In my previous blog (on July 31) I said I would post next from Ecuador. As ESPN's Lee Corso might say, not so fast my friend. It's a month and a half later and I'm sitting in our house in Lancaster. Here's how we explained our situation in our August newsletter.
"As many of you know, our family spent this summer preparing to return to Shell, Ecuador for the upcoming school year. We were excited about teaching, reuniting with friends, and not having any snow over the winter months. It was a refreshing summer and we were grateful for the opportunity to visit with many of you while we were home.
We also took time this summer to pursue an evaluation for one of our children for some concerns that arose during this past year. Shortly before we were to return to Ecuador, we received treatment recommendations of things not available in Shell. After much prayer and counsel, Jodie and I both felt that it would be the right decision for our family to remain in Lancaster and not return to Shell for the upcoming school year. We will have access here in Lancaster to needed resources for our family. MAF was understanding of this decision and showed great support for the well being of our family.
Jodie and I were able to return to Shell earlier this month to pack up our belongings, say goodbye to our missionary and Ecuadorian friends, and bring closure to our year. Our family will now settle in Lancaster and begin looking for jobs, starting school, and moving back into our home.
Although Jodie and I both feel that the decision we made is the right one, the last few weeks have been very emotional. Not only have we been dealing with the shock of our plans for the next year being uprooted, but also with deciding how to best care for our family’s needs. Despite these storms, God has proved faithful. We’ve been buoyed by the knowledge that God is directing our steps and pray that He will be honored both in our family’s lives and in the lives of those in Shell, Ecuador. Dozens of people have offered their prayers, encouragement and practical help during this time. Jodie and I don’t know what lies next for our family, but we know that God does.
Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support over the past year. It’s been such a privilege to partner with you in serving those in Shell. Please don’t forget to keep us in your prayers as we enter this next stage of life. Please keep praying, as well, for the people who live, work, and worship in Shell and the rest of eastern Ecuador."
Well, we're back in our house now and getting settled in. There's still some stuff unpacked on our living room floor. We've had some job interviews. The kids are enjoying school. We've enjoyed getting involved at church. Life is good. It's not what he had expected for right now, but it's good. We're so thankful for our time in Ecuador and are looking forward to what is in store for us in this next chapter in our life.
This will be the end of Shell Shocked. Please e-mail us or check out my Facebook page for updated news from the Richardson family. Blessings!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
July Recap
One week from now, the six of us will be en-route to Quito. Wow, the summer's flown by!! Here's a brief update on our July adventures.
- We visited my parents in Syracuse for a week. Some highlights of our time there are picnicing with extended family, golfing, fireworks, Rudy's, Olive Garden, Chuckie Cheese, road trip to Rochester, smores, recycling bottles and cans (really, that's a highlight- ask if you want to know more), and of course SWIMMING. We spent a lot of time in Mom and Dad's pool. All four kids loved it and were in the pool as much as possible. Shea and Jads stayed a few extra days and went to VBS at Mom and Dad's church.
-Jod and I took a Spanish class at the community college in Lancaster. It was a very informal non-credit class with lots of conversation. It was great to be able to learn and practice more. I learned a lot of things I'd been saying wrong for the last year, too;-).
-Alex, Di, Keeton, CeCe,and Ansley (Jodie's brother and family) moved back from Turkey on July 15. It's been great to spend a few weeks with them before we head back to Shell. One of our highlights together was the camping and boating trip for the 13 of us at Raystown Lake. Tubing, water skiing, swimming, campfires, bugs, went tents- all sorts of fun things.
-The kids have been busy. Shea and Micah went to soccer camp at a local church and Jadyn attended a 2 day butterfly themed camp at a different church. The last 2 weeks the 3 older kids have been taking swimming lessons at the county pool. Luke's been a good sport about tagging along everywhere. The kids have also been busy at home biking, swinging, reading, and playing PlayStation.
-We've had opportunities to share with a few churches and many individuals this month about what we're up to in Shell. One of the cool things about that is also being able to share what many of the other missionaries in Shell are involved in. From aviation to translation, discipleship to medicine- it's been a blessing to report on how God is meeting the physical and spiritual needs of the people in Ecuador.
The next week should be pretty stressful for our family with to-do lists and goodbyes. We're so thankful for the opportunity to spend this summer with our family and friends and are praying for a smooth transition back to our "home away from home" in Shell. Next post will be from south of the equator!
- We visited my parents in Syracuse for a week. Some highlights of our time there are picnicing with extended family, golfing, fireworks, Rudy's, Olive Garden, Chuckie Cheese, road trip to Rochester, smores, recycling bottles and cans (really, that's a highlight- ask if you want to know more), and of course SWIMMING. We spent a lot of time in Mom and Dad's pool. All four kids loved it and were in the pool as much as possible. Shea and Jads stayed a few extra days and went to VBS at Mom and Dad's church.
-Jod and I took a Spanish class at the community college in Lancaster. It was a very informal non-credit class with lots of conversation. It was great to be able to learn and practice more. I learned a lot of things I'd been saying wrong for the last year, too;-).
-Alex, Di, Keeton, CeCe,and Ansley (Jodie's brother and family) moved back from Turkey on July 15. It's been great to spend a few weeks with them before we head back to Shell. One of our highlights together was the camping and boating trip for the 13 of us at Raystown Lake. Tubing, water skiing, swimming, campfires, bugs, went tents- all sorts of fun things.
-The kids have been busy. Shea and Micah went to soccer camp at a local church and Jadyn attended a 2 day butterfly themed camp at a different church. The last 2 weeks the 3 older kids have been taking swimming lessons at the county pool. Luke's been a good sport about tagging along everywhere. The kids have also been busy at home biking, swinging, reading, and playing PlayStation.
-We've had opportunities to share with a few churches and many individuals this month about what we're up to in Shell. One of the cool things about that is also being able to share what many of the other missionaries in Shell are involved in. From aviation to translation, discipleship to medicine- it's been a blessing to report on how God is meeting the physical and spiritual needs of the people in Ecuador.
The next week should be pretty stressful for our family with to-do lists and goodbyes. We're so thankful for the opportunity to spend this summer with our family and friends and are praying for a smooth transition back to our "home away from home" in Shell. Next post will be from south of the equator!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Coming to America
In honor of the 20th anniversary of this comedy classic, I'll give you the lowdown on our last 3 weeks back in America.
the trip home: Things went pretty well, considering all 6 of us were traveling for several hours. Waiting in line at the counter in Quito, it looked like it could be a real long day(s?) when it showed the flight to Panama was delayed. But after some brief and heartfelt prayers, the board showed the flight was back on time. We still had to hurry through the airport in Panama (Panama now joins Taiwan as countries I've been in, but only in the airport) to catch our next flight to Washington. We arrived in Washington about on time at 1 a.m. and got throught immigration and customs without to much trouble. Our conversation at customs actually went like this.
Customs agent: "Do you have any food?"
Us: "No"
Customs agent: "O.K., have a nice night"
How excited we all were to see Jod's Mom and Dad waiting for us when we walked through the doors a couple moments later!!
culture shock about coming back to the US:
-Strangers talk English
-It's still light out past 6:30. One of the first nights Luke said "It's not bedtime, it's still light out"
-$1.50 for a a 20 oz. soda
-Restaurants have lots of items on the menu. We sort of miss almuerzos being the only option
our week in Massachusetts:
We had a great time hanging out with our friends and without our combined 13 kids. It's so cool to have such great friends. We had a fun week filled with hikes, rafting trip, mini-golf, tennis, Wii, cards, foosball, and lots of sleeping in. A highlight of the week was on Thursday night when we prayed together for each of all of our children.
back in Lancaster:
It's been pretty busy with appointments, meeting w/ friends, Spanish class, phone calls and other stuff. Worshipping again at our home church has been very refreshing! The kids are keeping busy and having fun (for the most part). They've been enjoying spending time with Grandpa and Grandma and seeing some of their friends. Tomorrow we leave for Syracuse to spend a week with my family.
Hope you're all enjoying your summer!
the trip home: Things went pretty well, considering all 6 of us were traveling for several hours. Waiting in line at the counter in Quito, it looked like it could be a real long day(s?) when it showed the flight to Panama was delayed. But after some brief and heartfelt prayers, the board showed the flight was back on time. We still had to hurry through the airport in Panama (Panama now joins Taiwan as countries I've been in, but only in the airport) to catch our next flight to Washington. We arrived in Washington about on time at 1 a.m. and got throught immigration and customs without to much trouble. Our conversation at customs actually went like this.
Customs agent: "Do you have any food?"
Us: "No"
Customs agent: "O.K., have a nice night"
How excited we all were to see Jod's Mom and Dad waiting for us when we walked through the doors a couple moments later!!
culture shock about coming back to the US:
-Strangers talk English
-It's still light out past 6:30. One of the first nights Luke said "It's not bedtime, it's still light out"
-$1.50 for a a 20 oz. soda
-Restaurants have lots of items on the menu. We sort of miss almuerzos being the only option
our week in Massachusetts:
We had a great time hanging out with our friends and without our combined 13 kids. It's so cool to have such great friends. We had a fun week filled with hikes, rafting trip, mini-golf, tennis, Wii, cards, foosball, and lots of sleeping in. A highlight of the week was on Thursday night when we prayed together for each of all of our children.
back in Lancaster:
It's been pretty busy with appointments, meeting w/ friends, Spanish class, phone calls and other stuff. Worshipping again at our home church has been very refreshing! The kids are keeping busy and having fun (for the most part). They've been enjoying spending time with Grandpa and Grandma and seeing some of their friends. Tomorrow we leave for Syracuse to spend a week with my family.
Hope you're all enjoying your summer!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Last post from Ecuador . . . until August
We've gone from counting down the weeks to the days and now to the hours until we arrive back home. We leave Shell in only about 39 hours and our plane leaves Quito in about 67. We arrive at Dulles at 1 AM Friday morning. I'm sure all 6 of us will be feeling our most happiest pleasant as we go through immigration and customs. Things have been very busy here the last couple of weeks. Here are some highlights since the last post.
-Jadyn graduated from Shell Christian Preschool on May 29. She's had a great year and has had a wonderful teacher- Miss Sharon (Sharon LaBouef). I was able to be a n assistant every couple weeks and enjoyed getting to spend time with her and her friends at school. At their graduation ceremony, Jadyn was singing very loudly with the songs. This was the first time we'd ever heard one of our children's voices in a preschool group choir, as Shea and Micah were always silent or barely whispering.
-Shea and I took the bus to Ambato last Sunday (June 1) to attend our first professional Ecuadorian football match. We watched city rivals Macara and Tecnico play in the "Classico de Ambato". It was a lot of fun. South American soccer is quite a spectacle- the colors, the chants, the songs, the policemen with masks and shields. Here's highlights of the match
-Tomorrow is the last day of school of the 07-08 year at Nate Saint. It's been a busy last few weeks with physical fitness tests, graduation service, school Olympics, and all of the end of the year grading, cleaning, and organizing. Jodie's also been trying to a little macro-planning for her K-1 class next year. It's been an honor and a lot of fun to be involved in the ministry of Nate Saint Memorial School this year to the students and families. We're excited about the opportunity to be back again next year. The school will look a lot different as enrollment will be only about 18 or 20 (down from 31 this year) and the oldest student will be in 5th grade.
We're so excited to be able to see most of you blog readers this summer!!! But we know there are a few of you we won't get to see while we're back in the U.S. So I'll still plan on updating a few times to let you know how our summers going. Next post will be from Pennsylvania.
-Jadyn graduated from Shell Christian Preschool on May 29. She's had a great year and has had a wonderful teacher- Miss Sharon (Sharon LaBouef). I was able to be a n assistant every couple weeks and enjoyed getting to spend time with her and her friends at school. At their graduation ceremony, Jadyn was singing very loudly with the songs. This was the first time we'd ever heard one of our children's voices in a preschool group choir, as Shea and Micah were always silent or barely whispering.
-Shea and I took the bus to Ambato last Sunday (June 1) to attend our first professional Ecuadorian football match. We watched city rivals Macara and Tecnico play in the "Classico de Ambato". It was a lot of fun. South American soccer is quite a spectacle- the colors, the chants, the songs, the policemen with masks and shields. Here's highlights of the match
-Tomorrow is the last day of school of the 07-08 year at Nate Saint. It's been a busy last few weeks with physical fitness tests, graduation service, school Olympics, and all of the end of the year grading, cleaning, and organizing. Jodie's also been trying to a little macro-planning for her K-1 class next year. It's been an honor and a lot of fun to be involved in the ministry of Nate Saint Memorial School this year to the students and families. We're excited about the opportunity to be back again next year. The school will look a lot different as enrollment will be only about 18 or 20 (down from 31 this year) and the oldest student will be in 5th grade.
We're so excited to be able to see most of you blog readers this summer!!! But we know there are a few of you we won't get to see while we're back in the U.S. So I'll still plan on updating a few times to let you know how our summers going. Next post will be from Pennsylvania.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Trip to the Big City
The six of us took a trip to Quito from Wednesday to Sunday. Micah had some appointments scheduled there, so we tried to make an adventure of it. And an adventure it was. There's a reason why we've spent much of our lives in places like Groton, NY, Willow Street, PA, and Shell, Ecuador.
Here are some highlights and lowlights of our trip.
There's a family that lives outside Quito (the Camdens- from Australia and Illinois by way of Houston) that has 4 kids between 11 and 5. We'd only met Leith and their two oldest boys before in Shell. But he told us to let them know if we were ever in Quito. So we did and hung out with them at their house a couple times, including celebrating Leith's birthday on Saturday. It's always fun to meet new friends, and we had a great time getting to know Leith, Amy, Levi, Nathan, Andrew, and Jane. (HIGHLIGHT)
On the way back from the Camdens on Saturday, Luke got sick in the van and threw up over himself and Jodie. (LOWLIGHT)
We got to go to McDonalds for only the 2nd time since we left the U.S. (HIGHLIGHT). Before we left for lunch at Mickey D's Jodie reminded me that someone told us only to take our credit cards with us if we were going to use them. So I left them at the apartment. I also didn't have my drivers license or Ecuadorian ID card (censo) in my wallet (retrospective HIGHLIGHT, because...). While walking from McDonalds to the street to get a taxi, I was approached by some very aggressive 8 year old girls trying to sell me some candy. They also stole my wallet/blood tester. (LOWLIGHT)
It was cold and dreary in Quito (LOWLIGHT), but at least I didn't sweat on my pillow during the night (HIGHLIGHT).
We visited English Fellowship Church on Sunday morning. This was our first Sunday Morning Service in English since last July. (HIGHLIGHT) However, it was at the end of a long and tiring weekend for the kids and they weren't in the mood for sitting quietly to sing and listen to the sermon. (LOWLIGHT).
We got home earlier than expected Sunday afternoon thanks to good weather and traffic . (HIGHLIGHT) After unpacking and putting groceries away, we went to check e-mail and our computer wouldn't come on. We're still not sure what the problem is and I'm at a school computer now. (LOWLIGHT)
Some other Quito HIGHLIGHTS:
-The kids did great on the van rides up and back from Quito.
-We hired a driver to take us up and back. Vicente and his son Oswaldo (who drove us back on Sunday) were wonderful. Vicente even took us around Quito to various appointments, markets, stores, and houses on Saturday.
-The six of us went bowling on Friday. It was a lot of fun and the kids did great. Luke tried to kick the bowling ball like a soccer ball a few times and had to be told that he probably didn't want to do that. ;-)
-We also got to eat out at Pizza Hut and Crepes & Waffles.
Other News:
Two weeks from today is the last day of school. To give some perspective on how long ago the beginning of the year was- I shared a little bit with Jodie's class about New York State when they were studying the Northeast region in the fall. While talking about past U.S. presidents who were from New York, I mentioned that it was likely that the next U.S. president would be from New York. Hillary vs. Rudy seems like a long time ago.
Today's a big soccer day in Ecuador. The Ecuadorian national team lost a friendly match to France this afternoon in a warmup for World Cup qualifying next month. And LDU Quito (referred to simply as Liga in Ecuador) plays tonight in a Copa Libertadores Semifinal match. The Copa Lib is the top club tournament for teams in South America and Mexico.
Here are some highlights and lowlights of our trip.
There's a family that lives outside Quito (the Camdens- from Australia and Illinois by way of Houston) that has 4 kids between 11 and 5. We'd only met Leith and their two oldest boys before in Shell. But he told us to let them know if we were ever in Quito. So we did and hung out with them at their house a couple times, including celebrating Leith's birthday on Saturday. It's always fun to meet new friends, and we had a great time getting to know Leith, Amy, Levi, Nathan, Andrew, and Jane. (HIGHLIGHT)
On the way back from the Camdens on Saturday, Luke got sick in the van and threw up over himself and Jodie. (LOWLIGHT)
We got to go to McDonalds for only the 2nd time since we left the U.S. (HIGHLIGHT). Before we left for lunch at Mickey D's Jodie reminded me that someone told us only to take our credit cards with us if we were going to use them. So I left them at the apartment. I also didn't have my drivers license or Ecuadorian ID card (censo) in my wallet (retrospective HIGHLIGHT, because...). While walking from McDonalds to the street to get a taxi, I was approached by some very aggressive 8 year old girls trying to sell me some candy. They also stole my wallet/blood tester. (LOWLIGHT)
It was cold and dreary in Quito (LOWLIGHT), but at least I didn't sweat on my pillow during the night (HIGHLIGHT).
We visited English Fellowship Church on Sunday morning. This was our first Sunday Morning Service in English since last July. (HIGHLIGHT) However, it was at the end of a long and tiring weekend for the kids and they weren't in the mood for sitting quietly to sing and listen to the sermon. (LOWLIGHT).
We got home earlier than expected Sunday afternoon thanks to good weather and traffic . (HIGHLIGHT) After unpacking and putting groceries away, we went to check e-mail and our computer wouldn't come on. We're still not sure what the problem is and I'm at a school computer now. (LOWLIGHT)
Some other Quito HIGHLIGHTS:
-The kids did great on the van rides up and back from Quito.
-We hired a driver to take us up and back. Vicente and his son Oswaldo (who drove us back on Sunday) were wonderful. Vicente even took us around Quito to various appointments, markets, stores, and houses on Saturday.
-The six of us went bowling on Friday. It was a lot of fun and the kids did great. Luke tried to kick the bowling ball like a soccer ball a few times and had to be told that he probably didn't want to do that. ;-)
-We also got to eat out at Pizza Hut and Crepes & Waffles.
Other News:
Two weeks from today is the last day of school. To give some perspective on how long ago the beginning of the year was- I shared a little bit with Jodie's class about New York State when they were studying the Northeast region in the fall. While talking about past U.S. presidents who were from New York, I mentioned that it was likely that the next U.S. president would be from New York. Hillary vs. Rudy seems like a long time ago.
Today's a big soccer day in Ecuador. The Ecuadorian national team lost a friendly match to France this afternoon in a warmup for World Cup qualifying next month. And LDU Quito (referred to simply as Liga in Ecuador) plays tonight in a Copa Libertadores Semifinal match. The Copa Lib is the top club tournament for teams in South America and Mexico.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
The weather feels right
When people ask what the weather is like here, I often say it's May the whole year. So this month feels right with my New York/Pennsylvania weather-calendar cycle. Some rain, some hot afternoons, cool evenings. I'm just waiting to see all the dandelions and maple tree "helicopters" and then it will seem perfect. We've been busy with stuff since the last post, here are a few highlights.
-Micah had a sleepover party on the Friday after his birthday. The two other first grade boys, Jonny and Josiah, stayed over after we had dinner with both of their families. Everyone fell asleep earlier than at Shea's party in December.
-There was no school on Friday, May 2 to celebrate Dia de Trabajo (Ecuador's Labor Day)*. We went to the "fair" in Puyo with our friend Elsa and her grandson Stevie. There were booths from different groups from Ecuador's Oriente/Amazonia region (the jungle area of Eastern Ecuador) and local merchants, as well as food, animals, and a bouncy ride for the kids. It made us a little nostalgic for the Solanco and Lampeter fairs in September that we're missing out on. After the fair, we went to a local pool to meet some other friends. We spent the afternoon swimming, talking, eating, and most of us getting sunburns.
-Last Saturday, I helped some local kids with their high school English class project. Leo, a kid I know from Spotlight on Thursday nights, asked if I would answer some questions for his group's project. So we did a little English Q&A on videotape. I may be the source of a few jokes now at Colegio Militar in Mera.
-The students and teachers at Nate Saint had a pizza party on Friday for reaching their April Read-a-Thon goal of 100,000 pages. They read over 120,000 pages combined during the month of April. Jacob, one of Jodie's 3rd graders, was the top individual reader with 11,000 plus pages!
-Friday night was the school's Cultural Fair. Each of the classes presented for the community some of the things they've been learning about in Social Studies this year. Shea & Micah's class did projects on different holiday celebrations from around the world. The two boys were partners and had a booth about Quebec's Winter Carnival. They worked hard and did a great job at their booth, and even had yummy pancakes and hot chocolate! Jodie's class did a "living map" of the U.S. complete with mountians, the Mississippi River, and Statue of Liberty. Each student (and Jodie) prepared some information about their "home" state. New York, Pennsylvania, Illionis, Minnesota, Texas, and California were represented.
-Last night we had a despedida (going-away party) for the 6 missionary families that are leaving Shell in the next few months. We've gotten to know some of them well over the past year, and it will sad to see them go, but in the Father's hands we know that a lifetime's not too long to live as friends.
-We celebrated Mother's Day today with a trip to the pool/water park in Puyo. We played in a wave pool, a water playground, and some amusement park height water slides. Then we went out for pizza and bought some fruit at the market before heading back home on the bus. Our kids were so excited to give Mom gifts and confirm that she officially is the Best Mother in the World! Jod's final Mother's Day gift just left- a group of 6 serenaded her with 2 songs and roses. Our friend Isaac's church youth group was selling those and I couldn't resist this one of a kind gift.
Our camera's broken at the moment, so pictures may be a little more sparse the next several weeks.
*Dia de Trabajo is actually on May 1, but when it falls on a Thursday the president often declares both Thursday and Friday a holiday. Since NSMS only could have 1 day off, we changed our day off from Thursday to Friday. Glad I could straighten that out for you.
-Micah had a sleepover party on the Friday after his birthday. The two other first grade boys, Jonny and Josiah, stayed over after we had dinner with both of their families. Everyone fell asleep earlier than at Shea's party in December.
-There was no school on Friday, May 2 to celebrate Dia de Trabajo (Ecuador's Labor Day)*. We went to the "fair" in Puyo with our friend Elsa and her grandson Stevie. There were booths from different groups from Ecuador's Oriente/Amazonia region (the jungle area of Eastern Ecuador) and local merchants, as well as food, animals, and a bouncy ride for the kids. It made us a little nostalgic for the Solanco and Lampeter fairs in September that we're missing out on. After the fair, we went to a local pool to meet some other friends. We spent the afternoon swimming, talking, eating, and most of us getting sunburns.
-Last Saturday, I helped some local kids with their high school English class project. Leo, a kid I know from Spotlight on Thursday nights, asked if I would answer some questions for his group's project. So we did a little English Q&A on videotape. I may be the source of a few jokes now at Colegio Militar in Mera.
-The students and teachers at Nate Saint had a pizza party on Friday for reaching their April Read-a-Thon goal of 100,000 pages. They read over 120,000 pages combined during the month of April. Jacob, one of Jodie's 3rd graders, was the top individual reader with 11,000 plus pages!
-Friday night was the school's Cultural Fair. Each of the classes presented for the community some of the things they've been learning about in Social Studies this year. Shea & Micah's class did projects on different holiday celebrations from around the world. The two boys were partners and had a booth about Quebec's Winter Carnival. They worked hard and did a great job at their booth, and even had yummy pancakes and hot chocolate! Jodie's class did a "living map" of the U.S. complete with mountians, the Mississippi River, and Statue of Liberty. Each student (and Jodie) prepared some information about their "home" state. New York, Pennsylvania, Illionis, Minnesota, Texas, and California were represented.
-Last night we had a despedida (going-away party) for the 6 missionary families that are leaving Shell in the next few months. We've gotten to know some of them well over the past year, and it will sad to see them go, but in the Father's hands we know that a lifetime's not too long to live as friends.
-We celebrated Mother's Day today with a trip to the pool/water park in Puyo. We played in a wave pool, a water playground, and some amusement park height water slides. Then we went out for pizza and bought some fruit at the market before heading back home on the bus. Our kids were so excited to give Mom gifts and confirm that she officially is the Best Mother in the World! Jod's final Mother's Day gift just left- a group of 6 serenaded her with 2 songs and roses. Our friend Isaac's church youth group was selling those and I couldn't resist this one of a kind gift.
Our camera's broken at the moment, so pictures may be a little more sparse the next several weeks.
*Dia de Trabajo is actually on May 1, but when it falls on a Thursday the president often declares both Thursday and Friday a holiday. Since NSMS only could have 1 day off, we changed our day off from Thursday to Friday. Glad I could straighten that out for you.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Our Big Backyard (and other various thoughts and pictures)
One of the best parts of living here in Shell is the close proximity of our house to God's creation- from the volcano visible from our driveway on clear days to the sights and sounds of the jungle. The kids love exploring outside. The latest craze in our outdoor experiences is the tadpole population living in the old hot tub here on the MAF base. All of the kids in the neighborhood are often found catching and examining these little creatures. Here are some pics from a couple Sundays ago of the boys playing out back.
Here's a picture of Jadyn lounging poolside a few weeks ago when our family went to a pool in Puyo for the afternoon.
Do you remember December 15, 1999? Ron Dayne had just won the Heisman Trophy, gas cost about $1.30 a gallon, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" was the most watched telvision show in the U.S., everyone was stocking up their pantries with hamburger helper for the end of the world that was just 17 days away, and nobody in our family had a diaper that needed changed. For the next 8 years and 4 months, that didn't happen again. Until last week. Luke is diaper free during the days now and even has had a couple of dry nights. He is still learning some proper etiquette boundaries, though. Like . . . peeing outside by a tree is often alright, but pooping on the sidewalk by the carport- not so much.
In the 11+ years I lived in Lancaster, I rode the bus a total of 0 times. (In fact, aside from trips to the dentist as a kid in Rochester, I don't think I've ever rode the city bus). But here in Shell, we ride the bus often. Not all the time, but more frequently lately. And it's so easy here- no need to look for a schedule of stops and times. We can just walk out to end of our driveway and within 5 minutes there's a bus that will stop and take us to Shell or Puyo.
The kids are taking SAT's this week at school. No, not those SAT's. Their Standard Achievement Tests for each grade level. The one positive of this is that Jodie has had to spend a lot less time on lesson plans. A big negative is that Micah has to take these tests on his birthday.
That's right, our Micah bear is 7 today!! We're so proud of our special guy and we love him so much. Happy Birthday Micah!!
Here's a picture of Jadyn lounging poolside a few weeks ago when our family went to a pool in Puyo for the afternoon.
Do you remember December 15, 1999? Ron Dayne had just won the Heisman Trophy, gas cost about $1.30 a gallon, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" was the most watched telvision show in the U.S., everyone was stocking up their pantries with hamburger helper for the end of the world that was just 17 days away, and nobody in our family had a diaper that needed changed. For the next 8 years and 4 months, that didn't happen again. Until last week. Luke is diaper free during the days now and even has had a couple of dry nights. He is still learning some proper etiquette boundaries, though. Like . . . peeing outside by a tree is often alright, but pooping on the sidewalk by the carport- not so much.
In the 11+ years I lived in Lancaster, I rode the bus a total of 0 times. (In fact, aside from trips to the dentist as a kid in Rochester, I don't think I've ever rode the city bus). But here in Shell, we ride the bus often. Not all the time, but more frequently lately. And it's so easy here- no need to look for a schedule of stops and times. We can just walk out to end of our driveway and within 5 minutes there's a bus that will stop and take us to Shell or Puyo.
The kids are taking SAT's this week at school. No, not those SAT's. Their Standard Achievement Tests for each grade level. The one positive of this is that Jodie has had to spend a lot less time on lesson plans. A big negative is that Micah has to take these tests on his birthday.
That's right, our Micah bear is 7 today!! We're so proud of our special guy and we love him so much. Happy Birthday Micah!!
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