Yes , I know it has been so long since I posted and I am sorry . We have been traveling non - stop for the last few months . It has been almost impossible to keep up with office and online stuff . We are now in Charlotte at my in laws house . Actually right now it is only me and the boys . Stu , the girls , Martin and Bonnie ( Stu 's parents ) all went up to Canada to see Grandma Schepers ( Martin 's mom ) . She fell and broke her spin in two places , has pneumonia in both lungs and has a bowel obstruction , so she has not been doing well . They did not expect her to make it long , but so far she is hanging on . Stu and Juls are on their way back now and Martin , Bonnie and Delayna will head back in a few days . So I am happy that I don 't have to spend Thanksgiving alone . : ) We have been all over the place the last few months . Me and Stu flew up to Seattle and then drove to Vancouver , BC and on to Kelowna . From there he flew to Yellowknife , Northwest Territories and I flew to Winnipeg Manitoba . We then flew all night back to Oklahoma , picked up the kids and started driving to Kentucky , Ohio , Virginia , Maryland ( with a few days touring Washington DC ) and then here to North Carolina . We have been able to visit many friends along the way . Some from College , some from back home in Texas and we have made many new friends . We are now seeing family here in NC . My brother lives here and I got to see my nieces and nephew , two of them for the first time . I also hope to visit my aunt while we are here . The Lord has also blessed with several new churches picking us up for support . We will be heading back down to Oklahoma early in December and I get to spend Christmas with my family for the first time in many years ! If we can get my brother down there , we will all be together ! I am hoping to get a family picture , because this doesn 't happen too often . No funny stories to report this time , but I do have a horrifying story . Since everyone left I was left here with only my mother in law 's BMW to drive . I hated driving it because I didn 't want anything to happen to it . I had to go to church and then I had to go to the store to get some things . While in it I was constantly telling the boys not to touch anything and not to move and not to breathe . : ) I was driving overly cautious . So I got home from the store yesterday and pulled into the garage , shut the door , and got my stuff and the boys out . I then shut the driver 's side door ( not slamming it ) and as I did the passenger side window exploded ! I stood there horrified and shaking . The boys stood there with looks on their faces of , " I didn 't do it ! " . I just thought , " she is going to kill me ! " So I guess I will be getting coal in my stocking this year ! : ) We have been staying busy traveling . We have been to Oklahoma , Texas and are now in Arkansas . We got to visit Victory Baptist in Wichita Falls , where we worked for a while before going to Canada . While there we were able to go to an MSU football game . The boys loved it ! Even Delayna got into it . Ever since then they are asking to listen to or watch football . Just wait till we take them to a hockey game , since we know those are so much more exciting . : ) The boys , or maybe it 's just Jesse , sure keep us entertained . Jesse points out every stop sign now and when it is a large sign , he yells STOP . He also points out all the " oil pumper " things ( oil wells ) . He gets very excited anytime he sees a train and tells Stu to make sure and tell him when he sees one . He also asks , " how many more aisles ( miles ) until we are there ? " . We were also able to be with my mom on her birthday . While we were there the boys about gave her a heart attack . I was in the room packing and I thought the boys were playing with Delayna outside . All of a sudden my mom started screaming , " SOMEONE HELP THE BOYS , HURRY ! " . I took off running , not sure what was wrong . What happened was that Delayna had come inside and the boys had gone up to the top of the hill and gotten in my mom 's utility wagon and were riding down the hill in it ( through a maze of trees with a ditch and a road at the bottom ) . Somehow they had stopped halfway down and Seth was about to give a push to get them going again when I got out there and stopped them . My mom was sick the rest of the day . I told her that now she knows how I feel daily . Also while we were there we were killing scorpions daily . The boys were sleeping on the floor so after finding many scorpions around where they were sleeping we decided to move them to the couch . As I was carrying their blankets to the living room , I jokingly said to Stu , " I 'm not leaving a trail of scorpions behind me am I ? " . He looked and sure enough there was a big scorpion that had fallen out of the blanket . Praise the Lord none of us were stung while we were there . The boys are always telling Stu , I love you more and most to try to be the one that loves the most . The other day Seth was trying to make it more and he said , " I love you more and most and 5 + 5 " . Stu let him win on that one . : ) I know it has been so long since I have posted . We made it down to Oklahoma and I got busy getting everything ready for my sister 's wedding . It was such a crazy week . The rehearsal was terrible , everyone was grumpy and tired . The wedding was great . Everything was beautiful and went smooth . I will try to post a picture or two . Because I was in the wedding , I didn 't get to take too many pictures . I will have more to post when we get them from the photographer . We left my mom 's house this morning and are in Plainview , Texas . We will be heading to Amarillo tomorrow and then to Carlsbad , New Mexico . Then we are going to Wichita Falls and Electra . From there we are heading up to Arkansas . We have a very busy schedule and with not having internet often , I am not able to update regularly . Yesterday , Jesse started crying uncontrollably . When we asked him why , he told us that he wanted to go to his home in the Dominican . It 's hard on all of us traveling and living out of suitcases . There are parts of it that we enjoy , but we do miss " home " . Tonight , in the motel , Seth was laying on the bed looking up at the fire sprinkler in the ceiling and said , " Don 't tell me that is the fan ! " He is so used to ceiling fans , he thought that was a very small one . : ) Me and mamaw We finally have internet again , at least for now . We have been so busy seeing family and friends that I probably wouldn 't have had time to post anyways . Next week we will all be at camp all week , Stu is preaching , so I am not sure if I will be online then either . We had a blessing today , we were getting gas and when we were done the guy behind us asked Stu to come back to his car for a minute . He was going to pay for our gas , but couldn 't since we had paid at the pump . He owns a local pita place , and gave us coupons for free pitas . He is a Christian and just wanted to be a blessing . On the back of the van we are using it says , Baptist Missionary Transportation Ministry , that 's how he knew we were missionaries . What a blessing . We talked to him again at the restaurant and found out he knows some of the same people as us , he grew up near where Stu grew up . The churches we have been to so far have really treated us good too ! They have gone above and beyond . The kids got spoiled with money at the last church . We also got a big bag of snacks , which the kids liked . A family let us use their house here while they were on vacation , that was a blessing . We have been well taken care of ! We are staying in a prophet 's room right now and the boys think it is so cool to sleep in a church . Pastor Brett showed them the baptistery , so in the car Jesse wanted to know if he could swim in the pool when we got back . I kept saying there is no pool , and Seth said " No , he wants to be baptized ! " . What an adventure furlough is going to be ! We crossed the border into Canada and the kids went wild . They are so excited to be back here , after 4 years , and see all their friends and family . We have such a short time here to catch up with everyone . We have already had Tim Hortons and Swiss Chalet and visited with some friends . We are staying at a house in the country and we aren 't used to that . Stu laughs at me because my ears are hurting me ( they are ringing ) because it is soooo quiet . Jesse is going down the country roads looking for Frank ( the tractor off of the movie Cars ) . The girls wanted to play in the corn field , so Stu let them go in one , then he went in and scared them . I don 't think they will be going back in it . : ) Stu was playing golf out in the yard with the boys and hit Jesse right on the top of the head with the ball . Another thing the boys have found to entertain them is to talk to each other through the air conditioning vents . We don 't have those in the DR , so it is another new thing for them . We sure are having fun ! Well , if I thought keeping up with Jesse at home was a challenge , it only gets worse as we travel . He has so much energy and being in the car for 6 or more hours a day , doesn 't help ! He does like to help though , Every time the GPS gives a command , he repeats it to Stu . He acts like Stu can 't hear it at all ! Juls was getting frustrated with him repeating it all the time and kept asking him to stop . So he got to where after it gave a command he would be quiet for a minute acting like he wanted to repeat it and then say , " Juls will you get mad at me if I say it ? " Then he would ask me to say it . Then we were at our first meeting at a supporting church . I was talking to the Pastor 's wife , who was very pregnant , and Jesse almost punched her in the stomach . I told him not to do that and said that she had a baby in there so he needed to be careful . He squatted down and looked up under her shirt , then stood up and said , " She does not have a baby in there ! " . I was trying not to crack up ! My boys have discovered drinking fountains and are fascinated by them . Every time they see one , they want to go get a drink . It is such a new thing for them . It 's also weird seeing toilets with seats , cars staying in their own lanes , stores with sale racks outside and no one watching them ! I could go on , but I won 't . We will be crossing over into Canada tomorrow . The girls get to go to camp and see lots of their old friends . They are very excited ! We are also excited about seeing friends and family and our " baby " Lighthouse Baptist Church in Alliston . We made it to the States safe and mostly sound ! We left our house at 5 am on Monday morning . We had a fairly smooth day with no major problems . Our team worked together well ! The girls each had a boy to help watch out for . We made it through security and customs without any problems . We made all of our flights without having to run . We did sit on our second plane for an hour while they fixed something before we left . Thankfully Jesse slept the entire time ! When we arrived in Kansas City , we did have to wait an hour for our ride and then drive another hour to where we were going . Then Stu had to get all the instructions for the van . We were all sitting on the couch like zombies . Seth was falling asleep . So the wife took me and the kids to the motel while Stu finished up . I got the kids to bed at 10 : 30 ( which would be 11 : 30 Dominican time ) . We all slept good and unfortunately woke up early ( because someone called Stu 's phone at 6 am ) . We went down and had a great breakfast there at the motel . Biscuits and gravy , fresh waffles , fruit , yogurt , cereal , donuts ! YUM ! Then we loaded up and drove to Pekin , IL . We will be here until in the morning when we start driving to Canada . We will be visiting Mapleton Baptist Church tonight . They have been supporting us for years . We are off to do a little shopping today . Me and the girls need to find some shoes for my sisters wedding . We did make it to Walmart last night , although I was almost too tired to enjoy it ! This morning I went out for my walk and locked the gate behind me as always . We finished our first round and I was so tired that I didn 't think I could make it around a second time so we took a shorter second loop that took us a completely different way . As we were coming around a corner close to our street , I saw a little blond headed boy in green Buzz Lightyear pj 's running down the street . It took me a minute to realize that it was Jesse ! My heart immediately started pounding , and I called him to come to me . When I got to him I asked him what he was doing , he said that he was looking for me . I found out that he had climbed over our wall to get out , he even showed me where . After I " disciplined " him , I was very upset . My mind just kept thinking of all the things that could have happened . I know that boy must have a dozen guardian angels around him . I thank God for all of you that pray for us . I have seen His hand of protection many times ! ( mostly having to do with Jesse ! ) We had ladies fellowship today and had a good group of ladies , our biggest yet . I found out right before we went that I had offended a lady months ago with something I said and she hadn 't been back to church since . I had said something in Spanish and apparently it meant something totally different from what I meant . I knew what the word meant but used in the way I used it , there was a different meaning . I was able to talk to the lady tonight , with the help of Joy translating for me ( I didn 't want to mess up again ! ) and explained what happened and asked for her forgiveness . She said everything was fine . I hope she will come back to church now . I just wish I had known sooner , so I could have talked to her then . Oh the joys of learning another language ! 9 days till we leave , the boys are counting down . They are very excited ! My list of things to do seems to be growing instead of shrinking . I know this next week will be crazy and then when we get to the States , I 'm not sure how often I will have internet access , so my posts my slow down quite a bit . Yes , I know I already don 't post very often , but I try . : ) The boys are sick again . Jesse started running fever last week ( the second time he got this virus in a month ) and then seemed to be better but the fever came back again and his eyes got all swollen , red and watery . I found out he has another ear infection . Today Seth started running a fever , so I guess he finally go the virus . I am hoping he gets over it quickly and the rest of us avoid it . The Wesson kids are also sick with a different virus ( stomach ) so we are keeping our kids separated ! Stu and the girls have been at camp this week , so it has just been me and the boys here at the house . I have tried to get a lot of work done , but I don 't feel like I have accomplished much . I have a list of things to do in the next two weeks , and it 's not going down very fast . Me and Joy took the kids ( she is home alone with her 2 little ones also ) to a new park yesterday . It was so nice ! I know it won 't stay that way very long though . They don 't take care of things here . The kids had a great time . Today is Juls ' birthday , she is 12 now . We went out to the camp for a few hours . I took her a big card covered in candy and a big sprinkled doughnut . She was happy . I heard that they sang to her in chapel , which I am sure she loved . My kids are growing up fast ! We had several other missionary families over on July 4th . When we woke up that morning , it was raining , and when we went to bed that night , it was still raining . It rained ALL DAY LONG . One thing about it , it was nice and cool . The bad thing was that all 25 of us were cooped up inside the whole time . We still had a great time ! Towards the end the kids went out and ran around in the rain ( they would have done it more , but there was quite a bit of lightening ) . It was sure nice to have American friends to celebrate the day with . : ) Today we took Juls out for her birthday meal . We have a tradition that on the kids birthday they get to go out with just me and Stu . Her birthday isn 't until Wednesday , but she will be at camp that day , so we had to do it early . We went to Chili 's . We had them come out and sing to her and she was embarrassed . We had fun though . They love getting their time alone with us . Friday , July 1st , was our 16th anniversary ! Stu told me he was taking me out to lunch and gave me the choice of where I wanted to go . I chose Chili 's ! While we were there he said something about enjoying our days . I couldn 't figure out what he meant until he told me that he had packed my bags and we were going away for the night . He had arranged for the kids to be taken care of and everything . I had no idea , I was sooo surprised . I love surprises but usually I am hard to surprise . We went to a nice resort right on the beach ( only an hour from where we live ) . It was all inclusive , so we could eat and drink whenever we wanted . They even stocked our fridge with cokes ( which Stu liked ) ! They had the best bath tub ever and hot water . Although I about froze with the air conditioning ! We enjoyed a couple of walks on the beach . I love being by the ocean . We had a really nice time ! I have a wonderful husband and hope we will have another 16 years + together . Monday was Delayna 's 14th birthday . We had a birthday party that day for both of the girls . About 2 hours before the party was supposed to start it started storming . Rain , wind ( blowing the rain into our house ) thunder and lightening , it was crazy . We were running around trying to finish getting ready for the party and trying to shut windows and clean up the water that was blowing in . It rained for a while but thankfully stopped before the party . The girls had a great time with their friends and we enjoyed fellowship with some of the parents . Posted by Regarding my previous post , " Ready to Jump " , some new facts came out at lunch today . Seth started talking about when him and Jesse were jumping yesterday . We started asking questions and found out that they were jumping from the roof of the house ! We were all covering our faces trying to keep from showing anything . I was both upset and trying not to laugh . My boys sure keep me on my toes ! Well , my boys were at it again ! Last night they were out in the pool swimming and me and Stu were sitting in the living room . We could hear them but not see them . After a bit I asked Stu where they were jumping from because the splashes sure sounded loud . He said I think they are just jumping from the ladder but I will go check . Before I go further , let me tell you how the area around our pool is . The pool is right by the back of the house and just off of the house is a little add on that holds our propane tanks . So the " gas " house is about 3 / 4 of the way up the house with a small gap in between . Well , when Stu went out Seth jumped from the gas house into the pool and Jesse was up on the house roof , on the edge , ready to jump into the pool ! We still got sickness going through ours and the Wesson 's house . Jesse woke up yesterday and threw up all over the place . He was fine the rest of the day except for a bad cough . He coughed all night last night too . Seth kept crying last night that his stomach hurt but he never threw up . I gave him ramen noodles for supper and really thought I would be cleaning them up during the night . Three of Joy 's kids are sick . I am staying home today keeping the infirmary . I have this saying , " when it rains it hurricanes ! " . That is what has happened the last couple of weeks . It started off with Juls getting " gripe " , a cold . Then I got it . Then Stu got bit by something on his finger and it turned nasty ! Any of you who are on Facebook saw the pictures . After going to two different doctors he finally got put on a strong enough antibiotic that started helping . It is much better now , but still not pretty . Then Myra , our German Shepherd , had a big patch of fur that she licked off of her thigh . So we took her to the vet and from what I heard , second hand , she is allergic to the food we were giving her . Juls has been playing vet and giving her meds and doing her bath and creams and sprays . Juls loves animals but admitted it has been hard to keep up with the pills and baths , etc . at the scheduled times . ( that is how I feel keeping up with giving out meds to the family ) Then it was Delayna who got very sick . It started out as a cold , or what seemed like it , and got worse and worse until I suspected she had Bronchitis again . We finally took her to the doctor and found out she has Asthma . She was on a 3 day treatment to get her breathing back to where it should be , but it didn 't quite get there . She was still coughing and has been having headache , arms hurting and very tired . The doctor suspected that she might have Bronchitis as a secondary infection , so she is now on antibiotics for that . I think she has a virus also , which is what I think Jesse has now . He went to bed last night with a bad headache and woke up this morning with a fever . He has been laying around all day . I am hoping the rest of us don 't get it , but I am not holding my breath . On top of all of that , we have been trying to prepare for our furlough . Our U . S . passports finally came today , so legally we are ready ! We leave in less than 6 weeks now and we have a full schedule during that time . My brain is a little fried right now , so I can 't remember anything else that might have happened ! I think I am going to bed now ! : ) Well , Stu 's finger is not looking any better . It is actually looking pretty nasty ! We went to the doctor today and he got some of the pus out and gave him an antibiotic . He says it is so painful , very tender to the touch . Anyways , hopefully it will clear up soon . I 'll attach a picture , if you have a weak stomach , you might not want to look at it . : ) It takes a lot to gross me out , but today my boys grossed me out ! Me , Stu and the boys had to run a few errands . First , we stopped to get gas ( propane ) . When we get propane we all have to get out of the car . So we walked around the parking lot while waiting . We then got back in the car and headed to the next place . After a few minutes I looked back to check on them and they were licking the bottom of their shoes ! ! ! I am not a clean freak , I let them play on the floor and the ground and I know there are germs there , but I was ready to germ X their tongues ! We have already been praying for protection for our health with Cholera all around us , but I better pray a little extra for them . I could use some help , so if ya 'll think about it , keep us in your prayers . : ) Stu got a bad report on his knee . He was told he was basically going to have to deal with it until he is ready to give up his sports and get a knee replacement . He is taking an anti inflammatory daily , received a cortisone shot and is hoping the pain will ease up for a bit . He also got a bite on his finger that is swelled and has pus in it now . I guess I will watch it closely to make sure it doesn 't get worse . He doesn 't know what bit him . If anyone knows what to watch for besides red streaks , let me know . We had a great time on Memorial day . We had a few American friends over and grilled out . It was overcast all day , so it wasn 't too hot . The kids had a good time playing and were worn out by bedtime . On Tuesday I got a call from the Canadian Embassy saying that they wouldn 't accept Seth 's picture because there was a shadow in the background . A couple of hours later they called back and told me they wouldn 't accept mine or Jesse 's either . So today we went and got more pictures and took them by the Embassy . Once again they said they should be fine now , but now I can 't help but expect a phone call saying something else is wrong . Yesterday was the first day of hurricane season and it started out with lots of rain ! Actually it is supposed to rain for a couple more days . Because of all the rain Wednesday traffic was very bad and church attendance was low . It has cooled us off quite a bit . I was cold last night . Of course , Stu always laughs at me when I 'm cold here . Cholera is getting closer to us . They keep putting in the paper , the neighborhoods that it has been found and the last update showed it just down the road from us . The girls heard about it and started talking about it . They want to know everything about it . Now they want to use our filtered water for everything ! The ear doctor put Jesse on an allergy medicine for 3 weeks and I am supposed to give it to him in the morning and at night . The doctor said that for some kids it makes them real active and they won 't sleep , so if that happened only to give it to him in the morning . Well , the first morning I gave it to him he fell asleep 3 different times on the couch . I didn 't clue in until the next day , when he kept falling asleep again , that it was the medicine . So now I am only giving it to him at night . He seems to be sleeping good . : ) So far my niece is doing pretty good . They are still waiting for her intestines to start working , but she is off of the breathing machines now . She will still have to stay in the hospital for another month or two ( at the least ) . Craig and Leigh are staying at the Ronald McDonald house nearby . Please continue to pray for them . I know , it has been so long since I posted anything on here . I have an excuse , I mean reason . : ) First we have been having internet problems for 3 weeks or more . It got worse and worse . We had to call our provider almost every other day for those three weeks and they finally sent someone out Friday . There was a wire outside that was messed up , so he fixed it . We have been so busy , that I 'm not sure I can remember every thing to bring ya 'll up to date . I will do my best . Jesse went to the ear doctor , had some tests , and just had his follow up appointment . The test showed that something wasn 't right with his middle ear or ear drum ( the doctor really didn 't explain it ) but he said that Jesse doesn 't need tubes , he just put him on a decongestant for 3 weeks . I am very doubtful that this will work since we have tried this before . I am very frustrated but can 't do anything about it at this point . I might try to take him to an ear doctor while we are in the States . If anyone knows of a good one , let me know please . We spent 3 hours one day at the U . S . Embassy renewing our passports . Now we are waiting for them to be delivered . Then another day we spent an hour and the Canadian Embassy renewing our Canadian passports . We have to go back and pick them up in a few weeks . Thankfully that is all done ! ( $ 600 later ) The Canadian Embassy was so nice , we got to sit in a private , air conditioned waiting room , but when I paid and they didn 't have change , I knew I was still in the DR . : ) Nobody here ever has change . The U . S . Embassy was hot , crowded and no special treatment for Americans ! The Coupes have been here helping us while the Wessons are gone . Krista and Mrs . Coupe painted 50 butterflies for us to give away today for Mother 's Day . I am pretty sure they will be dreaming about butterflies for a while . I baked cookie bars yesterday to serve to eveyone after the service this morning . I only had 140 and I could tell it wasn 't going to be enough after I did a quick count . So we had to send someone to the store to buy some cookies to use for the kids . We had almost 200 people there , 75 ( or more ) of them were mothers . Many of them were visitors . We also had one saved today . I had to teach Jr Church ( since Stu was preaching ) and it was chaotic ! ! ! It was very hot and humid today , so I was drenched by the time I got home . It was a good morning , but I 'm glad it 's over . : ) My brother 's wife , Leigh , was taken in for an emergency c section Friday . They already knew the baby had some problems and were going to take her early and take her right into surgery . But because of some problems they had to take her earlier than planned . Carleigh Ann was 4lbs 6 oz . Her intestines were growing on the outside of her stomach and they were assuming they would have to do several surgeries to repair it . They were able to do it all in one surgery . She seems to be doing very well . Leigh was getting ready to go see her on Saturday and had a seizure so she is now not allowed to leave the hospital for another couple of days . Please pray for all of them . Craig , Leigh and Carleigh . Thanks ! I will attach a picture of her . Well , we have been having internet problems for over a week now . It comes and goes as it pleases , which is very frustrating ! Of course there was supposed to be a tech here today to look at it , but they never come when they are supposed to . I have found that I have to call at least 10 times before they ever send anyone out ! So for right now I have internet , but it might not last long . Sunday we had about 25 - 30 ( maybe more counting all of the babies ) visitors at church . I found out later that they all came with one woman that lives in the States . She has been bringing food and other help down to help this group of people . They live in a poor barrio not too far from our church . Recently she realized that they needed more than physical help and told them if they wanted to keep receiving the help that they had to come to church . She has even hired a bus to bring them on Sunday mornings . We had about 6 - 10 babies in the nursery and several new kids in Jr Church . The Wessons left yesterday . Their plane was delayed so they had to sit in the airport for several hours . Then found out that they would miss their connection so they had to stay in Fort Lauderdale last night , but it gets worse ! They couldn 't get them on a flight today so they have to stay tonight also . Hopefully they make it back to their family soon ! I 'm sure the grandparents are anxiously awaiting their grand kids ! We will miss them but are so glad to have the Coupes here . The kids are especially happy to have Miss Krista here ! Jesse just gives me so much to talk about . He is always into something , saying something or doing something unbelievable ! Several times this week you could have heard me or Stu saying , " What where you thinking ! ? " . I 'll just tell you a few of those instances . One morning we found him in the office cutting the screen on the balcony door . Another time , he drug a chair to the freezer and got his special brownies out , thankfully we caught him before he ate them . Last night he got a container of cookies out of the fridge and ate who knows how many before we caught him . This morning he got into my make up and was putting it on and squeezing it out . And I can 't even tell you about what he did with the toilet ! I took him to the ear doctor today . It was Dr . Jose De Jesus De Jesus ( no that wasn 't a typo ) . He said that Jesse has fluid behind his ear drum . He also said that he probably can 't hear very well ( I have been telling people that for a while now but no one would listen ) . He has to go back Tuesday morning for a couple of tests and then it is possible he will get tubes . We will see what happens . I better go see what Jesse is into now ! : ) I got to go to a garage sale on Friday ! Those are few and far between here , so we enjoy them when we can . I found some good stuff . The kids were happy cause I found each of them something . Stu got a filing cabinet , which he really needed . Saturday afternoon we went across the street to our neighbors house ( my walking partner ) for a birthday party . Their twin girls turned 3 years old . The boys had a blast ! They had a house full of other missionaries . We had so many white people on our circle that it felt like we were back in the States . : ) Sunday was not Mother 's Day here . They celebrate it the last Sunday of the month . Since we live here that is when we celebrate it also . U . S . Mother 's Day gives my family warning that they need to start preparing for our Mother 's Day . : ) I always miss getting to see my mom for Mother 's Day , but I am excited that I get to see her in a few months . This morning Jesse told me he pooped in his diaper and could I hurry and change him cause it was melting . I didn 't understand what he was talking about at first until he told me it was running down his leg . Unfortunately he had diarrhea this morning , which doesn 't surprise me since he ate lots of things he shouldn 't have the last few days . He has his appointment with the ear doctor on Friday , which I am looking forward to ! He was complaining again last night of his ears hurting . I am giving Delayna the last of her A . C . E . diagnostic tests this morning so I need to go check on her . I can 't believe she starts 9th grade this year . Wow , she is getting old ! : ) I found some Jalapenos here this week . That is the first time I 've found them here . I was excited . I made salsa and jalapeno poppers ( with cream cheese inside and bacon wrapped around it ) . They were so good . I had two left and Jesse got up on the counter and cut one and tasted it . He came running upstairs screaming , " it 's burning ! " . I finally figured out what was burning and gave him his cup of tea . He took a drink and then started pouring it on his chin . I cleaned him off and gave him an ice pack . He sat with that thing on his mouth and chin for 30 minutes . I think that is the longest he had sat still all day . I am still working on the passport applications , although I almost have them ready . I had the hardest time getting pictures for our Canadian ones . I spent two days on those ! I couldn 't get anyone to do them the right size . What I have now is cut to the right size but the picture doesn 't go to the edges . I am hoping they accept them . If they don 't then they are going to have to tell me where I can get them done correctly because I have exhausted my resources . I could do them myself except that they have to be done my a professional . At least I don 't have to have an appointment for the Canadian ones , I can just drop it off anytime . Our appointment for our US ones is on the 23rd . Hopefully it all goes smoothly . We had the Agape pilots here last night . The kids always enjoy that . I 'm not sure if the pilots like being surrounded by 4 kids who want to talk to them . : ) We bought our furlough tickets . We are flying out on August 1st and coming back on February 28th . We have a busy schedule while we are there . Stu only has a couple of months to fill with meetings still . If you have ever lived in a third world country , you know that everyday life can be very stressful . If you haven 't , then I probably don 't have the words to explain it to you . But the last few months here have been very stressful , between day to day stuff and being extremely busy with the church . We decided to take a couple of days off to try to recoup and spend some quality time with the kids . We found a cheap motel , out of the city , close to the ocean . We spent most of our time at the beach . We walked the opposite way of the resorts and enjoyed the deserted part . The boys love the sand . They crawled in it , flipped in it , buried themselves in it and slid down the hills . Juls spent her time collecting seashells and Delayna sat with her nose in a book ( she is just like me ) . It was nice ! We did have a nice amenity in our room . Remember , we were not at a 5 , 4 or even 3 star resort . It was not plush , it was just a place to sleep , with air ! But , our bathroom had a bidet ( yes , I had to look that up to spell it right ) . Jesse kept trying to brush his teeth in it . It was just his size . You just never know what you might find down here . : ) Our nice relaxing time was brought to a screeching halt Friday night when we talked to Josh . We found out that they were imposing a penalty on all expired Cedulas ( like an ID card ) . For every month they are late , they will charge 500 pesos . For mine and Stu 's we would have had to pay around $ 300 , just in late fees . So we packed up and left early Saturday morning , instead of taking one last walk on the beach . The people we knew that had gone to renew there 's on Thursday and Friday had been there for 2 - 3 hours , so we expected to be there all day ( since it was the last day to do it without penalties ) . We got home dropped the kids off , unloaded the van , got the documents we needed and took off again . It took us . . . . . are you ready for this . . . . . . 25 minutes ! ! ! We couldn 't believe that we got in and out so fast . I firmly believe it was because my dad was praying for it to go fast and smooth for us . Sunday night through Wednesday night was our first missions conference . It made for a busy week but was really good . We had an International dinner on Sunday afternoon . Wednesday night was the best attended , we had hundreds of visitors . I even think we had a touch of the Holly Ghost ! Wait , that was the flying visitors we had that caused that . People were swatting and jumping . We were invaded by some kind of flying ants . I guess they all came out because of the rain we had . We had rain two evenings in a row and on Wednesday it lasted for several hours . It was nice and cool . The boys had a blast playing in it for an hour before we went to church . I have also started working on renewing 9 passports . 4 US and 5 Canadian . I have to get them done before we head back for furlough in August . It is a hassle and extra money but it has to be done . The Canadian ones have more paper work and stuff to be done before turning in the applications . The US ones have very little paper work , but we have to have an appointment and show up with lots of documents and wait in lines in a very crowded place . So I am not looking forward to that day , with 4 kids ( or should I just say , with Jesse ) in tow . : ) We have a very busy 3 months until we head back . I will try to keep up with this , but I have only been getting to it weekly instead of daily . I don 't think I 'll change the name though . : ) Today was just one of those days ! First of all I was very busy . We had a church picnic yesterday , so I had some cleaning up to do after that . Then I had lots to do to get ready for tomorrow . Our missions conference starts tomorrow evening . I had some decorations to finish up for that . And to top it all off , Jesse was into everything today ! ! ! I let the kids color and decorate eggs right before lunch . After his nap , Jesse got about 4 of the eggs and smashed and crumbled them all over the place ! After I got that mess cleaned up , he got a paintbrush that was soaking in paint thinner and painted all over the work room . Then , he got toilet paper and unrolled it all over the place . Then while we were going through our resurrection eggs , he was sitting on one making chicken sounds ! So , I was trying not to laugh while Stu was reading the scripture . That boy acts just like his daddy ! : ) If you don 't know what resurrection eggs are , they are a set of 12 plastic eggs that are numbered and each contains an item and a scripture . For example , 3 dimes represents 30 pieces of silver , A rock represents the stone in front of the tomb and the last egg is empty to represent the empty tomb . You get the idea . It is a tradition that the kids love . We hide the eggs and let the boys find them , then sit down and go through them . We usually do them on Easter Sunday , but because tomorrow will be so busy we did them tonight . While we were going through them , we were asking the kids questions to make sure they were listening and understood the story . When we opened the one with the soap ( to represent Pilot washing his hands ) we asked them what did they do with the soap . Seth answered , " They soaped him " . I think he was referring to Jesus , but I 'm not sure exactly what he meant by that . Then we were talking about how they stripped Jesus and we were explaining what that meant . We asked the boys if they would be embarrassed to go outside naked and Seth said , " no ! " . So it was hard to keep a straight face during our story ! I have not been sleeping good because I can 't keep Jesse out of our bed ! When he sneaks in bed with us during the night he kicks and wiggles and I can 't sleep . With his ear infection he has been crying a lot during the night . Normally I don 't let him in our bed so he sleeps on the floor next to my bed . I tried to remedy that one night when I put him to bed by telling him about the hairball monster in my room ( cause he told me he didn 't want to stay in his bed cause he was scared of monsters ) . I told him there was no monsters in his room but there was in mine . It didn 't work ! He came in my room and slept on my floor and Seth came in during the middle of the night crying about being scared of the hairball monster ! I was trying to explain to him that I was teasing and it was just the hair that comes out of my brush and blows under my dresser . I had to show him the next day what I was talking about . Guess I need to figure out another way to keep Jesse out of my room . Maybe it 's time to cage in his bed ( what do ya think Denise ? ) , or maybe I can lock him in his room or out of mine . Hopefully I can get some sleep tonight ! So much has happened in the last week , or has it been two , that I 'm not sure where to start ! I don 't even think it is possible to cover it all , so I will just tell you about a few things that have happened . Last week was full of running around , getting stuff for church and ladies fellowship . Katlyn 's birthday party . And Saturday , me , Joy and the girls went to a garage sale . Now I know for you ladies in the States , you could go to garage sales all summer long , but for us here , they only happen every once in a while . We had fun ! ! ! Friday , during lunch , we realized that we had not seen Chiquita , our chihuahua , for a while . We searched the house and yard and still couldn 't find her . Of course , by then , Juls was in tears . So Juls and I drove around the neighborhood looking for her and asking if people had seen her . Finally we went back to the house to make fliers but I told Juls to search the house real good one more time . Juls finally heard a whimper and found her in her little carrier bag in Juls ' room . She had put her in it that morning and had forgotten about it . She was happy ! Saturday night we had ladies fellowship and Josh and Stu take turns driving us and watching the kids . This month Josh drove us and Stu had all 8 kids here at the house . During that time , some of the older ones were playing basketball and Stephen ( Wesson ) fell and hurt his arm . It hurt him all day Sunday and started swelling , so Monday morning they took him to the doctor and found out it was broken . Jesse had been telling me that his ears hurt since last Wednesday . Finally on Monday I took him to the doctor and found out that both of them are infected . He has had so many infections in the last few years and has had fluid on them for at least the last year , so the doctor is referring him to an ear doctor . We will see what happens . Needless to say he has been miserable and grumpy ! Last night a deaf lady from our church went to the hospital to give birth . Josh drove Joy and I over there , since it is not a safe area of town . When we got there , the entrance was crowded with people and the guy at the door didn 't want to let us in . Finally he said Joy could enter , and I followed close behind . We then had to talk to a nurse at another door who said no one could go in . She finally took us to the maternity ward and made us wait while she went to check on the lady , Yocasta . When she came back she told us that she had given birth but we could not go back . She said we should just be happy that did us a favor by going to check for us . We said thank you and waited while she walked off . Joy then asked another guy if she could talk to a doctor or nurse . He went to find one and then took Joy back but made me wait . After a while he told me to follow him and took me back to where Joy was . Yocasta had just been brought out in a wheel chair from giving birth and was laid in a bed . I won 't give much detail , but it was heartbreaking . She was laying on a bed with no sheet , just a piece of paper under her , in her clothes that she had given birth in , bleeding all over the place . ( I know that sounds like a lot of detail , but trust me , I am leaving out a lot of information ! ) They had run her family out of the hospital earlier , so she had no clothes to change into , nobody even knew she was deaf , she had no water to drink since arriving in the afternoon . We asked a nurse to find something for her to put on and we helped bathe her ( we had to wait on someone to bring us a bucket of water since there was no running water ) and bought her some bottled water . We got her settled on a bed , with a sheet ( no pillow or blanket ) and they brought the baby to her . While we were with her they brought another girl in that had just given birth , in the same condition that we had found Yocasta and laid her on a bed with paper . There were about 7 beds in the room and they were all full . When we left we called her family to let them know Today we had a homeschool track and field day at the park . The kids had fun running and jumping and kicking soccer balls and all kinds of other stuff . We are all exhausted and planning on going to bed early ! When did I post last ? What has happened since then ? The last week has been so chaotic that I can 't remember anything . Keeping up with Jesse lately has been a challenge . He has cried all week , always wanting me to hold him . At times he said his stomach hurt , so I 'm not sure if that is why he has been so whiny and clingy . Last night he was in the bathtub and he stood up on one side and leaned over to the wall on the other side with his hands . Then he tumbled head first into the side of the tub . He instantly had a dent and then it started swelling . After that he did not want to finish his bath . I took a picture , but it didn 't show up well , which was surprising since it was so big . And of course , Seth wanted his picture taken too ! It rained several days this week which was so nice ! The kids love to go out and play in it . I couldn 't show Seth because he ran out in his underwear . I 'm glad nobody can see into our back yard . : ) One of the days our drain was plugged up so Stu and Delayna had to go out with a long PVC pipe and fix it . Last night I found out that I was supposed to do Jr . Church this morning because Stu and Delayna went to help with our new church plant . I was in panic mode ! Doing something last minute in English is bad enough , but in Spanish ! I managed to get it all together last night and had two very good helpers this morning , Juls and Kimberly . We have had two days of rain , and more than just a sprinkle . It was so nice , and it cooled us off a bit . I guess because of that the city sent water in , so hopefully they will send in more . Our grass already seems to be growing up through the dirt . I also have lots of sprouts in our garden . I 'm praying for more rain ! Today , the electric company came by and shut off our power . I guess the bill was due yesterday , although we never received it ( which isn 't uncommon ) . If I had realized what they were doing I probably could have stopped them by giving them a tip and going to pay it immediately . But I didn 't catch it until it was too late , so I had to drop everything and go pay in hopes that they would turn it back on today . Thankfully they did , at 4 : 30 ( 5 is quitting time ! ) . After I told Joy about it , she realized that they had turned hers off too . What makes this so frustrating is that there are so many people in this country that don 't pay anything and get power , but we are one day late and they cut ours off , even though we pay every month ! I guess it 's easy to take for granted , receiving your bills and having the option of paying them online , through the mail or on the phone . Wow , that seems so easy . : ) I love it here , but sometimes I get frustrated with the way things are run , or not run . We took the kids to the beach for our family day yesterday . We don 't live too far from the water but to get to the beach ( one without people ) we have to drive about 45min . to an hour ( that is if we miss the main traffic times ) . Anyways , the kids had a blast . Me and juls made a sand sculpture , a crab . Seth spent most of the day boogie boarding and tumbling in the waves , that was when he got flipped over the board by a wave . : ) Stu and Delayna were skim boarding . And Jesse was all over the place ! They were all tired out by the time we left at 2pm , but then we had a birthday party to go to . So we spent the evening at a friends house . The kids played football , and by the time we got home they were ready to crash . I told ya 'll that my boys keep me laughing , well , Jesse was at it again today . He had used my bathroom and when I went in to check on him , he had the lid of the tank slid to the side and was looking in there . When I asked him what he was doing he said , " I 'm looking for the poop " . Kids say the funniest things ! My boys have been saying something lately and I don 't know where they got it from . Now I know some of you are going to think they got it from me , the Texan , but I don 't say it that way ! I listened to them for a while to making sure I was hearing them right when they said , " mom , what 's that fer ? " Seth came up with his own phrase this morning . Something didn 't go his way so he said , " stinkin cotton ball ! " . Something else that Jesse has been saying lately is " I 've got air in my bum " . That one always makes me laugh ! My kids are always doing something to crack me up , and I always say , " I should write that down " . Well , now I am ! So ya 'll can enjoy the laughs with me . : ) Stu is a very talented prankster , so we had all kinds of things set up to fool the kids yesterday ! We colored the milk green , saran wrapped their toilet , glued money to the floor and put a color tab in their shower head so the water came out red . It was fun . Stu was gone running errands in the morning and the girls wanted to " get him " . Since I didn 't want them " getting me " I helped them . Everyone knows Stu is a Coke addict , but I have almost got him off of them . He only gets them on special occasions , so when I offer him one he is quick to take it . So we got a coke bottle and put water , teriyaki sauce and Worcestershire sauce in it , it looked just like coke . When he got home I served him his lunch and poured him a " coke " . He sat there and ate all of his food before he took a drink , we were all getting anxious and trying not to laugh . Finally he took a drink , looked around for a minute and started spitting ! He didn 't think it was funny at first , but that was just because he doesn 't like being " got " . Thankfully I made it safely though the day ! It 's raining this morning ! That makes me happy and sad . Sad because I didn 't get to go for my walk . Happy because we REALLY need rain . Maybe now the city will start sending in water , so we won 't have to buy another truck of it . Jesse enjoyed the rain , he was out playing in it . Actually a friend of mine just said that the local news said that if the police catch someone at the car wash washing their car , they will take them to jail ! I 'm not sure how true it is , but it sure is funny to think about . We 've only had a few rainfalls since last November . Jesse was sitting on my lap this morning and he said , " do you have poinky cheeks ? " . Then he reached up to feel my cheeks and said , " no " . I asked him whose cheeks are poinky and he said daddy 's are . I 'm glad he didn 't find mine poinky ! And then later , Jesse was using my bathroom and I heard him say , " I 'm sorry mommy " . I went to see what the problem was and he had unrolled almost the whole roll of toilet paper . As I was rolling it back up explaining that he only needed a little bit he told me , " but I wanted that " ( pointing at the cardboard roll in the middle ) . He likes to put them on his arms and act like a muscle man . He sure keeps me laughing . I now have a walking partner and I am so happy about it . I love walking to stay in shape , but haven 't been able to do it since I can 't go alone here . The lady ( Kerri ) that moved into our old house , across the circle , likes to walk too ! So this morning we started walking . We plan to do it regularly . I enjoyed it so much ! Tonight when we got home from church , the boys were hiding in our closet trying to scare Stu . When they came out Jesse had peed his pants . I was fussing at him for going in his pants instead of the bathroom that was just steps away and he says , " Seth wouldn 't let me ! " . Come to find out , Seth wouldn 't let him leave the closet to go to the bathroom or it would ruin scaring Stu . It was funny ! So I told him next time not to listen to Seth , Go to the bathroom ! Stu finished moving the dirt this morning , so right after lunch me and the girls started planting the garden . We have one little garden space and then there are spaces in between the trees along the walls . We planted tomatoes , lettuce , cauliflower , green beans , okra , squash , zucchini and cucumbers . I just wish I had some jalapeno seeds . I haven 't found any hot peppers here yet . It 's hard to make salsa with green peppers , just not enough zing ! Although Stu likes it better that way . Speaking of HOT , I was so excited to find Hot Fries at the store yesterday . I bought me a bag to enjoy and I 'm not sharing . If only I had a Dr Pepper to go along with them . Also on the subject of hot , it is starting to heat up around here and the humidity is going up . It 's not unbearable yet , but summer is coming . The last few months were very cool at night , but now Stu is considering if it is possible for us to get an air conditioner for one room . I don 't mind the heat , but I could do without the humidity . Posted by We planned today to do some work around the house . First off , Stu checked our cistern and discovered we were almost out of water again . With the lack of rain the city hasn 't been sending water in very often . So with the cistern almost empty he decided to crawl down in there to get a padlock out that had fallen in some time ago . While he was in there he found something that needed to be fixed , so that took him most of the morning . Then we had to order a truck of water . That costs us around $ 40 . The main thing we needed to do today was to spread dirt over our grass . Over time the rain washes the dirt away to wear there is only coral , so you have to spread dirt over the grass to fall through to build it back up . Not sure how well I explained that , but hopefully you get the picture . We had called for a truck of dirt in the morning and they said it would be here after lunch . It finally came around 3 : 30 , so we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening working in the dirt ! Stu was filling the wheelbarrow and dumping it on the grass , I was spreading it with a rake and Delayna was busting up the clumps . After a while Delayna started filling the wheelbarrow and Jesse decided to rake . I attached pictures but I 'm not sure why they are at the top instead of under the writing . The yard looks horrible right now , but hopefully we will get some rain this week and it will be back to normal soon . When we finished that we had a fire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows . It wasn 't exactly the family day the girls had in mind , but we spent it together ! : ) My husband Stewart and I are missionaries in the Dominican Republic . We are working with The Wessons in the city of Santo Domingo . We have 4 children , Delayna 16 , Julianna 14 , Seth 7 , and Jesse 6 .