Cultural Day

Below is the pictures from our cultural day at school. Aaron and I took a Latin dance class and then Latin children's game class. It was a great day but we were exhausted by the time bed time came around. But it was a great day to learn more about Latin culture. At the end of the end of the pictures there is a picture of Mylee and I but I have my new specs (glasses) on. Aaron thinks they make me look a little smarter. I guess whatever works, huh! Thanks for visiting.

Cultural Day

Disconnected- Cut off

Yes we are currently not connected to the internet. Yes we are currently bumming off any friend that will allow us to use their internet. We had asked for our internet to be turned off April 24th. March 24th showed up and we found our internet connection disconnected. Imagine that. So when trying to have it reconnected, we found it was going to take a 5 step process including more money and a house call and found it not to be worth it for only 28 days left. So I guess that leaves time for other stuff now, like packing!!! This blog entry will have no pictures and I might try to get some up this week but I can't promise anything. As of this point we still do not have visa papers to allow us to head to Mexico. Therefore we still do not have airline tickets either. We will keep you posted but we still have 3 weeks to go. So plenty of time! Thanks for checking in and keep checking periodically as I am not sure when pictures will be posted! Have a great week!

Toothless Grin

This past week was a milestone in Mylee's life. For the past 3 weeks or so, Mylee has been saying she has a loose tooth and once I even felt it and it didn't move. So I figured her friends at school were loosing teeth and saying this so she was too. Then on Tuesday she told me again and then showed me and sure enough she was telling the truth. Wednesday came around and I asked to touch it and when I did I thought it was going to fall out right then because it was sooooooo loose. So I asked her if I could go ahead and pull it, persuading her with the "surprise" that would be under her pillow in the morning if she puts her tooth under there. So she said okay. So with some toilet paper it came right out. It took me a couple tries in order to get the correct grip but it only bled a little bit. So now we have a toothless grin everytime she smiles. Pretty cute. The Toothfairy left her 1000 colones which is about 2 dollars. I guess with inflation and all, kids are getting a little more these days=). Or the tooth fairy wanted to give her some paper money, instead of a coin because she gets coins all the time. So she wanted it to be extra special and the 1000 colones is the smallest Costa Rica has in bills. Oh well. Below is the link to take you to the toothless grin! See you next week.

Toothless Grin

Costa Rican Mountains

Last Sunday we had the privilege of accompanying our Costa Rican friends, Ronald and Marcela and their two children, on a visit to their home in the mountains they are building little by little. So far they have the living room, kitchen, bathroom and a wrap around porch. Underneath there are 3 bedrooms and 1 more bathroom in the making. We left at 8am and drove for about an hour to get there. The last 30 minutes were on a dirt gravel road. But the view was breath taking when we arrived.

The day started off with a little hike up the dirt road to a SMALL town near by. We met a friend of theirs in the town. At one point on his land you could look out and see the ocean that is about a two hour drive to get there, past the mountains. It was incredible. After we walked back, it was time to get lunch going and the kids wanted to play in the water. The whole time we were there the wind was SO strong. However in the sun it was pretty warm. But the kids didn't care one bit that the wind was a bit cold. They had a blast.

For lunch we had chicken and steak on the grill with potato salad, chips and salsa and bean dip. It was all very tasty. After lunch the boys took a hike down the mountain to see a spring fed river. Aaron thoroughly enjoyed this. Meanwhile Marcela and I chatted at the cabin. We were a little nervous that we were going to be speaking in Spanish the whole day but we did it! The time finally came that we had to pack up and head home. We had an excellent day with new friends; one that will not be forgotten in our thoughts and memories. Below is the link to the pictures we took from that day! See you next week!

Costa Rican Mountains

Ladies Retreat #2

This past weekend I was able to attend a Ladies Retreat like the last one I attended last June when we first arrived here. I found this one to be a lot more meaningful for me. I realized how important it is to woship and be fed spiritually in your heart language. During the first session I was just eating up all her words and worshipping with all my heart. I love to worship in Spanish but it is harder when you don't understand some of the words. But as the spanish language becomes easier for us it will be easier to worship.

The theme for the weekend was Forgiveness and Repentance. I was in charge of getting together Dramas for each session. We (my friends and I) prepared one Human video to Chris Tomlin's song Amazing Grace, My Chains are Gone. The other two were skits I just made up and one was even more improv. It was really fun. There were 4of us in a room together. We had thought two of us were going to have to share a bed but we got there and saw we had 4 beds in the room. So we thanked God for that blessing. But we had lots of chocolate given to us that we said thanks for also!

I think the best thing that came from the weekend was me asking God how I can become a more submissive wife and what exactly it means to be just that. And since then on three different occasions I have been given information on how to be a submissive wife. I guess God thinks this is really important to learn so I am going to try my best to learn it. Below is the link for some pictures from the weekend. I didn't take any pics of the pool because I did that last time. You can find those pics in the archives from June of 2008. Check back early next week for our pics from our time in the mountains with our friends. Ya'll come back now, ya hear! =)

Ladies Retreat

Manuel Antonio

This past weekend we went to the final place that we wanted to visit before leaving Costa Rica. We went to a place called Manuel Antonio which is a group of beaches. This is also the place of the Manuel Antonio National Park which has the prettiest beaches inside the park. At first we thought we were not going to be able to go into the park because of contaminated water but it was open so we swam on faith! The weekend all together was very fun. It was about a 5 hour bus ride including breaks. We were a little nervous about Evie because this was her first trip being potty trained but we had no accidents. We got a little nervous at the end of the trip when we were sitting in traffic after driving for an hour and a half and still had about an hour to go so we put a diaper on her just in case but it was dry when we got home. So we were so proud of her. I think our most memorable time we had at the beach was when we sat down on Saturday to have lunch in the National Park. One of the features of the park is all the wildlife they have inside of it. Well during lunch we were able to see first hand the wild life with 3 raccoons that were very bold and came within about 2 feet of our food. The girls were a little nervous about this. So I had to get up and kick sand at them to scare them away. One of the park guides even helped me once. I did this about 4-5 times before they realized that this woman is getting more violent every time. So they finally gave up. But then a little monkey showed up but he didn't want our food so he posed for a few pics! Below is the link to see some of the pictures of the weekend. Other people said they were going to be sending me some so we'll get those up at a later time!

Please pray for us this week as we will be celebrating our son Daeton's birthday (born before Mylee but is in the arms of Jesus) on Wednesday, the 4th of February. It was 6 years ago but still fresh on our minds.

I will also be attending a Woman's Retreat this coming weekend that I have written dramas for. Please pray for the women, that their lives will be changed through the dramas and the message of forgiveness.

Manuel Antonio