13 days of Thankful

I know, I know, I am so behind on this thankful thing.  But the last two weeks have been a bit crazy.  It started out with a power outage.  This is not a unusual occurrence in Istanbul.  Just a part of life. That’s why we live in a complex with a generator. But this Friday, the generator seemed to be on the fritz.  It started about 3ish.  I was napping with Milly and the power kept going on and off.  I knew this because all the noises of everything rebooting in the house.  This went on and off for hours.  Blew our circuit breaker twice.  But finally it seemed to stop.  The kids got home and just as we were talking about dinner, full blown power outage.  Sigh.  So we lit candles and turned on flashlights.  The kids had a great time.  The generator booted up again.  And it seemed to be working.  So I thought I would start making dinner.  When I switched on the kitchen light, I blew the lights under one of the cabinets.  Then I noticed it was a little too bright.  And that when I turned my lights on my neighbor’s kitchen lights dimmed.  Hmm… power surges.  Great.  I turned the lights back off and called Joel.  He was going to have to pick up dinner.  He suggested I unplug everything but I could leave the TV in the living room on.  I just decided to turn it all off.  If it lasted too long we could just watch the laptop.  About that time, there was a mass exodus from the complex.  Turned out the new complex next door was the problem yet again.  The construction trucks had managed to collapse the concrete at the entrance damaging all the lines in the ground.  No idea when the  power would be back.  And no one knew what was wrong with the generator!

Finally around 9pm, the generator was repaired and working properly!  Yay!  It took till the next evening to get the power back on. And we find out that we were very lucky thru the surges, we are the only ones in the complex that didn’t lose some electronic device.  Our neighbors across from us lost 4 TVs!

Downside, our internet didn’t come back on.  UGH.  I have a bunch of stuff that needed to get done.  And I’m getting to old to be able to see anything on my iPhone.  LOL.  Finally, it came back but then we had other issues.  Our password was not working… blah blah.  Finally a new screen popped up and it log in!  Ya!  But it had completely reset the router.  And since its all in Turkish, I didn’t know if I could restore it or how to reset it up.  So I did what I could.  But because the router renamed itself, I had to reset everything wireless in the house.  Wow, we have a lot of it!  So now we are finally back online!

So day 8 – I am thankful for electricity and internet!

My in laws finally visited this past week.  I’m glad they could squeeze a visit in because Milly is already changing so much.  Joel even took two days off work.  We took them to the Grand Bazaar and Miniaturk.  Plus out to eat at some of our fav. places.  It was a nice week.  I was a little worried since they decided to stay in a hotel, but they did a good job handling taking a cab.  Well between the hotel and our security guard, it wasn’t too hard.

Day 9 – Thankfully for a stress free week with family

This past Sunday, we had Milly’s welcome party.  When I finished the invitations, the guest list was over 70!  I told Joel I think we need a bigger house!  Thankfully, it was a nice day and we could open the doors and use the patio.  About half the people came, which I’m kind of glad.  It was hard enough to socialize with everyone.  Even Joel had coworkers come from Izmit.  It was so nice to get to spend time with our friends.  Elly got to spend time with one of her BFF that has changed schools.  And Milly received so many lovely gifts.  Such a wonderful group of people we have met here.

Day 10 – I am thankful for friends old and new.  Without them I’m sure Istanbul would not be as wonderful

Day 11 -  I’m thankful I had someone else to help with setup, keeping food on the table and clean up afterwards!

Day 12 – I’m thankfully for the Korkmaz family, who has become our Turkish family.  They really make life so much easier for us here.

Day 13 – I’m thankful to my husband that works hard and puts up with the long commute everyday. 

Day 14 – continuing from 13 – that gives us the opportunity to spoil our kids rotten

Day 15 – I am grateful for our opportunities to travel.  Excited about Christmas in Barcelona!

Day 16 – I am thankfully for an awesome sister in law

Day 17 – I am thankful for my daily snuggle time with Milly.  It’s nice that even though she is #4, that she can have the attention that #1 got.

Day 18 – I am thankful for the nights that Milly sleeps 7 1/2 hours

Day 19 – I am thankful for the days that Joel get home from work early and I go pick up the girls from gymnastics alone.  40 minutes of me time!

Day 20 – I am thankful that it is middle of November and it is in the 60s today!