Couple of Pics

We now have a camera cable...yea! So here's the picture of Michelle and the boys with the rocky mountains as the back drop. And the next photo is the shirt I made for James this christmas. One of our first dates...the first one we held hands at was a trip to a Renaissance fair. He's always liked this kind of getup, so I made him a shirt perfect for it. He already has some dark mocassin boots, he just needs a big leather belt and some baggy beige pants.

Merry Christmas

I love Christmas...but then who doesn't. I am glad that family gets together and that it is one of the only times really respected by the rest of the world just for families. I used to say how I hated the commercialism of it, but now I recognize that I don't entirely. I don't really like the push to buy gifts and that your love (to some I think) is measured by the gift you give. But within this is a push to show others you care for them, and for others to show they care for you. No other time do aqquaintences bring you homeade jam and bread, caramels, and toffee. (I returned it with some of my homeade granola) Yet we remember the true "reason for the season." We are greatful for the birth of Christ our Lord and that we can be together as a young family and celebrate it, have a roof over our heads, food to eat, good health, and a job to ensure these things continue. We have the Lord to thank for these things.

This is our first Christmas as a small family. No family lives immediately nearby, though my sister in law, Jackie and hubby Ryan are driving through on thier move to California and will be by later today. Tomorrow or the next day we'll make the drive to Denver to see extended family of mine and visit with my brother Chris, Noelle and my only nephew Christian.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Being the idiot on the side of the road..

Today, I was the idiot on the side of the road. I was driving slow on the ice, on my way to costco and there was about an inch drop off to the non existant curb/shoulder. Did I mention that the road was so covered with snow and ice you can't see the lane marker paint... well, everyone else was doing fine, I thought I could too. It was just me and the boys, James was at work. Driving along, got down the one inch shoulder and the ice took hold and took me right off the road. I got the van in so deep that when I opened my driver side door, (turned nearly 360 degrees around, facing traffic) I was pushing the snow aside. The sheriff and a couple other guys helped get me out with a tow line. I didn't go to costco, just straight home. It is now top on my list to get snow tires.

New Home

New home, new town, fresh start I suppose. We're in Eagle, Colorado. Pretty small, the post office doesn't even deliver to homes(possibly because of snow but we haven't seen sufficient yet to stop a mailman), so we have a PO Box. But it's a quaint, nice little town and the people are all generally nice/helpful. I am amazed at the amount of spanish speakers here. I go into the grocery store and hear half of the communication over finding ingredients in spanish. I discovered the library in town right at opening time to find out it was reading time for kiddos up to five years old. IN SPANISH! Of course they have other days in English, I am just so grateful to be able to understand almost all of it now. And James pointed out to me that this area was owned by Mexico way back before the US had it, so that's why so many Spanish named counties and cities are here, as well as the name of the state: Colorado literally means colored in spanish. I never realized that before; that may be because some of the mountains here are red (like with red sand.)

My stepmom, Michelle was so helpful, she took off of work and drove up with me and the boys while James took care of moving our stuff from STL. I am so grateful because that trip could have been horrendous with little boys bored and tired of sitting in car seats for two days straight. Michelle tried to keep them entertained, and then helped me get the whole house organized while James started his new job here. He's enjoying it, basically the same thing that he did in St Louis full time and with benefits. I have a great picture of Michelle and the boys with a background of the Rocky Mountains on my camera, but can't find the camera cable to put it up. Probably in a box somewhere, hopefully I find it sometime soon....

Here's the Downlow

So, I held off from sharing the possibility, hoping it might not come true, but it has. We're moving to Colorado. The business in STL won't be steady for a little while, and has no benefits. So we looked around for secure jobs and James sent in his resume. He went in for the interview and beat out a couple others for the job offer. It's in Eagle, near Aspen, Breckenridge and Vail, some of the most famous places for skiing....so if you're looking to ski, give us a call!

Even though we are detouring, we still plan on returing to St. Louis after a while. Now we're not close to our near family in Texas or friends and family in StL, but this is where the Lord has designated as our next home, so we're gonna make the best of it. (and learn to ski/snowboard in the process)

We're back...

We made it safely home. We spent a couple of days before we left with nothing in the house so that we could sell it before we left, and we got everything else packed. We spent one whole day at the airports of tapachula(mexico), mexico city, houston and dallas texas with no luggage to show for it. After a billion phone calls to houston (which is where we saw it last) it was sent to DFW so we could pick it up the next evening. But we are absolutely THRILLED to be back home and with family. So a couple of things I've learned from living in Guatemala are: The US impacts probably every country in the world, so we have respect (and disrespect) from everywhere. In some ways the US pales in comparison to the beauty of central america. I am 100% more grateful for pesticide trucks, the dog people that take away strays, and good roads(this may be number 1). Cooked right, I love diets of entirely fresh food from the market, it just takes a lot longer to prepare. US citizens are lucky and (i think) take a lot of things for granted, like free public school. Don't complain to me about teachers, some children don't get any! I learned a lot of spanish and mayan culture that is to me priceless. This post isn't organized at all, but I just needed to get some of these things out. Living in Guatemala was such an experience that I've been humbled tremendously. I'm so glad we did it, but I'm ready for some time home. For a couple of weeks we'll be spending time with our parents in Texas.....warning, blog posts may be spaced out.

Lucas´s Birthday

Ok, its a little late and I just threw the photos together, but here they are! Lucas hadn´t been eating due to his sore gums and teething, but he loved the cake, as you can see. (He has since regained his appetite, though the gums are still red and teeth aren´t through)