The Ramblings of a Single Mom...

That's right, for the week, I am experiencing life as a single mom - as Husband is still working hard in Argentina. Since most of my time has been spent in kid-conversations with very few moments of "adult" conversations - I have come up with some thoughts on a typical day of a mommy:

Mommy Basics:

10. You awake to the sound of either cheerful laughter or violent crying from your toddler's room.

9. Breakfast. You ask your toddler if they would like pancakes for breakfast. When they say "no, I want fish crackers" or "no pancakes, I want cookies" you realize bribing won't really work so they get pancakes anyways!

8. Bathtub time. I'm sure most kids rarely splash, or get ahold of the spray nozzle and soak the wall - or even use their brother as a human boogie board to ride out all those huge waves that occasionally occur in the tub...

7. Getting out of the tub time. 5 towels on the floor - rubber gloves and raincoat on - ten arms to dry them off, pin them down, and finally get those diapers on!

6. Getting dressed. You realize that getting in that daily exercise might be easier than you thought as you pin down your toddler while trying to put shoes, socks, shirt and pants on - all the while they are playing "who can be the squirmiest" with eachother.

5. Playtime. Anythings game, especially toilet paper rolls - mom's makeup bag - and the box full of q-tips, those are especially fun...

4. Snack. Food is always fun, especially when you can throw it on the ground and wait until mommy accidentally walks on it crushing it into the hardwood...

3. Errands. Get into the car - two sets of seatbelts put over squirmy legs... Constant questions of "where are we going?" "Can I have some chips?" and the occasional throwing of toys at eachother...

2. Going into the store. One in the front, the other in the cart. Making sure to pick the BIGGEST isle, so as to stay away from the grabby hands that pull in misc. items like rubberbands, or a large box of shoe polish...Only to be followed at check-out by "mommy....can I have..." (whoever put all of those kid toys in the checkout isle is a very mean person!)

1. Mommy realization: While checking out, you reach back to brush your hair off of your shoulder only to have it snag on a piece of food that had gotten stuck there from some one's grubby little hands (most likely fish crackers!)

That concludes my ramblings today on the life of a mom.....

Day 9 in Argentina

Hola Amigos!

As of yesturday, I am officially on American soil yet once again! Husband still remains in Argentina until next Friday to help get as much construction done as possible before he and Travis take off for home. What an experience! It has been a truly amazing project, and we feel so blessed to have been able to be apart of it. Here are tons of pictures to better help explain what exactly we've been doing over there! Keep praying for the Lord to continue working over there this next week as there will be a push to get as much done as possible! The Convention Center front

The inside of the Convention Center

Josh, Travis, Oscar, and Jerry talking about the day's plans
Wende & I in front of our Amazon Cafe sign. These are pictures from our project room while we were in Argentina. This is going to be an internet cafe when the project is completed!

This is a "Giving Tree" that Wende and I also worked on while we were in Pilar. Each of the leaves have people's names of who sponsored money for the convention center.
Dear old Judy hard at work!This was another last minute project that Wende, Nicole and I worked on up until the day Wende and I left. It is the Nazarene logo in spanish that we painted on plexi-glass that will go up inside the arch towards the top of the building in the front.

Buenos Dias! Argentina Day 4

Hey All,

Today marks day four in our travels to Pilar Argentina! We have had a busy four days, and the weather continues to get hotter and hotter everyday. On Sunday, our Eagle Naz team was able to join with a few other team members from other churches and head over to our sister church in Sourdeaux to work on the church plant that Eagle Naz helped fund. What an amazing experience! We were able to prepare the grounds that the church is going to be built on by digging up dirt and preparing it for concrete. Talk about sweat! But what a blessing to be able to be invested in something that will affect the community of Sordeaux for hopefully many years! We were also able to meet a family that is a part of the Sourdeaux church that has 10 children ranging from 7 months to 22 years old....And they all love the Lord in such a way that is hard to describe in words - because they have so little and still give so much of themselves. There was a team that was able to return today to do more work on the church and also re-roof this family's home, along with adding tile, and a new beam that had rotted. On Sunday night, we didn't show the Jesus film like I thought we were going to, rather we showed a film that gave the testimony of a guy named Felix, that used to be a drug warlord for the Columbia Cartel. His testimony told of him spending majority of his life torturing and killing people, then of him getting caught when he moved to Miami, FL when he started selling drugs. He met his wife while in prison - and married while he was still in prison. She was a Christian, and prayed for him for 7 years to come to the Lord, and when he did his testimony has made such an impact that he has led multitudes of people to Christ. The reason we showed this particular film, was to promote him coming to the area and speaking next Sunday to the Argentina community. Okay - it's getting late, but we would covet your prayers for safety and health as the temp continues to rise and everyone is working so hard we are so excited to see how the Lord will continue to move over the next week and a half!
Jerry and Randy getting ready to work hard!
The Sourdeaux construction site


Pastor Annibal of the Sourdeaux church giving a sermon
The little 7 month old baby of the family with 10 kids - what a cutie!

Argentina Day 2

Hey All,

No pictures today-but I'm hoping to get some up either tomorrow or monday...Well, we arrived safely in Argentina yesturday afternoon (cankles and all after the long hours of sitting!) And we went straight to work-Wende and I on the Internet Cafe picking up where we left off in June; and Husband and Travis scoping out the construction site to get ready to manage all of the construction crews on Monday. The weather has been beautiful here! Cool in the mornings and evenings and not too hot during the day. Most of the team came in today - around 150 people - and the rest (about 35 more) come in tomorrow. After an EXTREMELY LONG orientation/registration meeting tonight we discovered that our church (eagle naz) was going to be heading out to our church plant "sordoeaux" leaving at 1:00 pm on Sunday - but not returning until midnight! It sounds like it might be a long day - they basically told us to ditch our normal Sunday wear and dress casual/work wear because we were going to be working and showing the Jesus film that night. I'm excited! Not so much for getting grubby, but I have never gotten to see the Jesus film, and to experience watching it with a crowd of possible non-believers, let's just pray for the Lord to truly work miracles in people's hearts through that experience! Okay-that's it for tonight,

Chow!

Argentina Bound!

A picture of the project we are going to be working on (a convention center to house and educate pastors from the S. American Region)

Happy 2008! This Thursday morning Husband and I will board a plane headed to Buenos Aires Argentina! I am only going for a week, but Husband is staying for 2 1/2 weeks. We are going to help finish a project with the organization "Extreme Nazarene" that has been a few years in the making. To find out more about Extreme Nazarene you can go to their website at: www.extremenazarene.org. Please pray for safe travel for us, and for me as a mom-leaving my two boys....let's just say I'm trying not to think about it! We feel so blessed to be able to go and be on the mission field serving the Lord! Check back for further pics and reports once we get back! Adios Amigos :)

Holiday Photo-montage

It has been a busy couple of weeks for us-so I thought that I would catch you all up with a photo reel of our holiday events....From having Christmas with the Kinney’s & Hogans, to Christmas with the Haverfield’s, to going sledding in Mccall and all of the fam hanging out for new years-we feel so blessed to have finished our year w/so many fun memories-then to start the new year w/so many more! We hope that Christ will fill your lives w/his abundant love to an overflowing measure this new year!