Potty truck!

Stephanie at Where in the World Am I is hosting the State Department Blog Round-up this week and her ‘theme’ is international toilets. I can’t wait to hear the stories!

I don’t have any strange photos of toilets. Usually it’s the situation surrounding the whole toilet experience that gets me more than the actual plumbing fixture.

One photo that I do wish I had, was one that I could never take because I was always driving when I saw it. A truck load of toilets. I saw several of these trucks while commuting to work in Cairo, which was often quite the experience in of itself, but I’d look over, and there’d be this big old pick-up-type truck, piled impossibly high with dozens of gleaming, brand new, polished and shiny, ceramic toilets… glimmering in the morning sun… pepto bismol pink and baby blue… not a one in a box, they were just lashed crazily to the truck, one layer randomly atop another, with piles of thick palm fronds between each toilet as padding. It was fantastic! Sparkling ceramic, flapping palm leaves, beat up truck, lumbering by in crazy traffic. It was like mechanical performance art! (or something...) Of course, I’d exclaim aloud to my husband and/or passengers, “Look at that truck!” … and a bus would drive by, obscuring the view, and we’d be at some break-away point in the road and the potty truck would go one way, we’d be heading the other, and nobody would see it but me. This actually happened two more times. I’d catch sight of a fully loaded toilet truck, heading south (usually) as we commuted north, and try as I might to point it out, as soon as I opened my mouth, opposing traffic would converge on the truck, like protective guardians of some mythological being… nobody but I was allowed a glimpse of the blue and pink cargo… yes, my husband teased me about the imaginary potty trucks, but I swear, they were real!

Really!

I am NOT kidding…!

I googled “Egypt toilet truck” and found this image of a truck in Egypt with toilet rolls:

It’s close… but no pink potties… o well…

Got Nothin’, in other words, the Round-up is coming!

“Got nothin’” can be translated as “Need things!”

(Pixie demonstrates how sad it is to be without things you need.)

Where has this week gone? Frankly, I’m still in last week, confused, and wondering why my weekend hasn’t shown up yet… but here we are, Tuesday, this week, and I’m needing to be rounding up Round-up items!

I am hosting the weekly State Department Blog Round-Up this week, so I better get my behind in gear(!), and I need your help. What HAVE you been up to this week? What’s going on in your part of the globe? A number of bloggers have noted that sometimes it is tough to blog towards a set theme. I understand that completely. My own blog tends to contain posts about what I’m thinking about, posted randomly, when I feel like it. Sometimes it makes sense, other times, maybe not, but I do what I do. I can be inspired by some themes, but some… not so much. I’m setting an OPTIONAL theme of ‘Crafts’ for this week, and I suppose we could re-label it as an “Optional Talking Point” or something, but “theme” rolls off the tongue so much easier. Anyway...

I enjoy crafting, arts and crafts, creating things, making messes, etc. It’s cheap therapy. When the kids were little though, I cut back my hobby quite a bit. I still continued to work on simple things here and there, but nothing I actually had to focus on or pay much attention to. The kids are getting older and more independent now, and I am jumping back into art. Often I feel like I am past ready for this (re)start up, sometimes I am bit (lot) overwhelmed with it, but I’m happy to be going again!

If you are interested in this theme, why not share a bit about the arts you like to participate in, or perhaps, what resources are available where you are, or even share some of the local arts and crafts that are created by local artists in your area that inspire you to shop, if not actually craft yourself?!

Where I am, right now

It’s time for the RoundUp again, and Becky at Small bits is our hostess. Her theme this week is "A picture from the place I am now." Physically, mentally, whatever. I wasn’t sure I had anything.

Then Ninja came to play…

That look of tired contentment… that is where I am at this week. The state of contentedness. I’ve had a good week, I’m ready for the weekend, but it’s been good. Ninja shows off this state of being better than I do though, so I’m glad she modeled. She was also smart enough to bring pink… well, it could be that she brought me the pink sock to wrestle and play fetch with because pink socks are her FAVORITE socks in the whole world. Green socks are pretty good, black will do in a pinch, but pink is the best and has always been the best, throughout the whole history of sock games! But, we could also pretend she was participating in the RoundUp this week.

Also for Jen… hugs(!)…  and prayers that all is going well with your tests and treatments.

Traditions

My friend Lydia of Here, There and Everywhere is hosting this week’s State Department Blog RoundUp and the following is her (optional theme):

What traditions have arisen in your life because of the State Dept?

Wow. That’s actually a hard one. Traditions? New ones arisen? I’d think the biggest, most life-altering aspect of foreign service is the picking up and moving, but I’ve been doing that since a week after my HS graduation ceremony 25 years ago. I graduated, joined the Army, and headed off into the world. I married a soldier and kept going. The switch to civilian life was barely a speed bump in our path.

I believe that one of our ‘newer’, and perhaps very best tradition, one that I can give credit to Embassy life for, is the family vacation. Yea. Pretty sad, but that’s a fairly new concept for us. I went on vacations as a kid, but it would be a week here, or camping over a long weekend, or overnight at a relative’s or whatever. Then, as a single lady with a workaholic streak, my only breaks were running to visit family over a long weekend or other spur-of-the-moment trips. When Brad and I married we were a family of two work-a-holics, with different schedules, different priorities, and never the same days off. We had too many ‘use it or lose it’ leave incidents.

Eventually, we became parents and the need to visit family became more important. We still had some learning to do though. Structured R&R came to the rescue. You have to plan for it. In advance. Work it into the schedule. Buy tickets. Even before you start planning, people start asking you what you are going to do. It has taken awhile, but this odd concept of leaving work, going away, and taking a well-earned break together has finally sunk in, and it is a very GOOD thing.

We’ve been fine-tuning this amazing ‘vacation’ concept as we go too. In the beginning, we felt guilty if we did not spend every second with our far-flung relations, but over the past few years, as our kids have grown from unconcerned little playful beings, to opinionated, memory-saving, book reading, documentary watching, desiring to explore, little adventurers, we have branched out.

We started out carefully … a week at a Disney resort before heading to see family.

Hooray! That worked. We had a BLAST! And no-one spontaneously combusted because we took some time away for ourselves.

We decided that this family bonding stuff was very good for us and repeated the experiment with a stay at a lovely time share in Florida.

Life events interfered in ‘08, and we PCS’ed during the summer of ‘09, but this summer we jumped right back into our ‘new’ tradition and, after entertaining a visiting relation here in Jordan for a week, we had an amazing and inspiring road trip down the left coast of the US - from Portland, Oregon to Monterrey Bay, California. It was exhausting, it was COLD, but we had so much fun.

Definitely a wonderful tradition… and all thanks to the need to take R&R.

The only trouble now is… figuring out what we want to do next time!  I think we won’t have to worry about it too much, the kids are already making plans for what they want to do.

Weekly State Department Blog RoundUp – Halloween Plans

Welcome all, and thank you for dropping by my blog as I take my first turn hosting the RoundUp. I hope that those who wrote blogs following my suggested theme had fun doing so, and that the ideas we have blogged about this week that I am compiling here are found to be useful and entertaining. I certainly enjoyed your responses!


Lets go ahead and get this over with… Announcing the winner of our RoundUp Halloween decorating contest: Shannon, at Cyberbones in Malawi.


Did you know we were holding a contest? I didn’t. I hadn’t planned any contests, but I suppose we can find competition everywhere.





I’m not going to copy any of Shannon’s photos, go check them out yourself for the full effect, I’m sure you will agree that she wins, hands down, and while it is creepily inspiring, I’ll probably skip using this idea this year as there will be little ones (and me) at our party. Maybe when the kids are older. Shannon’s prize is one gift suggestion directed at all those who are responsible for sending her prezzies: Duct tape, Caulk, Spackle, and/or chewed up pieces of gum, to plug up EVERYTHING that even resembles a hole or gap or teensiest of crawl space in her walls, fixtures, windows, plumbing, etc. (btw, these items are to be sent in addition to, not in place of, the good stuff she should be receiving… just sayin’).


Chelsea of A Fisher Out of Water nominated a post that inspired her to embark upon her own decorating adventure. As she says, “Those rats are pretty sweet!”  They really are! I completely understand having vast landscapes of blank white walls to fill in, what a great idea!


Zoe of Something Edited This Way Comes has been busy decorating, but in order to do so, first had to embark on an eerie stuff-finding expedition into the depths of her home. Those are some crazy keys! I thought our laundry room key was weird.


A Daring Adventure claims that she’s been lazy, but it looks like she’s ahead of me in prepping for the holiday. I’ve been planning, but not doing much actual ‘doing’. What a great apron, and I love the idea of using books to decorate! Oh, and thank you for sharing the donuts … sigh… there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home…





When was the last time you visited a Pumpkin Patch? I never went to one as a kid. I lived in Florida where it was too hot and humid to leave a carved vegetable out on your porch, unless you really like the ghastly rotting effect… but I learned how very special a visit can be when we took our children to one (in a colder climate!) when they were very small. If you haven’t had a chance to visit one recently, tag along with the Perlman family. How cute is that?? I don’t know of any pumpkin patches locally, but I know that Amman has pumpkins because we carved some at school last year. I hope we’ll find them again this year, if not, I suppose we could carve a watermelon??


If I can have a Decorating Contest Winner, then I’ll name a winner for ‘suggested’ Halloween recipes too.


It’s not wing of bat or eye of newt, but leg of frog and bowl of turtle is close enough for me. Again, I don’t think I’m going to follow this idea, even though it is rather creepy and Halloween-y. Maybe next time… or not! (Although I get the impression that the entrees were not what freaked out Kolbi the most.) Her prize is our continued adoration and appreciation for starting this whole RoundUp business… sure, I know that she already owns this prize, I’m just putting it in writing to make it official.

What would Halloween be without Costumes?

Donna at Email from the Embassy managed to fit the sewing of a darling little mermaid costume into her very busy schedule. How Sweet! (and very creative too!)


Zoe at Something Edited This Way Comes, with the help of her storage room exploration assistant, has previewed the most adorable little gnome costume I’ve ever seen!


While Sara, at Wife – Mommy – Woman is still working on the costumes for her kids this year, she has shared some wonderful photos from years past. My fave is the gangster baby!


Overdosed on cuteness yet? Ok, I’ll cut you a break and share with you an awesome Devil Mommy illustration posted here at Tuk & Tam.  … oh wait, my mistake, that is totally cute too! So, is Nia planning on a career in law? She presented a powerful case against pot pie… much better than I ever managed, way back when, when my mom made me eat that stuff.

Parties 

Party planning, when you are posted overseas, often must happen weeks (months) in advance, which is one of the reasons I chose this particular theme at this particular time. As much as you may want to shop local and make from scratch, often it’s simply not feasible, not available, nor reasonably priced, or, maybe you do NOT want to do these things and would rather someone else did the work. Mail order can be a life (sanity) saver, but you have to start early!


A friend and I are getting together and holding a joint party at our home for Halloween. We’ve been shopping, gathering ideas for food and games, and contemplating decor. I’m also set for costumes for our kids, and have shared a couple of good resources on my party planning post.


Emily of Our Life has gone past the planning stage, straight through to the decorating for, and successfully pulling off of, a Fall themed dinner party. She even offers priceless advice, in convenient list form. What a beautiful job with the table… and yes, I’d have probably cried too, after the assault upon the chocolate! (Smart kid!)

Accomplishments/assignments/promotions

Life After Jerusalem completed her first 8K race. Finishing is a great personal accomplishment in itself, but she was running for a more important cause, the Brain Aneurysm Race for Awareness in memory of her mother. Way to go! (and I hope your ‘marathon’ of home repairs has reached it’s finish line too.)


Jill posted about an accomplishment that was not a happy one for her. It was a stressful situation and she had to make a very tough choice. Being a single mom is hard no matter what, but there’s an added level of difficulty thrown in when you are not really a single parent, but suddenly and temporarily become one due to your spouse’s deployment. Psychologically, that’ll get you. Your learned ‘I can do this’ confidence is confused as heck because half of your team is not there, even though it is, but is not physically present! (Does this make sense?!) Keep on hanging in there Jill, it’s tough work to adapt to the situation you are in, but you are doing an amazing and inspiring job handling everything that comes your way!

Tour & Travel Adventures

Donna at Email from the Embassy and family had a visit to a most spectacular historical site here in Jordan this past weekend. They visited the baptismal site of Jesus.  (Next time read the guide book, ok? We really do not want you melting into the landscape and becoming a permanent part of the local relics.)


Lydia at Here, There and Everywhere is enjoying her new home in Manama and, as is true in many places where English is a common lingo, she is also having too much fun finding English used in random ways.


The Monestel Family has made it to the one year mark in Bangladesh and has a lovely post, reflecting on the past 12 months in their current home. I loved reading about how well their children have adapted to the expat lifestyle.


I posted about Shannon’s close encounter of the creepy kind above, but you have to admit, living in critterville may be worth it for moments like this. 


Newly arrived in Africa, Nomads by Nature are working hard settle in… but not so hard that they aren’t able to sneak in a bit of fun on the water near Catembe. Prawns and beer and a day in the sun!





Ok, I think that’s it. If I missed something good, I apologize. I posted the items submitted, and even managed to browse a good number of blogs myself (thank you fickle internet!). If I’ve made any mistakes, please don’t be shy. Let me know and I’ll fix them.


Next week the RoundUp will be hosted by Lydia of Here, There and Everywhere. She’s currently broadcasting from Manama, Bahrain, but was formerly blogging in Cairo, as my (almost) next door neighbor, and more recently from the US. She’s married to a great guy, she’s the mother to four wonderful, not to mention quite adorable and sweet, children and has a great sense of fun and humor - as demonstrated by this little (in theme!) video which I happened to find when I popped by her blog to check the link.


A big thanks to all who participated – writing, contributing, reading, etc. I appreciate your taking the time to help keep the RoundUp going ‘round.