Cultural Experience

I took the girls to the ballet tonight.  Actually it was more than the ballet.  It was like a one-stop-culture shop.

The kids' babysitter is a student at our city's dance conservatory.  Tonight she was part of a performance.  Besides the time and place, that's all the info I had.  So the girls and I darted out once Callie got home from school.  The performance was on the other side, but we made it just in time.

It turns out that it was an evening of performances from several (almost all university) different conservatories.  So it started out with the symphony.  It was absolutely beautiful!   It was the most fun to watch the girls scoot to the edge of their seats as the music intensified and then relax once it softened.

There was also a jazz portion, two very different types of traditional music ensembles, a huge choir, two opera performances, and finally it ended with our sweet babysitter's ballet.

See what I mean?!  Get all your culture in one night!

The girls LOVED it.  I was shocked they were able to stay awake for the entire thing!  They were starting to yawn and fade a bit toward the end of the symphony performance.  Lucy said to me, "this music makes me want to sleep!"  But I bought them cookies at intermission and that bolstered them right on through to the end!

I'll be the first to admit that I don't love the city.  But as I sat there with my girls, I couldn't help but think that it does have its benefits.  Fantastic, free cultural events being one of the main ones!

Squee...

Our pastors are coming...

Our pastors are coming...

SQUEE!!!

They've already started their journey.  Justin will pick them up from the airport tomorrow afternoon.  Then it 10 days of fantastic fun!

They are traveling to Ephesus.  And we all are going to spend a few days in Cappadocia!  I can't wait!!!

Sunday Sneak Peek

I'm claiming HIS promises for my neighborhood!

Our Local Mosque

The Lot next to our Apartment

An Ex-Pat's Prayer

Lord,

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to walk into the pharmacy and ask for medicine for constipation,

and the wisdom to say it correctly so that I don't have to explain what type of medicine I need!

Amen

Sales...

The other night I heard some sort of loud announcement going up and down our street.  So I looked outside the window to see what was going on.

As I hung my head out the window the big white van that was broadcasting the announcement pulled to a stop and began to set up shop.

And the people came hurrying out to see the wonderful dish sets that this guy had for sale.

A few times before I have seen people set up things like this at night (it happens constantly during the day).  And I always wonder why they are doing it at night.  Maybe thats when more people are at home or maybe the stuff is stolen or maybe there's no reason at all.  I need to remind myself to ask my neighbors!

Celebrations

We have had lots of fun celebrations lately.  Today is Children's Day.  It is a big holiday here.  Both of my girls were in the program at school.  I've got about 400 pictures to wade through, so it will be a few days before I am able to write anything on that.

Today, I wanted to share about a "tooth-cutting" celebration that I went to last Friday.

The baby directly below us has cut her first teeth.  So, her mom had the local hoca (think pastor) come around to read the Quran and pray for the baby.

After we all finished that, we all got the chance to pray for the baby.  Then they do this traditional little ceremony to sort of bless the baby's future.

First they set the baby up on the floor.  Then they loaded up a tray with things that symbolize careers- scissors for a beautician, book for a teacher, pencil for a writer, etc.

Then 7 different ladies sprinkled fully cooked bulgar (sort of like rice and about the size of baby teeth) on her head while she looked at the tray.

The mom springing the bulgar on the baby's head.

I even got to be one of the seven who sprinkled the bulgar on her head.

Then we all waited and watched to see what she would pick up from the tray.

In the end, the baby picked up the little books of prayers.  Everyone was delighted at the possibility that she could be a hoca when she grows up.

After that the mother gave a handful of the bulgar to the person who had the best teeth.  Guess who that was?!

 ME!!

So I ate that and it sort of symbolized the hope for the baby to have good teeth.

Did I explain that decently?  It's all sort of weird.  But the fun weird, not the creepy weird!

Finally, the mom had a huge feast prepared.  She had all sorts of dishes that symbolized different things.  She even had her mother-in-law bring so local ingredients from their village out east.

All in all it was a fun and special way to honor my sweet neighbor and her baby.  My neighbor had been hoping for a baby for 7 years and had 7 miscarriages.  So this baby truly is a blessing!

Sunday Sneak Peak

The film Mirror Mirror came out over here.  I had heard of it and been wanting to see it.  So last Sunday I took the kids.  Even though it was dubbed, it was still cute!  We all really liked it.  Afterwards I couldn't resist giving the kids some money to each play a game in the arcade.  And of course, no awesome day would be complete without finishing it off with ice cream!

Cowgirl Princess

She has a pretty sharp shot!

His face says it all!

Callie takes after her Daddy.  She couldn't wait to play this motorcycle game!

Noah was watching her play.  He challenged me to a game of air hockey.
I won't tell you who won!

The three stooges!!

On Nights Like This

I would happily sell my children to the gypsies!  And they better watch out, too.  The gypsies are just waiting to get their hands on some fair-skinned, bright eyed little kids!

Noah has a huge project that I just found out is due on Friday!  Yes, today is Wednesday!  I feel like I could go through the roof.  He has had so much time to work on it, but hasn't bothered!  Mercy, he will be lucky if I ever let him watch television again!!!

Sunday Sneak Peek

 Noah playing basketball...

That's him in the far corner of the court about to start the dribbling drill.

These pictures are terrible because I took them with my phone.  But I though it might be fun to show Noah off a little bit.  He goes to basketball every Saturday and Sunday at the local government sports complex.  It is fun for him and a good way to let off some steam!

He reminds me so much of my big brother, Paul.  

Helpful Tip

My pregnancy with Lucy not only left me with a precious little girl.  It also left me with horrible dark patches of skin on my face.

It seems to drive all of my friends here crazy.  They are always suggesting ways to correct my little skin problem.

Thank you very much!

I try to explain that I have been to a dermatologist (a real medical doctor) about the problem.  Basically there is medicine that will help but every time you are exposed to the sun, it will come back.  So, really, it isn't worth fighting.

All that to say, my sweet old neighbor gave me some "great" advice.  She told me that as soon as she gave birth, she rubbed her hair all over her face.  That's why she didn't get the dark spots.

So, all you pregnant ladies out there... make sure that you rub your hair all over your face as soon as you give birth if you don't want dark patchy skin on your face!  I'm sure it will work for you.  I just wish I had heard this amazing (and certainly highly scientific) medical advice before I had my little Lucy!!

You Just Never Know

I never cease to be shocked by the weird things that happen to me on an almost regular basis.  Today I was sitting at the park across from the kids' school waiting for Callie to get out.  Every day the same group of moms pick up their kindergarteners and hang out for the 45 minutes until the elementary kids get out.  When the weather is nice, we sit at the park while our kids play.

Today the weather was nice again (finally) so we went to the park.  As I was sitting there, a young girl came up to me and asked if she could speak english with me.  I indulged her and we (slowly) began our conversation.  Of course, everyone went silent, and all eyes were on us.  I felt so conspicuous and embarrassed.  But, we plodded on.

At one point, the girl said she liked to sing.  So I followed that conversation thread a bit.  Before I knew it, she asked me if I wanted to hear her sing.

Um...ok?  What do you say to that.

So, this girl stands up and starts belting out an Adele song.  If there was anyone in that park not looking at us before, they were now!  Even though I wasn't the one singing, I felt like I could melt through the park bench.

What do you even do when that happens?

I was just in shock.  I tried to be gracious and encouraging.  You just never know what the day holds!

Counting Crows

If you know me, you may know that I HATE birds!!  I don't want to see them, I don't want them to fly anywhere near me, and especially not fly over me.  They are so gross and they creep me out!

Here in the city we mostly see two types of birds- pigeons and crows.  These are the worst of the worst of this vile animal!  They are so nasty!

The pigeons usually stay in big groups and peck around at the nasty trash on the ground.  For some unexplained reason, children love to run at them and make them fly.  This usually ends up in me having a bit of a panic attack and exerting every bit of my will-power not to shout explicatives  and run for the hills.

Even worse than the nasty pigeons are crows.  They are the rats of the bird world.  They dig through the trash- picking and pecking.  YUCK! 

I just shuddered at the thought of picking and pecking!

Even worse, because our flat is at the top of our building, they love to perch on our balconies.  They perch and poop and drop their disgusting trash all over my balconies.  I have to scrape their nasty poop off the balconies with a putty knife!  GAG!  

And the trash... You cannot imagine the things they discard.  If something is too nasty for them, you know it is extremely nasty.  I frequently find bones of various types (I pray they are chicken bones), other food trash, hair clumps, and odd assortments of rocks and cement particles.

They sit there perched on the railings rudely staring into our flat.  It is so creepy.  I know they are mocking me.  Today I saw them sitting on my laundry rack, no doubt dirtying up my fresh clean clothes.  It put me over the edge (thus this post).  If I find a bone or claw print on my underwear, it is going to be the end of the world!!

And this little tirade is why I am putting a BB gun on my Christmas list!!

Sisterly Love

Lucy woke us up on Sunday morning to show us the April Fool's gift her sister had given her...

The smile is an afterthought.  At first, she was devastated!

What a sweet big sister Lucy has!

Revisiting Old Favorites

Little Miss Lucy has been sick this week.  It started off with her occasionally complaining about her throat hurting.  Finally Tuesday night she had a bit of a fever.  It got a bit worse on Wednesday so I kept her home from school to rest.

We laid on the bed and watched movies all afternoon.  I laughed out loud at Toy Story and Toy Story 2.  It has been so long since I have sat down to watch them.  They are the best movies!

I hate it when my baby doesn't feel well, but I LOVE the snuggle time it gives us!

When Lucy woke up this morning with a fever, still wasn't feeling well, and wouldn't eat because her throat hurt, I decided to take her to the doctor.  He confirmed that she has tonsillitis/ strep throat.  So she has started her antibiotic and we are praying she will be on the mend soon!

Right now we are in the bed watching Little Nemo.  I love these sweet movies, and watching them with my baby is even better!

How 'Bout Them Cats?

We woke up to some good news this morning!!!

from ESPN.com

You CANNOT Imagine How Bad I Want to Watch THIS Game!!

But not quite bad enough to get up at 4:23 in the morning to watch it.

Callie's First Swim Meet

Callie and Lucy started swimming lessons during the winter.  It has gone really well and been a great way for them to expend a little pent up winter energy!

Today they were having a swim meet for all the kids that swim at that pool- ages 5 through 19.  Even though Callie is not part of the club team, her teacher said that she could join the meet.  To my shock, she really wanted to join the competition.

The lower elementary kids swam one length of the pool freestyle and one length of the pool with a kick board.  Callie swam one length freestyle, a length and back with the kick board, and one length backstroke.  The older kids competed in all of the regular strokes.

This is Lucy's swim class.  She is the one all the way on the right.
They had their lesson before the meet.

This is the ultra fake smile that we have been getting from Lucy lately.

Waiting for her turn to swim.

Lucy is in the pink goggles on the left.

Learning to swim on her back.

Now, on to Callie's swim meet...

Lining up in front of her lane.

It looks like she is praying here.  HA!

On your mark,

Get ready,

Set,

GO!!!

This is Callie's first swim.  One length of freestyle.

They didn't keep score for the younger kids... but, Callie came in second!

Later on, it was time for her age group swim the length of the pool
and back with the kick board.

Callie smoked the other kids in this one, taking first place (again, they weren't keeping score).
She has some strong legs!

Finally, it was time for Callie's age group to do the backstroke.

Starting out.

Getting her arms going.

She came in third in this one.

Receiving her medal.

She was so proud!

Callie really liked the competition aspect of swimming today.  Maybe in the fall she will want to join the team.

I was so proud of her for being brave enough to swim against the other kids even though she's not on the team.  She did really well!!

She wants to wear her medal to school tomorrow!