back to blogging

Ok so I have been horrible about updating you all!  Mainly because I was going through a little shock adjusting to yet another place that is still not my own.  I love to nest, I love order as my mind is scattered and it has taken me some time to bring order to my mind and my surroundings so that life will make sense to me.  I am still not there yet but by the grace of God am coping much better with adjusting.  I like everything to have happened yesterday, to have learned the language, have my kids school stuff organized so we can begin, have my freezer full of meals, have all our stuff unpacked and in place.... and thus the severe ocd overachiever has had some attitude adjusting to do.  And now, here we are, still adjusting, but back to blogging.
I left off at day 4 so I will quickly catch you up to speed on the other days.
Day 5: Wednesday after arrival- we went to an Exhibit Kenny was writing an article on which covers our city from 1910 to 2010, it was neat to see the history of this city!  We went to lunch and then to see an historic Mosque, a Cistern and then to the rug shop of a Dish man who had helped show us around throughout the day.  He spoke beautiful english and immediately told us he was Dish which is rare.  He along with 40 more of his family members runs a rug shop.  He was so friendly and played well with our kids.  We hope that Kenny will be able to interact with him more so please lift our friend Ramazan up to the Father and ask for future opportunities to share the good news with him and that what was already shared will take root in his heart.
Thursday Day 6: Char and I went running in the morning then went and found a park for the girls to play in,  we had a language meeting, went to the Pazaar with Ane (the lady who lives next door) and she helped me pick out my vegetables....a vendor tried to give me bad lettuce and she threw it back at him, gently of course, Ane fills my life with laughter...I can't understand her but I can see her personality beaming through the language barrier and I cannot wait until I can converse freely with her.  She truly is a gift from the Father to me as she is far more friendly than any of the other city-folk I have met.  She comes to my house daily, bringing food and just trying to help me.   After the Pazaar she had me over to watch her cook and then she brought cay (tea) back to my house to have with Kenny, Char and I.
   That evening we had a challenging situation with the downstairs neighbors as they had us cut the power off to our entire apartment as there was some humming that was barely audible but apparently annoyed them. It took us a half hour to figure out it was the ceiling fan in the kids room.  An attitude check was in order for us after this as we were frustrated by the experience.
Friday Day 7: we took a boat ride on the Bosphorus to catch a beautiful view of our city.
Saturday Day 8: went to a big Pazaar and found trays to put my girls school lessons on.
Sunday Day 9: Char and I went running at 5:30 am and found a "trail" so to speak that is for running or walking on.  I will have to go back in forth on it as it is not all that long but it may beat crossing roads with traffic. We went to a local expat church and that evening there was an earthquake!  It was not a big one but you could feel the building shake and hear the neighbors dishes rattle.  Char was walking into the kitchen when it happened and somehow didn't even notice it so it couldn't be that bad.
Monday Day 10: Char left to visit a friend in Azerbaijan and we had pizza and game night - Candyland!!! And after the kids were in bed an adult game of Settlers of Catan for Kenny and I.
Tues Day 11: our neighbor Erdal came over, I had fixed him Cay and he dumped it out and showed me how to make proper Cay....it is still a work in progress as there have been times it has still been too weak for his taste but was thankful he showed me how to use the double boiler and how much to put in etc... hoping I will be making great Cay soon! Definitely a humbling experience when you can't even make tea right! Also that night a repair man came to work on the washing machine to see if he could get it to spin the water out of the clothes.   Our electricity bill was outrageous from it taking four times per load in the dryer to dry so I think we will opt for hang drying our clothes from now on.  Everything seems to take more time here, homes get dustier, shopping takes longer, food spoils faster....none of these things are bad, just different and thus I must adjust my schedule of when things get done.
Wed Day 12: I went out by myself with the kids to find a park while Kenny was working on something, we walked all around and couldn't find it anywhere....later i found it was right near us a half a block up.  The kids were disappointed but troopers and we walked back to the house to eat lunch.  The rest of the day we pretended we were kitties.  You see there are cats EVERYWHERE here and the other day we saw five cats resting on each other and so the girls decided the five of us would pretend we were kitties so we all snuggled on the bed, momma kittie, tom cat, baby tom cat, and two little girl kitties... they still pretend from time to time they are kitties and now we carry cat food with us when we venture out so we can feed some of the many kitties we see.
Thurs Day 13: Char came back for two more days before heading back home to the states.  We were so thankful for her help in getting us over here and settled as well as her calm and adventurous spirit while she was here.  We got out and explored the city some in ways that we would not have attempted to if she weren't here.  Thanks Char for investing your time and finances in loving us!!!!
Sat Day 15: Bye Char!  Char left early in the morning for her flight back.  We went to Ikea that day to buy a down comforter as the weather has started getting cooler.  The girls played in the Ikea playground as well as the playground in the mall right next to a Krispy Kreme, so of course we had to have a donut :)
Queen Mother

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