Left the ball and chain at home

This weekend I took a girl's trip to the religious capital of the country. It was 10 of us staying in a locals house in the old city. We visited three homes in two days and toured everywhere. It was SOO much hotter than our city and I was sweating like crazy!

This is an old religious school called a medersa. It is super old and ornate and people still study here.

Here is the tanneries where men stand in the blazing sun all day dying animal skins. This is one of the world's oldest crafts. The dyes are made of things such as pigeon poo, cow urine, fish oils, animals fats and brains, chromium salts, and sulphuric acids. YIKES! Yeah, it totally stunk.

Here is one of the hundreds of leather shops. I just like the view of this picture.


This is one of my favorite photos I took. This old man was looking out the window of the old medersa.
A school in the old city.

These winding streets are home to one of the largest living medieval cities in the world. There's like 9,400 twisting streets. Luckily, we had a local friend with us to guide us around cause I surely would have been lost in about 30 seconds.

This is the Hand of Fatima and people wear this symbol and adorn their house with it to keep away the evil eye.

I love all these colors of the scarves. In the summer they wear a lighter head covering that breathes a little better.

Old medina walls. I was surprised how many tourists were already out this early in the season. We have been seeing more and more in our city's tourist attractions lately too.

These are King's palace doors. Unfortunately we can't tour it but we did get to admire the door...thanks dude.

And last of all here is our end of the first trimester belly pic or Garrett Gut as I so affectionately like to call it. At the moment it doesn't look like a baby belly but just like I have had too many french fries the last few months. I can't wait to actually look pregnant and not just fat! This shirt accentuates my little bump. Nobody actually can tell by looking that I am pregnant. I hate this in-between stage!

BabyG Update:
-This week BG has formed fingernails and fingerprints.
-BG is about the size of peach (and now has hair on him/her too :)
-BG has reflexes and will squirm when my belly is touched...weird
-and he/she is forming vocal cords this week (hope BG gets Cody's singing voice and not mine!)

As for me, I am feeling great. With all the travel and time with locals I feel really out of control of my eating habits. I eat so much sweets when I am with local friends but try not to when I eat on my own. Also, CARBS! They eat so much white breads, which is not good for me.

So, sorry there are no pics of Cody this week. Like I said before, he never takes the camera but next week I will have him back up here. Even if he's sitting in his underwear using the computer :)

OH Baby!

Okay, today's blog post is purely about babies. If you would like to read something cultural about North Africa life then please read last week's post again. :) I have been doing a lot of reading about pregnancy and babies and making lots of lists of everything. (Not a surprise to those who know me) Here are some interesting things I am learning about taking care of a new baby...










My favorite one is the Mom and baby laughing together over a cup of coffee (decaff, of course). In other news, my rad friend Gelaine is letting me "store" some of her baby stuff at our new apartment. Her little boy has outgrown his crib so BG will now have a place to sleep. Gelaine and I have been friends for at least 16 years (I know b/c I have a picture of her at my 10th birthday party) and we are both going to be living in Albuquerque soon!
Friday was my 12 week ultrasound and everything looked great with BabyG. He/She is the perfect size and you can even see the umbilical cord in this 3D image. BG's head is at the top kinda looking down with his/her hand at the mouth and you can the little knees bent up at the bottom. SO cute!


Here is the normal ultrasound photo. BG was doing a little dance for us as you can see in the video below. Our Doc was super cool and let us see the baby for a long time and was showing us all the parts. She said "because you don't have a lot of fat, maybe we could see the sex at our 16 week appointment." Really? Cause I sure feel fat! This week I will post my premier belly pic as I start my second trimester. That's it in baby news, hope everyone has a great week!

Can you believe these milk prices?!

This week we had some visitors in town that we were showing around. These are the old Roman Ruins which later were built on top of by an Islamic dynasty. I know you have seen these on the blog a gajillion times but hey...it's still pretty right?




On to the price of stinkin milk! Okay, in my last 2.5 years I haven't drank much milk. Sure, I'll use it for cooking and the occasionally bowl of cereal but since being pregnant I need more calcium in my diet. I eat a yogurt or two a day but it would take 10 of those to meet my requirements...yuck! So this is the brand I have always bought, "Central." It costs about $1 per liter. By the way, for you gallon folks in America it takes almost 4 liters to make a gallon. Well, I can't stand drinking this stuff. So I have to buy this...


Here is the top of the line "President" milk. This one costs almost $3 a liter. So for you folks who aren't so good at math, that's like paying nearly $12 for a gallon of milk! Now, I haven't lived in America in awhile but I sure don't remember milk costing no $12 a gallon! So, I try to drink three glasses a day. I end up going through a liter every two days. All the fruit juices also come in liters and they are pretty pricey too. (By the way, we don't refrigerate milk here until it's open. You just keep it in the pantry until you need it.) On a positive note, things like bread and produce are dirt cheap, so it's super easy to eat fruits and vegetables for nothing. Enough of my ranting.

On to our first baby purchase. I am not planning on buying much stuff here, only things I can't get in America that are native to my country. I definitely want to bring some things from here for the nursery and stuff. These are foam puzzle squares that you can build things with or just make a mat for baby to play on top off. The cool thing is they have all the Arabic letters on them (yes, my baby will be a genius and learn Arabic and English simultaneously before the age of 2 1/2). And we can learn to count on the other side.

BabyG Update:

Okay, If BG were born today this is what he/she would look like. As Juno would say, we should wait and let it get a little cuter. Besides, diapers for BG at this size would be a nightmare!
-I have an ultrasound on Friday and then next week I will post BG's progress.
-Besides fatigue I am feeling pretty good. I have a hard time sleeping for some reason, off and on, and it takes awhile to get to sleep. But I do try and get about 10 hours a night. The nausea is becoming less and less. I can't believe I'll be 12 weeks!

4 Party's in 4 Days!

So, we are partied out at the moment. On Thursday I went to a party to celebrate the 7th day after the birth of a baby. At these parties the family announces the name and slaughters a sheep and has a big party. And then on Friday I went to henna party. These happen the day before the wedding. On Saturday we both went to the wedding. On Sunday Cody went to a friends house and when he arrived he found out it was an engagement party for his friend's sister!

He we are getting ready to leave for the wedding. This belt is making its last appearance. If I have to go to another party I will have to find another belt or way to tie back my gown. It was pushing down on my little bump all night long and super uncomfortable. Perhaps I can add a silver sash or something because you have to wear a belt with these things.

The girls got to eat first. The wedding was in a tent and there were two rooms inside the house where they rotated people into to eat. This is lemon chicken and olive tagine. Delicious!

But this dish was my favorite. I haven't had this one in so long. It's little noodles with cinnamon, peanuts and powdered sugar. I LOVE it! Cody finally got to eat at 12:30 in the morning with the men.


The bride finally showed up at 1:30! We only saw her change into two outfits and then had to leave because Cody was leading worship the next morning at 9:30. The men were to the side and the ladies filled up this part. Right now they are fixing to present the bride and dance. See the video below to watch them hoisting her in the air and dance around.

Here is my caftan for the henna party. It is so much more comfortable than the taksheta . This one doesn't require a belt and it's only one layer as opposed to two.

This is the dowry the groom presents to the bride.


After working diligently on the bride's henna she starts to do the guests. It's not very intricate because she has so many people to do.
Before the party starts the band and guests sing and dance in the street and then carry the gifts upstairs to present to the bride.

The bride on her throne. Green is the color of Islam that's why they always wear green at this party.


BabyG Update:
-BG is the size of lime and and is a completely formed fetus, just miniature version.
-The placenta should be taking over this week or next to give the nourishment and stuff
-I had a check up on Friday and everything was measuring normal.
-We are going to America in May for my brother's wedding and get to have an ultrasound right before we go to see if we can distinguish the gender. I really hope so b/c it would be exciting to be able to tell my whole fam!
-Be sure to take a guess at the gender in the poll on the right hand side. What's your gut feeling, boy or girl?!
-My body is exhausted from all the parties and I haven't been feeling so good the last couple of days. I can't wait to start the second trimester...I hear it's magical and you no longer feel like pooh :)