Thought I'd throw together some images from the last few weeks - the little joys and trials.
Buddy is both a joy AND a trial himself. We have finally got him sleeping through the nights without so much as a whimper. And the accidents are less frequent inside, too. (Though with tile floors throughout the house, he still picks the area rugs as his toilet when the urge strikes.) We haven't left him home throughout the day by himself yet. If inside, we fear what chewing damage he could do in a day's time. If outside, we fear him wandering off or getting into a tangle with one of the older dogs.
So we've been taking him to school with us and he's become Melissa's classroom pet. He's brought a lot of joy to many kids at Cowman.
Along with the lizards, frogs and spiders, we often get a surprise critter, like this butterfly that flew inside one night. His colors were intense. I was wishing I could send him north to my friends in Indiana as a promise of spring, but I didn't want to freeze him to death.
I could do an entire post about food - and how long everything takes to make from scratch. So I was excited one evening to try out a "gumbo" mix brought to us by our friend Pastor Steve on his last visit here. I mixed in some leftover Mexican rice Melissa had made the night before and the kids couldn't get enough. Literally. These days we have very few leftovers.
Still on the topic of food, Melissa found a HUGE can of blueberry pie filling at a local grocery store and I came across a recipe for homemade Danish and this masterpiece was born:
One day at school Melissa left a drawer slightly ajar on her filing cabinet. She might as well have put a "For Rent" sign on it. The next day she opened it to discover numerous files she has collected over the years chewed into "bedding" for yet another rat. Guess who gets to investigate?
Melissa was convinced that the rat was still in the cabinet, so I stuck my phone into the bottom of the cabinet, behind the lowest drawer to take a picture where I could not see, and, by golly, she was right!
One of the maintenance men came in and took over (although I had the situation under control) and he put his hand into the bottom of that cabinet and started rooting around for that rat! We concluded afterwards that he was operating under the impression that he was fishing for a DEAD rat because when he actually touched it, he jumped backward and that rat came flying out of the drawer! I tried to stomp the little beast and Miss Rose whacked him a few times with a broom, but in the end he escaped through a hole under the bathroom sink.
More pleasant news from Cowman: Caleb and his math buddy, Brianna, have been working at their own pace throughout the year. They skipped 7th grade math and went straight into pre-Algebra back in September. They have been using a computer-based program and just FINISHED two semesters worth of work. Now they're ready for Algebra. Proud of them!
(P.S. Brianna is purposefully making a "bored" face here. She LOVES math!)
Last Saturday brought a beach opportunity we just couldn't pass up: All of the missionary couples with kids were going to the same beach on the same day. That's five sets of siblings and a total of 15 kids. Our kids can never seem to get too much time with these friends. Below, Sammy is splashing his friend Gideon.
To make a great day even greater: chocolate ice cream!
On Super Bowl Sunday, we got a call out of the blue from our friends at Emmaus Seminary - they had figured out how to live stream the game and were planning to project it on the "big screen" outside. It was an absolutely gorgeous evening with a light breeze. The only downside? It was a European broadcast, so the only American commercials being broadcast were for products sold on both sides of the Atlantic. And from what I could tell, that is a very short list: Skittles.
Seems like every time you turn around, someone is having a birthday. It was Alanna's turn, so we were invited next door for pink cupcakes on Monday evening.
We came home to find another unique butterfly, this time on our screen door - looking very much like a dead leaf.
On Tuesday, we Skyped with a class from Southside Elementary (Go Mustangs!) back in Columbus, Indiana. These kids would have been Hannah's classmates if we had stayed put in Indiana. So Hannah was especially excited to talk to them. Their teacher is initiating a "pen pal" program with our 5th, 6th and 7th graders.
Tuesday also brought a visiting team from Texas to my adult English class in the afternoon. I don't post many pictures from this class, but I LOVE getting together with them twice a week to teach English. They are a sharp group and the curriculum is Bible-based, so we often get to talk about the more important things in life. No matter how tired or drained I might feel coming through that door on Tuesdays and Fridays, the Lord perks up my spirit once we get into the day's lesson.
On Wednesdays, we get together with all the other missionaries for prayer and Bible study. Now I could describe what an awesome teacher we have in Matt Ayars of Emmaus Seminary and how much we are learning from Scripture (where we are currently looking at a few of the psalms), but instead I will share how happy our kids were to see the puppy-bonding between Buddy and the Heckman's dog, Pepper. They wore each other out over the course of two hours of non-stop wrestling:
On Thursday evening, we had an invitation to join Sam and Cammie Aberle for a wonderful dinner (again at the Seminary) and just before we left home, Buddy started SCREAMING from a little wooded area beside our house. When we finally tracked him down, he would not put weight on his left paw and he would not stop whimpering. We were never able to discover what occurred, but his paw swelled to twice its normal size and he cried intermittently throughout the dinner. Maybe a tarantula? Maybe a centipede? A wasp? The way he carried on, we weren't sure he'd live through the night. We were all praying for him.
And the next morning, he was subdued but otherwise back to normal.
On Friday, we had a half day of school to make room for a teachers' meeting. Our principal, Angie, had a great idea: send the kids back home for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches ...
... and take the teachers just down the street to the Villa Cana for hamburgers and beautiful scenery!
Bravo, Angie! And it was a really productive meeting - things are constantly changing at Cowman. For the better!
Below, Melissa is sitting with her teacher's aide, Miss Rose, and Rose's husband, "Coach" David - who teaches gym and leads an after school soccer club at Cowman. Rose has been such a huge blessing to Melissa and the students. I need to convince Melissa sometime to share the story of Rose's hiring back on the second day of school last September, because it's a good one.
I can't tell you how blessed I feel when I look back over these pictures and see all the beautiful ways God is shaping our lives here. Thank YOU for making it possible!
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