Masi Popo Houses

(Tyler) and My Masi Popo House

For our last playgroup before I left Samoa I really wanted to make Gingerbread houses. My friends Apu and Pura had never made them so I wanted to introduce them to it. Suzie and I searched the whole island for Graham crackers and couldn't find any. We tried all of our favorite "American goods" stores and no one had them. This morning Suzie came up with a great idea. We'll use Masi Popo. Its a biscuit like cracker they make here out of coconut, flour, sugar, and water. They worked great for our houses. The icing was melting in the heat but most of them lasted until we could at least get a picture. It became more of an adult project than a kids one. The kids had fun eating all the candy though. I was glad I could introduce my Samoan friends to one of our "Palagi" traditions.

Busy working away

The finished products

Trying to catch the Christmas Spirit

I have to say with 90 degree weather and 90% humidity everyday. Its been tough for me to feel like its Christmas time. I play Christmas songs on our Zune all day and have tried making some of my favorite Christmas treats, but its still a little tough. I need hot cocoa, cold weather and lots of Christmas lights (with electricity being so expensive here, you don't see many Christmas lights). A few weeks ago for Family Night we decided to crank the AC, make a version of hot cocoa and decorate our 1.5 ft. Christmas tree. I only bought 6 ornaments for it and Tyler took them off the tree as fast as I could put them on. He'd take off an ornament, yell "Ball!" and chuck it across the room. The tree has been moved out of Tyler's reach ever since. Only 6 more days til we're back in snowy Utah sitting around a big Christmas tree with all our family!

Funny Tyler moment: Tyler was carrying around our fly swatter today swinging at imaginary bugs and kept repeating the words "erry crifmas!" It took me a while to look over at him and realize he was holding the fly swatter high above his head, swining it down on a bug and yelling "Merry Christmas!" over and over again. I don't think it was very merry for that bug.

Big News

I have two big announcements for our family that we decided to make public. The first is that we're expecting another baby! I'm due June 20th. Like last time around, I've been feeling pretty sick during my first trimester, but I'm hopeful that its coming to a close soon as I enter my second trimester. We're very excited to have our family grow and for Tyler to have a sibling.

Our other big announcement is that we're moving back to the States in 2 weeks. Its a rather long story that I decided I won't post all of the details on a public blog, but you can ask us the details in another forum. We really feel its the right time for us to leave and are just having faith that we'll be able to find another job in the States soon. We'll be in Utah for Christmas and New Years and then spend some time in Maryland at the beginning of January. Although these past few months have been tough for me here, I find that I'm looking around now at all of the things about Samoa that I will miss. We both feel that its the right thing to do though and are very excited to be back around family and in our home country again. We fly home on December 22nd, but won't arrive in Utah until late on the 23rd (Its a long flight). Hopefully we'll get to visit with all of our old friends during the holidays.

Thanksgiving and Impetigo

This past week we celebrated Thanksgiving and I don't really have any pictures of our dinner. It didn't exactly go as planned anyway. Andy worked on Thanksgiving and Tyler and went over to campus for Thanksgiving dinner with the boys. Tyler ended up getting a fever and I had to leave early. Kye also wasn't feeling well (surprise, surprise). By Saturday they had both broken out in sores all around their mouths, legs, arms, and bum. We took them into the doctors office together and the doctor thought they had generalized herpes and were highly contagious! We were suppose to have another Thanksgiving dinner that day with people from church. We spent Saturday busy making our Thanksgiving dishes to send with our husbands while we searched google images for pictures of kids with generalized herpes and tried to get second opinions from nurses and doctors we knew in the states. After lots of possible diagosises from Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease to Chicken Pox we took them back into the doctor on Tuesday. Their sores were starting to heal but had formed blisters that were opening and then scabbing over (Sorry for the gross details). The doctor then diagnosed them with a mild case of Impetigo. (Tyler's was more mild than Kye). Apparently this is very contagious among kids and is an infection in their skin. Although they looked pretty awful for a few days, they're starting to clear up now and are back to their usual selfs. One more adventure in Samoa right?

Halloween - Samoan Style

Independent Samoa doesn't actually celebrate Halloween. Luckily a few people from our ward are Americans and still celebrate so they had a ward activity for kids to trick-or-treat to people's houses in the ward. We also had a Halloween Party for the boys at Andy's work, which I was in charge of so we still got our yearly dose of Halloween festivities. It was kind of late by the time the work Halloween party was over so we didn't get out trick-or treating till almost the boy's bedtime, but we still made it around to a handful of houses.Their costumes were my idea - Samoan slap dancers. It was a really cheap costume - only about $3 for the material and the necklaces were homemade by Suzie (thank you!). I know they took her a long time. The boys even performed a little dance for a few houses. Tyler doesn't really know what candy is yet and I decided to keep it that way for a year longer. He just didn't understand why we weren't going into everyone's house after they gave us candy. I'm sure he'll "get it" more next year.

Gratefuls

(Grateful #1 - My son)

Two days ago I had a very low point in our stay in Samoa. I came down with a cold Tuesday night and was feeling pretty lousy. Our car was in the shop for the 3rd time since we bought it and I had no way of getting anywhere. Andy was also sick and Tyler was getting his fourth and last molar . Its probably been one of the hottest weeks since we've arrived and on top of that we've had daily power outtages for at least 3 hours everyday. I was putting Tyler down for his afternoon nap when he looked at me and said "Prayer Time?" (from the mouth of babes). We don't usually say prayers before his naps, only before bed, but who can turn down a one year old who wants to pray. I started the prayer and said "Thank you for..." and felt like at that moment I couldn't think of a lot to be grateful for. Well I realized instantly that was what I needed to do - Be grateful.
So this is what my grateful list became:
1. a healthy, wonderful son who teaches me so to look at whats important when I'm feeling grumpy
2. a supportive, loving husband who provides for us with a good job
3. my family back in the U.S. that supports and loves us
4. a nice home
5. food on the table
6. an education
7. Electricity
8. My faith
9. Good health
10. The power to change my outlook

My Play Group Friends

These are some women who I've become friends with at church. We meet for a playgroup about twice a month. They're all amazing women who I've learned so much from and are a great support to me. Pictured above is Caroline. She's from Tonga and has five children who she calls her "soldiers." These are her youngest two.
Pura is from New Zealand and has lived in Samoa for a few years now. She has three older boys and Isara, almost three. She has the best accent, she always greets me with a kiss on the cheek and calls all of us "sistas."
Apu was born and raised here in Samoa but actually went to highschool in Midway, Utah. I feel like she understands me as an American living in a foreign land because she's done both. These are her two daughters, Spring and Nanni.