Austin's First Day of... High School!

I was glad to be around for such a monumental moment... and I just had to capture it. Here he is, my baby brother headed off to high school...

Fireworks with the Fam

Gramps and Gram with the little grandkids. :)

While I was home in the States, the Siscoe's had a belated 4th of July (and summer birthdays) celebration, complete with Grandpa's choice toys... fireworks. 3

Kallie and sparklers.

Wes was "big enough" to help with the fireworks this year... I think he thoroughly enjoyed it!

and cousin Chloe in the pickup headlights...

Forgotten Photos... that are no longer forgotten

I forgot to post more photos from my US visit! I took about a 1000 photos while in the States, ha, so I thought I would share a few more... these are some of my friends I was able to spend a morning or afternoon with...

Chelsea Winn and I at my house...
Dick and Chris Ratliff and I at the John Deere Pavilion in Moline...
and Jenny Olson and I at her house...

The Battle of the Bichos

Bichos equal Bugs.

I've been having battles with bugs. Serious battles.

3 nights ago, I woke up in the middle of the night suddenly. Not sure why, I just did. I turned on my bedside lamp and there, looming in the upper corner of my room, was the largest cockroach I've ever seen. Not kidding... I hate killing cockroaches as they just crunch too much, so I didn't do anything about it. But then I couldn't sleep for fear the cockroach would burrow in the covers with me. So I slept with the light on all night so I could see where the bicho was...

2 nights ago, I walked up the stairs to my room and turned on the lights to find a huge moth clinging to the ceiling... like, each wing was the size of my hand, not kidding. I had found one previously, about 4 months ago (ha, I thought it was a bat at first because all I could hear were the wings flapping!), and I knew that if I didn't get it outside, it would just flap all night and I wouldn't sleep again. So I resorted to throwing my wadded-up socks at the moth to direct it back out the window into it's dark feeding grounds... I threw all my socks and was collecting them to throw again when the moth found it's way out the window...

Last night, I darted into the room to find my cookbook and froze when I saw it... a HUGE grasshopper on the wall above my bed. My first thought was, ¨Seriously??¨ I had 5 guests downstairs waiting, so I returned to the kitchen and told them what was up, and we plotted before returning to my room with a bucket and sheet of clear plastic to transport the grasshopper to it's proper home. ... We succeeded after I gave up the main position of ¨catcher¨... I'm a bit too squeemish for this sort of endeavor.






It's not as big in the photo as it is in my memory.

A Real Life 30 Second Skit

Characters

Judit

Kate

Tequila, family dachshund (short hair, black)

Background Information

Tequila likes to play fetch... to the point that you no longer want to play. Kate's room is on the second floor, and she can throw Tequila's toys out the window into the backyard as the dog races down the stairs to get it. Judit knows that Kate enjoys playing with Tequila but tires easily of the repetitive game.

Skit

°Kate throws ball out window as Tequila races down stairs.

°Enter Judit into the backyard to take clothes off the clothesline.

°Tequila speeds across the lawn and burrows into the bushes to find the ball, rustles around.

Judit: Tequila!! Leave Kate alone!

Kate: Awe, Judit, she's alright for now.

Judit: No, she needs to learn to stop!

°Tequila stops moving in the bushes, pokes nose out as if to see if coast is clear.

Judit: Tequila, don't hide yourself!

°Tequila continues to play statue.

Kate: Tequila! You don't look like a plant!

°Tequila sulks out of the bush, complete with puppy eyes, as if to say: Come on! Sure I do!

Judit and Kate exit, laughing.

Tequila follows, ball in mouth.

Back in Action

I arrived in Costa Rica again 5 days ago, and all the Sojourn teachers are back in action. We have had a somewhat relaxed week as we only had one day of new students and the rest of the time was for preparing our classrooms and curriculum... and for the countless meetings that come with a so-called laid back week.

I created a Reading Rainforest in my classroom... I'll have to post photos. I love it, but it's totally the creativity of a teacher... hoping my students will love it :).

The tico parents headed to Nicaragua for a week vacation, so it's just been me and Judit here at home. We've been cooking great feasts every evening and laughing until our sides hurt. She leaves in 3 weeks for China... I'm going to miss her.

Pray for wisdom as the new school year begins! Much love!

La Judit En Chicago

My tica sister (aka Costa Rican friend) Judit came to visit for a week in Chicago. What a great opportunity to show her where I am from, to speak Spanish, and to continue to build a lasting friendship!

Judit in Union Station... the high ceilings aren't common in CR so she was fascinated.
A sweet shot I got while riding on the Loop 15 feet above Chicago downtown streets. We rode the "El" (aka Loop) full-circle twice for 25cents and were really excited about the photos we got.
Judit waiting for the El. I was super excited about this shot as I used a slow shutter speed to capture the movement of the train.
A classic, the "Bean" in Millennium Park. I am pretty sure this is the most photographed object in Chicago history... if not world history.

Judit had gone to the grocery store at 6:15... and we started getting worried when she hadn't returned by 7:30... turns out she was enjoying the many parks in the area and watching kids play in a fountain. Christina went out riding on the bike to find her.

We went on an Architecture Boat Tour on the Chicago River. We learned so much about the city! Here's a photo of the Sears Tower... excuse me, Willis Tower, and it's tall neighbors.
One of my all-time favorite works of Georgia O'Keefe. I introduced Judit to the Chicago Institute of Art and of course I had to introduce her to Georgia as well. This is called Blue & Green Music and she was studying the theories of Kandinsky from Russia when she decided to try out his ideas and paint to music... this is what she came up with. If you're able to read music, you just might be able to read this painting :).
Judit and I at the Art Institute.
Rosie came to join us for a day in Chicago. It was great to introduce Judit to some of my good friends along the way!

I also introduced Judit to some of my favorite forest reserves in the Elgin area...
and my favorite siloes...
The family also came with us for a day downtown! We went to Shedd Aquarium and walked 4 miles in one day :)
Judit and I also got a top notch view of the city from the ferris wheel... I had ridden it before, but I got really scared on the way up!
And after a week of walking a lot every day (probably between 2-5 miles every day), Judit's poor feet were looking forward to different shoes... The only pair she could stand by the end of the week were her flip flops, but she even had blisters in between her toes from the strap! We bought a daily box of Band-Aids to help out with this problem.