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!**