In the Spirit

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

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?

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

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!

(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

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

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

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!

(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!

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!"