More happenings in India

I just had a few pictures on my camera that I had to post

These are some pictures of what Annie looked like this morning when she woke up. The picture doesn't quite do it justice. She looked like she had the chicken pox. I guess she slept with a few friends last night. I just pray that none of them carried Malaria. Needless to say her crib now sports a fashionable permethrin treated mosquito net.

Anyone who knows me knows my addiction to Diet Coke. I had to take a picture of the can here. And no, it doesn't quite taste the same, but it will do.
Annie loves the hard floors here. We put her in her walker and her favorite game is to chase you around the house, or be chased.

Sunday...

Yesterday in Primary they celebrated the July birthdays. Ellie is the only July birthday in the Primary so they sang to her. They also do a thing that they call "cutting the cake". When I took her into Primary they told me that they were going to "cut Ellie a cake" and to be back to see it 10 minutes before church got out. Luckily I had our camera there with me. She was pretty embarrassed and didn't do the whole thing herself, I think because for one she didn't really know what to do, and I think she was afraid of the sharp knife that they handed her. I taped it so you could see how they do birthdays here. Apparently every month they "cut a cake" for all of the birthdays that month and whoever has a birthday has to hold the knife to cut it.

Our house and neighborhood

Here are the pictures of our neighborhood.

This is a picture of our house.
This is a picture of our street
This is a view of our guard gate. From our side.
This is a view of the other side of the guard gate.

We're back online!!!

YEAH!!! We have Internet!!!

We finally got our Internet up and running. I was going through withdrawals not being able to talk to our families in the US.

We are now living in our house in Adarsh Vista. Our area is called Basavanagar, Bangalore, India, which interpreted, Basava means "cow" and nagar means "village", so we live in cow village. I took a few pictures of our house. It is a 3 bedroom home with a study that we converted into a 4th bedroom for Annie. It is really nice, but hopefully it will quit echoing once our furniture arrives.  I will take a video of it and post it later.

The people in the neighborhood are very welcoming and the kids have quickly made friends. Our kids are again the only white kids here. A lot of the families are American, but most of them are Indians that are Americans that have come back here for work, or they have one parent that is Indian.  Our kids now spend their days riding bikes up and down the streets of our neighborhood, another nice thing about our area is that we have been able to replace Erica's service of warning our kids when there are cars with some security guards. They are on every corner and they have loud whistles to stop the cars when there are bikes or pedestrians. They also like to go swimming at the clubhouse pool. They have a rule there that you have to have swim caps. I haven't taken any pictures of the kids in their swim caps, but I'll do that next week.

Our move was on Saturday the 18th. We packed up our hotel and headed for our house, but had to make a couple trips to get our luggage all there. We were met at the house by the moving company. The started unloading our Air Shipment and moving boxes into rooms. Once we had the boxes in the right bedrooms, they started unpacking them. I had 6 men trying to unpack all of our clothes and extra food that I had stocked up on all at once. We were also met here by Baby our maid. She is very nice and patient with our kids. Our kids have figured out that she won't say no to them. If they ask her for something she does it or gets it for them. We had to sit them down and tell them that when Mom says No, they can't go to Baby to get it. (example chocolate, cheese ball puffs, fruit roll ups, etc.) The other day, Ethan had an accident and I got mad at him. I sent him to his room to change. He was crying that he wanted help getting dressed. I told him he was a big boy and could do it. After about 5 minutes I went to go check on him, and Baby was in his room helping him get his shirt on. She heard him ask for help and was right there. We are definitely spoiled!!

Well, I'm trying to post the pictures on here of our house, but I don't know where the cable went to the camera. I'll post them as soon as I can get them on my computer. We miss you all and love to hear what's going on there.

Our Hotel Pictures

OK I finally uploaded the pictures from our first home sweet home in Bangalore. We are staying at a hotel called Mucure Homestead in Koramangala. 

As you come in the door, you are in the kitchen/living room aka Ethan's Bedroom.

We had a little kitchenette with a 2 burner gas stove, a microwave and a sink.

Then there is the hallway that leads to the bedrooms and the bathroom.

This the the girls bedroom/clubhouse/massage parlor. One funny thing about this room is that it has a sliding glass door for the door. For the first few nights the girls thought it was really neat to be able to close the door and no one could hear what they were doing until they realized in the middle of the night it hurt to run into a sliding glass door when you get up to go to the bathroom.

Here is the bathroom. It was very nice. You can never underestimate the importance of a flushing toilet here.

The Master Bedroom with the portacrib for Annie.

One of Annie's favorite things we have figured out is animals whether it is the stray dog, or cow on the side of the road or the goldfish in the lobby on the 1st floor. One night when Alan got home from work and I was trying to finish making dinner he took her for a walk and they discovered the fish. The next night when he got home she immediately went for him with her excited "I see an animal noises". She is too smart. They went to the lobby and she got to see her fish. Every time she starts to get upset, I have had one of the girls walk her down to see these fish. We may have to get a pet fish when we move.

Here are some pics of breakfast. After the first few days the chef realized that my kids were ordering the same thing every morning. Now when we go into the restaurant for breakfast he says "Two pancakes, one waffle, hash browns and bacon?"

You have your choice of eating inside or outside. I have opted to eat outside every morning because I think my kids are too noisy inside. Also, the kids love the fish that are out there.

They each have adopted their own fish. Ellie's is named Spot, you can see it in the picture, it's the only one that has black spots on it. Maddie's is named Buggsy because it has a black ring around it's eye so it makes it look like it has a big eye and Ethan named his "Yelly" because it's yellow. I'm pretty sure he picks a new one every day to be Yelly because there are about 2o yellow fish. They like to sometimes feed the fish extra bits of their pancakes or waffles, and the fish swarm over it.

Good News and Bad News

The good news is Annie is feeling much better (and so am I about staying here), the bad news is we were supposed to be moving into our house today, but it isn't quite ready. Hopefully it will be ready by Saturday and we can move in then. I took some pictures of our hotel that we are living in, but haven't downloaded them yet. I will post them as soon as I can.

A stressful day in Bangalore

Today I had the feelings of what in the heck are we doing.

Last night Annie started to come down with a fever. Sunday she had not acted herself, but I figured she is just teething. By this morning she was burning up. Unfortunately, my thermometer is still on its way here. Hopefully we get it soon. I didn't know how hot she was, just that she was hot. Before we came we were warned and warned about the dangers of Malaria, and how serious it is. The doctor told us that if we get a fever to go straight to the hospital and get checked. I was really worried so I talked to our friend that has been here for a year or so. He told me about a clinic, "The Cradle" where his wife had recently had their baby. It also has pediatricians. Alan was at work so I loaded up the 4 kids and headed out to the clinic. I figured they would check her ears, and take her temperature, and probably draw some blood for a malaria test. I was right but...I was not prepared to go to a hospital in India!

The kids and I walked into the clinic/hospital and checked Annie in and then waited for a doctor to be available. Thanks again Grandma for the Nintendo DS's they saved our lives today.  We waited there for about an hour. We went in and saw Dr. Nandini Nagar. She was very nice, but just looked at her ears and took her temperature. She then wrote up a prescription for some blood tests and urine tests, and for some Tylenol. (Her temperature was 102.9) She then told me to go to the lab and they would run the tests. I had to go pay for the tests, and then they pointed me in the direction of the lab. I ushered all the kids down to the lab and when I got there they asked me if I had gone to the pharmacy to get the urine bag and the stuff to draw the blood. (Isn't that suppose to be there job?) No, I had to take all my kids back down to the pharmacy and buy the instruments for them to run the tests. We got back into the lab and by this time Annie was really not feeling well. She was crying and laying her head on my shoulder and I could feel her burning up. I felt bad for her and I was starting to feel overwhelmed and really wanted Dr. Swensen. The 3 lab people took the stuff from me and then snatched Annie out of my arms and went into a room. I started to follow and they looked at me wondering where I was going. I asked "can't I come in?" The lady just looked at me, closed the door, and LOCKED IT!! I stood there listening to my baby screaming, not because they had poked her, but because she wanted to be held. I had a really hard time keeping it together. I started to tear up, and Ellie asked me how long they were going to take her for. All I could say was "I don't know". They came back out and gave her to me with a bag hooked up to her for a urine sample and a bandaid on her hand. They told me it would be an hour before the test was done so I took the kids back down to the pharmacy to get the Tylenol for Annie. I gave it to her and she quickly fell asleep. 45 minutes later she woke up and I took her back to give them her urine sample. Apparently the bag they hooked on didn't stick so it all leaked back into her diaper. I had to again go to the pharmacy to get another bag and back to the lab to get it hooked back on and then wait until she could fill it. By this time we had been at the clinic for about 4 hours. The older kids were starting to get board and hungry. I told them if they were good to each other and didn't complain I would stop and get them something to eat on the way home. The lab got the results back from the blood tests, and I had to go take them to the doctor. As I took them, I read them and was relieved when I saw NEGATIVE next to malaria, and NEGATIVE next to dengue fever. That's all I cared about. At that point I didn't really care whether we talked to the Dr. again or whether the urine test got done. (All it would show was if she had a bladder infection) I did meet with the doctor and she said that Annie does have an elevated level of something that meant she has a bacterial infection, possibly a bladder infection so she put her on amoxicillin and wanted to get the urine test to make sure. Annie still hadn't filled the bag so I asked what the difference would be. She said that Annie would need the medicine for 7 days instead of 5 so I just told the pharmacy to give me 7 days worth and  I was off. The whole episode took 5 hours.

When we got home I quickly made dinner and then gave her a bath. We only have showers here in the hotel, so I made her one in the sink. I think she liked the bath. She hasn't been able to splash in a tub since we left Salt Lake.

P.S. By the time we got home I was feeling much better about India. I still think we'll survive, as long as no one else gets sick. :)

Primary

Sunday Maddie got to give her talk in Primary. She was so excited! She memorized it and gave it perfectly. I'm not sure if they do the whole pictures with the talk thing here because when she got done the primary teacher asked if she could take her pictures and put them on the bullitin board. She asked me to write the talk on the pictures. I took a picture of the whole primary together. Can you tell which ones are our kids? :)

Elephant Ride

 On Saturday we went back to the zoo with Alan to go on an elephant ride.  I tried to get the kids to go with me the day before, and they were all excited until we got to the elephant exhibit, and then they said they didn't want to go without their dad, so we waited one more day.

This is a baby elephant that was at the elephant ride. 

If you have a rupee, you can hold it out and he will take it out of your hand with it's trunk. Then he hands it to the guy by him.

 After he hands off the money, he gives you a hand shake to say Thank You.
This is Ethan's handshake.

We got to ride on the big elephant. It was huge!
The kids loved it. Savannah actually started to cry when we had to get off.

That night we decided to go to dinner. We found our new favorite restaurant here in Bangalore. TGI Fridays!! They actually had hamburgers and Steak Fajitas. YUM!!

Another day in Bangalore

One of the reasons we wanted to come to India was to show our kids how good they have it, and how lucky they are to have what they have. Unfortunately I think they are getting another point of view. The people here are so nice, and wait on you hand and foot. After Ellie's birthday experience at the spa, they now are playing "Spa" in stead of "house".

This is Ellie enjoying her massage from Ethan and her Pedicure from Maddie.

Ethan enjoying a pedicure in the bathroom sink.

We also had a fun day at the Zoo/National Park.  Yes, the Hogle Zoo is a lot cleaner, and the facilities are probably a lot nicer, but you don't get to experience the animals quite like you do here.  Everytime I've been to Hogle Zoo the animals are usually sleeping, or not real active.
This leopard was just pacing back and forth at the back of the cage, and then came right up next to us. And yes, we were standing right next to that chain link fence. There are no barriers next to the cages to keep you back.  We also had a zebra come right up to us. I wasn't quick enough with the camera.
I'm not sure who or what was the main attraction, the animals or us. Every cage we stopped at we had our camera faced towards the animals and I would look around and everyone else's cameras were faced at us. I'm still not used that.

So when we were on our way to come to India, people kept telling us how there would be monkeys in the streets, and when you walk down the street you have to make sure your bags are zipped or closed tight because they will take things out of your bag. FALSE!! We haven't seen a monkey until today, and that was at the zoo. Although I will say that they were not in cages!!

Mom and baby monkey on a wall. There were probably 20 monkeys sitting on this wall, and once we stopped and I pointed them out to the kids they started moving towards us. I got a little nervous and told the kids to start walking. They followed us for a few minutes, and then they left us alone. 

This is their elephant encounters exhibit. Yes that is what they called it. Notice that there are 5 elephants just standing on the opposite side of a wire fence. We could have reached out and pet one. They were busy eating, and my kids thought it was pretty neat to be able to see them using their trunks close up. They do offer elephant rides here on Saturday and Sundays. I think we're going to head there tomorrow for a ride.

major news

Ok, so it's not really major news, but it is a big accomplishment on my part. I have to let everyone know that I took the kids and went to the grocery store today without a driver taking me and dropping me off at the front door. I actually piled all of the kids into a rickshaw.

I now know that I can get around and I feel like "we'll make it" YES!!! I did it!!!

Another thing that happened today is that our family was in the Deccan Harold. (Indian Newspaper) They interviewed Alan about being in India for the 4th of July. I'll try to figure out how to get a copy on here. It had our family picture in it along with Alan's boss, Mickey's family.

Our first day at Church

Today was the first time we have gone to church in India. We went to the 3rd branch here. It was really nice. I felt bad because our children were the only ones to be making noise. All of the other kids were able to sit still. We definitely need to practice. They had sacrament meeting first and today was fast and testimony meeting. It was really nice to hear the testimonies of the members here. One man and his wife stood and bore their testimonies about the importance of the temple. They had just been able to go to the temple to be sealed. The nearest temple here is in Hong Kong, but it is too expensive to stay over night in Hong Kong so the people go to the Manilla Temple.  That is where this couple had gone to be sealed. The flight to Hong Kong is a single flight, but it is cheaper to take a layover in Singapore and go to Manila and spend the night than it is to go to Hong Kong.

Ellie, Maddie and Ethan enjoyed Primary. Maddie was excited to report after primary that she is to give a talk next week on Loving One Another. Ethan was excited to tell me that he gets to give the closing prayer. They have 3 primary classes. Nursery, Ethan and Maddie are in 1 class, and the other class is 8-11 year olds. Ellie and Maddie both made a friend. Ellie made friends with a girl named Rachel and Maddie made friends with her sister Rebecca. Their father is the Mission Counselor.

After church we went over to the Welch's home. David's wife and children are out of town until mid-August. We had dinner with him earlier this week, and this time he had conveniently made mac and cheese and spaghetti. Then he had made chocolate brownies and ice cream for dessert. The kids played most of the night up in the toys and were sad when we told them it was time to go back to our hotel. David has been very helpful and has gone above and beyond to make us feel at home.

Happy Birthday Ellie

Happy Birthday Ellie!!
Today Ellie woke up at around 7:00 a.m. WAHOO!!! We actually slept in a little bit. She came in and begged to open her presents. Yesterday I asked the driver to take us to a toy store and he took us to a huge store that was like a 2 story Toys R Us. Ellie looked and looked and had a hard time finding exactly what she wanted. Finally she said she would like this fake nail set. It was only 60 rupees (1.00) so I told her if she was really good I might get it. I had already snook a few gifts to the counter at the front of the store. She saw me buy the nails, but didn't see the others until we got out to the car, and they were already wrapped. I must say I did a pretty good job for having to take her shopping for her own gifts.
Ellie had it all planned out what we would do for her birthday. After breakfast the girls went to the Spa and got Pedicures.
Maddie flaked out by the time it was her turn so it just ended up being Ellie and me. This is the finished product. Unfortunately after the pedicures all of her plans were foiled. She really wanted to go find an elephant to ride, or go bowling, but after the cake expedition, we didn't have enough time.
After the pedicure the driver, Basheer, took me to a bakery so I could get Ellie a cake. I would have just made her one, but we have no oven. I walked into the bakery and asked if they had any cakes. They told me they did and asked what flavor I wanted. Of course I picked out chocolate. They told me it would be about 20 minutes while they frosted it with her name on it so I decided to do a little grocery shopping there. When I finished I went back to the bakery and they told me 10 minutes more. I took the groceries to the car and decided to sit in the bakery to wait. 45 minutes later the cake was done. Apparently, I asked for Chocolate not knowing that they didn't have a chocolate cake so instead of telling me that they didn't have that kind, they made one. Needless to say it was a very fresh yummy cake.

We went tonight to Fun City to celebrate because she had sat in the hotel room all afternoon waiting for me to come back with her cake. When we got down to the car, Basheer had bought her a gift. He handed her a huge box of Cadbury Milk Chocolates. This was a huge gift, the people here do not have much money and to go and get Ellie something was very, very, very generous. Since we have been here we have had 3 different drivers. Basheer is by far my favorite. He is very helpful and speaks very well. He is full of information and tries to help me to get to know where I am. He is also very patient with the kids. 

Tonight we went to dinner at the Leela Palace, a huge hotel that I would compare to the Grand America Hotel, with Alan's boss Mickey. They had a big American Celebration with Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, French Fries, Pizza, and Steaks. It was such good food. Unfortunately I think we've made our kids gun shy about tasting food. Every time we eat we try and compare it to something our kids like so that they will taste it. Now, they wouldn't even eat a hot dog for fear that it wouldn't really taste like a hot dog.

We got back to the hotel about 9:00 tonight! YES We actually stayed awake until 10:00 tonight!!! When we got home we were able to sing to Ellie and have our delicious chocolate cake, then she got the spanking machine as she crawled into her bed.

Cubbon Park

Yesterday we decided that we wanted to go to Cubbon Park because we weren't able to go the day before.  They had a train that the kids rode on and 3 different parks to play on. The toys are the old school toys that the US has gotten rid of because of lawsuits and stuff like that.  The kids loved it.

Annie has really gotten into eating food not bottles. She loves the little puff cereal things.

Annie once again was mauled by all the people in the park. I'm surprised she doesn't have bruises on her cheeks from all the pinches she gets.
 When I took this picture I asked if I could, and 1/2 the girls walked away. This is only part of the people that were gathered around her.