Tag: family

SNAP Renewal

My mom knew that her SNAP was set to expire at the end of August, and she was nervous about what would happen with the rest of the money she had left there. I told her that SNAP will be renewed, but I knew it was not automatic (not like her Medicaid, which is almost automatic – I just had to confirm online that nothing changed).

As I already mentioned many times, the IDHS site is far from being intuitive, so I could not figure out how to reapply until I received a paper letter explaining that :). Fortunately, when I took my mom to apply for SNAP two years ago, she signed the papers allowing me to be her legal representative, so I receive copies of all communications. I submitted the application, and the system replied that since I indicated I can’t come to the office due to work constraints, they will schedule a phone interview. I worried that I would have to leave the office and sit with mom waiting for this call at the most inconvenient time, but when the letter with the interview date/time arrived, I realized that they don’t need my mom; they can talk with me directly, and that was a relief and a huge time saver.

It turned out that at some point during the submission process, I indicated a preference for oral communications in Russian (leaving paper communications in English). I think that was when I was unsure whether my mom would have to be present. I thought that it would mean they would bring an interpreter on the call, which would make things worse (that’s why I usually do not check this option). But this time, a miracle happened! The person who called me was an actual Russian speaking person; I guess at least partially because of a large number of Ukrainain refugees, this option has become available. And because of that, the renewal took just 5 minutes. She asked: so, you reported no income for your mom? I replied: yes, let me tell you the whole story. My mom used to receive her pension and use it here, but since the war started… I didn’t even have to say another word. She said: Ok, I am putting the notes here. She will receive a renewal in the mail in a couple of weeks. She even explained to me about the cash assistance (my mom can’t get it until we reapply for SSI, so her explanation saved me some time).

The fastest renewal ever!

New Bycicles And The Rest Of The Weekend

I had been wanting Boris to get a better bike for Chicago for a while, and he found a bike shop on the Near North, with a great selection and some discounts. Since he won’t be here until the end of August, I suggested he talk to Anna and delegate her to choose a bike for him from his list of preferences.

It all sounded very reasonable (after all, we had nothing planned for the weekend), but it ended up being a near disaster. I think at least half of the disaster was that the girls were still tired from Friday, but woke up on the inertia of early rising during the week. Boris and I thought that Anna could take the bikes into her van, but the girls said they wanted to take an L-train. There were a couple of minor disasters in the morning, the most significant of which was that Anna realized she had forgotten one part of the equipment to attach Kira’s bike to hers in a tandem manner. While she was figuring this out, I took the girls to the Artisan Market at Jarvis Square. We ended up leaving for the bike shop later than planned, and when we arrived, we found out that they were not allowing us to have an actual test ride; we could only use the mount on the shop floor.

Next thing, when we settled on the models for both me and Boris, the associate told us that they will assemble the new bikes for us (we could not take the bikes we tried), and it will take about an hour. I was ready to go home and come to get the bikes later, but Anna suggested we go for lunch somewhere close by, and then pick up the bikes.

The girls where already tired and acting up, and when we came back to the shop, the bikes were still not ready, and we had to wait for another half-hour. Retrospecitvely, I should have bought both bikes online, and we should have taken a van to pick them up when they were ready. That way, the girls won’t be so tired, and we could have some beach time.

The good part of that day was that later in the evening, Naida and I went for a bike ride. She is doing absolutely amaizing for a eight-year-old, especially for city biking on a Saturday night! My phone reported the 9.1 – 9.3 Mph speed! and she was excellent in following me at all turns and navigating the streets in general.

I rode my new bike on Sunday early morning (all the way to Monroe Harbor)

It is faster than my old one,and less bumpy, but somehow it looks like the seat post is too short. I can adjust the seat to the hight I need, but it goes below the “minimum” line; this is pending me calling the shop.

We walked to the Common Cup for breakfast, and then to the market, and made sure to show Anna new Rogers Park murals (the girls already saw them when they stayed with me earlier this year)

And finally, we had a couple of hours on the beach.

Next time, we should do more beach and more biking!

Beauty and the Beast

The Beauty and the Beast show was a part of my subscription. If it won’t be the case, I wouldn’t suggest taking the girls there, but since it was a subscription, and it was running on the week they were here, it was difficult to resist. I changed the tickets from Tuesday to Friday, and got the extra three.

The show was absolutely out of this world! Amazing! Nadia really enjoyed it, although it ended too late, and she was tired. Kira was scared in the beginning, and then fell asleep after the intermission, so it was not a great experience for her. Also, it was a rather long day: the last day of camp, then I took all three of the girls to do nails.

Then we had dinner at Ryo Sushi.

That’s my Mango California roll – so good!

Then we went to Amorino for gelato flower, walked a little bit at the Millennium park, and finally went to see the show.

Below are some official photos:

The Week’s Recap

I believe it was the longest time both my granddaughters stayed in my house. I think, overall, it was a very good experience, although Anna and I have a long “lessons learned” list.

Two things were completely out of our control: the aftermath of the NASCAR race and the buses’ rerouting, and both our work situations – none of us could take any time off or have a shorter workday. When we plan for next summer, we will choose a different week (or a camp closer to my house).

Life Is Getting Better

Today, the bus routes to the Museum Campus have finally resumed, and everyone is much happier and full of energy. I hope that at least two-thirds of the camp will finally be the way Anna and I envisioned.

My work crisis is still in progress, though :), and all the other millions of things which need my attention still need it!

Field Museum Camp

Anna, Nadia, and Kira are in Chicago this week, and the girls are attending the Field Museum Camp. That’s the thing Anna and I were looking forward to for years! Unfortunately, this experience has been affected by NASCAR race! I should have thought about it, but when we made this decision in January, neither me nor Anna connected the dots! The race happened during the Independence day weekend, and on Monday, there was still no access to the Museum Campus. Not only the busses were rerouted, but even the sidewalk was closed, so on Monday, the had a long walk around to get to the camp.

In general, Monday was quite havotic, because they arrived late on Sunday, and Monday morning was packing lunches and snacks, figuring out breakfast, and getting everyone out of the house. In addition, this week is presenting a major work crisis (and in addition I am severely behind on all my non-work professional activities).

Anna comments as a postitive thing that the girls do not fight with each other (I agree), and having fun at the camp, but it’s definitely more stress for Anna than I hoped!

Member’s Night at Aquarium

On Friday, I left work earlier and took a train to Milwaukee to pick up Nadia and Kira for the Shedd Aquarium Member’s Night. We already did it multiple times: Anna brings the girls to the train station, I get out, pick up the girls, and hop on the same train. That works great because the wait is minimal, and there is no risk of missing the train: it’s actually the same train going back!

I have many reasons to be proud of my granddaughters, one of which is that they can walk a long distance without complaints and understand what it means to wait for a bus or for the museum doors to open. We ended up walking most of the way from the Union Station to the Aquarium, with only a short Red Line ride in between two strides, and they did great 🙂

The Shedd is undergoing a major renovation, but some parts are already open, including the former Rotunda reimaged as two exhibits:

These are two live ecosystems: one with fresh water and one with salt water, and some parts of the glass are magnifying. The best part is that the systems live and evolve, so the promise is that each time you come, you see a slightly different

Nadia’s personal achievement was that she finally touched a sea star 🙂 (not pictured). and a couple of creepy creatures we spotted – there were more, but we were very busy watching!

Friends! In case you are wondering – life is getting on my way again 🙂 But I am alive and well! Probably too much alive!!!

Cirque du Soliel: OVO

Today, I took Nadia and Kira to a Cirque du Soleil performance (my Christmas gift for them). This year, Cirque do Soliel performs at NowArena, which is very far from my house with no public transportation access.

It was a lot of Ubering, and I was very tired, but the performance was excellent! I got the seats, which I hoped would be good but I was unsure of, and they were perfect: the artists were right there, and we could see their makeup and facial expressions! Posting a couple of pictures just to show how close we were and how awesome it was to be able to see all the details!

Two more comments. First, as much as I admired the show, most of the acrobatics was very traditional, all classic tricks, just performed in the new environment.

And second, the venue policies were horrible. No outside food and beverage allowed, no water fountains inside, a bottle of water costs $5.5, and a bag of popcorn $8.

Also, I lost the belt of my new Estonian coat, and we had to go back and ask the personnel, Fortunately, they looked, and found, and returned it to me!

Mom’s Birthday Celebration

Everything went great, even with all the things I mentioned yesterday, plus today’s problems on the Red Line that made Igor and my mom being 30 minutes late to her party, and some guests as well :). There were a couple of times in the past when my mom got really upset about us not letting her know in advance that somebody was going to visit, that’s why we tried to plan it being a surprise, but not a complete surprise :).

I invited those with whom my mom interacted through all these seven years she has been in the USA, with the hope that she will remember. I was pleasantly surprised that she recognized everyone and addressed everyone by name, even those she hadn’t seen for a long time. About half an hour later, however, she started to ask me again who was who and how she knew them. When I shared this observation with Anna and John, they suggested that she got tired, and they must be right. I am going to focus on the positive side of things 🙂

Everyone whom I asked came, and the food was delicious, and Vanille’s cake was awesome.

Continue reading “Mom’s Birthday Celebration” →

Mom’s Birthday

My mom turned 90 today. We are giving her a “semi-surprise party” tomorrow, and we have already had enough of disasters: Vlad couldn’t come because the earlier snowstorm in DC pushed the training he had to conduct to the weekend; both Anna and I had a work crisis (and Igor was super busy, too). We had to move to another venue two days before the party. Anna forgot the frame for our collective present at home; all the printing is done not at the last minute but one after the last, and so on.

After disassembling my Christmas tree, I realized I needed new boxes for ornaments. I ordered them, and they arrived, but I didn’t have time even to unpack them until today, so i was repacking ornaments when Anna’s family arrived.

BTW the boxes are great, and I feel like I always feel when I replace something old with a newer model – why didn’t I do it earlier?! It’s so much better!