House Warming Party & VISA stuff

Yesterday we had our house warming party at our house. It was a blast and a whirl wind of fun starting on Friday night.

Friday evening the Mattica's (John & Adriana and their 2 kids Stephen and Kathryn) came over for dinner and to spend the night. It was a big slumber party :). The girls sat and talked and did gave each other pedicures, and the boys played Wii. We were having so much fun that we didn't get to bed until 1am! That's the latest I've stayed up in a long time! Saturday morning Adriana and I got to work cooking while Tristan and John changed the brakes on John's truck. The menu was chorizo (BBQ'd), tortillas, beans, bean dip and chip, fruit salsa and cinnamon chips, zucchini bread, dinner rolls (Kathryn's request) and sandwich wraps. Then everyone who was coming was supposed to bring something. So we were very busy cooking!!! People started showing up at 1:30 and the last families left at 9pm. We had almost 60 people there - friends from church, from last year, people we didn't even know came :). The hot weather is here so we were all melting but for the people that live in the city, our house was a relief from the city heat. We played cards, ate, talked, the kids played Wii, I gave lots of tours, and over all it was a great time. But by the end of the night, I was tired! But, now it's Sunday morning and my house is almost all clean again and all the dishes are done :). I'm glad we did it - hey - any reason for a party right!



Because we're still in the process of our residency, we came into Honduras in January under a tourist visa which is 90 days. We also have our truck and trailer under a tourist visa, so that means that as of the 14th of this month we have to get extensions on our visas (which is not a guarantee that we'll get) or leave the country. A few weeks ago we started bugging our lawyer to do the paperwork for us, well nothing got done. The problem now is Semana Santa (Holy Week) is a government holiday. Pretty much everything closes the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday - all the stores, gas stations, offices, etc. So, the immigration offices are now closed for the week, our lawyer is on vacation and we can do nothing until April 13th - IF the office is open - we're not sure if it will be. If not, we have to go to immigration Tuesday morning (the 14th - the day it expires) and ask for an extension. If we don't get it for the truck or the trailer, then we will have to leave from the office of immigration to drive out of the country - either to El Salvador or possibly Costa Rica! Bummer. The good news is that our residency moved up in the process and we're a bit closer to having it! so we will receive on the 14th our temporary residency card - and then hopefully just a few months after that we'll have our permanent one. Did I just say in the last post how living here is going to teach me how to be flexible :). Well it's true! So, we might be going on a forced trip in a week and a half to...who knows where :) Fun Fun. So, pray that we get an extension on the truck and the trailer so we don't have to leave on the 14th and cross out of the country by that night.

Although the whole country (really all of Central America) is on vacation this week, we're not. We're planning on three days of Spanish lessons and two days out in Comayagua working at the site. It'll be a nice quiet week with no traffic.