LOTS to post.

Well, we've returned from 2 1/2 weeks of being away from Fort Worth. We've taken LOTS of pictures and have many stories to tell. We left Fort Worth the morning of the 12th around 10:40, bound to Antalya, Turkey. We arrived there about 20 hours later. We were in Turkey until the 20th, then flew to Virginia Beach to spend a week with 21 Audis! The last day and a half we celebrated our 1st anniversary. Now for the posts... :-)

July 29, 2007...

On July 29, 2006, following our very first kiss, Jim pronounced us Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Audi!

One year later, we find ourselves in the midst of continuing to fall in love with each other, learning more and more about unconditional love, learning that being quick to forgive is absolutely essential in marriage, learning that sitting with our Savior is also essential to our marriage - it's in Him that we find love, joy, forgiveness, patience, etc. If we're not connected to Him and being filled by Him, we're trying to live life and live out our marriage on our own strength...and that can get ugly! ;-) However, when we are both seeking Jesus, He fills us to overflowing and out of that overflow are we then able to display the fruit of the spirit to one another...ahhhhh, the great lessons we are learning!

Immediately following our family vacation, we rode up to D.C. with Daniel's parents who dropped us off at our lovely bed and breakfast, the Swann House in Dupont Circle. We spent the eve of our one year anniversary there. Isn't it exquisite? - We thought so!! The house hosts were so friendly and helped give us tips on the area.

We hung out at the Washington zoo that afternoon, then went to a nice Italian place tucked away on "U" Street for our anniversary dinner. The next day, on our actual anniversary, we walked around the many monuments in D.C. Wow...such rich history! (Well, for what brief history we have here in our 231 year old country.) We saw the Washington monument as seen from the Lincoln Memorial, the wall commemorating the Vietnam veterans, the White House, the Jefferson Memorial, a newer memorial in honor of World War II, and this really interesting statue called the Awakening Statue at Hane's Point. Check it out! It's of a man whose body is buried half way in the ground and he's trying to free himself from the ground. Not sure of the thoughts behind it all, but it makes for interesting pictures...and as you can tell by our blog, Daniel and I are all about pictures!

Our anniversary concluded on a plane that took us back to Fort Worth Ahh...nothing like home sweet home and the joy of celebrating one year of marriage to finish off those 17 days! Maybe we could write a book - from Fort Worth to Antalya to Virginia Beach to Washington, D.C. to Fort Worth in 17 days. Think it would be a top seller?

Sandbridge Vacation with the Audis

Yep, all 21 of us Audis hung out for an entire week, immed-iately following our time in Turkey, for a family vacation. You would think that 21 people in one house would be a bit chlostrophobic. However, Becky and Laura, Daniel's sisters, found a great big house with plenty of space for all of us and there was no hint of chlostrophobia at all! As a matter of fact, the time was incredibly fun, relaxing, Our 8 bedroom (5 of which you could step out of your bedroom onto a balcony/porch), 6 1/2 bath, sunroom, game room, large family room, small family room, small sitting area, private pool in the backyard, beach across the street house was big enough and spacious enough to accomodate all of us!

We swam in the beach and in the pool,

buried "Uncle Danny" in the sand,

worked puzzles,

played pool,

hung out in on the balcony and looked out onto the Atlantic Ocean,

played sand volleyball,

made a human pyramid on the beach,

went boogie-boarding,

played incredibly competitive games of Settlers' of Catan,

shared meals together,

walked the boardwalk at Virginia Beach,

Daniel was attacked by a crab!

and saw this incredibly strange sign. Does it mean, no profanity?!!??!

Turkey - us.

Turkey - sights.

Tourist area - many trinkets to choose from, many tapestries, many decorative items for the house, and many men saying, "Welcome to my store pretty lady. I have anything you want to buy!"


Backgammon - a favorite game of Turks!







A picture of a neighborhood and its mosque.








This is the view from the balcony of the team's office building.


The old harbor - it's likely that Paul and Barnabas sailed into this harbor.









Many homes are brightly painted - you could mistakenly think you're in Mexico!





Ever seen this at a beach in America? - a covered woman wearing her scarf, a long-sleeve shirt and pants in the water!!


The Mediterranean Sea - breath-taking!








Turkey is very patriotic - Turkish flags and pictures of Attaturk are everywhere!







Reminants of the designs on a church that used to meet in the mountains near Antalya years and years ago. They met near the "eternal flames".


The "eternal flames" - an area in the mountains where natural gas has been burning for over 2000 years.

Turkey - food.

There are fresh fruit/vegetable markets EVERYWHERE in Turkey! They were everywhere in Egypt too! It was definitely something I missed when I moved back to the States after having lived in Egypt. In Antalya, some of the markets are 'traveling' markets. They are in one part of the city one day, another part of the city another day, etc.

This is the pazar (market) in Jim and DeeAnn's village. It comes on Saturday mornings until around noon. Then the folks pack up and travel to another village for the afternoon.

These two pictures are from Izehi and Dania's pazar (market). It comes on Thursday afternoons.

mmm... fresh spinach and parsley! ...and big, beautiful grapes! Don't you agree that we should have something like this in America? It's convenient and most of all, it's fresh!
Tavuk (chicken) spinning on a rod in the open air. Tavuk doners (chicken snadwiches) are a popular food item. There's chicken, cucumber, tomato, and a slice of cheese inside of these sandwiches. I guess you just have to get over the fact that the meat you are eating has been spinning around in the open air just before it's sliced off and put into your sandwich!
And a discovery the Reynolds introduced us to on our first day in Antalya - TWISTERS! These are ice cream bars that have a juicy fruit ice cream bar in the center with swirls of pistaccio and lime flavors wrapped around it. It's like a fresh sherbert on a bar! SOOOO good!

Turkey - friends.

We spent the week at Jim and DeeAnn's, on the 3rd floor of their home in the village. We slept on a matress atop the unused pool table. A girl who lived with them a few months ago named the bed the "princess bed" because of its loftiness from the ground! We had fun spending time with the Reynolds family, Dania, and Izehi. Here we are with our friends in Antalya!

We worked on this puzzle all week! We were so proud to finally finally finish it!!



Reunited in Antalya! Jim has been a good friend of Daniel's for years now. Daniel was really looking forward to getting to see Jim!

Check out the awesome view of the Mediter- ranean and the mountains from Izehi and Dania's apartment in Meltem.


Kiddos, kiddos, kiddos! We really enjoyed being with the Reynolds' little ones.

3 big events!

EVENT # UNO: So, Daniel and I board a plane in just 5 hours to go to Antalya, Turkey today! I guess it'll feel real either, 1. when we're on that never-ending flight over the Atlantic Ocean or 2. when we get off the plane in Antalya and every word I hear is foreign to my ears (except for the few words I might know, since the Turkish language borrowed some words from Arabic!) We've been praying about moving to Antalya and decided to go for a week's visit to seek the Lord there together. You can pray along with us for peace in the Spirit, clear direction from the Father, unity of mine and Daniel's hearts, good communication with friends there and with one another, protection of our marriage from schemes of the enemy while we're in this intense decision-making time!

EVENT # DOS: July 20 we'll fly back to the States and spend a little time with an friend of Daniel's from college and two friends of mine from Egypt. Then on the 21st we'll join all 21 Audis in Virgina Beach for a lovely week on the beach! Ah....relaxing on the beach. Well, we have 8 nieces and nephews, so I'm sure we'll relax some, but there will definitely be a lot of energy around us! ;-)

EVENT #TRES: OUR ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! Daniel is taking me to a swanky bed & breakfast in D.C. for our anniversary. Of course all that we've seen are pictures and descriptions from the website, but it looks awesome!!! It's hard to believe that we've been married for a year! The Lord has been so faithful to us in teaching us more and more about ourselves and drawing us closer to each other, teaching us to understand each other better, as He's drawn us closer to Himself. Thank you, Lord!

weekend in Ruston.

Molly's shower on Saturday morning.

Audrey Melinda Stone will arrive sometime in mid-August, and my high school best friends and I got to give Molly a baby shower this weekend. It's the first time since our wedding that all 4 of us have been together! She got great gifts and we had much fun catching up!

Saturday afternoon fun in the pool.

Jenny and Meredith came up for the weekend to visit as well. We spent the afternoon with my mamaw and papaw and family at the pool. Meredith seemed to really like laying on the mattress in the middle of the pool - and of course, she was the life of the party. Isn't my niece adorable???!?!?!!!

Meeting my newest 2nd cousin.

My cousins Laura and Jason had their 2nd little girl on June 14. We got to meet her this weekend. Her name is Allie.

Jen and Meredith head back to Baton Rouge.

We said good-bye to Jenny and Meredith mid-afternoon and they were on their way back to Baton Rouge. Thanks, Jenny, for making the trpi to see us! We love you and love Meredith. It's fun to watch her grow and learn new things!!

FIREWORKS

Anna's family invited us out to the camp to see fireworks Saturday night over the lake. Really pretty!!!

And we're off!

Some of you may or may not know of the passport issues here in the US lately. The passport office is really backed up, and Daniel and I have plans to travel to Turkey on July 12. We bought our tickets about 3 weeks ago. It wasn't until after we bought our tickets that we really were aware of the delay in receiving passports. We sent off our passports on May 2 and just didn't realize that May 2 may have potentially been too late to send off our passports and get them back before traveling on July 12. The passport office is now saying there is a 10-12 week turn around instead of the normal 6-8 week turn around. Well, since we had already bought our tickets and couldn't do much to change our circumstances without help from the Lord, we began praying!!! And...we were given advice to call our congressman. God gives us brains to use and doesn't ask that we just sit around without being responsible. So, last week on Tuesday we contacted Congresswoman Kay Granger. She apparently is a woman with authority because 6 days later, we now have our passports in hand!! Hallelujah, God is good!!