Well, that was rude!

So I just today logged into my account on the Latvian version of facebook. I had a notification that I had some new comments in some of my photo albums. That was a bit odd because I hadn't posted any new photos in quite a while, and therefore wouldn't expect anyone to be commenting on anything...

So the first picture was one of myself and Joel cuddling in a castle tower in Latvia. I had written the caption myself, which said, "Mmmm...all is well in my world..." Then this random lady wrote a comment saying, "He looks like he's happier some place else, Sweetie." !!!! ????

Then, there was a picture of me holding the test that Joel made me take to get my birthday present back in 2006. My caption said something about the test and the trip to Venice. Then she left a comment, "Well, of course, Joel will never give you anything for free!!!"

Finally, two pics from Oz. One of myself and Joel at the cricket with a couple of our Latvian friends. Caption says just that. She writes, "Joel and a chubby one! (laughing face icon)" And finally, a picture of me in front of the Sydney Opera House- and she wrote, "The chubby lady, way too chubby! (laughing face icon)"

WHO DOES THAT???

I checked to see if we had mutual friends and we were connected through two people (as in, she knows someone who knows someone who knows me), neither of whom have anything to do with Joel. I deleted my friendship with the lady I was directly linked to, and then tried to search for the mean commenter again, and we had no links anymore.

Neither Joel nor I recognized her name, and she didn't have any pictures anywhere where her face was really visible. We were thinking that possibly she was someone that Joel wronged or blew off in his time in Riga pre-me. But yeah, no recollection.

Who knows...but, it sucks that people can just be that rude. I'd never comment on the pictures of strangers unless I had something nice to say- and certainly, no matter how much I wanted to, I would never comment negatively on a stranger's looks!

People suck. :(

Sad sad day

As I "knew" and loved him

When I first saw the movie Dirty Dancing I was young. It came out when I was 7, I believe, and I know I didn't see it in the theater, but probably a couple years later on video. I'm pretty sure I remember watching it in the living room of our Lorraine house.

Here is what I KNOW I remember. This was the first movie that made me feel all warm and tingly and ughm, special. And let me tell you, it's wasn't Jennifer Grey that got my blood boiling. It was her place in the arms of her leading man that I wanted! That was the beginning of my love for Patrick Swayze.

Actually, to tell the truth, that is where it began and where it stayed. Yeah, I saw Ghost, and some of his other movies after that. But Dirty Dancing has remained one of my favorite movies to this day, and certainly my favorite piece of Patrick.

When I was in high school I was still very in love with him. I even wrote Rosie O'Donnell a fan letter asking her for help meeting him. It was when she still had her show and hadn't really come out yet, and really played up how much she loved Tom Cruise. So, I wrote her a cute little letter comparing my love for Patrick to her love for Tom. I told her that I knew if anyone could understand, and could help, it would be her. I never got a response. At least I tried.

Then came university and the local video shop. They started carrying these life size cardboard stand-ups of a whole slew of different movie characters. They had Princess Leia, Darth Vader, James Dean, and a bunch of other movie hot bodies/famous faces. And then they got Johnny Castle. Lord did I freak right away. I don't think it really took very long for me to decide to buy it. I remember that it cost $25 which was A LOT of money to a college freshman or sophomore (I was one or the other). Oh but I loved him. And considering I had started kissing the thing every time we went into the video shop, they were probably happy that I bought him. :)

He lived in the living room of my apartment sophomore year. After that I took him home, and he lived in my bedroom. I think his last place of honor/display was in my bedroom at the Burr Oak house. In all three of these places he would scare people out of their minds. :) He was after all life size and seemed to just be standing in the corner! I would always say, "He's lovely to look at, but not much for words."

When I moved to China, I knew that I needed to leave him in safe hands. I doubted whether either of my parents would wait long to simply toss him once I was gone. So, the last time I saw my friend Ang, I handed him over to her, asking that she take care of him. It was a moment of trust and tears, no lie.

So, when I woke this morning to find out, on facebook no less, that he had died, it was a sad, sad day. Which is funny, because I really only loved him for the one movie, which I own, and could watch endlessly if I wanted to (and could get my hands on it, as it's packed in a box in Latvia). Anyway, obviously, there is something about the Hollywood love of your life still being alive as you moon over him in a movie made 20 years ago.

All of the press I have read and seen talked about what a great person he was, how balanced he kept his life, how he didn't let celebrity or show business distract him from the other important things in life. He was married to his wife for more than 35 years I believe. In my book, that is an achievement for ANYONE, much less a celebrity. He just seemed like good people.

So, on this day I pay tribute to my first and longest Hollywood crush- my dear Patrick Swayze. May he rest in peace.

My handy-man husband :)

He knows how to make me happy.

When we moved into this new apartment, the one thing I was really sad about was not having a dryer. Judge me if you will, but basically, I grew up in Indiana and Michigan, yeah? We sometimes dried clothes outside in the summer, but when winter lasts half the year or more (in Michigan), basically, a dryer is something you're just used to having and using regularly.

And frankly, there is nothing like warm sheets or towels out of the dryer. It is lovely to not have to iron things because they've come out of the dryer and aren't wrinkled. And it's really nice to be able to do a load of laundry from start to finish (that is laundry basket to folded back in the closet) in one afternoon.

So, on Friday, we finally got ourselves in gear and went and bought the cheapest dryer we could find. :) We brought it home that very afternoon without any hassles. But, then it just sat there, and we didn't really know who was going to install it, set it up, etc. It needed a vent set up, and although Joel had some ideas, we were looking to ask for help in getting it done.

Well, this afternoon it turns out Joel decided to try to just get the job done. I was napping and reading on the couch as he came and went a few times gathering tools, materials and advice. Soon the sounds of power tools came from the laundry. Eventually, he invited me in to come look.

What a beautiful sight! The white one is the dryer.

And here you can see the board that Joel cut to fit this space, and the hole where the vent pipe goes, etc, etc. All very impressive. I certainly couldn't have done it, and had it been left up to me, the dryer would have sat not set up for months probably!

The funny thing is that a lot of our colleagues kind of poked fun at us for buying a dryer. In the, "Surely you could live without it, no?" kind of vein. But, now that it's home and set up, we're hearing lots of comments more along the lines of, "So, where is the sign up sheet going to be?" and "You're just going to set it up in the hallway so we can all use it right?" Ha ha!

Now, the only challenge- teaching the maid what can and cannot go in the dryer. I have asked that she not do my laundry at all anyway- but Joel has her do his. But Joel is also very picky about most of his shirts hanging off his body in that three sizes too big style that is only achievable by air-drying. So, yeah, good luck with that. I'd assume the maid if going to love the dryer, and probably going to want to use it for everything. I guess we'll see how that goes!!!

So, thanks to my handy-man husband for being such a man's man today and getting this all done. I love it, and I love him! :)

Hmmm...I miss my blog...

It's hard feeling torn between so many online outlets... the truth is, face.book is easier for picture posting than the blog is (especially when the blog isn't really working, but even when it is), but, I also like this space as my writing outlet...although, as my audience has grown, my writing has become more censored. But there really isn't any safe place online anymore... I mean, I have people from all parts of my life in nearly every online community, and for an open book like me, it's hard to find a place, or a time when I can really express what's going on, without having to worry about offending someone or exposing some part of myself better kept out of the reach of certain people. Anyway, all that said, I miss my blog. Seems I used to have things to say, stories to tell, and I don't know what has changed, but, I feel like the most interesting thing I have to tell you now, is that Joel and I are sharing a cold. And that is pretty boring.

Evidence:

We've been spending our evenings eating warming foods like chili and soup and blowing our noses raw. I suppose the good thing is that feeling this crummy, we haven't had it in us to fight over the remote. :)

I'm home from work today, resting and generally taking care of myself. I decided this year that after the hell of last year, I wasn't going to let school stress me into constant heartburn and hating my life. So, at the first sign of getting Joel's cold, I marched into my principal's office and told her I was staying home today (I did that yesterday). It's not worth it to put my health at risk, or to push through and be cranky with the kids (which I was) when I'm not feeling well. I wrote up fine lesson plans, which apparently isn't even expected by some, and walked away from it. It is only the second week of school, but, the students are settling in pretty well, and I think they'll be fine for two days without me. Hopefully I will have kicked this bug by Monday. It took Joel about 5 days too (he went back to work today, after being home all week).

Ah, I just remembered, there is one other thing I could tell you! After a hand-wringing, stomach-twisting week, my passport arrived at the Embassy downtown, and I was able to go pick it up. It was kind of an odd sensation looking at my new name... it is a change. It's not one I ever thought about not making- I have always wanted a unifying name with the family I would help create, and there are plenty of people to carry on my family of origin last name, and well, yeah, it was just something I have always been ok with.

And I like my new last name. It might be slightly more common throughout the world than my old last name, but, in that sense, also slightly easier to pronounce for someone not familiar with it. Although that said, I still can't get over how much difficulty some of my student's parents are having with it- English speakers too, who just can't seem to spit it out! Weird. Anyway... the extra good news is that the passports (both my old one and my new one) have been handed in to the authorities to get the new work visa. This has already happened this week, which means we have about 7 weeks for them to get them back to us so we can go on vacation in October. Considering we've already bought the tickets to South Africa, we're just living in the outcome that they will be ready and back in our hands by then!

Our plan for October is to hit Kruger National Park and see some of the Big 5- mostly, I know I am interested in getting up for those 4 or 5am game drives where one searches for the big cats. We've seen elephants galore, and hippos too, and giraffes- but it's the cats that have eluded us completely, as well as the rhino. But, I really want to see the cats. So, hopefully we'll luck out with that, and me and my new camera will get some great shots. And then we'll head back to Johannesburg to spend a few days shopping and maybe going to a doctor or two.

The shopping by the way, will be more for our house than anything else. You wouldn't believe the little things that you just can't get... placemats for the kitchen table, toothbrush holders for the bathroom. I miss Target. When it comes to being able to decorate my living space, I think I belong much more in an American or Australian suburb than the place I have chosen to live. Ah well...Joburg is only 7 weeks away... I can live without placemats until then...

Although the tech guy is working on it, my blog settings have not yet returned to normal, so, I'll try to keep up here as best I can. :)

Well....maybe not...

Well, turns out the blog isn't 100% back on track. Uploading pictures still isn't happening quite as it should. Doing just this one took way too long, and I'm not up for it- so, if you want to see more pics, let me know, I'll send you a link to my face.book albums! :)

The new IT guy ROCKS. :)

He fixed whatever needed to be fixed so that I could access my blog again fully. I think I might be in love with him. You should be too, because this means I can get back to posting more again. :)

Now, does anybody REALLY need wedding pictures on here, or have you seen them elsewhere? Whatever is on face.book, is what I would put here...

Well, maybe I'll just put up a few... :)

Yay, welcome back to me! :)

An update worth posting...

Dudes... how wonderful is my husband?  I told you he was working his little tush off while I was posting... look at the difference a few hours makes in a room!  No more junk room!

Our new apartment...

So, even though blogger is being stupid again, I figured out how to do this, I just can't format at all, so, bear with me... a quick tour of our new apartment with crappy pictures that I took this afternoon.

First, the living/dining room as seen from the front door through which you might enter the apartment if we had the key to that door.

And here is the view of same room as seen from the hallway (which you can see on the right in the above photo)

Now here is the kitchen which is right off the living room- you can see how big it is. Nice. We have a kitchen table and a dining room table. It's nice to be able to eat in the kitchen at the table, totally away from any other distractions (like the tv, which we struggled sometimes to turn off during dinner, even though we both agree it should be off...)

Now we have another door to the outside off the kitchen, which is where I took this picture from. You can see through the kitchen to the laundry room (right now just a washer and a sink area- but we are SERIOUSLY contemplating shelling out for a dryer out of pocket. I for one think it would make life like, much, much better.)

Here is the study that is just off the laundry room. Because Joel is the one working on his masters now, and because he has football scarves that need displaying somewhere, the office has officially been deemed his space. Opposite this study, on the other side of the laundry room is actually also a maid's bathroom, which has a toilet and a shower. You know, cause, you wouldn't want your maid using yours! Of course, we don't even have a maid anymore this year...

Now as you head down the hallway, the first door you come to on the left is a bedroom. It has two twin beds in it, and as you can, right now is functioning as our junk room. Actually, at the end of last school year when we had to move all our stuff into this apartment, this was the room that a lot of it got shoved into- so, we're slowly getting everything out again. It's a work in progress- in fact, I think Joel is in there working on it right now, even as I sit here! :) Anyway, this is one place we have room for guests!

Nearly across the hall from the first bedroom is the hall bathroom, which has been deemed, Joel's bathroom. Hey if you have more bathrooms than people living in a place, you might as well each claim one right? :)

Further down the hallway on the right is a second bedroom. This one is a bit smaller, and only has one twin bed. More room for guests. The last couple that lived here used this room as the baby's room- we liked that idea, and are of course, working on it. :) As you can see in the picture though, right now we're just using it for drying clothes out of sight. :)

Across the hallway from the baby's room, uh, I mean the second bedroom is the master suite. When you walk in, immediately on the right is the bathroom, which has been deemed my bathroom. None of the bathrooms actually have baths (though three of them have showers), which of course is disappointing.

So then finally you reach the master bedroom, which of course, is our space. When I took this picture, Joel still had crap all over the floor... oh well. :)

As you can see we have a nice big bed. Not quite as big as the king's we slept in most of the summer in all our hotels, but, I think it's a queen, so it's a bit bigger than what we had in our last apartment.

And now a shot of the closets in our bedroom. In this picture I've opened one door on each of the four closets. Yeah, dude. Nice. The best part is, all three bedrooms have one entire wall of closets- the other two rooms only have three closets a piece I think, simply because they are smaller- but, basically, we're not running out of closet space any time soon. I feel like Carrie Bradshaw! Oh, and I know the closets look empty in the pic, but, as I said, Joel is working on all this stuff RIGHT NOW (cause he went surfing on Sunday when I put all my stuff away, so he's just doing it now) so it'll look full by the time I'm done posting, but, you won't see that picture!

Now back to the living/dining room and out onto the balcony. No more porch for us with a little square of green grass, but, oh well- I didn't get that far with growing stuff anyway. So this is our dusty, dusty balcony. We don't have any furniture for it yet (yes that is a dining room chair out there now...). I hope the school provides some eventually...

Here is a shot of the street to the left- this is the way we walk to school. We only have to walk about 50 meters to the gate to the school (which is at the back of the school grounds). So, our walk to work just went from like 30 seconds last year to about 2-3 minutes this year. Man, life is tough.

Here is the view to the right. This is a rather busy street. In fact, the last couple that lived here (the one with the baby) chose to move just across the hall when the apartments were being swapped around at the end of last school year, saying that they needed a quieter place for the baby. Their apartment across the hall faces the back of our building, which essentially looks over the school, so it doesn't get the street noise. After hearing the noise the last couple of nights, I no longer blame them. There must be a make shift bar of some sort right across the street and they were blasting music until about 11:30 last night. And it was loud enough that inside, even with all the windows closed, it was as loud as I would have had music if I had put it on for my own enjoyment. Of course, the big difference is that, they didn't choose the kind of music that I would!

Also across the street we have a police post. Joel actually saw a huge car crash today that happened directly outside our compound- in fact one of the cars actually smashed through the metal fence and into the guard house of our compound. Joel was only like not far away when it happened. He later told me he nearly pooped his pants. Suck. Surprisingly, everyone walked away from the crash, although I doubt the cars had such luck. Anyway, my point is that, Joel watched the police watch the crash. And, only after they had stood and watched for a good few moments did they look at each other and seem to think,"Huh, maybe we should go check if anyone is hurt?" So, yeah, that is the police post across the street, but, I'm not really sure what they do there...

So, that is the story of our new apartment. Oh but wait, I forgot to tell you that actually, there is one more bathroom in the house, which is also not pictured here which is right next to the front door off the living room. The last couple before us used it as a storage space/mud room, and we are following suit. So it's got our luggage, shoes and sporting equipment in it. How many toilets can two people use afterall? We still have three to choose from...

So, bit of an upgrade from last year right? This is why we were excited to move.

Good news/Bad news

Good news is, we're back in Luanda safe and sound.  We arrived mid-afternoon Saturday- to find work done on the airport which meant that the immigration lines which used to be in a very hot, very humid, very stuffy, very full of mosquitoes room were now in a new, air conditioned, somewhat spacious room. :) That was nice. Then we had to wait for our baggage for 1.5 hours, but hey- it can't all be perfect hey? At least it all showed up!

So we got back, and started the moving-in/unpacking.  By now (Sunday evening) we're mostly unpacked and most of our things have found a new home.  There is one bedroom (one of the three!) that we're keeping the door closed to for now, because well, there's still a pretty big mess in there.  But the general living space- taken care of.  Now we need to work on getting all our pictures, wall hangings, and art up on the walls to really make it feel like home.  Of course, the kitchen was the first thing I unpacked and got settled, and felt better right away! :)  We love our new apartment and well, we have lots of room for guests now, if um, anyone is interested! :)

Anyway, so the bad news, is that as soon as we got back to Africa my blog started acting up again, and now that we're back in Angola, I can't post to it properly again, which may or may not make it very hard to post in general- but especially to post pictures.

I will work on it, and hopefully maybe, the new tech guy can figure something out and we'll have all good news soon.

We start work tomorrow, and the kids start school next Monday... is it really that time again?  Where did the summer go???   Is that good news or bad news? :)

What, you think I have nothing to do???

OK, so according to the "countdown" to the left, it's been 12 days since our wedding. Does that mean that I should take the counter down? Does that mean it's time for a new post?

Well, people, we're busy. We're napping, and having massages and honeymooner dinners and sleeping in the sun.

Ah yes, the stressed out life of newlyweds, especially newlywed teachers with the summer off. :)

So a short update... we're in Mauritius. We've been here since Saturday, and it's nice. Unfortunately weather wise, and hotel package wise, it's not quite as good as Mexico was. The weather is hardly bad enough to complain about, but, I am wearing a very light sweater as I write this. I have been able to lounge in the sun by the pool every day, and it does get hot then, but once I'm out of the sun, it's pretty normal (not so hot). And the resort here is lovely- the deco and all is very Indian with pinks and yellows and oranges- it's lovely. But they haven't really figured out the whole "all inclusive" thing like the place in Mexico had. We have the all inclusive package, but, we only get to choose certain stuff of the menus to be included in the all inclusive- and it doesn't include room service of any sort! Bummer. Also, no swim up pool. Double bummer. But that might be because they have the single coldest pool I have EVER been in. In fact, I tried to get in one day, got in as far as my knees and gave up. But, like I said, it's not really hot enough to necessitate getting in the pool, so it's ok.

The beach is lovely, except it has beautiful white, but ouchy sand- walking on it for a while leaves you feet feeling like they've been pumiced to within an inch of their lives. We walked along it one morning, and have pretty much stayed away since. Lame huh?

Last night we were invited to enjoy a special "honeymooner's dinner" on the resort. It was very nice, except that I had suddenly come down with a low fever and was feeling pretty awful. IN fact, I had lost my appetite! Anyone who knows me, knows that this is well, pretty much unheard of, I can usually eat through anything! But there I was, at my honeymooner's dinner, barely able to eat at all. The chef must have thought I hated all the food. I didn't- it was really quite lovely, but I just couldn't get anything down. Ah well.

Being somewhat sick helped up sleep in later (6:45) today than we have since we got here- we've been waking up every morning right around a quarter to 6. And of course, then passing out as though we've been drugged somewhere around 3pm. Jet lag is a bitch.

So yeah... honeymoon... that is pretty much all I can report on here, because let's face it, this is mostly a pretty not X-rated blog, so I won't go into what else we've been doing most of the time. Though, let me extend a grand thank you again to all the ladies who gifted so generously at my bridal shower. ;)

Of course, lest I seem the constant complainer, the upside of being here in Mauritius vs Mexico is that we're married. I love waking up next to my husband every morning. The new weight of the wedding ring is a lovely feeling. And, even as we enjoy every moment of what we're doing right now, it's also fun to dream about what might be coming next... ;)

More updates, possibly including pictures might come soon- first I would have to take some of this place. :) I'll try to get on that today. Tomorrow we're supposed to go see, if not swim with, dolphins. Then we transfer to another resort where we will engage in such activities as snorkeling (I'm really looking forward to that) and going in a submarine. Should be good! We'll be back to Angola somewhere around the 8th I believe. We have to head through FREEZING cold Joburg on the way (literally, 1C/32F)- SO COLD- especially when you are not anywhere near being appropriatly dressed. Anyway... we've already decided we'll do lots of room service and movies while we're there. :) Ok, so, yeah, there you go... see you on the flip side!

7 days...

7 days!!!!

WHAT???

Big party tomorrow... will try to post pics on Sunday. Busy...trying to get things done... details still to take care of... going to get there (or so I'm told...).

Pretties

It's been raining a fair bit in Michigan since we got here. It's not all that nice, especially since it's cold, but, at least it makes for GREEN, GREEN, GREEN surroundings and lots of pretty flowers to look at!

My step mom planted these around the mailbox. I think they are really lovely. :)

More cuteness...

I wanted to post these pictures the other day as well, but didn't have access to them on the non-usb camera card. So, we bought a card reader today, and I can show off my the cutest little girl in the world some more. :)

Brenna has a thing about hair. Apparently, she likes it. She holds and plays with her mom's hair all the time, and although I didn't see it, I heard she does the same with her dad's hair (even though it's short). So imagine my surprise and delight when on my first day there, she happily grabbed hold of my hair in the car. :)

(and, yeah, that is how we rode for well, the whole car trip- she just sucked her thumb and held my hair! My neck had a little crick by the end!)

The next day while mom was in the shower, we watched some tv together. And I made Joel take some pics. :)

She's just so darn cute. :)

And of course, she took to Joel quickly as well- as most children do. :)
Here they surfed the net a bit. :)

A day at Garezers

On Sunday, the day after my shower, we headed out to "Little Latvia" right here in southwest Michigan- Garezers. This is where I grew up- spent my summers, ALL OF THEM, from age 6-20 there. Good times. Joel is really in love with the place, and jealous that Australian Dutchies haven't created such a place for themselves.

My dad and stepmom have a trailer there. My uncle and aunt have one too. On Sunday we went down to visit with them. I actually started by going for a run around the lake- 4 miles! I did it in 50 minutes, with a lot of walking. Let me tell you- running on the road in the midday sun is way different than inside, in air conditioning on a treadmill! But the dog came with me, and she loved it. In fact, she's been sidling up to me every day clearly asking for more.

By the time I got back from my run, Joel, my step-mom and my aunt and uncle had already finished one go out on the boat. Joel had his first-in-five-years go at wakeboarding. After hanging out at my uncles and aunt's trailer and having lunch and a few drinks, we went out on the boat again, and I got to snap a few pics and videos of Joel doing his thang.

Here we are on the deck of my uncle's trailer. In the background you see a swamp. Yeah, it's actually really nice though. :)

Joel's got his life-vest on (it's the law in Michigan!) and is getting ready to go!

In the water ready for one of a few tries at getting up...

Up!

Showing off his skills...

He got a couple really good runs in

It almost looks easy no? Almost...

It was nearly sunset...my camera would have gotten some great shots, but as it was, even Joel's point and shoot got some good ones.

And finally, here is a video of Joel wakeboarding. He really did a great job. And never mind that he can barely move today. :)

My Bridal Shower in South Haven

Yesterday I had a truly, truly lovely day! Goodness knows, I love being the center of attention, and I got it yesterday. Between my wonderful friend Ang, my mom and our friend Mary, a fabulous event came together. A review in pictures....

We set a beautiful spread- we all ate way too much!

Cake- from a bakery whose motto is, "Butter makes it better!" It was good. :)

The beautiful flowers that Mary brought for me.

Because I had the nicest handwriting, I wrote my own sign! But Ang gave everyone chocolate goody bags! :)

Ang and me- she's my matron of honor and the best friend a girl could ask for!

Mom and Mary

Doing my best to break some ribbons!

Mary and Clare having a great time...

Kat and Malda listening to one of the great stories told that day...

It was a lingerie shower... so all the presents were...you guessed it!

In this picture I have just found out that my friend Clare is going to be Kat's
"plus one" in Mexico. Yay! Another single girl at the wedding...

Here we all are then... a small group, but, as my step-dad said, "If an event can be judged by the amount of laughter it generates, then, this party was tops!" (He did not attend the party, but was banished to his bedroom upstairs!)

My step-sister's baby Christian- the only boy who was allowed at the party. :)

Finale!

It really was a great day, and ended wonderfully just hanging out with the girls. The next two weeks will hopefully be fairly low key as we simply finish up gathering bits and pieces for the wedding and just relaxing. Before the wedding, we still have the big pre-party here.