Remembering Canada

Our December has been a whirlwind, but I figured that I should post something of the trip to Canada and my brother's wedding, before any more excitement happens and it never gets written about!

For those want the two sentence version: We left our house two days before Thanksgiving and didn't get back until Dec. 9 .We had a great time; the kids were amazingly patient with the long driving days and we really enjoyed the time to be together.

For those who actually care where we went and what happened there: The first day, we only drove as far as Oklahoma City, where we stayed with the Kerrs. Glory really enjoyed playing in the fall leaves. Next we made the long drive to Ohio, where we were able to spend Thanksgiving with my Aunt and Uncle, which was a sweet treat for me...I love swapping songs with Aunt Debbie!! :) After spending a few days, we headed North to Ontario, where we would spend the week with the Mittons. We had a really pleasant week, and Taylor was able to work from the house, meaning that it cost us very little vacation. We were really challenged by their hospitality; I hope that we can do as well someday. Saturday, Dec. 4, my brother Jeremy married Liz Kuhn. We enjoyed getting to spend some time hanging out with Liz' family the day before the wedding. The ceremony was simple and elegant ...and little Nate slept through it so that I actually got to be in the same room...it was great! Welcome, welcome, Liz! I can't wait to get to know you better. :)

I can't tell about our trip to Canada without spelling out at least one adventure in detail...On the way back home we got stuck in a snow squall just outside of London, Ont. We pulled over for gas not even able to see what the gas station looked like for the snow. As the Lord had planned it, it was a truck stop with a restaurant, so we went in to eat and find out what we could about the storm. About that time, drivers from the other direction started coming in saying that they were closing the road. The waitresses were really kind and gave the kids coloring books and candy; they gave us free access to the WiFi, so we were able to check on the storm. Just as we were thinking to drive back the way we had come in search of a place to spend the night, the waitress came up to us and said, "there are hotel rooms upstairs. It's not the Hilton, but they're ok". We knew the Lord was taking care of us, when He directed us to the gas station, but now this! What gas station has hotel rooms? At this point, I didn't even mind the storm, I was just so excited to be cared for by such a God! We did spend the night. Taylor went to sleep really early; he was exhausted after driving in the snow...and my man being my man, that meant that he woke up at like 2:00 am. :/ So he checked the weather and watched the traffic crawl forward on the now re-opened road. It seemed that the storm was not going to pass for several days and that the road, at least temporarily, was pretty good. As soon as he saw the snowplows coming the opposite direction, we woke up the kids, bought coffee and banana bread down stairs and got ready to head out as soon as the snowplow came back our way. It was less than an hour before we were past the storm and on our way to the border.

On the trip home, we stopped by the Investortools office in Illinois, where we met up with friends from Taylor's work for a couple of days. One day while Taylor was working, I made a day trip with the kids to visit the Benders, who lived a couple hours off our route. We all made the drive back to Texas without much adventure...and had a whole 6 days before we left to celebrate Christmas with Taylor's family in Houston. :P Right now we are getting ready for my sister's wedding here in Snyder on Dec. 31. Exciting times! :)

To everything there is a season...

As I look at this picture of our biggest and our littlest, I'm kind of dumbstruck at how God is growing them up. After all, it wasn't too long ago that Glory was a little toothless snugglebug like Nate! I realize that here lately we have been doing a lot of thinking and a lot of praying about how God is growing us up as a family...and NO BLOGGING AT ALL. Sorry! So, for those who only keep up with us via what gets posted here, I better scoot WAY back and start at the very beginning (a very good place to start :) ... Ever since Taylor and I have been married, we have been working on learning Spanish. We used to visit a friend who did gospel work on the Texas/Mexico border, but we have not been in recent years due to the drug cartel activity in that area. We've looked for other opportunities to practice Spanish and continued to pray about someday living in a Spanish-speaking country. As we saw how readily our kids were picking up the minimal Spanish we exposed them to, we thought more and more about moving while they were young enough to absorb language so easily. Early this year, we realized that thanks to Taylor's extremely flexible/portable job, and the money the Lord has allowed him to make, the only thing keeping us from traveling was our milk cow...so in May, we sold her. We are prayerfully considering moving to Trujillo, Peru, for six months of next year. (That is as long as we can legally stay on a tourist visa). Though we are making plans in that direction, we certainly do not have tickets bought...and are waiting for the Lord to continue opening doors for us. We're really excited to get to experience such a different culture, and worship with brothers and sisters we've never met. :D We are not "Becoming Missionaries"; we are CONTINUING to be Christians, speaking about the Lord's loving-kindness as He gives us opportunity. We pray that the Lord uses our time there for His glory and covet your prayers that we would make decisions with His wisdom!

Presenting...a new school year!!!!!

OK, so the first picture probably sums up how this year will go. ;) Today, Glory started First Grade, and Levi joined the school in earnest. We go crazy sometimes, and we are disorganized a LOT of times. Sometimes I don't think it can get any crazier, but today, I wish everybody had a job as awesome as mine! :D I love these bugs!

Playing in the rain

A couple of weeks ago it rained...and rained, and rained! The kids (and the dog) enjoyed our brief season of "water front property" :)

Nathanael's new trick

He's getting so big! :)

...and he's off!

Levi learned how to ride his bike today! :) Granted...it does have training wheels, but to his credit, we have to leave them set pretty high off the ground to allow for our rather uneven terrain. Way to go, little man! :)

Dan the Dangerous?

Why is it always THIS kid I'm using my frozen vegetables on as first aid supplies? I love you Dan...please watch where you step. Thank you. :)

Nate says "Vote YES to baby-wearing"

Thanks to the lovely ladies that threw us the baby shower in Snyder, Nate has a new sling. We both like it a LOT. THANKS everybody! :)

I DO have eyes!

Nathanael watching the world. :)

"The Babysitter"

Taylor was finishing up some work in his office and asked Glory to listen for Daniel, who was taking a nap. When Taylor came back through to check on them, this is what he saw. :P

Meet Nathanael - part II

It is so hard getting a good picture of Nathanael's face since he hardly ever opens his eyes, but here is one that shows him strutting his "Goin' Home" outfit just before we left the hosiptial.

Enjoy!

Boys Will Be Boys

After all of the fuss over Nathanael coming home subsided, Levi and I needed some time to just be boys.


During Levi's "quite time" it was really hot and I did not want to send him outside so we decided to try letting him be creative with a set of train tracks. He has never really played with them alone so I was not really sure how or what he was going to do, but after a few minutes he figured it out and made this track...of course by the time he finished it he must have squeezed all of the creative juices out of his brain because he did not even take the time to run the train set through the tracks before cleaning it all up.The picture above is about all that he did: move the trains back and forth through that bridge a few times and then he was done.



Later that afternoon when it was still hot but starting to cool off, the girls went inside to start on supper and the boys...yes, all four of us: Levi, Daniel, Nathanael, and myself...decided to make a bow and arrow out of some cedar that we found earlier this weekend. We finished making it just as supper was called so we had to wait until just before bedtime to shoot it. Levi got it to shoot a little more than 20 feet! He was fairly proud of himself.

Enjoy!

Meet Nathanael!

We are very excited to meet this little boy! Nathanael Taylor Hollingsworth was born on May 26, weighing in at 8lbs. 9oz, and was 21 1/4" long. He got a sleepy start to life, but is starting to show a little more personality now, which is so very fun. Taylor's mom has been here since we got home, which has been a HUGE help. We'll try to get more updated soon, but I at least wanted to get a few pictures up while Nate was still tiny. Praise the LORD for his wonderful gift!

Taylor and his "armor bearer"

I have seen some variation of this shot quite often...and every time I see it I have to stop what I'm doing and grab the camera. It's a "Mama thing" perhaps. I love those guys. :) Levi takes his job as armor bearer quite seriously and is counting the days until he is five, when Taylor said he will be big enough for a small bow. In fact, when Levi turned 3, he went around telling anybody who asked that he was "3, almost grown up to be 5". :)

Waiting

For those of you who are already waiting on pins and needles....we're still waiting. Our official due date is in a week, and since we have not managed to have a baby on or before it yet and this is number four...well, I guess you'll just have to keep on waiting with us. :) I was realizing recently that we have never been very good at remembering to take "before the baby" pictures; so Little One, though you may get a Baby Book with only two or three pages filled out, at least you got a photo shoot. :)

To Argentina and Beyond!

Well, for now, the "beyond" part is simply returning back home, which I am very grateful to be. I had a very exciting trip, but really there is no place like home. Here are some pictures from my trip. The first (hopefully) is of my friend Garret and me at Club Banco which is where we spent some time. The next few pics are some of the work that we did to get the building in better working condition. I was able to use my electrical knowledge to fix some things like this fan and several light switches. I did try to work on some of their other electrical wiring issues, but the Argentine electrical code was a bit confusing to me...though I have some thoughts now on how to resolve it. :-\ 

The last pic is of a really cool bike that I found. One of the missionary's children had this and I thought that I would take it for a spill. It is really interesting how the front tires swivel to maintain balance and control...I think that I will look into getting one like this for out here where the ground is rarely level. 

If you are really interested to know of the gospel work that was done and is being done then feel free to e-mail me.

Enjoy!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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After a kilo of ice cream...

After a kilo of ice cream...
...it is hard to stop laughing.
...you might see a man with his fly open.
...you begin to wonder if people are watching you.
...you might see another man urinating in a trash can.
...you stop worrying if people are watching you.
...you have a strange urge to ask for a refill.
...you find yourself embarking on a 5 hour bus ride for the beach.
...you think that it would be good to do it again, next year.

Enjoy!

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Let's go to the Disco!

Tonight was the Jazz concert and I must admit that I was not looking
forward to it. I was very tired from working on various electrical
wiring issues and I was beginng to really miss my wife and family. I
went anyway.

I had more fun than I had expected primarily because there were
several English speaking people there, many of whom are affiliated
with the Navigators. So I had several nice conversations, in
particular was one toward the end when Garrett was ready to leave. I
got involved in a techie conversation with a fellow computer
programmer...Garrett was totally unimpressed. It was fun to find out
that they use mostly English-based programming languages.

While at the Jazz concert we needed more bread so as we headed out for
the store I asked Garrett, "Why don't we go to the disco?" Perhaps you
are wondering why I would want to leave the Jazz concert for a disco
club? Well the answer is quite simple when you put things in context;
"Disco" is the name of the grocery store!

Enjoy!

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A Debate

Today was a reasonably eventful day. It started off by me finally
getting some money, but the more interesting part of that was that
while we were riding through the park we saw the Mayor (but that is
not really his title but that is essentially his job function). He is
not a Christian but he does seem to appreciate the work that is being
done here. I got to shake hands with him.

Next, I did some electrical work...yeah, the buidling that we are
renting is in pretty bad shape in terms of electrical power, but from
what I have seen much of City Bell is this way. I was able to fix some
light swithes which might otherwise cost the saints here several
hundred dollars. Praise the Lord, I'm glad that I can be some help
even though there is such a great language barrier.

This evening, we got back from a debate...it was actually called a
"forum" between a Catholic priest and the Protestant preacher here. I
did not understand much of the discussion but there were about 50
people in attendance, which meant standing room only. Most people
seemed quite pleased with the debate. It was the most Argentine
greetings that I had given/dealt in such rapid succession. (An
Argentine greeting consists of a small hug ang "kiss" on the cheek,
usually right cheek, though few kisses actually ever involve lips. In
reality it is more of a touch between cheeks and a kissing sound.) I
am getting better at it though Garrett says that I am still very stiff
about the whole thing.

The most awesome part about today was correcting Garrett! Well ok so I
did not really correct his grammer, but I did know and use a word that
he did not know. It is the word for "heel" like the part of a foot.
Facu had told me earlier in the day that his foot was hurting and I
managed to retain the word until I asked him about it at the end of
the day!

(Though I don't feel like I am making much progress, I am able to
recall words better and faster than I did only two days ago.)

Enjoy!

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Mate

I fully recognize that I am different than other people, but I don't
think that I will ever fully understand some aspects in Larin and
Sounth America. To me there seems to always be a sense of "no
urgency". What I mean is if there is lots of work to be done then no
one seems to care when (or in my opinion: IF) it gets done. I'm not
sure how well I can get my point across, but if you know me then you
probably understand my difficulty. :-/

In the same day that I experienced this behavior I also experienced
genuine Argentine hospitality. :-) Now let me explain something first:
the people that I see here remind me of New Yorkers. With little
offense to New York people, they can appear a bit rude to a Southerner
when you meet one on the street. For example, if you were to say
"Hello." or "Can you help me find..." to an Argentine person on the
street then they might look at you like your were either a lunatic or
a thief. (I was told this but I did not fully believe it until I got
here...and yes, this is all just a setup for my main point.) As I was
wrapping up our painting project today, I ended up cleaning off a sign
that was in front of a store because there was some paint droppings on
it. The young man running the store was pleased with my effort, even
though I was not able to get much off the sign without ruining it.
While I was cleaning up, he offered me some "mate" (sounds like "ma"
from Mafia and "te" from Teresa; accent on the "e") which is an
Argentine drink (tea) that I expect to bring back home. Anyway...it
was a very friendly offer, it is an invitation to stop and talk and it
is not extended to everyone. So I quickly wrapped up my cleaning and
stood around drinking "mate" talking as best I could with the man. It
was truly an honor that this man wanted to try to communicate with me
knowing that I knew little Spanish. This was my first experience with
this type of Argentine hospitality from a stranger.

Enjoy!

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Hit the Ground running

I went running this morning with Vini and had a decent conversation
(Vini speaks little English and Garrett was gone). We ran for about 45
minutes and we were both tired, but I was concentrating so much on
listening and speaking that I failed to realizehow tired my legs were
until we were close to done.

Soon Chris, an engineer is coming to take us to an orphanage. (Garrett
asked me what I wanted to do while in Argentina and I told him that I
wanted to go to an orphanage.) Then we need to do some painting and
general maintenance on the building...I think that I'm going to be
stuck working on some electrical wiring issues.

This is going to be one exciting week!
Enjoy!

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Argentina - part I

This place is not at all what I had expected! First of all it is NOT
Mexico. Next, many people want to practice their English out on other
English speaking people...quite annoying when I am trying to do just
the opposite.

Other than that, things are going well. There is an interesting accent
here in Argentina that is not heard in Mexico or Texas. It is taking
a bit of time to adjust to it. Tonight we are going to an "asado",
which, I am told, is a type of meat and/or an event. So I think
tonight we are doing both.

Well...I was just told that we have to get ready to go!

Enjoy!

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Patrick

Everybody, this is Patrick...Patrick, meet everybody! :) Today we brought home this 3/4 Golden puppy. He seems to fit in really well with the rest of our menagerie. This top picture makes Taylor and I smile...since we have a very similar picture on the blog from 3 years back, when Pete was little (and so was Glory for that matter!):~)

Daniel gets his leg cutoff!

In case you missed it, Daniel got his leg cutoff...well not really his "real" leg, but rather his cast. He actually did quite well considering that the doctor had to use a high-speed cutting device to cut off the cast. Daniel sat there patiently while Alesha and the kids tensed up for fear the the doctor really was going to cut Daniel's leg. 

Enjoy!

Taylor

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Fun Memories

It was windy today by 9:00am. Really windy. The two oldest kids were coming outside with me to milk, though I left Daniel in his walker inside. (He can't get into much that way, and I figured he would be happier there than fighting the wind for 30 min. with us.) As we were walking out the door, already very late for chores, my mind flashed back almost 20 years...see, I grew up on a windswept prairie, too. My Mama, always overflowing with creativity and just as certainly against wasting money, would send us out with "plastic bag kites". It was almost always too windy for "real" kites, so she improvised, tying a loop of twine to the handles of a plastic grocery sack and letting us flap around the yard with it dashing and zipping behind us like a crazy dive-bombing bird. We thought they were wonderful...So today, even though we were already late, we decided to be three minutes later so I could tie a piece of feed sack twine to a plastic bag. :)

Just a few pictures to prove we're alive...

I promised you pictures of the addition...which I still have not taken. However, here are a couple snapshots of my favorite little people. :) As far as the house addition, we feel very rich. As of this weekend, we have lights in our room...that turn on with a switch on the wall! :) ...and our closet has a closet rod!!! (which is an extremely handy thing for a closet to have.) The kids have enjoyed having the boys' room separate from the girl(s'?) room. Glory especially likes being able to stay up for a little longer reading in her room. We usually have her turn her light off at 8:00, but tonight I forgot about her; long about 9:00, she came out saying, " Mama, I read this WHOLE book. In ORDER!" Oh, well. :)