grocery shopping

The other day when Kirk ran to the store, he came home laughing so hard and said you have to post this. He went to the grocery store closet to us, and it is our favorite to go to, it doesn't have everything, but it is the cleanest and usually not very busy. Anyway, Kirk got up there to check out and the cashier (its the same one every time) was sitting in his chair with his feet propped up and he was clipping his toenails. Kirk said it was disgusting, but he couldn't help but laughing inside. So when Kirk walked up he just threw his feet down and toenails went everywhere and then he grabbed the groceries and started checking Kirk out. So I guess all our groceries have his nasty feet germs, but o-well they probably have worse then that. So next time your at wal-mart complaining about the cashier just be thankful they are not clipping their toenails while they help you!!!! Kirk made me post this just for you Becky.

flood

This is our street yesterday after about one hour of hard rain. The good thing is by last night it was all gone! The girls had the best time watching it all, and we all washed our feet really well last night!!!

water-funny story

We have two water tanks at our house. One right out the door and the other on the roof. The one on the ground pumps the water to the one on the roof and then that one gives us water in the house. Kirk checks the one on the roof often and then turns the pump on almost everyday (the tank on the roof is small compared to the one on the ground). Well Friday morning we were getting ready for fellowship and I got in the shower, Kirk had ran the pump the day before for a while so he thought we had plenty of water. But about half way through my shower the water pressure started decreasing and then no water. I had to get out and wait for about 30 for the bottom tank to pump up and then for the hot water heater to reheat the water, crazy! First time I have ever ran out of water taking a shower!!! The bad part was, since we let the tank on the top run completely out, when we turned the water back on it was disgusting, a dark brown. And it wasn't just in the bathroom, every faucet had to be ran. I realized this when I went to boil water for us to drink and my kettle was almost black!
But after it was all over (and we still made it to fellowship on time, somehow) it was pretty funny!

swimming

Some friends gave us this little pool, we had a few really hots weeks so we decided to go ahead and set it up. Of course, since doing that it has been cool every evening and then rainy all this week. The picture is the first day we had it, the girls were determined to swim but it was way to cool. Now after all the rain we will have to dump it and start over. But when the water truck comes to fill our tanks (our tanks can't hold all the water in the truck, but you have to pay for an entire truck) he can just put the rest of the water in the pool. It's great because it only takes about 3 minutes to fill the whole pool. The city chooses where they are going to pump water too and so our neighborhood hasn't gotten city water in over 2 months! Hopefully soon they will decided to send us water and we won't have to keep calling the water truck. Of course the question with the pool will be, will annie lynne get sick because she just can't keep her mouth closed in the water. I guess we will just wait and see?

Language

Kirk and I moved to the next phase in language yesterday, and so we have to start telling stories. I had a picture book out and it was pics of Christmas. We play the white elephant game every Christmas so I decided to tell our teacher about playing that game. It was so funny, to start with the name of the makes no sense, but when I told him that you can choose a gift or steal one from someone, he couldn't believe it!!!!! It was so funny. But by the time I got to the end of my story he was laughing and now he wants to play the game with us. So maybe this year we will be the game with him.
Kirk told him today about raising cows and I told him about showing animals in 4-H, those were interesting stories for him too. He couldn't believe that you can feed a baby calve from a bottle or walk a cow in a ring for someone to judge.
It was a lot of fun and it was great to be able to make a whole sentence in this language. Of course he had to help us a lot with the words, but we were able to get a lot of it out too, and that was exciting!!!

treat after school

Last Wednesday when class was over it was raining outside, really raining!!! This is the first time it has really rained since we have been here, we have had a few sprinkles, but never like this. There was even lightening and thunder!!! Since then it has rained hard almost every afternoon. But anyway, since we couldn't go anywhere (our street was flooded) and it had been a long week at school I decided to make us a snack. Thanks to wonderful friends and family I had a can of rotel and a pack of koolaid. No vellvetta but I managed to find some cheese that is kind of close. They also don't have tortillas here so I made our own chips out of something similar to pita bread. Just brushed it with olive oil, sprinkled it with salt and baked it for a few minutes. It wasn't quite the same as real rotel dip, but close enough for us. I also rarely drink koolaid but I fixed us each a big glass and I enjoyed every sip. There was just something comforting about having food from home!! (well close to home). The girls were very excited about the koolaid, and so I froze some they had popsicles the next day! So fun!
About the rain (pictures to come), if it rains hard our street is flooded and today we even had the water under our gate, but the good thing is in recedes fast also. And after the sun is out for a few hours in the morning, you won't even be able to tell that we had a hard rain. The bad part is that it sticks! Walking the streets after the rain is not fun! But the girls love watching all the water on the street. Today Ayden stood on a bucket at our gate and watched all the people and cars and bike going through all the water, she couldn't believe that our street looked like a river!

our day out of the city

We had a wonderful day on Friday. Us along with another couple and their baby, went out of the city for the day. It was wonderful, so quite and peaceful! The girls had a great time having a place to run and climb. Then we had a picnic which they had really been wanting to do. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the shade we found, relaxing and watching the kids play and then climbing with them on all the rocks. Hopefully you can tell from the pics that some of the climbing was not that easy! By the next day we all had sore legs! but it was worth it! Addie and Ayden were not scared of anything, they wanted to climb on every rock and go as high as they could and as close to the edge as they could! A little scary at times for me, but they had lots of fun and never complained about all the walking. Of course addie and annielynne fell asleep right after we got in the car headed home!

packages are the BEST

We have received four packages since we have been here, and each one has been very special!! The girls get so excited about opening the box, and we are so thankful for all that has been in them. Thank you so much for sending them, and I know the Father is giving you the ideas of what to put in them because each thing that has been sent has been very special and very wanted!!!
I finally got smart enough to take some pictures when we opened the last package, so these smiles are for you aunt Cheri
Thanks so much for the box!!!

Easter baskets

After we found Easter eggs we let the kids look for their Easter baskets. It was so fun watching them. And i was so proud of them, up to that point they had not even asked for candy or anything, they were just very happy with their eggs. But when they saw their baskets they were excited about all the candy and kirk and i were excited too. mom had sent peeps so when the girls got their baskets kirk and i swiped some peeps. then we went to eat lunch at a friends house. the last time she was in the states she brought back some canned ham so we even had ham for lunch. it was a good Easter! and we made it through our first holiday!!!!

Easter egg hunting

Here are the girls hunting eggs after the sunrise service. They had so much fun, but after Annielynne found a couple of eggs she was done and just wanted to play on the playground. She said "i just spin my eggs" so she sat her basket in the seat next to her and she spun her eggs. When she was done spinning she buckled her eggs in one of the swings and she sat in the other one, and I swung her and her eggs.
All three girls had a lot of fun and then when we got home they looked for the eggs they had dyed. It was a fun!

dying eggs with the neighbors

After the girls had dyed a couple of eggs I opened the gate and some of the neighborhood children came in and they each dyed some. It was so funny watching them, they weren't sure what it was all about, I can't wait till next year when I have more arabic and can explain why we were dying Easter eggs and what Easter is all about.
But it was fun and they were very proud of their eggs. I went later that day to visit one of their moms and saw the Easter egg that her son had dyed in a special bowl up on a shelf. He was very proud of his egg!!!

dying Easter eggs

Here are girls dying their Easter eggs on Sat. It was a lot of fun! We missed having the cousins to dye the eggs with but are so thankful that Granny sent us dye since I forgot to pack any.

I forgot

Today after fellowship we went to a friends house and visited for a while and had a snack and then we left. We needed to pick up a few things so we had the taxi driver stop out on the main road so we could pick up a few things and then walk to the house. When I went to step out of the taxi I realized my scarf was not on so I started looking for it, thinking it had just slipped off and when I looked down I realized no balto! Just my skirt and shirt! So I got back in the taxi and skipped out on the fruit and had the driver drop me off at our door! Too Funny. You think after three months I would be use to this but I guess after 30 years of no scarf it takes a while!
I'm just thankful we don't live upstairs, a friend lives on the third floor of her building and she told me she has stepped out on the street many times and then realized she didn't have her scarf on and had to hike back up the three flights! I guess that is one way to get your exercise.

shopping is always interesting

We went today to one of the few western grocery stores in the city, which is always nice we can get cereal and sp. sauce, etc.
but today as i was fixing to go in a taxi pulled up to the door and two men got out. They were carrying meat into the store. One man was carrying a huge slab of something? of course not wrapped in anything and the other man as he was walking up I saw him put two (what looked like) livers into his pocket so he could hold some other kind of meat better. Good thing I already don't eat liver, because after that I definitely wouldn't be buying any. But as we stood at the meat counter later I thought thats how our meat was brought in too. Its so funny, in the states there are so many regulations you would never see someone walking through the store carrying raw meet, but here nothing unusual about it. and this is the western grocery store, can't even imagine what the meat has been through that we eat in the little local restaurants! So we just pray and eat and don't think about it!!!

it finally rained!!!

Every once in a while it would sprinkle in the afternoon, but we finally had our first big rain and the girls loved it. Addie had just came in and got a towel which is why she is not in the picture, but Ayden and Annielynne stayed outside in it for a long time! They got the bucket to catch all the water that was falling from the roof and then they splashed around and poured it on each other, they had a great time! But when it rains sandals are not an options, the streets get so bad and after just a few hours our street was covered in water. The good thing is that since it is so dry here the water is gone in no time.
But when your out walking, you need to watch out one of our neighbors has a pipe coming out from the roof to drain all the water and the pipe sticks out so far that if you are in the street by there house you will get drenched!!! It was a fun day in the rain!

Ayden's house

This is the house ayden built in the middle of our living room for the club that her and addie started and are the only two members of. Adyen gave their club the name Princess Rockers. Kind of funny but I am so thankful that her and Addie have been playing so good together. It is so fun to watch them, of course they did not invite Annielynne to join their club, they both said she messes up everything!!! So we still have a little work to do.

Here are the girls wearing beautiful flowers around their necks. The taxi driver gave it to them last night.
People here are so kind.
They sell these flower necklaces on the street and many drivers will have them hanging in their car, because they smell so good.
At wedding you will see a ton of these worn by men and women.
The girls were very excited because they have been wanting one. Don't know how long it will last, probably just a couple of days but they will enjoy it and their room smells so good, now.

hamburger shop

We had the best hamburger in our city last night. It's still not a real American burger, but it is pretty good! And for $12 we got three hamburger meals and a medium beef pepperoni pizza, can't do that at home! Way more food then we thought it would be but great because the girls ate the leftover pizza for lunch today.
The picture is the girls over looking the rail, In restaurants here they have a certain area for women to eat or families. If the place has an upstairs thats where it is, so Kirk goes to order and me and the girls go upstairs to wait. We were the only ones upstairs so the girls thought that was fun they had the whole area to run around in.