مشاكس كبير

مشاكس كبير [mushaakis kabiir] - a very big "gets into everything" kind of person, used in describing little boys especially.

Noah is everywhere!!! This kid is all over the place!! He brings chaos to order, loud to quiet, and broke to non-broke.

I love having a little boy! This morning he was crawling across the floor chasing his ball and he finally cornered it by the bookshelf at the end of our couch [a place he had never seen before]. He looks up and sees all the books that we had been hiding from him. Instead of just tearing into them and throwing them all over the place, he stops.......

he looks at me with this "ohhhh...now I know" face, he smiles really big, and then rips into them scattering them all over the floor!! He had nearly digested half of one of my old journals before I got to him!!!

If he is crawling by something and they are stacked up, he knocks them over. If there is something on the table when he is standing next to it, he throws it off! He is going to destroy our house!! I love it. I spent most of the morning excited about building forts and playing Cowboys vs Indians, or Bedouin vs Turks, or Homeland Security vs Terrorists.

*the pics are meandering through some Roman ruins yesterday. We saw the place where Jesus cast the demons into the pigs, Lake Tiberius, and the church built by the Jerusalem Church after it fled persecution. My favorite pic is Noah with his police hat on.

2 Iraqis...

Tonight I saw

2 Iraqis* walk into a gun store......

I will leave you to think what you want to about that....

*EDIT: Iraqi Arabs. They were Iraqi Arabs. There is a big difference between the Kurds in the north and the Arabs. For those of you that know the difference.....

Charrefour Camera Mayhem!

I went into Charrefour (pronounced Car4 and is the French Version of Wal-Mart) and we were shopping and I was bored.

In my boredom I decided to take pictures of all the strange and/or exciting things I saw. Sadly enough, this is the only picture I got home with, because apparently, taking pictures inside Charrefour is not allowed.

Believe me, I know that now. I didn't know that then. I found out this was wrong by taking a picture of the "Washington Red Delicious Apples" in the produce section. I am serious!!! There were USA apples here and they looked good! So I took the picture with my phone and the entire produce section staff converged on me!

Sir, you need to delete that picture.
What?? Why?
It is forbidden to take pictures in here?
What?? Why?
It is a rule that you cannot take pictures.
What?? Why? (I was trying to wear him down.....it wasn't working. switch tactics)
Sir, I need to see you delete this picture.
But these are my apples.
What??
These are my apples. You see. From USA. Look at me. From USA. These are my apples.
Sir, I need to see you delete this picture.
But....
Sir, I need to see you delete this picture from your phone.
But, I was going to take this picture and send it to my mother. She loves apples from America. (This guy was cold hearted and not very patient)
SIR! YOU NEED TO DELETE THIS PICTURE FROM YOUR PHONE!!!
Okay, okay ان الله مع الصبرين (which is an Arabic proverb "Truly God is with the patient ones" he wasn't impressed)

So I am now trying to scroll through the pictures on my phone, with Johnny Mohammad and his staff looking over my shoulder and what does he see? All the other photos that I took of stuff in his store! I had to delete all of them! The only one that made it was this one of the off brand frosted flakes with the creepy IceCube Man dancing on it. (you can click on the pic to make it larger) But we can't figure out what it says. Is it "Funky Dz" or "Fun Kydz" or Funkyaz" We can't even read our own language.....things are getting bad really quick.

All this to say, "don't take a camera or take pictures in Carrefour. it ain't worth it!"

Spring is Here!!

Spring is here!!! It will be over next week, but in the meantime, here is Noah's spring attire.