Current Events, Comedy & Culture

I can't believe it's already February! As of the 1st, we have been here for 2 months and, as expected, time is flying by! The Moris Family is finally feeling a sense of rhythm and our weeks are becoming relaxed, full and fun! As our days are becoming "normal" we have most of our interesting bits happening on the weekends. Here is a brief "current event" update, followed by a two funny stories and a little culture - enjoy!
Current Events:
John is now a full time student and is enjoying a work/home schedule that is spoiling him. This week I had an opportunity to tour the campus and meet some great ladies whose husbands are also enrolled in the college. It was fun to see the beautiful campus and see where he spends his time during the day.
Emma had an interview/meet and greet with her new teachers and she is super excited to start school on Wed. the 10th. We'll have more about that in next weeks blog update. Something you may or may not know about Emma is that she is learning to read and write already! She can write all of our names without help with spelling and she is learning how to sound out words, while reading short stories. She's a quick learner and it's a joy for John and I to watch her work hard and feel like she's really achieving something special.
Lily is showing her 20 month old skills of defiance, will and sass! She keeps us busy everyday, that's for sure, but she has a sweet little heart and a funny sense of humor that we cherish and treasure (when we don't want to sell her to the dingos LOL) She loves to sing and has found a new friend in Dora the Explorer.

Here's a great picture of a princess tea party play date with our new friend Tyra from church. We had hot chocolate and banana muffins.

On Sunday, Steve, Celeste and Scout invited us out to a little quiet spot on the river near Mt. Stromlo with a little watering hole and a small rocky beach. This place was a little bit of Aussie heaven! It was beautiful, full of birds and wild life and fresh air - a PERFECT place to spend the Lord's Day and enjoy the simple pleasures that make Australia so unique. Here are a few shots from our afternoon.

A picnic snack before we left - we can't get these kids to take a good picture, so I guess.....here's Emma and Lily being Emma and Lily.

Comedy:

John has a hobby - making and brewing his own beer. He loves beer, even as he enjoys it very responsibly ;-) Emma's funny of the week? She hands me a play ice cream cone with a play soda bottle and says, "Here's a treat for you mom! Ice Cream and a Beer!"

Emma's funny of the weekend? At our church this week, Emma learned about her identity in Christ, about how much God loves her and that she belongs to God's family. Our church meets on Saturday evening and we had to jet right from church to a Turkish Restaurant to meet John's small group for school. As we headed into the Turkish Restaurant, Emma says, "I'm going to take my picture and share the Good News with all Daddy's friends!"

Lily's funny? Read our cultural update below ;-)

Culture:

Saturday night we met up with John's small group from class for dinner and a get-to-know-each-other. There are 2 Muslim students in his class, so we ate at a Turkish Restaurant, where the food is "halaal", similar to how Jewish food is kosher. We've never eaten at or been to a Turkish Restaurant so we were interested, but unsure if we would find anything for Em or Lil to eat. We ordered this amazing Pide (basically pizza folded over) with chicken, cheese and parsley - Lily loved it, Emma....not so much. We were enjoying the new people and the great conversation when, all of the sudden......This REALLY loud music comes on and a Belly Dancer comes out and starts doing her thing. The girls were mesmerized, John and I were a little uncomfortable and we didn't know what to do and just started laughing! Lily was particularly fascinated by this women who looked like a cross between Princess Jasmine and Ariel and just stared and stared and stared for a few minutes. Emma wasn't sure what to make of it either and just kept blushing, covering her eyes and giggling. It was a new cultural experience for our family, meeting people with unfamiliar names and accents, eating new food and learning how to show our love to all - putting real meaning to our Sunday school song,"red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight"! As a mom, it was an event I'll tuck away in my heart as one that has a lasting and important impression - part of the perks of being a world traveled kid!

FUNNY: Lily hopped off her chair and started mimicking the dance moves of the belly dancer!!! She had the entire student group laughing out loud. She then proceeded to entertain the entire restaurant as she followed the dancer around copying her every move. Our only hope is that this isn't a future career interest..... ;-) My apologies as I failed to bring my camera to the restaurant so that memory will have to live on in our minds.