So here is another update. Sarah and I still seem to have very little time for leisurely activities such as updating a blog. I can only assume that we will have more free time once the baby arrives. Sarah is growing quite a good little belly. Here is a succession of shots for all of those who can not make it to see the real thing at this time.What a cutie. The nursery is progressing nicely. Mom and dad Mulder came down last weekend and helped me hang drywall and start the mudding. It was a great help!! Sarah and I feel that this coming weekend, we will be able to paint the nursery. I guess that means that we will have to come up with colors this week. We are thinking red black and purple stripes. That is not set in stone yet though. Little "Foxey" is not much help in the decision making. All she can do at this point is kick, but she never does it in response to a question about room color. You'd think she would care a little more about her own room. I have been mudding the room ever since dad Mulder left and I've learned a few things. 1. Mud is cheap... buy as much as you need, then buy some more. 2. Always work your mud. It comes out of the bucket with lots of bubbles. Things will work more smoothly if you slap it around a bit first (insert crude joke here). 3. The bigger the blade, the broader the stroke. 4. In this case, pressure is a good thing. 5. There is great beauty in the phrase, "you're in a closet... don't try so hard." In all reality, if the drywall ends up looking like a perfect, smooth wall then it won't match the rest of the house. In other news, we are trying to narrow the search of baby names down, but it is still going rough. I am quite disappointed in the lack of participation in the baby name contest on this blog. Do I have to up the stakes. Who ever comes up with the winning name gets a free month of spending time with "Foxy" at their house (while Joel and Sarah go on a cruise)

Well see??!!! We finally have something that is worth writing about. The ultra sound we had was truly amazing. We could see little hands and feet, movement and thumb sucking. Our child looks absolutely beautiful. Here's a peak. Look at that cute little merger of loons. Yeah, we found out what sex our child is, and no we're not telling you. Everything in the ultrasound looked good. The only thing out of the ordinary that the sonographer mentioned is that our child has very long fingers. Which grandparent wants to buy Fox a piano? Sarah is doing very well. She is starting to have difficulty dealing with her belly sticking out in front of her. She has even mentioned that it feels kinda like its not even a part of her, just something she's got to carry around. I on the other hand have it worse because my side of the bed is getting smaller and smaller. With her belly and her 23 pillows I feel the pressure to finish our new bedroom so that I can stay in the guest room.
In other news, I finished my marathon last weekend. I felt really good about it and only hobbled around for two days afterwards. My official time was 3:33:04. Not bad for my first one. I got a picture off the marathon website. Don't tell anyone. If you want to see more, just go to akronmarathon.com and click the "preview and order pictures" button on the right. search for bib number 387. It was really fun running to the next point where I could see my wife cheering me on. I don't think it will be my last marathon, but it will be my only one for a while. I'm giving myself plenty of time to lick my wounds.
Until the next time we have something interesting to blog about.
-Ohio Mulders

And now for a pleasant stroll through the Mulder Gardens. Despite the lack of rain, there is much beauty in the Mulder Gardens this time of year. The pond is full of life including two goldfish that showed up out of nowhere last summer and lived under the ice this winter.
Many things are sprouting new. On the left you see Pepe's Mango tree. It was planted in honor of Pepe's creation and seems to be growing faster than Pepe. Very exciting news it that after being planted 6 months ago, the Baobab seed that I received in my stocking finally sprouted. These trees grow huge. In about 500 years I can build a house out of it. So far it's only four leaves big.
The avocado that Sarah planted when we started dating is doing very well. I fear that after this summer, I will not be able to fit him in the house anymore. He lives happily next to the garage. Elsewhere in the garden things are blooming all around. We have a few orange day lilies, some fantastic purple Pickerel weed in the pond as well as a delicious apricot water lily that blooms constantly. Even the Venus Flytraps in the bog are flowering. It's a wonderful sight. There is trouble in paradise however...



The trouble lies in the vegetable garden and surrounding gardens. These gardens are at the back of the yard quite a ways from the house, so I can't keep a close eye on them. Imagine my horror when I came out to find my peppers pilfered. They were the first to go. The plants were eaten down to just sticks with some peppers hanging on them. Now I had some raccoon problems in previous times, but they had never gone after pepper plants. I was baffled. Later I noticed that every single flower bud was eaten off of the day lilies in the back. No sea of orange along our back fence this year. A few days later the leaves from the cucumber and acorn squash were disappearing. Then came the last straw. My big beautiful zucchini was devoured. I was (and am) furious.
The culprit turned out to be quite amazing. I knew that I would not be deemed credible by the majority of my family, so I took photographic proof. Yup... DEER!! You read correctly. Urban deer tough enough to go after peppers and spikey zucchini leaves. We see these two guys each evening that we spend in the garden. They are brazen enough to hang out in the neighbors yard while we have a group a friends around the fire pit. Who can blame them with the impressive antlers that they have. The photos don't do them justice, since I counted an impressive 14 points on the bigger fella. Even the one we call "the little guy" has 8 points. I guess with no hunting pressure they grow big around here.
So I suggest to Bo that he bring a shot gun next time he comes down. If you rid me of these pests, I promise not to let Pepe use the mango tree on you. Venison anyone??

OK. I know, I know... there is quite a bit of time between blog updates from the two loons. That is because there is very little excitement in the home of the two loons. But all that will be changing soon. I just got back from the doctor where I got to see for the first time the heartbeat of a very small li'l loon. That's right. My child already has a fully working heart. Sarah and I are both very excited to know that our child appears to be healthy and progressing nicely. The preliminary due date is Feb. 11. So with that we open the floor for corporate sponsorship of the name. How does Starbucks Mulder sound?

The results are in!! Sarah and I both completed the half marathon on Sunday. That's 13.1 miles people. Sarah did an impressive 2 hr. 13 min. run, beating her previous score all during a month of working in the Neo-Natal intensive care(NICU) wards where she had little time to train. Joel feels good about his run too, running a 1 hr. 42 min run. His only hope is that he beat his sister's first long run pace. I mean really, there's gotta be something in life he's better than Karen at.
Other than the race, there is little going on here in Cleveland. The NICU wards have been keeping Sarah very busy and with school wrapping up, Joel has had little time to breath as well. There is only nine more days of school left before exams and the summer will be more than welcome. The good news for Joel is that he continues to love teaching high school as well as continues to impress his employers. The latest recruit to the "hire Joel" bandwagon is the football coach. That's a long story. Let's just say that if there is any business sense rubbed off from Joel's father, it's the ability to befriend just about anyone (Although Joel can't put a radio together to save his life... not even a crappy one.)
Sarah this week received her Ohio Medical License in the mail along with a wallet version. I guess she has to keep that in case there is the age ole question of "is there a doctor in the house?" Sucker. Now she's obligated to assist any ailing Ohioian who asks the question. No Bo... you do not qualify as an Ohioian. In fact from what I hear lately, you're getting closer and closer to qualifying as a nomad.
At the end of May, Sarah starts her mini-chief month (which some have referred to as a " mini-vacation month") and Joel is done teaching. Then will start the salad days. We look forward to a good summer this year. Lots of gardening and a little house work. Although, our plans on house work have changed. There will be no major renovations this summer, just a little sprucing up. If you were involved in said processes, communication will be forthcoming.
In conclusion, to all those who harassed the Ohio Mulders about updating their blog... for shame. When is the last time you updated yours. I know of only one who even has a blog. The plank in your eyes preclude you from asking me to remove my speck. Kelly, I do acknowledge that you updated before I did, but six times?... Let's not exaggerate. You caught up a little.... a little.

Ok Ok. Here is a new post. I didn't even realize it's been over a month since the last post. Wow how time flies when you are incredibly busy. Let's see.... what has happened since the last post. Oh yeah, Sarah came home. Sarah arrived home from Malawi on the first day of my spring break. This came as great convenience in the fact that we had some down time to catch up with each other. The weather was wonderful. It had been warm for two weeks and the crocus bulbs that I had planted in October had flowered just in time for Sarah to be greeted home by a floral valentine. We spent the first three days of the week in the Hocking Hills for a mini-vacation. I intended to take pictures of the spring flowers in that beautiful region of the state, but Sarah and I never left our little cabin in the woods. We spent the whole time talking, and telling stories, and filling each other in on the last two months of our lives. I am truly lucky to have a wife who is my best friend. The last half of the week we went up to Michigan to see some family. Sarah's brother, Nathan, is getting married soon and wedding showers have began for his fiance, Heather. So while Sarah attended a shower the Hull boys and I went to do guy stuff... a war movie. 200 is a cinematic masterpiece, although it is a bit historically inaccurate. It's as if some one read his history book at the same time as Lord of the Rings and tried to recall the Spartans' story a year later. After having our sense of history offended we went up to the farm to cool off. That is some beautiful land up there this time of year. The wildlife is all starting to get active after winter's sleep. If anyone reading this is within a short drive of Big Rapids, I know Bo would love company, and its really worth the trip. On our way home from the farm we stopped at Greg and Jill's for a wonderful dinner with family. Not only did we get to see Greg's family, who obviously didn't wait for spring to do their growing, but the Grevengoeds were there as well. It was great to catch up with all of them. Then we came home and had our sights on spring gardening the next weekend. Sarah and I drempt of digging in the dirt and planting flowers and vegetables and then Ohio did what it does best... depress you. We got our biggest snow storm of the season. On Easter morning the city of Cleveland shut down. We spent Easter morning with our friends and neighbors digging ourselves our. Although this sounds sad it really isn't. We all agreed that the gregarious time and love of friends really showed that the God of Love is truly alive. Between working hard to dig out and playing hard with friends Sarah and I stopped to give thanks for the storm (and the snowthrower dad gave us.) So life plods on and we have put our heads down to wait our the last hurrah of winter. The snow is just about gone now but the cold has not quite given up yet. Winter is still around, but there is promise of spring. Yesterday I saw our local stray cat (OSKy) waddle through our backyard with an obvious promise of spring time kittens. Anyone want a calico?

Time for another wonderful Mulder blog. Sarah is doing well in Africa and all I have to say about that is "only 10 more days!!!" I have been keeping very busy with work, which has been nice. I'm so exhausted by the time I hit the pillow that I barely notice that my bed is lonely. I have been really enjoying teaching at the high school. I'm turning the most notorious classes around and making lots of friends. This photo is evidence to why it is a bad idea to fall asleep in Mr. Mulder's classroom... especially when he brought a camera that day. I am very proud of the progress my students have made in science. More and more I have students coming for extra help after school and administration commenting about the good reports they are receiving from both students and staff. They are even overlooking some of my more unorthodox behaviors. One day I had my whole class walking backwards down the hallway to try to get a grasp on the concept of "frame of reference." Yesterday I was even immortalized in a student made comic book, which I believe may be the highest honor a teacher can receive.
I did take a few days off last week and flew down to Florida to see my parents at The Villages. As much as it was "Disney for the retired" I had a lot of fun. I got to go fishing with T.J., my college room mate, the first day there and man did I catch a big fish. T.J. caught it on film.I think the angle of the picture makes it look smaller or something, because that thing must have weighed 4 lbs. easy. My dad, Tj and I had a great day on the river, even if the fish weren't biting all that readily. Since the last time I really saw Tj, he acquired a wife and three daughters, but he hasn't changed a bit. He's still a great guy who will do anything for ya. I hope to make it a habit to go down to Orlando and do some fishing with him. I have to go at least once more, because he wants to meet the crazy woman who would marry his old room mate, and that crazy woman would like to meet him too. Another great thing about heading down to Florida was seeing my sister and her family. It's always a great thing to spend some time as the uncle. I promised Sarah some blog photos of some healthy kids, so here they are... in their pajamas.
All in all life is going pretty good. It's very busy, but in 10 days my wife comes home on the same day my spring break starts. We are then disappearing into the woods for a while, followed by a trip up to Michigan. Since Nathan and Heather's wedding is approaching, the bridal showers have started. My job will to be to keep Nathan and Bo company during the event, and gosh darn it I'm going to give it my all!

I was reminded of the quote today and I can't help but think that it applies to everyone I have ever met. I think it would make a fitting title to my post

"Work Like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt and dance like nobody is watching"

Greetings everyone, I wish I could say that I am blogging from Malawi but alas the internet is too slow to upload anything and this comes by way of my own personal knight in shining armor with high speed internet!

Here in Blantyre the big news today is that one of the two cell phone companies in the country burned to the ground taking its mainframe with it and leaving more than half of Malawi without any means of communication. The buzz around town is that the rival phone company set the fire because more people were switching to that service. Scandal, Arson and Corporate espionage in Malawi!!! You wouldn't think that cell phones are big here, but the dark continent is not so in the dark. Often I'll be seeing a patient, lying on the bed with literally a rag for a pair of pants and no shirt on next to his mother who is wrapped in the traditional Malawian swaths of fabric, faded with years of wear. And I am always amazed when I hear the distinct tune of fur Elise escaping from the shopping bag that doubles as a purse, suitcase (more rags) and lunch box. Everyone has a cell phone, only very rich people have a land line.

Malaria season is in full gear. Every bed in the children's ward is taken and on my ward we've added half beds. The 4 year old boy in bed 11 1/2 sleeps on the floor between beds eleven and twelve. His name is Madalitso and he happens to be my favorite patient right now and not just because he loves to run around after hours with no pants on but he is a very happy and outgoing kid. Yesterday he was nice enough to draw me a 10' by 12' picture of a "gallimoto" or a cab on the floor of the ward with his new box of crayons. All 12 families in the room had to leave for an hour while his mom mopped it off the floor. I wish I had my camera for that. All the mothers sleep on the floor next to the beds or sometimes they sleep sitting up on benches resting their heads on their child's bed. Sometimes they have other kids with them. Madalitso's little brother Hardwork (yes that's his name) has been on the ward for the whole time his big brother has been hospitalized.

My favorite part of the day is when I hand a kid a mosquito net and say "see you in a month Madalitso, watch out for the mosquitoes" My least favorite part of the day is when they don't make it to that point.

There is so much I wish I could share with all of you but to sum it up, pineapple and passion fruit are in season, it rains at 3pm most days, Malawian people are really into shoes and HIV sucks.

Hello all. Yeah, it's been awhile since the last blog. It's March already for crying out loud. Maybe it's because not much goes on without my wife. Maybe it's because I have no time to sit down at my computer. Since I started my new job as a science teacher, I've been going non-stop. I didn't realize it would be so much work and be so draining. It's now Saturday morning and its the first time I've had to relax in two weeks. My plans are to do absolutely nothing, and I love it. I also love my new job. I have got a great bunch of kids. This photo is only one of my 5 classes of freshman. Yeah, those are 9th graders. They are making them bigger these days. They were all very excited to take the picture (especially when they heard that Mrs. Mulder would be seeing it in Africa) but as you can see the guys still have to keep up that cool look. The guy in the front is Andre. He's my class clown. I'm pretty sure Andre's going to be a lawyer, because he will always try to argue a technicality in order to avoid schoolwork. I have a total of 90 students each day and I love every one of them. I'm not saying I get along with all of them or that some don't drive me up a wall. I'm just saying that deep down my kids have great potential and I love trying to show it to them. Sometimes getting them to see it is the hardest part. This past Thursday was parent teacher night. Six hours of parents cycling through different subjects. It was fun to meet the parents of some of my kids, but unfortunately only a small fraction of the parents attended. A lot of parents don't seem to care, and it always shows in their students behavior. As much as I was embarrassed each time I found little notes all over my locker the next day, I'm very lucky to have parents that always came to my parent teacher nights when I was in school.
Well the coffee is ready, so I'm going to start my busy day of drinking coffee and wishing it was spring time.

Today I started my first day as a full time teacher. Wooof!! So the story goes that this teacher started the new year in September and took medical leave less than two months later. Huh? A substitute who we'll call Hat guy (due to the ridiculous hat he liked to wear in the winter time) filled in for this nice lady while she was gone. Just recently she told the school board that she was taking early retirement. "Well [Hat guy] is going to have to fill in for the rest of the year," said the principal
"How's he doing in that classroom?" "More than 2/3 of the class is failing!!" "Really?! Is [Hat guy] qualified to be doing this?" "I'll check his credentials... OOPSS!!" "Quick find a certified long term sub for science."
This looks like a job for Mr. Mulder.
Joel was asked by the principal on a Monday. Due to multiple snow days, some formalities were skipped and Human Resources called him on Thursday afternoon, telling him to start Monday. Being the intrepid go getter that he is, on Friday Joel travels makes the 1/2 mile trek to the high school to meet this principal again and get a handle on "the ropes." Our hero's heart sunk when he learned from the secretary that the principal was out sick that day, and no one in the office new anything about him starting on Monday. The only advice given was come back Monday morning.
Well Joel doesn't take this lying down. He tracks down a science teacher that he knows and gets the scoop on the curriculum. He spends the weekend refreshing his memory on Newton's laws and force diagrams.
When Monday arrives our fearless warrior, akin to the greats such as Gilgamesh and Jason of Troy, finds the principal and is told that Hat guy will be working with him for the first week, so that those legendary "ropes" may be found. But first the principal had to find [Hat guy] in the building so that he could inform him that Friday is his last day. YEAH!! POOR HAT GUY DIDN'T KNOW!!! Well let's just say that the rest of the day was , hmmm.... awkward. Hat guy was not happy. I figured since this was the first day of the week, I'd just observe his class to get to know the students and see where they are. I mean, our hero did. At the end of the day the bomb fell squarely in Gilgajoelson's face. Hat guy announced, "I'm not coming back this week. You're on your own." Now our warrior must head into battle tomorrow on his own. Cannons to the left of him. Cannons to the right of him. Cannons in front of him. Rides the one. Oh yeah, Gilgajoelson was also informed today that the nice lady who went on medical leave did so because of her (now his) sixth period class. The likes of which the high school has never seen. Medical leave was code for nervous breakdown. DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!
tune in next time for more adventures from the tales of "What did I sign up for??!!"

ps. Sarah arrived safely in Africa and so did her luggage... two days later.

Well ok. So it has been awhile since the last post. I figured the previously mentioned humdrums would buy me some time, since very little occurs during the humdrums. On top of the humdrums, we are in this deep freeze that is reminiscent of the bottom level of Dante's inferno. Our old house is having a hard time battling out the cold. At times a slight cold wind will be felt inside. Sarah and I have dealt with this the best way we know... going to the botanical gardens. The gardens are a favorite of ours for many reasons: they remind us of our wedding day at the Meijer gardens, they warm us up in the hard winter, and they give us a slight taste of how life will be when we move to the middle of the jungle and disappear from society. Aahh life will be good. Living off the land without a care in the world. We already have the majority of the vaccinations known to man and we know the secrets of the fire swamp, so we feel we could live quite comfortable in the wilds. Here Sarah is coaxing in a scrumptious butterfly to have as a tapas in a jungle feast. See that look of hunger in her eyes? The exodus grows closer and closer everyday. In two days Sarah leaves for Africa. One of her missions is to stake out a place in the Great Rift Valley where we could create a homestead. She leaves me here to start packing. If she can find a good one, I'll join her soon enough. But until then we must just dream of our futures, and live in the present. Towards that end there is some good news in the "present" category. It seems I have procured a long term teaching position at the high school. I'll have my own classroom, a steady job, and about twice the pay. The only hitch is that it's been so cold lately that the schools are closed, so I'm having trouble tracking down the principal to discuss the job. I bet African schools are never closed due to cold.

Sarah Here Now: Well I have a couple of days left here in the Frigid cold (we're getting soft, it's a whole 8 degrees outside) before I trade it for 85 and raining each day. I'm going to try to post a few blogs from Malawi if I can. If I can't I'll try to stay in touch with e-mail. I'll let you all know when I find our new homestead. The address might be something like this:
The hut next to the lake just north of the old hippo field. Wish me luck everyone and enjoy the rest of the winter!
Stay warm everyone, and keep dreaming of spring like us.

Life plods on here in Ohio. We are smack in the middle of the Ohio seasonal humdrums. It rained for about three days strait. After which we had the luck of it turning to snow. I got to use my snow thrower again. Previously I only had a chance to use it for one snowfall and it's a lot of fun to use. So we are again blanketed in white and in sub freezing temperatures. It came just in time to successfully put the buds and bulbs back into hibernation. They were almost to their point of no return. A couple more days of 40's and 50's and our lilac bushes would have had leaves.
There seems to be no work for subs this week. The public schools here in Cleveland Heights have their final exams this week. That means shortened days and plenty of full time teachers available so that they don't have to pay subs. It does allow me to get other projects done. I put together my workshop. Check it out. As you can see there is a pegboard with my lovely tools hanging above a desk level work area. The old work bench is still there in the distance with my wonderful miter saw on it. Between the two is new shelving. The piece de resistance is the peninsula coming into the foreground of the picture. It features my new table saw(thanks Bo) built in, which I used to build the aforementioned, as well as a fold out extention creating a large beautiful work area. Now the eloquent pieces of wooden poetry may flow from my tools, mind, and inspiration.
Speaking of inspiration, the lack of it for my new running hobby is problematic with this kind of weather. Even with my new ipod running gadgety gizmo (thanks dad) it was getting tough to find the motivation to get out and run. Towards that end Sarah and I both signed up for the Cleveland half marathon this May 10th. Now I have to train, or suffer the humiliation of not completing the run which I'm sure Sarah will complete. Free housing will be available for any who want to come cheer us on.