Feliz Primavera! *sigh....*

Would you believe we've now been in Paraguay for 2 months?! Yikes! Like we said last week, we have some routines down and the days and weeks move swiftly just like they do anywhere in the world. Here are the updates for the Paraguay Jacksons from the last week.

Remember in the last entry we said the weather was supposed to be cooler during the week? We were wrong! It was getting hot and we welcomed the first day of Spring on a very warm day. It wasn't until Saturday when things really cooled off enough where we needed long sleeves and pants when outside. It was beautiful! The weather continues to surprise us which is why we mention it so often each week.

It was a pretty typical week. Work, play, groceries and cooking. On Tuesday when Kiersten was at the Temple, there was an unusual number of patrons in attendance which is a great problem to have. When she was finally able to serve, she was performing ordinances for some Hungarian sisters which was a very cool experience. Serving Hungarians in a Spanish temple and language all while translating things into English. So cool!

Wednesday was a very busy day for the girls, mostly Kiersten. We invited the Sister missionaries over to our house for dinner that evening and they had requested (with Kiersten's insistence) lasagna and a pumpkin pie which she gladly consented to make for them. It was a labor intensive meal but after spending most of the day in the kitchen she had successfully made vegetarian lasagna, homemade garlic knots, a side salad and a pumpkin pie for dinner and dessert. The Sisters (Hermanas) gushed over the food and we all ate about 3/4s of the pie. It was very, very good.

Pumpkin pie, pre-baking process. It looked a little darker when it was baked.

Not only did Kiersten make an elaborate meal for the missionaries but she also had her first one-on-one Spanish lesson. It was terrific! Her teacher was impressed with her speaking and comprehension and assured her she would learn quickly. The Embassy pays for our language learning up to 3 hours a week and we are determined to take full advantage of this tremendous resource.

Since Hurricane Irma hit Miami a few weeks back all our packages and mail have been delayed because all our mail flies out of Miami. We had ordered a few items a few weeks before the hurricane and were waiting for their arrival. Thursday is when shipments come in and boy did we have a carload! We must have received about 8 different boxes of stuff and it was glorious as usual. This was also the day Kiersten applied for a contractor position with the Embassy. Nothing big or fancy. The Embassy has a weekly newsletter and they were looking for an editor, no previous experience or requirements needed so we figured, what the heck? She put her bid in on Thursday. We'll see what happens at the end of this coming week.

4 of the 12 Mason jars we ordered arrived like this. We submitted a complaint.

We assumed they would wrap glass objects better to ship them.. Guess not.

But these candles made it in one piece! Now those Autumn dreams can have a scent!

There was nothing specifically for M but she loves playing with the air filled bags.

By Friday we were low on food and since we still are working on making a menu for the whole week and not just half a week we went to Casa Rica for more groceries as a family. Mackenzie was very grumpy but of course didn't nap when we got home. Figures.

On Saturday morning Scott woke with a terrible pain in his stomach and was not feeling well. Turned out he had a 24 hour stomach bug and was out of commission the whole day. Poor guy. Luckily he had plenty of college football games to keep him company. Kiersten and Mackenzie played all day and in the afternoon went on a very pleasant walk because as previously mentioned, the weather was gorgeous and cloudy. It was a pretty lazy Saturday but you need those every once in a while.

The next morning Scott was still a little weak so K&M went to sacrament meeting alone and came home early. M was pretty cranky and K didn't see much point in doing the single-mom thing at church when she couldn't understand the talks or lessons anyway. We got home, M took a nap and K&S watched the General Women's Session of Conference from the previous night. It was one of the best Women's Sessions Kiersten can remember in a long time. Love Conference!

Scott was feeling better by the afternoon so we made burgers and homemade tater tots for dinner. The burgers were so good! And the tots... we'll stick to the pre-made frozen ones. 

The meat here is phenomenal. Really terrific burgers.

After choir at 4 (only K went since M decided on taking another nap and S was feeling a little weak again) we called and talked to lots of family. Man, technology really is great, ain't it?

Two cousins staring at each other. Grace and Mackenzie.

Which brings us all back to Monday. Scott is feeling pretty much back to normal, probably 95% so he was at work today. Annie came at her usual time and Kiersten hit the gym for a good long time which felt great. We've got leftovers to look forward to for dinner tonight which will be nice to relax from cooking for a day but maybe we'll make some chocolate chip cookies.... Got to stock up for General Conference weekend. We've invited a few LDS families to watch Conference with us and we need to have snacks.

This is the gym at the Embassy. Pretty nice, huh?

Oh, except for this tiny ant problem. They're working on it.

Kiersten woke up for the gym early one morning and in true
Mackenzie fashion, she slept in.

In addition to our regularly occurring segments, Kiersten wants to add just one more which will make periodic appearances. We'll call it The Craft Corner. Let's start there.

The Craft Corner:

• Kiersten has been working on embroidering a homemade Christmas stocking for Scott for the past 6 months. It's taken this long to work on for several reasons but the biggest one is it's labor intensive and she couldn't fully commit. Now with not much to do to pass the time, she's been working on it pretty exclusively and is almost done. With our last package shipment, she received the gray thread she has been needing to finish the whole thing so maybe next weekend it will be all done. Then she can start on Mackenzie's.

  

  Kiersten's mom made her a stocking when she was a baby so she wanted the rest of her family to have matching homemade ones too!

  
  

  

  She also ordered this embroidery floss container. Keeps things organized.

• While waiting for the gray thread she started and finished another embroidery project. You all know how she's been dreaming of and missing Fall this year so she did a Fall project. It was really quick and fun.

  

  First you need to transfer your pattern to the muslin. 

  

  Transfered!

  

  And done! Hoping to get this framed this week.
  (If anyone wants one I'll be happy to make it for Christmas gifts.)

  
  
  
  

Now back to our regularly scheduled excerpts.

Misadventures in Baking:

• The tater tots were hailed as being easy and better than frozen store bought and you'll never want to buy them again! Ha! Perhaps we don't have the right equipment but it wasn't as easy or tasty as store bought. Less sodium sure but if you're going to eat deep-fried potatoes you need to expect some sodium to go with it.

  

  We tried two different kinds: oven baked and deep fried. The fried ones had a
  better consistency and tasted most like real tater tots.

• Thursday's dinner was a Butternut Squash Panera soup copycat which was fantastic! Made the Autumn dreams hurt even more.

  

  This is what butternut squashes look like down here.

  
  

  

  But they are totally the same on the inside as their northern neighbors.

  
  

  

  I don't cube my squash. I always roast it then scoop it out.

  
  

  

  And now in the soup. Oh man it was seriously mouth watering.

• Empanadas are very popular here. You can buy empanada shells in the grocery store so we made some breakfast ones for quick breakfasts for Scott. It was a little tricky getting the filling inside at first. These shells were smaller than they looked.

  

  Eggs, bacon, green onions and cheese. Delish!

Quirks of Paraguay:

• Motorcycles. We've been wanting to add this one to the blog since we first arrived but it's really hard to get pictures to articulate this one. Motorcycles are found a plenty here but they aren't the nice Harley's you see back in the States. These are junky looking bikes that may or may not be motocross style dirt bikes. It also isn't uncommon to see the rider without a helmet or carrying one or more people on it. We've seen whole families on the bikes (example: dad driving, mom sitting sidesaddle on the back holding a baby, like 4 months old baby!). When it comes to traffic and red lights, the motorcycles will drive up the middle on the lines to be first in line or come up along the curbs to get to the front. When the light changes everyone goes and the bikes eventually end up in the back again. Sorry again for the lack of pictures but we were able to snag this sweet one of a chipa selling motorcycle. First time we've seen or heard chipa being advertised by a bike.

  

  The chipa bike! (Sorry he's blurry.)

  

  All crowded up front.

• Fireworks. They love fireworks here. Apparently when they were under a dictator fireworks were banned so since that guy's gone they are kind of making up for lost time. They will find any excuse to shoot of fireworks it seems. We hear them almost every night and we don't know the reasons. We assume soccer matches and sometimes for events at hotels for big-wigs. The reason we mention the fireworks this week is because we were very rudely awoken to the sound of fireworks at 6:30am on Sunday morning! Sundays are usually the quietest days of the week so that's why it was so shocking. We continued to hear them off and on throughout the morning. Silly people.
• Asado, part 3. It isn't enough that they have a huge grill (quincho) build into their homes. Sometimes you need your asado fix when you're driving in your car so some people have tapped the market on drive-thru asado in the medians.

  

  Asado grilling in the middle of the street in the median.

The Mackenzie Update:

• Her baby sign language is really picking up. She has now added "please" and "thank you" to her repertoire. To say "please" you rub your chest in a circular motion once with your right (dominant?) hand. She'll rub her belly with both hands. To say "thank you", place your right hand on your chin, fingers close together and lower your hand into your left palm. She does the same thing she does to blow a kiss. We know what she's trying to say though.

  

  Belly rub means 'please'. So smart!

• She'll now shake her head 'yes' and 'no' depending on certain questions she gets. "Do you want to get up?" 'Yes.' "Do you want to get down?" 'Yes.' "Are you all done?" 'Yes.' continues to eat more food. So she doesn't always get it but it's something new!
• Things we'd never thought we'd say as parents, "We don't eat books." She tried to eat a book this week.

  

  Up in the left corner there. She loved it so much she thought she'd taste it.

• Monkey-see, monkey-do is getting serious around here. We gave her Scott's old iPhone 4 months back so she wouldn't eat ours. She knows it's a phone or at least looks like one so this is what she did this week with it.

  

  I rarely talk on the phone like this. It's usually FaceTime!

• She has finally relented to wearing her sunglasses. Only ever inside though.

  

  When she walks around with them on, she'll tilt her head back.

• This isn't a new face but she's darn cute when she does it which is much of the time.

  

  Don't you just love this little face?!!

We are true and honest when we say we love it here. Thanks as always for your love and support. If anyone is wanting a tropical Christmas, we've got space at our place! See you all next week!