I did it!

Yesterday, as Rebecca stated last week, I had a competition of spinning. It was for two hours and I don't think I have sweat that much since at least high school football, maybe never. For those of you who don't know what spinning is, here is the unofficial definition: "Spinning - the act of pedaling really hard and fast for a specified time period on a stationary bike, thus inflicting lots of pain and even more sweat." So there we were yesterday with around 200 people in a dance hall of a nice shopping mall, all pedaling our little tails off thinking we were going somewhere. You might ask , how you determine a winner of a spinning competition. The answer, you don't. Yes, this was basically one of those things I just needed to do, something to conquer, and challenge; as if Spanish isn't enough. I went with my grammar teacher who is a fitness nut, and her friend. They both did great, and after starting about an hour late, ( its Latin America, remember?) we conquered the "spinning-competition" about 2 hours later. Did I mention that every 30 minutes a fresh instructor was introduced to continue the torture with great effect? I hope I don't sound like I am complaining. I am not. I love physical things where you need to overcome your physical pains and just continue on. I think it was Sir Edmund Hillary that said, before becoming the first person to successfully climb Mount Everest in Nepal, "I am climbing Mount Everest because it is there." Those are not his words exactly, but it conveys the idea. Anyway, I would have to say that I don't think I would ever do a spinning competition again, but now I can check it off of my "to do list." Rebecca and I are trying to get geared up for maybe climbing Costa Rica's tallest mountain this next year, maybe in March or so. It is almost 12,000 feet high, which is quite a bit "shorter" than other 14,000 ft. mountians I have climbed in Colorado, but we will be starting a lot lower. Just another goal we have while we are here. We'll keep you posted.

Church was really good today. One of the students from our school that is graduating this week and going to Spain with his family delivered the sermon. He did a great job. I have found it is really hard to speak Spanish when you are not totally relaxed, at least at this point in my skills. Afterward the church really honored them and sent them off with a blessing. It was neat to think we will be there ourselves in a few months. I think I would even try the preaching bit if I was asked. Maybe. On second thought, maybe I would just do another spinning competition instead :)

Christmas Angel

Today was the Christmas Program for the Kinder at school. Brooklyn looked so cute up there ringing a little silver bell with all the other two year olds while the older kids sang. The best part was when she and another little boy started fighting and hitting each other with their bells. Precious. Our little angel.

Prayer Request

Please pray for the program in Ecuador. The Ecuadorian equivelent to FAA has grounded MAF. We have had situations like this over the past couple of years . There is a group in Ecuador that believes that MAF is stealing money and jobs from Ecuadorians and they demand that we hire an Ecuadorian pilot within a month. MAF has had Ecuadorian pilots in the past and there are several Ecuadorians that work with MAF in Ecuador but at the present we don't happen to have an Ecuadorian pilot and this appears to anger some people. Pray for the team in Ecuador as they try to sort things out and resolve the issue as soon as possible.

6 days of classes left!

I know, we're pretty spoiled to get a nice long Christmas Break. But then again, this is probably the last one we'll ever have. It is very possible that Sean may be flying on Christmas day next year! Yeah, I'm pretty sure he'd rather be doing that than having three weeks free. You may remember how terribly bored we were during our last break from school. Neither one of us are very good at "vacations". We love adventures, traveling, doing, and even working... but we go absolutely crazy with a completely "action-less" day. Sean starts cleaning toilets with screwdrivers (don't ask) and I start thinking too much which is always dangerous. Brooklyn is just like her parents. We get pretty grumpy.

We do have lots of visitors coming, though. Looks like we'll keep pretty busy which is wonderful!

Sean is off at a Spinning class right now. He's always really loved riding bikes - especially in the mountains. Pedaling on a stationary bike in a room full of sweaty people isn't quite the same as a ride through the aspen trees in the mountains of Colorado, but it at least gives him something to do. He's even doing a Spinning competition this coming Saturday!

I went to a party this afternoon. It was for a Bible Study group that I'm going to be teaching next trimester that is for househelpers of language school students. As I sat there, looking at all those precious souls I started to wonder WHAT IN THE WORLD I HAVE GOTTEN MYSELF INTO! These ladies are so special and this is just one of those things a person doesn't want to screw up! It isn't really the Spanish thing that I'm worried about (although that is certainly a factor) but it's more the whole idea of leading these ladies in a study of God's Word! Pray for me and for these special women. My prayer is that these ladies come to know Christ in an ever deeper and more real way...and that is also my prayer for myself - so it will be a journey that we take together. This is a God thing and I'm excited to see what He does with it!

Restful weekend

We didn't do much this weekend. It was kinda slow but, then, we haven't had one of those for a while. We have a park right next door and now that the weather is so much nicer, we 've been taking Brooklyn and the puppy there almost every day. Brooklyn is quite the big girl climbing up the slide, swinging on the swings and pretty much telling us where to go. She loves running races with Daddy, too. And she always wins!


Here she is beating Dad for the 5th time in a row! Just call her "Flash"!






















You talkin' to me?

And so ends another month...

• Can you believe that tomorrow is December?!? Where did this year go?
• We are down to 10 more days of class.
• We ate Chinese food tonight. Fed the whole family for about $4 and even had leftovers! And it was very good. Yes!
• The weather has been just awesome! The rain suddenly stopped about a week ago and it is warm and breezy. Didn't realize how much we missed blue skies and sun. No, it doesn't feel like Christmas but we are easily convinced that this weather is more than okay!
• Brooklyn is sitting beside me coloring herself purple with a marker. Cute. She's been sort of hit and miss with the naps (please no!) and also hasn't been going to bed so easily. Last night at about 9:30 (an hour and a half after we put her to bed) she was still going strong. We caught her playing with her toys on the floor - she'd even taken off her pajamas. Why does she have to be so darn cute when she's being so naughty?
• Our puppy Ana is getting big. When we first got her we were amazed at her calm, sweet demeanor. Then we found out she had worms. Now that the worms are gone, she's a real puppy - still sweet but "calm" no longer applies.
• I (Becca) was able to talk to my Grandma for just a few minutes on the phone last night. What a treat! It doesn't seem right at this time of year to not be planning a trip back to Kansas to visit her and all my uncles, aunts, and cousins. Mom and Dad are there right now - Dad is hunting with his brother-in-law for some innocent creature. I have to laugh - most Texans and Kansans go to Colorado to hunt but now Dad goes to Texas and Kansas!
• Have you seen "Beyond the Gates"? It's a documentary about the 5 missionary men that were killed by a tribe in Ecuador about 50 years ago. It's a great film - Nate Saint, one of the men, was an MAF pilot and lived in Shell, where we'll be living. His house still stands - our friends, the DiCrastos, will actually live above his old hangar. Check out the film!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

To all our loved ones - all our family and friends back home...and those of you we may not know that read our blog. HAPPY THANKSGIVING! We hope you have a very special day.

If you're worried about us missing out, don't worry - looks like we'll have at least two Thanksgiving dinners here in Costa Rica. I'm making pies tonight. The pumpkin smells and looks awesome but the pecan pie...how do you say "flop" in Spanish?!?! Oh well. Since I still have a hankering for a pecan pie I'll try a different recipe tomorrow. I'm struggling to get used to our oven here, plus a different altitude and ingredients that are just different enough to completely destroy my time-tried favorite recipes! (Not to mention the fact that I packed all my cookbooks and recipes in our shipment for Ecuador...which is sitting in a hangar in Colorado waiting to be shipped.)

We have school in the morning and then are heading over to some friends house to watch American football (YIPEE!) and eat and eat some more. I was surprised tonight (and so was Sean!) when I completely fell apart thinking about not being with family or enjoying the usual traditions - I don't like being so far away sometimes. It doesn't help that we've hit the 6 month mark (when it is normal to have another bout with culture shock) during the holiday season!

I keep coming back to something a fellow student spoke about in chapel on Tuesday. GOD'S GRACE IS SUFFICIENT. Wow. Here we are so far from family, far from what we know, far from good old-fashioned traditions that were a part of who we were. We don't have a car (which is really starting to get annoying!), our bed is killing our backs, our couch could seriously injure you if you sat in the wrong spot. We're struggling to learn a language, being corrected over and over again, we're still learning how many ways we've offended people with the Spanish we do have, we don't understand our church services.... BUT GOD'S GRACE IS SUFFICIENT. The wonderful thing about where we are in life - in a new country, learning a language, "camping out" for a year - is that it drives us that much closer to God. And we have discovered that in every trial, every situtation GOD'S GRACE IS SUFFICIENT. What am I thankful for this Thanksgiving season? God's grace.

That and the fact that Brooklyn is now potty trained. YES!

ThanksWHATing?

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this week. Call me crazy (or ignorant) but until we lived here I really never made the connection that Thanksgiving is really just a North American holiday. When we lived in Canada they had Thanksgiving, although it was on a different day. But here it's just another Thursday. We even have school that day - ohhh the humanity... We'll survive somehow. But I'm taking pumpkin pie to school anyway (thanks Mom for bringing down some canned pumpkin). Those of us that are gringos and feel we must stuff ourselves with turkey and ,well, stuffing will be getting together on Saturday to celebrate the big day. My sweet Mom brought down some little ceramic pilgrims so that I could remember that special day and so they have a prominent place on our bookshelf. They don't particularly stand out and they seem like a pretty sorry attempt at creating a fall-like Thanksgiving atmosphere in the tropics ...*sigh*. But I can really relate with the pilgrims that came to the New World to make a new life for themselves in a strange new land ...

Christmas, on the other hand, has already begun. Because there is no Thanksgiving here people started getting out the decorations at the beginning of November. Although there is Christmas stuff everywhere, it is very hard to believe that it isn't still July. We read in the news that it is
1 degree (F) with wind chill back home in Colorado while here it has been in the 80's. I relate Thanksgiving and the beginning of Christmas season with the first day of ski season ... not the beginning of summer! And that is what they call the season we are getting into here in Costa Rica - "summer" as opposed to "winter" which is the rainy season. On bright, sunny days our teachers say "Oh, it's beginning to feel like Christmas!" WHAT?!?

We went ahead and bought a cheap $9 plastic Christmas tree, a string of lights and some ornaments. Let me just say that the tree looks worth about $3. Somehow, that attempt at making it feel more "holiday-ish" only made me feel worse! I'll take a picture of the tree and post it later - I want to wait till it's at least dark and the tree doesn't look quite so ridiculous and pathetic! But, we have a beautiful HUGE poinsetta plant that somebody came by our house selling for about $4. It is beautiful - better than we usually get at Wal-Mart every year and we can plant it outside and have a tree!

Most importantly, we have lots of family coming to see us over the Christmas break. We feel blessed to be here and to be able to share such a different experience with our families. A weird thought is that Brooklyn's idea of Christmas will be very different from ours as she grows up in the mission field in tropical climates! She'll probably have a hard time adjusting to snow and cold at Christmastime when she's older. She'll be 5 the first time she sees real snow and remembers it, when we come home on furlough in 3 years. Wow. But she'll have some awesome experiences that your average, every day kid in the US may never experience. We figure it all balances out. We might miss seeing the snow but Brooklyn won't care at all.

The dog ate my homework

Yesterday when we came home I was looking out in our yard and saw something interesting other than dog scat. Oh yes, upon further inspection it was just as I thought. You see, here in Costa Rica, there are no addresses per se, and thus no mailboxes, well almost none. So any mail we recieve from the electric, water, and phone companies just gets stuck in our gate, and they hope it just stays there and the wind doesn't blow it away, that it doesn't get rained on ect. Well in our case yesterday, add a new one to the list, that your dog doesn't eat your bill. I was able to find out enough from what few remants were left to determine how much we owe, but I do not know when it is due. They sometimes get delivered late. You never know.

Last night Brooklyn just melted mommie and daddy's heart when we were putting her to bed. She told us for the first time in her own words that she loves us. Except to make it even sweeter, it was in Spanish. "Te amo" is the phrase in Spanish that she used. How sweet!!!

American Futbol

We had a chance this afternoon to watch the Denver Broncos play the much hated Raiders. I have not been able to watch much football here in Costa Rica for obvious reasons, we're not in Kansas anymore Toto! But there is a couple here at language school from Denver and they are Bronco's fans as well. So they found out that the Broncos were going to be aired this week down here and invited us over to watch and also eat dinner afterwards. It was a lot of fun just to see football and to be reminded of some of the things of home. The funny thing about watching this afternoon was this, the game was televised by CBS, but here FOX bought the rights and showed it on Spanish FOX. Because of this the commentating was also in Spanish. So in one corner of the TV screen was the CBS logo, the other corner was the FOX logo with the score, and then the commentating was in Spanish. But it was still fun and the Broncos even won. It is funny the things you take for granted like just watching a simple football game in your own language. For those of you that don't like commentators much anyway, I think you would prefer them in your own language anyhow.

On a side note, tommoro begins our last of 5 weeks for this trimester. It is going to go very fast as our schedule is already packed with various things and activities, and then it will be all over. Only one more trimester to go! We can't wait.

Survival of the Dumbest?

Yesterday on our way home from school we went with another MAF couple's to their house to pick up some things real quick. They basically live in a duplex, but it is a little more intimate than that. Their neighbor is a “taxista” or a taxi driver. So what this means to them is that Mr. Taxi man has a lot of other “companeros” or co-workers over at anytime of the day. It was reported to us that Thursday night was one of grand celebration for the taxista and his friends, girls, alcohol, you get the picture. Well, when we arrived yesterday (Friday) around 1:00 in the afternoon, the garage had turned into a repair shop. At our co-workers house they also “share” the garage. Like most garages here it is very nice and clean and even laid in tile. Anyway, all the taxistas were involved in this mechanical endeavor somehow. There were about 5-6 taxi cars in the street, and about that many drivers in the garage. Two of these were underneath the car being worked on while the rest stood around with their arms folded in approval. Then things got interesting. The garage has a slight pitch to it so that water will run out into the street, and you must remember that the floor is nice clean, slick, tile. You know those dinky little jacks that come with your car for changing tires? That is what they were using. All of a sudden, without warning, the jack came shooting out and the car went flying down, yep, on top of the two taxi drivers underneath. Immediately, my coworker and I were doing what we could to lift the front of the car up and get the two guys out. Praise the Lord that they came out just fine and were just slightly banged up. One had a pretty swollen nose, but that may just have been his normal looks. So afterwards, as everyone’s heart rate was slowing and we were all catching our breath by how close that had been, the Cannon’s were off to their house. But not before the Taxi drivers began to jack the car back up without doing anything different to prevent the same thing from happening again. SCARY! Now we know why there are warnings on everything and how to operate it. You cannot teach common sense. Last night we also watched our co-workers kids, 5 and 7 years old, while they went on a much-needed date. Tonight we are going over to have a casual dinner and we (the guys) are going to play flight simulator. But this is no ordinary way of playing a computer game. We run it through my co-worker's computer projector and display it on the wall. So our “screen” becomes about 8 feet by 8 feet. I think we will call this the “missionary wide-screen T.V.”

Tidbits

Tidbits on our surprisingly ordinary life as it stands today:

• Our puppy, Ana, is doing very well. She has a very sweet nature. Brooklyn has learned how to say "NO, Ana, NO!" and they get along much better. We've been making our own "homemade" dogfood and it seems to be working well...not to mention that it is sooo much cheaper. No Ol' Roy here!
• Brooklyn seems to be getting the hang of potty training. We might just be diaper-free by Christmas!!!
• School is going well. We're moving right along through our grammar book. I was encouraged today when I read an entire news article in Spanish and understood it all. Maybe we are getting somewhere! Just for fun, I bought a book (for ages 8-10) in Spanish and have been able to understand it. It is very rewarding to learn a new language. VERY. "Vale la pena." - "It's worth the pain!"
• Our househelper, Isabel, is busy as ever. She is looking forward to going to Mexico in 5-6 months or around the same time that we head off for Ecuador. Until then, (because she didn't have enough to do looking after us) she is taking on a soup kitchen for kids in a poverty-stricken area of the San Jose area. She will continue working for us so that she can feed herself and her own kids. I admire Isabel so much. She has so little but is always looking for ways to give what she does have to those that need it even more than she does. I have learned so much from this special lady and praise God everyday for providing such a wonderful person to help us adjust to this new culture, keep our tile floors shiny, help us with homework, feed us tasty, Costa Rican food, and allow us to practice our bad Spanish at any moment of the day.
• Sean is at the school right now installing the NEW SOUND SYSTEM in the chapel. This is a huge praise. The sound system was ordered from a company in the US, shipped to Texas, then driven to Mississippi, and from there, hand-carried to Costa Rica. And it all arrived in one piece without problems...well, except for the extra soundboard that was sent along with it. We'll have to contact the company and see what can be done about that! Anyway, PRAISE THE LORD. Now just pray that Sean and his buddy are able to get the thing installed!

What do we know?

Today during dinner Brooklyn noticed a moth that was flying around the outside of the dining room window. She was very fascinated with it and so we decided to use it as an opportunity to teach her a new animal name.

"That's an insect." says Dad.
"That's a moth, Brooklyn." says Mom.
"A moth is a kind of insect," we explain. "Can you say moth, Brooklyn?"
Brooklyn looked at us both and then back at the moth. "No, dat's a ducky."
Says Dad, "Yes, it flies like a ducky or a birdie but it is a moth."
With wide, knowing eyes and a rather superior tone, "NO, dat's a ducky."

End of discussion.

A new addition...

Well, we want to make the happy anouncement that there is a new Cannon in San Jose. She's blonde (of course), and has the sweetest eyes. She's got long legs and a tail that wags non-stop. Her name is Ana and we love her so much already! Ana is a 3 1/2 month old golden retriever puppy that we "adopted" on Saturday. Brooklyn is in heaven - she's always loved "puppeeees" It has taken some time for the two of them to get used to one another. Ana is all puppy and is, consequently, always anxious to play which makes Brooklyn a little worried. On the other hand, when Ana has played out all her energy and wants to sleep, Brooklyn has found she is even more fun to play with than her stuffed toy puppies. It has been fun to have a dog around, though somewhat tiring. We've always loved dogs and for years have talked about getting a golden retriever puppy. When the opportunity presented itself we just couldn't resist getting one and so...here we are! Granted, we hunted this opportunity down but...anyway. Ana will make the move to Ecuador with us when that time comes.

One thing is for sure. Our work is cut out for us. A puppy and a toddler. Here's what it sounds like to our neighbors: (Remember Ana is the dog.)

"No, Ana, NO. Give me my shoe." "Brooklyn, yuck, get that out of your mouth."
"Brooklyn, don't touch that." "Ana, NO! DOWN!"
"Fetch it, Ana." "Brooklyn bring Mommy that marker, RIGHT NOW!"
"Ana, drop it." "Brooklyn put that down."
"Brooklyn, next time you need to go peepee, tell mommy." "Ana, NOOO! Outside!" (praise the Lord for tile floors.)
"Sit, Stay." "Ana, you too."
"Atta girl!" "Such a big girl." "Such a good dog!"













Ana




















Brooklyn reading Ana to sleep...

Cold in Costa Rica

Yes, cold. It has been rainy, windy and crisp here the past few days...at least we think so, those of you in Colorado where it has already SNOWED might think we've gone bonkers to think we are cold here. But really, San Jose is much cooler than you might think due to our higher elevation here. It's hard to imagine that anywhere south of the border could possibly be anything other than hot, humid and tropical but we're here to tell you COLD still exists down here. Of course, we're just putting on long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, not heavy winter coats. We both had to laugh and give our street guard a hard time - he wore a thick down coat all day yesterday.

We don't have heaters, just fans, so I turned the oven on high to try to get some warmer air circulating. Sean thought I was being ridiculous.

Chili for dinner tonight! (Thanks to Mom for bringing some chili seasoning down for us.)

A Trip to the Hospital

Don't panic, we're all fine. But we did have a rough weekend. Brooklyn was running a fever all weekend. She was a real trooper - in fact, other than the fever and loss of appetite we couldn't figure out was going on. Finally on Sunday we decided it would be best to take Brooklyn in to an urgent care clinic located in downtown San Jose. The hospital is a private, Christian hospital that was started way back in 1929 by missionaries. So, at about 6:30 pm we got a taxi and headed out. We were able to see a peditrician. He was excellent with Brooklyn. He only spoke Spanish so it was a good test of where we are with the language after 6 months of study. We did fine, between the two of us - with four ears, four eyes, and two brains we were able to understand it all just fine. Well, the important stuff anyway. We think.
As we were waiting in the waiting room, our poor, sick little baby was bouncing off the walls, jumping, running, laughing and singing. Then when the doctor was asking us questions she was being just as friendly as could be. I could tell the doctor was thinking, "so, she's been pretty sick, huh? whatever you say, gringos!" Brooklyn was perfectly comfortable as the doctor poked and prodded her. It was funny to see her respond so readily to Spanish. When the doctor asked her if she was ready for an examination she nodded her head yes in all seriousness. Not only was this doctor an excellent physician but he has great kid skills - he got Brooklyn to agree to something. Not even her parents can do that! We didn't even know that "si" or "yes" was in her vocabulary. By the way, we haven't heard it since. *sigh*
Anyway, turns out Brooklyn had an ear infection and a horrible looking infection in her throat. We honestly never even suspected it was so bad! She apparently has a very high pain tolerance. The same thing happened the last time she had an ear infection just before we left the US. We got the same "yeah, right" look from the doctor and then he exclaimed, "She does have an ear infection....and it's a really bad one, actually." Guess we'd better be careful, she is so tough that it's hard to know when something really is wrong. Well, she's doing much better today. We got some antibiotics and she no longer has a fever. By the way, our trip to the hospital was relatively painless, even when we went to pay.
Well, except that the cashier was so hard for Sean and I both to understand. The cashier kept saying something and we'd keep looking at each other trying to guess what he'd said. Then we'd look back at him with probably the most confused, "duh" faces he'd ever seen so he'd repeat himself. Sean and I just kept looking at each other. Sean was thinking "surely Becca understood that" and I kept thinking "Sean must have understood and I should be coming up with an answer". Finally, we got it - he wanted us to pay! Well, the whole thing - medicines and doctor visit plus an extra fee for a visit with the pediatrician, cost less than $50.

Volcanos and Mid-terms

This morning we were off to the airport once again to take Becca’s mom, sister and niece so they could fly back to Colorado. We have had a whirlwind week! What a time we had – it was great to see loved ones and show them around this beautiful country that we have called “home” for the past few months. Over the weekend we went to see a volcano called Volcan Arenal in the northcentral part of Costa Rica. It was a stunning sight. This volcano is active and has lava and smoke continuously coming out of it, as well as audible eruptions. It was a very surreal experience to see such power and realize that if the volcano decided to really get serious, we would be history. Such is the power of God’s creation. It actually is a miracle that we even saw the volcano. October here in Costa Rica is the rainiest month of the year. The entire weekend was perfectly clear at the volcano, but we heard it rained all weekend here in San Jose. So I guess we picked a great weekend to go. The hotel we stayed at had three pools and 3 water slides. It was a blast and really fun to see Brooklyn get a huge kick out of the swimming. Even Grandma Vicki went down two of the slides - at night, but we do have a video that recorded all her screams, just in case you need proof that she did it! Last night we ate our last dinner together at a nice restaurant that has a special “show” every Wednesday. The show followed a buffet of typical Costa Rican food, which we thought was good (I don’t know if our visitors thought the same). The food is definately different, and it is NOT Mexican for those of you who think nothing exists except tortillas, tacos, and burritos south of the border. The show was very entertaining. The first part consisted of traditional music and dancing with beautiful garb worn by both the men and women. The second part was dancing again but this time with people wearing really unusual masks. Becca’s niece Catie was dragged out to dance – she was horrified but was a really good sport! Finally the night was finished up with fireworks. All in all, a neat experience to see this side of the Costa Rican culture. Tommorow we have “mid-terms” at school. It is hard to believe that we are already half way through this trimester, which also marks halfway through school for us. Six months down, six to go. Man has the time flown. We did find out this week that we now have a house in Ecuador. It is exciting to see that come together, although Becca and I both won’t be able to believe it until we are actually setting foot in Ecuador.













Volcan Arenal















Costa Rican Wildlife

Update on Isabel, Company coming, and thoughts on Language school

• First, an update on our househelper, Isabel. She is doing very well now. Feeling fine and back to her normal self. She really scared us there for a while. Praise the Lord, she is fine and still pursuing God and His will for her life with all her strength!

• Well, today we receive our first visitors! We're so excited we can hardly stand it. My (Rebecca's) mom, sister, and niece are flying in tonight at 8:30. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to see loved ones and can't wait to show them where we live and what we do! We are planning a trip to a volcano this weekend and hope to take them to see the sights around San Jose. We feel very blessed that over the next several months both Sean's family, and mine, plus a few friends will be able to come see us here in Costa Rica. It helps take the bite out of being so far away from family when we know they'll come see us! Yeah, we know they aren't coming to see us, they're coming to see Brooklyn.....

• We're both feeling very tired lately. Somebody mentioned that our blogs sound tired. Well, we're not sure how that came through but it's the truth! Gee, learning a language takes much more energy and work than we ever imagined. Our classes are very challenging this trimester. Suffice it to say, we doubt we'll be bragging so easily about our grades at the end of this trimester! But, while we are tired and almost overwhelmed, God has strengthened us and has been our strong tower in time of need! We're still having fun, still loving our life as missionaries, still learning Spanish (somehow) and still enjoying the process!!! We appreciate your prayers for continued strength, energy, and grace to learn Spanish well. We want to wring out our year in Costa Rica for all its worth!

Bugs and Futbol

Phew…! What a week, once again. We had “Spiritual Emphasis Week” last week. It was really good. It is a week that the school designates as one to be refreshing and encouraging to the student body. The teachers are not allowed to assign homework and tests, and a special speaker comes in to minister to us twice daily. The couple that were our speakers were from Tennessee. They had been missionaries to the American Indians in Arizona and New Mexico, and then to the Spaniards of Spain. He and his wife had some great wisdom and experience to lavish on everyone. Becca and I were also greatly involved in the worship aspect of the services. Of the 9 total services we were involved in 5, which began to tire us out by the end of the week, but it was still good, all to God’s glory. I also started a tutor last week, two times a week. Jumping up to Becca’s class has been bittersweet. While we are going over some useful things, I incurred some gaps in my foundation from making such a big jump. Therefore I have a tutor twice a week after school for an hour. It has already been helpful, but that extra hour can sure drain whatever brain capacity I may have left.

O.K., ready for another weird experience? Yesterday as I was sitting on my couch I looked across the living room (its not that far) to one of our houseplants and thought I saw a spider, or at least something caught in a web. It was in a palm tree type plant that we have inside our house. So I went over to investigate and saw a very weird looking spider underneath one of the palm branches. As I looked a second time, a little closer I about fell over backwards with that creepy crawly feeling only bugs can give you. Not to mention I was leaning sideways practically upside down to see the underside of the palm leaf. Of course this provoked Becca’s interest and I let her run her own investigation. It was the same as mine. She thought she saw the same “spider” I did and didn’t think much of it. I told her to look again, just as I had, and her reaction was just like mine, she just about fell over backwards with that creepy crawly feeling only bugs can give you. Now that you are all wondering what it was, it was a caterpillar. But this wasn’t your ordinary bug. It’s head (which we thought originally was the spider) was about the size of a small thumbtack, and disguised in such a way and to make the back part of its head look like a slug or snail, with those two creepy little eyeball things. The color of the head was tan/reddish. Now, upon further investigation, there were a few more inches to this thing. The rest of its body was completely camouflaged with the rest of the palm leaf, green mostly, but at its tail end were again those funny things that looked like the eyes of a snail. I am assuming that these are defense mechanisms to confuse prey as to which end to bite. So Becca and I cut that particular leaf off and took Mr. Scarylookinguglything outside to investigate more. As I tried to coax him off the leaf, not only was he weird looking, he was downright aggressive. He did not like to be disturbed, and let me know about it. We finally got over our “willeys” and got him off of the leaf and took some pictures of him. Upon further investigation, we found a LOT of caterpillar droppings in and around our palm plant, and of course many leaves that were all chewed up. Looking back we had both been hearing something occasionally falling (yep, it was his droppings hitting the floor) or had seen the plant move out of the corner of our eyes. I never thought such a little thing could give such fear, but that is usually the way life is huh? The things we fear tend to give us the “willeys” and make us want to run and go back to our comfort zone. So whether it is a caterpillar displaying all of God’s greatness, or a language and culture that is different, fear comes in many different packages when we don’t understand something.


"Mr. Scarylookinguglything"



Leaf or Grasshopper? (taken by Becca)

On to other news, last night (Saturday) I had the chance to go to the World Cup Soccer game between Costa Rica and the USA. In a word, AWESOME! The Latin’s, and the world for that matter, have a reputation for being crazy about their soccer, or “futbol”. I wasn’t disappointed. Luckily, for my own personal safety, the USA got beat soundly, 3-0. But to see all of these people, going this nuts for this long, in the POURING rain, was amazing! Half of the entertainment was the people. For those of you into soccer, you no doubt saw the game stateside on ESPN or some other network. But it is very likely that most of you did not even know that the USA had a National team and they played Costa Rica last night. Last night confirmed for C.R. that they are now going to the World Cup, held next summer in Germany. The USA had already secured their slot, as well as Mexico, from our region. Since the USA had already secured their slot, they basically sent down their Junior Varsity. Which was a smart move, but we didn’t see all their star players who previously had beat C.R. the last 2 times they played each other. So today, Sunday, we are definitely making a day of rest. We both have studying to do, and various other projects to get caught up on. We have been running so busy and loving every minute of it. It is amazing how fast time is flying, especially that we are quickly approaching our half way mark here at language school

When did October Start?

I missed it. When did we start another new month? Yes, I realize we are already a few days into October but, well, I missed it. Maybe my brain has a short somewhere...yup, there is strong possibility...

We had a nice but quick weekend. I went to a ladies retreat put on by our school. It was a nice time and my first night away from Brooklyn. For the first night in two years I slept all through the night! I mean I didn't even move! I woke up on my own without a cold little hand patting my cheek...but then again I missed that pudgy little hand. Sean did great without me. Such a good Daddy. In fact, according to Sean - and I say "according to" because I don't really believe him - Brooklyn did better without me around. She never got into things or did anything bad in the whole 25 hours that I was gone. If that's true, I guess I'd better get away more often....hmmm, I've heard there are some pretty nice spas here. Suppose I could get a special missionary deal (i.e. free)?! Probably not.

This is Spiritual Emphasis Week at school. No tests or homework...praise the Lord! We have a guest speaker and his wife here from the U.S. We are really enjoying their messages. There are two meetings each day - in the mornings between classes as well as in the evenings. It means Sean is especially busy with worship leading and playing and organizing but it is going very well and we are both being refreshed.