Headin' to Turkey

It was anything but a routine day, today.  After Kaleb was off to school and I posted my blog, I had to start packing. 

I’m currently on a charter flight heading for Turkey.  The name written on the outside of the plane is DETUR, which in Norwegian means “your trip,” but in English, it gives me pause and makes me pray we make it to our destination.   Antalya, Turkey is one of the cities visited by the Apostle Paul in his wanderings.  We are looking forward to what the week will bring.  I’m just thankful we are traveling with people who know their way around.  Kory’s second cousin Bjørn owns a vacation house in the neighboring city of Side, so we will be staying with them for the week.  There are ten of us total on this trip; the three of us, Bjørn and his “samboer” (living together partner), Ingrid, their 7 year old twins, Markus and Jonas; Ingrid’s son, Tobias and daughter, Josefine, and Ingrid’s niece, Janne (all teenagers).  I think Bjørn rented a bus for when we arrive, there are so many of us, and so much luggage.  But the weather report says sunny warm days are in our future, so we are all looking forward to that.

Kaleb came home right from school today and was crying within minutes of walking through the door.  He had a tough day as he’s been discovered by another bully on the playground.  Apparently his previous nemesis, Morten, hasn’t given him any trouble at all this year, but some new kid named Alexandar lit into him.  He’s yet to own up to anything he does to set these kids off, but I know he’s not an innocent victim in all of it.  He got a couple shin bruises from being kicked, but he was able to thwart the punches to the face by just holding his arms still long enough for the playground teacher to come to his rescue.  Tough day for him.  Good thing we’re leaving town for a while.

I asked Kaleb how any kid could get the better of him, since he’s been working out and is getting stronger by the day.  He said, “Well, Mama, strength is equal to mass times acceleration and my problem is, I don’t have enough mass!”  I guess that’s one way to say he’s a skinny little kid, but the fact he said it that way leans him toward the “nerd” category, which has it’s own tendency toward being picked on.  Poor thing.

Kory wanted to take a nostalgic trip out to his hometown this morning, so I took a break from packing and went with him.  I wanted to see if there were any bargains at the sweater factory outlet store over there.  I think the glory days of buying wool sweaters for $11-20 are over.  The cheapest ones were a hundred dollars.  Even just a wool headband was $20.  It takes all the fun out of shopping when the prices are so high, but I did buy Kaleb the next size up in long underwear, both pants and top.  He wears them under his ski gear and they are pretty toasty warm without being itchy.  Only practical items today.

Kory and I should have gone for our walk in his old hometown today, but I was getting antsy and needed to get to the task at hand – packing.  I also had to clean out the frig and pass on a few things to the Tantes, including the beautiful roses I got last night from Toban’s parents when they came for dinner.  Tante Aslaug said she wasn’t sure she could keep them alive for me all week.  I just laughed and told her I gave them to her so she could watch them die.  They sure are pretty.

Kory was a little crabby today because he spent too much time in our storage unit getting out the luggage and he started mumbling about all that’s in there.  He’s one to talk.  He went dumpster diving a few days ago and got enough stuff to fill the back of our van twice.  To each his own.  It didn’t take me long to find the luggage I needed.  I’m just thankful we have a place to put things, otherwise the condo would be mighty crowded.  Kind of how I feel right now on the plane with the seatback reclined in front of me on a full flight and my backpack lying where my feet want to go.  I can barely type.  But as my daddy used to say, “This too, shall pass.”