I DID IT!!!!

Two days before moving to Istanbul, I did my last run in America. I started out thinking I'd run a half-marathon distance knowing it would be two years before I could run outside in the fresh Oregon air. I ran from our hotel in Beaverton, up Bethany Boulevard, through our neighborhood past our empty house, all along the powerline trails, and before I knew it, I had hit 13-miles and still needed to run back to the hotel. By the time I got back, I had run a little over 15-miles - the farthest I had ever run - and felt fabulous! Up until then, I had never had much of a desire to run a marathon, but now I did. I immediately looked online to see if Istanbul had a marathon. And sure enough, they did. The EurAsia Intercontinental Marathon - the only marathon in the world to cross two continents - and it was on October 17th, exactly 5 months away. I was SO running it! I wanted to sign up right then and there, but knew it would be best to wait until I had a phone number and address in Turkey. By mid-June, we were all set-up and I registered - bib number 708. There was no turning back.

So, I started training. And with my only option being the treadmill, that's what I had to do. And it sucked. The first time I ran, I couldn't even run one hour without stopping. It felt so much harder and was infinitely more boring. Plus, the Turks don't believe in air conditioning, so the gym was incredibly hot and humid. But I kept on running. Once we moved to our permanent housing at HilPark Suites, I thought I'd run outside along the Bosphorus which was only 1/4 mile away. So on a nice, sunny Saturday, I set out for a 12-miler. It was such a high to get outside again and it was great to run along the ocean and past castles and mosques. And just as I was thinking how wonderful it was, I get hooked in the shoelace by a fisherman. He apologized (I think) for making the sudden movement that made it happen and cut the line. I spent the next 90-minutes jumping fences to avoid fisherman, running in the street trying not to get hit by a car, and feeling ready to pass out because it was so hot and I didn't have any water. I decided it was best to stick to the treadmill.

I had the entire gym to myself at 5am and got caught up on Gossip Girl, Smallvillle, Jay Leno, Martha Stewart, and Rachel Ray as I ran up to 10 hours a week. It got easier and easier to run on the treadmill - even during the two 4-hour runs near the end of my training. I wondered how much different it was going to be to run outside for the marathon, but there was nothing I could do.

Finally, after 4 months of training and spending every Saturday morning on that stinkin' treadmill, the weekend of the marathon came! I was getting nervous, especially since I only ran one 5-miler in the 10-days before the marathon due to a hip and knee that was hurting quite a bit. So I just rested and stretched and hoped for the best.

The day before the marathon was the Expo where I picked up my bib number and timing chip. The Feshane Conference center was filled with people from all over the world! I was getting psyched. The line to get everything was long and moving slowly, so Matt took the kids outside to play, while I struck up a conversation with the men in front of me. They were 4 best friends in their mid-40s from Belgium who have been running marathons all over Europe every Autumn for the last 15 years. It was great to talk with them. They said the Ireland and Florence marathons were particularly amazing. Hmmm...I ended up seeing them again the morning of the race and they hugged me and wished me good luck.

With my bib number and timing chip, I was ready to go! I should mention that the night before the expo (Friday), we went out on a double-date with our friends, the Reynolds, and had a fabulous time. Dear, sweet Angi Reynolds, offered to have our kids spend the night at their house on Saturday and then stay all day on Sunday so Matt and I could enjoy the marathon without dealing with kids. And after realizing how hard it would be to navigate the streets and use public transportation with 2 kids, we took her up on her offer. And we are SOO glad we did. Turns out Chase was sick and puked all day on Sunday. We couldn't even fathom what it would have been like to have a sick, puking kid that day. Thanks SOOOO much, Angi!!!

So after getting a horrible nights sleep on Friday night due to anxiety, I stretched a bit then crashed at 8pm. I woke up in the night thinking my alarm would go off at any moment, but when it didn't, I looked at the time and it was 3am. Luckily I fell back asleep and woke up at 5am, feeling refreshed and ready to go!

Matt drove me to Taksim Square to catch the shuttle that would take me to the starting point on Asian side of the Bosphorus Bridge. On the shuttle, I sat with a young woman, Dolly, from Cairo (who looked 30, but was a darling, petite 41-year-old) running her first marathon, a 50-year-old woman, Ohn, from Thailand (who looked 40), and a 34-year-old, Lucy, from Bulgaria (who looked 34) :) We became friends and ended up spending the 2 hours before race-time together - peeing 3 times, laughing and talking and getting to know each other. I'm SO glad the world speaks English!!

I got some great pictures at the start of the race using an old camera that I had brought and put in a bag to pick up at the end of the race. Well, I forgot to pick up the bag. So I don't have my camera or the pictures, but I'm still hoping to find a way to get them...

Anyway, Dolly, with paint on her legs that said "Go Dolly" and "Run with all your heart" and I stood by each other at the starting line looking at the towering Bosphorus Bridge, amazed that we were in this incredible city, running our first marathon, and amazed that the sun was shining after 3-straight weeks of pouring rain. The emcee announced that this, the 32nd year of the marathon and 15K, had a record number of 2000 participants. And with a "ready, set, go" (in Turkish), the gun went off! (I loved that they really used a gun). Dolly and I wished each other luck, said a quick prayer and away we went!!

As I ran across the bridge, my legs felt like lead. "Holy crap" was all I could think. It felt like all 1999 runners had past me. But after the first kilometer, my legs started to work and I settled into my usual 9-9:30min/mile pace. The streets that were normally full of cars and horrendous traffic, were instead lined with Turkish flags and filled with runners. Instead of hearing horns honking, we could hear people cheering us on as if we were one big parade. It was phenomenal. We ran past palaces, mosques, and ruins from thousands of years ago. Words can't describe how incredible it was.

Matt told me he would station himself at the end of the Galata Bridge on Sultanahmet to take some pictures. As I turned a corner and started running across the bridge, I saw the beautiful morning sky with the sun shining on Hagia Sophia and then I saw Matt standing there waiting for me and cheering me on. Now you know why I couldn't stop smiling :)

As I ran, I would wave and say "merhaba" (hello) and "gunaydin" (good morning) to the kids and men looking out their apartment windows and sitting on the sidewalk watching the "parade" run by. They would clap and smile and say "you're number one" as I passed. Somehow this made my legs run faster. Mile 10 and I was still grinning from ear to ear.

I saw Matt again at mile 12 and was feeling great. And then I hit mile 15. I was running down a long stretch of the route that was about 10km long and led to a turn-around point to run the same 10km on the other side of the road. I felt my legs getting slower and slower. My pace went from 10min/mi to 11min/mi and then 11.5. I didn't know how I was going to run another 9 miles! People running REALLY slow were passing me. At mile 17, I downed a Powerbar hoping that would help, but nothing. Then at mile 19, something magical happened. I saw a sign telling me I had 10km left to go. All I could think of was the phrase from my Runners World magazine "Finish strong!" I had been running 3 hours and 45 minutes and knew that if I kept my current pace, it would take me 5 hours or more to finish. I couldn't let that happen. Somehow I kicked my pace back up to 9-9.5min/mi. I started passing people who had passed me an hour ago. With each person I passed, I got more energy. With 3km left to go, I caught up with a British girl and said, "Are we done yet?" She laughed and said "Almost." The route led up a hill, around Topkapi Palace, into a cobble-stone park filled with trees. I knew I was almost there and started sobbing. It was so beautiful and I was so happy!!

At this point, I was practically sprinting. I saw a gate leading out of the park that I assumed was the finish line. As soon as I got through the gate, I saw a sign that said "Finish - 500km." Crap. That is FIVE football fields. I had already been SPRINTING the last 500km and with the end so close (yet so far), I couldn't stop now! This last stretch was FULL of people - some marathoners who had already finished and 100's of others (including my sweet husband). They were clapping and cheering and saying "looking good" and saying "go girl!" (since there were 3 men in front of me that I was hoping to pass, but came in at the same time). Despite being exhausted, I was still smiling. I was SO happing to be "finishing strong" instead of shuffling or even worse - walking.

And then I crossed the finish line - 4 hours and 43 minutes from the time I started. I stopped to catch my breath for a minute and then felt fabulous. I honestly had the thought, "well, that was easy." And while it really wasn't easy, it was one of the greatest accomplishments of my life. I was so proud of myself and even more glad that I had done it.

And I couldn't have done it without my dear Matt. He has been so supportive of me over these last several months - taking care of the kids every morning while I ran and did yoga for 2 hours, putting the kids to bed when I was too exhausted and had to go to bed at 7:30pm, taking them to the park and the aquarium on a Saturday when I had a major headache after running 20-miles. And for being there to cheer me on and take pictures to help me remember my first marathon forever. Thank you, Matt!! And thank you to my kids, who didn't like that I was gone "for too long" every morning, but who always greeted me with the biggest smiles, hugs and squeals when I got back home. I love my family!!!

Sweaty, tired and covered in salt crystals, Matt and I slowly made our way through the streets of Sultanhamet, past old, traditional, head-scarf, kebap-house Istanbul and new, European, mini-skirt, trendy-cafe Istanbul - all on the same street. It was so nice to be together with no kids and to have had such an amazing day with such beautiful weather. We stopped for a soft-serve "karisik kulah dondurma" (chocolate-vanilla mixed ice cream cone), a bag of Ruffles, and a Diet Coke - all of which I devoured in about 5 seconds. It was then that I realized I had forgotten to pick up the bag with my camera, nice waterbottle, and yes, lip gloss in it. Since I didn't want to walk back and the roads were still closed therefore no taksi's, we decided to forget about it. Ah well. We took a taksi back to our car in Taksim Square, drove to Alkent to pick up the kids, spent a wonderful hour talking with our dear friends, came home and took a nice long shower, ate a big bowl of pasta, watched a few General Conference talks while Matt rubbed my feet, then slept like a baby.

After 5 months, I can finally say I love living here. We are experiencing some amazing things, meeting people we would have never met and now can't imagine our lives without, and interacting with a culture and people that are incredibly friendly and wonderful. Two months ago, I was ready to pack up my bags and go back to America, but now, I am so happy here, I can see what ex-pats often don't want to go back. If I had my little sister, Amanda, and Amazon.com, I could live here forever :)

Now, I must hobble downstairs and try to ask the Turkish "masaj" therapist to help me walk like a normal person again. Thanks so all my friends and family for your support, advice and love. Allahaısmarladık!! (Which means "good bye" - see what I'm up against here?! :)

Where Do I Begin?!

SO much has happened since my last post that I don't even know where to begin. And the reason it has taken so long to post something new is because so much has happened! I have been in complete survival-mode for the last 8 weeks and blogging isn't necessary for survival so it was put on the back-burner.

But now Amelia is in preschool and Chase is napping, so I'm taking this hour of peace to fill you all in. Here's a summary of our recent days here in Turkey.

AMELIA

• Birthday Girl! Amelia turned 4 on August 9th and has embraced being more grown up since all she wants to do is grow up to be a mommy. But she still hangs onto her youth by saying, "I'm just a little bigger, but not too much." Let's keep it that way.

She woke up to a decorated kitchen and a few presents and later went to lunch with Mommy and Chase to get her favorite meal - hamburger and french fries (but of course, she only eats the fries). And then we did her favorite activity - swim!

Amelia was so excited to see the Happy Birthday sign and presents when she woke up

Matt was out of town on her birthday, so we celebrated again that weekend with our American friends - The Reynolds' and The Donadieu's. We had a fun dinner then played at the pool before having cake, ice cream and presents.

• Accident Prone. Our little Amelia, bless her soul, loves to run and spin and twirl and leap, but doesn't always watch where she's going and is CONSTANTLY falling down and bumping into walls or chairs or whatever else might be in her way. One night she decided to spin in our kitchen and fell and hit her face on the sharp handle of a drawer and all I could see for an hour was blood gushing from inside her lip. Once she calmed down (thanks to Chase acting silly while I held a ice-cold cloth tightly to her mouth), I was finally able to see that she had a major gash in her mouth and it looked as though she had pierced through the skin into her nasal cavity. I knew we needed to go to the ER, but I was in denial. It was 9pm and once again, Matt was out of town, so I lugged the kids to the ER not knowing what was in store for us.

Fortunately, I knew where the hospital was (from my own experience I'll tell later) which was only 5 minutes away. The receptionist quickly found someone to speak English with me and soon there was an English-speaking doctor ready to take a look at the damage. A nurse and I had to pin Amelia down so the doctor could look inside her mouth. Amelia was SCREAMING so Chase started SCREAMING. The doctor stopped and asked if there was "anyone else" to watch Chase. I replied, "nope there's no one else." I almost started sobbing right there. The doctor said she would need to see a plastic surgeon and have him stitch it up that night, but after calling the surgeon, he said to wait until morning. They gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and gave me a list of pharmacy (eczane) addresses - which was worthless since I don't know where any streets are. Luckily I knew where some pharmacy's were, but unlike 24-hour Walgreens, they all close at 5pm and it was now 10:30pm. Both kids fell asleep on the home.

We saw the plastic surgeon the following morning and he looked at her very swollen mouth and saw that she had severed her frenulum. (Again, both kids screaming). The doctor said surgery wasn't necessary and to just keep her mouth as clean as possible to prevent infection. He saw her again a few days later and things were healing fine. Her smile is a bit different now that the inside of her lip hangs down a bit more than before, but fortunately it turned out OK and that's all that matters.

• Preschool! Amelia started school this week at Eden's Garden International Preschool. The teachers there are fabulous and Amelia loves it! A far cry from her experience at her 3-year-old preschool, where the mere mention of school brought her to tears. Now she excitedly gets dressed and happily trots off to school and only cries when she has to leave! I love it. She goes from 8:30-12:30 everyday with the option of extending to 4pm if she loves it enough. We'll see.

Amelia needed some "indoor" shoes for school and these were all I could find.

I think they're darling, but Matt disagrees since they are Puma shoes.

He was seriously upset that I bought them.

• Cute Sayings. Amelia is always saying funny things and asking TONS of questions - what are you talking about? Why is her name x? Why is this red? Can I have a snack? And on and on and on...

And here are a couple of funny conversations that come to mind:

Amelia: Dad, don't drive so fast so Chase won't get sick.

Matt: OK. Thanks for looking out for your brother.

Amelia: But I'm not looking at my brother. I'm looking out the window.

****

Amelia: Mom, can I have more raspberries?

Angie: No. It's time to go to school and they will feed you breakfast there.

Amelia: But they don't feed me breakfast. I feed myself.

I love my little girl :)

• Things Amelia LOVES to do: puzzles, "reading" books, writing words she sees in her books, not sleeping, playing with her princess dolls, spinning and leaping, playing Old Maid, Candyland and HiHo Cherry-O, playing hide and seek (she always hides under the covers of my bed), SWIMMING!, anything with Winx on it, and playing in the water-fountains in our yard.

playdough and pastries - a couple of faves

CHASE

• Two words: Tazmanian Devil. Chase is into EVERYTHING!! Still!! He goes from drawer to cupboard to fridge to garbage to toilet to lotion to gum to knives to...whatever is within his reach! It's exhausting. I can hardly keep up. Just this morning he came up to me with a bottle of lotion and said "here [you] go" and there were a dozen wooden beads squished into the lotion. Classic.

But of course, he is still the sweetest, cutest thing ever. I love him so much. He is saying more words like "thank you, book, moo-moo (movie), eggs, cheese, juice, here you go, cookie, drink, baba, hey sis" but not much more than that. For nearly everything else, he reaches out and says "nuh this?" and many times I don't know what he wants so he'll lay on the floor and cry.

Chase loves: spinning in circles, chasing his sister, carrying around as many bottles as his hands and mouth with hold, eating - he eats all of his dinner and then finishes Amelia's, swimming, playing hide and seek (he covers his eyes and counts to 10 - or at least makes sounds that resemble the numbers), and singing songs like itsy-bitsy spider, ABCs, and movie theme songs - his particular favorites are Word World and Dora the Explorer. He used to love reading books, but now he won't sit still long enough to read the title and instead just pulls all the books off the shelves and rips them apart.

The kid is always eating and recently fell on a table and gashed the side of his eye

He doesn't like it when I take a shower or go to the bathroom. He stands outside the shower or bathroom door and cries until I'm done. He is a total momma's boy. It can be annoying, but deep-down I love it.

He is the cuddliest, happiest kid who is a fabulous sleeper and laughs hysterically with the slightest tickle. Just thinking of his huge, open-mouth smile makes me smile.

MATT

• The Hard-Working Traveler. In the last 8 weeks, Matt has traveled almost everyweek and is gone from 24-hour to 5 days. While away he will call home as I've just finished cleaning Chase's poo out of the shower and tell me he is eating fresh fish on the Mediterranean in Cyprus. Uh yeah, so not fair. It has been hard having him gone so much, but I know that this is all part of his job and this is what we are here for. He travels mostly within Turkey to visit the Nike stores throughout the country and meet with the owners of the stores. He has also been on fun work retreats on chartered yachts in the Mediterranean, river rafting, 4-wheeling, going to soccer and basketball games, and dining along the Black and Aegean Seas. Not bad, eh?

That's quite a job. Making and selling gozleme to people out on their boats.

But along with all this seemingly fun stuff, comes a lot of work. Matt has been overwhelmed learning everything he needs to learn, dealing with all our housing issues and getting us settled here, and working 12-hour days and still having to do work at home. This transition hasn't been easy on any of us, but we'll slowly get on top of everything, right?

• Date Nights: Thanks to our housekeeper and nearby friends, Matt and I have been able to go out on a couple of dates. Back in July, we were invited to the American Consulate for their Independence Day celebration. We gorged on American fast food - Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger King, Krispy Kreme, Chili's, Sbarro, and more. I was seriously sick for 3 days afterward, but we had a great time.

We went dinner and a movie at the Istinye Park Mall. We saw "Inception" which was really good. When it was over, it took me a while to figure out where I was! I looked around and had to figure out if I was at the Layton Hills Theatre in Utah? No. I was in Istanbul. It was a really weird feeling. And it made me kinda sad.

Matt and I also celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on August 22nd. We ate at a fabulous Italian restaurant on the Bosphorus called Mia Mensa. Matt got a braised lamb shank with mushroom risotto and I got the lobster and sea bass lasagna. It was one of the best meals I've ever had. And of course we got dessert. A chocolate crepe filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with chocolate fudge and chopped pistachios. Yum! A special thanks to Noah and Kendra for watching our kids.

Yes, that is a big chunk of lobster on top. Yum!

ANGIE

• Exhausted Homemaker. Yep, that's me. Motherhood is exhausting by itself and add to that training for a marathon and living in a mentally exhausting foreign country with a husband who's out of town a lot and it makes for a VERY tired mom. But I'm hanging in there. I've had a few melt-downs and times when I feel like moving here hasn't been worth it, but I know that this is where we are supposed to be and that gets me through the down times. Fortunately, we are having a great week and Matt hasn't had to travel, so we are all in good spirits.

Things I've been doing:

• Marathon Training. The Istanbul Marathon is on October 17th - 6 weeks away! So I've been busy running and running and running. I run about 40 miles and do yoga twice a week plus 2 days of rest. If I add any more running or any less yoga or rest, my hips and knees start to hurt. So this is my strict training regime. This requires that I wake up at 5am and makes me exhausted by 8:30pm. I seriously go to bed right after the kids do. But I am loving it. And since all this training is happening on the treadmill, I am keeping up on Gossip Girl, Smallville, Rachel Ray, Martha Stewart and The Tonight Show. It's nice having some American TV to watch during my long runs to take my mind off the monotony. And the bonus of all this running is that I can eat - A LOT! We've been going out to lots of great restaurants and cafe's and I've been having a blast eating loads of yummy food and trying new things.

• Making LOTS of things from "scratch." I have been making so many things from scratch lately. Some are comfort foods I miss from home, some are foods I can't find here, and some are foods that are so full of preservatives and nasty chemicals that I've decided to make them myself. Here is a list of the things I've made in the last few weeks:

granola bars, pretzels, crackers, challah buns, different bread/rolls, nutella,

almond butter cookies, ketchup, mayo, BBQ sauce, ranch dressing, various

salad dressings (the only dressing you get at restaurants is lemon and oil - yuk), fish broth, chicken broth, lamb broth, birthday cake, sugar cookies with frosting, pizza dough, pita bread...I think that's it :)

We live near a fabulous Bazaar (Pazar) that has an Organik market, fresh fish and beef markets, and great produce. It's been fun to make all of these things from quality ingredients. But there are still LOTS of things I miss from America...

• Things I miss. Peanut butter, sprouted-grain breads, brown rice, Trader Joes corn salsa and BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese!!!! (the cheese's here are like mozzarella or feta and that's it), mexican food, Rice Chips, Extra gum, Clif bars, Dreyers ice cream (the stuff here is gummy), and good pizza (like Pier 49).

Pretty much everything you can get at Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Costco, Target and Craft stores/party stores are also sorely missed. American stores are so convenient. Here, you can't go to a grocery store and just buy Tylenol. You have to go to a pharmacy and ask someone to get it for you from behind the counter which requires you too find out how to say what you want in Turkish and hope they have it. WAY too much work. Oh, and I also miss having a garbage disposal :)

• Acting Primary President. JoAnne Dillard is the Primary President, but she went to America for 6 weeks this summer, so I took over that role. But with so many people gone during the summer on vacations, there were usually only 4 kids in primary and 2 of them were my own. Quite different than what we are used to in the states. But now that more families are back in town, we have a grand total of 11 kids in primary - which is actually a lot for our teeny "meeting house" apartment. Sunday's are quite chaotic. It's hard to be reverent when your meeting in a small office full of "stuff" and practically sitting on top of each other. We are hoping to get a new meeting place soon. We shall see...

• Root canal. A few weeks ago I had a major toothache and after a few days of pain getting to the point where I completely lost my appetite (which NEVER happens), I went to a dentist. It turns out a root canal I had done YEARS ago had a third root (two is normal) that had gotten inflamed. It took 5 trips to the dentist, but it is now fixed. The dentist was charming and spoke English pretty well, but often forgot words trying to explain things. I've played LOTS of charades trying to communicate with people.

• Fender-bender. Just yesterday I was trying to squeeze our car past some construction poles being painted at the entrance to our parking garage - THE worse place for them to paint! - when I hit the side of the car against the edge of the wall. It scraped and dented the car a bit and even though there were 10 workers out there to witness it, I just kept driving and parked the car. I later called the manager and he said it was no problem and had the construction people move those poles. The car is in the shop and we are hoping we don't have to pay too much to have it fixed...I hate it when stuff like this happens. I was a completely paranoid driver today as I navigated the narrow streets full of drivers going way too fast and coming within an inch of the car. Ugh.

• Speaking of our apartment complex, this has been a sore spot for me. We had some issues when we first moved in, but things are constantly going wrong. One of the biggest issues is mold. Matt went down to our storage unit to get some luggage for his trip and EVERYTHING in there was covered in mold. Our shelves, luggage, strollers, extra bedding...everything. They've tried to ventilate it more and yada, yada, yada, they've done nothing to help us. So we have boxes of things in our apartment that we want to put in storage, but we can't and some of our belongings are ruined. Not to mention the fact that now we have to scrub all our stuff down to make them usable (luckily I now have a housekeeper that can do that for me :) Anyway, that has been a major annoyance and hopefully they will take care of the problem.

• Housekeeper. I have a fabulous Philipino housekeeper, Irene, who comes on Mondays to clean our apartment. I don't know what I would do without her! Well, I guess I do know what I'd do, I'd clean the apartment myself, but it is beyond wonderful to not have to vacuum, scrub floors, clean bathrooms and wash windows. Of course, I still have to do the day-to-day cleaning - laundry, dishes, picking up toys, but at least I don't have to do the weekly cleaning. It's wonderful.

FUN WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Living here has been stressful and eventful, but we've also had a lot of fun. We've made some incredible friends that have helped keep me from getting on a plane back to America. The Dillards (from Reno, NV) - Shane and JoAnne and their 3 kids - Kaylee (11), Justin (8) and Allison (3), The Reynolds (from Washington) - Ryan and Angi and their 4 kids - Thys (12), Mia (10), Jake (6) and Josie (3), and the newest addition, The Donadieu's (from D.C.) - Noah and Kendra and their 2 kids - Porter (5) and Ronan (3). By the way, are the "diplomats" that got the apartment we wanted at Istinye Park. Small world, eh?

As you can see, there are lots of little ones for Amelia and Chase to play with and some of the greatest parents I've ever met. It's amazing that we are all here at the same time and have such a fun time together. I don't think I could live here without them. I feel so blessed.

We celebrated the 4th of July at our place with food, games and swimming.

Went to Uzunya Beach on the Black Sea

We've driven out to the country-side to play with the Reynolds.

Spontaneous trips to the park when it's not too hot.

Several fun play-dates.

And just random fun.

We call this the "Chasie Sandwich" He doesn't like it very much, but we do :)

Amelia begged to make a these puppets in on of my Parenting magazines. She loved them and even played with them for 5 minutes before realizing they were boring :)

Victory Day. Apparently Turkey won something and they decorated all their buildings to show their pride. I thought it was really cool.

Our New Place!

After 5 weeks of living in limbo and dealing with apartment fiascos, we finally have our HOME for the next 2 years! Our complex is called Hilpark Suites and is BRAND new. There may be 5 other people living here and that's it. We have an entire floor of the parking lot to ourselves (which is kinda creepy) and it seems like we have our own personal gym, play area, and pool since we are the only ones using them. There are also some not-so-great things about living in a new place. Our first day here, the management noticed our shower was flooding the apartment below and they spent an entire week gutting and replacing the shower in our bathroom. Our alarm system needed some tweeking and a few of the A/C units weren't working properly. So we had Turkish workers in our apartment DAILY for 10 days. This would have been much easier to handle if I spoke Turkish and if Matt hadn't been out of town for 7 of those 10 days. But all the security guards and management crew know me ("Miss Angie") and my usually naked children and have been very good to us.

As I posted on Facebook, I spent my first week here with no furniture, no internet, no phone, no washer/dryer, no husband, and no lights but the ones in the kitchen and hallway. It was quite an adventure. But now, 2 weeks and several IKEA trips later, we have beds and couches, internet, telephone, washer/dryer, husband/daddy at home, and light fixtures in every room. We still don't have closets or anything to put toys in so we are living in shambles and wearing wrinkled clothing from off the floor, but soon enough we will be more settled.

Unfortunately, "Blogger" takes WAY too long to upload pictures, so you can see pictures through Facebook HERE.

I'll post pictures of our FURNISHED apartment once we actually have real furnishings.

During our first week here and with Matt gone, I had to discover fun things to do with the kids. First stop, the WONDERFUL play area in our complex that we visit almost daily. And we LOVE having a yard! The kids are always playing outside and throwing rocks in the fountains


The second activity was the POOL. We were all bathing-suited up and ready to play when Chase slipped in the over-chlorinated pool and came out of the the water screaming. His eyes were instantly red and swollen and he couldn't open them for 2 hours. As I was trying to calm Chase down, Amelia started screaming. She tried to pee (yes, in the pool) and the chlorine had burned her coochie. I took both screaming kids back upstairs for a shower. I sprayed the shower head in Chase's face to rinse the chlorine out of his eyes and it completely traumatized him. He screams bloody murder whenever you put him in the shower. Anyway, Chase finally fell asleep and woke up with much better eyes, and Amelia was able to pee. The management happened to see me leaving the pool with 2 screaming kids and I told them what happened. It was then they told us not to use the pool, as they haven't balanced the chlorine yet. Uh, thanks. But once we CAN use the pool, it should be really nice :)

With Matt being gone, I was forced to brave the crazy streets of Istanbul and DRIVE! My first few outings were just to the grocery store 1/4 mile down the street. But soon I dared to go to my favorite mall - Istinye Park. It is fabulous. Tons of fun shops, restaurants, markets, and bakeries. I can't wait to visit them all! The kids only care about the toy stores, waterfountains and french fries.
Our past few Saturdays have been spent at IKEA looking at furniture for the house. What an adventure! The first time we went, we were there for 6 hours. We had 5 carts full of beds, couches, tables, chairs,...and when the cashier swiped the credit card, it was denied! Matt was furious. He had called the credit card company to inform them we'd be spending a lot of money at IKEA in Istanbul that day, but someone didn't "get the memo." Matt spent the next several minutes on the phone with Citicard and I can't remember the last time I saw Matt get that upset. And the thought of leaving ALL that stuff behind and doing it AGAIN was awful. Fortunately, the card went through and we got some furniture. We have made 2 more IKEA trips since then and know there will be more in the future, but we are getting very sick of IKEA, especially when you can't ask anyone for help. I'm mostly getting sick of eating in the cafeteria. But I'm not sick of the ice cream cones - neither are the kids.

After a long day at IKEA, it was SO great to get to visit with my dear friend, Elise, and her husband, Dan. They were vacationing in Turkey and stopped by for dessert on their last night in town. We LOVED to see you, Elise and Dan!! And believe it or not, this is the best picture we got together :)

This past Saturday, the weather was INCREDIBLE - partly cloudy and warm with a slight breeze. What is better than that? Oh yeah, being outside in that weather, walking along the ocean and eating incredible food, which is exactly what we did. We played at a park (for Amelia's sake) then went to Mama Pizzeria along the Bosphorous. The food was AMAZING (and had the tab to prove it), and it was wonderful to sit outside and feel the energy of the city. We then went for a nice walk along the waterfront and of course stopped at the exercise machines for Amelia to play on - her FAVORITE thing to do. These exercise spots are EVERYWHERE and Amelia often prefers to play on these things than on an actual play structure.



Well, I am too tired to even think of what else we've been doing or what has happened, but we are having fun and enjoying life in Istanbul.

Motherhood is Still Hard in Turkey

I don't know what has been wrong with me the last few days, but I am a big grump. Everything is frustrating me. Chase won't stop getting into and climbing onto everything, Amelia won't stop whining, the kids are sick of their toys/books/DVDs (Amelia has every song and word in "Hercules" memorized) and therefore hang on my legs all day, our housing situation has been annoyingly difficult, we keep getting lost everywhere we drive, and we are tired of going to the mall everyday. I am trying to have a good attitude, but it hasn't been easy. I am hoping things will get better when we move to our permanent apartment and can feel more settled, have more of our "stuff" from our air shipment, and have more things to do. It WILL be better, I will be happy, my kids will by happy...(positive mantras)...

And speaking of "apartment," we FINALLY have one!!! Yay! And we move in this weekend! YAY!!! Since we didn't get the apartment at our favorite place (big bummer), we chose our next favorite place - Hilpark Suites. (Yes, there is only one "l" in Hil). It is a brand new complex with lots of amenities - pools, gym, indoor and outdoor play areas - and our flat has a nice little yard (or "garden" as they call it). It's right in the middle of an old, Turkish neighborhood, so it has a rustic feel, which is cool. It is also in walking distance to play areas, grocery stores, outdoor markets, and Amelia's preschool (if she goes). And it's really close to Matt's work so it'll be easier to share the car. We're excited. Hopefully we made a good housing choice since we had to make it rather quickly - we needed something (anything) fast since we technically need to be out of our current residence by Friday. I'll post pictures of our apartment next week. Stay tuned.

Despite my bad attitude, we are still having fun. They opened the pool at our residence last week so we went for a swim on Memorial Day. The pool was so deep, Matt couldn't even touch, so the kids took turns riding on his back as he tread water. He got quite a workout.

She came up with that pose all on her own

Chase loves the water

Excited that it's her turn to swim

We are seriously at the mall everyday. Everyone at the toy store and grocery store knows who we are. We're like family now :) And they seriously treat us like family. My darling little blondes are ADORED by the people here. Workers in various shops wave us down as we pass by just to touch Amelia's hair, kiss her cheeks and even give her free stuff - like dolls, bouncy balls and candy. The people in the toy store pick up Chase, carry him around, and kiss his face and tummy. It's a little crazy, but the Turkish people are incredibly friendly and are so sweet to my little ones. I love it.

Here are some of our "Akmerkez Mall Moments":

Watching the dogs and cats at a pet shop. We check in on them daily.
The kids love to play in this water fountain

The toy store got a new riding horse one day and Amelia HAD to ride it.

Riding the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ship

Amelia's hands-down favorite ride: the swings. Morning dog liked them too :)

Chase likes the Pooh Bear ride - the swings are too scary.

Racing daddy on the motorcycles

It has been raining the last few days so we've been forced to be creative indoors. We put pillows on the floor and hop from one to the other trying not to fall in the lava, we turn the lights on and off saying "gunaydin" (good morning) and "iyi gece" (good night), and take lots of showers and baths, just for fun :)

Here's hoping for a great move-in weekend and a happy family (especially mommy)!!