This sounds very relaxing (except for school work) I hope in 3 wks you also enjoy your weekend. I know I will!!!

I have never baked with phyllo before but this recipe sounds so easy and delicious, I think I will try it. Thanks for sharing it.

Our water here has so many additives to it, I prefer bottled water to the fluoride, chlorine, etc they add at the "purification" plants here in town.

My heart hurts for Dylan's 2 children who will have a father in the Federal Prison probably for many long years. David, on the other hand, it teaching his kids about Jesus and is a good man! He is a good man...and a great dad! How proud could a "mom" be???

Lakis, thank you for your kind words. It totally bothers me about Dylan and how he has "turned out" as a man. On the other hand, I have never been more proud of a young man as I am as David. I love him very much and am proud I am his "mom by choice". What an honor!

my heart is hurting so much for him. I cannot reach out and hold him and pray with him.

August 15 will begin year 7 of being together. It is amazing how quickly time goes by when you have someone loving you so strongly and completely. I am a blessed woman.

Thank you, Anastasia. I am trying to do just that and remembering all his words of love to me and his faithfulness over the past 6.5 yrs. sometimes I think I just need a good swift kick. I have too much time on my hands right now... bored.... and not feeling well. I know when I get like this, satan has an "in" into my brain. It happens every so often to both Mesut and myself. thanks for your encouragement and love.... and for the kick.

I used to love wearing high heels (not that tall however). Now I fall easily so I mostly wear flats. I love the way your legs look in heels, but I don't like how they look in a plaster cast so I stay safer on terra firma.

Thanks for the well wishes. I am up and about but throat is very ragged. I think the anaesthesiologist was a newbie and practiced on my throat when he intubated me for surgery. Very sore and there is a "skin flap" hanging and "flapping" whenever I swallow or eat or talk....therefore, I am trying not to do much of any of the above. It is very irritating. The dr told me to use lozenges which numb my throat...I am on my 3rd box of the since Tuesday..... Not sure I'm supposed to have that many but it keeps me numb....which is what I want until this "flap" flips off. Anastasia, I have not won much on scratch offs. I have about 6 to do right now but just don't feel like doing them. I have won up to $250 on a scratch off but those are far and few between for me anyway...not my roommate. She is very lucky betting and scratching.

Love is the touch on your cheek or feeling the breath of a whisper on your neck while being on 2 different continents. I was recuperating from surgery the day prior but still received a phone call to wish me a Happy Walentina's Day and given a verbal promise of love and "never leaving my hands". It has been this way for 6 yrs and will be forever. I am blessed!

I am lamenting the end of my summer break. Mine was spent going to doctors and therapy so that I am able to "put in" my last 3 yrs of teaching. I am not lamenting seeing my children again but I do not want to return to the bureaucracy involved with our school system or our school (with administrators who are simply out for who they can become and not for the kids or teachers). I lament not being able to fly to Turkey for the summer, but I am looking forward to going there at Christmas. August is also special for me. That is the month I finally agreed to speak to Mesut online. It took 3 months for me to decide I could take a chance on "talking" to him.... and now... 6 yrs later, I thank God every day that HE told me to take that chance on Mesut. We have had a hard go of it being so far away, various cultural, religious, traditional differences, language, and of course, the years it is taking to be together, however, I believe God has HIS good timing and all will be well soon. We consider Aug 15 as our "anniversary" of when we first met 6 yrs ago. Knowing I have so much love waiting for me when I retire, makes the hardships of being a teacher in the US (and especially south Florida) easier to bear.

About 8 yrs ago, a friend found a red long haired Persian cat on her door stoop. She already had a house full of cats so she called me. I went to see this cat and was amazed. She was so matted up and hungry and crawling with fleas. I took her to the vet to be cleaned up. I thought she was a young, pregnant cat but as it turned out, she was an old saggy baggy cat. She was approximately 11 yrs old, had 3 teeth,was deaf and declawed. She had "abandonment issues". We surmise that she was well cared for but her owners either passed away or moved. Anyway, She would stay in my bedroom because we had 2 dogs and 2 other cats living at the house. Because she was deaf and could not defend herself, we decided she should remain sequestered in my room. At night she would get up on the bed, and if I was sleeping, she would walk onto my chest and stare at me until I woke up. She wanted the reassurance that someone was with her. Yesterday, after about a wk of not wanting to eat or drink, she died. I will miss her but she was old and it was her time. In the past 1 1/2 yrs, our 2 dogs (both 15 yrs old) died about 6 months apart and we lost another cat who was about 18 or 19 yrs. old. My roommate had her since she was about 4 wks old. We are now left with 2 13 yr old twin cats. When their time comes, I want no more animals. My roommate wants 2 more dogs. By that time, I will be retired, and hopefully, on my way to Turkey.... and she can have the 2 dogs. As for me, as much as I love animals, I want no more in my home. I am getting holder and have my own health issues. BUT I will miss not having them.

My ideal summer would be to spend it with Mesut in Turkey and explore the countryside. However, this summer is dedicated to short local travel, and healing my back. Mesut is disappointed, as I am, but as he says, I have to "guard my heatly" (health). I need to have my back in good working order before another school year happens. I do not want my kids to feel they have to take care of me when I have a hard time being mobile. Enjoy your summer and relax. One summer, I will get to Cyprus.... hopefully!

Anastasia, I, too, am very glad you are remaining on FB. Lakis is correct. You are unique and people want to be like you. I also aspire to be more like you. You are a wonderfully knowledgeable woman. You give to all of us in one way or another; you love your job, your children, your life, and your husband. Who would not want to be like that. You travel and experience life, I want that too!!!!! What the impersonators do not realize is that we would spot them a mile away because the only Anastasia is YOU. I love you. I love your posts, and I am soooooooooo glad you are staying. Faith

Anastasia, that cartoon cracked me up! It reminds me of my ELL kids trying to understand what they read. They are constantly pulling out their dictionaries to see what a word means, and until they have found the definition, they have forgotten what they read. They read a little further and repeat the entire process. They have to do this in the ALL ENGLISH test our state requires every year. The sad thing is, for my third grade students (8-9 yr olds), if they have been in the country more than 2 yrs and they do not pass the test (ONE TEST and does not include class work or class tests) they are retained and must repeat third grade. It is so unfair (even though that cartoon is hilarious!!!) I am going to copy it and post it in my classroom. I love it.

Anastasia, I have had weeks at school where I am so exhausted I cannot keep my eyes opened. I have come home from work on a Friday afternoon and without eating dinner, gone to sleep and slept until 9 a.m. the next day. I rise at 5:30 every morning and am off to school by 6:30 to begin my day at work at 6:45 a.m. I am at school until 4 or after every day. Kids and bureaucracy wear you down and after a wk of testing, teaching, or just the bs of administrators, I am exhausted. I wish here I could see the sunrise from my house. I am only 5 miles from the ocean. One day I will have to leave the house a little earlier and drive by the ocean and thank God for his beauty and for another day to live and love and experience His goodness. Thanks for sharing and thanks for the pictures. One day.........

Anastasia, I love Christmas and family time (and I believe it should be year round) but I remember on Christmas in particular and when I think of Christmas past, I always think of this one. My father was an "over the road" truck driver. He was gone much of my growing up years, trying to make a way for his family of 5 kids and a wife. One Christmas, my dad was away but promised he would be home but his truck broke down several hundreds of miles away. My mom went into a depression so deep we did not think she would come out of it. She walked around in her robe and never smiled. She played Christmas music but the spirit was not there. Two of my younger sibling and I decided we were going to make Christmas special, even if daddy could not be home. We dressed up in our bathrobes, got our bible and some candles and read the Christmas story to my mom. We lit candles and we sang Silent Night. My mom wept, and so did we. We went to bed hoping we had given her some Christmas joy. When we woke in the morning, we had to eat breakfast before presents. I could smell bacon and eggs cooking. I went into the room wondering what mood mom would be in. She was smiling. It had snowed again overnight and the Christmas music was playing. Mom was even singing. There were some gifts under the tree (we were poor so there weren't many) but the best gift was sitting at the table. My dad had told the people he worked for that he had to be home and they flew him home Christmas Eve. After we went to bed, mom got the call and picked my dad up at the airport. So when I think of Christmas' past, this is the memory I hold tightly to. I hope you all have wonderful holidays and great memories!!! (check your PO box please, Anastasia).

The United States just had its annual Thanksgiving Day, followed by Black Friday. Anymore, we have lost the meaning of what Thanksgiving is all about. I have had to talk a great deal about it with my ELL kids, who have never celebrated it prior to yesterday. They know the "official" reason for it but I also told them that even though this is one day out of the year, We should have "thanksgiving" every day of the year. Our blessings are not just one day which is filled with Turkey and all the fixings and tons of parades and football. It is all about our daily thanks to God for providing our needs. Even though there are many who are without a lot of luxuries you and I have, we all have blessings. Food for the day; air to breathe; clothes (even if not designer) to wear; another day of waking up. My father tells me every day is a great day for which he is thankful, because it means he has gotten awake and is alive to work and help others. Our idea of what "blessings" means might differ depending upon what we are used to living with but we all have blessings. I am thankful for a job (which I complain about a lot); I am thankful for my family, even when some of them irritate the daylights out of me. I am thankful for my health, even though it is not the best.... I am able to walk about, work, breathe, and though surgery looks like it is on the horizon, I am alive while others are facing their mortality. I have a man who loves me more than I ever expected to be loved. When I turned 50, I pretty much resigned myself to being an "old maid" with no children and living a life alone and lonely.... but God blessed me with a man, 10,000 miles away and many mountains separating us (figuratively and literally) but I have no doubt he loves me and our love grows stronger every day. I was never able to have children (I lost a baby 36 yrs ago and could never conceive after that), but I am thankful because every year I have children who are "mine" for a year or more, and now I have "grandchildren" from them. I have dozens of nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews. My life if full and getting better every day. I am so thankful for your friendship and the friendship of others whom I have met and come to love "online". God has given me great abundance, not financial, but I am greatly blessed and for that I thank God, and I thank you, Anastasia, for how you have influenced my life and love and the way I view my life. You have made a huge difference!!!!