clarification ...

clarification for my confused uncle bill ! ... antigua is also a city in guatemala ... i forgot that it was also another place ! sorry about that ....

went up to the volcano "pacaya" yesterday ... that was one big uphill climb ... and my sorry butt is so out of shape ! i slept like a baby last night and perhaps for like 11 hours ! although i thought the hike was rough it was enjoyable meeting people from all the states, canada and europe in our group ... and seriously - the view ! check out the pics ... started just below the clouds around 3:30 in the afternoon and ascended up through the clouds and were up by the lava/hot rocks ( not sure which ) in time to watch the sun start to set ... loved it .. but when matt comes down i might treat myself to a horse ! actually when matt comes we might sleep up there which i'm thinking would be crazy fun ... perhaps romantic ?!? :-)

time to hit the studies ... two days off was nice !

congrats to the colts !

skipped school today ...

okay not really, went with a couple other students and teachers to a couple museums ... was fun and challenging ... the tour was in spanish but they had some signs in english so that clarified some things !

here are some pics of the coffee museum ... in antigua the coffee is shade grown ... so in their opinion better ... which is probably true but to each his own ... pics

there was also a museum of mayan music history which was really cool and i want to take matt when he gets here ... possibly i'll have the chicken buses figured out on my own by then ! pics

no words to describe ...

At lunch today I glanced over and saw the paper and learned of the recent tragedy in Haiti ... I can´t even describe how upsetting it is to see a country that I love in total chaos right now ... I read that the General Hospital has collapsed and my heart is so sad right now --- the hospital housed many of the kids I worked with when I was down there ... I´m hoping that the work we were doing to get some of them out of there was successful .... Ferdinand is there, well let´s hope was there and is out in one of the orphanages outside of Port-Au-Prince now ... If you don´t know, Ferdinand is my little hero and was my motivation to finish PT school when I so wanted quit ... I carry his picture with me most of the time in my wallet ... I´m sure he has given me more help than I ever provided for him in the short time I was there. i was going to post a link to some pictures but i can´t quite figure that out in spanish ... heck, knowing me i wouldn´t be able to figure it out in english !

So now that I´ve caught up on my Haiti news I guess it´s time to provide some news of my own ...

I don´t really have much to say in comparison! This weekend I´ll go to Volcano Pacaya either with my host family (the dad) and another student that used to live with them that is here now or with a tour group ... so that´s pretty exciting. My sister´s friend is also here in Antigua - somewhere ! we haven´t connected yet but hopefully we´ll be able to bump in to each other sooner or later ...

school is going well ... i can´t believe it´s already been 4 days or 20 hours ! i asked my teacher if i need to take more hours per day next week but she thinks that more than 5 is almost too much ... so hopefully i´m ready for the next school ... but i guess if not they´ll just have to but me in the remedial classes ! although i must say i just helped some guy figure out what time this cafe closes - it´s a start i guess !

the family i stay with is so great ... the dad eats lunch with me every day and the mother eats dinner with me ... jose and louisa (sp?) come and go as they wish - they are easier to understand ! well jose only says pelota, agua, mama and papa ... but he gives the best little kisses ! louisa did my hair last night --- muy bonita she says ! ... it was fun ... the kids also know i always have cookies and chocolates for them so i get swarmed when i get home from wandering around town ....

speaking of wandering the town ... so i´ve kind of started to recognize my surroundings ... there are rules that there can´t be large signs for anything and there aren´t really high rises or anything so it took some getting used to ... fortunately the volcano to the south (agua) doesn´t move so i can use that to straighten myself out ! i must say i´m sure there other great places in guatemala and i hope to see more of them soon but you all should put Antigua on your to visit list - it seems to be a great base for trips to the rest of this area of guatemala

laundry room porject

sorry pics are in a bad order but again some photos of new laundry room project currently in process and some of the kitchen --- i guess it's done until i decide to decorate a little more ! i feel like the colo the kitchen look sin these pics is off ... so you'll have to come see for yourself !

forgot to post

so evidently i uploaded these a long time ago and never posted them ... oops ... i'm going to try to be a better blogger someday soon !

time for an update

I guess three months is a long enough break from blogging ... i had to look at the old post to see what was new news ... the last post was before we went to colorado with rob and gretch ... fun times and we now both have the colorado bug ... winter was starting to set in out there so we were only able to climb one 14er so we partook in some touristy activities and plan to return next year a little earlier in the year !

as for the kitchen we now have countertops, solid surface and made from recycled materials ... we love the fact that the sink is fused in, similar to an undermount sink ... my aunt hooked us up with an awesome delta faucet that is proving to be useful for many chores other than just dishes ....

we re-grouted the floor tiles to a darker color which blends much better ... matt did most of the grouting of the backsplash, which is my favorite part of the kitchen !

we've also stained the cabinets but have yet to trim them out and add the pulls ... the plan is to re-use the pulls from the old cabinets since we had just replaced them when we moved in a little over a year ago ...

unfortunately with the kitchen still under construction the rest of the house is a little cluttered !

and i've started on a new project ... stripping and sanding all the trim in the house to stain it dark like it was originally when the house was built 80 years ago .... notice the nice hole in the wall i made pulling some of the trim down to work on it ! oops ....

but i don't want to forget the steps going from the kitchen to the back door ....

and a couple pics of the nephews for added cuteness ... ethan was 8 months in the pics and will is about 3 and a half and keeping matt in line ! (sorry kaylee, somehow we didn't end up with any pics of your cute self ) ...

and how about a few more of our "kids" ....