Thursday, December 29, 2011

God provides sleeping bags

I love it when God is working out little details WAY before you even know what's coming. Truly, we can trust Him in all things.

One of the many ways God provided was sleeping bags for everyone in our family. This summer Tim's mom, Sandra suggested sleeping bags for the kids for Christmas. We thought it was a nice idea and didn't think much more about it at the time.

Who would have guessed that many months later we would all need sleeping bags for our trip to Mexico.



God knew.

He's taking good care of us.

We are so thankful for all the support and love shown to us as we prepare for this trip!

Serving Him,
tarena

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Tamale Fundraiser!

Who knew a fundraiser could be so much fun???

Today we drove to the church bright and early to help make TONS of tamales. No, our family can't eat them right now, but I heard that they were delish! 

I had never made Tamales before, so there was a lot of learning, but I love to experience new things and especially when it relates to a different culture...and FOOD! =)

Melissa and her awesome sisters were heading up most of the effort and a few other gals were awesome and did the shopping. What sweet servants we have on our team!

We made a few different kinds for all the pre-orders we received ( Brandon sent out this Facebook message:
"Are you hungry for some tamales? Do you need a break from cooking dinner? The Spring Break Mexico Missions team is selling tamales, and we will deliver them to you on December 22. We have 6 different types - Chicken vegetable, Jalapeno cheese, Chorizo with beans & cheese, Chicken with red sauce, Orange and Pineapple. They are $12 per dozen and you can mix & match, or get 6 of each flavor (3 dozen total) for $30."
Not a bad price and from the sounds of it, they went over really well...here is what Melanie said on Facebook:
 "Hey everyone who helped with the tamale fundraiser...I would like to say thanks, they are so yummy!!! PS the ladies at my work place also loves them and both said they would order at least double next year, you have made them customers. They too wanted to say how delicious they are and thank you! :) Merry Christmas everyone!"
Yea! So encouraging to know that they were just right!

The kids did great...they were totally into it at first as they got to wash up and squish the tamale batter flat with the press. Keaton even tried his hand at filling and rolling them-he did great! After awhile, they got bored and ran off to play (yes...they were running through the church!) with the other kids. I'm pretty sure they enjoyed their day!

Here are a couple of pics from today:


Nicole (who is 9 months pregnant and not even going!) was sweet enough to help out for the day!

Some of the team and a few extra helpers ready to start the next batch!

Well, I'm exhausted...time for bed. This has been a wonderful day and I'm all excited for our trip...especially looking forward to hang out with that hilarious Mel for hours on end! She is a hoot! =)

Serving Him,
tarena

Friday, December 9, 2011

Optional Meeting

Hmm...there is an optional fundraising meeting we can go to this weekend...will we make it?

Should we go? Will the kids sit for that long after church?

We better bring food.

Serving Him,
tarena

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Saved $50!!

Whoo-hoo!

We saved $50 per person by committing by today's date to go on the trip!

I love saving money! =)

Well, I guess we knew for awhile that the Lord wanted us to go-but to have Tim able to get the vacation days off and "officially" commit is just amazing. Truly a miracle from the Lord! We still don't know how he got Spring Break off!?!?! That is valuable vacation time-only the Lord worked it out so that no one else at his work wanted those days off!

Thank you Lord!

Serving Him,
Tarena

ps...32 people are already committed to going this year!!