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? :-)

Chicken Kavurma...

So, my sister-in-law Jennifer and mother-in-law Renee have been asking for the recipe for this dish that we like to eat here. We first had it at a restaurant that we frequent. I have no idea how they make theirs so I claim no true expertise, but we make something similar at home. I made it for lunch today, so I wrote down what I did and thought I would post it on here in case anyone else is interested. For those of you who know Dan well, you will be shocked that he likes this meal once you see what is in it. But I promise, he would eat it every week if I would fix it. Even more amazing perhaps is that Zeke likes it as well. Zeke is much like his father in his eating habits. They both believe the food pyramid was meant to be inverted! Anyway, here it is:

3 green peppers, finely chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 cans diced tomatoes
3 chicken breast, cut in bite size pieces
2 long, skinny, hot green peppers (Dan thinks it's the peppers that are in the Louisiana hot pepper sauce - ours come in a jar here) - you can put more of less based on your taste preference 1 lemon (squeezed)
olive oil
salt
garlic
thyme
cumin

Heat oil in a skillet. Saute green peppers, onion, garlic and salt until tender. Remove from skillet. Saute chicken in oil and garlic. Cook until done. Return pepper/onion mixture to skillet with chicken. Add the remainder of the ingredients and simmer until most of the juices have boiled off. I think mine probably cooked 20 minutes or so. Serve with rice . . . and here is the problem. You also serve it with this special, super thin bread called Yufka. You wrap the bread around bites of the rice and sauce to eat it. I don't know if there is something in the States that could be substituted or not. Maybe you have a suggestion. I did find a recipe on the Internet for it, but it seems like it would be a huge hassle.

The sauce stuff

Yufka

The finished product

A Day Out...

We needed to go to another part of our city today to turn some stuff in for work. We hadn't really been there together before, so we decided to make a day of it. (Well, a morning/afternoon of it.) It's amazing the things you see when you go somewhere new. We saw awe-inspiring views of water and boats, as well as majestic antique buildings and walls. However, perhaps the neatest thing we saw was a shiny-rock encrusted (rather than jewel encrusted) Volkswagen Beetle. It was pretty cool. And if you notice the plug underneath the back tire in the picture below, we were thinking it probably lit up or something at night.

Also while we were out, Zeke got a big sucker, which he was eating as he fell asleep. We got him all cleaned up later and now he's sticky no more.

Photo Shoot...

Well, we decided to subject Kaiyah to a little photo shoot. After she was down to her diaper, Zeke came running up trying to take his shirt and jeans off as well. He didn't want the fun going on without him! Here are a couple of pictures, and you can see a few more pictures by clicking here.

And the Best Husband award goes to Dan . . .

So, I have to take this opportunity to brag on my wonderful husband, Dan. Since we got home from the hospital, I developed severe headaches caused from the epidural I had. The only way to alleviate the pain was to lay flat on my back. Zeke has had a fever for the past day or so, and has been a little fussy because of that. On top of that we've had all the normal adjustments of bring a new baby home and keeping a household functioning. Most of this work has fallen on Dan. He has been such a trooper doing whatever needed to be done, getting us all food and medicine, changing diapers, playing with kids, keeping Kaiyah awake when she was supposed to be awake and asleep when she was supposed to be asleep, washing dishes, running errands . . . The list goes on and on. Dan is always a wonderful husband and father, but this week has proven that all again. And he is so good about doing it all without complaining. We are so blessed to have him as the head of our home, and I'm so grateful that my children have a role model like him.

Kaiyah Michelle Shackelford!!!!!!!

Hey! Kaiyah's here! She was born on May 29th at 11:55 p.m., 8 lbs. 1 oz. and 21 inches long. It's less than 24 hours later and we're already at home. Who whould have thought it? Tami and Kaiyah are healthy and we're all very excited and I know you want to see pictures, so here they are!

In the hospital.

Back at home.

Mommy's first picture with her.

Daddy's first picture with her.

First family picture. Zeke was ready to go play with toys.

The view from our hospital room. It's not as exciting, but it was pretty.

Because of the new addition to the family, Zeke has decided to share his blog with her. You can find it now at shackkids.blogspot.com or look on the side of this page.

For more Kaiyah and family pictures, click here.

OUCH!!!

Don't worry, it's just strawberry juice. We went to the market today to buy strawberries b/c they are going out of season soon and we wanted some to put in our freezer. We bought 8 kilos, which doesn't sound like a lot, but when you stop to think about it, it comes to about 17.5 pounds, which Dan spent the better part of the evening cutting up. We should have plenty of strawberries for awhile now!

The stems of 17.5 lbs. of strawberries.
17.5 lbs. of strawberries in our freezer.
Zeke helping out.

Stovetop Popcorn...

Well, in our country, there's no such thing as microwave popcorn, so we haven't actually eaten any popcorn since we've been here. Last week, however, we bought some normal popcorn and figured out how to pop it on the stove. Today, we had our first stovetop popcorn and it turned out quite good.

Kaiyah's Room!

So, Tami has been having contractions off and on all day today. Likely they are nothing, but at least it has provided the needed motivation to get some things done. We've washed all the baby clothes and worked on finishing up her room. Dan is still in the process of hanging a fan in there, but here are some pictures of the rest of the room! Thanks everyone who helped gather up all the stuff and get it here!

Illness abounds...

Well, we've had quite the run of bad health in our house. It all started when Tami got sick almost a month ago with what we thought was a common cold. It spread to Dan and Zeke last week and when it didn't seem to be getting any better, Tami and Zeke went to the doctor. Below is a picture of all of our drugs. The pink bottle in the back corner is rose water, a home remedy for lung congestion in our part of the world. We didn't honestly drink it enough to know if it did it's job or not. Anyway, we think maybe we're turning a corner on the illness thing, and it couldn't be a moment too soon...

Ephesus...

Our good friend, Jeff Brawner, came to visit us for a few days. He and Dan went to Ephesus for a day, taking an overnight bus there and another one back. Some of the transportation was a hastle, but it was well worth it. The first a picture of the Amphitheatre in Ephesus, where the Ephesians gathered to run Paul out of town in Acts 19 because he was threatening the business of the idol-makers for Artemis worshippers.

The second picture is what is left standing of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. That's Jeff and Dan standing in front of the only remaining column. If you want to see more pictures, including some statues of Artemis, the false god of the Ephesians, click here.

Mini-vacation...

We got away for a couple of nights earlier this week to a little beach town outside our city. It was great getting away for a little peace and quiet. We had a lot of fun. The main reason we picked the hotel that we did was because it had an indoor swimming pool. Here's a picture of it.

Needless to say, we didn't go swimming! It appeared the town hadn't really opened up for tourist season yet, so we enjoyed being the only ones at our hotel and having the beaches pretty much to ourselves. We even got to build a sand "cat".

If you'd like to see more pictures from our vacation, you can click on either of the following links.

Photo Album One

Photo Album Two