Introducing

I would like to introduce our wonderful friends Ivan and Laura.

They are from Columbia so their names are pronounced Evahn and Louda (when you roll the r)! We met them at the beginning of the Fall semester and have had such a great time just living life with them. Ivan is getting his PhD at the University of New Orleans and Laura has been taking English language classes this semester. They have been giving us Spanish lessons, but they are so much better at English than I think we will ever be at Spanish! Chad's favorite phrase we have learned is "demasiada leche" which means "too much milk." We learned this one during a cooking lesson!!

We have tried to get together with Ivan and Laura at least once a week, which hasn't been hard because we have so much fun together. One night they took us to a mexican restaurant that has a live band and salsa dancing. It was so fun to watch people getting up and dancing between every bite! Chad and I weren't quite ready to perform, but they are teaching us salsa as well as Spanish!



Ivan and Laura came to Chad's parent's house for Thanksgiving because they wanted to experience this American holiday. We told them it was just all about eating and LSU football, but they came anyway! We had so much fun sharing our family traditions with them. In turn, they invited us to their FEMA trailer to celebrate the Columbian holiday, The Day of the Virgin. They make two special dishes, I have a picture of the two boxes because I knew I wouldn't remember the names. One was a sweet desserty pastey thing and one is kind of like hush puppies. We really liked the hush puppies, weren't too sure about the other one, but of course didn't say anything. Laura later told us that she slightly messed up the recipe and she didn't like it either!!

One of the many amazing things about Laura is that her and her mother make incredible Columbian jewelry. It is all made out of seeds, bamboo, coconut and other things I can't spell. We had a craft fair at the Seminary so I set up a booth with Laura to sell some of her things. Everyone was amazed it was all handmade and Laura made quite a good profit that night!



Please pray that our friendship with Ivan and Laura will continue to grow as we live life together.

I know its been forever . . .

We haven't posted in a long time . . . sorry. But I am starting to make an intentional effort to take more pictures and then actually put them on the blog for all to see. We did take a few fun pictures at Christmas. We were in Kansas with my family for 10 days! It was so relaxing and so much fun. It even snowed a little bit on New Years Eve day, but not enough to sled or do snow angels which is about all I think snow is good for!

This was Clay's reaction to the Run DMC t-shirt that Chad and I got him for Christmas. He obviously picked it out because I would've never seen that shirt and thought "Yeah, thats perfect for Clay." But he liked it and thats all that matters.

Clay really surprised me this year with my Christmas prize. He made me a vase! He has taken pottery for years and I've begged him to make me one and I finally got it! I was so excited . . . I'm pretty sure there were a few tears too.

You can see the shocked look on our faces. This is because we were looking at a picture of our brand new washer and dryer that my parents got for us! It was so unbelievable. We have been using another couple's washer and dryer so it is very nice to now have our own. Thanks mom and dad!