Happy birthday one and all

In a large family it seems that there is always a birthday that one has to prepare for.

This past week we celebrated the birthdays of my dear brother Camilo, and my grandfather known amongst us as Abuelo.

So, happy birthday Milo

And happy birthday Abuelo

And happy birthday one and all.

The great adventure

My Father was in Panama last week and thus the stage was set for (drum roll)

"The great adventure."
One of the many stories of my life.
Written by Bethany Franco

My mother had long detested the very badly installed linoleum that graced our kitchen floor.
With 6 active children running in and out it had begun to show signs of wear and use and
it was beginning to be such an eye sore that my dear mother was becoming quite desperate.
At long last my parents decided it was time to change the floor and began preparing and ordering materials.
Well my father had to attend a conference in Panama and whilst he was away my mother decided to begin the task of demolishing our poor, old floor. As my siblings rather love destroying things this was accomplished relatively quickly.

My mother ordered some white and blue industrial tile (I'm afraid that is what one needs in such a high traffic area as our kitchen;))
and as soon as my father returned the work began.

After moving everything from the kitchen to the living room (I'll let you imagine what THAT was like) and our crew started. We have been blessed to have people at our church who are experts at every type of job imaginable and Fernando and Nacho are no exception. With their help the floor was completely laid down in 5 hours.

Early the next morning we began scraping off ALL excess glue and cleaning each and every tile (by hand) and generally preparing everything for the wax finish.

While everything was out my father took advantage and painted everything as well.
After countless coats of wax and many hours later we had finally finished the project. Everything was in its place and it was all sparkling clean. Now my mother can sit back and enjoy her beautiful floor.

The end.

Living in a winter wonderland

This past week we went to Sprucepine, NC for a conference
and the very day we got there it snowed 6 inches. For us South Carolinians that is a TON of snow!!! Of course one can't resist plowing in to all that snow so after the services we all headed out for an amazing afternoon of snowball fight fun.

Havi and Nate

Having a blast

Havi, Eli and me
We took Danny and Benji Vasquez with us to help with the music and it was a blessing to have them with us.

Playing for the services
When we arrived to the Huendo's house their yard was beautiful, BUT this is how we left it...

...completely destroyed by 7 sets of eager hands. We had a friendly boys-against-girls feud during the days that we were there so you can just imagine the amount of snowballs that were hurled across this battlefield. We made snow men, had snowball and pillow fights galore and had a wonderful time.
Wednesday was Jared's 8th birthday so after the morning service the Huendos took us even higher up the mountain to go sledding and snowboarding.

Happy birthday Jared!!!

Getting ready for another run.

Enjoying everything to the fullest.

Me

No pictures please

After the services we would all go and get ready for bed, however while the children waited for the restroom Danny gave them all a science class.

The 11:30 pm science class with Prof. Danny

The dialogue while studying "The encyclopedia of animals"
Danny: This is a possum
Victoria: That's you
Danny: Well this is you( pointing to a skunk)
Victoria: No I said that's you
Danny: No that's you.
That is what they said the whole time.

Victoria shooting poor Danny
(I guess he must have called her something awful*wink*)

Benji and Jo
Well I thank the Lord for the opportunity He gave us to serve Him there in Sprucepine
and for the wonderful time we spent with the Huendos.
Also I uploaded a couple of videos onto my Vimeo page of the conference so please head over there and see them.