the people here just don't know what they're missing when they declare our cloved hoofed friends "unclean"

do they consider the litle piggies feeling when they say it's unclean... no!
have they ever given bacon a chance... no!
did they ever think it was wrong to recreate the childhood fairytale, "the three little pigs" to be "the three little sheep"... no! (and that's reality friend!)

it just like me and mushrooms... i always thought they were from the pits of hades. but then i gave them a chance! and now my thought is confirmed and is now reality... they are indeed from the prince of lies himself and come sprouting forth from his lair beneath the earth.

so anyway... all that to say that we decided to go on a little scavenger hunt for a pork store nearby. we called a friend and got some directions from him. we eventually found the place and bought some pork chops. as we were about to leave we saw a little sign on the cooler that said, "we have sausage with american spices" ... so we got some! yay! we came, we conquered, we bought some swine!

this morning i used the sausage to make some good ol' down home biscuits and gravy. to commorate this occasion i have decided to write a poem about them...

this morning i woke up sometime around nine...
and thought to myself, "let's start this day with some swine"
i busted it out and threw it in the pan...
and so thus started our breakfast a'la contraban.
why do some people call them unclean?
this thinking to me is just down right mean.
especially when don't know what they're missin'...
wasting so much time hatin' on pigs when they should be kissin'.
so anyway... we got the pan, the bisquick, the gravy...
and chowed them together... man it was savory!

Praise Him for Mark 7:18-19!

 

we placed an order for a custom crib and matching changing table here. cribs at the stores are pretty pricey (about $220). We got both of these for about that price... but it was a trying experience. he was a lazy guy. it was always "tomorrow" with him... but tomorrow finally came... about 9 weeks after we placed the order.

the "fog" was bound to return. every winter season the farmers up in the north of our country burn the rice patties and we are blessed with waves of smoke. i called it "fog" because all of the people here believe that that is what it is... but see... there is something that fog requires... a little component called "precipitation"... and for a city that has under 1 inch of rain a year, precipitation is a commodity that is in short supply.

fog... haha... okay.

we recently received a care package... if you can call it that... from some friends in Arizona. What an amazing... i mean amazing!... blessing it was to receive that! It was definitely like an early Christmas. They sent two big ol' boxes of lovin' from the land o' plenty (America). Here... just check it out for yourselves:

Landon trying to get into Josiah's bassinet.




















Some friends of ours were very gracious to us and gave us their swing. Landon came into our room one morning and decided that mommy needed her pillow so he went out to get it. It was already with mommy so when he didn't find and didn't return I figured I should go find him... to make sure he wasn't playing with knives or anything. I went out to find this scene.



















Yvonne made this very nice cake for my big 3-0.














A friend of ours bought me this cake for my birthday. Sarcasm just isn't understood here. For example... people will ask me where I am from and I'll tell them that I am American. After that I will ask them where they are from. It is obvious that they're from this country but I'll ask them and then tell them that I think they look german... they usually give me a funny look like i'm crazy and then they tell me that they're locals. I tell them that I am joking and they kind of sheepishly giggle. Another example is when we were in a cab and a guy cut us off and was driving kinda crazy. I told my taxi drive that the driver was really smart... to which he looked at me funny and said, "no, he is stupid!" He just didn't understand the sarcasm. So anyway the point of this story. Many months ago we met a friend here that understands and uses sarcasm. She bought me this cake which says in Arabic, "happy birthday, you jerk!". Haha... the bakery gave her such a hard time saying that she couldn't do that and that it was shameful. She told them the cake was for her brother and it was a joke. Nobody at the bakery understood but hey... I sure appreciate unleashing my sarcasm on her.





























Bathtime fun...



















We went to a big Christmas bazaar here. There was a big playground and landon had a great time.






















































And of course we enjoyed getting our picture taken with Santa. He makes a special trip to the middle east every year for this shin-dig.

life with the newborn josiah has not afforded us much sleep. not to use that as an excuse for not blogging... well nevermind... that is my excuse for not blogging. if you don't like it... tough!

i'm not sorting them in order or anything but here are some new pics of Josiah... a.k.a. "jojo", a.k.a. "siah", a.k.a. "j-dawg"







































































man... that's cute!






















































These are some friends of ours... Hani, his wife Odette, their daughter, Toota, and their son David.


















Josiah is just chillin'