Grass!

I've mentioned before how excited we get about grass.

It's been wet lately, and I haven't taken Keira to the park in about two weeks.  She said the other day, "Mom, I'd really like to see some grass."

I felt bad, so I started thinking how I could work some "grass" into our schedule.

Every Thursday, I drop Kylie off for French tutoring at some apartments; however, I had never walked into the complex, but I could see fountains and grass from the road.

I told Keira we could go with Kylie to tutoring that day and play in the grass for a couple of hours while we waited for her. 

Well, seeing it was all we could do.  It was kind of a "don't walk on the grass" kind of area.

She had fun running around the fountains, though, and just being outside.

But that couldn't occupy us for two hours, so...

we explored the shops that are attached the apartments.

We went in the grocery store and walked by all the restaurants, and decided to stop inside a cute café.

I had heard about this place (because of their milkshakes), but I'd never been here before.

The guys here loved Keira and loved hearing her say some words in their language.  

When it was time to put the finishing touches on her milkshake, they came and got her and took her behind the bar.

When they saw me taking pictures from my table, they told me to come over and watch.

They helped her with the whipping cream because the nozzle was too hard.  

And then they let her stick two cookie-type desserts in the whip cream.

Then they lowered it down so she could put sprinkles on.

Sometimes (and only sometimes) milkshakes are better than grass.

And my coffee concoction wasn't so bad either.

After the milkshake and coffee, we stayed outside for a little while until it started raining.

Then, we called up and asked if we could wait in the apartment while Kylie finished with her tutor.

It was perfect!  Her tutor had a soft, sweet dog and a beautiful, white cat, both of which Keria loved playing with.

I, on the other hand, had a cup of tea and watched the thunder and lightning show off her balcony.

Hunting for grass turned out not to be such a bad adventure after all.

Getting Tanks and Reading Digits

Our two year anniversary of arriving here was February 23rd.  On February 20th, we decided to make life a little easier on ourselves.

The house we rent only has one water tank, and it has started to leak.   And two days before our "decision," we noticed that since it had been raining for a few days, the city had not been sending water to our neighborhood. 

(Apparently, when it rains, they think you don't need water inside either ??)

It had been raining for a few days, and I didn't realize our tank wasn't getting replenished. 

When the electricity had been coming on in the afternoon, I had continued to do laundry, plus we had been taking showers, flushing toilets, washing dishes, etc.

It wasn't too long before we noticed we could only get water out of the hot tap, because there was some residual in the hot water heater.

For two days, we used minimal water.  Showers were put on hold, dishes stacked up, clothes piled up, and toilets were only flushed when necessary.

We've had this problem before, but usually it was in the summer, and usually the city "sends" water late at night to replenish tanks.  But to be honest, I really don't understand their system.

Anyway, Doug went with our language helper, and he bought two brand new tanks, larger than our original.

He hired a crane.

They lifted them to the roof, and...

Voila!

After I took these pictures, I started thinking how weird it was that I could easily read the numbers on the tanks.

Normally the numbers are in script.

For example, this license plate is number 21416.

 

This one is 550



367900

417828

I really have to concentrate to read numbers (or anything here, for that matter), but I practice a lot while I'm driving, and I'm getting better.

Celebrating Caleb

We celebrated Caleb's 12th birthday back in January.  

[As a math teacher, I made do with what we had (5+5+1+1)]

 We took him to his favorite hamburger place for lunch on his birthday.

Caleb is usually laughing or making someone else laugh.  I like to sit with him when he watches movies, because his laugh is contagious.

He likes wrestling with his dad, playing with nerf guns, being outside, playing Xbox, and playing Legos.

He's usually not afraid to try new things (as long as it doesn't involve too many vegetables).

I got this off the school facebook page.  It looks like he's modeling for some catalogue.

Happy birthday, young man.  We love who you are and what you're becoming.

Where's my Car?

When I go to the mall, this is what I'm faced with when I come out with my groceries.

Rows and rows of white cars.

This is after-school pick up at Karis and Caleb's school.  

White cars everywhere!

Even the beige taxis melt into the white.

I went to the crosswalk to take pictures, and every time I snapped...white, white, white.

Granted, there are the occasional dark ones, but after living here, I think I've realized something.

No one wants a dark car because the summer sun would make each vehicle more of an oven than it already is.

So, I have two things that help me locate my car:

1) The blessing of a "clicker" to unlock my car, which causes the lights to flash, which I use quite often.

AND 2) Doug put a small Texas A&M decal on the back window, which I'm guessing is a one-of-a-kind find in this country.

Here's to always being able to find my vehicle. :)

Dust Storm

Since I mentioned the dust storm in the last post, I figured I would show you a few pictures.  We were in another neighborhood at another house when this blew in.  

The room we were sitting in, all of a sudden, had a yellow glow to it.  When we looked outside, this is what we saw.

Of course, it was raining as well, so it was more like "mud-fall" than "rainfall."

Everyone in town had a car that looked like this, because we all drive white cars.
(I'll show you in the next post).

After an hour or so, it slowly starting clearing off.

And the next day, the rain was even a lot cleaner.

I took this picture from far away because I was "spying" on this man as he sprayed his orange tree (behind the palm).  I've zoomed in, but I'm not sure you can see what he's doing.

He has his water hose, and he's trying to clean the leaves and fruit on his tree. 

I've noticed that people here like to clean "outside" a lot.  It's very important to them.

They hose down their front porches AND the street in front of their houses daily.
They wash their cars often.
Businesses wash the sidewalk in front of their store daily.

When it comes to their personal lives, Oh, how I wish they knew that their Father doesn't look at the outside.  He is concerned with the cleanliness of our heart. 

That is always a good reminder for me, too!

Bowling and Clouds

Kylie had some interesting school assignments in January.

For her P.E. class she was told to experience another sport by joining a team, learning the rules and taking part in the activity.

Well...the options here for girls in sports are slim to none.

We emailed the teacher, and explained our dilemma.  She told us to keep looking.

We decided on bowling.  But we didn't join a team.  We just went and had an "experience."

The whole family.

We took lots of funny videos, but the only still shots I got were of Keira, so that's all I've got for you.

Plus, her bowling technique gave me a lot more time to take a picture than any other person in our family, if you know what I mean.

Outside the bowling alley...

Another project Kylie had was for science.  She had to classify clouds, record temps and barometric pressure highs and lows for 30 days.  

There usually aren't a lot of clouds here, but this project pushed her to look and observe every day. 

On this particular day, it was a rare, clear day, and we could even see mountains in the distance.

I zoomed in so you could see what I'm talking about.

The week after the dust storm, we also had a few beautiful sunsets.

It would be nicer without the buildings and wires, but I love looking at God's handiwork anyway I can get it.

Two Nights in the Mountains

The airport here is still closed (and will be until at least May), and this is not a country that is easily traveled in and out of by car.  

We decided to get out of the city right after Christmas for a little down time, so our team went to stay in the mountains, hoping for a little snow like last year.

It was cold, but unfortunately, like most of you guys, we did not get any snow.

Before we got in the cable car to go to the top, we stopped at a waterfall to stretch our legs

And what do you know...we took another family photo!!

Pretty, with or without snow.

This was last year...

We also took a side trip to a nearby mountain and rode a slow train that took us over the edge of the mountain and allowed us to look down.

A little too scary for my liking.

This is the same waterfall that I mentioned at the beginning, looking down from the train.  Someone is trying to transform this place into a touristy area, but it's still under construction.

We also got to ride sleds with hand breaks.  Everyone else but Keira and I went VERY fast, but Keira and I took our sweet little time.

This is the top of the mountain we stayed on, and Doug and Kylie win the prize for the best picture!



When we came down the mountain two days later, we stopped to take pictures by this gorge.





And then, we got a little crazy...

Apparently, we need to get out of the city a little more often.  We seem to be "losing it."