Swimmers

This picture must have been taken around 1945. My sisters, cousins, friends and I are all decked out in our great looking swimsuits, on grandpa's beach, as we prepare to head for the bay. Two of the little girls were the children of one of my dad's good friends and fellow shipmate.

Christmas Kids

Christmas morning at my house.

Morning mountain

This is what Mt. Rainier looked like early this morning from high on the hill above the harbor. From where I sat, all I saw was thick, thick, thick fog and with the temperature in the 20's, I nearly skated to my death as I walked across the street to my neighbors for a quick cup of coffee. Little did I know there was such beauty just a few feet above my head.

Merry Christmas

Home at last

Finally, sis has her own pad....... a basement of a home....the sink is for washing hands/teeth, etc. First door is her shower, outside kitchen is beyond and the door to her apartment is the door with glass at the back. Course we all know where the hole in the ground is :o)

Well, what a difference a year makes!! Who would have thought last year as I gathered with my family on a snowy day in Tacoma that this year I'd be 1/2 a world away with a totally different "family". Yes, how quickly your fellow volunteers become your family. I very much miss those at home, but know that they will have a great time without my creamed onions!! I just hope the Christmas box makes it there either for Christmas or in general!! It cost 79 manats ($100) to send and over 1 1/2 hours at the post office (gotta love the post soviet bureaucracy!!). I had put everything in a nice box (actually the box my water filter came in) and when I got to the post office, I either had to re-box it in the "official AZ postal box" or wrap my box in white fabric..yes FABRIC!! Well, since fabric isn't a word I know yet, that left only one alternative...their box. A very tight, bulging fit and lots of interest from those around me as to what was going into the box....it's all a team effort here!! And we are just so strange...Anyway, enough of the mail system. It is enroute to the US and may make it one day!! I'm now settled in a lovely town high in the Caucuses called Zagatala. It's a really great place, could remind me of Whitefish, Montana.... I went south to my assigned town but had a terrible asthma attack (don't know yet what caused it...) so said "I quit". I panicked... couldn't breath, couldn't communicate, just couldn't see myself staying there for the rest of my life which I determined would be very short if I stayed. So the Peace Corps got me back to Baku, I saw the dr. and we decided to try a different location. I'm still having a problem with all the wood smoke but I'll keep trying each day to make it work. I have a great little basement "apartment" in a home. It has hot water registers so no additional wood or gas burning in the house. My things will come up from Baku (8 hour bus ride) on Monday. I've been wearing the same things for 10 days. Good thing I have hot water which is such a treat so I can hand wash things. Cold water is so hard on my delicate hands!! Every morning I get to say hi to the chickens in their pen as I dash out to the toilet in the back corner of the yard. I've learned to take those holes in the ground with ease...actually, not bad at all if they are clean. And things just move so much better...plus I have the thighs of a 20-year old now...Wish the rest of the body was so strong!! tee hee hee. I've started "work" at the bank. I will do a lot of English conversation and business english. A few have taken English but are reluctant to use it. This certainly won't help my Azerbaijani since I'll be speaking in English all the time, but what the heck...I'll keep trying. Today, Christmas Eve, I'm going to a neighboring town (1 1/2 hours away) to join many other volunteers in celebrating Christmas. There will be about 30 of us coming from all corners of the country. I'll sleep on the floor in a friends house (thank you again Aran/Stacy for the sleeping bag!!). There isn't any snow on the ground yet in the towns, but the mountains are beautiful.

Growing up

School is out for 2 weeks so Bergen and I finally got to spend some quality time together yesterday. She will be 6 in less than a month and I am amazed at how grown up she has become since starting school. We made cookies which was great because her great aunty Pat and uncle Ted stopped by for a bit and we had tasty treats to serve. She has met my younger sister, but didn't know I had another who lives way up north in Port Townsend.
We cleaned out all the little crystal containers on the windowsill above the sink and found a gazillion little packages of extra Christmas tree lights. We opened them all and put them together in just one container. I doubt I will ever use even one because I seem to have to replace the whole string each year. I think congress needs to investigate :o) Better that than the ridiculous health insurance mess they are working on.

Christmas Sweaters

I have two Christmas sweaters. One for dressier occasions and one for more casual. This morning I read a column stating that anyone who has one should make this the season of joy by giving them to the garbage man !!! I used to think that way, but as I get older, I enjoy seeing folks dressed in their brightly colored tops. I bought both of these at year end sales and heck, who knows, I just might check the racks after Christmas and see if I can find another. I do know there are some really great buys at Value Village and the Goodwill :o)

Flute friends.

We had a fun afternoon at one of the retirment homes in Tacoma today.

The father of the gal on the right lives there and her mom lives in another one down the road where she doesn't need as much care. She is still able to drive so she visits him each day.

I think they enjoyed our music and I could really hear them singing out when we played our last song and my favorite Chistmas carol, Silent Night. I am so thankful that mom got us kids started playing an instrument because I know we certainly brightened up some lives today.

Global Warming Lesson

Have a listen to astrophysicist Dr. Willie Soon and climatologist Dr. David Legates as they separate out elements that leave us with a totally different understanding of how, why and what things are occurring in our climate. Long live CO-2 .

Smoke on the water

The cold just keeps on keepin on and we've been greeted each morning with the most beautiful 'smoke' curling up from the bay. There are lots of frozen pipes and plumbers are going to be very happy once things start warming up. Kind of their Christmas bonus from mother nature.

Oh, and Happy Hannakuh to our jewish friends. I got a kick out of an article in the Seattle paper. One Seattle family will be lighting the menorah together with their family in Philadelphia ,thanks to skype. And to think that as a kid, I dreamed of having a radio that would fit on my wrist like a watch so I could listen to soaps in school.

Happy Birthday Sis

Well, today is my baby sister's 63rd birthday and today she will move to the town where she will be working.

It is inland from the Caspian Sea and is a city called Salyan. It's about 4 hours south of Baku and 3 hours north of Lankaran. It is in the bend of the river Kur which travels from Armenia to the Caspian Sea. She'll be working with Access bank which is a micro finance bank. Her assignment will be organizing corporate social responsibility projects (i.e. opportunities for the branch to support community development activities) She'll also provide basic business and computer training to staff (customer service, sales, marketing,etc.) assist with english language skills through daily contact and conversation clubs and classes, assist the head office in Baku with various assignments including edits to English language documents (press releases and marketing materials) as well as share information on US business practices. This will be a very exciting opportunity to help others improve their skills and grow their future. The city of Salyan is the center of a very large agricultural area. They grow cotton, wheat, melons, vegies, etc. There is a 54373.5 hectre national park in the area.

Candy canes

Ingrid helped me finish trimming the tree yesterday. I had hung most of the ornaments, but saved a few, plus the candy canes, just for her. She will be 3 in three months and it took me back to when I was her age and the times we kids spent with grandma Dawn. My favorite memory is when my older sis and my two cousins and I ..all girls, would sit in her living room, each in what seemed an enormous chair at the time, and she would ask us about our babies. She talked to us as if we were as old as she and it was as if we truly had our own little ones.

She died not long after my third birthday, but those memories are ever so clear still.

I hope my little ones will take with them a few special memories that last them a lifetime.

Mindstorms NXT 2.0

My goodness....a toy for 10 year olds....what a change from the toys a 10 year old had when I was a kid and only 269.95 !!!

Take LEGO to the next level with MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0. Combining the versatility of the LEGO building system with a microcomputer brick and intuitive programming software, this building kit enables you to construct robots that see, speak, feel, and move. Designed for ages 10 and up, the 2.0 robotics tool set features everything you need to create and program your first robot in approximately one hour. After that, you can create an endless lineup of robots that do what you want--if you can dream it, you can build it.

Concert

Our December 19th concert is quickly approaching and we are all doing our best to practice, practice, practice and get the many other things done that need doing this busy time of year.

My sister, Pat, is going to be playing with us this concert. She plays violin and viola , lives in Port Townsend and has played in the Port Angeles Symphony for many years, but took this year off. She will be playing her viola and it's kinda fun being the other sister group, as there are also 2 sisters who play violin and french horn . If I were to listen to either combination, I think flute and viola might be a tad bit more pleasing than french horn and violin.

Visit our website and you'll see what we will be playing. I know you're gonna love it :o)