Enjoying our Friday afternoon...

 Just some pics for ya'll to enjoy!

We had such a lovely afternoon.  I was ready to throw my Spanish text book against the wall, well lets just say a little break was in order!  And thankfully we could make it work!  It was SO relaxing!

 We played a little Upwords!  

And here's a picture of the pears growing outside. 

They aren't that good for eating, but they're good for baking!

Adding comfort and personal touches to the house...

Our house is filling up, things are going on the walls, projects are getting done. All, as they stay in Spanish, 'poco a poco' meaning little by little.  

I made these lovely cushions for our dining room table chairs.  We found out quite soon that if you sit around talking at the table, your bum gets a little sore.  So this one has been on my project list since the beginning, and wow, believe it or not, its taken me this long to get them done.  After all that thinking and planning (we bought the materials MONTHS ago), it was actually pretty easy to whip them up.  But I have to admit, the picture is of only one chair, cause I haven't finished the rest yet!  I've still got 3 of the 6 to go!  But at least the two of us can sit in comfort and style!

I chose a nice dark colour for the cushions because I knew I wanted them to be in use for a long time, and the dark colour will hide any stains they may accumulate!  *smart thinking* :)

Wish we could have all our family here so you could see the house and I can play hostess! Love you all!

Slippers!!!

We love things that the grandparents have made for us.  I thought of one in particular, our slippers, because we've been making good use of them since the rainy season hit us.  Gotta keep them feet warm!

New Printer

Sometimes buying particular things can take a long time and some planning when living in Mexico.  Electronics are for some reason more expensive here.  Because of that, we knew that we wanted to buy a printer/copier/scanner/fax machine combo online.  Jason found a good deal.  The only thing was getting it here!  You don't exactly put a thing like that through international mail!  Fortunately our good friends the Goldfuss' went up to Texas for a little summer family time.  And, well, we got our printer sent to an address there in Texas and they brought it back for us!!

Jason didn't want a picture of himself on here.  However, this is what it looks like when Jason is at work in his office.  Now with our printer we can print thousands of invitations, church bulletins, sermon notes, and much more!  Right now, we aren't printing anything quite in that kind of quantity, but Lord willing, not too far in the future we will be printing church invitations.

Keep praying for the Bible study!  We had someone new last night.  He is from the family that we had originally started the Bible study for (and he is the first to come from that family).  They live very near our house, please pray that we will be able to get to know the family and develop a relationship with them.

Celebrating Canada Day and the 4th of July...

Canada Day and 4th of July fun!!  We invited another American family over.  We had a nice time.  Check out the cake I made.  I took pictures in stages.  It *may* be hard to tell what it is, so I'll just give it away- It's Uncle Sam's Hat.  How American, I know.

 Just a bit of watermelon thrown in there- can't have a summer celebration without watermelon and burgers!

 Nooow.... the finished product.  Yup, that's 4 cakes stacked on top of each other, covered in icing.  We had an interesting time contemplating how we were going to cut it.  

We decided to go with a layer at a time.

It didn't feel *quite* the same celebrating what is normally a hot-summer's-day-sort-of-celebration during the rainy season.  It just pours and pours.  Our yard becomes a swamp!  But we had a fun time just the same.  Thankful for my cozy dry house.

*Sorry there's no pictures of us.  I always forget to take pictures 'in the moment.'

Plants

Yaaaa..... I'm writing about my plants.  People know how giddy I've been about my plants, Jason just shakes his head. :)  But, I DON'T talk to them-ok, it's not that bad. My Dad is helping me work on my green thumb, he happily responds to my emails. :)  My very first house plant- an aloe plant- it died.  I think I watered it too much.  And I have two plants in front of my house, they're in rough shape.  I don't think I watered them enough.  But I am trying to salvage them, they aren't completely done for.  Here's my new 'ponytail plant' -it's lookin good. It's been around for a month, and, so far so good.

These are my little seedlings.  I think it'll be the highlight of my week when I see the first little sprout come out of the dirt.

I've got some herbs, some flowers, and some cactus' in there.  

I like to write the English and the Spanish.  I'm trying to encourage the bilingualism to come through. :)

Well, be assured, I will probably post a pic of the seedlings when they actually poke through.

I love seeing new growth.  I love that we're in the rainy season right now, and everything is sopping wet.  We have to make sure our house is in shape for the rainy season.  A couple days ago, when it was storming, it was flooding behind our house (that's where our washer and dryer is).  Jason went and unclogged the drains.  And we decided that we need to put some wood underneath the washer and dryer to protect it from the elements. 

We also went to Home Depot and bought some containers with little balls that soak up moisture in the air.  We put those in our bedroom.  Last rainy season, our first few months in Mexico, we had mildew problems in our bedroom, and our bed sheets were always quite damp.  These should help.  Things are a bit different here, but we wouldn't want to be anywhere else.  We love that the Lord has sent us here to be a witness for Him.

Learning the Language

These are my Spanish study materials.  The pilgrim's progress (on the left) is just for fun, reading really helps me understand.  I've read novels without a dictionary, though I didn't understand a lot of words, just reading it through like that helps me to absorb and get the whole picture.  Though I don't understand some words, it really makes my brain think.

'Asi hablamos' is my text book for my Intermedio 1 course that starts next week.  *Maybe* I'll have a peak at it, and see if I can get ahead (HA-not likely).

In my Spanish class, besides going through the book, we have many discussions and role plays and other conversation times, that really makes these classes invaluable.  We go everyday, Monday to Friday, 9AM-12PM.  We leave our house at 8AM and get back by 1:30PM-ish.  So, ya, it takes out half our day right there.  Fine for me, I just have to worry about lunch and the house.  Jason, however, has sermons and Bible studies to prepare.  He is so diligent, and such a hard worker!  

There's also some flashcards there.  Those are from my Basico 4 course and previous courses, so I can remember the main grammar concepts taught in the courses.  And so I can review what I'm supposed to know up to this point!

Underneath my text book is a book called 'First 1000 Words in Spanish.'  It has a lot of common words, but also, it does have some obscure ones.  Each page is set in a different location to learn all the words associated with that location, ie. the grocery store, a shed/backyard, hospital, etc.

Yup.  So that's what I'm doing to learn Spanish right now.  My view of language learning so far: Reading and writing are by FAR easier than speaking.