Day 200!

The little day counter I have on my iPod says that today is the 200th day since our move to Russia!  Wow, time is flying, I think the last time I did a "day count" posting was back at day 100.

I can't say life in Russia is overly exciting, but we find various ways to stay busy or entertained.  Luckily, Ryan travels a lot for training so we have been very fortunate to have numerous trips during our stay, along with vacations and R&Rs.  Plus, when I think of it, I have also spent time back in the States.  I am curious (but will probably not calculate the exact number) how many days I have actually spent in Russia since our move.

In the past 200 days, Ryan and I have discussed and decided that being away from our friends in the States is probably one of the hardest adjustments.  Before we moved to Russia, we were living in Houston and even during my short ( 9 months) stay I was able to meet such a great group of people.  Ryan and I really miss just the simple "hanging out" with friends, whether it's at someone's house, out on the lake, going out for dinner or to a bar.  We miss our friends network.

Okay, okay, enough with that.  Since a post just isn't a visually entertaining post without photos, I found some pictures on my camera from various ways we have entertained ourselves recently.

We had Dasha and Charity over for dinner, I made fajitas (woot woot for Mexican food in Russia!).   They are both working on the CPC project.  Dasha is originally from Russia and Charity is from Michigan.  

Yet another form of torture for Miss Macy.  Numerous snorts and tears came out of me during this latest trick.  Ryan stuffed her toy under her collar so she couldn't reach it with her mouth.  The funny part was that the toy had a squeaker, so every time she turned her head it squeaked and reminded her it was still stuck.  She looked as if she was having a small seizure, but after a good amount of laughing, Ryan finally helped her a bit and she got it loose.  We were both very impressed with her techniques, one included rubbing her neck along the carpet, to move the toy closer to her mouth.  

Cooking!  It's what I do. :)  Dinner for this night was my mother's "chicken 'n' noodles" Russian style.  I have yet to find cream of mushroom soup so our version was 'lighter' and I am not satisfied with the available celery so I substituted with frozen peas.  We also spice it up with Tabasco sauce. :)  Either way, it was delicious!  Served with rosemary cheddar muffins and a cold glass of cider. 

How does Macy entertain herself?  She sits on her thrown!   She likes to relax and recovery between Ryan's tricks. :)
P.S. Phil & Diane, I think she learned how to sit from Roxy. :)  They must have spent too much time together before our move.