random blog of the month

I know.  I have already written a "random blog of the month".  But I have a bunch of small things to share with you, none of which can make up a whole post.

I bravely placed (ok, tossed) this quarter next to the papa toad who comes to our door every night to show you how big he is...he is HUGE.

Like 6 months ago, our good friend Sharon got us this pineapple cutter because skinning and coring and cutting up a pineapple takes SO. MUCH. TIME.  There is not a lot of fruit to choose from here: mangoes, bananas, oranges, papayas and pineapple over and over and over, but I still hated picking up a pineapple because they were so time consuming.  

I am NOT exaggerating...this thing successfully skins, cores AND chops into bite-sized pieces an entire pineapple in LESS than a minute.  It is fabulous.  I am excited about it every time I use it.  

 ***

Good news:  Nanny Noel found out this weekend that she successfully passed her final exams, meaning she is done with high school! (no easy feat in Haiti, let me tell you!)

Bad news:  Nanny Noel is insistent that she wants to be a nurse, and that she must go to a school in Port-au-Prince.  We may be losing our Nanny.

Other Bad news:  Stacey can barely say no to strangers.  There is no way this dream is not going to cost us a pretty penny.  And take our nanny.

Rainy day hopscotch...

'till So-so-so-bad-sofie realized it was tape :)

But Lily loves her anyway.

***

A few days ago, Jerry came all the way from New York and brought us real maple syrup!  OH, so good, and inspired me to try this recipe out tonight for a different Jerry...It was awesome and SO easy!  THANK YOU JERRY!!

Thank you for all of the encouraging emails regarding Baron.  If you are interested in getting involved with Ezekiel's church or school in Baron, shoot me an email.  

See the baby tarantula?  Junior somehow saw this guy on a bush as we hiked past last weekend.  I know he's way smaller than a full-grown, but...they still creep me out.

ALL over the countryside to Baron, there was bamboo growing like this straight up in the sky, some almost 20 feet high!  REALLY cool.

 some harvest drying in the sun from Baron...

 and in the town of Baron, I saw this...Far back, a huge pile of green sour oranges (no orange oranges in Haiti.  weird, right? are orange oranges dyed?)  middle, the slices of orange, and front, the skins, drying in the sun.  I asked what all this was for, and was told "to make homemade fuel."  ???

 Rainy day Saturday started with rubber stamping...which quickly turned

into this :)

***

One of our VP's made it safely in, and the other is still stranded in Florida, thank you Isaac.  And tomorrow is the First Day of Class (all caps 'cause it's like a holiday around here :)  SO, Matt will be starting out Wisdom Literature until Leroy can get here!  

***

We had a great, Great, GREAT student orientation and retreat.  We are all (staff) REALLY excited about the student body God's put together, and this was the first year that we can honestly say that there were NO complaints, NO attitudes, just joy and thanksgiving and some really good theological debates!  A group of students reported yesterday that orientation this year "was really fun", which, well, that's just awesome. 

***

Also thanks to a rainy day, we made our favorite soft-pretzels (well, like favorite homemade.  If there were an Auntie Ann's...)  If, like us, you are in a soft-pretzel free country (so sad) try 'em out, but use only 4 cups flour, not 5!

My sister and brother-in-law Adam are moving!  They found a cute new house in Denver, and as glad as I am to be right where I am, I SURE wish I were in Denver to help her move :(

the end.