A White Christmas????

Every Monday evening, Jill and I have date night. It's nice for us to get out and enjoy each other without the kids....ha ha. Well, we just got back from our time together and had a comical experience. We decided to eat out at Johny Carino's, a great Italian restaurant. While sitting enjoying each other's company and the delicious pasta, our ears were pricked by the sound of Frank Sinatra singing White Christmas. Now, while Frank Sinatra is great music to be played while eating Italian, I'm not sure that "White" and "Christmas" go together on the last day of April. What do you think?

Season of the Khamaseen

During early April to late May, Cairo's weather can be quite different from day to day. Some days may be beautiful; others.......well.....not quite so beautiful. This time is actually called "the fifty"....meaning there are fifty days when there can be very bad sand/dust/paper flying/scarf around your face storms. Last week we had a full day storm that was one of the worst Cairo had seen in many years. It was bad. It was difficult to breathe and we ended up having over an inch of dust in our house.....that we are still cleaning. The sky was orange because the sun couldn't get through. It's neat to see but I'm glad they only come once a year.

Back to School

Well after about three weeks of break, Lydia will be starting school again this week. As you know, her teacher (Mama) has been on a little maternity leave. However, the principal (Daddy) said it's time to get it into gear....ha ha. Actually, Lydia has been asking and asking for Jill to start teaching her again. That means the teacher's doing a great job....maybe she should get a raise. :)

Daddy, I don't want to Dye

This is just a funny story so I had to tell it. The day before Easter our family was preparing for Easter lunch and we had several eggs boiling to be colored for later. Jill started telling me everything she wanted to do with the girls for Easter. She said, "First we'll talk about the Easter story and then maybe Lydia can dye a little." She told me this while pointing to the boiling eggs. Five seconds later, Lydia pulls on my arm with tears in her eyes and said, "Daddy, I don't want to die." I then gave her a hug and explained the difference between dye (color) and die (like as a door nail).

Happy Easter

We trust everyone had a blessed Easter. We had a great time with friends who had a yard to hide some eggs. We had a great time of fellowship and time as well to remember the real reason for Easter. The weather here was absolutely beautiful.

Kinzy, Kinzy, Kinzy

I think the pictures speak for themselves...

The "R" in the "MMR"

For the last week we have been waking up at night a little more often than anticipated. Once Kinzy would fall asleep, Alia would wake up. She is battling Rubella, or it's also known as German Measles. She has had one vaccination, but it obviously wasn't sufficient. It isn't dangerous for kids, just uncomfortable and annoying. It's especially hard for energetic Alia to be secluded up in the apartment. So now we know exactly what the "R" in the MMR is......always an education on this side of the world.

What's all that noise??!!

Our city is always filled with some kind of sound at all hours of the day. From honking horns to donkeys braying (or whatever sound they make) to peddlers calling out their goods being sold....we have it all. However, the last month or so has been a little noisier than usual. Apparently, someone has bought the ground floor villa in our building and they have been doing some re-modeling.....to say the very least. From where we live, four floors up, it sounds like walls are being smashed like it's world war 3. Sometimes, our floor or the computer and tv shake. We just pray that someone in all their excitement of destroying concrete, doesn't accidentally slam a wall down that holds the building up. Anyway, we have found out now that it's going to be a restaurant. The advantage of this is that it will be fun to people watch from our balcony. The disadvantage is more noise. Oh well, it keeps things exciting.

Daddy & Kinzy

One of my favorite things to do when our kids are just infants is to let them sleep on my chest. Sometimes I might drift to sleep as well but with three kids now it makes it difficult to take naps. But I try to squeeze one in every once in a while.