Oh man, okay, so I went with the others out to lunch this afternoon. One idea in my head being, I want to get better at this (at making choices, right), and I thought since I've only gone once before since I've been here that it wouldn't hurt to do it one last time. Only little confusion here, I got two things that had meat in it, not understanding anything and so it costed more than what I was hoping it would, lol. Just so you know I very much dislike spending money on stuff e.i for myself. So when I bought a $8.00 meal it feels to me like that was a waste e.i. since I could only eat half....that's when I needed someone's help to finish eatting it. But since there was no one, I brought it back with me. So Michaela's like you bought "two" meals for $8. It didn't sound so bad after that. But anyways.....that's what's rolling around in my head right now and driving me crazy. LOL!! It was still very very yummy though! Wahoo!!

Ivon decided that he'd try and get me down on the ground today. He's about the same size as my little brother, so it was funny. He tried it a couple times but he was the one who ended up on the ground, lol. Then later he locks his arm around my neck and pulls me down as I wasn't expecting it. Then I believe he felt very good that he got me down. Haha!
I know my little brother is always trying to get me down when I'm not looking. We've always gotten along really well, and we always goof off 'like that. Everytime he tries to get me, he's the one who "falls" to the ground. But he is so determind that one day...one day he'll get me. And to tell you the truth, I BELIEVE IT!!! He's getting so big and weighs more than I do. When I got back from the Ranch he tries and oh my goodness, I was like..."Wow!!" He's not that little anymore. He's bigger than me now." Ouch!! He's a tough boy. Lol, fun times! I love that boy :)

So the Potter's Field Kids today were told that we were leaving soon and that this was there last week with us. When it was said, you could hear them all say, "Nooooooo.....!!!" That's when I feel bad about leaving, is when I hear how much they don't want us to leave. I've had so much fun with this group of kids and it's been a really special time with them.

KiDs ClUb

So today I'm paying for what I did with the kids yesterday. From the ages of 6-11, I was spinning, giving piggy back rides, putting upside down, tickling...and being tickled, lol. After an hour of this I noticed that a line with about 11 or 12 kids had formed to wait their turn to go next. I was having a blast, but this morning I believe I'm paying for it, lol!

But for farther details and stories about the day: It starts off at 4:00pm and in 15 minutes I was chasing about 5 kids back and forth. They were calling me "Skinny" in Spanish, but were adding another word to it, with my name to try and make it rhyme. Of course that's not a name I'd offended by of course, but they like to call me that to try and get me to chase them. So I go along with it. They also point at you and say, "You crazy!!!" And I just repeat it right back to them. Sometimes I wonder if I one of the kids and need supervision also, haha! Next the twins get there and yell their way to me with their arms open for a hug! One of the little girls later fell and was crying. She was totally okay, but I put her on my lap for a mintue, asked her how she was doing and then tried to help get her mind off it and offered her some water. Then the rest of the day she was following me around and would smile everytime I looked her way. She's a very shy girl.

When we were all at the field I kept hearing my name, so I look around trying to see who it was. Then see Denis as he's playfully yelling, "Justineeeee, Justineeeee, Justineeeeee....where are you??!!!" Of course he knew I was right there, lol. Denis tries to help me for a minute when I had 3 kids trying on me and says to them, "Have Michaela do it!!!" Or something to that effect cause in a second I realize that the kids left me and ran to Michaela, haha! I reward Denis with a high-five saying, "Right on! Thanks!" As I was really needing a breath right then. But poor poor Michaela....lol! Haha, but it didn't take long at all for them to come back to me. That's really when the line began to form. It was so funny. Okay so these kids have been learning body parts in English so this one word, "Feet" is what I used alot yesterday. When I spun them by their hands, when I was ready to slow them down I would say that word and they would understand. Otherwise if they didn't get their feet down on the ground as I slowed them, their knees would hit the ground nice and hard. So we couldn't have that.

Later that evening I was asked to watch the Pastor's kids while he was at a counseling meeting. So this was easy, I had one hour with them up and then I was to put them to bed at 7pm. Funny thing was for an hour straight every 5 minutes (i'm not even joking), every 5 minutes the 2 year old would get out of his crib and turn the light on. Over and over again I put him back in his crib. After about a half hour of this, it came to me what I used to do with my youngest sibling when I shared a room and I was very young too. I remember trying to encourage my little brother (poor Isaiah, lol) to get out of his crib when he was awake. But of course he'd get in trouble every time....why in the world I did that I don't know. But to tell you the truth I only remember doing it one time. But I still did it, right. So I got this bright idea to, okay, put the 2 year old back in his crib then turn off the light and PRETEND that I was leaving...to fool the 4 year old brother. Haha. Guess what I was right, sure enough all along he was the one telling his brother to get out of bed and turn the light on. It's not like they were my kids so I really couldn't do anything about it. Anyways. I stayed in their room secretly twice and the second time when he was encouraged to get out of bed, Elijah(2 year old) was told to turn the light on. Mean while I'm standing right in front of the light switch and it is dark enough where they can't see anything. Elijah walks towards the light switchs and realizes that there a person right there, ME! I keep quiet I did't even say anything. While Zeke (4 year old) keeps telling him to turn on light. So Elijah tries again bumbing into me over and over, lol. He feels my knees, then my toes, last my arms then finally finds the light and both of them just look at me as they see that I'm right there in the room with them. I didn't even say a word. But took Elijah out in the living room for a few minutes and just held him on my lap. While I waited for Zeke to fall asleep or at least get sleepy enough to not want to get Elijah up again. After that it was great! I finally figured it out for not being their parents I had to work with things in a different manner than I could if they were my own,...right, exactly :) I had a very exciting a fill day!! Lol....very nice. At least I was busy that's really nice :)

Crazy day...

We rode the bus to get to the beach today, we had all met a guy at the bus stop so he was talking with the others. When we got to the beach he also gets out there and hangs around for a bit, but as he was leaving he was giving everyone one of those cheek kisses (that Costa Ricans do) so while the 7 of us were in a circle. I was like "Oh Justine become invisible...for just a few seconds PLEASE!" It didn't work, lol! I knew that a kiss on the cheek is like one of their culture things that I know I've never done in the United States, but still I was like "Runnnnn..." in my mind and thinking, "...oh please don't see me, just give me a hand shake!" But sure enough he gives me one too while I'm trying to calm myself down saying, "It's okay Justine, it's a culture thing for them, it's like their type of hand shake, it's the way thy greet one another." As he was going down the line of all of us and does it to me he noticed my reaction and how I was like awkwared by it he said, "Oh I'm sorry!" I remember Pastor Steve and Pastor John always talking about how their were gonna be things done different and how I need to be prepared, but I think I failed on that one. I mean seriously, how often have I ever gotten a kiss on the cheek by a guy? NEVER in my life, (unless it's my Dad or maybe my grandpa's when I was little) lol! I don't know if I could ever get used to that. I wish the guys just gave girls hand shakes. :D

Michaela and I later went on a walk down the beach for about an hour. We were finding crabs and not just sea shells but actual shells that had something living in them. Cool! With the crabs I tried to scare it back up to shore so I could get a better look. I was using my flip flop to direct it when it jumped at me, scaring me and making me jump and run back to Michaela, LOL! Michaela would pick up the sea snails which looked to me like a white flat looking slug with a shell stuck on top of it. I enjoyed the walk on the beach with Michaela. I'm so glad Michaela's not sick anymore. She's an easy girl to miss..."Love you Michaela, I think you're awesome and fun to hang out with for sure!!!" Oh yeah here's something else. When we were walking back she almost stepped on a crab and I figured she'd get pinched if she did so I screamed as a sign to warn her when no words would come out of my mouth. She was like, "Oh my goodness..." because of my reaction to tell her there was a crab. Michaela goes on to explain exactly how I did it or something and repeats the scream to demonstrate and ends up making me scream by her scream. Wow...okay!
Right and just so you know, I'm not a seafood person...haha!

Tonight we went to the Christian Surfers concert. Today at the beach there was a surfing contest going on. While we were at the church band concert kids were running around and found their way to Michaela and I. Two of the kids we knew already and decided to try and get Michaela up out of her seat to play with them. A second later they got me up and I was putting Wolfy upside down and over my shoulder with of course a lot of tickling. Once I put him down two other little boys came up to me wanting me to do the same thing to them. I ended chasing them around with one or two of the kids on my back and the other hanging on my neck. Lol. It's so fun to play with kids! A couple of the kids mom's ended up telling the kids to calm down saying that I wasn't a jungle gym. Haha!! It's so funny...there were 5 of them wanting to be on my back, over my shoulder, being tickled or the one being chased. Whew!! Alot of fun...but tiring :D Stacy-Wolfy and Olivia's mom says, "Justine, your like a child magnet!!" ...as the kids are drawn to me....I love it!

BabysittingAtMcKays!

Rebecca McKay told her husband out for dinner but made it a surprise to stay over night at a hotel. So Natalie and I got to watch their kids through the night and until 1:30pm. While the kids were in bed we watched a couple "I Love Lucy" shows and then after that Natalie watched "Saving Sarah Cain" as I have seen it before and so I decided to disapear to journal and talk with my Mom.  It was good. Then later when Natalie went to bed I stayed out in the living room for a bit longer and noticed that there was a mouse running around the house along the walls. I thought it was just a geco at first until I spotted it and Dude(the McKay's mini dog) catches it like a cat would catch a mouse and plays with it until it dies and then leaves it. At time when the mouse was dead the power goes out and makes it pitch black and I had no way to get it taken outside since my hands couldn't find it so it stayed on the rug until morning. I know it's pretty gross for most of you to hear this story, but for me it wasn't bad at all. Lol. But in the morning I took it by the tail (with a paper towel), showed the kids then tossed over the fence into an un-tamed field right next door. By the way, I used to be the mouse catcher at home until Isaiah wanted to take over. I always thought it was cool that I wasn't scared of mice :) ...just spiders, HA! About 2:00am or 2:30am Zeke got out of bed being scared of the dark and it was crazy hot since the fans were also off. Last night was actually really sweet cause it was like taking care of little brothers or a sister. So when Zeke came out of his room I just treated him like a I would my own little sibling. It was great! Loved it!! But I do know that I really admire the parents of those kids. The kids respect their parents so well, and are being taught to love the Lord and to act as Christ would have them act. It's awesome to see a neat family like that! I'm inspired...like I am with my own parents :) And about 8:30am we took them on a walk taking turns giving the boys piggyback and shoulder rides. The kids played in the play room for quite a while, while I was tidying up the house. The next minute I see Eden and Zeke trying to sweetly clean their bathroom to surprise their Mommy getting water and soap on everything, without ringing out the rags that they were using. So I was going after them drying everything up with a bigger towel. Lol! They are so funny and cute...!

Marriage Conference

Last night I had a blast hanging out with 5 to 10 year old's at the marriage conference at the church. We watched VeggieTales and after a while the three boys that were in the room got board with the movie and began to goof around....and was cracking up! Those boys were so funny. They got clothes pins and were putting them on their faces. And trying to pull them off eachother to see if they could stand it. Ha! Ouch!! A bit later they found some of those craft eyes that are plastic and the black part of the eye rolls around. They put them to their own eyes...oh man I wished I had my camera. Then the boys started trying to turn off the lights then the little girls would scream and I'd try and playfully stop the boys from shuting off the lights by standing at the light switch and tickling them when they got close. And of course they loved it, so they kept trying. I had fun! For a whole two hours I was hanging out with these kids and enjoyed every minute. This little girl Olivia had a brother, Wolfy were introducing themselves. When she told me what Wolfy's name was she says, "He's a cute little guy!!" And she herself is like 5 years old. So cute!! Those two gave be a hug before they left and Wolf starts walking away then comes right back to me and gives me a kiss. I was rather surprised, I'm a complete stranger to him and this little 3 year old gives me a kiss on the cheek. Then he gives me another one on the forearm (odd) and I asked why he gave me one on the arm and he folds his arms and says very confidently, "I kiss my dad on the arm!" Anyways, that was cute. I was tickling and putting kids over my shoulder last night. It was great and they loved it, I'm sure they slept rather well.

"Happy Birthday Michaela!"

So Corey and Edy stopped by to see if we were all gonna go to the beach tomorrow and since it's Michaela's birthday today they decided we should all sing for her. She told us that she'd run inside if we did sing as she very much dislikes being the center of attention. We began the song she tries marching right on in the house, but I hold her back while Corey and Natalie close the door....LOCKING US ALL OUT!! Ahhh....right, so we followed Matt and Brooke's instructions on what to do if we locked ourselves out. Crazy us did it within 3 days of being at the McClain's house, haha!!