High learning curve

our cowgirl! She (and we) love this outfit :)

Nothing huge has happened lately...just life going one minute, one hour, one day at a time. Most of these minutes, hours, and days are going fast! Although we have been feeling lately that we are on a high learning curve as we learn how to do things like meet with business men and women about partnering, write up contracts, and deal with the politics of running a ministry. Some days this part is very very wearing.

Today our intern leaves. Matt has been here for one month now and he's been a big help and easy to have around. But as much as we enjoy having interns and guests, it's nice to have the house back to just our family for a little bit too.

There was a sale on pig heads at the grocery store this week. I realized that this is that uncommon or strange for me - because right alongside the hamburger meat and Chicken breasts there are always pig feet and cow tongue and all that stuff. but I thought you'd like to hear about it :).

we're in the middle of a set of meetings with the cement company in relation to them donating LOTS of cement to El Ayudante for all the upcoming projects. We won't know the answer to that until January when they officially decide but in the meantime we are going to do a medical brigade with them to a village near their cement plant - they will pay for it all and we will organize it. Sounds good to me - just so the people get the help that they need and that we can love them like Jesus does.

It's been colder this week - like in the 70's ;). So everyone is wearing warmer clothes - i've even seen some scarfs even! It's been nice to feel cool (not necessarily cold yet) and Madelyn got to wear a sleeper to bed for the first time in over 6 months! This is a good time of the year to come visit for those of you that don't like the heat.

On Saturday we went to a really neat ministry in the neighborhood just down the road from ours. Every Saturday our neighbors go to a lady's house and they do a Sunday School with the kids -around 30 kids - in this lady's house. It was a lot of fun! I'm hoping to go more with them - one selfish reason is that I want to learn all the songs that she's singing with them - they are all fun action songs in Spanish! It was super poor and many of the kids weren't wearing shoes. One funny thing that happened is one little boy, right in the middle of the Bible story, pulls down his pants and starts to pee. there were some giggles but it wasn't really a big deal - and the floor was dirt and very muddy already so I suppose it didn't matter. Then we fed them a meal and the kids went home. It seems to me like this little Sunday School is the one thing that the kids have to look forward to all week long -they were so happy and involved in the songs and stories and were all waiting for us when we got there. We were told that lots of the kids don't go to school because the parents send them out to collect plastic bottles and garbage to make money to survive.

These are pics of the parade that Sigel marched in for Independence Day - Sept 15th. I just didn't realized that I hadn't cleared off my camera since then. He has the ribbon because he is on the Honor Roll. They practiced marching the whole week before the big day and parade day was hot. it was fun though and he took it very seriously - not smiling while in the parade and not being that impressed at our cheering from the sidelines :). but come on, isn't that a mom's job!?

last week we spend a few hours at the pool - it was so refreshing and wonderful! Maddy and Sigel had a great time (but everytime I tried to take a picture of Sigel he'd duck under the water).

Yesterday we went to our friends house for lunch -and the little girls had their own table -it was pretty cute. we had fun with them - they are just great to be around! We also were attempting to have puppies - they have a chocolate male lab and so we brought Bailey along for the day but the romance didn't happen. we'll try again next time :)

In the last week we found both sets of keys that Tristan had 'lost'. About a month ago Tristan lost both his complete set of house keys, and his truck key! He doesn't loose things often so it was a surprise. I found his house keys in a basket in the pantry - where Madelyn had apparently put them for safe keeping, and Sigel found his truck keys in the back of the truck (which we thought he lost in a field). ! yeah :)