B is for Beginnings, Baseball, Burnt Baby Back Ribs, and Banana Bread

Today was the first Saturday in months that all we had planned to do was go to Nathan's baseball game! We all look forward to watching Nathan play. He is doing GREAT and improving each week. During the game Alexis, Aidan, and Noelle explore the surrounding woods while checking back in to see how their brother is doing and watching the game for a bit before returning to explore some more.

After the game we ate leftover T-bone steaks from our Friday night dinner! Nathan had requested T-bone steaks so I picked some up on Friday and we grilled the steaks and had some corn, baked potatoes, and watermelon to go with them. Back to today. We enjoyed our lunch and then begin preparing for our move in December. We decluttered a closet and have begun the process of eliminating things that we don't want to store for 16 months while we live in Nepal.

Here is a picture of our newly organized closet.

As you can see we have lots of room now and plan to add some shelving to house our surplus of paper towels, toilet paper, and storage bags, etc.

Our container garden is Beginning to grow! We will soon be enjoying tomatoes, squash, watermelon, chives, dill, and peppers. We are already enjoying cilantro and some small but sweet strawberries. Here are some pictures of our garden.

Tonight for dinner we grilled some ribs and we were five minutes from taking them off the grill and I was playing the piano and Michael was reading something online when all ofa sudden flames and smoke filled the grill. Michael ran and rescued two of our racks of baby back ribs but we lost one to the fire.

Here is a sad picture!

After dinner everyone got a bath or a shower and then we watched a movie together and ate banana bread!

Here is Noelle after her bath.

Here is the banana bread finished in the oven and here is the banana bread after it got its caramel nut topping!

Here is a brief introduction regarding our Journey to Nepal...

Michael says...An assignment as a Foreign Area Officer (FAO) is both political and diplomatic. Within an embassy most of the departments of the Executive Branch are represented, under the Ambassador who can either be a political appointee or a career diplomat of the State Department. The FAO may have several jobs, including Defense Attaché or Advise and Assist. Both involve close contact with the host countries military, either training them or selling them equipment.

Our assignment to Nepal is stage 2 of our training for me to be a FAO. I will be attending the Nepalese Army’s Command and General Staff College (http://www.nepalarmy.mil.np/ ). We will also be expected to learn to be a part of the embassy community and the larger ex-pat community in Kathmandu. We will also travel to all the countries in the region for which I may someday be responsible, including; India, Bhutan, the Maldives, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. In total, I expect us to be gone 14-16 months.

Here is a picture of one of our recent purchases to prepare us for the low quality of water to ensure our family has adequate and safe drinking water. We have had friends come into our house and immediately say what in the world is that...well it is a free standing water filtration system that will remove everything up to and including flouride and food coloring. You can literally use any untreated water in the world except sea water.

Well, the final B for the day is Bed! Goodnight my friends.