We Made it

This is what the kids looked like at the beginning of the road trip...all snug in the backseat together.

2 days later with 20 hours of driving time behind us they weren't quite so chipper.  It was long, but they were troopers and did amazingly well, but we are all glad to be out of the car.

An Emotional Few Days

The day after we arrived I took the kids into Hannah' s school to register her.  We found out we were at the wrong school.  And kindergarten here is all day (8-3). We got to the correct school, which is almost a mile and a half away, and got all registered.  Since it's too far to walk, we can drop her off and pick her up every day or have her ride the bus.  The bus would pick her up at 7:00 and drop her off at 3:45 pm.  YIKES!!!!!!!!!!  A LONG day for a 5 year old.

It was an overwhelming experience getting her registered.  I had no clue what I was doing (making decisions about how to get to school, what to have for lunch, etc.....)....I hadn't planned on these decisions because we were close enough we were going to walk to school and I hadn't planned on her needing a lunch in the first place since it was supposed to be half day.  Not to mention Sofia, TJ and Hannah were all bored to death by the time we were at school #2.

To top it all of, they informed me the school is overcrowded and as soon as they find another school that has open spots, she will be transferred to another school.  Oh, and school started on August 5th - over a month ago. 

Okay.  

So, she's taking her own lunch and we're dropping her off/picking her up for the 1st week to see how things go.

Here she is on her 1st day:

She was very excited about school.  A little nervous, but mostly excited.  I wasn't worried about her. I actually laughed when her doctor at a checkup asked me if I was worried about separation anxiety. Definitely wasn't worried about that.  She ran to nursery at 16 months and went happily off to Preschool in Turkey where she couldn't understand a word.  Never had a problem, so I wasn't concerned.

Unfortunately, all day is a little long.  And she had to wait a long time for us to pick her up.  I showed up a few minutes early to make sure I was there to be one of the first people to get her.  But....the pick up zone is about a 20-30 minute process.  YIKES!!  By the time we got to where we could get her, she had lost it and was crying. 

Day 2 I decided to arrive 10 minutes early...it took almost 30 minutes and she was hysterical by the time I got to her.

Day 3 I arrived 20 minutes early and it still took 30 minutes.

Let's just say, I personally think 5 year old kids should not spend so much time at school.  They are too little.  They shouldn't be eating breakfast and lunch at school.  And, the pick-up shouldn't take 30 minutes.

Did I mention that she has used some new vocabulary (like butt, but head, etc...) after just 1 day of school?  Really?  Just 1 day and she's already learning bad stuff!!!

But nobody asked me.  And I don't know what I can do to change anything.  

So, she's slowly adjusting to being gone all day (she still doesn't like it - but it's getting better).  And we are getting accustomed to totally messing up TJ's nap schedule, strapping him and Sofia into car seats lots of times in a given day, and wasting lots of gas and time in line at the school.  I feel like a crummy mom because she shouldn't be at school so long, but I don't know how to change that and I feel like all I do all day long is strap kids in and out of car seats. 

But, it's just for a time.  My incentive to find a home is getting bigger.  And my number one concern is now something walking distance from a school!!

A Little Update

The past few weeks have been pretty crazy because James got a job in Arkansas.  He'll be teaching English to international students at the University of Arkansas.

He interviewed on Tuesday

Was offered the position on Wednesday afternoon

Turned it down Wednesday evening (the salary was so low we weren't sure we could live off of it)

After talking to the hiring supervisor again, he accepted the position Thursday morning (we decided we would make the salary work - poor and teaching is better than poor and hanging sheet rock...right?!)

They had him on a flight so Arkansas Thursday afternoon.  

He has been out there and teaching for 2 weeks now.  He's gotten settled into an apartment and the new job - at least I think he has- while the kids and I have been hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa.  We have been pretty busy ourselves.  During the time James has been gone we have:

* been to the Ogden Temple Open House.  We already had the tickets and I wanted to take the kids through a temple.  It worked out really great, but I did have to pull out some animal crackers as bribery for reverence towards the end.

* ran a half marathon.  If I'd have known James was going to be gone, I wouldn't have signed up.  But, I had already registered and paid my money so luckily grandma and grandpa watched the kids while I did it.

* Hannah had her tonsils and adenoids removed.  The morning of surgery was brutal.  I was wondering what we had done and wishing I wasn't alone with the kids.  The nights have been rough.  She's the one we can count on to sleep through the night, but after the surgery I was up with her several hours every night....luckily she's just about over it.

* I had several long (and very expensive) trips to the dentist.  That's what a crown and lots of fillings will do.  Boo.  I think my new pet peeve is bad teeth.  I still don't understand how someone who drinks no soda, coffee, or juice, eats very little candy, brushes religiously with an electric toothbrush, uses prescription toothpaste, flosses without fail, etc... can have such problems with teeth.  Bah humbug!

Anyway...I had my last dental appointment today and James is coming home tonight (well, really really early tomorrow morning.  Then we head out to Arkansas....

I'm tired.......in a good way.

And I'm really excited to be with James again.

1 Year

I can't believe our little guy made it to 1 year - but he did it.  He survived!!  His birthday was a very long day.  We had just gotten back to the US and were all pretty jet lagged.  We managed to keep him up for dinner and cake.  He wasn't too happy about it, but we had to document the occasion.


Like I said....it had been a long day just in case the crying and eye rubbing didn't give it away.

 I'm pretty sure we all felt this way

As for his recent milestones....he:
* loves to jam out to music.  Whenever he hears it he starts doing his own little dance.  It's pretty darn cute.
* finally weaned off of the binky - he was a lot more attached than the girls have ever been so we were worried.  After his only binky getting ran over by a car, we figured it was time.
*He goes to sleep like a champ as long as he's in the crib....when we're out and about getting him to take a nap is a major struggle.
* has the sweetest smile.  His whole face lights up and he's just so dang cute!
* LOVES balls.  Basketball, bouncy ball....any kind of ball.  He likes to throw, but he's even better at kicking them.
* has the cutest brown eyes.  They kind of melt your heart....talk about a good puppy face.
* has a way of making you feel like everything is going to be okay, especially when he gives you a good hug.
*speaking of hugs...he is a cuddler and gives the best snuggles.
* also knows what he wants....and is very loud when he doesn't get what he wants.

Over

I think we have made it.....I think we are finally over jet lag.  We had
* 36 hours straight of no sleep
* got 2 hours the 1st night home
* woke up at 1:30 the next morning
* woke up at 2:30 the next morning
* the trend continued until this morning.....we slept until 6:00.

Wahoo!!!  The joys of travelling with kids!

Goodbye Turkey

We are saying goodbye.  It has been an adventure with lots of ups and some downs.  We're excited to return home, but sad to leave some things behind.  Here are a few of the great (and not so great) things we're saying goodbye to:

* the kindest people ever

* neighbors that love our kids

* neighbors that feed our kids candy, chocolate, and ice cream any opportunity they have

* the almost daily walks to the market to buy something

* an awesome bread slicing machine at the store

* celebrity status (the kids might have culture shock when they realize not every single person wants to talk to them and take their photo!)

* Turkish women reprimanding my mothering

* call to prayer (I like it, but James doesn't really like being woken up at 3:30 am).

* a very simple life (maybe a little too simple?)

* no one to talk to

* 5 flights of stairs lots of times a day

* chaotic driving and CRAZY pedestrians

* church on our own (thank goodness!!)

* propane tank for our cooking

* nasty cheese
* friendly strangers giving our kids candy
* neighbors above/below/next to us that sleep in many hours after we've been awake
* crazy adventure

The Culprit

It must be the washing machine that’s the culprit.  I always thought it was the dryer that ate the socks.

Now I know better.  Considering we have no dryer, it must be the washer.

5 Hour Tour

On Saturdays during the semester James taught English to some of the university faculty.  He got to know an Islamic Studies professor pretty well.  We asked him to take us to a mosque and explain some things to us.  I know we are allowed to go in (even though we have kids, don't wear headscarves, aren't Muslim, etc....but feel kind of lame just walking in on our own.

He took us the next day.  I was expecting to visit 1 mosque and figured we would be an hour tops.....yea right.  I should have known better.

Here we are in front of the thing that shows you the direction pointing to Mecca (can't remember the name).

A man sitting and reading the Koran

TJ and the girls played underneath the pulpit...I kept freaking out that they were being to irreverent, but everyone kept reassuring me they were fine.

A picture of one of the mosques we visited.

James with the professor, Mevlut.

Sofia thought she wanted to read the Koran as well.

An inside picture of the most modern mosque.  It was pretty...lots different than the old ones.  There was lots of ceramic tile.  They have that all over Istanbul, but it was my first time seeing the ceramic here.

After the mosques he took us up to a ski jump that overlooks the city.

After that he took us to a historical site.  It used to be a rich person's home, but now it's a restaurant.  Naturally we had to eat dinner.  The kids made it through, but spent the last 15 minutes climbing under/around/through the tables.  Luckily there was no one else around.

3 mosques, a ski jump, a cafe for salep (since we don't drink tea), and a tour of the home plus dinner later we made it home.

It was nice, but very long.  5 hours long to be exact!

Memorial Day Hike

Our Memorial Day hike has been an annual event for about 6 years now.  This year we were a little late because we had to wait for good weather and for James to have time off of work.  There isn't much by way of hiking around here, but there is a ski mountain.  So, we drove as far as we could up the road to the ski lifts then started ‘hiking.’  Or should I say, walking at a very slow pace toward the peak?! 

Here’s the before photo.

 

A little stop to admire the view.

Naturally we picked quite a few flowers.

We didn't make it to the peak, but we did make it up to some snow.  Here’s the walk down.  With lots of rest stops.

It ended up being pretty enjoyable.  The girls complained a little at first, but ended up having a good time.

Pre-K

Hannah has gone to preschool the past 3 months.  It was a very interesting and overall a good experience.

One of my favorite things was watching Sofia wave goodbye to her in the morning.  She'd climb up to the window and wave until Hannah and James had walked out of sight.

On the last day of school she got a picture with the 2 teachers and the helper.  At least I'm pretty sure that's who they were.  

We never really knew what was going on...but it was a good experience.