Erik and Marina in Bend, OR

New blog

2009-11-07T21:01:00.000-08:00

This is kind of sad now after I went thru all my posts on this blog but I am switching over to wordpress. The new address for the Koslows' on blogosphere is www.thekoslows.wordpress.com. Thanks for the great 3 years blogger!

MVision Photography Blog

2009-10-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I just launched a new blog for MVision Photography. I am super excited to shot if off. Please click here to be redirected. Thanks!

Photoshop attempts

2009-10-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

We just got photoshop for our computer and now Erik and me are trying to learn using it. I think this is my first more or less successful (but cheesy) attempt on editing.

Lost and found

2009-10-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

Found these old prints the other day! I love them, Anya:)

This is what happens...

2009-10-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

when it snows in October!

River Georgia Bright

2009-10-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

What do you think about the name?

Snow in Bend

2009-10-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

This was the view from our windows when we woke up this morning. Bend's weather is nuts: a week ago I was still wearing flip flops and everyone complained about the heat.

Did you know...

2009-09-29T12:35:00.000-07:00

that American Licorice Co is headquartered in Bend OR.
I personally am not a big fan of licorice but Erik can go thru a box like that in no time.

Also Bend has one of the largest breweries in the North West: Deschutes Brewery. We live right next to it and in the morning you can clearly distinguish the sweet aroma of fermented hops. I came to love the smell.

And (on the side note) Matthew Fox who played Jack in Lost is building a house in Bend and is planning on moving here after the final season of Lost is done in 2010.

Just thought I'd throw it out there:)

Barbie Nation

2009-09-27T20:46:00.000-07:00

What has gone wrong with a country where an overweight person has to struggle to prove their worth in society? Are they valued less as a human? Are they less intelligent, less apt, less... what?

I feel there's a huge pressure on girls especially that being skinny is vital to your happiness and success. We succumb to the "Barbie" image of a woman: a stupid unrealistic shell. The poor fat girl didn't make the cut.

It is truly saddening to see young girls with no self confidence and no ambitions struggling in life just because they weigh a few pounds more.

And don't get me wrong, I am not advocating obesity. But I feel that now it's our turn to say enough to the Barbie girl but we don't all because of being raised with her on our lap.

Oh ZAGRANITZA!

2009-09-22T22:40:00.000-07:00

"Zagranitza" (sorry that I can't spell in in Russian) means something like "beyond the boarder" in English. But for many years "zagranitza" has had so many more meanings and connotations for all soviet people that were locked up within the boarders of the Soviet Union. It included all countries that did not belong to the Union or were its allies and therefore visiting them was for one a treason and even before that it was impossible since you couldn't just drop in by a travel agency and ask for a ticket to New York.

Here's what "zagranitza" meant for me when I was a kid:

A mysterious place called America where we could never go. I was pretty sure that the place had chewing gum available to buy anytime you felt like it and therefore all the kids were very happy there.
"Krossovki" aka "running shoes". Oh they were like a revelation: you had to get a pair. Mind it, you couldn't just go to the store and buy them, they were smuggled in and sold at black markets. My best friend got her krossovki before me and that was an object of my continuous torment. When mine finally arrived I was so blissfully happy not knowing that they were cheap fake shoes from China that said "Abidas" instead of "Adidas"(well I did wonder about that for a moment) and the soles came off in about a month. Oh to be a child again!
"Coca-Cola" tasted sooooo good. My mom was very suspicious of it in the beginning: there were rumors that someone soaked a cow's kidney (or some other vital organ of the sort) in it overnight and that kidney completely dissolved! We never tried such an experiment since my mom didn't want to waste a kidney thus never found out the truth.
Pop songs, video clips to be exact. There are three songs that I distinctly remember since out TV channel would play them over and over again (for lack of anything else). I found them on you tube the other night:

It's My Life by Dr Alban

Happy Nation by Ace of Base

Do You Remember The Time by Michael Jackson

I fancied a special liking to the last one and after watching the video with Erik I busted out dancing and singing "do you remember the time". He thought his wife had gone a little crazy.

And of course last but not least: movies! Most of them were illegal copies of poor quality but even poorer translation. The guys who did the translation did not want to get caught doing it so they would plug their noses to disguise their voices and record translation over the English version. Of course there was one guy doing the whole movie so sometimes it took a bit to figure out who just said what and why does it all sounds like one long sentence spoken by a guy with a plugged nose!

R-rated Movies?

2009-09-12T21:11:00.000-07:00

I just watched an R-rated movie at a movie theater.... And it was a good movie! But what about the rating? There were some blood scenes and cursing (I really do not like sex scenes in movies so I made sure this wasn't one of those), but I feel that if they took that out the movie wouldn't be the same... So then should we allow cursing? But the Bible tells us to "tame our tonges". So then should we not watch R-rated movies?

Portraits

2009-09-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love taking portraits with my camera. It's hard to get good ones though: the lighting has to be just right. Here's some of my favourites so far.

No photoshoping either!

Tripod+Long Exposure

2009-09-09T13:43:00.000-07:00

2009-09-09T07:42:00.001-07:00

PC or Mac?

Thrifty or nifty?

2009-09-08T21:34:00.000-07:00

This post is about choices: choices that you might make every day or once in a decade. But every choice is important, so here's my dilemma: do you choose to pay more for a quality item or get smth less, well how should I put it, well-fabricated or lower-grade and save money? I usually make the latter choice and suffer the consequences (yeah, the car I picked out was real cheap and broke down a week after I bought it etc), while Erik tends to spend more money (even if he doesn't have it) but gets an item that he likes and that will generally last quite a while. I feel like the last year has been a good lesson for me: I had to make a few pretty important decisions and here's what came out of it.
#1 I bought a car. Yepp, for the first time in my life, I all by myself, spotted this yellow VW bug with great mileage and price, and insisted (I'm using a pretty mellow word here) on getting it. Since our old van started having heart attacks, my husband gave in and I drove it home. The thing broke down a week later. I had it fixed. And then it snowed... A two wheel drive with little weight and bald tires on ice... Man, that was one morning ride to work ! I still like my car but I would definitely never buy it. Nor do I want to drive in in winter. Even for really cheap:)
#2 We were blessed with free flights to Hawaii. Two weeks of vacation: we haven't had that since our honeymoon! So I set off to find a good (cheap, that is) rental in Kauai where we were spending the last 8 days of the trip. Erik took care of the first part and paid a little more than I wanted but the place in Maui he picked was beyond anything we expected. So after staying there we land in Kauai and drive around the island for a while. Finally it's getting late and I pull out the directions to the condo I rented (and paid in full for, got a great deal!) on the internet. We roll up to a two story building in a shabby residential area. "oh, we are just like the locals" I say, "this is gonna be great". I get out of the car and look up into a tree under which we parked: it's covered in cobweb. Well, I guess I'd better not stand under that tree for too long, I figured, nevermind that we rented an open-top Jeep. I set off up the stairs and around the verandah to look for our condo. O'k then I had to duck my head and freak out for real: there were all sorts and sizes of spiders all around the building, on the rails, roof, BBQ, windows etc. Some of them were 3 inches wide! Just hanging there all perched up as if they were ready to get me. I ran inside with Erik coming up behind me. We called the owner of the rental, she said smth like "the spiders won't hurt you, that's a tropical island, they are not poisonous bla blah blah". Hippie, I thought with swelling bitterness deep in my heart. Then I looked in the bedroom area and saw a huge gap between the floor and the door with the bed right next to it. I think I started crying or smth, cuz the next thing I remeber we were checking in at Best Western for the night.
So the moral of the story is: I think I made a few bad choices which led to more expenses and turmoil than expected. But who doesn't deserve a second chance? According to Erik: his wife. Ding it, I just saw this great deal on a car... Would be perfect for snow!

New pad

2009-09-08T20:36:00.000-07:00

We moved about month ago into an apartment right next to downtown. It's an old remodeled building with a restaurant/coffee shop downstairs and super cute apartments on the second story. I bike to work a lot, walk to the library and absolutely love it!

Rummmmm cake

2009-09-08T20:21:00.000-07:00

Here's my beautiful first ever rum cake! It was really easy to make. The funny part was when I rolled up to a liquor store at 9 am and asked an I-could-care-less-what-you-need salesman for some rum. He indifferently motioned to the wall behind me. Oh by the way, that sign "If you were born before this date in 1988 we will not sell alcohol to you" made me feel kind of old. I grabbed my rum (they only had it in 1 liter bottles, guess I'll be making rum cakes for a while) and set off with my bootie. The result exceeded even my expectations and made for one happy husband.

Is it me or everyone else?

2009-09-08T18:18:00.000-07:00

So I'm having a real hard time communicating with people lately. Yesterday I was talking o Erik about something that happened a while ago. And he completely disagreed on what had happened. We almost had an argument until I realized that we are talking about two completely different events. Why it took us 10 min to figure that out is a beyond my understanding. And today my phone conversation with a hair salon was something like " Hi i want to make an appointment for a haircut" and they say "do you have an appointment set up already?" which I heard as "can we call you back later?", so I go "Sure, my number is 848 8878", which they heard as "I have an appointment Saturday at 8". So they asked me if i was confirming it. But I wasn't, I wanted an appointment! Oh, is it me or is it everyone else?

Pretty much the best shot of mine!

2009-07-26T11:00:00.001-07:00

Getting up-close

2009-05-09T23:17:00.001-07:00

Bend Nights

2009-05-09T23:11:00.000-07:00

To go or not to go?

2009-04-25T22:25:00.001-07:00

To go or not to go?

O'k let's go!

Dude, it's pretty cold!

Catching air

2009-04-25T22:12:00.000-07:00

These are pictures from Mt Bachelor this year.

My sister and me

2009-04-25T22:07:00.001-07:00

My sister Tanya is in Oregon for two days. We decided to spend the weekend at the coast and are having a great time. Now my husband has to put up with two of the Pratch girls!

I don't have guts for this

2009-04-25T21:57:00.001-07:00

Hang-gliding is a crazy sport! We saw this guy launch off of a cliff at the Oregon coast. Real scary! But pretty cool...

Da Island Life, Man

2009-03-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

No comments

2009-03-07T22:21:00.001-08:00

A blinger

2009-03-07T22:12:00.001-08:00

This is pretty funny. This Hummer was so shiny that I had to wear my sunglasses to be able to look at it and used a polarizing filter on my camera. The thing is huge! And driven by one tiny lady...

By the way

2009-02-24T20:30:00.001-08:00

I like blogging.

Tired of politics? Yeah, me too...

2009-02-24T19:45:00.000-08:00

I don't know why, but Americans are by far the most politically minded people I have ever met. I assume, one of the reasons is the two strongly opposed parties that constantly struggle for dominion. In Ukraine, for example, there's such a variety of parties, wings and whatever else that people are most of the time too confused to try debating about it. The only heated discussions I have heard over there were during the days of orange revolution (oh, forgive for not capitalizing orange). It ended with was no real change to be apparent (wait, that sounds familiar) and so the only always popular political opinion prevailed: this government sucks and the next one will be no better.

Here in America things are a bit different: people are more informed thru media and internet, they have seen both parties perform throughout decades, but most of all they absolutely LOVE having an opinion and expressing it, everywhere. There're conservative news channels and liberal news channels, republican newspapers and democratic radio stations, right wing and left wing everything! I was not very concerned about politics in Ukraine, neither am I very into it here. I do have opinions, however I am almost never informed or eloquent enough to be able to effectively defend my stands.

But all the preassure of it is really dauting. Liberals rip on republicans, republicans rip on democrats, democrats rip on conservatives, conservatives rip on liberals. Christians rip on liberals and other christians, other christians rip on conservatives. Makes me wanna move to Canada, really...

T-shirt idea?

2009-02-24T19:37:00.000-08:00

I don't know if this is funny or sad, but here's something that one of Bend Bible elders came up with:

USSA
The new Obamanation

Where all we have left is
CHANGE

What do you think?

Some slow exposure

2009-02-02T21:59:00.001-08:00

2009-01-26T20:13:00.001-08:00

I did not mean this blog to turn into a picture show, but you have to agree:these are pretty cute:)

2009-01-10T21:45:00.001-08:00

And some more pics

2008-12-28T21:45:00.000-08:00

How do you like this?

2008-12-28T15:06:00.000-08:00

I took and edited these pictures. Not bad!

Timberline Lodge

2008-12-14T16:32:00.001-08:00

This is Timberline Lodge. It's about 2 hrs from Bend and with gas being around $1.70 these days it costs about $20 round trip. I love petrolium!

Climbing a mountian (literally)

2008-12-14T16:24:00.001-08:00

Last weekend I came up with an idea of hiking this hill with a purpose of snowboarding down. Sounds easy, hah? Well, all I can tell you that from that day on I got a new appreciation for those wonderful lifts at the mountian. Hiking in the snow is pretty darn hard. Da-a.

PS: We did make it to the top.

Unbloggable life

2008-12-14T16:12:00.000-08:00

I have't posted anything for a long time... And I wish there was anything to post! The last few months have been a drag of work and school with very few small breaks in between. Have you ever wondered on a Monday where in the world did the weekend go? Like Saturday and Sunday... We've wondered it a lot lately. But now there's finally a break between the terms. So maybe I'll write a post or two. But no promises.

At work

2008-09-13T21:42:00.001-07:00

At work we get a little crazy at times... Here's Heidi
Here's Angie
Here's me
We are a team!

We're getting a new car!

2008-09-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

Wait... You can't really see it in this picture.

New Post

2008-08-29T22:15:00.000-07:00

INTENTIONALLY BLANK

Us

2008-08-14T20:49:00.001-07:00

Back in the pretty desert

2008-08-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

Airlines not to fly with

2008-08-10T17:06:00.000-07:00

Some of you have heard of the saga that my return flight from Ukraine developed into. Basicaly when I was checking in for my flight in Kiev Lufthansa emploees refused to check me in since my flight from Frankfurt to Portland was cancelled due to their strike in Germany.

The representatives of the company both at the airport and on the phone were very unhelpful if not to say rude...

No need to say I kinda freaked out. When I got Erik on the phone and he called our booking agency they also refused to carry any responsibility and told us in plain language that we were better off buying a new return flight. Which we did and dropped 2 K for it.

But the story is not over...

Aerosvit that I was flying to NYC with delayed their flight for 4 hrs which left me with an hour and a half to pick up my bags, go thru passport control and customs and... get to a different airport! I do have a new respect for New York taxi drivers now. Oh, it's so much fun to run around airports... Loved it!

The next flight took me to Denver, Colorado. I had a 8 hr layover and Erik's aunt and uncle happened to live in Denver. They picked me up and I got about 4 hrs of sleep.

When checking in for my flight to Oregon I got SSSS on my tickets which meant I had to go thru special security check which meant I was late again and had to run thru the airport making it by 1 min.

Needless to say, I'm not flying any time soon.

Chickflick night

2008-07-06T17:13:00.001-07:00

So Erik is gone to Idaho for a week... It's really weird cuz I suddenly have all this time and have no idea what to do with it. It's fun to go to places with friends, but it's no fun to be left behind.

Anyways, I got all these versions of Pride and Prejudice (one of them is 5 hrs long) and a bunch of microwave food. Gonna have a great time!

Yeah....

My first speeding ticket, auch!

2008-06-26T21:08:00.001-07:00

The day has come! I got it! I never thought I would! After we paid hundreds of dollars in fines for Erik, I told him I will suspend his license myself if he gets another one.

But on this bright sunny morning I happened to drive by an unkind policewoman (who ever lets women to patrol anyways?). I think there should be a special rule for people who are late to work, you know?

Here's what I think about speeding tickets:

for one, they kill the joy of driving

for two, people don't really stop speeding after they get fined

and for three, speeding tickets suck...

Climbing shoes, anyone?

2008-06-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

Well, you guys know my husband... He is very into sports. And he's good at sports. And I think that's awesome. The only problem is that he is trying to get me into those sports. And another problem is that I'm not very, how to put it, sporty?
Last year I got a snowboard and a pass to the mountain.
This year... I got climbing shoes.
On a friendly note here, honey, I don't rock climb! I really don't care about hanging some 40 feet in the air wondering about why I got up so high.
Sorry, just needed to hash it out somewhere.
So, climbing shoes, anyone?

He is the MAN!

2008-06-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

Let it live!

2008-06-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

Yes, I confess, I did have some unkind thoughts towards this blog. Since snowboarding season was over I almost let it die together with my memories of it... And if not for a few gracious readers that left their fingerprints in form of comments on my posts, I think this blog would not have survived. So thank you, friends!

Now, let's do a quick update. We are healthy even tho not wealthy, doing well, working, going to school (or wishing to go in my case), hating gas prices and enjoying the summer in Central Oregon.

I have been recently promoted to the role of an optician at my office which is very flattering in a way, although truth to be told, it only happened because every other employee had quit a month before. But anyways... Now I can't get constantly rebuked by my husband for owning too many pairs of glasses, I need them for my job! Ha ha.

The month of May was a happy month of my 25th birthday. That's a quarter of a century, by the way. We were invited to go to Northern California for that weekend, which turned out to be rainy and cold. Erik got to try wake boarding and of course was good at it from the start. I found the temperature of 40F not water friendly and stayed in the boat.

The month of June is being spent in great anticipation of Steven and Teresa Yeats arriving in Bend. They will spend a few days here with us and then will head up to Idaho to visit family. They are borrowing my husband for the trip and he's very excited about it. I don't get to go since my trip to Ukraine is coming up July 19th. Taa-daa!

This winter at the mountain...

2008-05-02T12:33:00.000-07:00

This winter at the mountain I snowboarded for

40 Days

I took

254 runs

And rode down

300,401 vertical feet

Not too bad, huh?

Beach highlights

2008-04-14T22:21:00.001-07:00

My snowboarding pal

2008-03-28T19:06:00.001-07:00

Meadow June Bright.

Age: 1 year and 8 months.

Snowboard experience: extensive, intrinsic.

Favorite activities: playing, eating, sleeping and snowboarding.

Performance enhancers: licorice.

Sponsors: A-team.

What do you think about skiing?

2008-03-28T16:11:00.000-07:00

Today I was snowboarding with a good friend of ours Erik Hotvedt. He is a great skier and always challenges me to push my limits. Also he's very goofy and makes me laugh a lot. You'll see in this video.

Some pics of the Knotts

2008-03-07T18:59:00.000-08:00

California and ER

2008-03-07T18:53:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I came back from Cali where I visited my dear friends Anya and Jake Knotts. It was a lot of fun and coming back to Bend after their warm weather was a big bummer.
And yesterday I spent half of the night in the ER with Erik who got a nasty intestinal virus. No need to mention that that was an even bigger bummer. That much for depressing.

Anya Knotts Special: things we don't have in Ukraine # 19

2008-02-13T20:43:00.000-08:00

Here's something we don't have in Ukraine : a wonderful invention of civilization - fire alarms. Here'are a few characteristics of the fire alarms in my home:

1. There are three of them for 600 square feet.

2. They go off every time I start baking cookies.

3. They make an even worse sound than Erik's alarm clock and that is pretty bad.

4. Once they start beeping there's only one way to stop them which we don't yet know. So Erik ended up throwing one of them off of our balcony one time. It was still beeping in the forest next morning.

But last night our fire alarms surpassed all our expectations. They started beeping when we got to bed. We pushed all the buttons and took all the battaries out. They woke us up again : beep, beEP, BEEP! We got up and checked them again. To cut the long story short, it was a very long night. After waking up at least five times Erik completely disassembled them tearing them off the wall. He was going for the core: the device that made the beep. Here are some puctures of my walls and the alarms. By the way, guess what? The alarm is still making noises on the table. Bravo, inventors!

Here are a few thoughts of mine on fire alarms: for one, they don't really do anything about the fire, they just beep. Then, the beep is not heard by anyone but the people who are inside or very close to your apartment. Unless you are blind, you will probably see the fire before you hear them beep. And if you are asleep and you wake up to the beep, chances are it's already too late and now you have to figure out how to get out of your burning house without 4 degree burns instead of quietly dying of smoke poisoning. Take that, fire alarms!

2008-02-04T22:05:00.000-08:00

My best trick so far is falling down.

Erik wants to be a professional snowboarder

2008-02-04T22:01:00.000-08:00

I say he still needs a job.

Well, if this is global warming...

2008-02-04T21:58:00.000-08:00

Then what can I say... Bring it on!!!!

When Erik was a lion...

2008-01-19T14:27:00.001-08:00

We were browsing thru our pictures the other day and I found this one of Erik. Look at those curls!!!

Snowboarding again

2008-01-09T20:46:00.000-08:00

Couldn't help it! We had almost two feet of fresh last weekend and it felt like riding a cloud! Erik was ripping it doing smaller jumps and taking "jib" lines (that's his own term that is a little hard to explain). I stayed on the ground but made a lot of progress with my turning.

Lots of snow

2008-01-09T20:43:00.000-08:00

I'm sure glad that this wasn't my car this morning!

My blue cast and Shannon's broken arm

2008-01-09T20:26:00.000-08:00

Here's my pretty blue cast, I've been wearing it for three weeks already and have three more to go. I think the nicest thing about it is that Erik's been cooking dinners and making his own lunch... at least for the first three days after it happened!

A really funny part comes now: Shannon is an optocian at the office where I work and this Monday she came in with a broken left arm too! She fell snowboarding and now all our patients laugh at us because of it.

Koslow carpentry

2007-12-22T18:47:00.000-08:00

Here's some of Erik's projects:

My winter blog...

2007-12-20T20:00:00.000-08:00

Winter has truly come! I could especially tell this morning when my car had half an inch of ice on it and I could not open any of it's doors. After many failed attempts I somehow got the very back open and had to crawl inside to start the vehicle and push it's doors out. 15 min of scraping and I was late to work. But now I have 5 days off work and lots of snow on the mountain.

Another thing is that I broke my wrist this last Friday. I was snowboarding and this dude ran into me, knocked me down and I ended up with a broken arm. As it turned out later the guy was one of the snowboard instructors (they obviously need a little help learning how to watch for people and stop) working for the mountian. So now I have a cast on (I got to pick a color, it's light blue) and I can't wait until I can snowboard again.

It is snowing!!!

2007-12-20T19:57:00.000-08:00

Here is the last weather report from the mountain:
Last Updated December 20, 2007 04:19 PM
Yesterday's Snowfall (5AM-3PM)
6"
Overnight Snowfall (3PM-5AM)
18"
Today's Snowfall (5AM-3PM)
3"
1" of New Snow since 1:00pm
Total Annual Snowfall
108"
Comments: Overcast and still snowing!. The road to the mountain is plowed and sanded with packed snow and ice. Stay on open runs only. Beware of unmarked obstacles on and off the runs. Early season conditions exist.

Snowboarding at Bachelor

2007-12-09T21:59:00.001-08:00

2007-12-08T10:24:00.000-08:00

Well, my friends, winter is here as well as snow on Mt Bachelor. So we were able to go snowboarding for the last couple weekends, it's a lot of fun and I am getting a little better at it.

Holidays are close but just like last year me and Erik decided not to make too much fuss about it so we'll just enjoy a couple days off with family and friends.

Erik is having his finals at school this week, in fact he's having an exam right now, it started this morning at 9:00, Erik woke up at 8:57:) Oopsie.

Our Bend and our friends

2007-11-16T20:10:00.000-08:00

It was a blast having the Knotts over for the weekend, we got to hang out and show off the attractions of Bend. We love our friends!

Be righteous losers, friends!

2007-11-16T20:04:00.000-08:00

Well, at least that's what Erik told me and Anya after a game of risk that did not end in our favour. I don't exactly know what it is but there's something really frustrating in losing to your husnband and me and Anya were kind of upset.

My Anya and me

2007-11-16T19:58:00.001-08:00

Here's Anichka!!!!! Pretty as ever.

Maia's stay with us

2007-11-16T19:45:00.000-08:00

All of you guys who met Maia know how stinking cute she is and that her personality is that of ten babies her age. Last weekend we were also able to enjoy her. She made some of her first steps at Andrew and Michelle Collup's house and in our condo she liked scattering our mail and throwing around cup coasters. She also liked our glass table.

Up on a tree...

2007-11-09T13:49:00.000-08:00

As you see taking walks with my husband can turn into climbing trees.

This is not California

2007-10-20T12:16:00.000-07:00

Yepp, this is what I saw when we woke up this morning. White stuff everywhere that was cold and melted in my hands. Could that be snow? Yuck...

Chinese footbinding

2007-10-20T11:31:00.000-07:00

O'k guys, here's something crazy that totally blew my mind. Well I guess most of us knew from history lessons at least something about Chinese footbindings, what I personally did not know was the extent and cruelty of this crippling tradition. Let's start at the beginning: the legend goes that one of the Chinese emperors about a thousand years ago had a dancer who used to bind her feet to shape them into half moon to entertain her master. I don't know how she danced on those but the emperor was very pleased and since then it became more common for high class ladies to bind their feet. With time the tradition sipped thru to middle class and poor families thus encompassing the whole nation. The reason for women binding their feet went deeper than fashion and reflected the role of women in Chinese society. It was necessary then in China for a woman to have bound feet in order to achieve a good life. Approximately one billion women in China have preformed it for nearly one thousand years.

The process of footbinding started when girls were anywhere from four to seven years old. It was done so early in her life so that the arch did not have much time to develop. The mother who was the one to bind the feet, and usually started the process late in the fall or winter, so the foot would be numb and the pain would not be as severe. The daughters' feet would first be soaked in warm water or animal blood and herbs. The special potion that was used for this caused any dead flesh to fall off .She would have her toe nails cut as short as possible therefore not allowing them to grow into the foot. After she received a foot massage, the four smallest toes on each foot were broken. This was not even the worst of the pain. The mother soaked silk or cotton bandages in the same liquid the girl's feet were soaked in. The bandages, which were ten feet long and two inches wide, were wrapped around the smallest toes and pulled tightly to the heel. Every two days, the binding was removed and rebound. This part of the process went on for two years. By this time her feet were three to four inches long. To assure the feet staying small, the ritual continued for at least ten more years.

The process was very painful; every time the feet were rebound the bandages were pulled tighter. But besides just the pain of the process, there were many after affects that were detrimental to the young girls' health. The pain of the bound feet never stopped. The most common consequence was infection. One of appr. 10 girls died as the result.

Chinese footbinding was more than just an attempt to achieve beauty, it was a way of life for more than a billion women: weak and helpless. The tradition was finally abolished in 1911 after the revolution of Sun Yat-Sen.

The reason I did some research on it was a book by Lisa See "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" that describes lives of two girls in China. Reading that book was like entering a whole new world that was heartbreaking and magical at the same time.

Good picture

2007-09-28T17:48:00.001-07:00

What about internet dating?

2007-09-28T11:51:00.000-07:00

Internet dating has obviously been around for a while. People meet each other online, develop a relationship, fall in love and all that happens even when they have never seen each other in real life. I've been wondering about it from time to time, thinking that it must be sort of strange to get online with an intention of finding a date. But the world is pretty crazy so I guess that was another one of it's quirks. The issue came to my attention again when more people in church started "dating" online and me and Erik know of a few couples who got married that way. I've never heard any opinions officially expressed about it among the believers: was it right or wrong, good or bad, approved or disapproved. And it is in fact hard to draw a distinct line between the two, but what do people really think about it?
One of the red flags I see with Internet dating is that online you can be anyone you would like to be. I can tell people that I'm a blond and I love skydiving. I can make up stories and live in a "made up" world. There's no boundaries. Seems like the reason so many retreat to Internet relationship is that they can finally be the people they've always wanted to be: fun, outgoing, beautiful, successful. But then how can you ever be sure that the person you are "dating" is not a flake?
I started writing this because one of the ladies in our Bible study is involved in one of those relationships. And unfortunately she's blind to a lot of things that are going on and would not listen to any advice of caution from her friends. I think we all need to be on guard and discern situations when people can fall into a trap like that.

Our little trip

2007-09-14T15:52:00.000-07:00

Central Oregon has a lot to offer. Here's one of the tourists' attractions Sahaili Falls. The mointain water is so clear and blue as it is cold. On our way there we saw a huge forest fire just a couple miles from the highway. The smoke made the sun look blood red and I wanted to turn around and head home. But I guess fires are pretty common in this cowboy land and Erik wasn't realy worried.

My husband's mechanical skills

2007-09-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

Here's our van. It's a nice van but it needs a lot of help. A few months ago Erik decided to clean it's engine and soaked it with some kind of degreaser . Well the engine looked cool but then he realized that the degreaser got into the air system and he couldn't use neither conditioner nor the heater because some poisonous fumes were filling up the vehicle.

Plus the van has EDD (electronic deficiency disorder) which manifests itself in a few interesting ways as well. There's a lot of

other issues as well, but i think since it's been getting colder the most pressing one for Erik was the heating.

So a few weeks ago he set to work. We made a trip to Costco and got some tools. In a few hours the car was ripped apart. By the way did you know that your car doesn't really need all of it's parts to drive? We did get new air filters in, but putting the thing back together was a slower process. Erik is still driving without his windshield wipers and a few other things (that I find very useful to have in my car) but the heating is back on!

The Fourniers have a blog!

2007-09-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

I'm finally back to the blogosphere to find some more of our friends hooked! Welcome Paul and Gretchen Fournier at www.fournier5ukraine.blogspot.com. The Fournier family are so cool, just think that Gretchen sacrificed her wedding anniversary to let Paul come to Bend and do our wedding last summer. That was really special. We love those guys!!!

Nice and...foggy!

2007-08-17T17:43:00.001-07:00

Only after the dry heat of Central Oregon did it dawn at me that fog is essentian for the well being of my soul.

We made it!

2007-08-17T17:37:00.000-07:00

Yeah, we made it thru the whole year of our marriage. It was a nice surprise to go to the coast for that weekend and since both of us are still alive I would call this year quite nice.

Think deep

2007-08-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

I guess it's been almost a month since I posted anything on this blog. I'm not sure if it's related to reading "Future grace" by John Piper or if I'm just lazy. But I'm inclined to think that it's the first one, after Piper's deep thoughts I realize how shallow my thinking prosess appears:)

My picture

2007-07-22T21:31:00.001-07:00

Erik said that since I posted all of those pictures of him I have to get one of mine up here too. So here it is.

Our new friend Alexe

2007-07-22T21:23:00.001-07:00

Alexe was on a random road trip when we met her in Bend. Monday morning she decided to take off and four days later we saw her in one the parks here in Central Oregon. The crazy thing is that she never even heard of Bend before. We made friends and hung out for the weekend. She's very sweet and fun, and since she wants to go to nursing school (and there's one in Bend)we would love the Lord to bring her back!!!

Green lake

2007-07-22T21:19:00.001-07:00

This is Devil's lake. It's water is green and frigid. And it's only 15 min from our house. Bend is pretty cool, hah?

Erik makes faces

2007-07-22T20:51:00.000-07:00

Summer in Bend

2007-07-15T18:01:00.000-07:00

Yeah, summer finally came our way. It's been up in the 90ies and sometimes the termomether climbed past 100 F. It almost caught me off guard since I got so used to picking up a sweater or a jacket every time we left the house. But now I feel it: the hot dry summer of Central Oregon. It hasn't rained for at least a month and every bit of moisture is gone from the air leaving us with some sort of mixture of oxygen and carbon dioxide for breathing. While I can escape the heat at work in our air conditioned office Erik has to start earlier which means getting up at sunrise.

The tourists seemed to come with the heat too. They are rafting, hiking, camping, mountain biking, canoeing and just hanging around. Kayaks, boats and rafts seem to be standard equipment for every vehicle that's passing by me on my way to work. The way to work also seems to take longer since most of Californians seem not to know that you actually don't have to stop but yield at a roundabout. Oh well, a little honk and off we go to the next one;)

So what have we been up to this hot month of July? Well of course first comes the Independence Day. It was fun helping our friends Anthony and Heather move into a new apartment and then going to float the river together. Of course my little floatie happened to lose air and sooner than later I was fully in the water desperately trying to get the attention of my husband to save me from drowning. I got his inner tube and he had to battle the river on his own. The fireworks weren't much different from what I saw in Ukraine, probably that's why most of people were more excited to watch the Pilot Butte (where they were shooting from) catch on fire and burn for a good half an hour. The fire truck slowly made it's way up there and the flames were finally extinguished. The pictures were in the paper the next day.

Ahhh... and our rafting trip! For quite a while I've been wanting to go white water rafting, so I finally got this deal where I could go with a group and an experienced guide for only half price. I proudly told Erik about it and was preparing to ask half day off on Tuesday. The next thing you know my husband rents two rafts for a Sunday and we make about 50 phone calls to get a group together. Who's our guide? Hmmmm... We are!!! To my surprise we had enough crazy people ready to go down class 3 rapids on the Upper Deschutes River. So off we were right after the church service. While our "guides" were surveying the rapids I couldn't help humming "I'll fly away, O Glory, I'll fly away" and trying to remember what Tom was saying about "If you fall out of the raft"thing. Scary.

And then we were going down the river right into the swirling and foaming water. We hit the first set of rapids. The raft went straight down, then up then the waves seemed to be coming from everywhere shaking and throwing it all over the place. I was almost out in the river when a kind soul behind me (who later turned to be our friend Robin) grabbed me by the life jacket and pulled me back in. We were all supposed to be still paddling. Yeah, right!!! I was holding on for my life. Only later I found out that our steering guide (my husband) fell out of the raft as well as our main paddler, both of them got back in later and our team safely made it past the rapids. We were still watching the second raft behind us struggling it thru. Everyone was safe! And but for a few big bruises on my hands and knees I was all right too. How fun!!!

A few people decided to go again and I was among those. In one word we had a lot of adrenalin in our blood that day. At least I did. The classic scene came when Erik was putting the raft back on top of our van and roping it to the front of the car. He pulled, then tightened... and the front of the vehicle flew off and was now hanging on the rope. Ha! That's why he doesn't drive my car.

So those were our adventures. Apart from all the fun there's the routine of working and making a living. We enjoy the fellowship we have at church and esp in our home group. I feel like the Lord is growing us together as a family and is changing our perspective on some things. Our anniversary as well as Erik's Birthday are coming up in August and we are very thankful for each other and all the blessings God's been giving us. So I guess that's it!!!

Nice to meet you

2007-06-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

The content of this post is for entertainment purposes only, it is an exaggeration based on the author's personal experience and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author or the audience (in simple words : no angry comments!)

-Yeah, nice to meet you too. And what was your name again?
-It's Marina.
-Marina? Oh, just like the ship dock? How funny!
-Thank you. It's actually Ukrainian, I'm from Ukraine.
-Really? How interesting! You are from the ukraine, isn't it down... south, somewhere?
-Well, it's in Eastern Europe, right between Russia and Poland with the Black see on it's south border. It used to be a part of the Soviet Union.
-Oh, that's right! So you are from Russia...
-No, I'm from Ukraine, it's been independent for over 15 years.
-Oh, that's right! My grandma was actually from Bulgaria... Neat lady.
-And have you ever been there?
-In Bulgaria? No. But I've been to London. It's kind of in the area!
-Kind of... And how did you like it over there?
-Oh, it was nice. Except that people speak so funny, sometimes I could not understand a thing.
-Yeah, that happens. Well, it was nice talking to you!
-Oh, yes! Maybe next time you'll tell me more about Russia...
-I'm actually from Ukraine.
-That's right. Maybe you'll tell me more about the ukraine.
-Sure.

Homelessness: choice or bad luck?

2007-06-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

We have all seen them. They hang out on the streets, sleep in the park, panhandle in the subway, check out trash cans at a nearby fast food joint. They are usually dirty and smelly, they might ask you for some change once in a while almost never expecting anything. Their eyes are in constant search. The homeless people.

We have all seen them. And most of us probably asked "why?". Why are they out in the streets? Why don't they have a place to go? Is it a choice or is it bad luck? Is there a way out? Can we (or better said should we) help?

Acc. to the National Coalition of the Homeless more than 3.5 million people experience homelessness in America at any given time of the year. I don't have accurate numbers for Ukraine but I know that homelessness is an ever growing problem there as well. Why do people become homeless? Even the most complex studies have difficulties answering that question. A lot of them are drug addicts, most are alcoholics, some just couldn't make it in the "big" world and have given up. Each story is different, but the end is that they have to sleep on the streets, they don't know what they are gonna eat tomorrow or where they are gonna go if it starts to rain. They learn to survive and take life a day at a time.

But how does the world around them react to it? Mike Yankoski together with his friend Sam Purvis decided to find out themselves. These two guys both coming from well-to-do families decided to live on the streets for five months to experience homelessness and understand the problem better, to live out loud for God and see their faith and confidence grow and to learn to be dependent upon God. Mike's book "Under the Overpass" is an awesome story of courage, endurance, faith and truth of how it feels like to be on the other side.

Their experience is very valuable to learn how to help and minister to homeless people. It's especially vital for Christian churches because they can really make a difference in the lives of many people. Mike encourages everyone to look out for those in need, just like Christ did and to make it personal talking to homeless, listening to their story, being compassionate.

I personally liked the book and everything Mike had to share (by the way if you want a copy you can e-mail me), but there's still a lot of questions to answer and contemplate. The first one being, that America is one of the richest countries in the world and jobs opportunities are amazing. Sometimes I just can't help thinking "Go find a job!" when I see another homeless guy asking for something.

Another thing is that some people just don't want to work. They are comfortable with the idea of others (or even God) providing for them and so they choose not to do anything. Erik has numerous stories of then trying to help people in Ukraine get on their feet, but the guys could care less. See in old Soviet union such people were called "parasites of the society" and if they didn't wanna work : too bad! they had to.

But at the same time there's nothing much to say when you hear Christ say "Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Mt 25:34-36

How many is enough?

2007-06-17T18:51:00.001-07:00

So how many is enough? The Duggar family from Arkansas has 16 kids and mom Michelle is expecting her 17th! Crazy or what?

P.S.: Sorry if my link doesn't work. You can google them for more info.

Balloons over Bend

2007-06-11T20:54:00.000-07:00

The ballons over Bend never went up. Way too windy, they said!

Actually...

2007-06-11T20:49:00.000-07:00

Everything is not that bad. Erik is taking a seat belt class since he got a ticket for not wearing one. Click it ot ticket! In our case at least.

Well...

2007-06-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

Yepp... have nothing else to do but changing my template. Life is like that sometimes...

The 80s...

2007-06-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

Everyone got crazy last night dressing for Chelsea McGary's surprise birthday party, the theme was 1982 when she was born and we all had a blast listening to music and playing games. Happy Birthday, Chelsea!

Boys like PINK

2007-05-20T17:15:00.001-07:00

Don't ask me why!

Lost in "Lost"

2007-05-20T16:37:00.000-07:00

We were always sceptical about TV series and even tho we have cable at home me and Erik hardly watch anything but History and Discovery Channels, I like watching Fox news too, esp. The O'Reilly Factor. So when a friend of ours brought over the first season of "Lost"I didn't think we would ever get to watch it. I was WRONG! We are on season 2 right now and still hooked. Help!!!!

More Adventures

2007-05-11T13:38:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we were finally able to hit the mountain together. Thanks to good friends the Collups who hooked us up with their gear. Erik decided to teach me how to snowboard... Well, it was very interesting. And at times when I was not eating snow after another fall and was not trying to get up with both of my feet strapped to a board, I actually had fun. In half day we made three whole runs!

Being a Patriot

2007-05-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

Here are a few thoughts that were triggered by all of you guys regarding to the previous blog. Josh made quite a commotion with his big "America" statements and it made me think about my own feelings towards my countries and their people. Growing up in Ukraine I never gave much thought to patriotism, the ruins of our former communist country were still very fresh and after the system collapsed everything my parents were proud of did not exist any more.

In schools we were taught how great our country used to be and how precious it's heritage is, but when I saw people struggling for mere survival that whole talk did not make much sense. Looking back now I can say that I'm proud of Ukraine: I'm proud of it's people and history, of the courage and perseverance, of it's land and cultural heritage. But what does it mean to be a real patriot?

Does it mean that I think of Ukraine as the best, smartest and coolest country in the world? Do I despise other nations? Do I not recognize or ignore the country's downfalls and flaws?
No, I don't. For it's obviously not right and so I learn to love it despite it's fail to be the richest and most prosperous land, and I learn to love it's people although they might not be the friendliest and smartest nation on the planet (although we are probably in the top ten of the latter). See, for me to be a patriot means to love your country and be proud of it and be ready to stand for it and at the same time to respect other people's right to love and respect their country, not bringing everyone else down but to lifting them up.

I live in America now, and it is prosperous and it is cool. I lived in Germany and it was even more prosperous. I want to live in Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Brazil and a dozen other countries. Don't ask me how I'm gonna do it since life expectancy for women is about 70 years. But I want to do it because I admire how different we all can be and how fun it is to learn the differences and start understanding each other.

Josh, no offence, but your comments about America seemed somewhat arrogant and pridefull. I respect and admire US in many things that it's people achieved, but I do not think that it's fitting to declare the States the greatest of all. Aren't we supposed to be the citizens of Heaven? Seeking heavenly things where Christ is seated at the right hand if God? Humbly loving the world and thereby showing that there's more to have in Jesus? I was really surprised...

And just to remind you of a couple of things: the great influence that America has in peacemaking is sometimes prompted by how convenient or profitable it is to be the peacemakers. Welcoming of newcomers, ha! Try and go thru the immigration process, you'll change your mind. Religious freedom: well that's what is going to hurt you most! A Christian can't even put his foot on Saudi Arabia's soil, but you welcome all the Muslim freaks that bomb your cities. Affluence... is a good thing, but not when kept to ourselves.

So, my point in all of this is that we should humbly love each other and seek to first serve others and not declare ourselves the greatest. For last will be first in the Kingdom of God. We should be united in spite of being different (not that we can't make fun of each other and pick on one another, but we should do it in love). We should desire broken countries to be healed and it's people to be saved. And... we should be HUMBLY proud of our own countries! That's what I have to say.