Week 19 in PR

The project of the week was finally getting our shelves ready to put up in the kitchen. These shelves turned out to be a labor of love as they ended up being a lot of work before the finished product was finally installed. It started with a trip to the lumber yard and actually hand picking out the exact 10 foot pieces of wood that we wanted. Next we had them measured and cut just right to fit along all the walls and around the corners in the room. They needed to be sanded, then clear coat stained, then sanded again, then one more coat of stain. A day of drying in between each stain and then finally they were done and ready to be hung. We had ordered some heavy iron brackets to hold the shelves and those were put up first. All 22 of them. Measuring and leveling and measuring just a little more to make sure they were right on. And then finally the wood was put up onto the brackets and…tadaaaa! They were done and beautiful! So so happy to have shelves in the kitchen now and get a few things up off the countertop. They look so good and I love to see the kitchen all complete!

We made it to the beach and spent a few hours before the sun set just hanging out and basking in the warm sun! Beach day is a fav. 

We have a list about a mile long of projects to do and finally we narrowed it down to projects we “must” do before we start to have a long trail of visitors over the next few months. On the “must do” list? Painting the basement, finish painting all the outside of the house, build the garbage can platform and de-junk. First things first was paint downstairs. And to do that we had to first put some brackets up to hold up the pipes in the ceiling. They were originally being held by some ugly old rusty wire so I promptly removed that and put in the extended brackets to hold them in place. It was a big, sweaty job but we got it done! 

We called on Pepo to help us with the garbage can area and it turned out beautiful! 

Henry came by and taught us how to use the pool and when and how to change chemicals. It was an exciting day to be able to use it officially! 

Rhen and Josh had a master plan for water tank and this week it was finally put into action. They took an idea from some of the painting in the downtown area of Rio grande and went for a colorful, mosaic look to accent the house. It didn’t actually take them long to tape it off and then paint and it turned out soooo good! I love the way it looks and how it all progressed throughout the day. Such a fun water tank now!

Rhen and Josh ended the weekend with a date night to eat fried cheese and shop. They ran into the lighted car club while they were out and got to check them out up close in the parking lot. And were also rewarded with an absolutely beautiful sunset to end the week! I will never get tired of sunrises and sunsets on the island. 

Lots of work this week but I feel like we’re nearing the end of big projects…maybe? Whether we are or not, we’ll continue to enjoy this journey as we’re going!

Week 18 in PR

Today we cancelled beach day and took the family through the temple instead. It turned out to be the perfect night for it and we LOVED being able to be there together. They kids asked lots of questions and we spent a good amount of time in each room as we took in all the colors and paintings and all the things that make it so beautiful. We are so excited to have this special place here on the island and so glad we got to participate in the open house these past few weeks. It has been really amazing. 

The poo progress has been amazing and this week we got to see them pour the smooth finished cement in the bottom of the pool.  It's getting so close and we are sooo excited!

Josh and I worked hard a couple mornings this week to lay some sod around the pool to help eliminate the mud.  It was hard, hot work and we were so ready to have it done.  But now that it's all down it makes everything look so finished.  I love how it turned out!

And then just like that, the pool was done and we got to fill it up.  We had the hose in it as much as possible to get it filled.  When we would hear the pump kick on and knew we were taking water from our cistern, then we'd turn it off until the city water was back on.  With the stoppage time it ended up taking almost three days to fill! 

The elementary school had a Christmas program and each of the grades had a part in the program.  It was a fun day to be there and watch the kids do their thing and participate with their classes.

One day Beck was out of school so he, Josh and Hector cut down some branches from Hector's house for us to plant in our yard.  We will love having some of Hector's plants at our house!

Our other big project of the week was getting the shelves ready for the kitchen upstairs.  It has been quite the process getting the open shelving done up there.  We spent one morning at the lumber yard picking out the exact pieces of wood that we wanted.  Then we had them cut to the measurements we gave them that would fit perfectly in the kitchen.  When we got the wood home, we sanded them twice then painted them with a clear glossy coat.  And then painted another coat.  This is the final product just waiting to dry and be put upstairs.  Oh I can't wait to see how these turn out!

Once the pool was full, it didn't take long for us to want to be in it.  We technically weren't supposed to swim yet because our pump isn't hooked up yet (electrician coming Monday), but we couldn't resist! The kids jumped in without a second thought and we had a fun day enjoying the new addition!

Saturday the boys drove down to Humacao and picked up some Foxtail Palms to plant and we spent the rest of the day getting those and a few other plants in the ground.  We're so anxious to get our yard growing now that the pool is done and we know where everything can go!  It has been so fun to see all the progress we've made!

We have Josh's cousin Heidi and her family in town this week and they came tonight for dessert and games at the basketball court.  Oh how fun it is to share our home with friends and family!  We love having them here and look forward to a fun week together!

Week 17 in PR

We welcomed our dear friends Matt, Christine, Bennett and Neal to our home this week and were so excited to have them in our world again! They got in late late Saturday night so were able to go to church with us before zonking out again to catch up on their sleep from the red eye flight. Monday morning we were all rested and ready to explore! We took them to one of our favorite little trails near El Yunque called the Angelito Trail. It’s a quick hike down to the river and then lots of fun to be had throwing rocks, climbing down the river, making rock towers and exploring the jungle. It was a beautiful morning for it. 

Beach day was a blast with these cute visitors and Bennett and Neal couldn’t get enough of the sand and water. The beach was pretty much empty so we had the place to ourselves and got to take plenty of crazy pics without being disturbed. :)

We had lots going on this week that we squeezed in while the Swensens were with us. Here’s just a few:

We ordered sod from the sod farm and got to see a live alligator that they had just caught. 

Josh rented a concrete saw to cut a trench through our driveway. We have the electrician coming to pipe electricity out to the pool pump so Josh worked hard getting that all prepped. 

Christine taught the kids how to play Cups and Beck was diligent about learning from her. Good news…he learned super quick. Bad news…he learned it backwards by watching Christine do it. He was mirroring her and learned going left instead of right. Yikes. I have no doubt he can just as quickly learning it the right way!

We took them down to our basketball court for frisbee and a few games of speed. Always a hit. 

Christmas is in full swing on the island so we joined in and had a friendly ginger bread house competition. We gathered into groups of 3 and designed, architected and decorated these beautiful gems! 

Each of the schools had a welcome to Christmas fiesta going on this week so we went to lots of programs at the schools and met friends, listened to musical numbers, checked out art projects and saw all the things the kids have been working on so far this year. Desh earned an award in his class for being the fastest reader in his class! That’s pretty great and his teacher is so sweet and kept saying how proud of him she is for that. 

We showed the Swensens around our town and took them to all the schools, the church, our favorite açaí food truck and everything else we could think of. They were such good sports to just join into all the things we were up to! 

We ventured out to our favorite beach on culebra one of the days and had a glorious day in the sun on beautiful Flamenco Beach. It was a dreamy day with white sand, blue water, pina coladas and lots of sand castles. Just the things that make a perfect beach day. 



Progress continues to be made on the pool. The crew has worked so hard everyday coming early and working until the job is done. They worked on the stone around the walkway this week and also put the tile in the inside around the water line. It’s so exciting to watch the progress!

Keen was honored this week a a member of the honor roll in his class. It was quite a ceremony and turned out to be a really big deal. I’m so proud of him! Josh and I were also asked to be a part of the ceremony and got to sing the national anthem for the group. We asked Rease to join us so we weren’t quite so nervous :) They had other singers, groups of dancers, short plays and all sorts of other things to celebrate these honor students. Desh was in a small choir as well so it turned out to be quite a deal for the Beutler family! So so proud of this boy and this accomplishment!

The last night the Swensens had in town, we took them downtown to Old San Juan. We played at the park by San Felipe del Morro and the boys had a great time throwing the football and frisbee around and running around the huge field. As the sun was setting we had the most beautiful view out into the ocean and took so amazing silhouette pics of the boys. We really just live in the most gorgeous place! 

Dinner at our fav pizza spot and then gelato down the street. And we found out that during the Christmas season they have the road down to the governors mansion open and full of Christmas decorations. We walked down and got there just in time to watch a little movie they had projected onto the mansion for Christmas. It was so fun to see this and be there during a fun season! 

We LOVED every minute that the Swensens got to be here with us! They are the best and easiest guests and wanted to just be a part of all that we were doing. We are so glad to have these amazing memories together with them! 

The week ended with Christmas lighting ceremonies at each of the schools and lots of songs, dressing up, and partying and the Christmas season is just starting! 

When we went to Rhens school she showed us through the art room and all the projects they’ve been working on as a class. Rhen had some of the best ones and we loved seeing it all! 

Such a good week for us with lots and lots going on. So fun to share it all with some really great people! 

Week 16 in PR

Back to reality this week after a great thanksgiving holiday week! Kids headed back to school and Josh and I worked on our one hour projects each morning. But nothing stops us from going to the beach on Mondays and taking crazy pictures. Why are jumping pictures so fun? And funny?! My kids are hilarious. 

Josh and I drove to Dorado early Monday morning to find a Christmas tree (palm style) at a big jardenaria. We successfully found one that would be perfect for the house for Christmas and then would fit perfectly in the yard after! Monday night we decorated it with a few lights and the ornaments that the kids picked out. We had each of them choose an ornament for the tree here that we could take home with us as a souvenir for all the Christmases to come. Simple and islandy is what we ended up with! We love it!

A few other things from the week:

Becks class had a welcome to Christmas party this week and all dressed up in Santa hats and red and green clothes. Puerto Ricans love their Christmas holiday and celebrate it as long as possible!

Josh and I primed and painted all the spots around the house that needed it and applied red oxide to the places with exposed metal to prevent rusting. It seemed like a small project but weirdly ended up being a lot and took us a few days to do it. 

Rease worked on her online work turban-style. No idea why. 

Found a huge iguana in Laura and Carly’s yard when the boys went to play Nintendo with him one night. Besides the iguana being awesome, the boys had THE BEST time being there. They are the best. 

Josh and I put in the rest of the french drain around the pool before the coralline stone goes in next week. That was a big, muddy, sweaty job. 

The pool guys are working hard and getting a lot done. This week they finished doing stucco on the walls and built up the wall between our house and Wilfredo’s house so we have a little not privacy. Don’t worry. We asked Wilfredo and Mara and they said it was fine :)

By the end of the week we had the pallets of stone dropped off and also all the materials for the inside of the pool and the pool pump and filter. It’s all ready to go for the last week of finishing touches! Liev and Rease pressure washed the concrete all around the pool to get it ready for Monday. It’s starting to look so nice!

The temple open house started this week and Josh and I volunteered as ushers. It was so fun to be there and be a part of this huge blessing that has come to the island. So many members have been waiting for years to see a temple and it’s pretty cool to see how emotional they get when they go inside for the first time. Such a sweet experience that we’re so happy we get to participate in. 

And Rease and rhen left Friday afternoon with Laura for an overnight youth conference camp! They were a little apprehensive about it but knew they would have fun no matter what since they would be with Laura. It ended up being a really fun weekend for them and camping is something we haven’t been able to do since we got here so they loved that. We just couldn’t be more grateful for the people in our life here that love us for who we are and take us into their lives no questions asked. Laura and Carlos are some of the best and we just love them like family. 

Week 15 in PR

It’s Thanksgiving week! So that means a short week of school for the kids and some prep to do for dinner Thursday. But the first half of the week was business as usual. Here are some highlights:

Rhens sores are starting to look soooo much better after starting on the antibiotic. Her leg definitely got it the worst and still looks really red but the open sores are starting to heal and scab and peel which is much better than it has been. 

Beach day was spent at Playa Pinones in Loiza. We got there a little later than normal so we didn’t have too much time in the water but still or really pretty night to be out. 

Some of the kids we’re home Wednesday and Josh put them to work unloading a load of gravel and moving it around the driveway. Eventually we want to extend the driveway out a bit and put another parking pad in. For now some extra gravel will do! 

Beck drilled holes in the bottom of our garbage cans so they stop collecting water when it rains. 

Josh worked on some drainage around the concrete by the pool. He wants to make sure we don’t get standing water that will eventually leak into the pool so he put in a French drain that will help direct the water better. 

And the kids that were at school all partied on Wednesday! Lots of snacks and movies to celebrate Thanksgiving at school. 

Wednesday night and Thursday morning we all worked hard getting food ready and the house cleaned up for Thanksgiving dinner! We had some people from our ward over and we’re so happy to have some loved ones join us for the day! We ate so much good food and talked and talked about how much we have to be grateful for. David and his dad, Eudaldo, Laura and the missionaries were all there with us and we have grown to love these people like family. We’re so blessed to have had such great people placed in our life just when we needed them. 

Later on we played games and laid around while we let our stomachs empty a little bit to make room for pie. So we are more after a while and then laid around even more. It was just the best day! 



The rest of the weekend we had to do whatever we wanted to do! Josh and some of the kids took a walk down the road one day and met some neighbors that we hadn’t met before. They chatted about plants and flowers and ended up coming home with armfuls of starts from different plants to put in our yard. 

One evening we walked down to the basketball court and played speed and then a mean game of ultimate frisbee that ended in a close 5-4 score. The winners were a little bit, how do you say…, poor winners. But we handled the loss well and will be ready for them next time! 

Saturday was candy day and we got to work first thing. We didn’t have all our equipment to do everything like usual, but we still made some good stuff. Oreos, peanut clusters and Twix bars were what we ended up doing and they all turned out great and looked good in our packages for neighbors and friends. The kids all helped a ton…and also helped themselves to plenty of tastes during the process as well. Let’s just say we went to dinner that night and didn’t realize until we were all in bed that we hadn’t had dinner! Chocolate and snacks filled us up for the day! 

Today is Sunday and after dropping off our packages of candy today I can’t help but feel so grateful for the people we love here. We have been blessed beyond belief to have been welcomed into a ward and community that has just opened their arms to us with no question. We feel grateful for the many many blessings that continually flow into our life on the daily and the chance we have to be here in Rio Grande as a family. We know this time isn’t going to last forever. But while we’re here, we just want to enjoy every moment of it. This week I’m grateful for this particular moment of my life. It’s so good. 

Week 14 in PR

We had the best time with Uncle Greg this week and he joined right in on all the things we did. Beach day took us back to Playa Azul where we had big waves to boogie board and perfect sand for castle building. We stayed until dark and we were all worn out. Greg loves the beach and we were happy to have him with us at our favorite spot!

Rhen’s ringworm from last week continued to get worse and worse and I finally texted some pics to our friend Jared and also to our pediatrician Dr Erickson, both who I trust completely with anything medical. They both agreed that it didn’t look anything like ringworm and instead looked more like empetigo. We had been treating her sores with an anti-fungal but we switched to an antibiotic instead and Dr Erickson kindly got that sent to the pharmacy for us. We’re so hopeful that the switch of medications will help heal up these sores quickly! 

Desh made dinner for every one one night - his specialty: quesadillas. 

Work on the pool continues to march along. We got quite a bit of rain this week and fill up the pool with muddy water one day. It was pumped out easily enough but it looked pretty crazy to see if filling up with mud! The project this week was framing the sidewalk around the pool and the patio we had planned. It was so great to see how quickly it all started to come together. Then as soon as it was framed, the next day they brought the cement trucks in and poured the cement all in one day! They got the two back walls done, the walkway around the pool, the small platform for the pump and equipment, the patio and even a small form we had set up out in front of our main wall for our garbage cans. They worked hard and fast and in one day the concrete was all done! It looks amazing! 

The elementary kids had a turkey run and family activity this week at the school so we went to watch and participate in the festivities. We had a chalk art activity and made big posters to hang up around the school. Then we gathered for the run. Each grade got to run separately and it was so cute to see them all getting ready for their run. The winners of each group won a gift card to the econo. Our boys were super motivated by the gift card and gave it their all on the run! They all did awesome and keen ended up winning his age group and received the coveted gift card. He informed me that he would be spending all $20 of it on candy :) Of course. 

One day this week Keen was out of school so he got to spend the day with uncle Greg all on his own. They went to the beach, bought treats, made sand castles, took pictures and just enjoyed hanging out together! We took Greg down to old San Juan the night before he left and ate pizza and ice cream with him at our fav spots. It’s always fun to be down there and enjoy the vibe of the city! We had so much fun with Greg this week and hated to see him go. 

This week was also Semana de la Puertoriquenidad (puerto Rican history week) and the schools all had big celebrations at the end of the week. Deshs class participated in a presentation of all things Puerto Rican including dances and songs and lots of artwork. They dressed up as archeologists for the day and performed a Puerto Rican salsa dance. They a were so dang cute and obviously had worked hard on their dance. We all loved watching those cute kids do that! 

After the performances we walked around and saw all the artwork the kids had been working on. We got to come home with lots of papers from Desh. 

And Keen had painted rocks and made little pots of clay for their class presentation. Everything was so great and the kids all had worked hard for this week to come. It was an awesome display of all things Puerto Rican. 

The week ended with belly gong fights and haircuts and a long training for Josh and I on our duties as temple open house ushers. The best part about the training was that we got to go through the temple for the first time! It is a gorgeous, tiny little temple that is just perfectly Puerto Rican. It has bright colored mosaic tiles for the floors with bright colored chairs and benches with turquoise stained glass throughout. I loved every bit of it and we’re so excited to be a party of this huge blessing that is coming to the island. Such a good way to end a good week!