Things Fall Apart....

This is the title of a great book by Chinua Achebe, about when the European powers colonized Africa.  Other then the title that book and this blog share nothing in common.  This blog is about when over a decade of togetherness becomes every man (or woman) for himself.  Since before Kyleigh was born Jen and I had developed a great crisis management system.  We mostly practiced on our cats (Hayley and Nike).  Coughing up a hairball, puking up something that was not edible for cats etc.,  no problem one of us would clean and the other would get the cat to a better place (bathtub, hardwood floor, just somewhere easy to clean). By the time Kyleigh arrived Jen and were a well oiled machine when it came to vomiting.  For our 7th anniversary Kyleigh crawled in our bed and commenced vomiting.  I caught the puke Jen grabbed towels and not a word was spoken we just took care of business.  For years this is what we did, but last night that came to a screeching halt - the machine just stopped working.  

At 11:45 Miki comes into the living room coughing and crying (Jen and I are sleeping in the living room so our coughing will not wake Wilson).  I hear Miki and hop up before she heads back to our room.  She sees me in the living room and walks over to me.  She is crying and coughing and I thought she had a bad dream, so standing on the rug (that'll be important later) I pick her up to hold her. Just as she settles into the safe embrace of her father, she pukes, not projectile, but just right down my back, all of it.  I froze, I just stood there with warm vomit running down my back, in my shorts, down m legs.  The next thing I know (hours could have passed for the shock I was in) Jen is yelling "Get off the rug, get to the wood floor".  I had snapped, the machine was broken.  I moved to the wood where Miki let out one more warm rush of vomit (I had no idea her stomach was that big).  I am now officially covered in vomit from head to toe.  I abandon the mission, forget all protocol and move into self preservation mode.  I put Miki down on the wood floor and go to the bathroom and shower.  The shower brings me back to reality and I do return to the living room and help Jen.  I had left her in a desperate situation: puke on the rug, puke on the floor, puke on the kid.  In my head warm vomit running the length of your entire body dictates you shower.  I apologize and begin cleaning.  I bathe Miki, (covered in vomit from her bed where we will later find out this all began), dress her, strip the bed and start a load of laundry.  Despite all of this effort the great machine had ceased to work.  Jen and laid on the couches after Miki went back to bed and just laughed at the situation and our lack of preparedness.  I have been in deep thought reviewing everything trying to come up with why.  Is it the stress of living over seas, sleep deprivation from Wilson, am I just selfish? Have I raised my need to be clean above the needs of others (that's probably it actually)?  I don't know.  The best I can come up with is sometimes things fall apart. 

FIrst Day of School - Serbian Style

Today was the girls first day of national school (they have been doing home school since Monday).  Kyleigh was going back to her old school (she has a pretty sweet schedule and will only go to Serbian school every other week since she will be doing full 5th grade home school with Mrs. Stevens).  In fact K was so confident we were in our old neighborhood and she just told us she would walk to school.  When school was out she called and said she was going home with a friend... so this is really gonna be the story of Miki's first day.  But to understand the first day you have to go back in time with me.

MAY 15 - 17 2011

With the help of a friend I go to the school we want Miki to attend and gather all the paper work to register her.  My self and Gradimir (my friend) fill out the forms and gather the necessary documents to enroll Miki.  We also type a letter that asks that his daughter (Daria) and Miki be in the same class (they are best friends).  By the end of May I have been assured that everything is completed and told to com by in July and they would post if the kids are enrolled in school.

JULY 23, 2011

So I get a call from Gradimir that the names of all the kids are posted at the school but he did not see Miki's.  Jen is close to the school so her and K check it out.  First name on the list Микејла Стивенс (Michaela Stevens).  I guess because she is a foreigner, they did not put her in the list alphabetical like all the other kids.  So we are excited she will be at the school we want her to go to with her friends.

 AUGUST 26, 2011

We are out and about and decide to stop by the school and see if we can meet the teacher.  Glad we did because like many things that happen to us, we (I) apparently had missed a few details.  We needed to pay the tuition, and get a medical check up for Miki before she could start.  No problem we can take care of that on Monday. Simple right.... not really, as we were leaving I noticed the bill for tuition had Wilson's name on it (how that go there will always remain a mystery).  So on Monday I had to go to a different place get that corrected, get a new bill, go to post office and pay new bill, take receipt to school, sign the contract, get medical form...... whew that was a busy morning but it did get taken care of.  Tuesday Miki went to the doctor so we thought we were ready for Thursday.

TODAY THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Miki is dressed, we have our Bible time and she is ready to go.  We arrive at the school and stand in a small line (I use the term line loosely, Serbs more or less gather) to turn in the medical form.  Upon our turn we gave the lady the form and then waited, waited, waited.  Miki's name was not on the list. Seriously what is going on.  The lady keeps telling us her name is not on the list and the other parents who have seen their kids name start laying their forms down so they can move on.  I have to admit I was getting a little frustrated.  Then out of the blue Miki's teacher comes down the hall, sees the commotion and says "she is in my class" and away we go for the first day.  All in all crisis avoided.

So if you have read this far you are either bored or really curious about Miki's first day.  She loved it.  She is sharing a locker with Daria,  Her teacher was really nice, she got invited to  a birthday party on Saturday.  IT WAS A GREAT DAY.  Her only complaints... warm milk at breakfast "warm like it just came from the cow" and no doors on the bathroom stalls.

Sleepless Nights...Not so bad

I woke up with Wilson this morning after another spotty night of sleep, the boy just does not sleep.  His sisters were much better sleepers.  I decided I was going to write a blog about how terrible this lack of sleep is, then Wilson and I played and I gave him his breakfast and we watched Barney.  All of a sudden those sleepless nights did not seem so bad, as a matter of fact they are a blessing.  Those sleepless nights are caused by the most precious little man I have ever met.  I know the circles under our eyes will eventually fade and the afternoon yawns will be replaced by something else.  I know that soon Wilson will sleep through the night.  But for now I'll lose a little sleep in return for the blessing of the boy.

I'm ready for some FOOTBALL

Playing at the Park

Lovin my sissies

This is gonna be good

You all know I have an amazing wife, and if you don't then now you can read her blog and see how amazing she is.  She's smart and funny, super witty and lives a crazy life with me over here in Serbia.  Check it out, become a follower and hear what jen has to say follow this link, Jen has something to say...

Serbia, sometimes you suprise me

We love living here.  It's a great place, but it's not like home.  Sometimes a post communist country just has a lot of ground to cover to catch up with the west.  In the almost two years we have lived here we have seen lots of changes for the better.  The public transportation stops now all have maps showing you where the vehicle is going and where it stops.  A few weeks ago Jen and I saw a new tram rolling down the tracks (we tried to get a picture but much like sasquatch it disappeared behind the trees).  Two recent examples of progress were a trip to the zoo and a trip to the water park.   

First the zoo:
We visited the zoo early on and lets just say, it aint San Diego.  This past week we made a second trip and were awed by the new exhibit - the Tiger Cage.  The zoo has acquired two tigers, one white and one regular.  They were in new modern enclosures, more habitat based then concrete.  The great thing is they walked up to the fence and if you were completely crazy and not fond of your hands, you could pet them.  Wilson was super intrigued.  This was easily his favorite part of the zoo.  Here are the pics to prove it:

that's the tiger right behind us

mom please let me pet the tiger

 The water park:
We had heard the legend of an amazing water park a couple of hours south of Belgrade.  After contacting friends and confirming the legends were true we decided we must see this ourselves.  On monday morning we headed to Jagodina and the Akva (aqua) Park.  Upon arrival, the legend was confirmed.  This was one of the nicest water parks I had ever been to.  They had an olympic pool, expansive shallow kids area, two large wading pools, and 7 large adult water slides.  It was clean, the water was refreshing and the shade was plentiful.  We met two other families there and the kids had a blast.  One of the great things about Serbia is they have not figured out that when you have someone trapped in the park, zoo, fortress etc., you can charge 10 times as much for food.  So for less then $20 we got admission and a great lunch as well as an afternoon snack.  It was a great day and we will be making the drive back for more fun in the sun.  Here are some pics:

Jen and her crew (plus a couple extra)

Put me in the water

coming down the slide... this is fun!

gotta keep me in the shade

Hellos and Goodbyes

When we were in training for this job someone said its a lot of hellos and goodbyes.  That's what the past summer was for the Stevens family, many excited hellos followed by many tearful goodbyes.  The summer started with two long term hellos as the Isreal Family joined us along with our journey girl Amy arriving in July.  In may our good friend Kim came with two bags stuffed full of the good stuff form America (this was a trend that thankfully continued with all our guest!).   At the end of June we said hello to my dad (Goodbye in July) followed by my sister Shea, and brother-in-law Bobby, who sandwiched a honeymoon to Paris between visits to Belgrade.  When my Dad left we got a surprise hello from Doug and Katherine Taylor, awesome friends from Africa.  These hellos were all followed by a 10 day visit from Jen's sister, Julia.  Picking all these great people up at the airport is always a thrill.  Skype, email, facebook etc. are all great ways to stay connected, but to get to hug someone you have not seen in forever is unbelievable.  But it's also bitter sweet, from the time you say hello, in the back of your mind the clock is ticking until goodbye.  I know the girls loved this summer and spending so much time with people but the goodbyes were not fun. 
In addition to the visits of these family and friends we met two groups of young ladies that had a huge impact on our summer.  Kristina and Bethany were here working with our company in Novi Sad and spent a few days in Belgrade with us.  And we saw lots of the "Seattle Girls".  These young ladies (Jaimee, Aleks, Annie and Sarah) spent the summer in Belgrade working with college students.  These six young ladies were a joy in a pleasure to get to know and spent a ton of time loving on my girls.
All told I made 14 trips to the airport in an 8 week span (including five 4:30AM drop offs for the dreaded first flight to Frankfurt).

Here is the honor roll of all our guests and new coworkers:

the israels

kristina, amy and bethany

kim

aunt shea and uncle bobby

papa

doug and katherine

the seattle girls

aunt julia

thanks to all of you for traveling to see us, or becoming new friends.  We love you all dearly and look forward to seeing you again.

JARS OF AWSOMENESS!

This is awsomeness in a jar.  What is it you ask?  It is salsa, homemade salsa, made by my super wife. (I mean homemade down to boiled and peeled tomatoes).   Not only did she make it she canned it, old school style (you know boil the jars etc, wait for a little pop).  On a side note since you use a jar, why is it called canning.... just curious, so I hereby move to call it jarring.   I am pretty stoked about this jarring thing.  Want chips and salsa, grab a jar.  Jen has plans to jar a bunch of other stuff like spaghetti suace etc.  Jen has been on a tear this week, she made and jarred salsa.  She made homemade apple and pear sauce for the boy.  Based on the cakes she makes we knew she could bake but this week she busted out the cinnamon rolls.  She has been doing her own baby food for several weeks now.  (that stuff costs a fortune here so we just grind up the veggies we are eating).  From day one here in Serbia Jen has done a great job figuring out how to feed us and replacing our favorites from home with things available here but jarring salsa, that's taking it to a new level!

Cinnamon Rolls.... YUMMM!!!