It happened.

I puked. I have made it through two previous pregnancies with only one puking incident while I was pregnant with Bennett and that turned out to be a 24 hour stomach bug that I shared with Stan the next day. So this was a first for me. I know it's totally disgusting to share but I need sympathy. I hate to throw up. I avoid it at all costs. I only let it go when I have no other choice. Today was such a time. I got up this morning feeling rather well. So i made myself some oatmeal and orange juice and enjoyed my breakfast. At lunch time Stan fixed the boys some 'hot dogs' (they aren't real ones, but a local version). I decided I would pass and try to stick to something a little more bland. Although I felt ok, I'm no dummy trying to push my luck. So as I walked past the table to the kitchen to make myself some lunch I got a whiff of the dogs I turned right around and headed for the toilet. The smell did it. I felt fine immediately after but stuck to plain noodles for lunch. I have cancelled my trip out to the village tomorrow. The smells out there are unpredictable and overwhelming at the least. Not going to chance it. More pregnancy stuff to come.

jing-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling-ling!

Ok, I started this blog a few days ago when I was feeling sad about Christmas. Now here I am a day after and I've changed my tune a little. Here is my revised version...

I never knew how completely weird it would be to celebrate Christmas in a country that doesn't really celebrate Christmas. We have plenty of American friends and local believers around to celebrate with but it's still so different. In the States even people who don't believe the same way I do celebrate Christmas. I even know some people who are religions that are non-christian but since they live in America they still celebrate Christmas. Here, it's pretty much nothing. The only store that is remotely decked out for the Holiday is Walmart. Which it's hard to count that cause it's only a small part of the store AND it is actually an American store. I'm sure in bigger cities it's different. Our city, XG, is growing in foreigner population but we have a long way to go to let it show this time of year. So because this is all so new and weird and I'm a little home sick (which I'm pretty sure is not helping my morning sickness) I'm going to do a list of things I am thankful for to make me feel better (it was a missing things list but today I feel thankful).


-We have great friends around that spent the night (well three did) with us Wednesday and spent the whole day with us yesterday to celebrate.
-That my rump roast turned out great and we have leftovers for a sandwich today.
-That we have NOTHING to do today so I get to rest. I sent most of yesterday in the kitchen and running around after my crazed boys. By last night I felt like I would fall over--even though it took us from 7:30-9:00 to get said crazed boys to settle down enough to go to sleep.
-That I didn't fall over and despite being incredibly tired (all the time) we all had a great meal together.
-I didn't have a 'yucky' day yesterday. My 'morning sickness' is actually all day sickness. When I have any nausea it lasts all day and I feel horrible. Yesterday I didn't feel it at all, except when my blood sugar dropped from not eating lunch which was quickly remedied by peanut butter crackers.
-Skype. We were able to see all of our family (well just talk to my Dad cause he doesn't have a camera set up yet). It made them all feel just a little closer.
-My sweet husband, who did not go shopping until Wednesday, found several wonderful gifts for me so I would have something to open on Christmas morning. He even found a hilarious DVD called Sunday School Musical, it's cheesy and freaking funny.

There is much more but I think you get the idea. A day that I was dreading cause I thought I would be sad ended up being wonderful and special. New traditions made and fun for all. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Check out the boys blog soon for great pictures.

Wordless Wednesday

A cold winter's night

So here we are, ten days before Christmas. It's finally become cold here. It hit about Thanksgiving. While the days' high still reaches the mid-60's (Saturday is even forecasted to be 70) the nights are down in the 30's. I know that doesn't seem so bad, until you imagine it in a home with no heat. We have to take several steps to stay warm at night...

-Warm pj's (my winter clothes and pj's finally made it here, thanks Christina)
-bed warmer (like an electric blanket that goes under the sheets but we turn it off when we get in bed cause it can dehydrate you if left on all night)
-down blanket
-space heater, set on a timer so not to run all night but long enough for us to get warm and snuggly

All of those combined give us a toasty night. Heaven forbid you wake up and have to pee. The cold is a shock to the system. In addition, getting out of bed in the morning is becoming increasingly more difficult. The sad news for me is that I hear January brings colder nights. It seems like my toes never truly get warmed up. I hope they don't fall off in January. The thing that's gonna get me through it all? We go to Thailand on January 25th and stay for two weeks. I'm ready for fun in the sun and fellowship with friends. As soon as the countdown to Christmas ends I will start my countdown to Thailand!

Wordless Wednesday

I'm baaaack!

First off I apologize for not posting in over a week. We were out of town in combination with some computer issues. We made it home after a four day trip in which I had my worst China moment and first tears since moving here. It was all because of a bad hotel situation and the lack of customer service--a concept not yet known here--that left us all completely frustrated. We got it all worked out and life went on. I was fully reminded why we didn't want to live in the capital city (way too many cars and people) but also reminded why occasional trips there are a must (buy food and house hold things we can't get here). We also ate McDonald's twice (I hardly ever ate it in the States) and Pizza Hut once (our pepperoni pizza tasted just like in the US--and was Kirby's first taste of real pizza thanks to growing out of his milk allergy--but they had a few additional menu items including roasted octopus). We are now also having laptop issues and occasional desktop issues. Stan is pretty mad cause he was convinced Macs--which both of our computers are--aren't supposed to have problems. I think the desktop is just not fond of the cold. Now that it's in the new office area it's right beside the window. It only has issues in the morning and evening when the temperature is low. So we will see how it goes. Well this has certainly turned into a ramble. I'm hopefully back on track now.

16 days till Christmas! We have our tree and other decorations put up and are planning a few parties, both with other Americans and locals. Very exciting!

And the fun continues...

We just had one of the busiest, most fun weekends since we moved here. OK, maybe not really since we moved here but we had a lot of fun. With Thanksgiving and all the hoopla from that you would expect that we would spend the remaining days of the weekend in a turkey induced coma. Not so much. Friday a good friend of ours (a local) had a Birthday. He and his wife wanted to have us and a few other close friends over to celebrate. The boys love them and they love the boys so we went over right after nap time so the boys could play and I could help bake the cake and prepare dinner. It was so much fun. We baked one of the richest (meaning delicious) chocolate cakes ever and several other wonderful things for dinner. We were the first to arrive and the last to leave. We brought the boy's pj's and put them to bed there so we could stay as late as we could stand. It was so fun.

Saturday had a big plan all of it's own. We planned to have friends over for dinner and a night of watching The Office. I love the show and didn't get to see the season finale last year. But our plans were foiled by a nice all day power outage. So instead of getting ready for guests we sat in the dark. The day wasn't a complete loss, while the boys napped I also took a short nap and had some reading time, which I don't do nearly enough. The power finally came back on in time to put the boys to bed and to let my pork finish in the crock pot. Since everyone is used to this type of thing happening our friends understood and gladly agreed to move our fun evening to Sunday.

Sunday began in the normal way. It was our turn to have our morning group over and this of course makes the boys very happy. They love to show everyone around, no matter how many times they've been here. After we had lunch and then home for Sunday afternoon naps. Some things never change. I got up from my nap and got busy preparing for our friends to come over. I was really worried because this is a family of five, including a teenage boy. I know how much they eat and I was at a loss about how much to cook. Thankfully this is the same family that hosted our Thanksgiving meal and they still had a ton of leftovers. So I prepared pulled pork bar-b-q sandwiches, macaroni and cheese (like Granny Great makes) and 6 Layer Bars for dessert. Along with what she brought we had our third feast of the weekend. Once the boys were in bed we watched a few episodes of The Office, including the long awaited season finale, and laughed our butts off.

Now it's back to reality. My break from class is over. I start back tomorrow. I can't complain too much. We are practically done since we don't really have class after Christmas and I'm missing Thursday because we have to take a trip out of town. Needless to say, I'm hoping my days of trekking to the other side of town for class is almost over. Help me in praying that we can arrange for me to just meet with a tutor from now on.

Oh yeah! I almost forgot. Happy December! 24 days till Christmas. More to come on that excitement soon.