Family Day @NCA

It doesn't get much cuter than a bunch of first graders dressed in their mothers' clothes...
This part of the annual program designed to honor parents!

Nicaraguan Mothers' Day is next Monday.

Grandson #2

Today was the day for that little bundle of joy to make his appearance, and Grace was there to welcome him into this crazy world!


Jonathan Elliott Strickland tipped the scales at nine pounds, seven ounces... I'm sure it won't be long before he's making his big brother Josh earn his status as the alpha male of the next generation... for the time being he's just plain cute!

GG (Grandma Grace) now gets five days to get to know the little fella before she has to fly south again and join the fun here in the tropics!

My Birthday

With Grace in the US ready to welcome our second grandson into this world, I got to celebrate turning 59 with this crew... they sang Happy Birthday to me in English! :-)

ESL Class for Teachers

This is what one of the best groups of teachers in Nicaragua looks like after a full day of teaching, 90-minutes into their first 2-hour class of English as a Second Language... Grace and I love these people!

Batchin' It

Bonnie's due date was last Friday, but since our second grandson apparently wanted his GG to be there to welcome him... as of this morning, she's there (in Fort Lauderdale.)

I'll be holding down the fort for a couple of weeks here in Matagalpa, getting a lesson in just how blessed I am to have Grace by my side for the second half of my time on this crazy planet!

Grace's Birthday

This is the birthday girl's 7th Grade English class... teaching them may not be rocket science, but I doubt there are many rocket scientists who could do what she has done with this bunch!

Grace Studying

I'm really proud of the progress this girl is making in her language studies... she's almost done with Level 2 in the Rosetta Stone series and has a 106 day streak going on DuoLingo.

All that while making the adjustment to life in a new culture, negotiating the public bus system to get to school on mornings where we arrive separately, dealing with power and water outages, teaching 7th grade English, helping in the school library...