Olia is always hungry when she gets home from school.  She doesn't want snack food, she wants a meal!  I usually make her a meal, salad, fruit and meat.  On Wednesday, I stopped and food shopped and picked her up at the bus.  She was nasty because she had to wait for food until we unloaded the few bags and I made her something.  The following day, I came home from work and made her food right away.  I usually walk to the bus stop to meet her because there are several huge loose dogs in our neighborhood and she is scared of them.  Because I was making her food right after school, she had already started walking home from the bus stop, which is visible from the top of our driveway.  When I went out to meet her halfway, she was nasty because I wasn't there when the bus arrived.  That was ENOUGH and I told her so.  I told her that I would NOT be walking to the bus anymore; I would wait for her at the top of the driveway.  I also told her that she would be making her own snacks for awhile until I felt that she stopped her rude behavior and nasty comments.  Today she was not happy that I waited until she was almost to the driveway to go outside.  And she was NOT a happy camper that she had to make her own snacks.  I warned her before that I would not tolerate her rude behavior.  Olia seems to only learn a lesson when she suffers a consequence.  Then all I have to do is remind her of the consequence and her behavior improves.
     Last night Olia had an awards ceremony for cheerleading.  All of the girls were given medals and beach bags which they won by placing second in the National competition. Olia really doesn't socialize with a lot of the girls at cheerleading.  Her two school friends didn't go to the ceremony because they were home sick from school.  After the ceremony the girls had pizza, danced and jumped rope.  Olia had fun jumping rope and eating.  Olia loves the sport of cheerleading and she is really good at it, but she doesn't like a lot of the girls on her team.  Personally, I don't like many of them either. They dress and act much older than their biological ages.   I would never tolerate the way that some of the girls speak to their mothers.
    Our friends are in Ukraine and they got a referral for Dasha, our summer host child.  Her brother is not eligible for adoption now and he is almost 17 so they shouldn't have any problem adopting Dasha.  They should be in Odessa now.  They emailed us from the train and said they are having a blast. They went to Ukraine a few days early to explore Kiev.
     Renee is excited because she has term break next week.  She is going on a wilderness trip with several friends.  Renee loves the outdoors and is thinking of working in environmental education.  She wanted to go volunteer in a third world country for the summer, but Dan and I nixed that. We told her that she could do that when she graduates next year. There is just too much unrest in many foreign countries. We told her to volunteer somewhere in the good old USA.
     Tomorrow we are going to the Flower Show. It is a big event in our city.  Dan got free tickets from his friend, whois a vendor.  Dan helps him set up every year. Olia is excited to go, she is always excited to go anywhere.
    Olia has now started chatting with her friends online.  Her spelling is not always completely accurate, but it is really good.  Olia just amazes us with all she has accomplished in less than two years.  Two years ago we did not even know this little girl who is now lovingly part of our lives.
     M friend Madelyn called me today.  She is almost finished with her dossier!  I am so glad.  She only has a few easy things to complete and then she can get it all apostilled and send it to Ukraine. I hope she gets an appointment to adopt Yana before the end of the summer.  My facilitator says that the SDA takes about 20 days to review documents.  If the documents are accepted, then couples are given appointments in about two months.  Our dossier was submitted this week.