Kya is carrying water jugs here - we put her to work around here. : )
Every few days, Tim takes these to a truck right down the street
that visits daily dispersing water for us to drink,
wash produce in, cook with, etc.

October 14th, we celebrated our 8 year anniversary!
A couple from the OM team offered to watch the girls
so we could go out for dinner. Thanks, Matias and Sue. : )
Here, you see flowers from Tim, and a chocolate coffee cheesecake
made by Jamie for Tim. When we went out for dinner that night,
we walked to a restaurant about 1 mile away on a hill
overlooking Lushnje. Jamie wore high heels and by the time we
got there she already had blisters on both feet.
It's one thing to wear high heels in the States where you drive
everywhere. It's something else when you walk a mile away
on the broken uneven streets of Albania. The meal was interesting.
The soup we had was super rich and full of oil/butter.
Our next dish was cold veggies with potatoes and they were
literally swimming in oil there was so much in the plate.
Then we had the main course of fried chicken (which
was a little tough) and french fries. The bill was way
more than we had anticipated, but without menus it was
hard to know. On the way home, Jamie walked barefoot while I
held her shoes. We got a whole lot of stares on the way home
and we just had to laugh about the whole evening.
Maybe it wasn't the anniversary night out we had hoped for,
but it most certainly created a lasting memory for years to come.

Bugs get in the house regularly. Especially flies, bees, moths, and these - stink bugs.

Here's a little worship sample from our church. You can see
Kadence right in the first row from where Tim is filming.
Erna, an missionary here from Paraguay is holding her. There is no
childcare during services. We are so grateful for people like her
and others who have helped watch them and distract them so we
can enjoy the worship and hear the teaching sometimes.

A night out.
Our landlords took out the whole OM team for a nice dinner (pizza).
This restaurant is considered expensive by Albanians.
It's about $4-6 a pizza which feeds 1-2 people.

Yes, that's a worm in between two walnuts.
While preparing a salad, I (Jamie) was sifting through
the nuts to separate pieces of shell and little twiggy
things from the nuts we would eat. Unfortunately,
I was doing this in my hand when I saw our little friend
here writhing around. The nuts went flying and I had
the willies for about 10 minutes. I am really glad I
caught that before we put any in our salad!
While I'm on the subject of food, I thought it would be
interesting to note some foods that are not here.
They just aren't anywhere. There a couple things
we can only get in the capital like taco dinner
packages and broccoli and canned beans. Here's some
specific things we miss that's not available concerning food:
Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch,
DiGiorno pizza, corn on the cob, berries of any kind,
pancake syrup, half and half or any kind of cream
that's refrigerated, chili powder, cheddar and
colby jack cheese, grainy bread, brownie mixes,
chocolate chips, raisins in a box that aren't hard
little rocks, sour cream, ricotta cheese, canned pumpkin,
cupcake liners, cooking spray, pecans, sliced turkey,
prerefrigerated milk (not in a box on the shelf),
iced coffee from Starbucks, Quiznos, Chilis, Subway,
IHOP, and Super Target. BUT, on the other hand,
we are VERY grateful because while talking to an
Albanian friend a couple days ago, she told us what it
was like during the Communism and how it was when
it fell and so many new things started coming in.
She remembers seeing a banana for the first time,
and they didn't know what it was or even how to eat it!!
Things have improved much since then!
They actually have more than I assumed
they would in coming here.

Here's Jamie with another woman on our team who is from Australia.
Then on the right is our language teacher.
She's also a good friend and great ping pong player.
Not one guy has beat her yet - including Tim. : )

These women are making a traditional Albanian drink called Raki
(with the ki stressed when you say it) That first container on the far
left is holding grapes that have been fermented for like 10 days or so.
The big container is holding water with a pipe running through it.
The liquid from the grapes drips into the pipe and you see it
come out the other side and drip into that plastic jug on the ground.
I (Tim) tried some and man was it strong! It left a weird sensation
in my throat for a while and they said not to drink too much
or I'd get drunk. I think I'll pass next time.

Kya is improving her drawing skills right now.
We have been working with her to draw faces.
This wonderful masterpiece is of Mommy and Kadence.
She was pretty proud of it. Mommy has grown
a little more facial hair since we moved here. :)

This couple is our landlords. There are three flats here,
we live on the third floor and they live on the second.
Their names are Ladi and Nico. One day I was walking up
the stairs and Ladi told me to come with him to the bottom.
He went around the corner and pulled a live chicken out
and butchered him right there. Lots of blood, which
I don't do so well with. Anyways, after the head stopped
flopping around and the blood stopped, they plucked him
and cooked him up. They brought some up the next afternoon
for us so we had a free lunch that day.

This ride is at a park about a four minute walk from our flat.
Kya loves this ride and this was Kadence's first time on it.
They also have a train ride, trampolines, and a gated play
area with swings, cars and toys. The rides cost about 65
cents apiece. It's a nice treat once in a while for the girls,
but if was up to Kya, she would go on it everyday. At the
end of the video, Kya is a concerned older sister saying,
"Daddy, she's not holding on." : )