Monday, October 22, 2012

The bike ride



I mentioned in an earlier post that I grew up overseas. Here’s another story from my wacky childhood. 

When I was 9 we spent the summer in the hot and humid rainforest of Honduras. It was a remote place named Ahuas. My dad flew a plane for Alas de Socorro through Mission Aviation Fellowship. There was a medical clinic there and he basically served as a flying ambulance, picking up those in need of medical care from their remote villages and bringing them to the clinic. 

Every morning was sunny and beautiful. Every afternoon it would get dark and stormy and the rains would sweep over. Our houses were actually built on stilts because it would rain so much every afternoon. After the rains passed through, it sometimes dried up enough that you could go downstairs but there were scorpions everywhere so we pretty much stayed inside in the evening. 

Every night we would take our malaria pill. I couldn't swallow mine and it wasn't chewable so my mom would crush it and mix it into some butterscotch pudding. It made the pudding taste horrible and to this day I can't stand butterscotch pudding. After we took our pill we would jump into bed and my folks would seal up our mosquito net. Inevitably one mosquito would end up inside the net and eat me alive all night. 

One morning my older brother, Jeff and I decided to go for a bike ride. We knew we would have to make it back before the rains came. We got my mom's hesitant permission, packed a picnic lunch, and headed out. It was a glorious day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Jeff and I were having a grand ole’ time. We crossed a few creeks, passed through forests of banana trees, enjoyed our picnic lunch, and just rode and rode and rode. We were having the time of our lives. 

Eventually we came upon a village. It was a village of indigenous Miskito people (hence the name "mosquito"). As we approached, we were greeted by a gaggle of grinning, cheering children. Jeff screamed at me to pedal harder or the "pygmies" (as he called them) would steal our bikes. I panicked and suddenly couldn't pedal at all. In the blink of an eye I was surrounded by “pygmies.”  I couldn't move. They were grabbing my bike, holding on to the seat and moving it this way and that so that I couldn't stay on. I was terrified! 

Jeff, being the sweet, concerned big brother that he was, took off! Yep, he just left me there. I started crying and screaming for him but he was long gone. I kept trying to get away but the crowd was too thick and the Miskitos way too curious. In looking back, they probably didn't know what to make of me—a tiny, incredibly white child with curly blonde hair on a seat with two wheels. I'm sure I was like nothing they'd ever seen before. Their smiles and constant chattering calmed me down a bit, and I was able to push my way through the crowd and eventually get pedaling again. I'm sure they just wanted to ride my bike, not steal it. But I was on borrowed time and had to make it all the way back home before the rains began. I pedaled as hard as I could as I was chased far down the road, and still no sign of Jeff.

As I rode I realized that it was starting to get cloudy. I pedaled as fast as I could but was getting so tired. I'd used up all my adrenaline on getting away from the Miskitos. Now I still had to get all the way back home. The sky was turning black. Lightning and thunder were still off in the distance, but moving in quickly. About halfway home I finally came across Jeff. He decided he should come back for me. I was still chewing him out for ditching me when the first giant raindrops started to fall. We knew we had to book it back home! We pedaled as though our lives depended on it. By the time we pulled under our stilted house, dropped our bikes, and ran upstairs we were soaked and the water was up to our ankles. 

I remember falling in to my sweet mom's arms, sobbing. I told her all about the “pygmies”, Jeff leaving me, and the pounding rain. I never wanted to go on a bike ride again. I got my butterscotch pudding and went straight to bed, exhausted.

Oh and that was the summer that all my Barbies molded! I didn't like Ahuas very much.





Wednesday, October 17, 2012

A tire swing = awesome!

I took the kids to a creek near a local university and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  I wanted to get some good fall photos of them but it was over 80 degrees so it looks more like summer.  3 potty breaks, 8 packs of fruit snacks, 1 seriously awesome tire swing, 3 slips into the water, 2 hours, 514 photos, and countless skipped stones later, we piled in the car to head home for dinner.



















Monday, October 15, 2012

Manic Monday


6:41am - Nick wakes me up in a panic because we've overslept half an hour. He gets the two big kids up for school then hops in the shower while I wake up sweet Salsa who's been sleeping with us since 1am. She nurses and I pray for sanity today because I slept through my quiet time and know it's gonna be a crazy day.

7:55am - All four kids are dressed and in the car. That is a miracle in itself. We share prayer requests on the drive to school. I really need to get a list of the kids' classmates because I think we've been praying for the same friends over and over. 

9:25am - Driving home after the grocery store and post office errands, I'm starting to regret ever playing my favorite song for the kids. Now my 3 year old is addicted to Eternal Flame by The Bangles. It just doesn't sound right hearing her belt it out for the hundredth time. 

10:12am - Dropping little girls off at my folks' house so I can meet with Lavahead's teacher.  

12:08pm - Learned a new way to subtract and some fun ways to help my son read faster. Cool! Actually stopped to smell the roses on the way back in to the house. Nice. Now having lunch with the girls and my folks. 

1:34pm - Girls are napping and I'm making homemade bread and homemade chicken noodle soup. It calls for a bunch of seasonings. I question the recipe but decide to follow it.

2:36pm - Actually sitting down! Enjoying a bit of chocolate while I respond to some church emails.

2:54pm - Yikes! Time to get the kids already! I grab the gymnastics bag, throw snacks in the car, get the meal for a sick friend and her family packed and in the car, get the girls up and bottoms cleaned, and jump in the car. Now I'm 12 minutes late, can I make it up in driving? Not likely.

4:43pm - Pooh Bear has a freak-out moment in gymnastics. She needs a hug but that means both little girls are left upstairs in the viewing area and don't like being away from me. Now I have three girls crying throughout the gym and a big brother trying to help but some lady's fussing at how he's taking care of the little two while I comfort Pooh Bear. Grrrrr.

5:11pm - We get to see Daddy for 5 whole minutes while we're home for a quick dinner and he changes into his den leader uniform. I'm 0 for 4 with the kids on dinner. Nobody likes the new soup recipe, not even me. Make notes in the cookbook then back in the car to drop Lavahead off at cub scouts. In the car I promise everyone a bowl of cereal before bed.

6:20pm - Try to get the girls to check out a furry black caterpillar in the front yard but it really just weirds us all out and we go back inside.

7:39pm - Trying to get everyone in bed with a smile on my face. 

8:22pm - Still trying. Still smiling. Thank you Lord.

8:48pm - Still trying. Not smiling so much.

9:28pm - The three big kids are asleep. Salsa is crying. Again.  She's having a hard night. Or is that a hard week? Month?? 

9:34pm - Finally alone with Nick. Time for some chocolate and baseball playoffs then an early bedtime. Salsa will probably be joining us shortly so I need to sleep now before I get two little feet lodged in my ribs for a few hours.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

CRACK!

Before I started my blog I knew I had a LOT to write about.  I've actually considered writing a book before, just about my first 10 years of life.  You see, my parents were missionaries with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and we lived overseas until I was in the 5th grade.  SO much happened to me in those short 10 years! Interspersed with regular mommy life, I'll be adding some of the highlights of those wonderful years overseas.

Tonight's story is one that works great when playing "2 Truths and 1 Lie." It's a fun game. In a party setting you each write down two things that are true about you and one that is a lie.  Then you put all these papers in a basket and draw them out and everybody has to guess which one of your things is the lie.  I have so many bizarre things that happened to me that I could come up with 50 truths and one lie.  My one lie is that I've been sky diving - just something I want to do someday but still haven't come up with the nerve to do it yet.  Maybe that will be a blog post later.

So here's what happened - when I was 8 we lived in Siguatepeque (kinda shocked I spelled that right, had to look it up), Honduras. Betcha can't say that correctly! Anyway, it was a beautiful tropical town full of lychee trees and palm trees and mango trees.  It was a nice afternoon and there were a bunch of us playing outside.  We had several other missionary families that lived on the same street and the kids pretty much always played in our yard because we had the best climbing tree.  There was also a pick-up volleyball game going on in our backyard with a bunch of locals.

Okay, back to this climbing tree.  It was superb!  It was absolutely gigantic - 10 kids could easily fit in it.  It was so huge that we could play like it was a house complete with separate rooms for everybody.  It was a space ship, a mall, a restaurant (that was my favorite because there was one place that made a perfect serving bar and I always got to be the waitress), a doctor's office, an airport terminal, the list goes on and on.  On this particular day we were pretending it was a pirate ship and we were raising the sails because a storm was a 'brewin! Not really, there was hardly a cloud in the sky. Which is why this next occurrence is so bizarre.

We were playing happily and then CRACK! Next thing we know we are all laying on the ground.  All of us.  All 10 kids out of the tree and laying on the ground.  All 20 locals who had been playing volleyball laying on the ground.  Every single one of us had been knocked out cold. Key freaky music. We slowly came to our senses and then all realized just what had happened.  We'd been hit by lightening! Every single one of us jumped up and ran screaming into our house.  Not sure why we reacted like that but it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

My mom had been in the house, working in the kitchen with a perfect view of the backyard and saw the whole thing. She ran to us as we came inside and checked us all out.  Nobody had even a scratch. Now isn't that bizarre?  30 people hit by one bolt and nobody hurt.  10 kids fell out of a giant tree and nobody hurt.  We were all pretty buzzed for a while though.

Honduras circa 1984. I'm the girl with the (original) Cabbage Patch Kid.



Saturday, October 6, 2012

Salsa


How do you solve a problem like Salsa?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word that means Salsa?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o'-the wisp! A clown!


The classic Sound of Music song is perfect for our baby girl. She's 16 months old going on 16! She's constantly going, going, going. She babbles non-stop and much of what she says actually sounds like "flibbertijibbet." I need to film her babbling because it really cracks us up.

On the way to school one day when I was pregnant with her, I told the kids the names we were considering and Lavahead misunderstood me and yelled from the back seat, "Salsa!? You're REALLY gonna name her Salsa!?" After I stopped laughing, we all agreed that would be her nickname. When she was born with bright red hair, the nickname seemed appropriate. And now that her wild, crazy, spicy personality is coming out, the nickname is even more appropriate. 


At the beach in MI this summer
My breakfast buddy - hard to keep her off the table

On the boat in Newport

Always wants the camera

It's hard when we don't get our way

Waiting in the car pick-up line we can get a little crazy

Her first pigtail

Newborn sweetie, love those cheeks

She's always loved to smile

Sweet smiley girl

Loving her ears at Disneyland this summer

One happy one month old

She drags her kitty everywhere

Goofball

Loves water

Crazy face!

Love her little mouth and big blue eyes

Fun flower towel but it's her eyebrows that always get me

Gorgeous red curls



Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Sodapop

Sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what little Sodapop is made of! Heavy on the spice! Sodapop is my mini-me.  She looks exactly like I did at that age. Her nickname is a combination of her first and middle name abbreviations and it fits her perfectly. She's sweet and bubbly. 

Sodapop is 3 and I call it a flaming 3 because she can be silly and super sweet one second and a screaming banshee the next. She is a total goofball one second and an absolute terror the next. She'll be laughing her head off one second and pouting the next. She'll share so nicely one second and grab every toy in front of her the next. She'll be talking so sweetly to me one second and then shouting NO at me the next. Sodapop loves her ballet class and her favorite show is The Fresh Beat Band. She loves food and is such a great eater (she'll eat anything under the sun!) but is so tiny. She and her little sister are two years apart but only three pounds different. Sodapop loves playing with her Snap-on dolls, swinging, laughing, helping me with my chores, going for walks, taking baths, playing with her siblings, and especially helping me in the kitchen. She's my little sous chef!

The other day she was playing in her room and as I walked by I heard her singing "Pump up the JAM!" as loud as she possibly could. She cracks me up!


Newborn Sodapop
Hello world!
Smiley girl on a picnic

Her first pigtails


playing in the rain
Huh?!
messy goofy face
Silly
At the zoo and loving it!
Pretty blue eyes
My little princess

She picked out her own clothes this day
So gentle and innocent



Meeting little sister for the first time







Little ballerina - love the leg warmers!

Wearing her favorite color - purple

Snuggling with her new puppy

Having a hard time keeping her Minnie Mouse ears up

Eating her favorite food - cheese!


Sweet lil cowgirl

My pretty girl