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| Jonathan visited CM for the last time last week. The highlight of his trip was the two engagement parties our friends hosted for us. We had tons of fun. The first was hosted the day after he arrived at the home of my best friends. They created a delicious menu including my favorite NC BBQ! 
During dessert, we received some lovely well wishes in the form of an apple cider toast. 
Here we are opening our very first wedding present! 
Afterwards, we played a great game that allowed everyone to be involved and there was no pressure on us. Earlier in the week, we each gave our friend words we thought described each other. She wrote them out on little hearts and teams had to guess if I said those things about Jonathan or if he said those things about me. They did well and we were each encouraged by the things the other said about us. His is a "G" by the way because my friends here know him by his nickname. 
Thanks to our hostesses for doing such a great job! The second party was a luncheon held at my office the day before he left. It was loads of fun. It was catered by my best friend's restaurant with a luau menu. 
We submitted lots of couple photos of ourselves for decoration, but the fun thing is that couples in our office submitted early photographs of themselves as well. Some were around 20 years old. It was great. 
Lunch was followed by a game. The group broke into 4 teams. Each team had to think about what my dress should look like. Then they each dressed models from their group in a toilet paper gown. All the models were men except for this beautiful little one. It was so fun to see everyone get into it. 
Our Thai staff stuck with the luau theme.... 
We closed with everyone offering words of wisdom for our marriage. It was all extremely well done and everyone had a terrific time. | | |
| I am not a big fan of turkey. I must eat it covered in gravy on Thanksgiving or the day just doesn't seem complete. After that, I prefer not to have it for the next 364 days. This week I made an exception to that rule. Tuesday night I was at the deli section of the grocery store. They have around 30 hunks of meat that they will slice for you just like at home. The difference is the only one I would dare to eat is the smoked ham. Until Tuesday, when I saw smoked turkey breast. I don't even like smoked turkey breast, but I was determined to buy it because I knew what it was and I have never seen it before and probably will never see it again. Even when I saw the price. 120 bht per 100 grams (I think that's the unit). The smoked ham is 34 bht for the same amount. How does that translate? I paid $4 for enough turkey for one sandwich. So all night Tuesday I looked forward to lunch on Wednesday. Wednesday morning I checked my email to find we were having lunch as an office. Wednesday night I had a birthday party. Thursday I had to go to Burma so I couldn't bring my lunch. I didn't want any dinner when I got home on Thursday because I had been car sick the entire day. I thought I would eat it Friday for lunch. Then of course Friday another office lunch was scheduled. We never eat lunch as an office and now twice in three days. It's because we have a lot of visitors in for our upcoming conference. Nevertheless, I was still unappreciative because I wanted to eat my turkey that now had maybe one day's life left. Things don't last here like they do at home. Perhaps it's because my refrigerator, which was purchased new last year, won't even make jello firm. So this morning, I set my clock 30 minutes early, got up and enjoyed a turkey, cheese, and lettuce sandwich on stale bread for breakfast. Not ideal, but I enjoyed it anyway. | | |
| Well today was a big day. I went to be fitted for my wedding dress. I am curious to see how it turns out because I had pictures of the front of one, the back of another, the bottom of yet another and my own idea of the train. I'm not very creative so I can't picture in my head what the finished product will look like, but her sketch looked good. I am really ready for it to be made (and look great hopefully) so I can check wedding dress off my list. I have heard most brides say that the dress they ended up with is nothing like the one they chose from the magazine. Once they go to the store and try on 25 dresses, the one that flatters them is completely different than the one they had in mind as their favorite. Here there are A) no stores that have tons of dresses and B) if there were, they wouldn't begin to fit me. So I am trying to guess which dress pictured on a 6' size 0 model will best flatter my 5' double digit body. I go back on the 24th to try on the non-detailed version she will make from "cheap" material to get an idea of how it will look. I'm interested to see what this cheap material turns out to be since I paid less than $20 for the material she is using for the real dress. Maybe newspaper? I'm not sure. Thanks to my honorary bridesmaids Kathie, Lisa and Kelly for going with me today, searching through countless pictures over the last 3 months and giving your VERY honest opinions! | | |
| Wow! Like most of you, I am recovering from the festivities of the last week. In addition to all the activities, I also spent the long Christmas weekend sick. It started about 5 am Friday morning and lasted through Christmas Day. I think I have finally determined that I got a bad bottle of water. I stopped drinking from it and haven't been sick since. Don't feel sorry for me though. They were the best 5 days of the year to have little to no appetite. I figured I saved nearly a million calories. Here's the recap... Friday our office had our annual Christmas party and gift exchange. I stole the Velveeta cheese from our new regional leader. I figure I'm leaving in 4 months. Really, what can he do? Velveeta is pretty valuable in these parts so I may be surprised! After the party, I went straight home and was in bed by 4 pm. I was feeling awful. Saturday I made it to a regional meeting but was in bed the rest of the day. Sunday we had a cookout at the same orphanage I went to last year. The kids enjoyed the hotdogs, cheese burgers and gifts just as much as I had remembered. I made my first batch of homemade brownies for the event. Off the subject but I also made my first homemade chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream icing last week as well. My house church met on Christmas Eve instead of Sunday. Everyone brought their favorite Christmas finger foods. The table was full of goodies. After round one of grazing, we had our worship and bible study. Then we observed the Lord's Supper. Then we went Christmas caroling around the neighborhood. I would not recommend doing that in a country that has the dog population of Thailand. No one was injured, but at some points we were doing some speed caroling. Then we went back for rounds 2, 3, 4..... It was good to do some things that were traditional of my home country. On Christmas Day, I went to a delicious breakfast at the home of a couple in the office. It was complete with biscuits and gravy and pancakes with REAL log cabin syrup. We can get it here sometimes, but it is over $10 a bottle. It's the first time I've had it since I left the States. After breakfast, I went to a brunch at my best friends' house. I took advantage of Christmas in Thailand by eating a plate full of mango. I will sure miss that when I get home. Following a short nap and delivery of goodies and tracks to the many people who provide services for me, I had a hair cut and joined some friends for a great dinner. 
Trusting you had a memorable Christmas as well! | | |
| Ok, so I guess I didn't give enough information in the last post. Here are the answers to all your questions.... Jonathan is originally from northern Kentucky right outside of Cincinnati. He graduated from the University of Kentucky in Lexington and majored in Family and Consumer Sciences. It is a pre-counseling program . He is 5'11. He has red hair when he grows a beard and blond hair when he doesn't. I don't understand that either. He enjoys sharing the gospel, traveling, photography, playing the guitar, UK basketball and me . He is an Eagle Scout. His favorite book is the Bible. His favorite verses are I John 4:9-10. His favorite TV shows are 24, Prison Break, and Grey's Anatomy of which I have never even seen one episode. His least favorite activity is studying Chinese characters. We met here last August. We will both be coming back to Rocky Mount on April 29th. We will get married in RM on May 24th. We plan to have a small outdoor wedding with our immediate families because I can't imagine trying to plan anything larger from the other side or the world. We are going to St. Simons Island, GA for our honeymoon. We have been blessed with a week at a house near the beach by the WMU. This summer we will move to Wake Forest where Jonathan will attend Southeastern. So, Lord willing, those are our plans for the next several months. We look forward to seeing you all. | | |
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