Help!

Can someone please tell me why Blogger centers all my text?!  I have tried a million times to change the setting.  And even though it is set up for align-left, once the post is published it always ends up centered!  Please help me!

Stomach Bug

Good 'ole Mr. Stomach Bug has come for a visit!  He spent some time with Callie on Friday night and then hopped on over to me last night!  I am praying that he goes home before he visits the rest of my family!

First Day of School!

Praise the Lord, the day has arrived!  I love my kids, but after a totally amazing and fun summer, we need some structure, an outlet for our extroversion, a break from each other, and someone new to tell our fart jokes to.  (Perhaps you can guess who in this family has heard a few too many jokes from a certain 12 year old boy!)  So, it was with great joy that we dove into the new school year!

This precious girl was excited about starting 5th grade (middle school here) at a brand new school!

She looked adorable and so grown up!

Ok... maybe Noah wasn't super excited about starting school.
Although he's 12, so it's against the rules to get excited about things that don't have to do with video games or bodily functions!

Callie, 5th grade, and Noah, 7th grade

They went out to wait for their bus, but when they saw me taking their pictures from the balcony they ran out of sight.

Getting on the bus.

Lucy insisted on two buns today.
She loves this hairstyle, but I think it looks like Shrek!

Her backpack is almost as big as her!

Showing off her snack bag that Aunt Michelle gave her.

The full uniform shot with her new school shoes.

"Mom, if I do this, will you please take my picture?"

Lucy's first day ended up a bust!  They are building a new school but didn't tell anyone it wasn't ready.  So the whole neighborhood showed up uniformed and ready to start school.  I really do mean the whole neighborhood!  It was chaos!  Imagine you and at least 2,500 other folks jammed into a courtyard roughly the size of two basketball courts!  Everyone had heard different rumors and was going nuts.

The funny thing is we knew that it would happen.  I even made Justin drop by the school the day we returned to ask if school would start, what building it would be in, and what time it would start.  The answer was Monday at 1:00 in the new building.

Guess what?!  Now they are saying that school will maybe start on Thursday.  I'm not holding my breath!

Noah and Callie both had great days!

Sunday Sneak Peek

Bathing Beauty

Tooth-Cutting Party

My dear friend's baby just cut her first two teeth.  In the olden days here, when a baby cut its first tooth the mother would pass out little bowls of bulgar (wheat grain that cooks up and tastes like rice) to their neighbors.  The bulgar sort of looks like little baby teeth.   The recipients would eat the bulgar and later on return the little bowl with a gift for the baby.

These days "tooth-cutting parties" (for lack of a better translation) are done rarely and differently.  I've only been to two.  I wrote about one of them here.  And the other one was today.  (See what I mean about diving into things again!  Sheesh!  A girl needs to sleep and can hardly remember a word of the local language!  HA!)  Today was more like a birthday party.

This is the cake.
It says the Alisa Meyra's tooth has come out.

Isn't it the cutest cake you have ever seen?

This sweet girl has her Daddy wrapped around her little finger!
Don't you just love her curls?!

Daddy showing her the the food table.
Just after this he was kicked out because the guests (women and children) were due to arrive.

Momma and Baby

She refuses to sit down.
She wants to stand up all the time, even when you are trying to hold her on your lap!

We tried our best to get all the kids to pose for a picture.
This was the best one! :-/

I ordered Alisa these bloomers and had Justin bring them back from America last January.
Folks aren't so into monogramming here, so it was a risk.  But my friend LOVES them!

She loved her cake!
Too cute!

It was a fun party and a good way to see a lot of my friends again.  I am so blessed to have such sweet friends in my life!  And their adorable babies are pretty awesome, too!

Done Today

I knew we had a lot to do, so I finally woke the kids up at NOON!  They had slept from 9pm until noon!  Then we hit the road running errands.  It was a lot to do, but we didn't leave ourselves much room for lolly-gaggin!  So we hit it and got everything done!

-Back to school haircuts

-Uniforms procured after going to two different uniform stores.  We still lack the appropriate khaki pants.

-Went to Noah and Callie's school to show Callie where to go.  (She will be new there this year.)

-Bought school supplies

-Bought some basic groceries


Yay, us!

Things I've Forgotten

I must have forgotten how crazy folks drive here because after I recovered from our taxi ride home from the airport I asked Justin, "Was this driver particularly crazy or is that how folks drive here?"  He answered "Yes!"

I forgot what my flat looked like.  Not really what it looked like, but how it felt.  The kids kept saying, "Is this really where we live?  This place is tiny!"  It's not tiny, FYI.  It's just different than an American home.  Folks here do not go for an open floorplan concept at all.  Plus, my cream color tile floor seemed so bright to me after being in homes with hardwood and/or wall to wall carpeting.

I could not find the button to unlock the doors of the car.  They lock automatically when you put it in gear.  So poor Callie had to wait forever while I searched the dash and door for the button.  It is on the gearbox.

Cat fights are loud... very LOUD.  And they always seem to fight (and make up) in the middle of the night!  Gross!

I could not work my gas stove.  I kept trying to get it going- using every trick I know.  Turns out the gas supply was shut off.  Face-palm!

I forgot that they are doing construction EVERYWHERE!  Our neighborhood looks like a war zone!  With the construction comes multiple opportunities for the utility companies to tear up the streets.  Let's see... at least three times for each building... gas, water, and electric!  There are two huge holes in the street in front of our apartment right now, and trenches everywhere.  We live in the ghetto!

I forgot how communal folks here are.  They don't really have a need for time alone or personal space.  That's fun!  They certainly don't get the concept of jet lag or the need to readjust slowly!  You just have to dive right back in!  And so we shall!

Mourning

I lost a dear friend yesterday.  Everyone is in shock. 

I am just clinging to this promise:

"God blesses those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted."

Jet-lagging

Would you please pray that we get over jet-lag quickly and get ourselves together?  School starts Monday and there is a lot to do to get ready!  It would be nice if we could start sleeping through the night quickly!

Home Again

We're home!  Thank you for your prayers.  Everything went well.  The flights were good, everyone behaved themselves, and all of our luggage arrived!

Our neighbor met us at the taxi!  She had been watching for us.  So, as soon as we got our bags into our flat we went down to visit and have tea.  She put out all sorts of food for us, which was great because we were starving!  Now we are caught up on the neighborhood goings on.  So we just have to figure out what Lucy's school school schedule is going to be, unpack all of our bags, get some groceries, buy school uniforms and supplies, and get ourselves back on this time zone!

And so it begins...

Goodbye ATL

And hello Hoboken!

We had a 5 hour layover in Newark so the girls and I decided to make a run for Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken!  

Callie, Lucy, and I love the show Cake Boss.  So we couldn't resist the chance to go visit the bakery where it is filmed.  The cannolis were fantastic but we didn't get to meet Buddy.  Oh well, it was a fun adventure anyway!

Now it's time to hop back in a taxi and get to the airport. We've got a plane to catch!!

Prayers Please

By this time we've most likely loaded up on the plane and are on our way home.  We have a quick flight to Newark, a four hour layover, and then our long flight to our home city.  We should be back to our flat by about 7 am EST- almost 24 hours of travel!  YIKES!

Would you please pray for safe and smooth travels, well behaved children (and parents!), and multitudes of grace as we travel.  Also, please pray for a smooth transition back into our lives and school (since it starts on Monday!).

Packing Essentials

We are in the throws of packing.  It's stressful!  All the little things that we acquired over two months really add up!  It is so hard to get everything into our baggage allowance!  UGH!  Airlines and their baggage limitations.

We always take everything out of its packaging.  Then I put our clothes in Space Bags and suck out the air.  That saves a lot of space!  Space Bags are the best!  We also make sure that there is no wasted space.  Every nook and cranny have something stuffed into them.  Our bags are bulging!

But, the most vital ingredient to packing is a big 'ole dose of Valium!  We need some heavy duty pharmaceuticals to get through this process!

Lord, help us!!

We're Back!

We had such a great time away together.  I left my beloved laptop at my parents' house and we tried to stay off of all technology.  I have to admit, I think my fingers were twitching a bit.  It really is hard to disconnect from the world!  I really did miss the world wide web!  But, I was glad for the time not being on the computer afforded me.  I went to bed so much earlier and interacted with my family so much more.  Amazing thing is, everything went just fine without me and no one died from a lack of email!

Now, it's time to get down to business and start packing.  We fly home on Wednesday morning.  Lord help us!!

More Farm Time!

Like I said the other day, we are blessed to have agriculture on both sides of my family.  We planned to take a week away- just our family- before we returned overseas.  So, before we went away we went down to spend the night with my brother and his family.

We played kickball in the yard while we waited for Cam to wake up.  It was HOT!  It seems like summer has finally come!  It was so mild and rainy up through the end of August, and now, Boom!  The heat is on!

So, after a quick game of kickball, Cam woke up and we went swimming to cool off.  Praise the Lord for swimming pools!  Cam loves to be around the pool, but he hardly gets in!  It is so funny.  He runs around, playing with everyone from the side of the pool.

After a dip in the pool, we loaded up the truck and headed to the farm.  I love this place, and so do the kids.  We had a blast.

We hardly had the car stopped before Lucy was headed out to the pasture to see the horse.

We got some feed and the rope to bring the horse up.
As I was walking her through the pasture Lucy rode bareback.

The proud cowgirl!

My precious nephew and me

Paul and Cam puttering through the field on the three-wheeler.

Justin and Callie on the four wheeler.

Noah loved driving me around on one of the four-wheelers.

Of course, he really loved driving the four-wheeler on his own.
Uncle Paul gave him permission, and Noah was ecstatic!
He had a blast going nuts all through the fields!

Callie and me ready for some four-wheelin' action!
 

The boys tried to teach Cam how to play corn-hole.  But Cam kept stealing the beanbags, running over to the board, and slam-dunking them into the hole.

Melissa chowing down on some of my brother's amazing ribs.

No trip to the farm would be complete without a bit of fishing.

Lucy caught a nice big one.

Callie did, too!

We had such a fun day with my Paul, Melissa, and Cam.  We also got to spend some time with my aunt, uncle, cousins, and their kids.  We love any opportunity to get our country on and let loose at the farm!  City living helps us appreciate the beauty and simplicity of the country so much!