These are some photos I took from outside our hotel this weekend. So beautiful!

The working crew from last week standing on the second floor porch of the new house.

My sweet friend Reynaldo!

There was a whole lot of swinging goin on Saturday!


Reynaldo swinging. He is so precious! He is very quiet and not like the other boys with visitors, but I guess he is getting used to seeing me up there, because this time he sat and talked with me for the longest time! I got lots of sweet hugs from him during this visit. Love this little guy!



Gerardo was swinging so high into the trees!

Had a great time visiting with Paula and the team Saturday. It was fun cooking and helping Paula prepare for the barbecue that evening. We made "corn casserole" so glad our improvising paid off and it was yummy! Not to mention our "coconut cake" and the "brownies"! Best brownies around, but never to be duplicated again!

Had a great time! Carlitos loved helping me make the corn casserole, only when we finished and poured it in the pan he thought we had made a cake. :)

He also helped me make the cake and then he and I licked the beater. So fun!


Ely had PINK CHIPS! Weird! I had to take a picture!

Weekend Vacation
Carol and I were blessed this weekend when we got to go to Seguatapeque and spend the day at Mark & Paula's and see the team who are here from Restoration Church. We got to spend the day and even into the evening and not have to worry about getting home before dark. We were blessed with a hotel room in Seguatapeque with the team. It was a lovely hotel! Our room had an upstairs and I had the bed upstairs, while Carol slept in the bed downstairs.

We got up at our leisure this morning, and had fruit and crepes for breakfast. I had intended to take a picture, but the fruit looked so delicious I started eating it before I remembered I wanted to snap a shot...so you don't get to see it, but it was wonderful!

Here are Barbara and Carol enjoying a visit .


I have to tell you about our trip home today....It was me, Barbara and Carol. I have gotten to where I really enjoy driving here, driving through the mountains can actually be relaxing....so today we are driving and talking and enjoying the beauty and we come to a section of the road where it is all gravel. I commented that I was glad they had recently wet down that section of the road otherwise it makes a horrible dust cloud to drive through...well the gravel was very wet and the vehicles coming the other direction splash it up on the windshield. And I do not have any wishy washy fluid for my window...so I am driving and saying I don't like this, I can't see very well, don't know what to do....so I finally get to a spot where I feel ok to pull off to the side of the road, and I get out with two bottles of water and my roll of toilet paper and I clean my window so that I can see. By the time I got back into the car I was shaking....as the cars would fly by me on the side of that mountain as I am out there trying to wash the mud off my window.

So I get back in the car...take a deep breath and continue on our way.

I was so happy to be able to see again and we were able to enjoy the rest of the drive home...until I got to the checkpoint where they were stopping every vehicle. So quickly put on my seatbelt (thankful that it would pull down far enough to buckle - it only works about 30% of the time...) and I roll my window down, and ask Barbara to open the glove box. I look inside...there is the rest of my roll of toilet paper, some notes about how to to get to various places in Honduras....but where is my registration card for my car? Oh no! It's not there! I know it is in my car, but where? What has happened? Panic starts to set in. I look in the compartment between the front seats, a broken pair of sunglasses, sweet pea lotion, an old water bill...no registration. Now I am really panicing, knowing that you must have that with you. Then suddenly I remembered that one of my students had shown me another compartment below my radio and told me that was where I was supposed to carry my documents and he had put my registraiton there...Oh thank you for remembering!

After that I was really out of breath, heart racing and my hands were shaking! But thankfully all was well!

I think we were all glad when we finally made it home today, but was a treat it was for Carol and I this weekend! Thank you sweet friends!

Amy Day

My calendar is marked on August 26 as Amy Day. It is not a holiday celebrated by everyone, nor is it a holiday even known by many, but to my family it is an important day. A day that brings tears, a day that brings sad memories and sweet memories. A day that brings celebration and hope.

On August 26, 1998 that my sweet niece Amy passed from this earth to another home, her eternal home.

It was in July of 1998 that Amy came to Honduras on a mission trip and fell in love with this country, the people, and the experience here. I still remember her talking in the hospital about coming back to Honduras. She is here in so many ways! Her life continues to impact people in the United States and in Honduras. It was her loving spirit, the spirit that Jesus put in her, that attracted so many to her and allowed her to make a difference in many lives. At the time I never in my wildest of dreams thought I would be called to this place. Coming here the first time helped to heal many places in my heart. I went from hating this place that I blamed for taking Amy, to loving it with the passion she did.

Amy I love you! I miss you! I cherish the memories I have and the impact you made in my life! My "little niece"!

I love this poem....

Parable of immortality ( A ship leaves . . . ) by Henry Van Dyke - 1852 - 1933

I am standing by the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sun and sky come down to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says : - 'There she goes!

Gone where? Gone from my sight - that is all.

She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the places of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says: - 'There she goes! ', there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout : - 'Here she comes!'

Amy I love you! I lknow that one day she will be waving to me to welcome me into Heaven, and I am thankful that we have that hope for our future! Thankful that Jesus made a way for us.

So as I lay down tonight to sleep and remember, it brings tears, yet I have joy.

Tomorrow to many it is just a day, not unlike any other, but to me it is Amy Day. A day to remember, a day to honor a special girl, a day to be thankful to my God for taking care of my Amy.

Today's Chapel Service....

Well as promised I am blogging about today's service. Our Chaplain has been doing a series called Don't Worry Be Happy...and today's part was called How to See God.

There were many things that spoke to me today.....

The first was to see God we must be pure in Heart. He used the Scripture Matthew 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God". He could have stopped there, that gives you a lot to chew on, think on and pray about.

One thing he said that I wrote down and will always remember is You are happy when you are the same inside as you are outside. Wow...so true! I will be reminding myself of that each day. I want to be the same inside as how people see me. I cannot change my past, or the past mistakes I have made, but those things that I have walked through are part of what make me who I am today. But I want my actions, my heart, my intentions, my integrity to be the same as the outward appearance I give off.

The final point of his teaching really hit me hard....his final point was that we need to realign our priorities - Exodus 20:3 "have no other gods before me". Then he gave us three things to look at to know what your priorities are....

1) Look at my activities...where do I invest my time?
2) Look at my anxieties - what do I worry about most?
3) Look at my ambitions - what are my goals in life?

Boy the one that really hit me was number one....where do I invest my time....of course the majority of my time is at the school, that is what God called me here to do....but when I am not at school, when I am at home what am I doing? Exactly what I am doing right now...on my computer. Not that the computer is bad or Facebook is bad...but just yesterday I felt convicted over spending too much time just hanging on the computer, playing on Facebook, reading updates, looking at photos....when I could be reading my Bible, studying, praying (I did turn off my computer yesterday afternoon and spend some much needed time studying my Bible, and journaling) ....Then to go to chapel today and have the Chaplain basically say the same thing God had said to me yesterday. Well I am glad he didn't send lightning to strike me, I heard him!

So it is definitely time for me to evaluate my priorities and those things that I spend time doing before I spend time with God. And the things that take up my time so that I don't have time to spend in prayer or in relationship with God. Yesterday I was reminded of how when I would come to Honduras on mission trips how it was always so great, we all felt like we could draw closer to him, spend more time with him, didn't have all those distractions like we had at home...but now that this is home, I have fallen into that same cycle...letting all the things around me distract me from the most important thing!

I am thankful for the awesome Chaplain we have at the base right now. And I would pose the same question to you, what are your priorities and do you need an adjustment? I know I do!

Bless you!

Today in conversation class we read a chapter of our book and after our discussion we played a game brought with me from the states. It's a Pizza Fraction game....I told the kids we were going to play a game today and they were very excited. Then they saw the game and were all saying "Miss, fractions! That's not a game! That's school!"



Well we played anyway and they loved it! There are 6 different games to play, so we will try another one next week. It helps to identify fractions, and equivalent fractions, adding and subtracting fractions...many fun ways to play and they are learning their math at the same time! HA!



After we played they all were telling me how hungry they were and wished they had pizza.

Me killing spider!!!

Tonight I was sitting in the living room (thankfully it was after I got the lights back on - see next post)....and I see this huge spider come running across the living room floor. I sit on the couch and scream. Yea great that will kill him for sure! NOT!

Grab my shoes, run past the spider to the kitchen the bottle of Raid. Oh wait and grab the camera oh and what about the video! Yea, I think I have seen too many spiders here when I want to video my chasing him with the can of Raid.

So that is exactly what I did. Got the killing on video and a few photos.


Dead spider

ONLY IN HONDURAS!

Just when you think things can't be any weirder, they are! While I was in the States, Scott and Cindy Stephens stayed at my house for several days. Scott called one day because the lights wouldn't come on but the plugs were working. I thought it must be the living room and dining room lights because there are 2 extra switches and sometimes if you hit the wrong switch then use a different switch the light won't work. But no....it was all the lights. I just couldn't imagine, seemed too weird and thought I must not have understood him correctly.

Well tonight I am sitting in the living room when the lights went out, but the tv stayed on. WHAT! So I went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, and it was on. Weird. Bedroom and the alarm clock is on. Oh my gosh I didn't misunderstand. Now the question is WHY?!

I went outside and flipped off my 4 little breakers and then back on...still no lights.

I went into the kitchen and turned on a burner....as I moved the dial from off to medium the kitchen light started to come on...like I was turning a dimmer switch. The closer I turned the dial to the lowest setting the brighter the light became.

Then I turned the next burner...and as I spun it around all the lights in the house came back on. I continued to turn them both until they got back around to off and the burners were now off and all the lights in the house were on.

I don't get it! I don't know why! I just know that it worked!

Today I was so happy to go to school and see all my kids! I loved all the hugs I got. Even a hug from a 6th grade boy...that just doesn't happen! I put together some little gift bags with things like pencils, erasers, stickers, sticker books, candy... light sticks, small soccer balls, hair barretts, headbands (depending on if you are a girl or a boy)....I had fun passing them out before their morning break.

We did learn that if you chew on a light stick you can break through the plastic and it didn't taste good! As my student began spitting and ran to get his friend's water bottle! Sixth graders are supposed to be older than 5 years old, right? Ha Ha Ha!

I was able to grab a couple of pictures of some of the girls checking out their bag of goodies...

I loved my time in Texas, with Joshua and my family, but was also torn when I extend my trip by a week and explain to my kids at the school that I wasn't coming back the day I had planned. While I was away I had telephone conferences with some of my 6th grade students, some were happy to talk to me, others wanted to hide. Guess which ones are in trouble for not working?!

But I was happy when I finally made it back home on Saturday. I was supposed to fly home Friday, but rain delays in Houston meant no airplane to get on in Dallas, so I would miss my flight going out of Houston to Honduras. Okay, so an extra night with family.

Back to the airport at 4:30 a.m. Saturday....get my bags checked and through security and onto the plane...when the pilot came on and announced...."mechanical problems....delay...." I wanted to scream! My flights were already close....1 hour 20minutes from the time I was scheduled to land in Houston until the time my flight left for Honduras. So I am sitting and counting the minutes and subtracting them from the time I will have to get to my gate in Houston.

Finally an hour later they tell us the leak has been repaired and they are closing the cabin doors so that we can get out on the runway...and GET IN LINE!!! Still more time until take off! The pilot must have been speeding....we barely got into the air and the seatbelt light was off for about 5 minutes when he turned it back on and said we were beginning our descent into Houston. There wasn't even time to go to the bathroom (more to that part of the story).

When we landed at Terminal C....the pilot asked that the people wait and let those who have a close time on their connecting flight to get off first. I grabbed my carry ons and got off that plane - I had 30 minutes...and we were at Terminal C and my flight took off from Terminal E....so I was running running and got to the train....got on and took it to Terminal E...and then running running to the gate.....people were still in line to get on and hallelujiah there was a bathroom right beside my gate! I let them know I was there, and asked about my luggage and then ran to the bathroom....ahhhh...then back out and on the plane!

As we came into Honduras it was very cloudy and the pilot announced that there was some weather in the area. Well if you have ever landed in Tegucigalpa you know that they need to be able to see the short runway right beside the highway.....we were in the clouds and we kept coming down and down and down and were still in the clouds. A very creepy feeling knowing where we are landing and that when they don't have good visibility they turn around and head to San Pedro Sula. We finally got out of the clouds and we made a big circle around the city to get back around to the airport....made us be about 30 minutes late landing.

As I was on the plane that day I was journaling and wondering ...God what is this about. Is this you? Is this the devil trying to mess with me? Just as with Joshua's situation. Because of him being in the hospital and then on medical for a few days before he could start his 10 days of leave...this put him getting to Ft. Riley later than the rest of the guys coming from his Batallion, which could make a difference in where he falls into position at Ft. Riley...I see it all as God's way of putting Joshua where he wants him. I know that God is in control of the situation. It was just an odd trip for both of us....none of our dates were as we had planned, but I do believe we both got to where we were supposed to be at God's time!

Ashlynn with her Uncle Josh after graduation.


Ashlynn sang and danced to the Army band which played during the graduation.


Joshua with his Uncle when he received his blue chord

It has been forever since my last post!

Since I last posted I flew to Texas then rode in the car for two days with family to arrive in Georgia at Ft. Benning to see Joshua. We were able to “accidentally” bump into him on post Wednesday night. It was so much fun as I was on the cell phone with him and he is saying Okay mom tell Uncle to go straight, ok, now turn right, ok I’m going to run out to the street….I flew out of the car when I saw him running toward us. I was so excited, as we all were!

Ashlynn was thrilled to see Uncle Josh. All she had been talking about was “going to Georgia. See Uncle Josh.” Imagine her disappointment when we stopped Tuesday night in Mississippi….where is Uncle Josh and why are we not in Georiga! She was a great traveler! She sang most of the trip there and back…she is such a performer and a true worshiper! Thanks Cheryl for the CD you gave her from Bible school….we heard a lot of requests for “Music for JuJu!” She kept us all entertained!

The time with Joshua in Georgia was fantastic. I was so proud of my son. My little boy who I swear grew a foot taller while he was there. I believe he is standing taller as he has a new pride in himself, a new outlook on life and a regained confidence in himself.

I loved his “Turning Blue Ceremony” where his Uncle Jim buttoned on his blue chord, signifying that he is officially an Infantry Soldier. It was all so emotional on many levels. I am proud of him and the decision he has made to be a soldier. To defend the United States. I am proud of him for his accomplishments – the running and marching and pushups and all the training and hiking and shooting and gas chambers, not to mention the mental trials during his time in training. Also thinking about my little boy having to go to fight, to be in danger….all too much to take in at one time.

Friday was his graduation. This was a very patriotic and touching ceremony. I will try to describe the scene and post some pictures.

They begin their march from a section of the museum, where they have kept several actual buildings from the original post (Jim went through his basic training during one of the last years that these buildings were still in use). You can see these buildings in the picture above, with the chapel in the middle. So they begin by marching from the past, where past soldiers have been trained. Then they march across the field, where soil has been brought from major battles throughout the years, and placed here either by a veteran or by a descendant of a veteran from each specific battle, and that soil has been spread across the field. So these new young soldiers now march across soil from battles where soldiers have fought for our country. It was an awesome ceremony, and very meaningful to us and to the soldiers.

After his graduation he was taken back to the medical clinic to have his infection in his arm looked at…and was told he needed to be admitted into the hospital. We think this was from a second recluse spider bite, he had a bad infection in his right arm, with swelling and redness that had been increasing of these several days, and by that morning one side of his arm had turned purple.

It was sad for all of us, but Josh looked at me with his “be strong” eyes and asked me to please don’t mom….meaning hold it together because he couldn’t be strong for all of us. We were all very disappointed, as we had planned that he would come home with us after his graduation. We ate lunch with him in the hospital dining facility then he walked us to the car before he went back upstairs to check into his room.

Praise God he was released the following day….and by a miracle was told that the test results showed that the infection was immune to the antibiotic he had been receiving by IV, yet his arm was improving! So he was released and put back on the oral antibiotics. He did get to fly home 3 days later.

We got to enjoy the next week and some change with him as he took his 10 days of leave before going to Ft. Riley, Kansas. We had a great time with him! I had some talks…some hard and some fun! And lots of Monopoly! I made banana blueberry bread 3 times for him. It was fun to do special things for him.

He is now in Ft. Riley, Kansas, and getting processed into his new Unit. We are waiting for the details of that and what his life will look like for a while there.