Boy oh boy has this been a week. In fact it has been the most event filled week we've had since our arrival. I hope we don't leave anything out so be prepared for a long-ish one.
The big news of the week? Our stuff is here! In our house! We are officially moved in! We waited for three months and the big day came on Tuesday. Five guys in a moving truck came to our home around 8:30 in the morning and unloaded everything. Scott, who got to stay home from work to help, marked down the box numbers to make sure we had everything and Kiersten stood in front of the door to tell them where to put each box. Yes, it was all done in Spanish. Took them about 45 minutes to unload the truck and then they set to unpacking all the boxes. Sweet deal! Two guys were downstairs and two upstairs. Where the fifth guy went we don't know. Sitting in the truck maybe? But even with four men on the job they got everything unpacked and empty boxes outside by 11:15am. It was a whirlwind that had Mackenzie very much entranced. Thank goodness for Annie for keeping her out of trouble.
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| Mackenzie helped for the first little bit before Annie came. |
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| It's here, it's here, it's here! |
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| During the unpacking mania and before we switched the room. |
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| Kitchen's unloaded! |
Then came the fun part, if you want to call it that. It was fun but it also wasn't. Moving all the stuff they just unpacked and finding it all a home in our home. They put books on the bookshelves, Mackenzie's furniture in her room and kitchen stuff in the kitchen on counters so items where in their correct rooms it was just a matter of where in the room. We started in the living room, clearing everything out so we could rearrange the furniture that night after M went to bed. Next we cleaned kitchen stuff; glasses, plates, appliances, you name it. Got through a major portion of it too. And we started on laundry because it all smelt like boxes. Did three giant loads and thought about Scott's parents in London who now have the tiniest washer/dryer imaginable. We feel bad for them but it gives us a greater appreciation for the regular sized machines we have here.
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| Unpacked! And a before picture of this room. |
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| They put all our books away for us. How nice! |
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| More stuff! This room we think will be the office. |
That night, as mentioned, we rearranged our living and dining rooms. It's one big room that we just flipped and it looks fantastic. Took a lot of muscle and effort to move some of those things but it was totally worth it. Got it all done in less than an hour. We slept very well that night.
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| We went out to eat at La Vienesa because, no kitchen. |
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| What a yummy meal! Then home for more unpacking! |
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| The end result of moving furniture. And look! We have a piano! |
Wednesday we did more cleaning and clearing of things but mainly in the kitchen so we can cook and eat and, you know, function normally. Kiersten had her Spanish lesson and her teacher is really impressed with her ability to understand things. She said she is speaking to her at almost her normal Spanish speed (the teacher, not Kiersten) and that on Friday we would work on past tense. Yes! After the lesson when she got home, she let Annie go home early because Kiersten was going back for a fitting for her Marine Ball gown and the timing wouldn't have worked out with Annie's hours. M was napping so Annie left an hour early. Mackenzie napped for almost 3 hours! Until 2:30. So the girls ate then got in the car to go to the dress maker's. This woman is a grandmother and had some of her grandkids there that Mackenzie was happy to play with so she played while Kiersten tried on the dress. It's gonna look great!
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Mackenzie's hot pink Nikes that were in our HHE.
We got them at her baby shower and now they fit! |
Thursday we were awoken at 4:30am by a tremendous thunder clap. It was so loud! Amazingly it didn't wake Mackenzie. It rained for most of the rest of the day and there was a river outside our house by the afternoon. Kiersten had an appointment with the Regional Medical Officer (RMO) at the Embassy in the morning and the roads were fine then. She learned a lot about Zika from the doctor and mentioned that DC advised us not to get pregnant while here. That stunned him and he said the risks of contracting Zika and therefore microcephaly were tiny and that he said we could go ahead and get pregnant if that was what we wanted. Another comforting reassurance in regards to our family planning. Still not sure when we want to have another baby but we know that the answer is yes so we've got a lot of things to think about.
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Mackenzie discovered our Halloween decorations.
She loves this little light-up pumpkin. |
That evening, the rain stopped and the roads cleared enough for us to drop Mackenzie with a friend so we could attend the Temple here one last time. It was more crowded than ever! We got the last parking spot and when we walked in learned they had started a session early so we had to wait 30 minutes before the next one. They usually do two sessions on Thursday at 5:00 and 7:00. They started one at 4:00 so that pushed everything back. While waiting we did a few confirmations and then went in. We did it all in Spanish and it was beautiful and wonderful just like the Temple should be. We picked up Mackenzie at 8pm, an hour later than we anticipated but she went right to sleep when we got home. Bless her. Oh! And we got the digital copies from our family photo session last Saturday. They look great! Here are some previews.
Friday we woke up to more rain which continued to bring the temperature down. It rained very hard in the morning. So much so that Kiersten's Spanish teacher cancelled their lesson and Kiersten told Annie not to come in. K&M had a fun morning of playing before nap time and chores. By the afternoon everything was clear. When Scott got home from work, we all got in the car for an adventure. We went to a store we'd seen a few weeks back that looked like it had some traditional Paraguayan items but when we got there discovered it was hocking American touristy items like crappy metal signs with logos (Coke, Ford, etc.), Yankee Candles (which was kind of awesome) and other "American" home decor. We looked around for about 10 minutes before leaving very much disappointed. So we went to the nicest mall in Asuncion so Mackenzie could walk around. She felt the freedom! Running practically everywhere, waving to anyone who was looking and dancing to all the music.
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| Views from the inside of Paseo la Galeria mall. |
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| Fancy, amiright? |
After expending all that energy she was sure tired so when we got home she took a power nap before dinner which was homemade pizza with our newly arrived pizza stone! We love making homemade pizza and had been missing our stone so it was a pleasant reunion Friday night. Kiersten attempted and sorely failed making a cauliflower crust pizza. We've done cauli-crust pizza's before but this was a new recipe that didn't really hold up. We also made two other pizzas with regular crusts which tasted fine but the crust didn't quiet survive the separation from the parchment paper. On both accounts we blame the crappy quality of the Paraguayan parchment paper. Either way, we all ate way too much but isn't that the point of pizza? It was harder to get M to go to bed that night because of her late nap but she eventually gave up the fight. Parents: 1! Mackenzie: 1,000? Such is parenthood.
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Best thing about making the pizzas was that our stone fit in the tiny oven! When we first moved
in that was one of the things we were sure wouldn't fit. It's nice to be proved wrong sometimes. |
At 7:45 Kiersten went to babysit for the couple who had watched Mackenzie the night before. It was a great way to reciprocate, even though Kiersten's gig was much easier because their two were asleep the whole time. She came home around 11:45 and Scott, who is a sweetheart, stayed up for her and they both went to bed a little after midnight.
In the morning there was no rain. Normal chores ensued and Mackenzie napped early so when she woke up we ran errands. Remember how we've been wanting a rug for months? Today was the day we decided we were finally going to get one. Well, we got three! There was one store that had the largest selection we'd seen so far and they were having a 30% off sale on ALL their rugs! We bought two area rugs and one hallway runner for about $300! Not saying their quality is fantastic but they should last us for the time we need them to so we are pumped! We measured our little car before we left to make sure we bought a size we could get home but they deliver so we got three! The area rugs should be coming on Wednesday, Thursday at the latest. We brought the runner home and it is thin but literally better than nothing which was what we had before. RUGS! Yay!
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| Passing the time while the parents pay. |
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| Loving our new runner. It's simple but something. |
We made sure we got home by 4pm to watch the BYU v. San Jose State football game. Mackenzie took another nap (we should go to malls more often and let her run around) and the parents watched and cheered the Cougars through the first half. Mackenzie was up by the second half and we ate leftovers and finally got to see our team get a win since August. Hallelujah!
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| We bleed blue, it's true! |
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| "Touchdown Cougars!" Bring 'em young. |
Sunday the weather heated back up again as did the humidity. Church was nice and stuffy cuz the AC was out. Scott was on Mackenzie duty so Kiersten could do Primary. This week was much better than last. There were less kids and she "team-taught" the younger kids with Liza, the first counselor who speaks English. She taught but occasionally asked Kiersten if she had a question for the kids or anything to share to which she muddled through some Spanish with Liza's help. It was awesome to help in even this tiny way.
Home for nap and lunch. Kiersten also very much wanted to make a crock pot pumpkin bread recipe she found and since our crock pot arrived on Tuesday, she could! So she did. It was delicious. And again, we ate too much of it.
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| Homemade pumpkin pie spice. Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves. |
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| Easy, delicious and relatively healthy pumpkin bread. |
After dinner we FaceTimed with Scott's folks and then Kiersten's who are currently in UT so we got to see her grandparents as well. All are well around the globe. Mackenzie was really hyper all afternoon and got a little too excited playing and scrapped her knee and bumped her head a few times. Poor kid, still learning about balance and coordination. Oh and we rearranged Mackenzie's room too. Ok Scott did all the heavy lifting of getting the Embassy furniture out and moving hers in but Kiersten mopped the floor. It looks great and it will look even better when her rug comes that we bought on Saturday. The house is starting to come together!
And now it's Monday again. We forgot to mention that since Tuesday we have done 3-4 loads of laundry everyday and now we are out of laundry soap so that needs to be fixed. We make our own soap so it's just a matter of doing it. (Pssst, it's really easy. 1 bar of grated Castile soap, 2 cups Super Washing Baking Powder, mix and viola!)
Kiersten and Mackenzie drove to the Embassy to pick up Scott from work along with some packages. We got there early so M could play at the playground which we haven't done in months. Then we went to dinner at the Rhoades' home who is the older Embassy couple in our Ward. They had a farewell dinner for the senior couples since the Temple closed and they are leaving. One couple's mission is finished and they are going home to another mission in Idaho to run a church camp ground. The other couple is continuing their mission in the Santiago, Chile Temple. We will miss them all. We had soup and we contributed a tasty butternut squash soup.
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| In her happy place. |
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| Having a snack after playing. |
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Taco soup and butternut squash soup at the 'kids' table.
We ate with the sister missionaries. It was great! |
Tomorrow is Halloween which they don't really celebrate here but the Embassy is having a small trick-or-treat event for the kids and then a potluck. We'll tell you how it goes next week!
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| Someone was selling these Halloween masks at a stop light today. |
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Not too thrilled about her pineapple costume... We'll see
what tomorrow brings. |
Misadventures in Baking:
- We made black bean burgers this week for dinner one night. We have a standard recipe we usually use but Kiersten wanted to explore another version. It had a great taste but like all veggie patties, it didn't hold up very well while being eaten. On Saturday we turned it into a salad which worked much better.
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| Black bean patty salad with guacamole and caramelized onions on top. |
- 'Batata roja' is the South American version of a sweet potato. Kiersten is in serious food love with sweet potatoes and has been missing them here. After chatting with Liza about American foods, we asked if sweet potatoes existed here and they do! Batata roja! It has a purple-ish exterior and white inner, is sweeter than a regular white potato but not as sweet as American sweet potatoes. We attempted to bake some for our meal on Sunday and it worked! Score!
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| Baked batata roja! The hero of this Sunday dinner. |
Quirks of Paraguay:
- Pororo. While at the mall on Saturday we saw some Halloween decorations up in the stores and gimmicks to get customers. One of them was pororo which we happily ate. For you Spanish speakers out there, you might be more familiar with the name "palomitas". And for you English speakers, we are talking about popcorn! It's Guarani.
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| Enjoying her pororo. It's such a fun word to say. Try it! |
- Collectivos. Another unfamiliar term here. It's a bus. We aren't supposed to ride the buses here because the people at the Embassy don't want us getting hurt riding on them. We've talked about buses before and how crowded they can get and they are old things so we understand. Another reason not to ride the buses, you never know when they'll breakdown.
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Like this bus that had an issue. The driver crawled under it on the side of a
busy street! Scary! |
The Mackenzie Update:
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