mongolia... bumpy roads, mare's milk, mutton, gers, and wide open spaces

I am in Mongolia right now.  In an internet cafe.

It is big here.  It is unbelievably big and beautiful here.

We left our kids with my parents and I miss them.  Especially Baby Maximus.  I hadn't been away from him for more that a few hours before this trip.

Samuel has called us 9 times.  $4.99 a minute.  I keep answering and checking voice mails thinking there might be an emergency but he just wants us to know he misses us.  Or maybe less sweet things like wanting my nephew to talk to us or wondering where his passport is.  Oh, Samuel.  When I asked to talk to Eva she said she was a little bit busy changing Maximus' diaper.  What?  Wow.  Sounds like Eva is maturing and life goes on without us.

This place is huge.  Huge and beautiful.  We have probably driven over a  thousand miles meeting different governors and seeing different towns.  I am learning how much I love paved roads.  At every town we can be guaranteed to be greeted with vodka or fermented mare's milk or mare's milk cheese or dried mare's milk yogurt stuff or all of the above.  I am learning how naturally ungracious I am.  We mostly sleep in gers (Mongolian for yurt) and I am learning how much I love houses and hotels (and the toilets that go along with them).  We mostly eat mutton, bread, cabbage, cheese, and more mutton.  I am learning how much more I love my mom's cooking.  This has been a chance of a lifetime.  And maybe there have been moments where I am glad that this sort of chance only comes up once in a lifetime. 

My e-mail has been hacked.  Everyone got a link.  Hackers are stupid.  I feel pretty helpless about that.  I am learning just how addicted to the internet I am. 

The summer schedule looked like this:  Kauai, Salt Lake, Delta, Salt Lake, Logan, Salt Lake, Logan, Salt Lake, New York, Salt Lake, Mongolia, Salt Lake, Kauai.  We will get back to Utah on Friday and fly to Kauai early the next morning.  The kids start school in one week and it feels like a whole world away.

This summer has been a whirl wind of travel and family and friends. In the thick of it, I am sure I have aged 10 years and am ready for a boring life.  But I know that this will be a summer that I will always remember. 

how to make a plumeria rosette

This summer has flown by but when I think of how much we have packed in so far, it feels like we haven't been in Hawaii for such a long time. 

So, a long long time ago, Eva was in her school talent show with her hula halau (school).  To perform with the group, there were strict instructions on how the hair was supposed to worn... tight low bun (hair too short, whoops!), with two yellow plumeria rosettes.  I thought it was super picky especially since we had so many white plumeria growing around us.  Turns out yellow are the strongest and waxiest so stay fresh the longest.

And these are the crazy things a mom does for a daughter's dance performance...

I start putting yellow plumerias on my radar for the weeks leading up to big day, looking where ever we go, asking around, yellow plumeria on the brain.

Spot some at a park while house hunting in the neighboring town.

The day before (they have to be fresh so we can't get them too soon) the big day, friend picks me up and we drive to the park.  

Turns out the tree is in someone's yard, so we go find the homeowner and get permission.  

Together we pick over 40 plumeria.

We put them in our coolers with ice to keep them fresh.

We meet an experienced mom at the school where she shows us how to make them.  

 Keep your flowers in a baggie in the fridge.

 Each rosette takes one tooth pick and seven flowers.  Line up the flowers with the biggest and fullest in the middle.

 Skewer the flowers onto the toothpick.  The center flower will keep all its petals.  Peel on petal off each of the side flowers so it can be super snug next to the other flowers.

 It will look like this underneath.

 Two rosettes.

 She had to have them pinned to the left side of her bun.  

All of this for a 70 second dance that I couldn't even see because I was on the wrong side of the stage.