Madison's First Day of Kindergarten! WOW!

Madison's teacher who said she had a WONDERFUL first day!

Well, at least two of our children had happier faces on this morning before school! Meredith was so glad to get back to her "social atomosphere" and Madison was pumped about her first day of kindergarten! As for little Matthew Ray...just about as pitiful as yesterday's shots. Poor guy...it was hard for him to see his sister go to "big school" without him. We were going to send him to his regular pre-school but we just didn't have the heart to today..maybe tomorrow! :) This is not Meredith's teacher this year but she is our really good friend who is also teaching at the school. Isn't she cute? She's single, ya'll!:)

When Madison came home she was full of new rules and information! Here's just a few things she enlightened us with...

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It's Tough Growing UP :(

What kind of people enjoy capturing "torture moments" of their kids? Well, I guess we do but we have a good reason...you see, we took Meredith's picture 7 years ago when she had her kindergarten shots and it is in her scrapbook. Now that I use my blog for my scrapbooking it was A MUST to add Madison's in! (side note: Have you heard of blurb.com? Thanks to our really smart friend, Ashli, we discovered it! It is a free downloadable program that turns your blog into a book. We just recently turned a whole year of memories into a thin book straight from our blog! It was sooo easy, quick and only cost me around $50 for a 120 page book!)

Anyhoo, we felt we had to record the same events with Madison to our new way of scrapbooking. We discovered at the doctor that all three kids were due for some shots! YIKES!! If you are saddened by pitiful faces you may want to stop now before scrolling down to see pics!:) Tomorrow we should have happy pictures of Madison's first day of kindergarten!

Meredith is not really happy here. We were encouraging her to stay strong for her brother and sister who were next in line!


Madison was really brave. She wanted to make sure the doctor knew that she wanted to watch the needle go in...no suprises for her!



He made me so sad!




When it was all over we headed for Chili's to play on their outside playground and got some PROMISED ice-cream! It made it all better!

He's Too Sweet...

Matthew Ray is such a sweet little boy. We are filled with joy when we see his little face! He has such a tender heart, is such a sweet helper, is full of affection, has a giving spirit, and is going to be a CLASS CLOWN for sure!!! These two moments capture what we get to enjoy about him every day!





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Stink!!!! I Forgot My Camera!!!

I cannot believe I left my camera at home last night! We were invited to eat at some friend's home last night. We met them about a year ago and have seen them from time to time but have never been in their home. We arrived at a reasonable supper time around 7ish and were worried because we were a little late....

When we first arrived I went to take a quick potty break. After returning to the living room I found a very strange look on Matt's face. I knew something was up but had no idea what was in store for the evening. The woman of the house soon left the room and Matt said in a very low tone, "We are having pigeon for supper!" I whispered back, "What!? I can't eat pigeon!" Meredith was there with us and she repeated, "I can't eat pigeon!" He kindly instructed us that we WOULD be eating pigeon, that we WOULD NOT be making the faces that we were currently making and that we would smile about it! :)

I don't know why we were worried about arriving late... The husband arrived home from work at around 8:30 (which is really the regular Egyptian time for supper) and we sat down to eat. I should have saved all of my worrying for what I was about to eat! Our menu: Pigeon (one for each person), mashy (stuffed zucchini), mululhaya (slimey green soup), refrigerated green beans with onions, baboganooh (eggplant dip), bird's tongue soup (no, it is not really bird's tongue!) and flat bread.

Now to be sure I have consumed foods more disgusting than pigeon. To be honest, its not bad. It tastes like greasy chicken meat and mixed with rice and an assortment of other items is hardly recognizable in the pallet. What was over the line was when Matt ate the brain. Our host suggested that it was delicious and proceeded to show us how to remove the skull and extract the soft grey matter. Before we knew it Matt had popped one in and swallowed it down!!! At that point Meredith and I forgot all about the faces we were NOT supposed to be making!!!

After dinner they told us that we were having mangos for dessert. It is the favorite fruit here this time of year and is considered very special. BUT I REALLY don't like Mangos...so, for me choking down the mango was even more difficult than eating the pigeon!

All in all it was a very enjoyable, interesting, cultural learning, encouraging, and funny evening....I just wish I had had my camera!!!

Needless to say, upon our return home, Matt promptly brushed, flossed, and brushed again.:):):)

Meredith's Movie Party! She's 12 YA'LL!!!

Today is Meredith's 12th birthday! She had several of her friends over last night for a pizza/cake/ice cream/popcorn/coke movie party. It is not cultural here to have "sleepovers" and Egyptians really don't understand why you would ever sleep at someone else's house. But they can come and stay until really, really late and that is not problem at all! Two of her friends were able to spend the night with us...they are so sweet and we had such a fun time! They stayed up until 3:30 and were awake again at 8:30...they watched a movie, played a little, and then made chocolate chip pancakes! It has been a very fun and special birthday for Meredith!





Here's a slide/movie of the evening's events complete with a mini-fashion show at the end!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The beginning of the Pre-teen Year!!!

This coming Thursday is Meredith's 12th birthday! She is quite the young lady...we are going to have to put a lock on our door and throw away the key! We are so thankful for her in so many ways....her tender heart, teachable spirit, obedience, spirited personality, faith in Jesus, love for others and their needs, understanding of scripture, and her heart for ministry...she is an amazing daughter, friend, big sister and lover of Jesus! WE LOVE YOU MEREDITH AND ARE SO THANKFUL THAT JESUS GAVE YOU TO US AS A SPECIAL GIFT FROM HIM!!!
Stay tuned for the pics from the birthday bash we will be having on Wednesday night!!

Kinda Funny Pharoah Land Moments...No. 6..In Cahoots for some Cake

Matthew Ray has a friend at his school named Lydia. Yesterday there was a birthday party at the school for one of their classmates. We were not aware of this party but as Matthew Ray returned home we were informed of how he felt about the day. Before I begin the story I must explain that Matthew Ray and Lydia are really sweet kids. They both have tender hearts and are usually mild, sweet and obeident. This is how the story unfolded:

Matthew Ray entered with a look of disgust and the first words out of his mouth were, "One of my teachers yelled at me today and I just yelled right back at her!"

Trying to keep my composure I asked, "Well, Matthew what in the world happened?"

"Me and Lydia wanted some more cake. The teacher left the room. There was a piece left...so we ate it. Then the teacher came back in the room and started yelling at us. She is mean. She put Lydia in punishment and I just started yelling at her!"

I asked, "Did you yell at her in English or Arabic?"

He said with a continued look of real disgust, "Some of it was in Arabic and some of it was in English!"

I really have never seen him this "put out." We have others in this house that get "put out" easily (ie..me) but he is never this way!

At this point, I really didn't know exactly how to proceed next because I wasn't sure of the entire story. I told him that we never yell at adults and just ignored the part about the cake. I immediately called Lydia's mom to see if she may could get some more details about the whole incident from Lydia. Lydia had not yet informed her mom of the incident but was not remorseful (and neither was Matthew Ray) about taking the cake. She told her mom that this teacher is always mean. Lydia's mom asked her what Matthew Ray yelled and this is the report:

"You're always mean! You always yell! You're always mad at us!!!"

Lydia's mom and I talked about it and decided that these two had just had their fill. I think they were just tired of the un-called-for treatment and decided that a little cake and some yelling back might do this teacher some good. We will both be talking to the school's owner this week and getting to the bottom of things.

Life with kids...whew..they really keep things hoppin!

We wish good things didn't HAVE to come to an end...

Juliana and Ashli leave us tomorrow and we are all a little mopey around here! We don't know what we are going to do without them around....no more middle of the night cupcakes, no more middle of the night homemade croutons, no more Facebook lessons, no more bathtime help, no more hanging out on Stacey's bed chit chatting with her about EVERYTHING, no more Junie B, no more "my baaaaaby moments", no more glass coke and sprite bottles everywhere, no more internet cafe' look on the dining room table, and NO MORE fun times(at least for a while) with TWO WONDERFUL COLLEGE Girls!!!!

What an awesome summer we have had!!! It has been a blast having Ashli and Juliana here with us this summer. They did an amazing job teaching at Madison and Matthew Ray's pre-school and they were personally such a blessing to our family! You made a difference here in so many ways! Thanks guys sooooo much! We love you so much and can't wait for you to come back soon!:)

We tried to talk both of them into staying...who needs college anyway?:) But they must return to finish their education so they can come right back and work here with us!:)