The little things!

I am always saying it is the little things in our lives that makes a difference. I have a few more examples of the little things God has blessed us with and we are forever grateful.

So a few weeks ago I was talking to my best friend Tammi and she asked me if I could get Alfredo sauce down here. I replied no with a frown on my face. Preston and I love canned Alfredo sauce. We actually lived off it when we lived in the States but we couldn't find it here.
I went to the store 3 or 4 days later and guess what I found for the first time!!! Alfredo sauce!!!



If you know Preston at all you know he LOVES peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches. Actually some of you have even brought down peanut butter for him! Well we can get jelly here but it is always strawberry, peach, blackberry....never grape. Well everyone knows the most traditional and best PB&J is with grape jelly.
Friday we ran to a different store than we normally go to and guess what we found!!
On the shelf in the import section were 2 jars of.....

Yes folks...Uva means GRAPE!! So we bought both jars of course just in case we never see it again. But Saturday afternoon Preston was able to bite into heaven again!

Thanks God for all the little things you provide for us. We know they are from you! Let the imports keep coming!!

New Brother in Christ

We have a new brother in Christ!!



Cesar said tonight he is ready to give his life to Christ and follow Him in baptism!!



The angels are rejoicing!! So rejoice with them and us!

I'm It

I'm It and I was tagged by my dear friend Alisa M.
Here’s how it works:
-You have to tag 5 people (you can't tag the person that tagged you)
-You leave them a comment on their blog (‘you’re tagged’ and ‘why’)
-Direct them to your blog for instructions…when you get tagged, you post ten fun facts about yourself!

Here are my ten!

1. My mouth literally waters when I see a Corvette.

2. I live in a beach town yet I don't like the beach. I personally am a lake girl.

3. I'm not a big chocolate eater. I always pick something fruity over chocolate.

4. I love Fall. I love the crisp air and the changing leaves. Fall is the main thing I miss in Springfield (besides family and friends of course).

5. I love to sing. I am not good at it but I love it so much.

6. I don't like animals...they are too unpredictable.

7. I would call myself an environmentalist. I am always thinking about ways to save the earth and use less stuff. (far from perfect of course)

8. I hate our society's need to upgrade. My thought...if it's not broken you don't need a new one.

9. I love to read, yes I can be a nerd.

10. I inherited the Malesky's gene of sleeping. I can just about sleep anywhere for any amount of time!

Ok, I am going to tag Rachel G, Rachael A, and Andrea B

Springbreak Team

We had another amazing team. The team was from Chicago, Kansas and Second. We did distributions with information about the new church. We passed out over 8,500 papers!
We worked this group into the ground. We were all over the city and even into the mountainous areas.

Here are our sisters from the Chicago area

Here are our brothers and sisters from Topeka, Kansas
And our very own Second Baptist

We really felt the Lord move and work this week. We felt Him working in our own lives and also in the lost city around us. We have already received a few phone calls and a new man came Thursday to service. We were able to make some new contacts with people and as always...get the name of the church out.

Thank you to those who were backing us in prayer this past week. We really saw the hand of the Lord on the trip and we continue to pray for those papers people received. Pray they will be lead by the Holy Spirit to come and find truth.

A special thanks to the team. You guys did an amazing work for our Lord. Thank you for giving your Spring break to serve our King. We cherished the fellowship with each and every one of you. May the Lord bless you on your mission fields back home!!
We love you all.

Mom in Puerto Vallarta

I am so excited that my mom was able to come to P.V again. This time she came before the team and helped us get everything ready. While we weren't shopping for groceries or cleaning the house we were out having fun.
Friday night was our last night just the 3 of us so we went out on the town. We went to a new restaurant we hadn't tried, went to our little cafe and went to the movies!

Here is the view from the restaurant
This is downtown



Sunset


Us at sunset





Thanks mom for coming early and helping us get ready for the team. You also did an amazing job cooking and helping take care of the team. We couldn't do this without you!! We had so much fun with you as well. We already miss having you here!
Love you tons

My Daddy-O

Happy Birthday my Daddy-O

Jesus of course is my first love but from the second I was born there was a faithful man who I adored...my Dad. He has always been my super hero, teddy bear and he was my standards in choosing a husband.
The love I have for my Dad has never dwindled, it has only increased. As I see him age I only see more wisdom, maturity, and love for his family.
What an amazing man he is!
I Love you Daddy-O
Love
Courtie Smortie

Attention Coffee Drinkers

Sick of your old blend of coffee?
Are your taste buds ready for a change?
Looking for a perfect gift idea for that coffee addict in your life?
Just wanting to give to a good cause?

No, I haven't started an advertising business. Yes, I am trying to help some dear friends of ours.

Our dear friends Vince and Alisa are in the process of adopting two children. One from China and the other from Ethiopia. As you know this is a huge process and they have two going!! What an overload for them. Please take some time to visit their blog and see what God is doing in their lives and soon in two precious babies lives.

http://vinceandalisa.blogspot.com/

If you look in the top right corner there is a link to 963 coffee. This is where you can go to order coffee for you and your entire coffee drinking family. 40% of the sales from this link will go toward them for the adoption expenses. 963 is also a non-profit organization that helps poor farmers around the world. So in essence all your money is going to help people.

I have already purchased some for my Dad's birthday!(Don't tell him though!!)

P.S Whether you buy coffee or not please begin praying for this sweet couple and the journey God has them on! Love you all!!

Noah

Many people are loving the Noah. So I thought I should post a better picture. Erika took a good one so get a good look everyone!!

They're Back!!!

So I was chatting with my good friend Betsy last night when she asked me about the hot dog buns!! If you don't remember the hot dog buns situation then you definitely need to click here and here and here to see what you missed or else you will be completely lost.

The rest of you who know what I am talking about are sitting on the edge of your seats I'm sure!! Yes, we still have frozen hot dog buns left! We unfortunately only have 20 or so buns left. So I talked it over with Betsy and explained how we were getting a little sick of having bun sticks all the time and we haven't eaten them for a few months now. So she gave me the suggestion of making them into a dessert!! As I was looking back at the old posts I realized Paula had given me this idea as well. Great idea ladies!! They were the best so far!!
So, last night I prepared Cinnamon and Sugar Goings bun sticks.

Please everyone calm down....I am sure everyone is delighted to have the bun sticks back but everyone needs to hold their breath because the buns are soon coming to an end!!

Noah Night

Preston had a great idea of having a church get-together with the theme of Noah!
So we had everyone over this Saturday night for a BBQ and fun. We grilled out 3 different types of meat and had tacos. We played a game and then watched Evan Almighty. For those of you who haven't seen that movie it is a modern day Noah movie.
I have lots of pictures so enjoy!! You will see from the pictures that most people are dressed up!! They wanted to dress up as animals and Preston was our very own Noah!!

This is Maria Elena (a friend of Erika's) in the bathroom painting people's faces!

For those of you who have been down here....we finally found a use for the huge bathroom. Everyone was crowded in there. It was a party in the big bathroom!!
Ladies and gentlemen....Noah!! (sorry the picture is blurry...my bad!)

Noah and his favorite rabbit

Erika and Courtney

Silvia and Courtney

This is another Silvia. She came to church last Sunday then came to the party and came again this Sunday. We call her Silvia Magdalena so we don't get confused. I am excited for everyone to meet her. She is so sweet. By the way, Yuri and Erika invited her to come!!

The girls

Noah with his flock!


We had a great turn out at the party. There were 13 adults and 1 child. We had lots of fun and we didn't hit the bed until 3:30am!! But we had a blast and it was fun to bond more as a church family.
Keep praying for the faces you see! We love you all.
~Noah and Mrs. Rabbit!!!

Spud Max

Does this look familiar? It's a Spud Max!! No, we don't have a McCalisters yet but we can still make some of the food.



Mr. McCalisters even approved



It was such a nice taste of home to eat one of our favorites. Preston really enjoyed the nice surprise. Halfway through making dinner I thought...I wish I would have made sweet tea as well!

Incite into our lives!

Thanks to YouTube we are able to watch American Idol. We just have to wait for the show to be over and for a complete stranger to load the videos up and then we get to watch them. We are normally one day behind. So we watch on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! But it is so awesome for us to stay connected to AI. The thing that cracks me up is the person who is uploading the videos to YouTube has no idea how they are blessing our lives down here in Mexico. It is funny how the little things do matter.

My friend Andrea did a post about American Idol and I thought....What a great idea! Andrea you are so brilliant!

Just to give you a picture of what we do. We open up YouTube, find all the videos, pull up our chairs to the computer, make popcorn and cheer on our favorites. Oh it is the life!
Here are our favorites
This guys is just so sweet

We like him because he is from Missouri!!

We don't have a favorite girl yet. We really feel like the boys are dominating this year! We will see what happens... Now you know something else about our lives!!

Celebrating our Love!

Well we finally celebrated our love this weekend. (Instead of V-day) We decided to have a really nice dinner at home. Preston grilled an amazing arrachera steak! We even got dressed up for the occasion. It was a fun night.
Here is Preston coming in with our steaks!

For those of you who know us well you know we love to dance. So we decided we would clear out the living room and dance. We danced for over an hour. It was a blast!

PG- Thanks for making our life so much fun. I love every minute I get to spend with you. I love you!