Quick update

I doubt anyone even checks this anymore (including me) but just in case, I thought I'd give a little update! Our family is in Provo UT where we've been for the past year. I'm finishing up my degree at BYU. I've got 2 classes and an internship to go... almost there :) Joe is working at the University of Southern Nevada at their South Jordan extension. Alex was accepted into the Center for Accelerated Studies and is thriving. Emma is in 2nd grade and doing wonderfully at school, and Ethan started Kindergarten this year. We are soooooo happy with the schools, which is a surprise because UT doesn't have the best reputation. Ivy goes to BYU with me and my professor just loves her! It's great to spend some one-on-one time with her and it makes her feel "big" like everyone else.

Joe is serving in the Elder's Quorum presidency and I'm in the Primary presidency, and we are really enjoying our callings. We decided to try our had at raising chickens! Joe and the neighbor built a coop and we have 4 hens. Emma has a bunny and Alex has a gerbil, so we are slowly but surely creating our own petting zoo out here. I swear it has been like therapy for Emma who truly needs to interact with an animal of her own. It's hilarious to watch Ivy in the chicken coop. I'm anxious to have more space and more animals someday!

So, that's the quick version, but we are still alive and doing well! Sometime I'll post some pictures :)

I was just thinking...

Well, I wanted to post about Emma today, but the technical difficulties continue and my laptop, with all of my photos on it, is being repaired right now. I'm using a loaner. But I did want to post something to let everyone know I'm still alive.

I have been having a really hard time the last few days. This horrible melancholy comes and goes, but never GOES away for good. It seems to be something I have to deal with. But that's not what I want to write about! What I want to write about is how great it feels to come out of the melancholy and to think of the ways it was accomplished. My kids are treasures. They are the best gift EVER. It was fast Sunday here yesterday, and my Emma bore her testimony by herself! It was her own desire-not a result of FHE or anything. She shared her testimony of Joseph Smith and the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Alex followed her example and shared his testimony as well. As a mother, I sat there feeling just plain happy to see my kids be so good. They lifted me up. Their testimonies gave me some strength during a difficult time for me. I listened to them while holding my curly-headed little Ivy on my lap and sitting next to my Ethan who was wearing his plaid shirt with one of his big brother's ties :) What a BLESSING our children are! How I don't deserve them.

So, today I am grateful and I am enjoying feeling happy and peaceful. I am thankful to be an American more than I can say. I am looking forward to returning to America which makes me mindful of the special folks I love here who have no such blessing to look forward to. How I have complained about America before! How ungrateful I have felt. My time here, where I am truly living with some difficulty (graduate school just doesn't seem like a difficult experience at all anymore :) ) I hope has mellowed me out a little bit and made some lasting changes in me. I don't ever want to forget what it's like to really have to be careful not to run out of food. I don't ever want to forget that T.V. should never be used to babysit a child. I don't ever want to forget that there are millions of people who don't have water, electricity, or enough food. I have become friends with a woman here who works as a housekeeper in one of the neighbor's apartments. She spends all day here looking after the laundry and food for another family when she wants to do those things for her own family as much as I do. She is paid enough to survive. While she washes the fancy clothes of her employer's family, she is in one of her two shirts that is falling apart. Her children are in clothes that Americans wouldn't even find in a Goodwill store. But she is happy most of the time, though I know she must suffer from feeling a member of a "lower class". She has made poverty real to me. She has also made the real blessings of America more real to me. I think we are spoiled in America, but I don't think we are bad. Americans are good. While there IS evil in all its varieties there, good in all its varieties is thriving as well. There are opportunities there that people only dream about in other parts of the world. When I told my housekeeper friend that she should come with us to America, her face lit up and I discovered later that she assumed that if she came to America, she would be my Nanny. "No," I told her, "you would come and be our friend." This is one of those times when I really do wish that I had a million dollars so that I could get her and her family to the U.S. legally and put them all in school so that they could create lives of their own. America is a blessing beyond description.

I am also grateful for my extended family, both living and dead. As I have trudged through the feelings of despair this week, I have also had the priviledge of feeling a departed loved one near. I have known that I am being watched over and have felt support and strength given me from those I cannot see. How real the Plan of Salvation becomes during times of struggle. I am thankful for my grandparents who are always in touch. I can always look forward to an e-mail from them that will make me laugh or make me think. I am thankful for mine and my husband's parents. I am turning from my need to always declare my independence to feeling a grateful realization of my blessed dependance! I call it blessed because I am certainly not entitled to have parents and in-laws who offer so much love and support and on whom I am able to rely so much. It's something a lot of people do without, and I am grateful that Joe and I don't have to go it alone! Siblings also are one of life's greatest blessings. My mom and dad always told us growing up that my sisters and I would be best friends. How true, and how BLAH, BLAH, BLAH to not have them around! I feel like Jane Eyre, attached by a string from my heart to each of these people that I love, and the distance between us all really does hurt.

Well, I feel like I got most of my thoughts out. I hate being sappy, and I know that when I read this later I'm going to think "Sarah, do you always have to be such a drama queen? No wonder you're so tired!" But, whatever. There it is and now I must go because the laundry awaits....still.

Alex

Well, I'm finally sitting down to post about my kids! I think I'm becoming more Dominican than I care to admit...I'm just taking my time to do just about everything :)

Alex

Alex has been taking swimming lessons this year at the Ashton School. He swims for P.E. on Wednesdays and then has extra lessons after school two days a week. He was scared that first day, but it wore off quick and Alex is now a fish!

He has improved very quickly and loves being in the water. His swimming teachers are excellent and have really made the experience a good one for him. As always, Alex works hard to become a better swimmer and student. His classroom teacher has been giving him third and fourth grade work, but it's still not enough! I talked to her today about reassessing him because it looks like he's beyond grade six in reading. He can't get enough science, as always, and has also become interested in books about magic. He has read two of the Narnia books most recently, and is working on finishing the Book of Mormon on his own. His goal is to have it read before he gets baptized this summer. He's on track to accomplish this goal. Almost every weekend morning I find Alex up before the rest of us on the couch reading the Book of Mormon. He understands so much of what he reads and he is able to remember so much! If I have a question, I can ask Alex and he'll know. We're anxious to see what he decides to be when he grows up and where the Lord sends him on a mission!

He's growing like a weed too! I hardly have to bend over anymore to kiss him-I just look down! He'll pass me up in another couple of years or so (not too hard to do, I know). He's also enjoying the arts here in the D.R. He has enjoyed buying souvenirs from the local artists who have been at a store nearby doing a bazaar.

We sure are proud of this kid! He never stops creating. He told me the other day that he bought those carvings that you see him with in this picture as "examples" to use when he can use a knife and carve his own. Which reminds me. He has a few new skills. He is allowed to light the match I use to light the stove (with supervision), and he can also iron his clothes with supervision. He also asks me all the time if he can have his own login and password on the computer. That's still a "no." This is Alex and I in the Atlantic Ocean. We were at a beach called Puerta Plata on the North side of the island. We were freezing, but it was fun. (The kid in blue is from Utah and is in our ward-he's fun too.)

This is Alex at Veinte siete Charcos, which is "twenty seven waterfalls." It was cloudy all day so you can't see it, but one of the waterfalls is in the background of this picture, behind all these random tourists. We didn't take very many pictures there because there were so many people and the light was not cooperating!

Sooooooooo, that's Alex! Oh, he has also lost another tooth which brings the total up to six now. The next post will feature Emma :)

The Fortress

This is what happens when you lock yourself out of your apartment in the D.R. We actually beat the doorknob off with a hammer! Unfortunately, that part of the doorknob was thrown out before I got the camera out (I'm too efficiently clean for my own good sometimes) . It was kind of funny because it happened yesterday when we got home from church with four hungry munchkins and two friends. Our friend, Francis, actually did the hammering while his four year old watched agast saying "Wow Poppy!" The kids werent' too happy, but I thought it added some variety to our day :) It's also good to know for ourselves that you can't get in here without either a lot of hammering or a three story ladder.

To my Nanny I also wanted to say today that I love you and wish I could have celebrated your birthday with you! I sent you an e-mail, but I also wanted to give you an honorary place in my blog today :) I respect you very much for the life you have lived. You are a strong woman and I am thankful for you and for the support and love you have always given me. I miss you.

I am going to take some pics of Alex at the pool today and then I'll be set to do my updates on the kids!

Just some thoughts

Well, I have the need to mess around with the template on my blog. When I first started it, I was in the "blahs" in a major way, so brown totally worked. But the red Sarah is back now, and I just really want my blog to look like I feel. So, I love this template but hate the way it makes my photos transparent. I will be messing around with the html in the next while trying to figure out how to make the background not show through the photos. So, bear with me because anything could happen to this blog in the next few weeks as I have no idea what I'm doing!



I wish I could write on here everyday because I am writing in my head ALL the time. I have too much to say. I actually think as if I were writing a book or a lengthy article on a variety of topics. I do that while I do all the housework, shopping, walking to school, etc. I don't think it ever really stops! Right now I think the most often about friends and family, social issues like poverty but in a gospel context, the presidential election, starting a business or writing for income, my husband and what I can do to support and help him, and what my dreams are for my children. I think a lot lately about the kind of people I hope they turn out to be and what I can do to help them get there.



Parenting small kids, and then having some that are now not so small, is the biggest challege I have. I know what I want for them. I know what they have to do to get somewhere. The trick though is to help them figure all of that out on their own. I think it's so interesting that our parenting experience teaches us so much about our own condition in relation to God. When I'm feeling crazy because my kids just won't do what I say when I say it, I hear a voice (quite literally) asking me to consider why I do that myself. Why do I not just do everything the Lord has told me to do? Well, it only takes about two seconds of me thinking along that line and I find a large measure of patience and empathy for my children as I see we are really all in the same predicament. (Only I'm not a perfect parent with all the answers, so it makes even more sense why my kids might not listen to me.)



I also keep wondering if we are going to end up staying here for another year and how I feel about that. It really just depends on the day, but I think that most of the time I still really miss America and want to go back home. Other times though I feel like I'm in the middle of a cool adventure and I imagine I'll feel restless when I go back home. Joe is having a good experience bringing this library up to speed and there's a part of me that wants to see him take it to the next level. Right now he's been catalouging, which isn't fun, and weeding the very sad collection. He was finally given his budget last week and he has $25,000 to spend on books for this first purchase. He's actually going to spend about twice that before he's done. He drew plans for the shelves he needs and has those being built. He's also trying to use the shelves and tables to create different sections in the small space he has to work with. When this first order comes in and he has them up on the new shelves, it's going to look a lot different in there! He's purchasing through Follett and he chose to have them also send a new program for the catalog, so he'll transfer what he's done into that program. These new books will already be catalouged. He'll be purchasing at least as many books again, I think around 1,600, and then he wants to have the library re-painted. We also have some ideas for decorating it to make it look much more professional and welcoming for the kids. So, I want him to finish. I get excited to take an "after" picture because right now that library is really nothing to brag about! I'm proud of him though for what he's doing with it.



Well, I have to go and finish laundry and send off some mail. I still really want to do an update on each of the kids. I'll have to do that maybe tonight or tomorrow. I want to put up pictures of them and of some of the things they've been working on. Maybe this will give me some incentive to get my work done really, really fast today :)

"We Thank Thee, Oh God, For a Prophet

I couldn't let today go by without saying my "thank you" and "good bye" to President Hinckley. I am happy for him...to be with Sister Hinckley again. I imagine there are many at the reunion in the spirit world right now welcoming him back. It's an interesting time when our Church President passes away. I feel a bit sad to think that we won't see his, or so many other, familiar faces anymore. But then there's also an excited, secure feeling. I know that the brethren will convene in the temple to appoint his successor soon. I know that they have the authority to do this and that our new prophet will keep the revelation for the church flowing, uninterrupted. I am thankful today to have had my life blessed by President Hinckley's work. Especially his temple building and his challenge to read the Book of Mormon. I have been able to attend the temple in each place I have lived because of him. I have a renewed appreciation for the Book of Mormon, but mostly an invaluable lesson learned about following the prophet. When I read his challenge in the Ensign to finish the Book by the end of the year 2006, I remember thinking that I didn't have time to do it. And immediately I thought, "if I can't follow such simple instruction, what does that say about me?" Needless to say, I did it, and I learned some things about myself for having done it. He was a man that we could relate to, and I love him. So I thank Heavenly Father for Gordon B. Hinckley, and for all of the great men who have led His church, and I look forward to living during the presidency of his successor. I know this church is true.

We Love Cookies

There's really nothing interesting going on over here right now, but I wanted to post something. Too bad Alex was eating his cookies at school when this picture was taken, because really this is one of the Ritchie family's favorite things to do. I wish I could say we loved carrots or broccoli or something like that. But we just don't, and in this foreign place, we actually just like cookies even more. I eat way too many cookies, and at least one day last week, I even let my kids eat a cookie for breakfast. So there. The only thing we like better is cookie dough :) I'm looking at this picture and realizing how much my kiddos have grown recently. They've all changed in the last week. Emma's hair is longer and her face has "grown up" again. Same with the other three. As they continue to grow bigger and more beautiful, I continue to get more grey hair! Not cool.
I liked this picture of Ivy because it captures one of her special talents. She can put on a sweet face and appear completely innocent in a matter of seconds. This is not her actual personality. As soon as the flash went off, she was actually trying to rip the camera out of my hand so that she could see! She's a pistol, and I wouldn't have it any other way! Plus, I think this child's hair grows at an amazing rate of speed. There's actually a portion of those little braids that isn't braided at the top-it's what's grown in over the past two weeks. She's my baby doll :)

Oh, I am enjoying reading some of the juvenile fiction books that Joe has in his library. I'm kind of going down memory lane picking up books I read when I was in school. I just read My Side of the Mountain. I haven't read that in years! I take a fair amount of teasing for this, but I have to say that when you're busy and super tired, go ahead and read the stuff your second grader is bringing home! I actually learn a lot from the juvenile non-fiction and have fun occasionally escaping into a simple, quick read. I convinced Alex to trade me Johnny Tremain for My Side of the Mountain, yeah! That's been one of my favorites since like 5th grade. At least I'm reading something :) Which reminds me...Emma is doing great with home school! I hope she'll be able to return to school next year, but for now this is working out well for her. I've been really worried that I'm not doing a good enough job, but today I realized that she's made a lot of progress. My Emma is writing words and sounding things out. This is such a big deal for her!!! I'm very proud of her and all that she has overcome. I think that tomorrow I'll post some of her worksheets. She actually has pretty good handwriting, and I am really enjoying the experience of seeing her understand things that I am teaching her.

Well, now I am just rambling, so I'm outta here for tonight!