Ok so lets play catch up. Since last Tuesday...Chris got a Jeep, my cousin graduated from high school, my dad and Andrew got home from Taiwan, Andrew left for youth camp, Chris got sick and I started school again. See not much going on here. HA!!

I dont have any pictures of Chris' jeep but I will try to take some later. We have absolutly loved driving it around all over town.

My dad and Andrew got home at 8:00 am Monday morning and loaded us with presents, stories and pictures. Chris got a handcarved chess set, I got a mug from "Amy's Kitchen" a Mexican food restaraunt in Taichung. My dad said the menu was 46 pages and on one page there would be hamburgers and the next page squid. Anyway, I thought it was pretty funny. They also got me a jade charm at the Jade Market. The funniest/grossest thing they showed us is pictures from their experience eating at the "Modern Toilet." There is really no need for comment, the pictures say it all.

Andrew is working as a youth intern this summer so 3 hours after he landed in Amarillo he boarded a private plane to Brownwood to be with the youth for camp. It sucked that I only got to see him for 3 hours but he will be home Friday.

Chris stayed home sick yesterday but thankfully he is better today.

I started back to school to get my bachelors in PK-4 ESL. Dont get me wrong, I love my job, but I just cant see staying here my whole life. There are several factors that are weighing in on my decision but I just feel that it is something I need to do. I am just taking one class this summer, Child Pshycology. So far I love it. I might change my tune in a couple of weeks when I am overwhelmed. I am taking 9 hours in the fall!!!! We will see how it goes.

All is right with the world

Last night Andy, the Bachelor, chose Tessa much to my surprise. Don't get me wrong Tessa was one of my favorites from the beginning, minus the cheesy muffin joke, but I was just for sure he was going to pick Bevin just to make me mad. I don't know what it was about Bevin but she made my skin crawl. Ok I guess I will start my workday now that I have solidified my pathetic life as a reality show junky.

The Lord is good

All of the mission team was able to get on the later flight to LA and made it in time to board their flight to Taipei. They will be arriving in Taiwan at 10:00 am. Please continue to pray that they will feel refreshed and ready for the work the Lord has for them to do. Thank you for your prayers. You can check out this link for a prayer guide.

Updated Prayer Request

This update was emailed to me from our church just minutes ago.

Our team traveling to Taiwan arrived at DFW to find their flight to Los Angeles had been cancelled. They are now waiting for seats on an already overbooked flight that will get them to Los Angeles just in time to catch their connection on EVA Air to Taiwan. At this point, they do not have seats on the flight to L.A.

Please pray that the Lord would work this out for His glory and their good.
Pray for their spirits to be lifted up and trusting in the Savior to work out his Sovereign plan.
Pray that their trust in God would show to the people around them and that God would get the glory for working things out.

Jeff & Sherrill Ritter
Kirk & Andrew Merker
Stancy Richards
Stuart Hochstein
Andrew Fortenberry

Hilary Persall and Blake Higley were on different flights and are already on route to Taiwan.

Prayers

My dad and little brother, Andrew, left this morning for a mission trip to Taipei, Tiawan. They will be returning on May 29th. They will be on a plane for about 19 hours today. This picture is of my brother, Andrew, and Mark, the missionary they are going to work with. Mark was actually visiting the US a couple of months ago and we were very honored to have him at our wedding. Young men who turn to Christianity in Taiwan are usually outcast from their family. Please pray that God uses my dad, Andrew, Mark and the rest of the teamfor His ultimate glory.

Chris' new toys

Sunday we decided that we would use our earnings from the garage sale to buy Chris some tools. He hates having to ask my dad to borrow stuff all of the time and every time we would go to Home Depot or Lowe's he would peer over at the power tool section with a sad puppy dog look on his face. It was getting pretty pathetic. We went to Home Depot first and then decided to see what Sears had. He ended up getting a 3 piece Craftsman set. I am assuming that is supposed to be a really good brand because he was very excited that they happened to be on sale. His set came with a circular saw, drill/screwdriver and a flashlight. I am not sure yet how often we will use the flashlight but the other items made the set worth it. As soon as we got home he got to work. He made me shelves for my pantry and this really cool wall art display that we had both scoped out in the Pottery Barn catalogue. Even though they were just small little projects they totally made my day. I can now actually find stuff in my pantry!! Have I mentioned lately how much I love this man!!!

Chris showing off his new toy!!

Making my shelves for my pantry.

(I forgot to take an after picture but I will try to do that tonight)

Our new wall display!!

Ice cream anyone??

Since yesterday was mother's day, I thought I would share a funny story about my mom that happened just this weekend. Saturday we went to my cousin's graduation party at the West Texas Cow Puncher's Association. I have no idea what a cow puncher actually is but needless to say we were basically in a barn in the middle of no where. When we pulled up we were greeted by a few of my cousin's friends who were already a little tipsy. We had assumed there would be alcohol there and with my mom being the t-totaler that she is we had already been warned that we probably would not be staying very long. Anyway, we walk in and there are about 3 ice chests full of beer and then the buffet line starts out with a Margarita machine. Chris, myself, my brothers and my dad all go through the line and load up on Bar-B-Q and coke/water. My brother, Andrew, opened up one of the ice chests of beer and pulled one out as a joke but was soon shot the "Evil Look" by my mom so he promptly put it back. We all sat down and started eating but my mom got held up talking to someone. When she finally joined us she said "Chris aren't you just in heaven with that soft serve ice cream machine up there." We all looked at each other and erupted in laughter. We could not even stop laughing long enough to explain to my mom what it was. It was priceless. We then all got grilled about how we knew what a Margarita machine looked like. Luckily my dad saved us all and said they have them at Chili's and Applebee's. See and you all thought I was naive.

Wedding Picture Overload

I finally got the chance to scan in a few of the pictures from the wedding. There are still about 80 that I need to sort through and see about scanning some of them in also. I can't believe we have almost been married for 2 months now. I have never been happier.

Me & Ashley

Me & RyAnn

Me & Rachel

Me & Anna

Dylan and Delaney (aka my second family)


Me & Benjamin, Katy & Delaney

Benjamin giving me a kiss


Chris & Benjamin

My beautiful grandma

Papa & Ola Faye

I think this one is my favorite!!!

The best news of the weekend...

I almost forgot to mention the best news of the weekend. The Yankees signed Roger Clemens!!! Praise God (or George Steinbrenner). Hopefully his legs will be strong enough to provide the Yankees with a much needed pitching boost.

A confession

For all of three of my readers, I have a confession to make that might give you some insight as to why I am the way I am. Last night as I was watching Desperate Housewives I was shocked to see one of my closest and dearest childhood friends playing the role of Edie's ex-husband. I am sure you are all amazed at the fact that I would "know" such a big celebrity. By "know" I mean he was my imaginary friend when I was 3-4. His real name is Greg Evigan and he was the star of a TV show in the late 70's and early 80's called B.J. and the Bear. In the show he played a semi-truck driver who had a pet monkey, Bear. They traveled the country and got into all sorts of adventures and mishaps. I absolutely loved this show and soon made "B.J." my friend/boyfriend. He went everywhere with me, much to the chagrin of my parents. In my own defense I would like to add that all of this took place before my brothers where born and we lived in the small town of Hereford. We did not know very many people with kids my age, except the boy who stole my first kiss whose actual name was Brick Wall. I swear it. But I digress. My dad loves to tell the story about us going to K-Bob's for dinner and me screaming at him at the top of my lungs that he had taken B.J.'s seat and then demanding that the waitress also bring B.J. a menu. Even having heard my dad tell that story more times than I can count actually writing it out pains me!! I am sure you all feel a little more enlightened having read this.

No more Stars Hollow???

I love Gilmore Girls. There is something about Loralei and Rory that I find so amusing. Maybe it is their witt. I am so sad that the CW has decided to cancel the show even though it is one of the most watched shows on their network. I know that Chris and the rest of the men in my family will not be sad to see the show die. I have yet to meet a man who understands or likes this show but, nonetheless, I will still miss it. I just hope they wrap things up well. I should really re-evaluate my life when the cancellation of a tv show puts a damper on my Friday!!! I need help.

NO I AM NOT DEAD

FYI: I did not drop off of the face of the earth. It has been a busy last couple of weeks for the Bunch's. Here is the run down...

On April 20th I had my wisdom teeth taken out. All went well at the dentist office but a few hours later I took a turn for the worse. I had taken a pain pill around 9:00 am so that when the medicine from the dentists office wore off I would not be in much pain. About 12:00 I decided I felt good enough to try a milkshake so Chris went to Sonic to get me one. I took another pain pill before he left and about ten minutes later I started not feeling so well. I went to the kitchen to get some water to cool myself off and soon discovered that moving around was not a good idea. I felt like I needed to throw up so I clung onto the wall to get to the bathroom. I did not throw up but I did decide that the tile on the bathroom floor felt good so I laid down. When Chris came back about 10 minutes later and found me laying in the floor in the bathroom he totally freaked out. He called the dentist and they told him that I probably just needed to eat something so I quickly downed the milkshake. About 10 minutes later my body rejected the milkshake. I continued to throw up the rest of the day. Apparently my body did not like the pain meds so I could not even take them anymore. All I could take was alieve which did not help much. I think it was one of the first true tests of our young marriage. Chris was sooo sweet. He held my hair for me while I threw up and he called the dentist 4 times during the day to make sure there was not anything else he could do. Two weeks later I am finally back to eating normal foods and have little to no pain but not something I would ever want to do again.

Last week we babysat for my "second family," the Needhams. We had a great time with the kids but it solidified our plan to wait a while to have kids. We are just going to enjoy being with each other for a while and not having crying kids at our door at 2:00 am or teenagers on the phone until 11:30 on a school night!!!

This week we are getting ready for a garage sale. I HATE garage sales, but it is much needed. My parents are bringing all of their crap to our house so at least we will have plenty of able bodies there to help.