Beware of Phyllis

Phyllis may seem like a sweet little old lady, but she can be intimidating! It's that strong, quiet glare that only grandmothers can give that just makes you feel sheepish for something you've done. Well, Jessica and I definitely upset her on Friday. Here's the story:

The girls and I tried to plan a hike or something fun to do today since it’s the weekend, but the plans kind of fell through. Transportation is hard and sometimes frustrating around here. I’m not used to having to use the public transportation; I don’t even know how to use it back home, let alone in a strange country. The girls and I always want to get together and hang out, but we’re all so far from each other that it’s hard. And we wanted to go on these hikes that one of the moms suggested, but you can’t take a bus there and there weren’t enough moms available to take us.

So since the hike after school didn’t happen, Jessica and I walked home to Heidi and Anna’s house. We swam in their pool with the kids for a few hours; it felt nice to cool ourselves off after the long, hot walk home. Jess and I hadn’t told Phyllis earlier about our plans to go to the Lord’s house after school. But once we got to their house, Jessica called Phyllis to let her know where we were and that we’d be home in time for dinner. The phone wasn’t answered so Jessica just left a message. We should have known that wasn’t good enough. Apparently, Jessica called and left a message at the wrong house. Oops! When we got home a little after six, we were greeted with a not-too-happy Phyllis. She was a mixture of being worried and annoyed at us. We felt really bad. We promised not to do something like that to her again and told her we’d make cookies to try and make up for it. Dinner was kind of awkward though, and she kept making comments about being mad at us. :/
After dinner, Heidi and Anna came over to our house. We made really sweet (almost too sweet) chocolate chip cookies. Phyllis likes Anna and Heidi, so that plus the cookies softened her a bit, and she wasn't mad at us anymore. We also watched a New Zealand movie with Phyllis. It wasn't the best movie in the world, but it was fun to see our first New Zealand movie.

We make GOOD cookies