What Has Been Going On?

I have been slack on my blogging lately - sorry. Life has been insane since we got back from the beach and I'm just now beginning to get caught up. I spent Monday night, all day Tuesday, and all day today doing Graceful Designs stuff as well as sorting and pricing yard sale stuff. But the majority of my time has been taken up by ebay. I just listed a ton of stuff on ebay and, while, it is good money it is also very time consuming and exhausting and addictive, and...

In between all of that I have been trying to get caught up on my laundry and I spent the morning with Kayla yesterday as it was Tyler's last day of MDO. Tomorrow I will be working all day and then on Friday I leave for my girl's weekend. Yea! I haven't even had time to get excited about it with all the busyness of the week. But I am so ready!

For a kitchen update - I have paint!!! The kitchen has one rolled coat of burgundy paint on it. Yes, I said burgundy - it is dark and I love it!!! It is exactly what I had envisioned. We still have pink walls up above the counter tops in between the counter and the cupboard because that is where the back splash will go and we can't do the backsplash until we get the new countertops. One thing leads to another, you know how it goes! I have to take a moment and brag on my husband. He deserves more than a moment, but... When we got done with that wallpaper, the walls were a mess. He has puttied and sanded, and mudded and sanded and painted and sanded, and now - the walls look fabulous! They are as smooth as a baby's butt!!! I'm so impressed with him. He is already talking about next year's project. Yikes - one at a time. I love you babe - you are amazing!

Alright, it's past my bed time --- Goodnight!

Sayings and Such

So my kids have been cracking me up with some of the stuff that they have said this week and I had to share.

First of all, Kayla went to a swim party tonight and apparently they had tons of dessert and a little bit of dinner, at least that is what she ate! We were on our way home and she said, "oooh gross, you know how when you burp and you kind of puke up a little, well, I just did that with my hot dog". Gross, but funny!

Tyler is into "buddy" this week. His new name for Craig is "buddy", so everything is "buddy this and buddy that". He also got this very cool dart gun while we were at the beach. It was the highlight of his vacation - just ask him and he'll tell you. I used to be very anti-gun, but I find that a boy can make a gun out of everything whether you want him to or not so I figured if you can't beat them join them. Don't freak out, I'm not buying him a machine gun for Christmas or anything crazy like that. He has one gun and honestly, it is the best $3.99 I have ever spent. He has played with it non stop since buying it. The funny thing is though is that he can't say dart, he says darc! "Where'd my darc go". It cracks me up!

Along with "buddy" Tyler has also gotten very serious about his prayer life lately. I know you shouldn't laugh at the things that your kids pray, but, come on, you know God has a sense of humor. For Tyler, it has become a contest. He tells me now, "this is going to be the best prayer"! So, he begins by thanking Jesus for EVERYTHING!!! And I do mean EVERYTHING, sometimes several times for the same thing! So, tonight he says, "thank You Jesus for all of your hard work". Oh, that made me melt. So sweet!

There were a hundred more things, but I just can't remember them all - I need to start carrying a tape recorder with me. Do they still make tape recorders? Maybe an IPOD with a voice recorder??? I don't know - I'm electronically challenged!

Pictures

Back from the Beach

We got home from the beach last night around 8:30. What a weekend! We had a great time and it was so relaxing. As a matter of fact, if I'd have been any more relaxed I'd have been dead!

Seriously, we did have a wonderful time of family time. Kendall went with us and that was just an added blessing. That gave Kayla someone to play with and, of course, Kendall fits in just like she is one of the family. The kids all played so hard! Tyler was a maniac and kept us laughing all weekend. This boy has never met a stranger. He made friends everywhere he went. He actually dumped a bucket of water on some poor strange man's head. The guy seemed to have a pretty good sense of humor so I don't think we'll be facing any assault charges or anything like that! We spent most of our time at either the beach or the pool, but did get out a couple of days to do the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum, the Ripley's 4D theatre, and, my personal favorite, the Ripley's Mirror Maze. Can you say claustrophobic? Seriously, I sometimes forget that I don't like to be too enclosed or feel like I can't get out of spaces. Well, the memory comes back real quick when you are in this room that you have no idea how big or small it is, it is full of mirrors and you can't tell which way to go and there are NO exit signs. I told Craig to "get me out"!!! They had an emergency exit door that warned that "if you push on this, an alarm will sound". Thank God! I hoped to goodness that when the alarm sounded that lights would also come on and point me to the way out!!! Okay, we didn't actually have to sound the alarm, my husband has a wonderful sense of direction! That is one of those things like tubing down the Chattahoochie river in Helen - did it once, don't ever need to do it again!

I joked with a friend of mine that I was going to do a 4 B's of the Beach post, but I guess I will just include it in this one. The 4 B's of the beach; please forgive me for my crudeness, but, honestly, people, somebody needs to go here! The 4 B's of the Beach are:
1. Bellies
2. Butts
3. Boobs
4. Butt Cracks
I just have one question - what happens to people when they hit the beach? It is like they suddenly go from a size 5X to a size 2! I don't get it. Do they not know that they have hang over in the front? or that their equator is showing? And, how is that even comfortable? Now, listen, if you got the body and you want to wear your bikinis and your thongs then by all means, go for it. Maybe this just comes from being extremely self conscious, I don't know. I think for years to come though, that when I go to the beach I will no longer worry about how I look because when you are at the beach I really don't think anybody cares! Honestly, there were several times that I wished for several extra sets of hands and arms so that I could cover mine and my family's eyeballs! I will never forget the year that we went with Craig's family to Daytona and I was hanging out on the beach in my comfy beach lounger watching the people walk by on the beach. I almost fell off of my chair when this man ran by wearing a bikini thong! I mean it was sparse in the front but when he ran by and there was only dental floss on the back side it was almost more than I could handle. BUT, he had the body for it - there was not an ounce of fat on his body. Now, I mean, the fact that he was, like 60, was a little disturbing, but hey, to each his own!

Okay, enough of this. I'm probably being terribly judgmental and I will probably feel guilty for posting this later and go back and delete it, but I just felt like somebody needed to say what all of America is thinking! I feel like Paul Harvey! Good day!(My dad and brother are probably the only ones who got that, but, I hope the rest of you have been blessed enough to hear at least one Paul Harvey broadcast in your lifetime!)

Weekend Recap

Well, it is before 7a.m. on Monday morning. I have been up since 5:30 - I'm ready to go back to bed! I have been doing this for a few weeks now where I get up before Craig leaves for work and go out and walk. When you live in the south and it gets up to 100 degrees + in the summer, if you want to exercise you better do it really early or really late. I am not a morning person, but I have to say that I have really been enjoying this time in the morning. I have been having my prayer time while I walk and it has been awesome. At that time in the morning there are NO distractions. A lot of mornings that I walk I don't even see any cars out and if I do it is usually only one or two. There is not even much to think about that early in the day because nothing has happened yet, so it has been a sweet, sweet time with the Lord. By the time I get home I'm ready to sit down with my coffee and my Bible and, wow, God has been showing me some great things. I do have to confess though that there are many morning when I go back to bed after my quiet time!!! The older I get the more I realize how much I love to sleep!

Hope everyone had a restful weekend. Ours was pretty low key. Saturday Tyler had a birthday party that Craig took him to. Normally I do the birthdays, but this one involved water balloons and so I let Craig handle it! Can I just say that Tyler had a great time! He came home with an inflatable sword that he has not put down all weekend. As a matter of fact, all of us have played with it! We have beat each other with it and cut off body parts and just had a blast! Abbie - this was by far the best birthday "treat" that we have gotten!!! Kayla and I did not do anything quite so fun. We cleaned her bedroom. Yikes! Actually we just cleaned out, I have not actually cleaned anything in there yet, except the bedding.I am gearing up for a huge yard sale and a huge ebay sale! It kind of broke my heart though - she got rid of her Barbies and even some stuffed animals. Craig also told me that it is now time for us to get rid of our plastic bowls and plates! I'm not ready for that! Anyway, Saturday was mostly just a "work around the house" day. Yesterday was church and then I spent all afternoon out shopping by myself for myself. Wow! That was a lot of fun! Last night we had a movie night at church and it was really good. We watched "Flywheel", by the same people that did "Facing the Giants". I would highly recommend it. Not your typical Hollywood movie, so it was really very good!

The week ahead is shaping up to be extremely busy. The kids are going swimming with some friends today while I go to work. I have a meeting at a nursing home this morning and I hate those. It is so incredibly depressing. After that I'm going to go into work for a couple of hours. When I get home I have some Graceful Designs orders to fill and AWANA stuff to work on. Our AWANA starts back on August 17, but there is a lot of prep work to be done. For my WABC blog readers, if you are not involved in AWANA and would like to be PLEASE let me know - we still need several leaders who will just come every week and listen to Bible verses. Shameless plug, I know. Other than that the week will be full of getting ready to go to the beach. Yea!!!

Happy Monday everybody!

Looking for a Better Day

It is a new day! I am trying to gain some perspective today. We have had very few bad days this summer, but you probably wouldn't know that by the way I blog! Seriously though, I was talking to a friend last night and we were talking about our kids and how they act the age that they are. Isn't that deep? We have these children who are four and eight and they actually act four and eight and then I get irritated. Where along the way did I lose the perspective on my job as a parent? God expects me to train them up not get mad when they act untrained, although that is often times a very natural reaction, not necessarily right, but natural! I have spent the last couple of weeks really praying about my kids and asking God to give me wisdom and I think he has answered for today - expect my kids to act the age that they are and have the patience and gentleness to TEACH them how and why their behavior is wrong. Please tell me that I am not the only one who forgets to remember stuff like this. I was so irritated last night over the ungratefulness that my children showed after trying to have some family fun, but, honestly, should I expect anything less? I'm not saying that it is right by any means, but gratefulness needs to be taught. I have struggled with this so much since coming home from Mexico. I just want to put my kids on a plane and fly them to a poor and foreign land so they can see how truly blessed and fortunate that we are. But at this point in life I can't do that so it is my job to teach them. It is like I said in a former post that God wants me to train up my children and I have to ask myself am I doing that or am I just disciplining for the moment. I don't know if any of what I wrote makes sense or not, but God has really spoke to me about that yesterday and today. I'm sure that it will be much easier said than done, but that is what I am striving for today.

I'm also striving to spring clean my master bathroom. Ugh! I hate cleaning bathrooms, but, like my room, I'm sure it will feel so good when it is done!

That is it for us for now. Hope everyone has a good weekend and a happy Friday!

Fun and Games

My friend Amanda had this on her blog, and I thought it might would be fun! Copy and paste this list onto your blog, then bold the things that you have done. It sort of like the blog version of "I've Never." Let me know if you added this to your blog so that I can see what you've never done!

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris (not yet, but one day!)
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper (dugh!!!)
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten tipsy on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse of both the sun and moon
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment39. Met someone famous
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Caused a car accident
42. Had/Have amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving

Family Fun Day Gone All Wrong

Well, it's time for another episode of Churchill Family Drama! Buckle your seatbelts folks, it's going to be a very bumpy ride!

Okay, I'm probably way too angry to even be posting so let me see if I can give today's update and spin a little positive light on it even though I feel like saying bad words. So - we were supposed to get out of the house today for a little family fun and I had some things planned. We were going to go to the movies, the library, out to lunch, the jumpy thing...fun, fun, fun. Yesterday I noticed that Kayla was wheezing. She has had this ongoing cough for about a week and the past couple of days it has gotten pretty bad. I called the doctor first thing this morning and they gave us an appointment at 10:05 - the movie was supposed to start at 10:00. I decide that, okay, this is not a problem. We'll move to plan B. This is where things get complicated and drawn out. You see, I have this insane addiction to pharmacies. I love them! Mostly why I love this is because you can basically earn free money. I had already searched and found a coupon for a gift card with a prescription only it was at a pharmacy that is not my fave. Not a problem - my pharmacy (CVS) will take competitor's coupons. Let me back up for a minute and tell you what we found out at the doctor's office. Kayla was wheezing! Dr. B told me that I had done the right thing by bringing her in and that she needed an antibiotic and an inhaler. Wow! I was just hoping for some high dose cough medicine. So I go off to my CVS and pull up to the drive thru and, well, they wouldn't take my competitor's coupon. Great. Being the cheapo that I am I took all of my stuff back and left. We went out for lunch and went to the library and were having a wonderful time. We came back home and I searched for another coupon and came up with nothing. I ended up driving out of my way to the pharmacy that I don't like to get my $30 gift card. Then I took the kids to this park that we have that has a walking path and big water fountain to play in. I told them that they could ride their bikes while I walked and then they could play in the fountain. That lasted for about 10 minutes. I let Kayla take Tyler to the fountain while I finished my walk. The fountain is visible almost all the way around the track so I felt pretty safe letting her do that and she actually is very responsible at this sort of thing. I got pretty much finished with my walk, took their clothes to the car, and grabbed the towels. As I turned around to head back to fountain I could hear the crying. You know a mother just knows her child's cry and whether it is a for real cry or a fake cry. This one was for real and it was Tyler. Kayla was hauling him across the field. He had slipped and hit his head. Yep, and I wasn't there. Mother of the year award right here - I will be nominated again! At that point I decided it was time to head home. Tyler whined the whole way home. Came home and got him to bed. I gave Kayla her meds and her breathing treatment. I started cooking for a family that I was taking a meal to. At this point, I have brownies in the oven (more on that in a minute), green bean casserole half put together, meat frying in one pan, and water on to boil in another pan. Kayla begins this coughing fit and pretty soon she starts crying and telling me that her tongue is burning and feels like it is pulsing and swelling. Of course, I'm thinking allergic reaction. I have tried every cough medicine in my cupboard on her this week which included the last little bit of Benadryl that I had on hand. Yikes! It's 4:10; the doctor's office closes at 4:30 so I put a call in. Sure enough, she had basically gotten a "burn" from one of the agents in the inhaler that is used to help push the medicine out the end. So now the doctor is calling in a medicine. In the meantime I turned off everything but the brownies so that I could sit with her and get her calmed down. Crisis is over. Meal is back on. The brownies, well, let's just say that you can, in fact, mess up a box mix of brownies. That's all I'm going to say about that.
So, we get the meal delivered and then we are off for an evening of free jumping, free pizza, and free coke. We get to Jump City and realize that it is, indeed, packed to capacity and beyond. We stood in line for probably thirty minutes for one piece of pizza each. The kids didn't want to jump because there was too many people. Literally, the announcer from the radio station announced about ten times in the short time we were there that there was a missing child. And it was always a different missing child. How scary. We decided to run far away from that place and ended up going to McDonald's thinking we could get ice cream and let the kids play. Suffice it to say that after sitting down to our after dinner snack of cheeseburgers and ice cream, my children expressed a very ungrateful interest in the food that they were partaking of, SO all of the ice cream got thrown in the trash and we left with two crying kids. The good news is though is that my favorite pharmacy(different location) accepted my prescription coupon and the new prescription. So, while I spent an unplanned $40 on doctors visit and prescriptions, I made $60 in gift cards!

Miscellaneous Updates

Well, let's see - what has been going on? I finished spring cleaning my bedroom today! Yea me! I have the cleanest bedroom in town. I'm having open tours of my bedroom tomorrow so come on by:) Seriously, doesn't it just feel good to finish something? I love it! I cannot stand to see little dust particles hanging from my ceiling or seeing the dust accumulating on my fan. Don't tell anybody, but I also pulled everything out of the bottoms of my closets so that I could dust and vacuum the baseboards! Okay, yes, I'm probably a little bit of a fanatic, but, what can I say, my mother taught me well!

Tyler is still doing so good with the potty. Although for some reason, last night he wet the bed. I'm not sure what that is about. He hasn't wet the bed in I don't know when. I'm beginning to be less and less surprised by the whole pooping thing. It is so cool - he just goes in there and does it. While I might be less surprised by it, it really does still fascinate me! Does anybody know how long I have waited for this? I will probably continue to be fascinated for awhile!

Craig has been working like a maniac in the kitchen this week. We have Kayla's birthday in a few weeks and family coming and everything. So, hopefully, we will have paint on the walls before too long. Last night he hung the new closet door. Tonight he was doing some caulking. The walls are looking really good, um, even though they are still PINK! But, as far as the dry wall repair work that he did it looks great!

We leave for the beach one week from tomorrow and I am so looking forward to getting away for a few days! The kids are really excited. Speaking of the kids, I am taking them out for a little fun tomorrow. They have been cooped up in the house too much this week. So tomorrow we are going to probably head to the free movie, do a little lunch out, and maybe go to the library or something. My children LOVE the library. Tomorrow night we are going to a jumping place, you know, with the inflatibles. Our christian radio station is hosting a free jump night so we are definitely going to jump on that one.

I guess that is it. I'm trying desparately to get into bed before 11p.m. tonight. That seems to be our bed time of late. It makes for an ugly morning! I need my sleep or I get grouchy! Goodnight everyone!

The Mind of a Four Year Old

Do you ever wonder how the mind of a four year old works? Yea, me neither, except on mornings like this when Tyler says something that just makes me think, "where did that come from?"

Tyler was getting ready for school this morning and he was sitting on the floor in my bathroom putting on his socks when he points at his big toe and says, "Mom, this is my specialest toe, and it will never fall off, but if it does we are going to throw it in the trash and it will never come back again."

Okay, where did that come from?

Quite a Day

Yesterday was a busy day. It was the kind of day when you get a lot done but you don't have a lot to show for it! I bit the bullet and started cleaning(spring cleaning) even knowing that there will be more drywall dust coming. I couldn't take it anymore. In the words of Vickie Mack, I was about to "nut up". I wrote my name in the drywall dust on my entertainment center! So I started back in my bedroom knowing it would take me a couple of days to work my way out to the kitchen and hoping that by the time I got there the drywalling would be mostly done. Can I confess that I didn't even get all of my bedroom done? Seriously, I worked in there all day and I still have two closets to clean out, another wall to wipe down, and doors to wipe down. No I do not wash my walls all the time for those of you who are wondering, but with all the dust they needed to be done. So when I say I was cleaning, it was major cleaning. I moved furniture, did the windows and blinds, washed all my little chotskies, took pictures off the wall and washed those, and on and on it goes.

I did have about an hour long interruption yesterday that was kind of funny. I had these two little eight year old twin boys show up on my doorstep yesterday and announce to me that they were "those guys' friends", talking about Kayla and Tyler. They wanted to play so I invited them to go into the back yard and play. The one boy had to call his mom first and let her know where he was. They don't know me from Adam and yet she was fine with them being over here. They actually just live in the house in back of ours, but still! They were getting annoyed with Tyler(he was being terrible!) and wanted to know if Kayla could come over to their house and then they wouldn't have to "deal with him". Um, let me think about that...NO! I'm sorry, but this is just a soapbox issue for me. The mother of these children just let them come over to our house and she doesn't know me. I could be a maniac of some sort! I'm not, but does she really know that? She didn't even know where they were. They had to explain to her on the phone which house they were at in the neighborhood. Then she got on the phone with me and explained that they could "stay for a little while; just send them home when you get tired of them". Okey dokey! So in the space of an hour I cleaned up three glasses of spilled water, dispensed multi-colors of popsicles, disciplined Tyler for pulling his pants down, turning the water hose loose on them, licking them(he has decided he is the family dog), and countless other things. Honestly, if I were a kid, I wouldn't have wanted to "deal with him" either. He was B-A-D yesterday! I have to tell you this funny thing though. I was telling Craig about these boys showing up on my doorstep and Craig said, "great we've got Thing One and Thing Two in our back yard - don't let them in the house". That cracked me up. I could just picture the little troll looking guys with the crazy hair!!!

Last night I went on a very fun girls night out to celebrate the birthdays of three different friends. What fun! It was so good to just check out for a few hours and laugh and relax! It was after nine when I got home, and I have been desperately trying to walk every day. So I was walking at 10:00 last night. Now, I don't care how nice of a neighborhood you live in - it is just spooky to walk that late at night. It was creeping me out! Ya'll know I don't like the dark and all those shadows and stuff. Ugh!

Today I am off to work. Kayla is going with me since Tyler will be at Mother's Day Out. I'm not sure if she is excited or dreading it. Usually we have our fun day on Tuesday, but I am so behind at work that I figured I would take this morning and try to get a few things done. Then this afternoon I will be finishing up my bedroom! Yea! Oh, while I was gone last night, Craig put a second coat of primer on the walls. He had to buy another gallon of primer and this one has a different pink tint to it, so now I have two tone pink walls! It is hilarious looking!

I'm off - hope everyone has a great day...

What is a Mother?

According to Tyler this morning, I am a rodent. Isn't that sweet? "Mom's a rodent". I'm not sure what kind of rodent, but, come on, does it really matter? Then Kayla came in and suggested that instead of a rodent, perhaps I might be the Lochness Monster. I'm going to really have to step up my beautification ritual!

So, Kayla woke up about 2:30 this morning not feeling well. She wasn't acting very well last night either. However, she has no fever, no throwing up, no real symptoms. Says she just feels kind of loopy - welcome to my world - I feel that way all the time. Anyway, Craig had parking duty this morning so he left early for church and the three of us stayed home. I have declared today a true day of rest. The kids are vegging in front of the television, Craig is taking a nap, and I have been napping and reading all morning. I wish I could say that I am relaxed, but, honestly, I just keep thinking about everything that needs to be done. Hopefully I can alternate between resting and being productive today - is that possible? I have this very weird thing that I do - Craig thinks that I am nuts. But, when I get to this point where I feel like my house and our life, in general, are out of control, I just sort of shut down. Then I start doing stuff like cleaning out cupboards and closets. Seriously, yesterday Craig did ALOT more sanding in the kitchen and every where that you look in my house there is this fine layer of white dust -- all the way to the back of house. It is overwhelming to me - where do you start. So, I have decided that I will start with cleaning out cupboards and closets! It is very therapeutic, and I have really neat cupboards!

There are just some things....

I have been thinking this weekend as I have been speaking to my children that there are just some things that you shouldn't have to say to your children, and yet, there are times when you find yourself saying just those things. Let's see if I can give you a few examples from the Churchill home from the last day or two:

"Tyler, do NOT pull your pants down"

"Tyler, do NOT pinch her on the bootie"

"Tyler, do NOT hit with the sword"(sorry Logan)

"Do NOT put lipgloss all over your face and in your hair no matter how much fun it might seem like at the time"

"Let's not say 'Big Fat Dummy' no matter how funny you think it sounds"

I think that these rate right up there with "not running with scissors" and "don't sit too close to the TV or you will go blind".

Around the World in Five Hours

Okay, maybe it was just around Augusta in five hours, but it felt like the world. For my friends that have more than two children I applaud you; if you have four or more I really want to kiss your feet. I have two and today it has felt like I have about ten. I think I'm gonna need a sedative. Why is it that when you are trying to think really hard and shop at the same time that your children feel the need to talk to you ALOT and ask for EVERYTHING!!! I really think this was my worst shopping day of the summer. Craig called me at 3:00 and when I told him I was just getting home, he said, "you were at WalMart at lunch time and you are just getting home now at 3:00?". Yep, does that tell you anything? I went to one store after WalMart and I was only there for about 15 minutes. This was one of those days when I shopped with ten thousand of my closest friends. That is so special. On top of that, the lady who checked me out at WalMart, bless her soul, took forever to run my coupons through, and I felt so bad for the poor lady behind me that had already unloaded all of her groceries on the runner. Kayla announced, loudly, "Mama, this sure is taking a long time." Thanks sweetie! On top of all of that I totally blew my grocery budget out of the water this week. I paid over $4.00 for a gallon of milk - what is that about??? See that is just the kind of thing that just ticks me off. I'm thinkin' I could buy a cow cheaper than that and milk it myself! It took me less than five minutes in WalMart to completely lose every ounce of patience that I had. Oh, oh, and THEN we walked down the school supply aisle. I think I would rather have had a bikini wax than that! Okay, sorry, but I just have to get this out. Isn't there some easier way to display school supply items?? I mean we have, like, a month left until school starts and it was jam packed in those aisles. See, I personally think that WalMart should turn the entire lawn and garden section into the school supply area. Anything has got to be better than 50 people crammed into one aisle trying to find the perfect glue stick - A GLUE STICK IS A GLUE STICK!!!! JUST BUY IT!!!! Okay, I'm better now. I'm turning off my caps lock button and I'm going to go and drown my sorrows in an oatmeal creme pie or something. Does anybody have any chocolate??? Maybe a nice Grande Mocha Frappucino Light????

Graceful Designs Sale

Okay, so this is a shameless plug for Graceful Designs. We are hosting a Christmas in July Sale and these are some of our new products. If you see something you like let me know and I will let you know prices. Also, most of what you see is available is numerous colors, so shop away!

Miscellaneous Tidbits

I wish ya'll could be at my house right now. It is so quiet, yet my children are here - they are just playing. It is weird. All of a sudden my kids have hit this age where they actually do things without me. I love it and hate it all at the same time. Kendall came to spend the night last night. Her and Kayla had a very big time putting their American Girl dolls to bed and then going to bed themselves. Either I was really tired or they were really tired because I hardly heard a peep out of them all night. Of course, that could be because I threatened them. Hahaha! Seriously, I told them that I was really tired and if they didn't let me sleep that we were going to have to stay home from the movie this morning so I could sleep! Aren't I a fun mom - sleep or else we have no fun!!! Kendall told me that I was fired as her babysitter because I fed her ice cream for dinner after church last night and let them eat popcorn and candy at the movies at 10:00 this morning. But, hey, I did feed them pizza for lunch so that is sort of healthy right! Seriously, they have had a great time together. She'll be here for a couple of more hours and then I get to go and babysit Ryland tonight! Don't worry Shannon, I will only feed him a few M&M's at a time!

I have been doing a lot of writing. Craig is really after me to be on a "2 year plan". In two years he wants me to have a best selling novel written! He has so much confidence in me - it is kind of scary. But, I have been trying to do better. I actually looked up several writing competitions online that I'm going to try to submit some stuff to - more for practice than anything else. In all honesty, though, I am loving it!

We are getting geared up to head to the beach in about two weeks - actually it is exactly two weeks from today. Jim and Janna have been kind enough to trust us to take Kendall with us. Of course after she finds out about all the junk that I let her eat last night and today she might change her mind! We are going to Myrtle Beach just for a long weekend. The girls are excited and I'm ecstatic that Tyler is potty trained! Sorry, but poop and sand just do NOT go together! Kayla is dying to go to the Riplye's Believe It or Not museum so we are going to do that and then go to the water park and just hang out at the beach and the pool. I think it will be tons of fun - just good 'ol family time! The weekend after the beach I am going on a girls scrapbook weekend to Blue Ridge, GA. I'm so excited about that. We have this great cabin and we are just going to hole up in it and scrapbook all weekend and when our muscles begin to protest at having sat in one spot too long then we can get up and go out and soak in the hot tub. Bliss!!! After that weekend is Kayla's birthday and my in-laws are coming down for that. Then I think the weekend after that my brother and his family are going to come and visit. My sister-in-law and I are in the plan making stages right now. I'm so excited about them coming. I haven't seen my nephews since January! I invited them down for Kayla's spa birthday party, but my youngest nephew's birthday is that weekend too and he is having a cowboy party or something. I mean, come on, spa party with facials and pedicures or a cowboy party with ponies??? Kim, I am so offended!:)

So, our mundane, boring life right now will only last for a few more weeks and then we will be blessed with vacations and fun and fellowship with friends and family! I can't wait!

I Need a Worm Pill

Okay, so this is what my blogging has come to - posting on mundane topics like worms. Sorry, but this is the most excitement we have had all week! When we were in Mexico, Sadonna and I were so blessed to be hugely enlightened by Dr. T about worms(parasites). I now know more about worms than I ever wanted to know. You know in all honesty I don't think that I ever realized that people could get worms - I thought that was only for dogs. Come on, you know you have all see those dogs scooting their little butts across the floor like they have a seriously bad itch or something. Well, in Mexico, the people get treated for worms or parasites like we get vaccines for polio, chicken pox, MMR, etc. So many of the people that we saw there received one Vermoxx to take to rid their bodies of worms. Yea, I know, I thought it was kind of gross too, but they act like it is perfectly normal. I will spare you the details of some of the stories that we heard.

I know, I know, you're wondering why in the world I am rambling about worms, right? Well, last night we sat down to a splendid dinner of chicken fingers, mac and cheese, and peas. I was happily eating away when I noticed this tiny foreign object on my plate. I was so intrigued by it that I removed it from my plate and scooted it across the table on my napkin for Craig to look at it. He told me, in a very convincing manner I might add, that he thought it was the stem off of a pea or something. Do peas have stems - I thought they grew in a pod!!! The sad thing, I brushed it off and finished eating. So after dinner we are clearing the table and he comes over to me at the sink and in a low voice so the children don't hear, he says, "dude, that was so a worm." HELLO???? I had already gotten past it thinking it was a stupid pea stem and now he tells me AFTER I have cleared my plate that it is indeed a WORM!!!! I'm going to need a Vermoxx. I thought about writing a letter to Green Giant to express my great displeasure at finding a worm in my peas, but I figured instead of starting a class action lawsuit they would probably just enroll me in the vegetable of the month club and send me more vegetables with worms!!!

Holly, I know how much you love peas so the next time that your kids force you to abide by the Frederick table rules and eat just one, I hope you will pick out one that was not previously touched by a worm!

That's it for now. I think I need to go throw up!!!:)Bon appetite!

What is Going On?

And the answer to that question is NOTHING! Wow, we have just come off of the most relaxing weekend and it looks like it will be more of the same this week. I love summer! I have to brag on my kids for a minute! They have been doing so good this summer, getting along and playing! We have been at home today doing not much of anything. I straightened up the house and did some laundry. This afternoon Kayla and I made cards. All different shapes, sizes, and occasions of cards. I'm going on a girls scrapbook weekend in a few weeks and I have been cleaning out my stuff and trying to decide what I need before I go, so we took a bunch of that stuff that I wanted to get rid of and used it to make cards. We had a big time!
Tyler is still doing great with the pottying. Craig and I are wondering when the amazement will wear off for us. I mean, he comes in the house or stops whatever he's doing and says, "mom, I'm going to the bathroom, I have to go poop", and THEN, HE DOES IT!!! It is the coolest thing! I mean, seriously, if he was old enough, I would buy him a sportscar or something! He has had two play dates with Logan this past week, so he thinks he is quite the big boy!
We had a great 4th of July. We went over and spent the evening with the Hyders, chowing tacos and playing dominoes. It was a lot of fun. If you read this and you happen to know James, ask him how he liked his gift from Mexico! James and I have a running competition of who can get the worst gift for the other. Suffice it to say that I'm winning! We went to the Fredericks for lunch on Sunday and Holly was kind enough to send Gertrude back home with me. I think lunch was a ploy to get me to take the machine home! Graceful Designs is hosting an online "Christmas in July" sale. I will be posting details soon!
Craig has gone to Lowe's tonight to order our countertops. Yikes! We have spent weeks now going back and forth over countertops and tile for the backsplash. We finally came to a decision this weekend, only to change our mind again. Now we have really made a decision and once these countertops are ordered there is no changing our minds!
Well, I think that is all that is going on around here for now. Goodness, I hope I don't have to start making up stuff to blog about. All of the sudden our life has gotten boring... How did that happen?

The Last of Mexico

After the last day of clinic it was probably close to 8:30 when we got back to the hotel. We had tables reserved for us out in the dining room where they do this Mexican fiesta thing and have "Old Men Dancing" and a mariachi band. It was pretty cool. The food was good and was the closest thing to authentic Mexican food that we had all week. I think we all hit our local Mexican restaurants as soon as we got home! I have to post a video of the Old Men Dancing. I still haven't decided for sure if they were really strange or if it was okay. Mostly I think it was pretty strange. It was kind of like Mexican tap dancing. See for yourself and let me know what you think. I will warn you though - it is loud...


On Friday, we had our finally day of devotions. Wow, what a great fellowship time we all had this week. Bro. Terry talked about the Pool of Bethesda, where Jesus told the lame man to rise, pick up his bed, and walk. Bro. Terry's interpretation is "get up, get over it, and get on with it". How true is that? It has made me think about so many petty things that I get wrapped up in and just wallow in when really - shouldn't I just get over it? Anyway, we finished up devotions and then began our tour to some different areas around Patzcuaro. We saw how masks are made. That was a freaky visit. The Mexican people are big into this "Day of the Dead" thing, so there are lots of skulls and scary looking things like that. I will post a picture below. We left there and went to see how they make sombreroes. That was kind of cool. We had to walk for a little ways to get there and some of my traveling companions were sweet enough to enlighten me that I was walking through sewerage! Yep, it pretty much just runs right through the middle of the streets. That was nice. We left there and ended up going back into Patzcuaro to shop around this little square in the middle of town. That was neat. So many cool things to see. They make a lot of potholders and blouses and we even saw the room where they make much of their own fabric. They also do a lot of stuff with cornhusks and that was kind of neat. I brought Kayla back a straw purse and Tyler got a Mexican guitar. After shopping all day and an unending ride on the bus we ate dinner at this little pizza place in downtown Patzcuaro. Yep, pizza in Mexico - how funny is that? It had hot dogs on it. I could've done without that, but, otherwise, it wasn't too bad. The best part was that they had cold Diet Coke. You can't use the ice over there and so most of what we drank was room temperature so when you found something cold you snatched it up quick!

On Saturday, Sadonna and I were up at 1a.m. to be ready to load the bus at 2:30. We left our hotel at 2:50 a.m. and drove the 1 1/2 hours to Morelia and then began the journey back home. When we hit Houston it was about 10:00 a.m. We all converged on the Wendy's in our gate area begging for huge Diet Cokes, hamburgers, and french fries. You have never tasted anything so good, except for maybe the cheese dip we had at Monterrey on Sunday night! When we got to Atlanta, the kids and Craig were waiting for me with signs and big smiles. I was so excited to see them. We had a great ride home from Atlanta just talking about our week, until I completely crashed. I was so tired that I could barely hold my head up!!! It has taken a few days for me to catch up on my rest and get back into the swing of things, but I think I'm there. Now I'm wondering what in the world I will blog about - Mexico is over and I think Tyler is poopy trained - he is doing so good! What adventure will we find ourselves on next???


The mask man! He was creating a mask out of that big stump of wood that you see.

These are some of the weird masks that we saw. I didn't buy anything at this shop!

Sadonna and I with one of the old men.
Okay, everyone wanted to know why in the world I was taking pictures of PVC, but with all of the renovating that we have been doing in the kitchen I had to take these pictures to show to Craig. This was a tool store on the square where we ate lunch on Friday. We got to Home Depot and Lowes and they go here!

Mexico - Post 3

I think this will probably conclude my Mexico posts - thanks for sharing this me. So many of you have told me how you prayed for us and I just want you to know that the prayers were felt by all of us.

Last day of Clinic - 6/26/08

This was a crazy day. We saw over 40 children. The morning was pretty calm and most of these 40 kids came through after lunch. We worked at seeing patients until after 6:00 that night. We had two patients come through that were having some issues with their anatomy - that's all I'm gonna say about that. I have to tell you though, we are so spoiled. You know we are used to private examination rooms for even the most basic health problems. In Mexico, if you have a clothed body part that has to be looked at you have about three people come over and hold a sheet up around you. Yea, pretty crazy, huh? We had one little boy come through that was around 4 years old. He got pulled off the line out front because Holly thought he had Spinobifida. His mother was holding him because he could not stand or walk by himself. Dr. T, bless his heart, he is such a gentle soul. He took that little boy by the hand and walked with him around the sanctuary. The little boy let go of his hand and walked several steps by himself. Everyone in the pediatric area cheered. The smile on that little boy's face was a look that I pray God never lets me forget. He was so proud of himself. The pastor's wife was trying to get some sort of therapy worked out for him. If only their parents knew what kind of exercises to do with them and then actually did them, so many of these kids would be better off. The other patients that stood out from this day were this sweet brother and sister that came in - I don't even remember what they came for now, but the grandmother told us that their father beats them and only feeds them twice a day and it is the same food over and over again. Wow. That will make you stop and think. Can I tell you all how many times last week I considered what would happen if I tried to bring some of those kids home with me? In all seriousness, when you spend a week in that you just want to love on those children and on your own children. It also makes you want to try to make your own children understand what good lives they have. One of our children, who will remain unnamed, is in this stage where nothing is good enough. That has been really hard to deal with this week. I pray that one day we will be able to do a mission trip like this as a family and that it will impact my children like it impacted me. I have always considered myself as being pretty content. I haven't always been that way, but the last several years I've felt like I was content. After this week, I just walked away with a new perception of contentment for so many different areas of my life. You find yourself asking, "do I really need that?". I don't know if this is making any sense, but I guess when you see how little these people have you just realize that you could do without so much frivolous stuff. Okay, I realize as I'm typing this that I still haven't sorted through all of my thoughts on that subject and that is why I'm rambling so let me move on.
After we ended clinic on Thursday, the church did a farewell service for us. Our group sang, " I Will Never Be the Same Again", and then the choir members that we had with us sang, "Lord, I Believe." It was incredible. Before the service began I had a chance to talk with Pastor David about the week and how much it had meant to me. Imagine my surprise when during the service he asked for people to give testimonies. When nobody from our group volunteered, he called me by name to come up front. If you know me at all, you know that I do NOT do this. I feel like I'm going to vomit if I even think I might have to speak in front of a crowd. I get nervous when I'm meeting with a couple of clients at work by myself. Well, the thing about this is is that I knew God had worked on me that week and I knew I could give a testimony, but God knew that I never would on my own, so He pushed me. I wish I could remember what I said, but I don't and by the time I got back to my seat I thought I was going to have to excuse myself to go to the bathroom and be sick. Sadonna was even shaking for me!
There was so much love in that sanctuary Thursday night. I had one girl come up to me and just grab my neck and hug me and say, "I love you, I love you" over and over again. Talk about humbling.

Journal Entry from Today--
"...I wish I could put into words everything that this week has meant to me, but I'm not sure I can. Things I have prayed over for months have been answered this week. Struggles over situations that I realized this week that I am growing a root of bitterness over - "get up, get over it, and get on with it" - thank You Lord for Bro. Terry who doesn't mince words and always hits me right between the eyes. I have prayed that God would bring back the joy of the crucifixion in my life and yesterday, He really brought it home. Jesus left the unexplicable joy of walking with His Father on the streets of Heaven to come to this earth and take on the sins of a nation who rejects Him continually. Wow! There are no words for that. I've prayed repeatedly that God would help me not to come home the same as how I left. He has answered. Our theme for the week has been, "I will never be the same again". Lord, You orchestrated all of this long before we left. You have heard my prayers and answered and I will never be the same again. I'm hooked on missions..."

Okay, I thought I could get all of this in one entry, but there is no way. I'm going to have to break it up because I have a couple more things to tell you about! Here are just a few pictures of some of the kids that we saw. The first one is the little boy that I told you about. Sadonna and Janna, I hope you don't mind me borrowing your faces! The little girl that Sadonna is holding was so precious. The pastor's wife was carrying her around because she couldn't find her mother. So we all passed her back and forth. They finally did find her mother! She is one of the ones I really would have liked to have brought home!

Home Improvement Update

First of all, Happy 4th to everyone! I hope everyone has a great day of appreciating the freedom that we have and those who have given of their lives and many who have given their life to allow us that freedom.

We are spending most of our 4th doing stuff in the kitchen. It has been awhile since I've mentioned this project, because we haven't done much on it lately. Between trying to decide on countertops and tile for the backsplash, we have had a bit of a stand still! But, I think we have finally found what we want. I'm having some of the people from Tile Center over for dinner next week, but....:)It is so hard trying to judge what something will look like from a little 2x2 square!
However, we are making progress and I wanted to post some before and after pictures.
As you can see from the picture below, this is how our oven area used to look as well as a picture of when we were just beginning to strip the wallpaper...



Okay, so we have gone from that to this...



The new microwave and shelf are done. Notice my pots - I bought those in Mexico! Arent' they cute? My walls are all pink at the moment, but it really has helped to bring out the holes in the drywall that still need more mud. So I think that more mudding and sanding is next on the agenda. All I know is that when this is all done I am going to enjoy giving my home a major spring cleaning. I keep noticing things that need to be deep cleaned, but I just can't bring myself to do it when I know it is just going to get covered in drywall dust again. Oh, well - I'm sure it will wait for me!

Mexico - Post 2

I think I left off on Day Three in the last post, so let's move on to day four. This is where things began to get interesting. The dentist showed up on this day. He was a young guy from Mexico City. He came in the sanctuary where all of the doctors were set up and began rearranging things on the platform. I thought to myself, "no way is he going to be pulling teeth right here in the sanctuary where I can hear everything and see everything." Guess what? He set up right in the sanctuary where I could see and hear everything. This is one of those cases where you know you don't want to look, but you can't help yourself! You know those chairs on every platform in every church that are the designated pastor's chairs? That is what he used for his dentist chair. Talk about primitive. As if that was not bad enough the people who were waiting to be seen sat on a bench just to one side of the stage where they could watch every person having their teeth pulled. Can I tell ya'll that I would have been laid out in the floor if I had to watch all of that knowing I was next. Ugh, it gives me the heebeegeebees just thinking about it! I watched him put one lady in a headlock trying to get her tooth out. I'm not kidding - her head was in his armpit - here are some pictures to prove it --- Our saddest patient today was a little two year girl that came in just before the day ended. I missed the first couple of minutes of the exam and when I came back Dr. T asked me to take this little girl over to one of the benches and remove the bottom half of her clothes so he could examine her. As soon as I picked her up she started screaming and kicking and fighting with me. Once we got her undressed I understood why. She had the worst diaper rash I have ever seen. It was horrid - probably the worst thing that I saw all week. It was so deep into her skin that there were no topical creams that were going to help; Dr. T gave her an oral antibiotic to fight the infection. The funny thing about all this is that first thing that morning somebody had come over and brought us several packets of diaper rash cream. I don't remember who it was or where they found them, but I am convinced that God provided those that day just for that little girl.
The highlight of this day was after dinner me and Dr. S won at Spades, and yes, on Friday morning we WERE crowned King and Queen of Spades. I guess when you got it, you got it!:)
Day Five-- Today was our busiest day yet. We saw between 30-35 children; most of them were so poor looking and the stenches from some of them were overwhelming. We had some children come in with complaints of foot fungus, but when you try to look at their feet you can't tell fungus from dirt. This was the day when you could really begin to see the appreciativeness of the people though. Dr. T examined one little girl and then gave her a piece of candy. She hugged and kissed him and then came over to me to hug and kiss me. We had several kids do this today and it will truly melt your heart - they just want to be loved on! There were so many kids today that it just seemed like we couldn't give them the help that they needed. That broke my heart. We had one little boy who was 4 years old that couldn't hear. His mother said that he needed hearing aids but they couldn't afford them. I wanted to give her all the money that I had and tell her to go and get the hearing aids so that her son could hear. By the time we got back to the hotel I was exhausted and could hardly hold my head up through dinner. I went back to the room to just kind of check out for a few minutes before our next Spades challenge. On my way back out to play Spades I passed the room where we have our devotions. I'm not sure if I can explain this well, but here goes nothing - The hotel that we stayed at has several courtyard areas. The room that we had devotions in every morning had two windows in it that opened up into one of these courtyard areas. There are rooms all around the courtyard. Well, every morning we started off by singing a couple of songs and the windows were always open. On my way back out to play Spades I passed by this room and our "praise team" and some others were practicing for the end of the week service that would take place at the church on Thursday night. The sounds of their praise literally filled the halls of that hotel and I wondered how many people had woke up that week to our singing. I tried to upload a video of our devotions, but it is not working so we will have to make do with a few pictures. The window by the bird cage is the room where we met every morning and the court yard picture is the area that the window opened up to.

Journal Entry from today: "...one thing I cannot forget today is the smells. The smells of poverty. It is very distinct and unable to be put into words. These are things that I rarely, if ever, smell at home..."

The last day of clinic and the final church service definitely deserve a post all their own, so there is more to come...

Stinky Praise

Well, I hate to post this, but I hate not to also. Do you think God likes to talk about poop? I'm sure he must since He created our digestive systems. And, after hearing my cries and prayers over the last two years, I'm sure He would now want me to offer up praise, although it is stinky. My boy, you know the one who wouldn't poop in the potty? Yep, he is potty trained. I sent him to Grandpa and Grandma's and he came back potty trained. My mother-in-law said she didn't know if she could take the credit, but I told her all I cared about was the fact that it was done. And I pray that it is DONE. He has done great since he has been home! Yeah!!!!!!!

Mexico - Post One

I'm going to start posting on my trip. It was my greatest desire to take tons of pictures and videos so that my family could feel like they were somewhat there with me. You all know I am a person of detail, but I will try not to bore you with too many details but some of them are pertinent! My house is quiet right now with Kayla gone swimming with a friend and Tyler taking a nap so we will see how far I get!

Travel Day - June 21, 2008

From my journal -- "... I can definitely feel the prayers today. I left this morning with no tears and have not been nervous at all. Thank You Jesus!..."

The trip went well. A two hour bus ride to Atlanta went by pretty quick as I talked Sadonna's ears off. Our flight from Atlanta to Houston was pretty bumpy, but I think everyone made it unharmed and with all of the contents of their stomach still intact! We saw two rainbows on the flights. What an incredible sight to see a rainbow from up above! We arrived in Morelia, Mexico at about 8:00 p.m. By this time we had been traveling for about 12 hours and we still had an hour and a half bus ride ahead of us. We were missing 12 bags when we got to Morelia. Not good. We managed without them for about three days I think and then the customs folks finally released them and praise God, did not charge us either. They wanted to charge tax on the eyeglasses, but God said, "um, no."! Needless to say, we were all exhausted by the time we got there. I tried to rearrange my suitcases so that all of my meds and stuff were in one suitcase. Then we hit the sack.

Day 2, June 22, 2008

This was Craig and I's 12th Anniversary. It is the first anniversary we have ever spent apart. I feel so bad to admit this, but the day was so crazy that I actually forgot it was our anniversary. Yes, I am now nominated for the wife of the year award! Anyway.. The day started with an awesome breakfast at the hotel - thank You Lord for mexican omelets - it was one of the best things I ate all week. We started out after breakfast to have devotions. After that, we spent about 2 hours packing to get ready to go to the church. Six months worth of work, rearranged and repacked in two hours. Absolutely amazing. Off to church we went. We arrived in the middle of Sunday School. As soon as we got there my bladder reminded me that it was still working and Dr. R was sweet enough to direct me to el bano. What a pleasant experience. Everyone said it wasn't that bad, but I'm here to tell you it wasn't that good either. That's all I will say about that subject. I'm going to attempt to post a video clip from the church service. I hope it works. I want you to understand that the entire service was in Spanish, but I'm telling you - God was there. You could feel the Holy Spirit descend on that congregation. It was an awesome blessing to be a part of that service.


From my journal--"...At the end of the church service, Pastor David thanked us for coming and explained that people are coming from far away to have our doctors look at them. He told us they have prayed for us for many months. After explaining this and telling us that, already, people were waiting to be seen, they brought several disabled children down front for Kiki, Max, and Terri to lay hands on and pray for. The tears flowed once again as I listed to this spanish prayer and heard the man pray for their physical and "loco problemos". Oh my dear God, praise You that my children are healthy. Our first patient was one of those precious special needs children. Bro. Terry brought him over from eye glasses because they couldn't get a good read on his eyes. He was either blind or very nearly blind - there was nothing we could do for him. His mother looked so sad the whole time she sat there..."

Day Three, Monday, June 23, 2008...

We saw only about 20-30 children on this day. The Catholic priest across the street from the church decided he needed to try to get into God's way. Apparently he was out in the street in his priestly robes banging his gong and throwing holy water at the church trying to warn people to stay away. Even with this, there were about 250 patients who came through the clinic that day. We saw a few babies today and one of them would giggle out loud every time Dr. T touched his belly with his hand or his stethoscope. I will post his picture along with a few others in a minute.

Journal Entry from today:

"...One of the most precious moments of this day was being able to listen in on the last few moments of Max's salvation presentation. Although in another language, it was clear what he was teaching. My eyes filled with tears as he prayed a salvation prayer and you could hear the soft voices of several of the people repeating the prayer, and all of Heaven rejoiced as lost souls were found. Most heartbreaking moment of the day was watching a 19 year old girl find out she was pregnant. she had just aborted a baby three months ago...Janna gave her a gift for the baby. We pray that she will not abort this child.


Our eyeglass team. Way to go guys!


Triage - The patients come in from the street and the triage nurses take their vitals and direct them where to go next as well as trying to narrow down their physical problems.


Cute baby #1! The people in Mexico bundle their children up in multiple layers of clothing. It is amazing that they can even breathe.


This was our giggly boy! Isn't he a cutie!