9/19/10-9/25/10

Sunday, September 19, 2010

I have been pushing myself WAY out of my comfort zone.  I have been going back and forth in my head about needing to learn more Spanish but then I say, hey, we might not be here that much longer.  When I start thinking like that, I feel like I am giving up.  So....I decided to start the quilting class for Relief Society.  I actually got up in front of the entire Relief Society today and did my very best to announce the class.  I told everybody that I need more help with my Spanish so that in exchange for them practicing with me, I am going to teach them how to make a quilt.  I was shaking uncontrollably. As embarrassed, nervous, freaked out, and petrified as I was, everybody was smiling at me and was so encouraging.  I have been so blessed to be in a ward with such wonderful members that are so patient and willing to help me!!  

I have been reading a book about the Wilie and Martin Handcart companies.  There was a part that really hit me about some members that left everything that they knew in Denmark to move to Utah.  They left friends, family, possessions to go to a new country where they don't know the language.  I felt like I could relate.  However, we know that we will eventually be back in the United States with our family.  (When, we don't know!  But, sometime!!)  As I continued to read about their amazing struggles to follow the Lord's command, I realize that my struggles are so small in comparison.  If these amazing people can do what the Lord commands even under the worst of circumstances, I can do it to!!  

After church, Morgan spent most of the afternoon sewing.  She has made every possible accessory for baby dolls that you can imagine!  Every time I make something, I keep a box with all of my scraps.  I either make another quilt out of the scraps or the kids use them for projects.  I think the box is about empty now!

Monday, September 20, 2010

After the kids finished their school work, we walked to the club.  Of course the second we get everybody ready to go and walk out the front door, it starts to rain!  A little rain would not deter the kids from going.  I sat out of the rain while the kids played and ran the fitness trail.  They were pretty wet by the time they got done, so we headed home for some lunch complete with hot chocolate!!

Once the rain started to let up, we headed back to club for some swimming.  There were classes just finishing up so we briefly talked with the swimming teacher.  He said that we could use the equipment from the classes if we wanted until the next classes started.  Morgan is turning into a fish (at least compared to me!!).  The other three are very hesitant but Cole and Alysa were doing very well with the noodles and kickboards.  I kept telling the kids that we need to take the computer to the pool next time and try to Skype Brandy Lund and have her give us a long distance swim lesson!!  

We have also decided that we need to have lessons on how to properly work the showers in the locker room!  It is either ice cold or scorching hot!   I was so frustrated with the showers that I was ready to walk home in my swimsuit with bubbles in my hair!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

I don't know why but we had a serious case of the giggles during piano class tonight.  I felt like a total scatterbrain trying to teach class with all of the distractions and interruptions that I had.  Dave and some other people from Utah are here so Chris is working late every night this week so I had the kids with me.  I was trying to keep them out of trouble during class.  Then, the missionaries came and asked me if I could sew new tableclothes for the sacrament table.  And then, Sully came by to see when she could bring me the material for the table clothes.  I felt like I was all over the place!

Choir was quite interesting.  There is not a ton of musical knowledge here in Xela.  When Paula (our music coordinator) left to work with the altos on their parts for a special musical number, I was left to work with our choir director and the sopranos.  The director tries really hard and has progressed a ton but she wasn't quite prepared for the special number with 4 different parts.  I was trying to play the piano as well as cue the sopranos to sing their parts.  It was a little frustrating.  I wish that there were more opportunities for people to learn to read the music!   Maybe I'll have to start another class in all of my free time!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

I took the kids over to the club for 3 hours.  The kids were in the swimsuits and wanting to swim except the pool was being cleaned.  While we waited, the 3 youngest kids played miniature golf and had a blast.  It made me feel so good to see Cole helping Laina hold her club and hit the ball.  He kept encouraging her and helping her along.  Of course he didn't see me watching him!  

When the kids finished a round of miniature golf we traded in the clubs for a basketball.  Alysa and Laina enjoyed playing on the jungle gyms while Morgan paced back and forth waiting for the pool to be ready.  Cole and I played basketball.  We collided and his skinny little knee dug right into my calf muscle.  I'll be feeling that one for a while!  

Sully stopped by with the material for me to sew the sacrament table tableclothes.  I told her that the Angel Moroni is here.  She instantly got tears in her eyes and said, "We're really going to have a temple!"  Wow, she really reminded me of the reason we came down here!  It just boggles my mind to realize how many people are going to enjoy the fruit of our labors!  (or Chris's labors since I haven't really done much other than try to be supportive!)

We had a special choir practice tonight and I announced to everyone the scheduled time for Moroni to be put on the temple.  After choir, Fernando Orellana issued me a challenge to speak in church before we leave.  I told him NO WAY!  When his 12 year old son stepped forward and said that if I do it, he'll play the piano in sacrament meeting.  I know how scared he is of playing in church (as I have always been the same way!!) so I figured that I needed to suck it up, set a good example, and do yet another thing out of my comfort zone.  So, reluctantly, I agreed to speak if Juan Fer plays the piano in church also.  Nobody said how long my talk has to be!!  (:

Thursday, September 23, 2010

While the girls were at school, Morgan, Cole, and I visited the job site briefly.  Angel Moroni's crate had been opened that morning before we got there.  We got to see some pictures.  I can't even describe how exciting this is.  It feels like things are finally coming together!  There is a guy that works at the temple named, Salvador.  When he was 4 years old, he told his mom that he was going to help build a temple.  He is now 40 something and is building the temple.  His son comes home from his mission in a month!  His excitement for the temple is contagious.  Every time I see him at the job site his excitement is overflowing!  

Can I just say that there is no better compliment from my 11 year old daughter than for her to say, "Mom, that wasn't AS embarrassing as it used to be!"  That was what she said about my Spanish at the fabric store. 

Are the "character building" events ever going to end this week?  I had my first official visiting teaching appointment today.  I went to pick up my companion and we went to visit a sister.  Neither of them know any English!  I think I did pretty good at communicating with my companion.  She is the nicest lady ever!  She was one of the first people to befriend me when we moved here.  She is a returned missionary and I can tell that she had companions that she had to help with the language.  She is very patient with me and uses other words if I don't know the ones she used originally.  Anyway, at the appointment, I got by with my part of the lesson and bearing my testimony but once the conversation began, I got completely lost!  I think my brain just got to the point where it said too much and shut down!  

Chris had to go to Guatemala City to take everybody back to the airport.  The whole time I was just praying that it wouldn't rain and cause more mudslides!!  It is still a major problem here!

Friday, September 24, 2010

Chris had to go to Antigua this morning to pick up some stuff from a lawyer.  He got stuck there for 2 hours because the lawyer's office closed down 1/2 hour early for an extended lunch break, even though Chris had called and told them he was coming and not to close.  

I had planned to be really productive and get the house clean, finish some projects, get school ready for next week, etc., but it was a dreary day and I didn't quite have the necessary motivation.  How do people get anything done in Seattle?

We had a mini FHE about Moroni tonight in preparations for the statue to be put up on the temple.  We wanted to the kids to understand the reasons why Moroni is put on most of the temples.  It was fun to find some odd facts about Angel Moroni on the temple.  There was a cool article in the New Era from a year ago that we used.  Did you know that the statue on the D.C. temple weighs about 4,000 pounds!  The ones used now are about 300 pounds!  Also, the tallest statue is 20 feet tall and is on the Jordan River Temple!  The tid bit of information that I found most interesting was that the statue on the Los Angeles temple is wearing Mayan dress rather than the typical flowing robes.  I wish the one here was like that!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

So, we're going through another tropical storm.  I woke up to the sound of rain and figured we wouldn't be working on painting the temple entrance sign.  Even though we weren't going to be painting today, we still went up to the job site and got to see Angel Moroni in his crate.  It was so muddy from all of the rain.  My new word for the day is, lodo meaning mud.  So, we were wet and muddy but it was still a great experience and everybody was smiling.  

I also learned that they won't be putting Moroni up on Monday due to a missing part for the crane.  The part is having to be brought in from Guatemala City so they will had to reschedule for next Friday.   UGH!!  We are supposed to be in Mexico on Friday.  Our Visa's are up and we have to leave the country for 3 days.   It'll be interesting to see how things play out!

Hermano y Hermana Lorenzano are the mission presidents here.  Hermana Lorenzana is one of  those people who is always happy and smiling and she just makes people want to be around her.  She's great!

Cole got to help put the screws in to close the crate back up when we were done.
He's doing his own little part to participate!

9/12/10-9/18/10

Sunday, September 12, 2010

At stake conference we were joined by two members of the Seventy. They sustained a new stake presidency. Afterwards I met the wife of one of them. She was very nice and was commenting on the new bib that I made for Sully's son. He is 20 and is severely handicaped. They usually have him wearing a bib to wipe his drool. I decided to make one of the bibs that my Aunt Jean made for my kids, but I added a tie on the front. It didn't turn out as perfect as I had hoped, but they were very happy with it!

After church, Paul and Deloy came over for dinner.  We made fish tacos with the halibut that I caught. Oh, it is soooo nice to have fish in the freezer again!!

Monday, September 13, 2010

FHE vs football.  Yup, football wins!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Chris checked out the country club pool again today and it was clean and ready to use.  So, the next question is, are we going to get a membership?

After choir, I took my friend, Emiliana, home and I am pleased to announce that we talked the entire way and I actually understood!! Yeah!!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

We had a very interesting day today.  A helicopter landed in our development!!  Not once, not twice, but three times!!   We all had a blast watching it land and take off.  I was secretly hoping for a ride but it didn't happen.  

The kids hanging out in front of the house by the helicopter

A while later, Chris sent me these cool pictures of the temple.  He made it sound like he had taken the pictures. I was so jealous. Come to find out that the guy who developed the land for our community (is also an architect at the job site) took the pictures. It was his relatives that owned the helicopter and they had come to visit. The third time the helicopter went up, Alvaro went with them and had them fly over the temple.

Aerial view of the temple

Most of Xela is to the left of this picture

Since it is national independence day today, most people had the day of work.  It was very strange to have tons of people that are having homes built in the development here today, rather than the workers building the homes!!

So, Cole was complaining about being bored today so I somehow talked him into making a scrapbook page of his trip to Alaska.  I printed out some pictures and he got to work.  He was having so much fun that the girls all wanted to join him as well.  (Thank you Brittany for the cool scrapbooking supplies!!)

Alysa's page

Morgan's page

Morgan's second page

Cole's page

Cole's second page

Thursday, September 16, 2010

After school, the kids got creative and used their imagination.  They didn't even ask to watch t.v. or turn on the wii!!!  They went "camping".  They built a big fort in the dining room, built a paper and rock fire outside, packed every possible piece of winter clothes that they own, and managed to leave stuff everywhere!  Hey, all four were playing happily together while I got some work done!  I'm not going to complain too much about the mess.

Friday, September 17, 2010

So, on the morning walk around the neighborhood, we came across this little critter.  It was so interesting that I sent the kids back later with the camera to get a picture of it.  We've really been having fun outdoors "investigating" nature.  My personal favorite is the bright blue bird that I see each morning.  It loves to perch on the tennis courts but it won't let you get anywhere near it before it takes off for a different location.  

We had lunch with Chris and did a little pre-Christmas shopping.  We decided that since we won't be here much longer that we don't want to get a bunch of stuff for Christmas that we won't be able to take back with us.  So, we let each of the kids pick out something to use at the country club and we decided to get memberships as a family gift.  The kids had fun looking at all the swimming stuff and the different sports balls.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

To break the monotony, Chris suggested that we go out to breakfast at a restaurant called San Martin.  The kids love it there because it has a big playplace!  Afterwards, we went and paid for our memberships and made it official!  Of course we weren't home for 15 minutes before the kids were begging to go swimming.  

Yes, the picture is fuzzy.  I'll get some better shots next time.  The scenery is gorgeous out the windows!!

Chris enjoyed a book while I froze in the cold pool!  We did have fun though and I got a little bit of exercise.  I have got to be one of the world's worst swimmers!  I sure miss my friend, Brandy, and our water aerobics classes at her house.   I think she'd be proud to know that I did swim one lap without stopping and that Cole put his face in the water without plugging his nose....once!  

The showers were freezing cold also, so I opted to just run home in my swimsuit (the country club is right across the street from our development) to shower.  We got the strangest looks ever!!  I don't think people have ever seen so much white skin as they did today with 5 of us in swimsuits!!

To add to the excitement of the day, Morgan and I are going to help paint the letters for the entrance sign for the temple.  We had to go up to the job site and do a test run to see if the brushes were going to work.  We will be joining Sis. Chaney (her husband is the church rep here) and Sis. Lorenzana (her husband is the mission president).

9/5/10-9/11/10

Sunday, September 5, 2010

The storm that we had over the weekend has really taken its toll on the roads and many people! There have been lots of landslides, closed roads, etc. These are some of the headlines and pictures from the news.

Dozens killed, missing in Guatemala landslides

Death toll from Guatemala landslides rises to 54

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11193592

After church today, we gave all of the donated temple clothes to the bishop to distribute. Thank you to everybody that helped us with this project. The members really appreciate it!!

Monday, September 6, 2010

The main highway from Guatemala City to Quetzaltenango was reopened today. There is only one lane in some spots and it took some of our friends about 10 hours to do the drive!

For those of us who weren't stuck in traffic, we were able to enjoy the wonderful sun outside. We spent a lot of time playing around outside. Morgan and Cole were so excited that I let them walk to the little tienda by themselves.

In the afternoon, the weather changed again into an amazing thunder and lightning storm. The rain was pelting everything! Half of the windows in the house were leaking and we couldn't see past the cornfields. A bridge went out near our house and a section of the road started to flood. Chris was lucky to make it home! These are the pictures he took from his car.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Late last night there was another landslide and the main highway is closed again. The local roads are all a mess as well. Chris left for work only to return a short while later because the road was closed. He ended up having to work from home and I didn't even try to take the girls to school!

Alysa was learning about alliteration today. She wrote: Henry Horse likes to hiccup. She then got to make a broomstick horse. We had recess time and she ran around on her horse and Laina pretended she was a butterfly.

For choir, we practiced a special musical number twice then we went to make matching jewelry to wear for ward conference. We also had a dinner. I had a great time and was able to understand a lot of what was going on. It was great having such good friends that saved seats for me, helped me with directions, and just overall helped me out. I told Chris about this and his sacrastic response was, "You're either really loved or just incompetent." I vote for loved!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Cole is such a good example to us when he gets up and exercises each morning. He's been getting up at 6:00 and doing homework until 7:00 when he is allowed to "get up"! He is definitely a self motivated person!

Before school, we went on a snail hunt (yes, with a container of salt!), and a butterfly hunt which was interrupted when we spotted the coolest bright blue bird. It looked like a brown bird until it started to fly and then its wings looked like an iridescent blue! We had so much fun and it was so incredibly gorgeous that we decided to have school outside. The kids would take off running around and playing whenever they were waiting for help with their work. The gardeners kept looking at us like we were crazy.

I was enjoying the weather so much that I forgot that we live almost on the equator and that the sun is very intense here! I got so fried! None of the kids got burned but my arms sure did!

I am starting new private piano lessons for the kids in my class at the church. Today I had my first student. The poor kid looked so nervous about trying to talk to me. He's a great kid from a wonderful family.

We had another powerful thunderstorm tonight. It was so relaxing to sit on the balcony, listen to the rain, thunder, and watching the lightning. The town was pitch black but the lightning lit up the entire sky like it was the middle of the day. I was determined to get a picture of the lightning. Luckily the storm was so intense and so long that I was able to get a few good pictures.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

I can't move my left arm from working on a quilt yesterday! UGH! The quilt is a king size with fleece backing and it just doesn't want to get shoved through the tiny space in my sewing machine!

My new visiting teacher came over today. I was a little (o.k. a lot) nervous about the meeting. I read the message in both English and Spanish to help me at least know what the main ideas were! The appointment actually turned out very good. I was pretty proud with the amount that I understood (or thought I understood!). My visiting teacher told me that she was very nervous about having to visit me and had actually told the Relief Society president that she couldn't do it. The president told her that I really needed somebody to visit me in Spanish. How right she is! I think I am going to start a quilting group so that people will come over and talk with me a little more.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Chris stopped by the house this morning with a guy from work. Paul is from St. George, Utah and his company is doing the tile for the temple. His family is also going to be coming down to live here for 3 months. They have two boys about the same ages as Morgan and Cole. We are so excited to have them here. It is so fun and strange to feel like the "experienced" people here in Xela. We are looking forward to being able to help others feel more comfortable here like others had done for us when we arrived.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Alysa and I did our shopping together today. We ventured into new territory at the market. She is a little more willing to do new things than the other kids. She also helped me show Paul and Deloy (the other guy from St. George) where to find some things at the grocery store. When we got home, she helped work on a puzzle, make the stuff for fish tacos, as well as clean and sanitize all the stuff from the market.

Cole and Chris are both thoroughly excited that it is football season. I don't think I saw Cole the entire day! While Cole was occupied with football, Morgan helped me start a new baby quilt. I'm going to make a rag baby quilt to show the ladies at church to see if they want to come over and learn how to make them.