10 Days Until We Will Be Cold!!

Only a week and a half until we head back to the states and freeze!! We are so excited to see family and friends...it will also be nice to see snow.
This weekend Kelly and I worked hard painting a train for our classes to use in their christmas play, Polar Express! Not only did we paint the train, we made 16 elf hats! We have been doing lots of work for this play, so hopefully the kids enjoy it!
Today one of our friends and fellow teachers, Laura, invited us to her beach house. THe view was beautiful. So relaxing to hang out so close to the ocean. We said that if our school gave us a house like that, it would be hard to leave. Have a super fantastic week!! We are thinking about many of you in the cold weather, as we enjoy pina colodas on the beach : ) I just had to through that in there!!

Kelly and I working so hard painting the Polar Express no 123

puerto rican fruit

trying star fruit

Laura's beach house

Laura and me

Old Sugar Mills

Our town Guayama, is known for its beautiful old sugar mills. Guayama used to be won of the bigger sugar cane producers for Puerto Rico. We took the dogs to walk around and Kelly took some pictures of us to use in our Christmas cards, so you will probably be seeing more of these!! Our other plans for the weekend were postponed due to the weather! It has been rainy all day. That's okay...Kelly and I were busy planning for our classes

big Christmas program! Our classes are doing a big play/dance/singing program...that includes Kelly's class, my class, and Brent's class! The next few weeks are going to fly by!!

Thanksgiving in Texas!!

I left my husband in Puerto Rico, to spend Thanksgiving in TX. I could not wait any longer to meet my new niece, Marina!! Don't feel bad for Brent though, he had his friend Colton come visit him while I was gone ( I should have those pictures next week...they did a lot of neat things).
My time in Texas was spent holding Marina, playing with Braedon, house shopping, and spending time with my sisters.
It is good to be back in PR, but it is hard leaving the little ones!! Braedon kept saying that he was going to go to PR with me and that is little stuffed animal, Chuck, was getting so excited for the airplane. Ohhh!!!
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving...just a few more weeks til we will be back in the states again for Christmas!! YEAH!!

Happy Auntie

Marina loves her mobile

after the bath

Marina looking at her mommy

so cute

Bradeon listening to music

Braedon and I had a sleep over one night..the little man outlasted me big time..he is too cute

Hello, Hello!!

No pictures this time : ( We really haven't done much over the last few weeks. Last weekend we went to another one of our student's elaborate birthday parties. This weekend we spent lots of time playing Brent's new Wii ( it is a ninendo thing his parents bought him for his birthday) it is actually lots of fun!! It is interactive, so you can play sports like tennis, bowling, and boxing. Kelly and I both woke up this morning sore from the boxing. We really got in to it!!
We also took care of our sick dog. Yah, Benny got into some cooking oil the other night and got very sick. We took him to the vet, and he is feeling much better!
Brent is ready for his friend Colton to come visit on Thursday and I leave on Thursday to go see my family in TX! I get to meet my new niece, Marina, and play with my very smart and cute nephew, Braedon!!We should have many pictures to share next week! Well have a great week everyone!!

Wigs and Mustaches are fun!! Happy Halloween!!

Yesterday was Kelly's birthday and it turned out to be a very interesting day!! We spent the entire day and night before without electricity. There is a tropical storm here and it has been raining so much!! Well after getting ready at a friend's house we were ready to go to Jorgie's bar where we would celebrate Kelly's birthday and halloween. So many teachers came, and most of them were dressed up. This year we all really got into the dressing up thing, unlike last year, where we just through something together that day. We had a blast!!
We got a little crazy while getting ready!!

Don't we look cute with our mustaches?? ( it was so hard not to laugh)

Courtney even let me put eyeliner on him

Brent trying on my wig

the rockstar

we brought the roaring twenties back : )

Snow White, Tinker Bell ( I called her Tinker Kel), and me

Casa Benny Five

the cake I made

getting the shots ready

Guamani Teachers!!

Kelly and I decided to take charge of getting a group picture of all the elementary teachers!! I always want to remember what a fun group we had at GPS! Here are a few of the pictures!! This weekend is going to be so fun. Kelly is having a birthday party/Halloween party... and we are all dressing up!! Have a great week!

1st grade-------2nd grade-----------3rd grade teachers

Race for the Cure!! We got 816th and 818th place!! Click the show and the arrow is at the bottom of the screen to go to the next page ( it is hard to see)

Click to play Make your own Smilebox

"Hey, Are Those People Naked??"

What a crazy day!! And yes, that quote really came out of Courtney's mouth today.Let me explain.... so we thought of a perfect thing to do today to relax since we didn't have school. Puerto Ricans don't celebrate Columbus day on this date..so we knew that it would be a pretty quiet day wherever we went. We decided to take a boat out to this island, Palmonito. Usually it is very busy with tourists...so we thought we would get this island all to ourselves....boy were we WRONG! So as we are pulling up to this island, I was thinking wow this island is amazing...the sand is white and the water is a beautiful, clear turqoise color. Well then we see a few other people on the island..okay fine...but then I hear Courtney ask if those people were naked. WHAT??Sure enough we didn't get the island to ourselves and ,instead, had to share it with a group of nudists (5- three women and two men)!! It was very uncomfortable and first. We tried to move our chairs in a different directions so we wouldnt see them. This is a small island, so it was nearly impossible to completely avoid them. After a while we just got used to them being around and still enjoyed the little island. We had a great time. I was trying so hard to get someone to let us burry them in sand, finally they said that I should just do it....and so I did!! haha!! Kelly has the pics on her camera.

This was a great weekend!! Not only did we get to have this very unusual experience, Brent and I got a new niece on October 5th!! Her name is Marina Lois, and she is absolutely adorable. I will have to wait until Thanksgiving to meet her.

Sunday is our big race!! This week we weren't able to run because of all the rain....we sure hope we can make it through that finish line. I will post the pictures on Monday!!

We're still here!!

I know, I know...it has been a few weeks since we have blogged. This should probably be a really good one....but the truth is we haven't been doing that much worthy of taking pictures!

The last two weeks have been pretty rainy here ( one month left in the "rainy season")...we have managed to get out to the beach and enjoy a little sun. And last night Brent and I drove into the city to eat some italian food at Macaroni Grill...YUMMY!!

Brent and I started tutoring kids after school to earn some extra money! The next two weeks we are working with our 2 plus another teacher's 5 kids because she is going to be in the states: Brent will work with 2, I will work with 2, Kelly will work with 1, and the other two kids just hang around to be babysat. Fun, Fun, Fun!!! The extra money will be really nice since I am going to buy an airline ticket to visit my sisters and family in TX over Thanksgiving.

Next weekend we are planning a little get away since it is a 3-day weekend. And then two weeks from today is Kelly and my big race!!! We are getting anxious for the 5K. We bought our matching outfits yesterday!! We are such dorks! The race will be in San Juan and last year 7,000 people raced. Brent and Courtney are going to stand at the finish line and cheer us on, while taking pictures!! You will get to see those pictures in two weeks...let's hope we cross that finish line! We have been training for 10 weeks now!! If you ever want to start running there is a great plan from coolingrunnings.com called "from coach to 5K"!! It works people!! Well the next few weeks we promise we will have good pictures...so keep checking back!

The beach dogs..again!!

How am I ever going to leave this life???

Pep Rally and Visit to Castillo Serrales

This week seemed especially crazy! Our school had its very first pep rally...and this was the first time that grades 1-12 would have an assembly together. Before the pep rally they told us to have our kids make posters and then they came by and gave them all whistles. The little kids were clueless as to what was going to happen at this pep rally??? While my kids were making signs, this girl asked if she could draw a pizza on hers. Uhmm...okay...well turned out that she thought I kept saying we were going to have a "pepporoni" instead of "pep rally". During the rally, each class did a little performance and then "cheerleaders" called all the teachers to the middle of the court to do "jump shake your booty" : ) So funny...but the best part was just watching the little kids faces...they just looked shock ( but then again, can't blame them after watching your teachers having to dance : )
The afternoon was so crazy ( the sound of 6oo kids blowing whistles) that Kelly had to call of an emergency party at Casa Benny!! Kelly's sister and two friends were also in town visiting, so it was a nice way for them to meet our friends.

On Saturday we drove to Ponce to visit the Castillo Serralles, a castle that was built by the Serralles family ( owned one of the biggest rum distelleries in PR). The second generation had built the castle in the early 1900's and then the grandaughter sold the home to the government for 400,000 dollars about 40 years ago. Today the home is worth 30 million!! It was beautiful!!

The teachers wearing purple and orange

Go Tainos!!

Castillo Seralles

Brent standing under this fabulous flamboyan tree

view from the balcony

view of Ponce