What's Up?

So, what's been going on . . . hmmm. Ever feel like you're so busy, but when you sit and think about it, you can't remember what you've been so busy doing? That's me.

So, I'll share our summer with pictures of what we've been doing (in no particular order):

The classrooms. . . they are consuming my thoughts. It's all good and it's going good, but there's so much to think about and decide!! Emilie is working on some sketches for me right now and just with what I've seen so far, I'm in total amazement!! She is amazing! These are pictures of the other end of the hallway before and during the work day. Hopefully we'll get started on the children's church end of the hallway soon!

BEFORE:

DURING:
OUTSIDE DURING:Somehow I haven't gotten "after" pictures yet. Better go do that before we have another work day and everything changes!! I have a TON of pictures from the work day, but I'll just share a few for now.

Jaxon's taking swimming lessons. He's not all that fond of them. He likes to crawl out and jump back in, but that's about it. He's finally getting the concept of splashing and kicking. He'll do it outside of the pool, but once he gets in, that all seems to go out the window!

I found this in my garage. . . yes, I was scared. But, I'm glad that I didn't know they can jump!!

Here it is dead at the end of my driveway:
I went outside the other night to find this on my roof:

There is quite a funny story behind this, but maybe I'll share it later. I'm trying to keep this post short! ;)

Payton took this picture of Evan. I was pretty impressed!

Evan's been taking swimming lessons this week. He loves to jump in and when he does, his goal is to splash everyone in his class.

I took the kids to Mine By Design the other day and we had a blast! It was more expensive than I had planned on spending, but we had fun. Definitely a place I won't take Jaxon in the future!


This weekend, I'm planning a While You Were Out room transformation of my own. I'll be transforming Evan's "Two Horse Ranch" into the ultimate CARS room, complete with car beds for him and Jaxon. I'm really excited about it. He has no idea I'm doing it this weekend! ;)

I've been working out to P90X at 6 am. I didn't think I would like it at first, but I'm really enjoying it. I've lost 6 pounds in just over a week. I am pretty impressed. I've not had sweet tea in 10 days and counting! It's not easy, by any means, but I feel really good once I've done it. I pulled a stomach muscle last week and pulled a shoulder one last night picking up Jaxon. I guess I'll have to be more careful for the next week or so.

So, there's our summer so far in a nutshell. When I get a chance, I might share the story of Evan on the house. It was pretty funny!!

Movie Day Tuesdays

Just thought I would give everyone the list of $1 movies at Century 12 theaters this summer!

These are on TUESDAYS ONLY at 10:45 AM ONLY!! ;)

June 16th: Charlotte's Web
June 23rd: Igor
June 30th: Jimmy Neutron
July 7th: Horton Hears a Who
July 14th: The Tale of Despereaux
July 21st: Kung Fu Panda
July 28th: Kit Kittredge
August 4th: Madagascar 2
August 11th: Space Chimps

All shows start at 10:45 am!!

Summer schedule

Do you have a summer schedule? For example, during the school year, every day was something:

Monday: day at the office

Tuesday: coffee @ Pam's & I pick up the kids, which meant I went to town to run errands

Wednesday: watched Cherith's kids in AM ...didn't go anywhere, so I could clean, etc.

Thursday: coffee with Brandi & Krissy; picked up kids, so I stayed in town

Friday: home & backpacks

Now that school is out, I need a schedule! I have a babysitter for 1/2 day on Monday, so most of my work has to be done @ home, but I don't want to ignore the kids!

It's been the first real week of summer & I know that I wasted so much time, but I HATE wasting time! I want to have a schedule this summer, so I thought I would ask what others are doing.

Thank You!!

Thank you guys for praying for me!! I had so much fun on Sunday! I told the staff at our early morning meeting that I was expecting it to be great in the service, but what was going on inside of me was the thing that mattered the most.

First off, I finally believed that I could talk to adults. I always knew I could talk to kids and probably wouldn't have trouble talking to a room full of kids. But adults? That's a whole other ballgame for me. When people would give me prophetic words about me leading out in conferences, it was hard for me to receive it. I couldn't see a conference of elementary school kids, but I really couldn't see a conference of adults. I can now!

Secondly, I've always felt like an "understudy". Would I ever be an equal in a man's world? Let's face it . . . ministry is mainly a man's world. I am not a man. ;) Would I ever be treated as an equal? Now, I know so.

Thirdly, I now know that I can write a sermon. ;) I did use some of Deborah Reed's sermon, but a lot of that sermon was my own. That I am very proud of.

I was so nervous when I first got up there, but once I got going, it just felt so comfortable and normal. I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity. I know what an honor it is to speak behind the pulpit and I sure didn't take it lightly by any means, but I was amazed at how God used that sermon.

By the way, I'm speaking at WOW in June! Kids is my favorite subject to talk about and my WOW topic is my second favorite! You'll have to come to see what it's all about!! ;)

Tomorrow (almost today), we leave on vacation! I'm working on getting everyone packed -- not fun! ;)

Sunday

I am preaching this Sunday!!! I mean, preaching in the BIG SERVICE AKA the ADULTS! I'm so excited . . . and nervous. . . and overwhelmed. . . and pumped . . . and wondering what the heck I'm going to wear. . . you know, I don't have church clothes! ;)

Anyway, say a little prayer for me this week. This is a sermon that has been in me for a while and I'm excited about sharing it...just not sure how I'll do teaching to people older than 12 year old! ;)

In Honor of Grandma Bowen

On Saturday, we received a call that Aaron's grandma had passed away. It was quite a shock and still doesn't seem real at times. She was the perfect example of the scripture that says, "Give and it will come back to you -- good measure, pressed down, shaken together, & running over (so much that you can't hold it." (my interpretation)

She was such a giver. She gave to everything! I remember when Alan & Cortney were moving to Arizona and they called them up to the front of the church and prayed over them. Aaron's grandma wrote them a check to help them move (it wasn't a small one, either).

Every birthday, we would get a check in the mail for however old we were and they started at $1. This year, I would have gotten a check for $32. Every birthday and anniversary, there was a card of encouragement and a check inside. She was the most amazing person with birthdays and anniversaries!!

She gave money to children's church and backpacks and always wanted to know what we were doing next. She gave money towards my trip to Cambodia and wanted to know all of the details when I got back.

Because of these events, Aaron went to see his mom on Sunday for Mother's Day and they went to her house and kind of went through her things. He said it was very interesting how much and where she gave. I can only imagine.

So, today we honored Grandma Bowen. Evan had a tub of toys that he wanted to sell in a garage sale. I wasn't thrilled about the idea, but he was stuck on it! On Sunday, I asked him if he would like to take them to the CCRC and give them away. His face lit up and he got all excited!! This morning, he got up and started going through his toys again to find others that he doesn't play with anymore and some that he said he just didn't need.

I was/am so proud of him. I am proud of the fact that he is such a big giver. I know that Grandma Bowen would have been proud of him giving and I know that we may not get anything physical from her death, but I am excited about the memories of how much of a giver that she truly was. I pray that I can follow in those footsteps.

Unloading from the car

In front of the CCRC

The toys dumped on the sorting cart

New Camera

Last month, I dropped my camera at a baseball game in the parking lot & had to kiss it goodbye. It was hard to part with that little thing!! It took amazing pictures and it was super easy to operate! But, I got a new one a few weeks ago and thought I would share a few pics from it. It's taking some getting used to, but I think I like it besides the video part. When I move it to my computer, it skips. But, maybe I'll figure that out soon.

Evan wanted to have a picnic today -- of course, on the hottest day of the year! So, I put Jaxon down for a nap and we had a picnic in the backyard for lunch. I learned that Evan doesn't want to ever get married, but he wants to have 100 kids. I asked him how he was going to have a house that all of those kids could sleep in and he said he would just have his workers build it for him.

Evan with all of his food. He wanted to pack enough food to feed all his 100 kids!! ;)

The ants decided to join us after a short amount of time.

Enjoying the fruits of his labor (of putting it all together)

Seeing how many Pringles that he can shove in his mouth.

Trying to get a picture of the two of us . . . this is the best one, but I wish he hadn't been silly! Oh well. . . that's Evan for you!

Here's a few of Jaxon that I took this afternoon. He was watching Payton mow the backyard in 100+ degree weather.

CHEESE!!!
And a funny one to end on. . .

My friend from college, Michal, tagged me . . . here we go!

8 Things I Am Looking Forward To:
1. Going back to Cambodia
2. Having an actual children's church room w/ air conditioning
3. My sister having her baby
4. Having time to scrapbook -- someday
5. The summer with my kids
6. Having my house paid off -- someday
7. Aaron getting a newer vehicle -- someday soon, I hope
8. Vacation

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
1. Manage my time better
2. Cook better -- be more creative with food
3. Scrapbook for hours!
4. Take amazing pictures
5. Have my own scrapbook business
6. Find what is making the terrible smell in my kitchen
7. Go back to Cambodia -- like tommorrow
8. Go to Africa

8 Shows I am Currently Watching:
1. American Idol
2. 24
3. The Unit
4. Deadliest Catch
5. John & Kate Plus 8
6. Little People Big World
7. Any Food Network Challenge -- especially the cake ones
8. Ace of Cakes

So, I'm tagging Brandi, Francesca, & Ashley . . . leaving people for them to tag! ;)

Tooth Fairy Story

On Friday, Evan pulled his tooth while I was delivering backpacks. Cherith was at the house with him and he just twisted it out. It was really just barely hanging on, so it wasn't too big of a deal. It's his second tooth to lose (he lost one while I was in Cambodia).

Anyway, Aaron took the boys to his parents' house this past weekend, so Evan put his tooth in a ziploc baggie and said he would see if the tooth fairy would come at Purty's house. Evan woke up on Saturday morning and his tooth was still under his pillow without any money. (I think Aaron forgot.) So, Purty got a $5 bill and went to the room to "look for the money" and she "found it" behind the bed. Evan was super pumped! At our house, they get $1 for each tooth. I was a little worried about the price of teeth going up to $5 each! ;)

So, Evan gets home on Sunday evening and he's excited because he's going to put his tooth under his pillow again at our house to see if he gets any more money. On the way to church, Evan says, "I wonder if I'll get another $5 for my tooth?" Payton says, "I don't know, Evan. I've never gotten $5 for my teeth. I just get $1. But, I think the Wheeler tooth fairy must be richer than the Clyde tooth fairy." I laughed hysterically on the inside -- there is some truth to that!! ;)

Sunday night, Evan puts his tooth under his pillow and this time I forgot! He got up yesterday morning and I saw him walking to the bathroom with his tooth in the ziploc bag! I hurried and got a dollar out of my purse and went to his room to pretend to look for the money in his sheets. I "found it" and gave it to him. He was a little confused why he hadn't found it before, but I told him it was way under his covers and he just laughed and said, "Well, I wonder why my tooth was still under my pillow, but my money was under my covers?" AHHHHHH!!

He gets even more excited and says, "I wonder if I'll just keep getting money if I keep putting it under my pillow?" I'm thinking this game is going to break the tooth fairy!! So, last night he put his tooth under his pillow again, but this time I remembered. I got it before I went to bed, but I didn't have any more cash. . . I guess that's ok. $6 for one tooth!! I think that's plenty!

Motorcycles, Sewing, & CDC

I'm going to throw all of these together in this one blog post. The safe haven was supposed to have the grand opening this past Friday. I'm waiting to see pictures, but I can hardly wait!!

In Cambodia, most children are required to work to help provide for their families. This is how the sex trafficking rings are successful. Parents need their children to work and people prey on that offering their children "jobs", but they end up in these rings. So, CHO (Cambodian Hope Organization) has these schools to give kids a trade so that they can earn money for their families.

The first one is a Motorcycle Repair School. These kids come to this school every day and take the motorcycles apart and put them back together. On the way to the school, we passed by several sweat shops where Wayne said there were kids sewing away inside these metal barn kind of things with I'm sure no air circulation. The kid in front is 14 years old. There is a kid that is hidden in the picture that is 8 years old. He is learning how to repair the motorbikes. It was amazing how clean they were. When Aaron is working on a project in the garage, tools and nuts and bolts are spread all over the place! These kids had a pan that they put EVERYTHING in -- their tools and whatever they took off of the motorbikes were in their pans.

The sewing school is another way that kids can learn a skill. This boy is 10 years old and he has been in the sewing school for 1 year. Their sewing machines are the footpedal kind and his little feet were just flopping away. One of the older boys said he could sew 10 pairs of shorts per day and they would sell them for 35 baht each on the Thailand side market. This is about $1 per pair. So, if the boy made and sold every pair, he would make $10 per day.

They also have an agriculture project where they help people start a business. The people are responsible for renting the land and working the garden. CHO provides the seeds, fertilizer, and a watering can. A CHO person checks in with each farmer once a week. They have 125 farming families. The gentleman who oversees this project is 25 years old. He looked like he was 16!! Their land does not have a lot of square footage, so they grow most things on a trellis system. Their cucumbers and watermelon grow off of the ground! It was interesting!

This is the lady whose garden we went to see. She gets the water for her garden from that river/water in the background. She walks down (just kind of a steep hill) with her watering can on a stick balancing across her shoulders. She fills it up and walks it back up to her garden.This is her hoe. . . pretty pre-historic looking.

Long beans in the garden
Their trellis system



Here's a picture of Cambodian school children. You notice them because they have the white shirts and the navy pants/skirts. I'm not sure what is on their face, but when I got home, I heard something about talc powder because it helps cool you off. Could have been, but I'm not sure.
I took this picture at the CDC (Center for Disease Control). This is the AIDS and TB hospital. The first time I went, we went in and walked around talking to people and just looking around. We talked to a woman who had been their 6 years. Her daughter sat on her bed and they told us she had been there with her mother since the beginning. . . the girl couldn't have been but 14 or 15 years old. I didn't take any pictures inside because I didn't feel like that would be respectful, but that had to be the hardest part of the trip for most of us.
The lady on the left (with the blue shirt) has AIDS. That is her son standing in front of her. They told us that she will stay there until she dies. Her son will stay with her. the lady on the right has TB and that is her son sitting on her lap. TB is very contagious, so when you think about it, these little boys are just sitting in a very contagious environment, but there isn't anything they can do about it.

Like I said, the first time I went to the CDC, we went in and walked around. There was another lady on a bed who was just a skeleton. Laying on the bed with her were 3 little kids. Her husband stood by her bedside. We prayed for a few of them and Steve laid his hands on some.

A couple of days later, I went back with Trish & Dr. J. They wouldn't even go inside!! Dr. J put his phone inside the door and took pictures that way. They talked about how contagious TB was and how they weren't going in. I panicked for a second -- we went in and Steve touched people! But, I think we're all fine. . . ;)

One last tidbit about the hospital. Chumno's wife has a restuarant that the workers eat in. Her and her girls did a fantastic job feeding us!! They make 3 meals a day to take to the hospital patients. How amazing is that? Their kitchen isn't very big. She had just a few pots and pans. But, she's using what she has to bless others that people might just want to discard. That blessed me!!

So, there's my trip. Trish got some good pictures of some kids that I'll probably post next. . . . might show a few from the Angkor Wat temples.

School

Welcome to School on the Mat -- Cambodia style. This is the CHO (Cambodian Hope Organization)'s school that they do in villages. Most Cambodian children do not go to school because the have to have the proper paper work (birth certificate, etc) and just because education is not a priority. If you know anything about Cambodian history, the Khmer Rouge killed all of the educated people in the 70s. It's really a crazy thing to read about, but even crazier to be there and see these fields where you know hundreds, if not thousands, of people died.

Anyway, we visited a school on the mat and I think it was one of my favorite places. CHO has 15 teachers that teach 5 classes/day with 10-12 students in each class. So, they have over 600 students in their schools!!

CHO has devotions at 7:30 am and then everyone hops on their mopeds and heads out to their job. These teachers spread a tarp out on the ground and set up their whiteboards and have school . . . yes, outside.

This is one class. On the far left side of the mat, you see the little girl in the yellow shirt? She is little. . . not sure how old, but her older sister is on the left of her (out of the picture). Her sister's job is to take care of her all day while her parents either work or they are just not there. Her sister was called up to the front to read from the board and the little sister followed her. But, the little sister sat so quiet on the mat. That is a house in the background (the blue building).

Yes, this is a monkey that was at the school/house they were in front of. It was the family pet. . . yes, that was weird.

The lesson that day was about obeying your parents. These kids are role playing. The kids on the left are brothers and the kids on the right are mom and dad. The "brothers" were fighting and Dad stepped in and told them to stop. The kids thought this was pretty funny. When she announced who was mom and dad, all of the kids giggled.

Taking your shoes off is the appropriate thing to do before you go into a building in Cambodia. I really started to like the whole idea and walking around barefoot! So, the kids take their shoes off before they get on the mat. So, around the mat are all these shoes. This pair of flip flops caught my eye. Notice that the back of the shoe is gone. Both of the shoes were like that.

The boy is reading something off of the board and the class is repeating him.
Wayne sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes" with them. They know that song pretty well from different English speaking teams that come through because it's the easiest song to "translate". You point to whatever you are saying, so it also teaches them a little bit of English.

Here's a video of them singing "This is the Day". It was too cute!! First, they sing in English and then they sing in Khmer (their language).

These kids followed our van down the road to the school. These kids aren't in school, but they acted like we were celebrities. They stared and pointed and talked with each other. The little girls fell in love with Joel.

I thought this little boy looked like Trip. He rode his bike down the road and hung out for a little while.
As we were driving away, this laundry was hanging out to dry. See that nasty water in the background? That's the washing machine!! ;)

Back to Cambodia

So, I'll post a few more pictures of my trip. I'll have to admit that it's been hard. I want everyone to see all 487 pictures and I want everyone to hear all of the stories behind them. But, I feel like people are tired of hearing about it. I'll spare you all 487 pictures. I think I'll just blog about the safe haven, the school on the mat, the motorcycle school, the CDC, the sewing school, and that's about it. . . sounds like a lot, huh? Don't worry. . . it will be over the next few days but what happened to me in Cambodia really did change my life.

Here's the gate to Cambodia. It was quite a difference between Thailand. The Thai side is paved and nice and then you hit the border. Dirt and that's where we saw most of the begging children. This is one of those moments that I think will be etched in my brain forever. We are almost ripped off with our visas. Kind of a long story, but a strange man had my passport, my picture, and all of my information. That might have been the only time I was scared on that trip. I was afraid I wouldn't get it back. It was a rookie tourist mistake, but he finally gave it back and we went on our way.


The thing I will remember, though, is the begging kids. We walk around the corner in the market and these girls are lined up with umbrellas. They come out to greet you and shade you and they want to carry on a conversation with you. But they want you to pay them for shading you at the end of the road. You just have to keep telling them, "No."

Then, there's the little girl with the messed up hair who I think I remember her carrying a baby doll that was disgusting. She was filthy. The doll was filthy. She was crying and begging us for money. I think Dr. J gave her a quarter or something. She followed us for what seemed like a long ways. She was pulling on our pants and just crying. It made you want to just pick her up and take her with you. But, when I made that comment to Wayne, he said, "Yeah, but I guarantee you that she could take care of herself if you tried to take her." This little girl was a little taller than Jaxon. . . probably a little older, but probably not 3 years old yet. Made me sad that she had been trained so well and that she had to already know how to take care of herself.

This is how we got our luggage across the border. In the Thai market, we stopped our van and all of these guys surrounded it! I was a little nervous because I was sitting by the door and I wasn't sure what they wanted. They wanted us to pay them to carry our stuff across the border. Wayne told us to take anything that we couldn't absolutely live without on the rest of the trip. This kid pushed the cart for us through the streets. Every once in a while, he would look over at us (we were walking along the sidewalk and going through the buildings for our visa stuff) and smile and wave. It was pretty funny. ** Forgot to say in my original post that the crazy thing was that if this guy decided to make a run for it, he had all of our stuff with him! This cart was pretty heavy and full, so I don't think that was much of an option for him, but crazy to think that he had everything we had brought with us. **

Here's a picture of the safe haven from the entrance. The 3 houses on the left are where the kids will live. The house on the right is the guest house for people that come and want to spend 6 months living at the safe haven and working there. See those piles of rocks? We had to move those to make a driveway and sidewalks.

Here's a truck going down the street of Poipet. It was amazing how they would stack stuff on these trucks and tie it down to move it. This highway had recently been paved, which everyone said made a huge difference!

This is a house that is a pretty good picture of how they live. Most houses don't have that tarp stuff as walls. It's actually a pretty nice house too because it has a real door.

Here's the front gate/fence to the safe haven. It's crazy to think about how they built this thing -- remember, no machinery and only 1 wheelbarrow on the whole property. They made the brick. They dried the brick. They moved the brick and stacked the brick!! CRAZY!
This is their fish pond. They have a tank where they can breed these fish and put them in this pond and raise them. At the safe haven, in a few years, they will be completely self-sufficient. They have chickens and fish on the land right now and will have pigs soon

This is Emily & Kathryn, the girls from the UK. We had a lot of fun with these girls while we were there. They are in Cambodia for 6 months, with 2 months down. In this picture, we are painting the bricks in one of the safe haven houses. Our scaffolding was a little scary, but you got used to it after a while.

This is the greenhouse at the safe haven. They are able to grow fruit trees to put around the safe haven and they grow fruit trees for the Cambodian government schools.
Here's a picture of the school at the safe haven. It wasn't finished yet, but it's still pretty amazing. It was awesome walking around thinking about how kids would be walking around that campus in a few weeks . . .
I'll leave you with these final pictures and video. The last day we were working at the safe haven, they threw us a little party and then Chumno told us that we were going to set the water tower up. So, everyone got around it and moved it.

This ditch will be for the water lines going from the water tower to the houses. They had to step over this ditch and dodge power lines . . . it was fun, though!!

In this video, you can see how they raise it up. You can hear Steve yelling "Pull!" At one point, it looked like it was going to fall over the other way, which would have been a disaster, so the guys stopped pulling. But, it put all the weight back on the guys who are walking it up. So, Steve is yelling "Pull! Pull!" But all of the Cambodians are yelling to stop in Khmer (their language). It was a nerve wrecking point for a few seconds, but it finally sat down just fine. The perfect way to end our stay there. Sorry it's sideways. . . It's not sideways on my computer, but it is on here. . . oh well.

My Car Has a Mind of It's Own

Yesterday morning, I went and delivered backpacks and then went to pick up the kids at Cherith's (thanks so much, Cherith!) I had told them that I would go to the doughnut store before I picked them up, but it was too late, so I decided to take them to Sonic for lunch instead.

So, we're sitting in Sonic waiting on our food and Payton leans his seat back and all of a sudden, the alarm starts going off!! I can't figure out why and I can't find my keys with the little clicker thing on it. I saw it when we pulled into Sonic, but it seemed to disappear into thin air! The alarm was so loud and it's echoing and Sonic is FULL! I can't figure out how to turn the silly thing off or figure out why it came on! I punched the code into the door and it kept beeping!! The kid came out with my food and it just kept beeping!!

Finally, I tried to start my car and it started and the alarm went off. It was still a mystery why it came on and why I couldn't turn it off!!

So, I'm on the phone with Krissy driving home and my doors start locking and unlocking. I am really frustrated that my car seemed to have a mind of it's own. Krissy starts telling me that the same thing went wrong with her car and it was in the computer of the car and it had to go to the main Ford house to be fixed and they had a hard time fixing it, how expensive it was, etc. Meanwhile, lock unlock lock unlock lock unlock.

We pull into KLF Downtown so that I could get some Easter eggs to take home to fill. When I go to get Jaxon out of his carseat, he has my keys in his hand that has my clicker on it!! He was the one who kept pushing the alarm button on the clicker at Sonic. He was the one that was locking and unlocking my car while we were going down the street!!! It was hilarious! I'm just glad it didn't cost me a lot of money to fix my car!!