New Blog

My husband and I have started a new 'joint' blog as neither of us are very good at keeping our individual ones updated.

http://dolskyfamily.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

He Was A Good Dog

Today my mom called to tell me that they had to put Toby down. Toby was a good dog. Toby came into my life when I was in grade seven. Mom and dad said we would never have a dog, but then one day, when mom was working, dad had a weak moment and brought a little furball home to us. He was so cute and cuddly and so very much in need of a family to love him. The first night he stayed with us he cried for his mom. Corrie and I put a stuffed dog and a clock next to him (because we heard it would simulate the mother's heartbeat). He still cried, and we fell in love with him. Toby was always considered MY dog because I was the one that really, really wanted a dog. He was great fun, full of energy as a puppy and often letting his 'voice' be heard. Toby was spunky. He liked to eat peas from the garden and was very adept at eating only the peas and spitting out the entire shell. Much to mom's chagrin he also loved 'people food' but his stomach couldn't tolerate it. One day he got up on the kitchen table and ate an entire block of butter. The days that followed that event need not be described. He was smart too. He quickly learned how to spell the words "C-A-T" and "W-A-L-K" and was the only dog I know of who could complete a single axle (in a skating dress but without skates). Later in life, Toby started to develop a startling resemblance to my dad. He started developing a distinguished grey and, several times a year, he would have his hair cut into a pert little moustache. When he jumped up to sit next to dad and watch the news, you could hardly tell the two apart!

In the last couple of years, Toby declined a fair amount. He developed problems with his eyes, was almost completely deaf, and seemed to have some sort of odd short term memory loss. Along with his decline though he really mellowed out and began to actually let kids poke and prod him a little. He celebrated his 15th birthday on September 4th. When he was younger, we used to take him to get an ice cream cone from Red Rooster on his birthday. Every year he had to be reminded that the cone was edible too. He would lick out all the ice cream and only eat the cone when he saw us crunching away on ours.

Toby was put down today, September 17th, on my grandma's birthday. It seems fitting as Toby loved Grandma Kay. Shortly after she passed away, we went to her house to sort through some of her things. Toby went tearing through the house and ran right up to Grandma's rocking chair. Upon discovering it empty, the loss etched on Toby's face was almost human.

Toby was my dog. He was a good dog.

Cloth Diapers

Well, we are now into about a month of using cloth diapers. I can't help feeling just a little smug about it. I just think about all of the money we are saving and how it could help pay for a trip to Africa next year. Thinking about not throwing out so many disposables also makes me smile. So far it has been pretty easy although I could see how it would be much more difficult with a newborn. She still wears disposables at night and then we use cloth during the day. I only have eight diapers right now, but will soon have more as my dear mother-in-law is sewing up the rest for us. Right now I do laundry every two days but I think I can push that to three once I have a few more diapers on hand.

My favorite brand is definately Fuzi Bunz, a unique pocket diaper that fits snug making her clothes easier to put on over it. However, these diapers are $20 each so we only have two. The rest of the diapers are more your basic cloth with a plastic wrap cover. Louise will be making more of those. They are soft and practical and seem quite absorbant. Ava is wearing one that Grandma made in the picture. She seems to enjoy it!

On another note, I can hardly believe Ava is now 6 months old. Where has the time gone? She is doing well. At her last weigh in she was 14 lbs 8 oz and 25 in long. She is now eating solid food three times a day and nursing five or six. She is a very happy and content child and people often ask me if she ever cries. She does, mostly in the middle of the night. She is now starting to babble constantly and her favorite is "da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da" as fast as she can say it. She sits up by herself and is starting to grab everything and try to move around to get what she wants.

We will be moving back to Calgary in exactly a week. Our time in Regina has flown by and, like my friend Helen predicted before we left, we have had an unbelievable time. I am a little sad to leave but excited to get back to our own little basement suite and our friends back in Calgary.

Can I Please Have a Kitten?

Well, Ava must have gotten wind of all the talk on blogs lately about pets. Avey and Mark are brand new parents to a cat, Charlie, while Tim and Erika contemplate the introduction of a dog to their growing household. Yesterday I decided to take Ava to the pet store as a source of entertainment on a cloudy day. I didn't think she was really old enough to pay much attention, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I took Ava out of her stroller to look at the puppies. Her eyes were glued to some precocious little pugs. She closely followed their every movement and even entered into a staring contest with one of them, two sets of eyes glued to each other separated only by a thin sheet of glass. Ava won as the puppy got bored and left to go play with his friends. Next we visited the kittens. There were two tiny bundles of fur that kept tumbling around with each other. They were moving fast and Ava thought they were very funny. She actually laughed out loud. This is quite something as, although Ava smiles all the time and is often heard shrieking in delight, she rarely laughs out loud. The kittens were a great amusement to her. Then we went and visited the hamsters. Ava tried unsuccessfully to grab one through the glass as he ran around and around on his wheel. We tried the birds, but they didn't really hold Ava's interest nor mine (some of you may know I have a slight fear of birds due to their rapid, flighty movements). We went back to the kittens and Ava laughed and laughed again. Then she looked at me with her mammoth eyes unblinking as if to say, "Mommy, can I please have a kitten?". Well, Ava, the answer is no, and, the answer will always be no.....unless you want to move in with Avey and Mark.

On another note, a shout out to Dave today for putting up with me in his house for the last three years. Happy Anniversary sweetie!

Travelling the World

Regina has this great festival going on right now called Mosaic. There are pavillions from all different countries set up at various locales around the city and people take their "passports" to each pavillion to get stamped and experience the excitement that each ethnicity has to offer. Last night Dave, Ava and I had the pleasure of travelling to six different countries.

Our first stop was the Ukraine where Ava shocked us with her skill as a Ukrainian dancer. The most amazing thing is that she performed both the male and female roles! She IS a genius. We perused the Ukrainian gifts and crafts and had to fight hard not to purchase the overpriced 'I heart Baba' t-shirt.

Next we went to the Philippines. Our tastebuds were delighted to experience a pork barbeque skwer and the most delicious chicken steam bun as we watched the intensity of a very interesting game combining both soccer and volleyball. Sorry, the name of this intriguing sport escapes me at the moment.

Our next stop was Greece and our mouths were watering for some feta cheese. But, to our chagrin, the Greek Pavillion was packed from pillar to pillar and the food line up filled the entire colliseum. We decided to make Greece a quick trip and jumped back into our Cavalier to see where else our journies would take us.

We were pleased to find ourselves in Scotland next. We thought of Sarah while watching the highland dancers and nibbled on morsels of haggis. If anyone is interested, the haggis tasted like bad liverwurst and smelled like puke, but we tried in nonetheless. Ava laughed at the sound of bagpipes straining through the air, feeling her Scottish heritage pumping through her veins.

We made quick time arriving in Ethiopia. This was probably a favorite of ours as we cleansed our palates of the haggis with some lovely Ethi food. It was absolutely delicious! The injera was perfect! We were entertained by an Ethiopian music video during our meal.

Our final stop saw us in the Caribbean. The Caribbean was very busy and bustling with jerk- eating -reggae- lovers. We topped off our evening with a uniquely spiced Caribbean soda and let the music and the atmosphere wisk us away on a sunny holiday.

We arrived home tired, but happy. At least we know Ava makes a great traveller!

Updated Dolskys

The Dolskys in Regina
June 1st, 2007

To me, this newsletter is reminiscent of newsletters past. Regular updates to friends and family telling of our new adventures and cultural experiences in places such as Uganda, Kenya and South Korea. Now, as a family of three, we have begun a new adventure in a new land. It may not seem exotic or extravagant to many of you, but we are excited for our adventures in this place called Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan, a land full of gleaming black fields holding the promise of abundant rows of golden wheat to come, a land where the sky is big and the sunsets spectacular, a land where the mosquitos are hefty and hungry and the landscape is so flat you can watch you dog run away for days. This land is the land we will call home for the next few months. We hope that after our four months here we will come back with increased knowledge and confidence in our calling to pastoral ministry. We strive to come back with new experiences, new memories, and new friends. We KNOW we will come back as bigger people (seriously, people have been feeding us like crazy here).



Living Hope Alliance Church

Dave is having a great time at the church. The staff members are fantastic to work with and we laugh at how similar Dave is to his mentor, Senior Pastor Larry Hurst. Larry said he has not met anyone as excited about his extensive library as he is. That is, until he met Dave.

Dave will be preaching five times this summer and is excited about the experience and practise that this will bring. Dave is also excited to have his own office for the first time in his life.

Ava and I have been hanging out at the church a little as well. We go in once or twice a week. I help with some of the administrative stuff and Ava plays, sleeps, poops, eats, spits, drools….pretty much what she does at home, but she gets to do it in a new environment with lots of people cheering her on and who wouldn’t want that?

Life in Regina

In less than a month Regina has worked itself into our hearts. We have enjoyed a reprieve from the busyness and traffic of Calgary and, at the risk of sounding too cliché, the people here are very friendly. You can walk into a store and people will actually start a conversation with you. It is like my dear hometown, Fairview, only much bigger and with Tim Horton’s.

We have greatly enjoyed staying with Pastor Larry and Sharon Hurst for the past three weeks. Sharon’s cooking is fantastic and the fellowship that we have been able to share has been very comforting. Next week we will be moving into the home of a retired couple in the church. They have a suite set up in their basement so we will once again be able to cook our meals and enjoy our own private bathroom. Someone in the church joked that with all of our moving around maybe Ava has the gift of Nomadism. She has certainly been quite at ease with our Bedouin-like lifestyle.


This summer will allow for some travel time as well. This weekend we leave for Winnipeg where we will be attending the District Conference for the CMA Midwest District. We are excited to be staying with friends Randall and Lynnette.


June provides an opportunity for us to head up to Edmonton where we will be attending the wedding celebration of my brother, Darren and his wife, Jacqui who were married last November in Chicago. At the end of July, Ava will experience her first plane trip (of many hopefully) when she and I fly to Grande Prairie and Fairview for my ten year high school reunion. We will be gone for two weeks to allow for ample visitation time with both sets of grandparents. Dave expects to be quite sad and lonely during those two weeks! We are also expecting some visitors here in July so we should be kept quite busy

Ava Kathleen

What would a family newsletter be without a section devoted to our darling daughter? Ava is fast approaching the four month mark and is learning new tricks every day. She loves to try and sit up by herself. At least we think she is trying to sit, but she could just be working on creating her own Abs of Steel program for babies. She tucks in her chin and pulls her little body to about a 45 degree angle before toppling over to the side, often finding her face sharing an intimate moment with the carpet.

She still loves bathing and will stay in the tub until the water is chilled and her toes resemble the most adorable little currents. She also loves to stick everything in her mouth and is very generous with her drool. Speaking of mouths, we are getting accustomed to the fact that Ava loves to be heard. While awake she can often be found talking to herself in the mirror, squealing in delight when someone looks in her direction, and smiling and laughing at some inside joke. The talking to herself may very well come from me, but the drooling problem is totally her father. Ava truly is an absolute joy and a wonderful addition to our family. I feel very blessed to be able to stay at home with her even though I do miss having adult conversations and exercising my brain once in awhile. I enjoy having ample time to spend identifying Ava’s quirks and writing newsletters about them.


Be Blessed,
Dave, Jenn and Ava

Photos of Ava

Here are some of the latest photos of Ava. She really does like to smile, but freezes everytime the camera comes out!

MOMMY LOVES AVA

A special albeit delayed blog welcome to Ava Kathleen. Her Kalinjin name, given by our friends in Kenya, is Jerotich meaning "girl born when the animals were coming home from good grass". A stand up name alright!

Although it has only been a month and a half, it is hard to remember a time when there was no Ava. Hard to remember a time when I wasn't folding tiny clothing, celebrating the passing of gas and waking up several times in the middle of the night to sooth an empty tummy. Its hard to remember no carseats, free time, life without diapers......

I have become one of THOSE mothers. The ones who gush at every opportunity. She smiled today. She was looking right at me and her whole face beamed. She rolled over yesterday. Isn't she a genius? She is so strong. She likes to try and talk to us...she DOES talk to us. She likes to wiggle and wail her arms. She loves bathtime and will stay in the tub until the water is cold and her little body is convulsing in tiny shivers...even then she is sad when I take her out. She is beautiful. She is bright. She is lovely. I can't believe it is possible to love someone so much. Yes, I am one of THOSE mothers, but aren't all mothers THOSE mothers?

Ninakupenda kabisa Jerotich!