As heard in the car.....

The following were heard on the car ride home from church and while doing the dishes after lunch. Note, these were all discussed in utter sincerity.

Ever wonder what is going on in my children's minds? Take a peek:
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Kami: "Mom is lonely a lot. I think that she needs to get herself another man."
Other girls: " It is just that Dad is always at work"
Kami: "Yeah, that's why she needs two men. One to do the working and one to stay home and give her comfort all the time."
Me: "I think that is illegal"
Kami: "Well, I am going to do it when I grow up!"

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Kaitlin: "One of the kids in Sunday School was being so stupid. He said he just hates all gays. I told him, 'How can you hate all gays?' and he said he just did"
Kaitlin: " That is really ignorant. Do we hate all people that sin? Do we hate people who smoke because it is a sin? Do we hate Democrats?"
Me: "I didn't know being a Democrat was a sin!"

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Kaitlin: "Mom, when I graduate will you take me out for cheesecake?
Me: "Yes. We can do that."
Kari: "Will you take me for cheesecake?"
Me: "Maybe." (BTW Kari asks to go out for cheesecake at least once a week.)
Kayli: "Mom, when Kaitlin graduates we all need to go out to that really yummy restaurant. You know, it's called 'Outhouse'"
Me: "No, it's called Outback. We don't want to eat at the Outhouse Restaurant!"

~Kim

Attitude

Tonight I wore pirate skull and crossbones earrings to the adult session of Stake Conference. Like this, but mine are gold.......

I am becoming a rebel.

~Kim

first generation church members

Church here is a lot different than at home.

No, the women don't have the priesthood (wait, in one branch on one of the islands a misguided leader DID do that) and the gospel teachings are the same.....but some times some strange things pop up.

I have to remember that most of the members here are first generation; meaning that they are the first person in their family to be baptized. This leads to some sweet teaching moments. About a month ago, a dad was blessing his baby. He went up to the pulpit to do the blessing and started talking, welcoming people, etc. The bishop pulled him aside of the microphone, with Elder Coleman, and the father was given about a three minute instruction on how to give a baby blessing. It was a sweet moment as this dad was given instruction and we practiced patience and love.

Forward to today. I was sitting in sharing time for primary, happy that the Primary Presidency had come today. Last week everyone was gone and so I got to do sharing and singing time. One of the counselors got up to do the sharing time. She is new in primary (since I have been here) and is a very visual, tactile person. She always has great visuals for the children to see and focus on. Today she was sharing how the scriptures and their teachings are a great treasure for us, better than earthly treasures. She had a beautiful red cloth draped over the table area and then placed a box in the middle of it with different jewelry pouring out of it. Great visual aid.......too bad the box was from a bottle of Johnny Walker.
~Kim

Still laughing.....maybe.

Still trying to keep up with the attitude of laughing at what life throws at you.

Woke up last night with the bed shaking and the door slamming ......yep, earthquake (5.6). I kept shaking Kevin, it felt like forever but was only a few seconds, trying to wake him up saying "Kevin, earthquake!!! EARTHQUAKE!!!!" He says "Yeah, I feel it", then turns over and goes back to sleep!

I got up, checked on the girls, checked the house and then went to bed and worried about Kaitlin and Kari. They are at a Stake overnight campout for seminary students. There was no information here about the earthquake, so I had no idea where it was centered (93 miles SW of Santo Domingo, in the ocean) and didn't know if it had affected the girls more or what.

This morning, when Kayli checked Facebook, she saw that there had been an earthquake (her friends talking about it) and came running to tell me. I informed her and Kami that I knew, that they had slept right through it and that all was fine. Their only real experience with an earthquake is with what happened in Haiti and here in February. Kami was, understandably, concerned.

All is well, and it was just a small earthquake. Hopefully, I WON'T get used to them!

-Kim

Laugh or Cry.... your choice!

Things have been stressful here lately. The cultural differences are taking their toll on our family's happiness and Kevin has been EXTREMELY stressed out about work. Seriously, he could work 24/7 and he would still never be able to get things caught up or up to the level that they should be. He allready works several hours on Saturdays and Sundays and every night..... like 70+ hour weeks! (Imagine living like this for the last 21 months!)

Things are difficult in our ward, and I noticed that Kevin and I were turning into Laman and Lemuel (insert murmuring here) and it was rubbing off on the kiddos. (insert murmuring here) I even asked Kevin if, since you could do "home school" it would be possible to do "home church". He was not amused.

Kevin came home from a church meeting last night that was a disaster and told me that we just need to start laughing at these things. We can't change them.....seriously, you just can't change other people who don't want to change!..... and so we just need to start laughing more.

I got to thinking about a quote from Sister Hinkley that said "The only way to get through this life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or to cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache."

So, here's to less headaches!

One thing that I had to laugh about yesterday......
The maid comes on Thursday's. She is very organized and hates me having anything out of place. So, if she sees anything that isn't where it goes, she puts it in a pile. (No, she doesn't put it away, just in a pile. Yes, I have tried to ask her to put away the things that she knows where they go (ex: hair stuff), but it doesn't happen). Just imagine the piles around my house now! I was working on organizing my bedroom in the morning and early afternoon, as I am wanting to work on my goal of scrapbooking in my extra time here. I had been working on one thing at a time, so as to not get overwhelmed, while I was doing the laundry and other chores I needed to accomplish.
Imagine my surprise when I entered my room with a load of laundry to fold, to discover that Morena decided that I should finish all the organizing in the room yesterday afternoon (about the time that I was starting dinner). She had taken everything off my dresser, Kevin's dresser, my night stand, Kevin's nighstand, my piles of books and magazines, etc and stacked them all over my bed so that I could put them away.

I thought that I was the boss.

Obviously, I am wrong.

-Kim

~What is going on in your life lately that you need to laugh about?

Cultural Differences

So, just about every day I think of something that I want to put on my blog. And then I think about all the time that has passed without writing and how I need to "catch up" (being the crazed OCD manager that I am) and so I get exhausted thinking about it and then I do nothing.

Fast forward to now......I am now going to write whenever I want. It will probably be random. It will probably not have a lot of pictures, because my lovely computer likes to freeze up when I am putting on photos (Fred, help me!!!). But it will be me. And I am trying hard to remember the funny, happy things that are going on here. So, beware. Read on if you want.

Yesterday Morena (the lady who helps me clean) was here when the girls got home from school. I went and picked up Kambrielle at school and got Kaitlin and took them to the Ortho for Kaitlin's appointment. The other two girls stayed at school and did basketball (Kayli) and band practice (Kari).

I went back to talk to Morena in the laundry room (she was doing the ironing) (OK, get all your jealousy out now..... yes, it is wonderful to have someone else do the ironing) and Kambrielle came with me. Morena got this happy look on her face (she just loves kids. She was a nanny for 18 years and really, that is her calling) when she was looking at Kambrielle. She loves her, it is obvious, and with a very proud expression said "Ella es gorda! Ellas es gorda y grande!"

Ugh. I didn't know what to say! So, I just said "Si!, esta!" and then went in the other room and busted out laughing. Her sentiment translates to " She is fat! She is fat and large!" I don't think that I would ever have anyone in the US come and proudly tell me how fat and large that my daughter was getting!!!!!

What she was lovingly trying to say, was that Kambrielle was growing and getting big. And in a country where lots of kids are tiny because they don't eat well Kami does look healthy and strong.

I wonder how she would describe ME to other Domincans????????

With love,
Kim

Whale Watching

In February, three friends and I went to Samana Bay to go whale watching. My friend, neighbor and fellow ex-patriot Kathy Jackman is the reigning queen of fun trip planning. Anything fun that we do, she is likely to be behind. She has wanted to go see the whales, and so when she realized that the peak time was at hand (mid Feb) she called to see who was in for an adventure.

I am always up for some girl time, and so the kids were assigned to their daddy (wonder what the hair looked like at school?) and off we went!



People were so excited to go whale watching with me that they even made a sign so that people would know where to line up! Wow! Are these people friendly or what?



We left at 6:00 in the morning and drove the 2 plus hours from Santo Domingo to Samana Bay. The road to Samana is a toll road and is also one of the best roads on the island. It is only two lanes (one going each way), but there are no 2 foot pot holes and so it is great! You drive for awhile, pay a toll, drive awile, pay a toll, etc. I believe that there were three tolls to pay each way. And the strange thing is that each toll was a different, odd amount (like 72 pesos, or something like that), so that the toll workers had to make change at every toll and you were never prepared with the amount, because it was different at each station.



We arrived in Samana about 8:15 or so and so we had some time to drive around the town a bit before we went to the office. Our boat was scheduled to leave at 9:00, so in traditional Dominican fashion it left at 9:30.


A view from the boat of the bay.

My ex-patriate friends and sanity savers. From left to right they are: Denise Lilly (from Layton. Her hubby is over the welfare department here), Nancy Rappleye (from Layton. Her hubby is over seminaries and institutes here) and Kathy Jackman (from South Jordan, or maybe West Jordan. I can't remember! Her husband is over the accounting department here). Kathy has been here the longest, going on three years in July. Denise came a month after we did and Nancy came this last summer. They are so fun and a great support. Kathy lives in the same apartment building with me and Denise and Nancy live in the building next to the temple.

We decided to go out onto the front of the boat to enjoy the view. It lasted about 15-20 minutes and then it decided to rain too hard to stay outside. Drat!

Sitting in the front of the boat. Wish I had thought to bring my binoculars! I loved the look of this little island that was in the bay. You could snorkel out to it from the beach area. Unfortunately, it got too cold and rainy to do it while we were there.

This is one of the workers on the boat. Seen here tying us up to the dock.

I stole this photo from Nancy's facebook and thought that I could blow it up bigger, but it was too grainy. The water was so beautiful and I just love the little islands with the palm trees on them.

Sighting the whale! Thar' she blows! My camera batteries were too slow to catch anything good, but you can see the dorsal fin of the whale in this picture.

Whale going down for a dive.

Wish that my camera was fast enough to catch the spouting and the tail, but alas, it was not to be.

The seventh grade class from Carol Morgan makes a trip to Samana every year, as a culmination of their whale study unit. Kari lucked into going on it the very first week that we got here last year. The 7th graders had gone a few days before us, and Kathy's son was part of the group. They were so lucky to have a huge group of whales in the bay when they went and they were very active. They were even seen breaching the water! When Kari went they had dolphins gliding along the side of their boat and there was a large sea turtle swimming by the boat too.

Unfortunately, probably because of the weather (you know that whales just don't like to get wet), we just saw this one guy the day we were out.

Some of the boats that were at the dock. Boy am I glad that we were in a bigger boat and not one of the small ones that were going out. I got a bit seasick, even with 2 dramamine pills, and so I can't imagine what it would be like for someone in one of the small boats! Notice the people on the dock wearing sweatshirts..... these are Europeans, not Dominicans, so you know that the weather was a bit cold that day. The one time in the last year that I have wished that I had brought a jacket along with me!

We got back from the boat ride at about 1:00 and decided to eat our lunch sitting up in this tower. There were several of them along the "malecon" here. A malecon is what the Dominicans call the street that runs along the shore line.

After lunch we found a group of shops and went looking for some souveniers. Nancy found some jewelry that she liked, as did Kathy, and Denise got some fridge magnets and some other fun things. I was a party pooper and didn't get anything.

Around 3:30 we headed back home, back to the chores, children and chaos!

As we were driving home, I snapped this photo of a home along the side of the road. This is pretty typical architecture for the homes here. The nicer ones are also painted in this type of bright paint.....looks like something that Kambrielle would pick out!

This is one of the rice paddies that we passed by. They were all along the roads in this one area and so I got a decent picture of this one. The green of the growing rice plants is very vibrant, like something in a photo that you would see of Ireland.

There was one stretch of road where there seemed to be a palm tree plantation. The trees were growing as far as you could see and as deep as you could see as we drove thru. I have no idea what they were being grown for, but you could see in some sections where old trees had been harvested and new ones were growing. Hmmmm, must investigate this further......

We got home around 6:00. I gave hugs and smooches all around, helped with homework and dishes and then thoroughly crashed around 9:00 (love that dramamine)

Can't wait to go again next year with Kevin. There is a lovely resort there that would be fun to stay at. Maybe he and I can get away for a weekend and enjoy the quiet feel of the beach there.

An Amazing Experience

Today I had an amazing experience! It was truly fabulous and life changing. "What was it", you ask breathlessly.......... swimming with dolphins, a pedicure on the beach with the wind blowing my hair, watching the whales swim off the side of my boat while we race thru the water? No, none of those.

This was better.

Today I had a maid clean my house. Not just any maid, but a real maid. One that I didn't have to explain anything to. One that scrubbed down my walls, cleaned out the fridges, made the glass shower stalls look like glass again..... I could go on and on. If this blog were auditory, you would be hearing the Hallelujah chorus right now.

No, I didn't sit on the couch eating bon bons while she worked. I was sorting through the piles of papers that are sitting on my kitchen counter, my desk and my dresser. Maybe some day I will be able to have a place for everything and everything in its place, but for now I am just so excited that the toilets are clean and you can see the top of the dryer.

When I found out that we were moving here lots of people asked me if I would get a maid. "Of course not," I scoffed. I was a modern American woman who could do everything. Well, I have fallen off my high horse. I can't do everything. And so, I am very grateful for a humble, hard working woman named Morena who is willing to help me and for so little pay.

And the best part........ she comes again next week!

-Kim

PS: Kierstin comes in a few days...... then there will be posts with actual pictures from my camera, as she will be helping her technology impaired mom with her blogging skills!

Catching up.....

Every day I think of things to put in this blog, but then I think about all of the things that I need to catch everyone up on and I post nothing!

So, a quick update to catch up:

* At the end of December we were asked to take an International assignment for the LDS church. We moved to the Dominican Republic on February 16th and are still trying to unpack!

* Kevin's new job title is Area Physical Facilities Manager. He is over all planning, construction and maintenance of the church buildings, temple, CES buildings, mission homes, etc for the Caribbean area. He is gone a lot. (Insert sad crying sounds here)

* The girls are attending an international school here in the DR. It is called Carol Morgan School and you can google it if you are interested in finding out more about it. Classes are taught in English, although you hear an awful lot of Spanish being spoken everywhere! The girls take SSL (Spanish as a Second Language) as well as their other classes. The school is about 90% Dominican and 10% kids from other countries. They have friends who are Korean, South African, German, Iranian, and from other countries that I can't think of right now. It is a lot of fun, althought they miss their Utah friends terribly!

* I spend my day trying to not get killed when I drive everyone around (We have just one car here). The driving is insane. I also spend all day trying to buy groceries. And sometimes I watch Ellen when I can find it on the cable.

* Yes, we live by the ocean. However, it takes a minimum of 45 minutes to get to a decent beach. The good beaches are two hours away and some European ladies like to sunbathe there.....if you get my drift. You can see the Caribean Sea from my windows, but since Santo Domingo is a port town there are no beaches. Just waves crashing onto cliffs. Two weeks ago we were walking along the Malecon (road by the ocean) and we watched three kids climb down the cliff and go harpoon fishing. It was kind of scary.....attention kids, don't do this at home.......is the information that I wanted to make sure the girls got as they watched them climbing down!

* We live in an apartment building now in the middle of the city. A big change for this country girl. I am getting used to all the noises and to riding in an elevator. Love the pool, gym and tennis courts but really miss gardening and my beautiful yard. I just hope that some of you are enjoying my fabulous tulips since I can't enjoy them this year.......

* My saddest thing is selling our lovely home in Syracuse and knowing that we now no longer have a permanent place to call home. We have had 2 offers, one ridiculous and one waiting on a counter-offer, on the house and it will be sold to the relocation company on the 15th of May if no other offers are accepted before then. I am really missing all of my friends and the fabulous support that I had in Utah. Don't forget us just because we moved!

So, my goal is to share some of the fun, weird and interesting things that happen to us here with you. Remember that we are just a phone call away! (801)776-9323

-Kim