Let me clear my throat

I've heard it said from some people that they actually read my blog and I should go back to typing into it more than once a month and switch to more like once a week. SO, here I am. It's not that I don't love journaling so loud that other people can hear, it's just remembering to do it.
And so what, pray tell have I been doing these last two weeks. The word is travel my friends, travel.
We left sunny 85 degree California on our anniversary (the 12th) and arrived in Baltimore the same day after paying 27.00 to fly across the ocean. NO that is not a typo. We love the Air Force.
Then we hung out in Baltimore for two days to celebrate our three years of bliss and on to Iowa City via Chicago and Moline while Eric flew to Wisconsion for his 6 weeks of training before his next deployment. I only stayed in I.C. one night and then Mom and I drove 12 hours to Denver so that I could fly into California for half the price of flying out of Iowa. It was so nice of Melissa to drive down and make hotel reservations in Denver so that I could see her for a night!
California was so wonderful. Nicki picked me up from the airport and clued me into all the Starbucks gossip until we got to Chipotle where I devoured a carnitas taco. Then Irene and I did a little bit of crying until Roxanne and Val came over and we made an awesome candle. Off to dinner at Red Robin with Irene that night. Monday was Valerie Turbush and her baby Rebecca that refused to be born until after I had flown to Turkey. Valerie is such a great mom...all of my Cali friends are great mom's, but Valerie has really good babies! I saw Roxanne for a while that afternoon and she made amazing cake...which I can't find where I put that recipie? Did I take it with me Roxanne? Roxanne asks such great pointed questions and I'm glad that she is bold enough to penetrate to what I need to talk about. Also-we used her rice cooker which takes up residence in the garage because of lack of use. Unexceptable! That night I went to Fran Fran and Dieter's for a salad dinner. These people have more salad toppings than any salad bar. We read the same books so we caught up on books and since Dieter is ret. Air Force we talked about what's been going on at Incirlik Air Base. Fran and I always have great conversations and this was no less than usual.
Tuesday Morning was Titus 2, my California ladies bible study that I went to while I lived there. It was a treat to sing with the worship team and share a tiny bit about what we need prayer for. After the study Fran Fran and I had the most amazing salmon at a restraunt and then mailed a package to Eric. She showed me the, "Happiest Baby in the World" dvd as well as "Lottie Bern's" workouts. Missy picked me up with Tess and we got Anna from school and watched Tess in ballet class. Then at Missy's house it was time for baths and we all got in P.J's and went through the I-Hop drive through. Back to Missy's house for I-Hop picnic on the living room floor while we watched "Kit-An American Girl" and after the girls went to bed, "The Biggest Loser". Missy and I stayed up till all hours talking about everything under the sun.
Wednesday was, hmmm, what did I do first? Oh I went to Starbucks and talked with Tim-my old manager for about two hours. Then I HAD to take a nap. My first one since the time zone changes. Missy made yummy lunch and then we had nail and toe nail polish fun and I am very pink sparkly. Then we picked up Anna and played a game while we waited for her piano lesson and then she did my hair before Gina and Chirsty picked me up for Sushi!!!!!
We had a great time talking about Christy's upcoming marriage, Gina's new job, and Turkey. Then back home for sleeping. Roxanne and Val met me the next morning for breakfast at a cute little shop. We chatted about family and Titus 2 ideas. By the time I got back it was time to go to the library with Missy, Tessa and Mallory (Tessa's cousin and the daughter of a gal I got to know in bible study-Becca). OK, this is becoming a little to facty so I'm going to shorten it.
Thursday night Sigan picked me up for an Air Force traditional dinner and Grey's Anatomy-my sinful indulgance. Sigan and I are basically hilarious when we're together and I am so glad she's flying out to Turkey for a visit while Eric's gone.
Friday went by really fast, Sigan dropped me off so that I could go with Heidi and Julaine to learn how to can BBQ sauce. I LOVED learning all the different things I can can. Pun intended.
That afternoon I went to Valerie's house to play with kids and eat her yummy food before she dropped me off at the airport where Melissa, Mom and Zachypoo picked me up!
So that's what you're gonna get for now! Pictures to come when the internet decides to work on my computer.

The Feeling of Being Settled

This feeling just isn't going to be a natural state of being for me for long periods of time. Eric and I have finally felt like we are building community, getting closer with friends on and off base, having such a great time with language learning, and setting patterns of life and it's time to mix it all up again.

Eric and I leave next Wednesday to fly into Baltimore and then seperate for about a month while he has training in Wisconsion to prepare him to go back to Iraq, and I head back to Iowa and visit California while waiting for his training to end. Then we will spend about three weeks with family before we fly back to Turkey and have a week together before he deploys for six months.

The most wearing part of all this is the emotional front and back end of the changes. The knowing about the deployment SO far in advance is always in our thoughts, and the travel stresses, and the being apart stresses. Even though NOTHING has happened yet we are emotionally far into this journey.

Eric would agree that this deployment already feels different and not really for the better. I would agree with him. Last time I was so busy at Starbucks, with friends who made me eat, watched Grey's with me, and let me sleep at their houses when I was really sad so time flew by. This time I don't have a sixty hour work week to take up the majority of my day. I am looking for structure but I'm not sure if that is what God would have for me this time. I am VERY aware that finding rest and satisfaction in Him alone are part of my present growth opportunities. So He may very well be uninterested in me finding "distractions" from a very opportune time to grow while Eric is away. I do want to go hard after language while he's gone and be a light to the American non-christians that I support through the key spouse position.

So, pray that my heart would be settled even when my feet and my mind are running around the world.

The Fresh Open Air

OK, so back to my story.

Saturday we slept for 11 hours due to Eric's incredible stress level and all the things he's been doing at work. We me at our rendezvous point-Hasan's carpet shop right at the entrance to Goreme. Hasan took us to a bunch of things we would never find on our own including a huge 5th century church, where they filled the Star Wars pod racing, and then to the other side of the valley where we saw more huge structures all of course complete with the millions of pigeon holes. Imagine me trying to blog you guys through the P.M.S. (pigeon messaging system). Talk about an increase of bird poop on the cars! Well we stopped back at Hasan's and looked at carpets. He is SO reasonable with his prices and Julie ended up buying one that we all admired.

After a lunch that was composed of every one's snack food we went to the open air museum which was immense and had lots of good climbing. You must understand that Turkey has SO many historical sites and is not able to put money into all of them so you pay an entrance fee and there may or may not be a path or signs to navigate you through a basic national park tour. We were able to get out of there and hike up a stone hill to watch the sunset before dinner.

We went to a small restaurant known for making the meal in a clay pot and then you break off the top in order to eat the contents which they put on a plate for you. DELICIOUS. We always get the jester waiters and Eric's clay pot was smashed on the ground...empty but made us all jump none the less. Dinner conversation was the best though; we talked with Hajar (the Iraqi) and her boyfriend Illius (Greek embassies' son). It was one of the best conversations I've been a part of in a long time. Just a sample of the story we heard. Hajar had to flee Iraq when she was 10 with her 2 older sisters because her dad, a general in Saddam's army was no longer tolerant of Saddam and they would be killed if they stayed the night. So they left their wealthy home and came to Turkey with the clothes on their back and money. They had to move around Turkey all the time to escape the Iraqi's who were looking for them. Back in Iraq they captured her grandfather and tortured him for a year to find their whereabouts and eventually killed him.

Then we talked about the war and if she thought America was helping and if she thought Iraq was ready to be free of our Army. It was a truly insightful and eye opening conversation.

ok...I'll tell you about Sunday tomorrow.

Let us come together

Well this weekend was 3 days for us Air Force folk and we used it up to the max. On Friday, we piled into the Goosen's van and the Houstons followed in their van up to the region of Kapadokya. There were some white knuckle moments due to Turkish drivers not needing to use headlights in the pitch black or farm vehicles relying on their reflective triangle to notify the other drivers of their existence. On the drive up we learned about the friends that we would soon meet who were driving down from Ankara. The Krauss'.

The Krauss' and Goosen's met back at Travis AFB and became fast friends 5 years ago. Starting their family off with 3 boys they were headed down life's path but when their Bible Study decided to do Perspectives the Goosen's and the Krauss' became more serious about their overseas involvement. At the same time they started thinking about adoption. So 2 years ago, 2 days before Christmas they get a call from a Social Worker telling them this story.

"We have two Russian boys here that a Mormon family just paid 10,000 dollars for and when they got back from picking them up they gave them back to me and told me they were done with them. Would you like to adopt them?" The Krauss' prayed about it overnight and the next day the new brothers came to stay forever."

After the Goosen's got assigned here in Turkey the Krauss' began to see how they could come over two and now they are stationed in Ankara which is almost due north of us. Soon after they got here they learned of another need they felt they could meet. An 17 year old Iraqi refugee needed a home after 7 years of being in this country. Her school no longer wanted to support her and she needed something more permanent after being taken out of her father's care. And then there were 8!

Back to this weekend now: So we arrived at a restauraunt and despite every one's tiredness we managed to do some get to know yous and then went to bed at 11:00. The next morning we met all met together to start our sightseeing adventure.

More later...

Peachy Keen Jelly Bean

Well Eric has been super sweet the last couple days and I'm pretty sure I know why. One I won't say outloud, or even type it, the other (option B some might call it) is because he's feeling the deployment creeping up on him. He feels differently about this deployment because now he knows what they are like. He's not so excited this time and he's been, well let's give some examples/ehemplos in Spanish (phonetic spelling). Wow if i ever say anything in the post it will be amazing. I'm like hyped up on ADD pills.

EXAMPLE 1: We have dinner outside on the porch, manicotti to be specific while the neighbors play salsa music.

RESPONSE 1: This is so nice Laura, you make such good dinners, this is so yummy and so nice to be sitting outside with you, it's so nice out tonight, and the music is so wonderful let's dance (insert Laura eyebrow raise here). We won't be able to do this for 6 months so we really have to keep taking advantage of these nice nights you know.

EXAMPLE 2: Snuggle time before sleepy time. Recently Eric's days have been so busy and he's needed a LOT of debriefing time so that he can sleep that we have been talking before we fall asleep for almost an hour. I love this because Eric used to not communicate very much and it's just fun to be a part of his transformation.

RESPONSE 2: My Laura, I am just going to soak you up because I won't have you to do this with for a long time.

EXAMPLE 3: Make your own Pizza

RESPONSE 3: Oh, Laura we make such fun things together, our friends are so impressed with the things you make and our kids are going to be spoiled by you with all your good food. Our little girls will make good wives some day because of the yummy food you'll teach them how to make.

And then there's the emails he sends: "Laura, this morning was so nice! With the great peach and the pancakes. Thanks for getting all that ready for me and for being up when I came home. (Awake after he get's done working out every morning) That’s always so nice! I wish there had been more time and that you could’ve sat down with me to eat breakfast too, but thanks for doing what you do. Thanks for going to the store last night and for making the awesome milk shakes.

and another email:

Laura, you’re my favorite wife!! The second plate to cover the spaghetti was a really good idea. I think that maybe you’re trying to win “wife of the quarter”!

Anyways, Eric has been super sweet to me and very grateful which is wonderful as my non-eternal life's worth and value comes not from being a Starbucks manager, or a college student, or a Lt. in the Air Force but being a launderer, dishwasher, cooker, baker, cleaner...So I am so glad to have a husband that gives me encouragment.

Eric, I love you too.

IyI Bayramlar

Well today this week the Moslem's are celebrating Byram which literally means festival but this festival is Seker (Shey-ker) festival. Sounds like sugar doesn't it...well it is. The festival celebrates the end of the Ramazan fast with the day that Muhammad received the Koran. So yesterday at 7:34am for our big mosque, the men went to the mosque to pray and then back to their homes where lots of traditions start to unwind.

The day before the women were crazy busy cleaning their house from top to bottom and buying lots of sweets, mainly chocolates and other yummy food. They have bought themselves new clothes and yesterday they were all dressed up in their best. First they go to their oldest relatives home and they greet their relatives by kissing their hand and then pressing the hand to their forehead to show they respect them highly. The older person will in turn give pocket money to the young children. The visits only last at max 30 minutes which is unreal for middle eastern visiting but their are many more homes they must go to. So the day is spent visiting and then they return home and get ready for the visitors that come to THEIR house. CRAZY.

So yesterday i went to our next door neighbors house (Tuba and Tonsil) to wish them Iyi Bayramlar. I also put together a little gift bag for Mert their 4 year old and their was pocket change inside!!!.

They opened the door and I think they were surprised that I was there but Mert saw the present and was like SUPER excited. Their family was visiting them so I was introduced to the family from Istanbul. Mert came over and kissed my hand and put it on his little cutness of a head. He's seriously one of the cutest kids i've ever seen. So, now the next three days, there's visiting and sweets, and chai and yeah. Iyi Bayramlar!

The Ball

It's two weeks late but Eric and I attended the Air Force Ball on base along with 500 other people. They were trying something new this year and decided instead of a sit down meal we would all stand around and enjoy the 4 hour evening that way. Well it was a insanely stupid idea. Once we got a drink in our hand there was no way you can eat because one hand holds the drink and the other the plate so how are you supposed to get the food from the plate into your mouth???!!! So everyone started walking around the club trying to find somewhere to sit. 500 places to sit exactally. One friend suggested we all lay down around the commander's table and eat off our cheasts. That would have been something.

Katie was so gracious to come over and do my hair so i wouldn't have to worry about it and then Shannon from across the street took our picture. Here they are!

Sich

Hello nose...anybody there? I would really appreciate it if the snot party could come to a close because it's time to get up off the couch and pick up the "fake snow" of tissues I've created on my living room floor. Although the movie watching and excuse to fold all the laundry in my house was kind of nice I am done with that plan.
Life is rolling along here at rapid pace. Saturday is the half marathon and unfortunately I have not been training for it. I think maybe once Eric deploys again I'll be more serious about my sporadic love of running. So here is the deployment news:
Eric goes to CST (combat skills training) November-December 17th in Wisconsion. At which point I will go to Iowa City and hang out with the family for a couple months and also make a trip out to Cali. When Eric gets done with CST I'll retrieve him and we'll take a couple weeks leave for Christmas with the families!!! Then we'll head back to Turkey and Eric and I will have a month before he actually deploys (Feb 2-Aug 2ish). I'm still thinking about what i'll do when he's gone-as far as staying here or visiting the states for a while.
Turkish is going so well, I feel like we are learning so much each day and it's a lot of memorization and work to keep it all in but I'm not at a breaking point yet so we're doing good.
Maybe I can even hang out with the Turkish international students at Iowa when i'm back home. Well, hope all is going well for ya'll.

Mommy, what's a Sniffleridge?

The other day i was talking, as usual, to my mother and as you all well know i don't speak English very well so i mess up my words a lot or make up words. So i had said something wrong...Nardist i think. So then because of our love of the game balderdash she sent out an email to the family members asking them to come up with a definition for Nardist. My sister Christie replied and also gave us these hilarious bits:

Foodgitives: The food on one side of a plate that escapes to the other side. (Hall 1985a: 31)
Furnidents: The indentations left in carpet after moving heavy furniture (Hall 1983)
Glackett: The ball inside a can of spray paint (or other aerosol can) for stirring the contents inside the can. (Hall 1984: 38) (This object is known as a "pea" in the paint industry.)
Premblememblemation: Whenever you drop a letter in the mailbox, you always re-check to make sure it's gone down. (Hall 1984: 66)
Pyramonster: That thing with one big eye on the back of a dollar bill. (Hall 1986: 67) (The pyramid on the Great Seal)
Sniffleridge: The groove running between the nose and the mouth (Hall 1984: 92). (The real name for this structure is the philtrum.)
Timefoolery: Setting the alarm clock ahead of the real time in order to fool yourself into thinking you are not getting up so early.

ACKY-sounds just like it's spelled, tastes the same too.

Well my friends, I'm retiring from the food preparation career I've done so well in for a couple of recent instances that will forever be burned in my brain. I mean how could things have gotten so crummy?
Item One: Laura thinks she can replace red pepper slices with crushed red pepper spice.
This day was going really well, Eric started coming home for lunch which is wonderful because I can see him during the day and he can have a little bit better food that what I may have packed in his lunch. So this day I was making a pasta and the only ingredient I didn't have was the red pepper. Crushed red pepper turned out to be a wonderful sensation and a surprisingly spicy dish to my husband who is only served meals that his horribly sensitive wife can handle. I ate one bit and ran to the sink. ACKY!

Item Two: Not long after that I was trying to be more inventive than the average sandwich and made a turkey wrap with mayo and mustard spread on the tortilla and then tomato, lettuce a little salt and pepper and turkey inside. Eric came home and ate everything on the plate except for that. There was a small bit taken out of it however. When asked about it he remarked, "It's just too flavorful, it's kind of ACKY."

Item Three: One day after that I needed to make dinner quickly after our language classes that we have Mon-Thurs which has cut down on the time i need to make meals. I decided that I would try, for the first time in my life...Shake and Bake, it was somehow in the pantry and all you need is Chicken and the Box so why not? Eric asked me what was for dinner when we got to class and I told him, "Shake and Bake". He had never heard of it before, which amazed me and instantly got me asking him, "You mean you never saw those commercials or people in your class never said the popular phrase, "It's Shake and Bake and I Helped?"" No, he hadn't. Well we sat down and cut into our first piece, rather excited to see if this could join the ranks of hot dogs in Mac and Cheese for our list of survivor meals. Both of us kind of wrinkled up our noses and chewed those bites for a long time before gulping them down with the effect of the adam's apple falling from chin to chest in Cinderella when the Duke learns he will not be beheaded but he has to try the glass slipper on every maiden in the kingdom. (we just rented that last night). It was so bad I had to take pictures of Eric eating it.

Item Four: Made muffins for Barnes who just had knee surgery and decided to make jumbo ones but then the muffin cups wouldn't fit in them so i sprayed the pan. The muffins refused to come out of the pan and were undeliverable.

Item Five: Yesterday I made more muffins for Barnes who just had knee surgery and made regular sized ones, they are burnt black.

So, I hear by announce my retirement from the profession of Domestic Goddess. I'll be making applications to AHA (average housewives anonymous).

Hey Manta-rena

Last night Eric and I went out with Sarah and Dave for Manta which is a delicious pasta with beef or lamb inside served in a white and tomato sauce with yogurt and garlic sauce over the top and your choice of spices to sprinkle on top.
But before we got out there we had to drive through the crazed streets right before the breaking of the fast for that day. This month is Ramadan (Ramazan in Turkish) a month of fasting from all food and liquid from sunrise to sunset from the first of the month till the end of September. Turks who are pregnant, taking medication, sick, traveling, or children do not participate and then also some Turks choose not to participate on their own (similar to Catholics not participating in lent). From a personal perspective I have participated in this fast for two years and it is extremely difficult-one year I got kidney stones at the end! This affects us only in a couple ways:
1. restaurants in small towns will not be open until sunset, so if we travel we need to pack our own food.
2. restaurants in Adana start to get packed right around sun down and the food comes out as soon as the last call to prayer begins. But we, as Americans shouldn't eat near the windows during the day as it would look completely disrespectful.
3. Price inflation in the markets and sometimes restaurants anywhere from 15% to 50%.
4. When driving around sunset, Turks are RACING home to eat and driving can get quite dangerous.
This leads me to our interesting trip into Adana that night for our dinner date. The driving was extremely crazy and very packed as everyone was rushing home to break fast.
Anyways, enough about that...dinner was amazing and then we went back to their beautiful home for ice cream and conversation until about 11:30. It was a wonderful evening.

Turkish done right

Well Eric and I have been doing almost 2 weeks of new Turkish classes now. Finally i feel like I am learning the language the way that i need to be taught. Lots of repitition, lots of practice, lots of homework, very logical. I love it!
I'm getting all the charts and words and memorizing and speech helps that I can. I am so so so pleased with the teacher and the way he instructs. He constantly goes around the room and makes every person say every phrase he puts on the board. If that doesn't make it permiate your brain I don't know what will.
The class is from 5-6:15 monday through thursday so poor Eric rushes there from work and then I try my best to have dinner at least prepped before I go to class so that we can eat right when we get home. It's a small inconvienence.
Well, that's the update for today. I'm going to try and get the months groceries this afternoon and do a PILE of laundry.

She's BAAAAAACK

Hello Friends,

Sorry for the major disapperance. I now have the house settled except for the office/music room/guest bedroom/Air Force apparel room. I have also been busy trying to get the Key Spouse program up to speed and ready to run on auto pilot.

Then this weekend we went to the Med to go camping with Frank and Katie, Alicia (a brand new Lt. straight out of college), Tristan and Shannon and their three boys.

The trip there took about 3. 5 hours but it went by very quickly due to lots of things to keep us busy. Doing our scavanger hunt, listening to a sweet mix cd that Frank made, and finding out mroe about Alicia. When we got there we set up camp and dived into the sea. Salty, and beautiful just as I remembered. This time we were smart and brought goggles so it wouldn't sting the eyes so bad. We also got really sweet Aqua Socks to keep our feet safe from the rocks. We wanted to go swim out to a cave so we walked down the beach and I got chicken after 5 minutes trying to swim. It was NOT happening. Alicia was my partner in crime on that one. I am just not a great swimmer, daring, i don't like my head underwater in open sea, so that is just one place i won't be adventerous.

It was too windy for campfires but we brought a coleman stove so we made hot dogs and brats on that, can of beans and corn heated over the flame. We tried to rinse off in the sinks but we were big sandy sticky messes.

Super windy once we wound down for sleep and as soon as the wind died down the kids started wailing. Finally 2 hours later we packed them up and they left at 6:00 am. We made pancakes and sausage for breakfast and then packed up and got home around 2:00 I would say it was a learning experience but well worth it.

Game Show

1. What time did you get up this morning? 6:30 to make breakfast for Eric.
2. Diamonds or pearls? If i wear jewelry which is rare i think i go for diamonds.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Kung Fu Panda with the Goosens!
4. What is your favorite TV show? GREY’S ANATOMY, THE OFFICE!
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Muffins, scones, pancakes, oatmeal. um, not all at the same time though.
6. What is your middle name? Colleen
7. What food do you dislike? Eggs, tomatoes, mustard, pickles, onions, mushrooms.
8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Hillsong United
9. What kind of car do you drive? A black toyota camry named Fae.
10. Favorite sandwich? Turkey artichoke from Panera.
11. What characteristic do you despise? People who don't know how to act in public.
12. Favorite item of clothing? My salmon colored tank topish thing.
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Right now? Israel.
14. Are you an organized person? You can answer that yourselves.
15. Where would you retire to? Turkey.
16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? Last year my mom flew out and we had a great birthday party and i got my best friend Lambkins.
17. What are you going to do when you finish this? Go to Turkish class.
18. Furthest place you are sending this? the U.S.
20. When is your birthday? Feb. 26.
21. What is your shoe size? 8.5
23. Pets? I play with Trudy my friend Katie's dog.
24. Any new and exciting news? I moved unless you've missed that. Eric has something to tell me when he gets home from work.
25. What did you want to be when you were little? An Innercity teacher and a councelor.
26. How are you today? Sad day.
27. What is your favorite flower? KERI!!! you have all of mine, Lilacs and then stephanoitis.
28. What are you listening to right now? The air conditioning.
29. What was the last thing you ate? Cheap pizza.
30. What day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Saturday...camping on teh beach.
31. Do you wish on stars? No, but i like finding the big dipper every night. And i like to sing, "somewhere out there" in my head.
32. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? salmon
33. How is the weather right now? According to the t.v. it's 109 but i don't believe it.
34 Last person you spoke to on the phone? Eric in Turkey, Mom, Dad and Holliday out of Turkey.
35. Favorite soft drink? Raspberry Schellps. I don't think i spelled that right.
36. Favorite restaurant? Hm, California Yogurt sounds good right now. Or Red Robin.
37. Hair color? Redish
38. What was your favorite toy as a child? Shera Princess of Power.
39. Summer or Winter? FALL
41. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate dummy. You know those cookies that have the two rows of chocolate and one row of vanilla, it's a waste of space.
42. Coffee or tea? Coffee.
45. What is under your bed? Winter clothes bins.
46. What did you do last night? Finished Lord of the Rings and went to bed at 9:00
47. What are you afraid of? snakes
48. Salty or sweet? Sweet mostly.
49. How many keys on your key ring? 5?
50. How many years at your current job? Almost three being a housewife.
51. Favorite day of the week? Thursday.
52. Do you make friends easily? If they make friends easily with me.

Death by Boxes

It's true, you just might be able to die from sudden move in syndrome. This happens to people that are completely OCD and need to unpack THIS VERY SECOND. RIGHT NOW. MOVE IT. This means there will be blisters, box cuts (a very large version of the popular paper cut), extreme hunger, the inability to sit on anything because it is covered in very important stuff. So important infact that you could deal without it for three months.

So, my kitchen and dining room are basically done, the livingroom, bedroom and bathroom each need another hour and then they should be done. But because the second bedroom had all the loner furniture in it we have to keep all the boxes that should be going in there out in the hallway.

Yesterday I was told the movers would be here anywhere between 8:00-5:00 so i did what any rational person would do. I paced and looked out the peep hole and ran to the door every time i heard a truck drive by. I didn't slow down and I was not defeated, I kept this up until 3:30 when they finally showed up! They unloaded our crates in 1.5 hours and devoured the plate of brownies my awesome husband made them.

So, i'm still in turbo speed mode. We'll see when i crash.

Photos are of the living room before paint, the living room after paint, Eric eating in the bedroom stuffed with furniture, and the living room stuffed with boxes.

Painting the House Project Take One

Well we, (no baby Katie and I) got the paint and today was "brown day" tomorrow will be blue and then hopefully i'll be done! Here's the fun stripey wall.

A day off

Yesterday Eric, (and the rest of the base) had the day off. So no baby Katie, and her husbando Frank-yes the Cedar Falls peeps-and Eric and I went the approximate hour drive south to the sea side city of Mersin for a trip to the mall.

Now getting to the mall poses no problem at all-granted you have a tomato paste car that directs you how to get there. We kind of went about 10 minutes farther out from the mall than we were supposed to, so on our turn around we decided to roll down the window, (insert arm crank motion, or push button) to see if the driver beside us could understand our Turkish. His white car was plastered with all sorts of cans of tomato paste goodness, and a number we could call if ever we were hungry and driving along and needed to contact the Turkish authority on tomato paste. He told us where to turn, and happily we ran the red light, crossed lanes of green light traffic and went on our merry way. A couple minutes later we see tomato paste car beside us again motioning for us to follow him! So we had a chauffeur the entire way back to the mall. If i ever need tomato paste in the future I would call this guy-except I didn't write down the number that was on his car. SHOOT!

I'm pretty happy with that last sentence since I was trying to beat Keri in the longest run on sentence contest.

Things to do at the mall in Mersin:

1. Walk into the glass doors that you think are the automatic opening ones. We didn't actually partake of this ridiculously fun game, but K and F told us about a Turkish guy who did it when they were there last and busted his nose on the glass.
2. Go into home stores that are like Pottery Barn except 95 degrees inside.

3. Get super grossed out by the doner (spinning 50 pounds of meat on a stick) and loose appetite.

4. Discuss the finer foot traffic patterns of turks, who don't care which side of the lane they walk on and are quick to "make like Moses" and "part your red sea of walking together".

5. Berate yourself for not knowing there was a Turkish basketball 2 on 2 contest going on outside. (Frank played basketball for the Air Force and is most likely 3 feet taller than any contender). And Eric can hold his own out there too. So if they would have, and they really did wish they would have, brought their bball shoes, there would have been TOTAL DOMINATION.

6. Definitely purchase a glow in the dark t-shirt which has a cow being abducted by a space ship. Eric loves it.

7. Go to the best dessert restaurant in the entire world.

Cakes: http://www.ozsut.com.tr/opasta.html

http://www.ozsut.com.tr/kpasta.html

Ganache, eclaires, etc: http://www.ozsut.com.tr/apasta.html

Puddings etc: http://www.ozsut.com.tr/sutlu.html

Sundaes: they even put those fun little sparkly guys in them: http://www.ozsut.com.tr/dondurma.html

Cheesecakes etc: http://www.ozsut.com.tr/turta.html

After all of those I'm sure you're full, me too!

"There were a lot of spiders in Minnesotta"-as told to me by my mother

My family just got back from our annual trip to the cabin in Minnesota. A wonderful retreat and a week filled with complete relaxation, fishing, swimming, hiking, good food, and family time. My sister will be quick to point out that I have missed it for what, four years now? Anyways, mom sent me an interesting email from Minn. that got my attention. It read: I have an interesting story to tell you when we get home.

So once they got back to Iowa City, we cranked up the Skype and this is what I heard.

"Well this year there were lots of spiders in Minnesota. One night when I was doing dishes I kept feeling something tickling my feet and I was getting ready to brush it off with my other foot when I decided to look down to see what it was."

At this point she pauses because she knows and is tickled beyond belief that she is about to tell me something extraordinary and I have a pretty good inkling what is going on here but she is so excited to tell me. So she continues.

"Guess what it was Laura."
"No. I'm not playing this game". I already knew what it was and i was no longer interested in story time with mommy, i wanted to go nigh nigh.
"Laura, what was it?"
"Not telling Mom."

"Laura it was a little snake licking my feet." Ok folks, shows over. If you know much about me at all you might recall that I am deathly afraid of snakes. I DO NOT tolerate anything about them. Their pictures scare me, when they come on t.v. i run into the other room, and even if I see the word i have trouble touching the page the word is on.

Again, she goes on. The shock value had worn off and I was now ready to try to listen again with squirmy worms in my stomach the whole time.

"Well I kind of yelped and started jumping and running over to the other side of the room, yelping all the while." The other people in the living room started to figure out what was going on, and there was much scrambling up and running to the door. My brave Dad took note as to where it went, between the stove and the counter. So the troopers did what any natural humans would. They turned on the stove in hopes that he crawled (snakes are always male) into it and we can now bake him. If you're beginning to wonder if we have a fascination with killing pests without actually touching them you're correct. I killed a leech with a canoe paddle one year up there. Also see my earlier blog about the 'roaches.

So they couldn't find the snake but they did notice a big hole under the sink that went into the ground where there some minor construction going on the week before my family arrived.

Back up a few days, the family is around the fire pit and Holliday has yet to come outside to join them. She stomps up to them and she says, "Um, SOMEbody put a rubber snake by my shoes and it's kind of freaking me out so now i don't want to go get them". We all know what that was now.

So the next day? after the dish washing/stove incident. Holliday and my nephew Joel are at the house alone and they see one in the bathroom. So Holliday and Joel go down to the dock to yell there heads off to Dad whose across the lake in the boat fishing. Dad comes in with a stick and a net and with barely any blood on the floor scoops up the snake and proceeds to drive with the kids across the lake to dump him (again, male) into the lake.
I am not interested in going to Minnesota next year.

Oh where oh where have my leg muscles gone?

So today no-baby Katie and I hit the gym. Hopefully this will be a daily activity in which my training for the 10K and then the 1/2 Marathon in September will be decided. Back in Yuba City before Eric was home I had gotten up to 6 miles a day which would have put me in great condition for the 10K but now I'm back to the 3-4 mile deals. I am not complaining, don't get me wrong, I feel great after I do it, but I'd really like to be able to accomplish something that is WAY out of my comfort zone. So 1/2 Marathon it is.

I did 4.25 miles today and I checked my time at the 5 K point, I did pretty well for that, coming in at about 28.00. So one of my goals, to finish it in under 30 minutes was accomplished which means I'm running under a 10 minute mile-another one of my goals. Now for good runners-this is like YAWN material. They have already turned over and fallen asleep-while I'm chattering away on this side of the bed.

SO-GINA, KERI, ROXANNE. Get back on the horse.

Ask Not!

WAIT WAIT WAIT i have to tell you all about my Key Spouse Training on Thursday night. Ok, imagine a bunch of ladies (30) who are all in one room together with name tags and crackers and cheese. Who 98% of can think of nothing better to do with their lives then be in charge of the communication out to the spouses and welcoming newcomers on base and helping during deployments. Ok-sounds pretty good so far right? Now imagine that these women have moved every three years of their lives and are getting a little on the quirky side. A LOT on the quirky side. Now imagine that like in most meeting that are held by women-and men Eric tells me. They follow this rule, "Ask not what you think pertainith to the topic, but how the topic pertainith to you." So someone opens up the can of question worms.
Things like:

1. So, what hours is the Marriage and Family Counseling Center open on weekends?
2. Can I get your personal cell phone number?
2.5 Well can i have your home phone number?
3. At my last base (don't ever start a sentence this way if you are in the military!) we had little welcoming packets for each of the new spouses. Can we get something like that here, like with coupons, and a letter, and a map of the bus route and a Popsicle? This lady went on for so long I had to time her. 15 minutes of trying to tell the Airman and Family Readiness Center exactly what it was like at her last base and getting them to see that they needed to provide something like that for this base. I couldn't take it anymore! I had to interrupt.
I said, "All right Girl you go for that, you GET on that. I nominate YOU for that position." Kim-my friend at the AFRAC just grinned at me. She knows I hate things like this, so she seconded the nomination. And there was a THIRD from the audience.
Later on while Eric and I were gardening, she introduced her self as our...NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR. Whoops.
The best part of the night is that I was sitting next to wonderful Katie from........CEDAR FALLS IOWA, she went to UNI and was an Art major and i adore her. We had so much fun whispering back and forth the whole time and groaning when they kept making the questions go on and on. Her Husband is a Lt. just like Eric and they are going to be volunteering at the coffee shop Eric and I are volunteering at. They are Christians and actively go to church. She even knows my ex-boyfriend from Cedar Falls and my good friend Nicki Corbin. Crazy world. So now that I have two Katie's in my life there will be baby Katie and non-baby Katie.

Bloggon It!

Sorry I haven't written in a couple days. Cleaning/Organizing that house took a ton of my energy and I hit a wall with feeling like making dinner and cleaning my own house-or just doing much of anything. So we ate at Burger King Friday night and Eric made Lasagna on Saturday-a romantic dinner out on the porch.

Saturday was more language lessons in which I thought my teacher was asking me where his jeans were? I answered that they were in the classroom. To which he shook his head and turned around-probably so that I couldn't see his smile and asked me what i thought he said. Turns out he had said, what is there in my pocket? NOT A CLASSROOM I can tell you that right now! Language stuff is going much better and I actually do really well with the grammer end of it so this week was not bad at all.

We have finished the demolition of the front yard which took 20 hours total. Now we have to plant grass and get a couple plants for the very front edge and we are DONE! The side yard is looking better now that it's getting some watering and grass fertilizer. The last three days have been pretty nice weather wise and there are still clouds today, (normally they're gone by 8:00am).

Sunday was more church and going out for lunch with friends afterwards to watch the Olympics. Did I tell you all that a girl from our college group is Diving in the Olympics. Nancilea Underwood Foster! She is doing the 3 meter and syncro diving i think.

Today i'm meeting non-baby Katie to go for a walk and hang out in a house that has actual furniture in it. Happy trails to you! Whereever you may be.

Operation bring baby home

Well, the last couple days have been spent cleaning someone else's house. This is not THAT unusual but the degree to which it needed cleaning and the detail of the cleaning is a little daunting. 6 hours yesterday and 5 hours today and i think I'll need 2 more days until the project is complete.
My friend's house that I'm cleaning left for Izmir two weeks ago to stork nest (wait until her baby was born) i wrestled the house keys away from her husband before he left to go be with her. They are VERY laid back and the ONLY thing ready for baby was the crib. All the outfits, socks, bibs, pacifiers, etc were still in gift bags and the "baby's room" had two mattresses up against the wall, and an assortment of large interesting things-the only way you could tell it was for baby was the crib which Brian set up the day before he left.
So, I've been figuring out how to fold socks the size my fingernail, despising the person who made her the diaper cake (all those rubber banded diapers have to be unrubber banded) etc.
The only way to clean the house is to organize it as well. Every surface has a million things piled on it but i have made it through the worst and now I'm on to the desk, kitchen and finishing the baby's room. The master bedroom, bathroom, closets, living and dining room are actually done surprisingly.
So I'm not sure if they thought they'd have time to do all of this, or what, but it would be hard to change that child's diaper when every surface is covered-so I'm bringing them back to ground zero and they can decide what to do after that.

Green thumb, and well, fingers too!

Today and some other days I've been the master gardener. This involves me learning what gardening tools are absolutely essential and what tools i can get by without. It also humbles me to know that the "kneeling pad" i smirked at in the gardening aisle would be really nice right about now. Other things I've learned this week:
(First picture is a shot of the "before").

1. Rose bushes have roots that are really deep and they are S shaped so digging them requires a husband.

2. Those pretty purple flowers make ugly nasty roots.

3. Spiders are ruthless. I keep drowning them and covering up their holes but within minutes they have a new tunnel.

4. The neighbors are very curious as to what I'm doing.

5. Planting grass requires absolutely no knowledge of what one is doing. Simply water the ground, spread seed around which stains your hands green, and maybe a little more watering.

6. When your husband leaves the hose on for 3 hours your yard will fill up and 15 birds will come take a bath in your yard.

7. Watching your husband learn how to move a sprinkler without getting sprayed for the first time requires out loud laughter and running to get the camera.

8. I really wish i would have gotten those cute gardening shoes before we left the states.