7/27/09-8/2/09

Monday 7/27/09

This whole week is English exams. I am so glad that I was finally able to get all of the exams written...now I just have to correct them all!! I took a piece of fleece that I had cut all of the edges. When the girls were done with their test, they all sat around and tied all the edge pieces for me. Now, I have a gift ready for the baby shower on Wednesday!!

Tuesday 7/28/09

Today I got to start the oral exams. What a pain!! I don't have a clue how I am going to grade these things! I feel pretty bad about the test grades. Obviously I expected a lot more out of the kids than they really knew!! I think they're going to have to do some makeup tests to earn some extra points!! I am definitely realizing that I will need to change some things if I continue to teach!

Choir tonight was hilarious!! I was able to talk with a few people and even joke around and laugh a little. Each month the stake has a practice hymn that the wards are supposed to work on. We started the one for August and it was HORRIBLE!! I wasn't really expecting to start the new song already but was able to play the song well enough even though it is a song that is not in the English hymn book. The singing was another story!! Counting means nothing here as well as singing the right note!! I was trying my hardest not to laugh through the whole practice. Hopefully it gets a little better before we sing for the ward!!

Wednesday 7/29/09

More tests!! UGH! I feel like I am correcting nonstop and getting nowhere!! And there are still two more tests to go! Today I was talking with Michelle (the principal) and the teacher that they were hoping to hire won't return their calls. The teacher that is out on maternity leave is coming back but rather than going to the little kids class like planned, she will be doing one big kid class and one small kid class. I was asked to stay on and teach the other big kid class. I think it will be really good for everybody. I'll still be at the school with the kids when they need me but I will have the mornings off so I can do some of my other stuff. I think Chris will drop the kids off on Monday and Friday. I will have a couple of hours to clean, shop, play, etc until I have to teach at 10:40. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I teach at 10 so I'll probably just take the kids in and then work on my Spanish and other activities. It'll give me the opportunity to be around other people and not feel totally isolated yet also give me some time to do the other things that I want/need to do. If it is still too much, school will be done in 2 1/2 months!! And then it's back to the states for a little while!

We had the quilting club again today. I am continually amazed at how excited 3rd grade boys get about tying a quilt!! They are pretty funny. I hope that the quilt idea works out and that the school likes it. After we finish the "bumblebee" quilt, I think I'll just buy a bunch of fleece and have the kids work on them to donate to a shelter or something. It's really tough to figure out where/who to donate stuff to since there are so many people in need!!

I got the most random request today!! I was asked to make another Laina for one of the teachers! Everybody makes such a big deal over her! The little kids love her, my students love her, the teachers and staff love her. It's a good thing that she's got a pretty outgoing personality!! If Alysa got the same attention, she'd freak out!! Alysa has even mentioned that she is glad that she doesn't have red hair because people leave her alone!!

The baby shower today was pretty good. None of my English speaking friends (Lily and Suly) were there for the first half so I was all on my own!! Another lady volunteered me to compete in one of the games. I was timed while I hung a ton of baby clothes on a clothes line and then took them all off holding a baby. I think I had a little bit of a disadvantage with this game since we don't really use clotheslines that much in the states!! I did remarkably well until the R.S. president got up and she amazed me!! She didn't even use clothespins! She had some sort of a trick that stuck the clothes in the rope or something that I couldn't figure out but she crushed my time!

The kids all had to go with me to the shower and I was so happy to see them interacting with the other kids there. They are really starting to fit in and make friends. They are even communicating in Spanish a lot more! I was laughing when a little girl kept coming in and asking her mom how to say stuff....her mom speaks no English!! Cole was the popular kid. He took his football and had a whole group of boys playing with him.

They had some Guatemalan food at the shower that the kids devoured! Cole couldn't stop talking about how good it was. It turns out that Suly made it and she has agreed to teach me how to make it!

Thursday 7/30/09

Alysa was sick today. She's got a bad cough but I took her to class anyway. I think Laina might be getting sick also because she didn't want to go to her class either!

After school today, the kids helped me sort papers. It was nice to have something to keep them busy while I corrected tests! I also was wild and crazy and decided to make some chocolate chip cookies for class tomorrow. It is Fun Friday and also the last day of the exams so I thought it would be a good change!

Friday 7/31/09

The cookies were a hit! I had 4th and 5th grade kids asking me for the recipe! Maybe we'll have to make them in class sometime...except there isn't a stove. I am really looking forward to having only one class. Next week I am teaching both classes so that the other teacher can see how I have been doing things before she takes it back over. Apparently she had absolutely no control of the class and the principal wants her to see how I control them. I must have somebody fooled because it doesn't feel like there is much control!! After next week, it'll just be the 4th grade class. It is a bigger class and there are the typical problem students but they at least seem to want to learn for the most part.

Alysa was miserably sick today. She had a fever and wouldn't move. She screamed bloody murder when we tried to put her in the car to go to school. Next to one of my classrooms is an empty room that is only used at lunch time. I took a bunch of blankets and made her a little bed. She also had a mini DVD player (Thanks Brittany!!) and some activities and some food. When I went back to check on her, she was on a mattress and watching cartoons on a t.v. (yes, in Spanish). The mom of the owners of the school saw her in there and her and another worker went and got her the mattress (I guess they keep it in the nursery room of the school for the owners kids) and helped get her situated. She laid in the bed the entire day. As soon as school ended, she fell asleep!! We ended up staying at the school an extra 2 1/2 hours waiting for her to wake up. When she did, she did not want to have anything to do with moving again!! I had to lay the seats down in the van and make her a bed just to get her home. Luckily when we got home, I gave her some tylenol and after about an hour or so, she was perking right up! By the time that Chris got home, you never would have guessed that she had been in bed sick the entire day!

Chris had another concrete pour at work today. It went for about 7 hours!! It really has helped the work progress since there hasn't been much rain for the past couple of weeks!!

Saturday 8/1/09

We decided to do something different today since we've kind of gotten stuck in a rut. We got some cleaning done as a family (yeah!! I didn't have to do it all by myself!!) and then we headed out for Lake Atitlan. We didn't get very far out of Xela when we decided to go to Totonicapan instead. The lake is about 2 hours away and the weather wasn't looking too promising. Totonicapan was just another little town. We found horrible roads, a tiny church, and lots of people selling the same stuff. I did get Chris to pull over and buy a coconut for me though. They open the coconut and put a straw in and people walk around drinking the coconut milk. The milk stains everything that it touches so I asked them to dump out the milk before we took it in the car. Instead of using cups here, they use plastic bags for their drinks. We told the guy to just give the bag with the milk and the straw to one of the little kids.

(gotta love these roads!!)

I used to laugh at people who always took pictures of the same things. (Dad and sunsets!) Well, I am beginning to realize that my "thing" is churches. I love the cool churches here.

We drove past the community laundrymat/community pool/community bathtub!! I thought it was so funny that all the ladies were in the water to do their laundry. They spend all this time and energy to clean their clothes and then they lay them on the grass to dry! When we drove by, Alysa said that it looked like a garage sale! I thought that was hilarious!

We were able to go on our little trip and be back home in time for lunch. We were able to relax a little the rest of the day and then enjoy a pizza/movie night since we didn't do it last night!

Sunday 8/2/09

Alysa has been pulling clumps out of her hair again at night. It is always on one side of her head so her hair is always lopsided. I cut her hair short today to try to balance it a little more. Laina felt left out so I had to cut some off of hers also. Now if I could just get Cole to let me cut his hair. Chris and Cole are growing their hair out to give them a little extra warmth!

I was asked today to play the piano for a baptism next Saturday. I was also asked to teach a quilting class on Wednesday at someones house. Plus I have choir on Tuesday. When I was getting ready to move down here, Chris' boss told me that the church wouldn't be as much a part of my life as it was in the states.....I think its the opposite!!

I'm not really sure how I am supposed to teach them how to quilt when nobody has a machine (and I am WAYYYYY too lazy to hand stitch stuff!!). I took two blankets to the baby shower last week....one was a fleece blanket with the edges fringe/tied. The other was made of fleece pastel squares that I pieced together and then snipped them rag style. Apparently the women loved them and now want to learn how to make the patchwork quilt. It is going to be another new experience!! I really wish I could find some better fabric here. I really miss the flannels from the states. The only flannel I have found here is pretty boring and drab. There is so much stuff that I need to stock up on when I go to the states!!

Alysa singing her days of the week in Spanish.