Pictures of Mexican fun

Our trip to Oaxaca and Puebla Mexico.

We had a great time seeing old friends and new places. Hope you like the pictures!

Incredible view on the drive there. The pictures don't even come close to

showing just how breathtaking it really was! Annie kept saying, "This is amazing!"

Jerod and Skippy (Mexican cousin) ready for paintball

This is Jerod and Alex ready for battle and then that is me in the background having no idea what I was getting myself into.

This is a fellow M and he looks really worried, doesn't he?

Jerod having fun.

Annie waiting for us to finish having fun.

Alex showing how it is done.

This is why I named it PAIN ball. ;o) This was taken just an hour after we played.

This was Mikayla, Skippy and our family (minus Daddy) on a hunt for the location of scenes from Nacho Libre, which was filmed in Oaxaca.

This is from one of the scenes.

Me and my babies after paintball.

This is in the same place Nacho Libre was filmed.

This was at the entrance to the alley where they filmed.

We saw this on our way to Puebla. It was an advertisment about the end fo the world happening on May 21, 2011. Of course we passed by it on May 27, 2011. ;o)

This was another sight we saw on our trip. The PPMAN truck. We just love stuff like this!

This is one of our favorites! The bridge to nowhere. Greg says this shows that even in Mexico when politicians run out of money, their pet projects just end. Kinda like this bridge, it just ends. ;o)

This is Annie and another Mexican cousin, Jessica playing Putt-Putt.

Goofballs.

Annie and Daphca playing at the park. Daphca wasn't too happy about all the attention she was getting!

Alex, Mikayla, and Annie playing.

Mexican music, nothing like it!

This is something that is very popular in Oaxaca to eat as a snack.... Grasshoppers. So... I am no a true M!

Cute lil fella

Annie wasn't quite sure.

Going.......

Going.....

Gone!

I really ate it! It wasn't that bad either.

Annie at a water park.

Daphca liked playing with the water but not in it!

Lunch.... It was delicious!

Here is one way to eat it....

and here is another. ;o)

Mexican cousins, Friends for life!

Mexican sisters, friends for life!

We don't have these taxis where we live, but they were so cute we had to take a picture.

Antique market, this was similar to a flea market, really neat stuff.

Annie was drawn to rusty nails, go figure!

Now that is fruit! This is one thing that is far better south of the border, HANDS down!!!

Just ask them.

Well, there you have it, pictures from our wonderful trip. We have had a great time and are really looking forward to having Greg back with us! He will arrive home soon and we will spend a few more days together here before we return home. Please pray for our travels home. We appreciate all your prayers, we feel them everyday! Love to all! Missy

Pray for Annie and Jerod

Hi friends!

As I mentioned we are traveling over the next few weeks. As soon as we made it to our first destination Jerod started getting really sick. It seemed to be more than a simple stomach bug. The next day Annie started with the same thing. SO thankful to God that they both started this once we made it to a home that had water and two bathrooms!  Huge praise!!

 Well after almost 3 full days Jerod started feeling better, however Annie wasn't seeming to improve at all. So I took her to the Dr. and found out she had amoebas. So this means they both have them and I think Greg has them too. I really want people praying that they all get well soon. Annie and Jerod started on a medicine on Wednesday and Jerod seems to be mostly all better now, however Annie is still having some issues each day just not as many. She had it pretty bad. Greg started on medicine too and has seemed to be fine.

We think we know how they got it b/c we all went to a wedding and the 3 of them ate all of the meat out of Alex and my soup. Alex and I always share things like that whenever necessary! ;o) Now you know why! So, I am thinking it was the meat in the soup b/c Alex and I have been hunky doory except for a lot more work for me and a lot more boredom for him. Thank you all for praying, we do so appreciate the prayers!

Quick update on Bryn. She is doing wonderfully! They have moved her to a progressive floor where she is recovering nicely. She still has a long way to go, so please continue to pray, but I believe they feel she is out of the woods for he most part. So, we are singing Jesus' praises here!

I also have to say "Happy Anniversary" to my sweet husband!  He is so precious to me. I must say I definitely picked the perfect husband! AND I did pick him! Love you honey!

Love you all too! Missy
 Love to all! Missy

Baptism Pics

Annie with some friends, playing in the pool before the baptism began.

Waiting for the baptism to begin.

This is Juan getting ready for his baptism. Icho on the left and Prisciliano on the right have stepped out of their comfort zone to become leaders in our church. This was our first baptismal service where Greg was just there for moral support. It was awesome! 

You have to know Juan to understand that this is just about as much emotion as he ever shows. But to us, it shows... pure PEACE!

This is Oscar, Icho's son. Icho was so happy to be able to be a part of this very special day in his son's life.

They were sooo happy!

This is Juani she thought long and hard about this decision. She knew it could come with a lot of persecution and as we now know, it did. Soon after this day she lost her job b/c her boss didn't want someone who was a "Christian" and not a devout Catholic to work for him. Please pray for her.

This is the peace that is still carrying her through!

This is Annie with her "Aunt" Ann and "Uncle" David, she thinks the world of them!! They made a very long trip to be a part of this day! They are working with our people group in another area. They were a blessing to all of our friends!

Alex and Oscar

Typical Jerod!

And this is how I found Greg. Thinking, " Whew, day is done, gone the sun, no one got hurt, Praise the Lord! I am ready for a nap!" He is precious!

House pics

This is our new home. It ain't fancy, but it's home and we love it!

So, no water at all today coming from our home. We have one faucet outside that had a slow trickle coming out of it and so we let it fill up all day and then we bathed in it. It was cold, but Annie still had fun in it!

I must say, I love my kitchen. It is quaint. Hopefully one day I will be able to wash dishes with water from the faucet and not out of that blue bowl. ;o) If this had happened to me 5 years ago, I would have freaked out. Now, well... it is inconvenient but I can actually live okay.

Max had a tough time adjusting at first but he has seemed to settle in and is enjoying his new home.  

Annie's room still has some work to do on it, but slowly but surely it will all come together.

This is the other half of Annie's room. She isn't too fond of the concrete floors but she still says it is like a hotel. All I can figure is that the floors remind her of the poolside. :o) There is always a bright side!

My room. Lacks some work as well, but little by little it will get done.

The problem with this house is there are NO closets, no storage of any kind in the entire home. So we made this one and put it in our room. Not to designer friendly, but oh well I have a place to put my clothes.

This is the view from upstairs. There are vaulted ceilings and it is very open.

Our bathroom. Usually that big trashcan will not be there but it is filled with water to flush the potty.

Other half of bathroom. 

This is our storage room/study.

Greg is trying to do some work in all the mess.

These are our stairs going up. They haven't been finished yet and we keep waiting on the man to come and finish them. They are quite dangerous and I hope when we get back from our trip they will be completed. Please pray he will come and finish them, I really don't want to have another accident in our family.

I saw this the other day and just had to take it. This is a typical Mexican minivan. Sometimes you will see a mom holding a baby with a toddler sitting between the mom and dad. It is scary!

I left out pictures of the boys room because they weren't happy with how it looked so it will have to wait. We are doing well and are getting ready for a little travel. We are looking forward to seeing some of our old friends and some other parts of Mexico. Please pray for us as we travel. I won't tell you exactly when we will be leaving but it will be sometime in June. So.... you can just pray all through June! :o) Hope you are all well! Love you! Missy 

M fun!

Oh the life of a "M" is always interesting. It never seems to get dull. Yesterday our power went out and was out all day until around dinner time and then we got it back on. Today we found out that the FREE water we have been told all about is free for a reason! We don't have any. We were told that during the dry season, which are the months of November through May, the water pressure isn't very good. It may be okay for some of those months but since it has been dry for so long there isn't enough water to make it to our tank on our roof. Therefore, we have no water. We are hoping that tonight the pressure will be better as less people will be using it and we may have some tomorrow. Please pray.

The high speed internet we were told we would have has turned out to be non-existent at times. We have to have it checked out too. It is always something and poor Greg's blood pressure has gone up again. The first day we were here Jerod had a stomach bug, then the second day Greg had a touch of it, now today, Alex woke up with a mild case of Chicken Pox. He doesn't seem fazed by it all, so that is a blessing. He had the shot but obviously it just helps it not be as bad. We are a little overwhelmed and would really love all of your prayers. We will be traveling soon and it would be great if we were all healthy and non-stressed!

On the bright side, the house is really starting to take on the feel of a home.  Annie says it feels like living in a hotel. I have NO idea why but I am really glad she feels like that! We have met our neighbors on each side of us and they are both sooo nice. We said we are Language Row because we are 3 houses connected. In one house it is all Spanish, then there is us with English and then our other neighbor speaks her heart language Purepecha. She is so neat and I think it will be a lot of fun getting to know her. She makes pottery. She asked me if I wanted to learn how and I told her as soon as we finished traveling I would be over there to learn how. She is probably in her 70's and Annie can't wait for her to teach her how to make pottery! We are excited. Of course we are already learning that the difference in the language that we have been working on for 5 years now is huge and we will have to learn a lot of new vocabulary. That should be fun! ;o)

Hope all of you are enjoying the start of summer and that God is blessing you all in many, many ways! Love you! Missy

New Home

We have made the move. I must say it was one of the longest days of my life, well... ONE of them. Moving to another country does have to go a little higher on the stress list than this move, but it was a long day. I will post some pictures of our "moving truck" soon. That was a hoot. I am just happy that we all have our beds made and we can sleep in them tonight. Greg still has to go back tomorrow for another trip with our truck because we couldn't get everything today. Jerod got sick as soon as we got here, but the blessing was that he waited until  we got here to get sick and he seems to be feeling a little better now. I will write more later but for now all is well here! Oh, and Bryn is doing well too! Keep praying for her, but it is looking like she just might be on the mend! Praise God! Love you all! Missy