~Fun Food Friday...an easy yummy cheese ball~

~I told you that I'd share the recipe of the cheese ball I made for our Ladies' Tea.  It was easy and very yummy!  I formed mine and put it on my Fall leaf plate.  I made 3 cheese balls, but I had so much food that we only ate one at the Tea Party.  So, we kept one and sent the other one home with Sis. Farly for her, Pastor Jimmy and their family to eat.
I hope you enjoy it as much as the Ladies, Pastor Jimmy and his family and our family did. =) ~

~Celebration Cheese Ball~
About.com (Southern food)

• 6 (3-ounces each) packages cream cheese, or 18 ounces, room temperature
• 8 ounces shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
• 2 teaspoons grated onion
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons finely minced garlic
• Finely chopped pecans or peanuts (I used toasted almonds since I cannot get pecans or walnuts here.)

Serve with your choice of crackers.
And as Always...Enjoy!
 

~My Ladies Tea...part 2~

Again, Thank you for your prayers. Jesus really helped with our Ladies' tea. There were 32 of us in our SMALL first floor. We were wall-to-wall ladies, wall-to-wall smiles, and wall-to-wall happiness. =)
Here are some pics for you to enjoy.
~As I showed you before, here's my fun tea set that I told you Jesus gave me for our Tea party.  It was for Sarah, Gaby, and I to use during our "Tea." ~

~One of my food tables.  (I failed to get a picture of it after I put the BBQ'd sausages on this table.)  So, on this table were BBQ'd sausages, Mrs. Naomi's gingersnap cookies (we made 3 batches), and the choc. cut-out cookies.
The BBQ'd sausages recipe is:   cut your sausages in 3rds, toast them in the oven for a few minutes, then mix together grape jelly and BBQ sauce.   Pour sauce over the sausages and warm them through, and serve.  (I used my LG. crockpot, and another pan.)
They are ALWAYS A HUGE HIT!!!!...And tonight was no exception!!  =) ~

~A poem I wrote about our Ladies' Tea.~

Normally when one has “High Tea”

She sits down to a table all pretty.

She serves and drinks tea out of dainty glass ware,

While sipping tea with her pinky in the air! =)

But there was no room for ladies to sit,

At tables…we used only chairs so we could all fit.

I asked each lady to bring her favorite cup

And we made up 4 flavors of tea to fill them up.

* Our first floor is SMALL just ….167 square feet!

“TEA Parties” are rare in Colombia so for them it was a treat.

Jesus gave us a wonderful group and a great “TEA”

One that we trust touched lives for Eternity!

                                                             ~Heather~

* (Minus my tiny kitchen)

~Tired little Miss Mary and Sis. Farly all ready for the Tea.~

~Here are a few of the ladies.  As you notice my friend Gloria is trying to duck out of the picture to your left.~

~So, I told her that I could "PLAY the game too"...and turned and took a picture of just she and Marisol.
=) ~

~Here in this picture...we were WAITING...and PRAYING!   You see....There's a lady from our church that just turned 75 and sometimes can get lost.  She was coming to my Tea Party in a taxi by herself.  A taxi driver called my cell phone and told us that he had Mrs. Zulma in another part of town.  So, Sis. Farly asked the taxi driver to PLEASE bring her to a certain corner and we'd go and meet him there to get her.  We went to that corner and waited, waited, and WAITED some more!   Phillip ran to the other part of town where the taxi driver called from to check to see if Mrs. Zulma was there.  She wasn't.  When we tried to call the taxi driver AND Mrs. Zulma's numbers, neither one would answer.  We could just see poor Mrs. Zulma wandering around town LOST.   There was nothing to do but have SPECIAL PRAYER for her, committing her into God's care, and then start our Tea party...for we were already over an hour late starting.  =(  (THANKFULLY, Bro. Jimmy called us later during the Tea to tell us he had talked to Sis. Zulma and she was at home and just fine!)~

~The Lord really helped Sis. Farly and she gave us a wonderful, challenging, and inspiring devotional.  She mentioned several ladies of the Bible and brought out their good qualities and inspired us to follow their example.  Her devotional made us want to be better Christians, wives, and mothers.  =) ~

~There were ladies in every corner of our small living/dinning room.~

~Intently listening to Sis. Farly.~

~My 5-grain cream cheese rolls.  (We made 96 of these.) ~

~On this table were:
Our pumpkin muffins, our 5-grain cream cheese filled rolls, apples and caramel dip (For the caramel I just used the "Arequipe" (Caramel) which is sold EVERYWHERE here.)  A YUMMY cheese ball and whole wheat and white crackers.   (I plan to share the EASY and delicious cheese ball recipe I found on the internet), and A yummy cold juice that tastes similar to Apple cidar.~

~Gloria and her Mother standing in line to get their food.~

~Starting to munch. =) ~

~They all loved our food and were asking for recipes, which I plan to type out and share.  The lady on your right is Gloria's mother-in-law, and the lady in the middle is Noah's friend Nicolas' Grandmother.~

~Kimberly and Sis. Miriam were a HUGE help in getting everyone their hot tea out of my 4 HUGE pots of tea we made up ahead of time.  (There was NO room to do it any other way!)  We served a selection of Apple/cinn. tea, Mint, Manderin, and Red berries tea.
The ladies seemed to really ENJOY their cups of hot tea! =) ~

~Gloria and I.~

~There were 5 of us pastor's wives at my Tea.  So, I had someone take our picture.~

~Then Gloria started telling them how she had seen my hair down and so someone began to BEG me to take down my hair, for they wanted to see how long it was.  I took it down for them, and they wouldn't let me put it back up until they got some pics with me with it down.  =)
My dear friend Marisol and I.~

~Sweet Gloria, Myself, and her Mother.~

~Then, Kimberly did 6 different girl/ladies' hair showing them some fun styles.~

~The little girl on the left is wearing a fast messy bun, the girl on the right is wearing my "braided/twisted" bun.~

~Gaby on the left is wearing Kimberly's curly bun, and Sarah is wearing a new braid Dee sent us a link for.~

~After all the ladies left VERY CONTENTED with their arms full of left-overs, I took off my heels and SAT DOWN TO REST!  Mary went over and put on my heels, so we had to snap a couple pics of her.~

~Mary is pretty much in LOVE with her Daddy...and there's aren't words to tell how VERY MUCH DADDY LOVES HIS MARY!  =) ~

~After the tea party, I needed my coat rack back, so I moved our little Fall banner/pennant garland we made to our China cabinet.~

~Kimberly and I LOVE it hanging there.  Kimberly said, "This is my favorite way that we have decorated our China cabinet for fall." (for 2 more pics of our Fall decor on the China cabinet, see "Tea party/fall decor...part 1" ~

So, Thank YOU TONS for your prayers.  Like I said, I could FEEL your prayers.  We could NOT have made it without them!  =)
One lady told me later that her church has never done anything like this for her and the other ladies.  She said that she has NEVER been in a place where she felt so much LOVE, CARE, and like she was with FAMILY!
Please do pray that the seeds sown at this Tea will change lives for HIM!  =)  Thanks!

 

~Our Ladies' Tea/My fall decor...part 1~

~THANK YOU for your prayers for our Ladies Tea.   I could tell y'all were praying because Jesus REALLY helped us to get TONS done this week.  Our LONG TO-DO LIST included: Scrapbooking 62 pages (218 pics of recent Colombian events that we knew our ladies would ENJOY seeing =), doing ALL the running and shopping with no car, cleaning and decorating our house for Fall, and for our menu:
Baking 92 cream cheese 5-grain rolls, making 3 large cheese balls, a double batch of Aunt Nesi's pumpkin bread to make into muffins, a batch of Laura's choc. cut-out cookies, a Lg. crockpot and another pan FULL of BBQ'd sausages, 4 HUGE pots of 4 different flavors of teas (Apple/cinn., Mint, Mandarin, and red berries), some cold Lulo (persimmon) juice that tastes similar to Apple cider, and 3 batches of Mrs. Naomi's gingersnaps. ~

~I had LOTS of help from our sweet Mary.  =) ~

~The morning of the Tea my sweetheart took me to buy some pretty fall-ish flowers. ~

~ I also WANTED some tiny CUTE pumpkins to decorate with.   We walked all over the flower market...and I was PRAYING the whole time...that Jesus would help me find them.  Jesus answered prayer and we finally found some.  YEA!  =)   They can only be found here in Colombia around this time of year.  I LOVE the little white pumpkin on the left. ~

~ I knew that there would never be room for ladies to sit in my SMALL first floor if I left my table in the center of the floor.  So, we divided our 2 plastic tables (that are tapped together underneath to make one larger table =) and I put one where Mary's high chair normally sits, and the other in the cubby hole underneath our stairs.~

~Phillip and I made this welcoming sign to put outside our door.~

~With scrabble letters I spelled out "Autumn" on one side of my china cabinet in English and ...~

~On the other side "Otoño" in Spanish.  (Kimberly added the little  ~  above the N for me.  =) ~

~In the cubby hole under the stairs we have a coat rack where we hang all of our coats (for as you know it's usually chilly here).  So, when I thought about putting one of the serving tables there I knew that I needed to think of something to hang on the coat rack.
So, Kimberly helped me and we made a little fun FALL banner/pennant garland to hang there.~

~We carved out real apples and inserted tea lite candles in them for a touch of light on the table under the stairs.~

~My pretty little hand blown glass pumpkins that I was DELIGHTED to find our 2nd year here in Bogota'. ~

~Some fall berries and leaves and my bow adding a touch of Fall to our mirror in our living room.~

~There are no stores like Bath and Body works here that we've found, so I normally just use the CHEAPEST hand soap I can find at my grocery store.  However, while shopping for my tea party I saw this fun hand soap (for around $3.00), and my sweetheart bought it for me.  He's the BEST!  =D~

~There aren't a lot of yummy scented candles here either.  Most candles here have no smell and are for emergency in case your lights go out, or for religious purposes.
So, we were DELIGHTED to find the ONLY 2 FALL smelling candles that the store had.  Fun smells just GO With Fall! =)
This candle is Cinnamon and Frankincense, and the other one is ~

~Apple.  (I originally only bought one candle...but when our Kimberly and Sarah opened this apple candle in the store to smell it, they both said, "OH, this reminds us of traveling around in the motor home."  =)
(In 2009 some of our friends loaned us their motor home for our deputation.  I got to decorate it for fall, and we all have WONDERFUL memories of those months traveling around in "our home on wheels." =)
It brought back such fun memories and Kimberly and Sarah both fell in LOVE with this apple candle.  =)
So, one day when Phillip and I had to run out for some more supplies, we surprised our girls by buying this candle for them to enjoy...for ALLLLLLLLLLL of their help to Mommy (all the time...but especially with this TEA! =) ~

~ Some Fall decor in the kid's bathroom.  (This candle from my sis-in-law Beth burned out long ago.  So a year ago Phillip took all the left-over small fall-ish type candles he could find in our house and melted them in this same jar...trying to make another fall candle, for they are so HARD to find here.  =)~

~We have never seen the colored dried corn here, but Phillip helped me make this fun arrangement out of the fresh Colombian corn.  We hung it on the stair banister.  Part 2 coming up! ~