31 July 2007

What Mischa Barton and I have in common

Arthur purchased a celebrity gossip magazine for me since I felt out of the American gossip loop and in it I found an article written about Mischa Barton. It seems Mischa is filming a movie in Russia and is homesick for - guess what - gossip and cupcakes! Me too, Mischa, no one makes cupcakes like the United States or produces as much wasted reading material. Live Earth should go after all of the gossip magazines to reduce their use of paper. But going back to the important topic of cupcakes, we don't even have Betty Crocker or Little Debbie here ( I was looking for twinkies, I don't think I have touched one in Ohhh! 15 years, I marked it up to the weird pregnancy cravings one is supposed to have). I personally think these companies are missing a huge market share.
Arthur wanted me to share with you that we found a box that made Tacos (you know the one dad you get them all of the time), it came with seasoning for the meat, salsa and tacos. Arthur loved and so did I so we will be purchasing more of those boxes soon.

27 July 2007

Thanks Mom

I received your package, Thank you so much. The dry food that you put in that you said you wouldn't put in, well I ate it and didn't throw up that day, it was a blessed day. Katerina (Arthurs Mom) loved the moccasin shoes and so did we, it's baby's first pair of shoes and they look very comfortable. Thanks for everything else you put in, have fun in Washington. Love Mara

Some Crazy Things

Do you think he tells his wife that he's exercising?
Damn, I backed up to far again! or I made the jump last time!

There are so many fun things to see in Greece, of course people still ride donkeys sideways. But you also see someone riding their bicycle, talking on the phone and smoking a cigarette all at the same time. Wow! I can't even rub my belly and pat my head at the same time.
I feel like I should carry my camera around with me all of the time because you never know what you will see.

100 plus fires


Hot weather is still contributing to over 100 fires on Mainland Greece and the Islands. As we drove past Volos we saw an example of the devastation a fire could do, this one was very large and wiped out what looked like a beautiful forest in the past on Pindros mountain. We have had several heat waves this summer and are again in one with weather between 40-45C.

Beach Bums



My first beach swim since moving to Greece was well worth the wait. Arthur took me to his favorite beach and we were the only people on it all morning long. About 400-500 goats passed by with their dog watchers, at first Arthur wanted to leave because some Greek Sheppard dogs can be hazardous to humans, but these dogs just joined us for a nap under the shade of the trees. The middle picture is actually Arthur swimming with my hat on, he forgot his. The lower picture is me standing in front of our private beach, no one lives in the house along the inlet, wouldn't you like to live there it's beautiful.
This day trip turned into an overnight stay, Arthur and I were so exhausted after waking up at 5 am and driving for three and half hours and then swimming till 1 pm that we decided to stay in the small town of Millina. The pastries don't taste so great, but the calamari, schnitzel and french fries were delicious. A great place to stay. The top picture is a beach that we swam at in the morning before leaving to come back home, it wasn't as private as the one we went to the day before but the water was just as nice.

20 July 2007

Baby in Blue


The doctor is 99% sure that the baby is a boy, so here comes another baby boy. If he is a boy his name will be Nickolaos Sakkas (Νικολαος Σακκας), the first boy and first girl are named after the paternal grandparents. This ultra-sound was done to make sure that the baby does not have Down Syndrome, and at my age of 31 there is a 1/550 chance that the baby can have Down Syndrome, but with the measurement of the fluid in the neck and being able to see the nose bone (Down syndrome babies do not have a nose bone at fetal12 week age). With these measurements we are know in the 1/2996 percentile which means I'm like a 15 year old giving birth, and they say you don't get younger by the year.
Baby looks healthy and we got to hear his heartbeat at 169 bpm and his brain had the butterfly effect. The only issue was that he slept through the whole doctors appointment, we were there for two hours. The doctor kept poking my stomach and even gave me a pill to take to wake him up, but the little guy sleeps like his mom on his stomach and with no interruptions. At one point I think the doctor poked to hard and the little guy turned around and hit back with his hand, this is when we got the clear shot taken above. I started to laugh and the little guy went back to laying on his stomach. The doctor made a joke and said the baby was still on US time, it was between midnight and 2 in the morning in California. Which this made total sense, because instead of getting morning sickness I've been getting evening sickness, now I know why.