Funny Night at Casa Fitz

Tonight after dinner, the three of us went into Haley's room to play and to read with her.  Haley will not sit in our laps to read.  Actually, Haley will not sit still at all while I read to her.  She is all over her little room going from her trike to other toys and back to the trike again.  She kept us laughing.  Her favorite book is one of the Halmark books that has Cheryls voice recorded as she reads.  She always picks that book and says NANA!  While we were reading, Haley decided it was time to clean up her room.  She took all of her toys, her lotion, her pajamas, all of her blankets, and the sheets from the other bed and purt them all in her pack and play.  She proceeded to clap for herself because she had cleaned.  A few minutes later I stepped out to start a load of laundry, and when a walked back in, Matt had hidden under one of the twin size beds trying to make Haley laugh.  As he was trying to get out, he knocked a few slats off and became trapped under the bed.  I wasn't very nice as I walked into the room and died laughing.  When Matt asked for help I was laughing to hard to do anything.  Matt got out from under the bed, and over an hour later, I am still laughing at it.

Fitting in to Church

Church here is hard.  We are finally at a level where we can understand most of it, but as any parent can tell you, when you are trying to keep a busy, curious, active under 2 year old still and quiet for long periods of time, you are not going to know what is being said in any language.  Today we sang several songs that I knew (or at least knew the tune in English).  I love worshiping when I know the words to the song.  Most of the time at our church I've never heard the songs before.  I recognize the words, but can't figure out the tune until the song has finished.  Today, the regular preacher was not there which means we ended the worship service a lot earlier. 

Haley was much calmer today then the last time we were at church.  However, calmer still meant climbing under a pew and running for the front of the auditorium.  Everyone mentioned that she is doing so much better in the worship service, and that little by little she will behave better.  In between class and worship, one lady invited us to eat with her family next week.  I quickly told her how much we would love to come.  Then I remembered that my mother-in-law who speaks no Spanish was going to bring us.  I figured that she would defer the lunch to another time, but this made her even more excited to have us for lunch.  She has a daughter that is two, and she just knew the girls needed to play together.  Another women came to me and told me she wanted to get together for cafecito sometime.  Cafecito is just afternoon coffee and snacks, but we have been told that if you make plans for cafecito, you don't make other plans for the rest of the afternoon.  You are to simply enjoy the time with friends.  I am so happy that after 7 months at this church we are starting to really connect with the people in the congregation.  Sadly, in 5 more months we will leave.

After our enjoyable time of fellowship, we went to class, and Haley eagerly went to her class.  About 45 minutes into class, I could hear Haley in her classroom screaming.  After a few minutes, I couldn't take it anymore.  I knew she was exhausted (although she got 14 hours of sleep last night).  At that point she wanted me and no one else.  I calmed her down and tried to take her back to class and at the thought of that she screamed for mommy.  The kids' class had ended so they were just playing games till the adult class ended.  While we waited downstairs a couple of the teachers of other kid classes tried to hole Haley and my usually sweet friendly daughter would not have anything to do with it.  I hope one day we can make it through the worship time as well as Bible class without Haley breaking down and throwing a fit.

Other than Haley getting upset, I really enjoyed worshiping with our family here in CR.  It is so incredible that no matter where in the world we go, we have brothers and sisters in Christ.  Please pray that our last 5 months here bring stronger relationships.  Praise God that we are starting to form relationships and be seen as members of this church not just the visiting gringos.

Valle de Sol pt 2

We went to Valle de Sol today, and we had a blast.  There are Bible classes for kids up to about 12 years old.  These kids have never heard Bible stories before, so it is neat to hear their reactions.  Valle de Sol is a slum area, mostly of former residents of Nicaragua hoping for a better life.  Many of the houses are made from tin scraps and are very simple.  Many of the children are unbathed and have several teeth that have rotted out.  This is different than what we see in the city.  Here in the city, while we can see poverty everywhere, it is still much more hidden.

In order to arrive to the precario, or slumtown, our group had to take two taxis.  This cost about $6 per taxi.  We got there and Matt and Chuck went immediately to playing with children.  Kids see Matt and Chuck and see a jungle gym to climb.  A few minutes later they all gathered into the church building to sing a couple songs they new.  The preacher is working so hard to teach the kids 2 songs at a time, so we sang each of the two songs three times.

After the time of singing, we broke into three groups.  Group 1 cannot read yet, Group 2 upto 9 and Group 3 9-11.  Initially I was supposed to work with Shawn a lady from our school who works with the older children, but the preacher asked me if I would mind teaching the smaller children.  Today we talked about the creation and the first sin.  Surprisingly, the kids maintained their interest for quite a while.  At the end of my lesson, I asked if one of the children wanted to pray, and a little girl named Shanon asked if she could.  When she finished her prayer, the kids each colored a picture then played games.  They were very simple games, but the kids had so much fun playing them.  Mine and Haley's favorite was one called "Banana, Jello, Giant, Small.  The sweet Tica lady that usually does the class would call out one of these words and the kids would have to make a certain action.  If a child made the wrong action or was the last to do it they were out of the game.  They also played ronda, papa caliente and of course futbol.

Today, Matt was working as a floater in between the three groups. Inside the building where the older children were they were playing jump rope. Matt made everyone laugh when he tried to jump rope. The day ended with turning the jump rope into a tug-of-war rope. The girls won both time. Instead of riding a Taxi home, we took a bus into town. This cost our family about $1.20 which is a much cheaper option. Pray that God will work in this ministry.

the younger children coloring

jump rope

beautiful little girl

Valle del Sol

Today, Matt, Haley and I along with some friends from school will be headed to a squater community to teach some kids about Jesus.  Several adults in the community were already doing a Saturday afternoon Bible class with the kids and asked if a few people from school could come teach them how to do it in a way that they could replicate easily.  We will just be teaching stories as they are told in the Bible.  Please pray for us as we do this this afternoon.  Pray that we can be a light in the world of darkness. 

Tonight I am celebrating

In December, before we left to visit the states, I heard from a friend that someone we knew gave birth to her baby at only 25 weeks gestational age.  The baby Kynian, has had many near death experiences, and today he went home after being in the hospital for the rest of the "term."  About a week and a half ago, he came down with H1N1 and they took many steps backwards in his process.  This was heartbreaking to anyone who knew of this little boy.  Today, I read that after almost 4 months of living in the hospital the Disissos are able to go home.  This does not mean that baby Kynian is scott free now.  He has never been out of a controlled environment, and his little immune system is not even as strong as most newborns.  We must all praise God for this miracle.  God has great plans for this small one.  I cannot imagine a greater joy than thinking many times I might loose my child and being able to finally take him home. 

Tonight as you take time to pray, thank God for this precioius baby and his life.  Pray for his mom and dad because they are going to have to take extra special care of him.  Also, thank God for every baby you know that is healthy.  God is a great God and he answers prayers.

Games

This week in my language class, we talked about children's games.  For our presentations, we were required to teach about some games, and we played several of them.  You may be thinking, "How can children's games benefit the growth of Hid Kingdom?"  True, no game is going to bring salvation to anyone, but a game can be the start of a great relationship.  We learned valuable words for playing card games and dice games.  Our teacher did not know many of the words, so we had to research and find them for ourselves.  I'm so excited that I have a new vocabulary in which I can use to teach kids some games and begin great relationships.  Also this week we learned many games that are common here in Central America.  I'm thankful to have learned this.

Jedi Princess

Every mom, upon hearing that they are going to have a little girl, thinks of hair bows, baby dolls, and tea parties.  Haley likes these things, but she prefers to play with things like rocks, dirt, swords and light sabers.  Some of the regulars at the park we have begun to call Parque Gringo have several little boys in their families that come to the park equiped with swords, light sabers and nerf guns.  They are all very sweet with Haley and share with her.  Today I looked over and she was playing Star Wars with them.  She wants to do all the things that the older kids do.  She is very much of a mix between a girly girl and a tom boy.  She loves both pretty shoes and dresses, but while she is wearing them, she will roll in the dirt, play with rocks, climb as much as she can and fight with a light saber.

A Package of Love

Haley showing off her new hats and glasses

Since Wednesday of last week, no one at ILE received any mail.  I was selfishly hoping to receive some birthday cards, so I was a little sad that no one delivered the mail.  Today I walked into the student mail room to find a jackpot!  This was a great way to start the day.  I had 4 birthday cards and looked down to see that there was a package with my name on it as well.  I was so excited because we rarely ever get packages.  I picked it up and ran out to show Matt.  He was excited too.  He ripped it open and we could not even go through it all to find what treasures were sent to us by our friends Jim and Donna.  I took the box with me to class and unloaded it all on my desk.  In the box was several packages of M&Ms, cookies, gum, cds, a visor, sunglasses and teddy bear for Haley, a sweet card, and tonse of Crystal Lite type packages.  This was such a special package to receive, and we know that it was sent with lots of love!

Rain Boots

Haley's new obsession is Rain Boots.  My mom gave her a pair of pink strawberry rainboots for her birthday in July.  The were so big on her then, but almost fit her well now.  She always picks them up and asks me to put them on.  Tonight after dinner and before her bath she was running around her room in nothing but her diaper and rainboots.

Newsletter

Fitzgerald Family Newsletter February.

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Superman...

I flew like superman, and it was so much fun.  I had a chest harness and another lower harnes, so my midsection was squeezed out.  This video makes me look a lot heavier than I am, but I don't care.  You will be jealous that you didn't get to do something so awesome.

My birthday and Monteverde

This weekend Matt, Haley and I took a trip about 5 hours from here to a place called Monteverde.  The ride was long (although only 5 hours away).  About 3 hours into the trip, we hit dirt roads and were on them the rest of the way there.  The roads were curvy and steep and really only made for one vehicle at a time, but as they do in Honduras, the bigger vehicle has the right away, and the smaller vehicle must move to the side or back up.  We left at 2 in the afternoon, so Haley slept a good deal of the way, which I am sure everyone appreciated.

The road was long, but it was beautiful.  We saw all parts of God's creation on our way to Monteverde.  About an hour and a half from San Jose we got to a road along the beach.  The tide was in when we drove by so the waves were crashing close to the road.  The swells were about 4 feet, which isn't enormous, but it isn't the gulf of Mexico either.  A while later, as we were climint the mountain, we could see other mountains in the distance, and at the horizon we could see the Nicoyan Peninsula.  We climbed some more and saw Lake Nicaragua in the horizon with mountains everywhere.

The greatest difference in these mountains and the mountains I generally think of is the color.  All sorts of colors spread over the landscape.  The combinations are much more beautiful and creative than any landscape architect could create.  Our bus driver told us we couldn't even imagine the beauty of it all during rainy season.  He is right I couldn't.

After 5 hours, in the bus, we arived at the place that we were going to stay.  There were several little cabins in the midst of nature.  Some of the cabins had two rooms and in one room was a couple and in the other was a group of single people.  We were so excited to find out that the three of us had our own cabin.  Ours was a one bed room cabin.  It was simple, but it was great.  We would prefer a simple cabin in the middle of God's creation over a fancy hotel any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  We arrived just at sunset, so Matt, Haley and I walked down the hill to watch the sunset over the mountains and over Lake Nicaragua.  It was very peaceful and serene.  Sunsets in the midst of nature is one of my favorite parts of God's glorious creation.

After a few minutes to change clothes and use the restroom, we loaded back into the bus to drive in to town and eat supper.  We ate at a place called THE TREE HOUSE.  The building was built around a tree, and the restaurant was on the second floor of the building, thus giving it the feel of a treehouse.  It was neat to have a tree right through the middle of the building.  The branches were cut off on the inside of the restaurant, but the outside branches were allowed to flourish.  Therefore when you passed by the restaurant, you would not see a restaurant, but a tree.

Saturday after breakfast we headed for our bridges and canopy tours.  First we did the bridge tour.  This was a series of 9 suspension bridges and in between each bridge we had a time to hike.  As we walked through the rainforrest, I saw more shades of green than I ever knew existed.  Some of the foliage was florecent, and others were dark.  Because we are in the dry season, not as much was in bloom; however, there were still many berries and blooms to catch our eyes.  There were more different types of trees than I have seen in my life.  Some had vines growing down them, some were hallow.  Some were skinny, others were fat!  Many trees had brightly colored bromiliads growing from them; others had moss (and like everything else, more moss than I knew existed).  I knew bromiliads grew in the rainforrest, but actually seeing them in their natural environment was so neat.

As we walked on the bridge tour Haley rode in a backpack designed to carry babies.  She thought that was funny.  She kept trying to grab the trees and the suspension wires on the bridges.  She made silly faces, laughed, and giggled for most of the two hour hike.  Upon the last bridge, we had two options, climb up the inside of a braided tree (much like rock climbing, using the braids of the tree and some rope steps that had been attached) or to skip the bridge and go up the trail.  Since Matt was carrying Haley he walked up the trail because he and the baby could not have both gone up.  I, however climbed the inside of the tree.  This was fun, and who would have ever thought you could climb the inside of a tree?

After the bridge tour, I got to do the canopy tour.  Since we had Haley with us, only one of us could do the canopy tour.  Matt said since it was my birthday on Saturday, I could do the canopy tour.  I love canopy tours!!  I did the first one with my dad about 8 or 9 years ago in Roatan, and since then I have done canopies about 10 times.  As we put the harnesses on, they asked, who wants to fly like superman.  I said that I did, so they put an extra harness on me.  It has always been my dream to fly like superman.  Each canopy was progressively longer, with the last one being 750 meters.  I learned that I could go faster by pulling my legs closer to my body.  I zipped through the air from one line to another seeing even more of God's glory below me.  This was unlike any canopy I had been on because not all of the lines were near each other.  There was a couple canopies that we had to hike several minutes uphill to get to the next line.  Before the second line, all of the canopy guides gathered around and sang happy birthday to me.  Then, I handed one my camera and asked if he would take a few pictures of me on the canopies.  He was only at every fourth canopy, but I still got some neat pictures.

 At the end of the tour they asked who still wanted to fly like superman.  I most definately still did, but I wanted it on video too.  They changed my harness up some for me to prepare to fly and the guide said he would film me.  I thought this meant he would go to the other side and film my landing.  However, there were two canopies side by side and I flew on one and he did the canopy regularly on the other.  The video is great except that between the double harness and the force of gravity, all of my chub around my midsection was pulled down to make me look much heavier than I really am. 

The last part of the canopy was optional.  It was a Tarzan swing.  This was much like a bungee jump, but you didn't go straight down.  The Tarzan swing started on a bridge 40 meters in the air, that is a little higher than 12 stories.  They hooked the carrabiners in a few places and handed me some ropes and said HANG ON AND DON'T LET GO!!  I wasn't going to let go for anything.  I told them I really wanted to do this, but they would have to push me.  I was pushed before I could even finish my sentence.  At first, there was a freefall.  I told Matt it must have been at least 10 seconds.  He reminded me that if I dd freefall for that long I would not be here writing about my experience.  Really, I fell for less than a second.  The rope swang back and forth through the trees until the belayer down below helped me off.  What an adrenaline rush that was, but it was probably one of the scariest physical things I have done in my life.

Saturday night, after seeing the biggest, brightest rainbow I have ever seen, we had a barbeque at the place we staye.  The owner made so much meat, more than any of us could eat.  I had already eaten a piece of pork, yuca, and salad when they brought me a silver platter with two more pieces of meat right off the grill.  As they gave it to me they wished me a happy birthday.  I felt honored to be served on a silver platter, and although I was not hungry anymore, I didn't want to offend my host.  Matt and Haley helped me eat the meat.  Also, my friends Chuck and Mary, who are like grandparents for Haley, surprised me after dinner and had bought a cake in the afternoon while they were in town.  What a sweet surprise that was.

Today we had a peaceful ride home veiwing God's beautiful scenery.  Towards the end, we stopped at the beach for a few pictures, and Haley and I got very sandy.  I can't wait to take Haley to the beach for more than a few minutes

Beignets

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 envelope active dry yeast  (or 1 T of the bagged yeast from Hipermas)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup evaporated milk
7 cups bread flour
1/4 cup shortening
Oil, for deep-frying
3 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

Mix water, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl and let sit for 10 minutes.

In another bowl, beat the eggs, salt and evaporated milk together. Mix egg mixture to the yeast mixture. In a separate bowl, measure out the bread flour. Add 3 cups of the flour to the yeast mixture and stir to combine. Add the shortening and continue to stir while adding the remaining flour. Remove dough from the bowl, place onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Spray a large bowl with nonstick spray. Put dough into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a towel. Let rise in a warm place for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oil in a deep-fryer to 350 degrees F.

Roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness and cut into 1-inch squares. Deep-fry, flipping constantly, until they become a golden color. After beignets are fried, drain them for a few seconds on paper towels.  Sprinkle powdered sugar over the beignets.

I have always enjoyed eating Beignets with my friends.  My assignment for class tomorrow is to talk about a tradition from my state.  So I am talking about a few things from Louisiana.  Since I could not treat the whole class to Coffee Call or Cafe Du Monde, I decided to learn to make beignets.  I had no idea how it would turn out, but it turned out well.  The are not quite as good as beignets in Louisiana, but they are close.  Matt, Haley and I enjoyed the beignets when they were hot!  These are best enjoyed with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate.

Change

The other day Matt and I were talking about how the first three years of Haley's life she will have lived in a different country each for one year.  By the time we get to Honduras, we will have been married 4 years, and will have already lived in four different apartments before we get to Honduras.  We will have lived in Searcy, AR, Baton Rouge, LA, and San Jose CR.  We have worked several jobs and attended various churches.  Our life, since we got married has forever been in a state of transition, but each stage has been a step of reaching our goal of helping people in Honduras.  It is hard to feel a sense of permanence in any place because we know that we will only be in that place for a time.  We have really learned that the city, state, country, and world where we live at the moment are not our home, but we are just sorjourners passing through until we can be in heaven with our God.

During all of these life changes, we have made friends in each place.  We have learned that things don't matter that much because we have very little that is our own, therefore we are not very attached to anything.  Also, every time we leave one place for another we get rid of everything that is not necessary for continuing life in the next spot.  We are much more attached to people.  We have learned it is always great to make new friends, and it is always hard to say goodbye.

Our life seems like it will never settle down and be rutine.  It probably won't.  We love our life, and I am greatful to God for teaching us what things in life really matter.  I pray that he will continue to mold us to be more like him.

My hurting heart

When we decided to become missionaries, we knew that it would be very difficult to be far away from those we love.  Sometimes however, it is harder than other.  I have lamented that I would not be with my dear friend Katy as she gets married, nor will I be with Alison and Tonya as their dear babies are born this summer.  However, these are happy occasions, and Katy and Mark, Alison and Matthew, and Tonya and Trevor are going to be rejoicing together.  It is much harder for me to be away during the bad times.  When I got home from school this afternoon, my mom called to inform me that Carol, Mammaw's husband, of almost 9 years died in his sleep last night.  My heart is hurting right now, for it is aching to be with Mammaw in her time of pain.  I know Mammaw is just so sad right  now, for her heart is broken.  I know she never coped very well after losing Pepaw and Ryan.  I just do not think she will be able to handle losing Carol.  While I was never close to Carol, I appreciated him because Mammaw cared so much for him.  Please pray that God's peace will rest on Mammaw and that my mom will have safe travels tomorrow as she goes to be with Mammaw.

Haley, do you want some cake?

Click here to see a funny video of Haley trying to get some more cake after she already had dinner and a piece of cake. She was full to the brim, but there is always room for more cake.

I ATE CROW!!

One of Haley's rules is that she cannot be a picky eater. We are going to live in a place where many children do not eat every day, and when they do eat, they would never reject it. If she doesn't eat it for lunch, she is served it again at snack in the afternoon. If she still doesn't eat it, it becomes her dinner. This might sound a little mean, but it works. She always eats her food, even if she doesn't like it. Well today, I was put in a situation where I had to follow the same rule. We bought some sandwich ham at the store that tasted much more like bologna. I HATE BOLOGNA!! My first thought was as soon as Lili goes to bed, this is going in the trash and I will eat watermelon for lunch. I had to rethink that. If I make Haley eat what she is served, I must also eat what I am served. Matt asked me if I was going to eat the sandwich, and I said, "Of course I am, I certainly don't want to eat this for supper!" Matt laughed and said, "I will eat it for you and you can just have watermelon." Ooooh, he was reading my mind. I said that it wasn't fair for me to make Haley not be a picky eater and for me to be one. So, I finished my sandwich, not enjoying it very much but feeling much less hypocritical than I would have felt if I had just skipped to the yummy watermelon.

Do you ever make your kids do things and wish that you did not have to do the same things?

Traditions

I just got done writing a paper about traditions. I love traditions; they have always been special to me. Growing up, things like Easter basket cupcakes, ghost cookies, and the giant Christmas tree cookie made from various sizes of star cookies were things I always looked forward to making with my mom. I loved dying Easter eggs and watching fire works. Now, I even love the tradition of blackeyed peas and corn bread. I will even keep my mom's tradition of not doing laundry on New Years (Any day I don't have to do laundry is a good day). I loved decorating for Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. I loved every detail we took to set up the Snow Village. I loved shopping for Thanksgiving the Sunday before Thanksgiving and planning out our big menu every year. I loved our family Christmas Party on Christmas Eve where we would make all of our favorite snacks, pig out, play games and read The Polar Express.

We had several traditions when I was growing up. Every one of them was special to me, while to Ryan and Nathan they were more give-or-take. As different holidays approach now, I love starting some new traditions with Haley and continuing others that I did as a kid.

Please tell me what are some of your favorite family traditions?

Valentines with Haley

Since tomorrow is Valentinies Day, I helped Haley make some Valentines to give to the kids in her class. I cut out some little doggies and hearts and she helped me glue them together. Then I put lipstick on her and let her kiss each valentine. She thought the lipstick was funny and it was definately her favorite part. Happy Valentines Day from Haley.

Stuffed Pasta

I love trying to make new things, I don't like trying to find recipes for the ingredients I can easily find here in Costa Rica without spending a fortune. Tonight, I made stuffed pasta shells that turned out great. I am going to start sharing my recipes on her ocassionally (or at least as close to it as I can since I don't measure anything.)

For the stuffing:
1lb of ground beef partially browned (if you put it in raw, it won't cook enough, if you put it in brown it will be dry when you eat it.)
1 cup of cream cheese
1/2 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup of fresh parsley
3-4 cups of spinach (i'm really not sure on this one. it looked like a little less than a bag of spinach from walmart)
salt and pepper

Mix these ingredients together and stuff into cooked pasta shells. Be careful to not rip the shells. Pour a jar of your favorite tomato sauce on top of the shells and layer with Mozzerella cheese. Set the oven at 350 and bake for 30 minutes. I added Tony's and Badia Complete seasoning with the sauce, but this was preference of our family, it would be good with out it too.

Saturdays at the feria

Saturday morning we always get up and either make pancakes or french toast. This morning we had neither pancake mix nor bread so I went and got a couple donuts. After we all get ready, we walk about amile away to the produce market. It is not huge like the one in Tegucigalpa, but it is good enough for us. If you cook much in Loisiana, you know that parsley is almost as important as Tony's and Tabasco in your cooking. I have been looking for fresh parsley everywhere for several weeks. I had pretty much given up on it because the main herb they use in cooking here is cilantro. Everything has cilantro in it. I kept thinking if they can grow so much cilantro they should be able to grow a few parsley plants. Finally, this morning, I walked passed a booth and they had both fresh parsley and fresh spinach. Perfect. I was so excited to find this.

The spinach is another story in itself. I have always bought spinach trimmed, cleaned and bagged. I never thought much about how those leaves got into the bags. I guess I just imagined that the fell to the ground and were gathered and cleaned. I don't know, I just didn't think about it. Well I saw spinach last week and picked it up and thought this can't be spinach, spinach is always sold just as leaves. I was in a store and they had some stuff that looked like what I thought might be spinach and sure enough it was. Sometimes I feel pretty silly when I don't even recognize vegetables because they are not cleaned and packaged like I am used to seeing them. I felt less bad when I was buying my spinach and my friend asked me what it was. She had never seen spinach like that either.

Like mother, Like Daughter. Friday night fun night

Last week, Matt and I decided we would go for a date tonight and get someone to watch Haley. Well, last night, Haley slept very poorly and had two new teeth this morning. I felt in her mouth that two more are coming shortly. Matt and I know how mean and grumpy Haley can be when her mouth hurts, so we decided to not leave her with a new person and the three of us would just go out to eat together.

After playing at the park a while, we came home to change and told Haley to be a good girl because we were going to the mall. She smiled big and said MALL! Haley was so sweet and well behaved all the way to the mall, even though the lid on her milk cup wasn't put on good and she had more milk on her shirt than in her belly. At the mall, I got a long awaited Spicy Chicken sandwich and Matt and Haley shared Taco Bell. Haley ate all of her food and we got Frosty's (I got my own and Haley and Matt shared). With each bite she smiled and danced a little bit. A few times she even clapped her hands.

After indulging oursleves in grease and chocolate, we walked into a few stores in the mall before walking home. One store was a shoe store and if I picked up a shoe that I liked she would shake her head and say YES! She loves shoes, just like her mommy.

Matt always tells people that Haley got all of her personality from me. Evidently that includes the love of malls, shoes and frosties. I love that little girl! She never ceases to make me laugh.

Mississippi Girl Spanish

Many years ago when I traveled to Mississippi for the first time with my friends from Mississippi, I laughed histerically when some of my friends who "knew Spanish" spoke it. While at the time I knew only a couple phrases, I knew it was not supposed to sound the way they spoke it. But at least the were trying, right?

My junior year of highschool I took Mrs. Polk's Spanish 1. I didn't really try in her class, and I didn't really learn anything either (I'm not sure anyone learned anything). Mrs. Polk had been an English major in college, but had taken a few Spanish classes so she was put in charge of teaching us Spanish. Mrs. Polk had never been out of Mississippi and had never had a real conversation with a native speaker. I remember her Spanish sounding much like my friends' Spanish our first summer in Honduras.

Today I walked into my grammar class and in the thickest Mississippi accent I could muster (I don't have much of an accent anymore unless I am tired or angry) I said "Owla, como estis? Jo sowee Nicole." Very sarcasticly (and trying not to laugh) my teacher said she was pleased to meet me. She then asked me how Latin Americans sound when they are trying to learn English. So I said a few common frases. When everyone got to class she said I will talk like a gringo who is just learning Spanish if you will talk like a Latin American who is trying to learn English. We had a short conversation, both of us completely butchering our native tongue. It is always good to remember that we make mistakes and that we should laugh at our mistakes. Our little conversation was a dramatization of how we gringos appear to native Spanish speakers and how they sound to us. It was nice to just laugh at ourselves for a little while.

Testing tomorrow

Tomorrow starts another round of tests. Matt and I each have tests in our conversation classes. Matt has no way to study for his because his teacher is just going to ask random questions and he has to b esure to answer them. My test is just a 10-15 minute presentation of some party I have attended in my life. Monday's tests are going to be brutal though. On Monday we both have grammar tests which will include very difficult material for both of us. Please keep us in your prayers as we study and try to reinforce the information our teachers have been working so hard to teach us.

It might be snowing where you are but it is warm here!

All over the states there have been torrential snow storms. We however will not be getting any snow any time soon. Today, the high was about 82. Last week we bought Haley a little splash pool, and have been getting good use out of it. Her swimsuit is a little tight, so after her nap we just take her school clothes off, rub her down in sun screen and let her splash in the pool for a while before we put her in shorts and take her to the park. It is the perfect size for our little girl, and when she sees it she says BAF! She loves water and splashing in it. Enjoy a few pictures.

Public Transportation

Life without a car means walking or taking taxis or buses everywhere we go. Taxis are very expensive, so we try to take a bus whenever something is beyond walking distance. Haley always makes bus riding an interesting experience. One time she managed to score a baloon to help her stop crying. A mom took it away from her older child thinking Haley would stop crying. Haley has been a pick pocketer. Actually, she was a pick braer. Most women here keep things they don't want stolen in their bra (sometimes even their cell phones, which creates lumps where there shouldn't be lumps). Haley pulled the lady's shirt down and stole the passport and money that were wrapped in a baggie right out of an older lady's bra. Needless to say, I was mortified. Yesterday, we learned that Haley is always going to have to be watched carefully because the entire 30 minutes bus ride to Los Guidos, Haley was flirting with the man standing above us on the bus. She was blowing him kisses and batting her long, pretty little eye lashes at him and giving him her prettiest smile. This was an important lesson to me that we have got to teach that little girl not to talk to strangers! As we left Los Guidos we were in the rush hour traffic and everyone on the road was honking, so Haley decided to join them by going "beeep beep beeeep" all the way home.

We hope to continue to be able to share with you experiences different than what we are used to in the States. I think traveling on public transportation will always be an experience for us, at least as long as Haley is with us.

Wha ees ju nai?

The girls and boy that eagerly came to learn English.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that Matt and I had been presented with an opportunity to serve in a poor community about 20 minutes from here. We went out there to see the place a week and a half ago, and committed to coming on Tuesdays starting today. My task is to teach some children English. This is funny because I always told God that I didn't want to teach English. Well, I prayed to him to provide for us a clear, and very shortly thereafter, Noel approached me in the park and asked us to help him in his ministry.





I am very much out of my element teaching English. At the same time it makes me have a deeper appreciation for my sweet teachers and their pacience with gingo after gringo struggling to learn the Spanish language and our butchering of their words. I did not come with any teaching materials, but there are a few flash cards at the building where we work. I worked on the alphabet and colors. Then I tried to teach them a few greetings. For the most part these little girls do not have a shy bone in their body, but when it came to trying to say words in English, they were filled with embarassment because they knew they sounded silly. It was hard to keep them focused, so I know I change up what I do to make their experience both educational and fun.





Some of the phrases we worked on today:


"Hello, my name is Nicole. What is your name?"


"How are you?"


"I am good. How are you?"


"Goodbye. I will see you later?"





Each young lady tried so hard to say these phrases. We went in a circle and two by two the girls would act out the conversation. Next week, instead of teaching one mixed class I will teach the younger children (7-12) in a class from 3-4 and the teenagers in a class from 4-6.





While I was teaching the class, Matt was in front of the church teaching some guys how to throw a football Americano. Some of them have expressed interest in learning this foriegn game. I think really it was more of a learning experience for Matt, not because he doesn't know football, but some of the things he saw in the community.





Please pray for us in this new ministry venture, and if you have any suggestions of how to teach English as a second language to kids please leave a comment.

Que Pena!

Sometimes attending church in a different language is difficult for obvious reasons. Yesterday was impossible to understand anything said from the front of the auditorium because Haley was determined to not allow us to participate in worshiping with our Costa Rican family. She was the world's best behaved child for all of a minute and a half. After that, she decided to flail her body and scream as if someone was beating her. She took her sippy cup of milk and hurled it as hard as she possibly could and screamed, "NO!" I took her to the back of the building thinking I could straighten her out. She settled down, and a few minutes later I took her back to the auditorium. We were not all the way settled down before she had another outburst for the entire congregation to witness. This pattern continued for all of the worship service. Finally, the service ended, and we were going to leave and not stay for class because they were not having children's classes. On our way out, the preacher stopped us and asked that we stay at least for part of it because he was informing the church about his trip to Haiti last week. We agreed, and Haley's attitude changed, at least for a few minutes. Ronald, the preacher, was showing each of his many hundred pictures with a story on each one. After about the 75th picture and the second day of his trip (no i'm not kidding) Haley reached her limit and there was no turning. back. She threw herself on the ground with her arms crossed and wailed. We knew at this point there was no calming down. We scurried out the back as quietly as we could, disciplined Haley and walked into the parking lot only to find that the gate out of the parking lot appeared to be locked. Fortuneately, it was only dummy locked which means that to a passerby a gate looks locked, but the pad lock is not actually locked.

Que pena means "how embarassing" I was so embarrassed by Haley's behavior. We try daily to teach her right from wrong and what proper behavior is. She is only 1 1/2 and many times forcing her to sit still for 2 1/2 hours of church service is worse than forbidding a dog to not pee on a fire hydrant. We come prepared with snacks, juice, books, and a doll, but for a busy little girl it is just so hard to sit still. To add salt to the wound, several members of the congregation asked, "Why was Lili crying so much?" "Why wouldn't she calm down?" or even "Next time would you like me to take her? I won't let her cry." Really? You think I am just allowing her to cry and don't care how she behaves? Yesterday as we left the building, I could feel the stress leaving me, for I knew little miss grumpy would go to sleep on the way home.

What has your child done to embarass you in a church setting?

DAY OFF!!!

Haley buying groceries

Mateo the Payaso

Pirate Haley

Haley driving on Mars

One thing the administrative people at our school understand well is the need for an extra day off once and a while so that we don't all throw our hands up in surrender never to speak Spanish again. On these days it is our goal to do as little studying as possible and have as much fun as possible with our little precious girl. We decided we would take her to the children's museum in central San Jose. This is such a fun museum. It once was a prison, and refurbished prison cells make excellent exhibits for a child with a very short attention span. Almost everthing in the museum is interactive, which is great for little fingers that like to touch things. We didn't take the time to read the facts about different things to Haley, so really it was just a great time of play. Before we left this morning we packed sandwiches, cookies and chips, only having to buy drinks for each of us. We left the museum and had to walk about a mile back to the bus stop. Within the first couple hundred yards Haley was asleep in my arms, and we new if we switched her into Matt's arms she would have woken and screamed. Twenty seven pounds feels so much heavy when it is dead, sleeping weight. We had a fun, family day, and we spent less than $10 on the 2 bus rides and the time in the museum. Can't beat that.

Miss Independence

Haley is now 18 months and has learned two things recently: how to say no to everything and that she would rather do things herself, even things she is not big enough to do herself yet.

Today, as we were leaving for the park, she was not going to get in the stroller. We told her she could walk but had to hold our hands as we crossed the street. When it came time to cross the street, she said down in the middle of it and said no. For that I carried her the rest of the way to the park. At the park she climbs and slides and sits on the swing like a big girl. She wants to run onto the soccer court (I know we say soccer field, but this is a basket ball court that guys play soccer on) to play soccer with grown men. She never wants help from us, and screams when we do try to help her. She tries to brush her teeth by herself, tries to undress herself, tries to put her own shoes on. She wants to drink out of cups like her Mommy and Daddy do (without lids). I cannot believe how much she is growing up.

God, thank you for the health of my little girl to be able to play and run. I pray that she grows up to love you and to be your servant.