Omaha Zoo with Grandma and Daddy April 2012

These are all Weston's pictures from his camera.  He saved up and got a little point and shoot.  So far he has taken good care of it.  I was impressed with some of the pictures from his zoo trip.  I was flying back from California while Grandma and Peter took the kids to the zoo in Omaha.  My trip was delayed five hours, so they got to stay at the zoo a long time and then came to pick me up!  Lucky for them, not so lucky for me! :)

Our first trip to Hidden Acres March 2012

These pictures were taken by Weston and Sierra.  We had a wonderful time here at the camp.  They have a special pastoral cabin and so we went up to check it out.  Swimming, campfires, hikes, peddle boats, mini golf and playgrounds and game rooms filled our weekend away.  It is like a little refuge. 

We are planning to go again the second weekend in September.  :)  Our kids would gladly live there!

Alta

Tomorrow we leave Colorado and head towards Nebraska. Our goal: Omaha. It's ten hours from here. I'm starting to get butterflies about Iowa now. I haven't had time to think about it yet with all the packing and organizing. But now I'm starting to think...

"Monday the kids start school and Peter goes to work, I'll be alone in someone's basement."

"14 or more days is a long time to be living in a basement."

"What in the world are we doing?"

"We don't know anyone there!!!!"

And more things like that.

Then we got a call again today from the pastor. They found a better place for us since we need a place for so long. It's an apartment basement, 2 bedrooms, a living room, bathroom, and kitchen. It was clear we could stay separate for meals and such, so that we can have family time. :) God provides.

It's gonna be ok.

Driving

Our drive has been fine...

a little tight because it's a little car and we had to pack:

Summer clothes

Fall/School clothes (kids start school)

Peter's work clothes

Fall coats

Activities for the kids

Various shoes

A small kitchen kit

Peter's grad school books

my scrapbooks (every one- I didn't want them in the moving truck)

The art kits I packed for the kids were a total flop- which I suspected while I packed them- I took them away and threw out the boxes at a gas station.

I packed lots of movies- also a source of tension. First, there is a mild argument over the movie to watch. Then there is the continual nagging about not being able to see, why it's closer to Sierra and how they can't hear. ;) Finally there is the smallest amount of contentment as they watch the movie.

I read a book aloud to them, which worked well.

They really do best when they just sit there. :) There is nothing to complain about and they must use their imaginaitons.

Now we are in the hotel room. I'm blogging, the kids are in the bathroom "chatting" and cracking up. Cute kids.

We're moving

Old news I know... but i haven't blogged about it yet, so it's not news yet.

Last month it came down to two options. Move to Singapore with the mission, or move to Iowa and Peter will be a children's pastor at Summit EFree there...

I cried.

I didn't like any of the options.

Then I went to Iowa. I like it. I'm glad to move to Iowa.

Since I'm in Colorado on the way to our new life, I thought I better stop and write down all the amazing reasons that Iowa is great or else i might forget.

1. good job- peter is very good a children's ministry.




2. good church- laid back, kind, alive and healthy




3. good town- nice for the children to make a "home town."




4. good house- we bought a duplex and the rental income will make life very affordable.




5. good school- small 2 classes per year. Sierra's teacher was a special ed teacher until this year.




6. good speech therapy- the state speech therapist there is great and really knowledgeable about apraxia and uses the Kaufman method, is fluent in sign, and has a homemade prompt method.

There was just an obvious leading there and thing worked out real easy.

So easy--- i chuckle at myself. because it was so "easy" to pack everything, load it into an ABF truck, leave everything and everyone we know and love and then pack the children into a small sedan and drive 1600 miles.

It's so easy! :)

Mongolia Day 4-8

Well I must say it's a blur!
Since I wrote last we were able to have a meal with some dear friends. They lived in Sukhbaatar with us for a year and they live in a different remote location now. They happened to be coming to UB, so we delayed a day so that we could see them and spend and evening together. It was wonderful. They have another new baby, #5. Whew! We had chicken at a Korean fast food place and then we walked back to the apartment for and let the kids play while we chatted until 10pm. It was wonderful.

The day after we took a taxi up here to SB. We all rode in the back seat of a toyota corrolla for 5 hours. It is a beautiful trip in the summer. We had PJB sandwiches. I was surprised to find a fresh salad with cucumbers and tomatoes and hard boiled eggs! Score! My new diet has been surprisingly easy to follow.

We arrive and there is no electricity at the house. We find a screw drivers and Peter starts taking the plyboard off the windows. A friend made us a pizza and a salad and we have a nice dinner.

Days 4-7
LOTS AND LOTS of decision making. We have gone through everything in the whole house. We put it in the trash, give away, sell or take to the USA piles. There is even a pile of things that we have named "useful garbage!" Since we have to burn our trash, we don't burn things that others could scavange and use. It feels crazy to have this catagory in my mind, but it is hard to burn up things that could be used in by someone that is needy enough to scavange. :) Things like hot water pitchers that don't heat, but that can still be used as a pitcher. Clothes that are too messed up to give away...

We had a big argument, no I mean dissussion, ha ha, about how to go about this. Peter wanted to invite people over and just open the cupboards and closets for them to find what they wanted. I couldn't imagine saying, "just go through the whole house!" So since I was the louder and more emotional and unbending one, we did it my way! We sorted through items room by room and then agreed to put everything that we were giving away upstairs. USA stuff directly into suitcases, trash directly burned and "useful garbage" in the garage to be taken to the dump.

We accomplished this in two days. Then I went upstairs.... whoa, what a lot of stuff! But honestly not as much as I thought we had. I began laying out a garage sale type of thing. Soon I realized that this was not going to go well. Then we decided to bag up things that we knew our friends needed. We have a whole room full of bags labeled with each person's name. It was so fun. It was like being Santa to decide what to give each person and family.

We also ran into all the new Peace Corp people. They train the whole new group up here every summer. So we stopped and invited them over. They chose gobs of stuff to take with them to help them get through their harrowing next two years. :)

Then today I organized the remainder of the stuff into bins. Adult clothes, kids clothes, kitchen, organizational supplies, medicine, holiday stuff, baby stuff, DVD/CDs, towels sheets, baby stuff...

The baby stuff was the hardest to go through for me. I chose a few special outfits to save and then just binned a baby girl/boy box.

Tonight we had Terri and her kids over for dinner. She was able to take 3 bins of stuff and it was great to see Weston's kindergarten curriculum and some nice clothes go to her family.

We also are trying to sell some things. The email went out to foreigners in Mongolia today and I got lots of replies. I sold the bed, bedding, stove, freezer, table, water filter, small appliances, maternity clothes, tent, baby stuff, ... YA. we made about $600 today! :) Will you pray for a buyer for our big items, treadmill, car, the wood stove and dryer? Thanks. We need to sell the big things to make it worth it to hire a truck and bring the rest of these small things down to UB.

Tomorrow I'll post pictures in the community. We have very worn couches, chairs, desks, water barrels, washer, small furniture that I'm selling for super cheap so that Mongolians will enjoy the item and the price. :) It will be good to get it gone though.

All I have left is the garage. I found gobs of stuff in there, almost buried in the dirt! Not really but it's major dirty and I need to wipe it down and get rid of it too.

This week we'll start inviting friends over. We'll give them the bags of things we chose for them as gifts, have a meal and let them go through stuff upstairs as well. I hope this part is done by the beginning of next week. I'm tired of thinking about all this STUFF.

How come we need so much STUFF?! I wish we didn't need so much stuff and that things didn't define us so much, but you know it does. That is why my bags are full of baby clothes for a baby I don't have, children's books the kids love to hear and I love to read, my bedding I splurged for in 2009 and don't want to leave behind, pictures, I'm even bringing my kitchen aid because it's worth it! :)

Well I better get out of cyber land and get back out to my cabin and be real "Tundra Mom" in the time I have left.

Night all. Have a great day!

Drippy, Soaked, Splash Mountain

We went to Disneyland last week on Friday after speech therapy. It was hot, so we decided to go on Splash Mt. We have been on it several times and never been soaked like this.

Peter and I sat in the front. After the first little hill, our left sides were soaked and my left shoe was absolutely filled with water! Then we went around a corner to the right. Our right sides were completely soaked and my right shoe could have hosted a goldfish!

All of this and we hadn't even gone down the big hill yet. Peter was howling in the front. He was saying again and again, "I'm so soaked, I am completely soaked!!!" I was ducking behind him and laughing so hard.

As we went down the big hill at the end, Peter and I knew we had no chance. A huge wave came up over the front of the boat and seemed to stop above us like a cartoon. Then it splashed down on Peter with its full soaking power!!! As I crouched behind him, all that was spared of my clothing was the front of my shirt that Peter blocked.

Peter was completely and totally soaked, as if he had jumped in a swimming pool. He was literally wringing water out of his shirt for hours. I am laughing while I remember it now. He really took it for the team!

Havasu Trip

Our plans are not His--- a recap of April

We are settling in to life in America for now.

We were supposed to be in Mongolia now... at least that was our plan.

God's plan seems different. His direction for us in this time has been clear on each day, but murky for the future.

God is leading us, but it is not following our plan.

"The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." Proverbs 16:9 continues to come to mind. In the fall, I had submitted to the Lord to do whatever he wanted, again. I had embraced living in Mongolia, again. I had humbled my wishes and dreams and hopes and submitted them to God, again. I was settled.

In March, Peter and I sat down (at my request) and made a planning framework for the next five years. :) It was a good plan--- well laid on a piece of paper in my notebook. It made me feel good to know what continent we were planning on being on from 2010-2015.

Now that paper lays in the dust of my old home in Selenge. It is in the notebook with all my other plans, teacher plans, house cleaning plans, menu plans, diet plans. I didn't bring it to America.

In March (the same month that we wrote our five year plan) we came to America to say goodbye to Grandpa Bob. We attended his funeral and planned some time to hang out with family. Then we heard the word apraxia.

Sierra having apraxia is totally outside of our plan. We were hoping to do speech therapy in our home in Mongolia. However, this type of therapy is totally beyond us. It is brain training to produce "motor planning" so that Sierra's brain can communicate with her mouth. Of course, we can't risk Sierra's ability to speak, so here we are.

God's plan is there, his leading us is there. Settled, however, doesn't seem to be part of the plan.

In AZ we searched for therapy with a specialist. We want the best for our little princess. We thought we had to move to MI then NM. Then we found a specialist 20 miles from family in Corona, CA. So we moved again.

Into my mom's basement. We saw the specialist, yes apraxia. Yes a year of therapy to see how she responds. Now what?

God provided through our family. They gave us a house and car. We have work to do within the mission for the year as well. All of this in less than a month....

So we are here in Highland in grandpa's old home. It is such a blessing to have a space for our family. It is a four bedroom house- I have a den! It has a nice grassy yard that is completely fenced.

At my beloved 99c store there were seeds- 9 packs for 99c. So I bought 25 kinds and planted a garden with my kids. They enjoyed a day in the mud and I enjoyed putting down roots and imagining what it will look like.

So my roots grow with the garden, one centimeter at a time until God's plan for our life is revealed in a beautiful blooming, fruit producing garden.

In Ulaanbaatar

It's snowing! We are getting used to our coats and hats again! We are storing our summer clothes and sandals again! See you in 3-4 months beloved T shirts!

Tomorrow we're meeting with a speech therapist named Gillian. We're unsure if she is willing to help us long term, but we'll talk to her about it tomorrow. She is a Canadian who has been a speech therapist for 25 years and now is working here in Ulaanbaatar.

Pray they will click with one another and Sierra will work with her so that Gillian can access her thoroughly.

One great thing about our trip to Thailand was the time to see Sierra interact with other 3 year olds. Thankfully, Peter and I are on the same page about getting Sierra help asap. So we are waiting here in UB for that purpose.

On Wednesday we'll head home and hopefully have a speech therapy plan for Sierra. One of our major items of business is to help Sierra stop sucking her fingers. She sucks much of the day and that isn't helping to make her say more!

Any suggestions? When Weston needed to stop it was easy- just take away the binky. Not so this time.

date night

Peter and I get about one date a year, and last night was that night. I really wanted to rent a moped and I talked Peter into it. We rode down our nearly deserted beach road, wobbling away and a little scared of the road that was rushing below our flip-flopped feet! We were going so slow that it took us a long time to catch up with a woman on a bike. :)

Then Peter sped up a little and I said, "we should slow down." We had just reached 30 mph! So we slowly drove down the coast together and drove back and returned the bike at dusk. It was so fun!

Then we got our favorite drinks and walked down the beach some more. We ate at a different resort with a nice view of the ocean and discussed life without the constant interruption of our wonderful children. It was nice.

Then we walked back to our hotel and found our kids all snuggled in watching a movie in the big bed with nana and papa.

Life is good!

Update from Paradise

Hello from Dolphin Bay Resort, Thailand. It is beautiful here. There are two pools in front of me, playground to my right and the beach and island stretching out to the left. It is really nice. There is a wonderful salty breeze that keeps the humidity at bay.

The children are having a wonderful time, kayaking, snorkeling, swimming, running, jumping in the pool, and playing with other children from all over the world.

Weston has learned to swim alone now!!! He can go down the slide and swim to the steps with no problem. He swam across the pool alone too and then Papa bought him an ice cream! He is really enjoying all the seafood he can eat and has added squid to the foods he likes!

Sierra has made friends with a very sweet little seven year old who lives in Beijing and she is French American. They swim together and the little girl, Alma, is so sweet to her. She loves the swingset here as well and has spent a lot of time flying high into the sky.

We are having a great time together!

Peter got a new Mac Book laptop and all the pictures are on his computer now! Sorry I don’t have many to put her on my blog.

In Hua Hin

We are at the beach, and so thankful to be here. This beach is very sparsely populated and clean. Our guest house is right on the beach and there is a pool right in front of our house. We are outside most of the morning and evening. During the hot middle part of the day, we are inside watching a movie and/or taking naps!

I bought the kids little cameras and my parents brought them:

This is the actual size- it clips on to a belt loop! He loves that. It takes 25-50 pictures and it's water resistant and shock proof. All that and it was less than $10 so I had to try it. Sierra is copying Weston and trying to take pictures too and it is cute to watch.

Here are some pictures from Weston's prospective.






Here are some that I took with his camera


That's our house!

We are resort crashers...

We went to an awesome beach today. Then Peter had to find a bathroom. He came back and said, "I found the coolest place. We are going there for lunch." The hotel is called the Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort. Click here to see the website if you are interested.

They also had a lazy river to float around, several awesome pools and water slides. Since we had lunch we decided to swim too...

AWESOME!!!

Patayaa Day 2

We spent the morning at the dentist. We all had cleanings and exams. All of our teeth look nice and clean now!

Then we hopped in a songtoaw (a truck with two bench seats in the back,) and we headed to the beach.

It was great. Weston could have played in the water for 10 hours! He was jumping in the waves and ducking under some of them too. He dug holes ran around the beach. He ate his beloved shrimp and he also ate almost a whole fish!




Sierra enjoyed the water, but didn't care for the waves too much, or the sand. She wanted me to constantly wash the sand off of her feet! Funny girl. She did wonderfully at the dentist today. I held her on my lap and they even used the "scaler-" read sandblaster- on her teeth and she smiled throughout. She made friends at the beach, and in the taxi and on the street and at lunch too!

Fun day.

Patayaa Day one

Weston's favorite part of flying!
We are in Patayaa. It is a beach city that is south of Bangkok. We flew from Chaing Mai to Bangkok and then a taxi brought us down here.

At the airport- 9:30 arrival. Yes this is us traveling light- sad! Don't the kids look thrilled?

We arrived around midnight and have been spoiled by our very nice room. We chose a two bedroom, but it is a bit like an apartment in size! We LOVE Thailand! It its such a great affordable vacation location! Today we ate soup, rice, veggies and chicken for lunch and had some deliciously cold ice water too. - $5 for our whole family!

Breakfast buffo-lay (that's what west calls a buffet!) at our hotel.

our room
We bought a stroller yesterday (yes, I know, we've had more than a dozen!) and today it paid for itself by carrying Sierra, while she had her nap; and then rolling sandy, grumpy Weston back to our hotel.

Sometimes it's a double stroller too! :)

Today we hung out at pool in the morning and then walked around and I couldn't resist going to the beach. It is nice there, because it is cooler. It is quite breezy and so nice. We're planning a day at a less populated beach. We'll rent a cabana for the day so that we can just hang out and eat whatever the venders bring!

Weston had some coconut milk-

He liked it!

The kids really had a great time digging around and splashing in the warm small waves! We didn't have their suits or sunblock so we went home quickly and now we're clean and we are enjoying a snack of cashews and Nescafe! :)

Tomorrow, we'll plan ahead with suits and sunblock!