The Red Bucket....

The past few days have been filled with some not so fun stuff. On Sunday, both Caleb and Judah woke up with some kind of sickness where they were both throwing up. Ugh! Mike and I thought that maybe it was from something that they had eaten the night before, but we weren't sure. We had been invited to come to a friend's house that afternoon, so we didn't want to cancel too quick and thought we would wait until after their naps to see how they were feeling. We called our friends to make sure they didn't mind, since we didn't think they were contagious, and it was no problem. So we headed on over. Luckily our friends were kind enough to get out their red bucket "just in case", because the rest of the evening both Caleb and Judah puked in it a couple of times. Ugh! You know you have come to a comfort level in a friendship when it is ok to have your kids puke in their living room and you still continue to visit and have a good time. So, thanks Rob and Lea for the red bucket and letting our kids be themselves, sick and all.
Then yesterday and today, they were both home from school and sick with a fever, but tonight they are feeling better. Yeah! We will see how this evening goes and how they are feeling in the morning.
Good thing that I went to school today though, and Mike stayed home with the kids. We had completely forgotten that last week a classmate of ours had invited us to lunch after school. When I got to school today I remembered, but I thought I would see how Mike was doing at home with the kids before I told her I was coming or not. At our break I called and Mike said the kids were really wanting me home, so I thought I would take a rain check with my friend. She seemed pretty let down, and as we were leaving the class Mike called and said the kids were sleeping, so go ahead and carry-on with the lunch. Great! That worked out. Well, little did I know that my friend had planned a surprise baby shower for me. Wow! What a surprise and shock. Almost everyone from my class was there, plus a few extras, and I was blessed beyond belief. And the common gift was diapers....so it seems right now like I have enough diapers for the first few months of this child's life. Let's see though....that is one of those things you always forget how many you go through. But wow, today was a day filled with blessings and surprises.

The joys and pains....

I went to the Dr. the other day for one of my monthly check-ups and all of a sudden it hit me...."Oh my goodness, we are going to have another child!" You would think that would be an obvious thing as I have been pregnant for some time now and I can feel this little one moving around inside my belly everyday, but the realness of it hadn't set in like the other day. Wow! What will he be like? What will he look like? Will he be a good baby? How are his brothers going to respond?
Parenting is such a strange thing, ya know? It is so much more work then I ever imagined, but at the same time it is so rewarding. Caleb and Judah are such different personalities that I wonder what this next one will be like, and right now, while I cant imagine what life will be like with him, in a year I will never be able to imagine what life would be like without him.

These days Caleb is the ever present 3 year old with a will as strong as steel. Oh my goodness.....from the time the boy wakes up until the time he falls to sleep he wants HIS WAY! It has been quite the challenge. He is a fun boy though and tonight he was being very cute with his brother. We went for dinner at Fuddruckers (can you hear the angels singing?) But what was even better then that for the boys is that upstairs they have this playground like they would have at a fast food restaurant at home, and the boys got to play in it. Caleb was being so cute helping Judah climb up in it and go down the slide. It was very endearing! And Judah was even cuter because he kept coming out and waving to Mike and I and blowing us kiss after kiss and saying, "Ouw you!" (which translates to I love you!) He would keep saying it and looking our way while walking the other direction toward the playground only to miss his entrance because he was so focused on blowing us kisses. He is definitely our cutie!

Even as I am writing this blog, the boys are in their beds to go to sleep. Judah just makes himself comfortable and is down for the night, while Caleb comes out of his room numerous times with any reason he can think of to stall. Tonight he doesnt like the pants that I put him in, so he wants different ones. You really can't win with this boy sometimes.....ugh....but if I left him as he would want, he would be in there taking off his diaper, then would pee in his bed and sometime during the night come and get in bed with us and then pee in ours. So, the pants stay on! Oh the joys.....

Our trip to Wadi Rum

As a school we went on an overnight trip to a place called Wadi Rum. There were about 40 of us total and we had a great time, although it was very tiring. It is about a 3 hour bus ride from the capital of Amman, but a very beautiful and scenic place as you can see in the pictures. Caleb and Judah had a blast playing with the other kids in the sand and just being around a bunch of other kids that also go to the same school they do. It was a great weekend!

Here is a picture at sunset

Me and the boys in the jeep that we took to tour around and see the sights

some camels in the desert

Caleb and our jeep driver

nice family pic

Our walk to where we watched the sunset

Caleb playing in the sand. They were covered in it, and had a blast!

Judah and his friend playing in the sand.

crazy prices...

Ok, most of you know how excited I have been that we now have a Safeway close to where we live. It has been so nice. We went there last night to do some grocery shopping and it was great, but I saw a box of cereal that blew me away. It is true that you can pretty much get anything you want from home, but you will definitely pay for it. This box of cereal was 8 JD, which comes to $11.20. Yikes! Can you imagine spending $11 on a box of cereal. I dont even remember what kind it was, but I know that I saw a box of Rice Krispies right next to it, for about 6 or 7 JD. I love cereal, but we dont eat it here, that's for sure......
Oh, the good old days in Nashville when I used to eat all the Toasted Oatmeal Squares that I wanted......
but for now we will stick with eggs for breakfast....
just something I thought everyone would find interesting.

Happy Birthday Tasha!

One of my long time friends is celebrating her birthday today! (Is that even a correct saying?....you get what I mean though...)

This is a picture of the four of us, who have been friends since grade school. I have had some wonderful memories with these guys. From left to right - Vicki, Me, Rochelle, and Tasha!

At one point in life we were the inseparable two. We lived across the street from each other and we did EVERYTHING together. We were cheerleaders, played soccer, in choir and jazz choir, on the swim team, almost any after school or before school activity, we were in it together. I was blessed beyond belief when Tasha and her family moved in across the street from me, when we were in the 3rd grade. (or 4th, I cant remember exactly)
But Tasha, although the miles have separated us, I will always hold our friendship dear. I love you and hope you have the best birthday ever!

Storytime...

Sorry that this video is so dark. The sound of Caleb making up his story is really cute though, so I thought I would post it anyway. Enjoy....

the birthday party

Caleb and Judah were invited to another little boys birthday party from their school. They had a great time and Caleb has made some great little buddies. It is funny because they are all blond-headed little boys....the other boys actually make Caleb look like he has brown hair. But that has definitely been one of the challenges since we have been here, is to find Arabic speakers to spend time with. There have been tons of other foreigners to make friends with, which has been great, it just hasn't helped our language learning out any. :-)

Hot Running Water

It is amazing, and at the same time, hasn't seemed like much of a big deal, but we got a hot water heater put in our apartment a few days ago, and I realized that this is the first time that we have had hot running water in our house for 5 years. Isn't that crazy? After I wrote that down I realized how weird and foreign it sounded, but it was just a fact of life for us that we would have to heat up our water before taking showers or baths, and we just got used to washing our dishes in cold water. We actually had a hot water heater here in the apartment we are in, but it stopped working not long after we were here, and it was SO hot that taking a cold shower wasn't a big deal. But, the weather has been cooling off a bit, so we thought it was time to do something about it. So now, not only can we take a hot shower, but we can wash our dishes in hot water, wash our face or hands in hot water in the sink. It is amazing!!!!!! Living overseas has definitely made me appreciate the little things in life.