Family Fun Night

We enjoyed another fun filled Family Fun Night! I'm so glad my kiddos look forward to our Friday nights and plan along with us. After a quick dinner clean-up, we divided into teams (girls against boys, of course!) and played a game of Cadoo. We were disappointed to find our molding clay was dried up :o( but we enjoyed the other cards. I love this game! Unfortunately, the boys won. Next time, us girls will beat 'em!

Patrick and Beth made some chocolate chip cookies. We decided to go super easy for our dessert and bought the slice and bake kind. Beth was thrilled! She's the type of girl that could eat the whole thing, raw! She loves cookie dough. They were excellent cookies!

At the beginning of the week, Josh asked us if he could prepare a Bible Study for us using his New Testament Survey Pace from school. He loves this class! And he was so excited to share with us what he's learned.

He diligently prepared and typed up papers for us. After the game we all had a folder with our name and a nice sharpened pencil. It was filled with papers for us to take notes on that he had typed up. He did such a good job teaching us! We covered the first section and I learned so much! He talked about the "silent years". That is the 400 year time period between the Old Testament and New Testament. He talked about the world powers during that time. It was so interesting! Then he talked about the different sects and people in the New Testament.

His class was so good and I can't wait until next week's class!

2 Brothers

My two boys may be 13 years apart, but they are definitely best buds!

Our friends, The Khangi's

Ines Khangi has been wanting to come to our house all summer long. Everytime we schedule for them to come, something always happens, they have to cancel, or we do. Summer is coming to a fast end for the Khangis as their school begins September 1st. So we knew we needed to make this happen! I was so glad when everyhting worked out for Ines and Melissa to come to our home Tuesday. The girls had such a great time. Elisabeth and Brenna were a little nervous to use their french. I told them, just try your best. They did very well and it was so good for them. Melissa and Ines have recently moved here from Ivory Coast, Africa.
The girls had lots of fun things planned. They made bead bracelets, played volleyball, made homemade pizzas, played Wii, and went for a walk in our walking park. I'm so thankful the girls have made some good friends.

Willoughby Auto Sales

For anyone that has read my blog for any amount of time, knows that I love my parents. It's pretty tough being a Daddy's girl and a Mommy's girl, too, you know! Well, this is definitely one of those braggy posts, because I am so proud of my Dad!


Used Cardealers don't have the best reputation for honesty. But, everyone that knows my Dad knows that he is so honest and truthful in his business. That's why he has customers come back time and time again. He's owned Willoubhy Auto Sales since before I was born. Recently a local newspaper did an article on my Dad and I wanted to share it here on my blog. Here's the article:

As I am sure many have noticed there is another pre-owned car lot up on San Carlos Blvd. It almost goes unnoticeable to those of us that have seen these lots play musical chairs up and down San Carlos over the years. A while back a few shady characters destroyed the used car sales reputation on the strip from the beach all the way to Kelly road. More than one made national news for all the wrong reasons and were severely punished and deservedly so. Trouble is some of the fall out took most of the other decent lots down with them. Through all of this there has been one lot that has stayed open for 30 YEARS and thrived. That lot is WILLOUGHBY’S. Yale Willoughby was there before the afore mentioned knuckleheads and has seen many others come and go. He has been a mainstay because he has proved to be the opposite of what we have all been warned about when it comes to used car salesmen. The man is flat honest and has withstood the test of time. That’s a rare find in his line of business. Now the other lots may have a lot to offer too but for my money go for the tried and true. Avoid the franchises folks, be they repair shops or car lots! Support your local motor heads!

Beach Bulletin August, 2010

Willoughby Auto Sales also has a new flashy website:

http://www.willoughbyautosales.com

I love you, Dad! I'm so proud of you!

French Tea Party

For the kiddos french class Thursday, we decided to surprise Madame Estelle and have a tea party. She was so sweet and was happy to "take tea" with us. The girls baked some cookies and we also had some wafer cookies, too. The tea was hot, sweet, and so nice! (I love a cup of hot tea!)

Before she came the children and I prepared "tea time conversation" in french. I let them make cheat sheets to help them remember what to say or ask (you can see Josh's blue paper next to him...so much for hiding it!) It was a french only tea party!

It was a great tea party, and the kiddos had a great french class. I'm so proud of them! Thanks, Estelle!

Memories in the rain

I love making new memories with my family. But, have you ever noticed that memories aren't usually a planned event (although sometimes when we're too busy, we say that it's time to slow down and make some memories!), but memories usually happen accidently. Like for us, the other night....we decided to take a walk together after dinner. We like to do this a lot. Josh, Beth, and Brenna ride their bikes, while Patrick and I each push a stroller. Well, we were enjoying our nice walk...the air smelled of fall, the kids were riding and laughing, Callie was smiling at her Daddy, and Silas was barking trying to call all the dogs. Then, it started pouring rain! I mean it was really coming down! We closed the top on Calllie's stroller and decided to take the quick way home. Once we were getting close, we turned down a street and saw the road was closed for construction. Can you believe it? We turned around and started back the other way. By this time we were drenched! Silas went between wimpering, smiling, and looking at Patrick and I like we were crazy. Patrick and I were laughing that everyone must really think we are crazy to take our babies out in the rain for a stroll! We finally made it home and dried off. Patrick joked that I had wanted to do a little more powerwalking instead of strolling, and I got my wish!

My Favorite Season

Fall has always been my favorite season. I love love love the changing of the colors on the trees. I love the feeling of the coolness in the air. I love back to school time. And I love the anticipation of things to come....like Christmas! yay! The leaves are slowly starting to change color around here. Can you believe it? It's August 18th!! The nights are a little on the chilly side and you can smell the cool freshness in the air.

Fall, for me, is always a time to look ahead and make sure things are in line for the coming season. For us, it's going to be a busy season. We have so much going on this fall!

Here's a glimpse at a few of our goals and plans

~Wrap up language school. Wow! I can't believe it! My classes alone, conversing with Madame Claire are going wonderfully. I have classes with her by myself 2 days a week to help me to speak more french. We have so much fun talking together and cover so many topics, but most of the time we talk about St. Barths. This is making me even more excited to get there!

~Start packing up to move. Most people hate the packing process of moving. Not me. I absolutely love it! I love seeing all the neat things that God has given me. I love taking inventory and purging the things that I don't need. I love the feeling of being organized and seeing a box that's not marked miscellaneous. (Hopefully there won't be too many of those during this move)

~Drive to Florida with U-Haul in tow. We're excited about our drive back to Florida. Do you know our first stop? Pizza Hut! I can't wait!!! I want to order a BBQ stuffed crust pizza. My absolute favorite!!MMMM We also are going to stop at Cumberland Island, Georgia on the way home. We stopped at the nearby Jekyll island 2 years ago around the same time and it was wonderful! The beach was absolutely deserted and we were able to have it to ourselves. Cumberland Island is supposed to be the same, but it has Wild Horses roaming the island! My kiddos are so excited!! (especially my Elisabeth!)

~Try to have a few meetings. We're trying to raise our support so we can be on the field as soon as possible!

~Enjoy some time with our family. We can't wait to get home to see our family and spend some time with them. My Dad has a new granddaughter he needs to meet!

So that's just a few of our Autumn plans....I love this season!!

Music to his ears

It's amazing how my Silas tries to copycat anything we are doing. Patrick posted some pictures on our family blog of Silas wearing Patrick's shoes. He's so proud of himself when he gets them on his feet. His newest thing is wearing headphones and listening to music.
I've never been a big fan of headphones in kids ears. I guess for a couple of reasons. It's too tempting for kids to be able to listen to the wrong kinds of music. It's also easy for them to be too isolated and not a part of the family. About a year ago Joshua wanted an MP3 player. He said he wanted to use it to download sermons to listen to while he cleans his room and stuff and to listen to good music, too. Patrick and I really thought this one over for a while. We just weren't sure. Then, we decided to put some confidence in our son and buy him one for Christmas. Once we gave it to him, we talked to him again on the importance of right music and guarding your ears. Just listen to a song once and it's so hard to erase it from your brain!

I'm so glad we bought him one! He's downloaded some fabulous messages and has listened to probably a good 20 of them. He's also downloaded some good music that we had on CD to his MP3 player. I love hearing my boy sing, so anyway I can feed his desire to listen to good music is great!
Brenna and Beth both have their own CD player that they can listen to music on, also. We just have it a rule that it can't be a habit and be done all the time. I like our time as a family and time being together.

Anyway, back to my Silas....he does everything we do! When Josh let him listen to his MP3 player on the way to church a couple of weeks ago, Silas loved it! He also loves the girls CD players. They like to put in Patch the Pirate for him and he just smiles and giggles.


I love it when he tries to sing along, too!

Can't listen to good music without a good cup of milk, right?

Joshua and Callie Grace

I'm blessed to be a Mama. I love to watch my children be together.

I love sounds of my girls giggling together, JEB playing sports in the yard together, Silas saying "Choo-Choo" to Elisabeth to come play trains, Brenna reading a book to Callie. But one of my newer sounds that I'm hearing is the sweet interaction between my oldest, Joshua, and my baby, Callie Grace.
For some reason Joshua has many knicknames for Callie Grace. He likes to call her Canadian Kelly. This drives me nuts, but she loves it when he talks to her. He also calls her CareBear. Where does he gets these names from?

Whenever Joshua walks into the room, Callie Grace immediately watches his every move. It's so sweet.

I love that my sweet kiddos are friends. They don't always get along and they can sometimes drive each other crazy. Sometimes the arguments they have are so silly. But, I'm thankful I can say (and they can, too) that they are friends.

My Callie Grace is such a sweetie. She makes the sweetest girly coos and I love to hear her make noises. She's starting to giggle more now. The thing that makes her laugh the most is when we clap her hands.

I'm having one of those fast forward moments this week. As Patrick and I watched Joshua and Callie Grace together, we realized how quickly time goes, and that our children are growing up faster than we realized they would. When Callie is 4, 5, or 6, (maybe 9?) Joshua will probably be leaving our home and heading to college. That's not a whole lot of time for her to have with her brother. Will she remember her time at home with him? I pray the Lord will always let them be close. I pray that Joshua's sweetness, thoughtfulness, and funness (is that a word?) rubs of on my Callie. I want Callie to see what an amazing brother she has, and to remember.

Our new prayer card! Finally

For those of you that have our old prayer card, you know it's pretty out of date. We're missing two family members! Patrick and I decided it was definitely time for a new one, so here's a sneak peek at our new prayer card. It's at the printers now and should be coming in soon! This is the back:

Patrick and I have been seeking the Lord's will about what step He would have us to take next.
We should be done with language school in the next couple of months, but our support level is not where it should be. Ideally, it's best to leave for the field immediately after language school, while the language is fresh in your mind. But, it looks like the Lord has other plans for now. He knows best! After much prayer and counsel with Pastor Strange, we're going to have to go back on deputation for a little bit. Hopefully just a couple of months, but we're praying the Lord will let us get to the West Indies as soon as possible. I was working with our professor Madame Claire yesterday on translating the song "Bury my heart on the mission field" I started thinking about how it's so amazing how God gives you such a burden for the place He's sending you to. When He called us to the West Indies, He truly "buried our heart" there. That's grace!

So, these next couple of months will be intense language studying (cramming, is more like it!), lots of packing and sorting, and lots of calling and scheduling (by Patrick, not by me). I don't feel like my french is ready, that's for sure. But, after hearing from several other missionary wives (praise God for Godly counsel from ladies who have walked in my shoes!), my french will be a lifetime work in progress!

Please pray for us. Pray for churches to be burdened to partner with us in reaching the West Indies as we are so close to being ready to leave to the field. Pray that our french will stick. And Pray, most of all for the Lord's Will. He truly knows what is best.

"Merci" Quilt

I finally finished my latest quilt. I made it for Madame Roy. She is the pastor's wife of the church we are attending here in Quebec. She's been such a blessing teaching the girls Sunday School and teaching the children French last school year. I had fun picking out these fabrics with my Mom when she visited in May. This was my first time to make a 9 patch quilt. I decided to put sashing in between the squares, and I like how it brought out more of the paisley fabric. (I love paisley!)

I named the quilt "Merci" which means "thank you" in french. Appropriate, don't you think?

Too many cucumbers?? Make Pickles!

Harvesting a garden, oh my, it's finally coming true! We've enjoyed lots of yellow and green beans and a few tomatoes, but this week a few cucumbers were finally ready! We ate a few raw and they were so crunchy, like a potato chip. Since our family loves pickles we decided to have a try at making some!

Elisabeth did the chopping...

While Brenna worked on the vinegar mixture.

Our 3 1/2 cucumbers (Silas and Brenna ate one half) made three nice jars of refridgerator pickles.

Here's the recipe we used:

Fridge Pickles

On the stove, combine 2 cups white vinegar, 2 tablespoons of salt and 2 1/2 cups of sugar. Let this mixture boil for about 5-7 minutes. Then, pour into bowl with cucumbers (about 6 cups of sliced cukes.) Add to jars and you're done!

I've always been a pickle lover and these are fabulous!
I wonder when more cucumbers will be ready?

Sew in love with this Gift Set

My friend Estelle asked me if I could make a dishtowel gift set for a friend of hers that is getting married. My mind started whirling with ideas of what to do! I decided to make two coordinating dishtowels. One is monogrammed with an 'E' Then I made two "hotpads" (I don't really know what you call those!) Then I found an easy tutorial of a table runner. Here's the site:V and Co.: guest tutorial blogger: amy of diary of a quilter
It was so easy and whipped up really quick!

When I put it on my table for a quick picture, I had a hard time taking it back off! :o) I can see a few table runners in my table's future!

Now, on to my next project!

Callie Grace~3 months Old

Today my Callie Grace turns 3 months old! She is such a joy and blessing to have. She's smiling so much now and giggles, too. She's just like her Daddy and other siblings, though....if she giggles too much she gets the hiccups! So cute! She's laying on a gorgeous Crocheted blanket made by her Great Aunt Florence. Isn't it gorgeous? Aunt Florence has made a blanket for each of my babies and they're all so beautiful and made with love. My Girl looks cute in yellow, don't you think?

Callie is lifting her head up more and getting stronger. As we were taking her 3 month pictures, she rolled over for the first time! yay for Callie Grace!

We love you, Callie Grace Gimenez!