Fall Work

We arrived home from St. Louis in the early evening on Thursday. We had such a good time seeing Duane and Leslie, their son Ryan and his family and Craig and meeting other people that have been a part of their ministry for a long time (especially Connie).

It was back to work and school on Friday. Then on Saturday we headed to Don's mom's house to help her rake her yard. Her house sits on about an acre in the middle of Omaha surrounded by lots of mature trees. Although there aren't any pictures of Hannah, she did work as well. She was the photographer and no one took over to take a picture of her!!

This is Hannah's action shot of me lifting leaves to the trash can.

Samuel had the job of packing the leaves down into the cans so we could fit as many leaves as possible!

Caleb and Don working??

We brought our 4-wheeler and attached a sweeper to help us pile up all the leaves. Hannah took this picture during Bethany's turn.

We focused on the front yard. Then we moved to the side and by the time we got to the back, Don and I were working alone and the kids were off doing something else. We were all exhausted. We didn't get all of the back done - maybe another day!

Leavin' on a jet plane . . .

I keep thinking that it has been way too long since we blogged but I am not sure why we haven't taken the time. It is not like we don't have anything to blog about. Hannah had her 8th birthday. Isn't she cute??


Don had a trip to the ER for his heart. (It went into Afib and had to be shocked to get it into the correct rhythm - He is fine now and will have another check-up at the end of this month.) Don and Caleb rebuilt Caleb's carburetor on his dirtbike (newsworthy? to some maybe!). I am looking at our calendar since we last posted and it is full of stuff. So why haven't we posted? Maybe because the calendar is too full of stuff!

For those of you that are wondering, our snow melted very quickly here. It was gone in just a couple days. The weather has been a little bit more mild but still chilly. We have been getting ready for winter. Don and the kids cut back bushes and plants and cleaned the garage. They took the mower deck off of the tractor and put the snow blade and bucket on it. You would think that we would all be used to this kind of activity around here. Yet we are all a little melancholy.

Caleb told me the other day that I was "homesick" for Guatemala. I think we all may be. Don wanted "Guatemalan" food for lunch on Sunday after church so we drove to a place that has the closest we can find here. Often when we are in the grocery store, we linger in the "hispanic" section and just look at what things they are selling here now. We get excited to see "Jumex"

and "Maseca"

or some Mexican hot chocolate that we bought when we went to Tapachula to renew our visas. We didn't really like it but it is fun to see it in the store!

When we have our family devotions, one of the kids always prays "help us to get back to Guatemala soon". We are waiting on the Lord and seeking His path for our family.

In the meantime, Don and I are flying to St. Louis tomorrow to meet with Duane and Leslie! (were you wondering about the title of this entry??) We are so excited to see them again. It will be a very short trip for us but it will be so fun to see them and have a little time away. We have communicated with them via email and on the phone a couple times since we have been home, but there is nothing like face-to-face! Anyway, we will be "leavin' on a jet plane . . ." Blessings to you!