We'll start with last weekend. On Saturday we took a walk and had a picnic by a river with some teacher friends. That night we attempted to watch the Olympics, to no avail, because the D.R. does not carry NBC. :( Maybe they'll come out with a highlights video...
On Monday, since it's our date night, and Tuesday is our "dinner party" night, we celebrated Valentines day. Daniel cooked a wonderful dinner for me consisting of grilled marinated flank steak, roasted potatoes, and a green bean- bell pepper salad. For dessert I made white chocolate covered strawberries. It was a delighful meal! He also brought me flowers for my Valentine gift (he tricked me by telling me he needed to run out for Salsa China (soy sauce). We relaxed and enjoyed our evening together.
At school the next day, I was amazed at how many people made a big deal out of Valentine's Day. I received more gifts from my students that day than I did for Christmas! The school was also doing a fundraiser by selling candy, flowers, or balloons and delivering them to the person that you bought it for. It was a fairly crazy day, and I was glad when it was time to go home. :) We had yummy taco casserole at Leah's that night.
The rest of the week went by quickly, but I was ready for the weekend. On Friday night we had a family from church over (The Vandermulens). They have 4 very cute children of different ages that they adopted. After dinner, we all went to JCS for movie night. We had a great time and won a prize for brining the most guests (some candy). :)
Saturday was work day. We went grocery shopping, bought a plastic outdoor table, made yogurt, bread, and muffins, and went to a couple's house for dinner (lasagna... yummy). Today we've relaxed and done some work so we can be caught up at school since Daniel's parents are coming on Wednesday. We're so excited! So is Chai... aren't you? Well, she would be, but she's too busy giving herself a bath.
So, that's all the news for now. We sent out a email update a week ago. If you aren't on our list and want to be, let us know.
God bless!
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Saturday, February 04, 2006
1 1-derful Year!
What a wonderful anniversary celebration! We left Friday straight from school with 8 other adults and 2 children. Daniel and I drove one car with another teacher. When we arrived 4+ hours later, we discovered that the hotel we were to stay in had given away our rooms, save one. Luckily, there was another hotel two blocks away that had rooms for the same price (we went cheap this night). We awoke on Saturday and hoped to go whale watching, but were told that the ocean was too rough. So, we decided to flip flop our plans and drive to Las Terrenas. On the way, we stopped and hike to a beautiful waterfall called Salto Limon. (lemon falls) Although the water was freezing cold, we all got in and swam. The falls had a little cave underneath so we swam underneath the falls. It was pretty cool. J Then, we proceeded to hike back and drive to our hotel in Las Terrenas (oh yea, and one of the other drivers left the lights on and a Dominican had to jump start it by taking his battery out of his car and using a normal appliance cord. It was quite exciting). Once at the hotel (a much nicer one- we splurged), Daniel and I went to the beach for a walk. It soon began to rain, but we had fun anyway. We hung out for a little bit, some at the pool, and some in our room, and eventually went out to dinner at a fondue restaurant (by ourselves). It was very nice-the beach was right across the road. After that, we headed back to the hotel and watched Emma (the movie).
The next day, we got up for an early anniversary breakfast and then headed with the gang back to Samana for whale watching. We went with a larger boat, and an American marine biologist. We had a lot of fun. Almost as soon as we were out in the bay, we spotted a humpback whale. We then proceeded to follow him (at a good distance) for a while, and saw him numerous times. Unfortunately, we could not go further into the ocean because the waves were still rough.
The boat dropped us off at a little island. It was the typical tropical island everyone dreams about. We relaxed, swam, got sun, etc. The other teachers let us drive back separately to give us more alone time. When we got home we made lemon poppy seed cake. J
All in all, we had a very enjoyable trip. We feel truly blessed that God gave us this amazing opportunity and brought things together even when it seemed things would not work. I don’t believe I’ve ever been anywhere as beautiful as the Samana peninsula with the beach coming right up to the mountains. Though, I have never seen snow-capped mountains, so that might win.
As to thoughts of the 1 year itself, all I can say is- God is good! I absolutely love being married to Daniel and I know that God is blessing our marriage daily. Thank you all for your love and support in our lives.
Friday, February 03, 2006
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