More Techie Stuff

Have you ever gone to someone else's computer to show them your blog only to find that it doesn't look quite as cool as it looked on your 'puter? Well, I did that a few days ago. "You've gotta check out my blog! You'll love my header. I worked really hard on it." What header picture? You mean the little half-inch sliver that has your blog title on it? Ooo. Impressive.

I have no idea how it happened, but after an hour staring at html gibberish and doing the ol' "trial and error and error and error" method of code repair, I think I fixed the problem. Know what it was? Two lines of code said " _height" instead of " height". Come on! Do we have to be that picky? I guess so. Anyway, now hopefully I can show my blog off to the world and people won't be thinking, "Huh. I wonder what that photo is supposed to be?"

If you ever notice something really tweaked on my blog, will you tell me? Please? Don't know why it looked fine on my computer. Probably the same concept as a bathroom mirror that makes your make-up look great at home but when you get to town you really look like Cyndi Lauper!

Have a great day everyone!!!

Random Act of Kindness

We had the campground pretty much to ourselves the first 2 or 3 days of our time there. On the weekend, some other campers moved in, but overall it was a good bunch. We didn't realize how good until the folks next to us pulled out. We had been gone for the day (to the Grand Canyon, more about that next post) and when we came back, our neighbors were gone. It was kind of sad to see them go, but what was really cool was that they left something for us...

What a beautiful gift! These flowers had been gathered by someone in their group and had been on their picnic table for a few days. It was pretty special to see them on our table when we got home.

When we pulled out a couple of days later, the twins sneaked the flower arrangement over to our other neighbors. I hope it was as much a blessing to them as it was to us!!!

SPOONS

We are a family who loves to play games. One of our favorite family games is a card game called spoons. The object is to collect 4 of the same cards in your hand...well, the object is actually to collect a spoon from the spoon pile, but in order to do that, you need 4 of the same card in your hand. Or else you need to watch closely for someone else to get 4 cards and grab a spoon, because as soon as one person grabs a spoon, it's a free-for-all! The last person to grab for a spoon...doesn't get one, because there is one less spoon than players. Makes for a very lively game as people dive for the spoons! We have yet to come to blows over spoon possession, but it could happen.
Our game night at our campsite was a ton of fun. We played in the boys' tent (because it was the biggest). What a blast! I still don't know who won...I think we all did!

Campsite #1 -- Whitehorse Lake, Arizona

Our Campsite...








We've been camping in the desert so long, we forgot about "water-proofing" the tents. Oops!

It's OK. We didn't get too wet!

Photo Journal: Our Furlough...So Far

It's really hard to know where to start posting today. So much has happened in the past month that I haven't mentioned. In fact, I still have some things to share that happened back in May. I'm so behind!!! Oh, well. I guess this post will be a "Highlights of the Past 2 Weeks" photo showcase with a few explanations. Enjoy!!!

Traveling to the States was pretty un-eventful...and hot.


We left home early Monday morning and drove pretty much straight through...stopping in Navajoa to see about a tetanus shot for Jessee and in Obregon to actually get one.

Late evening found us at our traditional first stop in Arizona...McD's.

The van ran great until we got north of Nogales (into the land of expensive car repair). Then we began to over-heat. Could have been related to the 2 hours we sat in line at the border...who knows. Anyway, Doug took off the cap (the one you're not supposed to take off until the engine's cool!) to cool down the engine and then we added a bunch of water and headed to the bus depot to drop off our friend Stephen.

Stephen was with us for a couple of weeks in Mexico. What a great guy!!! You'll see bunches of pics with him in them as I post more about the mission teams and construction we've had at our house. We were sad to see him head back to Oregon, but hopefully we'll see him again soon. [Stay in touch, Stephen!!! ;^) ]

Car shots:

We stayed at a motel in Tucson our first night. It's one of our favorite stops, because they have a really great waffle maker as part of their continental breakfast. I really want one of those!!!!

Tuesday, we were on our way to Williams, Arizona. What a drive! It wasn't really that far (only about 8 hours) but Phoenix was HOT and the van continued to be persnickity. With our tires being as they are and the added weight of the trailer, we had to travel pretty slowly. But the scenery was AMAZING!!! I took a ton of photos, but I'll just include one here.

Tuesday evening we arrived in beautiful (and cool) Williams, Arizona. If you've never been there, you really need to go! When we pulled into town, Sarah said, "It reminds me of that old Route 66!" (Remember the movie "Cars"? That's because it is old Route 66 and they've done a great job of preserving the historic feel of the town.

Mom and Dad had car trouble, too, so they were delayed getting to Williams. We headed to Whitehorse Lake campground to set up our home away from home...more about camping in the next post.

Our Fourth of July

As uneventful as it was, I've been such a louse at posting over the past few weeks that I thought I should at least report on our Independence Day celebration. We didn't do much. HOWEVER, we did make a small fire, shoot off a couple of firecrackers and roast marshmallows.


Mexican marshmallows are called "bonbones" and they really taste nothing like marshmallows, but they do melt nicely!



The boys located a handful of firecrackers which they lit...while wearing sandals or barefoot, holding the box of matches in the other hand and throwing the lit firecracker into the air to explode. My mother is tsk tsking and shaking her head right now. ;^)






Here is Jessee roasting his strawberry-flavored-quasi-marshmallow over our roaring bonfire. We were all so exhausted from the events of the past week that this was about as much energy we had for wood-gathering (more about those events in later posts...I promise!!!). It was sufficient to get the job done!


Then Seth tried to mooch his 'mallow!

To no avail! Jessee was victorious and managed to eat it himself!



Finally, Sarah took the traditional "Family-minus-one Photo"...

...then we prayed together and shuffled the kiddos off to bed.

Good night and happy 4th of July everyone!!!

Our 5th of July

Would you believe that the 5th of July was actually more eventful than the 4th? Go figger.

As I said in the "Our 4th of July" post, we were exhausted at the end of the day and barely had the energy left for hugs, kisses, prayers, drinks, toothbrushes and the rest of the nightly ritual. One part of the ritual which we opted to skip was the nightly inspection of the boys' room (usually done at the same time as prayers). Climbing the ladder to the boys' room just seemed like too much effort Friday night, so we prayed downstairs and sent them off to dreamland. That is the last time we will ever do that.

At 3:20 a.m. Doug and I were awakened by a crash, followed by a scream, followed by more crashing and banging. In my stupor I yelled, "Oh, dear God! Someone just fell down the ladder! Run, Doug!!!" Doug was up the ladder before I had made it out of bed. Apparently Jessee had tripped over some "unknown object" while climbing down from his bunk bed. When he fell, he face-planted into a metal chair which slammed into a card table which slid into another metal chair which careened through the ladder hole in the floor and crashed to the floor below. Doug was so relieved to see Jessee standing at the top of the ladder that he just said, "Oh, thank God, you're OK. Head down to Mom." Jessee left a blood trail all the way to the bathroom where one quick glance at his face let me know that all his teeth were in his mouth, his eye was intact and we were headed to the ER.

Doug called our friend Braulio to ask his opinion as to whether we should go to the hospital or the red cross station. He reconfirmed what we already knew: it really depends on which doctor is there. So, we prayed. By the time we had driven the 30 minutes to Guasave, we both had a sense that God was leading us to the Cruz Roja. (Red Cross) Niether of us had peace about the hospital.

When we walked into the Red Cross, we immediately knew why God had led us there. First of all, there was no one else there. We were the only patients. No waiting. Yes. When the doctor stood, stuck out his hand and said, "Hola, Douglas! Como estas?" we had our second confirmation. Turns out that the doetor, Pablo, is the brother of my friend Kati who owns the general store in Las Glorias. He's a great guy and an excellent doctor. Praise God!!!

Two hours and 25 stitches later, we were headed home.

Photos...

We took his stitches out yesterday. The swelling is gone, the black eye is gone, the penicillin shots are gone (for which Jess is extremely grateful!!!), the crooked grin is not gone...but he's still adorable!!! We just thank God over and over that the chair missed his eye. God always watches over fools and small children...and fools with small children, too!