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!

Beach Birthday!

Julianna's 13th birthday is Friday and we gave her the option of a party or a day with a couple of friends. She chose to take a couple of friends to the beach, so we spent the day at the beach. We had a great time, until the end when Jesse stepped on a Sea Urchin and had several of the spines break off in his foot. He is hurting but we have his foot soaking in vinegar right now, hoping that will dissolve them. We had cupcakes and somehow the icing ended up all over Juls' face. :) Then we came home and had pizza and coke! Now we are all ready for bed and it is only 6:30. It's back to work tomorrow, we are still working on school and I'm still trying to catch up on finances  reports. Maybe I can stay awake until 8:30!

Happy 17th Anniversary!!

Yesterday was Canada Day and our 17th anniversary. It's hard to believe we have already been married 17 years. During those 17 years we have lived in Texas, Canada and the Dominican Republic. We have been through deputation twice and took a trip to Papua New Guinea. We have had many adventures and are looking forward to many more.

Today Stu and the girls left for camp. The girls love going to camp, although they really miss Camp YES.  They were so excited last week they were counting down the days. I know they will come home Thursday and fall into bed exhausted! As for me I am going to try to catch up on some office work while they are gone.

What a crazy Friday we had this week! It was one of those days where all kinds of things happened.  We had an electrician come over to install an air conditioner (Yes, we finally will have one room that we have air in sometimes) in our office. We have used this electrician many times and he is very careful and thorough, but he must have been having a rough day. First thing that morning he drilled a huge hole in the wrong spot, so he had to move over and start again. We later had to patch the hole and still have to paint it. Then they had to go get some parts that they were missing. When they came back they realized that some of the parts were the wrong size, so Stu had to go back out (in the Friday traffic) and get them changed. When he came back from that an hour or so later, the electrician pointed out that we had been given the wrong size A/C. We had paid for a 18,000 BTU and only got a 12,000 BTU. We are not sure why he waited until 5pm to point that out, but at least he finally did. So they had to take it down off the roof and go back to the store to exchange it. They finally made it back and after a few more small problems, finished installing it. Then because it was so late, the electrician called a taxi. After waiting around for a while, he finally decided to walk to the entrance and try to catch the taxi there. I'm not sure exactly what happened from there except that the taxi finally came and was mad that the electrician wasn't there and said he was going to sit at my gate until I paid him! About the same time a bucket caught fire in our backyard, thanks to my boys, and Stu had walked around the corner and I had no keys to lock my front gate! It may not seem very chaotic in writing, but it was a crazy day.

Last Saturday we celebrated Delayna's 15th birthday with a Quince ( a tradition in Spanish cultures). We didn't do it up as big as some do, but we had a nice party. Stu did a nice service and presented her with several gifts that had special meanings. Afterwards we had food and games and cake with purple and black icing that turned everyone's mouths black. :) She looked beautiful and had a great time. Her only disappointment with her birthday this year is that she hasn't received any cards in the mail yet. Every mail day she runs in and grabs the mail to look for cards. I keep telling her they usually come late here, but she's not sure about that.

Juls' birthday is coming up on the 13th of this month, she will be 13. She chose not to have a party this year, instead she is inviting two friends over for a special day at the beach.

Mail Day!

There is no mail service here in the DR,  but we are blessed to have Agape Flights. They fly our mail in every Thursday. The boys are learning the days of the week and they know Wednesday as church day and Thursday as mail day. We are so thankful for Agape Flights and the service they provide us. We were honored to host the pilots this week. When they fly in on Thursdays they spend the night and fly back to Florida on Friday morning. The missionaries here take turns hosting them. My kids love having the pilots here,  but the boys were a little confused last night. They were expecting the pilots to bring them lots of mail since they were staying at our house. I really don't know why they thought that, but they kept asking where their mail was. :) Thankfully they at least got a box of Goldfish that I had requested(Agape also picks stuff up for us and brings it in) , since we can't get them here and they are my boys favorite snack!
Thanks guys for spending a day away from your family to bring us our mail!!!