Summer 2013 :: Review

Our summer was most definitely a busy time!  The kids and I spent most of the summer trying to finish up the 2012/2013 school year.  We had gotten terribly behind during our time of deputation and then our transition back to the field.

In the beginning of June, in addition to our regular church duties (church at two locations on Sunday, visiting on Tuesdays, Bible studies on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, we (Michael) started Bible Institute classes on Saturdays.

There were about 15 students that attended between the four classes.  The classes we offered: Elements of Music, Fundamentals of the Faith, Christian Orientation, and New Testament Survey.

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We celebrated Father's Day on June 16th.  Since we had given the mother's a little gift at church for their special day, we decided to do a little something for the father's as well.  We found coffee mugs that had various Father's Day sayings in English on them and then we filled them with a candy bar.

I love my family (although they don't look impressed with me in this pic)!  This is our "it's-been-a-long-hot-Sunday-morning-at-church-and-now-I'm-tired-and-hungry" look!  =)

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Parker (3 yrs.), came in from playing outside one day with his hands looking like this...

Ouch! We couldn't figure out what was wrong, so we finally took him to see a pediatrician.  The doctor, upon seeing his hand, immediately knew the problem.  Apparently Parker had touched the sap from a certain type of tree which caused a chemical burn reaction on his hands.  We applied a cream for awhile and then over time, it has gradually healed.

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I also tried my hand at container gardening this past summer.  Unfortunately, it wasn't a success.  Between iguanas eating the plants, Parker uprooting the plants, not being able to find a sunny enough place, and then rainy season...yep, it was a no-go.  But I tried.  =)  I got one nice looking green bean and then the plant wilted.  The squash plant would flower and then die off.  Oh well, maybe another time, another place!

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The end of July we celebrated Kyle's 8th birthday!  I can't believe how fast these kids are growing!  And since y'all have read my cake making tribulations, we decided to keep. it. simple.  Yep, I bought mini cupcakes.  And it worked grand!

We have a tennis court near our house, so Kyle was so excited to receive a tennis racket for his birthday!

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A big church project that happened in August,..we were finally able to buy a combi (like a van taxi).  Some of you may remember us talking about this at your church during deputation.  And some of you gave to this project.  Thank you so much!  What a blessing this is to our church!

This is a great help in trying to make our church self-supporting.  It also helps by employing a few men from our church, and it's great for picking people up for church!  The combi has had a few rough spots since its initiation (due to the MX economy), but we're trusting the Lord to continue to make it a blessing!

And that pretty much wraps up the highlights from summer.  Now I guess it's on to see if I need to do a Fall Review!  And since we've been more than tardy in publishing a newsletter this year, it looks like I might have to do a Year-In-Review type of newsletter, like ASAP!  For whatever reason, writing newsletters seems to be our "woe" of missionary life.  It's so easy to get caught up with life, especially when it's so busy, and forget that there are supporters and friends who also want to know and see what's going on.  I'll try to do better - pray for me!  =)

May 2013 :: Review

So I'm finally getting around to my May review!  It was a busy, but good month.

We celebrated Mother's Day...

(I love my munchkins!)

...And at church, we gifted the mother's with a kitchen towel, a spatula, a packet of American taco seasoning, and a candy bar!

The middle of May brought us a wonderful team of people from Central PA.  They came primarily to help build a wall and some bathrooms at the church in Motozintla, but they also participated in our services here in Tapachula and Santo Domingo and were an encouragement to us as a family.

(The team in Motozintla)

Working, working...

The team was also kind and brought us a special fan for our truck so we could get our air conditioning working again!  What a blessing!  =)

Bro. Brandon and Jeremy trying some

"mentiras" - a thin, rice wafer that melts in your mouth.

 Torrey and Arlene sipping some coconut water.

We sang a special song at our church in Tapachula.

We enjoyed a special meal of mole con pollo (chicken) with rice after our morning service.

The team outside our Santo Domingo church in the mountains.

Bro. Brandon preached a good message there.

We also celebrated Taylor's 6th birthday at church on the Sunday that the team was with us (May 19th).  And if you've followed this blog for any length of time, I have another cake story!**  =)  With the busyness of having the team stay with us, I didn't have time to make a cake.  So we ordered one at our local Sam's Club bakery.  And this is what it looked like when we picked it up...

Crooked borders and "interesting" writing.  Really, it was quite unattractive and not the quality that was advertised!  We spoke to management and they offered their regrets and gave it to us for half off!  Oh well, at that point, we didn't have any other options but to use/serve it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Taylor!

**And if you need more entertaining reading, you can read the following blog posts about some of my cake stories!  (Taylor's 4th, Kyle's 6th, and/or Taylor's 1st)

Keep watching, the Summer 2013 review is coming up next...

Happy 1st Birthday, Jacinda!!

Let me preface this post by saying, "Yes, we're still alive and well!!"  Life has been very busy for us and blogging has been pushed to the back burner.  But now that school has started for another year, I'm hoping to put blogging back into the schedule!  The only bad thing?  The detail and organizational side of me says I need to catch everyone up on all the happenings that have been missed!  Hmmm...why must I let it bother me?  At any rate, I'll try to post a few monthly reviews until we're up to date and we're also wanting to add a few more things to the blog too...so, stay tuned!

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Now I know you haven't seen or heard much maybe about this little girl (due to my lack of blogging), but time has flown over the past year, and Jacinda turned 1 on Sept. 18th!

She's our little sweetie and we love her dearly!

 Sometimes I call her "Jacy."  She likes to smile, clap to songs, and giggle for her brothers.  She doesn't officially crawl, but does a half-crawl-scoot that gets her where she wants to go!  She has two teeth and loves to eat (takes after the rest of this family)!  At times she can act shy and other times, well, she can be very vocal!!  Can't you just see her personality showing in the picture below?  =)

What a special blessing she is.  We thank God for giving Jacinda to us to raise and we pray that as she grows, she will learn to love Jesus.  Happy Birthday, sweet pea!!

And maybe someday, I'll finally get around to posting her birth story and baby pictures!  =)

We're Home!

PTL!  We have arrived back home in Mexico!

I really didn't mean to leave y'all hanging here without hearing any news, but life got a little busy these past two weeks as we were preparing to leave.  Let's see:

•    April 2-4  -  Michael and the boys got to attend Missions Convention at Penn View while I stayed at home and packed.

 { Jacinda sleeping in the swing while I'm packing }

•    April 5  -  My sister ended up in the hospital with a blood infection.

•    April 6  -  Parker had a birthday!  He turned 3!

{ the boys }

{ Jacinda }

•    April 9  -  And finally...we left in the evening to drive to JFK for our red eye flight to Mexico!

{ Getting ready to leave.  We had 10 large checked-in suitcases, and 10 carry-ons, plus a dog crate and a stroller!  Special thanks to Gratz EWC for allowing us to use their church van and to Steve Miller for driving us!  }

•    April 10  -  We arrived in Tapachula!

After our last few flying escapades, we were hoping for a smooth, problem free trip.  And you know what?  God answered our prayers and we had no problems!  In fact, at every turn and with each official, we were shown extra kindness and given extra help!

When we arrived at the airport here in Tapachula, we were greeted with a good group of people from our church.  What a surprise!  They helped us to get our luggage loaded up and then brought us back to our house.

Now the fun began!  We had no electric and no water.  We decided to spend the night at a hotel until we could get the situation resolved.  Finally yesterday, the electric company came and turned on the power.  The only problem, the downstairs worked, but not the upstairs!  We called someone to come look at our electric box and it turned out to be an easy fix!  So, we were able to sleep in our house last night.

But, we're still having issues with our water pump.  So, we're hoping to work on that today so that we can have water!  =)    **Update:  we had to buy a new water pump - but our water is now up and running!!

What else can we say?  Even with all the issues that come with returning to your field of service after begin gone for an extended period of time...it's good to be HOME. SWEET. HOME!

Celebrate!

Yesterday, we were able to spend some time relaxing together. We also checked out the large indoor market here, drove out to the border of Guatemala, then later on, I put up the Christmas tree while Mom and Dad wrapped gifts.

All of those things that happened yesterday, brings us to today! We started the morning by eating a delicious french toast casserole, then we read the Christmas story and opened up Christmas gifts that Mom and Dad had brought with them. The boys were all excited, of course!

Parker was enjoying himself by piling his gifts on top of each other!

Later on this afternoon, my Dad and I put up some cabinets! I finally have a place to put my dishes and glasses, etc... Yay! Now, I just need to get them (the cabinets!) painted some time soon! My plans are to paint them an antique black that will match my desk.

And........today is also my 30th birthday! It was so nice to be able to celebrate it with my Mom and Dad and Pap! And we all really enjoyed Dad's chocolate/peanut butter cake!

Happy Birthday, Brenda!

Today is my sister's birthday. Since we aren't able to be with her, we thought we'd send a special birthday greeting, something kind of like this...

Happy Birthday, Brenda!

We hope your day is extra special!

We love and miss you!

Crystal, Michael, Kyle, Taylor, and Parker

Kyle's Birthday Party

Yesterday, we held Kyle's birthday party. Nine boys (and one adult) showed up - what an exciting time! They were anxious to play some soccer, but the rain had other plans. They played for a couple of minutes in the drizzle, then it started pouring...and it continued pouring the rest of the day! No problem. They (and their mud) came trompsing into the house and Michael played a (quiet) game with them.

And then things got a little loud and crazy! Michael set up chairs in a row and decided they could try playing volleyball with a balloon! :-)

We had a New York Yankee baseball themed party. Here's a look at the invitation I made to pass out.

And here's the table set-up. I served grilled hot dogs, mac-n-cheese, chips, and fruit punch.

A close up of the cake. And yes, I have another story for this cake! I think I'm going to give up cake decorating for real this time!!

On Saturday, I went to the store and totally forgot to get eggs. Oops. So early Monday morning, I run to the store and grab the eggs. I run back home and mix up the cake and pop it in the oven. Hmmm...I look at the clock and realize time is running out! I still have to let the cake cool, and then decorate it! I managed to ice the cake before Michael walked out the door to go pick up all the kids. I was still needing to tint the icing and then get my decorating bag ready. I finally got going, and right when I was finishing up the NY logo, my one and only decorating bag popped open at the seam and icing squirted out onto the cake! Grrrr... Now what? I try to fix the extra-icing-on-the-cake issue, then slap a piece of tape on the bag and wrap some paper towels around it, hoping I can keep the icing in the bag so I can finish the job! I did. But it was after everyone had arrived! Thank goodness they played outside for a couple of minutes! So you see, I'm quitting the cake decorating business...or maybe I'll except donations to buy new decorating bags...and then try to plan ahead a little better and maybe not procrastinate?! :-)

Kyle's mordida!

Here's an excerpt about birthday mordidas that I found online. "Another great Mexican Birthday tradition is not just the eating of a birthday cake but the tradition of the first bite. As everyone stands around the one to have just completed another year of life, they all chant Mordida, Mordida, Mordida! Yes, Mordida is the same word used for a bribe but that is because it means to take a bite. The birthday person is expected to take their first bite of the cake without any utensils with their hands at their back. Then of course customarily one of their best friends or family is sure to push their face into the cake or lift it up into their face for the same affect. With this all being done in great fun; I have seen people with many completed years that just love getting their face in the cake."

And here's the group of kids posing with Kyle's piñata. Because of the rain, we actually did not break open the piñata...we decided to wait until Wednesday night after church.

I think I can say, "A good time was had by all."

Kyle Turns "6"

Happy Birthday to Kyle, who turns "6" today!! He's been sooo excited this whole month, just waiting for his birthday to get here! We have a birthday party scheduled for Monday afternoon...actually, it's going to be an all BOY party! What fun!

And for all our family and any interested peoples, I decided to put together some random pictures from each month of Kyle's 5th year (with the exception of one month...I guess my camera was hibernating, or something!).

• At the park - July 2010 •

• Kyle starts kindergarten - August 2010 •

• Spending quality time with Aunt Brenda - September 2010 •

• Checking out cousin Dereck's doe - October 2010 •

• With his brothers before church- November 2010 •

• Christmas in Mexico - December 2010 •

• Playing with legos - February 2011 •

• Playing with a friend - March 2011 •

• Climbing a tree - April 2011 •

• "Monkey-ing" around - May 2011 •

• At the Pacific ocean - June 2011 •

• After a haircut - July 2011 •

We love you, buddy! Happy Birthday!!!

(Continue reading previous birthday posts...)