Paraguay - Japan

Paraguay 5- Japan 4!!!

The Pueblo Paraguayo is partying. Downtown is full of celebration. My sister-in-law cried! Paraguay...one of the eight BEST soccer teams in the World Cup!

Yes, we watched it at school! The kids went in their Paraguay Jerseys. Gaby filmed this. The game ended when bell rang. I don't think the students would have been ABLE to concentrate anymore.

People are still honking horns and blasting their radios with the Paraguay victory song.

Here's a clip of the reaction after the winning goal.

Good Friends

Mauricio...Mauri is one of Edson's good friends. They were born 10 days apart, both in November. They are quite the opposite in just about everything...hair, eyes, and personality, but they are good friends!

This picture was taken Saturday night at church. One of Edson's favorite spots is here, in this Ficus tree. From here, he can see the volleyball or soccer games without anyone bothering him. When I can't spot him (at night) in the playground area or in the hallways...he is usually here, in the Ficus.

Baby Shower

I made a diaper cake yesterday for my friend's baby shower. I never did something like this, but I was looking for some ideas for baby showers and found this. I had some lace and ribbons (from Aunt Janet) and some left over Huggies and Pull-Ups from Edson and got to work on it.

Ta da! It was finished in less than an hour.
Karina is expecting her second girl! Giuliana, her first, is 8. We have been friends for a while, since Giuli was in Kindergarden at CPA.

Once when we were going somewhere, I saw a rainbow in the direction of their house. So, I messaged her and told her that God had a promise for her. She texted me back to say..."How did you know?" We laugh a lot about that! She let out her secret thinking that somehow I knew...before she was even two months pregnant. All I wrote was that God has a promise for her and her family because I saw a beautiful rainbow over their house.

We had fun picking out names and blessing our friend's pregnancy and baby. I printed out some cute Bible verses to read and to take home.

We prayed for this child and the Lord has granted us what we asked of Him. – I Samuel 1:27

“Every good and perfect gift is from above.” – James 1:17

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you…” – Jeremiah 1:5

“From the fullness of grace we have received one blessing after another” - John 1:16
“I sing for joy at the works of Your hands.” – Psalm 92:4
“And He took the children in his arms, put His hands on them and blessed them.” Mark 10:16
“Children too are a gift from the LORD, the fruit of the womb, a reward.” – Psalm 127:3
“For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst knit me together in my mother’s womb.” – Psalm 139:13

It was a fun, girls night out!

Brandon

Brandon is sitting here with me today while I write this.

I said..."What should I write about?" and he said, "Put in this picture of me."

So, Here's Brandon...

Edson's Pictures

Edson has been into drawing and coloring lately. This is last night's version of "mom and dad" and cars. After a while he said that he decided that the bottom picture was not cars, it was teeth! (Then he showed me his teeth and growled like a big bear growl and ready to attack.) Yeah, That's what it was supposed to be! Huge teeth!

More Citrus

This is a red-colored ORANGE. We had about 50 fruits this year. We would have had more, but Edson picked them off when they were grape-sized. These are not as sweet as some oranges, but they are pretty good. When we made orange juice-it was more like reddish-pink juice.
The middle one is peeled like they peel oranges here, and then you can suck all the juice out of it. The citrus fruits are almost finishing. It's been wonderful to pick them straight off the trees!

Grapefruits...or Pomelos...or Toronja!

We had five HUGE GRAPEFRUITS on our tree this year. This is no. 4. Sometimes they get to be the size of a basketball. There are some dark reddish ones and light-grapefruit colored ones.

My dad used to always work away at cutting little triangles out of halved grapefruits. I never liked all the work or the bitter-sweet taste. But, eating a grapefruit in Paraguay is like eating grapefruit sugar. Here people will peel them, cut a hole in the top and suck all the juice out...I decided to do it my dad's old way...cut it in half and slice out little triangles, then squeeze all the juice out.

The huge grapefruits are not juicy. You have to peel them and then pull all the pulp out of them. It tastes like little bubbles of sweet grapefruit. There is no way one person can eat one fruit all alone. It is way to big!

Ummmm! One more left this year!

Paraguay - World Cup

By the way, if you are a soccer fan, Paraguay and Italy tied today... 1 - 1

I got the picture from this article.

Sasha's in the Hospital

Sasha's cast came off (actually she chewed it off), so Oscar took her to the vet and he wants to have her in a cage for at least four days so she can be still. He bandaged her up some how and wants her off her legs for a while. Our yard is too big and she still runs around barking at everyone. He is giving her calcium shots.
This is actually getting kind of funny...she is only a dog! But, Oscar feels so bad that he made her jump and fall.
The house is silent for a while, no little tail "knocking at the door". No barking to let us know someone's here. No one to throw left overs to. We miss her after all.

Help! Emergency!

Last night we got home late from church and after dinner (at 10:00 pm) Oscar went out to play with Sasha. She loves to run and jump and turn flips in the air and Oscar loves to play with her. Well, after a while he came in and said..."Sasha jumped and fell bad on her back leg. I think she broke it!"

Where do we find a vet on a holiday (June 12-Paz de Chaco) and late on a Saturday night?

We quickly thought of Mariela and Jarlen. Jarlen studied to be a Vet in Cuba and just married Mariela and we called them and went all across town to bring them back to our house to have him check out Sasha's leg.

It was pretty bad, so he thought up a way to put it in a cast. Jarlen says that dog bones heal much faster than human bones. I don't know who felt the worst, Oscar, Sasha, Gaby or Jarlen. The whole emergency made it hard to sleep last night.

She seems a little more jumpier today, anyway.

Whewwww, what a crazy night!

Vamos Paraguay!

Today is the day!

Today is the opening day for the World Cup! This is almost like what the Olympics would be to people in the states. People are going totally crazy. My kids can think of NOTHING else!

Last night there was a Kick Off Concert and today, in just minutes...they are starting the opening ceremony.

Guess what, President Lugo says you can watch it in school! What a way to skip classes! Yes, we will project it on a huge screen for the whole school. If we wouldn't do it, the kids would skip school. Gaby was already figuring out ways to stay home and watch the first game South Africa vs. Mexico. Paraguay plays its first game on Monday, and once again, Lugo "gave orders" for the game to be watched at work, at school, on the street, or where ever.

So, Go Paraguay!

Vamos Albirrojo!

With Gaby's permission...

Today's Parade

Our school was invited to the

Lambare City Parade celebrating their 48th anniversary. It started out as a very wet and rainy day, but we ended the parade semi-dry. There were like 40 schools represented and we were no. 38! The kids get social studies grades for doing this. It was kind of fun!

Can you recognize the cute drummer-boy in the front?

Stuck in the Sand

We were visiting our relatives in San Pedro. We had to get back to the city (50 km away) by 7pm. Oscar's brother told us to go a different route back to the main highway. He said it was a smoother dirt road than the one we usually use. Five minutes later, we were jam-packed in sandy dirt. Can you see how the car is lifted up? We tried everything...parts of logs, pushing, etc. we just kept getting deeper.

It was almost dark. We were so far in the country that our cellphones didn't work. I stayed in the car with Edson (to pray) while Oscar went out walking (and praying) to find help. We were both remembering a time about 10 years ago when we were stuck in the middle of the pitch-black countryside with no lights and no help so late at night with two little kids for hours...

In just minutes...a pick up showed up from no where and this rancher-guy pulled us out. Then, just as quick as he appeared, he disappeared.

God's Angles at work!

News and Stuff

This morning we woke up to 47ºF! It's winter in Paraguay! It's supposed to be up to 65º this afternoon, but Saturday and Sunday, back down in the low 40º’s. I guess we'll be making more vorí-vorí.
My kids are can't feel the cold! They are excited about marching in a Parade on Friday. Brandon is in the drum section and there has been practice twice a day. One student's dad is from the military and sent a military trainer to our school to practice with the kids this week. June 12th is Chaco Armistice. Almost all of the schools/towns have a parade either May 14th for Independence Day or June 12th for "Paz de Chaco" Day. Our town, (Lambaré) usually has the parade on June 5th commemorating Lambaré’s (48th) anniversary. So, our parade is June 4th. There will be about 50 schools represented.
I’m just thinking…it’ll be cold and rainy that day!
Brandon just got back from an evangelistic trip to San Pedro. A group of about 20 went to do different activities (visiting, inviting, kid’s bible hours, setting up the sound system, etc.) this past weekend. Brandon adapts so well to different cultural experiences and enjoys every minute of the adventure.
Gaby is still lead singer and guitar player at school (and sometimes at church) and is dreaming of being a soccer player for Tacuari. He was supposed to go last Thursday, but when the riots broke out in town, we decided to wait.
Oscar’s doing fine, but battling a dry cough. For some strange reason I have been so nostalgic lately…it’s probably the cool weather…I have been missing everyone and everything. I just blame it all on the thyroids!
So, that’s the news and stuff for today.

I thought I'd stick a flower in to brighten up this cold day. I found this flower growing out of an old stump in San Pedro on our last visit and loved it.