mirielle's world

Mirielle has turned into an island girl since we've moved here.  

The mosquitoes especially love me.  I have more bites then the whole family combined. They itch and itch like crazy!  Sometimes it is hard to go to sleep because I can't stop scratching them. 

There are lots of fun things to explore.  I found a great place to hide from my brother in this big basket that is on our porch.

The guest house where we are staying has lots of fun things to do.  This is the perfect tree to practice surfing on.  I love the rope swing and the hammock too.

It is crazy hot here but we find ways to stay cool.  There is always a fan blowing somewhere.  Every once in a while the power gets turned off and then it gets really hot! 

This weekend we got to go to the beach.  It was a fun way to forget the heat.  I learned how to boogie board while we were at the beach.  I could stay in the water all day!

Today I'm going down to the hangar to help my dad wash the plane.  It is one way I can get out of some school work with my mom.

I found this can of squid at the grocery store here.  There are lots of weird things that you can find at the store here.  Big whole fish with their heads still on, pigs feet, and lots of other things that you don't see at home.  

One of my favorite things I've done since we've been in the Philippines was going to a mall where they sold all kinds of pearls.  I shopped and shopped and finally picked these out as my favorite.  

And now that I've been getting some sun on my face, I even look like I have a few freckles.  My mom thinks they are super cute.

kellan's world

Kellan is loving all of the animals and insects here in the Philippines.  When it rains there are toads everywhere at night.  He's caught a few toads that have managed to sneak into the house.

This is a budiki.

They crawl all over the walls here inside and outside of the house.  I've only caught three of these because they are super fast!

Getting around here can be very different.  If you don't have a car you can hire a trike and ride for about 25 cents to get across town.  

The drivers sometimes name their trikes crazy things and paint them up to look fancy.  

Another way to get around is by jeepney.  This jeepney was headed up into the mountains so it was full of people and stuff.  Most of them aren't this full, but they can get pretty crowded!  

This was one night when we went out to dinner with 2 other families.  One of the families had a car so all of the kids piled in the back seat.  We don't have to worry about sitting in car seats here!  

Pretty soon we will get to drive this truck for the rest of the time we are here in the Philippines.  It is big and can even go almost all the way under the water.  It is super tough and you can drive it into the mountains and go off-roading with it!

Today I went to the hangar to watch my dad work on the airplane.   We helped him push it out of the hangar so he could wash it.

Last weekend we got to go to the beach.  It is hot here and the beach is a fun way to cool off.  I learned how to catch a wave on a boogie board.

Sometimes we can find crazy stuff at the grocery store.  Some of the stuff here is the same as at home.  They have root beer, rice, spaghetti, oreos and chips that we can get in the United States.  We saw this can of squid and thought it was pretty gross!  

first flight

sticky sweaty mess

This is a test.  If you answer the questions correctly consider yourself a genius.

Jason is sweaty because he:
a) was in a 1 hour wrestling match with an elephant
b) walked from Phoenix to the Mexican border in June
c) rearranged a few items in our suitcases, weighed them on a scale and loaded them into a van. In Manila.

Jen's shirt is full of sweat because she:
a) worked out in the yard pulling weeds all afternoon
b) sat in the sauna at the gym for the health of her complexion
c) took a shower, put her hair in a ponytail, put on her makeup, and made herself an iced coffee.

The heat and the humidity is one of the hardest things to deal with here.  Jason looks pretty close to the pictures above when he comes home from baking in the hangar all day.  Good thing this guy knows to stay hydrated.

It's hard to crawl into bed at night into limp damp sheets.  It's hard to be close to the kids because they feel so sticky.  They stick to my sticky self when they try to cuddle up.  I can hardly put my hair into a pony tail because my hair sticks to my back and my arms when I try to pull it up and then sticks to my hands and fingers when I try to wrap it into the rubber band.  I feel like I can hardly move because I stick to myself just moving around the house.

We're starting to figure out key strategic times to run the air con unit in our apartment.  I need it when I get out of the shower and try and get ready in the morning.  I can't handle feeling sticky 35 seconds after I dry off.  Jason needs it when he gets home from work.  He needs a little cool down time after sweating it out all day, which works great for me to have it going while I'm fixing dinner too.  Thankfully, it has been cool enough to leave the windows open and the fans blowing during the night.  Electricity is almost 4 times what it costs in the States though so we try to be mindful of how much we use.  Ugh!  I think I might try to get a job at one of the local nice hotels at the air conditioned front desk and just keep the kids hidden under the counter!

It's quite the adjustment especially considering the high was in the 50s last week in Spokane.  Good thing we're so tough!  HA!

are you adjusting?

Are you adjusting?  That's what Jason asked me last night before we went to bed.  He's already been on 2 flights and is now working regular hours at the hangar.  He's mostly switched over to the life he'll be living while we're here. At least that's what it seems like from my point of view (I know I can't speak on his behalf.)

I however, feel like I'm in a holding pattern.  I know, it's beginning to be a theme, right? The waiting.
Right now I feel like I'm pretending living here in the Philippines.  I haven't started school with the kids yet.  We aren't in a house, we're just surviving out of a couple of suitcases at the guest house.  I haven't had to be responsible for anything with the flight program yet.  The Daltons (I figure I might as well name them instead of calling them the other pilot family) have been feeding us half the time which has been a huge blessing to me to not have to figure out what we are going to eat every meal of the day since I'm still trying to figure out what I can buy at the stores (make sure and note that it is plural since you can't find everything at one store) and what I can make with what I can find.  I'm not out and about much unless I'm with someone else.  It's like life here hasn't really started yet.  Half started.  False started.

While I'm grateful for the time I have to ease into life here today was one of those days where I just felt uncomfortable being the main character in my own life.  The mom in command. Some days I wish I could just wake up and go to work and have someone tell me what to do so I didn't have to try and figure out what to do with my day and the kids' day.  I'm so bad at making decisions.  The disability of a perfectionist.  I wake up and don't know where to go with my day or where to try and take it or what to accomplish.

Read my Bible - check.
Take a shower and put my hair in an ugly ponytail - check.
Check facebook - check.
Do the dishes - check.
Put off exercising because I don't want to do a workout video in front of the kids and it's too hot anyway - check.
Rip the kids off of their electronic devices - check.
Read a book cause I'm not sure what else to do - check.
Try and figure out one of the reading programs I brought for the kids until I feel overwhelmed and frustrated and completely clueless - check.
Feed everyone lunch- check.
Do dishes again - check.
Kick the kids outside - check.
Wipe my sweaty face - check.

And it's only 1:00 in the afternoon.

I wonder what it is supposed to look like.  My day.  These long, undefined, unscripted days. I guess I'm the only one that can figure that out by the grace of God.  I need to listen.  And watch.  And be ready to participate. Some days it just feels so new that all I can do is stand and watch it go by.  I wave to it at the end of the night.  Turn off the light early and let the rest of it slip away.

Today I'm trying to figure out how to lead us into the new normal.

I started the kids with 'school' in the morning.  I'm pretty sure it was only about 2 pages each from a Costco workbook.  You would have thought I was asking them to memorize the periodic table of elements in one sitting.  Whine, cry, complain.

This afternoon when the power went out, I made them go outside.  It was SO unfair to them that I didn't have to go outside that I took my book outside and sat on a chair and read just to show them it could be done. They both just squatted on the ground next to me staring out at the grass.  You would have thought I told them they had to tight rope walk across a lake of hungry crocodiles.  Whine, cry, complain.

I think it is going to take some time for the 3 of us to figure out how this goes.

Tomorrow is a new day.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a little easier.

home sweet temporary home

Here's a quick little look at the our apartment at the NTM Guest House.  It's home sweet home until the 20th when we move into the house we'll be staying in for the rest of the year.  This starts week 6 of living out of suitcases.  Seems like longer.  

The main room is nice and bright and airy when there is sun which is fairly scarce now that we are starting rainy season.

Thankfully we have 2 separate bedrooms.