12/12/10-12/18/10

Sunday, December 12, 2010
The Bottema's older son got to Guatemala yesterday and came to church today.  I was laughing my head off watching all the girls checking him out.
It is so strange to be translating for people!  I never thought that I would be the one to help with the language barrier!!  How odd!!
Choir is done.....piano is done.....there was nothing to do after church!!  NAP TIME!!

Monday, December 13, 2010
We had more frost on the ground this morning.  It was not as exciting for the kids the second time around.  They all went out to play but it only lasted about 10 minutes this time!  Oh, well.
The kids and I all went over to the club for the afternoon.  The kids all seem to really enjoy playing mini golf together!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Today consisted of tests, Christmas movies, dinner upstairs, and making clay ornaments.
The weekend before the new Harry Potter movie came out, a channel on tv had a Harry Potter marathon.  I was able to record the first 6 movies!!  We've watched the first three and the kids had started the fourth.  Well, being a weirdo about Christmas movies, I recorded a bunch of movies without realizing that the recorder was out of space.  Today, I found out that ALL of the Harry Potter movies (plus a bunch of other stuff) all got erased to make room for a bunch of Christmas movies.  I am in so much trouble!!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The Relief Society took all of the quilts that we've made to a rest home.  I was shocked to pull up to the church and have people waiting and ready to go!  We loaded about 15 people into two cars and more met us there.  I was really surprised that so many people went.  I was a little sad that the one lady who actually helped make the quilts (and all of her friends) wasn't there.  There are so many wonderful people in our ward!  We sang lots of songs and were joined by an old man that kept singing with us.  During our visit, we found out that two of the people in the rest home are members of our church.  It was pretty heartwarming to see tears in several peoples eyes as we visited with the 14 residents of the home and gave them their blankets.  They were very welcoming and two even sang songs for us!!

The ladies waiting to go into the rest home.

This was my favorite guy.  He kept singing!

Some of the ladies.

Visiting

The only lady that was there!

This guy is a member.  He is blind and couldn't see that I was  different than everybody else!!

Instead of tree skirts, they use moss to decorate. 

When I got home, I was so looking forward to sitting down and watching a movie with the kids.  Unfortunately, the internet didn't like that idea and we couldn't watch anything!  UGH!!  Dave is here so Chris was going to be working late and we had planned to spend the evening watching movies.  What now?  Oh, yeah, make cookies!  The second I mentioned that idea, the kids went crazy.  They were so excited and eager to help.  We made a ton of sugar cookie dough and cream cheese frosting before making french toast for dinner.  The internet came back on and we were able to eat dinner upstairs again while watching another movie!
It was a fun little pre-Christmas when Chris came home.  Dave had brought a bunch of Christmas presents that we had ordered.

Thursday, December 16, 2010
Dave is leaving tomorrow and I really wanted to make a goody plate for him to take home to his family.  So, today was a baking day!  The kids had a blast making and decorating the sugar cookies.  We also made fudge with Grandma's recipe.  We had also made caramels and toffee, but the bonbons were a disaster.  Guess I can throw away that recipe now!
In the afternoon, three ladies from the ward came over to teach me how to make a traditional treat.  It is shredded coconut, a ton of sugar, a little milk, and cinnamon.  It is all cooked in different stages.  I'm not sure that I would ever be able to replicate them but it was fun to do at least once!!
After we finished the coconut treat, I got to put together our first goody plates of the year.  5 down (including a big huge tray for Chris's work) about 15 more to go!!
We went to deliver the goodies to Dave and the office at the temple site and ended up getting to go out to dinner.  Wow, I'll make cookies any day if it means I get to go out to eat!

Friday, December 17, 2010
The kids finished up a little bit of school work this morning and then helped pack to go to Guatemala City.  Chris wanted to go up and see a movie and do some Christmas shopping.  When we got into town, we got our hotel room and then headed to the movie theatre.  I was looking forward to watching a movie in the VIP theatre in English.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any movies in English!  UGH!!  Why is it that every time I go, there are no English movies?  So, I sat through MegaMind while trying to get rid of the piercing headache from the drive.

Saturday, December 18, 2010
Cole and I went to McDonalds for breakfast.  It was fun to hang out with him.  He doesn't mock my attempts at Spanish as much as Morgan.
I really am not used to this whole December Christmas shopping thing.  I'm one of those weirdos that is usually done shopping in July!  Now, I remember why I am that way.  I detest shopping malls......at any time of the year!  I think I'd rather have my eyeballs pulled out of my head than to have to spend time in a mall.  I tried to take one for the team but it didn't come across that way.  The kids each received money from Grandma and Grandpa Whitney to pick out their presents.  I don't know how many hours we walked around the mall trying to find what they wanted.  Alysa ended up being the only one that would spend any of her money on gifts for herself.  The others bought some candy.  Cole was so excited to have finally completed his collection of money (100, 50, 20, etc!) that he didn't even need a present to make him happy!

12/5/10-12/11/10

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Cole was still sick this morning, so Chris stayed home with him.  They did their church by reading the Friend magazines together!  To be honest, they probably got more out of it than going to three hours of church!!

Monday, December 6, 2010
Is it my turn to get sick, or am I just needing an excuse to take it easy?
Well, not too easy.  I was asked to go visit a nonmember's house to give her a Book Of Mormon.  Awkward.  I really didn't want to go but it turned out to be a very nice visit.  The lady is a single mom with a 15 year old daughter.  They have been coming to the quilting class a couple of times.  The mom, Judi, is the boss of the teachers at many schools and just happens to be my visiting teaching companion, Vilma's boss.  Vilma has brought so many nonmembers to various activity.  She has no inhibition with sharing the gospel and she is a great example to me.
While we were visiting, Judi was showing us around her neighborhood and house.  She saw me smell one of her roses and went to get some scissors to cut it off for me.  How thoughtful!!  There is so much that I continue to learn from the amazing people here in Guatemala!!

After returning home, I spent most of the rest of the day in bed.  Just me, a few good books, a huge stomachache, and four happy kids watching t.v.!!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Since I did take it easy yesterday afternoon, I didn't get much homework taken care of.  So, lucky me, I get to play catch up today.  I also had 5 piano lessons to do and it was the last day of school at Lily's.
On the way to Lily's, I had to pull over and take a picture of this guy.  These people have some serious strength!

I'm sure he was praying that the wind didn't blow too hard!!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Everybody was freezing today.  It was so cold that we were wearing gloves, hats, scarves, extra blankets, 5 layers, etc.  Alysa asked me if she could take a break from Math before her nose dripped on her books!
About 1/2 hour after the quilting class was supposed to start, I was beginning to think that nobody was going to show up.  Vilma finally made it and let me know that the security guard wouldn't let them anybody through.  Apparently our little incident a couple weeks ago has made the guards extra cautious to the point of refusing entry to people who are coming for my class.  Great!  I had to send the kids down with notes telling the guard to let them in.  Apparently it was just in time because he was in the process of sending other people away.  I wonder if anybody showed up earlier and then went home because they couldn't get in!
The class was short and to the point.  We now have 10 completely finished blankets!  We had to end the class early so that I could get to the church to play the piano for a baptism.  I showed up 15 minutes early to start the prelude.  45 minutes later, they decided to start.  The mom had promised me they were starting right on time because I had another piano lesson to do at 5:00!  Luckily the piano lesson was at the church so I was able to do the lesson while all of my kids participated in the pinata and party afterwards.  The kids are officially hooked on pinatas!  I have a feeling we might have to continue using pinatas even after we get back to the states.....whenever that might be!

Thursday, December 9, 2010
Apparently I haven't been to many church activities lately because I seem to have forgotten how late everything always starts.  The Relief Society was having a candle making class today.  I showed up about 10 minutes late only to find the president leaving for something and nobody else around.  Of course I had my piano music so the kids and I practiced their Christmas song for a little while.  The Bottemas came also so they sang while we waited.  Well, after 1 hour of waiting, a few others had shown up but no class starting.  So, we left!  We headed over to the country club to let the kids play instead!
If anybody knows me, I have a weakness for Doritos.  The crazier the flavor, the better.  My all time favorite is Blazin' Buffalo and Ranch.   The Doritos here are different and just not as good.  Well, today at the club, Morgan found a new flavor of Doritos here....Taco.  Not great but definitely different!
After we left the club, the kids begged us to let them go to the tienda.  Here in Guatemala, anybody can have a store, restaurant, etc in their house.  They actually make special garage type areas for their stores.  There will be several such stores on one street.  So, anyway, my kids love to walk to the closest tienda to buy bags of cheap chips.  They wanted to show the tienda to Carson and Taylor so we let them head over.   I sent my kids in with the equivalent of a quarter each.  They came out with three bags of chips each!  It is such a cheap reward for them.

Friday, December 10, 2010
We woke up to another freezing morning....literally!!  When I was sitting in bed yawning, I could see my breath!  All of the fields were covered in frost.  The kids were so excited.  It is the closest thing to snow here.  They all got their warmest clothes and ran outside to play.  I figured we'd call is a "snow day" and not stress about doing school.  The kids played from about 7:00-9:00!  They even took the garbage can lid to use as a sled.  They collected big pinecones for some Christmas craft projects, sang Christmas songs, and then came home to drink some hot chocolate.  They were all so happy and kept saying that they hope that tomorrow is the same!
When Chris left for work, his thermometer in the car said 1 degree celsius after the sun had been up for two hours!  I can only imagine how cold it actually got!

The empty corn fields behind our house.

Morgan, Cole, and Laina enjoying the wintery scene.

After thawing out the kids, we decided to do some homework.  The kids actually started their work without me ever mentioning it.  They are so excited to get back on schedule with the schools in the states.  

We also had a visit from another new neighbor that moved in yesterday.  They had an 11 year old boy that was playing American football.  Hopefully him and Cole will get past their shyness and become friends.

For date night, Chris and I went to watch the young men and young women of our stake perform different dances.  Each ward made up a dance.  Our ward is so large that they got to do two dances!  Each stake is doing the same thing and the best dances are going to be chosen to be performed during the cultural presentations before the temple dedication.  They also had a video showing the history of the church in Guatemala and Quetzaltenango.  It was great when it came to the present day and there was a picture with a couple of tall blond kids in the back row.  It was hilarious how much our kids stuck out!  They also showed the progress of the temple construction.  It was like watching the last two years of our life flash before us.  It is incredible to see the changes that have occurred in our family over that time!  The whole night was very uplifting and the spirit was very strong.  Some of the wards had very extravagant costumes.  I loved seeing all of the traditional dresses and dances.  It was even more special to see the youth in our ward and to realize how close we have gotten to these people!  I was so proud of them!  Chris kept saying how very pleased he is to be a part of an organization that encourages their youth to participate in these activities.  

Backdrop for the presentations.

The pictures didn't turn out but you can see a little bit of the costumes.

 

One group from our ward.  There were about 36 youth from our ward that participated in the dances!

All of the youth sang together at the end.  The dance that is selected for the dedication will be danced by 300 youth!

Saturday, December 11, 2010
We were able to drop all of the kids off at the church for a primary activity this morning.  While the kids were busy, Chris and I got to go shopping by ourselves.  We ran into Sully at the market and she helped us find a couple of things....including fireworks.  I think that's the thing Chris has been most excited about!
A year ago, we ate some really yummy coconut treats.  I asked Sully if she would teach me how to make them.  Just as I was asking her, the "expert" on them walked up.  So, they are both coming over next week to teach me how to make them.  I don't know who is more excited, me or Morgan!  YEAH!!
We met the family that moved in a couple weeks ago.  They brought us some goodies.  I feel so bad that we haven't made the effort to welcome them to the development.  I have/had great plans but it is so intimidating with the whole language barrier!  Excuses, excuses!!  We do have them on our ever growing list of goody plates for Christmas though!!
All of our hard work paid off tonight.  We had our ward Christmas program.  Six of my piano students played their Christmas songs, the primary sang, the choir did four numbers, and all the gringo kids sang a song.  During the Primary song, they had a little nativity scene.  Alysa was asked to be Mary and Laina a sheep.  At the last minute, Alysa freaked out and wouldn't be Mary so Laina had to change into Alysa's costume at the last minute.  I think Laina enjoyed herself much more than she would have being a sheep!
It was a great program but what a relief it is to have it done!

The Whitney and Bottema kids singing "The Shepherd's Carol" 

11/28/10-12/4/10

Sunday, November 28, 2010

The Childrens Primary Program was today.  I was so impressed that all our kids went up to participate.  I was anticipating them freaking out and saying they wouldn't do it.  Carson Bottema went up with them also.  It was so cool to watch the kids singing the songs in Spanish!

I used to get so frustrated when I would ask somebody to help me to communicate with somebody.  They would say something to the other person and they other person would reply but the helper never would tell me what was being said.  UGH!  Now, I am doing it!  I was trying to translate for my friend, Vilma, and Polly.  I kept telling Polly stuff in Spanish and Vilma stuff in English.  I couldn't keep the languages straight.

Chris took the T.V. and all the couches downstairs for the post-Thanskgiving dinner last night.  He wants to keep it how it is so that he can stretch out on the bigger couch.  We so miss our oversized leather sectional!  Ahhhh, the days of fitting the entire family comfortably on the couch to watch t.v.!!

I overheard this conversation tonight and got a good chuckle.

Dad to Alysa and Laina:  Go clean your room and get ready for bed.

A few minutes later, Laina: Dad, we're done cleaning our room.

Dad: Are you guys ready for bed?

Laina: No, not yet.  (Yes, they really were ready for bed)

Laina to Alysa in a whisper: I told Dad that we weren't ready for bed yet so we can play some more!

Monday, November 29, 2010

There are crickets everywhere!  Morgan tiptoes everywhere and jumps like the floor is hot lava.  Just recently she has acquired a fear of bugs!

Tomorrow is Laina's birthday and I didn't get the pinata so we all went into town to meet Chris for dinner and to get a pinata.   I can't believe that we've been back in Xela for 3 1/2 months and we are just now going to one of my favorite restaurants!!  I think Giuseppies is going to be a mother/son activity.  Nobody else fully appreciates the fine food like we do!  

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Just in time for Laina's birthday, Alysa's decided that it was her turn to be sick.  She covered herself in throw up in the middle of the night.  The poor kid spent most of the night laying on the freezing cold, tile bathroom floor.  By the time that I finally got to go back to sleep, it was time to get up and take the kids to school for Laina's pinata.  I had absolutely no energy, and Alysa was still throwing up so I called Lily to tell her we wouldn't be coming.  That didn't go over too well.  She called me back a little while later to tell me that all of the other kids had shown up with presents for Laina.  UGH!!  Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place!   I just can't make anybody happy!
After a few hours of feeling guilty about any decision I made, we loaded Alysa in the back of the van and headed to Lily's house.  She was so miserable and refused to leave the car.  We stayed long enough for the pinata, presents, and some snacks.  Luckily, Alysa has good sisters and brother that shared their candy from the pinata.

5 years old!!

If the hat of the pinata starts to come off, they remove it from the pinata and put it on the birthday child.

The pinata was so heavy duty that it wouldn't fully break.  It did however break the stick when Georgy was hitting it and the broken piece flew over all of the kids (luckily for them!) and hit me in the leg.  I didn't think I was going to be able to walk it hurt so bad!!

Laina opening her presents.

One of my favorite cows on the drive home.  The kids have named it Bunny.

The rest of the day was spent listening to Laina ask me every 5 minutes, "Can I open my presents?"

Not a second too soon, we had dinner and opened presents followed by cake made by Morgan.  I have to say that the kids favorite thing about birthdays is always the goody bags from Grandma Hunsaker.  They love them.  Thanks!

Laina is currently overly obsessed with makeup!

 Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Alysa was in bed all day!  The little girl is shriveling away to nothing.  She is so stubborn and refuses to even try to eat anything!  We'll give her another day and see how she's doing.

The quilting class was good.  We still don't know what happened to the red quilt.  We have one more week to finish 11 more lap quilts!  UGH!!  Hopefully the people that took some home will finish them this week.  I've got two to finish and then I need to get material for 4-5 more!

I can't wait for next week to be over!  I'm ready for a break!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Alysa was still not up and about so only Laina went to school while I did piano lessons at their house.  When I returned home, Alysa has improved greatly.  By the end of the day she was making up for all the lost time in bed.  Cole said that he almost missed her being sick.  It was much quieter!

The new family that moved into the development were getting their internet hooked up today.  The person messed up our line and we haven't had internet all day!  It is such a lonely feeling knowing that I have no contact with the "outside world"!  

Friday, December 3, 2010

Last week, my sister in law posted that their little boy, Nate, had learned to ride his bike without training wheels.  I told this to Laina (Nate is about 1 1/2 months older than Laina).  She decided that she can't be showed up by a boy so she proceeded to learn to ride her bike today.  I think it took her about 3 tries before she took off on her own.  Good thing for me because I was getting quite the funny looks from all of the construction workers in the development!

Saturday, December 4, 2010
We are going from youngest to oldest with it now being Cole's turn to be sick.  Just like Alysa, he didn't even get a chance to wake himself up before he was throwing up all over his bed in the middle of the night.  Yet, another night of no sleep for me.  He was so miserable and we were planning to go on a road trip to Huehuetenango with the Orellanas and the Bottemas.  Cole was so looking forward to going.  At 6:30, he got up and said that he was fine and still wanted to go.  His outlook on life changed very rapidly once we got in the car!   He did not do very well on the drive!   Although Cole was miserable, I had a lot of fun taking a bunch of pictures!

There were so many roofs that were covered in corn that was drying.

I thought these were watermelons but they are apparently some type of squash.

We were up above the clouds for part of the day!

They do have a Christmas tree in Guatemala that doesn't have the national beer logo on the top!!

We saw several really old Toyota Land Cruisers.  

Once we did get to Huehuetenango, Cole sat on the bench or in the car completely miserable!  He didn't even get to play with his friends.  We should have just stayed home but I doubt we would have ever made the trip by ourselves.  

Huehuetenango is another town here.  It has the tallest mountain and if it is a clear day, you can see both the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean at the same time.  Unfortunately, it wasn't a clear day and we couldn't see either ocean!  

A couple of old houses that some doctors used to live in before the guerillas took them over during the civil war.

A crazy plant that I hadn't seen before.

People scratched names, etc in these plants.

The view from one of the crazy old houses.

Pure misery!

Alysa hiked further up the mountain with Chris.  They found the sheep herds!

The Bottemas, Orellanas, and Whitneys

I didn't get a good picture on the drive up so I got Chris to pull over to see this waterfall.

We made it safely home, got Cole into bed and everybody just vegged for the rest of the day!

11/21/10-11/27/10

Sunday, November 21, 2010
Chris did something to mess up his back pretty bad.  He was in so much pain that I had to take him home after sacrament meeting!!
It is nice that the kids are somewhat self sufficient and I don't feel too guilty leaving them all home with Chris while he is in so much pain.   I left for most of the afternoon to go visiting teaching, teach piano class, and do choir.
I went to visit a sister that I had never been to see before.  I love seeing new houses!  What a neat family!  It is my friend, Paula's, aunt.  I love how families all live so close together.  That is something that I've never really experienced in my life time!

One of my piano students took a couple of pictures of our chapel.  

When I saw this picture, I almost started to cry.  When we leave Xela, this is one of the places that I will miss the most!  I have had many trials and growth experiences here.  I have made so many friends and met so many wonderful people.  

This picture I took.  From where I sit to play the piano, I have an excellent view of the volcano out the window. 

Monday, November 22, 2010
We've been trying to do extra school work to make up for no school on Thursday and Friday.  The kids really didn't want to have to do work while Dad wasn't working, but they also didn't want to get further behind.  We'll probably be able to get back on the U.S. school schedule by the end of this school year if we keep going and don't get lazy!
Laina is really getting excited to start sounding out words.  She knows all of her letters and the sounds for the most part.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010
It is SOOOOO COOOOOLD!!
I sat in the car all afternoon in the sun to block the wind and get some heat.  The house feels like a freezer.  The electricity could go out and it wouldn't have any effect on the food in the freezer!
Tonight, Laina started reading scriptures with the family.  She usually just copies what Chris or I tell her, but we are now having her point to each word and try to sound out some of the easier words.  She is so proud of herself.  She's really stepping it up now that she's almost 5!!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010
We finished school with enough time to start on Christmas projects!   We also made caramel popcorn for Thanksgiving.  I will never make caramel popcorn without thinking about Grandma Whitney!
We brought our stockings back with us after last Christmas.  We got them out, but we haven't figured out how we are to hang them on cement walls.  Any suggestions?  We've even contemplated super glue!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!!  Our Thanksgiving was filled with a day at Xocomil.  It was a much needed break from everything....especially the cold!  On the 1hour drive to the water park, the temperature went from about 45 degrees to about 85 degrees.   The weather was wonderful there!!  Not too hot, not too cold.  The weather was great, the company was great, the entertainment was great, the food wasn't so great!   The Bottemas went with us and all the kids had a blast.  Morgan and Cole are really feeling grown up and independent!  We had to keep reminding them that they have to stay with us!   Everybody had fun on all of the rides.  Chris even went on all the rides even though his back was still hurting pretty bad.  

The Whitneys

The Bottemas-Paul, Polly, Taylor, Carson

The view from the top of one of the slides.  This is the backside of the volcano that we can see from our bedroom.  The smoke that you see is coming from the smaller active volcano right in front of the big one.

Chris and Laina managed "the ramp" without flipping over this time!

Alysa and Morgan

The people here have never seen so much white skin!

Cole on "the white slide"

Polly, Taylor, Carson, and Cole on "the family ride".

Chris and the girls.

"The lazy river"

Taylor, Cole, and Morgan decided to collect all the extra tubes.

Cole, Morgan, and Carson at the water playground.

Alysa and Laina

 After a very fun day, we headed back to Xela.  On the way home we saw a car with a freshly cut Christmas tree on top!  That was a much missed sight that we weren't expecting to see here!!

Everybody was completely worn out when we got home.  Chris and the little girls were all asleep by 8:00!  Morgan and Cole were reading and I was working on stuff.  Morgan came out at 9:15 and told me to come see something funny.  Cole had fallen asleep with his glasses on and reading!  Poor kid was exhausted!

Friday, November 26, 2010
We have neighbors!!  Somebody actually stayed the night in one of the houses in our community for the first time!!  I have no idea who they are.  I have to say that after 21 months of being the sole occupants, it is weird to wake up and see cars in one of the driveways!
Chris's back is still giving him horrible pain so he went to a physical therapist this morning.  Apparently, he has had a little too much stress building up in his back over the past couple of years.  Hmm......what could possible cause stress in a person who brought his whole family to live in a third world country?  Poor guy!

Saturday, November 27, 2010
Laina woke me up this morning by saying, "I think I'm going to puke."  Well, get in the bathroom, not next to my bed!!  She wanted a hairband so that she wouldn't get throw up in her hair!  Instead, she got it all along the hallway, all over the bathroom, and all over herself!  Gotta love when your day starts that way!
After cleaning up and starting laundry, we got to start cleaning the house and cooking for our post-Thanksgiving fiest!  We had the Bottema's over for dinner, playing at the club, and watching probably the worst Christmas movie I have seen in a really long time!!
I never realized how much easier Thanksgiving is when you split the work!!  It was amazing.  I usually spend an entire week preparing for Thanksgiving.  This year, not so much.  I was grateful that Dave had brought us some cranberries from the states so that I could make the Whitney cranberry jello salad.  Some of the other dishes were a little bit different because of the different ingredients but overall, everything turned out pretty good!  I did however forget that the corn was in the microwave.  (I found it the next morning!)
Thanksgiving is so disappointing when my stomach won't properly stretch to fit the capacity that I want to eat!  Morgan even commented that she couldn't eat as much as she wanted.   It didn't even matter that I wore my "big" pants!
Before bed, everybody said what they are thankful for.  Cole's response, "I'm thankful to have American friends."  Yeah, I think the kids are about ready to go back to the states.  It has been great to have the Bottemas here though.   Too bad they don't have a few girls!!