Gobblin' Good Time

Here are a few pictures of our Guatemalan Thanksgiving! Yep, we actually had turkey with all the trimmings. Albeit, the trimmings sometimes took on a Guatemalan "substitution" flare, but Scott said it was one of the best Thanksgiving spreads he'd had in quite a while. I felt pretty good about my first turkey - thankfully I was able to buy a Reynolds turkey bag to bake it in. I think that was my salvation. I almost had a bad mishap - I didn't realize that you could stuff the turkey from both ends, which means I didn't realize that there were 2 bags of "stuff" inside the turkey to remove before cooking. Thankfully, I called Rhonda, who made the stuffing, and when I asked her if there would be a lot of stuffing left over (that didn't fit inside the turkey to bake). She asked me if I stuffed both ends, and I casually said that I was getting ready to do that, but was just checking! Much to my surprise, there was the other bag of giblets in the other side! SO - what could have been a very embarrassing, yet memorable first turkey experience, resolved itself in time :). Along with turkey, we were able to purchase canned cranberry sauce and some canned pumpkin, rounding out our traditional meal. I was able to get some french fried green onions for the green bean casserole from the states about a month ago, so we were all set. The meal was great, and we enjoyed spending it with other missionaries from the States.

Obviously, since we cooked the turkey, it was our job to carve it and save all the leftovers. I carved and carved, knowing that a goal of mine was to find the wishbone. I've never known exactly where it was located - I just knew that dad would save it, dry it out, and then we would break it the next day. Well, thankfully, I found it - and carved it out without breaking it! I wanted to preserve the tradition of breaking it with the kids. They thought it was funny - Elijah was victorious. We will start the scoreboard now - Elijah (1)/Sydney (0). We'll see if Sydney can even things up next year...


Well, just wanted to get a few pictures out. We have a really crazy 2 weeks in front of us with the Maxima Mision coming up. We have 5 days until 200-300 people invade Guatemala, and we are in charge of them! Please keep us in your prayers - pray specifically for our heath, that Scott and I stay healthy during the stressful week, and that the kids stay healthy during the week with a babysitter. This last picture is apparently a classic "retake" in the Armstrong family - Scott remembers posing for this exact same picture with his dad, Tim and a Royals Cabbage Patch doll (sorry, I can't remember his name, and Scott's not around). Hope that it gives warm fuzzies to the Armstrong boys! :)

emily

Fun School Days

The kids are officially done with school, but since Nov. 2, have been involved in a vacation course. They get to do lots of fun things like cooking, drama and gymnasium. Yesterday they brought home 2 cups of purple and red jello that they made themselves. They were pretty proud! They are having a ton of fun! A few of the days have been "theme" days - like last week, they searched for buried treasure as pirates.
And today - they got to go to school dressed in their pajamas, because they are having a pajama party!
I'm interested to hear what they got to do today for their pajama party - I'm sure it involved some type of candy - every party here in Guatemala includes candy!

We've also had lots of fun in the house - I've been staying at home with them during the afternoons since they started school last spring. Although it's had it's challenging times, I've enjoyed the extra time that I've gotten to spend with them. A few weeks ago, we went grocery shopping and brought home a few boxes - of course, the kids found uses for them...

We are on the countdown until our huge Maxima Mision project takes off - only 17 days from today. Scott and I are super busy coordinating lots of details. Please pray for us as we coordinate 500 people planting 10 churches in 1 week. It's going to be awesome, but right now feels very overwhelming. We need our prayer warriors to be on overdrive for us. The actual event in Dec. 2-9.

Well, with that I'll end this blog. As I just mentioned, there is lots of work to be done. I'll leave you with a funny quote from Elijah - now that he's 4 1/2, something funny comes out of his mouth almost daily!

Overheard at the dinner table a few nights ago:
Scott: Em - should I save room for dessert, did you make anything?
Elijah: Mommy - what did you make for dessert?
Emily: I made zippo.
Elijah: Zippo? Can I see it?

Hugs to everyone - happy thanksgiving a week early!

The Armstrongs

Things are NORMAL

I knew when I started a blog, that i would never be able to maintain it faithfully. Sorry to those of you that are on pins and needles, just waiting for the next post! :)

Not too much new news going on in good 'ole Guatemala - one of the most exciting things was obviously vacation in Honduras. Elijah has also started swimming lessons, and although very jittery the first few times in the water, he's doing great now (6 weeks later). At his lesson yesterday, he swam about 5 feet from his teacher to the ladder. He's so proud of himself. We bought him a pair of goggles to encourage him to go underwater, and now we can hardly keep him on top!

Our vacation to Honduras was great - we really enjoyed the family time together and doing NOTHING! It was awesome to have the condo where the kids had their own room, we could make our own food and follow our own schedules. We will definitely look to keep a condo on the radar as a necessity for a wonderful Armstrong family vacation!



The kids are finishing up with their last few weeks of school - they both are doing really well. The school has a "summer vacation class" that we've enrolled them in for the month of November - it's not school at all, but lots of fun activities like cooking, gymnasium, music and arts. I think they are going to love it. Once December comes, they will have 6 weeks of real "vacation" - I think they are going to miss going to school everyday. We have a babysitter hired that is going to help us part time (4 hours a day) during their vacation weeks, so that I can still work at the office part time.



Well, that's about it for now. Scott started getting sick yesterday (fever, sore throat, fatigue), and we'd appreciate your prayers for him. We take him to the doctor this afternoon, because this is the 3rd time he's been sick in 3 months. Dengue Fever has reared it's ugly head here in the capital in the past few weeks - we are praying that it has nothing to do with that. We'll keep you updated, if we find anything out worthy of sharing. Love to you all.

Emily

Just Because

Long time, no post. We've finally made it through a whirlwind summer with Youth in Mission, and we are gearing up for our next 2 weeks of missionary training. Life doesn't seem to stop here! BUT, I did want to get you a few pictures of the kids. We are looking forward to a vacation in Honduras in September - we found a condo that was just built that is on the Carribean coast. It is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath and only $600 for 8 nights. It has a pool, and it just a small trip to the beaches. It's about 10 minutes from the closest "metropolis":). I asked the owner if there was a grocery store in the town, and he told me the biggest one was inside WALMART! I'm excited to see if it measures up to the Walmarts in the States - I'll keep you updated. If you want to check out the link to the condo, its

http://www.villasbocavieja.com

Well, we'll update it later. Love to you all.

School Time Fun

We have had lots of exciting "school related" fun in the past few weeks, and I wanted to share the fun with you all. A few weeks ago, Elijah and Sydney were learning about public servants - policemen, firemen, doctors, etc. In order to celebrate this theme, they had a dress up day, and Elijah had to go to school as a soldier and Sydney went as a nurse. When I got the note that Sydney was going to be a nurse, I thought to myself "God, are you going to continue the tradition of nursing in our home?" We'll see what he has in mind as they get older!

Yesterday (May 10) was Mother's Day in Guatemala, and in the kid's school, they had a special program for the moms. Sydney's class "sang" - more like lipsynced - a song, and Elijah's class recited a poem and danced the "Baile de la Ranita" (Dance of the little frog).

Sydney came out in true drama form, and cried through her whole song :). We were told by her teacher that she did really well in the rehearsals, but apparently she couldn't get up enough courage for the big stage.

On the other hand - we've found our drama king in Elijah! He LOVED the stage! He did great job with the poem and the frog dance. He had a smile on his face the whole time, and was so proud of himself when he was done! I have to admit, to see him doing so well brought a few tears to my eyes!

As you all know, Elijah's 4th birthday is coming up shortly - we are planning a party for him, and going to invite his friends from his class. In his class there are 7 other boys (no girls!) - so we are going to invite them for a pizzy party after school is over and a piñata. Elijah wants a Quincy piñata (a character from the Little Einstiens) - they don't have Little Einsteins here, so we are going to have to see if we can find a piñata shop to make one special. If they can't well have to improvise! I'm sure his party and pictures will be the next post on the blog!

A few things you can pray about - We have a SUPER full schedule for the next 4 months.

• May 13-May 16 - Scott in Houston for Border Initiative meetings (please pray for safety, but also for us as we mobilize a lot of people to make this project a success)
• May 27 - June 2 - Project Isaiah and Caleb training - our 7 volunteer missionaries who are going to Spain and the Middle East will be arriving in Guatemala City for a week of training with us. Also pray that the Lord continues to provide financially for their trips (they are all raising $7,000)
• June 3 - July 26 - Youth in Mission time
• During Youth in Mission, we are hosting to Maximum Mission groups - one from Nall Avenue Church of the Nazarene in Kansas (55 people - 29 June to 8 July) and the other is the women's soccer team from Olivet (21 people - 15 July - 25 July)
• August 5 - August 18 - Formal Missionary Training. We have 6 people arriving to Guatemala City that are being put on a Regional Missionary Contract, and we are training them in the scholastic and practical sides of missions.
• After all that is over, we are planning a vacation (much needed by that time!) We will be gone from Sept 8 - Sept 16. We are looking at going to Belize, because we can drive there, and we've always wanted to check it out.

As you can see, we've got lots on our plates. We appreciate all the prayers that you send our way.

Elijah's Funny Quote: I debated about posting this quote, because it's a little brash, but it was SO funny, I just had to put it! "Mom, can you help me open my graham crappers, I'm ready for my snack." (said when he was trying to open is package of graham CRACKERS!

We love you all very much. Hope that these pictures and thoughts help you feel a little closer to us, even though we are far away. Lots of hugs and kisses!

Emily, Scott, Elijah and Sydney

Easter Fun

It's been quite awhile since we've updated this blogspot. It's happening today, because I can't get our pictures uploaded to Kodak Gallery, and I wanted to send you all some Easter pictures.

Before I get into Easter, I wanted to update you on Scott's travels. He was with an MNU Maxima Mision group for a week in Teculutan and Morales, Guatemala, and after that he was in Amsterdam for a week, for a theological conference. He really enjoyed his time in Holland - it was his first time there. He fell in love with the stroop vaffels, a cookie that they eat with tea or coffee. He brought home 5 bags of them! He talks about them everyday, and how much he loves them. When they are gone, I don't know what he's going to do!

On Easter week, we had vacation days on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It was great to be able to spend some family time together, after Scott's absence from home. We bought a swingset on Thursday, and put it together on Friday. We are getting more handy as the years go by. On Friday, we also invited the Slingerland girls over so that we could color easter eggs. Elijah and Sydney had a lot of fun doing it, but didn't have much patience for leaving it in they dye too long! On Saturday, we took a family day and went to the Auto Safari Chapin (if you want to see a web page in Spanish, you can look it up at www.autosafarichapin.com) We were able to drive around the "safari" and see all sorts of animals like a lions, zebra and Sydney's favorites - giraffe and monkeys. Elijah was disappointed they didn't have elephants. At the end of the safari, they have a nice public pool that we stayed about for about 2 hours. There were a TON of people there, since it was a holiday, but luckily for us, lots of Guatemalans like to stay on the side of the pool (I think it's lack of swimming skills, but don't know for sure) - so we had a lot of free reign in the center of the pool! The kids loved it.

On Easter morning, we woke up at an early 4:30AM, in order to be at church for the 5:30AM sunrise service. Most of the churches here in Guatemala have a sunrise service on Easter Sunday. It was great to celebrate the resurrection of our risen Savior with our local church. Even though we didn't get home until 11:15AM (after 2 complete services and a breakfast in the middle), we were really glad that we made the effort to go. The kids crashed for their naps, and slept most of the afternoon. There were no evening services, so we just hung around the house. The pictures here are of the kids after the services - 5AM was a little TOO early to get smiles out of them! :) (It's also a way that you can see the handy work of the new swingset!)

We are currently getting mentally and physically prepared for our summer with our Youth in Mission team. They arrive on June 3 and are here in ministry until July 26. We are trying to get all of the details in place, as far as schedule, housing , food - the list goes on and on. We'd appreciate your prayers for our sanity. We did have a great answer to prayer - Julie Bird, a senior higher from our church in Kansas is coming to be a nanny for the kids for 5 weeks this summer! She is going to be here from June 3 - July 8. Please pray that she can get enough financial support to buy the airline ticket.

We'd like to bring back the Funny Saying from Elijah: This time, there are 2.

1. Dear Jesus, please protect Daddy since he's in HAMPSTERDAMSTER (instead of Amsterdam)

2. When choosing his NCAA Brackets (which didn't fair so well this year...) - Elijah, do you want Holy Cross or the Jayhawks? Hmmm, I guess the Jayhawks, but I really like Holy Cross. This was so funny, because for those of you that remember, he is ENAMORED with Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. I thought that he would take Holy Cross to the end - the only thing that stopped him was his Jayhawk upbringing... :)

We love you all. Hope that your weeks have been just as great as ours. Thanks for always thinking about us and keeping us in your prayers!