Monday, November 22, 2010

Bible Club Trip & An Awesome Giveaway!!!!!!!!!

Hello Again....... Just had to let you all know about an amazing giveaway over at http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/   One of my top favorite blogs...this lady has some serious creativity going on there. :)They are giving away a silhoutte machine...oh the things I could do with this!!! Head on over and leave a comment to win this crafty little machine...and even if you don't want it head on over and leave a comment anyway & I could possibly see about taking it off your hands ;)

And here are just a few pics of our Bible Club Kidz...the ones who came 6 out of 10 times & were lucky enough to spend some time at a playground as their reward :)

Celina hamming it up for the camera


Queenie!!!!!!!!! Just found out her real name is actually Sherry...always just thought it was Queenie


Donel and his crazy expressions!!!!!! This kid cracks me up with all his funny faces...you would think he was having some real indigestion or something.

Javel trying his hands at the monkey bars


Look Miss...I am flying!!!!!

Now what could be more fun that spinning in circles on that crazy thing until you could about puke??? Yeah..I don't know either.

"Ok now..you see Miss Jess over there with her back to us? Yeah...well now would be a great time to go over there & whip this water balloon at here." Oh wait! That was Ben's idea & yes I did get soaked!

Looks like Celina might have gotten soaked with this one too

Keondre playing goal keeper for our game of Football

& we finished up with a finger -lickin' good snack of pumpkin bars, popcorn & juice!!

Friday, November 19, 2010

back again

Hello to you all once again. No...I did not fall of the face of the earth although at times it might be nice to do that. Just been so busy lately...not sure why I ever complained about being bored the first two weeks we were here. It was never my intention to allow this much time to lapse between posts so I shall try to do better.  Honestly, I am so far behind with pictures I am not even sure where to start, but I will try to bring you all back up to date. For now I guess I shall just show you a few more things I have been up to....




I keep seeing these cool letters and numbers that people have been incorporating into their decor and I thought our house needed an "M" for Martin of course...so i set to work....printed a large M out of the computer...traced it onto a piece of ply....rounded up my hubby and convinced him to do the jig sawing for me (he really is great like that), sanded the edges and decided I didn't feel like painting them...so I just wrapped it in baler twine so you don't see the rough edges.  Did the same thing with the bird below....and then got hubs to drill a hole in the bottom...stuck a stick in...and hot glued the stick to a little square support thingy. Made the rolled cloth and twine balls out of some old foam that Ben was gonna throw away...I saved it cuz I knew that one day I would find a use for it and sure enough. :)





For some reason the following picture seems peaceful. I found this old bird at a thrift store before we came here and decided to give it a white paint job....midway through that paint job while it was on the garage floor drying, our dog, Daisy decided to have a taste of glass bird with a hint of white primer. Well, apparently she wasn't impressed cuz I heard the crash from the inside of the house and knew right away that my bird was in trouble...so anyway, part of the face cracked off, but I liked that little bird so much I decided to salvage it anyway..and really, if you don't look to close you might never notice. I still like my little bird, she just has a little more character I guess. The other white thing there is a sea egg that my hubby got out of the ocean for me :)




Here is the bookshelf partially decorated for Christmas...I once heard a wise woman say that unless you do a little decorating for Christmas down here, it just won't ever feel quite real, so I started doing a few things...have a few more projects that I want to work on yet for that. Notice that flip calendar in the bottom left hand corner. What a tremendous blessing to find that surprise this week!! Thanks to friends, family & church for blessing us in this way!!! And a big shout out to my dear mother for organizing it all! love her!

Becky Fox kindly took some time out of her day to teach this girl a few things about painting. I had never picked up a paint brush before coming down here so things seemed a little foreign to me, but I am thinking that I might actually enjoy doing a little painting. Don't think I will ever go too far with it, but it certainly opens up a new door of possibilities..so this poppy is my first painting, but most of the credit goes to Becky for telling me what to do. It is alot easier to paint when someone is telling you what strokes to do where and all that good stuff. I came home and tried it on my own & lets just say I wasn't very successful.  Gotta do alot more practicing. :)


And this fellow here............ trust me this picture does not do justice. When I saw him walking across my floor I freaked. I don't know if I ever saw a bug as big as him & I know he looks little on here but he wasn't. Now I am not a real freakish person when it comes to bugs but it took all the courage I had to run for the closest flip flop and toss it to Ben. He did the dirty work for me & kindly picked him up and threw him in the toilet for me.  but wouldn't you know it...he was too light and no matter how many times I flushed that toilet her wouldn't go down. So he sat there staring at me for a couple days from the toilet bowl. Needless to say I didn't spend more time than I had to on the hopper. Finally Ben had enough of him so he worked with the guy a little to get him to go down and wouldn't you know it he was still kicking....ughhh...had i known he was still alive.............
Is there anything as peaceful as a sleeping child??? I think not! My poor soul needs some peaceful sleep right now. It is nearly 1:00 AM and I am awake. Couldn't sleep partly because my stomach hurt and partly because of the craziness that is going on here right now.  I won't even try to explain what it all is, but I can guarantee that I might just be going to the funny farm real soon now if something doesn't change. I trust that God knows our limitations and surely he knew what He was doing when he brought us here in such a time as this... I don't question God. I just wonder what lessons I should be learning through all of this?????  He has been faithful before and I trust He will be faithful in the future. If you feel the Spirit prodding please remember to lift us to the throne of grace. We can in our humanness do nothing, we are just trusting that God is able to use us despite our imperfections & frailties (don't know how to spell that word)


"Black Eye" kindly washing my dishes for me. What a sweetheart!!!


And "Fuffy" kindly frying my chicken for me...I thought he was being a real sweet heart too until I noticed a bunch of chicken gone missing and Ben caught him with his "hand in the cookie jar" so to speak.  Anyway, they just love any chance they can get to "help" in the kitchen, whether that means frying chicken, washing dishes, taste testing, or licking off beaters. They are more than willing to help!! :)


Well, a couple tums later and I think I shall once again try to get a few winks before the sun rises once again! It seems to happen all to quickly and tomorrow is another busy day working on painting the church & we have crusade all week at Laura so that fills our evenings. Wish you all a blessed week!!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

a few random pictures









...and they said I wouldn't make it in a long dress and barefoot...guess I showed them ;) We hiked down to Seven Sister's Falls in the rain, the mud, the long dress, the mud, the barefeet, the mud. You get the picture, but it was the most fun I had in a long time. Just me and him. Time to talk, think, & dream.




nothing hits the spot quite like a cold ting :)



We hiked out through some tall wet grass....did i mention that it was raining again? to get to this beautiful spot. Ate our eggrolls, drank our ting, and watched the sun set over the ocean. Pure Bliss

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

What a Mighty God we Serve!!!!!!!!!

I was reminded of this song as I stood at the edge of the ocean and watched as the waves beat mercilessly upon the rocks! Sometimes it feels like the cares of life or the temptations of Satan beat upon us just like that trying to wear down our resolve, trying to make us crumble under pressure, but if we have our feet on the solid rock of God we will stand in victory! I've been feeling the battle in my own life here lately. Satan is trying to discourage me, to steal my joy, to keep me from the living well. He knows that if he can get me from within I will not stand. I will not be light for Christ that I so, so desire to be. No, being a missionary certainly doesn't make life any easier. It doesn't just come natural to do all the right things now. All the pieces don't just suddenly fall into place. I feel the battle raging. i sense the urgency of this fight. And I am so grateful to be on the winning side. At times it feels like there is no ground gained, but I know, I truly know that in the end those who have been faithful to fight the good fight will wear the crown of life. James 1:12 Blessed is the man who persevers under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

We went to Ft. Judy Sunday evening to watch the sunset. I love it there. It leaves me in awe. There is such a beautiful breeze, well maybe wind would be more like it, but it is so refreshing. I love to feel the ocean spray as the waves crash against the rocks. Oh and sunsets....love them too.











Finished painting #2 to hang beside painting # 1


I also scored this map for a great deal. was tickled pink. Ben made a frame for me out of an old crate (of course). I painted it white, but thought it looked too bright so I applied some dark stain on top of that and then did some sanding to give it some character.




I also finished my chicken wire picture holder thingy this week. Cheap! Cheap! chicken wire is very inexpensive and we all know that frames are too. :) Now I have room to put up all the pictures that you guys send down here :) Excuse the nasty green wall....i am kinda tired of looking at green walls, but of course the pink and purple bedroom walls break it up a little :) Oh well, it could be worse. :)








Thursday, October 7, 2010

been awhile

Hello again...it has been way too long since I updated this blog. Things have settled into normal & Laborie , Grenada is becoming our home. We have been pretty busy lately...with Ben working at the church/school, helping teach woodshop, other misc. maintenance work and of course studying & all that. This past week the poured concrete at the school, making a small pad out front and some steps going down the other side of the church. We also planted a small garden w/ watermelon, carrots, & lettuce. The watermelon seems to be thriving but no sign of carrots or lettuce. I think maybe they were planted to deep, so we might just have to give it another shot. Our clubs in Peterfield have been going much much better and we are working on getting all the names down pat. Been visiting some of the elderly & shut ins in the community. Makes me appreciate my health & my youth. It is amazing how a short visit can brighten someone day though too. We stopped by a dear lady who we thought was someone else. She was basically deaf, & had to carry most of the conversation which included repeating the same thing at least five times, but she kept saying she was so happy that we stopped by :) We also have quite a few children & youth that make their way by our place for a glass of water, some attention, or to play games.

"D" & Ben playing a game of Mancala...it was a hot game around here, but has now been put away due to the fact that Ben wins 99% of the games....and, really....it is not fun for anyone to win (or lose) that much


"Black Eye" & "Fuffy" playing a game of Fishing
  One of the projects that I tackled this week. Got my inspiration here  http://familyofcrums.blogspot.com/2010/09/artsy-fartsy.html  Well, yeah, I actually almost copied her, but I loved it so much & my mind doesn't work that creatively. I have to steal all my ideas from other people. ;) Either way I had fun experimenting with this project & since I had no experience what so ever with painting it was a good learning experience & a good simple project. I have another plaque with a couple layers of paint & I am trying to decide what to paint on that one. I am planning on hanging them side by side so I don't want to do anything too matchy matchy.. maybe a saying or a verse, but painting words scares me a little cuz I really don't know what I am doing. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. :)


my "I've been painting too long" face

After several coats of washed paints, lots of sanding, & the first leaves painted on

close up...

after all the painting was completed

my dear husband kindly did the last bit of sanding for me after I developed a blister on my thumb

...and the final pice of art :)...after i rubbed a dark stain on it to give it more of a weathered look...not sure if it did that or
just made it look dirty, but I am mighty pleased.

I forgot to mention that all this wood came from a pile of junk crates that our neighbor man kindly allowed us to use :)