Back to school

Well August is almost over, so I guess that means I'm past due for a blog post.  Soon after I posted last we left for Hawaii and spent the next month visiting Kyle's friends and family and doing a little work.  It seemed like a whirlwind of trying to fit in activities while people were around, while at the same time trying to fit in naps so Juliana didn't throw too many temper tantrums.   I think if you asked Juliana her favorite parts of the trip she'd probably say the pool and waterfalls.  She loved going to the kiddie pool with friends and throwing herself off the side so daddy would catch her :)  Kyle's parents took us to the Big Island for a long weekend and we saw a number of waterfalls.  She cried when it was time to leave a few of them and she still asks to see pictures of Umauma Falls.  She constantly amazes us with how well she remembers names of people, places, and animals!  During the day she'll bring up various family members from both Hawaii and Nebraska and ask to go visit them again.  

In addition to going to the kiddie pool and waterfalls, we also went to the Honolulu Zoo, the beach a couple times, Kyle got to play volleyball a few times, and a few other things.  Today I don't have time to explain everything but maybe in a later post.  

All our stuff, getting ready to load the car to go to the airport

Juliana was GREAT on all of the flights this summer and we all got a little spoiled on the flight from Honolulu to Houston :)  There were tv screens on the back of every seat and you got to choose whatever movies or shows you wanted...needless to say, none of us got as much sleep that night as we could have.

When we got home we were a little surprised at how dirty our house was.  For those of you who don't leave your houses for 2 months at a time, this is what our yard looks like every time we come back...actually that's what it STILL looks like right now!  

But we had left our house closed up, with a dehumidifier running, and a friend changing the water every few days.  Usually the house is a little dusty and smells a bit musty until the windows are opened.    When we opened the door, we discovered that our dehumidifier had stopped working at some point, all of the windows were wide open, random wood chips on the floor in a couple rooms, and disgusting black dirt covering every inch of the house.  We found out the next day that the school had fumigated our house again, so I guess they left the windows open to let all the smoke out.  It took me about a week (and 1 day with a maid helping me) to get everything in the house clean enough to feel livable.  And then I finally got around to opening and unpacking our suitcases!  All 9 of them.  In the last 2 weeks I think I've probably done like 30 loads of laundry (I usually do 3-5 loads a week) but I'm FINALLY caught up.  

Right about the time I got around to working on the suitcases we had to make a weekend trip to San Pedro (about 5 hours north).  Before every tournament Kyle has to go for a meeting with the other Athletic Directors in the Association of Bilingual Schools of Honduras (ABSH).  In addition to that, all of the Athletic Directors have been taking classes together for the last couple years.  (I think 6 classes, each about 4-5 hours long.  Each class given in a single day with a test at the end of the class...all in spanish.)  This weekend was the last class with a brief graduation and dinner the next day, so Juliana and I went along.   It was the first graduating class, with 10 athletic directors graduating.

Wasting a little time in the car before the dinner.

Kyle receiving a plaque from the President of the ABSH

Aside from laundry and weekend trips, school started this week!  Tuesday and Wednesday were half days, with today being the first full day of school.  Kyle is teaching PE for a little bit as the high school boys PE teacher will be arriving late.  He seems to be enjoying it, but it keeps him extra busy, and he's been really tired this week.

Our last bit of news, and big prayer request, is our car.  It was in the shop for the summer getting some things fixed, was back in the shop last week, and is now in the shop for a 3rd time.  The last couple weeks have incurred some bigger expenses than we had hoped and basically we just need it to get it functioning reasonably well and sell it as fast as possible.  Kyle has been going to some used car lots and test driving some cars, but because we're hoping to trade it in, we need the car running before we can actually seriously pursue a different car.  The repairs this time could take as much as 2 weeks, and until its fixed we're without a car of our own.  We're praying that it'll be working well enough to sell without costing us too much, and that as soon as its ready we'll know which one to buy.  We're looking for small SUV's that I will feel comfortable driving but get us down some rough roads as well, and will run well without needing any repairs for awhile.  AND we need it pretty quickly, with a baby on the way and its just plain hard getting to doctor's appointments without a running vehicle!  Not too much to ask for :)

Speaking of the baby, we went to the doctor last Monday...he's still a boy, weighs probably about 3 lbs, and measures right below the 50th percentile.  We got some very cute ultrasound pictures of his face that'll as soon as I can I'll scan and post.  The doctor is convinced that he looks more like Kyle :)

July so far...

So we've spent July traveling around visiting even more friends and family.  A few of the highlights... 

We drove up to Orange City and spent the night with Christa and her family

Stopping in at NWC to see the Brogan's and other professors and friends.    (We also had lunch with my former co-workers at Vogel's, but I forgot to take a picture.)

Gardening with Aunt Ruth

Bubbles with Uncle Randall

Loving on the kitties

Stopping in to see the Birky's

This past Saturday we celebrated my Grandpa's 90th birthday so we drove to Chester for a couple days to visit.  Juliana went out to meet him as he arrived.

Great-Great Uncle Johnny

Just being cute

Great-Uncle Kevin

Some horses live a couple blocks from their house.  This one is 40 something years old (I think).

Petting Candy

Offering to help figure out the new laptop

Petting Regalo

June

• A couple of the teachers at our school had a ballet studio this year and had a recital before the end of the year (also combined with a violin recital).  All of the kids are students at our school.  We took Juliana (dressed up in a dress with a tutu) and she LOVED it!  She spent half the recital sitting and staring at the dancers and the other half twirling on the side of the gym.  She tried to go up on stage with the girls for one of the songs (she got in line with them and started walking up) and even got in on the picture with all the girls and their teachers at the end :)

Twirling

The girls who took part in the recital...plus Juliana

• The last day of school was June 8th (though teachers still had to work until June 16th).
• Kyle turned 30!  Because his birthday was on a work day, we celebrated the weekend before.  I took him to see the new Men in Black movie and then spent the night at the Marriott (his choice) on Friday night.  Then on Saturday we met up with a bunch of his friends at the mall and they played at the arcade for a couple hours.  After that Juliana and I got a ride home and Kyle went with some of the guys to a high school basketball game.  

• Kyle's last day of work was supposed to be Saturday the 16th, but his principal gave all teachers the day off.  We flew our the next morning to travel to Nebraska.  We've been here 2 1/2 weeks so far and will leave Monday morning for Hawaii.  In these 2 1/2 weeks we've spent at least 30 hours in the car driving to visit friends and family.  Here's some pictures of some of the people we've gotten to see this trip:

Riding through the Houston Airport

Boarding the plane to Omaha

Her bed at grammy's house that she refuses to sleep in...can you find Nana?

We've been setting record highs the last week or so...thank goodness for A/C

A trip to the splash park....probably going again tonight

She loves playing with "bippa"

And running around barefoot in the grass

My brother and his family just bought a new house in Lincoln so we've driven out to see them a couple times.  Juliana and Madilynn actually had fun playing together this summer :)

Visiting Great-Grandma Joyce and her chickens

May

During the month of May we had a bunch of fun things happen!

• Kyle planned and hosted a 1 day volleyball tournament for the infantil volleyball teams (middle school), who don't get to travel with the other teams to San Pedro.
• Brian Carlson (a former teacher and good friend) came to visit for 10 days.
• The Junior class performed a play based on the story of Esther.  Our school doesn't have a drama department, but the daughter of some of our friends decided she wanted her grade to perform it as a fund raiser.  They did a GREAT job!  (I did take pictures of this, but can't seem to find them...maybe they're on my phone...)
• Sports Awards Banquet--at the end of the year Kyle plans an afternoon banquet for all students who participate in athletics during the year.  This year the school had basketball, soccer, and volleyball, and most of the students and coaches come for the spaghetti dinner, door prizes, and awards being handed out to outstanding athletes.  

(Kyle's up at the front with the mic)

I ran the sound in the back...Juliana put up with being locked in the sound room with me :)

• In Honduras, at least at the hospital where my doctor is, they do an ultrasound at every appointment when you are pregnant.  On May 22nd I went for my 17 week appointment and we found out we will be having a BOY!  Needless to say, Kyle is VERY excited :)
• May 24th-27th Kyle left on another trip, this time flying with the Senior class to the island of Roatan for the Senior Trip.  This year Kyle was put in charge of planning the senior trip and he spent many, many, many hours planning activities and getting the best prices possible.  Juliana and I weren't able to go (we would have had to pay about $500 per person) but apparently it went very well.  There weren't any major problems and both parents, students, and advisors were very happy.  After the trip Kyle made a video for the students:  http://youtu.be/tdrdHmLV8FY

• Unfortunately while Kyle was on the Senior Trip, Juliana got sick again.  It started off as a low grade fever and within 24 hours was up to 104-105 degrees, just like she had done 6 weeks before.  Monday morning I took her in for a urine test and found out she had a 2nd urinary tract infection.  This time she had to get a shot of antibiotics followed by another 10 days of oral antibiotics.  Because there's no way to know exactly what's causing it, we're praying she doesn't get another one this summer (it's been 5 weeks since the start of the last one)!  If she does, then we'll have have an ultrasound done of her kidneys when we get back to Honduras and potentially other tests to figure out what's going on.

She looks so grown up!

Photo shoot (one of many) with Christa :)

Finally

All year long I've been asking Kyle to write a blog since a lot of our big activities are for his job and it'd be nice to hear about them from his point of view.  He finally said he would before the end of the year, but then things got extra busy and it just didn't get done.  I kept thinking about the blog, realizing it hadn't been updated since Easter, but didn't know if anyone was reading it anyways, so just figured it would get updated eventually.  But I recently found out that at least a few people are reading it, so I guess I'll try to get you all caught up since April...divided up into a few shorter blogs...I think.

Semana Santa lasted until April 9th.  The only other major activity during the month of April was the ABSH volleyball tournament in San Pedro Sula the 25th-28th.  Kyle was coaching 2 of the boys volleyball teams so he had many days of practices and games during the weeks and months beforehand.  Juliana and I had planned to go along with the teams, but Juliana got sick the Saturday evening beforehand (the 21st).  She woke up that night with a low grade fever, which just kept getting higher and higher over the next few days.  I called her doctor Monday morning, took her for an appointment, and had a blood test done by Tuesday, but only knew that she had an infection, not what kind of an infection she had.  Wednesday morning, when Kyle was leaving, she was still getting fevers as high as 104/105, so going along was definitely out.  So Wednesday morning had to do a urine test with her at home, took the sample down to the lab, then went down later that afternoon for the results, and over to the doctor's office to confirm she had a urinary tract infection.  She started antibiotics that afternoon and FINALLY started feeling better by Thursday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Kyle was at the volleyball tournament about 5 hours away.  His teams played well, but didn't end up making it to the semifinals.  And because I didn't go along there are no pictures to show for it.  So instead I'll post a couple pictures of Juliana from after she got feeling better.

chocolate ice cream face

Pretending to be a kitty in her "kitty house"

Helping out at Toonie's birthday party

Semana Santa

This past week was Semana Santa, or Holy Week, here in Honduras.  Almost everyone travels and almost everything is closed the last part of the week.  We had wanted to go to the beach with 3 other families from our church, but when we started looking a few months ago everything was already booked and/or way too expensive (everyone raises their prices during Semana Santa).  So we ended up booking a hotel for 2 nights in Comayagua, which is about an hour and a half away from Tegucigalpa, and no where near any beach or body of water.  But it did have a pool, and we have other friends who live in Comayagua so we got to spend a little time with them as well.  Kyle had the opportunity to go golfing the first afternoon, and there's also a small zoo/park about an hour and a half further.  We decided to spend Tuesday at the zoo/park--some of the families did the canopy tour, some when go carting, we did the zoo, and then we all met up at the pool after awhile.  It was about 100 degrees that day, which made walking around the zoo (up and down some very steep hills) not so fun, but we decided it is a really nice park for Honduras and would be a lot more fun on a cooler day.  The rest of the time we just spend at the hotel pool, trying to keep cool.

Random llama at the zoo

Watching the kangaroos

Trying to see the giraffe, but they had it tied up in the barn because apparently they can't handle the heat and sun...even though they come from the desert...

The tapir that tried to lick Juliana

Playing hide and seek with Maddy.  She counts "1, 2", then yells "I'm coming!"

Playing with Maddy at the pool...they were actually friends this trip!

Just lounging in the pool floaty

First mani/pedi...thanks Miss Helen!