I know, I know. .

it's been a long time. I love teaching middle school and high school English. I truly do. I love having two teenagers with very busy and active after school and weekend activities. I truly do. I love having two grade schoolers with books to read to Mom, after school soccer, and lots of spelling words. I truly do. And I love my husband--who is also very busy all week with church work and activities. I truly do. So, the long and short of it is, I have lots of people I love. And those people all have a lot of things to do. And so by the time I get done dropping off kids, picking up kids, cooking supper, throwing in some laundry, I realize I haven't even talked to Darrin. So we visit and catch up and then he goes to bed. I stay up finishing lesson plans, getting ideas, writing tests, etc. And then I get up at 5:30 and it starts all over again. And I love it all. Every minute. But those minutes are full. And so lots of things slide. I don't keep in real good touch with everyone via e-mail; I often forget to call and catch up with friends; I don't write in my blog for months on end. And I guess I'm ok with that. I wish I was a bit more organized. And I really try. But in the long run, not writing for three months is just another reminder of the busy phase of life I'm in. Darrin would say it should remind me that I am doing too much! :o) I just say I'm enjoying life to the full and in about four years when we only have two kids at home instead of four, I'll be wishing I had more kids to drop off and pick up!!!

So I am back today. I may write again tomorrow. Or it may be a couple weeks. Or a month. But that's ok. (School is out in two more weeks though, so here's crossing my fingers to writing a bit more over the summer!!)

Random thoughts:

I am SO excited to have a new little nephew. Christian John was born this week and I can't wait to get my hands on him for a little Aunt Chrissy lovin'. Until then, I am very thankful for the internet and digital cameras!!

Look at the adorable nursery Amy decorated:

The new family of three coming home from the hospital:


And the star of the show: sweet little Christian!

Austin turned 14 during my blog break and celebrated his birthday at the beach. Fun. So proud of him and the sweet young man he is.

I love this picture. It is right before Austin's birthday and his friend Aaron was getting ready to move. So I was trying to get a good picture of Eden (right), Austin, and Aaron who were all great friends. But it makes me laugh because Zachary and Serena were hiding behind the couch and popped up for the picture!! We are blessed that our kids all have such good friends here!!

Zach has had two big events this month. Oral surgery to remove all four wisdom teeth!! (Thank goodness for much cheaper dental and medical costs down here!!) And the big news, no more braces. Finally!! He is so happy to have his real smile back again!! (see banquet pic below!)

We had a big end of the year school banquet this year. The boys looked so handsome. Even we teachers seemed to clean up pretty good!!!

Zach with Coleen.

Austin with Kenna:

The chaperones! Mrs. Sanders (history); Miss Cullum (science); Mrs. Reilly (English, library, and a zillion administrative duties) and yours truly (English).

We had our first ladies retreat at the new church we work with. It was so great to have a day away together!

Well, lots more have happened the past few months. But we'll start with this. That way I have more to write another day!!!

17 years

17 years: no small feat in this day and age. I am grateful! Here is a picture we took last weekend before heading out to eat. It is a very rare occasion that we go out to eat together. Valentine's Day and our anniversary are really the only times. We both have busy work schedules, all the kids have activities, we have church activities and to be honest if there ever is a rare free evening we just want to hang out at the house and go to bed early. We must be getting old! But on special nights like this, I confess, it is fun for the girly girl in me to get dressed up and spend an evening out. And it is super nice not to have to do the dishes! :o) Maybe we'll have to sneak in another date before Valentine's Day next year!!

Ahhhh, the beach

I have to admit. I love the beach. I had never even seen the ocean until I was in college. My first experience was on a small little abanonded stretch of beach in Nicaragua during a college mission trip. Since we weren't locals, we didn't know it was a dangerous area with a strong rip tide. Two men almost drowned and I was one of the girls who was pulled out. To this day I am thankful that our missionary guide was a strong swimmer and came out to get me. You'd think after such an experince that I would hate the ocean. But no, I just love it. I have a strong respect for the danger it poses. . .but there is just nothing as relaxing as lying on the beach. The warm sand, the hot sun, the gentle lulling sound of the water as it comes and goes with each wave, the smell of suntan lotion, the taste of the saltwater on your skin. Ooooh, need I go on. For our family, it is the ideal get-a-way from the crazy busy life in a city of 2 million people. And luckily for us, we had a three day weekend last weekend and made our first return to the beach since we left last June. It was wonderful!!


Long stretches of sand, tall overhanging palm trees, only a few people, ahhh perfect!
Even better than a trip to the beach is a trip to the beach with your best friend. Lucky for us the Twitchell family joined us on the trip, here is Chloe with her BFF Eliza!!

I love this picture of C & E looking at the water with the tall palm tree shadow!

Heading out for a morning of snorkeling!!

One of the cutest sights of the weekend were Wyatt's little toes poking out of his mini-sized flippers!!

And there is the cute little snorkler himself!!

Only thing better than the beach in the morning is the beach at sunset. Bestill my heart!

The gang!!! Twitchell girls and the King kids!

Austin working the sunset for a new profile pic!

Zach full of funny poses!

Elaine and I wanted to get a quick picture together to help us remember the trip!!

DP and I. :o)

Back in the saddle

Well, we returned to Costa Rica on Dec. 29th and I have completely ignored this blog since then. Getting ready to leave the US was a crazy mad-dash of Christmas, packing up seven months of life, sad tearful good-byes, and the stomach flu. So it is easy to see why I didn't post at all at the end of December!! But then we got home to our wonderful little house-- which had been left alone for the entire six month rainy season. And although it was all safe and sound-- everything in sight was musty and moldy. So several days of leaving every window wide open, lots of washing and lysol--- throw in New Year's Eve parties and lesson plans (school started for me just one week after arriving home) and you can see why I didn't write much in early January! :o)

However, from mid-January till now, I've just been lazy. I've been getting back in the groove of life-- getting back into the sync of teaching and writing lesson plans-- adjusting to new schedules (all the kids are playing soccer this year) and just living life. Good times. Fun kids. Life is good.

But I realize my sweet family and friends stateside don't know that life is good and all is well because I have not posted a single pic or written a single line in so long. So here we go again!! I'm working on a new blog header and I'm getting the camera out and about again. I'll try to keep my Mom and sister back in the loop again!! And the rest of you can reap the benefits as well!! Pura Vida!!

After living through a couple months of cold Illinois winter, it was so nice to see this outside my bedroom window again every morning!!


Zach got right back into the swing of things at church playing drums on Sunday mornings.


Wyatt stepped right back into 'Spanish' mode for Sunday school (which he is happy about even if this picture makes it appear otherwise!!)


It was fun to be back with our dear friends in time to celebrate Zachary's 15th birthday!!! (which does not seem possible!!)




And it was good to celebrate Dia Del Amor y La Amistad!! (Love and Friendship day-- which is what they often call Valentine's Day here!)

Here is Zach celebrating the 'friendship' part of the holiday! :o)


And Darrin and I celebrating the 'love' side of the day!! (I got flowers too, they just aren't in this picture!!)


So you can see that we are alive and well. And I feel ready to tackle my online diary here again. Soon to come-- first trip back to the beach pics!! :o)

Four days till Christmas

Here is a sweet picture of Chloe with Daddy. She was all dressed up today in her new Christmas dress and I thought she looked just beautiful. So did Daddy and he asked for a picture with her. Then we took one with the whole family and then the kids and Grandma and Grandpa. And then one with Mommy and her girl.

5 days before Christmas

And the King family celebrated. All the King cousins in one house and each with a homemade personalized stocking handmade by Grandma and filled with goodies. Good times. Love it.

6 Days till Christmas

And the two little ones are spending the day on Grandma King's couch huddled under some homemade afghans and sick with the stomach flu. So much for a big happy Christmas weekend. Oh well, at least it didn't hit in the car yesterday (while Daddy was changing the flat!!).

7 days till Christmas

And we spent the day in the car. On the way to the King side of the family in Kansas. And we were making good time getting out of Illinois before the nasty frozen rain was to hit when a car came alongside of ours and started honking. And pointing to our back tire. And I looked in the mirror and saw it was totally flat!! (how could we not feel it??) So in the below freezing temps, my sweet hubby gets on his knees on the wet snow covered shoulder and changed the tire. He's my hero. He also kept his cool as we waited 2 hours for the next Wal-Mart we came upon to put a new tire on (you can't drive all day on the little spare!!). 2 hour wait for a 10 minute service is hard to swallow when you have a day's driving ahead of you and freezing rain you're trying to stay ahead of. Did I mention he's my hero?

I didn't get a photo of the tire-changing event because it wasn't appropriate at the time. But I sure wish I had it now. I was busy praying that the big semis that sped by and rocked the car would not rock it off of the jack; and I was praying Darrin wouldn't have to get under the car to pry the spare loose; and I was praying we would all get out alive and safe. So pictures weren't at the top of my list!!

8 days until Christmas

My kids made the cutest little gingerbread house with Grandma. What fun!! Everyone got involved and I say it was a job well done!!

9 days till Christmas

And I love seeing the stockings hung by the fireplace!!

10 days before Christmas

And I came home from my weekend away to find my car frozen over and no ice scraper inside. What can I say, we never use them in Costa Rica!! :o)

So I waited, and waited, and waited and after 45 minutes, the defroster had done enough of its work I could see to go!!

See look, it's starting to melt already. And I'm still smiling!!

11 days before Christmas

And I think my Christmas cards are actually ready to go!! Didn't think to take a picture of my envelope stuffing assembly line-- but here's the photo we used!!

12 days till Christmas

And I'm having a girls night out!! Yay for good friends!

December

PHOTO A DAY FOR DECEMBER 2008!!

Dec. 1 SNOW!!!! My Central American kiddos were SOOO excited to see big fat fluffy flakes falling from the sky and coating everything in a layer of white!!

Dec. 2 Christmas Dress! Chloe went shopping with Mommy (and Grandma) and picked out the prettiest blue shiny dress to wear over the holidays!!

Dec. 3 Tree!! We are living in a borrowed house and weren't sure how or if we would get a tree. But lo and behold the house we are in used to be a business and they still had a tree stored in the attic with ornaments and lights that we were able to use!! Yay!

To be continued. . . . .