Busy Busy Busy!

It's wedding season!

It has been a busy past few weeks here at Khane Tabatabaei!  Lots of guests and parties.  We finally found some bedroom furniture and a coffee table.  The most exciting purchase though, would be our new outdoor furniture.  It's so nice to sit on the patio and nap or watch the birds (as long as it's less than 100 degrees and the mosquitoes aren't out).  We recently stained our fence.  OMG... that was one big project!  Thank God our great friends and neighbors let us borrow their paint sprayer.  I don't plan on ever staining our fence again (even though the paint only lasts a few years), but the finished product sure does look nice!

Now that it's July we are preparing for my parents' visit later this week, my birthday next week, and Ramadan!  It will be the FIRST time ever that my parents are guests in MY house!  I'm so excited!

Ramadan is just around the corner.  We will be fasting from sun up to sun down.  By fasting, I mean we will abstain from eating food and drinking water, swearing, and we will try our very best to not become angry.  This is going to be one thirsty month!  Although Ramadan seems difficult, it really is rather enjoyable.  It is a time when we gather with our friends very often to break our fasts together and reflect on the work our awesome God is doing all around us.  It is as if our hearts are filled as our stomachs are emptied.  I am sure I will write more about Ramadan as the month begins, but for now I am going to re-fill my cup and enjoy every last drop!

I can't believe I am turning 28!  Where did the years go?  Wasn't it just last year that I was learning to ride my bike?  I distinctly remember taking my brother's little red, training-wheel-less bike down the street for a spin to show my best friend's Mom how I could ride the big-kid bike and crashing spectacularly into the electrical transformer in front of her house!  Come to think of it, I can still feel the giant bruise it left on my knee!  And then I remember a few months ago when I allowed my brother to push me down our friend's stairs while wrapped in a sleeping bag singing a crazy song about "careless stinkbugs" and swearing I enjoyed it...  I think I can still feel those bruises too!  Then there was the horse incident a few weeks ago, when a crazy lady asked me to touch my toes while I was riding a very tall horse and somehow I ended up on the ground, underneath the horse, with a broken arm... more bruises!  Ah yes, I remember last weekend I moved out of my parent's home which only left little bruises on my heart, and just yesterday I got married which thankfully, only left bruises on my heels from spending so much time celebrating, and here I am today in my own new home which insists on bruising me every time I walk into a wall (I really think the walls move themselves in front of me sometimes)!   Growing up bruises are the best though... they leave little marks so that one day you will remember what happened.  Little bruises that hold the stories of childhood and the teenage years.  They're really little reminders of life.  If you can feel the bruise, you can remember how it got there, and you're reminded that, thanks be to God, you are still alive!

Playing straw tug-of-war with my little friends!

Playing straw tug-of-war with my little friends!

It is HOT outside!

There is nothing better than getting your relax on!

The cutest little frog buddy!

Fun in the pool with some great new friends!

My second attempt at Tachine

Isn't she the cutest?

Persian style BBQ master... he gets a little carried away with the lighter fluid.

Key lime bars... oh sooo yummy!

Kashk-e-bademjan
Persian eggplant dip with mint, walnuts, and dried salted milk (Kashk)
I know Kashk sounds pretty gross, but I promise, this dip tastes amazing!