A Sigh of Relief

(source unknown - if you know, please tell me so I can give them credit. Thanks!)

Today my dear friend from Concepcion, Chile was able to communicate with me via Facebook. Ever since I heard about the earthquake and the destruction in Chile, I have been praying for her and her family's well-being, as well as for all those who were suffering from the earthquake. From the pictures I saw, I knew Concepcion had been hit hard and on top of the devastating earthquake, a tsunami hit their city shortly after. I was afraid for my sweet Hna. Albornoz, who loved and cared for me so much as a missionary in Argentina. I would lay awake at night in my cozy bed wondering if they were living in the streets. When I tucked Bicho into bed at night, I cried wondering if my friend was laying her sweet daughter to sleep on the cold concrete.

So I breathed a sigh of relief today as she told me that her home was still intact, with minimal damage and they had enough food and water to last them until help comes. Then my beloved Albornoz began to recount how someone must remain at home to protect it at all times because of looters. She said the streets were full of violence, which frightened her. Tears streamed down my cheeks as she recounted how the school she worked at was destroyed by the earthquake and her husband's work place was swept to sea . She said "More hard times will come. Soon we all will be living deep in poverty and feel the quiet desperation that comes from not being able to find work or food in our destroyed city."

And that, my friends, has been laying heavy on my heart ever since. You see, I live in a land of bountiful opportunity. Opportunity that I mumble and grumble and complain about. I complain about living on an extremely tight budget while my husband starts out a new business, when my sweet friend wonders how she will make any money for food and shelter. I complain about having "nothing to eat", when my dear friend has no place to shop or grow food. Nevermind that there is a Wal-Mart down the street full of fresh food. Nevermind that I can sleep peacefully at night without the threat of looters or violence outside of my door.

So I counted my blessings. I asked the Lord to forgive my lack of faith and for being so ungrateful for the many blessings I have. I thanked Him for sending me a beautiful friend who is living on pure faith despite being surround by a world in chaos. You are being prayed for my dear, sweet Albornoz.

Evidence Of A Social Life

Exhibit A. The Marshall family - minus Bianca :(

Exhibit B. The Smith Family

We were invited over by the Marshall family to eat a yummy dinner made by Bianca (thanks Bianca - it was awesome!) and play games. The Smith family joined us in the fun - which made it all the better. Since we aren't in any of these pictures, you'll just have to take our word for it that they are our friends and not just images we found on Google. ::cough, cough::

And following a night with the Marshall and Smith family, we joined forces with the Craig family once again. Lali cooked an awesome meal of Fajitas (they were awesome!)I should have taken pictures of Matt and Terbear's Wii competition (which involved trying to beat each others scores for two hours). But of course, silly me, pictures were not on my mind at 12:45 a.m. Go figure. Here's the picture I did get, though.

Terbear will be such a good daddy one day! He just loves little Mia!
So thus ends my documented proof that the Burner family does have a social life.

(See, I told you so!)

The Night We Chimi'ed our Chori

The Craig family came over tonight to eat chimichurri with their choripan. What is chimichurri you ask? A whole lot of awesomeness in a bottle. And choripan? A little slice of heaven between rock hard bread. :::sigh::: I miss Argentina. But Matt served his mission in Argentina, Lali is from Mexico and my husband cooks choripan like an Argentine- so...yeah...it was almost like the REAL thing.

See that green stuff on the bread? That's chimichurri in all its awesomeness. Don't bash it until you try it! (P.S. Thanks Mike and Bianca for the chimichurri sauce!!!)

And to top it all off, we formed a white trash band (complete with a singer named Hoochita covered in tats) and toured around the world. Yeah, we totally rock.

Thanks Craig family!

Wood Canyon Lake

Last weekend, we went camping and fishing with the Craig family at Wood Canyon Lake. We had so much fun with them!

It was so nice to get out of the heat and away from stress at work. Lets do it again real soon! :)

FHE with the Filharts!

The very cute and fun Filhart family invited us over for dinner and it was such a treat. Dave pulled out the big guns and cooked (or should I say designed) dinner. We felt so spoiled! The pictures from Terrence's cell phone doesn't do it justice. Dave (or formerly known as "Davey Baby" from our college days) cooked pork and garlic with white rice. We were also treated to Dave's "secret" salad dressing. It was so delicioso that I tried to limit myself to one plate. After persuasion and a trip to "guiltland" via AeroDave ("what's wrong, you don't like my food? that's ok...i can tell you don't like it. you don't have to eat it") I decided to eat another plate. But oooohhh, it was so worth the extra calories.

After dinner Becky taught a family home evening lesson on finding true happiness in the gospel. It all gave us time to contemplate on the true meaning of happiness and Satan's goal to have us feel anything but that. On a more mushy note, we all shared our feelings of the happiness we feel being married to our spouses and how it is just a slice of how we can feel eternally as long as we remain faithful.

We followed Becky's sweet thoughts with more sweetness - a pie from Marie Callender's. Not just any pie, but a chocolate cream pie. And yes, it was as good as it sounds.

Most importantly, we got to see little Mia and how much she has grown! She is such a sweet addition to the Filhart home :) It's so amazing to see babies develop their own personalities and characteristics. Mia has discovered her fingers and tongue - so there was a lot of drooling. Terrence thought it was so cute! Funny, he doesn't think its cute when I drool on him while I sleep!

Thanks Dave, Becky and Mia for sharing your friendship and happiness with us for FHE! Lets do it again soon :)

Asado - A La Waldos BBQ

One of my most favorite and sweetest friends from EFY, Meg Gazaway, is staying with us for the weekend. Since we were both going to be running around like crazy this weekend, we thought it would be good to at least have one conversation before she left! We waited for Terbear to come home from work and headed off to Waldo's BBQ for dinner. The food was "expectacular" (except for my food didn't have any flavor until I realized I was suppose to add BBQ sauce to it. Let just say I wasn't the brightest bulb in the tanning bed that night). We had fun reminiscing about the our adventures as EFY counselor. I think we could write a book and make millions. Ok, so realistically maybe hundreds. Ok, I'd really settle for twenty but I'm a sell out like that.

It was good to see you NUTMEG! Come back again :)

Meg just had to try their fried corn on the cob!!!

BBQ with the Craig Family

It all started with choripan. We thought it was extremely vile that Matt and Lali had never tasted the gloriously divine choripan drenched in chimichurri sauce. Matt reports he served an honorable mission in Argentina - but we began to seriously doubt when he stated he doesn't remember the blessed choripan! However, since I didn't take pictures of us eating the blessed choripan in all of its glory, it will forever remain a mystery as to if Matt and Lali have been converted to true Argentine food.

But.... I did take before and after pictures, so at least you know they survived Terbear's cooking! (Which by the way, Terbear is an awesome cook!)

Matt, Nolan and Lali playing the Wii.

Hello?? Anyone there?

Me and Lali watching our husbands rock out.

Terrence rockin' out on the guitar.
How many boys does it take to play a drum? Apparently two!

I think Nolan has a future in as a rock band drummer, wouldn't you say?

The Craig family
Choripan brought us together, chimichurri kept them from leaving and Rock Band made them never want to go home! That's how we roll here at the Burner casa. Thanks la familia Craig! We had fun - come back again!!