The sickness is spreading

To start off, Mackenzie completed her first full week of preschool this week and it's no surprise to anyone, she got sick! Yay! We hope it's just a cold and not the flu which is going around in the public schools right now and is really bad this year. She's got a runny nose, coughing and in general doesn't feel good. Sunday was the worst of it we think but after some medicine she was good to go until night time came where she woke up 3 different times. No one slept good at our house.

She was feeling better today but didn't go to school so she helped with the groceries.

Big smile for her after shopping treat!

And Kiersten was thinking she was also getting sick but today feels much better and then didn't again. Sunday was a very busy day for her, two lessons to teach (one in English and one in Spanish) and when it was all over she crashed at home and felt awful. Not to mention the round ligament pain of pregnancy lurked its way into her life at the same time so it was not the best day health wise at our home. Also, while it's getting a little warmer outside, our home has concrete walls and the temperature control is terrible so it feels freezing in our house but when has bundling up in sweatshirts and blankets every been a bother? We don't mind.

Did a quick return to the mall and found this fun illusion play area under the escalators.

In other news, the Paraguayan Presidential Inauguration is this coming Wednesday, August 15 which is Asuncion Day and Scott has been very busy with work. Some big wigs from DC are coming down for the event and he's had a little over a week to organize and arrange all the particulars. He's got to work overtime on Tuesday and Wednesday (the holiday) to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. Aren't you guys going on vacation this week, you ask? Yes the original plan was to fly out on Wednesday but we made the decision to push our trip back a day so we could stick around for the Inauguration which only happens every 5 years and Scott could wrap up his affairs with work. We really hope Scott doesn't get sick before his skiing adventure in Chile!

Friday Kiersten completed some routine pregnancy blood work. Results should be coming in today. Saturday morning we helped clean the church and Mackenzie was a trooper for the whole thing. That night we arranged for a babysitter so we could participate in another Embassy hosted trivia night. Scott and Kiersten were again on different teams and again Scott's team did better than Kiersten and she was even on the Ambassador's team! Weak link: Kiersten? The questions were definitely harder this time around. Did you know Barbie has a last name or even a middle name?? Yeah, neither did we. And be sure to brush up on your Shakespearean quotes before you visit us because we know them all now thanks to Saturday night...not! There was still a huge lacking in pop culture questions in our opinion but it was still a super fun night and we are glad we went.

The trivia night was outside. Lovely night but a bit chilly.

Projects:

• Kiersten is making headway on her quiet books for the girls. Two almost three pages completed for both and they look pretty good. Lots more to go! Her goal is to finish them before flying back to VA for the birth of the baby.

  

  Prophet memory match. Can you guess who these symbols represent?

  
  

  

  Tithing. Yes I'm making them in Spanish.

  
  

  

  'When I am Baptized' zipper rainbow!

Quirks of Paraguay:

• Presidential Inauguration. As stated above the Inauguration in Paraguay takes place in August whereas the one in the United States happens in January. Their elections were in May so the timing is about the same as ours just a different time of year but the seasons are correct, elections in the Fall, Inauguration in the Winter.

  

  The grand stands are getting all set up for the parade.

• The colors of a Paraguayan winter are not white (shocking I know). It's purple. There are trees in bloom with purple flowers everywhere. It's so beautiful. On windy days the flowers fall from the trees like snow. It's great.
• Car wash. When you park your car on the side of the road in certain areas there might be people willing to help you find a spot or park your car (help you back in that sort of thing). Then they'll ask if you want a car wash. We took advantage of such treatment when we were in downtown Asuncion last week. Only cost us about $3.

The Mackenzie Update:

• She is surprising us daily with her vocabulary! Everyday she's got new words. There are still some occasions were we have no clue what she is saying and hope it's Spanish.
• Speaking of Spanish, when K picked M up from school on Friday the teacher asked K if she wanted the teachers to speak to Mackenzie in English or Spanish. Spanish of course! They do speak English fairly well but one of our main reasons for getting her in school was to teach her Spanish. She understands what people say to her but she always responds in English. This becomes a problem when she talks to Alicia for example who doesn't understand any English.

  

  A Kit Kat truck at our local grocery store.

• Also about school, M's teacher told K at pick up one day that Mackenzie told her she loved school. Glad to know it's making an impression on her in such a short amount of time.
• The battle of bedtime continues.... Not loving it.
• Daddy showed her a "hidding place" in her room and now she loves to go there. "Hide! Hide!"

  

  It's a closet.

• K bought a white board to practice Spanish but also to let Mackenzie draw which she has started to enjoy more because of school. She usually tells us to draw something and gives us new colors but occasionally she's done a few of her own.

  

  This is Grandma. Not sure if it's Grandma J or H. Sorry for the glare.

• Colors. She can identify almost all of the colors of the rainbow and black and white regularly and correctly. Next, in Spanish!

Next week we'll be writing you from Santiago, Chile. Still coming up with an itinerary but we suspect it will be a wonderful and fun trip. Until then, thanks for reading!