The Beach - Part 2

A few more pics from our time at the beach with my mom and grandma... :)

Above, Mom & Aaron... I love this photo!

Either Mom or Grandma took this shot right after we'd all rolled out of bed...! We don't even look like we can form true smiles let alone think of giving one for the camera... :)

Which is, of course, why I am posting it... ;)

Four generations?!?

The grandmothers watching the "grandkids" perform in the sand... this is why all grandparents are rock stars in my book! Even if Candi and Diego would have scribbled something that looked like a half-masticated snake with warts [or something equally charming] they would have been delighted... :)

I like this photo... it looks so neat with Diego semi-disappearing in the background!

We went out to eat at a restaurant called "Jorge's" ["George's"] for some seafood! It was great and the kids enjoyed watching while all the workers got ready for a beach-side wedding that evening!

And... since the two quesadillas didn't seem to fill her up, Candi managed to assuage her hunger with the peanut butter-filled, yummy-in-my-tummy, pretzel-bites. :)

It was hard for everyone to keep their eyes open at night, but the kids watched Homeward Bound one night with Mom and Beauty and the Beast the other night. It's so amusing to me to see how into the films the kids can get [and a good check, too, to make sure the film is appropriate].

Case in point: Marcos started weeping... copiously, I might add... when the Beast died; then Candi started crying because Marcos was crying; then the other two boys kept looking at me and saying with slightly-panicked voices, "He doesn't really die, does he? Does he?"

:)

We got back from the beach on Sunday afternoon/evening and then Monday morning I took Mom and Grandma up to the airport in Tucson. We crossed the border early so I could take them to this little 50's cafe that I'd stumbled across earlier in the month... called The Twist & Shout!

We had enough time to go up to a look-out above Tucson, also... so a photo with Mom in the stone gazebo where I've now been with almost every single member of the family! :)

Thanks again, Mom & Grandma, for a lovely visit; the kids enjoyed it so much and I look forward to you coming down in the future! :)

Please pray for tomorrow night especially since we have the Thanksgiving dinner and the opportunity to converse and mingle with lots of different members of the community. Pray that we are able to shine Jesus' light into a dark world... a world that longs for that light even though it's first reaction might be to reject it and hide. Happy Thanksgiving!

To the Beach [With the Grandmas!] - Part 1

Mom and Grandma Mildred came down for a visit in October, and it was great! The kids always enjoy spending time with "Abuela" and even though they were confused as to which one they should call "Grandma," they still enjoyed having two doting grandmothers around!

Come to think of it... so did I! :)

We had a day at CVE before we headed to Bahia de Kino for a brief family vacation. Mom and Grandma got a dose of what it means to have the kids get home, do homework, do jobs, do reading time... and all by 5:30 so we can get bathtime taken care of! They were great helps in the reading time, though...

"They're all just so expressive as they read!" - stated by Mom and Grandma multiple times... :)

Friday morning we headed to Bahia de Kino where we, praise the Lord, had a nice house on the beachfront... after lunch, the kids literally scrambled into swimsuits, grabbed their gear, and headed for the water! Mom & Grandma appropriated these stools, which became their "must-have" equipment every time we headed to the water!

Grandma & I

It was her first time in Mexico, first time to Magdalena, and first time to meet these kids... thank You, Lord, that she could come! And thanks, Mom, for coordinating the plans! :)

Sitting at our table in the house... it was a little cozy, but that's what family time is for anyway, right?!?

The kids love making sand art and sculptures... this is Aaron's turtle, and he felt like the photo was much better if he was actually laid out exactly like the turtle... :)

Mom out in the water on her stool... and this is deceptively calm in the photo! Every time the waves came, there was a bit of a gamble as to whether or not the chairs [and whichever Grandma was occupying that chair] would tip over!

And a couple of times they did go over... I don't have any pictures of those, though! ;)

The Grandmas watching the "Grandkids"

We truly had some beautiful weather, and I'm so thankful... October is so much better at the beach than scorching during the summer!

Mom was constantly beckoned, cajoled, and outright begged to come build sandcastles, forts, weird sand designs, etc. Thanks for being so willing, Mom! The kids loved it...

Mr. Cheese himself... :)

This picture cracks me up... I asked them to pose, and they were both in really funny moods... so they certainly posed! Goobers...

These two photos (above and below) are in the middle of a succession of four where Candi & Aaron were tickling one another under the chin! Candi was whining about not getting to take her snack into the water and Aaron walked up and started teasing her to help her stop being in such a bad funk... it worked!

Look at that! Pure joy on her face! :)

One of the funniest parts about having Grandma there was that she was -- seriously -- the Ultimate Crab Catcher. I might even give her that acronym... :)

She would sit on the stool with a shell in her hand, just waiting for that poor, unsuspecting crab to stick its little claw out and... bam! She just pulled them right out!

It was really, really funny... because she was so intense! The kids got a kick out of it, too... so thanks for entertaining us all Grandma! Nobody was as good as you... ;)

Well, the Denver work team arrived, the baptisms happened, and we are about to start this next very full week... please pray for continued wisdom, patience, and love as we prepare to share a Thanksgiving dinner with many people from town! This weekend was beautiful with the baptisms and so many loving visitors... thanks for the prayers!

Mexico [heart] Fiestas...

... which means that I [by default and with much haggling within my soul] do to!

So... this post was started a while ago, and then there were Internet issues. Sorry for the long absence!

Birthdays can be quite the celebration here (even to the point of handing out printed and engraved invitations to Kindergarten-age birthday parties... they were seriously nicer than some wedding invitations I've seen... yikes!) and -- most of the time -- it's all in good fun!

(Even with the traditional face-plant... :)

The beginning of October, our entire house (plus the Arcoverde kids whom Jenna & Jodi were watching for the night) headed to Zulema's house for her son, Angel's, birthday.

The little guy turned 4 and informed Jenna that he wanted a "principe" ["prince"] on his birthday cake... okay, then! So I was commissioned to do a Disney prince cake and (rejecting, sadly, the idea of having Beauty's "Beast" as the subject) we ended up with a slightly akward-looking Eric... ;)

Zulema & Hilda's house was packed... 15 of us, 6 of them... that's quite a group to fit into a small apartment! Then again... it's Mexico! We fit, like, 40 kids into the 15-passenger vans for Bible School every summer... ;)

Sorry the photo is sideways...

This is Lili's dog Oliver [Lili is Jazany & Julissa's aunt, and Zulema's younger sister], who Zulema & Hilda were taking care of for a bit. Candi LOVES Oliver... seriously. She will just carry him around for hours if she can! Amazingly enough, he doesn't seem to mind too much, and I know she enjoyed having something "live" for her baby doll antics... :)

Hilda & Jazany; two beautiful girls that need a lot of prayers. Jenna thinks that Jazany looks more and more like her Aunt Hilda as the years go by... and I know our prayer is that they both can have soft hearts that yearn for the praise of God, not of man!

This is what the kids all looked like after eating the pieces of cake with Eric's hair... black dye is not easy to scrub off! And apparently Diego (and the rest of the kidlets) don't know how to bite without smearing along the corners of their mouths... ;)

Zulema, Angel, and Caleb (her youngest).

This family has just been so special to so many people at CVE... please pray that He continues to work mightily in their hearts and that Zulema (who gave her life to Christ this past summer) could continue to grow and feel God's presence and direction in her life... no matter what Satan throws at her family.

This is Kevin, Zulema's two-year-old; the miracle baby! It's hard to believe that this chunky little guy was in such dire need of medical attention a year and a half ago [for those who don't know, he underwent surgery on his skull because the bones had grown together instead of being separate and alowing his brain and head to expand as he grew older]... God is good!

Nereida (pictured above with her "Sandy" a.k.a. "Sundae") is now living with Dan & Tami, but we were able to go out for lunch in October to celebrate her behavior in summer school -- she went the entire four weeks without getting a single "tacha" or bad mark... pretty good! She wanted to eat at Momo's, and then... we had to go for ice cream! What else? :)

Thanks for the continued prayers and I would just ask especially that you pray for the changes in our house here on campus. Jazany and Julissa are being adopted by Bill & Joan Schick and moved the day before yesterday to start their new life with their new family. This is a beautiful thing, but obviously brings changes and heartache to those who have cared for them and been with them for the last three years. Please pray that the transition is a smooth one, and that both girls would be able to feel secure in the love that Bill & Joan and the rest of the family are so ready to pour out!

Big Machines & Big Glasses!

Having grown up as a farmer's daughter, I personally think that all children need large machines to clamber over, fall off of, pretend they're driving... and just generally entertain themselves with! :)

Thanks to Joel, the kids were able to get in some good quality-time with the CAT "machina" one Saturday morning while I had some good quality-time cleaning my room...

... I think I would have preferred playing on the "machina!"

Candi... with [of course] her hair trapped under the glasses.

I don't know how she stands it, but she would always, always prefer her hair down and in her eyes instead of pulled back; in fact, she's a huge baby when it comes to brushing her hair... so we're working on that! By brushing harder... [big smile].

Marcos saw that I was taking pictures and decided to come over and pose... attention hungry, I think?!? :)

When I look at this photo, the only descriptive word that comes to mind is: Goobers!

And that's what they both are... ;)

Last year (in public school) there was a government program that gave all the kids in grade school a free pair of glasses. Aaron faked that he had poor eyesight on his exam (I know, I know), and then... turns out he really did need glasses!

So... we went to the eye doctor to get it all checked out. He had his exam, we went in to pick out a set of frames... and he chose (I need to be careful with my words here)... perhaps some of the ugliest frames I've ever seen. Seriously. They were big, black and red, and... I just thouht of what a poor, poor schmuck he was going to look like in those things!

I am not really up on styles or anything, but I know how I feel when I look back at my eyebrow-covering glasses from sixth grade, and... I don't wish that upon anyone! So... the red and black plastic Ninja glasses got a big veto... and we moved to option #2: The Computer Geek glasses!!!

He seriously just needs a pocket calculator... ;)

I tried to convince him that he should go for a pair that had smaller rims, not so... so... GEEKY... but he liked these a lot! So... we got them.

And then he got really, really embarrassed... :)

I personally had started to like the glasses... he looked really, really cute in that adorable nerd kind of way... especially when he kept pushing them up on his nose as he was reading a book! However, it has taken him some time to get used to them...

... and to quit asking me what exactly would happen if he "accidentally" broke them!

Turns out he did break them, and so now he's going to have to work for the repairs... oops. But a good lesson, I think... ;)

And one final shot... I call this "Clark Kent in the making!"

Don't you agree?!? :)

Thanks for all the prayers, and I just ask that as we continue with this month (work teams, families that are visiting, baptisms, Thanksgiving, etc.) that you would pray for patience, love, and that our focus stays where it needs to be... on HIM!

September, Changes, and Independence!

Today is my 4-year anniversary for living and working at CVE and all I can say is... Praise God for His faithfulness! These four years have been incredible in every sense of the word; incredibly wonderful, incredibly challenging, incredibly hard, and... incredibly incredible. As redundant as that incredibly sounds... :)

I never imagined that I would be here longer than a year and I certainly never imagined that I would be a full-time Mom... I would have laughed, then cried, then tucked tail and run! However, God obviously had other plans and I'm still here, still taking care of kids, and still feeling very at peace with where He has me, where He is leading me, and with whatever He has next!

[Being okay with "losing control" and not knowing what comes next is a big part of that "incredible" stuff mentioned above... :)]

Above: Our family... (l-r) Marcos, Aaron, Diego, Candi and Yours Truly

When we took some of our fall "family pics" I snapped this photo of Federico and Darilis; Darilis is the daughter of Fede's older sister Daniela who lives with us in the Casa Rota (Broken House :)

A typical Saturday morning: me at the stove making breakfast and the kids sitting on the countertop patiently awaiting their breaking of the fast... ;)

A not-so-typical Saturday night: the kids decided to start giving themselves wedgies (sp?)... which was really, really fun [I'm pretty sure I did the silent laugh, Dad].

With the cutting of the palm tree fronds comes the (also inevitable) Mexican Next Top Model contest... ;)

Above: Diego, Julissa, and Eduardo enjoy their dress-up time!

September 16 is Independence Day in Mexico, so we (of course!) had to have a celebration!

Dressed in (I know, I know) matching red shirts... :)

[Notice I decided to opt out... it would have just been too much, y'know?!?]

Candi started Kindergarten this year and Carissa teaches her on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays... and Candi really likes her teacher! (Especially since she gets to learn about frogs, catch frogs, and use frogs to count, color, and... well, everything else for her classes! Well done, Carissa! I am so thankful you are teaching her!)

The kids from the grade school also had a short program to celebrate Independence Day -- I don't remember for sure what this song was called, but something about walking to school with different types of animals... and so they all (including teachers) dressed up!

This is one of those photos that Diego might possibly hate me for when he gets older... ;)

Which is, of course, the reason I took it... [big, big smile]

And I couldn't help but include this photo...

This is the lovely little girl who loves the color pink, Dora the Explorer, painting her fingernails, and... every little insect and creepy-crawlie that lives around our house!

(And yes, Jenna... I'm sort of proud of her for it... :)

Please keep praying as we get to a mid-way point for the first half of the school year; pray for patience and endurance for teachers and kids and mentors alike! And please pray for patience and peace as many, many people will be around for upcoming baptisms and work teams!