March is full of birthdays!!

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Wade turned 12
Victoria, Alexia and John turned 10
Tracy turned "29" again!!!

I couldn't find any other pictures of the kids...this is from Cat's birthday in '05! How sad is that?! I guess the past few times I went home I didn't take any pictures!

Homemade laundry Soap

I made my own laundry soap this week. Here is a peek at it. So far, I think it works pretty well and is so much cheaper than Cheer etc.
If you want to try it out the recipe is below...

Home Made Laundry Detergent Recipe #70088

Make your own laundry detergent! This is really easy and really does save money! Great for people with allergies or fragrance sensitivity. This lasts a long time!

1 bar bath soap

1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda laundry detergent (not baking soda)

1/2 cup borax

hot water

80 loads (aprox.)

1. Place grated soap in a pot.

2. Cover with water and simmer over medium heat until all soap is melted, stirring occasionally.

3. Pour into 5 gallon bucket.

4. Add washing soda and borax.

5. Add enough hot water to fill the bucket.

6. Stir (I use a long measuring stick, but any long stick will work).

7. Let sit overnight to gel.

8. Use 1 cup per load.

9. (You can pour this into old detergent containers or leave in the bucket. Please cover with a lid if leaving in the bucket to protect children and pets.).

Art Gallery

Can you guess who the artist is of these beautiful drawings??

These works of art are brought to you by none other than Elizabeth!! Of course she was only 5 or 6 at the time!

See Elizabeth-I kept all the artwork that you sent to me! I love the last picture of Calixto and Toni-Balonie-burgers (the cat)!!!!

What God Says About Anger

He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. ( Proverbs 16:32 )

He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. (Proverbs 14:29)

A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again. (Proverbs 19:19)

A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both.(Proverbs 27:3)

Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?(Jonah 4:4)

Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:(Ephesians 4:26)

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. (Romans 12:19)

But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. (Colossians 3:8)

Psalm 1

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish. (Psalm 1)

Dit-Dit is 19!!!!!

Happy 19th Birthday to the best neice in the whole world!!!

Love you Elizabeth!!!!

From your favorite Aunt Booda

(I want to hear all about the Phantom in NY-I'm sure you were thinking of me the entire time)

Our Adventure

We had a big adventure on Thursday. My friend Sara and I decided to take a trip to Cherry Hill Mall. We had been driving a little over an hour when we noticed two very big deer running down the side of the road. Now we are on Route 73 in Voorhees which is a 4 lane highway. All of a sudden the deer decide to cross the street not caring that there are 4 lanes of traffic. Well of all the traffic they decided that my van was the one that they had to run in front of. I saw them coming but couldn't do anything to get our of the way. I did swerve into a turning lane but they both hit my car at the front passager head light and then they both hit my windshield on the driver side. One was thrown clear over onto the grass on one side of the road and the other was in the outside lane on the other side. The one that landed in the road actually ended up getting up and made his way off the road and into the woods. There had been a cop there with his gun and in position to shoot him. The other was dead from the impact. As cars started stopping would you believe that all the people went to the deer before they checked to see if we were ok. There was actually a man on the side of the road trying to find the pulse in the dead deers neck. Then he said oh I called 911 are you alright. We were not hurt. In fact Cheyenne and her friend Lexi were asleep when it happened and it only woke them up. My car on the other hand was not as blessed as we were. The windshield is broken, the hood is all dented, my head light is all broken and the car crumpled there, there is a hoof print in the passenger door and my windshield wipers are all broken along with the section that they come out of. The only thing that was wrong with us was, Sara and I had some small cuts on our hands from the glass from the windshield. It was raining down on us in little slivers and was all in our clothes and Sara and I were both a little sore today. God surely is good because they were big deer and we were doing the speed limit. It could have been a whole lot worse.

2007 Pastor's Conference in Tamazunchale

If you double click on it you can see the captions.

help needed

Can anyone help...I've been trying do to a web album with Picasa but, have been unable to the screen keeps saying the account is not enabled for Picasa web albums...I'm not sure what to do any suggestions?

70 years old and going strong!!

Look who is 70?!

Happy Birthday!! A few days late!
(This was taken at the "Tropic of Cancer" in Mexico)

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

For those of you in the Northeast, I wanted to show you that we get cold weather too! This is the frost we woke up to the other day. Catherine thought it was snow! It gets cold here but then the next day it is in the 60-70's...like today!

We finally have a mantel on which to hang our stockings. Unfortunately, we have no stocking holders, so I taped them up. Any suggestions on the brick on the back of the fireplace. I think it looks to busy with the different tiles on the facing and floor so I thought about painting the inside bricks...any opinions?

Since I've not posted for a while I thought I would post an update:
Praise God for his faithfulness...Calixto got a big landscaping contract for a bank just when our cash flow came to an abrupt end! At the same time he received a lot of calls for yard clean-up since the leaves have finally fallen. We pray that he will continue to get work over the next few months before Spring officially starts. He will be preaching this Sunday and has preached several times at different churches since leaving Crossroads.
Christopher is officially on Christmas break until Jan 7th. He was home sick for the past 2 days and enjoyed that time at home. He did finish his homework and doesn't have any make-up work looming over his head over break. He currently has two school friends over and is enjoying his afternoon with them. Basketball starts Jan 5th but has been practicing for the past few weeks, he is excited about the start of the season!
Catherine was tested for Kindergarten yesterday at school, she did great and will do fine according to the Dean. She is very excited about going to school! This morning she made a bell out of a glass coke bottle with a toy tied to it with string, she then got a red box, like a chineses take-out box, put a slot in the top. That way she could ring the bell and people would put their extra dollars in it for her! Just like the Salvation Army bell ringers. I thought that was very inventive!!
As for me I am tutoring a student in The spelling/writing/reading curriculum we use at school. This little boy has been a challenge and the work is going pretty slowly. My heart goes out to him as his dad died suddenly right before Christmas 2 years ago. I think his grief has really prevented him from succeeding in school. I have many projects around the house but so far have been pretty unmotivated to do them. My hope is to get to them in January.
We still have not settled into a church home! Over the summer we consistently attended a Baptist church 15 min outside of Longview but, feel this is not where we are to join. We have since gone to a Spanish church, where they do translation through headsets; a historic, country church (where Calixto will preach this Sun); and a Cowboy church that meets in a barn! A client of Calixto's was preching so we went to hear him. Many of you may not have heard of Cowboy church but, I guess it is a denomination of sorts, there are several of them around and this is a start-up church in this area.
We really miss our friends from Crossroads and realize we gave up a lot by leaving! But, we know that we did the right thing and that God led us to leave...doing the right thing is not often easy! We have grieved quite a bit over the past few months! We covet your prayers on this matter!!
After Christmas we are off to Tamazunchale to meet with the Pastors for some visitation time and planning for the future. That's all for now...hope your pre-Christmas plans are going well!

A little confused!

this is too funny. I think she is a little confused about the whole reindeer thing!

Anniversary

Well today is my annivesary. What a difference that a year makes. This morning I was reflecting on just exactly what I was doing this day 20 years ago (can you believe it was 20 years ago). With the thought came lots of memories. All good. Memories of wind and rain. Running late and not getting to spend much time getting ready. Getting out of the limo and having my dress nearly blow over my head. Walking down that isle and seeing Bruce standing there waiting.....looking a lot like he was going to pass out. Greeting people in a line that seemed to go on forever and ever. Burnt wedding cake and of course Mr. Frick coming in and dancing forever with Jean. I remember so many of our family and friends coming out to share the day with us. I remember the awe that i had that this great guy loved me and was mine. Everyone saying we were a pair that were going to make it. All good memories.

The memories were all so sweet but what that is missing this year is the pain. I will miss him the rest of my life but life has gone on. God has blessed me with family and new dear friends and church family. God has been so good to me. He has given me so much. He blessed me with 18 years with a man that he had put here just for me. I wonder if Bruce is looking down from heaven today and thinking about me. I am sure if he is he is celebrating the fact that I can look at our memories without pain. That I can remember the joy and excitement that came with that day. The anticpation of starting our life together. We had a good life together. I wouldn't change a thing. I have 4 great kids for him to live on in. I am truly blessed!

Please send me some of your memories from that day. If you can remember back that far........

Look at me

Mom Mom gave me these beautiful snow pants. I decided all by myself that I should be wearing them. I put them on myself including taking off the clothes I had on all but my tights. I wore them half the day because I decided I did not want them off. Aren't I just to cute?

Dingman's Falls

We went on a church trip to Dingman's Falls on Friday. Here are a few pictures. Isn't it beautiful. It was very cold that day too!

Being a Servant

This Past weekend my 3 friends and I (Elizabeth) Helped our Church with their "Couples Retreat". We were sort of like the servants running around helping people with their luggage and helping with dinner, cleaning up, and just making sure everyone had everything they needed. The Church got 2 HUGE houses out on Long Beach Island that would normally cost about $12,000 to rent one and $17,ooo to rent the other for one week. But the people who own them let us use them for free! The one I stayed in was called the "Cast House" and was about 2 blocks from the beach. It was Beautiful! It had 10 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms and each bedroom had a different play as its theme. Here is a few pictures of some of the rooms.

We had so much fun!



This is the "Lion King" room, my friends and I stayed in this one. It had four beds.

This was the "South Pacific" room.

This was the "Oklahoma" room.

This was the "Phantom of the Opera" room. My Favorite! On the ceiling there was a little loft thing with an organ and the phantom peeking over with a HUGE chandalier.

This is the "Cinderella" room. I loved this room, Especially the furniture!

The livingroom.

The kitchen we slaved away in. lol

The beach, there was a storm out at sea that day and the waves were crazy. The water came all the way up to the road that night.

Homecoming

Last week was Cody's homecoming game. It poured rain up until right before the game so they were playing in a big mud puddle. They lost but it was a close game. 12 to 6. Cody is really enjoying it this year. Afterward they got dressed up and went to the homecoming banquet. Note his trophy that he is very proud of. Watch for the number 42.

Elizabeth the Cat Catcher Strikes Again!

Well the stray cat in my backyard had more kittens! I'm not very happy about that. Time to call animal control! But anyway I caught one of the three kittens living in my shed... It was quite an animal rescue operation trying to get it. I set a cage trap in the shed and on Sat. and it caught one that morning, but i wasnt home to get it out. Well somebody locked the the lock on the shed which we do not have a key for. So when I came home I see Wade and John out there trying to pick the lock with a stick and the kitten stuck inside in the cage meowing away. So me and Mom-mom tried breaking in which didnt work. So we had to wait for Pop-pop to get home so he could cut the lock off.... But it is the sweetest kitten I have ever seen. As soon as I picked it up it was purring away.

Happy Birthday Cheyenne Leigh!

well the Princess is now three. She had a great time yesterday at her party
she wore her princess outfit all day and had the attitude to match!
This is a picture of her new hair cut. This really makes her looks so big. She was such a big girl when she got it cut too.