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.