Photo Challenge is Over!!!

Next time, if there is a next time, I'm going to day a photo challenge with less days because I stink at this.

Day 26 Night- I took this out of our bedroom window.

Day 27 Money - this is money that we still have from Costa Rica.

Day 28 Something I ate.  

And this is what I wished I would have ate.  This is have nothing to do with the challenge, I made this up.

Day 29 Something that I'm listening to, the news.  I'm so boring!

Here's the real deal, I have been slacking on my blog because I haven't felt very well over the last few weeks and have been staying home a lot.  So there really isn't much to share about our lives right now.  

Maybe I will find something interesting to blog about next week.  

Picture-a-day failure.

Is it sad that I can't take a picture once a day for a month?  It's not that I can't, I just get bored with it.  

So, here are three pictures for the Photo Challenge.

Day 23 A picture of where I work.  When I do any kind of computer work it's usually on the couch in our family room right next to the heater.  Why next to the heater?  Because I freeze to death everyday of the year.  haha!  I'm not kidding.  This last month has been rainy, sunless, and cold.  Ethan got up this morning and put shorts on because he said it looked warm outside.  Wondering if he is regretting that decision right now?  Seriously, I'm wearing jeans and a turtle neck.  

Day 25 Something green.

Day 25

And wait for it......a picture inside my bathroom cabinet.  Why yes, I do have 8 boxes of Crest Pro Health toothpaste.  They don't sell that kind of toothpaste here and it is the best you can use for your teeth.  Our dentist in the states recommends it and my orthodontist here recommends it, so it must be true. And that lotion you see in the picture has been to three countries, gotta love the Equate brand.  Speaking of Equate, I miss Wal-Mart.  I see lots of posts on Facebook about hating Wal-Mart but I promise if you didn't have a Wal-Mart to go to you would miss it.  

We are officially coming home in June.  We haven't set a date yet but we will next week.  It will probably be the end of June because of my braces.  I'm getting them off before we leave and I'm really, REALLY, excited about it.  I think the first thing I'm going to eat is popcorn and then chew some gum.  haha!

We are looking forward to coming home and spending the year in the states.  If you would like for us to come to your church and share about Ecuador and what we are doing here send us an email and we will set something up.  

PC Day 20,21,22

Well, I'm obviously one day behind so I decided to post three days at once.  (I'll be glad when this is over haha!)

Day 20 a picture of my shoes.

Day 21 a picture of handwriting.  I wasn't really sure if handwriting would be considered cursive writing or print.  I chose print, actually Megan's print.

Day 22 a favorite picture of myself.  I really don't have a favorite picture of myself but this one will do.

What we've been up to?  We have been staying indoors because of Carnival.  Really don't want to go outside and get drenched by a water gun or water balloon.  Yes, that really happens.  Ethan has been sick running a fever and hasn't really felt good anyway.  What a way to spend his school break, huh?  Megan has been reading a lot and just enjoying time in the house.  Shannon and I have done some cleaning, watching movies, and cooking.  That's is how we have spent the last two days or maybe I should say our Carnival vacation days.  

PC Day 19

Well, it's day 19 of the Picture a Day photo challenge and today's picture is of something that I hate to do.  This is what I hate doing, sitting in the airport waiting for our flight.  You wanna know what's worse than this?  Checking in at the airport.  Most of the time we have a lot of luggage and it's a real hassle, but this time we didn't have hardly anything.  Ethan said that this was the first time that he has went to the airport without carrying anything and I must admit that it was quite nice.  

Oh and for the first time ever we had a little excitement on the plane ride back to Quito.  A lady passed out about five minutes before we landed and scared everyone on the plane.  They had her in the aisle laying down when the plane landed and we had to stay on the plane until the medics got her off.  I'm not going to lie, it was scary.

We had a great weekend with all of our fellow missionaries and I will try to post pictures later.  The kids are out of school until Wednesday because of Carnival and they are happy about that.  (If you don't know what Carnival is you can click here and read more about it)

PC Day 18

A drink.

For all of you that is wondering, it's lemonade.

PC Day 17

Nothing but time. Yep, today's pic is of time.

And this weekend we are in Guayaquil for a meeting. So, the second pic is a picture taken from hotel window.

Have a great weekend everyone.

PC Day 16

Todays picture is of something new.  These are two brand new bags of Starbucks coffee.  Yay!

Hello?

Todays photo challenge is a picture of a phone.  How easy is that?  Here is a picture of our phone.  It's not just any phone but it's our lifeline to the states.  We make and receive calls to and from the states on this phone and I am very thankful for this phone.  

Now this next phone is not to be mixed up with the first phone.  We call this our Spanish phone because everyone that calls this phone, well with the exception of a few calls from gringos, speak Spanish.  And you know what?  Most of the time it's the wrong number, about 98% of calls received is the wrong number.  Today we got a phone call from a lady saying that she received a call from us and wanted to know what we wanted.  Shannon said we didn't call you and she said yes you did.  Now is that really worth using all your brain cells to argue in Spanish?  I think not, but Shannon thought differently.  He told her again that we did not call her and hung up.  What else could he do?  During the Christmas holidays Megan answered this phone with, "Buddy the elf, what's your favorite color?" and they would always just hang up.  Needless to say, I like the first phone better.

Valentines Day

Some girls get candy, or flowers, or jewelry for Valentines Day but not me.  I got a pair of Polartec North Face pants and I love them.  Shannon always says that I am hard to buy for because I don't like flowers or jewelry.  Notice that I didn't say that I don't like candy, especially chocolate candy because I do.  One thing that I really like about my Valentine is that he knows me, so he knows what to buy me.  (Mostly because Megan tells him.)  He really didn't have to buy me anything at all because I don't need a holiday to know he loves me.  Oh and while he was at the North Face store he bought himself a shirt from me for Valentines Day, how great is that?

PC Day 14 - A picture of a heart.  

This is the perfect picture for Valentines Day because there are hearts, chocolate, and Amor.  Amor means love just incase you didn't know.  

Oh and some couples go all out for Valentines Day and go to romantic dinners, but not us.  Guess where we are going?  We are going to Meg's last soccer game in Cumbayá.  (Yes that's the name of a song) And after the game we are going out to eat with our two kids.  Then we are coming home and watching The Biggest Loser.  Sounds like a fun night to me!

Just another day in Quito

On our way to church Sunday we got stopped by the military and they wanted to search our car for guns.  Of course it wasn't a big deal to us because we don't have any guns.  (We leave our guns home on Sundays and just depend on the Lord.  I'm kidding!)  

Life is never boring in Quito, it's always an adventure.

Here's my day 13 PC.  It's something blue.

Things you can look forward to this week in pictures are:

Day 14 - Heart

Day 15 - Phone

Day 16 - Something New (this is exciting)

Day 17 - Time

Day 18 - Drink

Day 19 - Something I hate to do

PC Day 12

Inside my closet. I must admit that I love this closet an it's the biggest closet that I have ever had. Too bad I don't have enough clothes to fill it up.

PC Day 11

Day 11- Something that makes me happy.

Shannon, Ethan, and Megan.  (that was easy)  And I'm actually going to post more than one picture. 

One of our favorite places to go.

This was Shannon's mini waffles.

Ethan.

This is what I had because I can't eat ice-cream.

Megan's banana split.

What are we going to do with this growing boy?

Day 9 & 10

Well, looks like I might not be very good at this picture thing.  Really, I thought about taking a picture of a front door all day yesterday and completely forgot.  Is that a sign of old age?

Day 9 A front door.

Day 10 self portrait.

What we've been up to:

Going to soccer games.

Helping with homework.

Preaching. 

Filling out paperwork.

Making a video.

Making airport runs.

Cooking recipes from Pinterest.  (I made the baked zucchini fries tonight and they are delicious)

Going to the orthodontist.  

The end!

Day 8

Today's post is suppose to be of the sun, but how can I do that when it looks like this today?  This is what it has looked like for weeks, gray days.  It's rather depressing, don't you think?

So to add a little sunshine to my life today I took this picture.  Oh how I miss thee Mr. Sun.

Oh and if that is not enough sunshine to make your life complete, please watch this video.  It's of Shannon's cousin, Robert.  I promise it will make you smile.  Click here.  (he made this video for Arkansas Tech University in Russellville)  

Day 7 of PC

Just so you know PC stands for Photo Challenge.

Today's picture is of a button. I know that you've been waiting all day for this picture. Haha!

I think I'm going to like the photo challenge, it makes things interesting.  I promise I will blog about "real life" here in Quito soon, but until then enjoy random photos from me.  (Do you know how hard it is for me not to spell photo foto?  Ok, probably not.)

Day 6 of photo challenge

A picture of dinner, sloppy joes. I must admit that I don't like sloppy joes but Shannon and Megan do. Ethan and I ate something else. Why do I always tell you the whole truth?

February Photo-A-Day Challenge

I found this little challenge on Pinterest and decided that I would give it a try.  I will only be using the camera on my phone because my other camera is just too big and it's just easier this way.  I am five days behind so I am going to catch you up right now.  I really did these in a hurry because I wanted to catch up, so I will do better as the month goes by.


Day 1 My view for today:

Day 2 Words

Day 3 Hands (ok this would be more like fingers because my hands were the only ones around at the time)

Day 4 A Stranger (like I was going to go outside and find a stranger to take a picture of, not this girl.) This is a picture of Molly's toy, she doesn't even have a name so she's a stranger.

Day 5 10:00 a.m. (I failed miserable at this one too, I promise I will do better) How about 10:32?

Day 6 Dinner- stay tuned for my dinner pic.

Here is the list for the rest of the week.

Day 7 Button

Day 8 Sun (we haven't seen the sun in weeks)

Day 9 Front Door

Day 10 Self Portrait (this should be interesting)

Day 11 Makes me happy

Day 12 inside your closet (also interesting)

Will post my Day 6 later tonight.

Chicken Enchiladas

It's time for a post about food.

This is the second time that I have made these enchiladas and they are Shannon's favorite.  When he was out of town for the week he was worried that I was going to make these and he wasn't going to be home.  He likes them that much.

I found the recipe here.

You do not need canned enchilada sauce or the packaged mix for these, it's all in the recipe.  It's the perfect recipe for families living over seas that can't get either one of those items anyway.  And I almost never follow a recipe, I always like to make changes.  So, I didn't cook my chicken in the sauce.  I boiled my chicken breast and then shredded it.

Please try these, they are a lot of work but they are so good.

Here's the sauce simmering, ok not really because nothing simmers here.  After it simmers you strain all the veggies out, that is where you get the sauce.  You put the strained veggies inside the chicken enchiladas.  

Here's a little trick to shred chicken.  I put the boiled chicken breast in my KitchenAid mixer.  

This is before.  (sorry if you don't have a KitchenAid)

Here's the after.  How perfect is that?

And the finished product.

We have two different pans because one has veggies mixed in with the chicken and the other one doesn't.  Guess who eats the ones with veggies, Shannon and Megan.  I don't eat the veggies because they are too much for my stomach.  (story of my life)

Have a good week!