My favorite picture of Will and Anna together. This was taken while we were waiting in line to "spin the wheel" at an Atlanta Thrashers game.

The kids also got tickets to an NHL game-Atlanta played New Jersey. I went to my first NBA game on a Friday and my first NHL game the next day in the same place-Philips Arena. While we were at the hockey game, they have one of those things where you can spin a wheel to win prizes. Most of the time there aren't that many good prizes, but this time I won 2 free tickets to another hockey game! So, the day after Christmas, Dad and I went to Atlanta 4-5 hours before the game started to make sure there would be tickets available. We were able to get the $55 seats, but still had to kill time in cold, windy downtown Atlanta before we could get in. That was one time I was definitely missing the Caribbean! I did enjoy the cold most of the time I was home, though.

Our seats for the Thrashers game were higher up than for the Hawks game, but still good.

All of us kids (minus Ruth) in front of the CNN Center Christmas tree after the basketball game.

My brothers and sisters did some sort of reading contest, and got free tickets to an Atlanta Hawks game. The Hawks played the Pacers, and lost. I don't remember the score, but I really enjoyed the game!



Half time practice at the Hawks game.

Delaney cheering on the Hawks, even though they were losing.

Anna and I at the Hawks game enjoying the hats they handed out at the door-this was the Friday before Christmas.

Missions Conference

Tonight is the last night of missions conference. I'm exhausted, but it has been good.
School has been very busy this semester-hence the reason this is my first and only post of January! Soccer started yesterday, so I'm sure it will only get busier. Hopefully sometime soon (maybe after the weekend) I'll be able to post some pictures from Christmas break-I got a new camera, so I had a lot of fun with it, especially going to an NBA game, 2 NHL games, and then spending a week at the Wilds.

Field day pictures

I know, these were promised last March. Sorry, I had computer glitches. So, here they are now.
Several of this year's 5th graders, with a few others thrown in. Starting with second from the left, Sergio, Deborah, Ariana, and Cristal. (guess which one's not a fifth grader, and tell me what grade you think they're in)




Jancarlo, a 6th grader, doing the long jump.




6th graders, from left to right: Natalia, Johanys, Paola, Zuania.
The middle two are not at CBCS this year.

Several of the 6th grade boys.


More 6th grade girls. From left to right- Rosalin, Darlene, Johanys, Natalia and Raquel, with Ruth Anne in the background


Lower elementary blue team tug of war.


This year's freshmen. From left to right: Cristina, Jadys and Nildaly


Karina, a 5th grader, gets ready for sack races.

More pictures

My pastor and his wife.


Me with a family friend from Texas. Looking at the dress (and the ice cream cup) this must have been before someone bumped into me as I was spooning ice cream into my mouth.



My 16 yr old sister (in the blue dress)

More pics

This is all of us-the last time all of us were together before the wedding.



My sister and brother in law show their true personalities. =)

Pictures, finally

Here goes an attempt to finally post some pictures, since I am at home and can use dad's computer.
These will be a very random assortment going all the way back to last March!

Finally a decent picture of an iguana. This one was taken in the Atlanta Zoo, but is very typical of what I see, although the ones I see in PR seem to be a little more green. Fascinating animals!

Wedding party plus ushers at my sister's wedding this summer.

Speling

(the title's for you, Dawn)
Spelling was always something interesting for me in school, and I find it even more so now that I am teaching in an ESL school. I'd like to share with you the text of a birthday card I received from Ezequiel:

Dear Miss Nething,
I hope that have a good day in your work and have a happy Bierthday and what shout for the revench of Miss Griffin. Piece.

I enjoyed immensely the reading of that card. He is speaking of the 79 water cups trick that I wrote about in my last post. After the cups, with a little help, of course, found their way back to the offender's (Ezequiel's teacher) desk she informed me that this meant war, to which I said, "That's ok, my room has a lock and yours doesn't!" =)
The fifth grade class was greatly entertained by all the proceedings of the day.

My birthday

Well, so far today I've been serenaded at least 3 times, and found 79 cups of water arranged in a grid spaced about 2 inches apart on the floor in my office, making it impossible to get very far past the door. Wish my digital camera was working so I could post pictures. Oh well, when I get my film developed, we'll see how those came out.

A couple of student quotes:

During chapel, Mr Daniels asked the kids if anyone knew what a veteran is. A third grader raised his hand and said "A veteran is someone who doesn't eat meat!"

Yesterday we were singing a Christmas carol from the Huron indians in Canada. We discussed how they talked about hunters instead of the usual shepherds because they were hunters and trappers and had no word for shepherd in their language. We began discussing what it meant that they were hunters, and Christopher raised his hand to say, "Teacher, they must be carnivals!" I told him he probably meant carnivores, and he said, "Yeah, carnivores. Teacher, what's a carnivore?"

Well, life has been crazy recently, but around here I guess it always is. Since I last wrote, much has happened. We had the FBF Carribean Conference, which was really a blessing. This year I was half responsible for the special music schedule. That meant choir numbers, offertories and special music for 9 services within a week. It was quite an experience. I enjoyed meeting new friends and seeing old ones again, including a member of my mission team to Spain in 2002. That week I also received a package that made me smile-now I have a new shirt.
The weekend before conference started, we had a birthday party for Andy, and the weekend after conference we had a surprise birthday party for Carolina. At Carolina's party, we had over 50 people in the home where we had the party. I was in charge of games, and that turned out to be a lot of fun.

Love is in the air!

In Mrs. Encarnacion's first graders' air, to be precise. I don't know why these incidents seem to be restricted to her class, but I have not noticed it in either of the other 2 classes. First grade PE is the highlight of my Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I wish everyone could get to know the special little people that I have the privilege to teach. These kids provide most of my funny sayings by students. A few weeks ago, I was lining the kids up in a certain order to play a game, and I told Juan to go stand between Alexandria and Nathalie. His answer was, "Between Alexandria and Nathalie??? Por fin! (translation-finally!)" I hear from his teacher that it is not a good idea to put him near those two again. She tells me this is not an isolated experience. On Wednesday, we were headed inside from PE, and Carolina raised her hand to tell me, "Teacher, Johnmarco said he loves me!" It was not a complaint, or something that bothered her, she just wanted me to know. Apparently they have to be separated in class because they have been blowing kisses, and touching each other often. And finally, this morning in early arrival, Juan (yes, the same one) raised his hand and said, "Teacher, Nayari is doing to me like this," as he went through the motions of blowing kisses. This one I think was pretty one sided because he did not seem very happy about it.

Vacation?

Last weekend we supposedly had a day of vacation, but I am very much looking forward to this weekend so I can recover from last weekend. On Saturday, we had Fall Fest (a school fundraiser), which meant booths, activities and food for 650+ kids and their parents. The entire week before was spent planning and setting up for this. Quite a busy day, but enjoyable. I was in charge of the art activity, as well as in charge of the art contest. I was rather discouraged when I arrived Saturday morning when half the art projects I had posted the night before were on the floor. Thankfully Priscilla, Valentina and Philip were there and helped me finish putting them up. I would not have finished without their help. The art activity was pretty messy, but then some of the best art projects are the messiest. For 2 tickets, the kids got a piece of paper, and they could either paint with the provided paints and brushes, or use birdseed and glue to make a picture.

On Monday, we had a college and career activity. Janice volunteered me to help her plan it, and we had a great time all around, but we have said that never again will we volunteer to plan something for the Monday after fall fest-too much to do! We split the college kids into 2 teams for a photo scavenger hunt. Each team had a list of pictures that they had to take, including things such as:

□ Everyone waving at a parking lot security guard
□ Guys on the team in front of a gas station selling gas for $0.56
□ Meet someone with the same name as a team member and take a picture of the two of them
□ Picture of group serenading a stranger with a Christmas carol
□ The Driver shaking hands with a McDonald’s manager
□ The reflection of your team in a mirror. (Just the reflection not the actual people.)
□ Your team looking over the edge of a parking garage wall. Picture must be taken from the ground. Team must be on second level or higher

(if you would like a more thorough list, leave a comment with contact info and I can email you the list)
Janice and I had great fun making up the list of pictures. For the bonus, they had to solve a series of riddles to figure out the final word (Spain) which they had to spell by forming the letters with the bodies of team members on the lawn of the fort. Since we planned the whole thing, we were the photographers, and we were not allowed to help our team at all. Half the fun was listening to them try to figure things out. The whole thing was a great success, and we've been told that we're planning the next one too. Maybe someday in all my extra time, I'll post some of the pictures we took.

Wednesday night I was especially thankful for God's protection. It was raining so hard as I went home that I could hardly see, and I missed my exit. Since the only way back home from where I was passed through a street that always floods pretty badly when it rains, I stopped at Burger King until the rain let up enough for me to make it home. I love storms, especially ones with lots of lightning, but it was unnerving to be by myself at night and not able to see the road because of the rain. But God kept me safe, and I made it home.

Hopefully this weekend will be uneventful. There is a ladies fellowship tonight, but after that, I plan on lots of sleep this weekend.

Busy weekend

Nothing much different has happened lately, although I have given an excessive amount of demerits in the past 2 days. Oh well, I think the point got across-I spent a good hour between yesterday and today dealing with 2 boys, and thankfully they realize the problem with what they did and are truly sorry, not just because of the demerits they received.
This weekend promises to be interesting. The plan, at least for right now, consists of going home, and going to bed early to recover some sleep. Tomorrow morning I'm going to a College/high school activity to play volleyball and help out because one of the youth sponsors is out of town. I'm looking forward to the chance to slam a few volleyballs over the net. Perfect stress reliever! I know I'll be sore later, though, because it's been too long since I've played much. I did play some I think it was 2 weeks ago when the highschool was playing volleyball in PE and I was able to join them. After the volleyball thing, the plan is to go to El Morro with Jonathan and Heather, and Janice. I've been before, but none of them have.
By the way, I welcome comments from anyone who reads this-if you don' t know how to comment, click on the link that says 0 comments (or 1 or 2 , etc) and there will be a place for you to add yours.

Killer Ceiling Fans!

Mom was right when she warned about getting near the fan. Not that I usually ignore my mom, but I always did wonder how bad a wooden fan blade could hurt-after all, it's not metal, not sharp. How bad could it be? Last night I found out. The wires to my new ceiling fan (it plugs into a wall outlet) are covered in this plastic wire covering stuff which is stuck to my concrete ceiling with double sided tape, and last night the wires began to fall. Smart intelligent me decides to try to stick the wires back without turning off the fan. I know, sounds stupid, but it is awfully hot in my room-if it's only 92 in there, that's a good day, so I didn't really want to turn the fan off. Well, now, the fan is off, and the wires are hanging down from the ceiling instead of running over to the wall and hanging there. Hopefully I'll be able to fix that tonight after getting some more double sided tape.


There's lots of things to write about lately, and I don't know when the next time is that I'll get to sit down here, so I'll throw it all out there today. Last week was adventurous, to say the least. I am now driving my car, I'm pretty used to the clutch and all that, but I am still getting used to the Puerto Rican drivers. I love the puertorican people, but you have to drive like an idiot here to survive-and yes, I include myself in that statement. Some of the things they will do are unbelievable. The Lord has really protected me here. I guess the thing to see will be how I drive when I go home this Christmas. It could be pretty interesting. I'll probably have to plaster all over my dashboard: "This is not Puerto Rico. This is not Puerto Rico." I'll have to remember that in the US stop signs mean something, that if a policeman has his lights on he wants to pull you over, that you can only turn from a turn lane, not all available lanes of traffic, and that the lane markings mean that's how many lanes there are-you can't just make a lane if there's room.


Another part of life in Puerto Rico: Thursday we had school off because we had no water. Not a good thing when you have 650 children who always need to go to the bathroom, get a drink, etc. It seems that a large pump for our area broke, and the water company did not notify anyone. So by the time we learned there was a problem, all 3 of our reserve tanks (this happens a lot) were empty. Now if we had known, we could have saved water and survived on the 3 tanks, but we didn't know until the tanks were empty. So, we got a day off of school. Teachers didn't find out til we got here, so we worked til noon and then went home.


Disturbing thing number 1: Thursday night I decided to listen to a sermon by Jim VanGelderen that my dad had given me to put on my computer. I was rather disturbed when I fould he talked so fast I could not understand him. I guess my brain is conditioned to the rhythm of Spanish. I had never had trouble understanding him the many times I've heard him before, but I was really struggling.


Disturbing thing number 2: Friday night a couple of other teachers and I went to the beach about an hour away to watch the sunset and take pictures. We got to watch the sunset, but it was really too dark to take pictures. We spent an hour or so there just listening to the waves, and all 3 of us on the phone with different people. (it's kinda fun to call and say "Guess where I am" or "Can you hear the water?") When we were ready to leave, we decided to get some pinchos to eat. I had not had pinchos in a long time, and I really wanted some. A pincho is basically pieces of chicken on a stick that has been grilled and slathered in barbecue sauce-good stuff! Anyway, one of the teachers with us knew of this place about 10 minutes away where the pinchos were really good, and the owners were people she had met at her previous church. As soon as we got to the roadside stand and walked up, a man sitting there greeted this teacher, and so did the couple with him. They all began to talk, and we found out that the couple were missionaries assisting missionaries to the military all over the world, and they were headed to Germany the next day. They mentioned the name of one of the missionaries, and it sounded familiar to me, so I asked what his wife's name was. Turns out that this was my first grade teacher and her husband that these people were talking about. By default, they also knew 2 of my piano teachers from elementary school who happen to be related to my first grade teacher. I ended up in a roadside stand in Puerto Rico meeting missionaries headed to Germany to visit my first grade teacher from Texas. Weird!! We did enjoy some good fellowship with these people.


This weekend on our outing to Old San Juan we began planning our College and Career activity for Columbus day (which we get off of school). It should be interesting-a photo scavenger hunt through San Juan. I'm looking forward to it-of course, I know several of the things they'll have to find, so it should be fun.


I was so thankful during choir on Sunday that one of the new teachers is a pianist. We began the final runthrough for the Sunday night choir song, and I realized I had never played the accompaniment before, and it was crazy. We had spent all our time before with me playing parts along with the choir, so I was really scared when I found out we were singing it that night, and I couldn't play it well at all. Thankfully Janice had played it before, so we made a switch-she played, and I sang alto. I would have gotten it with practice, but Sunday afternoon choir practice is too late to practice the accompaniment!


Yesterday I was thankful for Javier, the mechanic up the street. I was dropping off a teacher whose car had been in the shop, and as I was sitting there, he noticed my tire was very low on air. He told me to pull over, and he filled it and didn't charge me anything. I am finding steering so much easier now-I don't have power steering, and it was becoming a challenge.


Now for students: Waldemar is a sweet child who loves all kinds of reptiles, and plans to build his career around them. I think it was mentioned once in a newsletter interview that I like lizards and such, so ever since then every time he sees me he tells me or shows me something. now that he's in my class once a week, I hear from him more often. Like the time he came to me before class, and said, "Teacher, my snake has the same birthday as me!" On a sadder note, his book report book is by Steve and Terri Irwin-as I walked past, he showed it to me, and said, "He was my inspiration!" I don't know that I've ever seen a sadder face on a child. Finally, last week he showed me a snake magazine he has, and after school he brought by the subscription card so I could sign up for it too. I appreciate the thought, but I don't think $40 for a reptile magazine (while it would be interesting) would be the best investment of my money. Oh well.


Often my first graders will giggle when I speak Spanish to them. I only do this on the occasion that my English is not getting their attention, or when one of the children who is new to English needs to understand very clearly what we are doing. They tell me that my Spanish is not bad, it's just funny. Apparently even if their teacher has Spanish as their first language the kids laugh when the teacher speaks Spanish. I guess after the intense work in kindergarten to teach them English, they expect that all teachers speak English only. One day in piano, Nicole was giggling at me again, so I asked her if my Spanish was funny. She said, "No teacher, it's that you moved your nose!"


And finally, on Thursdays and Fridays, I watch K4, K5 and 1st grade from 7:00 to 7:30 in the lunchroom until their teachers come to pick them up. For the kindergarteners, this is the only time I see them. Last Thursday morning, Alejandra in K5 walked in and gave me a hug. She used to come in crying every morning, but has graduated to a very serious face-in fact I've never seen her smile. After she hugged me, she stepped back, and with a very solemn faced told me, "Te quiero mucho!" (I love you a lot!)

Iguanas

Well, it's been over a month since I've written anything. Life has been crazy, and the internet has been down. Things are going well, though. My Spanish is improving, I think, though Amy says it getting worse. She laughs at my Puertorican accent. =) I am really enjoying PE. They provide me with many amusing moments. One day we were walking across campus to the basketball court, and Shania had her hand in the air the whole time. I kept telling her that I was not answering questions while we were in line and on our way somewhere. Finally when her part of the line walked past me, she leaned over, hugged, me, and said, "I love you, teacher." That's why she was raising her hand and I kept telling her to put it down. As we continued walking that same day, several of the children suddenly started saying "Mira, teacher!" ("Look, teacher!") "Iguanas!" When I looked, about 20 feet away were 2 large iguanas heading our direction. They were probably the largest ones I had seen since I've been here, and my guess is that they were a bit longer than a first grader is tall, and therefore fairly scary to the kids. I crossed the sidewalk to the other side of the line putting myself between the iguanas and my children, though I don't really know what I would have done had the iguanas come running. It did seem to calm the kids some, though. I just told them to wave hello to the iguanas and keep walking. I heard a chorus of "Hello, Mr. iguana!", then they kept walking and made it safely to the basketball court. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me. I think iguanas are fascinating, and would love to have one. Another day during PE, I asked if anyone had questions about the game we were playing, and one boy raised his hand to say, "Teacher, when I was born, I was very sick and had to stay in the hospital for a very long time." Not sure where that one came from, but I just kept going. later that same day, the same child raised his hand in the middle of something else to tell me that he had a new baby cousin.
Monday on the way back from PE, they were instructed several times to stay on the sidewalk-cars are coming into the parking lot getting ready for dismissal, so it's really a safety issue as well as one to keep their lines straight. Two or three of them stepped off onto the pavement, and when I looked at the end of the line, I saw Rochellie step off into the grass and stand there for a couple of seconds, probably to see if I would notice. Of course when she saw me looking, she immediately stepped back onto the side walk. This was a particularly frustrating PE day for me, because they were not listening at all. So, when I headed back to the court to pick up my equipment, and found the high school boys playing volleyball for PE, I joined them and slammed a few balls over the net since I had a free half hour and I was already in my PE clothes. What a great stress reliever! Of course since I haven't been playing volleyball for a while, I'm feeling it now, but it was great fun.
Another thing I had not thought of in relation to PE is shoelaces. They are supposed to know how to tie their shoes from kindergarten, but invariably at the beginning of class I will have anywhere from 5-10 with their shoes untied. I used to tie them myself, but have lately been having the ones who do tie shoes helping their classmates. Takes a lot less time.

This year's visitation has been interesting so far. I don't know if I've explained it here before, but our church's visitation program is basically to schedule visits in the home of each child in the school since the majority of them come from non Christian homes. The way things are set up here with gated communities does not make it very practical or even possible sometimes for a door to door type thing. The teacher will go into the home, talk about how the child is doing in school, ask if the parent has any questions, and then explain that this is also a visit from the church, and try to share the gospel. We have seen many of the parents saved, and several families brought into the church. The second visit I was scheduled for was an hour to an hour and a half away, I was supposed to be translating, and I was sick. Mom was praying and so were some others that I would be able to think and help communicate. Thankfully I was able to breathe the whole time, and the father wanted to practice his English, but we did speak Spanish a lot. The visit went fairly well, we found out that the parents were Christians and that they frequently take missions trips. This week, we set out on a visit that was supposed to be very close, but we could not find the place that was written down on the information card. After about 20 minutes of searching, and 2 or 3 phone calls, we finally figured out that the address on the card was the child's grandmother, and the place we had been given directions to was the child's house. When we got there, we found out that the family was another Christian family, but this time I had to do more translating. The mother understood a lot of English, but did not speak much. I'm really enjoying these opportunities to use the Spanish I know. Some day I will be fluent, at least I'm working on that.

And finally, the funny translation for the week: one of the new college students trying to learn English translated this line "una mama, un papa, y muchos hermanos" into "A mother, a potato, and many siblings." The line should have been translated into "a mother, a father and many siblings," but an accent was missed, resulting in the potato mistake. I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard.

First grade PE

Well, I'm now a pe teacher! I had the first day of first grade pe today, and it was interesting. I know next week will be better because I'll actually get there on time, and hopefully it won't be raining. The scheduling problem I have is that I'm teaching 6th grade music until 1:50 and 1st grade pe starts at 1:45. Today we had the 1st grade wait with their teacher, but starting next week, Mr. Ruiz will stay with 6th grade and I will leave a little early to get 1st grade. Hopefully that will fix things. My schedule this year has been so crazy, but I guess I'll never be bored.


I know there's tons of things I keep wanting to write about, but when I can get to the computer I can never remember them. So instead, here's a list of things I'm thankful for right now

1. God's sovereignty
2. This beautiful island
3. The incredible Puerto Rican people
4. The opportunities I have had to learn and practice Spanish
5. The clear and unmistakable way the Lord has led in my life
6. Good friends...God has given me so many
7. My car!
8. My phone (even though the battery has problems)
9. My second year of teaching-what a huge difference to already know people and procedures. I am loving my job more and more.
10. PE-I get to run around and play with first graders (all of their teachers have asked me to be sure to make them very tired)
11. Computers and the internet
12. Many lessons the Lord taught me this summer
13. My dad's health
14. My little brother who wrote me a letter saying, "I miss you so much, I love you."
15. My brother who's going to college next week
16. My sister whose volleyball games I'm missing =(
17. My brother who is a sports nut (wait, isn't that all of them? but I think this one is crazier than the rest)
18. My brother who just started Jr High
19. My sister who is a great artist, and really hilarious if you listen long enough and see her when she doesn't know you're watching
20. My little sister with such a tender heart she cried watching Ronald Reagan's funeral (she was 4), cried the whole way through another sister's wedding ceremony, and went to see Dad one morning at school crying because she was worried about him (he just had surgery to remove a skin cancer)
21. My little sister who is the youngest of 10 with tons of energy and an adorable smile
22. My sister who just got married-we can have entire paragraphs of conversation in our heads while only saying individual words (it was so fun to confuse her boyfriend before they got married)
23. My mom who's really funny and smart

A new year

This will be a quick one. I taught my first class of the year today. This year's 5th grade class has such a different spirit from last years class. I think I'm really going to enjoy them. This morning I helped get children out of cars and enjoyed watching the traffic jam (I say enjoyed because I wasn't involved in the traffic) that the parents of the students created. I'm still amazed at how "easily" we get 600 students into the school in the mornings. The rest of today will be taken up trying to figure out my schedule. So far I have 35 piano students signed up, am in the classroom 7 hours a week, chapel 3 hours a week, with a possible 3 hours of PE, but we'll have to wait and see on the PE. I'm wondering how many different versions of the schedule I'll have to make before it finally works. That's all I have time for right now. Sometime soon I have to post pictures of my "new to me" car so my mom can see what it looks like.

I'm still alive

I'm back in Puerto Rico in my apartment without internet access. I've been spending time making a blanket for my sister, tinkering around on my computer, watching various ballgames (Braves, World Cup, and ladies volleyball PanAmerican cup), reading and talking on the phone. I have internet access right now because tonight I am spending the night with a family from church so that Mrs. Santiago will not have to wake her children up to take them to the airport with her when she picks up some friends at 2 AM. She was kind enough to give me a driving lesson today. I do know how to drive, but not a manual transmission. Since the car I was given is manual transmission, Mrs. Santiago has been helping me learn to drive it. It has been an adventure! Hopefully an adventure that will be over soon. I am very thankful to have the car, and I will be even more thankful when I learn to drive it so I am not stuck at home. Even though there are a lot of people gone this summer, I have really been enjoying being back here and getting to know these people a little better than is possible during the school year. Have I mentioned that I love it here? God has been so good to me in placing me in a place that, while it is not perfect (nowhere is), is a wonderful fit for me. The people are great too. =)

Wedding pictures

Two of my little sisters-two of the 3 flower girls.

I'll post more pictures later-I wasn't able to finish while I was home, and it may be a while before I can post more, but I'll try.

Life as a dictator

....at least that's what my little brother says I'm being. I know it's been a while since I've posted anything. Lots has happened since May 17, the last time I posted anything. I left Puerto Rico on June 1, at 7:00 AM. I was exhausted when I left, because the day before, I got up at 6 AM to do laundry before going to the beach at 8. When I got back from the beach, I fixed lunch, then fell asleep on the couch for about 30 minutes. When I woke up, I called Ariel and Andrea, because we were supposed to go to the motor vehicle place to transfer the car title to my name. We didn't realize that it woukd take 4 hours, though! I got back to the apartment at 6:10, and we had to leave around 6:25 to get to church. After the church service, I talked to a lot of people and said a lot of goodbyes to people I will not see again for a very long time. I got home around 10 or so, and called my mom. Around 1AM I finally got off the phone (no, I wasn't talking to my mom that whole time, a couple of other people called, and I called a couple of other people), and as soon as I got off the phone, I started packing and cleaning. I know I should have done that earlier, but I was so busy that it didn't happen. I finished packing about 4:20 AM, 10 minutes before we needed to leave for the airport. I didn't get to sleep again until sometime around 4 that afternoon, so I was understandably exhausted. The next Monday started serious preparations for my sister's wedding, including painting numerous parts of our house. Monday night (or tuesday morning) we went to bed at 3, Tuesday night at 3, Wednesday night 1:30 or 2, Thursday night 11:30, Friday night 2, Saturday 12 and sunday night I don't even remember. So really, I'm still recovering from the lost sleep. The wedding really did go well, and I'll post a few pictures soon. Now to the reason I'm called a dictator. All day Sunday, my dad was sick, and Sunday night we left church early to go home and take him to the ER. He came back sometime around 1AM, and on Tuesday went to the doctor for a followup visit. They decided on Tuesday that he needed to have his galbladder out, so early Wednesday morning, mom took him in. They were hoping to do it laparoscopically, and send him home Wed night, but that didn't happen, so as of right now, he is still in the hospital, but we are hoping he'll be able to come home tomorrow. Since Wednesday, I have been playing mom to 8 of my younger brothers and sisters, and you know what, a large part of that has been spent being a chauffer! Then again, I knew it was going to be that way. So far we have been doing pretty well, but we will all be glad when mom and dad come home and things are back to normal. Ian says that I'm being a dictator, but that's the way it has to be when you are trying to keep 9 people organized, get them everywhere they need to go, and make sure they get done everything that needs to get done. Right now they're all supposed to be taking naps, which means a little more peace and quite than usual, really the only reason I can type this long. This entire vacation has been very crazy, but the Lord has been teaching me so much about patience and trust. Even though I'm exhausted and things are crazy, I'm very thankful for the lessons I've been learning.