Without the Internet

Yes we are alive and doing well. We are now into day 11 of being gone for over a month. The first place we went to was a nice resort a little outside of this one town. We went to the beach every day and Ev played in the sand and "watched" the water and enjoyed things from a distance. No water for her this year. Last year she would walk right into the ocean without an adult this year she wouldn't even the our beach chairs unless Todd would make a pool for her. I'll post of picture of what I mean by that.

We really needed these first days on the beach. We needed to just sit and enjoy the sun after the 3 weeks we had had previously. It was a good way to start things out.

Then we flew to the city where Elijah was born and have been there ever since. We are staying in an apartment so I have enjoyed having a washing machine and an extra bedroom so we are not all sleeping in the same room. We love this city and are just now starting to enjoy it. For the past week we've been in meetings from 8:30 am until 5:30 pm not including our 30-45 minute commute each way. It was a long week but thankfully the kids had great ladies watching them and they made it out without getting sick!

We went to an Elephant Camp today and then tonight we went to the Night Safari. I love that in this country you can get really close up to animals. Ev LOVES elephants. We brought her big and baby elephant toy with her and she held it all day today. What a great day for her. We plan on going to the zoo and to the very fun Sunday night market and we will eat more good food before we leave on Tuesday to go to our 3rd destination. We'll start up another week of full day meetings with the kids being in child care. Next week we will have Internet access. So hopefully I can find time to update better.

Pictures: Us eating outside, Our "spot" at the beach, Ev and Elijah in the "pool" Todd made because Ev won't go near the water, busy playing with toys, scenery from the beach, Family picture, Todd and the kids at the resort we stayed at, Big girl eating cereal with daddy, Elijah eating table food, Ev with the girls in her class at childcare.

I Guess I Have a lot to Say

I closed down the Internet and then realized I had something else to share. I have a cold right now thanks to my sweet little guy who got his cold from our 12 hour flight a few days ago. I haven't taken any medicine, although medicine won't make a cold go away it will just masks some of the not so fun stuff. Todd suggested that I take some. I have been pretty miserable today but I think I am use to not taking meds. I weaned Elijah when we were in America so I don't have to worry about that. Then I got to thinking, wow it's been a very long time since I've been able to take medicine. I nursed Ev until she was 10 months old, had 1 month off before I got pregnant with Elijah and I've been nursing/pumping ever since. I've been pregnant or nursing since January 2005. What will I do with myself now? I'm a little sad to be done nursing/pumping and I feel weird taking medicine or drinking caffeine since I haven't in almost 4 years. I still think I am going to wait it out and see how I feel tomorrow. If I remember correctly cold medicines never really worked for me.

Proud Momma

So when we were in Tulsa visiting family we went out to dinner at Teds. We had to wait a while to be seated and Ev got bored. We never have to wait to be seated where we live so this was new and challenging for her. But thanks to Aunt Kara she was entertained with her purse. Unzipping it and pulling out its contents and then placing them back where they were. Over and over she did this. She also found great interest in Kara's camera. Todd and I won't let Ev touch ours but Aunt Kara didn't mind. Ev had figured out how to turn our camera and when she had reign over Kara's the photographer in her came out. Maybe cruel mom and dad are hindering her creative abilities?! See for yourself the pictures she took. She took several of herself the funniest is the one here where she is smiling for the camera. She hardly ever smiles when we take her picture! She isn't all that bad of a photographer. Maybe she watched Aunt Kara since she has a new camera and was taking pictures all the time. On the last night we were with my family Todd set up our little tripod and set the timer for a family picture. Two days later when we got home Elijah was sitting in the middle of the family room and Ev had her play phone. She pushed a button then ran over and threw her arm around Elijah and counted, "four, seven, eight" then ran back to her phone. She did this another time before I realized that she was copying what Todd had done to take our family picture. Pretty cute. Her counting skills added to the cuteness too. As I retold this story to a friend I realized that on our last flight to get home the stewardess had taking pictures of Ev with her camera phone. That is why Ev was using her phone to take the picture of herself and Elijah. Too smart!

Another friend

I met with one of my friends today for the last time for a month since we are leaving. I've known her for almost as long as I have been here. We have really developed a good friendship. I can ask her questions and I believe that she does the same with me. She has a good heart and I have seen her grow over the year and a half. She really desires to help people in need and give to them even though she herself doesn't have much to give. The new year is coming and most people go home to be with their family. My friend is going home to be with her family for the entire month. She is at the age where they believe that women should be married. My friend is asking Father to provide a husband who is like minded. Her desires and goals for life are not understood by her family. Will you ask that she will feel Father's peace as she goes home to the pressures of her culture?

Pictures

Arrival home

I am the only one up at our house right now. I should be the one sleeping! We left Kansas City at 6am to fly to Denver. We had a short layover in Denver and then were off to San Fransisco. Then from San Fransisco we fly to BJ and then we couldn't get a flight all the way home so we spent the night in BJ. Then we fly today and got home this afternoon. We left the States on January 6th and arrived here on January 8th. Meaning we lost a whole day. That's got to do something to your body right? After 2 weeks of adjusting to America and losing much sleep over that we came back to do it all over again. That is why I am up. We put the kids down for their nap at the normal time 1:30pm and I woke up at 10:30pm because I had been sleeping with my contacts and had to take them out. It is now 11:30pm and all is quiet.

On our first flight to Denver Ev cried and threw a fit so when we arrived in Denver we bought some Benadryl. Our flight from Denver to San Fran was about the same with Ev. She refused to sit in her seat with the seat belt on, cried and wasn't wanting to be on a plane. We arrived late into San Fran and had to quickly get to the international terminal to get to our flight. We were the last ones to board the plane. We barely made it! During our 12 hour plane ride Ev did better since our section had 55 foreigners 50 of which were high school students. So with all the people the kids were entertained and our kids noises and crying were drowned out by the high schoolers talking. By our 5th or 6th hour into the flight we decided to put the kids down to sleep. Elijah went as normal. Two of our seats were the first row of the section where there is more leg room. Todd's seats was on the left section on the aisle. So we put blankets and pillows down on the floor and laid Elijah down. Then we went to put Ev down and she screamed, cried and threw a fit. We then gave her Benadryl and about an hour later she was out. So once she was asleep I put her on the floor too. Todd went to find a better place to sleep and then I got a little sleep off and on. When we arrived in BJ we had to spend the night so I was so tired from taking care of both of the kids most of our 12 hour flight that I fell asleep at 5:30 or so. Then the rest of us went to sleep at 6pm. At 1am Elijah woke up so I put him back to sleep and then Ev woke up at 2am and was up until we left at 6am to go back to the airport. Elijah woke up too after hearing Ev. The kids were on America time... oh I had wished for that the first week we were in America. We got on our flight to come home after some misunderstandings in the airport and running around we finally got on our plane to come home. Ev had fallen asleep in the stroller for the hour we were running back and forth between the International and Domestic terminals and woke up in time for us to board our plane. We arrived home around noon so we ate and the kids played with their toys and were so excited to be back home. I took Elijah into his room and when he saw his crib he flapped his arms up and down and bounced in my arms. We had opened all our Christmas presents early and put them away to pack and leave so the kids didn't get to enjoy their new toys. Little do they know that we will only be home for 1 week before we board another few planes to go to Thailand for a month. During the month of being gone we will be staying in 5 cities in Thailand and 1 in another city back here. Needless to say we will be back to all sleeping in the same room and in different places. I am afraid when they see we are getting on another plane they will start to hate traveling.
We have not heard a sound out of both kids since putting down for naps 9 hours ago. As I am up now the kids and Todd are still sleeping. My worry is that they will wake up at 2am and be up since they have slept so long so far. Oh well we did this in America, why not here!

We really did enjoy our time in America visiting our families. I know they enjoyed having us there. I am just thankful we don't have to take that long flight for another 1 1/2 years. Traveling with 2 small kids is not an easy task. Hopefully when we go back to America in 2011 the kids will be able to handle the flights better. I'll post some picture once I find the camera!

My 30th Birthday

On New Year's Day I turned the big 30. I really don't feel like I am 30. I spent New Years Eve at home (in America) with my family and my friend from San Antonio who flew in to visit. Then I rang in the new year by staying up and watching a movie with my mom while everyone else slept. The last birthday in America I was in Kansas and Ev was 3 months old and very colicky had been crying the whole day while I sat in a chair sick to my stomach. During the countdown I was running to the restroom to throw up. I'm glad that didn't happen this year.
On New Years Day we hung out with family and went to dinner at the Olive Garden. Then that night we put the kids to bed and my mom watched/listened for them and we went to a late movie. It was a nice quiet couple of days.