Sledding in September

There is a lot of construction of new apartments and demolition of old homes on our street. This leaves a lot of debris. The other day the neighborhood kids were using broken tile to slide down the street by our house. One kid had a bar of soap and was waxing the bottom of the tiles for everyone. I couldn't believe how fast we could go on those tiles! It was way too dangerous, juvenile, and irresponsible. However, it was a LOT of fun! Don't try this at home. Check it out for yourself...

Neighbors cooking together

Today I made some new friends. The ladies across the street were working together to roll out dough and cook meals on a portable stove. They were in an empty cement garage directly across from our apartment, and I've been wanting to learn how to make this dough ever since we arrived. This was a golden opportunity. However, I had one thing holding me back. (Warning: for the squeaminsh, skip the next paragraph.)

I've had the nastiest intestinal thing ever to hit this body. I weighed myself today, and I've lost 5 pounds in 2 days (I wasn't too sad about that). For 2 1/2 days I've hit the bathroom within 5 minutes of eating food (I went 32 times in 2 days). Today I had already gone to the restroom 5 times before lunch, and I saw these ladies out there, and it was an awesome opportunity to meet them and learn some tricks of the trade with cooking here. Everything except my stomach told me to go down there. I said a prayer before I left , asked if any kids wanted to go with me, and Emma and I trotted to the street.

I used my Tarzan-speak to communicate. "Excuse me. I want to learn. May I?" It worked! They welcomed me in and gave up their own pillows for me to sit on. Friends here get together to prepare food. These ladies had a system for preparing thin dough, filling it with a meat mixture, and cooking it on an open outdoor stove. There were 2 ladies preparing dough and shaping it into balls, 3 ladies rolling out the dough into something thinner than you thought possible (much thinner than a tortilla), and 1 lady cooking it on an open outdoor stove.

Withing minutes I was offered one that was fresh off the stove. It was kind of like a quessedilla filled with ground beef, onions, peppers, and tomatoes. Exaclty what I needed considering I had the worst case of intestinal yuck I'd ever experienced. I completely went off my BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast), and I ate it. It was yummy, and within the next two hours I had three cups of tea and a plain cooked thingy off the open stove.

I know my Father above completely intervened with my intestinal yuck. I am writing this blog at 10:30 p.m., and I have not had one cramp or inestinal bout since I went to meet my neighbors around noon. I know He's blessing me for stepping out in faith. I made some new friends, I learned a bit about making dough, and I was cured of intestinal yuck by eating spicy meat and peppers. How cool is that?

School Open House

Tonight we went to an Open House for the kids' international school. In Annie's second grade class, some countries represented are Norway, Kazakhstan, Iran, Jordan, Romania, Turkey, Canada, USA, Japan, South Africa, and Korea. I was most interested in meeting the Romanian parents since Annie says the boy from Romania is her new best friend (keep in mind she professes many best friends). It really was amazing when we went around the room and everyone introduced themselves and said where they were from. It really made the world seem a bit smaller.

Here's one question you don't get at the American open house: "Do you take off for spelling the Australian way? Like colour, favourite, etc?" That was asked in the sixth grade room. And FYI, no, Australians and British kids are not deducted points for their spelling even though it is an American curriculum.

While we were at Open House, the kids stayed home with a babysitter. I ordered Little Greaser's (excuse me, Caesar's) for them. It wasn't a hot-n-ready, but it was still a good price. We just got a Little Caesar's in town, so the kids and babysitter were excited. The little man on the moped delivered it in 30 minutes.

1 neatie / 2 messies

3 girls sharing a room builds character. I went into the girls' room yesterday and saw this note on the bulletin board. Curious to the origin, I sought out Abby. She gladly explained. "I got tired of cleaning up after Annie and Emma, so I wrote the note. They owe me one." They really owe her a hundred or so. Abby's a neatie and gets to live with 2 messies. I'm proud of her for taking the matter into her own hands instead of complaining to mom and dad about it. Time will tell if the note ever gets "cashed in".

something fishy

Soon after we arrived here, we bought a fish tank from a family moving back to America. We stocked it with 2 sucker fish, 2 trash fish, 4 guppies, and 2 mollies. Unbeknownst to us, the pet store blessed with a pregnant guppy. Within 3 days of having them in the tank, we had10 baby guppies.

Since that day nearly 5 months ago we have held over 15 fish funerals. The first one was dramatic with kind words spoken over Loopey, tears shed by all the girls, prayers offered, and one final flush. Afterwards the girls stayed up late writing farewell notes and drawing pictures of Loopey in heaven. We taped them on the fish tank because surely the fish were sharing our grief.

This summer has literally cooked our fish. Without a/c, there was no way to control the temperature of our fish tank. We'd place a fan on it, but the thermometer stayed in the danger zone. We have heaters in the tank for winter time, but we certainly had no need of them this summer.

After flushing Loopey, Bubbles, Lucy, Princess, Skipper, Flipper, Oscar, and Susanna the girls gave up naming the fish. I'd be in the kitchen, and one of the kids would holler, "Mom, another fish is dead!" or "Mom, a dead fish is stuck to the filter!"

As of now we have 5 remaining fish in the tank. Our two sucker fish are alive, well, and huge! We also have 3 guppies (I think they are grandchildren of the originals). One is normal, and the other two are deformed. I desperately tried to get a picture of the deformed guppies, but they were too fast (despite their handicap they have amazing agility). Their back does not arch; on the contrary, it makes a "u" shape. I guess there was too much inbreeding and too much tropical weather.

I don't understand fish. In Kentucky we won one at the county fair, and that fish lived for over 7 months in a bowl by my sink. It lived in a tiny bowl, we overfed it, and some days the water was so cloudy I couldn't see the fish. Goldie lived so long that we had to find it a new owner when we left the US. Here I have a nice tank that I clean, it has a filter, and I'm actually really trying to help the fish live. The only ones that seem to thrive are my sucker fish and the deformed ones.

Emma the Strong

Emma had her first day of preschool...all in a foreign language! We were all psyched for her first day of preschool. The older three encouraged her, and she even got the red plate, so there was no question it was a special day. When she arrived at her preschool, the teachers lavished love on her and made her at ease. She bid us farewell with a hug and a kiss, and then she trooped right into the room with the dalmation doggy carpet. After I got home, I had some time before my language tutor arrived. I took the time to say prayers for my children. It pretty much started like this, "Lord, I know you are with my children. You always are. But I'm a mom, and I just have to ask..." And on went the prayers for His presence, protection, comfort, peace, etc. It was a sweet time, and afterwards I had tremendous peace about preschool. I checked my email, and a friend wrote me to say she was praying for Emma today. She then said, "Emma means strong." I cried when I read that, and I prayed she would live up to her name. I couldn't wait for 12:30 to get here so I could pick her up and see how the day went.

As I approached the room, Emma saw me and yelled, "Mommy!" and came running to the door with arms open wide. What a feeling! She was so excited to see me and tell me about her day. The teacher told me that Emma seemed to understand everything she said. Emma enjoyed her day. They did lots of fun things. There was one little girl who wasn't kind to Emma, but it seems the teacher handled the situation well. Emma's excited to go back on Wed.

After preschool I took Emma out for a celebration lunch. We went to McDonald's in a food court at the mall. After we had lunch, she rode an elephant, Wild West horse, and a safari jeep (all with tokens). We capped off the day with a Mocha Frappuccino from Starbucks. We put two straws in it to share (though Emma needs to work on the sharing part). Now I know some of you may be tempted to leave a comment on the damaging effects of Starbucks on a four-year old. I would've never done it with my firstborn. This was my baby, and it was her first day of preschool in a foreign county in a foreign language. Today she was Emma the Strong!

Laborious School Day

Our first day of school coincided with the American Labor Day. The kids would say that's appropriate. The older three attend an international school, and it was Emma's first day of preschool. As you can tell by the picture, she was raring to go! I love this picture of Abby with her teacher. By the looks of it, they could be related somehow. All the kids have excellent teachers, so we're excited about the school year!

The Fog

This past week we took a trip to the mountains! We escaped the blistering heat of our city and enjoyed some cooler temperatures, thunderstorms, and intense fog. In the winter it is a ski resort, so we took the ski lift through the densest fog I've ever experienced. It was like some sci-fi movie. When we got to the top we

had a tremendous view of fog. To the right is a picture I took of Mike on the chair in front of us. I couldn't even see Abby and David; I just trusted they were up there somewhere. We found them when we arrived at the top. Towards the end of the week the fog lifted and we enjoyed a few sunny days. Getting out of the big city was good for the soul.