Bowling

On Saturday night Becky organized a family outing of Pizza Ranch and Bowling. We had alot of fun with my extended family, Wayne & Marilyn and their kids. Unfortunately we live in Iowa and got a freak snowstorm so Jennifer's family couldn't come. Not sure what it would've been like with 4 more kids!

You get that many kids together and you know there's going to be noise, fun and more noise!

At the bowling alley somehow Curt ended up on the lane with Madeline, Anna, Jaren, Grant and Bethany. Madeline being the oldest at 9. He's not sure how that worked out except he was being a bah-humbug and not wanting to bowl so....

The girls were on the next lane with the boys on the last with Katelyn because we couldn't possibly be seperated from the boyfriend! :-)

Erica, Lisa's youngest found that she didn't need to bowl because she had the air blower which was way too much fun.

Who won?? Grant or Jaren???

Spring Break

Katelyn and I finally got around to painting her room over spring break. I absolutely hate painting so fun was not had by all. :-)

It did turn out pretty cool, painting all four walls didn't make it as dark as I was afraid. We did find out that flat black paint is not very fingerprint friendly though. At the end of the week as we were putting on her colored circles and handing pictures we found everywhere we touched left marks. AARGH! If anybody has any solutions, please share!!

Here's a picture of the almost complete room, she needs to add her personal touches yet (like clothes on the floor, a billion more blankets and pillows on her bed etc...) I'm not sure what the white dots are from on the picture, the only thing we can think of is a reflection from her blanket or Katelyn's thoughts were ghostly spirits (she's been watching freaky movies lately) :-)

Curt's New Job

This last month has been a bunch of new experiences for Curt. First Curt put in his notice at PPI where he has worked since a week after he graduated high school in 1988 with his last day being the day before we left for Honduras. Which was Curt's first mission trip experience besides a local trip to Parkersburg last summer.

We got back from Honduras at 1 AM on Saturday night and Monday AM he started his new job as Farm Manager at VK Farms in Lynnville. Gone are the 4AM alarms (In which I am SO excited!), roach coach (VP Bakery truck for breaks), weekly paychecks (monthly income means better budgeting for us), guarenteed 401K (well that hasn't been so great lately with the stock markets) & managing 40 guys who really don't want to work (he now has two Mexican employees who are great and a part-time guy).

He's already a much happier guy, maybe the sleeping in til 7 has something to do with that, but he just LOVES being out on the farm. He's already been a mechanic, bull-dozed, put in 10,000 ft. of tile and been to his first "farmer" mtg. and free lunch. I told him to watch it or he'll be sitting at the coop playing cards before long!

Here's a picture of the tiling job they worked on...

Working with his brother ( not that we don't love him dearly but he is a Van Kooten!) will have it's challenges I'm sure but with his blood pressure already dropped to a healthy reading and a smile at the end of the day instead of growling and worrying about being dropped down to 34 hours a week I'm sure it'll be worth it.

Honduras pics

Honduras

We're back!

Katelyn, Curt and I made it back from our mission trip in honduras Saturday night after 14 hours of traveling. It started at 8:30 AM with a 2 hour bus ride through the mountains to Tegucigalpa, plane rides from 1-8 PM and a 3 hour car ride from Omaha. Add a weeks worth of Land Rover and bumpy bus rides on roads that make my gravel road look awesome and boy does my bum and back hurt!

Let's start at the beginning....

Saturday we landed in Tegucigalpa on the worlds shortest runway. Meeting up with the rest of the group was great and it sounded like they'd had a good time on medical brigades outside of Teguc. Now it was time to head 2 hours east to Guaimaca where we would stay for the week.

Sunday instead of the normal 2 hour church service at the compound we got to travel up the mountain to a river where we were blessed to share 7 baptisms with our new Honduran Christian friends. I know that I've already been baptized and made profession of faith but we were all very moved by Pastor Mingos sermon and wanted to join them in the river. God was surely with us that morning as the sun came through the clouds at the exact moment the first baptism started.

Monday was full of unpacking our 42 suitcases full of medicine, blankets, hats and toys that we brought with us. We were allowed two carry-ons with our clothes and that was it, Katelyn slightly pannicked but found you can get a heck of a lot of clothes jammed in if you have too. :-)

I got to play with the daycare kids in the afternoon and it was great to see old friends from my last trip. Little Diego, Emerson and Melvin were just little tykes last time but are growing up to be heartbreakers.

Tuesday saw all of us off up the mountains on our first brigade. We saw 280 people that day 5 hours. Alot of scabies, allergies and asthma was the main complaints. Everyone came to our "pharmacia" and received vitamins and a gift and whatever prescription they needed. Katelyn worked in the pharmacia all day except for an hour outside where the honduran boys decided she was a bonita chica (cute girl). that made her a bit uncomfortable so off to the pharmacia she went. It was hard to tell them no mas(no more) when they are asking fo more knowing that they own almost nothing and it was really cold in the mountains which is unusual right now. I just wanted to give them all blankets.

On Wednesday Curt & Kate stayed behind and built a much needed fence to keep the daycare kids safe. No more waterlines were hit (ask Kate about that one sometime!) and it went and looks great. I went to a village called Agua Fria way up the mountain, we ended up above the evergreen line up in coffee land. I told Nate that the "road" we were on would be a great dirt bike path. NUTS! These people were so appreciative and we found out that if we don't come to see them the nearest clinic is at the botom of the mountain which if you don't own a car and walk everywhere means hours of traveling. We saw a 90 year old man all the way to a newborn baby with a 14 yr. old mom.

The local school brought it's 50 students to see us to get worm medicine and vitamins. It seems unbelievable that we had to worm people but if you saw there water supply and living quarters you'd understand.

On Thursday we all went to our last village. We only saw 80 people that day but that gave us a chance to play frisbee and ball with the kids. The scenary was breathtaking! That afternoon we worked on our fence again and by the time we were done Dr. Daining and Dr. Dale Vander Broek, nurses and a few others were digging fence post holes and hammering away. That was what was great this past week, we made an awesome team. Whether we were doing medical stuff, construction or hanging out we all got along so well and we made friends for life.

Friday was our free day and we headed to Valley of the Angels to do some awesome shopping and eat at a "steakhouse". Imagine a Honduras Galena Illinois. My goal was to buy a really cool engraved wood rosewood box but after packing found myself out of room. :-( Next year it's mine!

Yes we're hoping to head back next Feb., Katelyn asked already on the way home and Curt found that Doctors are really fun and he does have something in common with them. I loved the medical aspect of this trip, we had a surgery team with us this time too and I would've been able to watch a surgery but things got a bit tense so I passed. I did watch a little bit of a hernia surgery through the window but next time, I'm in there!

Thanks for everyones' support and prayers, they were felt by everyone, we experienced a lot of "God moments" and knowing you were all here praying for us was felt. We'd love to share or pictures and stories with you if you'd like! :-)

Nate & Kate

Katelyn wanted to know where they were on my blog so I'll give you an update on what they're up to...

Economic hard times has hit Nate lately. Finding himself without a job right at the moment has made him Curt & my slave. I'm kind of liking hard times. :-) Vehicles are being kept clean, all my snow is being shoveled and pretty much anything else I ask gets done by the end of the day.

He's been finding time to ride his 4 wheeler quite a bit and for some reason thought it would be fun to turn a riding lawn mower into a racing vehicle. I think he's been watching CMT's redneck shows a bit too much. I'll let you know when he's become a professional mower racer!

Katelyn

What can I say about Katelyn..

14,000 text msgs, never home, Dutch Diva, lives as if economic times are not hard!

Let me explain. :-)

Her cell phone is constantly attached to her hand, I didn't even know it was physically possible to text that many times in one month but Katelyn has shown me it is. We told her to knock it off and we went over on our talking minutes soooo back to texting she went.

She has embraced high school life, involved in show choir or Dutch Divas (which is really cool and if you can watch a competition some time I recommend it!) sports, concerts and anything else she can get involved in or go to.

Which brings me to spending money, unfortunately being involved requires money which she doesn't have so my checkbook gets opened. Anybody need a babysitter??? :-)

She's a good kid, I'm not seriously complaining! Here she is in her Show Choir costume.

Cruisin

Curt and I just got back from an awesome cruise with Becky & Dave a couple of weeks ago. It was a little tough leaving 80 degree weather and landing in DM w/ 4 in. of snow and COLD!

This is our 4th cruise and decided to cruise with Holland America on an Eastern Caribbean route this time. Our first port of Grand Turk was awesome! This small island of approx. 6 miles of land was hit by a hurricane last fall but unless you looked closely it was overly evident. Our excursion was swimming w/ sting rays and snorkeling. Becky being 5 months pregnant decided sitting in a lounge chair on the beach close to bathrooms would be the way she would spend the day but as our boat pulled up to our beach her plans went out the window as you can see by this picture of our beach. :-)

San Juan, Puerto Rico was our next stop and we were there from 10 AM-11 PM. Bacardi Rum Distillary was our first stop and it is now the boys' favorite place of all time. Curt discovered his new favorite drink the mojito and Dave LOVES that Becky is pregnant and can't drink. How and why did we discover this you ask....We had to wait an hour for tour and they felt bad for us so instead of two free drinks between the four of us we got 12 free drinks. Bacardi peach rum and coke, Bacardi coco rum and coke, Bacardi raz rum and coke, mojitos you get the idea! By 10 AM the boys were feeling fine. :-)

That afternoon I took the boys shopping while Becky sat w/ her swelling feet up and then we picked her up and went on a horse drawn carraige ride around Old San Juan. It was pretty cool to go around this city that is so full of history and cobblestone streets that date back hundreds of years. We can't even pave roads to last 10 years but these streets last hundreds. HMMM...

On to our next port, St Thomas. If you'd like to buy jewelry this is the place to go! Every other store for blocks is jewelry, the guys ran the other way. :-)

We visited a ocean park and beach here which was not a Sea World by any means but pretty neat. Our taxi ride to the park reminded me of our upcoming trip to Honduras and winding through the large hills or mountains. Our taxi was a F-250 truck with rows of seats in the bed w/ a canopy. Not sure how those drivers got in and out of some of our tight curves and turns but they were amazing. I told our driver that she needs to come back to Iowa and teach drivers ed.

Relaxing on a day at sea followed this whirl wind of ports. We prett much ate, played UNO, ate, played UNO some more, let's see ate again, slept on a lounge chair on the Lido deck and then went to the captain's dinner and ate lobster tail, steak and baked alaska. YUMMMMY

One last port, Half Moon Cay, Holland America's private island. It was a little chilly, 65-70 dgrees and cloudy when we docked and I hate to admit I was whiney about it but gosh darn it I wanted a great tan and this was my last day! By 10 Am it was 85 and sunny and I had found my position... On a lounge chair baking myself for the next 6 hours.:-)