El arbol que se ve desde el autopista...

We left our kids with friends and went on a date. We decided to go climbing up the mountain to the little tree that you can see on the way to camp from San Juan. It was awesome.

You start by walking up the emergency brake ramp.

There were a few cacti.  They looked like trees, and Jon kept grabbing them. Ouch.

There was also very tall grass.  Logan would have been completely hidden by it. Jon slipped once, and totally disappeared...jajaja. I laughed at him.  Next time we go we will make a video of a velociraptor sneaking up through the grass to eat one of us. 

 You can see our car at the bottom parked under that tree....

Jon the explorer

Good times. Good times.

There it is...sweet little mango tree!

Confessions of a closet introvert

Last month Eli was in a ballet show.  It came at the end of an extremely busy month full of work groups and visits from friends and family.  I usually volunteer to help out backstage with Eli's group.

 It goes something like this....arrive an hour and a half before the show starts, twenty excited girls crammed into a little room putting on makeup, getting hair shellacked to their heads, dressing in there costumes for the first dance, then the mass exit when it's time for them to dance, wait, wait, wait, mad dash to change into next costume...where are my tights? can you help me put my glow in the dark, sparkly head band on so it won't fall off and trip me while I dance? OH NO, I LEFT MY SHOES AT HOMEEEEEE!!!!....mass exit for the next dance, wait wait wait....you get the picture.  It's fun. Actually it's funny. I chuckle to myself a lot.

Anyway, this time I ended up sitting and talking with one of the other moms for a long while about homeschooling and her little four year old boy. She talked a lot.  And for a long time.  She is very nice, and I was interested in the conversation.  But after a bit I found myself thinking....Wow, she talks a lot. And then I thought....When is she going to stop talking.  And then later...I wish I could just ask her to be quiet for a while. 

Now before some of you think I am just an extremely rude person, let me explain something about myself.  I am an introvert.  It's true!!   I can hear the laughter and cries of disbelief from people who know me. But I repeat, it's true. I always have been.  I enjoy people. I like to be crazy and have fun. But there comes a point when my people meter gets into the red zone, and when that happens I have to be alone.  If I don't get time alone, bad things can happen. I get impatient. I end up with a permanent scowl on my face. I get annoyed easily. Not a pretty picture.

I always knew this about myself, but last year I read something here that put it into words and made me understand myself better.  I'm not shy.  I enjoy people.  In small doses.  This explains why I found myself wishing for earplugs to enable me to smile and nod while at the same time tune out the friendly nice lady's voice. After a month FULL, no MORE THAN FULL of talking and getting to know people and seeing great old friends and having a good time, I was in desperate need of down time, by myself time, alone time.

My Ben and I are the introverts in our family.  It's very obvious in Ben who at 12 is in the process of learning how to not be rude. I hide it much better.  Which is why most people laugh when I tell them this.  The challenge for us is to balance the needs of the two introverts with the two extroverts and one extreme extrovert (guess which one!!).   It makes for interesting times here at Casa Marshall.  Benjamin and I usually opt to A. stay at home or hang out just with the family, while Eli and Logan want B. to go everywhere everyday with as many people as possible. Jon usually ends up being the one who balances it out for us.  So glad that I married him!

Really though who wouldn't be glad to be married to this handsome fellow??!!

So i was scrolling through some of the pictures on my ipod...

and I found these. 

Did I tell you all that my little brother Jay and his lovely wife Michelle came to visit? 

 Also my sister Grilla eats like a pig.  I still love her though.

 Saris made from leftover wedding decorations....is that how you spell sari?

Mountain climbing in the park....

"Shut the door, the dog will get in"

My kids must hear me  say that a hundred times a day.  Usually the dog gets in anyway.  We seem to have an extraordinary amount of door opening and closing..or not closing as the case often is..here at our house. People, kids, cats needing in and out on a regular basis.  Here in the land of  'it's warm out so let's be barefoot all of the time',  that lack of cold weather seems to equal lack of need to close doors on our way out.  No way would those doors stay open in Wisconsin where Grandma Marshall lives! (Ben would like me to point out that right now at 10:16 PM both doors are shut.)

Here are some other things that I have heard in the last couple of days that made me laugh. 

"This one works like a dream"- said Logan while using Mrs. Barbara's rake after deciding our rake didn't work correctly.



Whadya think? Time for a haircut?



"Let's do the jig"- says Ben to me about thirty times a day...the "jig" is a very complicated series of dance steps we have created that only professionally trained dancers should attempt.

"I love to shop..does it show?"

"Oh look, it's a really weird bug"- said Eli while exploring in the river and catching tadpoles and little fish at the rain forest.  By the way, the exploring apparantly made the young ones ravenous because they polished of a bucket of chicken in five minutes flat and were still crying for more.

Eli making bacon with her grease splashing shield

"SERENITY NOW"- said Jon today at lunch time when things were getting out of control due to several smaller people...ours and some extras...and their constant neediness. (Ben would like me to specify that he is not one of the "smaller people".)

 Dariel, one of the "smaller people"



More "smaller people"

What things have you heard around your house lately?  

What's happening at your house?

Location:Backyard, Puerto Rico

A month in the life...

It's been a busy month.  Here's a quick look at what we've been up to....

There were six different work crews that came and helped out around camp and the barrio. Most of them were college students on their spring break. Two groups were from churches. A couple of the groups have been coming for years.  It is always awesome to see them again and learn how God is working in their lives.  These groups were a great help and fun to have around. A huge THANK YOU to the groups from:

• Grand Vally State University, Michigan
• Spring Arbor University, Michigan
• Grace Fellowship Fairhope, Alabama
• Transformation Church, Wisconsin
• Winthrop University & York Technical College, South Carolina
• Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Texas

Along with the work groups, my sister Grisel who is now back in Puerto Rico with her three young kids, came to stay at camp.  One of the groups ripped the roof off of mom and dad's new house where she has been staying and replaced it. Dad and Jon have been putting the finishing touches on and are still in the process of getting some rudimentary electric work up so that when she does move back in, she'll  be able to have lights and a stove that works. During the time that she has been staying at camp, she had some minor surgery done and is now recovering. My kids have enjoyed having their cousins living on camp.  They have played for hours and hours and hours. I have a feeling that when she moves back to her house they will be a little lost for a while.   

Eli also had a ballet show this month.  She has been in a few of them since starting ballet, and they are much different than the piano or ballet recitals that I have been too.  This show was two hours and they performed two mornings for area schools and one evening for the general public.  They performed in a huge old fashioned theatre and had weeks of extra rehearsals some of them five and six hours long.  Eli, of course, loves every minute of it.

Jon's best friend from high school was here for a little over a month, and his parents were here for almost three months.  Mr. Morris helped Jon with maintenance around camp and lawn work. Mrs. LuAnn and Paul helped by cooking for some of the groups that were here. She makes great deserts and he made some pretty awesome pulled pork! 

As you can see things have been moving right along.  We are all tired, but good tired.  Jon has really enjoyed being with all of the groups.  He loves working on projects with them, and we all enjoy getting to know them and spending time with them. Logan especially. He was up and out of the house every morning by 7:30 to find his friends from the groups.  We had to establish some boundaries for him to keep him from doing things like standing out in front of the rooms where they sleep calling their names before they even wake up.  He has a long list of new best friends and second best friends and third best friends.

Next month should be no where near as busy....no ballet beyond the norm, no surgeries....yeehah!! I hope y'all have been busy too, the good busy not the pull your hair out, run around like a chicken with your head cut off kind of busy.

Reason #4

We live on the dry side of Puerto Rico which means that for many months in a row we will not get any rain at all.  Of course, the upside of all the dryness is beautiful blue and sunny skies all of the time.

 One of my favorite things is when it does finally start to rain.  There is a sudden cool breeze and then grape sized raindrops start to fall.  It doesn't just rain....it dumps endless buckets. Within minutes there are large puddles everywhere. 

If you happen to be driving in el pueblo when the precipitation starts, very quickly the streets become rivers.  It's awesome.  You end up driving in water that comes up to your door.

As a kid, the puddles and mud that the puddles leave make for hours of fun outside. 

 This is also when most Puerto Ricans break out the hot chocolate. Yummy.  And instead of sitting in front a fan with shorts on at night, you want to cozy up on the couch with a quilt.  It's our winter snowstorm mode. Personally, I much prefer 75* winter fun to 30* winter fun!!