Weekend Rewind-How to save a life

I would say we had a pretty low key weekend up until this afternoon. Thursday-Saturday was a holiday here. But it wasn't a big one, and it has been raining almost everyday, so it doesn't feel like a holiday.

Friday, we ran errands and I made Poppyseed chicken. I haven't made it in a while because I ran out of poppyseeds. No poppyseeds presents a challenge in making poppyseed chicken.But Daniel's mom brought me some when they came last week, so it only makes sense to use them.

(her pj's say Baby Cakes, is that not the most adorable thing ever?)

Friday night Paige was up till almost 1am, crying and fussing in her crib because she kept trying to crawl. She's getting so close, so every night when we goes to bed she fusses for a bit and tries to crawl. So Saturday morning came a little too quickly.

Saturday morning we drank coffee, and I RELISHED it. Mainly because we had been out of coffee creamer for 3 days and I very quickly realized I am addicted to coffee creamer and don't do well without it. I make my own creamer, and it requires sweetened condensed milk. We were out of SCM until Friday. You see the dilemma yes? 

We ate leftovers for dinner, then decided to live on the edge of the wild side and go get ice cream/coffee (i got ice cream, Daniel got coffee). There is a touristy place about a 20 minute walk from our house that has a Dairy Queen (not like america, so don't get too excited) and a Starbucks. It was a holiday. Paige draws attention wherever we go. People love the foreign baby. But we decided to live it up and it wasn't too bad. Paige loves the attention. My DQ chocolate blizzard was the best I've ever had here. Win-win.

This afternoon we were sitting in the living room and Paige was napping. I looked out the window and saw smoke. That seemed odd. So I opened the window and saw that the apartment directly below us had smoke coming out of their open window. I yelled several times and didn't get a response. It smelled pretty bad.

Daniel went down to see if someone was home, but couldn't get anyone to answer the door. He called our apartment office and they very nervously said they would get someone to check on it. 

I started freaking out. It was a lot of smoke. I kept walking around on our floor to see if I could feel any heat coming through. 

I went downstairs to wait for the security guy to see if we needed to evacuate. He pounded on the door and yelled but no one responded. Then the smoke started coming out thru the door. It smelled SO bad.

After several minutes, a middle-aged man answered the door in the pj's. He acted like everything was normal. Come to find out, he had been cooking something on the stove and had fallen asleep. I followed the security guy into the apartment to confirm that everything was okay and no evac was needed. The entire apartment was filled with so much smoke i could barely even see. 

When I got back home my clothes and hair wreaked of smoke. gross.  

Not sure if this is a cultural thing, but I honestly expected a thank you or something from our neighbor. You know, for saving his life and all. He just seemed to laugh it off, like nbd. I don't need a thank you card, but general acknowledgement would make me feel better. Buy me a Coke, give me a high-five, I'm not asking for a lot here. 

Anyways...that was our weekend.

This week we'll do a little traveling, I'll have class, and I'll probably do several loads of laundry.

Happy Sunday!

love

laura

Weekend Rewind

I honestly can't even remember what we did Friday nite. I know I cooked dinner. Other than that.....i'm too tired to remember.

Saturday morning we went to a children's birthday party at our neighbors house. There were corn dogs and cupcakes.....yum yum!!! And of course Paige wore the cutest cupcake outfit! The pants had a little ruffle on the bottom-love it! But it was hot, so I forgot to take a pic with her in the pants.

Saturday night we met a local friend for dinner. We had pizza and french fries! It has been so hot here!!! Every day I am nothing but a pile of sweat!

We are starting to wonder if Paige is teething. I know it's a little early-she'll be 4 months this week. But our perfect little girl can turn into monster child in a half a second. She is chewing and biting on everything! And nothing makes her happy....we have teething toys but I don't think they fit in her mouth like she likes. She keeps trying to bite back on one side. If she's not teething, I have no idea what's going on. 

Yesterday was of course Father's Day. And we took a million pics of our little one. I still can't get over how cute she is. 

Today I gave the bedrooms and bathrooms a deep clean. And I mean DEEP-like cleaned the toilet brush holder, trashcans, and vacuumed our headboard (it's covered in material) and mopped our window seats. Tomorrow I'll do the living, dining room, and kitchen. It will probably take me all day...but it SO needs it!

I just sat down and am watching Duck Dynasty. Perfect way to end the day!!!

love

laura

Weekend Rewind

First, a little rant.

I've been a pretty faithful Office watcher for the first 7 seasons. Once Michael Scott left, I didn't really keep up with it at all, and I was okay with that. But then. The Office had their season finale and it was ALL OVER  my twitter and facebook feed. Everyone was talking about it. And it was what they were saying that caught my eye. I read things like "best season finale ever," "i cried," 'i loved it, was so moved." 

So of course after reading this over and over I decided that I must watch the last two seasons, just so I could really get to this amazing season finale. (see where i'm going with this?)

So Daniel and I have been faithfully watching the last 2 seasons over the last few weeks. Friday night we watched the last few episodes, including the season finale. When it ended, the first thing I said was "I am so disappointed!"

There was no big twist. No big surprise. No big lookback at the previous seasons. Michael Scott was barely mentioned. I was never even close to crying. People, i was not moved. If we're going to talk amazing Season Finales, it should be Friends. I've watched it several times and love it every time. Right now, I could care less about the Office. Honestly, it just made me want to go back and watch the older season when Michael was on, because I felt jipped. 

Okay, rant over.

So that was Friday night. 

Saturday, we went out for breakfast. I was calling it a breakfast date, but I've realized that if Paige is with us, it's not so much a date. Especially if there is spit up and changing diapers involved. Not that I don't love bringing her with us, but let's call it what it is. It's a family outing.

Paige took a little nap in her stroller while we ate. I got my usual, french toast, and it was amazing!!!!

Saturday I also taught Paige a trick. I'm convinced she is the smartest baby in the world. She was on her changing table and I was just making noises to entertain her. I put my lips together, blew out, and made a noise that sounds a little like a fart. Anyways....I was changing her diaper and she started copying me! She put her little lips together and started making the noise too! So of course, for the next several hours, we kept making the noise, watching her copy us, and laughing. We have a video of it, and it's adorable. The last two days, she'll do it randomly, then give us a huge grin as if to say how proud she is of herself. It's beyond adorable. I love watching her process it all, try to get her little lips to make the noise, and then get so proud of herself when she realizes she did it! Daniel is also teaching Paige how to bring her hands together, like a clap. 

Yesterday we were coming home after having lunch with a friend, and Paige was SO tired. She had missed her nap and just couldn't take it any longer. 

Have I mentioned how cute she is when she sucks her thumb?! And does she look huge here???

The weather here is pretty warm, so Paige has been wearing lots of little onesies. Today was her first time to wear this from Auntie Sarah.

(it says Auntie loves me)

Not related at all, but last week I met Daniel's new tutor. She thought I was 21. Score.

Then 2 days later I was at a little store and they were having a sale. I wanted to try on a dress that was on sale, and a shirt that was regular price. When I asked to try them on, the lady looked at them and said I couldn't try on the dress that was on sale. I asked why not, thinking maybe they didn't let people try on sale items? She looked at me and said it was too small for me. Ouch. 

**Someone asked me about the question I get here about if I take care of Paige myself. 

There are a lot of moms here who work full time. Usually their parents or in-laws will watch the baby while she's working. Or, it's pretty common to have a househelper who cleans and also takes care of the baby. Some of the househelpers work all day long, including evenings. 

I think it's interesting that this is considered to have someone else taking care or raising the baby. I know lots of people in the States who work full time while their child is in daycare or a family member babysits for them. But I would still say that they take care of and are raising their child. Personally, unless the child is living somewhere away from the parents, I would say mom and dad are raising the child.

But here it's just different. From what I understand, whoever takes care of the baby during the day is who they consider raising the child. 

Tomorrow, this happens. I'm excited, and so ready!

Also, this past week had a couple of big days for us! June 5th was the day I found out I was pregnant last year. 

June 7th marked our 2 year anniversary here in East Asia!

love

laura

Weekend Rewind

I guess you could say we had a slow weekend around here.

Friday I made pizza.

When we make pizza it doesn't bother me to make our own dough, but I hate chopping up all the veggies. But I channeled my inner Martha Stewart and was able to pull it all together. And yes, there are only black olives on half because Daniel is weird and has yet to discover how amazing they are. After dinner, Daniel took off for english corner and Paige and I hung out. 

So, I'm realizing that having a baby means that my weekdays and weekends pretty much look the same. The last few friday nights i've joked that i want to sleep in on Saturday morning. Technically, this past Saturday I kind of did. Paige was up for an hour in the middle of the night....she keeps coming out of her swaddle! After an hour and trying everything, i fed her. I really didn't want to feed her just so she would go back to sleep, but it was the only thing that worked. She ate for a few minutes and it was enough to put her right to sleep.

So because I'm getting annoyed with waking up at 3, 5, and then 6 am to reswaddle Paige (okay I wake up and nudge Daniel-then he reswaddles her. but i still wake up...so there's that) we decided to try to break her of the swaddle. The past 3 naps we've put her down with her arms out. She hasn't napped yet today. I want to persevere and make it thru so we can be done with the swaddle and not have to worry about it. But oh my for the love I just want her to sleep! i'm hoping i can stick with it.

So I usually wake her up at 7:30-ha, who am I kidding, she's always up before I have to wake her! But she gets up by 7:30 every morning. But Saturday I rolled over and it was 8:15 and I was still sleeping. Everything in me wanted to just roll over and keep sleeping...but I'm a Babywise mom so I went and got her up. 

We skyped with family in the morning and just hung around the house most of the day-except when Daniel went to play ultimate frisbee. Saturday night we walked to our fave local restaurant that we lovingly have nicknamed "the cat restaurant." When my mom came to visit last year we took her to it, and the owners cat was all over the place inside. My mom kept calling it the cat restaurant whenever she talked about it, and the name stuck. We haven't actually seen the cat since. But we don't mind the cats too much because it means there probably isn't any mice. You pick your battles.

Sunday it rained. Riveting right??

I bought Paige some Babylegs legwarmers and she wore them on Sunday but i forgot to take a picture. Next time.

We all took naps and spent the day mostly resting. A friend lent us a copy of The Next Food Network Star, so we finished that up last night. Watching recorded seasons from the Food Network is one of our guilty pleasures. Since we don't have tv here, it's extra special to watch "real" tv every once in a while. I can't wait for season 3 of Duck Dynasty to come out on disc! 

I just finished making 5 loaves of french bread. And I'm about to go make crescent rolls so i can make this for dinner. I haven't made it in forever and i'm excited!

That was our weekend!! Can you believe it's almost May?!?!!?!?

love

laura

Weekend Rewind

We had a WONDERFUL weekend! Really, one of the best!

Friday night some friends gifted us a free hotel room stay in our city, but in a different part of town than we had ever been before. We knew there was a McDonald's and Starbucks near the hotel, but didn't really know much of anything else. So we went just looking forward to seeing a different part of our city and enjoying some good Western treats.

When we got to the hotel, we realized it was a mini paradise resort (to us!). It had Dairy Queen, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Starbucks, a movie theatre, and several shops. There was also grass and trees everywhere-which is something we rarely see! We were so excited! They even had a golf course that isn't open yet, so people are free to walk around and play on the grass.

Notice the haze? This is what we se the majority of the time. There are probably several high rise buildings right behind those trees, but the constant haze hides it. Neat huh?

I was SO excited to sit on grass!!!

Here I am deep in thought:

We quickly checked into the hotel, then walked around and looked at all the stores. We walked around for a little bit, then went to Pizza Hut for dinner. It was so yummy and I was super appreciative of all the cheese!

After dinner I grabbed a blizzard and Daniel got Starbucks, and we sat outside for an hour or two. It was so much fun!

The next morning we went to McDonald's for breakfast and then to Starbucks.  Can you tell which cup is mine?



We sat outside Starbucks reading for a while, then explored all the little walkways to soak up all of the greenery we possibly could! Then we sat by the water and read some more. It was SO nice not having a schedule or really anything to do. So much fun!

There was also a mini arcade and I just couldn't resist.

And today, I'm SO UBER beyond excited, because Daniel's parents are coming into town to visit!!!!!! We haven't seen them in almost a year, and I've never had anyone visit me overseas, so I can.not.wait!

I'm sure I'll have tons of pictures and things to share about their week with us!

love

laura

Keepin it real

Last Saturday Daniel and I had a breakfast date at a western restaurant. It was so good!!! I love breakfast! And I love having someone else make my coffee :)

Daniel enjoying his omelet and looking kind of nervous.

Yummm french toast!

After our date, we came home and I lived in the kitchen for the next several hours. We were having friends over the next day, and i wanted to make TPW cinnamon rolls. They really are so good!

And I added chocolate chips because why wouldn't you?

Please note all of the flour on the floor. It's not as easy at it looks people.

Daniel caught me getting some of the leftover cinnamon sugar glaze off the counter. no shame.

This week was my teacher's birthday. I got her a small present that cost just a few dollars. She had the best reaction and was so grateful! After I gave it to her she was saying that she wasn't expecting any presents for her birthday and she was so excited because she got two presents this year. I was so happy to celebrate her birthday with her! She was a great reminder that it really isn't all about the presents. ahhh...perspective.

The next few days is a holiday here, so Daniel and I are leaving tomorrow for the mountains. I.am.so.excited. For reals........I cannot wait to be there!

I'm not taking my computer so I'm not sure if I'll blog or not. But don't worry when I get back I promise to post pics of everything we ate :)

Happy weekend!

love

laura

Weekend Rewind

We are experiencing beautiful weather here! We have had sunshine for several days in a row and I am so happy! Look at these pretty flowers and trees!

(this was actually taken a few days ago when it was pretty cloudy)

This past week was spent mostly in language study. March and April are months that we knew we wouldn't be doing much travelling, so we're really trying to focus as much on language as we can right now, before the busy summer.
It's April, ya'll. Seriously where did the time ago?? I'm almost 30 and 1/4. Way too close to being 31 for my comfort.

Friday night we go to a weekly english corner to help locals learn english. This week we talked about wisdom, foolishness, and making good decisions. It was a great reminder of who is the giver of all wisdom.

Saturday was a weird day.

We got a text message from a friend who lives in our apartment complex at 7:30am that we were supposed to be without electricity from 8am -6pm. I was still in bed, so Daniel came and told me so we could hurry up and prepare for the day. We plugged in phones and computers to get as much charge as we could, got everything out of the fridge that we would need, made coffee, and then just waited. And waited. Finally, the power did go out about 10am, but came back on at 12 and stayed on. Hear me, I am NOT complaining, but it was kind of funny to prepare for a day without power and then not be inconvenienced at all. Pretty anti-climatic.

What wasn't anti-climatic is what happened later Saturday afternoon. Daniel heard what sounded like water running. Yes, water was running. In fact it was pretty much gushing from our hot water heater onto our enclosed patio/laundry room. We are SO thankful that a) we were home to catch it before it went too far and b) our electric plugs and things for the washer/dryer were high enough to not be effected.

So.........we get a repairman to come and he says there are many problems and we need a new one. We totally believe him because we've had problems in the past with it. We call the landlord who argues with the repairman that we probably don't need a new one.

Long story, short our landlord is planning on coming Monday morning to assess the situation. I'm really hoping he sees hot water as a necessity.

Also....because ya'll know I'm not a regular shower-taker (unless I work out), I hadn't showered since Thursday night. I don't mind my body not getting a shower, but my hair can get oi-ly! Thankfully, it is pretty common to just go get your hair washed at the many nearby hair salons. So I paid $4 and got a hairwash and dry.

Here's me this morning.  My eyes are kind of squinty because my eyes are just kind of squinty.

I need a haircut, and I'm actually thinking get a few inches off! We'll see......

Oh...i forgot to tell ya'll..... last weekend I watched my FIRST Star Wars movie! They really aren't that bad, and kind of entertaining. Last night we watched the second one, Empire Strikes Back. I want to watch them all in the order they were originally released.

And.....I'm trying to cook vegetarian this week. Because veggies are cheap and healthy, and why not I say? We'll be eating eggplant bake, vegetarian lasagna, and fish. Does fish count? I think some vegetarians eat fish right?? And i'm still trying to find a good recipe for veggie lasagna, so hook a sister up if ya'll have one!

love

laura

Weekend Ramble

I rarely do bullet points....so in honor of St. Patricks Day here ya go!

- I ran yesterday for the first time in 5 weeks. It was my FIRST time to not wear a watch while running.

- Daniel travelled out of town for the last few days, so I took advantage of the opportunity to not cook and watch Annie. I love that movie!

- I've started showering (when I shower, ha!) at night. I used to think people were crazy for showering at night, but honestly it just fits my schedule so much better. AND I hardly ever straighten my hair anymore, so it doesn't matter if I sleep on it. I've really embraced the natural wave lately.

- When I put the knives away in the silverware drawer, I always count them. I have this strange fear of losing our knives or that somehow they will go missing.

- I've seen sunshine the last 3 days. Which equates to a weather miracle here. It's amazing how much sunshine can lift your spirits!

- Our TV has been broken for a while now. And it's a monster of a TV...it's the old kind that sticks out about 2 feet in the back. Anyways....the landlord brought us a "new" (to us) smaller TV. However it's still huge and he asked us to store the broken (never going to work) TV in our storage room.  When we asked if we could just throw the old TV away, he gave us a look that was priceless. So guess where the TV is?

-  I forgot it was St. Patricks Day today, but luckily when I remembered I was still in my sweats and green T, so I was good to go.

- I made a green smoothie today and it was a complete failure. Our blender didn't really blend the spinach and it kept leaking so I had a mess to clean up and a really chunky smoothie. So I made mac n cheese instead.

- In our city, we can get a lot of things delivered right to our door. Today I ordered butter and whipping cream, and then a salad for dinner. And most places don't charge for shipping....it's pretty sweet!

-So I might've embraced the pumpkin a little too much. I have BAGS of pumpkin puree in the freezer. Is it okay to make pumpkin bread in the middle of the summer?

- I made Smore cookies for Daniel tonight. They taste good but....they turned out pretty flat. And honestly, the Smore is so good by itself I don't know why I'm trying to improve it.

That's my ramble! What is everyone doing for st. patricks day??

love

laura

Weekend Rewind

This didn't actually happen on the weekend, but I wanted to share anyways.

BFF Amy lives in Hawaii and sent us a package about a week ago. Along with lots of goodies, she sent us these chocolate covered macadamia nuts and this super cute Valentine's plate. We LOVE chocolate covered macadamia's! We did eat them this weekend, so that counts. And I'm excited to use my new plate to put valentine goodies on.

Another thing came in the mail that I ordered a while back. I had been looking for a planner for a while and am very picky, but was pretty excited to find this one here on Etsy. Other than loving their planners, I was way excited when they told me they would ship here. The planner came about a week or so ago too. It's my very first and only thing (so far) with my monogram and I l.o.v.e. it!

Inside:

So that's just a quick update on life around here.

For our weekend.....Friday we ate lunch at a local restaurant that we both really enjoyed. That afternoon I went to our friends house so she could teach me how to use Taobao. Friday nite Daniel made dinner and it was SOOO good! He made cheeseburgers. Now, I like hamburgers but I don't love them. I have weird meat issues especially when it comes to hamburger meat. I want my patty reallly thin so I can make sure there aren't any weird fat pieces or general weirdness inside.

Anyways.....hamburgers were so delish and I am excited to have him make them again.

Friday nite we watched The Kings Speech. We bought this movie a while ago and I actually forgot we even had it. We both really enjoyed it, it had a great story!

Saturday we just bummed around the house, then had date night. We went to our favorite (and i think only one we've ever been to) Turkish restaurant. On the way to the restaurant I had to stop and take a picture of the sun. I can't remember the last time we actually had seen it. It's constantly foggy and gross here, and seeing the sun is a very rare thing. So you have to document it sometimes to remember what it looks like.

Anyways, dinner was delicious! Their meat kabob is why I would struggle being vegetarian.

What I wouldn't do to know their hummus recipe. After dinner we walked to Starbucks then came home and I beat Daniel at Skippo. It wasn't even close.

Daniel has class this week, but my teacher is still travelling, so at-home-studying for me!

what did ya'll do this weekend? what movies are good in the states right now?

love

laura

Blogaversary!

My blog has been alive for two years today! That's a little crazy.....

In the past two years, I've changed jobs, countries, and shared with you my running journey.

It's been a great two years and i'm excited to see what I share in over the next two!

Random, I blogged 136 times in 2010 AND 2011. Seriously, what are the odds? We'll see what happens this year.....I could be completely crazy and blog 137 times....get ready.

There's not much else to say in regards to the blog turning 2, so here's our weekend rewind.

Friday night we went out to dinner to continue the celebration of birthday week. We went to a nice italian restaurant, and it was yummy!

This was in the bathroom at the mall, and it just struck me as funny considering where we live.

The chick fil a chicken nuggets made a strong comeback Saturday night. I told Daniel he isn't allowed to make this meal anymore unless I'm running. I wish I could describe how delicious it is.

Also, Daniel and I went and got haircuts today. Something we've never done together before, but was pretty fun! We both got shampoos, head massages, and cuts for less than $10. AND, I didn't cry when I left. It was a positive experience, even in the bang department, which is rare if not borderline impossible.

Here's my cut....I think it might look a little different when I style it, but you get the idea.

And speaking of running.....I'm going to get back on that horse tomorrow. No matter what. It's been a longer break than I thought it would be, but being sick and busy threw me for a loop. My plan is to do 3 at first then slowly work back up.

i'm pretty excited about the run tomorrow because I'll be wearing my new running thermal headband I got for Christmas and my new garmin. I'm pretty excited to know exactly how far I'm running and my actual pace.

Don't worry, I'll keep you posted!

love

laura

What to say...

Not much here. After Daniel's birthday hoopla, the last part of the week slowed down a little. I had a class get cancelled on Wednesday and Thursday, so I only had to go to 1 class on those days. I was very thankful for the extra time.

Our tree is up!!! I'll take a picture tonight and try to post it later. There was a huge issue with the lights. I found white lights/green wire at a store. I bought 3 packages. Once at home, I realized that one of the strands was out on one package. So I took it back to the store and returned it, but they didn't have any more to buy! So I bought some other white lights/silver wire hoping I could make it work.

I couldn't. And the lights looked silvery and just wrong. I still need to take those back.

So I biked to another store yesterday and finally found the same kind of lights. I bought 3 packages just in case. Luckily they all work, and we put all 5 packages on the tree.

Aren't you glad you now know about my christmas tree lights......

In other news, my oldest nephew who just turned 5 told me this morning that he has a loose tooth. I can't believe it! I mean where has the time gone?? I thought only big kids lost teeth, not cute little babies.

I'm in denial.

I'm also in denial that it has been in the 40's here and I am about to start wearing my thermals. We don't have central heat (and i am way too stubborn to turn on the heaters we do have). But biking has been way cold. I wore gloves yesterday. I was still cold.

And blast from the past, but remember on half-marathon day I said that we helped a friend make sausage???

This was one batch.

(that's Daniel wearing my green apron)

We spread the pork on the table, poked holes in it, pour the seasonings on top, then mix away! We did this for 175 lbs. Okay, I didn't do all 175 lbs because we came late cos of the run and I had to leave early to run errands for Daniel's birthday party.

I have 10 lbs of it in my freezer right now.

Last night I taught an English Corner. We talked about education and played games. And then we tried to bike home before frostbite set in.

Can I just say that our Saturday has been simply wonderful!!?!!? We slept in (till 7) then lounged on the couch drinking coffee, read together, and ate breakfast. We've both studied, decorated the tree, and I might put on a movie. Loving today!!! I haven't had a 'down' Saturday in a really long time!

I also took a mini language test, and it's estimated that I can read almost 500 characters. There are still a few thousand to go....but I'm pretty excited. I feel like a child learning my colors and how to read. But that's how it goes I guess....

Hope ya'll are having a wonderful wintery weekend! Does anyone have snow yet?

love

laura

Weekend Rewind

After my run on Friday, I went to class. Just call me Student of the Month.

Friday afternoon I went grocery shopping and we had calzones for dinner.

Tomorrow is mine and Daniel's anniversary, and eating out breakfast is my absolute fave.....but with having to go to class, we decided to go out for breakfast on Saturday instead.

So we went to my favorite place to get breakfast. I always order the french toast. It's amazing!!!

Don't they look kind of like little Christmas trees?!

Saturday night we had a double date with some good friends of ours. We went to a vegetarian restaurant and it was SO good!!!

They served us quite literally, Green Tea.

Look at this amazing food! Those peanuts were delish!! I have no idea what the spice was, but I could not get enough of them!

From left to right: Tofu/cabbage/peppers, Veggie Dumplings, Sesame Seed Tofu, Peanuts, and asparagus and bamboo shoots. We will definitely be going back! I know some of you are thinking "tofu,how gross." But seriously it tasted like meat. I've been to a couple different veggie restaurants here and they all are able to cook the tofu so it has the same texture and taste as meat. It's really just a win-win for everybody.

We hadn't been on a double date in a while, so it was fun to go out with another couple. They were actually celebrating their 30th anniversary of being engaged!

Today I embraced the pumpkin again and made iced pumpkin cookies.

The cookies by themselves without the icing weren't that sweet. So the icing definitely makes the cookie. I've had 3 and am about to go finish them off. I mean, they have pumpkin in them which pretty much makes them a negative calorie food :)

Hope everyone had a good weekend!!!!

love

laura

Weekend Rewind

Friday morning I ran before class because Thursday got away from me.

After class, we ate noodles and I went shopping! I bought some frames to go in our dining room because for the love it's time for us to put something on the walls. For the dining room, I'm thinking a collage of frames with family pics.

I know what I want for the living room, but it's going to take saving some $ and a little time. So I'll just have to wait.

I hope to get the pics picked out and the frames hung this week. I'll post a before and after, don't worry :)

Friday night was spent on the couch watching LOST. Seriously, I can't get enough! Any LOST fans out there???

Saturday we had a slow morning, but a very busy afternoon. I'm going on a last minute trip the end of October with a friend, and most of the day was spent on the phone, sending/waiting for emails, and filling out my visa application. I'm on a huge time crunch to get my visa in time for the trip, so lots of prayers!!

Saturday night we had dinner with blog friend/real life friend, who I steal lots of tips and recipes from :)

Sunday I did everything that I was supposed to on Saturday: homework! My Monday morning class is the hardest and if I don't prepare ahead of time, I'm totally lost. But we did still manage to sneak in 2 more episodes of LOST, so I wasn't completely swamped!

I ran this morning, we just mailed my visa application, and tonight's dinner is Taquitos and Spanish Rice......it's my first time to make it, but I'm excited!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

love

Laura

Weekend Rewind

It's just now Sunday afternoon, but we don't have big plans for the rest of the day, other than lounging and eating, so I figured it was okay to do our weekend post.

Friday morning I went to class, talked with BFF's Amy and Caroline on the phone, and got my haircut. Daniel also gave me these. They smell SO good!!!

(i'm not good with flowers, does anyone know what these are called?)

The haircut was interesting. It only cost $3, so I certainly can't have high expectations. But I have gotten my hair cut twice before here and it turned out great. It wasn't completely tragic this time, but there was definitely a language barrier.

When I first went in to the haircut place, they took me back to wash my hair and got out the saran wrap. I was looking at the saran wrap, wondering what they thought they were doing to my hair. They ended up putting saran wrap on my back and tucked it into my T-shirt. I THINK this was supposed to keep me dry.....still not sure.

They washed my hair 3 times, then took me to the guy to cut my hair. I said everything I wanted in the local language, and even pointed to a picture and to a few people who worked there that had the bangs I wanted. Side-swept bangs are really in here, so I wasn't too worried. (ha)

The guy was cutting my hair and he was barely taking anything off, maybe 1/4th an inch. I didn't mind too much because less is always more in my book. But then he cut this top layer, several inches shorter than the bottom layer. Of course, he did it quickly and then what can you do.

Then, oh and then......he cut my bangs!! They had grown out and were pretty long. He cut them really short, and all the exact same length. I kept trying to tell him and show him that I wanted them at an angle. He kept cutting and make them straight. By then it was too late, and I just asked him to stop.

So I paid my $3 and left with my mullet and child sized bangs.

Saturday, I was going to get up and run my 5 miles, but it was pouring, so I did stuff around the house till the weather cleared up. I made homemade bread, and yum yum yum it's so good!

Daniel and I went out on a date Saturday nite. We ate Indian food, then Dairy Queen for dessert.

(this is my new Zara's knock-off cardi  that I bought for about $7)

As you can tell, the food was good!

We walked home from DQ, watched a few episodes of The Office, then called it a night. All in all, it's been a really good weekend!!!

love

Laura

Weekend Rewind

I totally forgot to do a Weekend post. Lame.

We didn't have the most eventful weekend ever, but it was laid back and fun.

Class update: I ended up choosing to go to both levels at school. From 8:30-10:10 I go to the "hard" class. Then I go the level below from 10:20-11:50. I really think this is the best decision. It means I have to go Mon-Fri, which I'm not a fan of, but again, I think it's what needed to be done.

(Even though this past Friday when I was getting ready to leave for class and Daniel was at home, I second guessed myself, ha!)

My teachers are both really good, and I'm learning a lot. I can actually read a good 150 words now. It doesn't seem like a lot, considering there are thousands. But it's SO better than the zero I was at before.

Anyways...our weekend.....

Friday I had class, spent the afternoon cleaning, studied, caught up on admin and life stuff.  Daniel cooked dinner, which he self-named "Ugly Plate." It actually tasted delicious, but I'll admit it wasn't going to win an award for presentation, ha! We had pan fried tilapia, cauliflower, rice, and zucchini. It was really good!

Saturday, I had the long run, this you know. Saturday was another catch up day. We ended up having dinner with friends last minute, then went to see Captain America, in english again! It's so rare that we go to movies, but funny that we've gone to 2 these past few weeks. They're a little "spendy" as my Grandma would say, but you just can't pass up a new movie in English. You never know when the opportunity will come a knockin again.

Sunday we had a rest day and I read a lot. I just finished The Summons by John Grisham. I really enjoy his books-I'm not that into fiction over all, but his really draw me in.

Monday was a holiday here, so we didn't have class. woo to the hoo!!!!! I "slept in" and we were both up at 6:45. That's AM people.

Monday was pretty busy. I went grocery shopping, ran errands, studied, made granola bars, brownies, and met with friends.

Sidenote: I keep tweaking the granola bar recipe. I added a lot more PB this time and used almonds, cashews, PB chips, and a few chocolate chips. I think they taste pretty good! I also made homemade brownies and put PB chips in those too. (PB chips are cheaper here than CC, and I found the PB chips on sale, so again, woo to the hoo for me)

And again, no real pics. But a while ago, I saw this and thought of TPG!

AND, in good news.....word on the street is that there is a marathon (half, 5k,) about an hour or so by train from my city in the spring. So my plan is to train and run my own half in November, take a break for about a month, then either retrain for the spring half or OMG possibly do a full. We'll see.

love

Laura

Weekend Rewind

Friday ended up being busier than we expected. We found out that our paperwork was ready to get our student visas, so we took a last minute trip to the visa office to file everything. It just happened to be close to a McDonald's and we decided we just couldn't pass it up. But don't worry I got the chicken nuggets and drank water. So it wasn't a complete splurge :)

Friday afternoon I grocery shopped, and FINALLY found chocolate chips! They only had 2 bags so I bought them both. It's so easy to become a 'hoarder' here. You never know when or what the import stores will have, and just because they have something one week doesn't mean it's guaranteed to be there the next. And I consider chocolate chips a surival food.

Saturday we slept in (8 am ha!), and just did things around the house. I baked a bit for visitors we were having over today. I attempted to make homemade donut holes, and it didn't go so well. I made the dough, but had problems getting the oil the right temp and actually getting the dough into the shape of a ball. So we had weird looking shaped donuts. They still tasted good and that's really all that matters!

Saturday afternoon we went to see Cars 2 3D in ENGLISH!! I was pretty excited. It was our first movie to see here. There were only 7 of us in the theatre and we all sat really close to each other. You actually buy a specific seat here instead of sitting just anywhere. It's actually nice because most of the time you don't have to get to the theatre as early.

After the movie we went to eat at a Western restaurant, complete with hamburgers, fries, and pie! We don't go out for Western very often, so it's pretty exciting when we do. Well exciting for us.....not sure if ya'll are really holding your breath to find out what we eat, hahah!

This afternoon is pretty laid back. Tomorrow we start school and will find out how often our classes meet, times, and all that. It's been a while since I've had a first day of school. I'm hoping for a good awkward moments to tell ya'll about later.

But speaking of.....these two little cuties started "school" this week too.

Ethan is in MDO twice a week and Grant is in Pre-K. Sarah and Mike are also moving this week. They're just moving about 15 minutes North of where they are now. I've been on to this girl to start a blog. Selfishly I want her to start one so I can get more regular updates on the boys. She keeps saying she's busy.........

ALSO, my bike is here now. I biked yesterday for the first time in our city. If I thought running was hard, i was dead wrong. Biking here is insane. I'm always talking while I bike, in English, things like "watch out I'm going to hit you!" or "I can't stop.. oh no oh ummmm"  I'll keep you posted.

And in running news, I'm DEFINITELY starting my half marathon training tomorrow. It's a whopping 3 miles, but i'm excited to be committed to the training!!! I might do a weekly recap of the miles and how the training is going.

love

Laura

Weekend Rewind

WOW, i haven't done one of these posts in a long time!

Friday, we studied, ran some errands, and went to a new (to us) market to explore and see if we could find anything good. We did buy fresh asparagus, which has been very hard to find here. I was able to get 3 lbs for $3, totally worth it.

But it was also pouring down rain the entire day so when we tried to get a taxi home we waited a long time!

Friday night we went to friends house for dinner and games. I love a good game night and love that we have friends in our city that do too! We got home about 11:30 and found that our freezer was practically thawed. The fridge wasn't super cold, but the freezer was bordering on room temp. We weren't sure if we left the door open, or if it was broken. Because of the weird humidity here we keep a lot of things in the freezer-spices, cheese, bread, etc....I did not want to lose any of it. We unplugged the fridge and plugged it back in to see if that would help. We waited a little while and things seemed to be getting a little cooler.

I set my alarm for 2 am to get up and check it. If it still wasn't working i was going to put the $ items in the fridge to save what i could. Thankfully, it was all working and we haven't had a problem since. I totally took for granted coolers and bags of ice readily available in the states, ha!

So Friday made for a long night and i was EXHAUSTED on Saturday! Daniel helped me out and went to the market for me so i stayed home and cleaned and got caught up a bit on life.

Saturday Daniel and i had a date night. It was SO much fun! Daniel had given me a note earlier in the week inviting me out. It was really sweet!

Daniel took me to a huge nearby park that i had no clue existed! There were trees, water, and little trails to walk on, very unusual in our city to see. And the weather was perfect! It was cloudy, but with a slight breeze and in the 70's. Amazing.

We walked around for about 1 1/2 hour and didn't even see the whole park. My absolute favorite part was sitting on a bench, talking, and listening to the wind blow thru the bamboo trees. We live in a city of 11 million people, foliage is um shall was say rare?

I can't remember the last time i was able to sit and listen to the wind. It may be a small thing, but it's def something i've missed. You just can't put a price tag on some good nature! I see some good visits to this park again in my future!

For dinner we went to a Western restaurant and got completely spoiled with good bread! We had pesto, oil, and an olive spread. Words cannot express how delicious this was. Nor is it important how many pieces i ate.

I'm planning on running tomorrow. I have to be honest and say that i have zero motivation. Mostly because i've missed a full week and it's always hard to come back. But i'll let ya know :)

love

Laura