No longer Paid in China

I have taken quite a long break from blogging I'm afraid. BUT, I do have a pretty good excuse. In mid October, I had my first ever positive pregnancy test. As I may have mentioned before, I chart my cycles and when I noticed that my period was later than ever I started wondering...I decided not to jump the gun though and give it two more days. I bought a test and after 15 days post-ovulation, Will woke me up at 6am (thanks babe) to take the test before he went to work. I lit up with two bright blue lines the second it hit the counter top...no need to wait 5 minutes. I nearly stopped breathing. I walked out a little stunned and told Will that it was positive.

6 weeks

We had always said that we were in China for 3 years unless I got pregnant. Do people have babies in Beijing? Of course. Was I going to? No. The bad air, the expensive Western healthcare (that is very c-section friendly), the distance from home and we decided that it was time for a change. We already had our round trip tickets home for Christmas and we ended up making those one way tickets. Turns out we saved about 1000 dollars by buying them round trip...makes tons of sense to me too.

14 weeks

So, after the United Airlines trip from hell...delayed 5 hours, missed our connection to Atlanta, no more flights for 2 days, renting a car and driving 13 hours (after a 13 hour trip on the airplane) back home...we were finally home. The day after Christmas I had my first prenatal appointment with a wonderful midwife practice and heart the heartbeat for the first time. As soon as she found the heartbeat I wanted her to stop to save myself from bursting into tears on the examination table. I was 14 weeks at that point and although I had morning sickness, I wasn't 100% sure it was real. What if we moved home and I wasn't even pregnant? But, alas, I was and I have never been happier. We will be in Atlanta until right after the baby's due date, June 27th, and then moving to Charleston, Greenville or maybe Charlotte. We are keeping our options open.

Atlantis, Nassau

So we are back in the US with our first baby on the way. We had a wonderful Bahamas cruise before New Years and now we are back to real life, saving money and getting ready for the baby and then moving to a new city, again. So Paid in China is going away. Not sure if I will be starting another blog in the future but this one was fun while it lasted! I will definitely keep reading blogs, just not writing one for a while.

Happy 2013!

Water Park at Atlantis

Obsessing

Everything involving school lately...SUCKS

I have a tendency to obsess over things (I know its obsessing and my husband loves to remind me) and everything school related is my newest thing. I have work, which I am actually coping with better now and the regular classes, no big deal...but then I got 100 extra helpings of new shit to stress over. 

1. I need to find a practicum placement preferably between next January and May. 

This gives me the training I need to put to use the knowledge I have been collecting for the last year and a half. I want this practicum to be a real learning experience and something that will bolster my resume when it comes time for me to look for an internship after graduation. Yet, finding one has been difficult. No one is taking on practicum students right now and that ones that are taking them are NOT in Atlanta (not exactly the mental health hub). I can't and won't spend the money to stay in a totally new town for the 2-5 months this practicum will last so I am stuck in Atlanta. Unless anyone that reads this blog happens to have a spare bedroom and connections to any sort of marriage clinic/mental health facility :) 

In addition, the places that have gotten back to me want to know when I can come in for a F2F...December 21st? Yeah...no. No one considers Skype or any other video chat...you can't come in for a face to face, you are NOT a candidate. Awesome.

2.   Either the USPS or the IRS misplaced our taxes and now I can't do an IRS link to FAFSA. That doesn't sound so bad right? Wrong. That means that now I owe 3500 dollars to my school, instead of it going to my "pay later when I graduate" file. This is not good.

Sorry to get on here and bitch but I need to release this tension and sometimes writing this blog really helps. I hope everyone else is experiencing no such problems and having a great week :)

Homemade Toxin-Free Deodorant

I have been cutting out every toxic product that I use one by one. Deodorant especially has all sorts of unnecessary ingredients that are not good for you and are pretty toxic...leading to organ toxicity, cancer...all sorts of things I don't want. The good thing is that making your own is very easy, very cheap and customizable to be exactly what you want. Below is the recipe. If you make it, let me know how you like it!

Ingredients:

6-8 Tablespoons of Cocounut Oil
1/4 cup of Baking Soda
1/3 cup Cornstarch
1/4 Teaspoon of Shea or Cocoa Butter
10-12 drops of your preferred essential oil (something with antibacterial qualities would be a perk: Lavender, Sweet Orange, Lemon etc...)

Directions:

1. Heat the coconut oil if needed, then mix the Shea/Coconut Butter
2. Once those ingredients are mixed add in the dry ingredients and then the essential oil. 

I have read a few different variations of the next steps...either

• Let it dry completely and then put it in an old deodorant bottle or jar OR
• Let it cool down but not harden and then add it into the carrier and then pop it in the fridge

Movies and Military

Movies because I went with hubs yesterday to see Batman and Military because it was a short drive and a long walk to the theater. The entire main road near our neighborhood that leads 75% of the way to the theater was blocked off by police last night in Beijing. Why? The dispute over who owns the Diaoyu (Chinese name) / Senkaku (Japanese name) islands. Their has been a growing "anti-Japanese sentiment" here in China and after some particularly heated rioting around their embassy, the police and military took over. At first we just saw police cars but then we saw military trucks, military paddiwagons and finally military tanks that hubs explained were for shooting out streams of water to disburse a crowd...I felt like I was in occupied Germany. Apparently all buses that make stops near the Japanese embassy have also either started passing over those stops or have been put temporarily out of commission. Very eery evening but at least the movie was awesome.  

I'm back

Hello to the few people...if any that have kept checking my blog in my several month absence. Whoever you are, I appreciate it. Anyway...

My parent's back porch

I am back in Beijing after my month back in the US. My "vacation" was wonderful and I got so much out of it. Fresh air every day, time around my friends and family and I got to sleep in my old bed. I went bike riding with my mom, shopping with my mom (and managed not to spend all of our money) and had long political talks with my dad.

My parents back yard

I "shot the Hooch" aka went tubing down the Chattahoochee River my some friends and despite the 2-3rd degree burns I had after that trip I had a great time. Turns out that 7 hours in the sun with pale skin after living in a place with very little UV exposure can be the recipe for a sunburn...who knew. In my defense I did put on sunscreen 2 times and the water was freezing thus I didn't feel the burn until I was dry. I am still burned a little and that was 6+ weeks ago...oops. I also drove up to Charlotte, NC to visit my best friend and had a wonderful time visiting her!

On the way back from my trip to see Mel (above, to the right) I got to see my baby niece for the first time! Isn't she adorable!

Despite my hectic schedule: working from 8pm to 4am and then sleeping until 11am or 1pm...depending on the work night that preceded, I still managed to have a very relaxing time. I did some more research on cutting down on the amount of products I use that contain toxic chemicals in them (awesome/terrifying website that tells you what's in your specific brand of lotion, shampoo, cosmetics etc: EWG Skindeep Database) and although I have been getting my hair colored to bring out the blonde which will no longer peak through in the summer (again...lack of sun) I decided I would be stopping that habit. Instead, I opted for an all natural product with Henna and although I was going for dark brown, my hair's tendency to veer towards red one out and I ended up with a really pretty Auburn color instead. I have cut down/ eliminated a lot of other things too...but that's another post altogether.

New hair color

I got back mid August and brought back with me a better attitude about living here. There are downsides indeed but I have a good job, hubs has a good job, we live in a nice apartment, we have money to do fun things AND pay of bills, we've made great friends and we've gotten to travel to fun places. Another thing I brought back with me...an ill-timed overwhelming desire to start a family. We have decided for a variety of reasons: aforementioned bills, the air here, accessibility to great healthcare and an the lack of an environment that embraces natural births and midwives that this is NOT the place to start a family, but nevertheless...it's all I think about. Only one year and change to go :)

Thanks for sticking with me. I promise not to take such a long break before my next post.

Back in the ATL

I have been back in Atlanta for a week now and have been getting readjusted. 


Working Sunday - Thursday from 6pm - 2am has been difficult but I am adjusting.


It is great seeing family and friends, driving, shopping-for both clothes and food, and breathing fresh air but hard being away from hubs. We skype at night and talk over the phone in the morning but even so sleeping alone is hard.


By the time I am back to Beijing I might be up to blogging again but for now I am taking advise I have seen often in the blogging world:


If it starts to feel like work, stop for a while.


So I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their summer :)

Thailand

Thailand was amazing. We had a great time relaxing and catching up on some much needed sleep. We swam in the pool, swam in the ocean, explored the island, got massages, got facials. It was glorious. It did rain the last 3 days but that's what you get when you go in the Low aka Rainy Season. Nonetheless, it was wonderful. The only slight hiccup was the food poisoning the last day that haunted me on the airport, airplane and for 2.5 days after we got home. That wasn't great. Everything else was though. Especially since I found a new favorite drink....Gin Fizz. Who knew Gin was good? Not me...but it is

In recent news, before I left, I bought tickets back to the States for a one month trip back home. I leave next Thursday for a month of hanging out all day and working at night. Wish me luck!

Kata Beach, Thailand

Corner room, extra large deck and Jacuzzi!

Only pic of the room, lame I know

Rainy day

Rocking the sunburn and crazy face...photographer my husband is not

Hubs with one of the kitchen kittens

Amazing trip!

The Resort

 Hope everyone else's summers are going well. I think blogging on my part might be a little slow for the next month or so, so please stick with me. I will be back :)