Hello friends and family! It's been a LONG time since I last posted anything, and boy is there a lot to catch up on. I'll try to share as much as I can to bring you up to speed on what's been going on with the Rowdy Rozsas since last June. This post is just the recap....I'll post more detailed entries on some of this stuff later on.
First and most important, we made it safely to our new home in Maryland this past July! We were blessed with another uneventful trip across the country and arrived to our new townhouse just before the 4th of July. Our family was waiting for us when we got there and stayed to help us paint the entire house. A million thanks to everyone that came and helped make our house a home! We could not have done it without them. I have to say a special thank you to Mykola's dad for driving our truck and trailer, by himself, from door to door. He even unpacked all of our stuff!
After a few days at home, we packed everyone up again and left to spend the 4th of July in Ohio. It's only a 6.5 hour drive - the closest we've been to family in over 10 years. It was wonderful to see everyone again, and to be able to relax and enjoy the holiday. We had a great time at the annual Rozsa family picnic - especially the kids!
It took a little bit, but our household goods finally made it to our front door. 16,500+ pounds of boxes arrived on the hottest day of the summer...103 in the shade. We had a lot of hot days in California, but this day was not only hot but humid too, something we were not used to at all. My heart went out to our movers who had to carry all of our stuff up and down two flights of stairs. Those guys never complained, although they did sweat...a LOT! Needless to say, we spent the next few weeks unpacking boxes, hanging pictures and making trips to Goodwill. I can't tell you how much stuff I gave away in order to make our living space less cramped! All-in-all, we had a great move. Now, it was time to really get settled in.
We spent the rest of the summer meeting new friends and neighbors, finding our way around the area, and getting ready for school/work to start. We've decided that Annapolis and the United States Naval Academy are two of our favorite places to wander around. We made one last trip home to Ohio while Mykola went TDY to Phoenix. I was able to go to the Football Hall of Fame Game, and we all celebrated Kolya's birthday together before we went home. A few days later, Nicholas started school at Piney Orchard Elementary, which literally is in our backyard. He is so lucky to be going there! It is a wonderful school with so many opportunities for him. Kolya has already started playing the viola and will be in the band next year. They've got Accelerated Reader and First in Math - two super programs that he loves doing both at school and at home. The staff is super, too! Kolya, as always, is doing really well and enjoys going to school.
Ukrainian school is something new that Kolya started this year, too. We've never lived around a Ukie community so it's great that we/he finally get to participate. The class is on Saturday mornings in Bethesda, about a 45 minute drive. We thought for sure that he'd be opposed to getting up early on his day off from regular school, but the ironic thing about it is, he's loves it! In fact, he was so enthusiastic about it Mykola and I thought there was something wrong. Nobody
likes going to Ukrainian school, right? On the contrary, he's enjoying learning how to read and write in Ukrainian and is even showing interest in learning more languages. Just yesterday, he told me he wanted to learn how to speak French! What a Renaissance man!
Kolya also started learning karate after school. Mykola and I are really impressed with how well he's doing in class. He started in September as a white belt, and has earned two belts since then (yellow and orange). The last time he tested, Master Derek said he was showing skills one level above where he was. He even broke his first board in half! It's giving him extra confidence, making him more focused, and reinforcing respect for others as well as himself. The best thing about it is, he's figuring out that he can try new things, and with practice he can become really good at it. Nicholas' next challenge...lacrosse! He's handsome, smart AND multi talented! We continue to be blessed with an amazing oldest son!
The second piece of big news is that I started a new job as an analyst with the Office of Personnel Management at Fort Meade here in Maryland. Generally, OPM acts as the human resources office for the federal government. I actually work for the Federal Investigative Services - the branch that conducts background and security checks for the government. Without going into a whole lot of detail, I love my job! I work with a team of extremely bright and talented people, and together we tackle a number of projects, odd jobs, and pilot studies. There is never a dull moment and never the same schedule two days in a row. I'm using my brain again and getting paid for it - a real boost to the self-esteem. And, as luck would have it, our new house is only 8 minutes from my job! Bonus!
The triplets have also had a change in their lifestyle. They now attend "school" with two in-home daycare providers here on post. Olivia goes to Ms. Daniela's, while the boys go to Ms. Jaimie's. I was worried at first to leave my kids and go back to work, but it turned out to be the best thing for everyone. They LOVE going to school (as they call it) and have really blossomed into little people. They go to the library, the gym, museums, play dates, do crafts, and go over preschool curriculum (number, letters, colors, etc) every day. They are leaning to play with other children and to listen to adults. Their behavior at home has changed for the better, too, and it looks like we might emerge from the terrible twos stages (times 3!) bruised but not broken!
The good news is that Olivia, Matthew and Daniel are nearing the end of potty training! It actually wasn't that bad of an experience considering we've got three training at the same time, we had to tackle a set of stairs to get to a bathroom, and we need the help of our daycare providers during the day. Now, it's like a well-oiled machine. Very few accidents = very happy mommy and daddy! Goodbye diapers....it was nice knowin' ya!
Mykola is finally settling into his new job, too. Because he is the first person to fill this position, he was actually able to create his own title - Joint Environmental Health Liaison Officer (or JEHLO). Clearly, he didn't consider how the acronym for his new title would read before it was approved. His friends now call him Jell-O, or Jiggles if they're
really trying to be funny! It looks like Mykola is going to start traveling more, with some upcoming overseas TDYs. Maybe I'll have to take some time off work and go with him...sans children!
The end of the year marked a busy holiday season. We traveled home for Thanksgiving and spent time with family. We made record time there, but the trip home wasn't so easy. Traffic, especially in Breezewood, PA, was crazy. If I remember correctly, it took us nearly 9 hours to get home. Yikes! While we were home, Kolya and Mykola got to see a hockey game with Mark and the kids. Mykola even spent some time shooting at our property with his dad and brothers.
We got to see them a few weeks later when all of the Polatajkos came down the day after Christmas. They spent two full days taking in the sights of D.C. and Baltimore. What a great time!
Well, you can now consider yourself caught up! I promise to make sure and post something at least once a week from now on. The kids pictures have been updated, too, so you can see how much they've grown. I've included some random pictures and videos below to show you some of the other things that happened. I hope you enjoy them!
Love,
The Rowdy Rozsas
