Our wonderful, marvelous, pretty good, very great day

Today was full of fun, and instead of just putting the videos and pics on facebook, I wanted to be able to write a little bit about it too - especially since Scott wasn't able to be a part of it :(.

Since Sydney is in Kindergarten, she was a part of a "Minifestival Deportivo" today, and she got to show off her gymnastic skills as well as cheerleading skills. She was awesome - I can tell that she's learned a lot - her memory amazes me! She remembered all the moves to the cheerleading routine. After that was over, they spent the rest of the day playing games and team sports. She was so exhausted, that when I came to pick her up at 12:30, she was asleep on the floor. Her teachers said that she played pretty hard. :)



Can't forget to mention the US soccer game - we ALMOST had the win. I only got to listen to it on the radio, but from all that I heard, the 3rd US goal was stolen from them. when they scored the 3rd goal, I actually let out a "yes!" pretty loud - I don't know if anybody else in the office heard it... :) At least England/Algeria was a tie as well - we've still got a great chance to get into the knock out round. Here's to the USA!

I've been wanting to do something fun with the kids this weekend, since next weekend we have a HUGE event all day Saturday and Sunday, and then the next weekend we are getting ready to head to the States. We decided that we would go see Toy Story 3 and get dinner in the food court. The movie was really good - a little intense for Elijah at the "dumpster scene" (you'll know what I mean when you see it), but all in all he thought it was good. We saw it in 3D, but I wouldn't really recommend paying extra for that feature - it wasn't overwhelmed with special effects, making it feel like you just had crazy glasses on your face for no reason.

Well - in just about 2 weeks we be Stateside - it's hard to believe. We have a lot to get done before then. Please pray for GOL 2010 that we are doing at church. I'm pretty much the main organizer, and we are doing children's ministry, soccer tournaments, projection of the World Cup and more. It's a lot, and there are lots of details, but I always love being a part of the event when they are actually here. We hope to have 1000 contacts and 100 people to follow up with after the event.

Hope you all have a great weekend - go see Toy Story 3 if you have time. :)

Kids in the Kitchen

About 6 weeks ago, I started really watching what we are eating as a family, and intentionally teaching the kids about decisions that we make concerning what we eat. It all started out as a reason to help Scott and I drop a few pounds, but it's turned into something more life transformational. I found a few ITouch apps that are calorie counters and restaurant guides, as well as found a podcast that is specifically geared toward healthy kids.

3 weeks ago, I started getting the kids involved with planning and cooking 1 meal a week. Sydney has been sick this week, so we are behind on this week's menu, but i wanted to share with you the meals that they have chosen and made.

Elijah first chose to make banana pancakes - he learned the hard way that you have to hold a pan by it's handle, not the hot metal part. Even with a small burn on the tips of 2 fingers, he still learned a lot. He really like mashing up the bananas. For his second meal, he chose Tilipia (fish) with cauliflower and fruit salad. We baked the fish in the oven, steamed the cauliflower and chopped up his favorite fruits. He was so proud of this meal, that we took a picture of it. :)

Sydney's first week, she chose her meal by looking through one of my cooking magazines. She chose Almond crusted chicken and broccoli (they have to chose a vegetable to go with their meals). It was made in a saute pan on the stove top, so I did most of the cooking, but she liked dredging the chicken and crushing up the almonds to make the coating. She loves putting veggies in the steamer basket and watching them steam up. Her second meal was chicken and rice - we had some left over shredded chicken and made a casserole with it and some rice. She learned how to make rice in my pressure cooker. She especially likes putting a little bit of crushed potato chips on the top. In the course of eating both of these meals she said "I'm a good cook" or "This is so good". I told Scott that if I had made either of those meals, she would have sat down and before even tasting it said "I don't like this."

It's been revelatory having them in the kitchen. They are learning to think through meal planning and everything that it takes to prepare a meal. Elijah is already getting good with a knife (he is WELL supervised, no worries) and Sydney knows where most of the pots/pans/measuring cups type of stuff is in the kitchen. It's been fun - I would recommend it to any of you with your kids/grandkids/nieces and nephews. Oh, 1 other tip for kids. Use compartmentalized plates - they are fun for the kids, but they really do give good portion control to what's on the plate. (Just make sure you use a bigger space for the fruits/veggies and the smaller one for chips/cookies)

I think Sydney is making pork chops tonight - we'll see how this one goes!

life and times of us

Life has been moving by at an incredibly fast pace lately! Our Lenten resolve has fully manifested itself on the weekends, and using the bus has made us savvy Ticos, but at the same time, we are all ready to get back to the use of the car for all of our normal life activities! Whenever we find ourselves with a bad attitude about not using the car, it typically serves as a great reminder of Jesus' sacrifice for us. Believe it or not, the kids have actually gotten used to the bus system. I counted last Sunday morning how many blocks we walk from our bus stop in San Jose to our church bus stop - about 13 city blocks. These are in addition to the 5 blocks to walk to the first bus and about 4 blocks to walk to the church. We easily get in about 2 miles of walking with a round trip to church. Elijah is a force to be reckoned with - he walks them with ease. Sydney sometimes makes it the whole way, but sometimes begs to be carried on Scott's shoulders. He usually gives in, because it makes the walk faster in the end. :)

Elijah's obviously been loosing teeth like crazy! He's lost 3 in the past 5 weeks, and has another on the bottom that will be out in the next week or so. We've been saying that he's got a jack-o-lantern smile. He's becoming quite the professional on pulling them out, I must say. About 2 years ago, Scott told him the story that Clark tried to pull out one of Tim's teeth back in the day, by tying a string to the bathroom doorknob and the other end of it to Tim's tooth. When he slammed the door, the tooth didn't come out of Tim's mouth and Tim went flying across the bathroom! Elijah's determined that he won't let anyone near his teeth when they are loose - he'll do it himself. :) With his front 2 teeth, the tooth fairy left him 500 colones (about $1) - the others ones he lost were small teeth, so he got 100 colones. His most recent loss was the second front tooth, and when he came out of his room with the money in his hand, he looked and me and said, "I knew that one would be worth 500 Colones". It was so funny. Oh - he's also doing really well in school - he got a 100% on his recent science quiz and spelling test. He's pretty proud of himself.

Sydney is loving the clubs that she's in this year. She's taking a drama club on Monday, gymnastics on Tuesday and Cheerleading on Thursday. Her staying for clubs helps out our schedule, because that means that she gets out of school the same time Elijah does. Currently gymnastics is her favorite, but next week we will get the note that says we need to make a cheerleading uniform for her club - I have a feeling once she has a uniform for cheerleading, that will come out on top. :) We've decided to take her out of swimming for a while - she's not enjoying it anymore, and it was frustrating to always make her get in the water. She is a pretty good swimmer - I hope that she wants to start again in a few months. Elijah continues with the lessons, and is GREAT at swimming on his back and is already practicing diving in the water.

In case I don't post before Holy Week, we will be gone for vacation during that week. We've rented a condo at Playa del Coco - it's about 5 hours from here, on the Pacific side. We are taking March 29 - April 4 as a family vacation and we are really looking forward to it. I'll for sure post pictures when we are back. Adios!

5 days in

In efforts to share a little of our "car fast" experience, I'm going to try and blog a little more frequently.

We started our experience last Wednesday, and knew that our carpool deal with some neighbors was going to be challenged, as well as it being almost technically impossible. Sydney gets out of school at 12:15PM and Elijah gets out at 2:30PM. We picked up Sydney at 12:15 and got on the bus to get home - we made it home by 2:15. Obviously, there is no way to use the bus system to get back to the school from our house to pick up Elijah and Jose Rubén (the neighbor's son). Thankfully, on Wednesday, we had already arranged that the other family would bring the boys home, so it didn't affect us too much. After talking about the arrangement and the conviction that we have, we've decided that we will use the car only for getting the kids to and from school. So far, it seems to be working alright.

We've learned a lot about how the bus system works in San José. We already knew some stuff, but doing it makes it more real. :) The system here works on a "wagon wheel spoke" system. Meaning that every bus from any town around San José goes into San José - from there you have to find the next bus that goes to the town that you want to go to. This is a system that works, but takes SO long when the town that you want to get to is "right next door". For example - the office is in Guadelupe and our house in is Tibás. When we drive it, it usually takes about 15 minutes, because we take secondary routes, and they are "neighbors" to each other. With taking the bus to San José first, and then transferring to the Tibás bus, it takes about 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

You can clearly see that we have more time on our hands - which has been good for our relationship (Scott's and mine). We have more time to just sit next to each other and talk. It's also increased our physical activity on a daily basis - a bus comes pretty close to our house (about 3 blocks) to go into San José, but once there, the walk could be anywhere from 5 - 14 blocks, depending on what part of town we are going to. When it's just the 2 of us, it's not a problem, but having the kids with us has been interesting...

Believe it or not, the kids are starting to get a little used to it already. We still hear a lot of complaining from Sydney that she's tired, can't walk as fast as we do, why don't we just use our car, but it's been a good teaching experience to help her understand a little bit more about Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross. Unfortunately she's usually with us from the school bus stop or the church bus stop - and those 2 are the furthest away from our home bus stop in San José. I'm interested to hear if her attitude changes at all, as we continue in this experience.

Taking advantage of this space - Sydney and Elijah have asked if they could be baptized. We talked with our pastor yesterday, and he said that he's planning a baptism in 3 weeks. PERFECT TIMING! He said that he would love to have Scott help him, as well as let Scott have the honor of baptizing the kids. We look forward to celebrating with them.

Ash Wednesday

It's obvious that I didn't keep up with my "once a week blogging" resolution. As much as I would love to keep up that much, I just don't see it happening.

Today is Ash Wednesday on the Christian Calendar. In our family, we take the 40 days leading up to Easter very seriously and almost always decide to "sacrifice" something that affects our daily lives. Usually this is a bad habit or something edible, but this year I felt the Lord asking me to give up something extreme. After praying about it and talking it over with Scott, we've decided as a family to give up using our car for 40 days. The public transportation system is very reliable here in Costa Rica, so we will be learning bus routes well, as well as investing more time into transit daily. We are praying that the Lord uses this specific "fast" to help us focus on his sacrifice on the cross. Obviously, we will be bringing the kids along on this 40 day adventure - we pray that God opens their eyes in a new way as well.

The past few weeks brought Sydney's 5th birthday and first days of school for everyone except Scott. The kids started officially this past monday and are already enjoying their new classes and teachers. Elijah has to wear dress shoes everyday, and his major complaint is about sore feet - after wearing Crocs all summer, I'm not surprised that his feet are sore!!! I also started my on-line class with Nazarene Theological Seminary. I'm studying "Introduction to Christian Theology". It's an interesting format being online and I'm enjoying the "study at your own pace" pace. :) My first paper is due next week - here's to hoping I remember how to footnote correctly!!! Thankfully Scott is a walking grammar goalie - not too much get's by him. I'll have to have him edit, I'm sure!

I've been trying a few new things in the kitchen - last week I made "gallo pinto" - Costa Rican version of bean and rice. It turned out alright, but I need to make some adjustments. I also made some YUMMY spicy chicken empanadas, some homemade pita bread and hummus. The pita bread and hummus made a HUGE hit with the kids - they loved it.

I'll try and keep you updated on what's going on with school and all. OH - we got to watch the KU/Texas A&M game - we felt like God was especially smiling on us on Monday. :) Love to all!

I know - you are shocked I'm blogging

I'm making an early new years resolution - to keep up on blogging more consistently. I feel like the kids are getting so big, so fast, and there are so many things that you should all know about, that just get left to the wayside. So - in an effort to turn a new leaf, here's a quick entry.

A few nights ago I was putting Sydney to bed, and as always we sing a song together and then I pray and she prays after me. At school, I think they start most of their prayers with "Heavenly Father" so she started her prayer like that on this particular night. I had to keep from laughing, because she said "emily father" - it's what she hears and is copying it. It was so precious. She's becoming quite the little prayer warrior. We've been praying every night for an almost 2 year old named Marley Moore that has brain cancer. Last night she thanked God that Marley was learning to walk again (she had a stroke and lost a lot of abilities) and prayed that she would "rest well" during the night. Then she said "please God, PLEASE, PLEASE help the medicine to work so that Marley's cancer goes away". It's amazing the power of a 4 year old's prayers - she teaches me frequently how to pray.

Elijah is chronically outside playing soccer in the backyard. For a few months both kids have been earning allowance from us, to help them learn to manage money and to help teach them the concept of tithe. As a side note - I'm proud to say that they both always get their 100 colones out of their banks on Sunday morning to take for Sunday School offering - I don't even have to remind them anymore. Anyway - Elijah saves EVERY cent that he gets, rarely spending it on frivolous things like his sister. :) A few weeks ago, right after we moved to the new house, we were in a store that has lots of toys. We walked past a set of portable soccer goals that cost about $40. He wanted them so bad, but I told him that I didn't plan on buying that, and didn't have the money for them. I told him that he had about that much money saved in his bank (he had birthday money still, as well as his allowance) and he could spend it if he wanted to. He decided that it was a worthy investment, and bought them. He plays with them everyday and hasn't regretted his decision yet. He's also started getting into "extreme speech". For example - a couple days ago I made some hotdogs with melted cheese wrapped up in a tortilla for lunch. He really liked them and looked at me in all seriousness and said "mom, this is the best lunch I've ever had!" With easy standards like that, I'm bound for cooking hall of fame with him. :)

Candy and Tim are coming in 2 weeks and we are really looking forward to their visit. We are so excited to show them around our new house and our new country! We are going for a mini-vacation to the beach for 3 days and are REALLY looking forward to that. Their visit and vacation couldn't come as a better time - life's been crazy busy, and we are ready to slow down a little.

We'll see if my resolution sticks - hope to blog at least once a week. If you are on Facebook, look up Misión Mundial MAC and become a fan of the page. We just started it for our ministry and you can get a peek into what we are doing. It's all in spanish, so you might want to brush up. :)

It's update time

Hey to all! I've been HORRIBLE at keeping up. I know that none of you LIVE for the blog postings, but I know that it's nice to stay in the loop. SO - I'll try to give you a quick snap-shot of the past few months.

We did finally decide on a church - it's call Cuidad Refugio, El Bosque (Refuge City, the forest). El Bosque in the name of the area of town that it is in. They have quickly welcomed us and our skills and willingness to want to be in active ministry. They've asked us to help with the youth program and give it some "shape" in the way of formal youth ministry. We've been meeting with the youth on Saturday nights at 5PM and have lots of challenges, but see a lot of potential in the 12-15 core members. Elijah and Sydney love the Sunday School class that they are a part of on Sunday morning, and I was asked to attend a Sunday School teachers meeting next Sunday morning. I can see myself getting involved in that way as well in the future.

I took this picture for my mom - I knew she'd love seeing Sydney
"cleaning" our porch after it had rained!

The kids' school is awesome - we are really impressed with it. Elijah is doing really well at reading in English and Spanish and pretty much knows how to write in cursive (except for obscure letters like "Q" and "Z"). I often compliment him on his penmanship and tell him that he writes better than Scott - that always gets a laugh out of him! He's also doing great at soccer - his coach seems to be really impressed with his skill level. He had a game this past Saturday - they lost, but their goalie didn't show up for the game. The coach put Elijah at goalie for the first half, and he blocked all the shots (even taking one in the face!). In the second half, the other substitute goalie was a little more afraid of the ball, and let 2 get past him. Elijah had fun playing the goalie, but I prefer to watch him play forward. I had butterflies in my stomach everytime the ball would cross midfield and head his way! Sydney is coming along beautifully in her skill sets as well. She has known letters and numbers for quite a while, so a lot of Pre-kinder is review for what she already knows. Her Spanish is exquisite and she has a best friend named Sofia. She is still enjoying her ballet class, but has already starting dropping hints that cheerleading is what she wants to do next year - she's got lots of rhythm in her blood - she's a good match for the "sport" (quotes for those of you who don't consider cheerleading a sport...). Tomorrow Scott and I are going to her club to see what's she's been learning in ballet - we hope there is a recital someday before the end of the school year, but haven't heard of anything yet. She feels little slighted that we've gone to 2 soccer games for Elijah, and nothing for her. Hopefully going to club tomorrow will make her feel special for a few hours.

May and this last week of July brought 2 really huge ministry milestones for us. In May we had our 4th missionary training and were able to see a class of 13 new missionaries trained in missiology and practical concepts of missions. This past week, we welcomed back our 7 volunteers that have been serving for the past 2 years in Spain and the Middle East. It was so awesome to hear how God used them to touch so many people's lives. It was incredible to hear a maturity in their conversation of the many strategies implemented to really relate with people, and earn the privledge of talking to them about God. All of them came back changed people - what a great thing to be a part of.


A few things you can pray for - Scott has tonsilitis and is STILL battling his ingrown toenail. Elijah has had a persistent cough for the past 5 days. That our energy level would get back to normal - we all are completely wiped out when the evening comes.

To leave you with a funny Sydney phrase: (To the tune of "Bringing in the Sheaves") We're bringing in the cheese, bringing in the cheese... :)
Also - It's mother's day on August 15 here in Costa Rica - check out the video bar (2nd video down) for a tribute to moms!

Quick update

Here is a quick video of Elijah's soccer game - sorry for the "shakey hand" syndrome. :)

We've also had lots of fun with Elijah's first birthday, my 32nd birthday and our 9th wedding anniversary just around the corner. Oh - Elijah also lost his second tooth the day before his birthday. Sydney just got her hair cut last night - it's about shoulder length again. I don't have any pictures to post, but it's super cute.

We are all looking forward to General Assembly, even though it means working lots of overtime hours - the vacation time afterward is REALLY appealing. We are so excited to see practically everyone in our family within 2 weeks! What a blessing on a "non-deputation" year.

Lots of love to everyone.

Cool Mom Moments

A couple days ago, I started reading a book on how parents are the main disciplers of their children. They mentioned baptism as a sacrament that children should also be a part of, and I started thinking how we've not really talked about that with Elijah or Sydney. I've been praying that God would open a door so that we could talk about it, and the door was opened last night. The kids have a children's bible that we've been reading through, and the story that we were on last night was Jesus' baptism. We read the story, and I asked the kids if they knew what baptism was - they both said no, and I explained that it was the outward showing that Jesus lives in our heart. They were interested a little, and I asked if we should talk to our pastor about a baptism service - they said no - that they were afraid of the water. :) So, we resolved to pray about it and ask Jesus to talk to our hearts about it. At bedtime, I prayed that both of them would be willing to be baptized, if Jesus asked them too. It was so sweet when Elijah said in his prayer "God, help me to be baptized". I know that Jesus is working in his heart already. Please help me pray that Elijah especially would be sensitive to the Spirit moving in him.

The other thing happened this morning. As we were eating breakfast, Elijah said "Hey mom, Jesus has been talking to me". I asked him what Jesus said. He told me "Jesus said that he loves me, and that he's helping me to have self-control" (self-control has been a hot issue with us for a couple weeks). Not to be outdone, Sydney said "Jesus says he loves me too". It was so neat to already hear them testifying to what Jesus is doing in their lives. Thanks to many of you who pray for them everyday - God is moving in our kids, and I know that the world will be different because of their committment to God, even at this young age.

Elijah's Big News

Well - this week we had a milestone for Elijah. He lost his first tooth! It was loose for about a week, but he continued to baby it. We never pressured him to pull it, but it was increasingly becoming harder and harder for him to eat. On Wednesday morning, as he was brushing his teeth before school, he decided it was the time. All the sudden, he ran to me in the kitchen, and said "mom! my tooth!". Sure enough, he had the little baby tooth in his hand. He was so excited - I was excited for him. We made a little envelope for it and put it under his pillow that night. El "Ratón Peréz" visited him (the spanish version of the Tooth Fairy - I told him they were friends, and they would both come) and left him 100 colones (about 20 cents). He told me that the tooth fairy wasn't real - I told him he was right, but he didn't believe that I was the tooth fairy. I've still yet to figure out who he thinks left the money under his pillow...


Since I'm on the blog, I can update you on our residency. We had our appointment last Tuesday, and everything went really well. A few setbacks happened the morning of the appointment, but it all resolved itself. We will have our cedula and temporary residency card on May 8. Once we have the card, we have to fill out a petition to take the kids out of the country with us - it really important that we have this done before General Assembly, or they won't let the kids leave the country. We've been told it's not a hard process - we are praying that's the truth.

Scott is in Mexico right now - Campeche to be exact. He called us today and said that it is REALLY hot there. In fact, one of the girls that is there to help with the event had to buy new shoes, because her's melted, because the pavement is so hot! He heads to Mexico City tomorrow afternoon, and to Guadalajara, Mexico on the 23. He heads home next Sunday (the 26th). Thanks for your continued prayers on his behalf, and for our family as we are apart.

Here is a cute picture of the kids - a friend in Mexico sent them typical clothes from their area of Mexico - a couple weeks ago, we had all the District Superintendents in for a retreat, and one of the evening services was "typical night"- most of the ladies were dressed up in their typical clothes, and it was the perfect time for the kids to show off their style too. :)

These are just cute pictures.

His Eye is On the Sparrow

I wanted to take a moment to tell you guys that the Lord really spoke to me yesterday.

Actually, it started on Tuesday night, but I didn't realize it. I was reading in my devotions in Luke 12 and verses 7-8 say "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." I read this and sorta glossed over it, because I've read it many times before. I didn't feel like it was anything new, and didn't really meditate on the words.

In the mornings, Scott and I walk for about a half hour around the Seminary campus. Scott has been in Nicaragua this whole week, so I've been walking by myself. I was about 5-6 minutes into my walk, when right in the center of the road was a dead bird. It wasn't smashed - in fact, it's eyes were closed. I think it was just his time to die and he did. Those of you who know me well at all might remember that I've got a phobia of birds - it's not as bad as it used to be, but none-the-less, birds - whether dead or alive- still give me the creeps.

I mustered up all the courage I had to look at it for a second, and God IMMEDIATELY brought back the words that I had read the night before. As I continued on my walk, I dwelt on the fact that God knew that bird was dead, and it MATTERED to him. God spoke to me, and told me that if the death of that little bird was important to him, that me and my family, problems, work, etc are even more important to him.

It's awesome to serve a God that cares so much about everything - even little birds. I pray that everybody feels loved by God, and knows the awesome power of serving Him.

Already learning new things

Just wanted to take a quick second to share with you all what Elijah shared with us yesterday. He came home from school and said "mom, guess what a boy in my class can do?" Being the interested mom that I am, obviously I responded "What?" "He can burp his ABC's - ON PURPOSE!" He was so impressed by this skill - we've yet to find out if he is going to attempt the talent on his own.


Sydney is doing great, although she has yet to figure out what the names of her friends are. She comes home everyday and says that she has a Sofia and 2 Valerias in her class. I asked her who her favorite person to talk to was, and she said Valeria. She loves gym class and recess.

Hope that you all have a great day!

First Day of School in Costa Rica

At 5:03AM our alarm clock went off, and our day began. The kids (amazingly enough) pretty much got right out of bed without too much pulling. They were ready to start the day and go to school. They got dressed, ate breakfast, brushed teeth and got on the bus at 6:00AM. It was hard to believe they were out the door just as the sun was really coming up! They were excited to get on the bus - another girl, Daniella, is in first grade and is our neighbor at the seminary. They all got on the bus together. I'm sure Elijah and Sydney were fine, because they had each other. If Elijah had to go by himself, I think we would have had some tears.

Since we now have an extra 1 1/2 hours in our days (with waking up so early!), Scott and I have decided to start walking in the morning. We walked around the seminary campus a few times - it felt good to have some time to exercise. I also hope to be able to read a chapter a day in some books that I've started and haven't finished - I've got about 4 books that I'm in the "middle" of.

I also started back at the office today - it's different getting ready to go to work, instead of sitting at the desk at home. I've been doing some follow-up work from the COM that we had last week in Nicaragua. We are trying to get rid of so much paper and keep things digital, so all the paper from the COM (registration sheets and interviews) have to be scanned - guess who gets the fun of that? I can't complain - Scott has to send out the recommendation letters to everyone - that's a day long project in itself.

Things are starting to feel more normal - we think that we've found a church. There are still 1 or 2 more that we are going to visit, but we are really happy with one that we found a few weeks ago. We'll see what God has in store. We've unpacked about 96% of the boxes - home is starting to feel like home.

I'm anxious for the kids to come home (around 1PM) to see how their first day went. We've been praying that it's AWESOME and that they can't wait to go back everyday. :)

Settling in

Just wanted to send a quick update on our Costa Rican status - everyday looks a little different because of all the things that we need to get done. If you get our update newsletter, you know that we are the proud new owners of a 2004 Terrano (Nissan). It was on the high end of our budget, but we were prepared for the close to $20,000 price tags that come with Costa Rican 4x4s. In fact, we feel really blessed that we found it for under 20K - a few other missionaries that are just moving here are having a hard time finding something in that price range.


We've also been busy purchasing some furniture for the house - we got a chest of drawers for the kids room, a dresser with mirror for ours, 2 bedside tables for our room and an entertainment center/stand. Today, we went and placed an order for a couch and 2 chairs and are having some curtains made for our living rooms as well. The curtains are SUPER expensive, because half of our living room is solid windows. Due to the positioning of our apartment, anybody can see inside if they aren't covered. Due to the monstrous size of the windows, I'm not adequate to find window fixtures and curtains that would work.

The kids have enjoyed every single day here - lots of the Latino missionary kids haven't started school yet, so they are enjoying the warm mornings here. The weather is something that is a little shocking, because it's warm (upper 70's) in the morning, but by 1PM it seems to fall into the lower 60's. The kids always start the day with short sleeves and end with sweatshirts and jackets. We've been told that Feb/March will take a drastic turn for warmer weather - we'll see if that rings true. :)

We are still awaiting our shipment - they thought it would come on Wednesday, and then today - I'm sure somebody thinks it will come tomorrow. I'm not getting my hopes up - I'll believe it when i see it. Call me a doubting Thomas. The kids are dying to get to their toys again - it's been almost 4 months since they had them to play with. With Sydney's birthday coming up, I'm tempted to just put away one of her old toys and wrap it up and give it to her again. I don't think I could really pull it off, but it's crossed my mind.
Hopefully our TV arrives in tact - the cable company comes tomorrow to install the line. Elijah is geared up for the SuperBowl. He is cheering for the Cardinals to win (who would've thought that Cardinals and SuperBowl would be in the same sentence?) We'll see what the outcome is shortly.

Keep us in your prayers with the church search - we've visited 3 different ones so far and haven't felt like any of them have completely "clicked" with us. We have 3 more to visit that are possibilities - the kids are anxious to find a place that we can be every Sunday - they get really anxious having to go to new Sunday school classes every week.

Lots of love to all of you!

We are here in Costa Rica!

PURA VIDA! That is the Costa Rican way to say that all is well. In fact, even if someone asks how you are, the proper response is "pura vida" (pure life). That will take a while to get used to saying, I think. :)

We make it to Costa Rica exactly one week ago, and I'm finally able to slow down enough to send some news your way. Needless to say, we've been busy. I've sent the link of pictures of the house to family members, so that I don't overload this blog with that stuff - if you didn't get it, and want to see, just let me know, and I can send it to you. We are slowing making the house a home, but without our shipment here yet, things still feel a little "temporary" - like we are just here for a while. We should be getting our things in about 2 weeks, we hope.

We've gone to the grocery store twice and Scott went out today to look for a potential car. He thinks that he's found one, but until we get permission and go through all the processes, we can't purchase it. If the purchase goes through, we'll take a picture and post it in the next few weeks. Grocery shopping here is much like it was in Guatemala - lots of the same type of foods available. One difference is that there are TONS of grocery stores - in Guate there were only 2 main ones that were even close to where we lived. This morning I went with another missionary who has lived in CR for a long time to the produce market - I'll definitely be buying there every week. There is a lot more selection and the prices are a little bit lower. Speaking of prices - things here are MUCH more expensive. I think the hardest thing to get used to will be the price of cheese - for 10 pieces of sliced cheese, you can easily pay $4.00. For a block of cheese, prices are around $6-$10. The exchange rate has been kinda hard to get used to - it's 550 colones to 1 dollar - it's been interesting trying to figure out how much I'm spending to buy things.

The weather here is pretty nice - it's always sunny and warm in the morning and by the afternoon it cools down considerably. We usually have long sleeves or jackets on by early evening. You probably all know about the earthquake that happened a few days ago - it was pretty big. The newspapers are still carrying it as the front page story. No damage happened here on campus - we are very thankful for that.

Elijah and Sydney are LOVING being outside all the time. There are about 15 MKs all within a stones throw from our front door. About 6 of them are younger (6 and younger). Needless to say, they have found some new friends pretty easily. The older kids are enjoying playing with them too - Elijah like to play soccer with them, when they let him. He comes in crying almost everynight that he's not ready to stop playing. I don't think that he really understands that we live here, and that when he wakes up, everybody will still be here. :)

Well - lots to say, but don't want to bore you with everything. We have got an internet connection in our house, so feel free to send an e-mail. We should be able to get to it soon. We want to go to the kids school on Tuesday and get them registered and buy books and uniforms. We have a scheduled power outtage all day on Tuesday, so we figure it's the perfect time to get stuff like that done. Lots of love to all of you.

em

Parker is Here!

I know a lot of people in Scott's family wanted to see a picture of Parker Robertson - our newest nephew. He finally came home on Dec. 24 and I get to see him on Dec. 29! (thanks, mom, for the airline ticket!) He's adorable - looks so much like Peyton did when he was born - I can't wait to see him!

Scott and I are having a special date to the Melting Pot tomorrow night and REALLY looking forward to it. For Christmas, Connie and Clark got me a cook book filled with Melting Pot recipes and I've been browsing it for the past 2 days - it's definitely gotten by taste buds going for our big night tomorrow. We have our last service on Sunday morning and head to Costa Rica next Saturday (8 days from today) - it's been a good, long 3 months. We are ready to go "home" and set up our new home. :) I hope to post some pictures of our new place in Costa Rica within a week of being there. We'll have internet in our house, so I'll be able to keep up much easier!

Hello from Missouri

We've been on home assignment for 2 months and 1 day officially. It's been crazy, but a good time as well. We have a huge praise - we found a daycare that the kids can go to during the days in December. It is one of Candy's neighbors and she takes care of 7 children ages 2-5. We took Sydney and Elijah over there this morning and they were THRILLED to be with other kids and new toys. It will help Scott and I a ton to have some time to ourselves and get some of our work done during the day.

We found out that our house in Guatemala was packed up last week - we are praying that all the stuff made it into a box! :) We thought that we would have our stuff when we got to Costa Rica on Jan. 3, but found out that because of the holidays, they aren't shipping the stuff until the first week of January. So, now we are praying that it get there before the kids start school in February. Just kidding (hopefully) - they say it should only take 5-7 days once it leaves Guatemala. We'll see if that is the case.

We have a service tonight in Drexel, MO and one on Friday night in Bonner Springs and 2 on Sunday (in Lawrence and Gardner). We are definitely finding ways to keep ourselves busy - today we went to the Seminary and spoke with a missiology class. I'm healing up well from the hernia surgery that I had last Monday - not taking any more pain medicine and sleeping much better now. Still can't lay on my stomach, but hopefully that changes by next week.

I don't have lots of recent pictures of the kids, but here are a few from October.
Oh - the kids have noticed a lot of cemeteries as we've been traveling, and we've explained that that is were dead people are buried. Now, they always point out to us when we go past a cemetery with lots of head stones. Last week, we went to a Christmas tree farm to pick out a Christmas tree with Candy. Sydney looked at me and said "There's a lot of dead people here, mommy" - it cracked me up. She thought that the lines of Christmas trees were like headstones. Oh the thoughts of 3 year olds...

hey - if you want to see a REALLY cool video - check out the video bar. It's worth the 2 minute investment of time.

quick pictures!

Hey - I haven't kept up with my end of the bargain in updating the blog, I know. I have a ton of pictures to upload, and about 5 minutes to do it in. Some of the pictures are from Scott's birthday last week. We celebrated with homemade apple pie (I did pretty good, if I say so myself) and we bought him a new Guatemala soccer jersey, and tickets to the Guatemala/USA soccer game on Aug. 20. Elijah went with him to the game, and is sporting his new jersey as well.


Green faces - Sydney and Elijah "painted" their faces with green marker the day of the soccer game. It was a dry erase marker, so we scrubbed as much as we could, and then had to wait about 24 hours for the rest to wear off. Sydney looked like a little martian. It was a parenting moment when you know you shouldn't laugh, but you just can't help yourself. Since we laughed (after being upset for about 10 minutes) I expect to see marker on both of their faces in the near future.


What i want to be when I grow up - Sydney and Elijah went to school last friday dressed as what they want to be. sydney wants to be a painter (for now) and elijah a police officer. The funny part for Elijah - he was all dressed, and as he was coming down the stairs he said "Mom, if I'm a police man, where is my mustache?" - I laughed and told him we could make a mustache - so check out his upper lip. Apparently all police officers in his life have a mustache. (I just realized I haven't transferred these pictures to my computer. they will come shortly.)

Lastly - please pray for us. We have 4 weeks left in Guate. Emotions are starting to run high as goodbye are being said and stuff is being sold. We also have TONS of work starting us in the face everyday. I'll have to send you a picture of what our house looks like soon - we've sold almost everywhere that we have to sit. We are down to the Chiefs chair & 2 foldable garden chairs. It's kinda sad, but at least we've recouped some of our money on the stuff before we leave... :)

We found a School in Costa Rica!

Hey guys - I just got back from a trip to Costa Rica, and Scott and I had the opportunity to visit 2 schools for the kids. We liked both of them, but there was one that really stuck out to both of us. Without even talking about pros/cons, we just asked each other if we had a gut feeling on either of them. We both said that we liked the Methodist school - and the decision was made. We talked with administration at "Colegio Metodista" for about an hour, and are REALLY excited to enroll the kids for next year. Their website is www.metodista.ed.cr if you want to check it out (it's in spanish, but it has some pictures you might want to see)

Sydney will start their Pre-kindergarten program and Elijah will be in there "preparatoria" program. They both will have school days that start at 7:15AM and end at 12:30PM. The first half of their day will be in Spanish and the second half of their day will be in English. This is the part that we really liked - it's preparing our kids as bi-cultural kids. They will study certain subjects in each language - not just study the language itself. They are a school that goes all the way through high school, if we choose to keep the kids there that long. The "Prepa" area (where our kids are) is separate from the elementary, which is separate from High School.

They also offer extracurricular activities in the afternoon after school, until 2;30PM. They have a soccer program that we will consider putting Elijah in (he's been DYING to play soccer for the past year). They mentioned a ballet class that Sydney would probably like, but we'll have to play it by ear - if she's really old enough to stay at school that long.

Here is a picture of the soccer field and a typical "prepa" classroom.


We also got to check out our future house on the campus of SENDAS in San José, Costa Rica. It's on the seminary campus, so it's RIGHT next door to lots of other missionaries. We've been told we will be in house 39, but with our experience, we aren't banking on it until our stuff is officially moved in. :) We did take advantage of looking inside it while we were on campus - it's not near as big as our house here in Guate (which is good for me - I hate cleaning!), but it is 4 rooms with a decent kitchen/dining room and 2 living room areas. A big plus to the homes there, is that they all have screened in back porches - so that is another area that we can use as "living" area. we also will have a decent backyard - the kids (and me) are already vying for a dog when we move - we'll see what we can work out. Elijah and Sydney are thrilled that there is a playplace right outside our front door - they plan on spending lots of time there. :) The website for SENDAS is www.sendas.ws if you want to see some pictures of the campus (again, it's in Spanish)



Please pray that our residency process moves along. Thanks Connie, for being the messenger in all of the formal applications to the Costa Rican embassy in the States. We'd be sunk without you. Scott comes home on Sunday night - he's been gone since July 9 - the kids are really ready to spend some time with him. Please pray for his safety, as he has a bus ride from Costa Rica to Tegucigalpa, Honduras (about 20 hours) and then has to drive a mini-van from Honduras to Guatemala (another 12 hours). He's going to be exhausted.

Love to you all.

Family Day at School

On Saturday, the kids participated in Family Day at school. I took some video that I will try to upload this week, so that you can see their "dances/songs" that they participated in. They had a lot of fun playing games as well. I've uploaded all the pictures to Kodak Gallery - if I missed your address with the invite to browse them, let me know, and I'll send the link. Here are a few pictures.

Faces painted at Family Day Elijah and his teacher, Mis Vanesa
Sydney and her teacher, Mis Sara

We've also started our time with Youth in Mission. They arrived on June 1st, and we've been running ever since. When you think about us, please pray for our health. Scott is running like crazy, with lots of trips, and to get sick doesn't really fit into our schedule. We have a group of 11 this year - 5 from Mexico and 6 from the States. They are a great group - ready to tackle anything. We are trying to enjoy our last few months in Guatemala as we are with them, so a few of our tourism activities include some of our favorite places (like Lake Atitlán) :)
The YIM group last Sunday

Scott and I also celebrated 8 years of marriage last week. We got away for a nice dinner at our favorite fondue restaurant - a couple of the Youth in Mission girls babysat for us. Scott surprised me with 3 dozen gerbera daisies and I got him the KU championship DVD. It's been a long time since we've both gotten each other a gift for the occasion.

Celebrating 8 years at Casa del Fondue!

Gerbs - My FAVORITE!

Lots of love to our dads - we hope that you had a great Father's Day. We are celebrating tomorrow night in our house, when Scott's back home. We are going to order pizza, and we made a butterfinger dessert. We think he'll like our plans... ;) Love, hugs and kisses to all.

em

PS - just for a change of pace, check out the video bar - Human Japanese Tetris is currently one of our favorites.