Is it really almost December already??

Wow! Glenn and I can hardly believe that it's almost December already! It definitely doesn't feel like December here. It's about 85 degrees out every day, and when we look out our window we don't see pine trees and snow, we see palm trees and swimming pools! We've been here for almost 17 weeks already, and we have only 10 weeks left (not that I'm counting or anything!) I am so excited to be nearing the end of our trip, but I think Glenn is a little overwhelmed by all of the work he still wants to get done here. Although I'm excited to get back to Minnesota, we watched the Gopher football game this afternoon (Thanks Joe for taping it for us!) and they said that the temperature was a whopping 20 degrees out! I have to admit that Glenn and I laughed when we heard that! Glenn was so excited that they finally won a trophy game and has been is already predicting an appearance at the Rose Bowl next year!

We definitely missed being home for Thanksgiving. Because they don't celebrate that in Malaysia, Glenn had to work, so it was just another normal day here for us. My Thanksgiving feast was a nice bowl of macaroni and cheese, while Glenn took Evie out with some coworkers to a noodle restaurant. Evelyn and I got to talk to both sides of the family that morning on Skype, and they were nice enough not to show us all the yummy foods that they got to eat.

We are so excited that Glenn's mom, Lucy and brother Andrew are coming in just a week and a half! Evelyn is very excited to see them. I think she wants to show Andrew all of her cool toys she has here. Once they get here, I know we're going to have a very busy December. We have trips planned to Langkawi (a small island in Malaysia) and Bangkok over the weekends, as well as a long list of things to see here in Penang. Once they leave, we have just a few days to wait until Glenn's sister Emma comes to visit! She's getting here on Christmas day, which will be a wonderful Christmas present for all of us. We've got a very fun trip to Phuket (in Thailand) planned over New Years, and Glenn and I are excited to take Emma up on her offer to babysit. Emma will be with us until January 9th, and then we only have a few days to wait until my dad, Bruce comes to visit. We were happily surprised to hear from him last week when he said he was thinking about coming over here. He got the "okay" from my mom to visit, because I think they realized that this might be his best opportunity to see this part of the world. My mom is a teacher, so unfortunately it is too hard to take time off of work to visit. My dad will be here for 2 weeks. We have been talking about taking a trip to Cambodia, although it might just be Glenn and Bruce that take that trip. Evelyn and I might have to sit that one out. Once my dad leaves, we only have about a week and a half to pack and prepare to leave, and then we'll be heading back to Minnesota. We will be very busy in December and January, but we're happy about it because we know it will help the time pass quickly.

Last weekend Glenn got the chance to run in a half marathon here in Penang. Marathons here are very interesting! Because it's so hot here, they had to run the race at night. Glenn started at 3:00 am (needless to say, Evelyn and I didn't watch him race). He had a few coworkers run the race with him, and he even ran into our neighbor, Zach, who was running the full marathon. They got to run the race over the bridge that connects Penang (an island) to the rest of Malaysia. Because it's run on a bridge, they had to overlap the half and full marathons a bit. Glenn got a very good time of just under 2 1/2 hours and he has a couple of t-shirts and a medal to show for it. He made the mistake of showing the medal to Evelyn, who now thinks that the medal is hers and likes to wear it around the apartment.

In an attempt to make it feel like it's actually Christmas time around here, Glenn and I went out yesterday and bought a little fake Christmas tree and some lights and decorations for the tree. We had a fun time listening to some Christmas music yesterday and decorating the tree. Evie also helped me make a few decorations for the apartment. Although it's not exactly like what we're used to in Minnesota, it's nice to feel a bit of Christmas. Sometime when I look at the lit tree, it almost feels like we're back in Minnesota.

In case you're wondering, the baby is great! I'm 15 weeks and my belly is finally starting to grow. I'm still feeling sick, but I'm getting more optimistic that the morning sickness will start to lessen soon and I will be able to really enjoy the last 2 months of this trip. I haven't felt any baby kicks yet, but I'm hoping that they will come soon!

We hope you all had a fun and safe Thanksgiving holiday! The next blog we create will have some fun new stories about our adventures with Lucy and Andrew! Have a great December!

Good News!

Hello again!

Well, we've been keeping pretty busy lately, but not exactly in the way we wanted to. Evelyn has been sick lately. She woke up Monday morning with a fever, and she was dealing with it all week. She's been throwing up and not wanting to eat, so it hasn't been very fun around here. Glenn was good enough to take off work on Wednesday morning so that we could take Evelyn to the doctor. The doctor gave us some medicine, and we'll be back next week for a check up. We've been cuddling, sleeping, and singing a lot to her and just trying to keep her comfortable. She enjoys watching Kung Fu Panda, so we've been watching it just about every day. It's very cute to hear her ask to watch it- "Panda?". Evelyn is finally getting back to normal now, it only took a whole week to get her there!

Besides dealing with a sick child, things have been going pretty well. Glenn took Evelyn last weekend (when she was still feeling well) on a hiking trip with the neighbors to Monkey Beach. Evelyn enjoyed watching the monkeys climbing trees above her and had fun trying to walk along the path with her buddy, Nash (although it sounds like Glenn was carrying her most of the way). I enjoyed the afternoon to myself, taking a well deserved nap while they were away.

Thanksgiving is just 2 weeks away now, and I would be lying if I said that I'm not a little homesick thinking about our families and all the yummy food that they get to eat. My wonderful father just sent out an email to my brothers and sisters (and of course had to include me and Glenn) talking about Thanksgiving and all of the wonderful food that they'll be eating. I made sure to tell them all that they had better save me some lefse and apple pie, which as my family knows, are my weaknesses. My mom assured me that she will save some for me when we get home in February. I think Glenn already knows that I will not be sharing much with him!

Okay, you're probably wondering why I titled this post "Good News". So far I've talked about Evelyn being sick and missing Thanksgiving, neither of which is good news. So here it is: I am very happy to announce that I'm pregnant! I am about 13 weeks pregnant right now. We went to the doctor today and got to hear the heartbeat and see an ultrasound of the little tike (the baby is about 6 cm). Glenn and I are very excited to welcome the newest member of our family next May. We've told Evelyn, and although I'm pretty sure she doesn't understand what's going on, she enjoys going around the apartment, lifting her shirt up and saying "baby" as she points to her belly. She also likes to ask to see my belly. I think she thinks that the baby is hiding in my belly button, because when she says "baby" she always pokes her fingers right into my belly button. Although I've been feeling pretty nauseous most of the time, I've been trying to rest as much as I can. Glenn is a wonderful help for me on weekends and nights when he gets home. The neighbors have also been wonderful. They always offer to pick up anything we need from the grocery store and have been hanging out with Evelyn and me more at the apartments so that we don't have to go out so much. I'm really hoping that the morning sickness (or all day sickness in my case) gets better before Lucy, Andrew and Emma get out here. I don't have much of a belly yet, but I'll be asking Lucy to bring some maternity clothes out for me, because I'm pretty sure I won't fit in to much of my clothes soon.

We hope all is well with everyone in Minnesota! Enjoy Thanksgiving and make sure to eat plenty of turkey and pie for us. Love you all!

Happy Halloween!

Hello again! Well, we've finally reached our halfway point! We've been here for 3 months now, which means only 3 more months to go until we'll be flying back home. We recently figured out that there is good possibility that the temperature when we touch down in Minnesota will be 100 degrees cooler than when we got on the plane. Despite that, I am looking forward to being home and yes, even excited for the cold weather.

The other day Evelyn and I were playing in our neighbor's apartment when Nash (the one year old) and Evelyn started 'fighting' over a toy.  When the dust settled, Nash had to give Evelyn a hug.  After giving her a hug, Nash snuck a kiss on her cheek.  It was very cute, but Glenn refuses to believe it happened.  Nonetheless, Glenn made sure he chaperoned Evelyn and Nash when they went trick-or-treating to make sure there were no more shenanigans.

Speaking of trick-or-treating, apparently Malaysians celebrate Halloween.  To be more accurate, the malls and hotels were decked out with spiderwebs and monsters and they even had a costume contest, but going door-to-door demanding candy is unfortunately unheard of.  Nash's 4 year old brother was so upset when he learned that he wasn't going to get candy that he threatened to go home.  Laura (their mom) talked to a few other families we met here and got them to agree to hand out candy.  Evelyn had two costumes:  she dressed up like a monkey when we were in our air-conditioned apartment and changed into her strawberry costume when it was time to go outside.  The kids had a blast putting on their costumes and going from room to room (they didn't even realize we had to double up on a few apartments).

We were very excited to hear last weekend that Glenn's mom booked tickets for herself and Glenn's little brother, Andrew to come out and visit us. They're coming at the beginning of December, and we're so happy to have them come and see us. We've also heard that Glenn's sister, Emma is planning on coming out here before Christmas and staying until the first week in January. We'll be planning some fun trips to Thailand and Lankawi (an island ~30 minutes away from Penang), and I've been coming up with a list of things we have to show them in Penang. Knowing that they'll be here in December helps us have something soon to look forward to, and will help time go quickly. Evelyn is very excited when we tell her about her grandma, aunt and uncle coming to visit.

Okay, it's getting late and I am tired.  We love and miss you all!