Friends Back Home!

After I finally made it in to Missouri late that Friday night, I called the Millers who were driving from Colorado to Columbia, Missouri, and were going to stop off in Kansas City so we could meet for breakfast. Gretchen said they were on their way and should be in Kansas City around 6:30 or 7. I just told her to call so I wouldn't have to get up! So my phone rang around 5:30 am and they were almost there!!!! I got up, brushed my teeth, and threw some clothes on and went to meet them at IHOP! It was soooo good to see them and so fun to get to see the kids and how big they have gotten. They were not people I was definitely expecting to see over Christmas vacation so it was a really fun part of my trip! Here I am with Makena and Beckett. They are pretty much like my niece and nephew as I got to meet Makena shortly after they brought her back from Ethiopia and as I met Beckett the night he was born and kept Makena while Mike and Gretchen were at the hospital. They are a very special couple and now family to me!!!

Gretchen (my sister...ha ha) and I with the kiddos. Gretchen, after driving for about 10 hours in the car and me after traveling all day the day before and being up at 5:30 am! :)

All of us together again! It was so fun!!!

I also got the chance to meet little Ross, who being stubborn, had to wait until a few days after I left in August to decide to be born! Natalie and I were in the same kindergarten class, so it's always a lot of fun to see her and catch up and think about the fact that we have been friends for about 25 years!!! Kind of weird! I don't keep up with a lot of people from back in Missouri but it's really fun to keep up with an old kindergarten buddy! And fun to meet her little baby now!

Ross and Aunt Kammie! :)

I also had another unexpected visit with another friend that I taught with in Korea. Krista and I met up at the mall in Kansas, where she is from. I took Grace and Sam and we had a good ole time catching up. Grace took this picture of us! ha ha.

It was a lot of fun to see Krista. We took the kids on the carousel and took this self portrait of ourselves! :)

Since Natalie lives in Kansas, after we went to the mall, we stopped by Natalie's house so I could see her again and Sam wanted to hold baby Ross! It was so sweet. Then when he was done, he just kind of got up and left! ha ha. He is a good big brother, which is a good thing since I have another little niece or nephew on the way!!!!

I also keep in touch with my friend Andrea, who I went to junior high school with and we played on the same basketball team in 6th, 7th and 8th grade. She has a little boy who is almost the same age as Grace and then she just had twin girls last January. They are so cute!

Me with the twins

I took Grace and Sam down to Crown Center one day and our longtime family friend, Ed, took us into the Hallmark building where he works downtown. It was so fun. We saw this cool Hoops and Yoyo tree all decorated with only their stuff!

It was so fun to see everyone and especially seeing so many people I wasn't for sure if I would get to see or not. Friends from kindergarten to friends from Korea, what a great trip. I am constantly reminded at how important relationships are and how grateful I am to have those special bonds and friendships in my life. I have so many good friends, literally, all over the world. I am so thankful at how God uses so many different people at different times in my life.

My Flight Back to Missouri!

I left New York on Friday, when there were storms being predicted to come in all night and throughout the whole day. When I woke up in the morning, schools were cancelled already for areas all over Connecticut and I was worried about if I was going to get out or not. My friend who was flying to Florida went the night before to avoid any trouble from the storms. Well, everything was supposedly on schedule when I called in the morning so I made my way to the airport, just in the nick of time and everything still appeared to be on time. I got through security, no problem, saw that my flight was delayed about 15 minutes, so I had time to grab lunch. We were leaving right about noon, but I didn't want to be starving on the plane. We all got on the plane and were ready to leave just a few minutes late. It was starting to snow outside but they said we were still going to get off. By this time, flights after mine were starting to get cancelled left and right. They told us that we had to wait to for the deicing truck to get to our plane before we could leave. Well, one thing kept happening after another ranging from: only one deicing truck in operation, that one truck running out of deicing fluid, another plane in the deicing line had a medical emergency and we had to wait for paramedics, planes getting sent back to New York and jumped ahead of us in the deicing line, only one runway getting used at Laguardia. FOUR HOURS LATER, we finally took off for Minneapolis. I had this nice lady from the Dominican Republic (my Spanish comes in handy in the US as well) who was sitting next to me that let me use her cell phone to call my sister and keep my family updated on what was going on and if I was going to get home. At one point, the gate agent came on the plane and said if we wanted to get off we could, but flights were cancelled and full and probably we wouldn't leave New York until Monday! (This was on Friday!) I opted to stay on and take my chances of getting stuck in Minneapolis! Here are some pictures from what the airport looked like in New York!

This one was before I even boarded the plane, the snow was just starting to come down!

This is what my window looked like when I got onto the plane!!!! Nothing like a little ice and snow!

Out my window, just waiting and waiting and waiting!

The planes getting deiced.

We finally made it out of New York and I saw a beautiful sunset over the clouds on my flight to Minneapolis. As many times as I've flown, I still can't get over the beauty and amazement of flying over the clouds! This was just so pretty as we flew over the clouds!

Sooooo pretty!

It's almost over!!!!

We finally made it into Minneapolis and when we got there they had a gate set up where anyone who had missed their connection, they had printed out the next flights going to your destination. There were still two more flights to Kansas City and I even had time to grab a slice of pizza and call my parents and tell them what time I was going to be home. After a full day of travel, I was finally home with my family!!!!

Trip to New York and Connecticut!

When I arrived at Laguardia, I needed to look for Nancy who was supposed to land about 15 minutes before me! We found each other in the airport and boy was it a sweet reunion!!!! It was so fun to see her and to get to spend a day with her in New York City! We went and met up with her friend AJ, who we stayed with in Brooklyn for the night. We hung out, it snowed, it was just so much fun!! Here we are on the patio of a bar right next to the Empire State Building while it was snowing! So fun and sooooo great to see Nancy!

We went to this other bar later with her friend AJ where they had performances from Broadway singers singing Christmas songs. It was a lot of fun and one of the performers was Paige Davis, from Trading Spaces on TLC!!! So we got our picture with her!!!

Empire State Building during the day!

Since I moved to New York after 9/11 I never had the chance to go up into the Statue of Liberty while I lived there. Even though you can only go up into the pedastal, I still wanted to go. So Nancy and I went and visited Lady Liberty! This is the size of the actual torch that is on Lady Liberty!

The beautiful New York skyline!

It was such a pretty day out and a beautiful blue sky.

Here she is!

Lady Liberty!

Fun times with great friends!

I took Nancy on a whirlwind tour around downtown, showing her where the twin towers stood, Wall Street, the Lucky Bull, etc. Here I am with the lucky bull!

I took the train up to Connecticut so here is Grand Central Station. They had this cool light show going on, so there were pictures shown in lights all around the station. It was pretty cool!

Saying goodbye to Nancy! :( It was so great to see her!

Flying Back to the US!!

Stephanie and I were on the same flight from Guatemala to Houston so we shared a cab to the airport for our early morning flight. We got through all the lines and everything quickly and got to our gate. I got bumped up to first class and enjoyed a nice quiet comfy seat on my flight! I got some great views of the volcano out of the window on my way from Guate to Houston. It is just beautiful! Check out the Volcano Agua.

So pretty!!!! Adios Guate for a few weeks!

Just some views of the city from the plane! Of course, you can see the big futbol (soccer) stadium!!!


Another view of the city....this layer of clouds was just sitting down in this valley, it was really cool!

Stephanie and I got something to eat (I had Panda Express....yum!!) at the airport and our next gates where we had to part ended up just being across from one another! Mine left about thirty minutes before hers so we hung out for a few more minutes before I had to go board! Here is Steph about to be in Boston in a few more hours!!!!

CAG December Activities

We had a few school wide activities that went on in the short time that we were in school in December! One of them was on a Thursday night, it was a school event called "Noche de Luces" and for the longest time I didn't exactly know what was going to go on at this event! Everybody just said, well there is a big fireworks show and they sell food and you can buy stuff. I was like, ok. Well, the KFC of Guatemala is called Pollo Campero and I really like it! They put on a fireworks show for this event at our school. It was really good. The event lasted from like 4-8 or until it got dark when the fireworks went off. Danielle and I ventured back there and got us some Pollo Campero. There was soooo much food being sold and about anything that you could ever want to eat! We ate and ate and ate! It was all so good. We had fried chicken, papusas, crepes on a stick, and I'm sure a few other things I can't remember! It was so fun. Here is Danielle pointing out our Pollo Campero that we were craving!

Pollo Campero even brought their big chicken mascot. You can see how enormously large that thing was by Danielle and I standing in front of it!!

As teachers, we did have to volunteer for like an hour or something to help out somewhere. I volunteered to help out in cookie making. I got to help some of our cute staff kids make (and eat, of course) their cookies! Here is Maya!

Sam, concentrating! I work with his dad in 7th grade!

And Alexis, the cutest little thing around!

These were all the tables and tents that were set up for eating at Noche de Luches. All of those tents were different restaurants or individuals selling food. Some families came and were selling food from their home countries.

Churros are really popular here. They are this fried dough and here in Guate, they can be filled with various things. A lot of the kids had them filled with Nutella!!! Yummy!!!!!

The last Friday that we had school, we only had a half day of classes and then the parent organization held a lunch for all of the faculty and staff at our school. It was a really nice lunch catered by the Hyatt (I think) and they had a wealth of prizes to give away by drawing names out of a bucket! It was a lot of fun. It was probably the coldest afternoon of the week and probably even in the past few weeks so our nice lunch outside was a little chilly! It was still really fun and nice though. I think the highlight was probably when one of our three bald (by choice! ha ha) teachers got picked to win the prize of the liter bottles of shampoo and conditioner! ha ha. He was quite embarrassed as were the moms that were doing the giveaway! They found another prize to give him! It was pretty funny though. When all of the staff and faculty gets together, we form a pretty large group as you can see in the photos below!!!

A group of friends at another table! You can see a few folks with their scarves wrapped around them!!! It was a little chilly! :)

Shopping in Antigua

Before I left, and while a few friends were also still here, we decided to go finish up some Christmas shopping in Antigua. The markets there are quite a bit cheaper than those in the city and you can find the same stuff. I always have this problem when I am shopping in another country, how traditional of a gift to get and to make sure it is something they are really going to use or if it is worth it to just go back to the US and have to fight crowds and do my Christmas shopping back there. I have gotten to where I hate Christmas shopping anymore because it seems like we end up wasting a lot of money. Especially now, living in a country where I see people every day that don't have money for food or clothes and things like that. Not that we don't have those people as well in the United States, but we also have welfare systems set up and those people can go places and get help. Here, the people that are suffering from poverty don't have many options or sources to go to for help. So anyway, off from that tangent, I made a trip to Antigua on Sunday before I left. One thing I love about going to the market is seeing all of the vibrant colors in all of the fabrics and textiles that are available. Here are a few pictures that I took from the market.

These are all like table runners, placemats, napkins, etc.

Once we finished shopping and were heading out to the car, we saw this processional leaving the cathedral down there. I have no idea what it was for, but it was kind of interesting. Here are a few shots from that.



All these people were lining the streets and carrying this really heavy thing down the street. Maybe the virgin Mary??

Any guesses as to what it is?

Fun in Guatemala

Our last day of school was on Friday, Dec 13 but I wasn't leaving to go home until Tuesday, Dec 16, so I had a few days to finish up packing and shopping and enjoying the warm weather before heading to the cold north! :) On Friday, after school, I went to the mall with a few friends as they needed to grab a few things. I hadn't been to the mall with all of the Christmas festivities going on, but it was not to be outdone with their Christmas decorations. It was definitely up to par with the holiday season! Here are a few pictures of the tree and the other various decorations!

This is just so Guatemalan.....I mean look at how low key and relaxed about life even Santa is! I have to say the lifestyle here definitely fits me. Everything is very relaxed and just kind of a "whatever" kind of philosophy about life.

So fun and festive!

After finishing our shopping we were waiting for a taxi and this is one of my favorite signs here in Guatemala. Most of you have already seen the smilebox that I made for my mom with these pictures but I just love it! No, I'm not pregnant just to clear up any questions that were asked about the earlier pictures! ha ha. It was just a joke and we thought it was kinda funny and a good way to spend/waste time while waiting for the taxi. It's funny the random things that you do in a foreign country when people can make fun of you and you don't even realize it because of the language! :)

So then we thought it would be really funny to get a random guy to take a picture with me in front of the sign! So Stephanie went up and asked this guy in Spanish if he had a minute and if he could help us with something. He seemed very worried and said, yes and then we asked if he would pose for a picture with me in front of this sign as a joke for my mom! He did it. I'm sure now he has a good story to tell his friends about these crazy gringas as he was out on his smokebreak from the grocery store!

One day some friends called and I went bowling for the first time in Guatemala. It was quite fun and we had a great time! Jean Ah decided that she needed to use the kids ramp to help her out!

After bowling we went over to a friend's house to hang out and watch the fireworks that night. We saw a BEAUTIFUL sunset over the volcanoes that night. I mean, seriously, does life get much better than this???? WOW

One of the volcanoes names is "El Fuego," meaning The Fire, because as you can see it is often smoking and looks like it is on fire. There are still active volcanoes here in Guatemala. They are just breathtaking to me no matter how many times I see them!

After we came home, our friend Andy came up and taught Stephanie and I how to smoke a cigar. I had never smoked one before and Stephanie and I didn't even know how to do it. Definitely not a habit I am going to pick up but it was kinda fun for one night to celebrate school being out!!!

Long time, no blog!

I know, I haven't blogged in a long time! It seems as though my blogger is working now at my apartment so I will hopefully get caught up in the next few days. WOW, I need to catch up from Thanksgiving! I made it home of course with some adventures on my way back, got to spend a few days in New York/Connecticut visiting friends and Lady Liberty, spent about 10 days in Missouri, made it back to Guate for New Year's, climbed a volcano, and am trying to get ready for school to start in two days! So here are the blogs I need to catch up on:

1.) Last Few Days of Fun in Guate

2.) Shopping in Antigua

3.) School Activities

4.) Trip Back to the US

5.) New York and Connecticut

6.) Flight back to Missouri

7.) Friends back home

8.) Christmas with the family

9.) Guatemalan sobrinos

10.) Day of fun with Grace and Sam

11.) Flight back to Guate

12.) New Year's Eve

13.) Climbing Pacaya

So there you have it, thirteen blogs coming soon!!!! As you can see from the last one, climbing Pacaya (a volcano), I will probably have time to catch up on my blogs because I am so sore I am not sure I will be doing much else besides lying on the couch or in my bed for the next few days!!! Well, it looks like I have quite a bit of work to do, so here goes!