ArabMusicians

Geography Stars

2011-08-08T15:25:00.001-05:00

The ArabMusicians Family Homeschool has commenced classes for the 2011-12 school year. We have some travels planned for this fall, so the Headmistress decided that August 1 would be a good start-date.

When you grow up on a different continent than the one where your parents grew up, geography has a much more tangible application than it might for more "normal" kids. The "Twins" are learning to locate all the countries this year, but the first task is to identify the continents. They have a little song that aids in memory. If you watch closely, you might notice that one kid seems to be leading and one kid seems to be following, but they're both singing and pointing at the continents. And, in his defense, I'm pretty sure when I was Sawyer's age, I thought "South America" meant Georgia and Florida, and "North America" meant North Carolina or other distant locales.

And I'm certain that when I was 2 I could no more have located France on a map than I could have built an airplane from toothpicks to fly there. Check this out:

She actually knows lots more, but usually declares "Finish!" after only three or four. I guess we'll cut her some slack for now, though.

These kids seem to be doing well. And they have one sharp teacher leading the way!

Hopping the Equator

2011-07-11T03:06:00.001-05:00

Well, we didn't want to let Sawyer and Lee Anna have all the fun this month, so we took a little trip of our own this past weekend. The three of us made our first little trek into the southern hemisphere and spent four days in Kenya!

Sarah Claire might not be able to tell you about the gorgeous trees and flowers, the incredible wildlife, or the beautiful tea plantations all around us, but she knows this: THEY HAVE A PLAYGROUND! I might post some more of those pictures later, but for now here's our little world traveler having fun on the playground.

She has definitely given it a workout!

"Yook at me, Mama! I fwide!"

It has been really fun to see a different part of Africa and enjoy the incredible beauty and cooler temperatures of this place.

What was really NOT fun was the two days Sarah Claire and I (Beth) spent sick in bed during our stay here. We were actually only supposed to be here for two days, but we had to extend our trip a little because we were too sick to travel on Saturday.

Although this clinic was just about 50 feet from our door, I wasn't sure I was even going to make it over there on Saturday morning. Thankfully, I did, and the doctor was very helpful. We've been resting and recovering for a few days now, and very soon we'll be headed back to the city to catch our flight home. We hope our next post will be from our much-hotter-and-drier-and-not-quite-so-beautiful-but-still-home-to-us home.

Hurry Back, Guys!

2011-07-02T16:20:00.001-05:00

So, what does a small, two-year-old, third child do if the two bigger ones aren't on the scene for a few days? It seems the one in our family is eating up the extra attention! Lee Anna and Sawyer hopped on a plane with Uncle Andy last week to spend three weeks visiting grandparents and cousins on the other side of the pond. So little Sarah Claire is getting to experience being an only child. Did we ever say it was hard when we just had one kid? Turns out it's really not.

Here are the big kids by the door with their carry-on bags loaded with 24 hours' worth of entertainment.

Before they left, Lee Anna had a brief Ukrainian language lesson with Uncle Andy. She learned to say several words and phrases, and learned some of their alphabet, too. (The English part was written by Sawyer.)

But now, it's just Mom, Dad, and Sarah Claire! She got all dressed up in her new "Fancy Nancy" dress. But she didn't like being called "Fancy Nancy!" "NO!! Sarah Claire!!"

Have you ever seen anything as fierce as this ferocious bear? She loves to put on the mask and growl at us.

She took the mask off and then said "Again." Then proceeded to put it on upside down.

She's a sweetie!

Yook at me! I'm two!

2011-06-25T15:25:00.000-05:00

She can't quite pronounce the "l" in look correctly, but it's awfully cute the way she says it. And she's definitely proud to be two!

I'm a little late with this post. We celebrated Sarah Claire's birthday just two days after her big sister's, but I'm just now getting around to sharing a few of the pictures. She was still feeling a bit under the weather on the big day, so she got to spend all of her second birthday at home. We did have some friends join us for dinner, which she loved!

She might not have felt good all day, but she perked up when it was present time. She still needs a lot of help with our traditional hot-and-cold birthday present game, but the big kids were happy to oblige.

She got so excited about every single present. She wanted to put on her new pink tennis shoes from Mimi right away, and she also wanted me to take her other gifts out of their packaging RIGHT NOW. In two-year-old speech, her request for me to "Open it" sounds something like "Ommit, Mama! Ommit!"

I know all moms say this, but I really can't believe she's two already!

She wanted to wear her crown when it was cake time...

...and had lots of help blowing out the candles. Happy Birthday, Sweet Princess!

And this pic isn't actually from her birthday, but I wanted to include it. I got this sweet shot on Father's Day. I sure do love those four.

It's that time again...

2011-06-16T08:19:00.001-05:00

All the little girls in our house are having birthdays this week! We started on Monday with Lee Anna. We had originally planned a fun outing for that day, but because of a sick little sister, we had to postpone it. Instead, we had a fun day celebrating at home, which is really very appropriate because there is nowhere this girl would rather be. She's definitely our little homebody!

She took it upon herself to plan our entire menu for the day, starting with butterscotch pancakes.

Hers had a candle, of course. Mimi brought her the cute crown, which she decorated herself. She's been saving it to wear on the big day!

For some reason, Lee Anna decided several months ago that she really, really wanted a piggy bank. Well, her dreams finaly came true when she opened this present from G.G.! She was thrilled.

Instead of a cake, she requested gingerbread cookies, so that's what we made. She picked out the cookie cutters, too--flowers, butterflies, stars, and snowmen. Because, really, what June birthday in the desert is complete without a good snowman cookie?

She loves her new My Twinn doll and their matching pjs.

For her final birthday meal, she chose hot dogs and hamburgers, and for dessert--marshmallows roasted over the grill! We had a fun day celebrating our oldest, growing-up-way-too-fast princess.

Happy Birthday, Lee Anna Belle! We love you.

Two Down, Eleven to Go

2011-06-08T15:29:00.002-05:00

Today is a happy day for our Lee Anna Belle. After winding down over the last few weeks, she has officially completed first grade! First she finished up her handwriting book (see her showing off the finished product above), and earlier this week we read our last chapter of history for the year. We've covered creation all the way to the fall of Rome in 476 A.D. Not bad for one year, if you ask me. I know I've learned a ton!

The only lingering subject was math, and today she finally completed the last section in her workbook. Below she's texting her daddy to tell him the good news. The text read: Done with math:)
We let her choose where to go for a special celebration dessert after lunch today, and she chose ice cream, "with sprinkles," of course.

I am so proud of Lee Anna and all that she has done this year. I will forever cherish the memories of her first grade year: laughing together about Mr. Popper and his funny penguins, wiping away many a tear (from my eyes, not hers!) as we read heartwarming stories about people around the globe, watching her learn to do the math even when she's convinced she can't, listening to her sweet voice reading to me and to her siblings, seeing her really get excited about playing the piano, and just having lots of fun living lots of life together. I am so grateful for the chance homeschooling has given us to share these moments. It's a special gift to be her mom--and her teacher! I can't wait to see what adventures are in store for second grade.

Fun With English

2011-06-01T15:53:00.010-05:00

Now that we've spent half a decade trying to function in a language that's not really ours, you'd think we'd have a lot of patience with people who are trying to master the language that really is ours. And we do have a lot of patience, but sometimes we just have to laugh a little.

This first example was so far from meaningful that we had to read the Arabic above it to even see where they were going. It's on the bottom of a menu at one of our favorite local restaurants. Any guesses what they mean by "Adide one pount for pepole Prid." ? I might have written, "there will be a one pound per person charge for bread." But they didn't ask me to write it. Click on any of the pictures to enlarge them.

There's a new restaurant next to McDonald's. We're not sure what they have. Their sign proclaims "Hot, Chilly and More." Do you think they mean "Hot Chili?" or are they just telling us the various temperatures their foods can be served?

This taxi made us laugh with some unintentional humor (we think). It says "The Transporter," which almost sounds like a pro wrestler's nickname. But it's a taxi, a real-live transporter. That's not funny, is it?

Lee Anna saw this sign and said, "Hey! If we rent the whole continent, we can have our own empire!" Our home-school curriculum seems to be pretty strong in world history.

And we had to study this one a while to see what they meant by coiffeur for Ledas. What's a Leda? The opposite of a followa? No, based on the picture and the Arabic text, we're pretty sure they were aiming for "Ladies." Yeah, it's not that close.

And we just tried to imagine how fast the American lawyers would be lined up to go after this one if Walmart or Target tried to hang this sign over a checkout line. If you haven't clicked on this one yet, it says "priority for ladies and disabled." It really does. I guess the English is okay, but as they often tell me about things I say in Arabic, we just wouldn't really say that.

Little Princess

2011-06-01T15:35:00.002-05:00

Just Some Beach Pics

2011-05-19T07:11:00.003-05:00

We got to take a short beach getaway with a few friends earlier this month. Here are some pictures of the fun we had!

Happy Birthday, Sawyer!

2011-05-16T16:06:00.009-05:00

Our sweet boy is no longer four. He had a birthday earlier this month and is now "a whole hand"!
It is so hard to believe it's been five years since we welcomed this sweet but not-so-small, 9 lb., 4 oz., baby into our family. He has been such a joy!
He had his birthday dinner on the special plate--chicken panee, mac n cheese, and rice. Not so healthy, but it made him happy!

He decided months before his birthday that he wanted this bear-shaped ice cream cake. Nevermind that he's really not a big ice cream fan, he had seen it at the ice cream store and was sure that was the one he wanted. He said, "Mama, after we get it, you can take it in the kitchen and write a 5 on it." So I did. (the blue smeared spots are where the candles were)

Then we played our traditional "Hot and Cold" game for him to find his presents. Lee Anna helped him read the big words in the birthday cards.

She also gave him the card she had handmade for him.

He loved his gifts...

and got busy playing with them right away!

Happy Birthday, Brother Bear! We love you and can't imagine
our family without you!

GG Visits

2011-05-03T09:15:00.010-05:00

Okay, so it took most of a month to get around to posting about it, but G. G. came to visit us! She had been on a choir trip in Greece, and arranged to come see us while she was "in the neighborhood." She was here for just four days, but we packed a lot into those days. We taught her a little history, from things thousands of years old to the Arab Spring.

Of course, she was much more interested in the little ones than in the ancients! We had a fun time, all around.

In the background of the above picture is a fairly recent mosque. It was finished in the 1870s. There has been a mosque in that location for most of 1000 years, though.

I had to include this one so you'd really understand what this visit was like. This spring, our kids have learned the "Punch Buggy" game, in which everyone in the car looks for Beetles and punches his neighbor when he sees one, proclaiming "Punch Buggy" and the color of said car. So G. G. got to experience this with us. Only she was frequently confused about what she was supposed to call out. We got "Bumper bunny" one time, and several other similar variations.

And this last picture is one of my favorites. G. G. asked Sawyer to pose by the donkey cart in the market because, well, there just aren't that many donkey carts in the grocery areas in the States these days. While he was standing there, a local guy passed by and asked in Arabic "What? You don't have garlic and onions where you come from?"

Phone Dump

2011-03-31T16:37:00.008-05:00

Here, in no particular order, are some pics that we've taken with our phones over the last month: It's 75 degrees outside, and this guy's wearing a furry Russian winter cap. What kid doesn't love playing in balls? Out in the desert, they made this little overhang their "rock workshop."

Yes, it's English. Bad, misspelled English, but English. Get it? At the park, Sarah Claire was apprehended for a brief photo shoot. I don't blame them for wanting her picture. :)

Love those three!

Look! It's a real Auntie Anne's pretzel!

Sarah Claire digs the cinnamon-sugar covered ones.

The poses? I have no idea.

Sarah Claire was quite sure she did not need help driving the horses.

So there's a snapshot or two from our world lately. Life has been remarkably and wonderfully normal, which suits us just fine. We had enough excitement this winter to last us a long, long time.

Sharing the Roads

2011-03-30T04:54:00.003-05:00

And you think being stuck behind a school bus is bad! Imagine how these donkey-pulled fruit carts clog up traffic on our streets. (The two boys driving this couldn't have been much older than 10 or 11!)

Bike Ride Part I

2011-03-27T07:02:00.005-05:00

Well, I think we're officially raising City Slickers. When I was a kid, we had room in our yard to learn to ride a bicycle. And the streets were quiet enough that when I was 7 I rode my bike to school and to friends' houses with no supervision and no problems. But my kids live five floors off the ground, and the streets around here aren't all that quiet. But this weekend, we decided to do a little beginning bike riding anyway. We have two small bicycles, but they hadn't been used much lately. So I started by dusting them off and then took them to the bike shop to get the tires patched and inflated. Then we were ready. We got an early start that morning, so I was back home with the bikes ready to go before noon!

These little guys had a big time riding in circles around a flat spot in the desert. There was no traffic to contend with, so they just rode and rode.

The training wheels were great, as long as the ground was flat. But frequently, the training wheels would get propped up on rocks and the back wheel would be raised into the air and turn the whole thing into a stationary exercise bike.

Maybe if they practice in the garage a little first, we'll be able to get out on the streets pretty soon. Sarah Claire looks ready, doesn't she?

Two Simple Errands

2011-03-23T16:28:00.004-05:00

I left home about noon on Tuesday, 8 March, to go on a simple errand: just take four bags to the air freight area at the airport and have them sent to a nearby country. It sounded simple enough, right? Well it took about an hour and a half to get to the airport to start with. As I first arrived a young man asked if I was going to the cargo area and volunteered to ride with me. I wasn't sure at first if he was there to help me or if he just needed a ride to work. But he showed me where to go and arranged things for me. We spent about 2 hours weighing the bags, getting papers stamped and waiting around a lot, but we got it done. The bags were on their way, so I started home. That's when the fun started. Traffic had been pretty heavy all day but after 2 or 3 miles the highway just stopped. We -- we meaning me and 10000 other cars-- crept along for 45 minutes or so making almost no progress. Then cars from the other direction started waving and motioning for us all to turn and go somewhere else. Several even stopped their cars to explain what was ahead.

So I took the first exit to the right and made really good time for the first 5 minutes while in a tunnel. But when I came out of the tunnel, I found myself downtown and approaching a very famous square that you probably saw on TV in February. The major protests were over but there were still a few hundred camping out and waving banners. And selling t-shirts. Lots of t-shirts and bumper stickers and other revolution souvenirs. Traffic was understandably slow. When I finally got around the square I passed by the street to the American embassy. There were six big tanks guarding the entrance to that. I finally got out to the highway by the river and on home. Almost three hours after leaving the airport. I found out later that by turning I avoided a major riot that involved throwing rocks at passing cars.

Then last week I needed to renew my car registration. In the states it seems like we did this by mail. At worst it might take an hour at the courthouse. So I left about 10, dropped the kids off at school and headed out. It took about 2 hours to cover the 8 miles to the traffiic department. Then another 15 minutes to find the right building. But I got in and started the process, paying some fees and such on the third floor. The guy told me to go down to the second floor, so I asked him which window to go to. His reply was classic: "God only knows--ask them down there." When we got downstairs, I went to the first window on the right, and that guy looked at my papers. Then he looked at me and said, “Foreigners can’t do this in this building. You need to go to the new one by the river.” Great. I knew approximately where the new place was—it’s next to a mall I’ve been in. When I got to the road by the river, I was about a half-mile from the mall. But there were big tanks blocking that road because of some government buildings there. So I crossed the river on a bridge, went north a half mile and took the other bridge back over. Well, the exit I wanted was also blocked so I ended up several blocks away before another chance to turn. When I did turn and get headed in the right direction, I found my self stuck in very slow-moving traffic, not all that close to the river. I got to the area where the traffic office is at about 2:30. But they told us it closed at 2:00. So I decided I'd try again on Monday. The GPS on Sunday said we had travelled 6 hours and averaged 8 MPH. 11 MPH if it only counted the time we were moving. Wow. Over an hour was “sitting still in traffic.”

Monday morning, I left pretty early by our standards—7:30 a.m.! I thought I’d drive through the only McDonald’s drive through in town and grab some coffee and a McMuffin. They serve breakfast now, but they don’t start until 8:30!! So I stopped in a little grocery store and got some really bad muffins and a Coke. It only took an hour and a half to get there this time, and I found the place pretty easily. I got my papers turned in—after visiting several windows on two different floors—and the guy told me to have a seat, it would be ready in a few minutes. That was at about 10:30. At 11:30, he told me the computer system was “down,” and it might be a few more minutes.

At noon on Monday, he gave me his mobile number and told me to call him on Tuesday and see if it was working yet. Nice. So I headed back home, still with no new tags. I actually had to screw the old tags back on the car, since I had taken them off and turned them in already. On Tuesday, I called and indeed the system was back up. So I told him I’d see him Wednesday morning. By Wednesday the tanks were cleared from the highway I wanted, so I got there about 8:30. They “open” at 8:00, but at 8:30 only 2 of 12 windows were occupied. When my guy arrived, he gave me one of his little breakfast pizzas. That was nice. By 10:00 it was all finished and the shiny new tags were in place. I got home about 11, ready to start another adventure.

Back to Fagnoon

2011-03-06T15:05:00.009-06:00

There are places in the world where it is still quite cold in March. This is not one of them. We are deep into spring weather and rapidly careening toward summer temps. But for now, while our days are still pretty and pleasant and not sweltering, we are trying hard to get in as much "outside time" as possible. So this weekend we took a little day trip.

There's a special place just across the river that our kids just love. The architecture was inspired by Dr. Seuss (at least that's how it looks to us), and it's a great outdoor place to get away from the big smoky city. Fagnoon is a non-word that's a combination of the Arabic words for Crazy and Art. They call it an "Art School," but it's like no school I ever attended, unless the playground could take the place of the classrooms. These big nets we're climbing on are made of strips of colorful cloth twisted together.

We don't have a backyard, so the kids love to run around in the grass and dirt. On previous trips out there, we've seen giant water-balloon fights and ridden camels.

When they fired up the grill you see here, we got inspired and came home and cooked out, too. After supper, we even roasted marshmallows over the charcoal fire. Of course, we were back on our 5th-story balcony instead of out in the wild, but roasted marshmallows are good in any setting. You can't really see them, but the kids are climbing on that huge mass of netting behind the grill.
Here's Sawyer posing like an iron statue. He may have learned this trick from his dad.

Sarah Claire couldn't get enough of climbing on the bridge.

In addition to all the climbing and running and yelling and playing, the kids do actually also do some art activities each time. A favorite is always making things from clay on the spinning wheels. I think it's a favorite because it involves getting muddy clay all over your hands. And arms. And clothes. And parents.

We didn't make Sarah Claire demonstrate her mad sculpting skills, but she did participate in lunch time with us.
And boy did she have fun with this swing!

Overall, it was great to be out in the farmland, breathing fresh air and playing in the dirt. We may have to try to get back out there again before it's too hot to want to do anything outdoors!

The Arab-Scottish Yankees

2011-03-02T15:19:00.002-06:00

We realized today that we have video footage of the bagpipe players we mentioned in yesterday's post. Now you can experience the irony with us. In the video, you'll hear the tail end of Amazing Grace, followed by a seamless transition into a rousing rendition of Yankee Doodle. Enjoy!

We're Back!

2011-03-01T14:31:00.005-06:00

For 27 days in January, we wrote new blog posts every single day. If the reader has seen any world news at all since then, he will understand why we were interrupted. We took a little break from blogging when the internet was turned off for a week. Then things got a little warm for foreigners here, so we took a little trip. Lets call it a Home-School-History-Class Field Trip, just for fun. The city in which we live has been a city for thousands of years. But it wasn't the only city back in those early days of citification. We visited some sites in a nearby country that have also been around a long, long time. Lee Anna has read a good bit about Ancient Rome in her first grade material, so she was pretty excited to see a real-live Roman city up close and personal. These Roman ruins were just a half-hour's drive from where we stayed. In the picture below, we're in a cool little amphitheater that probably seated 2500 or so. We're sitting there on 2000-year-old seats, watching a couple of Arab guys playing Scottish bagpipes. These Arab Scotsmen were playing some traditional Arab-Scottish tunes like "Amazing Grace" and "Yankee Doodle." No, we don't really understand all that, either, but it sounded pretty cool.

The hippodrome below was the home of Roman chariot races, back in the day. Lee Anna and Sawyer ran around it, but they didn't have chariots. So they got tired.

This is a big arch. I think I read that it was built to honor the Emporer Hadrean when he came for a visit. Wow.

The rest of the photos are from the citadel in the city. They've had some sort of fortress on this hill since before King David was a shepherd boy. Lee Anna and Sawyer loved climbing on the old rocks...

...but Little Sister was not to be outdone.

These are some really big columns. You can see a section of a column on the ground in the foreground of this picture. Lee Anna wanted to know why they don't just put them all back up! I'm not sure modern machinery is strong enough for that.

In the background of this picture one can see our "city of refuge." The buildings are almost all made of white stone, and it's built on a bunch of hills. It was a pretty place to hang out for a few weeks.

At the citadel, there's a small museum. In the small museum, we stumbled upon some parts of the the Dead Sea Scrolls! Lee Anna had read about them in her school books this past fall, and when she saw them she said, "They found those the year G.G. turned 2!" That was how her Mama had put into perspective how recently these old, old Scripture texts were discovered.

The twins sitting with the fingers of Hercules:

And this is our favorite. You'll have to click on the picture to see what's happening here. Go ahead, click on it, then come back. Okay, what you're seeing is Sarah Claire sitting on a bench, listening to some more Arab Scotsmen playing bagpipes. The rest of us walked to the other end of this big courtard, but SC just sat there and watched. We called to her repeatedly, but she didn't budge. We're 75 yards away, and she's just mesmerized. Maybe she was trying to figure out why these guys in a medieval Arab palace were playing American music on Scottish instruments.

Hopefully, current events will allow us to continue blogging again, though we probably won't make every day!

Pine Cones

2011-01-27T14:20:00.005-06:00

This, boys and girls, is a genuine, pure-T, real-live, Florida Pine Cone. Imported directly from the piney woods of the Florida Panhandle for your educational benefit.

You see, this past October, Beth was reading a story to Sawyer from his pre-school material. The story was called The Magic Pine Cone. So she asked if either of them knew what a pine cone was. Nope. No idea. Beth then googled "pine cone" and found this picture for them to color while she read the story. Sawyer took some artistic liberties, or maybe he just thinks pine cones really come in all the colors of the rainbow.

Mimi heard about this incident and determined that her grandchildren should be deprived no longer. So, in her latest package, she sent us a real live pine cone. The box had a few other gifts in it, too, but they were quite excited about the pine cone!

I, (Jason) on the other hand, grew up knowing a lot more about pine cones than I knew about pyramids. Our yard in Crestview covered almost an acre. I bet there were 50 big tall pines in that space. Once, when I was just a little older than Lee Anna is now, Mama offered me 10 cents each for all the pine cones I could pick up. She was thinking I'd find 15 or 20 and make a buck or two. I was a rich 4th-grader after that bountiful harvest of over 200 pine cones! We never had to google anything (not that we could have!) to find out what a pine cone looked like, but I did want to send some to the kids in Africa after that experience.

Oh, the Knockoffs!

2011-01-26T14:26:00.005-06:00

When one gets away from those pesky trademark® laws that stifle American creativity, one finds some awfully creative ways to market products. We've seen some that are really close and hard to tell from the real thing, while others don't really try that hard. I found some Crocs® sandals for sale in a nearby gas station that were about half the price of what we see in the legit Crocs® store in the mall. I thought they were the real thing, but a close inspection revealed a misspelling in the word Colorado. Made in Coloroad, USA? Really? The Nike® flip-flops being modeled below by Beth's brothers are actually Aloalloa® brand. Not really all that close, although they're only $4 per pair.

These candy-coated, peanut-filled chocolate candies bear a striking resemblance to something you might buy in the States. We really laughed out loud when we noticed the N in M&Ns.

The Pirates logo on this toy boat is an awful lot like one from the Pirates of the Caribbean® ride and movies. But I don't think Disney® would approve of a product that says on the packaging "Adorable Jocular fish Ocean Toys." It also says "Attach Peach to most flat surfaces." Do what?

And if you click to enlarge this last one, you'll find Panasonic® spelled correctly and incorrectly all in the same stack. Penoaconic is probably not close enough to get anyone in trouble, even if the Panasonic® people found it. And I love the "Natiolan" space heater right next to the "National"® one. I was shopping for a stereo once and found Panasonic spelled 6 different ways on one street. I really loved the Chinese stereo that had a real-live Sony® logo glued to it--only the logo was crooked and the glue was dripping a little.

Some of our favorites have been featured here before. Check them out.

A Near Tragedy

2011-01-25T14:33:00.004-06:00

We have some wonderful friends who live in Amsterdam. They sometimes try to tell us it's not really cold here, but we don't believe them. Anyway, last month when my parents were coming to see us, they were supposed to have a long layover in Amsterdam, and they were going to get together with our friends. Unfortunately, that all fell through when they ended up flying to Brussels and Casablanca instead.

My friend in Amsterdam had bought some sweet gifts for us that she was going to send with my parents, so when she wasn't able to do that, she went ahead and mailed them to us in a package. The package came this week, and the kids were so excited. We opened it right away, and they each found their treasures.
Sarah Claire got an adorable bunny that is very famous in Holland, Lee Anna got a snow globe decorated with Dutch things, and Sawyer got the awesome shirt he's wearing in the picture (Jason is almost over the fact that it's orange and blue). They all loved their gifts. There was also a bunch of candy in there, and a package of something called stroopwafels, which are delicious.

So the day after we got the package, we were talking about all the sweet things they had sent us, and Jason asked me, "Where's the wooden nativity? I didn't see it."

Blank stare. "What nativity?"

"The note in the package said there was a wooden nativity. Didn't you see it?"

I hadn't seen that note, although I had read the notes about all the other gifts. It was, admittedly, a bit chaotic with three kids all trying to help me unpack the box of gifts. I quickly made my way to the kitchen and pulled the box out of the trash can (thank goodness it was still in our kitchen trash and not down at the bottom of the chute with all the other garbage from our building--yuck!).

I opened the box and lifted up the newspaper that I thought was just there for padding, and discovered underneath a beautiful (unsoiled) wooden star with a nativity scene carved in the middle. It is gorgeous, and I love it, and I am so glad that my friend wrote a note to tell us it was there and that my husband saw it and asked about it!

So, the tragedy was averted, but I cannot take any credit for it.
But I promise that if any of you ever send us a package, I will try my best not to throw any of it away!

Happy Birthday, G.G.!!!

2011-01-24T14:31:00.003-06:00

January is birthday season in my family. Since GG couldn't be here to celebrate with us, we thought we'd simulate some grandbaby visits through pictures on the blog. I think this is a little more than the 11th anniversary of her 29th birthday, but I'm not saying how much more. :)

Come see us, GG, and we'll get you some real-live lap time!

Happy Birthday!

We love you!

Sunday Evening Sailboat

2011-01-23T14:54:00.002-06:00

Sailing at sunset... with people I love...
makes for a lovely...

peaceful...

Sunday...

evening.

Blast From the Past

2011-01-22T12:57:00.004-06:00

In the process of uploading the video of Sarah Claire's secrets yesterday, I came across several old videos that we've posted in years past. If you've been with us from the beginning, these will look familiar, but I thought they were worth posting again. I could hardly believe I was looking at my children, they've changed so much since then. It's amazing the difference three years can make!

Hard to believe the sweet little 3-year-old princess in this first video is now devouring Boxcar children books and whizzing her way through first grade...

or that the little guy in this video (taken when he was the age Sarah Claire is now) has succeeded in learning the rest of the alphabet, is already reading simple books and will start kindergarten this fall!

(I should have called that one "Sawyer's EFGs.")

And this one made us laugh a lot. Looks like Sarah Claire is learning her moves from the wrong person! If any of you is interested in online dancing lessons, we'll be glad to offer tutoring sessions with Lee Anna...for the right price. :)

Quite Possibly the Cutest Thing My Child Has Ever Done

2011-01-21T14:33:00.005-06:00

We wanted you all to see what Sarah Claire has learned to do: tell secrets! I don't really know where she picked this up, probably from seeing her big sister whisper things to me that she doesn't want her brother to hear. For whatever reason, just a few weeks ago Sarah Claire started telling us secrets, and now she'll do it any time we ask her to. She also tells secrets to the rest of the family, and to anyone else who might be at our house. It never fails to bring a smile.

I think you'll see why.

Come on In!

2011-01-20T11:24:00.009-06:00

For day 20 of our 31 Posts in 31 Days Extravaganza, we decided that since we won't ever have the privilege of welcoming most of you, our dear readers, into our home, you might enjoy a room-by-room tour of our humble abode. So we waited until our housekeeper had just walked out the door, and quickly snapped these pictures before things could get back to normal!

This first shot is the view when you first walk in the front door. Of course, you can't really walk in from any other door, since none of the other doors are connected to the ground. So every entrance starts here. In the lower right corner of the picture is the shoe cabinet. Just beyond that is a tall bookcase. The black chair you see in the center of the picture, farthest from the camera, is the chair that is currently supporting the present author. This second photo is taken from the same spot, just rotated to the left about 90 degrees. This is the table where we take our meals. When we're not eating out.

And this view is from the location of the aforementioned black chair. The little red table is for home schooling and other kid-related activities. The red recliner is definitely the most sought-after sitting spot, for both family members and regular visitors.

This is our spacious kitchen. This is our third flat to live in in this town, and the other two kitchens could together fit comfortably inside this one, with enough room left over for a small cat to sleep. But we really don't like cats sleeping in the kitchen.

This is the Master Bedroom area. Thank you to those of you who gave us the yellow bedding as wedding gifts 10 years ago! Each room has a balcony attached to it, which we use for drying some clothes and being outside.

This is the Master Bathroom. This is infamous room where I (Jason) sat with the plumbers while we waited for the pump to start working last week. Note also that this room is home to the clothes dryer, but not the washer. The washer is down the hall in another restroom. It's nice when they can be together, but not absolutely necessary. We do have a dryer, which makes us different than approximately 98% of the homes in this town.

Lee Anna and Sawyer's room is all decked out in blue. Aunt Claire helped paint the polka dots when she was here this summer. Lee Anna would like you to know that she painted some of them, too.

This is the other wall in the kids' room. The name carvings on the wall were done (at least partly) by Lee Anna at some of our trips to this fun place. I (Beth) painted them with leftover paint from the polka dots.

This little photo wall is right outside the kids' bathroom, between their two bedrooms. Sarah Claire loves to point out all the babies in these pictures, and she also likes to tell me about the ducks in the bottom right one and the hat Sawyer's wearing on the bottom left.

This room belongs to the youngest member of our household. It also doubles as a guitar storage center. How many guitar cases can you spot?

This area is to your right just as you walk in the door. Yes, I have the same little cube storage bin in both kids' rooms. We brought the white one with us from the states, and had a carpenter here build the brown one. Workmen here aren't always big on precision, and I was scared to death that the canvas bins wouldn't actually fit in the cubes he built, but he surprised me and did a super job! We've gone back to him a lot.

The last picture shows the view from Sarah Claire's balcony. It's pretty similar to the view from all the other balconies. We're lucky to live next door to a single-family dwelling (that's the roof you see below), which means that we get to look out and see trees and sky instead of just looking straight into someone else's apartment. I stood on our front balcony once and counted 40 different buildings that I can see from here.

And that, my friends, is our humble home. Now that you know your way around, feel free to come visit us anytime! Just don't expect it to always look like the housekeeper just left.

Swing Those Hips, Girl!

2011-01-19T15:25:00.005-06:00

How do you like our little belly dancer-in-training? She found this outfit of her sister's in the dress-up box today and insisted that I put it on her. Then Daddy taught her some moves (because it's always good to learn belly-dancing moves from 40-year-old men!).

Who knew embracing the culture could be so cute?

Cute Sawyer Story

2011-01-18T14:39:00.003-06:00

One day several months ago, I was typing something up on my computer when I got pulled away for awhile. I don't remember who or what needed my attention, but I know that it was a good while before I finally made it back to the desk. When I did, I found that someone had taken it upon themselves to add to the text in my absence.

I wasn't sure at first which of my lovely children would have done such a thing, but as I looked a little closer at the text, the answer became quite obvious (click on the picture to enlarge it if you can't read it).

He may not cover his tracks very well, but he sure does make me laugh!

Look Ma, No Teeth!

2011-01-17T14:51:00.002-06:00

We may have to put Lee Anna's Froot Loops in a blender in the morning since the traditional eating method requires teeth. She lost yet another one tonight, to her great excitement! Thankfully, one of the top ones has finally started coming in, so those holes should eventually fill in. But I'll probably be keeping corn on the cob off the menu for a while.

Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful

2011-01-16T14:21:00.005-06:00

We are experiencing quite a bleak mid-winter this year. We've had several stormy, rainy days. The temperature has dipped as low as 10 degrees, and the high has seldom been out of the teens. Okay, those are Celcius temperatures, but it sounds cold, doesn't it? (10 C is about 50 F; and 20 is like 68F).

You can see in this picture how many layers of clothes I have to wear to stay warm. I'm wearing a t-shirt, dress shirt, sweater and a scarf with my jacket. I might have even put on socks that day. It was really cold out by the river drinking coffee.

On a rainy Friday, Beth was taking the two big kids to a birthday party. They were driving when is started raining, so Beth turned on her windshield wipers. Sawyer asked "Why are you doing that?" So she explained that they wipe the rain water off the windshield so you can see. "This is what we do when it's raining." Sawyer looked back and exclaimed, rather loudly, "Look Mama! The car behind us is doing it too!!"

We've had three rainy days this week, and we haven't totaled a quarter inch of rain if you collected it in a funnel. But it has been cloudy and chilly.
When Beth's brother was visiting here from his home in Ukraine I really had a hard time convincing him how cold it is. But it is cold here. I promise. This is winter.

The Great Snowball Fight of 2010

2011-01-15T14:27:00.002-06:00

As most of you know, we live in the desert. We hardly get any rain, much less snow. In fact, there's not even a word in the local language for snow. They just call it "ice." When they talk about it, which they don't often, because there isn't any to talk about.

So we certainly didn't expect to have a White Christmas. Fortunately, Jason and I both grew up in Florida, so no snow at Christmas is quite normal for us.

But this year we decided to have a little wintry fun and hold the Great Indoor Snowball Fight of 2010. We split into teams (boys vs. girls, of course) and each team had 5 minutes to create as many snowballs as they could. Then we let 'em fly, and, well, you can see below how much fun was had.

I love that the kids never stop laughing!

When we were finally finished, we went into the kitchen for some chocolate milk (our hot-weather substitute for hot chocolate), since the kids had worked up a sweat by that point.

We hosted Round 2 a few days later when Uncle Andy came to town, and he told us stories of fighting with real Ukrainian snow. It sounds like he has fun, but this Florida girl will take paper snowballs in her warm house any day over snow in her boots and frozen fingers and toes!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

2011-01-14T13:48:00.006-06:00

Two years ago today, Grandpa was here celebrating his birthday with us. Today, he's back on the other side of the ocean, but we did call and sing to him. Two years ago, he was celebrating his 66th Big Day, but I'm not gonna tell you how old he is now.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!!

A Blurry Day

2011-01-13T15:33:00.006-06:00

This morning before breakfast, Sawyer looked out the window and told me it was "a blurry day." It gets kinda blurry around here in the winter time. We've heard that the farmers out in the country always burn off whatever is left in the fields this time of year, and the smoke blows into town and makes everything a little "blurrier" than usual. This first picture is of a clear day in October. The flying things are guys in motorized parachute gliders who were up over the city for a big holiday celebration. (As always, you can click on any picture for a closer look.)

The next photo shows what the grey winter does. Notice how the farthest building on the horizon seems to have disappeared.

And this orange-looking effect was not added by computers. That's what the sky does when we have a sandstorm.

I use the last building I can see as my smog-o-meter every morning. On especially clear days I can see the blue and white colors of some of the window frames. On moderately smoggy days, I can make out the silhouette of the building, but not see window colors. And on bad, "blurry" days, that building just isn't to be seen. Google Earth shows that building to be 3/4 mile away, or just over one kilometer.

Apartment Hunting

2011-01-12T14:10:00.005-06:00

Today's post is the third in a series of stories about service providers. These are the people to whom we provide an income, and in return they provide material for story tellers.

I was out with a real estate agent recently looking for a flat for someone else. She had made a mistake in writing down the address so we were looking for building 35 B instead of 35 C. The street we were on is divided into three blocks, so there's an A block, then a B block, then a C block. Building 35 C is not next door to 35 B, it's a block away. Roughly.

So my real estate friend called the landlord to ask where the flat was, and as soon as she hung up her mobile, she started laughing out loud. She told me that the landlord had told her the correct address, then told her to look for the building where the doorman's wife was really fat!! She asked me what we were supposed to do, walk along and ask the doormen if their wives are home? "Can I please see your wife? Is she pretty big?" But when we got to building 35 C, we knew we had our girl. She was sitting on the front porch adding a decent amount of gravitational support to this 12-story concrete building.

Fun With Wires

2011-01-11T15:24:00.004-06:00

Let me start by taking credit where credit is due: I (Jason) wrote the plumber’s poem yesterday. I thought everyone would know that, since it involved sitting around in a bathroom with 3 men for half an hour, but from several emails and comments it seems that some have the impression that Beth wrote the poem. She surely could have written such a poem, but she didn't this time.

In keeping with the theme of “service providers,” I’ve got a story about our favorite electrician that I’d like to share. It’s a bit less poetical than the water story, but still a little funny, I hope.

We’ve had several adventures with electricity in the past year. When we moved into this flat, the kitchen was really dark, with just one small fluorescent bulb to light it up. So we picked some bright fixtures and asked the electrician to come hang them for us. In the States, this would have been a do-it-yourself job for a Saturday afternoon, but when he’ll come do it all for about $5, it’s hard to find the motivation to do stuff yourself.

We got two matching fixtures that have three spotlight bulbs in each. There was just one connection in the ceiling, and two fixtures, so he put them on either side of the existing wires and added a short segment of wire to reach the first one. Then he saw that he was out of wire. I might have gone back to the shop for another foot of cable, but not this guy. He just grabbed the extension cord that he had brought with him and was using for his drill, and he cut about a foot of cable off the end. He used that to connect our lights, then re-attached the plug to the end of his extension cord and went on working.

On another visit, this same guy was hanging a small chandelier in our bedroom. He put it together too tightly and pinched the wires inside it. This short circuit burned out the light switch in the wall as soon as we applied power to it. Once again, he found a way not to return to the shop. In our living room we have several light switches that don’t do anything at all. So he just put the dead switch in one of those spots and took a good switch from the useless spot and put it to use.

While attaching a ceiling fan to the ceiling, he had to install a big hook into the concrete. He drilled a big hole (half-inch or so) and then put the anchor and screw hook into the ceiling. He tightened the first one so tight that he broke it off. So he drilled another hole nearby and proceeded to break yet another hook! Third time’s the charm, evidently, since the third hook stayed up and the fan has held up just fine.

We keep using this same electrician because he’s better than most that we’ve worked with. He even has his own tools and only occasionally asks to borrow mine.

I don't have any pictures of him at work, but I do have a shot of this lovely mass of wires that sticks out of the wall in the hallway outside our front door. I'm sure if there were safety codes here to be broken, this would probably do it!
Tune in tomorrow for "Service Providers: Part 3."

The Epic of the Water Pump

2011-01-10T12:18:00.007-06:00

For about two months now we’ve had no water,

Well, the water is here but it won’t get hotter,

And we can’t take a shower when the water is cold.

Just sit and listen while my story is told.

We live about five floors off the ground

And water pressure in the sky just can’t be found.

It worked pretty well, for a year. Then it changed--

Sometime in October occurred something strange.

The water was off for most of a week.

Not just in our building, but all up the street.

When it came back on it wasn’t very strong,

And so our story carries on.

I called in a plumber and he saw the need

for a new pump motor our water to feed.

He could put one in for a few thousand pounds,

But our doorman said “wait, let’s look around.”

So we looked and we waited and came up with a plan.

We’d get a big pump and share it with the man

who lives up above us—his water’s weak too.

He thought the pump was long overdue.

But when the plumber started the job,

He found the situation was quite miserables.

The pipe to our kitchen made a ready connection

But it was not tied to the shower in question.

So back to the drawing board they retired,

to figure out how this building was wired

and outfitted with pipes when first it was built

long years ago on a bed of river silt.

For an hour or two we heard not a sound

From the guys who were working down on the ground.

We didn’t know what in the world they would do

When suddenly he came and said “We’re through.”

They’d connected a pump to the pipe just for us,

The water is flowing so we shouldn’t fuss.

But the heater that started this story you’re reading

Is still hanging there, and it’s still not heating.

I’m writing this waiting--ever so patient--

For the plumber to come back or at least send his agent

To fix up the problem in our old water heater;

He’s one hour late, he’ll come at his leisure.

Last night, before it was time to retire

An electrician came to hook up the wire

From our bathroom down to the basement below

So we could control the pump and its flow.

The plumbers sat in our bathroom just waiting

For someone to leave or maybe go skating?

For reasons not apparent to this poet

They didn’t want the building manager to know it.

To know that they changed the piping, I guess,

So they waited and sat after making a mess

By drilling a hole in the wall for the pump switch

They waited until they started to twitch.

For a good half an hour we were just killing time

Waiting for The Man to leave or to climb

Out of our garage so they could finish

Their work before their paycheck diminished.

By eleven o'clock they had it all done.

We can now turn the pump on and off just for fun.

Maybe today the water will heat

And I’ll take a shower. That will be sweet.

I love sweet moments like this...

2011-01-09T15:42:00.004-06:00

Merry Christmas...Again!

2011-01-08T13:54:00.008-06:00

Merry Eastern Christmas!

Because we're American and live in the Middle East, we get to Celebrate Christmas for several weeks each year. Eastern Christmas is January 7, so the kids' preschool had a big Christmas shindig tonight. The people in charge of this preschool obviously are lacking in judgment, as they asked the only American father to MC the party. Actually, they asked me to "present" the party, which made me think I'd be sponsoring it, like a big bowl game: "The Preschool Christmas Program Presented by Jason" or something.

This morning, Lee Anna and I went to school to set up some sound equipment, and that's when they asked if I could sing a song at the beginning, too. So I went home and got my guitar. I enlisted Lee Anna to sing along, but you've probably already seen the video of that. Actually, I had been expecting them to ask me to sing at the last minute, since they did it that way last year, so I'd been practicing with the kids to sing that one.

After my eloquent, tri-lingual introduction (I said "good evening" in English, Arabic, and Spanish, just for fun) we had a guest speaker to teach the parents about raising little ones. Then the fun began.

Sarah Claire's class came up and looked cute while listening to Twinkle, Twinkle and watching their teachers do some motions. They really did look cute.

See how cute they are?

Then the others got their turn. I'm not sure exactly what was going on here, but it looks a lot like Lee Anna and Sawyer are square dancing. Right after the square dance, we were treated to a moving presentation of the Hokie Pokie. I honestly have never seen anything quite like it.

After all of the classes had their moment in the sun (not the sun, really. More like a couple of 75 watt bulbs off to the side of the audience.) Anyway... after that, we were subjected to a rather lengthy video of the kids at play inside the preschool. Here's how my thought process went:

First five minutes: "This is actually pretty good. Glad to see my kids having fun at school."

Next five minutes: "Isn't this the 7th time we've heard the 'Rudolph' song?"

Next five minutes: "Okay, this is too long. That would have been a good stopping place."

Next five minutes: "Man, I really wish the video projector would catch fire."

One dad actually left because his kid wasn't featured adequately in the video. Wow.

Then Baba Noel came to visit. Our Western readers will know this guy as Santa Claus, but I bet you didn't know he played the saxophone! He came bearing gifts and playing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Well, sort of. That, too, was like nothing I have ever heard.

And a Happy New Year to all of you.

It's too bad she can't be more expressive

2011-01-07T13:32:00.003-06:00

Havin' It Our Way...In Our Part of Town!!

2011-01-06T14:15:00.002-06:00

Last week, as Jason was driving up a busy street in our part of town, he spotted something exciting...a brand new Burger King! As you might guess from the picture, this is a building that we've visited many times before, but now it's gotten even better!
Until now, visiting BK has been a rare treat since the closest one was 30 minutes away and had a total of two tables in the whole restaurant. Now it looks like we may be partaking of Whoppers and onion rings a little more often. Probably not a good thing for our health, but it makes our taste buds happy!
Tonight, while we were waiting for our order, Sarah Claire turned on the charm with the man you see behind her in the photo. She turned around and started smiling and waving at him, as she does frequently with strangers. He loved it, and before I knew it, he had given her his box of French fries. She ate it (with some help from her siblings, of course), then climbed down, walked over to him and made the "all done" sign (rubbing her two hands together back and forth). I'm sure she was hoping he'd replenish the supply, but his tray was empty. Luckily, our food arrived soon after that.

What can I say? These guys are always ready to help out their little sis, especially when it involves eating French fries!

Blessed

2011-01-05T13:56:00.006-06:00

We feel so loved! Some sweet friends in the states (some of whom have never
even met us!) sent us some wonderful Christmas packages,
thoughtfully filled with fun things for each one of us!
There are enough fun activities in there to
keep these kids entertained for a good while!

We are blessed with precious friends, near and far.
Thank you so, so much to our friends in NC and Pensacola! You are too kind!

Sweet Memories

2011-01-04T07:17:00.000-06:00

We're going to miss these faces around here. It's been a wonderful week! We have laughed a ton, eaten way too much delicious food, and just soaked up the joy of getting to be all together. The goodbyes are hard, but are so, so worth it for the gift of being together.

Thanks for coming, Mimi, Papaw, Gary, Andy, Claire & Zach. We love you all!

We're Smiling!

2011-01-03T15:03:00.000-06:00

There were lots of smiles around our house tonight. Know why?

More bags!

Jason, Mimi & Papaw had a very successful trip to the airport today, coming home with another suitcase and the missing carry-on bags. After eight days in the same outfit, they were really, really happy to put on different clothes...

and to give us the sweet gifts they had brought,

which we were also happy to receive!

Have you ever seen anything as cute as these capes?

These guys are ready for adventure!

It was a happy day!

A Good Start

2011-01-02T08:44:00.010-06:00

Some of the bags are here! Five of the eight missing bags were delivered to our house yesterday evening! We're still holding out hope that the others will come soon.Jason and his saw came to the rescue to remove the extra locks that had been placed on some of the bags. And then it was on to the fun part--unpacking the goodies!
Thanks to Mimi, our kitchen is now overflowing with all kinds of wonderful things...and we shouldn't need to buy cereal for a long, long time!

Sarah Claire loved the new duck her cousins sent...

Sawyer was thrilled with his new cars...

and Jason loves the book Stacy made commemorating her trip to visit us last fall. What wonderful gifts!
We also went ahead and exchanged the gifts that we had here before Andy left last night. Andy brought this adorable hat to Sawyer from Ukraine.
We gave these high fashion flip flops to Gary and Andy. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you'll see that these are most definitely authentic Nike flip flops. They have a swoosh, so they have to be authentic, right? Since they say "ALLOALOA," Jason thinks they might be from the Hawaiian branch of Nike. Or maybe they're a little less than authentic. Either way, the multi-directional swoosh is a nice touch.
And Lee Anna presented this hand-painted vase to Mimi, who loved it, of course!

We've got two more days before this crew all heads back home. It's been a sweet time, and we plan on making the most of these last two days.

Sailing in the New Year

2011-01-01T12:44:00.006-06:00

Happy New Year!

What a blessing to spend the first day of 2011 with my whole family!
Here's Lee Anna showing off the beautiful hand-sewn "vishivanka" that Uncle Andy brought her from Ukraine. She loves it! After she opened her present last night, she whispered in my ear, "Mom, I want to wear this shirt on the very first day of summer!" She was thrilled when she realized that with some long sleeves underneath she could wear it even sooner.
We always tend to take lots of pictures on the river. It's a bit more picturesque than much of the rest of our world here.
Aunt Claire spent much of the boat ride on "keep the baby from falling into the water" duty. She did a great job and all three kids came home dry.

I love this sweet picture. Uncle Andy heads back home tonight, but we still have a few more days with the rest of the fam.

Keep checking back for more updates. As a Christmas present to G.G. and Grandpa, we've promised to post on the blog every day this month, but I don't think they'll mind if others check in, too.

Hope your new year has gotten off to a great start!

All Present and Accounted For

2010-12-31T11:42:00.005-06:00

Well, it didn't quite happen as planned, thanks to the crazy weather across the U.S. early this week, but our Christmas guests did finally all arrive!Since Andy was already on this side of the ocean, he didn't have nearly as far to come and wasn't affected by the U.S. airport delays. He got here on schedule Monday night, and since everyone else was delayed, we had an extra day to play with him. We showed him our version of snowball fighting, and he told us what it's like to play with actual snow!

Mimi, Papaw, Claire and Zach arrived early Tuesday morning, about 30 hours after they were scheduled to get here. The trip took 60 hours instead of the usual 20, and not one of their bags was able to keep up with them through the delays and detours. We're still waiting and wondering if we'll ever see any of those bags, but we are glad to have them here, with or without luggage!

They all jumped right in to the kid-spoiling. Needless to say, the kids are eating up all the extra attention.
Uncle Gary was the last to arrive, after he was finally able to dig himself out of the snow in New York. Sarah Claire was glad to have one more person to tell her how cute she is.
We're all enjoying the rare treat of being all together for a few days. What a fun way to end 2010!

Christmas Joy

2010-12-25T15:24:00.004-06:00

Just a quick post to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

We hope you've had a wonderful day of celebration.

Playing the Part

2010-12-16T14:48:00.007-06:00

These little characters came alive at our house tonight!
Complete with swaddling clothes, a bed-sheet stable and a pillowcase-clad manger, Mary and Joseph welcomed their new baby.
Mary tried hard to keep him wrapped up tight, despite the persistent,

noisy efforts of another smaller member of this household, who was

determined to free him!

Our Mary was as precious a mother as I have ever seen.

We even had a visiting shepherd come by to see the baby!

She was precious, too (when she wasn't trying to steal the baby's blanket!).

Welcome, sweet baby.

In the Spirit

2010-11-28T14:42:00.006-06:00

Nothing says "Happy Holidays" like a turkey hat, right? We've had fun this weekend decorating and generally making things festive around here. In the States, there are plenty of decorations in stores and malls and on the streets starting some time in October (September, even?) to remind us that Christmas is coming. But in this part of the world, we have to do a little more inside our house. Lee Anna and Sawyer loved wearing their Santa hats. Sarah Claire wasn't quite so sure.
We get chastised frequently for not having enough clothes on our kids. But it's really really hard to convince Sawyer that he needs jeans and long sleeves when it's 85 degrees outside on Farenheit's thermometer.
Lee Anna is reading the story. She'll be able to read it all to us this year.

Sarah Claire was so very helpful in the decorating process, as evidenced below. First, she helped make sure all the strings of beads were securely in place so no little babies would be able to pull them down.

Then she taste-tested the shepherds and some other nativity characters to make sure they tasted authentic.

And Sawyer helped his puppy Jesse get into the Christmas spirit with the hat and scarf that his Mimi made for him.

Christmas away from home is certainly different, but we're going to enjoy it! It won't be a white Christmas, for sure, but it'll be fun. We're helping our kids develop some traditions of their own.

I Don't think We're in Kansas Anymore

2010-11-20T11:13:00.016-06:00

Aunt Stacy is coming to see us?! Really!?! Apparently the Eleventh Anniversary of one's 29th birthday is a pretty big deal.

The day before she got here, Stacy called and asked me if I could drive to the airport and pick her up. I had to sit down to take this call.

You see, for 6 weeks or so, Beth and Stacy (and Mimi, too) had been plotting a pretty big surprise for my birthday. I knew there was a surprise coming, but I had absolutely no idea it would be this! I was hoping for an iPhone or an iPad, or maybe even an old VW Beetle, but I was just shocked out of my mind that they had convinced Stacy to make a 20-hour trip and come to the desert!

Here we are on Road 9 at Lucille's. I've been walking Rd. 9 for almost 5 years now, but this was my first chance to take my sister there. This was a pretty cool collision of two worlds for me.

This is our friend Omar. No, Stacy wouldn't ride him, since she's great with child and all.

"You see, they're kinda pointy at the top. "
Yes, there really is a Pizza Hut that close. I'm pretty sure it's not as old as the Great Pyramid behind it.

I chose an ice cream cake for the Big Party. Yummylicious.

Lee Anna spent weeks making me a book of "Forty Things I Love About My Dad." This might be the sweetest thing I ever read.

While she managed to avoid the camera most of the trip, Mimi was seldom very far from the grandkids. Thanks for bringing Aunt Stacy to see us!!

What Did You Do Yesterday?

2010-11-11T13:53:00.007-06:00

So what did you do yesterday? I went to a store and bought a small light switch to replace the broken one inside a ceiling fan. For our American readers, going to the store to buy a light switch sounds like a 30-minute round trip to the Home Depot. Oh, that it were that simple.

Yesterday was actually the fourth trip looking for this rare, prized, pull-cord switch. The switch in question controls the light fixture on the bottom of the kids' ceiling fan. Why is it broken, you ask? Well, that's another story altogether. For now, let's just say it involves 4-year-olds and bunk beds.

My first two trips looking for this switch were here in our part of town. I went first to the electrician's shop where I frequently buy light bulbs and have their guy come fix things. The boy in there told me "Momken bokra." Now literally that would be translated "maybe tomorrow," but the deeper meaning behind his words was something like "I've never seen a switch like that, and I'm more likely to sell monkeys tomorrow than to ever carry that particular switch."

On Monday night, I took two American friends with me to the section of town where everything is for sale. It's a huge neighborhood with thousands of shops. The shops are conveniently grouped by the things they sell, so you might find a whole street of shoe stores, and another street that has accessories for your mobile phone. There are literally hundreds of streets, each with its own specialty. We walked through one area that had obnoxiously gaudy chandeliers and even gaudier wedding decorations. Tons of them. I don't know why.

So we wandered around until we saw the electrician shops. I had the old switch with me, and we went into dozens of little stores--each about the size of your American kitchen--or maybe your bathroom if your kitchen is very big. In each store, the proprietors were quite helpful, suggesting other places where we might find something like this switch. But after 3 hours, we headed back to the house, empty handed.

On Thursday, I did a good old-fashioned Google search for electric supply stores in my city. I discovered then that most of these stores were located on a particular street downtown--or at least the stores that had websites were located there. I knew right where that was, so I got one guy to go with me, for navigational purposes, and got back on the train into the City.

When we got to the area in question, we found most of the stores closed for the evening. Nice. But we did see a couple of electric supply places open, so the game was on. Here's how it went:

Me: Do you have a switch like this?

Him: No, but if you go down three blocks and look on your left, that guy has them.

We walked down three blocks and looked on the left, and asked that guy if he had it.

"No, but if you go down one more block and turn right, the second store on the left probably has one."

So we walked down one more block and turned right. We found another small store with tons of switches and wires and related equipment. I asked the guy at this store and he said, "Momken bokra" and told me to try the store upstairs tomorrow. He meant the same thing that our other friend meant when he said try back tomorrow.

We looked around and found another street with lots of electrical supplies. The first three guys we talked to all named the same store--just around the corner, of course--and all seemed pretty confident he would have one. He didn't. He did recognize the switch, and even knew what it was for. He went so far as to look in a bunch of drawers as if he really thought he might actually have one. We knew we were getting close.

This guy suggested that we cross the street and go to the fifth store on the left. He'll have it for sure. Well, we did, and he didn't. "But the guy right next door, he has stuff like that." Sure he does.

But he did! I showed it to him and he said "That goes to the light fixture on a ceiling fan. How many do you want?" I wanted to get a dozen, just in case we broke one again, but I didn't want to hog them all up and keep other fathers of active four-year-olds from being able to fix their light fixtures. So we took one, gave the man a dollar and headed back home.

And now the kids' bedroom is all lit up again, for the first time in several months. That means we've had several months to remind our active four-year-old that jumping from the top bunk and grabbing the light cord is not a good way to turn off the lights. Think he'll remember?

Don't Play with Matches

2010-09-21T06:25:00.003-05:00

Almost every weekend, our neighbor across the street rakes up the leaves from his yard and burns them off. Well, evidently, he let one get away from him a couple of weeks ago. It started for us when we heard some shouting out in the street. I walked out on the balcony to see if there was a fight or someone selling something that was worth buying, or some other excitement.

From my balcony I could feel the heat of the fire. We're five stories up, and the flames were almost at eye level! A friend had left his car parked outside our house while he was traveling, so I ran down to move it away from the action. After I did, the fire truck came and parked right where that car had been and the firemen started unrolling hoses.

The truck is parked behind the trees to the left in this picture.

They unrolled the hose, and one of the firemen held the end of the hose up and got ready to spray. They opened the valve on the truck and… Do you see what’s happening here? The truck is to the left, still, and the water is gushing out on the ground. Seems someone forgot the all-important step of connecting the hose to the truck before opening the valve!

They did eventually get it all hooked together and got the fire under control. The protective layer of water also kept the street from burning up, I guess. The neighbor has erected a bamboo fence to replace the big arbor hedge he burned up. Two weeks later, every time we ride by that fence, Sawyer still says, “Look! That’s where the fire was!!”

Don't Be a Lazy Cow!

2010-09-19T14:55:00.006-05:00

(a guest post by Jason)

I am blissfully ignorant of the processes involved in dairy farming and milk production. I know it involves cows and…well, that’s all I really know. I’ve often wondered what the skimming process is like. I’m picturing a big screen-type device that you run across the top of the fresh milk and gather up big chunks of creamy stuff. The problem with this theory is that in our “full cream” or “whole” milk, there aren’t any big chunks of creamy stuff to skim off the top. You can imagine me sitting at breakfast every morning for the past 30 years or so, wondering how that works.

Well, thanks to a local milk producer, I have finally figured it out! Skim milk comes from healthy, skinny cows, and full cream milk comes from fat, lazy cows! Look at the pictures that greet us every morning from the newly-designed milk bottles!

I just wonder if these cows look anything like the fat cows and skinny cows that Pharaoh dreamed about.

Have Scalpel, Will Travel

2010-09-10T09:40:00.008-05:00

You know those get-to-know-you games you play in a new group where you have to tell a strange, unknown fact about yourself? Well, I have a new one: I've had surgery in a hotel room!

It all started about three weeks ago. I chipped off part of my big toenail, and within a week it was ingrown and red and really hurt to walk on. So I called our local medical clinic and explained what I needed. The receptionist told me she didn't understand the phrase "ingrown toenail," so I explained in my best Arabic--my toenail is growing into my toe. "Oh, you need a dermatologist." No ma’am, I think I need a podiatrist. “Okay, you can see the dermatologist tomorrow at 5:00.”

Meanwhile, we had heard about a medical group visiting our town to do some volunteer clinics. So we made a phone call and found that there was an experienced, American surgeon in town who would be happy to look at my toe. Just meet him at their hotel at 12:30. They’d be having an early lunch, but needed to leave at 1:00 for their first clinic.

We met Dr. Bill Bailey at about 12:15. He was kind and friendly, and said he’d done a bunch of toes like this. I lay down on a twin bed, and he started taking medical stuff out of a suitcase!

I have a low threshold for pain. A very low threshold, I think. I generally just try to avoid anything that might hurt. But my toe had been hurting enough already that I was willing to lie down and let him stick the needle into my foot.

In the next picture, you might notice a camera phone really close to the action. A good friend of mine volunteered to hold my hand so that Beth could be free to hold Lee Anna, who was in the room but a little shaken up to see Daddy getting hurt. I think he wanted to be there to hold my hand just so he could be close enough to get a good video!

When it was all over, Dr. Bill wrapped it up real good, and we hobbled on home. It’s pretty well healed up now, though I did enjoy a couple of recovery days in the recliner.

So it wasn’t open-heart surgery or even removing my appendix, but I really have had surgery in a hotel room. Thanks Dr. Bill!

Hittin' the Books

2010-09-01T15:23:00.004-05:00

School Season has begun for our little Arab Musicians, and we've had a fun first week of learning together! Sawyer is still going to his local preschool every day, but we're also doing some other activities and lots of reading together when he gets home. So far he really loves that he has his own school time with me. We'll see if the novelty wears off!

And Lee Anna is now a first grader! Here we are all ready to go on our first morning.
She's had a great time with her first grade work this week, although she did observe that it's "a little bit harder than kindergarten." I think she's up for the challenge.

One of the fun things she's doing this year is learning to type. I was a little older than six when I took typing, but it's a different world now. She'll be typing better than her Papaw before long!

This last picture has nothing to do with school, but I couldn't resist putting it up. Sarah Claire has got some serious peach fuzz hair these days, and on the day we took this photo it was particularly fuzzy. I am confident that one day it will start laying down like regular hair, but there's no indication it's going to change any time soon.
We've also had some medical adventures this week, which I will try to post sometime soon. Stay tuned!

Birthday Surprises

2010-08-22T13:58:00.003-05:00

This boy makes me so happy. Last night when we were out at dinner, he grabbed a crayon and started writing me the precious note you see above (click on it to enlarge). True, he got some help with spelling, and his first attempt at an "M" ended up upside down, but we were both very surprised...and impressed! He's still a year away from kindergarten, and we haven't worked on writing at all! Plus, what Mom wouldn't love a note like that?
I also got this delightful surprise from my thoughtful husband a few days ago. I had had a pretty rough day, and he went to two different stores to find a can of Dr. Pepper for me. I enjoyed every sip!

Thanks to my boys, it's already been a great birthday, and the big day isn't even here yet!

Ramadan Kareem!

2010-08-17T06:02:00.007-05:00

(So sorry about the terrible picture quality. They're all from my phone.)

The other day, the kids and I got to visit some friends for the big "breakfast" meal at sunset. My friend had spent the day cooking, and by the time we got there 30 minutes before sunset, everything was prepared. She served the dishes ahead of time, and then we waited for the signal that it was time to eat. The kids got to go ahead, so they were pretty much done by the time she and I took our first bite.

They don't have a kitchen table, so we ate on the coffee table in the living room. As you can see from the picture above, that meant that all of the food was perfectly within Sarah Claire's reach. Which means that my time was evenly divided between eating my food and keeping her fingers out of the rice.
This is the typical drink used the break the fast. It also was prepared and sitting out ready for about 30 minutes beforehand. It has dates and other dried fruits in it. You sort of half-drink, half-eat it, but it's good.
My friend had recenly gotten a kitten, and all the kids really enjoyed playing with her. They also enjoyed letting her slide down the slide that you can see in the top picture. I'm not so sure the kitten enjoyed it.
Another night this week, we went to our favorite restaurant to eat the "breakfast" meal. I know the picture above is blurry. Every picture I've ever taken of Sarah Claire with my phone is blurry because she does not know how to be still. But I posted it anyway, because she put that "hat" on her head all by herself and then just grinned and grinned because she was so proud of herself.
Outside the restaurant, they had a special kids' area set up for Ramadan. The kids got to choose a little cardboard cut-out and paint it. They each chose a Ramadan lantern and got to work.
As you can imagine, this thrilled our little artist to no end.
While the big kids were painting away, Sarah Claire was busy making friends with everyone in the mall. We're pretty sure this family might be making wedding plans now!

So those are some of our Ramadan adventures. We've still got three weeks to go, so I'm sure there will be more to come.

Lanterns, Lanterns Everywhere!

2010-08-10T12:47:00.007-05:00

It's that time of year again... Ramadan is upon us!

For the next thirty days, our friends and neighbors will be fasting from sunup to sundown, then feasting every evening and very late into the night. These lanterns are a Ramadan fixture in our country, and several weeks before the fasting starts, little lantern shops pop up all over the city. You can get one as tall as you are, or as small as keychain size. They have singing lanterns, flashing light lanterns, and all kinds of other fun varieties.

We're also observing an extra time change this year thanks to the holiday. We're turning clocks back an hour tonight (earlier sunset=earlier breaking fast), then turning them forward again at the end of the thirty days, then turning them back again at the end of September! We're probably just going to be a little confused about what time it is for the next few months.

As the locals say, "Ramadan Kareem!"

Beautiful Feet

2010-07-30T13:40:00.008-05:00

(Disclaimer: If you don't like looking at feet, you should probably stop reading now. Consider yourself warned.)

We had a fun little mother/daughter outing today with some of the friends we've made this month. We girls all went to get pedicures!The little girls actually got their fingers painted too, while the moms just enjoyed having their feet taken care of (another mom and I were both told that our feet had "big problems," so apparently it was high time!). The pic above is Lee Anna with her color selection. It turned out really cute!
She went for the alternating look, and then the girl who painted them added lots of cute decorations on top of that. Here's a close-up of her fingers:
And here are Lee Anna's toes, along with her friend Annabelle's. I think it's fun that she has a friend here named Annabelle, since her nickname since birth has been "Lee Anna Belle."
Here are all the girls with the ladies who made their nails beautiful. I know we were a more, um, exciting crowd than their typical customers, but they were very kind and liked seeing how excited the girls were.
And here are mother's and daughter's feet. I don't know that I've ever had a color quite that bright on my toes, but I was assured that it's a great summer color. I do really like it.
And last, you can't see our toes, but here's me with some of my sweet new friends.
It's hard to believe we just met these guys a few weeks ago. They feel like family now, which means we've got some hard goodbyes coming up in less than a week.

Fast Friends

2010-07-26T07:35:00.003-05:00

We have really enjoyed getting to know some other families who are here this month. There are lots of kids all around the same age, and they are having a blast together. They spend all day together while we're in our meetings, but they still want to play more after we pick them up! It's so neat to watch how quickly they have grown to love each other. We will have some sad goodbyes to say next week (but we'll be excited to see the sweet friends who are back at home!).

Seeing the Sights

2010-07-18T13:51:00.003-05:00

We're away from home this month, visiting Jordan for a work conference. We've gotten to know some other great families, and this weekend several of us went together to visit some of the sights. It was very, very hot, but we laughed a lot and loved getting to see such neat places.Here are the kids on Mt. Nebo doing their best Moses impression. We're pretty sure that's how Moses looked gazing off into the Promised Land, except maybe without the guard rail.

And here we are sticking our feet in the Jordan River. The kids weren't thrilled at how green it was, but they had fun putting their toes in.

We also got to visit the Dead Sea, but we didn't take any pictures. Lee Anna got in the water briefly, but did not like the way the salty water made her skin feel. On the way home, we stopped at a tourist shop and were looking at some magnets for sale. Lee Anna saw one that said "The Dead Sea" and she said, "We could get that, and I could write underneath it, 'I DON'T LIKE IT'."

Sorry there aren't more pictures. We totally forgot our camera on this trip, so we are relying on other people to document the cool things we're doing. Good thing we have nice friends!

By the Sea

2010-07-04T14:53:00.007-05:00

This is where we spent last week. Gorgeous, isn't it?

Mimi, Papaw, and Uncle Andy all joined us for a week by the sea. It was great to see them all, and even greater to spend time with them in such a beautiful place!

Sarah Claire loved the water and tried hard to keep up with her brother and sister.

She did not, however, get a turn on the Waverunner. Maybe next time.

We swam, saw some dolphins and fish, and thoroughly enjoyed the peace and quiet!

Hooray for Vacation!

On a sadder note, when they left at the end of the week, they took Aunt Claire with them, so we're really missing her. We LOVED having her with us this summer. Luckily, we've got another trip coming up soon, so we don't have much time to sit around and be sad. We're definitely having an exciting summer around here!

Birthday Week 2010

2010-06-17T14:57:00.006-05:00

We've had fun celebrating our girls around here this week. With their birthdays just separated by one day, it looks like the middle of June is always going to be a big time for our family!

Instead of one big party, Lee Anna had several smaller celebrations for her birthday this year. First, we had two of her good friends come spend the night last weekend. Their family is going to be spending the rest of the year in the states, so all four kids were glad to have one more play day before they left.

Lee Anna made the birthday crown she's wearing above about a month ago and has been saving it for her big day. We spread out the presents that she had received from grandparents and other relatives, so that every few hours she got to open another one. All of the kids got excited when it was "present time!"
They loved decorating (and eating!) their star cookies on a stick!

Later we got to have some other friends over, and there were a few more presents to open. That's also when we ate her birthday cake (pictured at the top). Lee Anna chose the colors and design, and Aunt Claire made it happen!

On the day in between the girls' birthdays, we took a little mini-vacation to a nearby hotel with a great swimming pool, wave pool, and kids' water play area.

We stayed until the kids were wrinkled up like little prunes and completely worn out. It was wonderful!

Sarah Claire loved the water--and the ice cream!

So that's how we celebrated our firstborn's birthday this year. Stay tuned for pictures of Sarah Claire turning one!

June 15

2010-06-15T15:08:00.005-05:00

Six years ago, on June 15, I was holding this two-day-old princess...and now I'm holding this!
One year ago, on June 15, I was holding this brand new little angel...

and now she's one year old!

Happy Birthday to both of my girls this week. I love you!

May Days

2010-05-31T15:36:00.005-05:00

Well I am starting to come to grips with the fact that maybe I'm not going to be able to post as much as I used to on the blog. Hopefully at some point I'll be able to get back into posting more frequently, but until then I'll keep popping in when I can.

We've had a fun month full of activity. It started out with four days of houseguests--sweet friends who wanted to see some camels and sand on their way back to the states--followed immediately by Sawyer's fourth birthday. Here's my too-grown-up boy ready for his birthday breakfast on "the special plate.

We had a great time celebrating his birthday with lots of friends that night.
Then, a week later, it was time for more monkey pictures. Sarah Claire is quickly approaching her Big Day, so this is her 11-month monkey picture.
She decided that eleven months was long enough for a girl to stay down, and she took off walking this month. For the first few weeks, she was walking mostly with her arms straight out in the air, which is, for the record, ADORABLE.Here she is with big sis in their precious new dresses, just walking down the hall like she's been doing it forever.We've had to say several hard goodbyes this month, but thankfully we've also gotten to say some fun hellos. We like those a lot better! Just last week we said hello to Aunt Claire, who is going to be here with us for the next month. We are having fun teaching her about our crazy life--and she is fitting right in!

So that's what we've been up to lately! Thanks for sticking with us even when we don't check in very often.

Baby Steps

2010-04-18T16:12:00.004-05:00

I'm a couple days late with Sarah Claire's ten-month monkey picture, but it's not because I haven't been trying! She has been a little bit under the weather this week with a nose running like a faucet and eyes producing massive amounts of yucky stuff.

However, as yucky as the stuff in her eyes was, she was not interested in having them cleaned. My attempts to wash them usually just triggered more crying which meant more runny nose and eyes!

So, my first two attempts at a monkey picture came up dry, but today we finally got a decent one. You can still see some of the redness in her eyes, but trust me, this is much better than she's been looking! I'm so glad that she's feeling better, and just amazed that she is really ten months old already.

This has been a fun month. She is an expert speed-crawler now, and she is so very close to walking. She took three tiny steps in a row one time today, but she usually falls after her first step. She is also doing lots of baby signs for us--dog, cat, more, all done, bye-bye, duck, and no-no are all part of her repertoire. And she gives the sweetest kisses in the world. :)

Happy Tenth Month to our little princess!

Our Little Poet

2010-04-12T16:04:00.006-05:00

Lee Anna and I have read lots of poetry together this year, and she got excited when I told her that her assignment today was to write her own. She declared immediately that they should be "silly" poems, and then we worked together to come up with some ideas. The assignment was to write an "imagery poem," so we talked about making comparisons and painting pictures with our words.

Here are her compositions:

The Clock
One day my father climbed
into the clock
to make it ding.
He was the dinger.
I thought it was the clock.

The Rain on My Head
The sun shone on my head,
so hot that the sweat came down
from my head like raindrops.

The Hurricane
The baby goes from room to room
making a mess like a hurricane.

The Monkey
My monkey brother climbs, climbs, climbs
in our jungle house.

The Dust Storm
The dust rolls out like a sleeping bag
spreading out to be slept on.

I admit I'm extremely biased, but I was impressed! We both had so much fun that we will definitely be writing more soon.

Sunrise Celebration

2010-04-04T16:45:00.004-05:00

Happy Easter, Everyone! We hope you had a joyful day celebrating Jesus.

This morning we did something new for our family--we watched the sun rise from a sailboat on the river! Our kids haven't seen many sunrises in their time (especially if you don't count the ones from an airplane window!), so this was a special treat.That 4:30 a.m. alarm sure was early, but definitely worth it. The kids only took a minute or two to come out of their fog and remember that we were going on a BOAT! Once that sank in, they sprang to life. We made the short walk to the sailboats and waited for our friends to join us.

We had a great time singing together (led by my floating minstrel husband), eating delicious breakfast treats, enjoying the peaceful calm, and of course watching for the sun to rise.

Here's our first glimpse!

We had a double-dose today, because we also got to spend time later with more friends as our families celebrated Easter together. I don't have any good pictures from that get-together, but we had a great time telling and reenacting the Easter story, enjoying lots more delicious food, and even hiding an egg or two. It was a wonderful day.

Happy, Happy Easter! He is Risen!

Special Visitor

2010-03-20T12:18:00.003-05:00

We've had a special guest tagging along with us this week. The kids' cousin Autumn has been reading about Flat Stanley at her school in Texas, and she asked if she could send him to us.We were so excited to get Stanley in the mail, and we're having fun showing him around our city. Lee Anna even made some extra Stanleys to accompany Autumn's on all their adventures.
So far Stanley has seen the world's longest river, a thousand-year-old fortress...

and some slightly-newer establishments! We thought this last one would be meaningful for a classroom full of kindergarteners.

We have big plans for Stanley this week. Tonight he gets to go to the airport to pick up Mimi and Papaw who are coming for a short visit on their way to visit Uncle Andy. I guess we'll let them tag along with Stanley this week, too!

It's Monkey Time Again...

2010-03-15T16:18:00.005-05:00

Sarah Claire is nine months old!

Our little princess is now towering over her monkey! As a matter of fact, before this photo shoot was over, she had thrown him out of the crib onto the floor.
She's come a long way in her 3/4 of a year of life. At last week's doctor visit, she weighed 8.8 kgs (19 lbs, 6 oz) and was 70 cm (27.5 in) tall. And the general consensus these days is that she looks a lot like her brother. We heard it four times in four days (from four different people) last week!

Here are some of my favorite recent pics...

We love you, Sarah Claire! You are a joy and a delight!

Our Little Artist

2010-03-01T14:36:00.007-06:00

Today was an exciting day for Lee Anna. She got to go to her first day of Art Class! A sweet homeschooling friend of mine talked to a local art cafe about doing a class for our kids. They were happy to schedule a time for them to come.
So today, four very excited five-and-six-year-olds started working on their first project--a giant paper mache watch that will be a working clock! Today they assembled the pieces and "painted" the paper on. Next week they'll get to paint their watches. I'm hoping someone who has finished first grade will actually install the clock mechanism.

Lee Anna has been beside herself with excitement about this class. When I first told her about it (which was only two days ago), she said, "Oh, that will be great because I'm a really good art...um...artist." It took her a minute to think of the word for it, but she loves to do it!

Yesterday evening I suggested that she might want to pick out her clothes for today, and she came back with her t-shirt from the Jacksonville Zoo, chosen very thoughtfully because it has paint splotches all over it. She said she thought it would be a good one for art class "since it has art stuff on it."

Not long after that, Jason found her on the couch playing with her Magna Doodle. She told him she was just practicing for some things she might have to do in her art class. We'll be sure to share pictures of her finished products.

*Update from Tuesday, March 2*

Today one of Lee Anna's school assignments was to write about her first art class. Here's what she wrote:

On my first day of art class, I got to start making a huge clock tht looks like a giant watch. My teachers are going to put the machine in it and make it work with the hands. And I'm going to paint a dot right where I want the hands to be. My art class was at Art Cafe. David was ther. There were four kids, but I can't remember the other two. I wore my shirt that I got at the zoo for my brother's birthday, because it was a kind of art shirt. I liked it.

Streams in the Desert

2010-02-27T13:35:00.003-06:00

We've been here a little better than four years now, and this is the second time we've seen enough rain to measure. In America, rain is considered a good thing. Here, well, it's a little different. This past Thursday was rainy-looking all day. It showered a little in the morning, and just stayed cloudy and damp all day.

Then, about 6:00, we started seeing lightning in the sky. Before we knew it, the wind was howling, and the rain was gushing and we even saw some hail! It made us a little nervous when we heard the hail tapping on the windows. It made the little ones more than a little nervous!

Lee Anna's rain gauge had over an inch of rain in it Friday morning. Of course, that's on the edge of our balcony, under the edge of someone else's balcony, but it had an inch of water in it from somewhere.

The bedrooms in our house each have glass doors to the small balconies, but we discovered that they're not really water-tight. We rolled up some towels next to each door and held back the deluge.

These street pictures were taken the next day, probably 18 hours after the rain had stopped. When you only have water in the roads once or twice a decade, it's not really worth investing millions of dollars in a drainage system. It'll be dry in a day or two.

The trees are all green and pretty today, but all of the dirt that had collected on them is now in the roads. When it rains here is a lot like when it snows in the South. People aren't really used to driving in water, and everybody that can stay home does. We had meetings cancelled Friday, and I saw lots of stores closed on Thursday while it was still sprinkling.

This last picture is of the hailstones collected in a planter off our front porch. There's not a local Arabic word for "snow," or "hail," so we just call it all "ice." But I was reading a local online paper Friday morning and clicked the Google Translate button and in English it said there had been snow in our city! No, there wasn't. But a good thunderstorm is just about as rare as snow here.

Check Me Out!

2010-02-15T14:26:00.007-06:00

Now that I'm eight months old, I have much better things to do than sit down and wait to be photographed! I've been practicing my new stand-up trick for the last few weeks, and today I let my monkey stand beside me for my picture.

Now I just need to teach him how to stick his tongue out!
Here's my serious face. What do you think?
And a few more smiley ones, just because my mom likes them all!

Happy Eight Months to Me!
Love, Sarah Claire

Happy Valen's Time Day!

2010-02-14T09:16:00.004-06:00

I'm not sure what a Valen is, but we're celebrating his time at our house today. :)

Lee Anna got flowers from her Daddy, which made this "the very best day ever!"She made cards for everyone this morning, and she was so proud to read Sawyer's to him when he came home. We also made special Valentine pizzas (above) and cookies (below).

We hope you've been able to spend this day with people you love. Happy Valentine's Day!

Fun With Friends

2010-02-10T14:20:00.007-06:00

We've had a lot of fun guests in our home over the past week, and have been able to enjoy some parts of both of the places we call "home."

First, last weekend, my friend and her two daughters came over for dinner. I asked her to help me make some local dishes, and we had fun preparing the feast you see below. The kids on the right are a little more excited about the local dishes than the kids on the left, but they all enjoyed the rice!After dinner, we found a game that crossed the language barrier--Memory! Jason and the kids taught the other girls how to play, and they all had lots of fun finding matches and naming the pictures in English and Arabic.
On Monday, it was time for some all-American entertainment--the Super Bowl!

(By the way, after we'd been talking about it for several days, I realized that Lee Anna was calling it the "Super Goal." I can see why. She knew that "goal" was a sports word, but didn't know what a "bowl" would have to do with a football game!)
We were interested in seeing the game, but not interested enough to stay up all night, so we did what we've done in years past and watched the recorded game on Monday evening. We had to avoid our computers all day Monday in order to not find out who won ahead of time, but we managed to do it.

We had a fun group of Americans here to watch the game with us. In honor of Jason's New Orleans roots, we made red beans and rice.

Some girls even made a King Cake! They had a little trouble finding a baby to put it in, though, so they substituted the closest thing they could find--a baby rubber ducky! I'm guessing that's a first.
Sawyer and his friend Chase decided to get in on the football action themselves.
And Sarah Claire entertained the crowd by smiling with her tongue out and climbing all over her Daddy. It seems like lately her tongue has spent more time out of her mouth than inside it. I'm not really sure why, although it might have something to do with the two new teeth that have poked through this week. (On second thought, judging from this picture, it might just be genetic!)
This last picture isn't from the party, but she wanted to show off her newest trick. She's figured out how to pull up to standing, and is practicing every chance she gets!
It won't be long before she's wobbling her way around the house. Can this really be my baby?

Who Needs a Classroom?

2010-01-20T15:17:00.006-06:00

We may have spent most of this week playing at the beach, but that doesn't mean we didn't get some schoolwork done! Just check out all the subjects our dedicated little students covered:

Geology... ...Physics...
...Marine Biology...

...Meteorology...

...Art... ...Math...

...Spelling...

...Foreign Language (with a bit of Conflict Management)...

....and lots...

...and lots... ...and lots...

of PE!

They also learned about international economics as we watched those big ships haul their freight up to the canal, and Sawyer and Daddy had to employ some pretty high-level engineering skills to build their rock-bridge.

In fact, this was such an educational trip, we're pretty sure we need to get back out there as soon as possible. We might even just stay. For the kids's sake, you understand.

Lazy Days

2010-01-18T05:11:00.005-06:00

We're taking a few days off this week and hanging out at our favorite vacation spot. We got here yesterday and are enjoying the peace and quiet. Sarah Claire went with us to the beach for a little while this morning. She hasn't gotten in the sand yet, but maybe she'll get a chance later today. I'm sure if I tell her not to put it in her mouth, she won't, right?

The big kids are having a blast running and playing and exploring. They brought me these flowers this morning.

And they walked out and threw lots of rocks in the water with Daddy.

In the picture above, they're running back to tell me that it's raining! I had already felt the drops where I was sitting, and we were surrounded by dark clouds, so we packed up and headed back in for a while. It's been raining softly now for a while. That might seem like a sad thing to have on a beach vacation, but we're loving it. It's such a rarity here that we enjoy it whenever it comes!

We brought our school books, so we're getting in some good reading time today.

Daddy gave me a hard time for bringing school stuff on our trip. He said that he never had to do school on vacation, but I reminded him that he also never got to wait until November to start his school year!

We were going to just read some books, but she insisted that we do handwriting, too.

Not to be outdone, Sawyer did some letter practice of his own.

The rain seems to have stopped, and I can see the sun peeking through, so I bet we'll be out by the water again pretty soon!

Seven Months

2010-01-16T06:18:00.003-06:00

Guess who turned seven months old yesterday! Here's the "Monkey Picture." It's getting a little harder to take this picture now that she's mobile. She spent about thirty seconds sitting up with the monkey, and then she was ready to move!
"I've got places to go, Mom!"
While she's not quite technically crawling, she can get where she wants to go.

It won't be long till she gets it all together!
We love you, little seven-month-old!

Pajama Day!

2010-01-09T09:31:00.008-06:00

(the boy can smile, can't he?)

No, despite what some of you are apparently thinking, our blog writer is not on strike. She's just busy taking care of the blog subjects. :) We're still here. This past Thursday was a holiday, so we've had a long weekend (Thursday, Friday, Saturday in this part of the world) with lots of good family time. It's been fun, but I'm ready to get back to our routine in the morning.

Yesterday, some time shorly after breakfast, Lee Anna proclaimed that we were going to have Pajama Day. For some reason it thrilled her to no end to be able to wear her pajamas all day long. The grown-ups did get dressed, but as you'll see in the pictures of our dinner below, the kids observed Pajama Day from start to finish.

We started our morning by watching the National Championship football game from the night before. It had only been over for a few hours when we got started watching it. We could have gotten up at 3 a.m. to watch it live, but we're too old for that. Jason actually set his alarm for 5 a.m. so he could check the score and see if he wanted to get up and watch the second half live, but when the alarm actually went off, he decided that he would really rather enjoy the whole experience by watching the game from start to finish. Or maybe he just decided he wanted to sleep some more.

Either way, we avoided checking email or facebook or any other internet-related sites that would have spoiled it for us and got started watching right after breakfast. Just for the record, those pizza commercials are not nearly as appetizing at 10 in the morning. It was a super game, and we had a great time watching it.

We hung around the house in the afternoon and got a little closer to finally having everything unpacked and organized (not there yet, just closer), and then we had a special treat for dinner...

Grilled hamburgers and hot dogs!

This is the first time in the four years we've been here that we've been able to grill food at our house. We packed a little charcoal grill in the crate that we just received last week, and this was our first time to use it. The burgers and dogs were delicious! Here are the kids demonstrating their excitement...and their slightly unorthodox hot-dog-eating methods!

Someone should really tell them that they're supposed to start at the end.
Sarah Claire did not get to partake of the grilled goodness that the rest of us enjoyed, but she has been expanding her horizons in the last few weeks. She's eaten rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, and green beans. Here's the dinner she had last night.
And here she is enjoying it. She enjoys the green beans a little less than the other foods, but most of the time she doesn't spit them back out! I'm pretty proud of the fact that I took this picture with one hand while feeding her with the other. Impressive, I know.
And here's one more shot of the pajama-clad kiddos. We made our own dessert last night, which is a whole other blog post of its own. They didn't turn out quite a pretty as they were supposed to, but they tasted good! And they had sprinkles, which is just about all it takes to make these kids happy.
And when you add sugar and sprinkles to all-day pajama wearing, it's almost too much happy for them to bear. :) Happy Pajama Day, everyone!

Treasured Memories from Christmas 2009

2009-12-27T13:42:00.008-06:00

1. Reading our Advent book together each night and hearing them quote the parts from previous days.

2. Making delicious Christmas goodies with my budding chef.
3. Hearing Sawyer call our nativity set the "activity set."

4. Teaching Sawyer that Lee Anna's new make up kit (and any other make up, for that matter!) is not for him.

5. Hearing unsolicited "thank you's" after they opened each gift on Christmas morning.

6. Rehearsing every time Daddy left the house for two weeks to give him his gift of a surprise Christmas Concert.
7. Splitting up at the mall so that Sawyer and Lee Anna could shop for each other.

8. Singing "O Come Let Us Adore Him" together to end our prayer time each night.

9. Hearing Sawyer sing Christmas carols nonstop all month long--until it was time for the concert!

10. Hearing Lee Anna recite the Christmas story on Christmas morning.

11. Watching Lee Anna decide on her own to give one of her dolls to a needy little girl.

12. Telling and retelling our new favorite Christmas joke: What Christmas carol do they sing in the desert? O Camel Ye Faithful!

We hope you had a wonderful, joy-filled celebration with lots of memories to treasure.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T16:20:00.000-06:00

You Know You're the Third Child When...

2009-12-19T09:04:00.004-06:00

it takes you six months to get included in the blog header!

I guess now Sarah Claire is an official Arab Musician. We're glad to finally have her join us. Thanks to Nikki for doing another super job on our blog design! She is great to work with.

Check back soon to see what we've been up to!

It's Our Turn

2009-12-13T14:41:00.004-06:00

Well, I finally did one of these cute videos. Lee Anna's friend Madison is very sick this week, so we decided to make this video to try to cheer her up. It's already been watched many times at our house, and we thought you might enjoy seeing it too. I'm pretty sure these are the only snowballs these kids will be throwing at each other, since they live in the desert and all!

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All She Wants for Christmas

2009-12-11T16:09:00.007-06:00

Daddy worked hard trying to get a good picture of Sarah Claire's new pearly whites, although she was a bit hesitant to show them off for the camera!

Believe me, they're in there! She cut her first two teeth in two days, and now Sawyer and Lee Anna are pretty sure she should be able to talk and eat whatever she wants. We'll be keeping a close eye on them. I don't think Sarah Claire's quite ready for apples and carrots yet!

It's That Time of Year Again!

2009-12-02T13:33:00.004-06:00

Sarah Claire's not sure what all the fuss is about, but she's enjoying it with the rest of us! We've had fun decorating our home for Christmas this week. While much of it looks the same as in years past, we've also added a few new decorations and traditions this year.

We had fun working together to decorate the tree.

The kids also love having this little tree (which I got a few years ago for $1 at Walmart) in their own room. This year it has this pretty tree skirt that GG got them, so it's even better.

GG also found this great Advent calendar for us, and we are enjoying that new tradition this year. Some days the calendar has candy in it, and some days it has other things. In the Day 2 pocket they found a coupon for a "Christmas Activity," so we worked together to make our annual Christmas chain.

In the past we've always just used plain paper strips for our chain, but they were ready to take it up a notch this year, so we decorated each strip.

Lee Anna was the leader of the strip-decorating efforts. Sawyer decorated a total of one, while she and I did the other 22. Maybe next year we can divide the work more evenly. Sawyer was much more interested in helping with the stapling part of the project (which I did not let him do, since I am not interested in visiting any ERs this holiday season).

They were both proud of the finished product!

And here is one more new tradition we've added this year. I read about this book last year and was able to order a copy while we were in the states. It has 24 pages with a door to be opened on each page. Behind each door is a beautiful illustration with a portion of the Christmas story. The idea is to read each door you've opened every night, up to the door for that day. It's a great, fun way for us to recount the story each night leading up to Christmas.

So this is what we see when we gather at the tree each night before bedtime. It's been a great beginning to a joyful season, and we're enjoying our traditions, old and new (although I may need an Excel document to keep track of whose turn it is to check the calendar, tear off the chain, open the door, and blow out the candle!). Merry Christmas!

Where have we been, you ask?

2009-11-26T13:49:00.005-06:00

Oh, you know, the usual places... hanging out around some really old rocks...
spending some quality time with Mr. Monkey for SC's 5-month photo shoot...
taking in gorgeous views during a cross-country drive...
sharing the road with camels...
and enjoying a relaxing weekend at the sea.

Just a bit of trivia: the mountains you see in the distance are not our country, but a neighboring one. We were just a stone's throw from three other countries at our vacation spot--pretty cool!

It was great to get away from it all for a few days. However, we realized at the end of our trip that we might need to try to stay in one place for a while. When I told Sawyer that we were going home, he said, "Mommy, which one is our house?" We've moved so much this summer and fall that the poor child doesn't know where he lives!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone! We're so thankful for the chance to have adventures like these, and for all of you who are on this journey with us.

Is it Nov. 1 yet?

2009-11-03T13:32:00.002-06:00

I am happy to report that our furniture has arrived!It has been an ordeal, but we are thrilled to be finally unpacking all of our suitcases, 34 days after we got here.

Here's a little rundown of our last few days:

Saturday afternoon: Jason calls the furniture company to ask what time they'll be delivering it on Sunday (which he had been told to do). The person on the phone tells him "after 3 p.m."

Sunday, 3:00 p.m.: Nothing.

Sunday, 5:00 p.m.: Jason calls again to see when they will bring the furniture. He is told that the delivery people work till midnight, so it won't be after that.

Sunday, 7:00 p.m.: Jason receives a call from the delivery people saying they will be here at 6:00 a.m. Monday morning.

Sunday, 11:00 p.m.: We go to bed, still furniture-less.

Monday, 6:00 a.m.: Nothing.

Monday, 7:15 a.m.: They show up with the furniture! This is great, but they bring everything in pieces and it's obvious they don't plan on assembling it. Jason asks about this, and they tell him the assembly guy will come later. "When would you like him to come?" Jason tells them 5:00 would be good.

Monday, 5:00 p.m.: Nothing.

Monday, 6:00 p.m.: Jason calls the company, and is told that the assembly guy also works till midnight. Great.

Monday, 9:00 p.m.: Jason decides to go ahead and put our bed together.

Monday, 11:00 p.m.: We go to bed, feeling pretty confident the assembly guy is not coming. We're glad to be on a mattress that's not on the floor for the first time in 3 weeks.

Tuesday, 10:30 a.m.: The assembly guy calls! He says he'll be there at 11:30 or 12. Sure you will, buddy.

Tuesday, 12:45 p.m.: He shows up! Two of them, actually, and they put it all together in an hour and a half. They cannot understand why Jason couldn't wait for them to put the bed together.
As you can see in the pictures, the furniture they brought included all of our bedroom furniture, our dining room table and chairs, and a guest bed. We are pleased with all of it.

You can also see in the first picture why my friend affectionately calls this the "Barney Building." I'm not sure what reason he could have possibly had, but some unknown force compelled the designer of this white building to paint all the window and door frames bright purple. ALL of the windows and doors are that attractive color. However, you'll be glad to know that we do have paint stores here, so we should be able to take care of that once it moves high enough up the priority list. Things are coming together, shwaya shwaya (little by little).

The Last Few Days

2009-10-31T15:51:00.003-05:00

Here's a little of what we've been up to: We're still waiting on our furniture, but we needed to go ahead and get rid of the patio table we've been eating on, so for the last two days we've eaten our meals at the kids' table. Tomorrow is Furniture Day, so we should get to start sitting in big-people chairs again soon.

And Sarah Claire got so excited about finally getting to be in her crib that she rolled over! I had left her lying on her back, and came back to find her on her tummy examining her crib bumper. She will soon be mobile, which is going to change things for all of us!

And tonight we had a little Halloween fun. Our Ladybug, Care Bear, and Superman were joined tonight by another friend for a little trick-or-treating fun inside our flat. They had a great time, as usual, and will be enjoying their candy for a while. It's hard to believe they've grown so much since this Halloween post last year, or this one the year before that, or this one before that.

And I just had to include a few more pics of Sarah Claire because, well, I'm her mom and this is my blog. I'm pretty sure I've never seen a little Care Bear this precious...at least not since her sister wore this outfit five years ago.

Her other new trick is putting anything and everything she gets her hands on in her mouth. She's just gained enough coordination to actually pull this off consistently, and if I remember correctly, she's going to keep practicing this one for a while. Tonight she spent quite some time trying in vain to get her mouth around the toys on the swing.

And that's what we've been up to.