~*~ joyful news ~*~

patrik and i are overjoyed to share the news

of the birth into this world of

akeva paz nkouaga

born on thursday 23 november 2006

just before sunrise

~*~

...thank you for all your prayers and warm wishes...

so i guess people do check this blog... :D

my friend aria recently put this "sitemeter" thingy on the bottom of my blog, which lets me know how many people visit the site and where they are checking from (there's even someone from japan- adri?) it's all very cool and high-tech, and also makes me feel incredibly guilty that people are checking to see if i've written ANYTHING and of course, i haven't! eek!

so, here goes another update! :)

this is how i feel lately, feeling very round and moon-goddessy, baby growing and growing and me waiting and waiting...

i'm hoping the baby comes soon, since i'm so anxious to meet her and see who she is and figure out how to be a mama! but so far she seems pretty content to just keep swishing around inside me, staying warm and squeezing my internal organs :) i guess the womb is a pretty cushy place, but i keep trying to convince her to come see this world ~ hopefully she'll become intrigued enough pretty soon!

i've been getting the house ready for the birth, setting up the birthing tub, getting everything ready for the baby... luckily friends have been incredibly generous with baby things, and so many have had babies recently and happen to have so much STUFF that normally costs so much money that they're letting me use or keep... it's weird to be in the states, where it seems you need STUFF for everything you do, and having a baby is no exception... when i went to register for baby gifts (also a very US thing to do), the list of things that the store gave me as "necessary" was a whole little book, and when i finished scanning all the cute little items that i though i could ever need or want, they printed out a list of "things you can't do without that you haven't registered for"... it just seems so strange that such a little creature should need so many huge things... and that around the world women are having babies and raising them fine without all this stuff... hmm. but, being here, our house has slowly started filling up with all sorts of trinkets for the baby, some which are pretty cool, i have to admit. like a crib that attaches to our bed so that the baby is sleeping with us, but without being in the path of drowsy arms and legs, or all sorts of slings and things for carrying the baby, or the "hooterhider" my sister sent so i can nurse in public without offending or shocking anyone with them hooters of mine :)

but now the house is ready for the baby, patrik and i are ready for the baby, my mom is ready, just a phone call away in order to get on a plane to be here when the baby comes... just waiting for the baby to be ready :) soon, i hope...

~*~

here i am again, with no photos... teehee!

today my midwife came by to help get our house ready for the birth :) so exciting! she brought by the birthing tub and explained how to set it up and how to fill it and everything, and did her normal examination of my belly (baby is doing great, which is always nice to hear!) and then we just talked and talked about midwifery and how to pursue it as a calling, and how it's affected her life... twas a nice visit :)

not much else is new around here... patrik has been at his new job for about a week now, and even though it's really long hours doing hard manual labour, he's happy and liking it :) he comes home EXHAUSTED every day though! such a difference from the two months we've spent sitting around the house doing not much of anything! (which, by the way, is still what my day consists of... nada nada nada... just growing a baby and watching too much tv...)

pics of belly

halo all :)

i'm a-growin' and a-growin', and though i haven't figured out how to upload photos onto my blog from here, my friend aria has some photos of my ever-increasing girth on her blog... check it out if'n you like!

all is well here, still job hunting for patrik and getting the house ready for a mini-family reunion this weekend... my mom and grandmother and sister and sister's fiancee and sister's fiancee's son will be visiting albuquerque this weekend (and we're having a baby shower to celebrate! woohoo!) so we'll have a full house... but that's the best type of house, isn't it? :)

i'm missing haifa a lot lately, so any emails from all you bwc'ers would be great! i don't have anyone's address (i got in the habit of having outlook just automatically filling them in at work, so now i have NO idea what anyone's address is...) but here's mine: snugglylion@yahoo.com...

big hugs!

i'm becoming terrible at this...

i doubt anyone ever looks at this blog anymore, but i thought i'd update anyway... :)

still no photos (sorry-- no computer at home and i have NO idea how to download photos at the public library without them being saved to the harddrive for random people to look at... scaaaaarry...), but one of these days i'll figure out a way... i know there's a couple of folks anxious to see my ever-growing belly (it's HUGE!) and we just moved into a new house which i'm pretty sure my mamita wants photos of too...

we are now officially living in albuquerque, new mexico, renting a cute little house from my future brother-in-law, which is perfect cuz it's completely furnished so we don't have to go out and buy a bunch of stuff... patrik is looking for work and i'm enjoying a ridiculous amount of leisure time... growing a baby has made me incredibly lazy... hehehe...

we've gone to a couple of baha'i activities since we got here, and it's so nice for me to see everyone again, and to see the amount of change that has occured in the mindset of the community... being away for a year and a half lets me see the growth spurt that has taken place, and appreciate how different things are! so exciting!

anyway, that's about it (really! we're not doing much...)-- i'll try to post more often...

much love...

~*~ finally, a new post ~*~

general updates on our life... let's see...

i am beyond pregnant... belly growing and growing, baby dancing and dancing, me waddling and waddling more and more... ! so excited, actually :) it's a bizarre wonderful feeling to grow a tiny little person inside me-- highly recommend it!

we've been in the states for a few weeks now, missing the holy land a lot, but slowly getting used to this new place... we've been living with my parents and grandmother in southern california (near the beach, which is lovely... went today and was quite refreshing!) and enjoying a vacationish lifestyle... sleeping late, lounging around a lot, eating well... happysigh.

we'll be moving to albuquerque, new mexico in about a week and a half... yay! we went to visit a couple weeks ago (click on aria's link to see photos of our visit) and felt much more at home there than in LA, so off we go!

that's about it, actually... !

safe and sound...

just a little note that we arrived safely in california a few days ago, have been sleeping and relaxing ever since!
more later...

leaving sooner...

so, change in plans... patrik was able to go pick up his passport yesterday afternoon, so we decided to leave a few days earlier. we'll be leaving early sunday morning for LA, rather than wednesday. ... so last night we did some wickedquick cleaning of the flat and final packing, and today is our last day at work... tomorrow we'll just relax and try to spend as much time at the shrines as possible, and then... we're off. it's a strange strange feeling to be leaving, i gotta say. exciting, but sad.

smooth sailing from here on out (i hope!)

our trip to tel aviv yesterday was successful! patrik's visa was approved, so now we are just waiting to hear back from the embassy about when we can go pick up his passport (hmm... it seems throughout all this it has been "and now we are just waiting for [fill in the blank]"...) it seems, though, that everything is going smoothly... we have reservations for a flight to los angeles early next week, though we might have to change the date if anything gets delayed with the passport. keep those fingers crossed...

scary night ~ happy morning

yeah... so last night a rocket hit directly across the street from us.

VERY loud.

VERY scary.

i cried.

lots more rockets kept falling in the city, making it seem like the world was falling apart. but then, it was quiet, and we counted all our fingers and toes and baby bumps and everything was accounted for.

we're ok.

we're safe.

we slept soundly afterwards.

~*~

and so then this morning, a happy suprise... the embassy called us (yes! and not the other way around! it's a MIRACLE!) and said they have the paper they needed in hand so we can go tomorrow to finish up our paperwork!

VERY exciting.

VERY relieving.

i did a happy dance.

it's looking promising at the moment and i will write more tomorrow about how it goes... hopefully all will be well and we can travel soon.

we're happy.

we're cautiously excited.

we will most definitely sleep soundly tonight.

~*~ sending you a birthday wish ~*~

happy birthday sweet samita!

...wish i was there with you...

hope you had a marvelous day!!!

i love fridays...

cuz it means only a half day of work :) yup, i am the essence of laziness as the week wears on...

our big plans for the weekend? more staying home with the occasional movie and some more half-packing... but i'm also looking forward to reading a book i'm half-way through... :)

here's hoping we have some visa news next week!

back to routine?

after a couple days of quiet, the sirens have returned today...

but just a quick note for those who check in-- we're doing fine :)

getting nowhere slowly?

yesterday we got some news for our visa process... not quite the exciting "coming soon" type of news we were expecting, but news nonetheless. the document we need from the israeli police will be sent on thursday of this week to the embassy, meaning it should arrive by monday or tuesday of next week at the embassy... meaning maybe on wednesday we can go to the embassy to finish up the paperwork?... it's all still veeeeeery iffy, since the isreali week (sunday thru friday) versus the embassy week (monday through thursday mornings) leaves very little common time for things to take place. all still very vague. but, best case scenario, if the document manages to get to the embassy by early next week and we get there and verify that our file is complete, the visa should be issued by the 14th or 15th... wost case scenario? the police certificate gets lost for the third time and we are out of luck (and out of all our big bucks paid to the embassy in application fees)...
getting this "news" yesterday afternoon left me in a little bit of a funk and once again very frustrated.. but then, patrik and i went to say some prayers, and it was soo good. a total shift in focus... we get to stay here serving for at least two more weeks, at a time when both our departments really need us to be around... and that's why we came here in the first place, to serve, and were initially wanting to stay for much longer, so now that we've been given a couple more weeks to do what we came to do, we should look at it as a good thing, not as a frustrating one... and the rockets... well, they've become part of our routine... yesterday there were no airraid sirens at all, and to tell you the truth, i think it freaked me out more than having the sirens go off all day... will i ever get used to peace and quiet again? ;)
so, at least two more weeks in the holy land, maybe three... and by late next week we'll know something... we hope!

life in limbo

it's interesting to be somewhere that you know you're leaving soon but you just don't know when... our flat is kind of chaotic at the moment, with a lot of half-packing going on... we managed to pack two suitcases of clothes and random things we know we will not be needing any time soon, as well as a box of books to ship to wherever it is we end up. these are sitting, quite plumply, in our living room... we've also tried to get everything that was hiding in drawers and closets out in the open so that we know exactly how much stuff we need to pack or give away or sell or toss out the window... but that of course has led only to a huge mess on our dining room table (our only table, i should add...) that stares at us and which by now we have lost all desire to do anything about... funny how having all the time in the world just breeds laziness... also, we've made arrangements to sell some of our stuff, like the large assortment of jungley plants that i've collected since coming here, and our tv/vcr... but are feeling a little reluctant to actually deliver the goods to the buyers since we could still be here for several more weeks, and it's no fun to live in a plant-less, entertainment-less flat, especially when you have to stay inside all the time cuz they're rockets falling out of the sky...
...BUT...
it's also satisfying to do something, anything at all, that seems to be pushing us forward on our plans to head home... right now all visa paperwork is entirely out of our hands, and there isn't even any fancy string-pulling we can do to rush it... so slowly packing our things with the hope that we will soon be getting on a plane is our one satisfying task! :)
so tonight, back to half-packing our stuff... hopefully without the background music of airraid sirens :)

weekend update

off to yet another quiet (hopefully) weekend at home :)

won't be doing much, so if you want to call and chat... hint. hint. ;)

quiet day...

... but still left me quite sleepy, so i'm heading home for what will hopefully be a quiet evening...

will blog more tomorrow...

all is well

so here's another post to let everyone who checks in to see that we're okay-- we're okay :)

somehow the airraid sirens have become a "normal" part of our day? how weird is that? even weirder is how i'm more worried about patrik's visa not being ready yet than i am about being hit by rockets... !

tomorrow was supposed to be our last day of work, but since we still have no idea when patrik's visa will be ready, we're just going to keep on coming in to work til we hear something... i wish we had a date, even a tentative one, for our departure. (tee hee... patrik's department threw him a farewell gettogether this afternoon anyway... watch us not leave for another month!)

it seems we just have to be patient, as the one document we need for the visa is completely out of our hands... let's just hope it doesn't get "misplaced" by the embassy a third time!!! so here's to learning patience... and to finding tranquility even among rockets dropping from the sky...

no, really, we're fine

yup, there's lots of sirens and booms all day long, some which kind of stop my heart for a few seconds, but then i just take a deep breath and keep on living life. as the days go on, it gets less scary but more worrisome... other than the slightly more tense shoulders than usual, we're doing fine ...

*

...thanks for everyone's prayers and happy thoughts being sent to this side of the world...

all is well

just wanted to let you all know everything is ok and that we are all fine :)

paz.... paciencia...

calmer about visa situation now :)

not necessarily because there is any indication it will all work out well, though! hehe

first, i talked to my mamita, who can always relax me :)

second, yesterday afternoon patrik and i went to go meet with mrs. ndegwa, a counsellor from kenya, to tell her the news of our leaving and ask her for advice (and yes, managed to vent a little about the trip to tel aviv too...) ~ it was such a nice conversation, she was so loving and had all these wonderful stories and advice and was just so sure of God's hand in all of this that we left her office with such a burden lifted off our shoulders, so much lighter, and no longer anxious and tense... we still have a lot to do and a lot to take care of, but whatever happens, it will be ok.

third, from the meeting we went to the shrines (how i'll miss the shrines...)

fourth, we spoke with patrik's parents last night, and they were also so loving and joyful that it was hard not to be smile too... :)

*

burocracia is burocracia, and we just have to take a few more steps and it should all be ok...

adventures in visa-seeking, part 3

i must admit, i'm finding a little less humor and a lot more frustration in this latest trip to tel aviv for patrik's visa... but i have vented to anyone who will listen, had a relaxing neck rub, done some deep breathing exercises, and begun to take (some) proactive measures to remedy it all, so i'm feeling a little better...

ERG.

i mean... oooooohm.....
*
our appointment was early tuesday morning, and so to avoid the stress of having to catch a train at 5:30 in the morning from haifa, we went the night before and stayed at a hotel near the embassy. luckily the embassy is in a really nice part of town, very posh, on the beach, so our hotel was fancyschmancy... we had a view of the ocean adn very comfy bed and a very snazzy flat screen tv (oolala). we ate at a cute asian restaurant that night, and then slept ridiculously well until the next morning, at which point we collected all our stuff, checked out, and wrapped what we could from the free breakfast (bagels and cream cheese) up to eat later... got in a taxi and then arrived at the embassy adn stood in a few lines for about half an hour (yes, there are already lines at the us embassy at 7 in the monrning), and then finally got inside where we could sit andwait for our appointment...

the first step was to have our documents reviewed before the appointment, which was done by the same helpful israeli woman that helped me with the petition to apply for the visa a couple months ago... we started getting worried at this point, because she mentioned the required police certificate from the israeli authorities had never arrived, even though we put in the request back in may. she also looked at the translation of patrik's documents strangely, saying this was not the way people usually brought the documents in... hmm... we then went to go pay our big bucks to submit the paperwork and were asked to have a seat and to listen for our names to be called by the consul.

three hours later (at which point our bagels and cream cheese had been thoroughly devoured and our tummies were crying out for more, more, more!), the consul called her first interview (us)... just so you know, this was not the same sweet consul as last time, but a stern, unsmiling new consul... who pretty much told us that our documentation was not complete because the police record had never come and that the translation we had done by the BWC and had notarized was not valid, as the translation had to be done by a notary who spoke french and english who would then notarize his own translation... at this point my heart is sinking because suddenly i realize that although i have been anxiously awaiting this day of the interview, we will leave once again KNOWING NOTHING. and having to do MORE PAPERWORK. and having NO IDEA if it will all get done in time.

ERG!

patrik, though, is calm as can be, as this is the way things are supposed to go ,in his mind... this is how things always go, and he begins becoming proactive to solve the problem while i just want to crawl in a hole and die.

ERG!

so we leave the embassy and walk to the beach with all our documentos, where we sit in the shade long enough for me to come out of a state of shock and devestation, and begin planning our visa strategy...

in the end, the reality of the situation is that we just have to find a way to get the embassy what it needs, because of course at this point we are in way too deep adn cannot just leave it all as it is and decide to go somewhere else... we have to get the paperwork (whatever it costs) because we've already invested so much money already... sigh.

but like i said, i have vented sufficiently (ha!) to where i can chuckle (de mala gana) at the situation, and just trudge along trying to find a solution to the problem . we still don't know if we'll get it all done in time, but we're going to try.

wish us luck.

and pray that next time we go in, the nice sweet consul woman is on duty that day.

do you have ANY idea how HAPPY this makes me?!?!

:D

~*~

very very very giddy about mona and chris' wedding!!

(and totally jealous of the dress and turquoise shoes... )

a second chance

in about 15 minutes i'm heading out to go translate for a group of spanish-speaking pilgrims during their visit to the archives building... i'm a little nervous, but so looking forward to it...

*

i've been once before... every year, staff gets to sign up to go to each of the holy places, and so i went on my staff visit earlier this year... but the day i was scheduled, i was in such a rush, and i felt so not in the right frame of mind to be going... i almost turned back to walk back home several times on the way there, but patrik was so sweet and kept saying that i should decide once we got there whether or not to go in, and that it was going to be ok... i ended up going on my staff visit that day, and was very overwhelmed by it all... everything seemed very surreal, but at the same time was making the faith so REAL, to see things that had belonged to these Holy figures... the hour flew by and i left the archives feeling so bewildered, but glad that i had gone...

*

today i get to go in a completely different context, and it will be so interesting to hear the stories about each of the items again (and this time, maybe i'll actually remember the stories because i'll have to be paying such close attention!), and to be there while the pilgrims go through the experience... and i'm glad i get to go again before leaving the holy land... wish me luck.

~*~ 25 ~*~

happy birthday to me !

i'm loving this whole pilgrimage thing...

first i got to see gilberto, faranak and sofia, then the stern-sapads (and somehow MISSED seeing basilisa! how is that possible?!) and now ana and andrew! pilgrimage is great for seeing old friends :) kati is in albuquerque, so i'll have to wait to see her some other time, but tonight patrik and i are heading out to dinner with ana & andrew, which should be much fun :)

*

p.s. these photos are about a year and a half old, and very close-up, thanks to chris zimes' kidnapping of my camera at my farewell-to-turkeyville party... by the way, congratulations to chris and mona on their wedding this weekend! yipee!!!!!

marriage class

here we all are again :)

farewell dinner de antemano

here we all are, el equipo eleanor, or the nimrodettes as some care to call us ;) that's eleanor, one of the coolest ladies i know, in the back with sherri, whose laugh i will miss most of all... in front is bita, who despises vegan brownies and canned fruit, and jo, who despite leading a parallel life to mine in central america, i had never met before coming to haifa... and me, grinning ear to ear cuz i finally managed to get all of us in one photo (it was quite a feat-- the batteries were dying and the waiter took the shot without really warning us... good thing we're all smiley people all the time anyway!)

*

so we had sherri and my farewell dinner last night, even though we have about a month left til we leave, because between bita and jo's upcoming vacations, this is the last week all four nimrodettes will be in town... so eleanor took us out to eat at a tresfancy restaurant where, in my adventurous spirit, i had "mallard with cinnamon sauce", which the waiter described as a cross between a duck and a goose. hmm. it didn't taste like fowl, but the sauce was good :D

*

i don't want to think about how much i'll miss them when i go... or how much i haven't learned form eleanor yet (sage that she is)... sigh.

*

twas a really really nice night ! when i came home, though, i learned ghana had lost, even though brazil hadn't even played that well... grr... and that patrik had had a strange awkward unfair runin with a taxi driver, which left him in a foul mood... but even so, there were flowers waiting for me when i got home. though i think, in all fairness, maybe i should have brought him some!

*

tonight is another departure seminar thingy by the office of personnel.. i guess leaving haifa is traumatizing to most? so far the only stressful part of leaving is not knowing where we'll be going... but only two more weeks til we know...

*

p.s. click on the pic to enlarge-- happy smiling faces must be seen in their fullness! ;)

much more focused today

ohm.
was a bit disoriented this morning after a very vivid dream of having to drive a huge red bus with my mother and two people here from the world centre in the front seat with me, but no other passengers... in my dream i had forgotten how to drive, and the bus was going so fast and i just had to try and steer, but then we came to a toll booth and i somehow had to remember how to brake... deardeardear. stayed sleepy and disoriented til lunchtime, but after lunch got a bunch of energy and finally managed to get some work done. (yay for me!)

this sleepy/unfocused thing tho... have got to do something about it. maybe i need more iron.

(p.s. my favorite part of the picture-- the sleeping bear snuggling the globe :D )

...highly distracted...

it's about 5:00 in the afternoon on sunday and i am highly distracted. have been all day. maybe i'm just tired? i've had just two small inky tings to work on today, and haven't gotten myself to do them. at all. have the documents open my computer, and i keep staring at them (or rather, minimizing the window and surfing the internet and then realizing i should be working, start staring at the screen, and then start the whole process over again...)
did manage to eat a bowlful of yummy cherries, though. :) quite a (satisfying!) accomplishment!
yum.

gana ghana (i hope!)

so since ticolandia is leaving world cup germany after the first round, and cameroon somehow didn't quite make it (due to politics and prejudice, not to lack of talent, according to patrik... hmm... orgulloso? un poco!) i have come to support another small, odds-are-against-it country, thanks to the very enthusiastic crowd of ghanians at the world centre :)

ghana plays the u.s. tonight, and i have no remorse for supporting a country whose passport i do not posses over a country whose passport i do! there are about ten ghanians serving here, all who dress up in green, red and yellow to watch their country play, and you can hear them cheer three blocks away :D feels like home!

patrik and i will watch the game in the quite-crowded living room of a friend with cable, along with all the other ghanians and wanna-be ghanians, in ghana's chance to make it to the second round... it lost one game and won another, so has to win tonight (or a very lucky draw depending on how the other teams in its group play tonight)... fingers crossed {x}

visavis(a)

yesterday was the second big step in patrik's visa process for the states... the first being a crazy stressful trip to tel aviv for petition for an application for a visa (ooh, yes, you have to apply to even apply... so much paperwork!!!! and money... erg.) anyway, yesterday we went to herziliya (about an hour away) for his medical exam, which can only be done at one of two doctors in all of israel approved by the embassy... getting there we didn't realize we had to transfer to another train halfway there (i'm sure the announcements coming through the speakers said as much, but speaking only three words of hebrew, we didn't quite get the message)... luckily some guy came by to check our tickets and told us we had to get off the train and go "under the ground" the the other platform to catch another train... once we got to herziliya, we gave the taxi driver the address of the doctor's office, and he spent the next 20 minutes asking all the other taxi drivers and even the central office where the street was... ends up 9 ben shalom street is this tiny little culdesac in the suburbs, so he finally figured out how to get there... at the doctor's office, patrik had blood drawn for an hiv test, a vaccination, and then we were told to walk to the x-ray place (through the neighborhood and through a construction site to a very shady looking building), where they x-rayed his chest to check for TB, and then went back to the same doctor's office for the "complete physical exam"... which consisted of the doctor asking patrik "do you have any medical problems?" "no" "good". took his blood pressure and our 350 bucks, and patrik was given a clean bill of health. hmm. seems like a money-making conspiracy between the doctor and the embassy to me, but whatever it takes to get the visa... next adventure is the actual visa interview on 11 july... send happy victory thoughts!!!!

missing the grrrs...

this here is the grrs (pluralized for extra plumptiousness), cuteness catified.

trying to figure out where to go from here, and what we'll do when we get there. not much time left, just about six weeks til we board a plane to... la? abq? douala? san jose? it's out of our hands at this point, which means there's no worrying to be done, just trying to enjoy every bit of haifa and bahji while we can... we got all nostalgicos last night, realizing how much we'd miss being here. patrik especially, he's been here twice as long as me... but at the same time, we're so excited about what's to come (even the uncertainty of it all!) :D

anyway, missing the grrs and all the ones i love to hug who are an ocean away...

randomness yet again :)

blog has returned from holiday, slightly refreshed :)

just to clarify, blog being on holiday was simply a reflection of my laziness to post anything, not of any holiday-taking by me and patrik! ;)

here are some random shots from the last few... days?

weeks?

months?

oh dear.

(mostly in chronological order... teehee!)

three generations

when mamita and mormor were here for the wedding, mormor was so proud to say to everyone we met "look! three generations!"... and funnily enough, we weren't the only ones :D my sweet office-mate sherri also had her mom and grandma visiting, so we took a three generations shot at the bahji visitor's centre on the 1st day of ridvan ~*~

9th day of Ridvan

with carole and matthew just a few days before na'im was born... going to see them tonight after staying away for more than a week cuz of a nasty cold that had me home sick forever...

marriage class

patrik and i are in a weekly class with other young newly-weds that discusses marriage from a baha'i perspective... we went out to dinner one night with all of them... here's arjang (persian from australia) and tazien (persian from india) sitting across from eachother, francis (philippines) and nica (persian from canada) on the left followed by shadman (persian from australia) and radostina (bulgaria)... on the right are us and leila (persian/new zealander) and shaun (u.s.)... great fun :D

el equipo eleanor

sherri, joanna and i all assist the same secretary-aide... when we're not laughing and joking around... jejeje... missing from the photos is bita, who's here for a few months to help out while replacements for sherri and me are found... these were taken at the declaration of the Bab celebration, my last holy day here in haifa (*sigh*)

also that night, managed to get a shot with yas, and shastri, quien se colo a la foto to add some ethnic flair... jejeje

faranak, gilberto and sofia were just here on pilgrimage, which was so much fun (i mean, spiritual...) and coming soon are the stern-sapads from albuquerque and then andrew and anamargarita!!! more fun to be had! hopefully faranak will post some photos on her blog (she took lots, i took none, as usual!) we did lots of stuff... zoo, beach, movies... like i said, a very spiritual time :)

... blog on holiday ...

:)

congratulations!!

my dear friends sjona and jason got married on saturday!!! congratulations-- i heard it was a great party! i wish i could have been there!

~ big hugs ~

dia de la madre

introducing...

~*~ Na'im Mendoua Udziela ~*~

born on friday morning on the 5th of may at around 5 in the morning (05/05 at 05:00)!
mi sobrinito!

oh yeah, the bachelorette party!

and so, since there is now someone to admire things like favorite rocketship underpants (or otherwise lovely underthings!), my friends threw me a bachelorette party the week before the wedding... :D

the very pink bachelorette throne :)

negar, jamak and yas...

sahba, parwane, stephanie...

joanna, carolina, emem

johanna, sherri, julie...

c'est fini!

last wednesday we had our last book 6 session at our new flat with pasta dinner and happy smiling faces... or rather, "are you done YET?" faces, as seen below... i guess it was about time to wrap up the book... ;)
they say bumping heads is a sign of true love... arjang and tazien both reaching for rose petals that fell out of the prayer book :) married a few months ago!
the happy smiling faces of relieved ruhi-ers, ready to teach (or not, i guess, since we're in israel!), already planning what they will do with their now free wednesday nights! :D
and a cute pic of patrik, for good measure :)