New Blog

Hey there friends, family and other crazy viewers of this blog!
Incase you don’t know, I have started a new blog, mel-and-me.blogspot.com
This will be my LAST POST on this blog, so go check out Mel and Me!

So far, I have been reasonably frequent in my Mel and Me (Mel is our cat) posts, posts of diys and crafts, food and recipes and our life here in Belize. So yeah! Continue following me with the new blog!

Paige

So, wonderful friends, family and readers....

I'M BACK!!

What's new?

Well, Colsyn (my cousin) and Opa just left on Thursday the 12th. They were here for 9 days and we had an awesome time with them. 

Day 1: Pretty normal, picked them up from the airport and then I made TACOS 🌮, for dinner.

Cole had a blast with Leroy, cracking coconuts and grinding them, too. He had a lot of fun, considering he's the guy who doesn't like eating coconut!

Trying to get a coconut out of the husk


Day 2-3: Cole and Keaton went on the South deliveries with Dad. Along the way, they   encountered a few 'minor' problems, such as all the studs coming off one of the wheels of the truck and some parts breaking. Praise the LORD, though, He had angles around that vehicle because Dad was just pulling into a roadside stand to pickup some product, and that's when they realized the wheel had NOTHING holding it on!!!! Now, maybe that doesn't sound SO amazing, but you have to realize what the road they were driving on is like. The Hummingbird Highway made of twists and turns and hills and more curves, so it was SUCH a blessing that 

it didn't come of while driving!! 

Anyway, the boys spent many hours in a repair shop for almost 3 days, toured all the broken down and wrecked cars, and played on the lifts and jacks in the shop. So, Cole got to experience the 'ups and downs' of Belize.

Day 4-5: Boys returned from deliveries and also started a day of rest and the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles, which was GREAT!

Day 6: Pretty normal........oh yeah, I think we went up to the Dela Rosas house and had dinner with them, then all us kids jumped into the pool in our clothes, then we played Spoons, and then went swimming in the dark and again! So much fun!

Day 7:Dad, Opa, Cole and Keaton went up to the Property and directed/watched a bulldozer flatten and clear where Oma and Opas house will be built. 

Anyway, we had great time with them!

Also, we have hired another employee, Forrest. He is doing our Belize City pickups/drop offs and also our Tuesday South trips. 

AND.................

Shoots Alive has a real, actual, super cool, WEBSiTE! We said Goodbye to our old order form, and Hello to a much easier, but better Ecomerce Website! Check it out by clicking on the link

=> Shoots Alive Website - Clicke HERE!

WARNING: Don't order unless you actually want it shipped to you! Shipping to Canada is probably 

really expensive!

Our next visitors are Uncle Doug(November 1-Jan 10), and Uncle Kyle and Aunt Mandy 

(November 11-18). Thanks to all you guys who have come to visit us, we love it!

So, that's it for now,

Paige 

Hello again!
I think it might be a good thing to stop saying sorry, sorry, sorry for being notoriously late on my posting. As everyone else, we have been fairly busy with many things.
Anyway, in this post I want to get off of MOST of the business side of life and show more of our fun and our surroundings.

So, way back there in March, Grady had her 7th birthday and we had a rockin' dance party. She had fun, especially since it happened to be while Oma and Opa where her!


Grady and Mom, dancing it up!!

For those of you who don't know, we have adopted 3 kittens; Cuatro, Audi and Lily.
Grady has gone through a miraculous transformation and she now cuddles the kittens like BABYS! Praise the Lord! They are her best friends, now.

Meow...

...Meow...

...Meow...

...Meow.



Ahhhhhh, relaxation.

Now, to some of our beautiful, tropical surroundings.

 
 







Ok, so the only business part of my post. We have just finished making a solar dehydrator! We have just put our first batch of test items into it; lime leaf, oregano, sage, turmeric, dill and some mint. we hope to soon test out fruits such as mangoes, pineapple, etc. and eventually natural teas.

 

Lime leaves

Peppermint

Sage(top) and turmeric(bottom)

 

 

 

Well, it was good to write again. Stay posted, which I guess I'M the one that needs to keep posting!

Well, see you!

Paige

Greeting friends. I bet you think I've stopped blogging. No I haven't. We have just been overwhelming blessed with visitors,  moving, a thriving business. I can't wait to post a good long blog to catch you up. but I'll warn you ...you'll need a coffee and little bit of time. But that is to come. for now since I am going to procrastinate for just little while longer I'll let Francis Chan do the talking.
There are many of you who I'm sure still don't have a great understanding of why we made such a drastic change or how we could venture out on this amazing path we've been on in the last few years. I've found it hard to entirely put into words what our hearts cry was but in this short clip that I came across I teared up because Francis spoke the words of our heart exactly! I hope you can see what stirred us and I will be a testimony to the truth that living beyond our comfort is the most rewarding way to see God's truth play out in our lives. I always preface that it's not just about moving to a new country ...yes, that is what we did but it looks very different for everyone. You can live in faith where you are today!
Be blessed and I pray that this word challenges that hearts of those who read it so you can reap the blessing of living in the Father's plan!
Stephanie

Francis Chan: Stop Idolizing Family

OK...so in my last post, I said no promises about remembering to keep up with my blog.

So......

We had a great time with Auntie Laura and Uncle Bruno, despite the crowded house. They even brought a surprise with them....Kaedyn! 

 

Now, Uncle Doug has been here for a week and we are on our 2nd day at the beach, staying at Jaguar Reef.  This morning, Keaton fished off the dock and caught a tiny Yellow Snapper. he decided to keep it and it turned out to be a one person snack, but he was happy with it. On Sunday they are going out fishing so maybe they'll catch some more.

We also swam in the pool and Grady even swam in the hot-tub with out any floaty!

AND.....Grady lost her first tooth today!! 

Keaton's Catch - cooked in 3 minutes!



Grady's gap

We also have a Shoots Alive Expo planned where all of our suppliers, plus hopefully future ones, come and set up a table or two with their products and all our customers come and see all the products that we now sell. Our business has gone from Micro-greens and veggies to also chocolate, Gluten-free flours, oats, soap, peanut products and much more. For those who didn't know, we have also expanded to a 15 ft. box truck. God is GOOD!



 

We have another lot sold at our property, and we started to make earth block for our house! Some of them fell apart, but that showed us how to correct the composition of the blocks. We also got our pump and we got water! Saying that, the pump didn't get the water all the way up the top of the hill, but we still have to play around with the generator and some other things. Our cement pad, as before, has no more progression since the last time I posted.

SO, not too much more going on, but I'll let you know when there is.

Love to all,

Paige 

My apologies, I do love writing, but my blog has just slipped my mind the last few months.
Ok, so the boys lived through the race...that's old news.....

Ok, new news....
Auntie Laura and Uncle Bruno + girls are coming in 18 days!!
Uncle Doug booked flights to come in November and leave in January.
Nana and Papa booked to come January 11(the day that uncle Doug leaves!) to February sometime. I will try my very, very best to keep you updated with those visits, but like other times, no promises.

(NOTE: when I say 'property', I mean the one we are developing and hoping to live on, not our rented one)
Our cement pad is going to be restarted(starting with conduit-I think) on September 5th. Whew, God must have a plan for our long wait! We have 500 Tilapia fish in each(we have 2) ponds on the property and Keaton, Dad and Nery went swimming in one of them! They are way braver than I would be. We are waiting for our big water pump to be brought into the country and once we have that, we can start working on our water system for the development. yay!

Oh Yah, how could I forget.....A few weeks ago we got hit by Hurricane Earl through the night. Power went off and we(the kids) slept with Mommy and Daddy after a tree hit the roof. It was a little bit scary and I didn't get much sleep, but in all, God kept us, George and his family and the car safe.
In the morning, we went for a walk in the light rain and we had to hop logs and trees to get through the driveway. So, after about 4 hours of Daddy, George and Pastor Dave chopping trees, we got the driveway cleared, then another 4 hours to get the hydro lines cleared. 6-7 days later, we got hydro and water back.
Faye (our land-lady)and her daughter, Vicky, came in from Canada two days later and got a crew of 5-6 guys from the village in to help clean up. That took about 1 and a half weeks to get every thing cleared out and burned or hauled away.

Shoots Alive is still going well. We have expanded into about 5 places in San Pedro, on of the islands of Belize. Sales are getting a little slowER, but with God, there is no slow season. We just finished last night revamping our greenhouse, which got torn by the hurricane, so that we can grow lettuce in it. Leroy is still working with us and staying faithful.

Oh, Keaton also got......GLASSES! He looks so handsome in them.

Anyway, I think that's all,
I'll try my very best to keep this up regularly.
By for now,
Paige

Canoeing - Day 1

Well, yet another visitor has come to see us-----Tyler!!

   He has barely been here yet, and already they are paddling in the La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge. (You can Google that if you want!) It is a 4 day canoe race from San Ignacio(Just 25 minutes away from us), all the way to Belize City(1 hour and 45 mins. away). In all, the length of river that they have to paddle is 170 miles!

   The team name is Shoots Alive,(our micro green and sprout business) and it consists of Tyler, Daddy, a guy from Spanish Lookout named Kevin and , of coarse, the support crew(consists of Mommy, Keaton, Grady, Nelson and I!) You can track our boys by clicking on this link.........
(http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp)
.....or check out our Shoots Alive Facebook page for updates.

   Today we were up at 5:30AM to eat some breakfast and "get outta' here" by 6:00AM. Then to San Ignacio we went. There we dropped in the boat and waited until 7:00AM when the canoes took off. Then into the car and to Mennonite beach, where we could see the boys and drop in a bag of food with: granola bars, power gels and coconut waters, for them. Then we zipped off to Iguana Creek Bridge to catch them there again and to drop off some bananas. Then we had lots of time. At Iguana Creek they were 2 miles short of halfway and there was no river access until their destination for today, Banana Bank Lodge. So we went home, did the dishes and had a snack. And, yet again, we drove of to Banana Bank Lodge. It was SUPER muddy and slippery so we pretty much slid down the hill to the river where it was PACKED with people. We waited for about 1 and 1/2 hours until Shoots Alive arrived.  Then we (Mommy and Nelson)lugged the canoe back up the hill and came home. Now we are just chilling on the couch and the boys are drinking their coffee. Nery and Marien are bringing dinner tonight, so we are just calming down and waiting for them.

   I will keep you posted(Actually, I will TRY to) on each day, but you can visit our Facebook page above to get more details.
   Love
Paige
.