Happy Birthday to me!

My birthday was Friday, but it felt like I had a three day birthday. We celebrated all weekend! Friday, Juls made me breakfast and then we went to Chili's for lunch. The workers at Chili's all came out and sang to me, well it wasn't really singing, it was more like banging on the drum and yelling. It was a little embarrassing, but the kids really enjoyed it! The dessert was good!
Then we had ladies fellowship at church on Saturday evening. When it was time for food they surprised me by bringing out a cake and singing to me. They also threw water in my face. Apparently there are a couple of traditions here that they do to the birthday person. One is dumping a cup of water on their head (I got it in the face) and the other is breaking an egg over their head. I was threatened with that but thankfully they didn't do it.
And tonight in the teen class (that Stu teaches and I help in) when I came into class they surprised me with another cake and sang to me again. I felt very loved, especially when Stu told me that they planned it all by themselves, he didn't find out until today.
I've also been opening a present every day this month from my mom, which has been fun! Thanks also to all my friends who have called or sent birthday messages to me. I appreciate your thoughtfulness!

Ikea

The kids had dentist appointments yesterday afternoon. Stu and the girls got their braces adjusted (Delayna got her lower ones put on) and the boys had their teeth cleaned and checked. The boys had no cavities! Yay! The last time they went in Jesse had 9 and Seth had 6, so you can see why I am so excited.  Jesse has not had a good history at the dentist and it started out that way again. He screamed and fought so we had to hold him for part of it. After a bit he did sit on his own and let her clean. I am hoping he will outgrow his fear because he sure is hard to hold down.
When we left to go home the traffic was so bad that we decided to stop at Ikea until some of the traffic died down. I didn't tell the kids where we were going I just said we were going somewhere special. They wanted me to give them a hint so I said it starts with I. They couldn't guess so I said the building is blue and the words are yellow. Immediately Jesse yelled IKEA! We were all shocked that he guessed it so easy. He said, "I thinked, with my mind". Then we were walking in the store and the boys were singing, "Ikea was a wee little man..." We'll have to work on their Bible teaching. :)

Kids, they make me laugh!

Last night we had lots of rain and some thunder. At the first clap of thunder Jesse came running in with his ears covered to crawl into bed with us. After a few minutes and several very loud claps of thunder it started raining harder so I went into the boys room to check the windows. When I got in there Seth was laying in his bed with his ears covered. He told me he was very scared but he was staying in bed like I told him. Of course I let him come into our room too! I didn't get much sleep the rest of the night though. Neither one of them would take their hands off of their ears.
The other day Seth had pushed a girl and I gave him a "talk" about it.  I told him that he should never hurt a girl and if he ever saw anyone else being mean to a girl he should step in between then and tell the guy to back off! So last night after church he came home and told me there was a boy being mean to a girl so he got in between them and tried to tell the guy to back off. I asked how he said it and he told me he said "back off", but he said it with a Spanish accent. It was so funny.
Jesse was talking to Katlyn yesterday on the way home from church and Jesse said something about his Nanny. Katlyn said, "I have a Nanny too". Jesse said that his Nanny always sends him presents. Katlyn said that her Nanny didn't. Jesse looked at her with such shock on his face and said, "WHAT!", he couldn't believe that her Nanny didn't send presents. Katlyn quickly replied, "but I love her anyways!".

School, Spanish, Sickness and PRESENTS!

We got back from vacation, unpacked and started school! We have been staying busy ever since.  We have had a men's work night, a youth activity, a ladies conference and several of the teens over to the house one Sunday. Delayna had a dentist appointment to have two teeth pulled. We and several of our missionary friends took all of our kids to a local store that has several jumping castles they set up. It is about $3 a kid to jump as long as they want. The kids had a blast and there were only a couple of minor injuries. Jesse and another little girl bumped heads and he gave her a bloody nose. Seth got tackled (he kept saying trampled) and sprained his thumb, it was swollen, bruised and very tender for several days. Afterwards we ate inside at the food court. It was a nice evening out. Also, Stu has started taking some online Spanish classes that I am trying to sit in on (when I can). It makes my mornings a little chaotic, trying to  juggle school, cooking and Spanish class, but I am managing. 
We have also dealt with a bit of sickness. I had another bout with Bronchitis, but am finally feeling better now. Jesse has had some ear problems, again!  Two weeks ago he started having blood drain out of his ear and then he got a cold and now has major mucous coming out of his ear (I know it is gross). I tried to get him an appointment with an ear doctor but that didn't work.  So I guess we will wait and see what happens. Then last Saturday night Stu came down with what we believe was Dengue Fever. He has had a pretty miserable week, but is feeling a bit better now. 
We use a mail service here called Agape Flights and they fly our mail in every week. They fly in on Thursdays and stay the night with one of the missionaries and then fly out the next morning.  This week was our turn to host them. We always enjoy having them, especially the kids. This week they brought me a very special package from my mom. My birthday is the 19th and since my mom knows how much I love getting presents, she sent me a box full of them! I have a present to open each day of the month. It is so much fun! She has done this for the grandkids before too and they love it almost as much as me! :)

Vacation!

Since we had been doing school all summer, we were really looking forward to our one week of vacation. We found a great deal online at an all inclusive resort on the north shore and I booked it (cause all inclusive means vacation for me too!).
We were planning on leaving Monday, Sept. 3rd at around 11 am. Sunday on the way home from church something happened to our van so first thing Monday morning it had to go to the shop. You can imagine how restless the kids were as we were waiting to leave. 11 came and went with no van, so we ordered pizza to try to start our vacation anyways. After about a million times of me answering the question, "are we leaving yet?" we got our van at around 4pm. We loaded as quick as possible and hit the road before 4:30. Our first stop was just a few minutes down the road to get propane. Since everyone has to get out, I took them all in to use the bathroom (cause we forgot in the rush of loading) and to get a drink. What a surprise, I found a cold can of Dr Pepper. I have been searching the city for the last month for Dr Peppers and there hasn't  been any! That started my vacation out right. :)
We finally arrived at the resort around 7:45 and went straight to the buffet to eat. Did I mention we could eat and drink 24 hours a day!?!
We had a great week. We enjoyed the beach, go carts, dune buggies, horse back riding and lots of eating.  Anytime we went to the beach, Jesse played in the sand the whole time and Juls and Seth jumped in the waves the whole time. Juls and Seth came home with a sunburn. Juls' was so bad on her nose that she has red, bloody raw spots.

Finally on the road!

Go carts!

Bumper cars

Jesse's sand cave

Our little piece of the beach

Loading up on sunscreen

The resort

Making sand angels

Look out! Delayna's driving!

Jesse's favorite place, the buffet!

So now we are home and back to school. The kids are already looking forward to Christmas break. :)

Sick and tired!

Since my last post I have pretty much spent my time in bed. Have I enjoyed it? NO! I have been very sick for the last three weeks. The week after VBS, when I was in extreme pain, was possibly viral meningitis. That pain finally eased up on Friday. I was very weak over that weekend since I hadn't been eating. I also lost 7 pounds that week, but I would not recommend that method. :) Then on Monday I started coughing. It got worse and worse each day until finally the next Tuesday I went to the doctor and found out I had Bronchitis. My husband was in the States that week (he was preaching in Buffalo, NY), so the kids helped me a lot. Then we had Tropical storm Isaac pass by. We had three days straight of rain. My hubby came home in the middle of it.  I am finally starting to feel better, but still coughing some and get tired very quickly. I am just so happy to be up out of bed getting stuff done. I had so many projects I wanted to get done last week, but that didn't happen. 

We are still working on last years school work, but are getting close to being done. Next week we are taking a week off. We are going on vacation here on the island. We are all so excited, I think mostly because no school for a week! Then we will start school for this year when we get back. Unfortunately I am thinking next week will go by too fast.  Jesse will be starting Kindergarten, Seth will be starting 1st grade, Julianna will be starting 8th grade and Delayna will be starting 10th grade. I am not sure how I am going to teach Jesse and Seth different grades at the same time, but I am hoping to figure something out. Any ideas from some of you who have done would be appreciated. Also would love to have your favorite quick and easy meal, since I am juggling cooking while I'm teaching. 

VBS or EBDV

We had VBS or Escuela Biblica De Verano last week and boy was it a crazy week!!! We had been planning on 75 kids and on Monday we only had a few more than that. From Tuesday on there was over 100 every day. I was driving our van picking up people and Stu was driving the Wesson's truck. Tuesday after he got to the church we realized he had a flat tire, so as soon as he got things started inside he went out to change it. Found out that the spare was flat too, so we went to get that fixed and got back to get it put on. I ended up having to take all the kids home because he wasn't done fixing it in time. Wednesday everything seemed to go smoothly until we got home and realized we had left Delayna at the church. Stu thought I had her and I thought he had her.  She ended up staying with a lady from our church until services that night. Thursday we discovered that Myra (our German Shepherd) was very sick, I won't go into details. So as soon as we got home from VBS we took her to the vet and then had to go to the airport to get the missionaries mail, then stopped by the house for a few minutes and went out and made a few visits. I forgot to mention that I had a migraine everyday from Sunday on, so I was struggling to drive with the pain. Nothing seemed to get rid of it. Friday, last day, all the workers were going to come to my house afterwards for hot dogs and fun. The truck had another flat tire, no it wasn't flat it literally fell apart. I had to go meet Stu to get the kids from him and take them to the church. Then we found someone to go search for a tire for us. They got a tire, although a little small, that worked and just in time to take the kids home! Then we hauled everyone to our house for the afternoon. Things went well, but I was sure glad it was over! I was exhausted! Oh yeah, our record number of people in our 12 passenger van was broken with 36 people!!!
Sunday night we had a special program at the church for the VBS kids and their parents, it went very well!
Monday turned very ugly for me. I woke up in EXTREME pain in my entire body. I have been sick ever since. I have been in severe pain, upset stomach and fever. I have pretty much been bed bound, which I hate, especially knowing how much I have to do. If I could just get rid of the pain, I think I would be fine. I am about to try some different medicine now and am hoping to get some pain relief and some sleep! My girls have been a huge help while I've been sick. Juls has got up every morning with the boys and made breakfast and basically taken care of them all day. Delayna has cooked lunch and help keep me supplied with water. I am so thankful for them, but I am hoping to be back on my feet soon!

My boys don't stand out with their white heads, do they?!

Ready for craft time.

Loading up the truck, packing them in!