New Class mates

I meant to blog about this a couple of weeks ago but my life got a little crazy. So two weeks ago the kids got some new classmates. These classmates are a bit different from the others they too are blonde with blue eyes. We met some really fun friends who live in our Neighborhood. They are the Walls. They are here fro six months and wanted their kids to learn Spanish & culture. Each one of my kids has a Wall child in their class. it worked out great. This picture was taken on the first day the Walls went to school. Sorry its a bit small, when I down loaded it was this small!!!

My kids have really enjoyed having a new friend in the class.

On thing I think is so funny the first time we saw the Walls they were walking down our street with their mother. My kids saw them and said "Mom talk to them I know they must speak english, we can play with them and understand'!!!!

So we did and have become good friends. Praise the Lord for good friendships we have made since we have been here.

Chloe Ann's Birthday

Happy Birthday Chloe Ann!!!

This past thursday we celebrated her birthday. We had a party with her class at school.

My dear friend Melissa let me borrow her camera. Danny met me at the school with his Spanish teacher Carola. She loved holding Naomi while we had the party. We took a cake that Chloe Ann & I made and decorated. It was yummy and the kids all liked it.




I was surprized, almost everyclass mate brought a gift for her. She got all kinds of neat things. It was really fun for Chloe Ann. I took party favors for each child. One of the items was a whistle:) When all 14 of them opened the whistles and started blowing Danny said "could you not find anything else"? Poor teacher, She said it was no problem. She is so sweet.

Chloe Ann Her teacher Velin and Cindi.

On Friday night we had the Conners and the Walls over for dinner and celebrated her birthday with them. Chloe Ann wanted to have spagetti & a delicious cake from the bakery she had seen a couple of months ago. It was white with green apples and strawberries on top. We had a great time of fellowship and everyone enjoyed their time together. So sad to say I did not take pictures of this party. My camera is officially retired.

A little shook up but we are fine!!

Since we got here to Guatemala we have had several trimmers. We would look at each other as the ground below us shook. It was a very eary feeling but would not even last long enough to think about it too long.

Last night as we were saying good night to the kids in bed. We felt a good shake and it kept going and going. Then the house really started to move we decided to very quickly move outside as it would not stop. You know 20 seconds is a long time for a trimmer. (later we found out it was 6.1 on the richter scale!!!) After we ran outside it was amazing to see everything shaking and moving. Chloe Ann said "my heart is really bumping mama". I told her mine was too. The boys did not really say anything. We just all stood there looking at each other in awe.

Thank goodness there was no major damage anywhere. Cell phone towers and electricity went out in some parts of the country for a few minutes but we are just fine. Praise the Lord.

It was the talk of town this morning as I dropped the kids off at school. Everyone was asking us (the new comers) how we felt about the "temblor".

I have this feeling this morning that no matter how much I think I am in control of my life. The Lord is in complete control of my life, and especially this world. I have such a peace about being here in Guatemala because I know this is exactly where the Lord wants me to be. Doing His will.

Black Sand Beach

Last week Danny's teacher said he needed some time to rest his brain. So he took off school Friday and we headed to the beach. WHOOOHOOO I think we all needed a break. We have heard a lot of things about the beach. We were exccited to find out for ourselves. We left Friday morning and we were there in 2 hours. I could not believe we live so close to the beach! As you can see from the pictures it is not like Gulf Shores. It was absolutely beautiful! The sand it very black, it is volcanic crushed rock. Believe it or not the sand was actually softer than the white sand we were used to, but VERY HOT. The waves were incredible you can hear it as soon as you step out of the car. The surf is so strong we could only get in knee deep. It would crash on the shore and literally knock you down even when you were knee deep.
Naomi did not like the noise of the crashing waves. You can see her frowning as I put her down to at least get ONE picture of her on the beach.

Chloe Ann made many sand castles just like Grandsir(my dad) taught her. She said he is "the best" at making sand castles.

Titus & Isaac loved sitting on the sand waiting for the wave to come and throw them around. They were also able to find a few crabs, They loved that. They liked the beach even though they couldn't really get in.

We stayed at a great hotel and I loved the pool, mainly because when we were at the beach Naomi wanted to be held the whole time. It got a bit tiring.

We stayed at the beach or pool the whole time. It was a much needed break. We all had a very fun time.

The hotel we stayed in was outside Montericco so we drove in town to eat some good local seafood. We had garlic shrimp with french fries, fried fish(whole even with the eye balls!!) with salad and Danny got the typical Marisco Soup (seafood soup). They have yummy fresh fruit drinks out of any kind of fruit you want.. It was delicious!! Isaac said peeling the shrimp reminded him of crawfish. We all said AWWW we are missing crawfish season!!! But this is good too!

As I was sitting on the beach early one morning before 7:00 watching the kids play I was completely overwhemled with how Amazingly beautful, and unbelievably strong the ocean is. I just broke out in song. "How great is our God, sing with me how great is our God..." Even though there were people around they could not hear me because the waves were so loud. I knew God could hear me even if I would have been whispering. As the kids came up to me they too started to sing. After we finished the song we talked about Gods power, strength, and love. And how He made this for us to enjoy. It was a neat experience to share with the kids.

Some how Danny escaped my camera the entire week-end, but I did get a cute video of him with Naomi after her bath. Its a bit dark but I like just listening to it anyway.

I will publicly admit that I went against my husbands words of wisdom and took my camera to the beach around my neck (not in the Bag) YIKES!!!! And got it wet so to my detrement I do not have a working camera. I took it to a camera shop today so please pray with me, maybe they can fix it!!! Until then No more pictures.