Visiting the Village

A few weeks back we got to take a wonderful trip with our language teacher to her family's village. We met aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, neighbors, and even some roosters. The air was so clean and the view was beautiful. The village was up on a mountainside so you could see the whole valley below us, and on the other side of the valley, you could see the mountain range that marks the border to the next country over. There were no honking horns, no pollution, no traffic jams--just crops and birds and good ole' country folk. The picture on the right is (back row) L to R: matt, our teacher's grandpa, our teacher, another teacher from the school (front row) L to R: me, our teacher's mom, and a friend of ours. The picture on the left is Matt and I with our teachers two daughters.

Morning Sickness

I have been experiencing morning sickness. All day and all night long. I have thrown up many times, once even, in the shower. Last Thur was our first visit to the OBGYN and she gave me some medicine for the nausea, which I have been taking. It has helped a little, but I still find myself wandering in circles around my kitchen, knowing I must eat something, otherwise my quickly turning stomach will have me bowing to the porcelain god again soon. But nothing sounds good. Or very specific, but impossible things sound good. Like Taco Bell (because, hey, at least there's some protein in bean burritos). Or Nilla Wafers. Tonight the thing that sounded good was chocolate milk, courtesy of Nestle Chocolate Milk Mix. And as I sat at my kitchen table, pondering what else I could stand to eat so that I don't wake up needing to pee and vomit simultaneously, I looked at the chocolate milk mix container, and remembered a funny thing. Growing up in our house, in the corner cabinet of our kitchen (over the appliance garage), was a big deep top shelf, that was kind of hard to reach, that usually housed all of the over-sized plastic Big Gulp kind of cups. But there was something else in there. And it had long ears for handles, and the cutest little buck teeth. . . ringing a bell with anyone? That's right! The Nestle bunny mugs!! We had two of them (because I'm sure my brother and I would have fought to the death over just one). These things predate my younger brother and sister. They have to be from sometime in the 70's. I don't remember a time before the bunny mugs. And I am telling you, chocolate milk just tasted better in the bunny mugs. So while i sip my chocolate milk and try to eat some honey nut Cheerios, i daydream about who in our family has snagged those mugs. I know my sister Kimberly has the tin flour sugar and coffee tins my mom used to have. I know my older brother Jason probably has all the good children's books and toys (like an original Curious George stuffed animal), because he had kids first. And honestly, it's not the fact that I am going to bring a child into the world that I want those mugs. It's simply because they are the coolest mugs ever. I can easily imagine my younger brother Kevin having those mugs out of sentiment. Anyway, I assumed that whoever has the mugs is not giving them up, so I went online. What on earth did people do before the internet? I mean SERIOUSLY!! Within a few seconds, I found four or five sources for the amazing mugs (which I found out are circa 1975), ranging in price from about $3 to more in the range of $10. Now I am young enough to have used WebMD to diagnose myself, or to have googled something about the difference between Bison and Buffalo to end an argument among friends, or to even have googled Marie Antoinette while watching the movie Marie Antionette, just to see what the real story is, but I confess--I have never bought anything on Ebay. I know, i know. And if you really want to make fun of me, the only thing I've ever seen on the site with all the videos (whose name i am completely unable to recall at the moment, but you know what I'm talking about) is videos of Narcoleptic dogs, videos of famous people from this country (Tiny Tim, Dick Dale), and someone teaching counting in Mandarin. Yep, that's right, I am completely lame, and not afraid to admit it. Now, I have to sign out and go back to bed (after I finish my chocolate milk), but if any of you needs a good idea for a birthday gift for me, consider yourselves informed. . . either the bunny mug, or a Kansas charm for my charm bracelet. With months to work on this, I know you won't disappoint.

rainbow out.

New to This

Well, if my mom (who I once taught to email) can do this, I guess I can too. . . blog that is. So here goes nothing. This is my feeble attempt, as I stand in the shadows of a much greater woman (my mom, of course) to learn how to create my own blog. Wish me luck.