Santa

 Hi friends! On our way to visit friends we stopped to get something to eat. Not at McDonalds or Burgerking like you might if you were traveling in the states. No, we look for the best roasted chicken place we can find. This place was sooo good and I thought is looked so good, I had to take a picture for all of you to see! Doesn't it look good? Roasted chicken, in Mexico is far better than any chicken we have ever eaten in the US!

We have had a nice time being out of the village. It is definitely a different world once you leave our area. I guess it is like that in the states too, every state is different. The people in our area seem a lot more humble, maybe a lot poorer too. The people in the place we are staying in now are just plain old snobby. They are rich and have nice cars and nice things and are just well off in just about every area. Not all of them of course, but the majority. However, with all of this wealth comes some of the things we miss from the states. Like a mall. We visited a mall the other day and Annie saw Santa for the first time this year. She was so excited. Okay, now we have explained all about Santa. Or.... so we thought. But, for some reason in her little seven year old mind she really wants to believe. She talked to him, told him she wanted a bike, and then asked me why he couldn't speak English. She said, "I thought Santa could speak every language." Then she asked me who would bring her the bike, Santa or Greg and I. So, I have no idea what is going on in her head, but she is confused!

About this picture, I thought this was something I had to tell you. I asked them if they minded if I took my own photo. Of course not they said. The lady jumped up turned on her tiny little camera on a tripod and said, "I will take one too." I thought to myself, okay, whatever. So after we were done the lady says, " That will be 50 pesos. Which is about $4.50. I said, " For what?" She said," For the photo I took." She said, you can take your own photo, but then you have to buy our photo. Well dumby, she didn't tell me that ahead of time. So hers was all printed out and she said, "Thank you!" I felt suckered! Know why? I was!! Oh to live in another country, never a dull moment! Love you all! Missy

Movie night

Hi friends! This week was so filled with fun and exciting things but I never had time to write about them. So now I am going to try and capture all of the thoughts I had and write them down. On Monday night we decided to show our church a night of fun. They don't have a lot of money to spend on having fun, so we brought the fun to them. We had a movie night and watched the movie, " Jingle All The Way." We had sandwiches and popcorn and 54 people showed up and we were even missing some of our regulars due to illnesses!

I have spent a lot of time this week with Mada. She is our neighbor whose husband died a few weeks ago. She has been struggling with being alone and so one night I just went over to sit with her. We sat by the fire and she told me about what life was like in the past. It was so interesting. She told me that when she was raising her 7 kids she had to get up each morning at 5am and walk about 2 miles to get water. She had to do this 12 times a day to have enough water to wash dishes, cook with, drink and bath with. She said she didn't see her first car until the late 60's and she didn't see electricity until the late 70's. She said that in order for them to sell things in the nearest city they would walk there 8 hours  and then they would spend the day selling their goods, then they would have to walk back home another 8 hours. Now that is a tough life. I must say this made me feel sooo lazy. I complain about walking to far in a parking lot, can you imagine walking 16 hours a day and have to work, OH and she had a baby on her back.

I think I am becoming way too emotional in my old age. Today we were traveling through a village and it was so cold. I mean it was COLD! It was 15 degrees and maybe you live up north and this isn't any big deal to you. Well, I would bet that everyone you know has some form of heat. The people we know, don't. So as we were driving and the boys were watching the thermometer drop and cheering with each degree, I was just a crying away. They thought I was losing it. Maybe I am. But for the life of me I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that there were people that were doing all they could to get warm and they couldn't. I mean, all they have to keep them warm is blankets. When it is 15 degrees, it doesn't really matter how many blankets you have, if you live in a shack with dirt floors, you're gonna stay cold. I know how horrible it is to be cold and not to be able to get warm and it just made me sick to my stomach for them. Will you please pray for them? For some reason, unbeknownst SP? to Al Gore, it is ridiculously cold here and it doesn't seem to be getting any warmer. So just pray that the people will be able to find a way to stay warm.

We took the kids to the County Fair and enjoyed a night out with friends! Pictures below show how much fun the kids had!

Cinema food!

Waiting for the Cinema to start.

Start of the movie.

Night at the County fair. This was right before Annie fell off of the horse. She was fine, but every kid waiting to get on, decided they didn't want to after all. :o)

Greg and I celebrating 19 years knowing eachother!

Alex enjoying taking care of our friend on a roller coaster.

Annie playing big sister

Greg and Alex on the bumper cars.

Not the best pictures, but Jerod was having a blast !

Greg enjoying playing uncle!

Annie riding her Harley!

We have traveled out of our village for a little while. Please pray for us as we are visiting with friends. Love you all!

Happy anniversary!

19 years ago today Greg met me at a Christmas party. I say he met me because I was the one who had myself introduced to him by a mutual friend. I am sooo shy! It changed his life! It really did! Maybe not for the better, but it definitely changed his life! I want to thank him for 19 wonderful years! He has definitely changed my life for the better! I love him dearly!

New look

Okay, I know our blog has taken on some new looks lately. I tried the candy cane look, the santa peeking and now I am trying this new Ho-Ho look. I just couldn't make it look like I wanted it to look. I am somewhat a perfectionist and it wasn't perfect to me. But.... now I think I am happy. SO you shouldn't see anymore changes. Hope it puts you in a Christmassy mood! Feliz Navidad!!

Puppy pics

So far we have the names, Manning, Colt, Blue, Reggie,Wayne, Peyton, Freeny, Pelota (which is ball in Spanish) and Indy. I don't know if you follow football but if you do you might see a theme. They also picked Hoosier. Annie picked Buddy but it has to be said well in Spanish and English and they would say Buddy, Booty, so we decided against that! :o) Any suggestions?

Annie and her friends Lupita and Julianna

Playing mama.

Funny sayings

The other day Annie was talking to Greg and said, "Daddy, when I was little I used to think I could marry you. However, now I know that is silly. Cuz, now I know that by the time I am ready to get married, you will be 108 years old and have lots of lines on your face!" We laughed so hard! Kids keep us young and humble!

I am trying to write down these funny things that they say so that I won't forget them. I always think I will remember but then I seem to forget. So, my goal is to write these funny sayings down after they are said so one day my kids can laugh with us!

 Our precious new believer, Alicia, (the blind lady, who was baptized a few weeks back) had to have surgery when we were in Puebla. She got extremely sick and had to go on dialysis. This has definitely put a strain on her and her family. Please pray for her as she is in such poor health. She is at her home now, however they are worried that if she gets any kind of infection this could be fatal for her.

Our new news in the family is that we have a new member of the family! Annie was promised a new puppy a long time ago and well, now she has one! This new puppy doesn't have a name yet but it is really cute. It is a village puppy, we think it is something like a poodle mutt, we are hoping that this little mutt doesn't grow much. We know the mama and she is very small. This will be our second attempt at having an indoor dog. Hoping that it won't bark and that Greg will be patient with it. That can be a prayer request if you think about it! I mean, God loves dogs too! I will post a picture soon. He really is adorable. He is only with us for the day and then he will go back to his mama for another week. He isn't quite ready to leave her. That is about all the news we have for now. Love you all! Missy

Killer Vine

Have you ever seen a vine that was so strong and so big it was killing something as big as a tree? Well, today I was going to hang some lights on a tree in front of our home, however I knew the tree was covered in a vine. I had the bright idea to try and cut the vine free from the tree so I could hang the lights easier. I took some scissors and started cutting. An hour and a half later I was still cutting. This vine that looked small was wrapped tightly around every branch of the tree and had attached itself to another bush that was beside the tree.





I told Annie that vine was just like Satan. It starts out small, just creeps up the tree and you don't even really know it is there. Just like a small sin we let enter into our life. However, before you know it the little sin has taken over our life just like that vine had taken over the tree. It was literally choking the life out of the tree. I was explaining this to Annie and she got all excited and said, "Mommy, cut Satan off of that poor tree." She understood it wasn't literally Satan on the tree but she said, ya know mommy that is what happened to our friend who hurt his wife. She sees a lot of men hurt their wives here. They might hit them, or treat them badly and lately divorce is becoming common as well. She said, "Mommy is that why people get divorced? Because the vine starts to choke them and they don't know it? Then they leave their wife before someone helps them to get the vine out of their life?" She may be 7 but she sure is insightful. I thought about that. Ya know everytime I feel myself in a spiritual rut I am susceptible to Satan's vine. He can start to wrap it around me and I wouldn't know it. We have to be on guard or he will overtake us. I am saying all of this because it is happening all around me. Divorce, drunks, drugs, he is everywhere I look. He wants to destroy every believer I know,we have to be on guard! Please pray with me for our friends, Satan wants to overtake them, he wants to overtake us all. Please pray!Love you! Missy