Wow, these last three weeks have been really busy! We got done with school the week before my cousin Cassandra came. Cassandra was supposed to get here on Thursday, but due to bad weather, did not arrive until Saturday. We filled the week after she came with going to the market, getting drinks by a roadside stand, and going out to the village.

The day after she came we were headed out to the fishing village for church and on the way, we got a flat tire. While we waited, Cassandra asked if a flat tire was a common occurrence. We said it wasn’t. The next day, we girls decided to go and play volleyball with the guys at the village, and Mom wanted go see Srey Mum’s baby. Soon after we started, we heard a funny noise…every time Mom sped up we would hear it.Finally it got bad enough and we started smelling something hot, so Mom pulled over. I got out and looked at the tires on the passenger side. I didn’t see anything the matter with it. But when I went to the other side of the van, something was very wrong. The tire was shredded! So much for a flat tire not being a common occurrence!  Mom’s phone didn’t have any data, and Kayla’s phone had data but was almost dead. We called dad, and he told Ryan to come help us.  Ryan got to where we were in about half an hour. And in another half an hour he had the spare on. It was late enough that we decided to ditch the playing volleyball.

The flat tire…

Jody  arrived on Thursday, May 24th. The children were all thrilled to get stuff from Luke. That next week was a lot of fun, also kind of sad because it was Kayla’s last week here. On Saturday the boys had off so they decided that they were going to take Jody Cassandra and Kayla on a short bike trip. However that plan fell through when it started raining, hard, so we ended up going to the silk farm and putt putting. We got rained on there too.

Sunday evening after everybody left my sister Lori and her boyfriend Cordell video called us to tell us some exciting news… they’re engaged!!! We’re very happy for them. On Monday, we girls went gallivanting around the market looking for souvenirs. Then that afternoon we went to a coffee shop with Kayla one last time before she would leave. Kayla’s sister and her family were in Siem reap for a couple of days that week so Kayla got to see her sister before she left. On Tuesday it did finally work out for the boys to take them on their bike trip. They all thought it was fun.

The next day Jody went to the village, Cassandra went shopping, and me, Kayla, Mom and the kids went swimming with Kayla’s sister and her children. Then later that evening on the spur of the moment we went up to the mountain to watch the sunset.

The next day we made three trips to the airport, it was both Cassandra’s and Kayla’s last day here, and Rod and Janelle Musser came late that night. That day seemed like a couple days all squished into one (emotions included). Cassandra left a little bit before lunch. Then after she left I tried to get as much of Kayla as I could. Five o’clock came much too quickly. We were all sad to see her go. The next day dad and mom took Rods out to the fishing village.

On Saturday we went to the reservoir, ate lunch, and played games, it was a lot of fun.

Monday Dad & Mom took Rod & Janelle to Angkor Wat. Tuesday rolled around and it was time for more goodbyes. Rod and Janelle left after breakfast. Jody went to the village to bid adieus to all the Khmer people. It was weird yet normal having her here, it felt normal because she lived with us for a year and a half, but it was also weird because we had all changed in some way.

The evening after they left Ryan, Austin, and Chum went to Phnom Penh because Austin needed to get a physical examination done before he can go to Beaver Lake camp this summer, and they also needed to look for a truck. The next morning Mom and Dad followed them. Dad got his license renewed, and Mom got fabric samples for Lori. They did not find a truck the first day, so they stayed the night and looked some more the next morning. Meanwhile at home I kept busy taking care of the children and doing laundry. There were parts that weren’t so fun but there were also a couple of times that were pretty funny. The one happened today when Forrest and Alaina were playing outside. I heard Alaina crying so I went out to check out on her. Forrest and Alaina were both sitting on the grass, Alaina with her head bowed down, blood streaming out of her nose, Forrest leaning over apologizing over and over again. I asked Forrest what happened, he looked up and told me that they were playing, and he was gonna throw a piece of grass at her but he didn’t realize how close her face was. He punched her and gave her a bloody nose. We are all relieved to have Mom and Dad back. Well I think that about sums this month up.            Heather for the helmuths

Looks relaxing doesn’t it?