We Have A Car!!!! YEA!!

DON'T YOU DARE LAUGH!!!!!

This is the Malaysian version of the corvette! This baby has 2000cc, automatic with air and power windows. It really serves the purpose for us and we are so glad we finally got transportation. It is a repossessed 2008, with about 17,000 miles. We paid $1800 down, and the monthly payment is $153 per month, which is $5.25 per day! Mom uses the map to guide us and I drive, praying all the way.

This past weekend we had a very unique experience that very few members of the church have the privilege of doing. Two members of the scripture translation department of the church were here to meet with a few members and have them review some of the translation work done on the Book of Mormon. They had them review three different procedures, to see which was the best. It takes 5 years to actually be ready for publication. It was so interesting to learn about the process--we wish you could have been here. We will never forget this experience to be a part of an actual translation of the Book of Mormon in to Malay.

Sunday, brother Francis Simon was called as the new branch president. He kept the former first counselor, Peter Wong who is only 21. The new second counselor is Francis Ng, who speaks Chinese, and a little Malay. They are good men and Pres. Francis is retired and well respected by the branch members. He was definitely the man for the job and will be a great president. We are their shadow  leaders, and President Clark has asked that I help them understand disciplinary councils as there are a number of issues that need to be addressed.

How do you like it?  We love it!  I can't tell you of the freedom we feel now.  We actually can go without worrying about how far and how many times in a week.  In our budget we could only spend 300 rm a week.  Now a tank of gas costs us about 50rm twice a month. 

Yesterday we took 2 of the sister missionaries to the hospital in Likas(long way) to visit Sis. Leni.  She is the sister who lives in Kampang Baru and has 2 children with cleft palettes.  Her little daughter had her first surgery on her mouth yesterday.  We waited about 2 hours, but never got to see Sis. Leni.  We think that she was in a room near the OR and we were not allowed in.  I heard from the sisters today that the surgery went well but she is in a lot of pain.  They have restricted her diet--she can only have ice cream.  Get this--the hospital doesn't have ice cream!  I was so upset that I told Dad that Humanitarian Services needs to donate an ice cream machine to the children's wing of the hospital.  Sebastian's doctor brother, Ritchie, works there and I'm going to ask him about this.

We have had lots of church visitors this weekend.  Dad told you about the translators.  We also had the Ericksons, Missionary couple over Seminary and Institute along with President Stephen Lai, the Stake President from Malaysia.  He is over S/I for all of Malaysia.  Also we had a missionary couple from the church area presidency over Family History Centers.  They were at church last night, but we only talked briefly because of our FHE.

I have to go get ready for church.  We are meeting with the new Branch Presidency and I'm so excited for them to start leading!!  They are good men.  Hugs and Kisses for everyone--we love you!  Dad and Mom

Molly is 4 years old

I know I missed Matt's birthday post (Dec. 26), but here is Molly's. She turned 4 this week, and couldn't have had a better day. No big party this year, just a fun family day, with a few friends mingled in here and there:) 

To start off, she woke up at 6am, very early, to let us know that it was her birthday and that she is now 4. She wanted a happy face pancake for b-fast, so we took her to ihop. It was a fun breakfast, just us 4 eating and laughing together. When we got home, she opened her presents from Jax, and matt and I. Jax gave her some princess dolls, and Matt and I got her the Rapunzel dress she has been asking for since seeing the movie. She immediately put on the dress, and wore it all day. 

We played and just had fun at home. right before I started making her the lunch of her choice (chicken nuggets, cheetos, and lemondae), she asked where all of her friends were. I felt bad, so immediately texted a bunch of my friends and invited them and their kids over for picnic lunch in our backyard. I told them to bring their own lunch, and I'd provide the bday cake. I am so glad I did. She had so much fun eating her lunch outside with friends, running around with them, and then blowing out the candles on her cake. 

For dinner she wanted to make pizza. So fun! I bought dough at Trader Joe's and got tons of toppings. They had so much fun making the pizza and then eating it. And, I must admit that it was very tasty:)

We love Molly and her sweet personality. She is already getting a bit sassy, but then she does something to show us the big heart she has. I am so glad she is mine. 

(I WILL POST PICTURES VERY SOON)

Happy Presidents Day

Yesterday was Presidents Day and Jake didn't have school.  It was so nice because we had about 8 new inches of snow that called out his name all morning.  In the afternoon, Jake and Ben played for hours in the snow and even built their own snow fort!

They got these coolest snowball makers about a month ago and stocked up their fort with a years supply of snowballs.  What is so cool about these snowball makers if that they don't pack down super hard, so when they are thrown, they literally poof into nothing!  I am sorry I didn't grab the camera - before we knew it, the sun started setting and it started to really cool off.

More snow is expected Thursday through next Tuesday!  The boys will have many more snowball adventures for sure.  Stay tuned!

Here are some random pictures of the boys from this past week. Yes. We did go to Chuck E. Cheese. Yuck. But fun!

Valentine's ball

Hello to the best folks I know anywhere in the world.  We seem to be getting so routine here in Malaysia.  Dad has finally gottten control of his projects--closing out several of the ones that were going on when we arrived here and getting familiar with the whole process.  It's like starting a new job--it just takes a while to learn.  I just do basic church work.  We have our own FHE with the YSA and I help Kate with Relief society.  We were so excited to get a new Branch Presidency on Sunday, but it didn't happen.  Time in Malaysia doesn't seem to matter, things take forever to happen.  It gets frustrating sometimes.
On Monday we had our Valentine's Ball.  There were about 30 people there and we had fun dancing,playing games, eating, laughing, and talking.  Here are some pics--

This is in our Chapel/Multi-purpose room.  We had almost the exact same number of boys and girls!

This is the "paper dance"--start dancing on a large piece of paper and every 2 minutes fold it in half and continue dancing!  This is David Choong and his partner( in the backgroung is Prres. Fausto and Leslie)

Sis Harrison(one of 12 kids!!) and Sis. Goodwin could not help participating!

This is Peter Wong and Ervinna.  He is the 1st Counselor in the Branch Presidency--21 years old, works for abx, and is planning on going on a mission.  He is amazing-one of my favorites!

This is Larius a recent convert--dancing with Elsie(Laura's twin sister and Sebastian's sisters)  Elsie works a KFC.  Larius loves church and is doing BAGUS(good).

The Winners of the paper dance!! Pres. Fausto and Leslie

Adrian(our branch mission leader and Evie Jane, who looked just adorable!

This is Caroline, sister to Adrian, Laura, Elsie, and Sebastian!  She's one of my favorites also.  She is so smart, speaks excellent English, is a wonderful student, and loves church.  This is her friend Bosco who is a classmate from school.  Elder Wsright zeroed in on him and started teaching him about the church.  He even went up and turned the music down so that he could talk to him!  You know how that settled with me--tidak, tidak, tidak!(no no no)

This is Herlina(purple) and Kiko with Sis. Howard.  Kiko has started a new job and was exhausted.  Herlina is a new convert and doing well.

We had long stemmed red roses for the guys to give to the girls and ask them to dance.

The girls at this table are the biggest oinkers at the dessert table!!  They put about 10 desserts each on plates!  I later saw them bag them up to take home!

Here's the ole faithful Bunny Hop led by David Choong!  The man behind David is Pres. Curdy(Branch Pres)

Last but not least are two old, tired missionaries!!

Kate caqme back to town and we rode with her on Wednesday night to our meeting a church.  I missed her so much.  She has been out of town for almost 3 weeks!  She went to Tawau for Chinese New Year with her husband, then to Bali for work for a week, then to KLfor another week of work.  She loves it though.  She came over last night after church and we cooked dinner here together.  She taught me how to fix Chinese nooodles.  She just jumps right in!!
On Thursday, Dad and I went downtown with Pres. Francis to talk to one of the govt. officials at City Hall about and Adopt a Highway program.  They know Bro. Francis and agreed to assist us in this effort.  In fact, I think that they were excited.  We're suppose to do this the last Sat. in March.  We told the Branch Council about this on Sunday and they were going to have photographers, newspapers, and tv there.  They are now excited to participate.  They love having their picture made!!
On Friday, we made another excursion with the Sister Missionaries on the bus to teach Sis. Avey.  She has missed 3 Sundays at church and we were worried about her.  We met her at Roslina's little "hocker stand" on the way up the hill to her home.  Roslina is a new convert also--she's Herlina's sister(purple dress at dance).  Roslina served us "Jack friut" while we were there.  Never seen anything like that in my l;ife.  It was really quite good.  Sis. Avey said that she would come on Sunday and she did!

I forgot to tell you that when we met Bro. Fraqncis at church on Thursday to go downtown, we drove up to church and someone had knocked down the security gate!  I had been rammed and we thought that it was maybe vandals, but come to find out it was the neighbor in the house beside the church.  The wifwe said that she and her husband had a fight, he stormed out and rammed into our gate.  Take a look--

It has been sent away to be fixed.
Well, we'll chat again next week,  I LOVE YOU    MOM

Greetings from CA!

Hi all!  So, I've been MIA for awhile, sorry.  Olmsteads have been busy.  I taught preschool the past 2 weeks again.  The first week we learned the letter A using the theme "Apples".  It was lots of fun, but this week was even more fun.  We learned the letter V using the theme "Valentine's".  I think I had just as much fun as the kids.  Here is a picture of Molly, Berkleigh, and Jaxon doing their candy heart math.

Monday (valentine's day), after teaching preschool, I took Jax to the doctor.  He had had a fever for over 24 hours.  Since his seizure, I HATE it when he runs a fever, so I took him in.  Well, after 5 hours at the pediatricians and hospital x-ray center, and 3 fainting spells later, he was diagnosed with pneumonia. Yes, that's right, Jax fainted 3 times that day.  Twice at the hospital, and once at the doctors.  I was a crying fool, and kind of embarrassed about crying.  I think I was just sooooo tired.  The night before I had slept on the floor beside his bed b/c he had such a high (103) fever.  Anyways, 2 huge shots in the butt, and a prescription for oral antibiotics later, fever is gone, he's no longer considered contagious,and he is turning the corner.  He was quarantined to his room for 2 days.  Let me tell you, it is so hard to keep a 2 year old boy confined to one room.  He got to watch as many movies as he wanted to those 2 days.  Below is what he looked like for about 48 hours.

Here is Molly today.  I just thought she looked cute with her sucker.

About 2 weeks ago, Matt's friend called and said that he was given 4 free tickets to the motorcross races at the stadium, and invited he and Jax to go with him and his son.  They went, and Jax loved it!  I thought they would get bored after the first few races and head home early.  Well, Jax loved it so much, they stayed for the whole thing.  They didn't get home until 11:30pm!  And, Jax was still awake when they got home.  Crazy kid.  

We've tried potty training Jax a few times, but he then gets sick, and I'm not about to try to potty train a sick kid.  Here he is this past Saturday in his oversized UNC shirt b/c when I potty train my kids, they only wear a big t-shirt and nothing else.  He got bored and added his Batman mask to his ensemble. No, he's not potty trained b/c we stopped a day later b/c he got pneumonia.  

Here is Molly playing around one Saturday.  Matt was given this mask as a joke from one of his friends. It's the mask from the movie "V". (awesome movie!)  Anyways, here she is in all her scary mask glory.

Hope you all are doing well!  We think about all of you often!  Can't wait for our next family get together:)

Ode to Mia

Waaaayyyy back in January, Mia turned 5.  Because of the several snow storms, we delayed her party that we had planned with her friends.  However, the night of her actual birthday we had a small party with her MaeMae and Papa.  Later that week we celebrated with her friends at Xtreme Play with pizza, cupcakes and icecream, and gifts.  Mia had requested a pogo stick (which she is really learning well!) and I have since learned from parents that their children promptly requested the same for themselves this year.  That's my trendsetter!
First pics of the parties, then our montage of Mia.

Mia doing an arabesque in her new raincoat and galoshes