It is written in a very simple language and has a lot of insights. I will definitely recommend everybody to read it. [320x260]

Despite the sites of excruciating poverty I was very happy to be with my family and help them in many different ways. I will go back there soon. I am so glad that I quit working for the corporate world with 5 day vacations, I need at least 3 month to be with my family. I am free and happy to be home. [700x525] [700x525] [525x700] [700x525] [525x700] [525x700] [525x700] [700x525] [525x700] [700x525] [700x525] [700x525] [525x700] [525x700] [700x525] [700x525]

I love to fly. Some sights of Moscow... Gallery of art and beautiful churches... [700x525] [700x525] [699x390] [525x700] [700x525] [700x525] [700x525] [700x525]

Mamulik, papulik, Ksunya, Alutka , ya po vam skuchau!!! [700x525] [700x525] [525x700] [700x525]

One of my best friend ever Larisa, I love her!!! Of course I love my mom and my dad and my sister. I gained 15 pounds from all the good cooking, another dinner at home :-) Mama ya tebya ochen lublu, spasibo za edu, Ksuhulya i papik am tozhe privet!! [525x700] [700x525] [525x700]

We graduated 9 years ago and have not seen each other for year. We got together for breakfast in Irish Pub and talked about life, family, kids, work, favorite books, etc. it was amazing!!! Miss you tons!!! Will come back soon!!!
I love these pictures, we had so much fun!!! [700x525] [700x525] [525x700] [525x700] [525x700] [525x700] [700x525] [700x525] [700x525] [700x525] [525x700] [700x525] [525x700]

They built a waterfall with the pool and rest area. Very grand!!! It will be nice in summer :-) [700x525]
By the way it was shocking to live behind the bars like in prison. I forgot that it is normal there to be locked up and scared, it is not safe. I got reminded of all the little pleasures that we take for granted in the USA. In the Ukraine there was no hot or cold water for 3 days... It is normal there. Sometimes they live without electricity for weeks. But people are still happy!!! I learnt to appreciate simple pleasure of life!!! [525x700] [700x525] [700x525] [700x525] [525x700] [700x525] [700x525] [700x525] [525x700] [700x525] [525x700] [700x525] [700x525] [525x700] [525x700] [700x525] [700x525]

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Opera House "Karmen" by Bize!!! Watched it for the 5th time, loved it!!! Will go again with great pleasure!!! [700x525] [525x700] [700x525] [700x525]

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I am adding new pics now. Enjoy!!!
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First snow of the season. October 14th in Moscow!!! Very pretty!!! Made me remember my childhood!!!
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I agree with what he has to say. Tried it on my own skin. It's hard to change.

Soft is Hard Posted: 23 Nov 2007 02:45 AM CST Please don't tell me being kind and learning to listen and building out your vision and things like working on your character are soft. Nope. They are hard. And that's why so few of us do them. Anyone can act tough. What takes genuine power is to be open. To care about others. To learn from those around you. To be human. Same for things like listening and vision and character-building. Getting good at those things takes a ton of courage. Why? Because we need to develop humility and be willing to admit we are far from perfect. And that we need to change. And change is scary. Because it causes us to leave the comfort zone we have always known. And sail out into the blue oceans.

 Oh, I finished his book " The Saint, the Surfer and the CEO" and plan to buy several copies to give as X-mas presents. It is a MUST READ book in my opinion. I loved it. I read it in Russian and plan to read it in English again soon.

 

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Good times :-)
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Pictures from NY...
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Ok,  I will start putting the pictures up. I have been so many places and have seen so much that It would be hard to write about it all. Here are some of the highlights.
In NY I went to see two brilliant shows, highly recommend both " Color of Purple" and "Spring Awakening", also went to Metropolitan Museum of Art, Modern Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum, and Natural History Museum. I partied with my Russian friends and had a lot of fun. In Moscow I went to Mayakovski theater and saw a play about marriage and divorces, was interesting. Went to Tretyakovskaya Gallery of Art, loved it, loved it, loved it. We hang out with my brother and his fiancee, worked a little. In Saint-Petersburg I worked for a day. In my hometown Yekaterinburg I went to Opera to see "Karmen" by Bize, amazing, two thumbs up, I watched 3 times before and still love it as much every time, some things are timeless. I spent time with my family, this was the best. Then I had a 10 year reunion with some of my high school friends. I also spent time with my favorite professors in the university, talked about life and it's meaning. I learnt a lot and got a list of 100 new books to read. My sister will be going to the same university as I did and I hired tutors for her to study for exams and hopefully get full scholarship. In Ukraine I had the best time with my grandfather, we were so happy to spend time together, it's been 3 years since I have seen him. I climbed a tree that I used to climb as a kid. We did a lot of fun shopping and I bought everybody presents. In 3 weeks I gained 15 pound because of all the good food and drinking. I had the best time of my life, feels like I spent 2 years there, at least in 3 weeks there I had more fun than in the past 2 years in the USA. I had a chance to reevaluate my life and here is what I decided. I am not going to be a business woman, this is not for me, I want to be a woman with a happy husband and kids. I also want to be an artist. I am going to art school in spring, I will continue painting, writing poetry and my diary. I will continue growing my jewelry company. I am going to be a student in a jewelry school in Russia too. So I am changing gears here and coming back home to spend more time with my husband in US and my family in Russia. Recently I've read a lot of great books and I am finding my true self. I got distracted and lived with my mind,  I am coming back to terms with my heart. For some time I was just an empty cage because I killed the bird. I am coming back to life and it is beautiful. We just moved into our new house that I will be decorating with the help of my mom and dad. For Thanksgiving we are going to the beach. In January we are going for a 2 week vacation to Puerto Rico and Caribbean Islands. Life is good :-)

Here are the pictures :-) xoxo
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This is my last painting "In my heart". I felt pretty bad for a while because I was on the wrong path. I am turning around now and making some major changes, I am coming back to my true self.
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I love this book!!! It reminds me of Paolo Coelho's "Alchemist". If you have couple free days you would not regret reading this book!!! Two thumbs up from me!!! [159x254]

I just started reading a great book " The Saint, The Surfer, and the CEO" by Robin Sharma. I have not even finished but I am absolutely loving it. He is world famous inspirational writer. I found his favorite book list and was gladly surprized that couple of my all time favorites are there too. I desire to read more and more. I wish I could read a book a day, it makes me a better person. I am loving MOscow. Can not post pictures now but I will do that later. I am all over the place here, in the factoried doing business, in the teatres, with friends and family, sightseeing. This trip is fantastic!!!

	Favorite Books
[показать]	The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
[показать]	A Manual For Living - by Epictetus (Interpretation by Sharon Lebell)
[показать]	The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus - Marcus Aurelius Antonius
[показать]	Hope for the Flowers - Trina Paulus
[показать]	The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Ben Franklin
[показать]	The Magic of Thinking Big - David Schwartz
[показать]	Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
[показать]	Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership - Joe Jaworsky

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While I was at the beach at the jewelry show, Marius went hiking and took some amazing pictures. Here is what NC can offer. I miss home already :-)

 

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Just read this one on my way to New York and had a lot of revalations. Check it out if you have time, it is awesome.

NY was fantastic, could not ask for more. I had so much fun that I did not want to leave :-) I promissed my Russian friend Alyona to come back at least once a year. Just as a short review I spent a whole day in Metropolitan Museum, went to see " Spring Awakening" Broadway show ( one of the best I have ever seen, will watch it again with great pleasure), went to several cool restaurants and launges and did other sightseeing and work. Loved it all!!!

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It changes but for tonight here it is :-)
My Marius said: "Talking about grandparents... that's why I like pancakes with jam. My grandma used to make them in the morning."
And pancakes will be served tonight with strawberry jam. Who knew it is so easy to make your loved ones happy? [640x491]

Happiness is sometimes so easy to find. Like this morning I am very very happy because I had a chance to wake up early and cook lunch for my husband so he can take it to work. I did it yesterday and he came home beaming with happiness and said that he loved his home made meat patties with buckwheat porridge. He thought about me and missed me. So this morning I woke up extra early again to fix him something special. I cooked some catfish that we caught on a fishing trip when my dad was visiting me. Seeing this fix brought so many happy memories of us spending time together. It was his first trip to the USA, he finally had a chance to see in person how well we live and he found his own peace of mind and told me that I live in Heaven. I do :-) My mom told me the same thing when he was leaving the USA after coming here for my graduation. He cried as he lost me to this county for good, we would never spend as much time as if we lived in the same city but he was happy for me and was glad to see me succeed and make my dreams come true. She cried and told me: " This is heaven, don't ever leave". When it gets tough and I miss my family badly I think about those words and work extra hard to make money and fly them here to spend time with me. It's been all worse it even though it gets sad to be so far away. Well back to cooking :-) For the side I made millet porridge that was my grandmother's favorite. I still remember her in the kitchen smiling and telling us fairy tales when she cooked for us. It feels like I can see her face now and hear her loving voice. These were the golden days of my childhood when we spent 3 month with our grandparents in the Ukraine with my brother. We used to help my grandmother pick various herbs and flowers for her special teas that she sold to people in the village. As a tiny but strong girl I would climb the top of lime-trees and pick the biggest flowers that had the most sun and aroma. I climbed so hight that  I could feel the tree moving with the gusts of wind, I could probably kill myself if I ever fell off the tree but I did not think about the danger of what I was doing and I had no fear. Grandma did not know that I climbed to high, nobody could see me out there and enjoyed being on the very top and looking down at people passing by. Now I realize that I always reached out for the very top no matter what I did and that helped me get the best of everything.  On top of the tree I could observe everything from a bird sight view. It was so amazing. It was so easy to be happy and smile. Why do we get so hard headed and hard hearted when we grow up? We want more and more, we are afraid to show our true emotions and feeling, we hide in the shells that we create for ourselves like turtles do. It hurts to be open and many choose to live in the past and with their fears. I've been hurt too many times but for some reason I always recover and come back as a happy self. If somebody walks all over me, I will die but come back as a flower comes back out in spring. I have deep roots and it is such a great feeling to discover them and see where I come from. When I come to the Ukraine I will definitely climb a tree and let other people think I am crazy I will just do it. I may not climb to the very top as I am not so tiny anymore I can still climb and be pretty high. There were people that always told me to grow up and quit being such a dreamer. I am glad that I never listened to them and followed my heart's desires. Now they say that I just got lucky and I am an exception from the rules. Well my theory is that we can all be lucky and exceptional if we just stay true to ourselves and live following our dreams not our fear. We can choose to be afraid and surrender to the boredom and routine of life or we can choose to be dare, go against the stream and follow our dreams. Life does not have to be gray. We do not have to do something because it is our duty. We can choose to do it with love and put our heart in it and it can be as simple as cooking a meal. I was so happy to cook today because I thought about all the love that my grandmother and my mother gave me when they cooked for me. I can never thank them enough for waking up and sacrificing their time to please me. I did not go to school with money for Subway sandwich, I always had something special home made for me. Now I start realizing how important it is and why I am so happy. In the future I will also give my love to kids and family not only in hugs and kisses but in the fact of making them food, ironing their close, showing that I love them and I care about them. I can afford to buy precooked food and go to dry cleaning and let them wash our clothe but I will choose to do it on my own and do it with love. This is the secret to true happiness that I discovered this morning. We can find a million excuses and say that we are too busy to cook and do laundry and allow ourselves be sucked up by the TV or computer. BUT .... My Читать далее...