India - Day 9

Saturday was a nice break from the rigourous work routine we've held during the week. We got up early and went to the office to meet with all of our extended teams for a team excursion. Only one from my team was able to come, but there were about 25 in all that made it.

John Deere owns company buses in India. These busses drive around Pune every morning and pick up workers to take to the office or to the factory. We borrowed one of the busses for our Saturday excursion.

We drove about an hour from Pune to where the air is a little fresher and the spaces a little more open. We had made reservations to spend the day on a "farm" (where else would a bunch of John Deere employees want to go?). We arrived and the "farm" and were vastly disappointed initially. It was really just some family's house with a moderately big yard (by Indian standards - it was still smaller than our yard in Bettendorf).

Our plans were to play cricket in the morning, but the lack of space for a cricket field quickly dashed that idea. We still got our the cricket bat and knocked the ball around a little, but couldn't really play a lot. Cricket is by far the biggest sport in India. I had never played, but it's similar enough to baseball that I didn't have any trouble.



After the cricket play and some breakfast, we played another game called kibida (I think). It's a game where all the players are in a box (about 10 yards x 10 yards). There are two teams which each stay in one end of the box. One player from one side crosses the mid line and tries to tag players from the other team then make it back across the line. Players from the other team try to detain the player that crossed and keep him from crossing the line back to his side. If the player makes it back across every player he touched is out. If the player doesn't make it back across he is out. First team to run out of players loses. I enjoyed that game - it was pretty physical though.




After the kibida game we went on a "trek" (a.k.a hike) up a mountain behind the farm. It was a pretty good hike to the top but offered some really nice views from the top. It's the hazy time of year in India (just after the rainy season) so the views weren't as nice as they could have been. We saw a wild four foot long cobra on the way up and some other wildlife I'd never before seen (like a scarab - a big bug). As always there were plenty of cows around.


The peak in the distance is our treking destination.


Here's the whole group about half way up the hike.


This was our guide on the hike and view from the top.

After the hike we were all pretty tired, so we lounged a bit on the porch of the farmhouse. They let me use one of the traditional cots and take a short nap. After lunch someone asked - what are we going to do now? The leader of the group said, "Now we drink beer and dance!" So we all went into the farmhouse in the living area (also the kids bedroom) and drank beer and danced. Only about half of the group drank beer - the other half were observing a period of abstinence from alcohol and other things during a religious festival that's going on now. I'll let you speculate which half of the group I was in!

I was expecting the dancing to be some traditional dancing that they were going to teach us Americans. Turned out they just wanted to dance. So the music and dance styles were very much like Americans dance - some disco, some techno, some of everything. The music was Indian pop music - similar to American pop. The strange thing was that there were no women in the group. Just a bunch of guys dancing. It's very normal here for guys to get together and dance and girls to get together and dance separately. You'll also often see guys holding hands with each other walking down the street. It doesn't mean they're homosexual - it's just part of the culture and accepted and normal here. They persuaded me to dance a little - though I never was much for dancing so did as little as possible!

After the dancing we piled into the bus and returned to Pune. Because of the festival the roads in Pune were very crowded and it took a long time to get back to the hotel. Indians love to sing, so all the way they sang Indian songs - some traditional, some modern. Everybody took a turn so of course I had to have my turn. I sang "Old MacDonald had a farm". It was a big hit.

It was a really fun day altogether. I was fun to see the kinds of things the people here enjoy doing. It's altogether very similar to what young people in the U.S enjoy doing.

India - Days 3-8

After the very busy and long day on Saturday, we took a relaxing Sunday morning and just stayed around the hotel. Late Sunday afternoon we flew from Delhi to Pune arriving in Pune late evening. We are staying at the Le Meridien hotel in Pune. It's a very nice, 5-star hotel offering every kind of service imaginable. They even stop by every night to pull back your bedcovers for you. I'm not used to being waited on to that degree.

Monday morning we headed to the office for the first time. John Deere's technology center is located in Magarpatta Cyber City on the edge of Pune. A few years ago a bunch of farmers got together and came up with this idea of developing their farmland into a Information Technology park and so started Magarpatta City. The city is circular and built around a big central park. The first ring around the park are large modern office towers (I think there are 12 in all - about 6 have been built. Outside of that ring is a second ring of office buildings. John Deere owns one of those second ring buildings. There is also a residential area, restaurants, and schools all within the walls of the city. The entire city is walled and gated to set it apart from the rest of Pune.



Arriving at the office, we met up with our teams for the first time. My India team consists of a project manager, two senior developers, and two "freshers". Freshers is their term for kids newly out of college still learning the ropes. The purpose of my visit is to develop a better working relationship with this team and to train them more on what we are trying to accomplish in our project. So, we meet every day for a few hours for training sessions, then work together the rest of the day on project tasks. Working hours are different than we're accustomed to. The workday generally begins around 10 am and ends around 6 or 7. We've actually been staying until 8 pm most nights so that we can be in some meetings with our teams in the U.S. (8 pm here is 9:30 am in Illinois).

On Tuesday my team took me out to a nice restaurant in Pune (I don't remember the name - I really don't remeber too many names of things here). It's a restaurant featuring food from the Bangalore region of India. We were there for nearly three hours and went through something like 6 courses of food. It was great, but certainly not the most productive workday I've ever had!

The rest of the week was pretty much the same. Get up early and work, eat breakfast, go to the office, meet with the team, have lunch, work with the team, work with the U.S team after they arrive, go to the hotel, have dinner, then work some more until late.

Where have I been you ask?

Well, I have been holding back on the blogging the last week and a half or so. Greg has been gone and I kept thinking that he would be posting more, but he has had trouble connecting to the internet in his hotel. He also has the camera so I can't post any fun pictures. I have not wanted to detract from his India trip because it seems so cool, but I couldn't stand it any longer so you get to hear some mundane things from me.

First I have read some excellent books lately. They are church type books, which some of you may not like, and to tell the truth, I don't read them that often myself, but we bought a few while we were out west this summer. The first I think if you are a woman you should read. It is called "Mary, Martha and Me". It was written by Camille Fronk Olsen, who was one of my professors at BYU. She taught one of my favorite classes, Women in the Scriptures. This talks about the different ways we serve and learning to serve without being cumbered in service. It is really good. I just wanted to mention it.

The second one, I highly recommend to anyone. It is called "The Peacegiver" by James Ferrell. It is a fiction book, which the author calls an extended parable, that is about the atonement. It is about a guy name Ricky who is having major trouble in his marriage and he feels like he has been really patient through all of it and kind of places the blame for everything on his wife. As he is sleeping one night, his deceased grandfather comes to him and they are allowed to be placed where they can actually view true scripture stories. These give the grandfather teaching opportunities which in time help Ricky see that the way out of his problems, of anyones problems is the atonement. It is a pretty powerful book which makes you take a deeper look at where you stand with the Lord and if you are unknowingly, or knowingly, sinful or hurtful towards others and the Lord. It has really given me a stronger desire to take a look at myself and find where I can change. It has also made me realize that I should study the scriptures more deeply. There are so many things in them that can bring us clarity, that I have missed so often. I gave this book to my friend who does not like to read at all. She rarely reads and does not enjoy it, but I convinced her. She finished it in 2 or 3 days and ordered 4 copies for her and for her family members. I also enjoyed sharing it with her because it opened our discussion up to more meaningful and deeper things. So read it and then share it. It really is one you have to read.

Lastly, I am thankful for General Conference. I think that probably like many of you it is something you anticipate and look forward to. I can't say that I was able to give my full attention all the time (I think you understand), but there were things in there just for me. So many of the things I have been pondering and searching for, were there. It is just a reminder that the Lord loves us all and wants ALL of us to return to him. There is hope for all of us. Why would we not make that effort when the promises are so great. I want to be better. I can feel him calling to me. It is a good feeling to feel loved.

India - Day 2 - The people and poverty

I want to take a few minutes and write some of my thoughts about the people and conditions in India. As I was preparing to come over here, many of my coworkers who have been here warned me about the poverty and the horrible living conditions of many people here. So I came in expecting that and thought I was prepared to handle it (after all I've seen poverty at times in my life before). Turns out I was SO unprepared for the reality of life here. The scale of the poverty here is just unimaginable - it's everywhere and deeply disturbing and very disheartening. People live in the most unimaginable conditions - many just sleep on the side of the road - others build shelters from tarps or tree branches or trash or mud or any other way they can be creative. Abandoned buildings are dismantled brick by brick and people use discarded building materials to build their little shacks. And it's not like there are just a few communities where the poor live - it's quite literally everywhere. We drove for four hours to Agra and saw very few if any areas where there weren't people living on the side of the road. The sanitary conditions are horrible. The bathroom is the side of the road and bathing is done anywhere you can find water - normally filthy dirty ponds.



I have to admit, the first few hours of seeing this I was repulsed and really didn't want to be here. I felt disgusted by what I saw and just wanted to run back to my nice clean cozy home in the U.S. and forget what I was seeing. But I guess as the day wore on, I started to see things in a little different light. As I watched people going about their daily lives, I didn't see a lot of despair among them. They seemed somehow content and happy with their lives. There wasn't the anger and envy or resignation we see among some of the poor in the U.S. Instead it's a people making the best of a bad situation. This was especially evident looking into their eyes (I believe you can learn a lot just looking into a person's eyes). I really felt a depth and a goodness in these people - a real understanding of life that doesn't appear in the eyes of too many Americans.

As can be expected in a situation like this, there are lots of beggars looking for handouts or looking to sell cheap trinkets for money. Everytime we would get out of our car, we would be immediately mobbed by people wanting something from us. As we were working our way back to the car, people would surround us and try selling us their goods as aggressivly as possible. They would even climb right into the car with us if we allowed it (and a few did). They wouldn't take no for an answer unless our Indian friend (travelling with us) would intervene and tell them to go away.

I have a soft spot in my heart for little children and would usually cave in and buy something from them. There was one particular little girl that I won't soon forget. We were at a rest area (if you can call it that - not like an American rest area). A little girl (about 4 years old) was there with her dad. He was playing some kind of musical instrument and she was dressed up in some outfit doing a shy little dance and asking for money. I had made up mind that I was going to ignore them and just make my way back to the car. As they approached I turned around and walked back into the rest area. They followed but of course didn't go inside. As I came back out, they were waiting there and started doing their little show. My coworkers and I just walked past them and went to the car. I climbed in the back and everyone else got in. The little girl had followed us to the car and was holding our her little hand for money. About the time the doors all closed I looked out and saw the little girl looking at me with a sad kind of look. As I sat there looking at her and thinking about how she lives and the life ahead of her my heart broke and I could only sit there and think "Hang in there little one." I smiled at her and gave her a big wink of encouragement. Most unexpectedly, she winked back at me and a huge smile spread across her face. As we pulled away she just started waving goodbye beaming with that big smile. I'm not sure why she made such an impact on me, but I thought about her for a long time in the car after that. I wish I could have done more for her.

I should say that while there is poverty, there isn't much hunger. People seem well fed and well nourished. Also, I feel very safe here. While I don't think my wallet is always safe, I don't feel personally threatened at all. I've only had one day's worth of experience but already feel like I'm understanding the people here better. I hope that understanding continues to grow. I so far feel really good inside about the people I'm meeting and seeing here.

India - Day 2 - Sightseeing

We spent most of the day sightseeing in the Agra area. Agra is the home of the Taj Mahal - one of the seven wonders of the world. It's just as beautiful as it appears in all its pictures (even more so in person). Following are a few photos of the Taj. Click the pictures to see higher resolution.

I guess this is a "must take" picture when visiting here. Everyone was standing around with their hand in the air "holding" the Taj Mahal.

The artwork on the Taj Mahal is amazing. It's not paint at all - it's jewels and stones etched directly into the marble. The green is jade, red is saphire and so forth. When the light shines on the building in the right way, the jewels literally glow in the translucent marble.

We also stopped to visit the tomb of Akbar - one of the great ancient emporers of India. The tomb itself wasn't as impressive as the wildlife living around the tomb. There were monkeys everywhere and they were quite friendly.

That's me and Brian (a coworker travelling with me) on the elephant.

India - Day 2 - Traffic

I expect day 2 in India will turn out to be the most memorable day of my whole trip. I think we saw and did just about everything I imagined I would ever see or do in India. It's a four hour drive from Delhi to Agra so we started early - about 4 am. I had originally thought I would sleep some in the car on the way to Agra - after 5 minutes in the car, I realized there was no way that was going to be possible.

Traffic, even at 4 am, is wildly different than in the U.S. Let's start with vehicles. Anything that moves has a right to use the roads and highways of India. Even the big super highways have such an interesting mix of traffic. Lots of people walking, riding bikes, rickshaws, bullock-drawn carts, camel drawn carts, horse drawn carts, motorcycles, mopeds, elephants (we saw lots of them plodding down the road loaded down with things), pack mules, lots of tractors and combines (even an occasional John Deere), lots of big trucks (usually loaded taller, but less length than U.S. trucks) and a handful of cars (suprisingly few compared to other forms of transportation). The big trucks are all very colorfully hand painted with lots of charms hanging from them (to bring good luck). On the back of almost every truck were the handpainted words "Blast horn. Use dipper at night." Dipper I found was the headlight dimmer switch. Blast horn because the trucks don't have much in the way of rear view mirrors so you use your horn to let them know you are there.



The roads themselves were in very good shape - I was expecting much worse, but I think for the most part they were as good if not better than the roads we find around home. There is not really any concept of a traffic lane in India (though there are lines on some roads). You just kind of use whatever part of the road fits your need at the time. Generally you drive on the left-hand side of the road, but it's not uncommon to drive in the oncoming traffic lanes (even when there's oncoming traffic and even on hills). Even when you're on a divided super highway, don't be suprised to see oncoming traffic in your lane. If you need to stop, just stop your car anywhere and jump out. Everybody else goes around you.

Traffic moves in a kind of ameba-like manner. Since everyone is moving at different speeds, you just kind of weave around in and out of lanes. Horns are used constantly as a way of signally your intentions. If you want to pass someone, you just come up hard behind them blaring your horn. Either they move over or you swerve around them. Cutting off and getting cut off are standard procedure. Animals are everywhere (especially cows). Traffic lights are generally meaningless.



Strangely, traffic works well in India. For as crazy and seemingly out of control that it is, everybody understands the rules and everybody plays by the rules. Yesterday I mentioned about the temper on the guy that shuttled us to Chicago - every little thing made him mad. Those things were nothing in comparison to the wild traffic here. Yet everyone here just accepts it and noone seems to get upset about it.



Sorry to go on so much about such a mundane subject as traffic, but traffic is really one of the most impressive and distinctly different things about India. It is far from mundane and will take some getting used to!

India - Day 1

During my trip to India this week and next, I'm going to post some of the interesting things we're up to over here along with my impressions of India (don't worry - I'll leave out the boring stuff like work, so don't expect much on the weekdays).

Day 1 started off Thurday in Moline and was one of the longest days I can remember (or was it two days?). We boarded a shuttle for the airport at 11 am (I was already missing my family terribly by the time I stepped foot on the shuttle), destined to travel for the next 24 hours straight. Our driver to the airport was quite a character - telling tall tales and getting mad at every other person on the road. I only mention him now because I'll bring him up again in Day 2 posting.

Our flight from Chicago was delayed more than two hours (us sitting on the plane for most of it). It was really kind of a lame reason - someone forgot to fill the water tank up so the toilets wouldn't flush. I guess for a long trip like that the take about 327 gallons of water (if I remember right) so it took well over an hour to fill the tank. There were other delays too, so we were off to a bad start.

The flight itself went relatively smoothly. I was seated in business class so I was well fed and had a comfy chair to stretch out in. We don't usually get to fly business class, but due to a scheduling problem, I could only go business class. My boss's boss is travelling with us, so it was a little uncomfortable sitting up front with him back in economy, but he was good natured about it.

Around dawn, I watched the sun rise over Greenland. That was SPECTACULAR. The sunrise actually started in the north. Up there there isn't much more north to go so I guess it was peeking over the top of the world before it peeked over the side. Greenland is all frozen tundra so the sunrise looked like it was slowly illuminating a sea of white. Anyway, that was really cool.

We continued on across the north atlantic then skirted down across the Scandinavian countries headed straight for Moscow, Russia. About 50 miles short of Moscow (I was really hoping to see it), the plane took a sharp left and headed due west into barren lands of central Russia where we turned south again. We came across central Russia and down over the "stans" Afganistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Tazjikistan (I'm making up the spellings as I go) and so forth.

I was a little nervous flying over Afganistan knowing there are still people there that don't like Americans (I was on American Airlines). But, I guess flying at 36,000 feet in the dark (oh yeah, we flew straight through Friday - it was dark again already) helps in the safety department. The thing that suprised (and saddened me) was how dark Afganistan was - very few lights, just vast darkness (and no, it wasn't cloudy). We flew directly over Kabul and from my seat I could only see a few main highways with street lights and not much else.

When we crossed the border into Pakistan, there was a marked difference - lots of lights everywhere. In fact, the thing I liked most about Pakistan was how its lights were laid out. Every mile or two (hard to judge from the air) there is a little community of lights (and probably people too). Then there was a little gap and another little community of lights. The thing that was cool was how evenly spread they all were - it looked kind of giant checkerboard going on and on for miles and miles.

India and Pakistan have continuing differences of opinion as to where the shared border actually lies. One of them has staked out their claim by placing lights every few meters all the way along the border as far as the eye could see - and it was a clear night so I could see a long, long ways. It was like someone took a map of India, and lit up its border.

Finally we arrived to Delhi - the 7th most populated city in the world (and the most densly populated of the top 20 most populated). Customs was not a problem - no one said a word to me, just stamped the passport and sent me on. I think the first thing that hit me getting out of the terminal was the smell and taste of the air. Delhi (due to pollution) has a kind of burnt smell or something. The air was also humid so it was kind of a heavy burnt air to breathe.

The airport and the hotel were only a few minutes aprart. We had a driver pick us up and shuttle us to the hotel. There I had my first experience with traffic in India - and is it ever an experience! More on that during my report on Day 2. We finally dragged our exhausted selves to our rooms late Friday night. We only had three hours to sleep before getting up to start a very busy day 2. I'll write about that tomorrow (and will post lots of pictures)!

For those who are interested

Here is a better picture of Adam's eye injury. He has been fine with indoor recess and was happy to be the scorekeeper in PE today.
  

Benner's Birthday

Well, my baby is 2. I can hardly believe it. The first year of his life dragged on and on and the second one has flown by. He brings so much joy and laughter to our family. He is full of energy and life. He is independent in so many ways now. We celebrated in the evening by having a Ben family home evening where we talked about his pregnancy and birth. Then we all told what we liked about Ben and what he brings to our family. The consensus was that he is very funny, as two year olds often are. The kids gave him some of their cast off toys and we gave him a few presents. He loved his Blues Clues dog and his Little People house. He especially likes opening the doors and shoving the people through. Then we had Mexican Chocolate cake and ice cream. The kids decorated the cake. Then he stayed up late and played some basketball with his mom while Adam played fooseball with his dad (we bought a cheap used fooseball table on Saturday). I think I got the most exercise as I had to lift Ben up to the hoop each time. He is a hefty two years old. It was a pretty low key day, but fun too. At the beginning of the day when we would sing Happy Birthday he would sing to me, since my birthday was a week ago, but by the end he would point to himself and say "Ben's birthday". It was a good day.

Ben's Birthday!

Yesterday we celbrated Ben's birthday. Here is a picture of him playing with his new Little People house and one of him blowing out his candles. 
 
  

Adam's new look picture 2

  

Adam's new look

Sometimes it is adventuresome having a growing boy in your house. It seems he and his body don't always work together. Saturday Adam was taking a shower in our stand up shower. He slipped and hit his head right by his eye on the built in bench in the shower. When I heard him screaming frantically I went in to find him out of the shower with blood running down his whole body and him screaming hysterically. We got him cleaned up a bit and put a cold cloth on his head. I could see right away that it was going to need stitches. Greg was out running a quick errand so while we waited for him, we got some clothes on him and got the other monkeys out of the bath tub. Then when Greg got home, Adam, Curious George and I headed for the hospital (George is a stuffed monkey Adam's teacher lets each of the kids take home one weekend, and they are supposed to journal about their adventures together. Adam didn't think George had been to the hospital before, so we took him). At the hospital we discovered just how fortunate we were. It didn't appear Adam had a concussion and he didn't do any permanent damage to his eye. He did have to have stitches though. They put one stitch inside, and the doc who sewed him up said she could see the occular muscle but that it hadn't torn at all. Then she put 7 more on the outside, including 2 on his eyelid. Adam did awesome! The worst part was the numbing medication they had to inject all around his eye. It burned pretty badly. He said to me on the way home in the car, "I'll be the star of primary tomorrow. That is the one good thing about being sick or getting stitches, you get a lot of attention." Spoken like a true extrovert. I worry a little about the scarring on his face, but hopefully that won't be too bad. Also, he has to sit out from recess and PE for two weeks. I think that will be the hardest part of it all. Of course everyone teased Greg and I about how we treat our children, but Adam set them straight with the real story. The pictures aren't great, but it is what I have. Maybe I will try again later.   

More family pics from Labor Day

These are the pictures my friend Leah took for us. She did a great job. I especially love the one of Ben.  
 
 
  

Recent family pictures taken on Labor Day

 
 
 
  

Blah, blah, blah.

Well I have let another week slip by without a blog entry so now you get another verbose entry. I need to work on my brevity a bit.

First, I have a new calling at church. I am the new nursery leader. Greg says he removed himself from the decision and let his counselors decide. I have only done it one week so far. I think I will enjoy it once I get into the swing of things. I think it is going to be hardest on Liz. It is hard for her to have me in there but not devoting all my time and attention to her. She will be a Sunbeam in January, though, so that should help things a little bit. Ben is happy as long as he can see me. When I went in with him for the first time as the nursery leader, he started to cry and wouldn't stop for 10 minutes because he thought I was going to leave him. It took him a while to figure out that I was actually going to stay. I do miss my old class a lot, but I think this might be the best thing for Ben right now.

Next, I have a good friend, Leah Jensen, who likes to take pictures, mostly because she is a big scrapbooker. She was so kind as to take some of our family and of the kids, and they turned out beautifully. This is blogworthy because the last family picture we have includes me, Greg and Anna, and Adam. I will post some so you can see.

We have had a temporary pet as of late, which has been kind of fun. We have been taking care of some caterpillars. The first one we got was already a pretty good size and within a week he had made his cocoon and just today he hatched out into a beautiful monarch butterfly. Our other catterpillar started out teeny-tiney, smaller than a straight pin and he is now long and fat. I bet he is as long or longer than my index finger (but not that fat). It has been really cool to see him grow so much in such a short time. I think it won't be long until he is ready to make his cocoon though. It really is an amazing, and fast, process. The kids have named them oozie and poozie (don't ask me), and they have gotten a lot of attention. I have also had to learn what milkweed looks like and where to find it in Iowa. Lucky for me, it grows next to corn fields a lot. There are a few of those around here. I would highly recommend this little project for anyone who has young children.

Lastly, it was my birthday on Sunday. I am now 31 years young. Despite some babysitter troubles, Greg and I were able to go out Saturday night. It is always fun to have time just with each other. We had a really nice time. Then the actual day of my birthday was great too. It was stake conference so Greg was with us all day long. It was lovely. He helped get the kids ready in the morning, even bathing them. He took Ben out in the hall at church. He made me lunch. He let me have a nap and read. Then kids set up this great treasure hunt for me to find my presents. Greg surprised me by buying me a bike! We have a date to try it out this Saturday. Then we had some friends over for dinner, which Greg made, and cake and ice cream, you guessed it, made by Greg. It was just a relaxing day, which is exactly what I needed.

Well, that's all for now. Bland entry, but tells a lot of stuff. (Which you were all dying to hear about right?).

More from last week

As last week was very busy, I haven't had a chance to post about some things that happened. First, let me start with my crazy 7 year old son. We have been doing a lot of yard work lately, trying to improve the outside of our house, so we have been digging in the dirt a lot. Worms live in the dirt. Adam has been threatening to eat a worm for a couple of weeks now. Thinking that he would never do it, I said it was fine with me. He would pick them up, sort of lick them and then toss them aside. Gross, eh? Well, last week he finally did it. He picked one up, said he was going to eat it, tossed in, and just choked it down. For real. I saw the whole thing, it was not a second hand story. Why? I couldn't tell you. I think he likes to do things that he thinks will shock me. What that means for us when he is a teenager, I don't know, but I am very afraid.

On a different Adam note (no pun intended), I started him with a different piano teacher, than myself. He had his first lesson last week. She is a sharp elderly lady that was recommended by a friend. Already I think it has been great. No more daily battles to practice the piano. I think he will improve much more quickly with her, and I think will even get back to where he enjoys it again. I am so glad that at least this first week has gone so well. It is hard to see the future and how worthwhile this could be when it is such a struggle every day. I do think it is worth it though. Some of you may not.

We also went camping last weekend. We went to Maquoketa Caves, which is 30 to 45 min. away from us. The weather was perfect, and we had a nice, secluded campsite. This did give us a little trouble though. After the kids were tucked away, Greg and I were sitting out in the camp chairs in the dark. The fire had died down so it was dark and quiet. I sort of sensed that something was near me and then I heard this rustling down by my ankle, where I had foolishly left a graham cracker box. I jumped up and screamed. Greg quickly turned on his flashlight and shined it right on a racoon who had now found his way on top of our picnic table and was rummaging through our trash. Greg ran toward him but the racoon quickly grabbed the whole bag of trash and dragged it into the woods, pausing just long enough to look longingly back at the table where we still had food out. We quickly put everything away and I went up to the restroom. While I was gone, he returned 2 more times. Both times he climbed directly onto the table and seemed hardly scared of Greg. Finally Greg took one of the camp chairs and ran after him screaming, shaking the chair at him. He didn't come back after that. I don't know if it was because he was afraid of Greg or because he had been there longe enough to realize there wasn't anything for him. I kept a flashlight on and shining in the direction he had come from the rest of the evening. He might not have been afraid of us, but I sure didn't like him!

The next day we took the family and went down in one of the caves. This particular cave, dancehall cave, seems more like a long tunnel because it is open on both sides. They also have concrete walkways and a little bit of lighting (we still used our flashlights though). It was a fun little walk for the older two. Liz and Ben didn't much like it though. That has been one of the challenges of our family lately. It seems there is now a division, widened since Anna has started school, between the older 2 and the younger 2. They just like to do different things, and their ability to actually do things is different as well. It seems we have a hard time doing much all together that everyone enjoys. Anyway, Adam and Anna loved it while we were there and wanted to stay longer (you know the crying and whining, why do we have to leave), while Lizzy was complaining that she couldn't walk any more and she wanted to go home. It was good to get out of the house and do something out of the ordinary though.

Well that about wraps up the week. I will have to post about this week sometime. For once, I actually have something to post!

A new house

This week we actually had some excitement to report. After many months of anticipating and waiting we had the aluminum siding on our house painted. We love it! I wish that I would have taken a before picture, but as it is, you will just have to live with the after shots. I posted one that is close up so that you could see the colors (aren't they great?), and one that shows a more overall view. We waited so long to do the outside of our old house that we didn't get to enjoy it, so we thought we would do it sooner this time around. It makes such a huge difference. Our house is beginning to have curb appeal. Anyway, I am sharing the joy with you. Doesn't it look great?!! We are very pleased.

 
  

India

Earlier this year, John Deere opened a new facility in Pune, India called the John Deere Technology Center - India. Most of our IT work is going to be done over there in the future and a lot of engineering support work as well.

On Monday, my boss asked me to take a trip over there in September to train a new team that will be assisting with my current project. Sooo...twist my arm...I said yes. How could I turn down a free trip to India???

I'm pretty excited about it - that's one place I've always wanted to visit. I've been working with Indians here in the states for about 6 years and have heard lots about the place. There's definitly some scary things about going - disturbing poverty, lots of petty crime, lots of people (Dehli has more than 10,000 people per square kilometer), crazy wild traffic, lots of strange food, terrorist threats, bird flu, and so on. Not to mention the 20 hours of plane riding each way. I'm not really too worried about it though - I'll be traveling with 4 others including one native Indian.

The flight will be horrible - I leave Chicago and land in Dehli 25 hours later (14 hours flying plus 11 hour time zone changes). We will get to spend the first weekend sightseeing in Dehli and Agra before flying to Pune for work the next week. We'll be able to see the Taj Mahal while in Agra. That's the stop I'm most excited to see.

It can't all be fun though. After settling in, I'll spend the next two weeks working with the team in Pune. They work different hours than we do - normally later morning (10 or 11 am) until late evening (8 or 9 pm) so there won't be much time for sightseeing during the week. I think they do that some because of culture and some because they need a little overlap time to work with extended teams in the U.S. I will hopefully have some more free time on the next weekend to see some more of the area.

All-in-all, I'm very excited to be able to go. I'll take lots of pictures and try to post about my experience frequently while I'm there.

More vacation pictures!

Ben and Hairy Grandpa. Grandpa was about the only person the whole trip that Ben would trust to hold him!

On the trip home, Lizzy donned her goggles and fell asleep. She slept for a couple of hours like that!
Our handsome (and beautiful) kids in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Some of the cousins at Lily Lake at Rocky Mountain National Park.

Vacation Pictures

Tammy and Ben at a water garden in Boise.
Adam taking refuge under a wooly mammoth at the dinosaur museum in Vernal.
Anna enjoying nature in Ashley State Forest near Vernal.
Beautiful Lizzy!

 

Vacation, finally

Well it has been sooooo long since we had a real post, I thought I would dig in and try it. Even though it has been so long ago, I would like to post about our vacation a little bit. Maybe it will be better this way anyway. Now you won't have to endure the blow by blow version, but get the condensed version instead. Lucky you.

First stop: Boise, ID to visit our friends the Adams'. We haven't seen them for over 3 years, but things just seemed so comfortable and normal like we still saw each other every day. We enjoyed visiting with them, playing games with them, seeing a little bit of Boise with them, and planning grand trips with them. We also got to see what great chiropractor Jason has become. He adjusted both Greg and Ben. Ben was really having a hard time before that, and then was great the rest of our trip. Thanks Jason! It was fun that the kids got along pretty well too. We hope it won't be three years until we see them again.

Next stop: Salt Lake City, UT to visit various people. We spent one night with our friends the Staffords. The kids have been looking forward to this for months and enjoyed every minute of running around crazy together. We enjoyed catching up with Clay and Markell and seeing their cute, very sweet, adorable baby, whom we hadn't seen yet. It was also fun to see their new house, and visit with some other folks we knew from Iowa, the Hills. We went to the zoo together, where we had a good laugh over the Staffords 2 year old taking all her clothes off so she could properly play in the fountain! We enjoyed being with them and appreciate the good people that they are.

The rest of the time in Salt Lake was spent with my family. Swimming with grandparents, playing games with aunts and cousins, attending the temple, going to the Sweet's candy factory (which was very fun by the way, and they give free samples :)). I also found a little time to visit my mother's grave. The girls enjoyed playing with my cousin's daughter who is Lizzy's age and Adam enjoyed exposure to "Gilligan's Island" by my cousin Mark. We also spent lots of money at the Distribution center and Deseret Book. It was great! Oh yeah, one of my very favorite things was going to see the movie "The Testaments" at temple square. That movie is awesome. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it. It was all a lot of fun.

Next stop: Vernal, UT to visit my dad and his wife, Nancy. By this time we were feeling pretty tired, but we still managed to have some fun. We went to the dinosaur museum, which is a must when you visit Vernal. We also got to see were they are going to build their new house, and eat lunch in a nearby very peaceful state forest. Then while I took a nap, Greg and my dad took the kids swimming at a nearby reservoir. Of course we enjoyed some fabulous food made by Nancy as well. I think by the end the kids weren't even afraid of all the animals anymore!

Next stop: Estes Park, CO for a Finch family reunion. The scenery was absolutely stunning! We enjoyed the mountains so much for their beauty. It is a busy place though, and I wouldn't exactly call it tranquil, but it was very enjoyable. We enjoyed being with Greg's family very much (even though we were TOTALLY exhausted by this point). We haven't seen his sister Tami and her family for several years. The cousins had a ball getting filthly together and we even managed a few short hikes, and a little shopping. This is a place Greg and I would like to return to by ourselves so we can go on some longer hikes, where it is bound to be more tranquil. I even told Greg I wanted to move near there because I loved the mountains so much. We will look forward to another Finch family reunion.

Last stop: Grand Island, NE. Why you ask would we stop here? Yes it was on purpose. I found a neat little water park that seemed just the right size for our family and only cost us $20 for all of us to get into, so we thought we would give it a try since it was on the way home. We loved it! It was so much fun. It was good for our family to have some time just for ourselves, and unbelievably, I think we all enjoyed it very much. Lizzy loved the lazy river. Anna loved the wave pool. Adam loved the big, huge, fast drop slides. Ben loved just being in the water. Greg and I just enjoyed all of us being together and having fun, and watching the kids have so much fun. It was a great stop.

Home again: We were utterly, totally, completely exhausted after vacation and were just dumped right back into life as soon as we got home. I think our next vacation won't be so long, and maybe we'll try to stay put longer than a few days. It was nice to escape some of the responsibilities we have here, but I am not sure if it was very restful and renewing. We loved seeing our family and friends though, and that made it worth it. Well if you made it to the end, congratulations. You now know how we felt after vacation. Tired of it. Ready to move on to something else ;) I know, I know, you are thinking, "This is condensed?! Yikes!"

Just a quick entry. Very cool.

Hi. I know we haven't posted in a while. It is on my list of things to do. This was too good not to post though. Greg's cousin has spina bifada and is in a wheelchair. He doesn't let this slow him down though. He rides at skateparks and stuff all the time and is amazing. He just got in the Guiness Book of World Records for doing the first wheelchair backflip. Here is a link to the Las Vegas news who did a story on him. Seriously you have got to watch this.

http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=5285116&nav=menu107_2_9