still crazy

How did something so small....

 become something that tears entire tapestries off walls with a single try??

There was a tapestry on that wall not 15 minutes ago... But Zanax had to have her way with it... she's crazy. How does one make a cat behave herself?!

I'm just going to blame it on her missing Julton too. Please be in prayer for Julton's family, as they are mourning the loss of a loved one. Julton is there with them right now, but I wasn't able to travel. Although I wish with all my heart that I could be. 

Both little (or not so little anymore) Zanax and I miss him around here though... I'm realizing that I am a married woman now and not used to being alone!

Ian Axel

Please enjoy a song a friend recently shared with me:

a view

Today it is not so foggy and I can see the shadows from the clouds, spread across the mountains that I can see across town from our office: 

(Sorry, the picture isn't as clear as I can see it)

We are very much blessed to have our office where it is, we are on the eight story and can see  all over the city. Although usually not so far, because of fog. When the fog swoops it, we can see it coming from the ocean and the foot hills of the mountains and starting to come toward the center of town.

as of, this week.

I am making up for the lack of posting in one month, in a day... 
a few more photos from our life recently...
When sugar cane gets burned in Trujillo, because our laundry room is open air, it ends up looking like this.

I've mentioned before about our cell group. It has changed a lot from last year to this. And in the beginning of this year was a little rough. But we are slowly growing, slowly but surely. We meet in the home of a friend that has moved out of the country to study. His mother is very committed in the church and welcomes everyone into her home. She's a nurse so naturally many conversations turn medical, between she and Julton. This is our group from this past week, we had many visitors. Many that actually don't live in town, but it was great to visit with them. We talked about the first chapter of 1 Peter (we are reading 1 and 2 Peter this week - we read one -or two small- book a week in between meetings. If someone forgot to read we read it again, and we talk about some things that stood out to us or we have meditated on). We talked about whether it is difficult or easy to be a Christian, and why. It's very exciting because although we are smaller than we were last year, each person in the group is opening up more and more, giving comments and talking about their own experiences. 

Every Sunday after the discussion, we get together at the table and Hermana Miriam serves tea and coffee, bread and ham or butter. And I usually bring along cookies when I can. The 'great-grandmother' of the group made me smile, because one day when I was boxing up the left overs, she said oh oh!! leave me one for later! - I left her the box. (They were cookies I had made.) In Peru some people eat lonche - which is what we are eating in the picture. Which is usually something small like bread and coffee, in the early evening. Then eat dinner later on, or eat one or the other. I have some friends that eat both and others that have one or the other.

This past weekend our friend David came into town to visit, and we all went out together. We miss our close friends that seemed to all have moved away this past year, not long after we were married! (Gillian, Heather and Calin we miss you!) Those of us that are still here got together with David this weekend. It reminded me of how much I miss all of them. He moved out of town several months ago, to Lima for work. He told us that he is happy with his job, but he misses his friends. We miss him too, not long ago we went to Lima... to find out that he was traveling outside of Lima that weekend.

West Virginia Executive

I remember a conversation I had with my mom, when I was old enough to ask innocent questions, but still young enough to listen and take every word for it. 


I grew up in a part of West Virginia that is greener in summer and whiter in winter than I have seen since, a part where anyone that is not a farmer has to travel 30 minutes to town to work or 45 minutes in the opposite direction to the city/ state's capital to work. And I never questioned it, or thought it was possible that we could live somewhere else. We had a huge garden with corn, tomatoes, lettuce, beans, squash etc.. and another garden just as big only for potatoes. I played in trees and caught crawdads in the summertime in the creek that ran in front of our house. I remember in the 5th grade while doing a project in class with a classmate having an argument with my partner over whether or not you could buy potato salad pre-made in the grocery store. I was very firmly standing on NO. We always made ours, and hardly ever bought anything pre-made. I was shocked when he showed me an ad in the grocery paper for potato salad. 


I remember asking a question such a long time ago, that shaped the way that I felt about my home. I asked my mom if it meant that we were poor because we lived in the country. I have no idea how I even came up with the question, I was probably at the age where I was starting to see that there were people that didn't live surrounded by, depending on the season, green, shades of red, or white mountains. 


And I 'll never forget what she responded with because it made complete sense to me and I didn't have a problem taking it for an answer at all. She said "No, Julie, we are rich because we can live in all of this space and have green grass to play in and woods to play hide and seek in."


-Now, I ad-libbed a little of what my mom said because although it did make an impact one me, and made me until this day proud to call my home my home, I can't remember the exact details of what she said. That is an issue I also still live with to this day. But you get the idea. I grew up really proud of my home. 


After I started to realize that other people had opinions about WV other than that of mine inside my bubble, is when all the confusion came. Confused because for me in a place where I could see so many good things, so many other people could see so many bad. 


Then it just started to get annoying. And now I find myself getting a little peeved when I hear someone explaining about the United States and not having one good thing to say about West Virginia. 




All of this to say, I appreciate the magazine West Virginia Executive. They are able to high light the state in many ways that may be common knowledge to someone that grew up there, but can go ignored by someone that's only been fed stereotypes. They have a new website up and running, you should go check it out! http://www.wvexecutive.com

if I ever wondered what happens at home while I am at meetings...

last night I found my answer.

say ahhhh....

Yesterday Julton was upchucked on by a patient... a small patient. 


Apparently the little boy knew it was going to happen so when Julton said "say ahh" the little boy pulled away, but the second time they went for it... Julton's shoes got covered. 




Just thought I would share, I couldn't stop laughing when he told me. Especially when he said "here's the story from the clinic today" and I was expecting the usual 1. i'm worried about so and so because... 2. this family doesn't believe in medicine and they won't let me treat them (happens a lot, i think because they know its a pastoral clinic) 3. etc... 

recently

welcome to class:

I have not been posting much lately. I have however been... making pancakes and eating them with students early in the morning during class in their office. We've been learning phrases like "let bygones be bygones" and "everything but the kitchen sink" which is what they told me this morning when I starting taking out plates and pancakes and coffee and mugs from my large bag. 

But I have not only been eating pancakes. Although I have been drinking a lot of coffee. I'm slowly building up my tolerance again. Because I have had a lot of meetings. Recently I took on the position of Academic Coordinator for our business instead of only teaching full time. And until I find replacements for my classes, I am doing both of those jobs together. I'm enjoying the new things I get to do. Interview and train new teachers, interview and place new clients in classes, design their classes and keep up communication between everyone. So lots of meetings in English and Spanish, as well as hours behind a computer screen. I'm learning just how squinty my eyes can get, remembering how much I hated math in school...and still do, and realizing that I should probably get glasses/adjust the ones I have.

So, until soon because I promise to try to post more often... I leave you with this: 

Source: weheartit.com via Julie on Pinterest

a cat and a flame

She is quite the little trouble maker....