How to say Marshmallow in Russian

 AS IN CAR TRIPS

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

I mentioned yesterday in my Boring post that I would be seeing my dear Russian friend Vladimir today.  He would probably be somewhat hurt if I left it at friend, which he is.  He is my Brother, not only in Christ but I was practically adopted by his family when I lived in Russia and Vladimir and I even lived together in my last months in Khabarovsk, or the Big K, as I grew fond of calling it. 

As you read this, I am probably driving from Illinois to Michigan to pick up Vladimir and Tanya or I am driving them to Illinois where Vladimir has a conference to attend tomorrow.  Do you have a friend that you would drop everything for?  Vladimir is such a friend.  Home schooling the kids makes travelling to Michigan on a moment's notice much easier.

All 3 kids are travelling with me and we will all meet up with Amy once we get back into Illinois. 

Since I am spending the majority of today in a car, I thought I would blog about car trips and some of the things I have done on them.

Marshmallow - 3 years ago a cousin of Amy's graduated from high school in Kentucky.  A large contingent of family members from Illinois travelled to Kentucky for the ceremony. Another of Amy's cousins who is just a few years older than our kids decided it would be fun to shout marshmallow each time we crossed from state to state.  It is now a staple of all interstate travel.

Alphabet Game - Amy and I play this more frequently w/o the kids than with, so it will probably not come up today.  We are getting the kids more interested in playing and sometimes they will "throw a letter" out the window if we get stuck. 

Play-A-Ways - A play a-way is an audio book in it's own mp3 type player.  They are available at our public library.  When we go on a long trip (like this one to Michigan) The kids and sometimes the adults get some Play-a-ways from the library.  Our kids love books and listening to books in the car is one of their favorite ways to pass the time,

Madlibs, Random and other word games.

Random is a game I was taught in 1986.  I have been a devotee for more than a quarter century now.  Here is a previous post about it.  Mad Libs and Random are great games because they are both fun and educational.  I guess mostly fun.

Kid Directed Play.

The kids create games that they play on car rides.  The ones they play most often are the frowning game, which is very similar to Make me Laugh and the Dolphin Game, where they pretend they are workers or animals in a zoo.  Amy and I can entertain ourselves just listening to them.


We do lots of other things on car trips, but that's a pretty good list for now.  I'll be back tomorrow with some Donuts. 

Boring, a nice place to visit.

 AS IN BORING

Monday April 2, 2012

I was a Southern Baptist Missionary in Khabarovsk Russia from late 1992 to late 1994.  I have been thinking about that chapter in my life more frequently recently, as a dear Russian friend of mine is in the states with his wife and I will see him for the first time in nearly 2 decades tomorrow.

Being a missionary, I spent time with other American missionaries when I was in a Russia.  Some of them were from an organization that was headquartered near Portland, Oregon.  The actual name of the town was boring.  No, not as I wasn't interested in the name.  The town's name was Boring. 

I had a lot of fun with that nugget.  I would talk about going into the Boring office.  Maybe settling down there some day and  meeting a Boring girl and making her my Boring wife  having some Boring kids and sending them to the boring schools.  Interestingly enough, I never got bored with the joke.

A few weeks ago I was watching the T.V. show, Homicide: Life on the Street.  In the show Alec Baldwin's brother Daniel plays a Detective who is partnered with a female detective played by Academy Award Winning (The Fighter) actress, Melissa Leo. 

In one episode Baldwin's character is telling Leo's that his wife is from Boring, Maryland.  He then goes into the same kind of Boring jokes that I used to engage in.

Check these out . . .

•   Website with some interesting facts about Boring, MD.
• Website describing Boring, OR as an exciting place to live.

Well I am done with this Boring Post.  Check out some other B posts in the A to Z Challenge by clicking here.