It was weird to be back at church today. It seems like it's been forever since we there! Chris wasn't too pleased with me when I told the high councelman that Chris still needs a calling. We've been in the ward for over a year!! Chris told him that he is perfectly content without one.
We had a going away party for the Thomas family this evening. It was great and we had some good laughs. The kids played like crazy. Everyone stayed until after 10:00 and their daughter, Xela spent the night. I think that was Morgans first sleepover that she's ever had. She even told me thank you!! WOW!!
Monday, April 12, 2010
Morgan and Xela had a blast. Morgan got up early to try to get some of her school work done while Xela was still sleeping. After all the kids got most of their work done, we went to visit with the Tomases. I brought all of their kids over to play for a little bit hoping to give Melody and Nathan a chance to finish up packing. We were only home for about an hour when they came to pick up the kids for their last dinner in Quetzaltenango. After we said our last good byes and they left, all of the kids burst into tears. They are so sad that their friends are leaving. Especially Morgan!!
As soon as most of the kids stopped crying, we headed to the church for a baby shower for the choir director. It was so uncomfortable at first, but everybody was trying really hard to include me. Morgan kept asking me to ask the moms if she could watch their babies. She's getting to that age where she wants to start babysitting. Instead, she helped Lily in the kitchen. Lily told her that maybe Morgan (and her friend, Katie, from church) can babysit the babies while the moms go to the jewelry making class on Fridays.
My music friend, Paula, didn't get a baby quilt when her baby was born, since I had just moved here and didn't know where to get fabric or anything. I told her that she needs to have another baby before we leave so that she can get a quilt also. She said that she wants a big one!
Before the "shower" was over, we had the start of our first real big rain storm for the year. It rained all night long. We have skylights by the bedrooms and the rain was so loud on them that it woke us all up throughout the night.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
We had a great day. Morgan is trying to catch up on her school work from being sick last week and having Xela over yesterday. I am so impressed with how well Morgan and Cole are doing on their work!
The piano class was great also. Choir.... not so great. I couldn't play the songs to save my life. We had a new chorister since Ada is supposed to be having her baby. Between trying to follow her, nobody knowing the songs, and my fingers getting all twisted together, it was pretty pitiful. Hopefully next week will be better!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
There was a class at the church today to learn how to make "quick mix". You then use the quick mix to make pancakes, rolls, pizza, pies, etc. I was doing so good at following along and I was even having conversations with people. I was feeling pretty comfortable, so after everybody finished eating the samples of pancakes, I collected everyones plates to take back to the kitchen. I was unaware that they were planning to use the same syrup covered plates for the other samples. I asked if I could just wash off the bottom of the plates but everybody kept saying different things and arguing back and forth and I got flustered and finally just put the plates down in the sink and ran to the bathroom to have a good cry. Sometimes I wonder why I try to help out and do things out of my comfort zone, but I just have to remind myself that that's how I learn. What doesn't kill me will make me stronger, right? Well, my eyes were nice and red so I couldn't go back out for a while. Once I did, I was grateful to have my kids distract me for a little while.
Morgan had a wonderful time. She got to babysit about 5 little kids. She had 2 babies. It is so strange to see my baby carrying around other babies on her hip!! She is definitely growing up. The moms were so thankful for her help. Alysa and Laina helped also in between playing ballet, makeup, etc with their friends. Cole was unseen for the entire afternoon. He was too busy playing soccer with all of the boys. It makes me so happy that he is playing with other kids and having fun!
After the class was over, one of the girls in the ward asked me if I sold baby blankets like the one that I had made for the baby shower. I told her that I didn't but I would think about it and let her know on Sunday. I think the best thing would be to have her go and buy all the fabric and then I'd make them for her in exchange for her helping me with Spanish or some of her homemade flour tortillas!!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
My day consisted of replying to ten million emails with Brittany. She is flying down tomorrow and making all of the last minute packing arrangements. I am so excited. It's going to be like Christmas again when she gets here. I have a new appreciation for "packages from the states". I think I will be the best package sender for missionaries when I get home!!
Friday, April 16, 2010
What an extremely cranky start to the day. Everybody was so tired and it showed. We were trying to get everything ready for our first family visitors! We are so excited. We left in the afternoon to drive up to Guatemala City. We had a little bit of extra time when we got there so we were able to make a stop at Pricemart. There was a ton of rain the whole day. We are so worried that it is going to rain the entire time that Brittany, Mitch, and Kaiya are here.
We finally got to the hotel, had dinner, and then Chris went to the airport to pick everybody up while I tried to get my overly tired kids to sleep.
It was so good to get to see my sister and her family. I can't wait to do all of our activities and show them what we have been doing for the past year!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
We were up and out of the hotel after getting breakfast and a rental car. We finally found our way out of Guatemala City to visit the Volcano Pacaya without any accidents!! We decided to go climb the volcano because it is an active volcano and we were hoping to get to see flowing lava.
We drove to the base area for the volcano and found a guide to go with us. He helped us arrange for some "taxis" to help us out on the hike and we bought our hiking sticks from the little kids. They even had sticks with a bunch of prongs on the end to roast marshmallows. We were in for an adventure!! The beginning of the hike was so hard that I thought we were going to have heart attacks! The first while, there were tons of guys with the "taxis" following us. The taxis were horses that take you to the base of the volcanic rock. They were such a life saver and worth every penny that we had to pay for them!! We got three and everybody took turns riding. The climb was so hard but at least the weather wasn't too hot and we were in the trees for the beginning part. One of the guides for a taxi kept telling us what all the different plants were.
After climbing forever, we took a break where the forest opened up to a big field. The horses couldn't go any longer so we had to continue on with the guide. There is no way that we would have all made it without the guide and the taxis!!
It was so gorgeous to see across the open field and the mountains everywhere.
After just a minute we came to an old lava river from 2005. We then started to climb forever over lava rock! I never realized that lava rock was so sharp.
There wasn't any flowing lava but we did get to see a little bit in a crater. We got to go over "ovens" where heat was rising out of the cracks in the lava shell. It was so freaky! At the very top, we were able to roast marshmallows. Mitch and Chris kept trying to get close enough to get their picture taken with the lava. Chris is now missing part of his eyebrows and hair!!
The clouds started coming in and we couldn't see very far ahead of us. It is so strange being up in the clouds! Going back down, there were times that I worried for our lives! I kept having images of slipping and falling on the rocks and how cut up our skin would get on the lava rocks! I was so impressed with how well all of the kids did. Alysa is our little explorer. When we finally got to a point where we could actually see green, I was much more excited. It was even more so when we got to the horses. The hike down was much easier and we were so happy to finally see the cars again!! At one point on the ride down, Alysa and Laina weren't fitting in the same saddle so the guide took Laina off and tried putting her on the back of the horse riding side saddle with Alysa sitting in the saddle. I couldn't believe that they actually thought that a 4 year old could stay on a horse like that!
We finally made it back to the cars and left Pacaya at 6:00.....however, we didn't get home until 12:00!! We took the coast road since we were already south of the city. We had only been on that road a couple of times and we didn't really know where we were going so we got lost several times! It was also very dark, rainy, full of construction, and there was lots of traffic! There was also a pretty cool lightning storm to watch.
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