4/18/11-4/24/11

Monday, April 18, 2011
We are heading to Mexico on Wednesday so the kids only have school for two days this week.  I told them that if they could each come up with a full page list of things they can do to keep busy, they could have those two days off also.  They were all very excited to have "free" days!  I was really worried that Cole would be too bored and would keep bugging me for things to do.  I told all of them that if they said anything about being bored or asked me what they can do, they would be doing their school work!  Laina almost started crying when she accidently aked me what she could do.  She hadn't even finished the question before she realized what she had done.  I thought it was so funny that I didn't make her do any schoolwork.
Since the kids got free days, that meant that I got free days also!  (I think the free days were more for my sake than theirs!)  I got to quilt, read, catch up on other misc. projects/cleaning.  It was a very nice, much needed break!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Free day #2.  I think that I like free days a little too much!  I wonder how long the kids could hold out before they were too bored?!?!
I made a bunch of loaves of bread this morning and then made little tags to go on them.  They talked about Christ being the "bread" of life.  Polly came over and I took her with me to visit 5 families in the ward.  I counted it as my visiting teaching for the month.  I never thought I'd see the day that I was the translator!  I did a pretty poor job of it but we got by.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011
For Chris's birthday, we went to Mexico......again!  This was possibly our last border crossing into Mexico.  We only made one wrong turn and got stuck going through groups of people in masks collecting money on the sides of the street.  Chris didn't want to give them money and kept driving until somebody threw a tackstrip into the road.  There are so many different traditions here for Semana Santa (Holy Week).

I would die if I had to carry all this while walking across the border in the heat!!

There are motorcycles and bicycle carts that take people across the border also.

Chris laughing at the immigration office????  Wow, he has become a lot more relaxed since our first trip!

Imagine how strong your legs would be if you pushed all these people in a cart on a bicycle all day!!

Once we got to Mexico, we enjoyed a high class lunch at Sam's Club!  The kids were ecstatic to get ICEEs.  It was sooo hot and they had done so well in the car that we thought they deserved a special treat!

We had a fun dinner at a sushi restaurant.  Chris wasn't overly impressed, but the rest of us thought it was great.  Yum!  We finished off the birthday with presents that the kids had made.  Morgan and Cole built a wood model house.  Alysa wrote a really neat book, and Laina made him a card.  

 Thursday, April 21, 2011

Tapachula, Mexico isn't our most favorite place in the world.  We have been there so many times that we've gotten a little bored with it.  So, instead of going out and exploring and looking at ruins, we stayed at the hotel and read, went to a movie, and swam.  The hotel is so crowded because of the holiday and they were having big parties everyday, so we pretty much stayed in our room.  

Friday, April 22, 2011

Today consisted of another movie, more swimming, more reading, and more boredom.  We did get our favorite soft serve ice cream though.  

When we went to get dinner, everywhere was closed for the holiday.  Every place that we went to was locked up.  We finally drove past a place that was open, so we went in.  It was a seafood restaurant that was in the open.  It had a play area complete with a trampoline.  The girls had a blast.  We ordered a variety of dishes and just shared it.  We had a chipotle shrimp, cilantro shrimp, and a sweet fruity shrimp.  Everyones favorite by far was the chipotle.  

Saturday, April 23, 2011

We finished off our stay in Mexico with a trip to Walmart, followed by another ice cream cone.  Then it was back to Guatemala for us.  The border was so crowded.  It took forever to get through!

A crazy fluorescent orange tree.

 Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter!
The kids had a fun time finding eggs as usual.  The Easter Bunny was very creative this year.  The kids also enjoyed opening their baskets before running to church.

We had a potluck dinner at the Bottema's.  There was our family, all of the Bottema's, Paul's brother, Mark, DeLoy, 3 painters, and Salvador.  It was a fun dinner with good food and good friends.  It's fun to have other people that are experiencing what we are experiencing also!  

4/11/11-4/17/11

Monday, April 11, 2011
I was up sick all night and had absolutely no motivation to get out of bed this morning.  The kids were so excited to do school work in my bed with me.  They were pretty good helpers and took care of me.  Chris was wonderful and brought home lunch for everybody also!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011
I am sick of the same old same old.  I feel like I am just killing time waiting to move on to the next phase of life.  So, today we decided to do things a little different.  We all went to pick up some money at the bookstore for some of our books that we sold them.  We have so many books to get rid of before we leave!!  The sad things is that we're still ordering more because Cole has already finished all of his.....again!
Afterwards, we went to the mall to buy Morgan and Cole some more models to make.  They made a helicopter together and now they have two houses to make.   At the store, we ran into the Saks.  Blanca asked me to help her figure out some measuring cups that were in English.  Wow, I actually knew something and could help!!  We also saw another man from the ward when we were leaving the store! We met Chris for lunch and then hit the grocery store.
At church last Sunday, one of my old piano students, Elias, received his mission call.  I told his mom that I hope he got called to Utah.  No such luck.  His sisters told me tonight that he is going to Nicaragua.  The family consists of the mom and 5 kids at home.  I know that they are really struggling and don't have the means to send him on his mission.  I was very impressed to see the ward gathering around to collect clothing etc. for him to take.  It has been another moment where my testimony of the gospel has been strengthened.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Lily called me this morning to tell us that our neighbor's dog was at their house.  It is about a 5-10 minute drive to get there.  I went over to the neighbors to see if it was really their dog that was missing, and they ended up following me up to Lily's house to get their dog.  It turns out that they have another house that is really close to Lily's and Ruvo (the dog) likes it better so he walks there.  I don't know how he was able to get across the main road without getting hit.  He's not the most nimble of dogs!
We went back to the Orellanas later that night for a birthday party for Lily.  The Saks were there also.  Blanca was cooking cachorros.  They are a tamale type dish.    It amazes me how nothing is put to waste here!!  When they harvest the corn, they take the husk off and dry the corn.  The husks are dried as well.  The dried corn was ground to make a dough.  They take a ball of the dough and put a meat sauce in the middle then wrap it up in the corn husks.  (I've only seen them use the corn leaves before while making tamales)  They are then boiled.  I love watching people make the traditional food.  I have a feeling that I'll never be able to do it on my own though!
Morgan was pretty bored and was talking to me about her Faith In God program.  She needed to talk to somebody in the Young Women's program.   I told her that she should do it right then since she has both the ward YW president and the stake YW president in the same room!  She finally started talking with Lily about personal progress, mutual night, etc.  Blanca and Lily told her that there is a stake youth activity at the end of May and that she can come to it.  You could measure her excitement level by the twinkle in her eye!!  She did a complete 180!  Yesterday she didn't want to have anything to do with going to Young Women's here.  She didn't want to do the bishops interview in Spanish!  She didn't want to be the youngest girl.  Etc. Etc.  Well, after talking with Lily and Blanca, she can't wait.  She is so excited now.  She even said that she didn't mind it being in Spanish.  (It also helps that one of the new bishopric members speaks some English!!)

Thursday, April 14, 2011
O.K. Morgan can not stop talking about going to YW's!  She is working hard to finish her last couple of requirements in her FIG and she is ready to move on!
Speaking of moving on, I wonder what will my next calling be?  What have I learned from being here that I can use to help others?  Will I be the person who has a permanent music calling or will I be put into  a teaching calling, leadership, etc?  Maybe I can be the ward greeter!
I am so stir crazy, truncky, ready to move on, in limbo, etc.  I don't feel like I am being as productive as I should be.  I am bored with the monotony.  I need to find a way to serve somebody else so that I'm not thinking about my own situation!  Any suggestions?

Friday, April 15, 2011
Happy birthday Meghan - Happy Tax Day!  This day was always a big deal in my family since my dad was a CPA and my baby sister decided to show up a month early on tax deadline!!
Paul and Polly went to Tikal so they left the boys with us for the day.  Cole was ecstatic to have them over.  Paul's brother is also here working so he picked up the boys after work.
Georgie and Juan Fer Orellana are both in the Deacons quorum.  They asked me if I could come to mutual and teach them how to make popcorn balls.  I ended up with 5 crazy boys by myself!  EEK!!  I had brought my microwave popcorn popper and another lady brought her microwave.  We discovered a little problem with the plan when the microwave wouldn't work!!  Georgie came to the rescue and cooked the popcorn on the stove.  It was very creative and ended up working out.  It just took a LOT longer than I had anticipated!  Afterwards, the boys invited me to play basketball with them.  I might be tall compared to everybody here but it doesn't mean that I have any basketball skills!  Brittany and Meghan definitely have the talent in that area!  It was hilarious though, and we all had a good time.  I was relieved when another young man came out and was able to take my spot while I went to "help" the leaders!
With Morgan's new excitement for going to Young Women's, I took her along with me tonight.  She was going to help me with the popcorn balls but ended up being snatched away by the Young Women.  Every time I saw her throughout the evening, she had a HUGE grin!  She got to learn how to make a fire (yes, they build full on fires right outside the church!!  It cracks me up!) as well as making cole slaw.  Her job was to cut up the cabbage.  They then roasted hot dogs on the fire, topped them with cole slaw and had a little dinner.  Morgan said that everybody was including her and the girls were all trying to speak English and having a fun time.  She can't wait for her birthday.  It didn't help that Lily said she was going to ask the bishop if she can start coming to mutual night the month before her birthday.

Saturday, April 16, 2011
We took Morgan to look for a traditional skirt today.  We ended up getting all the girls new skirts.  I am going to count those as their "Easter dresses"!  We spend the rest of the day doing stuff around the house.  I worked on a skirt for Morgan.  I didn't have a pattern so I was just winging it.  Oops!  It fits me!
In addition to all of the other responsibilities that I have, I am also Cole's scout leader since they don't have scouts here.  I don't really feel like I am doing him justice, but I'm doing the best I know how!  I do feel horrible that he will never get to participate in a pinewood derby.  My friend recently posted that it was her son's last derby and I realized that Cole never got to do that.  He did make a car with Grandpa Hunsaker but he never got to race it.  Oh, well.
This week Cole's scouting goal is to make a healthy menu for the family for a week, help buy the food, and prepare 3 of the meals.  He made meatloaf the other night, and tonight he made sloppy joes.  The thing that has impressed me the most is that when he finishes cooking, HE CLEANS UP!!!  He even wipes off the counters.  It is pulling teeth to get Morgan to clean up after herself!

Sunday, April 17, 2011
I had another "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!" moments today.  Right before church started, the bishopric asked me to say the opening prayer.  UGH!!  They said I could do it in English though.  My brain is really confused and I usually end up speaking Spanglish.  I had to concentrate to use just one language!
During the sacrament, I looked over and saw the tablecloths that I had made and was thinking that I have participated a lot in this ward.  The members have used any opportunity that they can think of to help me feel like part of the ward.  By small and simple things....   I have truly enjoyed our time here.  I know that there is a reason why we came to this particular ward.  It wasn't for us to bless the people here, it was for the people here to bless us.  I love our ward and the people in it.  As excited as I am to go back to the states, I get all teary eyed and get a huge lump in my throat when I think about leaving.   I was going to assign "God Be With You 'Till We Meet Again" as the closing song on our last Sunday but I suspect that I won't be able to read the music through my tears!

4/4/11-4/10/11

Monday, April 4, 2011
Still no internet!!  So, I took the computer to the club to use after Cole and I finished working out.  I do not like feeling so out of it!
The tech came to fix the internet this afternoon.  It is slow and keeps cutting out!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011
None of my piano lessons showed up tonight.  It was actually a relief so that I could finish up some other stuff.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Happy birthday Brittany.
Cole has been invited to the Bottema's tomorrow so he worked hard extra today so that he finished all his work for tomorrow.   I bet he could finish the rest of the school year in a week if he wanted to!
As of right now, our tentative plan is to send the kids and I back to the states in mid July.  Morgan turns 12 in June and really wants to go to girls camp.  It would also give me some time to look for a place for us to live.

Thursday, April 7, 2011
Cole and I went to the fabric store, book store, and our favorite restaurant, Giuseppe's.  I am going to miss our favorite pizza there!  Afterwards, I dropped him off at the Bottemas.  The girls were content being home, so I went to the grocery store by myself before going home.  The afternoon was so quiet without Cole teasing the girls and complaining that he is bored!  Since there were no boys in the house, we were planning to watch The Last Song.  The internet was finally working but the slingbox wasn't! UGH!
Chris was horribly sick today.  I thought for sure he'd stay home but he suffered through the workday.  While at work, he talked to his boss about sending the kids and I back in July.  He recommended that we don't go back too early and leave Chris all by himself.  He said from personal experience that it is very lonely!

Friday, April 8, 2011
The Bottema's joined us at the club for swimming, basketball, etc. They only have about three more weeks here!
Chris was working really late and was still sick, so the kids helped make pizza for dinner.   The slingbox still wasn't working, so we watched an old movie that we had on our computer.  We need to get some new movies!!

Saturday, April 9, 2011
Chris got to start the day by substitute teaching an institute class at 6:30!  Poor guy.  He finished up the class and went to erase the board only to find out that the office had given him a permanent marker instead of a dry erase marker.  He said that the entire board was covered and that it even had his name on it.  He spent the next couple of hours trying to find some thinner to get the board cleaned off!
The kids and I were perfectly content having a quiet, calm, no school day.  I worked on a few quilts, made a skirt, etc.

Sunday, April 10, 2011
Alysa was so excited to play the prelude music at church today...until she got up on the stand and panicked.  She ended up going back down crying because she was too scared to play!  Poor kid.  How well I can sympathize with her!

We finally got a new bishopric today.  Not sure what happened to our old bishop, but he disappeared a couple months ago and was not given an honorable release yesterday!  I do have to say that I have been extremely impressed with the counselors who have taken up the extra slack.  I am also very impressed by the stake presidency and new bishopric.  They are all great men.

3/28/11-4/3/11

Monday, March 28, 2011
Another Monday!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011
So, at choir tonight, I totally screwed up.  We are practicing a song to play at our ward conference in July.  All I can say is it's a good thing we're starting early!!  I need a lot more practice!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Last month, Dave came down and brought a TON of books that I had ordered.  Cole has successfully completed reading at least 3/4 of them!  I am in the process of ordering more books.  I look forward to the day that we live near a public library!!
Cole and I went through all the books that he has read and he's been ranking them so that I know which series I should try to get more of.  It's pretty fun getting to sit with him and get an idea of what is going through his brain!

Thursday, March 31, 2011
You know it's a rough day when you start start the day with crying!  Chris informed me last night that there has been another extension for the temple.  They are now anticipating that Chris will be done at the end of August!  How are we supposed to know where we are going to live and get the kids in school when we won't even be done here until school is already starting in the states!
The kids had tests today for lesson 100.  To celebrate, we are having a 100th day of school party tomorrow!  I think everybody is excited for a change!
To add to my already emotional day, the internet went out and I have no outside communication, t.v., etc.

Friday, April 1, 2011
Today was our 100th day of school party.  We picked up the Bottemas and went to the mountain park to go on the cement slides.  We hadn't been there in a long time so I was glad that we didn't get lost!  The kids all seemed to have a great time.  Alysa was, as always, our hesitant one.  She'd go on the little slides but didn't want to have anything to do with the big slides.  Laina was loving going on the slide but only with me.  We finally persuaded Alysa to go down with me.  Poor kid!  We ended up getting a piece of cardboard (you ride down on cardboard so that you go faster and so you don't cut up your pants on the cement!) not realizing that it must have been waxed or something.  She and I took off down the slides and we screamed the whole way.  At the bottom  I was doing my best to stop us and not to let her fly off the end.  It was not the most graceful performance of my life!  Alysa's little heart was beating so fast and she said that she felt like she was falling out of the sky whenever we got air born on the bumps!
Even after the ride of her life, Alysa eventually got the courage to go down by herself (with a lot of time and patience from Cole and Taylor!!).  After that, we couldn't get her to stop.  When everybody else was  finished, Alysa and Laina were just getting started!
Cole tried the "fast cardboard" next and said he would never do it again.  What a rush!  Everybody got a turn but I think some of the fastness was wearing off!

Walking back up the stairs to the top.  I think the kids will sleep good tonight!

Alysa and Laina warming up on the little slides.

L-R: Carson, Cole, Taylor, Morgan, Laina, Alysa

Morgan and Carson on the slides.

It has been such a blessing for us to have the Bottema's here.  The kids (especially Cole) have really enjoyed having kids to hang out with that understand how they are feeling! 

When Chris got home, we went to the club for dinner to celebrate.  Each kid brought their collection of 100 things.  They did a few other activities during the day and I think it was an overall success!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Day 3 with no internet!

It was general conference today and since we didn't have any internet, so we went to the temple site to use theirs.  We sat in the conference room and watched conference on the projection screen.  The kids did remarkably well and actually sat for almost all of the talks.  It helped that we took some coloring pages and conference activities.  

I received excellent news between sessions.  Meghan got a freezer!!  She said that it is a little smaller and older, but it was cheap and it will be much better than no freezer!!  I am so excited!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Day 4 no internet!

It is amazing to watch the prophet of our church speak in general conference on a screen that is right above where the last piece of the temple is sitting.  In several months the prophet will be placing that piece on the temple himself!!

It was also pretty cool looking around the room at the blueprints and the artist renderings of the different rooms in the temple.  The picture of the baptismal font is actually coming to pass!!  The stain glass is actually installed in places!  There is gold decorative painting in some rooms!  It is coming together.  This is really going to be a house of the Lord!  And we were able to be a part of it!  What a humbling experience this has been for us.