So many things to say...

I guess it's time. Looking back, I realize I've neglected my blog quite significantly, and so I need to sit down and organize my thoughts. There's so much to update and oodles of photos that I'd love to share. Let's see what I come up with:

This weekend, beginning on Thursday and ending on Monday night, is a holiday. It's Idul Adha here in Indonesia (muslim holiday somehow based on the story of Abraham--or Ibrahim in Islam--and Isaac, or so I believe. I wrote about it a year ago, where hundreds of thousands of goats, sheep and cattle are sold on the side of the road, purchased by wealthier families, and slaughtered/sacrificed in the mosques. The meat, once cut into pieces, is distributed in the not-so-wealthy villages) and it so happens to coincide with American Thanksgiving. As well as Idul Adha, our school has given staff and students extra days off, and I'm not complaining! As a result, a few of us got together and organized an "International Thanksgiving Family Potluck." It was held in a room at the university and 105 people attended, with each one contributing money towards the turkey, as well as a dish or drink. There wasn't much of an agenda, except that we sang a song of thanks around the piano just before grace. We've had positive feedback and although I missed having Thanksgiving...AGAIN...with family, it was really nice just to chat with people who we see around but are always too busy to talk with for too long. It was also nice to eat turkey:)

Yesterday (day after Thanksgiving dinner) a bunch of families headed to the beach! Although we live quite close to the ocean, the areas we COULD swim are not particularly pleasant, so we drove an hour and half southwest and ended up at Anyur Beach. It's my first beach experience on the island of Java, and it was quite nice. The roads on the way there are a bit of a laugh. Janet Weeda had me take a photo of the holes dug right next to our lane; they went on for kilometers. I had a good chuckle at how Worker's Compensation would feel about how close the traffic was to these holes.

Once there, we hung out, ate and swam. Oh, and fended off the vendors. Once they figured out that we weren't interested they backed off, but only to the perimeters. This hasn't been unusual in Indonesia, and I think it's similar all over the world. I'm sure each one of us has the same stories from various beaches around the globe.

Unfortunately, just before we left for the beach Matt suffered a bout of stomach illness, and decided to stay home. Of course, he felt fine after we left and regretted having to stay all alone, just he and the tv...for hours...and hours. He would have played Wii but he'd left part of it at the dinner the night before. He did have company, though. Our driver Haris stayed behind to deal with the construction guys who came and built a roof over our back garage area. For those of you who have stayed with us, you'll be happy to know that Ami and Haris now have a covered area during the rainy days. Ami also has her room, but the extra dry space is necessary and I think will be appreciated. When we returned home that evening, Haris had washed all of our dishes I'd brought to Thanksgiving and also lent out. There was a whole counter full and I sure was happy to come home to a clean kitchen. Weird, but Matt says he never heard a thing the whole time!

The photo is of Sophie and Abby. Tris brought his body boards for the kids to ride the waves close to shore, but I'm pretty sure they've been retired and will be soon replaced by a set of golf clubs. As for his rehab, he swam a kilometer today using both front crawl and breast stroke. That's wonderful, especially knowing he can do a full rotation of his right arm now.

As for me and my blogs, I think I've been putting it off because of lack of energy. I haven't said too much but since last April I've been quite nauseous in the mornings (no pregnancy here!!!) but because it lasted only a while I would forget to see the doctor later in the day. In the past 2 months it has gotten worse and has lasted throughout the day, with me always needing at least an hour nap during the day. We were concerned and local doctors didn't have much to say on the matter (except...'are you depressed?' because of my being tired. My answer "No...but I'm homesick. Does that count?"). Last week Tris took me to a hospital in Jakarta and we had a variety of tests done, and then last Thursday the diagnosis came in as a high content of e.coli. Not pathogenic, so all is well. I'm not going to take any antibiotics because they'll just kill all my good bacteria, and we'll fight it with vitamins, lots of water and acidophilus. I had started taking all those items last week and I think my immune system has kicked in or something. I'm not nearly as tired and I was even able to play ultimate frisbee today. I'd missed it for 3 weeks! I've had bouts of nausea but not nearly like it was before last week. So there you have it. E coli (which we all have in our systems, beginning at about 40 hours after our birth), and that's it. Some have asked if it is related to the dengue fever I had in January, but there's apparently no co-relation.

Well, that's it for just this weekend. Life has been busy. Lots of celebrations here lately, and Christmas holidays are fast approaching. Tris and Sunny arrive in less than 2 weeks and we're very, very excited. I do have to end this posting now because the main lights have been turned off, the new plastic Christmas tree is up (never thought I'd appreciate a plastic tree!!!), and the Christmas music is cranked. Time to decorate!!

Man, it's hot here. Christmas music seems funny, especially Frosty the Snowman.

Thanks for reading.