WE MADE IT!

Hey all we made it safely to Guatemala.
Sorry I dont know how to get my pics on here. we are enjoying ourselves so far. We have just been hanging out here in Pachalum. We made the boys a basketball hoop out of a big bucket and hung it on the fence outside. Alex has put it to good use. Except he has gone through 2 basketballs. The top of the fence that it is hung on has these pointy arrowhead things on it and someone has really good aim because both balls happened to hit just right on the points and popped them, so now he can only play with the soccer ball. After the soccerball gets popped he will have to play with the cheap-o plastic balls they sell here, which will not bounce. We have succesfully made pancakes from scratch and they are our breakfast staple. (Me and courtney decided this morning that if we dont make food ourselves we would starve to death. It is more like camping ina cabin than a vacation. A vacation is when you dont have to cook and clean. We have been eating out for lunch each day so that is nice. Now if we could just hire a live-in cook. ) :) We made choclate chip cookies last night and they were a hit. No rats in the oven this time. But we did have to unload about a whole cupboards worth of dishes and such putof there. And we tried to make french toast on a cookie sheet in the oven today and unknown to me Abuelita had put the PLASTIC strainer full of unripe mangoes back in the oven and the poor strainer melted to stringy pieces. That is one thing they lack here is storage space. In our room we made a shelf out of cinder blocks and wood. the wood was yucky so we wrapped it in garbage bags. Hey but it works and we got most of the bags unpacked. Last time we lived out of bags the whole time and it is nice to feel more organized. Anyway after walking to this internet place we just looked outside and it is raining alot now, so me and courtney need to find a tooc tooc(little motorcycle car thing) to take us back to the house since we are about 5 blocks away and we dont want to get soaked. We will blog again next time we get to the computer. We miss everyone but are having a good time.

Almost all of our bags

DAY BEFORE OUR BIG TRIP

Well it is the night before. I can't sleep so I decided to add to the blog.
We are finished packing finally. And we are proud to say that we have 7 bags less than last time we went. This time we ONLY have 10 being checked and 2 carry ons. Maybe someday we will learn to pack light. But I have packed so many useful thing this time. The last time we went I made mental notes of everyday useful things that would make life easier while in Guatemala. The list included:
A good broom that actually sweeps
A dustpan with a rubber edge
Liquid dish soap
A dish scrubber bush
Pump hand soap
Plastic bowls
Tupperware type bowls with matching lids
Big roll of toilet paper that lasts more than 1 day
Cookbook with recipes I know
Measuring cups and spoons
Pizza cutter for cutting pancakes (we eat alot of pancakes there and now we can make them from scratch)
A table top fan to place right by my bed at night
A roll of screen to keep the bugs and scorpions out if we want to sleep with the window open
Window cooler, but we decided against it this trip :( Maybe next time

Anyways,the list goes on and on. I think every time we go it will get a little easier with these little conveniences that we take for granted every day.

I think I will go to bed now and hopefully I will be able to sleep, and not have dreams of being robbed or kidnapped.


My mind goes into overdrive the closer we get to going.

I will try to post every few days or at least once a week once we get there. We will be back July1st.

New blog

I thought I would start a blog so when we are in Guatemala we can post what we are up to.