Home again! Home again!

Well it has been a long time it seems like since we have been home. We have been on two trips since we last blogged.

The first of which was summer camp with our students. This was really kinda fun for me also Because I got to meet up with a lot of guys from Seminary and their student ministeries. The camp was FANTASTIC I enjoyed myself very much as did my students. One of the "funnest" parts of the trips for both the girls and guys was the Blobbing. (As you can expect, Stephen became very popular very quick! Everyone wanted the "fat guy" to be behind them :)) There were however some casualties of the week. We took 6 students and hurt 3 so I think that is a 50% rate for anyone keepin score. I had one fall and scartch her face up pretty bad during a relay race. Then another student tore the cvast majority of the bottom of his big toe off playing basketball in the pool. To top things off my only incoming 7th grader broke his arm on the last day of camp so we took an unexpected tour of the Emergency Room in Paducha KY. AWESOME!!!!



The second trip we just got back from was Cajamarca, Peru. We took a team from our church and met a team from Fellowship Baptist in Batesville, Ar. We flew out of Little Rock on the 1st of July and landed in Lima then took a 2nd flight to Cajamarca on the 2nd. The facilities we stayed in was nothing less than fan-stinkin-tastic. It was great for 1st timers but also bad cause nothing else on a mission trip will be that nice. The man who runs the place, Larry Johnson, said his philosophy was if he keeps you feed good and a good place to sleep the short term folks work harder. Well he did and I hope we did. The 10 days were filled with passport checks, donkey tastings, VBS, market shopping, and of course futbol. The first 2 days were spent doing odds and ends work at the school linked with the local church and VBS. Then we took the first of our two trips the the market in which we were given money and family lists and got to buy food for needy families that we delivered that afternoon. If we did real well with our prices we could buy extras like candy and cheese for the families. Sunday we went to a church service and then that afternoon we did a hot dog (calor pero thanks Celso) roast for kids at an orphanage complete with marshmellows and ice cream. Monday we went back to the market and I wish I could say I did better but I didn't (should have listened to Ash). Delivered those groc. and went home. That left us with 2 full days of VBS with A LOT of Peruvian children. Tues. afternoon we ended up just given everything extra we had away and playing with the children. Then it was up eary Thurs. to catch a flight back to Lima. We had some time in Lima to go to the Indian Market where I FINALLY found a Peru Jersey that was Doce eche cele (sp?) which yes mean XXL. We then had a great dinner of Argentinan Beef which was different but good. Finally home again home again jiggity jog.



THANKFULLY we have nothing for the next few weekends. We are looking forward to a baby shower for Grabba and Jess and Thomas's party for his 1st Birthday.

Peru Mission Trip

Buenos dias mi famalia y amigos. We are currently in Cajamarca, Peru having a great time. We have had one VBS session at the school and done a little work at the school and saw the new medical center that is currently under construction. Sorry this one is kinda short but just givin a brief update on what is going on. Below is a link to the blog for the Miracle Village you can check on the team there also and hopefully we will have a link to some pics either here or on our Facebook soon.

Hasta Luego
Stephen & Ashley



http://www.miraclevillage.blogspot.com/

link to pics

Peru Mission Trip

More Peru

It is summer already...what?

Ok so here is the quick look at what we have been doin since you last heard from us. Snow was the last thing significant in our lives evidently and that was a couple months ago and I am gonna try to remeber everything and forcast a little. Here we go....

April went by without a hitch. May is barrelling on through and summer is getting started. We are spent Memorial Day weekend on a tour of La. We spent some time in Monterey at Cj's lake house, some time in Natchez at Ro's camphouse, and finally went to a ballet recital in Norco for our neice.


This week we are having VBS at the church. Then at the begining of June we will be taking our students to Harden, KY for summer camp we will be back for a bit only to get on a plane for Peru in early July. Then in August we will be meeting our other MattnNat (the ones we don't work with) for a weekend retreat with their students and there is even some talk of returning to Monterey to buy furniture before summer is over so we will try to keep you posted

We Got Snow!

Yes, a few weeks ago - We got Snow in Saltillo! It was beautiful! Everyone gets to share their stories of how their kids reacted to the snow - but we get to share how the dogs reacted! This was the first time that either dog has seen snow. It was a Sunday morning and Brotherhood at the church so Stephen was up earlier than me. He got up and got dressed and then tired to put the dogs outside to go potty before he left. When he opened the door to let them out, they both immediately we outside. But before Stephen could even shut the door, Rolo bolted back inside. She ran into our room and hide under the bed and was just a whining. Reese's just stood on the patio and looked. When Rolo would not come from under the bed, Stephen let Reese's back inside. He came into the bedroom and told me that they were mine - he had to go to Church. Knowing the "girls" had to go potty and not wanting our bedroom to smell like pee, I got up and attempted to get them to go outside. When I opened the door, Reese's went outside. Rolo came out from under the bed, still whining, and jumped on the bed. I had to go pick her up and tote her outside. She was shaking and whining the whole time. When I got them outside, I just shut the door and hide till they went potty. Finally Reese's walked over to her normal spot and Rolo just backed her butt off the patio and pottied! It was so funny - I wish I had a picture but I was laughing so hard that I forgot to get a pic! Below are pictures of the house & yard from the snow. It was very pretty and all gone before Stephen got home from Church!

Barbie Cake

Well, folks - I know that it has been forever since I posted and there is so much more that I could be sharing with all of you like: Jones' Christmas, Stephen's Trip to Yemen, Ashley's work filing Bankruptcy, DNOW with Calvary, etc. These past several months have been very busy for us. But, I will do my best to post some pictures from Jones Christmas soon. It is so much fun at Christmas with nieces and nephews!

Anyways - back to this post. I wanted to share with y'all the Birthday cake that I made this weekend. Amy Webb, one of the girls that I work with at the plant had a birthday last week. Things were so horrible at work that we were not able to take her out to celebrate over lunch. So, we decided last Friday that we would just bring the birthday party to the plant today. (Taking people out for their birthday is tradition at the plant - we like all the opportunities to get away for lunch that we can think of.) Well, Amy is by no means a "girly" type girl. She was the girl that would burn Barbie's with a hair dryer going up. But, it was decided that we would surprise her with a Barbie Cake for her birthday cake anyways! She has a great sense of humor and we knew that she would appreciate us trying to make things fun. Therefore, I got voted to make a cake (everyone else said that they would just go buy one and I just couldn't have that). And it was so much FUN making it! This was my first time every to make this cake - I have heard about how easy it is to make the Barbie cake with the Pampered Chef Batter Bowl but never tried had a reason to try it. It was actually very relaxing and stress free for me! And we all know that is not normal for Ashley! :) But, none the less, it was great and Amy truly appreciated and enjoyed it. I have made a collage below of the pictures from the process.

Happy Valentines Day Baby!!!!

This is a post to let all you folks know that I have the bestest wife in the entire world. There is not a day that goes by that I am thankful for her being my wife. I love her more and more everyday and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with her. Ya'll just wish you had a wife as hot and smart as mine. So go on and be jealous. Love you baby.

Stephen Burks

Jones Christmas 2008

Yes, I know - I am a little late posting this post. The past few months has been very busy for the Burks house! But hopefully, I will get everyone caught up with everything THE Burks have been doing over the last 3 months. (With this family, you just have to snap pictures when most are Happy & Looking!)

Jones Christmas was celebrated over New Year's this year. This was the first week that Ronda and our new niece, Katie Ann, were going to be able to travel. We all meet at Mom & Dad's house in Forest, MS. Kristin (Kiki), Ken, Elizabeth, Corban, and Joshua traveled from New Orleans, LA. Ronda, Jason, Madeline, Katie Ann, and Tank (the Rottweiler) traveled from Orlando, Fl. Amy and Chris just journeyed on over from good ole Lake, MS (about 10 mins from Mom & Dad's). Jones Christmas is always entertaining! This year, there was presents galore! Suppposedly everyone was cutting back, but there were some presents in the room that there was not a place to sit! There were lots of Barbie's, cloths, trucks, a MSU cheerleader outfit, MSU football uniforms, 2 battery powered drum sets, 2 quitars, Snuggy blankets, GPS systems, etc.

One of the best presents of all, was the picture that Kiki gave Grandaddy. She transposed a picture of Granddaddy giving a flag to a high student to make it look that Granddaddy and Obama were exchanging flags! It was so funny!!!

One of the best things about Jones Christmas is being with my sisters! We just don't ever get to all 4 hang out any more. But when we do, we do try and make the best of it. After all the kids had finally gone to sleep, we finally got to play a little bit of Rock Band! And some how there was a camera war in the middle of the songs between Kiki and Ronda!

Last but not least, I will leave you with the Faces of Jones Christmas!!! You never know when there will be camera in ya face!