{"id":2118,"date":"2014-02-09T01:24:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-09T01:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=2118"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:30","slug":"a-week-or-two-in-pictures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=2118","title":{"rendered":"A WEEK (OR TWO) IN PICTURES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thought I’d throw together some images from the last few weeks – the little joys and trials.\u00a0 Buddy is both a joy AND a trial himself.\u00a0 We have finally got him sleeping through the nights without so much as a whimper.\u00a0 And the accidents are less frequent inside, too.\u00a0 (Though with tile floors throughout the house, he still picks the area rugs\u00a0 as his toilet when the urge strikes.)\u00a0 We haven’t left him home throughout the day by himself yet.\u00a0 If inside, we fear what chewing damage he could do in a day’s time.\u00a0 If outside, we fear him wandering off or getting into a tangle with one of the older dogs.So we’ve been taking him to school with us and he’s become Melissa’s classroom pet.\u00a0 He’s brought a lot of joy to many kids at Cowman.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Along with the lizards, frogs and spiders, we often get a surprise critter, like this butterfly that flew inside one night.\u00a0 His colors were intense.\u00a0 I was wishing I could send him north to my friends in Indiana as a promise of spring, but I didn’t want to freeze him to death.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u00a0Speaking of critters… Knowing that Hannah was so heartbroken over losing Cookie Dough earlier in the month (and that rabbits do not thrive in isolation), Hannah’s “Haitian History” teacher, Mr. James, stopped by with a surprise.\u00a0 This time the naming was quick – the new male bunny was dubbed “Pumpkin” based on his color … and shape!\u00a0 This is a BIG boy.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I could do an entire post about food – and how long everything takes to make from scratch.\u00a0 So I was excited one evening to try out a “gumbo” mix brought to us by our friend Pastor Steve on his last visit here.\u00a0 I mixed in some leftover Mexican rice Melissa had made the night before and the kids couldn’t get enough.\u00a0 Literally.\u00a0 These days we have very few leftovers.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Still on the topic of food, Melissa found a HUGE can of blueberry pie filling at a local grocery store and I came across a recipe for homemade Danish and this masterpiece was born:<\/p>\n\n\n

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One day at school Melissa left a drawer slightly ajar on her filing cabinet.\u00a0 She might as well have put a “For Rent” sign on it.\u00a0 The next day she opened it to discover numerous files she has collected over the years chewed into “bedding” for yet another rat.\u00a0 Guess who gets to investigate?<\/p>\n\n\n

Melissa was convinced that the rat was still in the cabinet, so I stuck my phone into the bottom of the cabinet, behind the lowest drawer to take a picture where I could not see, and, by golly, she was right!<\/p>\n\n\n

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One of the maintenance men came in and took over (although I had the situation under control) and he put his hand into the bottom of that cabinet and started rooting around for that rat!\u00a0 We concluded afterwards that he was operating under the impression that he was fishing for a DEAD rat because when he actually touched it, he jumped backward and that rat came flying out of the drawer!\u00a0 I tried to stomp\u00a0the little beast\u00a0and Miss Rose whacked him a few times with a broom, but in the end he escaped through a hole under the bathroom sink.More pleasant news from Cowman: Caleb and his math buddy, Brianna, have been working at their own pace throughout the year.\u00a0 They skipped 7th grade math and went straight into pre-Algebra back in September.\u00a0 They have been using a computer-based program and just FINISHED\u00a0two semesters worth of\u00a0work.\u00a0 Now they’re ready for Algebra.\u00a0 Proud of them!<\/p>\n\n\n

(P.S. Brianna is purposefully making a “bored” face here.\u00a0 She LOVES math!)Last Saturday brought a beach opportunity we just couldn’t pass up:\u00a0 All of the missionary couples with kids were going to the same beach on the same day.\u00a0 That’s five sets of siblings and a total of 15 kids.\u00a0 Our kids can never seem to\u00a0get too much time with these friends.\u00a0 Below, Sammy is splashing his friend Gideon.<\/p>\n\n\n

To make a great day even greater: chocolate ice cream!<\/p>\n\n\n

On Super Bowl Sunday, we got a call out of the blue from our friends at Emmaus Seminary – they had figured out how to live stream the game and were planning to project it on the “big screen” outside.\u00a0 It was an absolutely gorgeous evening with a light breeze.\u00a0 The only downside?\u00a0 It was a European broadcast, so\u00a0the only American\u00a0commercials being broadcast were for products sold on both sides of the Atlantic.\u00a0 And from what I could tell, that is a very short list: Skittles.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

Seems like every time you turn around, someone is having a birthday.\u00a0 It was Alanna’s turn, so we were invited next door for pink cupcakes on Monday evening.<\/p>\n\n\n

We came home to find another unique butterfly, this time on our screen door\u00a0– looking very much like a dead leaf.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

On Tuesday, we Skyped with a class from Southside Elementary (Go Mustangs!) back in Columbus, Indiana.\u00a0 These kids would have been Hannah’s classmates if we had stayed put in Indiana.\u00a0 So Hannah was especially excited to talk to them.\u00a0 Their teacher is initiating a “pen pal” program with our 5th, 6th and 7th graders.<\/p>\n\n\n

Tuesday also brought a visiting team from Texas to my adult English class in the afternoon.\u00a0 I don’t post many pictures from this class, but I LOVE getting together with them twice a week to teach English.\u00a0 They are a sharp group and the curriculum is Bible-based, so we often get to talk about the more important things in life.\u00a0 No matter how tired or drained I might feel coming through that door on Tuesdays and Fridays, the Lord perks up my spirit once we get into the day’s lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u00a0On Thursday evening, we had an invitation to join Sam and Cammie Aberle for a wonderful dinner (again at the Seminary) and just before we left home, Buddy started SCREAMING from a little wooded area beside our house.\u00a0 When we finally tracked him down, he would not put weight on his left paw and he would not stop whimpering.\u00a0 We were never able to discover what occurred, but his paw swelled to twice its normal size and he cried intermittently throughout the dinner.\u00a0 Maybe a tarantula?\u00a0 Maybe a centipede? A wasp? The way he carried on, we weren’t sure he’d live through the night.\u00a0 We were all praying for him.<\/p>\n\n\n

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And the next morning, he was subdued but otherwise back to normal.On Friday, we had a half day of school to make room for a teachers’ meeting.\u00a0 Our principal, Angie, had a great idea: send the kids back home for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches …<\/p>\n\n\n

… and take the teachers just down the street\u00a0to the Villa Cana for hamburgers and beautiful scenery!<\/p>\n\n\n

Bravo, Angie!\u00a0 And it was a really productive meeting – things are constantly changing at Cowman.\u00a0 For the better!\u00a0 Below, Melissa is sitting with her teacher’s aide, Miss Rose, and\u00a0Rose’s husband, “Coach” David – who teaches gym and leads an after school soccer club at Cowman.\u00a0 Rose has been such a huge blessing to Melissa and the students.\u00a0 I need to convince Melissa sometime to share the story of Rose’s hiring back on the second day of school last September, because it’s a good one.<\/p>\n\n\n

I can’t tell you how blessed I feel when I look back over these pictures and see all the beautiful ways God is shaping our lives here.\u00a0 Thank YOU for making it possible!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thought I’d throw together some images from the last few weeks – the little joys and trials.\u00a0 Buddy is both a joy AND a trial himself.\u00a0 We have finally got him sleeping through the nights without so much as a whimper.\u00a0 And the accidents are less frequent inside, too.\u00a0 (Though with tile floors throughout the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2139,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118\/revisions\/2139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}