All in a Day's Work (a post from Ben)

This Saturday has been a rather full day here. For starters the girls got up early: Mariah at 6:45, Lilly about 7:30. I (Dad) got up with them, and had a good time getting them both ready for the day: diaper changes, getting dress, and breakfast for Lily, Anna and myself. We were doing pretty well finishing breakfast by 9:00. Then it was time to begin the day’s projects.

First I worked on installing a child-proof gate at the bottom of our tiled staircase (with tools borrowed from our pastor). I realized that the installation kit didn’t come with the necessary hardware for installation in an all concrete (exterior walls) house. So this meant a trip to Home Depot, which thankfully is only ¼ mile away. But since I was going out later in the day, I spent the rest of the morning playing with the girls while Anna unpacked our kitchen. [For those who didn’t know we shipped most of our belongings via air freight. This means it flies here in about 8 hours, and then waits at the tax office for about 8 days, and then they deliver it to your house the next day…]

About 12:00 as we were beginning to start preparation for lunch the technician for our cable company arrived. He came to install our cable modem – yes all he did was unpack the box, run a short piece of coax (TV cable), and plug it into our computer. He also installed a bunch of “junk” software on my computer, which I now get to clean up this week. I tried three times to get the cable company to let me pick up the hardware and do the installation myself, but this is against their policy. But all complaining aside, it is a great blessing to have our computer back with internet access. Hopefully this will mean we are more in touch with you, and we hope to have pictures up on the blog soon as well.

After the internet installation and lunch I went to Plaza Las Americas (see the previous post) to find some new short sleeved shirts for work. The dress code here is a little higher than back home, so I’m filling out my wardrobe for work. Thankfully most of the summer clothes are now on clearance so I was able to find some great deals.

Once back from the mall I helped clean a little (Anna did 90% of the cleaning herself), then we made our traditional homemade pizza, which is a favorite and longstanding Saturday night tradition. I was given some yeast by our pastor last night, which was a story in itself. We went to the mall just outside our neighborhood to eat at a Puerto Rican restaurant (oddly named “Country Pit”). While in the food court we ran into the pastor’s son and his family, who were just finishing their meal – we had a very nice visit with them, and learned that David was gong to the airport that night to pick up his father who was returning from a short visit to the US. I also had to travel to the airport that night to return our second rental car (which was a great blessing for the past 2 weeks). So, we decided to meet and carpool so that Anna didn’t have to drive with the girls late at night. So after dropping off my car, we picked up Paster Vater (pronounced like Darth V, only with a “t”). We then dropped off Pastor Vater, who loaned me not only his drill, but also gave me some yeast!! The church here is a true blessing.

So anyway, back to Saturday. After dinner I helped get the girls in bed and then resumed the gate installation project, and finally finished about 9:45. I am wishing that I could have shipped my tools over here now – but I suppose that I’d only get into more projects then, so it’s probably better not to have them.

So after a long day of laboring, cleaning, cooking, shopping, and playing with the girls, I slept well last night, and I’m looking forward to great Lord’s day tomorrow. Good night, and God Bless.