More Butterflies!

Two more butterflies this morning. I only got to see one, the other must have been a late sleeper.

Katie took pictures before letting them go.

Our first butterfly

I woke up this morning and was very pleased to meet our first butterfly. I almost missed it in my rushing around, but it finally got my attention. (Sound familiar?) I took the butterfly box around to each room so I could wake up the children with a glimpse of God's handiwork. Pretty cool.

I got to thinking about how much my children are like the butterflies: They spend the early part of their life pooping a lot, eating a lot and needing to be sheltered and have their needs met. Then they spend some time apart from you and emerge better than you ever imagined they could be and nothing at all like you'd expect.

(Katie and I did note that most of them seemed to empty their digestive system in a big way shortly before making their cocoon. I figure that must be the deep, meaningful equivalent of adolesence.)

Back to Work

Well, after a 15 year sabbatical I am back in the work force. As Katie mentioned a few posts back, I am working as the interim secretary/bookkeeper at McGavock Elementary. Our regular secretary has taken an extended medial leave and may or may not be back in February.

It is quite a change for the family, but seems like a good fit for us. I am still learning about the accounting practices, BET, CTE, 2320 funds, audit practices, payroll systems and more acronym's like AIMS and EBT. I'm hoping I can fill the spot well and have fun in the process.

I still have quite a ways to go in my training, but school starts in three weeks, so I better be ready.

Progress on the painting

We've been finding many excuses to not work on painting the bathroom and dressing room, but David was better than I today and fixed the one bedroom wall that had some thin spots, and he got a second coat on the bathroom. It looks so much better now! I'm still going to do some decorative painting on it, but the second coat made it all nice and even.

We still have lots of drips to clean off, but there is definite progress.

Pictures soon, I hope.

Another Limb Bites the Dust

Well, seems like our two trees in the back aren't so fond of their branches. We had a 40-45 mph wind line blow through Friday and I ran outside to make sure the tomatoes were secure. (Priorities!) While I was tying up one of the bushes, I heard a loud crack and a limb in the big tree came down. I went back inside pretty fast and decided that the tomatoes looked just fine.

David got it cleared off before I had time to get pictures, but it looked pretty much like the other one so you can look at that picture again, if you'd like.
:o)

Fine and Dandy

All is well at the Buchanan household. Michael came back from the Mexico trip tired and full of things to tell. Kaylee is doing great and getting less shy every day. My mom stared a new job (as a secretary, I think?) at the Elementary school Michael, Nick, and I all went/are going to. She is having fun and starting to get more comfortable. I have been getting along fine, just trying to get everything ready for school (already!). Let's just hope things stay on a nice routine for now!

Latest Update From Mexico Mike

Here's the latest update from Mike's team:


Subject: Mexico update #10

Hello praying friends! Just got off the phone with Anthony (3:35pm, Nashville time, Sunday) who was overflowing with praise and thanksgiving for this team and the way God has met them on this trip. I will try to summarize all that he said but I am not sure I can do the tone of joy justice. They are on the road right now to Texarkana, making good time due to open highways and an early start (up at 5:30 and left at 6:00). He said they are pretty tired, all of them, but health and moods are good.

First, your prayers and faithfulness are so appreciated. The unity of this team has amazed the leaders and the Mission Discovery folks. Anthony said the leaders "knew their hearts are golden, but they had no experience", and as he had said in earlier posts, the kids were smaller physically than some past, and none had been on a trip before except the leaders. However, God makes up for any lack on our part! "They rose to every expectation, over and over. Their team spirit was incredible. They were so unselfish. Anytime there was downtime on one site, they'd go to the other house and ask what needed doing and do it.." The team was able to finish three houses, and even finished early, which is truly amazing since some teams with more experience have had to push hard to finish two. And we read yesterday of the eternal work the Lord
accomplished through the vbs...51 children!

Anthony said they really had a great sense of community even before they left Nashville, but that having all three work sites next to each other helped tremendously. He said the leaders were so aware of the fact that the kids had very little down time on this trip due to the fact that the work site was a two hour drive from the Mission Discovery camp. That cut into the kids' swim time and down time, but the students' attitude were really outstanding. The phrase 'servant heart' was used repeatedly! In fact he said he and Steve would have a hard time narrowing down the 'Aaron Pearson" (outstanding service and friendly reaching-out award) to one person because the whole team showed that precious spirit. Karen and Andrew (teen leaders) both made tremendous contributions to modeling and encouraging the younger ones in that, he said.

Last night after they left the big group time and split into individual church teams for small group time, the Mission Discovery leader Maury stuck his head in their room and said Belmont is always such a gift to the staff. The team invited him to come in and be prayed for before he left to travel to another camp across the country. The kids gathered around and sought the Lord and heard many things on Maury's behalf. He told Anthony " It was incredible to see these junior highers hearing God for me" and was so blessed by it all.

Some prayer points as we stand with this diligent team who is seeking to finish well:
* that the Lord would preserve what He has given this team. That they 'wouldn't forget' once they are home.
* that the team could hold on to the community they have and invite others who didn't make the trip in to that community.
* for good travel time and continued protection and for health. (Sam Barker's fever is gone by the way, and the kids showed wisdom about sunscreen and time in the sun at the beach yesterday.)
* for good rest for the leaders and drivers

Again, thank you all for the sweet privilege of praying alongside you. Thanks too for your patience as we ironed out the wrinkles in the email system and list. They are almost home!
Angela

Coconut Creme Oatmeal

I (Katie) went to Petco a few days ago to get another rat. I got the special treatment of a new rat in the 'Employees Only' section. I was helped in finding a rat by a very helpful young man who readily told my mom just how much he liked rats as well as I do. Then he helped me in identifying a female as I finished my rat adoption.

On the way home, I decided on the name Coconut Creme for my new baby rat. The name oatmeal was added on later because of the fact that I kept calling Coconut that on accident. Kaylee wanted to meet the new addition as soon as possible. I am sure by the look in her eyes that she only wanted to invite Coconut for a nice dinner...

Just Keep Painting

Well, we did finally settle on a color for our bedroom. Actually, two colors. The bedroom is a dusty blue and the bathroom and dressing rooms are a royal purple. We got the primer and first coat of paint done last weekend (Thanks Jeff!) and are trying to get time to finish up this weekend. The bedroom is looking great. There was one wall that had some blistering so we have been getting it sanded and it needs to be repainted.

The purple paint has been a bit of a problem. Even after two coats of tinted primer we are coming to see that it will take all the coats we can put on to get it covered. I think we will get it the best we can and then do some decorative accents to hide all the flaws.

I'll post some more pictures when we get further along.

First Chrysalis(es?)

I woke up this morning (afternoon-whatever) to Katie bounding into the bedroom with our caterpillar cage. Overnight some of our guests had decided it was time to take a long nap. We've got two so far who are wrapped in their cocoon, and at least two more that look quite ready. I've read that the process takes around 6 days and we will keep you posted.

Naked Trees, Crepe Myrtle and Tomatoes

Here are some updated pictures of the front yard. You can actually see the trunks on the holly bush and nandinas in the front of the house, and the flowers in the raised front bed are doing much better now that they can get some sunlight. The fir (on the right) looks great as a tree instead of a bush. It's nice to be able to walk around the yard without getting smacked by a low hanging limb.

The crepe myrtles are blooming, and David trimmed out most of their deadwood. They are so huge!

We are on High Alert with the tomatoes, as the first almost ripe one has been spotted. The plants have gotten so tall that we're going to have to find taller stakes for them. (They remind me of Poppie's wash tub tomatoes.) We have definitely enjoyed the fresh dill, rosemary and basil all season. Mike decided fresh basil is what made his lasagne extra good the last time he made it. There is still some dill, although we have fed most of it to our caterpillars. We haven't had any tomato worms, but if some show up we'll bring them in and raise them, too.

Mexico Mike Saturday Update

Mike's team is headed to South Padre Island today after finishing up with their construction and VBS work.

Here's the latest e-mail update sent from Mike's youth leader, Anthony:

Subject: update #8~awesome report from Anthony

It's Friday night and we are getting to bed after a long great day. We finished our houses and this email could be several pages just alone on that issue. We had so many of our work sites team members running in between the 3 sites to help each other. By 12:30pm, all the houses were done and dedications began. Each home was prayed over and our team got to express any words to the host families through a translator. The host families were crying, our kids were crying. It was a great experience. The site I was on had a older mother with grown kids living with her. The grown kids had small children and it was wonderful. During the dedication of our house, the older women communicated her gratitude and then began to cry. Suddenly she began to breath deeply and fainted. Her sons carried her inside while the pastor shared with us why she fainted. He told us of how this family moved from another state in mexico with nothing. They left family behind and put down roots with very little to their name. She was overwhhelmed with how the lord had restored all her wealth and blessed her with a house. She eventually came back outside and gave all of us hugs. We were overwhelmed with how this simple house became a great gift for someone else. Pretty special moment. All 3 dedications were like this one in their own way. All 3 homes were finished early but here us the best part: God used the VBS team with the other churches to lead a outstanding
VBS session today where 51 kids prayed to invite christ into their hearts. Our team led worship and portrayed a well-done skit on faith. Can't tell you how great a job Karen has done with this team and VBS. Godalso allowed us to join with 2 other churches to give the pastor $800 for an eye surgery and to make some more church pews that are well needed.They only have 2 in the church. Many more stories about the God sightings.

Pray for the following:
*safety at the beach tomorrow.
*team unity to continue
*health- sunburns to heal and continual health while travelling.
*strength for leaders. They are tired and so are I.
Blessings for now,
Ac
anthony r. chaboya
Mosaic Group

Kaylee, the self-walking dog

This afternoon Kaylee decided that she wanted to go on a walk, so she let herself out of the back gate and started off around the block. (I had not latched it all the way when I went to get the mail and I think she waited for a gust of wind to crack it enough to get her nose through to push it open.) She was taking our regular route and completely ignoring my calls, so I sent Katie and Nicholas to meet me on the other side of our block and I got in the van to follow Kaylee. I caught up with her around the first corner, but when I acted like I was going to get out she started trotting faster. Then I opened the van's sliding door and pulled up next to her again. This time she looked at me like I was crazy and trotted on around the next corner. We kept this up with me driving down the wrong side of our neighborhood roads with my van door open and my blinkers on. She would stop and I would stop next to her and call her. She would ignore me and trot on her merry way until she peed twice, pooped once and finally decided it really was a bit hot to be walking. She hopped in the van about the time the kids caught up with us.

I'm actually thinking that this would be a great new method for walking her in bad weather. I can just hang the leash out the window and roll along beside her in the van.

Our latest pets

A couple of days ago Katie called me outside to look at some caterpillars in our garden. We counted 15 green, black and yellow striped ones enjoying our dill. After some research we discovered they will become black swallowtail butterflies, so we adopted four of them and set them up in the house. After a trip to Petco today for supplies we have managed to put together a caterpillar rescue program and brought all the rest of them in, too. (The birds or something had been visiting the garden, as we were down to only 8 evacuees.)

They are eating and pooping machines, but we are keeping up with cleaning and feeding as best we can. (Did you know that caterpillar poop is called "frass?") I don't know why anyone needs electronic gadgets for amusement with all the funny animals God made!

Mexico Mike Update

Thank you to everyone who helped with finances and intercession for Mike's mission trip. Here are some pictures we took the morning they left. In the group shot he's in the middle of the back row, looking to the right and wearing a light colored shirt. (Click on the picture for a larger view.)

He left Saturday at 6:20 and will be home Monday evening. We haven't heard from him since they arrived at the camp Monday morning, but we are confident he is having a remarkable trip. We'll update you if we hear anything.

Meanwhile, back at the house...

Since Kaylee Bark-Bark is afraid of sudden noises we thought it best to let her stay at home while we went to the fireworks display. We had not counted on our neighbors setting off lots of large fireworks in our absence. We also did not consider that they would set them off over our home and that they would be strong enough to knock a split branch out of our tree. Nor did we imagine they would continue to shoot them off toward our house after watching the limb fall to the ground. But, they did.

We came home to find a large limb on the ground in the backyard and no sign of Kaylee. I finally found her coming out of the bathroom where she had been hiding in the bathtub. Good thing we didn't take her with us. She might have been terrorized or something.

Fourth of July

What a show! Nashville has been ranked by some groups as having one of the best Fourth of July fireworks displays in the nation. We've watched them most years, from a variety of locations. This year was definitely the best seats. David loaded up the cooler full of snacks and we dragged our sunburned-from-a-day-at-the-wavepool bodies into the car to drive downtown to our favorite parking spot. However, it worked out so that we were stuck in traffic right in front Riverfront Park where the show was staged. All the cars just stopped and watched so we had a front row seat. It was amazing!

The show features several entertainers as well as the Nashville Symphony, and the fireworks "dance" to the songs. The local radio station broadcasts the music so we were able to sit in our air conditioned van with the windows rolled up and the air conditioner on all the while. Not too shabby!