September 2014

Here are some photos from September that are too cute not to share.

Playing in her kitchen

 Swimming with Peyton- one of the last swims of the summer

 Starbucks

 And more Starbucks (remember- one of Jovie's favorite places - following in Daddy's footsteps of loving fun beverages)

 Just hanging out in her jammies

More school!

*Jovie has been a little more tentative about school than she was on her first day, but overall she's doing really well.  She still tells great stories, loves to recite the names of her teachers, and is learning to make new friends.  The teacher says she has some tears some days, and I can tell she's nervous or overwhelmed sometimes when I drop her off, but she's usually full of happy stories when I pick her up or when I get home from work.

**What I didn't realize, is that the fact that I have told her "Mama or Daddy or Leticia will always come back to get you" makes a real difference.  On the first day of her second week, I didn't say anything like that getting ready for school or on the way.  We just were chatting lightly together.  She saw Stacey and Laurie on her way in (they had just dropped Peyton off), and one of the first things she did was raise her arms with her palms up and say "Mama always comes back to get me!"  No one asked that.  :)  But, I realized that is what she plays over and over in her head to psych herself up for school.

***By the third week, no tears, no hesitancy, nothing.  Jovie LOVES school.  She sings the songs she learns, hugs Ms. Terri every morning on her way into school, comes home proudly showing us her crafts and activities from school, and is making friends.  Jack seems to be a good friend that she plays with a lot.  She has done amazingly well, and we are very proud of her.

Here are some "ready for school" pictures from September.

Guatemala & Bolivia

Mike went home Tuesday morning, and I continued my training and work in Guatemala.  Loved being in the office with our team there!  I don't like to post too many pics of the office and people at the office, but here are a couple.

Tarps to protect from the rain

Yesenia!

Next, I went to Bolivia.  Took care not to get sick in the altitude by resting a lot at the beginning.  I was very humbled by the fact that I could barely breathe if I moved too quickly.  But I absolutely loved La Paz.  Gorgeous city, great high-altitude weather, and another amazing office.  

I had some good views from my hotel room, including one of "the Mountain".

 The most humbling thing about the trip- the office provided an oxygen tank in case I needed it.  Thankfully, I never needed it and didn't get altitude sickness.

 The office

 On Friday night, we rode the cable cars over the city.  They go from La Paz to El Alto.  It was fun and beautiful.  Also, it was scary from time to time.  :) 

 The Bolivia interns who helped show us around and were our super fun companions.

This travel to Latin America was really, really wonderful.  The offices were amazing to work with, the people were lovely, I remembered more Spanish than I thought I would by the time I left Bolivia and I thoroughly enjoyed the food, culture and environment of these two places.  I am so blessed to have gone.

Guatemala

I was traveling to Guatemala for work at the end of September, and so Mike joined me for the first time on an IJM trip.  Yay!  We extended the trip by a couple days on the front, so we could explore Antigua and hike a volcano (Pacaya).

We had an unexpected overnight layover in El Salvador because of flight delays.  So, we got dropped off via shuttle at a very posh and noisy-ish casino/resort.  But, they had a buffet for us at like 1 am when we got there, and the room was comfy and clean.  All part of traveling internationally- anything can happen...

We arrived a little less than a day later than we expected, but ReJean Twedt (FOD Brad's wife) met us at the airport, connected us with our cab driver, and we got dropped off for the afternoon and evening in Antigua.  We weren't able to take the tour we originally wanted to, but we had a lovely time wandering through the town, eating yummy food, visiting shops, drinking coffee, and hanging out in a park in the evening watching the locals dance and sing, and just enjoying being in a new place together.  Here are a few pictures of our day.

The next morning, we woke up really early and got picked up at our hotel around 5 am by a guide.  We were hiking the volcano, Pacaya!  The drive to the volcano (about an hour) was perfectly misty and foggy through the mountains and hills.  By the time we picked up our native guide and started the hike, the day was clearing beautifully.  The hike was incredible.  Beautiful, unique and relatively secluded.  We passed a couple other people, but mostly just us and our two guides.  New terrain to hike, beautiful vistas, a gorgeous stop for lunch, fun facts by our guide, roasting marshmallows over the hot spots, a little non-profit lava store on the way, and it was a wonderful adventure.  

We were back at our hotel by early afternoon, and we showered and rested before dinner at the Twedt's house with Brad and ReJean Twedt, and their dog, Bear, and Dan, the contractor I always travel with to do this training.  That was really fun also, and we stayed way too late and had wonderful food and conversation.  It was such a rich and lovely trip.  So glad we did it!!

First Day of Pre-School!

And she did great!  There were a few tears and whimpers this morning about not wanting to go, but as we started getting ready and made a big deal about her new dress (which she picked out this weekend) and the applesauce pouch in her lunch (I made the concession so that her lunch could be 'special'), she started to get excited.  On the way to school in the car we talked about her new Sunday School Bible verse which is "God is with you wherever you go" and how that means at preschool, too.  She said "God will be at school?"  I said, "Yes, God is always with you."  She said, "Mom, is God the teacher?"  Ha!   When I said no, we can't see God, but He's still there, she asked if He was an angel.  By the time we got there, I had to hold her back until it was her turn to get signed in to the classroom.  She was dying to get in there!

When I picked her up, I wasn't sure what I would get to hear, because after Sunday School, I often get very little information.  But today, she told me lots of things.  First thing in response to my question of "How was your day?" was "I be'd kind to my friends and my teachers."  Can you tell what I spend lots of time talking about?!

Stacey and Peyton stopped by her room to say hi during pick up, because it was Peyton's first day, too!  Here's a pic- both girls were pretty tired.

Jovie had some purple stuff on her hands and arms, and I said, "Oh, did you paint?"  She said "No, I found berries."  I said "In your lunchbox, your berry jelly?"  "No, at the playground.  I found them and squished them," she said while making pinching motions with her fingers. Kids are so funny!

In the car, I asked her how the Art & Science room was, because we saw that at the open house on Friday.  She told me that the kids turned the lamp off and on, and then she said "And I turned it on and on and on and on..."  Then she said "You wanna know something funny, Mama?  I didn't play with the kitchen at all."  And from there, lots of information came pouring out.

"And I saw my favorite animal, the lion. But I sat on the monkey."  (The circle time rug has animals on it.)

"And the boy in the black shirt pushed me.  We shouldn't push.  I didn't push, or hit, or bite or kick."

"And I played with blocks."

"And for lunch, I ate my applesauce, my grapes, my fishy rockets (Cheddar rockets that remind her of goldfish crackers), and peanut butter and jelly- I ate all of it!"

"And I played on the playground."

All of this continued through coming home and getting ready for nap.  It was so great!

At one point in the car, she said, "You can go to school Mom, when you grow up, and I'll drive you."  I tried to explain that I had already been to school, and except for maybe a little more college someday, I'm done.  She said "That's OK.  You can come to my school."

We'll see how tomorrow goes, because as soon as I strapped her in her car-seat to take her home, she said "I'm done going to school now, Mom.  I'm not going anymore.  I'm a grown up."  Oh, Jovie.  So much more school to go - I hope it's all as good as this first day was!



*Bonus- pictures from the open house the week before