Home Life

Today was fairly relaxing for everyone.  We were all very tired from a late night last night again and so we needed the down time.  I had my usual morning of church-related meetings but other than that, the morning was fairly uneventful.  Sarah also called from Utah and said that she was doing very well.

After Sacrament Meeting, Carmen was tired and so Angela took her home to rest and came back for the rest of the meetings.  When we all got home, we ate a small lunch and relaxed for the afternoon.  It felt great to just have some time to think not have to run anywhere!  🙂  Every Sunday afternoon, we sit down as a family and have Family Council.  This is a time when we discuss our calendar for the week (what everyone is doing and what our family plans are), discuss any issues we have in our family, and talk about what we can do to solve these issues or concerns.  As usual, this next week will be very busy.  I think it may have finally hit Zach that this next week is Carmen’s last full week with us.  He wasn’t too excited about that at all!  🙁

For dinner, we had Mexican Lasagna.  While waiting for the dinner to finish, we were at the table, and Zachary decided he would try to be funny.  He grabbed his stuffed frog, put it on his plate, and then proceded to pretend and poke it with his fork, cut it up, and have it for dinner.  What the weird child!  🙂

The dish was very new to Carmen.  She had never had it before, but besides the pinto and black beans, we think she enjoyed it.  For dessert, Kirstyn made chocolate, peanut butter and oatmeal no-bake cookies.  These kind of cookies are one of our family’s favorites.  They look really strange, but they taste GREAT!

After dinner was over, Brittany took Benjamin for a walk because he was getting very wiggly and unhappy.  He wanted to go outside!  Zachary also wanted to get outside, so I put him in Benjamin’s jogger and off he and I went.  He loved being outside, sitting there, and relaxing.  We walked all over the neighborhood and enjoyed our time outside.  I don’t think Zach stopped talking the whole time!  He loves to chat and chat and chat and chat.  Once he chats, then he loves to ask question after question after question.

After walking for awhile, he said “Dad, I’m done being with you now.  I want to go back home and be with Carmen!”  I had to laugh at that.  I asked him why and he said that although he liked me, he wanted to be back with his new big sister.  He also told me that he will miss her when she leaves and doesn’t want her to go.  🙂

On our way back home, we took some pictures around the neighborhood.  One of which is of Still Middle School where Brittany attends.  We are trying to take a bunch of pictures so we can put together a slide show and DVD for Carmen so she can remember her experience here in Chicago.

When we returned from our walks, Carmen watched a couple of movies with Kirstyn, while Brittany and I went to Sunday Evening Discussion (SED) at the Wutzke’s home.  We had a great discussion about temples and the importance of them from Linda Bitton, a member of our ward.  She did a GREAT job!  After she shared her thoughts, we closed and had wonderful refreshments (ice cream and butterscotch-chocolate rice crispie treats).

When Brittany and I got home, we finished watching the movie Carmen and Kirstyn were watching and then we all went to bed much earlier than in the past few nights.  We needed the extra sleep!  🙂

Today was the day Sarah left for Especially for Youth (EFY).  When we got up, I made a double batch of German Pancakes for breakfast to make sure everyone was full.  Carmen really loved them, so I have included the recipe below:

German Pancakes

6 Eggs, 1 Cup Milk, 1 Cup Flour, 1/2 Cup Sugar, 1 Teaspoon Vanilla, 1/2 Teaspoon Salt, 6 Tablespoons Butter

Melt butter in a 11×13 pan in the oven at 350 degrees.  Put the eggs into a blender and blend until bubbly.  Add milk, flour, sugar, vanilla, and salt and blend until light and bubbly.  Remove the pan with melted butter from the oven and pour the egg mixture into pan on top of butter.  Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes.  Cut into squares and serve with powdered sugar, syrup, jam, or in Carmen’s case, chocolate syrup.  🙂

After eating breakfast, we got Sarah all ready to go and we went and picked up Hannah Moye (Sarah’s friend who is going with her to EFY) to go to the airport.  Brittany and Carmen came with us.  The airport adventure for Sarah and Hannah went well.  This is the first time either of them had flown without their parents (or adults of any kind).  They looked like pros.  🙂  Their flight safely arrived in Salt Lake City and they called to let us know that.

After we dropped them off from the airport, Brittany, Carmen and I drove the short way up to see the Chicago Temple.  Even though today was cloudy, it was nice and cool and an overall beautiful day.  We talked to Carmen about what the temple is, why we go there, and how important it it is to us in the Church while we walked around the grounds for a little bit.  She thought the building and the grounds were very beautiful.

At about that time, it was time for lunch, so I took the two girls to Wendys where they enjoyed double-stacks with cheese, french fries, and Carmen’s favorite – Frosties!  🙂  This time we went inside, sat down, and enjoyed the food rather than going through the drive-through and picking it up.

After finishing up lunch, we drove home.  Both fell sound asleep in the van.  I think they needed some rest time.  There was an unusually high amount of traffic on the roads today so it seemed like it took forever to get back home.  When we finally arrived, the girls were somewhat rested and ready to keep going!

Today Carmen wanted to cook dinner for us and so she tried her hand at making tortilla de patatas for the first time.   This is a Spanish dish that they have all the time for lunch and dinner over there.  It is like an egg and potato omelet without the cheese.

It was very good.  I think that we decided it needed just a little more salt, but we enjoyed this very much!  She was so excited to cook this!  🙂  You could see her excitement as we were making it.  It was very cute!  We’ll have to make this more often for meals.  It might even be good for breakfast!

After dinner, the girls watched the movie “Inkheart” and played the Wii until it was time to go to bed.  Angela played the piano for awhile as well.

Later, Angela and I joined in with the Wii as well.  I won the bowling tournament, Carmen beat us all in the baseball home run contest, and Brittany beat everyone in everything else!  🙂  Brittany has had a lot of practice, though!  We went to bed very tired and ready to sleep well!

We had a day today that was loaded with activities!  It kept us very busy.  I worked from home today and got a lot accomplished.  After a wonderful breakfast from Angela of blueberry pancakes,  Brittany went to her last track practice.  Her last meet is tomorrow.  She has been doing very well and we’re proud of her efforts!  We can’t wait to see her run tomorrow!  While she was gone, Carmen ran a couple miles on the treadmill while Ben and Zach ran around the basement like crazy men.  🙂

Around noon, Angela took everyone but Ben (I stayed home with him to make things a “little” easier on her), and went bowling with Kirstyn and her Activity Days group.  Kirstyn hung out with her friends and had a blast, while Angela took the rest of them (Taylor, Lexi, and Marta met them at the bowling alley) and bowled a couple of games.  They had a great time bowling, eating pizza, and snacking on candy!

For the most part, things went well.  Angela’s big challenge was to keep the kids fed but mostly to keep Zach from running around in other lanes and from wandering in front of other bowlers just as they were ready to roll.  🙂

When they got home, I finished up my work, picked up Marta from the Gaul’s, and took both Carmen and Marta to the mall to go shopping.  Carmen had asked if she and Marta could go to the mall sometime to do some shopping because trying to shop with 30 other kids didn’t give them any time to try on things or to really enjoy the shopping experience.  I needed to get the car serviced and kept putting it off, so this was a good time to go.  I took Brittany with me to keep me company.  Carmen and Marta shopped until 4:30 and then called me to let me know they were done.  I met them and brought them back home.  They were exhausted, but happy!  🙂 While the girls were shopping, Sarah and Taylor went to a baseball game and had a great time there.

Carmen had a chance to talk to her parents this evening as well.  Her dad called up at about 6 pm (1 am their time).  They had a great chat and Carmen was very happy to talk to them.   We have been so busy doing fun things, her parents didn’t know when we would be home, so they waited until that late to call.  🙂

After a dinner of baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and grilled chicken, we went to youth night at the church.  We (Sarah, Brittany, and I)  picked up Taylor, Marta, and Diana Xu (one of Sarah’s friends) and headed over to the church.  Brittany’s group worked on their personal progress activities, while Sarah’s group made tie die t-shirts.

They all had a LOT of fun doing this and we can’t wait to see how their shirts turn out.  The Oveson’s (friends of ours who used to be in our Ward) were visiting and it was great to see their kids there.  They have REALLY grown up.  Steven will be going on his mission soon, and Lars, who is 2 years younger is about 6′ 5″!  Brittany had a great time catching up with Maddie.  To end the activity, we took a group photo of Sarah’s class.

After dropping everyone off, we came home and got ready for bed.  Sarah, Brittany, and Carmen then stayed up until almost midnight playing cards, giggling, and having a GREAT time!  🙂  Carmen taught them some new card games that they are excited to now share with their friends.

Today was a lot less hectic than yesterday. I still had all my early Sunday meetings at the church, but it was nice not having to be anywhere specific after that. Church went very well, although it is very hard for Carmen to follow much of what is going on. Everyone speaks so fast for her and she tries so hard but after awhile it gets very tiring. One of our friends spoke to her in Spanish for a while which she enjoyed. We were all tired by the time church was over and were looking forward to a nice, relaxing afternoon.

We spent the rest of the afternoon reading and relaxing. Angela checked out “Holes” in Spanish for Carmen and she has been enjoying reading that book. Zach enjoyed reading as well. He ran right into Carmen’s room, jumped up on the bed, sat, and read with her. She put her arm around him and he snuggled right up and was a good boy. She is so good to Zachary and we appreciate it SO much. She loves to spend time with him (which we are sure is very tiring for her) but she seems to truly love it.

At about 6:00pm, some more friends (the Hartman family and Laura Dixon) came over and we had another BBQ. Carmen is really loving this BBQ thing! 🙂 She loves the burgers and hot dogs that we are always making. Add some chips (or Cheetos) and she is in heaven! To top that off, we had warm brownies and ice cream which we all enjoyed! I LOVE my new grill! I got it for Father’s Day and not even I can screw up the food now, like I used to all the time!

As a side-note, Carmen’s favorite foods are… Chololate, pizza, Cheetos, burgers, hot dogs, Frosties, Slurpees, and anything with chololate in it. She doesn’t like vegetables much which is GREAT for me! 🙂

While waiting for the food to cook, the kids played out in the back yard. They made a fort up in the swing and had a good time with Carmen playing up there. They also had fun swinging and Ben thought he would climb the slide just for fun (and to make his mother nervous)!

After the BBQ, we watched the 2005 Halliday Family DVD which features the theme from the Incredibles. Carmen enjoys these DVDs of our family very much. The more she watches, the more she realizes how crazy our family is! 🙂

This morning after an OK night’s sleep, got up early and walked around the camp. There is some beautiful scenery that I was able to get some pictures of. After waiting for all the girls to get up, I helped get Sarah and Brittany packed up and we left camp and came home. I ended up sleeping in the car (thank heaven I had a pillow). It was VERY humid and I didn’t want to clean up a wet tent later and when I went to the cabin I could have slept in and opened the door, I heard the scurrying of little creatures (mice and maybe a small snake or two)! 🙂 I have done that plenty of times at Scout Camp and elected not to do it this time, so the car was my only option which wasn’t too bad.

On the way home, we stopped by McDonald’s and had some breakfast. The girls were pretty excited to eat there and we had a great talk on the way home about what they liked and didn’t like about camp, the experiences they had, and how much closer they have become to their friends. It’s good to have them back home. We missed them!

After cleaning up the tent, airing out the sleeping bags, and unpacking all their stuff, everyone cleaned themselves up and we went and had a family picture sitting. We were worried about the boys (as usual), but they actually did very well. The pictures turned out great! We will be sending Carmen home with a 5×7 of all of us, and then a 5×7 of just the kids.

Having these pictures done will give us a great opportunity to remember our time with Carmen as part of our family this month!

We hurried home from our picture sitting and prepared for a BBQ with the Missionaries from our church (Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días) and with our friends, the Thompsons. We had a great time grilling bratwursts and hot dogs, and having all kinds of great things along with that! For dessert, we had something new that we hadn’t tried before. Julie Thompson had us cut wedges out of bananas, and put chocolate chips and marshmallows inside of what was remaining. These were then wrapped up and put in the oven for 7-8 minutes. They were very tasty along side a large scoop of ice cream! 🙂 We were very crazy, laughed a lot, and were entertained. I wonder if Carmen now thinks that our family and our friends are insane! 🙂

After the party, Sarah, Carmen and I went to a wedding reception for our friends the Spears. The reception was beautiful and had an Asian flair. The bride, Dream (yes that is her real name), is from China and they looked great together!

From there, I dropped Sarah and Carmen off at the Oscarson’s for a birthday party. The Oscarson family has two students from Spain as well (Maria and Luis). It’s Luis’ birthday today and they wanted to celebrate. They made tortilla de patatas, had cake and ice cream, hung out and had a great time. When I picked them up at 11:00pm, they were still going strong, singing and laughing. Tired, but strong! 🙂 It’s now almost midnight, so I’m off to bed. Early day tomorrow!

What a day today was!  Initially I was going to leave early and take Carmen down to spend the day and overnight at Camp with Brittany and Sarah, but Carmen was not feeling 100% and with heavy rain and thunderstorms, she decided to stay home in a nice dry house.  That said, I worked from home half day instead of taking the whole day off.  Benjamin was absolutely hilarious this morning.  As Angela was doing her daily exercise (this morning aerobics), Benjamin came into the room and decided to do them with her.  We were laughing so hard watching him try and mimic the TV and his mom!  🙂  This is just one of a couple that were very funny!

After exercise and laughter, we had breakfast.  We finally had the “sticky buns” that Zachary had wanted last Sunday for his birthday breakfast.  He was nice enough yesterday to wait one more day so I could have them with him.  Sticky buns are his absolute favorite breakfast food!

The rest of the morning was spent with Kirk working, and Carmen, Kirstyn, and Zach playing hide and seek, other games, and Carmen reading books to Zachary.  Angela went to the library yesterday and got some easy reader books in Spanish (i.e. an alphabet book) that Zach wanted Carmen to read to him.  He was very excited!  They also played in Kirstyn’s old princess tent.  It was quite funny to see them all in there playing with Carmen.  She has been wonderful with Kirstyn, Zach, and Ben this week.  She loves to play with them and do the things that they want to do.  At first, we thought she would be bored to death without Brittany and Sarah there all week, but she did awesome!

After I finished up my work, we all went out for Pizza for lunch.  When we mentioned this to Carmen her eyes lit up and she was very excited!  Pizza is one of her very favorite foods.  The place we went was an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet and everyone really enjoyed it!  Zachary was more interested in the video game room in the back and Sponge Bob Square Pants on the TV there, so it was a little more difficult keeping his attention on the food!  🙂

After we got back from lunch, Angela went off to an appointment she had scheduled and I got packed and left for Girl’s Camp.  When I got there, Sarah and Brittany were excited to see me, but were sad that Carmen wasn’t there to be with them.  They had really been looking forward to it, but totally understood why she didn’t come.  It was great to see Sarah and Brittany having fun.  I (and Angela too, obviously) have really missed them.  It was wonderful to have them run up to me and give me great big hugs.  I really enjoy spending time with my girls.

While I was at camp, Angela took Carmen shopping at the outlet mall.  Carmen was very gracious about this, and enjoyed the experience very much.  She bought a few things there (not sure yet what becuase I haven’t been home), but she wanted to shop for her family first before getting anything for herself.  Angela was very impressed by this.  After shopping, they came back home, got the little ones in bed, and then relaxed and watched a movie (with Spanish subtitles to assist with understanding).  🙂

Back at camp, we experienced a small miracle.  There were supposed to be severe thunderstorms with a strong likelihood of tornadoes all evening and through the night.  The leaders had a campwide prayer with the girls to ask for good weather so they wouldn’t have to come home tonight.  Within an hour, the weather cleared up by early evening, there was not a cloud in the sky nor anything showing up on radar coming our way!

We had a wonderful evening tonight.  Sarah got hear yellow feather (an honor that 4th year girls get), and received the Indian name of “Spotted Deer” to go with her honor.  I’m not exactly sure where the tradition for that came from, but it was very nice.  After that, we had a camp-wide testimony meeting and then broke up into Wards to have a message from the Bishops, a Ward testimony meeting, and then treats from the Bishop.  It was a very nice night and everyone was greatly uplifted.