Let it SNOW!

Well, we have had no lack of snow this holiday season and our kids are loving it! Here are some of the fun pics. Madison and Mikaela in the snow, and in their get up, plus my sister and brother working their way down the hill, and the same crazy sister with shorts on outside!! It is funny to think we were just at a tropical resort.

Family Reunion

So, nothing less than a miracle...but the Norris siblings got together for a reunion, and surprisingly it has been wonderful. We even were organized enough that we got family pictures taken! It was inside so the lighting isn't perfect, but we did it! Wahoo! Hospital visits and a 40 year snow storm that hasn't let up hasn't dampened anything. We are stuck in Oregon...but we are with good people and having a good time! Here't to family!!! Lovin' it!

Niki has Malaria...no wait, it's Dengue..no Leptospirosis...

We left Texas on Friday the 12th to come visit my dad here in Oregon. The plane ride was one of those wake up before the sun ones...and I had the worst headache the whole way--Tobias gets major brownie points for watching the kids the whole way. I felt like if I opened my eyes I would throw up. Well, I figured it was sitting next to the engine that caused me to be vibrated into feeling so crappy. Well, in the afternoon when we finally got home and ate (I didn't throw up but wanted to!) I took a long nap hoping I would feel a bit better. All evening I was uncomfortable and wondering why I couldn't get into a comfortable position. By four in the morning I gave up and came downstairs. I started to get the chills and was really just in so much pain. I would shake to releive some of the pain. Tobias woke up and helped me around 6:30 but nothing was helping. I rested for a few minutes, but went back to the shaking and being miserable. Long story shorter, we went to the ER in the afternoon and I was in the hospital Saturday through Wednesday. They thought I had all kinds of funky things from the DR...but in the end it is a kidney infection ( I am sure the bacteria comes from the DR!) I guess I have had a urinary tract infection for a long time that worked its way up to my bladder then kidney. Let's just say I will be drinking cranberry for the rest of life!!! Kidney infections are evil! I had no idea you could be so sick!
I have been so totally out of commission with tons of family doing everything for me! They watched the girls, drove Tobias everywhere (his license is expired) and all the stuff you do to take care of a small family. We are now in the middle of a big family reunion with my all of my siblings here for the first time in like 15 years or something. It is pretty darn cool--I just wish I could enjoy it a bit more. I am now waiting for my body to recover not only from the infection, but from some problem in my neck. Yikes! Thank heavens we are in America!!! It could not have "happened" at a better time!
Just a last word in this blog...America is amazing. I was astounded at how the hospital functioned. It's own team of IV nurses, infectious disease doctors, ekg people (they came right to my room and were in and out in 7 minutes), the C-scan people who made me drink this nasty bath water stuff-they were so quick and clean. The check-in nurses even asked me for a "Clean Catch" sample of my pee! In the DR I am not sure they know what that is! They had their own transportation people who just go around to the rooms and take people on strechers to their different exams--I was impressed. We might not have everything right in our country, but we are sooooo blessed!! It was like being in a lodge on the mountain. I had huge windows where I could see tons of pine trees and watch the snow. It was beautiful--especially the last day when I could actually see straight and get out of bed! I felt like a little lab puppy feeling the wind on my face for the first time when we drove home. I kept the window down the whole way. I don't desire to go back to a hospital anytime soon, but if I need to, I hope we are in America!! Here's to your health!

Playin' with the cousins

Here we are in Texas loving hanging out with cousins. Madison has been so excited about doing this...and now we get to! We dressed up to go to Riley's presentation and decided to take some pictures. Layla wasn't exactly excited--but the others turned out sooo cute!

Moving

Boxes, boxes, and more boxes. Pulling hair out...and lots of fun! We're done!!! WAHOO!

Ode to Madison

Madison is our little actress. So creative in how she thinks about the world and how she sees things. Like her Grandma Diana, Madison loves to create with paper and pen or with her imagination. We are always acting out something and inventing "calvin-ball" like activities. Madison is like her Oma when we go to the park and she cannot resist picking the flowers. When we come home with a collection every time, I ask why she won't listen and not pick the flowers. She says, "But they are so pretty, I just wanted them!" We come home and "organize" them is what she says, and she makes sure we all are given some. It is now the same thing at the beach...we go and she only wants to collect shells; we have so many now I am not sure what we will do with them! She is very compassionate like her Grandpa Kay-always looking out for those around her and she really does notice when something is the matter. One day while walking, we passed a little girl crying in the back of a parked pick-up. Madison turned right around and wiped the girls' tears. It was remarkable to me that there were no barriers for Madison. Color didn't matter, nor the fact that we didn't know anything about this little girl. One of our favorite things about Madison is that she has a BIG heart.

Inherited from Oma and Opa Madison loves to see new places and new things. She loves when visitors come...we decided that our house is called Hotel Bradford (we are actually one of many hotel Bradfords). There are people here all the time and Madison loves to see who they are, go through their luggage, wake them up in the morning, play with their babies, etc. My Aunt Sharolyn came a few days ago very late at night and then we left in the morning to do some errands before she woke up. Madison kept asking where she was as she was concerned maybe she didn't come. She wanted to meet her and welcome her to our home. I had to laugh at our little hostess.

Finally, Madison is a mixture of her mom and dad. Stubborn like...OK, like me. But Tobias' side isn't far behind. Her verbal abilities for sure come from the Bradford side...and her ADD--or constant ability to be doing, comes from her daddy. Her joy for life comes from Tobias as well. I tried to convince her that this year, because of moving and such, to do a party at McDonalds like all the other kids...but no, she really wanted lots of people and a party in her own home. Tobias is always inviting people over and we are always entertaining. I guess it is fair to say it comes from both of us. Her high-spiritedness comes from me, I admit it. Madison loves life and will take the world by storm. Actually, she is in the process already.
We love you Madison! With all your smiles and giggles and hugs and kisses. You are so special to us. Happy Birthday.

MADISON IS FIVE!!!

Happy Birthday to Madison :)
We just finished her 7 hour birthday party and wanted to post the pictures for those who know that the 16th is Madison's special day. It is amazing that our baby is now five. She was the star of the show today wearing her favorite (wears it six days out of every seven) butterfly dress. The small cake with a doll sticking out is my poor attempt at a princess with the cake as her skirt. Madison also saw the cake of her dreams at the store so we bought it too! Good thing--the cake went so fast with the 30 or so quests. Everyone swam to their hearts content and we stuffed ourselves with hamburgers and cheese puffs! Also lots of fresh fruit :) The kids had a blast and Madison was the princess for a day. Happy Birthday little one--we love you so much.

Trip to the Southern Coast

On our adventure to the end of the world we saw so many cool things! I am sure we took a few extra hours getting places because of all the things we wanted to take pictures of! Hope you enjoy a trip through rural end of the world Dominican Republic. (click on pictures for more info)

My schedule

Ok...so is anyone interested in what goes on the last few weeks before one moves with the foreign service? I wish I could write as well as my friend Jay Porter...but we'll see how well I do. In October the craziness started with General Conference and the power going out for some friends. We ended up having the two families together all weekend...it was a blast! Then we decided to go to El Salvador last minute...Our bestest friends, the Roses, were moving anytime in the last part of October, but we weren't sure when. So we really wanted to spend as much time as possible with them, which was always--the beach, the Colonial Zone, the zoo, everywhere! The week before they moved we were at their house everyday-Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and then Tuesday. Wednesday was the day they left so we helped them get the last minute things done and off to the airport. Their tutor, Stephanie, came home with us and we helped her with her last few days. Thursday we spent at the beach, Friday she had to be at the airport at 5 am. Tobias is in charge of those airport runs. Good thing too...I'll tell you that story later. Thursday night we had a wedding dinner for some friends and were out till midnight. I had run home from the beach, changed quickly and headed back out. All day Friday was spent trying to buy something suitable for the wedding (they are really fancy deals here). Then buying a present, then the salon for nails and hair. Two salons looked at me as a white girl and just said "no, we don't do up-dos." OK...We finally found someone who took pity on us and we spent over an hour in a salon getting all dolled up. It was funny and fun. Beckah was a good sport hanging out with me. We rushed to the wedding, to have it start almost an hour late--should we be surprised??? NOO! But, we were. They had asked us to help with the pictures so we had to be on time. It was an awesome wedding in a beautiful hotel. There were two brides who were sisters and then two grooms. All were Dominican except one groom. It was an interesting experience to help the parents fit in who couldn't speak Spanish. They were lovely people.

The wedding was an interesting cultural experience. First they were married in a separate room, then we moved to this big dining hall where we were stuffed with nuts and lots of drinks until they served dinner at 11:30 pm. WOW! The food was wonderful and the music incredibly loud. We loved watching everyone dance...but didn't dare go with them. We went for the only slow song and danced very much like gringos...No one joined us...and I am sure they got a really good laugh out of us. Again we got home soooo late! That Monday night Tobias' cousins came and he picked them up at 111 pm---BUT they had forgotten their passport for the baby. Oh, and they didn't have a birth certificate for him because he is only 7 months old and was born at home. The paper work just hadn't been turned in yet, and they hadn't even thought to have a passport for the babe. Thankfully, instead of having to get on the next plane out, their American cellphone worked and they were able to contact Tobias. Tobias saved the day with some wonderful diplomacy! It was a nothing less than a miracle. OH WAIT!!! Even I am getting all mixed up in schedule. This was the previous week when my friend was moving. I ended up taking the cousins with us to their go away party on Tuesday and then to the bus station on Wednesday morning headed for a resort. The timing was perfect because of how crazy the week was. Saturday night they came home alive from a crazy taxi ride, and Sunday was interesting at church with French, English and Spanish speakers with everything being translated 3 ways :) That afternoon was a babyshower...that night choir...the next week we spent going 100 miles an hour to all the cool tourist places. It was actually really great to get out of the house and to play with the girls while seeing the sights one last time. The zoo was a favorite with hippos that were so awesome! They make the coolest sound and are just so HUGE!

We went to this wonderful island on Thursday, came home and did laundry packed in a hurry and went to sleep so we would be ready for our "trip to the end of the world." (see Eagle Bay) We came back in time Sunday to download and swap pictures and Tobias did the crack of dawn airport rujn once again! We loved being with Anna and Karl and their baby Michael. They blessed our home with softness and a wonderful spirit of contentment and love. Thank you for coming even at such a crazy time! We sure love you guys :)

This week I have been going through every nook and cranny of the house--you know the ones you try to ignore but just keep piling up! Well, we end up paying thousands of dollars for our little junk drawers, so I have to go through everyone. Needless to say my husband's ebay hobbit, oh wait, habit...oh wait, hobby...Well, this thing with ebay saves us TONS of money. BUT a lot of "great deals" accumulate in our nooks and crannies! We have been weeding and sorting and selling and giving away. I am at the point where I just want it gone! If you want to pay me, OK, if not, take it anyway! :)

Beckah's mom came last night and now we have Madison's birthday party Saturday (tomorrow) and Thanksgiving on Sunday because we will be at the resort on the real day. All at my house--we are excited to do all of it...it just keeps us crazy :) Next week we have immunizations, going away visits, tourist stuff with Aunt Sharolyn and then getting all suitcases packed and away, plus all the airplane freight separated as well--come Monday it all has to be sorted because the packers come! AAAAAAAAAA!

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we say goodbye to all of our stuff and head to the resort for the rest of the week. Monday and Tuesday are goodbyes and Wednesday we are out-a-here! Here's to moving!!! :)

Eagle Bay

Our trip to the end of the world started on a Friday afternoon and after driving 3 hours we hunted for a place to stay. If only people here could understand that if you have a telephone, webpage or some way of getting a hold of you that their business would be sooooo much better. But, alas, it was not to be. We searched and searched and finally ended up at our hotel in bed by 9:00. By that time we were all done and especially NOT wanting to keep the children awake one second longer. I thought we would die of paint fumes, but we survived our hotel and started bright and early the next morning out to Eagle Bay. It is right next to the Haitian border so we had to drive another 2 hours to get to the National Park only to have them tell us that one of the cars in our group could not make the drive and we would have to stuff them into our cars or take a 150 dollar boat trip. We decided on the boat trip which just added to the entire adventure. Getting in the boat was probably the biggest part of the adventure since there was no stable dock and we just had to jump for it and hope the waves didn't knock us over. Our stuff was mostly dry and we made it out into the open ocean while Mikaela was stuck on land to come with the rest of our party and Tobias and I were busily scooping water out of the boat. Needless to say I was very grateful to be alive at the end and reunited with our youngest--Tobias was in hog heaven. For those of you who know this it will come as no surprise to you. The water, like I said, was amazing, but I could have done just fine with a half-hour ride to the beach close to town and not had 500 mosquito bites the next day nor the trauma that it is to drive in the back of a Ford Explorer with a 5 year old and a 2 year old for about 20 hours in 3 days.
We saw pelicans flying very close, gorgeous blue water, and were pretty much by ourselves (with our friends of course). It was a nice day at the beach and even nicer to arrive home safe and get cleaned up in a proper shower with shampoo and conditioner. I have been there once, I don't need to go again. Just like eating the iguana Tobias made and the lamb his friend butchured and we ate 1 hour later...I have tried them once and have no need to do it again. Tobias, I am sure, will crave these same experiences for years to come--oh wait! We are in the foreign service and are moving to Mozambique, Africa!!! I think it won't be too hard to come by more of these kinds of nerve racking, bug biting, back killing, mom-torturing adventures :)

Peter and Michelle's Visit June 2007

Okay, so I am just going to start putting up these memories when I get a minute...I am done organizing for our pack out! Tobias' cousin Peter married one of my bestest friends in the whole world, Michelle. You will see them, but these are several pictures of their sons and our daughters. Man do they all love the mud! It is so interesting to go back to the first people who visited us...we were so new at everything, but got acquainted real fast! We went to the northern coast and stayed at a beach called Las Terrenas. It was quite the adventure with getting there and the roads that were like craters on the moon, kids getting motion sickness in the back seat while going over mountain passes and rain that didn't stop for a few days. We switched hotels half way through and enjoyed ourselves immensely. These pictures are taken at a beach we found that we decided to talk a walk on because it was raining. We found the fresh river running into the ocean and the kids had such a good time, we all forgot the rain and just ended up staying. It was such a blast!

Memories

So I found these pictures while cleaning up our hard drive and was pretty nostalgic--I almost felt sad at the beautiful creatures that come into our lives--and THEN GROW UP!! Just kidding, a little. I love how Madison could not figure out how to do the thumbs up sign and has her bathing suit on inside out, and how much Mikaela loved the water. Of course, Madison is the one covered in mud! And I am sure we have so many more pictures of the girls with their fingers up their noses! I want to go back and blog so much of our lives! It is just too much fun to have memories and then to share them. We love our girls so much and feel that they are such a wonderful treasure.

The Volcano

The writing of these blogs is going to have to come before the pictures, for, as those fellow bloggers will understand, it takes forever to download then upload and then do it again!! SO...the pictures are in process, but I have a few minutes and wanted to write about some of our adventures. These last few weeks have been crazy! Some think we are just nuts, but it is our lifestyle and we love it...most of the time. There are moments of "Oh my heck, what am I doing!!!" Mostly we are loving it and making so many wonderful memories! This was a trip we did in El Salvador with our awesome hosts the Porters. We went to the volcano there in San Salvador, which if you read our friends' blog you realize was a little bit of a gamble safety wise...I really didn't realize until reading their blog yesterday that was such a gamble!
So...these are our friends the Porters and Rebekah, my cousin, is in a few of the pics too. The beauty was amazing and so was the weather! I kept saying "Oh, this is so nice, this is so nice!" Well, I must press pause as there are other things calling and I need to close this. I will update soon.

Moving

Moving is upon us. We pack in 3 weeks from tomorrow, right before Thanksgiving. Wow--we are crazy buzy with friends leaving, getting married, visitors and then just plain old every day life. We are trying very hard to get things sorted and dejunked before we move so that we don't have to pay tons of "over weight" charges this time. Our house will be in constant disarray until we move, I think. The office has turned into a half-way house and is home to all the things we have out-grown or shouldn't have bought in the first place. My mom always says two moves is better than a fire. I am in agreement! We have so much stuff and have realized, or are in the process of realizing that we really don't need so much STUFF. It is like a cleansing process that is forced upon you. It hurts, but is liberating at the same time.
We are excited for our next adventure, but it is so sad to leave our friends and way of life here. It has been such a wonderful place for us and will hold wonderful memories. Leaving our good friends is the hardest part...we are trying to everything we can with them before we leave. Memories really are the mainstay of life. Yes, we live in the moment, but then we cherish so much the bonds of friendship and brotherhood. Thank you to all we love here in the Dominican Republic who we love so much!

Ode to Joy

Some of our very best friends left this week to live in Minsk, Belarus. We are going through withdrawls and are actually a little bit numb as our time approaches ever to quickly. Joy Rose was my lifesaver here in the DR and such a sweet sweet friend. I will miss her dearly: her smile and soft words, listening to me when I so needed it, and of course opening up her home to our family for yummy Sunday dinners, talent shows or General Conference. We will forever be linked in our hearts and with wonderful memories. I love you Joy and wish you the very best!

Friends

These are some of my very best friends in the whole world! Joy and Stephanie are leaving this next week, and then we will follow soon there after. It is a sad sad time for all of us. Here we are at dinner before the Relief Society Broadcast. It was such a great time with the ladies....Our friendship seems to be so strong and close because we are out here in the boons. We are members of the church and all speak English and speak the same culture :) That is hard to come by in the Dominican Republic and so we latch to each other. I, for one, have learned so much from these ladies and will miss them terribly. I have told them all I will have to call them in the middle of the night for advice. It has truly been a blessing for me to know them and spend time with them: walking, running, weight lifting, brunching, lunching, chatting, crying, doing therapy together, de-stressing, coping, complaining, sharing, laughing, beaching, and loving each other. I am so lucky to have such good friends.

Columbus Lighthouse

For one of our date nights, we switched it to a Friday afternoon when Tobias gets out early. We took Rebekah and toured the lighthouse they say Columbus is buried in. The DNA debate is still on with Spain, but the lighthouse is pretty amazing. We really enjoyed our time with Beckah and liked seeing the museums inside from tons of different countries. Columbus' signature is cool-lots of symbols to basically say he is Christ's servant. The whole story is pretty sad...Columbus never was paid...and no one really knows where he is from or any of his family. They think he might have been Jewish and changed his name so they couldn't trace any information back to him. I am glad the Americas were discovered, but with them came basically the entire destruction of the Taino Indians of the Dominican Republic. We all know the same story in several different countries where this happened and the struggle continues between old and new "power." (Guatemala, etc.) Needless to say "Colombus Day" is not always a celebrated holiday in Latin countries.

A day in our house

My cousin Rebekah has been a lifesaver! Some days the girls just need some undivided attention. This day they loved getting dressed up like Hollywood stars and being driven around downstairs on the office chair! So fun!

Indian dancing

The University here actually had a cultural exchange! We went to it and just loved the Indian dancers and music. The girls had a blast and went up at the end to dance too-Madison was in heaven and couldn't keep her booty still! Mikaela would not pose for a picture--I think she was on stimulus overload. The one lady danced with seven pots on her head...it was about a 20 minute process of one by one putting them on her head. She even sat down and picked up a dollar with her teeth off the ground! It was amazing. The man did a similar courting dance with a huge pot of water on his head that was first on top of one, then two, then three glasses. He then walked on nails, the sides of swords and walked clutching glasses with his toes. It was so great. Way to go cultural exchanges!

El Salvador

Well, I got to go back to the mission, with my family!!! It was a wonderful trip and such a blessing. Here a bunch of photos that have the descriptions and more info if you click on them. Lots to do and not enough time. Thanks to the Porters for opening up their hearts and home to us, it would not have been possible without them! We love you!!!

Helicopter Ride

There was a special mission here with the American war ship Kearsarge. The embassy gave us the great opportunity to go and tour it. Being so big, and having certain rules, the boat had to stay afloat about 1 mile from shore or something. We drove to the Dominican air force base and rode these huge helicopters out to the boat and then had a fabulous tour. A storm came up and we were thinking maybe we would have to spend the night on the boat, but they decided to take us back to the navy base instead. We got to ride on these huge hauling boats that sit in the bottom back part of the war ship. The warship can sink its back half a little and then open up into the sea to load and unload things. That is where we went and were "unloaded into the sea." It was absolutely fascinating! I learned so much of our armed forces and the good they do. It was strictly a peace keeping, medical mission. They were able to be near Haiti when so much of the devastation had occurred and were able to take thousands of gallons of water and other supplies in these hauling boats. I happened to meet the Colonel on an airplane a few days later and he said it was such an awesome mission...that he was amazed at how humanitarian the young service people were. He mentioned it as being hopeful when we worry so much about the 20 something kids we have. I am definately proud to be American...even when not everything in our system is perfect. These service men and women sacrifice so much! Six months out, some in, and then out again. They were very kind and professional to us. One of the other really interesting things that we saw was their six operating rooms. The Kearsarge is a special medical boat that goes to different parts of the world to help other countries, but also our own troops. They had about 100 doctors working together from several countries doing dental and eye work for this specific mission. We asked the most common surgery and the chief surgeon said, "vasectomies and apendectomies." I had to make sure I understood right, so I asked if a vasectomy was what I thought it was. He said yes, they come to make sure they can have no more babies! I thought he was talking about the different countries that they serve, but he was talking about our own troops! On their was home they have the surgery or their wives, girlfriends don't want them back!!! I thought that was a little funny, but in actuality, incredibly sad. So complicated...Life is not easy, that is for sure. Hope you enjoy part of our experience!

Most beautiful Caribbean Beach

We went to playa Rincon this weekend and had a blast. It was absolutely beautiful. Hope to go back someday soon.