Kevan's First "Real" Contribution

Some have asked what I contribute to the blog. My biggest contribution has been to let Sara do all the writing. WARNING: my first real post lacks the excitement of the usual epic adventure and it won't read like Sara's posts. However, there won't be lots of words, and there will be some pictures to look at. My kind of post.

I noticed lately that the kids have become very interested in the blog and ask to read it a lot. I guess it's like looking at the family album...only funny...at least when Sara posts.

This post is mostly for the kids--especially Emma--and the grandparents. These pictures capture some of who Emma is, and some of them are pretty good photographs too.

After the new year, the younger kids got to see some of the places in Washington, D.C. that only Jake and Jess had seen before. It was freezing cold, but Emma still wanted to pose for a picture at the Jefferson Memorial.
"The Awakening," a statue of a giant bearded man that appears to be emerging from the ground, was a favorite of ours when we lived in D.C. It was perfect place for Emma, who ran around and jumped and climbed all over the statue.

In Monterey, when it was time to come inside for dinner, Sam was always digging in the dirt, and Megan was always playing at a neighbor's house. Emma was usually climbing a tree. (photo courtesy of Grandma Lewis) Emma can never swing fast or high enough. Never. I can't wait until she gets a driver's license. No, really... Emma looked up from her book just long enough to get one good smile. Then she was right back into her book.
Emma really wanted to climb the rocky peak behind Grandma Raynes' cabin in Teasdale. She made it.

At Capitol Reef, in Central Utah, Emma climbed into every nook and cranny she could get into, including this cave in the canyon wall.
Evaluating how much fun she is really having. At least she wasn't fetching a wayward baby brother...in this picture.
Sunday, uhhh, I mean Friday before church in Cairo.
Standing by the mast at the front of the boat, feeling the wind. Almost exciting enough for Emma.
Emma: I love you! Dad

Christmas nuthin'!

I'd wager that most mothers would tell you that the first day of school is waaay better!

Our 8th grader:

Jake the 6th grader:
Emma, Miss 3rd Grade:

And introducing, our newest Kindygartener! (A.k.a., I am now 4/5ths of the way to livin' the dream.)

I had to have an intervention and fix her hair. While the above 'do is cute, she still hasn't mastered the art of hairbrushing. Plus I wanted to get her hair off her neck, sensing perhaps she might get a little, shall we say, warm today.
Sam, not starting school (only 36 more months to go!), but still wanting to get in on the picture fun:

He really wanted to show the camera Daddy's bike:
We were all going to walk to school, but Megan and Emma really wanted to ride the bus (plus the older two needed to be there a little earlier than the bus would get them there for 1st day instruction stuff), so we went in two parties. This is the Walking Contingency setting off:

And this is the We Somehow Think That a School Bus is Going to Be Cooler (As in Temperature, Not Social Status) group, waiting for their ride (clearly, neither has ever been on a school bus before):
Getting on board:
This is Megan at the end of her day, next to her cubby, holding her day's art project. I think the hair-off-the-neck was a good call, don't you?
We have a tradition in our family that we go out to eat for dinner on the first day of school, and that the Kindergartener (if there is one) gets to choose where. This evening's schedule--between the mountain of paperwork to deal with (I can now confirm to you that it is a worldwide phenomenon: they have not yet discovered a way to keep you from having to fill out the SAME FORM for every child)(maybe someone will someday invent something that would make an exact replica, perhaps a "copy," of said form so as to cut down on both useless repitition and hand cramps, but that's just the dreamer in me talking), first day homework, and a youth activity Jessie needed to get to--we just didn't have time to go out. So instead Megan chose a distinctly Egyptian dining experience: McDonald's! "Wha?" I hear you say, "What's Egyptian about McDonald's?" Oh but I will tell you, gentle reader.

They delivered it:
Taken from our balcony. Yes, that's really a McDonald's delivery scooter. Hmm, perhaps I am already livin' the dream...

And here I thought it took hard work and perseverance

But it turns out that all you need in order to achieve your dreams is to come shopping in Cairo. I just don't know what you non-military are going to do. I guess keep workin'! Suckahs...
And a full shot of the doorway, so that you can truly appreciate the full awesome-ness of it. Kevan included to show scale. (No, not really; he's included because, well, he was there). I don't see how it gets any cooler than an eagle and pyramids. I feel my dreams coming true already.
I've been wanting to get a shot of that doorway since the first time I laid eyes on it a month ago, but this is the first time we've been there when there hasn't been anyone around while we were outside. I am truly a chicken.

And now for some gratuitous picture posting. This is purely for my benefit and the joy these pictures bring me. Earlier this week, Sam was not very happy about going down for his nap (I know! Shocking!), but we just let him be and eventually he settled down/accepted the inevitable. But when I went in to check on him later, this is the sight that greeted me, much to my sheer delight:
And an aerial view:
So that you don't think I'm pro-suffocation, that blanket is very loosely woven, and I pulled it off of his face right after these pictures were taken. Also, you should know that ever since he was a tiny baby, he doesn't truly settle down to sleep unless he has something on or near his face. He almost always has that over his face when I check on him at night, and I always pull it off. And sometimes, even in his sleep, he puts it right back on.

Not to rub it in or anything...

...but we just filled up a friend's Mitsubishi Montero (they're out of town for the week and letting us use it) that was completely empty. Running-on-fumes empty. Nary-a-drop-of-gas-in-that-thing empty.

We filled it to the top.

$25.57

I guess I misspoke. Totally to rub it in.

A Tale of 2 Shopping Trips

This last week we've been on a few notable shopping excursions. Last Saturday, Kevan, Jess, and I were joined by Shon and Kirsten and a couple of friends from church, and we went to the fabric market in downtown Cairo. What a place! Shop after tiny little shop of nothing but fabric. The narrow streets formed quite a maze (I will neither confirm nor deny that I was the one who led us right out of it, and I will neither confirm nor deny that Kevan had no clue where we were) (I will, however, totally rat out Shon and tell you that he got totally lost, and we had to wait 15 minutes for him to find his way out ;) but we all found some great fabric. In a lot of ways it reminded me of the fabric district in L.A., except dirtier, in that it seemed like the bulk of the fabric for sale was upholstery-type fabric, but truly, we barely scratched the surface; who knows what we would have found if we had delved deeper into the place. We were after fabric to make duvet covers for the girls' room, and found some cute embroidered cotton to use. The man selling it thought Jessica was just the cutest thing. He asked her if she was thirsty, and she told him, "no," but he still went and got her a bottle of cold water, and insisted she take it. He was delighted when she accepted it and started to drink from it. He gave us a pretty good price on the fabric, too. We also got some cute fabric to make Jess a few skirts, and I got to practice my negotiating skills. I had told Kevan that he was supposed to stay by me (what with him speaking the language and me not so much), but he kept getting distracted by, I dunno, shiny things? so I was on my own a few times. I think I did OK though.

When we were waiting by our cab for Shon and Kirsten to make their way out of the market, young boys selling socks kept coming up to us and trying to get us to buy them (as they were all throughout the market). There was also a slightly older boy (maybe 11 or 12) standing at the food cart we were near who was looking at us and who, at one point, asked me the time. After a little while of standing there we realized that this boy had sort of become our protector and was shooing away all the little sock boys and keeping the other vendors away from us. When we were finally leaving, he walked along the side of the car and was blowing kisses at Jessica and Megan (not our Megan, but a friend of Jessie's from church) who were sitting in the back seat. We've been teasing them more than a little bit about that.

This is the only picture we remembered to take. It is at the beginning of the market, but we took it when we were on our way out. My favorite part of it is the guy in blue walking past us. I'm pretty sure his facial expression reads somewhere along the lines of, "Crazy American tourists!"
After we left the market, we went to lunch at the same Lebanese restaurant we went to after our visit to the museum. Jess and I were intrigued by this sign on the street outside it, and are hoping that the fest it is advertising makes a return appearance this year. That is most definitely my kind of fest.
Megan and her mom had the grilled shrimp for lunch, and it was no namby-pamby curled up little shrimp, thank you very much. Those puppers were still in their shells with eyeballs and everything. So, of course, we had some of the obligatory Messing Around with Gross Things. I am only showing you the tamest of the pictures. You are welcome.
Then on Wednesday, Kevan and I took a cab to a local store called Carrefour. I have been once before with some people from church, and it is quite the experience. The first person that told me about it said, "It's kind of like Walmart." And then the person I went with said, "What have you heard about this place? That's it's kind of like Walmart? Because it's nothing like Walmart." As we were wandering through it this time, I realized what it is that it is like. You know how there's Walmart and then there's Super Walmart? And how Super Walmart is bigger, has more stuff, and also food? Well, Carrefour is like a Super All-a-Dollar. Tons of random stuff, no guarantee that it will be the same stuff twice (or in the same place), and also food.

This is a shot of the outside, from our cab:
The building that it's in also has a mall in it, with all the kinds of stores you would expect to find in a mall, but each with a decidedly Arab twist. My favorite part of these stores is the mannequins. Some day I will be brave enough to take some pictures of them for you. It will be worth the wait.

I did manage to snap a couple of shots of come our favorite products that we found inside Carrefour itself.

Holly, I don't care how hard you beg, I am not buying you this for Christmas:
This was really hard not to buy:
These last couple of shots are from the cab on the way home.

We never did see what it was that was pulling this cart:
You can't see it very well, but in that little pick-up truck in front of us, there are about 1o men crammed in the back:

I promise we didn't disappear

We just got buried in boxes.

This is what our apartment looked like on Saturday, early afternoon:

Our bedroom:
The Girls' Dormitory:
Jake's room:
Dining Room:
Living Room/Office (hi Kev!):
Kitchen:
And then this is what it looked like a mere 5 hours later:





There are no original pictures of Sam's room, because he was asleep when I was taking them, and nothing's worth waking him up. Trust me on this one. And then there are no "after" pictures of Jake's room, because the boy only brought Legos. He was unpacked in like 5.4 seconds. We'll be contacting Guinness shortly.

These last pics aren't so much of Sam's room; they're just my attempt at capturing his extreme joy at his new bed. We bought it off of craigslist right before we left, and he never saw it. So the delight of going in to his room and discovering a blue car (both favorite things) was off the charts.