Little Wonders

My favorite song is Little Wonders, by Rob Thomas and tonight while thinking what I did during the day, it came to my mind. I had the best experience volunteering today. It was one of those warm fuzzy moments that make you realize how wonderful life is. This is one of those little wonders, a moment that will stay with me because it impacted me "Our lives are made in these small hours-these little wonders, these twists and turns of fate.Time falls away, but these small hours, these small hours still remain."

Express Connect  goes to schools to talk about social issues, abuse, self esteem, bullying, and leadership. 

Shopping

We went to the mall on Saturday,and while my mom was busy looking at table cloths or something in her favorite store Casa & Ideas, Marissa and I went into Saga Falabella to look for some hair clips. Shopping is shopping so we figured we would be okay.

It is the most confusing, annoying process.

 Let me explain.  There are little kiosks all over the store, with merchandise around it.

 So you choose your merchandise, and then you give it to the lady at the kiosk by it. She then prints you off a receipt and sends you to the Caja- the cash register. There you give them the receipt and pay. And then they give you another receipt. You then take your receipt back to the kiosk where they check it and give you your stuff along with another receipt.

 

So by the time you are through, you have talked to several people, been in several lines, and have a dozen receipts in your pockets.While we were there we saw this giant ostrich display with the jeans.   We took pictures (of course).

 

The Science Museum

Last Friday we took a trip to a science museum. It was interesting. 

It was in a large warehouse and had  different sections.

I liked this one. The object was to use your weight and work together to balance or tip the scale to get the basketball from the top to the bottom and through another hoop. 

 I cringed at the sight of this structure.

 I was positive that it was going to collapse at any moment.

The fearless ten year old tried it anyway. Props Marcus. 

And then he rode a bike, so you could see the way your bones move.

There was a warning sign on it:

Drive with Caution.

Oh the irony of it. Peruvians don't drive with caution... at all. 

Nothing was holding the blocks up but the blocks themselves.

There was an earthquake room, although I don't know why, because earthquakes are quite common. 

We had two early this morning. One at 2am and one at 4am. 

I don't know what this is, but they had fun with it.

Marcus on a bed of nails. Apparently it was pretty comfy. I didn't try though.

Want to learn about the dental system? They had that too.

And the birthing process... 

just in case you missed health class.

My personal favourite was the big pregnant lady.

 You know, just in case you wanted to see how the baby grows. 

Why is it so big? Yeah, we don't know either. 

Marissa and Mom, looking cute as always.

There was a random information desk, so we posed. 

I was employee of the month.

 Mom was sleeping on the job.

And that was our exciting trip to the museum!

A Very Boring Week

Hello Everyone!

This week was a bit boring. I had made plans to go out and do some volunteering, but it fell through. So I spent most of the week sulking in my room. On Friday though all our things came. I was really  excited to have new sheets and a mattress cover/ pillow top. It was heavenly to sleep in. I organized everything in my closet. I really didn't bring very much but I don't mind.

Our water keeps going out. It isn't too bad during the day, unless you need to shower. When the water finally comes back on all we get is really cold water so taking showers kinda sucks. I have to remind myself that there are people who don't have water heaters.

Here are a few pics. Last weekend we went to the Inka Market and found a few things there. I got some bracelets and we found Marissa a really cute sweater made from alpaca. We got Zach a few things too, and a few gifts for family.

I spy a... skateboarding dog? and other things

I had quite a day yesterday... paint balling and then hanging out with the family. 

Marissa & I went paint balling with some of the youth in our ward.

 And I have some lovely bruises from it. It was lots of fun though, so it was worth it. 

After we drove along the coast and walked along some of the shops. We had a lot of fun as a family eating lunch and just talking as well as looking at the shops and walking around. 

 

 We ate at TGI Fridays. Marcus had salchipapas (hot dog and fry's) 

 We all had to have dessert (of course!)

 Mom and Marcus shared a brownie with ice cream. 

 Marissa ate two ice cream cookies all by herself. She was really hungry (:

 I shared a key lime pie with my dad. After sneaking a bite (or two!) of the others desserts,I have to say that the key lime pie was the best of them. It was delicious. 

 We walked around a bit, and later, because we didn't get enough sweets, 

we stopped at Starbucks for hot chocolate and triple chocolate cookies. 

 It was a bit windy and misty and cloudy yesterday but also very beautiful. We all enjoyed walking around together. 

 While there taking pictures we saw a very cute bulldog skateboarding. He was really cute. 

Here is the video I got of him. 

We also saw an exhibit of dresses made all out of natural/ recycled materials. 

The newspaper one was my favorite.

Boiling Water...

Boiling water to do the dishes has become part of our daily routine. It takes 5 pot fulls of water to do the washing and the rinsing. I will never take a dishwasher for granted again. We do have a water heater, actually its "on demand" water heating. But it is very picky, especially in the kitchen.

We have been cleaning the house today. It gets rather dusty. Its a desert, and we have a huge dirt mountain outside of our house, so it really is always dusty.  And they have really lame cleaning supplies. This really is like a camping trip, with electricity and indoor plumbing (thank goodness!). I am just glad we have gotten some rugs. We have all wood floors so it is nice to have rugs. We are working on getting some furnishing and appliances and are still waiting for our stuff to arrive (probably another month).  Here are those pictures of the house I promised:

 This is the backyard as seen from my room.

 This is my bedroom.

 My bathroom.

 The laundry room... we have had a terrible time with the washer/ dryer. I will tell you about it later. The laundry room is outside. 

 The kitchen table. We use the dinning room table to eat though so its just there...

I will post more pictures from the house but the internet is slow and it took 30 minutes just downloading these! I guess I will be working on patience. 

We have gone to the mall a few times, Jockey plaza, (pronounced chockey plaza) looking for applances and for something to do. It is a big mall. We had cupcakes and hot chocolate last time. 

 Mine was nutella flavored and Marcus's was a caramel chocolate flavor.  

Thats all for now!