The Mouse Family Blog

We had gotten an email in advance letting us know about the Christmas celebration that the kids staff of our church had organized. In addition to fun crafts and lessons about Jesus' birth during Sunday school, there was going to be a live nativity with Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and...

SHEEP!

Lauren loves sheep. She loves her "sheepy" stuffed animal, loves saying "baaa!" and loves pointing out sheep in books, etc. So the whole ride to church we talked about meeting the real sheep. Lauren was very excited about this and stated that she was going to, among other things, hold sheepy's hand. She obviously wasn't factoring in that real sheep are bigger than she is.

As you can guess, she was pretty shy of the sheep when we got close and needed to be clinging to mommy or daddy to get near them. She didn't even venture out a hand for a tentative pat. But the minute we said goodbye to the sheep and walked away she was asking for them again. Maybe there will be petting next year.

Just call 1-800-elvis-it and crew of pint sized Kings will be dropped off at your house with vacuum cleaners and baby wipes. Some may or may not be wearing jump suits and sunglasses. Some may only be able to crawl (they do a good job dusting floors).

And as you can see in recent posts, Lauren has been getting a lot of wear out of her red suit in these days leading up to Christmas.

Lauren,
I don't think this qualifies as "I'm just looking."

Lauren and Trinity rocked out on the plastic bowls in our kid friendly section of the kitchen with chop stick drum sticks.

The windy weather on Saturday gave-way to bitter cold on Monday, followed by a snow today with temperatures in the 30's. It was a perfect opportunity for a little time in the snow.

Lauren *loved* every minute of it. We played outside, tossing snow in the air and making snowballs. Whenever Lauren got snow on her face, she would say "I need a kiss," which was my cue to kiss the snow off her face.

Probably Lauren's favorite part was the opportunity to take bites out of her snowball. She ate about half a baseball-sized ball, and would have kept going if I'd have let her.

The Lord only knows how long she'd have stayed out there if I'd have let her. After twenty minutes of trying to ply her with reasons to go inside, I finally just had to make the call. She cried pitifully and pleaded for "More snow? I need more snow!" I'd say we have a very warm-natured little girl.

Labels: Movies

They're back for another round this year.

Labels: Movies

Now that our travels are out of the way, it’s time to get into the Christmas spirit around the Mouse House.

We kind of put our plans into overdrive, because we wanted the opportunity to celebrate with Clark and Ann before they leave on Tuesday morning.

Liz and Clark picked out a nice tree for us during the day, and it was all set to be decorated by the time Jace got home. Lauren had a lot of fun playing with…Christmas Lights! She also enjoyed a couple rounds with the ribbons, bells and various ornaments. We put a set of non breakable ornaments near the bottom, and Lauren has been rather well-mannered with them so far. We’ll have to see how those hold-up.

One thing that is *never* going to work is having gifts under the tree. Lauren has already proven to be quite adept at unwrapping!

Merry Christmas!

We made it home this evening, following an uneventful flight through Istanbul.



It was great to see Lauren (as well as Ann and Clark) again. We arrived home just as Lauren was getting up from her nap. She didn't say much at first, since she was still sleepy. She just moved between Mommy and Daddy's arms with a giant smile on her face.

As she woke up, she was back to her usual self -- running around the house giving hugs and kisses and saying "Chase me, Daddy!" and "Toss me, Daddy!" and "Look at me (being tossed), Mommy!"

We were expecting a little bit of separation anxiety while we were away, and hoping it wouldn't be *a lot*. However, we were blessed to find that Lauren didn't mind our absence much, even after our webcam chats -- though Clark did capture a picture of her looking inside the computer/tv cabinet wondering "Are Mommy and Daddy in there?"

I did notice that Lauren has been especially affectionate, with lots of hugs and kisses -- both spontaneous and on request -- which is a bit unusual for Lauren. We hope that practice is here to stay! :)

It was such a huge blessing for Clark and Ann to be willing to come up to windy and cold Chicago to stay with Lauren so we could take this trip! Lauren loved, loved, loved spending all the time playing with Grandma and Papa. (Don't worry Grandma Saundra and Grandpa Leslie, Lauren will be seen you soon, too!)

Tonight will be a fun night in, as we decorate a Christmas tree together with Clark and Ann before they leave on Tuesday.

Labels: Turkey

Another awesome day touring around. Today, we visited Ephesus, to whom the biblical book of Ephesians was written, and the most lavish and important Roman city in all of Asia.

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It was a great day full of tons of interesting sights, but that will have to wait for another day. We can't wait to see Lauren and start boring all our friends with pictures and stories from the trip.

Here's a photo from Ephesus, the library in the background.

Labels: Turkey

Over tea the other day, our guide commented about how inefficient our remaining travel plans were. He got to talking with Jackson and Donna and they figured out a way to cover more ground in our remaining days. So we set-out at 6am this morning for 14 hours of driving and traveling. This adjustment allowed us to stop by all seven churches that are mentioned in the book of revelation, which is kind of interesting.

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This allowed us to start with the city of Philadelphia. The city has continued to prosper, meaning it has been built on top of most of the original buildings. However, the early Christian church is one of the only sites that was protected, so we stopped for a quick visit.


From there, we traveled on to Sardis. This city has undergone a massive excavation and restoration, due to a lifelong quest of one Harvard professor. The resulted in the discovery of a very large Jewish synagogue, including the “micvah” used to cleans oneself before worship, a number of elaborate mosaic floors, and a magnificent Roman gymnasium, where Roman citizens – with many hours of leisure due to the large slave populations – came to maintain their physical fitness. Like other Roman cities, the gymnasium is adjacent to a large collection of Roman baths. Sardis is an extremely large city – I’d guess it covers three square miles.




Another part of Sardis contains the world renowned “Temple of Artimus.” The columns are massive – as big as any Redwood tree, taking five people to reach around them. Tons of photographic opportunities here, but none do a good job of conveying the shear scale.




From there, we passed through another of the seven cities, Thyatira. This city has continued to grow as well, leaving nothing but the ancient church grounds. We stopped only briefly.

We used the rest of the sunlight today to explore ancient Pergamum, another of the seven cities in Revelation. This is a large city built on the top of a mountain, and spilling down into the valley below where the modern day city still prospers. We started at the top the check-out the temple to Athena, their theater, and the Alter of Zeus. There’s isn’t much left of the alter – when Germany conducted the excavation earlier this century, they (to hear our guide tell the story) got permission from the Sultan to take “some bits of marble” back with them to Berlin. The very large temple is now on display in a museum there. Since we were doing well on time, our guide suggested that we take the rare opportunity to hike down to the valley, through the rest of the city ruins. That was an incredible hike, and revealed just how much potential for excavation there is in this country.







After Pergamum, we drove through Smyrna, another of the seven, without stopping since nothing remains from the early period. After another hour on the road, we pulled into a large resort overlooking the Mediterranean. Tomorrow, we awake at six a.m. to get an early start on our last full day in Turkey.

Labels: Turkey

This was another busy day in our tour of Turkey.

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We started today by driving inward from the coast. Our first trip was to the location of Colossae, to whom the book of Colossians was written, where Paul helps them sort-out the character of Jesus – whether he was an ordinary man who attained spiritual enlightenment or whether Jesus was actually God, as Jesus claimed. Not much remains of the city today, just another raised “tell” where the city was built and re-built over successive generations. Still Jackson did a good job of explaining things and making it relevant. It’s also interesting to catch little hints as to what might lay under the surface, waiting to be excavated. Drop a rock to the ground, and you hear a distinctly hollow “thud.” Walk past a rocky outcropping, and you realize those rocks are actually part of a building’s wall – it’s all kind of surreal.



From there, we traveled to the town of Laodacia, a massive Roman city built along a major trade crossroads known for banking, clothes of glossy black wool, and a special eye cream for ophthalmological use. The city is laid out with a very long street, flanked by covered sidewalks on other side, and lined with marble columns that would have been adorned with statues. History tells us that the city was so wealthy that when a major earthquake struck in 60 A.D., the citizens informed Rome that that city would fund the full rebuilding themselves. Despite their wealth, the city lacked one key thing – a nearby source of water. Instead, they had to rely on aqueducts to send water from hot springs in an adjacent valley. For this reason, the water was only lukewarm by the time it reached the city and prone in cause vomiting due to its mineral properties. This lead to the city’s eventual decline once the trade routes closed down.

Laodacia is also mentioned in the Bible and I’m starting to see things in a whole new light. It starts to make a ton of sense when Jesus says “You are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” and (loosely translated) goes on to say “For you say, ‘I am rich and have need of nothing.’ Instead, you should buy from Jesus….white garments so you don’t have to be ashamed…and salve that you may see.” Before visiting this place, I thought all that language was just artful prose – I never knew it would have such a literal meaning to the people living here.





One of the interesting things we saw here was a column that had Jewish carvings, with Christian cross extending from it. The guide said this was indicative of people identifying their Christian views with their Jewish heritage. It’s interesting to see things like this, dating back to a time when the two faiths didn’t feel so different.


After Laodacia, we headed to the next valley. What I thought was a large modern-day quarry turned out to be something quite different…hot mineral springs, covered in chalky white calcium deposits! This site, called Hierapolis, was a popular destination for injured Roman soldiers, where they could rest and heal. As the water cools, the calcium deposits solidify and coat the rock in a white chalk. When the rock is left exposed to the air, it takes on yellow and red hues.


This is also the site of an elaborate church, where an early Christian was martyred for failing to pay honor to the Roman emperor as deity (in the years prior to the Roman emperor becoming Christian). At that time, there was a large statue of the emperor at the city gate, and everyone who passed was to stop and pay their respects. While returning from a wedding in Laodicea, this martyr tried to avoid the situation by walking around the gate. The soldiers took notice. Years later, following the Christian conversion of the Roman emperor, a large church was built in this martyr’s honor. I managed to capture a few photos of this gate.


As you might expect, not all of these soldiers who came here got better and there is a massive graveyard of elaborate burial chambers here as well. Unfortunately, the light was fading and I wasn’t able to get any photos of this area.

Labels: Turkey

Greetings form the southern coast. We had a great day today, just relaxing before starting the hectic final leg of our trip.


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We spent the day in Antalia, having arrived overnight to our hotel. We started the morning with a trip to see an ancient Roman road near the city. The road was in various stages of disrepair, so we got to appreciate the different levels of preparation that went into it -- starting with a sandy base, moving up to gravel, and larger rocks, and then broad pavers. The area also had an interesting bathtub, where Liz stopped to pose. We later learned that this was actually an ancient burial sarcophagus.


After our trek, we wandered around the town of Antalia. The weather was fantastic; very much like San Diego. We strolled along the harbor and shops, took the rail car back to the beachfront where we sat and enjoyed the sunset over Turkish tea before returning to our hotel.


For dinner, we've been sampling some of the local wine, which is actually quite good! This is the view of sunrise from our hotel room, looking eastward along the train line that leads to the harbor and downtown. This city is very, very nice. We wish we would have made more time here and would definitely return here for another visit.

Labels: Turkey

We had a nice treat tonight. Our hotel here in Turkey offered enough bandwidth to be able to video chat with Lauren! It was great to see her and talk with her -- especially when we got to hear her sing Jingle Bells.

She seems to be having an absolute blast with Grandma and Papa Gieseke, and we're happy to see that she has no separation anxiety -- even when we talk to her over the phone (via Skype, for free, which is cool).

Here's a pic of her getting into the Christmas spirit with the Gieseke's. You can see the video over here.

We had another full day, making our way toward the southern coast of Turkey.…the warmer and more luxurious coast of Turkey, much to Liz’s delight. That’s a welcome relief after our stay in “the best hotel in Egirdir,” which turned to be the only hotel in Egirdir and not a very clean one, at that. On the bright side, we awoke to (a Muslim call to prayer at 5am and) gorgeous lakeside views along a beautiful lake nestled in the Taurus mountains. From there, we began to wind our way over the mountains and down to the warmer coastal side -- looked just like Colorado; beautiful.

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Our first stop was at the ruins of a city called Perge. Perge was founded around 1000 BC, located about 20 kilometers inland to avoid the reach of roaming pirates in the region. The apostle Paul and Barnabas wrote in the book of Acts about their visit to Perge. Perge has a interesting collection of Roman baths, but an even more interesting part of the city is the market square that contains a large platform where slaves would have been displayed for auction. In the book of Romans, Paul writes to believers about being “slaves to sin” or “slaves to righteousness,” and it’s interesting to think he might have stood on this same platform and shared that perspective. Imagine being there to hear that – how firmly would that concept have resonated?!


While at Perge, Jackson shared some insights from the book of Acts. This is the city where Acts tells of Paul and John Mark – apparently having a major theological disagreement of some sort – parting ways. But later, toward the end of Paul’s life, Paul writes in a letter asking that John Mark come to visit him, “as he is useful to me in my ministry.” That tells us something about the redemptive nature of early Christianity – that John Mark could, even many years later, come to see the error of his views and reconcile with Paul, much like we reconcile with Christ.

After Perga, we traveled on to Aspendos. We had a great lunch along the river – fresh fish from a balcony that hangs-out over the river. Afterward, we stopped at a nearby aqueduct – again, no fences, not rules; just try not to bump into the foundation while you’re driving up to it.



That aqueduct fed the large city of Pega, where we saw one of the best preserved Roman theaters anywhere in the world. Not only does it have most of the seats and upper walls intact, but also the large back wall. The scale is mind boggling. Here’s an interesting tip. It’s easy to tell the population of any Roman city you visit. Just count the seats in the theater. The Romans always designed their theaters to hold 1/10th of the local population. Legend has it that Perga owes its amazing aqueduct and theater to the presiding official in the city, who offered his daughter’s hand to whoever completed the most amazing public work. The theater builder won. That makes sense to me…if you’re the king, having 15,000 people applaud you is a whole lot more thrilling than having 15,000 drinking water.






Afterward, we visited the coastal city of Side', before driving to Antalya for a night at a nice beach-side five-star hotel.


Side' and the rest of the Turkish coast is much more crowded than the interior of the country. However, they see virtually no Americans. They kept mistaking us for Polish or German. By “much more crowded,” I mean the sites we’re visiting are no longer completely deserted. We occasionally have to contend with – gasp – another visitor or two on-site. I love traveling in the off-season!

Labels: Turkey

I've been put to work!

Washing windows, sweeping, and shoveling snow! I seem to really enjoy being able to do grown-up things.

We started the morning by driving through the region of Galatia, which is the region that the apostle Paul wrote the book of Galatians to. We passed another caravan stronghold and stopped to have a look. This one consisted of two buildings -- and original small building that would hold about 15 modern cars, and a later larger structure that would hold about 40. The newer structure was being "restored" to the point that it really doesn't look very original -- but the original stronghold was still unaltered and made for some interesting photos.


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It's all very mind blowing to encounter these things. Here's this historical site, one that predates the creation of our country by about 2000 years, and you just stop on the side of the road and walk up. No fences, no signs, no gates, no rules.. You just drop in, have a look, and hope that the ceiling doesn't cave in while you're there.



After driving during the morning, we spent the afternoon touring Anticoh of Pisidia.

Antioch means "City of the King" and so there tended to be one in each of the provinces. This is one of the cities that the Apostle Paul visited in his journeys. There's not much left of the original city, but the University of Michigan has been doing major archeological research in the region. The main roads have been uncovered, which consist of large 2'x3' marble "bricks." It's interesting to realize that Paul must have stepped on some of the same blocks I'm stepping on.

Labels: Turkey