Yet another appropriation of the trees

We're heading out tomorrow! Not to the U.S., but on our last trip around here. D had days off and I had extra because of the great Swine Flu incident, so we decided to go to Jordan and Turkey. We're going to go see the Dead Sea and Petra, and then to Istanbul for a couple days. My demi-evil twin is meeting us in Jordan, so she'll be on vacation with us, too, and probably, with her speedier internet, do a better job of posting pictures for some to enjoy.

I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I think I can make some of these projects work, and I am thinking I will not leave here a complete failure. Plus, we got all of our flights for going home booked, I got all of the honeymoon flights booked, and all the hotels. So when we get back, we'll finish planning our party and figuring out what our Dads are going to do while they are here, and then it's the home stretch!

Yay for being almost done!

Russ

If you qualify for a FREE LANTERN...

Sigh. I probably shouldn't be blogging this late, but I want to so hey!

We just got the last bits of our next vacation all booked. It's been a stress-causing ordeal, but I think we have it almost all figured out, except for what we will be doing on which days in Istanbul. Hopefully, I will figure that out tomorrow. And I have to plan my group meeting for tomorrow. It may be real discussion heavy. :)

I've gotten myself re-assigned/volunteered to carline duty, which is good and bad. But it's helping out, which is what I do, so that's ok.

I made lemon chicken for D tonight. It turned out OK.

We have our engagement party invitations and our wedding programs all printed and they look good! D gave the party invites to some of her students, and they were very excited because they got 'real' local invites to a 'real' local party. Planning it is a little stressful, but we're excited.

In our language lesson the other day, we were doing vocabulary words, and one was for a local nAn shop. It turns out that the name of the bakery where you buy nAn is a nAn bUy. They just took the English word for buy and made it the name of the shop. There's funny things like that all over the language.

My appendectomy housemate is doing pretty good. No contact sports yet, but he's up and moving.

I played ball with other staff on Thursday. It was great. I love playing ball, even on our teeny tiny little court.

I picked out a tuxedo for the wedding! And I got flights booked for the honeymoon, super cheap too! A 3 city multi-city ticket from the midwest to the southern coast to NYC and back to the midwest for a touch over 600usd each. It was almost half the cost of just buying one ways, or buying two round trip tickets. Airlines are crazy sometimes.

And now, I go to bed.

Sounds and Trumpets

Wow. I'm getting more and more delinquent in blogging. Where to start...?

We are running an after school basketball tournament with the 7-12th grades, and the teachers have a team. We tried not to be too mean today, but we still won 53-10 (twenty minute game, short court so scores are slightly inflated.) It was overly gratifying.

It's strawberry season here, so my gorgeous fiancee is trying her hand at Strawberry Shortcake. It's pretty good. I got some Friday night, and then more today!

India really was fun. The beach was relaxing and I got to read a couple books, which always makes me happy. We also swam some in the ocean (well, technically the Arabian Sea), and I body surfed on the waves, resulting in only minor salt-water inhalation that left me with a now-conquered sinus infection. I think if we are over here again, we will be spending more time in Goa, even with the hassle that getting a visa is!

One of my housemates had to have an emergency appendectomy last week, and I was drafted to go to the hospital with him and the school nurse. They are both blond. So most of the locals thought I was the interpreter, and after their first couple questions (what is his name? What is his work?), I'd exhausted my language and had to say, [almost literally in the local language] "Don't understand. American." The locals got a kick out of that. The surgery went well, and he got out of the hospital after two days. I do have good blackmail material with the things he said under the influence of his pain meds!

We are getting our wedding programs printed here, after D and I went to a local stationery store and discovered that, along with engagement party invitations, we could turn local wedding invitations into wedding programs for us. So 300 programs is going to cost us somewhere in the neighborhood of 130 dollars. Printed. And good quality. It's pretty awesome.

I am really struggling against checking out, especially on day-to-day tasks, or non-strategic longterm stuff. I really need to fight against that.

Our 'Max bonus' has run out. The local cats have realized that we don't have a dog in the yard anymore, a dog whom I constantly reminded to eat cats, and so the cats are invading. I had to chase one out of the house tonight. They are smart, they can get into our house even if the door is shut, but not latched.

Have you ever thought about what the point of what He means when he says, equivalently, 'Yay! for the poor in... cause look what they get?" Been reading a book that talks about that. Challenging. What do I say to and about those people today?

Mars

Goa was great, we really didn't want to leave. We went for walks on the beach, swims in the ocean, all the fun stuff. Our trip back to Delhi hasn't been so great so far, but I think today here will be better, and I am hoping the trip to the 'Stan is terrific.

We also made some important decisions about what we are going to do after we get married, and hopefully we have His direction guiding us in all that.