Good Vibrations

Just played soccer with some strangers then walked to the beach and let my feet rest in the ocean.

Feliz Navidad

My baby bro made me this ridiculous video that perfectly captures what I'm missing in Alabama.

YouTube is forcing me to write about myself instead of rely on the kids' cuteness....

Youtube is failing me. Thus there is a shortage of cute little kid videos lately. My apologies.

The kids drain me. But I love them. They are adorable. They trust me and love me. They come to me when they need me and want to spend time with me. Even the youngest has been sweet on me lately. Helping raise children is a lot more difficult than I thought it would be but I'm learning a ton.

I tell the kids stories a lot and they have started telling stories of their own. It's so cute because they get really animated like I do and then just talk and talk and talk. Then randomly say THE END! The stories are ALWAYS about princesses.

I spend a lot of time talking to my "family" here. My bosses if you will, my best friends. They are a blast and help me work through life stuff. They always encourage me to address situations according to my heart. I'm growing a lot I think. I also learn a lot from our church, which I LOVE.

We had a church Christmas party this saturday and I had an amazing time. I got to try Coquito which is a typical puertorrican christmas drink and got to spend time with some of my favorite folks.

Below is a picture of me with the rule-following twin. Notice how she's terribly cute but is holding a knife towards me. This is the paradox that is my life.

Futbol.

So this soccer team I'm on is pretty legit. I'm a huge wuss, get tired when I sprint and never want to go to practice but they keep me around. We are in the semi-finals today(Saturday, Nov 20) at 4:30pm. The game is in Mayagüez which is on the whole other side of the island. See map...

I live in San Juan. Far. Away.

You can actually watch the game online here:

http://www.prnet.pr/

It's at 4:30pm, which is 3:30pm Central time I believe.

i love maps.

Salsa

I've been trying to learn salsa for some time now. I went to a few classes with my buddy Dickson and several of us have been out dancing salsa at a place called The Nuyorican. It is not uncommon for me to practice at home and I've been trying to teach the girls a little.

The little one has surpassed my teaching.

Kentucky

Being in Kentucky for a week was so wonderful. I got to see so many people and spend a ton of times with my best friends. Kelli got married and it was so beautiful. It made me miss home a lot.

Safari Jungle

I made up a game. It is called Safari Jungle. It includes:

1- Me wearing a towel that looks like a lion

2- The song "Lion sleeps tonight" by The Tokens

3- Me "hiding" all the stuffed animals we have

4- Children finding them and returning them to their "home"

5- Me chasing the children and "trying" to eat the animals

6- Me roaring like a lion

7- The children winning every time

8- A dance party to celebrate the children's big win

We play this game every week when A and R go on a date. Here is a quick taste of this beloved game:

Brother is really competitive and asked that their team have uniforms. You'll notice they are all wearing his clothes.

Puerto Rico

I love Puerto Rico. I pretty much want to stay here forever....we'll see.

San Juan has this crazy cool culture that's completely spanglish. Most of the people I know are bilingual. This is super fun but my spanish suffers because I often am not forced to speak spanish.

I'm generally intimidated by puertorricans and definitely feel like an outsider/foreigner but I have made a lot of really cool puertorrican friends. My soccer team has been super fun. The girls accept me despite my weirdness. I have so much fun with them. We're the best team in the league for sure.

I love church. I seriously look forward to it every week. It's always so encouraging and challenging and I love being with our community. We are small but it doesn't even phase me. I love church.

I have several close friends now which is a huge answer to prayer. Every week people come over and watch Glee on Tuesdays. We usually spend the first hour or so listening to our current favorite songs while dancing and singing our hearts out. It's a blast. Sometimes I make grilled cheese.

I love my family here. The babies are so cute and sweet and my affection for them grows daily. I'm learning so much and always having fun with R and A. Doing life with them is awesome but challenging because I'm generally more selfish than living with 6 people allows for. I'm growing though.

The youngest and I listen to the LOVE Song often and I wanted her to sing it for the camera but that didn't happen. This is two minutes of us just hanging out and her not singing the song.

Servitude

I've been reading Jane Eyre and in the book Jane wants a new job. She says that she can't imagine trying to do something extravagant but she can allow herself to look for an opportunity of servitude. I thought about my dreams and what I want to accomplish in my life and I realize what more can I ask for but to be a servant. I'm in a perfect position for that. I daily wipe poop out of panties, wash other people's clothes and clean their toilets and am by all accounts fairly unimportant; but every day I serve. I'm finding more joy in the day to day since I've sought this attitude. I wonder how Mother Teresa and others like her found joy in servitude.

Nanny Skills

The parents were gone for the weekend so me and Abby(the nanny before me) took care of the kids. It was fun and went as well as one could hope. We had a great time and I think I really got closer to some of the kids because they needed me for so much. But I'm really glad the parents are back because it has been stressful. Taking care of kids is hard and I'm glad I'm normally just the nanny alongside of parents!

The number one activity for the girls is playing dress-up. When my other friend Abbie Riley visited she noticed that the most-often asked question in our house was, "Can you put this on me?" They have tons of princess dresses, ballerina tutus etc. So I fashioned some costco sized cereal boxes into robot costumes for the twins then tried to teach them the robot. This is the outcome:

A bit about the girls

A lot of days I spend several hours with the girls. We try to give them structured things to do like color, play with dolls, read books(I read to them or they look at the pictures) etc. I like hanging with them and it's hard to teach them to obey and be kind to one another but it's rewarding to see them love one anther and learn. They often will walk up to me, hug my leg, kiss it and say, "I like you Peggy! You're a princess." It's so sweet but I think they are more the princesses than me, they wear snow white dresses, high heals and crowns every day from their costume box.

I told them each to smile and these are the pictures that came out:

I'm making friends!

That's right ladies and gents, friends are on the horizon! The transition from college life to family life in a place where I don't feel totally comfortable has been difficult at times. I've felt lonely at times and have been learning to give my heart to the Lord and find joy in Him. But I'm actually starting to connect with some people! I joined a women's soccer league and the girls on my team are super cool. This Thursday we are starting a women's group for our church!

Sad Things

Wow. The past two years there have been several significant deaths for me. I'm figuring out how to process them. At this point it's just tears and anger. My dear cousin Maegan died yesterday. I'm leaving tomorrow to go to the funeral in Alabama. The task of attending this funeral is daunting.

I need prayer please.

I can't handle how cute this is.

Peggy Poppins Vlog 4

My Day of Birth

Around 22 years ago I was born. This weekend we celebrated.

We had a big breakfast and my BFF and I went to the mall. I got a new dress and we had fish tacos for dinner! We had a great time and ML made a sweet cake. Conversation at dinner went from joking and laughing to deep gospel talks. I loved it. Felt very loved.

After dinner we went to Old San Juan and ended up in a karaoke bar where I sang Toxic by Brittany Spears. The majority of the people there were laughing at me not with me. It was blast. Good dancing too!

Tomorrow we're headed to the States for a week. I'll be visiting Sambica :)

Church Make-Up

Poop

Today while I was watching the kids by myself someone who shall remain nameless pooped in her pants...twice. These are the types of things I am NOT accustomed to dealing with.

Just to be clear, I still love it here.

Peggy Poppins Vlog 3

Today

4th of July FIESTA!!!

At 6pm people started arriving and by the time it was all said and done at least 40 people had showed up. Our small get-together turned into a happening party. I had the privilege of making the playlist for the night so of course the music was rockin'. A guy from church was reminiscing with me on the good ole' days when he listened to classic american rock(before it was classic, haha) on the radio so I put a KISS song on and we may or may not have danced to and sung the whole song together.

The whole night was super fun and a really cool way to reach out to friends and our neighbors. Our church wants to engage people who wouldn't normally go to church but would come to a party, it's right up my alley. This morning Brother told me they had a big party upstairs for the kids. There were probably 10+ kids hanging out.

Peggy Poppins Vlog 2

Here's a pic of me in my cool new shirt from Ronnie:

Then me and the kids, please note the headband:

Today

Today we went to Krispie Kream!

Today we got good work done.

Today the girls danced...

Today Brother hurt his eye(no harm, don't worry) and one of the girls loved on him really sweetly and wanted to care for her brother. It was so cute.

Tomorrow we are having a girls night with some of the chicas from church.

La Noche San Juan

Last week I went out with a friend from church. Every year on June 23 hundreds of people hit the beach and at midnight run into the water backwards. (It's supposed to get rid of your bad luck, I doubt if anyone still believes that...maybe) After getting drenched we went over to a crowd of people surrounding some dudes playing drums and got right up close. Everyone was clapping along and doing chants and songs in spanish that I didn't know or understand, it was great! When the drummer dudes finished a huge dance party ensued right there on the beach as the DJ started up.

As I'm writing this Little Sister is having me blow up a Whoopi Cushion then asks me to watch her and she sits on it and cracks up. This process has happened 4 times since I started this sentence.

Hangueando con las chicas

Tonight the girls hung out in my room while I straightened my hair and got ready. We had a party with the church for the Burch's, a missionary couple who are moving home :(

Here's them singing the ABCs...kind of.

PP (Peggy Poppins)

A few events from today:

1- A child handed me some poop.

2- I texted and chatted on the phone with my new friend IN SPANISH!

3- Connected with a minister from a town near us and hope to visit their church this summer.

I'm toying around with the idea of changing my name to Peggy Poppins in honor of the most famous nanny ever, Mary Poppins(seen right). You can call me PP for short.

Making friends in a new place

Peggy Poppins

I'm here in San Juan, Puerto Rico living with Ronnie and Amanda Garcia and their kids: Brother, Twins and Little Sister.

Here's my first Vlog:

Brother and I had fun with Photo Booth.

Not quite my Home Alabama

My family now lives in Brewton, Alabama so here I am. I'm visiting and packing and watching Seinfeld with my family. I'm picking blackberries with Dad, meeting people with Matt and cooking and talking with Mom.

Nanny passed away several months ago but I'm still getting used to her not being here. It just doesn't feel right. What's the good in being in Alabama when there are no grandmas? I'll find out eventually I guess...

It's been nice to rest for a few days but not really. I'm bored. Ellen says it's because I can't, "Just be." Well I say we weren't meant to just be!

Despite the nagging feeling that tells me I need to learn how to slow down I'm excited to get going this Friday, here's the docket:

Go visit Rhonda and the girls for a day

Lexington for a week including Molly's bachelorette party and wedding, whoop!

Begin Road Trip:

--Mount Rushmore

--White Water Rafting in WY

--Yellowstone

--Take Dawn to sambica-yes!!!

--The Redwoods

--San Fransisco - visit Golden Gate Seminary

--Drive down The Big Sur (Highway 1)

--LA

Go to Texas for Coach's wedding/sambica reunion!

Come home for a day or two and pack

JUNE 15: Move to Puerto Rico to live with the Garcia's

I guess I should rest a bit.

Speaking at the BCM

Last night I spoke at the BCM about my life and the gospel. I was of course so nervous the whole day I thought I might die but once I stood in front of everyone I felt peace and was able to share freely. Praise God, it was a great time. If you'd like to hear it check out this link:

http://sweb.uky.edu/StudentOrgs/BCM/feed/media/2010-06-17_peggy_worship_night.mp3

Disappointing News

Supporters and Friends,

Today the Director of Edge Outreach called the BCM and told us they were pulling the plug on our trip. In his words, "we are feeding our teams on faith," and he no longer thinks it wise to bring teams of college students in this early. We knew this could happen from the beginning but I'm terribly disappointed. Thank you so much for your support and please continue to pray for Haiti and the Edge Outreach teams. I hope to take a trip this summer when things are more stable. For those of you who donated to my trip I will contact you soon about what you would like to do with your donation.

Grace and Peace,

-Peggy Ray

Haiti Update

Hello friends of Haiti! Through your generosity I have already received all the funding I need for my trip to Haiti. Thank you so much to all of you who have donated. Any donations I receive from now on will go to our trip in general or Edge Outreach--the organization we will be working with in Haiti. Please be in prayer for the people of Haiti. Praise God and thank you all again.

Grace and Peace,
Peggy Ray

Going to Haiti

I've been presented the opportunity to go on a one week trip to Haiti to help install water purification systems for my spring break. The trip is through Edge Outreach (see www.edgeoutreach.com) who already has a team in Haiti now.

Last year I was in Costa Rica when there was an earthquake and I saw how Edge Outreach responded. They are familiar with disaster relief and I trust in their ability to help the people of Haiti. One of the most dire needs right now is clean water and Edge Outreach has simple systems that I've already been trained to put together and run.

The trip will be March 12-21. I hope things in Haiti will be much better by the time I arrive in a month and a half but there is no way to know. Please pray for this trip, that we would be able to serve the people of Haiti and bring them hope and joy. I need to raise $2,500 in about a month. This money will pay for parts of the water purification systems, transportation and any supplies needed.

I truly believe the Lord will provide for this trip if there is a need for me to be in Haiti to help. Please consider giving a donation. If you would like more details please contact me. Any checks can be made out to "UK BCM" and sent to 429 Columbia Avenue
Lexington, KY 40508

I started French 101 today so I will be able to communicaite some while I'm there. (Most Haitians speak french but I hope I will get to use my spanish as well)

Haiti

I don't think I comprehend the tragedy in Haiti. It's too big and far away for me to