O Christmas Tree...

Well, we've decorated for Christmas. Tami likes to get into the holiday spirit as early as possible, so two nights ago, we put on some Christmas music, dug out our tree, and had a holly jolly time decorating. It was fun this year because Zeke has gotten old enough to help hang the ornaments on the tree. He didn't, however, understand that they didn't all have to go on the same branch. Here are a few pictures from our evening.

Zeke putting on an ornament.

Another angle.

Zeke picking up an ornament after his branch wouldn't hold anymore.

A closeup of Zeke's branch.

The finished product.

Fall!!!

I, Tami, LOVE this time of year. Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday. I love the fall because it means Christmas is almost here! I love the weather, I love the clothes, I love the food (minus pumpkin pie that is), I love the feel of family that this season has! The other day Dan made some Chai Latte like they serve at Starbucks and I made some pumpkin muffins. Umm, umm good. That really started getting me in the mood of the season! Anyway, I hope you all are enjoying your fall season as much as I am. Here are a few pictures from our fall! You won't see any fall leaves from these pics though. Alas . . .

Grandma and Gran'dad!!!

Well, we had an exciting couple of weeks with Tami's parents, including a week in another country, visiting Tami's brother and his family, as well as two nights in a hospital. Thanks to all those who knew about Ron's illness and were praying for him. He's much better now and they headed home in high spirits. We were sad to see them go, though. Zeke said it best, "Granma no go bye bye. Grandad no go plane." Here are a few pictures from their trip. For more follow these links:

Dan and Tami's Home

Jeff and Becky's Home

Three Wonderful Years!!!

We got married 3 years ago October 15, and it's been the best three years of my life. Tami is the most magnificent woman with which I could have ever shared my life. No one else I know could do all that she does and still be happily married to me. She's a wonderful wife, a great mother of two and a very hard worker. She works hard at our church, she's learning a new language (soon to be learning a second new language), she keeps the house neat, and much much more.

Baby, you are the embodiment of a biblical and perfect wife. I love you more than words can express and I hope for many many more great years together.

Funnel Cake...

Yet another food post from the Shackelford family, but we just had to share. Dan woke with the idea of having beignets for breakfast, but after looking up a recipe that called for yeast and four hours in the refrigerator, we decided to try out a funnel cake recipe we found the other day. It was wonderful, even for breakfast!

Mixing the batter.

The funnel.

Putting it in the pan.

Cooking.

The finished product.

Double Stroller!!!

A few months ago, Tami met a very nice lady and her sister who gave us a double stroller that they didn't have use for anymore. We'd kept it in storage until today, when we decided get it out, clean it up and take it out for a spin. And it was quite a spin.

There is a religious festival here this month and every night about 8 p.m. they have a special meal. We decided to go with some friends of ours to one of the touristy areas in our city to eat. We got Zeke and Kaiyah in the stroller, and they were very cute, and it was easy to push around.

We got out to the place around 6:30 and found a restaurant with a spare table (there weren't many).

Kaiyah slept in the back of the stroller for awhile.

Eventually our food came and we waited for the time to eat.

It finally did, so we, along with everyone else, started eating. Pardon this next picture. Dan was talking.

After we ate, we walked around a little and ate some cotton candy and other sweet stuff.

A while later, we headed home. Tami was holding Kaiyah, so one of Zeke's friends got to ride in the stroller with him. They were both full of sugar and had a lot of fun the whole way home.

Unfortunately, sometime during the night, the rubber came off of one of the back tires. We couldn't find that one. As we were headed home, the other one came off and we managed to save it. The back of it was already being propped up with a stretch cord, so it's looking like the first adventure in the double stroller will be its last. Alas!

Lots of Public Transport...

We've talked about all the different transport in our city so here are a few pictures of some we were on today. It starts like this:

First, we needed to take Zeke to preschool, so we all piled on a mini-bus that goes pretty close to the school.

Second, we needed a new adapter cord for our computer, and we had heard of a place on the other side of town with lots of computer stuff, so we hopped on a train to go to the water's edge on our side of town.

Disclaimer: This isn't at all like the train we ride. This was a model outside the train station. The train we ride looks like the tramway (see below) but much older.

Third, we got on a boat to go to the other side where they sell computer cords. We got our cord quickly and were back on a boat in no time. After the boat, we got back on the train to get Zeke. After we got Zeke, we got another mini-bus to come back home. Tami got off at home with the kids.

Fourth, Dan continued on the mini-bus to a larger bus stop, where he boarded a full size city bus in order to go to a dentist to get a tooth fixed.

Fifth, the bus took Dan to a metro where he would ride one stop to get to the dentist's office. He didn't get a picture of the metro, either, but this is it's sign. The metro itself looks kind of like the tramway (see below) but underground.

Sixth, after the dental appointment, Dan walked back to the bus station (because it wasn't really that far) and got on a bus headed in the direction of our apartments. The bus took Dan to a tramway stop, where Dan got on his sixth mode of transport for the day and finally managed to get back. It's good to be home!

My day . . .

I was just typing an email to my friend Dana telling her about my day, and I decided to copy this story over onto our blog. So, here it goes:

"Today I had language study and Dan had work and Zeke had preschool. So, I had to take Kaiyah to language with me. It takes me about 1 ½ hours on the bus to get to my tutor’s home, and then another 1 ½ hours to get back. Then I had to go straight to the preschool to pick Zeke up, which added another 30 minutes or so. I got there just in time. Then I had to walk with 2 kids, one stroller and 2 bags ½ a mile or so to where I catch the public vans. I had to pile all our junk onto the van and ride the 30 minutes home (it’s not that far, it just takes awhile with all the stopping and stuff). All the way home Zeke said "Zeke drive. Zeke drive." I said, "No you have to be grown to drive." So then it was "Zeke grown, Zeke grown." When we finally got close to home I was throwing all our junk out of the van trying to gather up all my children and get them off etc. At this point Zeke didn’t want to ride in the stroller so I had the bags in the stroller, Kaiyah in her pack, and Zeke was helping me to push the stroller. I see a car began backing up, swinging from the road right into my sidewalk (now granted, just as many cars think they have a right to the sidewalk as people.) I figured surely he sees me and I couldn’t really jerk out of the way without loosing Zeke. So I just stood there and the car kept coming! When it bumped into the stroller I finally yelled and they stopped. No damage done. After I gave them a dirty look and made sure they saw Zeke they apologized! Any-who, that was my excitement of the day!"

Just a day in the life of Tami . . .

Not as young as I used to be...

So, when I was in college, as I worked with children, one of my favorite things to do was to pick them up and twirl them around. They liked it, too. They would run up to me and yell, Mr. Dan, twirl me, twirl me!" And I would for at least half an hour every Monday afternoon.

So, the other day, I saw Tami twirling Zeke around and I thought, 'I guess he is getting big enough to do that.' The next day, I picked Zeke up under his arms and began to twirl him in circles. He thought it was fun and wanted me to do it some more. So I picked him up again and started doing it. He and I were both walking a little funnily afterwards, but about a minute later, he was fine. I, on the other hand, had a bellyache for the rest of the day. This happened to me once before, too, when I lived in Brazil and rode the teacups with Anna Brawner, who was 5 at the time. Yeah, the teacups!! Oh well! I guess I'm just not as young as I used to be.

Fried Okra...

Yet another food post from the Shackelford family. This one is dedicated to Dan's Grandma Beulah, who makes some of the best fried okra around. They harvest their okra really small over here, so when you cut it up, it's really little and we weren't sure it would work well fried. We finally decided to try it anyway the other night. It was really really good. The fact that it was so small meant that there was more breading on it per capita, and nobody was sad about that.

Lemonade!!!

I worked at Chick-Fil-A during college and have tried to remember for quite some time what the recipe for the lemonade was. I remembered it was very easy, but couldn't remember the measurements. Today it dawned on me that I may be able to find it on the internet. I did and we made some today. It was wonderful, and tasted like Chick-Fil-A, as far as we can remember. (They haven't opened their branch here yet.) The recipe, split almost in four for home use rather than in restaurants is below:

2 3/4 cups of sugar
2 cups of fresh squeezed lemon juice
8 cups of water


Just mix it up and enjoy!

Clothing Woes . . .

Well, this post is really just a plea for empathy. You see, most people have a hard time keeping their children properly clothed, free from dirt, stains, holes etc. My more serious problem is keeping my HUSBAND properly clothed. Unlike anyone else I know, Dan has a great ability for getting holes in his clothes. Before we moved overseas, I made sure that Dan had plenty of jeans and khakis to bring with us, because he wears a 36 length pant and you can't just find those anywhere. We moved in October. By January he was down to one pair that didn't have a hole or a grease stain on them! So, as people have come to see us, I've ordered several more pairs of pants for him. Well, here is a picture of their current state. The jeans are four months old and have a huge rip in the knee. The khakis are two months old and the day before yesterday he somehow managed to rip the pocket just from rubbing against a car. Don't you like his mending job!

A Visit from a Pigeon...

Not to be outdone by Dan's sisters, who found a chicken at their parents' house, (read about that on Elizabeth's and Tori's blogs) we found a pigeon on our balcony the other day. Tami and Zeke woke up Monday morning while Dan was out of town to find a pigeon on their balcony. They gave him some bread and water and he stayed there all day long. We think he had a hurt wing. Dan got home last night and the pigeon was still sitting out there on our minuscule balcony. He went out and said hi to him and went to bed.

This morning, they woke up and he was still there. Unfortunately, Dan's grandmother doesn't have a large plot of land near here where she can take care of the pigeon (refer back to the chicken story). So, we were kind of at a loss of what to do. Dan went out and waved at the pigeon (he did NOT shoo him away) and the pigeon flew from our balcony to the roof of a building across the street. He stayed over there most of the day.

A few hours later, though, we found him again on our balcony. We guess he felt at home here. So we gave him a little more bread and played with him a bit. Zeke really enjoyed him. After a while he got back up on the rail and we bade him farewell again. This time he flew around the corner and we're not sure where he went. We'll let you know if he shows up again. In case he does show up again, we'd love to hear ideas of what to do with an injured pigeon. (Please keep them humane.)

Here are a few pictures of the fun times and a video of Zeke playing:

Another shot of our little friend.

Tami and Zeke watching the bird. Kaiyah didn't show much interest.

Zeke calling the bird. You'll see this in the video below.

Date Night...

Well, since Dan's mom is here, she graciously volunteered to keep the kids and let us go out on a date. Yesterday afternoon felt kind of like going to high school prom with all the getting ready and stuff. We had Dan's mother take a picture before we left the house.

It was a little different with a little one hanging on to you, not wanting you to go.

But alas, we went, and it was lots of fun! It's not every city where you get to take a tram and a boat just to go on a date.

There is more about it here if you want to see.

Fred and Renee Pay a Visit...

Dan's Mom and Dad came to visit us this week and we have had a wonderful time. Dan's Dad already had to go home this morning, but not before we saw lots of things and made lots of memories. Dan's parents have been updating their blog all week and Zeke and Kaiyah's Blog also has some pictures on it. Here are just a few of our pictures. If you want to see more, click here. Happy viewing.

Perhaps the only picture of all four of us from the whole week. This was at a restaurant their first day here that had a really nice view.

Dan and his Dad playing backgammon. They did this a lot throughout the week. I'll graciously not say who won more games.

Renee and Tami at the Grand Bazaar.

Fred, Renee, and Kaiyah at one of the city's highest points.

Popcorn Update...

What's that a picture of? Why, it's us enjoying a scrumptous bag of microwave popcorn! After our stovetop popcorn post about three weeks ago, we had a visit from some friends living in a nearby country. Turns out they had been reading our blog. It also turns out they can get microwave popcorn in their country. They brought us quite a few bags of it. We were very grateful today as we delighted in a bag of caramel flavored popcorn.

Oh, did we mention they stopped producing our tortilla chips? :-)