Milk

I know you are wondering why in the world I have a photo of milk. Well, in keeping with the original purpose of this blog, which was to share the difference in our day to day lives, I need to tell you about my trouble with milk. I have always loved milk but since coming overseas I rarely drink it. Here it comes as shelf milk, meaning it doesn't need to be refrigerated until its been opened. It lasts a really long time like that. Unfortunately, it doesn't taste that great. I only use it to cook with and in my cereal. So, why I am I telling you this? The other day a new brand of milk popped up in our local store. Since I've never given up on trying to find milk I like here I thought I'd try it. The good news, it was the best milk I've had here! The bad news its is $8.50 a gallon. Its also a good chance they won't keep it in stock. I have become excited about other products that have shown up on our shelves only to be later disappointed that they didn't restock it once it ran out.

Anyway, the long and short of it is this-We must learn to be thankful for the things that we have and be content when we don't have those things. That is easier said than done. I know, I know some of you are thinking "Good grief, it's just milk, is that such a big deal?" Well you're right, it's just milk. I just happen to love milk and a nice tall, cold glass of skim milk(out of a jug) sounds really nice right now. So, all I ask is the next time you are enjoying a nice glass of milk with your morning breakfast, remember us and our boxed milk dilemna and be thankful for the simple things of life that we often take for granted.

This is just one of those differences I was talking about in daily life. In America I never gave a second thought to milk. Here, I've thought a lot about it and drove all over the city, and visited many different groceries to get the most tolerable, affordable milk. After all this talk about milk I think I'll go have a nice tall glass of my very expensive milk before the kids drink it all.

Holidays

The weather here in Baku has been HOT this summer. Although it is always hot in the summer with very little rain this summer has been exceptional. I have seen 100 degree days more consistently than I ever have growing up in the mid-west. Well,that changed today. Today as we started our day it was 65 degrees out side and it had rained much of the night. It was a breath of fresh air! When the weather begins to change I can't help but think of the new season

and of course, the holiday that is fast approaching. As I was recently looking through some of our summer pictures I came across our photos from the Fourth of July. It's a holiday that we almost forget when we are living here. It is not because we don't value it or what it stands for actually we probably value it and what it represents more than ever. The fact is there is nothing t

o remind us the holiday is approaching. No one is putting out red, white and blue decorations or preparing for their Fourth of July BBQ. There are no advertisements about the annual fireworks show down at the lake or at the local high school. Even though our holidays here are often not as

elaborate as they would be if we were in the States they are still special. This year wecelebrated with good friends. We had all the normal "stuff" that should be at a 4th of July party, hamburgers, grilled chicken, corn on the cob, cherry cobbler (cherries provided by the tree in our own backyard) and of course watermelon. Thanks to some advance planning the last time we were in the States we bought red, white and blue sprinkles to add to our cupcakes. Made things look just a little more festive.Although it didn't happen on the 4th of July, later this Summer we were able to participate in an evening of baseball with some friends. Baseball has not yet made a name for itself in this part of the world so our kids never see anyone play and rarely play baseball themselves. So getting together to play was a real treat. Those of you who know me(Chastidy) from my school years probably remember how much I LOVED to play softball. So, needless to say I so enjoyed seeing my boys

play. Hannah decided to just watch from the side lines. You'll notice my left-handed Noah (picture on the far left) is batting right handed. It took me half way through the evening to realize and help him switch to his lefty position. That is exactly the way I started out even though I am a lefty. No one asked me they just handed me a right handed glove and a bat and told me how to standlike a right handed batter. Of course it was all wrong for a lefty. Nevertheless, I played softball for 10 years right handed! Anyway, the point of this blog, that is growing a bit too lengthy, is that I adjusted. I wasn't right handed but I adapted. Sometimes things in our home a way from home seem awkward like a lefty trying to wear a righty's glove. The difference is that we have a great Coach and Father that shows us how to bat right handed even when in the natural we'd be a little more comfortable on the other side of the plate! Although being comfortable is ALWAYS our goal it is not always our Fathers and he definitely seems to know best. If I do say so myself, I was a pretty good softball player for a lefty in a right handed world.

Roadblock

Today as the kids and I headed into the city we quickly came upon a roadblock. By quickly I mean the end of our street and one of the only two ways to get of our "subdivision". As I approached the end of the road a man stood motioning that the road was closed. I rolled down the window and continued in his direction. As I continue toward him he begins yelling for me to turn the car off and to back up. I wasn't sure how I could do both of those things at the same time so I continued driving toward him. He continued his shouting that the road was closed. Since I was going to be late to the Fitness Center if he didn't let me pass I felt a need to be persistent. He told me the president was coming through and that I'd have to wait about 10 minutes. I begin to ask about other ways to get our of town. He apparently didn't appreciate my asking questions as he continued to shout. When shouted at I seem to lose the ability to speak Azerbaijani. I wanted to ask the unpleasant fellow to speak kindly and calmly so I could figure out what I needed to do. Hannah told me later that in my frustration I asked him to speak sweetly to me instead of kindly. We had a little laugh about that later. Long story short our day begin with frustration as they had actually closed both exits to our road and instead of a 10 minute wait for the president to pass it ended up being over an hour. The picture I've added is a picture of our road and if you look real close you can see the man that refused to talk sweetly this morning. I guess the the moral of this story is don't be in a hurry when the president is coming.

David's Monthly Chore

This picture is about two years old but since David did this chore today I thought I'd put it up for you. About once a month, sometimes more often, David has to empty our sewer. Our sewer is not directly connected with the local sewer system. He has to use a big "fire hose" to empty it out. Over the last two years he has gotten better at it and is not quite as stinky after he is finished as he used to be. One of the benefits of doing this is that our kids can't get away with anything. Last year for Christmas we had some peppermint patties sent to us by David's sister, Tara. Luke loved them. We try to give them sweets sparingly so we put them up and just gave them a piece occasionally. Well Luke decided we weren't given them frequently enough and hid in the bathroom and ate them. We found this out as David emptied the sewer because of all the peppermint patty wrappers that he found. Apparently Luke thought he could hide the evidence by flushing the wrappers down the toilet. He failed to realize that nothing gets past us parents, especially when dad has this as a monthly chore.

Just a Beginning

I've thought of writing a blog for a while but seems like there's just never enough time. I wanted to write to allow our friends and family that live far away to experience day to day life with us. I wanted to do this both for them and for us. Many people ask what our days are like living in a foreign country and honestly sometimes it's just difficult to explain. I thought a blog might help bridge the gap for us. So this is a beginning and we'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll be consistent, maybe I won't. Anyway I'm gonna give it a try!