Happy Birthday CHAD!

I forgot to post something pretty special yesterday - it was my brother Chad's birthday! Mind you, I didn't forget his birthday, just the post=) We had just a small celebration here at our house with all of us and Kendrick as well. Since Chad isn't really a cake person (at least not chocolate and what other kind of cake is there????), I made him a cheesecake and an apple pie.

And now for some of my old favorite pictures of Chad....It's hard to get to many embarrassing ones of him without incriminating myself=)

And now for some new ones.....Happy Birthday, Chad! We love you and are glad for these days of having you close by=)

Thanksgiving Day

OK, I've had my break....now I will try and get back to this blog and finish the posts about our time in Chile during the last couple days, back when things were too crazy to take the time to sit and type and wait foreeeeever for pictures to upload.

I'm going to start with Thanksgiving Day - I know the point of the blog is to keep people up to date on a more regular basis, as opposed to telling you what happened last week, but such is life! We actually had a really good day. As I mentioned before, we spent the day working to take advantage of the last full day of work, and had our big meal for supper that evening. We had 19 people around our table - the Thompson family which included Greg Thompson, Sharon Bisbee ( a GMSA missionary who came down from Santiago with the Kunnari's), Melissa Jarvis, Dan, Diana, Brett, and Troy Kunarri, and all of our family. The kitchen was busy for most of that day and the day before getting ready for our big feast. It seemed that even being outside of the US and without some of the typical foods or decorations, our Thanksgiving was a bit closer to the original than most here in the States may have been. We were in a different land, among several friends and not just family, a bit limited in the food we had access to, even more limited in the kitchen appliances we are used to....All in all it was a good reminder of all that we have and take for granted. We thank the Lord so much for His provision for our family to be able to go to Chile. It is easy to forget that and get caught up in the 'busyness' of everything, but we are very grateful to Him and to all those that He used to make if possible.

And now for the pictures....great they are not! I'll start with ones from the day before Thanksgiving when we did a lot of the prep work and baking.

Diana saved the day by making the pie crusts...NINE in all! We had 2 strawberry, 2 cherry, 1 blackberry, 1 pumpkin, 2 apple, and 1 cheesecake.

The other major chore was making the rolls - Liz made up a HUGE batch. But not only did she do that, she made Logan's day by teaching him how to cut them out and roll them up.The potatoes were peeled, the squash peeled and cut up....

The turkey was set to soak in a brine mixture for 24 hours and that was pretty much the end of the pre-Thanksgiving prep work. The next day Dan T. put the turkeys into the smoker (actually a sawdust burner) for a few hours then finished them off in the oven. Dan K. had the honor of carving them both. There were actually two turkeys, about 13-14 pounds each, that were quite a nice, hard-earned treat. Liz searched far and near for some turkeys and then finally was able to order them from the butcher shop a couple weeks in advance.

The kitchen was HOT that day as the gravy was made, the potatoes mashed, the stuffing baked, the corn casserole cooked, and the pies heated up for dessert.Melissa and Monica made some table decorations, although they had help from some of the younger boys in collecting pine cones=) And finally the time came and we all sat down to a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings!

Thank You

I just finished writing a post about our Thanksgiving in Chile and I am beginning the process of catching this blog up. But before I do any of that I really wanted to say something first....


Dear Danny and Liz,
I just wanted to write this, publicly, to tell you Thank You! For six weeks our family and team invaded your life and took up your time, added to your expenses, drove your kids crazy, and made your life considerably more inconvenient. And while you guys know as well as we do that every thing was not always great and each moment was not always peachy - we had a WONDERFUL time with you all.
Liz, I treasure our friendship more than before and know that, while we are different, we were able to enjoy time together just the same. Danny, things were as comfortable with you as they have been since you were two....=) Matthew and I thank you for all you did for us. We will continue to pray, now even more knowingly, for your family and the work God has called you to in Lican Ray, Chile.
Matthew and Alisha

*Be sure and continue to pray for the Thompsons - today the camping season officially started! They will be very busy until the end the beginning of March with camps nonstop from now until then.

Were Home!!!

Just a quick post to say that we are here, all is well, and we are ready to go to bed! The trip served to reaffirm some of my thoughts concerning traveling and my fellow citizens but I won't elaborate=) Our luggage made it all safely except a stroller that will arrive via Fed-Ex tomorrow. We have a LOT to do throughout the coming days to get settled back in and ready for life to get back to normal. Our house is full of people and pets and stuff right now so I am just trying to keep a calm perspective and regain as much organization as I can. Thanks for all of your prayers for our trip and our time in Chile! I will try and finish off a few more post about the last few days with some more pictures as I get to it. Most of us are glad to be home...some of us still wish we were in Chile....For now, goodbye and good night!

I have not been able to be online in the last few days because of the craziness of wrapping up our time in Chile. As I write this we are at the mission headquarters in Santiago, Chile. We are going to spend most of the early part of the day repacking, washing our clothes as well as the linens that we used here last night, weighing our suitcases, and preparing for the long night ahead by taking naps=) Later today we will take part in the missionary prayer meeting that takes place here each Monday afternoon, just like when I was a kid! We are looking forward to the fellowship with the missionaries on our final day here as well as the Domino´s pizza to follow!

Backing up a bit...we really enjoyed our Thanksgiving! I´ll post more pictures and details when we get back but it was a very enjoyable evening and very yummy turkey! Friday it poured all day so we didn´t get a whole lot done. Teresa Thompson, an MK I knew from growing up, had her wedding planned to take place there at camp and there was a lot of preparation we took part in. I did a bit of packing and preparing our things for the trip but not much else got done with all the rain. We went out to supper so the camp was free for the rehearsal dinner and all the wedding guests. It was another great meal of empanadas, sandwich barros luco, cazuela de vacuno y ave, ensalada de palta, and on and on.

Saturday the wedding was the focus of the whole day. Our work as far as NTI was concerned had come to a halt as of Thursday due to clean up and all the prep work that had to be done for the wedding. This did serve a dual purpose though, as the camps are soon to begin and the grounds were in need of a good cleaning! Because of some communication mixups there was no photographer there and that brought on a rather interesting event....Diana Kunnari and I were asked to be the wedding photographers!!!!!!!!!! It was overwhelming to say the very least, but I will write a bit more about that later as well. As soon we finished with pictures I went to start packing. It was 4 o´clock and we had to leave before 9 so I was feeling a little rushed. Right after I started Matthew came in and said that the missionary who had agreed to take our luggage back up to Santiago for us was leaving in an hour!!!!!!!!!! PANIC! So, with the help of Matthew, Monica, and Zach (who had an even more eventful day but I´ll save that for later also) we got everything packed. Thanks a million to Diana Kunnari who watched the 3 little kids that whole time so we could get it done much faster!

We arrived here yesterday morning, after a miserable bus ride, had a little over 2 hours to get 7 people through the shower and get to the church for the Sunday morning service. It was great to reconnect with people in the church I grew up in!

But, this is getting lengthy enough and I have load #4 of laundry just about ready to hang up so the rest will wait for another time. We fly out of here at 11pm tonight, arriving in Denver at 8:30 tomorrow morning (after a short layover in Dallas) with a 6 hour drive to Buffalo Gap. Please don´t stop praying yet!

Work, work, and more work!

Once again in the last couple of days we have been invigorated by the arrival of new people. For those of us that have been here a while it is nice when others come in fresh and ready to lend a hand! That has been the case since Dan, Diana, and Troy Kunnari got here yesterday along with Sharon Bisbee. There have been lots of things taking place all over camp. I thought I would post about all the work that has been getting done over the past week or so, on the house as well as other needed projects around here.

Before we arrived Dan and Greg tore down the old house so we could start from the bottom. They saved the styrofoam from the old house and have used it as insulation in the walls of the new house. Each piece has to be cut to size....
Greg has several of his own special projects and the main one has been pouring a concrete countertop for the kitchen. In Chile the options for countertop are very limited (unless you want to opt for very pricey). Here is the countertop being worked on...it is slate blue in color.Some of his other projects include all the plumbing and the electrical wiring.Here Brett and Troy are working on finishing up the last of the siding.Another recent project on the house has been getting the insulation in the ceilings and starting on the sheetrock. This may very well be the stopping point for our team - from here on out Dan and Liz will be left to finish on their own. This will include all the flooring (wood and tile), finishing the sheetrock, installing bathroom fixtures, putting in the windows and all the trim, getting kitchen cabinets installed, painting, and the list goes on and on....Not to mention that as of December 6 there are camps here that will continue on into the month of March!

Monica and Melissa cut most of the insulation, nasty fiiberglass stuff, that was then put into the ceiling.The sheetrock went up next, Matthew was usually on the ground cutting and then Brett and Dan would put it up, very heavy to hold up over your head and get it screwed in at the same time.Also, a tractor and driver was rented for a couple hours yesterday afternoon so that some of the heavier work could be done; like clearing the driveway area and burying the rubel left over from the demolition of the old house. Dan, Diana, and Sharon worked on burning brush, AGAIN, and hauling firewood. Monica and Zach worked with them and for some reason found it quite fun! Yesterday we also spent a lot of time in the kitchen working of getting ready for Thanksgiving (9pies and counting!). Our plan is to have our big meal in the evening which allows us to get in another full day of work. We are so thankful for the blessing of fellowship! Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family back home - enjoy your turkey, football and hunting, enjoy your Black Friday shopping (which I will not miss)! God Bless You All!

A Stubborn Tooth

Any one that has been around our family much lately (as in the last 2 months or so) is probably familiar with the 'tooth story'. Logan hates, hates, hates getting his teeth pulled. We aren't sure what exactly is the problem but it becomes quite a traumatic affair when he has a tooth that needs to come out. Well, Matthew told him he would give the famous tooth one good pull at a time, every once and a while, throughout the day. In appearance one would think it was hanging on it's last literal thread - but it was stuck in there quite well! So yesterday, after a pulling, Logan actually went back into the bathroom and kept pulling on the tooth on his own - this, you need to understand, is monumental! Well, it worked! So here it is, the big announcement that Justin and Roy have been waiting for since they left....

"LOGAN LOST HIS TOOTH!!!"

Here he is in a camera shy moment....The more time went by the further this tooth stuck out and the more crooked it looked!In a not so camera shy moment!And (even thought the entire last batch of pictures I took were all blurry) here he is shortly after the moment of victory!

Tooth number three is out - only like 19 more to go....?!?!

Beach Pictures

Today another week has begun. I don't often get to the blog over the weekend or take the time to write things but I do have some pictures. So today I thought I would just show some more pictures of our time at the beach.

Some cutie pies=)Morgan laying on top of Selah - who likes to dig herself out a place to lay in the sand so that it will be cooler.

The grown ups aren't usually as eager to face the cold water...unless they are covered in insulation and eager to stop the itching=)

This picture was taken by Micah, a budding photographer!

Here's Jesse - he woke up from his nap when our time at the beach was almost over so he didn't get changed into his swim trunks but, as you can see, he got into the water just the same!

And here is a fun sequence of pictures....Zach figured he'd go out and float around in this barrel. All the guys were sitting on the beach smiling - knowing that at 13 they would have done the same exact thing, but knowing also that it wouldn't work=)

Uncle Danny must have felt a bit sympathetic because he dissappeared for a little while and returned with a much more successful raft=) I think it made Zach's day!Some of the older guys convinced Micah to play a rather cruel trick on Bruno, his cat. He put him in the water and that silly cat just swam out and walked away, looking slightly annoyed but handling it very well in comparison to most cats I know!!!

"Uncle" Greg and "Uncle" Brett had some fun with Alana.... As you can see, she enjoyed herself, too!

I don't usually have many pictures of Monica...the reason is that for most of the day she is in the main bilding doing school work, not exactly a great picture taking opportunity! But hopefull this week she will be in front of the camera a bit more often as she is taking most of the week off from school. Just three more weeks and she will be done 10th grade!

And a pretty picture to close with!