I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!

It is snowing so hard outside.  It has been snowing all day!

This is such good news.  Even though the sky is still gray, the white flakes flitting down make everything more beautiful!  It blankets the empty lots, construction sites, and everything in its path with beautiful clean white.  I just LOVE it!!

Unfortunately, since the stomach flu had a week and a half long party at our house, it is December 20th and I have not bought ONE Christmas present for my family.  We don't do anything big.  But at least a video or something under the tree from Mom and Dad would be nice.  So, I had to get out in the snow.

Now, local drivers are a bit crazy under normal circumstances.  But, when it's snowing in a place that doesn't get much snow, all the crazies come out and decide to drive around.  It's FUN!!

I do admit to being one of those crazies.  The things that I have done on these roads is another post for another day.  Remind me to tell you!

Anyhow, when I dropped the girls off at school, and my neighbor and her baby at the nearby doctor, the snow wasn't so bad.  But after two hours of shopping things were starting to get a bit too slushy for my liking.  I jumped in the car and very slowly headed home.

I almost made it!

Our area is just too hilly, and I grew up in Georgia.  I'm not such a great snow driver.  So, after repeated attempts to get home, and sliding all around,  I left the car on a nice quiet street.  It is right next to a big wall, away from the intersection, and there is hardly any through traffic.  So it should be ok.  It's only 2 blocks away.

After I got the car situated, I surveyed my purchases, that included some groceries, and decided what was essential.  I didn't want to leave much because I didn't want it to get stolen.  Heavy laden, I trudged home in the snow.

Uphill.

Praise the Lord for our lovely warm flat!  I am so glad to be home!!

One of the things I left in the car was a big pack of toilet paper.

Turns out it was essential.  The cabinet is empty.  Whoops!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I was leaving that picture of Justin and I up until we were discovered by a modeling agency, became famous, and made a lot of money.  However, that did not happen.  We only had a hand-full of inquiries as to where we got our hot swim caps, and two modeling contracts that really weren't so lucrative.

So, we're going to hold out till spring when people's minds aren't on presents Christmas.

So, it's cold, and gray, and rainy here.  Winter in this city is such a down time.  It's the rainy season.  Unfortunately it's just cold enough to make the marrow in your bones freeze up a bit, but not cold enough to actually snow.  The sun doesn't shine.  Motorists zoom through the poorly paved streets, plunging through huge puddles, and spraying those poor souls walking along the sides with nasty muddy water.

Winter = not fun.

It's the hardest time to be here.  I really feel the extent of what we've given up during the winer.  Throughout most of the year we can convince ourselves that we've got it good.  Yes, we exactly love city life, but we do have a comfortable apartment, friends, decent schools for the kids.  But, it's now, just before Christmas when my mind starts to think, "why did we do this?"

In coming here, we gave up our stuff.  We gave up our pride and our security, and our comfort.  Heck, we gave up a good portion of our sanity.  But the thing that we gave up that hurts the most is our families.  Everyone wants to be home for Christmas.  They want to stay up to late with their Mommas, and sing Christmas carols with the radio while shopping with their siblings.  I want to sit at my mother-in-law's table and eat a delicious meal.  I want to see my nephews and niece running through the house driving the adults crazy.

This year we feel it so intensely, and I don't know why.  It's almost like our first Christmas away again. Forget the presents.  Forget the stuff, and the running around, and all the trappings.  This year all I want  for Christmas is my family!

Sunday Sneak Peek

Who says swim caps can't be sexy?!

Self Confidence

On the way to our Thanksgiving celebration today:

Lucy: Mom, what if I marry, like a Murat or Mahmut (local boys' names), or something?

Me: That would be just great!  As long as he loves the Lord and loves you, that would be fine with me!

Lucy: Humph... Well, that will be easy!  Everyone loves me!!

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!!

It was just a normal day here.  It is always really rainy and chilly this time of year, so it's not my favorite.  The kids had school.  Justin had work.  I had laundry, and Callie's guitar lesson, and to bake cookie bars for teacher's day tomorrow.

Sometimes it's hard to remember to be thankful in the mundane stuff of life.  For me, it's even harder to feel thankful!

But, when I stop and look back at all that the Lord has done, all that He's blessed us with, all the promises He's given us, my heart just wells up with thankfulness.  When I look at pictures, and think about our family and friends near and far I am full of Thanksgiving.  We are SO blessed and I am thankful!

I hope that you have a moment to pause and reflect on what you're thankful for.

Puppy Love

I want a dog.

The kids want a dog.

Justin does not want a dog.

What should we do?

Santa is Coming Early...

...and he's bringing an electric guitar to Noah.

Lord, help us!

Welcome Back!

Well, that was an unplanned hiatus! We went on vacation with mom.  When we got back things were busy and she had a hard time getting home thanks to Hurricane Sandy.  That was fine with me, because I wanted to keep her here forever!  Watching her talk to my local friends was more than priceless!!  She had to help me clean the house before she left because I had more company coming and then a retreat that I planned, etc., and so on...

All that to say it has been a busy but good few weeks.  Now here it is Thanksgiving week and I realize that I haven't blogged in ages!  YIKES!

To purge my brain of the things that I've been meaning to tell you, here's a list:

1. My mom's visit was fantastic!  We had such a good time.  I promise to finish telling our stories and posting the pictures.

2.  I also promise to finish telling Mindy and my stories and uploading our pictures form the summer.  Really far behind on that one!

3. My neighbor just got back from the village.  The fun thing about when someone returns from the village is that they bring all sorts of fresh homemade or homegrown food with them.  (Sort of like me and peanut butter when I return from my village- aka America!)  Anyhow, my neighbor was so gracious to share her goodies.  So, now I have a kilo of goat cheese, 1/2 kilo of homemade butter, a small amount of stuff that she just called sauce (Lord, help my innards!), some sort of fruit leather type stuff, walnuts, and apples sitting in my kitchen.  She made me taste everything while we were going through the bags.  I'm going to wait two days to see if I die before I serve any of it to my family... especially the "sauce!"

4. You really should watch this.  The Amazing Race was in our city and it was so fun to see them run all over the places that we are so familiar with.  I could take you to every one of them.  Also, it's funny to hear the way they pronounce things.

5. We are doing Thanksgiving with our American friends (and one British family) on Saturday.  I've had pecans in my freezer since July waiting for pecan pies!!  We'll probably order pizza on Thanksgiving day.

6. Noah is doing ice skating at school and loves it.  He goes to a private school now, and one of the things about this school is that they have tiny little ice rinks down int he basement- weird, but true!  He has decided to be a professional hockey player instead instead of a football player.

7. My friend met two brand new believers in her neighborhood last week!  So, now I'm thinking in my neighborhood of 250,000 there has to be at least one person that is sensitive to the Lord or already seeking Him.  Please pray that there is, and that our paths will cross!!

Well, I suppose that's enough to get my mom off my back about not writing!  HA!

Have a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving! We have so, so much to be thankful for!!

Twin-Time!

Today was such a fun day!  This morning the girls and I took mom over to visit our dear friend and her twin girls.  Mom has met this friend before, but that was three years ago.  Now she has two year old twins that mom was dying to meet.

We spent a couple of hours over there catching up and watching my girls play with her girls.  They are all adorable, and so much fun!!  It is especially interesting to watch the twins interact with one another.

As we were driving home, mom suggested that we stop at a little cafe or something for lunch.  The girls jumped on that and we went to the little pastry cafe about a block away from our flat.  It was yummy, as always, and the girls were thrilled with the special treat of lunch out!

On Tuesdays, Callie and Lucy go to school from 2 to 7.  Even though we got home at 1:00, we still had plenty of time to get them ready and out the door to school.  As I was walking them to school, I saw several people with their bazar carts and remembered that Tuesday is our bazar day.  So, mom and I headed up there to check it out.

Mom looking for a toy for my nephew Cam.

We got back home just in time for Noah to arrive.  He had a snack and then I took him down to his guitar lesson.  Justin had a meeting tonight.  So he picked the girls up from school and dropped them off at home with mom.  Mom and Callie got dinner ready so that as soon as Noah and I walked in the door dinner was waiting for us.  It was fantastic!

After dinner we got our stuff all packed up and ready to go.  Tomorrow morning, mom and I are going across to the other side to the spice bazar and then we are all going to go away for a few days!!!  Thursday is the beginning of the big sacrifice holiday, so we booked a nice (hopefully) hotel out of the city to escape.  We are all looking forward to a few days of relaxation and fun!  

Monday

Monday mornings are always my major catch-up time from the weekend.  Today was no exception.  We did a few chores, and I had some homework to finish before my language lesson.   The girls performed shows for us all morning.  Around 11 a friend dropped by for a little bit.  Her daughter has started college in the States, so she had a care package for her.  It was funny to see the things that her daughter had requested... sunflower seeds (I can't taste the difference but her daughter swears the ones here are better!), and a few other types of snack food, too.

After I dropped Callie and Lucy off at school I headed over to my language lesson.  I must have been crazy to get back into private language lessons just before my mom came to visit.  It has been stressful, and I realized why I stopped doing private lessons and went to language school.  Oh well, it's good for me, and hopefully my language will really improve.

I was gone practically all afternoon.  Once I got home, mom and I prepared dinner, and then I went to get the girls.  Callie had a terrible day at school.  I was so glad that we made her favorite, macaroni and cheese, for dinner.  A little bit of mac & cheese makes everything better!!

Exploring with Mom

As I have said a time, or twenty, my mom wasn't too interested in sight-seeing.  We did all of that last time she was here.  This time has been all about relaxing together!  It has been such a fun visit!

There was one place that Justin and I had recently discovered, and thought that if we had the opportunity, it would be fun to take mom and the kids there.

We started the day with our small group worship time.  Four families gather together to worship together.  The friend whose birthday party that we went to yesterday also had a relative in town.  So we were a big group.  We always start out with breakfast.  Then we sing and pray.  After that we study the Word together.  Finally, we release the kids for a little bit, and have a more intensive time of prayer.

The forecast had called for rain and terrible weather.  But, we woke up to beautiful blue skies!  So, after worship we dropped by the flat to get our jackets and comfy clothes on- not that we have to dress up for worship, but my girls always do.  We piled in the car and headed here:

The beautiful Black Sea

My beautiful mother and me at the Black Sea

Gamma and her babies
This time next year, Noah will be taller than Gamma!

 This beach is one of our favorite places.  We come here almost weekly during the summer.  It was fun to show Gamma one of our major hang-outs!

After we explored a little bit (and Lucy fell into some mud and had to get her pants rinsed out) we continued on to this place.  It has huge lovely wooded grounds, a playground, a little cafe, and a beautiful palace that is now a nice restaurant.  A hundred years ago, it was the summer home for the Egyptian viceroy.

Gamma and Lucy looking at the pictures that Lucy took while we had a tea at the cafe.

Mom and me at one of the patios that overlook the Bosphorus.

Here are a few pictures that I copied from the website that I linked to:

 It was a beautiful day, and a beautiful place to explore!  After we walked around the entire property we decided it was time to go eat dinner.

I had been wanting to try this restaurant nearby.  It sits way up on a hill overlooking the city all the way down to the water.  We went upstairs to the closed in terrace.  It tilted a bit, and Callie was afraid we were going to slide right off the mountain.  I bet my mom was, too!

Anyhow, the food was good.  Everyone had worked up quite an appetite, so we chowed down!

Yo, Ho, Ho, Par-tay!

Today we had an ex-pat friend's birthday party to go to.  I wasn't feeling so well.  I'm pretty sure that I overdid it on baklava and my neighbor's cheese-filled biscuits.  But, we had promised the kids that we'd go, and they had been looking forward to it.  

The party was pirate themed, and it was held at a park down by the water that had a big ship-shaped playground.  There were actually two birthday boys.  The brothers, whose birthdays are one day part, were turning 2 and 6.  The 6 year old is one of Lucy's favorite friends (although he says that Noah is "pretty much [his] best friend.")

Noah and Justin had to come down a bit late on the motorcycle.  Noah started his Saturday sport at school.  He chose ice skating and had a fantastic time!

Once the party got underway it was super fun.  The parents had all sorts of fun party games, lunch in special treasure chests, and a beautiful treasure chest cake.  To end the party we all headed over to a little ice cream shop (to use the bathroom) and got ice cream.  All the kids had a great time.

My girls, dressed as pirates, waiting patiently for cake!

Playing "Pin the Sword on the Pirate"

So Proud of Mom!

So, today my mom ran a marathon!

We had invited some of my closest friends over to see mom.  She had met two of them before and one was a new friend.  I told mom that they'd probably only come over for an hour or so to say hello.  But, they ended up staying for 3 and a half hours!

We started the morning by taking Callie down to her guitar lesson.  Her guitar teacher had an emergency and forgot to call me to cancel.  So it ended up that Callie got to join us at Lucy and my favorite cafe (we go there every week while Callie is at guitar).  It was so fun to have both girls there.  Lucy had to finish up some homework.  And, Callie taught mom how to play hangman.  I could not believe that mom had never played hangman!!

As it was time to leave we loaded up on baklava and some other goodies to serve our guests.  We dropped the girls off at school, and headed home to do a bit of housework.

My mom has taken over the laundry.

We all ate a quick dinner together.  Then, Justin had agreed to meet a friend for a movie so we girls could have the run of the house.  

Mom waiting for our visitors.

My sweet neighbor from across the hall brought over two huge pans of this special super yummy bread.  Her oven had broken, so she baked them here.  My house smelled fantastic!  My neighbor is such a great baker.  

Then my other friends came over to hang out.  We all had so much fun together.  I was working up a sweat trying to translate, serve food, and tea!  HA!

The weirdest part was hearing them refer to my mom as "teyze."  That's the local familial term for auntie.  Typically, people here refer to each other in familial terms like, auntie, uncle, sister, etc.  It is such a kind and respectful way to speak to each other.  But it was just weird to hear my mom referred to in that context!

They were all so sweet to my mom, and were so happy to get to spend time with her!

Little Lucy tried her best to stay awake the entire time.
But, finally, she fell asleep in Gamma's bed.

I was so proud of my mom.  She was so sweet and patient.  I know that it was such a long night for her.  But, she did fantastic!  My only regret is that I forgot to take a picture of mom with my friends!

Visiting

Today Justin invited us to have lunch with him and see his office.  So, after the girls went to school we headed over there.  Justin picked a restaurant that had all kids of basic local food.  I was proud of mom- she didn't get the "safe" chicken shish kebab.  She was adventurous and had a sort of meat that is grilled and chopped with onions and tomatoes and wrapped in flat bread.  She said she liked it.

Mom enjoying tantuni

 After lunch we walked over to Justin's office.  Mom got to meet his employees and see where he works.

Justin in his office.

 Noah wanted to show Gamma his new school.  Instead of riding his bus home we were going to pick him up, and he would give us a tour.  We had about an hour to kill between visiting Justin and picking Noah up, so we decided to go visit the huge new mosque that just opened near Justin's office.  It is supposed to be the largest one on this side.

A funeral was about to start.  But I couldn't convince mom to stay for that cultural experience!

Then we went to pick Noah up.  He still loves his school and was proud to show it off.  Praise the Lord for the gift of this school!!!  It has been such a blessing to us!

Noah at his desk.

Mom relaxing with her Kindle.

 
Mom insisted on ordering pizza for dinner.  Although, she didn't get much argument from us!  We LOVE pizza!  The kids were begging to play dominos after dinner.  So they quickly finished their homework and practiced their guitars.

Domino Time!

I love playing games like this where everyone can play and chat at the same time.  It's so fun and the kids really like it too!

Tomorrow night several local friends are coming over to visit with mom.  It ought to be interesting!  I hope I remember to take pictures!!

Mall Walking

Mom has done amazing with the time difference and jet-lag.  She has been able to sleep through the night every night without any problem!

In the mornings we take things slow.  Noah leaves for school at 8 o'clock and Justin leaves for work at 8:20.  The girls do their homework, and I try to exercise and do my housework.  Then we play.  Mom brought dominos and taught the kids how to play.  So, that has been fun.

After the girls went to school, mom and I decided to go to the mall.  We had lunch and walked all around.  I really wanted mom to show me how to make country fried steak, so we picked up the necessary things at the grocery store at the mall.  (Yes, most shopping malls here have grocery stores!)  We came home and got to cooking.

I haven't done so well at taking mom's picture during our adventures.  So, I'm trying to get better at that!

Here's mom slaving over the stove!

All of us seated and ready to dig into one of my favorite meals!

Having mom here has been awesome.  We haven't done any amazing sight-seeing or anything, really.  We've just talked and talked.  It is the MOST fun!!