Wahoo for Deals!

In September, Aimee, Troy, Kallie, Kyle, Eliana, and I all went shopping at the outlets in between our homes. At the time, Eliana had a plethera of clothes that she'd been given, so I just window shopped. I was impressed with Aimee because she was shopping for Kallie for next year. When Eliana was that little, I didn't know how to gage when she'd be in a certain size. After all, she spent the first month of her life in preemie clothes. She is pretty close to age appropriate clothes now. With all of that in mind, I went by Old Navy today. They are having 40% off already clearanced clothes. Instead of paying $130.23, I only spent $37.40 for clothes for next winter. Wahoo! Saving $93.07 sure did make my day! My mom will be so proud when she reads this!

Photo Update

Just a reminder that staying home is good, but it is not always easy.

Eliana and her ducky were having a serious conversation!

Eliana can now sit up for a few minutes at a time. Eliana's Aunties are awesome is what the onesie should say!

I can't help it. I love her smile!

She hasn't learned to clap yet, but she does like to clasp her hands.

Welcome back

I made it into Fresno around 5am on Saturday. I slept for awhile and then we headed out for lunch with Tasha's mom. I noticed, as we approached the car, that our rear license plate was missing. Someone STOLE it!

A friend suggested we call the non-emergency police line. Tasha ended up filing a report. She then had to take that case number to the DMV to have new plates issued. The fee was $19. Thankfully we did not have to pay for the tags again.

As a kid, my dad told me that people will steal the tags of plates so they don't have to purchase them themselves. His tactic was to take a blade and slice the tag in strips diagonally from left to right and then from right to left. This way someone could try to take it but would end up leaving it when they discovered that it couldn't be easily removed and made to look legit once reapplied.

I wonder if I could electrify our new plates as a theft deterent. ???

Pictures from El Salvador

El Salvador has 25 volcanos.


Neighborhood

We're not in Kansas anymore.

What are seatbelts?

Jesus Cristo, El Salvador del Mundo


Street vendor


Downtown

Salvadorian deer stand

What's a deer stand? Its a seat or platform you can mount in a tree to await for unsupecting game to get within range of your rifle.

Coconut milk anyone?

San Salvador

Church across from Central Park

Street evangelism

Amigos - gringos with translators

31 Seconds!!!

We've been working on Eliana being able to sit up! I decided to time how long she can sit up. The shortest stretch tonight was 3 seconds. The longest was 31 seconds! Wahoo!

I've also been working on training Eliana to sleep in her crib rather than in her swing. We've had at least one nap the last three days in her crib. They are short naps, but most of them are about 30 minutes. Once I nursed her, and she then slept for an additional hour and a half in her crib! I was super tired this afternoon, so I swaddled her and put her in her swing after her mini crib nap. I put the swing on for a few minutes and then turned it off. I was tired and was trying to nap myself while she did. I simply do not sleep well with Kyle gone. Last night I was up for 2+ hours in the middle of the night. Eliana only needed me for 25 minutes. The night before it was 1.5 hours. Do you know what happens when you are up that long? You get hungry. So, after some mashed potatoes, I went back to bed.

I'm super excited about Kyle's trip, but I am also really looking forward to him coming home! I've gotten out of the house everyday and seen people! It has been very healthy for my sanity. I do pretty well during the day, but I do get pretty lonesome at night. I'll admit that I am pretty much a scaredy cat. What helped me to finally go to sleep last night, or I should say at 4:30ish this morning, was to say the name of Jesus over and over again.

Kyle's in El Salvador!

Kyle along with a whole bunch of other people are serving this week in San Salvador, El Salvador! He took the camera, so I won't be able to update with photos for a little while. They left here on Friday and headed down to our hometown. Then they picked up several more from Valley, and then headed to LAX. Kyle got a few hours of sleep on the way there. He didn't sleep much on the plane. Once they got their, he went around with a translator and met about a dozen families and invited them to the free movie that evening.

Today Pastor Phil preached, with the help of a translator. He has two services at one location, and one service at the hotel that the team is staying at. Kyle went to the other location, but I don't know how it went yet. I do know that he had chicken shawarmas for lunch. He is posting things on Facebook in Spanish. HA! He also had papusas yesterday. He and Rachel said they are amazing.

I don't get to see my hubby until the wee hours of Saturday morning. I'm trying to fill my days with visits to friends around. I'll go crazy without some adult interaction. SO, if you are reading and would like to come to dinner this week or have us over, just let me know;) So far I've been successful in project Keep Sanity with Perry and Sherry's help. They came down on Friday and just left a few hours ago. We were able to go to friends' house for dinner last night. We had Ruli and Bryce join us for lunch today. Yeah for company!

Eliana and Kallie

Eliana's great great grandma made these dresses for GramE and Aunt Marcie when they were little girls. Kallie and Eliana are just far enough apart to fit the dresses pretty well. They took these pictures back in November, but I didn't post them since I sent a picture out to relatives with these wee ones together. Have you ever tried to get to wee ones to smile at the same time? I can't imagine trying to get twins to smile together regularly. It was a bit of work, but worth it. Kallie's Grandma Jan really helped by singing to them.

Funny Moments at Home

If you would have looking in my bathroom 5 minutes ago, you would have seen the seat I sit on to play the keyboard on a towel in the bathtub. Why you may ask would the seat be there? The kitchen chair didn't fit. HA! That is one of the things about living in an apartment, the tub is apartment sized. So, you still might be wondering why a seat was in my bathtub. In general I am completely blind without my glasses. Thus, I don't notice things like mold growing in the bathtub until it gets really bad. This afternoon I noticed mold on the ceiling. I'm not that short, but I'm not tall enough to clean the ceiling without a little help. Thankfully, a little bleach water and a Mr. Clean eraser had it cleaned up in no time.