Something about the weather this morning made me feel like I was in Istanbul. Maybe it was the uncharacteristically balmy 60 degree temperature I enjoyed walking to work. Maybe it was the scent of the many shop and restaurant workers smoking outside their establishments. Maybe it was the sound of the cars honking or the buses passing by on the wet pavement. Or maybe it was the state of my heart and mind this morning.
Whatever it was, I was overcome with the desire to hop on a ferry to cross the Bosphorus and spend a few hours at my favorite park and tea garden in Moda (on the Asian side). I could practically taste the Turkish tea, feel the breeze as it blew the pages of my journal, see the islands peeking out of the glistening Marmara Sea, hear the seagulls barking and the children playing and chattering in Turkish at the nearby playground… Even though I wasn’t really there, for a couple minutes this morning, I was refreshed by recalling these welcome senses.
How I miss my beloved Istanbul…
12.03.2009
12.02.2009
Making himself known
Greg and I were up later last night than usual. Around midnight, I started to feel what I thought was our little boy moving around quite aggressively inside. I put my hand on my ever-increasing bump, and sure enough, he was pushing out all over the place. I excitedly grabbed Greg’s hand, and before he knew it, he was in awe at his son’s little pushes and kicks (or head butts or whatever he was up to). What a thrilling discovery! In retrospect, I have definitely felt him moving at other times over the past few weeks, but last night was the much anticipated confirmation everyone had assured me would come one day. A sweet answer to prayer.
In other news, Greg and I are pretty sure we’ve settled on a first name, and we’re trying out a few middle names, one being the definite favorite. I’ll have to check with him to see if he’s ready for me to share them with the world wide web yet. If you’re curious and just can’t wait until we share it online, ask one of us. I’ll give you a few hints – the first name starts with an N, has three syllables, and was originally a Hebrew name. The middle name is Turkish (though I think originally Arabic), has two syllables, and has a meaning that is particularly dear to my scholarly husband. :)
In other news, Greg and I are pretty sure we’ve settled on a first name, and we’re trying out a few middle names, one being the definite favorite. I’ll have to check with him to see if he’s ready for me to share them with the world wide web yet. If you’re curious and just can’t wait until we share it online, ask one of us. I’ll give you a few hints – the first name starts with an N, has three syllables, and was originally a Hebrew name. The middle name is Turkish (though I think originally Arabic), has two syllables, and has a meaning that is particularly dear to my scholarly husband. :)
11.28.2009
11.20.2009
Early Thanksgiving Dinner
Greg and I slaved away in the kitchen last night to prepare for our dinner party tonight. We are finally having our upstairs neighbors over for dinner. I had been struggling with knowing what to make these three Tufts international students -- two Frenchmen and one Turk -- but then we thought of creating a mini Thanksgiving feast. I had a blast last night (and Greg pretended to enjoy it even though it was not his idea of a fun evening) making pumpkin roll, baking a turkey breast, and prepping a handful of other dishes for tonight. I only had a few moments of freak-out as I thought about how incredible both French and Turkish cuisine are compared to my half-effort dinner. But Greg was quick to remind me that college boys are always happy for a free meal. Let's hope I don't offend their taste buds! Since Greg and I are going to Erie, PA this Thanksgiving to be with my family, it's fun still being able to host a piece of Thanksgiving in our home. I wish we could invite all of you over tonight! (But our little home will be packed to the max with five people!)
I can't wait to eat pumpkin roll!!!
I can't wait to eat pumpkin roll!!!
11.12.2009
Meet Baby King
Adorable facial profile picture
A cute little foot just waiting to be tickled
Can you guess the gender from this one?(Hint: the picture is taken from below looking up.)
Meet our little boy at 18 weeks, 2 days
I think he looks like Greg!
We're so thankful for how God has sustained and grown this little guy thus far!
11.09.2009
Oh if only we had backed up our computer...
Our other blog-worthy event from our trip to Nashville is that of our computer hard drive crashing. I tried all of the trouble-shooting suggestions online to no avail. In fact, I couldn't even find the hard drive to "repair" it as they were instructing. We took it in to the Apple store today, and they determined that the hard drive has a mechanical failure. Ugh! Our "Genius" (as they call the techies who help you at the store) was great, and after attempting to recover the data himself, he referred us to a couple companies to contact for more complex data recovery. He set us up for our free replacement as soon as we're ready. And he even suggested that NEXT TIME, we buy an external hard drive and back up our computer regularly. ha ha The thing is, we'd been planning to do just that for the last ten months. We had even decided which one to buy... But we mistakenly assumed that our computer was still new enough that we could safely put it off a little longer. Boy, were we wrong!
So from one blogger who has lost all pictures, music, documents, papers, financials, etc. to a friend who has hopefully not experienced this, I urge you with fervency to stop putting off your computer back-up and do it NOW. You will not regret it.
So from one blogger who has lost all pictures, music, documents, papers, financials, etc. to a friend who has hopefully not experienced this, I urge you with fervency to stop putting off your computer back-up and do it NOW. You will not regret it.
Airport Security?
Greg and I flew to Nashville on Wednesday for a conference. We had a great time reconnecting with some friends there and were thankful to be able to attend. Our stop-overs going and returning were both in Detroit, and we had a four hour lay-over on the way home on Friday. Greg's parents were able to pick us up in Detroit, and we had a wonderful dinner together at a nearby restaurant before heading back to the airport to return to Boston.
We had absolutely no trouble getting back in the Detroit airport, no problems with security. In fact, there was hardly anyone there at 8:00pm on a Friday, so we had 5-6 security officers assisting and chatting with us. As our plane was beginning to board, Greg and I pulled out our boarding passes to make sure we were sitting by each other. We were completely confused to not see our Detroit to Boston flight on my boarding pass. We knew we'd only received one boarding pass each so why were they different? I searched my bag for a second boarding pass, all the while knowing I didn't have one. But then I pulled one out of a book I had been reading on the last flight. We looked at the two boarding passes side by side and realized that I had gotten into the Detroit airport on the boarding pass of my seatmate from the prior leg!!! (Apparently I had picked it up and thought it was mine.) And you know what was even crazier than them not realizing my ID didn't match? My seatmate's trip ENDED in Detroit, so they shouldn't have even let me back in through the airport security on that boarding pass.
We were shocked, and I am still shocked as I write this. It definitely drives home the point that you really need to keep track of your boarding pass. It wouldn't be difficult for someone to fly as you!
We had absolutely no trouble getting back in the Detroit airport, no problems with security. In fact, there was hardly anyone there at 8:00pm on a Friday, so we had 5-6 security officers assisting and chatting with us. As our plane was beginning to board, Greg and I pulled out our boarding passes to make sure we were sitting by each other. We were completely confused to not see our Detroit to Boston flight on my boarding pass. We knew we'd only received one boarding pass each so why were they different? I searched my bag for a second boarding pass, all the while knowing I didn't have one. But then I pulled one out of a book I had been reading on the last flight. We looked at the two boarding passes side by side and realized that I had gotten into the Detroit airport on the boarding pass of my seatmate from the prior leg!!! (Apparently I had picked it up and thought it was mine.) And you know what was even crazier than them not realizing my ID didn't match? My seatmate's trip ENDED in Detroit, so they shouldn't have even let me back in through the airport security on that boarding pass.
We were shocked, and I am still shocked as I write this. It definitely drives home the point that you really need to keep track of your boarding pass. It wouldn't be difficult for someone to fly as you!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
