Boyd Bear Tracks

I'm actually having to consult my journal to see what we've been doing recently! The Carters left Tuesday and Jon is on vacation for a couple of weeks. We won't really be doing any traveling, unless you consider being tour guides for the new families traveling :-). The Ashbys come in on Friday and Shelley comes in on Monday. There is a little bit of a problem with the house we found for the Ashbys. Unfortunately they won't be able to move into it until September 6th; but, the landlord has another place they can stay (for free) until the house is available. It's a little unnerving to find that out two days before they come, but God is in control!

On Friday, the kids were in the Kinder while we were at the Graduation, and they did pretty well. Well, maybe not Ellie. They told me she was following Annie (a little baby--a biter too) around, and every time Annie picked up a toy Ellie would grab it and say "Esto es mio!" (this is mine!). They all thought it was cute, but I hope Ellie doesn't become a bully! Have I ever mentioned that she reminds me of Heather? :-)!!

Saturday we decided to visit Escazu (the "American" side of town). We took three buses and by the time we got to the end of the third bus route we realized we had missed the stop. So, we decided to get off on our way back through town. Unfortunately, Ellie got car (bus?) sick and threw up all over me. There was no way I could get a bag out of the backpack so, I just waited until she was done and then cleaned up with wipes. Fortunately, I had a bunch of those!! Needless to say, we didn't get off the bus. We just rode it back to the stop in San Jose and took a taxi home (skipping 2 buses). One good thing, Ellie ate a really good supper :-). We have a little restaurant right in front of our house and they have really good "tico" (Costa Rican) food. It's only about $2 a plate! They serve a salad, rice, beans, mashed potatoes (or yucca), and a meat. Of course if we ate there all the time I could get kind of tired of the same thing all the time, but it is good.

On Sunday night Jon spoke at the "matrimonios" (married couples) meeting. He did a great job! The other missionaries keep raving about how good Jon's Spanish is (he won't say it on his blog, so I will :-)). I made Pandeyuca (a bread with yucca flour), but they all turned out flat. Apparently they were good to eat (even if they were not good-looking) because all the ladies asked me for the recipe. I guess it's a Colombian food, not a Tico food.

Right now we're taking care of the Reilly's animals again, so we have Coco (their dog) at our house. We go over to their house every day to check on the cat (I couldn't figure out where to put the litter box in our house without the kids getting into it). Yesterday Coco saw another dog outside and took off after it. Fortunately, I caught her, but I was afraid I had lost the Reilly's dog for a little bit! It is a lot of work to have a pet. Jon is amazed at how I get up in the morning (usually I have to be dragged out of bed) and take her out to go potty. Of course, it's when I'm up anyway because Ellie is crying. It's not too hard to give Ellie her pacifier, take the dog out, and then settle back into bed to sleep again. (in a way it's like sleepwalking--I'm still half asleep :-)).

Lucas and Ellie inherited some of the Carter's toys, so they feel like it's their birthday or something. Ellie latched on to a new doll (she now has like 5), and Lucas snatched the sharks :-). At the end of this month Jon and I will be helping with Orientation, so the kids will be in Kinder again (for 3 days). I hope everything goes well. I'm sure they'll enjoy playing with some other kids for awhile.