It's a New Year

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. I didn't mean to take such a long break from blogging, but that's how it turned out.

The girls and I went to Texas early December for Shanda Yarbrough's (now Anderson) wedding. We hung out doing school, visited w/ friends and family and did some last minute Christmas shopping until Wes arrived the 23rd.

Once Wes got there we began the holiday blitz. It was so fun to see friends and family, celebrate the birth of our precious Savior, enjoy the New Year, and even make some new friends.

On January 5th the festivities for DBC's Missions Conference began. We had an incredible week of spending time w/ fellow SERVE missionaries, being taught by some wonderful folks (I plan to share some of this later), having lots of time of group worship, eating wonderful food, praying, being prayed for, playing, laughing, sharing and learning. The conference culminated in the church-wide portion on Friday night and Saturday. The Body was invited to come learn about missions and missionaries. The program was stellar, and it was very well attended!

Following the conference, we began the trek back home. We made a pit-stop in Austin where we got to see the Stewart's and Ford's.

Anyway, we are home and still unpacking. Less than 12 hours after arriving I headed upstairs just in time to see water begin trickling down the stairs because a bathroom sink pipe broke, flooding that bathroom, the babies' room, and half of the upstairs playroom. There is nothing like standing in 3 inches of water wondering how on earth you are going to get rid of it all. I can honestly say that the entire ordeal was one praise after another:

* there weren't any electrical appliances ruined, nor was I shocked rushing to cut off the water source
* we were home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* all the flooring was tile and concrete, so no leakage or musty carpet
* the big rug in the playroom stopped the water from reaching the computer
* we have a wet-dry vac and lots of mops and a mop bucket
* very little furniture got wet

I don't know why the Lord was gracious in allowing all of those things, but I do thank Him. I pray that my faith would be strengthened, and that I would sing His praise even if none of those things were true. More than that, I pray that my mind would be focused on Him and His goodness even when there not an "emergency" and life seems mundane or the children irritating or my hands frozen b/c I want to blog instead of unpack=).

Love to you all!

Retreat Rocked!!

Read my post on our Serve Site to hear about the Retreat. It was beyond amazing. And my workshop went well. It has already opened the doors for me to develop deeper relationships with several women!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy 1 yr. 1 month anniversary Socks n' Shoes!!!! My-oh-my, how time flies!!!

To celebrate I'll be posting an update on each of the girls... hopefully next week... since our 2nd annual Women's Retreat is this weekend and I'm putting the finishing touches on my portion of a workshop. Pray that it would go well & that we would all learn from it! And pray for Wes as he takes care of the girls for the weekend (what a husband!!!!)!!! THANKS!

New Label Functionality, cool

Blogger has just changed over to beta, and I can start categorizing my posts... that'll be fun. I guess this will be my first label... general

Culture Shock still happens

We have lived here in Monterrey over 2 years now, but every now and then I still have "culture shock" moments. I have had 2 of those this week. On Monday, Anna's teacher informed me that an assignment was totally unacceptable. The instructions for the assignment were: Cut out and glue the following dates in order into your notebook: Sept. 1, 13, 16, 20, 27. So, we did that. What we were supposed to do was go to a paperleria and ask for historic picture sheets from those dates, cut out the pictures and glue them into the notebook. Somehow everyone just "knew" this.

Today was another of those days. I'll back up to yesterday. Anna came home with a note from school saying they were having a parent's meeting at 8:00 am this morning (I am used to always being informed about things the very last minute). I immediately told myself that I wasn't going because: a.)Maggie has to be at school across town at 9:00 b.)The babies usually wake up at 8:15 and Wes is in the shower and c.)The meetings are usually about needing fund raisers because the conditions of the school or something else that could be summed up in a note. Well, the meeting wasn't about anything that couldn't be summed up in a note (i.e. they need money for some books, explanation of grading policies, etc.). So I was very surprised by Anna's teacher's severe reproach about me being the only parent not at the meeting (aside from one who had chicken pox, but she told her she wasn't going to make it [although I don't know WHEN]). I tried to explain to her about Maggie (to which she replied, that's not until 9:00) and the babies (you should bring them). So not only am I frustrated about all the cultural differences and expectations, but I hate to think of her teacher thinking of me as the disinterested parent who doesn't care about her child's education. And then again I cannot believe that every other parent can attend and 8 am meeting with less than a day's notice! And that proves that I'm suffering from cultural shock!

Aaaahhhh, the other side!

Well, most of you probably don't know of the ordeal we had this week. I'll give you a brief recap. About 2 weeks ago I started having a dull ache in the right side of my lower back. No big deal since I'm always carrying kiddos around..."just pulled something" I thought. When I woke up this Monday morning I told Wes that I thought we needed to get a new mattress, that my back was killing me! By 10pm I was in pretty severe pain & very nauseous. I took some medicine and felt somewhat better. Well, after finally getting to the doctor and having tests, they discovered that I had a pretty big kidney stone - 1.4 cm X .7 cm. X .9 cm lodged in my ureter. To make the long (and VERY VERY VERY painful) story shorter, it was decided this stone wasn't coming out on its own and had to be broken up by laser so it would exit the body. Due to the inflammation of my kidney and the serious pain I was in, I had the procedure ASAP - Friday at 8am. It was very anticlimatic. I was asleep for the entire procedure and woke up feeling like a new person! As soon as I could move my legs again (they were numbed from the epidural), I was released from the hospital. After having spent 3 days feeling like I was having back labor coupled with intense morning sickness, I cannot tell you how wonderful I feel. Thank goodness for modern technology & the prayers of the saints!

Week One Down

What a week! Whew! It's seriously exhausting to try to keep everyone on a schedule. But I hope with a little more practice it'll become easier. The girls had a good first week of school. Maggie has been a little more sensitive, especially in the mornings, but I think she is adjusting alright. She definitely does NOT like wearing a uniform, but she looks very cute in it. She is going to preschool for 3 hours a day. Her spanish comprehension already blows me away, so it will be very exciting to see her speak more spanish. She is also doing very well with her reading lessons too. Both girls can already read tons! And they simply LOVE it!

Anna only has one word to say when you ask her how school is, "GREAT!" She REALLY enjoys it, although all the big kids make her feel "nervous". She is already struggling with homework though. Today she had to make a whole page of letter A's and a whole page of number 1's, and it took her 3 hours and about 900 threats to finally get finished! Let's just say it's easy to get distracted in our house!

Bosque Magico y Mas

Well, I forgot the camera, but insert our family in the picture & you can imagine us having a blast at a local amusement park - Bosque Magico. It was a fun family day, which we haven't had in a good while. We rode rides, had ice cream, played in the water & saw a fun dolphin & seal show.

We are mourning the end of an-all-too-short summer. School ended June 28th & is starting back on Monday, August 21st. We're all a little anxious about the upcoming year. Maggie will begin preschool, & Anna will go to 1st grade. We are praying for a smooth transition for all us. The girls will certainly have the challenge of mostly spanish speaking school environments, and I'll have the challenge of getting everyone up & going, as well as letting my big girls away from from me a few hours everyday.

Learning to Read

A little over a week ago I began teaching Anna & Maggie to read using this book: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It has gone so awesome. The book has made it so easy for me & the girls. The lessons are so quick & simple to follow. Each of them has already learned to read about 8 words, and we are only on the 10th lesson. It is very crazy to think that in 3 months that I will have two readers!

Photos from Amanda's Wedding

Here Amanda Leggett is being escorted down the aisle.

We all participated in a time of worship.

The very happy Mr. & Mrs. Graham Davidson!

Back in Monterrey

We got back to Monterrey late last night (or early this morning) from a glorious trip to Texas. The girls and I played, played and played! Wes was there too, and he got to play some, but he also had lots of business things to attend to (sorry honey). We had such a great time visiting family & friends, swimming, eating Tex-Mex, shopping, attending a beautiful wedding, and mostly playing with those we dearly love (and miss). We were in DFW a week & a half, & in Austin over the weekend, and it all really zipped by. Honestly I don't have any pics to post...I was just too busy enjoying myself to think about a camera. In a few days I'll try to post a few pictures from the former Amanda Leggett's wedding (she is now Mrs. Graham Davidson). Thanks to everyone who made our visit so special; we really appreciate you all so much! And although I am very glad to be home with a less hectic schedule, I'm a little sad thinking about how long it'll be until our next visit!

here we go?

Well, I have been thinking that starting a blog would help me do two things that I've been wanting to do: journal more & update folks on the goings-on in our world. So bear with me while I try to figure this out.