HEY.

Yup...I am a slacker alright. I have not blogged in a looooong long time, oops! Life has just been busy. Its not that I don't have PLENTY to write about, I just don't have the time to sit down and do it. I should not even be writing now because I have so much school work to do. Yeah, that's right...doing the summer school deal too, it never ends! I am a full-time mom this week. No, I did not have children of my own in the last few months. I am nannying while the parents are out of town. Talk about some R-E-S-P-E-C-T for all those stay at home moms, wowzas! I am staying this entire week with 4 kids under the age of 7, just a little exhausted. This past Saturday I just returned from my 3 weeks stay in San Antone. IT was good, just a bit long.

Hopefully I will do more blogging when I got to Costa Rica. Yeah, you heard that right! I am going to Costa Rica for the month of July. When I tell people this, the majority seem to ask..."Are you going on another mission?" Yup, that's exactly what it is. I just have to define mission in this sense for them. It's a personal mission. Vacation. Enhance my spanish speaking abilities. Travel. Do some self reflection. Oh YEAH. Ok, well off to get some reading done:)

PURA VIDA!

Oxford, Mississippi

I sure wish I had new pictures to post on here. Two dilemmas stand in the fore front...first off I have lost my camera battery charger, thus I have no pictures to put on my computer. Plus, I have a new computer because my other one died and so I have no access to my old photos. Bummer.

Tonight I am taking a little personal retreat. Love it. The past few weeks have been slightly crazy. This past weekend I got to go back to my roots (ok, semi)! I went to Oxford, Mississippi. I had not been back there since I graduated, so I was for sure over-due for a visit. IT WAS WONDERFUL!!! It was so refreshing to be back in the South, in Oxford, and with my peeps. It was a weekend full of friends, love, laughter, and fellowship. Oh, and my dear friend Mr. Jonathan Rainey proposed to his lovely Cynthia...and she said YES! I have yet to meet this beautiful woman, but I sure cannot wait. Anyways...I had the opportunity to catch up with a number of beautiful friends. I also ventured back into the athletic arena to say hello to all of those who were of great assistance throughout my 4 years there. All to say...the time I had there was delightful.

Lately I have been thinking about what the summer holds for me. I want to do something. Something that will transform me and make a difference in my life...but more importantly that the Kingdom will be impacted for Christ. Options. Taking classes and working? Coaching summer volleyball camps? If I had money going to Bolivia? Working at summer camps? Traveling overseas with a bunch of teenagers? What shall it be Lord? I will wait...

Exchanging ashes for BEAUTY.

Prayer. What a powerful thing. I believe that we make prayer more complicated than God wants it to be. It's just coming to the Father, and communicating with Him. Why is it that we find it so difficult to communicate with someone that is constant and all knowing? But, we do. I admit it, I do too. The cool thing about God is that you can talk to Him where ever the heck you are! I mean in the shower, in the car, doing cartwheels, swimming, in another country, or in a culture that doesn't worship the same God that you do. God is an AWESOME God. Do we really understand what we say, when we say God is an AWESOME God? Hmmm...what it really means is...extremely impressive or inspiring awe! We should stand in AWE of who God is! I mean come on now, let's pick up the Bible and see what outrageous things He has done for us...but the thing is is that it doesn't stop there! God is STILL doing beautiful things, and He so desperately wants us to deny ourselves and pick up the cross and follow THE Beloved! So cool. How does God impress you? Well, for me...obviously prayer and the communion with God is one way He is currently impressing me! In Romans 12, we are told to be faithful in prayer, are you? As this chapter continues, we see that God wants us to share with His people who are in need, to practice hospitality! And my favorite part about this chapter is God wants us TO LIVE IN HARMONY WITH ONE ANOTHER!! Wowzas. How beautiful of a God we serve. He wants such beautiful things for our life, yet we choose to see things not of Him or on our own personal terms. I guess these thoughts and revelations have developed because finally some true and much needed fellowship took place tonight. It is pretty profound when you sit in a place where you can truly experience God's dwelling. God wants to exchange our ashes for BEAUTY! Let Him. Man, I sure have plenty of areas for that transformation to take place. But, HE is Almighty and can give me Beauty for Ashes!

And the journey only continues...be blessed!

After 9 months without blogging...

Obviously it has been quite some time since I have blogged...oops! My attempt is to start consistently blogging again. I don't really know what I will have to blog about. Maybe some thoughts, experiences, revelations, or life in general? Who really knows! I am not even quite sure why I stopped blogging when I did and why I all of a sudden decided to pick it back up! hmm...

It was very interesting to go back through my previous blogs from Bolivia. It actually brought back a lot of spectacular memories as well as some sadness since I deeply miss the country, the beautiful children, thrilling culture, and wonderful people! There is not anyone that I think will really go about reading this other than those who randomly search through blogs to read Which is quite alright with me! My hope is to just be able to share about life here in Colorado just as I shared life in Bolivia.

Well, I just wanted to write a little "buffer" blog to lead the way into a new journey of blogging. Now I am going to get ready to head over to a little Super Bowl Party. Would it be completely sad news if I confessed that I don't even know who is playing? Yikes...well it sure is unfortunate so I guess I am just going for the fellowship:)

Traveling back...

After crying my whole flight from Cochabamba to La Paz, I am here in La Paz so that means I am in transit back to the states! It is just so bizarre to think that I will be back in San Antonio roughly at this time tomorrow night...with God´s protection and grace of course! Let me just say that La Paz is beautiful and I wish I would of had more time here. My flight got delayed so I only had like an hour in daylight and then took a walk around town looking at all the buildings and various squares. But, I am also enjoying just resting in my hotel room watching tv (because I have not done that in awhile)...and yes I am about to take a HOT bath and then get my butt in bed since I have to be up at 3:30 am, that´s right folks...I said A.M.!! Tomorrow is going to be a looooong day! I think once I leave Bolivia I am going to be a little bit more excited about returning home! I am in a really sad place right now, today and yesterday was not easy saying bye to all of my lovely friends and family in Bolivia!

Instead of all of the sad things, let me share a little bit about all the fun I had my last week! Well, as I shared earlier we went to Chapare to go White Water Rafting and it was a blast! I just loved it! The rapids were probably only a level 3, but we had a quite a few sections of rapids so it made it a lot of fun! After that we went and ate lunch and then traveled to another town in the Chapare to visit the cocaine museum...yeah that´s right who knew there was a cocaine museum, well I can say I have been to the cocaine museum in the cocaine capital of the world! I thought it was so fascinating and I am glad that our guide was so eager to take us there! Then at about 5:50 the next morning Adrian came to my door and woke me up to tell me that the poor thing had been throwing up all night...to be exact he threw up and had diarrhea (hope you don´t mind I share this Adrian) about 10 stinking times! So, I ended up taking him to the clinic to be checked out. They said they were going to put him on a drip for about 45 minutes which turned into over 2 hours. So, during that 2 hours I started feeling bad and ended up throwing up a few times at the clinic too! Man, I was fighting it and praying against it, but I lost! Finally he got his results back and we discovered that he had a stomach infection. I mentioned to the doctor that I thought I had something too, but they pretty much ignored me so we just left. When I got home I ended up throwing up a few more times and trying to sleep it off the whole day. I had things planned with friends and defintely errands to run, but unfortunately didn´t get to do most of it! Later that day we had a little surprise belated birthday partay for our teacher Tina, and I got my butt out of bed to go, still not feeling great! But, my friends from the church were having a going away get together for me that night so I had to get myself together. After I drank some sprite and ate some crackers, I started feeling a whole lot better! The night with my friends was awesome and so full of love! Praise God because I woke up Friday morning feeling wonderful...although I woke up starving and felt like I had a hole in my stomach! I was able to get myself together and go to lunch with Nate and Kate, go to La Cancha, visit and say chao to the kids at Villa Israel, visit with some friends, pack, and go to a delicious dinner with the Johnson´s and Spies´(probably the latest dinner I have ever eater...we got done at 11:30). Oh, I finally was able to pick my passport up yesterday after she told me to come by Thursday and it wasn´t ready!

Welp, I have a long day of traveling ahead of me so I think I am going to go send an email out to everyone, go take a bath, and then get in bed! Thanks for your many prayers and for all of you that have kept up with reading my blogs...you guys rock! I hope to update you about my return to the states some time this week! Wow, this is all so stinking surreal to me after Bolivia has been home to me for the last how many months!

The fun is not over!

Yesterday we got to watch a fútbol (soccer) game! I just love watching fútbol, it is such a blast. It was a big game…the Cochabamba team (Wilsterman) and San Jose (from Orruro) played and the opposing team ended up winning. One thing is for sure that Latin Americans love their fútbol! When we were leaving the game we were going to walk up the street to go get something to eat and all of a sudden everyone started running our direction….so what do I do, I just stand there and try to figure out what is going on. I thought maybe someone got carried away and was armed and dangerous. Then we soon discovered that the police had let out some tear gas to control some of the crazy fans, but they ended up losing control of it…as our eyes and throats started burning we soon began running too! It was the weirdest thing…I can’t say that I have ever experienced tear gas before yesterday!

(Here are the 4 new interns...Elaina, Kim, Tiffany, and Andrea!)
We had a meeting with Mike yesterday and he was telling us how grateful he was for the work we have done here. In saying that he said they wanted to show their gratitude by taking us White Water Rafting, but he wasn’t sure if my last busy week could permit that. And I said hold up, yes I am for sure very busy, but I can definitely squeeze in White Water Rafting! So, we are going and I am super pumped! I think we are going to go on Wednesday. It’s actually out in Chapare (the jungle). It will be a day trip and I cannot wait for it! Then Thursday night some of my Bolivian friends are having a little get together so I can say my hasta pronto’s! Then of course there is still more to look forward to! Oh, and I have the pleasure of picking up my passport only 2 days before I leave, I am a little bit nervous about that! The travel agency has had my passport ever since I got here because they have been working on my visa, and she told me I could pick it up on Thursday…I am trusting in Jesus (not her) that it will all go according to plan! I am pretty sure I covered all the bases for now, especially since this is an extra long blog posting! Don’t you worry there will be more to come….

(This precious little one is from babywashing...it was my last one this past Saturday, not an easy thing to leave!)

1 week to go...

I am left with only a week here in Bolivia and I feel like there is just so much to share…yeah that’s right I have a few lovely stories to share with you fine readers! Just when I thought all the fun was coming to an end. Well, first off I am feeling a lot better after I was just sick for awhile. I had a bad cold for a solid week that led into something else. I made it just about eight months without visiting the clinic until my last few weeks here. So, yes I went to the clinic to see if there was something wrong with me. What a process! The first day I went in there they gave me a shot in the butt for the nausea and achy body…I don’t know that it really helped because I continued to feel nauseous for a few days after. Then I needed to give a stool sample right after so they could see if I had a parasite or something rumbling around in my stomach. Go figure I had nothing to give that day and so the next day I was able to give them a fun little sample. Then that day was a “ferriada,” where people don’t usually work, so nobody could give me any results until the following morning. So, we came back the next morning to get my results and meet with the doctor after he told me that everything looks normal, but I told him that I sure didn’t feel normal. He said that it must have been something I ate that made me feel bad or some kind of virus that had a relation with my serious cold! Praise God that I didn’t have anything…it was probably good that I got tested to know if there was anything at all, so if there was something I could get treated here, because one they know what they are dealing with and two it would be a whole heck of a lot cheaper here! Thank you for Kate too (my awesome Australian friend) that drove me around every where and helped with just about anything…she kinda rocks!

This past Friday I took a few of the new girls down to the post office area and on our way back we wanted to stop at the internet cafe. We of course were stuck on a super packed Trufi, to the point where people were literally hanging off the door! When I went to go sit down at internet I noticed there was a rip in my purse. Let me just tell you that I had just bought this purse for about $5 and had only been carrying it for about 3 days…I was super bummed because I really liked it! I thought to myself, how on earth did I manage to rip it like that. I went to go pay for my internet time and just could not find my wallet anywhere in my purse. We were just convinced that I stuck it in one of my shopping bags or something crazy like that, so I waited to search my bags until we got back to the hacienda. Yeah, silly me….as we examined my purse and the previous situation, someone definitely took a razor or knife to my purse. The cut was just way too perfect for a rip…plus it was cut through two layers and a perfect opening to slip out my wallet. Unfortunately this kind of thing happens all the time. I had taken my wallet out on the Trufi to pay and someone was probably watching me the whole entire time. And it makes sense because the Trufi was completely packed and I couldn’t feel a thing! Bummer! The some what fortunate thing is that I have two wallets…one wallet is for my support money and the other one is my personal money with my credit card. The wallet with just the support money got taken…I had 300 Bolivianos in there, which amounts to about $45 (which is a good amount of money here) along with my driver’s license, so I won’t be driving for awhile when I return! Ya know this kind of stuff happens so what can you do? Then the following day the same thing happened to one of the new interns when we were walking down a street to the Saturday market…but I feel bad for her because her new camera got taken and that is not as easy to replace, because instead of it being 300 B’s your talking $300! And here is a photo of my beautifully razor cut purse...