To Follow up on my March post: Aunty Em (you know who you are) has requested pregnancy photos. What! Pregnancy photos! Yes.  My dad has been praying for more grand-kids for a while now, reminding us with every phone call. . . .  As of this Sunday I am 39 weeks pregnant.  And, being a wonderfully tall woman, the bump LOOKS pretty small.

So, of course, the only logical thing to do is to add a balloon.



That is much better.  At least I look nine months pregnant!

We love you all!
AM

Anniversary

Jason and I recently celebrated our 5 year anniversary!  I have been dreaming about a cake for this event for over two years now.  I was wanting to do something silly and crazy.  Instead we got this.  It is reminiscent of Calvin and Hobbes living food.  You know, the one that quotes Shakespeare before succumbing to fate.   This one was finally completed about ten days after the special date, due to us both being under the weather.

Seven layers of lopsided chocolate!

Yes, it is lopsided.  Yes, it looks scary. And yes, it tasted spectacular!

Not too bad for having no oven and home-made baking powder.  Though it has gotten significantly easier to bake now that I have bought myself a measuring cup and spoons.

For my birthday earlier this year, I made myself a pecan pie.  I just wanted to see if I could do it.
No oven.
No measuring utensils
No pecans
No corn syrup.

I think that covers it.  Other than burning two of the three pies beyond recognition- it turned out surprisingly well.  The last one was not only edible, but very good.

Looking through the photos trying to find one of the birthday party and pie, I realize: we really like to bake.

Walk around the Neighborhood

Last weekend, J. and I went for a walk around our neighborhood, and bumped into a whole variety of lovely surprises.

I had woken up that morning, and saw a person working in the rice field  when I looked off the veranda.  This made me so happy because I often miss my garden and the agricultural aspect of the State we just came from.  

Right as we got to the edge of town on our walk, we saw a group of girls practicing for a performance.  It was a combination of  drums, gymnastics, dance, and a flag routine.  

We  continued on to walk on the bike trail near the river.  We found some farmers tilling the field to prepare it for planting rice.  Please notice the boys having a huge mud fight, and the dad in the red shirt, just laughing at them.  

On our return as we walked back through the city, we saw a big blue van/pick up pulled up to a local temple. And to our surprise, the back had been converted to a puppet show stage!

  The costumes were beautiful, but the Kung-Fu/Sword fighting was hilarious! (Go to the second minute to see it!)

A.

Welcome to Where the Dishes Wait

Dear Friends and Family,

     I wanted to stay in contact with all of you. I want you to know how important you are to me.  I wanted to be able to share a little bit of our life with you.  I hope that this blog will help you to imagine our context and life a little bit better.

     When I was in younger, and shuttling between cultures, and knowing that any country I lived in , would not be the country that I would live in in the future, which in turn would never be my home country. . .  I had to ask my self, where is home.  This is an important question and one that is strangely so hard to answer.  Where is Home?  I was born in one place, have the passport from another, identifying with both. . . I found an answer: Home is where the dishes wait for you.  I, as my mother has learned before me,  can make home anywhere.

     So on to a new culture and county.  Here we are, my husband J. and I, A. in a new corner of the world.  I being practical am starting to learn Mandarin.  J. having chutzbah for the future is studying Kone Greek.

     I would be so honored if you would be willing to read our blog and add comments when you visit.  Please notice that J. and I will not be using our names or our country of location to protect privacy.  I plan to post biweekly.  Please enjoy your time reading the blog.
I miss you all.
       A.

Dear Dad,
     You came to mind this week with the verse: " The prayers of a righteous man availeth much"
     Love AM

Photographs