Today some of our Christmas packages arrived. It was great to get the gifts. We got packages from the Tovars, Jeff and Courtney and the boys, and Grandma Ulrich. I also got some scrap booking stuff. It was so very exciting. By far the most exciting thing that came for me was 3 cans of Diet Rite Red Raspberry Soda. Oh my gosh it's been so long. I haven't had one yet. I need to savor them for a bit. Tim got a Wii Pinball game and he is in seventh heaven. The boys got so Wii games, DS games, and some movies (many other things, too). Thank you everyone. It was just the right amount of stuff - not too much and some truly needed things as well.
As you can imagine our house has been busy with Wii activity tonight. There's not another soul in this house that will blog tonight other than me.
Lots of love,
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
A Little blogging
I'm in the midst of an insomnia episode and so while everyone else sleeps I thought I'd blog a bit.
First, on our trip to Sheki, yes I did have a million blankets on top of me but I also got additional blankets so the rest of the family could be warn, too. I was bitterly cold. The kind of cold that only those on blood thinners understand and I needed to get warm. The boys and Tim stayed as warm as I did and did not go to bed without blankets. I just wanted to get that off my chest.
We apparently have too many electrical items in our house now. The other night we were without power and water. When we woke up the next morning we were still without power and when our house cleaner called we still did not have power. We called the landlord and it appears we had literally fried the wire into our house and he would have to fix it. It is unclear to us because of the language barrier whether or not we knocked out the power to the entire neighborhood or if several things happened when the power went off. The school is looking into a voltage regulator for us and hopefully that will keep everything running smoothly. In the meantime we are using electric things very carefully and sparingly.
We have electricity now and water and hot water for that matter. All of these things at the same time. It's kind of an exciting thing. We haven't had all of those things at the same time in a while.
We still have not received any of the Christmas packages. With the snow in the US and the snow here I think that things are really, really backed up. One of the bummer things about not getting those packages yet is that Tim and I both have medicine in one of the packages...so hopefully at least that one will make it soon.
While I'm thinking about it. We don't seem to be able to really respond to the posts without responding through this blog. If you'd like to send us e-mail we could respond to something privately. Our email addresses are tim, heather, jt, or joshua@ulrichsoverseas.com. We love email, especially the boys.
It's quite the treat here so far to have very good fresh fruit and vegetables available. Last night we had a cioppino soup, as only Tim could do justice. It was made of fresh onion, tomatoe, cabbage, carrot, peppers (a couple of kinds) potatoes, fish and it was amazing. We go to the fresh vegetable market over the weekends and then have our house keeper chop up part of the the fresh items on Monday and then the rest on Wednesday or Thursday and then Tim makes the most wonderful and amazing foods for us. Those boys have yet to really appreciate that but their bodies will one day.
I can't think of much else going on. We are blessed and we are thankful everyday for this experience. I started Confirmation with the boys the other day. That are so interested in learning about the Bible. I feel so very fortunate that is the case and I'm going to try and milk it for all it's worth. We've been studying in the book of Luke and it was very fun to talk about the authorship and date of that Gospel and then relate it to our lives over here today. As you all know we went to Sheki and Kish a couple of weeks ago. Well the date given as the latest that the Kish church could have been established was 60 AD. The date generally settled on for the writing of the book of Luke is 60 AD. It was fun to have first hand experience to relate to the Bible. Hopefully that was good for them, too. What a privilege to worship Jesus. For people here to come to know Jesus they have to give up a lot. Being Muslim is a way of life and a heritage. To become Christian here is to give up family and heritage. We simply do not know how blessed we are to have religious freedom and a Christian heritage in the US. I pray that will always be the case. While studying about the church in Kish I learned that Islam was introduced to Azerbaijan as recently at the last 1800's. Prior to that it was a Christian area. Makes you take pause and think about what is and what could be.
We love you all!
First, on our trip to Sheki, yes I did have a million blankets on top of me but I also got additional blankets so the rest of the family could be warn, too. I was bitterly cold. The kind of cold that only those on blood thinners understand and I needed to get warm. The boys and Tim stayed as warm as I did and did not go to bed without blankets. I just wanted to get that off my chest.
We apparently have too many electrical items in our house now. The other night we were without power and water. When we woke up the next morning we were still without power and when our house cleaner called we still did not have power. We called the landlord and it appears we had literally fried the wire into our house and he would have to fix it. It is unclear to us because of the language barrier whether or not we knocked out the power to the entire neighborhood or if several things happened when the power went off. The school is looking into a voltage regulator for us and hopefully that will keep everything running smoothly. In the meantime we are using electric things very carefully and sparingly.
We have electricity now and water and hot water for that matter. All of these things at the same time. It's kind of an exciting thing. We haven't had all of those things at the same time in a while.
We still have not received any of the Christmas packages. With the snow in the US and the snow here I think that things are really, really backed up. One of the bummer things about not getting those packages yet is that Tim and I both have medicine in one of the packages...so hopefully at least that one will make it soon.
While I'm thinking about it. We don't seem to be able to really respond to the posts without responding through this blog. If you'd like to send us e-mail we could respond to something privately. Our email addresses are tim, heather, jt, or joshua@ulrichsoverseas.com. We love email, especially the boys.
It's quite the treat here so far to have very good fresh fruit and vegetables available. Last night we had a cioppino soup, as only Tim could do justice. It was made of fresh onion, tomatoe, cabbage, carrot, peppers (a couple of kinds) potatoes, fish and it was amazing. We go to the fresh vegetable market over the weekends and then have our house keeper chop up part of the the fresh items on Monday and then the rest on Wednesday or Thursday and then Tim makes the most wonderful and amazing foods for us. Those boys have yet to really appreciate that but their bodies will one day.
I can't think of much else going on. We are blessed and we are thankful everyday for this experience. I started Confirmation with the boys the other day. That are so interested in learning about the Bible. I feel so very fortunate that is the case and I'm going to try and milk it for all it's worth. We've been studying in the book of Luke and it was very fun to talk about the authorship and date of that Gospel and then relate it to our lives over here today. As you all know we went to Sheki and Kish a couple of weeks ago. Well the date given as the latest that the Kish church could have been established was 60 AD. The date generally settled on for the writing of the book of Luke is 60 AD. It was fun to have first hand experience to relate to the Bible. Hopefully that was good for them, too. What a privilege to worship Jesus. For people here to come to know Jesus they have to give up a lot. Being Muslim is a way of life and a heritage. To become Christian here is to give up family and heritage. We simply do not know how blessed we are to have religious freedom and a Christian heritage in the US. I pray that will always be the case. While studying about the church in Kish I learned that Islam was introduced to Azerbaijan as recently at the last 1800's. Prior to that it was a Christian area. Makes you take pause and think about what is and what could be.
We love you all!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
We are constantly amazed!
It has been almost 5 months that we have been here. We just got a dryer right before Christmas. An expat family moved to Saudi Arabia and was selling it for cheap. Oh, how I love dryers. You just can't imagine 4 plus months without a dryer. Oh, to have warm clothes in your hand and soft clothes at that. Thank you Lord for dryers.
About 3 weeks ago we got a toaster, too. Sliced bread is rather hard to find and square bread for that matter is hard to find so there was no real need for a toaster. We have a regular grocery store we shop at now and they generally have sliced bread. So it's great to wake up to eat toast.
Then last Saturday we got a TV. We are not planning to hook up to satellite or anything. We got the TV to watch movies on and so the boys could play the Wii. They haven't played it in probably 6 months and they have managed to survive. Well we got the TV and went to plug in the Wii and it wouldn't work. Tim has tried just about everything and finally today we found a European power cord for it and it works. The boys had to be on there best behavior and get the house straightened up and then they could play on the Wii. Well we turned on the Wii and it had to do updates. It is still doing updates and the boys are about to die. It's been over and hour and they are still waiting for it to finish. If we were in the states it would probably have been done a long time ago but because we have such terrible internet service it's a very long process. The boys are being very sweet about it though.
Jonathon and Joshua have been really great over here. Some days Tim and I just sit back and look at them and feel so proud. We went to Muslim temple (mosque) called Bibi Heybat. We had to take off our shoes when we went in and I had to wear a scarf over my head. This mosque is newly rebuilt (1998) having been destroyed in 1934 on order of Stalin. The original mosque was built in 1265. When we were at the mosque last week it was under construction/repair. When we walked out of one of the sacred rooms we had to walk out backwards. This "holy" room felt like a room of worship to Jonathon and so he said "I prayed to the one true God while I was in there." Even though we don't go to an organized church every Sunday he has a firm grasp on whose he is and that Jesus Christ is his Lord. I couldn't have been more pleased. God says He will never let you go and that where two or more are gathered in His name. Well that's us. We love Jesus very much and nothing has changed there.
It's bitterly cold here and everyone has on the winter coats, scarves, gloves and hats. Unless you are an expat it appears everyone bundles up with those must items. What amazes us is that most of the women wear fur coats and many hats, for both men and women, are made of some sort of fur. While we were in Sheki about 2 weeks ago. Tim purchased a traditional Muslim hat for respected elder men. Today when we were at our local watering hole "Finnegan's Pub" the waiter picked up Tim's hat and looked it over closely. He said the sheep (a special sheep from Uzbekistan) was no more that 2 months old and that it was a very high quality hat. Tim was pleased. Everyone tells us he looks Chechnyan which we are not sure is a good thing. He certainly passes for Russian with his hat and thick beard.
Other interesting/amazing things here are driving, clearing of roads when it snows and stoplights. We have commented before on the driving. It's a free for all with some rules. I'm really unclear of all of the rules even after 5 months. You use your horn a lot. Losing a horn is almost worse then losing your steering or a tire. It's used for everything. Just like ketchup...a food group unto itself. I digress. Also stoplights are red, yellow and green but when a light is flashing yellow the light is either getting ready to turn green or getting ready to turn red. You come to a stop when the light begins to flash green. Well...it seems to work. For the first time the other day we saw someone run a red light. The tickets cams would go broke here. Snowplows, which one would think would be readily available here are not. Frankly I've not seen a single snowplow. I've seen a few trackers with blades on the front but pretty much the city just comes to a stop until it melts. Weird.
Speaking of coming to a stop. We've been without heat or hot water since last Monday night. When it began to snow and got very cold our hot water heater quit working. Our heaters are run by hot water, too, so...no heat. Our dishes have stacked up a lot. Yesterday we did boil MANY pans of water and did the dishes but we are back to a large stack again today. We have two portable heaters and those are in the boys room. We have 4 room air conditioner/heater wall units. They only warm up to 30 C which is about 82 F but the house has never gotten that warm...never, ever, ever with those units. All of us got new warm pajamas from Mimi and Pa Danner for Christmas and we have pretty much been living in them under blankets, staying up late and sleeping in VERY late. We figure next week we should probably get back on some sort of a routine or we will never be able to get back up at 5 AM for school, which is our normal time.
We have been using some of our friends driver for the last couple of days. Our drivers car is tiny and he doesn't have very good tires. In the mess of weather we have had this past week that just won't work. Rauf is the substitute driver. He has driven for the school and many families for years. He's a very nice many and his short van Fiat is a dream compared to our little compact we usually ride in. It rides very smoothly and he's not afraid of the weather at all. It was nice to get out yesterday and run a few errands. Water and other goods only last for so long and it was time to restock. Today, Tim and I just wanted a little us time and so we went to Finnegan's for awhile. They know us there. It's and Irish pub with Guinness beer on draft. Tim is oh so very happy there. I enjoy the quiet during the day, the English speaking waiters and the alone time. Their English breakfast isn't too bad either.
I have high hopes of getting some new pictures up on this blog soon. With this internet it's very hard to upload them. I may just upload a few from the last week or two and then work backwards for awhile little by little. We love you all and miss you all but we are having a good time. Our priorities have been rearranged and we have a lot of family time and rest. Those are all good things I think. We will see how we reacclimate to the US next summer.
About 3 weeks ago we got a toaster, too. Sliced bread is rather hard to find and square bread for that matter is hard to find so there was no real need for a toaster. We have a regular grocery store we shop at now and they generally have sliced bread. So it's great to wake up to eat toast.
Then last Saturday we got a TV. We are not planning to hook up to satellite or anything. We got the TV to watch movies on and so the boys could play the Wii. They haven't played it in probably 6 months and they have managed to survive. Well we got the TV and went to plug in the Wii and it wouldn't work. Tim has tried just about everything and finally today we found a European power cord for it and it works. The boys had to be on there best behavior and get the house straightened up and then they could play on the Wii. Well we turned on the Wii and it had to do updates. It is still doing updates and the boys are about to die. It's been over and hour and they are still waiting for it to finish. If we were in the states it would probably have been done a long time ago but because we have such terrible internet service it's a very long process. The boys are being very sweet about it though.
Jonathon and Joshua have been really great over here. Some days Tim and I just sit back and look at them and feel so proud. We went to Muslim temple (mosque) called Bibi Heybat. We had to take off our shoes when we went in and I had to wear a scarf over my head. This mosque is newly rebuilt (1998) having been destroyed in 1934 on order of Stalin. The original mosque was built in 1265. When we were at the mosque last week it was under construction/repair. When we walked out of one of the sacred rooms we had to walk out backwards. This "holy" room felt like a room of worship to Jonathon and so he said "I prayed to the one true God while I was in there." Even though we don't go to an organized church every Sunday he has a firm grasp on whose he is and that Jesus Christ is his Lord. I couldn't have been more pleased. God says He will never let you go and that where two or more are gathered in His name. Well that's us. We love Jesus very much and nothing has changed there.
It's bitterly cold here and everyone has on the winter coats, scarves, gloves and hats. Unless you are an expat it appears everyone bundles up with those must items. What amazes us is that most of the women wear fur coats and many hats, for both men and women, are made of some sort of fur. While we were in Sheki about 2 weeks ago. Tim purchased a traditional Muslim hat for respected elder men. Today when we were at our local watering hole "Finnegan's Pub" the waiter picked up Tim's hat and looked it over closely. He said the sheep (a special sheep from Uzbekistan) was no more that 2 months old and that it was a very high quality hat. Tim was pleased. Everyone tells us he looks Chechnyan which we are not sure is a good thing. He certainly passes for Russian with his hat and thick beard.
Other interesting/amazing things here are driving, clearing of roads when it snows and stoplights. We have commented before on the driving. It's a free for all with some rules. I'm really unclear of all of the rules even after 5 months. You use your horn a lot. Losing a horn is almost worse then losing your steering or a tire. It's used for everything. Just like ketchup...a food group unto itself. I digress. Also stoplights are red, yellow and green but when a light is flashing yellow the light is either getting ready to turn green or getting ready to turn red. You come to a stop when the light begins to flash green. Well...it seems to work. For the first time the other day we saw someone run a red light. The tickets cams would go broke here. Snowplows, which one would think would be readily available here are not. Frankly I've not seen a single snowplow. I've seen a few trackers with blades on the front but pretty much the city just comes to a stop until it melts. Weird.
Speaking of coming to a stop. We've been without heat or hot water since last Monday night. When it began to snow and got very cold our hot water heater quit working. Our heaters are run by hot water, too, so...no heat. Our dishes have stacked up a lot. Yesterday we did boil MANY pans of water and did the dishes but we are back to a large stack again today. We have two portable heaters and those are in the boys room. We have 4 room air conditioner/heater wall units. They only warm up to 30 C which is about 82 F but the house has never gotten that warm...never, ever, ever with those units. All of us got new warm pajamas from Mimi and Pa Danner for Christmas and we have pretty much been living in them under blankets, staying up late and sleeping in VERY late. We figure next week we should probably get back on some sort of a routine or we will never be able to get back up at 5 AM for school, which is our normal time.
We have been using some of our friends driver for the last couple of days. Our drivers car is tiny and he doesn't have very good tires. In the mess of weather we have had this past week that just won't work. Rauf is the substitute driver. He has driven for the school and many families for years. He's a very nice many and his short van Fiat is a dream compared to our little compact we usually ride in. It rides very smoothly and he's not afraid of the weather at all. It was nice to get out yesterday and run a few errands. Water and other goods only last for so long and it was time to restock. Today, Tim and I just wanted a little us time and so we went to Finnegan's for awhile. They know us there. It's and Irish pub with Guinness beer on draft. Tim is oh so very happy there. I enjoy the quiet during the day, the English speaking waiters and the alone time. Their English breakfast isn't too bad either.
I have high hopes of getting some new pictures up on this blog soon. With this internet it's very hard to upload them. I may just upload a few from the last week or two and then work backwards for awhile little by little. We love you all and miss you all but we are having a good time. Our priorities have been rearranged and we have a lot of family time and rest. Those are all good things I think. We will see how we reacclimate to the US next summer.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Lots of things I did from Christmas to New Year's!!!!!
My Christmas! I went to Sheki a place far from Baku. What I did in Sheki!! We ( my family ) stayed in a hotel called Karvansari on the silk road. It was very cold. My Mom had 16 blankets piled on her. The bricks were not in place and the only thing that was warming us up was the fire. We went to 4 museums. Two of them were art museums and 2 of them were history museums. When we were walking to it our hotel person was guiding us and showing us were stuff was. Our driver Telman then started a snowball fight and threw a snowball at my mom. Then my mom threw a snowball back and then me and my brother threw snowballs at Telman our driver. Then we went to a Khan's palace. There was "shebakae" stained glass and it was hotter in the Khan's palace then in the hotel that we stayed in. There was a taxi driver we hired for about 3 hours. He brought us up to Kish but there was too much ice. We went to a Christian church that has been turned into a museum right now. It had bones of people and animals and different kind of pottery. It was beautiful but still very cold. Then we went back to the hotel and we got our stuff and that was what we did in Sheki.
Our Christmas gifts!!! We got 4 Christmas gifts; one for me, one for Jonathon, one for my Mom and one for Dad. We all got pajamas and robes. Me and my brother got candy dispensers. On the top there was a dog and a cat with a button on their head. When you pressed it it did a song. The dogs song was a lower song and the cats was a higher song. At the very end of the song the cat meows 4 times and the dog barks 3 times. When it sings the songs it's feet move and it walks. We also got a gravity defier that can do tricks like you can make it a round circle and you can crawl through it. You can make it look like it's walking a dog. You can make it do lots of other things but those are some of the easier things. We got a present that was bracelets/necklaces. There were 2 pairs of them. One was darker and one was lighter of the pairs. One said Jesus is my life in Russian and one said Jesus in Russian and Jesus in English and had a Christian symbol fish. We also got stuffed animals for Christmas. I got three games and my brother got 1 game. My brother also got a big pack of football cards. I would say 4 or 5 inches long. Just as much football cards as baseball cards.
When we got back from Kish we sang Christmas carols, We sang Christmas carols and played them on a piano we have. I know how to play piano. I played "Jingle Bells" and a harder "Jingle Bells". My Mom played all of the songs and then Jonathon played "O Christmas Tree" and "We wish you a Merry Christmas".
New Years Eve!!!! The Azeri's had Christmas today and they don't exactly celebrate New Years's that is when they celebrate Christmas and open presents and light fireworks and firecrackers, too.
Our Christmas gifts!!! We got 4 Christmas gifts; one for me, one for Jonathon, one for my Mom and one for Dad. We all got pajamas and robes. Me and my brother got candy dispensers. On the top there was a dog and a cat with a button on their head. When you pressed it it did a song. The dogs song was a lower song and the cats was a higher song. At the very end of the song the cat meows 4 times and the dog barks 3 times. When it sings the songs it's feet move and it walks. We also got a gravity defier that can do tricks like you can make it a round circle and you can crawl through it. You can make it look like it's walking a dog. You can make it do lots of other things but those are some of the easier things. We got a present that was bracelets/necklaces. There were 2 pairs of them. One was darker and one was lighter of the pairs. One said Jesus is my life in Russian and one said Jesus in Russian and Jesus in English and had a Christian symbol fish. We also got stuffed animals for Christmas. I got three games and my brother got 1 game. My brother also got a big pack of football cards. I would say 4 or 5 inches long. Just as much football cards as baseball cards.
When we got back from Kish we sang Christmas carols, We sang Christmas carols and played them on a piano we have. I know how to play piano. I played "Jingle Bells" and a harder "Jingle Bells". My Mom played all of the songs and then Jonathon played "O Christmas Tree" and "We wish you a Merry Christmas".
New Years Eve!!!! The Azeri's had Christmas today and they don't exactly celebrate New Years's that is when they celebrate Christmas and open presents and light fireworks and firecrackers, too.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Stuff I've been doing this winter!
It's been a long time since I have written and there is a lot to write about. First, I will tell you about how my new classes are going. My classes are going good and I got good grades on my report card. Even though I'm in 7th grade which is probably a step up from the 6th grade challenge program I would have been in back in Seattle, I think I'm in the right spot. The only class that I've had trouble with has been writing. That is something that I was struggling with in the 6th grade program. However, I did get an "A" in my writing class which I am very happy about.
Second, I've made friends in my class and here are their names even though they might seem a little odd: Aditya B., Aditya M., Radu, Tengiz, and Tomoyuki. Both Adityas are from India and they speak Hindi, Radu is from Romania and speaks Romanian (before moving up to middle school I'd been friends with his younger brother Danny), Tengiz is from Azerbaijan and speaks Azeri and Russian, and Tomoyuki is from Japan and speaks Japanese even though he doesn't like to share it with us. Of course they all speak English a little bit, because Tengiz is in Intenstive English (IE), Tomoyuki and Radu still need help every once in awhile.
Third, for part of Christmas break we went to Sheki, it took 5 hours to get there from Baku. While there we stayed at a hotel called the Karvansari. The Karvansari was actually a place for the caravans of the Silk Road to stop and rest. In other words not much restoration was done because it was so freakishly cold inside. Mom stole all of the blankets which meant everyone else was freezing. In Sheki we went to a bazaar that had a Santa costume sadly places right next to it was a severed sheep head. Of course I had the pleasure of looking at the sheep head...and feeling like I was going to vomit. Also there we went to many museums where we got to do things that we would have been arrested for in the states such as our driver sitting on a bed that was several hundred years old and there were silks, etc from that time on the bed. We sat in a buggy from several hundred years ago. We can't remember who sat in it or why but we know it was somewhat important. Also we were able to put on medieval armor such as helmets with chain mail, a shield that we believe was old, too. Our driver wore an orange wig that looked like an afro. Our driver also took a gun off the wall and put the strap around his neck and was looking at it when the tour guide told him something, we don't know what she said, immediately following our driver looked at the gun and slowly tried to put it back on the wall. We went and saw stained glass windows being made which was cool and finally we went to the Khan Palace and saw the beautiful place.
Finally, for Christmas day we had a breakfast of chocolate chip muffins and strawberry cheesecake muffins sent from Mimi and Pa and Uncle Cody and Aunt Alona. We opened presents from Mom and Dad and currently we are still waiting for the other packages to come. That night we watched a movie and had a very good meal. Also, the weather here has been erratic. We've had lots of slush and rain but finally it has started to snow...a lot. There is probably a foot of snow outside right now but it's not snowing anymore, probably because it is too cold.
Well, that's all for now but my Mom says I will be writing more tomorrow. Ugh...
Second, I've made friends in my class and here are their names even though they might seem a little odd: Aditya B., Aditya M., Radu, Tengiz, and Tomoyuki. Both Adityas are from India and they speak Hindi, Radu is from Romania and speaks Romanian (before moving up to middle school I'd been friends with his younger brother Danny), Tengiz is from Azerbaijan and speaks Azeri and Russian, and Tomoyuki is from Japan and speaks Japanese even though he doesn't like to share it with us. Of course they all speak English a little bit, because Tengiz is in Intenstive English (IE), Tomoyuki and Radu still need help every once in awhile.
Third, for part of Christmas break we went to Sheki, it took 5 hours to get there from Baku. While there we stayed at a hotel called the Karvansari. The Karvansari was actually a place for the caravans of the Silk Road to stop and rest. In other words not much restoration was done because it was so freakishly cold inside. Mom stole all of the blankets which meant everyone else was freezing. In Sheki we went to a bazaar that had a Santa costume sadly places right next to it was a severed sheep head. Of course I had the pleasure of looking at the sheep head...and feeling like I was going to vomit. Also there we went to many museums where we got to do things that we would have been arrested for in the states such as our driver sitting on a bed that was several hundred years old and there were silks, etc from that time on the bed. We sat in a buggy from several hundred years ago. We can't remember who sat in it or why but we know it was somewhat important. Also we were able to put on medieval armor such as helmets with chain mail, a shield that we believe was old, too. Our driver wore an orange wig that looked like an afro. Our driver also took a gun off the wall and put the strap around his neck and was looking at it when the tour guide told him something, we don't know what she said, immediately following our driver looked at the gun and slowly tried to put it back on the wall. We went and saw stained glass windows being made which was cool and finally we went to the Khan Palace and saw the beautiful place.
Finally, for Christmas day we had a breakfast of chocolate chip muffins and strawberry cheesecake muffins sent from Mimi and Pa and Uncle Cody and Aunt Alona. We opened presents from Mom and Dad and currently we are still waiting for the other packages to come. That night we watched a movie and had a very good meal. Also, the weather here has been erratic. We've had lots of slush and rain but finally it has started to snow...a lot. There is probably a foot of snow outside right now but it's not snowing anymore, probably because it is too cold.
Well, that's all for now but my Mom says I will be writing more tomorrow. Ugh...
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
My, oh my, how time does fly!
Tim and I were just talking tonight how about a year ago at this time we found out about Quality Schools International (QSI). That seriously seems like yesterday. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we can hardly believe it is November. Things truly are very different in a foreign country. We are having a Thanksgiving lunch at school tomorrow. School is still in session. Then we are having a big Thanksgiving dinner for all of the staff and their families on Friday night at school. We priced turkeys here. A 10-12 pound Butterball turkey is $55. We didn't buy it. Fortunately that is something that the school does splurge on and we are very excited about that. I will miss Mom and Dad's stuffing. There is no pork sausage available here. No one eats pork. I'm rather bummed about that. I will really miss the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, but I might be able to find it online somewhere. Living overseas you really discover what you are thankful for. We are so thankful for all of you. We love you and miss you all but we know we are in the right place. I pray we are being molded to be used the way God wants us to be. I know we are trying to listen to and for His voice. We love you all so much. We wish for you all a wonderful Thanksgiving. Even though we aren't there in body, we will be there in Spirit. Happy Thanksgiving from each of us. Love, Tim, Heather, Jonathon and Joshua
Sunday, November 23, 2008
What I've been doing
Hello people! I want to tell you what I have been doing over the past few weeks! I became a middle school student. They moved me up because the school realized that ( of course I already knew this) I am super duper smart! Woooooooooooo-Hoooooooooo! See, I already knew that I had smartical particles in my brainacal! So, in middle school it isn't too much different from the 6th grade, except for the fact that I now have 7 periods instead of 6. My schedule is as follows: Earth Science, Language Arts, Break, Foreign Language, Math, Lunch, Literature, Cultural Studies, and 7th period on Monday and Wednesday is Drama, Tuesday and Thursday is Typing, and on Friday I have Homeroom and Assembly. So, being a middle school student isn't ver scary to me at all! In fact, it's even more fun.
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