Mehdi and Nassim Teku

It's Nasim's Birthday - September 24, 2008 - already 2 years old!!

Nasim is Gabby and Dibo's daughter. They now have little Mehdi, who is a handsome baby. See below. Mehdi and friend

Candle-blowing time!

Ah, the diva! Sahar, are the male divas?? The proud mom!

Nasim having fun with her friend

And the proud dad

Oh, isn't he cute?

This one eh!! They go leave am for e hand!!

Mush and Dibo!! Weh, my sister and brother...looking good!!

And my other brother, Sahba, looking hot too...and growing so fast I almost didn't recognize him in that picture!

Birth of the Bab

We celebrated at sunset on October 19th, 2008 at the Baha'i Center in Springdale ~

For the benefit of my non-Baha'i friends, the Bab was the Forerunner of Baha'u'llah. He has a unique, dual station in that while He came to prepare Mankind for the advent of "Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest", Baha'u'llah, He also brought a unique Book and Teachings. And so the Baha'i Faith is blessed with these Twin Manifestations, the Bab and Baha'u'llah. This day, we were celebrating the birth of the Bab. He was born on October 20, 1919. A Baha'i day typically goes from sunset of the previous day to sunset of the day in question. And so we were having this celebration on the evening of the 19th. Anyway, to learn more about these Great Personages, click here.

The weather was great and everyone was in a fine mood for celebration. We started with a potluck dinner. There was a lot to eat.

The junior youth. I teach the junior youth class and these kids are so smart and fun.

John, Kamran, and Farhad

Rosanna and Rosina. Some of our Marshallese ladies.

Hertin and his wife, Torqui

You go, Elena!

Torqui preps the children for their prayer and music presentation

Some of our Marshallese men. Franklin is in the middle, and the gentleman up front with the white cap, whose name I've forgotten, is chairman of the Springdale LSA.:)

Lani and the kids

Kamran and more Marshallese friends

Me and the junior-youth girls

The program has began

Kamran Talebi and his dad, Amin

My junior-youth group helped me with trivial pursuits on the life of the Bab

The kids present a prayer accompanied by piano music

Perla Talebi, facing forward, and Tuba, Kamran's mom

Lani hands out presents to anyone who attempts or gets a question right during the trivial pursuits activity

Branson Trip

Fun trip to Branson - October 8 & 9

Aaron and I decided to take a quick little vacation (before he had to return to work) and go up to Branson to visit the Silver Dollar City. The city is a very popular vacation resort with game parks, tons of shows, rides, craft shops and several other shops that sell all kinds of things from indian carvings and artwork to paintings, sea shells, tapestries, you name it. There are music shows and music plays all around the park, especially country and folk music. The city is mostly decorated in a quaint way, artfully depicting the oldies style in the early 20th century. You could see lantels and old chests in some areas, saloons and the like, blacksmiths, ladies in petticoats, etc. The city is strictly for entertainment. At 6pm, shuttle buses get everyone out of the city to their different parking lots. Branson itself features many, many shows and it is really a very touristic town. You can go on several river rides too. The hills and lakes give an awesome view in several places, especially with the Fall leaves everywhere. It's a place you can visit over and over again and always have something different to do there each time.
Below is a pretty bridge we crossed into Branson
Aaron was driving. I was busy trying to keep my stomach down, lots of ups and downs and twists in the road to Branson.

A replica of the Titanic. Notice the ice below the ship which was the cause of its wreck.



Haloween scarecrows were everywhere.

Trying to capture the city behind and around us.
A show called The Saloon
An artshop behind us

Taking a train ride around the city
An armed robber buried along the path as you go on the train ride. Notice his boots sticking out of his grave. He is there to set an example to others who venture to stop and rob the train. (Of course, all of this is theatrically staged. We were stopped by two other armed robbers who were scared away by our conductor using his fake gun and very loud, booming voice)

At the blacksmith's

The lady ushers and sellers were mostly dressed 18-century style.
These two greeted everyone as they walked in and out of Silver Dollar city. The one on the left is actually a man!...Yep! Notice also how wet my pants are around the waist and thighs. I had just come out of a slosh canoe ride that takes you through rapids and gets you drenched in the process. It was so much fun I went twice, and thus my pants were having a hard time getting dry.:) My shoes squished as I walked too!!