Ha, fun house mirrors take the most flattering pictures of people!
This Thanksgiving was a little different from all the rest. My mom decided she wanted to stay home alone this year as the rest of the family got together at my grandparent's condo as usual. My aunt, uncle, and cousins came this year too. Usually they are already up in the mountains of North Carolina over Thanksgiving but this year they decided to wait until afterwards. Also, it was our first Thanksgiving as a married couple and Josh's first Thanksgiving away from his family and in Florida. It was a warm sunny day today and I took my new camera so I could take some pictures of the wildlife that is always around my grandparent's condo.
This year my grandfather was talking about his typical hobbies - boating, flying, and fixing cars. However, he started saying that he was getting tired of fixing cars and keeping up with the planes. This astounded me. My grandaddy has always been the kind to stay active and even after he retired he's stayed busy with his hobbies. Now he says he's slowing down and even considering selling his plane and car. He still goes out on the boat, but I haven't heard of them taking a weekend boat trip in a long time. They used to go on weekend trips all the time and even went on week 
long trips at time. I guess I really am growing up. I guess things really are changing. I guess it's true that they won't be around forever. As he was talking about all this I felt the need to record his love for old cars and preserve the memory of his hobbies.
His plane was at a hanger at the airport and his boat was out at his warehouse at my aunt's house, but his car - that was in the garage just outside. I hadn't seen it in several years and I knew Josh loves old cars, so we talked him into getting the car out this afternoon so I could take some pictures of it. You can tell he is SO proud of it! It's his piece of yesteryear. Although not the best pictures in the whole world, 
I am still glad that I could record this passion of his and I hope he can still cherish the photo if he does eventually sell the car. 
Anyhow, I got to work on Friday at Onsite Safety and they had decorated my desk with all kinds of birthday goodies, they got me a silly hat to wear, and got me a ton of my favorite candies! Then, as if I wasn't already on sugar overload, they sang to me and had me blow out candles from a tray of brownies and cookies! DELICIOUS!!! Who needs cake? Stacey makes some great brownies fyi. :)
Friday night we went to Kobe Japanese Steakhouse with a bunch of our friends. It was a good time and great food. I think the best thing about Kobe is that they give you lo mien with your food as well as rice. Hello carb overload! I think this was probably one of the best birthdays I have EVER had!
Then, yesterday Josh and I went to Magic Kingdom at Disney with Steve, Hollie, Nate, and Jen. Steve works at Disney and got us all into the park for the day. It was a blast! Thanks Steve for the day of fun and Jack Sparrow spotting! It was a great birthday weekend and now for the best part...
My friends and family all chipped in and got me a Digital SLR camera, the Canon Rebel XTI! Courtney and Bradd then gave me a telephoto lens to go with my camera! They were the best gifts ever! I feel set up now. I have wanted a dslr for a while now. I have been interested in photography and I'm super excited to have the opportunity and equipment to be able to pursue it. I want to be able to take pictures for ministry purposes. Pictures that stir people to action. My prayer is that my photography will capture even a glimpse of what God sees in His children and that the viewers can relate to those in the images.
What a trip! We're back now and feel like we have learned SO much! We met so many neat people and have made some lasting friendships. We worked with Dale and Nancy Johnson and Trent and Tina Morrow. With the Johnsons, we did construction on a new building
for the Bible School and Josh worked mostly on the plumbing. With the Morrows, we did Kid's Quest and children's ministry with the kids out at Colón. Each night the children brought more and more of their friends. I'm not sure how many children accepted Jesus as there savior, but there were a lot! Each of them got brand new Bibles and many started reading them right away.
On the last evening, we got to make balloon swords and hats for them as they "put on the full armor of God." It was an awesome experience!
I experienced a little bit of culture shock as I am more used to El Salvador. I'm used to tan people with dark hair and dark eyes and there they are light-skinned and have differing hair colors. Also, the Spanish is very different and took me a little bit to get used to it. Oh, and instead of squelching heat, we had the bitter cold of winter because their seasons are opposite of ours. Instead of the housing you see in El Salvador, they had little brick homes that were almost dollhouse-like in appearance and in the city they lived in high rise apartments. Both Josh and I are used to food being dirt cheap in Latin American countries, yet this country hardly seemed Latin American at all. The food was not only expensive, but similar to what you would eat in the U.S. or Europe. There was a cover to eat at just about any restaurant to use their glasses, silverware, and linens. There were eggs and ham on everything it seemed. Their national dishes where things like a Chivito, a sandwich with ham, eggs, cheese, mayonnaise and whatever else you wanted on it, or a milanesa, which was chicken fried chicken and usually came with an egg, ham and cheese on top. 
Their salads where lettuceless and you had to ask for tomatoes on sandwiches or salads. It was different, but good. I was itching for some good ol' rice and beans and I'm convinced there are none in the entire country. :) However, the best dish I had came from Pecos Bill's and they had a flatbread pizza with just pesto and fresh tomatoes on it that was to die for! I think I ate it three times while I was there and it still left me wanting for more. The best part was that for that pizza and a bottle of water, it was only $5; the cheapest meal we ate there. Mmm...it makes my mouth water.
We went to Colonia one day which was like our St. Augustine. It was an old fort city with the cobblestone roads and little cottagelike houses. I love places like that. It was fun for me to visit and had great photo ops! It was just beautiful there!
pastor prophesied that Josh would be back as a missionary to that country one day when we went to church on Sunday. This is after the Morrows had been telling us to stay and work with them. So, who knows...maybe one day we'll go back. Primero Dios! We got to go sight seeing and buy souvenirs like mate (a tea drink that EVERYONE has in their hands at all times) cups on our last day. It was a great trip and we loved learning yet another new culture!
Since Josh and I are headed to Uruguay in a few days and I really didn't know too much about the country other than it was located in South America and they spoke Spanish, I decided to do some research so I could know what to expect and what the local dialect was. I was told that since Josh and I are the only ones that can really speak any Spanish, we will be the translators. THAT should be interesting. :) So I wanted to find local words for specific items and see what was culturally appropriate to do or say (you'd be surprised at how widely this varies...words you might say in one country to mean something perfectly innocent, would be highly offensive and rude in others). So, google time!
