I'll be home for ... flag day

We'll be heading back to the U.S. in just 88 days. Last week the plane tickets were purchased. We come home for the summer on Thursday, June 12 and return here to Ecuador on Thursday, August 7. There's so many people we want to see when we're back home that 8 weeks just doesn't seem like enough time (the person Jodie's most excited to see is the clerk at Turkey Hill who gives her the first ice tea and ice cream she's had in 11 months. Next on her list is the waiter or waitress at Olive Garden).

Brief updates and anecdotes from life in Shell.

-it's been storming a lot more here lately. There's always a lot of rain, but it seems like there's been more thunder and lightning with the rain recently. That's not always real good news for our electric and internet connection. In addition, our Vonage phone only seems to work for about an hour a week- so if you get a frantic call from us some time, it's because we want to talk quick before Vonage stops working.

-Jodie's class is "traveling" in the Midwest now. This Thursday they have "Prarie Days": a classroom fair where the students will share and we'll all get to have some food. Look for pictures in an upcoming post.

-I played in a 5 game basketball league here in Shell over the past few weeks. Our team came in 3rd place (out of 6 teams) with a 3-2 record. In one game we played against a team with the pastor of our church on it. For those of you who know Pastor Clovis, you may cringe for me when you read this next part. We were both going for a loose ball. We collided. He didn't budge. I went horizontal and landed on the cement floor. Fortunately, I didn't land on my head.

-One of our fellow MAF families is leaving Shell tomorrow and moving to Oaxaca, Mexico. Sean and Rebecca Cannon and their daughters, Brooklyn and Madison, will be working with Alas de Socorro in Oaxaca where Sean will be a pilot. Thankfully, they are faithful bloggers so we'll be able to see and hear how they're doing. It's exciting to see how God is leading them and how they'll be able to shine for Him in their new home.

-Last night at about 3 a.m we awoke to a loud crying/moaning sound and rattling in our kitchen cupboards. We could tell it wasn't one of our kids, but it didn't sound like a cat's meow. It sounded like a baby crying. I opened the cupboard door and saw the front half of Georgia poking out from the 1/2 inch space between the back corner post of the cupboard and the wall. She was stuck.* And she wasn't to happy. And probably not able to breathe. Jod helped yank her out from the front, while I went down to our back porch, reached up into the floor boards and pipes above our hot water heater and tried to shove her legs up. After several minutes (almost a half-hour) of screeching, howling, and other very non cat-like sounds, we were able to get her unstuck.

- Luke has been taking a renewed interest in using the potty. He's been in underwear for most of his daytime hours the last few days. His technique for "liquid waste" is to stand up on the toilet seat and let it go into the waiting pool under his feet. I guess he's trying to practice for public bathrooms with the urinals that go down to the floor.

*Georgia had been easily climbing up through a large hole in the back of our cupboard by climbing up through the space above the hot water heater. But I taped that shut last night which led her to a more desperate and dangerous attempt at breaking into our house in the middle of the night.