Things you might see...

Here are some things you might see should you come visit us in the Middle East...

Take those "No Parking" signs seriously!

A guys got to eat, right?

A day at the pool...

 Nice day for a walk!

 Death-defying acts of cleaning!

 

SO MANY things wrong with this picture!  This guy appeared to be WASHING the building!??

A Taste of Home

Sometimes we forget for a minute that we live in the Middle East.  On occasion, like on a recent jaunt to a nearby country, we find a lot of things that are so familiar...

A favorite coffee house...  If you can read Arabic, then you know this sign says, "Starbucks Coffee."

E shot a panorama of the mall.  You can see the movie theater right in the middle of the picture.

OHHHHH!  We so wanted to stop and eat at this Mexican food restaurant, but we had to catch a plane!  Bummer!

Oh... We were SOOO excited to see this sign!

 We had just enough time for Blizzards and shakes!

       Another mall we visited was over-the-top in Western cuisine.  You name it... They had it!   

More Starbucks!  

Food Court!

  

Ice Cream! 

 Mexican Food!

Rides and Games! 

 Fried Chicken!

 Burgers!

 Asian Food!

 More Ice Cream!

Bakeries and Coffee Shops!

With all those choices, we were so happy to find the Olive Garden, because this mall was incredibly expensive! $$$!  But Soup, Salad, and Breadsticks was on the menu, so it was the cheapest treat we could find, with good ole sweet tea!

That mall was amazing!  We all had fun exploring... Mema and Nana enjoyed it, too!...and I went home with my usual Starbucks mug for a souvenir. 

We found this store at the airport... E & M found a $1200 jacket that they liked, but we had to pass!

Back at home, our McDonald's has just started serving breakfast!  A beef sausage/ egg McMuffin is a great treat after a long week!

So, for any of our friends who think they'd like to visit, but they don't want to leave the comforts of home....  Come on over!  We've got all that stuff!  Plus we have amazing Arabic food!  I promise... You won't starve!

Ahlan wasahlan!  (Welcome!) 

Winter Storms

  It's snowing today, where we are.  It's pretty from my kitchen window.

This snow follows  2-3 days of the hardest rain we've seen since we've arrived.  Much of the city struggles with flooding.  We are thankful to God for our nice dry, fairly warm, 3rd floor apartment.  

This was the view from our classroom.  That "fountain" is coming from a drainage hole, obviously flooded so much that the water is pushing up from the other direction (you can't tell that fountain is 5 ft tall!!!).  Our city struggles all year with water shortages.  It's drainage systems weren't built for this much water.

 What you can't see well, is the line of cars at the back with water up to their doors.

 Our hearts go out to the many who are suffering from flooding conditions.  It is hard to imagine what this would be like, if our family lived in a tent, like the Syrian refugees in this story .  These are families, just like ours, who are struggling to survive this storm.  Please lift up these and other refugees in difficult living conditions today!

And this is Teddy...

Yes, that is a Lil' Webkin that was bigger than Teddy.

So here is the latest on the litter of kittens... After finding one down on the traffic circle next to our building, they all got moved upstairs to our balcony.  Well, sadly, the 2 black ones died, leaving the 2 sweet orange ones.  A friend adopted one, leaving us with a male that we call Teddy.

He's the cutest thing and has been a source of fun and normalcy for our children who still deeply miss our old dog, Matilda.

Teddy is the first "orally-fixated" cat I've ever seen.  He loves to suck on someone's finger or his paw. Like a baby with a pacifier, he goes straight to sleep.  He's so funny!

  After weeks of unanswered advertisements for a new family for Teddy, he has slowly made his way into our hearts (and home).  Yea, I know, big surprise.

I found K a few days ago all dressed up and sporting a "wedding ring."  She happily announced that she and Teddy had just been "married."  Guess that makes him family, now!

Sports Camp 2012~ Finally!

I just found a blog post from this summer that I forgot to post!  It was from our sports camp BACK IN JUNE!    

So no worries... Here it is!

This was our second year working as football coach and camp nurse at a sports camp for teenagers here in our Middle Eastern town.   The kids love all the attention from the "big kids" and getting to be our "assistants"!

Helping out with water balloons...

Some cool relay races...

Helping Dad on the football field...

Showing off on the Ripstick...

And with this cool game where opposing teams throw tennis balls at an exercise ball to push it into their opponents' cones...

Putting on "warpaint"...

Trying to win again in dodgeball...

Helping build giant catapults to destroy opponents' styrofoam "cities" with tennis balls...

and just hanging out!

Making Fun Family Memories!

We had an opportunity recently to take a trip to a nearby country.  

Can you guess where we went?

It was a blast!  

We were thankful to be able to spend some quality time with the kids...

and make fun memories!