10/25/09-10/31/09

(Just an updated picture of the cement cylinders blocking our road.....they are now painted!! Yeah!!)

Sunday 10/25/09

Being back in the states is very weird. I am beginning to get a glimpse of what missionaries go through when they come home.....not quite as extreme though. I am feeling guilty about all the "excess" that we have here. While sitting on my bed, I realized that my bedroom is bigger than many of the houses in Guatemala.

Our first day here began with Cole waking up at 5:00!! He didn't have a clock so he didn't know what time it was. He decided that even though it was still pitch black outside, he would get up and read by the bathroom light that I had left on for them. Since having kids, I have become the worlds lightest sleeper and his page turning managed to wake me up and I couldn't go back to sleep!

Every half hour, Cole asked if he could go see Gator. Gator is the big lab that lives on our street that the big kids love and the little kids dread! I had to keep telling Cole that most normal people without kids actually sleep in on the weekends!! Instead, they got to go visit the Gadeski's (our next door neighbors) since we could hear their kids and knew they were awake. I sent the kids to ask them what time we had church at. 1:00 UGH!! What am I going to do in an empty house with 4 kids until then??? Oh, send them to Mary's house to borrow an iron!! The kids were so excited to see Mary (our neighbor on the other side) and also to get to see her new kittens!

At church they had the children's primary program. We snuck in at the last second so most people didn't know we were there. It was hilarious to watch the different reactions of people when they did see us. Some just walked right by like everything was normal then stopped, did a double take then came back to visit. They said it was so normal to see us there that they had forgotten we weren't supposed to be there. It was pretty nice to go to Relief Society and understand what people were saying. It was a lesson that we had already had in Guatemala and it was pretty cool to see how much I had actually learned the first time around!!

At church, I briefly spoke with an old friend who is interested in renting our house. YEAH!! We have been stressing out so much about what to do with our house.

After church we got to visit with Kay, John, and Gator. Mary had gotten John to come move an extra table and chairs from her house to ours so we'd have something to eat at. Morgan and Cole had a great time playing with Gator while the adults got to catch up. They also introduced me to a new guy living directly across from us. Kay kept trying to let me have her get a pizza for us. I kept telling her that we already had food for that night. It is so cool to have wonderful neighbors!!

Monday 10/26/09

What an exciting morning. It began with a visit to the storage unit. I had forgotten what we had put in there and was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of the stuff we needed!! It was like Christmas morning!! There is still plenty to look for though! I was so happy to find the Halloween bucket so that the kids could do their usual activities this week! Next time I'll need to look for the Christmas stuff!!

We left the storage unit with the van completely full and headed to our favorite dentist. We had appointments for Morgan and Alysa. While the rest of us were sitting in the waiting area, the girl at the desk asked when my appointment was. I told her it was tomorrow and she asked if I wanted to go right then since they had a cancellation. I told her I'd love to but I had all 4 kids. She said that that was fine since the kids are so well behaved. (The kids sure have her fooled!! j/k) Then the dentist came out to give me the report on the two girls and saw Cole and Laina. He said he'd check the schedule but he thought he'd have time to get them in also. We ended up walking out of there with all 5 cleanings done and our Wednesday appointments changed to get 3 cavities filled and 1 tooth pulled. I LOVE the dentist office!

With that done, I got to go do my favorite thing with 4 hungry kids....grocery shopping. We got a bunch of stuff including my favorite flavor of Doritos!! We got the cart all loaded up and went out to the van only to remember that the van was already full from the storage unit!! The kids sure enjoyed getting to hold bags of groceries for the drive home!

After a little while getting stuff situated at the house, we left to Mesquite. I am loving my van with the DVD!! We had a great time visiting with Sharon and her two puppies.

Tuesday 10/27/09

I don't know what the deal is with Cole, but he can't seem to sleep in in the morning and he doesn't know how to be quiet!! Cole and Morgan up before 6:00 to take the dogs for a walk. They had to find their clothes and get dressed and giggle up a storm so that I couldn't go back to sleep. Oh, well. After they got back from the walk, Sharon started making cinnamon rolls for breakfast. yum! It was so nice having a yummy breakfast and not having to make it!!

Laina keeps saying that she loves grandma's house. Too bad she is terrified of the dogs! She (as well as the rest of us) is having a huge static problem with her hair. We are not used to this dry weather anymore!

We went shopping so I could get a new phone and the kids ended up getting spoiled by grandma!! They were in high heaven. We also went to the Salvation Army to look for a couple cheap things for the house. I got a couple kitchen utensils, and books but Sharon ended up buying a new bedroom set!! She decided to transform the den into another bedroom.

On the way home we got some Little Caesar's pizza and ROOT BEER!! Yummy! That is something that I definitely missed in Guatemala!!

The kids helped Sharon bathe the dogs, move in the new bedroom set, then we headed back to Vegas in the cold, windy weather!

Wednesday 10/28/09

Back to the dentist first thing in the morning for Cole's filling and tooth pulling, and Laina's two fillings. Laina did a great job and didn't even have her mouth put to sleep! Cole did have his mouth put to sleep to get his tooth out. It was a baby tooth that had the permanent tooth coming in. We had tried to wiggle it loose for months with no luck. As you can see in the picture, the root was still so long that the tooth wasn't going anywhere!!

(The top square part is the actual tooth but the bottom triangle is the remaining root!)

We also went to the library and Cole was excited to get his very own library card! The kids checked out a bunch of books and should be set for a little while!

The kids enjoyed spending the afternoon reading books, playing in the craft bucket, and trying on a bucket of "big" clothes to grow into.

Cole has been looking forward to going to scouts for months and he was all set for tonight. We drove to the house just to find out that it had been cancelled! Poor Cole was so let down!

I was pretty excited to have a family come over to look at house! They are interested in renting it when we head back to Guatemala. It was pretty strange to walk through the house and realize how much work Chris has put into this house!! There are so many extra little details that he has done to give it that little extra touch. It is pretty sad to know that we will most likely never be living here again! We have really enjoyed our house and our neighborhood!

We finished off the day with the "Daddy's not home" meal (pasta, tomato soup, cheese, bacon, hamburger, with mustard and bbq. Sounds gross but the kids love it!) followed by our long awaited root beer floats!

Thursday 10/29/09

We went to Morgan and Cole's 1st grade teachers Halloween party at the school. Mrs. Lochridge has made such an impact on the kids. Even Alysa and Laina pretend school and say that they are Mrs. Lochridge. Alysa is really upset that she won't be here to have Mrs. Lochridge for 1st grade. Anyway, the party was really fun but it was great to get a chance to catch up with Mrs. Lochridge. Morgan and Cole couldn't stop talking about all of their adventures!

Before we left, Mrs. Lochridge gave us a pumpkin that the class had scooped out but hadn't carved. The kids worked on the pumpkin for the afternoon!

Friday 10/30/09

This morning we decided to take it easy since Cole has been having really bad headaches. We finally left the house to get him some Tylenol. He spent the majority of the day in bed but managed to get well enough to go to the Track or Treat for the stake. It was our first time going and we were pretty late since we had started watching a movie! I thought for sure everybody would be out of candy and leaving by the time we got there. Surprisingly I was wrong. They were still going strong and the kids got a bunch of candy. We did end up leaving early though when Cole's head started hurting really bad again. He went straight to bed and didn't even ask for a single piece of candy!! That's when I know it is serious!!

Saturday 10/31/09

Happy Halloween

What a fun day. The day began with garage sales!! It got off to a slow start but we did manage to find a couple of decent sales. I found some cheap stuff for the house, a soccer ball for Cole, boots that Morgan refuses to take off, a jacket for Alysa, a Barbie movie and butterfly wings for Laina, and some other odds and ends.

On the way home, I decided to swing by my old CVS and see if they had any good deals. My favorite manager was there and another cashier that remembered us. There wasn't anything worthwhile on the clearance endcap so I started to leave empty handed. The cashier asked if I had seen the diapers. I told her that there had been one package but it scanned full price. She said that they had a bunch in the back for 75% off. I ended up getting 6 packages of diapers for my sister for less than $4 each!! At the same time my sister, Meghan, was at a CVS in Texas buying stuff that my kids need. It is going to be so much fun to see her next month and swap all of our stuff!!

My kids have continued a Hunsaker tradition of trading Halloween Candy. The kids set up "stores" complete with signs. They had so much fun setting out all of their candy from last night and then going to each other stores to trade candy for what they like.

Trick or treating was very productive tonight. We just walked around the neighborhood but they did pretty good. Alysa and Laina's feet started to hurt so we dropped them off at Mary's house while Morgan and Cole finished the last street. Alysa and Laina picked the wrong street to miss!! The kids are going to have a lot of fun with their stores tomorrow!!