No more stinkin' clothes!

Don't worry. I will still be wearing clothes. At least as much as I currently do. No, I am talking about smelly clothes. Becky and I have endured our clothes smelling anywhere from tolerable to down right nasty...like moldy poop. I have never smelled moldy poop, but I have smelled its annoying uncle, aka my clothes.

Well, it only took half a year for Becky and I to problem solve that the problem might just be the washers that our maid was using as they are probably a hundred years old, never cleaned and used by everyone in our full on Thai neighborhood. At any rate, this last weekend I finally had enough...thats right, I opened the tight as a pickle jar fold of leather that is my wallet. Cheapness has its limits, and mine is apparently smelling like a hobo. My ridiculous lack of a haircut combined with the smell was making people wonder what kind of a wife Becky is to let me out in public like that.

So without further ado, I would like to introduce the blog followers (Mom, Mom2, and uh...me) to our brand spanking new washing machine. If this doesn't work, I'm leaving Thailand!!!!!

Everything’s fine, he’s just watching sports

When you marry someone and move into the same home, you learn a lot about how different people live. I mean everyone has quirks. You know, the things you do at home that make your spouse crazy. This year, Isaac has learned that I am obsessed with not having dirty dishes in the sink. Seriously, I can’t sleep if there’s a dirty dish in the sink. I have to wash all of the dishes before I can relax. Isaac has been great about dealing with my OCD about dishes by working hard to wash dishes in a timely manner, if I haven’t already washed them.

By now, you’re probably wondering what kind of quirks Isaac has that I have to deal with……unless, of course, you’ve already lived with Isaac and you already know all of them. I think the best way to tell you about Isaac’s biggest quirk is to tell a little story. You know how I love to tell stories and take up as much of your precious time as possible. Anyway here goes:

This fall I got a phone call from my good friend, Erin. We were talking for a few minutes when all of a sudden, Isaac let out a blood curdling scream and started slapping his knee and jumping around the room. Needless to say, Erin was very concerned. She asked if Isaac was hurting me and if I needed to get away. I replied: “Everything’s fine, he’s just watching sports”. Yes, as any good Texas Aggie would do, Isaac was watching the A & M football game and something good had happened. Sooooooo he FLIPPED out! This year I’ve learned that Isaac is the craziest sport spectator I have ever seen in my entire life.

Don’t get me wrong. Unlike many women, I enjoy watching sports. I like when the Aggies win and I genuinely want them to do well. But, I usually only cheer or say something when a touchdown is made. If Isaac only screamed at predictable times like first downs I would be prepared and know when to cover my ears. Unfortunately for me, I never know what play is going to cause a crazy-man dance/yelling session. We can be sitting on the couch quietly watching a game and all of a sudden, my husband channels Mariah Carey and is able to make a range of sounds that don’t seem possible for human beings to make. It can be a little scary to be around Isaac when he is flailing his body around and making piercing noises but I think I’ve finally learned how to deal with it.

I just have to pretend to run errands around the house while he’s watching the Aggies play! This just came to me today during the A & M basketball game. I had to get away because my ears hurt so I decided to go outside and check the mail. His screaming isn’t nearly as piercing if I am outside getting the mail, or filling up the water bottle (although the neighbors still look a little scared when they hear him from outside. Thai people are very quiet). Also, if I’m running errands, I may only get slapped in the butt once and Isaac has to cross the room to get to me so I have time to prep myself and clench my butt so it doesn’t sting as much. And the other plus is, the house never looked so clean!

In summary, Isaac and I are continuing to grow up and learn to love and nurture each other, even though we are both insane. And that, my friends, is what marriage is all about. Marriage = learning to deal with your spouses crazy. Man I should charge for these priceless gems of marriage wisdom!

Back to School

Christmas break is over and we are heading back to school tomorrow. We had a good relaxing break but we are both ready to get back in to the swing of things. We have plenty of vacation pictures to put up soon, but I thought I would share what I found in our yard right under the window today. Apparantly the field (soy??) is full of cobra's and other snakes. I am going to assume the absolute worst here and confidently declare that this 4+ foot snake skin is indeed that of a cobra! Don't worry though, I have experience killing snakes and I look forward to the challenge of wreslting this sucker if he ever shows his face. Then I will eat it.

Hope everyones New Years resolutions are still in tack. Mine starts tomorrow: no TexAgs (a Texas A&M sports website) at work. I am hoping I can make it at least until Wednesday.

Happy New Year!

Koh Lanta, Thailand.

Who's Going to Be the Adult?

On the day that Isaac and I got married I had an interesting conversation with my dad about the future. He pointed out, as many other people have, that Isaac and I are very alike. I acknowledged that Isaac and I do, indeed, have very similar personalities. We have a lot in common. Then my dad said this: "Yeah but who's going to be the ADULT?!"

Well, I didn't have the answer to that question on my wedding day but my dad will be happy to know that I think I finally figured it out!

On Wednesday we had a wonderful, mature, house-warming party in honor of our newly decorated and painted grown-up home. One of our friends forgot his camera here and Isaac, being a responsible and reasonable adult, did the responsible, reasonable, adult thing to do. He took a picture of his naked butt on the camera for our friend to enjoy looking at when we returned his camera to him.

I asked Isaac how he came up with such a grown-up idea and he went on to tell me that he had taken hundreds, nay thousands of photos of his naked rear on peoples' cameras all over the world. His butt has adorned refrigerators, mantle pieces, and classy bathroom stalls all over this great earth.

When I listened to my husband tell me of the vast amount of people who have seen and celebrated his sweet cheeks, I knew I finally had the answer to my father's question.

Who IS going to be the adult?

Obviously the answer is....................................

NO ONE! If acting like an adult means not taking pictures of your naked butt for family and friends to enjoy then we will NEVER be adults!

So, there you go father! Now you can breathe a little easier knowing that your eldset daughter and son-in-law finally have it all figured out! And we've only been married 5 months! We're awesome at marriage wisdom! If there was an olympic sport for being married, we'd win the gold!

Must be Christmas

When you live in a Buddhist country that stays about 90 degrees or higher year round, it can be tough to get in the Christmas frame of mind. So Becky and I, celebrating our first Christmas as husband and wife figured we needed to get some decorations up. What better way to celebrate the birth of Christ than, as Frank Peterson would say, with a pagan symbol...the Christmas Tree! We had fun decorating and thought we would share some pictures.

Yes Mom, Becky feeds me, I just don't gain weight. So sad.

After getting some pictures on the wall and some paint up, we/Becky decided we needed to invite people over to partake in the awesomeness that is our home. Soooooo, we had a housewarming after the school sponsored party on Wednesday. It was perfect because the school gave out free booze and food so we didn't have to have much of either! See pictures below of guests during the white elephant exchange. I gave the PIMP watch.

Becky modeling our winnings. An awesome bag and a Jamaican dancing woman with a blunt in her mouth that dances to Row Row Row Your Boat. As Becky would say, "Raaaandom".

Hope all is well. Happy Holidays.

Isaac and Becky

Sarah Paintin: Going Rouge

Actually, I would say we went with more of a deep red. After months of doing little to make our house a home, Becky and I have decided to get our decoratin' on. We hired a guy to come and paint our house last weekend. What started out as one dude slowly morphed into four guys and a girl (and a pizza place). While it was not the best paint job I've ever seen, it was well worth the 60 bucks we paid! We thought our dedicated viewing audience, both of you, would like to see our "new" house.

BEFORE

AFTER