Wow, well, it's been a while since I've blogged! We had a death in the family and the last month and a half has been rather wild and odd. But I finished up the school year in Costa Rica! I will soon need to make a decision: return to Costa Rica or stay and earn some money for seminary next fall at Asbury? But for the moment, I'm trying to get through Christmas with as much Christmas spirit as I can manage. Like I said, it's been a little odd for me lately.

Below are some pictures from the last few days I was in Costa Rica. The kids are now a year older! How crazy fast the time has gone:)

Jonatán

José Daniel, José David

Carolina, yo

Priscila, Aitana, Fiorella, Valeria

María Paula, yo

Alejandro happens to be the son of Costa Rica's soccer coach:) he's a cutie for sure! (the kid I mean)

Graziella's husband barbequed for us one evening and Meredith and I showed the family how to make smores! And then we sange carols and played games by the fireplace:) A wonderful end to the year with them!

I happened to be in the gym during a clinic a university basket ball team was giving the high school team. It was obviously a little one sided but fun for me to watch Jesse Tatum play and just to watch a sport I understood!:)

After I recovered from the flu, I was able to make it to my sister's art show! She did a wonderful job and I am so proud of her!

me, Uncle Phil, Krista, Dad, Mom, Grandma

It was a great show and I hope she's decided to gift us with some of her work!

a flower...growing in our driveway...in December:)

The next two pictures were taken as we were driving to the funer home for my grandfather. The sunset was gorgeous, as you will see. And when we arrived at the funeral home, the sky was even more beautiful! I couldn't have asked for a better gift:)

Well, I have a lot of catching up to do now that I've put the pictures up!:)

a presentation about staying clean with their products. the kids liked it:)

doing some class work!

lunch at the site to celebrate Tifani's birthday

the cake!

the mom (Carmen), the birthday girl, and Allie in the back ground:) Carmen, after we sang happy birthday, wiped her daughter's face with the icing and they started chasing each other. it was quite entertaining:)

view from the work site in Moravia

we made popcorn in class to study how matter changes

passing out the popcorn...

eating popcorn! apparently, many of the kids have never had popcorn made over the stove...they were amazed at how good it was!

one of the best parts of driving to the work site is the view of this magnificent-looking church in Moravia.

VBS with the Alabama work team, Llano Grande (the same place where the rose garden is!)

What's surprising about the site of this church is the fact that it is in the province of Cartago, the site of the Basilica and so most of that region is Catholic.

also in Llano Grande, we found a Poinsetta tree, and I wanted a picture with it (thank you to the owners!) and then some of the team members followed me:)

After the team week, I went home for my visa and for Krista's birthday! She LOVED her new tica doll:)

Now that Christmas is approaching, it's time to decorate the classrooms! We made ornaments in our homeroom class (the group of ornaments) and in another class I subbed, we made them too! (the above) and put them on the wall in the form of a tree:)

Well, I had a really nice time back in Texas for a week! It was nice to feel wide-open spaces and fresh air and be able to drive 70mph when I could:). And the food! Oh man, I miss BBQ;) My talks at church and at TLU chapel went well, so I'm glad about that. People seemed to really enjoy them, which is good! And one church member talked with me about how to get some retired school books from Texas down to some of the public schools here in Costa Rica that cannot afford them, so that's exciting for me! I also had a good visit at TLU besides speaking at chapel. Dr. Daub helped me get in to play on the newly refurbished piano that my granny played on back in '39 or'40 for her senior recital! It plays like a dream! Ah, I was in love:). What a pity they didn't discover it while I was a student. I wish I could make it back for the dedication concert in early November, but it's not possible. Oh well, at least I got to play it for a little bit, and he said that he'd let me in whenever I was around and wanted to practice on it:). Yay!

School is moving along. We have 21 days left after today! It's hard to believe I'll be heading back to Texas after being back here only for 6 weeks, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Now that science fair is over, class is back to normal and we're flying through the last chapters, thank goodness!

Some friends of ours from language school have invited us over for a Halloween party with their family and others, so we're looking forward to it! Meredith and I are planning to dress up as Thing 1 and Thing 2 from the Dr. Seuss books:). Since Costa Rica no longer recognizes or celebrates Halloween any more, the school is decorating for Christmas. While I understand the reasons for the church here to say Halloween is the devil's holiday, or something like that, I still find it ironic since the same church promoted the idea of it all hundreds of years ago.

The bible study is going well so far from what I've heard, and today will be my first day to be part of it, so I'm excited about that. Thankfully, we have 5 girls who have been coming, so that is an answered prayer for sure! Not what exams are over (for the time being) we may even have 1 or 2 more, which would be wonderful!

So I had a great time working with the Asbury team this week--aside from all the wise-cracks about Alabama vs. Texas;). They were a great group and we had a lot of fun. For me personally, it was a chance for me toto have a change of pace and get some spiritual fulfillmet out of physical labor, which apparently I needed more than I thought! For 2 days, I worked with the men in the "hole" where the water tank will be housed. The tank will hold all the water for the site once it's up and running, so we're talking about a really big hole in the ground! Two of the men were appointed the task of lifting cinder blocks up, over, and down the rebar to build the wall. I was given the task of putting the mortar down for the blocks and then filling the gaps between once they were laid. Unfortunately, I acquired quite a sunburn on the back of my neck and arms and face. Oh well, I guess it was to be expected since I hadn't been outside for any length of time for some months!

Mark and DR lifting a block up and over while I'm saying, "Please don't squash me!"

And they did it! :)

Today, Meredith and I met up with Allie in downtown San José to buy some things for the Bible Study we're starting up this coming Thursday. Sadly, I'm leaving for Texas that day and so will miss the first 2 sessions:(. But we're excited and are praying we get at least 4-5 girls to come. We'll have to see what happens!

Last evening San José experienced a 5.9 earthquake in the northern area of the province (which really isn't all that big or far away) and the apartment swayed for 20ish seconds. While I jumped up and had my hand on the door knob, just in case, I watched in amazement and a bit of trepidation as my potted plant--which is taller than me--visibly moved from side to side the whole time. In fact, the whole building was moving from side to side. Let me tell ya, that is one of the most bizarre things about living down here! After the fact, we all laugh and have fun, but while it's happening, all you can think about is how quick can you get out the door and if not, where's the best triangle of life?? Thankfully, we have not had to put those actions into practice!:) Since Costa Rica has quite a few earthquakes each day--which we rarely can feel due to their low power--the worries about a horrific quake are less likely. Kind of like when you open a fresh coke bottle a bit at a time to ward of the explosion that would happen if you flat out opened it;). Yet we never take for granted how lucky we are and pray that we never experience such a tragedy.

And now, I'm getting hungry, so I do believe it's time to rustle up some grub!

So, Friday afternoon, Graziella took Meredith and me up into the mountains of Cartago to visit a rose garden, Solo Rosas. It was really cool! They have thousands of roses, and while it's "winter" and there weren't near as many as the thousands blooming in April, we still got to see a lot of really pretty ones!

All the roses have names, some of them well know:) This is only one of many.

Sorbet!

probably my favorite...it smelled like heaven! literally:)

Yellow Rose of Texas, I'm goin' there to see...no, that's not the name, but Meredith and I both started singing the song!

We bought a dozen...for $5!!!

Saturday, Meredith and I met with Allie and talked about the Bible study we're going to be starting in a couple weeks at the high school. We're going to be looking at Esther, 2 chapters a week for 5 weeks. Unfortunately, the day I leave for Texas to renew my visa is the first day of the study:(. That afternoon, we had our "Girls Time" with Kate, Allie and Michelle and had a lot of fun, followed by a really good conversation, thanks to Michelle asking us what our opinions are about a contraversial issue.

Sunday we went with the Tatum's to church with a team from their church in Alabama and then to lunch. After lunch, we headed over to the orphanage work site to check things out!

Kirsten standing in the fireplace.

the porch

Beth gave a tour! Right now she's in the master bedroom talking about a closet.

the roof is almost done!

For lunch, we went to a typical restaurant with the team where you get Tico food (the fish was divine!) and they have marimba players. The marimba is a traditional instrument of Costa Rica and they played traditional music. It was a lot of fun:).

Well, Science Fair is officially over for us! I am very happy to again be studying from the science book with the kiddos again:). The kids presented all day to parents, older students, and their peers. It was a long day, but fun for them. They were especially excited to see the older kids' presentations and to have recess at unexpected times:).

2nd graders reading to each other during recess

playing Uno during recess

the day of the Science Fair, Meredith and I walked through a cloud, literally, to get to work...it was weird!!!

2nd grade Science Fair, practicing

The groups all did well, considering English is not their native language:). Some words we have to let them say the "tico" way, but that's ok as long as they know what we mean!

Now we are back on schedule, studying seasons with 1st grade and states of matter with 2nd grade. Unfortunately, we still have not seen the sun (for several days now) and it's making me rather sleepy during the day:). And now, the kids are back in the room and it's time to go!

¡Ciao!