Pictures of Zimbabwe!!

Well everyone, finally after only a couple of months getting these pictures online, we have got them up. They start with our day trip in London and go all the way through our travels home. We had a new digital camera for the trip so we were playing around alot with all of the features, so that is why there are so many. Anyways, enjoy and let us know if you have any questions. We would love to share!! You will find the link below.

http://community.webshots.com/user/i_heart_ncsu?vhost=community

things...

OK so things have been going on in our lives even though we have not been posting. Lots of things actually... we have been to the fair (going again tonight), we went to Tallahassee, FL for a wedding of one of Brandon's cousins this past weekend, the shed is all but completed (just the shelves and situating things in there is all that is left). Brandon has been downloading our Zimbabwe pics online and it is taking forever because we have lots of pics. We are still working on getting those to you, we definitely haven't forgotten. Lots of our friends are adding little one to their families. Paul and Heather W. added Phillp about a month ago. Derek and Jenelle S. added Leianna just this past Sunday! There are several, several more undetermined exciting birthdates upcoming in future days, weeks, months. We are happy for all of them.

Mule Days

On the 4th(?) weekend of each September Benson NC closes as the mules roll into town. Its Mule Days and has been a part of my life since who knows when. Brandon has had his fair share of Mule Days events as well in the years since we've been together. Its the place to go for all the horses, mules, John Deere stuff you could ever imagine. People come in from all over the country to this little town and celebrate, mules? Yeah, I'm not sure what they are celebrating actually. We hope to get in on the festivities by going to the parade on Saturday morning, full of horses, firetrucks/ambulances, clowns, high school bands, Americal Legion Commissioners, and more horses. It's pretty fun, atleast I think so... and I think Brandon likes it for the most part too! Any questions about it just ask. Maybe we'll see you there?

Cold Stone

Tonight is the world's largest ice cream social at Cold Stone. refer to the link for details: http://www.coldstonecreamery.com/ Its from 5-8pm and you get 3 oz of either Jack's (Oreo) or Emily's (Nutter Butter) creation for free!! The Pearsons will be taking part in this fun, yummy event and everyone else should too!!

Fun weekend

The Third Day/Switchfoot/Jars of Clay concert Friday night was awesome. We had super close seats (used ear plugs) and even though we didn't get there in time for the "Meet and Greet" we still had a great time. We had never seen Switchfoot before and wow, they put on an amazing show. Saturday was filled with the STATE game/win. Tony and Kelly, our neighbors, had extra tickets at the last minute and gave them to us. We had a blast and really appreciated their support of the Wolfpack. (they are UNC fans!) Sunday we went to Dunn for lunch (fried chicken and the fixins) and dessert was chocolate chip pizzert from Pizza Inn. Yes Christy, it was wonderful! We hung out with my family and played with my niece, Haydyn. She will be 6 in a month from today, a little unbelieveable if you ask me since she was born the first semester I was in college. Our weekend was just want it should be, restful and relaxing to get us ready for the week ahead. Oh, I forgot I wanted to mention that we, along with John Sorrell, will be presenting about our Africa trip/stories to our Sunday School class on Sunday morning. Hopefully pics will arrive on here soon so get excited!! Or maybe we are the ones so excited... Keep an eye out for the pics.

Not forgotten

Alas, another post. I am trying to get the hang of remembering to post on the blog. For now it will be pictureless posts because I have decided that posting pictureless is better than not posting... all agree? (Don't worry we will post Zimbabwe pics, we can't wait to actually.) Things at the Pearson house are great. Brandon is out working hard on finishing up the shed "we" (mostly Brandon) are building. It is looking like it will be finised before too long. After building the fence in our backyard and then starting up on the shed its good to see a light at the end of the tunnel. (After the shed is done we have to stain the fence, but we won't think about that for now.) Lily is still playing football with us, so much fun. The other night I heard on TV about a man that did a study with dogs responding to yawns from humans. I think it was 21 out of 30 dogs yawned back when he yawned at them. Of course we have to put his study to the test and sure enough, she yawned. We could not believe it... we laughed so hard and I think she was thinking we were crazy. I suppose us making her do that was a little crazy but amazing nonetheless. Tonight our most cool friends, Christy and Jon, invited us to a Third Day, Switchfoot, and Jars of Clay concert. They have the hookup and we have pretty good seats as well as backstage passes!! This should be really awesome. More to come about how it was. Enjoy your Friday!!

Back at it

Well everyone, we know its been a couple weeks now but we are back at it and everything is going great. We still want to thank everyone for their prayers while we were gone and also for everyone that came over and played with Lily while we are gone. She really was in great shape when we got back and hasn't missed a beat. So thank you again. We taught her a new trick this past week in honor of football season being here. She will make a great defensive lineman(or woman) one day. Her and I line up right across from each other, I say "down", she puts her front down and butt up, and then I say "set" and she pauses. And then "hut hut" and she takes off right at me, but she has this great move and she gets by me every time. It is really funny. Well have to post a video of it sometime. Anyways, we have been back at work, getting all of our laundry done, getting the lawn back in shape, building our shed, and really just hanging out. We will try and post all of our pictures soon, we promise. Take care and have a great one everyone.

We're Back

Just wanted to write a quick note to let everyone know that we got back safe and sound yesterday afternoon. We will definitely be posting more in the days to come.

A 4 hour bus ride and three flights later... one flight to go

Now we are in the London airport, waiting for our last flight back. It has been a wonderful time. The last few days were really fun. Traveling home has been really tiring so we are ready to finally land at RDU. Our American Airlines flight should still be landing at 2:25pm Raleigh time. Mama, we can't wait to see you waiting for us. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us, we have definitley felt your prayers through all that we have experienced. Please pray for us as we are about to fly across "the pond" as well as our adjustment to the time difference and staying awake when we would be sleeping in Zimbabwe. Thanks for the comments, they have been funny and encouraging.

Update

We miss everyone alot but we are having fun over here. Everything is going great. I love working with the kids. I am teaching 5th and 6th graders, they are so much fun and smart. They know the Bible studies we are teaching already. There are so many adorable and loving kids. I think I had 27ish in my class today. What fun they are. They sing many native songs that I honestly have no clue what they are singing but I love to get into it with them. Picture it! haha. I cant wait to show you pictures, its beautiful here. Other than the monkeys where we are staying we only have seen one other African animal, baboons or macques whichever one. There was a whole group of them just sitting by the road as we drove past. The electricity is actually off during the day and it may or may not come on at night. If it does come on while we are there at night, everyone gets so excited. We can blow out the candles and see more. Showers have been much warmer since the first but that is because we have electricity for some part of the day to warm it up. The food is a little different but not bad at all. The construction on Brandon's end is going pretty good. Today and yesterday were national Zimbabwe holidays so many people here could come and work with us because they were off from their work. "Stuff" isnt as it seems on US national media. The people here are happy despite the difficult circumstances. I am glad we get to see that firsthand with each person we meet. They are making it. We are having a blast down here, its an amazing opportunity that I dont even think we fully realize. Thanks for praying for us and for the updates on Lily. We love each of you. Maybe we will be able to get back to a computer and write again. Caitlin if you read this, Happy Birthday ol' geezer, sorry I missed your day. If any else from YM1 reads this tell her Happy Birthday!!

WE'RE HERE!!!

We made it here!!! Everything is wonderful and we are having a good time so far. We are 6 hours ahead of the time back home so it has been an adjustment getting used to the time. We were all really tired when we got to our rooms friday night around 8pm. Those were some tiring but fun filled days getting us here. London was amazing, we will probably just show pics when we get back. The power is not on as of now, except in the downtown area where we are now, so i dont know if we will get to post to the blog again but i wanted to let you all know we are here safely and everything looks fine, its beautiful over here. This morning we took freezing cold, and I mean freezing cold showers. But it was great because we hadn't showered since Wednesday before we left. I found out today that i will actually be teaching 5th graders instead of fourth, im really excited. no walls are up yet on the building brandon is helping to build so they will be building the walls (with cool blocks like legos the people make on site) and doing as much else as they can get to. the blocks fit into each other like legos so mortar is not needed, pretty cool huh? so he should be good and tired and sweaty when hes done everyday. wait, he is like that at home too!! i have also seen many adorable kids and i cant wait to actually get to interact with them. keep praying for us. we love you guys, see you before too long!! thanks for the comments, they made me laugh. Kiss all the dogs at work for me... by the way we saw litte monkeys running around outside of our inn this morning during breakfast, that was cool. We miss you all! Oh and in case we do get to check the blog/email again will someone let us know how Lily is doing. We miss her too! Thanks everyone!! Bye from Zimbabwe!!

Details on the trip to Zimbabwe

Well as most everyone knows we will both be leaving on Aug 6th for a mission trip to Zimbabwe. We will be returning on Monday Aug 18th. So we decided that the best way to keep everyone up to date, would be to start a blog and we will post our details on as we get a chance to get to a computer. So here are some of the most important details that will help know where we are at along the way.

Where we are going:
Mutare, Zimbabwe

What we are doing:
Mary Beth will be teaching the 4th grade Vacation Bible School and playing with a lot of cute kids
Brandon is doing to be doing construction on a new church building.

Flight schedule :
LEAVE:
AA 174V 06AUG RDULHR 605P 635A 07AUG RALEIGH - LONDON
KQ 101B 07AUG LHRNBO 800P 630A 08AUG LONDON - NAIROBI
KQ 440B 08AUG NBOHRE 815A 1010A NAIROBI - HARARE

RETURN:
KQ 440B 17AUG HRENBO 1100A 645P HARARE - NAIROBI
KQ 102B 17AUG NBOLHR 1150P 645A 18AUG NAIROBI - LONDON
AA 173V 18AUG LHRRDU 1100A 225P LONDON - RALEIGH

So now you know our flight schedule just keep us in prayers as it is a lot of travel and layovers. We have a lot of important equipment that we will be needing to get there on time. Both for the vacation bible school and the construction. So lets hope the luggage gets there OK.

Itinerary:
Wednesday, Aug 6th - Leave
Thursday, Aug 7th - Day in London
Friday, Aug 8th - Get to Zimbabwe
Saturday, Aug 9th - Free day/get set up day
Sunday, Aug 10th - Church/worship
Monday, Aug 11th - Start VBS/ Start Construction
Tuesday, Aug 12th - VBS/Building
Wednesday, Aug 13th - VBS/Building
Thursday, Aug 14th - VBS/Building
Friday, Aug 15th - VBS/Building
Saturday, Aug 16th - finish up things, maybe free day
Sunday, Aug 17th - Start coming home
Monday, Aug 18th - Home

So we will keep posting as we get along, so keep checking. Also if you're really bored and really want to have some great fun while we are away, Lily would really love someone to come and play with her. Her ball is on the fireplace and we have a great big fenced in back yard that she loves to run around in. She is going to be home the whole time just waiting for us to come back, so please go play with her! Just ask the neighbor on the left, they have the key. How can you not want to play with her when she looks at you like this:















And she always wants to come but she couldn't this time:



So please go and play with her! Thanks and look for more post to come and please keep praying for us.

- Brandon and Mary Beth :)

Test

So we decided to start a blog and this is a test post