The Whitney Family Blog: 10/25/10-10/31/10

Monday, October 25, 2010
How does laundry multiply in the hampers? I just did the laundry before we left for Mexico!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010
After piano lessons, I went to get the girls and then went down to Central Park. We were trying to get Cole some new books since he reads so stinkin' fast. He found 3 animorph books that he hasn't read yet. We have been able to sell some of our old books to the store to balance out the cost of buying all the new books. It's a pretty good system. I just wish that there were more kids books, but apparently there aren't very many kid tourists here!
I found out tonight that instead of having the Christmas piano recital like I was planning, the piano students are going to be playing during the ward Christmas program. The kids are a little nervous. It is going to be a busy night for me! The choir will be doing several songs as well.
After choir we had a little bbq outside. It was pretty cool to realize that I was part of the conversations!! It is amazing what a little self confidence will do to help with the language.
At one point, the choir president asked when the quilting group was going to be delivering the quilts to the nursing home. Lily told me that the choir wants to go with us to sing Christmas carols. I am so thrilled that the ward has taken to this service project with so much enthusiasm!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Pumpkins are so ridiculously expensive here that we decided that we are going to make paper mache ones! Now I just need to get some newspapers!

This was supposed to be the last day for the rag quilts, but only two people have finished so we'll be overlapping projects next week. I still can't believe how many nonmembers have been coming to the class. I even told everybody to leave their unfinished stuff for me to sew during the week so that I wouldn't be madly rushing next week.

Thursday, October 28, 2010
All four of my kids went to Lily's for a Halloween party.

We also took the Bottema boys there while Polly and I went to the market. It was fun to go to the market with somebody who was excited to be there and not begging to go back home and complaining that their bags were too heavy! I did however have to carry all of my stuff by myself!
Having the Bottema family here has really brought back lots of memories from when we first came here. I need to remember those times so that I can realize how much I have learned. It really helps me when I get discouraged to realize that I am progressing!
Polly and I talked about our lack of independence here. I actually feel like I am able to do most things here that I would normally do in the states. I still haven't gotten the car filled with gas though. (ALL gas stations are full service and you can't pump your own gas with the pay at the pump. I sure miss that!)

Chris had to take a co-worker back to Guatemala City today so he took Alysa with him. She was so excited to get to go. The kids really enjoy that one on one time with dad!

Friday, October 29, 2010
Since we were able to catch up on school work today and since I bought newspapers yesterday, the kids got to start on their paper mache pumpkins today. The kids applied this rule to their project: the messier it is, the more fun it is!

In the afternoon, I took the kids swimming. I kept having panic attacks when I couldn't see Alysa in the water. Then I would remember that she was with Chris.

Saturday, October 30, 2010
Dry season has arrived. Everything is covered in dust...especially the cars. We took both cars down to the car wash. I never thought that going to the car wash would be such a family event! The kids love to go!
Afterwards, everybody dropped Cole and I off at the book store. We leisurely looked at the books without having other kids to worry about. Cole found a couple more books that he is going to try out. I think he is going to have to start making a Christmas list of only books from the states! After we finished looking at the books, we walked towards the Democracia market. He helped me pick out some fabric for the next set of quilts. We then went to the park to watch people, check out souvenirs, read, eat candies, and just hang out with my little boy.
While Cole and I were out having a blast, Chris and the girls got rear ended. All I can say is, I'm glad that I'm not the one that did it!! I can just imagine how horrified the girl was that hit him.
We had dinner at Albamar with the Bottema's then went to their house for games. The Orellanas went also, so the kids instantly took off playing. The adults hung out and talked. We also tried out the secret passageway. The house would make a perfect haunted house!

Sunday, October 31, 2010
I had one of those really embarrassing moments today. In Sunday school, I was called on to say the opening prayer. I've never had to pray in church before much less in front of the men! It is a little intimidating! Anyway, the teacher said I could do it in English or Spanish. As I walked to the front of the class, my friends in the front row kept saying, "No, solo en espanol! (No, only in Spanish!)" So, I tried to be courageous and do the prayer in Spanish. I don't know what happened when I started the prayer by saying, "En la nombre de Jesus Cristo (In the name of Jesus Christ)." The second the words were out of my mouth, I knew I had said the wrong part! I got really flustered and could not for the life of me remember how to start the prayer. After a long awkward pause, I just went ahead with the prayer. There were several more long pauses as I tried to remember the words that I wanted to use. I ended the prayer (the same way that I started the prayer!) and proceeded to my seat with my face beet red!! As usual, everybody was overly supportive and full of encouragement afterwards. I love our ward! Where else can I make such a fool of myself repeatedly and still feel like I can go on?

We didn't do anything exciting for Halloween since they don't celebrate it here. Unfortunately, Saturday night the kids expressed their sadness in not getting to dress up and do their usual things. So, after church, the kids busied themselves with making up their own costumes. They also made up games to play, decorated brown paper bags, made cookies and caramel apples, and then went "trick or treating" around our empty neighborhood. Chris would run ahead to each house and pretend that he was somebody different and give them each a piece of candy. It definitely wasn't anything compared to their big hauls of candy in the states but we had fun as a family.