Tyson-in-the-box

Okay, technically he's not "in" the box but, Tyson-"on"-the-box just doesn't have the same feel!
Here is a quick story of a not-so-fun adventure we had just after we arrived.

We had been in India about 3 weeks and one night we came home around 9pm after having dinner and as we got to the front door Richard realized he left the keys at the restaurant. Where's that darn hide-a-key when you need it! So there we all stand, in the sweltering heat (oh yes, it was still blistering hot at 9pm) wondering what the heck to do, with Tyson sawing zz's like there's no tomorrow in my arms. So Richard started making phone calls. Finally he gets the number for the restaurant and begins to make one of several frantic telephone calls; "I said keys, not bees!" "No, I don't need a table, please check under the table for my keys!". "Let me speak to anyone that speaks English PLEASE!" Anyway, after 2 phone calls and at least 3 different people, they located the keys and sent them by taxi to the Embassy. In the meantime besides wanting to strangle a certain person who shall remain nameless (RICHARD), I had to set Tyson down because my arms and back were screamin for mercy. But the only place to set him down was on the ground (Uh, I don't think so!) or a large box just outside our house. Earlier that day the boxes had contained a small amount of household goods shipped in our "fast" shipment and were outside the house waiting to be taken to the trash. So, I laid him on the box and there we sit, no actually we stood, and stood and stood some more, on the empty compound street at 10 o'clock at night with Tyson asleep on a box. Every few minutes I had to flip off a bug or an ant, curiously checking him over, but you'll be happy to know, after this tragic story, he suffered no long term effects from his night on the box!
(Richard either!)

Notice the dirty footsies!

Daddy, please don't make me sleep on a box again!

MaKaela Turns 9!

Happy Birthday MaKaela!
MaKaela has been waiting anxiously for her birthday to arrive and finally it did! Despite the fact that her slacker Mother sent the invitations out only 3 days prior we had 10 girls out of 10 show up for MaKaela's pool/slumber party! Who made up that silly rule about giving a 2 week notice anyway! For me that is a sure fire way to guarantee I won't be there. After about 3 days my brain does an automatic purge of information to the recycle bin and unfortunately it can't distinguish between the useless and useful information I've stored.
Anyway, MaKaela was extremely excited to have all her friends there and they all seemed to have a great time.
We swam for only an hour because the pool is starting to get a bit chilly and everybody was freezing. We then came home and ate. Mutua had fixed some pizza, spring rolls and some little battered potato thingy and then we did cake and ice cream... oh and of course presents. Then they played outside, watched a movie and I then put them to bed. Which was easier said than done, but after getting one more pillow and one more blanket, shutting off ceiling fans, because "I'm too cold" and turning on lights, because "I can't sleep in the dark", opening doors and changing from one bed to another one last time, I think they fell asleep. Or else I did, I'm not sure.

And just in case you were wondering who made that SOCCER-IFIC CAKE...It was ME! with a little help from a friend (okay a lot of help) . Nevertheless, I'm extremely proud to say; I made the coolest-ever soccer cake! I'm sure you can't see it in the pictures but the grass frosting on top, actually looks like real grass. (But honestly, I'm not the boasting type).

All 11 girls posing with MaKaela and her amazing birthday cake! Is that a real soccer ball, it looks so life-like?

Oh wow, look at her blow out her candles on that fabulously decorated birthday cake!

You need a really special knife to cut such a special birthday cake, good thing we had one!

How do you make a Kashmir Carpet.

The start of a hand woven carpet.

The picture above is the hand-written pattern for the carpet.

Color by number carpet pattern.

Richard being schooled in the art of carpet making. Don't be surprised if we end up moving to the mountains and become famous carpet weavers.

The finished product! Gorgeous!

This 4x6ft. silk on cotton rug is 140 knots per inch. It took 1 person 9 months to make.

This carpet took 8 people 11 years to complete.
The cost you ask...a whopping $18000.00 Whoa!

Richard's Trip to Kashmir

Kashmir, India. Northern India about 30 miles east of the Pakistan/India border.

Richard said the mountains reminded him a lot of the Wasatch mountains in Utah.

Richard escorted the American Citizens Chief to Kashmir last week to interview an American citizen who was arrested. He thoroughly loved being in the mountains enjoying the cool air. It is significantly cooler up north and a welcome break from the heat and humidity of Delhi (wish I could have gone)!

"Bugged" Again

My friend Jean sent me a lovely care package with a bunch of Costo size boxes of junk food (I still need to know how much I owe you Jean). I got the box yesterday and was so excited to see pop-tarts, cereal, granola bars and best of all OREOS! It was like Christmas.
Anyway I put everything away in our little pantry and in the morning Richard informed me that the ants had gotten into all the new food.
I foolishly thought that since I hadn't opened anything that it wouldn't attracted those pesky little creatures, WRONG! These little guys are very persistence and obviously "sealed packaging" in the US isn't what it used to be. The hardest hit item was the box of oreos. But we were not going to let those pint sized soldiers win this time. We unwrapped every package except for a couple that obviously had no hope of revival and searched every single oreo for ants (i.e.picture obove). After all, junk food from America is a precious commodity and I could not let all those oreos or money go to waste!
We went through everything else and every box contained ants but the only other item that actually contained ants inside the bags were the frosted mini-wheats. So again I sifted through two large bags of mini-wheats and saved those as well. I'm actually proud of myself because if this had happened in the states I would have chucked everything in the trash and started over. But when your desperate you tend to be a bit more resourceful.

Unsalvigable Oreos! :(

A plate of "clean" oreos!

Bottom of the oreo box and what was left of the ants. There was easily 10 times this amount when we opened it.

Sad Bunny Story

Okay, our sad bunny story goes like this:

Last month Morgann and Richard went out on an adventure together to "Old Delhi" (the older part of Delhi city) and as they were looking around they came accross a pet market and saw two adorable miniture bunnies from Nepal. They were in deplorable conditions and once Morgann batted her eyes and said "Daddy we can't just leave them" It was all over, we suddenly became family to two of the tiniest rabbits I've ever seen. I was not crazy about this turn of events and took every opportunity to voice my opinion on how crazy it was but what could I do, I wasn't going to send them back so....
Anyway, the kids fell in love with the bunnies immediatly (who doesn't love bunnies). But we couldn't come up with names for several days. We tried all sorts of combinations until one day we were all in a bedroom watching the bunnies run around and explore and Taylor started doing commentary for there actions and as they ran around in a frenzy they almost ran into one another and Taylor said "party on Wayne, party on Garth" and we all looked at each other as we obviously came to the same conclusion at once and yelled "Thats it!". So we named them Wayne and Garth. Garth was the brown one and Wayne the black and white.
So now to make a long story even longer. After 4 or 5 days I decided it was time to get them some proper rabbit supplies so I went online and ordered rabbit food, litter, food & water dishes etc..we also had the vet come and give them shots. I was beginning to make peace with the idea that they would be sticking around. Maybe that was my mistake, because not more than a day or two later I came home from a shopping trip and found Wayne and Garth dead in their box. We don't know why they died but the vet said that those kinds of bunnies are very fragile and have a hard time adapting to different or sudden changes in environment. Every now and then we kid around that our maid smothered them so she didn't have to take care of them (although I'm sure that was not the case). Whatever the case, they were the sweetest and cutest little bunnies and we will miss them.

Morgann Got Braces

Morgann got her braces on last week and was really hating life! She said it was really painful for several days. It was pathetic to see her sucking on her oreos, poor thing.