A day in the life...

this morning, since toby got up EARLY yet again, tim being the amazing Dad that he is, built Toby a little fort out of the couch cushions. well actually he called it a rocket ship. so he got his leapster and climbed in here and played mostly quietly in here while we read our Books!
here he is ready for launch....
jesse stumbled out next around 7 am and wanted his own rocket ship, but as true to most mornings, he climbed back on the couch and fell asleep again. so he is blissfully sleeping away here!
annie came out next in her nightgown, tights, slippers and wand! she has been wanting to wear her tights every day, so last night i told her she could wear them to bed, i figured they would come off in the middle of the night, but they never did! a perfect princess!

So i thought everyone might enjoy a little day in the life of the Meldrums. I tried not to clean up or change any circumstances of the video. So you might find it hard to hear, because there are a lot of kids in the house and they are all playing and being loud! if you listen close you might hear annie talking with her friend Reggie...it's really funny because she has taken to talking English with an accent. i guess she thinks they will understand her better. it cracks me up. the kids know their numbers in English, but they do not have the "x" sound in their language that we have, so when they say "six" they say "sickas". so annie has started saying that too. i also did not pick up the pillows on the living room floor, even though it was making me a little insane...i did right after the movie though, but they are probably on the floor again. notice the fresh bread rising in the pans on the stove! mmmm...we can get fresh naan...but it's not great for sandwiches, so every week i make a few loaves. i wish we could make whole wheat, but i can only find white flour for now.
most every morning we have at least 2 or 3 kids over. they enjoy our home with all the toys and the coolness if we have power. we LOVE our neighbors!
the video does not include our basement...it is about to become our friend and teammate Carol's apartment for at least the summer. most mornings now include some kind of cleaning, kids playing, baking of some sort and studying Kurdish. the afternoons usually include a meeting for us either to talk to our Father with the team or planning. the kids usually get to watch a movie, which we have an endless supply of here for less than a dollar each....we get all the latest movies on DVD before the states even. =) in the late afternoons we sit outside and hang out with the neighbors or run errands. in the evenings we might have a visit or just trying to study. that's it...that's a day! they are all zooming past us already!

The Wedding!

So the wedding was in a town about 45 minutes away near a river! beautiful location, except it was SO hot! i was quickly sweating through my beautiful "jili kurdi" it's a delightful combination of some kind of fake satin under material and a very itchy lacy overlay fabric. but i actually had fun wearing it! i did feel a little bit too pink for my taste though! so i actually am dancing here, but i used jesse as my decoy and pretended to be helping him so no one would notice my very faulty steps. there is nothing to the dancing really, just 4 steps and shrugging your shoulders, but if you know me, you know i can hardly walk and chew gum at the same time, let alone wear heels, sweat buckets, try to hold up my dress and look cool all at the same time. i don't think it will happen in this lifetime, although i would love to be graceful...
this is beautiful leila giving her brother a last kiss. so this is the "wedding" party, but apparently she was married 2 years ago by the mullah. so this was purely for fun! this morning little Aram woke up looking all over the house for his sweet sister...but to no avail! he cried and cried all morning. it was so heart breaking!
Leila is actually half iranian, half turkish...so she is really quite tall. her new husband is really tall, well over 6 feet! you know i was loving that!
this is leila's momma...Nazeela...the one on the left and her grandma lighting up the cigarette! the best part, that i could not get a picture of was that she kept her pack tucked into her knee highs under her dress and had pants tucked into the knee highs as well. she cracked me up! Nazeela is actually 7 months pregnant! Leila will be greatly missed for many reasons, but Nazeela will need some Strength if she is to survive a 2 year old, Aram and a new baby girl!
Just looking at this picture makes me cry all over again! which is forbidden and shameful, but i don't care...Leila will live over an hour away which will mean she will not get to visit very often. So leaving her family is very, very hard! she is only 19 and going to live in her mother in law's home with her husband that is 10 years her senior. he is a kind, gentle man, but still it would be scary for anyone. there were so many emotions for me, none of which i could express in words they would understand, but primarily i never got to tell her about my Friend! i have no words and it is SO frustrating! so i can only intercede for her! my heart goes out to her mom and the empty spot she will leave. there is still a brother around 20 and another sister who is 12, who will now fill the role Leila played, which is hard to think that girlhood is OVER for her! she will not get to run and play with annie anymore. she will have to help her momma cook and clean and take care of the babies. it's good, this family is so loving and it is not bad, it's just a harsh reality coming from my soft american view point. but zeelan is a beautiful and gracious girl and will play her role wonderfully. i hope i can help out by taking aram. he doesn't trust me yet, but he loves our toys, so i can usually coax him into our house with a car or ball! every time he passes near enough for me to touch him, i do and i ask my Friend to fix his arm. i can't wait for that day!

Henna Party!

So my neighbor, Leila, came to me a couple of weeks ago and through motions and the few words i know and repeating it many times, i finally figured out she was asking me if she could have her all girls henna party at my house the night before her wedding. since we have a large open room downstairs...they thought it would be perfect! there were fancy dresses, lots of loud music, tons of dancing. my american neighbor upstairs, Bevin is dancing here with Annie! she and i collaborated and made lots of cookies.
this is Leila's new sister in law coming in carrying a tray of henna! it was a beautiful ceremony...however the henna was very disappointing. they just did two giant blobs that looked like 7's on the inside of her hands, then the rest of us dipped our pinky fingers in it. it was interesting. the next morning i attempted to make an intricate design on annie's hand...
this is Leila's little brother, Aram. He is a cutie...but i think he might have some delays and is very undisciplined. in general they give young children everything they want. it is just easier than dealing with the crying! but Aram is special to us. he has a deformed arm that was broken at the shoulder when he was born because the doctor pulled him from the birth canal! we are believing for Someone to touch it soon and heal it!
this is my basement FULL of women and lots of interesting smells too! lucky for you, i cannot download that aspect of the fun-filled night!
here's annie dancing with a few of her girlfriends from down the street! not sure whether everyone was coming to get an inside look of how the americans live or to honor the bride to be! either way, it was great fun! unfortunately i still can't dance very well...

Father's Day

For father's day we surprised tim with homemade donuts...this required getting up at 5 am...i think that would have been gift enough, but i like a FULL day of fun, so after breakfast, we packed up and headed on an exploring adventure...we drove over our mountain and found this great little river...where we were able to dip our feet in, throw rocks and fly our kites!
this was actually a little scary, because it sort of just dropped off into the water after this spot. i had to keep telling the kids to back up! but we all survived!
it was so windy, that the kites went straight into the air...i did not mention earlier that we actually tried to fly them on the top of the mountain, but the wind was eratic and it was too close to the road...so we were a nervous wreck and grumpy and kept hollering at the kids...so this is take 2 on our adventure and after apologizing to our kids and getting some cold water and snacking on a few leftover donut holes we had a MUCH better time!
see...aren't we all so happy...you would never know we were actually all grumpy a few moments before this pic! i could let you all believe that we are perfect...but what is the fun in that?

It's Raining God's Love Down...

okay...so the last time it rained in the summer here was 12 years ago and it rained yesterday here! it was amazing! it was not a huge drenching, but still it was worthy of playing in! it was also accompanied by some massive thunder! incredible! so while the kids are playing in the rain, all the kurds ran and hid inside, but not my kids! annie is running around trying to catch the rain in her mouth and having a great time and all of a sudden she stops and comes up the stairs...because i was NOT in the rain...i had the camera...she says, "mom i know why it's raining" and i said, "why" and she said because God wants to show them how much he loves them! then she runs off the stairs and bursts into spontaneous song (the song in my heart...becks!...the tradition lives on) "it's raining God's love down, it's raining God's love down and we will love him forever!" i mean what an amazing moment! i was so proud of her! what was even better is that Tim had gone to the big city for the day and as he was driving back (at the same time as annie was dancing and singing) he was asking the Father to let it rain so that everyone would feel his love.

Xwa Hafiz Merishk...Good Bye Chicken (not for the faint-hearted)

this pesky rooster belongs to our neighbors...apparently he has been a little too frisky with the neighbor's chickens...so it's time for him to leave this cruel world...they decided to do this in our driveway...nice!
so...i didn't want to totally gross everyone out, so i left out all the close up pics...but i can post them if you really want me to. so this lady steps on his wings and then grabs his head and chops it off, real quick...there it is not too far from jesse and then holds him down while he flops around...spattering blood on her and all too close. it was a very, smooth process. just a normal part of life here, but us white people were quite excited to see how chicken nuggets are really made...we may never eat them again!
here is Aza Annie...brave annie holding up the head! i mean could she not be a poster child somewhere for some magazine! ha.ha!
so this is my neighbor who butchered the chicken. it was quite the process...i got invited to...which was performed in her bathroom...of course! i know...don't think about it too much. fortunately i couldn't see the squatty, so i felt like perhaps it wasn't too gross. so she boils him for a minute to make him nice and soft and then plucks his feathers...then the amazing part of pulling him apart. i was very mesmerized by the whole process. i told her, next time i want to do it! she thought that was pretty hilarious! then after it was all done, she said, tomorrow we are invited to a picnic with them to eat him! ugh...annie is not happy about this. she is worried he is dirty! but in all reality he is probably healthier and cleaner than the chickens we mass produce in the states. at least he led a happy and free life on our street!

random every day fun

here is annie and jesse playing a game in our courtyard "hosha"...no green in our yard yet, but soon hopefully! i taught the girls "ring around the rosy" and they loved it and are now teaching us one of their games here. they do a little dance around the circle and a chant and then one person sits in the middle and then it repeats until everyone is in the middle. very fun! annie is quite famous among all these girls. she is having to learn to balance this high position and remember that she is no more special than anyone else. ..a hard lesson as a 6 year old.
this is annie with our neighbor...she is reading a story about the prodigal son...he is teaching her how to read it in Kurdish ...they came over the other night at 8:30 pm as we were trying to put our kids to bed for a "surprise" visit! the kids managed to get out of going to bed until 2 hours later. this is quite a frequent event here! a visit includes me bringing everyone a cold cup of water on a tray. then i wait for everyone to take a few gulps and put it back on the tray. then i go back to the kitchen, put on the water for tea and prepare bowls of mixed nuts for everyone. then i bring these out, making sure to serve the eldest male in the room first. then i go back to set out tea cups, put the tea in the kettle to brew and fill each cup with 3 scoops of sugar. then i go back to visit for a few minutes while the tea steeps. then i come back pour the tea and serve it. then i can sit and visit again. then when it's time to go you serve fruit to everyone with a plate and paring knife! this is the polite way of saying..."now get out!" but our guests didn't get that memo apparently because they stayed for another hour

these are other neighbors who brought their rug over to lay out in our big driveway...there's is too small and they soak it down completely and then hand scrub it. roll it up for a day, then hang it on the wall for a day to dry in the sun! SO much work and the mom is 7 months pregnant! they work SO hard here!
okay...in order to appreciate this pic, you have to scroll down to two postings before this one. this is what it looks like on a dusty day...you cannot see the mountains at all. it's crazy.
we finally got the office/homeschool room up and running. here are the kids enjoying the new pattern blocks we brought with us! this is seriously SO much fun for all of them. so far i haven't found much that i think...well i didn't need to bring this!

house pics

welcome room...so we need some curtains that actually cover the entire window here and we need a rug so the kids can wrestle with daddy, but besides that, the floral couches are amazingly stiff...it's always a surprise when i flop down on the couch! ouch!
this is my fab kitchen! you can't tell but i still need to scrub every tile on the wall. it drives me nuts...they are all covered in gypsum, this white powdery stuff. it's incredibly stubborn. my oven is very big and cool...5 burners, however there is no temp gauge...so i never know what i am actually cooking stuff at. the table is awesome, but so far 3 chairs have broken and two are on the edge! good old...made in china.
the kids' room. i love their room...
my bathroom...the pistachio and white tiles are the new thing...also a squatty potty...you should get one...you might like it! watch out though it stinks all the time! but a capful of bleach a day seems to keep the stink to a minimum. the lid on our western toilet is very stiff and goes down very slowly...tim insists it is supposed to be that way...i think NOT!
our bedroom...i love this room too, except that our curtains might be see through at night, as you can almost see outside it in the day time. but i just tell myself, no one is looking. i bet we are the talk of the town!

some fun pics of our new 'hood!

you may not believe it...but i really do appear in some pictures. see if you can figure out which white face is mine. the other white face belongs to my neighbor and new friend, Bevin. they live upstairs...and have been SO helpful! we are all working on tearing apart an old sweater. we unstrung it string by string and the woman in the center in the yellow is making a blanket with it for her 6th baby that is due in 2 months. her eldest daughter who is 18 is getting married in two weeks..she is the one is pink holding a boy, Aram...who is 18 months or so and has a deformed arm that was broken at birth. but i love him and am believing he will get healed by the Doctor soon. Leila is getting married to someone she knows and has chosen, but he is a family friend and she will have to move an hour away. she will not see her family for a LONG time. she teared up as she told me this. she will go and live in her mother in law's home. wow...this is astounding to me. Cawjal is sitting next to me on my right. i have been able to sit outside this gate many evenings now. i cannot wait until i can understand everything that is going on. Jacow is wrapped around my legs. she is a funny girl...i love her too, but she loves to pinch Jesse. anymore Jesse runs and screams when he sees her coming. today i tried to explain to her and another hard pincher that it scares them to be pinched so hard and that they should try being more gentle. not sure they really get it. they probably think i have no idea what i am talking about.
this is Annie with Erin and Bevin having a tea party...next time we will attempt it with the Kurds around us, but we weren't sure who to invite and how to not offend anyone, so we just did the foreigners. this is a little tea set we found in the storage pile...from one of the teachers from last year...thanks! annie loves it! annie is all decked out in her jili kurdi that was a gift from her new friend Reggie. we seem to be in a giving war with them. the girls started out giving each other random trinkets and it has now escalated to clothes. some of these outfits can get very pricey. the neighbors love to bring us food and the custom is after they bring you food, you take the plate back to them with food as well. so i have been getting food and trying to take it back within a couple of days, but today i got two plates, so i happened to be making cookies for the tea party, so we returned the plates and not 10 minutes later they came back with MORE food for us! ahhhh...i can't keep up! my theory is that they love the sweets that we make them and so they just keep bringing us random food of theirs, like a bowl of rice today or some fruit, in hopes that it will come back full of cookies!
this is a picture of our street. you can't really tell how steep the hill is here, but i am just waiting for one of my kids to roll down it. you also can't see that annie is walking back up the hill, her new favorite afternoon activity is to take 250 dinar and walk to the little shop and buy an ice cream! she feels so grown up and it is SO safe here to let her do it. i love it! when the boys get a little older, we can send them to the bread shop every day for fresh bread! the first wall you see is part of our yard....still void of anything green, but mostly empty of trash now...the next house you see is my new friend Cawjal...she is very sweet. she doesn't speak a lick of english, but we really click. she has 2 sweet girls who LOVE me. the one little girl is always hiding out in our yard when it is time to leave. she wants to stay with me. =)
here are the kids in their little pool we found at the bazaar. they love it and it is so dry here...it doesn't grow algae in it in 2 hours.
here is annie reading a new story book that has Kurdish and English in it. it's a great story about our friend who lived a long time ago and did lots of great things. annie couldn't wait to tell her new friend all about this wonderful Story...annie would read the page in English and Reggie would read the page in Kurdish to her. a great way for annie to learn Kurdish too.

the toothfairy is coming tonight....i hope she has iraqi dinars!

well we know what we will be doing tomorrow for family fun night...a first lost tooth party! hooray! this tooth has been lose for 2 months and it finally came out tonight. the other tooth started coming up and so we told annie to start wiggling it all the time. tonight annie was pretending she was a dog and was biting the back of toby's shirt, as only a meldrum kid can do...jesse appeared on the scene, tripped and fell into toby which launched toby forward while annie was still holding on. it dislodged it enough to start bleeding and then we wiggled it and turned it for the next 30 minutes until finally...POP! out it came with a little assistance from Tim!