We love 3 day weekends!

Last week we finally got back to school after a month off. It was so nice to be here a week before school started so we could re-adjust to our lives. We had parent/teacher conferences on Tuesday and school started on Wednesday. The week was alright. We've got today off because of Martin Luther King, Jr. day so we decided to take a road trip for the weekend. We loaded up bright and early Saturday morning and headed to the north/northwest part of the island. Our first stop was at a beach where there's an old train tunnel. The surf was so high we couldn't go in the water. We walked through the tunnel and found another part of the beach where we climbed on the big rocks. It was so windy, I'm surprised no one fell in the water!

























After that we drove west for a while. Before we moved here, Courtney and I saw a show on the Travel Channel. There's a man that travels to all different countries, eats their food, travels around, etc. He's a famous Chef and has restaurants everywhere. He traveled to Puerto Rico and went to this place in Isabel. The legend is that a man named Jacinto was walking along the rocks when the ocean came and swallowed up his cow. Now there's a big hole in a rock where the ocean splashes up through the center. If you go to this hole and yell at the man to give you his cow and the water splashes you you're supposed to have good luck. We had been wanting to see this place and we found it on Saturday. We yelled and got soaked! It really was a neat place to visit. Here's Courtney & I standing near the hole yelling and then standing over the hole. You can see the water splashing up.

After the blow hole we ate lunch at a place called "Happy Belly's". It was a nice open air place right on the ocean. Unfortunately it was raining a little, the wind was chilly, and I was soaked. I'm paying for it now...laying here in bed, sick, as I'm typing this! Anyway...after lunch we drove to Crashboat which, if you remember, is the beach we went to when Joy was here. Courtney took his invention to the beach to be tried out. He invented the "beach pole" for when you're at the beach and have no where to hang your things. I took some pictures of him "installing" it and hanging his first item on it. It worked beautifully and really held lots of things. Come on down and you can hang your stuff on it!!

Step one: try to push the beach pole into the ground. Realize that the roots from the palm trees are huge and don't want to break.

Step two: try banging on the beach pole with coconut. If that doesn't work you can also use a filled cooler and bang it up on and down a few times.

Step three: once you've worked hard enough you'll finally get the first piece into the ground. After that you must put the top half on.

Step four: you're ready to hang things on your pole! We hung: Courtney's pants and shirt, my skirt and shirt, our camera, and our beach bag filled with things. It held a lot of weight and I think my hubby was pretty proud of himself.

After staying at Crashboat until sunset (we wanted to see the sun set on the ocean) we drove to our parador (hotel). It's the largest parador on the island and it was very affordable. We stayed in for the night because it was rainy and we were tired. We got up yesterday morning and drove to Camuy to the cave system. You have to take a trolley down, down, down, a steep and winding path. It was a little scarey because it was slick. Anyway...I tried to take pictures inside but the camera started messing up. (We think it was the humidity inside of the caves.) Inside the caves lives an estimated 1/2 million bats. Luckily we didn't see any. There's also a spot where water runs down the rocks and they call it the fountain of youth. We all drank from it to see what would happen! Here's us getting ready to go down on the trolley, Courtney & I in front of the fountain, through an exit from the cave, some stalagtites, and the Camuy river that runs underneath and through the caves. Katie and I always have to have a picture taken with giant animals so here we are with a Coqui.

The last thing on our list was to drive to Arecibo to see the Observatory. This is the largest telescope in the world. It was pretty neat to look at but not anything so exciting that I would want to see twice. Katie's going back in a few weeks on a field trip with 60 third graders...good luck on that one!

We also had an interesting experience with ice cream this weekend. There is an ice cream parlor here in PR that is famous for its wacky flavors. Just to give you an idea of what I mean, my husband and I tried beer flavored ice cream which was sitting right next to the beans and rice falvored ice cream. That was sitting next to the corn flavored and avacado flavored...get the hint? In the end we all settled for some pretty "normal" flavors...I was the least adventurous and stuck with good 'ole chocolate chip. Courtney had orange, Brent had coconut, Clate had pineapple and something else, Mendez had sweet rice, and Katie had cheese & strawberries (strawberry cheesecake). I'd like to try something more exotic next time...maybe...

Let the Blogging begin!

We made it home to Puerto Rico last night. It was a long day of flying! I discovered yesterday that I prefer to have a non-stop flight as opposed to having a lay over like we did. Granted it wasn't much of a lay over but it does make a difference. Here are some pics I took of our trip back home...enjoy! Here's Nic and Anna the first day I was home. I realize it might have been kind of morbid but they looked so nice getting ready for the funeral.










I took over mom and dad's Christmas tree in Lenexa. On Wednesday the 13th, I went to Ft. Leavenworth and then spent the afternoon wrapping Christmas gifts from Puerto Rico. Those gifts are just the ones I got done Wed. and Thurs...there were lots more by the time Christmas rolled around!













When Courtney finally arrived it was time to meet with friends and family. We spent Thursday in Leavenworth with Carol & Ben and some friends. Then Thursday night it was dinner with the Bridges family, Johnson family, Clamurro, and Jared. It was so nice once Anna warmed up to Courtney. No matter how mad she is at him she loves her Uncle Courtney! On Friday we spent the day with Nic and Anna and then Friday night was more friends...complete with Karaoke at High Noon. Here's a pic of Anna and her Uncle Friday afternoon, Jim singing Dream On by Aerosmith, and Courtney and Ben singing La Bamba. Ben wasn't too thrilled Courtney pulled him up there because 1) Ben doesn't know all the words to the song, and 2) Ben didn't know Courtney had signed him up to sing with him!














We drove to Salina Saturday and did Christmas with Calvin, Donna, and the kids. here's a picture of our niece (the supermodel!) and nephews. That night it was Christmas with Grandma Butler, Aunt Kim, and the Cole family. Sunday we drove to Wichita for Christmas with the Johnson side of the family, Church in Salina that night, then to Ada and back to Minneapolis on Monday for Christmas with well just about everyone! As you can see, the men had a poker game going while the kids played Bingo in Ada.

We spent the rest of the week in Minneapolis seeing people and went back to Lenexa on Friday evening after a detour through Sabetha. Saturday we shopped all day (and didn't buy a thing!), Sunday it was off to St. Louis ahead of the big storm that hit everyone else! Sunday night we went to the casino in St. Louis, spent way too much on their buffet, and were in bed early because we had to be up at 5:00. Our flight was alright. We had a little puddle jumper to Charlotte and a huge plane from there to San Juan. It was the biggest plane I've ever been on. Everyone and their dog and baby (literally!) decided to fly on New Year's Day. We got back safe and sound, the dogs didn't destroy our house, and life is good! It was great to see everyone while we were home. Now we're just waiting for visitors down here!!

Back in Kansas...

Well, I've been back in Kansas for a week now. Last week was so crazy. I got to St. Louis at 5:30 last Sunday. Amanda was nice enough to drive to pick me up, we stopped and ate, picked up Jim and the kids (so exciting to see them!) and we drove to Minneapolis. We arrived around 2:30 Monday morning...long drive from St. Louis, in case you didn't know. Grandpa's funeral was Monday afternoon so Monday was a long day. Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, cards, etc. during this time. We've made it through the tough stuff now it's time to move on. On Tuesday, my mom and I helped Grandma write thank you notes then it was back to Lenexa to mom & dad's apartment. I spent Wednesday at Ft. Leavenworth surprising our friends there. It was so much fun to see their faces when I walked in! Thursday and Friday I wrapped Christmas presents then we drove back to Minneapolis. Courtney's cousin Travis got married on Saturday so I got to see his family that day. It was a lovely ceremony and I was glad I could be there to represent the Marsh family. Yesterday it was church, breakfast, more driving, (back to Lenexa) and then helping mom with her Christmas shopping. My poor father was our driver and he sat in the Blazer while we shopped. It's been so nice driving my Blazer with cruise control!! I've experienced some of the things we've been missing in PR but I'm saving some for when my husband finally arrives on Wednesday. No pictures to show right now because 1) I haven't taken very many, and 2) I don't have the right computer to put them up on. I'll be sure to take some when we see friends on Friday and family next week to put them up for all to see. Have a very Feliz Navidad!

It looks as if some of you will get to see me earlier than expected! Courtney will still be coming in on December 20 but I, unfortunately, am coming home for Christmas 10 days early due to the death of my Grandfather. My Grandpa, Curtis Butler, passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer. While we are terribly saddened by this, it is a relief because he is no longer suffering. He had been in the hospital for, I believe, a month or more. They performed surgery which is when they found out he had more cancer, after that he suffered a stroke, and from then on it was down hill. My Grandma and Aunt Kim spent tireless hours (every night) at his bedside and my parents did the same (every weekend) since he fell ill. I will not be able to blog for a while since I will be at home with my family so I will come back to it after Christmas (sooner if you're lucky!) to let you in on anything new. Courtney will be staying behind to get things squared away with the dogs, our home, and school before the long break. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers during this time. I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday and a great start to 2007!

Ponce, PR

We had another fun filled weekend. On Friday night we had a birthday party for Brent. All I can say is it was interesting! On Saturday morning we did laundry (of course!) and then went to Ponce with the Dills, Clate, & Mendez. Katie & Brent had been to the Ponce plaza before and said it was beautiful so we decided to go. First we went to the Parque de Bombas (museum for firetrucks, etc.). We didn't go through it but we looked at a firetruck sitting in front and the building was decorated for Christmas. We had a picture taken of the CB 5 and all I will say is that Clate is not easy to photograph. It seems like most of the time if we take a picture that involves him he's doing something in the picture. He's kind of like Miller...has to make a face or just not pay any attention. As you can see he was putting away his camera and things as we all posed and smiled.














From there we went shopping at some vendors and some small shops. Courtney and I did quite a bit of Christmas shopping. I'm actually really enjoying shopping for Christmas here because I know I'm getting people something they've never received before because of being in a "foreign" country. After that we were walking along and found a vendor doing caricatures. Katie and I decided it would be neat to have one done so we sat for 2! We each had to have one to take home! Here we are doing our "modeling".














I am loving how things are decorated here. All of the plazas are lit up. They each have beautiful statues and things as it is but now they're even better for the Holidays. Here's one of the many beautiful statues at the Ponce plaza. I tried to get some of the Christmas decoration also.




















I think some people may have a hard time believing how narrow the street in Puerto Rico are so I tried to show you. This is down one street near the Ponce plaza. It's a little dark but maybe if you enlarge it you can see better. Look at the buildings on both sides. Imagine driving down these streets with cars parked on both sides (because most are one-way), it's interesting!



















We then went to the Ponce boardwalk to listen to live music and see vendors. They have these fish that are HUGE! We bought a bag of sardines (oh yeah, slimey, frozen, nasty things!) and fed them. It was truly disgusting to listen to them fight over them. They were flopping on top of each other, jumping around, everything.

While we were feeding the massive fish (again, try enlarging it to see them...sorry...it was dark!) we saw an eel! It was really cool. We threw sardines close to it so it could eat and actually got it to come out so we could see how long it was. While looking at that one we saw 3 more!

As we were getting ready to leave we saw this display. Pig roasting is big here...everywhere...and they made a display of a pig roast. Mendez had to pose for the camera. On Sunday we went to Pozuelos to eat conch. Courtney and I got mofongo (mashed plantain...kind of like a pot pie) and a conch empanadilla to share. It was really quite good! Then we came home and watched football, got school stuff done, and then I went with the Dills to watch the lighting of our plaza here in Guayama. Courtney wasn't feeling too well so he stayed home...and he updated me on the Cowboys game...must say I'm pretty proud of my boys right now! I took video of the lighting. I'm going to be making DVDs of our videos from here. We'll be home in 2 weeks for you to see them!

Thanksgiving is here...

It's officially Thanksgiving and we celebrated a lot today! It was us, the Dills, the Lakners, and our friend, Angel, for dinner. We had all the goods: turkey, ham, stuffing, deviled eggs, baked beans, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, and the list goes on. We'll be eating for days!!!














Angel carved the turkey for us.















Us with the Dills before lunch. We were glad Brent was able to join us...he was very sick last night.















One of the few times Lola came out from under the table. She was guarding the food!















Courtney enjoying his baked beans on top of mashed potatoes...a Hoard family tradition. I couldn't let him go without!















We ate and then watched football...how 'bout them COWBOYS?!?! We were supposed to go watch the Chiefs game tonight but the 2 places that said they would be open aren't, so instead I'm here Blogging...just for you! What a great day! :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!

We feel very blessed this year to have such an opportunity as we do to be
teaching in Puerto Rico and we are having the time of our lives.

We miss our families & friends but we know this is where we are meant

to be right now. We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving

and is able to be with people that love them. We wish we could

be at home to help everyone celebrate but we will be with our neighbors

and their family so things won't be bad. Celebrate your families and the time you
have with them. Be thankful for what you have and celebrate it everyday!
Eat way too much turkey for us (eat some ham for Courtney!), watch
some football, and be happy. We can't wait to see everyone soon!
Much, much, much love to everyone,

The Marshes

Monday in Culebra

Our plan for Monday morning was to get up and drive to Zone Beach for sunrise. Well, the alarm went off at 5:15 and we decided it was a great morning to sleep in instead. We got up round 8:30 or so, got packed, got gas in "the Thing", got breakfast, and drove to the beach. It was a long drive for such a small island but the roads are narrow and winding. There were a few steep hills that I wasn't sure our Thing would make it back up but it performed like a champ! We ate our breakfast on the beach and headed back to catch the afternoon ferry back to the main island. Here are a few pictures we took on Zone beach. I love the picture of Courtney & me that Tori took and I especially loved the picture of Courtney...he had no idea I was taking it!




























We drove back and got our things loaded up (which took up all of the room in the Thing) then headed to take our car back to Dick, the man we rented from. The entire island of Culebra is basically old hippies and Dick is just that! Here's a picture of our Thing loaded up (or down, however you'd like to say it!) and us with Dick, the Thing's owner.

To take us back to the dock, Dick loaded us and all of our goodies into his beat up van. It is rusting out...completely. The back door is just about to fall off! Courtney had to sit in the back with our stuff. We got on the ferry to come home and while we were riding we saw some interesting things. We saw dolphins jumping in the water...I was so excited! Then we looked over to the island of Vieques (where the Dill's and Lakner's were) and we saw a funnel cloud over the water. We got home safe and sound and have spent the last 2 days recovering and cleaning up from our trip. If you come down to visit and want to go on a somewhat secluded island adventure we'll take you to Culebra! See ya in a month!!

Saturday (& Sunday!) in Culebra

We have had a very busy last few weeks here in Paradise. Last week was Puerto Rico Discovery Week. On Thursday we had an assembly that different classes performed in. Katie and I were adventurous and taught our classes a Puerto Rican dance called the Plena with the help of Mrs. Rosa. We also kicked off our dance with a Bomba which is kind of like "Yo Momma" jokes in English. Katie and I even said our own Bombas in Spanish and everyone went wild! Then Thursday night Katie's parents arrived. We're having a great time getting to know John & Jean Lakner...wonderful people. We are off of school this entire week and we're pretty happy about it! We took the first part of our Thanksgiving vacation and went to an island called Culebra off of Puerto Rico. The island is about 12 miles from Puerto Rico and 13 miles from St. Thomas. Culebra is only 7 miles long and 3 miles wide. In 1901 the US Military arrived in Culebra to establish an area for the military to use as a firing range and to hold marine exercises. Two remaining stone houses built by the military in the area of the Department of Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife are witness to that era. There is a museum in the house marked 1908. The military stopped using Culebra as a bombing range in 1975. There are still rusting tanks on Flamenco beach.We went with another American teacher to Culebra and stayed in a guest house because there are no hotels on Culebra. We needed a vehicle so we rented from a friend of the man we were staying with. We ended up with an old, beat up Volkswagon Thing...I kid you not...the name of it is a Thing!! In case you're wondering, yes the top does come off...with velcro! Here's our beautiful piece of machinery.














When we got to the guest house and got settled in we started to walk out front to get loaded up. We saw a huge iguanna walking past our car. Here's a picture of our friend.














Our first order of business was to find a beach. We've been told many things about a beautiful beach in Culebra called Flamenco beach. We found it and everyone was right, it is stunning! It was perhaps the most beautiful beach I've seen to date. The sand was perfect, the water was so clear you could see all the way down to the sandy bottom. We just stood there on the shore for several minutes with our mouths hanging open. We spent all day on the beach taking in the sun, drinking, eating, swimming, you name it.














We took a walk to find some of the rusted old tanks on the beach. We found one in the water and decided to climb on top for a better look and, of course, for pictures! Here's a picture of Tori and I on one of the tanks.















Here's a picture at the end of our day on Flamenco beach with the sun beginning to set. There's nothing like a sunset on the beach!















After Flamenco we drove our Thing back to the guest house to shower up and get ready for the next adventure. We were told about a restaurant so we decided to go check out Mamacita's. It was a lovely open air restaurant and our waiter was fabulous. We even found jalapeño poppers on the menu!! I know, I know, who gets so excited about those? Well, when you love poppers and you haven't had any for 4 months you get excited!! Tori had to take a picture of us because, according to her, when they came to our table our faces were glowing! They were great by the way!















To cap off our night we walked and found Professional Wrestling. Courtney was so excited! Apparently there's an old Puerto Rican wrestler (from Culebra) who now does commentary and every year he brings some "talent" to Culebra. We just happened to have picked the right weekend for it. Courtney even called Dustin and gave him some play by play. I know the people were thinking, "What is this drunk white guy doing?!" If you look closely you can see the ring in the background.















After wrestling we went to a bar and hung out. Then it was off to bed to get up early Sunday morning for a private boat tour of the surrounding islands. We hopped on the boat around 10:00 Sunday morning and headed out. It was a nice boat ride, a little choppy but not too bad. We stopped to go snorkeling first. I jumped in complete with flippers, mask, snorkel, everything and freaked out! I think I was a little ambitious for my first time snorkeling. I got scared when the first breath I took the mask plugged up my nose, then I didn't like the flippers because I thought they were weighing me down. Courtney of course stayed in the boat because he doesn't get in the water. I took off all the gear and decided to just swim. We climbed back in the boat and went to a beach where Courtney could relax because he was feeling a tad seasick...mixed with a hangover...bad combination! After spending the afternoon on the beach we headed back out to snorkel. This time I did it! I decided not to use the flippers because I don't like them so I just used the mask and snorkel. It was amazing! I saw so many things that you don't always realize are in the water. I was happy as a clam just snorkeling away when I looked up and saw my hubby hanging over the edge. I thought he was looking at fish so I said, "Are you okay?" to which he replied "NO!" That was our cue to get back in the boat and head for land. We went back "home", showered up, relaxed, ate dinner, and went to bed early.

Guilligan's Island

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip. That started from this tropic port,aboard this tiny ship. The mate was a mighty sailin' man,the skipper brave and sure. Five passengers set sail that day,for a three hour tour, a three hour tour………The weather started getting rough,the tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew,the Minnow would be lost; the Minnow would be lost. The ship took ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle,with Gilligan, the Skipper too, the Millionaire, and his Wife, the Movie Star, the Professor and Mary Ann, here on Gilligan's Isle.

Well, we had yet another weekend on our little island paradise. This past weekend it was even more literally a little island. We went to Guanica on Friday night with some other teachers where we rented an apartment from the father of another teacher and spent the weekend on Guilligan's (that's how they spell it here) Island. We didn't see any Skippers or Movie Stars but we do have our very own Gilligan. The first picture is Guilligan's Island from the front porch of our apartment. Here we are Saturday morning loading up to go catch the ferry. We loaded up all 8 of us in the little truck complete with beach gear and a kayak. The Casa Benny 5 rode in the back. I sat on the tailgate and Courtney say in the kayak...really he got us there. We climbed aboard a ferry minus Angel & Clate because they decided to kayak their way to the island. Angel owns his own kayak and Clate rented one. Katie & I wanted to do that but since neither one of us has before we decided it wasn't a wise idea. The ferry ride took about 10 minutes. The island wasn't that crowded when we arrived so we were able to find a nice place to put our things near the water. This place was much like Mata la Gata so Courtney swam. In fact, he stayed in the water with the rest of us ALL day. It's the most he's been in the water since we arrived! We swam over into the mangroves surrounding the island and all of the men (boys?) climbed trees and jumped in. Courtney's favorite was, you guessed it, cannonballs! Here's a picture of me, Katie, and Janette, another teacher at our school. Janette brought her son, Martin, along for the weekend as well as her pug, Choco. We had 8 people and 5, yes 5, dogs! We spent the entire day Saturday in the water. We played a game of water football and, unfortunately, the boys won. It was really difficult to "run" in the water. I also had a "wardrobe malfunction" for the majority of the game. I bought a strapless swimsuit to wear down here so I wouldn't have tan lines. Well...the game got rough and several time my top came down. I don't know for sure, but I think Martin saw my who-whas at least once. Eventually Angel gave me his shirt that he had been wearing in the water so I didn't have to keep stopping to pull my top up. We finished up at Guilligan's just before the rain came and went to the apartment to get showered. We didn't do much that evening, ate dinner and hung out. We got up Sunday morning, went to get breakfast and decided to do some exploring. We found another beach that had beautiful sand, water, and rocks. I luckily had my camera with me and Angel told Courtney & I to climb the rocks. We did, very interesting to watch I might add, and he took our picture. You can tell from our picture that we had literally crawled out of bed and went to get breakfast. I wasn't looking my best, I would have to say! While we were there we saw a little crab running around. Angel wanted to catch it so we all started helping him try to stop it. Courtney and Brent were running by it putting their foot down so it wouldn't move anymore and that's when it happened....Courtney stepped, shall we say, a little too close and SMASH. No more crab! He did end up catching one and got it to puff it's eyes up so we could see them. He said if we stay at the beaches late enough you can see hundreds of crabs crawling up & down the shore. Maybe we'll do that some time. We then went to an old lighthouse on the side of the mountain. It was pretty interesting. We got out and walked right up to it. It's falling apart and there's graffiti all over it. The stairs were gone so we couldn't get up to the top. That would have made for some interesting pictures! After the lighthouse we went back to the apartment to pick up everyone else. We then decided to spend the day at the public beach nearby. We did that until 2:00 in the afternoon and then drove home. All in all it was a great weekend. We had a lot of fun getting to know the other teachers even better. It's so nice to be making such great friends down here. It will be sad to leave them when we're done here but at least we'll have people to come visit! Today was just another day at school...well sort-of. this morning my kids started freaking out. They were screaming and yelling and jumping on desks. I was like, "What is your problem?" They kept saying there was a "worm with a tail and legs" crawling under my desk. I asked if it was a lizard...no. I asked if it was a snake...no. Anyone know what a worm with a tail and legs is? We went to snack recess and I left my door open hoping it would leave. When we got back one of my brave girls crawled under my desk. She moved a paper that was down there and said it was under a poster tube that was there. She moved the poster tube and low and behold there it was....a HUGE centipede! I don't know if you know this or not but those are pretty much the most poisonous things we have here in PR. I went to get Mr. Dill (Brent) because he's right next door. I asked him if he thought I should get Raffa, our maintenance man. He said yes so I did. Raffa came and and I believe his words were, "Oh my God!" He then smashed it with his foot...nasty juices everywhere! I asked if it was poisonous to which he replied, "I think so." How comforting! That was the first one I've seen and hopefully the last! We hope everyone has a great week this week. Please pray for my family as my Grandpa Butler is not doing well. I am hoping above all hopes that he makes it until I come home at Christmas but I am also being realistic. I'll keep you updated on that one...anyway, have a great week and enjoy the pictures of our trip!
Muchos besos!