I'm Off

I'm off to church camp! I won't be writing the rest of the week. I MIGHT come back on any odd day just to check email, but...it's Easter Break...so, I might not.
The house is clean, the clothes are dried and folded, packed or put away, the refrigerator is empty, etc. The boys already left. This warm, end-of-summer heat calls them to a refreshing pool at the campsite. No school, some homework (not done yet, of course)...it's VACATION. Hey...we must enjoy every second of it!
I am going to make traditional "Easter Chipa" today, take some to a friend and then go on to camp.
See ya!

More about the storm...

Check out this video from Ultima Hora. Scroll down until you see the title "Así comenzó la tormenta" (this is how the storm started) and watch this! This morning we were left with black muck all over everything.

The Strangest Thing

The strangest thing happened today.
I was snuggled up for a nice Saturday afternoon nap. Gaby came in at 3: 30 and told me that he and Brandon were going in to church already. I wanted to keep resting so I barely opened my eyes, but after he left, I noticed that everything was dark out...like night time. I said to Oscar, "what's going on?" Oscar said that there was a storm coming.
Some storm! Everything was BLACK! The wind started picking up. It was 3:30 in the afternoon and it looked pitch-black like night time! I said a prayer...God take care of my kids! (they just left for church)...thinking that we were in a huge tornado-type storm. I wondered if we were experiencing an eclipse that I didn't know about. It was weird and scary. So much for my snuggly siesta!
Just then the wind picked up a little more and things were getting bad. We ran downstairs to find Black Dust everywhere, on the table, floors, outside, etc. My clothes were dry. I ran to get them and the Black rain already had spotted them like polka-dots.
Soon after the rain, things looked clear again.
From news reports I gather that the storm picked up all the ashes and smoke from Friday's forest fires. The town lookes like soot was dumped on it.
I read some online reports. Click if you want to see some pictures.
Ultima Hora (scroll down a little bit to get more of the pictures...the article is in spanish), ABC

So Sad...

This morning we were shocked and saddened by the news of our students' dad's death. He was a professional soccer player and was playing a friendly, neighborhood game. He made a goal and ran around celebrating, and then just collapsed, dead. He was 37. They have four kids...one is a newborn. The two older girls are in Colegio Privado Adonai and the two younger boys are at home.
Oscar was visiting them all day and has been praying that the Lord may comfort this family facing such a tragedy. Just last week we stood on their sidewalk talking to this man when we brought their younger girl home from camp, early, because she was sick.
Pray with us, please!

Teen Camp

This was an amazing teen camp. There were 105 kids (jr. high and high school) plus 10 teachers. The kids slept in tents, played volleyball, swam, played soccer, drank tereré (like the girls in the picture with their thermos and cup with a straw.) They sang, learned Bible verses, prepared activities for talent night, and ate and ate and ate!

This was the first year that the students actually played the instruments and lead Worship. It was very exciting to see their talent.

We had such a great group. There were no discipline problems. Everyone stayed up until about 4 in the morning, but no major problems. Praise God!

It was a great opportunity to "get away" from the normal school day and family life.

One Photo!

Betty...this is for you!

Since this adventurous night...we have been locking Edson in his room, thanks to one commenter's advice!

No jelly pictures. It was already too late to be messing around with with cameras. Plus...I didn't want HIM to think this was all too funny.

Laugh...if you wish

Where do I start?
I was going to post about our camp, but something else came up.
I am usually laughing at the mischievous things my sister's kids and my cousin's kids do. Mine NEVER did such things, no really, this proud mother assures you!
This is NOT an April Fool's joke...Last night we were all so tired and got to bed around 9 pm...a little bit later we heard a noise in the computer room. Oscar went out and sent Edson back in to me. He was completely covered with white cream (some zinc oxide cream for diaper rash, or sores). His face, hands and clothes were completely white...but that's not all...the computer screen, the chair in front of it, the mouse, the floor, the bathroom sink, the closet, his bed, the wall...yes, everything had white stripes of greasy cream...everywhere. While I wiped up the mess ON the things, Oscar wiped up Edson, plus spanked him and sent him to bed.
We kind of laughed back in bed...it was the first time he ever did something like that.
About 10:20 pm, Oscar jumped out of bed...we were both already asleep. He said he felt something or heard something. (I think the Holy Spirit was tugging on his arm.) He left the room to check on Edson.
He came back saying..."Edson is NOT in his room". I jumped out of bed and was just steps behind Oscar as we ran the house looking for him.
Oscar was in the kitchen when I heard him saying "EDSON, what were you doing?" Edson had run to the laundry room to hide. By then I was at the scene of the crime, also. There was a broken egg on the counter, water on the floor and guava jelly everywhere...coating Edson's pijamas, hands and face, the refrigerator, the floor, and stuff inside.
Oscar found Edson on the floor in front of the fridge with the door opened sitting with his hands IN the jelly...eating it and slopping it everywhere. He must have tried to eat the egg thinking it was a hard boiled egg and when he didn't like it, he drank water from our thermos getting egg and water all over his clothes and the floor. Then, since no one was around to supervise, he got into the jelly and had a wonderful, late-night dessert.
We spanked, cleaned up the mess, changed clothes, and sent him on to bed. I was still cracking up at the craziness of everything he did in just 40 minutes, when Oscar came in and said..."I LOCKED him in his room this time!"
I am SO thankful that the Lord woke us up...just in time!
And...NO...my (older) kids NEVER did stuff like this!