Love

We haven't forgotten our loved ones over here. And neither has Selah. In this installment, she reaffirms her love for Uncle Rex and Grandaddy.

Language Study

Recently, I have had a renewed zeal in my language study. For several months my language schedule has included 4 hours a week with a tutor and 9 hours a week in a formal course. I have recently added another tutor for 4 more hours per week. So in addition to my 17 hours of instruction, I try to spend time talking with folks in the community and doing my homework.

Laura is doing really well, too. She doesn't spend as much time as I do, but she makes up for it by meeting 3 times a week with a tutor who is legendary in our expat community of being a taskmaster. She goes fast and gives Laura tons of homework. I'm pretty sure Laura's vocabulary is bigger than mine.

I am supposed to be a translator this summer with some friends who will be coming to visit us, so I'm trying to step it up. These days, if you came by our apartment around 9.00 pm, you would most likely see a scene like this.

Selah's Moving Stability

Selah's feet are finally big enough to fit into her super fun squeaking shoes that Aunt Aleshia got her for Christmas. Here is the video of the first time that she wears them. It doesn't take her long to realized that there are squeakers built right into the heels, so each step yields a satisfying squeak.

Also, Selah is getting to be quite a climber. Today was the first day she has ever climbed up onto the couch. And my camera and I were there to document it.

**NOTE: I would have posted these sooner buy YouTube was blocked in our neck of the woods for about a week.

Sunny Day in the Park

The weather has been pretty consistently cold lately. Apparently, this winter is a good bit colder than last winter here, but yesterday it got up to 50. It was very sunny, too, so we went to a park down by the water. It was beautiful. Click here for more pics.

In other news, Laura and I are coming along with language learning. Of course, we feel that we've just scratched the surface, but we really have come a long way since we got here. It always makes us feel good when nationals ask us how many years we've lived here, and we just answer 7 months.

Snow!

Being from Houston, I think snow will probably always be a novelty for me. Here is a shot from our window of the park. Pretty, huh?

Milestones, Washing Machines, & Peekaboo

Recently, we hit a few nice milestones for MovingStability. In December, we achieved 10,000 views of the blog since last December, when we began tracking them. Every time I check the counter I'm always surprised at how many hits we've had. You can see how many people are reading the blog and even see where our readers live in the world by clicking on the map on the right. As you can see our friends live far and wide. Thanks for reading!

Also, the last post was our 100th post. I hope you've enjoyed them. And on to the fun...

A few weeks ago our washing machine began making a horrible sound during the spin cycle, so we knew it had to be serviced. I bought the machine from a friend and it still had some warranty left on it. But, of course, the warranty expired 3 months ago. So we called the manufacturer and they came out and took it back to their shop, because, despite his best efforts, the repairman could not fix it here.

Surprisingly, they called us the next day to say that it was ready and they were going to drop it back that evening. When they brought it in, I noticed something small was taped to the top of the machine. Afer they put the machine back in place, he pulled the taped item off the machine and handed it to me. "Here's your problem," he said. There was an incredibly mangled 25 cent piece. It was bent several ways and part of the effigy was completely scratched off. It looked like it had been through...well, a washing machine. That 25 cents cost me 70 bucks. Lesson learned.

Last but not least, here's some fresh Selah content for everyone. She is beginning to do things like this more and more. And she is walking more and more. It's still just weird to see her walk around the corner and look at me.