Crunch In and upcoming trip...

First of all, I will post my activity for the day. This morning, we were once again greeted with snow. So I helped clear snow for 30 minutes, and then I did 47 minutes of my Step up to Fitness DVD, and 3 minutes of stretching and crunchers.

Now, I am going to tell you about an upcoming trip I have. We have some friends who are missionaries in Lithuania, but right now they are in Moscow. They have been wanting to meet up with us for some time. First, we invited them to come and see us, but that didn't work out for them. Then my husband decided that he wanted to go visit them. He asked me if I wanted to go along. Of course, I wanted to go, but I didn't feel comfortable asking anyone to watch our kids. We also have our house, which can't be left vacant at all, and dogs that need to be fed, etc. So I told him I didn't think I should go. He was checking on airline tickets and saw that they were less than half off through November 30th. He was talking with his friend on trying to find a place to stay, as hotels are $200 a night and up in Moscow. Well, his friend wasn't able to let him know of a place to stay.

Then on Sunday, Dani Joy posted about visiting the IKEA store. I've really been missing occasionally shopping at neat places. I've never been a big shopper (thankfully, or I probably would have died a long time ago), but I do enjoy looking at places. So I thought, I really want to go on this trip, but I told my husband I wouldn't ask anyone. I was praying that if God wanted me to go, He would show me clearly and provide someone to stay here at our house to take care of the kids and dogs, etc.

We do have friends here that would probably watch the kids, but I am always hesitant to ask anyone for help. I don't want to inconvenience anyone. Yesterday, an American friend called and said she had heard from Steve that he might be going on a trip. Steve must have told her husband when they were here for Thanksgiving. She offered to come and stay at our house with our kids and her teenage daughter if I wanted to go. I admitted to her that I had wanted to go, but was afraid to ask. She told me I should be ashamed of myself for not asking.

We still had to find out about the housing. Our friend was supposed to let us know sometime early evening yesterday. Well, we waited online until after 11 PM with no word from him, and figured it just wasn't going to work out as tickets needed to be purchased by midnight, Moscow time. Just when we were getting ready to go to bed, his friend wrote and he couldn't get a hold of anyone at the Bible college where they had a room. Moscow is 5 time zones behind us, so Steve told him to send something to us by 11 PM, his time, which would be 4 AM our time. So we got up at 4 AM, and there was a note from our friend. He has just heard from the pastor that we could stay in their guest room at the college. So we checked the website, and the tickets were still available, and we were able to purchase them with only 30 minutes left on the sale!

So, we will be going to Moscow from the 11th to the 16th. We won't get home until the 17th. I'm trying not to stress about not being able to do my regular aerobic routines. I know I'll get lots of walking in, as we will be using public transport and my 6'1" husband walks pretty fast. I also know that there are several American restaurants that will be really tempting for me. I hope I don't totally mess up on eating, but I also know that I won't be able to control everything.

There is an IKEA store close to the airport, and I hope to visit there. I know there are also lots of other shopping places that will be neat to see. I'm also looking forward to spending some time with our friends, and doing some Christmas shopping for our kids.

I hope this hasn't been too long. Dani Joy wanted me to write all about it. I probably won't be able to post while we are gone, as we won't be taking our laptop. When I get back, I'll write about my trip. I do know Moscow involves lots of walking and using the metro, underground or subway based on where you are from and what you call it. We'll be taking pictures and I'll post some when I can.

Now that things are finalized, I have quite a bit to do to get ready for someone to stay at our house, and get the kids school work organized for while we are gone.

To give you an idea of how big Russia is, we live 5 time zones from Moscow. Russia emcompasses 8 time zones in all. We live over 3,000 miles from Moscow, and it is a 6.5 hour flight to get there.

Have a great crunching day everyone!

Tami