Day 2 of Team Noles visit...

It started raining as we were driving downtown to take in the pre-Independence Day festivities. So we detoured and visited the Bible school. This is Sarah, the kids minus Austin & myself having a snack.




We finally made it downtown and took them to the Cathedral. This is Keith (whose first name is Gregory) posing with a statue of St. Gregory.




This is a mannequin of a little girl, but those are her real hands. She is a saint. Many people pray to her and leave pictures of the kids believing that she will heal them.




The kids were having fun splashing around outside.




Sarah & I being silly which is us really being ourselves. Which takes me back to another memory...



Us in 1999...pre-marriage, pre-children, and pre-post-pregnancy figures. What fun times we have had together.



That night we took them to dinner at Garibaldi's. It's in the Guiness Book of World Records as being the fastest serving or something like that. You usually get your food before you get your drinks. Everybody that we take there L-O-V-E-S it. It is such good food. We take everybody that visits us there. So if you plan of visiting us, plan on eating there.






The boys sucking on limes.



Jude quickly learned that he doesn't like radishes.




These chips & beans are starters and the rest are garnishes for your meal.

Day one of Noles visit...

I figured the easiest way to blog about our visit with Team Noles is to go day by day. I don't want to overload my blog or my readers with 100 pictures & stories. The following is day 1 of their time with us.

Derrick & Keith saw a parade after parking the cars and walking to church.

It was a parade celebrating St. James.

Keith & our baby worshiping Jesus together.

Later that night we celebrated my birthday. This is me blowing out my non-existent candle just for fun & photos :-). Sophia thought it was funny.

The ice cream cake was seriously frozen. I was working hard at breaking off a bite.

Sophia & our sweet baby.

Uncle Keith playing Uno with the kids in Spanish. They had to say colors & numbers in Spanish. It was a great learning experience for Keith, Austin, Olivia & Jude. It was also a great teaching experience for our oldest :-).

Today is the day!!!

It's only taken 2 years & 8 months for this day to happen and now here it is! My Anne is coming in town today. OK, so I guess I should mention that it's not just her it's Keith, Sarah & 4 of their 6 kids.



Flashback to Sarah & me at Green Gables on Prince Edward Island. We are becoming world travelers together :-).

As I am speaking canons &/or fireworks are going off. It's 11 a.m. Tuesday is Mexico's Independence Day and it is a huge celebration around here. Come late Monday night and early Tuesday morning I'm sure we will hear fireworks & canons every hour. There are Mexican flags flying every where and vendors are selling Mexican merchandise at every street corner. Yesterday I saw some cute red & green chili pepper toys with sombreros. I almost bought some but I hesitated.

I need to do some laundry, cleaning, lunch and whatever else to prepare for their arrival. I'm so excited that I will be working off of adrenaline seeing as I still got a crappy night's sleep. Even though Israel wakes me up at night I am full of love & joy as I hold him while he's falling back asleep. I will remember these moments for the rest of my life :-).

We're back in Mexico...

After a rain delay and a piece of lost luggage, we arrived at our house about 12:15 a.m. We came home to a clean house, thanks to my Erika. We also came home to some homemade cookies, thanks to Mandy our house-sitter. We also came home to no power, but thanks to Andy the self-made electrician, we have power. D is trying to pay all of the bills that need to be paid. We won't have much down time because, DUH, DA, DUH, DAAAAAAAAAAAH, my bff, her hubby, and 4 of their six kids are coming this Saturday for a well-needed, long overdue visit! They will be here for ladies Sunday (also my 32nd birthday) which means that they will hear me take up the offering in Spanish at church. Not only will my bff be here for my birthday, they will also be here for Mexico's Independence Day, September 16th (NOT Cinco de Mayo) :-). It will be a wild time and they will hopefully see some cool celebrations. We are planning on having 6 kids sleeping in one room. Are we insane?!?! Maybe, but we'll just chalk it up to making memories.

OK, off to take care of house stuff.

Fun times with fun friends...

Our friends were supposed to leave yesterday. But due to some mechanical problems on the plane, they did not leave until this morning. So we had the joy of visiting with them for one more night. Here are some of the pictures from our visit with Pastor Dwayne, Jon & Bruce.

All of us eating at Pollo PePe (it's kind of like Pollo Loco for those of you that have those).

Derrick & Jon...it's hard to believe that he used to be in our youth group!

Derrick talking to the guys outside of the Bible school.

This is my favorite sign that Mexicans have. In Guadalajara, you can park anywhere on the street unless it blocks someone's driveway. So this sign reads "Respect my entrance & I respect your car." Love it!

Derrick explaining how his students are called to the Nations. This map of the world was printed out & placed on the window by one of the students.

Bruce, Pastor Dwayne, Derrick & Jon

Derrick translating for Jon as he shared what the Lord had put on his heart.

Bruce sharing his heart, also.

Derrick translating for Dwayne as he preached. How cool is it that Derrick's first time translating a sermon was for our Pastor?

Jon & Derrick praying for a man after the service.

It was so great having them here! They enjoyed seeing, firsthand, what we are doing here. But I have to say this. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for any of those men. Dwayne is the Pastor of our home church. He's also a spiritual Father and a friend. We have learned so many things from Dwayne. Bruce is a dear friend, prayer partner & supporter of our ministry. Bruce has received shared many things that the Lord has given to him on our behalf. He continually encourages us and lifts us up in prayer. Jon was in our youth group. We learned a lot by pastoring that particular group of youth. So much of what we learned as youth pastors is being used here. Jon is also awesome with computers and he was able to give us some great information on creating websites and educational material for the kids.

I saved this picture for last. It's a cropped picture from one of the pictures above.

It's kind of neat how this turned out. Dwayne was Derrick's youth pastor. And Derrick was Jon's youth pastor. I wonder if Jon will be somebody's youth pastor someday? :-) It's also a good picture of fathers & sons. It is so precious!

We have guests...

Pastor Dwayne with our baby!



Jon & Bruce!

We are so happy to have them here! I'm sure that I will get a little less sleep this week, but I don't mind. We love having company.

Happenings...

This past week our son became a Mexican! In order to get his U.S. Passport we had to get his Mexican birth certificate first. It was an ordeal because they don't understand (and their computers can't either) why women in the U.S. take on their husband's last name. Here, the women keep their last name and their husband's name. Therefore most Mexican babies have two last names. In order to make it work in the Mexican computer system, our baby's Mexican name is contains my maiden name as his last name. It won't affect anything on his U.S. passport or anything like that, but according to the Mexicans, that's his name. We did this entire ordeal with Jer & Kelley. They were our witnesses and we were their witnesses. It's so great to have them here. They are great friends and they have helped us through so much. They are also helping us as we go to the U.S. Consulate to apply for his U.S. passport.


My Dad came in this past Tuesday. We had a nice visit with him. He enjoyed hanging with his old grandkids and his new one. We went to the Zoo on Thursday. It was fun and the rain held off. It sprinkled right as we were leaving. Here are a few pictures from the Zoo and another one of my Dad & Israel.
















As I have been sitting here writing this, our baby was taking his first bottle! I pumped as soon as we got home and Derrick gave him the bottle. We are trying to work it in so that I don't have to try to nurse at church and so that someday Derrick & I can go on a date. That probably won't happen until family comes to visit again or we go to the States. But whatever.

My dear blog friend, Valarie Lea, has shared her 5 a.m. bootcamp stories. I'm not a 5 a.m.-er (except to feed a baby), but I have started a bootcamp of my own. I asked my husband to be my personal trainer, but he respectfully declined for fear of me getting mad at him when he pushes me too hard. So I'm forced to push myself, along with Billy Blanks, Mari Windsor & all of the other wonderful people on the workout DVDs that I have. Thankfully, my kids like working out with me. My son will ask me, or remind me, to work out...he prefers Tae-Bo because it has guys in it and not other things like Pilates or the Firm. I am going to buy the kids 1 lb. weights so that they can workout with me and not drop my 5 lb. weights on the floor and crack the tile...AGAIN!

We have a wondeful chicken place here, Pollo PePe. It's very similar to Pollo Loco, if you have those in your neck of the woods. Derrick found one that delivers to our house. That's what we had for our Sunday/after church/I don't feel like cookin'-lunch! It was delicious. A bonus is that there's enough left over for dinner...WHOO HOO. I love it when things are made easier for me.

It's a week overdue, but here's a shout out to my favorite NASCAR driver, Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr., for winning last week! We are watching a re-run of the race right now, while waiting for today's race to come on.

I think that's a pretty good update. Have a great week!

It's amazing...

Fishing off of the rocks in Chacala.



The only fish caught by the rocks.




Derrick & his boy.




Our oldest & his PaPa.




On their way back, they found this. This is part of a person's home. We will name the picture above "the Dresser".




This is the kitchen.




This is their bedroom.




This is the laundry room.


These living conditions are insane. It's amazing to me that people actually live, day to day, like this. It's home to them. They have a kitchen, clothes and a place to sleep. I would assume that they get their food from the same place that Derrick caught that fish. The bigger question to me is "have they ever heard of Jesus?" Do they know that this is their temporary home and that they can have a home in paradise someday? The people weren't "home" so the guys didn't have the chance to talk to them. I know that if they had met them they would've heard about Jesus. I guess that we can call this our "daily reality check".

The beach...

We went to the beach this past weekend. It rained the whole time. I still relaxed, but I never felt the sand between my toes. :-( Two great things that happened were that Derrick & his boy finally got to go fishing. Through our friend, Jer, D found out about a place to go. Chuck, my father-in-law, went, too. The second thing that happened was that we got a good picture of the baby smiling. Pics are above.

Our day in Chapala...

Granna & our little princess at La Casa de Waffle

Daddy & our boy.

My little man & Me

Granna & the kids at Lake Chapala

Watching the guys fish.

The girls at Lake Chapala.

Our daughter fell asleep with her push-up pop candy in her mouth.