I know we promised to start writing every day.. but it's not our fault... our stupid internet stopped working on friday. But now its sort of working enough to be able to post this.
Friday: funny, funny day. I was being receptionist again and Lauren was helping in kindergarten. We were reunited during chapel time which is where the uncontrollable laughing of the day came in. (let me preface this little story with the fact that we have been really trying to crack down on kids goofing around in chapel and all of us had been told to be setting the tone for how we are to act in chapel and not to let the kids be wiggling around and all that jazz) We have mentioned Levander many times in the blog.. you know- the sheep riding 5 year old. Well he sits in the very front row in chapel next to the first grade teacher. Me and Lo were sitting about 3 rows behind him on a bench by ourselves. We were singing along minding our own business and being overly reverent, responsible adults... then we spotted it. Levander was sitting on the first grade teachers knee--- which was bouncing... and we could see his hand waving about in the air... at first it appeared as if he was being very worshipful but once we took a closer look... he was mock sheep riding. I'm talking on hand on the belt buckle the other high in the air just as the bull riders do...and the kicker... he kept mouthing the word "YAH!!" I know you may not be able to get the full picture... but ask me when im home in december... i'll act it out for you.... or maybe i won't but you can always try. So anyways... we lost it. It was one of those silent, shaking, about to burst at any moment kind of laughing... and we kept trying to straighten out our faces but everytime our eyes would glance over the kids and see that lone hand waving in the air... it was useless. Luckily i think we got away with it because i didnt catch anyone rolling their eyes at us or anything.
Then after lunch... Lauren was on "round up" duty which means she dismisses the tables and has to watch over any kids that have to stay in for recess. I didn't really have anything else to do so I just hung out with her. Rico... another kindgergartener..who is a very naughty boy and always in the office- got lunch detention for trying to drink his milk like a dog. We had to put on our sternest faces just to get him to stop taking his shirt off while he was sitting on the bench. Right when we were feeling pretty in charge we turn our glances over his way and he is standing on the bench with his arms wrapped around a dirty steel pole... licking it. We allowed ourselves some short silent laughter and then Lauren got tough... and we distracted him with a game of twenty questions... ok so maybe we aren't as good as being stern as we would like you to think.
This is Lauren now..Courtney's on the phone with her mom (who will be here to visit us this Saturday!). So, I'm taking over. First off, I'd like to apologize for making promises we can't keep..if you recall, in the last post I promised "consistent daily blogging"...well as you can see, that is really happening. Woops. But, we really really will try to do better. I guess I'll pick up where C left off. Friday after school, Court and I decided to stay home and just chill. After dinner (a delicious soup that C and I made together..as we danced to gansta rap) we put in one of our favorite movies, Stand By Me. Midway through the movie, we decided we were so tired/bored that it was time to just go to bed..it was 7:30pm. We slept until 9 am Saturday morning. 13 and 1/2 hours!!!!!!! We both decided that probably won't need to sleep until 2009. Saturday was a b-e-a-u-tiful day. So, we hopped in the car and cruised around the reservation. We stopped at a few stores that sell local artist's work..jewelry, pottery, and sculptures. Then, we went to the Hopi Cultural Center, another place where people sell their artwork...and we're nearly pressured into buying ridiculously expensive Kachina carvings. On the way home, we stopped at a little pull off spot on the winding highway. The view there was amazing. And there's something about the air here..it just seems so fresh and deserty. After our little road trip, we met Stan, Beth, and the kids at the playground. Court and I were tricked into playing "follow the leader"..which actually means Court and Lauren attempt to squeeze into tiny baby slides, get stuck in them, and contort our bodies into very unnatural positions in order to get out. Later we went over to Stan and Beth's, had dinner, and hung out there until 11 or so. I should mention this little tidbit..Saturday night Beth told us a very frightening tale. Not long ago, a friend of her's saw a BLACK PANTHER on the reservation..like a mile from where we live! A PANTHER. So, of course, Courtney and I were freaked out by this..and we now sprint in and out of our house to our car in fear of a giant cat attacking us. In a weird way..I wish we could encounter one of these panthers...it would be excellent blog material.
Now, for the events of today. We went to church with Stan, Beth, and the kids. The church, Sunlight Mission, is quaint and beautiful. I'd get married there anyday. It overlooks beautiful mesas and mountains. And the drive there is something else! The dirt road winds and curves and has a rollercoaster effect on your stomach. After church, we had muffins and scones and minlged with people for an hour or so. Then, we took off to Winslow (remember the Eagles song.."take it easy"...well, its the same Winslow!) which is about an hour away. We ate at McDonald's and then shopped at Wal-Mart (by far the nicest Wal-Mart we've ever been to). On the way home, we stopped for gas, and went inside to get something to drink. On our way out, a scary man raised his eyebrows suggestively, smiled at Courtney, and was in hot pursuit of us. I was distracted by some trucker vests, therefore, I didn't realize what was transpiring. I kept trying to point the vests out to C, but she kept ignoring me and pushing me out the door..after we escaped back to the car, Courtney explained to me how close we were to losing our lives. So, after a long day..we made it home, where we were greeted by a wonderful message on our answering machine from our youth group..we were so sad that we missed their call. But, it was wonderful to hear from them.
We've decided to start giving "shout outs" on here to our faithful readers..so, today's blog superstar is: Andrea Overholt!
From your extravagant hand gestures, and delicous home cookin', to your precious son..plus the one on the way..we love you, miss you, and you better get your High School Musical lovin' booty out here soon!!!
love,
C & Lo
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Wow..
it has been way too long since I have updated this thing...and judging by the many people that have been requesting updates I believe a few of you feel the same way. A lot has happened since last time... but I'll just start with last Friday.
I was ( and still am) acting as receptionist... which I LOVE. Anyways-- right before school started the sixth grade teacher, Devon went home sick. So since Lauren was gone that left me as substitute. Also, the men Leon and John that usually do recess duty were gone so I had to fill in for them. Well sixth grade was easy enough in the morning... i only had 3 boys and we basically talked about movies and they stared at my burn scar and asked a billion question about what came out of the blister when it burst. So... at about 10 am the real wildness began. I was the only adult on the playground with 46 children. IT WAS NUTS. The kindergartners were pulling each other around like "ponies" with jump ropes, i was pushing every chubby boy at the school on the swing set, and trying to monitor the monkey bars. Well just as I was giving Lyle a lesson on how to pump his legs so i didn't have to keep grunting and pushing him and looking like a weak weirdo- i heard a thud and a scream.
Alexandra has fallen off of the top of the jungle gym and scraped her face up and (as we later found out) broken her wrist. Someone ran and got another teacher to take Alex inside. As she was walking up to the school she was spitting dirt and blood... and Tracey (the second grade girl in white from the picture of "picture day" posted earlier) thought she was throwing up which caused her to gag and beg me to clean up Alex's spit. After that whole situation was taken care of- the rest of the day was pretty normal. UNTIL- i had to drive the bus home. Yes, you read right. It was more of a big giant van than it was a bus... but these roads are insane... like if their weren't guard rails you would tumble down canyons. I drove the Bacavi route. Bacavi is a really small, really traditional little village up the mesa. Most of the house are stone and look as if you just stepped out of a time machine to the 1800's old west. A lot of the kids that live out there don't have running water or electricity so it was definitely a very cultural experience. Ms. Roy the kindergarten teacher (who is Hopi) lives out that way so i got to take her home too. I love her... she was in a car accident a few years back that left her with a very bad limp, but she doesnt let that slow her down at all- she is awesome with the kids and a big inspiration for me. More on her later.
Saturday... i did laundry and unsuccessfully attempted to master high altitude baking.
Sunday: Wowzers. A very full day. I left the house at about 7:30 am for a staff outing day with Betty and her Husband, John and Judy Warner (another couple working here at the school), and three other teachers. We first went to Oak Creek canyon. BEAUTIFUL. Its near Flagstaff so it was very woodsy and the fall colors were absolutley amazing. After that we headed to Sedona for lunch and shopping. I am proud to say I spent no money. ( Be proud Mom and Dad) It took way too much will power not to buy every piece of turquois jewlery that I came across... but I'm saving up for Christmas presents... and groceries which we have recently found out cost a whole lot more than we had planned for. Let's call it becoming an adult. Anyways... we stopped at coldstone on the way home and got back to the school around 9:30. I was beat.
Monday and Tuesday involved more office work. Tuesday we had student council officer elections which i somehow got roped into being in charge of.. so i had to explain student council to many young children and the tell two people they lost in the race for vice-president...sad. But other than that it was kinda fun because the kids got really into it. Speeches and all. Lauren and I are really excited about being Student council sponsors and are appreciating our experience in StuCo. I left at about 1:30 to pick Lauren up in Flag. I have never been so excited in my whole life. While sitting alone in my house for ten days had been a blast ( not) I was ok with having Lo around again. Lauren's phone died during her plane ride which caused her not to answer my or her mom's calls all day and sent us into a minor panic... but she arrived eventually and we had a little reunion at the bus station... then moved on to Sam's Club. We had to shop for some student council supplies and bought $80 worth of snacks for the school ( curtousy of some new monetary donations HMS recieved from someone in Kansas). Then after Maureen sending us in circles for a good 15 minutes... we found a McDonald's and ate like savage beasts. Next was some desperately needed grocery shopping at our new favorite store: Safeway. CARI- this place has deals that would put your dad's price comparisons to shame. Plus if you get the free membership you get 3 cents off of every gallon of gas at their station. Almost too good to be true. We got home at about 9:30... unloaded groceries... and went straight to sleep.
Yesterday: We cleaned the office hardcore. I'm talking vacuuming, dusting, organizing... the works. I just couldn't take the clutter anymore... and it looks like new now. Then in the evening we made chili and corn bread and took it to stan and beth's for dinner for some good old fashion family time.
Sorry this one isn't crazy eventful... Lauren already updated you on today... which should be eventful enough to last you at least.. the 10 minutes it takes you to read it.
LOVE,
court
I was ( and still am) acting as receptionist... which I LOVE. Anyways-- right before school started the sixth grade teacher, Devon went home sick. So since Lauren was gone that left me as substitute. Also, the men Leon and John that usually do recess duty were gone so I had to fill in for them. Well sixth grade was easy enough in the morning... i only had 3 boys and we basically talked about movies and they stared at my burn scar and asked a billion question about what came out of the blister when it burst. So... at about 10 am the real wildness began. I was the only adult on the playground with 46 children. IT WAS NUTS. The kindergartners were pulling each other around like "ponies" with jump ropes, i was pushing every chubby boy at the school on the swing set, and trying to monitor the monkey bars. Well just as I was giving Lyle a lesson on how to pump his legs so i didn't have to keep grunting and pushing him and looking like a weak weirdo- i heard a thud and a scream.
Alexandra has fallen off of the top of the jungle gym and scraped her face up and (as we later found out) broken her wrist. Someone ran and got another teacher to take Alex inside. As she was walking up to the school she was spitting dirt and blood... and Tracey (the second grade girl in white from the picture of "picture day" posted earlier) thought she was throwing up which caused her to gag and beg me to clean up Alex's spit. After that whole situation was taken care of- the rest of the day was pretty normal. UNTIL- i had to drive the bus home. Yes, you read right. It was more of a big giant van than it was a bus... but these roads are insane... like if their weren't guard rails you would tumble down canyons. I drove the Bacavi route. Bacavi is a really small, really traditional little village up the mesa. Most of the house are stone and look as if you just stepped out of a time machine to the 1800's old west. A lot of the kids that live out there don't have running water or electricity so it was definitely a very cultural experience. Ms. Roy the kindergarten teacher (who is Hopi) lives out that way so i got to take her home too. I love her... she was in a car accident a few years back that left her with a very bad limp, but she doesnt let that slow her down at all- she is awesome with the kids and a big inspiration for me. More on her later.
Saturday... i did laundry and unsuccessfully attempted to master high altitude baking.
Sunday: Wowzers. A very full day. I left the house at about 7:30 am for a staff outing day with Betty and her Husband, John and Judy Warner (another couple working here at the school), and three other teachers. We first went to Oak Creek canyon. BEAUTIFUL. Its near Flagstaff so it was very woodsy and the fall colors were absolutley amazing. After that we headed to Sedona for lunch and shopping. I am proud to say I spent no money. ( Be proud Mom and Dad) It took way too much will power not to buy every piece of turquois jewlery that I came across... but I'm saving up for Christmas presents... and groceries which we have recently found out cost a whole lot more than we had planned for. Let's call it becoming an adult. Anyways... we stopped at coldstone on the way home and got back to the school around 9:30. I was beat.
Monday and Tuesday involved more office work. Tuesday we had student council officer elections which i somehow got roped into being in charge of.. so i had to explain student council to many young children and the tell two people they lost in the race for vice-president...sad. But other than that it was kinda fun because the kids got really into it. Speeches and all. Lauren and I are really excited about being Student council sponsors and are appreciating our experience in StuCo. I left at about 1:30 to pick Lauren up in Flag. I have never been so excited in my whole life. While sitting alone in my house for ten days had been a blast ( not) I was ok with having Lo around again. Lauren's phone died during her plane ride which caused her not to answer my or her mom's calls all day and sent us into a minor panic... but she arrived eventually and we had a little reunion at the bus station... then moved on to Sam's Club. We had to shop for some student council supplies and bought $80 worth of snacks for the school ( curtousy of some new monetary donations HMS recieved from someone in Kansas). Then after Maureen sending us in circles for a good 15 minutes... we found a McDonald's and ate like savage beasts. Next was some desperately needed grocery shopping at our new favorite store: Safeway. CARI- this place has deals that would put your dad's price comparisons to shame. Plus if you get the free membership you get 3 cents off of every gallon of gas at their station. Almost too good to be true. We got home at about 9:30... unloaded groceries... and went straight to sleep.
Yesterday: We cleaned the office hardcore. I'm talking vacuuming, dusting, organizing... the works. I just couldn't take the clutter anymore... and it looks like new now. Then in the evening we made chili and corn bread and took it to stan and beth's for dinner for some good old fashion family time.
Sorry this one isn't crazy eventful... Lauren already updated you on today... which should be eventful enough to last you at least.. the 10 minutes it takes you to read it.
LOVE,
court
Sunday, October 19, 2008
A Much Needed Post
Well, its been a ridiculously long time since we last blogged..and I would like to send out my deepest, deepest apologies for that.
I guess I will start by attempting to give you a detailed description of the rest of my time at home..so, let's just go day by day.
Thursday
Jonas and I helped my brother Matt and his fiance Heather get completely moved into their new house. This involved moving heavy objects such as TV's, bookshelves, cabinets, and a couch. By the time we moved everything, we were all dog tired. Later, we helped my mom set up for the wedding rehearsal dinner. The plan was to decorate the coffee shop area to give it a romantic Italian bistro setting..and after 3 hours of hard work, a few shattered light bulbs, and 19 trips to my house and back, the bistro was complete. It looked wonderful and we were all very proud of our hard work. And later after that we went over to my friend Kara's house to visit Marty, Andy, and her.
Friday
We met Marty and Kara for breakfast at the Koffee Kup. After breakfast, we all went to the school to visit some teachers...as all the cool graduates of KHS do. We visited with Mr. Gaff, Mrs. Sanders, Clink, Thurner, Frau, Otto, and Benham...Mrs. Chatwell, if you read this and wonder why we didn't visit..well, you had a class and we didn't want to interrupt. We were all really bummed though. It was really a weird feeling to be back in those hallowed halls of KHS. After our lovely visit back to school, I went with Heather and the other bridesmaids to get our nails done in Valpo. Believe it or not, this was the first time I've ever really had my nails done. I just always prefer to do it myself. The guy who did my nails flirted just a little too much. At one point, after some small talk and learning I was traveling back to AZ in a few days, he told me he would take me to the airport..and I just kinda stared at him..not knowing what to say. Anyways, he created many more awkward/weird conversations. But, I've learned to expect that, because it seems that awkwardness follows me where ever I go these days. So from there, we had the wedding rehearsal followed by rehearsal dinner. Both went smoothly and a good time was had by all.
Saturday (wedding day)
At 10, we went to Heather's to get our hair and makeup done. This seemed to take forever to me. All three of us bridesmaids were insanely tired for some reason and had trouble staying awake all day. Finally, 2 o'clock rolled around and we went to the church. We finished getting ready there. We only had a 2 serious emergencies in the bridesmaid department. Lindsey's dress ripped at the zipper..it was very noticeable..but luckily, Heather's Grandma had a sewing kit on hand and the problem was solved. The other bridesmaid, Holly, sprayed perfume directly on her dress creating a big giant circle wet spot..but it faded enough to not be terribly noticeable. I was so nervous..like the about to get sick kind of nervous. Why, I don't know..the only responsibilites I had were to smile, walk down the aisle, and read a passage from Colossians. Yet, I was freaking out. And it certainly didn't help that I couldn't take deep breaths because my dress was so tight. But, the ceremony was beautiful and simple..and everything went smoothly. We took pictures outside afterwards and then headed up to Valpo for the reception. It was super fun..my dad danced like a maniac. Literally. He had moves that put Michael Jackson to shame. After a long night of dancing and celebration, I spent the night with some of my best friends from high school. It was great to see all of them again. After seeing them everyday at school for 13 years..it's been hard to be away for so long. We made cookie dough and attempted to stay up all night..but by 3 or 4 am, we were all asleep.
Sunday and Monday
We all went to church after a late night of dancing and struggled to desperately to stay awake. Everytime we prayed I had to force myself to keep my eyes open..because I knew if I closed them, I'd be out cold. The rest of Sunday was spent relaxing and watching movies..and then at 6, I took Jonas to the bus stop to head back home to Canada. After that, I met Karley at Youth Group..where we caught up with Jeff and Andrea Overholt..the two best friends/youth leaders ever. Then, Karley and I went to Starbucks and got to catch up on her life at Trinity and my life in AZ. Monday, my parents both had the day off to spend with me..so we went to breakfast, relaxed, and carved pumpkins together. It was a fun last day at home..I won't be back again until Christmas, which is a long time in my mind. But, there's lots to do back in AZ, so I'll be just fine.
Tuesday (the dreaded day of travel)
As you know, ten days ago, when I traveled home I had an interesting day of traveling. I've been worrying about having a repeat experience..where I'd lose more irreplaceable things, get screamed at by TSA at the airport, and infuriate a sassy bus driver. Luckily, it was a much better day than expected. But, I found this funny...my bus driver was the same woman that I upset a week ago..I don't think she remembered me, but, boy did I remember her! A few unfortunate things did happen though. My cell phone went dead...at the worst possible time. I needed to call Courtney, as well as my parents to let them know I had made it. I didn't have time to find a payphone..and I discovered I brought the wrong charger. Oh and my bus to Flagstaff from Phoenix was a half hour late..and I almost hyperventilated as I stood on the curb freaking out, thinking I was never going to make it back. I needed my phone to call the bus service to see what in the world was up..and finally, the bus came..and my heart started beating normally again. I made it to Flagstaff and found out from Courtney that my parents were freaking out..since I hadn't called them..and were convinced I was kidnapped. I immediately called home and reassured them that I was alive and well. From there, C and I went to Sam's Club, the grocery store, and McDonald's for dinner. We made it home around 9:30..unpacked and went straight to bed.
Ok..sorry if this was incredibly disappointing. I tried to get myself into crazy situations..so I could have exciting things to blog about. But, as I'm reviewing this entry..it seems that I failed. But, Courtney and I have both promised to never neglect our blog for as long as we did.
Oh..and I might as well fill you in on today's events. The village of Kykostmovi has truely embraced Red Ribbon week thus far. Yesterday, we all recieved really neat t-shirts to wear in the parade today. Yes, that's right a parade. Court and I got the privilege of decorating the bus (the kids rode in it down "main street" for the parade). Did I mention it was 20 degrees outside this morning? I'm not even exaggerating. After working on the bus for 20 minutes, we could no longer feel our hands..we sprinted inside to get gloves, and then had to go back out to finish it. Court and I were seriously looking forward to this parade, but were informed we had to stay back to take care of office work. We were completely bummed. After the kids left on the beautifully decorated bus, we drove to the post office to check the mail..and were fortunate enough to get to see the entire 3 minute parade! Just like the precious parades in Kouts, it was short and sweet..oh and they wip candy at you. We we're seriously diving and dodging from suckers and candy bars. Back at school, we spent the rest of the day working in the office, doing computer classes, and playing tag at recess. After school, C and I went back to the post office to check the mail again..and then to the Hopi Cultural Center to buy a present for our bff Cari's 21st bday tomorrow! (Happy Birthday Cari!) and I bought a present for my dad's birthday, which is next month. We got home, ate some buffalo wings, put in a movie, and started in on all the blogging we had to catch up on!
Ron, the principal's husband/maintenance guy/adopted grandpa, offered to fix our bike tires, which if you don't recall were mutilated by spikey plants on our first bike ride. So, were looking forward to being able to ride those again some day!
Answer to prayer: Court and I have really wanted to make friends with some Hopi/Navajo kids our age..and we have! There's a girl named Valerie, who volunteers at the school a couple times a week and is also Levander's (sheep riding kindergartner) big sister. Anyways, we hung out with her alot today..and basically, we're best friends now. We might hang out this weekend and she has plans to take us to all the secretly cool places around the reservation. We're really excited!
ok..if i type much more, my fingers may shrivel up and fall off. So, I hope you all enjoy this update..and be expecting consistent daily blogging from this day forward...for the most part.
We miss you all!
Love,
Lo
I guess I will start by attempting to give you a detailed description of the rest of my time at home..so, let's just go day by day.
Thursday
Jonas and I helped my brother Matt and his fiance Heather get completely moved into their new house. This involved moving heavy objects such as TV's, bookshelves, cabinets, and a couch. By the time we moved everything, we were all dog tired. Later, we helped my mom set up for the wedding rehearsal dinner. The plan was to decorate the coffee shop area to give it a romantic Italian bistro setting..and after 3 hours of hard work, a few shattered light bulbs, and 19 trips to my house and back, the bistro was complete. It looked wonderful and we were all very proud of our hard work. And later after that we went over to my friend Kara's house to visit Marty, Andy, and her.
Friday
We met Marty and Kara for breakfast at the Koffee Kup. After breakfast, we all went to the school to visit some teachers...as all the cool graduates of KHS do. We visited with Mr. Gaff, Mrs. Sanders, Clink, Thurner, Frau, Otto, and Benham...Mrs. Chatwell, if you read this and wonder why we didn't visit..well, you had a class and we didn't want to interrupt. We were all really bummed though. It was really a weird feeling to be back in those hallowed halls of KHS. After our lovely visit back to school, I went with Heather and the other bridesmaids to get our nails done in Valpo. Believe it or not, this was the first time I've ever really had my nails done. I just always prefer to do it myself. The guy who did my nails flirted just a little too much. At one point, after some small talk and learning I was traveling back to AZ in a few days, he told me he would take me to the airport..and I just kinda stared at him..not knowing what to say. Anyways, he created many more awkward/weird conversations. But, I've learned to expect that, because it seems that awkwardness follows me where ever I go these days. So from there, we had the wedding rehearsal followed by rehearsal dinner. Both went smoothly and a good time was had by all.
Saturday (wedding day)
At 10, we went to Heather's to get our hair and makeup done. This seemed to take forever to me. All three of us bridesmaids were insanely tired for some reason and had trouble staying awake all day. Finally, 2 o'clock rolled around and we went to the church. We finished getting ready there. We only had a 2 serious emergencies in the bridesmaid department. Lindsey's dress ripped at the zipper..it was very noticeable..but luckily, Heather's Grandma had a sewing kit on hand and the problem was solved. The other bridesmaid, Holly, sprayed perfume directly on her dress creating a big giant circle wet spot..but it faded enough to not be terribly noticeable. I was so nervous..like the about to get sick kind of nervous. Why, I don't know..the only responsibilites I had were to smile, walk down the aisle, and read a passage from Colossians. Yet, I was freaking out. And it certainly didn't help that I couldn't take deep breaths because my dress was so tight. But, the ceremony was beautiful and simple..and everything went smoothly. We took pictures outside afterwards and then headed up to Valpo for the reception. It was super fun..my dad danced like a maniac. Literally. He had moves that put Michael Jackson to shame. After a long night of dancing and celebration, I spent the night with some of my best friends from high school. It was great to see all of them again. After seeing them everyday at school for 13 years..it's been hard to be away for so long. We made cookie dough and attempted to stay up all night..but by 3 or 4 am, we were all asleep.
Sunday and Monday
We all went to church after a late night of dancing and struggled to desperately to stay awake. Everytime we prayed I had to force myself to keep my eyes open..because I knew if I closed them, I'd be out cold. The rest of Sunday was spent relaxing and watching movies..and then at 6, I took Jonas to the bus stop to head back home to Canada. After that, I met Karley at Youth Group..where we caught up with Jeff and Andrea Overholt..the two best friends/youth leaders ever. Then, Karley and I went to Starbucks and got to catch up on her life at Trinity and my life in AZ. Monday, my parents both had the day off to spend with me..so we went to breakfast, relaxed, and carved pumpkins together. It was a fun last day at home..I won't be back again until Christmas, which is a long time in my mind. But, there's lots to do back in AZ, so I'll be just fine.
Tuesday (the dreaded day of travel)
As you know, ten days ago, when I traveled home I had an interesting day of traveling. I've been worrying about having a repeat experience..where I'd lose more irreplaceable things, get screamed at by TSA at the airport, and infuriate a sassy bus driver. Luckily, it was a much better day than expected. But, I found this funny...my bus driver was the same woman that I upset a week ago..I don't think she remembered me, but, boy did I remember her! A few unfortunate things did happen though. My cell phone went dead...at the worst possible time. I needed to call Courtney, as well as my parents to let them know I had made it. I didn't have time to find a payphone..and I discovered I brought the wrong charger. Oh and my bus to Flagstaff from Phoenix was a half hour late..and I almost hyperventilated as I stood on the curb freaking out, thinking I was never going to make it back. I needed my phone to call the bus service to see what in the world was up..and finally, the bus came..and my heart started beating normally again. I made it to Flagstaff and found out from Courtney that my parents were freaking out..since I hadn't called them..and were convinced I was kidnapped. I immediately called home and reassured them that I was alive and well. From there, C and I went to Sam's Club, the grocery store, and McDonald's for dinner. We made it home around 9:30..unpacked and went straight to bed.
Ok..sorry if this was incredibly disappointing. I tried to get myself into crazy situations..so I could have exciting things to blog about. But, as I'm reviewing this entry..it seems that I failed. But, Courtney and I have both promised to never neglect our blog for as long as we did.
Oh..and I might as well fill you in on today's events. The village of Kykostmovi has truely embraced Red Ribbon week thus far. Yesterday, we all recieved really neat t-shirts to wear in the parade today. Yes, that's right a parade. Court and I got the privilege of decorating the bus (the kids rode in it down "main street" for the parade). Did I mention it was 20 degrees outside this morning? I'm not even exaggerating. After working on the bus for 20 minutes, we could no longer feel our hands..we sprinted inside to get gloves, and then had to go back out to finish it. Court and I were seriously looking forward to this parade, but were informed we had to stay back to take care of office work. We were completely bummed. After the kids left on the beautifully decorated bus, we drove to the post office to check the mail..and were fortunate enough to get to see the entire 3 minute parade! Just like the precious parades in Kouts, it was short and sweet..oh and they wip candy at you. We we're seriously diving and dodging from suckers and candy bars. Back at school, we spent the rest of the day working in the office, doing computer classes, and playing tag at recess. After school, C and I went back to the post office to check the mail again..and then to the Hopi Cultural Center to buy a present for our bff Cari's 21st bday tomorrow! (Happy Birthday Cari!) and I bought a present for my dad's birthday, which is next month. We got home, ate some buffalo wings, put in a movie, and started in on all the blogging we had to catch up on!
Ron, the principal's husband/maintenance guy/adopted grandpa, offered to fix our bike tires, which if you don't recall were mutilated by spikey plants on our first bike ride. So, were looking forward to being able to ride those again some day!
Answer to prayer: Court and I have really wanted to make friends with some Hopi/Navajo kids our age..and we have! There's a girl named Valerie, who volunteers at the school a couple times a week and is also Levander's (sheep riding kindergartner) big sister. Anyways, we hung out with her alot today..and basically, we're best friends now. We might hang out this weekend and she has plans to take us to all the secretly cool places around the reservation. We're really excited!
ok..if i type much more, my fingers may shrivel up and fall off. So, I hope you all enjoy this update..and be expecting consistent daily blogging from this day forward...for the most part.
We miss you all!
Love,
Lo
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
an update from indiana
I love this blog. I love it so much that I feel the need to update it from home. So, I'll just fill you in on the last couple days..from my interesting day of travel on Saturday, to life in Kouts.
I think it's safe to say that last Friday & Saturday was one of the worst 48 hours of both Courtney's and my life. Now, I don't want to be a negative Nancy..but, I think you guys may enjoy reading about our series of unfortunate events.
I don't even know where to begin to be quite honest.
I'll start with Friday morning. I set my alarm to go for a jog in the morning..but I fell back asleep after the alarm rang. At 6:30, Courtney and I got ready for school and went to devotions at 7:45am. Then, we went to kindergarten to do begin our daily regimen. Ms. Roy, the kindergarten teacher, asked us to decorate a big bulletin board for a project the kids are doing. C and I have become professional bulletin board designers/decorators in these past few weeks. In fact, we're considering starting a bulletin board business, where we go school to school, decorating to our hearts desire. But, don't worry, for now we're staying where were at. Anyways..we got really creative, and used everthing from yarn to chalk. As we were decorating, Leon, a young Hopi man who works at the school, asked us to do recess duty..which means we push kids on the swings for a half hour. It's fun though. For chapel Friday, we had a special guest, named Matt Keller. He's a silly cartoonist from Niagara Falls, NY. The kids enjoyed his presentation thoroughly. After lunch, Courtney and I had computer classes to teach. Basically during that we have to make sure the kids stay on task and answer any questions they have. Now, obvioulsy no part of that was plagued by unfortunate events. Just be patient. It will come.
I almost forgot one special thing..the one absolutely wonderful thing that happened on Friday. We recieved a giant box labeled "cookies by design." Apparently, it had been sitting by the mail boxes in the teacher's room for quite a while. But, we never noticed it! Immediately, C and I ripped it open and were filled with joy to see our beautiful cookie bouquet! It was house warming gift arrangement. There was a cookie tree, cookie house, cookie welcome mat, personalized "Court & Lo" cookie, and last..but most certainly not least..a "Home Sweet Hopi" cookie!!!! I ate the welcome mat one as we watched the newest episode of The Office online...which was a disappointing episode. Oh! I almost forgot..the cookie bouquet was from Katie..were thinking Katie Lauer..or maybe Katie Hauer...not completely sure which one. Either way..THANK YOU! We truely loved it.
Anyways, on with the bad day. So we walked home through asandstorm, which was painful on the eyes and skin. It was extremely windy, like nothing I've ever experienced. We were dreading all the sand that would be in our house..it finds its was through anything..even the cracks in the windows. We made it to the house..and found that we were locked out. Court thought I had the keys..and I thought Court had them. We looked for open windows..and found none. I ran back to the school to ask if someone had the spare keys....no one did. But..our principal was out of town, and one of the teacher's was house sitting for her. Therefore, she had the keys to her house, and we knew there would be spare keys somewhere in there. So..we went through her house searching for our keys..finally found them..and finally unlocked our now sand filled dwelling.
I immediately started packing for home..since I would be leaving Sat. morning. Courtney made us dinner..and burned her hand severely in the process. After dinner, we went to Stan and Beth's for an hour or so, came back and went to bed knowing we had to get up at 3am to be on the road by 4am. We did all that right on schedule. It was interesting driving through the desert for 1.5 hours in the pitch pitch pitch dark..plus it was still sandstorming. But, we made it to the bus stop in Flagstaff right on time. After 2 hours on the bus with 6 interesting people..especially the driver..who was not the kindest soul I've ever met, we arrived at the Phoenix airport. My flight wasn't till 1:20..and it was 8am. I was going to have some serious time to kill. But, I love airports..so it was no sweat. After waiting for 30 mins in a long line to check my bag..I was told that I could only check it 4 hours prior to my flight. I got out of line and sat in a chair for an hour..then got back in the long line to check my bags.
Next, I went upstairs to all the stores/restaurants to get some breakfast, do some serious people watching, and buy a book. I bought a muffin and a smoothie and took off my sweater because I was hot. A half hour later, while I was in a book store..I realized my sweater was gone. I went into panic mode. I retraced my steps 5 times. no sweater. I walked up to a service desk..manned by intense looking cops, and asked for the lost and found. They asked me what I was looking for and I shamefully said,"...um..I lost my sweater..." How dumb does that sound?! I felt so embarassed. They aren't there to find my insignificant sweater..their job is to keep the peace in the airport..stop crime...things like that. So, they took my name and a detailed description of the size small, light green, black pin striped, button up..missing sweater. I decided it was time to go through security and get to my gate. This was my first time to take a laptop through security..and unfortunately, I had never paid attention to the laptop procedure when others do it. I did it all wrong. Thus, some mean TSA lady screamed at me and gave me dirty looks. I hate when I disappoint people..and this felt like the ultimate disappointment (at the time at least). As you know, you have to show photo ID with your boarding pass to get to your gate. So, I did that, and in the chaos of grabbing all my stuff, just stuck my license in my pocket. Unfortunately, I forgot that the jeans I was wearing reject everything you put in its pockets. The pockets just refuse to function as they were created to. And they lived up to their reputatuion by rejecting my license. But, I had no idea that this had happened. All the sudden I was missing a precious sweater..and my stinking LICENSE! I tried not to cry..or get Incredible Hulkishly angry. For the second time in 1 hour, I retraced my steps to find a missing item. I was too embarrassed to go tell the cops that I had now lost my license, along with the sweater. I just said a prayer and kept my cool. I couldn't lose it, not while I was alone, in an airport full of strangers. I wasn't going there. Finally it was time to board the plane! I still had no license or sweater, though. Just as the plane was about to shut its doors, an airport worker ran on and got on the PA system..he said "is there a Lauren Sandberg on here?..I have your license here..it looks like you're from Indiana" I slowly rose to go retrieve my missing belonging. I felt my face get redder and redder..it was the walk of shame. My head was racing..I was so glad they found it..but so mad it had to happen like this..such a public annoucement of my loss. I just kept thinking..I came here today with my sweater, my license, and my pride..and lost all three of them before the day was over.
Anyways..we landed at Midway..I waited 45 mins for my suitcase. Thus far, this day had not gone according to plan...and was about to get a little bit worse. I had to find the Coach bus for NWI and get dropped off in Portage. After 10 panicked phone calls to my mom trying to find the bus..I finally came upon it. After getting on the bus..I realized I accidentally told the driver I was going to Merrillville...ooopsy. I meant to say Portage. This wouldn't be a big deal..but they put your luggage in different places according to your destination..so it was a big deal. I told her of my blunder and apoligzed..she didnt take it so well. This sassy Chicagoan got very mad at me..said some harsh words and eventually said she would take care of it.
Somehow, I made it home alive. My dad picked me up and we went to Wal-Mart, then home to celebrate my mom's Bday.
Since I've been home, I've cleaned the house, cooked, baked, ran errands, and helped Matt move out and prepare for the wedding.
Today, we had family pictures taken by Amber Birky. It was fun. Maybe I'll put some on here when we get them.
This post is insanely long..sorry about that. In case you were wondering..I was a little home sick..and it's good to be back..it feels like I never left. But, I'm looking forward to getting back to AZ and seeing Courtney!
That's all for now :]
love,
Lo
I think it's safe to say that last Friday & Saturday was one of the worst 48 hours of both Courtney's and my life. Now, I don't want to be a negative Nancy..but, I think you guys may enjoy reading about our series of unfortunate events.
I don't even know where to begin to be quite honest.
I'll start with Friday morning. I set my alarm to go for a jog in the morning..but I fell back asleep after the alarm rang. At 6:30, Courtney and I got ready for school and went to devotions at 7:45am. Then, we went to kindergarten to do begin our daily regimen. Ms. Roy, the kindergarten teacher, asked us to decorate a big bulletin board for a project the kids are doing. C and I have become professional bulletin board designers/decorators in these past few weeks. In fact, we're considering starting a bulletin board business, where we go school to school, decorating to our hearts desire. But, don't worry, for now we're staying where were at. Anyways..we got really creative, and used everthing from yarn to chalk. As we were decorating, Leon, a young Hopi man who works at the school, asked us to do recess duty..which means we push kids on the swings for a half hour. It's fun though. For chapel Friday, we had a special guest, named Matt Keller. He's a silly cartoonist from Niagara Falls, NY. The kids enjoyed his presentation thoroughly. After lunch, Courtney and I had computer classes to teach. Basically during that we have to make sure the kids stay on task and answer any questions they have. Now, obvioulsy no part of that was plagued by unfortunate events. Just be patient. It will come.
I almost forgot one special thing..the one absolutely wonderful thing that happened on Friday. We recieved a giant box labeled "cookies by design." Apparently, it had been sitting by the mail boxes in the teacher's room for quite a while. But, we never noticed it! Immediately, C and I ripped it open and were filled with joy to see our beautiful cookie bouquet! It was house warming gift arrangement. There was a cookie tree, cookie house, cookie welcome mat, personalized "Court & Lo" cookie, and last..but most certainly not least..a "Home Sweet Hopi" cookie!!!! I ate the welcome mat one as we watched the newest episode of The Office online...which was a disappointing episode. Oh! I almost forgot..the cookie bouquet was from Katie..were thinking Katie Lauer..or maybe Katie Hauer...not completely sure which one. Either way..THANK YOU! We truely loved it.
Anyways, on with the bad day. So we walked home through asandstorm, which was painful on the eyes and skin. It was extremely windy, like nothing I've ever experienced. We were dreading all the sand that would be in our house..it finds its was through anything..even the cracks in the windows. We made it to the house..and found that we were locked out. Court thought I had the keys..and I thought Court had them. We looked for open windows..and found none. I ran back to the school to ask if someone had the spare keys....no one did. But..our principal was out of town, and one of the teacher's was house sitting for her. Therefore, she had the keys to her house, and we knew there would be spare keys somewhere in there. So..we went through her house searching for our keys..finally found them..and finally unlocked our now sand filled dwelling.
I immediately started packing for home..since I would be leaving Sat. morning. Courtney made us dinner..and burned her hand severely in the process. After dinner, we went to Stan and Beth's for an hour or so, came back and went to bed knowing we had to get up at 3am to be on the road by 4am. We did all that right on schedule. It was interesting driving through the desert for 1.5 hours in the pitch pitch pitch dark..plus it was still sandstorming. But, we made it to the bus stop in Flagstaff right on time. After 2 hours on the bus with 6 interesting people..especially the driver..who was not the kindest soul I've ever met, we arrived at the Phoenix airport. My flight wasn't till 1:20..and it was 8am. I was going to have some serious time to kill. But, I love airports..so it was no sweat. After waiting for 30 mins in a long line to check my bag..I was told that I could only check it 4 hours prior to my flight. I got out of line and sat in a chair for an hour..then got back in the long line to check my bags.
Next, I went upstairs to all the stores/restaurants to get some breakfast, do some serious people watching, and buy a book. I bought a muffin and a smoothie and took off my sweater because I was hot. A half hour later, while I was in a book store..I realized my sweater was gone. I went into panic mode. I retraced my steps 5 times. no sweater. I walked up to a service desk..manned by intense looking cops, and asked for the lost and found. They asked me what I was looking for and I shamefully said,"...um..I lost my sweater..." How dumb does that sound?! I felt so embarassed. They aren't there to find my insignificant sweater..their job is to keep the peace in the airport..stop crime...things like that. So, they took my name and a detailed description of the size small, light green, black pin striped, button up..missing sweater. I decided it was time to go through security and get to my gate. This was my first time to take a laptop through security..and unfortunately, I had never paid attention to the laptop procedure when others do it. I did it all wrong. Thus, some mean TSA lady screamed at me and gave me dirty looks. I hate when I disappoint people..and this felt like the ultimate disappointment (at the time at least). As you know, you have to show photo ID with your boarding pass to get to your gate. So, I did that, and in the chaos of grabbing all my stuff, just stuck my license in my pocket. Unfortunately, I forgot that the jeans I was wearing reject everything you put in its pockets. The pockets just refuse to function as they were created to. And they lived up to their reputatuion by rejecting my license. But, I had no idea that this had happened. All the sudden I was missing a precious sweater..and my stinking LICENSE! I tried not to cry..or get Incredible Hulkishly angry. For the second time in 1 hour, I retraced my steps to find a missing item. I was too embarrassed to go tell the cops that I had now lost my license, along with the sweater. I just said a prayer and kept my cool. I couldn't lose it, not while I was alone, in an airport full of strangers. I wasn't going there. Finally it was time to board the plane! I still had no license or sweater, though. Just as the plane was about to shut its doors, an airport worker ran on and got on the PA system..he said "is there a Lauren Sandberg on here?..I have your license here..it looks like you're from Indiana" I slowly rose to go retrieve my missing belonging. I felt my face get redder and redder..it was the walk of shame. My head was racing..I was so glad they found it..but so mad it had to happen like this..such a public annoucement of my loss. I just kept thinking..I came here today with my sweater, my license, and my pride..and lost all three of them before the day was over.
Anyways..we landed at Midway..I waited 45 mins for my suitcase. Thus far, this day had not gone according to plan...and was about to get a little bit worse. I had to find the Coach bus for NWI and get dropped off in Portage. After 10 panicked phone calls to my mom trying to find the bus..I finally came upon it. After getting on the bus..I realized I accidentally told the driver I was going to Merrillville...ooopsy. I meant to say Portage. This wouldn't be a big deal..but they put your luggage in different places according to your destination..so it was a big deal. I told her of my blunder and apoligzed..she didnt take it so well. This sassy Chicagoan got very mad at me..said some harsh words and eventually said she would take care of it.
Somehow, I made it home alive. My dad picked me up and we went to Wal-Mart, then home to celebrate my mom's Bday.
Since I've been home, I've cleaned the house, cooked, baked, ran errands, and helped Matt move out and prepare for the wedding.
Today, we had family pictures taken by Amber Birky. It was fun. Maybe I'll put some on here when we get them.
This post is insanely long..sorry about that. In case you were wondering..I was a little home sick..and it's good to be back..it feels like I never left. But, I'm looking forward to getting back to AZ and seeing Courtney!
That's all for now :]
love,
Lo
Eventful.
Today was definitely that. I started out the morning working in the office, answering phones, filing things, ect. I actually didn't mind it at all... a little mindless work every now and then is nice. I got to sit in with Betty while we had "Judge Judy- Hopi Mission School Style" with two girls. It was quite the trial. You see.. Shosheena and Amber were both waiting for Mario to get off the swing. As soon as he did they both bolted towards it, Amber tripped Shosheena and it all went down hill from there. So after that matter was all settled, Betty informed me that I will be officially taking over the second grade class ON MY OWN in about 3 weeks. SCARY. I'm just not going to freak out about that for a while... I am pretty excited about it though. I really like that class a lot. Then while I was doing a horrible job at using the paper cutter to cut out attendence slips (tried to cut them all at the same time... bad idea... ended with zig zag edges) A family walked into the office. Apparently they just moved to the reservation from Korea as missionaries the same day Lauren and I moved in. They have two boys Jacob(4th) and Daniel (2nd)..those are their english names anyways... and neither of them speak a word of English. But they didnt really seem scared at all and the Hopi kids really took care of them on their first day so that was really nice to see. I can not imagine being in that situation... how scary!
Yesterday was Shaniqua's 8th birthday and Betty promised her a celebration. So at about 10 am I left the school and went down to the little village market for some pink (strawberry) cake mix, vanilla frosting, and some drinks for Betty and the office manager, Judy. Not to mention I got the perk of getting myself a little something ( Arizona sweet tea if you were wondering...) When I got back from there I ran over to my house, made the cake and brought it back to put in the oven at school so it could be done after lunch. I almost spilled it on my arm 3 times on the way back to school because i kept tripping in sand. I also saw the scariest bug ever. Think: ORKIN man commericials.
More exciting news: WE GOT A VACUUM TODAY! I walked in and Bettys husband had put it in our living room. FINALLY- i am getting really sick of this sand. ALSO I got invited over to the 6th and 1st grade teachers' house tonight for dinner so i am excited to get to know them a little better.
Well I am off to go vacuum and do dishes left over from the speed cake mixing.
ANY TEACHER FRIENDS THAT MAY BE READING THIS: I NEED SOME TIPS! and if you have any material you don't need/ want to donate to the school let me know and I'll figure out how to get it here! Thanks!
Yesterday was Shaniqua's 8th birthday and Betty promised her a celebration. So at about 10 am I left the school and went down to the little village market for some pink (strawberry) cake mix, vanilla frosting, and some drinks for Betty and the office manager, Judy. Not to mention I got the perk of getting myself a little something ( Arizona sweet tea if you were wondering...) When I got back from there I ran over to my house, made the cake and brought it back to put in the oven at school so it could be done after lunch. I almost spilled it on my arm 3 times on the way back to school because i kept tripping in sand. I also saw the scariest bug ever. Think: ORKIN man commericials.
More exciting news: WE GOT A VACUUM TODAY! I walked in and Bettys husband had put it in our living room. FINALLY- i am getting really sick of this sand. ALSO I got invited over to the 6th and 1st grade teachers' house tonight for dinner so i am excited to get to know them a little better.
Well I am off to go vacuum and do dishes left over from the speed cake mixing.
ANY TEACHER FRIENDS THAT MAY BE READING THIS: I NEED SOME TIPS! and if you have any material you don't need/ want to donate to the school let me know and I'll figure out how to get it here! Thanks!
Monday, October 13, 2008
Sorry that it has been a few days.
You will all be happy to know I have been barf free for about 3 days now, and as of today I can actually think about food without feeling like I'm gonna relive the other night. I did however attain a new injury on Friday- a giant (well.. ok maybe not GIANT) 3 degree (according to me...) burn on my right hand. I was cooking chicken for Lauren and I... (i cook, we sit at the dinner table with a lit candle and discuss our day.. she kills the bugs...ect.) and right when I wasnt expecting it I got a big old splatter of hot butter all over the back of my hand. I didn't even scream or say impolite words... just pressed my lips together and whipped the spatula across the room ( then ran as fast as I could to Lauren's room so she could baby me...hah). Anyways- it has gone past the big bubbly blister stage and now just looks like a nasty wound. I had to tell the story to about 10 appalled children today.
Lauren left for home on Saturday. Her brother Matt is getting married this coming Saturday and she is in the wedding. While that is super exciting and fun... it does leave me here in the middle of the desert... by myself in the house... with a very small supply of DVD's, and many many oreos. I have now watched all of Seinfeld season 9 and all four seasons of the Office. I have now resorted to rewashing dishes and belting Celine Dion in our very echoey house. This could be a very sad 11 days. I actually dreamt that I heard Lauren whistling the other morning, woke up and thought "What are me and Lauren gonna do today?...... oh wait... she's not here..." and went back to sleep. I know, poor poor Courtney.
I taught third grade today. Let me just say this. I had to teach a lesson on problem solving and never felt so stupid in my whole life. A child fell asleep as I tried to figure out what the heck i was talking about. asleep... like drooling.
A few little things I've been noticing with the kids:
I wear alot of necklaces. The kids come from a culture that is very aware of jewlery and such so I often get compliments on my necklaces. However I am left feeling very dumb when they ask me if my necklace that I bought on clearance from Target is made of the stones from my homeland, and I never know what to say when they ask "Who made that for you.." i think they wouldn't really like it if I said a machine in Columbia.
They are also very confused about my heritage. They have figured out I am not Hopi. And today they figured out that I am not Navajo. And whenever I try and tell them I'm mostly German... they start asking me how to say things in german and whether my grandparents were nazis and when my family settled in Indiana... I'm really starting to wish that I knew/cared as much about my heritage as they do. It's definately not as fun to say that "my people" like tony's pizza and wal mart as it would be to say that my grandmother is in the moth clan (I'll explain the clan thing later... i think I might finally have figured it out) and that she has passed down the art of basket weaving.
Well it's 9:39... and I am usually in bed by now on "school nights" seeing that I have been having anger issues with my alarm clock every single morning.
Please continue to pray for good health and that we ( or I.. until next Tuesday when Lo gets back) can clearly notice opportunities to be more involved with the students parents and the rest of the community. Also (more on this later) Betty, the 67 year old principal who I LOOOOVE just went through her first of four chemo treatments and is still working hard as ever. Please just pray for continued strength and healing for her.
Thanks!
Love,
Court
Lauren left for home on Saturday. Her brother Matt is getting married this coming Saturday and she is in the wedding. While that is super exciting and fun... it does leave me here in the middle of the desert... by myself in the house... with a very small supply of DVD's, and many many oreos. I have now watched all of Seinfeld season 9 and all four seasons of the Office. I have now resorted to rewashing dishes and belting Celine Dion in our very echoey house. This could be a very sad 11 days. I actually dreamt that I heard Lauren whistling the other morning, woke up and thought "What are me and Lauren gonna do today?...... oh wait... she's not here..." and went back to sleep. I know, poor poor Courtney.
I taught third grade today. Let me just say this. I had to teach a lesson on problem solving and never felt so stupid in my whole life. A child fell asleep as I tried to figure out what the heck i was talking about. asleep... like drooling.
A few little things I've been noticing with the kids:
I wear alot of necklaces. The kids come from a culture that is very aware of jewlery and such so I often get compliments on my necklaces. However I am left feeling very dumb when they ask me if my necklace that I bought on clearance from Target is made of the stones from my homeland, and I never know what to say when they ask "Who made that for you.." i think they wouldn't really like it if I said a machine in Columbia.
They are also very confused about my heritage. They have figured out I am not Hopi. And today they figured out that I am not Navajo. And whenever I try and tell them I'm mostly German... they start asking me how to say things in german and whether my grandparents were nazis and when my family settled in Indiana... I'm really starting to wish that I knew/cared as much about my heritage as they do. It's definately not as fun to say that "my people" like tony's pizza and wal mart as it would be to say that my grandmother is in the moth clan (I'll explain the clan thing later... i think I might finally have figured it out) and that she has passed down the art of basket weaving.
Well it's 9:39... and I am usually in bed by now on "school nights" seeing that I have been having anger issues with my alarm clock every single morning.
Please continue to pray for good health and that we ( or I.. until next Tuesday when Lo gets back) can clearly notice opportunities to be more involved with the students parents and the rest of the community. Also (more on this later) Betty, the 67 year old principal who I LOOOOVE just went through her first of four chemo treatments and is still working hard as ever. Please just pray for continued strength and healing for her.
Thanks!
Love,
Court
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
The day I barfed six times
Yes, that's right. I have officially become a missionary now that I have gotten violently ill. I have been feeling sick ever since we got here pretty much, but it hasn't been anything too bad. I have just been CRAZY tired all the time and have had a bit of a sore throat. Today was a different story however. I had been feeling weird all day... came home and took a two hour nap and then we went over to Jenny's (the 3rd grade teacher) little cottage for dinner with all of the teachers. It was torture. There was the most delicious chicken chili i have ever seen sitting right in front of me and I couldn't even finish half of it. The plus side is that we got to spend a little down time with the other girls and really like them all a lot and we got to see our friend Danielle that we met when we were here in august. Anyways- back to the barf. We all decided to have a bonfire and Lauren wanted to grab a sweater from home so I went with. The second we stepped outside I felt it. You know... the weird watery mouth clammy hands thing that happens when you are just about to lose it. Well we were only a little ways from our house so I tried to run... because barfing 6 times in a toilet is way cuter than doing it in people's yards as you are sprinting with a plate of cake in your hand. Well that just didn't work. I'm talking projectile here. Lauren was trying her hardest to comfort me, but in the true fashion of our friendship she was dying laughing- which is ok because I was too. Anyways we finally made it to the house- Lauren took my clothes and threw them in the washer and I went straight for the old toothbrush. The good thing is I feel better than I have all week. So the moral of the story: Sometimes all you need is a good old throw up.
In all seriousness though we officially have some prayer requests:
Lauren has been having really bad nightmares every night and hasn't been able to sleep.
I have been sick... obviously.
The kids have been coming to school hungry and the school doesn't have the funds to feed them beyond a meal at lunch. If anyone feels like they would like to help out by sending in some healthy snacks (granola bars.. ect) that would be awesome and would really help the kids be able to concentrate better in the mornings.
I think that's it for now. We love you all and miss you. Thanks for caring about what we are up to!
PS Cari- we got your gifts today. We love and miss you beyond words. thanks. we wish you were here.
Love,
Court
In all seriousness though we officially have some prayer requests:
Lauren has been having really bad nightmares every night and hasn't been able to sleep.
I have been sick... obviously.
The kids have been coming to school hungry and the school doesn't have the funds to feed them beyond a meal at lunch. If anyone feels like they would like to help out by sending in some healthy snacks (granola bars.. ect) that would be awesome and would really help the kids be able to concentrate better in the mornings.
I think that's it for now. We love you all and miss you. Thanks for caring about what we are up to!
PS Cari- we got your gifts today. We love and miss you beyond words. thanks. we wish you were here.
Love,
Court
The Grand Tour.
The bathroom.
Courtney's cute little bedroom.
The view from outside our half of the duplex :]
Courtney holding a plate of cookies in our overly nice kitchen.
What's left of the giant batch of cookies I baked on lazy Sunday.
Our fridge..yes, those are Office magnets, and that was Pam until I gave her a mustache and glasses. Oh and that's Court and I in stick figure form.
My (Lauren) Bedroom..we have random sinks that are actually quite convenient.
This is our cozy living room. Right out our front window is a view of the school, and beyond that, mesas, tumbleweeds, and the big blue sky. 
Here, we have Courtney busily working at her own personal desk.
That's me working at my desk.
Our cute little kitchen table. We're planning on hanging those pictures very soon.
Another Day on the Rez.
Today is wednesday, therefore, a half a day. Usually, we would have a teacher in service, but we had the afternoon free. Courtney and I have been talking about going to the health club that's a mile down the road. It's brand new and absolutely free to anyone. We've said we're going for sure 3 days in a row now. But, everyday when we get home..we just end up getting on our laptops, watching a movie, or taking naps. We decided we're going tomorrow for sure..haha.
As you may have noticed, I added some pictures to some of our older posts. I'm not sure if we've mentioned this yet, but there's this web site called "blurb" where you can turn your blog into a book. Courtney and I are very excited to do that. So, for the sake of turning this into a book in the near future, we decided that we need more pictures on here.
Yesterday, Courtney and I were playing with Lyle on the playground. We have noticed his daily routine, he runs over to the flag pole, tries to climb it for 2 mins, gets absolutely no where, and gives up. Then, he runs over to the monkey bars and sort of climbs them. I was feeling youthful and energized yesterday, so I was goofing around on the bars too. I did chin-ups for Courtney till I got tired, and then decided to grab a bar above my head. I started swinging and just when it felt like i was about to swing all the way over and do a flip, I unintentionally let go. My body contorted into a 90 degree angle. As I flew through the air, I heard my back crack. I fully expected to be paralyzed when I finally hit the ground. To my surprise, I was still able to walk and had feeling in my legs. But, I felt 4 of my vertebrae had been shattered to smitherines (spelling ?). Courtney asked me if I was okay...and I said yes. But, inside I knew something wasn't right. It hurt to breathe, walk, talk, and be alive. I had C pray for it, and I claimed healing in Jesus name. But, as I'm sitting here it still hurts. I guess I'll have to see a chiropractor when I get go home next week.
As you may have noticed, I added some pictures to some of our older posts. I'm not sure if we've mentioned this yet, but there's this web site called "blurb" where you can turn your blog into a book. Courtney and I are very excited to do that. So, for the sake of turning this into a book in the near future, we decided that we need more pictures on here.
Yesterday, Courtney and I were playing with Lyle on the playground. We have noticed his daily routine, he runs over to the flag pole, tries to climb it for 2 mins, gets absolutely no where, and gives up. Then, he runs over to the monkey bars and sort of climbs them. I was feeling youthful and energized yesterday, so I was goofing around on the bars too. I did chin-ups for Courtney till I got tired, and then decided to grab a bar above my head. I started swinging and just when it felt like i was about to swing all the way over and do a flip, I unintentionally let go. My body contorted into a 90 degree angle. As I flew through the air, I heard my back crack. I fully expected to be paralyzed when I finally hit the ground. To my surprise, I was still able to walk and had feeling in my legs. But, I felt 4 of my vertebrae had been shattered to smitherines (spelling ?). Courtney asked me if I was okay...and I said yes. But, inside I knew something wasn't right. It hurt to breathe, walk, talk, and be alive. I had C pray for it, and I claimed healing in Jesus name. But, as I'm sitting here it still hurts. I guess I'll have to see a chiropractor when I get go home next week.
We had meatloaf for lunch today....i think. Whatever it was, it was harder to swallow than apple cider vinegar. We've officially decided to bring our own lunch from now on. Today was Courtney's last day in 2nd grade. She's unsure of what she'll be doing tomorrow. Betty and Judy (receptionist/computer teacher) are out of town until Sunday, so tomorrow I will be with the Kindergarteners, teaching computer classes, and working in the office. So, I'm guessing C will end up doing something of the same. Yesterday, I also got to explore the resource room, which has tons of art supplies, art instructing books, and interesting stuff. I'm very excited to set up that room for my art classes. Next week when I go home, I'm planning to talk to Mr. Wright to see if he can give me some guidance/ideas for teaching art to elementary students.
I can't really think of any other news...but, Courtney is taking a nap and wants to be woke up at 4, so I had better go do that. And we're having dinner @ 5:30 at Jenny's (another teacher from the school, whose from Michigan, and is around our age..maybe a few years older, but apparently wednesday nights all the teachers have dinner together).
I'm excited to see some of you this week when I come home! See you soon :]
♥
Lauren
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
PICTURE DAY!
Well today was picture day at Hopi Mission School. Actually it was yesterday but the camera was on the fritz so everyone had to wear their nice outfit two days in a row. I remembered to bring Lauren's camera with me today so we took some "Pre-Picture" pictures. So the ones you see are of me with the second grade class (minus Zackery who said he doesn't like to stand in big groups... apparently 7 people has been qualified as a big group.) and me and Lauren- PLUS a sweet ring that I bought from a Hopi lady today (IT'S HANDMADE PEOPLE! LOOK AT THE CRAFTSMANSHIP!). It may be my favorite purchased item in the world.
We only had to lift Lyle once today... then he figured out how to shimmy from the lower bars to the higher bars all by himself- a very proud moment for Lo and I.
Today I was helping a boy in my class read "Click-Clack- Moo" he stumbled through "blanket" but then read "ultimatum" so smoothly I thought I was listening to Miss Wagner. A modern day miracle some may say.
other than that... not a bunch of fun updates... Lauren was just singing backstreet boys at the top of her lungs... which gave me a brief giggle.
Tonight is our very first PTO meeting so we will get to meet some more parents hopefully and be able to build relationships with them...which is our goal- we can't wait to be more involved in the community.
Peace out Hoosiers.
Court
Monday, October 6, 2008
Mami C and Shawty Lo
Well, I may as well begin by explaining the puzzling title of this post. Today, I got to take a break from the crazy kindergarteners..which is a completely different story in itself. Anyways, I was a substitute teacher for the 5th grade (4 students, but one had in-school suspension) for 3 hours. They busily worked on spelling and language for about an hour straight. So, I was left with some convenient free time. I got out some paper and doodled for a while, and then I an epiphany. Courtney and I have been talking about writing some funny songs..and recording them on garage band (a voice/music recording program on her mac). I realized that was exactly what I should be doing. Thus, for the next hour, I wrote interesting rap songs on 2 tiny post it notes (the only paper I could find). As you know, all rappers have special rap names. I'm Shawty Lo, which is also the name Andy Rasala has been calling me for years. Courtney is Mami C. haha. At recess, I found Court and performed what I had written..she laughed till she cried. When we got home tonight, we went straight for the computer and began our recording process. We only did the beginning of one song..but its good. I mean reallllll good. Hopefully, there is some way to put them on here for all of you to enjoy.
Now, I'm going to fill you in on some everyday life details.
Yesterday, our lazy day, I baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I had 4 yesterday and 6 today. These aren't small cookies, mind you. So, I'm definitely getting my fill of sweets.
I like organic and non toxic foods...for the most part..and I also like to drink apple cider vinegar, knowing that it rids the body of toxins. Courtney has also started become a acv drinker. Last night, she dared me to drink 1 cup of it. For those of you who are not aware, acv is nasssstyy. It's so bitter/tart/gross that you can't help but make scary faces. I'm not talking a frown or sad face...I'm talking faces from "The Ring." Seizure faces. You may be thinking, "this doesn't seem right." Well, it's actually really funny to watch someone drink it. Especially a rookie. I'm a seasoned pro, and Court is well on her way. But, drinkin 1 cup is realllllly pushing the limits. But, I never back down from a dare..or a fight. So, I did it. Holy crap. I've never felt so sick. My stomach burned, fizzed, and did summersaults. First of all, I almost ralphed in the sink as I drank it, of course Court was laughing at me. Then, I was sure it was coming back up..so I spent some time in the bathroom. It stayed down, but I promise, I will never do that again. Sorry for all the gross/weird details of that experience, but it was a big event in our day. haha.
Our washing machine is leaking from the cold water valve. It has been for 24 hours now. We informed Ray, the maintenance guy and Betty the prinicipal's husband, about the leak today. But, it went under a wall, into my room, and soaked blankets and a book that were sitting on the floor.
We have tiled floor everywhere...so obviously, Courtney and I feel the need to exaggerate the pitter patter of our feet when we walk. In fact, Court likes to run up behind me all the time and scare me. We have found that tile floor is also nice for dancing. All kinds of dancing, crip walking, and ballet...yes, we are 19 and 20 years old. But we must be creative to entertain ourselves, K?
Recess. Our favorite time of day. Courtney and I have unofficially become the game coordinators at recess. We organize school wide races, not just straight up running though. We have them skip, hop, run backwards, walk/run...everything you can imagine, we've done it. The kids love it. We didn't do races today though. Instead, we played with one of my favorite students, Lyle. He deserves a detailed description, and so do you. Lyle's a kindergartener, wears sweat pants everyday, and is big for his age..not in height. I don't mean that in a disrespectful or hurtful way, I just mean...he's a big kid. It's reality. He also doesn't talk much, likes to hug me often, has anger issues, but at the same time, is incredibly cute. Anyways, Lyle was trying to climb a flag pole..and getting absolutely nowhere. So, Courtney and I offered to play with him. He silently agreed, and led us to the monkey bars. He climbed like crazy, and nearly fell off many times. Courtney and I were picking up other kids to reach the monkey bars, and Lyle saw this, and wanted us to pick him up too. C and I just looked at eachother..trying not to laugh (not at Lyle, but at the situation). We knew it was going to be incredibly challenging to lift big Lyle up that high. But, we couldn't let him down. So, we bent our knees, grunted, and by some act of God, Lyle was suddenly holding onto the monkey bar above our heads. It was hilarious. Until, Lyle fell off, and wanted back up. This happened 4 times. By the end of recess..C and I were beat. But, it was worth it to see little..or should I say big Lyle smile.
One last thing, there is a kid in my class named Levander, who rides sheep in rodeos on the weekends. He's in the top 5 sheep riders on the rez...and also 5 years old! He wears cowboy clothes and big shiny belt buckles. Idk..its cute and a interesting example of the culture here.
Alright..I'm blogged out. Courtney and I are going to watch some Seinfeld and probably go to bed. More blogging tomorrow...if the internet chooses to cooperate.
love,
Lo
Now, I'm going to fill you in on some everyday life details.
Yesterday, our lazy day, I baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I had 4 yesterday and 6 today. These aren't small cookies, mind you. So, I'm definitely getting my fill of sweets.
I like organic and non toxic foods...for the most part..and I also like to drink apple cider vinegar, knowing that it rids the body of toxins. Courtney has also started become a acv drinker. Last night, she dared me to drink 1 cup of it. For those of you who are not aware, acv is nasssstyy. It's so bitter/tart/gross that you can't help but make scary faces. I'm not talking a frown or sad face...I'm talking faces from "The Ring." Seizure faces. You may be thinking, "this doesn't seem right." Well, it's actually really funny to watch someone drink it. Especially a rookie. I'm a seasoned pro, and Court is well on her way. But, drinkin 1 cup is realllllly pushing the limits. But, I never back down from a dare..or a fight. So, I did it. Holy crap. I've never felt so sick. My stomach burned, fizzed, and did summersaults. First of all, I almost ralphed in the sink as I drank it, of course Court was laughing at me. Then, I was sure it was coming back up..so I spent some time in the bathroom. It stayed down, but I promise, I will never do that again. Sorry for all the gross/weird details of that experience, but it was a big event in our day. haha.
Our washing machine is leaking from the cold water valve. It has been for 24 hours now. We informed Ray, the maintenance guy and Betty the prinicipal's husband, about the leak today. But, it went under a wall, into my room, and soaked blankets and a book that were sitting on the floor.
We have tiled floor everywhere...so obviously, Courtney and I feel the need to exaggerate the pitter patter of our feet when we walk. In fact, Court likes to run up behind me all the time and scare me. We have found that tile floor is also nice for dancing. All kinds of dancing, crip walking, and ballet...yes, we are 19 and 20 years old. But we must be creative to entertain ourselves, K?
Recess. Our favorite time of day. Courtney and I have unofficially become the game coordinators at recess. We organize school wide races, not just straight up running though. We have them skip, hop, run backwards, walk/run...everything you can imagine, we've done it. The kids love it. We didn't do races today though. Instead, we played with one of my favorite students, Lyle. He deserves a detailed description, and so do you. Lyle's a kindergartener, wears sweat pants everyday, and is big for his age..not in height. I don't mean that in a disrespectful or hurtful way, I just mean...he's a big kid. It's reality. He also doesn't talk much, likes to hug me often, has anger issues, but at the same time, is incredibly cute. Anyways, Lyle was trying to climb a flag pole..and getting absolutely nowhere. So, Courtney and I offered to play with him. He silently agreed, and led us to the monkey bars. He climbed like crazy, and nearly fell off many times. Courtney and I were picking up other kids to reach the monkey bars, and Lyle saw this, and wanted us to pick him up too. C and I just looked at eachother..trying not to laugh (not at Lyle, but at the situation). We knew it was going to be incredibly challenging to lift big Lyle up that high. But, we couldn't let him down. So, we bent our knees, grunted, and by some act of God, Lyle was suddenly holding onto the monkey bar above our heads. It was hilarious. Until, Lyle fell off, and wanted back up. This happened 4 times. By the end of recess..C and I were beat. But, it was worth it to see little..or should I say big Lyle smile.
One last thing, there is a kid in my class named Levander, who rides sheep in rodeos on the weekends. He's in the top 5 sheep riders on the rez...and also 5 years old! He wears cowboy clothes and big shiny belt buckles. Idk..its cute and a interesting example of the culture here.
Alright..I'm blogged out. Courtney and I are going to watch some Seinfeld and probably go to bed. More blogging tomorrow...if the internet chooses to cooperate.
love,
Lo
An update...however uneventful it may be. Here it is.
Super sorry that we havent updated for a while. The thing is... our internet only works every other day...and about once a week it is actually fast enough to use. So...patience dear readers.
Saturday: We woke up real stinking early (not really... like 7:30) and started our drive to Flagstaff. We had to take Diane to the train station so she could catch her bus to the Phoenix airport. Maureen did us proud and got us there with no problems. The drive is about an hour and a half but it goes by fast because the scenery is INSANE! There is one specific mountain that we have ever so thoughtfully named "Peanut Butter Mountain" because it looks like a glob of peanut butter. I know- creative. Anywho- we finally got to Flag (as the locals call it... we are trying to be one of them so that is what I will to refer to it as from here on out.) and went back to the same coffee shop we went to earlier in the week and ordered the same drinks too. It was SO COLD there that day- like 40 and rainy and we were freezing like fish sticks. Diane got on her shuttle about 20 minutes later we waved good bye and got in the car to go to Wal*Mart to pick up a few little things. This is where we decided that God must really like this blog... because crazy things just keep falling into our laps that are blog worthy. So me and Lo are looking at the tv's in walmart when a cute little native woman walks up. She was probably 80 or so. With no introduction whatsoever she says "I think the stupidest thing in the world is when there is a big house with only two people living in it. IT WASTES ELECTRICITY!" Then from there she proceded in her monologue. Refering to "He" (we never did figure out who she was talking about) and how it would be really nice for him to build houses for all the veterens to live in. Following that little notion with about 10 minutes of her saying "I don't care how old I am- if that happens I will jump high as a giraffe" but just rearranging the words of that sentences. After about 20 minutes of us blocking the DVD aisle smiling and nodding and saying "That makes sense" she just stopped mid sentence and walked away. Lauren and I just looked at eachother and said (simultaneously I might add) "What the?" We were so confused there wasn't even room for laughter. After that fun little shopping detour we moved on with our day, had lunch, ran in pouring rain to the very far away parking spot that lil Lauren insisted upon, were embarrassed about our wet dogness when we had to walk in front of the NAU baseball team when we stopped for a bathroom break at Subway, and then headed home. We went to Stan and Beth's again that night for a (and you thought we were roughing it...) STEAK DINNER, came home and slept. Apparently somewhere in that sleeping time Lauren had a nightmare and sprinted into my bedroom. So I woke up in the middle of the night and opened my eyes to laurens face one inch from mine. I may or may not have jumped and shouted in an embarrassing manner but I fell asleep again so I guess I don't mind.
Sunday: I woke up feeling like my head weighed 40 pounds. So i stayed home from church... we watched some movies and cleaned... and that's basically it. ( Lauren will update you on the rest of the night.)
A little side note. I have been teaching 2nd grade by myself since Thursday. I LOVE IT. It is seriously a blast. A little challenging at times because sometimes people would rather arrange pencil shavings in the shape of a cat while laying on the floor than do their math worksheets, but its still super fun. One day the class insisted that I was wearing the same outfit as the day before (which i was NOT thank you) and the only thing that saved me from ridicule was good old Franklin ( who I just began calling Mr. Franklinstein today) who told the class that the button on my OTHER sweater was bigger and brown instead of black. PHEW!
We have been playing lots of spelling games and I am proud to say I have successfully taught 7 2nd graders how to spell the word "children". The other day they had to write 7 sentences about why they loved being Hopi or Navajo which spawned all sorts of cool facts. One boy walked me through the butchering of a sheep step by step. Let me tell you- I will no long wonder what size knife to use when preparing a lamp versus a full grown sheep. Honestly I am going to be sad when their regular teacher comes back on Thursday. But we'll just see where things go from there!
Well I am hungry and there is leftover spaghetti calling my name. Miss and love you all.
Court
(these pictures are mostly for Tanner. Remember these dogs?? I bet you are clinching your teeth together at the cuteness right now.)
Thursday, October 2, 2008
We're here!!...part deux
We woke up early in order to be ready on time for our first day of school! All of us had ice cold showers, and we forgot that the water here (aka "Hopi sweet water") is extremely soft, thus it almost feels a little slimey. Nevertheless, it was still refreshing. We went to devotions with all of the teachers before school, got re-introduced to some of the teachers, and then met with Betty to go over some details of our living arrangements. We were without alot of neccessities..such as toilet paper. But, Betty took care of our every need and thoroughly answered every question we came up with. Then, Courtney went to the second grade classroom to observe, and I went to kindergarten to do the same. During the chapel service before lunch, C and I were finally able to reunite and share our experiences. We both observed that our students were as rowdy and hyper as idk....a blueberry python. The chapel service was filled with summer campish songs and motions that force you to make a fool of yo self. It was similar to the "saddle up your horses" experience. (andrea & karlton-you know what i'm talkin bout) But, somehow we survived. Then came lunch, which consisted of delicious cornbread-minus the fact that C found hair in it, candied carrots, pears, and last but certainly not least......a bowl of gravy with 2 hunks of chicken, plus, three tons of black pepper. No joke, it made my upper lip sweat blood. From there, the day was basically over.
The second C and I got home, we ate everything in sight, and didn't stop there. We made a delicious pizza and each had three giant pieces and left one for my mom. We sat and watched episodes of The Office as our adopted dog, Teddy, who is actually a dog that lives on the school grounds and has two precious daughter puppies, sat on our living room floor and slept for hours. Yes, there was a good chance he had fleas, ticks, and other frightening parasites, but, those things don't matter to us. After chilling out on our too comfortable couch, we decided to get something done. So we hopped on our bikes, and rode over to Hopi Wireless to buy our "emergencies only" cell phone. After nearly crashing our bikes several hundred times due to the mushy sand, we finally made it. It took an unexpectedly long time to buy our phone, and as we waited we were indirectly entertained by a silly sales gal. She was always on the phone with customers, and was always cracking silly jokes, such as "you should buy the krazr phone, its really crazy!" and " don't take the razr in the shower!" and these cell phone jokes were always followed with "anyways, I'm just kidding." At times it was hard to keep from laughing, but we did our very best. Finally, we purchased our phone from Lowell the salesman and got the heck outta there. On the way back, C crushed a juicy beetle with her bike tire. It made a gross sound and upset me a little. We got back to our house and discovered that our bike tires were completely covered in wicked little spikes, that also stuck to the bottom of our shoes. Thus, we have put a "no shoes in the house" rule in place.
We went to Stan and Beth's house for dinner, which consisted of amazing mashed squash, yummy chicken, and biscuits. We hung out there for a while after dinner to play with the kids and just doing a little chatting. Anastasia, Isabella, and Elijah wanted piggy and horsey back rides, thus, I gave them what they wanted. After about 10 mins of this I was sweaty and tired. So we went to the living room and they wanted to play on the insanely sturdy coffee table. They begged me to get on it and do a funny dance..so..thats what I attempted to do. They laughed for a while and then were sick of that..so we went to the other room where Elijah wanted to pretend to milk there goat. Little did I know..I was going to be the goat. He took two chairs and corralled me. But, the corral was too small..so I had to stand up. Elijah said, and I quote, "I'm going to milk you now." So to paint this picture clearly, I'm standing, and Elijah (who is 2 1/2 years old) is sitting at my feet. He slowly reaches his curious hands up with a smile on his face and thoughts of milk in his head..and the situation nearly got extremely awkward..make of that what you may.. As I realized what was about to happen, I felt my eyes get big, and my face get red, and I slowly stepped out of my goat pen. I looked over at Courtney and Beth who were dying laughing..to the point of tears and I realized it was ok to laugh about this silly experience. After recovering from that..Elijah continued to be crazy and silly. Eventually, we realized the hour was late, and we decided to head home.
All in all, our first day was great! We're still settling in, but having a wonderful time. We will give the next update later tonight..hope you enjoyed all of these juicy details. More to come fo sho.
Love,
Lo
The second C and I got home, we ate everything in sight, and didn't stop there. We made a delicious pizza and each had three giant pieces and left one for my mom. We sat and watched episodes of The Office as our adopted dog, Teddy, who is actually a dog that lives on the school grounds and has two precious daughter puppies, sat on our living room floor and slept for hours. Yes, there was a good chance he had fleas, ticks, and other frightening parasites, but, those things don't matter to us. After chilling out on our too comfortable couch, we decided to get something done. So we hopped on our bikes, and rode over to Hopi Wireless to buy our "emergencies only" cell phone. After nearly crashing our bikes several hundred times due to the mushy sand, we finally made it. It took an unexpectedly long time to buy our phone, and as we waited we were indirectly entertained by a silly sales gal. She was always on the phone with customers, and was always cracking silly jokes, such as "you should buy the krazr phone, its really crazy!" and " don't take the razr in the shower!" and these cell phone jokes were always followed with "anyways, I'm just kidding." At times it was hard to keep from laughing, but we did our very best. Finally, we purchased our phone from Lowell the salesman and got the heck outta there. On the way back, C crushed a juicy beetle with her bike tire. It made a gross sound and upset me a little. We got back to our house and discovered that our bike tires were completely covered in wicked little spikes, that also stuck to the bottom of our shoes. Thus, we have put a "no shoes in the house" rule in place.
We went to Stan and Beth's house for dinner, which consisted of amazing mashed squash, yummy chicken, and biscuits. We hung out there for a while after dinner to play with the kids and just doing a little chatting. Anastasia, Isabella, and Elijah wanted piggy and horsey back rides, thus, I gave them what they wanted. After about 10 mins of this I was sweaty and tired. So we went to the living room and they wanted to play on the insanely sturdy coffee table. They begged me to get on it and do a funny dance..so..thats what I attempted to do. They laughed for a while and then were sick of that..so we went to the other room where Elijah wanted to pretend to milk there goat. Little did I know..I was going to be the goat. He took two chairs and corralled me. But, the corral was too small..so I had to stand up. Elijah said, and I quote, "I'm going to milk you now." So to paint this picture clearly, I'm standing, and Elijah (who is 2 1/2 years old) is sitting at my feet. He slowly reaches his curious hands up with a smile on his face and thoughts of milk in his head..and the situation nearly got extremely awkward..make of that what you may.. As I realized what was about to happen, I felt my eyes get big, and my face get red, and I slowly stepped out of my goat pen. I looked over at Courtney and Beth who were dying laughing..to the point of tears and I realized it was ok to laugh about this silly experience. After recovering from that..Elijah continued to be crazy and silly. Eventually, we realized the hour was late, and we decided to head home.
All in all, our first day was great! We're still settling in, but having a wonderful time. We will give the next update later tonight..hope you enjoyed all of these juicy details. More to come fo sho.
Love,
Lo
We're here!!!
Ok... sorry for the little time lapse in between the last entry and now. I know you were all biting your nails in anticipation. We didn't have internet until about 3 minutes ago. Lauren is at the store right now buying noodles and cereal and she will probably be so excited about having internet that she may scream something similar to blueberry python. If that does indeed occur you know I will be typing it.
So the last day of the road trip was....boring. sorta. We were really tired and the drive mainly consisted of Lauren sleeping and me singing and bobbing my head while wearing giant aviators that make me look like my grandpa gant. The one interesting moment was when we needed to get gas VERY badly and were in the middle of nowhere. I politely asked Maureen to show us the nearest gas station. Well, she was once again taking a break from being the best lil navigator in the west and decided to lead me to a "Petrified forest" according the signs hanging on the gate at the dead end i had to turn around at. After we got very angry with Maureen we decided to take the gas finding into our own needs and stumbled upon the "Hopi travel plaza" which was sort of weird because it was not anywhere near the reservation. This place had many dinosaur statues. Lauren ran in to find a bathroom. She ran back out said she got nervous and that it was weird inside, therefore she never went to the bathroom.
FINALLY! We got to Flagstaff. Did some quick high fives and "WAHOOOS!" and then we went out to explore since it was going to be another hour before diane (Lauren's mom) or beth (beautiful missionary that we adore) showed up. We waltzed around Flagstaff (not literally... we haven't learned to ballroom dance since we left) and found a CUUUUUTE little coffee shop. I ahd a turtle latte and lauren had a white chocolate one. Flagstaff is awesome. You are surrounded by awesome scenery, people on bicycles that look like they could climb a mountain in 8 minutes flat, and many college students. (N.A.U. CAN I GET A WHAT WHAT!!) After wandering through a bunch of cool stores we had lunch at a place I promised I wouldn't forget the name of. Promise broken. The food was really good though. After that we headed back over to the train station and met up with diane and beth ( along with her three kids Isabella, Anastasia, and Elijah) and went on a grocery shopping extravaganza. We bough lots of meat and lots of fruit. Next we made the drive out to the REZ! It was about an hour and a half and at some point even Maureen didn't know the names of the roads. We got to our house and unloaded all our groceries (Thank God that my mom packed us a truckload of dried goods and canned stuff... our cabinents are sort of half way full!) We were super tired and had to get up to be at the school by 7:45 so we went to bed pretty early.
This is nowhere near being finished...but I will let Lo do the rest of the update.
*NEW* Contact info
Home phone ( we can't call out with a calling card but we can recieve allll the calls we stinking want) 928-734-1085
Cell phone ( It's super expensive to talk on but its good if you really need to get a hold of us and we aren't answering at the house.) 928-401-5131
Mailing address:
Courtney Gant and/or Lauren Sandberg
Hopi Mission School
P.O. Box 39
Kykotsmovi Village, AZ 86039
Shipping Address
Courtney Gant and/or Lauren Sandberg
Hopi Mission School
1 Mission School Road
Kykotsmovie Village, AZ 86039
Love you all A LOT.
Court
PS. When i told Lauren we had internet she said "Cool." Way to disappoint the readers, Lo.
So the last day of the road trip was....boring. sorta. We were really tired and the drive mainly consisted of Lauren sleeping and me singing and bobbing my head while wearing giant aviators that make me look like my grandpa gant. The one interesting moment was when we needed to get gas VERY badly and were in the middle of nowhere. I politely asked Maureen to show us the nearest gas station. Well, she was once again taking a break from being the best lil navigator in the west and decided to lead me to a "Petrified forest" according the signs hanging on the gate at the dead end i had to turn around at. After we got very angry with Maureen we decided to take the gas finding into our own needs and stumbled upon the "Hopi travel plaza" which was sort of weird because it was not anywhere near the reservation. This place had many dinosaur statues. Lauren ran in to find a bathroom. She ran back out said she got nervous and that it was weird inside, therefore she never went to the bathroom.
FINALLY! We got to Flagstaff. Did some quick high fives and "WAHOOOS!" and then we went out to explore since it was going to be another hour before diane (Lauren's mom) or beth (beautiful missionary that we adore) showed up. We waltzed around Flagstaff (not literally... we haven't learned to ballroom dance since we left) and found a CUUUUUTE little coffee shop. I ahd a turtle latte and lauren had a white chocolate one. Flagstaff is awesome. You are surrounded by awesome scenery, people on bicycles that look like they could climb a mountain in 8 minutes flat, and many college students. (N.A.U. CAN I GET A WHAT WHAT!!) After wandering through a bunch of cool stores we had lunch at a place I promised I wouldn't forget the name of. Promise broken. The food was really good though. After that we headed back over to the train station and met up with diane and beth ( along with her three kids Isabella, Anastasia, and Elijah) and went on a grocery shopping extravaganza. We bough lots of meat and lots of fruit. Next we made the drive out to the REZ! It was about an hour and a half and at some point even Maureen didn't know the names of the roads. We got to our house and unloaded all our groceries (Thank God that my mom packed us a truckload of dried goods and canned stuff... our cabinents are sort of half way full!) We were super tired and had to get up to be at the school by 7:45 so we went to bed pretty early.
This is nowhere near being finished...but I will let Lo do the rest of the update.
*NEW* Contact info
Home phone ( we can't call out with a calling card but we can recieve allll the calls we stinking want) 928-734-1085
Cell phone ( It's super expensive to talk on but its good if you really need to get a hold of us and we aren't answering at the house.) 928-401-5131
Mailing address:
Courtney Gant and/or Lauren Sandberg
Hopi Mission School
P.O. Box 39
Kykotsmovi Village, AZ 86039
Shipping Address
Courtney Gant and/or Lauren Sandberg
Hopi Mission School
1 Mission School Road
Kykotsmovie Village, AZ 86039
Love you all A LOT.
Court
PS. When i told Lauren we had internet she said "Cool." Way to disappoint the readers, Lo.
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