Monday, November 17, 2008

hey everyone, i just wanted to let you all know that i've moved my blog over to wordpress. the new address is: http://isaiah68.wordpress.com. please be sure to change it in your RSS feed or reader or whatever. i will only be updating over there from now on. thanks!!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

in just about an hour and a half i'll be leaving for the airport to fly back to the states (i'll already be well on my way by the time most of you read this). i can't believe it. reality hasn't quite hit me yet except for a few moments every now then. i dropped izzy off at the airport this afternoon (she had to be there early to get through all of the customs stuff), then spent the day with the Haynes, had dinner with them, Laura, and the Ostertags and have spent the rest of the night packing. rather than only sleeping for an hour or so, i decided to just stay up all night (getting up at 3 am just didn't seem worth it!) and here i am. i've got just a few things left to do and i'll be ready. it just doesn't seem real. i told becky the other day, i don't even really remember life before i knew and loved this city. it's only been 3 1/2 years since i first came, but it feels like forever. this is home. and leaving home is hard. and yet i know the Lord has so much in store for me and i really am excited. i will miss this...this city, this house, these people, but i am looking forward to all that is in store. it's been quite a journey to get to this moment and i expect nothing less in the coming days. and oh has it been good!

Monday, September 29, 2008

After almost 2 years of wanting to come visit me in Guadalajara, my friend, Adrian, finally got to come down last week. She is a photographer (her blog is over on the right -->) and she was able to come down to document some of the ministries here. We had such a great time running all over and letting her take pictures. Of course, we found time to goof off a bit as well!
Adrian found a lil time for a nap one afternoon:
Saturday night, we went to the Ostertags to celebrate McKenzie's birthday. My camera batteries were dying by the time it was time for cake, but I was able to get a couple of shots. I love the look on her face. She was definitely up to something...
The birthday girl with some of her balloons:
Kaitlyn had fun dressing the dog up in a matching lei:
Adrian, Laura and I stepped outside to try to take a picture together. Apparently Laura wasn't too happy about that:
I guess Adrian and I got bored waiting for Laura to smile. Haha!
The birthday girl and I:
Sunday morning Adrian and I rode out to Santa Fe for church. I was so glad we got to go. They were celebrating their 3rd anniversary that morning. I'll post more about that tomorrow. One of our favorite things to do when we go out there is to stop for ice cream bars on the way home. One thing we noticed while Adrian was here is that she's not so good at taking pictures sometimes....it seems she likes to try to take over and block everyone else out. For example:
We drove up to a look out next to a catholic church in Santa Fe before the service.
Even Landri wanted a picture! Isn't she beautiful? I love her red hair!
Sunday night, after our English class in Los Cantaros, Laura, Adrian and I walked down to Dairy Queen with Izzy. Izzy's not so great on the leash and it looks like Adrian might've had just a lil more than she could handle:
Laura and I decided to imitate Adrian in a picture. Haha!
I can't even tell you what a joy and a blessing it was to have Adrian here. It was hard to believe that we hadn't seen each other in over 2 years!

Friday, September 26, 2008

Puppies, puppies everywhere!! Last week the Haynes went to Missouri for a missions conference and I house-sat for them. The best part of them being gone though, was getting to spend a week with 3 dogs! I took Izzy with me and she had a blast playing with the Haynes' dogs, Bella and Spencer (her mom and brother, respectively). They did wear themselves out though and spent a large portion of the week asleep on the couch. You can see below just how much they love to cuddle though!

September 16 marked Mexico's Independence Day. Laura and I celebrated by attending a party at the C.E.B. (Baptist Student Center) once again. We had a great time hanging out with friends, but the highlight for me was the group of folkloric dancers who performed. They were great and so much fun to watch! Just check out their costumes. How could you not enjoy that?

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Several weeks ago, all of us were over at the Haynes for dinner. Mackenzie just loves Izzy and so was glad that I brought her. She had quite a great time giving her kisses and Izzy was more than happy to oblige!

Saturday, September 06, 2008

One year ago today (September 6) my grandmother passed away after a quick but intense battle with pancreatic cancer. These pictures are from the last time I saw her before she got sick and I just love them. She was a beautiful woman and full of life until the very end. She was an incredible person and taught me so, so much. Everyone loved her and she loved everyone! One of my favorite memories of her is all the Friday nights I spent at her house growing up. We would always sleep with our heads together on her L-shaped couch and often, she would wake me up in the middle of the night (or so it felt like to me when I was 7 or 8, it was probably only midnight!) and tell me to "Get up baby, we need to eat us some ice cream!" I will miss Nanny every day for the the rest of my life, but I know she is with our Lord and that one day I will see her again. Maybe we'll even eat some ice cream....


When I Get Where I'm Going (Brad Paisley)

When I get where I'm going

on the far side of the sky.
The first thing that I'm gonna do
Is spread my wings and fly.

I'm gonna land beside a lion,
and run my fingers through his mane.
Or I might find out what it's like
To ride a drop of rain

(Chorus:)
Yeah when I get where I'm going,
there'll be only happy tears.
I will shed the sins and struggles,
I have carried all these years.
And I'll leave my heart wide open,
I will love and have no fear.
Yeah when I get where I'm going,
Don't cry for me down here.

I'm gonna walk with my grandaddy,
and he'll match me step for step,
and I'll tell him how I missed him,
every minute since he left.
Then I'll hug his neck.

(Chorus)

So much pain and so much darkness,
in this world we stumble through.
All these questions, I can't answer,
so much work to do.

But when I get where I'm going,
and I see my Maker's face.
I'll stand forever in the light,
of His amazing grace.
Yeah when I get where I'm going,
Yeah when I get where I'm going,
there'll be only happy tears.
Hallelujah!
I will love and have no fear.
When I get where I'm going.
Yeah when I get where I'm going.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

i downloaded some new actions for photoshop and have been playing around with them a bit. i love this picture of me and izzy. she's just too cute, don't ya think?

Friday, August 15, 2008

izzy and buzz

right before i moved to mexico my friend, cindy, went to build a bear and made this cute buzz for me. it kinda freaks izzy out just a lil though!

Sunday, August 03, 2008

i've been working on my blog a bit today, what do you think of the changes? i'm pretty pleased with it all (though sick of trying to figure out the html i needed!). if anyone knows how to make it so that my picture on the side is centered a little bit more, please let me know (or if you have any other suggestions for changes i can make). hope everyone's having a great week and enjoying summer!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

a few more videos...

steve's morning announcement for family night (we asked him to do this about 30 seconds before he went up!):



one of the teams singing "amazing grace":



Kaitlyn singing in the talent show:



Sarah singing:

chubby bunny

one of the games we did during family game night last week was "chubby bunny." basically you just shove as many marshmallows into your mouth as you possibly can and try to say "chubby bunny." it's pretty funny to watch and just as funny to try for yourself!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

annual meeting

ok, these pictures are pretty out of order, so please bear with me!

last week, we had our annual meeting for all of the missionaries in mexico. we had a great time seeing everyone and spending time with our mission family.

meet sarah brungardt. she is one of my all time favorite MKs ever! some of you will remember her from october when she told me i'd probably swallowed a STINK bug. :)
mackenzie wasn't a big fan of having her picture taken this week, but i was able to get this one when she wasn't looking. i think she and her sister had a lot of fun this week.
on our way out of town, we stopped at HEB to stock up on some things we can't find in Guadalajara.just look at all those biscuits! 4 different kinds + cinnamon rolls!!the kids performed their VBS songs and got REALLY into the dancing!
sarah just LOVES taking self portraits.

laura and i with one of the other Journeymen, Rebecca. Rebecca works in El Paso at the Spanish Baptist Publishing Houselaura and i with brungardt girls, sarah and rachel
the ostertags and i organized "family fun night." we did an amazing race style scavenger hunt with different challenges set up all over the hotel. here they had to eat the doughnut off the string
here they had to sing "amazing grace" to the tune of gilligan's island
after our game, there was a talent show. kaitlyn ostertag (one of my other favorite MKs!) sang "open the eyes of my heart Lord." she was SO nervous but did a great job!
bowden shared his favorite verse and why it is special to himsarah sang "how great it our God"
this is patti sorrell, my supervisor. i will be working with her in vancouver as well.
mackenzie was not in a picture taking mood at the gala, but kaitlyn was happy to snap a quick picture with me!


all of the journeymen went out to eat one night at italliani's. it's an italian chain here (shocking, i know!) and the closest thing we have to olive garden. our group was so much smaller this year than last and we missed everyone who has left this year, but we still had a great time.more family game night: making a pyramid by laying down blindfolded
and finally: "chubby bunny" shoving as many marshmallows as possible in your mouth as you can.
laura and i after the ladies' banquet
leanne and i after the banquet. leanne used to live in GDL, but now lives in Richmond. i'm looking forward to seeing her again in Dec. when i go to debriefing.
on the way into town (see, i told you these were REALLY out of order!) we stopped at HEB and picked up some mint chocolate chip ice cream. this it nearly impossible to come by (baskin robbins is the only place we've ever found it before) here, so we were really excited. it was SO GOOD!!!
at the gala, those of us who are finishing our terms were recognized and given certificates.
landri normally won't let anyone take pictures of her, so i was pleasantly surprised when she wanted to take a picture with me!
i've got a few videos from the week that i will try to post soon as well, so be watching for those!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

what a bum!

it's noon here and izzy just FINALLY got out of bed (and only because laura went downstairs to get some breakfast. clearly we're having a highly productive morning around here!) i took izzy out a couple of hours ago and she promptly went right back to bed. what a bum! i went in a couple minutes ago to grab a quick picture of her and she sat up for a minute, yawned a few times and then flopped back over. it must be tough being that cute!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

"mini-gansta"

bowden and his friend, Adrian, got new hats and sunglasses last week. when i came to get something out of the van one day while we were out working with a volunteer team, this is what i found. they had so much fun dressing her up and getting her to pose. isn't she adorable?!? my favorite part is the white sugar all over her lips leftover from the donuts she had just finished.

4th of July (again!)

yesterday, laura and i celebrated the 4th of july with our mexican friends. they didn't really care about the significance of the holiday, but they did enjoy the food (although they thought the baked beans were pretty weird! nothing like any of the beans here!) and we sure had a great time going waaaaaaaay overboard with decorating and decking ourselves out with some of the stuff i brought back with me last month.

don't you just love my headband and laura's hair ties? haha
our "family portrait." izzy had red, white and blue bows for her ears!
she even got a red, white and blue toy. like i said, we went ALL OUT!
just a few of the decorations
we borrowed an ice cream maker from the haynes. it was really noisy though, so we plugged it in upstairs where we wouldn't have to hear it. doesn't everyone make ice cream in the bathroom?my friend, Ana, and i. we met in March of last year and hung out a lot. then, in august, i lost my cell phone...and her phone number! she thought i just didn't want to hang out with her, and i was really upset that i had no way to get in touch with her. i prayed and prayed (and had several other people praying) that i would somehow just run into her (not so likely in a city of 6 million). then, in january when my dad was here visiting, we were walking around downtown and all of a sudden i noticed Ana just sitting on a bench as i walked by. we were both so excited! after much shrieking and laughing and jumping up and down, i was able to explain what happened and get her number once again. God is so faithful! we haven't gotten to hang out much this semester because she has been working and taking french classes, but i was so glad she got to come yesterday. we have plans to get together this week too. here is a picture of (almost) everyone who came. way more people showed up than we imagined. there were close to 30 people here!
for dessert we had banana pudding, and a flag cake (please ignore the fact that we had to use blackberries instead of blueberries. you do what you gotta do here!) our mexican friends were so impressed that as soon as we got the dessert out, they all started taking pictures of it!we grilled hot dogs and hamburgers (well, actually we just got it all ready and lit the grill, then let our friend, manuel, do the rest!) and had potato salad, baked beans and chips. yummmm
everyone loved the food!
izzy did pretty well most of the day, but she was worn out when everyone left! she's pretty much done nothing but sleep ever since the party ended!