Down, but not out!

To all my faithful blog followers (if there are any of you left) I wanted to let you know that I have started a new blog meandmy4kids.blogspot.com

My life has changed dramatically in the past 6 months and so I felt my blog should too.

The kids and I are living back in the states and are adjusting to life in my home state of Utah.

We all enjoy being around family and that has helped to make the transition to single motherhood bearable.

Thank you again to all who have had us in your thoughts and prayers these past few months. We could not have made it without you.

Please take a look at the new blog site and add yourself as a follower!

Kelly

First Car Wreck We Didn't Cause

I've been in several car accidents but this was the first one with one of my children behind the wheel!
It happened several months ago while driving home from Seminary. It was the age old situation where you get stopped behind someone who is turning, they start to roll forward, you look over your shoulder to make sure you are clear, then slam on your gas to "shoot the gap" BEFORE checking to make sure the car in front of you has actually turned. Rookie mistake.

Funny thing was after he hit the car he slammed on the brakes as I was simultaneously yelling at him and so he assumed he had done the wrong thing and proceeded to let off the brake and step on the gas. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what the heck he was doing. I followed that up with more yelling "STOP, Stop what the heck are you doing!". After that he wasn't confused anymore.

The rest of the story is very long and drawn out as is any vehicle confrontation in India. There must be hours of sitting around talking and analyzing the situation before you can even think about a resolution. The idea being, to convince anyone who will listen its the other guys fault and to see how much money you can squeeze from them in the process. It didn't help that technically Big T doesn't have a license and shouldn't have been driving in the first place. Suffice it to say after an hour and a half of sitting around trying to resolve the situation Richard showed up and me and the kids left. A half hour later it was resolved. What can I say, Richard is a man who can get things done. Didn't hurt that he nearly ran the man over when he wouldn't get out from in front of the vehicle that was taking me and the kids home.... again, LONG story!

Initially we offered the other driver 2500 rs (approx. $55USD) and he scoffed at me. When we paid to have it fixed a few days later it only cost us 16000 rs (approx $30USD) to fix the bumper good as new. Repair work is extremely inexpensive here. He should have taken our offer instead of holding out for more. Come to find out later it was a government vehicle that he could have gotten fixed free of charge and simply pocketed whatever money he got from us. He thought since we were white foreigners he would go-for-the-gold but because he was so greedy he ended up with nothing!

(Bumper of the car we hit)

Holy-Giant-Balls-of-Hail-Batman!

Last week we were shocked out of our lackadaisical Sunday afternoon by a sudden and freak hail storm. It didn't last more than a few minutes but the size of the hail was shocking. Richard reconsidered going outside when his hand was immediately hit by a huge ice ball! We got the pictures of the hail in Richard's hands after it stopped.
We all stood at the windows in awe of this awesome display and amazing feat of Mother Nature...after all, we've had recent temperatures as high as 113 degrees. Guess that's why they call it Climate Change!

Because there is a serious cockroach issue in India almost everywhere you go you will notice little white moth balls in all the drains of bathrooms, sinks and showers. After taking the these pictures Little T says "They look like the toilet thingees Mom". We all had a good chuckle about that!

Childhood Memories

At first glance this photo may appear to be a simple portrait of a cute, little 6 year old boy (MY cute, little 6 year old boy) but take a closer look....at the socks?

This is how my cute, little 6 year old son left the house this morning for school. Bring back any childhood memories of your own? Leg warmers, tube socks, tucking the bottom of your shirt through the neck hole to make a cute little mid-drift.... you know you did it!

Where's your retainer?

We were all waiting for Mo again this morning for early morning family scripture study. When she finally wandered in looking dazed and confused I noticed she didn't have her retainer in her mouth. Just as I was about to ask her where it was she turned her head and there it was, dangling precariously from a tuft of hair behind her right ear.

I've woken many a morning to find gum, jolly ranchers, chocolate, suckers.... stuck in my children's hair, but this one takes the cake. It was so funny it took everything I had not to fall to the floor in fits of laughter. Instead, I told her to stand still and not move while I rushed to the closet to get the camera. By the time I returned I was laughing uncontrollably and she was already in the bathroom trying to figure out what was so funny. I quickly snapped this photo, I couldn't manage a second one as it only took her a few seconds to find the source of my amusement and promptly removed it!

Afterwards I couldn't stop myself from randomly giggling all through scripture study. I’m finding it hard to not laugh out loud as I’m writing this now. :)

Girls just wanna have Fun...

My trip to Bali was brought about by my good friend, neighbor and extreme X-Box player (not really she's just pretending) Julie.

Julie had a week of time share available for use and since our hubbies had just recently come back from their excursion to Mt. Everest, she decided we should do a 'girls' vacation and luckily I got to be one of the 'girls'. Yeah for me!

Anyway, all of the above pictures we took in the Singapore airport. What an amazing place. It was more like a mall than an airport. Complete with gyms, salons (where we got foot massages), restaurants, free internet access, playgrounds, X-Box play stations where you could play free video games, and as you see in the pictures a beautifally landscaped pond full of HUGE coy. At first I thought the plants were all fake but...NOPE! What a great beginning to a lovely vacation!

One of the fist things we did after we arrived and hit the beach was get some Henna tatoos. If you can't tell, I love temporary tatoos. So much fun. By the time we left Bali we each had 3. These pics were taken in UBUD at a place call Monkey Forest. Obviously named for the MASS amounts of moneys. As you can see they were pretty friendly, one even took a little swing from my purse and another one crawled up my arm onto my hat and then up a tree. SO cool! I love monkeys!

Our other favorite pass-time was eating! On our way back to the hotel from Ubud we stopped and bought a half dozen donuts each and managed to eat 2 donutes each before we made across the street to the McDonalds drive thru! That double cheesburger tasted AMAZING! Don't look at me like that...I haven't had real beef in a year!

Our excursions included: White water rafting (TR, TL), Shopping in Ubud, Monkey Forest (BR), and a three island tour on a speed raft (BL, BM & TM).

For me, the best part about the trip was the once a day full-body massages by the pool! The Traditional Balinese Massage is my new favorite!

We had a great time enjoyed a relaxing week away from the everyday hum-drum of life. We are thinking of doing it again next year! Thanks again Julie for a great time, can't wait to do it again!

I NEED muSic!

I need a favor from ALL of my loyal Readers...yes, that means all 6 of you!

I'm completely bored with all the songs in my "Running List". I run at least 3 times a week (thank you...yes, thank I know) and I am finding it very hard to stay Motivated with the same 'ol songs!

Please give me one or two suggestions of your favorite motovating songs that you exercise to. Be sure to use the Chat Wall to the right > so everyone can see your wonderful suggestions.