Our first meal in America...Pork

For me...biscuits and gravy with a side of sausage


For Brian...a sausage and cheese omelet with salsa


For Will...a double decker BLT

The other kids had items that didn't contain any pork so I didn't take pictures of those. I do have to say that Anna Grace and Jacob had pancakes and commented that they liked mine better than IHOP's.

One of us got glasses

Jacob recently complained of having trouble seeing the board at school so we decided to make an eye doctor appointment for him while we were in the states. He went to see Dr. Glenz, the eye doctor I went to in 7th grade when I first needed glasses. They asked him to read the eye chart, and he was a complete failure at it. Yep, he needed glasses. Of course I took pictures of him sitting in the chair contemplating his fate.

The finished product. Pretty handsome if I do say so myself!

(Sorry Brenda...you were wrong this time! Oh, and expect a Pappadeaux's blog soon!)

Trying something...

One of my favorite shirts. I thought I would try to just copy pictures from my camera to blogspot without saving them on my computer. If it works I am in the blogging business!

Blogs

Just a note to tell you that I want to blog. I have many things to share. I just don't have any way to put pictures with my stories yet. I ordered a new computer and am waiting for it to show up. Not very patiently I might add. Until it does blogs will be scarce. I will tease you with topics I hope to blog about in the near future though...

one of us got glasses
bike riding
nature trails
christmas tree farm
friends
cookie decorating
family
new shoes
food
fish frys

Ok...so they don't sound that exciting, but they will be...they will be.

Thanks for flying with us.

Flying for a full day with kids is never fun. Believe me I know. Now that my youngest is 8 flights are never really a problem. I can put my headphones on and tell the kids that I am taking a nap and they will leave me alone. It is nice!

To get to America we had to take three flights. The first leg of our trip was Ankara to Munich, Germany. This flight left at 6am and contained several families of Americans going to the states for Christmas. They decided to group us all at the back of the plane...not sure why...maybe so we could talk to each other. A family with four small children sat behind us. Next to us sat a family with 2 kids. These two families knew each other so there was quite a bit of conversation between these little kids. We heard about visiting grandma and seeing the dog, Bruno, that was the favorite dog in the whole world. We heard about Santa coming and how he knew they would be at grandma's house so he would bring their presents there. But, most of all, we heard lots of ohhhhs and ahhhhhs. When the plane started down the runway...ohhhhhhhh. As we were lifting into the air...ahhhhhhhhs. Every turn, every slight movement was accompanied by lots of noise from these children. You would have thought we were on a rollercoaster ride. The funny thing is it was probably the smoothest flight I have ever been on. So normal and easy...really no need for any ohhhhhs and ahhhhs. At one point the lights were turned off and it was quite dark in the plane. One little girl piped up, "I know why they turned off the lights. It's 'cause everyone is sleeping." To which Anna Grace replied under her breath, "well, I have a good idea. If everyone is sleeping why don't you be quiet." I just about choked on my water.

2nd leg...Munich to Chicago. Nothing to report...9 hours of flying, no loud children, good naps, good music, no complaints.

3rd leg...Chicago to Houston. By this point we were all getting delirious. I was trying to make my kids eat dried peas from my snack mix. They were refusing so I was telling them the fine points of why you should eat your vegetables. Delirium had definitely set it. The flight attendent asked where we were traveling from and when she heard Turkey she did everything she could to make this last flight comfortable. Cups of ice for our drinks...because they can do that here. We won't get sick from drinking cold coke. I must admit though that I wasn't used to icy cold beverages. As good as it tasted I had to pace myself. It was a brain freeze waiting to happen. Not long after we received our cups of ice and full cans of coke our plane, which had been having quite a bumpy time of it lurched to one side and then headed down. Hmmmmmm....it's not time to land so why are we in what seems to be somewhat of a controlled nosedive? We had to hang onto our drinks so they wouldn't slide off of our tray tables. Glancing back we saw that the flight attendents were strapped in so we knew something must be going on. My kids were looking at me to explain our sudden descent. I had no idea what was happening and told them that as soon as they could someone would tell us something. After several minutes of this the plane evened out and the pilot came on to tell us what happened. Evidently our plane's pressure system failed so they brought us down to 10,000 feet to keep from having to use the little masks that fall from the ceiling. They never could get it back up and running so we flew low the rest of the flight. And let me tell you...the manual pressure system is terrible. The ear popping and uncomfortable feeling had Erica and Anna Grace in tears. I was still in a state of delirium and the boys were trying to sleep. One guy sitting a couple of rows ahead of us kept turning around and giving me the report he was hearing on his headphones from the control tower. "We are going back up to 23,000 feet to see if we can keep up the pressure." "No, the system is not working." "They are trying to decide if we have enough fuel to make it to Houston or if we will have to land and change planes somewhere along the way." "There is enough fuel because they added extra in Chicago." It went on like this the rest of the flight. The flight attendent told me that when you fly at a lower altitude it takes longer and it uses more fuel. Hmmm...I didn't know that. She said that for our sakes she hoped we didn't have to divert to "Timbuktu". I almost died laughing. All I could think about was my blog post talking about not knowing where to buy anything in Timbuktu. I can't land there. Thankfully we made it...a little late...but we made it.

We are here.

We have arrived in America. I have stories to tell, but I really don't feel like telling them now. I will say that I haven't been hungry at all since I got here. So much food. So little time to eat it all. Now if you will excuse me I need to run around the block a few times!

Merry Christmas!

In about 14 hours we will be leaving our house for the airport to begin our journey to America. This will be the last blog post (I think) until we arrive and have something blogworthy to say. I will have my camera with me on the trip back, and knowing me I'm sure I will find something interesting to take a picture of. It might only be interesting to me...but hey it is my blog so I'll blog about what I want!

And speaking of what interests me, my wonderfully sweet husband gave me my Christmas gift early, because he didn't want to try to bring it to America and then back to Turkey. Here I am with my bongos! Ok...gotta go play with my new toy!

To squat or not

While at breakfast this morning I took a little trip to the restroom. I really didn't need to go, but because I had used this restroom before I knew how fancy it was. I had to take a video of the toilet! This is to show all of you who are scared to visit, because you are worried about having to use squatty potties that Turkey does have normal toilets as well! I also took a picture of the sink. This is one bathroom where the only things you have to touch are the toilet paper and yourself! The sink starts automatically and water pours over the glass plate. The paper towel dispenser releases the perfect amount of towel to dry your hands on.



I was talking quietly in the video, because I worried what people would think about the crazy American talking to herself in the stall! Thankfully the stall was completely enclosed by a floor to ceiling wall and door...but still!



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To compare this toilet with a squatty see the post here.

Breakfast

This morning Brian and I went to breakfast with our friends, Steve and Meryam. We leave tomorrow for America, and by the time we get back they will have moved to Australia for 18 months. I know I have recently put pictures of them on the blog...but since I took pictures of our last meal together I decided to show them again!




And because it's not a true breakfast blog without pictures of food...here's what we ate!


I had the fried cheese plate again...yummy!


Brian had a chicken and mushroom crepe. Sure, it's a breakfast food...

ready or not...

i am sitting here staring at my computer...thinking of all the things i should be doing instead. i am being lazy. so lazy in fact that i am not even shifting to make capital letters where there should be capital letters. (if you ever get emails from me...this shouldn't be new to you...i don't usually capitalize in them either...and i had to press the shift button to put the parenthesis around this bit of info so i used a little extra effort for you there.)

what i should be doing...washing out the action packers that we will be taking back to the states. they are kept on the balcony and always need rinsing before anything can be put in them. at this point they are still on the balcony collecting dust. i need to start packing for our three week trip to america. we leave in three days and i haven't packed a thing. not a thing. and i haven't even made a list of things i don't want to forget to take with me...which is completely not like me. i may not ever get much of a head start on packing, but i usually have a running list of things i don't want to forget to bring or forget to do before i leave. no list...not even a thought of what should be on that list.

thankfully i didn't plan on doing any christmas shopping here before i leave. i am leaving all present buying for america. i did get one thing for a friend who has never had the privilege of an authentic turkish gift, but other than that...no shopping in turkey. that will make for some fun-filled days after we arrive in houston!

so here i sit. thinking that tomorrow is prayer meeting, and then i am meeting a friend for her wedding dress fitting. on friday i have breakfast plans with friends so that really only leaves today totally free to pack and think about what i need to pack. yet here i sit. it is noon and i still haven't packed a thing. my honest thoughts are...america...they have everything there. i can get new shampoo, hairbrushes, underwear, shoes...if i forget to pack them. it's not like i am going to timbuktu where i might have a harder time finding the stuff i like. i'm sure they have shampoo, hairbrushes, underwear and shoes, but would i even know where to look there? no. can i speak koyra chiini to even be able to ask where those things are? no. (shifting again to tell you that i used a little extra effort to look up the language they speak in timbuktu since i honestly had no idea.) in america target is my friend. i can find everything i need at target. and i know where at least four targets are in proximity to where i will be. and if i can't find what i am looking for i will probably be able to find someone who speaks english to ask.

ok...i'm going now. not to pack. just to get a drink. all this typing has made me thirsty.

Update

Updates from the week...

1. Our heater was fixed. We had the guy scheduled to come out at 2pm on Saturday when Brian would be home, but he showed up at 11:30 instead so he had to deal with me...or I had to deal with him. He was nicer than normal, but I still felt stupid. At one point he was telling me to "petek bakibilirmisin?" I kept trying to figure out the word petek. I knew that he wanted me to look at something, but what in the heck is a petek. He finally pointed at the radiator. I felt it and it was cold. Ok...I thought those were called "kalorifer"...that's what we call them. The next time he asked me to check it I knew what he meant by petek. I have since looked up the word petek in my Turkish/English dictionary and it has four meanings.
1. honeycomb
2. disk-shaped piece of cheese opium
3. the part of the minaret between the seref and the kulah
4. granary made of mud.
Nothing about a radiator! Ok then...I guess a radiator has a sort of honeycomb appearance. Man!

2. Will is still sick. He missed school today and will be home again tomorrow. He threw-up after taking medicine this morning, and since then has only eaten bread. At 6:45 he said 'goodnight' and went to bed. Poor kid!

3. I think I need to retake 6th grade science. Will's teacher was nice and sent homework home so he doesn't get behind while he is sick. One of the things he needed to do was read two sections of chapter 6. I read part of it to him since he wasn't feeling well. I had no idea what it was talking about.

4. I am almost done with my one year bible. I stuck it out! I can't believe it. I will finish it by Friday so that I don't have to take it with me to America.

5. We go to America on Saturday. That's only 5 days away! What should I pack? Hmmmm...bring clothes or buy new?

for fun

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet, current car): Lady Hyundai

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME (fave ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe): Chocolate Flip Flops

3. YOUR NATIVE AMERICAN NAME (favorite color, favorite animal): Red Cat

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, city where you were born): Frances New Orleans

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 of your first name): Dixna

6. SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color, favorite drink):Yellow Diet Coke

7. NASCAR NAME (the first names of your grandfathers): William Albert

8. STRIPPER NAME (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy): Cinnamon Reeses

9. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Rawling Richmond

10. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower): Spring Daisy

11. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now): Strawberry Slippers

12. HIPPIE NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Granola Dogwood

Nat, Abby, Nat, Brian

Nat and Abby came over today for lunch and hanging out time. I decided we needed to do a photo shoot. Here are two of the pictures. There were some funnier ones, but as soon as I put them on the computer I realized how blurry they were! And now they're gone so we can't retake them. Oh well. On January 27 Nat and Abby are getting married! Yea!

Just pictures.

The three amigos. Erica refused to be a fourth amigo...she is 14...that's embarrassing.


A local fish market. There are lots of these around town. In the winter I really wouldn't have a problem buying from them...but in the summer...even though the fish are on ice...I have a few issues with it. Yuck!

Party till you drop.

Will's birthday celebration continued today with a pizza party at our house. Originally we were going to do a pizza party at the military base in town and then have a rousing game of flag football. Unfortunately the weather didn't really cooperate this week. After raining everyday this past week we decided to forego the flag football for some games at home. We played the pass the orange using only your neck game, a remember what you saw game, and the name game. The boys had fun, and I was tired when all was said and done.

Will and Jacob passing an orange using only their necks.

Mason and Josh passing the orange.

Will a.k.a. "panties" and Josh a.k.a. "happy place" have fun playing the name game.

Mason and Sam...

Will enjoying all the money he found in his birthday cards!

One of Will's favorite presents. Two kids' families have base access and they knew that Will loved Dr. Pepper. I told Will he didn't even have to share.

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Happy Birthday...Turkish style!

By the end of the party Will wasn't feeling well. He had come home from basketball practice complaining about having a headache and his throat hurting. He added a jacket about halfway through the party, and by this picture was feeling really weak and had a 102.4 temperature. Hmmmm....glad we exposed all those kids to whatever he was coming down with!

Ode to Jello

I've been thinking a lot about jello lately. It started over Thanksgiving when my friend, Lisa, made a strawberry jello salad kind of thing. It had a pretzel crust, a layer of cream cheesy whipped cream, and strawberries mixed in strawberry jello on top. It was delicious! Then we started talking about the many jello salads that are served with holiday meals. There's the clear jello one filled with celery, carrots and nuts. Sweet...but more salad like in taste. Jello salads can also be made with marshmallows, cottage cheese, a variety of fruits, mayonaise, and salad dressing. Some people consider them a side dish while others think of them as more of a dessert type item. We took a poll of the 6 adults in the house, and I think we came out even on the dessert vs. side dish debate. Our jello salad was eaten with the main meal even though I would have technically called it a dessert...it was too sweet and decadent to be anything else!

And since Thanksgiving there have been several other jello moments. So I decided to write this post.

Lemon, Lime, Berry Blue, Grape, Raspberry, Strawberry-Banana, Wild Strawberry, Black Cherry, Cranberry, Cherry, Mixed Fruit, Strawberry, Strawberry-Kiwi, Watermelon, Peach, Orange, Apricot, Cranberry-Raspberry, Pineapple, Green Apple, Margarita, Piña Colada, Strawberry Daiquiri, Fruit Fiesta, Melon Fusion, Tropical Fusion...all jello flavors!

And you can mix the jello powder with 7-up or ginger ale to make a sparkling version of this yummy treat!

Hmmm...such a versatile food item that jello. I can't even tell you how many recipes I found for jello when I looked. You can sneak jello into almost anything and not even realize it!

I love jello. Mostly as a dessert. Lime jello is my favorite...the combination of sweet and sour topped with whipped cream...yum. And like their campaign slogan says..."There's Always Room for Jell-O."

I am cold.

Our house is cold. Our heater keeps shutting off. I have no idea why, but it is driving me crazy. I need Brian to call the guy to come fix it so he can schedule it to happen when he is at home. The heater repairman has very little respect for women. Actually he doesn't seem to have much respect for Brian either, but they at least have the whole guy thing in common.



A few pictures of our situation. We have a heating unit that we control. We decide how warm we want it to be. The great thing about it is that as soon as it gets cold we can turn on our heat. If the weather warms back up we can turn it off. Many of our friends have heating units that are controlled by the building manager. They can turn their radiators off if they get too hot, but if it gets too cold they just have to wait until the powers that be turn them on. Notice the little reddish orange light on ours. That means it has turned itself off. Again!



This is how I was dressed in our house today. It was freezing because our heater wouldn't stay on. Notice that Brian had on just a long sleeve shirt. He thought it felt fine.



This is how I looked when we visited our friends tonight. They have building controlled heat. It felt so nice to be able to take off my jacket. Notice Brian's rolled up sleeves and opened shirt...ok...he opened his shirt just for the picture, but he did roll his sleeves up for real.

Happy Birthday, Will!

Yesterday was Will's 12th birthday. I can't believe he's that old. We are planning a party for him on Saturday, but he requested that I make a white cake with a blue star (Dallas Cowboy fan that he is) for yesterday. He wanted me to bring it up to the school during snack time to share with his class. Ok...not too hard.


The cake...I must say it looked much nicer before being covered with foil and transported to the school. Oh well, it still tasted good!


Being nice and letting his mother take his picture. When he turned 3 he cried when we took his picture and sang happy birthday. He hated all the attention! Now I just get a smirk...much better.


Yes, poor kid, he is the shortest 12 year old in the class. Actually a couple of these kids are only 11, and the kid on the far right is only 10. At least Will's got a good sense of humor. Being known as the short kid is one thing, but being known as the funny one is better!


The girls. I tried to get Will to stand with them, but they all squealed about that...and when I say all I mean the boys, too. Good grief...maybe when he's 13 being surrounded by girls will be more appealing.

Cup-O-Corn

Something that has popped up everywhere here in the last 6 months. Corn stands. Basically you buy a cup of whole kernal corn and season it with any number of spices or flavored butters. We were at the mall last night, and I decided I wanted to take a picture of a corn stand. Brian approached the guys working there and tried to explain to them why I wanted a picture. And really...why would I want a picture? Only to blog about it. But how do you tell that to two Turkish guys working hard at selling said corn? He tried to explain that our friends in America would love to hear about corn stands. They would find it oddly appealing...selling cups of corn as a snack. It is a healthy alternative to what Americans normally purchase when they are walking through the mall and decide to have a snack...a cookie from Great American Cookie Co. Basically, like the corn they serve, he buttered them up so I can serve them to you. Get your hot, fresh, cup-o-corn blog post here!


(Maybe they have corn stands in America, and I am just clueless...wouldn't be the first time!)

For more on the Cup-O-Corn stands see this more recent post!

Font issues!

I am having trouble with my blog. Lately when I've added pictures the words seem to get all scrunched up and hard to read. So in my last post I made the font size bigger. This bothers me somewhat, but when compared to the size of what I am writing now I think it's for the best. And no...I don't need glasses. I could read it just fine before. I just hated how it looked and no matter how many times I edited it I couldn't get it to stay fixed. Be prepared for more large font blogs in the future!

Good eats.

In Turkey the idea of sharing food with your neighbors is still very much alive. What is different from the America of old is the kind of foods that are shared. In America, back in the day, people brought cakes, apple pie, cookies, homemade bread...things of that sort to share with their neighbors. Here things are a little different.

Brian was gone from Saturday morning until this afternoon. 4 days and 3 nights away from home. In one of the homes he visited he was given some food gifts to bring back to share with us. Here are pictures of what he brought home.

Tursu...or pickled...vegetables. Everyone's recipe is different. This is basically many different vegetables all pickled together. I actually love this! Sometimes it is spicy which is my favorite!

Here I've pulled out a few recognizable vegetables for you to see. Starting at the top left...a carrot slice, a cucumber, a plum, an eggplant, and a tomato. Now I have to say I have never had pickled eggplant or pickled plums. The funny thing is that most all of it tastes pretty much the same...just the texture is different. There were also bits of cabbage, peppers, cauliflower, and peanuts in the mix.

This is a small trash can 3/4 full of homemade yogurt. Yes, they make yogurt from scratch here. I actually buy plain yogurt to have on hand all the time, and we just finished the last of what we had yesterday. There are several really yummy things you can do with yogurt, but I have never had so much at one time. I think that tomorrow morning for breakfast I will mix jam with some of it for the kids for breakfast.

Oh, and now that I think about it I guess we did share similar things back in the day. I know my grandmother made homemade sweet pickles and jellies and gave them out. She also gave out canned vegetables from her garden. I wish someone would give us some homemade creamed corn like my grandmother used to make. Now that would be yummy!

College Memories

When I go to America in 12 days one of the things I am most looking forward to is having a roommate reunion in Waco. I lived with Kristen, Lauren, and Mentanna my junior and senior years of college. Lauren still lives in Waco so Kristen and I are planning to go for a little visit. Sadly, Mentanna won't be able to make it. I guess living in France makes traveling to Waco a little difficult. Oh well...we'll remember her in spirit for sure!

I have some fun memories of college with these girls. Once Mentanna dressed up like a Spanish lover complete with a drawn on mustache. Kristen put on a red and black polka-dot dancing dress, and they proceded to pose in all sorts seductive ways. So funny! Another time Mentanna took her mattress off her bed and used it to slide down the stairs. I don't remember if anyone else actually tried it, but I do know that we almost wet our pants from laughing so hard. The best part was the mattress getting stuck on a step and Mentanna continuing to go down the stairs. One time when Lauren was doing laundry in the community apartment laundry room someone stole all of her underwear out of the dryer. She went to get her clothes out of the dryer, and all of her panties were missing. We were thinking that someone with a fetish for college girl panties had taken them. The next day the doorbell rang and there was a frozen block of ice and panties. The guys next door had taken them just for fun. There are so many more memories I could share, but I will just share some pictures of my roommates and the boys next door. Apartment living at it's finest!


Lauren sitting on my bed in our apartment.


Mentanna and Gidget relaxing in our living room.


Kristen studying hard!


Bart...one of the boys next door...at his house. I'm not sure why I have a picture of him sitting on his bed talking on the phone, but here it is.


Kevin and Mike...more boys next door...having fun in the apartment swimming pool. Notice the people in the background not paying a bit of attention to the fact that there is a canoe in the pool.

And finally...I had to share a picture of the four of us together. This was taken in the spring of 1996. I had two kids by this point; Kristen and Lauren were both pregnant; and Mentanna...well she was looking good compared to the rest of us! (I know what you are thinking Mentanna, and I so totally agree!) The last time the 4 of us were together was at Mentanna's wedding about a year and a half after this picture was taken. I can't believe we haven't all been together since then. That was 10 years ago. Mentanna, are you sure you can't make it to Waco over Christmas? Man...

Birthday Party - Day 2

On Saturday night several of us went out for Korean food to continue to celebrate Liz's birthday. The bibimbab, kimbab, and curry were to die for! Oh...and the french fries...you just can't go wrong with an appetizer plate of french fries! Notice we drank Turkish tea with our Korean meal. It's too yummy to pass up even on Korean night!

After we finished our meal some people left and the rest of us sat around and talked about how cool we were. Then we decided that the night was young and that we needed to have another dance party...this time at Club Dixon. We came back to our house and cranked up the music. It was fun, and now my muscles are sore! Two nights of dancing...whew! I am not getting old...I am not getting old...

Happy Birthday, Liz!

In honor of Liz's 27th birthday we spent the weekend partying. Friday night was a dance party at Murphy's. There were 18 people celebrating Liz!


Jalah, Kim, Jenna


Liz hating the salsa music they insisted on playing the first hour we were there! When they were finally finished with the salsa they broke out some good dance music. Venus by Bananarama got us to our feet and on the dance floor. Then Justin brought sexy back, and we boogied.


Hannah Lee, Jeff, Eric, and Hicran


Tammy, Rachel, and Seth


Crystal and me


Wendy and Liz