ok...this blog thing isn't doing what I want it to!! Explanation is at the bottom of this post! I tried to add other pictures, it said it loaded them but they won't show up...so here are the pictures that did show up...Catherine holding a cooked chicken foot...lovely face!! The dog in the background, I'm sure was just waiting for her to drop it.
Some of the girls took time to braid her hair into lots of little braids it looked very cute! It sure did take a long time to take out though. This is an umbrella a store owner gave her...she wouldn't put it down the rest of the trip.
Here is the team...on the roadside on the way back to Tamazunchale from Jalpa. Sorry it is a bit blurry. Pastor Chencho took the picture and he wasn't real still as he snapped it.
Christopher's concrete covered hands as he worked so hard shoveling and carrying buckets back and forth to the roof! He loves to work serving others, what a blessing to see his servant's heart!
Our host family's pig!Mexico...We had a great trip! It was cold and rainy in Jalpa and very muddy! Unbelievably all the kid's clothes actually got clean in the washer...and we went through all the clothes we brought with us! I already posted pictures on my family blog you can check out those on the link to the right if you wish. I'll just post a few pictures of the kids here.

House...We close tomorrow at 3!! We still have potential buyers for our house although they are looking at a HUD house nearby as well...so we'll see on that end!

this is too cute! Of course they would pick Shirley Temple because of the curls.

Why oh why did we decide to buy a new house?!
What a process!! We found out today that we need a new survey done...more money! We were hoping to use the existing survey since it is only 6 yrs old. The problem is...the property has 2 street fronts, the property on Jewell street is an empty lot. The house next door to the lot built too far over and their roof sits 2 ft onto our proposed property. The current owners gave them the extra feet but didn't go through any legal channels thus a new survey is required of us! Calixto is going to see if the current owners will pay for this, but I doubt they will. I also have to say what a rip off appraisals are...they "seem" to be a total waste of money...our money at that. The appraisers basically come up or down to the selling price of the house. Now, if that is going to be the case why are we as buyers required to have an appraisal done. It makes no sense to me! So far we have put a lot of money into this house and it isn't even ours yet! I guess there is sense to the phrase "Buyer Beware"
This is interesting...the house we wanted to buy before this one was bought by our neighbors. I ran into one of the guys the other day and he told me the house caught on fire!! Last week a fire started in the kitchen due to the dish washer. There were 2 smoke detectors downstairs and neither went off! Fortunately, they were sleeping downstairs, they awoke to choking smoke...they got out just in time. If they had been sleeping in the room upstairs the house would have been engulfed before they realized there was a fire. Praise God that they survived (they are not believers). They will have to be out of the house for at least 2 months and have the entire kitchen redone. After I spoke with him I realized what if we had bought that house...it is quite possible our kids would have died of smoke inhalation (downstairs) before we could have done anything about it from upstairs! Same for the couple and their kids who lived there before. (We ran into that couple at Chick-fil-A today and they couldn't believe it!) Praise God for the way he works all things out!
We will be showing our house to the couple from LU again this weekend! It is a great location for them as he spends many extra hours at the office. We'll keep praying for the right buyer with the right price!!

Fall Fun!
Before...












and after! We had fun carving our pumpkins...I was going to carve my little one but, was too tired after doing Catherine's.














Do you like the leg warmers? Catherine was still dressed in her dance outfit from the morning. They had a little party at class and one of the mom's gave all the girls these leg warmers...they all loved them!














Usually we only have 1 or 2 people come to our house for Trick or Treating. This year we had a bunch of kids come. Luckily I had candy left over from Christopher's b'day party to give away!
Update on the house...we had the home inspection completed, revealing work to be done at some point! The appraisal was done today...all paperwork is in the hands of the mortgage company. I would assume closing will be the beginning of Dec. I must say I am a bit nervous about it all still!