While you were freezing...

We have been enjoying the beach, the pool, and SUNSHINE!!

Here Hudson is jumping in the pool at our beach house!

My little mermaidI know the ocean looks more like a lake, but it wasn't like that the whole time. My kids were introduced to the fun of the wave runner on the ocean!Here I am in my natural habitat. The beach. The sun. A good book. (Not pictured: Lisa) You have no idea how hard it is to find a good hamburger....but we found one!!
WISH YOU WERE HERE!!!!

A little Suprise

I would like to tell you a story. It goes something like this....

There once was a little boy named Hudson. He was cute and funny and full of life. One day last month, his parents began noticing a curious and foul odor coming out of his nose. Since he has had chronic ear problems most of his life they quickly assumed there was a sinus, ear, or some other infection. Some days they would notice it smelled worse than others,but no fear, because they had an appointment with a Ear, Nose, and Throat Doctor in HK in a few weeks.

There were no signs that this boy Hudson was sick, his ears were not hurting, he had no "extra" congestion, and he felt just fine. Hmmmm.....but why the curious and foul odor. There were flashlights and q-tips used to look inside his nose to see if there was anything causing the smell, but alas...the poor parents could find nothing. Some days were better than others and sometimes they just chalked it up to gross, dirty, boy smell. But the father kept saying....something is not right.

The day approached for the trip to HK. The first day the family arrived, all of them had their teeth cleaned and cavities filled....all except for the mother, who had no cavities. But dutifully sat beside the children and the husband for 3 hours while the dentist worked hard to get the family all taken care of in one day. The mother asked the dentist about the smell and she said his cavitiy could have caused the smell. OK. Maybe.

Day 2 arrived and the father and daughter went to have their eyes examined while the mother and son went to have the boy's ears checked. Thankfully, the boy's ears are clear and tubes are still in place, as well as his ear drums look healthy and strong. (which is a great improvement and answer to prayer). As the mother got up to leave she remembered the "smell". So she asked the nice doctor about it. He donned his "SUPER" glasses which allow him to see inside small places and looked inside the boy's nose.

"WHOA!!", said the doctor, and jumped back in suprise.

"WHAT?!?!" said the mother.

The boy said nothing.

"FOREIGN BODY" , said the doctor.

"WHAT?", said the mother.

"We have to get this out immediately, MOM, come hold his head." So, dutifully, the mother held the child's head still as the doctor took a long metal stick and fished around inside the son's nose. Would you believe, a giant object (for a nose), the size of a marble, comes right out.

The child exclaims, "Boy that feels better".

The mother quickly asks the child if he knew there was something in his nose. Yep. Then, she asks, "What is/was it and how long has it been there?"

"Well, mom, remember when I spent the night with Joseph? (Dec. 5, 2008) I was at his karate practice and I was bored. I found a fuzz ball on the floor and began sucking it in my nose and shooting it out. It got stuck and I couldn't get it out. "

The mom immediately asks," Did you tell anyone????"

"N0"

"What about all those times Dad and I were asking you about the smell in your nose the last month and a half, what about when we took a flashlight and were looking in your nose....did you think you should tell anybody then?"

"I didn't want to get in trouble, Wow, I can breathe better!"

All the while the doctor is listening to this conversation. He tells the boy not to do that again. The mom is overwhelmed with relief and laughter. Then the boy tells the doctor that this isn't the first time something has gotten stuck in his nose, that once when he was 4 he got a jelly bean stuck in there too, but it came out the same day. The doctor looked at me in shock and I quickly ushered the boy out the door trying not to laugh too hard.

So, today in O Fam land, the boy has been scolded and told of the harms of putting things inside various parts of your body, as well as assured that no matter what, he MUST tell his parents if something like that ever happens again. The best part is no longer does the son smell like something is rotting in his nose.

This story is true and the names have not been changed.

Holiday Spirit

You know the feeling you get during the holidays? The one they write songs about like, "It's the most wonderful time of the year...." When you find yourself saying "Merry Christmas" to random strangers, or when you are shopping in the mall and you run into everyone you know and they are all there buying presents just like you. Or on Christmas Day/Thanksgiving Day when you drive down the road and everything is closed, and everyone you see is on their way to family's houses. Or even sometimes that feeling when OU/OSU is playing and everyone you see at Walmart is wearing either crimson or orange and buying chips, hamburger buns, etc. I think it is the feeling of something expected, a common, shared experience. I am not sure how to explain it but hopefully you know what I am talking about. It is what I have missed here during November and December.



But....then January came. I wasn't sure a holiday spirit could be found here, but when I am the only one celebrating...what do you expect. Now, there is quite the feeling of anticipation here. Starting this weekend, schools let out for anywhere from 30-40 days (depending on your school). You see this is the one time of year EVERYONE goes home. Students, adults, children, all go to their hometowns to visit family and relatives . All weekend the roads have been crowded, everywhere you look you see students carrying luggage: a rice bag, their comforter, and a duffle bag. As well as gifts for their family. I had to go to the train station this weekend for an errand, and I can't even begin to describe to you masses of people who were there. The train station is not the place I want to be for the next few weeks. I have learned a lot about this holiday from my friends here. They look forward to it immensely and it is as if the world stops for a few days while favorite foods are eaten, old friends are reunited, and family comes together. Even Walmart has been transformed into a Red (the fav color of the holiday) splash of color. You need red plates, red clothes, red underwear and socks, red everything. The best is that this is the year of the cow, in case you didn't know, so there are red cows all over the place. Everyone is buying food, candies, etc. I am glad to find that the holiday spirit is here, just a little later than what I am used to.



And what about us? While I wish I could pack my rice bag and head home and visit my family and friends for a few weeks, I am packing my suitcase to visit family of another kind. We are looking forward to a few days vacation with some friends on the beach. I did get an invitation to spend the new year with a family here in our city. They live in the first floor apartment of the building where I have language class. When they learned I wouldn't be going home to America to visit family, they immediately invited me to be apart of theirs. I was very honored, but humbly declined. Where I am going there will be a Starbucks and other food I would like to eat. But most importantly, 90 degree weather and a beach!!! All in all, it will be a fun holiday and I am glad for the holiday spirit lasting a little longer here in our house!!

Random Pictures

Yesterday I received a picture from my sweet sister-in-law. Thought you would be glad to know there are stranger people than me in my family (reagan). I thought I would share it with you and maybe it will bring a smile to your face too. I realized I haven't put any pics up of my 2 sweet, angelic children lately. Tomorrow is the last day of the first semester, than they get 2 days off, then go to school for one day next week, then are out of school from 3 weeks for the lunar new year. Needless to say...they are excited.

Hospitals and Other such fun!

I don't know why, but whenever Rob goes out of town for the week....the fun begins. There was the time I was at the park with Linda R and her boys in OKC and Hudson went head first down the slide.....4 stitches and a lot of blood later, he was fine. Then at least twice we have all had the stomach flu and passed it around only to be well the day before he comes home. Or the time Hudson had a raging fever and severe pain in his ear....all while Rob was away. How come he always misses the fun?

This week, he went away again. Wednesday night as we were walking down the stairs to go to dinner, the motion sensor lights in the stairwell (think "clap on clap off") went off and Hannah missed a stair and fell down. She immediately yelled and started crying. We made it down the rest of the stairs and to dinner. When we got up from dinner the pain began to be severe and she couldn't walk. So, when we got home, I carried her up the stairs to our apartment and we put her in bed. The top of her foot was swollen, so I decided if she couldn't walk the next day I would take her to get an x-ray to be sure no small bones on the top of her foot were broken. She didn't sleep much that night, and woke up crying several times because of the pain.

Upon looking at her foot the next morning I decided to take her for the x-ray. This is where the new experience began. The hospital. Thankfully I have a good friend who has lived here for many many years and was willing to come with me to the hospital. While my language is improving....my medical vocabulary still needs a lot of work. Outside of "pain" "fever" "sick" "medicine" and "appendix" (thought appendix was an important word to know just in case) I am clueless. So, I carried Hannah down the stairs and my friend met us in a taxi. We went to the hospital which is a HUGE complex full of buildings and people.

My friend said we needed to see a doctor first and he would examine her then give us a piece of paper that said we could get an x-ray. We asked the taxi driver to take us to the building where the "doctor" was located. He took us to the emergency room on the wrong side of the complex. No wheelchair. So we had to carry Hannah all the way back to the other side of the hospital complex. Then the doctor was on the 3rd floor and all the elevators were broken. My friend had a few words with the nurses about needing to get the elevators fixed because "what were sick people supposed to do...climb the stairs?" So we carried her up the 3 flights of stairs to be told the specialist was not in, but we could see a "common" doctor. We said ok, and were immediately ushered into his office. (No one else wanted to see him....maybe because he was the "common" doctor, or becasue he looked 17 years old...take your pick) The beauty of seeing the common doctor was it only cost us 30 cents to see him...the specialist would have been a whopping 75 cents to visit. He looked at Hannah's foot and said we should go have an x-ray. Good. That's what we were thinking. The bad news.....the place where you get x-rays was back outside on the other side of the complex in another building. All the while my friend is asking every nurse and doctor, "do you know where we can find a wheelchair?" Not here. Nope. Sorry. There we were with a young girl who couldn't walk....no wheelchair. So, we put her back on our backs and walked on. (aren't I dramatic)

Upon arriving at the place where you register for x-rays, we paid $20 for the x-ray and were then told the x-ray place in that building was broken. However, we could take our receipt and paper to the geriatrics building and get x-rayed there. It was only a few builings down. After what felt like a wild goose chase, including wrong turns, a supply building, and back alleys, we arrived at the geriatric building. And thankfully, they had a working elevator. While we were getting x-rays, my friend decided to go to the emergency room building because surely they had wheelchairs, and we had to wait about an hour for the results anyway. Finally success. For a mere $60 deposit she could rent a wheelchair for the day. We put our little patient in the chair and away we went. We stopped off for some coke and noodles then went to see if the results were ready.

We went back to the building where we had registered for the x-ray and were told the finished x-rays were in a bin. As we looked through all the patient's x-rays looking for Hannah's name, I kept thinking, "aren't I breaking some sort of privacy law?" Ahhhh...wait, this is not America. Cool. Look at that guy's lungs! And is that a brain? Once we found Hannah's foot....away we went, to find someone to read it.

My friend didn't have much confidence that the 17 yr. old doctor could read her x-ray, so she decided we should go into the main hospital building and find the orthopedic surgery wing....those doctors should be able to read a foot x-ray. Good thinking. We marched ourselves right into the doctor's lounge and sure enough, 10 orthopedic surgeons were "lounging". (can you imagine doing this in America?) My friend told them our situation and they all crowded around the x-ray board to look at the foreign girl's foot. They looked at the x-ray, then looked at her foot, then looked at the x-ray, then felt her foot, then looked at the x-ray again. Phew! Finally one of them said, I think it is ok, she needs to ice it 24 hours and stay off of it, then she should feel better. But then.....the head surgeon came in. He took command of the room and immediately looked at Hannah's x-ray and felt her foot then said, "This x-ray is not clear enough, the small bone going to her pinky toe my be broken. You need to get another x-ray." WHAT!!?!?! The other 10 doctor's in the room didn't think so. Then he left. We decided to go the ice route and see how she felt the next 24 hours before we did anything else. After all we didn't want to go through all that again.

Hannah spent the rest of the day in bed with ice on her foot and weight off of it. The next day we wrapped her foot and she went to school....limping along. (It was only a half day, so I thought I could deliver her to her chair and then pick her up from her chair). Today is Saturday, and she is still limping, but the pain isn't so bad, and she is feeling a lot better. She won't be running any races soon, but we think she will recover just fine!!

Things I learned:
1. Always appreciate your spouse. It is so much easier when he is around!!
2. I will always seek to help those in a medical office or hospital who look lost and seem to have no clue what to do or where to go.
3. The wheel chair is worth more money than medical care. At least that was my impression of the day.
4. When was the last time I paid $20.30 to see the doctor in the emergency room and get x-rays plus got to look at other people's x-rays?
5. After carrying my 10-yr-old around for several hours, I need to go visit the blind masseuse.

Christmas and Karaoke

Who knew Christmas and Karaoke could go together? Well, here they do. Last night we had a Christmas party out in the countryside. What a night!! From our friend singing Christmas Carols LOUDLY into the microphone with me while I taught them...and Rob and Mike laughing so hard on the couch they were crying, to Mike and Jack siniging "Pretty Woman" at the end of the night. We had some fun games, and great testimonies of what father has done in the lives of several there. We also talked about the real story of Christmas and how it was relevant to us today.

I think I laughed as hard as I have laughed in a while....thanks to some sublime singing by our friend that lives there. My tutor taught me a famous local song a few weeks ago in class. I used it during the Karaoke portion of the party and impressed the locals...as well as my husband.

But the joy of the evening was listening to a young girl share how her life has been changed and how she boldly told this to everyone in the room. The beautiful story of a changed life....isn't this the real reason for Christmas.