Katelyn Ann Arrives

After around 12 hours in the labor and delivery room at Perinatal Medical Center in Moscow Katelyn Ann arrived on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 at 8:21 PM in the evening weighing 3.8 kilos or 8 pounds 6 ounces and measuring 54 cm or 21 inches long.

Life just got so much sweeter having a little girl in our lives!

Did Someone Say A Baby is Coming???

It seems as if I have been pregnant F O R E V E R!!!! I have to say that this little girl will have everything that she could have ever imagined that she ever needed......

This past April my very good friend, Heather Mekesa arranged an online shower for Jim and I where our friends and family were able to purchase gifts for the baby and PricewaterhouseCoopers graciously paid for us to ship the gifts to us here in Moscow. I had no idea how many wonderful friends and family we had back in the states that sent gifts to my parents home for my mom to get ready for the movers.....and a special THANK YOU to my mom, Helen for the numerous trips back and forth to Babies R' Us and for getting all of the boxes ready for the movers....I'm sure she had NO IDEA what she was signing up for when she offered to help!!

The shipment arrived.....Shipped out May 5th and arrived in Moscow on the 23rd of July!!!

Here in Moscow my friends, Stacy, Mary Ann, Bonnie, & Amber organized a shower for me here - it was so much fun around 20 women came to the shower and the women the shower made up were from all over the world - India, Poland, Holland, Estonia, China, Slovenia, Australia and living here in Moscow has allowed us all to become friends! It was a great afternoon at Bonnie's apartment - Mary Ann and Bonnie made all of the food and we had carrot cake of course!

I also have to say that I took up knitting (it took me a while to buy into the entire knitting thing) but I did and I made a blanket for the baby which I have to say 'ain't that bad!!!

Here are a few photos of the crib and Jim putting everything together!!

She'll definitely be sleeping pretty in pink!

I think Jim has got a knack for putting baby things together......this Accountant has got it all!!!!

"Carrie?!?!? Stop taking these ridiculous photos!!!"

Fourth of July!!

Ahhhh the fourth of July in Moscow.....Jim read in the paper that the American Chamber of Commerce holds a 4th of July party out in this park WAY outside the city - there will be food, concerts, and of course fireworks! So a few of us thought we'd check it out.

Well there was food which you had to stand in LONG lines for and plenty of Budweiser (sold in 6 pack pounders ONLY) a white Statue of Liberty, and actually a pretty cool band. We staked out a table because Russian's love to 'save' places not only in line but also they like to 'save' tables and chairs. So after negotiating and I think our friend Jim even paid a Russian for their 'saved' chair we had a table and some chairs. We got some food and enjoyed the music.

We thought the event would be crawling with Americans or at least English speaking people....this was not the case. We also thought we'd be able to eat a good old fashioned American hot dog or hamburger - it is the 4th of July? NOPE - no American food and hardly any Americans - this is a party put together by the American Chamber of Commerce that Russisans just love to attend and that's what it was - Happy 4th of July Russia!!! TIR

Here is the Statue of Liberty

Here we are with our table.....you have NO idea what we did for this table!

Moscow Sunset

As you all may know it stays much lighter here in the summer than it does in the winter and for us who have never been in a place where it stays so light for so long...it has taken some adjustment.....Right now it is light out from around 3:45 AM to about 10:45 PM everyday! I have to say that I will take this over the limited amount of light we get in the winter - 9:00 AM to about 3:00 PM!!!!!!

*

From our apartment window we experience some pretty amazing sunsets......these were taken around 10:30 in the evening.....

CBG Team Visits Moscow!

JS, Keith, Jim, Nasty (Nate), & Helmet (Nate)

As part of their whirl-wind tour of north-eastern Europe four of Jim's old CBG audit team stopped by Moscow for a few days it was great to see some familiar Pittsburgh faces!


Keith & Nate trying out the guns on display at the Cold War Tunnels

After finally finding the guys upon their arrival into Moscow...I won't go into how Jim had a panic attack the day of their arrival and thought they were arriving on a different airline that flew into a different airport so he CANCELED the taxi he scheduled to pick them up at the airport....poor guys!!!! I would have died but not them they somehow found some crazy bus for 25 rubles a pop to take them to the Metro where Jim and I finally met them.....other than that their long weekend included a boat ride on the Moscow River, a trip to the local Banya, a tour of the cold-war tunnels, a tour of Russia's largest vodka factory, and all of the major sites of the city.


Nate, Nate, JS, Keith, & Jim on the Moscow River

When not touring by day the team enjoyed some of the nightlife of the city as well. Jim's good Australian friend Tony ensured that the best spots of Moscow's nightlife made the evening and even some early morning tours!!

Thanks again for visiting us in Moscow!!!!!

A Pittsburgh Hello

Jim had a few meetings that he needed to go to Houston, Texas soooo I decided to take the trip with him and stop off in Pittsburgh for a few days.....It was great to see everyone!

Alicia, Heather, Ali & Tyler, Tara & Molly & Timmy, and Me

The Snead's

The Will's

Cold War Tunnels

With one of my women's groups we toured the Soviet Cold War Tunnels which are located in the heart of the city way underground. The tour consisted of a tour of the tunnels and the old communication systems that they used. Then a movie on the Cold War from the Russian stand-point which was VERY different from what we were all taught in history class in the US.

The entrance to the tunnels from the street

Here I am with our tour guides granddaughter, Leeza at the entrance of the tunnels underground.

If you can believe it - they had old machine guns on display that you can actually pull out of the case and play with? So here I am with a machine gun.....

After the tour and the movie we all snacked on a "typical soldier snack" which consisted of beef porridge, brown bread, tea, and of course VODKA.

Here is our snack.....YUMMO?!?!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/25664282#25664282

I thought you would all be interested in this the link to NBC's nightly news broadcast on the Cold War Tunnels....Even Zhenya, our tour guide makes a cameo!

Saturday Afternoon Lunch

This past Saturday was a beautiful spring day here in Moscow and a few of our friends got together for lunch at a great outdoor patio restaurant serving the best burgers in town - Scandinavia!

Jim & Martin (who is from London)

Carrie & Megan (who is from Dallas)

Victory Day

This weekend is a big holiday here in Russia.....Victory Day!

Victory Day consists of a military parade involving almost 8,000 personnel, 111 sophisticated tracked and wheeled military vehicles, as well as 32 aircraft and helicopters was launched on Moscow's Red Square on May 9th, when Russia celebrates Victory Day.

Victory Day marks the final surrender by Nazi Germany to the U.S.S.R. in WWII, often referred to as the Great Patriotic War in Russia and other states in the former Soviet Union. The parade was addressed by President Dmitry Medvedev, whose inauguration took place this past Wednesday.

The parade accompanied by a large military band of 550 musicians. Personnel dressed in WWII uniform, carrying historical military banners, are to be followed by the passing of sophisticated military hardware, including war fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, tanks, missile launchers and strategic bombers.

Military hardware was last involved in a parade on Red Square on November 7, 1990. No military parades were held on the square from 1991 to 1994, and the May 9 parade in 1995 saw WWII veterans marching in central Moscow. Troops resumed their participation in military parades on Red Square in 1996 and the first Victory Parade was held on Red Square on June 24, 1945 on the order of the then-Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Joseph Stalin.

Here are a few photos of the fighter planes that flew past our apartment window towards Red Square during the parade......only in Russia.

http://mnweekly.rian.ru/local/20080507/55327559.html

Ireland

We took off for a long weekend in Ireland..... here we are at

St. Patricks Cathedral in Dublin

We flew into Dublin and spent two days exploring the city of Dublin ate fish & chips and washed it all down with pints of Guinness. The entire country of Ireland is SMOKE FREE - so wonderful to sit in a bar and not dying of smoke inhalation....like we do in Moscow and Pittsburgh for that matter.....

We toured the Guinness Brewery - really neat tour! After the tour we each got a free pint of Guinness to sample....who knew that Guinness was so good!

After spending a few days in Dublin we set out for the west coast of Ireland to make our trek down the western coast of Ireland south to Cork and drive back to Dublin to fly back home to Moscow......

This was the first vacation that Jim has ever taken with NO hotel reservations - just the open road and our rented red mini cooper (that Jim had to have!!!) I was told NOT to reserve hotel or B&B reservations prior to the trip as you just have no idea what cute Irish town you'll be spending the night.....so we just played it by ear and ended up not having a problem finding a place to stay along the way......

Our first stop was a little town outside the Cliffs of Moher called Lahinch which is on the western coast of Ireland. After touring the cliffs we began our drive down the coast south towards the Dingle Peninsula to our next stop Dingle Town.

Shots of the Cliffs of Moher

Dingle Peninsula was a very neat drive and the town of Dingle was very fun -
lots of cute shops and great pubs.

Standing on Conor Pass

Jim standing at Dingle Harbor

After spending the night and the next day in Dingle we set off East down the coast towards the Ring of Kerry which unfortunately rained the entire day so the Ring of Kerry wasn't as impressive as Dingle Peninsula. We ended up driving to a town called Kenmare to spend the night.

A neat church along the drive towards Kinsale

The next morning we set off driving East again to a town called Kinsale which ended up being our favorite town. It's located on the Kinsale Harbor and made up of great outside cafe's and great shopping. After spending the day in Kinsale we began our drive North towards Cork and a quick stop to the Blarney Castle we were back on the road again towards Dublin
to catch our flight back to Moscow!