click on any of the photos to enlarge.. you just can't see the detail when they pictures are small.

Can you imagine what the inside must look like? I was tempted to knock on the door and ask if I could see... I really was...but there was an iron gate and it was locked so for now I will just have to use my imagination! How long do you think it took to set this up?

So as we began to walk this was the view of the sidewalk and streets. I just love the leaves everywhere... it has such a "seasonal" feel to it... does that make any sense?

The marker said this was the first hotel in the town. It was old, looked like it has tons of history to tell, like something straight out of a movie set.... and I LOVED it!

And then we happened here... The New Braunfels RailRoad Museum.

I was thinking CC and I could get some neat photos of and on the railroad track. WRONG! What we got was quite the scare!

So we walk in and this older chubby man with glasses greets us and informs us that there is a two dollar donation recommended. He continuely told us until we actually took the money from our purse and put it in the box.

The museum was neat. The first room had old photos and a RR crossing sign, things like that. The entire back room was one HUGE model train set up with two trains.

And it was complete with TWO tunnels.

Mr. Chubby, the name I've given him, looked like some character out of a horror movie. You know, the psycho kind that lives with his mom and secretly kills people in the basement and buries them in the backyard....or stores them in the deep-freeze? You get my point. Chubby, soft hands, pens in the pocket, a little....off. Odd!

He just stood there while we were looking around the model looking at us. I tried my best to ignore him. I think I was probably talking kinda loud and fast, typical of nervous behaviour. It just kinda freaked us out.

He brought over some pamphlets about NB and good dining places and other museums. He also gave me a flyer about a model - train convention in San Antonio. It could have been fun...but if the other model train enthusiasts are anything like him.... I'll pass!

We never heard to bells on the front door when it opened. But I swear to you... we both heard Mr. Chubby tell someone "We have guests." Spoookkyy.....

We never heard another voice. We kept our backs to that front room and continued to look around the model trains. I think we were too scared to move. So we turn around and there is this tall old man leaning against the wall just staring and watching us! He had an old dingy long white/yellow beard. Shorts on and a sweater. And a black beanie. And he reeked of smoke.

We smiled and walked the heck out of that room. Mr. Chubby said "There's an engine and caboose in the back. Go on back and take a look. Just don't try to walk out of the caboose. Be sure you walk back through the front. There's no platform back there... you could fall."
As we were slowly and scarily walking back we could smell the cigarette smoke again. But sure enough.... there was the engine.

I told CC we will look at them in turns. But NO ONE goes in the caboose. It was actually pretty neat. And I would have liked to have been in a group of people so it wouldn't have been so scary. We were the only people there!

So I ran up took pictures of the engine and inside the caboose and ran down and then Sierra ran up and looked inside the caboose.

When we were leaving the tall really spooky man was walking back toward the caboose. I told Sierra in a stern, commanding voice..."It's time to go!"

It was so darn scary. And probably not the smartest thing for a mom and young teenager to do. Maybe we have just watched too many scary movies. But the whole feel of it was off...just not a good vibe. But we made it out and I wouldn't do it alone again. EVER!

We had a good day... just me and my CC! We were trying to find a good, small German bakery to grab some coffee and pastries at but nothing was open. So we ended up at Sonic...where else? Chili Cheese tator tots, vanilla Dr. Pepper (CC's) and a vanilla cherry Coke (me) and then we drove home. I loved spending time with her like and plan on making it a point to do it more often.