New blog!

Since our little Mann was born, we have had a hard time keeping up with our blog - but there is so much to document! In an effort to continue keeping our friends and family updated, we will be creating a new, private blog at juniorbuhlers.blogspot.com. Please leave a comment or email me at karenruth(at)gmail(dot)com if you would like to continue creepin' on our family. Also, for you Google Readers out there, I will post a link on this public blog each time I post, since private blogs don't update your Reader. And, we'll still probably post our travel journeys on this public blog in case we're ever in an extreme natural disaster again and the local news needs to steal our photos for a story. :)

Enjoy!

Hello, neglected friend.

I'm sure we've gone longer than four months without a blog post, but wow! What a four month time period to miss! I feel list coming...

EVERETT...

• crawls. And cruises. And climbs. We are excited/scared for his next milestone...
• has four sharp teeth. Very sharp. Probably because he went through a stage for three weeks where all he would do was grind his teeth. I am so grateful that stage is over, though I'm not a fan of the biting stage.
• babbles, laughs, whistles inward, claps, dances, and says "dada" and "mama" (though he only says "mama" in the middle of the night when he is crying...).
• refuses to eat baby food. He wants what we're eating and wants to feed himself. Some favorites are watermelon, cantaloupe (whose child is this?! I hate melons!), ravioli, sweet potatoes, banana, and broccoli.
• thinks he's a dog. He likes to eat treats off the floor and crawl around the house with toys in his mouth.
• now wears cloth diapers. We had wanted to do this since before he was born, but finally had the resources needed to make it work (ie...washer/dryer!).
• met his Aunt Hoonie (Hermana Susan was serving in the Peru Lima North mission...he was born at her half-way mark!).
• met his Great-Grandpa Homer Mann Witt....one of the great men for whom he was named!
• will be ONE YEAR OLD in about two weeks!

KAREN...

• survived her first year of teaching. Barely. Those last couple weeks were rough, especially as they added new students in her classroom and the adult-student ratio was not as ideal as it was supposed to be.
• is switching to working full-time until Adam is done with school.
• is anxiously searching for a full-time job. :) The back-up, back-up, safety plan is to continue teaching half-time where I am and work as a building aide in the morning. Not ideal, but as I have heard more in the last few months than ever before in my life (not counting the Geico commercial), "A bird in hand is worth two in a bush."
• is enjoying her summer vacation. And her monthly paycheck that still comes for three more months!
• still isn't finished with her Master's degree. One project/thesis stands in the way, but so does lack of motivation, no topic, and an adorable son who wants to play all summer. The new goal is to finish by this December. We shall see.

ADAM...

• returned safely from Haiti.
• enjoyed days with Everett while I was at work.
• enjoyed nights where Everett slept (those have been few and far between...).
• PASSED CALCULUS!!!
• is working during the summer for Federal Student Financial Aid. Call with any questions...he knows everything.

THE BUHLERS...

• bought a house.
• bought a couch.
• bought a washer & dryer.
• bought a piano.
• had a VERY nice tax refund (see above items).

So much of the last few months has surrounded the purchase of our new home. We closed in the last part of April and it is really starting to feel like home. A year ago, we had heard about this program, Tenants to Homeowners, which creates energy-efficient, affordable housing in Lawrence. We had looked at our circumstances at that point and decided to wait before purchasing a home. Now that we actually have a real "big girl" job, we felt much more comfortable taking out a mortgage. Plus, the fact that three family friends were living on the same block that we were looking at didn't hurt either. So, we qualified for the program, met with the bank, locked in a great interest rate, and bought our house! It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, complete with a finished basement and 2-car garage. We're especially excited that my sister Rachel will be living with us next year. It gives us room to grow, especially since we'll be in Lawrence for a while as Adam finished school and gets a"big boy" job somewhere close by. It's been great. We finally have the space to comfortably have people over! We're also less than a mile away from downtown, so Everett and I enjoy walking down to the Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings or taking a family walk on the trail near our house. There's even a park a street over that my niece and nephews love to visit. It's hard to believe that we'll even take Everett's "first day of school" pictures by the tree in the front. Wow!

As for our piano, it was the most amazing Craigslist find ever. One evening around midnight, Adam mentioned that we had planned on getting a piano before we got tv (we have a tv, just no cable or even local channels). Well, I decided to look at the price of pianos in the area, so I jumped onto Craigslist and there was a posting just 20 minutes before for a piano for $200. And it was beautiful. I emailed the lady, talked to her the next day, went to see the piano, and we decided to buy it. I'm glad we contacted her when we did, because she was bombarded with responses. If my 13-year old self could see me now, she would not believe it. Nor would my 14-year old self, 17-year old self, or even 10-year old self. Those are all the times I quit piano lessons. Still, after serving a mission and seeing the great need for musical talent, I have been greatly motivated to gain that skill. It's slow going, but I try to play each day. Everett will either play the upper keys for me or crawl around my feet and hit the pedals for me. Adam and I have sat down and had a couple lessons for him since he's never had the opportunity to learn either. We're hoping that if our kids see us practicing, maybe they won't quite lessons five times!

This has been a quick update, but hopefully it will put me back in the swing of things. And hopefully the next time I post, it will be with positive news about an amazing full-time job next year!

Can't you see his excitement with the switch to cloth?! His diapers aren't normally that big. We just got a little adventurous with the first overnight diaper and stuffed it a little too full.

Hermana Hoonie! She stays with us on weekends and holidays, so we're trying to catch up on lost time. Everett's been waiting for her...

Sweet Grandpa Witt! Everett LOVED him from the moment he saw him. I think it was mutual.

This kid turns everything into a steering wheel (his stroller wheels, my hairbrush....and this actual steering wheel. Looks like we have another petrolhead in the family!).

Home sweet home!

(Please disregard the bright yellow paint...we're hoping to remedy it in the future)

A Tale of Two Sides

Everett likes to move at all times. Even when he's almost asleep, his little hands insist on playing with my hair or feeling the texture of the rocking chair or sheet. He has the hardest time when he should be nursing. I decided to document it one Sunday with a video of his feet. The first video is pretty typical, but the second one surprised me and made me laugh. This kid is hilarious!

Right side:

Left Side:

1/9/11 - Jacmel

So since I'm so behind on the blog I decided to just make small updates. Today I went to church here in Jacmel and had a great experience. Then Tiana and I took a tap tap out to Kabik and spent some time on the beach. We enjoyed some great "Lanbi Griye" or "Grilled Conch" and just took it easy. We came back on another tap tap which broke down after 5 minutes and then we jumped on another which brought us back into town. We took bucket showers with hot water and headed over to Florita, our favorite place for internet these days. After walking in I found another familiar face: Beleque! He was with Jorgen and the other Danes when we met at the MINUSTAH camp last year. He had just arrived from Cap Haitian this afternoon and it was great to see him and talk with him more. These blog posts aren't as lengthy and detailed as those in the past but I figure it's easier to keep up when they are shorter. Here's a photo of the Lanbi Griye we had on the beach:

1/8/11 - Jacmel

I am horrible at keeping up with this blog. I promise that detailed descriptions of every day will be posted eventually but as for now I wanted to share this photo. Tiana and I walked into the Florita hotel here in Jacmel which has become our internet source of choice. Walking in I saw Sue Frame sitting in the corner, we had met a few days ago and already had a chance to catch up, but another friend from last year was also sitting in at a table: Jorgen Leth. It was Jorgen's son who chartered a helicopter to come to Jacmel and it was Jorgen who decided to put us on the helicopter in his stead. It was great catching up with him briefly and I plan on seeing him more over the next few days. The 10th, 11th, and 12th will feature several films in the area and one of them will be Jorgen's film he was working on when the quake hit. So, I plan on updating the blog more but until then, enjoy!

Update on Adam

I just spoke with Adam...he is now in Jacmel for the week and will be able to post more tomorrow. He returned to Guy's Guesthouse, where we were during the earthquake. I can only imagine how surreal it must be for him.

He sent this picture from his visit to Cite Soleil - this gorgeous baby is the same age as Everett!

Photo credit: Tiana Markova-Gold

Port-au-Prince - 12/30/10

Today didn’t start as early as the other days. I got some good sleep and woke up at 8:00am. We got some breakfast and James and I started our day going to meet with a group in an area called Repatriation. It’s a group that helps support women in the community. It focuses on helping women know how to treat the water they get to ensure they don’t get any diseases from their water, they have also worked to help some of the women learn how to sign their names on official documents. They also do clinics with new mothers teaching them how to breast feed and provide the proper nutrition for themselves and their babies. It was a great organization with very dedicated and helpful people. They were very appreciative of our visit and all that we are trying to accomplish with our project. After filming an interview with them and taking some photos of their new mother clinics we loaded up the car and started to drive away. Unfortunately, for the third time in four days, the front tire was completely flat. We didn’t have a jack that worked and our spare tire wasn’t good for driving either. For the next hour we waited for someone with a pump to put more air in the tire or fix the leak or something. During this time James and I found some shade and were soon joined by about 15 boys in the area that were very curious to see this Blan who spoke their language. They had a good time asking me questions and wondering why I spoke their language and why my friend didn’t know any Creole. We talked about all sorts of random things and then someone came with a pump and fixed our tire. It never ceases to amaze me how Haitians are always willing and able to help us. It is true that some Haitians may want to take advantage of us or are looking for a handout, but the reality is these people are very helpful. Thinking back to the last time we were in Haiti and the many people who went above and beyond the call of duty to help us it just makes me love the Haitian people that much more.

James was our chauffeur for the day and I was amazed at how well he could handle the traffic and Haitian style of driving. I’m not sure I could do that. After more time in the country I’m sure I could be more comfortable driving here but certainly not after the one week James has been here. James braved the Haitian traffic and brought us safely back to our base camp. We ate a good lunch and then after backing up our our photos and videos we took a nap. The people we’re staying with had their church choir come over for a choir practice and it was interesting to be listening to the music and have it as a soundtrack during the sporadic dreams I had.

Tassy and Tiana returned from their day and we had a good meeting where we discussed our plans for the rest of our trip and what the other members of the team are planning to accomplish while they’re here. It turns out that there is a very good chance I will be going with Tiana to Jacmel for most of the next week. Tiana has taken me under her wing and I will accompany her to shoot some of the projects she has lined up while she’s here in Haiti. Tiana is a very accomplished photojournalist and has visited Haiti several times as well as other parts of the world. I really look forward to working with her and learning from her. I also really can’t wait to get out of Port-au-Prince. The traffic and pollution are less than desirable. I also just feel more comfortable outside of Port-au-Prince. The rest of the night I spent updating this blog and just getting to know Tiana better. I really can’t wait to work with her.