I have Been Humbled...

Last night I grabbed one of the "free" tico newspapers around here, flipped through the pages and was stunned by a photograph.

It was a picture of a little girl about the age of my little girl, sick and miserable in a petite dirt floored hut. What got me was her younger brother, maybe 5, holding a cloth to her head taking care of her. I don't know where their mother was. The desperation in his face was not a trait a 5 year old should even know how to portray.

I was emotionally humbled and glad that I couldn't read the words depicting more of their situation. The 1,000 {words} the photograph released was all I could bear.

It categorized my previous {whinny} post, irrelevant!

My friend Costa Rica has painfully schooled me again. I do have it all. Our living conditions are bearable and even if we complete our entire stay here, I will be FINE.

Last night during prayers, I scratched off my once important desire for a bigger place, and replaced it with a simple plea for these 2 children battling the world.

I wonder what God thinks when he hears our prayers sometimes.

Last Sunday...

was a memorable day for our family. Our oldest received the priesthood. {Love the "corny" pose he did for me!}
Boy 12 years have flown by {even though at times, the minutes seemed to take hours}. I have been so impressed with this child of mine. He has many leadership qualities already built in to who he is. It has been difficult yet exciting to watch him become more independent from Wes and I.

Here is a shot of Wes, Troy and Dallin. {Hey Dallin, what's going on with your shirt buddy? }




We grabbed a quick photo of all of us after church.


Here is really how the photo went.
I had to post this. We all have these, right? Paige is having a little temper tantrum, Wes is saying something to the effect of, "you better smile right now missy!" {yeah, that always works!} and Landon is planning his escape. But we are a FAMILY and this is the best we can do sometimes.

I need to apologize here for my lack of substantial posts lately. I can blame it on the Internet being out for a week, my new (part time job) or the funk I've been in. I haven't decided yet. I'll let you know.

Last Sunday we also had our primary program. For those of you who don't know it's when the young kids age 3-11 speak and sing during our main meeting and let the congregation know what they've been learning all year.
{Here is our little CREW, aren't they just the cutest?}
I mentioned earlier that I was the music leader. Let's talk about that a little. Me, the one who just learned {sorta} how to lead music by opening the back of the hymnal and trying to follow the tutorial. Me, the one who doesn't really know ANY Spanish. Me, the one who just came in to the primary presidency and hasn't been around as the kids have been learning the songs.

Well I had two other options, 1 to play the piano {peter peter pumpkin eater is all I know} or 2, to help the children read their parts, in Spanish.

So that is how I became the music leader. Everything went off without a hitch, pretty much.

Paige decided to act like she had stage fright when it was her turn to speak and boy did she ham it up! She batted her eyes nervously, looked around like she was scared, moved the microphone away from her and got tears to well up in her eyes. It was a show stopper folks. She was amazing. It surely was an award winning performance. She stayed up there enjoying her time in the spotlight for about 3 {very long} minutes, before I had to go up and relieve the situation. {So much fun for me}


Here is a pic I took facing the back of our {vomit comet} bus. We still had a few more patrons to fit in, usually we have standing room only by the time we pull up to our beautiful chapel.

I do love you BUS, even though I tease you often. I promise to be a better friend from now on.

Did You See...

the primary choir sing "We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet"? Wasn't it angelic?

Elder Bednar drove it home with his comments on prayer. So uplifting.

Can't wait to hear what is in store for us today.

Does anyones house look as thrashed as mine?

Hymns here in Costa Rica...

don't have the same, well, how do I say this? They sound horrible! There is no other way to say it. I'm not sure exactly why. Maybe the translation of the song has something to do with it. My sweetheart thinks it's because pianos are non existent in the homes here. Bless their hearts, these sweet people try so hard to sing. In fact our little branch of 35 can out sing the entire Woodcrest ward any Sunday. That is, if you are grading the (noise) volume of the hymn not the quality. It can be quite uncomfortable to sit through sacrament meeting depending upon who we sit in front of. (Bless their hearts, again)

However there are two songs that they sing impeccably well and with such vigor and truth.

The first, "I am A Child of God". When we sing this song, the previously screeching voices now stay with the intended notes. It is just beautiful.

Last Sunday we were practicing for the up coming primary program and the kids sang, "We Thank The Oh God for a Prophet" and I will admit, here and now but never again, I got a little emotional.

This little group of 11 kids (but with 8 actually singing) can compete with the Woodcrest and Orangecrest Wards combined. They really pay attention to the words and are thankful for the blessing of having a prophet here to guide us. These little ones sing that song like it's their high school's fight song, sung before a rival football game!

It gives me chills.

The gospel might be new here, but they get it. They are thankful for the blessing of having a prophet, and they know they are a child of God.

So tomorrow and Sunday, and anytime I hear either of these songs, I will sing a little louder and prouder because I Am a Child of God and Thankful for a Prophet.

Conference is Finally Here...

I love conference!! I love cuddling with my loved ones as the words from the apostles and our prophet drench me with wisdom . The trick is getting the wisdom to absorb! (I also giggle when I think of not having to travel in the vomit comet to church) What a glorious day!

For my non-LDS friends: twice a year we have a world wide conference where we hear addresses from our leaders that are broadcast all over the world. Most cable and satellite networks pick up the channel so many families choose to stay home and watch on t.v.

We have the tradition of staying in our p.j.'s for the morning meetings. I make a HUGE breakfast to emulate the spiritual feast we are about to receive. I don't know if the kids understand the correlation, but they sure look forward to conference weekend. In fact if you are walking by our home, chances are you will hear, "Yippe!", and "Allright!" being sung from our rooftops! We love conference weekend!

Here is a the conference packet for kids that gets passed around this time of year. My sister-in-law Jenny sent it to me. Enjoy!

Oh, and home school ended today, with every one's "semi" neat papers on my (kitchen counter) desk by noon! Wow!!! This is why I'm on a high today!!! Again please disregard the post written in desperation a few days ago. :) Someone must have hijacked my computer and wrote those things!

Women Unite...

I just finished re-watching the Women's General Conference Addresses. I just have to say Elder Uchtdorf “ROCKS”! That was meant in the most spiritual and reverent way possible. Ladies, if you missed his talk Saturday evening you really did miss out.
You can go here to get it.

For those of you who aren't LDS, we have a conference once a year, usually the last Saturday in September, just to spiritually lift the women of the world.


Of course Sis. Beck and her counselors gave inspiring addresses also. Don't skip theirs on your way to President Uchtdorf's.

So here goes. He mentioned how we women tend to create wonderful things yet we apologize for them. I.E., dinners that aren't perfect, children that aren't perfect, invitations for Relief Society events that weren't perfect. He mentioned that sometimes "undervaluing our abilities we focus on what is lacking rather than on what we have accomplished." Sometimes these traits can lead to depression and exhaustion.

He also mentioned that one of Heavenly Father's greatest joys can be found in creating and compassion. We should enjoy creating and not just "recreating" but growing gardens, creating meals, creating laughter. Anything that we make from an idea and bring it to life is good.

O.K. that is my teaser. Check it out if you haven't already. Your day will go better with this knowledge under your belt. (Maybe I should have re-watched this before home school yesterday.)


ENJOY!!
O.K. one more quote,
"In the end, the number of prayers we say may contribute to our happiness, but the number of prayers we answer may be of even greater importance!"

Actividad Primaria (Primary Activity)

Last Saturday was my first Primary Activity (as the lame, non bi-lingual 1st counselor). This is the poster I made to display in the hallway at church. The afternoon was planned around ¨Service¨to Heavenly Father, family and community. I´ll just say it was quite different than the huge productions that we feel obligated to do in the states. Usually with 80 plus kids in attendance. I´d say most of the stress comes from entertaining so many children. Here we have about 15 active kids in our branch. When you take out my 5 and the president´s 3, that leaves only seven. We make up half the kids.

It was a pleasure having such an intimate group. Two of us could easily handle the little circus. We washed windows and cleaned the white boards. (Service to Heavenly Father) Then we played pictionary with phrases revolving around serving others (Service to neighbors). After that the kids colored books with service coupons (Service to family). I made these hoping they would take some ¨lame¨points away. The finale, the kids got to coat with colored sugar and paint HEART shaped cookies. That was a hit of course. Something you wouldn´t attempt if you had a 200 kids to 10 teacher ratio like many activities. It went so well and was so easy.

Until, the RAIN started. It´s difficult to describe the rain here. I´ll do my best.

It´s beautiful outside. Cotton white clouds, clean blue sky, warm and hot. You´re busy inside and a before you know it, CRACK, thunder SNAPS so loud the entire house RATTLES and you wonder if you just experienced an earthquake. The clouds are so close to the ground here that the loud VOICE of these CRASHING hot and cold clouds has nowhere to go but to our little town. Rain doesn´t start slowly, warning you to get prepared. NO. It comes down in BUCKETS. If you are caught outside without the necessary umbrella, OH WELL. I have a few pictures here but it can´t possibly do justice to the terror that enters my heart when the first BANG cracks over my head. It is quite impressive and I LOVE it. It is a reminder that I´m not as in charge of things as I think I am. That is good for me.

So as soon as our activity ended and I breathed that sigh of ¨whew, I made it¨, the rain and thunder arrived. I told the kids they could go out under the patio cover. I should have known they would all end up soaked. But they had fun. They were sliding all over the place. I think our next science lesson will be about why water molecules and tile mixed together become such a slick substance. When I asked the kids what their favorite part of the "actividad" was, they all answered, ¨sliding in the rain¨.
Dallin is actually sliding with rapid speed into poll on the left.

Troy and Dallin both showing off their different styles of "cool" in the pouring rain.
I took this of Paige and Aiden, sitting on my "nice" couch cushions on the muddy front porch in a storm. This was taken moments before their demise! We will miss them around here.


A funny story for my girlfriends
UPDATE: I had to write this post last night at an internet cafe. I was done before my honey so I decided to walk home. (I love walking) Anyway I had only been walking a few minutes when the "buckets of rain" started. I started speeding up my pace but being careful not to slip, see above paragraph. Suddenly I became aware that I was wearing a white shirt and missing an important part of the female clothing attire. Lovely!!! I had a white skirt on also. Boy did I look lovely by the time I got home. In fact after I made it past our guards (with my arms held in the most puiculiar position) I realized our front gate was locked. I couldn't get the kids to hear me because of the loud thunder so I had to scale the fortress in front of our house in this soaked condition. It was just lovely. I thought it was funny considering my above comments about the rain here. I guess I need to be more prepared. :)

This goes down as one of my top 10 most embarrasing moments. Right next to Dallin using my sweat pants to hold onto as he fell learning to inline skate. I just happened to be standing on a very busy street in Riverside talking to my girlfriend's husband. Yeah, that was fun too.

Look What I Made...

This is a button I made to live on my sidebar. When you click on it, it takes you to www.mormon.org. Isn't that cool? If you want it to live on your sidebar too, email me and I'll send it to you.
photomom5@gmail.com
Or you can cilck on it, then right click on the larger image to save to your computer.

Here are the directions to add a button to your blogger blog.

1. click on "layout"
2. click on tab "page elements"
3. click on "add a gadget"
4. scroll down to picture and click
5. I don't add anything to tittle or caption because the picture says it all.
6. under link make sure it reads, http://www.mormon.org
7. now select Image, "choose file"
8. now find it on your computer and select.
9. click the orange save button
10. don't forget to drag the picture button in the order you want it to appear on your sidebar.
11. go to your blog and test it out, pretty cool!!!

My First Sunday with a Purpose...

Last Sunday went well. I had mention earlier that I had just received a new calling {kind of like a job without pay} at church. How important it is to be needed at church. Without feeling that you are needed it is pretty difficult to go every single week, especially when you can't tell what's being said.

Last week I survived being in Primary without our sweet president there. To deal with the language barrier I had a primary teacher from the states translate for me. Thank goodness for Bro Wilcox. I did nursery which is only the second hour of church and then did singing time. Here my reading and acting skills came in handy.

We played a game that my kids have played a million times in the states. You have a child leave the room and then pick another child to hide the item. When the first child comes in the kids will sing the song they just learned louder and louder as the 2nd child gets closer to the hidden item. The kids love it! My kids commented on how fun primary was because we played this game. Interesting because they wouldn't have even mentioned the game if in the states. The best thing about this adventure of ours is the gratitude our little guys have for the life they just expected in the U.S.


Here is a picture of our nursery room. It's 12x12 feet and full of noise carrying tile. The kids have 2 toy options, the large building blocks and the foam puzzle pieces that I threw out when nursery leader in the states. I still hate those things. I'm slowly planning their demise as we speak. As you know the building doesn't have air conditioning, but we do have this fancy dancy fan that will circulate the hot air.



Here is a few of my nursery kids playing in the colored salt. They play with it like sand. Since we have tile I figured even if it got out of the bucket, it would be easy to clean up. Sure enough, I was correct, it was easy to clean up.

This is my primary notebook. I have to say that even though I'm easy going about things, this notebook drives me crazy. Maybe I do have a bit of OCD in me. I just want to take it home and doll it up. In fact, throwing it out seems like the best way to fix it. I have a nice shinny white one waiting in the bookshelf just asking to be brought out. So here is the battle going on in my head. "Shawna, temperal things don't matter here. Just leave the notebook as it is. You don't need a crisp new one to do a good job. Hasn't Costa Rica taught you anything?" Then I say, "Oh, but it is important to be organized and neat, and that cover just doesn't help". So you have an assignment. What do you think? Should I leave it alone or what?????

All in all, I know working in the primary is going to be the best thing for me. I've already done more studying with the Spanish language this week than I have done all month. I have to, I can't hide. And is there a more perfect place to practice than with kids????? All they really care about is that you love them!

Reverence Begins with Me...

Last Sunday as I was sitting listening to the sacrament speaker and not understanding a word I started to daydream. {Don't tell my little ones} As I was staring up into space I saw the weirdest thing, BRIGHT red, blue and green feathers were floating high in the air. Instantly I recognized them, I brought them to entertain my daughter. They are her fairies. I look over with horror on my face to see Dallin picking the feathers apart and blowing them up to catch the current of the "6" fans circulating the air. {Remember we don't have air conditioning} My jaw dropped! Paige, yes I could see her doing this. Troy, maybe, but Dallin? What is going on here!?!?!? I prayed that the distracting feathers would descend quickly. But no, as soon as they got to head height, the fans would pull them up again. I'm sitting there asking myself, "Why did I insist that we sit in front?" and "Please don't let anyone else notice the plethora of feathers making the rounds!" Oh the joys of motherhood. Let's just say I didn't daydream the rest of the meeting.

The Blessings of Water...

My dad and his wife Rosie flew in to be here for Paige's baptism. We were all ready to go. We got lucky and found a baptism dress for Paige {the day before}, had the programs printed in "Ingles" and Spanish and had all the towels and white underwear we needed. Sunday we headed out to church {they do baptisms here right after church}. Then as we were sitting in church I had this disappointing feeling. It is appropriate here to baptize in the ocean, I had brought this idea up to Paige and she was interested, however things got hectic and I didn't take it any further. So here I am, sitting in church thinking "Shawna, here you've had the chance to have a child baptized in the oceans of Costa Rica and you've missed it!" Long story, short {something I'm not used to doing} we couldn't baptize her. In case you ever need to know this, they don't have baptismal clothing at the church here in Orotina, Costa Rica. Just a tidbit of info for you. :) When Wes told me the news I was just beaming! I knew what we were going to do.
So Wes baptized his only daughter Paige in the ocean of the country that he served his mission in. It was short, sweet and a very spiritual memory for our family. Paige was a little nervous about the waves but as soon as her dad picked her up, she was fine. When Paige gets asked in primary, "Do you remember your baptism day?" She will just smile because there is no way she will forget this!
Little did we know what the water would do to us in less than 24 hours. Oh the contrasts here.

Does it feel like we are on vacation?

"Does it feel like we are on vacation?" I get asked this question often. I would say yes it does but more of the "camping vacation" where the mother does more work on the trip than she even does at home. :) Yeah, that's how I'd describe it. Definitely not the 5 star hotel type vacation. But I like camping! I really like camping.


Here is a shot I took of the view on our way to church. We are gone for about 6 hours on Sunday, an hour drive there and an hour back. Then we have the three hour block of church. We stay an hour after church because the sweet family that we ride with teaches piano. This is so that when they leave someone will be able to play the hymns during sacrament.
The first Sunday was fun even though I didn't understand a word. Umm, actually I understood 3. The second Sunday I was bored out of my mind but had to fake it for the sake of the kids. This last Sunday, the third, was so frustrating because I really wanted to be able to communicate with these sweet sisters (all 6 of them) at church who have actually started to smile ever so carefully at me.
I would love to have an Elder Groburg experience. You remember, he stayed on the beach for 3 days studying, until he understood the language. Then got up and spoke it fluently. Yeah, one of those. My companion {my sweetheart} could bring me food and water and not disturb me. I'd of course be in my swimsuit so that I could have a great tan when done, you know, multi-tasking. The kids would be taken care of by someone else. Think how much I'd get done.

Since that is not an option for me here, I need to start studying, the old fashioned way. So if you don't mind I will occasionally mention some things that I've learned. Who am I kidding, I'm still trying to get out of things by being very vague in my course of action. O.K. I need to be held accountable. This is my goal. Monday-Friday I will post something that I've learned in my new country's language. How's that? Speciffic enough? (Except for power outages, insect invasions, an injured child or loss of Internet) There it is. I'm warning you, I took French in High School, and didn't do to well at that. Tomorrow will be my first lesson. Ciao!

This is a picture of Troy and Dallin with our great missionaries in front of our new gorgeous building. A little over a year ago they were still meeting in a house. (O.K. I've got to mention that this was taken 5 hours after we left for church, they are missing their ties, their shirts are untucked, they look pretty disheveled, but they are smiling.