Flooding Fun

At 4:45 AM last Tuesday morning, our fire alarm went off.  Shane and I flew out of bed, searching for a fire.  We didn't find one....instead, we found a flood.  On coming down the stairs, I heard the sound of water rushing.  It was ice cold and about ankle deep.  Shane found the source (a hose under the laundry room sink) and turned off the valve to stop the flow of water.  I called the emergency number, and within minutes, we had numerous people in the house to check it out and begin the clean-up process.  I was very pleased with their response time, and the fact that I wasn't the one to have to clean it up, find a plumber, carpenter, etc.  Just one of the great things about living in company-provided housing!

They determined that the carpet would need to be replaced, along with the laminate flooring in the kitchen and laundry room.  But first, all the sub-flooring had to dry out.  They finally began installing carpeting and flooring on Monday, but as of today (Wednesday), they are still not done.  I am just ready to have my house back, so the longer it takes, the more impatient I become.  I am hopeful that tomorrow will be their last day, and I can get all of this furniture out of my living room!

Some pictures:

Carpet and pad after the flood

Drying out the plywood sub-floor

Drying out my rugs :(

More Fall Pictures

The Fall season is so pretty here.  I just love all the colors.  So far, I really have enjoyed all of the seasons here (yes, including winter) except for Spring.  The whole thawing out process is really, really wet, dirty and cold, and just not fun at all.   I am ready for the snow to arrive, but in the meantime, we are happy to  enjoy the changing colors and beautiful scenery.

Pony Rides

A little girl in our compound turned 2 a few weekends ago, and she had pony rides at her birthday party.  Another woman that lives out here knows someone from the zoo or something, so they were able to get ponies out here for the kids to ride.  Much to our surprise, Adam agreed to ride on it....but only after a bit of coaxing.  He wasn't really keen on it when he found out I wasn't going with him, but he did just fine.

School Days

Adam is now in Primary 1 at the Sakhalin International School in Yuzhno.  This is the same thing as Pre-K in the USA.  He really enjoys school and loves his teachers.  This year, they are teaching the class to read with a phonics program.  He is learning sounds and letters in order of frequency (S, A, T, I, etc.) as apposed to A, B, C, D, etc.  From that, they are learning high frequency words and starting to make sentences with those words.  He knows about 20-30 words so far (documented by the school), but when we read at night or he sees something that he recognizes, he will let us know and show us how to sound it out.  It is really fascinating to watch him learn to read.  He is also learning Russian at school and now knows more than his Daddy!

Practicing his T's

Showing me one of his "high frequency" words

Some more of his school activities:

Self-portrait

Family portrait (does my hair really look like that?)

I also took a picture of a map that they had put up representing all nationalities of the students that attend the school.  I knew there were a lot of them, but I didn't realize just how many different cultures and countries that are represented there.  

Right side

Map with all the different ways to say "hello"

Left side