Whew! Where was I?

Yep, still here.

Here's the thing. When you live in another country and have a full-time classroom teaching job, life is just not that different from home. There aren't as many day-to-day things to tell that are interesting, and the to-do list is never accomplished, so the blog takes last priority. Sorry, dear readers!

Here's what a "normal" week looks like for the Deutsches in Caracas right now.

We leave every morning around 7 for school. Though it's very close, it takes 20 minutes to get there sometimes because of traffic. Luke comes to my room most mornings before school and then I take him down to his classroom sometime between 8-8:15. More on Luke's school stuff later.

My students show up @ 8:15 and class officially starts at 8:30. I have 13 wonderful students. Small class sizes are one of the bonuses of overseas teaching. (Usually.) My kids are from many different countries in South America. They are very sweet, caring, and enthusiastic.

On Mondays Jason usually plays soccer after school and Luke and I come home earlier than he does. We hang out, read, do homework, and have dinner usually before Jason gets home. Tuesdays Jason has soccer and Spanish lessons. Wednesday school gets out early for staff development. Luke goes to Fisher's house to play, and then we all come home together. Thursdays after school Luke and I go to community choir. (He mostly plays during the rehearsal while I sing.) On Fridays we all come home and relax! All three of us look forward to the weekends after our busy weeks.

We still do not have a car, so we are dependent on others for transportation. :( We have been blessed with great friends who live in our building and teach at our school, and they have graciously toted us to and from school all year. We also hitch rides to the grocery store with them or with other friends. Hopefully we will be car owners before Christmas, though. We looked at one today, actually!

We have attended church twice - that sounds so horrible - but it is too far to walk with a 4-year old, so we plan to start attending when we have our own transportation. We visited a church that is very small and more liturgical than what we've been used to, but we liked it. I think we all miss going to church regularly and look forward to getting back into the swing of things. My heart definitely craves that fellowship.

On weekends we stay home a lot. Sometimes we go to a park with friends, grab a ride to the grocery store, or have friends over for football or dinner. I hope we get out more once we have a car. I'm starting to feel a bit claustrophobic and am ready to be able to get places on our own. We love the parks and can't wait to get up in the mountains a bit or take a trip to the beach.

My friend Bill asked about grocery stores - he asked for pictures, but I'm not really up for taking my camera to the grocery store at this point. The grocery store we usually go to is called Plaza. It's in sort of a small mall, where it is the main store. Think strip-mall, but stacked into 3-4 floors instead of in a long strip. The store is so much more like an American grocery store than any in Egypt. Similar products or the same as what we'd have at home, comparable prices on a lot of it. Good produce. Some shortages. When we first got here there was no sugar. Now we can find it more regularly, but sometimes there's no coffee. Fresh milk is hit or miss. When it is available, it's cheaper than the long-life milk. (Other places we've lived, the long-life milk has been cheaper.)

Let's see... Since the last time I wrote, we've been back to the US for our Disney trip (late October) where we met Mom and Dad for a few days and Luke has moved from Pre-K up to Kindergarten. Those two events each require a post of their own, and maybe, since I've gotten this "put-off blog" out of my system, I can find the time to get those two done. We've got some great pictures to share.

Here are a few random tidbits of information:

-We get good TV here. We have a DirecTV DVR. We tape Criminal Minds, SVU, Big Bang Theory, and Backyardigans. :) Jason gets 2 channels of NFL Sunday Ticket and the Red Zone Channel for football.

-Luke is taking swimming lessons on Thursday mornings before school with Fisher.

-We love watching Glee, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, and The Office every week, and can't wait for Lost Feb 2! :)

-Also - my friends the Darnells have recently launched sidsamerica.org . Little Billy's SIDS Support is growing up! Please check out their new website, and if you know families who have been affected by SIDS, send them to sidsamerica.org. It's a wonderful resource and ministry. God is using Bill and Cheryl mightily. Please pray for them, and donate, if you can.