Yolibeth and Deisy's room

I had the pleasure of painting these two beautiful little girl's room. Their house mom Karen had seen my room and loved the way I had it painted. Since I had Yolibeth in my class Karen thought it would be special for me to paint her and Deisy's room. Karen came over one day and we decided what words we wanted to put on their wall, then looked at TONS and TONS of fonts. After we had the fonts and words picked out we went back to Karen's and decided where to put all the different words...and oh yeah, Karen decided she wanted me to paint butterflies on their wall...me? butterflies? HA! Well, next we splashed the walls with all kinds of colors and textures. We even painted Yolibeth and Deisy's hands and had them put their hand prints on the wall for the background of the word "Play." Then with the help of carbon paper we traces the words on the wall, then painted the words in many different colors. Karen still wanted her butterflies. So I took a plunge and just went for it....I, yes me, I painted butterflies on their walls. I have to say they turned out really really cute, and it added so much to the room. All the kids kept coming in to check on the progress as we painted. The girls were delighted...they loved what we were doing. Yolibeth was our little helper, she arranged and rearranged the paints and paintbrushes. She also took messages to the other kids from Karen while Karen and I were painting. Daniel pouted because he wanted me to paint his room. Daniel gave me his signature lip sticking out frown that Karen claims that he only does for me..(maybe he found that it worked for me, but no one else...who knows.) Anyway, I had a blast painting their room, and it turned out so cute. It really brightened up their room and hopefully they will enjoy it for years to coming.

Island

I had the opportunity to go to an island with some of the other singles from the ranch this year. I had also been the year before as well as two other that were on the trip with me. There are islands scattered off the coast of Honduras in the Caribbean, and we were fortunate to be able to stay on our own private island for four nights. Staying on the island is unlike any other experience. Most people find the beach to be a relaxing place, but take away all the buildings, the people, the noise, and you are in wrapped in a calmness that makes you never want to face real life. You are sung to with the calm colors of the sunset, dazzled by the millions of stars, and delighted by the bright rays of the morning. The water is so clear that you can see the bottom. The blue is so blue, so bright that it seems fake. The raw unique beauty that you see all around you is breath taking. When you are at the island you feel as if you are looking at the world the way God made it, before man came in and altered it and add to it. The only way I know how to describe the way it feels is raw, fresh, whole and beautiful. While we were there we were able to do some snorkeling. What a fun thing. To see all of God's creativity even under the sea. The fish are all so unique, colorful and interesting. I loved being able to take a peak a what the sea holds. On the first day I spent a little too long enjoying looking at the fish and floating around talking to Jae, one of the girls on the trip with me, and I got fried. I was very red and did not feel well that night. I felt much better the next day and was still able to go out and enjoy the rest of the week. But I definitely learned my lesson about staying out to long! We found some really awesome crabs and hermit craps. The island is also often graced with pelicans. Besides enjoying nature, swimming, floating around the island, and snorkeling. We play lots of card games, talked, and Ron even did some fishing. I loved getting to read my book and catch up on my sleep! It was such a refreshing time at the island, but by the end of our time I was glad to be getting back to the Ranch to see everyone.

Cinderella

For graduation a couple of girls and me worked on writing a comical play. We came up with the idea of rewriting an old story that everyone knows with twist. We decided on doing the "True Cinderella Story" where a fairy played by Diasira comes to tell a little girl how the real story of Cinderella goes. "Cindy" is truly evil and with the help of her evil fairy godmother cast a spell on the prince which makes him fall in love with "Cindy" instead of her sweet kind hearted step-sister who is always left doing the chores because "Cindy" is to busy admire her vain beauty. The spell is only broken when "Cindy" trips and her magic shoe falls off. Nancy did a great job playing Cindy or Cinderella, Fany played the kind hearted step-sister while Oscar filled the roll of prince charming. Audrey donned blue makeup for her roll as evil fairy godmother. Elli was the little girl hearing the story and Abby played the stepmother. Nadetie and Nancy wrote the play and Nade was director. Unfortunately I was unable to be there to see the play. They performed it at graduation. I missed graduation because I had to leave early to get to my brothers wedding due to the plane crash. I heard that the play went great and if it was anything like all the practices I went to then I know that it was hilarious. We have some very talented young actors and actresses. I hope some of them have some sort of job speaking or acting in front of people someday. I'm sad that I missed the actual performance, but I was glad that I was able to be part of the play. It makes me smile just thinking about it. Here are some pictures taken during practice and a few that I borrowed from my roommate Jennifer from graduation. Thanks Jenn!

Joseph got married!

I made a quick trip to the states for my brothers wedding. I had made plans in advance to be home for the wedding, but everything got thrown into disarray when there was an unexpected plan crash in Honduras. (As if there is ever a planed plan crash!) I ended up having to leave early to get back to the states since I was limited to whatever days they had seats available to leave from the other airport in Honduras. Also I had to make a 4 hour journey up to San Pedro Sula before ever getting to the airport verses the normal 45 minute haul to the airport in Tegucigalpa. It made for a long day. I went the next day to take my placement test for college. Then early on Friday morning we were off for wedding stuff in Chattanooga. The wedding was beautiful and made my tiring travels worth while. I cried as I watch my older brother take his wedding vows with his bride. (He cried too...that's why I cried. He he hadn't cried I'm confident in the fact that I would have kept it together during the service! But my sister Carli took the crown for the most tears. Happy tears of course!) Lindsey (the bride) looked just stunning in her wedding attire. Joseph looked pretty good himself. They had dancing and an awesome jazz band. The food was also wonderful. The whole wedding was beautiful. I'm glad that I was able to make it home for the special occasion.

Jennifer Lost a Tooth

Jennifer lost her first tooth today. Well, really we pulled it for her. She was very brave and didn't even cry. Jennifer seemed very uninterested in the tooth when I showed it to her. I was so excited and said "look Jennifer your tooth...it's so little and cute! Can you believe that came out of your mouth?" You know the normal types of things that you say to kids when they lose their first tooth. She glanced at it and ran off to play. I tried to show her off to people but she didn't really seem to care that she had lost a tooth. Which for Jenn Jenn is a funny, since she is always wanting to show everyone what she has done. I guess she didn't feel like she had accomplished anything when little white thing fell out of her mouth. I was so excited for her. And even though she wasn't impressed with her tooth falling out she does enjoy sticking her tongue through the new hole in her teeth.

Some reasons I love it here...

The next day

After making it to the Mission House, and through the night we had a long day ahead of us. By 7:45 in the morning all the kids were up and feed. What we were going to do now? For a while they just ran around in the court yard, a couple collapsed into tears. So we made a plan. We had to do something with the kids. We decided to take them to the zoo! We gathered them all together, put on their shoes, and the Mission Housed packed us snacks. Then we headed out to Picacho, a park with a zoo just minutes from the Mission House. The kids loved seeing the animals. It was a small zoo but had crocodiles, monkeys, pigs, peacocks, jaguar, raccoons, bunnies, among other animals. After seeing all the animals, we had a snack, then walked down through the rest of the park. There is a great view of the city from Picacho. There is also a very large statue of Jesus there that we went to see. The park was beautiful, and it gave us something to do with the kids for the day. I was so glad that we were able to take them to Picacho. After Picacho we headed back to the Mission House for lunch. After lunch we went back to the Ranch. Then I went to sleep. I was exhausted! It was a very eventful two days.