News this week.

Several things I keep thinking I want to blog about...

1. For those of you who have been asking...I am feeling much better. I have been taking an antibiotic since Thursday night which I'm sure has helped. I did come home from my weekend away to a husband with a head cold though!

2. Disney channel has come to Turkey! My kids were watching another cartoon network the other day and an anouncement came across the bottom of the screen. It said something about the Disney channel and four days later. I didn't actually read it myself, but responded to Will's excited remarks about what he read. He couldn't remember what it said exactly so I got on the computer and googled "Disney Channel in Turkey". He was right! Now my kids can watch Hannah Montana, The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, and many other favorite programs! I'm glad. I was so tired of the Japanese cartoons they were watching on the other station. Just in case you are wondering the Disney Channel can be watched in English or Turkish.

3. I went to a ladies retreat this past weekend and got several American goodies as gifts. The group that was hosting us brought quite a few treats to share with us. I came home with a box of macaroni and cheese, a blueberry muffin mix, and a box of Cheese Nips! I also got several packs of gum, some lip gloss, scented lotions, a cool water bottle, and a few other small items! It was lots of fun!

4. Yesterday I needed to make a dessert to bring to someone's house. I was supposed to go to the zoo with the third grade today, but I found a replacement so Jacob was sad. I told him that he could decide what I would make for the dessert hoping that would make him feel better. He decided on brownies with M&Ms in them. There is no such thing as a brownie mix here so I started looking for a brownie recipe. I found a recipe for Brownie Mounds that sounded easy. It seemed to be a basic brownie recipe, but instead of spreading the batter in a pan you just put spoonfuls of it on a cookie sheet and bake them. They only take 10 minutes to bake so it was considerably shorter as well. I put Turkish Bonibons in them because M&Ms are expensive here, and the kids loved them! I love finding new recipes!

5. Yesterday I subbed in the first grade at the kids' school. I didn't think anything about it. I was an elementary education major with an early childhood specialization. In the past two years I have subbed in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and even in some high school classes. This was my area...it should be a piece of cake. I mean how hard could it be? Well to answer my question...it was amazingly hard! There were 16 1st graders from 14 different countries! Wow! Most of them spoke English well enough for me to understand, but they had a hard time listening. I'm sure the regular teacher has things under control, because her lesson plans were great and very detailed. I'm sure they have to be! I think that diversity is a great thing, but when you have kids from Serbia, India, Romania, Turkey, USA, Finland, Jordan, Germany, Saudia Arabia, Nigeria, Iran, South Korea, Kazakhstan, and Japan in the same class things might just get a little out of hand!

Okay that's it. I am now caught up...or you're now caught up.