the sweet & sauer life

A new addition

2011-01-01T11:06:00.003-06:00

So, a few weeks ago our dryer died. The heating element went out, again. We replaced that 2 years ago for $200. We were not prepared to replace that again for the price of a replacement dryer. Thanks to Jake’s Aunt Rita’s generous Christmas present we were able to go to Home Depot today and they had a few dyers on sale for the New Year and we got one today for $300!Yay a brand new dryer and not one off Craigslist. Jake and I unloaded it and switched out the old for the new and we are catching up on our back loads of laundry! I am so excited to simply do laundry!!!! Happy New Year to us!!!!

We have named her Rita!

Birthday Hawtness

2010-12-12T22:50:00.004-06:00

I turned 26 on Dec 8^th. Awesomeness, I must say. I got to spend the day with Jake; he skipped working today to stay home with me. He put the hinge clamps on the card table for me so I could silk screen some things and it made me giddy!!!!! FINALLY!!! YAY!!!!

We also went to dinner at Macaroni Grill with Jennifer, Katelyn, Tracie and the girls. I must say, the food was wonderful and I did make myself a little sick on the chocolate cake. I did share with everyone at the table and even ordered it with no nuts so Annabeth could enjoy some.

Not that birthdays are about getting presents at all, but I have to brag about it this year. I was given an awesome green fuzzy blanket by Katelyn which I have so obviously named Kermit. I am wrapped up in him as I type this up, he is keeping me toasty warm on this snowy evening. Tracie gave me this adorable blue rose necklace, LOVE IT!!!!! Annabeth totally rocked the house with a drawing of a flower, which is hanging on my fridge with all the other Annabeth originals! Jake’s folks sent me a replacement Aladdin Genie cookie jar (that passed away a few months ago after an incident with ants in the kitchen which I will not go into further), a really neat shirt from Prince Edward Island. They went on a cruise recently and got to go the Green Gables (places hand to her ear to hear the universal sigh, and “Gilbert”) and were nice enough to get me a magnet, stickers and a really cool t- shirt as previously mentioned. They also got me this book called Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson and I am so excited to read it!!!! Erika sent me a Michael’s gift card, which I am totally using once I get well enough to go out into the world of people. Jennifer totally floored me this year. She gave me Inception on DVD, a cute fedora, and a pair of feety panda pajamas! I have never received a gift that I never knew I wanted so badly until I actually had it. They are so me and I had to put them on and show them off!

Thank you to all who made my birthday a good one!

Hey let's go, hey let's go

2010-12-12T22:34:00.002-06:00

When the Davis Family came to visit over the Thanksgiving holiday Brandon played with some soot sprites I had made a while back and absolutely LOVED them. (Side note: Soot Sprites are from My Neighbor Totoro, one of absolute all time favorite films) If he was in my house he had then in his hand. After he left I had an idea for some Christmas tree ornaments. After 1 trip to Michael’s, a few burnt fingers, and a day’s worth of labor I was the proud parent of 20 Santa Soot Sprites.

I think they turned out quit cute! I decorated my tree with some of them and dropped a few off for the Philip and Tracie Shafer family, mailed some to the Davis family, gave a few to Jennifer on her Annual Christmas Tree Decorating Party which took place tonight, and have a few to give to the Sam and Mary Jane Shafer family. Happy Holiday!

Long time no blog

2010-12-12T22:01:00.001-06:00

It has been such a long time since I updated this poor blog. It must feel so neglected :(

Let’s see, what has been happening since my last update? Came back to the States, enjoyed quit a few meals at Cancun (the best Mexican food in town!), went back to work, stopped working, Jake went back to work at Best Buy, then he stopped working at Best Buy to spend his days slaving away at his dissertation in a 3 by 5 ft office for 12 hours a day. At least he has a window!

I have been applying to every job posting I can find. No, that’s not true. I have been applying to every job posting I can stomach the idea of working at. I made a vow a long time ago that if I could help it I would NEVER return to the world of retail. I don’t know if that will last much longer. So, at least until after Christmas I have put my job finding days on hold so that I can bust out all the Christmas presents I have to make with Jake and I being on a limited budget. Homemade gifts are the best right? (bites her nails hoping that everybody likes their gifts)

So far it has been going well. I have been silk-screening like made ever since Jake put the hinge clamps on the card table for me so I don’t have to have him at home helping me. I have a pretty good system set up, it just takes a little time and requires the bathroom window open which hasn’t been fun the last few days being so cold. I have burnt my fingers so many times with the hot glue gun I can’t feel them anymore. I was making good progress, that was until Jake got sick, and then he gave it to me this past week. I have spent the past few days on the couch with my laptop in tow catching up on some Fan Fiction and TV spoilers.

I have recently discovered that Criminal Minds is a pretty good show. Jake and I signed up for Netflix and we raced through the entire series and are now caught up and have to wait like everybody else for new episodes. I just read a spoiler for new Reid episode and can’t wait. I feel that the Reid fans have been gypped this season and most of season five. Bring it on! I have to say that Jake really does love me. When I start to watch a show, I become obsessed with it. With ION showing it every night and watching the DVDs it has been on basically nonstop for like 3 months. He has been so patient with me and listens to me ramble on and on about it that I KNOW he loves me because any other man would have told me to shut up long ago. Anyway, he has nothing to complain about now, we have moved onto Leverage in our Netflix Queue, another good show we never get to watch because we have no cable. I love you Netflix instant streaming!

Anyway, so I vow to update my blog more often, although I am not sure if anyone actually reads it. Doesn’t matter, it’s fun for me anyway.

back posting

2010-04-29T17:57:00.001-05:00

I haven't been able to update the blog for the past few weeks. So I have posted the last few posts today, but they spanned over the course of a month. We should be leaving Pucon on Sunday. Finally!

slow internet

2010-04-29T17:56:00.000-05:00

The internet card has not been working for the last week or so. We have been driving into the town just so we can check our email. We are sitting in the truck as I send this email. Sigh.

We hope everyone had a good Easter! We enjoyed the photos from the Shafer get together. Jake and I spent Easter washing artifacts. We tried to listen to conference online, but the internet card could not handle the streaming audio, so we had to wait a day and download the audio files. So, we heard Saturday’s sessions on Sunday. We really enjoyed conference this year. Jake especially enjoyed Elder Bednar’s talk where he said that archeology can’t prove faith.
For our Easter meal I made chocolate chip pancakes topped with strawberries and whipped cream. I also made Jake some peanut butter cups. He loves Reese’s cups! He ate them all.

Not much else to report. We are still washing, photographing, etc. Hopefully we will finish with it in the next 2 weeks or so. Jake and I are feeling a bit of cabin fever….yeah, I said it. We are really tired and are praying the next month goes by quickly.

So, we are still here. No more earthquakes, at least not this week. No volcanic eruptions. We are still waiting to hear about where we need to take the artifacts when we are done. Jake is waiting to hear from about 5 people on various things and none of them have emailed him back. We don’t really want to lug these artifacts all over the country just trying to figure out where they go!

We are so happy to hear that the Shafer family (Sam, Mary Jane, Bow Harrison, Kate-lin Mae, and Noah) made it home safely! We are sad to miss the big homecoming. He looks so stinking cute! We can’t wait to meet him and see all of you!

Mandy & Jake

FIlling it all back up

2010-04-29T17:55:00.001-05:00

Friday of last week we finished up the digging portion of the project. After you finish digging, you have to do what is called “back filling”, which is basically just putting all the dirt you took out back in and packing it down. There were 3 large trenches and one smaller trench. Jake and I filled up the smaller trench by ourselves when we went to the site alone one day last week. The guys that are working for Jake filled up 2 of the large trenches over the space of two days. Then the finial trench that produced so many features was the last one to be filled. Jake was gathering soil samples and recording a few things in that trench up until the last day. Friday morning we gathered some old tree trunks that were piled up on one side of the field we were in. The site is on a cow ranch and they had pulled up a lot of trees when they first started about 30 years ago. We gathered 2 truck loads and heaved them into the trench to compensate for what we took out of the soil and to help pack everything in tightly. It took all 5 of us almost all day to fill up that trench. Jake figured we would be done by lunch time, so I didn’t pack us a lunch… Luckily I had left 4 peanut butter crackers and a smashed Gansito (basically like a little Debbie snack) in the truck and we were able to split that as our lunch. The guys thought it was so funny that I was working as well. They even took photos of me shoveling dirt. I love Jake, but my back and leg muscles were not very happy with him and haven’t been for a few days. We finally finished at about 3:00pm. Even though we have finished this part of the project there is still a lot to be done before we can come home.

The museum in Temuco was assigned by the Consejo (the government department that gave Jake his permits) to take all the artifacts that Jake found. Well, Jake got in contact with the museum to let them know that he was done digging and needed to know what he had to do to correctly submit the artifacts. They told him that due to the earthquake the storage location where they keep all the shard artifacts was damaged and they couldn’t take his artifacts. Everything that Jake found was shards, not a single intact piece. So, Jake contacted the Consejo to see what he needed to do, we are still waiting for them to get back to him. Jake was planning on using the tools at the museum to analyze the artifacts. Now he will have to analyze them here in the cabin and hope that he can borrow or buy the right tools he needs to do so. The Consejo decides where everything that it discovered goes so they may say that the museum in Temuco has to take them anyway. They could say for him to take them to another museum or they could tell him he can take them to the US and analyze them there, giving the museum in Temuco time enough to repair the damage and take the artifacts. We have no idea at this point. For the next 3 weeks or so we will be in the cabin working with the artifacts. Ugh.

We finished the digging at the right time, because the rains have returned in full force! It has rained no stop since Friday afternoon. We will be so happy to return to the states where it will be Spring and hopefully sunny!

Happy Birthday to AJ and Sofia this week! Also, my brother Sam and his family will be traveling to China this week to pick up Noah Benjamin! We pray that they will be able to travel in safety! We can’t wait to meet him!

Mandy & Jake

washing, and washing, and washing

2010-04-29T17:54:00.001-05:00

Thursday we took a trip to Temuco so that Jake could talk to the people at the museum and see if he could figure out what was going on with his artifacts. The Conejo told Jake that he should ask if the museum in Valdivia could take the artifacts for a while. The woman who is the director is Jake’s counterpart here. She said that they could take the artifacts for a while, but that they couldn’t stay there for long. When we got the museum in Temuco on Thursday Jake was able to speak to the woman he had been in email contact with. He found out that their shard artifacts were being kept in one particular building downtown, which due to the earthquake was damaged enough that the building is going to be destroyed. The museum will have to find another place to store all their shards, and until then, Jake can’t give them to the museum. They have no idea when he will be able to. The Conejo hasn’t told Jake where they will go for good, but at least he knows they can go to Valdivia for a while.

On a plus side Jake was able to find some calipers and a scale! Yay! Now he can at least get to analyze the artifacts while we wait. While we were in Temuco we had to drop off the truck we are renting so they could change the oil and check it out. They gave us a white version of the truck that we are renting to drive around town. They washed the truck and vacuumed out all the dirt we had tracked in since January. They also polished the rubber floor boards. They polished them so much that they were soaked when we got back in the truck! Oh, the smell was terrible! We were afraid that if we put the mats in the bed of the truck they might fly out so we rolled them up and shoved them into the back floor and rode back to the cabin with the windows down. By the time we got back to the cabin I had one MASSIVE headache and went to bed quit early that night. Ugh!

Since then, we have been washing, photographing, weighing, and measuring artifacts. Oh, and watching “Lost”. Ah, the good times and adventures we will be able to share with our grandchildren someday.

There was a 6.2 earthquake that hit north of Santiago yesterday. Nothing we felt. Still no massive repeat quake that is being expected… yet. That’s a lot of fun waiting around for let me tell ya. The weather had been nice and sunny the last two days, which has been a nice change from the cold and rain.

We enjoyed some French toast this morning. While finding maple syrup is very hard to do in Chile, we did top it with some sweetened strawberries and whipped cream!
Hope everyone will have a good week!

Mandy & Jake

Funny story

2010-03-14T17:03:00.000-05:00

This morning at 2:00am all over the world clocks were rolled either forward or backward 1 hour. Jake and I changed the time on our phones and his watch. We enjoyed the extra hour of sleep and lazily got ready for church this morning. We were quit confused when we saw the meeting was ending when we got there, not about to begin. Turns out that this past week the Chilean government decided to delay the daylight savings time change until April 3rd, 3 weeks from now. The reason in doing this is to help out the people who are still without electricity because of the earthquake that happened 2 weeks ago. Um………ok. Jake and I were not aware of this because the only news we check out online about Chile is to make sure that something hasn’t erupted, no military coup has taken place, or something to that effect. So, even though the electricity has been restored to almost every city (some have been completely destroyed) we have to wait 3 weeks for the time change. Until April 3rd we will be 2 hours ahead of Nashville.

With fingers crossed this will be the final week of the digging part of the project. Jake and I went to Temuco today to get some supplies we can’t get in Pucon. So after missing church we headed out. We went to the Mall to have lunch first and it was in bad shape. There were stores closed all over and the 3rd level was completely closed off. In the food court the only place open was the McDonalds. Some of the stores were closed due to structural damage while some were closed because they had been looted dry. There is a pharmacy by the main floor entrance that was almost completely empty. There were cracks in some of the walls and ceiling tiles missing all over the place. We drove by the hospital but didn’t see any damage to it. Downtown there were a lot of older abandoned buildings that had toppled over or lost big chunks out of the concrete. There were piles of bricks and concrete all over the sidewalks. I am glad we were in Pucon when it happened, I don’t think I would have done very well if we were anywhere else.

After lunch we went to a store called “Easy” which is kind of like a love child between a Home Depot and a Wal-Mart. We wondered all over the store multiple times until we found someone who actually knew where what we were looking for was located. When we were checking out the lady at the register asked Jake for his passport because he was paying with a debit card. We don’t carry our passports around with us and we have never had to show a passport when paying with a card before. Luckily Jake had taken money out of the ATM before we went to the store otherwise we would have had to leave, go get some cash and come back. Very odd, but we had to get the stuff so oh well.

Tomorrow Jake & I will go to the site to finish up recording and digging out the remaining features and site maps. Then starting on Tuesday we will be back filling all 4 of the trenches. There is one more 2 meter by 1 meter pit to dig, but that will be dug and filled back in over the course of a day. After that we will be completely done with the digging part! Maybe by the time we get back home we will have gotten all of the dirt out from under our fingernails!

We are STILL feeling aftershocks! There was one just about an hour ago, and it wasn’t small. I am looking forward to the SOLID ground of TN. Anyway, hope all is well at home!

Mandy & Jake

a taste of home

2010-03-11T15:54:00.002-06:00

Jake and I have been waiting for a package from his parents and one from my Mom. It has been a month since the package from his folks was sent. We figured that the mail delivery was hindered by the earthquake. Well, we got both packages today! My Mom sent her package a day or two before the earthquake which has been about 2 weeks. Don’t know why it took so long for the first package to get here but oh well! We hit the mother load with the packages! Thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

From Jake’s parents we got:

A box of brownie mix
2 jars Peter Pan peanut butter
2 jars JIF peanut butter (even though we compromise on some things peanut butter is not one of them)
a bag of Mini Cadbury eggs (my favorite Easter candy)
a bag of Robin Eggs (woppers)
11 Cadbury cream eggs (one of Jake’s favorite Easter Candy)

From my Mom we got:

1 jar if JIF peanut butter
package of sesame crackers (while in the car I opened the peanut butter and crackers…..heaven!)
a package of Almond cookies
6 microwaveable meals
2 Chow Mein microwaveable dinners
2 boxes of Mac & Cheese (ah, mac & cheese finally)
a box of Corn Pops cereal (I hope I don’t eat them all in one sitting!)
2 cans of tuna
1 can of chicken
3 bags of peanut M&Ms
2 bars of soap
a canister of Country Time pink lemonade mix
an Olay body wash (it has almond oil in it and smells really good by the way)
scent free sun block (we are almost out of our current sun block!)
oh, there was a roll of two ply toilet paper, which I think was used for packing material but we will use it!

The packages were too big to be delivered so Jake had to go into the post office. The girls working behind the counter saw the name on the packages "Jacob". In Spanish the letter J is pronounced like the letter h. The girls behind the counter asked "Your name is pronounced Jacob (with the correct j sound) right? Like in the movie?"

Jake said "Yes."

The girls then questioned, "Are you a werewolf?" The movie they were referring to was either "Twilight" or "New Moon", for those of you who don't know these are books in a series about vampires, werewolves, and a teenage love triangle. I will refrain from commenting on their taste in books. Jake replied "Nope, not a werewolf. Thanks for the packages." They asked him "Are you sure you're not a werewolf?"
Jake replied "I'm not a werewolf, I'm too chubby to walk around with my shirt off. I'm just a lowly archaeologist." So, apparently werewolf is higher on the job totem pole than archaeologist. Who knew?

We cannot thank them enough! We love all of it and will surely have enough to eat until we are done here in Pucon! Thanks again!

The work is moving along and we are getting close to the end. We opened a new trench on the other side of the field. This one is going to be much smaller and we should have it finished by Saturday or Tuesday at the latest. We are going to head to Temuco on Monday to get some supplies that Jake has to use for back filling all the trenches. Tuesday we will dig a small 2 by 1 (meters) trench and then start to back fill everything. If all goes well we should be finished by the end of next week or the beginning of the following week!

Attached is a photo of the volcano from a morning this past week! Check out that smoke! Hope all is well at home!

Mandy & Jake

it pays to brush

2010-03-08T12:40:00.000-06:00

“Mini” quakes aren’t fun, and neither are aftershocks. We have been feeling them all week. I am ready for this ride to be over so I can get off! Other than that, everything has been going well. The rain has return and is making working a full week hard. There are 3 more weeks before we will be done with the digging part of the trip. After that we will be traveling all over, or at least where the earthquake damage will allow. We have to make a trip to Concepcion, which is near where the epicenter was, so that will be fun.

One day last week a tooth popped out of the dirt Erwin was screening. One tooth, turned into 2, and then 3 and so on. Jake got into the trench with his little dental tools and spent the better part of the day digging out the rest. He found part of a human cranium, crushed and almost paper thin and about 25 or so teeth. The only parts that were left were the teeth, and a few pieces of the skull. There were no other bones found. We don’t know why it is so thin yet. Could be that it is REALLY old, which would be really cool. Could be that the soil effected the bone so much it just decomposed faster. Could have been how it was buried, we won’t know until the bones are tested later this year. The first excavation back in the 80-90’s there were 8 skeletons uncovered, but they mostly intact. Those were found inside the modern fence the landowner had built, but I doubt that 30 years would have done that to the bones, but who knows. Jake doesn’t have any of the notes on those 8 skeletons, and nobody really knows where they are now. There has been some word that they were shipped to a university in Alabama, but no one knows for sure. Finding them will require a little bit of “digging”, sorry about the pun. Anyway, just goes to show that you should really get to the dentist more often!

I am excited for the daylight savings time change on Sunday. With everyone at home springing forward an hour and us here falling back an hour, the time difference will be back to just one hour ahead of Tennessee, and 2 hours ahead of Colorado. It will make communication just a little easier.

It rained all night and this morning so we aren’t working on the site today. I have had a slight fever last night and today, which totally justifies my eating of peach cobbler for lunch. Don’t judge me! Cold, rainy, and sick = peach cobbler for lunch in my world.

My friend Amanda had her baby on Friday the 5th. She was waiting to find out what she was having until she had the baby and she had a little girl! She is 8 lbs 2 oz and 19 inches long. Her name is Brooke Illyana Adcox and they are calling her Lilly for short. She has a full head of dark hair and has cute little chubby cheeks. Congrats!

Hope all is well at home!

Mandy & Jake

more quake stuff

2010-03-02T16:02:00.001-06:00

Yesterday it was back to work as usual. It felt very strange just going back to work while all terrible things are happening in the areas around us. Jake was hoping that the quake had somehow opened up the last trench and he wouldn’t have to dig anymore, but no such luck. The site was perfectly untouched. We spent most of the day digging out more of the features that fill this trench. One was particularly deep and once I had dug so far down that my arms wouldn’t reach anymore, Jake had to finish it up. His arms are slightly longer than mine. There are a few photos to enjoy attached.

Jake finally heard from his friends in Talca. Everyone we know there is safe and no one’s homes were damaged. Talca got hit pretty hard, his friend Jessica said that the downtown area is completely gone. Talca is always our first stop and last when we come here. We don’t know if we will be able to stop and stay on our way home if the town is torn up. A little less than 3 months isn’t a lot of time to fix all that was torn up, especially here in Chile. Thank goodness they are all ok.

We still haven’t heard from our friends in Tome yet. The power is still out in that area and should be back on in a few days, but until then we can only pray that they are safe. In Temuco, the town that is about an hour and half away, the hospital was split open. People started looting which caused the Chilean government to declare martial law in some areas, which scared Jake more than the earthquake did. There is a curfew in place to cut down on the looting and there have been a lot of arrest so far, Jake is just concerned that when this is all said and done that the balance of power goes back to the way it was before. It has only been declared in a few areas so far. There is also concern that the earthquakes aren’t over yet. The two plates that separated haven’t corrected themselves yet. If they don’t within about 2 weeks, there is expected to be another massive earthquake. We’re hoping on the “correcting themselves” theory.

Also, come to find out in Chile the drinking water and the sewage water pipes run side by side, and in the event of certain events, like earthquakes, sometimes the pipes can break and mix together. So, even though we have running water, it could be quit yucky. We went to the store and bought a few bottles just to be safe. There has been no bread the last few days so I am having to make it.

We are still feeling aftershocks, which makes for not too restful nights. We talked to Jake’s parents last night and turns out they were on the local news in Palisade. The news crew interviewed them about Jake and what he is doing down here. They Tivo’d the interview and are going to try and post it online so we can watch it. Also, Jake’s Dad is going to have to have surgery again on his arm sometime in the next week or so.

Happy Birthday to Trent yesterday! Hope he liked his present! We’ll keep everyone updated when we can!

Mandy & Jake

Earthquake

2010-02-28T05:55:00.000-06:00

Well, we had an interesting night/morning. At about 3:40am Jake and I were shaken, literally, awake. The entire cabin was shaking, we were being tossed around like rag dolls for about 2 minutes. It seemed liked forever then the shaking lessened and finally stopped. We had no power and were a little on edge. Jake took it like a champ, this was his 6th earthquake. I on the other hand did not handle it very well. I think me being scared made Jake more upset than the actual earthquake. It also didn’t help that I was having a bad dream when I was jerked awake at 3:40 in the morning! I was too frightened to move, let alone make it to a door way. I do not like earthquakes! Who does though? The epicenter was about 400 miles North West of us. It registered at 8.8 on the Richter scale and what we felt was about a 7.

It was the 7th strongest earthquake in not just Chilean history, but history in general. After it hit we walked outside and I saw some flashes of light over in the area of the volcano. I was terrified that the volcano had erupted or that it would after the quake. She seems quiet for now and I want it to stay that way. If that wasn’t bad enough we were laying in bed trying to get back to sleep when another smaller (30 seconds or so) one hit about 5:00 am. We didn’t get much sleep and we were still feeling after shock when we got up this morning. We got dressed and headed to the site to pay Jake’s workers and make sure everyone was ok.

We had no power, no phone service, and no internet access. We didn’t know how bad it had hit other parts of the county until Jake was finally able to get a hold of his parents. It was scary not knowing what was going on and not be able to call anyone and let you guys know we were ok. We didn’t even know if the quake had made the news. Little did we know everyone knew about it. There was almost no damage to Pucon, a few broken windows downtown but otherwise untouched. Santiago and farther north is another question. Lots of damage and over 140 people died. A family Jake baptized lives in Tome, on the cost one town over from Concepcion. The epicenter was just off the cost of Concepcion. We visited there on our trip last year. We haven’t been able to get in touch with them and we pray that they are ok.

Even now as I am writing this email we are feeling aftershocks. We were able to make a call to Jake’s parents and to Jennifer to just let everyone know we were safe and sound. We received a call from the Branch President, who was stuck in Santiago, calling to make sure we were ok.

When we finally got power back at about 4:00pm we drove into town to make a few calls and let everyone know we were ok. When we got back to our cabin the Elders from the ward were waiting on us. They were checking to make sure we were ok. Since we feed them a few weeks ago there was a transfer. Instead of having two American missionaries, we have the greenie from Idaho and a guy from Argentina. After talking for a bit about how scared we all were, able to laugh a bit about it by that point I was really hungry. I was planning on making pizza for dinner and was really hungry so we offered to feed them too. They left for about an hour to check on other members before coming back here. The greenie from Idaho had been shook up all day; he had never been though an earthquake either. He was so sick to his stomach I sent him home with a Ziploc back full of Tums.

We are very grateful to be alive and safe. All day the power had been off, and all day there were cars lined up at the 3 gas stations in town and I mean LINED UP! Most people here don’t have generators so they were all just freaking out and “Had” to get gas. We were able to get to the store, all the bread and bottled water, no shock there, were gone. We were able to grab a few candles before that shelf was emptied out too. I had a killer headache and took some benedryl sinus which means I am going to be OUT in a few minutes. I pray that the earthquakes are done and the aftershocks are over. Thank you for all the prays and the phone tree that was taken care of! I don’t down the power the Shafers and Sauers have in the ways of the phone tree!

We wish we could have called and talked to everyone, but internet access in limited and Jake was only able to put some more money on his pay as you go phone. I will send out emails more regularly for the next few days just keep everyone updated that we are still alive.

I can’t say enough how much I DID NOT enjoy that earthquake. I have had the heebie-jeebies all day because of it. The quake shouldn’t disrupt any of the work Jake is doing here; we haven’t been to the site yet. We will see how well it did on Monday. For now, be safe everyone and we miss and love you all.

Mandy and Jake

Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T09:14:00.005-06:00

Well, this past week we had some rainy days so we had some days off, which were nice for catching up on sleep and watching Bones. Man, I forgot how much I love that show! We have already made it through to the 3rd season. We are almost done with season 3, and will be sorely upset because we don’t have season 4. L This week on the site we found 2 more pipe steams, and arrow heads. There are about 40 features that have popped up in this trench, twice as many as were in the other 2 trenches put together. There are so many things in this trench that it is hard for Jake to figure out what exactly the stains in the soil are and who they belong to. So he has to dig out soil samples from all of them to test later. He is just a boy digging in the dirt.

One of the guys that works for Jake offered to have him mom make some corn humitas, similar to a tamale. They were freaking awesome! We bought 6, shared 2 of them with the guys, and then we enjoyed the other 4. Jake likes to sprinkle his with a little bit of sugar, oh my goodness! You take fresh corn kernels, chili peppers, salt and pepper, grind it up and wrap it in some corn husks and then boil it for an hour. We will definitely have some more of them before we leave and might even be something that I can make myself!

We were in Chile last year for Valentine’s Day and we went out for sushi, so we figured we would keep up the tradition here in Pucon. There is a little sushi joint near the church building in town so we gave it a shot. Jake got some sashimi Salmon. The salmon itself looked ok, but it had been soaked in some kind of oil and there was a slash of sesame oil on the plate, needless to say he didn’t finish it and that was the first time he has EVER let sashimi go to waste. We got a California roll, an Ebi Cheese roll, and some other roll that had shrimp in the middle and breaded chicken on the outside of the roll. The rolls were the best they could be in Pucon, Chile. They weren’t the worst we have had but they also weren’t the best we have ever had. We are looking forward to a trip to Ken’s, Fulins, and Kyoto when we get home in the spring. We will make a trip to the great sushi place when we get back to Santiago before we come home.

It only took me going to the other side of the world to learn how to make certain things from scratch. This past week I made some cinnamon rolls and put the dough in the fridge so we could have something sweet for breakfast on Valentine’s Day. Behold, the first cinnamon rolls! They were very enjoyable and will not be the last ones I make! Martha Stewart eat your heart out!

We hope everything is going well at home! Hopefully the weather has improved so that Rachel can get ready to fly back to China on the 20th. Happy Birthday to Spencer this week! Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Chinese New Year!

Mandy & Jake

a good meal

2010-02-09T14:31:00.000-06:00

This past week we were feed the missionaries that are here in the Pucon ward. Both of the Elders are Americans, one has been out about a month and he is very “green”. We made what Jake’s family calls Spring Time Diner, which is ground beef, onions, potatoes, corn, and cream of mushroom soup. We also made a tossed salad with real ranch dressing! Jake likes boiled eggs on his tossed salad, and Jake told the Elders that the eggs were for the salad if they wanted. I guess they misheard Jake, because they piled the eggs on top of the spring time diner. I guess they are used to having eggs on top of a lot of meals here. The meal was very good, but desert was amazing! I made peach cobbler and it was delicious. The green missionary asked his training companion who has been out for about a year and a half, “Have you ever had peach cobbler here before?” His companion quickly explained that he hadn’t and that this was probably the only time he was going to have it.

They elders had their Pday on Monday and they were having a joint Pday with some elders and sisters from other areas. Jake invited them to come to the site to have a look around. They showed up about 45 minutes before we were done. Jake gave them a tour of the site. One of the sisters was attending a university in Las Vegas before she left for her mission and she wants to be an archeologist so she was really excited to see everything.

Sunday night our neighbors had a very loud and very long party. They did not stop partying until about 7:00am, so we were very tired on Monday. It was raining this morning so we didn’t work this morning so we had a chance to catch up on some much missed sleep. There is a chance for rain again tomorrow, but we will have to see.
Nothing much else to update. Hope everyone is doing well at home!

Mandy & Jake

Excess use

2010-02-03T10:30:00.000-06:00

Sorry, I haven’t sent out an email in a while, but there hasn’t been much to email about. We get up every day, we go to the site, we dig, we screen, we find a bunch of ceramic pieces and we go home! We did have a surprise when we got back to the cabin on Monday afternoon. After a long day of playing in the dirt, we can get quit dirty and we each look forward to a nice shower before dinner. Unfortunately that day the water wasn’t on. Jake called Sonia, the woman who owns the cabin. She had someone out at the cabin that day to fix the faucet in the shower, so Jake just thought they had forgot to the water back on. He got off the phone and went outside to turn the water back on. After about 5 minutes of turning the switch every way under the sun, there was still no water coming out of the sink in the kitchen. So Jake called Sonia back and she said she would call the water company for us and call us back soon.

We had worked a full day on Monday, and it was about 5:00 when we got back to the cabin. We were both very hungry, but couldn’t cook dinner because we couldn’t wash our hands to cut up any vegetables or have any water to cook the mashed potatoes with. So, we waited for Sonia to call. She called about 6:00; the water company had shut off the water due to “excess use”. How nice, instead of calling the occupants, or billing them for the extra water, they simply shut it off! We were very confused; there was no way that we were using enough water to warrant it to be shut off. Sonia said she was on her way to us and that she would get the water turned back on. She showed up and showed us the bill; the water company just seems to be trying to charge them way to much! For the months of Oct, Nov, and most of Dec were each about $10 a month, which is about normal (I wish it was like that at home!). Then for the end of December and the beginning of January, the weeks we weren’t even here but back in the states, the charge was about $30. Sonia said she would go down and take care of it. After she left we were finally able to shower and each, at about 7:00. We then had to rush into town to drop off our laundry before it closed. Over all it was an interesting evening.

The dig site is coming along very well. We have found a lot of stains that Jake is still trying to figure out what they are. We have also found an arrow head made out of white quartz, which was really neat. Julio has taken to catching those ugly flies and pulling off the wings then leaving them in the buckets of dirt I screen though. Not sure if I should laugh or be disgusted, I haven’t been bit since that first one and I haven’t gotten a sun burn, so the death toll has been increased in the last few weeks.

So, as it turns out the first winter storm to actually hit Tennessee in a long time, happens when we aren’t there. We have enjoyed various photos of the fun from both sides of the family. We have missed out on 6 to 7 inches of snow, building snowmen, sledding, hot cocoa, warm fires etc. Well, all I have to say to that is that it is watermelon season here and we have been enjoying a juicy watermelon since Saturday! So there!

It rained very hard last night and it has seeped into today, so we are not at the site but in the cabin. Hope all is well at home.

Mandy & Jake

Busy in Pucon

2010-01-24T14:42:00.000-06:00

This past week marked our first full work week in the entire project! The trench we are working on now has produced more artifacts than the last two trenches put together. Every day we have been pulling out ceramic after ceramic. In the area we are working in now there are these huge horse flies all over the place. They fly right into your face and buzz really loudly, which is annoying, but then one of them bite me and it was on! My goal before we leave is to kill as many of those flies as I can! I have devised a system in which I knock them to the ground and then stomp them with my boots. One of the guys working for us, Julio, is able to catch them. His fly to death ratio is higher than mine, but I hope to catch up. The flies don’t really bother the workers very much but they were just going after Jake and me. Jake’s advisor from Vandy, Tom, has been in Chile for the past month working on various projects and he came out to the site today and he said that the flies were attracted to our sun screen. He said he just stopped using it because the flies wouldn’t leave him alone when he had it on. Do I not wear sunscreen and get a terrible sun burn, or do I wear it and then get eaten alive by these huge flies? We will just have to see what the future holds but I do not take melanoma lightly.

We had a great visit with Tom. There was a triathlon in Pucon today and all the roads in downtown and leading into downtown were closed off for the race so we weren’t able to get to Church this morning and we had to walk into town to meet Tom. I have never seen Pucon so packed! People were everywhere! Tom and Jake talked about the ceramics that we had been pulling out and looked at a few of the artifacts. He treated us to lunch at our favorite restaurant in town; I enjoyed my Pumpkin ravioli and Jake his three-peppered steak. We then drove out to the site after the roads were reopened. Tom was pleased with the work Jake had done and gave him some advice and then Tom headed back to Temuco.

Not much else to report other than we will never leave home without a supply of ground black pepper. We brought some McCormick black pepper with us this trip and it has already made a world of difference in the food we have been able to cook. The spaghetti, the springtime dinner, the fajitas have all been so much better with it. I also made some vegetable stir fry for dinner one night this past week and it was GOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!! We bought some Kikkoman Soy Sauce and I made some fried rice. I then cooked some carrots, zucchini, onions, green and red peppers, and cashews in the soy sauce with some garlic and peach jam. It was so good we are going to have it for dinner again tonight.

We hope everyone at home is doing well.

Mandy and Jake

Day one

2010-01-19T10:49:00.002-06:00

We didn't have access to the internet while we were at home over Christmas break, so I wasn't able to update the blog until now. We had a great Christmas and enjoyed our stay at home, it wasn't long enough.

Being back in the cabin feels like we never left, which is making it strange to be here. Even though we went home and slept in our bed, sat on our couch, cooked in our kitchen; being back feels like we were never there. One major plus to this trip is that we brought our Playstation 2 with us. We brought a couple video games, but we mainly brought it to hook up to the TV and watch TV show DVDs and movies without having to watch them on one of our computers. This time we brought more DVDs then we will probably be able to watch so we won’t run out of any this trip. Granted we won’t have as much time on our hands as last trip, but still better safe than sorry. Also, it seems that Jake and I are not responsible for the unnatural amount of rain this summer, it continued to rain even when we left to come home for Christmas. Hopefully that rain will let us dig more this trip. It was raining Sunday morning but cleared up enough for us to dig on the site yesterday.

If the first day on the dig site is any indication of how this trip will go, then fantastic! Even though we could see our breath when we left the cabin yesterday morning, it warmed up quickly by lunch time. During the first trip Jake was focusing on digging within the fence that surrounds the Santa Silvia site that Gordon worked on in the last 80’s early 90’s. This trip Jake is focusing on the area outside the fence that has never been excavated before. We started digging in two 1 meter by 1 meter squares and there were so many artifacts coming out! We pulled out lithics, pieces of obsidian, roof tiles, and a ton of ceramics! Nothing was a complete pot or plate or anything like that, but we pulled out between 65 and 80 pieces yesterday alone! We found more in the first day than we did in the first month last trip! Since everything is broken and there are rocks that were used to create tools and weapons in this location, Jake thinks that maybe we have found were the population would dump their trash. We were down to 30 cm by the time we left yesterday and there is no way that erosion would be able to move that much, that deep, and that far away from the original site. We will see what today will bring!
Hope all is well at home!

Mandy & Jake

Turning 25

2009-12-12T18:15:00.002-06:00

This past week I celebrated my 25th birthday. December 8th is a Holiday here in Chile. It is the Immaculate Conception, Mary’s, so we had the day off. We drove to Temuco and stopped in at Juanita’s to pick up a package from Jake’s parents. They sent us a jar of Peter Pan peanut butter for Jake and JIF for me. We also got some bite size Snickers, some Simply Sleep, lots of Jerky, and a box of brownie mix. Oh, it was a wonderful! Thank you!

We walked around one of the ferias (market) to finish up our Christmas shopping and then headed to lunch. We enjoyed a very quiet lunch and Ruby Tuesday, very quiet. We were the only people in the entire restaurant. Sadly, there was no salad bar. Jake was a little heartbroken but he enjoyed his trio plate of chicken, ribs, and shrimp. I had a burger, a real burger with cheese and stuff! There was even real honey mustard! Oh and for dessert we had chocolate tall cake, and it was actual chocolate tall cake. Ruby Tuesday used to serve this massive dessert full of chocolaty goodness, moose, ice cream, whipped cream, and crushed cookies. It was awesome! They no longer offer this item so when Jake saw it on the menu he jumped to have it again. Sadly Jake only had it one time before they changed the recipe. There was one alteration to the dessert; it had manjar on top which was an improvement! We ate way too much but it was a nice meal. We then walked back to the mall to catch a movie.

yummy tallcake.....

5 minutes later....

Jake truly loves me to sit through one of the Twilight movies. I told him going in that New Moon was going to be a bad movie, and that I wasn’t going to enjoy it, he defiantly wasn’t going to enjoy it, that he would lose time that he would never get back. He knew this going in and was still a little surprised at how bad it was. He asked beforehand if he was allowed to laugh and I explained that if he didn’t I was going to think something was wrong with him. We giggled our way through enjoying some Skittles.

After the movie we went grocery shopping at the Jumbo and picked up some more Mac & Cheese and found some more Root beers! We headed back to Pucon where I spent the rest of the evening with a killer headache. It might have been one or a combination of the following, the food, the movie, or the weather. It was an enjoyable 25th birthday!

The weather has been better for work but we still haven’t found much. Friday we did find the tip an arrow head and a very specific kind of ceramic. Hopefully we will get a lot of work done this coming week before we head home for a break.
Tomorrow is the Chilean election so everything will be closed tomorrow…..everything….In Chile you have to vote, if you don’t you get fined!

Mandy & Jake

Little trip

2009-12-07T09:41:00.003-06:00

After church on Sunday we drove to the base of the volcano. The road, and I use that term loosely, that leads up to the base is very steep and narrow. The truck we are renting as no guts, it barely made it up the road. I couldn’t see how the other little cars made it up there when we finally got to the ski lodge. To my surprise there was a tour bus parked on the side, how they made it up there I will never know. I would have wet my pants had I been on that bus going up that “road”.

Anyway, it was neat up there. The lodge isn’t open right now, but the ski lift just sitting there was kind of cool to see. The volcano was smoking a lot! Turns out it erupted a little last night…..HA! We took a few photos and then headed back down. It was cold up there and we had on shorts and t-shirts. We had no idea what to expect to be up there. After driving back down we headed to Lake Caburga. It is always nice there and we had nothing else to do. The water had not lowered at all but had actually risen a bit. There were a few more people there than the last time we went but still not crowed as it usually is.

Well, the weather forecast claimed that there would be rain in the afternoon today, but the sun was shining when we got up this morning. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky so we thought maybe we would get some work done today! Oh, what a lovely thought. I was on the other side of the site drawing the maps of the first trench. We had been there about an hour when Jake showed me what looked like a few bug bites on his wrist. The first aid kit that we brought contains Benadryl gel. Sadly it was back at the cabin. He came back in a few minutes and showed me that the bites had spread up his arm. Needless to say they weren’t bug bites but Jake was having an allergic reaction to something. There were ugly red bumps all up his arm. We quickly decided that work would have to wait and we would have to get Jake some kind of antihistamine. We were back in the truck within 5 minutes. All the workers were trying to convince Jake he needed to go to the hospital and get a shot. By this time the bumps had spread to his other arm. The woman at the pharmacy had an antihistamine and told Jake that if it didn’t help and he felt like he couldn’t breathe to then go to the hospital in town and get a shot. She made him take the pill at the counter. There were a few of the bumps on his neck now. We got back to the cabin; Jake took a shower, rubbed the Benadryl gel on the bumps. Thankfully they stopped spreading and the itching lessened. The swelling has gone down a lot and he is now knocked out. No throat closing or eyes swelling. He is fine now, just asleep.

So, no, not any work done today. We have not had a full week of work since we got here. Crossing our fingers for next week!

Tomorrow is a National holiday, the day of Immaculate Conception. Mary’s conception. So, the workers have to day off and Jake and I are heading to Temuco to celebrate my birthday. We are going to eat at Ruby Tuesdays! Jake is so excited about the salad bar, I hope he doesn’t eat himself sick. We have about two weeks left with this trip. It is strange, it seems that time hasn’t really gone by that quickly but then at other times is seems to have flown by. We are excited to take a break and enjoy ourselves in our house, and sleep in our bed. The cabin is nice but we miss home. The United States is defiantly a country of convenience and we have greatly missed that.

Mandy & Jake

Learning new words

2009-12-07T08:32:00.001-06:00

I learned a new word in Spanish this week, cerrajero, which means lock smith. Friday morning we had just gotten to the site and started working and Jake realized that he needed more ziplock bags. Any artifacts that we dig up have to be in a bag that is labeled where we dug it up. We had meant to get some more the night before when we went to store, but we forgot. So Jake left his workers there and we headed to the store. It is about a 15 minute drive from the site to where our cabin is. The cabin is basically across the street from the grocery store we use. Jake parked the truck, I jumped out and he locked the doors. We headed in and got the bags and some treats for his workers and walked out the door. As we got closer to the truck I said, “Does it sound like the truck is still on?”

Indeed the truck was still on, and indeed when Jake’s hand went into his pocket to retrieve the keys they were not there. Now, in Jake’s defense the truck we are renting doesn’t turn off when you take the key out of the ignition. It’s weird, so when you get out of the truck, even if you have the keys in your hand the engine is still running. The sound of the truck still being on when we went inside wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Where do you even begin? If we were at home we would call AAA and they would be there super fast and we would be on our way. There are no public phone books, as they would be stolen, and there is no such thing as 411. Jake called Sonia, she is the woman we are renting the cabin from, and got her voice mail. Strike one.

Jake headed back inside the store to see if they had the number for a locksmith while I climbed in the back of the truck and laughed. He returned with the number and it turned out that he was really busy and couldn’t come and help us. Strike two.

Jake walked across the street to the fruit stand we go to and asked if they had the number of a lock smith, and bought some avocado while he was there. He came back to the truck with one of the guys from the fruit stand behind him. Apparently they have the card of a lock smith at the fruit stand but no one could seem to find it. Strike three.

Mean while I am sitting in the back of the truck eating a Gansito, which is kind of like a little Debbie cake. It has yellow cake, a cream filling, strawberry jelly filling, and is coated in chocolate with chocolate sprinkles on top. They are quite yummy and a recent discovery for me. After 20 minutes Sonia called Jake back and said that she was on a picnic and for Jake to call her husband. He said he would bring someone to unlock the truck. Jake told him that we were in the parking lot of the store, but we watched his white car turn down the road where the cabin is and Jake started walking. About 10 minutes later the white car pulled up next to the truck with Jake in the back seat, wait, with Jake scrunched in the back seat.
It took the guy about 2 minutes to use a screw driver to wedge the door open enough for him to stick a wire down and unlock the door. Yay! We are in the truck! It only cost about $30 for him to do that! Jake is in the wrong business I’m telling ya. Needless to say we were happy to be back in the truck and on the way back to the site. It only took about 40 minutes longer than it should have and wasted about 1/8th of a tank of gas and $30. Jake was able to laugh about it the next day.
From now on we will always lock the door with the key and not use the button on the inside of the door.

Mandy and Jake

Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T07:02:00.002-06:00

We hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We were thankful that the sun came out and we were able to get a full day’s work in! We went into town for dinner at a pasta place. We ate there last month and I was looking forward to something different for dinner. Jake got a 3 pepper steak and roasted potatoes; I took his word for it that the steak was awesome. I got a ravioli dish that was filled with puree pumpkin, cream cheese, and almonds. The ravioli was covered in a cream, butter, pepper, and nutmeg sauce and it was outstanding!

Even though it wasn’t turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, lots of bread, and pumpkin pie, we enjoyed our dinner and talked about all the things we are thankful for. The list went something like this…….

Central heat/air
Standard transmissions
Speedy internet connections
Milk that doesn’t come in a bag
Bagels
Water pressure
Electric stove
A sink that comes higher than your knees
Our bed
TV on DVD
Skype
Family Blogs/Websites
Facebook
McDonald’s(never thought I would say that!)
Being able to do our own laundry
Electric Blankets
Amazon.com (online Christmas shopping and general all around greatness)
Space heaters
Not to be working Retail on a Black Friday
Family
Friends
The gospel
Being able to be in this beautiful place

After dinner we used Skype to make some phone calls and chat with our family members in their various places. Even though the conversations were short it was nice to be able to talk with all of you. On Sunday the District President spoke and said that the rain is supposed to continue until January  Let’s hope he is wrong. It is raining today but it is supposed to be clear the rest of this week and continue into next. We will be finishing up with the first trench this week, if the rain really does in fact stop this week. We haven’t found much in this one, but we are hopeful we will find more in the next trench! Hope all is well at home!

Mandy & Jake

Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T06:06:00.003-06:00

Well,

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to all! We hope everyone enjoys themselves today and eats entirely too much good food. Even though we will be missing out on yummy foods and family funs we are thankful to be in a beautiful place. The sun finally came out today after having been hiding for the past week or so. This has been the rainiest “Spring” in a long time. All the workers, the land owner, people at church have said this is the wettest Spring they can remember. Awesome, just had to be THIS year when we are here trying to get this stuff dug up. Urgh.

Good news. Jake might get to teach a few classes this fall. If it works out it would really be good for our family. One other thing to be thankful for! Here’s to crossing our fingers!

Not much else to report since we haven’t been to the site much these past two weeks. On Sunday we had a strange visitor, or should I say unwelcomed guest. A puppy came right up to the side door of the cabin and started whining and scratching on the door. The puppy is a few months old and kept trying to get in the cabin like it was its home. We had no idea where it had come from or why it thought this was its home but we couldn’t listen to the whining all night so we gave it some bread and went to bed. The dog wouldn’t go away and it was small enough to fit right through the gate so we couldn’t even put it out and just wait for it to go on its way. It didn’t seem to be leaving and we couldn’t let it go hungry. The dog would just jump on the side of the house right outside our window in the bedroom in the middle of the night. It did this for a few hours before Jake had to go outside and yell at it to stop. All other dogs I have seen in this country will run away from you if they even think you are going to throw something at it. This puppy would just wag its tale and look up at you. It was awful, the dog didn’t know any better but we can’t take care of it. We will be gone for 3 weeks next month anyway. After a few restless nights we still didn’t know what to do. The thought of driving it somewhere and dropping it off just made us sick to our stomachs. Yesterday, when the rain let up for a bit we walked down the street to get an avocado for our dinner at the veggie and fruit stand nearby. The dog followed us and we decided that maybe it would go on its way if we got far enough away from the cabin. The big grocery store we go to is just across the street from the fruit stand so we decided to go in and walk around a bit. We went in one door and went out the other on the other side of the store. We walked right across the street and got our avocado and went home. We kind of feel guilty about leaving it, but it isn’t our dog. Well, it worked! We have been dog free since yesterday and we slept very well last night.

Tonight we will go into town and have dinner at a pasta place. We ate there last month to see if it was any good. Jake got a stake and he said it was really good. I got some alfredo pasta which wasn’t bad. They had some kind of pumpkin and cream cheese pasta on the menu that I thought would be good to try tonight. So after work we will head out and enjoy a dinner that isn’t turkey and dressing but will be something different.

So Happy Thanksgiving to all and have a slice of pumpkin pie for us!
Mandy & Jake

Short Update

2009-11-16T13:05:00.002-06:00

Today there was rain in the forecast but it wasn’t raining when we got up this morning so we went to the site. We got about 5 hours in before it started to rain. Jake and I were digging today and there were only 2 other workers there this morning. Edwin and Christine were there but Aldo was sick and no one could get a hold of Julio. Aldo came to the sick after lunch feeling a bit better. In the trench I was digging in I found a piece of worked bone, this was the first bone we have found that wasn’t burnt. Jake also found a few pieces of ceramic that fit together, pretty cool. Jake also found part of a wall. He thought that the wall would be in the square he was digging in and he was right! This is the first thing we have found that gives Jake a base of reference. I worked on drawing the maps of each trench until is started to rain.

It is supposed to rain more this week, but hopefully not that much. Jake is going to the Colegio Liahona on Wedensday to talk to a class of students. The Branch President works there and asked Jake if he would come and talk for about an hour or so and that is was he wanted to talk to us about. No talks, no callings of any kind, just wanted him to talk to his students. Yay! The Colgio Liahona is a private school that was founded by church members but is not run by the church or anything like that. Jake will be talking to the high school age students about archeology in general and the work he is doing here as well.
Just a quick update today, hope all is well at home!

Mandy & Jake

Laugh or cry

2009-11-15T13:06:00.001-06:00

Yesterday Jake and I were able to get into the trench and dig a couple of squares. In my square, a few feet from the surface my trowel hit something. It was a white ring….what could it be? Jake and I quickly worked to uncover this wonderful possibility and what did we find?........... It was a yogurt cup, no an empty yogurt cup, no wait, it was an entire plastic bag. Someone had a lunch of yogurt, a piece of fruit, (I think a peach), and some cherry jam, and they decided that this place was the best spot for it to live. It was too far under the surface to have simply been left and covered over time, someone had to have buried it for it to be that deep. With all the other crappy archeological practices we have been dealing with since the beginning of the project this didn’t surprise us. It made us question if were digging where the previous project had already been and dumped their back dirt. Since we have found a few pieces of artifacts here and there and the dirt isn’t soft everywhere Jake says that it most likely was just a where someone dug a hole to bury their trash. Ugh. A few more feet down I found another empty plastic bag.

On a different note, the guys working for Jake asked him how old I was. He asked them how old they thought I was and they said 18! I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. The only time I wanted to be told I looked 18 was when I was 16! They thought Jake was 25, not that big of a stretch but for them to say I look 18! When Jake told them I would be 25 next month they said I definitely didn’t look my age. Sigh.

Not much else to say……..

Mandy & Jake

what is that in the sky?

2009-11-15T13:00:00.002-06:00

On Sundays we go to Temuco as I have said before. This Sunday we had to go to several different stores to try and find some chaining pins or something to that effect to replace the stakes that were marking the trench, until they fell out of the ground around them. There aren’t that many places here in Pucon to find such items so we tried our luck in Temuco. There was none to be had by the way. We also went to the mall there to eat. We ate at a place called Frizt, which we have had a few times before. I had some cheese empanadas and French fries. A bit later and Juanita’s my head started to hurt and then my stomach started to hurt. I will spare all the details, I had the worst migraine headache I have ever had in my life. I spent most of the night with my head in the toilet. I was sick enough for us to stay the night at Juanita’s. We had to get up and 5:30 the next morning to make the hour and a half drive back to Pucon to get dressed and leave for the site. By the time we got back we were both not feeling well enough to work that day. We spent most of the day lounging about, eating lightly. If I was picky before about what I eat here, I will be terrible to live with from now on, sorry Jake :) For the past two days I have had fresh fruits and veggies, some bread, and rice and beans. I will NEVER eat Frizt again, and will stay away from empanadas in general for the time being. The verdict is still out on whether I got the headache from the food or not, but I don’t care!

Yesterday marked our first FULL day of work. There was this bright light in the sky when we left yesterday morning and to our great surprise it was the Sun! What a wonderful site to behold! It has been so long since we have seen the Sun we almost forgot what it looked like. The site is located on a cow farm. Yesterday the cows were in the field that holds the fenced in site. The wind was blowing nad boy did it carry that smell of cows to us all day long. Luckily they were moved to a different field today but the smell has lingered somewhat. I never had, and still don’t, desired to be a rancher. On a better note as the day went on the temperature rose and I was able to take a few layers of shirts off. I didn’t have to wear my sweater any longer than an hour yesterday morning. So two of the workers dug the trenches while the other two, Jake, and I, sifted through the dirt. Archeology can be very boring and mind numbing, until you find something interesting and yesterday we didn’t find anything terribly interesting. Most of the items we have found so far have been roof tiles (a lot), charcoal, a few ceramic pieces, some Lithics, and a lot of burnt pieces of bone (most likely animal). Jake sent his workers home about an hour early yesterday while we stayed a bit longer to photograph the site and cover it. We enjoyed a dinner of rice and beans and had an early bedtime. I might add the warm weather went with the sun and I was back to many layers by bedtime.

This morning we headed out to the site with some toasted noses and arms, even though we put on sun block. It was the same routine as yesterday, mind numbing and boring until one of the workers found a piece of a pipe. It was carved out of stone and just the handle remains but it was a really cool find. The rest of the day was filled with more roof tiles (a lot), charcoal, a few ceramic pieces, some Lithics, and a lot of burnt pieces of bone, and you get the idea. We came back to the cabin and enjoyed some sandwiches (all veggie for me) and baked French fries. I also made some peach cobbler for dessert, yummy. Now that the Sun has gone down so has the temperature, but it is supposed to get up to 69 degrees tomorrow and I am giddy! Finally, the warm weather is peeking out and it might be here to stay! Hope all is well at home and will send photos hopefully on Sunday.

Mandy and Jake

Ranch...mmm mmm mmm good

2009-11-15T12:57:00.001-06:00

Here in Chile everyday is a different Saints Day and today is Santa Sylvia. I think it is an appropriate day to officially start Jake’s excavation of the site which is named Santa Sylvia. The only thing is that it is too rainy and cold to actually do anything. We started digging on the 3rd but he officially got his permits yesterday making today the official day to begin. We couldn’t dig yesterday because of the rain either so we have spent that time in the cabin. It was 34 degrees this morning and the grocery store we go to down the street had up their Christmas decorations already, so I feel like I am at home….sort of.

We went to the store this morning to get some more bread, milk, and a few other odds and ends. While Jake was getting some ham for him and thinly sliced turkey for me from the deli I was roaming around the cheese case and to my great pleasure what did I find? Right before my eyes there were packets of sour cream! Small and pricey packets of sour cream but sour cream no less. Oh this made me so happy for I had brought with me Hidden Valley Ranch dip and dressing packets and to be able to finally use them made me giddy. We returned home and I immediately opened a pack and began stirring them together. The sour cream pack was not enough to make the entire ranch packet but it was enough to last me for a little bit. After having Jake taste it to make sure it wasn’t nasty I began to make my lunch. The only bread that I like to eat from the store bakery is basically homemade hot dog buns. They are really the only soft ones. I sliced a fresh bun open and placed some turkey, some cheese (not Swiss cheese but it wasn’t bad), some avocado, and drizzled some of my precious ranch dressing on top. I closed the sandwich and took a bite. It was good, oh it was good. It had been two hours since I ate it and I am not sick! That turkey was the first meat (I am not counting McDonald’s as meat because it is the same as at home) I have eaten and I didn’t get sick! Oh what a glorious day! Remember, Remember the 5th of November. The turkey, cheese, and ranch. I see no reason why the soft breaded sandwich should ever be forgot.

Hopefully we will be able to go to the site tomorrow and dig up something exciting, but until then we will wait for the rain to stop and watch Firefly. We enjoyed seeing lots of photos of everyone’s Halloween. Hope everyone is well at home.

Mandy & Jake

Halloween

2009-11-15T12:49:00.002-06:00

Well,

Since we can't start digging until Tuesday morning and it has been raining all the time we have done little but sit indoors and watch Supernatural on the computer. We have been here a month and have already watched all 4 seasons of it. Like I said, it has been raining a lot!

Last night we spent Halloween watching V for Vendetta and enjoying a nice meal of rice and beans, which we have about 3 times a week here. The rice and beans are super cheat and so are the avocado that we eat on top of them. Avocados here cost about $2 for 4 pounds, not like they are at home either. They are so soft, like butter :)

They do not celebrate Halloween here, so no trick or treaters or costumes. We went to bed at about 10:00 and were awoken at about 11:30 by the sound of a live band. The cabin ins on the outskirts of town and normally is very quiet. Apparently there was a party going on in the barn across the street from our cabin. It continued until after 1:30am. The base was so loud that we could feel it. Needless to say we were both a bit irritated. I tried to listen to my Ipod to drown out the loud crappy music, but it didn't work. Ugh.

This morning we went to church and held our breath to prevent ourselves from smacking a small child. He runs around the room..... and talks..... and sings...... and yells. His parents do NOTHING about it! It was testimony meeting today and there were only about 25 people there today. There was a lot of dead air so to speak that was filled with that little boy's yells. Oh.... After church the Branch President came up to us and asked if he could talk to the both of us. We are going to meet with him on Tuesday evening. I hope that he is just asking us to speak in church and not trying to call us to something. As far as I know he can't but doesn't mean he won't try.

Amanda's little boy had a seizure last week and he is doing fine. He has his appointment to have an EKG in November and to see a neurologist in December unless the appointment can be moved up. He feel on his hands and knees and just started to tense up and not respond to anything. The ambulance shoved up and packed him up and he was just crying until they got to Vandy and then he started to talk to Amanda and stopped crying. Hopefully it is nothing but Amanda said that there are people in her husband's side of the family that have had seizures and one of his cousin's (I think) has epilepsy. Hopefully it is just a one time thing but the tests will make sure.

Hope all is well at home!

Getting ready

2009-11-01T14:05:00.003-06:00

We headed out to the site on Friday morning thinking we would be able to start digging once we got the call giving us the go ahead and Jake was ready to go! We got there and saw where the site had been excavated back in the 80's and the trenches they dug were still open to the elements. That is a big no, no but not much we can do about it. It is kind of cool to see what they did though.

We marked where we are going to start digging. We will be doing a few of these trenches in different spots on the site. We will start actually diggin on Tuesday morning, but we will see if that happens.

More Photos

2009-10-25T17:29:00.001-05:00

That is Hail!

The hail was not tiny....

But after the storm there was this.......

The truck Jake can drive!

Fountain in Valparaiso

Some photos

2009-10-25T17:22:00.001-05:00

Our Cabin

Sea Lions.....he is HUGE!

See, we ARE alive!

Lake Cargurgua

Beautiful lake!

Saturday

2009-10-17T13:35:00.000-05:00

This morning we took a trip out to Lake Caburgua. We took a trip out there when we were here this past February. That was the trip where Jake took a wrong turn and we got lost. This trip was much better. Since it isn’t quit summer here yet there was almost no one there today. It was beautiful! The water there is the clearest I have ever seen. When we were there the last time there was this concrete bridge that extends out far into the lake. This time the water was so high the bridge was almost completely underwater. Since the water was so clear you could see the bridge under the water. It was scary cool to see it.

It has been an enjoyable lazy Saturday. This has been the first day where we haven’t had to get something done. Not much else to report right now. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Mandy & Jake

Trips

2009-10-17T13:34:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning we headed to Puren for Jake to pick up some of his advisor’s tools. Tom is letting Jake use his tools, which is VERY nice of him. Tom has worked in Peru and Chile for over 30 years and has had a lot of funding from the NSF (National Science Foundation) and he has tools stashed all over the place. He also had a truck, which would have been great if he let Jake use it, but no dice. Tom will be visiting in January just to check and see how things are going.
It took us about 3 hours to drive to Puren from Pucon. Puren is a very small town. You could blink and you would miss it. The place where Tom keeps his tools in a house owned by a man named Don Fernando. His house is an old hotel that Jake thinks was built in at least the 1920’s. The house was, “leaning”. You could see how the frames had shifted from some of the doors and windows. It was really dark inside and it smelled like mold and wet… Yuck. Jake said he stayed there once in 2006 when Tom was doing a project there. I was happy to leave after 10 minutes; I don’t think I could have stayed there an entire night.

After we got the tools we picked up some bread, yogurt, and some Mankekes (basically a yellow cupcake with Manjar in the middle of it). Outside the store a woman was selling some Merken, which is a kind of chili powder. It is really good. We brought some back with us last trip and we bought 2 bags to bring home this time. If we are lucky we won’t have used it all before we come home!

So, we spent a total of about 6 hours in the car yesterday. Ugh. We had to get up at 6:30 this morning to leave Pucon in time to get to Valdivia (2 hours away) so that Jake could talk to Mario Pino. Mario is the Professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile that is giving Jake the adjunct Professor position. He is a pretty funny guy. Mario has worked with Tom for almost the entire 30 years he has worked here.

After we left Mario’s office we went down the street to the museum where Leonor (Jake’s counterpart Archeologist for the project) works. She wasn’t there today, so we walked around the museum until one of the people in charge could get out of their meeting. Leonor also keeps some of Tom’s tools, so we were stopping to get them and also for Jake to update her on how things are going. The museum is the old house of Van de Maele, who was some rich guy who moved there from Germany in the 1800’s. His house was huge! The bottom level is set up with the furniture and portraits that have been there since the house was built. The upper level is more like a modern museum with glass cases full of artifacts and things. We weren’t allowed to take any photos, stink. After walking around the museum we went outside to wait for the meeting to be over.

When we were there last year there was a group of sea lions that were chillin on a floating dock thing. This year they had migrated down river just a bit to right in front of the museum. There was this huge sea lion that had a face that looked like one of the creatures from “Where the Wild Things Are”. He apparently didn’t like the one of the other sea lions touching him because he let out a roar and tried to bite him until he moved over.

A bit later we were able to get the tools and we put them in the truck. We walked a little ways to across the river. We had lunch at McDonalds before getting back in the truck and driving the two hours back to Pucon. When we got back to the cabin it was cold enough for a fire and some hot chocolate that I had packed for us. It was quite cozy sitting by the fire, sipping hot cocoa.
Jake bought an internet card USB thing for us to be able to use the internet in the cabin. It is very slow and apparently doesn’t work with Skye so we will have to try and see if we can figure out how to get that to work. I tried calling Jennifer last night, I could hear her but she couldn’t hear me. Normally a 20 minute call to the states has cost about $0.10. Trying to call Jennifer and talking probably about 2 minutes cost more than $0.20. I wasn’t able to try Google talk so that may still work, hopefully.

Anyway, hope all is well at home. Heard it was 48 degrees in Nashville today, bet you are glad to be driving my car Jennifer :)

Mandy & Jake

Pucon

2009-10-17T13:33:00.000-05:00

Well, we made it to Pucon in one piece! Through much nashing of teeth, sweat, & tears we were able to rent a vehicle in Temuco for the next two months. We were very hopeful as we walked through the car lot to find not one, but TWO automatic vehicles. There was a Jeep and a Kia, both would have worked beautifully. They both had space in the backs to carry the tools and luggage. We were tempted to try and buy one of them and then return it when we were done here in April-May ish. The monthly payments would only have been about $300-$350. There was hope in that Jeep, there really was. Jake talked to the man working at the car place and that hope was shot DOWN! The Jeep and Kia were cars that they were sealing for individuals who couldn’t sell their cars on their own and the car would have to be financed through a bank in order for us to buy it. In Chile they have a Route Number which is basically like our Social Security number, if you don’t have one you can’t buy anything like a car. You can’t even have a bank account here without one. So, we had to go talk to the manager of the company. They have two locations in the city of Temuco, so the manager was coming to pick us up and takes us to the main office. I felt like the mafia was coming to grab us and takes us to some empty lot outside of town to steal all our money and just leave us there. She and Jake were talking in Spanish the whole time so I really had NO idea what was going on.

She was going to let Jake rent a Truck, and not just a little truck, but a 4 door, diesel, Chevy truck. This made Jake just about cry out with joy. The only downsides were that it was a manual transmission and it would cost about $1000 a month to rent it! I couldn’t believe it would be that much to rent a vehicle. The cabin we are staying at costs less than half what the car is costing us. Jake assured me that it was a deal to be able to rent a TRUCK for that much. The other companies he had been in contact with were going to let him rent a car for about the same amount. After Jake filled out all the information they wanted him to take it for a test drive before he signed anything. The only place to take it for a test drive would be to pull right into the busy highway where the office was located. I think I held my breath for two full minutes. One of the mechanics was in the front seat and I could just feel Jake’s nervousness seeping through the seat and back to me. Jake has had issues in the past with Manual transmissions. Anyone who has ever learned to drive a stick knows the frustration of killing the car, over and over, and over again. This happened many times on our last trip here. I believe I mentioned that I feared for our lives, so having Jake pull into traffic right off the bat made me want to pee my pants.

He did wonderfully! Apparently Jake has no trouble with a manual car, he just doesn’t have the leg room to be able to drive it! The truck has made a significant amount of difference! He was able to ease right out onto the road and turn the truck back again. He stopped a few times and didn’t kill it! He signed on the dotted line and we were off! He headed back to Juanita’s where we packed up all our stuff and we headed to Pucon. Over the past two days he has only killed it twice, and that was because he had to stop on a hill, which is not easy! The last time we were here it took him a good 10 minutes to get the little car out of the rental parking lot! He has done a great job this go round. He had no problem driving the truck around. YAY! I do not fear that we will be pulling into busy traffic and the car will die and then we will too! I am very proud of him!

We have also been waiting for the Chilean Government to give Jake his permits so that we can start working on Monday. They have been emailing him asking for this and that, all things they could have told him about 3 months ago! Anyway, they said on Tuesday that they needed a letter from one of the Universities here stating that they are supporting the project. They didn’t tell Jake that he needed this when he started so Jake just about had a heart attack. He emailed him advisor (Tom) at Vandy who quickly got to work to get him the letter. Jake got news yesterday that not only were his permits approved but he had been made an adjunct professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile! He will be able to teach a few lectures there during our time here and he can continue that for as long as he wants! He could continue for the rest of his career if he wanted. He would have to renew the position each year by giving a few lectures or even teaching a class. YAY! He was jumping up and down and dancing to the “Song of Joy”!
The cabin we are staying at in Pucon is very nice. It has high ceilings so Jake won’t bonk his head on anything. (He ran into a road sign Tuesday) There is a stove, refrigerator, sink, and microwave, HOT water for baths and to clean dishes! This area is usually only busy in the summer months, so there is only a little wood burning stove to heat the great room area. In the bedrooms and bathroom you are on your own for heat. It is still quite cold here at night; it hasn’t made it to the warm spring and hot summer nights yet. We sat by the fire last night and watched some “Flight of the Concords” before going to bed. This morning it was cold enough to see your breath, and that was even before getting out of bed!

I will write more tomorrow about our trip to Puren today, it is very late and we have to get up early and head out to Valdivia tomorrow. Hope everyone is doing well at home!
Photos of everything to come later!

Mandy & Jake

Temuco

2009-10-12T19:08:00.001-05:00

This morning we left our room in Hostel del Rio to go down stairs to get some breakfast. The lights in the breakfast room were out, but the door was open. We went inside and turned on the lights. All the tables were set, one of the hotel people came in and said that someone had to got and get the bread. Breakfast at EVERY hotel here consists of some sort of bread, butter, jam, gouda cheese, coffee or tea, and juice. Since we don't drink coffee or tea they always bring us hot milk and we put sugar in it to sweeten it up a bit.

Anyway, back to this morning, we were waiting and this guys comes in and asks if he can sit with us. There is no one else in the room and there are plenty of other tables, but OK. So he sits down and then asks if we are from The States, in English. This guy totally looked Chilean but he was to tall to be Chilean. Turns out he is from Germany and he is doing research for his Thesis to get his Bachelor's degree back in Germany. He will be in Chile for 6 months studying the effects of sun burns on apples. He said that he was studying about agriculture and wines, etc. His name was Martin and he was a very nice fellow. He said he was from Stuttgart in the south. He is 25 and has 3 sisters back home.

The hotel woman came back in with this kind of pie (Jake and I are only guessing it was a "pie") that was the color pink that doesn't occur in nature. It was kind of a pink gelatin filling in a think crust. I don't really know what it was. It has almost no flavor, but she wanted us to have something to eat while we were waiting. Soon after the bread arrived and we ate and chatted with Martin. We mostly talked about the Soccer game that took place on Saturday. Chile won the game and they are going to be able to place to possibly go to the world cup. After they won the game on Saturday night they entire town went crazy. From our hotel room we could hear people honking their car horns, yelling, whooping, & hollering for a least 3 hours after the game was over. On Sunday morning the plaza was covered in trash and bottles from the party the night before. South America and their football :)

After we left the hotel we headed to the bus station to caught a bus to Temuco that was supposed to leave at 11:00, or so the website said. It was a liar. The bus didn't leave until 12:15 and we had to cross the street and go to the other bus terminal. The "other terminal" didn't have many places to sit and was much dirtier. It smelled more like a meat market than a bus station, but we only had to wait an hour.

Our bus was just a little bit late, and our sets were in the back of the bus right next to the bathroom. IT actually gave us a bit of entertainment because someone got themselves locked in :) It took a few minutes of them trying to lock and unlock the door and someone on the outside to pull on the door really hard to get them out. I will never be using one of those bathrooms any time soon. The bus ride was about 6 hours, so we were really excited to get off the bus.

We arrived in Temuco about 6:00 and we went straight to La Casa de Juanita. This is still the greatest place in all of Chile. She was building new cabins when we were here last and they are all complete now. They are clean, and have private bathroom. Each room has its own wood burning stove, which is wonderful for tonight. It is quite cold here right now. The farther we move south the colder it is getting. It will only last til the end of the month or so, and then we will be wishing for the cool weather. What is also great about this place is the Juanita lets us use her washer and dryer! We will have clean clothes tomorrow! Juanita is a really nice lady. She lets us use the kitchen when we want and she invites us into her home to sit and talk. La Casa de Juanita is my home away from home here in Chile. We will be here just a few days for us to get a car and then we will be heading to Pucon!

Everyone here is telling Jake to just buy an car and then sell it when he leaves instead of renting a car. This might work out better in the long run but Jake is only given a certain amount of the money at a time and buying a car for $6000 and then selling it back when we leave will only work if Jake can spare the $6000 up front with the grant money. We will be walking around Temuco tomorrow trying to see what the best deal will be. Wish us luck!

We will be praying for Trent so that he will get better soon! Hope everyone at home is doing well!

Mandy & Jake

Visiting....no one

2009-10-11T15:30:00.001-05:00

Well,

When we got to the hotel last night we were pretty tired from being on the bus all day. We had to lug our suitcases up to the second floor, but it was all worth it. This room has a queen size bed and an immaculate shower that has no right to be in this country. I enjoyed a HOT shower :) We came to Talca to visit with some of Jake's friends, but when we got to church they were either out town or sick. This was kind of sad on one hand because we didn't get to see any of them, but good on the other hand because I wasn't feed any meat that I couldn't identify.

We had our first McDonald's last night when we got to town. Still the same. It was the first meat I have had since I got here, if you can count a McDonald's hamburger as meat. We will be heading to Temuco in the morning. We will be renting a car there and then heading out to Pucon to where we will be staying until we leave. We will be taking a few day trips this next week to gathering the tools Jake will be using from the various places they are being stored here. Jake's advisor is allowing him to use his tools which will save Jake a lot of money and hassle of having to bring his own tools.

Hope everyone is safe home.

Mandy & Jake

Oh joy

2009-10-09T16:09:00.000-05:00

During my last semester of school I took a swimming class. During that swimming class I pulled a muscle in my neck. I didn't pull it while actually swimming, I sadly pulled it while I was putting on my very tight Speedo swim suit. Go on a laugh. The reason I am telling everyone this that every now and then, when I am doing strenuous activities, it acts up and feels like I have pulled it again. These strenuous activities I mentioned have been brushing my teeth, drying my hair, or sleeping which was the case of last night. I awoke this morning to the lovely felling in my neck and shoulder. Oh joy. Jake went down to breakfast while I took a very short hot shower.

After breakfast Jake headed out to his conference and I sat outside our room in a sitting area on our floor. The room was cleaned after an hour and then I went back inside. Even though my neck is not very happy with me, Jake and I needed to do some laundry. Laundry, until we get to the cabin, is washing our clothes in the sink or bathtub and hanging them up to dry. I filled up the bath tub and washed some clothes with a bit of Tide sink detergent and they are hanging up on a line in the bath room, hanging up by the window and other various places in the room. Hopefully everything will be dry by tomorrow morning in time for us to leave. I also hope that my neck is better by the time we need to leave or it will make and interesting walk with all our bags to get to the train station. I see a taxi trip for us in the morning.

Nothing else much going on. I am happy to get out of this town. There just isn't much for me to do here while Jake is in his conference so I have been a little bored this week. What with the homeless stares and even some one taking a photograph of me, I will be happy to be in a different place. Yesterday morning while I was sitting in the plaza waiting for Jake to come back a group of teenagers was walking around the plaza taking photographs of each other. One of the boys was sitting on the fountain in front of me pretending to take a photo of something behind me, and then used his hand to hide the camera as he took a photo of me. I don't get the fascination with Americans in this country. Oh well, anyway, I hope everyone at home is doing well.

Mandy & Jake

Not much going on

2009-10-08T10:56:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone, Well, we are in Valparaiso until Saturday morning. Since I can't go with Jake to the conference I have to sit in the near by plaza for a few hours until I can go back to the hotel. They have to have time to clean the room so in the mornings I sit and draw, read, or listen to music.

Yesterday morning I was sitting listening to Harry Potter 3 on my Ipod when this homeless man who was wearing a bright orange Gator's sweat shirt came up to me. He stood less than a foot away from me and just stared at me. It was a little unnerving. He stood there for about a minute, then he walked off. I grabbed my bag and headed back to the hotel. Ugh, creepy.

Not much more to tell, we will leave on Saturday morning and head out and travel to the site. We will stop and visit a few friends along the way and pick up the rental car/truck. We may be able to rent a truck this time, but we will see.

It was cold enough this morning that I could see my breath. I decided that was enough cause to bust out two of the hot chocolate packs that I brought. Man I miss having my coco motion. Hope everything at home it going well.

Mandy & Jake

Breakfast of Champions

2009-10-05T13:40:00.000-05:00

This morning we went downstairs to have our free breakfast from the hotel. I got the “Light Breakfast” which was fresh juice, a bowl of seasonal fruit, and toasts with cream cheese and jam. Well, the juice was really good and was actually fresh there were strawberry seeds in it. The “toasts” was bread that wasn’t crunchy and get was burnt. The cream cheese wasn’t cream cheese. I don’t know what it was; it had the consistency of tofu. The jam was good, I think it was apricot. I actually never got the fruit bowl. Jake got the “Continental Breakfast” which was toasts, scrambled eggs with ham & cheese, and fresh juice. His “scrambled” eggs were in a little white bowl and where sunny side scrambled…..looked like a bowl of snot.

After breakfast we walked the three blocks from the hotel to where Jake’s conference is being held. I wasn’t allowed in so I sat in the plaza that was across the street. I sat and sketched for a little bit. It was too cold to sit for longer than an hour and a half. It didn’t seem that cold when we left, but I really needed to have my jacket. I walked back to the hotel and sketched some more from the view our of our hotel window.

Jake was back to the hotel at about 12:30 for a lunch break. We walked a little ways from the Hotel and stopped in a place called “el guaton” which means “The Fatty”. Jake had a hot dog with mayonnaise, avocado, tomato, and sour kraut. I had a “grilled cheese” with Gouda and was on an oversized hamburger bun. We split some fires…they were a little greasy. Jake will be heading back to the conference in a bit. After he is done we will take a walk around the city and find a grocery store. There is a little fridge in our room so we are going to get some milk and some cereal to eat for the next week. Hope everyone is doing well at home.

Mandy & Jake

We Made It

2009-10-04T15:16:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone,

We made it safely to Chile on Friday morning. We haven't really been able to get to an internet cafe.

We took a bus from Santiago to Valparioso this morning. This is a tourist town and is very expensive......It is a pretty town but it is definitely more than it would be in any other place. We are going to be here until Saturday for Jake to go to a conference that is being held here for all the archaeologist in Chile. He has to go and make nice with all the Chilean Archaeologists because they don't like Gringos very much. The hotel we are staying in is nice, meaning clean and has wifi. With the wifi we will be able to talk more easily this week.

While we were in Santiago we stayed in the Hotel Los Arcos, which is they one we stayed in the last two times we were there. While we were in Santiago Jake was able to find a Chilean book he really needed for his dissertation that he had been unable to find the last few times he had been here. We also bought a cheap pay as you go phone for me so that we can call each other while we are here if we need to. If you need to get a hold of us quickly you can call me on this number

First you have to dial 01156

followed by the number

7964 9964

There is also a voice mail set up so if I don't answer you can leave a message. I don't know if you will be able to get through but you can try if you need to.

Yesterday after we had been walking around...ALL....DAY....LONG we had to wait a few minutes when we got back to the hotel for the cleaning lady to be done with our room. We sat in some chairs by a little table down the hallway. Jake was playing with the new phone and I was looking at the magazines and books that were on the table. There was an English copy of the "The Road". I picked it up and read the whole thing last night. If you have never read that book, you need to. Tracie has been telling both Jake and I to read it for months. Oh it was great, disturbing, and will mess you up at first. I have never been so creeped out and enthralled at the same time.

We hope that everyone is doing well at home. We have been praying for Autumn and are glad to hear that she is doing better. We will email more updates later.

Mandy & Jake

Marvel I say

2009-05-26T18:30:00.003-05:00

Jake and I enjoyed the day together on Memorial Day. Jake didn't have to work which was a plus! This was the first Memorial Day I haven't had to work in years. We spent most of the day building an exposure unit for me to use in working with silk screens. After a few trips to Home Depot and a few calls to Jake's Dad we were able to get it finished in one day.

We had a grill out at Philip and Tracie's. Jennifer grilled some shiskabobs and hot dogs, I made sweet corn tamale cakes, and Tracie made a yummy jello cake. It was a good meal and pleasant enough weather. It wasn't raining but it was muggy. Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday. Below are some photos of the exposure unit we built. Marvel at our excellence!

I don't want to but I want to

2009-05-14T22:13:00.003-05:00

So it is official....Jake and I are looking for another place to live. I was doing laundry and pulled out some of my shoes that are in my closet and they were covered in mold. I then pulled everything out and saw why my shoes were ruined...... We told the complex that there was a little water damage in the closet from the last flooding issue we had last summer. They were supposed to take care of it while we were in Chile....They didn't. They have YET to clean up the carpet or fix the molding and rotting wood. Jake had to take photos to the front office and speak to the manager who simply sighed and said it would be taken care of immediately....that was yesterday morning.....still nothing.....Well, they did come look at the damage, I know this how? Oh because they LEFT OUR DOOR UNLOCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I came home and it was unlocked and I almost had a heart attach right there. So, as sad as I am to move, I am DONE with these people and this place. We will be looking around hopefully on Saturday and be able to get everything set up so we can move out in August when our lease is up. Below are some photos of the damage.

I had to throw away 6 pairs of shoes, including my tennis shoes :( it hurt me to have to get rid of them. They had been molding for months, no wonder I have been sick for the past two weeks! I hate the idea of actually having to move all these BOOKS, but I hate the idea of having to stay here even more so I guess I will tell my self that as I am lugging boxes of books up and down stairs.

Who's the Colonel?

2009-05-09T16:17:00.002-05:00

A lot has happened since my last post. Our furry friend hasn't been back! The maintenance guy for our apartments placed a trap outside where "the raccoon" has been getting in and out at. There has never been anything in the trap so our guess is that he wasn't in the walls when they placed the trap outside and he just couldn't get in. FINE BY ME! It has been great, my sleep hasn't been disturbed! Well, if you don't count when I sat straight up in bed the other night and mumbled something. Jake then claims that I said "I don't understand. I'll have to ask the Colonel." I don't remember this at all, but Jake laughed quit a bit at me. We still don't know who "The Colonel" is, but it has quickly made it's way into our everyday speech. If I don't know the answer to a question I simply say "I'll ask the Colonel".

We woke up a few mornings ago to a wet floor in our bedroom. This happened last Summer as well. Our bedroom is under the ground so when it rains a lot the ground water sometimes gets ahead of the sump pump that is supposed to prevent flooding........it didn't. The last time this happened it ruined our chest of drawers which we just replaced last month. This time it ruined Jake's night stand! The apartment complex of course doesn't cover any of that. It would be something we would have to claim with our renter's insurance. The problem is that the furniture isn't worth the price of our deductible so we are just out of luck! I am so close to wanting to move, but I doubt we will find a place as big as ours for the price of ours. I only worry about what if this happens while we are in Chile and our bed or shelves full of books get ruined? DAH!

Jake had to present his prospectus for his dissertation at Vandy. He passed of course! So now he can get his application for his permits turned in soon and we will be able to reimburse ourselves from the last trip! Hopefully.

One of Jake's friends is leaving the country for 8 months and was getting rid of some stuff and she gave me a bike! I was so excited, I haven't had a bike since I was 10. It is a nice bike too! She gave me a bike lock for it and it is outside next to Jake's. I took it for a spin the day we got it, I have never had a 10 speed bike, so when Jake yelled across the parking lot "down shift" I had no idea what he was talking about and almost hit the parked car next to me! Apparently there are really cool bikes that you can shift up or down to help you peddle. Who knew? It has rained everyday since then so we haven't been able to take them anywhere yet. We might get to this week, fingers crossed.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's we know! We are having a grilled lunch at Tracie and Philip's tomorrow after church. Some grilled chicken and fixens if it doesn't rain. We will also have a Publix cake, they are so good! It has been raining so much this past week that we will be lucky if we don't spend the afternoon swimming around in the yard. Hope everyone has a good Mother's Day and is appreciated by their families!

Living with nature

2009-04-23T07:53:00.003-05:00

I have enjoyed living here in these apartments.......until now. We have a furry little friend who has decided to spend his nights crawling around in our walls. Such a fun experience when you are awakened by the sound of little clawed feet digging into the ceiling above your head. We have brought this problem to the front office several times and still have had no results.

I am very close to taking my hammer and busting a whole in the wall and snatching that thing out of there and placing it on the desk of the slow moving office worker. We think it is a raccoon. We saw one last year on our roof and heard it in the wall in the living room. It was gone after we told the front office about it, so we figured it would be quickly taken care of this time too. We have heard it a few times ....talking....then a few nights ago it was dragging something around in the ceiling in our bedroom. (Dragging what?!?!?!?!) It seems to like it in there, for every night this past week it has been up there....keeping me awake. Jake can sleep through most of it. Last night I had had enough and Jake got out of bed and started tapping the ceiling, which just made it scramble into the vent and wait it out.

Jake is going to go back to the front office today and talk to a manager. We have brought this problem up several times in the last two weeks to the same girl. She just takes down the apartment number and we still have our friend burning the midnight oil and I am sick of it. If it isn't gone by the weekend I am getting my hammer!

My ears!!!!!

2009-04-14T11:55:00.004-05:00

This past Sunday was our first Easter as a married couple. Jake has actually been to the last 3 Shafer Easter get-to-gethers. Easter was the first time Jake was thrown to the wolves so to speak with my family, so Easter is always special to me. Jake and I made each other Easter baskets, I had planned on getting up early Easter morning to hide jelly beans in the house for Jake to find. That is was they did when he was a kid, but the warmth of the bed overpowered me and I stayed there for another hour.

We went to church with the whole family taking up 1 and a half rows while Jake sat up front to translate the meeting for the Spanish speakers in our ward. He was also right behind the two musical numbers we were "blessed" to hear that morning. He had to keep a straight face while one woman was belting out "HIS HANDS!!!!!!!!!!!" into the microphone for nearly a ten minutes. Jake sent me a text that read "DAMN! My ears!" It was hard to keep a straight face. I don't understand why musical numbers in the church have to be a night at the Rhyman and can't just be a hymn. I guess that is a curse of living in Music City.

update

2008-10-29T17:44:00.002-05:00

So I haven't updated this blog since before Jake and I got married. Life is going well for both of us. Jake is currently working at Best Buy until we leave in January. He enjoys it well enough, but he is learning retail isn't as fun as it could be. Being told by managers that you have to sell a customer something they don't want or need is really hard for him.

I am working at Advanced Alarm Technologies where my sister, Jennifer, is the office manager. I am also working as an Artist in Residence at the Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville. I have a studio space to work in and a gallery space to show in. I am really enjoying it, and it will be something to put on my graduate school applications.

We are both just enjoying the time we have until we leave in January. Now we just have to find somebody to stay in our apartment while we are gone :) Any takers?

two weeks notice

2008-07-05T20:50:00.002-05:00

Well, in two weeks from today we will be getting married! I am so excited to be sealed to Jake for time and all eternity. I got back from a month in Italy about two weeks ago. It kind of sucked to be away for a month, right before we get married. It just made me want to get married even more. I guess it means the poor sucker is stuck with me if I missed him as much as I did while I was gone. I guess all the walking in Italy did me good, because my wedding dress fits now! I was going to have to alter it a bit, but not now! Sweet!

On a non-wedding note, the 4th of July is huge in my family...HUGE! We always go to my brother's (Sam)n house. We grill, we swim, we play games, we have a blast! This year my sister Jennifer, my brother Philip, and myself went to play volleyball at the church before the big gathering. We played non-stop for 3 hours.....we are very sore...my muscles hate me...a lot.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and we will see you all very soon! Two weeks! Kind a weird! Love you all!

photos

2008-05-15T15:16:00.002-05:00

here is the link to my sister's web page. She has put up the photos from the shower! Thanks Becky!

http://www.davis-homepage.com/

May Showers bring....oh nevermind

2008-05-15T14:12:00.002-05:00

So my shower was May 10th! Tracie and Jennifer did a amazing job with it! It was lots of fun! They made so much good food! They even bought Fulin Sushi for me! That rocked! My sister Becky flew in for the weekend so she could come to the shower! That was great too! She had to leave Sunday morning to get back in time for Mother's Day with her family! She will also be posting some of the photos she took at the shower on her website, which I will post a link to later.

Jennifer made a video called The Daily Report, which is basically a huge joke on Jake. I almost peed on myself while watching it! For those of you lucky enough to be coming for the wedding will be able to watch it when you come into town. For those of you not coming, you will miss it!

We got a lot of good stuff! We got cooking ware, dishes, Foreman grill, those can-things that you put sugar and stuff in, dish towel, shower curtain, lamps, measuring cups, rolling pin, Annabeth painted me a picture, and Kate-Lin Mae got Jake his transformer towel! There was also a cake decorating contest Top Chef style! It was a great day and I am so thankful that Tracie and Jennifer were able to do that for me. Thank you to everybody you came. Thank you MaryJane for letting us use your house and for all that you are doing with helping me plan the wedding.

Philip took photos of Jake and I at Centennial Park that morning before the shower. I added them to the photo gallery link. Go check em out!

2008-04-06T21:03:00.002-05:00

I know it has been a while since I posted anything. I've been a little busy with school, work, actually planning this wedding, getting everything done for graduating. So sorry for the delay on any news.

It looks like I am going to get to go to Italy for a full month now. There are still a few kinks that need to be ironed out, but the trip will be May 20th to June 20th. Last week I went with MaryJane to scout out a possible place for the reception. She had found a place in Franklin. There is this place called "The Factory". It is so cleveryly named because it is located in an old factory. It has a huge ball room where I had my proms, but it has a bunch of little shops, stores, and resturants. There is an art gallery upstairs that hosts wedding receptions. MaryJane hit the nail on the head. It is perfect! A husband and wife own the gallery and the husband told us that we should talk to his wife for she was the all knowing with dates and other things. So we've been calling and seeing what days are open and we have settled on July 19th. I am very happy! It is going to be wonderful! Way to go MaryJane!

Stormy Weather

2008-02-06T22:21:00.000-06:00

I have lived in Tennessee my entire life and have been through some bad storms and tornados, but last night really did some damage. I live in Bellevue which is about 20 min from my home town of Fairview. I was in my apartment alone on the phone with Jake (I know you're not supposed to be on the phone during a storm!) sitting in the bathroom floor while the hail was hitting the bedroom windows. Jake was talking to me so I wouldn't freak out completely. I can handle a thunderstorm no problem, but tornados scare me to death! He was just casually telling me what the news was saying and says "Oh there is a house down in Fairview on Cold Water Road". My head popped up and I asked him to repeat what he said. My mom lives on Cold Water Road. My heart just about skipped a beat. I hung up on Jake and called my mom six times but the phones were down. So after about a 2 min freak out period, I got a call from my brother. She was ok, she had no power. She said she had some trees down, one on her car and one through her front door. I called her cell phone and talked to her for a bit.

This morning my sister Jennifer, brothers Jay, Philip, Sam, and his wife MaryJane, my Dad, my aunt and uncle, cousin, and one of Jay's friends went there to clean up. I was driving all through Fairview and there were no trees down, not even a hint that there was a storm the night before, until I got the right before her driveway. There were trees everywhere, uprooted, scattered. There were 4 houses along the road that were completely destroyed. One of her neighbor’s house was sitting about 15 feet from its foundation and front porch. There were 3 more along the road with really bad damage. The driveway to the house is very long and runs along a forest on the left side and a cow field on the right. The trees in the forest were either uprooted in the driveway, or in the cow field. The tornado had touched down right in the valley of that forest. I would say that over 1,ooo trees were destroyed. It came to about 100 yards from her house. When you look at the damage that was done, there is no way that house should have been standing or that my Mom should be alive. There were only 3 trees left standing in her yard. What is amazing is that all the trees fell around the house. The tree that fell on her front porch would have ended up in her living room if the wind had gone in another direction. She had a tree fall directly onto her car and there wasn't a scratch on it. It was amazing. The garage was completely gone, the roof off the water pump was gone, there were trees everywhere; it was a horrible disaster.

We spent the entire day out there cleaning it all out. I am sore from the top of my head to the bottom of my toes. The power is still out but at least the driveway is clear. My mom is staying with Sam and his family for a few days, but at least she is alive. There were 12 people killed in that tornado last night all along Tennessee and Kentucky. I feel horrible for those people and their families and am grateful that mine was safe through it all.

It was short...we loved it!

2008-01-14T23:19:00.000-06:00

One of my friends from high school just told me she was getting married too! Congrats to her!

I changed the photo gallery and I added some new photos of me actually making our wedding rings. How many people can say that they made their own rings? Not many, most probably don't care, but it was fun for me.

Today was the first day of my last semester before I graduate. It's pretty cool to think that I will actually have a sheet of paper in a few months that says I'm smart :D

The nightmare before Christmas

2008-01-05T08:52:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone had a fun and good holiday season. Christmas morning my sister Jennifer, my mom, and I had breakfast at our apartment and exchanged gifts. My family drew names this year, but the three of us got each other little gifts for Christmas morning. For breakfast we had scrambled eggs, (my mom makes the best fluffy eggs), home made biscuits, (my mom's biscuits are awesome!), crispy bacon, (my family won't eat it unless it is almost burnt), fruit, and hot apple cider. It was Delicious! Then we watched Harry Potter 5 and exchanged gifts. The rest of the day was spent at my brother's house in Franklin. Every year the family comes together Christmas night at Sam and MaryJane's. They lay out a grand spread each year and we have a blast. This year was great!

Jake spent 10 days in Colorado with his family for Christmas and man did it suck to be away from him for so long. I never want to be away from him for that long again. There was actually snow in Colorado this year, so he had a white Christmas. He had a wonderful visit with his family and made a three day trip home. He and his sister Rachel had to drive the long way home because of the ice and snow. When he got home I was so happy to see him! He, myself, and Rachel spent a fun day together when they got back. We had lunch at Canton's, (really good Chinese food), went shoe shopping at this great place called Marti and Liz, I took them on a very short walking trip around the downtown Franklin main street (it's not that long of a street). We had a sweet treat at this little bakery called Meridees, and sat and talked for a bit. We then made it back to the truck and realized that I had locked the truck keys inside the truck! Hahahah.....uh.......hm. We had a great conversation while waiting for the locksmith to come, which only took 30 mins. Once back in the truck we went down to McKay's bookstore and spent a good hour in there. Rachel headed back home the next morning, so it was a short trip but it was a great one.

I'm glad to have Jake bakc home and wish everyone a Happy New Year!

2007-12-20T18:40:00.000-06:00

I've added a photo gallery. It doesn't have a lot on it just yet, but check it out. I'll be adding more next week. Tracie (my sister-in-law) found a website having a killer sale on wedding dresses and prom dresses. I picked three of them and then sent emails out and got everyones' thoughts on them, then made my pick. I put a photo of it in the photo gallery. It is a photo of the dress, but the stock photo is a pink dress, my dress will be white...duh. I'm happy with the dress. It is very Jane Austin. I can't wait to get it and try it on! Once I get the dress and make sure it's the right size, Philip will take some photos of me in it.

love you guys, thanks for all the help I'm getting with planning this!

my ring

2007-12-16T22:47:00.000-06:00

i was able to cast my own wedding ring this year. i cast jake's as well.

the wedding singer

2007-12-16T21:38:00.000-06:00

this is my first post for my getting married blog.......yay!

jake sauer and i started dating on april 6, 2007. his last name is pronounced like sour...my name will sound like a mixed drink....we got engaged on november 28, 2007. we are planning to get married in june 2008 in the nashville temple. there will be more posts with updated plans.

a little about the bride: my full name is amanda paige shafer but i go by mandy. i was born on december 8, 1984. i have lived in tennessee all my life. i will graduate from tsu in may 2008 with a studio art degree. i plan to take a year off before continuing graduate school so i can be with jake while he surveys in chile. my ultimate goal in life is to be a children's book illustrator, mother, and wife. i am the youngest of six children. philip, samuel, jay, becky, jennifer, and me. philip is an english professor at tsu and lives in bellevue, tn (just down the road from my apartment) with his wife traice and daughter annabeth. samuel is a manager at o'charleys and lives in franklin, tn with his wife maryjane, daughter amandajane, son bow harrison, and adopted daughter kate-lin mae. they adopted her from china in november of 2006. jay works in construction and plays drums, he has a daughter named sydnie. becky lives in burke, vr (about 15 nminutes away from jake's sister) with her husband eric and son brandon. jennifer is office manager at an alarm company and lives with me. she plans to attend mtsu to be a director. my mother geneva is a librarian and my father philip is a brick mason.

front row:dad, jennifer, me, sydnie, becky, mom, tracie and annabeth, amandajane, and bowharrison.

back row: jay, eric and brandon, philip, maryjane, sam and kate-lin mae.

a little about the groom: my full name is jacob james sauer. i was born on august 19, 1978 in leadville, co. i've lived in a few towns, but i call palisade, colorado home. i served my mission in chile from 1997-1999. i have two bachelor's degree in history and anthropology from byu. i moved to ky to get my master's degree in anthropology, but transferred to vanderbilt to get my phd in anthropology. i will be a.b.d. (all but dissertation) in january. i have two older sisters. erika lives in virginia with her husband and five children. rachel lives in florida, and is a journalist. my parents bruce and sidney live in my home town of palisade, co. i like to dig in the dirt. i've done archaeology in utah, tennessee, mexico, and chile.