Vacation Days, Or Not (and an announcement at the end...)

Week before last was Holy Week - and in a predominately Catholic country, that is a big deal. Everyone gets lots of time off. Kids had last week and this week home from school. Something like 90% of the country got off Holy Thursday and Good Friday. And the way it works out this year, with Easter being so early, 90% also got off last Monday in celebration of some famous President here.

We were under the impression, leading up to Holy Week, that my beloved would have off Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (he generally works 1/2 days Saturdays, which means half the number of clients visited - not necessarily half the time). So we made plans for a day trip on Monday, thinking later in the week we´d have a lazy day. Lazy days are few and far between (meaning in large part we can sleep in, and get up when we are in the mood, istead of rushing out) - since FB works Monday thru Saturday and the last Sunday of every month, that only leaves Sunday. But of course we get up and go to church on Sundays. So, lazy days...? I think we´ve had one since we returned from the honeymoon.

Instead, he had to work Thursday, Saturday, and....drumroll please....EASTER SUNDAY!
I am sure you all understand the logic there - since clients really want to open their door to a stranger to talk about being behind in their payments on EASTER SUNDAY, if they are even home and didn´t take off on a vacation somewhere. No, the logic was - you all had off Monday and Friday - better work Sunday. And since the office closed a little early Thursday, FB had to hit up the office before getting started on Saturday to finish up from Thursday. Then when he finished for the day, he had to prepare all his visits for both Sunday and Monday. So Saturday was a long day of work.

Monday and Friday, the days he did get off, were´t bad, just not lazy days like we´d been looking forward to.

Monday we did the day trip to a pretty and quaint little town about 2 hours away. The 2 of us had been there once before. This time we took along another young married couple and their little boy. I had just recently been thinking we should hang out once in a while (when there´s time - which is the whole issue) with other young marrieds, so I was fine with Herme´s spur of the moment idea to invite them Saturday night. The weather was weird that day, lots and lots of wind, carrying lots and lots of dust. And spring hadn´t quite arrived there like we´d hoped. But we ate at a nice restaurant and then spent several hours at a park where they have created a pond (they call it a lake, cuz there isn´t much water here. but it is only a pond). The temperature was nice, even if it was windy, and we had an enjoyable time, a mix of keeping to ourselves and hanging out all together. Just before heading home, we hit up a vineyard museum, which was interesting, but would have been more so if the guide talked just a little bit slower.

One highlight for me was a stop at the street market on the way out of town. FB and I had stopped there when we were there a little over a year ago, and he bought me a pink shawl. I wore it when announcing our engagement here and in Rochester, and subsequently on any chilly day when I wanted to feel like my fiance was a little closer to me. It was very pretty, and an important memory item for me. But I lost it a couple of months ago. I think what happened was that it was on my lap in the car, and I forgot when I got up to get out and it fell. By the time we realized it, it was long gone. I was devastated. (And for those of you who know, this happened like the same week as another major possession loss.) But anyways, we found the same vendor and bought another shawl. She didn´t have the same color, but otherwise it is the same, and it comforts me to have it.

Friday, we got up about the same time as a workday and headed to a Good Firday service. It`s a gathering of many churches that all form an alliance, and different people from different churches take turns reading the last 7 things Jesus said during the crucifixion. Afterwards, there was a picnic style lunch and everyone fellowshipped for a bit. And in the culture here, that means everyone packed a whole lot of one thing and shared it with everyone else. Everyone always shares here. It was good, and lasted til about mid afternoon. I got sunburned - didn`t know it was outside, and apparently the tarps providing my shade were not all that protective. AFterwards, we spent some time with my in-laws, then headed home to get that budget done.

Easter Sunday our church did a sunrise service (although the sun never rose, it was one of those rare cloudy and chilly days here), so we were able to go to service before FB had to work, which was nice.

The other part of that week that kept life interesting was that when we returned to town Monday evening from our day trip, we headed straight over to my in-laws to pick up 3 very excited children. Our 2 nieces (10 and 7) and great-nephew (6) had been dying to spend the night at our house for weeks. And since they were on vacation for 2 weeks, they came and stayed with us until Thursday morning. Great vacation for them - a bit exhausting for me!

Remember the weird windy weather we had Monday? Well, Tuesday morning, the temperature dropped to the 40s, and there was so much dirt being carried in the wind that visibility was bad. And dirt was coming in thru every crevice of the house - door jams, windows, you name it. So, I had 3 very excited children stuck inside for the better part of the day. I have no toys other than a game of Dominos, a few childrens books, but mostly in English, and no TV - and a pretty small house. The saving grace was when I remembered late in the day the Play-Doh recipe I had - all dead time from that moment on was spent pretending to be a bakery or restaurant. (By the way, the recipe was from a cook-book the church ladies put together back in Rochester a year or 2 ago. Any one from there reading this - I love that little book and reading what you all wrote, and have used several recipes already!)

The next day we had much nicer weather, walked the 20ish minutes to visit someone from church and later hit up a nearby playground. Still tiring, but in a less anxious, pent up kind of way. I taught the kids Mother, May I? and Red Light, Green Light. Since hardly anyone here has any yard to speak of (homes are usually all built right up against each other), any time spend at a playground or even in an open patch of grass is much enjoyed.

Ok, this post is a book. I promise the others I am planning to write shouldn`t be quite this long. But as computer time in the next few days will be devoted to getting my taxes done, I`m not sure when the next post will be. I do hope to write fairly soon, though, because my second prenatal appointment is Friday. Can you believe that today officially marks the beginning of my 2nd trimester already?! And yes, I am trying to figure out how to post the occassional picture of my growing belly.

Oh, and I forgot to post last week in the midst of all my catching up, that I am an aunt again!! My brother and his wife welcomed their first into the world Saturday, March 22. From what I am told, she`s beautiful, with lots of hair. It`s crazy hard not knowing when I will meet her. But then, as they live just that far away from the rest of the family, only my parents have been able to meet her so far, and the others aren`t sure when they will. This is the first baby that we all (or almost all) didn`t meet in the first 48 hours - times are changing in our family I guess.

No, really, I´m still alive

I know, I know, you all think that I fell off the face of the earth or something. But I really am still here. It´s just that I only made it to a cyber cafe once in the last 10 or so days, for less than an hour (which really was just enough time to weed thru the backlog of emails I´d accumulated). And today I don´t have much time to write, because again, I had a backlog of reading to do. But I have like 4 half written posts in my head to share with you in the coming days, such as:
-the highs and huh?s of pregnancy
-vacation days, or not
-a general how I am adjusting to life here type update
-the comfort in stereotypes

But please have patience with me in getting these posted. You see, we finally sat down to make a budget. At first we put it off because we weren´t exactly sure what are expenses were, or what certain bills would end up looking like, and then we had to find a good time. But we did it. And it turns out that for the moment, we have just enough, and I mean just enough, money to pay our bills. (Thank You, Lord!) There are still a couple of things we are working on to help make money stretch, as well. But my point is, that technically, although coming to the cyber cafe is a big deal for me, and is relatively cheap (about 75 cents/hour), it rates more as a luxury than a necessity. And our budget is very, very tight. SO - depending on how things go with those ideas of how to make the money stretch, my time may be more limited than it has been. I will do my best to use my time productivey and not get sucked in to random cyber surfing, etc. But it may be tricky to post real often.

But posting at least one of the before mentioned posts is on my to-do list for later this week. provided I have time.

I only have a few minutes left...

...but for those who were wondering, we saw PS: I love you on Friday night. We both enjoyed it, although sometimes I get a little annoyed with the stuff they throw in there (like why did she have to sleep with the guy on their 1st date?). But overall, it was relatively clean, and one of those sweet, sappy, romantic comedies that will most likely make the ladies cry (I know I did, several times). American movies arrive here still in English, with Spanish subtitles, which means we both get to fully enjoy it (although FB admittedly has to work a little harder). And turns out movies are way cheaper here - only cost $45 pesos each, which means about $4 American dollars.

In other news, in case you weren´t sure, it is not fun having to get up and go to the bathroom anywhere from 2-5 times in a single night! I used to get up once most nights, but this is getting out of control. I don´t drink much in the evenings, even if I am thirsty. And I go to the bathroom right before bed. I even lean foward, which I read is supposed to ensure you really empty your bladder (sorry if this is TMI for anyone - but it is driving me crazy!). Not so restful to wake up every couple hours for a bathroom run.

Oh well. Out of time.

Sshhh! It`s a secret!

You see, I was paid a very high compliment this week, in an area in which I have already shared my insecurities with you all. And it came from the person most able to affect me with such a compliment. But it is the type that can`t get back to certain people. However, since those people live here in Mexico and speak Spanish, and my readers generally live in the US and speak English, I thought maybe I could share here.

My dear, sweet husband told me this week that I am a better cook than his mother. (And his mother is generally known to be a very good cook.)

Now, I am keeping in mind that this came at a time when he happened to be very hungry - everything tastes better when you are hungry. But it was said very sincerely, and pretty much blew me away.

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In other news, I don`t think I have mentioned yet here how excited FB`s family is about my pregnancy. They have already started buying us baby clothes! And you should have seen and heard them the other night when we showed them the ultrasound picture. And they keep making me model for them to see if I am showing yet (enough for FB and I to tell, not too noticeable to most other folks). All in all, it`s fun.

I am happy to say that I am one of those people that really enjoy my in-laws. A couple of Herme`s brothers are really quiet, and we are only just starting to be comfortable initiating conversations with each other. But the brother closest to me in age is really outgoing and loves to pick my brain about one thing or another. He`s managed to pick up enough English words to help me along when I`m not sure what he is saying, too. And his sisters and I hit it off since the beginning, as well as the neices and nephews. We get along even better now that I have improved enough in my Spanish that I don`t feel like they are talking at the speed of light ;)

Well, we are giving ourselves a rare treat and heading to the movies in a little bit, so I am going to get going. FB has had a great workweek, getting out much earlier than usual (by several hours) a couple of days and an hour or 2 early the other days. If only his weeks could be more like this on a regular basis!

My Baby! :)

We had our first prenantal check up this morning, and it was so exciting!

Our Pastor and his wife had recommended this particular doctor to us (they are currently under his care for their pregnancy). At their suggestion, they accompanied us in order to present us to the doctor as friends that they recommended him to, which was really nice of them to take the time to do. It also helped us with the practicalities of figuring out where we were going the 1st time, etc.

It was a pretty straight forward appointment overall, with him asking some basic questions and laying down the law as far as my diet and activity levels are concerned. He is really friendly and likeable, and you really get the sense he knows what he is doing. The only downside is that he talks kind of fast, so I couldn´t always keep up with him (as in, my Spanish isn´t quite good enough...). I think I will be able to in another month or 2, but in the meantime, thankfully have this great husband who will be accompanying me, and who pretty much knows all my answers anyways :) And he even explains to me afterwards anything I missed.

But the exciting part was the ultrasound! What a gift of technology, allowing us a glimpse at God´s miraculous creation of a new little person inside of me! It was very clear, and both FB and I could easily identify the head, hands, feet, etc, even before the Dr explained. The Dr also showed us the beating heart and developing brain, and said taking size and everything into account, all appears to be coming along normally and healthy. The size of the baby was right on track, giving a predicted due date within 3 days of what the Dr had said based on the calendar.

Speaking of the baby´s size, he or she is 3.12 cm long from head to rump, which happens to be the length of the upper 2/3 of my pinky finger. I keep looking down at my finger and picturing the little baby I saw moving around this morning. So amazing.

We both walked out of there several feet above the ground, I think. And we have stayed in a slightly dazed state all day.

I think seing the baby like that was especially good for my husband, as he was just expressing the other day that he kind of wishes the baby were born already, because he feels so unconnected or far removed from the baby right now. I don´t think he feels quite that way anymore :)

So, all is well and developing right on track. Next month we´ll have some basic lab work done so the Dr can check my levels of whatever is doctors check. In the meantime, he made some suggestions to help with the congestion and nauseaness. And I am supposed to cut way back on carbs, salt, and junk food and up my intake of fruits, veggies, water, etc. Sounds basic, I know, but was reassuring to me as such dietary onversation are much more rare here.

Odor Update and A Doctor

Well, I am so glad I blogged about the bathroom smell. I should have gotten to it sooner! Although the smell is not yet gone, I do believe we now understand the problem and are on our way to fixing it (well, having someone fix it). As a couple of people commented, we believe it is a sewage smell creeping back up into the house. As a dear and very knowledgable man from my church back in Rochester emailed me, it is probably that we have a problem with the trap in that drain, whose very job it is to prevent the sewage smell from entering the house. I am thrilled that the end is in sight!

In other news, we made my first prenatal appointment today! I am very excited! We will be going on Tuesday morning at 10, to the same Dr our Pastor and his wife use. The best part is, this Dr is apparently very good, and provides care much more like what Americans would expect (not that anyone said it quite that way to me, but I´ve been told many times here prenatal checks consist of feeling the woman´s belly and sending her on her way. Whereas this Dr cares about things like vitamins and iron levels and weight gain). And the fun part is that he does an ultrasound every single month, and sends you home with the picture! So in just a few days I might get to see my baby for the 1st time!

Other than that, the most interesting thing I can share is that overall, weather here has been hitting highs of least upper 60s, if not mid 80s. Apparently, this weather is unusual and early, and things that normally don´t bloom or bud till almost May are already out. Part of me can hardly believe this is February, the other part has almost forgotten what a Rochester winter looks like!

Oh, and in answer to a question from Inkling in the comments a few days back, I have had no problems whatsoever receiving packages so far. I have had delivered to my door one smallish and one fairly large package with not a word said to me about customs or duty or any such thing. (Both senders had marked ´gift´on the customs declaration) I was both very excited and very grateful, not having been sure ahead of time how that would work out.

Miraculous solution, anyone??

Ok, so a little while back, we had a drainage issue in our upstairs bathroom, off our bedroom (you now know the extent of my 2nd floor). The shower got completely clogged up, and there was water standing in the shower stall for several days until the man our landlord hired finally arrived to fix it. Soon after the fix-it man drained out all the water, an absolutely terrible odor developed. WE assumed something left over from the standing water was the cause. Within the first few days of this odor developing, I cleaned the shower with my all-purpose lemon scented disinfectant. Each time, it seemed better, but by the end of the day, the odor was obviously making a comeback. So we bought a small bottle of chlorinated bleach. I used that all up by cleaning the shower a total of 4 times over a couple of days, varying the intensity of the solutions I used and the amount of time I left it before rinsing (the last time, I used ir straight out of the bottle.) EAch time, it seemed better, but by the next morning, the ordor had returned. I need some new approaches here.

The trouble is that the smell is absolutely awful for my pregnant nose and stomach. So it may very well be that is just needs someone to take the time to scrub really thoroughly with the bleach, but I don´t think I can stand to be in there that long. And my husband is never home long enough to tackle such a job (literally - it would mean not sleeping or something). Those unavoidable-because-I-am-pregnant middle of the night bathroom runs? I first cover my nose with a tissue, clamp it closed, and take a deep breath all before entering the bathroom, then get out as quick as I can and don´t unclamp my nose until I am several feet away from the closed door. Last night, I made my husband switch places with me - I usually sleep on the side closer to the bathroom, but was sure I could smell it from bed.

But I feel like 2 rounds of disinfectant and 4 rounds of bleach should have killed anything. I don´t want to even consider the whole long period of serious scrubbing unless I have a fool-proof method in hand.

So, anyone have a miraculous solution for me??

Tidbits

This post is a random collection of thoughts and observations I have been wanting to share...

They are building a new section to our relatively new neighborhood behind our house. I think it much have something to do with being made in the image of our Creator that makes it so very interesting to watch the process of something being built. I often watch from my upstairs window for a few minutes, and usually check daily on how much progress has been made.

I am not thrilled about having houses put in behind us, as it will feel much more closed in, but I am grateful that my bedroom window will look out at the little bit of space between houses instead right into someone else´s bedroom window. And I am grateful that there are no houses right across from us. I think they will someday turn the open patch of dirt into a park.

I´m looking forward to reaching the benchmark of 2nd trimester in about another month... the nauseasness and tiredness are getting old, and I am hopeful that some of that will ease as the 1st trimester ends.

Any worries I had about filling my day as a homemaker disappeared with the onset of pregnancy. I am lucky to keep up with the basics these days.

I´m realizing that I have a lot of fear attached to doing anything outside of my comfort zone - which includes kind of a lot of things, sometimes. I´d appreciate prayer to be released from this. I know it is natural to be nervous, etc, about new things, but in a situation where I am often confronted by new things are something outside my comfort zone (I´ve moved to another country, for goodness sake!), this whole fear issue can be a bit debilatating.

Although still being asked to work harder and do more, my beloved husband received some rare praise last night for a job well done in recent weeks. For this, I am grateful. And for the fact that he might actually get home by 8 tonight, instead of 9 or later.

Of course, last night was also when we thought we´d be getting news about the level of insurance coverage his company will provide for my prenatal/birth care, but instead found out his boss forgot to take the marriage certificate to HR in Monterrey last week. Supposedly he took it today; we now have to wait up to another week.

It is interesting the little things you learn about a person when you live with them. For example, my husband religiously checks expiration dates when making a purchase and/or consuming something we have had for a while. On the other hand, though, I´ve seen him eat fruit or homemade items well past the date I would have considered them edible.

I know there was more, but I am afraid pregnancy brain strikes again! It´s all mush now, and I can´t for the life of me think what else there was. I´ll be so annoyed later when the things I have been wanted to share with someone suddenly pop back into my head. Oh well.

How I am feeling, Prayer requests

How I am feeling is a question I seem to get from everyone I talk to, so I thought some of my readers may be wondering as well.

I am pretty much mildly nauseas most of the time, although some days are better than others. I have yet to throw up at all, and usually can eat something, although often not just anything. I keep saltine crackers, water, and hard candies on me at all times, any of which seem to help when I get too uncomfortable. I try to eat a little something every few hours. I also learned this week that it is important to eat a little something in the evening, especially if I am at all hungry. I tried to ignore feeling hungry as we were just settling in to fall asleep the other night... and felt absolutely awful the next morning. I won't do that again!

I am also very tired. If I didn't keep reading on pregnancy websites and hearing from people who have been pregnant that being really tired is normal at this point, I would feel a little ridiculous. Although I rarely actually take 3 naps a day, I almost always want one every morning, every afternoon, and every evening. I usually let myself have one longer one, and sometimes one other quick one. Of course, 'longer' can mean anything from 40 min to 2 hours, depending on how I feel on a given day!

This quote was in the weekly email I am getting from Baby Center...
"I'm seven weeks pregnant, and I'm having every symptom in the book — from morning sickness to sore breasts. Is it possible to feel huge already?" — Janean

I laughed when I read this, because although my clothes basically still fit an all, I do feel a lot bigger already. And I have quite a few of the basic symptoms as well. But overall, I am not complaining. I am not throwing up, and for that I often give thanks.

Oh, the other thing I am experiencing is a lot of congestion, which apparently can be a pregnancy related symptom. This I would appreciate prayer for, as it is wearing on me. Plus, then I have trouble beathing at night, which makes it harder for both of us to sleep. And, congestion related coughing engages my gag reflex, which is the when I come closest to really losing it. All in all, I am ready to be done with the congestion.

Speaking of prayer requests, my big one is for my beloved's job situation. He is frustrated by the tediousness of the work, and by his supervisor's style of leadership...which includes up to 4 calls in a day reminding him to work hard and get everything done. And the salary just isn't sufficient. It already wasn't, and now we have a baby on the way. Not to mention things like me needing maternity clothes, prenatal vists, etc. I was going to blog a while back, but never got that far, how in early January, they were told 'positive changes' were coming to the comapany, which would lighten the workload and possibly raise salaries. These changes are supposedly coming in February or March. But so far nothing else has been said. So, we are praying for either really good changes to come quickly, or a new job to open up. The trick is, while working, he doesn't have a lot of time for job hunting...so it has to be the Lord.

We had a major car repair recently, which I think just added the pressure on my beloved. He has taken to saying almost daily, sometimes multiple times a day how he needs a new job. Then last night, he asked me if I think he's a bad person, like lazy or something, because he doesn't want this job anymore. Poor guy. He's working his tail off, getting hounded by his boss like he isn't, and getting paid next to nothing for it....and he feels bad that he doesn't like his job!

God has always been faithful to provide for me in the past, so there is a part of me that is sure He will this time too. Then there is that human part of me that struggles every blasted time to have faith. Anyways, I know He will be faithful to provide again, I just would like prayer that the doors open soon, and that we recognize them when they do.

Well, I think I'll leave it at that for now. I really am trying to blog more consistently, but of course lately I have too easily allowed myself to sucked into reading pregnancy pages! But my desire is to get better. So, maybe I will!

Can´t say I didn´t warn you!

I mean, I don´t know what I was thinking. It like runs in the family after all. For some reason, I was thinking of generic statistics and timelines more than what I know to be true for our family. Silly of me. That is, what I am trying to say is....





I´M PREGNANT!!





When we realized that our chosen form of birth control was not going to work for us, we did consider (and even try) a few other options. But none of them felt right. Although we had planned on waiting maybe 6 months or a little more, we ended up feeling like we needed to just give the reins over to the Lord right off the bat.

And although my beloved husband was pretty sure from the moment we stopped using birth control that I would end up pregnant, I really didn´t think I would. Not right off the bat anyways. Don´t get me wrong - I loved the idea of getting pregnant, and any nervousness I had pre-wedding about getting pregnant right away disappeared on the wedding day. I just figured it could take a few months.

But then my normally very timely period didn´t arrive. That day was when it finally sunk in for me that it was a very real possibility. Because I was sick (congestion, very sore throat) and got to the Dr. about 20 minutes too late, I took an over the counter pregnancy test when I was only a day late. Neither of us had slept well due to my sickness (my sore throat kept waking me up, and my congestion kept waking him up), but I didn´t want to take anything I shouldn´t if I was actually pregnant. The test gave us a very, very faint positive result. We were thrilled!

The next day we did make it to the Dr. He gave me a pregnancy test, although just another over the counter type, and it came up negative. He took his test result very seriously, and had little to nothing to say about the positive result fro the night before. I figured there was a good chance it was just because it was so early still, but it did throw us off a little.

Several days later, still no period, and having felt naseous everyday, we were sure enough that we started telling parents what we were thinking.

Finally, this past Thursday, a friend from church (also our landlady), a blood lab analyzer by profession, came over with all the equipment to do the bloodwork in my living room. Is that crazy or what? Sitting on my living room couch, she took my blood, spun it to separate it, and did the pregnancy test. In her words, now there was no doubts.

We´ll get to the Dr to begin prenatal care as soon as we finish up my paperwork to be married/live here. (The other Dr we went to is just for walk-in consults. Not necessarily long-term prenatal care.) Hopefully we´ll wrap all that up in the next couple of days.

According to the handy-dandy computer calculators, I am due September 30th.

Well, for some of you, this is how we communicate, so I figured this was the best way to tell you. Others of you will hear from family, etc, but I thought you might like to hear the story from me :)