They're Here!

We got our new furniture yesterday and we are thrilled! Lilly is in love with her bed. It was everything she wanted and asked for. She kept saying, "I just can't stop smiling!".

Since we're in Turkey, finding a twin sized mattress at decent price is nearly impossible. Turkish mattresses are firm, very uncomfortably firm. Our mattress is Turkish and at $300 for a king size was very affordable, but I hate it. I got a memory foam mattress topper for Christmas and it makes it loads more comfy, but still not as comfy as I want it to be. Knowing that, we didn't want a Turkish one for her. We could have found a used one, but that really just creeps the germophobe in me out so that was out of the question. Then we moved onto the base exchange, BX- whick is like a horrible version of Walmart for the base. They have very few mattresses there, but there are a few different twin sized ones. When I saw how much they were, I nearly had a heart attack. The two they had were priced at $600 and $700. That my friends, is way too much for me to spend on a twin sized mattress. So until we're back in the states, Sadie-Mae so graciously offered her mattress up. She said she would just sleep with Ruby for now. As soon as we get to Nebraska we'll get Lilly a new mattress.

And we also have plans to spruce up Sadie and Ruby's beds. We are going to paint them, but the color is still unknown. For now Sadie keeps saying dark pink and Ruby keeps saying blue. I think they'll change their minds  at least a few times, but I think we all will have a better idea once we see some paint samples.
And now onto the bar. They have some pretty elaborate bars here. They would be really cool to have, but really they aren't very practical for us. After looking around at a few different furniture stores, Steven found what he was looking for while Lilly and I were looking at beds. It can hold wine bottles, liquor bottles, glasses and a drawer for cork screws and any other miscellaneous drink needs. On the top of it is a slab of marble so you can use it to cut limes and what not. Unfortunately it won't be really be used until it arrives at Offutt. It can hold 16 bottles of wine so I'll start sampling and collecting wines until it gets there :) I'm also toked that it will be able to hold my wine glasses so it will free up some cabinet space. I will really miss being able to bring a photo of a piece of furniture I want and have it made for me.

Another place I will really miss is Pops Leather. It's a leather shop that makes coats, hats, bags, purses, wallets, belts, holsters, and more. Steven goes for the holsters. I go for all the designer purses they make. They may be knock offs, but they are good knock offs made with leather. They are great bags and I'll miss going there. Luckily I have a husband who spoils me. He told he wanted me to 'stock up' on these bags before we leave, so he bought me two and told me we'll make one more trip there before we leave. They have Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Chanel, Prada, Gucci, and Coach. They also make custom things. I think this place has spoiled on bags too. I don't know if I will want to buy a bag in the states again.

Anyways I got an Louis Vuitton and a Gucci person this time and I love them. I'm using the Gucci one right now and am loving it.

Who would of thought that I would actually miss some things here? I'm so excited about getting out that I overlooked the fact that there were some things I really liked. I would take living in the States over Turkey any day, but I'm grateful that we got to experience this.

-K

Bedroom Furniture

Our bedroom furniture was delivered on Monday and we LOVE it. At one point we didn’t think  we would get it all in our bedroom because each piece is huge. Steven was able to figure out a new layout so that everything fit. We had to take the canopy off because we needed to  push the bed back a few more inches so that I could walk to my side of the bed and Steven could open is drawers. We had a nut plate break and they are replacing it, no problem. One of  the guys that delivered it and put everything together cracked  the board under the mattress and we’re sure they fix that, we just forgot to mention it to Sunny when we went yesterday. The mattress is VERY firm. In fact when Steven flopped one of the girls on the bed, there was no bouncy or much give in the mattress. It isn’t horrible to sleep on, but we will be ordering some mattress toppers off of Amazon. Oh and we need bedding. We got some sheets and a blanket for  now, but the BX only had two king sized sets, one in gold and the other was white with black trim.  And if you know me you know why the white wasn’t an option. I should not be allowed to buy white  anything because it will not stay white for long. Hopefully we’ll find a set that we like sooner rather than later :) Until then here are some photos that you’ll have to excuse. The girls were getting ready to watch Tangled in our room and Steven was trying to take some photos and talk to his Dad on the phone. 

Skrissy

Our Christmas Tree - 2010 Edition!

This is how our tree started out this year. We bought it in Texas and put it in one of our suitcases to bring back. Silly me forgot to pack the new LED lights in the suitcases and didn't get them until this past Friday. The night we got back the girls went to sleep and were up and ready to play at 2:30am. So...instead of feeling sorry about myself and my extreme lack of sleep, I put the tree up at 3:00 in the morning. It stayed like this until this past Sunday when we were finally able to decorate it. Ruby did so good with leaving it alone like this, that I thought we wouldn't have to worry about her and the tree.

The first year we actually spent Christmas together we had to buy all of our Christmas decorations at once. We bought a pre-lit tree and some really cheap bulb ornaments that are amazing. They are shatter proof and have dealt with the abuse of moving twice, three monsters children, and a cat that thinks the tree is one giant cat toy. Anyways, that year we decided to start a tradition of buying a new ornament every year for each of us. One of these  years, when we have the opportunity, I want to buy 2 more cheap Christmas trees. One for the playroom with all the handmade ornaments the kids have made, one for the living room with all of our tradition ornaments, and a very formal one for the dining room.

Lilly picked out a brown horse ornament from a store in Texas.

 

Sadie picked out Rapunzrl from the Disney Store. We saw Tangled with Memaw, Papop, and Shelby and she just fell completely in love with it.

 

Ruby loves Minnie Mouse, so when we were at the Disney Store she picked a Minnie ornament out.

 

Steven picked out his ornament at the same store Lilly got hers. He found a bought with the Texas state flag on it so he had to get it. He also found one more as a "family" ornament. It's a horse shoe that 

says "Life is Good". We think that pretty much sums up our lives.

 

I found mine at a store in San Antonio. When we got to Texas it started getting colder in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts and soon started to snow. Knowing we didn't see snow at my parents house and we wouldn't see any in Texas or in Turkey, I got a little sad. I have always loved snow. My ornament is a beautiful snowflake.

 

The big girls helped putting the rest of the ornaments on.

We got some fake poinsettias from Walmart for a $1. The just clip onto the tree branches. I REALLY, REALLY wish I had bought some more. I LOVE how they looked on the tree. And no more than a minute after the tree was done, Ruby started to take as many ornaments off as fast as she could before one of us notices.

The blue and purple on the tree are the poinsettias. They had them in a few different colors and I love them all.

 

Oh and by the way Ruby is constantly pulling ornaments off. She will even drag the tree towards the kitchen. AND, she is the only one of the 3 girls that has managed to pull the ENTIRE tree down last night. Maybe next year we won't have to worry about kids tearing apart the tree?

♥K

Welcome to Turkey!

Since I recently - and finally - got my gate pass, we have been exploring some off base. We drove around a little and I took some photos. We've driven around the base and some off. There are some outdoor markets, like the ones in England except much cheaper, we've been to two so far and got lots of fruit so very little. At the Thursday market we were able to try some pomegranates that were so good. Now Sadie will talk your ear off when she is someplace new, asking question after question. This day was no different. She tried to pomegranate and stopped talking until her whole piece was gone. We got a kilo(about 2.2 lbs.) of them for 2 Lira ($1.42). They are so good. I know we'll miss the produce when we leave here. Here are some of the photos I took starting with one our house.

We really like our house. The only thing missing is a barn star above the front door.

This is the Alley right outside the gate. There are a bunch of stores and restaurants.

Some Turkish houses.

This is in front of the Turkish Commissary.

There are so many different types of flowers here and they are all beautiful.

-K

The Girls' Bedrooms (warning: LOTS of pics!!!)

So we finally have Ruby's room done, but it can always use changes here and there ;)  The only thing not in there is the glider, that's still in the living room until we find a replacement chair. Oh and I finally got the big girls' room clean long enough to take photos. They usually start playing again immediately after they clean it. The "L" on Lilly's wall use to look like Sadie's "S", but she decided to play with it and rip it. The only thing she had to say was, "I'll just tell people this is my bed since they can see the "S" for Sadie on her wall." Cheeky little monkey she is, ha! Enjoy!

Ruby has the biggest closet in the house!

I made all the paintings in both rooms so I am pretty proud of that :) And Sadie is posing trying to show her bed!

-K

The Kitchen and Dining Room

 
Here are some more photos of the dining room. but with curtains, ha! And here are some of the kitchen too. Ignore the dishes in the sink, the girls played with the dishwasher buttons and I can't get it to work now. Oh, did I mention that the labels on the dishwasher are in Turkish, yup that's why I can't get it to work. MUST learn Turkish! And the last photo is our bulletin board/calendar wall. The cat food is also there, on top of a cat kitchen mat the girls picked out :)

Living Room - for now.

View from the kitchen into the living room. And the blinds behind the rocker is another door to the patio with windows next to it.

Kiddos play area behind the couch.

 Reading area or baby rocking area or Steven's gaming chair! Some of my books, but we need a much bigger and prettier book shelf. And we want a different chair for over here, it;s just a matter of finding it, then we want to put the rocker in Ruby's room.

Entertainment center. We are going to put one of the bridges back up over the TV, Steven just needs the time to do it. The top bridge won't fit because of the light fixture on the wall. Oh and we need to find some place for Stevo's hats. They are just piled on top of one of the bridges, lovely huh?

We bought these floor pillows/cushions from some Turkish vendors on base. The girls are always complaining that the floor makes them cold, which it does, so Daddy came to the rescue with these. They love them and they seem really comfy. Sadie's is blue and Lilly's is the white one in the bottom right corner of the first photo.

This is the living room for now, we have a lot of ideas but can't do anything yet. They require large pieces that we need the car to transport home. My car is in country but they need the engine ID number for the paper work and they can't find it. YAY! Another problem! If they don't find it, they need to file paper work that will take up to 15 days to get back. Then we need license plates which can take 5-15 days to get. Hopefully I will have my car before our tour here is over!

I will try to post again tomorrow with updates on the girls and some photos of them!

Right now I am going to try and sleep, it's after midnight here!

Goodnight y'all!

-Krissy