Sayed in the US?

Many of you were on my original email blast to write support letters for getting Sayed back here in the US.  Its gotten dangerous where he is and his mom doesn't want him to leave the house much for fear of all the stuff going on, so we thought this would be a good time to get him back here to finish high school and then hopefully go to college.

Thankfully, we received 24 letters from friends and family - his program director said that was unheard of!!  Then, I got through a month's worth of paperwork to get him accepted into a private school here (foreign students may only attend public school once), get all our sponsorship paperwork done, and sent it all to him in a tiny fedex envelope costing $100 to Kabul, Afghanistan.  For some reason, Sayed gave me the wrong address to the US Consul (its not published) and then FedEx could not find the US Consul (it must be hidden?!), so Sayed had to walk across Kabul and pick up the package.  (Oh and we had to send it to FedEx because stuff gets stolen from post offices and there is no mail system to houses, hence the $100 guarantee).  They required no ID to pick the package up so once he had it, he scheduled his interview.  It all comes down to the interview.  If the people interviewing him (Americans) think he will run away or stay in the US, they will not ok him, but if they are confident in his return (and don't think he is a terrorist), they will let him come.

So, that is why I am writing this post.  His interview is this Sunday, March 4th.  I am not sure at what time, but I will try to find out.  Apparently, there are no Sundays off in Kabul.  He does have a letter from a company there saying he can work there when he comes back.  (I stalked some Turkish guys in the supermarket here and asked them how they were able to get visas approved and that is what they told me, so I got Sayed to do the same.) So, hopefully that is convincing proof that he will return and the 24 letters are proof that he is a good guy.

Well, that is where things are right now.  Hopefully, he will get approved and will come in July and then we will have another baby in September and have four children!  Yikes!  Sayed will be a good babysitter, I'm sure ;)

Oh yeah, reason for writing this post- please pray for Sayed's interview on Sunday.  Its all up to these random people. Let's pray they don't have a bad day and that Sayed gets approved.  This would be so wonderful for him and his family and such a great opportunity, not to mention that Dan super misses him and I miss him too ;)

Cowtown Marathon

This weekend, we made a quick trip to Ft Worth for Dan to run in the Cowtown Half Marathon with some of our San Antonio friends.  The girls stayed with my parents at the lake and we had one night and day to ourselves.

For some reason, on our one day off, we got up at 5:45am so Dan and everyone else could run- no break or sleep!   Here are the SA girls and me :)

Anyway, the Cowtown has ZERO spectators.  Dan, Bert and Julia, Laura, and Courtney ran the half.  David (Courtney's husband), Otto (Julia and Bert's 3 month old) and I went to spectate and cheer everyone on at mile 4 and 10.  At mile, 4- zero spectators, so i had to pull out some old cheerleading jumps and superstar movements a la Mary Catherine Gallagher.  I felt very sorry for all the runners getting no support and I thought they needed a little comedic interlude, therefore I pointed at specific runners looking downtrodden and yelled at them that they were awesome.  This went over well.  Fortunately, there are no pictures of this, as I injured my hip from jumping around since the last time I did cheerleading jumps was in high school in 2000.  We were able to find all five of our runners and cheer them on- good success!

Then, after feeding Otto in the car, racing across town (only one mile but everything was blocked off, so big detour), we made it to mile ten right when Dan was running by.  Perfect!  I did a half jump I had been saving for him since my hip was injured and then we yelled for everyone again because again, zero spectators.  Our best line was "We are not married and this is not our baby!"  We felt this was necessary because everyone kept telling me I looked pretty good after having this little infant (I took the compliments for awhile because I did have a baby a while back, just not a three month old) and then people were admiring our motley little family that did not go together.  Again, the runners were pretty bored with no spectators, so we were interesting relief.  Our yell got some laughs which we felt equaled successful encouragement and then I reverted back to my "you are awesome" point and yells.

All in all, a success.  Dan didn't train at all and he ran a better time than the Ok City marathon.  We were very proud!  Fun weekend!

Guess the Riddle

Dan is so strong he can hold four people.  (He does Crossfit ALOT!)

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Give up?

Well, another little baby will be joining our family September 17th- half a month before Annie's 1st birthday.  What a surprise, but we are definitely excited :)

And I am especially excited to get past these next two weeks and hopefully get some energy....

Snow Day!

A few days ago, we had two inches of snow!  June had zero interest in playing in it.  She only wanted to spend an entire hour eating it.  This was fine with me - no clothes to wash! :)

The chickens usually stop laying in the snow or cold, but they were happy scrounging around in their pin that was carefully enclosed by Dan so no snow got in.

Every day, we give them all our leftover, moldy, unwanted food we have, as well as things like the end of strawberries and flower stems and even their own egg shells.  They eat it all!  And they have been so much happier since I have started giving them variety and we have had more eggs...  I have really been surprised how much we would have previously thrown away but is now going to good use.

Madame Cluck and King Tutu would not pose for my picture (they are pretty skiddish), but below is Esmerelda and Miss Penny.  Esmerelda lays the dark brown eggs and Miss Penny- the light brown ones.  Madame Cluck lays the blue eggs above (they are not white) and I suspect that King Tutu doesn't do much laying, although I can't be sure because technically his eggs are the same color as Miss Penny's...

And wouldn't you believe it, by 3pm that same day, all the snow had melted and it was 55 degrees.  Crazy Lubbock weather!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Flowers from Daddy :)

Oh Vern

You may remember the time that Vern just really wanted to hang out with the chickens, so he jumped the makeshift chicken fence we made and got stuck in there.

OR, you may have heard of his two attempts at being a watch dog- one when our friend, Ryan, was staying with us and came home at 11pm and Vern cornered him in the living room growling.  Or two, when we had bats in our house and Vern tried to attack and eat one, but instead just injured it and it flew around the house angrily barking or whatever bats do.

Some of you may know the story of when our drunk neighbor tried to break into our house in San Antonio.  Dan had to defend the house and escort him home and where was Vern the whole time?  Licking a candy wrapper that he had found in the trash can in the bathroom.

Or even his daily habits of barking at the mailman or waiting for someone to throw him his ball.

Suffice it to say, Vern just has his priorities a little messed up.  Or maybe there is one screw loose in his head.  I'm not sure what it is, but his latest forays have not made me happy.

Everyday, Vern camps out on our back door step, basks in the sun and waits for Dan to come home and take him on a walk.  Well, everyday, while he is sleeping in the sun, the horrid crows come and one by one, eat all his food.  This infuriates me and every time I see them, I yell at them (and weirdly run at them from inside the house) to go away while Vern is not moving, laying RIGHT next to them.  They see me and skedaddle- giving me no photo opps.  (I have no love for crows.)

So, I decided to move his food right next to him on the step so that they would maybe be a little scared and not go after it.

And where did he go?  He just moved far away in the grass so as not to interrupt their pillaging so that they could happily munch away on his food...

...doubling the amount I have to pay every month to feed Vern and his 20 crow friends!

Ken Burns? Really?

So, I'm sure all of you are wondering why you need to read a post about someone named Ken Burns and I will wonder right along with you because there is really no reason, except this needed to be documented.

We have this adorable older man that lives next door with his wife.  Think this guy:

but actually not quite so cute and more like the nerdy scientist man in Rescue Rangers that always tried to destroy the world:

Ok, so a cross between the two.  Anyway, he lives next door and is super nice and we are all friends and his name is Hershel.

Well, today, he came by to talk to us about reciprocal airport rides.  We give them a ride to the airport (this saturday, in fact) and then they give us a ride whenever (probably whenever our kids our grown and we can leave the house again.)  Anyway- nice idea.  So, he hasn't seen Annie in a while and he is just taken aback, and when I say that, I mean, seriously taken aback at the striking resemblance to this man's documentaries he watches.  He can't remember this guy's name, but he just can't believe the resemblance and swears that he has never told anyone that their child looks like this guy (great, ours is the first- what an honor) - Tim something.  Well, already I'm not too thrilled (in my mind only, outwardly I am of course) that my daughter looks like a man, but I am thinking surely it is one of those men that kindof looks like a woman and maybe has beautiful sisters or daughters that look just like him.  Mad Scientist/Sweet Old Man Hershel proceeds to go on and on about Tim something and tells us to look him up- we just won't believe it.  We laugh along with the idea about our child looking like a famous older man and then he leaves.

THEN, he calls ten minutes later when he gets home and has looked up this actor and is calling to make sure we have done the same so that we can tell him yes, our daughter does look just like this man and thank you for comparing him.  So, we look up the name that he has now remembered, Ken Burns:

REALLY?  Need I say more?

Ok, maybe the bangs.....a LITTLE....