The calm before the storm...

School is about to start on Tuesday, the 1st of September. Therefore, I wanted to get one more blog in before the chaos starts. We have had some interesting run-ins with animals while in Honduras. Cows wander the streets here like its nobody's business, and occasionally they wander into places they shouldn't be. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the cow who wandered into Destino, but I do have a picture of the ones that like to graze outside our gate. This one wasn't thrilled that I was taking its picture.



Next, we heard some commotion one afternoon during the teacher's training. A few boys had brought a burlap bag with something in it to the school that was causing all the women to scream. When I went to check it out, this is what I found:



Yes, it is a boa Constrictor, about six feet long. It was found eating the eggs in the Destino hen house. Don't ask me how they got it in that burlap bag. Here's a couple more shots of it.





There's nothing strange about these guys, but I wanted to put a picture of our doggies on here. Their names are Pebbles and Patches.



On a different note, we have been attending a bilingual church called Grace Life. In this picture, we only arrived 15 minutes early, and the pastor himself was just getting there. As you can see, we are the only ones accustomed to being early.



And one with the other American teachers:



Well, I think that's all for now. Hopefully I'll be able to show you pictures of some of my students next time. Love you all!

Getting Down to Business

On friday, Nathniel and I went to Destino to help them get some work done for the other American teachers flying in today (august 15th). They are renting a house in Siguatepeque, and they needed help moving a bunch of furniture from Destino to the teachers' house.

First of all, here are a couple of pictures of Nathaniel and I with some of the adorable kids at Destino.



This little boy's name is Sammy. Is is quite the clown of the house. Last time I was at Destino, he was a newborn baby, and I got to hold him. It was great to see him so much older.



more kids...



And now, some pictures of Nathaniel working hard.





Well, off to the grocery store. We start training on Monday, so there will be more to come soon!

Hola from Honduras!

Hola from Honduras! This is our first official Honduras post on the blog! Things are going pretty well here, and we are beginning to settle in a little bit. There have been a few bumps in the road, but they have all been minor. Its been really tough trying to communicate with the locals around here not knowing much of the language. As I am writing this, the gardener is here mowing the lawn (Isaias is his name). It was lots of fun trying to communicate with him when he showed up at the gate. Luckily, we think hes pretty trustworthy (you never know around here). Here are a couple of pictures of the house we are staying at.



this is a shot of the living room and kitchen as you walk in the front door. Notice Nathaniel being silly with his beloved banana pop.



And another one of Nathaniel with his giant banana pop.

Kittens

Well, now that I can FINALLY put pictures on my computer again, I'd like to show you a couple of pictures of the litter of kittens I rescued this summer. They were living under the foundation of a house down the street, and I would go over there to feed them a couple of times a day. They were very ferile (wild) and didn't trust me very much. You could tell the mother had been someone's pet at one time because she was friendly, but VERY protective of her kittens.

When I called the landlord of the house, he said that they were going to seal the foundation that day. So, I asked him if I could try to catch them so they wouldn't die. He had his construction employee bring out some live traps and we caught all but one (the most shy of the litter). Here is a picture of all the kittens in my bathtub. They were terrified!



So, for the next 3-5 weeks, I tamed the kittens one by one, and gave them away. It wasn't until about a week after catching these that we finally caught the last kitten. She was the most beautiful, but also the most terrified of them all. It was hard work socializing her. I didn't want to give her away to anyone because I knew she would be too scared, so I kept her until she was the only one left. By the end, she would sleep on my lap in the living room and BEG to be petted. It was such a fun and rewarding experience. Mindy ended up naming her Kalena, and I brought her to Virginia with the rest of my pets. Now she adores Mindy and is loving her new life.

This is one of the bravest kittens of the litter



another one of the more adventurous ones...I actually had to dig this one out of the foundation of the house after being stuck for 2 days. MY knuckles were bloody, but I felt good to have saved its life.



This one stole my heart quite a bit. She didn't like to be held much, but she loved to be petted, and was quite the talker. It was really hard to give her away.



I do have pictures of Kalena, but they aren't accessible right now. I'll have to put them on later.

In other news, Nathaniel and I are now living in Honduras! Today we are traveling to our temporary house in Siguatepeque. It should be exciting! I will post about that later, when I have more pictures.
We love you all!

Graduation!

Well, it finally happened! May 9th, 2009 I finally graduated from Ball State with my Bachelor's degree in Music Education. Yay! I can say, that although it took a while and was not without it's bumps in the road, I learned so much about myself and life, and I would not trade any of it for the world. It does feel really good to be "done" though. I say "done" because I only have my initial practitioner's license which expires in 2 years, I still have to take 5 credit hours every 5 years to keep my license current, and I have to renew my CPR certification every year. Whew! I guess education will always be a part of my life. Isnt that what being an educator is all about?

Here is a picture of me walking in during the full outdoor ceremony.



And here is me afterwards.



In other news, I currently have 6 kittens living in my bathroom. they are adorable, and as soon as I get the camera dock working again, I will post pictures of them. I have found homes for 2 of them, but I am still looking for homes for the rest (Any volunteers??).

Love you all!

Almost there!

Wow, what a crazy couple of months it has been! I am finishing up student teaching at West View. Only one more week! I can hardly wait for graduation on Saturday, May 9th. I just hope it doesn't rain, because it is an outdoor ceremony, and I would just be in heaven sitting outside with all the beautiful flowers, the sun shining, and finally accomplishing one of my dreams. For spring break, we visited mom and dad in california. Here are a few pictures from that lovely trip.

One of our first days there on Long Beach...


Me and Nathaniel at the top of a big hill where we had just visited a glass cathedral.


Nathaniel chillin on some rocks at low tide in a town that I can't remmeber the name of. Im fairly certain it started with "San" though. There were dolphins out in the water that day.


A bridge at the Botanical Gardens. This one was in the Japanese Gardens


And the beautiful Chinese Gardens...


The three of us in the gardens


After seeing an article on the news about the continuing California Gold Rush, we were inspired to go out panning for Gold. So, we went to a state park up in the mountains (the drive was BEAUTIFUL) and took our measley shovels and plastic lids. Needless to say, we didnt find so much as a flake, but it was still fun. Dad was the most determined. I got burned out pretty quickly, but he kept looking until the park was almost closed. It was still fun though


I'm sure you'll be seeing pictures of me in my cap and gown soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

Jasmine in the Springtime

I have some really cute pictures of Jasmine outside in the front yard, but before I show you those, I want to give you the results of my Native American Class that I was telling you about in the last post. The fire I built looked like this:



I put a couple of fake flickering flames in the fire. Here is what it looked like with the lights off:



The kids really liked it, they had a great time. Here are a couple pictures of them:





Now, on to Jasmine. I finally get to take her outside on a regular basis again now that the weather has warmed up. She loves it so much. Here she is sitting on top of Nathaniel's video game TV. She loves to sit there and stare out the window. She looks thrilled to have her picture taken, doesn't she?



Here she is looking ready to pounce on something.



my little princess...



I thought this picture turned out really cool.



I guess 72 degrees is a little too hot for a long haired black cat



More to come soon!