For Men

Yesterday Chris made a quick run to the grocery store and after he returned I found this in a grocery bag:

Underneath the name of the candybar, it says, "Keep from women". Chris loved the idea. If the name alone didn't give him enough fodder, there's also this:

It states:
This is a new, special form of tenderness, created specially for men! This powerful, fat milk chocolate is only subject to us, to men. And not one woman can lay claim on it, because Nestle Classic FOR MEN is our untouchable, masculine possession.

And around the anti-women symbol:
Store in places inaccessible to women

In case that isn't enough to deter a woman from eating it, the chocolate squares are even stamped with the same symbol.

Chris doesn't buy candy bars. As he attests, the name of this one got his attention and sparked his curiosity so much that he bought it. If that's not good marketing, I don't know what is! =)

Face Toward The Sunlight

There is something about this picture that I really like. You can barely see Addie's face, but every time I see this picture I think of one of my favorite quotes from Boyd K. Packer, which says, “Face toward the sunlight of truth so that the shadow of error, disbelief, doubt and discouragement shall be cast behind you.”

HAYPbl3

HAYPbl3 is pronounced Nauryz. It is the Kazakh New Year. Celebrated in a few countries, Nauryz is a celebration of the awakening of nature.
These are some examples of the things you can purchase from various vendors. Moving clockwise from the large picture are: wool egg-shaped balls which have embroidery and bead work, they were really pretty, next is a collection of Soviet pins (also for sale), and finally, the table has slippers, hats, dolls, pouches, etc., all made of wool.
Below are some of the food options, if you're hungry (and most people come hungry). The woman on the left is selling/scooping out ice cream, next is a man selling pre-made, plastic wrapped sandwiches, and finally, Nauryz soup. There were lots of women along the streets with a stool, a little table, and a huge pot of soup. It looked great, but because the holiday fell on a Sunday (why does that keep happening to us??) we only observed the festivities.
These are some examples of traditional Kazakh clothes. Rather infrequently we may see someone wearing these clothes, but generally they are reserved for holidays. The woman in the green is selling a popular drink out here... kumis, which is fermented mare's milk. Isn't the little girl cute?? There really weren't many decked out in the traditional clothes, so when I saw this little girl we asked her parents for permission to take a picture. They seemed to be really pleased and flattered. Any ideas on her thoughts?? ;D
One of the dance performances we witnessed:
Another performance we saw, this is a male dancer/performer holding a traditional Kazakh instrument. It was a very... interesting performance.
Because no party is complete without a hot-air balloon...These guys are cool! They are falcon trainers and they certainly seem to be good at their work, I didn't see any falcons chasing after anyone or anything (of course, most of the birds had a shield over their eyes until picture time).A little while after seeing the guy pictured above we found ourselves right next to another falcon & trainer. This was the look on Addie's face:Even though Addie is wearing her snowsuit, it was quite warm. I walked around without my jacket and Chris was confortable in his suitcoat. Seeing the celebration was a nice way to be reminded of the beauty and joy that come with Spring.

6x6 Tag

Rules:
1. Go to your pictures on your computer
2. Go to your 6Th folder
3. Go to your sixth picture
4. Post it
5. Blog about it:

Oddly enough this picture is from when Addie was born. If I remember correctly, this was just a few hours after her birth. As you can see, I was exhausted and more than a little pastey in color, don't worry, it got worse... but that's a story for another day. ;)

I'm going to go ahead and keep it in the family and tag: Paul/Lisa, Tori/Jessie, Josh/Caroline, Nathan/Rachelle, Marne'/James, Ben/Barb, and Kaitlyn (siblings are in order of age).

The Eggs in My Basket...

Probably don't look like yours. (Unless you get them straight from a chicken's nest!)


This isn't the best example, but our eggs come: 1-stamped (not sure of specific reasons), 2-chicken poop-streaked (I always wash before breaking... you never know when you'll drop a piece of eggshell), and often 3-with little feathers stuck to them.

Charlie Chaplin Meets Visiting Teaching

This past Saturday we had a Relief Society mini-conference. The focus of the conference was mostly visiting teaching. The visiting teaching coordinator (and also a counselor in the R.S. Presidency) is a very talented pianist. She came up with a brilliant idea to illustrate "good" and "bad" examples of visiting teaching. I was only able to get one complete video, and it is of the "bad" version (you're in luck, since that's the funny one).

Chris mentioned once that Charlie Chaplin is still pretty popular here--people love the silent films. I guess it may have been that familiarity with that genre of films that helped create this presentation. I am going to see if we can do the performance again after church on Sunday so that I can have Chris record it. I love how appropriate the music is for the action, and it seems to me it works better than words ever could.

It was a lot of fun to be in this and the best part about it: No verbal language. It was nice to really participate!

In case you aren't familiar with visiting teaching: It is a program for the women in our church, wherein we are assigned a companion and together with our companion we have sisters from church that we "visit teach". The goal is to visit each sister at least once a month in her home and share a spiritual message. It is a way of establishing friendships as well as making sure the spiritual and temporal needs of that sister and her family are being met. Because we are women and we like to talk, sometimes it is easy to be side-tracked while visiting and spend time talking about things of lesser importance and not actually helping our sister. I'm not sure it's completely clear, but in the video we don't bring a spiritual message, we bring a magazine similar to that produced by Avon (with beauty products galore) and we spend our time talking about beauty, makeup, hair, etc.

Our Little Climber

Although our relationship seems to have many of his hobbies on hold, Chris is quite the rock climber. This truth is most evident when Chris discusses form--he has made comparisons between Baby's form while crawling (in it's various stages) and rock climbing. He hasn't made that comparison with this picture collage, but I am, because Baby is definitely a pro at scaling the back of the shelf. =)

Oh Man!

This post, the one you are reading right now, is our 200th post. Did you realize you've seen and read that much about us?

I enjoy blogging (writing & composing, as well as reading & keeping up with friends) and appreciate your comments and affirmation.


Thanks for giving us something to look forward to!

Oh, to have that many posts published, I recently finalized our Valentine's post and finally got around to publishing this one.

Not A Gerbil

Do you see the markings on the side of our coffee table? This is probably the largest grouping of them... but they occur sporadically around the entire table. All are evidence that Baby now has teeth.

It May Not Be A Hoover...

But Baby LOVES our vacuum. I think she always has. Even when she was a bitty thing she would go completely silent and watch in wonder when the vacuum was turned on. Now that she is mobile, she enjoys touching the vacuum (sometimes to my chagrin). I wasn't able to snap any pictures of it, or get it on video, but she actually knelt at the back of the vacuum (the flat portion) and knelt up beside it. As I slowly worked my way across the rug the vacuum went with me. It was slow enough that she was able to stay with the vacuum and "kneel-crawl" across the floor. To say she's a little attached may be an understatement--she started crying when it was time to put the vacuum away.
My only hope is she will continue to love vacuums (especially using them) well into her teens.

Being A Renter In A Foreign Country

I would like to preface: we like our landlady. Although some of conversations and communications have been... quirky... she is generally willing to work with us on things and responds relatively quickly when there are problems. We know we are really lucky to have a more laid-back landlady, and don't want the following to appear to be a big complaint. Try to view it as a statement of fact as well as an explanation of one way the renting business exchange is done outside the States.

The relationship between renters and landlords is rather different here in Kazakhstan. Based on ours and others' experiences I have come to the following conclusions:

Landlords come to see their apartment at random, and sometimes frequently.

Many of the unannounced/unscheduled visits by our landlady were in the first few months after we arrived. She would stop in and see how we were liking the apartment, or come by to pick up something she had left behind which she realized she needed (kind of awkward if we were using it...). Her visits were then, and are still, generally short-ish.

Of course, there are exceptions.

Our landlady (LL) is friends with some of the neighbors, especially one of the next-door neighbors. She likes to visit this friend, and if the friend isn't home when she arrives, she knocks on our door and wants to essentially "hang out" (and check things out) until she hears or believes the neighbor has returned. These are the times when I feel like she wants to be entertained. Chris has often been home (doing research) during these types of visits, which makes for a tough situation. She wants to talk about anything and everything under the sun, Chris is working, and I don't understand a word she says (okay, maybe I understand one or two words, but seriously, not enough to hold a conversation).

When we spoke to the other researchers from Chris' scholarship program we learned that one group of them (living together with a local) had at least weekly visits from their LL. The LL would walk through the apartment and tell them they needed to: sweep, vacuum, mop, dust, etc. etc. She also apparently kept a key to the apartment (not uncommon in the States) and there was at least one occasion in which one of the girls returned to the apartment and found it empty: except for the LL sitting in the kitchen drinking some (of their) tea. No joke.

Repairs in your dwelling may mean your landlord hangs out for a while.

There have been times when work has to be done in the apartment. We usually find out that landlady is coming the same day (at least there's a little notice, right?) the work is being done. LL often comes around the time of the appointment and if she or a friend isn't doing the work themselves, she waits in our apartment for the technician to come and do the work. LL generally hovers around the person doing the work, making sure the job is done correctly and well, so we don't usually have to cater to her much. The only glitch in this situation is that appointment times don't seem to be very firm here... A perfect example of this would be when the Rent-a-Husband came to change our bolt, install the screens, etc. He was supposed to come at about 1 p.m., so that's when LL arrived. Unfortunately, he didn't arrive until about 4 p.m. LL called him periodically, so we knew he was coming eventually, so she stayed and "hung out" the entire time. The work wasn't finished until about 5:30 p.m. To say that the visit was a little awkward and over-extended, might be an understatement.

Visits = Commentary

Regardless of the reason for her visit, when our LL stops in she likes to have a look around. She often notices some of our things which are unique to the area, and will talk with us about them. Early on she noticed our cloth diapers, diaper covers, the Moby carrier, our bouncer, etc. In our conversations we will tell her what the object is, and she often has questions about it's usefulness, durability, cost, etc. She often comments with her dis/approval of an item, her thoughts on how much we paid for it, etc. Recently, she has begun to ask for some of our things. We aren't using the bouncer any longer and when she was leaving from one of our last visits (Chris wasn't here) I was able to understand that she wondered about it and wanted it for her niece's baby. It's not available. She has also mentioned that she would like one of our snappis. On her last visit she kept complimenting a pen we had, which she used. It's a standard Bic type pen from a hotel. I'm starting to think/realize that the compliment comes before the request. I'd be happy to give her the pen, but we're rather short on writing utensils as it is...

Other frequent commentary is often related to how we are doing things. Windows should be shut, as wind is not good for a baby (a common/standard belief here). We are using too much detergent in our washer (causing LL's nose to run). One of her extended visits here was just after we were trying to put Baby down for a nap. Our attempt was unsuccessful which meant Baby was upset. LL took her from Chris and told him that he had "deeply offended" Baby.

Going Batty Becomes Operation Sparrow

Humor me for a moment, will you??

Once upon time, not too long ago, a little family of three moved to a faraway land. They lived in a nice little Soviet-era apartment with new windows with screens that didn't fit. After the mom and baby were attacked by mosquitoes (fourteen bites on just one of little baby girl's arms), they spoke to the landlady about installing those screens...

The weather grew cold and the mosquitoes disappeared.
The window guy scheduled and scheduled, but never appeared.

Then one day, the landlady called.
She would come by and apartment problems would be solved.

Rent-a-husband came and installed a new bolt.
He then fixed the screens and I felt a thrill in my throat.

The air grew warm and our spirits were high.
We opened the windows with a wonderful sigh:

No bugs could come in!
From my lips came a laugh and yes, even a grin.

The next day:
We scurried and hurried and rushed all about,
There were things to be done, we each had to help out.

The guests arrived, a sleeping baby in arm,
The good husband handled it all with such charm.

In another room dear sweet Syeva slept in the crib,
While we ate and Baby A sucked on her bib.

Syeva awoke and we had such great fun,
Then Syeva spit up, and to the bedroom hubby did run.

He grabbed the cloth, yelped and banged,
For in the room there was a creature... we feared it was fanged.

Through the door window we watched, wondered, and thought.
The tea was soon ready, we each chose a flavor, and brought out the pot.

We talked and talked, was it a bat or a sparrow?
The options were few, but still we couldn't narrow.

Our dinner was ended, our guests flew the coop.
As for us, we were pooped.

How did it enter? What was it? Who knew?
We went to our neighbor, our favorite guru.

"A bat? It's not likely. Why, it's a sparrow of course.
Don't you know, there's a nest under your back porch?"

Ah, and so there was.
We laughed, we nodded. Why? Well, just because.

We returned to our home, and got ready for bed.
Then off to the bedroom which we did dread.

We opened the door, but there wasn't a stir, not even a flap of wings.
We searched, poked, and prodded, but found not a thing.

It was late, we were tired.
We went to bed, and as we were about to expire...

"What was that? Did you hear it?"
The hubby got up and peered into the slit.

Between the wall and the shkaff we heard a small stir,
The husband poked and the next bit is a blur.

There was a flurry, wings were heard, and yes even seen.
We wanted it out, but didn't want to be mean.

We tried and tried,
But alas, "It's hopeless!" we cried.

The bird was well-hidden all efforts were fruitless,
It was very late, we were tired, and the room was now a mess.

We finally went to the window and opened it wide.
"Please just leave, you don't have to hide."

We had a short sleep and then began a busy day.
Off to church we went, you know of one thing for which we did pray.

We later returned to our home, not sure what we'd find.
"Please be gone, please be gone," I said in my mind.

Together with guru we searched and removed.
The bird seemed to be gone, but it had to be proved.

As they began to move the shkaff,
I had to hide my laugh with a cough.

No bird, no flitter nor flutter.
Grateful, I thought of the last night with a shudder.

A Little Bit O' Muscle

Baby is getting bigger and bigger these days... And so are our muscles!

I love this picture! The weather this weekend has been really nice, so when Baby's last clean pair of pants were dirtied, Daddy put her in shorts!

At her age, those plump little legs are cute!!! Oh, also note her little finger pointing at the camera... I'm not sure she's doing it completely on purpose but she's pointing a lot these days. (Mostly at us when we're being silly for her.)

Band-Aid

Her ring finger nail has been injured!

During her bath this evening, Baby managed to grab the drain and another metal contraption in the tub and shortly thereafter I realized her finger was bleeding. A closer examination showed a nail was split. I was a little freaked out and worried about it (key words: tetanus and third world country), but when I spoke to Chris I was calmed by his level-headed response: make sure it's clean, use some neosporin, and put a band-aid on, and if necessary cover hand with a sock to keep the band-aid on.

So, there's something about a little finger and a little band-aid that's simply really cute.


And you know you're reading the blog of first-time parents when you see a post about a mishap resulting in a band-aid. Oh well. You're the one reading it! ;D

Nine Months

She's been with us now for as long as she was in the womb. It's amazing to realize it's been that long--the last eighteen months have certainly passed in the blink of an eye.

We haven't been the same since we learned Baby Pea was coming. She has changed the way we look at ourselves, each other, and life in general.


She is made of sugar and spice and makes our life nice. We're so grateful she's ours.

Nesting Cups

Baby loves these toys (and so do I!). It is a lot of fun seeing these catch her eye and then seeing her speedily crawl or "cruise" over to them so she can take the stack apart.

March 8th

Did you know that March 8th is set aside by the United Nations as the International Women's Day? I didn't until I googled the holiday to find out what other countries celebrate it. This is a link to the the official website for the holiday.

Chris previously told me that celebration of International Women's Day was a Soviet Union (and now former-Soviet Union) thing. He is mostly right. You can follow this link to the Wikipedia page on the holiday for some basic info.

March 8th is International Women's Day in Kazakhstan.

To be honest... I really like this holiday! Duh, right? Well, you might be surprised by some of my reasons... In the States, Mother's Day is the holiday for women geared towards mothers. I know that for the past years of my life I have felt a little awkward on this holiday when people included me in the celebration. I always understood that as a woman I am inherently a mother, even if I didn't have a husband or children, but I still felt silly (aka uncomfortable) being "honored" when I was unmarried and childless. I think some of my single girlfriends would probably say "Amen" to that statement... So, what am I getting at, right?

Since the holiday is Women's Day it means if you are female you are celebrated--regardless of age, marital status, and/or womb experience, or lack thereof.

Yesterday, our branch had a celebration in honor of Women's Day. It was planned and executed by the men in our branch and it was great. The program started later than scheduled (not unusual) so there was a lot of greeting, mingling, and conversing going on in the foyer. It was really fun to see women of all ages excited to honor each other and be honored themselves. The primary girls and youth were nearly as excited as the adult women, and at the end of the program all were given a gift of a red carnation and a scarf.

The men performed a few musical numbers, spoof skits, etc. My mouth practically dropped when I saw this person in a wig:

Chris performed in a skit where he was pulled over by a cop for making an illegal driving maneuver--passing another car in a no-pass zone. The excuse: the sign showed a red and a black car and Chris("tina") felt the law didn't apply to "her" because "her" car was blue.

This is our dear "Brat" Ku (Brother Ku) who is a hoot! In this skit Brother Ku portrayed a woman who is having trouble starting her car. A mechanic comes to "her" rescue, assesses the problem, charges her $400, and then sends his worker off to fill up the tank of the "broken" car.

They sang for us too...

This skit doesn't translate well/easily into English, so I won't even try. I will say though, that the boy on the left, Sasha, reminds me of my brother Ben when he was a child/preteen.

Handing out the gifts:

There was also a very thoughtful and sincere powerpoint presentation about the value of women. Before it was shown Anya noted, "Our men do not love us." (Because of all the silly skits.) The presentation was proof that they do! =) It was a very good ending note for the program.

One of the funniest testaments to the contributions of the women in the branch would have to be that the dinner planned wasn't started until 15 minutes before the scheduled start of the activity. The main dish (plov) wasn't ready to be eaten until half an hour or so after the program ended. Chris kept noting that things weren't running as smoothly as they usually do, because only men were in charge. =)

I Want to Eat Eat Eat...

Carrots! Baby loves her food and usually does a good job of eating more food than she wears. This meal may have been an exception. ;)

When Daddy Dresses Baby

You never know what you're gonna get. Actually, I kind of do. If Chris dresses Baby she usually ends up in one of his favorite outfits or something that doesn't match.

So, when Chris asked me if he could dress Baby in whatever he wanted I was expecting something bizarre and mismatched. This is what I got:


I don't know about you, but I think it's a little early for her to be raiding her momma's closet. Don't you agree? =)

Pelmeni

Our lunches are often pelmeni or vereniki, little "dumplings" filled with meat or potatoes. Pelmeni is the name for any type of meat "dumpling", so it can be made with a variety of different meats.

We purchase large bags of beef pelmeni, which don't have a cute picture of a cow, but the bags below show the other types of meat-stuffed pelmeni's which we often purchase.


People are usually most interested/intrigued/disgusted by the bag on the right.

Baraholka

For some time I have been chastised by the sisters at church for not wearing warm enough shoes (specifically boots, which I left in the States). Two weeks ago we were walking down the street to the church building and one of the members of our branch drove by. When Sveta got out of her vehicle she began fussing at me about my shoes and I explained I was going to go shopping, but hadn't yet. She told me she would take me to the Baraholka that week, and we scheduled a date.

The Baraholka is kind of like a bazaar. But not. It is pretty much the size of a small city (I kid you not) and you can find anything your heart desires. It took a little time to find the area where shoes are, but we did and it probably took about an hour after that to find a pair of boots that I liked... we walked from "booth" to "booth" checking out the merchandise, trying on a few pairs, walking walking walking... but we were eventually successful in finding a nice pair of boots and even managed to bargain the price down.

The "merchants" are pretty aggressive, so when you walk into their "booth" they really don't want you to leave without buying something. Of course leaving is one way of bargaining a price down (and they know that), so at one point we had a merchant follow us to other booths, often with a pair of shoes, to try and get us to come back and buy from him. One of the most interesting sales tactics I saw was actually from the guy (I should probably say kid, he was maybe 16 years old) who sold us my boots. To demonstrate the quality of the leather he clicked a lighter and brought the flame to the boots--then showed that it didn't damage the leather in any way. It was pretty neat to see that, but I promise it's not what sold me/us.

On our way out Sveta and I decided we wanted to stop at a booth and tried to call after Chris, but couldn't find him. We kept calling after him and eventually we saw him come out of another booth--he was shopping too. I tried on a couple skirts, a few shirts and sweaters and ended up buying a skirt and sweater vest-ish thing. (I'm pretty sure the sweater vest-ish thing is not a blast from the ugly 80's past, I just don't know how else to describe it.)

This is a picture of me with the woman who sold me the skirt and sweater. This is her "booth" with all her merchandise. On the lower right you can see that there are torso dummies (?) modeling skirts. The bare-skinned torso on the right lost it's skirt to me. =)


When you look at the picture you should notice there is a yellow sign, behind which is a gold cloth. This is a curtain. If you want to try on clothes they pull the curtain for you and you try on clothes. Please note, we are wearing our winter coats, hats, scarves, etc. Why on earth is that, you ask? Well, you see, the Baraholka (and most bazaars for that matter) is pretty much outside. There may be a tin roof (and in this area there was) but the main floor is simply ground. Pretty much all of the booths have a wooden platform that you step onto, and the platform is often covered with a carpet or something.

But I digress. You see, I had to actually try on the clothes in order to know if they 1-fit and 2-looked good on me. This meant that I shared that little curtained space with another girl trying on clothes (yes, I am completely serious) and was extremely cold and more exposed to the elements than I would normally choose to be. My feet were freezing. Conveniently, I was provided with a small carpet (similar to the kind I sat on in elementary school) to stand on while dressing and looking in the mirror.

It was a fun trip and quite the adventure. I am sold on the Baraholka and pretty excited for my next visit! =)

Peculi-Hair

The other night I was looking at the back of Baby's head and commented on the funny way her hair grows and goes. If you look at her hair at the nape of her head you'll see what I mean... A third of her hair, on the right goes in one direction and then there is a "divide" and all the rest of her hair curves to the left. It's pretty much always like that.

The funniest thing was after I made my comment Chris sort of laughed at me and then turned around... their hair grows in the same direction(s)!


(Although obvious in this picture, he has since had a haircut, so there is now little hair back there.)

True Confessions

This is, hands down, my favorite part of walks through the neighborhood or to a store.

After Numerous Attempts

I finally got a picture of her tooth (which was discovered the night of the key disaster). It's barely visible, I know, but I promise there is one present.


It's on the bottom, middle-right. Don't know if that'll help much...