9/28/09-10/1/09

Monday 9/28/09

Yesterday I found out that a lot of people are beginning to worry that there won't be much food left in the markets due to the lack of rain this year. The price of tomatoes went from Q2 to Q5 per pound!! The ward is wanting to do some food storage training and helping some of the people get some food storage. I guess I should work on mine! It's kind of hard to want to get your years supply built up when you know that you're going to be moving!!

I got to stay home this morning while Chris took the kids to school. Unfortunately, when I left for school, the road was closed to get to the school. I tried three different backroads that I knew of and they were all shut down. I am thinking that there was a bad accident on the road or something. Anyway, my less than 10 minute drive ended up being over half an hour and I was going to definitely be late. I finally got enough courage to call the school and attempt to say enough in Spanish to at least get an English speaking teacher or somebody on the phone. Luckily for me it was Teacher Michelle that answered. I'm sure she got a good laugh at my attempt to make my first phone call in Spanish! I finally had to go all the way into town and find another main road that would take me up towards the school. I ended up only being 10 minutes late so it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be!

Chris' brother and his wife have been living in our house in Vegas for several months now. They got a new job offer and are moving to Phoenix this week. Since they are moving out, the utilities need to be put back in our name. What a joke! I spent the past week trying to get some help. I finally figured out how to make international calls and still couldn't get anybody to answer the phone and help me. I was so incredibly frustrated with the whole process. It is very hard to try to get anything done so far away! David (Chris' brother) ended up calling in and pretending to be Chris to change the utilities for us!

In addition to all that mess of a day, I missed 90% off school supplies at CVS. On the upside, my little sister has done an EXCELLENT job of taking over the deal shopping for me. I had to live through her. She got a bunch of stuff for me and I am so excited to go see her and the rest of my family!

Tuesday 9/29/09

I decided today that I am going to teach again next year. I told them that my kids definitely come first and if for any reason they are suffering by my teaching that they will have to find somebody new. I also told Michelle that I won't be teaching when my family comes to visit me and when I go to Alaska next summer! I think that I am in a pretty good position as far as telling them what I will/won't do.

After school I did another quilting group. We were trying to make up for the one on Saturday where we didn't have any electricity! The sisters in the ward are so patient with me. I feel like a complete idiot sometimes but hey....I'm trying!

Chris was actually home for dinner tonight!! Tuesdays are so hard for the family since he's got lots of meetings all day on Tuesday and I have so much also. Usually the kids and I eat dinner, do baths, then I kiss Chris as he walks in the door and I walk out to go to choir....or take the kids with me and have Chris pick them up on his way home. Today was pretty nice though. I was able to go to choir all by myself without having to rush!

Today we officially started out countdown to Vegas! 25 more days!

Wednesday 9/30/09

I have been sick for so long and coughing so hard that my rib feels like it is broken....or severely bruised or something. (o.k. so maybe I'm a little dramatic!) I am definitely feeling the effects of being sick for so long. I am exhausted and definitely ready to go on vacation!

I ordered the homeschooling kits for Morgan and Cole today. I hope that it works for them for next year. I was also able to get our dentist appointments scheduled. Wow, I actually feel somewhat productive!

In the afternoon, my visiting teachers came to see me. Hermana Emiliana is my little Mayan friend. She is an amazing lady. She got there before Hermana Sully so I had to make Spanish small talk. I think we did pretty well though. Sully was picking up Morgan from activity days and bringing her home. Emiliana did the lesson in Spanish and I actually got the gist of it!! They spoke very slowly and paused between sentences/main ideas. They said I was doing much better than the last time they came to visit! I found out that Hermana Emiliana has been praying that she would be able to teach this lesson to me and wanted to do it on her own without needing a translator. After hearing that she's was praying for that and for me specifically, it is amazing to look back and see how much that helped me to understand. As soon as she was done, my level of understanding went right back to where it was before. (: She really made my day.

(Cole was messing around with the camera!)

Cole has been working on his cub scout stuff. He is really excited to go back to the states and see his friends and go to cub meetings with them. He wants to get all of his stuff done so he can get his awards at the pack meeting in Las Vegas. It's been pretty cool to see how much he likes doing his scout requirements.

Morgan has been showing just as much interest in crocheting. She finished crocheting her first baby blanket. I can't believe how quickly she did it. She is now wanting to start another one!!

Tonight, I was carrying Laina to bed and she accidently kicked me in the rib. It hurt so bad that I dropped her....luckily she landed on her bed with her head missing the cement wall by inches.

Thursday 10/01/09

Is it really October? Yeah!! This is the month that we go on our trip!! We go home in 23 days. We are soooo excited but for some reason the credit card is not working to buy our airplane tickets.

Today was the Dia de Los Ninos. (Day of the kids). Instead of classes, the school had a little carnival type thing at Futeca. Futeca is a big soccer complex here so the kids also had a soccer competition between the grades. I REALLY did not want to go. The only reason I got out of bed to go was for Cole. He has really been enjoying playing soccer and wanted to go play with his class. It was worth being completely miserable to see how much fun Cole was having playing with his friends. The girls were happy playing the little games but they would have been content not going as well. When it came time for Coles grade to play in the "tournament", Cole ended up playing goalie. He said that nobody else would do it. One of his friends even let him borrow a pair of goalie gloves. His team won the first game against the 4th grade in a shootout with him in goal. One of the dads said that he is a good goalkeeper. I told him that he's never played before! They ended up loosing the second game to the 5th graders. I was so proud of my little boy and realized that I am turning into a soccer mom!!

(The shootout)

After the festivities, we ran to McDonalds and then to visit dad. The walls of the temple are going up and it looks completely different from 6 months ago! Every time the kids sing, "I Love to See the Temple", it's going to have a little bit of a different meaning for them!

The afternoon was filled with shopping for traditional dresses for the girls. I can not believe how expensive they are!! A lot of the people don't wear the traditional dress anymore since it is so expensive. Emiliana and Sully took us to 3 stores. Emiliana still wears the traditional dress and knows a lot of people that sell it and also what is a decent price and when people are trying to take advantage of us. It was very nice to have her go and help us. The girls were really excited but Laina got pretty tired. We finally got them picked out and they are going to sew them tonight to fit the girls so that we can pick them up tomorrow.

Morgan went with a peachish color. The original one she picked was completely hand embroidered and was Q3000 = $375!!

Alysa's top.

Laina picked out this top but there weren't any skirts her size that would match.

If my day wasn't complete, I still had a birthday party that I was in charge of for the sister missionaries and an English class to teach at the church!! When will I ever learn to slow down?

I took Emiiliana and her children with me to the party/class and when I picked her up, she gave me a zucchini from her garden. I had no idea what it was since it was a little round ball. Lily told me later at the party when we were eating the zucchini bread that I had made. Guess I can make some more zucchini stuff!!

The English class was interesting...a little unorganized but fun. The people are soooo excited to learn English. I was absolutely shocked by the turn out that we had! We had about 40 adults and about 20 kids. Morgan taught the kid class with a little help from one of the sister missionaries. The class is learning to sing, "I Am A Child of God" to hopefully sing in church before I leave. It was pretty cool to hear a song in English again. I think that the thing that hit me the hardest was the closing prayer. There is a man in the ward that loves to speak English and tries really hard. He offered the closing prayer and in it, he said, "Thank you that we can learn to speak in the language of our prophet." Wow!! I had never thought of it that way! These people never hear the words spoken from the prophet in his own voice and in his language. It is always a translator speaking. How blessed we are to be able to listen to our prophet and to understand his words!! Homework for the class is to sing the songs in English during conference since the words are on the screen!!

9/18/09-9/27/09

Friday 9/18/09

Yet another lazy day. We did leave the house to go to the grocery store though! It has been so nice not to have to be places at certain times and to be able to just hang out with the kids. I do have to say that they are getting a little bored and probably ready to go back to school.

I got a recipe from my little sister for chicken enchilada soup. We made it tonight and it was DELICIOUS!! Even all the kids liked it an asked if they could have leftovers for dinner tomorrow!!

Saturday 9/19/09

We talked about going to the fair today but we didn´t and instead had......yes, another lazy day. We went on a family walk by out house. Cole rode his bike and was out ahead of us. He stopped real quick when two dogs ran after him barking! I was very pleased that there were some ladies (the owners??) that came out and got the dogs away from him. I probably would have been crying but Cole was pretty brave. I definitely am not a fan of strange dogs! We continued on our way to an area that is often used as a soccer field. Nobody was playing soccer however there was a cow and dog pack there.

With our new internet, there is now access to t.v.....which means football. Cole loves being with his dad to watch football. Today Cole asked to cuddle with Chris and and was told that boys don't cuddle when they watch football. While the boys watched football, I did a little sudoku and the girls pretended a wedding. They even went out and picked flowers to use!

During another one of our many lightning storms, Laina came out of bed and said, "I don't like Jesus playing with flashlights."

Sunday 9/20/09

Today was a good day at church except that everyone is still coughing. After church, Chris was happy to get to watch more football. I made some chocolate chip cookies and the kids helped me make plates to take to some people. We dropped some off at our friends house and then tried to find the bishop's house. I couldn't find it but on my way to the church, I saw Coach Allen walking down the street so I gave the cookies to him instead.

I am not really ready to start the week. Only 5 more weeks till we go to Vegas!

Monday 9/21/09

It was so hard to get up this morning. I am still feeling pretty cruddy and it was almost as hard to get motivated to teach as it was to get up. Morgan and I took some cookies to the staff that let us borrow their traditional dress. They really liked them and said 'que rico'. (how delicious). There aren't a lot of homemade goodies here.
I also found out that there was a mess up on the calendar that was given to my class. The person who made the calendars, changed our final oral exposition dates to the dates that the 3rd grade class is using. Oops! I guess I'll have to come up with some more activities to cover the time that I had scheduled for the expositions.
I also found out that I have to choreograph a 5 minute dance for 12 kids (10 crazy boys and 2 girls!) for the final program at school.
To end the day, we got home to no water which meant no laundry. And then no gas which meant no dinner!! Darn!

Tuesday 9/22/09

I talked with Michelle again today about teaching next year. I am so torn as to what I should do. I really think that I should but some days I am not so sure. I am trying to figure out if I will be able to homeschool Morgan and Cole in addition to teaching a class. Knowing Morgan and Cole though, they can do everything on their own and only need a little bit of help. They are both very independent workers!

I had piano lessons again and afterwards took the Orellanas home. Sometimes I feel like a chauffeur here. Since most people don't have cars, I am often taking other people places. Today we had 11 people in our van. It feels good to be able to help people out but sometimes it gets hard when my kids are constantly fighting in the car when other people are there and also trying to make small talk in Spanish when I am also trying not to kill everybody on the roads!!

There is one road in Guatemala that is nice and smooth without holes in it and it is the road from town to our house. The buses enjoy the road also and go WAY too fast. Apparently there have been a lot of deaths on the road, so a while back they put these obnoxious red reflector bumps by all of the crossroads. They are obnoxious but didn't do the job so this week they put in HUGE speed bumps. Tonight when I was taking a lady home, she said that they are volcans (volcanoes). That is the new word for the speed bumps now. (Her father in law got killed on the road!)

Wednesday 9/23/09

Morgan did her oral exposition today and did a great job. She taught the class how to make cupcakes. The kids really liked eating them when they were done!

Today, Cole lost his recess for forgetting his piano after music class yesterday. He was devastated. Since we have been having so many problems with his behavior around other people, I came up with a new idea. In the past we have taken away his desert but that doesn't work anymore. We then tried taking away money, but that doesn't work either. I think that I am now going to put his soccer ball in time out and see how it works...we'll see!
Cole also came home with a note saying that he needs a giraffe costume for the end of the year program. I am soooooo burnt out on making costumes. It seems like every day one of my kids has to dress up as something.
After school, we had to rush to meet Chris to get the van filled up with gas, then get groceries, then finally go home. We just sat down and the phone rang and it was Sully saying that another lady in the ward was having a birthday party for one of the sister missionaries in our ward and they wanted us to come. Unfortunately, it is impossible to give/understand directions here so I had to go pick up Sully and have her show us how to get there. It was really fun to get to know new people and to see new places. The lady's name is Norma Perez and she is a really nice lady. I found out that her and her husband used to be the mission presidents in Honduras and their son is serving in Peru now. They had a picture of them with President and Sister Hinckley. It was really cool!
The sister missionary that was having her birthday is from Florida. She wants to teach an English class. Her new companion is from Guatemala City and understands English but won't speak it. The other people in the ward are really excited for the class.

Thursday 9/24/09

Once again we were playing chauffer and Cole was acting up in the car. He was not a happy camper when I took his soccer ball away and wouldn't let him play with it the rest of the night. I gave him the option to earn it back for the morning if he was good the rest of the day and helped out.

In addition to the volcans, somebody decided to put these crazy cement tubes in the middle of the road to our house. It is right outside our gates and we have to go through them every time we go anywhere!! I know that I am going to scrape a mirror going through at night when we can't see!! We saw a pickup try to go through (not between!) one of the cement tubes and ended up with a concave front end!!

Friday 9/25/09

My wonderful plan of using the soccer ball as punishment was ruined today!! All the boys were using his ball during recess and one of the kids kicked it over the wall. It is two stories high and landed on the roof of the next lot. I don't know how we are going to be able to ever get it back.

We had the sister missionaries over for dinner tonight. They were talking to us about the English class and Morgan was so excited. She was full of ideas and could probably organize/teach the whole class herself!

We can't go anywhere without our little toilet paper to go!! It has been a lifesaver so many times when we have gone into bathrooms and not had any toilet paper. A definite "must-have" for Guatemala!

Saturday 9/26/09

The kids got to go to a Primary activity this morning. They had a little carnival with different games. Alysa and Laina were very hesitant to stay but with a little coaxing/bribery, they stayed. It was really nice to get to spend some time with Chris away from the kids, the house, and work. We went to central park and did a little Christmas shopping. I also bought a traditional skirt. It is a different style that I will be able to wear back in the states. While we were shopping, we had the van washed which guaranteed that there would be rain. There was a ton of rain and it lasted most of the day!

I was supposed to teach another quilting group but with the rain nobody went until pretty late. Once we finally started, the power went out and we couldn't use the sewing machines! We were at least able to cut out the squares, pin them together and eat cake!!

When I got home, there was still no power. I think that were getting to the point where we use the lack of power/gas/water as an excuse to go out to eat! The kids really enjoy playing with the flashlights also. Cole was working on his oral exposition posters until it was so dark that he could barely see. He got a flashlight and kept on working until he was finished!!

Sunday 9/27/09

Our ward conference was today. The choir has been working really hard on a bunch of songs for the conference. It has been a little stressful and I was a little worried about how the songs were going to go. I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief when we were done. Everybody did pretty good. I was pretty bummed though since the rest of the family was late and missed the one song that I had really been working hard for a couple of months on.

A couple weeks ago I was reading a book that had a little story in it from George Albert Smith. The story reminded me of myself and it popped into my head today when somebody was talking about how music brings the spirit to meetings. Although I can't really understand/communicate in Spanish, I can always communicate with music. This little thought helped me feel like I am able to belong.

"I Can Feel Just as Well as Anybody"

A Holland brother by the name of Folkers was living with his wife at my place, and they could not speak of understand the English language. He used to go to the fast meetings, and when the other people talked, he could not understand what they said. When they finished, he would get up and talk, and we could not understand him. One day I asked him, "Why do you go to the English-speaking services? You cannot understand." It took me sometime to make him understand what I wanted to know. Finally he smiled and said: "It is not what you hear that makes you happy; nor what you see that makes you happy; it is what you feel, and I can feel just as well as anybody."

Although this whole experience of living in Guatemala has been pretty tough, I can not even begin to express how much we have grown and how many blessings we have received as a family by being here. It truly has been amazing.

9/15/09-9/17/09

Tuesday 9/15/09

With all of these crazy things we have been doing, I often wonder how much of it the kids really will remember? Hopefully we are documenting it and taking enough pictures that it will help the kids to remember!

This morning everyone's bums hurt a little but we're not as sore as expected.

We decided to go to the fair and see what it was all about. With all of the road closures and the swarms of people, we finally decided that it wasn't worth it. We drove around a little but kept getting turned around because of road closures for the parades/fair. Once we got away from the area of the festivities, the streets were empty. It was almost dreary! We went home and enjoyed the rest of the day relaxing. Alysa and Morgan pretended "Activity Days/Faith in God" and Cole and I picked some of the wild flowers growing in our development.

We finished off a great day with eating fried navajo tacos. I really can't stand the smell of things frying but they were pretty good!!

Wednesday 9/16/09

Chris had to go back to work today but the kids and I were able to enjoy another lazy cleaning day. It is always amazing to me what things wind up under the kids beds!

We had our ward party at 6:00. We got there about 6:15/6:30 and a bunch of the women were preparing food in the kitchen so Chris told them that I need to learn how to cook. (He failed to clarify that I need to learn to cook the traditional Guatemalan food!!) They put me to work stuffing some glob of something white and green into a leaf from a corn plant. I had to wrap it all up and then put it in a pot to cook. There wasn't a single sister there that spoke any English so we were really winging it with the communication. They showed me what they wanted me to do and hopefully I did it right!! (At least nobody went back and redid the ones that I made......that I know of!!) After a little bit, we ran out of leaves so somebody ran to their house and pulled some off the plants and brought them back....dirt and all!!

After a LONG program (probably not so long for the people that understood what was going on!!), we finally had dinner at 8:15!! (People eat really late here and my 5:00 dinner eating children were starving!!) We had some sort of carrot topped tostadas, some sweet brown blob with beans in the middle, and the corn leaf things that I made. There was also the traditional rice-milk stuff to drink. It definitely wasn't the tastiest of food and the kids weren't too thrilled about it. They kept spilling everything all over. I'm not sure if it was a way to get out of eating the food or if it was purely accidental but they were very happy to get to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when we got home!! They did however enjoy the coconut bars that were there. They came in four different flavors/colors and I think I might have to get the recipe!

Thursday 9/17/09

The kids and I didn't leave the house today. The kids were up so late last night that they actually slept in....until 7:00!! It was a definite pajama day! The kids kept entertained watching movies, playing outside, pretending, working on school projects, etc. My all time favorite was their dancing to a song that I found on youtube. It's the crazy frog popcorn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXrnKGSShMk&feature=related

Here's a link so you can actually hear the music and see the robots dancing that the kids were imitating. This video of the kids is DEFINITELY going to be blackmail material when they get a little older! I can't believe that Chris was able to hold the camera still to video tape them....we were laughing pretty hard! I think they miss the Dance Dance Revolution!

I am definitely enjoying a much needed break from school. I just wish that everybody could get rid of this horrible cough that we all have and can't seem to kick!

9/11/09-9/14/09

Friday 9/11/09

Since there was no school today, I had to take all four kids with me to the market. It was pure chaos. It is hard enough to take the kids normally but when the market is packed, it is even harder to get around! The kids were great sports though and we got everything that we needed. We even found a guy selling macadamia nuts out of a wheelbarrow. They were pretty expensive....for the market, but they were sooo good!! We then ventured to the grocery store to eat lunch with Dad at Subway. The mall food court has all of our American staples.....Burger King, Subway, Dominoes, and Taco Bell. The workers at Subway probably know us by name by now!

When we got home, the kids got to watch a couple movies. It is amazing to me how much better they get along when they are glued to the t.v. and not fighting with each other!! Maybe there is a good side to t.v.!!

Saturday 9/12/09

This morning I got to talk to my sister and her family. I talked to my other sister the other day also. It is really making me excited for our trip to the states!! We are still trying to get approval from Chris' work for his time off so that we can get our tickets. We have so much that we need/want to do! It's fun trying to schedule doctors appointments and dentist appointments over the internet! Luckily I have a great sister in law in Vegas that took care of a lot of it for me!!

We spent the afternoon taking care of errands in town and trying to find the different celebrations. We pretty much ended up driving around aimlessly but it's fun to see things.

Tonight Cole finally broke down and let me cut his hair. It was the first time in about 6 months!! It took forever and I still didn't do a very good job. Now we just need to get Chris to cut his!!

Laina has become quite the ham. She thinks she is hilarious and loves to get reactions from people. Her latest comment was when she was talking to Dad and he did something. She looked at him and said, "Hey, you little missy!" Then today in the car the kids were arguing about how to pronounce the word "church". Morgan and Cole were pretty much teasing Alysa about saying it differently. They finally got to the point where they said, "Laina how do you say church". Her argument ending reply was, "Iglesia". (Spanish for church).

Sunday 9/13/09

Today was a decent day at church. The primary was supposed to sing a song that they have never practiced with me and I wasn't even sure if I was supposed to play or not. I was very happy when the obispo (bishop) told me that they weren't ready and if I could pick a different song.

I was asked to say the prayer again in Relief Society and also asked to read something but I didn't have the right books out. I was also asked by a sister missionary if I could help her start an English class for the ward. I told her that I would help but that I will be leaving in about 6 weeks and will be gone for two months.

Since Tuesday is the official holiday, there is no choir. Unfortunately, there is ward conference in two weeks and the choir has to sing 4 songs that they haven't practiced at all!! They decided to have a practice tonight instead. The choir director told me 4:00, the music coordinator told me 4:30, and somebody finally showed up with keys at 5:00!! The music coordinator said that her and I need to have a set of keys so we're not always waiting around for somebody to open the building!! We had a pretty decent practice and I finally got home about 6:45!

Oh, a little late, but last Saturday somebody tried to break into the temple site. The security guard fired 9 shots.....not to hit the people but to try to get the attention of the police because he didn't have a phone to call for backup!

Monday 9/14/09

Today was definitely an "experience". We decided to go on a quick trip to find a sacred lake. We were told it takes about an hour to drive there and 1/2 hour to hike in. Wishful thinking!!

We left the house about 8:30 with directions to go to San Martin/Chile Verde and look for the big sign. Unfortunately these places aren't on any of our maps and the signs are horrible!! We did several turn arounds trying to find the right road. We finally got going in the right direction only to be sent to the side of the road because a parade was coming through!! Slight change of plans. We opened the sunroof and Laina, Cole, and I popped out the top to watch the parade and take pictures. The attention of the parade was diverted a little when people started seeing the blonde/redheaded gringos!

(On top of the van)

Chris was sitting in the van laughing at everybody watching us. The parade went on forever with kids from all the outlying village schools, all the bands, the baton twirlers, etc. All of the groups were showing the national symbols including the tree, quetzal, marimba, etc.

(They start these girls early!! This girl couldn't have been more than 3 years old!)

(Yes, I was taking pictures of people rather than the parade!!)

(This little girl was probably 1 years old.)

Chris asked this lady if we could take a picture with her little girls. She was very nice and the girls loved when I showed them the picture on the camera!

The kids were pretty excited that we got sent to the side of the road right next to an ice cream place. The parade got a little warm so we let them each get an ice cream.

Once the parade was over, we headed down the road. We almost made it but got stopped by another parade. This one wasn't as big and we were able to drive around part of it. With only a couple more turn arounds, we found the sign to turn off for the lake. Ah, let the adventure begin! We followed the road, turned the wrong way, turned around again but were told that it was a one way road and to go back to the original road. The original road turned into a horrible road that we didn't have nearly enough clearance for. After a few big scrapes on the bottom, we opted to stop and go back. A couple of nice ladies came out and told Chris that the "one way" road was the correct road to go on to the lake. Chris backed out with a few more scrapes and me trying to direct the way with a bunch of cows mooing at me. So, back to the real road and guess what...yup, another parade!! This one just happened to be on a huge hill made of two strips of road to drive on. Chris has new faith in the Honda Odyssey!! We made it up the hill and continued past the parade. We were told to drive to the park entrance where we could park the van and walk. Once again, wishful thinking!! We got to a point where there were two full size vans parked on the side of the road right before the road went straight up and looked pretty scary. We continued part way up before we started slipping and decided it wasn't worth it. Chris put it in reverse and slowly started back down the curving road. The brakes locked up though and we started going faster and faster with drop offs on both sides and two big vans blocking part of the road. That was a definite instance where we were praying really hard. I thought for sure we were going to go off the side of the mountain. We were watched over and Chris was able to safely maneuver the van backwards while putting on the emergency brake. We finally came to a stop next to one of the vans. I was shaking pretty bad! At that point we parked by the vans and checked to make sure everything was still o.k. on the van. (Background: Last night while watching Swiss Family Robinson, there was a scene where the family was able to get from their crashed ship to an island and the first thing the family did was say a prayer of thanks. That was my first thought when we finally got stopped. We were definitely watched over and we are extremely grateful for the Lord's hand in our lives!!)

So once we got our heart rates back to normal, we began the 1/2 hour hike to Chicabal Lake. It is actually a lake that formed in the top of a volcano. It is a sacred lake where the Mayans do a lot of ceremonies. You are not allowed to go in the water and you are supposed to be quiet here.

(Cole needs the most reminding to be quiet!!)

I have always thought that we were a relatively fit family. Reality set in about 3 minutes into the hike where we thought we were going to have our lungs explode. What were we thinking??? We hadn't even gotten to the park entrance, we had no idea how much further it was and we were huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf. We hiked for what seemed like forever going straight up. (Remember that we live at about 8000 ft above sea level and that was before we even started the drive up!!) A while later we heard a car coming so we moved to the side of the road. A couple of guys stopped and asked us if we'd like a ride in the back of their truck to the park entrance. The driver had lived in Michigan for 6 years and spoke some English. Cole was ecstatic that he finally got to ride in the back of a little Toyota! He wasn't too happy when I made him sit all the way down though. If the guy hadn't picked us up, I have a feeling that we would have turned around and gone back.

Once we got to the park entrance, we paid our fee and were told that it is about a 45 minute hike. (without kids!) Each person that we saw along the way added another 15 minutes until we had people telling us it as two hours!! I think we even surpassed that time frame!

(The park entrance)

The hike was beautiful. Chris carried the backpack and Laina half the time. Everybody was whining by the time we left the park entrance. I felt like a horrible mom for dragging my kids out on this adventure! People were passing us going the opposite direction. Everybody that we saw were the Mayans and most of them were speaking a different language. The women were all dressed in their traditional dress including sandals and high heels!! Some kids didn't have any shoes at all! Chris was so embarassed because we were being mocked by little old ladies running down the hill in their high heels and we could barely make it up.

(Let the real fun begin!)

(One of many breaks)

We had to stop about every 5 minutes for a break. I think it might have been a good thing that we had the kids so we could blame having to take breaks on them!! We had one bathroom break and Alysa peed in the woods for the first time!! I was so proud of her. She has refused to do that up until now! Not knowing how much further it was, was pretty tough. Every once in a while there was a sign that would show how many more kilometers it was but it didn't seem to be going down very fast. The terrain was up then down then up and up and up then down, down, down. It was crazy. I kept telling the kids that I felt like Dora the Explorer in the rain forest!

We finally made it to the lake sometime around 2:00 (I think....I lost track of time!). The lake was really pretty. We were there for about two minutes before the fog blew in and we couldn't see anything! We had a little picnic time to sit and relax before the rain started and we had to head back. The scenery was gorgeous though and I can't wait to take our visitors there..... without my kids!!

Here is a youtube link to a video that another person took of the lake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8KmZ88Ngnk

(Lake Chicabal)

(The fog/clouds starting to roll in)

(Laina collecting flowers)

(Cole-always looking for a tree to climb)

(My most prized photo...without the kids)

(Up in the clouds)

(Break time for Daddy and the girls)

(The trees through the clouds)

(Who started bunny ears anyway?)

(Mom and Alysa)

The hike back was a little easier since most of it was downhill. We had to go slower with the kids so they wouldn't slide down but we didn't have to take so many breaks. All the Mayan guys were racing down the hills. I don't know how these people do this!! Everybody was beyond tired at this point and we had to use distractions to keep Laina going. She had to find as many different colors of flowers along the way. She started a leaf collection also that she wants to send to her Grandma Hunsaker!

(Yes, we were in the jungle!! Too bad I didn't have an ipod with Jungle Boogie on it!! We did play it when we got home and looked at the pictures though! Instead we got to listen to all of the birds singing.)

After a break at the park entrance, we got enough energy to walk back to the car. (Our friend with the truck had already left! ): ) The rain subsided so we didn't get too drenched. We were so worried that something would be wrong with the van when we got there!

We successfully made it back to the van. The van was safe and we all survived. It was definitely something that we'll remember for a while. Cole is pretty excited and hopes that he can sign off some scout stuff!

On the drive home (we only got stopped by one more parade!!) Chris asked me if that was enough adventure for me. I think that was enough.....at least for one day! What should we do tomorrow?....if we can roll out of bed that is!!

9/8/09-9/10/09

Tuesday 9/8/09

Today was the science fair and we still hadn't gotten Cole's experiment done. We packed up all the equipment, took it to school, and put it on the top level balcony and prayed for some sun!! Our prayers were answered and we got just enough sun to cook the hot dog before the rain started!! We would run upstairs and go through the middle of a class to check it every 45 minutes or so. Luckily it was Teacher Deanna's classroom and she was very supportive of Cole doing his own experiment. As we later found out at the fair, it was mostly the parents projects instead of the kids. (Chris' coworkers told him that the maids are the smartest people in Guatemala because they are the ones that do all of the kids homework!!) Call me a lazy parent if you want, but I think the kids need to do their own work so that they can learn!! Oh, well. The kids did really well on their presentations. Morgan even did hers in Spanish!

(Morgan, Andres, Mindy, and Rudy)

(Cole and his Spanish teacher, Teacher Mariela, giving his presentation)

At recess today, Cole got hit in the face with the soccer ball. Luckily he didn't break his glasses...or his nose. He was pretty shaken up though. After a few minutes he headed back down and was back in the action. He is really enjoying playing soccer now and has lots of friends.

After recess there was a chaotic practice for the parade on Thursday. It is going to be interesting!!

During the dismissal time, Teacher Michelle approached me about teaching again next year. I've kind of been waiting to be asked. I haven't decided if I am going to teach or not. There are a lot of pro's and also some con's. I think the pro's of being with the kids and having interaction out of the house will probably beat out the cons.

Wednesday 8/9/09

A little while back, we were informed that you don't flush toilet paper down the toilets here. I was wondering why there were garbage cans in every bathroom stall!! Apparently the toilet system isn't strong enough to take care of the toilet paper. I wonder how many toilets I have clogged. It's really hard to break a habit that you've been doing for your entire life!!

We had our Club Fair today. Everyone seemed to like the quilts. The kids tied one of my crazy quilts and then finished their "Beehive" quilt. We gave the beehive one to the owners to display in the school.

I am done teaching for over a week! YEAH!! We have the parade tomorrow morning and then no school again until the 21st!! Chris even gets two days off of work next week so we might have to go do something fun.

Thursday 8/10/09

We had the parade today. It was so fun/funny. We didn't know if anybody was going to have any of the boys traditional clothes (the boys don't usually wear the traditional clothes except in some of the smaller towns) so Chris took Cole to a little tourist shop and got him an outfit to wear. I think he was pretty excited to wear it. Morgan was able to borrow a dress from one of the cleaning ladies at the school. It was so nice of her. She had two different outfits but they are so heavy that she had to bring them on separate days since she had to carry them to the school! I was able to borrow a dress from Cole's Spanish teacher. She is pretty tall (for here!) so we thought the dress would fit but it was a little on the short side. Everybody got to see some really white legs!! Laina had to dress up as the national bird, the quetzal, and Alysa had to be the national tree. We had to get a little creative on the costumes. I've had to come up with more costumes here in the past 5 months than I have in my entire life!!

(My little quetzal....definitely not as extravagant as the other parents! Check out the kids behind Laina!!)

We had to go to the school early so that we could have some help getting dressed. We went up to the very top room of the school. There were about 4 other women dressing me and Teacher Deana. I asked her if she felt like she was getting ready for a wedding. Especially since we had to walk down a tiny spiral staircase to show everybody our outfits. It was probably as much fun just trying to get dressed as it was wearing the outfits. One of the ladies told us that when she has to get dressed by herself that she ties the string of her skirt onto a nail in the wall and pulls backwards to get it tight enough. She's the one that let Morgan borrow a dress and that is in the video trying to get me dressed. I need to make her some cookies or something!

We definitely got quite a reaction in the traditional dress. I don't know how many pictures we were asked to be in! Complete strangers were coming up and asking if they could take our pictures.

(Kristina with some of the 4th and 5th graders)

(The crazy white ladies!! Kristina and Deanna)

(Cole con sus amigos, Angel y Luis)

(Some of the 3rd graders)

(Alysa with her English teacher/my friend, Lily. Lily got to wear some traditional clothes as well.)

The parade was about a block long and they stopped traffic in both directions. I'm sure the cars weren't too happy about that!! There was even an ambulance that had to go off of the road to get through! We started at a gas station and walked to a big convention center called the Gran Karmel. They even had a band come to play. Once we got to the Gran Karmel, they did a few presentations and then we were done. I think that getting the chance to wear the traditional dress was more exciting than the actual parade!

Morgan went to her friends house again after the parade and the other kids and I went home. It was so exciting to go home and have Chris be there along with a couple of guys installing our internet!! YEAH!! It only took them 7 months to get it done!! Chris is happy that he can finally watch (hopefully) football!