Ecuador Day 36

5 weeks today.

First things first, we did hear from MJ today. She said that we will go to the courthouse on Thursday for our signature verification and then court will be "maybe Friday, maybe Monday." So, apparently court keeps getting pushed back. I hope Friday or Monday are accurate. Only time will tell. So please pray for us that things will get moving and that we can get to court this week.

This morning we took a trip to the Mega for some groceries. It seems like it has been ages since I have been there, but at most it can't have been more than a week. Man, we live at that place.

This afternoon we also went to the Mariscal market (yes again. I think this is our last time officially) and to the Basillica, a huge cathedral here in town and quite the tourist attraction. Pictures below. Our kids were extremely disruptive inside the Basillica (crying, shouting, fighting, you name it) so we decided to get out of there before someone let us have it. There were a few people in there worshiping, so surely they enjoyed our shenanigans.

A few pictures from yesterday first. Hallie and Flor made these cute necklaces that say "Heavenly Father and Jesus Love Me". We will have to get a picture of them with their cute Primary teacher before we leave. She is probably in her early 20's and always has such fun things to do with the kids. Plus, she speaks fluent English, which is great for Hallie's sake.

Hmm..one likes pictures better than the other. Any guesses which is which?

Here we are at the Basillica, on the street to the side.

This is the side view--Can you see us in the picture? The place is huge!

Inside. We had issues with figuring out the right camera setting, so you'll have to forgive the terrible lighting.

A view from the outside and down the block.

This is back at home from our window. There has been a lot of fog lately and we watched a few planes try to come in to land and then all the sudden go up to detour instead of landing because of the fog during dinner time tonight.

Our friend Robin has been keeping a fun list of "Unique Ecuador" items and I thought you might like to see some of them to get a glimpse of what life is like here:

*Unique Ecuador: Where mascara is $13-$22 and Oreos are $1.48 for a normal size package.
*Unique Ecuador: A guy had a metal extension ladder (about 20 feet up) leaning up against the high wire lines that he was fixing
*Unique Ecuador: At almost all public restrooms you get your toilet paper before you go into a stall, and usually you pay 15 cents for a few squares. Speaking of restrooms, it is also common for men and women's to be in the same building. Men to the left, women to the right. Avert your eyes when you are going in! 
*Unique Ecuador: Where you get into a taxi and you put your life, literally, into his hands. They create 4 lane roads out of 2. Ten times worse then New York City.
*Unique Ecuador: When you check out at the grocery store, you unload a silver cart and leave it there. Then a bagger sacks and loads your groceries in a plastic coated red cart to go outside.
*Unique Ecuador: The breath mints they give you at restaurants and the ones you can buy in the store taste EXACTLY like our Halls Cough Drops
*Unique Ecuador: A pair of Reeboks will set you back $140, a toaster oven-$200, a washer or dryer -$1,800, a 42" flat screen-$1,800, a cup of walnuts-$20, 8 oz. of peanut butter-$4, 1 box of Mac & cheese-$2.50, jar of canned tomatoes-$2.50, Prego spaghetti sauce-$5.00. And the average net income is $330 a month!
*Unique Ecuador: When it thunders outside, every car alarm goes off in Quito. They are VERY sensitive.
*Unique Ecuador: Whole families take motorbikes for transportation, babies included. Wrap them in a blanket and put them in between the parents and you are good to go!
*Unique Ecuador: where ALL dairy products smell like the back end of a cow. It's either their processing system is really dirty or it's that fresh. (yes, it is all disgusting. Milk, butter, sour cream, cream cheese...they all taste the same= yuck!!)
*Unique Ecuador: instead of candy bars, chips or junk food sold on the streets you can buy a piece of fruit. They cut off the top and give you a spoon.

Also, a few Hallie-isms from today: 
*While prodding Hallie to clean up the toys today, she stopped, turned to me and said "Mom! I want to see you smile at me! Stop being gross!" (I am pretty sure she meant "grumpy")
*Every time Hallie goes to the bathroom now, she says, "Mom, I'm sick! I went to the bathroom, so I need some Pedialyte!" She learned that since Jace has diarrhea and gets some, she ought to get some too, just for going to the bathroom. Too bad it doesn't work that way. 
*While walking to the Mega Maxi today, Hallie was a bit grumpy, so we started to sing "Follow the Prophet". We sang the verse about Daniel (Daniel and the Lion's Den from the Bible) and then I asked Hallie which verse she wanted to sing next. She replied, "Sarah!" I was confused for a second and then figured it out. My cousin Sarah's husband is named Daniel, so she figured if we are singing a song about him, surely there has to be a verse about Sarah too. Funny girl.