What's Up

This is just going to be a random post of things going on.

I'm 37 weeks pregnant. Even sleep is becoming uncomfortable. But I'm still going and feeling good. I've started my weekly hospital visits. The last one took 3 hours. 2 hrs 45 minutes of waiting. 15 minutes with the doc. Must I go, really?

Last Wednesday my students planned a baby shower for me with Ms. Lita who's taking my afternoon classes now. I didn't get a picture, but it was really cute. When I walked in the room they had confetti, balloons, and wall decorations. We played games, ate snacks, and even opened a few presents. Can you imagine 10 year old boys at a baby shower? It's probably their first and last one. They were really cool about it, and I think it will help them transition into this last month when I'm on maternity leave.

A few weeks ago for Family Home Evening we picked up dinner made by the lovely Ali Pili (thanks!!) and went to eat at Sliding Rock. We enjoyed the sunset, the waves, and the bats, and remembered why we like living here.

Last weekend was Flag Day, or the commemoration of American Samoa being "adopted" by the United States. I always love watching the fautasi race. And watching the whole island get excited about their teams. This year the Satani from Nuuuli took first.

Isaac is becoming a gamer. I don't approve. We've had to reset the kids' password on the computer, and set limits on his iPod time. It's Ephraim's iPod, so Isaac only has access to it a few hours in the evening, but he's incredibly adept at whatever he does on it. And the computer games he plays are on pbskids.org, so it's not that bad. (His latest favorite is Kratt's Creatures. Hello, kickboxing kangaroos?) But when he wakes up and turns on the computer first thing without asking and feels entitled to it, we have to regulate.

He was quiet one afternoon and I found him here:

...playing Angry Birds sideways on the countertop.

School is great. Ta'iala Academy is nearing the end of its first year. Some people have asked me about it, and I wish we had a website, or a person with enough time and skills to create and maintain one. But we are on facebook.

Most days are really good. I leave thinking, what a lucky group we are. For example, on one random day each class did cool stuff:

Kindergarten- used microscopes to look at bugs

1-2nd grade - visited a parent's work at ...Pizza Hut! got the tour and free samples

3-4th grade - had a grandparent come to teach Maori culture: the Haka and stick tossing

5-6-7th grade - used still and video cameras, tripods, and a laptop to work on their anti-littering project

When people come together, great things are accomplished. Of course we have some tough days. Weeks. Etc. But we're moving forward.

Another one of my associations is Women's Community Action Program led by the amazing Ali Pili. I posted about it when we first started after the tsunami here and here. A lot has happened since then.

We have a great blog going now. Have a look! Check out the post about yours truly. (I wish it were all true.) My contributions are small, but I have fun. Every few weeks the ladies come to my house to record the audio portion of our puppet shows in Samoan on our computer. I've been learning more Samoan! And a few weeks ago I got to wear a huge clown costume and make a million balloon fish at a Nutrition Fair. It was great until my finger started getting sore from tying balloons. How do those guys do it? Professsionals, man.

That nose didn't last long.

Ephraim educated people about fish and I passed out fish. What a team.

This post is long enough. But I haven't mentioned much about Ephraim. He's good. He's been surfing more, that happens when Mike Jackson's on island. He found an Ultimate Frisbee group to join, but the "friendly" game gets injurious so he's off and on. And he's leaving for Hawaii tomorrow for a week with a long shopping list. If you're there give him a holla.

Enough about us. Fa soifua!