Salad

Mike and I were in the bathroom yesterday morning, chatting before we headed out to greet the kids, when Dallin comes walking in: "Mom, Dad, did you guys have salad for dinner last night?" Dallin had been at a friends house the previous evening and had dinner there so he didn't eat dinner with us. "Yes, we did have salad for dinner." "Was there any left?" "Yes, there is some left in the fridge and you can even eat it for breakfast if you want." Dallin went skipping and jumping out of our bedroom going "YES, YES, I CAN EAT SALAD FOR BREAKFAST!! WOO-HOO!!" Now I ask you...where did this child come from?? What 9 year old boy wants salad for breakfast? Mike and I just looked at each other and laughed.

Eden...again!

This girl just cracks me up!! Today for homework she had a writing assignment, so she sat down at the table to begin. After about 10 minutes I went to check out her progress. The assignment said, "Draw yourself as a reader", "Answer the following questions: What kind of reader are you, why do you like to read, and where do you like to read?" So I'm looking first at her picture, "draw yourself as a reader", and I was a little confused, it didn't make any sense. Eden noticing my perplexed expression, looked at the picture she had drawn and read the directions again. She starts laughing, and says "Oops, I did this wrong" and while laughing pulls out her eraser and says "I thought it said 'draw yourself as a reindeer'". We both totally lost it!! That would explain why the picture of herself had antlers coming out of her head!

Home Teachers

Yes, here in Jakarta, we have very regular, excellent home teachers. Brother Jed Beckstead and his son, Hayden, came to visit us this last week, and while they were here, gave the kids rides on their motor scooters...SUPER FUN!! Even Mike took one for a spin up and down the street.

Eden says the darndest things!

We are sitting around the dinner table one evening and Dallin is telling everyone about an audio book he's been listening to about the Titanic. Eden was finding it very interesting and said, "It would be cool if you could actually see the real titanic that sunk under the water." Dallin says, "You can Eden, you can scuba dive down there." Eden with a very amazed look on her face says, "Whoa! I would need a really big straw!" The dinner table erupted in laughter. We love you Eden, thanks for all your quotables!

First day of School!

Another year begins...
Dallin started 4th grade...Holy Crow! He was a little bummed about beginning school again. He was excited to see his friends but he hates school work. His teacher is pretty darn young and she's "cool". She lets all of her students call her Brooke...oh ya, that's cool!


I took that picture of Dallin in his classroom, and he was like "Mom, get out of here, you're embarressing me!" He didn't actually say that but it's written in his face as you can see. "Mooooom!"

Eden, on the other hand, was thrilled about starting school again. She was literally counting down the days. She and Marion have been very excited about their new matching clothes too! They like letting people think they are twins :) Eden's teacher is Miss Laura Lamb...how sweet is that!


Marion doesn't actually start Kindergarden until Friday so I'll have to post about her actual first day later. We did meet with her teacher for an orientation on the first day, her name is Ms. Corly and seems very nice as well. Marion was acting very shy when we met her :) But she is anxious to begin because now she is one of the big kids and gets to see her siblings at lunch and ride the same bus as them on the way home...oooh!

Our Reverent Prayers

Usually, family prayer feels a lot like this:

"Kids, come on, it's time for prayer...get in here...guys get your tushes in here...it's time for prayer...now, I mean it! Alright, everyone on your knees, fold your arms, bow your heads, and close your eyes or so help me...we are going to feel the spirit darn it!!"

Lately things have gone a little differently:

Two night ago, one of the kids was saying the prayer, and Emmalyn tooted (hence the nickname she has had since birth, Tootie), we fell apart halfway through the prayer in complete hysterics!

Then just tonight, Marion was saying the prayer. She has a tendency to speak very quickly and sort of slur her words together when she's praying so it can often be difficult to understand her sometimes but there was one sentence that we all heard very clearly: "please help us all so we can learn spanish" Again, complete hysterics! We were completely out of control, even Marion was laughing though she had no idea what was so funny. Then when we explained that we're learning Indonesian not spanish it was a revelation!

Failed Miserably

So the kids have accused me on a number of occassions of eating vast amounts of junk food (sweets to be particular) in the evenings when Mike is out of town. There is some truth in this statement. Therefore, I decided that while Mike was away this time, I would refrain from such weakness and not eat anything deliciously sweet and dilectable after dinner. Mike left this morning. I didn't make it one evening. Loser!! I ate two pieces of Jello Toast on homemade bread. Delicious (thanks Ashley!) Jello toast: buttered bread with a thick layer of powdered jello on top of the butter, then baked in the oven just until jello is melted and a little crispy ...Yum! Great for those Family Home Evening's when you forgot to make a treat.

Bali Vacation

What an excellent, fun, yet relaxing vacation! Just what the doctor ordered. We stayed at the Club Med Resort which I thought was terrific! Unfortunately, since we always have to get 2 rooms, it was way too expensive for us to ever do again. We spent a lot of time swimming at the big pool which was one of the highlights for the kids (which included getting thrown off moms shoulders) along with our day down at the beach building sand castles. It rained for nearly 2 days straight while we were there, during that time we participated in some of the indoor hotel activities but mostly we stayed in our room, Mike and I sitting on the veranda reading, while the kids played in the room and watched Nick Jr. (yes, we traveled all that way and spent a fortune so that our kids could watch Nick Jr...grrr!)

The beaches in Bali were better than any beaches I've been to in the states (aside from Kawaii) but I hear they are nothing compared to Australian beaches.

Dallin spent 2 days at the kids club. He found a bunch of boys to play with and they had really fun counselors that kept them busy doing all kinds of activities and sports. It was like a summer camp. One day they built boats out of plastic bottles and balloons then raced them across the swimming pool.

Mike and I spent one morning playing tennis, golf, and a little pool. Then together as a family we did a little trapeze, kayaking, boche ball, and circus juggling. There were these really cool lizards in the pond that we kept watching, one of them was at least 4 feet long!

My only complaints were: Everytime I ordered beef it turned out quite grissly, and the fruity drinks were lame! The kids loved the food! They spent 5 days eating french fries, pizza, breads, and chicken fingers. Not to mention the 2 ice cream cones each every night for dessert! Heavenly!

We went for a walk the first day that we were there and found a bunch of animal statues along the way that we thought were really fun. When we saw the first one, a frog, we thought "hey, let's take pictures with as many different ones as we can" after taking the first picture, Dallin says, "guys, I think they're trash cans". So then we had to take pictures of them because it was so hilarious! There was a squirrel one that was very anatomically correct (picture not included for that reason).

Enjoy the pictures!

The Gong Factory in Bogor

This past Monday we took a family trip about 1 1/2 hours out of Jakarta to a city called Bogor. Hidden within the hundreds of tiny street of this city there is the Sukarna Gong Factory. A small Indonesian cultural treasure. Though the word 'factory' doesn't quite suite. American safety people would have a field day with this place! There were probably 8 workers in this small sooty room. It was completely dark except for the light coming in from the one doorway we entered through and the fire burning in the middle of the room. There are tools and bags and random things just lying everywhere in this room. There is no real floor that can be seen just dirt and layers upon layers of soot and ash. Most of the gong makers in this room wear flip flops or are barefoot. What happens is they take a piece of brass and throw it into the fire. A man with enourmous tongs sits by the fire and when the brass has reached a very high temperature and is burning red hot he takes it out with the tongs and the 4 other men gather in a circle with huge hammers and bang the metal into shape a little at a time while the metal is red hot. As soon as the redness fades to grayish-black, the tong man puts it back into the fire and the process continues. Not much visibly happens with the metal each time it comes out but after about 1 hour, you start to see the metal flatten and get wider forming th gong. The nice men let us all hold the heavy hammers, they even let Mike hit the brass a couple times when it was red hot. Be sure to watch the video at the end...you can hear the interesting sounds of the metal as each man hits it. And they're rhythm was an incredible sight!

This was a very small room in the back where they do the finishing work on the gamelan instruments. All various kinds of gongs. One man below is carefully chiseling the intricate design work into the wood and another man is polishing the gong on a very fast spinning wheel. Then of course there is Mike with the ginormous gong we bought, and a video of the men hammering the red hot brass into shape.