Highlights

My life is wonderful right now. I thought I would be absolutely miserable here in the states rather than being in Ecuador, but I'm really not. Now, I would still rather be in South America, but right where I am now is the second best place. I think it's so great because it's where God has me right now and I know that it's such a short time so I have to embrace it. I love knowing I have a plan and I know where my next step is. That confirmation is the best!

So, what's next? College of course. Dordt College in Iowa! I am super stoked for it, too! Many people have asked things like "Aren't you nervous?" or "I bet you're a little worried.", but I'm really more excited than nervous or worried. Maybe I'll get more nervous as it gets closer, but for now I just am elated. I am excited for the independence, the new start, new friends, small town, christian school, everything really!

More exciting news... my super good friend Julianna is here from Ecuador! She just got here yesterday morning. My friends and I went and picked her up from the airport in Denver. We got to hang out with her sister and some friends last night for something called the "Truth Project". Last night was the last lesson so it was a little funny we went but super fun. Then afterwards we went to Ihop and stayed there until like midnight. Today, our friends' school got cancelled due to a power outage so we had them come over and we played this American Girl game. It actually turned out pretty fun.

I am working now! I work for my dad at Eddington Eyecare and I've already gotten two pay checks which will be nice for college if I stop spending all of it :-)

Graduation Party. Crazy. Madness. Fun. My mom worked super hard to give me a party I didn't really want in the first place, but I am very appreciative. I didn't like the crowdedness or all the people, but I am BLESSED! So blessed. Let me tell you, people were VERY generous with their money/gifts and I am so thankful! I'm just also glad it's over.

Hmmm I'm sure so much more has been going on, but I just can't think of it. Lots of babysitting jobs, lots of laughter, lots of family.Life is happening and I'm loving it.

I'm at the office I work at and some sweet ladies just came in and handed the women in here roses to appreciate the working women. They also gave me lip gloss. They didn't have anything to sign up for or anything I had to do in return, just sweet ladies. Again, blessed!

Little Mouths

Kids can say some of the cutest things, am I right? You don't have to answer. I already know I'm right. But really, I just love the things kids say. I babysit quite a bit and sometimes I'll write down a quote from some of the kiddos. Here are some of my favorites:

Me: "Maybe you'll find a worm in that hole you're digging, Ev."
Evan (4) "Yup, you're 'aksadutely' right, Miss Tiffany."

Isaiah (6) "I know something funner than finding worms or putting sticks in a hole or finding snakes... a race!" (after this we did indeeed stop the digging for worms and snakes and raced each other).

Evan (4) "There's lots of b-e-t-s... berries!" (this was when he was learning to spell and trying to spell everything. So cute!).

Evan (4) "I wish you were our real mom and our real mom was  our babysitter!" (I thought this was super sweet... although I didn't tell his "real mom" about it ;)

Dylan (7) "If I had to estimate I'd say he has about 1,000 legos."
"My dad beats about 50% of the people he plays chess against." (this kid is a genius with a huge vocabulary for his age).

Wesley (4) "Listen to this song I made 'I'm naked, I'm naked, in the naked squad." (although he wasn't naked while singing this, he had two bloody noses so he sang it with a tissue up each nostril. It made it 10x more funny).

Wesley (4) "Tiffany?"
Me (thought he was sleeping so a little suprised) "Yea, buddy?"
Wes "I don't really all the time know how to sleep."

Evan (5) "I've decided that I've been working too hard, so I have decided to have you help me build my robot."
Isaiah (7) "Miss Tiffany, decide which is more important: Evan's robot or my chocolate playdough cake."

Athena (4) (while checking freezing weather trying to convince me it's warm enough to go to the park) "Not bad, not bad at all" except x7.
Here's another one from her. This is completely out of the blue while we were playing legos "I wanna' be four. I'm staying four forever!"

Evan (5) "I know what God looks like."
Me "You do?"
Evan "Yes, sometimes he's a burning bush and sometimes he's a twister."
These kids melt my heart!

Nick (4) "Boy colors are just blue, pink, purple, and white. All colors in the world are boy colors!"

Luke (4) (I think he was trying to convince me he was old enough to do something. I just forget what.) "I was supposed to be four, but then I turned five."
Here's another: Luke "Hey what is these?"
Me "Milk duds."
Luke (to me) " Hey these is milk duds!"

Me "Hey Wes, what type of tree is this?" (about some sort of fruit tree in their back yard)
Wesley (4) "That's a potato tree. Growin green potatos."

Erika (5) (pointing to a random house outside my house) "My friend Jake lives there. No... Justin Bieber lives there. Justin Beiber isn't real... he's my boyfriend  not yours, though." And yes, she said that all to herself. In one breath. She's so spunky!
Here's another, a sweet one "Did you know in God's word I'm your sister?"

Faith (6) (while playing doctor) "Tomorrow we're going to have a really bad surgery. It's going to hurt like crud!"

Erika (5) "CJ is not my real dad... only my mom is because she was pregnant." (CJ is indeed her "real dad")

Nick (4) (while driving him home from a birthday party) "You're a good driver Miss Tiffany, but not as good as my mom because you are just a kid."
Here's one from his prayers that night "Dear Lord, please help my to get a  black volvo with a speed track." (and that was his whole prayer lol. This was right before Christmas)

Paxton (2) (to his baby sister) "Evie watchu, want? Watchu want? A cobra? Okay!" (and then he gave her his toy cobra which she wasn't even particularly interested in).

Evan (5) "This house will explode like an exploding poopy!"

Isaiah (7) (defending the neighbor who Evan said he beat when he raced her because she was slow) "That girl wasn't slow. Her dad took care of my lizard when my dad was gone. She's NOT slow!"

Selah (4) (smelling a pumpkin spice candle) " Mmm smells good! Smells like cookies and... SALT! Tastes good, too!"

Selah (4) (while watching a thunderstorm on the lion king) "'Funder' is not fun... well sometimes it's fun."

Luke (2) (I was heading to the garage to throw out a his dirty diaper) "Where go wis ma diapa?" (Where are you going with my diaper?)

Me (I see a little knat thing on the watermelon) "Oh oh, there's a bug on there!"
Selah (4) "That's just watermelon."

Jadon 8 (talking to his little sister (6) who had just sang a prayer song before dinner) "Hannah that's not a prayer, that's a song. Well it's a song that's a prayer."

Elizabeth (8) (gives her little brother a butter knife to cut his bread) "If you cut youself don't cry." then she turns to me "that's a figure of speech."

Evan (5) (to Asher (3)) "Asher, it's not a train ttrack! It's a pancake!" (About playdough that Ash was putting his train in).

Jackson (6) (while wrestling with David who thought they were fighting as animals) "We're in a wrestling contest. There's no animals, just people. So stop trying to be a snake, okay?"

Bella (2) "Fruit means orange, okay? Can I have a fruit?"

Zach (4) (to a little boy with long hair at the park) "Are you a boy or girl?"
Max (7) (right in front of the boy and his dad) "It's a boy. He just looks like a girl because of his long hair." (probably one of my most embarassing babysitting moments).

I hope you enjoyed those as much as I did. I love the cute little things kids say! They're so adorable!

Holding on to Memories

So here I am. Sitting in the Quito airport getting ready to go back to the States and have life move on. Let me tell you, though, this is difficult. Super difficult. I hate goodbyes, I hate leaving, I hate everything associated with goodbyes and leaving. I would really just like to stay here forever, but I'm trying to have a positive attitude about it. I mean, praise the Lord I even got to go to Ecuador in the first place. I have so many wonderful memories, new frieds, pictures, etc. And there are perks to going back to the States, too. For instance, family, friends, gym, driving myself, starting fresh in college in a couple months, etc. But it's still hard to leave.

These three months with the Shedd family have been absolutely amazing. I would even go as far as saying that they have been the best three months of my life. It's been very carefree and relaxing (no babysitting or appointments). I am so blessed to have gotten this opportunity and to have one of the best friends anyone could ever have to spend it with. We laughed nonstop, cried a little, and just had a blast. Our inside jokes are endless (jellyfish, anyone?) and I will always remember these times for the rest of my life.

Obviously God has me moving on to a different season in my life now, and I can only pray that it's just as good as the season I just came out of. That I continue to grow in Him and have life-changing experiences. That I'll have Godly friends placed along my path that I can connect with. That every step of the way would be guided and I'd listen to His voice even when another way seems easier. I promise you, without that Man, I wouldn't have had any opportunities like this and would be a completely different person.

So here's to the past, it'll be remembered. Here's to the present, it will pass quickly. And here's to the future, God has everything taken care of.

P.S. The girl I'm sitting across from in the airport just threw up and is now just sitting there as if nothing happened. What?!?!

Living It Up in Ecuador

Wow where to start? So much has happened since I've been here. I think this is a good time for a bullet point blog :-) Here's some of the many things I've done since I've been in Ecuador!

• Mindo Ziplines: I had a BLAST goingon these things. You hike up a short way and there's something like 12 ziplines (I'm not sure the exact number but it's around there) you go on. They're super long and over these canopy trees in this foresty area of Ecuador. Breathtaking!

 

Doing the butterfly with the guide, Leonardo.

• Otavalo: This is the shopping center of Ecuador. You go here to get things made by the people in Ecuador for low prices. You can bargain and get the pice really low. It's super nice. Before, we get Bizcocho (butttery yummy bread) and after we eat at the pie shop.

• New Years Eve: We went to the Yorks' house and did what they call "burning the old man". We played hand and foot for a good portion of the night, then at midnight we headed outside to burn our paper mache (how the world do you spell that?) Shrek (our "old man"). Needless to say, it was a memorable New Years. 

Me with our old man.

• Going Through My Grandpa's Death: Yes, my grandpa died while I was here in Ecuador. It all happened really fast and I'm devistated, but doing a lot better. It's so hard going through a death without your family near to grieve with, but if I had to choose somewhere else, it would be right here with the Shedd family. They are so great and have encouraged me so much!

• Weekly Orphanage Visits: It would be hard to go more than once a week with all the homeschool and real school going on around here, but those once-a-week visits brighten my entire week. I am in love with those precious babies! They are too sweet and I really just want to take them home with me!

Precious little guy!

Oswaldo and Fernanda!

He is one of my favorites!

• Shell: This is a town about 5 hours away from Quito. It has this orphanage where the people are really relaxed. We went for just one night, but I reallly enjoyed it. We got to love on those sweet babies!

Me feeding Frixion.

• Papallacta: We went here for Carnival to get away from the madness of Quito. It's a city about two hours away. Julianna and I took a bus half way, and then her dad picked us up and drove us the other half. Her family went up a day before us, but we decided to stay so we could hang out with friends and not be in Papallacta so long. In Papallacta, we played lots of hand and foot (super long, but fun card game), ate everything,  played football in the rain, played bored games, did dishes for over 20 people (yuck!), and went to the hot springs at night. It was a great time!

Getting ready to leave :-( Micah, me, Nelson, and Malcy (Malcom).

• Movies: The first movie I went to was New Year's Eve with some friends of Julianna and Christina. It was a pretty good movie and lots of fun. The next one was Underworld 4 with Julianna, Christel, and Negro. Not a great movie, but it was still fun. During Underworld, I made the stupid decision of throwing Julianna's flip-flop in the theatre it it hit some lady's head. She was really mad (and rightfully so) and like yelling and everything. I couldn't find the shoe before the movie, but luckily I found it afterward. Note to self: THINK BEFORE YOU ACT!

• The Beach: This was an absolute blast! 5 days of just relaxing and boogie boarding and pools! The only downsides: sunburns and jellyfish stings. Still, it was such an amazing time. Some guys asked to teach us to surf after we jokingly yelled "Ensenanos!!" as they surfed passed us. Haha. It was a great time, though.

This was taken from our patio. So stinkin' gorgeous!

At Paco Foco our last night at the beach. Super yummy food.

The sunsets every night were astounding.

• Making New Friends: With school and church I have made so many new friendships! None of them are very strong friendships (I have only been here 2 months afterall), but they are all so fun. Carlita, Stephy (Saarwr), and Solange crack me up! They are super nice and always have something funny to say. Erin (Jonky) is a hoot, too. She's very witty, but I usually don't understand the point she's trying to get across. Anabel is so much fun! She is so easy-going and gets along with everyone. I love that girl! Christel is super sweet and really fun to hang out with. Negro is my sis and is also super fun to hang out and talk with. Jorge is a different bird, but he is a real gentleman and not to mention super attractive. Salo is going to kill me... haha just kidding. Salo is alway playing around and is super cool to mess with. I'm sure I'm mmissing lots, but what do you expect at 11 o'clock at night?

Me and my sis Josue.

Julz, me, and Solange :-)

Anabel, me, and Christina

• Climbing Ruku (sp?): Or attempting to climb it anyways. I forget how tall the mountain is and the elevation we started at, but I do know we didn't have a long ways to go, but still didn't quite make it. We went with Brenden and Alyssa which was super fun. It was rainy and cold so Mr. Shedd set a time limit for the hike (1 hour I believe). We got almost there, but had to go back because time was up. On the way back I fell three or four times and got my butt all dirty. Whoops!

Yes, our butts did get quite dirty when we fell.

• Inside Jokes: Umm if I could list them all I think the list would go on forever! We have so many funny things happen!

• Talking in British Accents: The number one rule in this house besides love God.

These are our "British Faces"

• Teaching English Class: Actually, the credit for this one goes to Julianna. I don't really do anything except press the buttons on the computer.

• Lots of Computer Time: Ummmm I've definitely become lazy here! With no gym to go to and no car to go out with, I've spent so much time on the computer. I've been youtubing, chatting, pinterest-ing(?), and whatever else you can think of. I will for sure need to change it up when I get back to the states.

• Laughing: I laugh sooooooo much here! I love it. Julianna is super funny and we often laugh at things we have no reason to laugh at (especially late at night).

Our "science experiement".

• Going to Help at the Daycare: We were doing this every Thursday at school, but we haven't gone the last two weeks. Maybe we'll be able to go tomorrow! I certainly hope so. The kids there are so cute! Sexto is doing it as their "senior project" type thing.

• Eating Good Meals: Seriously, I've never eaten so good in my life. There is seriously dinner on the table EVERY SINGLE NIGHT! And it's good food, too! I love it, but my hips and thighs most certainly do not.

I'm sure there are millions more things I have done since I've been here, but I am much too tired to think of them now. For now, I'm sleeping. I can't guarentee I'll post again while I'm here (I leave March 22) so here's a little head up of what else I'll be doing. I'm hoping to go to a Liga futbol game this Sunday with Negro, Julianna, Katelyn, and Megan. Next Thursday I'm going on a retreat with the school to some cabins for a night. Aaaaaannnnddddd... that's about all I know for now. I'm super stoked for the rest of my time here, though and I pray it doesn't pass too quickyly.



I LOVE My God!

     Wow! I was just reading my last blog post from a little over six months ago and am so amazed at how God works everything out! That's what I love about Him. I was going through a really tough situation then, but now life seems to be downhill for a while and the Lord has given me all the desires of my heart. I can't believe how good He is to answer all my prayers.
     Anyways, since I'm going on and on about it, I gues I should explain what happened. In my last blog post I felt like I had only two choices and was forced to choose one or the other. God, however, has made the impossible possible and given me both! I'm writing this blog post from Quito, Ecuador where I will be staying for three months. It's more for academics than missions... BUT we live right next door (literally) to an orphanage I can visit whenever I want! I'll tell you how this all came about.
     One of my best friends, Julianna, had moved to Ecuador back in September for the second time since I've known her. We met in 9th grade and went to school together for 9th and 10th then she moved to Ecuador for our 11th grade year. She came back May 24, 2011 and was going to stay in Colorado forever, but God had other plans for her family so they moved back to Ecuador after spending the summer in the states. I was devistated when she had to move back, because I couldn't see God's big plan and had no idea I, too, would go to Ecuador. Now I have been to Ecuador before (November-December 2010 for two weeks), but this time I'm "living" I guess you could say instead of visiting. Sorry I'm getting sidetracked... on with the story. So soon after Julianna got to Ecuador she was supposed to start school She called me up and we kind of joked about how we wished I could be there, too, for her first day of school. Soon, though, it wasn't even a joke. We both talked to our parents who agreed and I started getting things ready to come early in November and stay until May. After talking with my school we found I wouldn't get any credits if I left half way through the semester, so I made the decision to finish up first semester at James Irwin and then leave for Ecuador after that. This was a little dissappointing because it meant we couldn't start school together, but I was still way stoked to go. As we began to get everything ready to apply for a visa (Plane ticket, school enrollment paper, HIV test, etc.) we found that the information we got off the internet Ecuador visa website was outdated and you were no longer able to mail-in your vise. We would have had to travel to Nevada or Texas or Chicago or some other far off place if we ever wanted to get that visa. On top of that, the visa would have only been for four months since Julianna decided to come back to the states in April to get a job and get ready for college. We decided to not get the visa, which meant I could only stay three months. We had to change my flight (not a big deal, just a bit of money), and then everything was set. I left at 11:55 p.m. on December 25 (yep, Christmas) and arrived here in Quito around 9 p.m. the next day.
     That's the story, and now I think I'm going to go to bed as it is almost midnight and I have school  in the morning. If I remember/have the time I'll write about what all I've done here so far/what I'm going to do/upload pictures sometime soon!

Zoo, Elitches, Friends, and Boredom

     So on Tuesday I took my little cousin to the zoo. I was also supposed to take Erika and Jackson (two kids of one of the guys who works for my dad), but Jackson woke up on Tuesday with a fever of 102 degrees so it was just me and Teeter. If you know me at all, you know that I absolutely hate animals, so it wasn't my favorite thing to go to the zoo, but it wasn't too bad. We just went past each animal once and then left to eat lunch in the parking lot in the back of my pick-up truck. After lunch, I took him out to Yoyogurt because he had been asking for it for a while. After Yoyogurt I dropped him off at the house and met up with some friends at Chic-fil-a. We talked for a couple hours then headed to TJ Max and Ross to look at clothes that we wished we could buy, but didn't have money for :) I left Ross and headed to my other friend, Julianna's, house. We went and saw Soul Surfer at the dollar theatre then went to my house for Snitzchel (yeah no idea how to spell that) and painted nails. We headed back to Julianna's house for a sleepover and watched Hot Chick.

     The next morning Julianna and I woke up and went for a run (I need to do that more) and then did some weights, sit-ups, etc. I left a little later and headed to my house to go with Lauren, Taylor and Alison to a barbque at Fox Run park. We ate A LOT of food and laid out on the grass. We watched these teens put up a tight rope between two trees and attempt to walk across it. It was super funny and we would sometimes clap when they went a ways on the tight rope. Later, my family and I went to church, went out for slurpees, and then went to pick up my purse I left at Julianna's.  Whoops!

     Yesterday we went to Elitches. It was pretty fun... but my little cousin didn't want to ride any of the rides, so we left him with my mom amd went on the roller coasters by ourselves :) It was a blast.
     Today, Hunter left. My dad is at the airport (or maybe on his way home) right now. I love him to death, but he was a little bit starting to drive me crazy, so it will be nice to not have a nine-year old constantly asking to play video games or telling you he's bored.

     Babysitting jobs are still low which is kind of frustrating. I had a lady tell me for like a year that she would need me all this summer and so I din't even look for a summer job because I figured I would just be baby-sitting. Out of nowhere she decides she doesn't want me to do it and so I told another lady who had asked me to baby-sit over the summer. She told me that she would use me two days a week back in May, but I still haven't heard from her. I have two baby-sitting jobs for next week that I'm thankful for, but I'm still really bummed. It's like, okay I don't care if you don't want me to baby-sit, but don't tell me that you do, when you really don't. I could have gotten a job or something so I'm not running around broke. Whatever though, I'm so blessed and know that when I need money for something (i.e. college, missions trips, etc.) God will provide!

     That's all for now I think. I really need a topic for this blog so it's not just a super boring journal. Haha. I'm sure no one enjoys reading it, but it'll be nice for me to look back on.

     I'll try and post pictures later today. I'm headed to the grocery store now.

Catching Up

Wow! So it has been forever since I last blogged and I've got nothing else going on right now so I figured I'd throw up a blog. In the past 2 months or so, a whole lot has happened. Prom, school finished, my super good friend got back from Ecuador after being gone for 10 months, I went to Indiana, got my braces off, I went to Venezuela (just got back yesterday morning at like 1 a.m.) and have had a major lack of babysitting jobs :-(. I had like 3 summer babysitting jobs lined up, but they all fell through, that's okay, though, it should be a relaxing summer. So I'll go in order of events...

     Prom was super fun! No date :(, but I went with my awesome friends and had a lot of fun. We went to Lauren Davis house first and got ready/took pictures/atesnacks/etc. From there we headed to America the Beautiful park to take more pictures and then went to a yummy restaurant called Nosh. It's like an appetizer restaurant and I had chicken pate without knowing what it was. If you don't know, it's chicken puree, YUCK! But it was all good. Haha from there we headed to prom itself. It was a fun night of dancing and awkward slow dances :). All in all, I had a blast.

Kristin and I on our way to Nosh!

The lovely ladies!

     School's out obviously! I missed the last two days of school because of my Indiana vacation which kind of stunk because it meant I had to do four finals before I left. I did two during study hall and one after school. The other was making a documentry with my friends and I just did it with them on our own time. I was a little sad to leave knowing I wouldn't see some people over summer, but I was also really glad to be out of school and only have one year of highschool left. Both our foriegn exchange students have headed back to their countries (Brazil and Spain) which is a little sad :( but I'll get over it. So I still haven't started summer reading, but I need to start soon!

     Julianna is back! I'm so happy! I went with Annie and Kristin to get her from the Denver airport the night before leaving for Indiana. We stopped at this burrito place and it was so yummy. We had a lot of catching up and laughs. Since I hung out with her once and we tried playing black ops (an unsuccessful attempt) and we went shopping down by the movie theatre. I also hung out with her and some others at a sleepover. We went downtown and took a bunch of cute pictures. I loved it!

Driving home from the airport with Juls.

Downtown with some besties!

     Indiana was great. It was really fun to see my cousins and grandparents after going over a year without seeing them. My grandmother's 80th birthday went well. I spent most of the time at my cousins, the Olsons, house and a few nights at my grandparents house. I went and aw Pirates of the Carribean (the newest one. Is that 3 or 4?) with my older bro and cousin Leah. It was good, but would have been better if I had seen the previous ones :) My little cousin Hunter came home with us. He's still here until this Friday. Super cute!

Me with my second cousins Cora and Rainy.

Girl cousins minus Angelica.

My family and cousin here at Garden of the Gods.

     Braces are off! Now I just have to worry about the stupid retainer :( I hate it so much. Oh well, soon I'll only have to wear it at night.

No braces!

     Now this will probably be the longest paragraph. Venezuela was absolutely amazing and perfect in every way. I'll be writing this portion of the blog mostly for my own memory so you can skip over if you want :)

•  Saturday-We had to be to Radiant no later than 5:45 a.m. to leave for the Denver airport. Jonathan got sick on the way up so we had to stop. We still made it in plenty of time. Going through security, Sydni got stopped for extra checking and was told it may take a couple hours. It turned out the just checked her shoes and it only took like 15 seconds. I slept most of the day. We had Chic-fil-a in the airport in Atlanta. We finally got to Ecuador late in the night (probably around 10 Venezuela time (1 1/2 hours later than Mountain time becauise Chavez (president) is crazy)) and I thought I had checked my bag and a red bag. Of course I checked my bag and a dark blue one with supplies in it, but we went on a wild rampage looking for a red one. We even put in an order form for them to return it to us from the airport, but it turns out we had the suitcase all along. I felt so bad. It was a two hour drive from the Caracus airport to Samuel's house so when we got there I put sheets on my bed, took a shower, and crashed. Everyone was exhausted. The A.C. woke me up sometime in the middle of the night and I was freezing! I got my blanket out of my backpack and went back to bed. Unfortunately, that was the only night I was cold.
• Sunday- We woke up for and ate breakfast at 8:00 a.m. We had cereal, fruit, and yummy toast along with super yummy juice. We went to church right after and practiced our human video for a bit. Pastor Scott did the message on character and Pastor Gary translated.  We did the human video at church and got to meet some of the kids. Katherine and Wilken were the two that introduced themselves. The rest were still a little shy still. We went back to the cafeteria area and had sandwiches for lunch (like every day for lunch) and then went and played with the kids some more. We played beisbol using our hands as bats and just had fun. We talked to one of the non-orphans,  Manuel, who one of the girls had a huge crush on. She said he was 17 but we later found out he was 20. Haha. We went swimming tgo cool off and then had I think hamburgers for dinner. Maybe not though, I'm not super sure. After dinner we were all tired so we went to bed. It was so hot, but we survived.
• Monday- This was the first work day. We were divided into two groups. My group went down to the families houses and painted them yellow. The other team went and de-rusted a fence and started to prime it. Half the kids went to school in the morning while the other half went in the afternoon so we had some of the kids helping us. Wilke was writing his and everyone else's names on the wall in paint. By lunch we had all the lower half of the house finished and a lot of the upper half too. We wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of some of the older kids. The other team only had six sections of fence primed out of 70-something. We didn't think we would get done with the priming in our time their let alone the painting of the flag colors (yellow, blue, and red) in our short week there. We went back to the house after lunch to finish it up. We kind of slacked during the second half of the day, but got like all except the top of the wash room painted. Thony, a 13-year old there, helped so much during the afternoon! We got to go hose-back riding that day which was so fun. Fredy was in charge of the horse, but we got to take control of the reigns. It was so fun. We went swimming again that night and then ate dinner. I don't even remember what we had. Maybe that night was lasagna. It was the best lasagna I'd ever had if it was! We went straight to bed after dinner again which felt nice.
• Tuesday- After breakfast, Pastor Scott asked if any of us girls wanted to weed-whack. I didn't want to, but no one else volunteered, so I did it. They were huge weed-whackers that needed a thing attached to our backs to carry. I worked with someone I wasn't very fond of, but I didn't really have to talk to him so it was okay. The field we did was so huge and by lunch I was absolutely exhausted. My team had gotten like 17 parts of the fence done and primed and the other team was having trouble  getting their house painted because a) some of the people were not paainting at all and just playing with the kids and b) the kids were making messes with the paint and getting in the way. They asked if I wanted to go and keep the kids occupied while everyone else painted and I jumped at that opportunity. I hung out with the kids at the playground and had a blast overall, but I really got to know one of the little ones, Leomar. He was my favorite ever since. After they finished painting the house, evryone left to go swimming except me. I stayed and hung out with the kids for an hour more. I stayed with Jenna, Amber, and Alexis (the American girls there) and got to just play and get to know some of the older kids (Jesus). I ended up sitting on Alexis lap in the car on the way to dinner because their wasn't a whole lot of room. We went to a place called Mister Bread after dinner that night and all got dessert and shared. Super yummy. On the way home, the police stopped us and we were supposed to have our passports, but didn't. Eventually they let us go, but they really wanted money. We went home and again, crashed. 
• Wednesday- Since the houses were painted and the fence still needed to be worked on, we all went up to the fence and worked on it. We de-rusted and primed almost the whole thing by lunch. Even with a long break for a heavy rainstorm. Orlando and Kuka came in at lunch which was a nice suprise. At lunch Pastor Scott said we could either continue painting or go play with the kids. Most of us jumped at the chance to go hang out with the kids, including me, but some stayed and painted the fence. I'm really glad I hung out with the kids. We all sat on the benchs and chatted and took pictures and then it started to pour again. Most of the kids ran for cover in the multi-purpose building and spent some time on facebook, but me, Jenny, Mikayla, and Jeanette hung out with Thony, Jesus, Fredy, and a few others. First Jesus caught a huge from and was trying to get us to touch it. I was too scared he'd throw it at me so I didn't. One of the kiddos put a lizard on my shoulder because they knew I would freak out. It worked! Then we went on the porch of one of the houses and pushed each other into the rain. It was such a blas and we were soaked! At dinnertime that night, we played cards with Orlando which was fun. Then after dinner we went to the multi-purpose room to chat with the youth group in Colorado. It didn't work so well, and I didn't actuallly talk to them, but it was still a good night. We played spoons in a huge group, played the stomping game (Orlando gave me a bruise on my foot that's still there) and Junior taught us salsa. We also set off these lantern things like in Tangled which was super cool. We went back to the rooms and zonked out once again. Kuka spent the night so she didn't have to drive back to Caracus in the evening.
• Thursday- not my favorite day, but it was okay. We woke up early and got started painting the fence. we started with the worst part, the yellow. top, but got it done before lunch. After lunch we painted the rest of it with Orlando this time and then decided that we were going to get s'mores that night with Orlando. That fell through, but it was still a fun plan. We did baptisms and re-baptisms that evening before dinner which was really neat to watch. That night pastor Gary talked about going to Caracus on Friday and then stated we wouldn't be able to see the kids at all. We hadn't seen them that day either and didn't get to say bye to them. I was so so so so so so sad. I actually started crying. Someone asked if we could stay back instead of going if we wanted and Pastor Gary said it was up to Pastor Scott. Pastor Scott said yes, but it turned out I was the only one who wanted to stay, so Pastor Gary asked Orlando to hang out with me all day.
• Friday- Our last day. I was really sad it was our last day, but super excited to spend it with the kids. We all went early to the orphanage and everyone said their goodbyes to the kids who stayed home in the mornings, but didn't get to see the afternoon kids. I waved goodbye to the team and just hung out with the kids for about 30 minutes until Orlando came. We did piggy-back rides, coloring with chalk, talking, tickling, playing "la monstra" with Leomar and a few others and just having a good time. Around lunch time Orlando and I headed to the cafeteria room and met with Patty and Jeanette who were cooking tacos. We had like an hour until lunch so Orlando and I played cards while we waited. Soon, one of the older couples joined us and we played cards with everyone. The chicken tacos were amazing! I loved them so much. After lunch I told Orlando we could go up to the lodge to sand the plaster on the wall if he wanted so it didn't feel like a wasted day for him. We did that for two hours then headed back down to the orphanage. On the way down he asked if I wanted to see the pigs so we went and did that. We were walking toward the pigs and I saw a dead snake. So gross! The pigs smelt horrible so when Orlando asked if I wanted to go into the pen I said no. Haha. We kept walking down, talking, and listening to some of the Rio soundtrack on Orlando's phone (one of his favorite movies) and then finally got to the orphanage. Anakarina gave me a watch right when we got there as a "sorpresa". I was touched. Then we had cake for one of the house dad's birthdays. It was pretty good, but I'm not a cake fan so I gave mine to Orlando. Orlando asked if I wanted to go to pick up some of the kids from school so I said yes. We went there and they were so happy to see me. The introduced all thier friends to the Americana and then I rode with them in the back of the pick-up for the 15 minute ride home. When we got back I played futbol with Wilke, Thony, Jose, and some of the others, but I was doing really bad and quit. They were super nice though going really easy on me :). While I was playing soccer Orlando had fun with the landscape setting on my camera and took a bunch of pictures.  Orlando, Anakarina, Orlandito, Victoria, me, and some others took pictures for a while. It was fun. Soon Patty and the gang drove up to take Orlando and I out to dinner and I had to say bye to the kids. It was pretty sad, and I didn't even get to say bye to all of them because we had to leave so quick. Orlando decided last minute to go home and shower because he stunk so bad so I didn't even get to say bye to him :(. We had yummy food tjhough. These huge platters with lamb, chicken, beef, yuka, poatato, tomato, and a bunch of other yummy stuff. Best of all was the Mora juice! SO yummy. We went to Mister Bread again after dinner and the older couples all got a bunch of sweets and such to eat. We headed back for Samuel's house and stopped by the cafeteria to get water and ice for the coolers by our room. As we were filling them up, Pastor Scott came back from Caracus with Gary Heiny. I told him a little about my day and then went in my room to start packing since we were leaving the next day. I had about ten minutes to myself before Junior and David brought everyone else back. I started crying again because I missed everyone so much already. We did devotions (although we had done these in the mornings every other day) and a break-down of the day like we did every night then we all went to bed.
• Saturday- Another travel day. This time 23 hours of travel! We woke up at 4:00 a.m. and left by 4:30. I slept a little and cried a little on the way to Caracus. Actually I slept a little and cried a little the whole day. We got through everything in the Caracus airpport and said our last good=byes to Junior and Pastor Gary then sat and waited for forever in the terminal. Not only do you go through security like in America, but they also check everyone's carry-on (as in going through it) before they got on the plane. Just Go With It played on the way to Atlanta just like it had on the way to Caracus. I slept like the whole ride anyways. We went through customs in Atlanta and then we all went to the airport's TGI Friday's for a lunch/dinner. I went with the leaders to Starbucks afterward and Pastor Scott paid which was so appreciated. Storms started brewing as we were supposed to be boarding so our flight waas delayed. It kept getting delayed until it was like 3 hours late so we had like 6 hours in the airport. I bought a book (The Lucky One) and read some of it, played endless rounds of Egyptian Ratslap, slept, and just sat around. Finally we got on the plane and I slept like the whole time. Every other plane ride I had slept, but it had been difficult because I had been in the middle seat (always between Ascheleigh and Pastor Scott), but this time I had a window seat and slept the whole plane ride. It was so nice. We got back home around 1 a.m. Colorado time and I slept until 1p.m. even with all the sleeping the day before.

     Here are some photos from the trip:

Richad. I know I'm not suppposed to pick favorites, but he was definitely one of my favoites. I miss this little man to pieces!

So I know this is a little hard to see, but this is Thony and Jesus. They were older but had such sweet hearts. I miss them :(

Me with Ana Karina, Orlando, Roxanna, Victoria, and others whose names escape me.

One of my favorite pictures. Eating Mango, and Orlandito's face cracks me up!

So we called him Aaron the whole time because that's what we thought he said his name was. Turns out it's like Adams or something. Whoops. Still, another one of my favorite kiddos.

Love it!

Huggies! They're too cute. Aaron and Nikaeli.

Roxanna. Que Bella!

And he was my all time favorite. My little Leomar bear. How I miss him!

     So basically that's my trip. I spent all of yesterday crying along with crying this morning. I really really miss those precious kids. I'm hoping to go back next year and see everyone again.

     I'm taking two little ones (Jackson and Erika) along with my little cousin to the zoo tomorrow. I might post pictures if I remember. I'll try to be more consistant, but there's no garuntees. The days fill up so fast.

Busy Days

Wow. Life can be so busy sometimes. I've been doing so much lately with school, church, friends, babysitting, etc. It's been crazy, but I absolutely love every minute of it. It's Easter break! % whole days off and I'm loving it! The week before last I had three real days of school (took off school to go skiing one day and went on a field trip to UCCS the next), last week I had three days of school (Thursday and Friday I had off), and then next week I getmonday off for Easter and Friday off for prom! Wow life is easy right now :)

So skiing was pretty much awesome. It was a complete last minute decision, like at 9:00 the night before I decided to go. I went with my older brother's friend, Ren, and my little brother. We went up to Loveland ski resort (my first time) and there was like no one there. It was great! I boarded the first half of the day, and skiied the second half. On the way home, my truck wouldn't shift past 3rd gear so we drove at a steady 45 mph for like an hour until the pressure valve finally decided to work :( That was no fun because what should've taken us two hours ended up taking like four. We did finally get home and I made a video for American History.

Ahh the video. So first I made one about Betsy Ross, but when I went to upload it on the website (http://samsungk-12.com/videos.html) everyone elses were super cool so I figured I had to do something else. I made a video next on the inventor of hand sanitizer and tried to make it silly, but it still wasn't working. So then I decided to recruit my big bro and his friend Michael to help. We decided on Rosa Parks and those boys didn't cooperate at all, but It was 11:00 p.m. at this point and I had been skiing all day and I had the field trip the next day so I went with it. It didn't upload to the website like everyone else's at first so I figured it was too bad, but then like 5 days later it finally got there.

Break has been great! I got to babysit a lot and today I'm going to look at cars becuase we're getting a new one (even though we alredy have 4?? whatever). Tonight I get to babysit two of the cutest kids in the world, Paxton and Evie. I love them!

Alright so this was going to be much longer but the time is 12:46 and I have got to go pick up my little bro to take him car shopping. Sorry about the lack of pictures. I'll try to get some up next time.

Been a Little While

So, two weeks have passed and not a whole lot has been going on. That's just my boring life I guess ;)

Last Tuesday I got a call from my parents asking me to go to babysit right after school. The dad had to go to the E.R. because he had been so sick. I went and watched their two boys (1 and 4) and had so much fun. We made home made bubbles and blew those for probably a good 30 minutes. We also played in the sand box... that is until the one-year-old started eaing the sand. Yikes! I felt terrible because the parents got home right as evrything was happening. The 4-year-old had just had an accident and came up to me and said "I need to go change my pants." so I sent him upstairs to change letting him know I'd be there in a minute. I was rinsing off his plate he just gave me. As I had just finished rinsing, the parents walked in and I told them their little one had ran up to change his pants. I can only imagine what they were thinking "The babysitter is standing blankly in the kitchen. The baby is in the high chair finishing his sandwich. Our son is upstairs changing his pants by himself. Wow." I felt so bad. They didn't say anything, but still I'm sure they weren't fond of the situation.

Last Wednesday was my Daddy's birthday. We went out for yummy Chipotle dinner then went and saw Battle Los Angeles at the theatre. It was pretty good, but really didn't have a good story line. It was all pretty much guns, blood, soldiers, end of the world type movie. It was fun, though.

I made flip-flops with my friends for prom! We had all decided not to wear heels because everyone takes them off to dance anyways. The problem was when you take off your heels, your feet get all dirty and gross, so we decided to wear flip-flops. We got the cheap Old Navy ones and decorated them with a boatload of ribbon and jewels and tulle and the like. So fun. And we had pizza and other snaacks. A fine time if I do say so myself.

Alright a bad picture, I know. I'll get better ones the day of. I promise.

The next day I went and got my prom dress! We went to this lady's house who we found on craigslist. She has over 200 (probably) different prom dresses each for only $10! Most of them were brand new, too, with the tag and all. It was fantastic. I tried several on, but ended up choosing a very simple purple gown. I'll have to add a bunch of jewelry, but that's alright because I love jewelry. I went with the Prouty's and Sarah and Sarah's mom. 

I went to little Judah's two-year-old birthday on Saunday! He's so big! I remember when we got the call that Mrs. Ruthie was pregnant. I was so excited. But there's exciting news because we just found out she's pregnant again! 5 Fravel children! I love it!

I got to watch sweet little Rocky and Luke on Monday! It was great! Rocky is such a precious little man! He spit up all over me, though. Lol it's kind of a given with him. Luke and I had a lot of fun playing with "tom" or Thomas the train. And boy does he love bathtime. He was in there for forever and when I tried to get him out, he screamed. Lol. At least that's better than when they scream getting into the tub. That's never fun. 

Already Three months :-(

The rest of the week has been pretty blah. I went to church on Wednesday which was fun. Oh I almost forgot. I got a voice mail on Wednesday right after church. It was from an unknown number and was like "Tiffany" (as in one was telling the other my name) "Hey Tiffany. Wanted to know if you wanted to go on a date sometime. Alright, I'll call ya back.". Haha boys are so crazy sometimes.

Government is shutting down at midnight tonight. Let's pray that America gets this all under control soon. Crazy stuff!

Alright that's all. Now for some Jesus time and then whatever I else I can think up. Zombies? Maybe.    

Spring Break Highlights

• Sleeping.
• Winter Retreat!
• Having Grandpa here!
• Talking with one of my best friends on the phone!
• Sleeping.
• Watching this precious girl!

• Tons of 20 questions and Spinner!
• Watching these silly boys!


• Sleeping.
• Completing my essay!! (two exclamation points for that one)
• Eating at Outback and seeing Brandon!
• A close to four hour drive just hanging with the family and looking for bears!
• Working with Mrs. Katie in her at-home daycare!
• Sleeping.
• Bike rides!
• Snow this morning!
• Staying up late watching Chopped in bed with my parents!
• Chemistry! (ok that wasn't so great actuall)
• Cooking chinese for dinner!
• Watching these little cuties!

• Sonic slushies!
• Sleeping.
• Working in the nursery today!
• Venezuela missions meeting!
• Cleaning!
• And tonight I get to watch a bunch of cute kids at thr Fravels house!
• Did I mention sleeping?!

All in all I'd say it's been a fantastic break! One bad thing about it is that it seems to have been too short :(. Also, if I hadn't gone to Ecuador back in November, I'd be there now :(. And my grandpa left this morning :(. But the pros definitely outweigh the cons on this one! Love it!