Who gave me the sickenss in May???

I know you must be wondering what normal everyday things we have been up to

 

Let's catch up shall we?

 

I started feeling a little sick on Friday and just bad enough that I laid around all weekend.

Until I woke up with the monster eye issue today

What the heck?
If hadn't felt terrible anyway I would have called in because I looked crazy...
A trip to the clinic, good medicine, great cough syrup and the eye is slowly getting back to normal.

 

We did venture out to a sweet friends graduation party Sat. night. 

We got to know Kelsey while she was a youth intern at our church.  Before long we had her at our house as much as we could.  She was more like family to my girls.  She invested in them, mentored them and gave them an occasional lecture on their teenage behavior before she finished college and left us this weekend.

Her parents were so sweet to ask us to her dinner and are so precious.  They thanked us for taking care of her and I reminded them how sweet she is how she took care of us some too.  I pray my girls continue to have relationships with older Christian girls who can model what college years should look like. 
Thank you Kelsey for loving my girls!

I have spent a little too much time on Pinterest
Ask Jennifer, I've sent her a few that reminded me of her

Saturday I did something I rarely do.  I watched a movie.  The whole thing and no one made me.
I had been meaning to go see Argo when it was in theaters and never did.

 I watched it Sat. and cannot quit thinking about it.  It was a really good movie. 
I made the family watch it later that day.

The girls were not really excited about it but I think they liked it a little.  It made Katie nervous...

Argo is: 
Based on real events, the dramatic thriller “Argo” chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis, focusing on the little-known role that the CIA and Hollywood played—information that was not declassified until many years after the event.

 

See, I lived in Iran in 1979 and left just a couple of weeks before the hostages were taken.  My dad left just days before. 

I was 14 and not old enough to be scared enough.  I remember vividly how upset and scared my mother was and I thought it was quite an adventure.

After the movie, now I'm scared.  I realize we were really lucky to get out when we did and how fast things got bad.

They were bad when we were there but escalated everyday.  I really wish I still had my dad to talk to about it... I don't remember us ever really discussing it after the fact.

Before we left we hadn't been to school in weeks. 

Now, as a kid I liked the not having school work but we weren't allowed to go out and I was bored to death! 
Now that I've started thinking about that time again I found that the American school has a group page on FB and one of the guys who graduated in '79 wrote a book about it I'm now going to need to read.
You should watch it.  Then be glad I got to come home.  I am.

Today I have watched more tornado coverage than is healthy I'm sure... and in between that I've watched enough House Hunters International to plan my retirement and enough Dateline to help you out if you ever need help with a crime.

Hope you aren't sick in May

 



 

What do you mean that was thrity years ago?

Today, I looked at CNN.com while at work.  The headline was about the Iran Hostage Crisis being 30 years ago.  I added the link for you people that are still young and don't know about it...
It can't be that many years.  It wasn't that long ago.  That would make me....yep, I guess thats right, it was 3o years ago.  Darn it.
Thirty years ago, minus a few weeks I was still living in Iran with my parents.  My dads job was classified so I don't know exactly know what he did, if he told us he would have had to kill us.
He did work on a Iranian military base which turned out to not be a safe place.  Our landlord was an Iranian general, which also turned our home into an unsafe place to be...The American school was closed because of all the danger.  The city was under martial law so you could only go out at certain hours.  They turned off the elec in the city at night.  I really don't know why the electricty was turned off.  But I do know that my mother and I were not cut out for the days before electricity... you know, there is just so much you can do in a foreign land with no electricty.  You can olny play monopoly so many times, and we were told to limit the candle light, etc or people would shoot into your home...  Thank God it wasn't summer, I would have asked someone to shoot me!
Being a young teen didn't really see how bad this situation was.  My mother did.  She wanted to leave.  The airport was closed and only a very few flights were allowed in or out.  We got a call late one night that there was a flight out if we could be ready by morning... The trip to the airport is something I'll never forget.  It certainly made me aware of the danger we were in.  There were tanks and soldiers everywhere, cars and buildings smoldering from being burned.  It was terrible.  My mother and I left with only a few dollars of american money and took off on a flight that did not have a destination as no other countries were letting flights from Iran land...We eventually got home, my dad came about a week before the hostages were taken. 
I didn't set out to tell the whole story but there it is.  And it was thrity years ago.  Which makes me old.
The End.

Funny what stirs a memory

When I was growing up we lived in Iran two differnt times. As crazy as it sounds, that time holds wonderful memories for me. My dad always worked for military contract companies that sent him to odd places where families usually couldn't go, so the time in Iran was one of the few times that we all lived together as a family.
My mother really didn't like living there. She had some health problems and I look back now and realize why she didn't want to go.
I however, loved every minute of it. I loved the adventure, the camels walking in the streets, the herds of sheep that came right through the city and would stop on a corner while their Shepard napped against a building, snowy winters, exotic food, and the bit of traveling we got to do while we were there. I hated when the country fell apart and we had to leave.

While we were there, the American Wives group took a trip to Russia. My mother wasn't about to go. We took a trip to the Caspian Sea and even that made her nervous "because Russia is just across that water"....
One of her friends brought her a ring back from that trip to Russia. She rarely wore it but she never got rid of it.
I ended up with most of her jewelry after she died and I have kept this ring in my jewelry box forever. I've never worn it but I never got rid of it.

Months ago Katie found it and asked if she could wear it. I worried about her loosing it almost didn't let her. Then I decided it had sat in jewelry boxes for 30 years now and it was OK to wear it.... She has worn this ring everyday since then.... She loves it.

For some reason tonight, while going over homework I looked at that ring on her finger and I was stuck with a sudden memory of where the ring came from and what a wonderful time it represents to me.

Just a trinket from Russia that my mother rarely wore. She would love that Katie is enjoying that ring.