Master of all I survey

School Day

A beautiful morning with a crystal clear blue sky slowly changed to a gray, cloud heavy rainy forecast. The aroma of wet stone slowly filled the small, narrow streets and ally’s.  A perfect receipy  for some at home indoor activities. School work, dancing, shopping and eating would be the quest for the day.

Apparently, a great nights sleep for everyone. After breakfast the girls started right up doing their homework. With all the excitement of the first couple of days we let Sanija slide a bit on doing her studies. She has been doing her travel log everyday but her assigned home…well…..

But now it’s time to buckle down. Both girls worked hard at their assignments. Sanija’s teacher, Ms. de Goede was kind enough to set Nata up with an online account to a school program. Nata worked hard on her math for a couple of hours. Sanija has daily assignments in Math, Reading, Writing, Spelling and reading comprehension. Although working hard, every time Nata had a question, Sanija was the first to help, rather than let professor Daddy or scholar Mommy help her. Soon, she realized that her work would not be done unless we helped out. Mommy and Daddy each helped out in a variety of way.

After reading some of her math problems such as: equivalent decimals, Compound this, Exponent that….maybe I need a quick refresher course…..maybe, just maybe.

Since I have a little time on my hands let me tell you about our apartment. First off, it’s right in the heart of Old Riga. The street name literally translates to Sinner’s Street! Well, maybe in days of old but now it’s full of restaurants, cute family owned shops and souvenirs stores. The apartment is rather larger for a two bedroom space.  It’s located on the 5^th floor but luckily this building has an elevator. The elevator, if that is what you want to call it is a bit…….small. Putting two people in it can be very cozy to say the least. Three people and you have to literally squeeze into it. Can you say claustrophobia? The building itself looks fairly new but I’m sure it is just the facing. As far as the kitchen…it’s a kitchen, very basic and small but it does have everything a bachelor would want. Unlike our last apartment in Riga, this apartment has an actual stand up shower. Until you go without one (for a month) you don’t realize just how important a stand up shower is.  We also have a handful of T.V. station that are in English but Sanija tends to watch many shows in Russian, a language she doesn’t understand. Go figure?!

As I’m writing this passage, Sanija has move on to Antonyms. I’m impressed how well she understand the opposite of words – good going Sanija.  Hopefully, as the week goes on we will get more efficient at school and our routine should improve.  

It’s now 2:15pm and soon the four of us will get ready to venture out for the day.

While everybody was getting ready, I… yes I, am the master of all things electronic. Last year I tried to use chromecast with our Latvian T.V but my own mastery of all thing electronics was only equaled by my own monumental  failure to get the darn thing working. Yet, I push on with superior intellect in my attempt to make this….this ….Pandora box to work properly.  Once again, my failure to rival the unknown piece of electronic left me with an uncertainty of my electronic skills. But with the urgency of the upcoming trip to Latvia I once again sought to conquer this satanic device to once again have my hopes and dream smashed against the rock in the sea of despair.  Not knowing “WHY”, I brought this piece of frustration with me. Alone, I was going to give it one more try. I connected my external hard drive to my Surface table. I then connected my Chromcast to the HDMI  input on the T.V. I then went to press the “Menu” on the clicker and pressed it firmly I did.  Up on the T.V popped the menu  in %$#%^& Russian. What they……Russian. This couldn’t be happening……Holy……… For one hour I went back and forth with setup direction learned to read Russian (or at least the pretty colored pictures) eventually what was on my computer was magically transferred to the big screen T.V. Yes, I became the MASTER to all things electronic. What was my odyssey for over one year slipped into the history books for all to read and relish in my Mastery.

The girls heard my cheers and when I told them of my technological feet….they could have cared less. Daddy, my eldest says, lets go to store. Well, so much for super Daddy!

We went to lunch at Sheri’s favorite Steak House. She absolutely loves the heads and the skins that adorn the walls. Sanija asked to barrow my camera and took her own private model both inside and outside for a photoshoot.  I will try to post some of the photos on FB.

Soon we went off to Remi’s for a more detail shopping spree. Soon, it will be family movie night as we all snuggled up together on the couch and watch Disney’s

30 minutes later………

Okay, so much for the movie. It’s now arts and craft time.

Thoughts for the day:

I wish I could tell you just how lucky me and Sheri are when it comes to these two girls. These girls are truly the inspiration in my day. They are both entertaining and just hysterical to watch when they are on a roll. They are loving to each other as well us Mommy and Daddy. Because of their backgrounds they get so much enjoyment out of the little things in life. Having Nata now part of this family shows us just how much Sanija has grown into her own person. As Sanija becomes a young lady, I can’t wait to see the person she was destine to be. To Nata the world is an open book for her. I’m looking forward to see the wonderful story she will write.  I love these girls (including Sheri) with all my heart and soul. If you think our life is a story now, wait till chapter two starts.