Haley's Haven

Here are some pictures of our ill-fated Saturday outing. We thought "It's the desert! There couldn't POSSIBLY be ANOTHER rainy day!" We, sadly, were wrong. Our friends and Matt's Spanish program compatriots, the Meissners, and us, all piled into our Tahoe - I wish we had a picture of the ease and comfort with which the men and children rode, while we ladies were crammed in the back with a couple of pillows to sit on. Did I mention we had the dog along, too? Anyway, it was raining when we started, but it looked better in the direction we were going, so we clung to that slim chance that maybe, just maybe, it might turn out to be a clear day...or at least quit raining. Once again, we were wrong. You can see some examples of our river crossings - I think I'll post a video too - anyway, it was the kind of situation where my "motherish" mind sees a brief glimpse of the one-minute-ahead future, with our car bobbing sideways down the river, crashing in...

Don't you love my moronic and obvious titles to my blog entries? Anyway, here are the girls with their new friend Vanesa from across the street. Matt says we can count on not being broken into because of the close watch she keeps on our house. She seems to know instinctively as soon as the girls are awake for the day, or after their naps, or as soon as we arrive home from somewhere...she is there - it is great. This is a sample conversation amongst the kids... (by the way, the ALL CAPS sections are SHOUTED THINGS) Ana: "HOLA VANESA!" Haley: "HOLA VANESA! HOLA! HOLA!!" Vanesa: "Hola. Pueden jugar?" (can they play?) Ana: "SI SI!! I GO SEE VANESA!! SHE COME IN? VANESA - YOU WANT TO SEE MY BEDROOM?" Haley: "Como estas? Bien." Vanesa: (no words, just wildly playing with Moby until he is crazed and frothing at the mouth) Haley: "Vanesa! VANESA! VANESA! VANESA!!!! (Mom, how do you say let's play in my bedroom) Mi recamara? Mi reca...

We went on a hike as a family on Saturday - mainly to collect rocks for decorating and edging our backyard (let me say that if nothing else is available in Chihuahua, you can always count on plenty of rocks.) Anyway, we were not successful in finding an actual trail up "Fish Mountain" as the locals (our fellow missionaries) call it. Ana had a spill, and I started seeing too many creeping and crawling things in the tall grass and amidst the rocks, so we turned back and decided on a more urban adventure. (The second to last and last pic are from our new locale.) Hey, they say that those new housing developments in the U.S. all look alike, but check out these houses! Anyway, the FUNNY thing about this is that Haley was all annoyed that we had to turn back from our original hike, and today, as we were passing by the mountain while driving to pay our phone bill (you have to go TO the phone co. to pay here, as there is no home delivery mail system) - she says: "Hey Mom - maybe...

Some sights along the road to Chihuahua - check out that thunderstorm! One of my favorite things about living in the high desert growing up was being able to see thunderstorms coming from hundreds of miles away.

Here we are, heading to Mexico - the scenery really is beautiful, believe it or not! And actually, since it is rainy season here, it is a lot greener than normal. Even the Rio Grande is actually full, as you can see! This is the upper portion of the river, in New Mexico (not right at the border). Notice Matt's stressed "before the border" face. Customs and immigration are never a fun process, and there is always the stress of not having the correct paperwork on hand.

Here are some photos of our trip across the U.S. - the mountains were beautiful and don't you love West Texas rest areas? You get a cement picnic table with a little shelter over it - no more, no less. :)

We just added a news story and some photos to our www.ntm.org/matt_tyler site. I am so tired, but I wanted to say that we are ONLINE in our OWN HOUSE now! Matt got it working late last night, so that means I can actually put pictures on here now! Hooray! Also, send me a message if you'd like our Vonage phone # - we made it a U.S. number so you guys could call us without international charges - that means you just HAVE to call NOW! :) Things have been going non-stop here, though at about 9:30 to 10 every night Matt and I just look at each other and say "enough" - and we flop down on the couch and vegetate for a while. Big milestones for the last two weeks - 1) Finished painting in our rental house - YES! 2) Old pink dirty carpet replaced with interesting office-style carpet (which is CLEAN! so I have no problem with it!) Praise God for understanding landlords! 3) Got Mexican cell phones, mainly for safety purposes. 4) Went to Mexican grocery store for the first time ever...

No time, no pictures, but we have written a longer story on our NTM site - we still don't have a phone or any internet where we live, but once we do we will post lots and lots of pictures of what has been going on since we got here. We have a lot of stories already! Be prepared! We love all of you and thank you so much for lifting us up in prayer - we feel your encouragement all the time!