Long Overdue Update

Leila turned 9 months a month ago. I know. Why don’t I just come out and say she is 10 months old? Well, that would not help me introduce her photos taken at her 9 month photo shoot!:) Anyway, here is a picture that we really like.

Life is Quiet (sometimes)

For example

Daddy's little girl

Sunday afternoon football, JP’s favorite pastime, takes on a whole new favorite-ness.

Pregnancy Pictures

Indian clothing really masks the fact that I am 6 months pregnant. If anything, I just look chubby and large. American maternity clothes seem more flattering to me. They are more obvious, but they are also designed to make a swollen belly look nice. Even so, I’ve mostly been sticking with Indian clothing during the trip because it is cooler, and I get less stares. They’re just not used to seeing people show off their pregnancy here, I guess.

For those of you who are missing out on seeing my pregnant belly, I’ve decided to share a few pictures. They are not necessarily the most flattering pictures that I have ever seen of myself, as India tends to make me look frizzy and greasy, but I’ll show them to you anyway. I hope you like them!

Folding bulletins for James’ Wedding

Posing in Hampi

With JP at the “Lotus Mahal” in Hampi

JP is showing off his photographic style here.  (I’m showing off my belly.)  Still in Hampi.

Goofing off with Ava

Not that you can tell, but we’re standing in front of our first glimpse of the Taj Mahal.

*****

JP is currently out of town with his dad and three men who are here with World Mission. They are doing a scripture distribution, for which they left last night, and will return tomorrow morning. It is a short trip– especially because their train left four hours late last night. I feel especially bad for the three guys (who just arrived in India yesterday morning,) and must been suffering some pretty torturous jet lag by midnight last night! We’re hoping they’ve made it in time for the program and distribution so that they will then be able to make it back for their next overnight train ride at 6 this evening.

Hampi

I’ve never cared much for museums. I try to enjoy looking at all of the interesting items in glass cases, and while I do manage to find many of them to be quite beautiful and sometimes even fascinating, they don’t captivate me. What I really, really like is walking around in the actual places where people have lived life. I like to see the remains of the places where they have lived and worked, shopped and worshiped, danced and sang. I like to be able to see and touch and stumble upon what must have been the every day life of some other person in some other time. The stone remains that were scattered around Hampi, crumbled or fully standing, sparked my imagination in just these ways. They allowed me to feel some small kinship to people and experiences that have come and gone.

We managed to find our way to Hampi during the off-season, so it often felt like we had the place to ourselves. Many foreigners don’t take the time to go off the beaten track to visit Hampi, and Indian tourists don’t see this as the most ideal time to travel around, largely concerned about it being the rainy season. We were delighted with the weather, however, experiencing only two brief rain showers and mostly sun with the usual humidity. We managed three “half-days” of touring around, usually making it back to our hotel around 3pm for lots of reading, relaxing, and cricket on TV (much to JP’s joy, the Asia Cup is taking place now!!).

The sights were incredible. Everywhere there were the typical Karnataka hills, comprised of multi-sized and shaped boulders, looking as though they could topple at any moment. The skies were deep blue, and the land was filled with sugar cane, banana plantations, coconut groves, and rice paddies. At every turn there seemed to be more cattle, and more goats. We drove through numerous villages seemingly untouched by the waves of technology that beat on the larger cities. Life seemed simple, but we knew it must be hard.

The temples were built from stone- often granite, and generally sported all sorts of intricate carvings and curiosities, including a stone chariot whose wheels were actually able to turn at one time! Some buildings showed signs of the various conquests and invasions that had taken place, visible in the different kinds of architecture that showed up in one building. We enjoyed poking around and studying each new site, and we felt like we could take our time.

Perhaps these pictures will begin to demonstrate the beauty of Hampi as well as the mystery of life gone by that lingers all around it. As always, there is much more that could be shared about our travels, but for me, this was the beginning point and overarching theme during our days away.

Spring Colors and Tastes

Check out some of the lovely spring flowers and tulip time flavors that we’ve been enjoying over the last couple of weeks! God has made Holland beautiful. Now we’re just waiting for some consistently warm weather.

We’re loving our new camera!!!

Update

Much seems to have been left untold lately, so I’ll try to cover a few of the highlights.

First, for Valentines Day, JP made me breakfast in bed!  He usually likes to brag a little, so I’m surprised you haven’t already heard about it!    It was a delightful wonder of eggs, bacon, buttered toast, coffee, and orange juice.  Oh, and it was my favorite day in the newspaper, when they have a cooking section, so he brought that too.  It couldn’t have been better.  [JP fears that he burned the bacon, but I thought it tasted great, especially for the first time ever having made bacon.  I think the problem was that he cooked it on high!!]  JP also felt this endeavor was a raging success, and is already planning future breakfast in bed menus.  Great news for me, I think.

Secondly, JP left for the Philippines on Saturday for a two week trip, with plans to swing by India on the way back home.  (If we’re lucky he may update us from the road.)  I realized after JP left that I had no idea what kind of time difference I was working with, and that I, as usual, had very few details about this trip.  The good news is that JP called this afternoon  (4:30pm our time, 5:30am Philippines time tomorrow) to let me know that he had safely arrived in Manila and was waiting for his final leg of the flight to another part of the Philippines.  His suitcase did not arrive, so for those of you out there that pray for luggage situations, maybe you can keep this one in mind.  JP seemed quite carefree in his attitude about the lost luggage, but keep in mind he had only slept six hours in the last two days.  We’ll hope that his luggage will find him sometime soon, at least for the sake of some clean clothes!

I guess that is the news from Holland right now.  Hope you’re all doing well!

Good night.

Amazing

I am always impressed with linguists…  especially kids.   I keep going back and watching this video over and over again.   Maybe its the cute kid, maybe its the situation he finds himself in, maybe its just how amazing he is…

Airblade

I was very skeptical when I saw this commercial on TV sometime back but on my last trip, at the airport in Minneapolis, I found one of these things in the restroom. They are pretty amazing… I couldn’t believe how well it actually works. Katy is still not convinced.

Forced Hibernation

Last night when I went to bed it was 35 degrees and a bit rainy. When I woke up this morning, the first thing that I heard on the radio was that many schools were closed, including a 2 hour delay for Hope College. Even the DJ sounded surprised when he said it! The temperature had dropped overnight to -15 degrees, and there were white-out conditions for driving, that one man described like “driving through a glass of milk.” He also said he had to “feel” his way to exit off the highway by driving on the rumble strips. BAD weather– lots of gusting snow and drifts everywhere, not to mention slippery! At 6:20 one of my co-workers also called to be sure I heard that Hope was closed until noon, and that even Chapel had been canceled. I promptly went back to sleep for another 1 1/2 hours. Ah, some good ol’ forced hibernation. I’ve only seen the tow truck (when opening the blinds I saw that a neighbor seems to have gotten stuck, or maybe their car just wouldn’t go) and the plow, and some darling birds still scrounging for seeds at the feeder. Poor things!

JP is out of town… Sacramento, California to be exact. I’ve no idea whether all this craziness will delay his flights back. He has to fly through Minneapolis. He’s supposed to come in around 9:30pm, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. I hear there are more storms coming on Thursday night and Monday-Tuesday. So, I’m really hoping JP will be able to get in tonight if not tomorrow during the day. We’ll keep you posted.

The Soup

So, we decided on the Peanut Curry-Squash soup last night. We had it for the first time several weeks ago, and even though I seriously burned my mouth on the piping hot squash the first time, we knew the recipe was a keeper. Last night it was just as good, and probably better for me because I was careful to let it cool a bit before I ate it. I also made bread in my bread maker on the ultra-fast mode for the first time. It calls for 110 degree water, and I had to guess on the amount of yeast because it didn’t call for the variety I had in my house. But it turned out beautifully in just the amount of time it took to make the soup start to finish. 58 minutes. A fabulous start to the weekend if you ask me.This morning involved a recipe I found on 101 Cookbooks, a favorite cooking blog of mine, called Raspberry Mega Scones. They were not nearly as pretty as the pictures shown on 101 Cookbooks, but they sure tasted fantastic. We’ll look forward to sharing their sweet and sturdy goodness at breakfast and brunch gatherings in the future.It sure does my soul good to hibernate in my kitchen! (I think JP likes it too!!)