Trip Home!

We did it!!! We bought our plane tickets to visit Bakersfield!!!  We will officially be there April 1st at 1:15AM and we will leave on April 27th- almost a whole month!!!  I am beside myself with excitement and I think Mario is pretty excited about it too!  Another person who I know is excited is my mom!  Ahhhhh! I.CAN'T.WAIT!!!  There will be lots to do and many many maaaaaaaany people to see, but I am so excited for it all!  Before I bore you with how excited I am I would like to share a quick testimony about the plane tickets...

So, we knew that once Mario had his visa that we would need to start looking for plane tickets.  I started looking at prices and the best price I could find was like $1200 round trip for both of us.  Not too bad, but we didn't know where we would get that amount to be able to pay for the tickets.  We started praying.  Then we got an email from the pastor of my amazing home church in Bakersfield saying that they had taken a Christmas offering for us!  What a blessing!!  Then I looked at the amount that they were going to give us and was blown away!!!  More than enough for both of us!!!  Plus, as an added bonus, when I went to buy the tickets today, they were even cheaper than they had been when I first looked.  Ahhhh, I just love basking in the faithfulness of our Heavenly Father!!!!!!! 

BAKERSFIELD OR BUST!!!

The VISA!!!

Praise God from who all blessings flow!  Mario got his US Visa this past Tuesday!!!  This appointment was different than his first two because he was going in as a married man this time.  I went with him and was able to go up to the appointment window with him.  We were asked a few questions, showed our marriage licensee, asked a few more questions, then told that he got his visa!  Easy as that!  We had to leave his passport with the officer so that they could put his visa inside so we went home as happy as we could be. 

Two days later they sent his passport, visa included, in the mail.  When we got it and opened it up to look we were beyond ourselves to see that they had not only granted him a visa, but they granted him one for 10 YEARS!!!  Most people we know have gotten theirs for a year at a time until they "prove" that they are not going to stay in the US so that is kind of what I was expecting in our case as well.  That is why I was shocked to see that they had granted it to him for 10 years right off the bat!  What a blessing!!!  We don't know exactly when we are going to visit, but we are thinking we will probably be in Bakersfield around the end of March to mid April so if you are around we would love to see you!  I will keep you all updated on dates as we go, but thank you thank you THANK YOU for your prayers for us.  God is sooooo faithful!!!

Puerto San Jose Trip

Last weekend we went to visit Puerto San Jose.  We woke up Saturday and I asked Mario what he wanted to do that day and out of the blue he said, "I want to go visit my church in Puerto."  That was that and off we went!  I am ALWAYS ready for a trip to Puerto.  Besides being the special place where we got married, there are many reasons I love Puerto.  We got there and the first thing I did was get my hair cut from my friend who did my hair for the wedding.  I don't have before and after pictures, but I am pretty sure that my hair was its longest ever before I cut it.  I love it now, though, and you can't beat a great haircut for a little over $3. 

After that we went to watch the sunset at the beach- something I love to do!!!  This sunset did not disappoint, either.  Here are some pictures of the beautiful art God put in the sky that day.

Then we went to Mario's church that evening.  It was great for him to be back "home" and they even gave us a public welcome from the stage.  We had a good time worshiping with them.  On Sunday morning we got up and got ready to head back to the city but not without stopping off at Mario's sisters house first. 

Mario's nephew, Yandel, pretty much thinks Mario is the best thing since sliced bread.  Any time we go visit he is always showing Mario his tricks and toys and when it is time for us to leave he begs to be able to come home with us.  Our visit this time was the same as many as Mario and Yandel had a blast playing together.

While they played, I talked to Mario's sister and hung out with this beautiful little thing (AKA Mario's niece Rachel)

We had a great time in Puerto San Jose and can't wait until next time we get to visit!!!

Craft Time with Susan Martinez

Hello and welcome to Craft Time with Susan Martinez, a place where you can go as far as your imagination will let you. Today we are going to take a look at the most recent projects to come out of our wonderful craft workshop here with the Martinez family.  First, we have a cardboard "M" that has rolled up pieces of magazine paper and is glued together with a simple white glue.  It took a while to achieve the final look, but I think that it is well worth it for a close to free decoration.  Mario also jumped on the craft bandwagon and made his own version of this cheap and fun craft.  His rolled log cabin is definitely an original piece of art and has been included on this post by his request.  Enjoy...

Highlight of the Week

I have decided (more like resolved, as in one of my resolutions for this year) that I am going to make more of an effort to keep my blog up-to-date. I think that there ARE people besides my mom who actually read it, so I figured that I will get back on top of it and keep you all more informed on what is happening in our lives.  This blog I would like to talk about some of the highlights of our week. 

We had a week of vacation, which meant no waking up to go to the base everyday. 
Sleeping in as long as we want to= highlight numero 1

We also had some freakishly warm weather and on both Christmas and New Years I was in a tank top and shorts reading on the grass in the front of our house. 
Tan in late December/early January= highlight numero 2

Since we had vacation and no real plans, Mario and I got to spend lots of time hanging out, talking, and praying together.
Quality time with my man= highlight numero 3

We don't really have too many decorations on our walls and I knew as soon as I took down the few Christmas things we had up that our walls would look really bare.  I recently saw a craft idea in a store that I knew I could do myself.  I ended up cutting and rolling numerous pages of a magazine and gluing them onto a cut out letter M (pictures to come).
Being crafty and having it actually turn out like it looked in my mind= highlight numero 4

For the last highlight I actually have to go back to Christmas day.  My family was gathered at my sister's house for our traditional Christmas breakfast and I got to skype with them!  I haven't seen or talked to most of them for quite a while so it was definitely a treat!
Skype+Mom, Becky, Zach, Leann, Tim, Sara, Jay, Ricky, Willie, Nathan, Elisabeth, Aunt Lynnie, and Grandma Irene= highlight numero 5