Wordless Wednesday, Vol. 2

Sunrise+Easter

Well ya'll, I can't say that I have ever been a part of anything "Sunrise".  I am not the early bird and I do not get the worm.  So it will come as a shock to many of you who know me well that Joe and I attended our church's Easter Sunrise Service this morning.  I got up at 4:45 (!). Heretofore I didn't even know what 4:45 looked like.

The tall building is the neighborhood mosque.

But I picked a great event to break the streak.  It was held on a hillside outside of the Rabat Chellah overlooking the river valley.  The Chellah is a complex of Roman ruins that are located right across the street from the Embassy. It was a beautiful, peaceful time of singing, scripture, and reflection.  And the view was amazing.

And even though it was cold and I couldn't feel my bottom once we stood back up, it was totally worth it.

Our pastor and the worship leader.

Entrance to the Chellah

Swallowing my pride and showing you a picture with no make-up.

We had left the kids at home snug in their beds.  The End.

Just kidding.  Khadija (our helper) and her kids had spent the night with us so we could go to the service.  

I should also mention that I didn't even go back to bed once we got home at 6:30. (!)

Anyhow, once the kids got up we celebrated with Easter baskets.  (Thanks Gran for the supplies!!)

The basket in the middle was for Khadija's kids.  

Later in the morning we hosted a brunch for a few families.  I'll probably post pics of that later.  But I had to show this one to you now:

This is the amazingly creative fruit bunny that my friend Jamie brought .  (Local friends, I know none of you are surprised by this information.) And to quote our friend James, "Well played, Jamie.  Well played."

And then we tried to get a family picture.  This is BY FAR the best one, so you can tell how that went.  

After naps (everyone) we went to a potluck dinner with people from our church. Our time was spent chasing toddlers while everyone else sat and sipped wine, ate, and talked.  Such is the life right now.  And at least we now know that G can really go for a backyard hammock.  

We haven't actually done our Easter egg hunt yet because G was under the weather most of the weekend.  So hopefully that action and more pictures of the boys in their darn cute outfits will happen later this week. 

But all in all, a great Easter for Team D.  

He is risen!

Wordless Wednesday

There are a couple of problems with this post:

1. It's actually Thursday, but I want to start doing a pictures-only post every week and saw the "Wordless Wednesday" idea somewhere...so hopefully next week it will appear on the correct day.

2. This week it's obviously not wordless.  Ahem.

3. I am starting on Thursday this week because I am desperate to get a post up because it's been a few weeks.  Does it count that I have started writing posts without finishing them?  

Anyhow, cue "wordless":

Until next Wednesday...

'Free

G boy, at three your favorites are:

Food: grilled cheese, pizza, goldfish, pancakes

TV/Movie: "Cars", "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse", "Thomas"

Time of Day: waking Woo up from his nap, Daddy coming home, Barek's arrival

People: Barek, sometimes your brother, Mommy/Daddy are at a tie right now

Activities: playing in the water, wrestling/flips with Daddy, kissing Mommy, finding shapes/numbers/colors everywhere around you, (foot) racing, running errands

Songs: ABCs.  We can't get you past this one right now.

Sayings: "Mommy/Daddy hold you", "Go for walk?", "Woo-woo down" (put J down and hold me instead), "Share?" (used when you want J to share whatever he happens to be playing with), "Talk Gran" (this is recent when you get in trouble or don't agree with a decision, usually accompanied with tears. Not sure what you think Gran can do from across the ocean...), "Go hide" (to Daddy),  and "Grasshopper, Hop, Hop, Hop"( all. day. long.  from Mickey Mouse), oh!  and you have started mimicking the call to prayer lately too.

Your least favorites: solid fruits and vegetables (except bananas), when Mommy holds your brother, when Daddy leaves to go, well, anywhere,  and insects buzzing around you.



Oh G, you are something else.  You are cuddly, yet independent, laid back, but oh, so demanding at times.  Everyday you are learning new things.  Today we threw a frisbee for the first time and you were thrilled!

We love how you throw yourself completely into everything you do, whether it be figuring out a new toy, learning a new skill (hopping currently), or falling into Mommy or Daddy's arms (you reach up as high as you can on your tiptoes before leaning forward with a huge smile on your face).

The best thing about you right now is at night when we say bedtime prayers.  If we leave someone out that we normally pray for you always let us know and we remedy the situation together.

You are so fun at 3 and we continue to love you more each day!

Parlez-Vous Français?

Let's talk about speaking French.

For those of you who speak French or another language fluently (or multiple languages, sheesh), this post is not for you.  Because there may be a little whining and I don't expect to garner any sympathy from you.

To begin with, I had NO idea how difficult and painful this would be.  Yes, I watched Joe sweat through multiple layers of clothing each day in French class, wake up in the middle of the night from having nightmares in French, and drop 15 lbs in the 8 months of taking the language full time.  But oh dear me, I still thought it would be fine.  And come to find out, the things I thought I would struggle with (vocabulary, conjugating verbs) are actually the easy part.

I take French 3 times a week at the embassy.  Joe also takes 3 times a week at the embassy in addition to 2 hours of private one-on-one classes. (And he is AWESOME.  Except when he meant to tell a Moroccan official the other day that he had a long line outside his office and instead told him he had a nice A$$.  Gotta love similar pronunciations).  I have learned a lot about pronouns, comparatives, conjugation, future tense and (help me, Rhonda) past tense, but I still need a lot more conversational practice.  It  is really ALL about speaking.  I now understand why I learned next to nothing about Spanish in 3 years of high school and yet people that study abroad for 3 months come back fluent- they are speaking the language all the time!

Now, when I am out and about town I speak French: shopkeepers, waiters, service providers, etc.  It has become so natural to us both that when we were in London there were several times that we had to tamp down the "Bonjour" when we walked into a store.  Also, we are so used to language being difficult that we felt like we were "cheating" in London- it was just too easy!  (Except when they asked me for my chip and pin at the cash register, which is a different story)

After 6 months of class (and not much studying) I am to the point where if I think about it ahead of time I can communicate just about anything I need to and can read pretty well, but am tired of panicking when a shopkeeper says something back to me that I wasn't planning on.

So I have decided it is high time to take the bull by the horns.

Last week I told Khadija, my helper, that we needed to start speaking in French to each other all day.  Which is pretty painful.  (She of course speaks Arabic, French and English)  "D'accord", she said, smiling.  "Ok".  It has gone pretty well, and she is great about correcting/helping me when I am confused or stumble.  (which is generally every sentence)

I am going to start having a private lesson once a week.  This will also be painful.

We bought some TV series in French which is painful even for Joe.  But we continue because so many people swear they learned a language by watching TV.  I am skeptical.

Before closing I have to show you a picture of our French teachers, Janey and Marie Adele.  They are French- Moroccan (French citizens that grew up in Morocco) and have been friends since girlhood.  Joe and I have become good friends with them because of course there is a lot of laughter when I am "speaking" French.

Their voices sound exactly how you would imagine- deep and throaty from years of smoking.  And we love 'em.


So we'll see.  Wish me luck and I'll give you an update in a few months.

p.s. One more thing.  Any time Grayson hears any of us start speaking French he immediately starts saying, "Onjour! Onjour! Onjour!" Love that kid.

One

Not sure how THIS happened...

Un

Deux

Trois

Quatre

Cinq

Six

Sept

Huit

Neuf

Dix

Onze

Douze

Oh little Woo boy.  I can't believe you are already a year old.  SO big, too!

You love: being held, Mommy, Khadija, smiling, your bottle, real milk, eating in general, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, being held, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, bath time with brother, music, walks in your stroller, your crib, and being held.

You don't love: not being held and bananas.  And that's pretty much it.

Thankful you're ours and we love you oh so much!

The Hil and the Hard Drive

Well, everyone has been in a tizzy around here for two weeks because of our esteemed visitor this weekend.  Even I was pulled in to help out at an event! In the end, everything went great and all are breathing a sigh of relief while having a late start this morning.

My girlfriend took this pic- it looks like I had a clear shot at her but I promise you I didn't.  I was up pretty close but her staffers were all standing in front of me.  And c'mon, you guys see her everyday!

She gave what I thought was a touching speech- this was at the family Meet and Greet at the embassy and all the children were gathered. I think she's talking to them during this picture.  And no, not my children-if we can't handle a family party at a home we certainly can't handle the Sec. of State.

And yes, I realize that it is an extremely flattering picture of me and I have NO idea why I am squinting even with my Rx sunglasses on.

In other news, our hard drive crashed last week and so we are pretty pumped to be shelling out big bucks to buy a new laptop.  Why is this news to you?  Well, it's almost impossible to blog from the ol' iPad so it may be a couple of weeks until you hear from us again.

Until then, keep it real ya'll.