and the moon is the only light we'll see

There's just something about a rainy day.

A rainy day in a tuk tuk, with a bicycle shoved in it, trying to fight its way through the crazy streets of the country I've come to love. I just had a rather wonderful experience, and thus ends my blog writer's block. A few people (fans) have asked when the next post was coming, and I just didn't know. There are just days like today when all the wheels turn in the same direction and out come the words.

So things have been great, and relatively normal. Here are some blips of the last two months:

Lorinda walks in and asks us, "Did your president just die?" The answer was no, of course. It was some crazy internet rumor or something. It definitely freaked us out, though, and reminded me I needed to register with the US Embassy here (still haven't...oops).

I got really sunburned one day and my kids turned me into a Science experiment where they observed my very red skin and its journey back to pasty white.

My kids had Drama during February, and they put on a really cool play about the plague. They are wonderful performers, and I had fun putting on their stage makeup.

We get Scholastic book orders, which is awesome, and one kid ordered a magic kit. It came with a whoopee cushion. The entire third and fourth grades experienced it together, and Maria and I laughed so hard we cried. It was worse because of how hard we were trying not to laugh. You know, because we're mature or whatever.

And now for an update from Gavin:

My eating habits have drastically changed. It helps that there's not any fast food and exercise is a part of my day whether I want it to be or not. Maria and Lorinda are good influences. They encourage me to try new vegetables, I encourage them to eat more oreos. It's a good balance. Maria gets a kick out of me not knowing anything about fruits and vegetables outside of apples and corn. She made fun of me so hard when I picked up these green things and asked, "is this the zucchini?"

It wasn't. I now know that that is something called "winter melon." In my defense, the zucchini wasn't labeled! I'm learning. Please notice how big my hands look in that picture.

Lots more has happened, but my computer is being dumb and I can't deal. Hopefully it won't be another two months before you hear about how awesome my birthday was.

"My rule of thumb is, if you feel like something's crawling on you, it probably is." -Maria

Truer words have never been spoken.

M