Angela & Gabriel y Hijas

Two family portrait at the end of the evening before we left for home.

Wednesday night Angela and her husband invited us over for dinner and a visit. When Corey was a missionary in Chile, he worked at the mission office for a time, which is in the same building as the Church's offices, where he met Angela who worked for the church. I met her too when we came down to Chile in 2000 when Joseph was a baby.

So Wednesday as we got ready to go, Hyrum was complaining that we were leaving the apartment - not that he hasn't been staying inside all day... he's still in the Lego zone mentally and anything that interrupts his play is the enemy. So we made Hyrum come, poor kid, but he had a good time.


They have a Wii so the kids got to go water skiing at their Wii Resort as they ate potato chips and cookies and drank Sprite.


Corey, Angela, Gabriel and I visited.


Angela and Gabriel have three daughters, so of course Abi and Lily loved their pink bedroom and all their girly toys! Abi and Lily are both in pink dresses, such girls, love bows, pink, and ruffles.

Pink Pink Pink! Abi, someday I promise we'll get you a pink room, as pink as you can handle.

I really liked their bunkbed!


Then we all went to a park close to their house.


The kids swinged in the swings and climbed on the climbing stuff, big iron things - don't know what these are supposed to be...


Of course everyone loves Lily.

Memory there - someone kicked a soccer ball into the pond, the wind blew it across, we saw another ball there too that someone had Lost. Joe started after the ball we brought, Wesley was after the other ball. He went to go get it, went to stand on what he thought was firm mud, but it was instead slop mud and he sunk right in up to his knees. As he tried to get out, the mud sucked his feet hard and kept his his flip flops. Wesley was quite surprised!

So then we tried to find them with a small wood board we found. We got one flip flop out, but the other was being very elusive...


Joe and Ethan both tried with their hands, feeling around in the slimy slippery mud... No luck. One more try, but if this doesn't work, then we're done and your flipflop with be buried here - may it R.I.P.

Feeling with his hands and his feet - He feels something.... feeling around, feeling, and... Eureka!


Joe was very happy to be the Flip Flop Hero of the evening. Good job, Joe. Then we ran off to rinse ourselves in the sprinklers. Then back to the car, back to Angela's house for pizza, dessert, and a movie - Despicable Me. The kids hadn't seen it before, they really liked the little yellow guys and the little girls too. It's fun to hear them laugh, although from this photo they may look very passive, but they were slightly engaged.


Abi and Wes looked cute I thought.


As the kids and I watched the movie, Angela the Angel and Corey went to her computer and typed up a "Solicitud" for me to take to Court in the morning to solicit the judge to waive my ticket. It worked, thank you so much Angela! I wouldn't have known to do that, so what a blessing to go visit them the day before I had to go and have her tell us what to do and how to do it. I'm very grateful, Angela, thank you again so much!

So we had a great time and hope to see them again soon!

Also, her daughters were so sweet and they gave Abi some of their toys and a little pink purse and a shiny headband with a bow, they are so nice. I've noticed that in other kids I've met, our friend Eduardo from Uruguay - his two boys would always load our kids up with random toys when we'd go visit them. Or in Brazil our kids were always coming home from visits with toys. I need to teach them to do that, too, so they can learn how great it feels to give and share what we have with others.

The Pleasing Judgement Bar

Yes, I'm taking a picture while I'm driving... "Don't get another ticket, Tiff!"

Yesterday on my way to pay my ticket, I was please that only felt like pulling my hair out and screaming once as I couldn't figure out which direction I was going and couldn't get on the main road. Then I decided to relax and say a calm prayer instead of scream, and shortly thereafter I was on my way. Phew!

The drive to Curacavi wasn't bad at all - got to their little town okay, turned in to what seemed like their city hall - saw a sign that said "Municipalidad" so hoped I was in the right place... I asked the guy at information for where to go, he showed me the cashier where I could pay the fine, I said I'd like to appeal though, so then he started rambling instructions to me and I was just stared at him blankly, he explained again, still didn't have a clue as to where he was telling me to go, and then an angel of a man said he was going that way and I could follow him. Thank you kind sir! He saved me and also stopped my emotions from causing me to cry as I stared at the information guy. I could feel the tears about to surface.


So I followed his public works truck over to the judge's office - went in, and stood in line for a few minutes, gave the lady at the window my ticket, she found their copy of my citation, put them together, then said to wait till they call my name. Waited for about 20 minutes, then was called into a room with 3 other guys there to face the judge. I went in, the Judge looked like a good guy, I was saying a prayer for him to please waive the entire fine. I told him what I was there for - didn't have my lights on, didn't know it was a rule, just got here in Chile, etc. Last night we had gone over to Angela's house, she worked at the Church office with Corey when he was here as a missionary, we enjoyed dinner and visiting and went to a park, and before we left she and Corey went to her computer and typed up an appeal letter for me. I gave that paper to the judge, he read it over, he sneezed, I said "Salud", he said thank you, then he said "Ok, wait outside and they will return you your license." "Gracias" I said and I left the room. Waited for another 15 minutes, got called to the window, signed something that I didn't know what it was, got my license back, asked "ya?" and she said "ya." so I was all done! No fine to pay!! Thank you dear Lord! So the ticket learning experience cost me a little bit of worrying over the past month, 3 hours of time yesterday, $6 in the $3 toll each way to get to Curacavi, and that was it. I was home by 11 and made breakfast for everyone - they all slept in and Corey turned on a movie for them when they woke up, so no one had eaten, and they didn't even know I was gone. :)

Now I can relax now that I'm clear with the law. Glad that's over!

Judgement Day

This morning my normal perfect schedule is off - I can't exercise at 8:00 cause at 8:00 I better be on the road to Curacavi - got to go out to Curacavi to make myself right with the law. It's about an hour away if I'm able to get out of Santiago unscathed..., wish me luck!

This was on December 15th on our way back from Vina Del Mar - I got pulled over cause I didn't have my head lights on (it was 12:30 in the afternoon and daylight). I had survived 3 months in Costa Rica with no run in with the police, and here they get me before I'd even been here a week. Tragic. So apparently it's a new law here. Before I got stopped I had noticed that all the other cars had theirs on (the Holy Ghost trying to bring it to my attention) so I turned mine on for a second... then turned them off. I didn't want to waste power or have to replace the headlights while we're here. So, I feel this citation has taught me (hopefully) to listen better to that still small voice.

In the picture, Corey was nervous and went out to get the ticket so that the cop wouldn't come back and count the heads in the back and issue me another ticket (!) so we were grateful to escape with just a headlight fine. Apparently it's like $100 bucks though, so I'm going to go appeal it. How many kids should I take with me? They are all asleep, I want to leave in 15 minutes, could help me win some sympathy points, but we stayed out super late last night so they're pretty tired. Lily was so tired she couldn't fall asleep, like what happened on our flight down here - don't know if I want to wake her up and risk her behaving terribly. I guess I better to decided what to do and get out the door.

Chow!

"You're the one..."

So next week or in two weeks is the "official" launch of the Start Up Chile program with news conferences and stuff. To prep for it yesterday they had a little meeting with the government department in charge of it to introduce the program to them. This wasn't a mandatory meeting to attend, but Corey felt he should go and was glad he did - he was one of the 4 entrepreneurs there and so got some brownie points and got to see a little of what's in store. He wants to be the poster child for Start Up Chile - he said some funny things about the meeting. But one thing I thought I'd share was that as they introduced themselves and took questions (he was part of a panel), he was asked about his family. "You're the one with 7 kids?" Another person "Oh, I've heard about you!" When Corey was home telling me about the meeting he pretended he answered "My business is a good idea too, if you want to talk about that...." Then looked at me and said "You guys are always stealing my thunder! No one cares about my business, just my kids! That's all they remember about me!" But he's hoping to use it to his advantage. :)

Oh, and next Tuesday he gets to meet the President of Chile! That's kinda cool, huh!

And for fun, here's a cool picture my dad sent me a link to - The Sun get's double crossed. There was a lunar eclipse here a week or two ago at 3 a.m. I didn't know about it until the guard told me in the morning when I was going to exercise. We would have had a perfect view of it, wish I'd have known about it! Gotta start watching or reading up on the local news. Oh well.

It's a Small World

..in the Mormon community! Guess who I met last week? Hi Jane and kids -

Jane just happens to be the sister of Ann who lived just down the street from us and was in our ward in Sandy! "You're moving to Santiago? My sister just moved to Santiago!" And I must say I see the resemblance in how both Ann and Jane's eyes just shine - beautiful happy women - I want to be just like you! Jane and I are actually not to far from each other, and we finally met at the park last week so the kids could meet too - we both have 8 year old boys, Ethan and Josh, and my Joseph is almost 11 and her other son Nate is 12 (did I get that right?)

Is Nate available for rent? He pushed Abi in the swing for about 20 minutes! I love him!

Mel and Abi sitting on a zebra at the park. This is a great park by the way. Parque Arauco is the name of the mall right by it, but might also be the name of this park? I'm not sure, doesn't say on google maps. Nice to have it so close. We're going to try and go to the park once a week and hopefully can meet up with Jane and her kids every week too!

Small world.

Earthquake Tremor!

Wow, I just felt an earthquake tremor! First time ever! 5:24 p.m. Wow, pretty cool. Don't think I have any desire to feel a big one though... I'll check the news later for sure, but I'm out here on the balcony blogging and then I realized I was feeling a little nauseous. Joe was here with me. I look and can see the building swaying ever so slightly... I said with wide eyes to Joe: "You feel that? That's a tremor!!" He grabbed the iron chair he was standing by and then with wide eyes asked me "What's a tremor?!"


In our apartment, there are cracks in the ceilings and wallpaper that's not evenly lined up on some walls from the earthquake in February 2010 - an 8.8


At first when I saw all the cracks it made me think of poor construction workmanship (kinda like in Costa Rica, no offense CR, but if you've been there you probably agree with me) but most things here were well done nice so it seemed out of character.


But then when our landlord told us all the cracks were from the earthquake, I felt a lot better! Cause the place isn't built poorly -but rather it's all built so well that it even withstood an earthquake with only a few cracks. Mostly it's wall paneling that's popped off. No structural damage. So after learning that I seriously felt better and feel okay and safe right now even with a tremor.

Carola told us two weeks ago that there had been a few, they felt them and heard about them on the news, we didn't notice, so pretty amazing to notice that one today. Corey and the kids downstairs didn't notice. I guess it helps to be up higher.

God is pretty powerful. I'm also glad that I know that, even in tragedies, God loves us and that life goes on. It's part of his plan. I mean really, he could wipe us ALL out pretty easily if he wanted to, just get rid of the sun or make oxygen disappear and we'd all be gone in a few minutes. But he doesn't. He is a good and kind creator. Bad things that happen will turn themselves into good things for those who love God. It's a blessing! Pray to see it as a blessing. When trials and tribulations come, tell yourself and believe that it must be a blessing. I know it is if we will open our eyes and hearts to see it in eternal light.

-UPDATE-

Ok, so what do I know about the movement of tectonic plates anyway? Appears it wasn't a tremor but a 7.1 earthquake - about 370 miles southwest of us here in Santiago. Wow. I'm sure it's a blessing ~ may they feel the Lord's love and protective hand.

Make A Wish!

Wow! It's the Fuente Magica!!! Ethan wants to make a wish. Well I guess that's okay. First we'll have to read the instructions of how to do it... I doubt anyone actually needs to consult these instructions - nor do they need pop tart directions? Right?)

(That Brian Regan Pop Tart Link for your enjoyment, Love that Landing on the Moon DVD!)

Ok, step 1) Lanza una moneda
Translation) Deliver a coin.

Got it.

Step 2) Cierra los ojos y pide un deseo
Translation) Close the eyes and ask a desire

Done.

Donations to the Make A Wish foundation of Chile, so it's for a good cause too!

What did you wish for Eth? Tell us!

What would you wish for?

Family History Blogs

The visiting teaching message for this month was on family history. After my visiting teacher friend Gloria left, I started thinking of what family history I can do right now. I don't have access to all my files and papers and books and I'm not sure what ever happened to my pedigree stuff on my computer... Hm. What to do, so then I thought I could start a blog of it, cause I don't have it with me right now, not sure what happened to it. So let's get it online and maybe we'll find other Hibberts out there who can help us. So calling out to all members of Hibbert Headquarters, if you want to contribute, go to the private blog for living members of our family or to the ancestor site which I have since realized was mis-typed when I was putting the name in and it has two h's - hhibbertancestors... sorry. I'll try to change it or start a new one, but since I started two blogs today it won't let me do a third without verifying my account with a phone call, and I don't know how to properly type my Chile cell phone for them, so oh well for now. I'll try again later or tomorrow with that and will see if we can get it right. Or I might call it HibbertAncestry if that's available.

For the private blog I'm going to type birthdays and stuff, but just put what you want. I can add you as an author if I didn't already...

Funny Faces

Funny Kids and funny faces! This is one of our favorite family activities while brushing teeth or now while we're in the elevator which has mirrored walls on 3 sides.
Although I think some of the other elevator riders find us all a little disturbing when they walk in and see the majority of my children like this.

I love these kids and I love these faces! These are my two favorite. Melodie looks like a little fairy grandma cartoon, Joe looks like some freaky old man, they had me laughing so hard I was crying. You got to see Mel's face in real time, I'll get a video of it later. Hilarious, the way she blinks when she does this face is so funny...
Hope you had a laugh! I just did, again. Oh, what a bunch of funny weirdos.

Cerro Santa Lucia

Yesterday Corey wanted to take the kids somewhere to expose them to the world and things of the world, to give them a knowledge of history and of nations, etc. but then since I hadn't been on the metro yet, he said it would give him double pleasure for me to go instead of him cause that way we'd all be having a living adventure, rather than the kids just blindly following him.

So it was decided. I took Joe, Mel, and Ethan with me and we snuck away while Corey lured Abi and Lily away from the door by watching tv with them in our room. My 3 and I walked down to the Manquehue Metro stop. Corey said there was enough money on his BIP card to pay for our rides. He lied. So then I had to figure out why the card wasn't working, two people there helping me and my Spanish is rusty, but I was able to understand I needed to put money on the card. Went and threw the dollars in my purse at the cashier and paid $6000.00 pesos (aka $12 bucks) and the BiP card worked. Then the guard asked me why I paid for the kids if I was going to, told me next time just pay for myself and then have them open the door for the kids cause kids are free. I did not know that. Corey didn't either. So I called and told him he failed me by saying there was money on his card and he apologized, and said I passed the test well... "There will be two more glitches in the plan, so keep your eyes open for them!" that made me laugh, all is forgiven.

So, I told the Metro guy we were going to Santa Lucia and he put us on the wrong side of the subway, the one going to Los Dominicos. Luckily I figured that out on my own but was nervous he'd see us coming up again and switching sides and wonder why we were lost still after his instructions, but luckily he didn't see us and we got on the right side and got on the metro going toward San Pedto and, per our instructions, got off at the stop named Santa Lucia -

where we went out into the open air. Firs twe went to a little touristy flea market and the kids spent $100 pesos (aka 20cents each) to buy: a little rock, Melodie has named him "pebble"
and Ethan bought three teeny tiny wood instruments - a flute, a drum, and a little violin (guitar?) - these will be the types of souveniers my kids will be bringing back for all of you, aren't you excited? Send your requests by email indicating what color pebble you'd like or what miniature instrument.


After browsing the flea market, we were off to a hill called Santa Lucia. I didn't know what it was, I was just following instructions, but after seeing it, my interest was piqued and I'm googling it a little and have learned a tiny bit of history of Chile which I am not going to repost here. But I will post the pictures from the adventure





Corey's almost home! So I gotta get off, I'll post the rest of the pictures and tell what they are tomorrow morning, and I'll have more time since it's a day of rest and I don't need to workout. :)

Corey's at the Park...

I was downstairs reading while 4 of my munchkins played in the kid's room, when Corey came down and said he was going to the park. 3 kids opted to go with him. We said goodbye and have fun. I kept reading. Then the little thought popped in my head "Open computer!!" so we packed up and now I'm here typing, uploading, and hurrying to get done so Corey doesn't know what I've been up to until he checks the blog.

Pink blossoms on the grass - Nature's beauty that I hope everyone enjoys seeing at the park.

People making out - blech, I don't enjoying seeing that at the park...




So one of the funniest parts for me yesterday was seeing my kids gag at all the couples making out at the Santa Lucia Hill. I guess it's the known make out spot for teens and too old adults alike. My kids were Grossed out with a capital G. I found it rather repulsive myself. I'd never do that with Corey, no offense sweetie. And eventhough he's joked we should try it sometime cause it's normal here and everyone does it, no way making out it parks is okay. yuck pda yuck.

These guys were really gross....

A little kiss, walking with arms around each other, all that is good and great. Anyone else, if I see you we're gonna take your photo and laugh at you so we don't throw up.

This couple was just taking a nap. They got the "least offensive" award from Joe and Ethan. We didn't take pictures of the kissing couples on our hike up, just the hike down. We would have had a lot if we caught all those kissers. Next time we go we'll have the camera ready and see how many couples we catch.

Well That Was Fast...

So, yesterday I had joked haha that I was now going to destroy Corey's computer. Well last night, the kids were talking on skype on Corey's computer, so it was on the coffee table down within Lily's reach. Wes and Hyrum wanted to go play Indiana Jones outside - Corey went with them since the kids were skyping at the computer. After they were done, they went to go watch tv and I saw my opportunity to give a quick call to my BFF mission companion Nicole - we used to talk every day, but now that I'm living a simplified life with no US phone and no internet except between 6 and 8 a.m., we haven't talked much. (Love ya Hermana!!) so we talked and tried to catch up - Lily was right in front of me at the computer. I could see the screen and it looked like she wasn't going to click and hang up my phone call, so we tried to catch up a little while I just let her pluck at the keys for fun. Atleast that's all I thought she was doing...

(insert - picture of Corey's busted laptop - 8 keys plucked off)

Nicole might remember what I was talking about right before I said "AAHHHHHH! (dumbfounded pause) LILY!!!! (dumbfounded pause 2) Lily!!! What?!?!... How?!?!.... Oh crap!"

(Not for sure a word for word transcription. I don't think I said Oh crap, but I know I was thinking it)

Nicole "You need to go?"

Me "Um...." Nicole had read my post from yesterday and we had talked about my simplified life w/o a computer and so I told her "Well, that took me less than 24 hours..." I guess some people would be impressed with themselves at achieving their destiny so quickly. I took a picture, said by to Nicole, moved the computer to a higher table, and took Lily with me to go downstairs and tell Corey what a naughty and undependable wife he has who would sit at a table one foot from the toddler without knowing the havoc she was wrecking.


Corey was coming up the elevator with Hyrum and Wes as I waited to go down.

"Hi" he says. "Hi." I say with a look in my face that says I have bad news... "What" he says. "You know how we joked that I'm gonna bust your computer?" A look of extreme depression washes over him.

2 hours later - Corey's got it all back together and it seems to work fine, except for the "Numbers Lock" key which has a part I super-glued for him -

He'll put it on today and I'm praying it works.

I never would have thought a baby would do that to a computer. I guess her little fingers and nails are small enough that she would easily be capable of doing it. But how'd her little brain think of doing it? I don't know if I want to try and think now of all the things they're gonna do that I've never thought of. I guess feel free to share some of your experiences in amazement at what kids will do so I can learn without having to think of them, as it's not a pleasant thing to try and think about.