Piepers in Sandy

The last post in this series

2010-01-23T20:24:00.001-08:00

I always forget that I have to put in the pictures last to first, so anyway, this is in the plane flying home and we flew over Iran. These are some pictures of Iran.

As we went through passport control I asked if I could take a picture of these passport control guys headgear. I love these scarf-wound-turbans, they looked very classy. This guy said 'sure, I could take his picture.'

The guy in the middle said 'no, I couldn't take his picture'. I decided to listen to the other guy and I got this.

2010-01-23T20:08:00.000-08:00

The 'villa' in Oman where they meet for church. In this one the doorbell is a muslim call to prayer.

Here it is, we found it the 'liahona'!! :)

Another picture of the hat and robe wear in Oman. Most all the signs are in english and arabic. The common language is english because all the shop keepers and menial labor are from the Phillipines, or India, or Pakistan. In the UAE only about 20% of the people are Emiratees - the rest are immigrants who do the work.

More pictures from the car of the scenery.

Oman - the last stop on this tour

2010-01-23T19:57:00.001-08:00

Oman, is on the tip of the Gulf and it is more mountainy and hilly, and a little more green, but not much. It is a nice place, the most 'normal', 'livable' place in this area. This is a 'Sultanate' - one of two in the whole world (the other is Brunei???).

In Oman the men wear a different head-dress than they do in the UAE - they have this little round hat for every day life. I kept getting only the back of people because I hate to take pictures of people - you know, I would look just like a tourist!!

The mosque in Oman.

Inside the mosque. Interestingly, they said that in this room is the largest rug in the world. (not the blue, they put that over the rug for the tourists to walk on) As you can see, we had to have our heads covered, long sleeves and long pants and no shoes. Beautiful, reverent place!

The chandelier in the mosque

Dubai

2010-01-23T19:43:00.000-08:00

While we were there we celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary!! Paul is such a wonderful husband - For our 20th we went on a Kazakh wolf-hunting-by-eagle and horse-riding adventure, for the 25th we went to Mexico back to his mission, and then he took me to the Persian Gulf for this anniversary- including this marvelous dinner and an excursion to the gold souk!!

We are wondering how to top this for our 35th??? I can hardly wait!!! I love you, Paul!!

In Dubai, this is the most green I saw. In Abu Dhabi there is more green in parks and lawn and it just looks more 'livable'. This shot is from the 28th floor looking out over the city.

Another view from up high. Dubai is mostly just tall buildings and anything that looks 'showy'.

The tall pointy building to the left of the 'asterik' is the 'Birj Dubai' - the tallest building in the world.

Now on to Abu Dhabi

2010-01-23T11:47:00.001-08:00

Flying in to Abu Dhabi this is what it looks like - desert!! There really is no green unless it was planted and a black hose runs next to the plant dripping water into it.

Star wars!!!

Or an airport thing.

Sorry this picture is blurry - but this is a 7-star hotel where everything that looks like gold - is!! (Notice the dome) We didn't stay here, but we did eat here and look around - pretty amazing!

Moving on to Qatar

2010-01-23T11:30:00.001-08:00

Okay, I am going to try to finish this trip. This is Doha, Qatar and the Muslim Learning Center.

The skyline of Doha

The flowers - they were so sweet-smelling - they think they are a kind of magnolia

Bouganvilla - I think. As it looks the weather was wonderful!! It was Nov. and the temp. was around 95 degrees. The local ex-pats were saying it was 'cold'. What??? They were wearing sweaters, especially in church where the air conditioning was running.

The Saints in Baghdad

2010-01-13T10:15:00.000-08:00

One group of members Paul could meet with - some are military and others are there in a supporting role. After being there a couple of days, on his return to the Persian gulf and a fireside he gave there, Paul mentioned, 'that it was good to be in a church meeting where there weren't any firearms!!' All the military had to have their weapons on them all the time.

Possibly this is the new District Presidency???? Probably not, but they are good guys, I am sure!!

More Iraq

2010-01-13T10:10:00.001-08:00

'Crossed Swords' - on the military marching grounds of Saddam. Whenever Paul was out he had to put the flak jacket on.

at the base of the crossed swords the Iraqi's put the helmets of the Iranians they killed. They even had helmets on the roads as speed bumps and they would drive over them.

Still in Iraq

2010-01-13T10:04:00.001-08:00

A view of Iraq

An aerial view as Paul flew in

Inside the palace of Saddam that the Americans have now taken over - hence the flag. (yeah, pretty sure that was not hanging there before....)

The troops have built this tall 12 foot wall all around to keep locals from darting out into the street and throwing bombs or whatever... It is all along the street from the airport to the base, for example.

Paul in Iraq

2010-01-13T09:53:00.001-08:00

In November, while we were in the Persian Gulf area (it is taking me a long time to get this done, but I am hoping to get this adventure told in the next couple of days) Paul went to Baghdad, Iraq. There are 1300 military members in that area and the Church created a District and called a District Pres. and Paul went over to set him apart and meet with the saints. The man on the right of Paul is the new Pres. He also happens to be one of his fellow wrestlers a few years ago and is from Preston, Idaho. (They were the same size then!!)

Paul in front of one of the bombed palaces being built by the French.

A play 'house' for the children and grandchildren of Saddam Hussein.

'the man' himself (standing next to Saddam.... :) The soldiers have removed pieces of tile for souvenirs, hence the 'smudge' around his waist.

And while we were gone....

2009-12-22T15:12:00.000-08:00

The first part of November we were traveling quite a bit - and the girls were left to fend for themselves. When we came back, these were the pictures we saw of Clarissa.

Hmmmm... maybe we should pay closer attention to our teenager!!

Luckily, she was in the play "Curtains" that the highschool put on. She did great and had a wonderful time.

All about Kaitlyn Now

2009-12-15T16:56:00.000-08:00

Kaitlyn is in a choral group that plays and sings bluegrass? music. I think it is blulegrass, or close to it, I mean, look there is a banjo. She loves it and has performed a couple of different times.

It has been nice to have her in our home - she and Clarissa will sing together and it sounds great!!

She also dances!! She has been having a marvelous time in her dancing class, and she and her partner, Thang, did great in the dance competition.

It's autumn time

2009-12-15T06:02:00.000-08:00

Dora loves going to 'Special Needs Mutual'. They do such fun things and are so nice to Dora - besides it gives her a whole new bunch of people she can say 'Hi' to.

Here they painted her cheek after the Halloween fun.

Kaitlyn got very creative and made pumpkin soup - in the pumpkin!! Dora can't wait!!

While we were traveling there were lots of leaves for the girls to clean up. They all did their part.

Moving on towards Halloween

2009-12-13T14:05:00.000-08:00

If you haven't noticed I have been catching you up to our life these past few months. We are now at Halloween. Clarissa put on all the jewelry and dangly things she could find and discovered... being a hippie?

Dora was thrilled to be an M & M

If has been fun having Kaitlyn join our household this semester. Here are two sets of sisters and cousins.

Ummmm....

Settling into American Life

2009-12-12T14:28:00.000-08:00

Clarissa got right into school by going to the 'Sadie Hawkins' girls choice dance. Her friend, Risa, knew a boy she could ask. They had dinner at our house and seemed to have a fun time.

Clari was worried about fitting into the school... I am not sure why??

She seems to be doing fine!

Dora went on her first date with our neighbor boy, Andrew. It was his first date and he asked Dora. As you can see, we have to hold Dora back!!! Actually, it is very cute. Andrew does the talking and Dora makes all the moves!!

Life in the United States

2009-12-11T13:17:00.000-08:00

In July we moved to Sandy, Utah. And, since that didn't sound all that exciting we didn't blog anymore - but, we were wrong!! We are loving it here and life goes on as exciting as ever... just all in English.

Dora is in school and she loves her teachers, they are so kind and good there. We appreciate all they do. Here she is waiting for the bus.

paint paint paint

2009-06-05T11:46:00.000-07:00

ok so we have gone on a painting spree.... kinda.. in that we bought a couple paintings and i finally brought one of my paintings home from school. =]

so the painting above is one of St. Petersburg. It is actually a painting of a church that was really close to where we used to live. Mom and Dad both really like the colors in this =]

ok so this one has really interesting perspective... and.. you can't really see it in this picture but it also has a really cool texture in that the paint comes out of the canvas a bit to give the effect of the wooden texture.

I finally brought another painting home. This is actually the third painting i have done. In total this year i have done four. The second one i did is still hanging in school and i am still putting the finishing touches on my fourth one. This is actually done with acrylic paint not oil. I didn't like acrylic as much as oil though.. so this is the only acrylic i have done. Anyways.. there is a little sample of our new art =]

just stuff =] (this is clarissa again)

2009-05-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

so a couple weeks ago we had youth conference! it was really fun! this was my second year going to it and i loved both times. i met lots of amazing people and it was overall really fun for everyone.. i will miss all of them and the experiences they gave me. above is a picture of our whole group.
these are just some aDORAble pictures of dora!! isn't her dress cute?? and its pretty hard to beat that smile! =]

before salt lake... Cairo!!

2009-04-18T04:40:00.001-07:00

So this year for my school trip, or "Discovery week" i got the chance to go to Egypt! it was amazing, wonderful, fascinating, beautiful!! and more and more! I loved it!!!! we had a great time! Below is the view from our hotel room.. the river in the back... yup... thats the Nile! =]

the first place we went was the citadel which was kind of like a fort and inside there were several mosques and the palace.

We also met some new friends there. =] we came to really love the egyptian people. they are all really friendly.. and this was the first but deffinately not the last time we got asked for pictures.. and most times i don't even think we were asked =] but we loved to see them all smiling and waving.
The nile.. where we had lunch and went on a felluca (a kind of boat) ride.
A cat! yes in egypt cats are also everywhere!!!!!!!! this happens to be in the village of giza..mhhhmm right by the pyramids =]
Before going to the pyramids we went on about an hour camel ride in the sahara desert right by the pyramids. It was so fun! a little nerve racking at firs but once i got the hang of it camel riding was really fun!
We rode up to a hill where we had this amazing view of all three pyramids... it was...well.. amazing!
me, on a camel!
The puramids were so cool! this is the great pyramid which we actually got to go into. there is a small tunnel that you have to crawl up into to get to the kings chamber which was basically a small dark room in the middle of the pyramid.. it was so interesting!
actually touching the pyramid!
the sphinx!!!!!! need i say more?
in egypt we happened to find a henna place so we stopped and got some on our hands.. it was really cool =]
on our last day in cairo we went to maccadum hills... or garbage city. Garbage city is just what it sounds like. Its and area in cairo where people dump there trash and several thousand people live there.. living off and recycling the trash. Most of the population there is surprisingly christian and so we visited a church there and an orphanage.. it was an amazing experience!!!
the church is carved out of a natural cave and on the side is also carved faith which i thought was really nice =]

after cairo but still before salt lake.. Siwa and the Sahara!!

2009-04-18T03:34:00.000-07:00

Siwa is an oasis about 10 hours away by car form Cairo. We spent a few days there and it was so amazing! It is literally in the middle of the sahara desert and there are thousands and thousands of palm trees and hundreds of natural springs. The cutlture there is also fascinating as it has stayed the same hundreds of years. women still cover themselves completely and i was even asked if i was engaged =] seeing as i am the right age for it.

Our first day in Siwa we traveled everywhere in donkey carts, which other than motorcycles and bikes is the most common transport in Siwa. I did help drive the donkey cart for a bit =].

First we went to the mountain of the dead where i saw yet another cat =] (above) and afterwards we spent the afternoon swimming in Cleopatra's Bath one of the many natural springs in siwa where cleopatra apparently swam after visiting the temple of the oracle... where we also went. Alexander the Great also visited this temple to ask whether he was the son of a god.
After swimming in Cleopatras bath we watched the sunset over.. i think.. a lake.... in siwa.

It was beautiful the picture doesn't nearly capture it well enough =]

The melted fortress of siwa... is literally just that. It was a great fortress for many many years until it rained for 3 days straight, which in the desert is obviously unusual. Seeing as the fortress was made out of a kind of mud brick.. the rain actually melted it.
Me and my friend Kendall with our new friends in a rug making factory. I helped make that rug by the way... maria.. the girl with the brown head scarf... taught me how and let me make four knots in the rug =] Maria was the one who thought i was engaged to someone else on the trip =]
The Sahara!!!!!!!!! It was sooooo cool!!!! the desert was perfect... you know in the beginning of aladdin?.. yup that is exactly what it is like.. disney never lies =]

Sahara sunset...

Egypt just has beautiful skies in general.. especially when you are out in the desert. We spent our last night in the desert and me and a few friends decided to actually sleep outside. it got cold and sand was everywhere but that is unavoidable in the desert anyways.. but it was totaly worth it!!!!!! The sky was beautiful there were thousands of start out and i saw at least 8 shooting start that night =]
A group of Siwan men came to play traditional siwan music for us out in the desert and eventually they got us all up and dancing at about 12 at night =] they are playing in the tent which was set up for us out in the desert.
Our last morning in egypt we woke up in the sahara desert and as we were driving away i got a last picture of the sunset through the window of our big four wheel jeep =]

Texas Blue Bonnets

2009-04-15T05:20:00.000-07:00

In Texas at this time of year the Blue Bonnets are in bloom and everyone gets out to enjoy them. This next week there will be the 'Blue Bonnet Flower Festival'. They grow wild in the fields, and, obviously it doesn't matter what the sign says, we just have to get our pictures... (I am sure they didn't mean us!!!)

Isn't Avery just so cute???

What can be said?... More cuteness...

Okay, it was a little windy...

Oh, good, Avery is helping so the hair doesn't get blown around so much.

From Salt Lake we went to Houston

2009-04-15T05:11:00.000-07:00

While we were Nathan and Rachelle and their little ones we went to the BlueBell Ice cream factory. After the tour and the free sample we played around outside.

In Texas everyone wants to be a 'cowboy'

'So where are we taking this cow?'

more Salt Lake

2009-04-15T05:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a whole group of good-lookin' family

Well, the good-lookin just keeps going... Happy grandma and grandpa with Olivia and Bowen

And even better lookin' - Jenny Allen, GraMarne' and the Pieper girls

General Conference Trip to Salt Lake

2009-04-15T04:34:00.000-07:00

We were with family when we went to Salt Lake for conference - it was soooo fun. We love to be with family.

Here are the Pieper girls...

Oh, and here are the Tuttle boys... ( a little more dignified)

And the grandpas... with Olivia and Bowen

Olivia and Clarissa enjoying some winter...

Kiev, Ukraine Temple Groundbreaking

2009-03-24T06:05:00.000-07:00

After the last blog, I remembered that we had also been there before the temple was. This was a great experience!! A small group - no more than 50 members, gathered on the field and had a nice ceremony for the groundbreaking in June of 2007. Paul and Elder Manzhos (area 70) on his right and on his left is the stake pres. - Pres. Kanchenko - dig the first official shovel-full of ground.

Later I joined in just so I could get my picture and post it on this blog.

One of my favorite memories is after the ceremony the sisters went into the field and gathered bunches of wild flowers that grew in the field. It was as if they were saying 'this is ours and we want to take some of this marvelous experience home with us'. It was so sweet. These people love going to the temple - they sacrifice a lot so they can go, and they go quite often!!

Kiev, Ukraine Temple

2009-03-20T00:53:00.000-07:00

I still haven't quite remembered how to 'blog' - I still do my pictures backward... oh well...

Here we are at the building site of the temple. It was pretty fun to have a tour. We all got/had to wear the hard hats and we started in the low white building to the left. That is the construction office. The building with the pink on it is the patron and temple worker (as in Pres. etc.) housing.

The ground for the temple has always been a 'clean ' area - only farmland and people have enjoyed coming to this area to get out of the city.

The workers have to sign an agreement to not smoke or drink while on the premises.
Also, no inappropriate calendars and pictures, etc. (We wondered how they would get any workers if they couldn't smoke and they do have a special trailer for smoking) So, right from before beginning the place is sacred and clean.

Inside the temple the sheet rock is going up. (I just think this is a really cute picture of Paul!!!)

Here we are up on the roof - Mission Pres. and wife (red tie), next to Paul is Hanno Luschin the chief architect for the building. (If you remember one of Elder Uchtdorf's conf. talks he mentions him) Yes, we are walking with famous people!! Next to him is the boss of the construction company. The man on the right is the mission driver - Alexander.

Even the tunnel with all the pipes is clean and orderly and well constructed.

There the temple is in the background - waiting for the marble to come from Italy to put on the outside. It is at least 4 stories and sits up nice and high and is visible from the road as you drive up to it. It will be beautiful!!!

A One-Horse Open Sleigh

2009-03-18T21:54:00.000-07:00

Russian Troika Ride

2009-03-17T03:16:00.001-07:00

A truly Russian experience is the Troika Ride. It is a traditional sleigh ride with three horses pulling the sleigh - with sleigh bells and all. Dora loved it. We kept singing songs about horses and sleigh rides. We teased her about being 'upsot' and she held on real tight to the sleigh when we went over a bumpy, swaying spot. It was great fun. The day was perfect - a light snow was falling, we were in the woods and it was such fun to have this troika ride!!!

Isn't that a pretty sleigh? And the driver - a sweet Russian girl who has been around horses all her life and 'I just know how to work with horses since I was very young' - all dressed up in a traditional Russian shirt.

Going through the woods in our 'one-horse open sleigh'. Now you know why they have to specify how many horses!!!

After the lovely time riding horses we all had lunch together

More on the 8th of March

2009-03-17T03:06:00.001-07:00

We went with our friends the McGhies.

Do you love our Russian fur coat and fur hat???

Clari and Reyna and Sage on the troika ride.

Our family

On the Troika ride.

Vosmoya Marta

2009-03-17T03:01:00.001-07:00

The 8th of March - International Women's Day!!! All the girls in our family love it!!! And that is because the boys in our family spoil us - especially on that day!! I walked into the kitchen and this is what I saw....

Flowers and chocolate!!! Lots of chocolate!!! What could be better?

I love you, Paul!!!

2009-03-08T21:31:00.000-07:00

Another try with Dora's video.

2009-03-03T23:42:00.000-08:00

Okay, obviously that didn't work like I thought. Who knows how to put a video on???

Okay, put your hands down and now tell me how to put a video on.

Dora's video

2009-03-03T23:32:00.000-08:00

Dora is working with her 'exercise specialist' - we really don't have a term for it in America - generally I call her the physical therapist, but Jane is more like I first said Dora's exercise coach. Anyway, they have been working on walking up and down stairs. Dora is doing great - I am the one that is scared!!

(sorry, you have to tilt your head to watch this)

Almaty Branch

2009-02-24T10:12:00.000-08:00

The branch primary did a Valentines Day dance. Arina, the lady in black, made the skirts!! We had a little program Saturday evening and this was part of it.

Almaty, Kazakhstan

2009-02-24T09:48:00.000-08:00

Here is a random assortment of pictures.

Chris, Kaitlyn does this school look familiar??? This is 'shkola nomer 35'.

We went to an Uzbek restaurant for plauf, manti, nan and salads. It was great!! This is the carved wooden door - beautiful!! Every door was like this.

Paul with Mira and Ira - lovely girls!!

Paul with Addie and Syeva - Inna's little 6 month old baby boy.

Addie really wanted to hold his hand.

Cross-country skiing

2009-02-24T09:39:00.000-08:00

This winter has been perfect for skiing and we have been taking advantage of every day. It has been so fun!!! Today was -15 centigrade (about 5 or so) so it was pretty cold, but the sun was shining and after the first 4 kilometers we warmed right up!!! Paul is even doing it - he comes home from work around 3;30 or 4, and since it stays light now till almost 5:30, he had time to do a couple of 5 kilometer laps (actually he would have time to do about 4 since he does them in about 25 min!!!). Much too fast for me to keep up with him.

What a great way to enjoy the cold winter and snow and get your exercise in!!!

ADDIE

2009-02-17T23:59:00.000-08:00

No, you are not on Chris and Evelyn's blog - this is ..... GRANDMA'S BLOG!!!!

It was very fun to be in Almaty this weekend with Addie, I mean, Chris and Evelyn. We had church business for a couple of days, but I stayed a day longer and just enjoyed being a grandma - these kids have a huge task - they have to entertain us all!! And that is mostly what we did, just watched Addie. She is a cutie!! She crawls all around and is starting to pull herself up to all kinds of things - suitcases, beds, etc. She loved her new stacking toys.

I have a couple of other pictures, but the computer isn't uploading them. I will see what I can do later.

More on Yaroslavl - you wouldn't think there could be more....

2009-02-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, so Sunday morning I had already taken Paul to a meeting before church and the girls and I were checking out and going to go to Sacrament meeting. We got all packed up and out of our rooms and got in the elevator. The doors closed. We didn't go anywhere and the doors wouldn't open. We were stuck in an elevator!!! The first 15 minutes no one knew we were stuck. Every time we heard an elevator - there were 3 elevators in a row - we would pound on the door and say "help us!!!" Finally a lady said okay, the electricians are coming. What a relief, just to know someone knew we were stuck.

It was kind of a small lift and very hot. But, contrary to what Clarissa believed there was plenty of air and we were fine. (this is clarissa... it was actually horrible i was like hyperventilating and started to get really dizzy and we were all like sweating.. it was awful!!!) My cell phone didn't work in this city and so we couldn't call or receive calls. By now we were late for church. After another 15 minutes of the guys working they finally got the doors open. Clarissa walked out and as I was gathering Dora, the doors closed again and up we went!!! When we stopped luckily the doors opened and Dora and I went out quickly, but we still had bags we had to get out. So I stood Dora outside the elevator and standing in the door, so it wouldn't close, I reached in and grabbed the bags out. I didn't want to take a chance that I would get stuck in and Dora would be standing out there all by herself. In the meantime, Clarissa is downstairs and the guy is talking on his phone saying "wait, we need to get all the people out before you take it up to work on it!!!"

Finally after being stuck in the lift for a half an hour, we are all out and we hurry to church. As we walk in there is Paul - he was coming to look for us. It was now 20 min. late and he knew something was wrong so he motioned to one of the members who had a car and they walked out to come and find us. This made a great talk for the mission pres. He said something about how "you all saw how Pres. Pieper got up in the middle of the meeting to go find his wife. We were all here and comfortable, but someone was missing and so he left. That's just like us, we need to find those others and bring them in to the fold.'' etc, etc. Afterwards one of the members said "Yeah, I wondered why Pres. Pieper was going to go interview that guy right in the middle of Sacrament."

Anyway, we survived and have a great story to tell. We are just glad it was a nice elevator in a nice hotel instead of one of the many awful tiny little soviet ones we have been in that we could have gotten stuck in and would probably still be there!!!

The end.

2009-02-08T10:43:00.000-08:00

If you think of Russian fairy tales and villages, these houses are exactly like them. I wonder why?.... because, of course these are the real thing!! This one has the beautiful filigree all around the windows.

Isn't this a great color? They love the bright blues, greens and even yellow.

Most of them are all the same design.

Trip to Yaroslavl

2009-02-08T10:31:00.000-08:00

We went to Yarolslavl this weekend - a city famous because Chris served there on his mission - and took pictures of the houses we passed on the road. Now, I usually don't take pictures unless people we know are in them, but it would have been hard to do that, because we were traveling at 100 kph down the road as I snapped these.

This is Murat and his wife, holding their new little boy - Maxim and their daughter. He is the new branch president and Chris was instrumental in his (their?) baptism.

Sledding!!!!

2009-01-31T02:34:00.000-08:00

So for the last couple of weeks it has been relatively warm -1 or so centigrade - around 32 fahrenheit. But, today, sat. it is cold -15 centigrade, and so, naturally, we went outside.... the sky was blue, the sun was shining - just lovely!!!

There is a nice little hill right by our house and we went sledding.

Look how brave Dora is going down by herself!!! She really did love it - and Clari was down at the bottom guarding the lamppost and taking the pictures.

The hard part was going up the hill afterwards, but Dora helped by pulling the sled.

It was a fun time!!!

x country skiing (even though downhill is better)

2009-01-24T05:58:00.000-08:00

anyoung from everyones favorite little sister! the weekend before exam week was brutal for me... i spent hours slaving away at math, social studies and physics (which didn't go well despite my best efforts... its like my brain just rejects anything that involves math...) anyhoo here are some pictures of my deeply painful weekend of endless study...

me and reyna (my friend and neighbor) looking extremely athletic =]

this picture was so NOT posed =]

A Christmas Quilt

2009-01-21T04:53:00.000-08:00

This is a quilt I started last year, after Christmas, and finally just got it done for Christmas. One reason it took so long was that I took time out and made three other quilts - baby quilts for grandbabies!!

clarissa speaking again =]

2009-01-16T05:39:00.000-08:00

Anyong everybody!

(in case you don't know anyong means hello, and goodbye, in korean)

if ooma (korean for mother) and dad haven't told you yet i am currently OBSESSED with korea! and their amazing boy band Big Bang =] i love them! or in korean saranghe Big Bang =] so at them moment i am learning all the korean i can from every korean in my high school (there are actually quite alot of them). oh and by the way, teddie we are doing some serious korean learning when i see you next! =] so anyways if you haven't guessed the picture above is of Big Bang for yall... (sorry about the bad quality) but aren't they wonderful?! =]

but my korean obsession isn't my reason for writing this post even if it is my reason for living... =]

Kaitlyn wanted me to post some of my recent paintings. recently i have started oil painting in my art class in school and i really liked it! so this is my first ever oil painting =]

i have actually finished a second one but at the moment it is hanging up in school and i don't have a picture of it. i've also started a third but i am debating using acrylics... =]

anyong all =]

The last pictures of Turkey.... maybe

2009-01-08T01:48:00.001-08:00

Ahhhh, my hand disappeared. Maybe this is what really happened to Paul's fingers!?! mmmm...

This is in the wine-making room in the under-ground cave dwellings in Cappadocia - apparently holes in the low ceiling were for hanging things on...

Frescoes in the ceiling of a church in the cave houses/churches.

this is at the rug making place. The vat is filled with a solution of something (possibly just water) and silk worm cocoons. The solution kills the worm that is in the cocoon and helps the silk come unwound, then they put several - like eight strands together and wind it off the cocoon and onto the big round spinning wheel(??). Each cocoon has at least a mile of super, super strong silk thread on it. Clarissa is touching the strands of thread. They have to get the cocoon before the worm comes out. The worm makes a hole in the bottom of the cocoon and wiggles out (as a butterfly or moth?) - but, when he does that the thread isn't one long piece of silk anymore!! It was fascinating learning about it - sorry I can't write it as interesting.

Random pictures of Turkey

2009-01-08T01:32:00.000-08:00

In the background, the rounded seats are the theater - it can't rightly be called an amphitheater because it is only a half circle - where Paul preached. To the left is an olive tree. I have no idea how old - but lets say it's old!! :)

A cool shot of the reconstructed library.

Another interesting angle of a monument to some rich person 2000 years ago. We were commenting that these old, rich people thought to buy themselves glory and yet look, where are they now? But, then, Clarissa reminded us, look they have left something at least - what are we leaving???

Walking down the main road of Ephesus - the two story building is the library. The fields behind the town long ago would have been the water. It was a port-side town, but the river has silted it all in and now the water is 4 miles away. On the left the metal fence is where they are still working to excavate more ruins.

More Whirling Dervishes

2009-01-08T01:20:00.001-08:00

The dancers really think of this dance as spiritual - and just look at the aura they have!!!!

Amazing!!

(Okay, it just happened that way when we took the picture - cool, huh?)

The dancers are dressed in white with a black sash - the lights were colored.

It's not really clear here, but when they dance they hold one palm up to the heavens and the other down to the ground - signifying that they receive from Allah and give to the people.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

2009-01-04T05:34:00.000-08:00

The family Christmas pageant was the smallest it has been for some time - no visitors to Moscow this year :( and because we held the pageant after we returned to Moscow on December 26 we did not invite others. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful experience as always to read once again the story of the Savior's birth together as a family - even a small one.

This year Clarissa was Joseph and Dora was Mary. Dora's costume is a Turkish wedding outfit that Lisa purchased in Istanbul just for this purpose. It works nicely with all the Central Asian costumes.

Clarissa doubled as the angel(s) that came to the (frightened) shepherd(s) abiding in their fields and watching over their flocks by night. The Afghan hat and scarf Kaitlyn gave us this year were perfect for the occasion.

The shepherds visiting the baby.

The story would not be complete without the visit of a beautiful wise(wo)man bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Dora was so excited that she just had to stand up and modeled her costume. She was gorgeous!

Finally - the Dervishes

2009-01-04T04:52:00.000-08:00

The Whirling Dervishes

Our last night in Istanbul, we attended a cultural show. The show included some Sufi (followers of Rumi) who danced the Sema, a dance that is said to help them achieve "oneness" with God as they twirl rhythmically to the music. This a short video we took of the performance. Clapping and flashes were prohibited as being disruptive to the dancers.

Sailing along....

2009-01-03T09:54:00.000-08:00

We are back to sailing on the Bosphorus - just some fun modern houses on the bank.

When we got to the river we started looking around to find someone who could tell us about boat rides - it didn't take long, about one second before a man said "hey, do you want to take a boat ride?" We said 'yes' and he said follow me. We walked back from where we had just come, and then we walked away from the river and we said, "maybe we'll just go find another one". "Oh, no, no, it is just here, 2 minutes, don't worry, they are ready to leave, come, come.... Well, we came, came and sure enough there was a boat with 6 other people on it, we paid and had a great ride. A little excitement at first - but, hey, we're in Turkey!!!

Oh, and here is just a little palace - it stretched another couple inches on each side of this picture.

It was a beautiful - cold - but, sunny Christmas day in Istanbul.

Markets and Markers

2009-01-03T09:32:00.000-08:00

On our walk from the hotel to the 'sights' we passed this one day fresh outdoor market. The set-up was so artistic and colorful - it was amazing!!

There Paul is (center, back) buying some mandarins for us.

Look how creatively he displayed his pumpkins!!! And when we asked for his picture, he wanted Clarissa to join him.

Also, it is kind of hard to tell, but the background on this picture is the wall of the hippodrome - we are talking almost Roman ages here and on top of the wall is a modern government building... it was just amazing to walk past all these ancient landmarks that just become commonplace.

This marker is called 'million'. It marks the center of the world. And there we stood!!!

It was fun to hear our guides talk about all the things that originated in Turkey - turquoise, words, religions, tulips - of course, they were proud of all they developed and probably exxaggerrattedd (I have no idea how to spell it - on one of those consonants there is double) a little bit - but when we read about things - they were right. Turkey was in the center of a lot of things for a long time.

Underground water cistern

2009-01-03T02:46:00.000-08:00

In the underground cistern that was... old... where they stored water and where they have lots of columns - some they even brought from the temple of Diana - and a couple of Medusa columns - which one are you more afraid of???

Hagia Sofia

2009-01-03T02:33:00.000-08:00

It is spelled Hagia Sofia, but in Turkish it is pronounced Aya Sofia. This was built long ago, was destroyed then rebuilt in the 800's or so. It has the largest dome ever - it is also starting to lean.... beautiful building - lots of paintings and tile work. The vase is carved out of one piece of marble... yes, a thousand years ago or so.

More on Turkey - Now we start on Istanbul

2009-01-02T22:18:00.000-08:00

My last attempt at blogging was my first ever and I wasn't so pleased with it. This second try hasn't started out quite right yet, either, and so I hope my third attempt is better or there won't be a fourth!!! :)

On Wednesday, the 24th we were in Istanbul. It was freezing!!! But, we had sights to see and we were tourists - what matters sleet or rain or freezing hands - on to the sights!!

This is Paul and Clarissa standing outside of the Blue Mosque with the Aya Sofia in the background

Inside the Blue Mosque. The pictures don't really do it justice. It has several, like 6 or more huge domes and they are all painted and/or tiled and it is really quite beautiful and peaceful. We all had to take off our shoes and carry them thru the building with us. The carpets are soft...

Not far from our hotel is an old hippodrome - or a big stadium where they would have held races and whatever else they wanted. In the middle of the track (think Ben Hur) they had these tall pillars - this one used to be snakes wrapped around each other - they are a thousand or so years old. The ground level is about 8 feet below us - it has built up that much throughout the years.

Looking carefully you can see the snake pillar and the tall one is an egyptian obelisk that was brought here looooooong ago. I could make up a date.... it is from the 8th century!!

The Bosphorous and folk show

2009-01-01T23:40:00.000-08:00

Sailing the Bosphorous - which means 'cow crossing' - the legend goes that Hera, the wife of Zeus didn't like one of Zeus' mistresses (I am not sure if she liked the others or what..) and so she changed her into a cow and then afflicted her with gnats. To escape the gnats the 'cow' swam across the water.... hence the name. Anyway, sailing the Bosphorous on Christmas day. This huge fortress below is on the narrowest part of the water and guarded the way. Across from it on the other side is the other part of the fortress.

We attended a great folk dance show - two of the many dances performed.

Turkey - Day Three - Cappaddocia

2009-01-01T00:50:00.001-08:00

Late on Monday, we flew from Izmir to Cappadocia. We arrived at 11:30 pm and then had a one hour drive to the small town, Urgup, where our hotel was located. Cappaddoccia is famous for its landscape and for it cave houses and underground cities. We reserved a "cave room" so we could get the feel from the beginning.

Our Cappaddoccia visit included 1) a hike through the Red Valley; 2) a visit to an abandoned cave village; and 3) a visit to an underground city.

Here is a view of our room in the cave hotel.

Clari poses in the "cave" bathroom. There were sand grains on the floor that had fallen from the ceiling.

The hike up the Red Valley was wonderful. The valley was filled with grape vines and fruit trees (see the small orchard behind us in the picture). In the hills on all sides were rooms cut into the mountains. You can see holes on mountains behind us. These were mainly "pigeon houses". The inhabitants used pigeon dung to fertilize their fields and used the eggs for eating and egg whites as mortar.

Clarissa and Lisa in the first cave room we saw. There were also churches carved into the sides of the mountains.

Lisa and Clarissa showing the pigeon houses.

High above the Red Valley we had a wonderful view of the Cappaddoccian landscape. Awesome!

A view of the abandoned homes in the cave village.

Erosion has created some very unique rock formations.

They told us that we should be careful around the rock formations but Clari and Lisa just had to try and push the rocks off their pedestals.

In the four story underground city. There was a communal kitchen, sleeping rooms, storage rooms, a winery, a church and security and air circulation systems. All of these were connected with by a maze of corridors . . .

Some of which were quite small.

This is a place known as pigeon valley because of all the pigeon houses carved into the hills.

Our last stop! An ancient fortress built into the rock - it is called "The Camel".

After a busy day in Cappaddocia we drove back to the airport and flew to Istanbul where our fourth day adventures began.

Turkey or Cat- man-du??? (this name was dad's idea)

2008-12-31T06:17:00.000-08:00

hey everyone this is Clarissa (the previous posts were made by dad). By the way Turkey was AWESOME! I love the culture there and the food! the apple tea is delicious and the people are so friendly even when they are not trying to sell you something... =]

ok, one thing to know about Turkey, there are cats... EVERYWHERE! its crazy (as you will see at the end of this post) they are really all over the place, just stray cats, so i decided to get pictures of them throughout our trip. so this post is completely dedicated to the cats all over Turkey (with some extra info on the side). =]

Exhibit A: (above) a cat crawling over the ruins of ancient Ephesus.

This is one cat we saw in Cappadocia. This is actually in the underground city.

(did you know that part of star wars was actually filmed in Cappadocia, i wanted to go see the actual place it was filmed but we didn't have enough time =[ The part that was filmed there was the pd racing scene in the first movie and throughout Cappadocia you could really see where their inspiration for the planet tatooine came from)

Even though you can't really tell this cat is sitting in the Hagia Sophia (a beautiful mosque in Istanbul).

this was the last and probably weirdest of our cat experiences... this guy was just walking around the turkish market place like this... with the cat sitting calmly on his head the whole time! I just had to get a picture of it! (dad says its the cat in the hat) =]

Turkish Memories - Day Two

2008-12-30T12:29:00.000-08:00

On Sunday evening, we traveled to the town of Selchuk near the site of ancient Ephesus. Our day two highlights were visits to: 1) the site of the temple of Artemis (Diana), one of the seven wonders of the ancient world; 2) the ruins of ancient Ephesus; and 3) the home where some traditions say Mary, the mother of the Lord, lived during the last years of her life.

The site of the temple of Artemis. The columns were carried off and used elsewhere.

The upper gate entrance to the city of Ephesus.

The circles behind Clari are clay water pipes (2500 years old)

Another view of the clay pipes running through the ground for waste and fresh water.

This is the ancient "audion" where speeches were given.

We are sitting on the top row with the lower part of the city in the background.

As you can see, the city is located in a valley between fairly steep hills on both sides.

It sloped down to a port in the lower end of the city. The port was silted in more than 1500 years ago and the Aegean is now several kilometers away.

Another view of the audion. Seating capacity was about 10,000.

The road leading from the upper city to the lower city.

Clari and Lisa with a statue of Nike.

A fountain or statue used to stand here.

The ancient system of public toilets. Water ran underneath to carry waste away.

Clean water ran in the groove in front of Lisa's feet so that users could clean up when they were finished.

The ancient library in Ephesus.

The theater where the silversmiths gathered to stir up the people against Paul (see Acts 19).

Things were a little calmer during our visit. Clarissa went up as far as permitted and could still hear us talking in normal voices. In this venue plays were performed and gladiators fought.

Exiting the city from the lower part. This road used to lead to the harbor.

Beyond the trees on the right are the ruins of a Roman bath where all who arrived were required to bath before entering the city.

The house where tradition has it Mary spent her last days. It is fairly certain that John brought her to Ephesus five years after the crucifixion and that she spent her final days here. This house is high in the mountains outside of Ephesus and was not identified as Mary's until several hundred years after her death.

Turkish Memories - Day One

2008-12-30T12:04:00.000-08:00

This is our first attempt to blog and this represents the fourth time we have written the post only to lose it when the photos were added. Let's hope this works.

This and the following posts share some of the adventures and knowledge we gained as a family during a recent visit to Turkey.

On Sunday, December 21, we attended church at the branch in Izmir. There were about 20 people present - less than 10 members. It was an interesting experience to address people who have no Christian tradition on the Sunday before Christmas. It helped remind us of the true focus of the season. It was also ironic to attend church in a city where a branch existed nearly two millenia ago. Anciently, Izmir was known as Smyrna. There is ample evidence that Paul and John taught and served there. John's Revelation was addressed to the seven churches in Asia and included Smyrna (Revelation 1:11).

Our walk to church took us through the park