Yeah Baby! Or, John Got a 3/3

Some of you who aren't Facebook friends with me might not have heard John's great news: he passed his Russian exam with flying colors, earning a 3/3 when he only needed a 2/2. For those who don't know how the scoring system works, it's on a scale of 0-5, 0 being me, 5 being what I *hope* I am in English. The two scores represent speaking and reading, and I can never remember which comes first. It usually takes 42 weeks to get from a 0 to a 3 in Russian. John was at 0+/1 when he started, thanks to two years of college Russian (of course that was ten years ago now), and it took him 20 weeks to get to a 3. So yeah, he's a rock star, in my humble opinion anyway.

To celebrate John's success, we hit up the Nordstrom Fall Preview sale today, because I've been hankering for some Russia-appropriate clothing and the prices are pretty damn good. I was disappointed that an adorable orange Kenneth Cole coat didn't come in my size:

I love you anyway, cute orange coat :(

But I found an awesome pair of waterproof leather boots that fit my scrawny calves quite well. They're from a Canadian company called Blondo:

And they're stretchy, too!

Not the cutest, I know, but if they can withstand the Russian winter, I'll take 'em! And they were $70 off. John got a new North Face jacket, a pair of North Face boots, and some Smartwool socks, all at great prices, and Jack got a submarine bath toy out of the deal. Tonight we're hitting up DC's authentic Russian restaurant, Russia House, to celebrate Russian style (i.e. with vodka). I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!