What Goes Around

A ring, as in my wedding ring. I hope to get my wedding ring fixed in the new year. It has one of the prongs broken. I think that is what you call them. One of those things that hold the precious jewel in place. I could get it fixed here, but the lady at the jewelry store told me that it was a bad idea. I should just take it home to America and get it fixed there. I guess sometimes diamonds get replaced or "lost". One thing that I hope can change in the new year is I hope people will quit dying. Too many people died that I know last year. I am now in the stage of life that I go to more funerals than weddings. Well, that would be the case if I was in America. Actually, I have gone to more weddings, but if I lived in America I would have gone to more funerals. And the deaths all seemed to be a surprise. People weren't sick and then died, they just died. Drop dead. At least they were not painful deaths. But still, for the family it is a huge shock. Death is s...

When people think of India, they don't think of the cold weather. Usually you think about the extreme heat. But surprisingly, it gets cold here in the winter. And it is winter right now. Okay, so today is only 61 degrees, which isn't too cold, but inside our house is colder than it is outside. I am sitting on our new couch with a wool blanket over me. I am wearing two pair of socks, jeans, a t-shirt under a long sleeve shirt, with a jacket on. I have been wearing my stocking cap all day, but decided to tough it out. My head was starting to hurt. Earlier today, I was at work and noticed that I could feel the coldness from the floor through my shoes. I tried sticking my feet on the room heater to try to warm them up. But I felt a little rude with my feet on the heater, so I put them back in my shoes. I don't know if it is that my shoes are old and have holes in the bottoms and that is why I can feel the cold, or if everyone can feel it. I wonder if people in Alask...

Recently I decided to go shopping for a fancy pillow. You know one of those pillows that are contour for people with neck pain. So I went into a well known store and found them. Kind of expensive if you ask me. But anyway, I was willing to pay the big bucks for no more neck pain. As I was checking out, the cashier said, "You know these are buy one get one free? Would you like your free one?" Of course I would. Anything free is great. So off I went with two contour pillows. When I got home I immediately put my new contour pillows on the bed. And that is when I realized that I didn't need two. One was enough. So what to do with the other one. I decided to take it back to the store and get my money back. That is when the problems began. I went back to the same cashier who sold me the pillows and told her that I only needed one pillow and would like my money back. She looked at me strange. She said that they were buy one get one free. Duh. I knew that, but I...

While we were in Thailand a few weeks ago, I discovered a delicious sauce at the buffet table. It is a brown sauce that you add to your food and it makes it taste so yummy. So when I went to the grocery store to buy the things I like to take back to India (tuna fish, thai iced tea mix, fisho, thai curry), I found the sauce isle and bought me the big bottle of cooking sauce. That is what it is called, cooking sauce. Cooking sauce is a brown sauce, like soy sauce, only yummier. I add it to rice, to eggs, to vegetables, to soup, to almost any dish. And it makes it taste better. I don't know what it is because it is in Thai, but Maggi makes a similar sauce and they call it brown sauce. So my brown cooking sauce is my new obsession.

Steve and I are opposites. I am still amazed at this fact after 16 years of marriage. Take the other day. We were in the Bangkok airport, walking to the taxi area. We had just gotten of the plane and gone through baggage and we were heading to the taxi. We had to go up two floors to the drop-off area, where it is 50 baht cheaper to get a taxi. Steve was talking about this "diamond" that he found on the plane. He thought maybe it was the lady in front of him. But then he lost sight of her. So he was wondering if he should search for her. I had my mind set on going straight to the taxi area. So I was leading the way. We got to the escalators, where there were two options. One is the stair kind and one is for luggage carts. One was on our left and the other was on our right. I pointed to the stair one and said, "Should we take this one?" But then I changed my mind in a flash and said, "No, we should just take this one." And I headed up the cart...

We are in Chiang Mai, Thailand right now. Every six months we have to leave India, so we use it as a time of vacation also. We come visit friends, go shopping, and have massages. Sounds like an easy life, huh? Well, when massages cost $4. you can’t pass it up. Today we were woken up by the sound of someone talking in a loud speaker. It was 5 am. Way too early for people to be talking outside, into a microphone. We ignored it until we got out of bed. Then I looked out the window to see what the noise was all about. It was the gathering of the 12,600 monks. A stream of bald men in orange sheets wrapped around them were walking down the street. And many more people in white who were worshiping or serving or something. We are in a hotel and we get a breakfast buffet with our room. This morning it was crowded with people in white and a small table of monks. There were no glasses, no cups, no plates and no silverware. Micah was a bit perturbed by that. I just got a small salad...

I just tried to order pizza on the phone. This can sometimes be a tedious feat. It was tonight. Here was my conversation. "Hello Domino's.. would you like to try our gabalygook pidally poop something or other special blahdi blah blah?" Me: "Hello? My phone number?" "Yes, go ahead" Me: "Nine seven" "Nine double" Me: "one double seven" "one double double" Me: "four seven" "four double" Me: "eight four eight" "Is this your first time calling?" Me: "No" "Give me your number again" Me: "Nine seven" "Nine double" Me: "No, nine seven" "Nine double" Me: "No double, seven." "double" Me: "No double. Let me try again. Nou sath (trying my Hindi)" "Nine seven" Me: "ek sath sath" "eight seven" Me: "No, Hindi mai (in Hindi) ek, ek" "eight"...

Well maybe not.... but I might have. I gave blood today for a friend who has Dengue Fever. She needed my platelets. So in a way, my platelets are helping to save her life. Therefore, I am a hero. This is the first time to donate blood in India. It turns out that all my experience donating plasma in America really paid off. It was just the same. A friend and I went to the hospital to donate for another friend. First we filled out a form and they asked us questions, then we did the finger prick. For some reason, my friend's veins weren't good enough to donate plasma or platelets, so she just donated blood. We really didn't ever find out why she couldn't give platelets too, but whatever. We just go with the flow, not completely understanding what is going on. The nurses were really nice to us. One sat with me the whole time. And when I got hungry, she went and got a small pack of cookies. And she fed me. She put the cookie in my mouth. So sweet. It is differ...

One Sunday a month, I get to teach the 3-5 year olds in sunday school. This past Sunday was my turn. Thankfully there was also a guy who was my helper. I have been by myself before and it isn't a pretty sight. This weeks lesson was pretty lame as far as the material goes. It was about Jesus teaching in the synagogue. There weren't any games with the lesson nor was there much of a story. So after doing the lesson I still had a bunch of time with the kids. They can get pretty restless. The kids played a game of "Find the Bible". We took turns hiding the Bible, and then trying to find it. This age is funny. They always run to the same place that it was hidden the time before. And what is funnier is that it is often there. Then the kids started jumping on me to try to get the Bible after I said we were done playing that game. One kid was so hyper that he put his head under my shirt. He was trying to climb up me on several occasions. Since there was a guy in...

This week, I spoke at the chapel for the elementary kids at Micah's school. I thought I could talk about selfishness. Here is kind of what I said. "Sometimes my family will order a pizza from Dominoes. There are three people in my family. A large pizza has 8 slices. So that means that two people will get three slices and one will just get two. Do you think that is fair? Do you ever get upset when everyone gets a big bowl of ice cream and you get a small one? Or how about when your brother or sister gets to stay up later then you do? It's not fair!" So then I gave the kids situations and they got to yell, "That's not fair!" Then I read from James 4:1 "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?" And I explained that we fight with each other when we don't get what we want. It is our selfishness that is causing these quarrels. Then I read from Phil. 2:3-4 "Do nothing ...

You'd be Surprised.

Now I know that if you are reading this, you are hoping that I will be talking about you in this posting, because you are my friend. But most likely, the people I talk about here are not going to be reading this posting. Sadly, we are no longer friends. There was Joshua (I think that was his name) in kindergarten. He lived across the street from us on Maple Street. We played outside on Big Wheels and he had the cool pump scooter. This was decades before the scooter fad of these days. Life was good for us. Outside playing with friends without a care in the world. Heike and I are still friends on Facebook. She was my grade school best friend. We rode our bikes to each others homes on weekends and in the summer. We played dress up, dolls, had sleep overs, and rode bikes together. Yvonne also became a friend in grade school. She lived down the street with her dad. She had a hard life and was a bit odd. She was socially different. Her dad was abusive it seemed. He yelled and...

Micah is doing homework right now. I'm not helping him because I will only cause us both to end up in tears. Actually, only he will be in tears because I don't cry. But I will have to eat the other half of the cinnomon roll if I'm not careful. When I was Micah's age, I also fell apart when I was doing my homework. I would flop around and have no clue what I was suppose to be doing. My parents would help me. My sister seems to remember that my dad would end up doing part of my homework. I didn't believe that was true until now. When I help Micah with his homework, I often times give in and start "helping" him too much. Like right now, he is trying to write an outline. I have already given him the topic sentence and have strongly encouraged him in the first point of the outline. I had to walk away because my sister's voice was in my head again saying, "Dad always did your homework." I want Micah to do his homework. Even if he ends u...

I just finished reading Half Broke Horses , by Jeannette Walls. Another great read by Jeannette. This is actually the story that is before her book Glass Castle . I enjoy her writing style and the characters in her family. The main character is Jeannette's grandmother. The story follows her life on a ranch. She was an extremely hard worker and a big dreamer. She followed those dreams to move to Chicago, learn to drive, learn to fly, and to become a teacher. This book, unlike the Glass Castle, did not remind me of my own life. But I imagine my dad would relate more to it, or my Grandparents. I loved seeing how smart the girl was and how tenacious. I would have loved to meet her and be friends with her. But I think I would have been too timid to hang out with her and go on her adventures. She could lasso a wild horse and ride the silly thing. I highly recommend this book to all my friends.

We are babysitting a hamster for some friends this week. Her name is either Mrs. Nibbles, Mrs. Wiggles, or Mrs. Giggles. I can't remember. Two days ago, Steve decided to let her run around the house. So he let her out and didn't watch where she went. So we lost her. We looked all through the house and couldn't find her anywhere. The problem is that hamsters sleep during the day. So last night I told Steve that he should get up in the middle of the night and look for her since he is the one who lost her. He said he would. So sometime in the night, Steve got up and started to look. He found her within two minutes, hiding by his guitar. So he put her back in her cage and went to bed. This morning I got up and noticed the cage was empty. Assuming that Steve didn't find her, I started looking a bit. Since she is active in the morning, I decided to turn on some lights to let her know to run around. I went to the bathroom and when I came out, she was sitting rig...

I have wanted to make something for a long time now. I decided I wanted to make pillow cushions out of old dupattas (scarves) since I have so many of those that don't really go with things, and I hate wearing them anyway. So I finally got my sewing machine out (thanks Caroline for the machine) and made cut up the dupattas and here is what I made. Warning to my family and friends: You may be getting cushion covers for Christmas. As with the stocking caps made a couple of years ago, I can't just stop at one.

Steve went shopping for tea and sugar this week. We go through so much sugar that it is scary. He decided to get the big bag of tea. I guess it is a good deal to get the big bag of things instead of the small bags. He also bought 1KG of sugar. When he got to the check-out counter they informed him that the big bag of tea also came with 2 bags of 1kg each of sugar. So the guy at the counter sent another guy to get the 2 bags of sugar. So Steve came home with three bags of sugar and one big bag of tea. Not sure why they just didn't give him one more bag of sugar since he had one already, but sometimes you just don't think straight.

I few years ago, Steve and I went to some intense counseling. We needed it. But what is really a bummer is that we are not perfect yet. You would think that after all of that time and money that we could at least be perfect. But I have issues. And more than just issues of magazines. I still have problems. I still react badly to situations. I still put myself down. I still act like a parent to my husband. I still am a messed up person in an imperfect world. I just wish I had all the money I spent on counseling so I could buy something to celebrate my humanity.

I started out the day with my second week of the Insanity workout. I think I have been working on it for three weeks or so, maybe more. But I don't do it every day, so a week of workouts takes more than 7 days. That said, my week two is just as hard as week one. I think I pooped out about the same spot as the first time through the routine. I couldn't do the last set of the last circuit, but I still had a great workout. It was enough calories burned that I put extra butter on my apple bread.

Lately I have had a hard time getting dressed in the morning. I put something on and take it off again because it is stupid. Either it is too tight (which doesn't make sense because I haven't gained weight) or it is too big (because they are second hand). A friend moved away a few months ago and left some clothes with me. I'm not sure if they were intended for me or for Courage Homes (our NGO for girls), but I kept them and have been wearing them. My friend is taller than I am so her clothes are all too long for me. And for some reason, she had a lot of v-neck shirts which go too far down my neck. So I don't feel comfortable in most of her clothes. But I have kept them because I was desperate for new clothes this summer and wouldn't dream of going shopping in the crazy heat. So yesterday when I was trying to find something to wear, I ended up with a pile of clothes to give to Courage Homes. Nice shirts that are now too tight for me. And I have some clothes ...

Here is my first attempt at a short story. Once upon a time, there was a couple who were going to have a baby. They went to the doctor to find out what they would be having. The doctor looked at the ultrasound and told them that he was pretty sure that they were having a baby girl. The man and his wife went home, rejoicing at the fact that they were going to have a daughter. They sat together and talked for hours about their little girl. They made plans for her room, what it would look like. And they came up with a name, Britney. The wife started making a baby quilt for Britney. It was so sweet. The quilt was all the letters of her name in different pink fabrics. And they painted a mural on the wall of a little girl on a tree swing, smiling so big. The room was perfect. The husband and wife talked to Britney all the time. They sang sweet songs to her. Britney became part of their lives before she was even born. Britney knew their voices and kicked or moved when they talked ...

I have been reading the old book, The Practice of Christ's Presence , by W. Y. Fullerton. One chapter has really been interesting to me. That is the one called The Experience. He takes the 23rd Psalm and looks at it as if it is one day with Jesus. So since I liked it so much, I thought maybe someone else might get something out of it too. "The Lord is my shepherd" He cares for us. He knows us. Jesus found us and became our shepherd. In the book of Ezekiel it talks of the Lord God who searches for his sheep and seek them out. He will deliver them out of all the places where they have been scattered. He will feed them in a good pasture. And He will cause them to lie down. First there is the waking consciousness of the day. Before we wipe the sleep from our eyes, we can prepare ourselves for the day ahead by saying "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Waking up with the assurance of His constant care. The morning feast. He calls his sheep out...

Sometimes I think I am living in Oz. Life is just so strange. People are strange. Everything around me is strange. Not bad, just strange. Like the cows gathered around the garbage dumpster eating their dinner. Or the people who hang on the outside of buses rushing through the city. Or the little two year olds that play on the edge of busy streets and survive. Crazy life! This week was full of excitement. It started with a bomb at the High Court. Horrible that someone desires to kill people in order to make a point. And no one knows what their point was. Then we had a small earthquake. I am usually scared of earthquakes, but this one didn't cause me to have a heart attack. And finally, the week ended with flooding and chaos around the city when we received 96mm of rain (or something like that). Streets were flooded, homes were flooded, and the little bird's nest outside the office window was flooded. Imagine what it would be like to have a big bomb, a big earthqua...

Since I am not really doing the Insanity Workout program, I thought I would just try to do it every other day. But yesterday I started craving an Insanity Workout. So I put on the second workout and gave it a whirl. I did it! I did the whole thing. Certainly not as well as the people in the video, but I made it through. I am surprised at myself for being able to do it. And I am not in pain. I am tired from too much working out, but not in pain. So I am letting myself have the weekend off. Even if I start craving it, I am going to say "no".

I tried the Insanity Workout yesterday, kind of just to see if I could do it. Steve joined me in the fun. We made it through the workout without barfing or passing out. It is pretty intense. But I was extremely proud of us for finishing it. Steve is amazing. He could keep up with it for the most part. He did make a big puddle of sweat on the floor that I mopped up afterwards though. I won't be doing it every day, as that is really insane. But I will try to keep doing it and build my cardiovascular health up so I don't die of a heart attack at age 40 or something.

Some days I just don't have bladder control. It isn't because I am old. I have had this problem for years. Maybe I can blame it on giving birth. I usually only have a problem when I get a knot in my pant's string or can't get the bathroom door locked in time. Once I see a toilet, I have about 5 seconds. One of our bathrooms in our house has a trick seat. The trick is that the lid doesn't stay up all the time. So this is a problem when I am having a bad bladder day. By the time I get the seat up, I need to be pulling my pants down, and starting to sit. It is all fine unless the seat falls down while I am in the process. This happens more than it should. Today is one of those days that my bladder is gladder when it is flatter. So I keep rushing to the bathroom and throwing the seat up, while I turn around to start the sitting. Unbeknownst to me (how do you spell that?) the seat is in the falling down process. Usually I can beat it, but sometimes I can...

Down one flight of stairs to go outside. Down two flights at the Metro. Up by escalator. Up two flights to an office. Down two flights to go outside. Down two flights of stairs to go to the Metro. Up by escalator. Up a flight of stairs to my home, only to find it is locked and I have no key. Down the flight of stairs. Up a flight of stairs at Courage Homes to look for my husband who has the key. Up another two flights to continue looking. Down three flights to go back outside. Up a flight of stairs to go home again. Eat Lunch Down a flight of stairs to go back to Courage Homes. Up a flight of stairs to say hello to people. Up two more flights to do some work. Down to flights to go to the inside stairs to go up a flight of stairs to do work. Down a flight of stairs to look for something. Back up a flight of stairs. Down a flight of stairs to go to the outside stairs to go up two flights of stairs. Down and up a few more times. Finally down three flights of st...

Every Friday, I take the Delhi Metro to the US Embassy. I work for a few hours in a thrift store that gives it's profits to different NGOs. I have talked before about the Delhi Metro and how I like it. I especially like the ladies only areas. Like the security that I have to walk through. The line is probably 20 times shorter than the men's line. And we are hardly ever crowded in our metro car. The guys are squished like sardines. But the one thing I don't like is that going in and out of the station is a security guard, behind a pile of sandbags, who is holding his rifle pointed at head level. So I have to walk right past these guys both going to the metro and leaving. I feel like I am risking my life every time I do. Weren't these guys ever told not to point their guns at people?

I decided I needed to do a load of darks this morning, as Micah's uniform is dark. He only has three shirts and two pairs of shorts, so we have to keep up on the laundry. I put the load in and thought about the drying rack full of clothes that was needing folding. So I went in to fold all the clothes. As I folded one top I realized that I wanted to try it on and see if it fit. I liked the color of it. It was left by someone who had stayed at our house. So I stopped folding clothes and went and tried it on. It fit! So I put my old shirt in the dirty clothes and noticed my pants didn't match. But luckily, the shirt also came with a pair of purple pants. So back to the drying rack I went. I pulled off the pants but realized that they were the really long, tight Indian chuuridar pants that I don't like. So I folded the pants and decided against the shirt too. Back I went to change. This time into a shirt I had already folded. After changing into the new shirt,...

The Delhi Metro is the city train or subway system here. It is only a few years old so it is still a novelty for some. I have been using it lately to go to different parts of the city. Our new house is close to a Metro stop so it makes travel easy. The Metro has a car that is just for women. Like the Delhi buses, the Metro can get packed full of people. So they have made an area that women will not be pressed against men and will be safe from the eve-teasing. There is also a separate security line for women as you enter the station. Sometimes the line for men going through security is 50 long. Whereas the ladies line is one or two. So the Metro is great for women. We get to buzz through security and rush to our spacious car for a pleasant ride to our destination. There is a fine on men if they try to ride in the "ladies only" car. I think it is like 1000/-. The other day I saw a guy riding in the car and the young lady next to me took out her big camera ...

I know I wrote a year or more ago about the weaning process. Micah is ten years old now. I have been working on weaning him for the past year or so. But today I found myself enjoying the closeness so much that I thought about just forgetting about the process all together. I love snuggling with Micah. Well before you get all grossed out, let me also add that I am not talking about breast feeding my 10 year old son. I went over that on my blog here I am talking about his mole habit. Since he was a baby he has held a mole on my neck. It is his security comfort. So today, he was feeling sick and he reached for the mole. I have been trying to stop him from having the mole during the day and only letting him hold it at bedtime for comfort. But today I just let him hold it and enjoyed the closeness again. Micah is a very cuddly person. He likes to be touching. If he sits next to me, he sits so that we are touching. Touch is his love language. Touch is not my love language. ...

A friend of mine sent a link to the Slut Walk in Delhi and asked what I thought about it. So now I have been thinking about it for a couple of days. I really don’t think it is worth the time to participate in the walk. I may be old fashioned or very conservative in my views, but that’s okay. I understand it started in Toronto after an official made a comment that women wouldn’t get raped if they didn’t dress like sluts or tramps. That is a poor comment to make but unfortunately, there is some truth to it. In a perfect society, it wouldn’t matter what a woman wore. In fact, she could walk around naked, and nothing would happen to her. But in the imperfect societies, a woman needs to use wisdom in the way she dresses. She is never at fault for a rape happening to her, or any other violent crime. As with other crimes, it is smart and helpful to not put yourself in vulnerable situations. Like we lock our doors. Is it right that we have to lock our doors? No, of course not. In t...

It has come down to this.... My friends aren't writing on their blogs very much these days (because they are having too much fun to take time to write, I guess) so I have to get my blog reading fill by hitting the "next blog" button on the top of the page. I'm not sure how it organizes the blogs, but I tend to read similar blogs that are on the same topic. I guess Blogger knows what interests me. Scary.

We have had a full house lately, and I'm not talking about Poker. Although I would love to play some Poker. We have a family staying with us for a while. They are looking for their own home, so until they find a place, they have our home away from home. We also had a single lady friend stay with us for a few nights. She was visiting from America. And this morning, we had our good friends over who returned from the States last night. We all ate breakfast together and had a small devotional time. It is so good to have this full house.

This is a new comic series that Micah is making when he isn't working on Larry and Lenny. It is called Mushrooms. I think it is awesome and I am sure you will agree. Micah is so talented in his ability to make comics. I am so proud of him.

We have a family staying with us for a couple of days. It is their first time to India. They have Micah’s room. Last night, while they were sleeping, the lights suddenly came on in their room. The father went over to the switch to turn the lights off and noticed the board was hot and there was a red glow and black smoke. He quickly woke us up and I turned the circuit board off. For some reason, an electrical fire started in the wires and it somehow opened the switch which then made it impossible to turn off the power from the light switch. We had to turn it off by the main circuit. Weird. I would assume that the fire would have broke the circuit and the power would actually go off, not on. We all went back to sleep, but not very well. Especially for the family that was in a room without power, smelled like burned wires, and no fan. We all woke up early. Steve tried the circuit breaker again to see what would happen and we heard a popping noise and again smoke. We quickly t...

I am doing a Bible Study called Falling In Love With Jesus. Today’s lesson was on Jewish Weddings and what we can learn from them. I found it very interesting and encouraging. In a Jewish wedding there is a betrothal. This is a ceremony that is like a formal engagement. The couple is basically married and after this time they would have to get divorced to call off the wedding. After the ceremony, the groom goes back home to start preparing a place for his wife, like a room off of his parents’ house. The bride goes home to start preparing her wedding dress. When the groom’s father decides the room is ready, he will send the groom to go collect his bride. The word used for this means “carry” or “take”. The bride doesn’t know when this will happen, so she needs to be ready at all times. Then there is the official marriage ceremony, which is more of a celebration of the coming together of husband and wife. This is a very joyous time with a feast. After this, the bride and groom...

Susie and I spent two hours getting a massage on our third day in Nepal. We trekked our way over a block to the small coffee and massage shop. The shop is called Aroma. They used nice scented oils. First they gave us a nice foot bath, probably for their benefit. Then we were told to strip down to just our panties and get under the sheet. The lady leaves the room while we stip. Susie was in a room next to me. There was nice, calm music playing and the table had a heating pad under the sheet. So I got on my table laying face down in the face hole. My lady came in and put some smelly something under my face and I think she said to breath in. As I took deep breaths, she pressed down on my back. Then she started the massage. It was wonderful. So extremely relaxing. Not like a Thai massage that is deep tissue massage and twisting, but it was rubbing and working out the knots in my back. She did a great job. After an hour she has us flip over. Then she massaged my face and f...

Day 2 ended with a trip to another restaurant close by, The Lazy Gringo. It is a Arizona Mexican restaurant, which I guess is like TexMex. We were all excited to eat Mexican since we don’t get it often in Delhi. The Lazy Gringo did not disappoint. The only thing lacking is that they don’t give you baskets of chips and salsa. The food was delicious.

Nepal sure does seem prettier than Delhi. At least Kathmandu does. It is so green and lush. Plus there are mountains. This is the rainy season so we are unable to see the Himalayas. We saw a few peaks from the airplane but didn’t take any pictures. Our guesthouse was a little hard to find. It is actually not a legal guesthouse so there was no sign up to say that we found the right place. Once we found it, we decided to go try the near by restaurant that we were told had great pizza. And it was GREAT. There was canadian bacon and pineapple. Day 2 was Sunday. We started the day going to church. It was a good message and we met some interesting people. There was a team from Singapore that led the music time. The people behind us were from Costa Rica and they knew some of the same people that we know. And Micah’s counselor from camp was there. So Micah was excited to see him and spend a little time with him playing Ultimate Ninja. After church we walked to another recommende...

We arrived in Nepal at the small airport in Kathmandu. You can get a visa on arrival there, so that is what our plan was. It seemed easier to get it there then to go to the Nepal Embassy and wait in line. You have to pay 25USD for the visa. They don’t accept Nepal Rupees or Indian Rupees. We had enough dollars for three of us, but we were traveling with a friend, so there were four of us. And actually, the dollars were hers. So there is an ATM at the immigrations area for travelers that don’t have dollars. You are able to withdrawal Nepal Rupees and then step two steps over to the money changer and exchange them for dollars. No problem. Or so we thought. The problem was that the ATM wasn’t working. The lady before us got 9,000 rupees. She had asked for 10,000. So I guess the ATM ran out of money. The money exchange will take Indian Rupees, but not the 500 or 1000 notes. We didn’t have enough 100 notes to make 25USD, so we can up with plan B. Plan B was for two of us to ...

Micah and I just finished watching an episode of Man Vs. Food. It was one where the guy went to Idaho and ate a 4 and a half pound burger, a plate of chili fries, and a 16oz. milkshake. If he could eat it in 30 minutes, he would win a guitar. I have seen this show a couple of times and each time I have the same reaction. I am disgusted! I seriously hate the fact that American restaurants even make food like that. Huger than any one person needs to eat. Not only is it so unhealthy but it also is a slap in the face to the hunger in the world. I hate seeing food being wasted, and one person eating all that food is a waste. So why do I watch it? Well, partly it is because I miss American food, like hamburgers. And then partly it makes me thankful I am here and not around such gluttony. I see people without enough food and it makes me thankful for what I have. I also have compassion and will give our left-overs away from a restaurant, even though it would make a great second meal...

I went on another shared auto today and enjoyed my squishy ride. I took it to the metro station, took the metro to the train station, but didn't take a train. Instead I took a cycle rickshaw to a hotel to meet a group of students. I shared with them about trafficking and what we are hoping to do with our after-care home. Then I had them all get on rickshaws and go through the red-light area to pray for the people there. Apparently 4 American women are too much for one cycle rickshaw. We were two on the seat and two on a small seat on the back. Mostly kids sit on this seat. But today I and another young lady sat on it. We got lots of laughs and points. But the real excitement came when our rickshaw puller got off to pull us up a little incline. The whole thing started tipping backwards because of the weight on back (me). We put our feet down and the guy grabbed his seat and pulled us back up. But boy, did that cause a lot of laughs. We got to the red-light area and the s...

A shared auto is a small vehicle that is open and is able to squish a lot of people in it. On the road that we live close to, there are shared autos that take you to the metro station for just eight rupees (20 cents). They ply the road all day long, picking up passengers and making a killing. There are two bench seats in the back that face each other and 3 can sit on each side comfortably. There are usually more than three however. I don’t like to get in one that is full of men, so I will let those go by. If there is a woman in it, I will get in and try to sit by her. But more often then not, I still end up thigh to thigh against a guy. I just came back from a trip to the metro station and enjoyed my ride. I was still a sardine in a tin can, but the people were nice enough. I was one of the first ones in the auto so I couldn’t choose my company, they chose me. I chose to sit on the edge so that I would only get one neighbor next to me. An old guy sat between me and the other...

After my negative post yesterday, I thought I had better change my attitude. Rain, a/c, being with my family, eating tasty food, Dr. Pepper, Mt. Hood, Fall leaves, Micah's comics, pretty flowers, soft bunnies, knowing God loves me, a comfy pair of shoes, my pillow, sweats and t-shirts, someone else cooking, thai iced tea, Steve, watching fish, people falling (but not getting hurt), Micah, friends, dessert at the Big Chill, and quietness.

Warning! Do not read this post! I am venting. Complaining. You have been warned. So today is one of those days that just seems to need to end. It started with a lack of sleep because the power kept going off. Now I know that I should be thankful that we have an inverter, and I am, extremely thankful actually, but I am still complaining about the disturbance. I woke up early to do my workout with my dear friend, Jessica. That was a good part of the day. We just finished day 10 of the first part of Jillian's 30 day shred. I had a good workout and got sweaty, which isn't too hard because just sitting here writing this I am sweating. So I was looking forward to my shower. But it was not to be. There was just a dribble of water coming out of the faucet. So I splashed a bit on myself and called it good. It has taken me two days to do one load of laundry because of the lack of water. I am still working on filling the second cycle of water right now and it is 5PM. Micah ...

This may gross some people out, but I wanted to share it with you anyway. I have a part of me that I would remove. No, it isn't my fat apron (pannus)(I just love saying that to shock you), but it is my mole on my armpit. This mole has been a part of me for many years. More than I remember. But it seems to have grown. It might not even be a mole. It could be one of those skin tabs or tags. Which reminds me of Tab soda. Remember that one? I think it was the first diet soda. Do they still make that? Anyway, back to my mole problem. I have a few moles on my body that bother me. Right now this is the one that bothers me the most. I am afraid I will shave it off when I shave my armpits. I thought about tying a thread around it to remove it like farmers remove lambs tails. Or maybe I could just have Steve slice it off with his swiss army knife. That just sounds painful. I've had moles removed before and they do sting. I remember seeing them in the little dish that t...

I just read on the news that a young man is lost on the Umpqua River. That reminded me of a time, back in college, that I almost died on the Umpqua River. I was with my girl friends and we decided to go tubing. I don't know how to swim. I can doggie paddle and float, but I can't have my head go under water, or I drown. Seriously, I have almost drowned in the shower. Anyway, on this fated trip, I decided to not put on my life jacket. Instead, I tied it to the inner-tube. We each sat in our tube with our feet hanging over and went down the fast flowing river. It was a lot of fun. I actually really love rivers. Well I hit a little rapid and my body fell down through the tube. The problem was that my legs didn't make it all the way down. They were stuck in the middle of the tube between my knees and feet. Perfectly wedged in the hole. So I was trapped! It probably all took two seconds in reality, but I felt like I would certainly die. And my parents would be so...

Since we don't have internet access yet, I have to write my blogs and wait to post them. So here are three at a time. Snack Around 5PM I got hungry. We aren’t eating for a couple more hours. So I needed a snack. Micah also needed something. So we went into the kitchen to see what we could find. There was alfredo sauce left over from last night that I could have on bread, cereal, or left over okra Indian food. I decided I should eat the Indian food. Micah was about to have cereal when I said I was going to eat the left over Indian food. He said, “Ooooh, me too!” I was a bit surprised. He said he really liked it yesterday. So I heated up two bowls of okra and rice for us and we just finished our snack. No Water In our new house we have three bathrooms. They are all shiny, new and clean. The first day we had a plumber come and fix something so that the water pressure would be good. It worked great. I did several loads of wash (I have many more to go). Well for the las...

One evening this week, while at Kids Camp, Steve and I were shocked. We all knelt on the ground to pray and when we go back up, Steve and I were stiff and slow. We were sitting in the back, watching the kids. And then it hit us... we are the token old people at camp!

I am at Kid’s Camp this week, helping out with whatever they need me to do. Today was the day we took them all to the water park. Now I know in most people’s minds that would make you think of some really cool, fun place that has super pools, slides, and other fun water activities, but this is India. First, we took a bus to the water park. This was about an hour long drive, down many one lane roads that have cows laying in the middle of them. Winding around blind corners. Squeezing by cars that have to pull their side mirror in to get by us. Just bumping along the mountain roads trying to find the way to the park. When we arrived, the park wasn’t quite open for business yet. The parking lot was empty. It looked like a ghost water park, meaning it had gone out of business 10 years ago. Then the doors opened and we all went in. It was still quite a disappointment to look at. The slides looked rickety, the water was greenish and a bit slimy, and there was no place to sit. But...

falling down. That is what I did today. It has been a while since I last fell. I guess moving day is a good day to fall. I can then use the excuse that I am hurt so I obviously can't help. But I didn't get hurt. I slipped on a step because I was wearing my house flip=flops that are smooth on the bottom, and the stairs are sandy. I only fell to my rear-end and got up right away and dusted off. The sad thing is that Steve, the guard, and the moving guys all saw me. I got the "tsk tsk" and a surprised expression from everyone. Later, when I saw Steve again, I asked him if he laughed after he saw me fall. I know I would laugh and I do laugh when Steve falls. He said, "Yes." That made me laugh too. So all is well that ends well. Laugh!

Authorities dismissive of missing children | Deccan Chronicle

Yesterday I responded to a post on Facebook and made people angry. The person I was writing to had written a poem or writing and used curse words, the worst ones too. So anyway, I couldn't hold back, I had to respond. I said that there were better words to use and that those were icky words. So then his friend wrote a comment saying that it was so horrible of me to try to censor someone's writing and she used curse words too. Then I noticed that from then on the cursing just got worse. Like, "In Your Face!" I'm not bothered that I made someone angry. I am bothered by the fact that the person has changed. I wonder what has happened that made him a different person. He comes from a good family of loving people, but there is a lot of hatred in his heart and darkness. Is it like Anakin who went to the dark side? This incident has also made me feel old. These young kids, who are in their early 20's, seem so immature to me. And then I started thinking ab...

Have you ever looked at a picture of a person you know and thought to yourself, "Boy, this person sure isn't very attractive." I have. I know, I'm a horrible person for admitting this, but it is true. I was just looking at a person and thinking to myself that they are really nice and fun to be around, but they really are a bit weird looking. It is weird how you no longer notice a person's looks once you get to know their heart. But it also makes me sad. How many people are overlooked because of their looks? How many times does the pretty person get noticed? I can look weird sometimes, but I also can clean up nicely. But since I have these mean thoughts about peoples' looks, does that make me ugly?

The Grand Re-Opening of Fitness Circle #2 was last month. The gym is located in Darbungu, Bihar in India. Bihar is a state in India which has the most illiteracy and I think it is the poorest state. The gym has been in Darbunga for several years, but had to close last year because of problems with the landlord. A new location was found and ladies are starting to join. The manager called me this morning to say there were already 5 members. That is great for the first month in Darbunga. So I am excited to hear what happens with the gym there.

There is suppose to be a global earthquake on Saturday, according to a self-proclaimed prophet. Way back in the 1990's there was a similar prediction. I think it was actually just for Portland, OR. But there was suppose to be a big earthquake that was God's judgment on us. My best friend and I made big plans for that day. I spent the night at her apartment because it was only a single level. My place had an apartment above me. We also wanted to be at her apartment because it was only two blocks from the chocolate factory. Our plan was to go loot the chocolate factory right after the earthquake. For some reason we saw nothing wrong with this plan. I guess it would all be wasted anyway. So for this coming Saturday's global earthquake, I don't have any big plans. If I knew where a chocolate factory was, I might plan to go there. It seems like I have matured since the first prediction. I think now that if there was a huge earthquake I might actually be concerned...

Now that the temperature is scorching, I am happy to put on my swimming suit and jump in a pool. The problem is in finding a pool. Yesterday we did our best at looking for a pool, but failed miserably. The first hotel we went to is the one we use to have a pool membership at. We paid an arm and a leg one summer to be able to use their pool. It was such a welcome relief from the horrible heat that summer. So we drove to the hotel and had our bag of swimwear and walked to the pool. I didn't notice the signs that said, "Pool under renovation." Sure enough, to our disappointment, it was closed. Now, who works on a pool during the best swimming time of the year? Why not work on it in March or February? The second hotel is one that doesn't have a great pool, but I thought it was worth a try. We drove to it and I went in. We could see the pool from the car. No one was in it. It looked cool and refreshing. But the manager said it is only for hotel guests. Strik...

When I was a child, we lived in Oregon and often drove to Eastern Washington for Christmas at my grandparents' house. We made the trek in our old, white van. It was kind of a camper van. It had two seats in front, with the motor cover in the middle that we could sit on. And it had a sink. And a bed. We would put in folding lawn chairs to have two more seats. On this particular Christmas trip, the van didn't have any heat. We usually started our trip out at 4 or 5 in the morning, when it is already cold. We would go in our pajamas and rest on the bed for a few hours. Well since we didn't have heat, we took our thick sleeping bags and bundled up for the trip. My dad wore his ski mobile outfit. My sister and I and our mom huddled together for most of the trip. Who in their right mind drives 8 hours in the freezing Northwest without a heater? Well I guess our family did. And now I find that I wish I was in that van right now, driving through the freezing Northwest....

I have four moms! I started out with one. I never dreamed of having four. But God must of known that it would take four moms to help raise me. My mom did the hard part of getting me to adulthood. Then I guess I really needed some work. So God saw that it was best to spread out the job to 3 more ladies. My mother in-laws took turns at speaking into my life in their own ways. And now I am what I am because of these moms. (so don't blame me) Anyway, I have three mother in-laws. Life is funny. My first mother in-law is Steve's birth mom. She has always been a part of his life of course, but he hasn't always lived with her. Second comes my ex step mother in-law, but I prefer to drop the first part and just say mother in-law. She did a lot of the hard years of raising a boy. She probably had the hardest work of all three. And thirdly, my step mother in-law, or momette (I pretend that is French). She became part of the family a year or two before me, so she got th...

Craving one of these!

Last night I had to come up with a meal for the three of us. Thankfully, my mom had sent a package with some food items in it, otherwise there would have been a call to Dominoes. So I made some Mac N Cheese and some eggs with refried beans. My mom had sent the Mac N Cheese and the refried beans. I just had to have eggs. We were all tired after a long day out, so I was trying to save time. I didn't actually wash the pan that I made the eggs in. The night before, eggs were made in it and my househelp hadn't come to do dishes, so it still sat on the stove. I rinsed it out, but there were still a few dried egg spots in it. And I rinsed off the eggs. They come farm fresh here, which means they have chicken poop on the shells still. Maybe one of these errors were the cause of the effect that happened to Micah's body at 1 AM. Micah was having a hard time falling asleep. We moved him into our room with a mattress on the floor so that he could enjoy the a/c. But he kept ...

We have had a wonderful April with cooler than normal weather. But now it is hot! Today must have been 150 degrees! Well, maybe that is not quite right, but it might as well be that hot. I think the computer said it was 103 degrees, which is only 39.5 for those who only know celsius. I think 103 sounds much hotter. I always have a hard time at the beginning of the hot season. My body takes a long time to adjust to the heat. So today I turned the a/c on and brought a mattress into the dining room (where the a/c was) and just laid there for a while. I won't tell you how long. Micah and his friends were in the front room without a fan even on. I went out there and asked them if they needed it. They didn't sound like they cared, but I turned it on anyway. Then one of them said that it hurt his wasp bite to have the wind blow on it, so I turned it off and laid back down in the other room. The mattress was hot! It seemed like it could burst into a flame. Then I thought ...