~Our nice but simple Valentine's day~

~Please pray for one of my dear friends, Lila, who fell and broke her shoulder!! =(
~PLEASE Continue to PRAY for ME / Our family! Life is pretty stressful right now with people coming in and out of our house, buying our furniture, having to clean our things out of the furniture for people to take, plus trying to get school work, and a TON of other things done.  (And we haven't even started packing!
I'm SO EXHAUSTED!  I Literally feel more tired when I wake up than I did when I went to bed!
~Besides selling, sorting, and packing, I'm also making a Spanish cookbook in these BUSY days! 
Many here have asked for several of my recipes that they Love!  So, instead of trying to write out the recipes for everyone, I'm making a cookbook in Spanish. 
I'm just including about 50 of everyone's FAVORITE recipes of mine.  However, it is stressful making sure I explain how to make my breads and Pie using the correct words in SPANISH, so that they understand what I mean!         Your prayers for this project are appreciated!
~I also have about 150 choruses/hymns to record on the piano (for our 3 churches here), before we leave.  PLEASE PRAY THAT THE RECORDING AND ALL goes well!!!
And now...some pics of our simple but fun Valentine's day.  Since I've already given away my heart-shaped muffin tins, I used Noah's marbles to make our cupcakes heart shaped. =) ~

~One of my girls loaned me her CUTE bear with a heart on his scarf...to add a fun touch to our Breakfast table!~

~Amazingly, my beautiful roses from my Phillip are still nice and pretty after being lugged all over town the day we took our Valentine's pictures. (And we also took our pictures for our prayer cards for deputation that day!) ~

~Elijah helped me and we made fun little place cards for each member of our family.~

~I got all happy when I remembered that I still had my FUN set of coffee cups and saucers here that Pastor Jimmy and Sis. Farly got me/us for Christmas.  (I had planned to send them home with Bro. Becker and Bro. E., but they didn't have room in their carry-ons.)
These cups and saucers were PERFECT to serve our coffee in for our Valentine's breakfast table...since they have silver hearts all over them!  HOW FUN!~

~I made some whole wheat muffins with cranberries and blueberries in them.~

~I also served eggs, and a fresh fruit bowl too.~

~Then after breakfast our 3 precious little ones helped me make Rice Krispy treats!~

~Then I set up our Valentine's table for lunch.~

~Noah was a big helper and cut all of our Rice Krispy treats into heart shapes, while I dipped them in MINT CHOCOLATE (YUMMY!! =), and White chocolate tinted pink.~

~And here are our heart-shaped cupcakes with fun heart stickers in them.~

~Since it was church night, and I had a lot on my plate, we just ordered pizza from Dominoes for our lunch.~

~I was happy to find these red and white heart shaped plates near one mall, and the napkins that matched in another mall clear across town. =)
I Hope y'all's day was special as well!~

 

~Because you prayed...our pot-luck dinnner went great. =) ~

~The Lord helped me and I made over 100 banana muffins, and 7 loaves of french bread...plus we bought 110 chicken legs.  Dear Sis. Farly helped me cook half of those, and I cooked the other half.  And I made a salad to feed around 80 people.~

 ~Kimberly made this adorable cake which we sent home with Pastor Jimmy and Sis. Farly after the dinner.  I thought she did a great job.~

 ~The chunks are white chocolate.~

 ~I took my aqua and brown pumpkin from our room and used it on the table with Pastor Jimmy and family's picture. ~

 ~Sis. Joanna made a NEAT sign to hang above the table.  It says, "Happy Day, Pastors Jimmy and Farly Muchas Gracias!!!"
(Please pardon the Happy Birthday sign that never got removed.  My Phillip teased that we should just add a "Feliz Navidad" sign, and a Happy Anniversary sign, and we'd have nearly all the events covered.)  =D ~

 ~God gave us a great service and a nice crowd.~

 ~(Excuse the dark picture.) ~

 ~We decorated the little muffins I made with a touch of blue icing, and a pink and white marshmallow.  Fast, colorful (Colombians LOVE color) easy, cute. =) ~

 ~The table with the treats.~

 ~We served nearly 80 people.~

 ~Phillip praying for the food and Thanking God for Pastor Jimmy and Sis. Farly and their family.~

 ~The other ladies brought in the drinks, rice, potatoes, another lady made a tad more chicken, to make sure we had enough, Joanna brought in yummy jellos, and Judy (Farly's sister) brought in delicious "Arroz con Leche."  (Rice with milk that is a yummy dessert here.)  Everything was yummy, and we even had left-overs.~

 ~The kids waiting to be served.~

 ~Some happy Ladies, with their plates of food. =) ~

 ~Everyone worked together to help serve the food.  (I think if we do this again, we'll do it buffet style like we do in the US, but this WHOLE IDEA was so NEW...that I wanted to break things in slowly. =) ~

 ~Pastor Jimmy and his mother-in-law chatting...while waiting to be served.~

 ~Sis. Farly's brother (with crutches...he hurt himself recently), and her uncle.~

 ~Even the men helped serve.  Here's Bro. Edgar serving drinks.~

 ~Bro. Jaime, little Isabella, and Sis. Gloria, Phillip and I.  (Bro. Jaime is who made that NEAT Scripture plaque with the dried flower on it. ) ~

 ~Phillip and I with Pastor Jimmy and Sis. Farly!
How we LOVE and appreciate our Dear Pastor Jimmy and Sis. Farly.  We are so THANKFUL for them!  They are such a blessing to us and to the church.    (And we were so THANKFUL that God gave us 4 good Sundays in which to try to show them how much we as a church love them.  =)
PLEASE PRAY for Sis. Farly and her family.  Her cousin was hit by a car and killed on Friday.  (She left a husband and 3 children, the youngest of which is 2.)   =(

 

~My Mother's day...for the most part I was in my bed. =)~

I really appreciate y'all praying that this horrible flu that my family had wouldn't hit me. Unfortunately, it did hit me the Saturday before Mother's day.   This is the old fashion type flu that lasts for DAYS, makes one ache alllllll over, and makes one VERY weak!
~Here's a picture of little Mary telling you really how bad it is. =)  ~

~Here's a picture of 4 of our 5 kids wiped out in our room.  (Noah is under the covers to your right.)  I took this picture on Thursday, after I got back on Wednesday night.  
Please excuse the mess, I was trying to unpack from my trip to TN, plus wipe little noses, cook meals, make fresh juices so they wouldn't get dehydrated, etc.~

~I took this picture of little Mary...and as you can tell the smile is forced. =)  I was trying to show you her adorable little girly nightgown that I was HAPPY to find at Walmart, right before I went to the airport to come home.  She HATES pajamas with feet in them, so I was so happy to find a couple nightgowns for her to wear with leggins and a onesie.~

~Poor Little Elijah!~

~On Saturday when I got sick, poor Phillip who was still very sick...went out to pick up the Mother's day gifts for the church Mothers to help Jimmy and Farly.  (Please pray for them.  Although they are doing well,  they are going through some trials right now!)   I was sound asleep when he came back...but when I awoke, these pretty cheery Mother's day flowers were beside my bed with a sweet note from him and our kids.  =)~

~Here's the Mother's day gifts he picked up for the Mothers at church...pretty flowers and chocolates.  We were all too sick to go to church, so Pastor Jimmy came by and got the gifts.  Phillip came back upstairs and said, "I ache all over...even my eyeball sockets." ~

On Mother's day morning....I felt sooo miserable!  I was so weak I couldn't hardly lift a finger.  THAT'S WHEN IT DAWNED ON ME...that tomorrow...(TODAY!) is our sweet Elijah's birthday!  I am a planner...I normally know what kind of cake I'm going to make 2 weeks ahead of time, and have all of the gifts purchased.  But, when I got back from TN and took over Phillip's job of being nurse to my sick family...I lost track of time.
So...here I lay with NO strength to do anything for my sweet little boy's special day!  So, we told Elijah that his birthday was tomorrow (today), but that we wouldn't celebrate until we all got better.  When He heard me asking his Aunt Laura and Gram to "pray for his little heart,"  he asked me, "Who's heart...Mine?"  And I said, "Yes!"  To which he replied, "My heart's good, you don't need to pray for my heart!" =D
~On Mother's day afternoon, our doorbell rang.  Phillip went to the door and Pastor Jimmy's sister Judy and her family brought me 2 baskets of typical sweets/fruit, and some beautiful red roses for Mother's day! 
How sweet and thoughtful of them!~

~The beautiful red roses from Judy!~

~While in TN I splurged and got myself 2 new mini perfumes...so I consider that part of my Mother's day gifts.  =)~

~Like I said above, I was SO WEAK on Mother's day, but I knew that I needed to at least get dressed and come down to be with my family for Sunday dinner.  I asked Jesus to give me the strength, and got cleaned up and dressed.  I came downstairs, took this picture with Mary (she was the only one of my children that was sorta of presentable for a picture with me)...then I tried to eat Sunday dinner and couldn't eat much due to having the CHILLS!  I went and laid down on the couch so I could at least be with my family while they ate.  Noah came and covered me with 3 covers.   Finally I went upstairs and got into a warm nighty and got under lots of blankets.  But, at least I had been with my family and had gotten dressed for an half hour or so.  =)  ~

~With this flu we blow our noses every 2.3 seconds.  Every time we turn around it's time to empty the trash cans again.~

~I had a nice Mother's day...in spite of being sick.  It was a nice Mother's day because I was with my wonderful sweetheart and our 5 precious bundles of Joy...which are draggin' a little this week! =)  ~

Part 2 of GG's birthday party coming up.  And once we get better we'll post pics of what we did to celebrate our little Elijah's birthday!  =)   (Pastor Jimmy and Sis. Farly came by and brought Elijah a nice birthday gift, and Phillip got him a small gift today when he picked us up some yummy Colombian soup, fresh juice, and lunch.)
Thank you for praying for Sis. Farly, she is better.  Please pray for poor Nataly, for she now has this flu for the 2nd time this month as well.   It's such a crazy flu and seems to last forever.
Thank you for your prayers that we can kick this flu and get back to church.  We hate missing church and love being with our DEAR Colombian brothers and sisters!!