One Strange Night

First a little background about my old neighbor from Kamay Dr.- Fatima Terziqui.  They came to Idaho as refugees from the Kosovo/Serbian war in the late 90's.... and moved onto my street in about 2009. She didn't know anyone and didn't speak great English but her youngest kids (twins) and Brighton are the exact same age so we got to know one another. For a while I used to kind of avoid Fatima. She always needed help making a phone call, or a ride somewhere (she was scared to drive because they don't teach women to drive in Kosovo.) Or she needed help with the computer, etc.... Then one day I heard her knock on my door. I was pregnant and sick with Deacon, tired and just tired of helping her with everything but decided I better answer. (I think she saw me pull into my garage.) She used to watch for my car and then run over to talk to me while I was getting out of the car.  Anyway, I opened the door and I could tell she was upset. She said she needed help with Skype because her dad was very sick and possibly dying and she needed to say goodbye. (Most of her family was either in Kosovo, Turkey or Germany but they were all making their way back to Kosovo to help re-build the country after the war and reclaim their village.) All the sudden, Fatima became something else to me, instead of the needy neighbor she became a Daughter of God. I don't know why I hadn't thought of her as my sister in Christ before but it hit me so strongly that even though she called her God "Allah" He loved her JUST AS MUCH as he loves me and my earthly sisters. She was someone's sister, daughter, mother and she was alone in this strange country, all alone.  How would I want someone to treat my sister if she was all alone in a strange country?  I gladly helped her that day and most days thereafter and we actually became good friends. She just needed someone to talk to, someone to confide in, someone to make her feel not so alone.
  SO...back to the strange night. We've been off the street and in another neighborhood for about 8 months now but I've seen her several times since we moved. She called one day and invited me to a party they were throwing for their son. It was some kind of cultural party to celebrate the boy after he gets circumcised at age 7 or 8.  She insisted we come and that it was very important for us to come. Well, we were the only non Albanian family at the party. The party was catered by an Iraqi family. Everyone was dressed in super formal clothing and the family probably spent an entire month's salary (or more) on this party. The father makes beds at the hospital overnight and Fatima works at Little Caesars. They rented a Hummer limo for an hour and took the kids on a ride, and brought in an Albanian DJ from Nevada. I could tell what a source of pride this party was for the family. The crazy part was when the women got up to dance...and never stopped. They did this dance, or a similar version all night! They stood in a circle, held hands and walked around the circle, two steps forward, one step back. ALL NIGHT. I quickly caught on and it was actually funner than it looked! But not in 4 inch heels. The more the men drank, the louder it got! All I can say it was quite an experience!

October Utah trip

In October, Brighton had a couple days off school and Aaron was in the throws of his busy season, so I decided to make a trip to Utah to see friends and family.
We seriously packed in the fun!
We spent a good part of one day at the Gardner Village witch festival, which my kids loved. We did this little scavenger hunt to find all the witches (All for a 50 cent sugar cookie.) Then there was this witch playground and Brighton seriously bonded with a witch named Trixie.

This picture made me laugh when I looked at it after we got home because Brighton looks like the witch! They're making the same face and are missing the same teeth!! Brighton had no idea she was mimicking the witch.

All the "little" Hale grandkids.

Pretending to be scared. :)

 

We also spent some time at the Salt Lake City children's museum. It's right below my brother-in-law's work, so Lynzi has a season pass. My kids loved it there.

 

I talked everyone into going to Lagoon for Frightmares because I'd never been and I'm a total little kid when it comes to Lagoon. I love it.
  Tami and her girls came from Wyoming and I even met some of my Meridian friends there for part of the time. Also, my cousin Shane, his wife Kathy and their girls met us there because they have season passes. :) At first I had to talk Brighton into doing some of the rides. Then she went off with her older cousins and did all the scariest rides! I was sad I missed it but glad she did it!  For sure the highlight of the trip, even though it was a long day!

These two are SO cute together. I couldn't stop taking pictures of them.