~Some pics.~

~One morning I got up and took a shower and when I came back to my room, this is what I found from my sweet Sarah! She had made my breakfast and brought it to me, but found that I was not in my room, so left it on my bed for me. She's so thoughtful! I'm a very blessed Mommy with 4 precious treasures that Jesus has given to Phillip and I! =)~

~Our girl's friend Paula spent the day with the girls and so we took a fun picnic to the park. It was windy and our plates and napkins were blowing everywhere, Elijah was crawling around getting into our food, and later a dog came and we had to hurriedly pick up things so he didn't take them...but we made memories. Our girls are going to miss their Colombian friends while we are in the USA.~
Please pray for our girl's friends as we leave them for a few months. There are several young girls that have great potential to do great things for God, but that is no secret to the enemy of our souls. Please pray for Paula, Diana, 2 girls named Karen, Gaby, Valeria, Sandra and Lady as God brings them to your mind. 3 of those girls are taking piano lessons, so that hopefully one day they can take my place on the piano bench in our churches. =)~

~Caramel Apple pie~

~My Moma's apple pie recipe is the BEST...and Phillip LOVES IT. But, I found a new recipe for a caramel apple pie, so decided to try it. I added the cinnamon sugar on top because I knew I wouldn't like an apple pie without the topping that we put on our apple pie. It was yummy! (But Phillip still loves our apple pie the best. =) Here is a picture of the pie before it baked. One thing that I loved is that this recipe told me NOT to peel the apples. =)~

~Caramel Apple Pie~
4-6 large red Gala apples, unpeeled and thinly sliced.
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (I prefer my cinnamon on top.)
1/4 cup water
**SEE NOTE BELOW!!**
Double crust for a 9" pie
1. Place bottom crust in pie plate and place 4-6 unpeeled, thinly sliced Gala apples in the bottom. Place a lattice top crust on pie. Fold edges over and crimp.
2. In a med. sauce pan place all the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil and turn off.
3. Pour Caramel all over the lattice crust and apples.
4. Top with cinnamon/sugar if desired.
5. Bake at 475 for 15 mins. and then lower temperature to 350 and bake for 35-40 more minutes. LET PIE COMPLETELY COOL before slicing.
**(It does not have any thickening so sometimes wants to fall apart when you slice it. If you want to add thickening...Stir in 2 Tablespoons of Cornstarch OR Flour before bringing the caramel to a boil.)**
Enjoy!!

Kelly is being a HUGE help to us! We are loving having her here with us.~

~Kelly busily helping in Colombia.~

Since we couldn't pack and move yet...We enjoyed baking and then Kelly helped us to erase Sarah's PACES. Now that we have an apartment we are very busy packing and moving. Enjoy these pics from Kelly's first 2 weeks here.~
~Kelly rolling out the Indian Fry bread dough.~
~Frying the Indian Fry bread.~
~Kelly and Kimberly with the yummy Indian fry bread.~
~I enjoyed helping Kelly make an apple pie.~
~Kelly with her delicious apple pie that she made.~
~Kelly helped us erase Sarah's 3rd grade Paces.
~Getting a blister on our fingers but Sarah's 3rd grade Paces are ready for her to do this next year. =)~
~Our Sunday dinner table~
~I found these cute little placemats and I love them. The plate doesn't really match, but my white dishes were already packed.~
~Us and Kelly eating Sunday dinner~
~Having a nice visit with Bro. Jimmy and Sis. Farly~
~Noah giving Elijah a ride on his 3 wheeler.~
~Packing and moving~
~Elijah playing in the stroller while Kelly takes a picture of Noah's "house" in a suitcase.~
~Noah playing inside one of the suitcases.~
~Kelly and the girls packing up the kitchen.~

~We have an apartment!~

PRAISE THE LORD, T-O-D-A-Y GOD HELPED US TO FIND AN APARTMENT TO RENT!! IT IS A BRAND NEW APARTMENT AND IS A LITTLE SMALLER THAN WHAT WE HAVE BEEN RENTING BUT FOR 2/3 THE PRICE. YEA!
So...Right now we are VERY BUSY packing up our whole house to move in a couple days, and trying to pack for the USA too. After we move, we have to come back and paint and clean up our old home in order to get our deposit back. Plus, Phillip's teaching and preaching schedule remains the same during all of this. Please pray that we can get everything done in the remaining 2 weeks! Thank you!
We are really enjoying having our dear friend Kelly with us! She is an angel sent straight from Heaven! God knew that I wouldn't have been able to make this move without her!! =) Until we knew that we had a house, we couldn't really start packing. So, we spent the first week of Kelly's visit showing her some of Bogota and baking lots of yummy goodies! Here are some pics!
~Right before Kelly came we made this Father's Day cake, since we were Cartagena on Father's day.~
~Along with Quesidillas...I made/served this Oreo cookie cake for our snack when we brought Kelly home from the airport. It's supposed to look like a giant Oreo cookie. It was delicious.~
~Kelly's little welcoming gift in her room when she arrived.~
~Kelly brought the kids some fun gifts~
~Sis. Farly did a great job with our 5th Ladies' Meeting.~
~Kelly, the ladies and I listening attentively to Sis. Farly.~
~Elijah found a little friend.~
~At the end of the meeting I showed the ladies a new Yuca recipe.~
~One sad little Girafe (Elijah)~
~on Saturday Kelly, the kids and I met some new Colombian friends and they fed us a nice lunch.~
~Kelly being introduced to the church her first Sunday.~
~Elijah...doing what he does best...making messes. =)~
~Sunday afternoon we had Bro. Jimmy and his family, parents and sister and family over for dinner, then later that evening Felipe, Karen, Paula, Mathew, and Juan Martin came over for a snack. It's going to be hard saying goodbye to our Colombian friends.~

~My pretty real pink flowers that I bought for our Sunday dinner centerpiece.~
~I had fun showing Kelly how to make French bread and she did a Beautiful job!~

~Some Saturday baking~

~One Saturday I got in the baking mood. I got to thinking that I won't get to bake in my own home in Colombia for 5 months (while we are on deputation in the USA), so I baked 78 banana muffins to pass out at church on Sunday, and...
~A yummy Choc. Chip (Brown Derby) pie.~
~A good Key Lime pie.~
~My Moma's apple pie recipe is the BEST...and Phillip LOVES IT. But, I found a new recipe for a caramel apple pie, so decided to try it. I added the cinnamon sugar on top because I knew I wouldn't like an apple pie without the topping that we put on our apple pie. Here is a picture of the pie before it baked.~
~The Caramel apple pie after baking. It was yummy! (But Phillip still loves our apple pie the best. =) I'll post this recipe soon.~
And I made 5 loaves of banana bread for some gifts.~
It was a fun day of baking...it felt like Christmas. =)

~The last of our Cartagena trip pics!~

PLEASE PRAY!! The apt. that we were going to rent has fallen through, so we have LESS THAN 3 weeks to find another house/apt. to rent, pack and move, pack for the USA and clean and paint the old rental house! Please pray that God will guide us to the right house SOON and help us to get everything done!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I obviously have TONS more pics from Cartagena but I will just post these last few from our 13 day trip helping our church there! We did take some days and did some sightseeing with the family that we stayed with and had some time alone as a family too.
~One day the family that we were staying with took us to the beach. Their kids and ours LOVED the ocean.~
~Aren't we cool? =) We passed a man selling these and gave him a little change for letting us try them on for a goofy pic.~
~Cartagena is known for their BEAUTIFUL houses and buildings. I LOVED them...they reminded me somewhat of the beautiful buildings in New Orleans, LA.~
~Our last Sunday we had a triple wedding. These are the 3 bridal bouquets that Kimberly, Ilce and I made for the wedding.~
~The wedding cakes and table.~
~The 3 brides waiting in the back.~
~The 3 happy couples after they were pronounced man and wife! It was a sweet wedding and we felt God's presence very near. The couples were sooo THRILLED with their special day. We took lots of pics and gave each couple an album.~
~Our family after the wedding.~
~The dear family that we stayed with.~
~Eating yummy snowcones smoothered in sweetened condensed milk. =) I used to sell these in the summer time in Louisiana when I was a teenager.~
~Our last full day there our family took a boat ride to an island. Here is part of the Cartagena sky line as we left the city.~
~Even little Elijah wore a life jacket~
~Sarah fixing to slide down the slide...but then she got scared at the bottom and backed off instead of sliding off. =)~
~The kids having fun in the water~
~We bought some delicious Shrimp!! (If you can't tell my time in Louisiana was a huge influence on me.=)~
~A fun picture of Sarah and Mommy (I was holding Sarah's sunglasses for her, thus the 2nd pair of glasses on my blouse.)~
The price of the boat included a WONDERFUL lunch!!~
~A little closer look at our yummy lunch! They served Coconut rice, Sierra fish ("Saw" fish. It was so delicious that I ate 2 fish), fried platan, (like a banana) a yummy salad, fresh fruit and Pop.~
~Our family eating the delicious lunch!~
~Our family in the boat heading back to Cartagena. It was a very special day together...what fun memories!~
Kelly Becker is here and is being a HUGE help!! I'll post pics of her soon. =)