7/31/04 - As you can see, updating this website is not always my priority! But I just had to add a few more PICs of Kazakhstan to show what we saw during one of the last days that Niki and Kyle were to be here. They have since left me and I'm here alone for the last month of my 3-year contract. Niki and I have decided to leave Almaty and start fresh somewhere else. My goal is to take up to a year off between jobs, since I'm able to. I'll be working on our 104 year old house in Culpeper, VA during this period. But getting back to the last 9 pictures at the bottom of the listing, these were taken on a rainy mountain day and at our friend's house. We were hoping to catch a ride up the lift to see higher areas but the weather would not permit. The next day, we went to see our friends for the last time: Svend, his wife Aigul, and their son Dastan. Dastan and Kyle were classmates for 3 years here in Almaty and have taught each other alot. Svend is the Managing Director of a Danish oil company here in the Central Asia Region and is doing quite well for himself as you can imagine. They are good friends, hospitable hosts, and always good company. We just wish Svend could have cooked more gormet meals for us while we were here; he is an extraordinary chef.

3/18/02 - I'm sorry we haven't updated in SO long. We ran out of web space at the sites I was trying and I've decided to actually buy webspace as well as buy my own Domain Name. This will be in service for at least 2 years, so please remove any older Favorites to my websites that you may have saved and save THIS ONE! I've pretty-much caught up on the past few months here in terms of PICS, so please have fun browsing. I've added a couple of new subcategories above as well. As you can see in some of these PICS, it's been snowing like we've never seen snow before! The PICS of Kizubeck street are pictures of our neighborhood and yes, this is the street that we lived on. We have since moved, only about a week ago, to a lovely home that we all are VERY happy with. I've made a link to PICS of it above. We haven't taken any outside PICS but will soon and will post them on this link above. Again, please drop us a line once in a while...we all miss you SO much!

The snow began here in late September. Snow in December was vicious; snowed for over a week straight with VERY cold temperatures. The house we were living in did not provide an adequate Internet connection. Hence, USAID is going to move us to another house. We looked at a couple and one is "the one". We are hoping that the owner will allow us to negotiate a lower price that USAID will allow. Excitement is in the air regarding the move. We will certainly put up pics of the new house once we are there. I am including additional PICS of Germany with the link above. Kyle and I went there for 5 days in early December to have a doctor look at his broken hand bone. He is now OK, with a half-cast on his right hand. All is well otherwise. The family looks forward to seeing all of you. Take care, all! We love you!

12/22/01 - Rows 5 and the first 3 of row 6 were taken today. We were getting more snow. We went out shopping today for last XMas gifts for each other, then came back for a relaxing evening; at least we thought so. Niki reminded me of a party that we are supposed to attend tonight...so, OFF WE GO!

12/14/01 - After having the doctor remove the butterfly stitches from Kyle's head, we went to the Embassy for a Christmas feast that included a visit from Santa on his CAMEL! Santa gave Kyle a gift (Toy Story PC game, of course!) and we enjoyed the Embassy food and singers.

12/11/01 - I've added two PICS of Kyle (with lightbulb) now that he's injured ALL OVER!!! He's broken his hand bone behind the knuckle on pinky, and he's ripped open his forehead about 2 inches to where I could see his skull CLEARLY! The forehead incident was a dewsy! Anyway, he's mended and we can only hope that all will heal well.