Oh no. I've slacked off again.

It's official. I'm a slacker when it comes to blogging. Some months I'm on a roll and write faithfully throughout the month. Other months I don't write at all. Like the past three months.

Oops.

I've been trying to figure out how to update my blog without boring you all with a rundown of my life for the past three months. And instead of writing, I've been avoiding writing at all cost, which has led to more time passing and a longer update on the horizon.

But, no need to worry. Though I haven't written in three months, I will not attempt to write down a play by play of my life throughout that time. In all honesty, nothing much has happened. Instead I'll write down a brief (hopefully) update and then get back into the rhythm of blogging more frequently.

I think the most significant event to take place is that Damarise and I moved into our 17th home. Being a missionary kid has led to having many homes. And each home has been filled to the brim with wonderful memories. This home has already begun to have its fair share of good memories.

It's a little one bedroom apartment in the heart of our city and we absolutely love it. It's the perfect size for us and placed in a cute and cozy neighbourhood. God blessed us with it in the nick of time too. We are thankful! We got to house Janessa for a few months in it too while she was job and house searching. It was fun to have her stay with us, though I'm sure she is thankful to not sleep on a couch anymore.

Us on the day we signed the lease (sorry for the poor quality... it's an Instagram picture).

I have begun subbing, though not as often as I'd like. However, it has been so fun and such a blessing of a job. I have gotten to sub in Middle School math and English as well as at one of my Student Teaching placements. It has been a joy to put my education to use and realize that I did actually learn something throughout my four years at school (I knew I had, but it's nice to put it to use).

Sarah has started at Covenant College and it has been so fun having her in town. She's loving being at Covenant and I'm so thankful she gets to have the same wonderful education Damarise and I had.

Damarise got officially accepted into the Police Academy and I couldn't be more proud. She has put in so much work into applying and has persevered like no one else I know. I can't wait to see all that God has in store for her through that.

Well, I think that's the main points. Hopefully this will get me back on track for updating more... hopefully being the key word.

Until next time.

Sarah

Today my little sister isn't so little anymore. In fact, she is now an official adult. Craziness! 

Happy 18th Birthday, Sarah! 

I am so thankful for her! I'm thankful for her fun attitude in so many things. I'm thankful for her way of making others aware of our Creator. I'm thankful for her love of animals. I'm amazed at her drawing ability. I love her humor and the way she finds joy in so many things. All in all, I'm blessed to have a sister like Sarah. 

Today I'm thanking God for her and the blessing she's been in my life and I'm sure in SO many other's lives.

I love you, Sarah!

Sarah

Seventeen years ago, God blessed me with a little sister, Sarah. I am so thankful for the huge blessing she has been to me! I'm thankful for her amazing sense of humor, she can make anyone laugh. I'm thankful for her care for all God's creation, she not only takes care of little baby mice, but she also loves to take care of plants. I'm thankful for her love for the Lord that she shares with us. I'm thankful for her willingness to move with the family wherever God calls us. And I'm thankful for what a great friend, listener, encourager, and sister she has been to me the past 17 years. God has blessed me abundantly by letting Sarah be my sister.

I love you, Sarah! Happy 17th Birthday!

Ps- Also, incase you haven't noticed, it is the official Turnbull Birthday Week, the week where 3 Turnbulls have their birthday one after another.... one more to go :)

Creativity

Sarah is my super creative sister. No doubt about that. She can even turn an eraser into a cute looking eraser guy :) Thanks, Sarah, for sharing all your creative creations with us :)

Trying

I mentioned that I was going to begin blogging more regularly, instead of sporadic blog posts. So, I'm trying to get back into the whir of blogging with just a simply "here's-what's-been-going-on" post :)

Weeding one day :)

My brothers :) Great? YES!

He is SO buff ;)

Okk, this is seriously AMAZING! Sarah Ellen, my amazing little sister, is the most amazing artist! She can draw anything and I am just blown away by her pictures!

Friends in Arkansas asked Sarah if she could draw them. Sarah's just about done with the picture and I'd say it looks stunning! Sarah... you're a great artist!

Sheet music :) I'm trying to learn a new song on the piano (Cristofori's Dream. If you haven't heard it, you should!) But I can't read sheet music. Soo, I have to go through the pages and write the letters above every note :) It's the only way I can "read" sheet music :) And I'm SO excited to learn this song! :D

Not much else has been going on recently. We got to go to Christ Fellowship last night after being gone for two weeks. It was wonderful to be back with that body of believers! I am SO thankful for them. (I think I'll post more about some stuff that was shared in another post :) )

Anywho, that's about it for now :) I'm going to close and hopefully write again soon :D

What a Musician!

Sarah is a girl of many talents. She can draw, sing, and play the flute (just to mention a few). This morning I heard her downstairs practicing her flute and just had to share it with you guys. She got her flute when we were in Mozambique, but she hasn't played much since we've been back in the States. I guess she decided to pick it up and play it again :) And I'm sure glad she has. It sounds beautiful. Way to go Sarah!

She's Wired

That is... her teeth are at least ;) Sarah had a grin full of blank white (ish) teeth Monday morning

but by mid afternoon her grin wasn't just teeth anymore. Nope, it was teeth with wire and brackets :) Yep! She's got braces! Thanks to Grandma! :) Sarah's pretty excited about them (and can't wait til they are off :P)

If you are thinking of her, please pray for her tomorrow. She has a bizarre tooth stuck sideways up in the roof of her mouth! Ouch! So, tomorrow she is going in for surgery to have that tooth taken out. She's pretty anxious about it so please be praying for her! Thanks so much. And Sarah, enjoy your braces!! :D

3 girls+2 boys= I love my siblings!!

Today we all tried to look our best for *drumroll please* our passport pictures! Yes, yes, yes, the time has come for us to renew our passports. Damarise got to be our passport picture photographer. We strung up a white sheet in the living room and smiled away :) After we were done with our passport photos we decided to snap a few of us siblings together :)

Damarise and I. Sisters, best friends, and twins at heart :)

Then along came Sarah. Ahh... hehe

Just kidding, we love her!!!!!

Next was Ian. Yay!! A brother!!! :D

And last but not least, Andrew!!! :D

Umm yah... we really do love each other... really! ;)

Yah, see there we go! Sibling-bonding-time-hug!! :)

The staircase of siblings. 

What can I say, I have the bestest siblings ever!!

I am SO thankful to God for the wonderful blessing of four amazing siblings!

:D hehe... 

They're awesome!!

And goofy :)

And I love 'em!!!

She did it!

Yes, yes, yes! Sarah Ellen, my amazing, talented, little sister played her flute last night for the Missionary Fellowship! :D The first time ever! Yeah Sarah! She did an amazing job playing "Silent Night" and hit every note perfectly. It was really pretty. Great Job Sarah!!! I hope you'll be playing it more often now!

I'll Fly Away

Sarah has been "Mommy" to three little birdies this past week, Smacky, Itsy, and Chompers. She got them when they were just wee little things in the nest. She had to feed them every half hour (except when it was night) and did that diligently. Finally one by one they started to fly. Tuesday, they decided it was time to leave. And up, up and away they flew. Sarah was sad to see them go so soon, but is glad she got the opportunity to "mommy" some of God's creation. 

Sarah's pets

Sarah always has some type of pet around the house. The pet of this week is a little baby bird. And not just one... nope Sarah's got herself three of them! 

Everyone on our street knows that Sarah will love and care for any type of pet no matter what it is. So the guards around our street bring Sarah little baby birds whenever they  find them and Sarah pays them 5 contos. Yesterday, the guard across the street brought her three little baby birds that looked like they had just been born. They were so tiny! But Sarah welcomed them in, researched baby birds on the internet, read how to take care of them, feed them, etc. And of course, gave her new little pets names: Chompers, Smacky and Itsy. 

Sarah is definitely being kept busy having these new baby birds relying on her for food. She give them a mixture of sugar water, egg yolk, dead flys and something else... I can't remember what it was. Anyways, she has to feed them every 30 minutes during the day! Fortunately, at night they sleep. 

Anywho, there's a glimpse at Sarah's newest pets :)

"I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine."

-Psalms 50:11

"We're going on a mosquito hunt..."

"We're going on a mosquito hunt. We're gunna catch a big one! We're not scared."

Yes, a mosquito hunt it is! :) Mom told Sarah, and anyone else who wants to, that for every mosquito they kill a conto (4 American cents) they will get. Sarah hopped on the opportunity and is now running around the house looking in closets, under beds, and any other place where the mosquitos might possibly be lurking. How many has she slaughtered? Nine! Amazing! And, not cool. It's bad that we have so many in our house! Uh oh! More malaria! But not with "Mosquito Slaughterer Sarah!" :)  Way to go Sarah! Keep up the good work! 

What an artist!

Sarah is, without a doubt, the most artistic one of us kids! She drew this pic the other day! Woah! Pretty amazing, eh? 

She loves drawing pictures of all the pets she's owned and does a great job drawing them! She's really great at drawing horses too :) 

Anyways, thought I'd give you all a lil' glimpse at some of Sarah's amazing artistic abilities! 

Garageband!

Recently, as an "after-school-is-done" activity, we've been having fun playing around with Garageband! :) For those of you who don't know what Garageband is, it's a program, on Apple computers, to make up your own songs :) Apple has loads of different beats, piano, guitars, you name it on the program and then we get to put different instruments together to make our own tunes :) Sarah is, without a doubt, the most creative of us all in her songs :) Hehe, but it's fun for everyone to try. :)

And he is no more....

This morning, Sarah came in crying saying that her parrot had died :'( She got Alfalfa early in December from our Portuguese tutor, Luis. He said that if Sarah spoke Portuguese, and only Portuguese, for 2 days straight he would get her one. Well, he kept his promise and she got one. She'd been teaching him how to talk, she read to him, sing to him and play with him... not to mention, she built him a huge 'palace' with indoor gardens, bedrooms and food bowls. :) It's sad that he's gone now, and Sarah's pretty devastated about it all :'( She thinks it choked to death :( Eek! ... Anyways, if you're thinking of it, please pray for Sarah! Thanks so much! :) 

"...Yet not one of them [sparrows] will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father." -Matthew 10:29b

Sarah on the Flute:)

In July sometime, Sarah had gotten a flute from Ms. Carola *in the black dress in the 2nd picture* and ever since then she's been practicing away:) She is getting very good at it!!! She played with Ms. Carola for a Christmas/going away party, and sounded amazing:D
Last Wednesday, Ms. Carola came by to practice with Sarah, so I (and Damarise too) played on the piano while they both played the flute:) It was fun:D ... They sounded really well together! Sarah played the melody, I played the melody and chords on the piano, and Ms. Carola did a high harmony on the flute:) It was fun:)


"Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him.Praise the LORD with the harp;make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy."-Psalm 33:1-3

One Birthday, Two Birthdays, nooo, THREE Birthdays!

For us, February is Birthday Month. Why? 'Cause in February we have mom's birthday (The 8th) Sarah's Birthday, (the 10th) And Damarise's (The 12th)

Mom's Birthday was fun:) the pic says it all! look at all those big smiles:) hehe

and here's a poem i wrote for mom:)

A Supermom is one of a kind,

In fact you're that hero I had in mind.

Striving to follow God all the day,

While helping us out with school or play.

Yes, You are that hero who helps us out,

Without even giving one little pout.

No matter the hour, you're there on the double,

Helping us out with each minor trouble.

Without a doubt that Supermom is you,

and I just wanna say, "Happy Birthday to YOU!"

For all our birthdays, we get to pick out a Breakfast and a dinner and dessert that is our favourite and we get it that day. So for Sarah's birthday breakfast she picked bagels, something that you can't buy here, so mom made them! mmm, they were GOOD!

Sarah's 14!!! Woah!

Damarise turned 18 this year!!! *gulp* WOW!! She is getting old!!! :)

And that was all the birthdays... in a nutshell:)

Lessons from a sparrow

Today when mom came in to wake us up she told us that Sarah's little baby bird had died. The guard across the street had given the baby bird to Sarah, cause everyone knows how much she loves animals!!! Well, she also has a turtle in the porch and I guess the bird drank out of the turtle's water which had diseases and Sarah watched the poor lil' bird die:(..... It made me think about how quickly life comes and goes!

"I am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow,
a wave tossed in the ocean, a vapor in the wind."
-Casting Crowns

Life doesn't last forever, and what are we doing with our lives while we do have some! Are we honouring the Lord? Are we glorifying Christ? Is Christ's Love shining through our lives in every action of it? ...

Anyways, those were my thoughts on it:)