Weekend Wrap Up

Our weekend began with post-school activities. Isabella came home Friday by herself on the bus and Avery took her to high school youth group.  While they had 45 minutes in a taxi going 7 miles south, I spent 45 miles in a taxi going 7 miles north.  You just can't win with Bogota traffic :(.

I went north back to the girls school because Brook had an after school "Middle School Chill Out".

This picture was posted on the school's facebook page:

The girls to the left is Colombian, but is new to the school.  The girl in the front is the other North American classmate, and there is Brook. The man in the background is their math and computer teacher, and he is very nice and has been very helpful (especially the two times I had to email him last week :)).

The school also had a mechanical bull for the event. I arrived just in time to watch Brook:

I took Isabella at 7:30am Saturday morning to meet up with classmates and chaperones for a school service project.  She went to a ministry for teenage moms where she was able to help care for their kids and other students did other things while there.  This is a ministry where her class will go once a month.  I wasn't feeling so great on Saturday. Sunday, same story and Brook also had congestion and sore throat.  I took cold medicine for the first time since I've arrived in Bogota.  I had run out Sunday afternoon for two things and even wore my ski hat I got in Peru.

Pitiful.  Pray I can breathe better today. A cold at high altitude is no fun!

The girls are back in school today and I'm back to Spanish class.

Happy last day of August!!

Friday Favorites

Well, maybe this isn't quite a favorite, but its a prayer request for sure.  Isabella has her first chapter algebra test at 10:15 central time this morning.  

This is a picture of our lunch one day this week.  Delicious.

I am not a Pop Tart fan, but I knew this would be a big hit for the rest of my family when I found these at store in Bogota yesterday.  This was the first time I have seen these here and this was the only flavor they had, which is the girls favorite!  

This week I attended open house at the girls school.  It is similar, yet a little different than those in the USA.  They occur during the school day and it isn't a "come and go" meet the teacher event.  Avery went with me to Brook's and we sat in a classroom while teachers rotated in for about 10 minutes to talk about themselves and what they will be teaching.  With Isabella's, I rotated to different classes to hear from her teachers.  At both events, we closed with prayer with parents of the class, all in Spanish.  Isabella is the only non-Colombian in her class, so I was quite the outsider yesterday and felt isolated at times, but that comes with being a foreigner.  Thankfully, I met one mom who helped translate for me.  With Brook's class, there is one more North American in her class, but she has lived in South America a while and she and her family are fluent in Spanish. Even with the hardships of Spanish, it was nice to be at the school and see the girls.  Isabella and I took a selfie during her break time.  It has been fun to see them with friends and enjoying their new school.  Today, I will go to the school after my Spanish class because Brook has a middle school after school event.  

Happy it's Friday and hope you have a good weekend!

What's Up Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!  This is new blogging topic that I will (try) do the last Wednesday of each month.  It is a series of questions that I will answer once a month.  Enjoy!

What we're eating this week.............
      This week we are eating these delicious recipes from my Pinterest page:
       Parmesan crusted pork chops with rice, carrots, squash, zuchinni
       Sausage onion tacos
       Taco pasta bake with bread
       Sweet garlic chicken with corn and salad

What I'm reminiscing about.........
     summer in Memphis

What I'm loving............
     watching my girls make new friends

What we've been up to...........
     homework every night!!!!

What I'm dreading...........
     traffic on Thursday because I have several taxis to take tomorrow

What I'm working on..........
     preparing for Fill Your Cup ministry to young moms in Bogota

What I'm excited about........
     vacation in October

What I'm watching.............
     The Jim Gaffigan Show (airs on TV Land and we try to stream it on Hulu here)

What I'm listening to...........
     streaming WRVR radio from Memphis

What I'm wearing..........
     leggings with long chevron shirt

What I'm doing this weekend................
     Isabella has youth group Friday night and a service project with school on Saturday.  In addition
     to help her get to her events, I will enjoy having the girls at home.

What I'm looking forward to next month...........
    We have a friend visiting from Memphis, which also means a goody bag from home!!

What else is new.............
    I am planning Brook's 11th birthday party in Ocotober

Weekend Wrap Up, A Day Late

Yeah, I know it is Tuesday and this is my weekend wrap-up, but that's just life these days....a day late for me.

I enjoy doing puzzles and I purchased my first one in Bogota, which I completed Friday night (with a little help from Brook) while Avery took Isabella to her first high school youth group event in Bogota.

Saturday, we went to this location in a suburb of Bogota, called Chia for Brook's first middle school youth group event in Bogota.  We walked 15 minutes to the bus stop, rode 30 minutes on a bus, then 30 minutes in a taxi to get there.  Doing one activity here is exhausting because of the time it takes, but it was nice to meet new people and spend the afternoon speaking English in a pretty setting.

Brook (3rd from right in pink shirt) with the other middle school kids.

Both Isabella and Brook's youth groups are associated with United Church Bogota, the English speaking church here. 

After church Sunday, we had lunch at the mall, which is where Brook had a birthday party to attend.  Avery and Isabella came back home to relax and I stayed with Brook.  She did great at this rock climbing wall.

There were activities and it was fun to see Brook play.

This is Brook with her new friend.  Her friend has lived in Bogota most of her life, but is a new student in the class as well.

The entire party was in Spanish, so Brook was following along at some times, just watching what the others did.  Her friend did translate a few times for her.

It is hard to see in this picture but the girl in the overalls (to the right with long dark hair) was the birthday girl.  There was karaoke to spanish music and Brook was just standing in the background.  Sofi, grabbed Brook and started dancing with her.  In the picture, Sofi has her arms on Brook and was sweet to include her.

We were all tired by the end of all of that and still tired Monday morning.  Today is open house day at the school for Brook and Thursday is open house day for Isabella, which means we will be going to meet the teachers and maybe learn a little more about their classes. We are also ordering school pictures today as well.  So many new things....

Friday Favorites

Well, let's just say the new school schedule is keeping me busy and blogging has taken a backseat.

So sorry I have been MIA this week with blogging.  Here is a re-cap of some of our week:

Even though I've actually never done either of these things, I feel like I can relate and this photo certainly made me laugh!

The Floyds stayed with us through Tuesday evening.  Ross and Avery went to the 20th floor rooftop of our building and flew our kite. They called us and we looked up from the balcony to take this picture.

Meanwhile, Angela helped Isabella with her Algebra homework.

I bought this rug for our kitchen.

Because let's face it, having a comfy rug to stand on will help to make washing all of these dishes a little better :)

Monday was holiday here, so we flew kites with some teammates and then had lunch together.

Tuesday, Avery helped the Floyds begin to look at neighborhoods for their house hunting experience. After my Spanish class, I joined them for lunch before getting home for the girls.  Wednesday, I spent my morning at PriceSmart with a friend.  As a reminder, PriceSmart is our store here that is kind of like a Cosco.  This is where I can find goodies like these:

Wednesday night was a long night of homework. At 10pm, we finally told Isabella it was time for bed.  She was up at 5:20 working at it again. Needless to say, we are still working on time management with her and organizational skills with Brook. Thursday, I spent my first day at home this week, after a brief trip to the grocery store, catching up on many things here.  

Both of the girls had school pictures taken this week. Ironically, this picture of me with my 6th grade class appeared on Facebook Thursday.  Can you find me?

It's Friday, so Spanish classes are on the schedule. This weekend, Isabella and Brook both begin youth group activities, so it will be busy.  I know that doesn't sound like much in the states, but that translates to several hours of transportation here, so it requires a lot of time.

That is the update, not so exciting, but that is it.  I hope you have a great weekend ahead and please keep praying for the needs of the girls with school.

(On a side note, I am the 3rd from the right on the front row of my class picture).

Weekend Wrap Up

It's Monday again, and today is holiday in Colombia, so the girls are out of school!  Of course, they don't get the American Labor Day holiday, so we will just call it an even trade :).

We had our our teammates, Ross and Angela Floyd, stay with us for the weekend through today (and possibly tomorrow).  Friday, I cooked dinner here for us. Saturday, we went to the mall and to a few other stores.  It doesn't take long to get tired here with the walking and public transportation.  Angela and I made our way back home a lot earlier than the guys did!  A friend of mine made some awesome book covers for the girls and brought those over Saturday evening.  She stayed with her kids and we had a fancy dinner of leftovers and hot dogs!!  Sunday, we went to church and had lunch at home. Sunday evening, Brook went to a Colombian birthday party of a classmate.  She had fun and it was good for her to be with friends outside of school.  Today, we plan on flying kites, because it is kite month in Bogota!  So now for some photos......

We've had a fair amount of rain lately, which means beautiful rainbows where we can see most of the entire rainbow!

Ross and Avery found a Huey video on tv on VH1.  You know I love Huey music and it was even fun seeing the subtitles of the lyrics.

These are the cute book covers for the girls.  They are made out of oil cloth.

Brook at the birthday party making individual pizzas.

Chocolate covered fruit....yum!

Where there are Colombians, there is dancing!

The little girl was so cute to watch dance!  The lady to the right of the photo is Brook's art teacher and the mother of the birthday girl, who is also in Brook's school class. 

A little blurry, but they had fun things for a photo opportunity!

Brook and the birthday girl, Sarah.  

All in all, it was a good weekend and was fun for us to have friends to share it with.  The girls have also enjoyed their first weekend after being in school.  They will come and go too fast for them.

Happy Monday!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday!  First, a short school update:  Well, we've almost made it through our first week of school!!  The girls have done really well this week. They are tired in the mornings, but the mornings have gone very smooth. I go downstairs with them at 6:30 to watch them get on the bus. The first 2 afternoons, I waited downstairs for them when they got off the bus.  However, now the girls get off the bus and come up to the apartment on their own.  I have stayed pretty busy during the days.  Yesterday was my only day I have been at home the entire day, outside of a quick trip to the bread store downstairs :).

After school, the girls want a break.  They will talk a little about their day and then usually go to their Ipods :).  They try to take showers before dinner, so after dinner, they can begin on homework. Isabella has had 2 hours of math homework every night :(. Pray for her because next week, she will have homework in more than 1 subject, so she needs strength, retention of what she is studying, and good time management.

So, a few favorites from the week:

The girls began school for the first time!  (these are their lunch bags)

A funny picture I texted to my sister who is a school teacher.

This photo is taken from our balcony (zoomed in) of the girls arriving home in the afternoon.  That is their school van pictured.

They are dropped off at the front door of our building.  That is Isabella and Brook walking to the back of the van to get their backpacks.  It is a full ride so there is no room for backpacks at their feet.

There are my girls coming into the building.  I was excited to hear about their day!

Brook came home Thursday with invitations to 2 birthday parties! (notice the invite is in Spanish) Oh, it all begins!

And Isabella was invited to a group text of her entire class.  The text read, "Welcome Isabella Bridges!".  They are enjoying making friends :)

Avery's socks :)

I met 2 friends Tuesday morning for coffee and a walk around the mall.  This was the design in my hot chocolate!

Super excited to finally welcome Ross and Angela Floyd to Bogota!  This picture was taken Wednesday night in the home of Joe and Becky, our team leaders.  We are in the picture with the Floyds, and another teammate who went to the airport, Andrew.  The Floyds will spend Friday through Sunday night with us this weekend. Hope you all enjoy your weekend!