Halloween in Turkey

Last night we went to a pumpkin carving party hosted by some of our friends. We had a great time! It was fun for the kids to participate in an American tradition here in Turkey. It was the first time for Jacob and Anna Grace to ever carve a pumpkin!

We do have pumpkins here but they are these greenish-gray kind.

Short, squatty, and very bumpy.

Our friends bought 30 pumpkins from the base commissary for us to carve. They were actual American orange pumpkins!


Anna Grace shows off her goopy hands after cleaning out the inside of her pumpkin!


Will watches as pumpkins are carved.


Erica and her friend look to be quite grossed out by the messiness of it all!


Jacob and a friend punch out a pirate ship pattern onto their pumpkin.


Brian takes a turn trying to make something that resembles a pirate ship after the boys give up.


Jacob and AG showing off their masterpieces.


About half of the kids who were there! I think there were 22 total!


The pumpkins made quite a show lined up on the driveway!


Will and friends made their pumpkin vomiting.


Erica and friend made a haunted house.


AG and friend made a ghostly face.


Jacob and friend (with quite a bit of help from Brian) made a pirate ship.

We also had a yummy dinner of lasagna, salad, green beans, and garlic bread. There was a pumpkin roll, chocolate cake, and chocolate chip cookies.

After dinner the kids all got to pick a prize for all their hard pumpkin carving work. Will chose a box of Frankenberry cereal. Jacob chose a big bag of chocolate and vanilla marshmallows. Anna Grace chose a package of chocolate chip cookie mix with cookie cutters. Erica chose some Halloween themed cups. A great time was had by all.


Oh...and yep...I took a picture of the inside of their extra refrigerator. I think the kids loved the American sodas just as much as the pumpkin carving!

Fall Carnival - Food Edition

Last Friday we attended the Fall Carnival at our kids' school. There were games and candy and all the things that make a fall carnival fun. One thing that makes our carnival unique is the International Cafe. Since the kids go to an international school they have kids from all over the world in their classes. On carnival night everyone brings a dish native to their country to sell in the cafe. This is my absolute favorite part of the carnival! Getting to eat food from all over the world prepared by actual people from those countries. I did my duty in partaking of the food, AND because I knew you would need a full report I took pictures to go along with my findings. So without further ado I present to you the Fall Carnival 2008 food review.


Nigerian - These were pretty good. They had the consistency of the breading on the outside of sweet and sour chicken from a chinese food place. They had a slight chicken flavor, but no visible pieces of chicken.


No explanation necessary!


Meat pies - kinda tasted like a sloppy joe. I have no idea what country this is from!


Nigeria - These tasted like a stale beignet or sopapilla. Ok but probably much better hot and fresh.


The Sudan - Falafal - Kinda like a hush puppy, but different. I ate two of these and could have eaten more. Yummy!


Brazilian Empadhinas - These were filled with chicken and mushrooms. They tasted ok, but since they had been sitting out they weren't hot. I'm sure if they were served hot they would have been better.


Sweet, greasyish cakes sprinkled with coconut. Not sure where this is from.


Romanian something or other. I didn't try this one. I'm not sure how I missed it!


Korean rolls. Some people call these sushi, some call them California rolls. I don't care what they are called...they were delicious!


Yep...some good ol' American food!


Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria - Katayif - These were sweet...like sugar and nuts in a pancake.


South African Cheese Scones - tasted just like a dry biscuit.


Some sort of rice balls. I never did try these!


Malaysian Screwpine Sesame Cake - Slightly sweet, thick texture.


Romania - I only tried the things on the right side of the plate. They were like crescent roll dough with carrots and something else mixed together on top. Good. The stuff on the left is a squash fritter which I've had before and then the deviled eggs. Not sure if the Romanian ones taste any different or not.


Japanese - The brown things are egg filled with sweet rice. Pretty good stuff!


Jordan & Palestine - Monakeesh - I never did try this! I know...I'm falling down on my job!


Turkey - Mercimek Kofte - exactly what the sign says. Red lentils and spices shaped into a ball. I love these!

Now I must admit that after I tried almost all of the above items I was about to burst. I finally had to walk away from the cafe, because people just kept bringing more and more food. It was easier to just walk away than admit defeat in my goal of trying at least a bite of everything! And it is quite possible that I am wrong about the origins of a couple of the food items that weren't clearly labeled. I asked the people serving the food and have reported what I was told. I didn't fact check my story with actual people from the country in question.

October 27th - again.

Because I've already blogged today, and because it takes entirely too long to post something these days I decided to just send you to last year's post on this day. Actually last year's post was posted on October 29th, but it concerned October 27th. Enjoy.

What October 27th means to me.

Hurrah!

We went to Cappadocia on Saturday for one last hurrah before we head back to the states.


On the way to there we stopped at Tuz Golu, Turkey's salt lake. The kids had never been there so we decided to treat them to a visit. I made sure they brought flip flops so they didn't have to experience the walking on broken glass feeling!


Anna Grace requested that we stay in a cave hotel so we obliged her. This is the room that our family stayed in. There were three twin beds in the front room and a queen bed in the back room. They brought in an extra mattress so we were all able to stay in the same room. That never happens!


After dropping off our stuff we headed out to do some hiking through the unusual terrain.






The kids had a blast climbing through all the ancient man-made tunnels and caves.


We also met this couple on the trail. I am guessing she wasn't aware of the hiking part of their date. If you can't see her shoes please click on the picture. I tried to take this without her knowing I was secretly laughing at her on the inside. Poor girl!


While in Cappadocia we decided to go traditional Turkish with our meal on Saturday night. Really experience the culture. We took our shoes off. We sat on the floor to eat. We had tea. We ate at 5pm. Ok...that isn't so Turkish. We ate breakfast at 9:30am and skipped lunch so we were starving by 5. Turks normally eat late. The owners of this place had to turn the lights on for us. It was all yummy of course, and we walked out of there completely stuffed!


Jacob and Anna Grace chose apple tea instead of the traditional Turkish cay. It basically tastes like warm apple juice. We brought one of these copper/silver trays to the states back in June of 2006. We might have to throw some couch cushions on the floor and eat Turkish style to reminisce after we get back!

Only 28 more days.

The rest of the story

I'm not so sure what I think of emailing my blog posts in. The last one only entered half of what I typed, but at least the picture showed up. I also said that Brian and Will were out watching the Cowboys game with friends and that they had decked themselves out in Cowboys clothing for the event. That was all Will. He loves the Cowboys and made sure Brian was outfitted properly.

Does this work?

I am trying several different things in my attempt to post a blog. I
have figured out a way to post, but I am not able to post pictures due
to the longer upload times. Now I am attempting to
email this to my blog and include a picture. Let's see what happens.

OH NO!!!!

Ok. I am having a bit of a panic attack. It seems as though blogger.com and blogspot have been banned or blocked in Turkey. That means that I will have issues trying to update this blog. Hopefully the issue will resolve itself in a day or two. We are headed out of town tomorrow morning and probably won't have internet until we get back on Sunday night. I hope things are back to normal then. I can still receive comments on the blog and have them set to be emailed to me. I hope you all have a great weekend, and hopefully I will see you back here on Sunday night!

Don't ask how I updated this time. It wasn't pretty.

Loopy

I woke up with a migraine this morning. Brian wasn't here to help with the kids so breakfast, lunches, and getting the kids off to school was solely my responsibility. Yikes. I did breakfast and lunches then took my migraine medicine. Once I felt the meds kick in I directed traffic from a kitchen chair. The phone rang so I had to walk to the salon to answer it. A friend called to check on me because I tweeted that I had a headache. She laughed at my slurred southern drawl. I could tell I was slurring my words, but I had no idea that I was letting the south shine through. Thank you, Zomig. I'm still feeling the loopiness even as I write this. And why I felt the need to write a blog post while under the influence is beyond me. And I've had to delete and retype quite a bit because I am misspelling everything. I should get in my bed. Thanks and goodnight...er...good morning.

Ponderings

Some ponderings...

Internet comparison. You are used to dial up. You are ok with dial up. You know there is something better out there, but you've never tried it. Is it better to try the better thing once and know what it's like when you can really only get dial up or would it have been better to have never known how great a faster connection was?

Tomatoes. You are used to the store bought variety. Should you risk tasting one that has ripened on the vine knowing that it might ruin your taste for what you are used to?

Cigars. Stick with the cheap kind and be ignorant or splurge on a Cuban just once?

Brought to you by the crazy inside Natalie's head.

Turkish Breakfast

On Monday night Will requested a full Turkish breakfast for Tuesday morning. Since it was too late to actually get everything I needed I promised him we would have it on Wednesday morning. Evidently the other kids didn't hear this idea, because when they came in for breakfast and saw what we were having they cheered.


Look how excited they are to be eating all this yummy food! Actually, they call this smiling like a Turk.

To better understand the phrase "smile like a Turk" please click on the following picture.

Yes, there are some kids smiling. No, my daughter isn't. She's good. She's really good!

Moving on.


So for breakfast they had a boiled egg, olives, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, sliced apples, salami, fried cheese, bread, and jelly. I also made a pot of Turkish tea. Jacob chose to have a glass of apple juice instead.


Thanks, mom!

my mood

in the mood for some words...

alluring, appealing, bewitching, charming, cute, dazzling, delicate, delightful, enticing, gorgeous, graceful, ideal, lovely, pleasing, pretty, radiant, ravishing, resplendent, splendid, stunning, wonderful.

agleam, beaming, bright, glistening, glowing, lustrous, noticeable, radiant, sparkling, splendorous.

discern, experience, fathom, feel certain, grasp, know, notice, perceive, realize, recognize, see.

get, hold dear, keep forever, know by heart, memorize, recall, relive, remember, remind, retain, revive, think back, treasure.

Frying Cheese

In Turkey they have this yummy cheese called Hellim. I think it might actually be from the island of Cyprus. No matter...it's still yummy.


This cheese is quite hard and not at all good when eaten right out of the package. Or at least that is my opinion.


It must be sliced into little pieces and fried or grilled in order to achieve maximum yumminess! Because of the consistency of the cheese it will not melt or stick to the pan.


I like to fry mine until the outside is nice and brown and crispy. The inside is soft and chewy and salty.

Looks like I got grease on my camera lens. Must go lick it off.

What a difference a year makes.

Canadian Thanksgiving 2008.
I let my hair dry naturally.
Brian needs to shave.
I wore brown, and Brian wore blue.
I made carrots.



Canadian Thanksgiving 2007.
I straightened my hair.
Brian really needs to shave.
I wore brown, and Brian wore blue.
I made carrots.

Something and Nothing

Yep...sitting here. Staring at this white space. I have nothing to say. So strange for me. A lover of words. So I read back over some of my old posts about words. These are the ones that spoke to me. Spoke to where I am. I will just have to leave you with these.

Therapy

always

words

oceans and straws

More words

Yep. That's all I have for you today. My thoughts on words.

Wordless Wednesday/Caption this!

I took this picture of Mentanna and Brian when I was in France. I have no idea what was going on. None. Any takers?

Today

Today I spent the day sorting. Well after the nap I took at 9:30 this morning. (Remember the whole not sleeping well thing? Yeah...so I went back to bed and slept until 11:30. It helped.) We have decided that we are going to cargo some stuff back to the states. The majority of the stuff we have here will be put in storage, but there are a few things that I have decided didn't need to stay. Today we spent time separating that stuff out. You should see our salon. On the other hand...no you shouldn't. Please don't come over! Our dining room table is covered. So is the floor between it and the wall. There is a very large duffle bag on one of the couches. The other one is covered with stuffed animals and dolls that the kids have to have in America. If you come over you will have to sit on the floor which desperately needs to be vacuumed. So yeah...don't.

It has actually been good to clean out. I went through the buffet we have in our entryway today. There was so much trash and junk in it! I threw away old dried up playdough, many colored pencils, markers that didn't work, old notebooks, and games that were missing pieces. There were several things that I didn't even recognize in the drawers. If I didn't know what it was and Brian couldn't tell me what it was I threw it away. This could have been done months ago, but I needed the excuse of moving to do it I guess.

There are more cabinets and drawers to go through over the next few days. Then we will have the packing company out to get the things we want to take with us out of here. After that...it will be smooth sailing. HAHAHAHAHAHA. Actually it will be much easier to decide things after that is done, but I have a feeling the waters will be quite choppy. I'll be sure to wear my life vest just in case.

Making a choice

This morning I was once again facing the funk I have been in lately. It reared it's ugly head. I went back to bed and thought about the post I planned to write when I got up. The one that was going to say something about how I was feeling. Unchosen. I felt unchosen. Which at this point I really can't explain, because I have not had a chance to process that thought. It was just the word that came to mind. So I fell asleep feeling unchosen. I woke up feeling unchosen. I took a shower. I got ready for my day. All the while I felt that unchosen feeling. But I had things to do so I did them and forgot that I was supposed to be feeling unchosen. I stopped trying to process it. And now all I can really remember about that post I planned to write was that I was thinking about going to a dog breeder and looking at puppies. There were two left. One was going to be chosen and the other left behind. Unchosen. The person doing the choosing never goes back to the breeder to make sure the unchosen puppy found a home. To make sure the unchosen puppy is ok. They just take the puppy they chose and never look back. That was as far as I got. I don't know what it means or where it came from. It just was.

It reminded me of the time my family went to a dog breeders to pick a puppy. There were only two left. We couldn't choose between the two of them so we chose both. We couldn't leave either one unchosen.

Thanks...friends.

As I sat here today and read through all the kind and encouraging comments on my last post I decided that instead of responding to everyone I would just write a post saying thanks. You guys sure know how to make a girl feel better! I really do appreciate everyone taking the time to comment and let me know you are thinking about me and praying for me. And it was also nice hearing you say that I am not crazy and that it is normal for me to be feeling all that I am with all that I have going on. I also appreciate the messages, emails, and phone calls from those of you who didn't just want to leave a comment. You guys are the best!

Yesterday and today have been much better. I seem to be fine for a few days and then one day just kicks me in the tail. I debated writing when I was down like that, but I know how much I appreciate when I read about others struggles. I love when people are real. I know that sometimes we can't share all that we are struggling with because of the nature of the struggle. I also know that when I get glimpses of the real person behind the writing it makes their writing come alive for me. I decided to just take my chances and see what came out. Thanks for reading and understanding!

I will let you in on a little secret about my struggle last week. Brian was out of town. The week before he was gone for three days. I am used to him doing quite a bit of traveling and normally don't have any problems with it. These last two weeks, however, were different. There were times I needed to process stuff that could only be processed with him. There were times I needed someone to just see what needed to be done and do it. Sometimes when I get in those moods I am mean and cranky. It is best for me not to talk to people who might not handle the ugly so well. Brian is used to my piss poor self and doesn't let it bother him. I had several people tell me that I should have called them when I was feeling that way. I honestly don't think that it would have helped. I just needed to wade through some of it alone since Brian wasn't here. It was ok. I didn't enjoy it, but I can see the good in having to do it. There were lessons there in the muddy.

Oh, and something else I was thinking. Babies cry every day. Toddlers cry just about every day. At some point we grow up enough to not need to cry every day. I was thinking about that. Crying. I can be an emotional person. I don't normally cry a lot though. Lately I have been a veritable waterworks. I have cried 26 days in a row. 26!!! The tears came for all different kinds of reasons, but still. 26!!! I wonder how old I was the last time I cried that many days in a row. I'm sure it was when I was a kid. I wonder when the day will come when there won't be tears. Will I even realize that I haven't cried?

I do have a couple of ideas for posts. The words are swimming around in my head. I'm not sure I can write them yet, but I'm just glad to know there is something in there besides crazy!

tithtihediml

I feel the need to say something. To speak. To cry. To scream. I sit down and look at this blank box begging me to write something and I wonder why. Why should I write? Who is going to read it anyway? What does it matter? So I get up and pace back and forth glancing at my computer as it mocks me. And I am mad. Mostly I am mad at myself. For thinking. I wish I could turn my mind off sometimes and just quiet the thoughts. Yesterday for a bit I was able to do that. But not today. It's almost like I am two people. The sane, practical, rational, normal person that makes up the majority of who I am. And this other person who has come to play quite a bit lately. An irrational, emotional sister making her frustrations known. When she is here I don't know what to do with her. All I can do is cry, scream, pace. And pray. In these moments even my prayers have been screamed out. I know that is ok. I am thankful that is ok.

I know my blog has been quite sullen and melancholy lately. I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry there haven't been fun posts. Tastes tests. Things to make you smile. With all that I have going on over the next 2 months as we prepare and then move back to the states I don't know if I will have much of that to share. I will be looking for it though. For the fun. And I can promise you if I find it you will be the first to know.

And for those of you wondering...no I am not suicidal. I have never, ever had any thoughts about harming myself or anyone else. So don't go there.

Writing

I don't feel like writing. I just don't have it in me. Someone important to me told me to write so I am trying my hardest to get to a place where I can.

Lately I've been reading the book Traveling Mercies; Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott. In it she talks about losing her best friend to breast cancer. I loved the way she described the grieving process.

Grief, as I read somewhere once, is a lazy Susan. One day it is heavy and underwater, and the next day it spins and stops at loud and rageful, and the next day at wounded keening, and the next day at numbness, silence.

Later she says that her lazy Susan stopped at feelings of homesickness.

I can't tell you how many times I reread those lines. They made me think, contemplate, pray. And to be honest I am writing some, but nothing I have written can be shared here. I'm not there yet.

I won!

I almost forgot! I won a contest. The Over-Thinker did a yarnification beauty pageant, and I totally entered it.


With this picture.

She did an awesome job yarnifying me. My hair never looked better! I actually voted for FriYet, because her hair looked so cabbage patch life like. It was amazing! For the contest post see here. For the results post see here. I think the most awesome part was the fact that I had no idea what in the heck it was that I won. A recipe deck for Tapas. What? Evidently my English is a little rusty. So The Over-Thinker was sweet to explain it to me in an email.

A recipe deck is basically a funky form of a cookbook. Instead of pages, there are cards. Tapas is the Spanish word for Hot or Cold Spanish appetizers. The deck is divided into different categories (seafood, tomatoes, etc.) and is easy to reference.

So yea me!

Editing

Because my thoughts have been a jumbled mess lately I just wanted to let people know that I am doing quite a bit of editing to my posts. I keep hitting publish then going back to change something I said or add to it. If you care to read my completed thoughts on a subject you might need to check back to see if I added something to my posts. I said I wasn't going to blog because of the jumbled mess in my head. I am trying to write anyway. And since I am a processor when it comes to words I keep processing after I click publish. Most of the time I don't feel the need to add to posts, but today I have gone back and edited some of the recent ones. Just so you know.

Jumbled Thoughts

Last night was a hard night for me. I couldn't sleep. My mind was just racing with all sorts of random thoughts. I needed to sleep. I knew I would feel better if I could sleep. I finally took something to help me sleep at 2:30am. So this morning as I sat and contemplated all that was going through my mind as I tried to sleep I decided to create a wordle with those thoughts.



(ok...I have come back to edit this for the third time...I have issues I know!)

The interesting thing about all those thoughts last night was that I could almost convince myself that I was alone. In the way I felt. In what things meant. In the thoughts running through my head. I wanted to scream out to the universe. I wanted to be heard. I wanted to be mad. But I also wanted everyone to leave me alone. I wanted to retreat into my head. I wanted to sit on my bed and rock back and forth. I did all of those things while sleep eluded me. And now that I have had some sleep I do feel better. I still feel a lot of those things, but I am able to control my thoughts. Not let them run away and have a life of their own. Not let them consume me.

And the funny thing about this wordle is that I know it isn't complete. There were other things going through my mind, but I honestly can't remember what they were now. It's amazing what sleep will do for a person.

Dreaming

I had weird dreams last night. Several of them.

Dream 1. My curling iron broke. I went to the store where some girl proceeded to tell me not to buy a particular brand of curling iron, because it was set to turn itself off after 15 minutes whether you were using it or not. She said that she would turn it on to heat it up and then come back to it a few minutes later. During her primping it would turn off. So I go back to the aisle with the curling irons, and there is exactly one kind of curling iron there. The shut-off-in-15-minutes curling iron. So I debated. Should I buy this one or should I just go natural? Should I just mousse my hair and let it curl? I woke up trying to decide if I should continue to hide my natural hair by straightening it with a curling iron or just let it be what it is.

Dream 2. I went back to Andorra to try to find that waterfall. I drove up and down the road we were on and never saw it. It was lunch time so I decided to eat at the place we ate at the last time we were there. Again I searched and searched for the restaurant to no avail. It was gone. The buildings were familiar. The town looked familiar, but what was there before wasn't this time.

Dream 3. I ordered groceries to be delivered today. We were out of fruit so I ordered 7 apples, 6 pears, 5 bananas, and 4 peaches. I always check the box that says to substitute a similar item when the actual item is out of stock. So the groceries showed up at my door. They had apples, but were out of every other fruit. So they substituted apples for all of it. I got 22 apples in my order.

I think there were a couple more, but these are the only ones I could remember. Anyone want to take a stab at interpreting them for me?