Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted
according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or
slow to do the humble work.

- Mother Teresa

About Me

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Sunny Florida, United States
I am the proud mom to 6 kids: Natasha, 24, Nikolai, 20, Reese, 20, Maylee, 14, Erik, 10 and Violet, 7. The kids come from Russia, Ukraine and China; I'm so proud of my family sometimes I think I'll burst and I needed an outlet for it - so I've created this weblog. :o)
If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.
- Mother Teresa

Motivation for Moms

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One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.
Mother Teresa

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Saturday, January 29, 2011
Well... kind of! It was a day spent at our "backyard", Universal Studios! For the past number of weekends, I've been wanting to enjoy this GORGEOUS Florida winter weather we are having but either I've been too tired, the boys didn't want to go, we had too much cleaning to do, or whatever. Finally, I decided I was going! Our annual passes end in March and I don't know if I'll renew, so I want to get there as much as possible before that happens.

Reese was at a wrestling tournament ALL day (he left at 6:20 this morning and won't get home until probably 10 tonight!), Nik doesn't have a pass at this time, and Mark wasn't feeling well, so it was just my little man and me.

I must say, Erik is trying so hard to grow up. He transitions from one activity/place to another beautifully - he's so easygoing that way! But he does get really scared at things sometimes. I try to push him to work through his fears, and he does try. He used to be terrified of vacuum cleaners, the food processor, the garbage truck, etc. Anything that made a big, loud noise - he'd scream and scream! Well, now, he does really well with those things! He also used to be afraid to try to walk, then to ascend/descend the ramp going into the kitchen, etc, but with gentle but firm pushing, he has conquered those fears as well! SO! Off we went to Universal with MANY scary things in it, but if he never faces his fears, well... I know him well enough to know that he will never push himself. I love the little bugger so much that I know he will enjoy life more if he can work through some things. ANYWAY! Enough of that.


One thing that scares him is the big Universal globe. He LOVES water (is almost obsessed with it!) but even so, he is too scared to walk into the mist at the bottom of the globe. Normally, I just get frustrated with him as I'm in a hurry to get a picture and get in the park, but today was just the two of us, and no one was pushing us to hurry, and we had no agenda or goals, other than to have a fun time together, so I took the time to let him get used to big, scary thing. He watched it from afar at first...


Then, we walked closer to it and let him sit at a distance and feel the mist on his hand and body.

Then, he was VERY VERY brave, and walked very close to the mist fountain at the base of the display and stood there in the mist!! He would not go up to the closest railing in, but I was SUPER impressed with how much courage he showed today!!



Here he is in Barney-land (ugh!), enjoying a big fountain of Barney, as if Barney was the next Ronald Reagan, or something. He didn't care who the fountain was of, though. He just LOVES fountains!! He would have stood there all day if I let him, but we had to go to the Barney show that was starting that he LOVED last time we came to Universal, but screamed BLOODY MURDER at this time!! It was so bad, we had to leave. He was totally freaking out. Again, he has fears, and needs to be pushed to conquer those fears, but enough is enough. Can't push too hard. As soon as we were out of there he was perfectly fine. Ugh. Of course, MY nerves were completely shot!! lol

"Well, HEY there!!! Why don't y'all come by and see us sometime?!?"
(I love this picture!! LOL)

Not sure if you can tell, but he is surrounded by bubbles!! I love it when they have guys out there with their bubble machines. It's a real highlight of the day for him!

Okay. Here we have more MAJOR progress!! After screaming his brains out on the Jimmy Neutron ride (definitely NOT ready for that one yet!), then screaming at an I'll admit VERY scary SpongeBob character (I would have screamed too!!), Erik became a man. On our way out of the park, we spotted Scooby Doo and Curious George. While SpongeBob was terrifying, Scooby and George were calm, gentle, and unintimidating. EXACTLY what my little Piglet needed! For the first time ever, he approached a "character". (Last year, I have a picture of him screaming with ALL of his teeth showing in Mickey Mouse's face!) Mind you, he didn't really touch them or turn around to have his picture taken, but these pictures are more precious to me than a nicely posed picture of him smiling properly would have been. The patience shown by these two characters was MUCH appreciated! They obviously could see that extra time and gentleness were needed with my special little guy. :o)

Check another phobia off his "starting to conquer" list.

My son became a man today.

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If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day, go fishing.
If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.
- Chinese proverb
It is not the will of your Father that any one of these little ones should perish. Matt. 18:14

Whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. Matt. 18:5

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

My family

My family
Nikolai, Mark, Missy, Reese, and Erik

Nikolai, 19

Nikolai, 19

Reese, 19

Reese, 19

Erik, 9

Erik, 9

Daisy

Daisy

Mary

Mary

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