Sunday, April 4, 2010
Easter is very different here. There was not a single Easter item in the stores. Luckily we had a few things that we'd brought from the states. The kids enjoyed finding eggs and getting their Easter baskets. I think they especially liked that they got to stay in their pajamas and watch general conference on t.v.!!
I love general conference. I have to admit that I struggle at times to stay awake, but it is always uplifting and helps me to re prioritize my life.
The kids were all having a ton of fun playing tonight. It's always fun and games until somebody gets hurt and this time it was Alysa. She tried to jump over Morgan who wasn't aware of that and stood up. Alysa apparently went flying head first into the edge of the couch. She got a nice bump on her forehead and screamed for quite a while! Poor kid!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Kids are doing so much better together. They all seem to better when they are on a schedule. We had such a good day that we decided to have a High School Musical marathon! We watched the first two but ran out of time for the third!
In school today, Morgan wrote this composition:
My Trip To El Salvador
March 25, 2010 to march 29, 2010 was very fun. Those four days were my trip to El Salvador, a country found in Central America. We visited the big, tall buildings in San Salvador, the capital, to the sandy beach of Costa del Sol or Coast of the Sun on the Pacific Ocean.
On March 25, 2010 we started our drive to San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. El Salvador is a tropical country with a mild and humid climate. We got to San Salvador at around dinner time. We went to Papa Johns, a pizza place. Then we stayed at our favorite hotel, The Holiday Inn. The next day we drove to Costa del Sol. We stayed at the Comfort Inn for a night. The hotel was on the beach so we went to the beach twice and swam in the pool twice also. It was cool. They also had a bar where you could get drinks. They also had drinks for kids. I liked the lemonade with soda. But the food wasn't very good. That day we drove back to San Salvador to go to the kids museum there. The museum was okay but the one in Las Vegas was much better. That night we stayed at the Holiday Inn again. It was our last night in El Salvador. The next morning we were on our way back to Guatemala, our home.
Our trip was very fun and I hope to go there again. Central America is quite an amazing place that many people haven't been to before. El Salvador ended up being one of my favorite places in the end. I loved my trip to El Salvador.
We received sad, yet happy news tonight. Chris's paternal grandpa passed away. It is sad to see him go but he was ready and is in a better place now. We are so grateful that we have the gospel in our lives and for the understanding that it gives us. It is a great comfort to know that we will someday be reunited with him. He will always be remembered by the kids as the "lemon tree grandpa".
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Happy birthday, Brittany!
I was working on ordering next years homeschooling. I was reading posts from moms who have a struggle to get their kids to do their work. There is absolutely no way that I could homeschool 4 kids if they weren't all self motivated! Morgan and Cole wake up in the morning and get their work (that I set out the night before) and take it to their rooms to do before anybody says anything to them. They love to work in their pajamas in their bedroom....against my wishes of course but I won't complain as long as they continue to do their work and learn! I am grateful for their hard work and the pressure that that takes off of me!
In preparation for teaching my piano class, I was reading the instructions for teachers of the piano course in English. There are great ideas for games, etc but they don't translate to Spanish! UGH!! It did have one part about letting the students know that it is difficult to learn something new and not to get frustrated. I laughed my head off. Who better could teach the class that new things are difficult to learn!!??!!?? The class was great today. We had 7 people which was so much more manageable! Choir was a riot. We had to stop the song at least 5 times because everybody got the giggles and couldn't sing! I have no idea what was so funny but it was contagious and I was laughing also!
About a month ago, I tried to suggest that we try a new song in April just for fun. A couple weeks later, I was told that we have to learn a new song for the stake choir festival so I just assumed that the first song was off the list. I was so wrong. Tonight we practiced the original song that I hadn't practiced at all; Behold! A Royal Army. We also had a new person conducting so it was quite the learning experience for everybody involved!! Guess I should probably practice a little more this week!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
I received terrible news today. The Thomases are leaving Guatemala!! NOOOOO!! The decision was made very quickly and I didn't see it coming. They have been great friends for us here.
So, Cole learned a new trick a few days ago at the dinner table. Arm pitting farting. He was so proud of himself. But, seriously, at the dinner table??? Where has our control gone?
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Yes, the Thomas family is really moving in a couple weeks. It is so sad but we are extremely happy for them! They are going back to be with their family. It makes us even more excited for our trip to Alaska this summer to be with our family.
After dropping Alysa and Laina off at school, Morgan, Cole, and I went to market. The trip came to an early end though when Morgan suddenly got very sick. We took her home and she spent the rest of the day throwing up. Poor kid!
This evening Laina, Alysa, and Cole and I went to Lily Orellana's birthday party. Fernando asked me to say the prayer in Spanish in front of everybody. I was sweating like crazy and knew I was blushing more than humanly possible. Afterwards, I asked Melody Thomas if what I said made any sense. She said that it made sense to her. Everybody got a good laugh since we are the most Spanish challenged of the group! The Sacs got to experience what it is like for me here....everybody speaking English and not understanding. Hermano Sac has been trying to say things in English the last few times that I spoke with him. It is really nice that people are trying to help me feel comfortable and trying to understand what I am going through with this whole language barrier. We had so much fun hanging out that we forgot what time it was. Chris called me at 10:00 to see if we were o.k. Him and Morgan were both in bed sleeping before we got home!
Friday, April 9, 2010
Due to the late night last night and Morgan still in bed sick, we had an extremely lazy day. Alysa and Laina played with Morgan the entire day in her bed. We have had a major separation between the two older kids and the two younger kids so it was so nice to see Morgan and the younger girls playing. I was so happy that I didn't even try to get them to do their homework for the day!! Cole is the only one that got any work done! Morgan seems to be getting a little better though. She'll have some fun make up work to do!
We topped off a great day with a pizza party/movie night. YEAH!! So fun.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
One of the "malls" (if you can call it that!) got a "roller rink" (if you can call it that!!) while we were on our trip to the states. The kids have been begging to go since we got back so we finally broke down and took them today. It is an oval track with squares of rubber tiles put together. It isn't your typical roller rink but the kids didn't seem to mind. They all had a great time except for Laina who got pretty frustrated. Morgan and Cole even tried the inline skates and decided they like them more than the roller skates. The kids all took turns crashing. They'd just get up and try again. They were definitely improving by the time that we left.
Yup, it's an electrical plug! We live in such a safe environment!!
UGH! The Thomases are killing me. They are now leaving this coming Tuesday! They were able to sell all that they needed to and get their Suburban traded back. We are so sad!
Chris took Cole back into town and he used some of his birthday money to buy a new wii game. It is some shooting game and everybody played it until late in the night.
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