Happy Birthday

Today is my mom's birthday.  She is the best!  I can't even describe how awesome she is.  I tried to do it here and here.  She is so fun and full of life.  For Pete's sake she's sixty- somethin' and I'm 33 but she has more energy than me!!

Check her out:

Momma,

Happy Birthday!  I love you so much and think you are just absolutely wonderful!  The way that you love others and give so much of yourself is such a blessing and inspiration.  You are absolutely gorgeous- inside and out!  I love you more than words can express!!!

Hope your birthday is GREAT!!

Love,

me

Give Me a Cigarette

Every day cars, vans, trucks, and/or buses go up and down trying to sell something, get us to vote a certain way, or announce the opening of something.  It seems like every third car has some sort of loudspeaker system.

Most often it is the potato and onion truck going up and down the streets hollering over the loudspeaker.  Now we are moving into election season, so huge buses blaring music and propaganda slowly weave up and down the streets.

A few week ago a band of gypsies pulled up in a van that would make the A-Team proud.  They didn't even have a loudspeaker.  The women and children went up and down the street hollering.  Then they set up camp on the side of the road and started pulling out some sort of machine.  They convinced someone in the building next to us to let them plug it in.  And then he began polishing pots with the machine.  He probably polished the electricity provider's pots for free.  While the man was polishing pots, and the children were going up and down the streets trying to drum up business, the women started a fire and were cooking up some fish.  It was a sight to behold.  Unfortunately, I spent the whole time watching them from the balcony and did not take one picture.

Well, then there's this guy.

So today it was another van of gypsies.  This time they were selling rugs.  My friend across the street had recently bought rugs and remembered that I had liked them very much.  So she summoned me down to check out these rugs.  I found a set that I liked, and my friend talked the gypsies down to a really good price.

As culture would have it, I had to go up and ask my husband if I could buy the rug set.  The lady told me that if I'd bring her a cigarette down when I came back she'd take 15 lira for the rugs.

I didn't have a cigarette, but I still got the price.

Even though I live in a huge city, it feels like I live in a village sometimes!  This place ALWAYS surprises me!

You Might Be A Redneck If...

your wife has to remind you to put on your black underwear so the folks at the important business meeting won't see the holes in your suit pants.

Epic Mail Fail

I wrote our Compassion child just the other day.   I was so excited to mail a letter to him... until I tried.

FAIL! 


The mail system here is unbearable!!  I hurried up to the farther away post office because you can park near it.  At Christmas time I waited in line for an hour and a half (which is normal, it's not like people here were trying to mail Christmas cards or anything) in line at this post office only to find when I got up to the ONE guy working that they didn't have stamps!

Talk about goin' postal!!!

Anyhow, like a dog returns to its vomit, I returned to the post office of death.  It was closed for lunch.  UGH!  I tried to convince the guys on the cargo side to mail my letter for me.  Not happening.

So, with utter sadness, I forced myself to go to the good post office.  The two guys who work upstairs in this post office are so nice to me, and they make things so easy.  The only problem is, the post office is located right smack dab in the middle of the busiest part of our area.  The building is straddled by three lane roads (which means that at least 10 rows of cars are squeezing their way by).  Traffic is crazy.  There is no parking.

I circled the block 5 times trying to convince myself to just do what everyone else here does and just park right out front of the building and throw on the flashers.  It would only take a second to run in and mail my ONE letter.

I couldn't do it.  Defeated, I parked about a mile away.  When I finally got there, it was closed for Friday prayers!!

UGH!  I forgot!

I trekked back down to my car and made a vow or two against the local postal service.

The next day, Saturday, I had Justin drop me off while he circled the block.  In and out.  No problem.  Mission accomplished!

2 hours and 2 days later!

Well, except for today, my letter arrived... HERE!  TO ME!

They sent the letter to me!  They read the return address and delivered it right back to me.  Its not like there was a problem or it was returned.  It was just mistakenly delivered here.  I guess they could only read the address written in the local language.

So, tomorrow, I'll start the mailing process again!  I hope our sponsored child, Mohammad, knows how much we love him, and that he is worth every bit of the effort!!

Rite of Passage

Well, it's finally happened.  Lucy has reached her 4 year old rite of passage.

She cut her bangs down to the scalp!!!

I am in shock.  This is the child who treasures her hair.  For Pete's sake, she wants to be Rapunzel when she grows up.  I did not see this coming.

Right around her 4th birthday we had her hair cut.  She hated wearing things in her hair and it was always in her eyes.  So, we decided to try bangs.  Lots of her little friends have bangs and she was excited to have bangs, too.

The cutest part was that she calls them "bangles!!"

Anyhow, she got tired of the bangles really quickly and decided to grow them back out.  Fast forward 6 months.  The bangles were just about catching up with the rest of her hair.  But she decided REALLY didn't want bangles anymore.

So, yesterday at school, when the teacher turned her back, she chopped them off!!

When I found out, we went straight to the salon.  Now she has lots of bangles- some are 1 cm long and some are about 5 cm long.  It's attractive.

The Rapunzel dream is over!

Although I am surprised that Lucy cut her hair, I don't care too much.  It was quite a different story 4 years ago when Callie chopped her hair off.

I was about 48 million months pregnant.  I was already past my due date and I was mad at the world!  I went upstairs to my bathroom and there on the counter were my big scissors and some big chunks of hair.

I flipped out!  I went running through the house hollering for Callie.  When I found her, sure enough, she had scalped herself... the day before picture day at preschool and just before her baby sister was born (which everyone knows is like major paparazzi time).

It is a wonder that I didn't pop that baby out right then and there 'cause I was having convulsions.  Eyes bulging, veins popping, full on crazy pregnant lady convulsions.  It was not pretty.

I snatched her up and went next door to my sweet neighbor who just happened to be a hairdresser.  I was crying and freaking out so badly that her husband, who was mowing the lawn, thought something catastrophic had happened.  He dropped the mower and came running.

She calmed me down and did her best to fix Callie's hair.  She looked a little off for awhile... a long while.  But in the end it was no big deal.  Her school pictures were cute and the millions of baby pictures- a few of which included her- were just fine.

In other words, the world didn't stop spinning then, and I guess it won't this time either.  Lucy will just end up being a hair dresser instead of Rapunzel!

Noah is the science homework checker for his class.  He makes sure that the kids have done their homework right and that their notebooks are neat.

His friend is the fingernail checker.  He makes sure that all the kids' fingernails (and the rest of them, really) are clean.  Cleanliness really is next to Godliness here.

Surprisingly, Noah has all stars in both areas!

Sunday Sneak Peak

Its tulip time in the city.  Yesterday we went to a big park to play.  They have planted thousands of different types of tulips.  Tulips are the national symbol of our country, and we boast to have more tulips than Holland.

This red type with pointed ends is our national symbol.

A Day at the Park

Here's an odd cultural tidbit that I learned Wednesday from my neighbors...

Most men don't bother to carry house keys because their wives are always at home waiting for them.  The wives can just buzz their husbands up when they ring the downstairs bell.

World History From a New Angle

The field trip was yesterday.  I won't say that I'm disappointed that Callie's teacher did not end up in the water tank at any time.  I guess devastated is more like it.  I felt sure he would be up to some crazy sort of tom-foolery.

Nope!

He brought his 4 year old twins along (as if 40 8 year olds to look after was not enough).  So, I guess he felt he had to be on his best behavior.

However, I rather enjoyed watching an employee of the Dolphinarium meticulously snatch people's cameras.  They announced several times that photography was strictly prohibited.  But, of course, people still tried to snap pictures.  This guy was a true camera vigilante.  He scanned the crowd and at the pop of a flash he was off.  I watched him snatch cameras the whole time.  It was very exciting.

I guess the people got them back.  I forgot to follow him out at the end to see that drama unfold!

I was sitting on the very end of the arena near the entrance.  (Next to the vigilante's post.)  At one point he pointed to my camera bag and asked if I brought my camera.  Clutching it for dear life I said yes.  He casually said that I could take pictures if I wanted!

What!?!?

I told him that I had been watching him snatch people's cameras and he was not getting his hands on mine!  He said just don't use the flash.

Ok... weird!

Did I tell you he looked exactly like a fish?  He really did.  The whole thing was crazy!  Crazy, I tell ya!

When I wasn't watching the camera nazi I found the show entertaining but creepy.  Here's the thing about trained animals... they freak me out.

BIG TIME!

I mean really... is a seal that can wave cute, sad, ridiculous, or ridiculously sad?

I vote for #4.

For the record...I do not mind trained humans.  One time Justin and I went to Cirque de Soleil and I loved it.  It seems like humans have a voice and if they want to stop looking foolish to entertain people they can just walk away.  Well, except those little Chinese gymnasts.

Have I digressed?

Let's talk the walrus then, shall we?

When I get to heaven I would like to talk with the Lord about walruses.  Are they the same as sea lions?  Why are they so nasty?  They look like a partially filled water balloon with some funky arm- paddle sort of things and some bodacious whiskers.  What is that all about?

Noah and some classmates with the walrus (sea lion?)

So, the show was fun... and creepy.  I loved the dolphins because it seems like entertaining children is precisely what dolphins were created for.  They are just the happiest animals.

We see them sometimes in the waterway that goes through our city.

The show started with a seal.  Then a big beluga whale.  Followed by the walrus (sea lion?).  The dolphins finished the show and really were the highlight!

After the show we loaded up on the busses and headed to the naval museum.  It was at this point when Callie's teacher decided to make my brain want to crawl out of my head and run away.  He began telling my about all sorts of history and war stuff.  Really I have no idea what on earth he was telling me.  I could hardly understand him.  He just kept talking and talking.  All the kids were running wild in the museum and he was just talking to me about something.  I cannot even tell you what it was.  The whole time he was talking I was just grappling for something to say in return.

He must have told me ten times that the beloved founder of the republic was only 158 cm tall, but very charismatic.

LITTLE MAN BUT VERY CHARISMATIC!

Hearing history from his perspective was very interesting.  I had to just laugh several times and tell him that I didn't agree with what he was saying.

Following the teacher's lead, one of the kids with Callie's class decided to teach me as well.  He would point out things at the museum and tell me about them.  Fun times!!  People assume that because I am a foreigner I am stupid. (Did I ever tell you about my friend who tried to teach me what a pineapple was or another friend who was explaining the "use by" date on products?)

At the end of the day we boarded the buses and headed home.  We got back just in time for me to go for my weekly coffee with the neighbors.

I must have been acting really weird because at one point they asked what on earth was wrong with me. I had to remind them that I had just gotten back from spending all day with 8 busloads of children.

They understood.

A field trip is fun, but it does have a recovery period of at least 48 hours!

Longing

Yall,

I would give my left pinkie toe for a Georgia Mud Fudge Blizzard right now.

I really would!!!

Just What I've Always Wanted

So, today my friend gave me a gift.  Look...

A leg of lamb!

She must have read my birthday wish list!

Now, how on earth am I gonna cook this thing?  I'm thinkin' I'll roast it up and just gnaw on it like they do turkey legs at the Renaissance Festival.

On another exciting note... I am going on another field trip with Noah and Callie tomorrow.  Remember the last field trip?  That one was a doozy!  This time we are going to the Dolphinarium and the Sea Museum.  I fully expect some craziness out of Callie's teacher.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll be back on here with some funny pictures and stories!

Sunday Sneak Peak

I took the girls to get their hair trimmed yesterday.  The salon was empty, so the stylist took extra time styling their hair.   The ladies at the salon painted Callie and Lucy's fingernails.  The girls were so cute and just loved all the pampering.  Here are a few of their "all fancied up" pictures:

It HURTS!

Thanks to a miracle, we have ESPN right now.  But, I did not wake up at 4:30 am to watch the game.  I guess I'm not a TRUE BLUE fan.

The ride is over.  Sadness...

from ESPN.com

No School Today

Noah's best friend called him this morning and told him there was no school today.  (When teachers are sick or can't come to school for some reason, class is canceled.  There are no substitute teachers.)

Noah got so excited.

Then his friend started laughing and said "April 1st joke."

Oh... the devastation was huge!

Mr. Pranks finally got one pulled over on him!  We haven't let him live it down yet!