Experiencing the Hamam

Sara has been anxious to take me to a Turkish Hamam. A Hamam is similar to the old Roman public baths.  She was able to convince My Man, Grandad and even her husband, Ross, to try the Hamam for the first time.

Here are the men as we parted ways to go to the women's side.  As they exited after their experience, My Man said that he had just deepend his relationship with his BIL for sure.

First we enter to be greeted with a strong check to check kiss then huge, tight embrace by the worker that knows my SIL.  She is so happy we have come and she is ready to give us a great experience.  We are given a locker room where we change into our swim suits.  Then we are led to a steam room heated with hot rocks.  Next room is the sauna with eucalyptus oil to open up our pores and make us sweat like pigs.

Then comes the part that would separate from the girls from the women.  You must realize that Sara and I go way back.  We spent our junior high years changing into our PE uniforms in the locker room together.  That was when we hid in the corner and were able to change our undergarments under our PE shirt without showing any skin.  Fast forward 22+ years and 11 babies birthed later and let's just say our modesty level has changed.

In the next stage you rinse your body off using marble basins filled with warm water.  Then you are led by robust Turkish women dressed in black undergarments (yes, that is their uniform) to a marble table that is heated in a large room filled with other bathers.  You must strip down to only your bottoms and receive an exfoliation using a hand mit of sandpaper (at least that is what it felt like).  Then you go for another rinse in the basin to remove all dead skin cells.  Return to the marble slab to be lathered up to a gigantic mound of bubbles and receive a massage, complete with hair shampoo.  Last a giant bowl of cold water is dumped on your head to rinse you thoroughly and shock your immune system.  Let's just say it was effective.  My immune system was shocked.

Rinse off, dry off and get dressed as you sip your tall glass of fresh squeezed orange juice.  All for $10 a person.

If you can keep your eyes from glancing around the room in shock at the large, Turkish women being bathed and forget that you are being exposed, then it was a relaxing experience with the end result of your skin feeling baby soft, not to mention a great cultural experience.  The Turkish ladies were so sweet and kind, telling us they love us like sisters and we are dear to their hearts.  We were treated like royalty and they were so happy to serve us.

A time with my SIL I will never forget.  I think it was unforgettable for the men as well.  They've kept kind of quiet about it.  As they said, "It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

Breakfast Day 1

Long Awaited Cousin Time

International luggage for 10 people - not for the faint hearted

Sara and I walked to the local bakery to pick up homemade bread with fillings of olives, spiced potatoes, feta, and swiss.  She made quite a breakfast spread of fruit, bread, cheeses,

Helva, which my kids call chalky bread, but is actually a hazelnut loaf eaten for breakfast, and an array of jellies, Nutella and Meditteranean olives.  Fish Sticks learned that olives have seeds.  Campbell Cousins learned that olives can be pitted.

Beautiful table spread.

The Never Ending Flight

The kids were so excited to board the plane and head to Turkey.  This would be Liddy's first airplane trip ever.  She was so fun to sit by on our 2 hour flight to NYC.  She squealed about everything.  She kept peaking at the lady and her daughter sitting behind us through the crack in the seat.   "Mom, that lady has her eyes closed."  "Well Sweatie, I think she must be resting."  Every 15 minutes Lydia was checking on her through the crack.  "Mom, she's still resting."  She giggled in the airport to have automatic foam soap squirt on her hand, but screamed bloody murder when she slid her hands downward into the automatic hand dryer and it blasted air on her.

Divide and conquer was the name of the game.  Worked great.

The big kids kept asking to use my camera to take photos out their window.

Our flight brought many random comments from the kids.  Early onset of jetlag, I believe.  R:  Why are there more brownish people than whitish people?  L:  Did you know that hip hop rhymes?  My friend has bad breath all the time.  I can't read all my letters yet.

What a wonderful surprise to be serenaded by a caroling group of security guards at the Nashville airport just before boarding!  I doubt we'll find that at JFK in NYC.

5 hour layover in NYC, then 9.5 hour flight to Istanbul.

Kids did great.  We slept what we could, which is not easy, but Turkish Airlines provides touch screens on every seat with games, movies, tv and shows.  Perfect! 
Despicable Me and Madagasscar 3 - my best friends!

Arriving in Turkey we were met with high winds and lots of snow.  Caused a several hour delay.
Cucumbers, tomatoes and feta for breakfast was a dead giveaway that we had arrived in Turkey. 
Ruth was in vegetable heaven.

Short 40 minute flight to Ankara and you don't understand how happy we were to see the Campbell cousins with the bus they rented to haul us home!!

Energy levels kicked back up as Fish Sticks reunited with Campbell Cousins.  You would have never known they were so sleep deprived!

Off to bed to sleep A VERY LONG TIME!!

Christmas Away From Home

 This Christmas will be very special.  We've been married 17 years and when I was expecting our first baby, we flew half way around the world to spend Christmas with my sister-in-law and her husband, serving as missionaries in Singapore.  We haven't been away from home on Christmas since.  My SIL and family have been serving the Lord in Turkey for 10 years now.  We have never been to see them.  This year since when we don't have any nappers, no one in diapers, no nursing infants and before our little fellas come home we are heading across the globe to see the cousins in Turkey.  G and G are coming too.  10 people.  24 hours in flight.  10 days.  We can't wait!  It will be a Christmas we will NEVER forget.

Being on a plane with my Fish Sticks is a bit scary.  We've done the transcontinental flight with little ones before and it's no walk in the park.  We flew to WA to see my sister when we had 5 Fish Sticks with 1 on the way.  2 ear infections and over emotional daughters and it wasn't a great experience either.  So when we travel 3 hours in the car to see family in Memphis and my Fish Sticks ask 10 times a piece "How much longer?" and "Are we there yet?" you might understand why this flight thing is causing me a bit of anxiety. 

And as for the Fish Farm....we tried real hard to find a family to use our house as their vacation spot for the holidays in exchange for feeding our pets here.  It was hard to do.  Just when all our efforts seemed for naught, through word of mouth a missionary family in South Africa called to say that our offer was their answer to prayer.  They had not only asked the Lord to provide a house for their family of 7 to stay during their furlough vacation home, but they had specifically mentioned that they would love to stay in our neck of the woods.  God is so sweet to us and cares for all the small things too.

So this holiday season, we did not put up the tree.  We did not string the lights and get out the boxes upon boxes of decorations.  Decorating took us about 30 minutes, complete with the traditional Andy Williams "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," egg nog and popcorn.  It was simple.  And it was good.

Nativity sets, a few strands of lights and our Jesse Tree with devotions are all we need this year to prepare for the celebration of the birth of our Savior.  Simplicity is sweet.  And Christmas with family exploring the locations of the early first century church will be even sweeter....jet lag and all.  :)

Hound Dog Miracle

 It's been about 2 years when I was posted frequently about our hard-to-train and not-so-bright rescued hound, Autumn.  Chewed up base molding.  Ripped up carpet.  Doll house family members now with missing limbs.  Barking excessively at neighbors.  Chasing scents way off in the woods.  Ignoring commands.  I could go on and on but thankfully those days are far removed from us.  She's not the faithful lab that we loved dearly for over a decade who is now in doggie heaven, but she's a decent member of the family.  Still has those quirks that make us growl occasionally, but don't we all have some of those?

Autumn sure is perty (intentional misspelling), but she doesn't always have her marbles in a row.  Despite her lack of intellect, she has an new-found ability that should really make our family millions. 

She can lay eggs.

Now I know that sounds unbelievable, but just give me a second to tell you about how we discovered this supernatural trait in our canine.

My man was putting her in her cage where she sleeps at night and noticed that her blankie was wadded up in the corner.  He reached in to straighten it out for her and lo and behold, there were 2 brown eggs tucked neatly inside of the wadded blanket.  He came to tell me and I thought he was pulling my leg.  He is notorious for trying to make me believe outlandish lies that he has conjured up and I would not be the fool this time.  I laughed and told him "Good one" and went about finishing up the supper dishes.  He was emphatic that this was not one of his pranks.

All Fish Sticks were questioned at breakfast the following day, "Who put the 2 eggs in Autumn's cage?"  No one knew what we were talking about.  So either our unintelligent mutt hound discovered 2 eggs laid by our ducks (our chickens are well-caged in) near the pond, very carefully brought them in her mouth without cracking them and put them in her cage unnoticed, carefully covering them up to keep them warm......OR.....our dumb dog (whom we love very much) lays eggs.  You decide.  We are pretty convinced that the latter is just as believable as the first.

It's a Fish Farm miracle! 

Bitter Sweet Closure

This past Friday was a bitter sweet afternoon for us.

Leah takes speech therapy and has for the last 2 years.  Our good friends from church (the mom of the family) offer therapy out of their home.  Our 11 kids play (minus Leah) while Leah has therapy.  It's been a great thing for us because it's like having a built-in play date that the kids can count on each Friday.  Aside from the drive being 30 minutes away, it's been a really nice set up.  We love this family and I wouldn't want anyone else helping my little girl master her "R" sounds more than Mrs. Heidi.

This past Friday was our last.  Leah has graduated and the only speech therapy that remains is the reinforcements at home.  It was a bitter sweet day.  We are so proud of Leah for working hard these 2 years and mastering all her many sounds and blends that she struggled with.  We are thankful for an awesome speech teacher who makes things fun.  Half the time, Leah didn't realize she was in therapy.  She just thought she was playing games.

Mrs. Heidi celebrated with a doughnut party for all of us.  What a treat!!  I wish I had taken a few photos to commemorate the occasion, but I didn't think about it.  We ended the celebration by wrestling on their family room floor - Fish Sticks against Garner kids - boys and girls alike.  It was pretty funny.  There's not many families out there that we would challenge wrestling matches with after being the recipient of a doughnut celebration.

It was good fun.

Crazy Cousins

 Before Aunt Rachel headed north to visit Aunt Katie for a couple days and then west to see Uncle Justin, we got a couple more cousin poses.

 Sister poses too

Mandy (my wonderful sis in law), Rachel (my younger sis) and Katie (my older sis)

 My little brother is a football coach at our alma mater in Memphis where we grew up.  Although my brother didn't go to school there, my big sis, My Man, my SIL and her husband, my brother's wife and myself all graduated from there.  So when our high school made it to the play offs in Cookeville, there was a big caravan of family alumni going.

I volunteered to babysit for my SIL and sister so they could enjoy the game without 4 little ones.

My folks

 I sent My Man with firstborn.  My Man was a super duper football player and held some records at our school for years.  It was up until just recently you could see his name written on the wall in the ECS hall of fame.  He's a legend so it's only proper that he attend too to see his old coaches.  One coach even remembers his number, 22.  (My Man is not going to be happy about this part - being the humble guy he is -  and might make me edit it so read fast or it might be gone.)

The crew

Aunt Cassie with Reese

 So meanwhile, we were having crazy fun with 9 kids.

 We had a great time with Mimi's old wigs.  (Check out my 3 year old - who's child is this????)

 And this has got to be my all time favorite photo of the night. 

 I might be inclined to frame this one to make me laugh.

It will definitely make it for her wedding day slide show.

 She's really not embarrassed.  She just pretends to be for Aunt Cassie.  Just wait....

 Now there's her pose.  Isn't she a doll?

 And since Reese is lacking hair, we thought we would text her mom a photo of just what she might look like with a head full of curls.

 And this is what I did to the kids when I just needed some peace and quiet!! 

Not really - they are self-incarcerated....I promise.

Wrestling the Aunt

 I know it sounds silly, but I really wanted Caleb to wrestle my sister.  I guess because I know the last time he wrestled me, I said it would be the last.  He was rough and it wasn't fun.  I know my little sis looks like a million bucks but she's a tough cookie.  I loved watching her knock her opponents around in soccer when she played in high school and college.  I was always glad our age gap prevented me from playing against her because she just plain tough.

But she's like me - doesn't know a clue about wrestling, the rules, the moves, nothing.  We just grew up wrestling my dad on the carpet.

 It was hard for me to take decent photos because I was laughing so hard, the camera wouldn't hold still.  Rachel's face would come up for air as she crossed her eyes, stuck out her tongue and screamed, "Ouch!  What are you doing, Caleb?"  I could feel her pain and couldn't stop laughing.

 This little guy was cracking me up because he didn't know what to think of his cousin Caleb whooping up on his tough Mama.  He kept looking very concerned and quietly saying "Mama" in between her screams.  Caleb better watch out because I have a feeling one day, he'll run fast to rescue his Mama.

I'm not sure who won.  It really didn't matter because it was pure entertainment for me.  Knowing my sister, she'll be better prepared next time she's challenged.

Making a Little Bit of Noise

The music instrument basket is always a hit at our house!

 If you have kept up with this blog for any small amount of time, you probably are well aware that our house is rarely quiet.  It can be wonderful sounds of squeals of delight, laughter, and cheers or it may be over-emotional tears, arguing, or just plain loud playing.  I'm sure this atmosphere is a shock to those who have no children or even to those who just have 1 or 2.  When either set our little cousins of 2 come to play, their initial reaction to our noise is a bit overwhelming.  Funny how quickly that wears off and they are just another warm body to magnify sound in our house!

My flexible daughter

And who doesn't enjoy tight leotards over pajamas?

I'm so glad that we have my square dance petticoat from 1980 and Mimi Blair's curly wig in our dress up box.  Boys and girls alike love them both.

Lydia's dress up look is the layered look.  She tries her best to fit 3 leotards and 2 tutus over her already complete everyday outfit.  It's all cute until she has to go potty really bad!

 And just so you know, cartwheels are the new craze in the Fish House.  If I had a dollar for every time a flying foot has kicked me in the booty as I walk by....  I have 2 Fish Sticks who just can't stop.  It doesn't matter how many people there are around, how crowded the room is with furniture, or how appropriate it would be, the cartwheels and round-offs are flying....so watch out!

 They actually are quite good at them to, but don't tell them I said so.