Finally saw our apartment

Rob and I went at lunch to check out our future new apartment.  Its current residents will be moving out on Monday or Tuesday and then it just needs a few days of paint and stuff and it will be ours.  Its actually a lot nicer than either of us expected.  It has this nice big front patio and then you walk into a living room area that is open with the kitchen towards the back.  To the left is the master bedroom which is HUGE! It is at least as big as the living room area and absolutely big enough for a king size bed (which is exciting because we haven't slept on anything bigger than double beds in over a year and I hear I'm not the easiest person to share a bed with as it is), a crib and bedroom furniture. On the other side of the living room is the other bedroom which is also pretty good sized.  We will have no problem keeping a bed for guests in there and wheeling the crib into our room in the event that anyone comes to visit.  The 2nd bedroom will need a complete redecorating because after housing 2 little girls for the last 4 years, that room needs to be seriously un-pinked.  I'm pretty excited to buy curtains and maybe even a cute border or something when I am in Dallas next month to turn that room into a little boy's nursery.  They have a crib in the master bedroom and I'm not quite sure if they said it belonged to the mine or not but it is pretty easy to see what our place will look like in another few months...minus the pink and barbies.  Even the bathroom is really nice and not nearly as ugly as the bathrooms in the houses here that were all built in the 60s and are either pepto pink or lime yellow.

I also want to comment on the kids here at the mine.  You can tell that they are all so comfortable here and it seems like the other residents here are all just extended family.  I went on a little field trip the other day with the kindergarten - 3rd graders (5 kinders, 5 1st graders and 1 lone 3rd grader....3 boys and the rest girls) to the orchid place here and a coffee farm that is also here on the property.  Then last night, at dinner up at the club, one of the little girls recognized me and ran up and gave me a huge hug.  Sure the kids here can be rowdy while the adults roll their eyes and discuss how if they were our kids they would get a spanking and be told to sit still and stop bothering people, but I appreciate that the kids feel like this is their home, too and all seem comfortable and happy and known by the grown-ups.

Tomorrow will be my day off from working out but when I go this weekend, I will bring my camera so that I can take another belly picture in the big mirrors.  My belly is getting bigger, although I feel really good today after talking to the wife who is living in our future apartment and she couldnt believe how far along I am and how good I look.  I really needed to hear that!

Orchids

One cool thing about this part of the world are the orchids that grow absolutely everywhere.  I went for a nice walk here with one of my friends and we found this cool garden area.  It is done up really nice with paths and labels on a lot of the trees and a greenhouse full of carefully labeled orchids of every variety.  I took a ton of photos that I'm uploading to Picassa.

Mom, I thought about you the whole time.  I can't wait to show it to you when you visit.  It will be a nice place for you to get some time away from us when you need a breather.

New baby ticker

Check out my new ticker at the top of the blog.  It has some info on the status of the baby and which fruit or veggie it is that week.  This week he is mango!!!!  Mangoss are just coming into season here, not on the million mango trees around here but they have been selling yummy ripe mangoes all over.  I came home this afternoon and ate 3!  I've been told that the trees around here wont ripen until around July or August so this little guy really will be a mango baby.

A few of my favorite things

I'm listening to that old song "My Favorite Things" and it got me thinking about my favorite things both from home and here.

I'll start with things from home I love and miss:
- My family and friends
- Bagels! (I cant wait to come home in march and eat bagels...my doctor thinks I've put on weight now, wait until he sees what 3 bagels a day can do to me)
- Flavored coffee creamer (which I do have here but only because I brought a stash of it)
- A kitchen (which I will have soon enough)
- My boat (which we will be selling but I wish I had it here since we are even closer to a beautiful lake)
- My car-I miss hopping in my car to go wherever I want
- Super Target


Things that I love that I have here in my new home:
- My husband
- The adventure of it all
- The fresh fruit here cannot be beat!
- The scenery
- The weather
- My new friends
- Being a stay at home wife (especially with daily maid & laundry service and no kitchen..I will enjoy this while it lasts)
- My computer & internet, my wii, TV with cable (somethings are the same everywhere)

Whew, busy weekend

I'm really surprised at how busy I feel here.  Not stressed out busy but I'm having no problems staying occupied.  

The biggest thing that has been going on is that one of my very very good friends here is heading back to England.  She has been here in Honduras for 4 years and we worked and lived together at the brewery.  I doubt she will ever read this but I feel very lucky to have had her as a mentor on the ins and outs of living in this area of Honduras.  It seems to me like the gringas here at the mine are sort of prisoners here, afraid to get out to the nearby towns using the buses and mototaxis.  I haven't quite figured out why.  My British buddy taught me exactly how to handle myself.  I am well aware that I stand out here when I am off of the mine property.  There are very few gringas in the area, let alone, those of us that are young-ish and doing our shopping just like any other local and I get a lot of attention for it.  People take one look at me and know that I speak English and are quick to come up to me to practice what little English they know.  I also get my share of kissing noises from random men.  As far as I'm concerned, its not scary and is just a part of my new life.  I'm sure the kissing noises will stop very shortly as it becomes more obvious that I'm pregnant.  As far as practicing English, I'm happy to help and have a little conversation until I get to the end of their English knowledge...it generally doesnt take long.  "Hi, how are you."  "I'm great, how are you?  Where did you learn English?"...most of the time, this is where I get the blank look.  Or sometimes we can continue until we get to the place where I mention that my husband works at the mine.  "Oh, your husband.  Have a nice day".  The kissing noises are even easier to deal with..I either ignore it and keep walking or if I am feeling bold, I smile and wave.  These guys are not as outgoing as they want you to think..at that point, the laugh and blush and giggle with their friends and look away and get generally embarrassed and I continue on.  I've had a great teacher and she taught me how to have fun and where to find the best deals.  I've learned how to be comfortable as a spectacle so that I can be independent here.  I'm sad that she is leaving but happy to have a chance to show the ropes to her replacement and even to some of the other women here.

My other big event is that I went to the doctor on Saturday.  It was my first opportunity to use the transportation provided by the mine to get to San Pedro, the nearest big city where my doctor is.  My driver was great and a really nice guy.  It kind of sucks that it takes 1 1/2 hours to get to my appointment for 30 minutes with the doctor but that is life and once we are in our apartment, it will be a good opportunity for some big city grocery shopping.  I now know why I have been feeling so fat...it turns out that I have really let myself go.  I knew that I was and he confirmed it with his scale.  I've been making bad food decisions at the restaurants and am going to make a huge effort to cut out the fried food as much as I can.  So pretty much 90% of the menu is fried or something in a creamy sauce so I need to figure out what is good in the other 10%.  I also need to curb my snacking as much as possible or at least I will try to snack as much as possible on fruit.  Luckily, I live in a place with wonderful fruit.  As an aside, I am so excited about the fruits that are in season here right now.  Yesterday I bought, mangos, mora (like a rasberry), strawberries and some yummy green apples (imported from the states).  I got a ton of it all for just a few dollars and everything but the apples are local and fresh.  Yum.

Back to the doctor....after the bad news of finding out that I have put on too much weight, he took me for my ultrasound.  I'm not sure if every woman gets an ultrasound every visit but I do.  I think that my doctor does them himself because the ultrasound tech doesnt speak English and it is a good chance for him to play with the equipment.  What ever it is, I am fascinated with the technology.  We saw again that the baby is a boy.  Everything looks like it is forming well and I even saw his brain...thankfully he has one, and his little stomach, and his little heart beating away.  I saw little hands and feet and he is so active!  Then my doctor pulled out the 4D ultrasound machine.  To be honest, that was pretty freaky and the little guy is still so little and without any fat that he looks like of like a mutant.  He printed out a picture so here he is, guys!  I had to take a picture of the picture with my camera so its not the best but it is definitely human!

17 weeks

Here I am 17 weeks.  Its a lot harder to blog when I am just living "normal" life and not traveling to a different place every day.  At least I can count weeks to make sure that I post at least once a week.

After last week's avocado size comparison I was going to start a new tradition of eating that food on that week to celebrate but this week my baby is a turnip.  Not only have I never eaten a turnip but I dont really know what they look like, what they are called in spanish or if they even have them here.  I read somewhere else that 17 weeks is a sweet potato and I know that I can't find those here.

We are also done with our puppy sitting and back in our hotel room so its either foods from the restaurant or fresh fruits that I buy in town since we are without a kitchen again.  I suspect that it will be a month or so before we are able to move into our apartment.  There is a whole chain of moving that needs to happen before we can move and the first people havent moved out of their house yet to free it up for the people who are living in our apartment.  It was nice to live in the big house while we were puppy sitting and I suspect that the puppies were good practice for parenthood but I am a little relieved to not have to deal with them.  This hotel room is the closest thing that we have to a home right now and I'm happy to be back with all of my clothes so that I can mix up my wardrobe again.  On that note, I tried to put on a pair of capris that were big on me all last year and although I was able to get them on, they were too tight to actually go out in public in.  I'm still really depressed about my size.  I know I'm not that huge and honestly, people around here keep saying how good I look for 17 weeks but I know that my butt has gotten bigger.  I'm really ready for my tummy to get big enough to really look pregnant and maybe distract myself from my size.  In the mean time, I'm back at the bottom of the hill so its a lot stairs every day for me.

What else?  My new concern is about what we will do for meat once we get moved into the apartment.  The only meat that we can buy here or in the nearby town that is any good is the ground beef or whole chicken.  That means that we will have to really stock up when we go to the city (San Pedro) regularly.  It will give cooking a whole new challenge since Rob doesnt really like dark meat chicken but he believes that without meat, its not a meal.

I have doctor's appointment on Saturday morning and Rob will have to work so he wont be able to attend.  The mine provides transportation and this will be my first opportunity to use it.  It will be much easier than taking the bus and taxis and a good chance for me to see how it all works.  I hope that the doctor will do another ultrasound...he has done 1 for every visit.  Besides my size, I dont really feel anything and I dont really know if I've felt the baby move at this point so its always nice to get a visual to assure me that everything is ok.

More later..

16 weeks

This week I'm 16 weeks pregnant.  My baby is the size of an avocado....yum.  I'm not sure if they mean one of those small mexican avocados or what.  I'm pretty sure its not one of those Nicaraguan avocados that are the size of  a newborn baby.  Either way, I think I will have one with my lunch...not a baby...an avocado.

Here ya go.  Pictures of my growing stomach.

First the before picture.  This is me a year ago taken at Semuc Champay, one of the most beautiful, peaceful places in the world.  This is how I want to remember my body.  This is probably me at my thinnest and healthiest.  Notice my non-existent stomach.

Here I am this morning on an empty stomach.  In the evening, after a whole day of eating, it is even bigger.

Last weekend, I went to visit my friends at the hotel where we stayed before coming here to the mine.  Various girls from the kitchen commented on my new figure.  The consensus was that they dont see a change in my stomach (which is still flat by Honduran standards) but that my but has gotten very fat...yes gorda is the word that they used.  I was actually pretty depressed after the visit but they all thought it was hilarious.  

I'm still wearing my normal clothes...well not the clothes that I wore prepregnancy but the clothes that I brought back from my very fattening visit to Dallas.  I think they are clothes from a few years ago, before I lost all that weight in 2009.  I put on a pair of shorts from my trip last year and although I can still wear them, I used to be able to pull them down without unbuttoning them and now I cannot.  My bras are a distant memory also, I live in sportsbras now because they are so stretchy and comfy and by live I mean that I even sleep in them.