A Family Invention

I think the whole world needs to see what my sister-in-law Jenny created.

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Park & Zoo

On Tuesday we went to a nearby park.
After the park we swam in Mawmaw & Poppa's pool (can't decide if Adeline calls Scott's dad Poppa or Pawpaw). She got to be the lucky one to name them. Darton is a WILD man with water. He holds his breath and puts his face right in the water! To dry off, Isaac (Scott's youngest brother) and I put the kids in a wagon and wheeled them around the neighborhood. It is so nice to be in a neighborhood without cars whizzing by all the time. It's also nice to be able to see so many green yards in front of houses as opposed to concrete walls that shield the house in SD.

Today we went to the Ft Worth Zoo with Mawmaw and Isaac. We had a good time and the weather was bearable since the walkways are very well shaded.

Little Man spent most of the time in the stroller and he did great! I shopped Craigslist in the last two days and bought the pictured Maclaren Double Stroller yesterday. I got a great deal and you can't beat the ease of a Maclaren.
Finally a smile from Adeline!

In Texas

The kids and I made it to Texas on Monday afternoon and we are enjoying Scott's side of the family right now. We had two uneventful plane rides and when you have kids "uneventful" is what you want. My kids aren't the sleeping type on airplanes so you can imagine how tiring the day was, especially the second flight. In fact, an elderly lady who didn't say anything to me the whole 2nd flight turned around once we had landed and said "You deserve a drink." It was hilarious. Since I haven't posted in a while, just wanted to give you an update and I will get pictures up soon.

82% Humidity

So what happens when you are living in 82% humidity (that's what weather.com claimed this evening for Santo Domingo).

Well...
1. tile floors become wet and won't dry (Scotty had to explain the physics of this. The air conditioner made the floor cold, then once I turned it off the humidity in the air literally became water and collected on the floor. It took hours for the floor to dry.)
2. toilet paper is soggy
3. salt won't come out of the salt shaker
4. any hair on your head shorter than 3 inches becomes "the frizz"
5. the refrigerator leaks water
6. you take a cold shower by CHOICE

There is a storm system that has been moving over the island for three days now. Lots and lots of rain that's not normal for this time of year. Rain always brings humidity and intense heat if there are no clouds in the sky. Tonight has been a beautiful thunderstorm and lighting storm. Adeline is experiencing both for the first time and is loving it.
Thunder and lightning aren't the only noises filling the night sky here though...
Santo Domingo is the city of car alarms...sensitive car alarms. You could compare tonight's experience to watching a really good movie and cell phones going off all through it!

Reparacion de Gomas

When I came home from a coffee date last Tuesday I heard what sounded like the tire losing air. My girlfriend with me disagreed, so I agreed. I failed to look at the tire on Wednesday, but was able to drive to a lunch date nearby, but on Thursday when I wanted to go out with the kids the tire was finally noticeably flat. Sure enough, something that looked like a nail bent in half was sticking out of the rear passenger tire. After calling Scott (because that's just what I do when I'm facing a car problem or any problem for that matter :) ), I drove to a nearby Shell station. At the Shell, a gentleman put air in the tire and then I headed down the road to the shop (Hylsa) where we get the different liquids changed out in the car (oil, transmission, etc). The shop is also a tire shop, but I found out once I was there that you can only buy tires from them, not repair tires.

The first lady at Hylsa who tried to explain to me where to get my tire repaired had no mercy on me just because I didn't understand her Spanish. Flustered, I went back out to the car and called Scott ;). He recommended going back in and having her draw a map...no why couldn't I have thought of that! In the process of asking the lady to draw a map, a gentleman asked me if he could help and in very slow Spanish (he chose to have mercy on me) gave me directions to the nearby reparacion de gomas. Only dos izquierdas (2 left turns) and I should see the reparacion de gomas. On my way to the one he directed me to, I passed a teenage boy repairing tires and thought "surely I'm not on my way to a tire repair shop on the side of the street". Oh, but Ann, little did you know that you'd be returning right back to that teenage boy after seeing the line of truckers at the other reparacion de gomas!

It was all a harmless expedition, but just a funny one, being the only gringo around with my two year old none-the-less. Now I know that getting your tire repaired in the DR means finding a reparacion de gomas on a small side street.

Scotty and Adeline ventured back out to the spot on Saturday to take a picture, drink a coke, and see where I had to hang out for about 20 minutes.

Just in case you need a snack while getting your tire fixed....

Adeline drinking coke from a glass bottle - only 17 pesos..about 50 cents. Don't worry I'm sure Scotty put the coke in the plastic cup on the bench instead of letting her drink from a recycled bottle :).

Father's Prayer

I started teaching Adeline the Father's Prayer in September when we moved to the DR. We worked on it a lot that month and then off and on since then. Today she started singing it by herself without me prompting her.

Oceanfront Picnic

I had a last-minute idea to go ride horses after Darton's morning nap and then have a picnic across the street on the shore. I went down to the car to load it to find that the noise I had heard on Tuesday really was my tire leaking air. There will be more of that story in a post this weekend because you MUST see where I had to go get my tire repaired (I have to go back to take pictures since I didn't have my camera).

We did make it to the horses and to the shore for a picnic.

It's not easy to see, but Adeline's hair is wet (not dirty and greasy) in this picture. We got a nice ocean spray that got us wet like we were on a Six Flags ride. Before ballet class I asked Adeline to show me some "moves". She teaches Scotty every Tuesday night what she learned in class. Here she is in class. She's actually quite coordinated and responds well to the Spanish instructions.

Dress-up

Adeline is getting into the dress-up stage and this morning she put on my old ballet suit from when I was her age. She thought she was quite cute in it...you can tell by her expressions in the photos. She wanted to put the headband on to complete the outfit.

Luke's Commission

My sister-in-law Jenny shared a site with me with stories of mom's in Africa that I thought was worth posting for people that read my blogs and not hers. Luke's Commission

Darton Walking

Darton started walking more last night.

Get-a-way Weekend

We took advantage of the holiday weekend (have no idea what holiday it was) and went with another family to Las Salinas, an hour and half west of Santo Domingo. Most people go east and north on the island, so we were traveling into the unknown. We had a great time. The beaches had black sand and weren't the cleanest, but the water was clear and great for snorkeling. Scotty and the other family went a couple of times to see God's underwater creations. Wow, what an imagination God has!

On our way to Las Salinas we stopped at some caves with Taino pictographs. It took a handful of stops to ask people for directions since there is a huge lack of signs for it, but we made it and thankfully the family that we were traveling with is likeminded when it comes to exploring! We traveled through the caves by 2 flashlights because the generator was broken. It's so close that it will be a trip we will make again whenever visitors come and want to go.

After the caves we stopped in La Toma, a swimming area that a past dictator created.

We stayed in Hotel Salinas, which is more of a yacht/sailboat club. It was an overpriced hotel with awful service, but the view was nice. The countryside looked much like Northern Nevada (from a distance).

On Sunday we trecked across sand dunes to a beach that isn't good for swimming because of the strong tides. The kids had fun in the beach sand though (the sand in the dunes was like walking through the hot desert).

Monday we walked alongside the beach for 30minutes to get to a good snorkeling spot. On the way back I told Scotty that I bet we have a new nephew by now and our family has no way of getting a hold of us. Sure enough, when we got back Monday afternoon we had our first nephew, Colten King Needum. He came 20 days early, but was 8lbs 1oz and 21in long.

Coocoo from Cocoa

We've had some challenging afternoon naps this last week. Adeline has accomplished everything from destroying her closet to covering herself head to toe in Destin diaper cream while she is suppose to be taking her nap. This past Friday topped them all!

As some of you know, I call Friday my "Sanctification Day" because it's the day I have to work on my character the most in relation to how I react and respond to my children while juggling household responsibilities (Ana nor Soctt is home on Friday - I face the real challenges of being a mommy). I failed miserably at my sanctification day this past Friday, but I'm not Catholic and your not the Pope, so we won't go into details.

I put the kids down for their naps and I fell asleep in my room listening to Adeline singing down the hall in her room. I slept so hard that when I woke up 30minutes later I didn't know what day it was.

I walked into the kitchen to see this -

Adeline decided to get out the dark chocolate cocoa powder during her naptime. She covered the floor with it, mixed it with a couple of cups of water, poured some on Sarah's pee papers, and a good bit on Sarah to make her white fur brown. I reached a new level of anger on Friday when I saw the mess. Then I reached a whole new level of anger when I cleaned for an hour and still didn't get it all up. Then another new level of anger when my daughter was singing a happy song while I was cleaning and crying. And finally the top level of anger I have every felt when while I was trying to clean Sarah she shook cocoa water all over me and everything in the laundry room.