That Time of Year...

* every cookout always ends with rides on the zipline *

Little Miss

Somebody's not a teenager anymore...

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* I know Tiff will hate me for posting this picture... but I couldn't resist.  She looks like she has enough air to put out a house fire!!

HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY TIFFANY!!

Operation: Crownpoint, NM

Chris and I were in New Mexico last week on a mission trip... working with the Navajo Indians. We were doing remodel/building projects in the Crownpoint area.  

These people are up against many struggles... a 50%+ unemployment rate... the average annual salary is $4200... so many needs.

As with any mission trip, you go in thinking you will be a blessing... you will make a huge impact.  The reality I see over and over again is that you are the one blessed... you are the one who is impacted.

Here are just a few pictures from week.  I am so excited to see where God takes us from here.  I am more and more in love with the ministry... and it was exciting to see Chris catch that heart.  It's an adventure that is just starting!

The mountains and bluffs were so beautiful.  All around us!

Lunch breaks... snack breaks... any break was welcome!

This precious family was got the start of a makeover on their house that had it's room ripped off by extremely high winds.

This is the family whose house Chris and his team worked on wiring, insulating, and dry walling.

This is the house my team stuccoed and added a handicap accessible ramp to.

* * * 

"It is more blessed to give than to receive"

* click here for more pictures

So...

So about a week ago, I had amazing intentions of posting this rockin video of what's been up with the fam.  That was before Chris and I took off for a mission trip in New Mexico last Saturday.

So now 7 days later, we sitting in an airport -- on our way home -- and I never got the video posted.  (Go figure, huh?!)

Just wanted to let you know we got some good stuff coming down the track, not the least of which is that rockin', amazing video!  You'll love it so stay tuned...

Some Changes

Here's the newest member of our family... Boodles.  Mom allowed the girls to keep the bunny in their room until it gets bigger and weather gets better.  Since then she's has fallen in love with this little fur ball.  They love to watch it hop around the hall.  It can even jump out of it's little cage!  One morning while I was getting ready for work, I saw this little black shadow jumping towards the little girls room.  

With these shocking changes in mom's behavior it wouldn't surprise me if we had a pet giraffe in the house!  Well ok, that's a slight stretch but she is talking about a dog... I don't think I can be surprised by anything anymore!

And can you believe this is legal?  Tim pushes the number of family drivers to six!

Gas Station Adventures Part 2

We had a major dejavoo moment after the boys' basketball game Friday night.  So get a mental picture of this...

It's 10:15pm.  A car full of tired and crabby people - we won't say who was who in this story.  With our gas gauge blinking on empty, I figured the responsible thing would be to pull into the dark gas station and fill up... right?!  Right -- well, ok.  All was right except the part of leaving the key turned so I could roll down the windows.

Ok.  How lame is it that less than five minutes of battery usage like that would drain the dumb thing and leave us stranded???

 

Stupid.  I KNOW!  Thankfully our friends from across the field had followed us.  So we jumped out to quickly fix the problem.

Ok.  So maybe it wasn't quite as quick as we hoped.  There were a few minor problems to overcome.  

First.  This precious Couch we were driving had collided with another unlucky deer two weeks prior which left the hood completely crunched in.  This isn't actually the problem.  The problem is that the new mis-match hood that replaced it doesn't latch.  Well, doesn't latch on it's own.  It's being held down by miles of wire which made it very difficult to untangle.  

Second.  Hours later - it seemed - when the wire had been untangled, we discover the hood had been jammed down in the latch to aid in it's security.  This posed a new problem which also took hours - it seemed - and many object hitting it to resolve.  

Only with the amazing help of strong, handsome men, were we able to get the hood up, the battery charged, the hood re-jammed and wired shut before going on our merry way.  

Go figure.  Just another day in the life!

Several hours - it seemed - into this tedious process, we remembered the camera in the car.  Grace took these two pictures before that battery died.

Go figure.

(Of course it's the only shot we have and I'm the only one looking like a total retard... oh well.)