Our house- or a zoo?

Yes, our house is turning into a zoo. We saw Miguelito (the bat) for the first time today. But after the war of the wasps (which has proven successful) we had the war of the bird and the war of the mice (in which we are still engaged). The war of the bird occurred when a bird flew into our house and was too frightened to escape. Because we have very high, vaulted, ceiling the bird thought that safety was up and would not leave. Eventually, by usage of a broom (not to hurt the bird but make it fly instead of stay up in our ceiling) and turning on and off the lights, the bird eventually flew outside. As for the war of the mice, we discovered that the place in which we thought Miguelito lived was actually frequented by mice. After cleaning out piles of mouse droppings and cleaning out the pantry, we began our siege. Unfortunately, we could not buy mousetraps and had to buy the sticky traps instead. Daniel was the one who sacrificed by "spanking" the mice to give them a quick, painless demise. Unfortunately, if we let them live they would continue to climb all over our stove, counters, pantry, clean dishes, and even soap (weird mice). We've gotten rid of two so far.

Onto other news... we're both so excited about being able to post this blog. We've been moved into our apartment for a little over a week now, and are still waiting on getting our telephone connection (things take a while here). So we are using a friend's dial-up. Last week we received our stove, bed, and got our electricity hooked up. So, we're almost all set. Today we even received the last of our boxes! Last week was teacher training and getting ready for school. We spent the weekend cleaning, painting cinder blocks and wood for shelves, screening our windows (from the outside- which required Daniel to walk on a narrow ledge around the outside of our house), and shopping for items for our house.

Today was the "big day." Our students arrived this morning, eager to meet their teachers (or so we like to think). Today was a half-day and we spent much of the day explaining procedures, etc. I have 10 students in my 4th grade class. Daniel has 5 in his 6th grade class, 4 in 7th grade, and 10 in 8th grade. He's been temporarily promoted to teach music and art for 6-8 grade as well (the art/music teacher is filling in for 1st grade until we get a 1st grade teacher). Please pray that this will work out soon (we may have a possibility). Anyone want to move to the D.R.? Daniel and I are both excited for the rest of the year.

As far as other matters go, electricity hasn't been too bad. It's still off often (it's off right now, actually), but what's been worse is the water. It's off most of the day. It's usually on in the morning or evening, sometimes even both! But sometimes "on" means a trickle and would be worthless to do much with besides wash a few dishes (and even that takes a while). But, we're adjusting to it. Right now we're hoping to find some sort of transportation (maybe mountain bikes?) We'll see how it goes.

Well, that's all for now. We'll post pictures once we get our own Internet connection. :) God bless you all, and thank you for your prayers!