I've had to change browsers to get any of my pictures to post, but at least I figured out the problem!

Here are some pics of our bedroom, the before and after. A small group from our church in Kankakee, IL gave us money to do something for our house. We were trying to decide how to use the money. We thought about getting a new (good) mattress but that would be the whole amount of the money. Then we thought about buying a dining room table since ours is still the plastic one we've been using since arriving here, but that would only pay for half a table! So, we decide that we could fix up our room in a bunch of little ways and it would make a big difference.

It did! and it turned out beautiful! Here are some of the things we did -
-put a foam mattress under our futon to make it a little softer
-painted the walls!!!!!
-got an end table made
-little lamp
-new material for curtains and a comforter that I made
-little vase
-mirror

The before picture is seriously what it looked like. We had tried to do special things to a few other rooms in our house, but wasn't able to do anything to ours. The after picture is how we are enjoying it now! It is amazing! We love it so much and can't believe how great it turned out! Thought you all would enjoy seeing it.

For some reason I can't seem to post any pictures! so sorry! I mean, what is a post without pictures?!!

Anyway, to catch you all up December 21st Ben and I went out to celebrate our 6 year anniversary. We had a wonderful time at a really cool restaurant that we had been waiting to try for a special occacion. It was worth it and we had a really special time.

Christmas day we got to open up some packages that Ben's family had sent. We are still waiting for 5 Christmas packages, but at least we had a few to open on the day. The kids were excited about the slide that Ben and I got them - Jamin was on it all morning! We are still enjoying my new teapot, Bath and Body Works bathroom soap, markers for the kids, new hair things, Jamin's train whistle and the first Season of Lost! Yeah, we are officially hooked now... I held out as long as I could, but we succumbed! Christmas afternoon we hosted our group of 27 people and enjoyed a big meal with lots of special dishes that we don't get to eat every day. Ben set up the Wii and got some games going and people stayed around and we were so happy. It is hard to be away from family, but it seems as the years go by (this was our 3rd Christmas overseas) it just gets better and better. God has given us some really wonderful friends to go through this journey with and we can't thank Him enough.

New Years we went camping in the desert. We borrowed a tent and sleeping bags and drove about an hour north of our city. It is completely barren of trees, flat and dry for miles. There is a bit of scrub on the ground and a few huge piles of rocks. It is truly the desert! We picked a large rock mountain to shade us and set up camp. Two other families from our group joined us and the kids couldn't get enough of the rocks. They were climbing them all day and into the evening. We had a fire, roasted hot dogs and some marshmellows we had saved from the states. Had to have our smores!