sunflower seeds

Another culture shock! Kirk found some sunflower seeds the other day, so he bought a big bag. After we got them home found out that they didn't quite taste like the ones in the states. These had vinegar on them or something. We just couldn't eat them so we were planning on giving them to someone here. The bag was still on the table yesterday when some of our neighbors came over to play. Without our knowledge the girls got into the sunflower seeds, which would have been fine if they would have eaten them and spit the seeds in the garbage or outside; but not these kids instead they spit the shells on the floor in three different rooms in our house. Needless to say when Ayden came and got Kirk and I we were not very happy. I fussed at them the best I could in Arabic and then Kirk got the vacuum and gave it to them and we made them clean it all up. I just couldn't believe that they thought it was okay to just spit the shells all over the floor. Guess I still have a lot to learn about culture differences. Anyway, I think after they saw how upset we were that they will not do that again.

the beach

When we left the previous city we headed to the beach for a day. It has been pretty cold in our city in the morning and at night, but the beach was perfect. The girls had a great time in the waves and in the sand. But the next day we came back to the cold.
It has been in the low 40's or high 30's at night, but always warms up during the day. But it was great to have a day at the beach in the warm weather.

visiting another city

Between kids being sick last month we were able to take a quick trip. We headed north a little to visit this city, it is a pretty big city but not in comparison to the capital, where we live. There are three single ladies living and "working" in this city. They are the only workers in that city. As we looked out over the city, which is in the mountains, our hearts were saddened, thousands upon thousands living in this city, and that doesn't include all the surrounding villages, and only 3 workers. Please remember this place with us, and the many other cities in our country that don't have any one there yet to tell the Story.

annie lynne

Annie Lynne wearing a shirt that was mine when I was her age. The shirt has a picture of me on it when I was around her age, I told her to make the same face I was making, but she couldn't help smiling a little.
I have a picture of all three girls wearing this shirt at that age, and none of them look anything like me.

more of Ayden's b-day

It seamed liked Ayden's B-day would never end. Kirk and I could not think of what to get her, so we finally decided to let her go to the toy store and pick something out (within limits). But then everyone got sick so it was a couple of weeks after her actual b-day before we made it to the store. This is what she picked out. Out of everything there she wanted dress-up. Of course her favorite part is the mask. So funny and all three of them have enjoyed this gift.

time-out

Our new time-out chair. Just kidding, we don't even do time-out, but if we did this wouldn't be a bad idea. Addie managed to get up there by stacking all the pillows, but then couldn't figure out how to get down. Great place to stick one of them if I need them out of the way! ha ha

lice

Well we had an exciting day yesterday!!!
Well the last month has been a little crazy, one reason for no post. All three girls were sick in November and it took us a while to all start feeling better. We were finally on the mend and things were back to "normal" and then yesterday happened! I was pulling up Ayden's hair for her to go to arabic class and saw "them." Couldn't believe it, and our plans quickly changed. Kirk headed to the pharmacy to see what all he could find and I striped all the beds. They all sleep together at night but they nap in all three beds in our house, so the little bugs were not contained to one room. So after stripping all the sheets, I put them in the tub, our washer does not connect to the hot water heater and sense I knew they had to be done in hot water decided the tub was the best or only place for so many sheets. After washing them all in hot water, i still wasn't convinced the water was hot enough, (our hot water heater is only so big and to fill up the tub it had started cooling off) so we boiled water and poured boiling water over all the sheets, surely now the little bugs were dead. Next problem, we only have two hanging lines! So Kirk found some rope and started running lines everywhere. We had sheets and blankets hung all over our little yard. Then he bought some plastic to lay on our roof so we could lay out all "couch" pillows, so they could sun. and thankfully I had saved some big ziplock vacuum seal bags from when we moved, so now all the toys with material or hair are put up for a while.
Long day and another long day today of more clothes and blankets to wash, but today decided to bucket hot water to washing machine, and then poured hot water over.
As for the kids:
We treated their hair and made them sit outside and watch a movie on the computer while we cleaned and got all pillows out of house (picture below). And then to just make sure all eggs were dead we put vinegar in their hair covered with shower cap and then combed out (picture below). Kirk and I also did treatments just in case. But we ran out of vinegar so Kirk went to little store next to our house and all they had was "brown vinegar). it looked same and smelled the same so just figured it was something really close. The girls were done so Kirk was going to do my hair with the vinegar, as he poured it on my head stared burning I tried to leave it, thinking I was just being a baby, but finally couldn't take it and through tears washed my hair out, then we looked at the bottle a little closer and it was about 35% stronger then regular white vinegar. My forehead burned the rest of the night and I was still smelling vinegar this morning. Funny now, the mistakes we make, but last night wasn't so funny. Crazy couple of days, but hopefully all bugs and eggs are dead and gone, and tonight we can sleep with blankets!. Last night dressed the kids in their sweat shirts and pants, because the blankets weren't cleaned yet. What a funny story when it is all over.
Guess from now on I shouldn't let the kids play dress-up especially with scarves with the national neighborhood kids! But o-well it's worth these minor set backs for our kids to have friendships with the nationals, which has opened up doors for Kirk and I to "talk" with their families!

crafts

thanks granny for the craft projects, Ayden had a lot of fun today making this.

ayden's b-day

and when we asked her what her favorite thing to do here is, she said going to the mountains. so a group of us went and climbed and brought snacks. It was a fun day out and she had a great time climbing all around.
so even though we didn't have a "party" it felt like her b-day lasted forever, I think we sang to her 5 or 6 times, and I think she had a lot of fun!



the next morning i did get the cinnamon rolls made and so we sang again, can't believe she is 7!


after dinner we came home and made banana splits! she loved that too.

went to ayden's favorite place to eat that night, kirk had painted all their faces and then she got to eat chicken strips and french fries, so it was a good night


Made cup cakes and brought them to her school when I went to pick her up, the kids all enjoyed them but not sure that translated (bringing cake for someones b-day to school), they still weren't sure why I had brought them.

didn't have time to make cinnamon rolls that morning so she had cup cakes from a local bakery for breakfast, kirk walked to get them that morning, and they left a lot to be desired, I think each of the kids had one bite and that was about all they wanted of that. (cakes here are not made with much sugar and they are very dry)


This was really on Kirk's B-day, but while we were together with some friends we sang to both of them

this summer

this are old videos from when mom and dad came this summer,
i just figured out how to get it from the camera to the blog

2nd school for ayden

well this week Ayden has been in a private school not far from our house. I have been bring her and staying with her all day. It is so much better then the other. Kirk is there with her today, he wanted to go and check it out and make sure he has a peace about leaving her there before we commit. We will be pr.. about this over the weekend and then on Sat. either give them their books back or enroll her.
I am thankful we did the govt. school first and now I can really see how good the private school is. I think had we done the private school first I would have seen all its problems and seen how far behind the states it is, but instead i can see how far they have come.

Ayden looks so cute in her little uniform and she is already making some friends, there are two little girls that she mainly plays with at the break time, but everyone there has been very kind to her. I think she would really pick up the lang. fast if she goes, which is the main reason for having her there, and she should do really well in the eng. class since they are just learning the alphabet. I would still have to do some school at home so that is an issue, just trying to find time for everything. She would need to keep up her reading and her math at home. the only part in eng. is the eng. class and they bring in a teacher for that, and her eng. is actually pretty good (at a lot of schools the eng. teacher can barely speak the lang.) and her main teacher does not speak any eng. which i think is good, it really makes ayden try to understand what they are saying and when she does try, she can really figure out a lot. but because nothing is in eng. we will have to do reading and math when she gets home to keep her at grade level with those two things.

school

Busy week, We put Ayden in a national school, and it has been interesting! Of course, i have stayed with her the entire time, and I have learned so much about the govt. schools and about culture in general. It has been a real eye opener. She goes from 1:00 pm until about 4. But we have come to the conclusion that it is not a place that we would ever fell comfortable leaving her, so we don't know how long she will be able to go. We are going look at a private school tomorrow and then from there we will make a decision that school is from about 7:30am - 1pm. (a little more of a school day). Still having to homeschool and her go to school and kirk and I having our lang. class has been a lot so we will have to figure it out. She loves being with the other kids and she is picking up some of the lang. so we hope we can work something out.

airplane

Our little seasoned traveler. Addie is kicked back, carsyn in the lap, arms crossed, legs crossed, watching none other then the exciting safety video before the flight!

other pics

view from our room in Santorini, and yes that is Carsyn, Addie is holding. She still has to go most places with us!!!

This is the day we took the hair down, so funny with all the curls! That is Sydney, Kirk's sister with them, they loved having a cousin around.

Kirk and I decided to do what they say is a 2 hour hike from our room to one of the cities on the island. It is up and down through the mountains, and it was not a 2 hour but a 4 hour hike for us. The girls loved it and we had a picnic along the way. The picture is when we finally made it to the city, the view was incredible!!!

4-wheelers

we rented 4-wheelers one day and rode all over and saw the whole island, it was a lot of fun, made me think of riding at mom and dad's. The girls thought it was great, and Kirk let Ayden drive (with him on there) and so she thought she was so big!!!
great day just relaxing!
The next day Kirk and I and his sister and her husband went back out on the 4-wheelers. The girls stayed with his mom and other sister and had a great day, and we had so much fun just riding and then having a day of conversation with adults only! It was a lot of fun!

beach

Kirk finally found a beach he liked, no sand just rocks!!! i on the other hand would much rather the sand.
the beach was really pretty, but the water was freezing, i could not make myself get in. of course, that did not stop the girls. Kirk would only go in up to his knees, but thankfully a friend from Germany was there with us and she swam with the girls. Glad someone likes cold water.

The last picture is us swimming in the hot springs. We went out on a boat for the day and it first took us to the volcano which was a hike but the girls loved it and they loved feeling the hot air coming out some of the holes in the ground. Then we went to the hot springs, but it was not hot enough for me, we swam and it was fun, but i never really found any hot water, just a few warm spots. Guess i lived in Louisiana too long, i like the water i swim in to feel like bath water! After that we went to a little fishing villages on one of the islands, it was really neat to see and it had great food!

more trip

Some of the highlights of Athens! of course we hit the most important place, McDonalds. I didn't know I could ever miss McDonals, but when we ate there it never tasted so good! Just a little piece of America

Probably the most important historical site we saw was the Acropolis, it was pretty amazing to picture Paul there preaching to the Athenians, and just amazing to see such historical ruins.

our trip

We were excited to get to spend some time in Greece over the last two weeks. Kirk's family helped us and some of them met us in Athens and then we ferried to Santorini. It was a great trip and a wonderful break for us. Kirk and I had some time together without the kids, which was much needed and appreciated, and we hand some great family time, just playing with the girls.

the first real fast food we have had in 10 months!!! it sure tasted good!!! this was in the airport during our layover.



we got the girls hair braided the night before we left from an Ethiopian place here, it was great! i couldn't believe they were able to get annielynnes hair in so many braids, but is was nice not having to brush hair the first few days!

anniversary

Well it has now been 10 years since Kirk and I said "I do." and how did we celebrate? Well we checked the time last night and did the time change difference when we were up in the middle of the night cleaning up throw-up from Addie and Annie lynne and it was the exact time 10 years ago when we were getting married. It was funny, here we were in the middle of the night cleaning up and bathing the girls and we just started laughing when we realized it was the exact time of our wedding. What a way to celebrate!!!

Girls are much better today, just the 2 little ones threw up so it must have been something they ate or they drink, who knows, but today they are fine! They have been running around and we have been dragging after being up most of the night.

We did have a good day before that, just a normal day, but some friends took all us to breakfast and another fixed lunch for us and then last night we all went out to eat (which may have been the culprit). The girls also had their first arabic lesson yesterday! Our school is doing a class for kids and the girls went, Addie and Annielynne are in a class together and Ayden is in the other class. The girls thought that was the best thing.

more of the village

I know it is a lot of pictures of the village, but we had such an interesting time! We went with some neighbors that we have made friends with and they are from this village. It was beautiful out their, up in the mountains and GREEN; ayden was so excited to see grass!
But when i say village that is what i mean. We were probably only 30 or 45 min. outside of the city and the last 10 or 15 min. was off of the main hwy and on dirt roads. There was no running water in the houses we went in and in one house kristy visited the bottom floor smelled like a stable and had left over hay laying around. The donkey was tied right outside the door and upstairs where we had tea and snacks there were flies everywhere. It was so sad to me but the women there seemed so happy I was there and they offered me hot tea and lots of snacks (some of which i have no idea what they were). But i was shooing flies to get the food from the plate to my mouth. Then I noticed that i was the only one doing that, i guess they are that used to it.
Other then that visit we spent most of our time with the two families we went with. Plenty of them to keep us busy, I think there are 12 kids in one family and close to that in the other. we walked a lot and helped them pick beans and spent lots of time just sitting and drinking tea and talking (well kind of talking, none of them speak Eng. so there was very broken conversations).
Kristy went to the wedding thing both afternoons, at least 200 women in a very small room. sitting basically on top of each other with very loud music playing and two or three getting up to dance at a time. It was a little over whelming. The first day I had Addie and Annielynne sitting on top of me and they both ended up in tears. No where for them to move or go and they were not the only kids crying. Finally I decided that it was time for us to get out of there and the kids could literally not walk to the door for the number of people so they were handed over from one woman to the next to get to the door and then i tried to step in between women. But I just found it so interesting, this was the wedding (at least the last 2 days) the bride sat in a chair that was higher then everyone else, while everyone else sat on the floor or stood and danced, while we listened to music that was way to loud. Some of the first days of the wedding are a little different, one day she spends the day getting henna and one other day that I went to was basically the same just minus some of the fancy dresses. They were still dressed up just not quite as fancy.
I was surprised though that out in the village a lot more women left on their baltos and all most all left on their scarves. Maybe they just didn't have a fancy enough dress? i don't know.

well sure that is enough, just wanted to give you a little insight on our trip to the village!