Tidbits from the Means

We've slept in 10 beds in 21 days!

 I got to take the ALSO (Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics) course and I really enjoyed it AND I passed!

We take our heavy duty blender that would power a small lawn mower everywhere we go and drink green smoothies on the road.

 If you are a missionary on the road and you have the opportunity to cook for your family, have you considered McCormick's pre-measured spices. Then you get some flavor without buying a bunch of herbs you either have to leave behind or find room for in the car.

Another travel trip: Freeze your water bottles the night before your trip. Use these to keep your cooler cold instead of a bag of ice. You'll have cold drinks all day and no ice melting and watering down your lunch meat and cheese. No one likes soggy lunch meat and cheese!

Josiah and Sam had a great time driving this 1987 Jeep down to the border for our missionary friends in Chiapas. They were by far the oldest car rollin' down the road. They rocked the retro, father and son style.  Altogether about 830 miles, probably something Josiah will never forget.

Each child has a carry on size luggage, which they can pack a least ten days worth of clothes in and they are responsible for keeping it neat and orderly at all times.

When all the kids where little I always followed a simple rule from the time I woke up until I fell asleep. "Do something to improve a room every time you enter or leave." I don't know when or why I stopped doing that.

Our family motto is, "Remember as far as everyone else knows, we are normal." No seriously, I'm sure our real family motto is much more spiritual than that.

I think a child bringing you flowers they picked is one of the best things in the entire world.

Each of our children has moved at least as many times as they are old. Including 3 countries and 2 years in an RV. Man, I miss the RV!

Although Sam and I have been married over 16 years. We have only lived in the same house together maybe 13 years or less, due to military duties.

Haden (age 5) says he wants to travel the WHOLE world (his emphasis on world, not mine). He wants to go to China and Berlin and hear their languages, but he does not want to go to school there, because he wouldn't know how to answer the questions.

My kids LOVE going to our home church, Gospel Light Baptist Church, in Rogers, AR. They love the music and the preaching and the singing and the classes and the wonderful people they know pray for us. An undiscribable lesson in appreciation.

"Where's My Water", which Haden affectionately calls "Swampy", is awesome!

Also our kids can not figure out why our home church rarely singing, "Send the Light" and almost every other church we go to sings it all the time. Some of you won't get that one. :)
 
We had the privilege of presenting our ministry at Victory Baptist Church in North Austin while we were in the US. A nice lady who had spent some time in Mexico spent some time practicing her Spanish with me. After she left Hannah said, "Her Spanish is pretty good." I said that she was part of their missions committee. Her job was to speak with the missionaries to Spanish speaking countries and that this church didn't support missionaries unless they could speak the languages well enough. Bahahaha! You should have seen her face.

 I am just beginning to realize, that we are raising third culture kids and that they are not experiencing the mission field the same way Sam and I do, and somehow by some miracle of God's grace we are able to create some sort of stability from within our little family unit that keeps us all grounded

 In less than two weeks we will move to Oaxaca, Mexico and we have no plans to ever leave Oaxaca!

And that's a little bit of how we roll folks!