Saturday Night Baths - Normand

Saturday was filled with all sorts of activities. Because we were all up late the night before everyone including the 3 year old's decided that they would sleep in. I finally had a day off of work to enjoy a full day of activities. I think that it wasn't until 10 am that the entire house was finally awake.

After breakfast Dallin had the 2 dad's going through a workout routine that left us rather winded and my brother Dan rather sore for the next few days. He was left taking Ibuprofen to manage the after-effects.

We whipped the house into shape with all but the two 3 year olds divided into cleaning teams. We had our 8 year old's vacuuming the floors, the 11 year old's cleaning off counters and sweeping floors, the teenagers tackling the kitchen and neglected laundry room. It wasn't until we promised the kids a trip to the swimming pool that we really got complete efforts from the kids. With mention of swimming they were working fast and furious to clean up the last bits and pieces of the house.

It took us longer than we had expected to complete the cleaning tasks but we finally finished and had all of the kids darting to the vans with their towels and swimsuits in tow. Teyauna my 3 year old was about to run out of the door when I realized that she was already wearing her swimsuit. Quickly I called her back as we went to the laundry room to make sure that she would have some clothes to change into after swimming. Otherwise she would have to return home in her swimsuit.

The swimming pool is an exciting place for kids. Not as exciting for a parent who is tied to a 3 year old. Dallin was kind enough to let me have a turn in the wave pool with the older kids and then have a run down the waterslide before I took my Dad duty following my little girl as she darted between the kiddy pool, wave pool and hot tub. Unfortunately she did not enjoy the hot tub as much as I did so I had the warming and cooling sensation as I bounced around from the warm kiddy pool to the much cooler wave pool. As I got used to one pool she was off in another direction with her 3 year old cousin following her as well.

After a little over an hour the pool was closing and so we all headed out to the showers and were ready for dinner. With no other ideas on what to do we decided that we would opt for a chance to redeem our Halloween McDonalds and a chance to wear out the kids at a McDonalds Playplace. With the little playground the younger kids were kept well occupied. The older teenagers were happy enough to eat ice cream and goof around. I think that the kids must have filled up their free pop refills so many times. This was quite obvious by the time we got home because Eli was commenting on how there were lineups at the washroom when we got back home. That only lasted a short while however until we started our Movie night complete with some great snacks and a late night show prior to the end of our day.

New Discoveries - Alyssa

So we have figured out why the cleaning people take so long to clean the rooms... First of all, Sheira came in on one of them sitting and watching TV in the room! And then this afternoon, she found a beer can that was mostly empty on the bathroom counter. We, all being non-drinkers, realized (upon farther inspection) that there was a missing beer from the little mini fridge in the room and one of the cleaning people must have taken it and drank on the job... Great service here folks.

We have also finally decided that Sheira's cinnamon gum that she has been offering us each day, is finally unusable... They have slowly become more melted and more smushed with each passing day, but today we finally had to draw the line when it had practically molded onto the computer charger in her backpack.

Amalie and I also have discovered that ALL the rooms look the same... This was actually Friday that this happened (so yesterday), but we had to run as fast as we could into our rooms to grab a computer so that we could get it to the lobby in time where there was internet. I had a class I was teaching online that day, so I had to get there on time and we were already running late. We vaulted up the steps and saw that the cleaning people were doing our rooms. We apologized, saying that we just had to grab something, and they nodded and let us run in. After frantically searching about, nothing seemed to be where it was supposed to be. We even opened the adjoining door to see if it was in the other room, but saw that the one on the other side was locked. Probably by the cleaners. Suddenly, Amalie stopped dead.

“What is it?” I asked.
“Ummm, those are not our suitcases Alyssa. These are not our rooms!” We had run into the wrong building! We were so embarrassed, yet glad we hadn't been caught, and hurried back out. Just as we were leaving, the guy in the adjoining room opened his door and saw us there. With no time for explanations, we rushed back down the stairs, praying the whole way down that he didn't realize that we had been in that room.

So yeah, be careful when you run into your room because it might not be your own...

We had a little birthday celebration for our friend Liz back at home. Tonight was one of our A La Carte Restaurant nights, so we treated ourselves to Italian and made a video of ourselves singing happy birthday to her with some fancy looking desserts. It was kinda cut short however when we all blew out the little table candle RIGHT as the server walked up... he looked a little confused....

Our last discovery of the day was of an interesting nature... My mom and I were on the tram on the way to the lobby when a guy from Trinidad struck up a conversation with us. He told us how his family was having a little reunion and when asked where his wife was, he replied that they were divorced. He then proceeded to ask us which rooms we were in. My mother kindly and to my chagrin, informed him our room number! He then showed us his room key so that we could see where he was staying. He passed it to my mom and she handed it back... Which was only taken back with reluctance. He then offered it to me to see, but I just looked at it and said “Oh yeah, that's nice and close to the lobby.”

His next words fit the puzzle peices in place and I finally got his message. “I'm just looking for a Senorita.” My mom tried SO hard not to laugh! She told him that maybe he would find one in Trinidad and he shrugged. She thhen proceeded to tell him that she had 7 kids and one on the way, pointing to her VERY swollen belly. He looked pretty shocked. The only downside of this tactful manoeuvre of my mom's, was that for the rest of the ride, he stared FIXEDLY at me. I could see him out of the corner of my eye, and when he caught me looking he raised his eyebrows and winked. I looked away as fast as possible, only to have him nudge me and say “It's a nice night?” Before I had a chance to even think of a reply, Kirsten started a conversation with me and we just talked to each other for the rest of the ride. She hadn't heard his question or known that he had kept winking at me, but had noticed his staring and wanted to show that we were done talking to him. Once in the lobby, he followed us and offered us a tequila which was very firmly declined.

What a creepy ending to our day! I think he was about 50? Better not stay up too late tonight!

Orphanage and Market - Kirsten & Alyssa

Part 1 - Kirsten

After tossing and turning on my lumpy pillow all night I was ready to roll out of bed long before the 6 am alarm. The sun was still low on the horizon and it was impossible for me to tell if there were clouds in the darkened sky. I hoped today would would prove to be a bit drier than the last few. Alyssa, Amalie, Shi and I gathered all the last few days sodas and extra soaps from our rooms and packed them in a bag for the orphanage. We rushed through breakfast and took out pesos out of the ATM machine before meeting up with our taxi driver.

We had been promised an English speaking driver who could help us translate aat the orphanage and later take us to buy the needed supplies for the children. Davide spoke English about as well as we spoke Spanish so we were a bit worried about the communication situation. On the 45 min drive to Huguey we did manage to exchange pictures of our families and learn the ages of his five Ninos. His wife came along for the ride and smiled quietly the whole way. She kept turning around and grinning at my pregnant tummy. Until she saw the pictures I don't think the believed Shi and I had 15 kids between us.

More than once i laughed with Shi thinking about our earlier plan of trying ot rent a car and make it to town ourselves. Traffic seemed to merge and swerve from one lane to the next depending on where the next horse, donkey, bike or scooter were coming from. Most the unpaved roads had deep ruts in them due to the continual downpours and narrow streets popped out in all directions.

We finally pulled into a back alley and arrived at a locked high rusty gate. Davide signalled that we were at our destination. Once inside we were greeted warmly by a young man Samuel who was 19 and a few younger children who weren't at school today. Samuel spoke perfect french but no one there spoke English. Luckily my French was good enough to communicate the basics and since there were no other options I boldly spoke even though I knew my fluent French speaking husband would have cringed at my grammar.

We asked for a list of items and then decided to take Samuel with us. He was happy to come and it was a blessing he did. As Alyssa and Amalie pushed carts around the big market as he expertly filled two large carts to overflowing with all kinds of food and detergents and other basic necessities. We were thrilled he was able to get every single item on his long list for the kids. It was obvious he shopped regularly for the 19 boys living at El Mundo Mejor. It would have taken us all day to figure out what things were what and where to find them and if the price was right or not. In the end he managed to get it all within a few dollars of the budget we had set and we even had a couple pesos left over.

The orphanage is run by a couple who pay for most of it themselves. There were only two room and each had about 10 beds. It was perfectly organized and very clean. The home was very simple but felt comfortable and welcoming. Each boy stays for free until he has finished school at 15. They then either start a work program to get a job or continue on with higher education.

After a couple of photos and warm embraces we headed back to the resort with Davide and his wife. Between a few near misses and lots of bumpy turns Davide stopped the car in the middle of the narrow road to let his wife buy us a treat. She handed us each a thick cool stalk of dripping sugar cane. We sucked and chewed on the cane and then spit the fibers in a plastic bag. After twenty minutes or so we made another stop to buy sweet local tangerines. Even though the restaurants at our resort are filled with fancy food and plenty of waiters we all agreed food given with love tastes so much better and is much more satisfying. In the end language wasn't such a big barrier and Davide and his wife will remain as wonderful reminders of our special time in the Dominican Republic. It was my favourite day so far.

Part 2 - Alyssa

Once we got back to the hotel, my mom went for a nap while Sheira, Amalie and I all decided to walk along the beach to this little market about half hour away. Sheira had seen it the day before while running and wanted to go check it out. It was intense!!! There were salesmen everywhere trying to get you into their stalls, and once you were in there, they would stop at nothing to keep you in there. The common phrase we heard that day was: "Cheapy cheapy, just for you! Almost free!" Many of them pointed to me and would say: "For such a beautiful daughter (for they assumed my aunt was my mom) I will give you good price." I think they just targeted me because Amalie looked to young and Sheira was obviously taken if she was walking around with two daughters.

One man came up to us with these beaded necklaces and offered them to us for free saying: "Because she is such a model, I will give you gift." Aunty Sheira tried declining because she didn't want to feel obligated to buy anything, but he instisted. We still didn't buy anything and he was pretty ticked. But he still told us to come back once we were done looking around... That was after we finally got OUT of the little shop. One guy was SO obnoxious, Shi actually started speaking Bislama (a French/English Pigeon she learned while living in Vanuatu) and said "You talk-talk Bislama?" and when he started speaking in English to her she just said "Me no savé somting!" and left.

We did end up buying one thing. It was a ring for only 3 bucks. A lot cheaper than any of the other o0verpriced stuff there, and it was beaded into a big flower and looked sweet. Sheira got it but didn't have money, so I payed. On our way back, SO many people tried getting us back in again, but we just said that we had no money (they didn't believe us but it was true) and ran through it as fast as we could. We stopped at one point to look at the price of getting Amalie's hair braided and when I looked back, some guy blew me a kiss and made heart thumping motions... I must be just not getting something about their culter or something.

But all in all, it was quite and entertaining ending to our already amazing day!

Deprived... - Jaeden

Day 3

Food is running scarce in our bleak refidgorator.... The house is getting colder by the minute and work is at an all time high...

With Dad trying to save money to pay for Mom and Alyssa's trip we have had to cut back on a few nesseities that if Mom was here we would normaly get. First of all filling the fridge is not really on the top of his todo list since Mom usually does that. With all the good food gone and only random things is the fridge we have had to be very creative with our meals. For breakfast we made the same thing we have had every morning since they left cold rolled oats and water YUM! Some of us have decided it's getting to bland and decided to spice up our deluxe oats with spice salsa, ketsup, ranch dressing and even pickles... Ya we are missing Mom's cooking. For lunch we usually see what interesting things are in the freezer today at the bottom of the freezer I couldn't beleve my luck when I found the REAL last banana... It was still frozed to the side of a yogurt container so it was hard to eat but was no match for the cheese grator.

Dallin says he is happy there are no girls in the house because now he can leave the bathroom door unlocked... ya not really pretty for the rest of us walking down the hall we are lucky if he remembers to close the door. But the big question still is: how is Dallin going to shift back to closing the door when they get home? We will probubly make him do "close, lock and flush" drills a couple days before they get back...



Dad wasn't home for dinner because he had a meeting tonight so we decided we could eat any thing we wanted. First we decided we would have a fancy diner and open one of the sparkling raspberry juice bottles (Orin who is the good kid in our family told us all Dad was going to kill us and refused to drink any). Then we set the table with crystal gobblets and started our Italian noodle dinner a perfect end to the day.

What's Up With Winking?? - Alyssa

This morning, we woke up around 9am and realized that we needed to hurry if we wanted to make it to breakfast before the buffet closed. My mom went to go wake up Amalie and Sheira only to find that they were already awake because a cleaning lady had come in about 20 minutes before to clean their room! They had to tell her that they were still sleeping and to clean it up later. No buses were coming our way when we got outside, so we had to walk all the way to the lobby and just hope that we would get there in time. We arrived at 10:20am, only 10 minutes before closing time.

 

After breakfast we were able to finally skype our family back at home! So far the house is still in tact. Although, they were all wearing coats and scarves because they were trying to save electricity by not having the heat on. That day was also the day everyone comes over for homeschool classes, so they were trying to get ready for that. I wonder how it was without us there... Including my mom who teaches one of the two main classes.

 

Most all today was relaxing, reading, swimming and spending time on the beach, but we also did arrange for us to go to an orphanage early tomorrow morning, so I am excited. I also had an experience when we were leaving the beach at around 5:30pm, so most everyone was already gone and I walked up to the pool and put my stuff down on a chair so that I would have free hands to put my chair up. This server guy saw me and greeted me in spanish and dropped into a different chair. I said holla back and then went back to what I was doing. I glanced over and he was staring at me and then winked at me and said something in Spanish that I didn't understand. Amalie then walked up and I started talking to her in English so he'd get that I couldn't speak Spanish, but every time I'd glance back, he'd wink at me again! Finally when we had finished drying off and putting our hair up, we headed back to our room. As we passed him, he looked at me and made a kiss face and smiled. I just laughed and said "goodbye" and walked away as fast as possible. Seriously, what's with all these workers here and winking?

 

This evening went pretty smoothly. I got to see a cook make my pasta for me. I got to choose the ingredients that I wanted him to grill with it and then he'd do it all right in front of me. When he cooked the veggies, he'd make flame fly up! It looked so cool and I had to come up and video it. He winked at me and told me that he would make fire just for me. Just before we left the dinner table, Amalie accidentally poured all her water down my mom's shirt and she jumped up SO fast and grabbed a cloth to try and dry it off as fast as possible. All this did was attract the attention of ALL the people within viewing proximity... We decided to leave pretty quick after that. Everyone but Kirsten was cracking right up!

 

Well, I had better get to bed soon, as we have to wake up pretty early tomorrow! Until then!

Interesting Discoveries - Alyssa (& Sheira)

Today was pretty laid back, but still had a bunch of interesting surprises and discoveries mixed in... like how many woman must have been having their birthdays on the beach.  Another surprise was when Sheira saw a woman with bright fucsia hair and skin to match it! I was sitting on the beach reading and was interrupted my Kirsten and Sheira who had discovered the non-alchoholic drinks they provided!! They each had three flavours so that we could try them all. I wonder what the servers thought when they saw these two ladies ordering so many slushy drinks... We found out that they had Strawberry-Banana, Coco Loco, Pina Colada, Lime, and a few others that I can't remember the names of.

We also discovered that the snack bar does not provide good mashed potatos or guacamole or tomato sauce (we thought it was tomato soup), so when in doubt, GET PAPAYA! Never can go wrong with that out here and it always tastes good.

Another discovery I had was that my leg looks like it has a disease on it from my 29 mosquito bites!! Shi hasn't even gotten bit ONCE. I even have bites on my toes and am feeling more bites as I write right now.

I had one other interesting thing happen today... Sheira and Kirsten both left to the bathroom (always when they're at the bathrooms!) and Amalie asked me what time it was. So I took out my iPhone to check the time as well as what time it was at home. What I didn't notice was that as I was doing this, one of the servers had come up behind me and was looking down at me. I even looked up at Amalie and asked her something and she didn't even say anything about it! Apparently she tried to hint, but had been silenced by the waiter. Finally, he tapped me on the shoulder and I realized that he was there. I looked startled and asked how he was doing after he had asked me the same. He then let me know that my family was "much bonita" very beautiful. Once he left, I asked Amalie how long he had been there, only to find out that he had been standing behind me for over 5 minutes... SO WEIRD!!!

Haha, anyways, that's about it for today. There were lots of jokes made and lots of funny little experiences and was quite a satisfying, though restful day. We also got new flowers on the rim of our sink today! Haha, we think that the cleaning people take so long to clean because they like to decorate every room. They even made one of Sheira's shirts into a decoration on the bed yesterday when she had left it out to dry... Makes life more interesting...

Life Without Females - Dallin

Day 1
The Night the Girls Left:
As soon as they left the driveway to catch the ferry, all the boys jumped for joy, knowing we could finally do all the guy things we have always dreamed about with out the girls stopping us! We decided that it would be a good idea to start with with a potato chip and movie party! (of course with dad's consent).

 Day 2
The First Day:
Being the good people we are, even with out the girls there, we are still continuing to do family devotional. I have to say, it was not as prepared or organized as usual (my best conclusion would be that it was simply just an off day). After we finished Jaeden and I did our usual rounds of "good morning wrestles". I obviously came out on top. But the coolest part is that there is no moms to tell when to stop or how much is enough! Don't worry though; no broken anythings......yet.

  Seeing that food was scarce in the house and there was only one banana left, you can guess what happened... We were not proud of that morning.... It was a battle for the last banana! It's needless to say the war story that went on, but what I can say is that I, Dallin the Great, came off conqueror. Or so I thought.. After obtaining my most precious price that I thought to put to the best use that I knew how. I chopped it up, and sprinkled the glistening banana slices over my flaky raw oats. I was truly excited for this meal. After filling this "golden bowl" with milk, I placed it on the counter and turned to the sink for a cup of water. I had scarcely done so when I turned back around and saw that Jaeden had given my bowl to Teyauna. It was too late for, before I could even go for it, she was filling her mouth and letting all the excess fall back into the bowl. I was filled with despair as I went and got new bowl of flaky oats with no banana.

The rest of the day was pretty casual. Everyone was doing their own thing; Jaeden and Norm doing business, Dailin probably doing explosive experiments, the two young lads were playing and doing schoolwork, I was working on my mission papers and Teyauna was just being a little princess. In the evening, Jaeden and Dailin went break dancing, while dad, the two boys and I played a game of ultimate tag in the house. We did not even break anything!

We all had a mid to late night getting to sleep because Norm and I were working out. That's it for now!!!