check check check

• Spent some days in Iowa City where I took my midwifery skills exam and saw some good old friends.
• Returned yesterday afternoon from a trip to Chicago to see my dear friend Rachel Ann #2, who is headed to the Peace Corps in Morocco soon. As well, I got to have some heart to hearts with dear friends and put my life into better perspective, which has been hard to get recently, being so transient and without a kula (ie a community)
• Tonsillectomy today went smoothly....there are 2 large gaping holes in the back of my throat, and my uvula is swollen incredibly huge to resemble a finger hanging down from my palate

A juicy expose update to come...

my tonsils live in their rightful place now: a bio-hazard container

pics of the midwest

I forgot to mention too that we went to a huge prairie reserve east of Des Moines, which has buffalo and Elk at times and a really great prairie learning center. We went once at dawn and once at night to see it under the full moon!

largest pumpkin at the fair (and me in my overalls)

Justin and his too sweet corn

The famous butter cow

Prairie lovin'

Midwestern style

We've had a jam-packed visit here in the midwest...not yet including getting my tonsils out unfortunately. We thought that we'd be able to get them out quickly from the conversation I'd had with a receptionist here while in San Antonio, but of course things are always more complicated than that... so we've had quite a time of it making the best of the beautiful green Midwest. From the beginning we've been really excited about the fact that it's cool in the mornings and evenings here so you can go for a pleasant walk then (or just about anytime!) We've become intoxicated driving down the country roads with all the greenness of the forests and fields. I never thought I'd have trouble dragging a significant other away from my home state of Iowa.... haha

So a rough run down of what we've been up to is as follows:

• 2 days at the Iowa state fair in which we shared a veggie corn dog, drank numerous lemonades, saw the butter cow of course, and watched the outhouse races. (We passed on the fried butter on a stick).
• The Adel Sweet Corn Festival where we each ate 2.5 ears of sweet corn and Justin had his first pulled pork sandwich
• We went on a several mile bike ride to downtown and the capital and through the many amazing wooded trails that Des Moines has (really!)
• We got lost going to the Ledges state park and instead picked up a hitch hiker and took him to Coon Rapids and then Guthrie Center, stopping at a prairie reserve and a different state park afterwards.
• We surprisingly got to see some old friends (now living in DC and Chicago) at the local watering hole: El Rodeo
• Visited Ames, another Iowa town which is significantly cooler than it was 5 years ago.... everywhere is just bursting with local food and cool projects these days!
• Went up to Decorah and went to the Norwegian museum, ate lefse, camped in the back of the truck and woke up freezing and covered with dew, visited the amazing Seed Savers Exchange, and visited the Laura Ingals Wilder site up near the Wisconsin and Minnesota borders. North-eastern Iowa is super hilly and tree covered and beautiful!! And along the great Mississippi river we visited the Effigy Mounds National Monument/Park, which is yet another beautiful park, and filled with 200 Native American mounds and various artifacts built throughout out history, dating back to 1000BCE!
• We visited my friends and their new baby in Madison, WI, where we went to the wonder-filled Dane County farmer's market and strolled the beautiful streets of Madison. We even stumbled across a radical bookstore called Rainbow bookstore co-op which only furthered Justin's desire to move to the Midwest

Also my Dad wants me to mention what a cool dog and dad I have. It's true! :)

Ioway

Here I am in green green Iowa. We had two full long days of driving and camped at Arrowhead State Park in Oklahoma along the incredibly huge Lake Eufala. We stopped into Kansas City for lunch with Aunt Jan and Grandma and Grandpa O and then pressed on to Des Moines to catch my brother, Ted who was in town for the evening. We are tired! But so glad to be here. We went for a walk tonight and were surprised that it was so cool and pleasant. At no hour in San Antonio is it not hot and muggy. What a refreshing change!

menos Peru

Well, after the two rounds of antibiotics, I wound up sick again. It's been really frustrating, because I have been careful about what I eat and my activities and sleep. After a trip up to Austin to check out houses, I came back with swollen pus-covered tonsils again, so instead of going to the MD for another round of antibiotics, I went to the Chinese Medicine doc. He gave me some intense acupuncture and 2 bottles of Chinese herbs, and a few days later I am much better! I am so happy I didn't have to get more antibiotics...another huge testament to the powers of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). Even though I was slightly skeptical due to my sort of hopelessness toward getting better, I knew that antibiotics couldn't be the answer, that there must be some underlying issue that was not going to be treated by just killing bacteria. So thanks to TCM my immune system is up and fighting again and I am feeling much better.

Alas.... I have decided that my body would likely not fare well in super polluted, parasite filled, hot and humid jungle Peru, so we canceled the trip. Justin actually made the executive decision and we were in fact both--despite being sad about missing the clowns and kids--really happy to not be traveling anymore. I will however be traveling up to Iowa to get my horrendous tonsils removed, as I feel at this point they are doing me more harm than good. They are filled with cysts and scar tissue and even the new discovery of some holes....I so wish I could share a picture with ya'll :)

The great news is that we have found a place in Austin. It's rather temporary (maybe until November), but it'll be perfect to give us a chance to get to know Austin, and it's on the south side where we wanted to be. It's a covered air-stream trailer in the tree-filled yard of some older hippies who built their own straw bale house. There is plenty of room for gardening and even some bee-keeping....who knows maybe even some chickens. Yay! We are very excited and relieved to have this taken care of at last.