Claire has a nasty little cold -

please remember to pray for her.

A good day to be Olivia

After Olivia's performance in the theatre this weekend she said "Mom, I felt like an astronaut!". "An astronaut?" I replied..."don't you mean a movie star?". "No Mom, I mean an astronaut the way I walked down those stairs and everybody was cheering for me."

Note: To much Apollo 13 in the Hobson House!

Just to prove....

Just to prove that I do occasionally get out of my flip-flops and put some make-up on....!









Did I mention that we have TICKETS TO FLY?????? Yep, December 12....yea baby~!

Olivia had her first night (1 of 3!) of performance last night and she was outstanding.....no really, she was.....not just the Mom in me talking!!! She was beautiful, graceful and absolutely fabulous and completely confident on the stage!! We had front row seats in this huge historic theater in downtown San Jose. It was a great night for our family. I will share some photos but sorry none are of the performance because they don't allow pictures.

Warning ...entering a proud Mom zone!!!

Olivia has her big ballet presentation this weekend....EVERY DAY THIS WEEKEND...we have 3 performances. This is a picture of her ballet class. So sweet! Can you tell we are a SO proud of our Olivia??? Can you pick her out? Yep, she is the vanilla scoop on the end!













Claire, well she if fine...now! Claire decided to go head first into a concrete wall last Friday and for several days now she has looked like she went 12 rounds with Ali but thankfully now, the bruising under her eyes is fading and her head looks better. That's our Claire....we love her!

Quote of the Week

"Never pity missionaries; envy them. They are where the real action is -- where life and death, sin and grace, Heaven and Hell converge." -- Robert C. Shannon, Christian Standard

N.....this is for you!

Hey girl.....this is for you....and anyone else who happens to need it today!
This is dated in my Bible "December 2007" because I had so much trouble resting (and sometimes still do:)...see my post a few days ago!

Psalm 4:8
"I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

We will pray for you...all of you.

Love ya!

Open House

Olivia's class had "open house" on Friday so we were able to go in (side note....you KNOW I had already been in that classroom......hello helicopter mom!). She is enjoying first grade...I can't even type it without tearing up....but she finds it challenging and her favorite class is SPANISH.

She was actually asked by the Spanish teacher to translate what another little girl in the class was trying to say......we'll you know what they say....."the apple doesn't fall far from the tree".

Big sigh....oh how I wish that was true concerning Spanish!

Independence Day in Costa Rica

Today is the day that Costa Rica celebrates their Independence from Spain. One funny note, every week I have to interview 5 people/5 questions each for my conversation class. One of my questions last week was who did Costa Rica win independence from......one young lady (Costa Rica, of course) answered the United States. I was floored.....all of the cultural sensitivity left me at that moment and I said "WHAT? THE UNITED STATES?"

So the little ones at school had a parade which is part of the celebration every year. They parade in the streets and beat drums. I am posting a video piece of Claire in the parade, you will notice she is way more concerned with her look than her march timing!

More thank you's!

Wow....God's timing is perfect!

Ok, yesterday was a little scary.......the guy that delivers my water every Tuesday was robbed at GUNPOINT ...HELLO!!!.....at 2:45pm in the afternoon right in front of my house!!! Yea, not fun! The scariest part was that Mark and Olivia were walking up on the sidewalk coming home from school. Thank the Lord, they were about 5 minutes late and just missed the robbers running away. So, the Lord always knows when you need a little "pick me up" or in our case chocolate and Velveeta! So today we received 4 boxes full of stuff from friends in the States...totally unexpected but desperately appreciated.

Thanks so much Burgess family and Bird family.....it means the world to know you thought about my kidos (and us too)!

Good times!

Our family had a great time visiting the volcano "Arenal". Yes, it is very active and has explosions about every 5 minutes. For some strange reason, Mark felt like that was a great place for his mother-in-law to go for relaxation. He kept urging her to get closer for a better picture! Seriously, we had a great time and saw some fantastic activity and lava flow.