Bee-utiful Morning.

As I type, Eric is outside collecting bees. Yep, you read right!

Zachary came home yesterday to report that one of the trees in our yard was housing a large swarm of bees. Eric was very excited since he has discovered that one of our passion fruit vines is unable to pollinate on its own and needs some assistance... Eric has tried cross-pollinating from other vines in our yard, but it's a huge chore to "visit" every single blossom. We really don't have many bees here, so Eric was in a pickle as to where to find some to help. Voila! Right in our own yard, amazingly enough!

Immediately after sundown Eric set to work constructing a beehive. This morning, in the rain, Eric bundled up in his bee suit (still in existence from Africa days), and set off to collect him some bees. Zachary and Panda (our dog!) were standing by to assist. They got the swarm out of the tree and transferred successfully to the hive. Panda, unfortunately, didn't understand Eric's command to "Run!", so while Zachary took off, Panda had to deal with a mini-swarm surrounding her. She can be grateful for such a thick coat of fur, as I don't think she got any stings.

After Eric placed the swarm in the hive, Zachary came upstairs to get a little dish of honey to entice them to stick around. He handed it to Eric on the stairs, and then, near the bottom of the stairs, Eric promptly slipped and fell down the remaining two. Since he had so much clothing on, he was protected from much injury, but his left arm is very sore. He's taking a hot shower now, and then he wants to go to bed. We hope the bees will stay around for a good while and help out in our passion fruits to thank Eric for all his trouble!

In other news: Stephanie turned 17 yesterday! (Potentially her last birthday at home for many years...) We had a little potluck dinner at Jan's house, and in the evening Stephanie had a small group of friends over for dessert and games. I provided brownies and Indonesian fruit salad. They also had popcorn and watermelon. This morning they were planning a beach trip, but it's extremely dark and rainy outside, with sporadic thunder and lightning...so... Oftentimes a rain storm will burn off around mid-morning, but this particular storm has the makings of a day-long affair.

My foot is feeling better. Initially it was very painful to have the cast on, but now it feels better with it on than without. Everyone says that's a good sign. I'm nearly half-way through my stint as a quasi-invalid...!

We have decided not to join Eric in Manokwari. I'd have to take my cast off to play in the ocean, and that's just asking for too much trouble. I know Jason and Zachary would not be content to sit in the house all day, with the ocean just a few meters away, just because Mommy has a bum foot!

My helper has been sick since Tuesday night with an allergic reaction to something; she swelled up like a balloon. I managed okay, and even went to market Friday morning. After all the walking and being on my feet, I was in some pain, but it wasn't too bad. Zachary really stepped up to the plate and helped out with housework and watching Jason so I could work. This is how he earned the privilege to accept Stephanie's invitation to the birthday festivities (Zachary felt so honored to be included in the invite!). Word is that my helper is feeling better and plans to return to work on Monday. Yeah!

Stay tuned...

Morning after.

Last night was Jan's classical concert. This is to benefit the Junior Class and is held annually each spring. I was turning pages for my friend Janna, but we would've gone anyway. Turn-out is never anticipated to be very high, but last night seemed unusually low. Oh well. The music was very nice.

Zachary has accepted a challenging role in Sabbath School as of yesterday. Jan has found herself way too busy with preparations and has asked Zachary to take on the task of telling the story to go along with the lesson for the day. This is done in Indonesian. Zachary received his first story Friday night and had only until the next morning to be prepared. He did an excellent job, so I'm told. He's preparing now for next week, and with an entire week to practice he'll surely do great! We're so proud of his language skills. Several weeks ago he gave a brief testimony in Sabbath School about talking about religious things with my dad. I sure wish I could've heard, but it was something they just did in class and had volunteers come forward. There was no way to know it was going to happen, and I'm shocked and yet proud of Zachary standing up and speaking.

Jason is getting to be such a handful, but in a good way. We've been able to regularly attend Sabbath School for the past several weeks, and he's getting more and more excited each week. He runs around the house all morning trying to get everyone dressed and out the door, even at 7am! When we finally get to church he runs up to greet all his friends, and then he heads for the supply cupboards to pull out all the felts and toys for the program. Quite an enthusiastic fellow. When the program gets a bit slow in parts (Cradle Roll is combined with Tiny Tots here, so there are moments when things drag for the younger kids) Jason provides the entertainment. Yesterday he was jumping, climbing on chairs, singing, and flying like an airplane. Everyone was laughing and taking his picture, so my efforts to calm him down and restore discipline were a bit thwarted. For all the craziness his business causes me sometimes, I wouldn't have it any other way!

Another thing: When one of the little ones got fussy in Sabbath School, Jason would say, "Baby crying. Baby sad." Then he'd run over and give them a "Big hud (hug)", and say, "Baby happy!". Precious!

Eric is making a flight this morning. Somebody died. The last three Sundays that Eric has had to fly it has been to haul a corpse. It's amazing the money people shell out for the dead! I know in the States it's no better what with expensive coffins, flower arrangements, funerals, etc. It's just so unnecessary. I wonder where that all originated?

Anyway, Zachary's taken Jason out to the hangar so I can get breakfast on the table. Obviously I'm not doing that, so I better run.

Stay tuned...

Say what?

Eric's up in Wamena this week. Here's a note he found in his room:
"Breakfast time in the restaurant service with take the breakfastcard / not room service. Jewelery or money should report to the hotel staff (reception) to keep in safety box. It is the responsibility of the guest to lose the room key."
Hah! Eric was tempted to report to the desk and correct their English, but then he didn't because it provides such good entertainment!

So I'm in a walking cast now. I got it Monday afternoon. So far the pain is worse WITH the cast than without it, but I'm hopeful things will change. I visited a lady here who is an occupational therapist, and she agreed that it probably is best to have the cast on, but she's puzzled as to why I'm in such pain. She suggested a shoe insert with arch support, so I'm trying that. So far it does feel a little different, but not much.

Jason has had a great week since Bob has had four planes in the shop this week. Another small airline here does not have a hangar of their own, so Bob offered his facilities for them to do some maintenance. It's been great to have so much activity. Jason has learned all the mechanics by name, and he loves going out and watching them all work. He climbs right up on the bench next to them, picks up a wrench (or whatever looks like a tool lying nearby) and "fixes" the planes too. Very cute.

Zachary got a brand-new soccer ball last week, and a new pair of tennis shoes to use for his Sunday night soccer games. Tomorrow is Track-and-Field day at the international school. Zachary is not taking part this year, but we'll probably go up and cheer on some of his friends.

We're hoping to make a trip to Manokwari soon. Eric needs to cover the base. Initially he'd planned to go this next week (the 28th), but now he has a board meeting that day. He decided to send Henny next week and then we'd all go up together on the 5th for about two weeks. Now we've found out that Zachary's piano recital has been moved from the 4th to the 11th, so that buggers up our plans. We'll see what happens.

Today in America (April 23) is my dad's birthday! We phoned him this morning; I think he was surprised. It was good to hear his voice.

Several have asked about my infrequency in posting blogs. Well, the internet has become slower than molasses these past couple of weeks. Our new modem for wireless internet should arrive here on Tuesday. Providing we can get everything up and working, we should have much faster internet which will enable me to keep in touch via this site with a bit more regularity.

Stay tuned...

Too Good to Be True!?!?

Well, we thought we had him! Jason was successfully potty-trained this past January, at only 19 months of age! We have all been so proud of him. He picked up on the idea very quickly and was completely dry, night and day, with only very occasional accidents. That was until this past week...! Now he just can't seem to remember what he's supposed to be doing, and most importantly, where he's supposed to be doing it!

I'm still very glad that he can stay dry all day, and he's very good about telling us when he needs to go. He usually waits until the very last moment, however, to let us know, so unless we jump right up and help him we sometimes have a little mess to clean up. The most frustrating part is that Jason was staying dry during both naps and all all night. Now I've had to put him back in diapers. Why the regression? It is, like I just said, very frustrating. Oh well.

Eric's had a busy couple of weeks. A lot of meetings, and some flying. He was gone the first part of last week to Timika, and this week he's planning to be in Wamena for a few nights. Someone needs to cover Manokwari for a few weeks the first part of May, so we'll probably take the whole family up there and enjoy a little mini-vacation.

I've been extremely busy this past week finalizing the book order for the library at the international school. I've been working on this particular order since late November of last year. There's been one problem after another with getting the school credit card to work, and we thought we had it fixed, but I just got a phone call from the head librarian a few moments ago to say that Amazon sent several emails saying our credit card was denied. Ugh! This is extremely frustrating for all of us. Our book order is already several months late, and now to be having all these problems...

I still don't have much energy. You'd think that doubling my thyroid meds would help, but it didn't. So I'm going to contact both doctors and get their opinions about stopping that medication. It just doesn't seem to be doing anything, so why keep taking it? Seems like I'm dealing with chronic fatigue, however. The best way to deal with it is by making changes to my diet, and while it's great to not have to take medicine, it's hard to take an already very limited diet and cut it down even further! I just wish I could wake up tomorrow morning and feel healthy and full of energy...it's been months if not longer since I really felt 100% well.

Stay tuned...

Catch up.

The weekend flew by, so I'm just now taking the time to write about it.

We had a restful Sabbath. It was fairly overcast, and we enjoyed that! I opted to keep Jason home for a morning nap and then just go for Sabbath School so he would be rested up for our beach trip on Sunday. Jason took a very good nap then, and also took another good one in the afternoon, so Eric and I were able to get some rest too!

Saturday evening I worked on putting together the food for the beach trip. I cut up all the fruit for the fruit salad and also made the macaroni salad. Eric had to do a flight first thing Sunday morning, so by doing the bulk of the work Saturday night I wasn't left with too much to do by myself the next day!

We woke up to gray skies and steady rain Sunday morning. Still, the weather looked like it would improve, so no need to cancel the beach trip. Eric made his flight just fine; had to fight some weather, but nothing major. The folks that had requested the flight were very appreciative.

The boys and I worked to get things ready for the beach. I wasn't saying anything to Jason about the day's plans, but then Jan came over and mentioned to him that we were going to the beach. Jason just started bouncing off the walls and running around screaming, "Going to beach!" I told him we had to wait for Daddy to get home first, so then he was running around yelling, "Daddy coming. Go to beach". I wasn't getting any peace, so thought I'd try using his excitement to my advantage. Jason's real good about taking a nap if he knows that we're going to do something fun when he wakes up. Oftentimes if I have trouble getting him to sleep in the afternoons I tell him, "Go to sleep. Daddy will be home soon and then you can have a motorbike ride." So he'll quickly calm down, repeating to himself, "Sleep now. Daddy coming soon. Go motorbike ride!" I told Jason, "Go to sleep. When Daddy gets here we'll go to the beach." It worked like a charm!

I wasn't anticipating Jason napping before the trip, but since he did I was very glad! I was able to finish cleaning up the kitchen and getting the car all loaded before Eric got home. Zachary's friends came over just after 8:30, and we were all on the road by 9:00.

The road to the beach has in no way improved in the two years since I was last there. It was horrible! We had to stop a few times for Jason to take a potty break, but for the most part he was very patient with the long drive.

It was still drizzling rain when we got to the beach, but we were able to get all our stuff from the car to the beach (1/4 mile) in just one trip. Jan and Bob had arrived earlier than we had, so they'd already grabbed a 'pondok' and set up camp. The boys changed clothes quickly and ran to play in the waves. They were really big! Jason had a blast for about the first 20 minutes, and then it got sort of boring after that. He enjoyed just walking around in the sand, and even got buried in it (in a sitting position) by Grandma and Papa!

After a light dinner of sandwiches, macaroni salad, watermelon and fruit salad, we left the beach early. Jan needed to be home by 3pm for piano rehearsal, so the rest of us came home as well. The boys had worn themselves out, and Jason needed a nap anyways. It was very good to be home so early. We could get everything cleaned up and still have the afternoon and evening to get some things done.

Eric is not flying today. He's got several meetings, some of them are not going to be pleasant. Personnel problems at work. I know he'd much rather be flying! Zachary's had a good day in spite of all the activities yesterday. I let him sleep in until nearly 7:30 this morning, and I think that helped. He was quite red in the face yesterday from sunburn, but he slept well and doesn't look too bad today. Jason's been asking to go to the beach again, but I keep telling him not now...and probably not again for several more months! Could be Stephanie would like to go once more before leaving, but we'll see.

There's still a high overcast today. The weather has definitely changed for the time being!

Stay tuned...

Ready to Rest!

Eric, Bob and Rohan landed just before 12:30 this afternoon. Zachary, Jason and I were there to meet them, along with Rohan's wife and son (their 2 daughters were in school). They were glad to be back, and we were all glad to see them!

Eric had a nice time over in Goroka. The PAC is a nice airplane, but not the ideal aircraft for our operations here. There's a guy in Australia who's trying to get us to lease a PAC from him, but he has quite a few requirements that we're not sure we can fulfill with this type of plane.

Our puppy dog is finally getting a new home! We only had 4 puppies this time around, so I didn't advertise. Three went right away, and we sort of got stuck with this fourth one. She's nice, but we really don't want two dogs. Anyway, in a passing conversation Bob found a missionary couple in town who were wanting one of our puppies should Panda ever have more. Bob mentioned that we in fact still had one left from her last litter! They came out Tuesday afternoon to meet the puppy, and since deciding to take her, they will pick her up momentarily.

Eric's outside planting some Brazilian cherry tree cuttings he brought from Goroka. I think it's too hot to have success with those, but Eric has fun trying anyway. I'm going to take a quick shower and then it will be Eric's turn.

We're having Friday night supper here this evening. Jan's bringing broccoli salad! (They get broccoli year-round in Goroka...lucky dogs!). I've made a spinach soup and toasted French bread with garlic/olive oil toasted on top. We'll have fruit and other things as well.

Happy Sabbath!!! (though I know it won't reach the rest of you for another full day...)

Stay tuned...

Heading Home!

Jan got an email from Bob this morning. Eric flew the PAC all day yesterday; I'm sure he had a fabulous time! They anticipated departing Goroka between 8am-9am, so they should be on their way by now (they're one hour ahead of us over there). We've got the radio on and are hoping to hear an ETA soon!

I'll be going to market with Jan around 8:30. I don't need much, but I do need to get some papaya and pineapple to go in the fruit salad I'm making for the beach trip. Zachary has decided to invite two friends, Gilberth and Wilfred. It will be just a small group going, so that should be nice. We're leaving early and going to a different beach than we normally go to. Jan needs to get home in good time that afternoon for Classical Night practice.

Stay tuned...

Different Day

This day has been at bit out of the ordinary.

I worked in the library yesterday, as usual, but I have been preparing for our annual inventory, and that's quite a process. I'll spare you the gory details. Anyway, I didn't get things all finished yesterday, so I decided to come in this afternoon since I'm still resting my ankle (thus no water aerobics). I'm here now and should be leaving in about 20 minutes; just waiting for the last few things to print.

Jan invited the boys and me to join Stephanie and her for dinner today at a place in the Sentani mall. We planned to go about 12:30 so that Jan could leave from there for water aerobics. Well, since I was planning to come in to the library I decided to give Jason his dinner early and just leave him home with Enda so I could come straight to the library. That plan worked great!

Stephanie, Zachary and I left home just after noon so I could do some quick shopping at the supermarket in the mall. Jan had gone to town earlier to get a haircut and run some errands, and we met up with her at the supermarket. After putting our groceries away in our truck Zachary and I went to scope out the third floor of the mall; we've never been up there! There's a big video arcade, where I know a lot of expats take their kids. There's also a food court (all Chinese-Indonesian cuisine), and a very big book store just opened recently. It's huge! I'll have to go again sometime when I have the time to just browse.

Dinner was just fine. We had some fried rice, fried noodles, and two tofu dishes. The portions were pretty small for the price we paid, but the food was not that bad. Stephanie, Zachary and I left from dinner to come up here to HIS. I've been working on inventory while Zachary's been doing his homework. He lost the privilege of going to the pool today because he had a very nasty attitude this morning! Anyways, he's always more than happy to come to the library. Stephanie has a computer class here each afternoon...

So, my print jobs have all finished now, so I'm going to get home. I've not heard directly from Eric, but Bob has sent a few messages to Jan. They're all doing well. Very cold! Things are still on schedule for them to return home tomorrow!

Beach trip still on for Sunday.

Stay tuned...

Back on.

I'm feeling more motivated to keep a blog going, so we're back on now. I plan to update the site each evening with the days news, but that's no guarantee. Check back as often as possible to find out the latest and greatest...!

Right now, in an nutshell :

• Eric is in Goroka, PNG, until Friday of this week checking out the PAC-750 as AMA is considering purchasing one for use in Papua.
• Heidi has upped her thyroid meds in the hopes of more energy. (This is with approval from both doctors)
• Zachary is looking forward to a family beach trip on Sunday!
• Jason has so much going on in his little world it would take too long to write out, but he's happy and healthy, and that's the important thing.

Stay tuned for more!