A Cool Evening~

The past few days have been soo refreshing and cool! One of the things that Grady has been wanting to do since we got here was to take the family down to the river. Most locals here do not visit the river during the rainy season as it tends to be very muddy. Consequently our visit to the Belize River in Spanish Lookout proved to be very private as there were no other visitors..

The Belize River

Laura had a very lovely time crunching on the sun-baked gritty beige sand while the boys and Grace made a dam and the older girls threw the ball for Molly and snapped some photos.

Dad marveled at how different the river looks now as opposed to when he visited in the dry season back a few years ago. I was not quite as brave as he was (especially after seeing the killer green-headed racer earlier in the day) and stayed at the beach while he bushwhacked and looked around.

Later in the evening I was quite thrown off when someone asked me if we had bathed while down there.. bathed? Oh, just one of those cultural differences and examples of word differences. Abe assured me that the well meaning lady meant swimming, not BATHING. Although he did tell us that sometimes his family *will* bring a bar of soap down to the river with them.. :O

Fresh Beef!

This past Saturday, Grady and the boys left early to go and help our friend Abe butcher one of his steers. The process was a bit more crude than what we are used to in the States.. but in the end, we were tremendously blessed with some delicious fresh meat and the boys were blessed with a great lesson in butchering~

A Full Day

Just as we were about to leave for a family outing, we saw our first SNAKE! Yes, I said snake. Now of course we all just KNEW it was a fer-de-lance or yellow jaw which are deadly poinsoneous. So all three of my men went running off into the grass with machetes to chop the intruders head off! They did so and then proceeded to run the body and head over to our neighbor John who informed us that we just killed a harmless green headed racer. Hey, they all are scary to us! :)

I mean really, do you see that ferocious hiss?? (sorry I TRIED turning the pic but it wouldnt for some reason!)


Our family outing that day included Reimer's bookstore which is also a thrift shop. We purchased a used shirt for Grady, a second hand dress for Gracie and a few bookstore items. One of the items was a field guide which helps you identify all of the snakes of Belize! We thought we should get a bit more educated on the subject.



http://www.rainforestpublications.com/belizeFieldGuides/index.html

Another book we picked up was a Mennonite Low German Dictionary. It has a Plautdietsch/English and English/Plautdietsch section. Also, our friend Abe F. lent us his Plautdietsch Bible. It has been very interesting to compare our KJV to it. It would be such a blessing to us as well as our children if we could pick up some of the low German. I know our Belize friends would be pleased about it as well.. :)

It really is a great little bookstore, carrying much of what you would see in the CLP catalog, Pathway readers and books, as well as a few Bercot books and many other which are favorites of ours. Quite a gem of a place really. The owner of the bookstore is also the head elder of the Shontal church which is where we are currently attending.

Really the best thing about going to Reimer's bookstore this particular Saturday is that the Reimers are our kitten connection! Mittens, Gracie's new kitten was given to us by the Reimer family. And since Mittens is such a very good kitten, we decided that we needed another one! They had a few left and so we picked out Mitten's sister who Grant has named Maya. Actually he named her Miss Maya Socks but we call her Maya. We hear cats are GREAT at keeping rats and snakes away hence the second kitten! :) (Grady has already warned me that we will not be getting a third..forth...fifth...... hey I figure we should post cats on every corner of the house! :) )

~

Home Sweet Home

Seatac Airport



Grant at Big Rock Falls, Belize



Grady on the beach in Playa Del Carmen


Little Laura, 14 months



Mandy milking the cow

Mama doing clean up

Ash at Rio On Pools

Ryan on the farm

Grace with her kitten "Mittens"

Well happily we are here to report that after about 3 looong years of praying, planning and waiting, we are here in SUNNY Belize! Thanks to the efforts of many (you know who you are..) We are so blessed to be living in a very functional and lovely old farmhouse next door to some very dear friends. It has been such a joy getting to know them better. The community that we are living in is comprised of many different churches and folks. It was originally started by the Kleine Gemeinde Mennonites back in the late 50's. There was a split in the church in the 90's. Now living along side the Kleine Gemeinde Mennonites are many different church groups as well. We have met a Calvary Chapel minister as well as a few people who belong to the Witness Lee group. There are Mayan villagers and Creole who also work in the area and do their shopping here. So far we are attending the traditional Mennonite church as they are probably the closest, doctrine wise, to our family. We have very much been enjoying getting to know all of the folk here though. And all have made us feel so tremendously welcome.

Here are 2 links to some photos.. we hope to keep this blog updated now that we have internet hooked up.

http://www.picasaweb.google.com/libertyjoyforme/Belize2011#

http://www.picasaweb.google.com/libertyjoyforme/BigRockFallsRioOnPoolsAndMore?feat=email#

~Random Summer Pictures~

Here are some a few random summer pictures~ ♥


Mama and Laura


Scents of Summer flowers~


Uh, oh... Laura got to the flowers!
"Hmmmmm..."


We found this enormous apple at our local food market... It weighed about 4 lbs!!


This fella was huge compared to normal sized apples!


Mama doing some sewing~


Gracie with a dirty (and silly) camp face!



Grant ♥



Sandbox Squirrels



Grace about to throw the ball for Molly

Good morning Laurie~!


Our beloved Mama ♥


Ashley found this little lady sitting on our couch!



Grace ♥

Little Laura eating her first strawberries!


Ryan


Silly Laura!

2 Sillies- Grant and Laura ♥

Back on the farm- Selling eggs! (or not...)

It was so hard to have Ashley gone for almost 2 weeks! We all missed her so much. ♥ But absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder and it just made her homecoming that much more wonderful.

In the meantime, we had some fun experiences. One of these was putting up signs for Farm Eggs for sale... No, none of the eggs sold but the boys had a wonderful time putting up the signs!




The Jolly Chicken Boy!


Looking for some eggs? Right this way!


While Rye was working hard on the signs...


Grant was doing wheelies in the road! :)


Even though they didn't sell any eggs, I think the boys had a superb time putting up signs!



~ Amanda