Emma is f.i.n.e.

Incase anyone was curious... Emma is doing just fine.

She had a good day yesterday (save for three potty accidents). She woke up talking and went to bed the same.

We played international Mario Kart last night. Joy's brother Jon seriously trounced us. Humble pie. Actually, some might call it a slaughter. Either way is fine with us.

All for now!

-knme

Overdue update

Greetings and salutations everyone,

This update is long overdue. That is not to say that a lot has happened since 10 September but you know.

Saturday, 12 September we went to watch the school basketball game and then went over to the Woodby's house. They were having some computer issues so they asked me (Ken) to have a look at them. We turned it into dinner. They have two awesome boys who seemed to enjoy keeping the reigns on our two girls. We returned home late so we slept in Sunday morning and skipped morning church (shhhh!)

We went to "The Gathering" in the evening. It was the start of "Kids Bible Club" (KBC), a ministry Joy and Abigail thought up for the kids aged 3 to 6 at "The Gathering".

Tuesday, 15 September, was Guatemalan Independence day and thusly we had the day off. The Woodby's hosted a party. Again, much fun was had by all. I (Ken) had the opportunity to test my grilling skills over a charcol grill. Nothing was burned too badly except for one hamburger. The chicken was a bit hit -- thanks and credit be to Sherry Woodby for the family recipe.

Thursday night we had Elementary Open House. Joy and Abigail made some national styled flags for the cookie contest. They were delicious! Friday night we had Robert and Jonathan Loveall for a sleep-over. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun.

Saturday was pretty laid back. Joy worked with Deana and her girls on planning this weeks KBC. Sunday was a different story -- somewhat. Poor Emma woke up at 6:30a complaining that her stomach hurt. When I asked her and Abigail to go in and gently wake up Mommy... well... she threw up on our bedroom floor (good morning Mommy). She then threw up three more times before 9a. Emma and I (Ken) stayed home from morning church while Abigail and Joy got a ride with the Larimers.

Emma and I watched the ending of three different movies Sunday morning. We caught the last 45 minutes of "Surfs Up", then the last 30 minutes of "Garfield", and finally (she slept through) the last 30 minutes of "The Thunderbirds". Then we watched the Pats lose to the Jets.

Joy and Emma stayed home from "The Gathering" while Abigail and I (Ken) went. It was a good night all around.

Well... that about catches everyone up. Nothing too exciting but yet exciting enough.

Blessings to everyone.

-knme

What a Day!

It all started out so well, and looked to be a relaxing - do nothing sort of day. Then, I sat down at the breakfast table and looked out at the backyard. So many bushes, and tree branches, and not enough light. We had been saying for a while that we wanted to fix it up, but it just hadn't happened. So, at 8:05 I left Emma at the table, walked down to Francisco's house (gate guard/gardener/car washer/etc...) and asked to borrow some tools. Thankfully he agreed to come help me. I say thankfully because they don't use pruners here, they use machetes.

When he arrived and I asked what I could do, he declared he didn't think I could use a machete. Bad idea, challenging the redhead. I may not have used it nearly as well as he, but I wielded that machete pretty well, and didn't even lose any fingers. The backyard looks awesome now! We can actually see the sky and the girls can go outside to play, and the hammock doesn't run into the huge bee attracting bush.

So that was an eventful morning, but it kept going - for worse.

I got Emma buckled into the car on our way to the library, realized I didn't have the library bag - so I hopped out to go get it. Car is in the garage, Emma is in her seat, keys are in the ignition, doors are unlocked. As I'm looking for the bag (which it turns out Ken had already brought to school) I hear a beep from the car. Not a horn beep, an arming the alarm beep. Turns out our car locks itself. Unfortunately it locked itself with Emma in it, the radio running, and all the windows up. I was freaking out!!!! I immediately tried Ken's cell, to no avail as he was in chapel. He silenced it, and then forgot I had tried to call and went to his homeroom class. I think it was 10 minutes later when someone from the school finally found him and got him on the phone. So, at this point Emma has been locked in the warm car for 13 minutes or so, with no open windows, and I'm contemplating throwing a cinder block through the front window. We (Francisco and I) are trying to get Emma to unlock the car - but the poor child can't reach, and can't unstrap her legs from the seatbelt. She can reach the window button, but the child lock is on. I tried to call Carrie to keep me sane while I waited for Kenneth, with no idea if someone was coming to unlock or break into the car, and the Vonage phone was out - and my cell was locked in the car. (Oh, btw, we have no spare key for the car apparently - that will be remedied soon!) Finally Ken arrived (almost 15 minutes later) with Maynor (from the school) carrying a jimmy. Praise God that after 1/2 hour in the car Emma was fine! It was a scary parenting moment though that is for sure!

Trauma over, we went and got the kids and Mrs. Perez (Ab's teacher) and her daughter Natalia, and went to McDonalds. Now Natalia and Abigail are playing nicely together, and quietly, doing watercolor paintings. The door to the backyard is wide open and there is a nice breeze coming in, and no bees. The day turned out well after all, so far....

Next Encounter with Law Enforcement

Picture it: San Cristobal, 2009. Joy and Ken are on their way back to school after lunch when they happen upon a random traffic stop on the San Cristobal Boulevard. "License and registration", they ask for. I (Ken) hand it to him and he heads off to discuss with some of the other officers on the scene.

He comes back and explains to us that he is going to have to give us a ticket because our AAA IDP (International Drivers Permit) was not a real license. I'm guessing he has never seen an AAA IDP before... not sure how common they are down here.

We ask to speak with his supervisor and he says we'll have to head down to the office to talk with them but we insist that we need to speak with the supervisor now. This is something that was covered in our New Teacher Orientation. When the supervisor comes over we explain what the IDP and explain that the copy of my passport is a certified copy (certified by a lawyer).

She goes on to explain that the copy is fine but they need to see the immigration stamp in the passport to know when we entered the country because, although the IDP is good for one year, our VISA stamp in the passport is only good for 90 days -- which we knew. We got in touch with the school who explained to her the dates in the passport and ... in the end... everything was fine. We did not get a ticket!

CAG takes special effort to hold new teacher orientation (awesome) every year to go over do's and do nots associated with living in Guatemala. They also gave us a list of names to contact if we run into trouble. It certainly paid off.

I think in the end the police did a good job of explaining everything and in being understanding of our situation.

-knme