Too much of a good thing

Lately Carl has been complaining to us after he eats that his stomach hurts. He groans and mopes arround the house then dramatically lays on the couch holding his stomach. We ask him all sorts of questions as to why ect and he always says he doesn't know. Today I gave each of the kids a hot dog for lunch with celery sticks, which is a treat for them, and went upstairs to finish my workout while Missy watched over them for lunch. A while later Carl comes upstairs moaning and groaning about his belly. I asked him what was wrong and he again said he did not know. Ha-Na came running in asking if they could eat a piece of their easter candy (after easter it gets put away and rationed). I asked them if they had eaten all their lunch and Carl says "I tried but I could not finish." I thought this to be odd considering he eats more than anyone in the house. Then he says "I just couldn't finish the fourth one". "Fourth what?" I asked. He then goes on to tell me that after he had finished his lunch I had given him he asked and received more hot dogs from missy and finally stopped at four. Carl does eat a lot, well after each of us finishes dinner he continues. I had to then have a talk with him that the purpose of eating is to be satisfied not stuffed till we burst or in his case moan and groan for an hour. It amazes me that all that food fits in his little body. Again tonight he was his usual self, he had two helping of chicken, three helpings of pasta and four helpings of salad, and that was where I stopped him. If he is eating this much now I am scared to see him as a teenager.

Sweetening our horizons

When we first came to Bahrain we had the goal of trying some new fruit each time we bought produce. That lasted a couple of months and we did add Lychees to our palate (especially Ha-Na) but then we stopped trying new things. With our time here coming to an end (probably, maybe) we decided we ought to take the opportunity to expose ourselves to some more new flavors. Today we brought home Mangosteens and Rambutans. They are both from Southeast Asia. The mangosteens have a hard deep red rind and look like something I would have stepped on before we tried it. When you open the shell there is a segmented white fruit inside. It is very sweet and we all liked it very much. Rambutans are more fun to say and look at than exciting to eat. They are good but they are pretty much the same as Lychees if you have had the chance to eat them. The difference is that the Rambutans are covered with long soft spines and are red so they look like something you would see in a sci-fi movie which makes them more fun to eat than lychees because you can let your imagination run with the experience.

Sharm El Sheikh July 2007

We are planning our trip for this spring and we were talking a lot about the trip we took last summer so I decided to share some (ok, a lot) of the pictures we took while we were in Egypt. It was really an awesome trip, one we would take again and maybe will if Oman does not work out for us.

Al Areen

We had a primary activity at the Al Areen Animal Park. The kids love it there. I especially enjoy the variety of birds they have there although this trip I did not get as many pictures of them as I have so many from previous times there. Here are a few pictures of our visit this time.

Princess

Here are some pictures of Ha-Na's birthday.


She had cupcakes at School.


She was very excited about her gifts. She was also very specific about her cake, it was a white chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream and Rasberry cream between the layers.






Madison then had to have a turn and the girls insisted Carl wear the crown, much to his obvious displeasure.

She did it.......

I should have realized a porta potty was the best idea.....

Madison is now toilet trained and we are done with diapers YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

She is thrilled about it also but she is not very happy reagarding now that she is doing well with it the candy incentives are going away. I can tell by the way she looks at me when I tell her that she does not get candy for going that she thinks she has been duped somehow.

Carl's Baptism

What an event to remember. Throughout the week before Carl's baptism he was barely able to contain himself he was so excited.

In the morning when I came downstairs Carl said "mom I would like pancakes, it is my birthday and since it is my birthday I should have what I want." I am going to have to remember the last part of the phrase come my birthday.

Carl and I are getting certified to be dive masters and our usual pool that we go to which is heated is closed for renovations so we had to do a class that morning in our unheated pool at our villa. We were in wetsuits but it was still shockingly cold (57 degrees). By the end of two and a half hours we were really frozen. Carl was really nervous for the baptism for the evening.

Once done with our class we started getting ready for our event. It is always hectic no matter how much preperation we have done prior to it.

Carl had chosen all the particulars for his program. We had about 50 people come to witness his baptism. At the start I felt the spirit so strongly that I could not keep tears out of my eyes. When he went into the water in only his white pants and shirt for protection he showed no reaction even though Carl said when he went in it felt breathtakingly cold.

During the time when he was getting dried off we showed Finding faith in Christ. He then came down for his conformation. I felt the love of my family arround me as he was being confirmed even though none were able to be there.

After we had put together a light dinner for everyone. Carl had requested Tres Leches cake for his birthday so I was able to learn something new.

It was a wonderful event and we had many who asked questions about the baptism and the church (there were several guests who are not memebers). One friend even requested a copy of Finding Faith in Christ. It was really, really awesome.