Good evening folks,

     Well its been a little while since i updated so we will see if we can get that done here and now....there is def. a chance that the now will be postpones a little but we will see. I found out that my computer can get quite vexed at me if i do not restart it when it wants. It will lash out in a variety of different childishness that is quite vexing to one self.  But that was just a random note so enjoy! :P

     Well...wow time has sprouted wings an flown quite a distance off! My last update was on Feb. 1 now it is the 17th currently so half a month went and forsook me just like that! Well it was also the afternoon right before Shivoni's baptize..that was a really cool moment to read more about that you should go to a next blog by Katrina High. She goes into more detail. (its about at the end of her newest blog i think) From frost bite to mosquito bites: Holy Goosebumps:

    School that week was hard the kids were acting up the worst they ever had. Well that week and the week before and it had been pretty bad ever since Christmas vacation but it climaxed those two weeks. But i have to say that last week i had almost no stress at all only a few wild incidence but that was all. And then this week its been going pretty good but my two worst trouble makers have switched roals now. The worst one has settled down but now the other one is really pushing the limits. I don't know lot of the stuff was going on before (so i have my self to blame) but i was so busy with other stuff it is only showing its true colors now that the other stuff has settled down. Like humming quietly and staring at the opposite wall during class time. Having no clue what we are talking about when asked a question or told to do his work. Hitting,pushing,kicking other people when he passes them nothing hard but he knows it will vex them so he keeps it up. Asking him to do something to many times...so now i am dealing with that and his birthday is tomorrow.And i don't want a whole bunch of negative talks and punishments to happen on his birthday!!! So i guess i am making this a prayer request that he will listen and behavior tomorrow in school and have a good birthday were we can focus on positive instead of working out the negative. Well enough about school yes its my life but we don't have to talk about it non-stop......here are some picks and then maybe i will talk about some other stuff like........ my weekends i guess.

 kinders in my classroom after school drawling on the board it was fun to interact with some smaller kids.
                                                 
 Happy independence day Grenada!!! Its a big day in Grenada and for weeks before you start seeing people dressed up in the Grenada colors (red,yellow,and green) so the Friday before independence day we all came to school dressed up in independence colors. This year we did not get any work done because we left to go to limes and walk the cross country route which i haven't even told you guys about. for the kindergarten to 2nd grade there is a mile and for 3rd grade on up to 6th its 3 miles that they run. So this Friday we did not run but we walked they route and got use to it.

 Nella David and Rebekah

 Nella and David (yup my kids favorite pass time while waiting to go somewhere of of school property is to put their backpacks on backwards)

a better quality pic (since my camera fell in water soon after i arrived in Grenada so the pics. you see on my blog are from other people or from my phone which takes not to good pics. which is all of the pics. i this blog except this one and one other later on)  of my class (except Darrell ) the best they thought they could do which is half way impressive. This was taken down at Limes after we walked the cross country route. All tinged up in our independence cloth. 

L to R 

Shane, Leadon, me, Renel

David, Nella, Rebekah

 art project one day i did it because they were learning about the four seasons..harder when they don't have seasons like that down here. (I'm rather proud of it)

take a look at this in the clouds cute kite!! I asked two of my boys that i knew would do good at it and love it make me a small kite for this project.

 Renel my silly little girl. she has one of those gooey balls that ripped over her pony tail.

 Tried again to take a pic. of the class but that is pretty much impossible. we are getting ready to go down to Limes again (were the other school is) to practice for sports day another activity coming up. Its kinda like the school picnic day at the end of school back in Bonners Ferry. Or that is what i am catching on to..but seeing that i have never participated in a sports day before i wouldn't know to much.

 ok about as good as it gets... Oh its crazy how looking a photos conjure up memories you kinda forget to mention. This day Cyle came by to visit the class..he stayed the whole morning. Oh another memories this was the Friday before valentines day so i had given them a card a these little gooey teddy bears that have lights in them...they went crazy with them and totally loved them..so that is was you are observing them holding in these two photos. Shout out to grandma Mast who sent these bears down with Jared!! Thank-you so much for the stuff grandma and my kids loved the bears...

 One of the specimens that i got for valentines from Natalie his late cousins are well...gone.

                                                              Nella trying the 3 or 4 in the hand at one time (see finished project in later photos...look closely at her sky)
 art project today i told them at first that we were coloring and they were not very exited about that but then i showed them the example i made and how they can make the ocean, sky and sun different colors to make it have a cool effect and they found it rather fun then so that was very nice for their teacher. One comment from a kid was 'this isn't a true craft' but then again i call this ART class so i'm still technically right :P (score)

                                            Darrell :P literally

                                   Rebekah (you can tell i took my pics towards the end as some of them are working at cutting of the edges that were not part of the picture.)

 mine is so ugly!!! was Shane's comment.  humph!! i don't see anything ugly! Do you? I thought his sun had a lot of character and the different colored fins of the dolphin.. ingenious!

                                                               Nella's finished product

                     here you can see the different colored pieces of ocean

                                                            under construction

                                                                Darrell again..

Ok well i guess its time to talk about my life out of the class room. lets see..for the accual independence day which fell on Sat. this year we as a church and with the Limes church had a picnic at a sports field. Were we had a AMAZING pot of oil down (the national dish) def. something everyone needs to eat at least once in their life time so get down here. :) and some of us dressed up in style again...

Side note because i do not have pics for it. on valentines day we girls with Sarah and Lorie babysat for Chris' and Kendall's. We babysat at Chris' and it was weird sensation to have kids running around and playing with kids in the evening. We are use to kids during the day and with the school setting. But it was weird having kids around in the evening again like at home...enjoyed it but was glad to go home to a quite house..but then again it made me miss home too. #mixedfeelings LOL man!! two things that have changed in the last 7 or 8 months..    1.using hash tags 2. uses lol not impressed with myself on the lol thing..:( going to stop right now!!! (even though this is probable only the second or third time i have uses it in the last said 7 or 8 months) 

And then this Sunday we had a singing at a mental hospital. Its sad that lot of the people are in there because of drugs. And some of that could have been from the people that deal their drug. Some drug dealers if their client doesn't pay up or something they will just give them coke mixed with a next drug that makes people lose their mind. Its so sad... anyway after that we went up to a high point and hung out. here are some cool pics from up there.

                                                                  Lori and Shivoni
                                                       
                    Natalie taking pics..Kayla and Carter i think in the foreground

yup pretty cool huh?

then later on that evening some of us went to the fort...and then went to the guys house for the evening and snacks... chips and dip, pina colada's and good times laughing and getting into deep discussions.

Before i go here is a look at our Sunday lunch. and this is why its nice living with adult lady's..you can build a big salad for lunch or supper and every one is thrilled... To make sure every one know thought i was not the cook this time it was Natalie. Thanks Natalie!! :) ok well this was long and rather random but there it is lady's and gent's 

thank-you every one for your support you know who you are prayers, money...

Love, Crystal

Goodnight...

   How are things back in the frigid states? I find that its rather cold here today as well. If you didn't here most of the teachers from LaBorie and Limes, as well as a pastor from each location went up to Carriacou a island just a little way on top of Grenada. It would actually be part of Grenada. Anyway the purpose of our visit was to have a crusade and children's ministry. So at 9 or so in the morning we all met at the carenage and boarded the Osprey to set sail for Carriacou. It took about 2 hours to get there the boat ride up was nice most of the trip you are going up the side of Grenada and then a little with pretty much nothing around and then you start passing pieces of land jutting up here and there at random till you get to Carriacou. It seems a lot like a nice place to shoot for a pirate scene in a movie or something.I did take a motion sickness pill for the ride up because i did not want to be miserable the whole way up if i found myself subject to sea sickness. We got there a lil while before noon so we had a little bit of time to settle into our accommodations which was a nice motel with a kitchen for our use as well as a nice open area for us all to congregate for meeting and such (oh and almost right by the sea..just a street and one row of buildings separated us). We then went our ways to eat or what ever held our fancy till we got back together for splitting up into groups for prayer and then track distribution and  well as invitations for crusade and children ministry. After that a group of us walked a little ways out of town to sit by the beach and relax. in the late afternoon those of us who had a part in the little skit for the children's thing went to the court to practice and set up. Then that evening after supper together we went a block down the street and held our crusade meeting. We sang for a while and some of us gave short testimony. Then the two Limes guys had a topic. There were not that many people  there. Probable some of the reason was because there was a big party down the street a ways. The next day i went out for a walk but it was raining like crazy and so i got wet although i had a umbrella then i went to a restaurant with some of the girls for breakfast and since it was about the only restaurant open at that hour almost everyone else ended up there to. It was a very cute place were you sat out of a porch by the ocean with a tarp over top of you keeping out the rain. The rest of the morning was spent praying and then going to the court and having the children's thing. It was set up in stations so we had the story which is what i helped do. We acted out the story of Naaman and him being healed from leprosy. The moral of the story was to obey instructions. then there was reinforcement which i think involved singing and learning a bible verse. Then there was a craft, games and snack stations. We had around 50+ kids so that was really cool and def. a step up from the 20 or so they had,had last year. We had been praying pretty hard leading up to this so it was cool seeing God work things out and sending us so many kids. When we asked some of the kids they said they had to bus to the thing so that was really cool that they cared enough to spend their sat. and money to come. The afternoon then was a flurry of activity some of us bused down a little ways to a nice restaurant were we had some Good pizza and then back again to collect our things and walk out to the dock to get back on the Osprey to go home. On the way back i didn't take any pills and i did fine. The ride back though is always smoother though i hear. And for that same reason we were able to stand out on the front deck on the way back. Which was a lot of fun. On the way up we had been told that we couldn't because of the rough waves that would come up on deck. But on the way back we could. Even so there were a few waves that got us wet some. It was fun watching the flying fish and rainbows all over the place because of all the rain. Well that is about all to tell. School is going ok there is a lot of issues it seems like right now with trying to make the kids behave and i'm sure many of us teachers would love prayer on that matter as well as wisdom to know what to do in each situation. It can be very tiring and nerve racking. One cool thing or at least out of the ordinary that happened this week at school was that we got to see on ground level the snake that has taken up residence in a tree by the school.I have pic. below on that...There are some cool days here on the horizon for us at school. We started practicing this last Friday for sports day which is in a month. and then Independence day is fast approaching as well. So hopefully the kids behave and make it a nice time for everyone. anyway i guess i will go now.. thank-you so much for your prayers and support. Love, Crystal
P.S. a next prayer request would be for Shavoni..the girl i have talked different times about. Anyway this evening she is being baptized so she could use prayers as far as not being attacked by Satan..and her family who hopefully is coming this evening.

                                          the trip over

  hanging out on by the beach for some of the afternooon.

  Sat. morning while eating breakfast we saw a double rainbow. Because of all the rainbows we saw in Carriacou i dubbed the island the island of eternal rainbows :p

  The osprey awaiting its occupants.

  good bye Carriacou

 Amanda and me

we passed by a cruise ship leaving Grenada as we were coming into the carenage.

  life of a teacher. tests tests and more test with a healthy sprinkling of quizzes...

  hello Miss Martha Scaly as some of us named it.

 This event happened soon after school was dismissed so there were some of the students but then there was a lot of the teenage boys from around LaBorie there to. The boy holding the snake in the pic. below is the boy who acts normal around us but is one of the boys who get into the school a lot and steals things

 the snake acted like i never seen a snake do. instead of running it just lay there and eventually after getting prodded enough times curled it self up into a tight ball

  i think if I'm remembering correctly it was like 63" long.