World Cup Fans

Soccer is bigger here than you can possibly imagine. We bought each one of the kids a world cup shirt representing a team. Each team was chosen for each individaul child very carefully. I went to the mall, found a sale, and grabbed the cheapest shirt that was available in each child's size. And thus, they each have the team they are supporting. As the soccer match comes on, they watch it and cheer for their team.

The teams represented by the Pham family are as follows:

Parker: Argentina (won)
Miles: Espana/spain (won)
Avery: Inglaterra/England (lost)
Jaxson: Brasil (won)
Ally: Portugal (lost to Spain)

Chicken leg anyone?

You know you have many children when you forego biter biscuits for chicken legs!

One day last week, I was tearing off pieces of chicken from the leg to give them to the baby. He decided I wasn't doing it quickly enough and he grabbed the entire leg and had a blast with it. This is his favorite food now!

dream it, achieve it

When we are homeschooling the kids NEVER receive grades. And they don't take tests and they don't get report cards. Well, I have one child who loves grades, tests and report cards. She also loves to set goals and achieve them (hmm....wonder where she got that from?). After trying for the past 18 weeks, Ally finally met her goal of straight A's. Although it doesn't mean much in light of eternity, it means a lot to a little 8 year old girl who studied hard, did her best and sought to please the Lord through her studies. She couldn't be happier at achieving her goal.

And yes, we've already been through the whole process of "your identity doesn't come from the things that you achieve." It was a hard taught lesson, but she finally got it and once she did, the straight A's came naturally and almost as a reward.

Miles

The baby is changing almost daily. Here are some new stats:

He is 21 pounds. YIKES!

He turned 9 months yesterday.

Little Miles, who is not so little anymore, has 4 top teeth and 2 bottom teeth for a total of 6. Wowzers! He has received 4 teeth in the last three weeks alone.

He's a great sleeper. Each night he averages about 12 hours straight and takes 2-3 daytime naps anywhere from 1.5-2.5 hours each. The only negative is that when he ready to get up he cries until we come to get him.

He crawls everywhere, pulls up on everything and is trying to stand on his own without holding onto anything. We are in trouble!!!

Our house has a ledge from one floor to the next in the living room. He fell off of it once and now he crawls back and forth right at the edge of it because he knows it is dangerous. So smart.

He has said "ma ma" a few times, but now his favorite word is "da da da da da!"

And today he is clapping. He is so proud of himself.

I LOVE BABIES!!!!

A post from Parker

Hi, this is Parker. I just wanted to write that my favorite thing to do is reading. The most I have read in one day is 340 pages. At my school, I won the award for "having a love of the written word." I am a book worm. Most kids like to play sports, but I prefer to read.  My favorite type of books are the ones that have conversations and I also like the classics. Here are just a few of the books I have read:

The Magic Treehouse books
Moby Dick
Beverly Cleary books (if my mom approves them)
Robinson Carusoe
Around the World in 80 Days
Peanut Butter Friends in a Chop Sewey World
Oliver Twist
Pilgrim's Progress (my favorite)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Treasure Island
Black Beauty
Huckelberry Fin
Little House in the Big Woods
Where the Red Fern Grows
4 books from The Chronicle of Narnia Series
The Hobitt (I'm only half way through it)

Thank you for reading my post.

PARKER

Getting my groove back

I'm still alive. Just getting use to having 5 kids with me again constantly. I am enjoying it, but trying to get into a "new" groove. We had a great day today and did a little bit of homeschooling and we loved it. The school uses Abeka and although I have NEVER like it, my kids love, love, love it. And it actually is pretty easy and straightforward for many different grades. I enjoyed our time of schooling today.

Maybe more tomorrow!

Amazing Hubby

I must say that I am married to quite an amazing man. Some of our good friends, the McLambs, have a 5 month old daughter named Hope. Well, Hope had 3 seizures on Sunday, out of the blue, and she has been in the hospital ever since. Last night, we had there 3 boys over here for about 5 hours (which equals 8 kids) and then this morning one of us had to be at their house at 7 a.m. so that the husband could go be with his wife during this ordeal. Well, I was sleeping when he got the phone call last night about this morning. Not only did my hubby offer to go over there, but when I woke up this morning he had made the baby his bottles, set out breakfast, started the kids lunches and volunteered to go watch the McLamb kids. I was just blown away by what a servant's heart he has. Sometimes I seriously take his acts of service for granted. Even last night when we had the kids over I wasn't feeling so well because of a new cold that is popping up. So he ran to the grocery store to get some Ramon Noodles and then cooked them for the kids while I stayed here to keep the peace. He could've easily demanded that I make a big meal to feed everyone, but he was so happy, once again, to serve me lovingly. There is nothing that he won't do. I know in the beginning we use to fight about socks being left around and the fact that he doesn't clean toilets or whatever. But honestly, he shouldn't have to clean toilets! :) He is such an iniciative taker and goes out of his way to love and serve me and the people in his ministry. People always ask how I can run so much with 5 little kids. Well, the key is definitely John Pham. Without him, I could not exercise like I do. He is always willing to lay the kids down so I can go exercise at 7 p.m. or do breakfast so that I can do a long run on the weekends or even brings the kids out to watch a 5k race or marathon. He never EVER complains! Even now that the kids have been in school, we have a little routine where I feed the baby, make lunches and then take a shower. He takes a shower, does breakfast with the older kids and then feeds the baby solids while he is sitting there. He takes the kids to school, I exercise, and when I get back he leaves for the entire day. I pick the kids up, do the homework and what not and then he comes home and we start back to our teamwork. It is definitely a tag team effort. No WAY could I have 5 kids without the constant help of this Godly man. Just wanted to brag on him a little after what he did this morning.

And I just remembered that, as I type this, he is spending the day doing ministry, but also taking around 2 kids from the states with him so that they can see the poor parts of the city. He just never stops giving and serving - seriously!!!

Little Jaxson Dean Pham is officially a kindergarten graduate! :) The ceremony was absolutely adorable. Each class in the school gave a Character award based on a verse in Timothy. I was shocked and delighted that Jaxson was given the award for his class. And for Ally's class, she was given an award for a great attitude and effort. I was so proud of both of them.

Please pray for me. I am having wedding stress!!!!!!!! And it is not even my wedding. I am out $300 dollars so far because my friend keeps changing her dates and venue. She is now on her third set of dates and location. I have already rearranged my vacation once and paid a stiff airline fee and then I booked a hotel, that she told me to book, and it is non-refundable on hotwire.com. So, we are starting from scratch again. I love her dearly and I feel that I have been kind and gracious, but I don't have anymore money to flush. :)
3 more days of school and my cuties are back home with me.

Sword Drill Champion

Congratulations to my oldest, Parker, for winning the Sword Drill contest at his school and now he is the reigning Sword Drill Champion of his elementary school. The word "sword" stand for the Bible since it is to be our sword of faith. The drill is really quite simple and can be done in several different forms.  To be sword drill champion, you have to go through several drills of finding a passage in the Bible when it is called out. Parker is so fast that I don't even think I could beat him. We are so proud of Him for loving God's word and knowing all the books of the Bible so well. Now you can say you are friends with a Sword Drill Champ!


Other news:

We met with our boss last night and were told that we have many different options for our next term. Please keep praying as to where God will send us and what position we will be working in.

I weighed Miles and with his clothes off he is 19.6 lbs. WOwsers. THat's a big guy for an 8 month old.

Avery had the 2nd part of her root canal yesterday, but then last night she was up with pain and a fever again.

Did I mention Jaxson is graduation from Kindergarten on Friday? He memorized the entire Psalm 23 in the King James version. It is so sweet. I hope I can video him doing it and put it on the blog. Jaxson's last day of school is Friday.

Parker and Ally will finish next Wednesday. I am looking forward to having them home all the time, but just not so excited about the "educating" them part.

The mission team has seen almost 1,000 patients. They are doing so much to help out the Peruvians physically  and spiritually. The team is so sweet and they all give me huge hugs everytime they see me and they make me feel so special. I am going to cry my eyes out when they leave. This is the 2nd time that this team has come and we are so in love with them. I would join their church in a heartbeat, just based on the kindness of the people. :)

Tomorrow Avery will go for the rest of her root canal. Thank God it will be over. She is doing much better.

Jaxson's kindergarten graduation is on Friday afternoon. He had a super successful 4 months in school and really matured quite a bit.

The other kids will be wrapping up school and will be done next Wednesday. They will be homeschooled again, with curriculum for the school, at least until February 22nd of next year. We willd decide at that time what we think is best for our family. If I had to decide RIGHT NOW, I would allow them to go back because the school is so wonderful and it was a positive experience for ALL of us in every, single way. But for the next 8 months we are a homeschooling family again. Please pray for me as I start this endeavor again.

In case you missed it, Miles' two top teeth are coming in. Now he will have 4 top teeth and 0 bottom teeth. Is that not hillarious?

The mission team came over and spent the afternoon with us yesterday after the morning service. They stayed for about 7 hours and it was wonderful. We had a time of worship together and I can't tell you how special it was to worship the Lord in English. This is one of our favorite teams and we adore them. We all love them so much!

A trip to the Desert

In April we went to the Desert in Ica for an IMB team retreat. We took a crazy ride on the dune buggy and it was absolutely the insanest thing I have experience! During our ride, we stopped so that we could snow board down the dunes on our bellies. Fun times! It was incredible to truly be in the middle of a desert.

John has lost so much weight since we came overseas that the baby actually fits in his pants. That is what those pictures are about! LOL!

Baby Miles

Little Miles Loves baths in the sink. He also enjoys playing with his big sister. I love these picts with the natural light coming in. They look dark, but I appreciate the shadows that were cast.
He is 8 months old and can sit, crawl, grab everything, pull himself to a full-standing position, grab food with his pincers and he cries when you leave him in a room by himself. His newest thing is to start fussing when you carry him up the stairs because he knows that means he is going to bed. I think he is 19 pounds. His smile still melts our hearts.

Me Being Silly

I seldom get dressed up and do my hair, but 3 weeks ago I did and Ally snapped these shots of me. I am sorry I am not editing these slide shows. I am just throwing up the pictures we took and moving on to the next slide show. Enjoy!

Yes, it is winter here! Do you like my new jacket? John HATES my scarf! LOL! I Love it!

Oliver Twist

Here are some shots of the kids during their Oliver Twist Musical.

Crazy Hair Day

Last month the kids had a Crazy Hair Day at their school. John and I enjoyed doing their hair. Even Miles and Avery got in on the action. There were too many pictures to pick and choose so I just chose them all!

Half-marathon and Marathon Slide Show

These are pictures I took as the Marathon was starting. There was no one to take pictures of me running it since John was watching the kids. My running partner, and friend, Isabelle finished in 4:15ish. You will see her coming in and blowing kisses. She is always so much fun. There are a few pictures of us together. The half and full started at different times. Next year my goal is to run the full marathon here in this city. :)

The baby still has ZERO bottom teeth, but now his top two front teeth are coming in. He will have 4 top teeth and no bottom teeth. How funny is that?

Avery's tooth is doing MUCH better. Praise God!

The mission team is coming to our home church with us tomorrow and the preacher will be preaching at our church. YEAH! We will then take them to a local mall for lunch. They will come over and hang our all afternoon and just love on us and us on them and then we will have supper here. A Peruvian lady from our church (we are paying her) is making a typical Peruvian dish, one of my favorites, of Estofado de Pollo with rice, yucca, sngochado (a yummy soup) with a homemade fruit drink. Their homemade juices here are the best. I am truly looking forward to the day.

Discrimination - comes in all shapes and sizes

Today, the kids and I walked to a local hamburger place (think McDonalds) called Bembos for their weekly treat of ice-cream for doing their checklist well. The entire experience from ordering to getting my food was not very pleasant. I will spare you the gorey details, but it boils down to discrimination. If you have ever lived in a foreign country long enough and tried to speak the language, you will definitely be able to relate to this post. As soon as they see my blonde hair and blue eyes they turn off their ears. They decide to not listen before even a word has been spoken from my mouth. They have deemed me "dumb" and "ignorant" to their culture and ways before even a word has left my mouth. And today's experience just showed me that. I have NEVER asked to speak to a manager, EVER, the entire 3 years I have been overseas. However, today was just too much and I spoke to the manager and told him that I felt that just because I am a "gringa" that his people were not listening to a word I was trying to say and were being rude and talking about me thinking that I can't understand or hear them. I said, "Look, I know I don't speak PERFECT Spanish, but I do speak Spanish and I can communicate myself and the words "mixed" and "vanilla" are not even similar words. I told him I had been treated very poorly by his employees from the moment that I walked into the restaurant (and you would agree if I told you the story). He apologized and said he just had "too many" people working and there was a lot going on and that he understood me perfectly and there are no problems with my Spanish and that he assured me it wasn't because I was a gringa. I felt a little better after I spoke with him, but honestly this happens ALL the time, but not quite as severely as what happened today. Most Peruvians (not all), just don't want to listen to each other or to you. I left thinking about how many times I have discriminated against someone in the states who doesn't speak English perfectly or has a strong accent and I just assume they can't "communicate" when in fact if I would just look at them and listen I would see that they can. Or maybe I could help them along instead of just putting a big ol' "ignorant" stamp on their forhead and sending them on their way like they did to me today. By the way, I was speaking VERY well today. So, as you can see, I didn't have the most pleasant experience, but I beg you to help internationals along when you run across them. Speak really slow, make them feel welcome in our country and give them a listening ear. You might find that they are really great people!

My day today

Not proof read!!!

I've had better days AND I've had worse. Last night Avery was up for several hours with really bad tooth pain. She has had a bad infection in her bone for the past week and antibiotics have not helped it. So my morning started off with waking up too late, John heading out the door really early (I will hardly see him for the next 7 days) because we have a medical mission team here. On the way to school, the baby vomitted all over himself and then tried to pick it up and eat it. It smelled horrible! I forgot how much I dislike vomit. Anyhoo, I was able to get to school while almost running out of gas. Upon arrival, I cleaned up little bit and then I made it back home to a very disasterous house, only to find out that the empleada couldn't come until much later. Normally I don't let it get bad unless I know she is coming. I finally got an appointment for Avery and we sepent 2 hours at the dentist while she was getting a root canal. She had a lot of blood and puss and it almost made me sick. There was an equal amount of crying as well. It truly made me sad. Then I came and found out that Parker had lost his allowance and Ally lost her glasses. Did I mention my pet peeve is "lost" stuff. And then the empleada had "cleaned" the house, but honestly she did a terrible job today. I don't know what was up with that. I kept having to go around and tell her things she missed. And to top it all off, I had to change our vacation dates because my friend changed her wedding date and accidentally forgot to tell me. After an hour on the phone with Expedia, it cost me $160 extra dollars to move the dates earlier up in August. So nothing major bad happened today, but it just seemed like small little fires all today. There was no reason in sharing all this except to give you something to read.

It does always seem that things get chaotic whenever there is a mission team here.

If you get a chance, please pray for Avery's infection (she did have a fever from it today) and the medical mission team.

Finally!!!!!

Just very recently God has blessed us a little financially through the yard sale and some love offerings. It is so refreshing after struggling so much the past 6 months with our money. Anyway, we were able to book a vacation for just John and me. It is the first time in almost 3 years we have been alone together overnight. We need this time of refreshing BADLY! The child care, in Florida, is all lined up and we will be going to the island of the Dominican Republic to spend time on the Caribbean Beach at an adults only ALL inclusive resort. We got such an incredible deal (thank you God). We will be gone from Aug. 28 - Sep. 3. Take a look at where we will be staying ALONE and try not to covet too much. All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you LORD!!!!! You are so good to us.

And this is where we are going!

We are going to be like little kids, newlyweds and life-long partners all rolled into one.

We're in the money

Yesterday's garage sale was beyond successful. We had two van loads of stuff and we left with one small box of leftovers. And...we made a whopping $1,100. Yes DOLLARS! We now have enough to buy our waterpark passes and for Ally and I to go on a 3 day Disney cruise with my friend Jenn. YEAH! We are so happy. Last night we took the entire family to eat Sushi as a special treat! Yes, my kids eat sushi! :) I have never had such a successful yard sale before and we only sold "extra" stuff that we had. I will write more about the experience later because it was quite different than a typical American garage sale. Have a blessed Sunday!

Garage Sale

Okay, so I closed it down and opened it up again - the blog that is. I can't make up my mind.

Anyway, tomorrow is the GRAND Garage Sale at the kid's school. We spent all day pricing our items and are hoping for at least $300 to go towards our Disney Waterpark Passes. Say a prayer for us. We are expecting about 300-400 Peruvians and we are told it will be a mad house. We are taking all of our kids with us and Maria is coming to help us out. I have no idea what I would do with her. She is like paid family! :)

Okay, please say a prayer for Jaxson as he is sick now. Ally feels better, though. And I hope to post some pictures of our recent happenings. Miles is such a cutey. I can't wait for you to see him. He is everywhere and into everything. He is now pulling up as much as he can and I suspect once he gets his legs underneath him that he'll be toddling around everywhere. Oh how I wish he would stop growing. :)

Have a great night!

Life Goes on without the Phams :)

We found out that Sunday's event continued without us. The 1 p.m. lunch was not ready until 4 p.m. and the 2:30 p.m. service was held at 5 p.m. I wonder if God was just trying to get us out of the way. :) About 20 adults, plus a ton of kids, showed up to the outreach. I can't imagine if my kids didn't eat until 4 p.m. for lunch. They were already climbing the walls at 2:30 p.m. Oh well! At least it continued and apparently went well for those involved. I am glad to hear the good news.

Jaxson is still having urological issues.
Avery is having behavior issues.
Ally has been sick for the past 2 days.
Parker has been healthy, happy and joyful.
Miles has a nasty diaper rash again. I think he is having a food allergy on his bottom.
John has had a super busy ministry week.
And me....well, I am happy, joyful and a bit tired.

Sunday's Story

Instead of retelling a very long story, I will quickly tell you why Sunday's ministry event was a bust:

Another missionary returned our tent to us on Sunday, an hour before the event, without the instructions. You can't set it up without the instructions and it is a ministry tent. Thus, it is no good and we couldn't use it.

John got a migraine as soon as he found out about the tent. I had to rush to where he was to give him an injection in his rear-end. That is not my favorite thing to do.

The people who were hosting the event at their "house" were tearing it down. And they continued to tear it down while we were all there. It was so digusting. Think bugs, spiders, tons of dust, dirt, mold, broken wood, nails, etc...

And there was a lady cooking in the house while they were doing this. Everything was flying over to where she was cooking.

The food was suppose to be READY TO EAT at 1 p.m. and then the service at 2:30 p.m. By 2:30 p.m. the food still had at least an hour left to be cooked. We had talked about the plan with them at least 3 times before the day of the event. My kids were breaking down from hunger and lack of naps and the filth of the walls they were breaking down. They did not stick to the plan we made and made their own plan.

The men were suppose to be enjoying the day, not tearing down walls.

If they invited any neighbors, they certainly didn't show up before we left. We never saw the first person besides the regular church people. And several people were VERY sick from that house being torn down. Now Ally is sick and I do believe it was from that house.

We finally had to leave because John was so sick with the migraine, the kids were starving and the event was just a bust. We were just sitting around waiting and waiting. John had to preach that night at a local church so he really needed to get home and get better because he could NOT cancel his commitment.

The entire day was very disappointing. We have never left an event before, but if you saw the conditions we were in, you would've left as well. It was not safe or sanitary to have children in or around that. I don't understand why they couldn't wait until after the event to do this. Anyway, not sure if anyone ever showed up or not. So that was our day in a very, very brief nutshell. It could not have been any less successful! We both were struggling culturally with all that was going on around us. I was sitting in the sun with the baby and John came over and asked if I was okay. I said to him, "John, I am just really struggling right now." And he sweetly said, "Me, too! Me, too!" If John is struggling as well, then I know it's a difficult situation.

We still have a lot to learn and a lot to adjust too!