First School Photo

So they thought to put a flower in her hair, brush her sweaty bangs, and give her a kukui lei. But no one told her to SMILE ??!!

She definitely has a heap of Melinda with accents of Ephraim. Cute girl, huh?

Smeagol Bus

We thought this bus was entertaining. Although I'd be too creeped out to actually ride it.

Ouch

Isaac is famous for hurting himself. In our playgroup the other moms were surprised if he DIDN'T have a huge bump on his head every week. This is one of his latests.

He rolled off the bed at night onto the floor and cut his lip. This was taken at breakfast the next morning. Poor little guy. What can I do to help him not hurt himself so much?

Thanksgiving 2008

We had Thanksgiving with the Pili's this year and enjoyed all the traditional dishes, even down to the cranberries.

Well, we enjoyed almost all the dishes, turns out Ella doesn't care for pumpkin pie.

But Isaac sure does.

It's nice to think about what we're thankful for, and at the top of the list is YOU, our family and friends both near and far. We love you!

So Po'

If only we had money to afford a real bunk bed for our kids. Oh well, this takes up less space. And doubles as a bathtub.

Tuesday's To-Do

It's always interesting for me to find my old to-do lists. Here's mine from yesterday.

• Drop off Ella at school (1/2 mile down the road)
  
• Call Maima (my friend who cleans our house--I had to tell her not to come today because Isaac is sick.)
• Stop by Barb's house (I had to pick up fabric for costumes I volunteered to sew for our stake Christmas play)
• Bug Bomb the house (never got around to that one because I wasn't out of the house for the required 3 hours, thus our cockroach population has one more day to increase)
• Get mail from Leone (our mailbox is about 10 minutes down the pothole road. We check it once a week because it's "so far away", and mail only flies in twice a week. Yesterday was a good mail day-- I got a letter from Sis. Fillmore in California, from Evie in Oregon, and the swimsuits for Ella I'd ordered from Lands' End, since there are surprisingly no swimsuits on island. Yay!)
• Get Ike's medical card at hospital in Faga'alu (so he can see the doctor. He has a cough. And skin fungus.)
• Pick up Ella
• Swim lessons at 2:30 (Cancelled because several kids have dengue fever. Yikes!)
• Return videos (to CTR video across the street--we watched Evan Almighty and Peter Pan.)
• Eph's play practice at 6 (He's Joseph in the stake Christmas play and has practice every night but Sun and Mon.)

And the rest of my day was spent sewing Roman soldier costumes that maybe look Roman, but not like soldiers. At least they're easy.

So what's on YOUR to-do list?

Ella's Bugs

Remember my run-in with little hair bugs in Fiji?



Well, now it's Ella's turn. I guess it just goes along with sending little kids to school on an island. I'm sure learning a lot about lice!

Palota (Vote)

We really didn't get much of the media flood over the election down here in American Samoa, thankfully.

We're still waiting to hear who our next governor and lt. governor will be. The two top candidates are having a "run-off" Nov. 18. I don't think there's any real running involved. Now if it were a dance-off, I would be very interested! Whoever can siva samoa the longest is definitely the most qualified candidate.

As for our U.S. President, we're pleased with Mr. Obama's victory, and look forward to what the future holds. Although next time I'm voting for my brother in law Ken Craig for president. First, because then I could be indirectly famous and get invited to Washington for Christmas parties. Second, because President Craig would not let our bills turn into play money, with bright purple digits and oversized portraits. And finally, I want to be there when he gets Bono in D.C. for a personal concert. Find out why you should vote for Ken here.

Halloween Week

Can you guess what they were?

After a big school carnival, a big church carnival, and a library party, we (I) were ready to be done with Halloween by the time it actually arrived. On Friday we went to the pool, went out to dinner with friends, and then hid in our house watching Incredibles with all the lights off. So Halloween humbug, huh.

Trick or treaters are by far the scariest part of Halloween in American Samoa. They travel in packs. They paint their faces black. They have no costumes, just ratty clothes. They crowd your door, belt out the Trick or Treat song, and then start grabbing for candy. This year we sure tricked them, enjoying our candy ourselves in peace...in the dark.

Hope you all had fun, too.