6th of October

Today is the Egyptian Independence day. In 1973, the Crossing happened as 80,000 Egyptian troops crossed the Suez Canal, destroying the fortified Israeli Bar-Lev Line and starting the Yom Kippur War. So, no school & embassy holiday. Those days don't coincide very often. Although we just stayed home, didn't go to the Red Sea or anywhere. Kids have been sick. Passed from one to the next. Grant to Eliza to Mairyn to Spencer. Jacqui and I are the only ones the illness has passed over. A barky cough, fever, yuckiness. Lasts about 3 days. I'm glad we didn't have any vacation planned. Here are some fun things we have seen while hangin' around Cairo this past holiday week.

A truck full of eggs. Let's face it, not all of those eggs are going to survive.

This guy is really pumped about banking! Woo-hoo!!

I think this is the grossest ad ever. A fajita facial? Yeah, let's open those pores with the steam of onions, beef and mushrooms. Finish your spa day with a gravy bath & you are set. Every dog in town will be chasing you down. Just yuck. (ha, i got it up first, Sara!!) The boys at Carrefour were not pleased that Sara and I were taking pictures. They never are. All I saw was a no smoking sign, not a no photos sign. (and those signs exist too. Sara, cue your photo!) That is one "freedom" that is infringed upon. You can take a picture of any freakin' thing you want in the States, here though, you have to think twice. (and btw, I though no one did it like sara lee.)

Yes, this is a Hellboy mannequin. Snazzy.

Upon closer examination, a homemade Hellboy. Yeah!

In the end, though, Cairo is "My City". (that's what it says on the sign)

A Day at Dashur

Ramadan ended on Wednesday and the kids have been out of school. So we decided to take a trip out to the Dashur and Bent Pyramids during the Eid (the 3-4 day celebration following Ramadan) Our friends, the Lewis' just got their car so we were finally a mobile group! Our view of Giza on our way out of town early in the morning. Hardly any smog!

Eliza and Jacob climbing on the Bent Pyramid. The funny thing is, the Bent Pyramid used to be off limits. They have now made it accessible to the "tourists". Climbing on the Bent Pyramid was a first for us! Oh yeah, Grant is there too.

Spencer and Kevan mugging for the camera.

The whole crew at Dashur (or Sneferu's (ah-choo) Red Pyramid. Wow, the things you learn on wikipedia!)

Mairyn and Spencer building a bridge over the Bent one. (do i have to point out that it is a pyramid again?)

Grant being Grant!

Jacqueline and Sam. Taken early in the trip, later on they didn't have those angelic little looks anymore!

** Warning** Objects in mirror are closer than they appear! Bent in the background and Big Red (why is it called that? it's not red!) ahead! The Lewis' car right behind us!

And yet another experimentation; Red in the background and the Black Pyramid coming up. Although we call the Black Pyramid the Broken one. And the "Red one" we just call Dashur. They are all within a mile of each other, very close and accessible.

And yet again, we have come to the end of a trip & there aren't any decent ones of the Mommies! (and i'm not talking about the former occupants of bent and red that are now housed in the egyptian museum!)

A whole bunch of pics

So, I have been neglecting my little space on the net. Or rather, not putting up pictures. I'm going to try to make this a better habit (how many times have you heard that from me?) Seriously, I'm going to do it (yeah right).

A serious pose from the summer. We visited the Winter Quarters Visitors Center (for the last time? *sniff*) and the kids were playing dress up in the pioneer boat section. We took a few pictures and then Mairyn and Eliza proposed that I take a picture of them like in the pioneer days. "What do you mean?" I asked. "Take a picture of us like we're sad. Like the pioneers were when they had their pictures taken." Ooo-kay. Here's the kid's "sad pioneer" picture.

Our Eliza swimming in September (dang, that's a good blog title, should have saved that one)

Jacqui's first french braids

Jacqueline at the commissary with her "purse". As we were leaving the house, she disappeared into her bedroom and emerged a few minutes later with the block bag and half a dozen blocks. I asked her, "What's that?" she said,"My purse!"

Grant's first day of school. This was the best we could get. He was jumping around like he had ants in his pants. Not that that's any different from a normal day, but when I'm trying to take a picture . . .

I love these two pictures. Funny and sad. Jacqui is now in a big girl bed. (no I don't have pictures of her in the new bed yet, soon my pet, soon) I love Grant and Mairyn in the first one below. Just candid! And then they all put on their smiling faces. Except for Jacqui, she was a little disturbed that her bed was now in pieces.

All 4 in front of the crib they all slept in (just not at the same time alhamdulallah)

**Side note**
Grant will be mortified in 10 years, but for now, it's fair game. See the Spiderman shirt and shorts he's wearing? They are underoos. I got them for him with the idea of transitioning from whitey tightys to boxers by starting with boxer briefs. And what better way to convince Grant than with Spiderman. Well, he think's they're shorts, like shorts you wear over underwear. He won't put pants on over them (and why would you cover up spiderman, really) or wear other underwear with them. It's a national travesty when they are in the wash and is completely crushed when told that he cannot wear them out in public. He now accepts that it is not appropriate to wear your underoos to the store but he compromises by wearing them 24/7 at home.

Pieces of Me, er, Him

So, I'm driving to pick up Grant from preschool, humming along (ok, singing at the top of my lungs) to Ashlee Simpson, Pieces of Me . This Jared's Bagels scooter zips right around me and ahead. There is this cross street that is just a pain, always a line of cars trying to cross the two lanes of traffic. I see an SUV edging out to cross and he blasts right into the scooter, the delivery box goes flying off of it and the guy and scooter go end over end somersaulting for the next 20 feet. The scooter is lying on it's side and the guy is rolling along after it. The SUV keeps right on going. This is all happening in front of me. I put on my brakes and the delivery guy picks himself up and goes running after the SUV (apparently he's ok). I just drive around the wrecked scooter in the road and continue on to Grant's school. 10 minutes later when I drove back home, everything was gone. Amazing how fast it was all cleaned up. The scooter was right ahead of me, fortunately the SUV didn't t-bone me! Unfortunately there weren't any police around or something could have been done. Anyway, that's was my drama for today. Hmmm, I feel like a bagel.

Doing the Happy Dance

Ah, the first day of school. Say it with me, "Alhamdula-freakin'-la" (ignore the childish spelling, I'm giddy, dang it!) The girls were quite ready to start school. Counting down the days and making sure their new backpacks and lunch boxes were in place and clothes laid out. (I'll remind them of this day in the all too near future when I am dragging them from under the covers to the screams of, "Nooooooo, I don't wanna go!!) Mairyn was very excited about her new backpack, she got dressed and put it on immediately. We fixed her hair, ate breakfast and put on shoes all with her backpack already on. Mairyn has a "boy teacher" as the girls call it. She was a little apprehensive, for the first 5 minutes, then warmed right up. Yeah, Mairyn doesn't really have any adjustment issues. Eliza was very excited about getting Ms. Scott. Eliza has already informed her that that's her Grandpa's first name. And, the Year 4's get to go to Alexandria this year for their class trip. There are class field trips throughout the year for every class, but the 4-6 years (3-5th grades) get to go on an extended overnight trip this year. In January, I believe, they take a 3 day class trip to Alexandria. Eliza has been looking forward to this since she found out about it in Kindergarten. And now the time has arrived. Both of the girls had a smashing first 2 days and I am sooooo glad that it's here. I celebrated today and had lunch out with a friend, Sara. We both left our 2 year olds with Rere and did the commissary and then lunch at a great little bistro. Oh and Grant starts school on Monday!! Yay! All day, 5 days a week. Do the happy dance with me! Waaahoooo!

Eliza and Mairyn eating breakfast

Eliza's teacher Ms. Scott

Mairyn's teacher Mr. Chambers

A delayed post

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Jacqueline showing me how many is "2"

It's official. Jacqueline really is two. I can't believe it. The weather was perfect today, the first bearable day we've had in a week. We ate dinner and had the cake & presents outside. We got her a potty chair (something she won't really appreciate right away, but we will), a bath bubble blower, and a bunch of familiar board books just her size. She is such a little bookworm, she loves her books. She had a strawberry cake with cherry icing. She was such a cute little angel. Really. Since we've been at Grandma's, she's been having some trouble sleeping. ie: she learned to crawl out of the playpen and gets up at her leisure, bugs her brother in his tent, getting up and roaming the house in the middle of the night, etc. But tonight, alhamdul-allah, she and her sibs went to bed without any trouble. She was just plain tuckered out. Daddy really misses her and wished he could be there, she talked with him on the phone this morning. Any time someone sang her Happy Birthday today, she would mouth the words but not say them. Kuli sana winta tayyib, ya Jacqueline!


P.S. I neglected to post this on my own personal blog the day of. sorry

The Journey Home

As always, the trip back to Cairo sucked big time. The short leg, the long leg and the medium leg. There are many things that could have been worse, but it was pretty grueling. Jacqueline only slept for about 45 minutes on the overseas leg (8 hours long), and slept most of the Frankfurt to Cairo leg. She was pretty sleep deprived. Grant, I think, pulled off the highlight of the trip, though. When we were in the Chicago O'Hare airport, he opened the door to the automatic defibrillator station and set off a the alarm. We were sitting on the floor against the wall (no seats to sit on) and I heard this alarm go off. I wondered where it was coming from and Grant came running around the corner (we were on the corner) with his hands over his ears saying, "Sorry sorry sorry". I walked around the corner and closed the door and the alarm went off a minute later. And really, when you think about it, how is a blaring alarm going to help a heart attack situation? Still, this rude guy (NOT an airport official) got in my face and said , "You know that the fire department is going to come? You're in trouble!" I told him to eat rocks and packed things up and went over to the airline desk and told them what my son did. She said, "So what! Would you like to pre-board?" Would I, would I? (peg leg peg leg) We were the first ones on the plane. Which is a toss up in my opinion. I'd either be first or last. The kids can't stand waiting in line but then you are on the plane for a longer period of time before take off. I just got on. By the time I get the kids settled, etc. most everyone has boarded and we don't have much time before take-off.

Eliza and Mairyn were pretty low maintenance, as usual. They both saw friends of theirs from school in the Frankfurt airport. They were on the same flight as us and played together until it was time to board for Cairo. Oh yeah, and the airline bent my stroller up. I had a whole other issue with that, but really, a long story short, it was quite long and awful and I'm glad that I'm not doing it again for a long, long time. Next summer, when we leave Cairo, Spencer is leaving with me and that's all that matters!