Christmas Morn'

The four of them lined up on Christmas morning. We built a wall in the hall with the blocks and posted a note (that Eliza read to the younger ones) that said "No stockings until Mommy and Daddy are up." They came and got us at about 7:30am; quite late for them. Usually it's about 6:30.

We had one of my Young Women spend the night with us, Catie. She is a foreign exchange student living with a Coptic family in Giza. She is 16.

Here are all four before our humble present opening.

Jackie is opening her puzzle. She looks just as puzzled.

We had a great rest of the day. We played games. Hullabaloo was a big hit!!! Even Jackie joined in aimlessly. We watched the Santa Clause on AFN and then had some people over for Christmas dinner. A very relaxing and joyous holiday for the Penrods.

Jackie Talks

Our Jacqueline

Jacqueline is growing up so fast. The other morning, as the girls were getting ready for school, Jacqueline wanted to get dressed too. Not in her clothes, but the girls' uniform dress. So I got out the smallest one we had and it hit right at the top of her feet. She thought she was pretty hot stuff. She will fish in my purse for my cell phone and hold it up to her ear and wander around saying, "Hewwow?" And does not like to be told, "No." She can throw quite the baby temper tantrum. Her favorite snack right now is cheese sticks. She knows which drawer in the fridge where we keep them and I'll open the fridge for her, she'll pull open the drawer and I'll ask, "Cheese?" to which she'll respond with one of the biggest cheesiest grins ever. Say cheese for the camera!!!

Halloweenies!!

This was the best pic I could get of all 4 together. Eliza is a dead fifties girl, Mairyn is a Mummy, Grant is a knight and Jacqueline is Tinkerbell. Eliza and Mairyn came up with their own ideas for costumes, Eliza wanted to be scary and Mairyn settled on mummy when we were looking at pictures on the internet.

Oh, what a brave and valorous knight of Egypt!!

Yep, she's scary! That's what she wanted!

Mairyn was the sweetest little mummy out there. They had awards for best costumes, etc at the school party. Seriously, her costume was the best out there and some dumb costumes that were just ripped t-shirts and food coloring took the prizes. Oh well, we know the truth!!

Jacqueline LOVED the duck train! She did not want to get off. Every time it stopped, she would scream and cry and hold on for dear life to that duckie train. We had to let other kids have a chance to ride and then we could ride again.

Busy Life

We are so busy right now. Clubs, homework, errands and such. Amazing how normal life feels. I never thought it would be this way in Egypt. But here we are, in the shadow of the many minarets and palm trees, pyramids and taxis. Eliza had a school play about 2 weeks ago. She is on the top row in the middle. The play was centered around their current study of materials and what they do. They were aliens that came to earth and "discovered" that the floor was made of wood, windows are glass, etc. Eliza had a good speaking part.


This is a mosque minaret that I got a shot of while I was in Siwa. Almost sundown, perfect light, it was the evening of the first day I was there. We also went to a petrified forest, a former palm tree oasis. The trunks were amazing; they looked like a palm tree trunk, but were solid stone and made an odd, hollow/metallic sound when another piece of petrified palm is knocked against it. And to finish it, a picture of me!!

Trip to Siwa

This is me in Siwa, the desert part. It's an oasis about 30 miles from the Libyan border. I left Maadi on the 11th in a bus at about 6 am. We drove for 9 hours and finally got to Siwa. We stayed at this little place called The Siwa Safari Paradise Hotel. Yeah, it was in Siwa, I did get a desert safari, paradise it was not and they can call it a hotel because I had my own bathroom!! It was an adventure, everything I hoped it would be and I'm glad I did not have any kids with me. Sand was everywhere, they were the sand dunes I hoped to see when I got to Cairo. The desert around Cairo is just rock and dirt. These were REAL sand dunes!! And one night we spent camping in the desert, the stars were so bright and no moon. Beautiful!!! Our third day there we had a tour of the pharonic sites around the oasis. Very cool. We visited the temple of Amun where Alexander the Great came in 352 B.C. and asked the oracle a secret question. Apparently, he got an answer and didn't share it with anyone and this is the secret he died with; on the trip back home he died.
Sunday we headed back to Cairo; another 9 hour bus ride, but we made it. I got home to my babies and husband and finally got my hot shower!! (there wasn't any hot water in my bathroom the whole trip)

Desert Sunrise

Yes, this is Jacqueline walking. We got home from the airport and she took a few experimental steps. Yay, we thought. Then she began walking from point A to point B. Progress, this is good. The first week of September it became her mode of transportation. Now, I believe she has mastered it. This is last Friday, the 7th of September.
I have been having troubles with the internet. Still. This movie finally posted and I am thrilled. Now I will post it before the internet goes down again!!!