New Car!

We finally got a new car! Many thanks to the Andersons and Roligs for taking turns letting us borrow their cars the last couple months. I am sure this is as much of a relief to them as us. We ended up getting a 2010 Ford Focus. This is the first "new" car either of us has ever owned. We feel so grown up! We were originally thinking something a little bigger, but this ended up being the best bang for our buck, especially with it being new. Plus it had good ratings. Just wish us luck as a one car family! Really anything is a luxury compared to riding in the back of flat bed trucks with about 50 other people, sacks of maize, chickens, smelly fish, fish juice running out from the fish baskets, bicycles and breastfeeding babies. We are blessed!

I suppose we can start telling the whole world!

In case you hadn't figured out the real reason we came home a little early, we are expecting Baby Rolig in May 2010. Here is an ultrasound picture from about 3 weeks ago. The baby is now about the size of an avocado. I kind of freaked out when I read that because I was picturing a Malawian avocado which is about 3 times bigger than the ones we get here. So now I finally have an excuse for having gained weight after living in Africa for two years. Okay, pregnancy and a little bit of American indulgences (Thank you Katie W. for introducing me to the chocolate mint shake from Arby's. I have only had it one time, but I can already tell it is like crack...a little safer though)

We are starting to get geared up for the holidays. Karen and Jay are coming to town for Thanksgiving and we are excited to see them. They are expecting their first baby the end of January. Karen is a bit of an accomplice in this scheme to have cousins the same age. She sent us prenatal vitamins to Malawi! It will be fun to have all of the Rolig cousins together next summer! We are also soooo excited for Christmas. I can't believe we missed it for two years. It was nice to have Jack and Bonnie with us last year, but I think we all agreed that it didn't really feel like Christmas without the winter weather and the rest of our families. Not to mention lefse and krumkake. Bonnie and Katie, I am about to reclaim my equipment!

I have come down with my second cold since being back in America. The first one was an "airplane-cold" and this one is an "elementary-school-little-kid-germ-cold". Having a cold is bad enough, but having one while you are pregnant really kicks you in the rear end. Especially because there are a lot less options for relief. Hopefully I am good to go by Thanksgiving so I can stuff my face!

Getting Settled In To Our House

Finally we are back in our house and getting settled in. We slowly moved all of our furniture back in. We have a lot less than we used to because we sold a bunch of things before we left. We also have a couple rooms painted.The color in the family room is called "Golden Leaf". We chose it to match this wall hanging from India. My friend Angela from Peace Corps said I needed to start from an inspirational piece and I have always loved this wall hanging.

We are holding out for the right couch (well, and maybe some money to buy the couch with), but for now we are using Grandpa and Grandma Rolig's lime green chairs. The pillow cases are from Malawi. The lamps are new from Target.

Here is Brian in Grandpa Rolig's chair. Jack and Carol will have to verify if he has the pose down right. The side table is from Malawi and it flips over to a chess board (many thanks to Katie and Nick for dragging that thing back!)

The dining room was painted "Mushroom Bisque", but the color doesn't show up very well in this picture. We also scored this bookshelf thing off of Craig's List.

Look for more posts soon! Now that we have internet and our computer up and running we should be able to give more updates.