Our best sweaty & sticky moments

Even though I don't need to defend myself I decided to share some of our "non-beach and palm tree" moments. We did stay at a mission compound that looked like a resort, complete with pool and palm trees. And we did spend part of our last day in the beautiful Caribbean but still. (that's Brenna coming in on the jet ski)

We spent alot of time either sweaty, as in this shot with my little friend, Anna, who made the bag that I bought. She is the pastor's wife in this small village of Guatemalan refugees. Since it was settled in the 80's she might be old enough to actually have been born in Guatemala and fled during the civil war there. Notice how cool and dry she looks and how totally sweat soaked I am, this was about 7 pm - some locals were actually pulling out their sweaters b/c it was cooling off.

If we were not sweaty we were certainly sticky, as in syrupy varnish that we brushed on by the pailfull. We not only covered this campground play structure twice over. Everything made from wood in this climate is very susceptible to the humidity and the termites so they varnish it all the time.

The funny thing is that within minutes after we finished and walked away a bunch of little kids started climbing all over it, apparently oblivious to the stickiness. We ran to find some adults while shouting, "no ninos, manana". They quickly ordered them off so hopefully it dried by the time they tried it again.

We also varnish-coated 18 of these benches and their 9 matching tables. Here on the last day we are delaying our lunch break by an hour so we could finish. The kids also sawed, sanded and put together all these pieces.

It was a rainy day so we had to first haul them under this covered work space and then over to the pilapa where they finished drying. The thing about this job is that Mexican paint thinner is super potent and left your skin burning as fire. Our girls would jump in the pool after cleaning up where the chlorine would soothe the burn.
While making balloons is not particurlarly exerting, when you have 25 ninos pressing in on you and you're trying to get their names written on with a Sharpie, all the while guarding your balloon bag behind you from those that would help themselves, it definitely works up a sweat.
Last of all we got to witness our supper being boiled over an open fire. Notice the homes in the background, the 2 room frame houses were built by the government after the last hurricane but many families live in the grass roof pilapas.

But sweaty and sticky as it was, we totally loved every minute of it.

Our Thanksgiving Fun

Sunday Blessings

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

It was a dumb thing to do

As stated in my post yesterday I knew better than to try it. But we went to the mall anyway, my teenager and her friend made me do it. Not only am I a bad shopper to begin with - can't ever make a decision about what is a smart and stylish purchase. But the effects of our recent trip to a 3rd world country were still heavy in my foggy brain and heart.

The stores were an aftermath of the early morning frenzy, with half-off socks tables spilling over onto the floor and empty shelves of hot deals. I pretty much wandered aimlessly around, trying to focus on the lists we brought.

Luckily I had 2 shopping-savvy girls with me who rescued me from my fog of confusion. They even helped me pick out a coat that is worthy of temps below twenty degrees. This will spare me from showing up once again in the heartland with the same old coat I've worn since sometime in the last millenium. I decided it was best to trust their judgment after watching them stroll into one store after another, and immediately spot the coolest, best deal in the whole place.

After that rather large purchase I grabbed our bags and retreated to the car, pushed back my seat and took deep breaths until the girls finished up their purchases.

A good night of sleep, beginning with a 2 hour nap in the chair, and I am right side up once again. It's time to bake my pies, stuff our turkey and enjoy a delayed but fabulous Thanksgiving!

Feliz Navidad - it all begins tomorrow

And I will sleep in! No black Friday shopping for me, not that I am all done by any means. Just can't do it, in fact it may be another day before I can face the local grocery store.

Anyway, just popping in this evening to say I'm home and happy to be here. It was not a traditional holiday for our family, we're delaying that for a couple days. But it was a great and quiet day for B and me to re-enter our normal life. However, normal has changed for both of us I think. We were challenged and touched by our experience in Mexico. God blessed and protected our group in many ways and we have full and thankful hearts!

And how about that hubby and his blogging? Didn't he do a great job?!!

Have you eaten?

There has not been any additional response from the Mexico crew other than the Saturday blog. Life must be good on the beach! Now the question that begs to be asked , Are they coming home or is a grass shack on the beach all they really need?
I vote for the grass shack. After this week being home alone, I am ready for almost anything. Runaway alpacas and a dog that demand more attention than a toddler give me reason to hope they do come home soon.
Actually everything has gone quite well. (other than the animals) Any takers? But everyone seems surprised that I am managing to survive. With Questions like "What do you do with your time?", " Are you starving yet?" I am beginning to feel quite inadequate. so far I have cooked spagetti, made some great sandwiches, eaten at Bo Macks, pizza at some friends house, enjoyed wonderful Indian food shared with Devon and Logan. Tonight chicken and rice is on the menu. So to all the skepics out there, I can make it on my own. But I must admit there is much more joy in this home when I have a nearly 17 year old to pester and a lovely wife to hang out with. The phone has not been ringing much lately either. So I am looking forward to having them home and turning this blogging thing back over to Leanne.
As the sun is rising this morning it is actually clear out. I may have to skip work today, household emergency of course.

Internet at last!

Check out the details so far at this site

www.elcamission.blogspot.com


Adios for now!

Empty house

It is amazing how quiet a house can get. With Leanne and Brenna off to their school missions trip to Bacalar Mexico , ( I think they are there, I have not heard from them) there are few noises in the house beside the furnace running, refrig kicking on and off and a some unidentified sounds. As much as I like having some peace and quiet, this is too much. So I have followed some Leanne tradition this morning and got up early, made coffee and fired up the vacuum cleaner. There was no one in the house to protest the early morning noise, so I could cruise along with a clear conscience. This is definitely a time to be thankful for a small house because I was finished in a matter of minutes. Leanne usually heads for the bathroom before daylight to get them cleaned first, but I am going to mix it up a little and have coffee, write this blog, have breakfast first. I may even play with the dog ( she misses Brenna a lot) first and might venture out to the alpaca barn and talk to them a while before braving the hostile world of bathroom cleaning.


For all those folks who were hoping Leanne was composing this blog with exciting details of their adventures in Mexico, I join you. No news is good news? Not true. Hopefully they will surface today and acknowlege that they really are working and not sunning themselves on the beach while we daily pull on our rain jacket and protect our face from the rain that is coming down sideways.


I can not sign out before a little football news. This is one thing that brings some excitement to the day beside cleaning house. Both Oregon teams have important games today in their bid for the Rose Bowl . Of course I will be cheering for the Beavers to win, I still do not want Arizona to overtake the Ducks. But until then back to the daily duties.

ET (LVE) call home!

Tentative

Here's the thing - I MAY not have internet while I'm gone. I know, your daily routine could get very disoriented during my absence and I am truly sorry. So I have enlisted the help of someone very near and dear to all of you, my hubby. He has kindly agreed to offer a few insightful posts while I am gone and dis*connected.

IF we do find a live wire to the world and we are not cooling off in the pool at the compound, we might be posting to the following site. Either way, we'll post photos there when we return.

www.elcamission.blogspot.com

Here's the other big IF: I may not have a coffee maker nearby when I wake up. Therefore I will make one last trip to the store today for instant java.

Birthday Girl (guest post by hubby)

Happy Birthday Sherry. For years it was easy being Sherry's little brother, but the past few years things are beginning to change. I now get mistaken for being an older brother. You know most people look older as they get older but not Sherry, she has let everybody pass her and she looks the same and acts the same. But I am still her youngest brother. Isn't it funny how even as you get close to being classified as, well let me say passing out of middle age, how one can still feel like a little brother. I don't know how long this will go on but I am afraid I am doomed to that feeling. It's like you still always look up to your older sibling and expect them to tell you what to do. You still look for their approval and expect to get wise advice. Well, Sherry has always been a terrific older sister. Without getting into details that long have been forgotten, she has always been there for me. She really is still the great older sister that everyone needs. Thanks, Sherry, and I love you. Have a great birthday. If anybody asks when Earl takes you out to dinner, just tell them he robbed the cradle.

Getting Ready

So how does one get ready to go to another country? Good question, it's hard to put into words.

http://www.owlhaven.net/

But if you check out the blog in the above link, see the Nov. 12 post you get some idea of what my thoughts have been lately. She says it so much better than I could hope to do. It's a struggle of knowing we have so much more than we need, yet finding ourselves in need of a shopping trip.

Like we are going to celebrate Christmas with our family early, the day after we return!

My Fitness Routine

Today I will take you along on my workout. No smirking or guffawing please. While I can't begin to compare to my hubby's rigorous and disciplined daily ritual, I can say that at least I have a sort of regular routine and it begins here.

I don't "work-out" every day but fairly regularly, as long as it's dry, not windy and not too dark. Also not too soon after meals.

These are part of my gear. They are good for fifties flab when you pump them up and down with your arms. I have several pair, strategically placed on my various routes. Yes, this pair is a bit muddy around the edges. It's been rather dark and rainy lately.

I will not likely ever work my way up to heavier gear like these. But I like walking by them and dreaming of no flab arms.

This path along the edge of the property is a good place for this activity. It's quite private.

Except for these neighbors over the fence. They're not too impressed so far. I guess they don't mind fifties flab.

I can also program elevation changes

and obstacle challenges into my routine.

The secret to a good workout is to stay focused. You cannot allow yourself to be distracted by plants that beg to be set aright.





Giving in to the temptation to tidy up as you go

can seriously sabotage your 20 minute strategic route.

However, I do make exceptions for nails or other hardware on my treadmill. It's good for the planet, and good for the maintenance budget and good for abs. You just can't argue with those reasons.


You don't find too much hardware if you watch the geese.

Almost back to my starting point. Ah, see that? One last temptation to tidy up the place lies directly near my finish line. I'll probably pick that up tomorrow, or next week.

Very Lucky actually

On Friday, the 13th, I got to have lunch with this handsome guy:

And we bought game tickets so that hubby could spend the day with him tomorrow, on Dad's weekend.

Perks of Sick Time

It's really not so bad being sick when you have a family like I do. They take good care of me. In the last 24 hours I have had:

perfectly cooked porkchops from hubby, with potatoes AND GRAVY
B's warm down comforter
a toasty fire
hot lemon, chamomile and mango tea (hubby calls it foo-foo tea)
sleeping in
watching the same news stories about 10 times over

The only problem with TV news is they don't go to the stories you want, that's why online is better. And if you want the latest on how my Virginny kiddos are doing during the flood watch, I've added a new webcam for their campus. Except you won't see him there today b/c they've called off school. We're just thankful they live on the second floor.

OK, back to the couch for me.

Mission trip in just 1 week!

Since I am feeling a little under the weather today but not sick enough to stay in bed, I think I will spend part of my day packing for our trip to here:
It will be great to take my youngest to see this place and the needs of the people there. We also have a fantastic team from our school going with us.

They're back

You know, this could be a home and garden post, if I had a separate page for that. Or it could be helpful household hints from someone whose name begins with H. But mine doesn't and I only have one page. So lets just call this post an excellent tip that you might find handy around your home or office.


You see, it's that very fun time of year again. What time, you ask? Well, the time of year when my first duty in the office every morning is to check the mouse traps. It's all just part of the fun of having your office in the middle of large fields.



Yesterday morning they outsmarted all of my traps AND cleaned off all the peanut butter without springing them. I think these guys would be very good at pickup sticks.



But no worries, I was just checking if the reports I received from my co-workers were really true. They said the building had been invaded this week.


So then I brought out my secret weapon that I learned from my little brother. It takes a little effort to assemble all the arsenal, but it's very effective. You'll see, my brother knows about mouse traps. He lives on more acres of field mice than I do. It involves superglue, a peanut and your old fashioned trap.


While these critters might be good at pickup sticks, they usually are not planning on superglue. And I promise I won't take any photos.

Another Birthday

Happy 25th, son. Wow, that's a quarter century!



I'm sorry I don't have a more embarassing photo, you were such a cutie pie!




And here you are playing with your big cousins in Iowa. Such fun!

Surprise

What's that, Luna? Remember cool swims on hot days?

There it is, not a trickle, but a full stream. Of course hubby said it would be this weekend.

And he was right.

He's good.

We spent alot of time watching it today, just glad to have it back.

Brother by Your Side

Forget about what I said regarding sisters. I think brothers are my new favorite subject matter.

Dirty Jobs

So what ever happens to the plants that didn't get any offers to Dance in the Moonlight or Starlight? This is one of our compost piles, one of our very pungent smelling compost piles. It generates so much decomposing heat that it steams on cool mornings.


It's a very sweet smell actually, it kind of grows on you. Earthy, and very recyclable. Sometimes those of us in the office that see what plants are headed for this destination have been known to go out to rescue them.

Sort of a last chance for Let's Dance.

It's dirty, it's smelly, it's just part of life and end of life in a nursery.

Who comes up with all these plant names?

Let's Dance Starlight, Moonlight, Limelight, Pinky Winky, Pee Wee... if one must enter orders all day at least one can enjoy the imaginative variety names from the plant breeders and selectors.

But i am thankful for the order pile that keeps growing so that I can't ever catch up. This is good.

Favorites

You probably remember this photo. We just stumbled upon the idea when my girls were goofing around. I've discovered there's just something about sisters.

And it has really caught on. I love seeing what they have in common and how they're different. Alike as in curls.

Different in eye color,

Very alike in dimples.

It is always just a stack of fun. I think we'll have to do some more of these.

Priorities

Even when one is coming out of semi-retirement to help in the office during these belt-tightening times, one must take time for nail polish even if it hinders your tping dont u thnk?