Hello, and happy week after spring break to all! I hope everyone had a lovely week! Mine was absolutely fantastic! I will give you here the abbreviated version, as I am sure most of you have better things to do than read my blog for hours on end. Extended versions are always available upon request. :)

Thursday prior to spring break: Rode into Arlington with Megan a day earlier than originally planned to surprise Charles. He wasn't completely surprised, which was slightly disappointing, but being able to see him in person was still worth the trip.

Friday: Lunch with Charles at Cafe' Acapulco. Yum. Purchase of my new pink iPod for music-listening purposes on the flight to Honduras.

Friday Night: The highly anticipated mystery date with Charles. Began with a trip to Target where he bought me a super cute case for my super cute iPod. Followed by a drive to downtown Dallas where we saw the Dallas Children's Theater performance of Sleeping Beauty. Amazing. Points were definitely awarded for superb date-planning. Ended the evening with a late-night dinner at Johnny Carino's. Very good.

Saturday morning: Wake up at 3:30 AM so we can depart for the airport at 4:00. Plane leaves at 6:30. We are on our way to Honduras!!!

Saturday afternoon/evening: Arrive in Honduras. Briefly check in at the hotel, then head to the mission to pass out flyers for upcoming VBS. On a mountain. A very steep mountain. Not an easy task. Order pizza to share with the youth of the local church. Make it an early night. Asleep at 8:50.

Sunday: Church/VBS in the morning. Attempting to command the attention/cooperation of 300+ children who do not speak our language. Interesting to say the least. Nap time in the afternoon in preparation to do it all again Sunday night, this time with about 100 kids. Good times.

Monday-Tuesday: Days spent painting, painting, painting. More shades of blue than I thought could be legal for a single building. Nights spend conducting VBS for approximately 60 kids.

Wednesday: Another day of blue paint. Allison and I paint a pretty spectacular mural we entitle "El Dia y La Noche" on one of the walls of the daycare yard. We are proud. Dinner at Power Chicken followed by dessert at the Godoy's house, which overlooks the city. Gorgeous.

Thursday: Final work day. We have more time and people than work to be done. Spontaneous 20 minute group sing-a-long of Disney songs ensues. Jim and Mario get in a car accident in the crazy Honduras traffic. Final dinner with Honduras friends.

Friday: Morning shopping at the local market. Fly to Roatan in the afternoon on one of the most questionable-looking planes I have ever seen. We are only slightly comforted when we discover it is a Rolls Royce. Relaxation phase of the trip commences.

Saturday: Wake up to rain, which clears in time for a canopy tour of the jungle. (Translation: approximately 1 mile of zip lines through the top of the jungle. One of the most amazing experiences ever.) Canopy tours ends in a park where we get to hold parrots and monkeys. Rain comes back just in time for our hour-and-a-half horse back ride. Made for quite a memorable experience. Rain clears again. Snorkeling and kayaking occur. Several come back with battle scars from the coral reefs. Delicious dinner as the sun is setting. In bed at 8:30.

Sunday: Church in a tiny little church building with just our group. We pray hard that the only road leading to the airport will re-open in time for us to catch our flight. 2 hour layover in Houston where Megan and I enjoy our first Dr. Peppers in 5 weeks. Finallly land in Dallas around 9:00PM. Quick trip to Bueno before all the Abilene folk (except me) make the drive back to A-Town.

Monday: Spend the entire day with Charles. Morning is spent being introduced to the life of Charles. We visit his adopted grandmother and go run some errands on UTA campus. Lunch at Bueno. Side stops at the Cingular store and CVS before driving to Ft. Worth to see "Dolphins" at the OMNI theater, followed by a visit to the Planetarium and a brief excursion through some of the museum exhibits. More creative date points awarded. Swing by Charles' parents house so I can meet his parents. Dinner at my house with my parents and brother and sister-in-law. A very good day. I think maybe I like this boy, and I just might have to keep him around a while. :)

That pretty much brings us to now. Tomorrow will bring lunch with Charles, a visit to my mom's school, and picking up Jackson so the dogs and I can make the trek back to Abilene. I would have to say that, all in all, it's been a pretty fantastic spring break. I am sad to see it end.

Hello, and happy lazy Sunday to all!!

AND happy birthday to Phyllis yesterday! I am definitely looking forward to going out to eat yummy food to celebrate tonight!

Life in my little world has been fun and exciting and exhausting all at once. Last weekend we had a houseful of people, and it was super fun. Megan's parents and Jon-Michael and Allison came in Friday evening, followed by the surprise arrival of Charles and Stan late Friday night. (And when I say "surprise," I mean that everyone in the house except me knew they were coming.) We had a fantastic weekend that was pretty much one giant triple-date where only the girls knew what was going on. Good times. Megan and I had planned out the entire weekend, and our plans were only slightly hindered when the nastiest dust storm I have ever seen decided to visit Abilene on Saturday. It was truly disgusting. However, the weekend was fabulously fun. It was so fun to get to actually see Charles in real life and know that we can be friends off the phone too! Our phone-only relationship resumed after they left Sunday night, and will continue until Friday when I get to see him for a few hours before we leave for Honduras. He tells me he has something great planned for us to do, but he will not tell me what it is. It's like he likes to surprise me or something. :)

And this brings me to the next bit of excitement in my life: HONDURAS! We leave in just 6 days! I am oh so excited. It hardly seems like this is so close to happening. We have been talking about this trip for months and months, and it has been so exciting to see it all come together. There were definitely times when I wondered if it would, but God made it happen, just like I knew He would. I am so excited about the group that is going and the service we will get to do down in Honduras. Please pray for us!!

Work continues to be a fairly stressed-filled environment for me right now. I think it is a combination of it being winter, when lots of kids get sick, our continued lack of having a real manager, and my taking on more responsibilites that I know are good for me, but scare me to death as well. I am supposed to be beginning to orient to charge, but so far we have been too busy for this to really take place. I am not entirely excited about having to do this, but I have decided that since it seems this responsibility is going to be thrust upon me whether I like it or not, I am at least going to get a proper orientation to it. I absoluetly do not want to be thrown into it blindly again. That was pretty much horrible. Also, I am quickly discovering why Tommy was so eager to let me take over the responsibility of making the schedule. It is the opposite of fun! People get super touchy about their schedules, which I can understand, but it's sometimes like they don't realize that we have to have people working every day!! I do my best to work with people and give them the days they want, but I am not a miracle worker, and there is basically not a way to please everyone. This is a very hard concept for my people-pleasing self to accept. But I am learning. I am slowly developing a backbone. I am learning to listen to people's concerns, and truly be sympathetic, while at the same time standing my ground. It is difficult for me. As much as I would love to bend over backwards to let everyone work exactly when they want and be off exactly when they want, it is not worth my mental stability to spend every moment of my spare time trying to make the impossible possible. And so I have to keep reminding myself that even though people may get upset from time to time, they are upset with the situation, not with me personally. And even if they are upset with me personally, I am doing the best I can, and we will both just have to get over it. The end.