getting ready to welcome becky home!

teddy being teddy :)
i told him today that he can go to kids camp, at rancho el refugio in july, and his eyes got huge and he started asking me a ton of questions. the thing that he was most excited about is that he isn't going to sleep in his bed for 2 whole nights! he asked me to make him a calendar so that he can know how far away camp is.

nene, on the other hand, asks me every few minutes: kakey? (becky) i tell her becky will be here in a couple days! and then, always, ana? (hanna) me: one month. nene: oh.
so funny - today nene and i were reading i spy together. we looked for a bunch of things on one page and then she kind of goes off to do something else, and i said wait, nene, there are still more pages! and she looks at me, at the book, turns the page, and goes, WOW! which is hilarious because we read 2 or 3 books every single day. maybe a big book confused her. i don't know...but priceless either way.

there are some new videos i've put up lately...if you go to youtube and search "hilaryholbrook" (in quotes, no spaces) it will bring up all the videos i've posted.

marcos and jose playing being before school starts...

nene and ruben LOVING the big books that i brought back from mexicali...an esl program in the states had shut down and the books were donated to mexico outreach, or they ended up at the mexicali camp somehow. we were packing up at the end of the week and i saw this PILE of spanish books, and some big books too. i was like ron, where are those going and can i please have some! he let me take a whole box! chica chica boom boom, tiki tiki tembo, i spy, and tons of great books. the kids were excited to see some new ones :)

eliseo was/is having some major girl problems so i went to his house this afternoon...there's this place he always tells me about but i've never been to. it's called el mirador - it's like a lookout point. oh. my. goodness. i saw ensenada like i've never seen it before. first we were level with the ocean and walked along this beautiful path, right next to the water, while the sun was setting. there wasn't a sandy beach, just big rocks, and so when big waves came up we got wet - the pathway was that close to the water.
then we went up to the lookout point, way way way up this one mountain. there's this stone ledge that you sit on and you can see the ENTIRE city. since it was dusk and then later completely dark, we could see all the lights and everything. there was a full moon and it was reflected into the water, we could hear the seals barking or whatever they do, and we seriously were looking out over the entire city. of course we both forgot out cameras, so we're going back in a couple weeks to take pictures of everything. i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e. i wish i had known about this place sooner! everyone needs to go.

today was a good day!
i woke up this morning just not feeling it and was trying to get over that. i kept telling myself that i could just slog through the day or i could make the most of it. then i found out the boys broke the cd player that we use ALL DAY at school...i love to have music playing in the background and i was like, dang, this is just going to be one of those stinkin' mondays.
but it turned out to be a pretty good day! the kids worked well and we did a LOT. they knew they were working hard and well and were proud of themselves (and rightly so!)
josue is with his mom for a few days, so preschool was much more calm and i was able to work one on one with all the kids (again...rare).

i just got back from dinner with dan and ivey, a couple who live at rancho el refugio and are working on a school that's being built at the ranch. it was great to spend time with them - they're such a sweet, solid, Godly couple. it was nice to speak english with people in person and not on skype, too!

rocio's nephews went to a birthday party on saturday, and rocio invited me to go with them. it was so fun! i love being a part of life down here. not the cruise ship, tourist area where everyone speaks english part of life. the part where people look at me wierdly because i'm so white, and then look at me even wierder when i answer the questions, in spanish, that they ask rocio because they don't think i understand or speak spanish. never a dull moment! this was a legit party, though. the kid turned 5, and there were TWO pinatas. apparently 5 is a pretty big deal :)

eric, rocio's 3 year old nephew. adorable...

pinatas could be an olympic sport here. not kidding. these kids know what's up.

church today! i taught sunday school to the young adults. it was interesting. but i brought cookies and made everyone stare at them until i was done teaching, and to please pay attention in the meantime. it worked.

tonio hanging out, getting ready to clean the bus. the boys LOVE to be around anything that has to do with cars, so they spend a lot of time wiping down the bus. every since i got back from mexicali, i have been the main teacher and chuy has been my aide. up in this point, chuy technically was the lead and i was his aide. i did a lot behind the scenes to help him, but he still had the final say. that has changed, and one thing i did when i took over was start our school day with a prayer. after a couple days, the boys wanted to pray too, so teddy and marcos prayed. yesterday, tonio wanted to, so he did. we usually pray before lunch, too, and when one of the brothers prayers my eyes are usually closed...i know they're praying silently, seeing as how they can't speak. they'll smack the table or get our attention somehow to say amen. well yesterday, i was watching tonio, and he was signing. it was beautiful. he was thanking God for the rain, even though it meant we couldn't go to church, and asking that God would not let it rain next thursday so that we could go to church. he signed about everyone, and school, and the whole time had such a big smile on his face. it was so cool.

pilar helping, as usual. she LOVES to be the momma bear.

i know this shouldn't be a rare sight - preschool, with everyone in their seats - but it is. i was so happy to see it.

nene doing my hair. painfully funny.

no internet last night - it was super windy and i think it knocked something out of place...

yesterday in class we got into a pretty solid discussion among an 11 year old who signs (tonio) and a 7 year old who can't sit still for more than 5 minutes, so instead doesn't use a chair and sporadically does laps around the room when he needs to (marcos). we were looking at a picture of a playground, with kids doing all different kinds of things. some of those things showed respect, and others didn't. we were talking about each situation and if it showed respect or not, and there was one picture of a girl on the ground with a banged up knee, and someone standing over her. tonio and i thought the boy had pushed the girl on the ground, but marcos said because of what the girl's face looked like and how the boy hand his hand out, he was helping her up after she fell. i watched tonio think about it for a little bit while marcos kept explaining why he thought it was showing respect, and then tonio nods enthusiastically and points to the boy's hand that was helping the girl up. it was so cool to watch them go through that! normal students having a typical classroom discussion :)

we sing a song that says 'si señor' in the chorus, and either that or someone else has been teaching the preschoolers to say, 'si señor' when someone asks them to do something...it's kind of funny when i ask them to start cleaning up and nene and josue salute me and say 'si señor!'

working hard during art...


lots of rain today, so the kids had indoor recess...we've never had that before! class always got canceled when it rained because, well, our classroom was outside.

everyone's getting very excited for becky to come back...we put her name in the calendar on the day she's coming back. the boys, who never forget anything, tell me first thing in the morning how many days until she gets back.

i also made the mistake of telling nene and josue that hanna's coming back for the summer...well, not necessarily that it was a mistake, but now nene looks at me a couple times a day and goes, 'hanna?!' and then i have to explain that she won't be here for another month. nene understands yesterday, today, and tomorrow, but the idea of a month isn't easy for her to grasp. it's going to be a long month for that girl :)

at the end of preschool we always go for a walk around the neighborhood, and today we had a little bit of time when we got back so we played outside. it was so fun. now that all the kids who lived down below are upstairs and we are short staffed, they don't get to be outside that much. nene jumps up on a table, lays on her stomach, and goes, 'massage! massage!' i started karate chopping her back and she was laughing so hard it took me a second to realize she was trying to say pipi...i stopped quickly...
josue ran laps around the yard for a solid half hour, pushing a car in front of him...i brought jaime out and nene pulled him in the wagon, which jaime thought was just the funniest thing ever...sergio pushed ruben on the swing until his feet touched the sky...
there's something about playing outside after it rains that is just awesome.