Roundup this week

I'm hosting the Weekly State Department Blog Roundup this week and the theme is your best/worst/most embarrassing ex-pat moment.

I'll have to spend some time this week thinking about mine...maybe my moment will even happen this week.

Car Trouble, Birthday and Baby, Oh my!

Our car has been costing us lately. The mechanic has fixed many problems. Now it's doing something weird with the steering, and making a very loud squealing noise that sounds like a belt problem. I hate car trouble.

Other than that, nothing big is really happening right now. John's going to be gone on a work trip on Simon's birthday this year. This makes me sad, but luckily for us Simon has no clue. He may be back in time for us to have Simon's party that Sunday, the 13th, but he might not. We should know by Tuesday...we'll see.

As far as what we'll do for his 1st birthday party, I don't quite know yet. Since he doesn't care about the party, we may just have our friends over, at this stage it's really about the parents anyway.

John and I have decided that Simon's going to have a much harder time getting a baby brother than Malachi did. Without the ability to reason with Simon at such a young age, we're not able to prepare him for the arrival the way we did Malachi. One thing we can do with Simon that we did with Malachi is to make sure we spend as much time with him as possible and make sure he knows how much we love him. I hope it helps.

Healthy Eating on a Budget

Check out this blog I've been pointed to recently. It's done by the sister of a friend from D.C., who's not FS but isn't in D.C. anymore. I think that may be the way of that city.

Anywho, I digress. Natalie blogs about having a family and living healthy on a budget. She's done some great things and even tests products for us, so we don't have to.

Check it out here.

Calling all Foreign Service bloggers (and readers)

John and I are about to bid and Malachi's class 2 MED clearance is sticking like white on rice. With that said, we've been told that we have to do research about what posts have the proper medical care. So here are my questions...

Do you have a kid with Epilepsy? Do you know someone who has a kid with Epilepsy? Where are you, or they, posted? Does anyone know of any kind of easy to use (HA!) database where we can just check what posts have Pediatric Neurologists and ER's?

If anyone has any advice on this I would greatly appreciate it. We're supposed to bid soon, and we were just told today of the research we're supposed to do.

Not Yet 4 1/2 Months

I'm not yet 4 1/2 months into my pregnancy. However, I'm showing quite well, I too easily tire out, I get sore in so many places after a day of work (or after standing for a while), my belly hurts when placing Simon in the crib, etc.

On the other hand...I can feel him moving around a lot. I love that part! It doesn't hurt to have him move, or sit up top like he does. I love knowing that he's growing and doing well.

Also, I think we've picked a name...and no, I won't tell you what it is. We have to have ONE secret!

Minnesota...The End

Things I did in my last couple of days (of course, in no particular order)...

One more trip to: Jimmy John's and Target

Trip to: Walgreens, USPS (Sent my Swap Box!), The Carver County Service Center, scary Thrift Store, TJ Maxx and Payless for Bogo

Afternoon and dinner at my dad's house

Met sister-in-law in Bloomington to go to the airport

Cried at security when they made me throw away the cold medicine for Simon

Great Flight to Atlanta with Simon napping a bit

Chick-fil-A in Atlanta and barely no delay

Not a horrible flight to San Jose with Simon sleeping as long as he could be comfortable

Met at the gate by John and Malachi with Malachi running to me yelling MOOMMYYYYY (Best arrival ever)

Easy time through immigration and customs

Stop at Taco Bell on the way home

Gifting items from myself and family members to John and Malachi

Sleep in my own bed

Since Friday I've seen some friends and spent some quality time with my family. Right now we're sitting in the living room watching Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back, having just eaten eggs and toast. I'm not sure we're not in the States sometimes. Well I guess we bring the States to Costa Rica anyway. 

Simon and I are still sick, but we're on the mend. Hopefully we won't pass it on to John and Malachi.

Minnesota So Far...again

More things I've done (again...no particular order):

• Watched: Date Night, All of the Twilight Saga movies and some special features
• Ate at Jimmy John's, First Course (Tapas)
• Spoken a little bit of Spanish
• Had my first dream in English and Spanish
• Comforted a sick baby
• Lazied around a large part of MLK day
• Gone to Target two more times (total of three so far, and spent surprisingly little money)
• Had my favorite orange rolls for breakfast with the family egg bake
• Saw family and friends that I haven't seen in at least a year and a half
• Took some cute pictures (that I can't get online because this computer doesn't have an SD slot)
• Played Scattegories Junior with Mom and Aunt Patty and lost by 1 point