"It will be Memorable"

Well truth be told I've been struck a little with writer's block. Even though life here is incredibly different, it is at the same time--just life. It goes. Day to day the time passes, and before you know it the weekend's come and gone.

There are those things that I hope to remember forever... and a few that will be quite hard to forget. Here is a brief list of things that were memorable this week.

• Avery telling me he has a girlfriend, and that his friend Saul burped in his brother's ear on the bus.
• Ethan wearing more applesauce than he swallowed. Also crying when I put him down in his crib then cooing when I switched him to my bed. He already knows what he wants.
  
• Avery imitating his Russian friend saying "I do not speak English" the minute he senses he may be in a bit of trouble.
  
• Having Jason ask me how my day was, and listen to the same events five days in a row.
  
• Seeing the pride in a first grader's eyes when he reads his first book to you.
  
• Being spit up on routinely at least twice a day.
• The British preacher talking about freedom from addictions and for the first time understanding what it means to have "authority" over your life.
• Having a poor translation explaining why there were ambulances, firetrucks, and police cars a block down from our church this morning. All the wrong words, including a four letter word starting with "b" were used to describe a routine building demolition.
  
• The excitement I felt when I realized I could watch a different episode of "The office" every night on my TV.
• Hearing the Iftar cannon going off signaling that the restaurants were now open.
  
• Having the Ministry of Education announce that the Eid holiday will be extended one more day giving me 10 days of vacation with "brother bear".
• Reading in the local news about the earthquake the day before and finding out that I was the only person in town who didn't feel anything.
• Finding out from local experts what to do if there is ANOTHER earthquake and I actually have a clue what's going on.
  
• Visiting Papa Johns, Subway, and Fuddruckers just because I missed America.

So really-not much out of the ordinary these days. Next week we celebrate Avery's 6th birthday and the end of Ramadan. Hopefully there will be many more memories to update you with. We really do miss you all. Thanks for checking in!