lollypop, lollypop, oh lolly lollypop

Marvin and I love games, unfortunately this life stage we are in doesn't lend itself to being able to play very many of them together. Our evenings are usually filled with studying and weekends we're busy trying to get a few things done or catching up on sleep. Recently Calvin's become interested in games and boy does he love them. He is always begging us to play a "mame" with him. A few favorites are memory, the cookie game, and Candy land. He's slowly getting the concept of games, although we had to modify the cookie "mame" a bit, it's a bingo game and after trying unsuccessfully to get the concept of putting a cookie on the picture instead of matching the pictures we gave up. Instead he just gets a cookie if he has that picture.

Now candy land is a game that brings this child so much joy right now. He just loves it, and LOVES getting any of the special cards, even if he's about to win and he draws a Jolly card, or the Gingerbread card. He'll even try to trade with you if you get one of those. We're excited for more hours of game playing in our future. Now we just have hunt down a Chutes and Ladders game. It was my favorite growing up, and for some crazy reason we didn't bring it. If I had known his love for games it would have been high priority.

Me and my friend Pooh

We have our first imaginary friend around our house. His name is Pooh and he's a great pal. Often Calvin finds himself playing games with Pooh, and I will admit it's nice to have an imaginary playmate around. Some of their favorite things do do are play "soccer ball" or hockey. Occasionally Pooh comes with us places and at times is a little slow, so we have to wait for him. At first this little friend gave me some concerns about the mental state of my child, but rather than worry we've embraced Pooh and are glad he's stuck around.

When we asked Calvin what Pooh looks like he said that he is "a green and white fish." He's quite a talented little fish, that requires no water to survive, but I'm pretty sure his appearance changes some too. What a fun stage!

Celebrating Expat style

Our 4th of July celebration turned out beautiful, not too hot, and the clouds cleared out by our afternoon meeting time. We were able to gather just outside of town at a favorite spot of ours. Calvin and all the kids played so hard. Calvin LOVED playing soccer on a field with short grass (oh grass how we miss you). There were a few local boys at the field towards the beginning of our time and a few of our guys joined them in a friendly match.

The rest of the time we had the hill and field to ourselves, except when the cowboy was bringing his herd of cows through. It's fun things like this that make our celebrations more memorable here.

We also had some Brits join our celebration too, which is pretty funny, but they thought someone should represent the "old country". We ended the evening with some great fireworks, and some tired children. What a wonderful 4th of July this year.

For the Curious Kids

I know a few of you are curious about what we made during our OAMC spree, so here's our list with several links. I know I love finding good freezer recipes, so I'll share those we made.

1. Chicken Packets
2. Chili Verde (slightly modified)
3. Chinese Honey Ginger Chicken
4. Maui Wowee Chicken
5. Cuban Blackbean Chicken Salad topping
6. Teriyaki Chicken Burgers
7. Chicken Salad

8. Korean Beef Bulgogi
9. Gyros & Pita Bread
10. BBQ Meatballs
11. Taco Meat
12. Hamburger Patties
13. Shredded BBQ Beef

14. Stuffed Pizza Rolls
15. Calzones
16. Chili Kolaches
17. Bean Burritos
18. Pizza Dough & Sauce

Empty to Full

This past weekend a friend of mine and I went to work in the kitchen to create some freezer meals. We had a plan of action and started off a little slow, but together made 14 meals to fill our freezers. Now if you know me I'm pretty ambitious and always think I can do WAY more than I actually have time for, so I planned on making 18 meals. We stopped around 10:15 p.m. after we decided to do 4 of the meals on our own the next day.

It was so much more fun to cook with another person and by the end of the day I was so tired and had some killer cankles. I am excited to just pull out a meal and not have to worry about prep work for dinner. I'm also very excited about doing fewer dishes this next month!!!! Each meal was roughly around $8.00, which is pretty average here I've found, so I don't think it saves us any money, other than making sure we don't throw away any ingredients, but if it saves us some time I'm all for it. Most of these meals will give us enough for leftovers too!

After talking about how the day went we decided we had to change a few things next go around:

We will DEFINETLY preparing fewer recipes that involve dough. This month we tried to do a lot of recipes that would help us not use our ovens this summer so we baked, and baked, and baked some more, so we would not have to do it later. For the first 2 hours I was constantly making some sort of dough, and most of that dough also had to be filled with something, so that was VERY time consuming.

Also we need to recruit a dishwasher. At the end of the day after Calvin went to bed, Marvin became our dishwasher, it was very nice. Also it will be much easier when we don't have to bring hot water in from our bathroom. Right now it's summer and the hot water is off in our building, thankfully we have a hot water heater to heat water in our bathroom or else this would not have been fun. This type of cooking produces a LOT of dishes, I'm not going to lie that part stunk.

If we want to do make this many meals, we need do more prep than we did, we tried to chop everything ahead of time, but had a few things that I thought could have been done before we got together.

Also it will be good to figure out which containers would work best for what ahead of time, and label them. I'm very bad at figuring out what will fit in what. Since Ziploc bags are hard to come by in our part of the world we tried to use as many containers as possible. We both ran into problems towards the end with not having enough containers to fit what we needed. It also took a lot of time to stop and label stuff, so we either need to have our labels ready or know what containers will fit what.

I highly recommend getting a good night sleep before a mega cooking spree. We both stayed up late doing our prep work which made for some tired girls going into it.

Overall I'm glad we did it and I'll certainly do it again, the benefits highly outweigh the negatives.

Ya Sure

This little guy just keeps cracking us up recently at things he says and I don't want to forget them, so here are some classic Calvinisms recently:

His response most of the time when he's agreeing to our suggestions, "Ya Sure."

When we ask him to do something and he's stalling doing it. He's quite clever and will usually say:
"But I have to asked you something." Which is usually preceded by not a question but something like this "memmer when we were are the abc house and ......... yes that was hun (fun)."

When playing he'll suddenly gasp and say.... "I have an idea, ya that'd be a good idea."

"Daddy want to wesle (wrestle) me."

"Pooper Groger." When describing his Super Grover underwear.

Saying "bring it on" when playing "soccer ball". (His daddy taught him that one.)

Every morning he's excited to get dressed and choose which "team" he's going to be for the day. As he looks at his shirts he'll say, "maybe be green team, no blue team, ohhhh mommy stripe team, cool." If anyone else is wearing the same color shirt as he is that day is obviously on the same team as him. (Can you tell he LOVING the world cup lately?)

Anytime either of us leave, he must run to the door give us a kiss and say "I wowve you too."

Such sweet gifts! We truly love this verbal stage.

Freedom

So far this morning it's a cloudy day and we're hoping the rain holds off until after our 4th of July plans. I know Calvin is really looking forward to a picnic by the river today and Marvin's excited to grill some kebabs (shh don't tell our local friends but he bought some pork).

The 4th of July is a holiday for me where strangely enough I get a little homesick, even more than Christmas. I have such fun memories of spending the 4th on my grandparents farm. It isn't anything but your typical 4th of July celebration, but the smell of fireworks and bug spray open wide the floodgates and the memories come a flowing. It was a day where we could play (we still do), get dirty, eat lots of yummy food, be around our cousins, and do a lot of laughing. I still love it, and it was fun the past two years to be a part of it. Here are some things I will miss this year:

• Hearing my grandpa pray for the gratefulness of those who have given their lives for their country. Knowing the sincerity of his heart and hearing the pain of losing his own brother in WWII in his prayer. (His generation understands how much freedom costs and I'm so thankful to learn that from him.)

• My grandma's kitchen instructions. I love being in the kitchen and doing what grandma tells you to do and how she thinks out loud. I can just hear her "Now Erica.........."

• The commentary on every firework that is shot off from my mom and aunts.

• Grandma's peach pie.....so heavenly

• Catching up with family.

So even though our 4th may look a bit different this year, we have so much to give thanks for. Living in a different country makes us appreciate our upbringing and heritage. We are thankful to be from a country who has the ability to help so many around the world, and where freedom is not just a word but a reality. Truly blessed are we!

giardia, giardia go away

Dear Giardia bug,

Please go away! You've made our life fun this last week, I will give you that, but you have forgotten that Calvin is still figuring out the potty thing, and it's hard for him to make it quickly to the potty when he needs to, especially when he is in pain. Although my vocabulary grew this week because of you and there are a few words I will never forget like stool stample and poop, you need to make a quick exit from Calvin's body. We thank you for giving us the opportunity to check out the medical clinics here, but we'd rather not go back. Your 7 day stay has been long enough. We hope to never see you again.

Sincerly,
Our WHOLE family

Finally SUMMER PRODUCE

We are enjoying summer produce right now! Hooray for fresh fruit and veggies that don't cost an arm and a leg! I have big plans for all this summer produce including: making some jams, applesauce, canning some tomatoes (diced and whole) and salsa!

I got things rolling a couple weeks ago with 10 jars of freezer strawberry jam, there is nothing better than homemade jam, it's so yummy, we've already finished one jar already. I'm really excited, now we'll see how much energy I have. I'm really excited thinking about being able to open up a jar of tomatoes and throw them into a recipe (we can get them here but they are about $3.00 for a small can, a price I just can't justify). Thankfully fresh local produce comes in stages, so that I'm not bombarded all at once. I have high hopes to get some cherries in the freezer this week. If you have any other ideas I'd love to hear them. I'm also tossing around the idea of canning some spaghetti sauce, from what I've read I'm a little intimidated, has anyone done this before?

What’s this called?

For Father's Day Calvin and I woke up early to get started on a big breakfast for Marvin (really Calvin woke up early so it helped me get an early start on the cinnamon rolls). As we sat down for breakfast brunch Calvin looked at the bacon and said, "What's this mommy?" He then moved on to the cinnamon rolls and asked me what they were. I had to laugh because I'm sure Marvin knew what these two things were well before 2 ½ . Regardless he enjoyed them both.

Refreshed

It's been a busy couple of weeks. We have slept very well. We had lots of extra stuff on top of our normal stuff that made life a little crazy. We were preparing for our supervisor and his family to move, and of course we had to make their send off special. It was a lot of fun planning and I was pretty exhausted by the time it was over. We had a fun time and I was thankful to everyone who helped it go smoothly. We will certainly miss their family. It has already been weird emptying their house.

Their house is in the process of being sold. We've had lots of memories in this fortress house, and it will be very different not going out to this village often. We lived in this same house for over a year before they moved to our city. Over this process it's been good to be thankful for those memories, but not to let them hold us back to where Father is leading.

Monday we had our nanny come so I could get some good time of refreshment. I will have to be honest when I plan these sort of days I'm often distracted by being home and the things that need to be done. I had to smile because it was a day when our water was out, and every household task that needed to be done involved water, it was a sweet little gift. It was a beautiful morning to sit on our balcony and just soak up the Word. I loved every second of it. I love to listen to music while reading and I noticed a playlist I created shortly after going back to the states and it was a sweet time of being reminded of how Faithful He truly is. This sort of morning is going to make its way into our monthly routine.

Mommy watch this......

Ever try to put a potty chair over your head? I don't recommend it, they get stuck.

After about 15 minutes of a trying to pry this thing off of an upset little guy I determined it was going to take two people, and I had just helped our neighbors lock the door and knew they weren't home. So I called in the big guns, Daddy, and told him he'd have to head home instead of class. Of course I had to snap a quick picture before I did so. Thankfully we got it off about 5 minutes later, and Marvin was able to go to class.

Some days all I wonder is WHY?

not this week

Just so you know today is not Father's Day! I was clearly convinced it was until yesterday, thankfully a friend told me otherwise. So glad I didn't wake up super early to make breakfast-in-bed for the Father in our house. I guess when you're not being bombarded by media things get a little fuzzy!

Rant.....then swallow

So I have this thing against technology and children's toys. I DESPISE toys that require batteries! Most of the time they are so annoying you just want the batteries to die, but really where's the play when all your animals make their own sounds? Coming from an early childhood background I've seen so often how play just stops with these types of toys. I honestly feel like kids learn best through exploring their world with their own hands through play.

With that said, we do live in the age of ipods, ipads, laptops, etc. and it's important for kids to be familiar with them. I recently had this discussion with a friend, who is all about reading books to their baby on the way on a Kindle. (It will be interesting to see if this view changes once he becomes a parent.) Now the funny part was when Calvin brought me our calculator the other day and said, "Read this book Mommy." Our friend was very pleased at our little techno savvy little man.

I also said I'd never EVER own a leap pad, leapster, whatever they are. Well guess what someone gave us one and guess who loves it? I'll give you a hint, he's a blond little boy. But you know what made this mama's heart so happy? Was when he decided to add some "guitar action" with the music! That's my guy. Guess I better watch what I say from now on.

Addition & Subtraction

Soon and very soon we will be the proud owners of a freezer. I can't tell you how long I've wanted one, especially overseas. I've had dreams of doing once a month cooking but our little freezer could hold maybe 3 meals, it's that tiny. I've been plugging away at a menu that requires no use of the oven when needing to serve the meal. I'm all about keeping our house cooler this summer, why turn on the oven when you don't have to. The meals I've tried to pick out are ones that can be made by crock pot, stove top, or reheated in the microwave. Once a month cooking is going to be so handy this summer, especially since we've bumped our language up to 5 days a week. I think I have a cooking buddy lined up too, I'm really excited.


What really isn't exciting is the reason why we are becoming the owners of this freezer. We bought it from some dear friends, people we look up to, come to with questions about EVERYTHING, and are seriously our family here. They are moving on, although we're excited for their new journey, it's hard to say goodbye. It is fun that we will have reminders of them around our house, ways that they will still be a blessing to us from so far away. I think of this often as I pull bread out of Jamie's space bread box, or use Laura's salad spinner. Even though these people are not working with us anymore we're grateful for the opportunity to work together for a season. Our lives are better because of it!

Out numbered

We made it to the half way point, 20 weeks!!!! It's fun to think that we'll get to meet this little one in only a few short months. Some days that fact overwhelms me, but most days it is fun to think of life as a family of 4!

When we got married Marvin's side of the family was filled with boys, he has 4 brothers and not many cousins with two X chromosomes. I told him that I didn't think we'd ever have a girl, in fact I seriously thought it was impossible! Then his brother had 3 precious little girls, that we miss tremendously! It gave me hope. I will admit that when we were told early on that we may be having a girl I was excited, but a little sad Calvin wouldn't have a little brother to pal around with, I've grown to love being a mom to a little boy. Then our next ultra sound told us we were having a boy, we were just confused.

We had a very compliant little baby this last week for my ultrasound and turns out I'm going to be out numbered in our house, another little boy! We're thrilled!

I am already dreaming projects for this little one. I want to update our stroller. This is our stroller.

But ours has an extra easier to remove pad over the seat part, that I want to recover, to give it more personality. Which one would you choose?

Ta Dots?

or

Teeny Tiny Zoo Pool?

I need to order one of these soon so I can get the fabric and finish this project before we head out to have this baby. (Living in a place where it takes a month to get a package takes some planning!)

Thanks for the help and sharing in our excitement!

Homeward Bound

You have no idea how excited I am to be returning home today. I can't wait to give my amazing husband a HUGE hug. I've missed him so much this past week. So has Calvin. He is ready to give his Daddy real hug, not just a high five on the computer. Every time we pray at meals he reaches out his hand for Daddy, making me miss him even more.

To be honest it's been exhausting! I've been Calvin's constant playmate this past week (with the exception of when he and Pooh, his imaginary friend play). Thankfully he's been a really sweet boy, I've only had a few moments where I've wanted to lock myself in the bathroom. We've really had some sweet times together these last 8 days. I'll remember this trip forever!

We're all packed and ready to go. Of course we had to go local and pack as locals do, only I found a nice rice bag that was more my style at IKEA. I'll get it wrapped in saran wrap at the airport here in a few hours and no one will ever suspect I'm a foreigner.

I'm praying for an uneventful flight and a quick tour through passport control and customs, and of course a seat for Calvin this time around.

Too close not to stop

Calvin had a doctor's appointment at the hospital where he will have a minor operation when we come to have the baby this fall. It was great to talk about logistics with the doctor and see the hospital. This particular hospital is a good taxi ride away from the apartment we are staying in, and very close to IKEA. So since I have been craving a hot dog, I thought it would be perfect to run over to IKEA for lunch and of course take some time to play and shop while we were there.

I'm not the only one in our family who loves IKEA, Calvin had a blast. Of course it is so much more enjoyable because they have brilliantly laid out their store so that it's child friendly. We made it out of the store with a few necessary items like dry erase markers, and Ziploc bags, but a couple fun ones too. It's just refreshing knowing if you buy a toy there it won't break the next day. It 's was sort of funny to look around at the things in the children's section and see so many things that live at our house now. What can I say, we're loyal customers!

a busy building boy

Calvin would like to give a HUGE virtual thank you hug to Aunt Stacey and Uncle John for the legos. He loves them and has spent so many hours busy creating. He had the biggest grin on his face when he discovered a few familiar lego people, Bob the builder and Piglet. After we went to the store in search of a birthday present for a little friend I was so grateful to have such great quality toys. I really despise cheap plastic and apparently that is what is affordable here.

Here's is what I've found throughout the house recently:

Lego People Swimming

pirate guys in a boat

I on the other hand want to give you a huge hug for the air conditioner! My allergies have been terrible this year and I have not even hit the worst of it. As we experienced a few hot days here in Istanbul, I was dreaming of our cool apartment back home. My awesome hubby and another teammate have installed it, and now all we have to do is get back home in order to enjoy these new treats.

One Ticket

We'll I survived my first international travel flight alone with a child and it wasn't too bad, but I'd much rather do it with help. Only on Nineveh Air is it possible for a 2 ½ year old to be a lap child, but at least his ticket was free. Of course he was a lap child without a lap belt, pretty sure those weren't invented when this specific airplane was made. It was a cozy flight, I'm so glad my belly isn't any bigger, because the person's seat in front of us was broken and only reclined, but we had a seat and we were able to fly. One other blessing was that the flight was filled with women, which meant that the waiting area and the plane weren't smoky!!! No smoking signs don't apply to bathrooms, in our part of the world.

It's also one of the few airlines that travel with their own "engineers". We had to wait on everyone to get off the plane so I could go to the back of the plane and get our stroller, since we boarded through the back of the plane. As soon as all the people got off the "engineers" put on their orange vests and grabbed their flashlights and went to work. I'm glad they make sure everything was working before they took off.

Calvin's been a great traveler and has been having fun at the "ABC house". He hasn't forgotten the apartment we stayed at when we were here for our visa run. In fact he remembers everything, as we were turning in the apartment complex when we arrived from the airport, and he was so excited to go play on the playground. I had to remind him we still had to take our bags to the apartment, he was slightly disappointed. He's also very busy retelling things we did the last time we were here, I can only imagine the stories he'll tell when we come to have the baby this fall.

I was able to see the doctor on Monday and the baby is continuing to grow! It was encouraging to hear that because I woke up on Monday after the oddest dream about a doctor's appointment where they did a sonogram but they couldn't tell me what the gender the baby was because the baby was wearing pajamas. In my dream they told me that I must have swallowed a pair of pjs, I of course insisted that I didn't, but they told me I'd have to wait till the baby was born to find out the gender, and they hoped that the pajamas didn't cut off the babies circulation to its hands and feet. They couldn't tell me if the baby would be born with hands and feet yet, due to the pajamas. It was very odd. So I was relieved to get a picture of this, and no I didn't tell the doctor about my strange dream.

We also learned what we're having, but I'll save that for another post!

The best news of all was that there was no sign of preterm labor. I'll get the last of my lab results back on Thursday and we'll see where we go from here. The doctor must release me to go back home, so I'm hoping that this stay will be brief and we can travel back home on Sunday, granted there is a seat available on that flight.

With this pregnancy I have a lot more fears. I try not to let my mind go there but it's quite terrifying wondering what might happen if I do go into labor early again, only not in a place with great medical care. So I've just been paying a little more attention to my body and trying not to worry over every little ache and of course pouring prayer over this little thing. I know many of you have been too, it means the world to us!