Painting

It's not always easy to talk myself into letting the kids paint. It's just so much work. We got out the paint last Friday for a playdate and we are continuing to dabble in it this week as well. It's easier to leave it all in the corner of the comedor than to put it all back just to drag it back out again for a 10minute activity. This week will be painting and I'm sure next week our attention will move onto something else.

Adeline likes to paint trees with fruit over and over again. Dman enjoys cutting paper and then terrorizing his sister with the scissors more than painting.

Adeline finished her school year and now will go to a camp at her school two days a week. Summer camps last from late June to the end of July. Every school, country club, dance studio, you name it and there's a camp for it. Adeline willing went to camp for her first morning, she remembered from last year that it's a lot more fun than school!

As Adeline is getting ready to turn 4, it's been a lot of fun watching her want to be stimulated by school books or whatnot. I have a preschool book in the kitchen that she will randomly open and start working in. Last week she wrote an "A" for me!

We took the kids to see Toy Story 3 on Saturday night and were SO thankful it was in English. A lot of the cartoons are translated here. All writing in the movie was changed to Spanish though (i.e. Sunnyside Daycare - Sunnyside Guarderia). Scott & I wouldn't have laughed nearly as hard
at the Latino Buzz Lightyear if we hadn't have lived in the culture. Notice how gringo Buzz can't display his feelings for Jessie, but Latino Buzz sure can!

After the movie we discussed with the kids how much fun it is to make-believe with your toys. Adeline is doing an AWESOME job at make-believing this week (i.e. running away from rats that are biting her hiney, magic carpet, hiding in the bathtub with a towel). Now mommy just has to get her rear in gear!

I Had It All Planned Out

This week was planned to have been a busy one, with a OB appt on Tuesday morning, the International Woman's Club Coffee at my house on Wednesday, and a mommy group playdate at my house on Friday afternoon. It still was busy, but not how I had planned....

Monday morning I had body aches that eventually turned into a stomach infection and a visit to the ER by early Tuesday morning. Honestly the whole ordeal was quite easy to get through and I give thanks to God for that!

When your hubby is an 1 1/2hrs away though what do you do in Sto Domingo when you need to get to the ER?

1. call a taxi

2. leave the kids with Ana

What not to forget when heading to the ER

1. crackers

2. socks

I had an OB appt scheduled for Tuesday morning, but realized that by 6am I didn't need to wait 3 more hours to see her. God truly perserved me for the 40 minute taxi ride and my doctora was waiting for me when I got there. Her immediate presence meant I didn't have to speak Spanish in order to tell the ER doctors what was wrong! Getting by with a second language you aren't fluent in is fine until you are in a medical situation.

Once I started receiving the IV solution and antibiotic I was doing better, but Scott had the wisdom to go ahead and come on in to be with me for the rest of the day. THIS WAS SUCH A BLESSING! He got to me about two hours after my arrival and began the checkout process while I took my second bag of solution.

What does an ER bill look like in Sto Domingo? (at least at the clinic I chose)

1. ER visit $40US

2. Antibiotics for 5 days $4US

3. Lab work $30US

The worst part of the visit - when you are in the ER that usually means you are around people in LOTS of pain. Screaming and loud vomiting can sure make you feel good about your situation!

We grabbed a freshly squeezed orange juice and banana from a street vendor outside the clinic (name for small hospitals here and they are everywhere) before we headed home. The rest of Tuesday I spent resting while my wonderful husband took care of the children. As long as Scotty is around I don't have to give any energy towards the kids if I can't or don't want to. Praise God that Scotty has such a relationship with our children that they don't need me when daddy is around.

Needless to say, I canceled the Wednesday coffee and God allowed for there to only be a small group come to the Friday playgroup. I was pretty much back to normal energy level by Wednesday, and I give credit all to God for this because He had something else for me to do Wednesday other than host a coffee.

On Tuesday afternoon I received a phone call from a missionary friend who was doing mission work out of town and hosting a team for the week. Her college daughter and friend are in town for the summer and Wednesday was their birthday but with the mission work she didn't have time to make the two cakes. God needed me to put all my energy for Wednesday into cake making. He knew that as a pregnant lady I couldn't prepare and host a coffee/brunch of 10 or more women and make 2 cakes. It was so awesome to get to see God's purpose for me in being sick.

Praise be to God for mercifully getting me through what could have been a very scary process living in a foreign country.

SEEDS

Although I have much to post about this week (i.e. emergency room and God's hand in my life), I will only post this for now and wait for the pictures to post this weekend.

My sister in Christ at The Adventures of Miss Mommy has informed me of the SEEDS cds and their project for their 6th cd. As Adeline and Darton are getting older the challenge to be a mom grows and grows. I am training children in the admonition of the Lord and with that comes challenges and beautiful rewards.

Character.

Getting to the heart of my children while training them.

This is why I'm supporting and hope to recieve Seeds of Character.

Our Sunscreen Choice

My mom & grandmother introduced me to Blue Lizard Sunscreen. With all the hype about your average sunscreen actually causing you to get sunburned or skin cancer, we thought we'd try out a product with only the active ingredients needed to keep you from getting burned - Titanium Dioxide & Zinc Oxide. It's thinker than your average cream because of lack of certain ingredients (don't know what those are). The "Baby" & "Sensitive" seems to be the same, so we bought "Baby" since it was cheaper at the time. Our other suncreen is clothing. We all wear hats and I'm the only one who doesn't wear a swim shirt...yet. Swim clothing is awesome on the kiddos because it means less sunscreen to apply!

I finally found swimshorts that covered my rearend but didn't hang down to my knees on www.christa-taylor.com. My favorite swim halters are at www.landsend.com as well as Adeline's swimsuit that you see in the post below. And for the pregnant moms looking for a swimsuit - TARGET!! I tried to go the expensive route (i.e. Pea in the Pod) thinking I would get better quality and selection. NOPE! Plus all their bottoms were bikini type. I don't need junk hanging out when I'm not preggo, and EVEN MORE SO when I am :)

Cabarete Weekend

Our good friends Ros & Nick moved up to the north coast to live amongst the other Aussies who decided Sto Dmgo was NOT for them. We had a wonderful visit. This is Dman & Dad. Notice his sweet wave he's giving to mommy.

Adeline coming back in.

I don't know what you call this sport, but Scotty gave it a try.
Scotty giving surfing a try. We've finally reached the stage with the kids that we don't both have to be with them the whole time. Good-bye beach easiness in 5months!

Wild man on the beach!

I am 17 weeks pregnant now and in the "good" stage of pregnancy...not too fat & not too nauseous. I felt the baby move at week 14 and he/she has been moving around ever since.

In Case You Wanted to Know

I'm really wanting to focus more blogs on what is different about living here in the DR. After being here for almost 2 years, I've begun to forget what is different!

Most all cracker and cookie products are packaged in individual servings due to the high humidity. This package of Oreos is an American made package. The Dominican made Oreos come in a serving of 4 and are smaller with a slightly different flavor than the American Oreo. Did you know Oreos aren't known or liked worldwide? No, seriously! The silver package is saltines. The largest selection of crackers here is the soda cracker. It's a treat to find Wheat Thins or Triscuits. Cheeze-Its are NO WHERE to be found on the island!On any given day there are horse drawn carts carring veggies/fruits/dirt amongst the traffic of 3.5million crazy drivers. There are more Land Rovers driven here than I've ever seen in my life! This picture is taken at the end of one of the main highways going east/west through the city - 27 de Febrero. My most favorite thing about the Dominican Republic is the fruit vendors. I bought this container of precut fruit for about $1.50US. When I was home in May, I bought a fruit cup at

7-11 that contained less than half the fruit for $3.99US. When I go to a brunch and need to take a dish that I haven't had time to cook, then I'll stop at a fruit vendor and buy a container of fresh, precut fruit. Dominican Mother's Day was the last Sunday in May and Scotty came home with these beauties. They are 4x taller than what you see, but the lovely Sarah broke our large vase and we cut these down.

The DR has the plantano/plantain and the gineo/banana. Both can be found in the mas duro/ripe and unripe stage. It's a CHALLENGE to find a banana that's not too ripe or too green. There are different dishes for the green plantains and bananas (green banana not pictured). The best I can describe the flavor is like a potatoe...except with less flavor. Ana can peel them with a knife very well, but I have to boil them in order to get the peeling off. You can prepare them mashed or fried. When fried they are cut in chunks, fried, flattened, and then fried a second time.

The ripe plantain is sweet like a normal banana and can be mashed in a yummy casserole with cheese or fried in slices. Dman's favorite breakfast is fried ripe plantain.