Apparently I'm not cut out to be a blogger since it's been more than three years since my last post, but I continue to try to remember the big milestones in life and get them down in memories. Although I've done really badly at blogging, I'm somewhat up to date since I now order a photo book of my  Facebook entries every year. At some point I'll get every memory on one general location (maybe). We moved to Dodge City, Kansas, in December of 2015 because Harold decided to leave retirement and take a presidency at the local community college. Kathryn is in 7th grade now. She plays the alto sax, is teaching herself piano, has been taking horseback riding lessons, is captain of the volleyball team, and has suffered the usual middle school bullying. Basketball is still her favorite sport. She's 5'4" and weighs in about 115. She wears a size 10 shoe, so I'm hoping she'll grow a little more! She's really self sufficient and is as entranced with her phone as most middle schoolers. I'm in my second year of teaching at Comanche Middle School and work with 8th graders. I teach what I started out teaching in 1984, reading improvement, although it's called Read 180 here. Love the kids and their challenges... In other word, we upended our world, left our home state and families, and started over in the old west. While I really miss Texas and my people, this has probably been a good experience. It's good to see what other places are like and get new perspectives.

Whew! Life goes by fast...

Lots has happened in the last several months, and it's difficult for me to sit still long enough to get it on paper. We are well integrated in our town now, and in fact are redecorating things we've already decorated, so I guess that means we're really comfortable. Kathryn is great - the birth mother issues are more under control, thanks to time with a counselor. It turns out, though, that she likes the attention so much that a few of her stories might be just a tad exaggerated for effect. I came in after one of her sessions to talk to her counselor, and the counselor suggested a game with a set of questions to spur conversation since Kathryn had told her that "dinner time is kind of quiet at our house." After I did a sharp 45 degree neck turn towards Kathryn, I told the counselor that was an interesting comment since Kathryn always wanted to have her dinner watching a television show and we didn't get much out of HER. Since that comment about a month and a half ago, Kathryn has gotten to watch TV while eating exactly twice, and we have lots of good conversations at dinner. Little scoundrel.
News about the Winter Olympic Games upcoming in Sochi has me thinking so much about Russia and the adoption process. It's so sad that Russian adoptions have been shut down. I'm so glad we were able to get her before that happened, and she is such a blessing in our lives.
Christmas was made for both Kathryn and me (and to a degree for Harold) when we brought the newest member of our family home. Dinah is a one year old miniature poodle adopted from Poodle Rescue of Houston. What a doll. We've about gotten her adjusted to us, and she has almost won over one of the two cats. There is a lot less hissing happening these days anyway. Pictures to follow soon...

Kathryn is a hypochrodriac and she's going to have to start covering her own co-pays

I'm not sure if I can blame this on the Russian heritage or not, but I'm going to. Kathryn is a big hypochondriac.  She checks her own temperature all the time, and she frequently has one, at least when she takes it. When I recheck it, she almost never does. I would suspect that she heats up the thermometer but it's digital and I haven't figured out how she could do that. Anyway, she really seemed to have a temp Sunday night, and her ear was hurting Monday,  so I took her to the doctor. Earaches scare me a bit because she had a few raging ones the first couple of years that we had her. Of course, the last three times I've taken her with an earache, the doctor had the same response, and I quote: 'I don't see anything remarkable about her ears.' Seriously, isn't it pretty remarkable that we even have ears? He gave her (read that wrote a prescription and we paid for them) some meds to take in  case she feels worse and we had them  filled. She was really happy with this situation. Total cost for this 'fever', - $25 copay and $50 for scripts. She ate a big lunch and spent the afternoon in the pool. I told her from now on, the payments for her medical bills will be taken from her allowance.

I Miss My Mom

I'm not sure why it's coming out so much right now, but Kathryn is talking a lot about her birth mom, and she's really trying to work through what happened. She's so appreciative of me and tells me she's so glad I'm her mom. She also says she knows her birth mom couldn't keep her because she had lots of problems, but seriously, why should a 7-year-old have to be working out why her mom gave her away. She asked me tonight what her birth mom's name was, and for the life of me, I couldn't remember it again. She asked me the same question a couple of years ago, and I had to look it up. This time I remembered it on my own, but she'd already gone to sleep. It's Galina. She started crying because she couldn't remember what her birth mom looked like. Sometimes it just kills me what she deals with in that beautiful, sweet mind. I love her so much.

Russia Time

If Kathryn doesn't like something, her excuse is that Russians really don't eat that. I told her the other day she's been an American longer than she was a Russian, so that excuse is wearing a little thin. However, I found two cute videos of her singing about meeting us in Russia today, so I thought I'd post them here before I lose them for good:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42843146@N08/3942966950/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42843146@N08/3942520539/

Granny

Kathryn and I have been talking about Granny a lot lately. She was very interested to know that I had a mother and that she is in Heaven. She will frequently tell me how much she misses her Granny. One day she told me that she looks at me sometimes and feels like there are two of me, one here with her and one in Heaven looking down on her. I told her that the "me" in Heaven was probably Granny looking down on her, and she loved that. Of course, sometimes, she will say she misses Granny and run to the couch, throwing herself on it and weeping uncontrollably for five seconds. I seriously hope she carries that flare for drama to the silver screen one day and makes us all rich.

Frog in a Hole

Kathryn's favorite breakfast is a Frog in a Hole. It's something that Mother and Jeanette used to make, Jeanette more than Mother as I recall. You take a piece of bread, cut a hole in the middle with a cookie cutter or small glass, put the bread in a butter skillet and crack an egg in the hole, then cook on both sides. Since I grew to abhor runny egg yolks as Daddy got older and cooked the eggs less and less, I usually scramble the egg first, then pour it in the hole. Apparently, Harold is a huge fan, too, because he's always game for one as well!