happy fall

It may be fall, but it sure doesn't feel like it here in Los Fresnos. We are still having highs in the upper 80's and today the news said that next week it should be going up to 91! These are the days I miss Alabama!

This past week in school has been "Be Drug Free". The only thing I can really say is "this is just another reason why parents home school their children". Alex and I have been very happy with the local elementary school so far, that is until this week. When we got a note home last week that this would be drug awareness week I kinda wondered what they would do with the 4K but then I just let it go. Every day the kids were to dress up for some some cute reason to help them remember to say NO TO DRUGS. At this point I'm still fine. On Monday Haley brought home her vocabulary sheet and one of her new words was DRUGS. It had a picture of a can of beer, a bottle of liquor that said "whiskey", a package of cigarettes that said "smokes" and a syringe. When I asked Haley what the picture was she just "oh, I don't know". I had to tell her, in the most innocent way what drugs were. I WAS NOT READY FOR THIS!. After Monday nothing else was said until we picked her up on Wednesday. Alex and I were standing at the door when the kids were released, when she came out with her eyes all puffy and we both could tell she had been crying. Not giving the poor girl a break we both thought that she had gotten in some mega trouble. Wrong! After 45 minutes of hysterical crying we found out what happened. Here's the run down.

She went to an assembly in the lunchroom (along with all the other grades) and listened to a police officer talk about drugs. The officer also had his drug dog. He told the kids that his dog could smell drugs and if you were found with drugs in you backpack you would be put in cuffs(or as Haley says, those silver bracelets). Well at that point, when she heard this all she heard was "the dog will find drugs". For the next 8 hours whenever she thought about it she would burst out into tears (not just a few tears, sobbing) that the dog would find drugs in her backpack. She did not understand that there were no drugs in there and that she did not have drugs, that we did not have drugs and that she did not need to be afraid! It was a VERY long night!

With all that being said here are some pictures of this week!

Be a king or queen. Stand up and say NO to drugs.

As far as what Haley thinks-crowns at school, fun!

Wear yellow for drug awareness. Haley's thoughts-I get to dress like an Indian!

80's day. Leave drugs in the past. Haley loved dressing like mom when I was her age.

Put a sock on drugs. Haley got to pick out what she wanted me to put on her socks.

Be a hero. Just say NO. Thanks Mrs Keri for her dress! Haley still loves it!

Boo at the Zoo

Thanks Mrs Rachel for the material! It was perfect!

Haley took both of these pictures! She is getting so good at it!

blogger not picture poster

Ok, so I must confess I’m not the best blogger. I’m what I would call a “picture poster”. When we started this blog I (we) were going to blog about our life here in Texas. We did that for a few weeks and then we (I) just started posting pictures of the kids because that’s all people ever ask about. The kids do so many funny things and they go unseen to family and friends so I wanted to catch you up on a few. Don’t worry pics will be back very soon!

Graham-
Graham is really living up to his nickname that our dear neighbor gave him “Dennis”. He is so sweet and loving but he gets into everything! His favorite thing at the moment is markers. Haley was not the kind of kid to draw all over stuff. She did it ONCE. Graham-oh he does it every day! If he gets a hold of anything with ink (or lead) he goes to town. BTW, if he does not have paper, table, floor, couch or refrigerator, he just uses himself! He is also into balls. If he has a ball and wants to play toss and you’re not looking, he will just peg you in the face and say “catch”. He also loves to jump. He will jump off anything no matter the height. A few months ago he jumped off the couch, belly buster style onto the hard tile (with a thin rug as protection). He got up, kinda made a face and then went to jump again. This time he looked at us and said “catch”. He is still a bad eater. He loves anything with sugar and that’s about it! Food that he dislikes he will put in his mouth and push it to the side and then eat the food he likes and then when it’s all said and done, spit out the food that he first ate. Very sneaky that one. That about sums up graham :)

Haley-
She is a big girl now. She has been in school for about 6 weeks and is doing great. She loves her classroom and has made lots of new friends. She told us she can’t always remember their names because they are too hard to say :) From what we can tell she is a good student. She has been on blue(that’s the best she can be on)every day. Notice I said has been. Yesterday she got on RED. That’s the next to worse thing (blue, green, yellow, red, and then black)! When I read her behavior color the first thing I said, and it was kinda loud, was HALEY O'NEAL SISSON! That kinda scared her enough! When Alex talked to her about what she had done it was kinda silly. She said that when she was at lunch a boy was hitting himself in the face so she thought that she would join in! So, she just slapped him in the face! We still don’t know what she was thinking! Other than that one incident, things have been great with her. She has learned to read a few words and is writing up a storm. She is also learning how to use the computer. We underestimated her. She has been working on computer skills at school and we had no idea she could even use a computer! Little miss is growing fast and is just as excited as we are about moving to PNG!

Kelley & Alex-
We are great. It’s quiet here. We were so used to having lots of adults and kids and now it’s just us. We do have a family that is staying upstairs (they are hurricane refugees) so that’s been nice. They have 2 girls, one of which goes to school with Haley. Alex has been spending most of his time working on logistics for Puapa New Guinea. He has also been working very hard on our monthly, yearly and one time PNG budget. As far as me… there is so much that I want to do, but still have a hard time finding time. When I do get free time I try to help out with office work or work on my latest project, inventorying 6 apartments! Even though we are not working full time corporate jobs, working to be launched among the nations takes a lot of time and work! Please pray that God will be glorified in all we do!!

back home!

BACK TO GOOD OLE LOS FRESNOS

We have been home for just a few days now and things are starting to feel like normal. We had a great time in Alabama and I wanted to post a few pics of some great times!

We were home(alabama) for 3 1/2 weeks and stayed busy every day and night. We spent most of our time with family, friends and supporters. The plan (as of today) is to stay here in Tx till December, come and visit for the holidays and then back here for the 2009 school year. Alex and I will be doing LOTS of work for TETM over the next several months along with getting everything ready for the big move (PNG for those who are out of the loop!).

Thanks to everyone who served us back home! We love and miss you all!! Enjoy the pics!

Uncle Spencer gave Graham some boots. WOW, Graham loves them and wears them everyday!

Haley went to her first day of school today! She is in the 4K class at the local elementary school. She had a great time! She only goes for a 1/2 day but that's enough for me. I almost cried when I had to drive off. Actually, the teacher told me I had to go...

My little girl is not so little!

Haley and her BF Ashlyn!

What mom would not love this one?

Graham and Hayden

DooDaddy found this turtle in the yard and Graham loved it!

It's that time again!

ROLL TIDE

summer update!

Well things have been pretty good down south. Since Disney, things have been kinda crazy. We had a few weeks of rest but soon we would be entertaining family for a few weeks. We took a few trips to the beach and Alex just had class as usual. BTW, he only has 1 more week left! For a quick update, we plan on being back in Birmingham August 28 through September 22.

Ok, so my mom and Uncle Andy man came to visit us for a week and we had a great time. We went to the zoo, the beach, Mexico for the day and lots of other fun stuff. 3 days before mom left (Andy had planned on staying for another 1½ weeks!) we found out that there was a tropical storm due to hit us later in the week. We prepared somewhat for the storm. I went to the store 2 nights before the storm and it was crazy. It was like I was in Alabama the night before it “might snow”! I bought what staples I could get. They had no water or paper plates, but plenty of junk food and Dr. Pepper for Alex and Andy.

The tropical storm ended up turning into a category 2 hurricane. It hit Los Fresnos hard, but we were grateful that we did not have any bad damage. We had a good bit of water in our apartment, but we have all tile so it was not too bad! We were also happy to have a generator that we (along with other families) took turns using. We did not loose anything in the refrigerator or freezer! We were out of power for almost 2 days, so not bad at all!

Our hurricane boards. We only had to board the bedroom window.

We had to sandbag the school-we should have sandbagged but didn't!

AFTER THE STORM!

This was the main hwy (HWY 100)!

Of course Alex HAD to drive through. I was sooo nervous!

This is the windshield! WITH THE WIPERS GOING!



Alex's parents were due in on Friday but the airport did not open back up till Sunday so they came to a crazy mess. We had a great time with them as well. For the most part we did the same stuff with them that we did with my mom but we also went to an awesome water park! I'll post those pics in a few days.










Well that about sums up our summer. We have enjoyed Texas so much that we plan on staying here till next September! We will be coming back here after our visit home in a few weeks. We will be helping TETM get ready for a conference they are holding in Austin in October. Check it out!- toeverytribe.com
We should be home for the Christmas holidays and then back here to Texas. We will be spending the next year raising support, building our PNG team and helping where we are needed at the school. Please pray that we will have wisdom in all that we do over the next year!
Thanks again for all you do! We love you all!!!

our sweet kidos

Haley and Graham love to take pictures. They also love to be silly. Here are a few pictures of this week. We saw these shirts on sale the other day for $2 and Haley was so excited to have matching shirts with Graham.

They are such goof balls.
Here is what they each do when I say "make a funny face". Graham will do ANYTHING that Haley does!

Graham had his first ice cream cone the other day. Sure he's eaten it before, but never had the chance to hold it and walk around. He was in heaven! Haley had fun with her ice cream mustache.


Graham after his ice cream!

Haley walked out the door on Sunday morning and said it was way too sunny to go to church without her sunglasses. She is so a little me. She even put them on her head when she was done wearing them!