A Few Things

First I need to say happy birthday to my Grandma Jan. I have a picture from last summer of JoAnn, Grandma and I, but unfortunately it was taken on my mom's camera and I never transferred it to our files. So, here is a picture my dad's cousin took at Grandma's birthday party the other day.
So, happy birthday Grandma. We miss you and love you.

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Now for the other big thing. We are officially moving back to the US on June 30. We have our plane tickets and everything. A couple weeks back when I got the fever and chills for the second time, Daniel and I just decided that it would be better to go home sooner rather than later. Originally we were going to stay for a basketball trip that Daniel was going to do in August, but when that fell through there was no reason we wouldn't be able to leave in June other than we didn't want to rush things and possibly it would cut it close on Isaiah's passport. Well, despite things being cut close with Isaiah's passport we purchased our tickets this past weekend. The problem was if we waited much longer the prices would only get more and more expensive. So we bought the tickets and then tried to figure out a way to get things done a little faster for the passport. The whole problem is that we have to wait for his birth certificate from the Philippine government since the one we got from the city isn't accepted by the US (yes when born int the Philippines you have two birth certificates). Well, true to Filipino fashion, things can take a long time here. So, instead of just waiting for it to be sent to us, I asked a couple people to actually go to the agency in charge of birth certificates and see if they could get a copy today. I got a text a few hours ago saying they were able to do it. So, assuming it is correct we should have no problem getting his passport before we leave.

Well, with all this going on I hadn't really had too much of a chance to let it sink in that we are leaving in 36 days. So after thinking about it now here are a list of some of the things that I will miss and some that I won't.

I will miss...
1. the people I have become friends with over the last 5 years, obviously.
2. having it be our job to do something I would do regardless, serve God.
3. the flexibility of our schedules.
4. being only a few hours away from some of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen.
5. being able to get my favorite Starbucks drink for under $3.
6. going to watch a movie at the theater for $2-3 and get popcorn and a coke for another $2.
7. nice weather year around (although, this hot season has been a little much).
8. this has been where Daniel and I have spent 5 of our 6 years that we've been married and where both of our kids have been born, so that will be hard for me.
9. having someone work for us around the house and also be available to watch the kids 3 days a week.
10. dirt cheap tropical fruit.

I will not miss...
1. making the half way around the world trip home anytime we want to visit family.
2. having to continuously deal with ants, cockroaches, geckos, spiders, etc. in the house (especially the cockroaches and spiders).
3. Filipino TV.
4. traffic, crowds and long lines most places we go.
5. pollution so bad it makes the dust turn black.
6. lack of central air.
7. the difficulty in communicating with people since I don't know Tagalog (alright this one is my fault).
8. typhoons.

It really will be difficult yet exciting for me to move home, so I'm sure I will be talking about the move a lot more as it gets closer.

3 Months Old Already

Last Thursday while Daniel was gone Isaiah hit the 3 month mark. It seems like he is growing more and more every day, so here are some pictures to remember what he looked like at 3 months.
The other thing he has started doing all the time is holding his head up while he is laying on his tummy. He seems to be able to hold it in this position as long as he wants. I can't remember the time line on JoAnn or even what's normal, but I know for sure JoAnn started rolling and lifting her head like this well after she hit 3 months. So it seems pretty early to me. He also has figured out how to roll from his stomach to his back, but he much prefers his stomach so I only see that when he's angry.
Check out Jo's new 'do. It has been extremely hot lately. To the point where JoAnn gets a heat rash on her neck from wearing her hair down, so I started putting it up in a ponytail a few days ago. I think it looks so cute on her, but she looks so much older.

Rolling Update

***I typed this out on Friday, but didn't have a chance to put up the picture and video since Daniel has a few guys out for a basketball trip and we've been busy. So finally here it is.

Ever since the other day when I put up that Isaiah has been trying to roll over onto his stomach he has been getter closer and closer. Well, today he finally achieved his goal. He made it all the way onto his stomach. It wasn't just by accident either. I would roll him back on his back and he would roll back onto his stomach. He probably did it 4 or 5 times the first time. Now he won't lay on his back, he will let out a little cry and roll right on over.


The laughing thing hadn't really happened since the last post no matter how hard I tried to get him to laugh. Well, evidently we have a little show off because while the guys that are here for a basketball trip were over and Daniel was holding him he started laughing for about 2 minutes straight. It was pretty cute. I managed to get a few seconds of it on video. The only problem with the video is that it was too dark and you can't see much, but you can definitely hear him laughing.

Bucher Family Day at the Dentist

I know I have once again waited to long to do this, but I think one year between dental check ups is much better than the previous almost 5 years, so I'm getting better. At least that is what I like to tell myself. I really don't enjoy going to the dentist and going in this time last year only to find out that I had over 10 cavities didn't really help. So, tagging along with Daniel when he went in for his check up sort of made it easier. JoAnn has also been overdue for her first time going to the dentist, so we just decided to make it a family event. I went last and had one small spot that she said I should watch to make sure it doesn't become a full blown cavity, so that was very much welcome news. Daniel went first and I won't say how many cavities he got (mainly because I don't really remember, not because it was too many). JoAnn went right after Daniel and despite my best efforts to make it seem like it would be fun (ok, they were probably half hearted since I actually believe it is the opposite of fun), she was terrified at first. Dr. Diane did a great job though. She had JoAnn sit on Daniel's lap and gave JoAnn her own little Mickey Mouse toothbrush. Then she even gave her a toy for doing so great (which we ended up leaving a the office, oops). Alright, I just more or less wanted to put this picture up because the "Dwayne Wayne" glasses made me laugh.

Rolling

Both of my kids have been able to roll onto their sides ever since the day they were born, but I have no idea when JoAnn even started trying to roll onto her stomach and unfortunately one of the things we lost when we found the cockroach nest in JoAnn's room was the calendar I kept a record of a lot of her "firsts" so I don't really have it written down anywhere either. Anyway, just yesterday I noticed two new "firsts" for Isaiah. One, he actually laughed and I don't mean he tried to laugh. He actually giggled (if that's what you call it when your talking about a guy). The other one was that he started trying to roll onto his stomach and he actually gets pretty close. He just needs to figure out how to move his arm out of the way. I took this picture tonight. I had laid him on his back and walked out of the room for a few minutes and when I came back he was laying like this.

Happy Birthday Avery

Today is my niece's birthday so, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVERY! It is hard for me to believe that you are already 7. You are getting so old. We miss you so much and wish that we could be home to celebrate with you, but we are looking forward to seeing you in a few months.

Today also happens to be the birthday of Kristin. I have known her longer than I can remember and she has been such a great friend over the years, so I wanted to say happy birthday to her as well.

Buchers' Visit

(I just went back and looked at this, so let me warn you now that it is a long post. Sorry)

I already mentioned that Daniel's parents came in for a visit, but I didn't really get a chance to talk much about what we did. Like I mentioned before the day after they got in Daniel and his dad played in a ministry game. Here they are with JoAnn after the game. Considering how hot it is here right now and that they played the game with only 7 players (well actually 8, but one left at half time and another didn't get there til half time, so never more than 7 at any time) I think they look good.
I love this next picture. One of the things that is easy to question with games like this is how affective they really are at telling people about Jesus. The Americans playing basketball are just the entertainment attraction and all the follow up is done by a local church, so you usually don't see much of the results. For many reasons I feel like that is a good set up, but since you don't really see anything other than the basketball most of the time you really can question yourself. Anyway, at half time they always pass out pamphlets that give the gospel in Tagalog and during the second half of the game we saw this guys very intently reading the pamphlet he was given. It was a good encouragement.
Alright now for Club Punta Fuego. When Daniel's parents told us they were coming over they also wanted to take us to the beach for a few days. Since Isaiah was so young, Daniel thought it would be better if we went somewhere that we didn't have to fly to get to. So he asked one of the kids he helps train in basketball if he or his mom knew of a good place and they were the ones to tell us about Punta Fuego. I guess this was a place where you needed to be a member to get into and they just happened to be members. So, on Sunday we met up with them and they drove down there with us and showed us around for the day. Here we are at lunch with them.

It was really different than any place I have been in the Philippines. The streets were all paved and taken care of. The houses were all HUGE and looked amazing. I said many times that it was evident that there was some serious money at this place. I really had no idea that places like this existed in the Philippines. Anyway, we spent most of our time at the pool, which JoAnn loved, but one day we went to the lower beach club where there not only was a great pool, but also a playground and miniature golf. Jo had so much fun that day I can't even tell you how pumped up she was.
Isaiah spent the whole day doing this...

He loved being outside and always slept great. One down side though, the day we went to the lower beach club we were under trees and not an umbrella, so without realizing it enough sun made its way through the leaves that he got a sunburn. I felt awful, but thankfully it didn't really seem to bother him at all.

Another fun thing we did was we took JoAnn to the mini theater they had and watched Tinker Bell. She loved it, but I quickly realized I was very thankful we were the only ones in there. She wouldn't sit down for more than 5 minutes at a time. It was still fun and I was very thankful that we were able to find sometime to entertain her for an hour and a half without sweating to death outside. We are definitely in the middle of hot season and IT IS HOT.

Probably the most ironic thing about this trip to the beach was that I only made it to the actual beach for about 10 minutes. The one that was the closest to us wasn't really a swimming beach and it was sort of small, so one trip down was plenty for me, especially since I was huffing and puffing once I got to the top of the stairs on the way back to the room. Here is JoAnn showing off the piece of coral she found.
Last but not least on our way back we went right through Tagaytay. It is the town that overlooks the Taal volcano. Daniel and I took JoAnn there a couple years ago and I love the Starbucks that overlooks the volcano. So we decided that we would stop to eat and get some Starbucks to give us a nice little break. We ended up going to Antonio's, which was a restaurant that I had heard a few people talk about during the week. That was a crazy experience. You have to turn off the main road and go a couple miles back into a residential area in order to get to the place and once you get inside it was so nice. It was probably the nicest restaurant I've been to in the Philippines. It was just so unexpected, it threw me for a loop. Anyway, here we all are behind the Starbucks on our way home. You can sort of see the volcano in the background.
So after we got back, we had church on Sunday and they left early this morning. As always their visit went by way too fast, but we had a great time seeing them. JoAnn especially had a hard time saying goodbye to Papa and Grandma, it broke my heart.