A conversation at the mall . .

Me: Thanks for the maps and information. They'll come in handy.
Information desk lady: You're very welcome. Oh, your children are so beautiful.
Me: Why, thank you very much.
Info desk lady: And how is it that none of them got your gorgeous red hair?
Mairyn: Because she dyes it!!

Thank you, Mairyn, no, really; Thank. You.


** Although the lady did say that it looked very natural and never would have guessed that I color it. That's the look I was going for! ;) Then again, what else would she say when your child outs you to a perfect stranger?

A springy picture I took this last week. I want to know what kind of tree this is and does it do well in Idaho?

Gone Fishin'

Playing in the Park

Ok, I was trying some different display options on here. Let me know how you like it. I wanted to do something other than Picasa. I love Picasa, but sometimes, it's just nice to put up some pictures. Click on them to make 'em bigger. We went to a park, took a picnic lunch and had a blast!!

Sunny, sunny days!

It is such a beautiful spring here in D.C. I'm sorry to gloat, but I love springtime! Everything that goes with it; the rain, the sun and pleasant temperatures! I have missed seasons so much! In Egypt, there's just temperature changes. Seven months out of the year, it's pretty pleasant! The other 5, it's Hot, Melting and Insanely Hot. Any wind or breeze that comes might as well be the devil's breath. Not very refreshing. And, ironically, the leaves fall year round. There is usually some sort of flower blossoming or fruit tree fruiting. But it's all covered with a grimy layer of dirt and sand.

We got up this morning to the rain. The kids opened the door to leave for breakfast and were met with rain.

"Again?" Eliza said.
"Awww, when's it going to stop?" asked Mairyn

This reminded me of a conversation they had our last day in Cairo. It rained for about an hour that day. We came out to gentle misting and when we were done inside, came back out to find it still sprinkling.

Mairyn: "Wow, it's still raining!"
Eliza: "Yeah, that's weird."
Mairyn: "What if it rained, like, all day?"
Eliza: "And then all night and you got up the next day and it still rained?"
Mairyn: "That would be a lot of rain."

Yeah, understatement of the year, Mairyn. Little did they know, that can really happen. They haven't been exposed to much raining in the last 4 years. That's a long time in a little kid's life. So our first 3 days in D.C. it rained. They were amazed. Rain all day, night and all day again. They were getting a little sick of it by the end of day one. Me, on the other hand, I could live with it raining for the next year! Yes, it does get a little cold and such, but I would rather be cold than hot. When you're cold, you can always put on more layers to make yourself warmer. Hot, there's only so much you can take off! There were times in Cairo when I would have welcomed the ability to peel my skin off. (alright, a little gross, yeah, but really, that's how you feel!)

I'm glad we took advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend. We went and visited a friend in Maryland who lives by a lake. The kids went fishing and we just enjoyed the sunshine. The day before, I took the kids to a nearby park to let them frolic and play. Wonderful freedom!!

A few of my favorite things

Children playing quietly and the youngest is napping! I found a Legos store at the nearby mall and the perfect set of 650 pieces. Ahh, peace and quiet. Most of the time.

We went over to one of my favorite old haunts, Wegmans. Ah, Wegmans, you were the light of my life . . . aaand, oh where was I? Oh yes, the grocery store that we will all shop at in the celestial kingdom. They have everything. And, they are one of the only stores that has a generic brand that I actually like. When we were in college, I would buy Campbell's even when we were students because I disliked the generic store brand soups so much. Nay no, burrito. Not so with Wegmans. Their Mediterranean bar is overflowing (not really, but I needed a comparison) with hummus, olives, different pickled & marinated things and wonderful, glorious fresh mozzarella. This is the pearl size. Love, love, love it. I will miss not having this out west.

Clear, blue, clean skies! It has rained since we got in Sunday night. Not that I'm complaining, I love the rain. Rain is wonderful; the only thing better than rain is a thunderstorm. Fresh air and the smell of wet earth; do they make that scent for Glade Plug-ins? The clouds finally cleared and the sun came out! This tree is right outside our bedroom window. The kids saw it and started singing, 'Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree'.

Cutting up!

This face is the reason the hair was chopped. If she asks me "why", in years to come, did I cut her hair like this, I will show her this picture. Jacqueline can be a very stubborn child and trying to get her hair fixed and keep it that way has been a big hurdle in our relationship. I would give myself deadlines; ok, if she doesn't let me brush her hair today, I'll cut it tomorrow. Or the last straw which was this week, if she doesn't keep that ponytail in, I'll cut it off tomorrow. Well, we had waffles last night and Jacqueline had a wreath of sticky hair around her face because part of her preparation for dinner included pulling out the cursed ponytail holder and throwing it to the ground. So, this morning, choppy chop chop. I did the same haircut that I did on Mairyn when she needed her hair cut off. Just cut the ponytail off and trim up the uneven parts. Voila! New hairdo! I was really really trying to hold out for Spencer's brother's wedding at the end of May, THEN I'd cut it, but I couldn't take it anymore. This will be better. For both of us. ** P.S. ** When I cut the ponytail off, she saw it and said, "No, Mommy. Put it back on." I said I would and then hid the swatch of hair.

Thumb-thing

Thumbs. That's the topic. I have a weird thumb. My right thumb is shorter than my left. It is wider and very stubby. It kind of looks like a big toe. Except on my hand. My sister, Katelyn, got a matching set. That's the only advantage I've seen to this . . . anomaly.
Disadvantages are as follows:

- Talk about an odd fingerprint. I've had my thumb print questioned before and they had to do it again in front of the person so that they would accept it for the paperwork I was doing. (the things I did to get to be a janitor at an elementary school.)

- I've gotten acrylic nails before and putting the nail on it proved difficult. Yes, she used a toenail tip. Which is one of the many reasons why I will NEVER be getting tips again.

- Bowling is awkward because I need a light weight ball with a thumb hole big enough to accommodate my stump. This is why I like bowling on the Wii.

- Thumbwars. —Stumpy just doesn’t have the reach. 'Nuff said.

So outside of my sister & brother (he has just one, like me) I didn't know that anyone else suffered from this "deformity". Then I came to Cairo and I met Nancy. She's lucky; she's got a matching set! So that was quite the icebreaker for us. And before I left Cairo, we had to get a commemorative documentation of fellow toe thumbers meeting!

**My sister has since done some research for me and found out quite a bit. This actually has a name and everything, brachydactyly type D, or clubbed thumb, or stub thumb. Apparently, it is quite a distinguished trait; it used to be a sign of descent from European royal bloodlines. According to the science - the thumbs trait might be ideal because it shows up relatively often in the few families who have it. Boo-yah! Take that Mike Hanksleiben, he who teased me mercilessly about it from grades 2 to 5!!**

Goodbye to Cairo

Our dear friends of the Cairo Branch gave a going away party for those that are leaving this spring. I just couldn't believe that it was our time. We have a traditional goodbye gift that I wasn't so sure that I wanted. There is a scroll with three little vials tied to it containing sand, air and water. Each represents something to take with you from Cairo and the scroll explains each element. I've heard it read so many times, but now that they were reading it to me, I didn't want to be pushed out of the nest, for good. It was a great way to end our last day in Egypt. We had a great dinner and lots of visiting. And of course, pictures.

Tired!

Who said traveling the world was exciting and glamorous? It's just plain tiring! The upper left picture of Grant and Jacqueline on Daddy's lap, that's in the van on the way TO the airport! And, Grant slept the whole flight from Paris to D.C. Jacqueline was his complete opposite and didn't! They figured we all need some balance in the world. Yin-Yang, whatever.

Cooped up

We have a nice place to stay while in our transient mode. The Residence Inn has a nice 2 bedroom loft, kitchen, two bathrooms and 3 T.V.s. ( we don't even own that many!) It has been raining since we got here. I am going crazy. First, I'm not crazy about the loft. The bed is right up against the wall, with the wall extending about another 2 feet above the head of the bed. So, Spencer & I took that "room. The kids are in the real room with doors and all. Which is good for naps and such. And I try to barricade the stairs so that the children don't throw themselves from the loft to a certain maiming or death. *shudder*

I am watching Grant and Jacqueline chase each other around the coffee table, cycling between manic glee and cutthroat sibling rivalry.

"She took my book!"
"No I didn't!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"No!"
"Yes!"

They are all handling the jet lag pretty well. 6 hours isn't that big of a hump to get over. They slept well the first night, getting up about 4 am. The last two night the stirring began about 5am, with all up by 6 am. Good thing breakfast starts at 6:30am!! Grant and Jacqueline are having the hardest time, clashing at every turn. They are enjoying the minivan we have rented. Fighting over who gets to sit in back. What is it about the back? Is it just ingrained in their DNA that the "cool kids" sit in back? They take turns, knowing that if they argue or fight for a place, that they will be denied a turn in the coveted back row.

We have been hunting down our old favorite haunts in Northern VA. The Dulles Town Center hasn't changed much and Eliza & Mairyn actually remembered some things. The carousel and airport style play place. It was a sad day though when I had to deny Eliza access to playing there. The height ruler saying what the tallest height allowed inside hit her at the shoulder. There was a Claire's Boutique beside the play place and I let her browse and wander through the girly stuff. *gulp* I have a girl old enough to care about the earrings and hair things more than rough housing on the playground.

Anyway, we are plowing through and adjusting. We'll find a rhythm in a few days and then, it will be time to go somewhere else! Whoop-de-freakin'-do.

We're here

Wow, we made it. It is 6:30am and the kids have been up since 4am. But it all good. We made it. It was bittersweet leaving Cairo. I will miss our friends and associations the most. Egypt, um, I'm glad I had the experience, but I am SOOOOO glad about so many things I don't have to deal with anymore. It may take a little while to completely miss the country itself. Hey, I drove past a Target on the way home. You got Target yet, Egypt?? Anyway, I have so many pictures to post about the trip and the days leading up to it. We have plenty of down time in the next week, so get ready. The fun is about to begin.

Wordy Wednesday: Eyas

I have no rhyme or reason for this 'word of the day'. I just thought it was an interesting word. I don't know if I knew it before. I want to say I read about it in some National Geographic. This familiar feeling about the word is floating about at the back of my brain. Anyway, just relaxing now that the biggest headache of the move is over. Things are boxed, loaded in crates and gone. We are left with a huge, empty space. Dinner appointments seem to keep falling through. Scheduling conflicts due to other people. Oh well, microwave macaroni & cheese sounds good. Again. Is it bad manners to call back other people you turned down because you already had something planned and go, Oh wait, now I'm free. It's been a first come, first serve (us) system so far. We had dinner's with people almost every night this week. So far, they've canceled the night before or day of; we haven't done one yet. And a future one has been canceled. Oh well, we need to use up those 4 cans of tuna, 3 bags of frozen vegetables and bag of pretzels left in our kitchen. Then again, there is always Otlob.

eyas • \EYE-us\ • noun

: an unfledged bird; specifically : a nestling hawk

Example Sentence:

It took about six weeks for the eyas to mature into a fully grown peregrine falcon.

Did you know?

"Eyas" is a funny-sounding word that exists because of a mistake. In the 15th century, Middle English speakers made an incorrect assumption about the word "neias," which comes from the Anglo-French "niais" ("fresh from the nest"). "A neias" sounded like "an eias" to their ears, so the word lost that initial "n," eventually becoming "eyas." (There are other words in English that were created in this same fashion; for example, "an apron" used to be "a napron.") The change in spelling may have been suggested by other Middle English words like "ey" ("egg") and "eyry," which was a spelling of "aerie," the hawk's nest where an eyas would be found.

*word of the day courtesy of Merriam-Webster online*

The softer side of Egypt

We are done. Well, at least with the big part. Our things are packed up and moved out. We are left with an empty, echoing apartment. This always happens when you move, you look around after all the boxes and STUFF is taken away and say,

"Wow, this place is big. I could do so much with this."

I don't think I could have any other kind of life than a nomadic one. I need a clean slate after a few years. Maybe someday we'll settle down, but this suits me just fine right now, thanks. I've been reminiscing about our time here in Egypt. There have been good times, believe it or not. To tell you the truth, Cairo was not at the top of my preferred places to live. I know, shocking. A lot of people have said that just once in their life, they've got to see the Great Pyramids of Egypt, or float the Nile. Yeah, me, not so much. And it's not because I've spent the last 4 years of my life here. It's just not at the top of my list. My list includes a walkabout in Australia, climbing the steps to the Big Buddha in Hong Kong, or exploring an ancient cathedral in the mists of Ireland. And somehow Florida fits in there too. Don't ask me why, I just want to go someday. I find it intriguing. Oranges, sunshine, and Disneyworld. But to get back to my point, Egypt does have it's good side. When I'm overlooking frustrating Egyptian logic (that is an oxymoron), the driving, and general apathy, I find the gems.

#1 Otlob.com
This is the greatest thing ever. Everyone delivers here; the pharmacy, grocery store and even McDonalds. You just call them up and your good arrive on the doorstep. Otlobmakes it easier. (I know, how could that get any easier) With Otlob, you don't have to talk to anyone; it has a list of participating restaurants and their menus. You just fill out the online menu, click 'Order' and your Chili's, Fuddruckers, Hardees, Papa Johns, or Chinese Lan Yuan (to name a few) arrives within the hour. Usually. Sometimes the food is a bit late, squished or cold, but usually it's a great experience. (see, I'm really trying to be positive)

#2 Cheap, fresh fruit
I will miss mango season. I will miss date season. And strawberry season and, well, you get the picture. Fruit here is a pretty reasonable price anyway, but during a certain fruit's season, it is especially cheap. I just bought 1 kilo (2.2 lbs) of strawberries for .52 cents. I will miss this so much. Or driving out to the date farms and just asking a guy to shimmy up a tree and cut off a whole branch of dates. You pay him about 15 LE (about $2.60) and you're on your way. I take that wonderful bunch of plump dates home, wash them and then lay them out in the sun to dry. In about a week or so, I have my own yummy dates.

#3 Cheap "exotic" vacations
Are you noticing a trend yet? Cheap is the theme. But so what, I'm all about a good deal. What other people consider exotic, we call a three day weekend. For example, in February, we took off on President's day weekend and spent 3 days on the north coast. White sand, blue water, and relaxing waves; what more could I ask for? Or maybe I will take off with my husband and go to Luxor. Just kick around the temple at Karnak and peek into the Valley of the Kings, see a tomb or two. And for all of this, we're NOT paying an arm and a leg or promising our firstborn to Rumplestiltskin.


Well, that's just a few that I've thought up right now. I'm sure I'll come up with more once we're actually gone and I'm bawling my eyes out for some unexplained reason. I am truly torn.

Grant's last day of school

Wednesday, April 1st was Grant's last day of preschool. This was the last day of Winter term and the new term began the 2nd. So, that's that. Another step toward leaving Egypt.

Grant & his teacher, Ms. Delia

Mr. John, the gatekeeper. He does a great job! Always has a nice "Good Morning, Grant!" for us!

And about an hour after we got home. He was worn out.

Remember . . .

Tomorrow begins the 179th Semi-Annual General Conference. It can be viewed or listened to online here. I'm so grateful for the technology that we have access to in this day and age. It's amazing that I can be in Egypt and still be privy to words of guidance and wisdom. I just love this clip. There are many more like it on YouTube here. Enjoy.

And the winner is . . . .

So, the voting for the new title was very straitforward. The winner is: **drumroll** Here, There and Everywhere. Wow, what a surprise. Not that you couldn't look at the sidebar and see the percentages. HT&E won with 50% of the votes. Poor little Peerless Ponderings didn't get any love. One Step Ahead had 5%. The second place choice was Wild Blue Somewhere, which surprised me. I threw that one in there just for kicks & giggles. If you couldn't tell, I was thinking of the US Air Force pride song, "Off we go, into the wild blue yonder, climbing high, into the sun . . etc." As a former Air Force brat, I learned that at an early age. Also ingrained at the beginning was the playground song,

"Kindergarten baby, stick your head in gravy, wash it off with applesauce and show it to the Navy."

'Course, if you were Navy, you stuck a different branch of the Armed Forces in there. (although Navy always fit best.) I'm thinking I need to get a good in-flight over the wing airplane shot for the title picture. Although the last time I tried putting a picture behind the title it got REALLY messed up and just wasn't that pretty. So I bagged it. I'd like to try this, but early on experimentation hasn't been going well. I may actually have to ask someone for help. Anyway, thanks for voting!

Classic indeed . . .

Apparently, Google has brought out a new search engine. You just print your query on the line (blue or black ink is preferred) and slap a stamp on it! I think too many people were forgetting the original form of information sharing! You can pick it up at any local post office. A bit difficult for me thought, being in Egypt and all.







Yeah, this is pretty cool. Also, it snowed last night and covered the Sphinx and Giza Pyramids with a nice dusting of snow. See? Right there . . . on the tippy top point . . . . and some, yeah, right . . . there, where his nose should be.

What, you don't see it?? How do you not spot it? Oh yeah, that's right, I forgot what day it is today.

IT'S APRIL FOOLS DAY!!!




** Have a super funny day!**