This and That

Hey ya'll, sorry about not posting anything for 2 weeks... or more... I haven't ever really been good about writing regularly; just consult my teenage diary and you'll see two consecutive days, then the next entry would be two months later.

So things that have happened:

The White Coat Ceremony! Tony officially received his white coat and looked GOOD in it. I loved seeing him so happy.

My one completed project: baby origami mobile! It took me forever just because I couldn't find fishing line. I was also super indecisive about which origami pieces I wanted to use (I had made over 10 different ones) but the ones I chose are pretty cute I think. The flowers imitate the carambola flowers (starfruit) which grow all over the island.

House-wifery: level 10! I have been making pretty nice dinners, especially when all I could cook when we got married was mac and cheese, spaghetti, and fried donuts haha. These have been my most impressive recently, but I've done other dinners that are still really good: casseroles, chicken cordon bleus, pizza, chicken puffs, lasagna (thanks Tiff!), and chicken salad and barbecue chicken sandwiches. We've eaten out maybe 5 times since arriving here. Not to be conceited, but I find our home food much better. I definitely miss the fast food the US offers and the easiness of cheap frozen pizzas from Walmart, but I'll just have to become some type of cook till then. It was hard at first, trying to accept cooking full time with ingredients that cost just as much as eating out in the states, but I've accepted it. I think I needed this dive into a third world country to force me to learn how to cook. I know I wouldn't have done it in the states and even China had McDonalds' dollar menu. 

Coca-cola chicken wings. You won't believe this, but I actually broke and cut apart the wings myself! Two even had little feathers that I plucked off. Gross, and very amazonian, right?! But they tasted amazing!

Sesame chicken and sesame noodles! It tasted pretty asian- more so than some Chinese restaurants around here. :)

 Getting larger.... Week 36 (September 7th-13th) . This was my one goal: just make it to 36 weeks without going into labor because the private hospital will turn you down and force you to go to the general hospital if you are less than 36 weeks along. Something about too much liability. We hadn't heard very good things about the general, so I was just praying from the time we arrived till then that I would just make it to at least 36 weeks. Now I'm fine with her coming anytime she wants, although I do feel very large, and when she kicks/rubs against me you can visibly see it.... all alien style... I'd be okay if she doesn't wait for 40 weeks. Ha.

Reoccurring visitor: Tony has seen this little guy from time to time in the baby's room. One day he'll be there, then gone for two or three days. I didn't mind him as much when we were having insect problems. However, (GOOD NEWS!) I had told our landlords about seeing baby cockroaches in the bathtub whenever I would get up to pee in the middle of the night. They came by the next day and calked the seams of the bathtub and we haven't had one cockroach since!!!! I cannot tell you how happy and comforted this makes me. Anyway, now we have no need for this little guy, but we can't tell how he gets in. We've sealed all the questionable parts on the screen windows, but he still got in the other night (scaring the poop out of me because I just saw a flash of brown scurrying across the wall, making me think it was full-size cockroach). At least he stays around the same places so I kind of know where to expect him.


The Bear. He has been doing great! We gave him another hair cut the first of the month and Tony cut his ears without a clipper guard, making them shorter than we've ever gone. I think it makes him look like a terrier now, but he's still cute. Tony takes him on a 20 minute walk every morning (just down to the beach down the road) so that definitely helps satisfy Bear's energy levels. He's also become so good about coming into the ocean! When he wants to come out with us he'll walk in up to his chest and wait for us to pick him up. I think he'll eventually be able to swim in, but the waves scare him. This is a picture of his stellar chewing abilities. This was a piece of beach wood that I didn't want to use for the origami mobile and Bear said he'd love it. Back in Utah we could leave Bear out in the yard for hours and he would just chew up the fallen sticks in the yard. Well Tony gave him the stick (while I was sleeping) and I came out to find this. In case you can't tell, his tail is wagging because he knows I don't allow him to chew sticks in the house. Don't worry- Tony had to clean it up haha. Bear was delighted with this opportunity though. He was so happy the rest of the day.

Unifieds: This was Tony's first test in med school. Basically, he took a timed test (about 3 hours) where he was given 25 questions from each of the 3 subject that he is taking. The point is to allow the students to know if they are studying efficiently before their midterms coming up in October. Tony has been studying non-stop since school started so he did know his material. However, the weekend before the unifieds he didn't get to study anatomy as much as he had hoped. So he passed Histology and Biochem, but failed Anatomy. For what it's worth, we've only heard of one person who passed all three. Tony has since learned how to fix and has refined how he's studying for that class. He honestly feels like he's going to do well when midterms hit, although we would love all prayers sent this way. Midterms begin October 6th... the day after the baby's due date.... ha.