The week before travel

Finals are over. I passed all my classes. Jason passed his. Alisabeth survived and we are one semester closer to normality.
Our garden is going crazy. We have squash and zuccini coming from every direction. We were able to harvest a few tomatos this week, and we got quite a bit of lettuce from the Raybon's side of the world.
This week was also a blast because we were able to (finally) make the special pork that Rose had taught us almost a month ago. It turned out okay the first night, but since I had started marinading way too much pork we also had it the next day for dinner and it was REALLY nice the second day.
So what I have learned, leave it marinading overnight, cook it for the full 4 hours. It takes an entire day to make everything, but it's beyond worth it at the end, and finally, the black beans are okay, but they aren't amazing, so that one can be skipped, just not anything else. :)

Jason also have a great opportunity to be part of a church meeting at the local retirement home. It was a great experience he said. The faith of those people, even some who weren't completely there anymore was amazing. They bore their testimonies and read scripture and partook of the sacrament and it was very neat.

Alisabeth has been learning a lot this week too. She's very clear when she sings "Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder. . . ." but then it's all a garbled mess. She can also do "TUV" and "Hello, hello, HELLO, HELLO" from the primary songs. She can say her ABC's up to the letter g pretty clearly and she is about 75% understandable when she's talking to you. (general meaning that is). We're excited for her to meet the family.
We also had the opportunity to learn a new way of working with her this week. She had an amazingly bad rash which had spread beyond control. I took her in and we were prescribed an antibiotic because the doctor thought it might be bacterial. I finally got the perscription filled almost a week later due to Medicaid's restrictions, (but that's another story) and we were able to use it on her.
Diaper changes had become a screaming battle by this point, but as she cried and I tried to sooth her I began to put the cream on and said "Bye Bye ouchie, bye bye." she picked up on this after another minute or two and began to repeat it slowing her tears.
By the next diaper change it was definitely improving. This time I took out the cream and she started saying "Bye bye ouchie, bye bye" and preparing herself for the pain. She didn't cry again.
The same idea works for a lot of other things we've found. Coming inside after playing was a huge battle, but now we say "Bye Bye Grass, bye bye stroller, bye bye ball" and she repeats it and it okay with going inside. It was very interesting and very cool to watch.

We leave on Wednesday!!!