This is the fish that was served to me the other night. Looks nasty, but it was probably the best fish I've ever had.

Here I am with my good friend, Dave Richter. We served in the mission in Argentina together, and now we're both professors. He was there presenting with me.

Here I am hitching a ride back to town after eating out. There were no taxis and the bus was running late.

Here I am with Rosario Aguilar, a well-known Nicaraguan author.

Here I am in front of Momotombo.

In the evening we received a visit and a message from the President, Daniel Ortega. His message was similar to the one written on the building in my other post.

Here's the Iglesia de San Sebastian that was bombed by the Somoza's during the Revolución Sandinista.

This is in Rubén Darío's house. This is his official outfit that he wore as the Nicaraguan Ambassador.

So here I am in what's supposed to be my first day in Nicaragua that ended up being a 9 hour layover in Houston. So far I'm 2 for 2 in missing my flights there. Let's hope I can figure out how to make my plane in the future.

Here's the welcome I received in León (Translation: Death to the imperial invader).

I happened to run into the Boy Scouts the second day in León. They were really cool and excited to meet a Scoutmaster from the U.S.

While in León Viejo I got a nice shot of the volcano Momotombo.

Adventures in crazyville

After getting Ryan, Krista, and Amelia out the door this morning I took the other 3 kids down to the basement so that I could use the treadmill while Braldey played Wii fit.  Ryan called during this to apologize for not getting the trash and recycling taken to the curb for pick up.  I promptly forgot about the phone call and went about my morning.  I came upstairs to write something cute that Melissa said when I heard the garbage truck.  I looked outside to see if it was the company that we use.  Of course it was.  So I had only a moment to decide.  Do I go another week with an already full trashcan or throw on my boots and take it out?  Of course I threw on my boots and ran down the street with no coat on, in my Mary Engelbreit pajamas, pulling the trashcan behind me, yelling "Wait my husband forgot to put out the trash before he left."  I caught up to the truck about 4 houses down.  The guys looked at each other and then looked back at me like I was the Mayor of Crazyville.  Thankfully he emptied the can and gave it back to me wishing me a nice day.  I dragged the can back up the hill and into the garage, put the recycling out, and closed the garage.   Oh, and my neighbor had someone sitting in her car in the driveway.  I am sure she too thinks that I am crazy.  Ahhh isn't life fun?
So now for the story about Melissa.  She found her ziplock with her snack in it left over from church and brought it down to the basement.  She sat down in my lap (while I was helping Braldey learn to write his name).  This is how our conversation went.
M:  This is my church snack?
Me: Yes it is.
M: Jesus loves me Mom?
Me: Yes Melissa Jesus does love you. Do you know that Jesus loves you?
M:  (With a nod of her head) Jesus loves you Mom.
I was so touched and surprised by what she said.  Such a sweet testimony that our children can learn these simple truthes when they are young and that WE need to teach them.  I am so grateful for the knowledge that we have that Jesus does love us.
As difficult and crazy as my life can be I love it because of those sweet and tender moments.

Krista loves piano

Krista had a Christmas recital and did a beautiful job playing Silver Bells. After playing it through once on her own she did a duet with her teacher. We are so proud of Krista for working so hard at the piano. You can tell she really enjoys it and is quite talented too. I never even have to ask her to practice; in fact sometimes I have to ask her to stop.

Snow pictures

We had fun digging tunnels in the snow drift outside our back door.  You can see Ryan in the cave he dug and slept in with Bradley.  I don't think all of this snow could possibly melt, ever.  Anyone up for a visit to Nebraska?

Winter "wonderland"

So today is our 6th snow day this school year.  We had 3 over my birthday in December and today is our third in a row this month.  The kids had school Tuesday after their Christmas break and that has been it.  I really don't mind having them home it is the snow, wind, and lack of 4 wheel drive on my van so that we are sort of stuck here that I don't like.  But hey I am blogging and maybe that is something good that has come of it.  But I am still in my pajamas and so are my kids.  So i thought I would post some pictures of the crazy snow outside.

More of Andrew

I don't know why Picasa won't blog more than 4 pics at a time but here are more of our sweet baby.
These were taken today.

Andrew

Here are some pictures of our baby boy Andrew Ryan born November 13, 2009
He will be 8 weeks old tomorrow and sure is growing fast. Just look at those cheeks!

Back to blogging...

Melissa enjoying her new baby brother Andrew.

Woo hoo!! I'm 7 now!

Amelia had a fun (and loud) birthday party. Who knew girls could be so loud?

Bradley holding his baby budders as he likes to call him.
Bradley was the one who suggested the name Andrew.
He can't wait until Andrew sleeps through the night so that they can share a room.
Neither can I. We are getting close he slept almost 7 hours last night!