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 :)