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I've been in Seattle for the past ten days taking over driving duties for my temporarily invalid sister. This includes piano lessons, violin lessons, gymnastics practice, karate, and possibly most importantly Costco. My niece accompanied me on my most recent trip and was a great companion, only getting distracted once by the fountain sculpture of a Boy and Sailboat. My days begin by being woken up by two little faces, those belonging to the eldest two over whom my bunk sets. They climb the ladder every morning not before 7 am and then hang out with me until 7:30 when it's time to get ready for the day. As my brother-in-law says, I'm living an extention of their life. Not really my own. But it's not a bad life as such. I'm reading "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and have a laptop available to work on the play. But not much progress made in either.

My sister's surgery was fine but I did swing into full Florence Nightengale mode when she returned still getting over anesthesia and pain meds. Since then she's been well enough to crutch around though I don't believe she's left the house since Monday.

So that's my update. Still hoping to get to Tucson. Maybe I'll be there for the hot hot season.

Half Time

Half time report. I'm headed to Richland next week! Feeling good. Still working on the 2nd half year plans. Still got some money left, though I'm thinking I should try to temp while in NYC in August.

I'm in Vegas right now. Carrie, friend from high school, is at work as is her husband Marshall. So I am babysitting their 10-month-old daughter, and currently she is napping in the next room. It's h-o-t here!

Ok, catching up. Sorry for the "words...words"-type posts of late. Am I turning you off from reading? Tell me the truth.

Uploaded small photos today 'cuz there's so many. Here is Josh and his youngest (this is in Denver/Aurora, CO) at Chili's.










And here's half of the church congregants from the week I attended. I told them twenty years from now, this photo can be used in their memories slide show.






This was taken out the bus window en route to Albuquerque. I loved the big sky clouds.







At the Hot Air Balloon museum with Joanna's mom Sandy and her nephew.










Here's Joanna and her daughter on our nature walk. Joanna is not photogenic even though she is very pretty. Her daughter is both cute and photogenic.




With pine cone.











This is the only photo I'm posting from my day trip to Santa Fe. All the really cool things, I was not permitted to photograph.







And I wrote about dance lessons. Well, I wound up going to the group lesson with John and Joanna. And since there was one more man than woman, I got a free lesson! :)









(In Phoenix) This is one of Grisel's 2nd cousins. Though in Bolivian culture, cousins are brothers & sisters, so I guess this would be Grisel's niece. After dinner, and watching "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" with the family while Grisel and Jeremiah ran errands, I barely beat her niece at chess.







Grisel prepping candles for a circle prayer Wall of Fire ceremony they had during the reception.







Bridesmaid bouquet.

The NYC set: Veronica, Joanne, Yana, Felicia.

Me, new local friend Angela from Joy of Life church, and Yana with cacti.

Saguaros on the way to Sedona.

Gas stop, we modeled the hat and map selection.

Sedona sample. So amazing.

I love lichen and you can see my curly hair.

Metaphor for life: you can stay by the road and it's pretty enough, but look what you can see if you just climb a little.

The Grand Canyon:

This is my first (of tens) photo of the Wonder.

Native American ceramic that I really like but inconvenient to transport and kind of pricey.

Some of my tour group. The front couple and I went out to Red Lobster for dinner afterward. They're UK citizens, though she's originally Austrian, and live on an island in the English Channel. Tax free.

Milton, our tour guide, whose Navajo name means Two Feathers From An Eagle. He had some of good jokes and cool info for us.

Milton factoid: chewing the needles from this tree provides more vitamin C than from oranges.

Me and the Canyon.







On Route 66 from Flagstaff to Las Vegas.

Read the coffee signs, those were my favorite.

Hoover Dam.

(In Las Vegas) Carrie and Marshall's little girl. Today is Carrie's birthday! She's now as old as I am. We had fun today. Marshall just got home and is fixing dinner. I need to quickly make a card for Carrie. :)

Pictures of May

From most recent to further in the past.

COLORADO:

Josh and Marleen's oldest. Balancing an Andes mint on her head from the Olive Garden bill. So the story of how I know Josh is that we used to work together back in 1999 at Grey Interactive. I was learning about web producing and he was a "TPM" technical project manager. Though he never said a word to me about God or Jesus, I knew he was a Christian and--in my backslidden state--God used him as part of His continual testimony about His presence. So years later when I returned to the Lord, and was prompted to contact people from my past, I had the 'good fortune' to rent an apartment wherein the landlord's daughter Natalie (from Island's photo) knew about Josh and Marleen from Brooklyn Tabernacle where she went to church. My landlords gave me a BT CD that year for Christmas and there as a soloist on one song was Josh! I told Natalie that I knew him and when Josh and Marleen left NYC to start their church in Colorado, I sent him a letter telling him what an impact he'd had on my life. So even though we were never friends, here I am visiting his church and family and staying with their friend Lonni.

This is their 2nd child. So funny. He began the Andes mint tricks.








Their baby with bread stick.











NEW YORK:

Juanita and Queens flora.











Nancy and I in Central Park.











WARSAW:

Gosia prepping a Turkish breakfast as the 'craft' part of my presentation: village brown bread, white cheese and honey.









Miss Irene, special guest.











MONTENEGRO:

Me and Maja on street in Bar, Montenegro. She's a long-termer there.















Girlscamp: Esther, Hannah, Maja, and me.











Daily trek down the tracks to meet up with the rest of the team.










Outside Roma gypsies camp playing Cat Cat Dog with the kids.










Context of the fun and games.
















Drawing on a paper taped to the team van. Daniel is a native Montenegrin pastor. Natja and Volker are German. The story about how I came to Montenegro is that Esther's parents Mark and Shelly and I were in the same small group at Bethel Church in Richland, WA for about half a year. So, more near-strangers taking me in and defining Hospitality. :)





Esther with Volker and Natja's baby daughter. So freaking cute.















The week I was there it was Hannah's turn to cook. Here she is making mandu with sauce. Yummy.















My favorite flower in Bar. A sort of lilac meets rhododendron meets honey suckle. Amazing lilting scent, especially in the dusk air, like English breakfast tea.














My first day in Bar, I took a walk down to the water. There were some boys swimming--clearly tourists as no local will set toe in until summer.









SERBIA:

This is in Beograd (Belgrade), Serbia. I had a six hour layover from Istanbul to Podgorica so decided to check out some sights. This art to sit on made me think of Anna who designs chairs.








Serbian urban sport? Parachuting off a cliff down to Sava/Danube confluence. Quite a crowd watched on. I thought it great (free) entertainment.








TURKEY:

Taksim, Istanbul. Brandy, Karen's Wellesley roommate, and her boyfriend Keith's visit overlapped with the tail end of mine. So we went out on night for pizza. It was good. This is the two couples strolling. I mostly refuse to use flash. So this is what I get.






Karen and I at the NYC-esque pizza place. My earrings are from Krakow.










My 2nd day in Cappadocia, Turkey. The tour group was impressive: sisters from India, two brothers and their sister from South Africa and Muslim, two retired teachers from Canada, Australian father and daughter, Argentinian couple, and a smattering of Japanese youth. Here we're in a tunnel carved by erosion. Just Google 'Cappadocia' and you'll see a good sample of pictures that I took something similar to.




Formations in the Rose Valley.
















Hittite ceramics. The circular one is a wine carafe in the shape of a sun symbol and the littler pointy one is a tear vase. The story we were told is that a woman whose husband was away at war would collect her tears in some such vase and then pour them out to him upon his return as a testament to her devotion. I immediately thought of the verse: You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle (Psalm 56:8)

I mean, Hittite or otherwise, it's poetic.





More cool rocks.









T-shirt at the Spice Market, the Grand Bazaar's little sister. Showing off Turkey's religious tolerance.







These are dried apricots with peanuts. Or in my mind.














Karen insisted I take this quintessential photo with this cami (mosque) on the Bosphorus.













Fun lemonade at one of Karen's favorite places: The House Cafe. She kept saying how much she was looking forward to living on the European side of Istanbul.












At Ephesus. The ancients didn't have it so good, eh?










I love the concept and look of keystones. Also in Ephesus.










Second to last night in Bodrum at Emre's sister Eda's house. She's on the left. They have a fabulous view, this is only half of it.









Here's my favorite Turkish food: lentil soup, specifically Ezogelin which has tomatoes in it and is also referred to as Bride's soup.












Ok. So now I'm caught up photo-wise. Any questions? Not sure what my lovely readers want to know about.