VSM trip and scenery shots

Between Facebook, YouTube and our website, the VSM team that came to visit us has been well publicized! But seeing that this blog is mostly pics of the boys, and since they got to hang with the team alot, I shall post the pics again...haha. Sorry for the redundancy. The boys had a great time with the team, and bonded well....or I might say alittle too well. Tears were shed by all the girls at the airport.

Any team that we pick up from the airport is shuffled through our McDonald's. We know how airplane food can be. Some people may like the u.f.o. (unidentifiable food object) that is placed before them in the tiny space provided on your lap in these planes, but for those with weak stomachs, McDonald's seems to help the problem. I would put their taste up with the stateside McDonald's any day!

This was an accidental picture. Someone had my camera taking pictures in the wrong setting. This little girl was all faded/white when I got the cam. So instead of deleting the pic, I doctored it. Kinda looks like a chalked drawing now, don't you think? Ok, maybe not, but I thought she still looked dramatic.

Very rare moments: but here are the boys playing fuseball in our house during some down time....also the girls were playing cards with Jamin.

This pic was meant to be at the bottom with the scenery pics, but it isn't budging. I guess it will have to do right here :) The Philippines has some beautiful tropical flowers!!

The team got to visit the beach resort in Dumaguete that we have gone to over the years. The boys always run to their favorite tree. It was a favorite hanging out spot for the group.

Jamin with his Ate Ruthie....

Jamin and Holly (pic was blurry, so I messed with it also)

I was taking a picture behind me, without watching. Jamin proceeded to get into both pictures. The girls that came was so good to the boys....as if they were their big sisters. I'm ok with big sisters, however I know there will come a time when he doesn't look at girls as 'sister' material. Ah man....I'm not ready for that, haha!

I was so proud of our boys. This was the first real trip that they have been on where they worked hard, instead of running around getting in trouble. They weren't even asked to help. They just jumped on top the scaffold and went to work. It made me nervous to have them up there, natually....but we all survived. Here are the boys helping to wipe down the concrete walls of the church....and then they also got to paint as well.

The boys and I didn't go on two of the trips (Leyte/Bohol), but when we went with them to Dumaguete and the outreaches in Cebu, the boys stepped up to the plate and got involved. Jamin even gave his testimony (first time). He was so nervous, and ended up getting stage fright in the middle of it, so he didn't want me to post the pic or video of him doing so. I was still proud of him! We will have to work on his communication skills in time, concerning giving his testimony. But we all thought he did great!!!!

At the Dumaguete Academy, Jamin decided to give the big jump rope a try. His daddy also joined in. I didn't know Robert still had it in him;)

More snorkeling pics....Jamin was still having a cough/sniffles, so he hung out with the ladies on the boat.

Jess strumming the air guitar before heading out to snorkel!

The rest of these are scenery shots taken during the trip. Enjoy....

Grandma Birthday Video

Our mom got ahold of Movie Maker on the computer, and helped us put this together for our Grandma for her birthday. Hope you enjoy....we had a great time making it!

Tip: if you have fast internet service, you MAY be able to watch this. If you have turtle internet, you can forget about it. Also, if you will push play to start, then pause and let it stream to the end, it will be better than watching it stop/start every 3 seconds. If anyone has a better idea on how to load a 2 min video, please pass on the advice!!! I would love to know who was successfully able to watch the video. If I don't hear from anyone, I'll know it's not watchable and remove it!





Peter isn't really her grandchild, but he is always at our house, and wanted to
be included, haha :)

MeewMaw Birthday video

We have two grandparents with July birthdays, so we dedicate this video to MeeMaw Murphy. We were actually able to con Robert into joining the fun. Of course, the videographer (Connie) wishes the same birthday greetings, but behind the video;) We love you MeeMaw!

Summer activities....

We are soooo glad to be on our summer break here in the Philippines. We only have one slight problem. All of Jamin and Jesse's friends here in our subdivision have gone back to school. The Filipino school system goes from June-March. I really need to work this out better so that we can have the same summer break!!! During the week, the boys are totally bored out of their minds, and letting me know about it every minute. So....we are having to come up with creative ways to keep them busy, and to keep them from being homesick!!!

To add to the homesick note: please pray for the boys when you think about it. This is really the first time we have had this problem. For Jesse, it's off and on (more off than on....), but for Jamin, he is quite homesick for the states. Everything the boys know about the states is based on our furlough experiences. They don't remember living there much, especially not Jesse, seeing that he was 3 when we moved from Texas. Furlough for them is always a time to see old friends, have camp fires at MeeMaw's house, go swimming at Grandma's, spend time with cousins, eat lots of really good food at our favorite restaurants, and then of course, Disneyworld. Those are fond memories, and they are missing those.

It's really hard knowing that we don't belong in the States (for now), but then we don't really belong here in the Philippines. I'm not saying that God doesn't want us here anymore, I'm just saying as Americans, this is not our home country. We are here temporarily until God is through with us. And it is extremely hard for kids, at times, to find where they DO belong. Missionary kids are considered 'third culture kids'. Sorry, I'm rambling. Anyways, please pray that they will find contentment in being here for now. Our furlough is not scheduled until next Sept, and they are having a hard time knowing that it's still over a year away. I keep telling them that it will fly by fast.

All that to say, haha, we are having to keep them busy. Below are just a few things we have done recently....ok, so like this week for example....haha!

It seems like most posts have our boys swimming in a pool, but it's just how life goes;) I'm so glad that they swim like fish, and enjoy water. And especially that they love for their picture to be taken.

We pulled out the ol' Bingo game, and even took the challenge of 4-6 cards each. I know, you are saying "ewwww, ahhhhh, ohhhhh"!!! We were playing for candy!! Their Grandpa and Grandma Bruce sent about 20 or so packs of Certs (their favorite) from the states. They are constantly asking, ok, let me restate that....begging for me to give them some, so we put them up as a prize for winning Bingo rounds. Jesse looks real enthusiastic, but he really did enjoy it, if nothing else for the prize!

We have also pulled out the sidewalk chalk. This is something that is not rarely seen in the Philippines, or at least not in our neighborhood. When we started to write on the ground, we got many a stare from all the neighborhood kids. For a long time, they wouldn't even come near us to see what it was that we were really doing.....those crazy American Murphy boys...what are they up to now?? I'm sure that is what they were thinking, haha! But our boys were having a nice therapy session, as you can see with the love notes to their Grandma and MeeMaw!

This was an 'I love you' for Grandma Bruce from Jesse, but he never did finish the 'Grandma' part. Some of these pictures I messed with, to make the neon chalk stand out, and just because I was bored the afternoon I was editing these:)

Here is Jamin writing a note for MeeMaw Murphy, and Jesse with his silly head in the way;)

I know this one looks weird, but I thought it almost looked like someone had drawn Jesse in chalk on the ground. Ok, maybe not. But he did help his Momma color in the letters in his name.

Jamin is our artist in the group. Here are all of his chalkings....in case you can't tell what everything is, there is a mountain with sunset, a bowl of fruit, and banana (split), a dinosaur and a J-Rox, and some other stuff I can't remember what he drew. We have since then rinsed it off the road, so I have forgotten.

Can you tell Jamin is missing the states in this picture? :)

In the previous post, I had mentioned about a team from MS coming to Cebu. With them came a bunch of goodies from my Mom. She really gets into holidays, and since the boys missed being in the States during Easter, she sent them Easter Eggs for us to hide for them. We decided to take one of the rainy/windy typhoon days this last week to hide them in the house. They had help with Peter (who didn't have school because of the typhoon). Peter is their Korean friend that they have known for several years here in our subdivision, and is the same age as Jesse.

Anyways, the boys really enjoyed running around downstairs, (partially destroying it) to find these little plastic camouflaged eggs. My mom had even put prizes and Pokemon trivia questions inside as well, along with a bunch of "unnecessary" confetti.....thanks Mom...haha! I would put video on the blog of the hunt, but everyone has seen an Easter Egg hunt (though ours was in June), and it's too long to load, sorry!

Jamin showing off his booty.....I mean his treasures inside the egg: pirate eye cover.

It's amazing how cheap little plastic tops and yo-yo's can easily entertain our kids. They spent hours with Peter having "top" wars. See all those pretty colored pieces of paper on the table. Those were all over the floor, too:) haha! Probably can't tell in the windows, but it was pretty nasty outside. Oh yeah, and during all this, we were having a brown out, so that is why the boys were looking pretty sweaty through this whole egg hunt, besides the fact that they had been running around a good bit.