I'm back....

Got home last night from Mexico about 10:15. The trip was INCREDIBLE and I will share about it over the next few days or weeks. Today was pretty busy so I haven't had time to really write about it yet. I will.

The picture above is Laura, me, Janet, Dave & Heather taken at the Pacific Ocean. Janet, Dave, Heather and I learned some worship songs in spanish and were able to sing some of them at the services. While Laura was not part of the original group, she became our groupy (is that how you spell it?) towards the middle of the week.

Off to Mexico

I’m leaving tomorrow morning (at the lovely hour of 5 a.m.) to head to Sinaloa, Mexico. As Christians, we are commanded to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). Under the leadership of our pastor and staff our church has taken a more active approach in doing just that….making disciples. Last year we sent over 1,500 people overseas on short term missions.

This trip is a little different from others I’ve been on – we will be ministering to pastors and their wives as well as leading backyard bible clubs each day. I don’t believe the area we are going to is as poor as other places I’ve been. At first I kind of questioned why we were going somewhere nicer and not to the small villages where the people eat from the city dump each day. This is the kind of thing I experienced last summer in Honduras and Venezuela and while I do want to go back to those countries – I’ve also realized that everyone needs Christ. Not just poor people in remote villages, but people everywhere. Every person on this earth is God’s child. This trip will be exciting as we will be ministering to these men and women who are already believers. They will be taught by some really incredible teachers in our group and learn how to more effectively share Christ with the locals. Due to things going on in my life I’ve missed most of the planning meetings, so I’m kinda going into this blind and not really sure what we’ll be doing each day. A few of us have been learning some songs in Spanish, so we’ll be able to lead the groups in worship each day.

While I am very excited about this trip, I am also very apprehensive about it today. David has been sick with a fever since this past weekend. Brad and I have traded days staying home with him and I hate to leave my little boy at home sick. I know Brad will take excellent care of him, I just worry about him not having his mama when he wants me and I worry about Brad getting sick and having to take on that responsibility all by himself. But Brad is an amazing dad and I know he’ll do great.

Tomorrow our flight leaves at 7:00 a.m. and we have 4 (four) – FOUR legs of the flight. Alabama to Dallas, Dallas to Tucson, Tucson to some place in Mexico, someplace in Mexico to where we’ll be staying. Crazy. We’ll be traveling for about 15-16 hours! I'm hoping to discover today that they'll let me taking plastic knitting needles on the plane....if so, I'll start working on a new project.

My dear friend, Heather and I will be traveling together. I am so happy she’s going with me (we first met in Honduras last summer and we’ve become good friends ever since). I love her so much and am thankful we can share this time together.

I’ll update with plenty of pictures when I get back.

Projects

Today I'm posting some pictures of some recent things we've worked on. I say "we" because it includes a couple of things from me and some artwork David did this morning.

I made this quilt for a friend of mine who had a little girl a few months ago. The baby's name is Annabelle, which I just love.
Technically, this scarf was for my mom's birthday in January. It took a lot longer to make it than I had anticipated....it was just over 5 months late! Mom and Clint came to town this weekend, but we totally forgot to take any pictures. We'll be sure to get some next time. My friend, Emily, took this picture and she named it the green monster - it's pretty fitting.David has been home sick this entire week (fever virus we think) but he was feeling better this morning. I got out my acrylics and he painted a picture that he wants to give daddy for Father's Day. I'm not worried about Brad seeing this yet, I don't think he's ever read this blog. Anyhow, David made this beautiful tree for Brad.And while this isn't art related, I still wanted to post it today. David has this new basketball game toy, which he loves. It's really kinda fun to play! You are supposed to bounce the ping pong ball, which is painted like a basketball, on the table and up into the basket. Oh yeah - and I'm currently working on painting our college mascot (a bulldog) on the wall of David's room, so it would be fitting to post a picture here....but I think I'll wait until it's finished before I post a picture. So just imagine a painting of the Samford logo here (with Spike the bulldog included).

Stone Mountain

This past weekend we took a last minute trip to spend some time with my dad that was long overdue. We took him to Stone Mountain and had a great time. We rode the train, played in the barn, rode the sky lift, ate a killer meal at the restaurant, rode the Ducks, walked around the little village, and listened to some banjo playing singers. There was a lot more to do but we just didn't have time.

Here's dear old dad:
David and Brad (on the sky lift - they both did well - I thought at one point Brad was going to puke....he's not big on heights and especially big buses - or trams as they call it - that hang from a 1.92 inch thick rope some 1,800 feet above the ground):
At the top - David was interested in the hawks we saw flying around and especially the dirt and sand:
Back down the Mountain...it might be hard to make out, but the carving is behind his right shoulder:
Ride the Ducks. This was everyone's favorite part of the day. They have these cool WW2 vehicles that ride on land and water. Some even have bullet holes still in them. Our driver was so flipping hilarious and he kept us all laughing. We all got a little wet when we went from land to water. He even let David get up there and push the horn. He was going to let him steer while we were in the water, but David was not sure about that.
They give you these really fun quackers that make LOTS of noise. They are fun while you are riding the Ducks, but not when you are in your personal vehicle on the way home or sitting down in the living room and a little 3 year old finds the quacker and decides to use it again. This is David blowing as hard as he could to make the loudest quack of them all. Check out those chubby cheeks....

The boy likes putt putt golf. Our first time was with some good friends, Daniel and Andrea in Pigeon Forge, TN. David got a hole in one last time, but didn't fare so well this time. He needs to work on his swing. As you can see - he thinks the golf ball is somewhat like a baseball. We had to stop him a couple of times from swinging directly into our shins.

And of course, the most famous part of Stone Mountain - the carving. They say you can sit two school buses on the read end of the middle horse. Now I'd like to see that.
We had a great time hanging out with my dad and we are all still talking about it - especially David. Hopefully we'll do it again soon.

Garden and first harvest

So the garden is doing good, especially with the large amounts of rain we've had this summer. Last year it was the worst drought in a long time and this year the rain has been pretty steady. Here is a picture of our first harvest - 6 strawberries! David enjoys looking for strawberries almost every night...even though he won't eat them.
I think this is my jalapeno pepper plant (either that or a green pepper):
And while you don't eat lavender (at least I don't think you do) I wanted to post this picture since it does qualify as a part of my garden. If anyone has any idea what to do with lavender let me know. Right now I'm just cutting it and putting it in vases in my house - which is fine and smells lovely, but I'd love to find something else to do with it.