Watch out for bombs!

Last night we went to bed around 10 and then all of a sudden there was loud booming outside. I said “Do you think it is fireworks?” Joey said “I don’t know” and went back to sleep. I got up and looked out the window and watched them for awhile. They did it in two faces. I made Joey get up and watch for a second and give me a quick kiss to celebrate our own early 4th of July since we won’t be home. I love the 4th of July! Oh, well, there is always next year, Lord willing. When they were over I went to bed and read for awhile and finally fell asleep around 11 or 11:30pm. Then at 2:15am I was awakened again by booming. I thought “What is going on?!” I looked outside the kitchen windows and saw the sky continually lighting up but could not see the actual strike of lightening so I started wondering if some crazy bomb testing was going on behind the trees and then my imagination raced to “What if Poland and Lithuania got into a fight and we were caught in the middle?!” Remember this was the middle of the night and I wasn’t in my right mind. The booming took place long after light and as far as I have ever learned we counted seconds to determine how far away it was. But this was not calculating because it was such a long period of time in between and yet it seemed so close. What do I know. I woke Joey up because I was a little scared being our first night here and I am still adjusting and something just didn’t feel right. He confirmed to me that it wasn’t bombs but only lighting and that I needed to go back asleep. I did. I did have terrible dreams last night though. Might have been the cookies before bed.
This morning I did not wake up until 9:30! That is pretty late since we have been getting up much earlier. I had a usual pop tart for breakfast ( almost running out, not sure what I will do since the milk here is way sweeter and cereal would not taste good and other breakfast foods sound disgusting right now.) I put some loungy clothes on and straightened my hair. Joey played video games. Tatiana came around 11:30 this morning to prepare us for court. She has another family arriving tomorrow for their first trip so I think she is going to be busy and we will probably not see her much for this next week. Not sure what we will do with our time. We have a list of things we want to do at least once: zoo, shopping mall, Sbarro for dinner (American- woohoo!), amber store, toy store (for the kids), and the waterfront. Hope we get to because that will break up the weeks. There will be lots to do in Moscow within walking distance. Where we are now there is a park, a small grocery store, and the lake. These things will be good to walk to but I am sure will get old after a few trips.
We finally decided to get out of the flat (that is what they call it in Europe.) We wanted to walk as far as we could walk and see what we could see so when we have the kids we know what we can do. Our goal was to make it to 12 Chairs which is a restaurant we have visited on both trips and know very well. We had an extra incentive involved as well…we were hungry! On the way we saw the park which was basically a memorial with overgrown weeds and grass and the lake which was covered with algae. We reached our goal and ended our walk at 12 Chairs. We sat down in the cave like underground restaurant (it is located under a theatre) at our usual table. They are getting used to us now and automatically bring us English menus. Today we were the only people there. It was at 4pm. Joey tried “beef Figaro” and “china city salad.” We were hoping it was an Asian chicken salad and some kind of Italian style beef. Well the salad was rice and some sort of seafood displayed nicely in a dessert style bowl (Joey at it, I would not try it!) and the beef was like chicken fried soft mushy steak with a decorative cocktail sauce on the side. This restaurant does do a great job with presentation I have to say. Last time I had the “Butterfly Chicken.” It came with chicken breasts on each side with a sauce and cheese on them as the wings and in the middle was two red pepper strips with olive halves up the center as the body and chives as antennae. I wanted to take a picture for Annie B. (I don’t even know if you like them anymore but I always think of you.) Today I had “stuffed chicken Michelle.” It wasn’t really stuffed. It had cheese on top. And I tried a coffee milkshake thingy. Um, no that cold, kind of bitter. Uugh. We always think things are going to be so good and then they are not. Oh, well. Joey and I had great conversation at lunch talking about our kids and all of you back home. We had a good time. Then we heard the thunder and thought “OH NO, we just walked as far as we could (well, maybe not that far but a long way) and now it is going to downpour because when it rains here, it RAINS! By the time we left the restaurant the rain had passed. Woo Hoo! On the way home we passed a bakery and a candy store! Yeah, at least we can walk the kids there! Somewhere! We also decided to take pictures of all the kinds of wrought iron. The Russian iron work is sooooooooooo beautiful. We are going to make a collage of pictures at home and hang it in our stairway I think. We came back and went over the court information. Then my Dad called. Yeah! We talked for a long time and that was great. I love you Dad! Then the rain came bursting from the sky again. I just had to video tape it and the thunder was soooooooo loud and the lightening so bright. The thunder set off seven car alarms in front of the building! I got it on video! And ever since then, Joey and I have been playing this addicting game on the computer that downloaded when we did the update called Flip Words. It is so fun. We are now going to watch a movie and go to bed. We are staying up late tonight because we are having fun and we don’ t have kids yet! Haha! Not for long. Oh, I almost forgot. You are going to think this is so funny. Okay so the bath tub is big and blue and there are no walls and no curtains but there is a shower thingy (you know, the kind you hold?) Well, I just cannot bring myself to sit in someone else’s tub just yet so I am standing up in this tub holding the shower thingy over my head getting water everywhere! Then Joey takes his and he sits! He looks like the old old days when (at least on TV and movies) adults sit in gigantic bath buckets! It was very funny looking. You may have had to see it to get the full hilarity of it.
So that’s it for today. We resized a bunch of pics so I will try to post them finally. Joey downloaded like 3500 pics on my computer before we left and I was so mad but now I am so grateful because I can just sit and stare at all of you whenever I want. I have been organizing them today. I love organization! Good night! Actually- you guys have a good day! Saturday is long gone for me. One more day and we will be parents.