better late than never...

anyone who has been reading this blog for the past year has heard about my frustration with the lack of volunteers from the SOs.  I have begged people to help to no avail.... but last Monday afternoon my prayers were answered. 
We had our first visit to Queen Elizabeth Home for the semester & as I approached Charter Hall I was welcomed by a massive group of volunteers.... 19 in total!
NINETEEN!
We had 3 returning volunteers from last term and 16 new SOs!
It was incredible. 

There are only 14 kids at QE right now so we had more than one adult per child and I was amazed at just how smoothly things went.  The kids were engaged and having fun and no one was acting up.

I realize that 19 people each week probably isn't realistic... but if at least half of that group remain faithful to visiting QE each week it will be awesome!

I am getting ahead of myself and daydreaming about how awesome Limes will be this term if we can get that many volunteers.... 

I heard this quote this week "Delays do not weaken the promise of God"

This past year was a bit of a struggle and wouldn't have been possible without the dedication of Amber Gazo, Michelle Nanney, Adriana Pardo, and Jessi Steinz. 
When people were bitter and doubted that we should continue Limes and other volunteer activities we said no.  These programs are way to important to these kids to just toss it aside.
And look what is happening!  So many people want to get involved and help out and I believe that God has sent the right people for the job and I am optimistic about the future.

Cactus Hunting.

Yesterday some friends and I went to St. George's to go to the market and mall.
actually a lot of people went, it was like an SO field trip.
Alfonso, Amber, Christina, Adriana, Sarah, Sarah, and Sarah.... there are now 3 Sarah's!
It was a lot of fun and incredibly hot.
I did manage to get a potato peeler, start fruit, yams, bananas, and earrings for my cartilage piercing, since my other one had like rusted or something... gross.
and I remained true to my vow to give up smoothies for Lent even though EVERYONE else got one. :/

Afterward I decided to go after my cacti I wanted to get..... it was an adventure.
I realized I didn't have anything to dig them up with, so I went with a..... spoon.
I was really afraid someone would see me out there digging up cacti, but luckily just some locals were out on the cliff fishing and they didn't even notice I was there. literally.
I found that baby cactus don't grow very deep roots, and they start off of a piece of an old cactus, so it wasn't too hard to dig them up. and I found some perfect little cacti that needed a new home.

I had been saving our tin cans from soup and vegetables, without actually knowing what I would do with them, and they worked perfectly for cactus. 

I ended up getting way more than I needed and Lee was like what are we supposed to do with these?! haha.... but I love them!  I'm going to sit them outside my door everyday to get some sun.
and I only got pricked once!!!

A day in my life... in Grenada!

My sister & fellow blogger did "a day in my life" on her blog amanda-thriceblessed.blogspot.com recently & so I decided to also.... so here's a day in my life, in Grenada.

7:00am - wake up in a panic (like I do every morning) thinking it's late and Lee has missed classed.. to find out it's only 7 & the sun is just really bright by then
8:00am - Lee is up getting himself cereal very loudly like he does every morning... and I wake up & say "what time is it" and he says go back to sleep
8:30am - Lee is at his computer studying, I again ask 'what time is it'
8:50am - Lee is leaving for lab and kisses me goodbye, I wake up panicked again when he touches me...
9:00am - I'm laying in bed awake and decide to get out of bed
9:05am - do the bathroom routine
9:07am - get online, check facebook, email, and how many olympic medals the US has
9:45am - make myself a whole wheat bagel with strawberry cream cheese
9:46am - heat up water on the stove to make sweet tea
9:50am - have finished the bagel and LOVED IT
10:00am - fix my hair and start the routine of applying sunscreen to my entire body
10:15am - finish with the sunscreen and pick out a bathing suit
10:20am - back on facebook for a bit
10:30am - make a lunch to take with me to the beach and realize I forgot to finish the tea, so therefore it's not going to be cold enough to take the beach.... so I try to fit ice cubes in my water bottle, they are too big so I run hot water over them until they melt enough to go in the bottle.
10:40am - make 2 extra peanut butter sandwiches - one for Lee for lunch & one for my friend Adriana because she had never had peanut butter! She is from Columbia...
10:45am - start packing my beach bag with my towel, bottle of water, extra sunscreen, camera, cell phone, id card, room key, money, and lunch
10:50am - Lee comes home from lab as I'm leaving to meet Alfonso and Adriana... tell him there is a sandwich in the fridge & that I probably won't be home for dinner tonight so there is a frozen burrito in the freezer (FIRST time since we've been in Grenada that I wasn't home for dinner)
11:00am - walk to bus stop to meet friends & go to the SO bakesale
11:01am - find out that there is some really good stuff at the bakesale! buy Lee two litle loaves of chocolate chip cookie bars and myself carmel apple cake that Amber made (and was delicious!)
11:05am - ask Adriana if she wants to walk to my apartment with me to give Lee the cookies & see where I live (in very slow broken spanish & english) something like this.... "uuugh mi esposo is at la casa, take him cookie? you go with me.... see mi casa, come right back to autobus stop" she understands english pretty well it just takes time and you have to speak slow
11:10am - say Hello to Lee and give him cookies
11:15am - back at bus stop, talk with the SOs for a bit tell them we are going snorkeling... check out the produce & food they are also selling near by.
11:30am - finally get on a bus to go (I was getting restless...)
11:45am - arrive at Grand Anse Beach... help Adriana with her sunscreen because the day before she got the first sunburn of her life! and her back hurt...
11:55am - make it to the end of Grand Anse and start the hike up the hill to get to BBC Beach (b/c Alfonso and Adriana had never been and I wanted to show them...)
12:00 - are very tired from walking, but turn around and see the view and LOVE IT
12:05pm - are finally over the top of the hill and on our way downhill
12:10pm - get yelled at by a lady for trying to walk down the stairs of a hotel to take a short cut to the beach....
12:15pm - arrive on BBC Beach & walk a bit & take it in
12:20pm - find a nice tree to sit under and eat lunch
12:25pm - offer Adriana peanut butter sandwhich! she says it's good... but I couldn't tell if she loved it.

12:35pm - want to go swimming but Alfonso says we can't because we just ate..... roll my eyes and say Old Wives Tale! and then he continues to repeat it later in the day...

12:36pm - got in the water to go snorkeling, Alfonso and Adriana had never been! I only had one snorkel set, but two other pairs of goggles so they just held their breath..
12:37pm - see some fish in the seaweed!
12:40pm - Adriana doesn't swim very well so she wanted to go back and sit on the towel, so Alfonso and I went further down to explore...
12:41pm - got freaked out by a big school of fish
12:55pm - found a big conch shell, Alfonso picked it up
12:56pm - saw a snake! Alfonso got scared and dropped the shell and we swam away.....
1:05pm - switched goggles with him and he used the snorkel.
1:15pm - looked up from the water & realized Alfonso was really far out & yelled at him...
1:25pm - I got really tired and went back to our towels and the shade...
1:30pm - we were drying off and a Grenadian man walked by and said "yo you speaking a different language?" I said "yes, spanish she is from Columbia" he looks at Alfonso (who is Mexican) and says "yo man where are you from, you look like Italian or something..." Alfonso without even skipping a beat says "No, I'm from Pakistan"
1:31pm - I try to hold my laughter in....
1:32pm - the man is walking away and Adriana says "He is a little.. homosexual?" refering to the Grenadian man......... hahahahhaahaha I died laughing. I don't know what she meant really... but it was funny.
1:35pm - we start the walk back to Grand Anse
1:45pm - get to Grand Anse beach again and walk on the shore to Lady Finger's Restaurant, which is across the street from the IGA Grocery
1:55pm - get to IGA and we buy some stuff to take to the bonfire that night.
1:56pm - I convince Adriana to try Ting, a local soda... kinda like squirt
2:10pm - check out
2:15pm - go outside and wait for the bus and realize I don't have a bottle opener and can't open the Ting... Alfonso hits it off of a bench and pops the lid off!
2:16pm - I am sooooo relieved to have something so cold and wet to drink!

2:20pm - bus comes and takes us back to campus
2:40pm - get home
2:45pm - take a shower
3:00pm - find something to wear
3:10pm - get on facebook....
3:30pm - put on make up
3:45pm - back on facebook... Alfonso tells me bus is leaving at 5
4:00pm - fix my hair
4:10pm - 4:40pm - I have no clue what I did.... perhaps my times were off from before because I don't remember having this much of a gap. lol.
4:40pm - remember that Gabe (the guy I go grocery shopping for) is coming after class to get his groceries, so I set them all out on the table.
4:45pm  - get my marshmallows and cheetos to take the the barbq
4:50pm - walk to the bus stop and run into Lee on his way home from class & tell him about my day, and that Gabe is coming by soon & how much he owes me. quick kiss goodbye and then off the the bonfire... and Lee is going home to study for his exam on Monday.
5:00pm - bus comes and we meet Adriana
5:10pm - bus drops us off in Pt. Saline near the airport and we wait for Rebecca to come pick us up because we don't really know where we were going....
5:20pm - Rebecca comes! and takes us to the coolest beach ever... it's called Magazine Beach.

5:30pm - it was a party for 3rd term students mostly because they just finished term 3 & are starting term 4 Monday.... so they were celebrating it being over. but somehow through the links I got invited & I'm so happy I did, it was a lot of fun, and somewhere I had never been.  I introduced Adriana to everyone and she started speaking spanish with Rebecca
5:40pm - Liz offers me a hamburger.... grilled over an open fire :) mmmmmm and there was chips, pasta salad, veggies... a good little pot luck picnic.

5:45pm - Ed pours me an orange soda, one of my favorites
5:50pm - Ed sticks hid dog's leash on my arm and I am the dog keeper for the rest of the evening... :)
5:55pm - an awesome boat goes by

6:00pm - the sun starts to set & it is gorgeous!! we take tons of pictures

6:15-7:00pm - we just hung out..... I don't remember much... just talking with Rebecca, Ed, Alfonso, and trying to understand Adriana
7:00pm - realize I had never seen St. George's (the city) at night all lit up!

7:05pm - start roasting marshmallows!!

7:30pm - more pictures!

8:00pm - start debating when to leave because Adriana had to meet her boyfriend at 9
8:05pm - Rebecca invites us over for some puppy chow she made (the dessert) and it is so funny to explain to Adriana!
8:10pm - Me and Adriana leave with Rebecca and Ed and go to their apartment
8:20pm- arrive & eat the puppy chow & it is sooooo good! & decide I want to live in the same apartment complex as them!

8:30pm - leave to take Adriana home so she can make her boyfriend Jimmy a sandwich because he has been at the library studying alll night!
8:45pm - get a tour of Adriana's apartment
8:55pm - go to campus to drop Adriana off
9:00pm - convince her to let us meet Jimmy! haha... we promised we wouldn't take up their time together since she hadn't seen him all day!
9:10pm - meet Jimmy & explain to him that we're the people who had his girlfriend all day long & that she was in good hands.... lol.
9:20pm - Rebecca and I walk to my apartment so she can meet Lee
9:30-12am - Rebecca stayed and the 3 of us talked and talked :) She is about to be in her 4th term of med school so she and Lee talked about school and such....
12-something.am - Rebecca left and I realize how tired I was....
12:30pm - Lee and I crashed in bed and I slept completely through the night without ever waking up!