RushingIrish

Happy Christmas

2011-12-26T11:53:00.002+04:00

We wish you all, our family and friends a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

This Christmas we decided to have a real Christmas Tree rather than the artifical one we have been using for the last ten years. So as soon as they were available we headed out to get one, as Russians normally only put up trees for New Years, usually it is closer to New Years before they are avaailable, but over the last few years we have seen them being available before the western Christmas of Dec 25, so we were able to have our tree up a week before Christmas.

First we celebrate Christmas, Faroee's style on the 24th with roast duck (sorry no photo of the duck) and all the ususlly delicious trimmings that go with it, stuffing, sweet roasted potatos, mashed potatoes, veggies and a nice sauce. Then after dinner we will sit and open presents and later have dessert. This day we usually have as a family day by ourselves.

On the 25th in the morning we celabrated the birth of our Saviour with our friends in our church and then later we had some of our friends and co-worker over for christmas dinner and as is becoming our tradition we had a leg of roast lamb, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, veggies and again a nice sauce. And of course mint sauce for the Lamb. After dinner we exchanges some small gifts and then had a time where we sang some christmas corals together before having dessert.

Altogether as a family and with friends we had a wonderful Christmas, but...

Christmas is not just about presents and food, christmas is about Jesus Christ coming to this world as a little baby born in a stable in the town of Bethlehem. He came not just to be admired as a new born baby, he came to change the world and to give us the oppertunity to enjoy fellowship with our God and creater. We celabrate Christmas not just because he came, not just because we get presents or enjoy nice food and time with family and friends, we celebrate Christmas because of the life we have with our havenly Father through that baby that was born and who became our Saviour.

Winter mornings

2011-12-22T09:36:00.001+04:00

Dec 22, 9.30am, still dark and snowing.

Cucumbers

2011-08-13T19:35:00.002+04:00

The cucumbers have done a little better, even if they did try to take over the kitchen window, we have actually got a few cucumbers off it and are hopefully of somemore. The teacher who gave Karina the plants in the first place said that as far as she knows she thinks we are the first who have actually got cucumbers from these plants.

How's the garden - August

2011-08-13T19:22:00.004+04:00

Cherry and plump tomatos, hot and sweet peppers, we are starting to see the fruit of our labour, however as it is getting late in the season I don't hold out too much hope of the tomatos ripening. Conclusion; It's easier and cheaper buy them!

Germany

2011-08-13T19:00:00.003+04:00

Early July I was in Germany for Leadership Meetings with some of my colleges. We were in a beautful part of the south and were staying with a partner company who looked after us really well. Unfortunitly I got very sick during the time there, which was very busy and rather than paying attention during the meetings I was falling asleep as I had been unable to sleep at night. On one of the last evenings there, we were going out to find somewhere to eat, we were going to one of the local villages and the guys decided to go by bike, to me this seemed like a bad idea as I had been so sick, but decided to go along. When we arrve in the village we finally found a really nice cafe where we ate. The picture above shows what I had to eat (sorry its a little dim, no flash on the phone!) but it is raw meat served on a hot stone and you cook it yourself to however well you want it done and you also have different sauces to dip it in. It was wonderful. Well after eating it was time to head back to where we were staying, but none of us were to sure of the correct way so after an hour of cycling up and down hills and along little lanes through farmer's fields (it was already getting dark) we finally arrived back at the cafe only to decover the road we need was a short distance the other side of the cafe and within 20 minutes we were back at our accommendation.

How's the garden - July

2011-08-13T18:54:00.002+04:00

This is how our plants were looking in July, they were starting to take up a lot of space and Gudrun is starting to complain about loosing a lot of space to hang up laundary on the balcony. We are beginig to see signs of fruit.

Airbus 380-800

2011-08-13T18:15:00.003+04:00

On our return trip to Moscow, we had a layover of about 8 hours in Frankfurt and as we had a very early start in Ireland we were all quite tired so we were all falling asleep in McDonalds where we had camped out for the 8 hoours.

As we were in the airport so long we saw a few of Lufthansa's Airbus A380-800 coming and going. This was our first time to see one of these up close.

How's the garden - June

2011-08-13T18:11:00.002+04:00

This is how our plants looked when we reurned the end of June. Our friend Julie had done a good job of looking after them when we had been away.

Summer In Ireland

2011-08-13T16:49:00.005+04:00

This summer we had three weeks of vacation in Ireland with family. We went shortly after the kids got out of school and of course being Ireland, you can never be too sure of how the weather will be. Daniel asked if I thought it would rain while we were there, to which the answer was almost certantly. Anyway it wasn't too bad, we really had only one bad day when it rained almost all day and it was horizontal rain! We got to do quite a lot while we were there, took the kids swimming a couple of times, to a movie, visiting friends and of course lots of shopping to take advantage of cheaper clothes prices. We stay with my (Ivor) parents and it was nice to be able to relax and spend some nice time with them. my sister and her family live right next door so the kids were able to spend lots of time with their cousins play football, riding bikes and of course the trampoline. My dad had got our old car back on the road, it had been sitting there for two years since we were last home, but it ran great and we managed to put over 1000 miles on it in the three weeks we were home and we never went anywhere that was more then 40 miles away. The last weekend we were there, the whole family came to visit and it was great to see them all, we had a great time together, went out for a meal all together, took family photos and just spent a really nice afternoon sitting around our parents house talking. The three week went all to quick, but it was time to head home and I had only a few days at home before I was off on another trip, but that's another post.

Not to forget our Girls

2011-05-31T13:47:00.003+04:00

Both Girls were recognized for their achievements. Karina is second from left and I am sorry we have no photo of Sonja getting her awards.

Daniel goes to High School

2011-05-31T13:08:00.003+04:00

Daniels class, 8th grade were recognized as having successfully completed middle school and able to enter high school. Daniel had pretty good achievements for the year, he had "A" average over all and achieved the highest grade in maths.

Timothy finishes 5th Grade

2011-05-31T10:35:00.006+04:00

For those of you reading this who are non-American, 5th grade is the last grade in elementary (primary), after which the student goes into middle school, which is 6th - 8th grade. Well Timothy has finished elementary and next year will be in middle school. So in recognition of the fifth grades moving up to middle school they have a 5th grade promotion celebration.

This is Mr Hays the 5th grade teacher acknowledging how Timothy has done during the year, sharing about his character and giving him advice and encouragement for the future. In 5th grade Mr Hays gives all the students nicknames that suite their character, Tmothy's was T3, at home we have always called him TT, this was primarily because of all the Ts in his name, in 5th grade T3 came from him being given the nick name "Tenacious Timothy Tutty"
The 5th Grade Class

Timothy with Mr Hays. We consider ourselves to have been greatly blessed to have had Mr Hays teach our children. Having taught Daniel and Sonja, Timothy is the third of our four children he has now taught. We are so thankful for Mr Hays, not only is he is a wonderful teacher, he has a deep love for the Lord, a strong desire to live for the Lord and as such he not only want to teach the kids but he also want to encourage them to love Jesus and to live for Him. Our kids have really loved having him as a teacher and we are so grateful for his input it their lives. (this in no way takes away from all the other teachers who have had a part in our children's live or how much they enjoy and like all their teachers and how much we appreciate them) We hope that Mr Hay and his wife will still be here when Karina enters 5th Grade!

Our Garden

2011-05-31T10:07:00.006+04:00

Our little garden is starting to take over our balcony. Have transplanted the seedlings into bigger pots we have far more plants then we need or can keep, so we are starting to give some to our friends.

Karina arrives home from school one day with two tiny seedlings and what they were we had no idea, so I put them in two pots (the two on either side) and they quickly started to grow and produce big leaves. Shortly afterwards Karina said to her mother, "Once my plants grow you won't need to buy cucumbers anymore"! (Bless her little heart) Yes they are cucumber plants.

How does you garden grow?

2011-04-27T17:19:00.002+04:00

Just to up date you on how our garden is going, not sure what we are going to do with all these tomata & pepper plants, if you would like some give me a call.

NO SNOW! - Finally

2011-04-27T17:14:00.002+04:00

At last the snow is gone and we are having some warm weather. Today it was 21 -22c

Done Well

2011-04-14T13:51:00.003+04:00

Both Sonja and Daniel did really well in basketball this year, dispite this being only Sonja's first year and Daniel's second year playing. Here they are recieving their achivement awards from their coaches.

Spring is here-ish

2011-04-14T12:53:00.003+04:00

It is meant to be spring time, usually by the beginning of April the snow is gone and the weather warming up with the trees and flowers beginning to bud and the grass getting greener. Well it is the middle of April we still have some snow laying around the temperture is not all that warm, we still have nights where it goes below 0c.

As spring was approching we decided this year to try and have a little indoors garden. This is the humble beginning, some herbs, cherry & regluar tomato, hot and sweet peppers. Not sure how we are going to manage them all on our balcony. We will keep you up to date on how the gardning is going.
With the so called return of spring we are also see the return of some of the wiser creatures who flow to warmer parts for winter. We were amused to see these ducks swimming in a poddle left by the melting snow on the grass verge in the middle of the road. All the bigger pond and lakes are still frozen so I guess that they had to settle for whatever they could find.

The day after taking the photo of the ducks, it again snowed, in fact it snowed real heavy, overnight we had 15cm/6inchs of snow.

The day after it snowed, I was driving by the ducks again and this time saw them swimming around in snowy sluchy water. Poor guys were probably thinking we should have stayed where it was warm. We also planted some sunflowers, not sure what we will do with them if they reach their protential hight of 1.5 metres.

Doing our bit for Paddy's Day

2011-03-17T09:31:00.004+03:00

Today is St. Patrick's Day. So the kids wanted to do something a little "Irish"

So we sent them off to school like this.

Karina and her friend Ye Jin

2011-03-08T12:01:00.001+03:00

Daniel at Basketball

2011-03-08T11:49:00.001+03:00

The Kids

2011-03-08T11:40:00.001+03:00

Timothy, doing his homework
Sonja ?

Daniel. He has had a lot of basketball games and practice the past few weeks so it was not unusually to find him asleep.

Sonja Basketball.

2011-03-05T18:17:00.003+03:00

Both Sonja and Daniel have been playing basketball this winter. Here are a few pictures of Sonja playing and her team. I don't have any photos of Daniel playing yet, but I will put some on as soon as I have them.

Sonja on the right
Number 40

Sonja, second from right.

Snowed In

2011-02-15T12:16:00.004+03:00

Over the last six weeks we have got a lot of snow, I am not sure if it is more than other years, but it does seem like it. With all this snow, if you leave you car sit too long they tend to get snowed in. Here are a few cars by our building that have not moved for a while! The photos below these are of the play ground outside our windows, below the round red roof is a sand box, the snow is almost up to the swing seats and the end of the slides disappear into the snow. Hopefully only another 4 - 6 weeks and this will all be gone.

Omma and Abba.

2011-01-04T15:42:00.001+03:00

Solar Eclipse 04-01-2011 Moscow

2011-01-04T15:24:00.004+03:00

Russia also lies in the penumbra's path. Residents of St. Petersburg and Moscow would witness a large magnitude partial eclipse at around noon local time (09:00 GMT) - magnitude 0.846 and 0.812 (81%) respectively - if the skies are clear.

Evening on Red Square

2011-01-04T15:13:00.005+03:00

We had a nice, if cold evening on Red Square with Omma & Abbi

Ice Storm

2011-01-04T15:02:00.003+03:00

Christmas Day and the day after it rained, but as the temperture was -5c it froze on everything it touched. so trees, power lines, car and pavement all got covered in ice, up to 2cm tick in places. Many tree and power lines came down because of the weight of the ice.

Omma & Abba

2011-01-04T14:55:00.002+03:00

Omma & Abbi on Red Square

Gudrun's parents or Omma & Abbi

Christmas Dinner

2011-01-04T14:39:00.004+03:00

We enjoyed our traditional Faroese christmas dinner and this year was special because we had Gudrun's parents with us and some guests.

Special Guests, Oli Jakup from the Faroes and Sonja's friend Sharon.

Roast Duck for Christmas

Gudrun and her mother preparing dinner

2010-2011 Class Photos

2010-12-03T11:16:00.004+03:00

I thought I would do something a little different this year, rather then just puting the kid's school pictures, I would show you their class pictures. We are very thankful for this school, the teachers and all the friends our children have there.

Karina (2nd from left front row)

Timothy (Right end of front row)

Daniel (2nd from left middle row)

Sonja (middle front row)

Yakutsk

2010-10-20T10:33:00.001+04:00

20 Oct -10c

2010-10-20T10:26:00.001+04:00

1st Snow:(

2010-10-15T17:27:00.001+04:00

Moscow Zoopark

2010-10-14T19:52:00.004+04:00

Last weekend Daniel and Sonja were away so we took Timothy and Karina to the Zoo. All our kids and Gudrun have been to the Zoo before on school trip, but this was the first time I was there and i have to say i was pretty impressed, it's a nice zoo.

Autumn is Here

2010-10-14T19:45:00.002+04:00

This is the tree right outside our window, (behind the tree) in the fall it turns redish. That Gudrun standing behind the car she has just returned from the supermarket and is waiting for me to help her carry the bags inside.

Rollerblading in Victory Park

2010-10-14T18:18:00.003+04:00

A few week back, on one of the last nice, sunny and warm weekends we went to Victory Park. The kids wanted to go as we had not been this summer, and as every other time we had been there, people were on rollerblades and skateboards, our kids want to bring their rollerblades. So they all scooted around on their rollerblades for a while.

Our Karina is 9 today

2010-10-02T10:58:00.002+04:00

(sorry for fuzzy photo, blame the phone)

Tombstone & Boothill

2010-09-16T18:52:00.004+04:00

I was in the US a few week back and got a chance to go visit some friends in Arizona. They live near the town of Tombstone and it's graveyard Boothill made famous in many old western movies but mostly because of Wyatt Earp and the gun fight at the OK corral. I love westerns growing up so it was fun for me to be in Tombstone.

Travelling

2010-09-16T18:00:00.006+04:00

I had to do a lot of travelling this summer and thought I would show you a few photos from my travels

In June while in Ulan Ude I got to travel with some friends to a village about 160kms to the east.

This was taken in the city of Kyzyl in southern Siberia as you will see from the sign they consider this to be the "Centre of Asia". I was out there visiting some friends in June. To get there we had to drive over a mountian pass in the Sayan Mountians and according to what I can make out the pass reached almost 1800m above sea level. I also made one other trip but have no photos from it.

Rain:)

2010-08-20T08:47:00.002+04:00

The heat wave has finally broken, this morning we woke up to rain and 10c, feel nice to be cool again. Wednesday it was 33c and they were saying on the news "this is the very last hot day of the year" maybe there were right, but we will have to wait and see!

Clear skys!

2010-08-10T18:41:00.001+04:00

Wind has changed direction and cleared smog!

Smog is back!

2010-08-07T11:43:00.001+04:00

Smog clearing 4pm

2010-08-06T15:53:00.001+04:00

40c

2010-08-06T12:17:00.001+04:00

Smog

2010-08-06T11:00:00.002+04:00

You may or may not have heard of the forest and peat fires that are burning all across Russia. All thought not threatened by the fire, when the wind is blowing in the right direction, or in this case the wrong direction, the city gets blanketed with the smoke or smog form these fires. So we are forced to stay indoors and keep our windows closed. This wouldn't seem too bad if it wasn't the fact that we are also in the middle of a prolonged heat wave with record temperatures. (It hasn't rained in almost 2 months) Today we are expecting it to be 39 or 40c and without an air conditioner it gets quite warm inside. But there is a little glimmer of hope on the horizon as we expect temperatures to drop back to around 30c in a few days. The photos were taken from our windows around 11am today.

Ireland Wettest July

2010-08-03T20:02:00.003+04:00

Wettest July since 1950:

Twice the average amount of rain fell last month, with parts of the country having the wettest July in 60 years, it has been revealed.

.Meteorologists revealed that, while it was warm and mild during the month, it was also the fourth successive July in which rainfall was above normal.

However, dry and sunny weather earlier in the season prevented the flash flooding which devastated parts of the country in previous years.

Met Eireann's monthly weather report showed between 15 and 21 wet days were recorded nationwide, with residents in Claremorris suffering their wettest July since records began there in 1950. Thunderstorms were also associated with heavy rain around the middle of the month.

Elsewhere, the report revealed that wind speeds were also above normal, peaking at Belmullet on July 4 when 115kph (71.5mph) was recorded - its monthly highest since 1988.

While maximum temperatures were close to normal, sunshine totals were below normal everywhere.

Met Eireann said Valentia Observatory's sunshine total of only 85 hours was among the five lowest for July in more than a century and was also its lowest of any month so far in 2010

Tempertures for the next 5 days

2010-08-03T12:43:00.002+04:00

You may need to click on the picture and zoom in to read it, but this is the forecast weather for the 5th Aug to 8th Aug.

Year of Records.

2010-08-03T10:30:00.001+04:00

July Hottest on Record
03 August 2010
The Moscow Times

Last month was the hottest July in Moscow since meteorological records began 130 years ago, with the average temperature exceeding the norm by 7.8 degrees Celsius, the weather web site Meteonovosti.ru reported Monday.

The previous July record was set in 1938, when the average temperature exceeded the norm by 5.3 C. Last month also saw the all-time record for Moscow beaten on July 29, when the temperature reached 38.2 C.

Summer Splash

2010-07-12T18:10:00.004+04:00

We been having a long hot spell with temperature shooting up over 30c so this weekend we decided to go look for a place we were told we could swim. Well as it turns out it is just outside the city close to where we live. So Saturday we went out and swam for a while and today we went back and met us with some friends and spent the morning swimming. Unfortunately as it was very hot we stayed a little too long and now a few of us are a lot redder then we would like. We are planning a few more days out here as the forcast for later in the wekk is tempertures up to 35c

Best Friends

2010-06-21T22:16:00.002+04:00

Karina and Anna have been best friends since kindergarten. Sadly Anna and her Mum have returned to the US so Karina and Anna have had to say goodbye, for now.

Gudrun is 40

2010-06-21T22:09:00.001+04:00

Gudrun had her 4oth birthday a few weeks back and I (with the help of some friends) mangaged to totaly suprise her with a party. Here she is (back left hand corner) with those of her/owr friends that were still in towns. Some had already left for the summer so were not able to make it.

Some photos of the snow last weekend

2010-03-01T09:56:00.000+03:00

Snowed In Photogallery The Moscow Times

Record snowfall hits Moscow

2010-02-22T14:24:00.000+03:00

Click on the link below for a news cast on the snow we had over the weekend.

Record snowfall hits Moscow - RT Top Stories

Coldest month in 60 Years

2010-02-05T09:18:00.002+03:00

Weather experts say January 2010 was the coldest month in Moscow for 60 years. I am not sure if that is the coldest January or simply the coldest month, but it was cold. Hopefully February will not be as cold and in march we will begin to see spring approaching.

The "Big Freeze" in Ireland

2010-01-18T20:24:00.002+03:00

I got to make a very quick trip home to see my parents, this was during the recent "Big Freeze" in Ireland and the UK. Thought you might like to see some photos of the snow around their house.

Fun in the Snow in Ireland

2010-01-17T19:30:00.003+03:00

This is a short clip of my nephew and his Dad have some fun with the quad during the recent snow in Ireland.

Guinea Pig or Lap dog

2010-01-07T20:38:00.003+03:00

Our Guinea Pig likes to stretch himself out on the kids and go to sleep, haven't known one to do this before, he certainly like his creature comforts!

New Years Eve Snow

2010-01-01T11:17:00.006+03:00

We've had a lot of Snow over the last few days, I know you are most likely thinking "what is unusually about that in Russia? This December we have had a lot more snow that Decembers in recent years. So yesterday while the snow was still fresh and clean I went out and got some photos, here is a small selection.

Happy New Year to You All

Outside our apartment.

On the Streets

In the Park

Our Kids Sledging.

In our park you can hire these inflatable rubber snow sledges. These are photos of our kids have some fun sledging.

Christmas

2009-12-26T13:29:00.002+03:00

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Here are a few pictures of our kids enjoy their Chritmas presents.

Presents from Nana & Granddad
Presents from Omma & Abba

Sonja

Karina

Daniel

Timothy

Christmas Tree

Winter Sunshine

2009-12-17T14:09:00.003+03:00

We see very little of the sun during the winters here in Moscow, so when it does shine we all enjoy those brief moments. However as we approach the shortest day of the year it doesn't get very high in the sky. As our windows face south you would expect us to get a lot of sunshine but as we are surrounded by high building we actually have only two short spells when we get Sunshine. These you can see in the two pictures below. This was taken at about 10;30 when we first see the sun as it briefly pops up over one building and then disappears behind the other.
This is just before midday when it comes up over the tall building shortly before it disappears behind the nearer building and we won't see it again till the next day, if the skys are clear.

Daniel TaeKwonDo

2009-12-12T12:03:00.009+03:00

Daniel was performing some of his skills with his Tae Kwon Do group at the Christmas concert in school yesterday, I thought you might like to see him in action. He said to mention that it was two pieces of wood together that he broke!

Daniel

2009-12-05T17:42:00.003+03:00

Karina

2009-12-05T17:40:00.003+03:00

Timothy

2009-12-05T17:38:00.002+03:00

Late Autumn Evenings

2009-12-05T17:34:00.002+03:00

Unseen guest

2009-12-05T17:22:00.001+03:00

Friends & Co-Workers

2009-12-05T17:02:00.004+03:00

Nathan
Elisabeth & Julie

Steve

Anton

Gudrun, Me & Steve

Karina & Kevin

A little while back some of our friends and co workers were in home so we had an evening together in our place.

She's a He!

2009-12-05T16:36:00.003+03:00

We were told that the guinea pig we were getting was a "girl" and as one assumes that those who tell you know how to tell these thing, so one doesn't question it. So we all got use to calling her "her" "girly girly" and the likes and finally settled on a name "Jackie" we settled in to a happy life with our Jackie. But as Jackie began to grow beyond the size one would expect a female guinea pig to grow to and in fact as she more and more seemed to be the size of a male, one began to wonder. So after much in dept research and and a careful examination of Jackie (which she didn't really appreciate) our suspicions were confirmed, yes in face our girl was, beyond any doubt a boy. So now we struggle to call him "him and not "her" but we are sure with a little time he will be fine and i guess that should he have any problems we can always get him therapy. He is still Jackie!

The Kids doing different things in school

2009-12-05T16:15:00.003+03:00

Timothy's Birthday Party

2009-12-05T15:57:00.002+03:00

Timothy wanted to take the boys from his class to Papa Johns Pizza, not all were able to make it, but here he is with three of his friends.

Sonja's Birthday Party

2009-12-05T15:48:00.006+03:00

For her birthday party sonja wanted to have her friends home for a sleep over so here she is with them, the four of them make up all the girls in 5th grade.

Our Twins are 11

2009-12-05T15:42:00.003+03:00

Timothy and Sonja turned 11 on the 11th of November

(11th Month) sorry the this photo was taken a little later
but i will post some pictures from their parties.

New Addition

2009-10-05T20:17:00.003+04:00

Sonja came home from her very first day in school and told us her friend had Guinea Pigs for sale, I think you can figure out the rest.........

Karina is 8

2009-10-05T20:04:00.002+04:00

Karina was 8 on the 2nd, she had a party with her classmates (and a few other) after school on the day of her birthday.

Soccer

2009-10-05T19:58:00.002+04:00

One of the things Daniel was looking forward to when he got back to school in Moscow, was that now he would be able to join the Middle School (6th - 9th grades) soccer team. Here he is with the team after a recent match.

Saying Fairwell to our Friends in Ireland

2009-10-05T19:46:00.002+04:00

One of the harder things we had to do before we left ws saying goodbye to all our friends in our church in Ireland. we had a wonderful year with them and our kids really enjoyed being there and made lots of good friends. We look forward to the next time we are with you.

Sonja's 5th Grade Chapel

2009-09-27T19:39:00.002+04:00

This past week was 5th Grades time to do Elementary chapel in school, and our 'ready to do anything' Sonja volintered to be the speaker, the topic she had to speak on was "How Jesus was willing to lay down his life for us". Here are some exstracts from what she said.

How Jesus was willing to lay down his life for us.

A person has to have a very good reason to lay down or give up his or her life for another person, but this is exactly what Jesus did for us. So what was his reason for doing this? How did he do it? What was his attitude in doing it?

Jesus willing lay down his life out of love for us.

What is a verse about Jesus’ love?(have students look this up)
In John 15; 13 Jesus said, “Greater love has no man than this, that he lays down his life for his friends.”

He laid down his life willingly because he loved us.

Act 4; 12 Salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under haven given to men by which we must be saved
Jesus knew there was no other way that we, mankind could be saved.

How did Jesus’ death make it possible for us to come into the presence of God?

As sinner we are “dead in our sins” we are spiritually dead, spiritually separated from God. As sinners the penalty for sin is death, so if we die in our sins we are eternally dead, eternally separated from God. So it is impossible for us to pay the price for our sins and come again into the presence of God.

So it was necessary for someone else to take the penalty for our sin, to pay the price, to die in our place…this had to be someone perfect, someone without sin.

Jesus died our death on the cross; he took our sins on himself and died in our place.

So when we trust in the fact that Jesus died in our place, God declares us righteous, no longer under the penalty of death.

Jesus’ death on the cross took away the sin that separated us from God, and now as his children, declared righteous we can boldly come into the presence of God.
But is it enough to just believe God and live in His presence? No! Trusting God means that we will obey Him, too!

We got wheels again.

2009-09-24T14:13:00.003+04:00

After a little searching around we finally found this car a short walk from our home . All things considered we are very pleased with the car and think we got it for a good deal. The kids are very happy to not have to walk and take the Metro to school.

The Rushings Irish are back with the Russians

2009-09-15T11:33:00.003+04:00

Just a little note to let you know our travels have continued and we are now back in Moscow. In a little while I will post some new photos and let you know how it is being back in our Russian home.

Gone fishing!

2009-08-15T12:51:00.002+04:00

One of the things I really enjoy in the Faroes is being able to do a little sea fishing. so a few days before we left, Gudrun's dad (Thank you Abba) had the boat ready and off we went and enjoyed a good morning's fishing. we had no camera on the boat so no photos of the actually fishing, just this one of the fish in the box when we got them home so we will just have to take my word for it that we caught these fish.

Time with Family

2009-08-15T12:39:00.002+04:00

The last two weeks we were in the Faroes, Gudrun's two sisters and their family were home so we were able to enjoy some time with them and our kids were able to spend some time with their Faroees cousins.

More pictures from the Faroes

2009-08-15T12:31:00.002+04:00

We took these photos one day we were out driving and watching this fog bank drifting in between the islands.

View From the Mountian

2009-07-14T01:58:00.002+04:00

Sorry this might be a little fussy!

Hill Climbing

2009-07-14T01:38:00.003+04:00

We have been talking a lot about going hill climbing at lease once when we are here. so today we decided to go climb this one, it is one we see out our window every day and it is a little bit of an easier climb then other. Most go up fairly steep but this one is a little more gratualy. It is 500 meters high.

The view is quite amazing, behind Karina is Toftir, the village we live in.

Hiking by the Lake (pond) and wind turbines.

2009-07-14T01:26:00.003+04:00

A few days back we went for a hike out by the wind turbines at the far end of the village here and to a little lake out beyond the wind turbines.

The little black speck at the bottom of the Turbine is Daniel!

The girl with us is from the house next door, Sonja and her have been playing a lot together.

New Carpet

2009-07-14T01:20:00.003+04:00

Last week we help Abba put down a new carpet in their living room. The girls loved the empty room as it gave them lots of space to play and do cartwheels.

Sunday BBQ

2009-06-29T15:33:00.001+04:00

On Sunday we enjoyed a BBQ with our friends in our church here in Toftir

Faroees Riviara

2009-06-29T15:08:00.008+04:00

Summer has come to the Faroes in glorious form, we are enjoying some beautiful warm weather. Saturady we were able to take the kids to the beach and there even swam a little evendo the water was cold. They said the temperture got up to 30(C) in places sheltered from the breeze. It is ment to continue like this for a few days.

Fishing in the Faroes

2009-06-26T15:47:00.001+04:00

The kids are having fun doing some fishing

Time in the Faroes

2009-06-26T15:23:00.002+04:00

We have been in the Faroes almost two week now and enjoying our time here. Just thought i would post a small video and show you the view from Gudrun's parents house. Today is a beautiful day so a good time to take a litttle video clip. As it is just past june 21st the longest day of the year we are enjoying 24hr of daylight. If i remember i will take a photo at midnight and post it one of these days.

Off to the Faroes

2009-06-02T21:44:00.001+04:00

Our Time in Ireland is coming to an end, for now anyway, next week we are off to the Faroe Islands for two months. Check it out, click on the links below to see the islands and Gudrun's home village.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=62.106453,-6.9104&daddr=&hl=en&geocode=&mra=mi&mrsp=0&sz=8&sll=61.913099,-6.427002&sspn=1.148338,4.921875&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=8

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=62.106453,-6.9104&daddr=&hl=en&geocode=&mra=mi&mrsp=0&sz=8&sll=61.913099,-6.427002&sspn=1.148338,4.921875&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=62.09358,-6.739168&spn=0.008918,0.038452&z=15

2009-06-02T21:22:00.002+04:00

We have been enjoying some really nice weather these past few days and as it is set to continue for a while the kids were begging to get the pool out. So here they are with their cousin Jacque have fun in the water after school.

2009-06-02T21:06:00.003+04:00

Yes! I know it has been a long time since I posted anything. Life has been pretty much routine, so there didn't seem much to write about and no new photos. More recently we have been doing a lot of travelling around Ireland and one of these trips was to a Tutty family get together.

This is all the descendants (that made it on the day) from my dad, and his brothers and sisters.

This is with Ivor's parents, his two sisters and one brother and all their kids.

Siberia comes to Ireland

2009-02-03T17:37:00.004+03:00

We are currently having one of the heaviest snow falls here in Ireland for quite a few years. It is mid afternoon on Tuesday and it has been snowing on and off since Sunday night. This is the same snow as is affecting most of the UK. They said that the cold spell and snow is coming from Siberia. So here we were trying to get away from the Russian winters and it comes to us. Anyway it is nice to see, actually it makes it feel a little more like winter for the kids, they were having a hard time with Christmas without snow. They have had yesterday and today off school, which they are very happy for.

2009-01-01T13:42:00.001+03:00

Happy New Year

2009

A share in a Dog

2008-12-20T19:49:00.004+03:00

Meet Max, (the dog!) Max belongs to the guy who runs busses out of the yard beside our house, but he love to come visit, have a little something to eat and play with the kids, in fact if he hears the kids out playing he is over for some fun. He is a very friendly and gentle dog and our kids enjoy him. so we don't have any pets, just a share in a dog!

Kids ready for School

2008-12-20T19:37:00.003+03:00

I know the photo may not show it but the kids really like their school here in Ireland. It is a small country school just a mile down the road from us in our local village. Normally they leave about 10 after 9 in the morning and are home by 3.10pm. In Moscow we had to leave our apartment by 8;15 in the morning and they didn't get home till 4pm

Birthday, have come and gone.

2008-12-20T19:06:00.004+03:00

Karina's B'day was first on Oct 2nd, she invited the four girls from her class. We took all to a indoor play centre to play for an hour and to have chips and sasuages. they had a wonderful time.

Timonthy and sonja had their B'day on the 11th Nov. We had a bouncie castle and slide (sorry no photos) they had all their class mates and some cousins here, so it was a wild afternoon but they had fun.

Daniel just had his B'day this week (Dec 17th) and we took him blowing last night with some of his friends from church.

Last night Gudrun and I were happy to have all the birthday parties over for another year.

The Irish are not Rushing at the moment they are simply being Irish

2008-12-20T18:37:00.001+03:00

We have been in Ireland now since the beginning of July and many time I have thought about the fact that i need to up date my blog and show you some of the differances between our life in Ireland and Moscow. So here are a few photos!!

This is the yard and view at the back of our house

This is the yard and view in front of our House.

Sadly it has Rained a lot since we have been home.

It even snowed one day but it lasted about as long as it took to take this photo.

School Photos

2008-05-22T11:09:00.003+04:00

Daniel
Karina
Sonja
Timothy