Monday, November 30, 2009

Grad School and Thanksgiving!

Well,
    We have had a fun start to fall/winter here...  Norris has been accepted to Grad School at Creighton University in Omaha Nebraska!  We are super excited!!!!!  He will begin it right after Christmas and graduate summer 2011!  Now the program has a very long title that I never seem to get correct but it is something he is going to be very good at!  It has to do with stopping conflict between different people and international relations!  He is super excited about it and so am I.

We had a great Holiday weekend.  We had our 3rd Thanksgiving this weekend and filled our stomachs once again!  We were invited to a celebrate with some other Americans and the food was wonderful!  They have been here for a while and they had some wonderful Egyptian spins on Thanksgiving Dinner!  One thing they did that I can't wait to get the recipe for was rice for the stuffing!  IT WAS WONDERFUL!!!!!  I had never had brown rice stuffing before but I never want to go back to normal stuffing again!  It was sooooo good!  We also had some eggplant dishes that were phenomenal and of course wonderful conversations!

It is great to have conversations with people from all over the world!  It is fun to hear different perspectives on things!  Having never left the US until a year ago I have a lot to learn about the world!  It has been fun traveling it and picking up different traditions from other people!  I hope these are traditions that we will continue to carry with us for the rest of our lives!
Two days after Thanksgiving Norris and I decided to throw a party!  We love throwing parties!  We had some friends over that did not travel for the EID.  We made some Fo-Mexican and played some games!  We learned this new game called QUELF!  If you have not played it you must buy it!  It is sooooo random and stupid and hilarious and fun!  There was one point that Norris had to build a fort and hide in it until his next turn.  Right after that I had to hide under the table and be a cat and there was singing and dancing and all sorts of craziness!!!!  It is like the "office" with the amount of randomness that it has!!!!  But when you are playing with fun people then it doesn't matter how silly you look!!!!!!

I give Thanks to the Big Man all the time for allowing us to come back!  We are so grateful that we can grow in friendships with our friends at AIS and HCC!!  They are so wonderful and they make us feel so welcome!  I can't imagine how different our lives will be because we have spent time here!  We will forever be changed for good.........    

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Thanksgiving

Well this year we are going to get to have three Thanksgivings!  It is so much fun to eat tons of Thanksgiving food in a place that we never really thought we could!  It is great to hangout with so many different people and enjoy good dessert!!!!!!  I think that is the best part, the apple pie and pumpkin pie all with Ice Cream and whipped cream!!!! YUMMMMM......
Well I thought I would make a quick list of some of the different things I am thankful for this Year:

 GOD
 A great Husband
 Wonderful Friends
 Great New Friends
 Good Jobs
 Great Family
 Great In Laws
 Wonderful Country to live in
 Opportunity to travel the world
 Fun times playing and singing with my husband
 Wonderful Friday Mornings

These are just some of the things that have come to my head!  It is great to be reminded of all the things that happen during the year and throughout your life!  Try it.......

Sunday, November 8, 2009

An evening with the Hams!

So I just thought that I would like to share what an evening looks like through the eyes of the Hams!  We do not get to see many of you often so we do not get to share with you the rituals we have begun since our marriage over 4 years ago!  WOW I can't believe it has been 4 years!!!!
Well we have really gotten into running lately!  I guess for the past year and a half we have run almost every night after a day of teaching!  After we get home we sit down and decided what we would like to eat.....veggies with rice or veggies with noodles!!!!!  Then when we finally decided which one we want more Norris measures out the water and I begin cutting the veggies!  I have found that over the last 3 years I have grown to LOVE the evening dinner meals with Norris!  It is so great that he is so willing to help me!  We have about 30-40 minutes with no interruptions (except for cuts on the hands and boiling over noodles!!!!!!!!!)  It is great to just have time to really talk with each other, because if you have ever eaten with Norris you know there will not be much talking once he gets the food!!!!  I LOVE IT!  Well after we finish cooking we decide which movie we are going to watch!  usually we just have it on as background noise because we usually need to veg. out after the long day with the students!  I never knew how exhausting teaching could be!!!  Then after we have talked for a while we either head out for a walk or we curl up in bed  say our prayers and are out for the night!!!  I have to say I love these little traditions we have made with with each other!  It is soooo wonderful to be connected to someone in such a real and personal way!

I was thinking the other day that we should have a Husband appreciation day!!  You know just to say thank you for them trying to read our minds but failing because we never just tell them!  Buying chocolate for us and then us getting mad at them for doing something so sweet but we are trying to be on a diet!!!!  Having them buy flowers for us but having no vase to put it in!  Dealing with us when we cry for just NO REASON!!!  Dealing with us when we just want to be petty and depressed!!!!!!!!!!!  Yes I do think we need to have a husband appreciation day!  They are just the best!!!  I LOVE YOU NORRIS!!!!!!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

October through words!

Well it was quite a busy month this month.  Having a full time teaching job has been crazy!  Trying to clean the apartment with all the nasty dust has been a full time job of it's own!!!
       Well things I have tried to accomplish this month:
                1. clean the apartment more often
                2. cook more meals for dinner
                3. talk with friends from back home
                4. keep up with plans for my students
Well they have not been the largest goals but it has been fun to try these things!  I did ok with number 3 talking to my friends!!!!!!!!  The cleaning has definitely taken last place!!!!!!  Oh well there is always another day another week to do that better!!!  I have enjoyed trying out new recipes some times!!  I tried to make dirt cake a week ago and it was disastrous!!!  I forgot that I did not have instant pudding and the only type of pudding they had was strawberry......it was quite interesting!  Also we do not have cool whip we have to use whipping cream and whip it ourselves!!!!  It is really good though but the dessert as a whole was not quite a success!!!  Oh well we can try it again a different day!!!
We had a great time celebrating Norris's birthday and then we went to a night at the ballet!  It was the most interesting ballet ever!!  I felt bad for the Juliet!  She was almost dropped 3 times by Romeo!  We thought there might be an early death scene but they did make it to the end!  Our favorite people to watch on the stage were the ones in the back that never danced!!!!!  They just stood there and waved their arms about!  I thought Norris was going to loose it in the middle of the show!  There was a visiting lady from England, and I am not sure she has been here for too long!  She had been here long enough to be frustrated but not accustomed to the culture and the talking and cell phone use that happens here!  In the middle of the second act she turned around and LOST it on a row of young people!  They still did not stop talking but I think it made the lady feel better!  As we say here..."It is always an adventure"  "Why ask why"!!!!!!!  

October through pictures!

Norris's 27th Birthday!The Ballet "Romeo and Juliet"Canadian Thanksgiving!