First day of school

My little guys started school today at "real" school. They were SO excited... seriously, last night was like Christmas Eve around here. Caleb ran right into his class this morning and gave his teacher a hug and waved good bye to me (SO thankful for the week of orientation that they had that got him comfortable with his class!) Elijah told me I didn't need to walk him to his class - he could go all by himself. (I did anyways.)

And this afternoon when Elijah got home and I asked if he made any friends, this was the conversation.
E: "James is my friend."
Me: "James, the boy who sits next to you?"
E: "Well, he doesn't sit next to me anymore. Mrs. Woolwine said it was best if we had different seats."
Me: "Were you two talking too much?"
E: "He doesn't talk too much but he listens a lot." :):):)

Guess who lost his first tooth?

He is SO excited. Now the dilemma is what the tooth fairy will bring....

Check one off the bucket list...

Got to go glass blowing with my mother-in-law a couple weeks back! SO much fun! We had gotten a Groupon back in January and the company was willing to postpone the expiration date so I could get back in the same hemisphere to play with hot, molten glass. :)

So, glass blowing is WAY labor intensive. It took about 15 minutes to create a piece (we got to make 3 pieces each) and by the end of each piece, I was totally exhausted. Our instructor was so good and patient with us though. He would give us the rod with a blob of melted glass and we would mix it in broken bits of colored glass....

Melt the glass bits into the blob, spin it and then blow it....

For this piece (a bowl) I spun the glass after blowing it and then flipped it over to create waves in the rim.

The finished product....

Was such a fun experience and thankful for the opportunity.

Packing it in

So we've been in America 54 days. Not quite two months. It has been a lifetime of memories though. I feel like we got off the plane and dove in... we landed Saturday afternoon. Bought a car Sunday. Drove across country Thursday. 

Six weeks, 14 states, and 8,000 miles later, we're finally starting to catch our breath (and sort through all the pictures!) 

I am so, so thankful for all the fun times we've had. I am so thankful for all the people praying for us. I honestly believe our time has been such a fun adventure (instead of horrible disaster!) simply because we have so many people praying for us. 

There has been snow...

Brant's aunt brought a cooler-full down from the mountains to greet us when we first got to America!

There has been a train ride....

There has been amazing food...

HOT, freshly baked pretzels at a little Amish bakery in Missouri. I don't know that I've ever eaten anything so amazing.

There has been fishing....

One of the many caught that evening with the Davis's in eastern Texas. SO much fun for the little boys.

There has been drama...

 Getting to watch my "little" bro and sis, Wes (above) and Kim, perform in their school's production of "The Music Man" - such a special memory.

There have been lots and LOTS of Happy Meals...

There has been American history lessons...

 

Such a fun afternoon at Mt. Rushmore! The boys' hats came from a fun "Firehouse" restaurant in South Dakota. They wore them non-stop for a week afterwards.

There has even been a small town parade...

...complete with TONS of candy. Took the boys a little while, but they caught on to the "run and grab" technique. :) The crowd around us just loved the boys and were always trying to get more candy thrown our way. 3 full gallon bags later...

 There have been farm life lessons... tractor riding...

 Hay bale climbing...

And cattle feeding...

Thanks, Beau and Amber, for a great week!

 There have been wagon packing lessons...

Spent the day at the Oregon Trail Interpretative Center in Oregon. One of the interactive exhibits for kids was trying to pack a life size wagon, adjusting a given packing list, to accomadate all the supplies needed within a given weight limit. The kids worked on it for at least an hour.

There has been hiking in the Olympic National Forest...

And there has been lots and lots of sugar....

Most notably at the Jelly Belly Factory Tour in northern California. Fun afternoon spent there. Way too many free samples... we all left a bit sick. :)

And there have been lots and lots of fun times with people across America... kids playing with new friends, late nights talking, crying, laughing and praying with long time friends. So, so thankful for a great first six weeks. We have been so blessed.

On dry skin, cheese and navigating Target

The past weeks have been a blur. Four weeks ago today we got on a plane and flew across country to the capital city where we saw such amazing things as malls, car dealerships, highway overpasses and Starbucks. :)

Fast forward 4 days and 24 hours on an airplane and we were back on US soil for the first time in 3 years. Walmart. Grocery stores the size of a small village. Freeways where people drive on the WRONG side of the road... at 80 miles an hour.

 My mother-in-law took my to Target 3 days after we landed in country and I spent two hours wandering around, filled my cart with who-knows-what and then I put everything back on the shelves and walked out with nothing.

Totally overwhelming.

So what I've learned 3 weeks into our great American adventure...

It is cold here. And dry. My skin has totally shriveled. I have gone through almost an entire bottle of Aveeno in a month. The boys’ skin has totally peeled due to the dryness and they carry their Chapstick with them everywhere.

The cereal aisle at the grocery store scares me.

Walmart scares me. Way too many choices and things to look at.

I count out coins in my hand like a first grader and I’m sure the checker thinks I’m crazy. All the bills are the same color. I’ve decided I like colored bills. Way faster to pick out what you need.

Groceries are way cheaper here. So are toys. So are clothes. Definite advantages to living in a place where they actually manufacture goods. :) It’s been really hard not to buy everything I see simply because of the price. The first time I went to Trader Joe’s I saw a block of cheese, that I thought was priced at $70.... which for where we live is a steep, but not unimaginable. When I realized the cheese was 7/10 of a pound and only priced at $3 I almost bought the entire shelf of cheese. :)

Speaking of cheese, it’s amazing.

I think I have gained ten pounds already... cheese, ice cream, red meat, french fries.... yeah, America has been tasty.

But... I miss eating veggies and chicken at every meal more than I thought I would. I kinda feel sick from eating so much heavy food and I think the only veggies I have eaten in a month are baby carrots. 

Sleeping better than I have in 3 years! It’s amazing what glass windows and insulation do for drowning out noise... which, with the lack of drunks, tropical thunderstorms and rats running in the rafters, is pretty non-existent to begin with. Has been so nice. I think sleeping on spring mattresses also helps. :)

SO good to see family and friends. Hard to see changes... who is sick; who has died; who has gone through some really hard times while we’ve been gone. But wonderful to visit and catch up and laugh and see how little has changed in 3 years.

Will post some pictures soon. It’s been ten minutes since I’ve lathered on some lotion and I need to reapply.

Happy Easter!

This time next week...

...I will wake up in America. And our life here - where little boys cut banana leaves with machetes and use them as umbrellas during a tropical rain storm - will all seem like a dream...