Guatemala, continued

(I'm still playing blog-catch up.  I just keep getting further behind!  Still blogging about a trip I took LAST MONTH to Guatemala...)

Our little traveling group was in Guatemala over the weekend, so on Saturday we played tourist for a little bit and traveled to Antigua to do a little shopping.  We stopped off at a lookout point to catch a view of the beautiful city. 

The volcano in the background is usually covered in clouds, but we caught a brief glimpse of the top.  

The volcano behind us in this picture near Antigua spewed ash and dust all over the place about a week before we went, but it was clear and beautiful on our Saturday.

We spent a few hours in Antigua, shopped for soccer jerseys, scarves, purses, and just supported the local economy in general.

On Sunday we checked out the local market in the morning, a three-story parking garage that on the weekends transforms into a market place selling everything from raw organ meats to lingerie.  Sort of an open-air Guatemalan Wal-Mart, if you will.

Sunday afternoon we loaded up and headed out to church, where I realized I have even less 'clap while singing' ability than I do when the songs are in English.  It's sad how little rhythm I have.  Sad.  

During "sermon time", our little group headed outside to help with the kids' lessons.  

For the past year, the kids at our church have been raising money to help build a shelter for the kids church here in Guatemala.  We enjoyed the "open air" portion of church while the storm clouds rolled in.  

This time of year it rains many afternoons here, and children's church frequently gets rained out.  

I'm sure one particular motorcycle owner will be very happy when the kids have their own building to color in.

Monday morning we packed up and headed on home, already counting the weeks till our next trip to visit our new friends in Guatemala!

So I Went to Guatemala...

I'm not sure if I mentioned it here or not, but last month I had the opportunity, along with three other ladies from church, to go to Guatemala for a few days.  Our church has connections with a couple of missionaries in a village in Guatemala, who each run schools in a village.  Julie, Vicki, Gina, and I (and baby Julia)went to spend time encouraging these missionaries, and visiting the schools.  Our quilting ministry at church quilted 52 quilts for us to take and gift to the teachers and staff of these schools, as sort of a "thank you for all of the hard work you do everyday" sort of thing. 

Um, it was the funnest trip ever.  I mean, it was horribly hard and taxing and with great sacrifice I boarded that plane to Guatemala.  Not exactly.  I went on a four night trip with three good friends, where we spent time hugging children and eating and talking and shopping and talking and laughing and giving people presents and going to church and (hopefully) encouraging and eating and talking.  GREAT SACRIFICE.  Clearly I was born for mission trips. :)

Families at our church sponser about 100 children at one of the schools, contributing monthly towards the cost of tuition and supplies.  This is my little Alex that we sponser:

He's still talking about the huggy white lady.

And wondering what the heck this logo is on his new teddy bear.

One of the schools has a marching band consisting of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, and wouldn't you know, it was picture day on the morning we visited.  

I had visions of my father and memories of many picture days, as I watched the staff assemble the kids in their bright and shiny uniforms.

I have no idea who this kid is, but I almost brought him home with me.  Seriously.  If for no other reason than to watch him squirt yogurt through that gap in his teeth.  

Never mind.  I don't know any kids who squirt yogurt through the gap in their teeth.

We brought with us pictures of kids from our church to pass out to the kids in Guatemala, and they LOVED them.  At one point, we turned around and the girls were swapping cards like trading cards.  It was pretty fun.

I desperately wish we had a copy of this poster on the wall to use in the ER to help us diagnose illnesses.

Excuse me, sir.  I see you are lying on a bed with a blanket over your lap.  You must have la hepatitis. 

Passing out the quilts to the hard working teachers and staff at the school was very rewarding.

The Sunday before we left, our church prayed over the quilts, and prayed for their recipients.

The boys LOVED their "guy quilts".  Some of the quilts were less flowery and girly, so we gave them to the guys, who promptly turned them into Super-hero capes.  Because some things transcend cultures.

This is Gina with Lori, who runs one of the schools we were visiting.  Gina first went on a mission trip with Lori in the early 1980s, and it was a sweet, sweet reunion for them.

At the second school we visited, we were escorted classroom-to-classroom, and had a chance to hug every single student at the school that day.

And again, we got to pass out quilts to all of the teachers and watch them swap with each other for their favorites :)

(I have a few more pictures from our trip, but it will have to wait till later.  I am tired of blogging tonight...)

One Last Hurrah...Kind Of...

Two days.  School starts in TWO DAYS.  We are frantically trying to cram as much summer fun into these next two days before it vanishes for another nine months.  We've had a high-low week this past week.  Awesome high points, and really crappy low points.  REALLY CRAPPY.

So I'll start with the awesome.  Tuesday we loaded up the van and the kids one more time and headed slightly west, young man, to see Brandon's sisters and their families for a couple of days in the Austin area.  We decided to swing by the Blue Bell factory in Brenham just in case they weren't too crowded and could get our little family in for a quick tour and a scoop of ice cream.  

We were in luck.  We walked in at 11:40, and were touring at 11:50.  Nice.

After the tour, we each picked out our scoop of ice cream (mine was Strawberry Summer Pie, in case you were wondering) and chowed down on our pre-lunch snack.

Aidan got rainbow sherbet.

Harper finished her rainbow sherbet in record time, then proceeded to mooch ice cream off of everyone else.

Harper's fortunate to have such sweet brothers and sister.

By this point they were a little "over" smiling for pictures, and we were all ready to head out for some late lunch.

Brandon got a recommendation from one of the Blue Bell employees, and we headed off the the little airport in Brenham to eat at the Southern Flyer.

Aidan found what he wanted for his birthday parked in the parking lot right outside the door at the restaurant.

The Southern Flyer did not disappoint.  We sat on their outdoor patio, which was screened in on all sides, sitting right next to one of the 4 giant air conditioners that were on the patio.  Perfect :)

Harper and Emmy read an airplane magazine with their Daddy

While Dane read a Wimpy Kid book while he waited for his food.

Every now and then my kids are really, really sweet to one another, and this was one of those days.

Emerson was reunited with her beloved gravy at the Southern Flyer, and dipped every single piece of her food in the gravy before eating it.

Last Thanksgiving, we were driving back home from my parents' house, and stopped by a Texas Burger for lunch.  Emerson ended up with a chicken finger basket with gravy.  It did not occur to me that she may have never had gravy before that day.  She dipped her first little french fry in the gravy, ate it, and her world has never been the same since.  She immediately tapped me on the arm in that Texas Burger, leaned over to me and proclaimed, "Mom.  I found my dip."  She found her dip.  And I had no idea we had been looking for it.  But gravy is her dip.

We got to Aunt Val and Uncle Izzy's house Tuesday night, and had a wonderful reunion with all of the cousins.  The boys fell right into a wrestling match/football game combo, in between climbing this awesome climbing tree in the backyard.

It was all well and good and awesome until about 8:50 Wednesday morning, when Dane fell out of the awesome climbing tree and broke his left arm.  Yup.  Broke his left arm.  He ran into the house, cradling his bent-at-an-unnatural-angle left arm.  I loaded him up and headed to the ER.  After lots of morphine, some Ketamine sedation, and a talented ER doctor straightened his arm out, we loaded up a very sleepy Dane, ("this broken arm was better than the last broken arm because I had a better dream with the sleeping medicine this time.  I was a baby bumblebee, just flying around...") and headed back for a few more hours with the cousins.  I FINALLY got to meet baby Juliana and snuggle the sweet, sleepy baby.  When everyone was awake, fed, and in relatively good moods, we got all the kids dressed and went to a park for cousin pictures.  Sorry you broke your arm 4 hours ago, Dane, but it doesn't get you out of cousin pictures.

Please excuse the hospital arm bands on Dane's wrist.  I forgot to take them off.  Being that the chief baby-holder had one arm out of commission, Juliana wisely stayed in her carseat.  And it's a little spooky how much Aidan looks like Laurel.

We cut our trip a little short, and headed home after dinner Wednesday night.  We missed church and bowling Wednesday night, but figured we needed to get Dane-o back home so we could load him up on codeine and build him a pillow-fort in his bed to protect him from rolling bed-sharing brothers.  Yup.  The REALLY CRAPPY part of our summer.  :(  I'm trying to look for a bright side, at least Dane broke his arm at the end of a summer filled with fun and swimming and backyard football.  He will just be in a cast for the next 6-8 weeks, and out of PE for a couple of months past that, thanks to our uber-conservative crazy orthopedic.

And we're T-minus 2 days.

The Non-Synoptic

I have this little problem.

You see, I like to take cute pictures that have all four of my children in them.  I love it when all four children are all looking in the same direction and smiling.  I'm boring like that.

But you see, I have this problem.

Let's call her the non-synoptic.

She's not so great at the picture taking.

She marches to the beat of her own little drum.

If everyone else is sitting, she is standing.  Or dancing.

She's the non-synoptic.

Oh, how I love my little non-synoptic.  Even when I can't get a decent picture of all four littles because of her.

Brave

When we were at the beach last week, Emerson got "BRAVE".

She LOVED the beach.

She would wade about waist-deep into the water, goggles firmly in place, and attack each wave as it came splashing onto her.

She put those fists up, got her game face on, and she OWNED those Galveston waves.

Screaming, "I am BRAVE!"

Girl was in the zone

and ready to take on anything that little corner of the Gulf of Mexico could throw at her

Those waves didn't know who they were messin' with.

If they thought they could take on Emmy, they had another think comin'.

Because this girl is BRAVE!