March = the month of visitors

That's right, almost the entire month of March will be full with visitors! I can hardly stand it!

On March 1st, he's coming.



Grandad! Along with Dave Ruff (who I don't have a picture of!) They will be working on a project at Chase and Julie's church. We're so excited to have them here!

Then on March 10th, she's coming!

Grandma! I'm so pumped she's coming. The last time she came was the birth of Beckett and I was a bit crazy then. She didn't get to see much of Nicaragua (besides the grocery store!), so we're going to have so much fun this time!

After them, these two are coming!


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Scott and Sarah Winn! They will be on mission trip in Honduras (and seeing Hannah Dakel!) and then they're going to swing by and see us! So fun to have Scott here! He plays such a huge part in giving us a desire for missions!

And finally they are coming!





Lesa and Arica! (Along with Melody, but I don't have a picture of her either) They will be doing a scouting trip to see if in the future, the women of Woodcreek could serve here. We love that they are coming! When David and I first made the decision to move and serve here, we really hoped and prayed that Woodcreek would come and serve here too! It's beyond cool to see that the Lord in His kindness answered our prayers! Chase and Julie, the 20's, the women of Woodcreek - we are blessed to have them come!

So yeah, our March will be rich in family and friends and church!

Canada, eh?

We don't have a TV here. It's not because there aren't TVs in Nicaragua, it's because I am a TV junkie. If we had a TV, I would watch it all the live long day. Seriously I would. It would be on ALL day and I would watch junk - like HGTV or some reality show about a bounty hunter. I'm ridiculous - no self control when it comes to TV. Ask my college roommates. They remember how I would sit 2 feet from the TV, eating my cereal - oblivious to the world around me.

So, we don't have one. Which is great by me! Now don't start feeling too bad for me. On Thursday nights we go to a friends and watch Survivor. Because we all know that a life without Survivor is life not worth living. So I do get to watch some TV.
However, when the olympics are going on, I really miss TV! The Olympics are great, I could watch any and everything. Curling? Yes, please! Snowboarding? Shoot, yeah! Don't even get me started on ice skating.

Since we don't watch, I have to go online and look at pictures. Which is not the same.


These are ice dancers. What is ice dancing? Is it like ice skating? Is it just a new word for ice skating? Ugh, I need a TV for like 2 weeks!


Why is this ice hockey guy so sad?? What happened? I need a TV!


Did this cool Japanese bobsled win? I don't know, because it's just a picture!!

Oh, Canada! What I wouldn't give for a TV for 2 or say 3 weeks of the year!

The Haircut

I'm just going to ignore the fact that I haven't been blogging well recently. It's not for lack of things to blog about, I just can't seem to get motivated. Hopefully, this will be fixed soon and I will be my normal bloggy happy self.

I've decided I love NCA. I know what you are thinking. "You should love it, you moved to Nicaragua, for crying out loud!" But there is a lot of adjustments with moving to a new country, with a new language, and new EVERYTHING. And if you know me, I'm not awesome with change. It takes me a while to get accustom to it. So, a year and half in, I can now say that I love NCA. I love the kids there. They are kind, they love Beckett, they want (a lot of them)to grow with the Lord. (Don't get me wrong, they aren't perfect, but they are great). I love the relationships that the students have with their teachers. Teachers aren't just teachers - they are friends, and mentors, and counselors. I love how we get to meet tons of other missionary families and see/be involved with their ministries. I love the Nicaraguan students and Korean students and Canadian students. So basically what I'm saying is it's a cool place that the Lord has blessed and I'm glad I can be apart of it!

With all that being said, I also love that the school does fun and creative things. For a while, NCA has been raising money for a Fine Arts Center. So periodically thru the year there are fundraisers. Just recently they had a unique one. There are two students at NCA with rather long hair. Technically, it's against the rules to have crazy hair, but some how these two slipped by.


Hernaldo and Cameron with their long and crazy hair!

Both boys had a jar with their names on it. Throughout the week, students and teachers would place money in the jar. At the end of the week, whoever had the most money had to get their head shaved. Both were a bit worried about this. Cameron LOVES his hair (and I really think its cool too) and Hernaldo, well, it took him a while to get it to the perfect fro.


Poor Hernaldo. Fro less.

My Top 10

There are many things that I like about living in Nicaragua. Obviously I miss family and friends a ton! But these are some things I love.

10. Avocodos are huge, like the size of my head. Not really, but they are quite large.

9. I love the smell of clean here. It's different than in the states.

8. I love that I learned how to drive a stick shift here. It took a while, but I think I've got it down. It's actually kind of fun!

7. People here say Adios (bye) as you are passing them on the street. I think it's funny! We say hi, and they say bye.

6. I love the tranquilo pace of life. No one's in a rush. Church says it starts at 8:30, but 8:45, 9:00 is fine. No hurry!

5. Women here (and a lot of guys) LOVE babies! So, we're a big hit wherever we go. I get to cut in line all the time because of cute Beckett!

4. The mornings and evenings are the perfect temperature (for us!) It's a nice 80 degrees with an awesome breeze!

3. I like that I can buy a pineapple for about 80 cents. I love that we eat pineapple all year round.

2. I think it's hilarious that David is called Mister at school. Only Mister. Not Mister Russell, just Mister. And there are about 6 other Mister's there. They don't just say "Mister", it sounds more like "Meeester!" Cracks me up every time.

1. I also love how Nicaraguans don't point with their finger, but with their lips. At first, I was pretty sure people were constantly making kissing faces at me. Until I learned. I've decided I'm going to point with my lips from now on. No more wasting time lifting up my hand and streching out my finger to point to something. Just a purse of the lips. So easy!

My list is not exhaustive. Just some of the things I love about Nicalandia!

My Baby is 9 months!

My sweet baby is 9 months! I can hardly believe it. I say that every month, and probably will for the rest of his life. It is amazing to me how much he can change is a short 9 months. He can crawl like a mad man. He can pull up on just about anything. He can "step up" on one step of the stairs. He can eat more solid food. What have I done in 9 months - not much! He went from a helpless babe to this super active baby! Crazy stuff, I tell you!

Things he enjoys...
-Exploring the ins and outs of our little house
-Playing with the Leap Frog magnets
-Smiling at any and every girl he sees
-Eating bananas, prunes, cheerios, and applesauce
-Putting EVERYTHING in his mouth, and I mean everything (leaves, old cheerios, fuzz, and I won't mention the dead fly David fished out of there today!)
-Trying to walk with mommy or daddy holding his hands

His stats...
-19 lbs
-takes about 2 naps a day (hopefully for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours)
-wakes up at 5ish (yeah, I know that's early)
-goes to bed at 6:30ish
-has 3 1/2 teeth (one's about half way there!)
-cutest baby ever!

He is still the joy of our world and we are so thankful for him!