Just stuff...

So, life is going well here in Santiago, we are just basically hanging out while we decide what we are going to do... We were looking into adding a little pub/restaurant on to a friend´s cafe that is here close, but things just weren´t working out for the better- so we looked into doing a little chocolate shop here in town, but rent is amazingly expensive here, and to be in a place that is far enough into the rich part of town to make any money we would have to drive about an hour and a half in traffic both ways- besides the rent being outrageous! So, to make a long story short, we started to look other places, and found Pucón. Pucón is one of the most visited places in Chile, it is extremely touristy, has a climate similar to Seattle, and is BEAUTIFUL! We were looking on theinternet for shops to rent, and found one for a third what we would be paying here in town-- and so we went to check it out... Here are a few pictures: That´s the semi-dormant yet active volcano that will be in our backyard- Villarrica. It´s been smoking for more than 200 years they say, and that is one of the few picutes we got with it not hidden by clouds.


That´s my favorite person that will be with me in Pucón...
And this is the lake that is by the volcano...

So, to make a long story short, we found a place to live, as well as a place for the business, and we are getting ready to move down there next month. Which means that I have been practicing making chocolates and fun stuff like that for the past month or so, and now we´re doing the paperwork and all that jazz so we can start up the business in June- tentative date is 1 June for inaguration.
Other than the craziness, life is good! Love it! And feel free to come and visit us!

Earthquakes, first day of school, and other adventures!

This is what I wrote on our family website, it seemed a lot easier to copy and paste than re-type!
Thanks everyone for wondering, we are doing okay-- the ´quake was 8.4 here in town, and it did do considerable damage to places like the airport and lots of the highways-- we were without power for 24 hours, but it seems to be back- hope it lasts! There are broken water pipes here in town, and it appears that there is no gas-- but for now we are okay.So, Marcelo and I were out dancing with some friends and ex-mission companions when the quake started- we had just sat down to rest for a few minutes, and a waiter came over to ask if we wanted anything. We said no, and he got this funny look on his face and asked if we could feel the earth shaking- I thought he was joking because I could feel it, but thought it was just because we had been dancing for almost four hours and my body was just starting to have muscle spasms because it´s not used to so much exercise! But then it started a lot harder and we looked at each other and decided we better go outside-- we were in a place that has five or six large pub/discos that share a main courtyard, so we went out to the middle and started to look around- the tall buildings loked like they were made of jello as they moved back and forth, and after a few seconds we could hear the sound of exploding glass, then the earthquake sirens went off, and the power went out. Then things got really interesting as we were standing in the dark and the quake got stronger- I think those were three of the longest minutes of my life!! All I could do was pray that my kids would be okay- my mother in law is terrified of earthquakes, and she was home with the babies--- after it was over most of the cell phones didn´t work, but miraculously Marcelo got a call through to his mom, and she said that everything was okay at home, and that the kids basically slept through it. We went to take our friends home, and on the way we saw some of the damage that was done- streets were flooded, huge windows shattered, and basically evreything that was made of adobe had fallen-- things looked pretty scary when we dropped our friends off, there were roads that were blocked by fallen walls, and no power anywhere-- but when we got to our side of town things looked a little less drastic-- we live on the south east side of Santiago, and the houses here are a bit newer (less than 80 years old, mostly...) and they withstood the earthquake better than those on the other side of town- and it only took us 2 1/2 hours to get home because there was no light and we took the wrong exit and basiclly took a tour of the city-- but thankfully all was well when we got here, and now that we have power back for the moment I think we will be okay.Ever since we got married we have talked about the necessity of getting our food storage and that kind of thing, and it has been reinforced as to why it is so important- we got here two months ago, so we don´t have very much, but we will get it! I am just very thankful that we are okay, and feel blessed that we live on the side of town that we do- and that our Heavenly Father protected us- we have many friends who live near the epicenter of the quake, and so far we have heard from most of them that they are okay- and we just feel blessed...
We have had less than 10 deaths in Santiago, and there have been more than 700 in the rest of the country-- and they haven't counted the people from whole beach-side communities that were washed away. Makes me think that the small amounts of structural damage that was done here wasn't that big of a deal after all... I am feeling very blessed, especially since we had talked about going to the beach this weekend, before the kids start school next week-- but things didn't seem to work out for some reason, and now we know the reason--- the place we would have gone is 80% submerged right now, and the rest of the town is in ruins. As I said before, we are blessed- so please, everyone remember that sometimes when things don't work out as you would like, it may be that Heavenly Father is protecting you in ways that you can't forsee.
We love you all, and thank you again for your prayers. We have many mission companions and friends who we haven't heard from, as well as distant relatives- it is going to be a long, hard rebuilding process for everyone... But sometimes I wonder if we are here because our Father in Heaven thinks that we can help... Maybe this is why we were supposed to be here right now. Who knows? I am sure we will find out!
This is the new part:Daniel and Alin started school on the 8th of March. THey are going to a semi-private school that is a 6 minute walk from our house here, it is a Catholic school, but basically any good school here is-- we had to go to a parent´s orientataion the other night and it was pretty interesting for it to start with a prayer and a Hail Mary! It is going to take some getting used to! And the kids asked me the other day why we don´t do ¨Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes¨after we have our prayers, and it took me a minute to realize that they were asking why we don´t cross ourselves! I explained that it is not something that Heavenly Father wants us to do, but that since it is something that they are told to do in school it´s okay to do it there...Alin isn´t doing that great in school, because she doesn´t want to try to speak Spanish. At first when we would say prayers and stuff that she would repeat in Spanish when we lived in the States, she had way better pronunciation than Daniel- but now he talks to everyone about everything, and has no problems communicating! And she won´t even try!

But it has been a huge blessing for Daniel to be able to talk, he has friends that live next door now, and he is getting to be quite social. He is always reminding me that he is the big boy, and that he remembers when we lived at our other house-- I think that it is his way of telling me that he misses it there, but that he is okay here. I just wish I felt the same! I am okay here, but I miss my family, especially my mom-- she´s amazing, and I love her so much. At least I can look forward to Marie´s wedding this fall, when Marcelo and I will be able to run home for a week or so and celebrate with them...

WE´RE STILL ALIVE!!!

As I was perusing other people´s blogs this morning while waiting for my mom to connect on messenger so we could talk, I thought ¨Wow, lots of people haven´t updated their blogs in a LONG time!¨ And then I looked at the date of my last blog entry... September... OOPS! So here I am to update what is going on in our lives.
First and probably most important, we moved back to Chile. We have been here since the 26th of December, and are still loving it! We are living with my in-laws for now, which means 7 people in about 500 square feet of living space, but it has been okay so far. We miss having a little bit more room for each, but I guess we will have to remedy that when we find our own house.
Other exciting news, I graduated! I didn´t walk or anything, so it was actually very anti-climactic, in fact, I didn´t find out that I had graduated until a month later when they finalized all of the paperwork and sent me an email that said that my diploma would be in the mail within a few weeks. My mom has since received my diploma, so congratulations to me! I was thinking that I should have walked or had a major party or something, but I was too busy packing a house to move! I don´t know if this happens to many people, but I kind of miss having classes- I feel like it could have been a waste of time! But hopefully not, I think that it was a good thing that I studied.
Gabriel has four words... Mama, Papá, Hola, y Chauuuu... It is so cute to hear him play with a phone and say hola y chao! And he got his first haircut a few weeks ago, he looked SO big! He has adapted well, must be because he isn´t quite two!
Daniel has been getting pretty good at his Spanish- when we got here he could say a few words, but now he has phrases and some whole sentences. He asked for me to only let him watch movies in Spanish, because he needs to practice... He loves playing outside with all of the neighborhood kids in the evenings, when it is not so hot! We have really missed the air conditioning of the US!
Alin is doing good-- she doesn´t have much to say in Spanish yet, but she just loves her grandma and grandpa! The other day she adopted a stray kitten that some dogs had scared into our fence- so now she has her baby, and it looks like he is going to stay!
We are busy looking for a school for our kids, I guess pre-kindergarten is now almost mandatory for the kids, so we are looking for one for Alin, and Daniel will be starting Kindergarten next month as well. Here it is not that everyone goes to the school where they live in that district, rather you pick what school you want your kids to go to and see if they have room for them- the private or semi-private schools cost, and we are trying to decide how important it is that they have private schooling at the kindergarten level... I don´t know anything about the schooling here, and it has been very interesting to try to find somewhere that I feel they will be safe- maybe it is the mom in me, but I don´t want my babies to be picked on or for them to feel bad for being different!
Let´s see, as far as updates go on everyone, Marcelo is doing well... He is trying to decide what he is going to do, because he really doesn´t want to work for someone else- he got so tired of people with no education telling him what to do when we lived in the States, and so he is working on starting a business here. Not sure what yet- we are looking at the possibility of expanding a restaurant that a friend of ours has, she has a little organic café and ice cream shop, we might add on a little fondue restaurant/family pub type something that would be open basically in the evenings... Or there is the possibility of him starting a furniture business, he really loves making furniture, and with the little bit of capital that we have he could probably have enough to make 15-20 big things like beds and tables, etc, and rent a place in the rich part of town to sell them... that way his income is not dependent on anyone but himself... And he has almost all of the tools that he would need, we just need to rewire a room or something to 110 volts, since here all of the electricity comes in at 220, and we are constantly moving transformers and voltage converters to different rooms. And it would be something that he is very good at- he is finishing a bunk bed for the kids today, and it has taken him 3 days to make it- everyone who sees it tells him he should open his own shop- But that depends on whether I find a job teaching English or something similar here, because that would at least give us the necessary income to live and rent a house for the time being, while not having to rely on what he made at first. So we are weighing our options and thinking and praying and hoping.....
I was thinking of things that I miss this morning, as Alin asked for a glass of milk, and grabbed the powdered milk. I miss real milk, not the shelf-stable-good-for-six-months type. I miss chocolate chips, electric ovens that have temperature controls that you can set-- baking in a gas oven is almost like baking over a campfire! I miss cheddar cheese, cream cheese, etc etc etc... I could go on for a while! But at the same time, I am grateful for the opportunity to be here and to let my in-laws enjoy their babies.
So, that is basically what we are doing now......... LOVE IT!