5 Years Together!!!

We celebrated 5 years of marriage this past week!!! We have both commented on how it feels like we've been together forever, and we can't imagine life without "us". For our anniversary, my sweet husband planned a two-night getaway to a nice hotel up in the mountains and it was wonderful!!! He knows me soooo well, and knew that at almost 6 months pregnant, it was time to get his hot (literally) mama out of the city and into some cooler temps!

For all of you fellow Kansans, it was like getting to flee the summer heat of Kansas for Colorado! (only we have a LOT more humidity here, and only A/C in certain rooms of the house, excluding THE KITCHEN and bathrooms, and public transportation doesn't have A/C, plus we do a good bit of walking . . . sorry, end of whining). Anyway my man planned to take me away from all of that to a really nice hotel up in the ski-resort area of our country. We actually accidentally skied down a run to this resort last winter, only to find out that it is a private lift back up, only for hotel guests (which is kind of an inconvenient time to learn such information, after you have skied down what i nicknamed "the hill of death"). After a short break and an expensive bottle of water that we shared four ways at the lodge, the lift guy was nice enough to let us ride the lift back out of the area to the public areas for the ordinary folks.

So . . . matt took me to that resort for our anniversary get-away! As we drove out of the city up and up and up, the temperature dropped steadily until it was about 20 degrees cooler up on the mountain!!! We drove around with our windows down and i even wore a sweater one evening as we strolled around the hotel grounds!! For this constantly sweaty and overheating woman, it was a DREAM!!! There were a few times I got a little nervous because I couldn't seem to catch my breath (the air sure is thinner up there), but it was totally worth it!

When we arrived in our room we were initially disappointed b/c our room was pretty small with a very uninspiring view (and let me just say that during the summer, because of all of the tourists from all over the MEast and the world, hotel rooms are CRAZY expensive EVERYWHERE around here, so matt had forked out some cash for this little room that was practically in the basement) and matt was real disappointed and felt we were being WAY overcharged for the room. BUT, it all turned for the better when we realized that our room rate included not just a huge (and delicious) breakfast buffet, but also a second meal, either lunch or dinner, for each night that we stayed! We only had to eat out one meal the whole time we were there and the shower had AMAZING water pressure, there was a great pool that matt swam in twice (he LOVES to swim) and I swam with him once. We laid around and watched TV and read and it was a wonderful way to celebrate our anniversary.

Right after we got back into town we had a Dr's appointment and got to see our little Maya swimming and dancing around, healthy as a horse, so it was a great end to our weekend away, looking at what our marriage has produced and generally being in awe at all that it has meant to us (and hopefully to others) these past 5 years!!!

Baby Picture

El Rancho

This weekend we went camping!!! One of our friends discovered a place outside of town, up in the mountains called El Rancho where you can camp, ride horses, have a bonfire, and even eat "ranch food"! One of our dear friends is leaving this week, and it was her birthday this weekend (and she's an American Indian which made it so much more fun!!) so we went to celebrate her and just to have a good time. The whole place was decorated with cowboys and indians, and they even had a real life indian there teaching people about indian culture. It was really fun, and quite surreal at the same time--it was hard to believe that we were here in the Middle East, camping, listening to country music and roasting marshmallows over a bonfire!!

my favorite cowboy

matt doing some "practicing"

I wonder what happened to his hand. . .

me and a my new friend

our campsite

20 Weeks

This week I'm 20 weeks pregnant!! That means I'm halfway there, and Maya is the size of a banana! Yipee! Last night I had my first really phsically uncomfortable-I can't sleep because something big is happening inside my body moment. I don't know what it was, but I was having a pain in my lower left abdomen that just wouldn't let up. I consulted my pregnancy Bible ("What to Expect When You're Expecting") and found that it was probably stretching ligaments or something. Or maybe it was that banana-child poking me in the side! Who knows. I'm guessing though, that this is probably just the beginning of many many sleepless nights this girl will cause! Speaking of sleepless nights, I have actually been struggling with sleeping, so please pray for us (when I toss and turn Matt tends to not sleep well either). I don't know if it's the Narcolepsy or having too much on my mind, but either way, I seem to sleep okay in the late night hours, and then toss and turn all through the early morning hours.

Bathing Beauties

If you think this picture could not have been taken in the Middle East, you would be wrong. Welcome to my world. It is a world of contradictions. Bikini clad women who have been the recipient of plastic surgery abound. And so do women covered from head to toe in black fabric, even covering their faces. I have decided the best comparison that I can make is that my city is either like the LA or the LasVegas of the Middle East. This picture was taken at a beach club where you pay about $7 for entry, and you then have access to the pools and the ocean for the day. There are some beach clubs that are for women only, so that covered women can go there and unveil, knowing they are safe from the chance of any men seeing them in their bathing suits.

My Sweetheart!!

Urine Collection

Being pregnant cross culturally has had some interesting moments. Like when our building guard told me that I look worse now than I did before, pointing to the break-out's on my face. Or the time when said guard proposed that his unborn son marry our unborn daughter. Or then there was the time when my Arabic teacher's dad (a man a little younger than my dad) came across the room to me and kissed my belly and talked to the baby (this is a Muslim man who lives in a very conservative part of the city). There have been some wonderful strange things that happen as part of being pregnant here too, though. We get to have a sonogram every month. Just because. Seeing our baby as she grows every month is so sweet!

Recently though, the strangest cross cultural pregnancy thing is that I have to do urine collection. And by urine collection, I don't mean that I have to pee once in a little cup. I mean that for an entire 24 hour period I have to collect ALL of my urine!! Do you have to do that in American? I don't think so! Or I've just never heard any pregnant women talk about it, but I really think I would have heard of such a thing before now! My Doc even said that if I am going out, I need to go before I leave the house!!!

While we were in the Dr's office, I completely forgot to ask the question, "WHY?" and like a good Arab, believed that the expert was in charge and it didn't matter why. So I proceed to the hospital lab to give them the lab orders, and to get a bottle about the size of a large bleach bottle to take home, to fill with my urine!!! Do these people know how often pregnant women have to pee? Who are they kidding! And what I really want to know is how much does my urine change over a 60 minute period? Why do both pee's need to be collected, if they are only 60 minutes apart?

Ladies who have had babies, I need your feedback, is this normal??