This is a bag of cherry flavored candy.

About 6 weeks ago we took Toby to get his hair cut.




About 2 weeks ago we noticed the hair around his eyes grew back faster than anywhere else.

Mountain Climbing!

Yesterday we went with some friends to climb a local mountain. Since most of the mountains we have seen in this country seemed overrated (in this country's defense we have only seen 1 other mountain), we thought it would be no problem...especially since we were told the entire climb would be up stairs. It took us about 8 hard hours to climb that stinking mountain! These are not normal stairs. They are narrow and very steep. Since L is pregnant we tried to stop and rest often, but even our non pregnant friends needed just as many rests as well. The view from the top of the mountain was well worth everything, but more than once I think everyone wondered if we would survive the mountain. L's knee hurt really bad towards the end, and K thought he may have to carry her down.

This is a photo of us at the beginning - nice and fresh looking!

After about 5 hours of climbing stairs up the side of the mountain, we finally made it!!!













K taking in the view.














This is a photo of L "hanging" off of the side of the mountain.

















All in all, it was an exhausting but rewarding day. We started climbing the stairs about 8:30 am, and we finished around 4:30 pm. We thought the stairs up the mountain were never ending, but then we thought the same thing about the stairs down the mountain.

This is a bicycle repair “wagon,” since they don’t have bike repair shops here. People bring their bikes here when they get a flat tire, etc. There are many of these little wagons around the city. I am pretty sure they stole the KFC umbrella.

Big News!

So, in case you don't yet know, we are pregnant. In our simple little city they do not actually print off sonogram photos, so this is a digital photo of the computer screen. Also, they do not do blood pregnancy tests, so seeing this 3 weeks ago confirmed our pregnancy. It came as a bit of a surprise, but we are really excited. The baby is due in January 2009.













Recently we took a village trip. This photo of L is a good example of how much we stand out in this country...we don't blend in.













We wanted to post a bunch of other photos, but our internet is not moving too fast. We will try to update again in a couple of days. K & L

Parvo Puppy

Our precious little puppy, Toby, contracted Parvo a few weeks ago. We thought he was a little down and noticed he was throwing up and having diarrhea a little, so we assumed he maybe ate some grass or something. However, at the advice of a friend we took him to the local vet the same day he started acting like this. This turned out to be one of the most important things we did for him in all his treatment. Only dogs who begin treatment during the first day or so of symptoms survive. They did a test and told us he had Parvo. We did not really know what it was since we never had to deal with it in the States, but after going home and getting online, we realized how dangerous of a sickness our little puppy had. We were told that Toby had received all his shots, but the well-intentioned guy who we bought Toby from did not realize he only gave Toby 1 shot of Parvo out of a 3 shot series.

For his treatment the vets put him on a rusty table of which the top is made of wide weaved bands (These photos were taken on the first day of treatment; on all the following days I brought enough clean towels to create a barrier between him and that nasty table). They pulled each of his legs through and tied them with a strap to the bottom of the table. This was very uncomfortable for Toby. They shaved both of his front legs, and he received alternating IV's in each leg. For the first 5 days of his treatment he did not even flinch when he received his treatment, and we knew he was getting better when he started putting up a bit of a fight after 6 days.

It was a very stressful week for us. One of us slept in the living room with him each night to help him through his sickness (vomit and diarrhea). Then each morning we took him to the vet to receive a 1 hour treatment of medication and fluids. We then took him back each afternoon for the same treatment. Toby only moved from his bed to go vomit or to use the bathroom (which was in large quantities). Sometimes he was even too weak to move and threw-up or used the restroom on himself. He went down from 9 pounds to 7 pounds, and that is a lot for a little guy like him. We were constantly bleaching everything from our floor, to his toys and everything else he liked to touch.

It was a really emotional week for us. We were not sure he was going to make it through the 3rd night of his treatment. K stayed up almost the whole night as he was afraid if he fell a sleep that he would never see Toby alive again. Nevertheless, Toby made it!!! After a full week of treatment he finally began to eat and drink a little again. His personality has almost completely restored back to normal. He is still contagious to other dogs for 2 more months, so for 2 months he cannot leave our apartment. Furthermore, he will start receive his shots to guard him against contracting Parvo again in June, and he will not be fully inoculated until September. Therefore we have to continually clean everything with bleach - our shoes, our floors, his toys, and all the other things he touches.

After brainstorming and reading everything we could, we came to the conclusion that he probably was exposed to Parvo through something we brought in on our shoes. He had not been outside to play in more than 2 weeks, and he had gotten his hair cut just a few days before - not enough time for him to get sick. This explains our need to clean.

Three other dogs were receiving the Parvo treatment with Toby, and 2 of those dogs died. Toby was a very prayed for and a very lucky dog. Parvo is bad. Make sure your puppy has all their shots!

L's Birthday

L turned the big 27 this past weekend, so K and some friends threw a birthday party for her. However, much to her surprise on Friday K took her to a nice hotel in town that has a bathtub (L's birthday was on Saturday)! L loves baths, and our apartment only has a shower, so she spend about an hour on two different occasions soaking in a bubbly garden tub. K also treated L to a wonderful dinner at Pizza Hut that evening. There are only three options for fine American dining in our town - McDonalds, KFC, and Pizza Hut. Since we thought a birthday celebration was reason enough to not have to carry a tray, we decided to go to Pizza Hut since it is the fanciest : )













The next morning we walked to McDonalds for a wonderful pancake breakfast. Later that afternoon we went bowling with our American buddies. Then we headed over to a friends apartment who had made chicken soft tacos - L's favorite. Our friend went through the effort to make homemade tortillas, queso, homemade chips, Spanish rice, had crispy shells sent from American, and even made a double layer yellow cake with chocolate icing. Also the party had a theme - it was a princess party. She went all out!





























To top it all off K planned party activities including a ring toss, quick draw, write you initials on L's face, and target shooting. After the games we ate the cake and ice cream, headed into a sugar coma, and ended the evening by watching some of the first season episodes of the Cosby show. It was a great evening.

To Our Wonderful Friends!

We came home from a really long weekend out of town to a wonderful suprise...3 beautiful boxes!!! We want to give a HUGE thanks to our awesome friends at Lake Arlington for all the goodies they sent us. You sent us exactly what we have been needing. We have already dug into them and are really enjoying/rationing everything. Thank you so much for not forgetting us and for really going out of your way to show us how much you care.

K & L

So, one day we will post more photos of our selves than our dog, but right now he is just so cute! He is white, so he gets dirty often. Therefore he gets a lot of baths. Plus he has a skin infection that requires us to dip him in a medicated bath several times a week. He was very angry with us the first time he was given a bath. In fact he avoided us for an entire hour afterwards. Now he is a little pro! We love our little dog!

Fun with Toby

L's brother pointed out that dogs and owners often look alike and he specifically cited this photo. What do you all think?

Everyone who knows K will probably recall his lengthy afternoon naps. Toby is becoming more and more like K! Toby often sleeps on is back with all 4 legs in the air. It is really cute and funny. This is also a good shot to show how little he is.

Just a friendly reminder that our e-mail address has changed to eastasiabrowns@pobox.com.

New E-mail

Hi friends. We are changing our e-mail address. You can reach us at eastasiabrowns@pobox.com. Please note that we are no longer eastasiabrownies, just eastasiabrowns. We will stop using our gmail account immediately.

K & L

Our New Addition

On Saturday we came home with a new little addition. His name is Toby. We have been wanting a dog since we got married, but student housing in the U.S. never let us have one. However, we managed to track down a guy through a friend who traveled 9 hours to a large city and 9 hours back with our little guy. Toby is a Bichon Frise (which do not shed thank goodness); he is about 9 weeks old and weighs 5 pounds. He is so full of energy, and does not lay still even when is sleeping. We think he likes us, but he did not like his bath, getting brushed, or getting his eyes wiped out 2 times a day. Still, he is fun.













I like this photo. I think it looks like he is smiling!













We live on the 4th floor so taking him to the bathroom is a bit of a pain, and also since we cannot get all the necessary shots here, it is very easy for dogs to get sick from going outside. So, K found a long tub and planted grass in it. It has been a hit with Toby. Although he is not 100% successful at using the grass, he has been going in it about 50% of the time. I think that is a pretty good percentage for now.

Lastly, we moved last week. We are still trying to get settled in, but we will post photos as soon as we have something worth taking pictures of!

Due to security reasons, we will be changing our e-mail address. We apologize for this inconvenience, but it is necessary. We will post our new address as soon as it is confirmed

Love, K & L

A Few More Photos

During our travels we learned why we we drink bottled water. See we do not have a bathtub in our apartment, but knowing that our hotel would, we were both excited to have a soak. Well, after filling the tub up we both noticed that the water was a bit brown...the photo really does not do it justice. We still took baths (and showered afterwards), but we finally understood why our whites must be bleached so often.














We also ate at a rib place while on vacation. The owner said he went to Texas and ate at over a hundred barbecue places, and took photos of each restaurant's sign. I even saw a sign from each of our hometowns. It was a pretty exciting moment for us, but not so much for our friend's who were not from Texas.













To get around in our vacation country we had to ride on the back of pick-up trucks that have been rigged up so that people can sit in the back. They still drive really fast and try to rip off the vacationers, but it is apparently the only way to travel.













Lastly we would like to thank the folks responsible for putting up this sign. I was really considering jumping in but thanks to the warning, I now know better. (This is a subway tunnel with high voltage tracks running on both sides)



K & L

Back Home

So, we went on vacation, and it could not have come any sooner. We had a difficult time getting out of country as the snow delayed and then canceled our flight. Nevertheless, 18 hours later we were on a plan to a warmer country! First thing was first...Western Food!!! We both gained weight on this trip, but this being our first chance to eat Western food that L did not have to make, we did not hold back. Below is a photo of a place we went to. The owner was from Houston.



The sun is a bit intense here, and unfortunately we did not have any sunscreen. So, L sat under an umbrella by a pool for a couple of hours one morning and wound up with a sunburn. Apparently in the South Pacific area indirect sunlight is just as strong direct in Texas. This is not the best photo of us, but is shows her burn pretty well : )



This is a photo of the cutest little dog and of the girl who refused to let us pet it.



Well we eventually had to come back, but we got to spend Valentines day in a very large city. So, we finally got to have a date that was not at Pizza Hut or McDonalds. We found this trolly car restaurant very close to our hotel, and...



We had Cold Stone for desert! It was a great Valentines day, and in fact it was our first one in which one of us was not working.



We would like to give a "shout out" to everyone at our Lake Arlington class. We miss you guys!

Please feel free to e-mail us at eastasiabrownies@gmail.com.

We love you all - K & L

Cold, Cold, Cold

January has been a pretty slow month for us. Over here instead of having a "winter vacation," we are given a "spring vacation." So we are out of school right now and will be for a while. However, no one can convince us that this is spring time. We have not made it over freezing in at least 2 weeks.


It snowed last night. Even though it is cold, it does not snow often. It was really fun watching the locals react to the snow; it is just like in Texas. No one is able to drive very well, but I did see one taxi pulling donuts late last night. We also watched a kid and his dad build a snowman this morning.


We will be going on vacation really soon - someplace warm! We feel strange pulling out our summer clothes to begin packing, but wow we are looking forward to it.


A couple nights ago we made burritos. They were so good. It took us about an hour to prepare the veggies to eat raw, but it was worth it. It was not quite Freebirds but close enough for where we are. L is getting better each week at making tortillas. We are going to try out breakfast burritos tonight.

We would like to give a big "shout out" to Trevor and Andrea. Your last e-mail was really funny!

Please don't forget that our e-mail address is eastasiabrownies@gmail.com. We love to hear from everyone!

LB likes these little orange fried pumpkin patties. They are fried with a slight crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. They come with white sugar dumped on top of them.

Shout-out to Phil and Angela, a.k.a. Philangela.

We hosted several Christmas parties at our apartment. LB taught our guests some important Christmas songs.

Since we hosted a party at our apartment Christmas morning, we decided to exchange gifts Christmas Eve. Most of the gifts under the tree were empty packages.

LB and others contributed in providing us with some delicious traditional food. Special thanks to our friend who picked up 2 pizzas on her way to our house.

LB made sugar cookies everyday for an entire week.

The dog's normal size snack weenie.

KB's Christmas gift to the dog.