About Us

We left the US to live in the Middle East in 2005 with one child and 10 suitcases. We've been here for over 5 years now and we have three children, each born on a different continent!
Welcome to our Blog! This is where we try to keep everyone up to date with news, stories and pictures from our lives! More about us...

Kenzy

Kenzy
2 years old!

Josiah

Josiah
4 Years

Landon

Landon
6 years old! First Grader!

Yvonne

Yvonne
Yvonne & Kenzy

Tim

Tim
Scuba Instructor Dad

The Camel

The Camel
Whaddup?

Answer to last "week"s quiz...

Posted by Tim 26 April 2006 0 comments

my weekly quizes always seem to overstay their welcome... meaning they're usually a little longer than a week.

so anyways... we were wanting some ice cream the other night so i headed down to the corner store to get some drumstick ice cream cones. on the way i ran into some friends and had some tea with them. after a little while i excused myself and bought the ice cream. on the way back my friends beckoned me to join them again but seeing that i had ice cream that would melt i told that my wife was pregnant and wanted ice cream and i was taking it to her... his eyes got all big because i had delayed the delivery of said craving and he started to...

answer below the graph...

point all over his face to remind me that if she didn't get her craving soon that the new baby would... get birthmarks!

that's right... y'all are smarties because that entry got the most votes... but hey a lot of y'all voted for other so i feel that i still successfully stumped the majority of y'all.

heres to that one not being true...

timmy

don't miss out...

Posted by Tim 22 April 2006 0 comments

don't miss out on all the wonderful new pics. i just posted a rather lengthy discourse on culture and it has pushed the pics out of view from the first glance... don't miss them!

tim

a friend of mine posted a comment asking for further explanation on why i call yvonne "tim". he said that was an interesting custom and i would agree.

everything here is interesting in terms of how you handle women. before i came here i thought women were more oppressed than they actually are. men are certainly considered to be of more worth than women here but the whole covering and stuff isn't exactly like i thougt it was. there is a line to be drawn between oppression and protection and it is very difficult to figure out where that line belongs.
the reason i call yvonne "tim" is because i don't want other men to know anything about my wife. i don't want her to dress provactively (like she would anyway... but what may not be provacative in our minds my be down right "askin' for it" in their minds) for the sake of my honor but more importantly because she is mine and i don't want anyone else to look at her or think of her in that type of way. to know her name is to know too much.

a good example is what i told single guys in america... don't look at women in a dirty way for you own mind's sake but also because your wife is out there right now and how do you feel to know that guys are scoping your future wife out inappropriately.

so anyways... yvonne is my wife and we have our special relationship that no else is allowed in on. now like i said... there is that line of a putting down type of oppression that is a part of all of this but where that line belongs i still don't know. i don't want them to even know yvonne's name because that is inappropriate to some degree because i am letting men in on our relationship. it's wierd... i don't agree with it because the oppression kicks in when you deny identity to the woman but at the same time i don't want these guys to know her or to think about her. now all that changes a little once you become friends with another couple... then we can all know each other.

oh yeah... also calling yvonne "mother of Landon" would be very appropriate as well because she is honored and finds her honor in the fact that she provided me with a son. now if we had a girl at first it would not be applicable. for example calling her "mother of kara" would not be done here. Correction... a friend of ours here who has a girl says that she is referred to as the mother of her daughter's name... so i offer this as new info that i was not aware of.

still chewing on this one.
ask the questions about culture if you want or anything via the commenting section... right next to every post title there is a number... by clicking on that number you can leave a comment.

tim

this is such a wonderful way for us to unplug. we live about a quarter mile from a beautiful river. it is very pretty to ride the feluca boats at sunset and the wind makes it cool and the noise of the city seems to disappear... and all for about $4.50/hr.
here are some pics of us riding the boats there...


first is a picture of landon and i on the boat... as a dad i will treasure this pic forever...













who couldn't love this kid?



















this one should be a postcard.
















this is a pic from when my brother was in town about a month ago... we take everyone that comes to visit out on to the boats because they are so nice and beautiful... and so quiet!

my brother is in the back left and that is our friend kim in the front.




















he's the dirty clothes...

Posted by Tim 21 April 2006 0 comments

So we needed a dirty clothes hamper and i bought this nice one downstairs about 50 meters from our building. it nice and sturdy and landon loves it.

we were joking with him and putting him inside and putting the lid over it. he thought it was fun to hide inside.






and then pop out of it.





















and boy was he hacked off when it took on its role of a dirty clothes hamper and not landon's new toy. boy howdy!

ease up there Al Jamel!

Posted by Tim 17 April 2006 1 comments

i was recently informed by a "friend" of mine, Al Jamel, via a comment that i haven't put up any pics of landon since february... and that if i didn't put some "cute easter pics" that an organized boycott of my blog would be an ineveitable consequence.

well it is a shame that it had to come down to veiled threats by means of the commenting... especially since i was just about to put up a few cute easter pics.
please don't see this as me giving into a "blogger terrorist" such as Al Jamel who attacks my blog through comments... but rather see it as a loving gesture of preemptive forgiveness on my part of said activist and to simply let him know that i am a better person than he is. man i'm nice. :)

timmy

oh yeah... here are the "cute easter pics" of landon...


We had some toys that came in the crate that were good for his age right now... we don't normally do presents like this on easter but hey... he is awfully cute!












here mama and the boy are dying eggs with about 3 other kids... 3 of which were only a year and half... very dangerous!















after we dyed the eggs we ate some din din to let them dry and then we huddled all the kids (there were 3 families including us here) in landon's room... then we had a mini egg hunt in our salon room.











here is the boys stash... he had more but he decided it would be fun to throw a few of the eggs he found across the room... he has quite an arm.










Al Jamel = forgiven...
jerk. :)

almost like back home...

Posted by Tim 16 April 2006 1 comments

a friend of mine recently put up a blogger post that talked about how it was now officially "chaco sandal weather". He explained that Chaco brand sandals are the best (which I agree are awesome and i love my pair of "Chacs")...

BUT... I have found a superior brand... NIKF... just slightly different than the beloved american NIKE... sure they're spelled a little different and the swoosh has some wierd canine tooth lookin' thingy in the middle of it... but they sure are comfy and only cost about $1.75! schweet!


haha... man i finally fooled you guys so hard! y'all are usually really smart about the quizzes and do well. well this last time no one voted correctly!!! makes me feel so good!

well the correct answer is... Tim! that's right... when we're in the grocery store and i need to get yvonne's attention i will yell out "tim!" and she usually doesn't answer cuz she isn't used to it but she's getting better.

here are the results...














Enjoy the new quiz about Yvonne's pregnancy!

a new milepost...

Posted by Tim 08 April 2006 0 comments

you could say i've entered a new realm of understanding the language... a buddy of mine, R, is all about web-camming me and talking over the internet and typing in arabic... okay... we only live a few miles away but he aspires to someday join me in my computer geekyness and this young padawan learner of mine understands he needs the experience. har har.

here is a picture of our IM... i rejoice because i understood most all of it and when i didn't we worked through it all in arabic. oh yeah baby... He is good!


click it to enlarge it!

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