Good morning! We're having an interesting week here-- still raining most of every day, so the yard is great for floating boats! Garry seems to be getting over whatever he had this week, which is a relief because he was quite miserable for a few days! Kevin is feeling much better and has been busy in his garden. Kaleb is making boats, having tried all his ideas for rockets last week!

We're enjoying having Steve and Ja here. Steve is installing a large garage door at the hangar, and Ja has been helping me with some bookwork. We are looking forward to some time to discuss business and future plans when Garry feels a bit better:).

We trust your week has been good. Blessings to you!

MILK

Hi. this is Kevin. Today we found real milk, not UHT or powdered but real milk! We have lived here for 2 years drinking UHT milk and wishing for real milk. We have always looked forward to our few trips to Manila because we got real milk, but now we don't have to wish- we can get it, here!

You buy it in bags. all the cream is on the top of the bag. We put the bags into a pitcher. It is about a 20 minute drive and is the only dairy farm on the island.

Yesterday I asked the lady who works for us if you could get water buffalo milk. I had heard that it was not too bad and I thought that any thing would be better then UHT and powdered milk. She said, "no you can not get it here but if cow milk is o.k. then you can get that here".

I think I have drunk 4 glasses of milk today. It is my first time to drink real milk since January.

The dairy farm has been here for 20 years or something, and nobody has even heard of it. I am quite sure I am not the only one who has missed real milk!

Happy Monday-- where has the time gone?! Do you ever feel like you spend your life wondering how time has passed so quickly-- losing this moment worrying about the next thing on your agenda or the last thing that didn't go exactly as you'd planned it? I've spent so many YEARS, literally, living in the past or the future. But I'm slowly learning to savor the moment, to live in the present, to enjoy the reality of NOW! Truly, his moment is a gift from God, a special grace from Him!

Last week Ross and Lea came for some meetings in Palawan and we enjoyed great times with them. The guys were often busy with other business, but Lea and I had many encouraging chats over coffee, sharing our stories and the realities that God is working in our lives. I was so blessed by Lea's passion for God and her pursuit of the things that matter in eternity. Truly, when we seek God we bless others!

Some other friends were in town last week also, and we enjoyed catching up with them over dinner one evening. The kids enjoyed Monopoly together one afternoon. Since we started school early this year we're finishing up our first quarter! We're looking forward to a bit of a break from school... and time to do some business in town.

This week Steve and Ja are coming to help on some projects at the hangar and discuss projects that they've been working on. We have so appreciated their help and their friendship, and we look forward to some more great chats over coffee... or iced tea or plain water!

Good morning! How';s your day going? We are doing school here, enjoying a somewhat cooler morning since it's overcast. Garry is just finishing up an inspection on the airplane, and then we hope to have a cup of coffee and do some business. This is the Legend Hotel, a favorite coffee spot for us since they make a nice cup of coffee and great mango shakes-- adding milk, but no sugar!

This afternoon Kaleb is going to the hangar to work with Garry-- there's a flight tomorrow so he can help load the airplane. Kevin needs some extra time on school, so he and I will stay home.

Several of you have asked about Kevin's allergies and asthma. We are thankful to God that he is doing much better. Thanks for praying!

Someone brought to my attention that the wording of my last post was ambiguous, so and after having a good laugh, I edited it!

Garry's in the air again today, heading south with some passengers and bringing other passengers back to town. In fact, the people he is bringing back are two tribal people who need surgery and their companions. One of the doctors here in town is generous with his time and talents and will be taking care of these patients!

We are so blessed to be able to communicate by HF radio! Garry's airplane radio has had some problems over the past months, but recently he was able to fix it. I am so thankful for days when I can hear him clearly!

This weekend was a badminton weekend for us. The boys are enrolled in a 10-week tournament, and when we went last week they were the only players that showed up. Our friend Kuya Jonel told us that the organizers would text us when they were really ready to start, so we went to our neighborhood court to have a little play time on Friday, thinking the tournament would have to wait another week.

We were shocked when the girls behind the desk came to our court and told us we had a phone call! Kuya Jonel was calling to let us know that the boys were supposed to be on the court across town for their first game in the tournament-- he'd made a huge effort to find us. Thankfully it didn't take long to get there and the boys had a great first experience in a real tournament!

Saturday evening there was a "fun games" scheduled, so all four of us took part in that. While we enjoy the game, badminton is really about being together as a family and making friends. We realized this weekend that we are making friends and being treated as "one of the group" at the court. What a blessing!

We trust you had a great weekend and are experiencing a good beginning to your week!

Good morning! I'm still working through some of our random pictures-- actually the pictures Larry took a few weeks ago! Today I thought I'd post a few pictures of one of our relaxing routines-- Paraguayan tea is a great way to kick back and get some "talk time" together! Garry does drink terere also... I just happened to have the "guampa" when we took the pictures!

Garry did a short flight this morning and is already home! The boys and I are finishing up what we need to do this week, and feeling a great sense of accomplishment when we check things off our weekly checklist.

Belle's daughter is sick, so she's taking her to the doctor today. She's had a cold and persistent cough for several weeks, so I hope they figure out what the problem is! This week she began coughing until she vomited, so it seemed like time to get some help!

This evening we plan to go to the badminton court where Kevin will have class for a couple of hours. Hopefully we'll all get some time to play, but whether we do or not, we enjoy our time there!

Hope you have a great Friday!

Ever drink "filled UHT milk"? If you haven't, I don't recommend it. I had some in my cappuccino this morning, and that was a wasted measure of coffee grounds! Then I thought I'd "hide" it in our scrambled eggs. But, alas, it tasted rather sweet. Kody (our dog) enjoyed what we couldn't swallow! Since we always drink UHT milk, I picked up the carton not realizing it was "filled", and not having a clue what that means. It tastes like they added a lot of creamer to it-- yuk!

Anyway, after we'd taken care of the coffee and the eggs, we heard Kody barking and looked outside to see a chicken running from her. She "treed" the chicken in the netting over Kevin's garden and trampled the lettuce in the process. Kevin ran outside to rescue the chicken, but she got herself all tangled up and hung upside down on some vines-- She was quite angry, besides being very touchy after the incident with the dog!

In the end Kevin went and asked the neighbor to rescue his own chicken. When Kevin tried to explain the situation he responded with, "No, you eat your own chicken!" Eventually he understood what was going on and came and picked up his little bird.

The rest of the morning was less eventful, except a few cups of carrot juice that spilled out of the fridge and someone falling off the exercise ball into the corner of a cupboard! We're glad Garry's back from his flight now and things are coming together for his flight tomorrow.

I thought you might enjoy seeing the boys' school pictures, taken by a friend of ours. Handsome guys!

Good morning! Garry is up in the air already and I'm here by the radio. I had a nice little chat with my Dad this morning, and now Kevin stole the phone so I thought I'd blog:)! Today Garry is taking a group of visitors to visit one of our tribal locations. It's always fun to meet new people and hear what God is doing in their lives and communities!

Last week Kevin got new glasses. He has had far fewer headaches in the past few days, so we are excited about that! We think he looks pretty sharp.

Neva, one of the girls who helps me, is at home this week for a visit. She texted yesterday to let us know that her brother had an accident on his motorcycle, so she isn't sure when she will be back. We are excited that she has this time with her family and trust God to make it the perfect length of time:).

Now I'm off to breakfast, school, and whatever else the day brings! Blessings to you today!

Here are a few pictures from our Saturday and Sunday. This is Kevin learning to solder... unfortunately this is when he was just doing the drying! He says I should have taken pictures later in the process when he was actually using the soldering iron... and I agree!

Garry also helped Kaleb make a folded paper rocket. It's really quite ingenious with paper bellows to launch it and a small rocket that flies! We found the pattern on the internet and Kaleb's spent many hours already trying to make more of them and seeing how high they fly. Once we started on rockets we also had to try the matchstick rocket idea (which didn't work with our wooden matches) and the teabag proposition (which didn't work due to the design of local teabags). At any rate, we've had a lot of fun in the process!

Last evening we were nearly ready for bed when I went out to the back porch and saw a rather large gecko peeking his head out. We've been after this critter for quite some time because he makes a mess of plastic and paper, enjoys our dog food, and makes a lot of noise! The BB gun came in handy and we think he's taken care of... if he only dies somewhere that we can clean him up easily and don't have to smell him! (No worries, though, we're still raising an army of geckos inside the house since they supposedly eat mosquitoes!)

Speaking of critters, I walked through the dining room and turned around to see a rat in the middle of the floor where I'd just walked. We've been putting out poison for them for quite a while, but as Belle said last week, "Somebody's eating, but nobody's dying!"I guess it finally worked... or maybe I scared him to death with my scream!

So such is the tale of our weekend and our critters.

It's Saturday! We went to the tournament last evening, only to find out it was canceled due to lack of players-- in fact, we were the only ones there! Instead of watching the boys play badminton, we all played a number of singles and doubles together. It was a great evening, in spite of the fact that it wasn't what we had anticipated!

Travel is such a big part of our lives, and particularly Garry's right now, that I thought I'd post a couple of photos of the airport here. This is the terminal where we come and go from on airlines-- the NTM hangar is quite close the the terminal building.

This morning Garry taught Kevin to solder when they fixed our speaker wires that had been eaten through by some little critter. Kaleb was busy taking the timer apart and trying to fix it. He was able to fix one problem, but the other issue is a little beyond him... or maybe it just can't be fixed!

Ever think about some of the little conveniences of life? Some of them are often brought to mind when we have to change or fix things.... we haven't found a light bulb here that will last over several weeks, so we are constantly changing bulbs. Toilet paper doesn't come in those great "double roll" or "triple roll" sizes. Meat is bought by the kilo and has to be repackaged to freeze because it is sold in very thin plastic bags. Nearly all medicine and vitamins are sold per piece... sometimes packaged in single doses, sometimes simply put in small plastic bags. Dish soap comes in very small containers. Funny little things that take time to handle, change, and re-package! On the other hand, there are things we still can't believe here-- you can have pants hemmed for 60 cents or a shirt made for $5. Medical attention is incredibly reasonable and in most stores there is someone available to help you find what you need!

Have a great weekend and enjoy the little blessings of your life!