Amber at 3, 5 and 7

I went searching for some old birthday photos and found these. Notice for my third and fifth birthdays I have a green and pink cake. My mom for some reason went on a streak of making me pink and green birthday cakes, so to this day it's a joke in our family. My favorite is actually my mom's German chocolate cake, mmmmm.

Twenty-Eight on the 28th

Today was my "golden birthday" and it was a good one. I got up to the smell of breakfast cooking and had a nice long shower. Zaak made me pancakes, papaya, fresh squeezed o.j. and Mildred tea. He also surprised me in an email I read after he left for work, with a picture of his gift to me - a new ipod shuffle! The punk had just convinced me I didn't want one when he had this up his sleeve the entire time:) Then I did some errands and later relaxed while Blaise napped for a good three hours after lunch. We ordered tamales and cake for my bday supper so all I made was the ponche, a cinnamon-y, fruity hot drink that people drink at fiestas around Xmas time. Yum. So then we celebrated with our small group and a few other friends. I feel blessed to be me, with the family and friends I have been bestowed with. Thanks to my sweet husband who made my day special, my son for his extra long nap and kisses and snuggles today, and all of you who emailed me your well- wishes. I am truly loved.

Copan Birthday Trip

Here's Blaise and I at a lovely restaurant in Copan Ruinas, Honduras. We left Friday and drove the 4 hours there with Mariah as our travelling buddy. The highlights for me were eating out and getting a break from cooking ( top 2 meals were waffles and salmon, mmm), an hour long body massage (Mariah's birthday gift to me), exchanging 7 of my old books for 6 new ones at a book exchange, and just the change of scene. Blaise did not sleep well the two nights we were away but travelled like a pro. We enjoyed a good night's sleep in our own beds and rooms last night that's for sure. Now its just over 2 weeks until we leave for Canada, yippee!

It's Cold

We are experiencing some seriously cold weather here in Tactic. Before you squack "What!?! But they live in Guatemala, Central America!" keep in mind we live in the mountains. No they are not snow-capped or anything but it still gets cold. Plus houses here have no heating system, so it's like we're camping. It's even warmer sometimes outside than inside! So we are doing all we can to stay warm; eating soup, huddling around our fireplace, drinking tea, wearing layers, and snuggling up to the rice bag and each other. I'm also working on Zaak to take us somewhere warmer for the weekend for my "golden" birthday present. (I will turn 28 on the 28th). So if I get my way (and I usually do:) we may just be a few hours away for the weekend enjoying some +20 degree weather, oh joy, oh bliss! In the meantime I will take any suggestions out there for keeping warm.

Blaise's World

Blaise has got a skirt of mine on here that he rummaged from the dirty clothes basket - funny boy. He was sick this past weekend, vomiting and no appetite. Thankfully he's on the mend now, but man there's nothing in the world like your child being sick and not knowing what to do for him. Not fun. He can say water now (more like "wa-wa") and says "mmmm", "wow", and "wowee", quite the expressive little lad. Zaak started scaring him the other day so now his thing is to walk into a room and say "rawrrr!" and expect us to be scared. He also likes to say "boo" to try and scare us:)

The Happy Couple

Congrats Oscar and Evelin, may you be eternally happy together:)

La Familia Robichaud

This is our third attempt at a family photo with Blaise aka Mr. Squirmy Pants. We were all dressed up for Oscar and Evelin's wedding so I was hoping for a nice shot. Oh well! Blaise likes to be on the go a lot lately, which makes any type of sitting still event a bit difficult. At leasthe can't out-run us quite yet:)

Las Vegas and a cozy fire.

Our landlord, Frank Sr, came over yesterday to size up our fireplace situation with his young son, Frank Jr. Little Frank is a talkative lad and was asking me questions about Canada. Their family lived in States for a year when he was 4. He must be about 7 now, and shared some of his ideas about the world with me. I will quote him here: "The best towns in the world are Canada, the United States, and Las Vegas. In Las Vegas there are no poor people, and even the smallest house is a mansion." Talk about cute eh? I didn't have the heart to tell him there are poor people everywhere, and that Las Vegas is one of the saddest "towns" in the world.
Back to the fireplace situation. Last week I had purchased wood for our fireplace so Mariah made us a fire while I made supper. Soon our house was filled with smoke as it poured out of the fireplace instead of going up and out the chimney. Zaak says it's poorly constructed and I am in full agreement. So today Carlos the Carpenter came to fix it and and it works now! I was so thrilled to have a warm crackling fire going this evening - God bless you Carlos!

Thief Part 2

So unfortunately I have another thieving story to tell. Today I went to the market in Tactic and someone swiped my wallet out of my purse. I reached into my purse to pay for my pineapple and two pounds of tomatoes, and there was no wallet. Mariah was with me so she paid for my stuff but I had this sinking feeling in my stomach. I checked the car, the house, and it was nowhere to be found. So, we have now had our house broken into and robbed, I had my wallet stolen last March in Antigua, a plant stolen, and now my wallet again. I only had Q300 cash in it (about $45) BUT I also had my visa so I had to cancel that and can only get my new one at Xmas. More than the actual losses is the feeling of violation. Why me, and why me again! I'm a missionary here in this country supporting the Guatemalan economy with the money supporters send our family and this is how I'm repayed?!?! Sigh. I guess it's all part of the journey but I just feel sick about it still. And I know I need to keep it in perspective, and fight the feelings of wanting to pack up and head back to Canada. People are robbed all the time in Canada too. The highlight of it all is that Mariah took me out for lunch afterwards to cheer me up - what a sweetie:) Mariah is a Canadian friend who just moved here from AB to tutor the Peters kids in their homeschool. We love having her here, she's been hanging out with us a lot and it's great.