some beanbag chairs were donated, and look at these cuties i found lounging around!

i learned how to make tortillas and sopes today! i've been wanting someone to teach me for a long time, so i went to juanita's house...she lives just down the street and used to work at gabriel house. now she's ted and renie's housekeeper. she's a sweet older woman and an awesome cook. her legs have been hurting her a lot lately, to the point where it takes her minutes to get up or sit down. she was telling me how she prays once a day, when she gets up in the morning. awhile ago she had a dream where she was at a doctor's office. she didn't see his face, but he handed her a prescription for the pain in her legs. in her dream she read it, and it said pray three times a day. since then, she's prayed three times a day, and jumped out of her chair to show me how her legs don't hurt her anymore. nice!

i'm off to the beach with some people from church to teach them how to make s'mores. they've never heard of them here...unbelievable!

on the off chance that you're having a bad day, let this beautiful face cheer you up :)


not much to report on today...
i'm starting to plan my transition out of school, which is kind of weird. i don't want to be here, teaching full time and then boom! gone. i think chuy and i will do like a half and half thing for a week, where he'll teach about half the time and i'll teach the other half, and then my last monday through wednesday i'll spend with the kids in the big house (who i feel like i haven't seen AT ALL lately!).
we made earrings during arts and crafts today...alex, tonio, and jose have a seriously good sense of style. marcos got bored in about 2 seconds and wanted to play with the tools, and teddy couldn't decide on what beads to use. quite a circus, but lots of fun nonetheless.

this morning was great. the kids worked so hard and we got so much done. i was super proud of them. preschool is going really well with becky, too. she's awesome with the kids and they love her.
just got back from eliseo's...we went to this coffee place that's inside an old mansion and watched videos of groups that used to come work at roca de salvacion. they were hilarious...and now i'm tired and off to bed!

today was cool...becky will be the aide once i leave and chuy will be the main teacher again, so she starting today she'll be shadowing/observing/picking up as much as she can to be able to make a smooth transition when i leave. she worked in a day care for awhile so she's great with the preschoolers, which is an area i've always felt like i could use help in. it's great to have her there too because she has the kids' best interests in mind and truly wants to help them, which is always a good thing.

i skyped with two college friends tonight that i haven't talked to in forever. they both are engaged - rachele's getting married in june, and katie in october. i am so so so excited for them! and the weddings are going to be so great with everyone there. gahh!!

the car people came! it was crazy. the whole cul de sac was full of old cars, and some of them were crazy. they bounced up and down, went up on 3 wheels...fun stuff. they were some pretty rough looking guys, and it was interesting to watch them as our kids came out. it was a beautiful picture after awhile though...everyone hanging out together, talking about cars!

teddy making the car go up and down...

we took marcos, ruben, pilar, nene, josue, and victor to the circus tonight. kind of glad to be done with that haha. they all loved it, minus a couple minutes at the beginning of every show. the people there were so nice and hospitable...tonight they just waved us in and let us do our thing, front and center. i'm happy we got to take so many kids, though...i feel like every kid should get to go to the circus at least once in their life.

miss nene! she would go from being scared and burying her face in my shoulder to making me clap with her and yelling 'BRAVO!' at the top of her lungs. it's never a dull moment with this girl!

we went to the circus tonight! alex, tonio, teddy, sergio, jaime, becky, and ted and renie's daughters were there. it was fun. becky and i tried to warn them that the music was really loud, and there were some scary parts. teddy and tonio got really serious and started asking questions like, but it's still safe, right? i'm still going. are you still going? i'm going. i'm not scared.
well the music started and tonio made a mad dash for the exit...alex jumped a foot out of his chair and teddy got this terrified look on his face. sergio just laughed hysterically, and jaime didn't understand what was going on. after a couple minutes outside tonio was fine and came back in. teddy loved it and laughed hysterically the whole time. alex and tonio weren't quite sure what to make of it, but by the end they decided they had a great time. a success!

take number 25 of the night...he never actually looks at the camera. but I LOVE THIS CHILD. sometimes it's hard for me to play with him because i have to realize that one day, very soon, i won't be able to walk out of my apartment and see his little fingers reach for the window as i walk by...or hear him say mama when he sees me...or watch him roll as fast as he can to get to me when i come into the room...ahhh.

amazed at something.

so excited!

front row seats!

tomorrow after church the classic car guy is (FINALLY) coming! then we're taking nene, pilar, josue, ruben, marcos, and jose to the circus. it will be another fun day!

a group from reality church that came awhile ago painted this sign...i don't think i've posted it yet. it's so springy!

today was the first day of school since friday...it was a little rough for marcos, but the rest of the kids did pretty well.
it looks like becky will be continuing with school once i leave, which will be awesome. she's going to start shadowing me on monday...i'm excited that someone who wants to help the kids will be around when i leave.
today for snack we had pretzels, which people don't eat here. i haven't seen them in any store, ever. the kids were asking what they were, and i explained that they don't have a spanish name because no one really eats them, so i just called them crackers. marcos looks at them for awhile, and very profoundly says, they're hearts. of salt. salt hearts. hahaha he cracks me up!