I week of ups & downs

Hi everyone. We hope all is going well back home. This week had some great highs with Kiel loosing another tooth, Teresa did really well on her Монгол хэл (Mongolian Language) exam & we have adopted a new member into our family (Aunt Jenna.) Some of the lows of our week was all of us getting sick. Mom & Dad have head colds, Kiel was throwing up (always hits his stomach) & Esme had a very high fever (always hits her body temperature.) Also Teresa & I have reserved ourselves to the fact that we can't sleep together on a 3/4 bed any longer. We have not been able to sleep for 2 weeks now & is starting to bring on headaches & is making Монгол хэл хичээл сурч байна (Mongolian language lesson studying) difficult. We have been trying for 6 months & we think it is time for a double or queen. A Mongolian найз (friend) came over with her daughter & looked at our bed & said, "wow that is a small bed. How do you both sleep in that together?"

Last week we went as a family to buy humidifiers for the хүүхдүүдны өрөө (kids room), the золчний өрөө (living room) & an air purifier. We were able to buy both humidifiers, but they did not have any more of the air purifier we wanted. We had to buy the humidifiers because Teresa & the kids skin was starting to crack. We were also waking up in the night because we could not swallow. The humidity is between 10-25% here & when the temperature drops further they say it possibly will drop below 10%.

Here is a picture taken this morning (after the wind has taken most) of the coal smog that we experience every night. Last night to describe it, outside our apartment the coal smog looks like thick fog. You probably can see 20 feet in front of you & the smell is strong. Many people warned us to make your plans during the winter months in the day so that we don't have to be out walking in the smog in the evenings/nights.



Oh, I almost forgot. Today we are really excited because we are celebrating Canadian thanks Giving today with 4-6 Canadian families. We are having chickens, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes & pie for desert.