Texarkana... Where Life is so Large, it takes Two States

This past weekend we took a road trip down to Texarkana.... a place for those undecided which is their favorite state... Arkansas or Texas. My sis chose to live in Arkansas, but work in Texas... the best of both worlds! We decided it was time to visit her. My mom flew down to SA and she and I and the three kids made the 8 hour road trip. I must say, this was not bad at all. Maybe I'm a pessimist, but I really had prepared myself for half of the time filled with baby cries. I cringed when we were just outside the SA city limits and Lucy asked, "Are we close to Lacey's house?" But, surprisingly, all went well for both the trip there and back. All three kids were little angels.One of the keys to the success of the trip is a Nursery Rhyme book my mom brought. It is a thick book, but I'm positive it was read all the way through, with some stories (such as Rapunzel) being read multiple times. Way to go, grandma Cindy! The pic above is Lacey reading with her "elementary school teacher" voice, which I love and so does her niece. Even though the stories have been read over and over, Lucy still gasps and covers her mouth at the "scary" parts and assures everyone that someone will save the day.

Trips with Lacey and my mom can be summarized by two words: SHOP and EAT. This trip was heavy on the SHOP. I had a great time because, for once, I could buy whatever I wanted and not have to worry about shoving it in my suitcase. My mom was not as lucky and it was quite comical to see her red suitcase BURSTING at the seams and her kneeling on it to get it shut! Fun times! I wish I had a picture of it. In fact, I wish I had a bunch of pictures. We had so much fun that I hardly took any photos. Below is a pic Lucy took though. It is probably one of the worst of all three of us, but I had to post it because of the story behind it. Lucy loves to take pictures and ordered Lacey to sit in a certain spot so she could take the photo and really got after her when she moved. We were laughing so hard, we were crying. Can you see the tear in Lacey's eye? Embarrassing that my child is so bossy, but still very funny. Its sad because I could totally hear my tone of voice as she said it. Kids certainly pick up everything!

Indeed, it was a very nice trip! Thanks ladies!

Honduras

Hey All, George posting this one - I though I should share some pictures of my trip to Honduras. Our residency program has an ongoing research project doing nutritional assessments of families that live in remote villages in the mountains. I was there for a total 10 days and got to do some pretty good hiking and driving the HMMWVs out on some semi treacherous terrain. It reminded me a lot of the Philippines and made me a little homesick for my mission in that when I was in the Philippines I could speak the language which was much more fun than not being able to. Here's some pictures with explanations:

This is getting the HMMWVs ready the morning before we convoyed out from Soto Cano Airbase to near Marcala, Honduras where we did most our work.

A little hotel where we stayed for base camp. They kept us well fed and even had ESPN deportes so we got to watch the Super Bowl which turned out to be a great game.

HMMWV ambulances - we borrowed all the vehicles from the medical unit - we just used these for cargo.

A typical home visit with our team - Dr. Gidvani is sitting with the family reviewing a survey of their home amenities and diet. Then we would measure all the children age 6 months to 5 years to get a height and weight to assess for malnutrition and draw blood on all kids and women of child bearing age to assess for anemia. Standing is Sgt Burgos our translator and Amanda Lynn a nutrition student from South Dakota State who came with a former Air Force nutritionist who now teaches at SDSU and continues to be a part of the research project. Our first day out two of the HMMWVs got stuck on basically the same driving error (cutting the corner to tight not realizing the rear wheels may not track the front). We pulled them out with only a little difficulty. These two gals came down the hill past where we were eating lunch with some beautiflul lillies that I assume were headed to market eventually. The older lady had a baby papoosed in the blanket tied around her chest.Another shot of our team. Dr. Cruz is the lady on the right - she joined us for the last day - she's a local Honduran doc.Coffee is the predominant industry - these are coffee beans picked and drying in the sun. I assume the chicken is pretty clean.Local girls who got some new shoes courtesy of the crew from South Dakota. Kimi picked up some bubbles which is what they're holding in their hands.Action shot of a blood draw. After 5 days out in the mountains we came back and toured the pediatric wards at a regional hospital and the national teaching hospital in Tegucigalpa I was amazed at the severity of illness supported with bare bones ICU equipment and anticipate that if I had done residency in Honduras I would of necessity have become a much better doctor than I am at this point.

By the end I was ready to come home and thrilled to see Lucy and Kimi when they picked me up at the airport. Elise and Austin looked older just having not seen them for 10 days.

Heart Hair and Striped Jello

Here is my attempt at making "heart hair" to get in the mood for Valentines day. I tried to copy a hairdo from this "She Does Hair" blog. It didn't turn out exactly like the picture, but at least I had the subject's approval.

Since Valentines is really busy at the restaurants, Geo and I usually celebrate before. On the actual day, we have a home cooked meal. Every year, I try to make something sort of exotic that I've never made before. I must say, we've tried some yummy stuff (and a few things I wouldn't make again). But this year, it just wasn't happening. So, I opted for heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's. We always have red jigglers and this year I tried a new ribbon jello recipe from my friend Wendy. It was striped red, pink and white. So that was the new item on the menu. Maybe not exotic, but definitely yummy!

jello is in the glass cup

shirts for the babies from our Valentine pixies - Thanks Tew's!

Happy Valentines Day!

In the news...

For those who would like to know a bit about what Geo was up to in Honduras, here is a link to a military medical article on the subject. However George thought the article was a bit "flowery." He got bored in the middle and stopped reading. So ... you've been warned.

Medical team hikes into Honduran mountains to care for children

P.S. I didn't get bored. :)

New Tricks by the Kids

Here are some new tricks learned by the kids while Geo was in Honduras. (Side note: He got back Saturday night. One day, he'll post about it. He has a pretty rough schedule for the next three months... so...maybe in May?)

Austin:

Learned how to kick in the tubber. And he smiles more. What a cutie!

Elise:

Learned how to crawl up the stairs. What a big girl! She hasn't mastered climbing down though and that is sort of important. She can push herself off of the couch or wall or whatever and stand for a few seconds. She just grins with pride.

Lucy:

Learned how to do her hair with clips. More is always better, right? Lately, one of her favorite things to do is play beautician. She also counted to 100 perfectly for the first time. Geo has been the teacher of this trick, so its too bad he missed it. This feat kind of happened by accident. We STARTED dinner with Lucy asking the question, "Mom, how many bites do I have to eat?" I was annoyed. I made what I thought was a yummy dinner (chicken spinach lasagna, I believe) and the kid hadn't even smelled it before she asked the question. So I said, "31." She said something like "Will you help me count?" "No. You count." And she counted to 100. She didn't eat 100 bites though, just 31. That said, I don't think the counting trick is completely mastered. She still skips some random numbers sometimes, but 13 and 40 are the two numbers who routinely give her trouble. Really, who needs those numbers anyway? I know lots of people who don't like it when their kids turn 13 or when they hit the big 4-0. Maybe she's on to something....

Thank you Grandma Liz for all your help! We miss you!

Kids in White

A few pics of the kids in their blessing clothes...

Readers

Lucy has always been a big fan of books. There are always a few in her bed at night and I often find her "reading" to her dolls. Apparently, she's moved on to Jane Austen ... good choice!

But Elise REALLY has a thirst for knowledge! She reads stacks at a time...

Happy I'm American

George left for a little village in Honduras on Thursday. He will be there for 10 days as part of a nutritional study (part of the pediatric residency). This prompted many dinner time questions from Lucy...

Why don't the kids have big muscles?
Why do the kids just eat rice?
Why don't they have refrigerators?
Why don't their mommies feed them vegetables?
Why don't they have any money?
Why didn't their leaders make good choices?
etc, etc, etc


Afterwards, George and I discussed how all those questions really made us think and reminded us to be grateful for the country in which we live. It really is a remarkable thing that we have so many options at the grocery store and don't have those kinds of worries. Sure, the state of the economy is a concern, but really we are quite blessed. And although we don't agree with all the policies that the government chooses, it is a wonderful thing to live in this country. I guess I am feeling a little more patriotic lately. We've been watching HBO's "John Adams" movies these past few weeks. (Review: not as good as the book {but really, what is???}, but good. I admit some scenes are a bit too much for me though) It was a good reminder of the sacrifices he and his wife and others gave for us to have this free land. Its also a good reminder of the inspiration of the whole thing. One of the commentators remarked how "lucky" it was that so many good men with different qualities {ie: John Adams as the voice of passion and Thomas Jefferson as the voice of reason} were on the earth at the same time, otherwise the revolution and constitution wouldn't have happened. Hmmm..."lucky" isn't the word.

Side note: I miss Geo today. It is Groundhog day and we always watch his favorite movie to celebrate it.