Other News: Homemade Fun

I wrote this post before we had internet, and then forgot to post it. Oops... Also of note, though we have internet (YAY) it is VERY slow and spotty, so I doubt we'll be putting up pictures any time soon. :( Maybe I can try to upload some to Picasa overnight and put a link to them here.

So, I haven’t blogged lately. Basically, my internet time has been twice a week, with only a short amount of time to be online and a long list of things to do/look-up. As a result, I haven’t posted much. It’s not worth the time it would take to post pictures, and I haven’t pre-written any blogs to send until now (so I don’t use internet time writing blogs).

I have been taking advantage of the extra time I have from not being online (the extreme frustration and angst at losing internet in the house has been replaced by mild frustration and some refreshment of not having the internet to tempt me to waste time by looking up useful, but not crucial, information). Besides spending time with my little boys, I’ve been spending more time experimenting in the kitchen and working on Christmas presents.

Here are some of the things new things I’ve explored lately:

-homemade mayo

-Making beef jerky in the oven (from ground beef; super cheap and yummy)

-soaking my whole grains before cooking or baking with them (makes them easier to digest and increases the amount of nutrition you receive from them)

-homemade crackers (new recipe)

-protein bars

-veggie broth using the veggie scraps I’d otherwise throw away

-more breakfast dishes: hot cereals (pumpkin, rice, cornmeal, cracked wheat), pancakes using leftover cooked grains or pumpkin, etc.

-new granola bar recipe

I would like to explore homemade sauerkraut, as well as whole wheat pasta. Some other things I want to explore will need to wait until we move back to the States, due to availability.

And, of course, I enjoy baking and cooking the most when I receive help from my big helper(s)!

Christmas Presents:

We’ve decided to do a “Homemade Christmas” theme at our house this year. Since we’re moving this summer, we want to save money and don’t want to give big items that we can’t take back to the States. Our presents for our boys are as follows:

-A sweater and hat for Timmy (it gets cold on the mountain!) I have a confession to make about this gift. I actually started it for Jeremiah and never finished it. So it’s now for Timmy.

-Wooden blocks for Timmy (Daniel’s doing that one)

-A felt car mat for Jeremiah to use with his cars. He loves playing with cars!

-A wooden money box to keep some pesos in (Daniel’s making this too)

-If I have time, I also want to crochet some small ornaments for both of them as well.

So far I’ve started on the sweater (well, continued) and the felt mat. I won’t list other family member’s gifts on the blog however, as they would see it and it would give away the surprise. J

November Newsletter

Newsletter-Finally! And internet!

We recently sent out our November newsletter. It’s been a l-o-n-g time since we’ve written one (which didn’t mean there hadn’t been anything to tell, it just meant we hadn’t gotten around to telling it). Below is the email sent with the newsletter. If you want to receive the newsletter but didn’t, let me know.

Dear Friends and Family,

God has been doing some great things in our life and ministry, though it has been difficult sharing them since we have had major, ongoing problems with Internet and networking at Escuela Caribe. We are now going on two months without Internet to our house, so our contact with the States has been far less than desired. Our newsletter will give you a quick update on life here over the past six months.

Along with sending out our newsletter, we want to let you all know about our plans for next year. In spite of our love for Jarabacoa and the ministry here, we feel God leading us away from the Dominican Republic when my contract expires in May. We had been thinking this way over the summer, but our new house, Teresa’s need for dental work (see newsletter), and our own comfort here in the DR were causing us to second-guess it. After a somewhat long deliberation between staying at Escuela Caribe or moving to Teresa’s parents’ house in North Carolina, God is clearly leading us to Indiana. It was a huge weight off to receive this guidance, but now we face the uncertainties of moving somewhere where we have neither housing nor work, and doing it from another country. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for God’s guidance for our family into the job, church, ministries, and home that He has planned for us.

In Christ,
Daniel, Teresa, Jeremiah, Timothy, and all our animals

No internet

For those of you who still check our blog, we haven't had internet up at the house for over 2 weeks. Once or twice a week I have a few minutes to get online down at school. So... that's why I haven't been posting lately!

Pico Duarte: Pictures

I thought for sure I'd posted the pictures from our Pico Duarte trip; I uploaded them to Picasa a while ago. Looking back, however, I don't see them in a post. If I did and this is a re-post, please ignore. :)

Birthday Pics (and more)

Here they are! (Click through for a larger view)

Here are a few pics from the birthday celebration

And here's what Jer's been up to lately

From Drop Box

And Timmy

From Drop Box

A 5 minute glimpse into "life with toddlers"

This is a good example of how many messes little boys can make!
After breakfast, Timmy let me know very clearly that he wanted down. However, I needed to clean up a mess under the table (I'm guessing it was doggy pee) before I let him down on the floor. Just after cleaning up that mess, I walked over to Timmy and realized that he's made a mess (poos) on his feeding chair (he's had a rash, so we're giving him extra "nakie" time). Thankfully, we'd put a cloth diaper on top of the chair in case such a mess occurred (though this was the first #2 mess). I pick him up, cleaned him off, set him free, and carefully picked up the cloth diaper to take care of the poos. While I was rinsing it out, Timmy decided to spill over the doggy water (left out from last night). Water begins runs all over the floor, and I grab a towel to wipe it up. While I am doing this, Timmy crawls into the living room, stands up, and pees on the floor (and part of a rug). And so I run for another cloth. And then clean Timmy off, and put a diaper on him.
None of these were big messes, but it was a bit funny/overwhelming to have them happen just as I was cleaning up from the last one.
In general, Timmy gets into MUCH more trouble than Jeremiah ever did- unrolling toilet paper, climbing on chairs, tables, tops of sofas, etc. I was apparently spoiled with Jer! Which worries me, because Jer is a pretty intense, active 3 year old! What will Timmy be like at age 3?!

How to make 18 burgers from 2 lbs of ground beef

I knew there must be a way to "stretch" ground beef for burgers, but I'd never tried until now. Last night we had a group over for dinner and we wanted to grill. So, because I've been stretching my ground beef recently with lentils and/or grains, I decided to give it a try in the burgers.

The procedure:
I used, approximately:
2 lbs ground beef
1 1/2-1 3/4 cracked wheat, cooked in 4 C of water (I used a cup of the cooked cracked wheat for bean burgers so make less if it's just for the 2 lbs g. beef; basically use enough so that 1/2 of the mixture is beef, and half is cracked wheat)
1 egg
seasonings: dried basil, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, minced onion, Montreal steak seasoning, salt, pepper
Mix together, form into patties

The Verdict: They turned out well. Everyone seemed to like them, and no one could tell they were half cracked-wheat. Even when I tasted one plain I didn't notice it. So, it's definitely worth the stretching! Lentils are also a good ground beef stretcher in enchiladas, burritos, casseroles, soups, etc.

Birthday fun and a big 3 yr old!

This weekend we celebrated Jer's 3rd birthday. And what a big boy he is! He's learned so much in the past year. He knows the alphabet and can recognize all the letters. He knows many of the sounds they make and can even write a few (H, C, T). He knows the basic shapes, and can count up to 10 in Spanish and 20 in English (though he skips either 15 or 16 whenever he counts), and he likes to count out objects. He loves singing and telling silly stories. He's active, but much more focused on small motor skills (using his hands) than large motor skills. And just yesterday he learned to go down a water-slide!
On Sunday (the day of his actual birthday) we celebrated as a family. Next week we plan on having a joint birthday part for both boys. Since I'll be making a birthday cake for that party, and we had a whole aullama, I decided to make a "birthday" pumpkin pie (and pizza, as Jer is pointing out to me as I tell him what I'm writing). He loved the homemade pizza as well as the pie.
The next day, Monday, we headed to Kaskada water-park in Santiago, along with one the students. We had an absolute blast! I love playing with Jer in general, but this was the best Jer/Timmy play day yet! The water-park had a hug kid section. Think of a large playground surrounded by water, with water running over the stairs and down the slides. The pool was shallow enough for Jeremiah to talk around in it (up to his chest). Throughout the day he built up enough courage to go down the water-slides by himself, and even went down a few without us catching him at the bottom. It was amazing to see his confidence grow. At the end of the day I felt like I truly had a kid, not a toddler anymore. And these slides were super fun and fast- even I enjoyed going on them.
We did take a quick break from the kid section to each go on a few "big kid"/adult water-slides, including the "Kamikaze" that was super high up and dropped at a 70 degree angle (Daniel convinced me to go on it- what a rush- and a bit painful), as well as a few tall, long spiral slides. While we didn't bring our camera, I did find some pics online. Here's one view of the kids play area. And here's another.

Jer's birthday Jer chair

The birthday lion

Timmy enjoying some homemade cheese/avacado pizza

Jeremiah enjoying his pizza

Looking at his TALL card

His birthday pie

Making a 3


Enjoying a birthday present

Mommy Musings

Both boys are actually napping (a rare occurrence) so I thought I'd take a few minutes to blog.
Life has been busy lately. I've never had a more difficult time being a mother. I admire mothers that have more than three or more children- I'm struggling with just two! Timmy is everywhere and into everything. If he's in the main room, he's heading for the couch (which he can now climb on and I'm afraid he will fall off) or the bathroom (where he tries to play in the potty). If he's on the porch he tries to eat the dog food, or anything else he can find. Or he'll climb onto the trampoline. And in the kitchen he goes for the garbage can or compost bin. This house is just too small to make baby proof (no closets, hardly any cabinets, so all our stuff is on shelves). And there's just not much space for Timmy to play. We may have the option of moving into another house, but it's only somewhat bigger, and I just don't know if it's worth all the work for only 10 months.
On a positive note, the past two days Timmy has taken a few 1 hour naps. Before that, he took only two 30 minute naps, or sometimes 15 to 20 minute naps. those naps left me no time to re-energize. So, I'm hoping he keeps it up!
I've enjoyed having Jeremiah home all day this summer. But, once again, there's not a lot of room for him to play. And he will not stop hitting/kicking, etc. the dogs, Timmy, and any other animals we meet, in spite of trying to teach him how to be kind and giving him consequences.
So, between trying to keep up on top of life and children in between being sick and having a strained neck (since Jan or Feb I've been sick- digestive, flu, cold, or random fever- just about every month, sometimes even more frequent. I hurt my neck over vacation and am still having difficulties; I finally went to a doctor and he prescribed some stronger anti-inflammatory medicine), I haven't had a lot of time for blogging.
It's been a difficult few months, and I've struggled a lot through all the different illnesses, but I hope and pray that I'm growing through it all. It is my desire that the difficulties bring me close to God and make me into a more loving wife, mother, friend, and daughter. Though at times I've been tempted to lose hope or trust, God fills me with stronger hope and trust after the tears and anger wash away. And each time I appreciate all the more those weeks of full health and strength to serve my family. Please keep us in your prayers, as the boys have also been sick a few of these times. Now, time to go cook! :)

Pico Duarte: We made it!

A week ago Monday we set off to hike Pico Duarte with the boys group (all E.C. students hike it; they have a girls trip and a boys trip), a toddler, and a 10 month old. We probably looked pretty funny- me hiking in my neck brace (neck still hurting from a somersault incident over 3 weeks ago), Daniel carrying Timmy in a hiking backpack, and one of the students carrying Timmy in the Ergo.
The first day was easy- an hour or so hike into Base camp. We ate dinner, put the boys to bed, and went to bed early ourselves. However, I had a very difficult time sleeping (in spite of the rolled up mattress pad we brought due to my neck issues). I finally fell asleep sometime after 3:30AM (I may have slept about an hour during the beginning of the night, but I wasn't sure).
The next day (Tuesday) we woke up around 6:00 to get an early start to the day and set off with the medium group (a student still carrying Timmy). The hike was tough- 4-5 hours of steep uphill until the lunch stop (aguita fria). 2-3 hours of steep downhill (slipped many times) to Peak camp. We switched Timmy between three different students this day (one student took him for the days following). He did well; he cried a few times when he was tired and only once was it more than 5 minutes until he fell asleep (at the end he cried about 10-15 before he was out). Jer was also pretty content, though we let him get out a few times to walk a bit. When we finally arrived to camp we were exhausted. Poor Daniel was worn out from carrying Timmy, and I was worn out from lack of sleep (and an early/surprise visit from a little friend that I didn't discover until later). That night I took two benedryl (I was also trying to fight off a cold/bad allergies) and slept wonderfully (at least as much as is possible with a 10 month old).
Wednesday the students hiked up to the peak. I had already planned on staying behind with the boys, knowing that they needed a day to be carrier-free. However, since but me and another staff were feeling under the weather, Daniel also stayed behind to give me a rest while he played with the boys in the morning. We've both been to the peak before and didn't feel the need to go again. Later that day all three boys took a good long nap in the tent while I played cards with some of the students and staff. The rest refreshed us and we were ready to hike out of peak camp to the valley (where we'd never been).
On Thursday, I decided to take it easy and take a mule up to Aguita Fria (we put Jer on the mule with another staff that had years of experience and could carry him while riding) and then hiked the longggggg was down to the valley. The first part of that hike was great- we (our family and the student carrying Timmy, and later another staff) sang, played 20 questions, told stories, etc. However, the last 1-1 1/2 was brutal. Not only was it steep (and I fell a few times, jostling my neck even more), but Timmy screamed for about an hour straight. Nothing we did (besides taking him out) helped. Finally, when we saw we were a few hundred feet from the camp, I took him out of the carrier and he was instantly happy. That evening we hung out by the campfire and chatted with students and staff.
Friday began with a berry hunt for fruit to eat with our granola for breakfast. It was absolutely delicious! The rest of the day included: games for students, swim/wash in the river, afternoon rest/free time, dinner, more chatting around the campfire, and a finale of singing (the Dominicans sang/played to us with their make-shift instruments and we sang a few songs for them. That night (following some restless sleep) we awoke to Jeremiah throwing up. After cleaning him up and letting him warm up by the fire, we took him back inside for a few more hours of sleep.
Saturday morning (Daniel's birthday) we packed up, make a birthday cake out of a breakfast bar (I'd brought candles), sang to Daniel, and took the long hike out. Once again, Jer and I were on mules for the first few hours up to give Daniel a rest. Then we hiked the rest of the long way out. After a few mishaps (a few students getting lost, a mule falling off the mountain while rolling around on his back with our gear at a rest stop; the mule was okay, by the way), we arrived back at the beginning, where Daniel was "SPAM"ed (the act of throwing the birthday boy/girl into the river or some other watery location, like a pool). An hour drive and we were back on campus.
We had a great trip, but I am glad to be back! And I've discovered that hiking is much kinder on my neck than daily life (by Friday my neck was feeling much better for the first time in weeks. But today, after doing household chores, it's starting to hurt again). So, that's our Pico adventure! The boys had a great time and received lots of attention. Jer's had a few more bouts of throw-up/diarrhea, but seems to be on the mend. Daniel enjoyed his birthday celebration as well as the flan I had someone make for us while we were away. And we'll see how my neck does now that I'm back to household duties... Pictures to follow eventually...

The ABCs of the USA

Here's a summary of our trip to the USA, the highlights. A few letters have multiple highlights:

A Arboretum abounding with arboles and adventures for kids all ages
B Birthday parties were a blast!
C Church services were appreciated and enjoyed
D Daniel delighted in his time off
E Excellent time with family and friends
F Food was eaten in abundance
G Gerig Hall Reunion- great fun, good friends, and maybe a bit of gluttony (just how many bratwursts did we eat?!)
H Hot dogs delivered by "H.O." sized choo-choo trains at "Two-toots; happy train ride with Daddy.
I International drivers license acquired
J Jeremiah joyfully jetted from Jarabacoa to JFK (and then some)
K Kielbasas over campfire; kid camped with Grandpa
L Liked looking at lions (and other "rar-ers)"
M Much movement over many miles
N Nibbled nature's nectarous fruits night and day
O Outings in boats
P Puzzles and games were played in abundance- "Play candy land with me!"
Q Questions, questions, questions, "What you say?" "What it is?" "Are you happy, mommy?"
R Relatives Really Rock!
S Stores were visited, stuff as bought, shopping successful but not stupendous (we're not shoppers); somersaults are sometimes suddenly disastrous
T Timmy toddled while pushing toy turtle
U Umbrellas necessary, unfortunately
V Visited parks and enjoyed very yummy picnics
W Water play- wet and wonderful!
X Xylophone with wheels and string enjoyed by both tots
Y Yes we like ice cream
Z Zoos were visited and talked about still; "Zzzzzz"s occasionally participated in

Peterson Update

So, some of you may be wondering what we've been up to, aside from getting stuck in violent mobs. And if you're not wondering, that's okay too, but I'll tell you anyway. :)
-Basically this semester has been filled with us being ill on and off. It's ranged from fevers, to stomach issues, to a very nasty cold we all just recently fought. Currently we are all healthy, and Timmy's 2 1/2 month nasty cough has finally gone away. But, if you haven't noticed, I haven't had the energy to blog much in the past month.
-Our exciting news is our upcoming trip to the States! We leave on Saturday and will spend three weeks in Wheaton (though one weekend of that time will be in Upland, IN at a Gerig Hall Reunion). We look forward to spending time with family and friends.
-A few weeks after we return from the States, we plan to join the boy's trip to Pico Duarte. We're intend to take the boys with us. Because the group will be renting mules to carry the gear, we will be able to hike with the boys on our backs. It should be interesting (and hopefully fun)!
-Tina is growing and growing! Though she's only about 2 1/2 months old, she's already half the size of Chiste. She likes to chew on everything. And anytime Chiste growls or nips at her she make a big deal out of it and cries loudly (like a typical younger sibling).
-And now for random pictures from the past month:

Scariest trip to town yet

Some of you may remember the last time my trip to pick up the kids went off-course. Well, this was even scarier (though less costly to our car):
Little did I know this morning when I left to pick up the kids from school that I would find myself in the middle of a lynch mob. I’ll tell the story from my perspective first, then fill in with the details I head about later. After picking up the kids, my car was full with Jer, Timmy, and two other E.C. staff preschoolers. After turning onto the main road that leads to campus, I noticed traffic was even worse than usual. I though this was strange, with elections being over. Suddenly we came upon a mob forming. The car in front of me could go no further, due to people swarming the road. I noticed a red car up to my left. It looked to me like there were men fighting. Then I saw a few police and figured they must be impounding the red car, as a man standing nearby was very angry. However, I soon realized the men around the car were trying to get into the car. And the police were trying to drive the car away, but could not move. The men standing near the car started attacking the car, beating in the windows, etc. While this took place, a few guys that decided to start videotaping the incident with whatever they had on hand. I sat there, transfixed, unable to go anywhere, when a familiar head popped up by my window and asked me if I was okay. I was relieved to see another staff member, and my mind started working again. The red car began to move, and I heard Tommy, the other staff, say something about someone having a gun. There were people all around our car, telling me to get the kids down. I was worried about them, and we still could not drive away. My next thought was to try to get the kids out of the car and away from the mob. At this point the red car had moved slightly and was beside the back of our car, so I turned the car back on, and Tommy tried to help me get around the craziness to get out. But a taxi (to the right of me) decided he should get out first, and wouldn’t let me go. At some point I felt a slight bump, and I guessed we had scrapped each other. At another point during all of this I also felt a bump from behind. Eventually, the taxi went ahead of me, and after some confusion (some random person was trying to direct me over to the right, behind parked cars), I was able to get by and on open road again. All I could think about was getting back to campus.

On the way home, I talked to the kids about how God protected us. The little girl I drive (4 years old), proceeded to tell us how God says we shouldn’t kick people’s windows- especially when they belong to someone else. She also said that her teacher says that God died for us for three days and rose again. “God is alive,” she told us solemnly. This bought a big smile to my face! Out of the mouths of babes! I thanked the Lord again for keeping us safe, though I was still a little anxious for Tommy and any students that were with him.

After the truck of students and staff arrived safely back, Tommy informed me of the details of the incident. Apparently a man had robbed a store, had been caught and beaten, and was put in the police car (the red car). However, the mob (armed with machetes and whatever else) wanted to take things into their own hands and tried to get to the thief, not allowing the police to drive away, attacking the vehicle. When the vehicle was near us, the police man was waving around his gun, near us and in Tommy’s face. After I left people continued to try to run the car down to get to the thief. Apparently the police had little to no control over the situation. Praise the Lord we are all safe! And the guaguita (our car) only suffered some minor scratches (a miracle in my mind, considering the mob of people, motorcycles, and other cars!). It saddens me the way people try to take justice into their own hands, creating an even more dangerous situation than before (and even endangering little children)! But God is in control, and He continues to remind me of this.
Oh how I love the days when my trips into town are uneventful!

Family Photos

Last week a photographer (director's niece, Sarah Barlow) came down to the D.R. to do photo shoots for the seniors. She also gave up some of her time to do family photo shoots at a discounted price. What a blessing and amazing opportunity for us to have family photos taken in a beautiful location!
The boys did well- Jeremiah started getting squirmy at times, but was easily distracted. Timmy was content throughout the whole process. Sarah did so well with the boys, getting them to smile, or look at the camera (and Annie helped out with a giant Curious George). Here are some (okay, a bunch) of our favorites (see the slide-show below), and a few posted here to convince you to check out the slide-show. :)

Semana Santa

Now that I've mostly recovered from being sick, I'd like to share our Semana Santa (week preceding Easter) adventures. We had a few highlights over the week:
-Friends visiting
-great birthday
-beach trip

On Sunday (week before Easter), my college roommate, Ashley, arrived here in Jarabacoa with her husband, Paul and her baby girl (2 days older than Timmy).
The following day, we relaxed in the morning, had a Dominican lunch in town, and then went to the Ark (ministry of Kids Alive) to meet up with Brian, another friend who went to college with Ashley, Paul, and I. Together, we all went to the lower Jimenoa waterfalls. Other adventures that week included swimming in the pool, playing card games together, and watching Daniel run in the Jarabacoa marathon (which isn't actually a marathon). However, a highlight of the week for me was Wednesday, when I had an extra special birthday. Because Paul and Ashley were visiting, Daniel took Wednesday off, and we hiked down to the upper Jimenoa, kiddos and all. Once there we swam, picnicked, and just enjoyed the beautiful day. The Upper Jimenoa falls is my favorite waterfall in Jarabacoa. However, we don't usually visit it unless we have visitors to take (I'm not sure why, we just don't usually think to go). To reach the falls, we drive about 20-30 minutes up the mountains, and then hike down about 30 minutes. The hike back up is a tough one, and takes much longer than the hike down!
After we returned home we showered quickly and headed back out for a birthday dinner at my favorite restaurant, La Lena. Following this, we returned home again for a wonderful birthday dessert party, thrown by my hubby and attended by many E.C. staff. My wonderful husband used all his spare time at the beginning of the week baking cookies, a lemon cake, and an angel food cake.
Easter Sunday began, for us, with a sunrise service on the mountain, followed by an Easter egg hunt for the little ones and a brunch. After relaxing some, we headed to a nearby waterfall for a picnic and swimming (see video of Jer singing, and video of Easter hunt below).
The following day we piled into a rental and headed for the beach, where we relaxed, had dinner on the beach, swam in the pool, played in the sand, and just enjoyed ourselves.
We returned Tuesday night, and our guests left the following day.
Altogether it was a wonderful time of catching up, playing with babies, relaxing, having fun, and just being together. Thanks for visiting Paul, Ashley, and Savannah!

Pictures from Semana Santa:



Easter egg hunt:



Babies at the beach:

More Videos!

Here's Timmy talking away:

Jeremiah attempting to hold Timmy:



This one is for my mom, taken at Kermes (JCS school carnival). She requested a video of me dancing and singing. I'm not dancing, or singing actually, but it's close...

Some Requested Videos

First, Tina and Faye playing together.


And don't worry, Tina climbed out of the hole. :)

And next, Jeremiah singing. Jeremiah sometimes sings "real songs" (like ABCs, twinkle twinkle little stars, jingle bells, etc.), but he often makes up his own songs, as you'll see in this video. And if you can't tell, he singing, "Let's go and see some mucho agua!"

Kermes pics

Before I put up pictures from spring break, I want to share some photos that have been sitting in my camera for awhile. The following are pictures from Kermes, the school carnival JCS had in March:

Throwing a little football

Ring toss

Fishing

Duck pondTimmy hanging out with daddyGetting his face painted

And for some random pics:

Jer's puppy and bear giving kisses

Showing off his Frisbee throwing skills

Lining up his cars (he'll line up anything and call it a "choo-choo"

Hanging out under the table

Asleep on the couch

Tina and her friend

Se0ana Santa

So haven't blogged a lot lately. For 1, I've been en1oying time with good friends I haven't seen in a while. For another, our keyboard is not working properly. For some reason, I need to hold down the function key when I type. And the space bar key doesn't work very well, meaning I have to press it down really hard and even then it often doesn't work, causing me to backspace mucho. As a result, it's taking me a long time to write anything. And with babies, garden, dogs, life, etc. it makes me less motivated to blog. And my thumb is starting to hurt. So, I'll hopefully be putting some photos of our week up soon. Because that doesn't require too much typing. Sigh. That all took way too long to write...

It's a girl!

It's also a puppy. A week ago Thursday night, we took in two dogs for puppy foster care. Here's the story:

A staff member here was planning to go back to the States; she is the owner of Fay (the mommy dog) and planned to bring her along. When it came time to give her shots, etc. for the trip, they discovered she was pregnant (she's young, still less than a year). The baby was born a week before she needed to leave. Neither dogs could get there sots due to the newborn nursing, etc. and would need to remain in quarantine for 30 days in whichever city she flew to fist in the states. As a result, she needed someone to care for the dogs until Fay could receive her shots and be sent to the U.S. We had already expressed interest in the puppy, so we agreed to care for the, see how things go with Chiste and the puppy, and either keep her or send the puppy with Fay.
The first few days were a little rocky. Fay growled anytime Chiste or Jer were near. However, they've warmed up to each other in the past few days and Fay has been extremely happy and social. The two of them are becoming fast friends, and we have them in the same area. Daniel made a chicken wire fence around Jer's dog house and part of the yard so they no longer need to wear a leash. There's a temporary separator to divide the dog yard into two smaller sections. That way, when we're gone the dogs can have their separate areas (and they each have a place to go when it rains; Chiste a dog house, Fay a kennel). Right now, though, since I'm home, the gate between the two areas is open, as well as the gate to the porch and the front door. So they can happily go between the house, porch, and both dog yards. I'm glad they can have more freedom and are getting along so well!
The puppy is about 12 days old and her eyes are just beginning to open. She's extremely roly poly, being the only puppy in the litter and having her mama all to herself! Assuming we keep her, we decided to name her "Calcetinas"(socks) and call her "Tina" for short because she's mostly dark, but has white on each leg (see picture at end) making it look like she's wearing socks.

Her's Fay (not sure why the picture didn't stay rotated)Looking out the new fence

Saying "hi"

The dog yard goes to the far tree in that row of palm trees, down the hill a little, and then a little further behind where I took the picture

Tina

Retreat Week!

I'm excited for my first retreat at E.C. It means a break from the normal routine. Since I'm not an official staff member, but am part of the E.C. family, I can participate as little, or as much, as I would like. In the mornings they have games (for students and staff!), a speaker, and then lunch. In the afternoons they have rest time, workshops, and then dinner. Daniel and I are doing a "cooking/kids" workshop at our house with a few other staff and some students. We'll be baking and letting people play with our kids. :) In the evening, after dinner, there are skits, games, and worship/speaker time. That means I won't need to make dinner from Tuesday-Sunday, or lunch most of the week as well. How much I participate besides the workshop depends on how the kids (and I) are doing! I won't be able to go to all the evening sessions, because I don't want the boys to go to bed late every night, but we'll see what we can do! Hopefully we'll have some fun and not over exhaust ourselves!