GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS!

HERE ARE SOME PHOTOS WE TOOK TODAY!

PS - ONLY 4 DAYS UNTIL WE ARE ON AN AIRPLANE HEADING FOR HOME, SWEET, HOME! AND THEN 24 HOURS LATER - HUGS FOR EVERYONE!! WE CAN NOT WAIT!!

THE RIGHT THING

THE STORY:

I walked into a nice bra store with the full understanding that I was going to pay some good money for 2 new bras. I know ladies you are like me - we all want to buy cheap bras - but is it really worth it?! Cheap does not always mean better in some cases. In the store the floor ladies were talking about the commission they receive on each bra purchase - 8%. It was a huge deal to them!

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So anyway, I carefully picked out two new bras and brought them to the counter. With a little patience, the cashier and I were finally talking the same language. The total-R290.oo (about $45.00 US). I can deal with that. I payed with a credit card (So add another 3% money exchange fee) and off I went.

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Scott (now that he is "monitoring" our finances) - always wants the receipt. As I was looking at the credit card slip, I noticed I was only charge R29.00 (about $4.50 US). Doing the math I was thinking WOW I saved R261.00!!! The HAPPY face I made was soon followed by great guilt. I knew what I had to do - Yes I went all the way back to the store and told the lady that she charged me the wrong amount. Her reaction (and that of the customer paying for her stuff) was speechless. They could not believe that I would be so honest (It is not common here in Africa - people are always finding a way to steal something). Thank you, Thank you, Thank you is all she could say - and she couldn't seem to say it enough. Then I remembered them talking about their commission. If I wasn't honest the poor girl would have had to pay the difference of the charges and she would of also lost her 8% commission.

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SO - I feel good - the sales girl is happy - Everyone wins - or did I?!

RANDOM

KINDERGARTEN GRADUATION AGAIN

School is done for the year and Maddie graduated Kindergarten again. After a lot of prayer, we have decided to home school Maddie for the rest of the time we are in South Africa. It has been a tough decision. I am not sure if I am able to do a teachers job, but I will do my best. If Maddie stayed in the school she is in now she would be a full year behind when we go back home for good. The environment at the school is not a good place for Maddie. She cries a lot and is very angry. Pray that this decision to home school Maddie is a good one and that we have the right amount of patience to do it.

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SANTA COMES TO TOWN

Wow it really does not feel like Christmas yet, especially with it being summer here. I am missing the cold weather and lights outside. I think I have only seen one house with lights on the outside. Another thing that is so different is Scott and I have only seen 1 Christmas commercial (and we have DSTV). Strange!

Here is Santa coming on the train to visit with the kids of the neighborhood. Maddie and Alex are running after it. I am not sure why they are not in the picture - I thought I captured the moment - oops. At least you will get the idea!

PAPER CHAIN

The kids are so excited to come home for Christmas (ME TOO)! They started a "Going to see Grandma and Grandpa" Paper Chain. It is always a race in the morning to count how many days are left! Our flight comes in at 8:00pm on December 14!!

FREAKY PICTURE

I was taking pictures of the full moon one night and I was messing with the settings on my camera. Well, I went inside after failing to capture the moment, and went to take a picture of Scott playing with our cat. Here is how it turned out! Freaky!!

SCOTT'S WORK

Here is an updated photo of Scott and Nkhensani. They needed to send one in for Innotec's Christmas photos.

It has been sad for me to see how slow and frustrating Scott's work is going. There have been a lot of roller coasters! God is good though and he definitely has a hand in all this (we can see it even though it is slow moving). I will let him update you on all that is going on.

Here is Scott's latest update:

We have had a ton of frustrations over that past couple of months with trying to set up our block yard. We have investigated a number of spots to put the block yard and each one has been a frustrating venture. The biggest problem has been getting commitments from the people we are trying to work with to rent property from. Since the set back at the sand quarry a couple weeks ago, we have been trying to work with another person where we can set up our machine. It has been two weeks of phone calls and responses like "I will call you in a couple of days when I get a chance to talk with so and so".

The latest big news has been that we may have an opportunity to purchase Hydraforms current block yard from them. It looks like a great opportunity and would get us a start with a number of customers, a completely set up block yard, and be able to accommodate almost any size order. We probably won't know for sure if this deal will go thru until after Christmas, but we are pretty excited about it.

I will be taking a trip to Mexico while we are back in the State over Christmas. Innotec has started a block business in Saltillo, Mexico and I am going there to see if I can help them out a bit and also learn from them as well. It should be interesting.