Go Pack!

We are so proud of and excited for our Wolfpack!  Way to go guys!  One of our friends gave us a cute Wolfpack outfit for Eliana to wear and it was too big during football season but I was hoping for a chance for her to wear it and our tournament win gave me the perfect opportunity.  It's still a bit big but it works.  Maybe we'll be able to use it again in the fall!  Go Pack!

Bruise!

Eliana officially got her first bruise yesterday!  I wish I could say it was from some daring attempt to climb the curtains, but she was just sitting on the floor in front of the table and lost her balance and whacked her forehead on the edge of the table.  It is a rounded edge so the damage was minimal, but she got a nice bruise and bump to show for it.  She later went on to do the same thing, a little more softly, a couple more times.  I hope she's not destined to a life of clumsiness like her mother!

Bow

Aunt Liv got Eliana a bow to wear with her dress for Uncle Blake's and Aunt Melissa's wedding but it was a bit big for her head back in November so we decided to wait until later for its debut. I was curious to see if her head had grown into the bow so I got it out last night and put it on for fun.  It's still a bit big but she somehow still manages to look cute in it!  The problem now is that she has figured out how to take her bows out of her hair so when the time comes to wear it, we'll see if she actually keeps it in her hair.


Thanks Aunt Liv!

Camera Fun

Drew had some fun taking pictures of Eiana on Saturday.  Not all of them are that great, but if you're especially interested in our cutie pie (i.e. grandmas and grandpas) here they are!

Answers

Well, a few of you (I think about 3 of you!) took me up on my language lesson challenge and those of you who tried did great!  Way to go and be brave enough to give me your guesses. For those of you who thought about it but just didn't tell me, here are the answers:

1.  Printer
2.  Scanner
3.  Cartridge
4.  Toner


So see, reading is easy!  Understanding, that's a whole other ball game!

Friends

Eliana has lots of friends around here.  Everyone just loves her and she really seems to enjoy most everyone, which is nice since people love picking her up and playing with her.


Here is Eliana with a young girl who comes to our apartment for tea and other small things as her family is very needy.  Eliana enjoyed sitting with her and playing.  I think it was sweet for both of them.

Рузӣ Модарон Муборак!

In other words...Happy Women's (Mother's) Day!  


Today is Women's Day and I took the opportunity to give gifts to some of our friends and share some scripture with them to remind them how much they are loved.  I made some chocolate chip cookies and gave each of them one of these:

This is John 3:16 and I had them laminated and they are on pink paper.  Hopefully they look nice enough to keep and read and be encouraged and maybe bring up more conversation in the future.  I'm excited for an easy opportunity to share about God's love for us!


What are you doing to share His love on holidays?  It's a great built-in opportunity!

I Love My Handyman Husband! (Also, a hint!)

After more than six weeks without an oven and with no word from the guy at the bazaar as to when the new glass will be in, Drew was able to think of a solution to our problem so I can use the oven again!  He is such an amazing handyman!  Here is what he came up with...

He wrapped the door in foil and secured with wire.  It works great and the foil actually gets less hot than the glass did.  Amazing!  I've already made quiche, brownies and cookies and it's working great!


What is that string hanging down you may ask?


Well, without the glass the door won't stay open on its own, so if I have something heavy it's a bit difficult to hold the door open and hold the food so I can attach the Velcro piece hanging from the string to my foot and then hold the door open while I put the food in.  Genius!


We really are hoping this won't have to be our solution for long and that the glass will come in.  If worse comes to worst, we renew our lease in April and can hopefully negotiate with the apartment owner for a new oven.  But for now we are living proof that the old adage, "Necessity is the mother of invention" is indeed true!


And for that hint I promised...if you are needing some help with my language lesson challenge, I can tell you that the last word is toner.  Does that help?

Language Lesson

So, the day we went out for our after snow walk we came across a sign that I thought that would be wonderful to use for a language learning lesson.  The Tajik alphabet is completely phonetic, which means each letter always sounds the same.  This makes reading so much easier than in English.  We do have some cognates (words that are the same in both English and Tajik) and so when the sign I saw had four great cognates on them I took a picture on wanted to share.

Here is the picture...

So the four words on the sign on the right are cognates we all know related to computer supplies/hardware.  All these things can be bought at this store- Computer Magazine (magazine means store).


So, here is my challenge- who can figure out what the words are and what letter means what?  Please ignore the last two letters on each word (ҳо) which are just the letters that make the words plural.  Keep in mind that each letter ALWAYS sounds the same so when you figure out one letter, you can know that it will sound the same in the other words.


I'll give you a couple of days and give you the answers!  You can do it!

Bathtime Hair

A few days ago, Drew had some fun styling Eliana's hair while she was in the bathtub.  I got a few pics and even though they aren't the greatest, I thought I'd share because as usual, she looked pretty cute!

Too Much Fun

Along with crawling, Eliana has learned how to stand up in her crib and this has made for interesting nap times the past couple of days, as sleeping isn't nearly as exciting as standing up and playing.  She did finally figure out how to sit back down this morning.  What an adventure!

Crawling!

Okay, here's the moment you all have been waiting for...Eliana on the move!  I did two videos and at the end of the second one she finally makes it to me and then wants to stand up but has a hard time with just one hand so we had to cut it short.  Enjoy!

Holding Loosely

I had an experience today that I thought might be worth sharing with you so you can have more insight into what life is like here.


So, any of you who know me at all, know that I am a planner to the core.  My life is so routine it would make most of you sick, but it is who I am.  Coming here I knew I would have to let that go somewhat, as life is just not nearly as predictable.  I have grown a lot and think I'm much more flexible and adaptable than I used to be.  For instance, take what happened today...


I had two things I needed to get done:  1.  Withdraw money from an ATM and get it exchanged into local currency and 2.  Go to this copy center and ask if I could get my Bible study book cut and rebound.  My plan was to do all of this in the 30 or so minutes I had before lunch at the office.  I was sure it could work.  Here was my plan:

1. Get Eliana up, nurse her, get her dressed, get us bundled in appropriate cold weather gear, put her in the carrier, leave apartment.
2. Go to the ATM in the building next to me and get money.
3. Backtrack to the building on the other side of ours and get the money exchanged.
4. Take a number 3 taxi up to the copy center.
5. Go into center and see if I can get my book fixed.  If so, leave it there to get fixed while I go eat lunch.
6. Walk to the office.

Here is what happened:

1. Got Eliana up, nursed her, got her dressed, got us bundled in appropriate cold weather gear, put her in the carrier, left apartment.
2. Went to closest ATM.  It is not turned on.
3. Walked to other building where exchange office is to see if there is an ATM at the bank there because I can't remember.  No ATM.
4. Start walking back to go to the bus stop because I only have enough change to ride a bus.
5. When walking by building with turned-off ATM notice there is another ATM inside the grocery store.  Go in store, put in card, push the correct buttons, get a message saying there is no money in the ATM.
6. Walk to the bus stop and ride all the way to the end of the line.  This takes much longer on a bus than in a taxi but since I don't have any money, I don't have a choice.  Eliana was entertained by some young boys talking to her at least.
7. Get off bus and walk to different bank with an ATM that is usually well-stocked.  Get money, go inside and get it changed.
8. Walk to office to have lunch.
9. After lunch I walked to the copy center and found out they couldn't fix my book.

So, how did I handle this?  It really didn't phase me at all.  I just rolled with the punches and got everything done.  I've faced situations like this so many times now that one of my plans might actually be my plan not working and figuring out how to handle it.  I don't always handle it so graciously but I'm thankful for how God has grown me and taught me while living here.  It's nice to actually see improvement in some areas of life sometimes, you know?

Anyway, I hope this gives you a bit of a glance into what life is like here.  Maybe it will encourage you to let God grow you in a certain area you might be struggling with as well. I hope so!

For those of you who persevered to the end of this monologue...here is a picture of our cutie (and the one who was looking right in my face the whole time I was going through this situation) and her crazy her.  Love her!

Enjoying the Weather

After our major snow this week the weather warmed up (probably in the mid-40s) and we got out and went for a walk yesterday.  We went to the center of town to get some pictures of the mountains.  The air wasn't perfectly clear but we still could see the mountains pretty well and got some good pictures.  It was also nice to just have some time together to relax and hang out.


This week we're supposed to have temps in the mid-upper 50s.  A girl can dream!