Ondoy

Last Friday Daniel and I went out for a few hours and when we got home I saw just a few minutes of one of the local news channels, which I never watch mainly because half of it is usually in Tagalog and I don't understand Tagalog. Anyway, they mentioned a tropical storm that was headed for Luzon and said it would make landfall late that night. So, I planned taking time Saturday to catch up on the blog and write some about the trip that Daniel's brother had just made to Manila, since that meant rain most of the day. It wasn't long after I woke up on Saturday that I realized this wasn't our average tropical storm that we get in the area. Usually at least once a month between June and November we get a storm in the area and the only way you can tell is that it rains a lot for a few days. This storm didn't just rain though, it literally was monsoon type rain for at least 24 hours straight, without any breaks. It didn't even lighten up a little during that time. It was crazy. Well, about mid morning our power went out and it stayed out until Monday night. (Sort of, we had a brief few hours of power Monday morning before it went out again.) Anyway, we live in a building with a back up generator, so I wasn't too worried. I know from the last time we got hit by a huge storm that the generator wouldn't be able to run for 24 hours straight and that it would need to be turned off every few hours, but I remember from 3 years ago, that it was enough to recharge computer batteries and phones and keep the refrigerator cold. So, I really wasn't too worried until Sunday afternoon when we learned that the generator finally broke and they weren't able to fix it. They actually managed to get it fixed mid morning on Monday for a few hours of electricity before power was restored that night. All of this to say we were very blessed and that was our biggest problem during resulting from the storm.

On Sunday morning when the generator had stopped to rest for a few hours Daniel and I decided that we would try to find a Starbucks or some coffee shop that was open and get out of the house a little. We did not realize at that point how bad things had gotten on Saturday. Immediately as we were leaving the condo building this is what we saw in the road...


There were trees down all along the road out of our subdivision, but once again we didn't really realize the full extent of the damage. Once we got out of our subdivision one thing we began to understand more that this was not just another bad tropical storm or typhoon. We soon saw a major road near us that was completely flooded. It is not unusual for this area to flood, but it is usually still passable, Sunday it was not. We also learned that the only other major road leading into metro Manila was also not passable. Where we live was completely cut off from the rest of the city until Monday when waters finally started to recede. This is when the full weight of what had happened started to dawn on me. Until we moved here I have never lived anywhere near a coastal area, so I don't have many years of experience with tropical storms or hurricanes or typhoons, but I will say I have never seen flooding like I have seen in the few days after the storm. Nor have I heard of so many people we know loosing literally everything they have due to the floods. I am very thankful that we live where we live. Our condo is built up a little on a hill and the area we live in is uphill when you are coming from the city, so our immediate area received some damage, but compared to what I've heard and seen in pictures, it is nothing compared to the damage that people only a few miles from where we lived suffered. Right now, we are still trying to figure out the best way to help others who were more severely affected than us. In fact right now Daniel is meeting with a man who helps him with some of the basketball ministry to see how we can help. All I know is that he texted Daniel and said he and his family lost everything. I cannot imagine what they are going through right now. Please pray with us that God will give us direction on how best to help those affected and that even through all this that He will be glorified.

Anyway, I am sure I will write more in a few days about how things seem to go, especially since there are two more storms in the Pacific that seem to be headed our way later this week and early next week. But in the mean time here is a short video of the golf course that we live across the street from and the damage that was done to the fence along the road. I know you can't see it in the video, but somewhere in the river a car had gotten swept away and is stranded.




This is JoAnn on Sunday morning after driving around with Daniel and I for a couple hours once we finally found a Starbucks that was actually open. I think she was just grateful to be out of the car.

Just call me lazy

Alright, so I don't really have a good excuse for going a month before writing anything new on here other than I have been too lazy to do it. It actually started when Daniel and one of our neighbors got me into reading a series of books that I ended up spending pretty much all of my spare time reading for a couple weeks. Then I just got really lazy and the pregnancy hit me full force with a few weeks of pure exhaustion and I spent all my spare time sleeping. I keep getting the question from women whether I feel different this time and usually my answer is that I don't remember being this tired with JoAnn. It started pretty early on even before I knew I was pregnant and has hit me from time to time ever since. Really there have been a few other things that have been different, but not much. Anyway, rather than continuing to ramble about nothing in particular here are a few things that stand out from the last month...

This past weekend we went to one of the local college basketball games and took JoAnn with us. Daniel is pretty close with one of the kids that plays for one of the big colleges and we usually try to go to a few games each year. Since sports have been such a big part of both Daniel and my lives, its fun to be able to finally have her old enough to go with us. This was a pretty big game since it was the last regular season game and was between the #1 and #2 teams and it ended up coming down to the last few seconds. I know I've mentioned this before when writing about these games but they get insanely loud with the bands and crowd cheering, which I think got a overwhelming for JoAnn at ttimes, but as long as we had food and/or drinks for her she seemed to have a great time and actually would clap and yell "Go!" along with the rest of the crowd. The only embarrassing moment for me came with the man that was sitting next to us got a big bucket of popcorn and I had an awful time trying to balance watching the game and scolding JoAnn for begging the man for his food.

Speaking of embarrassing moments , I have decided that now is the time for us to get JoAnn out of diapers. So, I went to the store to buy a toddler potty for her. I had started potty training JoAnn a few months back and ended up taking a break from it when I realized it wasn't going to happen in time for our trip to the US over the summer and I didn't want to worry about it while traveling. Anyway, this past week has been the first time since we got back that I have felt like I had enough energy to try it again and I wanted to do it a little differently this time so I needed another potty. Well, I went to SM (somewhat similar to a Walmart style store), grabbed a cart and headed to the baby section. For a few weeks now JoAnn refuses to sit in the actual seat part of the shopping cart and will only sit in the big part of it, so she was in there when I finally decided which one I wanted and placed it in the cart. Next thing I know I was headed to the check out line when JoAnn had taken the seat and was sitting on it in the middle of the cart and threw a big fit when I tried to take it out in order to pay for it. I really wish I could have gotten the picture of her riding around in the cart sitting on the potty in the middle of a crowded store. It was pretty funny, but at the same time slightly embarrassing for me since Filipinos seem to have no problem staring and laughing.

Another thing that I really am kicking myself for not getting a picture of is when JoAnn managed to get herself stuck in one of her dresser drawers. She is only supposed to have her pacifier when she is sleeping, so we have caught her numerous times getting her pacifier down from the top of her dresser while she thinks we aren't looking. So, one day I had put it all the way on the back of the dresser and she pulled up one of her chairs to the toddler sized table and chairs we got her for her birthday and climbed up on the chair to get it. I guess it was so far back that she still couldn't reach it because after a few minutes of silence all I heard coming from her room was a very soft and calm "Help Mommy, help." When I got to her room I found her standing in one of the drawers with the chair knocked over below her and pacifier in hand.

I am sure there are a few more stories that I'm not thinking of from this past month, but its getting late, so here are a couple pictures from the past month (sorry they don't really go with the stories, but I hate to put up a post without pictures).

This has become one of JoAnn's favorite things to do...wash her hands. I don't know why, but at least I don't have to argue with her about it.


This is from a birthday party that JoAnn went to for one of the girls that we spend a lot of time with. She played with this noise maker for probably ten minutes and never once got it to work. I kept laughing when she would blow so hard and nothing happened.


Alright one last thing, mainly because I want to have it documented for future reference when it happened. I started to feel the baby move a couple weeks ago. I think feeling the baby move is one of my favorite parts about being pregnant, so I was really excited when I felt it.

Manny

Lately JoAnn has been picking up so many new words. At times it can be a little bit of a reality check about what I am teaching my daughter without meaning to. For example, the other day I was driving to the store and for those of you that have visited the PI before, you know exactly what I mean when I say I was getting a little frustrated with the traffic. One of the biggest traffic problems here is what they call "jeepnies." They are a mode of public transportation, but the drivers basically do whatever they want, whenever they want. I often get cut off or stuck behind one that stopped suddenly in the middle of the road to let a passenger off. On top of that they hardly ever have break lights that work and rarely use their headlights at night. They are one of my biggest frustrations while driving and the other day I was really loosing my patience with them. So when one suddenly stopped right in front of me to let someone off, I honked my horn and yelled "go" at them. After which JoAnn would not stop laughing. So on the way to church this morning everytime JoAnn heard a horn, she would yell "GO!" I know it isn't the worst thing for her to be yelling, but I don't really want to teach my daughter to have road rage at the age of 2.

Anyway, her other new favorite word to say has become "Manny," as in the cartoon Handy Manny. Unfortunately, the Disney Channel doesn't show it in Asia. I have tried to find it on DVD in stores, but then realized that it wouldn't matter even if I did find it because our DVD player no longer works since JoAnn put coins in it the other day. That means the only Handy Manny we have is on the iTunes that we downloaded for our trip back to the US, so we have improvised. She now watches it on our docking station for our iPod and since we only have one episode on the iPod, she watches the same one over and over. Nevertheless, she continuously throughout the day comes running up to me saying "Manny, Manny, Manny." The other day I was busy making dinner so I gave in and played it for her and I think she ended up watching it 3 or 4 times in a row and was upset when I told her she couldn't watch it anymore. I get sick of hearing it, let alone the times that she wants me to sit and watch it with her. I really don't understand how it could be interesting anymore, but oh well, I guess I should be thankful that she likes the one we have.


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This picture is one that I have been meaning to scan and post for a few weeks now. However, that would mean that I had to sit down for a while and try to figure out how to use our scanner since Daniel is always the one to use it. Anyway, this is baby #2, which is due to arrive sometime around Feb. 20. The ultrasound was done about three weeks ago so it has developed even more that this, but I love this picture. I don't ever remember having a picture of JoAnn that was showed this much detail this early on. Despite a couple nail biting moments, both the baby and I are doing great and now Daniel and I are trying to get JoAnn used to the idea that she is going to be a big sister.

Visit to Ohio

Alright, so my goal was to get done recapping our trip to the US around a week and a half ago. Needless to say, I didn't even come close to making it. With that being said, I will am going to pick up where I left off, which would bring me to just after Daniel and I got back from NY. We got back to Indy on July 1 and Daniel spent the next day getting everything ready for the annual shipment of food from the Northwest Food Bank to the Arthur Center (which, was released from the docks and unloaded this week!). He and some of his family went down to the warehouse, where they prepared everything that was going on the container, which got packed and started its journey on July 6. Anyway, I wasn't at the warehouse when they prepared everything, but I can only imagine that it was neat for Daniel to see this side of the shipment since we have always been on the receiving side.

Then on July 3, we went to visit my family in Ohio for a week. It was a busy, but great time. My sister and her son were also visiting from Florida, so it was fun to have them around and actually see them for more than just a day or two for the first time in a long time. On the 4th, my uncle every year has a picnic at his house where he invites the whole family over and we spend the day together. He actually does it on Memorial Day and Labor Day also, but since the last time I have been in the US during one of those holidays was before we moved to the Philippines, I was so excited to be able to go again. This time, he decided that he was going to make it into more of a family reunion, so not only was I able to see my grandma, aunts and uncles, cousins, and their kids, but I was also able to see some of my mom's cousins. A couple of whom I have never met and some I haven't seen since I was really young. Anyway, it was fun to see people and catch up and JoAnn loved my uncle's huge back yard with so much to do. There was a swing set, a bubble maker, a motorized tractor for the kids and a pool. We actually didn't go swimming since it seemed a little chilly to me to be swimming, but she had fun with everything else. I didn't get any pictures from the day, but I stole some from one of my cousins, so here are a few...


This is JoAnn's cousin, Ty...
I think this is everyone that was able to make it...

That night after we got back, I begged Daniel to let me keep JoAnn awake long enough to go to the Westerville fireworks. This was a big deal for me that we went, I think its because I have so many fun memories of going to the fireworks as a kid and then after we would always come home and get together with the other kids in the neighborhood and set off a few of our own. It was always such a fun day and something that I miss every summer we are in the Philippines. Anyway, it wasn't anything like Red, White and Boom (the Columbus fireworks), but it was neat to be in the US to celebrate the 4th and I think JoAnn loved her first time ever seeing fireworks. Here are a few pictures from that night...

Before it started the people next to us were kind enough to share their glow in the dark necklaces and bracelets with Ty, who was nice enough to share with JoAnn.

This was once the fireworks began...I don't think she new what to think. This was the look on her face the whole time.

The next day, we had another family get together to celebrate JoAnn's birthday. We were a couple weeks early, but I really wanted to celebrate with family while we were home. These are a few pictures that I took from other people's cameras since I once again didn't actually take any of my own. These are of JoAnn openning her presents and enjoying her birthday cake...


The rest of our time in Ohio was spent playing outside in the yard (a luxurary we don't have living in a condominium building) and one day we even went to the Columbus Zoo. It was so much fun to see JoAnn enjoying the things that I used to love doing as a kid. These are a few last pictures...

This Daniel trying to learn Ty's rules for playing baseball, in the end the rule ended up being that Ty always won.


JoAnn and Ty.

Watching cartoons in the morning. This rocking chair is actually one that I was given around JoAnn's age from my grandparents. I wish there was a way for me to bring it back here with me because JoAnn loved it.

At the zoo, I didn't get a picture of them, but it was a fun day for me since we went with one of my friends from high school and her 3 kids and also another friend from growing up and her son. We were a large group, but I think everyone had fun. This was JoAnn's favorite, the lions.
This was always my favorite as a kid, but I could not get JoAnn to even think about touching anything. Its just a little place with the aquarium where you can touch a sea cucumber and a star fish.

After our week in Ohio, we spent two more days in Indiana before we flew back on Monday. While we were in Indiana, we spent Saturday with Matt, Britt and their daughter Addison. These are our good friends from college and I'm so sad we weren't able to spend more time with them. We always have so much fun together. Later that night we spent some more time with Daniel's brother and sister and their families. That was a fun night for me because after the kids went to bed, my sister-in-laws and I went out for coffee, which is something I wish I could do more often. Then on Sunday, we had one last Bucher family get together to celebrate the 5 birthdays that are in June and July. I always love it when the family gets together, it seems like there is never a dull moment. During that time we also were able to see one of Daniel's friends and his wife and one of the high school kids that Daniel knows from basketball here in Manila was in Indianapolis for some basketball camps, so he and his mom stopped by as well. Just like the rest of the trip it was a busy weekend, but I wouldn't change it and me being me, I managed to not get a single picture.

Well, all that leaves from our trip is the plane ride back. In order to keep me from getting frustrated about the trip once again, all I will say is that I think it was quite possibly one of the worst experiences with flying I have ever had. It just seemed like one thing after another went wrong including mechanical problems that kept us sitting on the plane in Detroit for almost 3 hours before we even took off, which was probably the worst that happened. So, I was beyond grateful that it was over when we landed safely in Manila.

Our Cruise and NY

So, the Thursday after the wedding Daniel and I left JoAnn with his parents and flew to New York where we jumped on a boat that was headed for St. John's, Canada. We were off to celebrate our 5th year anniversary and also Daniel's 30th birthday. Never heard of St. John's? Neither had I, but Daniel had really wanted to go on a cruise and he had been planning on seeing a friend in New York. So I suggested we combine the two and go on a cruise out of New York and that just happened to be where the cruise was headed. I'm not sure I would say Canada was the most exciting place I have ever been, but I will say it was wonderful to spend a few days alone with Daniel. He has been talking since before we were married about going on a cruise and I have been putting it off since it sort of ranks right under bridges on my list of things I am afraid of. Somehow, I managed to get over my fear and we set sail for a few days. I really loved the alone time with Daniel, but the cruise was a little disappointing. This is one of the only pictures I have from those couple days because we pretty much just ended up in our room watching the free movie channels they had most of the time. I don't know why we thought it would be different, but the weather was relatively cold for us (60's most of the time feels freezing when you are used to 80's all the time) and also it was pretty crowded. That I don't know why we didn't expect a crowd since there is only so much room on a boat, but it kind of took us by surprise. Anyway, while we were in Canada I really wanted to get a picture of us by something kind of neat in the town and the only thing we found was a statue of a moose, but when the lady handed the camera back to me and I went to look at it later, she never actually took a picture. So, instead we settled for a picture of the two of us by the boat.


Alright, so I don't sound so negative about the cruise when I really did have fun, here are some of the highlights: spending as much time alone with Daniel as I wanted for 4 days, free food anytime we wanted including desert which is always huge for me, 3 free movie channels 24 hours a day, and sleeping in every day. Oh and one last thing about the cruise, I think a terrible trend has started for us. The only two vacations Daniel and I have taken with just the two of us are our honeymoon and this trip. The day we got married Ronald Reagan died and that was pretty much all the news talked about on our honeymoon. The day we got to New York, Farrah Fawcett died and so did Michael Jackson, which of course, is all the news talked about during our trip. I don't know, it just seemed a little ironic to me.

After the cruise we stayed in New York for two more nights so Daniel could spend some time with his friend Jon (and also since Jon offered to take Daniel to a Yankees game if we stayed). Our cruise arrived in port on Monday around 8 AM, so we had pretty much two full days in the city. I have been wanting to go there for some time and I couldn't wait to see the city, so with a little nagging from me, we checked into our hotel (which was the W, right across from the Waldorf Astoria) and headed right back out the door to start sight seeing. That first day we saw a ton, just to name a few things we walked around Central Park (probably my favorite thing we did), saw the UN, went to Time Square and saw Rockefeller Plaza. I feel like I am forgetting some stuff that we saw since we walked pretty much all day, but that is most of it. The second day, we walked to Grand Central and took the subway to Wall Street and saw the World Trade Center area. We thought about going over to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty too, but since our cruise went right by it and Ellis Island and I was getting tired from all the walking, we just decided to go back to the hotel and rest for a few hours before we went to what I'm positive had to be the biggest highlight of the entire trip for Daniel. That night we went to the new Yankee Stadium and saw a game. The new stadium was amazing and we had SO much fun being there. I loved the time in New York and really would love to go back sometime to do even more in the city. There really is so much going on all the time that I think I could spend a week there and only get through about 1/3 of the things on my to do list. I had talked to a few people before we went and some of them mentioned that it was a big city with people everywhere and that it can be a little overwhelming at times, but to be honest after living in Manila for 4 years, I was just happy that I was actually able to blend into the crowds and I was also amazed at how they were able to keep the city relatively clean and that you could get around fairly easily. I know there is a lot of traffic in there, but it has nothing on Manila traffic.

Okay, enough talk about New York, here are some of the pictures...
Central Park....

Us with Jon at the UN (standing near the Filipino flag of course)...

Yankee Stadium...

I just had to add these to the post also. Like I said earlier JoAnn stayed with Daniel's parents while we were gone and one night she went over to spend some time with some of her cousins. These are pictures from that night that my sister-in-law took. I just thought they were adorable and had to put them up...

I guess in this one they had tried to get them to give each other a kiss and Eli was having no part of it...
These are from them dancing together...

Catching Up

Yet again I have allowed myself to neglect the blog while in the US and have continued to neglect it because the thought of trying to catch up with everything that has happened really didn't seem like a fun thing to do. So instead of sitting down and doing it all at once, I have decided to do it piece by piece and start with our flight back to the US and the wedding. I actually had started this post when we were home, but the internet gave out and I didn't find a chance to finish it.

Anyway, not long after Daniel returned from his basketball trip we headed to Indiana to attend his sister's wedding, which I will get to in a minute. I just thought these two pictures were pretty cute. The first one is of JoAnn at about 6 AM waiting for our flight to leave Manila. I don't know if she was tired or just trying to get comfortable.


This one was us trying to keep her occupied during our many hours in the air. Technology even since arriving in the Philippines has advanced so much and has made traveling with a toddler much easier. We were able to download a few of her favorite cartoons off of iTunes and she watched them on the computer. I know they have had portable DVD players for a while, but to me this was much better because I didn't have to carry around a case of DVDs and also since we already were bringing our netbook we didn't have to bring a DVD player or our larger heavier notebook that could play the DVDs. Instead all we had to do was download a few shows before we left and carry this 3 pound very small computer (or our iPod, which was the back up if our computer battery died). Anyway, as great as that is to keep her occupied, it wasn't long before she decided that she just wanted to get up and walk. Normally, this would be the time that I would gladly get up and stroll around the plane with her, but on this trip there was a volcanoe errupting in the original flight path and we had to take a detour, which meant two things. One, as if 11 1/2 hours isn't already long enough, it added an hour or so to the length of our longest flight. Two, most of our flight was spent over the Pacific Ocean so we spent probably almost 9 of those hours with the "fasten your seatbelt" sign on since there was so much turbulance. Normally, even if the sign is on I still try to get up for a few minutes every now and then, but this time there really was a ton of turbulance. So, the getting up and walking around was pretty much out of the question most of the time. And as usual on our way to the US, JoAnn decided that she just didn't really need to sleep and slept probably for a grand total of 2 1/2 hours during the almost 24 hour trip. The only good part to that is that she is SO tired by the time we get to Indiana that she doesn't really suffer from jet lag.


Alright, now for the whole reason we went home in the first place...Joel and Kristen's wedding. We arrived in the US on Monday and the wedding was on Saturday, so we got there just in time for all the last minute planning. I loved every minute of it. I just wish I was actually able to help more. I guess I just had so much fun planning our wedding that I love to watch or help someone I love so much plan theirs. I was so sad that for most of it I was so far away. Kristen did a fabulous job of thinking of all the details too. It was probably one of the most well put together and beautiful weddings I have ever been to. Not to mention the fact that Kristen looked absolutely gorgeous in her dress. My favorite part of the whole wedding...they provided childcare for the kids. It was one of the best things ever, it actually sort of felt like Daniel and I were on a date the whole time. I was just so happy that I was able to enjoy the wedding without having to worry about JoAnn going crazy from sitting still so long. Also, I think JoAnn had fun playing with the other kids...well at least at the reception. I guess she cried most of the time during the ceremony, which was yet another reason I was so thankful for the babysitters. So here are a few of the pictures, unfortunately I got a little side tracked during the wedding and didn't take any pictures other than the ones I took as we were all waiting for things to begin.

This picture is actually the only picture from the whole wedding that I got of Joel and Kristen and its from the reherseal and evidently my flash didn't work.


These are all from before the ceremony...

These are JoAnn's cousin's...She was the only girl that was still a little young to be a flowergirl, but Kristen still had her wear the dress. Don't they just look so cute all dressed up.

This is her cousin that is the same age as her and I love this picture with Eli in his tux and JoAnn in her dress and them both being shy. We tried forever to get the two of them to stand next to each other and smile for a picture. They would not get anywhere close to each other, it was so cute.

Alright, so that's the flight and the wedding. Next time I will talk about the trip that Daniel and I took.

Anniversary, Basketball and Friends

I just think this picture is too funny. JoAnn sometimes throws her pacifier out of her crib at night and it ends up on the floor under her crib. For a while now we haven't let her have her pacifier unless she is sleeping and the other day I was busy doing something while she was playing in her room. All day she had been pretty crabby, so I will admit I was very thankful for a few peaceful minutes but did get a little concerned when she was completely silent for about 5 minutes. So, I went in to check on her and this is what I found. She had found her pacifier and was hiding from me under her crib while she was sucking on it. I couldn't help but laugh and then since it was so cute, I made an exception to the rule (partially because she wasn't yelling or crying) and she kept her pacifier. I just thought it was so funny, but at the same time a little scary for me that she is already trying to hide things from me.



I guess it has already been a week now, but last Friday Daniel and I had our 5 year anniversary. (That sounds crazy to say.) Anyway, we decided that since Daniel had a group of basketball players come from the US starting late Thursday that we would spend time together for our anniversary on Wednesday. We ended up going to a nice Italian restaurant and then out to coffee. Our true celebration will actually happen at the end of this month when we are taking some of the money Daniel was able to earn while we were home last time and going on a cruise and then spending a couple extra days in New York to see one of his good friends that lives there. We decided to go all out since it is our 5th anniversary and his 30th birthday this summer. I am really excited for the trip.

On Thursday night poor Daniel had someone to pick up at the airport at 10 pm, midnight and then 6 am on Friday. So he wasn't expecting much sleep that night. As it turns out both of us barely managed to get any at all. Around 2 am I got a call from Daniel saying that everything was flooding and he wasn't sure he was going to be able to get into our subdivision. Typhoon season starts the beginning of June and apparently it decided to start off with quite the storm. We had a monsoon come through that rained for 6 straight days. I feel like I got a little taste of how people must have felt when it started raining back in the days of Noah. It seemed like the rain wasn't ever going to stop. Anyway, by Thursday things were so saturated that the floods we normally get were getting really bad. Daniel had managed to make it to the road leading into our subdivision, but the only thing that was able to get through the gate were the buses, which is crazy since that area is never that bad. The real problem was that the road he was on to get to the gate was flooded in either direction and only getting worse since it was still pouring. Daniel called me in a slight panic, not sure what to do and not sure how many more flooded areas our car could make it through. On top of that he wasn't sure how to get to either of the other two gates that lead into our subdivision from where he was. I knew part of the way to get to the other gates, but had never had any reason to take them, so I wasn't compeletly sure. Luckily with the little bit of information I did have they managed to find their way to another gate which was at the top of a hill and made it home around 3:15. It was at this point that Daniel finally accepted my offer to go to the airport at 6 instead of him. I felt so bad since he had a full day with the team on Friday. This just added one more thing to the crazieness of the week.

Also on Wednesday last week some of our friends came back from a year long furlough, so we together with another family that we are all friends with had dinner together on Wednesday and then on Friday the mothers (Michele, Val and I) all decided that we wanted to take the kids to the mall to a play place. Between the three of us we have 7 kids. It made for quite the excursion. These are the 4 older girls who decided to make a human chain as they were walking through the mall. I just thought it was so cute to see them have a good time playing after about 9 months of not seeing each other.


Daniel, Val's husband and Michele's husband all usually go on these basketball trips together, so while they are gone the 3 of us get together a lot and try to help each other out. We have done this ever since they started doing these trips three years ago when there were only two kids between the three of us. Anyway, the guys left early on Monday to play some games in Cebu so we took all the kids to another mall playground place. Here are some pictures of the kids...

JoAnn is just enough younger than the other girls that she usually just ends up playing by herself, but I think by next summer she will be right there with them. The next picture is Olivia and Bella. Then the second picture is Abby and Mackenzie and the last picture is of Seth. Some how I managed to not get a picture of Deacon. So these are the kids that JoAnn has been spending the last couple days playing with. When we all go to the mall together I'm sure it seems like an invasion of white kids running around to the other people.

As much fun as I have with the other women and their kids, we are very much looking forward to Daniel getting back, especially since I am also trying to get ready to leave for the US on Monday.