Kids Say(&Do) the Darnedest Things!

I need to write these down before I forget. So here they are in all their bullet style glory!

• It's no secret that Ruby is an extreme klutz and accident prone. She is 2 years old, covered with bruises and scrapes, and has 3, yes 3, chipped teeth. She has gotten so used to it that whenever she bonks her head she tells us to go get the flashlight so we can check her pupils. Every time, in between small sobs, she yells, 'Get the fwashwight!'
• Ruby also has a slight obsession with diaper rash cream and baby powder. Every time we change her diaper she asks for 'diapy cweam and baby powdy'. She usually gets a peeved when we tell her no she doesn't need it. She took matters into her own hands and grabbed handfuls of her applesauce and smeared it all over her diaper. She then told me it's okay it's just diapy cwream.
• I was making pancit the other night and I left the bottle of adobo seasoning on the counter so I could add more along the way. She grabbed when I was looking and sprinkled it onto her hand and then licked it off. And then asked for more. Yuck!
• I went upstairs to grab a laundry basket and when I came back down she had an opened packet of jello mix and red staining all over her hands and mouth. She really doesn't doesn't have any boundaries. Everything is fair game with her.
• I asked Lilly to go up to my bedroom and get Ruby some pajamas out of the laundry basket. She went up, was up there for a long while, and then came back down without a shirt, just pants. She said she couldn't find it, even though I had just folded and put it in there. She went up again and came back down without the shirt, but with something in her mouth. I asked her what it was, she said nothing. I held out my hand because I wanted to know that it wasn't something that could hurt her. She then started to spit one jellybean after another into my hand, one by one. She wasn't up there for looking the shirt, she was up their eating the jellybeans Steven had on his night stand.
• Sadie is a character. She is so unique and knows what she likes and doesn't care what other people think. She was sitting with Sophie on the couch the other day when she started to sing Guns N Roses 'Sweet Child of Mine'. She was just sitting there petting the dog and singing to her.
• Sadie was eating her breakfast of dry cereal one morning. I noticed her voice, so I stopped what I was doing to listen. She was naming each Fruit Loop and different character from The Big Bang Theory.
• Since we're moving soon, we've been measuring furniture to see how much space we need for each room. It's something to do with our very over sized custom bedroom set that we had made. We didn't really think too much on how big everything would be until it was in our bedroom, whoops! Anyways, Ruby found a measuring tape and measured some bookcases for herself, declaring they were "80 lbs. long'.
• Yogurt is something everyone in our house likes, especially if it's the real Greek yogurt we get from the commissary. Steven woke up one afternoon and grabbed a yogurt for his breakfast and 3 little girls quickly made their way to him for a bite. Ruby took a bite, smiled, and said "My mouth is happy now!"
• Only our girls could take a whole Saturday to play "Moving to Nebraska". Take a lunch break from it to have a tea party. And then play "We're sick in the hotel room".
• I sent Lilly and Sadie upstairs one night to get their pajamas on. Lilly yelled down that she found a bug, so I asked what kind. To which she replied, "I didn't go to no insect school! I don't know what kind of bug it was!"
• I gave Sadie the rest of my water bottle. She drank it all and said, "That was some goooooood water. I drank it all!" While she was playing with the empty bottle she kept dropping it so I told her to quit. She said, "It's not me, it's the freakin' water bottle." My jaw dropped straight to the floor.

And to catch up on my P366, here's yesterday and today's photos.

Sadie teaching Ruby 'Ring Around A Rosie'.

At the doctor's office for their 2 and 4-year checkups. And that's my teddy bear from when I was little. Ruby has been carrying her around a lot lately.

And today we had another lovely power outage. I will sure miss all these blackouts we have here <---- Insert scarasm here! No power means more reading time for me :)

-K

Rain, Rain Go Away?

I love the rain. And I am so happy that the sun decided to take a day off. But man, I wish this rain would let just for a few minutes today. It's rainy, cold, and windy. Those words are not really uttered when you think about this part of Turkey. It just goes to show us that we'll need to be a warmer wardrobe collection once we get to my mom's house in Pennsylvania.
I wanted to make sure I posted yesterday and today's photos for my Project 365, er Project 366 since it's a leap year this year.
My dog sleeps in the funniest positions. She usually does it at night, but today she must have been extra tired. Silly Sophie dog!



And today we had two dentist appointments. First up was Lilly. While in the process of getting a loose tooth out, we found what we thought was a cavity. Turns out where we thought one was, wasn't, but she did have one on the other side. It's small but we need to get it filled as soon as we get to Offutt. I asked if she thought it would be better to see a dentist now about- an off base, Turkish civilian dentist- but she said she'd rather us wait until we're in the states. Apparently the Turkish view on kids with cavities is to just pull the tooth out instead of filling it. I'd much rather - and Steven too- her have it filled and not pulled. Ruby was the next appointment. The child has 3 chipped teeth. I kid you not! Three. She leads with her head just like her daddy :) We've noticed that one of her chipped teeth had started to discolor. We were worried that she may have damaged the nerves, but she's fine. The dentist said she just 'bruised the inside of her tooth'. She'll be fine but the tooth will stay that color until it falls out in a few years. Ruby did so much better that I thought she was going to. She even let them take an x-ray. She was much quieter than she normally is, but she was so calm and well behaved. I am so relieved that their appointments went so well. I was ball of nerves thinking it would be worse than it was.



-K

Day 3

Lilly is back at school this week, much to our dismay. We really love having Lilly home with us during the day. Sadie was especially upset but made darn sure she got her hug and kiss before she left. And yes, Lilly has to hug, kiss, and say goodbye to each of her sisters and do the same when they are reunited again. This is mostly their doing, and often times when it gets overlooked, rushed, or forgotten many tears are shed.
They were so excited for Lilly to get home from school this day. They sat with her and listened to Lilly read a story for her homework and then even drew pictures of the story like Lilly had to do and return to school. They all sat around the coffee table and drew/colored along with her. Lilly is definitely the artist in the family, Sadie and Ruby were done coloring after just a few minutes. They get so bored with coloring for some reason, but Lilly could actually draw and color all day long if allowed.
They are all looking forward to Lilly having a 3 day school week next week due to base-wide power outages. Yet another joy of living in Turkey. I will not miss this at all :)



And yes, Sadie is left handed!



-K

P365- Day 2

Since we are getting ready to move in a short few weeks, we've been trying to tie up a few loose ends. Yesterday we went out into the Alley to make one of our last payments on our bedroom furniture. While we were  out there we decided to drive around a little and see if we could try to find someplace to detail our car. Once we get to Nebraska, I'm going to get a new car, well new to me, so we are going to trade the Blazer in or sell it. Either way we want it in the best condition we can get it in. These two photos are of the area we live in. They are right outside the gate when you leave the base. And just an FYI, the base doesn't look like this, only off base.

-K

Girl Scout Rodeo

Last weekend we went to a little party that the Girl Scouts here had. It was a birthday party for Juliette Gordon Low who founded the Girl Scouts almost 100 years ago. We went to a restaurant just off base called the Crazy Horse Saloon. It was like a country western restaurant with Turkish food-ha! They played American country music, had some old playground equipment and even had horses and stables. After the girls ate and learned some things about Juliette Gordon Low, they all got to go and ride a horse. They all had a blast! I didn't get too many photos of Ruby and Lilly because they were all over the place. In one place one second and you turn around and they were gone. I'd say they were bouncing of the walls but we were outside so there weren't any walls :)



Sadie was so excited to ride the horses. I have never ever seen her this excited/nervous/anxious about anything. She didn't even look like our normal Sadie-Mae. She is usually really skiddish and shy when it comes to things like this. She loves the idea of something but when it comes down to actually doing it she would rather just watch everyone else and not go near the animal. She was just so excited and it showed all over her face. And when she actually rode the horse, she just had such a peaceful, contentedness look on her face. Like it just came so natural to her. She was just so happy.

All the girls had so much fun. It was really a nice afternoon. Now the girls are just trying to convince Daddy to get them some horses to keep :)
-K

Thursday Market

Thursday morning, after Steven took Lilly to school, we headed out to the Alley for the Thursday market. I don't think we will ever have the opportunity to purchase fresh produce for so little money. I really will miss this part of Turkey. The best part of going this early, we didn't get asked by every vendor, multiple times, if we wanted what they were selling. We always go with the intention to buy more vegetables than fruit, but it's really hard to resist.

They have many other things there, but we usually just go for the produce. They have clothes, shoes, household items, rugs, and even fresh olives. The man with the olives kept asking if we wanted some to take home to make fresh olive oil. I would love to try that one day, but I'd have to do some research on what to do. They offered Steven an olive one time, the man does love him some olives, and didn't realize it wasn't prepared. He took a bite and made a face and the men at the cart just started laughing. He walked away with the feeling they were saying 'dumb American". We had a good laugh about on the way home.

The girls found some wall stickers that they liked. They were Disney Princess ones, and they wanted. I would have loved to get them some for their rooms. For 1) I wasn't sure if they would be easy or not to take off the wall when we move, 2) we tried them when Lilly and Sadie were younger and they kept pulling them off to play with them, and 3) we tried again when we moved here with vinyls and Lilly still tried to pull hers off again and ripped it. Maybe one day they'll work.

We did pretty darn good money wise. The best deal of the day, the eggplant. We got 1 kilo, about 2.2 lbs, for only 1 Turkish Lira. That's only 55 cents. Now that I think about it, we probably should have gotten more to freeze. Maybe they still be that price next Thursday. We brought home some persimmons, plums, bananas, peaches, pomegranates, eggplant, potatoes, and red onions. All of that was only 18 lira, about $9.83. You can't beat that price anywhere. And it was so good! The second we got home, Ruby had to have a banana. Poor girl was in agony over not being able to eat a banana the second she saw them. We've tried everything but the potatoes- hopefully tomorrow- and it was all so good.


Here's hoping that next week is as good as the last!

-K

Bedroom Furniture

When we first got married we didn’t have any furniture. We got a bed from my sister and found a discount bedroom set from  a local furniture store, which was really 2 dressers. We made due with what we had and over the next 4 years we bought different pieces of furniture with tax money, TDY money, and Steven’s reenlistment bonus. We were very excited that here in Turkey you can bring a furniture maker a photo of what you want and they’ll make it for a fraction of the retail price. It took us about a year but we finally decided on a nice bedroom set for us and ordered it about a week ago. It’ll take 6-8 weeks for it to be done, but we are very excited. The collection we choose had a TV armoire in  it, but Steven didn’t like it. We showed Sunny, the furniture maker, a photo of the tall chest of drawers in the collection and he is going to turn that into a tv armoire that will fit up to a 40” TV. Did I mention we are beyond excited for it to be done? Just checking!
We chose a Tommy Bahama set called Kingston.

My favorite part are the spindle bed posts! And, the canopy will be removable and the finial above the canopy will be able to attach to the posts to make a poster bed. We’re hoping that the bed will be high off the ground so for a short time, Lilly won’t be able to climb into our bed in the middle of the night or poke me until I wake up. It scare the crap out of me every night!
We’ll be able to see the furniture as it’s made during different stages, so I will try to take pictures of it. And I’ll keep y’all updated!
♥krissy

Sick day, part 2

First off, Thank you for all your sweet comments they really are appreciated. 
Secondly, Lilly is still sick. I think she has what Ruby had a couple of weeks ago. It started off with sinus issues. Then Lilly got a cough and started to lose her voice.  Yesterday she woke up with a fever and didn't have another issue with it until last night. I went in to check on all of the girls before I went to sleep and Lilly was very warm. I woke her up and sent her in to our bed while I got her some medicine. I didn't want to go to sleep while she had a fever so I sat up with her(she was sleeping) until it came down. I gave her some motrin 30 minutes later, and finally got it down another 30 minutes after that. Then when Steven got up for work I asked him to check on Lilly and send her in if she needed more tylenol. Sure enough she was getting warm again. Thankfully the other two didn't wake her up this morning so she was able to get almost 2 extra hours of sleep this morning. And in true Lilly form, she woke up happy as can be. Hopefully she is over this virus by Monday, I know she is desperately wanting to go back to school.
Today I go back to University Hospital to get the results of a blood test that was done last week. Right before we took our COT(continuous overseas tour) leave, I had asked my doctor if there was anything we could test because I felt my hormones were going crazy. My body just never went back to normal after I had Ruby. When we got back to Turkey he told my that my thyroid was acting a little funny. Basically my brain was telling my thyroid that it wasn't making enough thyroid hormones, but the thyroid was making enough. In short he thinks that I may have nodes on it that may or may not have to be removed. The clinic here is very small and lot of tests that have to be done are done in Turkish hospitals, and thankfully someone from Tricare will drive you to the appointment and serve as an escort and translator. I was really nervous about going to the first appointment but it went really well. I would like Steven to come with me but I would much rather him stay with the kids, especially when Lilly is sick. So off to the doctor's I go and hopefully back with good news.
And who could go a day without seeing the sweet faces of our monster children! 

Obviously I annoy them with the photos I take of them. Oh they joy of sarcastic children. The teenage years will surely be loads of fun :/
♥Krissy

November Can't Come Fast Enough!

We finally have dates on getting back to the states. We should be there November 6th through December 6th! We are all SO excited. We can't wait to see our families again it just has been too long. The girls have been planning all the gifts that they want to bring everyone. Steven and I are planning to mail out a big box to my parents and his about a week before we leave so that we don't have to carry so much on the plane. I felt so bad for poor Steven when we moved here. I had all of the kiddos with me and he had to pretty much drag 5 large suitcases and 2 car seats around until we checked them for our flight. This time we are hoping to only check 1 suitcase and each of us, including Lilly and Sadie, carry a backpack with a set of clothes and things for the plane. Hopefully we get everything figured out soon.
Now that I have a gate pass and we have one for the car, we have been trying to get off base and explore a little of the area. Last weekend we had a power outage on base so we thought we would go to the Sunday market in Incirlik Village. It was mostly produce and some household things. We got some more bananas because Ruby is a banana monster! She seriously at 4 bananas by herself one day. As we were walking around a little Turkish boy started following Steven around. It made us really uncomfortable especially since the girls were with us. We are very protective of them so we figured we would leave since it was that big of a market and we wanted to get the girls away from them. As we were walking more boys joined in. Once we go to the car we put the girls in as fast as we could and Steven got the strollers in. Steven went to go get in the car and they wouldn't let him shut the door. They wanted money and kept saying they helped us, but they really didn't. Steven was getting really upset and the one boy say 1 lira (Lira is Turkish money, $1 is about 1.41TL). Steven asked if I had one so I pulled one out of my wallet and it got fumbled out of the car and into the street. He went for the money and walked away. We shut and locked the door and we aren't going back to that market again.
Steven wanted to explore so he followed a Ford Expedition because they were American and wanted to see where it went. Bad idea. They went a lot faster than us and we ended up on a highway not knowing how were going to get home. All the signs were in Turkish so I was panicking a little bit. We were finally able to turn around and retrace our path and made it home. Sadie and Ruby slept the whole time and I think Lilly was a little nervous too because we kept asking "Can we go home now?"
We made it back to base and ended up buying two more rugs for the house. Which brings our total up to 5 rugs, $430 in one month. Our whole house is tile and Ruby is now crawling, scooting, and pulling up/cruising around furniture. The rugs definitely were a necessity. The poor thing has fallen and hit her head enough. It's been interesting baby  proofing this house. Ruby became completely mobile in less than a week, so we have not had enough time to think ahead. She really is a menace. She loves to play in the girls play area in the living room and especially loves to play with their blocks. Every time she goes back there she pulls the basket of blocks off the shelf even if the girls had just cleaned them up and put them away. Lilly is beyond frustrated with that. Ruby also likes to open the drawers in the kitchen and makes it really hard for me to clean.
Lilly is doing great at school and we are even going on a shopping trip with her teacher this weekend. We live in the city of Adana and she is going to take us into Old Adana to show us where to park and the stores there. We are really intimidated about being off base because of the language barrier. We have been trying to get learn a few words and I have downloaded some applications about the Turkish language. We hope to find some great things for our house and gifts to bring home. I can't even tell you how excited we are to bring things home for everyone. Everything is so colorful here compared to England.
This month seems to be flying by. We have so many things we are doing plus trying to everything squared away to go home. The only downside to the next couple of months flying by is that when we get home Ruby and Sadie will being having birthdays. I don't think I am ready for them to be 3 and 1. I am already having a hard time with Lilly being 4 and in school. Steven loves to point out that when we move Ruby will be the same age Sadie was when we left England. He can't wait for them to get bigger and I am dreading it. But we will be happy to celebrate their birthdays a little early with family. Next month is going to be great!
♥K

Friday Bullets

So I have a bunch of photos that I thought y'all would like to see. I try to take pictures as often as I can and really wish i had a camera in every room of the house, ha! This pics are our past week or so in a nutshell.

• Steven and I had to switch the girls bedroom with the playroom because basically the are wild animals and will climb on everything. Plus they don't have a lot of bedroom furniture so it fits nicely. Well Steven went outside to get his tools and found this guy and brought him inside. After showing the girls and thoroughly creeping me out he took him outside and took some photos.

• This is what the girls look like when they are waiting for ice cream. Since we had such a big lunch and the girls had been snacking all afternoon we decided to skip dinner and just have ice cream. NOT a good idea. They were literally bouncing all over the place. They eventually passed out for the night.

 

•   Over the years Steven has developed a rather large sweet tooth. Probably my fault, but none the less it's there. These are his favorites from the Turkish bakery, baklava (Sadie calls it bakaba) and we really have no idea what the other is except for the pistachios.

 

Ruby loves Milo. She would just stare at him for hours. He is very good with her. He lets her pet him and pull on him and doesn't even flinch. She has even pulled a chunk of fur out and he was still enjoying being with her. I have even caught him napping with her. And yes, she is trying to ride him like a horse and Milo was okay with that!

 

• And here are the girls playing dress up. Lilly and Sadie are so sweet when they want to be and this is one of those times the really wanted to play with each other.

♥K