Confession...

I love to read! No really, LOVE to read. I used to be grounded from books when I was little, and my parents used to hide them from me! In real life (when I'm not enjoying grown-up summertime!), I'm working my way through 4 or 5 different books.

Here's a quick little story*:

On my trip to Peru, I brought 4 books (not including my Spanish Book of Mormon) and once magazine. I left the magazine on my last flight to Peru (sad day! but it was a Church magazine, so hopefully someone else needed it more than I did...), so I had 4 books to savor. One was in Spanish (Harry Potter 1!), which means it took longer to read. However, during my 3 weeks in Trujillo, before galivanting around Peru with Savannah, I finished all my books! Then I settled for journal writing to pass the extra lesure time I had during flights and train rides at the end of my trip.

Now I am in Vegas with the family, and I had no book to read. I. Had. No. Book. To. Read. My parents are moving to Phoenix (a process that has been going on for about a year now...long story...), so a lot of their stuff is packed and in Phoenix. And apparently they packed their books! It had been about a week before the withdrawl symptoms started...

So yesterday, I took a little trip to Borders. I was so good and only bought one book (that's #2 in a trilogy, and I LOVED the first- thank you Josh and April for the Christmas gift!)... I did end up hanging out at borders for another 1.5 hours reading a totally different book that I just wasn't willing to pay full price on (when you have a Half Price Books just waiting for you in Austin, you feel no shame in reading part of the book at a fancy store just to buy the book for lots cheaper later...)

And that is my story of my love of reading. And books!

*apparently that means 3-4 paragraphs...

El Salvador 2011, continued...

First off, I just need to note that the mosquitos in Peru LOVE me! Must resist scratching... on a happy not, there is a very low risk of getting the West Nile Virus here! Gotta stay positive... :o)

And now to some "after" pictures of the kiddos and babies. Some were hurting pretty bad still, so I only took pitcures with a couple of them.

Love this mom and daughter picture! So sweet!

What a trooper!

This guy was super cute! He loved the crayons and coloring books!

Fast asleep...

This was the little lady who was a little afraid of the wind-up toy chick. Both her and mama look a little tired...

This mama was "muy enojada" the whole time last year when her baby got his líp surgery. Mind you, we were they strange gringos who were doing a pretty intense surgery on her little baby. This year, however, she was SO grateful for us and taking lots of pictures of all of us with her little guy! She also had a gentleman with her this year (Im still not sure if it was the babys dad...), so Im sure having an extra pair of hands to help decreased some of her stress.

Again, my favorite! He got his palate done, so he felt kinda sore still. That surgery takes 2-3 intense hours- did I mention that we bring the best doctors on this trip?!!

His mama blowing bubbles. He was definitely feeling good enough to try to blow them again! Yes, by trying to eat them! LOL! His mother called him her little "robot" because, with the arm splints (which the kids wear for 2 weeks so they dont but their hands, or anything else, in their mounts), he couldnt bend his arms. It was super cute!

Oh, and little Victor again. Thanks to the surgery, he was a lot less of a little troublemaker. The wind-up chick broke right before he went into surgery, so I gave it to him afterwards. You cant see it in the photo, but its right next to him.

Until next time, chicos, chao!

El Salvador 2011!!

So, I just loved my trip to El Salvador last year with Austin Smiles! When I was told about the SLP position available again, I didnt* think twice before applying! I dont think I even prayed about it beforehand... opps!**

Last year, I regretted not taking enough picutres of the kids, so here are some of my favorites! These kiddos are so adorable, and their parents were just amazing!

I can honestly say that this little boy was my absolute favorite! He is just so cute! The following pictures prove his cuteness...

He just couldnt get enough of my bubbles!

Whenever I tried to get him to blow the bubbles, he just tried to eat them! LOL! This picture is a good example of this... and yes, I laughed SO hard everytime he tried to eat them, as shown in this photo!

Me trying to get him to stand still for a picture...he wasnt so sure... now dont worry, there are many more picutres to show soon!

I think this is honestly my favorite picture- Victor is just SO cute!! He is smiling so big because he just kicked the wind-up toy chick... such a trouble maker!

The little lady was a bit afraid of the toy...

She was SO cute before the operation! Afterwards, she turned into one of our biggest "princesas"... Her poor mom stayed up all night rocking her!

Playing with balloons the Rotarians brought- I am totally bringing some next year!

So cute! They were quite the friends waiting for their operations! The little lady on the left has a syndrome that affected her legs, so she does not walk to well...the little "princesa" on the right totally helped her get her balloon when it floated too far!

As this computer is kinda slow (see *), it takes forever to upload pictures. Ill try again later or once I get back to the states. Until then, Ill be living the dream in Peru! Chao!

*Umm... so I am using a computer in Peru to do this post... I dont know how to do an apostrophe and spell check is only in Spanish... please know that I do know English grammar and spelling! Or at least know how to compensate for not knowing... thank you spell check! :o)

**For the record, I did pray after I applied and still felt good about it.