This has been one of our favorite restaurants before Lj was born - The Super. The decor has been vastly improved, it used to have peeling wallpaper and a truly horrid mural of Hawaii or someplace on the back wall that was also peeling (= It does LOVELY Indian food for very cheap. Anyway, it was Lj's first time and she did great eating all the food! We are taking some photos of our normal places we hang out during these last few days. I should have gotten a picture of the front of the restuarant, I guess.... My favorite things to eat are in the top photo on the very right - Papadoms. Yum Yum!!

Babyfood Soup

So the efforts of Spring Cleaning have extended to my lovely freezer. I stockpiled beef from the other side of town during the time that the border was threatening to close. That was 6 weeks ago and we're still living off of it! However, the end is in site and I was beginning to look at the other frozen items trying to sort out meals I could make.
So tonight we had "babyfood soup". I had made frozen babyfood for Lj and she is VERY done with the whole thing. She pretty much wants to feed herself these days, so my containers of cauliflower, sweet potatoes and veggies and chicken stock etc have been taking up lots of space.
Anyway - it turned out really good, thanks to my mom.

Spring cleaning

I think I've said this to everyone I've been talking to.... I've LOVED the process of cleaning while we've been packing for our year home! There is something so satisfying about getting rid of stuff that I am not using. I hate accumulating stuff (how it happens anyway is a true mystery) and love giving it away. So while leaving for this season is very bittersweet, I'm enjoying feeling like I'm at least leaving the house in a really good way.
Actually, I really wanted to put plants in all the pots outside. It is the right time of year to that and it is SO cheap to buy flowers here...... However, Vic, mom and Tom all denounced that as ridiculous in light of everything else going on so I have relented. It turns out that Gloria, who is moving into our place, LOVES to plant so I feel good about that.
I've been telling people that if they come over to the house, they have to leave with something.... no going away empty-handed!

Daddy's Little Helper

Layla was being extra helpful the other day when Tom was packing our books up! We are making room for a family who is going to rent our house for the year (= We met them yesterday and gave them a quick tour of the house. They have a little girl who is about 17 months old. Layla was SOOO excited about her! She kept staring and looking at her - I think it was because she was about Lj's same size (!) but she could walk!

The development of the temper tantrum

So Lj turned 11 months this week. The past two weeks I've been seeing the very beginnings of the temper tantrum. It is like watching tiny little green leaves emerge from the dirt - you aren't quite sure what is there, what is coming, or what it is going to look like, but you know its coming.

I have no idea what to do with her little bursts of independence and frustration. I would imagine some of it is linked to the changes around her - I'm sure she can sense that something is happening. It passes so quickly that I can hardly even have a response to it. She'll stiffen her body, sometimes throwing her head backwards or forwards and then suddenly she relents to whatever is happening.

I'm all for being pro-active and stepping up to the plate, but I need to have some sort of plan that Tom and I have worked out. We have nothing of the sort and my attitude is "we'll just sort it out after we're settled back in the US".

Dear Grandma is coming today - maybe she'll have an idea of what to do! We leave around Lj's bedtime to go to the airport and pick her up. I'm SO excited and can't wait to see them playing together again. Thanks to Dad and Grandpa for letting mom come!!

Thinking about suffering

I realize this is rather depressing, but I've been turning something over in my head and thought I'd put it on here. Tell me what you think:
You may remember that we watch birds in our windows rather frequently. Yesterday Lj was down for a nap and I saw what looked like a little little baby bird sitting on the window ledge. I got up to watch it and the longer I watched, the more disturbed I got.

The feathers looked strangely ragged and as I watched it move and scratch or pick at itself, I got more and more disturbed. This poor bird had pulled off every feather on its neck. When his head would pop up, all you'd see is the pink neck, he'd scratched so much at his head that the feathers were all raggedy. As I watched him, he started to get into a pattern that I can only describe as similar to a tic or OCD repetitive action thing. You could see him getting more and more "anxious" (how can a bird get THAT anxious?!) and repeat his scratching pattern faster and faster.
It was so disturbing that I tapped on the glass to get his attention and break his cycle. It just seemed SO sad to me that this little bird was obviously sick somehow. I was glad Lj wasn't awake to see it.
Anyway, I've just been thinking about this little experience and my thoughts are drifting towards suffering. What a topic. I think I've been made with some sort of Extra Sensory Ability to sense Suffering. I know there are others out there. It sucks - It's like I somehow find folks who are suffering or I hear things about situations and it starts to go around in the back of my head. Like that plane crash in Spain or other such disastors. A constant one for me is the child industries in Thailand - that is never that far from my mind.
Anyway - I heard someone say once that if we can't learn how to manage suffering and resolve it with our world belief, we'll eventually have some sort of crisis of faith.
Any thoughts?

Steph's version of Tom's trip

While I wish my dear hubby could have the time and presence of mind to write a cool summary of his trip to Europe, it just isn't in the cards at the moment. He has his hands full with:

• Trying to pull $4800 cash out of the bank to pay for a year's worth of rent in cash (this means many many trips to the ATMs as you can imagine...
• Trying to repair one car and sell two others
• Trying to deal with the fact that my credit card number has been stolen and is being used all over our great nation (which means we can't use it to get out cash...see#1)
• Trying to find his cell phone that was lost (and found, thank you Lord!)

So, here I am telling you second hand what I've heard about his trip.

A few things in brief:

1. Only one guy had worn western clothes before. They went to the fancy malls before leaving and got TOTALLY outfitted in very cool/expensive clothes (= Everything this one guy wore matched.

2. They were really sensitive to anything Tom said to others about the their country. Tom wasn't expecting this

3. They wanted to eat food they knew - they aren't exactly adventurous. (McDonalds and Turkish food)

4. It took a great deal of convincing to get them to take a train instead of renting a car in Europe!

5. Contrary to popular opinion, they did not go "hog wild" so to speak, while away from their country. They still prayed, did not drink or smoke or visit any ladies.

6. They don't like to loan money (they'd rather give it to you) - even just to tide you over until you find the next ATM.

7. Tom's buddy said it was boring after Tom left the group to come home (-; The rest of them went on to Paris.

8. It became clear pretty fast that they were really going to rely on Tom to help them get around. He was happy to oblige since they were paying the majority of his expenses.

9.They got to go handgliding! That was a lifetime goal for time and the guys loved it.

10.They walked on a glacier in Switzerland!

They visited Italy, Switzerland and then Tom came home while they went on to Paris. It sounds like it was a really good time together. You just can't replace the mystery of how road trips bring you closer together to people!

Well, I wish I could say more, but we'll have to call it quits here. I'll upload some more pictures

though.

Around the hotel

Love all these trees around here. So beautiful.

Too hot to slide

On our little anniversary trip, we took each other's kid for the evening and night so the other couple could get some time alone - Vic and Jon found the slide on the hotel grounds and thought it would be fun to take the kids. It was Lj's first time on a slide, but alas, it was too hot and too humid for them to actually slide down it (= I love the manic look on Josiah's face. I don't think I've ever seen it on him before, so I wouldn't say it is typical of his personality! Layla, however, does actually look like that alot (= she is a real observer. She's started to get more interactive and babble most all the time the last week or two. It's fun to hear.

Back home again

We've been to visit our friends Jon and Vic and their little one. We went to have a weekend away together to celebrate both of our anniversaries, their son's first birthday and to say goodbye. It was a full weekend!

We stayed at a hotel that was on the beach which offers major discounts during the summer to entice folks who stay here during the summer. I don't think I would pay full price for the place, but it was nice, nonetheless. They had a walkway that was bordered with real trees and actually had large swaths of GRASS all over the place. One might even forget they were in the desert....

Vic and I were lamenting that we didn't get ONE picture of all of us or of either couple. argh.

This first photo is in the entryway to the hotel, the second is on the beach. We rented a jetski and had some real fun...I'll post a few more.