To Be Alive
Oct. 12th, 2005
03:43 pm - What I've read lately
Since my native language is Russian and English is not yet fluent, I haven't read a lot in English. What I've read and liked are "Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom. The name of the novel was intriguing for me since I like literature with a slight hint of spirituality. Also, I am always interested in stories that reveal meaning and value of peoples' lives so the novel turned out to be a good choice for me.
Another book is "The Center of Everything" by Laura Moriarty about a smart ten-year-old girl who lives alone with her mom, Tina, in rural Kansas. She struggles through poverty and suffers from being different from other teenagers. The novel was interesting for me in social point of view since I hadn't known a lot about a poverty problem in the US. Also it was amazing to see how this girl was trying to get out of her world and make her way in life.
The last novel is "Bridget Jones' Dairy" by Helen Fielding. I always wanted to read an original book after I'd seen the movie. I just finished reading it and enjoyed a lot - very well written in terms of the richness of the language and sense of humor. Sometimes could recognize myself in Bridget:) I'll be rushing to my local library to borrow a sequel of the book.
Oct. 11th, 2005
09:24 pm
We've had such a wonderful weather lately so we've decided to take part in outdoor activities particularly in those related to the fall holidays. There was a good ocasion - Mothers&More offered to meet at the Priddy Farm to have some outdoor fun, take pictures, chat and find a perfect pumkin. 
( Read more... )
Oct. 7th, 2005
05:35 pm
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Thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2){kind=small}
elo4ka I've begun reading "Bridget Jones's dairy" by Helen Fiedling. Enoying v. much. I loved the movie that I watched about a year ago and have always wanted to read the book. As I can say so far makers of the movie were quite close to the book's content so while reading I can't help myself picturing Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant as Jones, Darcy and Cleaver. A very good dramatic perfomance. Funny, clever and well written. What else is needed for a good book. In order to get the book I became a member of a local public library. Not very big one actually but still has plenty of books, movies and music. I am very glad to discover that they have a huge collection of books on tapes and CDs. Will have something to listen to in the car.
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Renata and I have begun attending Kindermusik Village® classes. We had our first class on Tuesday. One hour of variety of music, dances and games. Renata was very excited to meet other babies, crawl around, dance with me and make different sounds with shakers, bells and drums. We have 8 more classes left so looking forward to next Tuesday to continue our musical fun.
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The Mothers&More had an Open House for prospective members today. Ildar finished his experiment earlier so I got a chance to go to the meeting. It was a good opportunity to meet women I hadn't met before at other M&M's activities, chat and get some useful information on things are going on in a community. V. glad I made it.
Sep. 28th, 2005
10:11 pm - Our current place of residence
The hot weather is cooling down, so Renata and I had today a chance to take a walk around the lake. While walking I took a few pictures of the lake.
The lake is called Dexter Lake. It's quite big. It takes about forty minutes to pass around. In fact, the lake was the reason why we've chosen this complex. We missed so much our night walks along the ocean:)
There are a huge population fo ducks, that are very used to being fed by residents.
There is such pavilion for "dates under the moon light".
But you have to rub some repellent from mosquitos. Don't forget that you're on the lake:)
You can fish in the lake.
10:09 pm - A Scottish Festival
I decided to open a good tradition of posting photo stories. What is more I have such a nice occasion - last Saturday we went to a Scottish Festival.
We've discovered that here in Memphis and in Tennessee as well lives a quite big population of Scottish. They are very proud of their heritage and celebrate it every year. We, fans of "A Brave Heart", couldn't miss such an event.
Right after the entrance we could see a lane of plaid flags - those were Scottish clans' flags.
There were lots of kilts and Scottish costumes. Look at these two brave guys:
A concert of Kelt music was being performed on the main stage all day long. 
A group of a woman and very nice kids were dancing near the stage. They were so cute I couldn't keep myself from taking a couple of pictrues of them.
Renata liked the festival a lot. Especially because she had a chance to crawl on the grass and push her stroller. But she hated the idea of becoming a Scottish man.
It's understandable since she's a girl and moreover a girl with eastern roots.
As a matter of fact she was pretty interested in everything that was going on around her.
Sep. 23rd, 2005
06:21 pm
Renata waves her hand when we say "poka-poka (bye-bye in Russian)". Also when I talk to Ildar and bring my cell phone to her ear, she always smiles and says something like "da-da". Ildar's happy!
06:18 pm
I went today to a meeting with other moms. I just joined the organization called Mothers&More that is devoted to moms who looks for the ways to enrich their lives not just as moms but as women as well. They visit each other, go eat out together, conduct educational seminars, do playgroups, etc. There's whole bunch of information on their website www.mothersandmore.org. I highly recommend to those who live in the US.
Today's host, an absolutely charming woman with two kids. There were also some other women with their kids. We were chatting and having coffee. I even baked some cookies yesterday and brough them to the meeting. Our children were having fun too. They were playing with various toys and interacting with each other. Awesome! Renata turned out to be a very social baby. She crawled up to other children, smiled at them and grabbed their toys:) The baby was happy and I was pleased even more. I hope to continue to get involved in this community.
Sep. 21st, 2005
09:59 pm
Today, I searched the Internet trying to find a sewing machine of my dream. The only problems were that my dream was quite vague and the budget was limited. It seems that I'm beginning to get interested in the same things as much as fifteen years ago. I was crazy about sewing in my teenage years and early twenties. Then I immersed into my consulting job (oh my Gosh, how long ago it was). Then I moved to the US and had a baby. I even didn't think about starting sewing again. And now look at me! I'm looking forward to starting my many projects. I'm definetly becoming a real housewife. What a change!
Apr. 20th, 2005
01:20 pm - Stroller things
I tried today to set up Renata's stroller in a sitting position and put my baby in it. I even carried her in the stroller for a little while around the appartment. It seemed it worked for Renata and, of course, for me as well. Actually Renata just hates lying in the stroller and sitting in a car seat when it attached to the stroller. So mostly we carry her in a BabyBjorn Carrier. It works just fine for us, but sometimes it's quite tiring. As soon as Renata's back is strong enough, we will try to go out having her sitting in the stroller. It's going to be fun!
Mar. 20th, 2005
11:05 am - Mom
I gave birth to my daughter and felt keenly how I miss my mom. At the same time my mom looks forward to my calls and every time plies me with lots of questions about her long-awaited granddaughter. She says she rarely dreams of me, although she thinks about me all the time. Recently she dreamt a very real dream about me, then awoke and burst into tears after she realized that it was just a dream.
On the wall near Renata’s crib my favorite mom's picture hangs. My mom always smiles me from the picture and backs me up. When I call her, she tells me about my babyhood and I find very easily so many common things between me and Renata. It amazingly brings us together—it’s like for a moment I become Renata and Renata becomes me. Those are such special feelings, I can’t even find proper words to describe them.
So I’m looking forward to seeing Mom and having her seeing my baby. We are going to be so happy on that day!
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