Packing Curriculum

We are now down to 2-1/2 months before our departure to Mexico. In the past weeks I have been putting together our curriuculum for homeschooling. Knowing that we won't be coming back for up to two years, I have needed to purchase two or more years of each subject. So, what you see in the picture is what we are bringing so far. I am trying to keep all of our books to no more than what will fit in these three boxes. This has been very hard. I have gotten rid of far more than this by bringing old curriculum to a local homeschool store that sells used curriculum on consignment. This has helped pay for some of what we have purchased.

The thought of bringing only what fits in our car is a bit overwhelming at times. We will have a cargo carrier on the top of the car and we have a shelf that hooks into the hitch on the back of our car. That will add a little more space of which I am extremely grateful.

I think that is all for now. I will keep posting as we get closer to our depature date which is now looking like it will be closer to April 13th instead of the 20th.

The Trampoline is Out of the Pond

Today, Jim and his brother, Luke, took the trampoline out of our neighbor's pond. Our thoughts were confirmed - it is pretty messed up and there is no fixing it without getting parts from another trampoline. So, Jim is looking at Craig's List to see if there is another trampoline he can buy to use the parts from.





Doesn't look good, does it?


This piece is bent really bad.


This piece is totally broken off.


Fortunately the wind was not blowing as hard today, only 20-25 mph. Hopefully tomorrow will be better and the wind will be gone. It is supposed to be 10-15 mph during the day then only 5-10 mph at night. Yea!

New Pictures of our Grandchildren

We have had the privilege of watching our grandchildren a couple of times in the past few days. It has been wonderful to have them here. I also took the chance to take a few updated pictures. So, here they are. I am really going to miss having them come over when we move to Mexico. I thank the Lord for the technology which will allow them to send pictures and for us to see then on web cams.

Preston - 16 months old.


Dylan - 4 years old


Brooklyn - almost 3 years old


Victory - 2 months old. He is now 10-lbs. 1-oz. which is amazing. Kristen said he gained over 1-lb. just in the last week. He has gotten quite chunky in the two months since he was born 7 weeks early.


Grandma and Preston

So How Windy is It?

In the Portland area, there have been reports of 60-71 mph winds. The wind has been whipping around the house the past three days. Last night when I left to pick Jim up from the airport, our trampoline had moved about 20 feet from right outside our kitchen window to the side of the yard where the gate is. I was amazed it see that. This morning, Jim went out side to do something and called to me. He asked me to look and see what was missing. I looked and the trampoline was gone! It had been picked up and ended up in the neighbors pond, 100 feet away. It was taken by the wind over a four foot fence. Unbelievable but you can see it for yourself... I guess that's one way to get a bigger yard over night.

More Spanish News

Well, I did my interview with the Rene at Esperanza Viva today. I don't feel like I did very well but I also know that I am continually learning. It was hard to understand Rene since the connection didn't seem very good. He had to ask a couple of the questions in English because I just couldn't understand them. I think I was able to answer them okay but not as well as I would have liked to. It is hard over the phone though. Facial expressions say a lot about whether the other person understands what you are saying and I get a lot out of hand gestures and facial expressions when someone is talking to me. So, all that to say, I know I need to learn a lot more and I am learning more and more every day. I need to do more listening to native speakers so that I can understand when someone talks to me. So, tonight I was listen and watching Cheaper by the Dozen in Spanish. I also put on some of my Spanish worship CDs. I will keep plugging along and just hope they don't want to send me to Guatemala for language school.