some "see ya laters", not goodbyes.

First off, some of you may wonder how we celebrated the 4th of July here in El Salvador. Well, you see since Elvis and i got a 3 day weekend, we went to the lake, jet skiied, went swimming, ate brownies all weekend, and headed to the beach to play in the sun and sand with our family and close friends. Then we had a cookout with hamburgers and hot dogs and potato salad and deviled eggs and anything else you can put mayonnaise and mustard into and baked beans and my mom's famous bean dip and red white and blue jello whip cream dessert, all while watching fireworks from the deck of a boat.

Oh wait.




I forgot that none of that happened and in fact, I had to work. And so did Elvis. And it felt like every other day of the year. Except when i checked facebook (which happened approximately every 15 minutes) and saw that everyone else was in fact living out that little alter-ego weekend i just described.



Oh well.


One redeeming part of Monday was that Elvis's younger sister, Kenya, arrived from Mexico where she is going to college. She will be here for a few weeks while she's on break and so it's great to have her around again!

It was good for us to say "hello again" to her because this week we had to say "see you later" to some of our closest friends, Rafa and Sarah. I've written about them a lot in the blog because we spend most of our free time with them. And we work together and go to church together so we have shared a lot of life together over the past few years. They left this morning to move to Australia (where Sarah is from) to go back to school and start a new chapter of life. We are SO SO excited for them, and SO SO sad that we won't get to hang out anymore.

You know, it's hard finding a friend that you feel like you can talk about anything with and they won't judge you. Well it's double hard finding a couple that's like that. They have been that couple for us and have been a safe-haven for us as a family to share exciting news, sorrows, frustrations, dreams, yummy recipes, coffee, etc etc.

It's really hard to lose everyday contact with such amazing friends like them, but it's a sign that God is preparing us and them for a new stage of life. It's one of those challenges that comes with the rain, if you read my last post.


So, "see ya later" Rafa and Sarah! we love you guys, you know that.


On Friday I will be saying "see ya later" to my 2 sweeties as i jump on a plane to Pasadena, California!! I can't wait for my own little "vacation" (even though i'll be in class from 8-5) and I can't wait to see another one of those special couples that I already described: Brian and Kelly McPhail! However, I'm dreading leaving behind Elvis and Suz, but I'm excited about them getting some extra special bonding time too.

So, this will probably be my last post until after my trip, so i'll leave you with some cute pics of my lil' ballerina and........."see ya later!"