Crowd Pleasing Appetizers

I am looking for some crowd pleasing appetizers for Honduras next week. I am going to try to have a small special something ready for the hungry crowd when they get in off the bus. Last time I made jalapeno poppers one night roasting whole peppers on the griddle and filling them with cheese. They were a hit with the eaters, but I gagged the cooks when the capsaicum hit the small kitchen. We were coughing and gagging like when we had to take a note into the teacher's lounge back in high school (you could still smoke indoors back then.) I've thought about cheese trays or stuffed eggs. I'd like to do something Asian or Mexican too.

So if you have any ideas, please send me a comment. All I have to cook with is hot water or a griddle. I suppose I could do sushi, but one of my firm rules when traveling is don't eat raw meat.

I have to come up with 5.

Here are some other considerations:
Queso Dia
Egg Rolls (if we can find wonton wrappers)
jalapeno poppers
Chips and salsa
Sesame Chicken Skewers
Potato Skins
Fruit-k-bobs
Candied Ginger
Fresh french fries with cheese and/or gravy
Shrimp and Grits (gonna get fancy one night)

48 more days

Wow! 48 more days till Christmas Day! Actually, though, Christmas starts here the day after Thanksgiving. Since we will be in GA. with Mom that day, it will start at our home Sunday after Thanksgiving! I love to get down my zillions of boxes of Christmas decorations and start decorating. Zillions is probably a slight exaggeration but not much...just ask my box totters. They will tell you I've got alot.

The panicky, I've got to get busy feeling is slowly subsiding. I've gotten busy and made almost everything that needs to get made. We have been on a number of shopping trips and found some goodies. I have hit the big "let's get rid of this halloween candy and put out the christmas candy sales". (Come on, they are just wrapped in different colored foil...my kids won't complain! They will inhale) So the Christmas Stocking Stuffers are pretty much complete. But, now my closet looks like a war zone!

Tonight we are going on a family date night and seeing the new Disney 3D "A Christmas Carol" and out to eat dinner. It will be fun, we really like the 3D movies at the theme parks. And we will probably take some of that candy I just bought! Going to the movies is not a frugal activity and when the popcorn cost more than the movie ticket...there is just something wrong with that!

Tomorrow, we are going to our dr.'s office to help separate and pack pills for our Honduras Mission Trip in Jan. They are going to ship everything down early, since the airlines now charge for each suitcase you take. I think there are 236,000 pills to get done tomorrow! I've never done this, so it should be a challenge. We will also need to discuss all of our cooking utensils. We've always taken them before but with the airline charges, it will probably be cheaper to buy new ones down there and store them at the farm there. Then we can just use the same ones every year. I know that will be easier than toting those large rubbermaid containers into and out of the airport! Gotta work on the menu's too!

The picture at the top is our house during the snow last year (2 weeks before Christmas)! It was pretty while it lasted. We don't get much snow here in Miss.!
And, when you build a snowman (or 2) in your backyard beside the pool, they need the proper clothing...straw hat and sunglasses or life jacket and goggles! I have got some creative children! And a backyard with alot of leaves! They just helped hold the snow together!

Oklahoma- part 2

This post is going to be about the Native Praise Singers and Turtle Races!

Sunday night at the Thessalonia Church we were blessed to hear the Native Praise Singers. These women are from all over Oklahoma and represent many different tribes including Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee and Seminole. They sang many different songs in their Native Languages. Absolutely beautiful. Greg posted on Facebook how awesome it was to hear "How Great Thou Art" in the Choctaw Language. I still get chillbumps thinking about it! Hearing that many different Native American Tribes combining their beautiful voices and praising the Lord was a wonderful experience! We also got to talk to many of the women after the service, it was an unforgettable night. I am so glad they planned that for the Sunday night church service!

Now, on to the turtle races.....I started hearing about turtle races and collecting turtles on Sunday night. Monday morning on the way to Bible School, I was "blessed" to retreive the first turtle of our group. Greg markered a racing stripe down her back and I named her Princess. The other van (carrying my children) also got a turtle and named her spot and markered a big spot on her back. These turtles plus the others lived in a turtle pen in the church yard until Friday. If you couldn't find a kid during VBS, the first place to look was the turtle pen. This was a big deal...we thought it was just something this church did, but later found out is in a Choctaw Indian Custom/Tradition. Don't know where it started but it is alive and well in Oklahoma. Friday when we got to the church, we found out that 13 turtles (including ours) had escaped. Someone left part of the pen open and there was a mass turtle exodus (I personally think it was a turtle napping because they knew Princess was a winner, but everyone else is blaming the open pen). Kind proves how fast turtles really are because we couldn't find them. The remaining turtles raced after VBS. Here is how it works.....you cut the top and bottom off a barrel, sit it in the dirt and put the turtles in it. Then you mark off the outer "finish line" ring with a hose or rope. Remove the barrel and they are off. The first turtle to cross the finish line is the winner. Some of these turtles could really move and some just took a nap. There were 5 or 6 races and the church kids really got into it! It was fun.

I will put some pictures on here when I can find them!

Thats all for now!

We are Back from Oklahoma-part 1

Wow, what a trip! Mission Trips are great and exhausting! The heat went with us to OK and didn't leave. The humidity was high and the flies were abundant. The people were great and the children were adorable.

A little history...Oklahoma is made up of 5 Indian Nations: Choctaw (the largest), Chickasaw, Cherokee, Seminole, and the 5th I can't remember right now. The Choctaw have the most land area and it is in the southeast section of the state. I asked how they got the most land and the answer was "they got there first". Makes sense to me! Oklahoma is not all plains like in the movie Oklahoma. This part was mountainous. Twisty roads up and down the mountains. I would have been nice if these mountains has afforded a little shade and respite from the heat but when the temp is 100, not much helps.

We did Vacation Bible Schools at 2 different churches. At Thessolonia, we did VBS from 9-noon, Monday through Friday. The church members were very involved in the VBS, helped in many of the classes, and served a lunch to the children and workers every day. They also planned special daily activities in addition to the vbs. To me, this was the friendliest of the churches. They talked to everyone, shared family stories, history of the Choctaw Indians, and were very grateful for our involvment with their children. It was not unusual for a family to have 3 generations attending VBS, everyone came. The 2nd VBS was from 6-8:30, Monday through Friday. We had more children and adults at this VBS, but many came and went and didn't attend the whole week. While these folks were very nice, to me, they did not have the warmth and friendliness of the other group. We led the VBS and they watched and didn't participate with alot of the team very much. They had a VBS blowout at the end of the week, for all the kids, workers, family members, etc. They grilled burgers and hot dogs and served chips and cookies. It was a nice ending to the week.

With the children I encountered, it was very common for them to be living with just one parent or to be raised by their grandparents or aunts/uncles. Many of the parents abandoned the kids to "do their own thing". 2 precious little boys in my class had fetal alcohol syndrome and I think one of them also had down's syndrome. They were ages 7 & 8. Daddy left the home, Mom was an alcoholic and family took the little boys to raise. On the first day, we all took note of the teenage girl with a baby. She was 15. She thought that having her boyfriend use a c*****, would prevent pregnancy and found out they are not 100% effective (she told me this), so now she is a single mommy of a one month old little boy (who by the way, is absolutely adorable). She was sexually abused by her stepfather starting when she was 11 (as was her little sister, starting at age 2). Dear old stepdad was found out (the mom knew the whole time) and went to jail for all of 8 1/2 months. Both of these girls are now living with their grandparents and are now being raised in a Christian home. The mommy will go back to school in the fall and the baby will be cared for by the grandparents, and 2 aunts during school.

Unemployment is the norm, not the exception. They recieve a government check each month and have free healthcare. They also have free college tuition if they keep a 2.0 grade point average. In Talihina, there was a Choctaw Nation Hospital that did employ Native Americans and some of the people we met did work there. The churches have a van that picked up kids for VBS, because the parents had no car. Not everyone that attended was Indian but many were. I got into a discussion Friday night with some of the 1st and 2nd graders in my class about being Indian (don't know how this started) some children claimed to be 1/2 or 1/4 Indian but one little girl proudly told me that she was ALL Indian. They are like all children, they loved affection...hugs, smiles, holding hands, etc., some of them were quite knowledgable about the bible and the new testament stories. They loved music time and crafts.

More to come later....................................

On The Road Again....

Greg, Katie, Will, Amy and I leave in the morning for Talahina, Oklahoma. We will be part of a 30 member mission team on a Choctaw Indian Reservation. We will all be involved in the Vacation Bible Schools at 2 different churches next week. The VBS's will be from 9-noon and 6-9, Monday through Friday. Katie, Amy and I will be with different age groups of kids for the teaching time and Greg & Will are doing the games for all of the age groups. This is Amy's 2nd mission trip (she went to Canada in 2004) and Katie & Will's 1st mission trip.

I am hoping that the weather is a little cooler than the 100 + degree days we have had in Miss. for the past 2 days. But, it is probably just as hot there. Praying for some cooling breezes.

We are taking the RV to "camp" in instead of staying in the dorm style rooms with 15 or so other folks. We have packed plenty of water and juice to keep us hydrated! Plus sunscreen and bugspray for the outside times.

We will try to update the blog throughout the week, if we have internet service. Also hoping our cell phones will work. Gotta be able to check up on our older boys, especially since 3 of them will be staying at our house!