Dinner

Tonight, after our Russian lesson, we had a lady from church, Natasha, come over and help us cook a Russian meal. We made a Russian salad (grated cheese, chopped tomatoes, and mayo), a beef stroganoff with mushrooms, and mashed potatoes. Of course we ended the evening with tea and sweets!

The Russian salad--the salads here are pretty tasty. A lot of them are coated in mayo or a vinaigrette dressing---with chopped vegetables.

(If you click on the picture you can see that Adalynn is waving at the camera. As you can see she helped out a lot with cooking dinner!)

Philip getting ready to taste a popular Russian drink...(most of the missionaries who have come have NOT liked it)

...and it's not bad!

It actually tasted a little like flat pop, but with bready flavor (it is made with bread flour or bread or something like that!)

Check It Out

If you want to check out more happenings with our family check our family blog out at

The Gormong Life

Lesson Number 1

We had our first Russian lesson yesterday afternoon. I would say it went well. Thank you for praying for us as we were a little nervous. Our teacher speaks very little to NO English, so you are just trying to understand what she is telling you. I am soooo thankful for our time in South Carolina with RLM. I would have been 100% lost if we had not had that foundation learning. We will be meeting 2x a week for an hour each--Tuesday and Thursdays from 4-6 (I go and then Philip goes). Thanks again for your prayers!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and baby Gwen

A COLD Walk Around the Block

Brrr!!!

This morning we decided to venture out and take a walk around where we live. It was quite cold out! It was sunny, which was nice, but it also meant it would be really cold. And it was. Adalynn enjoyed her sled and we enjoyed pushing her and not holding her!!

Adalynn and I ready for a walk

Lenin Square...no, not John Lennon...

Spar, where we buy some groceries...just a few minutes from our apartment

Going Home
(the sled handle moves so you can push it either way...it also has a string you can pull it if you want)

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and baby Gwen

The Good Old Days

Well, I did our first load of laundry the other day. The washing machine is all in Russian, so Gelya (a team member) showed me how to use it. This machine reminds me of my parents' washing machine...the door locks and you can't put anything else in it once it is shut and started...learned that lesson yesterday. It is pretty simple to use. They use "conditioner", or we would say, fabric softener, because they don't have driers. They line dry everything here. It actually reminds me of my childhood because my mom used to (and still does) hang everything to dry. I was in heaven when I went to college and had my towels put in the drier. They were so soft! Well, back to the hard, scratchy air dried towels! Next time you take a shower and dry off on your soft towels remember us here with hard ones:)!

"Conditioner"

Our lovely towels and clothes hanging to dry

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and baby Gwen

OK

We heard on the news tonight (well, our field directors informed us via the phone since we couldn't understand what they were saying on the news) about the airport bombing in Moscow this evening. This is the airport we flew into just a week ago yesterday. We are soooo thankful to the Lord that we arrived a week ago and not this week during this tragedy. The Lord's hand of protection is upon us. Thank you for your prayers. We are all fine here. Please be praying for those who are injured and for the mess that is going on with flights being canceled and all. For more news you can read about it at:

Russia Today

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and baby Gwen

Interesting

Adalynn on her new little stool eating a Russian cookie

Adalynn is loving life right now. We enjoyed a church service this morning in the ministry center building, which meant we didn't have to bundle up to to anywhere besides across the hall! Thank you for praying for us this morning. We felt like it went well and we were able to meet a lot of really nice people from the church. We are planning on going to the young marrieds Bible Study on Wednesday night at one of our teammate's house.

Here are a few things we have found interesting:

*Russians wear their wedding rings on their right hand, not left...looks like I can shop for a new ring:) haha
*At the grocery store, you have to bring your own bag (reusable) or you can pay for a plastic bag. Man, where are all those reusable Kroger bags when you need them. Of course, you don't forget to bring them if you don't want to pay for them!
*You flush the toilet from the top (you pull up on a knob)
*You don't want to walk too close to the edge of a building because the ice that falls off is deadly...seriously
*Snow does not cause school delays or any delays.
*If there are a lot of kids sick, schools will close for a week

We appreciate your faithfulness to the Lord and to this ministry! Thanks for checking up on us!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and baby Gwen