Our biggest little fan!

We were at a church in Concord, NC this morning. I kept seeing the kids smiling during the concert...almost to the point of laughing. Now I know why. This is what they saw in the center aisle. (Sorry it's sideways...anyone know how to rotate a video?)

Florida Fun Music Video...I think I got it now!

Ok, so I think you can watch this video without going to YouTube now. It was my first time trying to upload a video, so thanks for your patience. I hope you enjoy it!

Florida Fun video

We just had our last Florida concert in Tallahassee tonight, so it is fitting that Steven finished a video he has been working on. Tomorrow morning we head to the Atlanta area. We're gonna miss the beach and all the fun things about Florida, but it's fun looking back at some of our favorite moments. I know there's a way to put the actual video on the blog, but I don't think it's in the right format and it's getting late, so the YouTube link will have to do for now (although I wish the quality was better...just imagine how great it looks on our monitor!) Anyways, here you go...ENJOY!!

The brutal truth...oh the things they say- part 2

So we were in the church lobby getting some things done while waiting for the host family meeting yesterday. Since we had some extra time, I decided to get all the kids together for a "manner meeting" before they headed out for the weekend. One thing we were reviewing was what to say when a host family asks the kids what they would like to do. Jonathan quickly spoke up and explained, "last time the host family asked me what I wanted to do and I just said, 'anything,' and then the host family said, 'ok, we will wash the car'." Without missing a beat, Francis looks over to Jonathan and says, "That's what we call a joke!"

Before I share another story I must say up front that our chaperone, Jennifer, gave me permission to share this. Sooo...

Not long after the "manner meeting," Blanca (our youngest little Guatemalan girl) was sitting with Auntie Jennifer. She was looking at her face and suddenly blurts out, "Auntie, you have only one booger!" She announced it as if it was some kind of great accomplishment. You know it's always the worst when you look in the mirror only to find that nobody told you that you had a booger. I think Blanca's approach was great. Next time I see somebody with a biv (booger in view), I think I am just going to politely say, "excuse me, you have only one booger."

Oh, the things they say...

We constantly have "blog moments" out on the road, and I wish I had time to document all of them. There were two that happened this Sunday that I just couldn't pass up though. As I've shared before, the kids say things or sometimes hear things in a different way since their first language isn't English...it keeps us laughing.

Let me set the stage for the first story. We always have concerts at 2 churches on Sundays, which means meals from 2 different churches. We usually eat a late lunch and then an early dinner. This past Sunday, our morning church served ziti and ravioli, which everyone enjoyed. Then we get to our evening church and they are serving spaghetti (also good, just a lot of pasta for one afternoon). Without any complaining, the kids take their spaghetti and start eating.

About 10 minutes into the meal, Wilber comes up to me and one of our chaperones looking very concerned. Holding out his plate of about half-eaten spaghetti, he looks up with an almost tearful voice and simply says, "The end?"

We lost it! Normally he would have had to eat a little more, but because of that priceless comment, he didn't have to eat another bite!


The second blog worthy moment came later that night after the service. Now keep in mind that the kids had done 4 services that day, so they were tired. Plus, we had lost an hour of sleep the night before thanks to the time change. The youth group invited the kids to hang out with them in the gym while our guys tore down the sound. It was pretty chaotic, but everything was going well...until Suzan took Matia's ball. She should have known who she was messing with. He had no choice in his tired state, and he did the only thing he knew to do...he hauled off and hit her! After a thorough examination, we knew Suzan was going to be fine, so I called Matia over to have a talk. This was our conversation:

me: "Matia, you know we don't hit, especially girls!"
(I'm really getting through to him)

Matia, feeling awful for what he had done: "What about boys?"

me: "No Matia, we don't hit ANYONE, but ESPECIALLY girls"
(because emphasizing it will help him understand and feel a little bit of remorse)

Matia: "They are NOT special!"

Like I said, it had been a long day! (Good thing his head was down, because I was laughing by that point.)