God's Protection

Before its 2009, I need to once again, thank God for his divine Hand on our family & friends in the Rio Grande Valley. For the past 2 days there has been a man on the loose who kidnapped his ex-girlfriend, then has been car jacking and stealing cars all over the valley. Last night on my way to walmart, I saw one police chase that just happened and right behind me about 10 minutes was another one. Very un-nerving to say the least. I didn't know the story til this afternoon. (I never keep up with local news, but some friends were curious so I went online & looked). I had already taken the kids to HEB (our grocery store) to get some food and while there and on my way home kept seeing the Police helicopter circling in the air. Strange, I thought, but oh well. So, I was nervous all night about it kinda and when Jonathan & Joshua wanted to go to Walmart I was kinda like I really don't think you should...well, then Jonathan feel asleep on the couch and was woke up by his phone ringing, and his friend was just at Walmart in Weslaco and this guy drove though the one entrance and tried to drive out the other!!! If they would have left when they first talked about it they would have been there when it happened! I'm posting the links to the news story if anyone cares to check it out. Its pretty wild and very sad.

www.themonitor.com

Christmas Eve 08

Christmas Eve was sorta a mixed up day here but we adjusted and it ended up working out ok! My goal was a stress free Christmas season and it was great! Since we were unable to go to Mexico for Christmas like we wanted to, I made us a Mexician meal all the way here at home. Not as good as fresh tamales and all the trimmings, but it was fun & good!

We had picadillo (its basically ground beef, potatoes & carrots w/ a tomato sauce and seasoning) and corn torillas, mexician soda, and cookies! Not fancy but for the time I had to throw it together it was fun!

Kylie with her almost empty bowl (the kids LOVED it!) Excuse her hair, we were in crazy, busy walmart and she took it out.

Becka's senior pictures

My sister, Becka is a senior at Hobe Sound Bible College & recently had her senior pictures taken by Erica Grant. Stop over to Erica's blog to see them!

Helping Daddy

Someone gave Jonathan this big generator, but it needs some work...so he & Korey got busy on it!!

The moon!

Last week one night the moon was supposed to be the closest to earth for the whole year. So, Jonathan got out the tripod and had some fun taking some pictures of it!

first aid kits

I just wanted to show you a picture of the first aid kits we are getting for Mexico. I was able to get 6 of these so far at walmart for free! I have coupons to get at least 6 or 9 more. Not a lot - but everyone counts.

I want to thank the Lord for giving Jonathan His help yesterday. He started scheduling our services, while watching all three kids!! (One of which just had an albuterol treatment and was WILD!) Neither one of those is an easy job!

Christmas program

Last night was our church Christmas program.


The play was about this person who was searching for Christmas, (perfectly read by Joshua!) He thought it was in shopping, gifts, giving, but that didn't bring him peace. Then he got the brilliant idea that he needed to help others, so he went Christmas caroling, and the made a box of food to take to the poor guy down the street, who has 3 kids and no one knows where the mom is! I'll copy the paragraph from the script, since its too funny!

"Now before the season is over, I believe I must do one more thing! A few blocks away, there is that poor family where the father was injured and hasn't been able to work for months. I don't know where the mom is. But there are several motley children there running around from dawn to dusk. Skinny, dirty, crumby, ragged. The dad looks so haggard. I wonder if he's been able to even pay the rent? I have a little left after running up all those bills on my credit card, but surely I could put together a food box for them. They weigh on my mind....." Sorry this picture is a little blurry..I was laughing so hard, b/c sadly they did a great job!! I'm not sure you can see it but he has Kamryn's pacifier in his mouth.

After that - the older girls brought the kids to me and Jonathan was to change charters and represent the main charter, who then found Jesus...well, as he was kneeling in the front, Kylie who thought she had lots of freedom since she'd just been up there, decided to wander to see daddy! When he ignored her, she goes, "Daddy!" Then back to Joshua who was reading the narrator's part, said, "Wa! Where daddy?" I was so embarrassed, but it was so funny too!

Korey

Korey is doing so much better today! Last evening we were getting ready for church & he threw up in his bed. I was thinking, oh no...not this flu too!!! But we figured out it was probably just all the stuff in his lungs making him sick like that. We gave him another albuterol treatment and he seemed better! Here are a few sweet pictures of him ~

He does such a great job 'helping' with his treatments! He wants to do it himself for the most part.

Our day

Did you ever have your day perfectly planned out and then something happened to change the WHOLE day around??? Well, that was our day! =) Guess I should back up in this story to Tuesday...a great day where we got lots of work done in the playhouse (pics to come later, when I take some). We came home and noticed that Korey wasn't looking so good...Jonathan noticed it earlier in the day but we were so busy and the little guy just kept going til around 6pm, when he just kept falling asleep. I still didn't give too much thought to it since he really didn't have a nap since we were not at home. Finally after getting the supper on the table, I took his temp. 102.6!!! Ok, so we had a problem...to make a long story short, I took him to the doctors Weds night after Jonathan got home from work and he has bronchitis. Never coughed, just a fever and a runny nose...so we got the whole works of meds! Then yesterday I started noticing Kamryn was having a runny nose...so this morning my plan was to take Korey back for a check up and Kamryn to get checked, and I wanted to go early, well, we had a not so good night's sleep, Korey decided that 4:30 was time to get up and yell Mommy from his bed until he woke up Kylie...the conversation from their room was so funny! =) So, I went to get him so Kylie would go back to sleep and then he didn't want to lay still (mostly b/c of the meds). It was very humorous to me (don't ask Jonathan his thoughts) but of course it wasn't me that a little boy was waking up by touching my face with cold hands! =) Really you can go ahead and laugh!! I did!!! Anyway -- I'm getting off track, so this morning we didn't get going til 11AM, then we didn't get home from the doctors til after 1PM, and we had planned to get our family pictures taken at 2:30PM, wasn't gonna happen! I didn't even have our clothes ready! I was very disappointed because I really wanted PERFECT family pictures for my Christmas cards, but then God reminded me that I need to stop stressing about the small things, and be thankful I have a family. So, after a trip to town to get groceries we got out the camera and tried to get some good shots of the kids...again, wasn't gonna happen! Korey was tired and had enough! =) So, this is the best we got and I'm gonna be happy with that...even though they are not PERFECT like I WANTED!! I have one more idea to make a Christmas family photo and then I quit! =) I have a picture I might try to edit but its getting late and I think Korey & Kamryn(oh, after doing some tests, they found she's in the beginning stages of getting what Korey has...so she now has 2-3 meds to take!) have shared their sickness with their mom! =) Kylie WANTS to be sick, she cried this morning b/c she wanted to go see Dr. Steve! So, we'll see what tomorrow holds! But for now, I better get to bed!

Christmas Shopping for 2009!

Yes, you read that right! I'm not even done with Christmas 2008, but I have some ideas how to make shopping easier & 'free' in 2009! I'm excited to share this with you, because I'm really excited to see if I can do this challenge myself! I really think I can! These are all online ways to earn gift cards & cash!

www.Mypoints.com ~ sign up to receive emails, you get 5 points per email you open and go to the advertisers site. You can redeem your points for gift cards. I received 2 gift cards this year so far. $10 to Walgreens and I just ordered a $10 to Old Navy (for Christmas gifts).

www.youdata.com ~ this is basically the same idea, but you get CASH into your paypal account every Friday! And you don't get any emails, you have to log into their site to get your advertisements. When I started this I was getting $6 a week! But it was just new the cyber world and I think tons of people signed up, so it started dropping, but now I'm at least averaging $1 a week. I plan to just keep all that money in my paypal account and earn interest on it!

www.sendearnings.com ~ I get 2-4 emails a day from this company. It pays $.02 an email, not alot but I just started this in September and I'm up to I think around $8 or so. You get a $5 sign on bonus, but I think in a year you could reach the payout limit of $30! If you do special offers you can get more, but I just stick to the emails.

www.inboxdollar.com ~ Same exact thing as www.sendearnings.com!

www.Swagbucks.com ~ this is different, in that you earn gift cards for searching. It only takes 50 points to get a $5 Starbucks card. You also get rewarded generously for your referrals. Go here to sign up: http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=sb-register&rb=244098

An idea to help you keep organized with these is to set up a special email account just for these places.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday ~ Ham & Cheesy Potatoes in crockpot

Tuesday ~ Spaghetti/French Bread/Salad

Wednesday ~ Potato Soup

Thursday ~ Fried Chicken/Fried Potatoes/veggies/rolls

Friday ~ Bean & Rice Stuffed Peppers

Saturday ~ Easy Cheesy Sloppy Joes/M&C

Sunday ~ Crock pot chicken/Mashed potatoes/veggies/rolls

Things heard around our house

The other day Kylie was playing that she was talking on the phone (she has a toy cell). All of a sudden she closes it says:"My phone died"!! Of couse, she's heard this a lot the past few weeks since I've been having some issues with my battery! =)

This evening in church she was being difficult! Jonathan leaned over and asked if she was being bad. She replied so matter factly, "not yet!"

Korey woke up around 4 AM the other morning and yelled from his bed: Mom-y! Mom-y! Eat ... cookie! Mark me off as a bad mom, but I didn't get up to give him a cookie! He fell back to sleep in a few minutes!

Last week when Becka was packing up her stuff to leave, Kylie was standing there and said " I go with you?" Becka said, 'no, you have to stay here' (or something like that). She wasn't gonna give up that easy, and said it again, this time, I said Kylie, Aunt Becka has to go to school. She replied, "I want go school!" Later she heard me telling Jonathan about this conversation and he said, "Kylie you have to learn to go potty before you can go to school." Kylie: I don't want potty, I want go school!

There's a million more things like this that go on here all the time, I just can't remember any more of them right now! Since Korey is getting better at talking, its getting very fun! =)

Christmas with Aunt Becka

While Becka was here over Thanksgiving, we had Christmas too! It was fun! Here are just a few pictures. She got Korey an airplane, since that's one of his favorite things right now! The other day his sandwich was an airplane! =) There was a package of socks in his box and he threw those on the floor! Kamryn recieved some very cute clothes, and she was very interested in what was in her bag! Becka gave Kylie a little think to write on it and the erase it off, its been well played with the past few days. Its a great toy for 'on the potty' time! =)

Mexico Minstry update

Good & exciting things have been happening around here lately! We are greatly encouraged, but know there will always be battles & trials, but for now are rejoicing in the direction God has been leading us! In February of 2008, Jonathan went back to school to get his EMT certification. In the class was a couple for Mexico City who are doctors in an ER . They told Jonathan about how people die all the time because the ERs are full and this lead us to start thinking and praying that God might use us in an area of Medical training. Totally different than what we had felt before but God kept bringing it to our hearts and we talked with a few missionaries that lived in mountain villages and they totally agreed that the people could use some basic first aid knowledge that could possibility save their lives one day. We tried finding a book already written in Spanish and couldn't that was cost efficient, so we are planning to write one and then translate it into Spanish (its easier that way, since I'll be doing most of the writing.) We are also going to include a Salvation message into the presentation about how God can save lives for eternity! And the best part: we got an invitation last night to for sure go to some mountain villages and share this!!! You really can't imagine the excitement in this house! We are going to work VERY hard to get this done by January or early February.

There is two ways you can help with this project! If you go to this website: www.smartsource.com there is a coupon for $3 off 2 Johnson & Johnson first aid items. These are around $1.00-$1.50 at walmarts and cvs. If you just want print the coupon and send it to me so I can purchase the kits to give to people that attend the presentation or you can purchase them and mail them to us. (I say purchase but they should be free, except for tax). Also I've read where these are .99 at CVS and at the pharmacy there is a diabetic coupon book that has a $1.00 off coupon, making them free. I do not have a CVS, so if anyone feels it on their heart to help with this, and has a CVS this would make a fun, mostly free project!

This leads to one more bit of news - we are planning a Spring/Summer 09 deputation schedule. If anyone is interested in us visiting your church or Christian Day School, email me at texmexspringers@aol.com We will have pictures & reports from our first experiences of this project!

And like always, will have updates on our blog. =) We covet your prayers over our family and this project in the next few months! So far our children are not the best with new schedules and content changes, so this is going to be a great challenge! But I know that God is leading us and if we obey Him, He will help the children to adjust!

Thanksgiving Day

We had a fun Thanksgiving Day! We got together with some friends for dinner and spent the rest of the afternoon talking, playing games & laughing!! =) Becka got here Weds night about 10:30pm. Our Family
Daddy & Korey ~ spending some much needed quality time together

Korey & Kyle Mason playing

I love this picture of Kamryn ~ she was sitting on Becka's lap and I'm pretty sure she was watching all the kids playing

Becka & Korey at the airport

Best of my Christmas pictures

This didn't go as well as I'd have liked ~ I have a new appreciation for the employees at Sears! Or maybe I'm just not cut out for this, but no one was cooperating very well! We are going to have to do some more of this ~ not today though!! Be looking for our new family pictures on here, we're hoping to get those taken this week!

Corpus Christi, Texas

We were able to get a weekend away this week too! It was so refreshing and as we were coming home, I said to Jonathan that it felt like we were gone a LONG time, when it was really only about 36 hours! Thanks to a post on http://www.moneysavingmom.com/, I joined http://www.hotelclub.com/ and recieved a $30 credit towards a motel stay. We found a good motel for less than half the cost it normally would be and went to Corpus Christi, about 2 1/2 hours away. We left Saturday morning, we were hoping to get going a few hours earlier than we did but after getting home late the night before from the corn maze and having laundry to do, due to the mud, it was about 9:45 when we finally left Weslaco. (we left the house a little earlier but had a few things to do in town before we could be on our way.) We met our friend Jennie and her son, James and went to the Museum of Science and History . It was fun. While there we were able to get on a replica of one of Columbus's ships. This museum has two of them. Mike, Jennie, James, Kylie & Jonathan ~ I didn't realize it til later but I missed Korey in the picture, he was in the high chair on the right by Jennie. She made us a wonderful Sunday dinner ~ almost like being at home in PA: Roast, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy & Green beans! Thanks guys - we had a very fun & relaxing weekend!Our breakfast waffles at the motel!

James & Kamryn (James is 2 months older than her and they had a blast together!)The new queen & king of Spain! =)Kylie as Diego, the cabin boy

Guess this catches me up on bloging! =) Becka comes tonight for Thanksgiving break and we are SO excited! Everytime Kylie has heard the dogs barking yesterday and today, she'll ask: "Becka here?" Today a neighbour knocked on the door and she was jumping with excitment saying "Becka HERE!" (not a question that time!) But I had to tell her, no not yet. They are sleeping so I need to finish up the house quick and start some food for supper and later when we get back from the airport!

Corn Maze

Friday night we went with our church family to the Donna Corn Maze. It was a wonderfully fun night and very COLD!!! For more pictures visit Esther's blog.
Kamryn had the best seat of all! =) She was snug & warm in her car seat/stroller with lots of layers and blankets!

They had a box full of corn, (like a sandbox) for the kids to play in. They had a wonderful time, and I'm still finding corn in my house! It came out of their pockets, shoes, & diapers! =)

Eating with daddy

Roasting a hot dog

Kylie & Wa on the slide. This was a little tricky this time, it landed you in the mud! =)