Thanksgiving

Our friends, Bristyl and Kyle and their adorable little girl came over for our Thanksgiving feast.  I put the turkey in around 10 and Bristyl and I didn't finish cooking until around 8pm.  We were quite ambitious in our menu planning, but we did everything we wanted to.  Here was our menu:

Juicy Turkey

Good ol' Green Bean Casserole (We couldn't find French's fried onions so we fried our own! Even better!)

Mashed Taters

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes with Feta

To Die for Spinach Artichoke Dip

Orange Zest Sweet Rolls

Dad's Stuffing (improvised a little with Zucchini, yum!)

Roasted Veggies(zucchini, sweet potato, red onion, carrots, red and green peppers)

Couscous Stuffed Peppers

Triple Chocolate Pumpkin Pie

Sweet Potato Pecan Pie

 This fabulous kitchen we were blessed to cook in.  The family we live with was gone on vacation so we had the whole place to ourselves.  We felt like we were living in a fantasy.  We only burned the bread for the stuffing twice, forgot about veggies burning on the stove-top once and other minor casualties.  All in all it was a successful, delicious meal!

 Our fabulous Pies (and the carcass of the spinach dip in the background).  This is the way pumpkin pie should be: Chocolate!  Definitely going to be a repeat Thanksgiving treat at our house! Oh and there's London peeking out from the corner!

Baby in My Belly!

Last night Michael felt the baby for the first time! Well, he felt a hard lump that I am pretty sure was the baby because after a little bit he moved and you couldn't feel that hard spot on my stomach anymore.  We were both giddy with excitement.  I think he is more excited than he thought he would be about having a little boy.  When the doctor told us, Michael's face just beamed with pride.  I'll never forget that look, it was priceless.

I am 17 weeks today!  This time is really going quickly and my belly seems to grow more every day.  This baby boy is sure riding low in there.  I can't stand to have anything on my belly and I wish I could just walk around pants-less all day, but Michael wont let me, and probably the police as well.  Darn.

I have the strangest dreams.  Last night I dreamed that my water broke but I didn't know it.  Michael called the doctor because he was worried about me and he said to come in right away.  I was in the hospital in labor for a week before I actually had the baby.  That whole week I was in something like a coma because I couldn't remember any of it.  The only part I remembered was the doctor putting the baby in my arms.  And it was a girl! I turned to Michael and asked what we should name her and he said, "oh, she already has a name. Cecelia Mae."  I was surprised, "What? We have never talked about that name, where the heck did that come from? I don't like it."  Then the doctor chimed in and said, "Well that's too bad because we have already done all the paperwork.  It is on her birth certificate and there is no way to change it."  Fine. Oh, and by the way, the doctor there was not actually my doctor.  When I asked where my doctor was, Michael said he had to go to a "live" birth.  Mine was just moving too slowly for him.  And another thing; even though she was 4 weeks early, this baby girl was born with a full set of teeth! I threw breast feeding out the window right away.  When mom came to visit me in the hospital she brought a place of broccoli and green beans (sounds about right)  and "Cecelia," just a few hours after birth, started gnawing on the green beans.  There was even more to it, but I will spare you the strangest details.  Everything was not how it should have been to say the least.  Hopefully things go a little better than in my dreams.

I am Blessed

Although it's been hard to get into the 'holiday spirt' around here, I have been able to reflect a lot on my blessings.  I remember when I was 8 years old Grandma Pat gave me a notebook, padded and mounted with gold fabric.  She told me it was a blessing book, meant only to list things we are thankful for and blessings we have.  I want to get back into that habit of recording my blessings and reminding myself that the Lord never leaves me.  So here we go:

I am thankful for:

• A loving Heavenly Father who sent me to Earth so I could progress
• A sweet and kind husband who has a strong desire to provide for our family and to be a good father
• Latter-day prophets to guide and direct us
• A warm house
• A refrigerator
• Clean water
• Warm showers
• A growing healthy baby boy
• A pretty darn easy pregnancy so far
• Apple Pie
• Rain
• Good books
• Stretchy pants
• Kind taxi drivers 
• My eyesight
• Colors
• A beautiful Earth
• Good feet
• Good doctors
• The Gift of the Holy Ghost and his constant companionship so long as I want it
• Arab culture and what I have learned from it
• My talents
• Amy Bangeter and her kindness in letting us live here
• Silence every once in a while
• A pillow
• Technology,  I think I would be a lot more homesick if I couldn't see and talk to my family over the computer 
• Mike's good luck in Vegas! We are so thankful to have them here with us in a couple weeks.
• A washer and dryer
• All of my senses
• My family, especially good parents who have raised me in the gospel and care about my eternal welfare
• The scriptures
• Testimonies of others
• The missionary couples serving here in Jordan and their sacrifices
• This adventure we are on

To be continued every day of my life (even if it's not written)...

A reminder to myself: Take an evaluation every day and realize how much the Lord blesses me.

D&C: 59:21

21 And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments.

We are off to dinner! Michael's boss, the principal of the school invited all the Americans over for a nice American Thanksgiving.  And tomorrow morning our BYU friends, the Garvins, are coming over to help cook and eat Thanksgiving dinner at our place.  I sure am thankful for kind people... and FOOD!

Stephen's Visit from Qatar: Day 4 Petra

The night before we decided last minute that we would go to Petra the next morning.  Michael had to work, so it was just Stephen and I. The bus left at 6:30 am; only one bus a day.   I figured if we were out at the road by 6, we could catch a taxi with plenty of time to get to the bus station.  Well, turned out that many taxi drivers don't get up that early.  With much difficulty and a good bit of running we finally caught one at about 6:22. We had to hurry!  I was telling the taxi driver in my limited Arabic that we were in a hurry because we needed to catch the bus to Petra.  Thankfully he got us there with just a few minutes to spare.  There were two stations right next to each other, so I ran huffing and puffing into the first and asked if this was where I bought the tickets to Petra.  He calmly said no, the next, but "Don't worry miss, that bus leaves at 7."  Whew! So I went to the other station and asked for two tickets to Petra, please.  We got our tickets and sat down in the waiting room.  There was a bus outside already but I figured we had a half an hour, might as well wait in the air conditioned room.  Well, at 6:30 that bus took off.  I panicked and ran to the counter.  "Was that our bus to Petra?!"  No, no, he assured me, your bus leaves at 7.  Right, okay.  So I sat back down for about 60 seconds.  Then I turned to Stephen and asked, "Have I been saying Aqaba this whole time?!"  "Well, yes, " he said, "I just figured you knew what you were doing."   That was our bus to Petra that had just left!  All morning I had been telling everyone Aqaba, Aqaba, Aqaba.... not Petra.  Sure enough, our tickets were taking us to Aqaba.  I ran to the counter and lamely told the man that I didn't want to go to Aqaba; I wanted to go to Petra.  "Well, that was your bus, miss....uh, hold on just a moment."  Bless his soul, he called the bus driver and had him wait for us at a station across town.  We jumped in a taxi (thankfully, they were all up by this time) and raced to the bus.  When we finally got nestled on the correct bus, I realized I didn't buy return tickets!  And you can't buy them in Petra.  I apologetically told the bus driver that I was an idiot and could he hold on for one more minute.  A couple minutes later I was back on the bus exhausted from the struggle I had just had with my own brain.  I had definitely lost it.  Thankfully I can blame all of this on 'Pregnancy Brain,' right?  And the funny thing is that I was reading just 2 days earlier in What to Expect When You're Expecting about crazy ladies and their pregnancy brains, claiming to myself that that was clearly not me.  I guess I've joined the club.  

But despite me losing my brains, we made it to Petra.  Here is the entrance, still heavily guarded. 

The narrow passage, called the siq, that leads to Petra. 

 Camels, the Treasury, and more camels. 

I don't know what my obsession was with camels that day.  You have to admit they are pretty cool looking animals, although they stink to high heaven.  10 points if you can find Stephen in this picture.  

 The Treasury is the first sight you see after coming out of the siq.  It is huge and absolutely breathtaking. 

We were in awe at the size and scale of the whole city.  You could spend days exploring this area. 

 We did all the exploring we could fit into our limited time.  Our first expedition was to the High Place of Sacrifice.  

It turned out to be quite the hike.  

 But the view was worth it.  

 Can you believe it, this boy bought a rock... for a dinar.  He bought a rock.  

You can hardly tell but there is a young Bedouin boy asleep on that rock.  I'm not quite sure how he got there. 

 The lady Stephen bought the rock from, asleep as well. 

 The High Place of Sacrifice.  

 The Theater. 

 This little ole lady made it all the way to the Monastery in heels! I was impressed.  One boy with a donkey told us there were something like 900 steps up to the Monastery.  I didn't believe him, until we practically ran the whole way up.  We were running out of time and I was determined to see it.  We should have taken him up on the donkey ride. 

We finally made it to the Monastery. 

 Where's Waldo?

Urn Tomb. 

Narrow road that leads up to the Monastery. 

What an adventurous day!  

We had to run back through the siq to make it to the bus on time.  Stephen could barely keep up with this pregnant lady.   

Stephen's Visit from Qatar: Day 3 Mount Nebo and Madaba

The last day Michael had off work we went to Mount Nebo and the city of Madaba. 

And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho.

 --Deuteronomy 34:1

 Here is the gorgeous view from the top of Mount Nebo.  

 The Brazen Serpent Statue and Stephen's olive tree. 

 On a clear day you can see all of these cities from the top of this mountain. 

 

This mosaic is the oldest surviving detailed map of the Holy Land and probably one of the first of it's kind.  The map is located in the apse of the early Byzantine Church of Saint George.  It was incredibly interesting to see such an early depiction of the land.    

Mr. Michael pointing to where the little star should be, saying YOU ARE HERE.