Newest Members of the Family

I have been looking for some kittens for the girls for the last two months. I told my friends Charmaine and Julie and they were on the lookout for a kitten for me. While at the vet, Julie found out that there was a mother cat that had just had kittens and that we could have one in three weeks, when it could leave its' mother. She took photos of the kittens, so that we could choose, and brought her camera to Girl Scouts. I showed the photo to Kari and Kambrielle and told them that Kevin and I had decided that they could get a cat. Kari about hyperventilated and cried right there at school. They went home and told their sisters and we had the happiest girls around.

Fast forward a few weeks........ The lady with the cats won't call us back. No kittens are available..............insert sad and disillusioned children here. You can't get kittens here like at home. You don't really see them on the streets much, or people giving them away. I don't know why you don't see them more, especially with all the rats that are here, but I have my suspicions......(think dinner meats)

Friday when Kevin got back from work in the early afternoon we loaded the girls into the van and headed off to El Arca, one of the pet stores here in town. They had two kittens.... and only wanted $210 a piece. They were a himalyan siamese mix. I asked the worker there if he knew of anywhere we could go to get a kitten that just needed a home. He looked at me like I was insane and shook his head no (of course, I did interrupt his computer games he was playing...)

We went to another pet store in town and they also had three kittens for sale. These were a steal at $278 for the black ones, or $334 for the orange one. Needless to say, we left there without purchasing anything. We did enjoy looking at the monkey they had for sale. It had an infant that was clinging to its' back and it was really cute. They won't sell them to Americans, is the rule, but I am sure that if I had the money they would sell it to me! (something about the way we can't bring them back into the US)

Kari suggested we try a pet store in a poor area of town, that we pass on the way home from Kevin's work. We headed back there and headed in to talk to the owner. They only had dogs, birds and fish. I asked the owner if he knew of any kittens and he was very kind to make some phone calls. I told him we didn't want a pedigree, just a kitten that needed a home. About 15 to 20 minutes later a man showed up on a motorcycle, holding a box with 2 very scared kittens. The girls immediately fell in love and, after a bit of negotiation, we left with 2 little girl kittens and spent about $27 for the two. Kevin and I decided that we would get two so that they could keep each other company.

We brought them home, bathed them, and fluffed them up. (They took the baths without a problem) Throughout the night the girls played with them, observed them and came up with names. The one with the gray markings is smaller, but more adventuresome. She goes exploring and gets into everything. She is named Sophia. The one with the black markings is much more timid. She jumps at everything and is learning to trust us. She is named Giuliette (Kaitlin wanted the Italian spelling of Juliette).

Hopefully the twice weekly baths and brushing them will keep my allergies at bay.
My eyes are itchy, but my children are happy!
~Kim

Really Random

Yesterday Kami was hugging me as we waited for the elevator to come up to our floor. She squeezed me really tight and said, "I am glad you are chubby. It is nice to hug chubby people."

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Two weeks ago I was riding in a taxi home from the temple. We have only one car and Kevin needed it and so I was using public transportation. I was having a chat with the guy driving when he needed to swerve to miss a pothole. I asked him...(conversation translated from the original Spanish)

me: "What do you call those holes in the road?"

him: "Holes in the road?"

me: "Yeah...you know, the holes that we get after a big rain."

him: "holes"

me: "You don't have a special name for them? In English we call them potholes"

him: without a pause "Maldito hoyos" (translation... d*#* holes)


They have really amazing potholes here. They are everywhere after a big rain, which translates to all the time. People in Utah complain about the road conditions there, but they have nothing on the roads here. When you are driving down the street you are constantly swerving around these potholes. It feels like living in a video game.


Once I was in the Colonial Zone with Elder Coleman's daughters. They were visiting and wanted to do some souvenir shopping. Since the Coleman's were busy with an assignment I volunteered to take them. We got a bit lost coming back (lots of one way streets that are wide enough for one car only) and so were coming back up a street I don't normally go on, when there was a big pothole in the road. I am talking huge! This hole had one of those blue plastic water barrels in it, and then another water barrel stacked on top of it that was 1/2 way in.....so this hole was 1 1/2 barrels deep! I barely squeezed the van by and the ladies started yelling for me to back up so they could get a picture! No way! We barely made it by the first time.


Wish I had the picture though!

~Kim

Computer challenged

Hey look! I changed my background! And without Kierstin's help!

Will wonders never cease?

~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?

Basketball

We had Kaitlin's basketball invitational tournament today. The girls Varsity team had basketball going on, while the boys JV and Varsity soccer had games outside. Quite a lot of fun. Kaitlin's games started around 8:00. There were 3 games, with about a 20-30 minute break between, and then on to elimination for the final game. They won the first game, lost the second by one point in the last 10 seconds, lost the third game by four.


Kaitlin played almost the entire time.....maybe sitting out 3-5 minutes per game. Needless to say she is exhausted. However, she did great on her rebounding and putting in some shots. She made more than half the points in the first game!!! Great job Bubbs!


They lost the first round elimination game by 5 points. The last game was played on the outside court and the girls just had this glazed look in their eyes as they pushed it for all that they could to finish in the heat and humidity. Kevin and I were texting about the games, as they went on (I am the slowest texter in the history of the world), so that he could feel a part of the action while he is flying home from a long trip today.


I ran home between the 2nd and third games and got the girls to come and cheer on the team. Kambrielle watched a while and then ran out to play on the playground and blow bubbles while Kari immersed herself in a book (she looked up enough times to get furious with the other agressive team!) and Kayli was my water/gatorade/flavored water runner to buy things in the cafeteria while I yelled and cheered my head off (I was a cheerleader, you know. Don't worry, I didn't bring my pompoms or anything...... this time.)


Great job Kaitlin. CAISSA is coming up at the end of the month. This is a competition where other international schools come in. We will be hosting two girls in our home during that time. Should be a lot of fun!!!


With love,
Kim

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