Long-awaited update

Sorry it's been so long since my last blog; we haven't had much internet access since we've returned. Now that Jason's back (safe and sound), we have our laptop which picks up a wireless signal (most of the time) from our nearby church.

Not much going on here. I'm still pregnant :), and we've done a little bit of traveling. Ellie and I spent a week in Tucson visiting friends and took a quick trip up to Kingman to see some of Jason's family. Ellie sure loved playing with Uncle Jordan! She's also loving having family galore to shower her with attention. We have grandparents, great grandparents, great aunts and uncles, and lots of aunts all in town to entertain her. I'm starting to feel very uncomfortable all of the time now, so I think my traveling days are over until after this baby comes. We finally have health insurance here now, so the baby can come any day now (please!). Everything looks good at my doctor appointments, and my doctor seems to be very supportive of natural deliveries, which is something Jason and I really want.

We'll let you know when we have more news, but for now we are just hanging out and preparing for the baby to come.

We're baaack!

Just wanted to let everyone know that Ellie and I are back in Arizona! The flight was long, but really not too bad. Ellie was great and I was as comfortable as I could be. We just got in a day or two ago and we're still dealing with jetlag, but hopefully we should get back to normal soon. Thanks to all of you who were praying for us!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there! Especially to our mothers, who we will be seeing very soon!

Ellie's second year montage

Here is Ellie's second year! Don't buy a dvd of this from the company, if you want one, I can make you one of this and her first year. Just let me know!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We have a drought!

It seems that the water system for our house has been tampered with, and we now have no water. For some reason it is not connecting to our place. So, we came home from the Dead Sea with no water in our pipes. We've been given a temporary solution, a hose from a source outside, but needless to say, it is not very convenient. Added to this, I forgot to put our water bottle outside last week, so now we've run out of drinking water too. Crazy! Luckily the delivery men come tomorrow for the drinking water. Who knows when our other water will be fixed.

I forgot to mention that we were in two extremely minor fender-benders last week in taxis. The bumps were less even than going over a speed bump. But it was kind of crazy with them happening within a day of each other. Then yesterday I totally fell outside. I landed on my knees, extremely hard, but nothing else was hurt. I was holding Ellie, so luckily my neighbor was able to keep me from falling on my face or squishing Ellie (or the baby). All I have are bruised and scraped-up knees. Can you tell that God has been protecting us lately? :)

Update on the binky situation: Ellie had a rough time falling asleep that night (she even threw up from crying too much), but her nap the next day was ok. She finally put one of the other binkies in her mouth. When we went to the store that afternoon, we found some really cheap pacifiers (3 for $1.50) that she has accepted as a substitute. So, we should be fine now! Thank goodness.

We're back from the Dead...

The Dead Sea that is. It was a fun trip; we were able to see a lot of things. On Friday we took a minibus up to Madaba, a town about 45 minutes away from Amman. After checking into a hotel and taking a nap (well, Ellie slept while Jason and I watched 2 episodes from 24), we walked around the town of Madaba. It is a Christian town, known for it's many historical mosaics. Then we went back to the hotel for the night, where we swam briefly in the freezing swimming pool before settling in for the night.

Today we rented a taxi (and driver) to take us to Mt. Nebo (where Moses stood to view the promised land), Bethany (where Jesus is believed to have been baptized), and the Dead Sea. It was all fun and interesting, and a lot of walking (more than I thought). Ellie was exhausted by the time we got to the Dead Sea, so she only lasted a couple of minutes in the salty water before having a breakdown. She slept on the bus ride back home.

We had one casualty on our trip. During the scramble off the bus in Amman, we lost the one "good" binky that we had left. She used one in her mouth, and two in her hands as she slept, but now the one for her mouth is gone. She refuses to use the others in her mouth (they are bigger and made out of latex, not silicone), so now she is having a hard time going to sleep. She's been in bed for an hour now, with no sleep in sight. The biggest problem is that without that "cork" in her mouth, she is babbling like crazy. Some could say that this could be the opportunity to wean her from her pacifiers, but we don't want to! Not to mention that we would not pick this time to try to wean her anyways, too many changes going on right now. Hopefully we can find a suitable substitute at a store tomorrow. Where's Walmart when you need it?

Introducing...Ellie, the 2 year old!

Happy birthday Ellie! She had a great/busy day today. This morning we had a mommy & me class at the local bookstore. I made rice krispy treats to share with her friends for her birthday. Then, after her nap, we went to a place called the Fun Factory. It looks like a daycare; it has outdoor play equipment and sand, an indoor playground and trampoline, an art room, a toddler room, and a kitchen where they cook simple things together. Ellie had a blast painting and then cooking and decorating pancakes (and then eating of course). Then she played outside in the sand. After dinner, we had a birthday cake. Here are some pictures of her fun day:

Her beautiful smile:

Dancing at mommy & me class:

Painting at the Fun Factory:

Making pancakes:

Blowing out the birthday candles with Daddy:

Happy Birthday Jason!

Today Jason is 25, a quarter-century! We celebrated with blueberry pancakes this morning, and then a trip to the mall tonight. We went to the mall mainly to eat dinner at a favorite pizza place, and then brought dessert home. Definitely not the most exciting birthday ever, but I'm hoping it was a good day.

Okay, we are definitely going to the Dead Sea next weekend. Especially since it is the next-to-last weekend that Ellie and I will be here!

31 week belly pics

Here it is; the big belly. Actually, comparing it to my last picture 9 weeks ago, it doesn't look too much bigger. I guess I just popped pretty early. Nine more weeks to go til baby brother gets here!

Opinions, please!

We went grocery shopping today, because we were in desperate need of food. The little store on our street that we use for necessities during the week was closed for some reason this week, so we have been out of bread for a while. Our bread doesn’t last long, since it’s all freshly baked in Amman, not stocked with preservatives like in the states. I guess that’s one thing we’ll miss :) Guess what we found at the grocery store?? Generic Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Captain Crunch w/berries! It sounds weird to be so excited about, but American cereal is one thing I’ve really missed while here. There are some things available, but who wants to buy Special K with berries for $7 a box? There is an Egyptian brand of cereal that we usually buy that is about $1.50 a box, but it’s not as good as American. I have bran flakes just about every morning (with a spoonful of sugar of course). This cereal we found was only about $3 a box, so not too bad at all.

Last night we treated ourselves to an expensive, but delicious dinner. We ate at a restaurant called Houston’s, which is similar to…Chili’s, I guess. Ooh, the nachos we ordered as an appetizer were sooo good. The meal, which would have been around $20 in the states, was more like $35 here, but we needed that extra boost to make it until we come home.

Ok, I have a dilemma that I would love opinions about. Ellie has been waking up dry during naptime for a couple weeks now, and the last 5 nights her diapers have been completely dry in the morning! I'm afraid to let her go without a diaper though, because if she did wet the bed, it would be a huge hassle to try to clean her foam mattress. Here are my options (that I see anyway):

- use a new diaper every day
- reuse the diapers if they are dry (I do reuse them after nap for that night). One idea that I saw recently was to put her in undies and then a diaper, that way the diaper is clean and I just wash the undies
- let her go without a diaper

Using a diaper a day isn't too expensive, but it seems senseless to throw away a dry diaper. What do you think we should do?

Fluff stuff

I've ordered my first cloth diapers! I'm going with the cheaper route for the first couple of months, when he'll need his diaper changed so often. There are cloth diapers out there that are exactly like disposables as far as ease, but they are a bit more expensive. We'll be using prefolds/fitteds and covers, so two pieces instead of just the all-in-one diaper. But believe me, it looks sooo easy. And, they are so cute! All I have left is to buy some prefolds, at least for now. (I know a lot of people have no clue about the terminology I'm using, but I'm too excited not to share).

5 weeks to go

Happy Easter everyone! Ellie had a blast hunting down easter eggs, although it took her a good while to find the first egg and realize that she was supposed to pick it up. It was pretty funny watching her look everywhere but directly at the egg.

I've tried out a few new recipes lately. One that was super good was a recipe for chocolate chip peanut butter oatmeal cookies. They were soooo yummy. The best cookies I've ever had are Autumn's mom's chocolate chip peanut butter cookies, but these come in a close second. Then I tried cheese fondue (I've been craving the cheese fondue from Barley Brothers in Havasu). This was not such a success. It tasted fine (actually Jason loved it) but it was more like melted cheese than fondue. This may be because I did not use a fondue pot, so it cooled off and hardened. Tonight I used a new recipe for chicken enchiladas, and they were very easy and good. Not the best, but pretty good. I think my time here has helped me become more confident in my cooking skills, since I need to be inventive in my substitutions and cooking methods. No more strictly following the recipe for me! (All the above recipes are available if you click on the name of the foods.)

I went to the doctor today. The baby is still a perfect size for his age and everything looks good. I, however, have a urinary tract infection and low iron. Both of these results were surprising, since I have had no symptoms of a UTI and I eat plenty of iron-rich foods. My best guess is that I am not getting enough vitamin C to help absorb the iron. So, we walked over to the pharmacy this afternoon to get all my medications. The antibiotic I have is really weird; it's little granules that I put in a cup of water. The granules fizz up and I have to drink it (three times a day). Hopefully this is the last of my weird pregnancy symptoms!

Video of Ellie

Here is a video of Ellie that I took today. She's pretending to open birthday presents; it's really cute!

New friends

Guess what Ellie and I did today?? We went to a toddler Mommy & Me class! The classes just started up at the bookstore we visit. It was sooo much fun! And Ellie was much more interactive than I thought she would be. She was fairly shy, but she never cried and she even ran off by herself sometimes. The class is for kids ages 1 1/2 - 4, but most kids were about 2. We sang songs, read a couple books, did a craft, ate a snack, and then had playtime. This is not a free service; it's actually pretty pricey, but it's worth the interaction that Ellie gets. We'll go once a week until we leave :)

I can't believe Ellie will be turning 2 in less than a month! We're tentatively planning on a birthday party in Lake Havasu after we get back, even though it will be a couple weeks past her birthday. We really want all our friends and family to come, especially since it may be the first time in almost a year that we have seen you! Jason probably won't be there :( but Ellie and I would love to see everyone. We don't have an exact day and time yet, but I'll be sure to post it here when we do.

We haven't gone to the Dead Sea yet, but hopefully soon. I'll be sure to post about it.

Potty-training

Ellie is fully potty-trained! She hasn't had an accident in quite a while (well, besides last week when she peed her pants downtown). She also wakes up dry after naps. This morning she was dancing around as I was getting her cereal (she's going through a phase where she eats the cereal dry and drinks milk out of a cup). Finally she said, "Have to go potty!" Boy oh boy did she pee for a long time! And...her diaper was completely dry! We're so excited! Our only problem now is using toilets when out and about, because for the most part, there aren't any! If there are bathrooms, it is usually a hole in the ground, and Ellie won't go in those. I don't blame her! So, if we go out for an extended period of time, then we'll still be using diapers. Oh, it will be so nice to not have two children in diapers!

Speaking of diapers, we have decided (well, I did and Jason is fine with it) to use cloth diapers with our new baby. We'll still use disposables we already have some, nothing against them, but we don't plan on buying any. There are several different reasons why we have chosen use this method, but a big one is simply cost.

We're thinking about going to the Dead Sea soon. It's so hit and miss with weather right now though. Some days it will get up to 70, now it's back to the 50's. I guess we'll just have to pick a weekend and go, hoping that it's warm enough!

7 weeks to go!

Okay, here are our adventures from the past week:

On Thursday we went to a park. Yes, we finally found a park! And it isn’t any normal park, it is a HUGE complex with 8 different playgrounds, a couple of soccer fields, and many basketball courts. It also has a café, plus a couple of carnival-type food stands. There is popcorn, corn on the cob, cotton candy, and things that are like churros but with honey instead of cinnamon and sugar. These carnival foods are soo cheap. Ellie has a great time there, and she is improving a lot on being afraid of other people. She is no longer afraid to climb on the playground if other kids are in the way. Ellie also loves to swing! Although she is terrified of the baby bucket-style seats, she loves swinging on the normal “big kid” swings. So, we’re planning on going to the park at least once a week from now on.

Ellie and I also found a small bookstore that is all children’s books. They have a little area with toys to play with and books that can be read. As desperate as we are to find things to do, we’ll be going there often just to play (although I’ll be buying a small book each time, or else I’d just feel weird!). I found a book there called “Broken Biscuits” that is currently Ellie’s favorite. It’s neat because it’s in English, but it’s based on Egyptian culture (the mom and daughter have to hurry to the village oven so they don’t miss out on their turn for the day). There are also some nice Arabic baby board books that we’ll be buying for our little guy.

On our way home from the bookstore last week, I was approached by a woman who was collecting things in our neighborhood. This has happened before, people coming to our door looking for “stuff” that they can have. Well, obviously I don’t speak fluent Arabic, but I caught the word for clothes and she kept pointing to Ellie, so I asked her if she wanted some of my daughter’s clothes. She said yes, so I told her to follow me back to my house. I had just gone through Ellie’s clothes and separated out all of the ones that are too small, intending to donate them somewhere here (so we have room for all the stuff sent to us!). At one point walking back the woman picked up Ellie, even though I told her not to, and Ellie freaked out (which is exactly why I told her not to). So, when we got to our house, I gave her the clothes and shoes, and then she asked me for some of “Baba’s” clothes (which is referring to Jason). I told her no, and she asked for some of my clothes. I told her no, then she gestured to Ellie’s toys. Finally, I put my hand on her shoulder and gently led her to the door said “No, sorry, there are none.” Ellie of course is crying hysterically this whole time; it was naptime and she was not happy to see someone taking her things. I’m sure we have some other stuff that I could have given her, but I did not want to go through our things with her standing right there, especially since Ellie was so upset by her. But she finally went away! And I was glad to help her out, even if she was so greedy :)

Ellie and I went on a nature walk this morning. Here are some pictures: (the cat next to Ellie is "our" cat that hangs around our house and plays with Ellie)

It's snowing!!!

Okay, after it being almost 80 degrees last week, today it snowed all day long! This picture was taken around 10:30am, but it's still snowing now at 4:45pm. How crazy is that? It was definitely a surprise for us. We are slightly jealous of all you Arizona people with your warm weather, but we're supposed to get into the 70s again next week.

Technical difficulties

Jason just took Ellie with him to the Fulbright office to pick up some mail. Do you know it's been months since she's gone out of the house without me? I'm happy for the free time, but I was a little sad watching grown-up Ellie marching down the street next to daddy. Man, I knew she would have some adjusting to do when we returned and she is not only with me all day, but I think I'll have an even harder time adjusting!

I thought I would fill you all in on the major appliances in our apartment. Here is a picture of our "washing machine." The left side is the "washer." I fill it up with water, add soap and clothes, and then it agitates the clothes for up to 15 minutes. Then, I drain out the water (into the nearby sink) and put all the clothes in the right side of the machine, the "spinner." This spins out all the excess water. Repeat this process two more times (to get all the soap out) and then the clothes are ready to hang for a day on the drying rack. Needless to say, washing clothes takes a bit more time than in the usual washer/dryer. Hey, I'm not complaining, as this is the first time we've even had a washer in our house. But, we will all be needing new socks, undies, and shirts when we get back, since this process is very rough on our clothes!

And then our stove. There are many problems with it, but I've managed to figure out how to deal with most of them. It runs off a (propane?) tank, not electric. So, when the tank runs out, we have to get a new one. This is not too much of a hassle (Autumn had it much rougher!) since a truck drives around the neighborhoods during the day with filled tanks. The truck plays music (much like the ice cream man) and if you hear him coming, you run out and flag him down. The first time ours ran out, it was no big deal. This time however, I was right in the middle of cooking dinner (chicken-fried chicken and mashed potatoes - yum!). What to do? It was already getting dark, so the trucks weren't running that we could see. So, here is a video of the solution that Jason so brilliantly thought of. It worked!

All about Ellie

Ellie has really been growing up lately. It's kind of sad to see her leaving babyhood behind, but luckily she's not our last baby!

Potty-training is pretty much accomplished, except for when she sleeps. We don't really ask her if she has to go anymore; we trust her to come to us, except for when we're leaving the house, then she must at least try. Today was a mini-milestone when after her nap she asked to go potty while she still had a diaper on.

Her vocab and conversation skills are incredibly advanced (I think). She speaks in complete sentences all the time, and knows when to say thank you, you're welcome, bless you, things like that. The other day our friends Alex and Kendra were here for lunch and they were cracking up at the things she would say. We all laughed at something and she said "What's so funny?" She is also very imaginitive and has conversations with her "friends" often. Here is a typical conversation that I've had with her recently:

Ellie: uh oh

Me: what's wrong Ellie?

Ellie: It's Benny the bull!

Me: what's wrong with Benny?

Ellie: He's stuck in the gooey geyser! (this is all from a Dora dvd)

Me: oh no, what can we do?

Ellie: We have to help him!

She goes through many Dora episodes this way, acting them out with her "friends."

For the past week, she has had trouble sleeping, and I could not figure out why. Recently, I think I found the culprit. Her two-year molars are coming in on the bottom! She has one that has broken through, but the other side is still barely under the gums. I can't see any coming in on the top, but I'm assuming they're coming soon too. I was just thinking that I can't wait for teething to be done, but now we're starting all over!

All right, I think that's all the latest Ellie news. Here is a recent picture of her as a big girl.

It's a ... (take 2)

Hmm, I thought about teasing you all and making some way that you would have to wait or jump through hoops or something, but I guess that's too cruel.

So, the doctor was doing the ultrasound and showed me all the tiny body parts, and everything looks great. The baby was sucking on the hand; it was so cute. The doctor started putting the ultrasound thing away, and I said, can you tell if it's a boy or a girl? She replied, I already told you, I pointed it out to you. I must have missed it. I thought I might have seen the gender at one point, but I don't remember her talking about it. Maybe it's a culture thing and she didn't want to out-right name the parts?

So, we're excited to finally know. Now we can start thinking about names and planning room themes and everything. Don't ask us about the names though, because for one, we have no idea right now, plus we might decide to keep it a surprise :)

Oh wait, did I forget to tell you boy or girl? So sorry. It's a ... BOY!

Great news!

Jason just received word that he will be awarded the Advanced Opportunity Fellowship for his Ph.D. program! This is the same offer that was given to him last year, that was very difficult to pass on for the Fulbright. We were hoping that he would receive it again this year, but it wasn't guaranteed. This fellowship covers tuition, insurance for him, and a stipend that will cover most of our living expenses. And, it's pretty much guaranteed for the entire four years we are there!

Belly update

So, 23 weeks pregnant. Can you see the belly yet? :) Holy cow, I'm so much bigger than last time! Please excuse the messy hair. I can't believe I'm only a little more than halfway there. How big am I going to get this time?!?

Does it look like a boy belly or a girl belly?

Happy Birthday Bryson!!

My nephew Bryson is turning one today! It's so hard to believe that he's one, and Ellie is almost two! I know everyone says this, but kids really do grow up fast!

Ellie has been potty-training lately. She usually goes the whole morning, and then most of the afternoon. Sometimes we are lazy and don't take her diaper off after her nap, but most of the day she goes with just her undies (which are sooo adorable!). She definitely wears diapers when she sleeps though. I think sometimes she just holds everything in until she gets a diaper on; I'm hoping that as she gets used to going in the potty she'll do that less.

I must have been in a cooking mood today. For dinner I made homemade whole wheat flour tortillas and homemade refried beans. Those are two things that I love that are hard to find here, plus if we do find them, they are expensive. And I love homemade tortillas! I also made banana bread. Since we don't have a loaf pan, I made it in a round pan that used to be a saucepan. So, I guess it's more like banana cake. And it's a recipe I found that uses whole wheat flour and honey instead of white flour and sugar. It's really good though, I promise!

Jason started school again this past Sunday. On Tuesday he moved up an extra level! He skipped the entire level 6, since it was too easy for him. His teacher said that he was the best student in level 5. He probably wouldn't tell all of you this, but as his wife, I can brag :)

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

We send our love to all our friends and family! Ellie and I were busy this morning making creations for Jason. Here's the fruit of our labor:

I had never made powdered sugar before using regular sugar and a blender, but it worked fine today to make the frosting on these cookies.

And here is Ellie wishing everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!

So glad we don't curse!!

Ellie copies EVERYTHING I say. Luckily my vocab is at worst PG rated. But I've decided I need to try to bring it down to G. These are the not-so-nice things that Ellie has picked up. She says:

Oh jeez
Oh my goodness
Gosh
Jeez Louise

And then today, as I was cooking, I said "What the heck!" Guess who repeated?? So, I will be watching myself!

Packages!!

We went to the Fulbright office and post office yesterday, and we came home with mail from 3 people! Our 4-year-old friend Maggie drew me the cutest get well card that Ellie loves to look at, a lifegroup from Calvary sent us another box of yummy food, and Ellie's Grammy (Jason's mom) sent her a box of friends to play with. It was an exciting day! Here is a picture of Ellie with all her friends, old and new:

Petra - success or failure???

Well, we're back. Overall it was a nice trip. I was a little worried when we first climbed into the minibus and Ellie looked around at all the men and said "I don't like the bus." But, she soon fell asleep and didn't have any problems. Our hotel room was just fine, and the jacuzzi was amazing, although they charged us to use it! So, we only used it once. The town itself was pretty dead; I guess it isn't high tourist season right now.

The day after we arrived we went into Petra. The weather was cold, but we all bundled up against the chill. We set off walking, with Ellie walking much of the way, since she likes to be free. We walked quite a long way (almost 2 miles maybe?) before we reached the first real site. When we looked at our map and saw how little ground we had covered, I started to doubt that Ellie (and I if we had to carry her) would make it. We debated whether Ellie and I should go back right then, but I decided that maybe if Ellie and I rode a camel to the next part, we could make it. The camels looked like they loped along at a slow enough speed that it wouldn't be too jarring for me to be unsafe. However, after the first couple yards, I quickly saw that this wasn't the case. Plus, Ellie freaked out (she was already getting a bit cranky) over riding the camel. The camel ride actually scared me because I started getting Braxton-Hicks contractions. By then, Ellie was full-on crying and could not be consoled. So, Jason was able to convince someone to send a horse-drawn buggy to come and pick us up (at an extremely steep price of course!) and take us back to the beginning. The buggy ride was very bumpy as well, and I was having the contractions the whole way, and Ellie was screaming "Don't like the horse!" all the way back. Finally, Ellie and I made it back to the hotel, where Ellie took a long nap and I rested (the contractions went away completely). Jason, however, came all the way to the beginning with us and made sure we found a taxi, before he hiked all the way back in and further to see all the sites. What a trooper! He had a good time being able to hike around and see all the ancient monuments. Besides the botched trip into Petra, we had a good time seeing a new place.

One semi-sad anecdote to share: When we walked into our apartment, Jason and I felt a bit of relief to be back, but Ellie did not share our sentiments. As soon as Jason shut the front door, Ellie ran over to it and started crying "Our room!" (referring to our hotel room). I guess we didn't properly warn her that we were leaving our hotel permanently and coming back home. She was fine once she found her toys that she left behind.

On Vacation

Just to let you all know, we'll be away from the computer (most likely) for the next couple days. We're finally going to Petra, the number one tourist spot in Jordan. Wish us luck, as it is a lot of walking and hiking. I get out of breath easily now, and I'm sure Ellie will tire out quickly. So, we'll see how much sight-seeing we are actually able to do. Our hotel supposedly has a jacuzzi, so maybe we'll spend most of the time there (although I will have to be hopping in and out to make sure our baby doesn't get cooked!). Plus, I'm planning on using their Turkish bath once, if they are able to give a massage to someone with a big belly in the way. This is a link to the hotel we'll be staying at: http://www.amrapalace.com/index1.asp .

Miss Manners

Ellie is starting to do very well with her manners, when she wants to, of course. She knows she can pretty much get anything she wants, as long as it isn't dangerous, by grabbing our face with her little hands on our cheeks, putting her pleading face right up to ours, and saying "Please mommy or please daddy." She knows how to work us already! And if anyone in her vicinity sneezes, she immediately says, "Bless you." If we don't say "thank you" quickly enough to her, she'll beat us to the punch by saying "You're welcome."

Then again, miss proper can also be very unladylike. She is starting to potty-train (and doing very well!) so she talks a lot about her bodily functions. Everytime she "expels gas" she exclaims, "Toot, toot!" There's no more blaming our noises on Ellie, because she'll point out exactly who makes what noise. Anything crusty that comes off her cheek or eye or anywhere on her face is a "booger, yuck." I know she must have learned all of this from us, but did we really teach her this?

About potty-training again. Today we received a new potty seat for Ellie (thanks to the Harkins family). It is a Dora the explorer seat, which is Ellie's favorite character right now (well, Elmo is still in the running). We have one Dora dvd that she asks to watch over and over again, and we often let her because it is so cute to watch her dance with Dora and Boots. (Yesterday she was twisting from side to side shouting "We did it, we did it, lo hicimos") Anyway, she was very excited about the seat, but was very apprehensive of peeing on Dora. Once I convinced her that Dora wanted to see Ellie pee and poop, then she was able to relax. I'm amazed at how well she's doing with this, hopefully it will continue!

It's a....

baby! We went to my doctor's appt today, hoping to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl. The doctor really tried, but she couldn't get the "money shot." So, we don't know yet. But, the baby looks really healthy, and that's what matters most, right? Right?!? I know, we're disappointed too. Hopefully next month this baby will cooperate. I am just not patient enough for this!

We're planning on another bus trip next week, going to Petra. In October we had plans to go, but they never happened, so we're trying again. We're running out of new adventures in Amman, so this should be a lot of fun for us. We just hope it's not too cold.

Sorry we don't have much news to report. It's just normal life as usual here in Amman.

Ellie's First Year

So, I guess I'm being a little nostalgic with this new baby coming, thinking about Ellie growing up. So, here is a photo montage of Ellie's first year (bring on the kleenex!)

Make an online slide show at onetruemedia.com

Another hospital trip

This time it wasn't for Ellie!

I've had a cold for about a week, and yesterday I figured out that it had turned into a sinus infection. When researching it online, I discovered that this is common in pregnancies. Who knew? So, yesterday I had some pretty bad pain in my cheek area; right under the cheekbone is one sinus cavity. I wanted to wait until today to find a doctor, since yesterday everywhere was closed. Last night however, my sinus infection turned into an ear infection, with extreme pain in my left ear. Then, around 5am, my eardrum burst! So, after a night of hardly any sleep, I woke up Jason around 7am and we went to the emergency room. Luckily an ear,nose, and throat doctor was coming in soon, so we waited there for him. He cleaned out my ears (SOOOO painful in the bad one) and prescribed antibiotics and pain killers, both safe for the baby. He also prescribed a nasal spray, which he and the pharmacist assured me was perfectly safe. However, when I came home I read the info about the spray and it says this, "Otrivin should be avoided during pregnancy...the medicine should be administered only if the potential benefit justifies the potential risk to the fetus." So, I won't be taking it. I don't think the potential risk is worth a less-stuffy nose.

Can I nominate Jason for the husband-of-the-year award? When I came out around 1:30am, not able to sleep in the bed, he set out to make a comfortable place for me to sleep. He made this contraption for our bed:





UPDATED: Today I feel better, my ear doesn't really hurt, I just have a lot of pressure in my sinus area. The antibiotics are making me sick, but I just took one with a lot of food, so hopefully that one will stay down. And in other news, tonight Ellie tried to secretly change her own poopy diaper. You can imagine the mess that made! Actually, she did a pretty good job, she just couldn't quite wipe everything off herself. Sorry, no pictures for that :)

My very first french braid attempt!!

You can learn anything online!!

Back to school

School again for Jason. He's had a really nice (and unexpected) break since Christmas, but he had to go back today. Fortunately he only has two weeks left of this semester, then he has another 2 week break. Hopefully we'll be able to travel a little bit within Jordan during that time.

I'm feeling a lot better as far as morning sickness. I have an episode every once in a while, but for the most part it has gone away. And I'm pretty sure I've felt the baby moving around a couple times! I was starting to get worried because at the last ultrasound (about 2 weeks ago) the baby WOULD NOT MOVE, even when the doctor poked at him/her. I was reprimanded for not eating enough, so I was starting to worry that my morning sickness had caused some sort of permanent damage. I know logically that it didn't, but it's hard not to worry about everything! Since getting over the sickness, I've started cooking good dinners again. Jason's excited about that!

Recently we took Ellie to this place that is like a mini-carnival for little kids. There are about 6 small rides (ones that pretty much go around in a circle) and tons of those toys like in front of Walmart that you put quarters into. But Ellie's favorite part was the bumper cars that she went on with Daddy. Now she stands at the front door every day and asks for the bumper cars.

Ellie is also her own biggest fan. All day she walks around saying "Ellie's beautiful, Ellie's gorgeous, Ellie's adorable, Ellie's cute, Ellie's awesome." And each time she says one, we have to repeat it before she'll move on to the next one. She also tells herself "Good job" a lot and today after I gave her a cup of tea (basically warm whole milk with a couple spoonfuls of my tea in it) she kept saying "Good drinking" every time she took a drink. She was very proud to be drinking out of a cup without a lid!

I have some pictures that I'll have to upload soon!

Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone's celebrations were fun. I woke up last night to the sound of fireworks; I couldn't even stay up late enough (not that I really tried).

Here is a video of us reading the Christmas Story. This video is only the first half, but if you only have time for one (they are almost 5 min. each) then watch the second one instead. If you want to see the beginning of the story first watch this one:


This second video starts in the middle of the story, so that people who don't want to watch everything can at least watch some. We have more, but it takes about an hour to upload each one, so I'm only doing one a day. This one is the cutest though:

It's snowing!!

Or at least it was. It snowed enough for it to coat the ground for about half an hour, and then it melted. It was fun to watch though. We're hoping it will snow enough at least once while we're here so we can build a snowman.

We had a lot of fun in Aqaba. It was colder than we hoped, but not as cold as in Amman. We were still able to snorkel a bit the first day we were there, the second day it was really windy. It was nice just not having a schedule, although our every day life is pretty laidback anyway. And the food was great! Our last night there we went to a seafood restaurant. Jason had some decent fish and I ordered a calamari stew, and it was soooo good. It's probably the first thing I've eaten since becoming pregnant that I really enjoyed. The hotel also had a decent breakfast each morning, which was really nice. The only downside to our trip was coming home. Our bus ride back to Amman was not comfortable at all!

We want to see pictures of everyone's Christmas celebration! We had a very short one of our own; I'll try to put up pictures soon.

My belly popped!

Well, it didn't explode, but it's finally popped out enough that you can tell that I'm pregnant and not just thick around the middle. I didn't even realize this because since it's winter I've been wearing sweaters and such. Today I wore a tighter shirt and I could totally tell!



We've been having these very nasty looking bugs in our place. They seriously look dangerous, so I looked them up online. They are called house centipedes and look like this (about 2 inches long)->

Apparently they rarely bite and if they do it's like a bee sting. The sites I went on say they are very beneficial and not to kill them, but there is no way I'm letting those things stay in our house!! I don't care how beneficial they are, they are disgusting!! Whatsthatbug.com says they are the most common asked about bug, but I have never seen one before. Do they exist in Arizona? Has anyone else ever seen one?

In other news, Ellie is becoming my clone. She is such a little mother to all her toys. Today I saw her lick her finger and wipe off her baby's face! I didn't realize I did that so much! She is always giving her babies a "dider(diaper) change" and today she picked up something fragile and said "Don't touch that, gentle." Every time she goes into the kitchen she warns herself "hot, doooon't touch" while pointing to the stove. And whenever she thinks about climbing up on the table she says "Ellie be a good girl, noooo table" Whenever we get into a taxi now she starts saying "Yameen, shamel" Which means "right, left." I guess she's picked up on us giving directions to the driver. Maybe she can take over someday soon! :)

Packages!!

I picked up three packages at the post office today. Thanks grandparents!! Ellie is LOVING everything we received. She has all her clothes in a pile; it took a lot of talking to convince her that she didn't want to wear everything at once. So, she is only wearing: a shirt, tights, undies, pants, one of my new bras, a huge shirt of mine, and her new hot-pink tennies. I would say she is wearing at least 8 different shades of pink. She immediately introduced her new baby doll to her old one, and they are very good friends now (poor doggie has been abandoned). I am currently listening to a Christmas cd and eating goldfish crackers (yea!!).

I had quite an ordeal at the post office; including a lot of tears. I don't know if it was because I got three packages at once, but I was told that because the combined "worth" of the packages was $400, I had to pay 160JD to customs. That's over $220! I told him that was too much, so he said, ok, I'll reduce it to 75JD. I told the man that I couldn't pay that, so he sent me to the manager. I went to the manager, said I didn't have that money, but he just sent me to the cashier (maybe he thought I could pay with credit card?). So, I took the outside stairs, and stood there bawling for about 10 minutes. I was just so frustrated and discouraged after being so excited to get the packages. I'm sure the pregnancy hormones played a part as well! Finally, I was able to pull myself together (I thought) enough to go back to the manager and explain that I couldn't pay that much. As I started talking, I burst into tears again. I don't know if he took pity on me, or if he just wanted to get rid of me, but he asked "How much do you have?" I told him I had 50JD, and he said, ok, 41JD. So he led me somewhere else, and all the men in this room know me from picking up previous packages. They were all like, "Don't cry, what's wrong?" By this time I was kind of hyperventilating (mom knows how I cry!), but I was trying to stop. These guys were all so nice to me, and one of them found out that I live in the same neighborhood as him, so he said "Ok, 27JD." By this time, I was so embarrased to be dragged all over the post office crying. I ended up paying about $45 instead of the original $220. It was definitely worth getting all the fun stuff! I don't know what the rules are when sending packages, but if people could put a VERY LOW estimate on the worth, that would probably help. I know the estimates on these packages were right-on, because we receive a lot of nice things. I guess if this happens again, I'll just turn on the tears again :)

Christmas pictures

All is well

So, not much going on here. I'm still sick, Jason's still going to classes, and Ellie's still very cute. Jason's been playing basketball and soccer with some classmates after school on Thursdays, which is very fun for him. I've been doing pretty well at keeping my food down, but I don't eat very much. I can't wait until this part is done so I can eat like a pregnant woman!!

Ellie is very particular about how she does things now. She knows each routine and everything has to go exactly that way. For example, every morning she must have cereal with milk in a certain bowl with a certain spoon. She must push up her sleeves, wear her bib, and have baby and doggie "watch me eat." After the cereal is gone, I have to help her get all the milk. At night, when she goes to bed, she has to put on her "night-night jacket" (footie pajamas), get a drink, get a hug and kiss from me, have her doggie and binkies, and then Jason reads her a couple stories. She also makes her opinion well-known. Very often I'll be singing a little song under my breath and Ellie will say "Mommy, no sing." I didn't think I was that bad! But, she is still very sweet. Today I told her I couldn't do something because my tummy hurt and she looked at me for a second and then started kissing my tummy (that's what we do to all her owies). It was so cute!

One negative, one positive

So, today I've decided that if I say something negative, I should always follow it with something positive. A better way to look at things, if you will. For example:

- Ellie, you got paint all over the table, the plate, yourself, and my pants! Oh look, some ended up on the ornament, good job baby!

- Jason, our checking account is dying a slow death. Luckily, all our payments are directly taken out, so we don't have to watch!

- This "morning sickness" is leaving me with nothing to eat besides saltines, popcorn, and sometimes refried beans. But, I have finally lost those pesky 15 lbs. leftover from being pregnant with Ellie!

- We aren't able to be with family during the holidays, but people are sending us fun packages!!

It's December! :)

So, I don't know if people have heard or noticed the new ticker at the top of the page, but...we're expecting another baby! I'm due June 25th, and we'll be back in plenty of time to have the baby in Havasu. I found a doctor I really like here, and she has an ultrasound machine in her office, so I saw the tiny little heart flickering. I have been super-sick for about a month, but I've felt a little better the last couple days. I can't wait until I can eat more than orange juice and saltines! But, all this yuckiness will be worth it. Yea for more Tatums!!

Ellie and I have been working hard at decorating the house with Christmas crafts. When we're finished, I'll post a picture. We're painting, gluing, glittering, and even cutting. Ellie has some new plastic scissors, and she opens and closes them pretty well. She just can't quite get the paper in there by herself. But, we'll practice!

We've decided to travel down to the Red Sea for Christmas, Jason has a day off and we're making a long weekend out of it. It should be a lot of fun and relaxing, snorkeling and swimming at the beach. It's a four hour bus ride to the bottom of Jordan, so it's not too bad of a trip. So, even if we can't be with family, we should have some fun!

New best friends

Ellie has learned how to "smile" for the camara. That goofy grin isn't mine, right? It must be Jason's :) Ellie now does everything with her baby or her doggie. She sleeps with her doggie and sometimes brings him out to play. Her baby (which we took the voice box out of!) gets fed and gets drinks from Ellie. It's a little sad that she doesn't have human playmates yet, so she has to create her own. Hey, at least she has imagination!!

Our new favorite treat is popcorn that we make on the stove. Ellie loves the "noisy popcorn" and laughs as it pops. I don't butter it, so it is a healthy and fun snack.

On Thursday (tomorrow) the Fulbright office is having a Thanksgiving potluck. I can't wait to eat turkey!! It won't be the same as being with all of you, but at least we are able to celebrate (that means stuff ourselves)! We're going to start making Christmas decorations soon; Ellie and I went out yesterday to collect pinecones.

Stomach flu :(

Things are okay with us; Jason just got over the stomach flu. He was totally out of it for a couple days, but we're hoping that Ellie and I didn't catch it. If we don't have any symptoms yet, and he's been over it for a day, we shouldn't get it, right??? I really hope not; Ellie barfing is the worst. I hope Jason doesn't catch anything else from his classmates! It's kind of funny; Jason stayed home from school yesterday to recuperate, but it turned out that it was a holiday and there were no classes anyway. I'm trying to explain to him that now he can stay home today too since he was willing to miss a day, but he's not convinced. Oh well.

We had a major plumbing problem last week, a flood! Not just any flood, but a flood of sewer water. Some pipes or something were blocked and whenever we used a lot of water it would seep up out of the drain in the floor of our "laundry room." I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but we hadn't met our landlords yet because they've been out of the country. Well, they returned last week, and I guess their water is connected to ours, so when they used their water, our office completely flooded. Luckily they are really nice and took care of it right away, but I was left to clean up the disaster area. (Well, I left a little for Jason.) It was disgusting, but at least it shouldn't happen again.

I wasn't able to sign up for the next session of Arabic classes, so I guess I'll have to wait until January. Oh well, it saves us some money, and it's nice to be home at night.

Ellie loves to watch this (and I admit, I do too. I'm a little embarrassed)

Backstreet Boys singing with Elmo

Ellie coloring

"I wuv you"

Tonight after Ellie took her bath, she ran excitedly over to me (completely naked of course), hugged me really tight around the neck, and said very clearly "I wuv you!" Oh my gosh!! Jason and I just stared at each other, shocked. Of course, I got all teary eyed and was like "Did she just say I love you?" I am so surprised, this is definitely the first time she has said this, and usually I say to her "Mommy loves Ellie," not "I love you." We couldn't get her to say it again, but hopefully she will pleasantly surprise us again soon!

Squitos, squitos

Ramadan is over! We just finished out the holiday celebrated after Ramadan, it is kind of like their Christmas (giving gifts, seeing family, etc.) Jason had a break from school, but we decided not to go to Petra. Ellie's been kind of sick, and we just wanted to rest at home. We've been pretty creative in inventing games for us to play in the house. Ellie loves to hide from us (running away and hiding in a corner when we ask her to come) so we introduced her to the game of hide and seek. After having her hide with Jason the first time, we realized that she is too little to hide, so she was a seeker with one of us each time. It was really funny for us to hide in very obvious places and watch her find us.

It has been getting cold here!! The temperature drops pretty low at night and it's rained a couple of times recently. We are excited to see snow here, but also nervous about getting around town with the snow. Since the city is built over many extreme hills, I'm worried about cars slipping all over the road. We are hoping that the cold will kill the mosquitos that keep sneaking into our house. I routinely check Ellie's room and our bedroom before going to sleep each night; I must say I am a little obsessed with killing each little bloodsucker. Is it bad when your toddler walks around the house banging on things and slapping the walls saying "squitos, squitos?" I wonder where she picked that up :)

Small video of Ellie, cute, but trial run so not good quality

Video of nephew Bryson... so cute!

Posted By:Tara

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Everyone see Ellie's little age chart on the top of the page?

The iftar (dinner with Fulbright people) was fun. None of the VIP's showed up, but it was good food and a night out without Ellie. There was a huge buffet including appetizers, main course, and dessert. It was nice to get dressed up and head out for the night. The best part is that Ellie loved being with Alex and Kendra. She didn't mind at all that we were gone! Ellie has started to call me "mom" a lot. I have no idea where it came from, except maybe from one of her books. Isn't she too young to be calling me "mom?" Every time she does, I repeat whatever she said with "mommy" instead of "mom." I don't want her to give up on "mommy" so soon! Pretty soon she'll be calling me "Kirsten."

My first session of Arabic classes are now over. We had to take an oral test last night to prove to the teacher if we are ready for the next level. I was surprised to realize that I knew every single word she tested me on. I guess all my practice with taxi drivers and Ellie's preschool teachers is paying off. The next session doesn't begin for a couple weeks, so I have a break for now. Jason also has a break soon, for 5 days or so, so we are thinking about going to visit Petra. This is an ancient city from 6th century B.C. created by Nabataean Arabs, a nomadic tribe. They carved many of their buildings into the surrounding sandstone, so they are supposed to be very beautiful. It is the number one tourist destination in Jordan, so we figured we better go while we are here! It will be nice to see something besides Amman.

The little chatterbox

Well, Ellie went back to school. And she seems to enjoy it more each day. She has gone three days so far, and the last day she was not upset at all when I came to pick her up. This was definitely a good decision, even though she already has a runny nose. Hopefully she will not catch anything too serious from the other kids. She has a new favorite word; it is "beautiful." Ellie walks around saying "Ellie bee-uful" all day, every once in a while throwing in "mommy bee-uful" or "picture bee-uful." The last time she was painting I said her picture was beautiful, and she grasped that word quickly. She has two other "word games" that she likes to play. One is pointing out who owns what around the house/taxi/street. It goes like this: "Mommy's chair" (point), "Daddy's chair" (point), "his seatbelt" (point to the taxi driver). She makes sure she has everything covered before she will stop. The other game is naming who she knows and saying whether they are a boy or a girl. "Mommy girl, Daddy boy, Ellie girl," etc. Then there is the occasional "Daddy girl...noooo, Daddy boy." As you can probably tell, she really likes to talk.

There are 9 days left of Ramadan. Tomorrow Jason and I are going to an "Iftar," which is the big party-type meal when they break their fast. This one is hosted by the Fulbright office and held at a really nice restaurant in town. Some very important people will be there, including His Royal Highness Prince Hassan bin Talal
and the American ambassador to Jordan. I am excited to be able to go and will let you all know what it is like.

School Days

The entire family goes to school now. Ellie started today at a nearby nursery. I dropped her off while I went grocery shopping, so it was a short trial visit. She went quite willingly, didn't care when I kissed her goodbye. However, once I returned she saw me and her little lower lip started to quiver and she burst into tears. They said she did cry while I was gone, but I'm sure that will get better with time. We'll see if she goes willingly tomorrow :) The school is within walking distance (about 20-25 minutes) but when I return home after picking her up, I will take a taxi because it is all uphill. Jason is good with the hills, but I have some trouble pushing Ellie's stroller up the steep ones. It is only 50 JD (about $75) a month for Ellie's school, which is extremely cheap. Even though she won't even be attending half of the time, it is still worth it for that price.

I have about one week left of my arabic classes, but the plan is to take the next level after that (and the next one after that). Jason was paid $50 today to take an arabic test from the US Department of Defense. All of the students in his classes who spoke English fluently were given this opportunity. There is the possibility of more tests in the future. They told him that the tests were trial Arabic placement exams, but I think they are looking for future employees! Wouldn't that be funny. I hope the government doesn't hunt me down for posting this :)

Update on packages

We have received a couple of letters so far (thanks Autumn!), and we have one package waiting for us at the parcel post office. I need to clarify the address for anyone planning on sending us a package.

No one in Amman gets regular mail sent to their house. Everyone has a post office box that they pick mail up at, and if they have a package they get a slip saying to go pick it up at the parcel office. Only places like UPS, FEDEX, etc. bring mail directly to houses. So, any mail through the regular post office needs to go to this address:

Jason and Kirsten Tatum
c/o Fulbright
PO Box 850215
Amman 11185, Jordan

Please put both of our names so either of us can pick it up. Thanks!

(be sure to read the posting under this one, it is new as well)

Friends!

Ellie and I have been looking at nurseries in our neighborhood, so that Ellie can make some friends. I've just gone in a couple and let Ellie play for a little bit; both times she did not want to leave! In the first one I put her down, she walked right over to some kids and started playing, and she didn't look back at me once. I could have left her and she wouldn't have cared! Thankfully they are extremely cheap here, no more than $100 a month, so hopefully we'll find a good one that Ellie can go to a couple of hours a day. She will love it!

The Thompsons came over today and played cards with Jason and I. It was so good to hang out with them! Ellie always talks about them ("nra" and "Alec") so she was excited to see them too. We played spades (which Jason and I won in a close race to the finish) and golf, which Kendra dominated.

I attempted my first baking trial, and it turned out well. Our gas oven only has two settings, heat on top or heat on bottom. You can't designate what temperature you want, so I was pretty skeptical about baking with it. But, I made some (healthy) oatmeal/date/banana cookies that tasted really good. They were so good that I doubled the recipe today to snack on while we played cards, and they are already gone! We have been eating a lot of dates here, since they are plentiful and not too expensive. They are one of Ellie's favorite snacks.

I will try to post more often; I have received hints to do so, or else people think something happened to us :) It's just hard to think of what to write when we don't really do too much!

One month down...

It's hard for us to believe we have been here for a month already. Only eight more to go :) We are enjoying our time here, but this is definitely not a permanent move! Although there are many American things here (we had Popeye's chicken for dinner last night), we miss being in America. We truly are lucky to have all that we do!

Our Arabic-learning is going well. Of course Jason already had it mostly down, but I am proud of my mini-conversations that I have with shopkeepers, taxi drivers, etc. And once in a while I can teach Jason a word that he doesn't know. I'm really enjoying getting to know my classmates as well. One girl in my class picks me up and takes me home, which is awesome, since I don't have to hunt down taxis and hope they know where my class meets. Jason has been taking the bus to his classes, which is very cheap and easy, but I am wary of taking the bus by myself (as a foreign woman), especially since my class is at night. Also, I have to leave for my class right when the fasting ends for the day, so the streets are almost completely empty. Everyone is eating! I wouldn't be able to find a taxi or bus if I wanted to.

We need to find Ellie some friends. I really think she is getting lonely and too attached to us. Last night she had trouble sleeping, so I had to sleep in her bed with her. Hopefully we can find some kids soon! She sees some once a week when we meet with some American friends, but it would be nice to find kids her age that she can play with. There's only so much painting and reading books with mommy and daddy that a toddler can take!

We started a water delivery service yesterday, and it is great! They deliver 19 liter bottles (like the 5 gallon ones) once a week. Jason drinks more water than anyone I have ever lived with (even Nichole!) so we were having to buy a ton of 1.5 liter bottles a week. It was getting too difficult to go to the store that often and lug them home, not to mention the empty bottles filling the dumps. This way is easier and actually cheaper, so it works out really well.

Ellie's masterpiece

Here is Ellie enjoying her new favorite activity, painting! She calls it "colors." Mindy, we put that blow-up bath to good use as a multi-purpose mess container. She also uses it sometimes to eat in. If you look closely, you can see that she is also wearing a swim diaper that she put on herself. Actually, I helped pull it up after she waddled out with it around her ankles. We put this picture up on the fridge, and she is so proud of seeing her "pitchure" every day.

School Days

There have been 3 days of school so far. Jason says his classes are going well. He has three teachers that switch off; one of them okay and the others not so good. Hopefully he will be placed with a conversation partner soon that will help solidify what he is learning in class. He goes to school 5 days a week, 4 hours a day. My class is also going well. There are about 14 people, 5 of us Americans. I only have it 4 days a week, 2 hours a day. That is nice, but the class time isn't. I have class 7:30pm - 9:30pm, which means I don't get to bed until about 10:30 or 11:00pm. That may not sound too late, but when Ellie wakes up between 6-7am, it feels late. Although, I can handle it now that Ellie sleeps consistantly through the night. It only took over a year!

The Islamic holiday Ramadan is coming up very soon. It is supposed to start around September 24th. For those of you who don't know about it, it is a month-long holiday celebrating when the first verses of the Quran were "revealed." The fast is from dawn to sunset each day of Ramadan. The fast involves refraining from food, drink, and (for married people) sexual relations during the daylight hours. We obviously won't be fasting during this month, but it means that we shouldn't eat or drink during the day in public. Since we have our own apartment, this should be fairly easy, but things will be very different here. Businesses have different hours, restaurants close, and there are celebrations every night to break the fast. I'm not exactly sure what it will be like in our neighborhood, but we live literally across the street from a mosque, so we have had problems before with noise coming from their celebrations during the night. Our friends have also mentioned the possibility of someone coming through the neighborhood before dawn each morning, waking up everyone so they can eat before the sun comes up. Hopefully that will not be the case! I am focusing a lot on the inconviences for us, but also be in prayer for all the muslims here. Part of the fasting is in order to please Allah and seek his mercy; if only they knew that God does not require good works or sacrifice in order to obtain His mercy; it is freely given. Pray that perhaps Jason and I can share this with Muslims we come in contact with. A good website for those who are interested in Christians praying for Muslims during Ramadan is http://www.30-days.net/.

Bugs, Those Thugs

Question: How do you kill a line of ants crawling from your bedroom window to your kitchen, all without bug spray? Answer: You stomp them out! Jason and I had quite a time on waking up this morning, trying to kill all the little critters. It required a quick foot and some furniture moving, but we got the job done. Ellie was upset at all the noise and commotion, until Jason made a tap dance routine out of it. She found that hilarious.

An update on sending us packages. We have heard word that sending packages to Jordan from the US is a little pricey. Honestly, there is nothing we really need right now, so no one really needs to send us any packages. But, for those who insist, here is some advice. United States Postal Service (regular mail) is apparently cheaper than UPS, DhL, etc. Don't send us diapers or wipes, they weigh too much and it is better for us to just buy them here, even with the extra price difference. It just costs too much to ship them. Also, books can be heavy, so don't worry about those. There are books at the Fulbright office that I borrow and read, and we found a sesame street website with online books on it that Ellie likes. We revised our "wish list" to things that are lighter and more wanted.

DVD's ( Jason requests any TV show seasons, like Lost or 24. Ellie is really into Elmo right now)
Hidden Valley ranch packets
Chili packets
pasta sauce packets
Instant grits packets
Oatmeal (for baking)
Plain cheerios
Cream of wheat, malt o meal
Pictures of you, Ellie loves to look at them and point out everyone (Nikki is now Kikki)

Any food can just be put into ziplock bags or something to make them lighter. Also, we don't have a lot of room to bring things back to us, so keep that in mind. Most of Ellie's clothes and toys will be donated somewhere when we leave.

Our little girl

Everything here is going well. Jason his placement test today and tomorrow he'll find out what level class he'll be in. He starts class on Sunday. Guess what? I'm taking Arabic classes also. Mine start Sunday night and they are at a cultural center in Amman. The difference in ours, other than I'm a beginner and he is not, is that my classes will be the spoken Jordanian dialect of Arabic and his is Modern Standard (or written). I am excited to start.

Ellie is really growing up fast. I counted today and she knows over 100 words! Some words, like drink, she only says the last syllable of, but most words, like backpack, she says perfectly. She also says quite a few phrases, like "Ellie do it" and "climb up." Yesterday our friends Alex and Kendra Thompson came over and Ellie kept telling Kendra "sit down" because she wanted Kendra to read her a book. Gram, you said you miss reading to her, boy we wish you were here to take our place! Her hunger for knowledge is insatiable. She points to EVERYTHING and says "that" (what's that?). She will not stop saying it until you tell her the name of whatever she is pointing at. She also is officially weaned, having not nursed at all for 4 days. That didn't stop her, however, from grabbing my chest and saying "Milk" over and over in front of our friends. She really enjoys her mattress bed, especially since she can just walk right out of her room whenever she feels like it. That is very annoying when we are trying to put her to bed, but very cute when she walks out after her nap, or when she walks into our bedroom in the morning.

We love and miss everyone; thanks for all the emails and comments!

Today we had a couple of unexpected and uninvited guests to our apartment. This morning I was opening the curtains in our bedroom when something fell from above me and landed on the windowsill. I always wondered if I would be one of those screaming girls when a mouse ran across the floor, or if I would calmly take care of it. Now I know. I didn't so much scream as squeal and jump onto the bed. Jason came running and I was so startled that I couldn't even explain what was wrong. Finally I was able to tell him that a lizard had fallen onto the windowsill. Of course he was unphased by it, actually a little excited because it was a gecko. Immediately after I had seen what it was I laughed at myself, but it is just a little frightening to have something alive fall from above.

Tonight as I was fixing Ellie's bed, I found another visitor. Since we opted not to bring our heavy and awkward playpen, Ellie sleeps on a full size mattress on the floor of her room, with many blankets around the edges to keep her from rolling away. I picked up one of those blankets and a centipede crawled under the rug. I yelled for Jason (our knight in shining armor once again) and he shooed us out of the room while he dealt with the beast. Thanks to all of you who are praying for our safety, because Ellie very easily could have been bitten last night or even tonight, and you all know how dangerous they can been for babies. I've been hunting for mosquitos in our rooms every night before bedtime, now I know to check the ground as well for other creepy-crawlies.

Ellie is enjoying learning to dress herself. She walks around the house with mismatched shoes, or even just one shoe, and lately she has taken to putting on my underwear (clean ones of course). Here is a picture of her latest

Hooray!!

Jason's suitcase finally showed up! We were beginning to think it had disappeared completely. We can't pick it up until Sunday (it's the weekend now), but at least we know it is back. Jason will be glad to have his comfy tennies, clean socks, and more than three shirts.

So, a lot of people have asked about sending care packages, so we've thought of some things that could be sent.

Ellie: goldfish ("doldish") crackers, cheerios, books (any children's books, she loves to read them....over, and over, and over), diapers size 4, wipes

Jason: "can't think of anything" too bad, guess he's missing out

Kirsten: fiction books, sauce mixes (like alfredo sauce, taco seasoning, etc.), granola bars

That's all we can think of for now. Keep the comments coming, we like to hear from everyone!

Pictures

Left - Our place in Amman. Our apartment is on the right downstairs. You can't see our door, it's under the stairs.

Below - The view from outside our front yard

Home Sweet Home

I wanted to share the things about living here that are different than in America. Just different, not necessarily bad or good. People who have traveled to foreign countries can probably relate to a lot of these.

- the apartment doesn't have air conditioning, but the weather is nice enough that opening windows in the morning and evening does the trick.

- We have no idea what the name of the street we live on is (neither does anyone else), we have to give directions by nearby landmarks

- We can't throw toilet paper into the toilet, there is a wastebasket nearby for that

- We turn on the hot water for about an hour a day to take showers, wash dishes, etc.

- We live right behind the neighborhood mosque, so the call to prayer sounds like it is coming from our living room. It's not bad really except at 4:45am, but we'll get used to it.

- our stove runs off of a gas cylinder that has to be changed when it runs out. A truck blaring tinkling music drives by every day (kind of like the ice cream truck) that you can buy new ones from.

Those are the ones I can think of for now. We all are still getting adjusted, Ellie is starting to sleep better, in longer stretches. Jason's suitcase STILL hasn't arrived yet, so that is very difficult on him. I am okay, cooking meals is my challenge right now. I tried to make my semi-famous homemade spaghetti sauce last night and it turned out more like chili (different ingredients here). Oh well, it was good if not a little weird on pasta. Jason and Ellie gobbled it up still. I'll just have to learn to make new dishes :)

Getting Settled

Before I go into details, just let me tell everyone who has heard about the shooting in Amman, we are fine. We heard that a man just started shooting random people downtown and one person has died, others injured. It was just a random crazy guy, so no one get worried (okay, mom?).

On to better news. We found an apartment! It is near the university where Jason will be studying, though not within easy walking distance. It is two bedrooms and very spacious. We are just happy to have one so soon. The Fulbright office had a bunch of apartments researched, and they've been taking us around to see them the past couple days. Without them it would have been much more difficult!

Back to not so good news. I forgot to mention that one of our suitcases, Jason's to be exact, was lost on our way over. We have not received it yet, but supposedly it should be coming. He has been living on two pairs of clothing, and luckily his toiletries were in another suitcase. Also, Ellie is not adjusting as well as our trip to Egypt. It has been a lot harder to get her sleep schedule back to normal, which makes her cranky during the day. Hopefully in our apartment she will adjust.

For those who requested it, here is our address. It is not the one to our apartment because we can't receive mail here, but this is to the Fulbright office where we will be contacted if we receive any.

PO Box 850215
Amman 11185, Jordan

If anyone sends through a courier, like UPS, FedEx, etc., use this address:

19, Al-Mahdi Bin Barakah Street
Shmeisani
Amman 11185, Jordan

We're Here!

After long hours of traveling, we have arrived in Amman. We are staying at a nice hotel; it is a Howard Johnson. Amman looks nicer than Cairo so far, and the Fulbright office said they have an apartment in mind for us. So, on Sunday we'll start orientation and learn everything we need to know :) Some exciting news for us is that a couple that we know from U of A and Glorietta will also be in Amman while we're here. They are also studying Arabic at the same university as Jason. We'll have friends! I'll update more when we get a chance.

We're in Tucson!

We just arrived in Tucson last night, to see family/friends and get winter clothes out of storage. Kyle's first birthday party was this morning, and it was a lot of fun. Ellie's face lit up when she first saw Kyle, and it was neat to see him walking around. I won the "guess how many cheerios are in the bottle" game. :) Jason and I just went to our storage unit to get clothes and various other things out. Since it is jam-packed with stuff, we ended up just grabbing what we could get at, so not everything we wanted was obtainable. Luckily a lot of our clothes were in the front. We'll just have to buy whatever else we need.

We'll be here until Tuesday, and hopefully we can see everyone!

Trip to Tucson

Plans have changed, we will be coming up to Tucson the weekend of the 26th instead. Which means, we can go to Kyle's first birthday party! Also, we are flying out of Phoenix, so it means less driving for us, since we will not be returning to Havasu. So, we hope to see everyone then :)

Disneyland pics

Ellie with her Mickey Mouse glasses
Bryson (What a smile!)
Cousins on the carousel

Pictures from Egypt!!

Us at the pyramids
Ellie eating an ice cream cone ON the ice cream cart
Our friends from the drink store next to the hotel

The Happiest Place on Earth

We arrived in Phoenix safely on Saturday; only to leave on Sunday to go to Disneyland. What a culture change!! Although exhausting (hello jet lag!), it was a lot of fun. It was quality family time, especially with the Porters; Jason finally met our nephew Bryson (or Isis as Ellie calls him). We'll be in Arizona for 3 weeks more!

Here We Come!

We leave in the morning to fly back to Arizona. The last week has really flown by. The hotel staff is really sad to see Ellie go (they don't really care about Jason and I). This place has become like our home and although we are very ready to return to the US, we are a little sad to leave. Our life here has been very relaxed, no real responsibilities, besides Jason showing up for class. Jason and I play cards together every night since we don't have a television, and that has been a nice change. But, we are ready to see our friends and family.

We are planning on coming to Tucson around August 19th (so Nichole, don't come to Havasu that weekend). Hopefully we can see everyone then. Email me or post a comment if you want to be included in the tour :)

The top 10 ways you know you are in Cairo

10. Everyone else in the restaurant is smoking, but no one is drinking alcohal

9. You enter a shop to buy a pair of shoes, and you end up sitting and drinking their cup of tea

8. You start hording small bills as you need them for taxi fares ("Sorry, no change. I'll just take your 20.")

7. Your teacher tells you that a favorite sport in Cairo is "Chasing after the bus"

6. Every taxi that comes across you walking down the street stops and honks until you wave them away

5. Every building has about 25 satelite dishes on the roof

4. People follow you down the street trying to sell you cherries/mint/limes/kleenex/flowers

3. Crossing the street is like a game of frogger

2. You tell time by the calls to prayer (oh, there he goes... time for Ellie to go to bed!)

1. It is almost 100 degrees out and everyone is wearing long sleeves and pants!

A Little Parrot

I forgot how much toddlers really soak in so quickly. And how they repeat EVERYTHING they hear. Ellie repeats almost everything we say to her. Sometimes it will be right on the money, like "mouse" and "Bible." Other times it will be totally off the wall, like saying "myrefsh" for "camel." The coolest word she can say now is "spiky," which she learned from one of the hotel staff since her hair sticks straight up when she wakes up. Yesterday she dropped a book off the bed and Jason said "I'll get it," and she repeated clearly "I'll get it." Amazing!

Yesterday afternoon we had lunch with several of Jason's classmates from U of A. It was really fun to be with a bunch of Americans for a while. It seems that all of them are world travelers, so we learned a bit about a lot of places. I guess students in area studies are able to travel for school a lot more. It's neat for me to be able to travel to all these places as well, but not have to take the classes!

We have only two weeks left here. Things are winding down and we are doing things "one last time." I am trying to find Christmas gifts here, but since I already got everyone the typical Egyptian souvenirs, I have to be a little more inventive. If anyone knows what they want, let me know. We can get just about anything here, probably cheaper than in the US.

All we want for Christmas

We have just really realized the full ramifications of being in another country during Christmas. We had been so looking forward to seeing Ellie and her cousin Bryson tearing through the wrapping paper together this year. And although thinking about Christmas in July is a bit odd, we will probably have to leave all our presents for others in Arizona when we leave for Jordan, so we are thinking about shopping now. So, if anyone knows what they would like, feel free to let us know. By the way, if anyone would like to get us an early Christmas present of a nice luggage set, that would be highly appreciated :)

Last night we found the best restaurant. It is called La Bodega, and easily within walking distance of our place. We were surprised to see that it is a really fancy-looking restaurant, with a great selection on the menu. The best part is they have what they call a "set menu." There are three dinner options you can choose from, and for each course there are about 3 options. If that doesn't make sense, let me break it down. We ordered a 4 course "set menu" meal. For starters, we chose tomato soup, then a calamari appetizer, grilled fish w/potatoes in lemon butter for the main course, and finally chocolate mousse for dessert. This was meant for only one person, but we shared it. The lightly battered calamari was the best I have ever had, and everything else was amazing as well. The best part? All of that, not including a drink, but including tax and tip was 65 Egyptian pounds, or less than $12. A four course meal!!! Isn't that amazing? We are definitely spoiling ourselves, because we will not be able to eat like this in the states. We are very sorry Gram that we didn't find this place before you came :(

It seems like we have just settled in here, and already we are making plans for future travel. Jason's Fulbright stuff all has to be in very soon. We are leaving for Jordan in less than 2 months!! We have already decided that no matter how much it costs, we are definitely finding somewhere to live that is more than just one room. 3 people, especially including a rambunctious toddler, in one room is way too much. Ellie and I go to the grocery store maybe twice a day just to escape the four walls.

It may seem that all I talk (or write) about is Ellie, but really all I do every day is spend time with her. I see Jason for lunch and then about 4 hours at night, but we usually watch a movie at night while Ellie's sleeping, so that doesn't leave much time for talking. Plus, the same thing happens every day for Jason and I, but Ellie learns and experiences new things every day. So, if any one is sick of hearing about Ellie, sorry.

Here are all the new words she has learned here. Mommy (instead of mama), cookie, socks, okay (which she says to everything, all the time), Gram (which she says as Meem), and then various animal noises (including for bee, horse, owl). She has also learned some new signs for frog, elephant, and alligator, and she blows kisses. She also runs pretty fast, dances, spins in circles, and walks backwards. And, although I know she can say Mimi, because she makes that sound for Mommy and Gram, she insists on making her sign (sticking out her lower teeth). Sorry mom.

Jason and I have discovered that we aren't really in love with the authentic Egyptian food here, as a lot of it is greasy and fatty, but we love the fact that we can go to a restaurant with good American-type food and eat for less than it costs for McDonalds in the states. Oh, and I bought a pair of pink sneakers the other day, which I wouldn't have bought normally but they are cute and only cost the equivilent of $11. Nichole, you want some for your birthday?

I received pictures today of my nephew Bryson who is over 4 months old. He is adorable, and we are very excited to see him in August (and Tara and Zane of course). Almost every day I have Ellie say the names of everyone in our family, and when she says Bryson, she smiles really big and yesterday she did the sign for baby. So, she knows who he is and is also excited to see him.

The Whirlwind Is Over

Sorry if I have worried anyone with a lack of communication. Jason's grandmother came to visit us here and we have had a whirlwind of adventure for the past week and a half. We visited all of the normal tourist attractions, including mosques, churches, pyramids, restaurants, and a felucca (sailboat) ride on the Nile. Yesterday we even went to Alexandria! Ellie sat and splashed in the Mediterranean Sea. There were only mild waves, but it was kind of scary because a crowd of older kids came over and were all splashing and grabbing at her, like she was a baby doll to play with.

Ellie's burn is pretty much healed. It was pretty bad, with some nasty blisters turning into scabs, but there is only a small pink area left where the scabs came off. Luckily, no infection, even though it is very difficult to keep things clean here, especially toddler hands.

One thing we were worried about with Ellie was her fear of scarf-covered heads of women in the US. Surprisingly, she has done just fine with most of the women here. However, we recently discovered that she is terrified of the women wearing the full covering with only their eyes showing. Jason pointed out that it isn't too weird of a fear, since they kind of look like ninjas. :) Some young girls were trying to talk to Ellie and she screamed, even after they pulled their face coverings off.

Jason's classes are going well, with him adapting to speaking Arabic 5 hours a day. Only five weeks left!