A Little Basketball and a Big Trophy

We are still fixing things up in our new church building. We have had a team come and go and I have so much to share about the institute as well. For now here's a quick post of the basketball tournament Jimmy was in a couple of weeks ago. 

He was on the San Pancho team! We have been trying to get into a schedule that would let him play once a week but he doesn't even play even close to that much, but one day we will be settled... in our new church building... in the institute... and in our new house, haha! When he got home today Jimmy worked on one of our vehicles and sealed one of the wood posts on our front porch, that's what he usually does in the evenings!

{Watching Daddy score 2 points!}

Jimmy really enjoyed playing in the tournament. The team from San Pancho is really clean cut. They have great attitudes and no potty mouths. (I really like our town!)

They got a huge trophy too! Please pray as we continue to get settled in our new town and form relationships with those here! 

I found this photo on my phone later that Eden took during the game. I thought it was cute... Eden and Mommy!

The Possum Story

When moving to our new house we saved the two outside storage areas at our old rental house for last. Mainly because they weren't sealed and we knew it was going to be nasty. There were all kinds of things living in there. We procrastinated as long as possible, but we had a team coming and we really needed our old, long, dining table that had been in storage for the past 5 years to be able to seat this team at our new house. 

Here is the table at our first ever rental house in Petén:

We only lived there a year because it was a little more expensive than we wanted to pay and it wasn't very secure. (Someone actually shattered those windows in this photo one time to get into our house.) It was the only place we could find though at first that wasn't filled with mold. (And it did not look like this when we moved in. We put a lot of work into that house just to move a year later!) Jimmy's brother Jon and his friend Kyle helped Jimmy build this table for us just so that we could host large groups at our home. 

For the past 5 years it had been in this outdoor bathroom (behind us in this photo from when I was pregnant with Jonah & Silas). Whoever installed the plumbing in that rental never hooked up this bathroom so we used it for storage and simply hung a curtain in front. At this rental we probably should have put more into fixing up the house, but we were trying not to make the same mistake twice, yet we ended up living there for 5 years. 

 One day Jimmy went over to our old house by himself to get the last of our stuff... to conquer this disgusting bathroom storage area. Here is his story:

"Knowing how many scorpions and large spiders we killed when we were living in this house, I was trying to be cautious as I moved things out of the closet slowly. It didn't take long for me to find my first scorpion, and it was a large one. As I was in the closet moving things around to try and kill the little bugger (with only one shoe on since I had one in my hand to squish the scorpion), Shelley called me. I stepped out of the closet to talk to her and as we were talking I saw a long tail duck behind the toilet in the closet/bathroom. I immediately knew it was a possum, so I hung up the phone and tried to figure out what to do. 

My thought was that the possum was more afraid of me than I was of him, but there was no way to scare him out of the room since the only way out was through the door towards me. I had a long hoe and slowly began pulling things out, while armed with my machete in the other hand. Finally I chased him onto a tarp we had in there, and yanked it out fast, pulling him out and then chasing him around to the side of the house.

Knowing there was one possum made me extra cautious in case there was a second possum maybe in the closet and sure enough, after a couple minutes of poking at things a second possum showed itself, except this possum was three times the size of the first, and mean! She started hissing at me and there was no way I was going to get her out. So I went next door and asked to borrow a gun. Of course, they had loaned their gun to a friend and didn't have it, but the teenager told me to be careful because a possum had just attacked him two months previously when it jumped off a wall onto him and started clawing and biting his chest and arm. Then he showed me his scars.

Well that did a lot to ease my thoughts, and Alex insisted on coming with me. I thought he was going to help, but instead he just came to watch the gringo fight with the possum. He was very jittery too, knowing that the first possum was somewhere in the yard...

Well the second possum wasn't budging, so I pinned her up against the wall with the hoe and killed her with the machete. This was where Alex helped by yelling, "Hit it again! Hit it again!" He was very concerned that the possum was just pretending to be dead and once I let go would proceed to attack us. I was imagining a scene from Monty Python with a white bunny...

Now having been splattered with possum blood and disposing of the carcass, I returned to the closet knowing that the scorpion was still in there somewhere too. Once again I entered with only one shoe after scanning with a flashlight to make sure there weren't any more critters. I lifted a board of the table and as I turned it around found my scorpion! I dropped the board pretty quickly and grabbed my shoe to kill him. I hit him real hard and saw him drop to the floor. Shining my flashlight on the ground by my feet I saw the dead scorpion lying on top of something furry...a third possum! 

This one became trapped when I fortuitously dropped the board on him! That was an easy kill since I had both hands free. 

It was one more scorpion and several large spiders later before I got the table out of the closet. At this point my nerves were shot and while I like to hunt, a machete is a very personal way to kill something and left me somewhat traumatized."

So my table is in my new house. Don't worry it has been Lysoled real good!

{I thought Becca would appreciate this gratuitous sweaty photo of her being posted again!}

We are planning on building a new table one day now that we know where to find better wood that won't warp over time, but until then I am very thankful for this one! 

Handmade Home #11: Living Room Progress

I am very thankful for the amount of space in our living room. We knew we wanted to have big groups over on a regular basis, whether it be mission teams or groups from our church, so we drew up our great room to be pretty large. When we had that first team over there was plenty of room and plenty of air moving through so that it wasn't too uncomfortable! I cannot wait to have some ladies activities here very soon.

This is the way my living room is currently looking:

Wood for the false ceiling is way down on our list, so you can still see the peak of our roof and all of the wiring. Probably a good thing since we can see wet spots this way and know where to seal it better!  Our lights are from the market in zone 1 in Guatemala City. They were about $5 each... who needs a West Elm?!

{Those aren't wet spots, just different batches of concrete}

Without the ceiling it has a different feel than it will eventually. The false ceiling will be on top of that white beam, so you will still see it. Did you notice our ceiling fan?! I LOVE having ceiling fans. It changed our life!

Here is my thrifted hutch that Jimmy refinished for me! It has all of my serving dishes in it and all of our board games and puzzles in the cabinets below.

The wire roll table is from the Kekchi radio station! I saw it lying around and asked if I could have it. We still want to clean it up a bit. Jonah and Silas love stashing things down the hole that is in the center of it. Whenever I can't find something, that is the first place I look! 

The orange quilt was made by my great grandmother. She loved to sew and make things! I never knew her but I feel connected to her for sure. It doesn't have a backing on it, so I am going to finish it. I'm so thankful my mom let me bring that back with me!

We joke that the chair on the left is mine and the chair on the right belongs to an old man! If Eden ever sees me sit in the swinging chair she comes running. She likes swinging in it even better than the hammock. I want to make a foam cushion for the bottom of it, but I'm still looking for the right fabric. 

Jimmy came home with these one day!

We put one in the corner and stuck a plant in it. We probably need to seal it or something. 

And finish sealing our floor... one day! That pretty circle on the floor is from when there were a couple of the masons at our house working on the smooth coat on our walls, one of them went out to the wood shop, brought back a can of stain, opened it, and then left it there on the floor laying sideways and open. NO ONE needed stain for anything... I don't get it. It doesn't matter since I want our floors to have character, but seriously I was planning on my kids christening those floors with all kinds of character, not a curious mason!

I really tried not to buy fabric while I was in the States since it is cheaper here, but geometric prints are impossible to find, so I did by one yard of this zigzag home fabric. So far I only made one pillow, but I might have enough left for the chair cushion. My mom made us the furry blanket the first year we were married. It is perfect for windy evenings on the couch. 

Jonah wakes up like I do! One day I will introduce him to coffee and then all will be better!

On the other couch is another pillow from Ikea, but those granny squares are homemade. This was my first crochet project. I love crocheting, it is the perfect road trip activity! 

I originally made it to cover a changing pad for E's room, but since she will be out of diapers before she has a room I decided to keep it in the living room. I hope to add to it eventually. 

Eden is always in this rocking chair. She hasn't fallen yet. I move her out of it probably a dozen times a day, but she knows how to get down by herself just fine too. That spot on the couch is E's contribution to color in the room... it's a still wet grape popsicle smear! I love that crazy little girl!

Here is the other side of the room. Jimmy's parents bought him this tv for his 30th birthday. I new I wanted to kind of camouflage it. 

Jimmy has been making fun of me for months. I have been collecting paca (thrift store) frames just for this wall... hoarding them really. Most were between $2 and $4, except for the frilly one from Solola. 

Jimmy was even more thrilled about my stockpile of frames when it was time to hang them all!

This is the frame from Solola:

Jonah and Silas made this painting for me the other day specifically for this frame. Silas painted the top half and Jonah the bottom. They are VERY proud of it! It makes me smile each time I look at it. 

Most of the frames looked or still look like this:

I have been refinishing them a little at a time. I am going to print photos for most of them. I picked up some mattes in the States, so that I could print 8x10'a in my home, but I will have to order a couple of 11x14's to come down with the next team. I haven't found a place here that can do it, there is probably a place in the capital.  

Our family has been studying a lot about gratefulness so that filled one of our frames. It is some linen and fabric scraps: 

Jimmy brought the boys back a huge starfish from the island of Livingston, so that was added to our wall. 

So I still have a lot left to refinish and fill. 

We picked up another chair that matches the boys' for Eden when we were in Solola. My cousin gave us this kids' table and the last team was nice enough to bring it down with them. Jonah and Silas love doing puzzles on it.  It is hard to find dry wood here that doesn't warp or have bugs in it, so a nice flat surface that I don't have to treat with toxic chemicals and then give to my kids was very welcomed in this house!

The dresser that sits below the tv is from the boys' old room. It has bugs in it even though we treated it. Unless you use arsenic, I haven't found anything else that works. We were going to get rid of it, because I was tired of having wood dust on all of their clothes, but it sits here for now. A credenza isn't on the list yet. It will probably sit there forever. I kind of like it. Somehow in our move we lost 2 nobs though... that's what happens when you move things in a cattle truck. Classy! Becca gave me the beautiful planter for my birthday. I love it! 

So that's where we are for now. The room needs a larger rug. I would love to make a bright colored braided rag rug. I saw this one on furlough:

The lady whose house it was in is coming down on a team soon and said that she would teach me! We will see. I don't have that much scrap fabric, so by the time I buy enough to make one this big it might be cheaper just to buy a finished rug. But the process would be lots fun and it would be an original!

Thanks for visiting our home!

My Poor Bug Bitten Babies

It is so hard to seal your house here. We are fighting a mosquito battle... and we are losing! I spray my kids each night when they get out of the shower. Right now I think California Baby Bug Spray works the best. It doesn't have any DEET in it, which is good since we use it every day and my kids sleep with it on. I don't spray their faces however.

My kids' faces look awful. I tried to get a photo of Eden's face this morning. She was crying about not getting a pancake fast enough at breakfast. You can see the tear in her eye. Then she got a pancake and realized I was taking her picture and looked at me with a big smile and said, "Cheese!" Silly girl! 

My poor babies' faces are covered in bug bites. Two metal workers welded our last screen in yesterday and now we have a lot of caulking to do. We need to find some weather stripping too and then get some spray foam for other cracks. 

We are setting off some bug bombs today we brought back from the States and leaving for 4 hours. Today is our 9 year wedding anniversary, so we are headed to Santa Elena for a lunch together. Our baby sitter is on a trip to the States, so the kids are coming on our date too... we like them a lot, so that's ok! Plus this is a perfect time for the bug bombs!

Please pray we solve this problem. This many bites makes me worried about more Dengue. 

Inching Along

Well we made it back home. We flew back to the capital last Wednesday and spent 2 nights there to finish up some paperwork for our ID's now that we have our Visas. It is all a long process because none of the officials can agree on what paperwork you need. 

It was a long ride back to Petén. We were eager though! We picked up a booster seat in Guate and then gave one of the boys' seats to Eden. She is a big front facing carseat girl now!

She sleeps like this a lot in her carseat... cracks me up.

We had another flat tire on the way home. (We have new tires being shipped to us from Belize, so hopefully this is the last one.) It was on a straightaway thankfully, but unfortunately it was pouring down rain. Jimmy drove the last 3+ hours soaking wet. Yuck! I forgot, so when I went to pick up some groceries the next day, I walked around with the back of me wet! 

 Wow, it is overwhelming to be away from home for 10 weeks, to come back to a house that wasn't exactly sealed, and also to be in the middle of a move and finishing a house during all of it. I am really worried about how my boys are processing all of this. They kept telling me that they wanted to come back home, but I think they were a little surprised at how unlike home our new house felt when they got here. There just hasn't been enough moments in it yet for it to feel like home. We were only in it 8 days before we left for furlough. 

Thankfully Juan had checked on the house a couple times for us. He ran off 6 rats one day and lost a 7th one, that Lucha later killed. (It is about time that one of our dogs killed a rat, it's not like that haven't had plenty of opportunities.) So there were NO live rats when we got home. I prayed for that and was extremely grateful!

There was 7 rats worth of poo in my pantry, but at least it's over now! My pantry is clean and I am not waiting to hear a rat trap go off or looking forward to waking up to the smell of dead rat. Juan saw where they were coming in at and sealed the hole. We just weren't finished with the doors and windows yet. This is the third attempt on some of them. They are just not being done right. No one around here uses bug screen or rat screen, so they don't know how to install it... one gap and it is all worthless! We really need to learn how to weld.

We do however have something living with us. There was a gap at the peak of our roof. There is part of our house still not finished yet, it probably won't be for a while since we are paying as we go. There are bars and screen up dividing that attic space. Those silly temporary bars were built better than the first version of my permanent windows, but that's another blog post. This is a picture of our attic space which we can see since Jimmy hasn't put all of our false ceiling up. You can see a gap in the concrete up in the top left corner.

Well some birds found it and built a nest on top of the wall in between our headboard and our bathroom. Before we plugged the hole Jimmy took a ladder into our bedroom and checked to make sure there were no eggs in the nest. (I asked him to do that.) Great! It was empty. But then I noticed a bird hopping around on our back porch all morning long with a worm in it's mouth. It looked really stressed. Do birds take worms back to their nest to eat them? Ugg! I walked into our bedroom, turned the ceiling fan off and listened. Sure enough there were very hungry baby birds chirping their little heads off. THIRD generation forever house birds. So now what do you do? I opened part of the temporary screen on our back porch.

It makes me so mad, but I don't want to be responsible for the little baby birds. See that dumb bird sitting on the screen. This has been going on for a week. She flies all over the house too picking up bugs and leaving droppings everywhere. 

I was sitting at breakfast watching that mama bird fly in and out over and over again. I said, "That stupid bird is pooping all over my house." Silas said that I get the pig because I talked about "poop" at the table! Unfortunately he also picked up on another word I had said because later when we went to the grocery store we all got separated and Silas said to Jimmy, "Where's, Mama?! Where is that stupid, Mama!" Oops. He later told us, "I never say that word again, ok?!"

Seriously how many weeks do baby birds stay in a nest. They are loud now. I can hear them over the ceiling fan at night.

So pretty much everything other than brick laying was done wrong in our house if Jimmy didn't do it himself. There is just not enough time to do every single thing yourself and besides that he thought hiring a plumber or electrician to do some things would be better because they know more about it. I'm not sure what the deal is. I don't know if they just have poor products here to work with or they just simply made mistakes, but nearly every single thing has been done wrong. All the drains in the floor were poured at the lowest point, but then when they put the actually drain cap in, they cemented it in higher then the rest of the floor. I trip over the completely dry drains! All of my sinks leak. My dishwasher was not hooked up right. 

Little by little Jimmy is going around redoing everything. There just has been A LOT of water in our house this past week. 

Rainy season started while we were gone and there have been some really bad storms. 

They shredded the boys' roof on their swing set. We have to make some adjustments still, but we are learning which way the wind usually blows when it rains. There are certain windows in our house that let a lot of water in. So there is lots of mildew right now. 

 Both of my couches look like this:

 The boys room actually flooded. Juan was kind and put a tarp over their window. Eventually we will have a front porch that will block the rain from that one, but it did do some damage. Here are some of the toy baskets that were in their room:

I am going to cut off all the wicker and save the metal part to reweave. Lots of their toys looked like this:

Jonah and Silas are really good at taking care of their toys and putting them back where they belong. We have been working at it since the beginning. So their messy room was killing me. Plus everything they touched got them dirty. They had dirt tans just from walking around inside our house the first couple days. So there room was one of the first things I tackled. I have used LOTS of white vinegar over the last week!

In there room we only had one casualty, a book. Not bad for what it looked like when we got home. I flipped their toy shelf over so that it can dry a little better. I think it will be ok too. 

Whenever we get overwhelmed it has become a tradition to stop and take a cupcake break! 

 Jonah said that these were Captain America shields. I thought that was pretty creative!

Eden likes this tradition too!

So there are lots of other issues, like bugs getting into the wood counter in our half bath:

Can you see the hundreds of holes?! Anyway little by little we will get everything cleaned up and fixed right. I invested about 20 minutes in my little secret garden outside our bedroom the other day during a nap time.  

 There are still a couple of rogue flowers, but at least there is progress. It was really more for morale every time I look at it. 

We did have a great service Sunday night and then again Thursday night. I loved being with everyone again! Jimmy loved preaching again too and already has construction going on down at the institute. We are so thankful to be home... mildew and all.

Oh... and I hate birds! 

 ITEM OF THE DAY:

Notice anything different about this photo? 

It is a "drive on the opposite side of the road" street in the capital. I have no idea why. There are no signs, just arrows midway through.