http://msp.imirus.com//Mpowered/imirus.jsp?volume=ds10&issue=11&page=234

Hope this link works to a very funny article in the Delta Airlines Sky Magazine. Unfortunately we are becoming regular readers of this publication.

DISNEYLAND

We surprised the kids and took them to Disneyland and California Adventure Park for 2 days. We told them a couple of weeks ago we were going on a special trip if they were extra good. They were great, they were so nice to each other.
The first day of our trip was a stop at the LA temple. They just finished the visitor center and we had to see it before we moved. I think they have been working on it since before we moved here. It is amazing you could spend all day there if you wanted. The kids loved it even after being there for 5 hours.


Day 2 and 3 all day at Disneyland. When the kids found out it was Disneyland they couldn't believe it. Austin kept saying "really we are going to Disneyland" over and over. It was so fun.

The kids couldn't get enough of the rides. Friday was super crowded but Saturday was not that bad.

Dillon was the funnest to watch. I wish I could of followed him around with a camcorder. I am so glad we waited to take the kids. Dillon was just tall enough to go on the roller coasters! We first took them on a small one in Toontown and he loved it. So we thought why not try Space Mountain. He was barley tall enough and I think everyone in line thought we were crazy. The first thing he said when he got off was "I want to go again" and Dakota said "I never want to go on it again." This photo is Dillon sitting all ready to go.

About the only thing Dillon was scared of was Sully! He kept saying "no, no it's a monster."

Here are some photos we took while waiting in line.

The last day, the day we drove home. We went to a ward in Anaheim and it happened to be there primary program. I was excited because that is my favorite sacrament meeting. A lady came up to introduce herself and invited the kids to go up and sing. We thought no we are fine. They have a small primary of about 12 kids. Then another lady came up to invite the kids and I don't think she was going to take no for an answer. They were excited to sing their songs again, they jumped out of their seats and went to sit with the rest of the kids. They did such a great job I am so proud of them.

I asked everyone what their favorite part of our trip was and these are the answers:

Spencer "going home"

Michelle "being together, everyone happy"

Dakota "soaring over California" a must if you go to California Adventure Park

Austin "Space Mountain"

Madison "the Princesses"

Dillon "the rides, I like Austin and going to Andrew's house"

Awards!!

This month has been a great month for our kids. They have received some great awards at school. It all started a month ago when Austin was awarded with student of the month in his class. His teacher, Mr. Martinez, wrote a letter why he nominated Austin and read it at the assembly. This is what the letter said:


Austin Birch has been nominated for the Character Counts! Pillar of Trustworthiness. He has shown this character in his ability to be an extremely scholarly individual. We can trust that Austin will always do his best to focus in the classroom and work his hardest. As his teacher I can trust that Austin will do his work at a mastery level as well as participate regularly in classroom discussions. In fact Austin is regularly completing his assignments, participating in class, and is already at 94% in multiplication! Austin has become a leader in a classroom of potential leaders and we thank him for his exemplary example of what a scholar is and should be.

Sincerely,

Mr. Martinez

At this months assembly we were invited because Austin was going to received a metal for mastering all his math facts by the first quarter. It is supposed to take all year. He was the first in his class to master them and by the end of the quarter 3 other students in his class mastered them. Their came a point before he mastered them that he was the one to beat. Mr. Martinez even made up a little competition to encourage his students. Little did he know Austin would do anything to win! Even if the prize is a quarter. He didn't know what the prize was but Austin was going to win. If Austin was the first to learn all his math facts he would win a prize but if someone else beat him they would win. Austin being the type of kid he is when he puts his mind to something he is going to get it. He would come home everyday for about a week and practice. His practice paid off because he did it. So what did he win... ALL of the Percy Jackson books! He was soooo excited because Paytin and MaKay love those books so much.

Is these two photos he received a certificate for prefect attendance and being on the the honor roll. To get on the honor roll you need a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Austin's was 4.12! He is so smart.

So the girls, no I have not forgot about them. Dakota was on the honor roll. She would of had perfect attendance but I bought tickets for her and Spencer's birthday to see Carrie Underwood. The only thing was it was on a Wednesday night. Dakota thought she could still go to school the next day but after getting home after 11 she was too tried to get out of bed. Since I am such a nice mommy I let her ditch school.

And sweet Madison got prefect attendance! They don't do honor roll in 1st grade or I am sure she would of been on it! I am so proud of all be kids. They love school and it shows.

Happy Halloween!

We had trunk or treat on Friday. It was great because it was out at our house. Sometimes it is nice not to have to drive to a ward activity. This will be the last time the kids get to dress up for Halloween. At least for the next couple of years. One of they many things that will be different when we move. They are pretty bummed out because they love to dress up. They keep asking me what holidays they celebrate in Argentina. They were most sad about the 4 of July. We just might have to make it home for that one. Austin asked "Do they celebrate Christmas?" He was most worried about that one. Our kids are great. I have the best kids, their attitudes just amaze me. They are such great examples to me!

Friends!

Here are some of photos that the kids got to do with their friends over the last couple weeks.


First thing the dads were watching the boys. This is Andrew one of Dillon's favorite friends. They decide one night to bury each other in the sand box. I am not sure who started it. They were both pretty proud of themselves. Dillon got a little more sandy than Andrew. Dillon loves the dirt.

Here is Madison and her class. Most of the 1st graders put on a Harvest Assembly for their parents. They sang 5 songs for us and did a great job. Madison has a lot of friends in her class who she is going to miss.

The next to photos was something really fun all 4 of the kids got to do with 15 friends. Close to their school there is a house and on the property of that house is a train track. One of my friends, Kellie, was curious enough to go knock on the door to find out if there is a train that rides on that train track. Sure enough there is and the nice couple were kind enough to let us go for a ride. The nice man built his train and took over 24 years to complete it. I say never give up on those unfinished projects you can get them done. The kids had a blast.

We have some pretty great friends! We have been so blessed. We are not sure how to say good bye. My heart hurts just thinking about it. I know I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and knows my needs. My life has been that much better because of the friends we have.

With moving comes releases

Usually this is not something we keep track of, but I want to write about today. Today you can say I got my husband back! He was released from being bishop. I am not sure if I wanted to yell in excitement or cry. I did some of both. I have the best husband and he was a great bishop. I am not sure where the last 2 years went but right now they feel like they flew by. I remembered that day 2 years ago when he was called, with 15 month old Dillon sitting on my lap, saying to myself, "I can do this, I can do this!" Today I was saying the same thing and Dillon was on my lap a little heavier than before. I will miss our ward, they helped us through some of our hardest times. We have felt their prayers and that is one thing I will miss. I believe so much more in the power of prayer. I feel our family motto has been: We can do hard things. We have done hard things and we have been through hard times. Every time I have felt my Heavenly Father with me. That is one reason I am not scared for our next adventure. I know we will not be doing it alone. We will always have the help of our Father in Heaven. I know we will have hard days but we will make it through stronger because of it. I am grateful for the power of the Priesthood. Being able to call on worthy men to give me a blessing is priceless. I was blessed that my fear would go away and I will feel the peace I need to feel. I am so grateful for the blessing I received before making our decision. My kids are wonderful. They are so excited to have their daddy back! They have been great through this. They are such examples to me. There has been a lot of sacrifice and I know this is not the end. I am so grateful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Los Ranchos (the Ranches)

El Quebracho is the name of the larger of the two cattle ranches and is mostly covered with Mesquite and other leguminous trees.

When you take a landscape photographer to a cattle ranch you come home with pictures of wildflowers and not cows, horses or gauchos.

The headquarters and guest home, where we will stay when we go to visit the ranches. The home is old and beautiful ... and OLD. The first thing Spencer is going to do is knock it down! We will however save some of the woodwork to reinstall in the replacement.

This group of heifers seemed intimidated by the pickup and would run alongside rather than stop and let the pickup go by.
Then the boys let Michelle and Pam Lamoreaux out to take a break from the backseat. Something you need to understand. We just spent Sunday driving 6 hours to the ranch and then Monday morning seeing Los Perales, 4 hours. We came back to the ranch for lunch and then back in the truck to see it. Since I get car sick it was time to get out before everyone got to see what I had for lunch. We step out with the cows still running away from us. Then they realized there is something in the field the truck left behind, ME. So they were a little curious, too curious for me has you can see from the photo below. And no I did not use the zoom on my camera. I told Pam I was so happy she stayed with me or I would be freaking out. We ran to the near by fence and waited for our truck to rescue us!

Spencer got to take a quick ride.

The other ranch is all improved pasture. In fact each of the pastures is rotated to cropping every four years.

All of the animals are moved to this ranch before going to market. Grass fat is the Argentine preference.

I feel so much better about moving down to Argentina. It feels great and I am excited. Just for you Lisal, my butt survived the trip home. For some reason I did a lot better coming back home then going down. I did discover that when you get car sick drugs are a great thing. Before we left the ranch we stopped at the pharmacy to pick up Dramamine. Guess what it works and it makes you sleepy. I slept about 6 and half hours on the first plane and then 2 hours on the second. We missed our kids and it is great to be home, for now...

I did find something big in Argentina. For 5 days I thought everything was small. But their potholes are HUGE, and that is an understatement.

Las Estancias (the Farms)

The farm at Runciman is named for the abandoned train station that we use for employee housing.

Some things seemed to be fashioned after things we have seen before. This grain storage facility brings back memories of Illinois.
Even though Michelle is not volunteering to live out here she does have a talent for making it look really inviting.

The Farms and Ranches are owned by AAMMSUD which is the Argentine Version of MIA. Therefore we have a lodge and camping facilities for church and other youth groups to enjoy away from the city.

The wildlife that we saw mostly had wings. First time that Michelle has seen a real life stork. We also saw pelicans, emus, buzzards, parrots, etc.

The casitas are all set in beautiful settings and the kids wanted to move into this one when they saw the pictures. Michelle feels that a 15 hour flight from the USA is tough enough we can't add a 45 minute drive to the "Anonima" (Venado Tuerto's version of Qwik Stop).

School south of the Equator

Not only does water swirl down the drain backwards but other things seem to be reversed as well. Elementary schools appear as military academies (or prisons) from the outside.

On the farms and ranches, and even at the Plaza Central, green grass and trees are bountiful. In the school playground the tree looks out of place.

Anyone remember these school desks? You just divulged your age. Technology, books, paper, pencils, visual aids, and all the other things you would expect to find in a class room all absent today.

I was fighting the tears back. I was being told I know the school is old but the teachers are great! At least we have 2 months to figure things out once we get down there.

Views of Venado Tuerto

This is a photo of our building. We are on the 3rd floor so our view is of our neighbor's roofs. It is very nice and very clean. It is small compared to our standards. Three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a family room, dining room, and kitchen. The view from the top is amazing.


These two photos are of the park that is a block from our building, the Central Plaza. It is beautiful and has a great walking path. The only red you see is the mall and across the street is the grocery store. Everything is close, I love it. Now the mall is not what we are use to. I will not be going there very much.


This is a view from the top of our building looking out over the town.


This is our backyard. No not the whole area just the 3 tiles around the only clean swimming pool you can see. Although it looks very inviting it was not on a cool spring day since it has not been heated since mother nature warmed it up last summer (January-March).

Zoning laws seem to be different. This is a nice residence next to a retail store and a much older building. I don't think there are CC&R's or HOA fees.

Pesos, Kilos, and Metros OH My!!

We are here in Argentina! Where do I start... How about the plane ride. We left on Tuesday morning at 7am at drive to LAX. We flew from there to Atlanta and then to Buenos Aires. We landed in BA on Wednesday morning at 8am. I have never flown so far and never flew on a red eye flight. I know now why they are called red eye. It was complete torture!! I maybe slept 2 hours on the plane. We finally made it through customs which took about a hour and we made to fresh air!! Andres and Virginia picked us up, they were our neighbors over the summer and he is the HR director here. I never thought I would see them again. I am learning to never say never. So we wanted to see a little of BA before we took the 5 hour drive to Venado Tuerto. It took about a hour to get to downtown. By the time we were downtown I could not keep my eyes open. Virginia was being a great tour guide. She was pointing out where the beautiful Performing Arts center is, the University, and where the president lives. She lives in a pink house! They were making fun of me and I was trying hard to stay awake. We finally parked and walked, that is what I really wanted to do, my butt has never hurt so bad! At about 6pm Wednesday we finally made it to Venado Tuerto!!!

What can I say everything is different here. I cried Wednesday night A LOT, poor Spencer. Exhaustion over took my body and I couldn't control it. I hope I let it all out because I am doing lots better now. Everything here is small, even the people. I won't be shopping to find clothes anymore because nothing will fit me. The streets, the cars, the homes, the town, SMALL.

I have learned some of the laws here. Here are a couple: stop signs don't mean anything, pedestrians watch out you will get run over, police only care if you have your seat belt on and your head lights on, if you are on a 2 way road you can't turn left. Good thing there aren't very many of those. There are different speed limits according to the size of car you are driving, but who cares since the cops don't. That is all I can' think of now.

Let me write a little about the town. Where the city center is, is a big park. Lots of trees and a play ground. There are 4 main roads that lead to it. All 4 are 2 way roads. Every other road is a one way. We are one block from the park. There are a lot of cars but if you don't have a car you walk, ride a bike, or a moto (motorcycle). And you can have as many people on those as physically possible. OH that is another law motos don't obey the laws. So watch out for them, they will run red lights. One of the grocery stores is on the other side of the park from us. Church is about 6 blocks. The office is 5 blocks. Everything is close. There is another grocery story out on the highway and it is kind of like Wal mart but not as nice. OH the highways just a one lane road, no freeways. You have to be in a big city for there to be a freeway. But the highways are beautiful. Tree lined and grass is growing on the shoulder, it is really beautiful here. The town I don't think has any zoning laws. There are homes, and stores right next to each other. Some of the homes are so beautiful. Every one is different.

The food!! What can I say it is wonderful. I don't know how people stay so skinny. The pasta, the meat, and the bread OH my!!!

I am so grateful I got to come here before we move. This has helped me a lot. I went to the school, the one where our kids might go. Virginia took me and she kept saying I know the building is old but the teachers are wonderful. I was fighting the tears back. It goes from kinder to 12 grade and each grade has 2 classes. I felt like I was in the projects. Very old and not very many improvements. At least when we get here we will have 2 months to think about what we will do. I learned there is a school that in the morning they teach in Spanish and in the afternoon they teach the same lessons in English. We will have to look into that when we come back.

I have taken a lot of photos I will post them when we get home. On Sunday we are going up to the ranch. It is about 5 hours north and then Tuesday we drive back to BA 6 hours and back in the plane to the USA! This is going to be an adventure for sure, but I am excited and it feels good.

Our new adventure!

I know I need to do better at writing and I promise I will. I need to start getting in the habit so when we move everyone can expect me to write. Did I say move? Yes here we go again, just when I think we are not going anywhere, we are. So where is the exciting place? We are going to Venado Tuerto, Santa Fe, Argentina. You can look it up if you want but it is somewhere in the middle of the country. It was suggested to me a couple years ago that I should learn Spanish, did I listen, NO. Did I have the opportunity to YES? Heavenly Father is wonderful at putting his plan in to place to help us. It has been a year and half since our branch was made into a ward by combining with the Spanish branch. See lots of opportunity to learn. Now I am trying to learn as much as I can before we leave.
You may want to know how I feel. At first I was so scared that I couldn't think straight. It was an experience I have never felt before. I prayed and read my scriptures and still I had fear. You may think this would be an answer to my prayers. But no I felt I needed to investigate more. I felt this was a lesson for me. Most major decisions in the past came very easy to me. I feel I have been blessed by knowing almost immediately on the choice I needed to make. Until this one. Now I won't go into much detail but we visited with our Stake President and it came very clear to me during that visit want we needed to do. I am so grateful for the priesthood, it is such a blessing. Now, the more I read and pray the more my fear goes away and I feel excited. I think Heavenly Father is trying to teach me how to rely on him. Not that I haven't before but this takes on a whole new meaning. New country, no English, apartment living, being VERY far from family and friends. We will have to rely on each other and Him to allow this experience to be the best we ever had.
Spencer is down there now, I am hoping he is taking lots of photos, but he says it feels really good being there. So when do we leave? The beginning of January! A lot needs to happen from now til then and before we know it we will be there. How do the kids feel? Dakota is sad to leave her friends, it was so hard for her to make friends when we moved here. Austin just wants to how do you learn Spanish, he just said I feel a little sad and a little happy. Madi she feels the same and Dillon is just a great kid. We will see how great when he is stuck on an airplane for 15 hours!
Thank you everyone for your support it helps so much knowing you are here for us.

One week and some very special people!

Here are some pictures of our trip to Vegas. All the pictures I posted are from one day. Its funny how that works but it was a great day! It was nice to meet Sandi there and send some time with her and her new special friend! I wish we could spend more weeks like this.

Here is to learning to climb higher, learning to fly, meeting new friends and being together has a family.