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Cultural Slice of Life: Traditional Dancers

Still combing through my November trip images... a few more I'd like to share:

One morning driving back from Vlashaj Mandi spotted this performance taking place. We whipped over to the side of the boulevard and Tiana and I jumped out to grab some photos.

I don't know about you, but I think it's great to see that it's the kids doing the performing. It's reassuring to know that in the midst of rapid national change, some traditions are still being preserved and honored.

The "Ellie Puppet"

After returning home from school today, Ellie was eager for us to "get Ellie out of [her] backpack. " We complied and only then did her phrase-ology make sense. Before we could ask, she told us, "Miss K made it!" It's not left her side since!

This was to be fresh blog content for Gigi and Gjyshe but they skyped from Albania before I could get this up and posted.

I love this guy...

Thanks, Babe, for being such a great partner in life. Els and I love and appreciate you so much! We're blessed!

(No, it's not his birthday, and we didn't have a fight ;-) -- I just don't tell him often enough!)

Ellie Update

Some pics from a few weeks ago when Els was helping me test my lights for a prayer card photo shoot

In my spare time I've been working on Ellie's 2009 book and attempting to make it more than just photos by including some text this time. The blog has been a handy reference tool for finding material to include on the pages. It's made me keenely aware that I wish I had shared a bit more often, or went into greater detail at times to record some of her Ellie-isms as she does change so quickly.

This month has seen Ellie living her day-to-day life with much joy and contentedness. The notes and phone calls from school are diminishing (though Thursday night the parent of one of her busmates told Nathan that her daughter said she was sad that Ellie missed her mommy and daddy because Ellie sometimes cried when she got on the bus -- gulp -- I hope that's an old story and not a new one!).

I've been especially proud of her this week as I noticed that she is (finally) getting what she wants when it's in another part of the house. Usually, if Ellie would want something, she would whine and cry and refuse to go find it on her own -- while yes, it may have partly been laziness, it was also a fear of being away from us. We've seen that's she is growing more confident and secure in not having one or the other of us right by her side all the time. Intead, when she suggests something she'd like, she'll answer herself by saying cheerfully, "I'll go get it!"

Her imaginative play continues to expand. In the photo above, you see her leg wrapped in a 'cast' of sheets of dot-matrix printer labels. She names everything with an onomatopoeiatic nomenclature. For example, the cups in her bathtub are named "Mr. Hahm". That's because (according to her) when you hinge them together and make chomping motions, they go "Hahm, Hahm!" (it helps if you make a gutteral sound in the back of your throat while you say it). Likewise she has similar names for her balloons and other bath toys.

Her favorite story repetoire has expanded beyond just the story of when Ellie goes to the doctor to "when Ellie went to Albania" (her adoption story). It's fun to share the highlights of that story with her, though I think she likes it primarily for when we get to the part of her refusal of our attempts at feeding her with a spoon. She clamps her mouth shut at that point and shakes her head back and forth saying"m,m,m,m,m!" Then she says, "Silly baby Ellie!" We're trying to use it to prepare her for our trip to pick up her brother or sister, whenever that day comes. I'm afraid she's going to think all babies come from Albania, but for now, that's fine with me. What I think she does understand from the story is that her parents loved her very much and couldn't wait to hold her in their arms -- at which point she just grins and snuggles in closer.

The kitchen floor project in photos...

Earlier this fall we started noticing something strange. Our linoleum was peeling at the seam. Hmmm. It's old, it's a high traffic area, not a huge surprise. Then moisture started oozing out of the cracks. Ooh. That's not good. We started wondering if it might be related to our dishwasher which hasn't seemed to work right since we moved in. A very expensive visit from the Kenmore repairman last year didn't improve anything (and cost half of what a new machine would have cost) to figure out why there always seemed to be water sitting in the bottom. Then the crack started growing and more gross things were discovered.

We're accustomed to fixing most things ourselves around here. Especially after some of the hefty bills we've gotten the times the experts have been called in. In the busy-ness of our fall semester we decided to wait until Christmas break to tackle the issue. Afterall, the floor didn't feel 'spongy' and there was no sign of water damage in the garage ceiling down below. Not to mention, there was never a good time to tear our kitchen apart. Christmas break came and went and the project got pushed back til after ski retreat in early February. Until one night I got the urge to look at kitchen flooring again. So Friday night we're at Lowes and find some solid hardwood on sale. It was a reputable brand and was as cheap as laminate -- just an overstock they were trying to move. We decided to go for it, hoping the color would work with our cabinetry.

Warning: some of the photos you are about to view are 1.) slightly embarassing -- my kitchen is tiny and not a picture of neatness and tidy-ness, and 2.) explicit in the volume of mold and other unidentified gross lifeforms which were living under our feet. As Ellie says all the time (scrunching her nose), "Ewwww! Groooossss!"

Friday evening: we photograph the old floor for posterity's sake. I'm giddy with excitement. I must admit I never really cared for it. See those ugly brown cracks in the middle? Our first sign of bad things to come.

So the next day Nathan started peeling up the floor -- which turned out to be an easy task since the glue had dissolved under about 2/3 of the space. The tricky part was determining how to photograph the pools of standing water in a short amount of time. You'll have to take my word for it.

What we discovered under the linoleum was a soggy layer of particle board growing some scary stuff. Didn't smell too good either. The fans were brought out. And the crow bars, work gloves, and pliers. Can I say somebody had WAY too much fun with the staple gun? As in someone used a completely unnecessary volume of staples. That particle board wasn't going anywhere.

Saturday: Nathan moves the fridge and stove, then pulls up the first layer of subfloor under Ellie's careful supervision. He also rents a numatic (?) nailer for Monday (the store is closed on Sunday) so he can begin installing the floor first thing on Monday. After the particle board is gone, we watch water trickle out from under the dishwasher. Source identified! Dishwasher removed!

Sunday: the subfloor was gone so in between church and Global Cafe` we're now removing the rest of the staples that we missed the night before. We're also using a steamer, Lysol, and buckets of bleach water to treat the original layer of linoleum which has its own unusual layer of white gunk on it. We need the floor to be ready for the wood to go down first thing Monday morning.

Monday morning: 8AM -- Nathan and Mark start laying the first strips of hardwood. This proves to be one of the trickiest parts of project. Then the air compressor goes kaput. Lunch is eaten standing up. Work continues with a short break for supper and Mark continues to work while Nathan facilitates a meeting with the Spain team. The meeting wraps up and Nathan goes back to work and they ruefully quit at midnight as we had guests staying with us and the nail gun, rattling air compressor, and the compound miter saw aren't exactly quiet tools.

Tuesday -- Nathan and Mark start working again at 7:30. Around 11:30, the last strip of wood is laid. Meanwhile the porch is a jungle of circular saws, sawhorses, wood scraps and lots of sawdust and our dining room is crammed with a kitchen table and lots of small tools. Nathan installs new dishwasher.

Wednesday, Nathan lays the transitions and places the quarter round back into place (for a photo until we can buy finishing nails), Ellie oohs and ahs over the 'pretty floor'. I think she understood that her daddy worked really, really hard on the floor. She repeats her praises of the floor several times throughout the day and into today. I told Nathan it will probably outlast the center.

We're thrilled with the results, probably even moreso because of having done the work ourselves.

Found: Miscellaneous Photos from Christmas in IL

After the Tua and Pippa "Pink" Shoot, Ellie jumped in with Gjyshe for her own pic.
I think Dad's okay with the pink -- after all, he's got three daughters and three grandaughters


The day before we left, Mom and Dad watched the girls so Bug, Seth, Nathan, and I could go out for lunch. Right before that, we stopped in for one last visit with the "grands". Here we are with Grandpa Van and Marilyn.

...and Grandpa and Grandma 'Ford

Jenny holding out the Bond-Ost cheese we enjoyed. Laurie, have you ever run across this in Sweden? This is a family delicacy that our cousin Elyse picked up in Chicago at a Swedish bakery. (For those of you who don't know, Grandma Whiteford's maiden name was Ekdahl -- she's 100% Swede). Grandma was kind enough to share some of her lot with us on crackers. Delicious. What stirred up almost as much conversation as the cheese after the visit was her cocktail of Arizona tea, heated in the microwave with a splash of orange juice. Hmmm.

Nathan reading the Christmas story. Dad with a camera. Christmas traditions.

Found: Tua's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Tua's birthday all day on the 31st. Ellie was particularly excited that Gigi had the whistles where 'the papers come out.'

Pip showing off her goodbye wave

Lunch was at the McDonald's play place in Pekin.
The girls loved it.

Later that evening we had a chili supper with Bug's high school friend, Billy and his family.

YaY!

Didn't have the flash on my camera, but couldn't resist snapping the photo below.
Isn't Pippa the sweetest? You're not too bad either, Seth.