let's try this picture.

I am trying to post pictures to the blog. They are of the kids in front of Cactus Restaurant, a Mexican food place, and in our apartment.

Renting a house in Yerevan

We have a house and move in on Saturday. Three bedrooms, 2 baths, A/C to be installed, radio modem (not sure what this is, but hope it is faster than slow dial up), a garden for the kids to play in and a swimming pool and a housekeeper two times per week. I am living in the lap of luxury! Lori

Armenia Week 2

We arrived after 30 hours of flying or waiting in airports. The kids were pretty good given the length of the trip. I didn't have to resort to benadryl because the Chicago flight left right at bedtime. While Madisen and mom were lucky enough to be in business class, Cole Ryan, Austin and I had 5 seats between the 3 of us. They zonked out.

We arrived in Yerevan at 10.30 p.m., took a bus to the terminal, got through passport control, and then dealt with our mounds of luggage. Luckily Sergo, the office driver, Sasha, his friend, Robert, another office driver, and Sonya, my boss met us at the airport with three different cars. They took us to our apartment - 2 bedroom/1 bath - and we crashed.

We are fairly well adjusted to the time differences after about 3 nights of waking up at weird times. When we arrived, there was snow on the ground and last night even more fell. Cole Ryan and Austin LOVE the snow. I literally can't keep them out of it. They are either jumping in the piled up mounds, hitting icicles, or punching shoulder height snow banks. It is exhausting just to walk down the block with them! Madisen also likes the snow except perhaps not quite as much - she is able to walk down the street without being overcome by the impulse to connect with snow.

Food is interesting - we went out to eat twice. The first time, our waitress didn't understand anything we said (and we knew exactly 0 Armenian at that point - day 1). I tried to ask for water and she brought vodka. We eventually got coke and fanta. She brought BBQ - a big hit here, but the kids didn't really care for it. So, they ate bread and drank fanta. The second place was Mexican food - Cactus Restaurant. It was good, but catered a bit too much to the expat crowd. And, Cole Ryan ended up throwing up after we ate there. Austin also hurt himself there when he fell on the ice.

We go to the "store" at least once a day. We have figured out that eggs, lavash (bread), juice, cheese and pasta are good. Mom made black beans tonight and even though Austin swore he wouldn't like it, he ate three bowls. Not a lot of fresh veggies; certainly not fresh lettuce for salads.

Have to run. On dial=up and mom wants to email. Lori

The plane ride was very long.


In Armenia there is alot of snow, about 8 feet deep. Our first night here we went to a resteraunt with a waitress who did not speak english and she kept on bringing us food. The next day (24th) for breakfast, lunch and a snack we had oatmeal because that is about all we had. On the 28th as we were all in bed, reading or asleep we heard this explosion and everyone who was awake got out of bed. After about ten miniuts of scared time I saw fireworks and we were all relieved. We looked in an Armenian book and saw that it was a holiday, Army day. Madisen

We are all leaving on monday!
Everyone is very excited to see the snow (except my mom of course) and are looking forward to meeting new people. Cole and Austin are very excited to go on a plane again and I just finished my last application to the magnet schools.
On our last day in Austin we decided to go to the park as a family(including my dog Daisy) and had a picnic. Even though everyone is excited about our adventure we are going to miss my dad and Daisy.