Sunday, July 13, 2014

July 14, 2014

Holy schnikes! I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I've officially updated the blog!  Still not much has happened, even though we're winding down o the trip, it doesn't feel like we've been here for 5 weeks. Only 11 days left in Vizag, then on to Mumbai for a short visit, Paris for a week and home...

Time for something new..."Good News. Bad News". I figure this is the easiest way to give you a three week lowdown...

Good News: The weather has cooled off drastically. It's actually quite comfortable. SUCH good news...
Bad News: Because the weather has cooled off so much, so have the water pipes. What I thought was "hot" water when we came was actually heated water pipes. No heat = no hot water = cold showers. :(

Good News: Church was FULL yesterday! Every seat was about taken.
Bad News: I had to speak in church. The best part was sacrament is always in English. All the talks, everything. However because there was extra time, one of the leaders decided to translate my talk. Not sure if it was because I was not being understood or if it was such an amazing talk he wanted to make sure everything was understood...I don't think it was the latter.

Good news: Everyone is alive
Bad news: Barely. The kids (and us) have literally been together the entire time. No breaks. No friends houses. Just here. Together. Is this a glimpse of what eternity is going to be like?

Good News: We're up to date on our movie watching (well, for the English movies that come to Vizag). We've seen 'How to Train your Dragon 2', 'Edge of Tomorrow', 'Transformers' and 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes'.
Bad News: Watching 'Transformers' was painful. Really, really painful. When people clap and cheer (and whistle...thank you, Ryan Riley) EVERY TIME there is a fight scene or there is a transformer on the screen, it gets old. Fast. Not to mention the constant cell phone talking and ringing and TEXTING during the show. Regardless, it's gotten us out of the house!

Good News: I've had no problems with the pregnancy.
Bad News: I'm getting so uncomfortable fast. I haven't forgotten how much I don't enjoy being pregnant, it's just being reconfirmed. Uncomfortable nights, sciatic pain and swollen constantly, isn't my idea of fun. (Please just let me vent, its all I've got to vent about).
BUT other good news is that Dallan LOVES to feel the baby move and gets so giddy every time he gets to feel her. He's even decided he wants to learn how to braid so he practices on my hair every night. I love it.

Good News: We were able to go to a couple of friends houses for dinner this last week. It's so enjoyable to go to their home and be a part of everything here.
Bad News: There is none. The kids ate well, and we ALL enjoyed the food.

Good News: Our apartment is still bug free. We've loved the extra space in this location and the location itself couldn't be better for where we like to go. Grocery store and restaurants are so close!
Bad News: The downfall of the great location is that we're on a super busy street. With busy streets comes traffic. Luckily we've only seen 3 motorcycle accidents from our balcony window, both of which everyone was able to walk away, so that's good news.

Good News: We've only lost a video camera and a ukalele since we've been here.
Bad News: We've lost both a video camera and a ukalele since we've been here. Have no idea what happened to the video camera, and Brayden left the ukalele in the back of a rickshaw.

Good News: I'm allowing my kids more independence.
Bad News: After letting them ride a rickshaw to Ryan's office alone (just the 4 boys) they want to go EVERYWHERE in a rickshaw now.
Good News: They survived and only had to pay 50 rupees.

Good News: Ryan is still very comfortable driving anywhere we need to go. He doesn't love driving at night because everyone uses their high beams.
Bad News: Ryan is so comfortable driving around town I think he drives to aggressive. He's so comfortable in fact, that he drove on the wrong side of the street (everyone does it and just because he wanted to) so he didn't have to go all the way around. ALL THE WAY AROUND! I wasn't super happy with him, but we did survive. (And we were probably driving a whole 10 mph...but I still didn't like it!)

Well, 11 days left, but we're not counting down. We've enjoyed our time here and don't really want to leave so soon. Except that I'm almost out of brown sugar and chocolate chips!