The last couple of days before the team arrived involved anything we could do with our precious and unlimited car access. This meant trips to the incredible "church park" downtown for some slides and popsicles, blissful air-conditioned grocery store runs, and even Wendy's one afternoon for frosties, the play place, and of course, some powerful AC.
To Lucy, getting drenched in green sticky slime is a very small price to pay...all for the love of popsicles.
Last night, Josh brought me along to celebrate his final evening in Honduras at the infamous Expats. Gerson and Michelle joined us once again, along with two other friends I'd never met before. Josh, the last of this year's MTW interns, left for the states around lunch time today and we're all sad to see him go (especially Ellie, who doesn't even know life without him).
All of us at Expats
Ellie had her 9-month "birthday" yesterday :) And since Lucy seems to often steal the show with all her quirky mannerisms, Ellie deserves an a little shoutout.
This baby MOVES! A professional army crawler and johnny-jumper, Nancy Elliot (aka Ellie) discovers the world around her through patting, scratching, and sucking anything she can get her hands on. She's getting into even more trouble these days as she's beginning to pull herself up to standing position. Those rolly-polly legs are ALWAYS moving. Ellie loves anything that's NOT actually a real toy (i.e. car keys, cell phones, tupperware, books, dvds, anything Lucy has at the moment, remote controls, shoes, plastic cups, and any hollow object that allows her to showcase her newly discovered voice.) When she's not sleeping, this baby can be found rearranging the ziplock bags and plastic plates in the kitchen, maintaining her perpetually sweaty head, discovering old cheerios on the floor and indulging herself, sucking on her crack pacifier, or pretending to be fussy so she'll be fed.
One of my favorite parts of the day is giving Ellie her evening bath. We call her "buddha baby" because of her incredible potbelly and overall nakedness. It's really amazing all that can be found in between her rolls of fat and underneath her chin, where a neck should be. Second only to eating, Ellie's happiest moments are in the bathtub (and that's saying a lot).
A new team from the Pettengill's church in Sacramento, California arrived yesterday safe and sound (and on a MUCH earlier flight, but everyone adjusted without any major issues). Already, the dynamic of this team of eleven compared to the previous team of fifteen is very distinct. Walking into the pancake breakfast at the Pettengill's this morning, I fully expected the same noise level and crowdedness I had experienced with the last team from Sovereign Grace Church in Charlotte. I waited for the chaos and it never came. They all seem really kind and gracious...just, quieter. This, their smaller number, and the fact that they're all good family friends of the Pettengills will surely make their nearly two week visit manageable and less stressful for everyone.
Concluding the evening by baking a chocolate cake for the team, Lindsey and I became concerned about our own personal lack of dessert. This has become something of an unofficial tradition in this household since my arrival. Between all the baking and hosting events of various kinds, I cannot remember an evening here without dessert. Tonight, however, we baked Brownie Pudding Cake and suffered our first cooking defeat. Even more embarrassing than our disgusting mushy mess was that it had been specially labeled as "easy" in the cookbook. Disheartened and still craving sugar, Lindsey and I should have stopped while we were ahead. We should have stopped with shrimp and grits.
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