The Parks and Thanksgiving Decorating

Here are the girls putting up Thanksgiving decorations. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, second only to the Fourth of July. I'm not sure how the homemade-suncatchers made it into the Thanksgiving box, but the girls were excited to put them up too:)

Here's Brielle putting up some of the window decorations in their room. She insisted on wearing the hat. Too cute!

Now for the park pictures...

She was feeling sassy as you can see!

Driving the plane.

Little sweeties!

Notice the multi-levels of playground!

Did I say bratty or sassy;)

I am calling this the year of the parks! Exploring all the wonderful parks here keeps us busy and quite happy; Coming from Tunisia we are SO grateful to have a fabulous park on every corner. Today we found another great park that is up the hill from us and it is flat, open and fenced in. Hence they can finally ride their bikes and kick around a soccer ball. Yeah!!!!! Oh, and it has a patch of grass that is not fenced in!!!!!!! This is a big deal and terribly hard to find in this concrete jungle. There are tons of parks, but not so much grass...lots of trees and shrubs and plants...and if you do find grass it is fenced off and marked as forbidden. So, yippee! I have yet to find a park I read about with a 'moving parts castle" but I am hopeful and we will save that for another day.

Oh, and to my family...just wanted to bring up my happy thought as I was writing this. I remember going to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving. Waking up in the mornings to Grandma in her bathrobe mixing up some cranberry orange juice and sneaking us raisin cookies. Then the card games and fun days that would eventually find us at the kid table for a yummy meal. Those are some great memories and I will always cherish them. Rest in peace Grandma. I will always love you and hold my memories of you close to my heart.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

You have no idea how hard I tried to get a good picture of both of them before we left. This was as good as it got, sorry Bri!


Hiding in the bounce house! Ash sans costume.

Bri was taking a juice break, it was just not a good night for pictures with her.

Tattoos and Face Painting!

Here's Ash getting ready to swing at the Pinata. She had a reversible dress and decided to be Cinderella instead of Sleeping Beauty halfway through the night.

Brielle playing the ring toss game.

A family shot, now you see why I take the pictures:)

Getting loads of treats

Brielle had the cutest "trick or treat" ever. I should of recorded it. I would've given her the world if she looked at me like that!

And this was the end of a fun night with friends!

We don't belong here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The enormous Navy flag. My batterries went dead after this so there's only three pics...

I was trying to get a picture of the color guard. They brought them down, at attention, on the elevator. It was pretty impressive.

A mural on one of the hanger bay doors.

Last night's escapade...a story for Grandpa

So the USS George Washington is in town for the first time ever and to foster relations they hosted a reception onboard their vessel. Now, let me say that this was for the bigwigs. We didn't get an invite until their 400 people maximum ended up with just over 200 reservations, or so I was told. At any rate, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to smell diesel fuel and enjoy the gentle sway that only a Navy grey ship can bring so we took up the offer. We started off at Fenwick Pier on Hong Kong Island and they ferried us out about 45 minutes to the ship. Now, let me stop at this point to say that Hoss got an important phone call just as we were getting ready to board and so I enjoyed a bit of people watching while he took it. There were sailors (with the pale skin that comes from working below decks, out to sea for too long) coming off and an endless stream of black clothed, fancy-dressed diplomats climbing on. The best was when I saw two Brits with a full jug of Carlsberg and two full mugs trekking it to the ferry. Now, if this were sailors they would have gotten a small smile and a "I don't think so..." but as the were diplomats the officer on deck simply looked at them with a generous smile and said "Ahhhhh a booze cruise." Anyways we ended up on the last ferry going out and took our seats in the closest row to the door. The ride out was uneventful, but once I stepped off the ferry I knew I was truly out of my element. I will try to describe to the civilian side what I saw. We landed on the aft, lower portion of the ship and had to walk up a series of stairs. Now if you've ever been on a Navy ship you are used to the dull, grey interior. I would have to say that this wasn't it. Every landing had a different mural and the floors were a spotless blue. Even the railings on the ladderwells were covered with blue canvas. Yes, I am describing what felt like Officer-country to me! And as I mentioned we were the closest ones to the door, hence we were the first ones off and onto the ship...So as we stepped up from the last ladderwell onto the quarterdeck I saw the red carpet rolled out and lined, on both sides, with sailors. When they saw us the Boatsman's Mate at the end started piping us on board and the minute his whistle sounded the seaman lining the carpet (In dress whites) went into a full salute. Now, as a former enlisted sailor I have lots of experience with the red carpet and officer-country and I can tell you I stayed FAR away from both with full fear of a reprimand at the hands of some grumpy officer looking to take it out on me. The only time I touched the red carpet was when I was the one on the side saluting, we never walked on it. So, as I heard the piping and stepped up I felt like running, trying to enjoy the moment was the farthest thing from my mind. But I got the nudge and full-grin from Hoss and I stepped onto the red carpet. However, that's not the last of it...As I stepped onto the carpet of death, guess who stepped onto the other side?! The Captain of the ship himself. He was waiting to personally welcome each and every guest. All I could think was wow and I shook his hand, glad to have the shocking experience over with. But, it wasn't over...as we stepped into the first hangerbay I saw an even longer red carpet. This one stretched the entire length of the hanger bay and was lined with every State flag. It was a very cool sight to behold, but again Hoss and I looked at each other and took a deep breath to keep us from walking around. This was the grand entrance that lead us to the reception in hanger bay two. It was incredible. The food was delicious and had roast carving stations, fresh rolls, vegi and fruit tables and fabulous trays of hors d'oeuvres being carried around by poor sailors in tux tops. Now, I say poor because when I was in it was mandatory for newbies to spend 90 days of "cranking" on the messdecks. It meant 12 hour days of stinking like food, washing dirty dishes and every once in a while throwing on the tux tops while the stressed out cooks took their anger out on your petty mistakes. As you can tell just walking onto the decks was bringing back all kinds of memories. Memories of a life that felt a hundred years past. I even had to stand at the opening, where the elevator comes down, and just feel the moments pass. I remembered so many mornings when I would stand in that same area and watch the sunrise while the horizon rocked up and down. Those moments, before I started my day, were some of the most peaceful minutes I have ever experienced. There is nothing so beautiful as watching the sun come out of the sea with not a single other thing to get in the way. Anyhow we socialized for about an hour and then they held the ceremony. It started with an introduction from the CO who greeted us and welcomed the Admiral in charge of the group. Then the Consular General spoke. It was fairly boring. After this they took people up the elevator to the flight deck to see the aircraft and others were escorted on tours. We left early without seeing anymore as we were trying out a babysitter and had already been gone a few hours. Anyhow, just thought you'd appreciate the memories...Oh yeah one more. Looking at the pad eyes in the deck (the recessed dents in the deck that have a cross over the top so you can tie down the aircraft) brought back all kinds of memories from my Shellback ceremony. At one point they brought us "pollywogs" topside and there was a guy with a fire hose washing down the decks...The decks were filthy from the aircraft fuel, engine grease, and all kinds of other nasty stuff and the worst of it had collected in the pad eyes. Well, our job at that time was to dry out the padeyes, with our mouths. They aimed us one facing the other and we blew as hard as we could to empty the water out and got drenched and gross in the process...crazy, but the certificate and feeling at the end was well worth it. Hope everyone is well!

Happy Halloween Playgroup!

Here's another playgroup pic. They are listening to scary stories from our guest reader, she even brought stickers and spiders!

Ash was really into it she kept getting excited and standing up to get closer:)

I just thought this was a cute Brielle face.

This was after Brielle took off the Snow White costume and decided to be a stool...hmmm

Here's Ash playing with friends.

Ash colored this and unfortunately by the end of playgroup it was missing...oh well she had fun!

This girl still LOVES Elmo!

Decorating sugar cookies, these ladies go all out when they host playgroup. I'm scared to even try!

Here we are all dressed up and ready for action before it all began.
(The pictures always load backwards...I need to remember this and upload them in the opposite order)

These are the pics from playgroup this week. The girls really look forward to it every week and I'm starting to too. Tonight I had a fun girl's night out at a baby shower for one of the ladies here. It was too much fun. I miss the Girl's Night Out/Lady's Bunko in Tunis. I think I'll have to start one up here. This is a great crowd and we could really have fun. Anyhow, Happy Halloween everyone! We're going to have a work-wide Halloween party this weekend so I'll try to remember to take pics from that too. Bye for now!

This is mushy, don't read if you're not feeling sentimental...

This is just something I wrote, don't read it if you don't like mush. There's the disclaimer...now the fault is yours if you don't like it:)



Just a Mom
By Kasey Paquette

Sometimes I look at my children
In the innocence of their eyes
As they smile at me and say,
“You’re just a mom.”

“Just a mom” I think
Maybe I am, but maybe I’m not;
And just maybe I’ve been where you are before.

I’ve lived and loved
Hated and felt
Laughed and cried

I once had a job
I’ve been through more school
And teachers than you can imagine,
And once I looked at my mom with those eyes too.

Then I had you.

You changed my life
You gave it new meaning
You filled my soul until it was ringing

I counted your breaths and felt your heart beating
My child to me you are my reason for being.

Please know that I love you
I’ll always be here.
And if I am just a mom to you
Then I am glad.

Dedicated to my Ashlynn who loves me “like a sweet, red cherry.”

Tunisian Couscous

I was writing this recipe down for a friend and figured somebody might be curious about one of the Tunisian's popular dishes so I figured I'd post it here. It's something different to try if you are feeling adventurous...The picture is one I "borrowed" from the internet.

Needed:

2 pounds of Meat (I like chicken legs, they used lamb, beef cubes, fish or plain vegetable)

2 cups Couscous (medium grain has the best texture for the dish)

Olive oil

Onion cut up into small pieces

2 Green Peppers (washed and quartered)

2 Potatoes (Peeled, washed and quartered)

2 Large Carrots (peeled and cut in half)

1 can of chickpeas (drained)

4 Tablespoons Tomato Paste

1 Tablespoon Chili Powder or more to taste (They use Harissa or Piment Doux)

½ Tablespoon Paprika

½ Tablespoon Cinnamon

½ Tablespoon Cumin (although I asked a Tunisian while I was there and she uses coriander instead)

Salt to taste

Wash chicken and place in a big pot with a splash of olive oil and the onions. Cook until the onions are getting transparent and the outside of the chicken is starting to brown. Then you add the chickpeas, tomato paste and a cup of water. This simmers for about 15 minutes, you can add more water if you need to just add a bit more tomato paste as well if you do. Then you put in 4 ½ cups of water and the vegetables and bring it to a boil. While it is coming to a boil you prepare the couscous.

The couscous needs to end up in a large colander. I have a big metal one with smaller holes, but this recipe has also worked in my smaller, plastic one. I say it needs to end up there because if you pour it in before wetting it, it seeps through and makes a big mess, so you take a cup of hot water and a small bowl and pour the couscous into the water, stir it up and let it sit for a minute to absorb the water and make it stick together. Then you pour it into the colander. The colander then gets placed over the hot mixture where it can steam and get soft while the vegetables cook. This takes about 30 minutes, it depends on how you like the veggies.

This is where it gets a bit messy. You then take off the colander and pour the sauce in the pan over the couscous. Some people place the couscous in the serving dish, gently pull out the veggies and meat and then pour the sauce over the couscous and mix the two together and let it sit. I like to put the couscous in the sink and stir as I pour so all the excess sauce goes down the drain and the couscous gets the perfect amount of flavor without a bunch of extra sauce. You can do it either way. Anyhow, at the end you take the veggies and meat and arrange it over the top of the couscous, with the chickpeas piled up in the center (if you are really going for the presentation aspect) and enjoy.

Ashlynn the Karate Kid

Here's the pic of Ashlynn in her Karate gee. She is throwing one of the punches and said "KEA". She told me "it's like saying Ikea without the I" the day she learned it. Cute kid. Tells you where we did all our move in shopping:)

A couple pictures from around town...

Here is a Halloween exhibit we saw. It looks a little odd, but cute....then you realize that someone had a ton of time on their hands and lots of chopsticks and zip ties...You have to hail the effort and creativity!

This is the close up.

Hmmm...I wouldn't think they'd need the sign, but then there's always that one person who is the reason for the sign;)

Hope everyone is having a good day. We spent the morning watching fire safety videos on youtube and talking about our exits and taking the stairs and what not. Our building is doing a mock firedrill for it's residents soon and I wanted the girls to get the most out of it. Other than that, life is normal. There's no rain and life is happy. Ash has karate tonight and received her little gee last week, so I'll post pictures of her in her "uniform" this weekend. That's what her teacher calls it, I'm not sure why. Here's a funny story from last week's class:

I was sitting on the sidelines watching her interact and she starts telling some little Asian girl "My uncle is a superhero, but he can't fly. And I have another uncle and he's a rockstar, and I have another uncle and he eats Bambi...yep, BAMBI!" (she forgot to talk about her uncle that lives "with" the queen, that's what she thinks of when we talk about London) too funny! The girl was just staring at her like she was speaking Farsi and turning green. Then we were relaying the story to Kelly on Skype and she tells him "Yep, I said that to two girls, but they both are brown and look the same." Wow, we really have a bit to talk to her about, but she's learning to socially interact in this culture and this at least is good, even if we do have a couple things to teach her.

Bye for now...