My parent’s visit cont…

As I posted yesterday, my parents were visiting last week. It was a wonderful time and we loved being able to show them around. To pick up from yesterday, after we took them to Byblos, the next day we didn’t do too much because we had to get ready for the reception which was Thursday evening at 9:00pm. It takes a lot of time to prepare, getting hair and makeup done, making sure the flowers, cakes, and everything else were on time. My mom had her hair done here and it was so cute!

 

I had mine done as well and then it was a challenge to wait until 9pm and not mess up my hair. I wanted to take a nap so badly but couldn’t lay down for fear of ruining the hair! We finally made it to the venue which was SO beautiful. It is a restaurant by the sea that has rooms for rent and an outdoor area to have receptions and weddings. It was amazing!!

 

These pics are not the professional ones. I hope to have those soon, but at least you can get an idea. Though these do not do the place justice. It really was beautiful and I was so happy to be able to have the reception here. My dress I got especially for this occasion made me feel like a princess. I was not used to long formal dresses though and kept feeling as if I would trip! However, I managed to make it through the evening without falling. 🙂

 

My mom and dad looked so nice this evening. I was so happy they were there, it made it so perfect. All we were missing was my sis and brothers to make it complete.

 

The evening consisted of food, food, and more food. I tried to prepare my parents for the amount of food at these events but it was not enough. They were amazed. They bring food until there is literally no more room at the table! The program was put together by my brother-in-law. It was lovely. We had a violinist who was amazing! My husband’s brother read a few words he had written especially for the evening which were very meaningful and brought us to tears (in a good way). Then, later in the evening, I surprised my husband by singing to him. He kept asking over the last few weeks if I would sing at the reception and I kept telling him no, that I didn’t think I would feel like it after just arriving and trying to prepare for the reception. He seemed ok with that answer, but all the while, I had been planning to surprise him. Now, you have to know, he is very, very difficult to surprise, so the fact that I pulled it off and it worked was amazing. 🙂 Then at the end of the evening there was a slideshow of pictures of my husband and me when we were young documenting our journey of finding each other. It truly is a God-written love story. So the evening was beautiful and amazing and we have lovely memories. I hope to have some of the professional pics to share this next week.

Well, I am starting Arabic language lessons today with one of my sisters-in-law so I better get ready. I will continue my parent’s visit and pictures tomorrow. I hope you enjoy! Until then….

 

I’m back!

Hi, I’m back! I took a little break since my parents were visiting last week. We had a wonderful time and they took tons of pics!! I didn’t get as many as they did, but I will add a few here and there over the next few days to share with you some of our adventures.

 

We packed a lot into the few short days they were here. My husband and I made a list of things we really wanted them to see and then tried to fit everything in. 🙂 They arrived on Monday evening and we didn’t do anything then other than sleep as they were very tired. Then on Tuesday we rested during the day and in the evening we took them to downtown and out to Zaitouneh Bay and had hamburgers. I know, hamburgers in Lebanon when you can get them in the states?, but these are not just any hamburgers. It is our favorite place here when we want a burger. It’s called Classic Burger and the view from that area is lovely.

On Wednesday, my brother-in-law came to pick us up since my husband had to work. He took us to Jeita Grotto (where my husband and I got engaged :)) and also to a beautiful monastery overlooking the sea. It was gorgeous! *you can’t take pics inside the grotto so these pics are from the monastery area.

 

After the monastery, we traveled on to Byblos as we had to do some last minute decision-making about our reception for the next evening. We were so tired after the long day of sight-seeing but that didn’t stop us from walking around Byblos for a bit. This city is beautiful and mysterious. There is so much rich history here (which my mom could tell you about so much better than I could). 🙂

 

The view from the city just before sunset was beautiful!

I still can’t believe I get to see this whenever I want. It’s still surreal! After these pics my mom said we would probably have lots of company. I hope so! 🙂

Well, there is so much more to share about the reception and the rest of the week with my parents but I don’t want to put it all in one post. There has to be something for which to look forward. So stay tuned for more tomorrow. Til then…..

 

Home sweet home

My parents are coming today for a visit! They will be here for our reception this week and we will do some sightseeing and catching up while they are here. I am so excited!! I know it has only been about 3 weeks or so since I saw them but I already miss them so much. I am looking forward to having them in my new home and being able to serve and love on them.

So forgive me if I don’t blog much (or at all) this week. We will be very busy sightseeing and getting ready for the reception on Thursday. But look for lots of news and pics next week for sure. I will have to document what we did for all of you here. 🙂 Thank you for reading! I am excited to see what this week holds.

Bye for now!

 

 

Perspective

Since I am sure you are dying to know how the vegetable washing and preparing went, I should tell you that I decided to try the tabbouleh on my husband first before making it for my parents. I chopped up the vegetables yesterday and we were going to eat it last night but we had to go take care of some things for the reception instead. So, I am making it for lunch today so I will take a picture of the end product and upload later. Hopefully it will be good! 🙂

The reception, for those of you who don’t know, will take place here in Lebanon this coming Thursday. It will be a time to celebrate for my husband’s family and friends who were not able to come to the wedding. I think there will probably be as many people, if not more, than were at the wedding! Receptions here are very different then in the States. There is SO much food! And everyone usually dresses up a lot more than in the States. I will hopefully have some pics to post after the event on Thursday so stay tuned!

I mentioned before about the electricity having a different schedule and sometimes it’s off and things run on a generator. Well, there is normally a pattern where one day it might be on from 10am-2pm and then on again after 6pm and the next day it’s on before 10am and then on again from 2pm-6pm. The last few days the pattern was off and I got confused. So today, I needed to do laundry so I waited until 10am thinking that is when it would be on and I started the washing machine. It ran and then I went ahead and got my shower so I could dry my hair while the electricity was still on. Well, when I started drying my hair, it all cut off. The lights, the dryer, everything. So I wasn’t sure why because I thought I had electricity until 2pm. I didn’t know what to do so I called my husband who patiently explained that things must have been running on the generator and I blew it with my hair dryer. So, today, I found out that the washing machine can run on the generator but my hair dryer won’t; at least not for long! 😉

Needless to say, I am learning a lot about perspective and being willing to laugh at yourself when you don’t know something. It’s a good character building exercise. I am just thankful I have a loving, patient, understanding husband who is willing to help me learn the things I need to know to make it here on a day-to-day basis. I am truly blessed!

Until next time! 🙂

Cooking and more

Today I am washing vegetables and clothes, not together of course! 🙂 I bought several different things at the store the other day to make tabbouli and salad. I left the parsley, cucumbers, lettuce and mint in the fridge and realized that I might need to take them out and wash them in order to preserve them. I am trying to wait until closer to time for my parents to come before I make the tabbouli. We will see how it all turns out. Here is a glimpse into the progress.

 

I have also started using the oven which as I mentioned before was not that easy to cook things evenly because the top and bottom burners do not work at the same time. I did cook dinner night before last and it was so good! I was so proud that it turned out so well. It is tortellini and we loved it! My husband even had some to take to work yesterday which made me feel like a good wife. 🙂

 

Since I had a good cooking experience I decided to try my hand at baking yesterday. However, things did not turn out as planned. I bought some blackberries at the store and thought I would make a blackberry cake or bars. I found an easy recipe online for which I actually had all the ingredients. I mixed it up, washed and fixed the blackberries and put it in the oven with the bottom burner on first. I watched it closely and it seemed to be doing fine. The recipe said to let it bake for an hour. After 30 minutes passed I thought it looked like the bottom was cooking nicely so I should put on the top burner. When I did, it was in there about 15 minutes when I saw it seemed that it may be cooking too fast. I took it out and it kind of sank…but I tasted it and it was pretty good.  Maybe if we put ice cream with it we won’t notice that it’s not fluffy. 🙂 Ice cream makes everything better, right?
The next post I hope to have some pics to put up of the apartment. I am still working to get it organized but it is starting to come together. Until next time!

Driving!

Today I took my husband to work and then his sister helped me find my way back. On the way home, we stopped by the bank where I was supposed to have an account opened and get a card on my husband’s account. The woman who helped us the other day was busy so I tried to communicate with another woman about what I needed and I explained a few times and she didn’t seem to understand. Finally, after a while and some help from my sister-in-law, it was straightened out. I need to learn Arabic fast! Communication is key to my being able to get around and do things on my own.

After I dropped off my sister-in-law I went to our apartment and found it all by myself! I was  pretty pleased even though it’s only 5 minutes away. Things can look different. 🙂 Later today I hope to find my way to the grocery store so my poor husband won’t look in our refrigerator and find nothing to eat. I am going to attempt some cooking in the days ahead this week. So we will see how that goes. I am sure some of my posts this week will be interesting based on what happens in the kitchen. Now, if I can just figure out the electricity schedule I will be caught up with laundry. 😉

 

Cleaning day

It’s another day and things are going well so far. I feel very productive. This morning I have already eaten breakfast, washed dishes, cleaned and mopped the floors and started a load of laundry and all before 10:30am. Yay!

Yesterday evening we went to buy a few more things for the house. Starting new is always overwhelming because you “need” everything. We found some good options and I am already enjoying finding new places to put things. My inner organizer is surfacing once again. I knew it was in there somewhere. 🙂

I was so happy to find a new use for the trunks I shipped my things in coming here. We stacked three trunks and found a cover for them and I am using it in the kitchen as a storage area. It is already coming in handy when putting away groceries. Necessity is clearly the mother of invention.

One thing I am working to get used to is the fact that we don’t always have electricity and I am trying to figure out when I can do laundry and when I can blow dry my hair. We have a generator so there is always light but it is a little interesting working my schedule around the things that won’t work on the generator (like the washer, blow dryer, etc). I am sure I will learn eventually and then it will become easy and my schedule will flow. Until then, I am afraid I may have laundry piling up and frizzy, curly hair.

Okay, I need to go check my laundry. More later!

I made it!

So, here is my first attempt at blogging. Please bear with me as I am really not sure what I am doing here. I wanted to have a way to share my adventures in a new culture with family and friends. There will be lots of interesting things happening in the coming days and months and I have to document for posterity. 🙂

I am excited about sharing my daily activities with you and hope that you enjoy the fun and (probably mishaps) along the way! 

First of all, I made it! I am married and have moved across the world. Married life is wonderful and I am blessed to be married to a man who is patient and helping make things as easy as possible for me as I adjust. I have to say that things are different here but when I get used to it I know it will be normal to me. I’ve started unpacking and trying to organize. My seven trunks (yes, seven) made it safe and sound so I am happy to have some of my things around me. Our apartment is very cute and roomy so I am enjoying setting up house. I finally learned how to use the oven last night thanks to my sister-in-law. Let’s just say ovens in the states are a bit easier to use. Here, you have to light it and then you can’t use the top and bottom burner at the same time. Go figure. I haven’t attempted anything in there yet but I will be sure to document how that goes.

Well, more to come but for now, I should probably get busy unpacking.