Yesterday we celebrated our 16^th wedding anniversary. We actually met 21 years ago. That is more than 2 decades! Wow the time has flown. On Thursday when Cody got home from work we went for a walk and ended up at a beautiful nursery where he wanted to take me to pick out a bunch of flowers to plant as a gift. We didn’t do this because we have no residency permits yet and didn’t want to spend the money if we don’t get more permanent visas. It was a nice visionary visit though. The place is laid out beautifully with different sections and in one section they had a cage with about 40 finches inside. Noah thought those were pretty cool and sat staring at them for awhile. There was a duck that came quacking up to him in the stroller looking for food and he thought that was pretty cool as well. We left the nursery and walked some more and ended up at a bakery where I discovered is the only place to find powdered sugar, so I bought some. We returned home around 7:30 and shortly after, a delivery man came with some flowers from Rahim and Nosrat for our anniversary. Right before they came up I told Cody that they wouldn’t rival his bouquet he got me that morning. His was full of an assortment that I love and he picked each one out specially for me, and pointed out that there were 16 flowers in the bouquet (that were open). It was gorgeous. So, as pretty as the ones they got were, the ones he got me were better. Afterwards, we watched a movie. As they were setting up the computer for our viewing, I came in the room after putting Noah down in the other room and I smelled smoke. I noted that it was only from that corner of the room and when I made the rounds to confirm that I saw smoke coming up past the living room window. We all saw it and I told Taylor to go get Noah and I opened the window to see where it was coming from. It was down below on the ground, so we all calmed down a bit and settled in to watch. It was a bit frightening since we are eight floors up and everything we own that isn’t in storage is here with us. I think I freaked out more afterwards at what could’ve been. Do you ever do that?

So, back to yesterday. We spent a lazy, relaxing day at home and then headed up to the mountain for dinner at a nice restaurant named Koohpayeh, which means foot of the mountain. It was raining really hard but we were warm under a heater and an awning, sitting beside the canal that was full of rushing water –melted snow. We waited until the rain lessened and walked down the mountain and into the city where we caught a taxi home. It was a great day, and we spent it as a family.

Today, it was sunny and only slightly cloudy so Taylor and I headed out in search of a birthday gift for Samira’s sister. She got invited to attend her birthday party tonight so we need to get a gift. We headed down the hill, crossed the main roads 3 times with the stroller and scary traffic. Once, I had just pushed Noah across and was about to get him up on the sidewalk when the car we were behind started rolling backwards 2 feet and almost hit the stroller before they drove forward. The majority of the vehicles here are manual and with all the hills it makes for interesting traffic. Anyways, that was avoided and I gave thanks to God for watching out for us. We found a little grocery store and went in to get some stuff and discovered lots of little treasures like Italian dressing and Barbeque sauce! They had Ranch dressing too, but it was $6 for the bottle, and since I don’t eat it and Cody likes the local alternatives I didn’t get it. They also had syrup, which Debra discovered at a store by her, so it is nice to know where else to get it. The best find was mint chocolate chip icecream, my favorite, and it is a local brand and only cost $1.25 for the container. Yummy. While we were in the store, Cody called to say that it was hailing at his office and moving quickly our direction and that we should either hurry home or stay put until it passed. Taylor came in at the same time and said it looked liked doomsday outside. By the time I was checking out 3 minutes later, it was raining heavily and hailing where we were at as well, which is many miles away. It was over just as quickly and moved on south and east of where we were. I found out later that Debra and Tad were stuck in it but a nice stranger offered them a ride home. It was sunny again and so we started our trek back up the steep hill to our home. I didn’t realize how steep it was until I was pushing Noah in the stroller with 3 bags of groceries attached, uphill, in the street while trying to avoid the muddy river that was running down the middle and other side of the street. It was amazing how much water there was with just 3 minutes of rain! At least this city is equipped for rain runoff. We made it back in one piece and were so sweaty and hot because the sun had come out again. The bad news was that we didn’t find a good gift so Taylor had to walk out to the little bazaar to find something an hour later. All in all, it has been a good three days and I wanted to share them with you.