A lot has been happening the past few days around here, so that has been good and I feel like some of my "blahs" have gone away. Mike did have Friday and Saturday off so he was home as well, so that helped. But Friday we went to the zoo with some friends here and had a great time. It was so funny. They are renting a car, so they have this tiny little four door car that we we fit all 9 of in, plus she is pregnant, so practically 10 of us. I know some of you may be appalled knowing that we were in a car with kids without car seats. Such is life here. Although car seats do exist, not many people use them, and Friday I was thankful because we were able to cram so many of in the car and able to get out of the house.
The zoo....
...well, it was very interesting. Pretty run down and made you feel a bit sorry for the animals, but our kids had a great time! The first few cages just as you walk in are the Lions and tigers, which are pretty impressive, and you are only separated by them by two chain link fences, so it was kind of cool to be that close up and see how big and impressive these animals really are. Two guys that worked at the zoo decided to get in the cages with them and rile them up for our show. I was pretty nervous, that one of those lions was going to decide he had enough of these punks and have them for lunch. But nothing like that happened and we just got to see them growl and get bothered by these two.
Across from the lions there were some cages with pigeons, yes pigeons, and there were the ferocious house cats, a dalmatian and some mutt looking dog. Pretty funny, but entertaining at the same time. The boys had a great time!
The next day our friend had her baby, so we kept their two little boys for the day, who are good buddies with Caleb and Judah. So they had lots of fun playing and riding scooters and keeping themselves busy.
Today is back to the grind. Mike is off to work. The boys are taking naps and I am making cinnamon rolls to take up to our neighbors. I still have one of their plates that I have had since September, so I figured it was about time to take it to them. So, wish me luck!
I will post some pics of our adventures to the zoo soon. I need to do it on the other computer that Mike has with him to teach. So, until then....blessings!

Blah.....

I have just been feeling a bit blah lately. Not physically, but mentally. I am not sure what it is exactly...maybe it is that Mike is working evenings now and so once the kids and I get home from school we are in the house all evening with just us. I am struggling to get out and meet my neighbors. I find myself just wanting to hide in the house where it is safe and comfortable....Ugh! Finding a time to do it, knowing that it will most likely be an awkward encounter. The one neighbor boys have come a few times and since they are older, I tend to worry the whole time they are here that they are not going to play nice with Caleb and Judah, or they will just be naughty. The oldest two are 9 and 11, and the younger two are 6 and 2. So besides the 2 year old, who wasn't here last time they visited, they are all older then my boys. They came in last time they were here to play with Caleb and Judah's toys, took a bunch of them outside and put them in the plants and then just left. I don't really have a good enough command of the language yet to feel like I can say whatever I need to, so it just feels uneasy when they are here. Oh Lord give me grace and patience!
It is in times like this when I long for the comforts of home. I long to be around people that I know, and know us. Around people that are familiar. I know this will pass, but in the meantime if you think about it please pray for me. Pray that I will be able to connect with some locals here. Pray that this place wouldn't seem so foreign. And pray that I will embrace this season of my life, being a mother of 3 small boys and feeling stuck in the house. :-)

New Friends

Caleb and Judah have made some friends with the boys who live in our apartment building.  There is another family that have 4 boys, the oldest is 11 and the youngest is 2.  Their favorite of the four is the 9 year old, named Ka'is.  Not sure how you spell it, but that is about how you would say it.  They are from the same family that I brought the apple pie to.

Today they were calling up to Ka'is and his brothers to their balcony for them to come and play.  The cute part about it is that they were calling to him in Arabic.  Caleb is constantly coming to us now and asking how to say this or that in Arabic.  I wonder how long it will take he and Judah to catch on and start talking more and more?

Overall not a very eventful day in the Crane household.  I went to the dreaded grocery store, which I am glad I did, and glad it is over.  It is funny, when we lived in India and I was pregnant I would have reoccurring dreams that I was wandering the isles of grocery stores, and now it seems like such a chore to have to go.  Anyway, I did that....Mike took the boys to the park, and then we were home and the boys played with the neighbors.

Oh, I was actually supposed to go to school today, but Amman was having it's first ever International Marathon, so most of the streets that we would take to get to school were closed.  So we stayed home instead.  

oh, and I worked on getting our newsletter out, which most of you may have gotten.  Hopefully not too many times.....I am having the darnedest time getting all my contacts in order.  It is just one of those things that takes forever to do, and well.....time is not always on my side these days.  So, I apologize if that is the case.  And if you would like to get a copy, just let me know.

For now I will get going.

Blessings!

Shukran Habibi

One of the things that our boys have learned how to say in Arabic and to say it well is this phrase, "shukran habibi" (ha-bee-bee)  It means, thank you, my love.  Habibi is a word that people use ALL the time here and they say it to everyone, especially to kids.  Usually people will see kids and say "oooohhhh habibi"  or "hayaati", which means my life.  It is very cute, and people are very kid friendly in this part of the world.

So our boys have learned to say it whenever they get a chance and they know they will get a good response.  Most often it is when we are in a taxi to the taxi drivers.  Like tonight, we went to a friend's house for dinner and on the way there they said it a couple of times to the taxi driver, who laughed and tried to get them to repeat it a number of times.  He thought it was the cutest thing, which I have to admit is pretty cute to hear these little 4 and 2 year olds speaking in another language.  It is funny too because every once in awhile Caleb will throw a Thai word in there.  The boy has such an amazing memory.

Anyway, just wanted to share that small bit of info for a glimpse into our world.

Our New Apartment

Having tea outside in our new yard.

All the before work.  Having to scrape the paint down to the cement.

Mike scraping the walls or cleaning the floor.  We pulled the carpet up in this room because it was so bad.  It is unusual to have carpet in houses here, but this one does.

Our messy kitchen.

This is all of our stuff at our old house, packed and ready to be moved.

Our new kitchen in order.

Our yard.

The sitting room, or salon as they call it here.  Not quite finished, but getting there.

The boys in their new room, that needs to be repainted again. 

 

The sitting room.  Same room that Mike was sitting in in the first pic.  What a difference some paint, furniture and a rug makes.  I didnt take a picture of our room, just because that would require me to clean it, or to take the pic at a time when Mason is not sleeping in there.  Someday....

Heads Up

Some of you have asked in the past to be notified if anyone is coming to visit us so that you can send something along.  Well, I am SO excited to say that my parents are going to be visiting us here at the beginning of November.  I realize that only leaves a month, but if anyone is interested in sending something along with them let me know and I can get you their address to send to them.  Thanks!!!

They will be arriving here November 6th, so anything would need to get to them around the 1st of November.

Friends

I love friends and surrounding myself with people that I love to be with.  That is something that I have always loved and I can remember growing up throwing parties whenever I would get the chance, just to have people over.  Some days when it is just me and my family in the house I feel like I am going to burst if I don't invite people over.  So, the last few days has been filled with friends and it has been nice.  I think my boys are the same as me because they are constantly asking me, "where are we going today?" "I want to go to some one's house!"  It is funny too because sometimes they could really care less where we are going or to who's house we are going, they are just excited about getting out.  (me too!)  Some days I dread the monotony of the same 'ol, same 'ol.....

So, I had some friends over and made cheesecake brownies for dessert, and there were so many of them left I had to invite some more people over the next night to eat them all up.  (although we still have a bunch left.)  What fun!

The thing I am finding hard is crossing the cultural barrier.  Ugh....It is SO easy and SO comfortable to invite other westerners over.  We speak the same language, we know that when we ask if you want tea or coffee and you say no, that it really means no, and you don't have to ask a certain amount of times and then serve the coffee anyway, it is just comfortable....ya know?

Comfortable....

That is a word or a state that can keep you in the same rut, and you never get out and you never grow.  So, I need to meet some of my neighbors and step outside of my comfort zone and not care if I make mistakes in the language, or I don't serve the tea just right, or I don't know all the right etiquette.  I need to just make some friends that we can laugh with and learn with.  Oh Lord, help me to do it.  Since we have moved to the other side of town I have really been feeling like I am in a different country.  The signs in the grocery store are all in Arabic now, so it takes me forever to figure out the price of the lunchmeat, or the price for the olives, because I am sitting there reading like a first grader......  The part of town that we have moved to is much more traditional and not as western as before, so the women are covered more then on the west side of town.  One of my neighbors came down today to check her water meter that is inside our gate and she is fully covered with just the slit for her eyes to see.  How can I relate with these women?  Our lives are worlds apart....but yet we live with just a few walls in between us.  I so want to bridge that huge chasm in between us and find some common ground.