Tagged

Staci tagged me, so I have to confess to 6 quirks. Here goes:

1. I like to rub my feet together when I'm in bed.
2. I hate the sound of fans--bathroom, kitchen, you name it. They drive me CRAZY. I'm not one for white noise either.
3. I have all the shirts in my closet hanging in color order. I like M's clothes in similar order--dress shirts together, casual shirts together, suits in one spot, pants in another. NO mixing. Unfortunately, M doesn't share the same desire. Mishmash doesn't bother him.
4. I like to eat white bread/roll dough, cookie dough, cake batter and dry cake mix--and I haven't gotten salmonella from raw eggs yet.
5. Like Staci, I l liked being pregnant. I felt really good all 9 months, not a day of morning sickness, I had easy labors--all natural without epidurals/spinals, except Greg who was breech which required Csection--the longest, being 4 hours. Corny as it sounds, I felt so alive when I was pg; very sexy and pretty.
6. I like colons--they are interesting. Actually I like all aspects of GI nursing and poop, barf, and blood don't bother me. Phlegm--that's another story.

I don't know too many "older" bloggers, so I tag Buddy, Sally, and Christian.

Off to Guatemala--maybe...

This is what overnight accommodations at LAX with 3 dogs, 3 kennels, 4 large suitcases and carryons, after a cancelled flight, looks like. We looked like a homeless couple pushing around all our belongings. But this is only part of the story.


I had a 4 pm flight from Washington DC to LA, with the doggies, where we were going to meet Marlan for an 11 pm flight to Guatemala City. When I got to the airport (with 3 dogs on leashes in tow), I found out my flight was cancelled. Yikes. I was rescheduled. I was informed that my dog kennels didn't meet FDA standards because there were no air holes in the back (?) But, United just happened to have the right kind of kennels that they would sell me--cash only. And each doggie needed his own space so Shadow and Missy couldn't travel together. (Another FDA rule.) All in all, things went pretty smoothly in spite of the problems. I finally arrived in LA about 10 pm and met Marlan (who had been in LA working with Homeland Security ), made our way to the gate...another cancelled flight!

After getting rerouted, we spent about a hour trying to track down our pups. At midnight, no one in the cargo dept was answering the phone and we had NO idea where our friends were. Luckily we were in terminal 7 (United) at LAX, so the area to be covered was much less than if we had been in terminal 1 or, heaven forbid, the international terminal. We finally found them, resting quietly in their crates--until they saw us. Then we hunkered down for the night on some extremelly uncomfortable plastic/metal chairs, with arms that didn't move for lying down. We popped a Foyle's War DVD in my computer and watched a movie, with our dogs, our luggage and kennels surrounding us. It was really fun to try to find a place for the doggies to piddle near our makeshift hotel. What a night! I was glad when 5 am rolled around and we could finally check in. And I must say Missy, Copper and Shadow were good little pups.

At least we got $150 each in travel coupons with United for our trouble. Oh, and United doesn't fly to Guatemala anymore.

Sugar anyone?

Can you guess which cannister holds the sugar? Hint: see the remnants of US sugar in the bottom. That's powdered sugar on the left and Bisquick on the right. You are thinking, "why is that sugar brown?" I don't really know. The sugar here in Guate is much coarser than C&H and the govt fortifies it with Vit A. It seems to work just the same, but is looks a bit dirty...

For the most part, we can get the food items we're used to, with a few exceptions I've found so far:

• diced green chilis in the can--I diced some jalapenos and it worked just fine.
• buttermilk--how do I make German choc cake and Staci's pancakes without this? I have asked about it in the market, but it's hard to describe...and after I try in my limited Spanish to describe it, they still don't have it. I'm down to 1 packet of dried buttermilk and I KNOW they don't sell that.
• rice chex--haven't found a suitable substitute to make puppy chow. Suggestions?

Here comes the sun!

We have officially been in the rainy season for the last 2+ months--and have we seen rain! Normally (I'm told) the sun will shine in the morning and around 2 pm, the clouds will roll in, it will dump rain, and will clear up. Not this year. It has been raining and raining-at all times of the day and usually when all three of our umbrellas are in the car. So we have been pleasantly surprised this week to wake up and see this from our window.


The upside of all the rain we've been having is that everything is green and lush. The downside is that the doggies don't always get their walk, having been caught a few too many times when the sky opens up and we're far from home.

Volcan Aqua in the background shrouded with clouds.

Flag day

After all the research, discussion, waiting and nerves, Flag day arrived in mid August. The next 2 years of our lives rested on the announcement made this afternoon and I was not just a little nervous. Marlan is the nomad in our family; I am the tree that wants to send down a giant tap root and stay put. We have lived in many places and I have enjoyed them all. It just takes a little nudging to get me over the change hump--and this was going to be a really BIG change!





Each post was represented by it's country flag, all arranged together in front of the group. As each flag was raised and the country was shouted out by the group, the officer assigned to that post was announced. There were cheers, clapping hands, a few gasps, but no discernable sobs or wailing. I suspect there weren't too many surprises. I do know that one of the women in Marlan's class really wanted to go to Guate and was assigned to Africa. Yikes.
Glad it wasn't us!



Marlan with his Guatemalan flag and a BIG smile!

Bid list

About 2 weeks after Marlan started his training, he received the bid list for his class, listing all the available places to which we could be posted. I spent a fair amount of time researching where in the world some of the places are, and another fair amount of time trying to figure out why in the world someone would want to go there. Each officer has to bid on every post--high, medium, or low interest. Lots of things have to be taken into consideration, including family needs, pets (a big one for us), and of course, and probably most important, places you do/do not want to go. This is the front page of our bid list...

The bid list has lots of info, complete with all those govt acronyms I so love: Bur (area of the world), post, TED (when job becomes vacant and new officer arrives at post), language with required speaking and reading levels, diff (hardship %), danger %, and post size. As you can see, Guate is circled--our dream post.

Can it be 6 months?

We've been on our Guatemalan adventure for 6 months on the 23rd! It's about time I started to chronicle the journey that led us to this beautiful country. Turn the clock back one year...

July 8, 2007, Marlan began training at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, VA. He is in the 135th A-100 class--don't know what the A-100 stands for, but I've learned that the US Govt LOVES acronyms--this must be one, and whatever it is, it's the 135th. I stayed behind in Santa Clara, UT because the airlines have a "heat embargo" and pets can't travel as baggage/cargo from May 15-Sept 15.