Party Time!!

Well we had another busy week in PR. Friday was busy at school. We had a talent show for grades 1-6. The kids had to try out to be in the talent show. Brent had about 5 students and I didn't have any that made it. It was a lot of fun. The little kids were so adorable singing and dancing. Brent had two boys that did a rap duo..it was my favorite. I am having a class talent show on Friday, since none of my students made it ( I felt bad for them) and the story we are reading this week just happens to be " The Talent Show" too perfect!! Friday was also Kelly's birthday. Her first graders brought her many presents, including a Coach Bag. She said she was so excited that she about left her class to run down to mine to show me. It was a fun day. We had a big bash at our house. One of the teacher's sons is a DJ, so he brought over a big music system, that had a fog machine, lights, and a karaoke machine!! We danced so much. The teachers helped us dance to salsa and merengue. Kelly and I were loving the karaoke maching and entertained the crowd with our singing! It was such a fun night. The police came by around 1, because the neighbors complained our music was too loud. We finally went to bed around 3! Saturday night was the staff Halloween party at a high school teacher's bar. We all dressed up. Brent and I dressed as Britney Spears and Kevin Federline, Marsh's were zombies, and Clate..well we were not sure what he was. I think he was supposed to be dracula, bet ended up looking more like zorro! The party was lots of fun. We are so tired today after the crazy weekend.
It will be a busy week. We just learned last week that on Nov. 17th our school is going to have a Puerto Rico discovery day celebration. Each class has to do something to participate, such as dance, sing, or make food. Kelly and I decided that our classes are going to learn a dance called "The Plena" together. The girls wear long skirts and the boys wear white suits with red belts. This is in 3 weeks, we have so much to do to get ready. I am sure it will be really neat. Lots of pictures this weekend!! Hope you enjoy. Talk to ya soon!


Here we are with our neighbors two houses down, Charlie and Rose
( not sure what Clate is doing in the back)

Kelly and I are dancing with Mrs. Rosa ( 2nd grade teacher) and Mr. Mendez ( 8th grade)


The principal with Benny and Lola!


Here is K-Fed, Britney, and Sean Preston


Casa Benny 5 all dressed up

Fun in the Sun

Friday we had our first in-service at school. Each teacher had to make a web page that included assignments and tests for the parents to check, they can then email us if they have questions. It wasnt a bad day, we were finished around 1 and they served us lunch and wine too!! On Friday night one of the high school teachers came over with her pug, Choco. The dogs had so much fun playing. Thursday night we had all the american teachers over to Casa Benny for Italian night. Brent and I made an italian casserole, that was very good, I even helped make it!! Yesterday was hot here so we decided to go to a beach with all the dogs. This was Benny's first time at the beach. He loved it!! He was running in the water and chasing Lola around. Marsh's dog, Winston, even got in the ocean and swam! ( he caught a crab too) The dogs were covered in sand. We came home, gave them a bath, and they were out for the entire night!! Next weekend we have two parties, Friday night is Kelly's birthday, so were are having a party over here. Saturday night is a Halloween party for the teachers. Both should be fun!! Hope you all have a great week. Here are some more pics of the beach dogs, I swear I take so many pictures of them!

Dance, Dance

Hey Everyone,

I know we usually try to put up a blog every week, but last week I didn't take any pictures ( Brent was shocked!!). Last week was our first parent teacher conference...they were very good! I was so lucky to have Brent close by because he had to translate about 7 conferences for me. It is so difficult having a conference when we don't speak the same language as the parents, but the parents were very nice and it was nice to meet many of them. Friday night we went to a dance at the Lion's Club right across the street from our house. It was so much fun...I love watching salsa and merengue. Brent and I try, but we aren't that good (yet). Saturday Brent and I got some snorkels and went to a beach. We became obsessed with searching for sand dollars. We found a spot at the beach where you can't even take a step without stepping on a sand dollar. Most of them are still alive though, we try to find the dead ones. We ended up going home with about 15 sand dollars.
This week was another good week. Our school hasbeen doing a lot of fundraising and today we had an assembly to give some prizes to the students and the classes that made the most money. Brent's class was in the top 10 and his class won a free day to wear casual clothes, while the rest of the students were their uniforms! Courtney's class won a pizza party. Several other teachers won cash prizes! Kelly and I were disappointed that our classes didn't make enough money to get any prizes..oh well.
Tomorrow we are having all of the american teachers and some of the local teachers over to Casa Benny for Italian Night..Brent and I are still deciding what we are going to make. I was thinking lasagna from the box...but Brent doesn't think that will be a big hit!
We don't have big plans for the weekend...we are just gonna see what we feel like doing. I am so excited for my parents to visit. I am counting down the weeks. Only 4 more weeks! We miss everyone so much!
Here are a couple of pics of the pups. They got new collars that have their names and telephone number on them . Their cousins, Jim and Louie, sent them!! ( thanks aunt Kimmie)
Adios ,
The Dills


Look at us...we learned to sit!


Sand $s

Crazy 3 Day Weekend!

Wow last week was busy...we got Benny on Wednesday, having two puppies is lots of work. He is a very good dog and we are happy to have him. Friday was fun, during the school day Brent's entire class came over to my classroom. We set up a store in our room since we are working on counting money and making change. Brent's students would buy an item from " the store", and my students would count back the change.Brent is so funny..he comes into my classroom and moves decorations around. The kids are like " Oh No Mister!" It is pretty funny. Friday after school we headed to a town that has a bay that glows at night. There is algae in the water that soaks up the sunlight during the day and glows at night. We took a big boat ride in the dark out to the bay. We ended up having a full moon that night, so it wasnt all the neat. The boat ride was fun though!! Well after the boat ride we had plans to stay in a hotel in Mayagues, so we could get up early and go to the zoo. We had such a hard time finding this city though. We finally got there around 11:30 to find the tiniest room. Both the Marsh's and us had our two dogs and we decided it just was not going to work. We ended up driving all the way home to Guayama. On Saturday we decided we needed a relaxing day, so of course we decided to go to the beach. It was very nice. We found a lot of sea shells and sand dollars! But when we got home I was shaking out the beach bag and all of the sand dollars fell out and broke..whoops! Yesterday we hung out with the dogs, cleaned, and watched football. Today we got up early to go to a rainforest, El Yunque. We ended up driving 2 hours to the town and went up this huge mountain to find that the road was closed. We had to drive another 30 minutes to enter a different way. When we got there it started to rain!! The rain forest was beautiful though. We hiked to this big waterfall. When we got there we were already wet, and we were wearing our swimsuits, so we decided to jump in. ( no pictures because it was raining to hard to take the camera out)It was so fun! Kelly and I were soaked and we didnt want to put our jeans back on so we hiked the 30 minutes back to the car wearing our swimsuits and tennis shoes!! There was so much more to do at El Yunque, we definetly want to go back. It was so nice to have today off, and we have conferences on Friday, so it will be a short week. Well it was a crazy weekend here, but we had fun. Hope you all had a good weekend. Talk to you soon.

Another Boston Terrier!!

Wow, we never imagined that we would have got 3 dogs in Puerto Rico, but we found Lola a friend. Our new puppy is named Benny. Our house down here is called Casa Benny, everyone knows the house, so we decided that would be a cute name. I actually found an add online for him while searching for some pets shops to get Lola some things. His family could not have him in their apartment any more and so they were looking for a better home for him. I made Brent call the family and they brought him to Guayama today. Benny is such a sweetie!! Lola and him have been having fun playing together all day. I am sure they will sleep sound tonight!! Here are some pics..Benny is bigger than Lola and is mostly black.
Have a great weekend!
Brent, Katie, Lola, and Benny