The Cure

Van stayed home from school on Tuesday because he was sick. I had Zhanna come over to babysit him while I was at work. She babysits for us a lot, and the kids both really like her. When I came home from work she told me that the reason Van was sick is because the house was too warm... I should turn the heat no higher than 20 degrees C (68 F) and put a sweater and socks on him. That would make it so he wouldn't get sick anymore. WHAT?!?  Yes, lets make the house colder, to the point we are chilled, then put on socks and a sweater, and THAT will make it so that we don't get sick...

Nightmare

Ava has been having nightmares... every night... for the past 2 months. She usually comes into my room to tell me about them, but if it is a particularly scary one, she will just lay in bed and scream until I am at her side to comfort her. One night she was completely convinced that a "little little man, with little little hands" had jumped onto her bed. It took both Jared and I about 30 minutes to calm her down. So last week, I am peacefully sleeping in bed when I hear "the scream" coming from Ava's room. I got out of bed and stumbled to her bedside and started the comforting cycle that I had preformed countless times over the past 2 months. "It's just a dream sweetheart. You're ok. Mommy's here..." She was frantic! She insisted that something had attacked her head and landed on her throat. "It's ok honey. Let me check your throat.... nope, it looks fine..." I knelt down by the side of her bed, stoking her head and wiping away the tears. All of a sudden something pounced on my knee! I screamed right into Ava's ear, and the look of pure terror on her face was horrible. I looked down and saw the 2 green eyes of Zeus, our cat, peering up at me. Luckily I was able to turn the tears into laughter, and Ava forgave the cat for scaring her!!

Green Goodness

The other day I was walking by the fruit store that I pass everyday on my way to get Ava from pre-school. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something green. I stopped in my tracks, amazed and excited by what she had displayed in her window. I looked through the glass at 2 bundles of wilty lettuce!! LETTUCE! I have not seen lettuce here since October!!! I bought the bundles, along with a few tomatoes. I was able to have 2 (albeit meager) salads this week!! The lettuce was bitter and not very crisp, but it was lettuce. And yes, I took pictures. Because that's what I do, I take pictures of the things that make me happy!

Ok, so there are more "toppings" than actual salad... At this point I take what I can get!!

Perspective

No one has ever accused me of being graceful. If someone had mistakenly attributed this characteristic to me, it would no doubt be revoked once they got to know me better. I trip, usually UP the stairs, I run into things, I spill things (I spilled my soda on Jared the first 3 dates we had, in a row!!), and I drop things. Last night I happened to drop an entire box of American Cereal. Lucky Charms to be exact. American Cereal is a rare and precious commodity here in Armenia. The cost to replace the box would have been $6.74 from the local closet they call the Commissary at the Embassy. For this reason, instead of sweeping it into the garbage, like I would have normally done, I spent close to 30 minutes picking it up, piece by piece, dusting each piece off, and putting it back into the cereal box. I realized at that moment that my perspective of what was important had changed. It was worth my time spent, picking up each Lucky Charm, so the kids could have a normal breakfast in the morning. As I was sitting on the floor, pondering this thought, I watched as a relatively large spider crawled out from under the sink and onto a piece of cereal. My newfound perspective immediately changed as I jumped up and stomped the spider into oblivion, along with the rest of the Lucky Charms. I'll pay for new, non-spider infected cereal, thank you very much.