Poop poops me out!

It all started when I thought it'd be nice to make a little "easy" money by babysitting for a few weeks. Unfortunately, I didn't realize until I was pulling the tabs of his first diaper change, that in fact, I had NO idea what I was doing! Yikes. Not a good time to realize that I'm a diaper changing virgin. I expected to open the diaper and find a few droppings (similar to those of a baby rabbit) so you can imagine my surprise. The baby took advantage of my temporarily paralysis and grabbed 2 hand fulls of his gushy poo. In terror I let go of his legs to grab his hands and used my other hand to grab a wipe. Unfortunately, I only have 2 hands, so that left his legs free, and he didn't waste a moment! Next thing I know he's turned himself over, poop is getting on the changing table and I can't do anything about it, because I'm trying to keep him from spoiling his lunch. I got everything cleaned up and he enjoyed a good laugh.

It was a good start to the experience, because it didn't get any worse than that, thank goodness. He was relatively easy - he usually slept in until 9 or 10 (my kinda baby!) and he'd go down for a nap about 4 hours later and usually slept until his dad got home. But those 4 hours each day taught me a lot!

1. Kids can find ANYTHING on the floor and when they do, they eat it! Pieces of lint, carpeting, nearly microscopic pieces of candy, etc... It's actually quite impressive.
2. If they can't find anything on the floor, they may just gnaw on a book cover or the wall - delicious!
3. They basically HATE it when you wipe their nose (lucky me, we both came down with a cold at the same time so I felt like the snot queen for about 4 days - it was glorious).
4. They don't eat with silverware, they use it to make a mess and fling food on the floor. A fork is a weapon...although when taken away, the mess still continues. It seems that kids like their food better on the floor or table.
5. Nap time is BLISS!

Easter Weekend

Well, this is gonna be short because my picture is having issues uploading. I went to town on saturday, continued on to Kolovai and then to the beach. It was me and the people I stay with who swam and played on a moss covered rock. It was fun, like a slip and slide. On Monday we all went to the ward picnic and I spent my time helping make fans and weave mats. Then lunch was ready I spent time chatting with Mone. While we were talking, people came over with big buckets of water and soaked us.

HPIM0136[1]

HPIM0136[1]
Originally uploaded by redhenmom

Here is one of the 4 matching impacted corners of my little Lola after the recent accident. Tim and I were on our way to Detroit to fix Annette's car when the weather turned ugly. We were ok going slow in the right lane, but others didn't know enough to slow down and someone spun out in the left lane, hitting the rear of my car and throwing it out of control. This all took place between marker 124 and 125 on 196 East. Fortunately, we ended up on the freeway facing the right direction and our car was still operable. Also, we were very fortunate that nobody else hit us. The guy who hit me was arrested so it was also fortunate that his car went into the snowbank in the median so that he couldn't flee. We count our blessings that nobody was hurt. In the scheme of life there is so much to be thankful for. Lots of blessings here. The insurance will be paying $9,300 to fix this car. This is why we all pay such high premiums!

This is Mone and he is from Fo'ui. Well, this isn't the best picture of either of us, but it is the only one I have, but you can kindof see what he looks like. He served his mission in Australia and got back 6 months ago. He goes to the temple every week, is good at math and is a watermellon farmer. He is super shy and very nice. Just thought you might like to put a face to the guy I talk about. I guess you could say we are dating, but I am being cautious since I leave to go back to the US in 5 weeks.

My work has changed and I spend the last week preparing for the HIV/AIDS conference to write the new national strategic plan. It is going pretty well, but the days are long and hot!! Atleast we eat well, which is good except, its hard to stay awake! Hopefully we will get a better plan written than last time and hopefully they will actually use it this time. The rates of STI's in Tonga have risen drastically in the last 2 years and so something needs to be done. Well, my time is up! hope everyone is well!

Jail Bait?!

This is us riding around in a truck to pick up some stuff.

Well, last night may have been one of the craziest in Tonga. A "friend" of Fia's came and picked us up to go to town. I had already eaten boiled balls of dough for dinner but they bought us lamb and fried fish-both of which I dispise. It gets better, Fia and her boy needed to do some serious talking so that left me with the other guy. He didn't speak any english and my tongan is not the best. So, there was a lot of silence, laughing and some talking. Don't worry, as it turns out he is only 18 and finishing his last year of high school. Umm..yeah. Well, we finally got back home at 1 am and I slept soundly until I had to get up for work at 6:15.

Humble Abode

Well, it's been an awfully long time since I've last posted, but don't you worry all is well on the East Coast. We are fully moved in and things are finally settling down. I thought I'd include some shots of our new place. We're loving it so far.

Connie's workin, and school is giving me a slight break for the moment. Other than that, it's been kinda quiet around here. We've visited the Aquarium so far, but other than that we haven't ventured out too much.