Little stuff

Well, I got the material. It took me a while to find it as the store as it was in a huge roll with the upholstery fabric. I asked just to make sure that it wasn't for furniture and they assured me it was for making clothes. I am going to ask Norma, the lady who sews for me, to make some jumpers for me today. She just finished one, but the arm holes are a little small and so I am hoping that she can also fix that. She doesn't sew by patterns. I just show her a picture and she copies it. Sometimes she has to redo one aspect or another, but when it is done I am always satisfied with the product.

Jordan is so weepy today. He must still be sick. Right now he is sitting on his bed crying because he cannot find his shoes.

It has been so hot lately. I am looking forward to a break in the weather. Because of the heat, we don't usually start cooking dinner until after 6 pm. Today I am going to try and make pizza. That should be a relatively cool dinner until I cook it later on.

Carlos Miguel, a teen from our church, is at our house for the morning and Jason made coffee for him. Joey is so cute. He is following Carlos around saying "I cafe" which is translated, "I want coffee". As consumers of great amounts of coffee, his daddy and Grandpa Smith are so proud.

Thursday night

Last night I did not get to go to church. It is getting to be to often that this happens. Anyway, Wednesday evening we went out to make the repairs to the church and try to seal it after the breakin. Jordan was getting over his cold wonderfully, but Thursday morning when he woke up he was a bear and continued to sound very croupy and be weepy all day. Jason decided that he needed to stay home and recover. He must have been feeling bad as it is 10:00 am and he is still asleep. They had a smaller group, but the miracle was that it was all men. Normally, the women far outnumber the men. It is a great encouragement to see men becoming involved in the Lord's work.

Today we discovered that the VCR we use for showing films was stolen. We forgot to take it out of the box with the sound system and it was stolen. It was a cheap model that you can buy at Walmart for around $20. The only problem is that when we bought it here we paid $60 for it. It makes us so sad and frustrated that these things were stolen. We know who did it, but cannot prove it. We even talked to the peole and asked them to keep an eye out for the things. We did this as a way to let them know we know what they did without calling them thieves. They looked very guilty.

This afternoon I am going to go to the fabric store. Last time I was there they had some gorgeous blue jean fabric. I have two jean jumpers that are so old. They don't fit me anymore and have developed holes. I need to replace them. I know a lady here who has made clothes for me before. I am hoping she can make me some new jean jumpers.

In Honduras it is hard to find 100% cotton fabric. When you do find it, it is very expensive. On the other hand upholstery fabric is very cheap. I think that this blue jean is upholsters fabric, but I will have to take a closer look and see if it will work. What I love about upholstery fabric is the width of the fabric. I have used it to make curtains, tablecloths, and lots of litte things as it is so economical and durable.

The picture is of Jordan with Jason at Chiminike. They went with Jason and my Mom when I was still on bedrest from my Hepatitis.

Haircut.

So much has been going on and our computer is making funny noises so I haven't been able to update like I would like.
Saturday I went and got my hair cut and permed. That is the last time I do that in Honduras. The perm did not take well. Either because they didn't use the right kind of rollers or because they didn't use enough rollers, but I am already having problems with my hair not holding the curl after just five days. I do like the style though. I will probably just get another perm when I get back to the states as long if this perm does not perk up when I get out of this humidity.

I found out why it has been so humid and not rained. Teresa, a lady in our church, has been praying that it will not rain until she gets the roof back on her house. She is having a new roof and rafters put in. I told her to stop praying for it not to rain as we are dying in the city. :-) Teresa lives just out of the city where it is not as hot, but still has the same rains that we have.

Esperanza was at home last night when we had Ladies Meeting. I got a chance to talk to her and find out what happened. She went in for her test and was admitted for surgery right away. She tried to call us, but because our phones were out and you cannot call a cellular phone from public phones she was not able to get a hold of us. She is back home now, but is supposed to be taking it easy. That is not so easy with four little kids and one of them sick. Iris is 18 months old and has a high fever. We are going out today to fix the church after the breakin and will give he some children's tylenol for the baby. She still owed 400 Lempira for the surgery which is about $22. I told her we would pray with her about it as God can provide it. Please continue to pray for her as she needs to get out of the house she lives in. It is not a good situation for her.

Robbed again

Today I did not get to go to church as Joey is still very sick and we didn't not want him around the other babies at church. When Jason arrived at church today he found out that once again someone had broken into the church. They sent a small kid in between the top of the wall and the roof. The kids then opened the window and took quite a bit of stuff. We lost the four oil lamps that we had just bought the church. We lose power a lot and have been looking for lamps for almost a year. We finally found some and bought the four that they had for sale. Those were stolen, the sound system, and clothes we had donated to the church to have another sale. Value wise is was only about $250. worth of stuff, but the discouragement is a much higher cost for us and the faithful in Ojojona. This is the third time that the church has been broken into. We don't know what we are going to do, but the men have started looking for another property that maybe we could buy.

We got a call today from Marvin about the truck. He wants to buy it and should be able to pay for it this week. I was so excited to hear that. We are hoping and praying that everything will continue to go good.

Esperanza is back in Ojojona and we still don't know what has happened. Her youngest daughter, Iris, had a high fever and she had to be taken to the hospital. We want to talk to Esperanza and find out what happened and chew her out if she didn't try to call us. As our phone has been out she may have tried and not been able to get a hold of us. Her daughter said that she was operated on. We are anxious to find out what happened. I will try to talk to her at Ladies Meeting on Tuesday night.

Esperanza

Just a little update on Esperanza. We heard (we have not had a chance to confirm or deny this) that she did go in for her test and was kept for 6 days at San Filipe Hospital. Since her release she has been staying at a friends house and going to San Filipe for daily treatments. We have tried to call San Filipe, but have not succeeded in getting ahold of anyone. The father of her kids is who told us this news and is supposed to try and get information on where she is so we can go and see her or help her if need be. Please continue to pray for her. If this news is indeed correct that is good in the aspect that she did not just run away, but bad in the aspect of her health. Please pray that we will be able to find her and help her.

Please also pray for our kids. They are all sick, but tonight Jordan has been crying a lot about his ear hurting. This may mean that he has an ear infection. We will have to take him to the doctor tomorrow and get medicine. We are hoping that all the kids don't also get ear infections.

This picture of Esperanza and her twins is just over a year old

wonderful chicken recipe

Garlic and Mushroom Chicken

Ingredients:
6 Chicken Thighs – without skin
18 Mushrooms – halved
6 cloves garlic – beaten to a pulp
6 cloves garlic – finely chopped
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp olive oil
1½ cups water
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Wash the chicken and dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper and rub in garlic pulp. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes.
2. Heat the butter and oil in a skillet. Fry the chicken. When it begins to turn golden, add the chopped garlic and mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms are soft and fully cooked.
3. Add the water, lower the temperature and cover. Cook until the liquid is almost evaporated.

I found this recipe in a Spanish magazine. I had to make a few changes to this recipe. I tried it last night and it was a big hit. Everyone loved it. The only complaint that I heard was from Jason who said that there was not enough. I have to agree that it needed more mushrooms, but my skillet wasn't big enough. Next time I will cook this in my big skillet and include more chicken and lots more mushrooms. This is definately one I will make again. I wish I had enough mushrooms to make it tonight. It was YUMMY!!!

Cold and Flu Season

Well, cold and flu season is upon us once again. All of us have the bug. Jason is getting better and we are thankful for that. Jordan, Audrey, and I just have the runny nose, congestion, and cough left. Joey on the other hand is having the hardest time with it. Tonight he had a fever and only wanted to sit in the recliner. He looked so sad with is eyes watering and red rosy cheeks. We gave him some acetaminophen and were glad to see that by bedtime he was his regular active self. Here we can get a gallon of acetaminophen for under $10. We are sure going to miss that when we get back to the states. Please pray that we will all be better soon. We sure don't want to miss out on church tomorrow night.

Joey is pictured here on Baptism Sunday. He traded hats with Oscar Cruz. It was quite comical to see Joey wearing Oscar's baseball hat backwards and to see Oscar Cruz wearing the Mickey Mouse beach hat the Joey was supposed to be wearing. Oscar is 21 years old and Joey's hat almost fit him.