Adios Asilo

We started saying our goodbyes here. I took the kids with me to the Asilo (the home for the aging that I volunteered at). The have gone once before and were a hit. It is like they are rock stars. They did so well. It can be challenging since most of them are not too coherent and all are hard to understand. The kids ran around and found things to play with, which entertained the ladies. One of them kept saying how cute her gingritos were. Another one who I was feeding said "que lindo" when Creed ran by. I was so shocked since I had not heard her say anything before. My favorite, Dolores, loved them. We took a bunch of pictures. The nun who I work with is so amazing. I told her I would pray for her becuase working there is so hard. Another worker said to pray hard b/c they did not want to lose her. All the workers walked us out of the wing and we were bombarded by others. Other residents, nuns and visiters. Everyone wanted pictures with the kids. One nun went and got her camera. Creed hammed it up and refused to look at the camera. He thought he was hilarious and so did everyone else. He is such the class clown. I finally had to bribe him with candy to look at the camera so we could get some good pictures. They were all so sweet. The sisters do so much for the residents. Very few have family and there is very little money. They work so hard. At least in my wing the women hit, pinch, grab, kick, and the other week I saw one spit at the nun. It is sad seeing the state they are in. Anyway, the sisters are so sweet. They even gave the kids juice boxes (which is HUGE to them and oreos). The kids were exhausted afterward but did great with everyone picking them up and trying to get their attention.

Laney and Kindergarten

There is a school in District 20 that is bilingual Spanish and English. We think we want our kids to go there so thought we would start the process since she is going to be in Kindergarten in August. We live in District 11 so are trying to choice her in. My mom went down to the district office to fill out the paperwork for us. There was a question on the form asking if there was another language in the home. She marked yes, since there is and since she thought it would help Laney get in. Well, then they told her she had to fill out an ESL form because of it (English as a Second Language). She did and she told them that English is not her second language and she speaks English fine. They told her someone would call us and talk to us about it.

This lady from ESL called me and I told her Laney speaks Spanish and English. She reads and spells only in English. Anyone who knows Laney knows she can speak well....and all the time. I told her that both Jason and I were native speakers. She said according to federal law they have to test her to see if she needs services from ESL. They cannot send her application to Foothills until she takes the test. So we cannot figure anything out until we come home. It all seems so dumb. Can´t someone be good at two languages. That is what happens when they learn a language young. Of course, there is no arguing with red tape. No one will believe me as her mother that her English is excellent so we will jump through the hoops. Welcome to the education system!!

Feliz Dia de Padre

Happy Father´s Day. I am blessed to have an icredible dad. Wish I was in CO to celebrate with him. He is a Godly father who raised me to love God, people, and adventure. I have so many wonderful memories with him and am so glad we can continue making more. He is a wonderful grandpa too. The kids adore Deepaw and love spending time with him.

My kids are extremely blessed too. They have a great dad. They spent yesterday making him cards and giving him gifts of twizzlers and chips. No gifts allowed that have to be hauled around according to Jason. We ate ice cream too. Granted it was a day early, but we were all home. Jason is amazing with them. He is extremely silly and comes up with great games to play with them. A lot of times the games include learning how to spell, read and speak Spanish. I love that my kids have so much fun learning. They do not even realize that is what they are doing. He is extremely patient.

I am blessed to have a great father in law. He has always accepted me into the family and been willing to help us with the mountain of things that had to be done on our house. We never could have done it without him. We loved living close to him in CO. Papa Gary is so great with the kids. He loves messing with the kids and they think he is hilarious.

My kids are so fortunate to have two wonderful grandpas who love and adore them. Right now I just wish we were closer to them. Happy Father´s Day. Especially to our one and only Heavenly Father who loves us uncondicionally even with all our craziness.

Long Week

When will this week be over? I guess technically it is a new week today, but the pain of last week still lingers. It started Sunday afternoon when I sprained my ankle. I was walking to Maria's house to pick up my kids. She is the director of the school I go to and she has two wonderful girls who love to play with my children. Delaney and Creed love to play with them. They offered to watch the kids while I did whatever I wanted. I had a fun afternoon shopping for a few trinkets to take home and studied some. It is surprising that this is the first time I have sprained my ankle since leaving home. The sidewalks and roads are very uneven and have lots of holes here and in Costa Rica. After I fell some nice people helped me up and gave me some advice. I was pretty close to Maria´s so thought I would just hobble over. It hurt way to much and had to hail a cab the last few blocks. When I got to Maria´s she sprung into action. She got me ice and a bandage. She even brought a bucket of water and soap to wash my hands. There was a huge ball on the side of my ankle and it hurt like hell. The kids did not care for all of it so continued playing with Sonja and Diana. Maria gave me some ibuprofen and ice cream. It was nice having someone to take care of me.

Maria called a cab for us and off we went to our house. Oh, she had crutches too that she let me borrow. It hurt a lot and I decided to stay home on Monday and rest. Monday was kind of fun. I stayed in bed and watched TV all day. Which also means I worked on my Spanish. Jason and the kids took care of me. Laney enjoyed checking in on me and telling Jason to get me whatever I needed. I was able to limp on it on Tues. so went to class.

The kids came home from school on Tuesday in tears. Granted that is not all the abnormal. Sometimes the walk home is too much for them or who knows why. But, they were sick. Laney had a fever. We spent all afternoon in bed. They were a wreck. We think our babysitter gave it to them since she had been sick. Bummer. Well, they never made it back to school last week. Creed has had a horrible sore throat and laringitis. I thought Creed was hard to understand before, but it is even harder now in a raspy whisper. Both have had fevers come and go and come again. We have spent most of the week in bed. Now we are at the coughing stage. I am hoping they recover for tomorrow so they can go to school. We are in the half sick phase, which is not the easiest. Creed seems to get himself in a lot of trouble in this phase. Of course, this will all be a blur soon. The kids have both been sick three times in the last month. Too much for me. I feel so bad for them. They have been so miserable. I am waiting for them to sleep through the night again and for Jason and I not to get it. Jason feels a little sick. We leave for Ecuador in less than two weeks and I want us all to be healthy.

The ankle seemed to being healing well and the swelling has gone down, but the pain has come back. I think sprained ankles take a long time to heal. I miss walking around. I am lucky taxis are cheap, but they scare me a bit. I am ready for a little driving of my own and being on roads where people have rules and follow them. Here´s to a better week!