Sunday, February 1, 2009

Random thoughts and updates

I have found it increasingly difficult to find time to post on my blog lately. We have random wireless in our quad, it is actually not suppose to be in there but sometimes if you are lucky it shows up, the problem is you never know how long it will last. I have made it up to the computer lab a couple of times but with four kids with me I usually do what needs to be done and don't stay long.

Friday was Personal Retreat day and it was a wonderful time to be alone for a few hours and read what our CEO had to say to each of us and then we came back for a great, moving and inspiring time of sharing. Our director said before some of us even attempted our personal retreat we may need to get some rest......I took that as a sign that he was talking to me!! I was so tired and after a short nap I was able to focus so much more on what I was going to do.

Our class went longer on Friday but we had to leave early because we had a parent/teacher meeting with Hudson's teacher as well as all the other parents of 3rd and 4th graders. It was a great time of sharing about our child and hearing about the goals he had for them, oh, and we also heard that the guinea pig that they were responsible to care for had died! We joked about how they only took care of him for three days before he died but then found out he was old so apparently it was "Snickers" time to go. One of the boys went to go feed him and he came back and said, "Is he suppose to be still like that?". HAhaha Poor kid! I believe they are going to purchase a new animal for their class. They have quite a few animals in the school and even a talking parrot named "Richard", he says about 10 different phrases and is really pretty funny.

On a funny note, Campbell has a little friend and when she was telling us her name we couldn't understand her and Barry said, "Her name is Pez?", and Campbell laughed as Barry mimicked as if he was her friend "Pez" and flipped his head back and said, "Would you like some candy?"!! It was hysterical as she feigned being angry and we basically had fun at her expense!!

Saturday we slept in and then got some cleaning supplies from Target, we got back and had lunch while Barry had a meeting, he is on the "Ev" team. Later the kids and I went to the gym and played volleyball with another mom and most of the older youth. We were TERRIBLE, but we had a blast. Then in the evening we went out for Mexican with our MIR Mentors ("M's" in residence), they are from our assignment country so it was great to hear from them.

You hear many exciting and many sobering things while you are here but the most is that you are very aware of the importance of the work we have to do. That in the midst of all the hard changes and challenges there are great rewards for complete obedience to the CEO.

Today we are about to have our cell meeting and then we have what they call "Cultural Worship" this evening and we will experience how they do cells around the world. I am really looking forward to that. We may run into town with a few other families just to relax together this afternoon. I have a meeting tonight as my "job" is to get the class materials together and display books that relate to the speaker's topics, or if they have some that they are giving away.

I will leave you with a few bits of info:

There are 330 people attending classes at the farm,
160 of those are children,
60 of those are preschool or younger.
TCK's or Third Culture Kids are kids who have a home culture but live in another culture and so don't always fit into either so they develop a "third culture". For further information you can go to www.tckid.com/group/ the guy is not a christian but his site has some good info.
With a few exceptions for some singles who live in the dorms, we all live in quads with a common living room. Ours is a three bedroom apartment and we have two single guys, a married couple with no children, and another couple with a 2 and 5 year old who share our quad. We all get along great.

Have great day and know that we miss and love you all!!

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