A Little Trip

A friend of ours, Luke, is here to work with us for a year. Two weeks ago he caught a cold. The cold turned into pneumonia. The pneumonia turned pretty aggressive and has landed him in the hospital for the last 8 days. On Saturday we moved him from the public hospital in our local city to the public hospital in Melilla, Spain (just a few hours away from us).

Yesterday I brought the 4 kids over to Melilla to be with Joey, see "Mr. Luke" (as the boys call him) and soak in a little bit of the Christmas atmosphere that is so prevalent in Spain. Praise the Lord Mr. Luke is starting to get better and able to relax in the hospital (as relaxing as hospitals are :-s). We have so far enjoyed being tourists and looking at all the lights and decorations.

This morning we had yummy coffee and pastries, then came back to the hotel room to play cars. Its amazing what a little masking tape can imagination can do to a tile floor. Joey is spending time with Mr. Luke (the kids can't go in the hospital) then later we're going to do a bit of window shopping and enjoy the park. Not a bad way to spend the week before Christmas.

Only a Week

A Car, A Helicopter and Some Jets

Living in a country full of people who don't actually know when their birthday is, let alone celebrate said birthday has resulted in a deep desire to go all out for our celebrations. Both Joey and I grew up with Moms who did a great job of making the whole day special so it was easy to extend the excitement to the next generation. One tradition I started this year was to give a new shirt to wear on the birthday. It is opened with breakfast and thankfully my boys LOVED getting a new shirt. I was able to make them all this year and had a blast creating something I knew they would like. We also try and make elaborate cakes. Josiah requested a "Ferry Boat", Benson wanted an airplane and William was up for whatever so he got a fish. I love getting to help them have fun birthdays.

In other news. Isabelle is now 3 months old and getting cuter everyday. She is starting to be a lot more fun too. The boys love to give her kisses and get excited when she makes any noise. They are quick to translate whatever noise she made into a commentary on our present activity. They kill me.

We had a great time at Thanksgiving, celebrating with our Moroccan family. They are good sports eating our traditional meal. They even seem to like some of the dishes we present. It was hard to be away from family, but if I'm going to be away, this is where I want to be.

As soon as Thanksgiving was over we busted out the fake Christmas tree and got to decorating. The boys had a great time making it look festive. There were a few moments of distress because the tree wasn't nearly as big or nice as Grammy and Gramps' but we were able to enjoy the blessing of having a tree at all. Something about it glittering in the corner makes my heart happy and full of peace. I love Christmas.

William has taken to reading any cooking magazine he can get his hands on. Seriously, he goes to the bookshelf and chooses the "Cooks" magazine almost every time. He'll look at it for a while too. 
Maybe he'll grow up to be our charming chef? 

Last but not least, I made this yesterday. I found it on pintrest. I love it. Its just a little orange cut in half and peeled so that it makes a bowl. You cut a star out of the top and fill the bottom with a bit of olive oil. The stem of the orange acts as a wick. And away you go, little orange candles for your Christmas celebration. So fun. And who says there is nothing good on pintrest? 

How Is It Already Mid-November?!

After volunteer teams left I thought things would slow down, but I was wrong, life has pretty much kept running right along leaving me far behind...guess thats what happens when you get older :-) 

 Isabelle is growing and such a blessing. I love this picture of her. I think she is the perfect human representation of a Dr. Seuss character with her spiky hair and big forehead. Either that or a hedgehog its hard to decide. Yesterday she laid in her bed watching her mobile for over an hour, not making a peep, happy as a clam. Can you say easy?! I am trying not to dread what the future might hold if she's this good as a baby :-S

 Our internet works sometimes if you stand in the kitchen and hold it out the window. Ya, fun.

Josiah and Benson are getting over the flu. William has chicken pox. Poor kids, its about as much fun as standing in the kitchen trying to check email. I'm guessing the other three will also catch chicken pox here in the next week or so. Party time at our house. Speaking of parties, all three boys celebrated their birthdays in the past few weeks. I'll try and post pictures in a few days. Until then I'll be snuggling with my sick little men. Poor little kiddos. 

The Many Faces of Izzy

Home

I've been home now for just under two weeks. It is so nice to be back. So nice to be surrounded by the familiar. Before we headed to Spain I had become annoyed and bothered by everything having to do with this country. People, food, culture, Islam, etc. It all just left a bad taste in my mouth. I wanted to get out and I wasn't sure I really wanted to come back. All I needed though was a little perspective and a nice big reminder of why I love this country, why I love these people and why this is my home as much as the states is. Six weeks in Spain provided all of that and I am happy to say my heart is content once again.

**When I got home our final volunteer team was here. They had already completed a weeks stay with us and were getting ready to start their second week. It made for a crazy arrival and the necessity of jumping in with both feet. I had also planned to start both English school and Arabic school with the boys on the first Monday of October. Since our stay in Spain was longer than expected that meant I had just a few short days to get everything in order. Thankfully I had been able to get everything ready on the computer before hand and thankfully the boys are enjoying school again this year. It makes everything so much easier when they are happy.

**The house we stayed at in Spain was up for sale so the owners didn't have much in terms of furniture or decoration. It left me anxious to de-clutter our house. I've been working on it since getting back. Slowly but surely trying to put things away, get rid of things we don't need and create more storage. We're still in process but I'll try and remember to show you once things are presentable.

**Isabelle has been liking Morocco and has been growing quickly. Joey and I are realistic parents and therefore recognize that while she is still a cutie she has been going through some pretty "ugly" moments. Joey has been trying to capture them on camera, for blackmails sake. That future husband is going to love these :-)

**Here is Morocco they have a tradition of having a baby naming party roughly 8 days after the baby's birth. Since we weren't here we thought we'd pass on the party. However everyone told us we should have one anyway. So Joey bought a sheep, ordered 40 whole chickens, 80 loaves of bread and bought 30 bottles of soda. We gathered the people and had a traditional Moroccan party. The food was amazing and the mint tea wonderful. Its a good thing too since that is all that happens at a Moroccan party :-) Food and tea, is there anything else?! We are still trying to settle on a good Moroccan name for Izzy. Everyone seems to be familiar with the name, but no one can seem to remember it. Thankfully we don't have to throw another naming party! I am still trying to recover from the original:)

**Isabelle's Great Aunt Jeanne sent her this beautiful dress and it worked out perfectly for the party. I confess it felt a bit strange to be putting a dress on a little baby, but she was SO adorable I quickly got over it. She loved the dress (I assume) and couldn't stop moving around which made photos difficult, but we got a few ok ones. 

 

Its been a full, and joyful two weeks. Now it is time to settle back into life and enjoy every minute that we've been given in this place. As of this moment I couldn't be more grateful and excited about that opportunity. 

Seven

Seven Years Ago Today

As happy as ever...

Happy Anniversary Love.