Journey to the Philippines - Day 4

Happy Easter. We were picked up at the airport on Saturday evening/Sunday morning by a man who was volunteered by his mother. Oliver Aliac's mother was also the mother-in-law of the bishop in the San Fernando ward and Chris had been working with her to determine the best way to wire money to the Philippines. In the course of their conversation, she first offered for us to stay with Oliver and his family. They had just barely had a new baby. Chris declined the offer of a place to stay, but we willingly accepted the offer of a ride. After talking with the mother, Elsie, Chris coordinated directly with Oliver to make arrangements. We were so grateful to have him meet us at midnight; the kindness of the Filipino people was very evident.

Some of my first impressions of the Philippines was that it was oppressively humid for someone such as I coming from a dry climate, it was H.O.T., and many people smoked. It was dark as we drove from the airport last night to the Otel Apartelle (hotel), but I still had glimpses of a country that was far different from anything I had ever seen before--shacks, squatters, shanties--and Chris told me that I was seeing the good part of the Philippines.

Chris stopped in transit to withdraw money from an ATM so that we would have money in the morning. We were so grateful for Oliver and his kindness and accommodating nature. He made our first moments in the country so much easier. We finally arrived at the Otel Apartelle around 1 am. We were all just going through the motions. The heat in the hotel hallways was more like a sauna, but the air conditioner quickly began to cool our rooms. We had two rooms at this hotel. Chris and Amy were in the superior room. It had carpet, a queen-sized bed, and a twin bed. Misha, Kristen, and I were a couple doors down the hall in a room with three twin beds. I was not comfortable letting the girls stay on their own, so this seemed to be the most plausible solution.

I woke up early on Sunday morning. I had hoped that I would sleep longer since the day previous was such a long, sleepless day. Oh well. I thought it was crazy that I woke at 5:18 am--my normal wake up time. I was freezing. Probably one of the few times that I would be freezing while in the Philippines. The air conditioner was so effective. Our beds only had a top and bottom sheet. I found my fleece jacket and a couple of towels to cover me. I covered Kristen as well as she was curled in to a tight little ball and helped her put on her jacket. Kind of a challenge when someone was still sleeping. She didn't want to bend her arms. Misha appeared to be fine, but she wasn't right under the air conditioner either.

I wasn't getting any warmer, so I decided that I would just turn off the air con for a while. Bad mistake. It didn't take long for the air to feel muggy and begin to get hotter in the room. I couldn't get the air con to turn back on. Aargh. I wasn't too happy to have to go down to the front desk to ask for help. The employee then called someone from housekeeping. Unfortunately it meant that she had to wake him up. I felt badly because he walked into our room, pointed the remote at the air con and it purred to life. Well, I should have known how to do that! You had to hold the button down while pointing the remote at the air con for it to work.

I wish that I could have gone back to sleep, but no luck. Roosters were crowing outside the window, I could hear the sound of motorcycles, and every so often I was treated to the sound of music blasting from passing vehicles. I was surprised that my girls slept right through it. It was explosively loud. Apparently the music was coming from vehicles trying to garner support for an upcoming election in May.

Fortunately, there was wifi at the hotel. After my first glimpses of the country last night, it was amazing to imagine that I could connect with my family at home. I checked in with my family to reassure them that we had arrived in safe and sound condition. I chatted with my mother-in-law for a short time until Chris IMed me that he was up and then shortly after that Amy was up--but she wasn't feeling well. Chris admittted that he made a mistake when he gave Amy a sleeping pill in the early hours of Sunday morning. It threw her for a loop the entire Sunday. And combine that with the two Claritin I gave her around 6:30 am? I had no idea that Chris had given her the sleeping pill or I would have never added the Claritin to her system. The poor girl suffered for it the entire day.

We ate breakfast at the hotel. Pancakes or waffles and bacon. I also had some milk from a carton. Not my favorite flavor, but I knew I needed to drink milk throughout our trip when given the opportunity. The girls each had Milo which is a hot chocolate drink, not quite the same flavor. They added a little sugar. Kristen was the first to practice her Tagalog. She did quite well and totally enchanted our waitress. The waitress laughed when she heard Kristen speak, and again with the other girls. It completely caught her off guard. She soon was telling the other staff members about the Americano family...and laughing. She laughed a lot. Amy didn't feel up to eating her breakfast, and so took her leftover waffles back to the room where she promptly fell asleep. At this point, I did not know that she was so drugged and thought that perhaps she had some kind of bug.

After breakfast, we organized the gifts we had brought with us and packed things up to take to the De Ocera's. The De Oceras were a family that Chris met while serving in the Philippines 18 years ago. He baptized the mother, Normita, during his time in Angeles. After his transfer to a new area, Normita's husband, Arcadio, was baptized. Chris returned to Angeles nine months later to serve again and was able to baptize Normita's daughter, Armida. He had conversed with Normita, or Nanay (Mom, pronounced nan-i), many times before leaving the US and both were excited by the prospect of reuniting.

It was Sunday morning, so we were in Sunday dress as we left the hotel. Walking out in to the hallway of our hotel should have given me some indication as to the heat that was to assail us as we left the hotel. My makeup started to melt immediately.

We must have looked a sight as we walked to the MacArthur Highway, the main road in Angeles, where we caught our first jeepney. Chris was pulling a suitcase and I had the duffel bag packed with gifts for Normita, Arcadio, Armida, and Armida's children. The standing joke for a jeepney was, how many people can you fit on a jeepney? One more. Always one more. We settled in for the ride.

A jeepney was an open-air, covered transport where you entered and exited through the back. As you settled in, you passed your money to the driver announcing how many people you were paying for. If you were owed any change, the driver passed it back. If you were sitting near the back of the jeepney, the money transferred hand to hand until it reached you. The same with paying, the money passed hand to hand to the driver.

Chris was watching carefully for the stop, hoping that his memory would serve him well 18 years later. It did. He called out, "Para, po." Para means stop and po is a respectful term, perhaps similar to sir or ma'am. We climbed out of the jeepney, pulling our luggage behind us, and set off down a street, past a guard shack, and around the corner. The yellow and red gate was wide open and as we walked by, Arcadio and Armida called to Chris. He was headed to the gate on the other side of the house where he used to enter. Hugs all around. Except for Nanay. She exited the house a couple of minutes later; she and Chris fell in to each others' arms and hugged. I could hear my sweetheart crying. A very sweet reunion with a family he never thought he would see again in this lifetime.

Armida's children were also at the house--Allyssa (pronounced Eliza), Allyson, and Armand. They greeted the girls and I at the front gate. For me, the children gently took my hand and touched the top of my hand to their foreheads. They were happy to see the girls and greeted Amy and Misha with Ate Amy and Ate Misha (pronounced a-tay and meaning older sister, another term of respect).

Since we had recently eaten breakfast, we weren't too hungry for lunch, though Chris and I had some of the coconut and egg (flan-like) pies that Nanay had purchased for our arrival. We had tried to prep Kristen on the proper etiquette for trying new foods. She wasn't too successful. She was willing to take a bite of the egg pie, but immediately gagged on the texture of it. Her food experiences just went down hill from there. Unfortunately, Nanay was watching, and we had to explain that Kristen had a very picky palate.

We exchanged gifts. Nanay had bought the girls some key chains, shells, a small toy jeepney, a small kalesa (horse-drawn buggy) and a beautiful woven purse for me. We brought for them perfume, a watch, Barbies for the girls, Hot Wheels for Armand, earrings, and a few other trinkets.

I thought it very touching when Chris asked one of the granddaughters, "How many Barbies do you have now?" Her answer, "Just one." We take so much for granted in our small little world. We are blessed with abundance and most of the time we don't give it a second thought.

Church did not start until 1:30 PM. Nanay or Lola Mita (Lola is a term for grandma) had made arrangements for a kalesa (horse-drawn buggy) to pick us up. It would not fit everyone, so Amy, Misha, and I climbed in. Amy was still not feeling good. She had laid around in the nipa hut all morning at Nanay's. It was then that we figured out that she was over-drugged.

Kristen got to ride on Lolo's (grandpa's) moped along with his grandchildren. Kristen thought it the most wonderful mode of transportation. Chris, Nanay, Armida, and Armand rode to church in a jeepney. We were greeted as though we were old friends. The ward definitely passed the friendly test. Many people rose to shake our hands, many smiled at us, and those that Chris recognized came to hug him. I know that he was overwhelmed with emotion. We sat for Sacrament to start. The church had slatted windows to allow a breeze to rush through along with ceiling fans and rotation fans attached to the walls and aimed downward. So necessary. Amy laid her head on my lap.

The meeting was conducted in English. Songs were sung in English. Many of the talks were given in English. And those that didn't speak English, spoke enough Taglish (Tagalog and English mixed together) that I was able to follow along fairly well. Regardless of the language, it was easy to feel the spirit of the meeting. Kristen sat on the bench in front of us surrounded by Armida's children. They all wanted to sit beside Kristen.

After Sacrament meeting, Amy went to Young Women and Kristen and Misha went with Nanay to Primary (she is the Primary President). They were all in good hands. Unfortunately, Amy was so out of it. As we met back together for a combined third hour on a fifth Sunday, she laid out on a bench in the chapel and hovered on the edge of coherency. I know. Stupid parents.

I watched as the young women and young men left the meeting and went outside to hide the plastic Easter eggs we had brought (the girls had filled them with candy before church). Nanay and others had boiled and decorated 77 more eggs that were also hidden. The Primary children had been looking forward to the American family bringing the eggs for the hunt. They wasted no time in setting off in search of their treasures.

We hung around the church after for about an hour. Let's just say that the magic of a whoopie cushion transcends all languages. We had a lot of laughs.

Amy was still feeling whoozy and tired. We decided to let Kristen go back to Nanay's house to play with her new "cousins" while we took Amy and Misha back to the hotel. They were both asleep with minutes. Chris and I decided that we needed to get water (we couldn't drink local water) and a cell phone. We headed to the mall; back in to a jeepney with empty backpacks. We made it to the SM Mall. So huge, so 21st century, so busy, so not what I was expecting. It was packed. Perhaps the draw of air conditioning....

Chris purchased an inexpensive phone, minutes, and a SIM card so that he could make calls while in country. Turned out to be a very essential purchase. We also purchase gallons of water, packed it in to the back of our packs, and then decided that we should return with some kind of food for dinner. And we still needed to pick up Kristen. I was exhausted and worried that Kristen would be wondering where we were. No need to worry. The language barrier wasn't a problem. The girls played Barbies all evening. Barbies and whoopie cushions--no language required.

We finally arrived at Nanay's. The Bishop was also there and had hoped to go out with Chris to meet some of the families whose children were being sponsored with our fundraising efforts. Sadly, we needed to get back to our two children back at the hotel and had to postpone the meetings. We were a ragtag bunch with pizza in tow, backpacks full of water, and jet lag hitting us full force,

As we arrived back at the hotel, we tried to wake the girls up so we could feed them. Misha roused a bit, ate a bite or two and was on her way back to sleep when I directed her to "our" room down the hall. Kristen was about to nod off as well. We had an early morning planned for Monday--a 6 am jeepney call in front of the hotel for our trip to the orphanage. Our schedule was pretty messed up so we had no worries about waking up early.

Journey to the Philippines - Day 3

We just lost a day. Pretty weird. In fact, I am writing this on the same day as my last post, but in South Korea, they are over a day ahead. We spent thirteen hours on our first flight with very little sleep. That was the plan. Kristen slept for awhile and woke up disoriented and unhappy. Tears. She was sitting in a row with Amy but really just wanted her mom. We were all eating so I encouraged her to finish eating and then I would come back. Finally I sat down next to her and she snuggled up to me. Nothing fixes things sometimes better than snuggling with Mom.

I returned to my seat and we endured to the end of the longest flight ever. We deplaned in Incheon, Korea at the most impressive airport. It looked like a shopping mall and was beautiful. We had to check it out a bit, snapped some pictures, joked about Misha's swollen ankles and toes, and made up our way up to the Star Alliance Rest and Relax Lounge. Amy was the first to sit her cute little butt in a massage chair. Kristen was quick to follow.

So normally I wouldn't talk about my trip to the bathroom, but anything you've heard about crazy toilets with buttons are all true. In fact, when I sat down, my seat was rather warm. I wasn't sure which button to push and believe me, I did not want to push the wrong one. Two of the buttons had little clouds splurting water. Not an experience I wanted. I'm sure there was a special button just to flush the toilet, but fortunately it was also equipped with a plain and simple lever.

We sat in the lounge until our flight was ready to leave. We were already through Security so we just had a short walk through the mall to gate 43. This flight wasn't very full either so Chris was also able to get extra seating. Amy ended up in a row across from Kristen and I and Chris and Misha made their way to the back row.

Kristen promptly fell asleep. I was so tired and dozed a bit but really tried to make myself stay awake. Half way through the flight, Amy looked over at me and with a pleading look in her eyes, mouthed at me, "I have to go to the bathroom." My first response to her was, "Then go!" She pointed with her eyes toward her seat mate who was fast asleep. I responded, "Climb over her or nudge her." She got a quirky little smile at the thought of jumping over someone. It took a bit of convincing though. Suddenly though, the BIG dudes in the row behind me were congregating in the aisle blocking Amy even if she did get up. I noticed her seat mate moved her head. The dudes must have thought I was crazy because I kept pointing at the girl and mouthing the words, "She moved, she moved. Stand up." Finally she gave the universal sign for "I need to pee on this plane" and stood up. Her seat mate moved and the dudes sat down. Relief.

Our flight from South Korea to the Philippines lasted four hours. Nothing compared to our first flight, but at this point we were just ready to be done. I was so tired, my head hurt. I looked out the window to finally see the moon and the lights of cities on the Philippine islands.

Our Captain said a lot of things over the loud speaker, but what I mostly heard was, "We hope you enjoy your time at the Clark field."  We certainly will.

First moments in the Philippines.

Journey to the Philippines -Day 2

The girls were all up early. I checked on them at 5 local (6 am our time) and Misha was already awake and watching a movie on her iPod. It wasn't too much longer after when Amy traipsed to the bathroom. She is not an early riser at all.
Misha came to use the bathroom as well but got sidetracked and climbed in bed with Chris and I. It wasn't too much longer before Kristen found her way to my side of the bed. We had to really squish together in this Queen-size bed to make room for Amy when she realized her sisters weren't coming back.

The girls were starving and headed down for breakfast while Chris and I got ready. The girls returned as I was leaving for breakfast. I had hoped that one or two of them would have showered by the time Chris and I returned, but nope, they were sitting on the couch watching "I didn't know I was pregnant." Hmmmmm.

We got them going on showers and getting ready and then, treat of all treats, we walked two-plus miles to Target to pick up some last-minute supplies. The hotel shuttle would have taken us and then come back to pick us up, but Chris figured a good walk would do us good before flying for thirteen hours. It was a looooooong two miles. Amy has had a sore knee since starting Track and she limped along the whole way. I kept a hold of her hand just so that she wouldn't fall behind. She was able to keep up, but we were all getting pretty pooped when Chris told us we had three long blocks left. They were definitely long. Finally we made it, picked up our stuff, and called the hotel shuttle to pick us up for our return trip. They were happy to oblige. We were all happy to let them.

As we waited, Amy slipped the recently-purchased knee brace on to her knee. She was sitting in some dude's empty chair. When he came out of Target, he hit us up for donations to help a child for Easter. Chris was kind enough to give a donation. The old man then asked for more. Chris declined.

We hurried to pack up our stuff for the 10:30 am shuttle Chris had arranged to the airport. The lovely thing, if all goes as planned, was that we would leave a suitcase and duffel bag in the Philippines and not have to heft them on our return trip. They were a tad bit heavy. Gifts you know. Funny thing, we had planned to do an Easter-egg hunt for Chris' friend's grandchildren Sunday afternoon and then reuse the eggs again when we go to the orphanage on Monday morning. Normita kind of told the whole Primary group that we would be having an Easter Egg hunt. I think there will be record attendance in Primary this Sunday. I'm not sure if we will have any left to take to the orphanage. Fortunately, we have other goodies to share.

We arrived at the airport rather early. There was no problem with check-in so it was a fairly smooth process. The guy checking us in spread us out even more since there was plenty of room on the airplane. We checked out a few of the shops in the terminal, looked over the food choices, and then opted to go through security first and then eat. At the last minute, Chris decided to return to the check-in desk and pay for a tour we had planned to take on our return flight through Korea. We would have a long layover and, really, who knows when we will ever be in Korea again?

The girls and I continued on through security and toward our gate. The only problem? No restaurants. I even walked a half a mile to the other side of the airport to see if they had anything. Not so much. I called Chris and caught him before he went through security. Uggh. McDonald's again. Is this a bad omen of some kind? Chris says possibly. We might eat at McDo's (as it is called in the Philippines) even more.

We ate our hamburgers and nuggets. We waited. The plane was late arriving and still had to be cleaned. No matter, we were next to a young couple with a tiny, tiny baby. They had taken probably six or seven of the seats with all of their baby stuff. AND we got to experience the young mother's nursing challenges. We've been there, done that with traveling with small babies, and even though they were a little excessive with their nursing pillow, quilts, chocolates, etc. we couldn't fault them too much for trying to cover the bases with an infant.

"We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of ..."

I did watch as "ICE" agents escorted FOUR detainees on to our flight. Interesting.

Finally we were able to board. We were an hour late. Oh well, perhaps our layover in Korea wouldn't be so long. It just shortened from two plus hours to under two.

We were definitely the people in the minority on this Asiana flight to South Korea. We found our seats on the plane. I sat in a row with another young woman--the seat was empty between us. Chris and Kristen sat behind me, and Amy and Misha sat two rows behind Chris. They liked their independence. We were an hour late in leaving, but the crew didn't waste any time pushing back. We were quickly served a snack, water or juice, and a hot towel. Nice.

Our meal came about an hour later. Kristen was served a coffee mousse. She noted, "It's a little bitter." Chris hadn't told her it was coffee flavor. I tasted it, and without letting on either, I told her she didn't have to eat it. She was okay with that.

An hour after our meal, the flight attendants came around asking for the blinds to be pulled down on the windows. It was full daylight outside. They then turned off all of the lights in the cabin. I'm not sure exactly what time it was in Korea, but it must be time to sleep. Let's see, actually it is day time in Korea right now. I guess they want quiet.

Journey to the Philippines - Day 1

We've been ready to begin our journey for weeks now. Chris even took some time off this afternoon to go over our lists one final time, but we were so over-prepared that he ended up finding other things to do--sweeping out the garage and emptying the dishwasher to name a few.

We made lists, double-checked our lists, packed, and double-checked our packing. We didn't want to forget anything in our suitcases and backpacks. They would be our "home" for the next two weeks. We had anti-malarial meds, sleeping pills, aloe, sunscreen up the wazoo, swim shirts, swim suits, goggles, and a few clothes. We planned to travel lightly in order to keep things simple. Except for the gifts; we hoped they'd allow us to bring them in to the country. We are praying that they don't confiscate our whoopie cushions, toy helicopters, Easter eggs, stickers, bracelets, and more. So much fun stuff for us to share. Chris could even tell you how much it all weighs.

We asked our good friend, Rafer, if he would drive us to the airport. We didn't really want to leave our car in the parking lot for two weeks. Rafer arrived shortly before 5 pm and helped to load up all of our gear in to the back of his suburban. He snapped a few pictures of us using Chris' iPhone and we were on our way.

As we arrived at the airport, it was a convoluted mess of construction, detours, and big trucks, but we finally made our way to the west side of the airport. It was a quick good bye and thank you to Rafer and then on to checking in. Our flight took us to Los Angeles. We didnt actually leave for the Philippines until our flight Friday afternoon (March 29th) via South Korea. We'll be in the air for 13 plus hours, have a three-hour layover in Seoul, Korea and then another four-hour flight before we land at Clark Field (formerly Clark Airbase). It will be a long day ahead of us.

We made it through check-in and found our flight boarding as soon as we arrived at the "B" gate. Chris boarded with Kristen while Amy, Misha, and I purchased some dinner at McDonald's and Domino's. Normally, McDonalds would not be anywhere on my radar, but the choices were limited.

Amy and Misha sat in the row in front of Chris, Kristen, and I. We found it the easiest way to configure our seating on an airplane. It is pretty handy to pass things back and forth between the seats rather than across an aisle.

I'm not sure I understand United's reasoning for the hurry up and board and then wait. But that seems to be the norm. I guess it gave us time to eat our dinner, but once we were finished, this crew walked past the bag of garbage on my tray a number of times. I finally asked if they could take it and they said not now. Impressive. I will give them kudos for giving me a fork though. McD's thought it appropriate to give me a spoon with my salad.

I'm a people watcher, and as I settled in, my mother heart broke as I watched a young family in front of me and across the aisle. They were in two rows. The mom was sitting by a small child while her two older children sat behind her. That wasn't a big deal. What bothered me was when the older brother left his six or seven-year old sister in the row by herself and sat by his mom. Then, they pushed up the arm rests so that the little girl couldn't even see her family any more. She kept saying, "Mom, you don't love me." Aaaaghhh. I could hardly stand to watch. As we were taking off, I peaked over at the little girl and she had her blanket pressed tightly to her face, staring straight ahead. The mom would not respond to her at all.

Finally I leaned over to Chris and asked him if we could have Kristen go sit beside the girl. We waited for the seatbelt sign to go off and Kristen happily left her coveted window seat, squished between Chris' legs and the seat, and slipped in to the seat next to this little girl. Oh, I couldn't have been more proud of Kristen. Chris leaned over to me and said, "She's probably the only one of girls that would do that." The two girls started up a conversation. Kristen had her iPod and the two of them watched a movie with no sound (because Kristen couldn't hook up two sets of head phones). That must have lost its appeal after awhile because they sat happily chatting back and forth. My heart was not quite so upset. I mentioned to Chris that they had been watching a movie with no sound and he instantly pulled out his headphone splitter. I plugged it into Kristen's iPod, and those two were as happy as could be.

Once Kristen sat down, the mother took notice of her daughter and handed her some chips to eat. Maybe I shouldn't be so judgmental, but all I could think about this mom was, "Shame on you." Kristen doesn't always realize the good she does nor the Christ-like way she treats people; she touched my heart.

As we arrived at LAX and were waiting to deplane, Amy had turned around in her seat and finally noticed that Kristen was no longer sitting next to Chris. She was adamant to know why Kristen moved. We told her we would tell her later. That didn't seem to suffice, so we simply said, "The little girl was lonely."

As we exited the plane, Kristen slipped her hand in to mine and squoze. She looked up at me with a look that said, "That was the right thing to do, huh?" and I squoze back.

Her name was Karis. Apparently she had made some bad choices. That's what she told Kristen.

We left the airport to find our shuttle to the hotel. Unfortunately, the shuttle was busy picking up other people. The lady at the hotel suggested we find a taxi and they would reimburse us the fare. Lucky for us, a taxi van was sitting out front. We climbed in and were off. I found Kristen's comment, "I haven't seen palm trees in awhile," somewhat humorous. We all like to see palm trees.

We got checked in and settled at the hotel. Misha was happy to sleep on the long couch cushion on the floor instead of having us call for the rollaway we had reserved while Amy and Kristen were going to share the pull-out couch. Misha was tired and needed some time to herself so she opted to stay in the room reading the Kindle. Chris, Amy, and Kristen headed down to the pool and the hot tub; I followed a short time later.

We returned to find Misha fast asleep. She is my child that needs her alone time. Especially on a two week, so-much-togetherness, family trip. We all quickly fell asleep. Unfortunately, I had left the sound on after watching movies on my iPad and all night long, as soon as an email downloaded, crickets chirped. Since I don't usually leave the sound on, I couldn't figure out what was making all the noise. It was so annoying for Chris and I because it was either crickets or the el-train outside our window.

Before We Left

The girls were all planning on taking their iPods to watch movies during the time spent traveling.  Misha had some reading assignments she needed to work on while gone, and I just couldn't see her reading Jane Eyre on that little tiny screen for hours at a time.  I mentioned my concern to Chris and we both thought that a Kindle of some sort might be a good idea.  This was Wednesday, the day before we left for Los Angeles.  Ordering something off of Amazon wasn't an option, so we checked Best Buy.   They had the Kindle Paper White for a decent price.

Chris also got me a handy dandy keyboard to pare with my iPad.  This is why you are reading parts of our trip before we even return.  When Chris' brother, Kevin, visited in February, he had a  keyboard that attached to his iPad.  It was pretty slick.  Honestly, one of my big stresses about coming home from vacation is knowing that I have so much to blog, and it often takes days.  I'm already a few days ahead of the game with this little beauty.  Let's just see if I can get pictures to upload to my blog.  If not, you'll have to wait till I get home.

Kristen's Secret

Kristen decided a couple of weeks ago that she wanted to get her hair cut.  Normally, I wouldn't be so willing to agree, but I figured with traveling to a hotter climate, she would enjoy not having such long, heavy hair.  I made an appointment for last week and then it seemed as though Kristen was getting sick.  We had to postpone for another week, though it turns out Kristen had allergies already.

Finally she was able to get her hair cut after waiting for a couple of weeks and keeping it a secret between me and her the whole time.  She was pretty excited to show it off to her family after though.

I figure it will grow throughout the summer and by the fall, it will be back to her normal length.

Zeus

Farewell to Zeus the betta fish.  It was time for Zeus to find a different home.  Perhaps a home that would keep him cleaner.  Just a tad bit cleaner.  He now lives at the elementary school in the Mesa lab.  They are fortunate that we have already gotten him use to adverse conditions.

House Update

We had a contingent offer on our house within 36 hours of listing.  That means the buyer needs to sell their house in order to buy ours.  We hope that they are successful.  In the meantime, we need to find a place to rent for about 8 months from approximately June to February.  We won't know the exact dates until our buyer gets an offer on his house.  But...if you know of anything or perhaps anyone who will be out of town and needs a house sitter, please let us know.

Amy's Concert

Amy informed me that I forgot to write about her concert on March 5th.  Chris was actually in town for her concert so there was no need for the iPad.  Amy was part of the 8th grade choir ensemble.  I thought it interesting that the song that she had to sing in a foreign language and that she complained about at the beginning of the semester, turned out to be one of her favorite songs to sing.  She did great.

Tulips

Chris brought me some beautiful flowers last Friday.  They have been fun to watch as they open up. 

Tagalog

We used to have sticky notes plastered all over the living room window, but having our house for sale required a change of plans.  The girls each made their own flip cards of some of the words we have been learning.  We are certainly not proficient in saying sentences, but we could probably pick out a word or two in a conversation and hopefully answer some questions correctly.

Track

Amy is participating in Track and Field this Spring.  I am impressed that she stuck with it after the first couple of days coming home and barely being able to move.  Her teachers are putting her through some intense conditioning, and her attitude is fantastic.  And I think it is getting easier as times goes on.

The Philippines

It has always been a dream of Chris' to return to the Philippines where he served his mission.  It became a real possibility as he was able to connect with some friends from the Philippines on Facebook.  On New Year's Eve, he began chatting with a sister and her family that he met during his mission.  The mother, Normita, considered Chris her second son.  It was with the miracle of our modern technology that they finally "found" each other again.

Much has progressed since that night.  Chris had travel miles available and immediately began planning our return.  We opted to visit during our Spring Break since the Philippine weather was best at that time (it will still be hot and humid, hopefully not rainy though).  It was a struggle for Chris to find flights for all of us together using some of his earned miles.  I made it pretty clear, however, that I would go only if we were able to travel as a family.  Since the beginning, Chris had definitely felt the hand of the Lord guiding him in putting this trip together, and getting all of us on the same flight for all of the different legs was no small miracle.

We plan to leave Colorado on a Thursday evening, fly to Los Angeles for the night, leave for Korea on Friday at midday, fly for 13 hours, have a layover in Korea for a short time, and then fly to the Philippines arriving around midnight Saturday local time.  We will attend church on Sunday with Normita and her family, participate in a service project at an orphanage on Monday morning, hike Mt. Pinatubo (a volcano) on Tuesday, travel to Zambales on Wednesday and spend a couple days in that area.  On Friday, we will have a long day of travel to Boracay and will then spend four days there.  Our return on Wednesday begins around midnight where we fly to Korea.  We will have a fairly long layover there and hope to be able to take a small tour.  Then, another long flight from Korea to San Fran, and then home.  Still on Wednesday.

In our planning we've had to have typhoid and hepatitis A/B shots.  Our children were totally unhappy about that part.  I've picked up Rx's from the pharmacy for malaria as well as antibiotics.  We've found flip flops and hiking/water shoes and searched for shorts.  FYI, shorts don't really come in to the stores until March. We all have swim shirts and sunscreen and bug spray.  Lots of planning for sure.

Chris has literally spent hours planning all the little parts of this trip and it has been a huge undertaking.  Flights to Boracay have been cancelled twice now.  Cross your fingers it doesn't happen again.  We are now a little over a week out before we leave, and I hope that we have thought of everything.

Once Chris started the planning for this trip, it evolved in to much more than just a fun, family vacation.  We have been able to connect with key people in the Philippines who have helped us set up humanitarian service opportunities.  We invited friends and family to donate to this end, and the response has been amazing, often bringing us to tears at your generosity.  Through these efforts, we will be able to provide tuition and uniforms for a number of school children.  The bishop of the ward there has helped immensely in finding these children, in setting up a nutrition program for the malnourished, and in working with the local orphanage to arrange a service project for the youth of his ward and for us.  We are humbled beyond words and thrilled to be able to help.  Again, we are humbled at your generosity.  It has been amazing.

The Stupid Drug

I was driving home with Amy last week.  We were chatting about driving, driving drunk, and driving with friends.  She was not aware that there are laws about driving with friends when you are 16 and 17.  I mentioned about some kids who were goofing around over the weekend and because they were acting stupid and showing off, one of the friends was killed when the car crashed.  Her comment to me, and I thought it was very intelligent of her to acknowledge it, was, "I sometimes have that 'stupid drug' in me."

Misha's Concert

And here's Chris attending Misha's band concert last Thursday.

Misha had a small solo on the snare drum and did great.  It is a good thing that she is so tall, otherwise I would never see her behind all of the percussion instruments.

Faith

If the foundation of faith is not embedded in our hearts, the power to endure will crumble.  Henry B. Eyring

Tryouts

I am so proud of my Misha for going outside of her comfort zone and participating in Drama Club at school.  They are embarking on a production of Aladdin and Misha tried out for the part of Jasmine.  She wasn't cast as Jasmine, but was given a part in the chorus with a small solo.  She's already nervous about it.

Kevin

Chris' brother, Kevin, came to visit last weekend.  He and his family are embarking on an amazing journey to Thailand for the next two to three years.  (Oh yeah, you can bet we'll be going to visit!)  We are grateful that he sacrificed a weekend with his family to come for a visit.  He arrived on Friday morning (Feb. 22) with Chris.  Chris planned his schedule to fly in close to Kevin's arrival time so that they could home from the airport together.  They arrived just as I was coming back from volunteering at the school around 10 am.  Chris had a couple of hours yet to work, so Kevin got settled in, checked his email, talked to his wife, and vegged.

Chris, Kevin, and I headed out for the evening and left Amy home to watch her sisters (she owes me lots of money so there's lots of babysitting in her future!).  Chris, Kevin, and I had dinner at Hacienda Colorado.  Mmmmm, my favorite.  Chris and Kevin are completely different, yet cut from the same cloth in their goodness.  We enjoyed our conversation over dinner and weren't in too much of a hurry to get back home.  Once we did arrive home, we played a rousing game of "Apples to Apples" with the girls.

Saturday morning was full of the normal chores, plus a few extras because Kevin was here.  He and Chris lifted the glass off the breakfast table so that I could clean out the crumbs and fingerprints that I have tried to ignore for the past year!  Thank you both.  Chris and Kevin lifted the heavy desk upstairs from Chris' office so that I wouldn't have to and completed a variety of projects around the house.  Kevin even fixed our music stand on the piano.

We decided to take Kevin to Boulder to go hiking up by the Flatirons.  Coming from Texas, he was breathing a little heavy in the Colorado altitude and feeling rather chilly.  The girls bundled up--some more than others--and we headed up the mountain.  Once we got going, some of the layers began coming off and zippers were unzipped.

Amy nailed Chris.

Chris and Kevin hiked further up a trail while I waited with the girls.  Misha and Kristen played in the snow while Amy hoped to find a battery and a gum wrapper.  She wanted to start a fire.  She likes to watch crazy survival shows.  No battery.  No gum wrapper.  No fire.  She did however express herself in the snow.

Following our hike, we found a frozen yogurt shop.  Always an appreciated stop.  We checked out REI and then headed home on a scenic route.  We started to take note that perhaps we were in for a major snow storm on Sunday.

After getting some bread in the oven (I started it late on Saturday evening), I headed downstairs to check on the brothers.  I quietly chuckled and headed back upstairs to get my camera.

Chris had meetings Sunday morning and left just as it was starting to snow.  It was coming down in earnest--our first substantial storm of the season.  I will admit that I was a little nervous thinking about driving to church.  Chris called around 8 am and asked if I wanted him to come home and drive us back in.  I was relieved that he offered.  He also wanted to get his little Acura home before the roads got any worse.

The Pilot had no problem navigating in the snow, though we grumbled a little that we had so far to drive to church.  As we made it to church and got settled, it was announced that church would be cancelled after the Sacrament.  Whew.  Though we still had to drive home.  Chris helped an older lady get situated in her car while Kevin tried to keep the sidewalk shoveled.  It was a losing battle.  We finally made it home around 10:30 am.  I worked on Sunday dinner and dessert.  It was lovely as Kevin sat down at the piano and began to play.  He was so kind to play for Kristen as she sang along.  I sang along in the kitchen...  Thailand is altogether to far away.  We would love it if Kevin and his family lived closer.

We had a nice relaxing day though the boys were worrying about flights as they were both flying out that evening.  Chris' original flight was cancelled, though he was able to make another reservation.  We slept, we rested, we played.  Though the snow was still coming down a bit, Chris headed outside to shovel.  Misha helped a little bit but ended up playing in the snow with Kristen.

We said goodbye to Chris and Kevin around 6:30 pm.  They made it to the airport safely.  Kevin's flight was delayed, and I think it was after 3 am his time when he finally made it home.  Chris flew in to LA but had to find his way back up to Burbank.  It was a late night for him as well.

Helpers

I love this picture of my girls helping make dinner the other night.  So love having older girls.

Spring Cleaning

I am not a fan of the effort required to Spring clean a house.  Especially the windows in my house.  Here's a before and after shot (and still I can't get all of that dirt out).  My fingers are raw from reaching into narrow spaces to clean out dirt.  Blasted windows.  Who designed these windows?  They are awful.  And even after all the cleaning, the wind blows, and I check back and there's more dirt.

I love them feeling of a clean house though.  I have spent time cleaning windows, base boards, doors, cabinet fronts, etc.  Amy bargained some new clothes and offered to clean my laundry room.  Her next bargaining point garnered her the opportunity to vacuum the dirt from the basement windows.

2nd Grade Showcase

The showcase nights at the elementary school have gotten so much better in the past years.  The music teacher, though not my favorite, seems to be blossoming more in her position.  I like how each class has their own showcase and that there is a theme and not just a bunch of random songs.

The theme this year for Kristen's class was "Under the Sea".  I especially liked the yellow submarine song, and it was obvious that the kids were really enthusiastic about it as well.  Kristen was given the role of introducing the final song and was outstanding--speaking slowly and clearly.  She planned out her outfit and hairdo for the evening and looked beautiful.

Chris was traveling, actually in Portland, and was visiting with his parents.  The amazingness of technology allowed Chris and his parents to have a seat close to the action.  It was kind of funny as Misha connected with Chris via Facetime, (I was holding the camera so Misha was kind enough to come along and hold my iPad for the whole performance) there was a collective "Ahhhhhh" from those surrounding us when they realized that a dad was attending his child's performance via an iPad.