Puerto Rico = humidity, baby lovers and dead igauna's

This is my first visit to a location that isn't connected to the states. I have been to Mexico 4 times and lived in Canada for 4 years, but never had to fly over water to get somewhere. We are staying with friends who are connected with the camp. They have been living here for almost 2 years as teachers in a Christian school.  Joe was asked to come speak at their  3 day spring break retreat for the junior and high school kids.
It is  now day three in Puerto Rico and so far the biggest unexpected surprise was the intense humidity! It should make sense, for the simple fact that we are on an Island and all. Is it like this in Hawaii? I hope not because I really want to visit that place.  We may be taking a trip to Haiti this winter too so and I am really hoping I will be patient with the heat. I am not picky about very many things like I am the weather.
From what I have observed, Puerto Rico is America on an Island with Spanish speaking people.  Every time I visit a place where spanish is spoken I always leave telling myself that I am going to learn to speak it as fluently as possible. This time I am serious and so is Joe. We decided we will find a language Program to help us learn.  We also really want to improve on our French. We both know more French than Spanish, but when it comes to pronunciation I've got spanish down and Joe French.  I don't know how many times I have had to tell Joe that the "H" is silent in spanish.  He He! 
Okay, some more about Puerto Rico. 
The people here LOVE babies.  I have never seen a culture of people love on a baby like they do here. It is crazy how obsessed they are over Jake.  I went to visit Joe and the kids at the retreat Joe is speaking at today and I didn't get more than 3 feet in the door and we had a group of kids running at us and squealing over Jake.  By the time I left I am pretty sure that Jake had been held by 30 kids and we were told about 15 times that Jake looks like the Gerber baby.  What a nice compliment! Joe and I agreed.They couldn't stop saying "Que Lendo" which means "cute" in spanish. I keep kicking myself that I didn't enter him into the "Most Beautiful Baby" contest on Regis and Kelly this year.  It would have been nice to meet Regis and Kelly and take home 25,000 bucks for Jake's college fund.  Oh well, there is always next year.
I will post some pics in a later blog of our trip to Puerto Rico.

The Island is beautiful! They have beaches, Mountains, and Rain Forests. We took a day to go hiking in the mountains on Wed.  It was much cooler in the mountains so it was nice to have a break from the humidity for a day. The drive up to our hiking location was long and the roads very windy.  Traffic was crazy as well. You have to drive very aggressively like you would in Chicago except there aren't as many road rules. You just stick your nose out and go, no turn singles, and you get honked at a lot.  Very much like Chicago. When it comes to road kill, it's not cats, dogs, deer, or raccoons. Puerto Rico have Iguana's like we have squirrel. On the East side of the island there is a road called Beach Road and there are always Iguana's sunning out on the shoulder of the road. Sometimes they just chill on the side or they decided to cross. I have never seen so much road kill and these are huge Iguana's. It is very common to see 10+ dead iguana's in the span of a few 100 feet and they are bigger then cats! I wish I could have taken a picture of one. Below are some pictures of our trip.

The last picture of the three of us on the plane was taken soon after take off on our way home. As you can see we had a whole row to ourselves.  20 min before this picture was taken we were sharing it with a 275 lb, over 6' 2" black guy that I would have had to rub shoulders with for 6 hours but luckily was asked to move to an exit seat so he had more room for his legs. After he moved, Joe mouthed to me, " There is a God!" We had a really long day of flying home since we didn't have a direct flight to Chicago.   We had what I thought was going to be a miserable 6 hour flight to Minneapolis that arrived at 8:30pm IN time with a 90 min lay over and then a 60 min flight to Chicago that arrived at 12:15am IN time.  We didn't get Jake to bed until 2am.  From the time we left Puerto Rico at 3pm to the time we had him down for bed he only cried for no more then 3 of those mins.  He was incredibly good for us that day. I even got to hold him while he slept for 1.5 hours on the plane.  It amazes me how well he handled such a crazy day and could sleep through a noisy plane ride. We are truly blessed with an easy, go with the flow baby. Now I don't think I will ever want to fly with him again until he is 5 years old, but if I had to do it again I won't be as stressed out over it. I think my blood pressure rose about 50 points that day because of how worried I was. We are back to our regular life at home. It is great to be back in IN, just in time for spring weather. Goodbye March!

I am a little behind

We are finally home from our 3 week adventures away from home. March was a fun one because it was spent away from Indiana. I get so antsy in March because we are at the end of winter but Spring can't come fast enough so for me to be gone most of that month was a blessing. 
Our first 10 days were spent on Anna Maria Island in Florida with my mom and dad, sisters, and future brother-in-law.  Joe and I made the 18 hour drive starting on Wed after a morning appointment for Jake's 6 month wellness check up in Kokomo, IN.  We broke up the drive into 2.5 days spending the night at our friends house in Knoxville one night and a hotel the second night.  Jake was an angel on the way down. I love how he adjusts to new things and places so easily. I won't bore you with all the details about our time in Florida because all we really did was take walks on the beach and lay out at our private pool. It was so nice to have my parents and sister around to help out with Jake. Joe and I were able to get away at least once a day for a few hours.  I wish they lived closer.

 The weather was great everyday. No rain during the day. Temps in the mid to upper 60's and lower 70's. A little windy some days on the beach. 

The picture of Joe at the sign was a great place to eat ribs and other good stuff we tried, like a philly cheese steak.  Joe was pretty excited that it was his trail name on the AT. The next picture was just something funny that was displayed at the restaurant. I just thought it was funny to see a skeleton take a leak.

The most amazing Creamy Chicken Enchiladas ever!

The Wisley's are in Florida for the next 8 days. We arrived last Friday after 2 1/2 days in the car we finally made it to our destination on Anna Maria Island just south of Tampa Bay. We are staying at a condo called Beside Still Waters just a block off the beach.  The best thing about this trip beside the sun and beach is our free stay.  "How did you get a free stay right off the beach?"  I knew you would ask! Well this four condo building is free for people working in the ministry. Lucky for us, we serve in the ministry at Rainbow Christian Camp.  So, if any of you out there work in the ministry and want a free place to find rest by yourself or with your family this is a great place to do it. All you have to do is put in an request 6 months in advance of the dates you want and they will let you know if it is available on those dates.
My parents, along with my sisters and future brother-in-law are in the condo next to us. My dad is a pastor so he was able to request a free stay as well. It has been a lovely time, especially since Joe and I can sneak away with the help of 5 babysitters in the condo next door.
Jake had his first swim in a big bathtub (the pool) yesterday. He really liked having his feet in the water, but once his whole body was in he promptly let us know he was not a huge fan of the slightly chilly water.  It was a little windy yesterday which could have been part of the problem.
Okay now to tell you about my mom's amazing Enchiladas. I usually don't care for this Mexican meal but now that I have tasted my mom's I want to share this tasty and easy recipe with you.

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
1 Tbsp butter
1 med onion, chopped
1 chopped red pepper
1 can chopped green chiles
2 diced jalepenos
8oz of cream cheese cut up and softened
3 1/2 cups of chopped and cooked chicken breast
8 - 8 in tortillas
8 oz monterary jack cheese, shredded
1-2 cups of whipping cream

melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add oniona dn red pepper and jalepenos and saute for 5 min. Add green chiles; saute 1 min. Stir in cream cheese and chicken; cook stirring constantly until cream cheese melts.
Spoon 2-3 Tbsp of mixture down center of torillas. Roll them up and place in lightly greased baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese and drizzle the whipping cream all over! Bake at 350 for 45 min uncovered. 
Serve with salsa, guacamole and sour cream.  Yum! Soooooo good!

Let me know if you like them.
Hope all of you up north aren't getting hit with too much rain.  

Nobody is Perfect, Right?

So I have been doing a lot of praying here lately. When I say, a lot, I mean, A LOT!  Before I became a mom life was far different as it is for me now, of course. I thought I had this whole parenting thing figured out. I spent a lot of time babysitting for families since I was 13. I was a full time nanny for a 6 month old, 10 month old, 2 year old twin girls, and a four year old boy all at the same time when I was 18-19. I have spent a lot of time being around kids and for what it's worth, getting a descent amount of experience being a part-time parent. I watched one of the kids walk for the first time, even before his parents did. I taught him sign language because I was tired of hearing the whining. I put them down for naps, read them books, bathed them, sang to them, played hide and go seek with them, kissed their boo-boo's, fed them, took them to the park and the pool. It was a very exhausting job but my most favorite job of all!  I must admit, I was a good babysitter. People trusted me with their little ones. I don't know why, but I am glad they did and it made me feel good to know that parents liked me, even better, the kids loved me! Now that I am a parent, that changes my whole perspective on what being a parent is all about. I've been humbled since having Jake. I don't have this parenting thing all figured out!
I am an observer. I like to watch people and I've had a lot of time watching my friends parent their children. (You know you have done the same thing so I am not afraid to admit it).  I may have raised an eyebrow a few times when a kid throws a fit because they refuse to listen, but you will be doing the same thing when my kids throws a fit and I don't know what to do about it! I now realize how imperfect we all are as parents, as well as our kids. I have been humbled, realizing that all of us parents make mistakes. We all have imperfections in our parenting techniques. We probably all start out in our pre-parent stage thinking we know exactly what we want out of our kids, what rules we will have in the home, how we will discipline, what behavior we will never put up with, etc.  Boy was I incredible wrong! How ignorant and arrogant I was!
So now I am praying for God's wisdom in parenting. How does God parent us and want us to parent our little ones. I am being challenged in my journey as a first time mom already.  I feel sorry for Jake since he is the first born and I will make plenty of mistakes on him. I hope he will forgive me when I mess up. It won't be too much longer when Jake will be pushing the limits and testing his mommy and daddy's will. Hopefully he will be the one bending his will to us and not the other way around. Will I ever have this figured out?  Wait, don't tell me, cause I am afraid I won't like the answer.
This is completely off subject but we have four rabbits that live behind our house and I have been watching them run back and forth in the back yard carrying dried grass in their mouths to our back porch. They must be making a nice warm bed for an expected liter coming soon. Bummer! More rabbits to deal with.  Anyone want to cute little bunny for a pet? Or maybe I could wait until there are enough of them and make a fur coat out of them! Or, I could start a rabbit farm and make rabbit stew!  So many possibilities.

Picture updates

 

My sister Heather and Jake about a month ago in North Carolina!

 

Jake in his new favorite thing!

 

My sister Kim

Jake in his new Flat Cap

Eating Maximus's lip.

 My Dad

My Mom

Maximus loves to lay on Jake and Jake loves Maximus

Dreams: Jaguars, Zombies, and Flying

Night dreams are one of the most peculiar things in life to me. You never know when you are going to have one and you never know what it is going to be about and/or why you have the dreams you have in the first place. The one thing I have noticed about dreams is that something, someone, or some incident in my life at the present time almost always makes it's way in my dream.

Last night was one of those nights for me. I could blame it on the Chinese food I had for dinner but that is not always the case for me. My dream started out at my place of college education.  I was actually flying all over campus, not in a plane, but was flying like Super Man, but without the cape.  As I was in the air I noticed a couple of friends who played on the football team, Milano and Adrian.  Milano called up to me and asked me to walk with them. Well, I hadn't practiced my landing skills very well because I fell fast enough to the ground that I got some pretty intense butterflies in my stomach. As I walked with them Milano mentioned something about some other guy who told him he wouldn't kiss me before the other guy got the chance too.  Weird, I know, but hey, I can't control what I dream about.  Next we were in a house that Joe and I lived in and a home inspector showed up to inspect the safety of the house. He ended up telling us that the house needed to be torn down because it wasn't safe enough to live in since it wouldn't withhold a Hurricane!  Ha Ha!  When was the last time a hurricane went tearing through central IN?  At the end of that dream some people from camp came over and we all ate some sort of Pineapple dessert  that was cooked inside the peel of the pineapple. It was yummy!
My next dream was about my two sisters and I dancing to broadway songs on an icy sidewalk outside of a really big building.  I ended up falling and breaking my phone.  All three of us sat off to the side of a very wide sidewalk while people walked by.  Completely out of anyone's path a kid walked up to us and told us that we were in the way and needed to move.  I cursed under my breath as we moved to a bench to continue fixing my phone.  All of a sudden the dream changed scenes.  I was in an older glorified dorm room with furniture. My sister-in-law Denise was with me and we were eating lunch. We dirtied a lot of the kitchen's dishes so I started to wash them.  Denise made a pile of dishes to wash. Included in that pile was about 25 ziplock bags that she wanted me to wash. Now, at my house, I wash and reuse these bags so this isn't unusual for me, but in my dream I thought Denise was crazy. I told her I wasn't going to wash her ziplocks. She got mad and pulled monkey bread out of the oven and asked me what we were going to put the bread in if I wasn't going to wash the bags.
Next scene I am in a big field with several trees all around me and being chased by a big elephant!  He charges me over and over again, hitting me a couple of times but without doing any real damage. I try to escape him, but he is too fast for me so I decide to hide behind trees and see if he will lose interest and leave me alone.  All of a sudden my sister is approaching a huge leopard and attempting to tame him.  Without knowing the results of my sister's leopard taming skills we move onto taking a nap in a dorm room but constantly being interrupted by a black Jaguar who has been trying to claw his way through the door. Too tired to put up with this jaguars crap I bravely walk out of the room, charge the jag and hold his mouth shut with my hands as he tries to bite me. My next move is to bang his head up against the wall to knock him out so I can get some sleep.  I end up beating his head over and over until he goes limp, crushing his skull and killing him!
On Sunday night I had dreams about Zombies chasing me, and that was after watching the movie Zombie Land with some friends.  A slightly gory movie, but pretty funny. I'm not usually a fan of zombie movies but this one was worth watching.
Well, there you have it.  What kind of weird dreams have you had lately?

Shopping for Jeans is not fun anymore

I went shopping today with a friend at a cute little boutique of gently used clothes in Gas City.  I was in the market for a new pair of jeans since I am still wearing my maternity jeans. That hurts to admit because I thought I would have been back in my pre-preggo clothes by now!  Ugh! I walked into the boutique wearing confidence on my sleeve and went straight for the size 6 rack thinking that I could probably squeeze into a wide leg pair of 6's.  On my way to the fitting room I grabbed a couple of size 8 jeans off the rack just in case.  Well, that "just in case" came a lot faster then I wanted it to when I couldn't even pull the 6's up over my child bearing hips!  I wanted to scream out loud! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  "Are you kidding me." I thought to myself. I knew deep down that they wouldn't fit, fit, but I figured I would be able to get them over my hips.  "Okay, moving on."  Now to try a slightly bigger size. "Hey at least I am not in the double digits!" I again thought to myself.  Being a small boned, short and petite girl I think being under a size ten is very reasonable. I took a deep breath and without hesitation put my right leg into the pant and then the left. With a little jump and a tug I was able to slide them over my hips! "Yes!" Now to get them zipped up and buttoned. Success! Sort of. They were zipped and buttoned, but as far as the comfort of the fit, they are so-so. At least it will help motivate me to lose a couple more pounds so that I didn't waste my money on them.  I would have never spent full price for them since they came from The Gap so at least I only paid 1/4 of what they would have been new.  How depressing! I used to like shopping for clothes. Oh well! Jake was worth it.