Republic Day Parade

Last Saturday Richard got us tickets to the Republic Day Parade. In had imagined the parade would be something similar to the old news footage of communist countries displaying their militaries prowess for all to see. It the end it was the same idea, but without the evil communist over-tones! It was amazing, I really, really enjoyed it!

We opted not to take the kids because in a city of over 18 million people they were expecting huge crowds and control over that many people can easily go awry--which at one point before the parade it did. We were already seated but Richard was still out in the crowd when he witnessed the police being over powered and bowled over by the crowd, a metal detector was knocked down in the mayhem. We felt that if anyone was going to get trampled and live, we would have the best chance.

After waiting in line a bit, having one of the most thorough body searches ever, (good thing it was a woman or I might have had to punch someone)we were corraled into our seats.


The parade began with a helicopter fly-over. As they flew over they dropped something we thought was red smoke, like the airplanes sometimes do. But as it came closer to the ground we realized they had actually dropped flower pedals. A fantastic beginning to a wonderful parade.

After the flower drop the military regiments marched past one by one, each seemed more spectacular than the previous. Their hats were what attracted me the most with their vibrant colors and design. Each branch of the military was represented. One thing that caught our eye was that they were all exactly the same height. No one stood out, they all looked completely identical.

Then came floats representing the various states of India. Some were similar to Rose bowl floats all covered in flowers and other natural material. Others depicted historical sites or battles.


Next we were completely entertained by a camel riding regiment, complete with a camel riding band!


Next came the elephants...can you imagine seeing a brigade of elephants at your next 4th of July parade? Definitely a highlight of the parade, at least for me. But I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the pooper-scoopers!

Wrapping up the parade was a troup of acrobat motorcycle riders and several fly-overs by air force jets and helicopters. It was AWESOME! Then as everyone was leaving the stands they let hundreds of orange, white and grean balloons go into the air. There were so many it started to look like the sky was full of confetti!


It was a great experience and next year we might take the kids!

Let me put your minds at ease

We have had many a concern raised about sending chocolate to us in the mail. So please, let me take this opportunity to put your minds at ease.

First, chocolate is not an illegal substance in India (although it should be the way it melts in your mouth, ever so slowly coating your tongue and throat with its intoxicating goodness....)
Sorry, I digress!

Second, the weather is actually quite cold in India right now. I am currently wearing long sleeve shirts and jackets. It is supposed to get down to 0 degrees on Friday, 0 degrees celsius that is, had ya freakin out there for a minute didn't I! So,the chances of it melting in the post right now is as likely as...umm, well um, lets just say it's not likely!

I hope that I have addressed any reservations you may have previously had about sending us chocolate.
(so get on the ball and SEND me some chocolate NOW!......please!)

For a full list of our favorites please see below! :)

*Dove Carmels
*Dove Milk Chocolate
*Dove Dark Chocolate
*Cadbury anything
*Hersheys Kisses, Reese's, minatures, snickers...its all good!

New Year Update...

Just thought I would give a quick (probably not that quick) update on the fam! So for those of you just tuning into the blog, you came at the right time! :)

FYI: I try not to use full names on the blog. I don't even know if it matters but, supposedly it is the safe way to blog, although I'm sure I have forgotten and used all of our full names at one point or another. My only solace is that the psycho serial killers looking us up on the Internet will be discouraged when they find out they have to fly to India to go serial on us. Its a plan, not a very good plan, but it's a plan.

So on with the update:

R is usually very busy arresting people. But when he's not arresting someone he's most likely doing the interview just before he arrests someone, and if he's not interviewing or arresting, then he is busily investigating someone who will eventually be arrested. Seein a pattern here...

In his arrest-free time he is the District Young Men's Leader and teaches Gospel Principles at church on Sunday's. He has also taken up running again and since we've been here (about 6 months now) he's lost a total of 30 pounds. I can officially call him a LOSER! The other day I heard him say "I don't have anything to wear, everythings to big for me now" (I think I might have just thrown up in my mouth a little). I just can't imagine the trauma you must be facing sweetie. Being too skinny for all your clothes, it must be devistating!

Me? Well, I have NOT lost 30 pounds! Jealous...who said I was jealous? I am involved in all kinds of exciting and exotic things here in India....whoa, hold on there, I think in my mind-blurring jealousy I got carried away for a minute. My life is not so exciting or exotic, but it is busy! For those of you who are thinking I lounge around the house all day just because I have a maid, REPENT I say!

As with most things in our lives; as we free up time from one item or another the void is generally filled 2-fold. I have given up cooking and cleaning but have taken on seminary, yearbook editor, Hindi classes and blogging. All of which take way more time, energy and brain power than cooking or cleaning ever did. My head hurts just thinking about it.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings you will find me at the church teaching seminary classes to the youth in our church. Most days you will find me studying for those classes, creating page layouts for the yearbook (which I foolishly volunteered to help with and am now the sole creator of) and if I've not got my nose in my lesson book or creating layouts on the computer I try to practise my Hindi. My next Hindi class starts very soon and just about all I can remember from the first class is "Namaste", Whoop-ti-do my 5 year old can say that!

Even though this is my first year with all 4 kids in school I feel busier than I ever have. Last week I even turned down a part time job working at the community liaison office. A job that I think I would have enjoyed and been good at, but nope, I'm too busy with my volunteer work to get paid!

Big T is well, mmmm...BIG! He is taller than his Dad and towers over me. He's almost 16, and besides the fact that in all his 16 years he has not figured out that his dresser drawers don't automatically shut after you open them, I would venture to say he is a very sweet and intelligent human being...I mean teenager (human-being might be going a bit too far).

He is still playing the trombone and picked up the piano last year as well. Music seems to be one of the things that comes naturally to him as opposed to...oh, I don't know, brushing his teeth!

He is always trying to lighten the mood by dancing like Will Ferrell or screaming like a girl; he can reach octaves that are unnatural!

Mo is doing piano, soccer, running every morning with her Dad, odyssey of the mind, and getting good grades while doing it.

She is maturing and looking more and more like a young women and less like the child I remember. She is truly a wonder-child. I've met very few teens as motivated as she and even less adults. I'm starting to wonder if I'm her real mother.

Mishy is growing up pretty much without permission. I've tried to halt her growth several times but she is very disobedient and uncooperative about the whole thing.

In a few short years there will be many aboy looking down the barrel of my husbands Smith & Wesson because, despite her breeding, I'm afraid she is going to be a knock-out! Why don't you just kill me now and get it over with, I have no desire to deal with all that. Hopefully by the time we get to Mish we will have perfected the boyfriend SMACK-DOWN.

Only one left. I'm officially babbling and have been for quite some time but, you've come this far...

Little T rides (his bike) with a pack of young boys, toy guns strapped to their backs, around the compound striking fear into the hearts of many! When he's not writing on the walls, making his big sister cry or breaking out car windows he is the sweetest, cutest 5-year old ever! But, despite his bad-boy reputation, he loves a good snuggle and is quite the Momma's Boy.

As you can see, there's never a dull moment...if anyone knows what a dull moment feels like, I'd really like to know........anyone?

Holy Broken Windows--Batman!

Yesterday I realized its a good thing I only have two boys.

When Taylor was about 4 years old, I was shocked when my next door neighbor came to the back door and told me that Taylor had broken out the windows of his pick-up truck. Yes, window-z! Apparently breaking the drivers side window wasn't enough so, with ski pole in hand, he proceeded around to the passenger side to finish the job.

Keep in mind he was only 4 and no one actually saw him commit the crime but the circumstantial evidence seemed overwhelming.

End of story? I thought so...until yesterday.

Yesterday, Tyson was jumping on the trampoline and pulled a rock out of his pocket and chucked it for whatever reason at my car, instantly shattering the passenger side window. Besides being absolutely furious, the thought crossed my mind; dude, are my windows old and brittle or does he just have a wicked pitching arm....mmmm baseball scholarship??

Anyway, boys obviously have a couple very strong genes that involve guns and destruction. If the guns can be used to cause the fore said destruction, all the better!

So, I'm glad I only had two because if there were anymore who knows how many car windows I'd have had to replace by now!

I'm Tired...

(Please bare with me for a moment while I share my less positive side)

I'm tired of.....

...the constant flem in the back of my throat thanks to the pollution

...having stomach "issues"
(don't you know I've had diarrhea's since Easters)

...the smell of open sewer

...darkness....my house is like a cave

...constant pounding, yelling and banging from the construction going on right outside my front door.
(not to mention my windows are boarded up and my front yard is now home to scaffolding and about 2 ft of rubble!)

...having to buy expired food at the commissary
(I'm not sure I even remember what non-stale Doritos taste like anymore!)

...not even having expired food to buy at the commissary
(I guess stale food is better than no food!)

...worker men in my house 24/7 because there is always something to be fixed, poked or prodded
(I'm not lying to you when I say I've had over 15-20 maintenance workers in and out of my house in just the last 3 days. First the water heater, then the lights, carpet problems, more lights-that still don't work, fixing curtains, fixing gate, braking gate, fixing gate again....they always come in pairs and are always very nice but, DANG--fix everything already and give my poor doorbell a break)

...the door bell that never stops ringing
(Because if its not the worker men coming to fix something, then its one of the 40 or so children that live on the compound wanting to know if they can jump on the trampoline. I'm not even sure my own children even jump on it anymore.)

...the phone that never stops ringing
(NEVER!)

...being stared at
(I realize I'm white, but maybe if you keep staring at me I might change color)

...trying to park my car anywhere but my driveway
(Because parking anywhere in town is a crazy, crazy mess. No I will not leave you my keys or the car in neutral, do you think I'm insane?)

...only one 10am showing of American movies at the local theater
(what's up with that?)

Sorry about the negativity, its just been one of those weeks. I'm already feeling guilty and will have to write a much more positive post as soon as possible as penance!

Mom please don't delete this!!!!!!!

ok, so I figured while my mom is out I'd take the chance to be sneaky (Me? Sneaky? Never!) and do a blog post since I can't have my own blog. (This is Morgann by the way.) Plus I need to take my mind off my soccer game which I have in 2 hours 25 min and 36 secondes, while Big T and LITTLE M go to a moive at the theater. ( I thought I'd emphisise the little) They don't even want to see me play soccer, but, of course,that has nothing to do with the fact that they came to just about every game last season. I would do it for them........ok mabey I would do it for them.
Onto subject 2. Dove Chocolates. My mom (and me) REALLY need some dove chocolates. =] Don't forget to send some! Feel free to send other chocolates too! (reeses would be nice too :] ) Shes probably going to put it on our Care Package thing but I thought I'd give you a heads up on the chocolates.
Well, now know why my mom NEVER blogs its because theres nothing ever to blog about. Hummm.....I think I can change that.....=]

What's this Mommy?

A couple of evenings ago we all happened to be in the kitchen together, except for little T, when he came running in pumping a small white object he had in his fist with his thumb as if it were a mechanical pencil or weapon of some kind. He was waiving it in the air curiously asking "What's this Mommy?"


At first I couldn't see what was in his hand, but upon closer inspection I realized it was a Tampax applicator. I nearly crumpled with laughter, as did R and our two teenagers. (who also had suspiciously red cheeks).

I regained my composure and as I lead him out of the kitchen and into the bathroom, where he had obviously just found this little gem, I told him 'it is a tampon sweetie'. With an acute breath of realization, he muttered a musical "Oooh".

Surprised by his quick understanding, and upon further speculation, this experience has taught me two things;

1-Little boys have a certain gene within them that surfaces at birth. It enables them to seek out and spot any and all un-suspecting objects, no matter their where-abouts, and turn them into little toy weapon's of mass destruction.


2-If you are a Mother, apparently you sign some sort of waiver upon child-birth, waiving your claim to all rights, privileges and blessings associated to and with the law of privacy.
(I think they slip it in with the paper work at the hospital)

New Year, New Look!

नया साल मुबारक हो Happy New Year!

I thought I would start out the new year with a new look for the blog. I loved the black, but this was my second choice so why not change things up a bit. It's kind of like changing the furniture around or your underwear, which I have a bad habit of doing on a monthly basis. I was refering to the furniture, not my underwear them, I change everyday! :)

On New Years Eve R called me and said "Hey sweetie, what do you think about having a New Year's Eve party tonight?" I said "Sure, why not!" Okay, so it was a momentary lapse in judgement, but once the words were out of my mouth there was no going back. So I gathered the forces (Muthu & Prabha) and we started putting together a menu and a shopping list. For those of you who have been lucky enough to have tried our famous Spicy Angel Wings, I'm sorry to have to tell you, they were fabulous as always, in spite of the fact that there is no such thing as a jalapeno in this country. We had to improvise a little but everything worked out great.

As Muthu went shopping, Prabha and I went to work getting the house ready and I also did a bit of shopping at the commissary to get items not available in the local markets.

After a long day and thanks mainly to my household staff (I just love the sound of that), we were ready by our 8pm start time, just barely.

We invited 7 families and 5 showed up, not bad for a last minute ta-do. Unfortunately, not everyone made it to midnight, but we still had a great time and we loved having such nice people in our home. It was a nice way to start out the year. It could have only been better if our families could have joined us, but then we never would have had enough Angel Wings! :)