Pirates

We went to the Houston Science Museum to see the Pirates. It was close up look at how the pirates lived and even the most found treasure ever discovered. I learned two things that stuck and they were that the youngest pirate was named John King and he was only 8 years old. Imagine Cameron as a pirate. The second thing I learned was that the term "buried treasure" is not correct. Pirates did not search for buried treasure. They only stole others. There was one pirate who buried his treasure only to dig it up several hours later.  They would not allow pictures inside the Pirate Exhibit so that is why I don't have any.

The boys enjoyed the exhibit, searching for bones, and seeing the other animals on display. Cameron bought some fake pirate coins and later asks me what I thought he could buy with it. I think he thought he was getting a good deal since he bought the coins with his own money, but I had to let him know that they would not buy anything.

Surgery Surgery

It seems that every time we go to The States someone has to have surgery.  This year was no different.  Cameron had surgery and I had surgery.  Cameron recovered very well and I have 3 months until I am fully recovered with my wrist.  Cameron did not wear underwear or pants for 4 days.  We have more pictures, but they are for our eyes only.

Before Surgery



Right After.  The DS worked quickly for the pain.



No underwear or pants for me!

Pit Stop in Amsterdam

Since we had to change our flight plans back to The States, we had to overnight in Amsterdam. We have flown thru there many times, but never got to experience Amsterdam so this time we tried. I say we tried because it was really cold and we didn't have the warmest of clothes, but we took the train into the city center and decided to walk around.


The first thing you notice is that there are bikes everywhere and bike lanes on every street. If you are not careful you could get hit by a bike rider (not that I am saying that happened to me.) As we were walking we tried to escape the cold a little and went into one of the many souvenir stores. As you would think with Amsterdam having a red light district it would have overflowed into other streets and this store had plenty of things to buy. We didn't stay long with all the extracurricular pharmaceuticals items you could buy there.

After walking a bit and seeing a few sights we were cold and hungry so we went to find pancakes. They are more like crepes, but the boys took them out fast.  Then it was back on the train and to the hotel.
We had to take a bus from our hotel to the airport and on one of the rides the boys started up a conversation with a man that had a police looking hat on.  He was a friendly man who let the boys try on his hat which the boys loved.  The boys are able to talk to complete strangers at length telling them stories about their experiences, but then when we ask them to talk to people either we know or they know they act shy.  If you ask them to tell a story to anyone they clam up, but if it is their idea they can't stop talking.  After the bus ride it was back on a plane and off to The USA. Dunkuvel (Thank you in Dutch) Amsterdam!

Monster Jam

What else to do when in Houston with the boys, but MONSTER JAM. It was a loud night inside Reliant Stadium as the monster trucks raced around the track. I even saw a long time favorite, Grave Digger. I think he has been around for more than 25 years because I remember seeing him the last time I went when I was a kid. I came prepared with ear plugs and the boys came prepared with hoots and hollers.

Annual Trip Back to US

This year I tried to save us money by going thru Moscow on our way back to the USA.  I spent hours upon hours researching asking questions about visa before finally deciding to purchase the tickets 5 months in advance.  After purchasing the tickets I would hear from others that you need a visa and you don’t need a visa;  you can check your bags all the way thru and you can’t.  I even went so far as to almost purchase a Russian visa just to transit thru the airport, but decided against it.  After all that planning, who knew our trip would turn out like this.

We were to leave on a Tuesday morning at 7:10 am.  We got to the airport in Atyrau to discover that the flight was delayed two hours so we went back home.  Two hours later we went back to the airport and discovered that the flight was delayed another hour so we decided to wait this time.  Stacey has some french fries that comes with mayonnaise and a cappuccino.  After two hours of waiting and asking many people about the status of our flight, we were concerned.  The people in the airport did not seem to know anything and I am sure the language barrier did not help so we started calling people who could call the airline for us.  We finally decided to go back home since the flight coming from Moscow had not left for Atyrau and that was the plane we would take back going to Moscow.  People kept calling and calling and not even the airline knew what was going on until finally we found out that the flight was cancelled.

Stacey started researching other options and looking into the reasons for the delay in Moscow.  She found out that Moscow had a major power outage over the weekend, bad weather had cancelled flights, and had stranded many people in the airport over 24 hours.  People at the airport had even forced their way into restricted areas since they had run out of food and water.  If we had made the flight later in the day, we would have missed out connecting flight to Houston and would have had to sleep at the airport and deal with all those problems since we didn’t have a visa to get out of the airport.  God was looking out for us on that one.

The airlines did not know when we were going to leave and the next schedule flight to Moscow was not until Friday so we thought we need to look into another way.  We cancelled our flight to Houston and had to pay a cancellation fee of over $600, but the flight to Moscow was reimbursed fully due to the situation.  We then booked a flight thru Amsterdam and since the connection was only one hour and weather being bad we booked the connecting flight to Houston on Thursday instead of Wednesday.

Another rough night sleep and we were back at the airport on our way to Amsterdam.  For once everything went smoothly and we thought we may be able to make the quick connection to Houston a day earlier.  We ran thru the airport and made it to the gate  well in advance, but only to find out that since we booked non-changeable tickets we couldn’t get on and we would have to overnight there.  Normally I would research hotels, things to do, and so on well in advance, but I didn’t have time so we booked a hotel from the airport and got a decent place to stay.  We had lots of time to do something so we took the train into the city center.  It was cold and we did not have lots of clothes so we didn’t get very far without thinking about turning back.  Also that part of Amsterdam is not very “kid friendly” so we stopped in for pancakes.  On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the airport to check in for the next day’s flight and get our seats.  We were all good to go except there was a problem with Cameron’s ticket and come to find out he was selected for a random security check and we would have to wait until the next day to get it settled.  What would at 8 year do to need this and what is the world coming to?

We made it thru the security check and had no problems getting on the plane.  Then on the plane my row did not seem to have its video entertainment working properly.  This meant no movies or tv shows for 9 hours.  This seems to always happen to me so I got aggressive and asking to reset my row.  After two resets and my unhappiness building, the flight attendant said there were two seats on the last row of the plane in the two middle seats.  Desperation set in and I took it to the back and watched two not so great movies while Mason sat next to me watching his.  We finally made it back to the US after 70 hours of stress and over $4,000 more.  God has his plan for us and we made it safely is what I keep telling myself.

Offner Day

4 years ago today God made us a family when we adopted Cameron and Mason from Russia. He had a special plan for us and he still leads our lives safely today.

On our way back to the USA this year we were going thru Russia from Kazakhstan. Our flight was cancelled going to the states because there was an electrical outage at the Russia airport and people had been stranded there for more than 24 hours with little water and food. People ended up stampeding the passport control area in outrage. We would have been at the airport at that time. Then today the same airport had a terrorist attack which killed more than 35 people and injured many more. If our flight had not been cancelled we would have been at the Russia airport at that time. What a sad thing that happen to all those people. We thank God today not only for our family he brought together, but also for steering us away from the horror that happened in Russia.

I pray that each of you are listening to what God is telling you and that you are following his word.

Lunch at McDonalds



Dinner at Papasitos



KZ School #30

We were invited to a Christmas skit at a local school #30. It was performed in English by boys and girls ages 13 - 16. It was quick, but very entertaining. First the girls were busy setting the table and preparing the food. The girls then told the boys to come eat. The boys were just sitting down watching television and not helping at all. I had to laugh because if that is how they were told we acted, then we have problems. Next Santa came in bearing gifts for the stockings. They asked us to join in and sit at the table that they had prepared for us. Cameron and Mason were so shy I went and did it myself, but then they came later. Santa gave them a BIG box of candy and both of them held on to it like it was the only toy in the world. After Santa left they wanted us to dance to "Jingle Bells". I don't know that dance (is there one?), but I improvised and still had fun. Finally three girls stood up and sang a song about New Years. The teacher asked me to give a toast and I did. A simple “health and happiness” to all in the New Year and I was done.
After the skit we sat and ate the food they had prepared (chicken, cake, bread, and cookies). The food was fine and I started to ask questions of the students, but they were shy. Shy until it was time to take pictures. I think they thought we were celebrities, because every student wanted a picture with us. I embraced the experience and actually enjoyed it. It might be the closest I get to stardom. We thanked the students and wished them a Merry Christmas.

Happy Birthday Jesus

This year we decided to stay in Kazakhstan to celebrate Christmas. It was nice to be able to be in our own home, to sleep in our own bed, and for the boys to open up presents under our enormous tree. It is amazing how big presents look under a small tree.
We started out with a Christmas Eve Dinner with turkey and gravy, sweet potatoes, stuffing, corn casserole, and of course pecan pie. The food was good and it goes to show that even though the pecan pie did not look right, it still tasted good. After dinner the boys opened up one present each. Before the boys went to bed, they put oats in the front yard so Santa's reindeer would know where the house was and have something to eat while Santa stopped by.
It took Mason until almost midnight to fall asleep and we kept telling him that Santa would not come if he didn't go to sleep.
Santa did come and left the boys a stocking full of gifts. On Christmas morning we started opening up presents. In our house we have made it a tradition to open up one gift and play with it for a while. This allows enjoyment on the gift you just opened and spreads the gifts out all day. By late afternoon we were finally finished and with toys everywhere I know the boys were good this year.

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus