Finally home!

Home again.

Nothing feels better than standing on my back deck, facing into the late spring breeze and staring at Mt. Timpanogas.  Seeing my kids on the trampoline, sliding down the big yellow slide and swinging on the tree swings.  Truly.  It is heaven for me.

We had a wonderful time in Chicago and Nauvoo.  My aunt and are missionaries in Nauvoo right now and they showed us such a great time.  From the wagon rides, to the evening shows.  My kids loved the young performing missionaries as well.  They all want to serve missions there now.  It really is such a great place for families.

The Nauvoo temple was amazing.  What a feeling it was to walk through the doors of  this building once lost so long ago.  Carthidge was another very sacred place.  I am so thankful that the church maintains these places of our history for us.  They bear testimony to my children of the sacrifices their ancestors and many others made for all of us.

You should go.  It's worth the trip.

On our way back to Chicago we drove through Iowa and enjoyed seeing an Amish community.  I love when any people do their best to hang on to their past and their values,  so many people don't hang on to anything anymore, that I admire those who do. I loved seeing their buggies and their sweet families.

Chicago was a great time also.  We stayed in a 100 year old hotel on Michigan Avenue.  It was very old and worn, and we got a great price.  So while it wasn't the nicest, the location could not be beat.  I love that city.  How could so much beautiful architecture be in one city?  I swear, the entire place is eye candy.  We drove all over to enjoy the diversity of the city and the suburbs.  Evanston, Oak Park, (super excited to see some Frank Lloyd Wright homes!) and Wrigley Field.  Beautiful universities.  Fantastic museums.  And of course....the food!  Help me!

Highlights for me were The Willis Tower (old Sears Tower), the Art Istitute of Chicago, and the Museum of Science and Industry.  Running on the the lake front and through the parks with Peter each morning.  And awesome breakfasts at Yolk.  Did someone say BACON?

On our last day Peter flew to Seattle for some continuing ed. courses and the kids and I flew home to SLC.  At the airport while we were waiting to board, a McDonalds advertising rep asked if my kids could do a photo shoot for a new ad campaign.  Uh?  Okay.  I think they turned out pretty good, even for looking like travelers.  (Which was the goal, apparently). So, that was fun.  Let me know if you happen to see my kids anywhere, I doubt I will see anything in the ME.

Grandma and grandpa where waiting at the airport for us.  YEAH!  They are staying with us here in Orem for a while; we are loving it.  Summerfest with our besties the Sinemas.  Parades.  Father's Day with grandpa and Minky's family.  Ah.  Summer is here and all is right in the world.

On a side note.  Why do boys love fire, blowing things up and guns so much???  It makes me crazy.  Yesterday the boys smoked out a wasps nest with cardboard, nail polish remover and matches.  What the?!!!  They made smoke bombs.  They have been sending fire crackers down the barrel of  an old fake musket from Yellowstone.  I tell you.  I just turn my head and tell them to BE CAREFUL!!!!!

Boys....

Many kinds of Baptisms

So this photo is actually on the River Jordan; the boundary between Israel and Jordan.  Behind the kids you can see the many visitors to the Israel side.  They have a very big and fancy, must be, visitors center.

While we were there, we saw four different kinds of baptisms take place.  People getting water from the river poured over their heads, shaking water off of tree branches onto people, touching the water and then themselves, and a man immersing himself in the water over and over again.

Non of these were the way Jesus Christ was baptized.

It's strange to me that many people believed Christ was baptized my immersion, by someone with the proper authority - but hardly anyone does as He did.  It was a great lesson for my kids to see how the truth has been changed so many times by so many religions.

It was such a testimony to me of the Book of Mormon, and why we need that one pure translation.  The Bible is just as important, but over the many years of translations, things have become unclear, and the Book of Mormon clarifies inconsistencies. I love it.

I love that my husband was there, with the same proper authority that John the Baptist had himself.  What a marvelous gift from Heavenly Father; to have restored the true gospel to the earth today.  I am so thankful for my knowledge of this and my membership in the true church of Jesus Christ.

I can't wait to someday actually cross this border and visit the many Holy Sites Israel has to offer.

From mold to a spotty kid

I guess I better update on the mold.  Well.  My vents have been cleaned, checked by a camera (so they say), new ducts in installed in some areas and a brand new AC unit inside and out.  So.  I'm pretty satisfied we're better off today than we were before.  There's been a lot of workmen around the house the past couple of months and all in all, it seems better.  The smell seems to be gone, and our house is staying nice and cool as we have met our 100 degree mark before Easter.  Nice.

In other news....Solomon has hand-foot-and mouth.  Or is it chicken pox.  Or is it pityriosis.  Because he has been diagnosed with all three.  BUT, I am pretty sure it is the last one.  Which happens to just be a really ugly rash.  So ugly, that I make him wear a shirt at all times, even in the pool, because it is SO gross for others to look at.  Poor kid - he LOVES to not wear shirts.  Apparently this is some kind of virus/fungus/allergy depending on who you ask and what you read.  No on else has it, that's good.  And it doesn't itch hardly at all.  That's good.  By wow.  It looks woof-a-rific.

I had a nice mothers day (we celebrated on Friday, as that is our Sabbath).  I prefer that because I like to have the entire day off and Peter to be home so I really don't have to do anything.  If we had it today, Sunday, then I wouldn't get a break at all.

We head home for the states in three weeks from today.  Um.  Did you hear me screech a very loud HOORAY?!  Because, I cannot wait to get to America!  This year we didn't even make it to Europe.  All three trips I went on this year were in Asia.  While they were all totally fantastic, they were all pretty third world.  Well, Hong Kong wasn't third world, but it's China - what can I say.

I have three weeks of preschool left for the year as well.  Another year or not?  That is up in the air, but should be determined my numbers of children wanting to be enrolled.  We'll have a better idea of this later today, as registration is due today.  It's been a very fun and busy year.  I have waffled on wanting to do it again this year.  And have decided that if people want three days a week (I've been at four) then I would do it.  I just need that extra day to get my life and house under control.  While it has been really busy, the days have just slipped by.  I usually have a bit of depression during the year here, but looking back, I don't think I had time for that this year.  Kind of nice.

Anyway.  There's a quick little update.  I'm trying to just write something a few times a week.  My kids LOVE looking back through this blog, and I am so glad I have done it.  But this last year has been a wash.  And if I don't record our family history, it will be forgotten.  So here I go again.

I happened on the way to the font...

I guess I should say, for history sake, that our family was able to go on an amazing trip to Jordan over spring break.  I could have never guessed what a fantastic place this is!  I had very little expectations - and it truly turned out to be one of my favorite places on earth.  (I know, I know...you've heard that before.)  Several people had told me how great it was, so I then had to convince Peter.  We kind of went thinking that it is so near to The Holy Land, included in much of the Bible, that if for nothing else - we should probably go.  Our main reservation was this:  We LIVE in the Middle East, why would we want to 'vacation' here?!

Boy were we wrong.

Because I had to twist Peter's arm to go, one of my bribery tactics was this, "I promise.  I will drive the entire way.  You won't have to drive once!"  Remember that we like to travel, not vacation.  I am the one who ends up booking all these crazy places where we rent a car and go all over the place - and Peter does the driving.  Once again, I had booked and made plans to drive from Amman to Aqaba.  (top to bottom of the Jordanian map)  So I had to swear I would do the driving.  More on that later.

Anyway.  We arrived at 9 p.m. and got our rental.  (It happened to be our exact same car we have here - a Ford Expedition.  Easy enough!)  We took a beautiful evening drive winding down from Amman to the Dead Sea, overlooking the lights of Israel (Palestine) the entire way.  We settled into a lovely resort on the Dead Sea (see the stingy dead sea post) for the night not knowing all adventure was awaiting.

First order of business - The Baptism site.  Where John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the River Jordan.  But this part of the story is what happened on the way to the 'font'.

Here I was, just happily doing my promised driving job.  Jordan's road aren't marked all that well.  In English, anyway.  We knew the round about location of the site, very near the resort.  But when we got to a fork in the road, we decided to break right.  What a beautiful sight.  Green fields of produce!  Where we live, things don't grow.  I've never seen any kind of green field here, so it's always a pleasant sight to see things like this. 

A couple of minutes down the road; an adorable family of camels.  (pictured above)  Aren't camels pretty?  Did you ever think they came in such a variety of colors?  I love them. They are a happy thing about living in the ME.  They were just walking down the street.  Their shepherd was right near by and moved them out of the way though.  Next thing we see, is a big tourist bus behind us, well - we must be on the right track.  We WERE heading to a tourist site, right?  Never mind that they all had little white hats on their heads.  (Muslim and Jewish wear these kinds of things)  We pulled over and let them pass, so we could follow.  But then, it seemed too far.  Maybe we were wrong.

Turn around.

Pass the camels again.

No.  It must be the other way...

Turn around again.

Pass the camels again.

This time we were in it for the long haul.  (not very long - like 20 minutes maybe)  We came to a T in the road; again most traffic was heading to the left.  We knew the River Jordan acted as a border between Jordan and Israel, so we turned left.

A minute or so later, there were a lot of buses and taxis around.  So we looked for the parking area.  Ah!  An entrance gate up ahead.  I pull up to a few men with guns in uniform (a very normal sight here), and I roll down my window:

They grunt.  "Hi.  Where do we park?"  I ask.

 "Palestine?!" 

"What"

"You want to go to Palestine?"

"No. We want to go to the baptism site.  Where do we park?"  I say.

"You want to go to Palestine?!"  they say.

Peter:  "I think we're at the Palestinian border crossing!"

Uh.  What!?

"Uh.  We're looking the baptism sight.  You know.  John the Baptist?  Jesus?" 

"Jerusalem?  You want to got to Jerusalem?"

"Well, yes.  Um.  I mean not now though.  We want to go.  Well, could we go?"  I look a Peter?  Should we?  No.  Better not try it.  Plus - we don't know what we're getting ourselves into here.

"Palestine?!"

"No.  Jesus.  Baptism."

Now they're calling all the other guards over.  No one speaks any English. 

Now they are giving me the TURN AROUND RIGHT NOW, LADY! gesture.

We're all a little confused, but do what they say, of course.  Someone else stops us, no idea what we're talking about.  (please keep in mind, we find out that we are like 10 minutes from this amazing historical site - NONE of these people knew what we were talking about.)  Just to be safe.  We decided to  head back they way we came and take the other fork in the road.

Pass the camels - again.

We laughed the entire way back.  You have to know  a couple of things:  You can't just cross the border into Israel, and because of where we live over here, we CANNOT go to Israel.  (there are ways to do it, and we plan on it someday, but not THIS day)  Just to cross normal, you cannot drive.  You have to take a bus.  (remember the bus?)  Then you have to get a taxi on either side when you cross.  (remember the taxis I mentioned)

Anyway.  It was SO funny.  A white, non muslim, American, wearing a t-shirt, WOMAN trying to drive her husband and five kids across the Palestinian broder.  TOO funny!

The Baptism site was pretty cool though.

This picture here is where they believe it actually happened.  As you can guess, no one knows for sure. But this 'font' was built originally, like 200 years after the baptism, on the record of verbal history.  It is at the end of a small tributary of the river. (or what is left)  Which makes sense that they would use a more calm part of the river.  Of course, the river has changed a lot over the these couple thousand years.

You can see behind the kids here the actual river.  It used to be 60 yards across, they say.  It's now 6 yards.  I'll save our actual experience for another post. It was interesting.

The stingy dead sea

 I floated in the Dead Sea.

Who doesn't float in the Dead Sea?

Well, actually everyone who decides to enter the water - will float.  It truly is an amazing phenomenon.  So that was cool.  Want to know what wasn't cool?  The water itself.

Poison, I tell you.

It is as thick as oil, literally.  I'm serious.  It's viscous.  You can see the salt, minerals and what looks like oil move through the water.  And it stings like the dickens!  Any sore, scratch, wound, nook or cranny you have will HURT!  Poor Roo nearly ripped her skin off after dunking in here.  The dumb thing is - you HAVE to!  You can't not.  Well, unless you're Chach who hates standard ocean salt water because that alone makes his skin kill.  So he wasn't even about to attempt this.

He's no dummy.

Gid stuck his toe in as the shortest venture, and Si stayed in it forever.  Not sure why, but I think he loved the weird floating experience.  You cannot hardly even put your legs beneath you.

People come from all over the world for the 'health benefits'.  (ouch benefits?)  Here we are giving our selves the mud rub down afterward.  This is a huge spa type thing.  You can buy the mud in stores.  How was it?  Stinky.  Thats how.  And you were supposed to leave it on for 15 minutes.  I lasted about 2.  But we had a great time gettin muddy!

The Dead Sea was really cool.  I don't think I would ever do it again, because it only takes once to say you've done something - right?  But after reading about the Dead Sea in the Bible my whole life - I was happy to see it and really know - it's dead.  Nothing could ever possibly live in there.

M-O-L-D mold.

I put on my to-do list today, TO BLOG.  So here I am.

I have six minutes until the first round of kids walk through the door, and I'm pretty sure Giddie just fell asleep while watching Wild Kratts.  (I'll know for sure if I don't hear a "MOM!  More Wild Kratts within another minute or two)

I think I'll write about our Air Conditioning woes.  While it's pretty serious, and not funny; there's always a funny side in the middle east.  Since we moved here, there has been a terrible smell in our AC vents.  Our house always smells funky.  Wet dog, some people describe it as.  Stale hotel room?  Urine?  But in the end; MOLD is the best description.  But, we have called a million times and get the same responses.  Usually, things like "change your air filters every two weeks" or "I don't smell anything and they look fine to me".  It's been three years of trying to get maintenance's attention. 

Meanwhile, I've decided I'm allergic to living here.  My eyes itch all the time and my throat itches and burns constantly.  We all feel sluggish here with little energy and Peter has sneezing fits all the time, along with regular headaches.

Are you getting my drift?

Well, I've had enough.  I haven't had air run through the vents in over 6 weeks, yet the stench just wafts out into the rooms.  Oooh.  I hate it.  I've complained so much, Peter has finally written a very serious letter.  Worded very carefully.  Yesterday two technicians came out to the house.  In other words, two Pakistani's in jump suits.  This is where the funny starts, btw.

Now I have had many a Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Indian out here trying to help me with my problem.  They all say, "I smell nothing madam."  Arggg!  If you could read the bubble above my head it would say this "Well of COURSE you don't!!!!  I've seen where you live.  I KNOW how your laundry is done.  And I KNOW you use your hand, NOT toilet paper in the bathroom!  Of COURSE you think it smells fine!!!"  Why are they sending people who live in places where things just outright stink?!  It's nothing personal, I really like them - but sorry, the above mentioned countries STINK!  Pretty much anything besides raw sewage in the street will smell "fine madam."

But yesterday....YESTERDAY!  My nice little Bangala climbed up his little ladder in his stocking feet, having left his shoes at the door as all good workers do, and sniffed.  AND HE WINCED!!!  He WINCED!!!!  Hooray!  Victory!  He smelled it too and said, "Yes madam.  It smells very bad."

Whew!

After taking more things apart my nice technician friend found there to be mold all throughout the unit.  And today found more in the vents.  So Peter's letter was like poking a stick in a bees nest.  Literally.  At 1:30 my doorbell rang, there was the first local man, tea in hand. (must these people drink tea ALL THE TIME!! Sheesh!)  He then told me I was very lucky.  There were many more people coming to my house.  And he was right.  8, people, in fact.  It was hilarious.  Men, all 'bosses' on ladders, sniffing, arguing, snapping at 'the help' to bring ladders, or clean that up.  But mostly arguing in one way or another, very loudly, in Arabic.  "Three years?  Three years this has been going on!?"  Yep.

I felt like a rooster in a hen house - only opposite.  As in out of place.  I laughed a lot as they got louder and used their very middle eastern hand and arm gestures.  That is always funny to watch.  In the end, they all agreed we had a pretty severe mold problem and would be taking the next measures to solve the problem.  Many 'steps' must be taken, they said.

Alrighty.  Fine by me.

They asked a lot about who had been there and why nothing had been done before.  The lowest level boss that was there, is the highest that had been out previously.  He seemed to be getting yelled at, a lot.  They really like to blame here.  They want to appear perfect, and will blame anyone they can to make themselves look better.  I felt bad for the guy and told them it's not his fault.  Although, really, he certainly didn't investigate like he should have.  But I hate to see anyone fired for any reason, so I tried to stand up for him.

Anywho.  It was all quite exciting and they will be here first thing Saturday to begin their 'steps'.

In shallah.

(That means 'if God wills it to be' - and is used in almost every single plan/commitment these people make.  It's kind of like saying 'I'll see you on Thursday, Lord willing'.)

BTW, this took way longer than 6 minutes and I have been interrupted 106 times so far.

Christmas mini catch up

The New Year has come and gone.  As well as another quiet Christmas here in the Middle East.  Each year we whine that we didn't go anywhere.  And each year, upon the return of all of our friends, we're always glad we stayed. 

These three weeks are my time each year to try and help my children grow in areas outside of school.  This year the three oldest learned how to cross stitch, and Solomon made a hat on a knitting loom.  I hadn't intended for Sam and Si to cross stitch, mainly because I didn't think they would be interested.  But they insisted I teach them.  Sam made a dog paw print, Simon a seahorse (with his initials and some crossed swords, and some Egyptian things.  Leave it to him to take the concept and run), and Roo made some flowers she has made into a bookmark for her BFF, Lilly.  They did it for hours and hours for a few days running.  I told them that this is what children did before video games.  They were pretty impressed with that and told all their friends what they were up to.  I'm not sure, in the end, what learning to cross stitch will do for them.  If nothing else, they learned a little something new, something that most kids aren't learning any more.

We also made pillow cases.  I figure if we don't have home-ec. anymore, I'll have to teach them what I can.  Last year was a lot of cooking, this year was sewing.  I love to see my kids create.

We practiced Sam and Si's dance moves for their parts in the middle school play - High School Musical.

Peter took a few days off this year, something he hasn't done during the break before.  It was really nice.  We spent a lot of down time as a family.  We also took some fun day trips to Bahrain.  We saw movies, did some shopping and went to "The Tree of Life."  A tree that has been alive and growing for hundreds of years, with no visible source of water.   We ate at PF Changs a few times, lettuce wraps, mmmmm...My favorite.

As you know, I love the quiet peace of Christmas in the Middle East.  It's kind of ironic I had to move to a place where this holiday is illegal, before the true meaning was really able to shine through.  Some things are better left alone.  Christmas is better without the modernized media telling me how to celebrate.