GDL Living: Are you still learning Spanish??

 I'm sure most of you would know what this word says:

I'm not even gonna translate that one for you!

But how long does it take to learn to speak Spanish fluently?? 

It all depends, I would say. Some people are better at capturing languages, some learn it as a child, some learn it as an adult, and all of those things play into it. 

Out with some friends the other day

But if we want to communicate here in Mexico, it's a must to learn Spanish. There are soooo many people here that we connect with that know English, almost every person we know, knows at least some English. But it's not their heart language, and we really want to connect with people in their heart language (and we just simply love the language!).

I started learning Spanish when I was 4 years old, when my family moved to Paraguay to church plant with the Spanish-speaking Paraguayans. So that means that I've had 28 years of Spanish under my belt! whoa... that sounds like a lot now that I write it. In those 28 years though, I lived 8 years in Paraguay, 14 years in Canada, and now 6 years in Texas/Mexico.

In actuality, I still feel all the time like I am tongue tied and constantly second guessing my grammar. It doesn't stop me from speaking and I know that I over-think it a lot of the time, and I love it that I was able to learn it at a young age as it is generally harder to learn a new language as an adult. 

I don't like the feeling though of saying things in the wrong way, so I often ask people how I should have said something or get them to help me with vocab for new things that I don't talk about often in Spanish (like words that you use at the dentist!)

or before I go somewhere, like the dentist, I often look up the translation of words I don't know on google :-) Like how to say retainer, space maintainer, etc.

Dallas with a guy from his biking group on Thursday evenings

Dallas learned some Spanish in small bits and pieces when he was in college...he took a 6 week course, and then a couple of years later he took some evening classes in Manitoba. He really started learning it though 6 years ago when we went to study Spanish full-time before moving to Mexico.

So it is an ongoing process! The important thing is to be able to connect with people and explain yourself (and the gospel) clearly. We make fools of ourselves, have to admit that we don't know as much as we wish we did, and keep going.

I love speaking in Spanish, it's such a fluid language and I personally like the intonation of it also. Someone made the comment to me last time we were in Canada that I speak English with a Spanish accent. I thought about that and I think it's more so that I sometimes speak English with the Spanish intonation.

And our kids....are all learning Spanish at such a young age! Carter was 2 when we got here and the other 2 were here since babies. People in Chihuahua couldn't believe Carter's Spanish this summer when we were visiting there, and I love his confidence with it (when Dallas and I aren't there....for some reason he doesn't want to speak it when we're around...).

Yesterday the dentist asked Carter how much Spanish he knew and Carter gives him this look like the dentist was strange, and said "everything!". I don't think he quite knows everything but it's amazing how he's picked it up just from being in school and playing with his friends. Logan and Brady also understand a lot and Logan speaks well already too. Brady just started school so I know he'll start speaking it more and more!

So, moral of the story. If your bucket list includes "Learn Spanish before I die"....time to get on it!

¡Hasta luego!

 Our friends, Jason and Jessica, were just here visiting for a week from Chicago!

Jason and Jessica with the boys at the Guadalajara Centre

We met them back at RGBI, where we were studying Spanish before moving to Mexico...so we hadn't seen them for 3 years. The last time we saw each other, Carter was just 2 1/2 years old and Logan was about 5 months old. Carter was super excited to see them too, they're about the only thing he remembers from RGBI :-)

Thanks so much for coming guys!

They're the type of friends you can wear your pj's in the house with, you can talk about anything and everything with, you can sleep till 9 am knowing your kids will end up knocking on their door for help instead of yours...hahaha

Seriously though, we get along really well and they're interested in missions...so we had some good conversations about that too.

playing some Angry Birds

It was cute walking into the living room and seeing Carter lounging with Jessica

 

They were here for the boys b'day party too..helped make the cake a bit and took all the pics for me at the party!

We showed them around the city a little, went for tacos...showed Jason some things Jessica wanted him to see since she'd been in Mexico before, they came to our Bible study, church, party, hang out with friends at a park...and the last day we had ourselves an adventure!!

We decided to go ziplining, but the one we knew of was a 2 hr drive away. So we found one online that was "an hour" away. Ended up being almost 2 hours. Well the whole time driving it was cloudy and drizzling but we figured we'd see if we could zipline anyways. The last 1/2 hour was up this mountain....on a little dirt road that was slippery from the rain....and then we met up with cows and about 50 goats on the road....

Finally we pulled over b/c it was too steep and slippery and this guy in a truck comes to pick us up.He said, sure we can still zipline as long as there's no thunder. Which there wasn't. So we climb in the zipline truck he takes us to the top of the mountain. Then tells us that well....we have to wait for the clouds to go away before we can zipline. So we're like...hmmm it looks like it'll be cloudy for the next day so we left and went for lunch and went shoe shopping :-)

Those are the memories being made though!

See you guys on our next layover on our way to Canada!!?

summers

Last night I was lying awake in bed for what seemed like forever. A few days ago Logan started to have a mouth full of white sores and then yesterday Brady got the same thing...but worse...more patches, bigger patches, with a fever...so I took him to the dr and found out they have a virus. It needs to clear up mostly on it's own but it will take awhile.

Meanwhile, Brady is pretty miserable. Logan is starting to get better and is finally eating after 3 days of living on water, drinkable yoghurt, and banana milkshakes. Now Brady is doing the same. And Carter is complaining of sore ears and throat...sore throat is another symptom of this virus. It's got me tired out already! And we are busy busy trying to get ready for VBS which starts tomorrow and what will we do with especially Brady who is still miserable and highly contagious when we are at VBS??

All that to say why I was lying awake last night. Couldn't fall asleep. Then my throat started to hurt also but I would say it's a cold I woke up with.

Anyways, while I was lying there I got to thinking about why I have been feeling so RESTLESS this summer. For the past month or so I've been antsy and restless and feeling like the summer is blah {these thoughts were before we found out our parents and friends were coming to visit this summer!! We are all super excited for both of those}. But...this summer just felt...different...for some reason.

and it hit me that this is the 1st summer that will be "normal" and "settled" in about 5 years! oh my...

summer 2008 - moved all the way down to Texas to study Spanish
summer 2009 - finished in Texas, spent a quick and busy 2 mths in Manitoba saying good-bye, then moved all the way down to Mexico
summer 2010 - had a baby...Brady was born and my mom came for 3 wks
summer 2011 - left northern Mexico and moved down to southern Mexico

have not had a "regular summer holiday time" in years!

Understanding why I was feeling restless for some reason has made me feel a lot more at peace. Maybe b/c I was starting to wonder if I was losing my contentment and I did not want that! And now I realize it's probably more so that I was used to something more major happening every year...like a move to another country...and it just may be nice to experience a summer with the kids and family/friends coming and friends here and life and focusing on sharing life and God with others here...

Now here's to hoping for sanity for this day with these sick boys of mine and VBS prep to do yet! Dallas took Carter and Logan to church with him and I am here at home with Brady...who amazingly is not crying and miserable right now but is drawing on his art easle.

I have to tell you about our summer plans

 So this summer we were supposed to have a missions team here for 3 weeks, until July 20...that was going to take up a large chunk of our summer. I was looking forward to it since we've been a part of those teams in the past and they are great things and especially because our awesome friend from Steinbach, Jessy, was going to be leading it!! anyways, the trip had to be cancelled because there were not enough people that signed up, which was a good reason to cancel, but that left our July looking quite empty.

and our guys here will be heading up to northern Mexico for 5 days in the beginning of August for a Conference and that leaves us women here to fend for ourselves with the kids! augh! We women are still debating going up with them though but staying just across the border in Texas since they will be super close to the border. That is yet to be determined but at any rate, I started getting antsy about the summer and Dallas had to hear about it. I don't like change a ton, but at the same time...I need change every once in a while. Or something out of the routine, I guess you could say.

Kids games will be off for the summer so things are a little emptier anyways compared to during the year. One of our closer friend will be gone for the whole summer, others are going on holidays to see family, with friends, etc. so it seems it will be a little hit and miss trying to spend time with people and continue our ministries that we more regularily do. 2 friend are moving houses in July though so we will likely help them with that.

We do have VBS in July though! I'm really excited about that...we will be working together with another church here and they expect 80-100 kids to come. Dallas and I are in charge of certain workshops for that.

and Brady is turning 2 in Aug so we will have a big party for him, together with Nolan who is also turning 2.

Now that I'm writing this....it does sound rather full and like an interesting summer already :-)  hmmm...

well, anyways.

Dallas' parents were going to come visit in Dec but last week they kind of spur of the moment decided to come in July!! woohooo! So we will take some holiday time with them and then have the honour of introducing them to Guadalajara and to our friends and ministries here.

the boys tradition with Grandma Wiebe is to make cinnamon buns!

Brady (7 mths) with Grandpa Wiebe the last time we saw them which was almost 1 1/2 yrs ago

ok so then a couple of days ago our friends, Jason and Jessica, that we went to language school with at RGBI...3 years ago...talked to us and said they want to come visit in August!

another woohoo!
They both know Spanish which will be awesome so they can help us out with our ministries and mingle with our friends and laugh at our knowledge of Spanish and the slang we use here in Gdl :-) Jessica is a Spanish teacher...so that makes you a little nervous you know...

They are best of buds with Carter and he is super happy that they're coming. He was 2 1/2 when he last saw them but he remembers them. I think they're really the only people he remembers from RGBI. I show him pictures of the playground, our house, etc. and he has this blank look. funny.
They did meet Logan also who was born when we were there.

I have to say that living in Gdl has it's perks as far as having visitors, since it's closer than some countries and not quite as expensive to get to.

It's always a balance when visitors are here to still meet with your connections and friends here as that is why we are here and we don't want to lose those connections. Not only are the people here our friends, we also reallly desire them to know God and that does take time spent with them, sharing our lives! It is so great though when our visitors share that vision and really want to see what we do here and we can hang out, talk with them, have fun, show them the city and the sights, and I really do believe that when people come visit, they become people that pray for you more and after having met the people you minister to, have a personal connection with them and will pray for them by name and we need those prayers!

so, we're really excited about the summer. If you think of us, pray for these things...especially for the people that we minister to. Even if you can't come visit, we appreciate your prayers and encouragement a lot.

the VBS!
Dallas' parents visit
trip to northern Mexico for Conference and Dallas will also get to meet up with the pastors we used to work with in Chihuahua, b/c they are also going!!
Jason & Jessica's visit
continued Bible studies...2 in our bible study that just decided to follow God now for sure want to get baptised and the other 2 are thinking about it...
continued visiting with people and sharing God's love with them

there and back again

I really wanted to post a bunch of pictures in picasa to show you what this area looks like but it's always a much looooonger process on someone else's computer. So this will have to do....

as we said, we were moving to Delicias yesterday. Here's our day....

We left around lunch, our van packed full and Alvira's car full of our stuff - she came with us. We met Antonio, the pastor of the church in Orranteno that we will be working with, and he all headed over the house we were going to take a look at. Antonio had already seen it, after having looked for houses for a while. When we arrived...the people were still in the process of moving out. They were waiting for the movers to come, within 2 hours or so.

The house looked good.It's the one we're going to get so I'll describe it a little at the end...

anyways...we looked at the house then the people that were moving out happened to be Christians. He offered to drive with us and show us a couple of other houses he had seen that were for rent. Long story short, they didn't pan out and weren't available etc. so this was the only one we could find. But in the meantime, they hadn't moved out yet and needed to hand the key in...and the landlady was on holidays!!

so we decided to go to Antonio's house to wait and see when we could get the key. That turned out great, b/c we met him and his 2 kids (ages 9 and 13 - babysitter!!) and his wife Leti. We had a good time talking and getting to know them. Carter loved their little puppies and told us he wants a white puppy at his home.

Eventually Antonio found out from the landlady's daughter that we were assured of having the house but we would need to wait till her mom was back to get the key. who knows when?..... He is meeting with the daughter today though so we will see what comes from that. In the meantime, we have a house!!!

hearing that though we decided to come back to Cauahtemoc b/c who knows when we'll get our house. If it had been only a day we would've stayed with Antonio and Leti but we didn't know yet.

and that's the story.

As for the house. Main floor is a small kitchen (we need to buy our own cupboards - common in Mexico - stove, fridge, etc), a diningroom/living room, half bathroom. Outside the back door is our "yard"...a small cement pad, also common out here! Maybe 15 feet by 6 feet or so. Dallas is going to go INSANE. The washer will also be outside. In the front there is an overhang with a pad for the van. Then you go upstairs and there's a landing at the top, a little living room area or what not. Then 3 bedrooms and a bathroom. Quite nice, actually. There's some work to do, fixing outlets, lights etc and 3 windows are borken. And everything is WHITE. I want to paint it if they let me.

wow this is getting LONG. feel free to get some coffee :-) Don't make it an iced coffee though, or I will be quite jealous.

Delicias looks to be a very nice city. Wide streets, quite a few parks.

Carter.... had a rough day. He is so confused and wants a home already. He has said many times, I want to go home. Yesterday he knew we were finding him a home and he was bawling about it, and kept saying I want to go home over and over. Then he called Grandma's house home. Didn't help that we had to come back here. We do think that once he has a place to call home he will be ok, there will be some stability then.

Logan got TOOTH NUMBER 3 yesterday. He's done quite well with it, just yesterday evening had some pain. And he wants to eat absolutely everything in sight. I think he's gained a larger appetite in the last week.

is that all I have to say? :-) Dallas and I are doing good. We are definetly ready to find our place and settle in there but yet God has been helping us to go with the flow... even when Dallas forget his whole suitcase with his clothes at Antonio's house in Delicias. we unloaded some stuff there...oops...

time to make lunch!!

I'm back

ok, so what we've been up to in the last little while...

To complete the report on Logan's six months, he was 17.5 lbs and 27 1/2 inches long at his appointment last week. Very much the same as Carter was which is nice so he can wear the same clothes, and they're in the same seasons. We went to Logan's appointment and Carter was complaining about his ear so the doctor checked it out and he had a little ear infection. Then I asked about immunizations for us going to Mexico and also I knew I needed to get my chicken pox one (apparantly I've never had it and who wants to get it as an adult) so right aways they gave me the chicken pox and tetnus booster. Profitable appointment for Logan! We thought it was pretty good that we could all get are stuff done from one appointment :-)


Dallas has been busy chopping wood, Friday and Saturday. My grandpa had a tree fall on their garage roof during a storm so Dallas went over to help get it off. Then they started cutting and cutting trees down and Dallas had a lot of fun with the chainsaw. And working in the bush with grandpa. Even Carter helped out of course. Anything with sticks, he's game.

Sunday morning we went to the EMC Convention in Riverton. For those not from the EMC - it's a weekend where all the EMC churches in Canada can come out for votes for different boards, hear reports from the boards, sessions, seminars, etc. We went to 2 of the sessions on Sunday. For some reasons it's really nice to meet up with all the EMCers and connect with people you've known from the different churches and meet others. Our friends Elmer and Danya were there and we hadn't seen them yet so this was our chance. There was also child care during the sessions and Carter and Logan went to those (and I met a lady in the child care that reads my blog :-) It was nice to meet you!) Could hardly get Carter away from the childcare room when it was over... too much like his daycare back at RGBI! We're thankful for the interest people show in us going to Mexico and for the support that we have as we go.

here's a joke from the speaker at the convention: You know the story in the Bible of when Jesus cast the demons that were in a man into a herd of pigs and they ran over the cliffs and drowned? When mennonites read this story they get a little sad....becuase of the loss of so much farmer sausage. hahaha

Yesterday...spur of the moment pretty much Dallas and dad decided to go golfing. Then also spur of the moment, we all decided to go rafting at camp! We hadn't done that for a long time (the camp where my dad was director for 10 years so we've rafted that river tons of times). Logan stayed back with my grandparents and Carter had a BLAST on the raft. He had his stick along and played with the water with it and his feet. too cold to get in the water though...we went in the evenign. The afternoon might have been ok. The ride is 1 1/2 hours and really relaxing.

Soon we're off to take my parents to the airport to go to Paraguay! they get to see Trav, Rosey, and Zipporah... and go to World Mennonite Conference and other meetings...

In the meantime we're hanging out with friends tonight and tommorow...then heading out to Dallas' parents for 10 days or so for family time there. Should be good!! except that our time here in CAnada is quickly getting shorter!!! not to worry, we are feeling ready to go and feel quite blessed to have had this time here with all of you.

so that is some of our recent life.... time to go now.

RGBI thoughts...

Before more time passes and things fade further into my memory, I want to take the time to write down my thoughts on RGBI and our time there. This way I can go back and look at it again, too...

In general it seems we as people like to pick out negatives in situations...but right now I want to focus on what we were thankful for in our year at RGBI. There was much to be thankful for.

What we were thankful for and enjoyed...

1. Attending a school that is focused on following the Bible and making it obvious in everything they do
2. Living in close community with the other students...right next door to some and on campus with most of them. I especially enjoyed it as I like to know what everyone is doing :-)
3. The professors that showed interest in us and wanted to help us learn.
4. Meeting Bible students from all over Latin America and forming frienships with them
5. Meeting language students from North America. We became good friends with some of them and will miss them.
6. The closer friends we made there and the way God provided them for us, and also for the way He provided us to be friends to them while they were away from home.
7. The spanish church we attended and how they welcomed us in very easily.
8. Being able to get to know LeRoy and Faith and their kids that much better.
9. The daycare that Carter went to on campus. He loved it and had such great teachers. We appreciated them a lot, especially the way they wanted to help us in any way they could by helping out with Carter.
10. Being able to learn more spanish, we came away with much more than we knew before.
11. The warm weather - we loved sitting outside, playing with the kids, or visiting with neighbours.
12. Meeting the winter volunteers that were there in the winter months and for the way they helped us out - with food, visiting, or taking care of our kids.

I may think of more and I'm quite sure that Dallas would add to this list, too. There were ups and downs during our year in Texas - some having to do with the school experience itself and some having to do with other situations - but we saw the faithfulness of God. He provided us with friendships and support while we were there, while still having the frienships and support at home, and He brought us through situations with a stronger faith in Him. God has taught us things in ways we didn't always welcome! but we keep learning to trust in Him no matter where we are and no matter what happens in life.

And so...at the end of this year now... we've come away from Texas with joy and growing excitement for moving to Mexico! Thank you for all your prayers for that...we know that it is because of prayer and God that we are feeling excitement in serving in Mexico instead of Paraguay, and that God can place another country in our hearts alongside Paraguay. That is something we have prayed for this year.

I'm not sure how to end this :-) ... obviously we are not always all happy and go-lucky with moving to a new country!! there are times of feeling nervous and wondering what we're going to be getting into, all of that. But really, God really has shown Himself trustworthy to us. And that's what we're going on.

grad ~ on the road

Last night Dallas graduated from language school! They had a ceremony in the evening, along with the Bible school students that were graduating.

Dallas was asked to read a Bible passage at the ceremony. I was proud of his spanish :-) he did really well - the whole ceremony was in spanish. Our spanish has definately improved because of our time here.

This is a FUNNY story... Dallas did not have a suit jacket down here, it was left at home in Canada. So since he had a part in the ceremony he had asked Micah (the guy on the right) if he could borrow a suit jacekt from him. An hour before grad Dallas went over to his place to get it but Micah had just found out he was supposed to wear his suit to grad b/c he was singing. So Dallas was trying to quickly think if he could get a jacket yet and thought of Abi. Abi had one so Dallas borrowed it and went to grad. Then this quartet went up to sing. There was Abi....no suit jacket. hahaha. We laughed so hard. Abi is the guy in the middle in this quartet. We talked to him after and he said he only found out when he got to grad that he was supposed to wear black. good laugh for us all anyways.

Getting the "diploma"...the real one will come in the mail later assuming Dallas passed all of this exams... President Windle is handing it out.

As I am typing we are in SAN ANTONIO!! YUP, we're on our way home. We left RGBI around 1:30 this afternoon and drove the 4 hours here and are hanging out at our hotel. We did a little swimming earlier in the evening because mr. Carter is mr. HYPER MANIA. It's like he's ecstatic to be on a holiday. We'll be here till Sunday then continue the trip home. Our drive today went really well, both boys slept for part of it which helped.

I have a bunch of thoughts about our year at RGBI and but I'll save those till another time when I have more time... but soon while they're still fresh in my mind.

time to say good-bye to daycare

Carter has loved the daycare here on campus! This semester he's been going a couple of times a week still. Really, it's like letting him go spend time at a friend's house - we know all the kids, their parents, and the ladies that work there. They are awesome ladies.

This morning I went over there and took some pictures while they were celebrating Brooklyn's birthday (which is coming up in a couple of weeks).

Lades L to R - Denise, Rhoda (daycare director), and Viola. Kids - (back row) Emma, Micamac. (middle row) John, Elisabet, Carlos. (front row) Daniel, Brooklyn, and Carter

Mother's Day

Carter and Logan took me out on Saturday for supper...to Sonic's. Dallas said I should choose where I wanted to go so that's where we want. It's fast food but you order outside and eat outside and there's a huge play structure for the kids to play on.

Then yesterday, Mother's Day, was our last time at our church here in Texas - Iglesia Bautista Emanuel. There was a lunch after the service to celebrate the moms which was a nice way to end our time there. Here's just some pictures of our day...

Carter likes playing piano with Raul after church (he is the son of the couple in the next picture)

Javier and Marisol - they are the family that has welcomed us the most, inviting us over and always taking our kids when we're at church

Emerson and Megan - Emerson is also a student at the RGBI Bible Institute. He is from Venezuela and she lived there for the last 10 years as a missionary kid teacher and so they met...

In the church nursery with Estrellita, Carter's friend

In the afternoon we went to the public pool with LeRoy, Faith, and their girls.

Logan went swimming for the first time! He just sat there and seemed to enjoy it. It was really hot out. We got this sun shirt for him from some ladies here.

new news

New news of the day:

1. Logan can roll over both ways now - back to stomach, and stomach to back. So since he should sleep on his stomach, he sometime rolls to his back.

2. Carter dressed himself for the first time today! Got his gitch and shorts on pretty well...a little help with the shirt but was determined to do it on his own.

3. We found out today which city in Mexico EMC would like us to work in! Kind of a weird feeling to "know" something more definate, but we like the feeling. But...I won't tell you just yet where it is :-) First we need to let the appropriate family/friends know so you don't find out through just reading the blog!

4. Carter kind of sings "Jesus loves me" in spanish but today he said his first spontaneous sentance in spanish. I asked him where something was in my room and he went up to it and said "Aqui esta" (accent on the "a" in esta). It means "here it is". He learned it from watching Dora.

5. Something else that's new today...Dallas is officially done all of his classes and homework at RGBI. Next week he has 2 exams and then grad next Thursday evening. What a great feeling to have finished and knowing some spanish to boot!

Chapel

The chapel went really well this morning, everyone did great with their parts and were understandable with their spanish.

here's the class and what part they had in the service..

Bill started by dedicating the chapel to Jason and Becky, who were students in their class but had to leave school because Becky found out she had cancer earlier this semester. She is doing well but going through chemo treatments which are really hard on her.

Jason read a passage from Psalms.

The worship team was Amy on piano and singing, Melanie on guitar and singing, Dallas on drums, and Laura N, John, and Eric singing.

The worship team practicing the night before.

Carter had to have a turn after practice. He loves drums and "camel", for some reason that's the way he says "piano". and of course he loves singing.

The worship team this morning (haha I only have pictures of the worship team on here b/c that's what Dallas was doing...)

After the singing, LeRoy mentioned prayer requests and Faith prayed. Then 4 people took the offering (I forget who...Dallas was one of them though).

Rob, Laura E, Ginger, Bill, and Terri did a skit, part of it before the message and part of it after the message. The skit was about missionaries that had these high expectations of what they would do and then coming back a year later with a little more realistic view.

Ray gave the message. And then the worship team closed with one more song.

This might not all be in the right order or I might have missed something!! Dallas is with his tutor right now - having ice cream - so I'll make sure it's right later :-)

4 mth check-up

Logan went in for his immunizations this afternoon, took them really well. At home it is just 2 needles, one in each leg. Here he has 3 needles in his legs, plus one that he has to drink. It's the same immunizations (except for one extra that they give here) except given in different ways.

He weighed in at 16 pounds and 27 inches long - still in the 97th percentile for height! His weight is in the 75th percentile but he's still a big little guy. Everything looks good. As for his flat spot on his head...the doctor recommended that we get him to sleep on his stomach now. Sleeping on his right side wasn't working b/c he basically always squirmed till he could turn his head to the left again, so the flat spot wasn't getting any better. Sleeping on his stomach will take all the weight off the back of his head and hopefully give it a chance to round out...thus is the theory, although I'm sure it'll always be a little flatter there, but hey I'm sure lots of kids don't have perfectly round little heads.

---------

Tommorow morning Dallas' class is in charge of the chapel time. Now that they've reached the end of the semester, they are required to do one 50 minute chapel - music, message...whatever they want, ALL in spanish. Dallas will be playing bongo's/gymbae (I've no idea how to spell those) for the singing time and also saying the little despedida at the end. Logan and I will go check it out while Carter goes to daycare.

Just a picture I got from someone else of us at the bonfire the other night - Brooklyn, Carter, me, and Logan

Tonight at the Bonfire

What a good evening! It's so relaxing sitting around the fire, hanging out with people and eating s'mores... I also enjoyed the little bit of time some of us spent singing, in english. All the singing I get is at church (other than my own singing to myself and Carter at home...) and that's in spanish. I do love singing in spanish but there is something to be said for singing praise songs in your own language.

Dallas is still out at the fire. The curfew for the dorm students is 11 pm so he's going to stay out and "supervise" the flirting :D I came in with the boys around 10 pm, they love being outside. Hopefully they sleep in a bit tommorow!! Here's a few pic's of the work and the evening.

Everett and Dallas building a picnic bench (the school has a shop here on campus). Everett is one of Dallas' classmates.

This is the 'thing' they were using to dig the holes to put the benches into. Here Dallas is working with Bill, another classmate. And there's Carter, too.

The start of the fire this evening. You can see the new benches built around the firepit, and one of the picnic tables in the background. It turned out really nice!! I'm sure we'll have one more fire next weekend so our class gets some use out of it yet. The firepit was made this year also by Dallas and a couple of other guys.

Carter roasting his marshmallows for a s'more.

Finally starting to get darker outside. The weather was still almost 30 degrees C all evening.

4 months ~ pictures ~ finally a workin' man

Logan is 4 months old today.



In the last month he's started rolling over to his side a lot more, but not all the way over yet. He's getting a lot stronger, though, and loves to smile - pretty much if anyone looks him straight in the face and smiles he'll smile right back. HARD to catch on camera though!! He just stares at the camera as soon as it comes out. Other than that...not much has changed with him. He's going to bed a littler earlier now which is nice for us. It looks like Carter is maybe starting a bit on the whole jealousy thing for attention from us...if we're playing with Logan he has to get right in there. Although he's pretty good about it, doesn't whine but just wants to be in on the action.

oh, he's started wanting to wrestle with Logan :-) The other day Logan was lying on the floor, on our rug, and Carter grabbed him by the legs and started pulling him along the floor. Later he lay down beside Logan and kind of picked him up and turned him upside down onto his head. Logan's not even fazed by it, he just takes it.


~ There are new PICTURES added. Click on the link to the right to view them "New Pictures".


This morning, Dallas and (hopefully) all the guys in his class are out by the firepit working. Finally, Dallas gets to do physical work and not just sit in the classroom!! He enjoys it so it's a good break for him. He brought some work clothes along here and this is the first time he's using them all year... well he brought them in the first place b/c in previous years, all students had to work about an hour a day for the school (mowing lawns, things like that) so the tuition could be lower. But when we got here they said they weren't doing that this year. so anyway, those clothes havn't had any use here yet.


Each year the graduating class buys a gift for the school. So Dallas' class bought a bunch of wood and other things they need to build 2 picnic tables and 5 benches around the firepit here on campus. Right now there's nothing there. It'll be reallly nice! They expect it'll take them a few hours this morning. Then tonight Dallas planned a bonfire that anyone here at school can come to, language school, bible school, and staff.


~Just went out with Faith and the girls to bring the guys all cookies and drinks...the ground is really hard! One of the men at the school here brought over this 'thing' (don't ask me for real names here) to help dig the holes in the ground where the benches will go into. I'll post some pictures later of it all.


(don't forget to look at the pictures!)

Sneaking up on me

Yesterday I realized...only 2 more weeks of classes for Dallas and then a week of exams and we're done here. what??! Time is suddenly going extremely fast and it's going to all of a sudden be the last week and I won't have anything ready to go. Last semester I was going nuts already when there was 6 weeks left to go, waiting and waiting to go back home for Christmas. But this semester...I've relaxed a lot with that. (don't get me wrong, I'm still eager to see everybody)

So with only a few weeks left, Dallas has just a bit of homework left, too. He has one more paper to write, in which he needs to present the gospel. It's about a 3 page paper written in spanish that they read in front of the class, to test their pronunciation and grammar. They can get anyone to look it over ahead of time, so I check over his grammar for him, which gives me good practice as well when I see what his professer marked wrong after that. They've been writing a paper once a week. I'm sure he also has some tests left in here, and a dialogue.

ok I really don't know what else to talk about, just felt like writing.

time off...here we come...

Time off for DALLAS from classes....a 4 day weekend!! Even though it's a normal day for me to be at home, it's still a holiday cause we get Dallas home with us!

We're planning to start on some packing, since there's only about 5 WEEKS till we come home and then it'll be easier to leave right aways the day after grad is over - hopefully. that's the plan now anyways. That would make it May 15 that we want to leave here and be home by the 20th, with a stop on the way in San Antonio for a couple of nights to go to Seaworld.

The weather this weekend is around plus 34 alllllll weekend...so I know our pool will be used a lot, plus we might go to the public pool or the beach one day, not sure yet.

hey...anyone back at home looking to buy A CAR??? We want to sell our car and buy something with a little more room. It's be nice to get one before we leave here for the long drive home but we're not sure if that's our best option right now...a little more investigating needed.

what to do when it's hot outside

When it's hot outside...say about 30 C today...we brought out the water balloons. It's really hard for Dallas to want to get any studying done when the weather's so nice. He really hates being cooped up inside the house for too long!! thus the "attempt" to do homework out side where distractions are plentiful.

Carter loved it when a water balloon was thrown on the ground...he would try jumping where it splashed. This patio area is just behind our row of apartments, our apartment is to the left, the window is our kitchen window.

Carter squirting water out of this balloon that had a hole in it. He wasn't too thrilled when I squirted him though...although I did break one over his head later which he also wasn't too sure about until I did the same to Dallas and that made it funny.

oh here I am, trying to get Dallas wet

and here's finally a picture of Logan with his smile caught on camera

Reynosa pictures ~ Someone's Birthday.....

Here's just a few pictures from the Medical Missions trip that Dallas was part of on Saturday. There was a doctor people could see, glasses they could try, kids program for the kids, a lawyer was available, a pastor was available to pray with, and skits and an evangelistic message while people waited to see the doctor.

Dallas spent a bit of time in the morning walking around the city inviting people, and the rest of the day he was in the church helping sort out who's turn it was to see the doctor and keeping things going in that way.

top - glasses that people could try to see if they helped them

bottom - part of the area around the church where the group was. It's a very poor area.

top - skit that the Bible school students were doing throughout the day

bottom - the 3 clowns entertaining the kids

people waiting in the church

And today is DALLAS' BIRTHDAY!!

Yesterday we went out as a family to Tony Roma's for supper and today Dallas is making some steak and later we're having a good old DQ ice-cream cake. Carter picked it out (ok, he wanted the pink one but I said we could get the blue one) and Carter is determined to blow out candles, he was practicing the whole way home from DQ so we might have to find some yet. and later sometime...unknown to Dallas when...we are going out to a hotel for the night while our boys stay home!!! I'm a little nervous about that but I'm positive they'll survive without us. and oh dear they just might even have fun without us :D (Logan takes a bottle really well by the way...)

missions trip to Reynosa

Dallas left this morning on a missions trip that the school is doing in Reynosa, Mexico. It's just over the border, so about a 20 minute drive from the school here. I'm not quite sure how many went, I think around 30 people in total, between the Bible school and the language school.

They are going to be doing DVBS, a clinic with a doctor, lawyer consultations, counseling, and I'm not sure what else. He should be back by supper time. LeRoy also went so Faith and I will be having lunch together with the kids anyways.

So far the boys are in good moods :-) Logan is having a nap and Carter is sitting on my lap eating apples.