Tyler Update

I feel like I haven't been very good about recording all of my "Tyler moments" lately. He's growing up so fast I can hardly believe it. He'll be two next week and is definitely a toddler now. He talks non stop and will repeat just about anything we say. He has an amazing vocabulary for his age. One day a few weeks ago he told me "Mom I need to exercise." I'm not sure he knows what exercise is, but he must have heard Andy and I say it to each other. He is in love with cars, trucks, and anything with wheels. My father-in-law bought a new ATV last Saturday and Tyler has been obsessed with it ever since. He always asks to go see it outside in the driveway and tells me "I need to drive it." (Another 14 years buddy) He's recently moved into a "Big Guy" bed and did the transition pretty well. He calls it his "guy boy" bed. He had his older, potty trained cousins around this week and now wants to be like the big kids and tells me multiple times a day that he needs to go potty. I humor him by sitting him on the toilet for a few seconds and then letting him flush it, but I'm not expecting any miracles yet. He's been so much fun over the past two years. I'm excited to experience it all again with a new baby soon.

Back in Utah with a Job

I've been very behind on my blogging lately. My excuse is that I don't have a house of my own right now, but really I've just put it off. So the latest update is that Andy got a job! He's working for a state run medicaid mental health facility in....Spanish Fork! I'm actually really excited to move back to Spanish Fork because I really liked living there before. I still have hopes for living somewhere outside of Utah in the future, but for now we're grateful to have 1) income 2)supervision towards Andy's Social Work license 3) really good benefits! We feel very blessed right now considering how difficult finding work is for a lot of people with the current economic state. We're still living in Andy's parent's basement in Provo right now, but we're hoping to find a place to rent down in Spanish Fork in the next month or two. Being a "gypsy" for so long, I'm anxious to finally settle somewhere and unpack our bags especially before the next baby comes.

Another Boy!

We had our 20 week ultrasound today and knew right away that we were having another boy! I've had a feeling I would end up in a house full of boys and I guess I was right. We're excited that Tyler will have a brother close in age to play with and glad we already have a ton of boy clothes too! He's got two arms and two legs and everything seems to be working as it should. The doctor said he's going to make sure this baby isn't over 8 lbs when I deliver this time and I'm grateful to hear that! Here's a few pics from the ultrasound. He's showing us his spine in the first picture and giving us a thumbs up in the second.

Poor Kid Needs a Friend

I think Tyler is going through some Kye and cousin withdrawals. One of the drawbacks about being at my parent's house is that Tyler doesn't really have any kids his age to play with except when he's at nursery. So over the past few days he's developed a strong attachment to "Te Bear." Te Bear goes everywhere with Tyler. Tyler even asks to change his diaper and get him dressed. (Te Bear has "poopies" several times a day that Tyler asks to change) He sits in the chair next to him at lunch and takes naps with Tyler too. He plays with Tyler's toys and often wants the same snacks as Tyler. Its cute to see how soft and gentle Tyler is with him. He gives him hugs and holds his hand. I'm thinking its good practice for when he has a baby brother/ sister soon, except for the times he throws him down the stairs or sits on him. I still think its not a very good substitute for a friend though and hope we can set up some play dates at church this Sunday.

Whats Going on Now

We had a great Christmas at Andy's parents house in Provo. Andy's sister was visiting from North Carolina with her kids too and there was always family stopping by. I felt like it was a nonstop party for 2 weeks. Andy's brother was married 2 days after Christmas in Salt Lake. They had two receptions on separate weekends. It was fun to have so many occasions for family to get together and see everyone. I feel like our time there went by too quickly though and before we knew it we were on our way to Maryland. I flew out the day before Andy so I could spend more time with my sister who I hadn't seen in a year and a half before she went back to California. I flew by myself with Tyler but was lucky to be on the same Southwest flight as some family friends who were life savers in helping me the whole way with Tyler.

We've been in Maryland for almost two weeks now. We've wanted to find work on the east coast and are focusing our search here. Its discouraging knowing how many people are looking for work right now, but in a lot of ways I feel that Andy and I are being looked out for. We're in a much better situation than some - we have nothing to lose right now! I'd rather be in our own place sooner rather than later, but for now, we're doing alright. We've looked into the VA (Veteran's Affairs) lately and hear a lot of good things. There's supposed to be a lot more jobs there in the next 6 months so we'll see whats happens. We're going to just start sending out resumes to all of the locations this weekend. If anyone knows of any possibilities for jobs in Social Work, we're all ears!

Here's a picture of my handsome boys at Brad's wedding reception:

Transistioning

So I've sat down to do a blog entry many times over the past month and just didn't know where to start. So today I'm going to try to catch up a little. I wanted to post about the things that have been easier or harder than I imagined with coming back to the States. In a lot of ways I think we acclimated too quickly. Really this is what I've known my whole life so its easy to slip back into the way things always were. Here are a few items of mention from our "transition."
What I noticed most when first driving down 1-15 in Utah: The wealth: everyone has such nice homes, stores, etc in America.
Unexpected difficult transition: locating a car in a Wal-Mart/ Costco parking lot (Andy and I have lost our car three times now, I guess we're a little out of practice with large parking lots)
Slowest learning curve: I still turn on my windshield wipers every time I make a turn in a left hand drive now.
Biggest commercial thrill of coming home: Going to a American grocery store - 20 aisles of endless possibilities for dinner!
Things that have stuck with us somewhat: Not feeling like I have to look fashionable and wear make up everyday. I do more than I did in Samoa, but if I'm not going anywhere besides Wal-Mart that day - why put in the effort? Tyler was playing with a roll of wrapping paper in the kitchen the other day and was holding it with both hands and sweeping it back and forth across the floor, saying "I cut the grass." (Everyone mows their lawns with weed wackers in Samoa) Tyler still thinks this is how you cut the grass and imitates a weed wacker instead of a lawn mower.
Things we miss about Samoa: the lack of crowds, we were hit hard with the reality of crowds the second we stepped off the plane in LAX, the day before Christmas Eve! It was a nightmere, but we made it to Utah somehow. We miss the Nius too, although we found a family at church that can get us Taro and make Palusami! I miss how hospitable everyone is in Samoa too. They're such a welcoming people.

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