when a superhero envades your living room

Enjoy!

Finally

We bought some frames for pictures in our living room a year ago at IKEA.  Since we have a small apartment we don't have a lot of place for storage and Calvin kept playing with them so we just hung them up empty.  We had high ambitions to get pictures printed for them, but never got around to it until two weekends ago.  It was super easy, not sure why it took us an entire year to do so.

(Please tell me we aren't the only ones who have this problem.)

Very Blue

Sunday, Calvin melted when I started my work out because he wanted me to skip a part of it, so I sent him to his room.  Then he woke up his brother with his crying, so Marvin was taking care of the littlest one while I worked out.  Since both parents were busy Squeezicks was in his room for a while, 30 minutes, a long while, the next thing I hear was "Mommy I painted my hands."

The rest was history.  I opened the door to find a little boy laying on his bed with his hands proped up on his chin with not only blue hands but blue circles of paint around his eyes, imagine a racoon.  So I told him to go wash his hands and face, but didn't specify the order....wrong move.

He washed his face first......with his blue painted hands.

He comes out of the bathroom with slightly blue hands but a completely blue face.  HILARIOUS.  Sorry no pictures he was a bit embarassed.

How horrible of me but I could not look at the child without bursting out laughing, so Marvin tackled the 20 minutes of face scrubbing.  Most of it came off, but he did look like he was rockin some blue eye makeup.

Never a dull moment when you have kids.

How did this happen?

It's amazing how quickly time flies, especially when you have a baby.  It's crazy how much Micah has changed, he just gets sweeter as time goes by though.  Here are a few videos of him I FINALLY uploaded.  Enjoy!

Getting Dressed for the first time..............minutes after birth


Snuggling in my arms.....................2 hours after birth



First pacifier..................2 weeks


Smiling.......7 weeks old


Baby Gym Love............ 11 weeks old


Talking.......just shy of 4 months



Rolling Over......Saturday one day shy of 4 months

One way to bug a house

My sister sent a Christmas gift for the boys and the post office called and said it arrived. So after lunch we used our legs (Calvin was disappointed we had to walk) to go pick it up. Unfortunately Calvin thought that Aunt Natalie would actually be with the package. After the lady gave us the package he asked where Aunt Natalie was, if she was back behind the door. Poor guy was crushed to learn she wasn't there. (I mean big crocodile tears of disappointment).


So we finally collected ourselves and made our 30 minute walk back home to open our package and see what goodies were inside. My parents filled it with other goodies too, Calvin loved his new shirt from Aunt Nat and we love Micah's K-State board book. We've enjoyed some yummy goodies like twizzlers and Reese pieces. But the smallest thing included caused the most drama, a little tiny little wiggling bug. You turn it on and it takes off. Calvin of course loves it.


That evening I went to the kitchen to start dinner and bake some strawberry bread. Calvin came in with his bug and I thought no biggie, surely it won't go in that little crack by the stove. You know where this is going.


So it went in that crack, Marvin wasn't home so I started prepping dinner and making bread.


5 minutes later Marvin's home and the bug is still going crazy behind the stove. We contemplated letting it run out of battery, but it was annoying, so he pulled out the stove.


Crazy bug takes off behind the cabinets; we hear it hitting the washing machine.


Marvin moves the washing machine out, crazy bug now moves under the sink cabinet.


We take everything out from under the sink and pull out the vacuum.

20 minutes later VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

40 minutes later we now have a clean kitchen, clean oven, and clean floor behind two appliances.


Thanks small bug for helping us get to those places we rarely clean.


Now you know why that small bug is in a safe place for the time being.

pilgrim's progress

Today my language teacher told me I say my "r's" like I have a hot potato in my mouth, which just made me laugh hysterically.....so much for progress.  Oh and our teacher is very encouraging like that ALL the time, I love her blunt comments, it makes it fun.

We had our language examined in January and we got the results back this week and we were where we thought we were, middle of the road, although Marvin did better than I did in two areas.  This was not so shocking to me, but because he underestimates his abilities he was pretty shocked by it.  It was good to see these results and see what we need to work on, and for me, ahem I need to pronounce words correctly so I don't sound like I have a hot potato in my mouth on top of a slew of other things.  But at the same time it puts things in perspective of how far we have to go.

Someday I will be able to open my mouth and sound intelligent and not like a blubbering idoit, until then I'll dream about that seemingly impossible dream.

One Cultural Norm I'll never Embrace

We finally got together with some good friends last week.  Of course they brought a present for Micah, who they knew was a boy.  They brought this...........

Lovely huh?  In fairness it was VERY sweet of them.

It's so strange to me that such a masculine culture would let their little boys wear something like this.  Needless this sweet gift will have to wait to be worn......until we have a little girl, then she will get to wear this little number.

Ninety Nine

So I graduated high school in 1999, and one of the guys in our class made up a rap song for our class which for some strange reason the administration let him sing (I guess that the verb you use to rap) during morning announcements one morning. It was super cheesy yet, none of us forgot it. EVERY time I hear the number 99, my mind goes back to the last week of school sitting in my English classroom and hearing, ninety nine, ninety nine, nine, nine, nine, nine ninety nine. Thanks 99 guy, sorry I have forgotten you name!


There's your random story of the day, now onto numbers 99-135
#99 Road Trips
#100 Coming before the throne with sweet friends
#101 BBQs in the snow
#102 Sledding
#103 A Bouncing boy ready for school each day
#104 WHOOO HOOOs heard as Calvin flies down the hill
#105 Biggest grins after a sledding run
#106 IKEA finds
#107 Pursuing new stores
#108 Spotting of the golden arches, closer to home
#109 Toaster
#110 A Washing machine
#111 A thoughtful husband
#112 Giggles that bring on hiccups
#113 A husband who can drive a large vehicle well
#114 A few meals left in the freezer
#115 Teachers who don't give up on you
#116 Walking distance to everything you need
#117 Encouragment from friends
#118 Corn tortilla chips
#119 Giant fluffy snowflakes, slowly falling from the sky
#120 Eagerness for learning
#121 Toothless grins
#122 Leisurely walks
#123 Clean house…even just for a few hours
#124 A break in dishwashing…thanks honey
#125 A little hand hanging on for dear life to my shirt during bath time
#126 Freshly washed babe
#127 Sunshine
#128 Clear view of the majestic mountains at our doorstep
#129 Laughing as a family
#130 Watching brothers play together
#131 Ex pat friends
#132 Reconnecting with local friends
#133 Giddiness from playing hide and seek
#134 Working Elevator
#135 Bread of Life

The Changes

It's crazy how quickly a place changes. We first stepped foot in Nineveh 5 years ago and oh my have things changed. Marvin and I had a good time reminiscing earlier about some fun memories with some dear people. Since our part of the world doesn't attract many visitors each team member or visitor makes for some sweet memories.

So for those of you who have lived here and have moved on, or those who have come to visit I would like to share a few things that you may or may not be SHOCKED by.


I have fond memories of trying to furnish our apartment when we first arrived, trudging through the slush and ice in the market, going back to the B's apartment to warm up our feet before we went back for another round……then hauling that all back to our apartment by public transportation. Today we have plenty of places to go indoors to find these things. It was such a different experience a year ago, filling a grocery cart, or two full of things we needed, then loading them into a van and driving back home with most of the necessities in a matter of hours. 5 years ago this would have been CRAZY talk.

And speaking of stores we have several large grocery stores, one of which is within walking distance to our apartment. I can't tell you how much of a blessingit is to have a place that sells some of the harder to find items  just right up the road.


We still use the market when we need a lot of random things, but it's tough to manage with two kids. They are revamping the market too. There is now a building for dishes, a building for clothing, a building for fruit and vegetables, and we no longer have a candy room but a candy building. The cheese/candy/ chicken building is also being updated. I'm telling you it's CRAZY.

We now have several buildings with escalators going BOTH ways. The "mall" is now a grocery store with a great toy store on the top floor. (Some things will never change:  the prices of clothing, toys, and everything is still outrageous.)

 

We have a real mall, with an ice skating rink inside, that's ALWAYS busy. This mall also has a sweet movie theatre, new bowling alley, a sushi restaurant, and a real western fast food restaurant (with a great play place for kids).

Marshrutkas are now 12 p instead of 6p and there's talk that's going up soon.  Prices of most things have doubled.

There are twice as many cars around, but they all still drive just as crazy. Since there has been an increase of people driving the city added about a billion speed bumps to slow them down.

With all these changes it makes me wonder what else will change in the next 5 years?????????????
It will be fun to see what crazy talk right now may be a reality in 5 years.

P.S. We miss our old teammates, and you always will be our teammates even though you don't live here anymore. We sure did have a lot of fun together didn't we?

I smile every time I see deodorant, or dolphin shower curtains, L.
Walk past the coke cans during the summer, J.
See a hand towel for sale, or little ladies selling baked goods, D.
And P your phrases are iconic and still make us laugh.

Well that's a long post, I better take P's advice and trail off, trail off, trail off………

3 Month Sugar Lump

Our little sugar lump is certainly getting bigger. At 3 months he was 24 ½ inches tall and 14 ½ lbs. He's a chunky little guy, but oh so sweet.

He LOVES, LOVES, LOVES his hands, he prefers them over toys.


He loves his big brother, tracks him around the room loves to smile at him, to which big Bro loves and has to report to me every time Micah is "piling" at him.


He's still our little cuddle bug, loves being in people's arms and loves the sling (which is how I wash dishes most days). At one point I thought we were getting close to being able to lay him in his crib awake to fall asleep but well that's just not happening right now. So I will savor my days rocking him to sleep while they are still here. I know they are numbered.


He's our little side roller, but hasn't quite made it over on his own yet. Usually he'll get distracted and find his hands and then life's peachy, who needs to roll over when you're munching on delicious hands.


At 3 months he's been waking up once around the middle of the night 3ish and PTL started going to bed earlier!!! No more night owl, which means I've been going to bed before 1:00 a.m., which makes for a much more rested and better mama.


He's the king of "aaaaaaaaaa gooooooooooooo's." Our conversations are so precious these days.


And most days I can't get enough of his sweet little kissable cheeks. I so wish you all could give him a big squeeze and kiss those soft delicious cheeks.


We love you little buddy.

 

The list continued……

So I've been really bad about blogging my 1,000 blessings, however I keep adding to it in my journal. So it's time to play catch up. I'll start out with #54-98, more to come later, promise.

#54 getting to hug our family
#55 first time in grandma's arms
#56 first time in grandpa's arms
#57 laughter of familiar voices around the table
#58 Having a dishwasher for a few weeks
#59 A dryer…sigh……..
#60 Grins that melt my heart
#61 Simultaneously sleeping boys
#62 Sling that makes house work possible
#63 Doxology being belted out while playing cars around the house
#65 Games being passed down from one generation to the next
#66 Eagerness of finding a "fug bug" first
#67 Comfort arms bring to a crying baby
#68 Spending holidays with dear friends
#69 walking the streets of Ephesus
#70 letter of invitation completed
#71 Delivery of a yellow envelope that brings us one day closer to returning home
#72 Confirmed seat on a flight home
#73 Sweet and helpful strangers while traveling
#74 Not exceeding baggage limits
#75 Being able to change Micah's diaper on my lap
#76 Sunsets above the clouds
#77 landing in the Motherland….
#78 landing again in the Motherland, only in the right city
#79 people pushing me to the front of the line
#80 strangers carrying my luggage
#81 being reunited with my family
#82 seeing good friends once again and them meeting Micah
#83 sleeping in my own bed
#84 cooking in my own kitchen
#85 a little clothing diversity
#86 being able to communicate
#87 preparing for Christmas
#88 sparkling lights in a dark room
#89 Pumpkin puree
#90 A happy little artist, paining the day away
#91 First little giggles
#92 Cubby little legs
#93 Decorating for Christmas with the help from 3 year old hands
#94 Excitement of Christmas
#95 Sleeping in Christmas morning
#96 Unexpected visitors Christmas Day
#97 Spreading Christmas cheer to our neighbors
#98 Enthusiasm for our Jesse tree reading each day

Sliding

Here are a couple videos of Calvin "sliding" (as he calls it) down the sidewalk by our apartment.  I wish you could hear his little whoo hoo and him laughing the whole way down.  It's pretty sweet.  He even does the same sound effects with his little lego guys as he pretends they are sledding.

Unfortunately our snow all melted this week, so we'll have to wait until we have more snow or go up to the mountains to go sledding again.

why I love our apartment

#1001, we only have to step out the door to go sledding.  Our sidewalk makes the perfect spot to go "sliding" as Calvin calls it.

it all started............

1 broken rattle + some fabulous fabric

=

A new monster friend!

I've enjoyed being creative recently, but I'm thankful to have my table back again.

Detsky Cad {Preschool}

Wow, this is scary. As a mom it's second nature to want to protect these sweet little things and shelter them under my wings. It seriously breaks my heart to think of causing them pain….. it's been a tough decision to send Calvin to local preschool.

I know that by going to a local school he will be singled out since he can't communicate in this language.
I know the teachers will do this too.
I know there will be a few kids who will pick on him.
I know they'll make fun of him.


It's scary stuff, willingly saying:
"Yes Lord, we'll trust you for this."


But trust we must.


We're about to navigate through finding a school for him, which I am dreaded, but it's something he needs. This past year we've had a nanny who came during my language lessons. Calvin adores her, they have so much fun together, but unfortunately she speaks English, and even after we beg her not to, she still does. Calvin has a few words in this language but not near as many as we had hoped he would. Our kids need language, our kids need local friends, they need to be able to communicate independently. We want our home, this culture to feel like home to them. We don't want to run away from the culture, but rather embrace it and we want our boys to enjoy it too.


In taking this step we will also jump into anther cultural difference, boys here are ROUGH….another big gulp. It is expected if someone hits you, you better hit him back, if you don't people will walk all over you. It's a macho culture for boys and we want him to learn to be a boy here, to be able to hold his own, so he's not picked on. But there is a point where we have to draw the line. So we'll be navigating this with wisdom from the Lord of where that line is.


I know I'll look back on these fears and wonder why I had so little faith, but for now I'm just putting one foot in front of the other.

A Day of Many Firsts

Calvin had many firsts today. 

He got to play his first computer game during school today.  I wish you could have seen the smile on that boys face when I gave him permission to use the mouse by himself. 

Since we woke up to a nice blanket of snow it was necessary to go out and play in it.  We bundled all up and headed out with his sled.  He was actually brave enough to try it today and guess who loved it???  We stayed out for an entire hour (mainly because Micah was so bundled up, tucked under the rain cover and sleeping in his stroller while we played, we weren't rushed at all, it was beautiful).  ***he also experienced his first sledding accident too, the other little boy's sled left a mark.

And since we enjoyed some time sledding, I had to give him the complete sledding experience.  When we came inside I gave Calvin his first cup of Hot Chocolate.  I wish I would have recorded his reaction, it was PRICELESS. 

What a Yummy Day!

Calvinlishish

A few things this guy has been saying lately that I don't want to forget:

Love it when this kid says elevator,  instead it's a "elegator".

He's quick to tell me when Micah has "spit out". (spit up)

We use the microphone to warm up our food from time to time.

Every morning I hear repeatedly, "Mommy I want brefest"

We've been doing a little school a few days each week and he's in LOVE with it.  I have to force myself to plan something because I know he's going to ask.  At breakfast one day last week you would have heard this:

Calvin "What are we going to do in "Kool" today?"

me "We're going to do lots of things today."

Calvin "Is it like a "prise" (surprise)

me "yes sort of like a surprise

Calvin "YEA it's like Christmas"

So far we've been working on some cognitive skills I've noticed he loves or things he needs to work on a bit like knowing his shapes, patterning and getting closer to learning to read. One of the most exciting parts of school for me has been starting scripture memory with him. I found this awesome website where this woman has put verses to tunes you'd recognize so that it's easier to learn, she has coloring pages and other activities you can use for readers and kids who are writing.


I wish I had that same desire for learning, its pretty fun to watch him get excited over what he is learning. The second Marvin get's home he's telling him all about school that day. We're also about to embark on a local preschool, which is a post in itself, right now 90% of me is terrified, but know it's the right direction. Even though he'll be going to a local preschool a few days a week, I still will do some school with him. Who knows how this reading thing will go once he starts school, since its different alphabet here that he'll be learning in the local school. Anyone had any experience with duel language learners and reading?

A little dose of randomness

It took 29 years for me to taste chocolate cereal.  For some strange reason I always thought it would be gross, I was sure wrong.


Speaking about cereal I recently came to the conclusion that I'm lactose intolerant, which means no more dairy on my cereal.  Marvin's giving me a hard time about this self diagnosis but I've noticed it got worse after having Micah.  This makes me so sad because I love milk and all milk products, (well I don't love Ayran or Kefir) but I love not feeling horrible after I have a glass of milk.


I tried researching dairy free recipes, and it's quite depressing as most recipes or sites have you substitute something we can't get here. Sigh……I hope to try my hand at making almond milk next week.


This is why I was so excited to find Soy milk at Metro, think Sam's club. It was over 3 times the cost of a box of cow's milk but it's so nice to have that as an option from time to time.


Metro just opened in a city about an hour and half away. We were able to stop there on the way home from visiting friends last week. We also found some fun finds like peanut butter, plain tortilla chips and tortillas. We also finally bought a toaster; it's been so nice having "quick: toast" for breakfast the past two mornings. If you are wondering "long toast" would be the old school way of toasting it in the oven. I tell you it's the little things that make my day!


On our way to Metro we saw signs for McDonalds. We seriously were in disbelief and wondering if it was real, but then we spotted the golden arches. Wow a real fast food restaurant is only an hour and a half away. Crazy.


We also made a trip to IKEA over the New Year holiday. Since I broke all but 2 of my plates it was high time to stock up again. We also were able to pick up lots of random stuff I wanted to get like new kitchen chairs (ours are falling apart), a crib for Micah, and a bunch of random kitchen doo dads. Our van was filled to the brim coming home and surprisingly it has all found a home now.


We watched Food Inc. last week and it was so very eye opening, makes me wonder about our food sources here. I highly recommend it and I liked that it urged you to make a difference in how you spend your money at the store. Point taken.


New Years Eve we received a ginormous package from my parents. It was so much fun opening. It was filled with all sorts of Christmas goodies like Twizzlers, Reese's Pieces, Animal Crackers for Calvin, taco seasoning, some new games, toys for the boys and a few clothes to help diversify our wardrobe. We love packages and it was so fun to get it before the country literally went on vacation for 10 days. Thanks mom & dad!

I generally don't make New Year's Resolutions but here is my goal this year: wake up early. It's much easier to do now since I feed Micah at 6 a.m. I hope that this trend soon becomes a habit, I love having a little quiet before the boys wake up and it's also nice being able to work out without having to answer a million questions mid workout from a certain 3 year old. Once it warms up and there isn't any more ice around I hope to start the Couch to 5K. I'm getting excited about jogging again.
And that's a wrap. Thanks for bearing with my randomness.

fa la la la la la la la la

Christmas 2010

in pictures

I'm pretty sure this is our last Christmas morning where we get to sleep in.  We had a little Christmas Eve worship time with friends and stayed out late, so Calvin was SUPER tired and slept until 9:30, his gift to us!  Micah woke up smiling and ready for his first Christmas, shortly after that!  It was beautiful.

We started the day by opening stockings. Marvin's mom made all of them and I just LOVE them. (Thank you so much Kathy!)  It's so fun to have things made by family, especially around Christmas!

 Calvin loved opening his stocking, although Christmas morning is a little overwhelming still.

 showing of his play food

 hooray for Kinder eggs

 Micah got some necessary local winter wear, tights.

After we finished opening stockings we read our last reading for our Jesse Tree

My mother-in-law made this sweet advent calendar; it was the perfect place to put our Jesse tree ornament each day.

Calvin hanging up the last ornament.  I'm so glad we did this; it's going to be a part of our yearly Christmas tradition.  I hope to work on making some more permanent ornaments for next Christmas, as well as a better Jesse tree.

After our Bible time we sang a few carols then it was time for presents.  This year we didn't have to shop for any Christmas presents, Marvin's parents brought a ton of gifts for Calvin and we already had a few things for him that we picked up earlier in the year.  It was such a blessing as he was sick, sick, sick before Christmas and we wouldn't have had time to shop together.

 He was pretty cautious with the wrapping paper at first, but quickly got into ripping the paper off.

After presents we enjoyed some homemade donuts and my favorite tea of the moment, Christmas mystery.

Our language teacher called to see if we were home, so she came by to meet Micah and of course we had to have her taste a few of our Christmas treats.   

We wrapped up the day by a nice Christmas dinner, and then skyping with our family.  We saved decorating cookies for the next day because we just plain ran out of time.

Calvin enjoyed putting M&Ms on his cookies.

We were able to take cookies to our neighbors after they dried.  It was a fun time and we are glad that we were able to share some our traditions with those who live around us.

I think I enjoy Christmas more and more each year, we certainly had some sweet memories this year, we hope you did too!

one year ago

One year ago, we were adjusting to life abroad with a 2 year old; honestly it was much easier with an infant. We were relearning some cultural expectations of us, and learning a few we had never experienced (such as Calvin must always wear tights and be bundled up to the point where he can barely move when we go outside in the winter). But overall it was so good to be home.

• A year ago we were digging deep in language study only to be reminded that we're ALWAYS going to be language learners. We've made some progress but have a long ways to go.
• A year ago we didn't anticipate the job changes we experienced this year, but we are thankful for the support we have been given with this new role of leadership.
• A year ago I my heart desperately wanted another child; today I'm so thankful to have my arms filled with another sweet little boy that has been entrusted to us.
• A year ago we would never have guessed the things that brought us out of comfort zone. Those things have stretched us and grew our relationships with our local friends.
• A year ago we thought it would be several years before we saw any of our family. Thankfully a sweet little guy's birth brought a few visitors our way.

So 2010 you threw a few surprises our direction, but overall it was a year that we were able to see your faithfulness. Thank you Lord for the gifts you've given us this year. In the words of Calvin "Bring it on" 2011!