How We Got Here

I was just doing a little research on Fannie Mae. Did you know that Franklin Raines, their former chief executive, has agreed to pay (along with two other executives) $31.4 million in a settlement into accounting irregularities. Now accounting irregularities means they were cooking the books so as to receive HUGE bonuses!!!!! If you want to know the straw which broke the camels back this is it
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/19/business/19fannie.html

I'm not saying that this the cause of the problem, that would be those of us who thought we could live better than kings of old and borrow for what we could not afford. We allowed our government to do the same. The current culture combined with the current wars reminds me of Johnson's famous "Guns and Butter," it just can't work!

I don't mind the economic contraction. I know it's hard, but this is life. It runs on cycles and when we mess with that cycle we do so at our own peril. Every once and a while you MUST prune the vines of the economy and rid the vineyard of unproductive vines. Credit is not and never has been the answer to success. Scripture has long warned against it and Shakespeare held it in contempt. Why do we think we're soooooo much smarter than G-d and those who have come before us. (On an aside when was the last great piece of literature written...you know...the kind of book that people enjoy reading 50 years later...and don't say 50 years ago!!!!! Was it "The Great Gadsby" or "1984"? )

I really think we Americans do need to live more modestly. We need to industrialize, mechanize, automate and innovate ouselves into selfsufficiency. I know I'm a bit of an isolationist, but I can't help but wonder if foreign pressure on Congress pushed them to defy the will of the people...or whether it was just good old fashioned contempt.

The Church at Thyatira

Still more Pergamum

This is where our guide (Dr. Wilson from Regent University) and others believe the "throne of Satan" is. It was a sacrificial alter...WOW!

This place is Gorgeous!!!

The theater is really, really huge.
Two flowers of the Son!!!

Up on top of Pergamum

They stack the stones back up...Our guide called it "Disney World Archeology."

This is a "two faced" (it faces both ways) idol.
Do you want to know how idols spoke...the priest went in here...

and climbed through here into the idol.

The Red Basilica Near Pergamum

This basilica (large building) was originally a temple to Egyptian Gods.

The Agora (Shopping area) and a Marble Ramp (having fun)

Welcome to Izmir, Smyrna of Revelations

Max in Tarsus

Sophie in Tarsus

The waterfalls at Paul's Tarsus

Howie's in the Grottoat Antioch...Call Me Christian!

Grotto, where christians worshiped in secret.

Mosiacs in Antioch

Antioch...yes christian, that Antioch!!!

Egypt, continued

This is our family in front of the second pyramid. Note the size of the stones. From a distance I thought the blocks were small, but realize now they are about as big as Marin. It's like when I was a little girl and we would be driving in the country and see fields of corn. I never believed that the stalks were taller than me, but my dad always said that they were. Well, one day while driving my dad stopped (big deal for my dad, he didn't like to stop for ANYTHING!). He let me get out and stand next to a corn stalk. Wow, they were really tall. That's how I felt about the pyramid stones.
If you look closely at Brett you will notice he has a cloth on his head with a band around it. He actually looks like an Egyptian (ok, maybe not). Anyway Brett got "accosted" by the people selling these things. He even looked to our security guide for assistance. He just laughed. Needless to say, Brett bought 2 of them and was given another one from a friend. The kids loved them so much that he bought more! Never thought it would be such a big hit!
The family in front of the pyramids.
Sophie and Olivia in front of a pyramid.
Looking up at pyramid two.
Camel rides. This was a great trip! These animals are HUGE! Brett, Sophie and Max got up without a problem. I got on my camel and then the guide was placing Marin up when the camel started to stand. He quickly let go of Marin to grab hold of the camel. the bad thing was, Marin was not completely up on the camel when he let go of her. Thankfully, we were able to scooch her on correctly, but it took us a few minutes until we were comfortable. I don't know how they rode these animals for long journeys.

Egypt, continued

Marin in front of the pyramids.
Family on the camels. You may be wondering where Olivia is. Well, she wanted no parts of the camels! We decided to leave her with one of our tour guides, Nesrin. Trust me, she was very happy to stay with Nesrin instead of riding on a camel.
Max in front of pyramids.
Sophie, the strongest of all of our children :), able to lift a pyramid in a single hand!
The camels were about 8 feet high. Their feet were about as big as Brett's two hands put together. We had to lean back to ride, and really lean back when the camel got down for us to dismount.

Egypt, continued

We left bright and early on Friday morning. We had to be outside of the gate by 7:30 am. There were 31 of us, 11 were children, 10 and under. This is Marin and Max looking very energetic. All of us were thrilled and amazed that in just a few hours we would be in Egypt!
Our first morning, Sat., was spent at teh Cairo museum. The museum holds the King Tut mask and other items found in his tomb. It also has a boat that was found by the side of one of the pyramids. It was buried there so that the King would have the ability to travel in the afterlife.
This was a sculpture outside the museum. We thought it was funny having the five of us sitting in front of this "5-guy-statue".
This is me, standing like a king in front of another sculpture.
This is the family getting onto the Turkish plane at the Adana airport. From here we flew to Istanbul, then got onto Egypt Air which took us to Cairo.

Experiences in Egypt

Dear family and friends, We had a wonderful opportunity MLK weekend to travel as a family to Cairo, Egypt. We went with a group from the chapel on base. It was only for 4 days, two of which were for travel. We will be posting pictures from this trip for a while. It was an unforgetable experience. We hope you enjoy the pictures. This was a picture in the Cairo airport. I was trying to get the "Welcome to Cairo, Egypt" sign in the back but it didn't work too well. The kids were great on the plane. We began our trip on Friday at 7:30am. Flew from Adana to Istanbul, then to Cairo. Three continets in one day! We arrived in Cairo about 4, got to our hotel and we were greeted with warm towels and a fancy drink for all. Dinner and then a nighttime tour around Cairo, the city that never sleeps!
This is a statue of Ramses II. It is thought that he was the pharoah during the time of the Exodus. If this is true, I told the kids that the statues we were seeing of Ramses could have been built by the Isrealites! We learned that a kings beard is straight if he is still alive, and long and curled at the end if they are dead. Look at the statue of Ramses II. Was this statue done when he was alive or dead?
This was us in front of the pyramids of Giza. The pyramid on the far left was the first one, built approximately 2589BC for King Khufu. It was 481feet tall but is now only 450 ft. tall. The second pyramid (behind Brett's head) was built by Khufu's son, King Khafre. It is shorter than his fathers but is on higher ground, so it looks bigger. It was also covered with limestone at one point. This was built approximately 2530BC. The third one was built by Khafre's son, Menkaure. It is the smallest of the three and was built about 2500BC.
This is a picture Brett took of the second pyramid while Max, Marin and I were taking a trip inside of it! Max's favorite part of the trip was the fact that he didn't have to bend down while walking through the tunnel. It was about a 50 ft tunnel going down, then 50-75 feet going up. We ended up at a large open room with a casket inside. It was stuffy and hot. If you look closely you can see the tip of the pyramid is still covered in limestone.
This is another great picture - we travel hundreds of miles and spend hundreds of dollars so that my sweet Livvy Leigh can play in the sand! I thought it was perfect with the pyramid in the back. All of the kids were great on the trip. We had one meltdown on the way home. Other than that, all went well. If you look closely at this pyramid you will see a little pyramid on the right side. I think there are two more behind that one. These were built for the queens. The Sphinx is actually off to the left, out of the picture. We'll post that later.