Ciao - Ciao!

I take off tomorrow! - 28th! Yeigh! Its actually time, can you imagine it flew by so fast? I can't, but I'm living with the realization of it.

My past week has included frantically trying to pack during the 25th and 26th hours of the day (yes, didn't you know they exist?), trusting the Lord for those special last minute situations that go awry (trust me, they came), trying to praise my way through the realization that if I wanted to get a ride closer to the airport I would have to sleep maybe a few hours and pack the rest, that, or take a cab from our place, which, considering it would be at 4:00am, and I'm a girl (last I knew) its NOT safe, nor cheap. Heh! - So yes, not a good idea.

But after all is said and done I'm packed. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I got all my stuff packed and ready to move, its organized rather nicely, and I know the dear ones who are looking out for it will take good care of it. (Thank you Phoebe and Joy! ILY!)

Now I just need prayer that the adrenaline rush I'm on will last till I get to Italy and to my final destination. I don't know why, but it seems when I'm due to go for a trip I rarely get sleep for like a couple days before that, and then I'm wiped when I arrive. I feel as if I've taken something to give me the buzz I have, but I'm sure its just the Lord's mercy. HA!

If you could also pray for a safe trip, no delays, and for smooth sailing (literally - I'll be taking a boat for part of the stretch and for those who know me, you know what a bit of rocking does to me), as well as for my luggage, I can't afford delays or loss of luggage, so please, pray it gets to Rome with me, so I can get to the boat on time, etc. - Thank you!

I'm not sure I'll get to blogging much during this trip, for one internet connection won't be readily accessible, plus when I'm online it'll be for work, so if I go silent, sorry! - D.V. I can put some pics up though (to get you all jealous - lol). And yes, another wonderful miracle, the SD got a 2nd secretary! YEIGH!!! I'm so happy! She'll do great, and she's going to hold the fort while I'm gone, so again, a total God-send. TYJ! ;)

Bye everyone - catch you around sometime soon. xxx

Happy Birthday!!!!

Its that time of year again - its Nati's birthday! I don't think I've seen a grown up clap for herself in a while - but yes, ladies and gentlemen, Nati did that when we announced her birthday was coming up. HA!

I hope you have an awesome upcoming year, girl! I'll be praying its better than last, and that the desires of your heart do come true.

I actually have quite a few pics of Naty, and basically all are at parties with her dancing around (lol), but I love this one. - Her goofiness comes out. And in case you wonder what's wrong with our smiles, we were trying to make our teeth glow in the black light, but the photographer forgot to turn the flash off, so instead we look like we really like smiling through our teeth when we smile. :D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NATI!

One more week...

...and then I'm off! Wow! Time flies! (Yes, even when its not only fun you're having.) I still have so much to do, I don't know when I'll find time to pack, plus we'll be moving into the new house while I'm gone, so I have to get all my stuff put away and ready to move without me. Oh, I really, really don't like that thought. - I just pray all my stuff gets there safely!

I read this poem this morning and found it totally fitting.

Blessed Burdens
It is good to be weary for so we seek rest,
And we find it at last, as we lean on His breast.
It is well to be lonely for then we may prove
That this Savior can fill every void with His Love.
It is good to be weak, so that then we may turn
To the Strong One for help and His mightiness learn.
It is well if we find that the desert is drear,
It is then we are taught that our Home is not here.
It is good when our burdens are heavy to bear
If they send us to Him and drive us to prayer.
Every need is a boon, every sorrow is blest
When it leads us to put His great Love to the test.
—J. Danson Smith

So yes, pray I can let the Lord bear the weight! - Thanks!

In other new, I had WnR yesterday and watched "End of the Spear". I wasn't actually that eager to watch it due to the review of "long periods of violence", and I'm not that into those types of movies. - Especially if they're true stories. (I can take ketchup, but when I know it was based on real blood, oh, it just does something to me.) Being that its the story of one of the most brutal tribes of the Amazon jungles, the Waodoni, who killed the 5 missionaries who were trying to reach them with Jesus and Salvation, it was obvious there'd be a lot of massacring basically. I'm glad I did watch it though as its awesome, the message is powerful and at the end of the movie you don't feel you just wasted time staring at the tube (ahem, I have a tendency to constantly look at my watch during movies, feeling I'm wasting time. Ooops!). If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. Its not "entertainment", but its meaningful! I went away with the thought of "May we always be known by our love", and sample.

Ouch!

I don't have a digital camera so this is a shot from my webcam (hence the resolution, etc.).

I tell you though, office chairs can be dangerous! :D

And now its his birthday!

He's 6!! - Francis turned 6 today!

My goodness, I'm becoming a veteran aunt (the type that rarely sees her nephews - ooops). I now have a 3 year old nephew, a 6 year old, and a soon to be 9 year old. - SHOCKING!

I love this pic of Francis - he's about 3 in it, so its ancient, but until I get updated pics that depict his cuteness I'll stick with this one.

Oh wait, I found another one - this one is 2 years old, so he's gotten even bigger. ;)
Oh, and please pray he has an "asthma-free" year. Thanks!

What do you think?

I need your input - anyone and everyone! (Just be nice. K?)

This is a pic taken at a recent CTP we did, where we distributed books to kids in our little town. I want to put it in a poster of pics explaining our work, but I'm not sure if this picture portrays a warm moment or not.

What do you think?

Please let me know! :)

It came, and went!

Market day, that is! - And I slept so well last night! YeS!

James and I ended up going, rather than the usual 2 teams (4 people). - Too few people (in a Home of 50+ you might wonder how that could be, but trust me, we're currently on a "push" - yes, another one - and we're rather short-staffed. Yikes!).

So yes, just the two of us "gringos" went (we could be brother and sister, seeing as we're both tall and have blonde curly hair. HA!), but the Lord did wonderful miracles and coupled with James drinking two cokes and being on double-hyper speed, as well as wanting to beat a record, we covered the entire "route" both teams usually do, and brought back almost as much (we were a bit too late with some contacts as it took us a long time to run around to everyone).

I tried the coke routine too, but aside from the fact I don't care for those fizzy drinks, and haven't found cafeine works for me (coffee is truly just for the taste), I was not able to keep up with him. HA! I did drive there and back, but he did the running around with the diablito (what they call a dolly here) as I tagged along, he also did the loading, but sure enough, towards the end I was not able to keep pace and when I tried to run after him I decided that was NOT a good idea. (Too much attention - scary!)

I actually feel quite powerful driving our truck and making my way around one of the craziest markets in the world (it definitely is the biggest open air market - or so I'm told). Its an advantage to be a woman driver, you get everyone to help you get around or manouvre, and if you get stuck, hey, there's no pride trip to deal with - you just get them to do it. :D I have some funny tales to tell of times when I did that. - Thankfully this time I didn't have to, and we did quite fine, other than the time I tried to back up and did some incredible zig-zags. At least I have a good sense of humor and can laugh at myself. - That must be why few tease of the woman driver issue. HA! And the chicken game, now that's fun! Folks usually don't expect me to stand my ground, but hey, one's got to get somewhere in life (and Mexico City). Right? :P

It was a good day though, TTL, and no cops trying to stop us. Yeigh! Jesus is so good to us. Whew!

P.S. I'd really like this guy to join. :D

P.S. - Pray for Ez!

I almost forgot - please pray for Ez. His hip came out of socket/joint today as he was playing soccer! I believe they took him to the hospital so he could get it put back in, but they need an anesthesiologist to put him to sleep as it’s just too much pain to do it while he's awake.

Please pray it goes well, that he can recover well, and that the pain won’t be too intense for him. – Thanks!

Crazy days!

Don't ask me what inspires craziness in a day, but whatever it is, it hit us at an incredible pace yesterday! HA! – And I want to vent and tell you about it, so if you don’t have enough time, ignore this post. – I have a feeling it’ll be long!

Lately I’ve started going out once a week with a dear someone (the one Luchi knows – HA!) for FU and to promote the “Sponsor the Book” project we’re adopting as a new Home. This means we get to go to these swanky Hotels, meet super important and rich people, and dress up too. I haven’t been checked about my clothes anymore since that first visit, I think my wardrobe from the Aurora Book Fairs I went to is satisfactory and I haven’t had any other trials of intimidating people. Whew! (Thankfully Mexicans think me “guapa”, and they are the majority in this country. – Go figure!) But yes, as to clothes, I’m glad I held on to that suitcase and went through the painstaking embarrassment of 25 kgs overweight when I flew to Mexico. – Though that’s another story I’ll have to save for another rainy day. ;)

So yes, I was going to tell you about yesterday! We had 3 appointments, plus we were going to work out going over to our new place with Andrew Vee so he could enlighten me as to the best place/way to set up our network/internet. (Such a pal! Thank you, Andrew!) Things were going just great (really!), the first appointment was wonderful, we had enough time before the 2nd one to provision lunch (buffet) at this TOP Hotel (oh yum!), the 2nd appointment was very good too (and with a rather dashingly good-looking man, I might add), and then…well, and then the adventure began.

Some might have read in the news about the current blockade in the Reforma part of Mexico City. - Tents everywhere lining the business/richest area of town. The Hotels are losing so much money, businesses in general are, and the nasty Mexico City traffic is only worse. We had to brave some of that to get to the appointments as that’s where we’ve been going for FU and all that, but then we had to get to the World Trade Centre to meet up with this friend of mine who works there, only to be told different directions from basically 7 different people that found us going around in circles. – It was crazy! We did make it to the WTC, but not without experiencing the special “todo derecia” directions it seems folks love to give you (rather than admitting they just don’t know).

We then made it to Andrew Vee’s place (yes, after getting to the WTC and meeting with the 3rd appointment), we dropped off diapers (yes, we picked up a bag of diapers and put them in the trunk of the car – the dear someone I was with was so worried about opening the trunk though as she didn’t want people to think it was a body. HA! – How funny is that?), and took off to our new place, which we found (whew), and all that good business was worked out. – I was rather happy! The diapers were the wrong ones though, so we loaded them back up. LOL! – And I think we still have it in the car, come to think of it. :P

It was then 7:45pm when we headed back to the Periferico to head home. On a normal day we would have been back in our good old Tepo house sometime before 10:00pm (taking traffic into consideration) but alas, due to the lovely situation in Reforma we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. – Crawling! Its raining too (did I tell you that?) and the windshield wipers on the car are not doing much to clear the window (oh, right, the person I was with is trying to get a hang of driving in Mexico City so she drove some, but she didn’t want to drive in the rain and dark – and it’s a good thing she didn’t…) and then, THWAP! Off fly one of the wind shield wipers! :D – How cool is that? I’ve NEVER seen that in my entire life. The wiper that was on the passenger’s side just snapped off. HA! We weren’t going fast (at all) so out jumps my partner and finds the windshield wiper (after looking for it on the floor and I’m trying to point to it on the hood of the car), and as she walks along side our crawling car she tries to put the wiper back, but no, it refuses to fit. I’m trying not to laugh, really, as it’s quite the scene to behold. – My tales do not do the subject justice. She decides that she can’t fit it, so she takes the windshield arm (for lack of knowing what its really called – sorry) and leaves it pulled up (like when you’re washing your windshield) so we have this one windshield wiper (the one on the driver’s side – TTL) going at an incredibly strong pace (yes, otherwise it wouldn’t work), and this strange black piece going back and forth in front of the car. (I was seriously trying to concentrate on the road, rather than this hypnotic arm going back and forth. LOL!)

Its 10:30 by this time, and we realize we need to call in to reassure folks we’re okay, so we do, and yeah…about an hour later we’re past the nasty spot, picking up speed, and looking forward to getting Home in 45 minutes max, but no later do I think that when I hear this sudden THUMP and the windshield wiper on the driver’s side is just NOT MOVING. – Nada! And yes, it’s still raining!!! The Lord seems to give me real calm during crazy times (I guess I’m just caught in them so often, I’m getting good at it. HA!), and I managed to make my way off the Periferico into a parking lot, all this with a windshield I couldn’t see through. – Scary! We call home but remember, its like 11:30 now, so we wake someone up, and God bless dear Miggy, he actually went, got Ez (his bro) and drove out to get us. – Thank you, Mig! There was nothing we could do, really, other than wait, and he made it to the parking lot in nice timing (seeing as traffic is calmer at that time). The rain had stopped by this time, so we used some diapers to clean the windshield (okay, so we were innovative…) and he drove ahead of us as I drove behind him to get home. TTL we didn’t have to leave the car in the parking lot (it was a pay parking for one, but still, not safe), and TTL, other than the special tire sprays I’d get (seeing as the roads were still wet) the hazards from Miggy’s car were very helpful, and we made it back safely. Whew! – At, right, 12:45am.

There are other bits and pieces I don't have time to blog about, tales of how my partner wanted the windshield cleaned so badly she got out and did it herself (which you don't do here in Mexico - the little men servicing you do it as you then tip them for it), only to find out it was a waste as once we got on the road the tire sprays got the windshield all dirty again (lol), or of how I've been feeling so good as to my sense of direction vs. that of my partner. ;) I do think, as she states, that she has a reverse sense of direction. LOL! But yes, the list goes on, its quite funny! I think I'm going to have a good time with this weekly FU I'm doing. Yeigh!

I do have to go though as though its been good not feeling I’m having a crazy day today (other than trying to catch up with the 87 e-mails that came in yesterday – ICK), I’m off to the market tomorrow morning, so please, pray for us. I have to drive our big truck…and that can get crazy. The Lord’s going to do it, in the meanwhile, I need to wrap up some work and get ready for the big day. Lord help me! Good night!

Our teachers!

We had an "appreciating teachers" day today, and all our teachers are out at the movies, with pizza dinner too. - So cool! I always feel so bad on days like this, the world keeps turning, and I keep sitting at this desk (or else), and I just wish I could be there! - No, not at the movies, but actually organizing such things. I love planning parties, I love doing things that could make the humdrum of daily life less monotonous, and Heaven knows I admire all those, especially those here at the CTC, that have done so much to make this Home work. Our teachers are such hard workers, and teaching is no small feat. - Anyone can be a baby sitter, but a teacher takes talent and skill!

Anyways, I did think of them a lot today, we were told to show them as much love as possible, but I only saw a couple of them at lunch, and that was in passing. Argh! - And now they're gone! :( Well, they'll be back, but I don't feel I did anything to appreciate them. (Other than act out what I was thankful for Mya about. HA! - That was rather entertaining, to say the least.) But yes, I admire and appreciate all our teachers. And if you see this, "Teachers", I admire you. Love you guys, you're awesome in so many ways! xxx

I was going to post pics of our teachers, but I'm not sure they want their pics here, so...I'll just leave you with...

"GOD BLESS OUR TEACHERS"

Dressing NOT to kill!

It’s a first – at least for me. I was actually asked to dress “down” (rather than “dress up”) to not look so good. HA! - And no, it wasn’t by a guy that was trying to bring on a compliment.

We went to an appointment yesterday with the General Manager of a swanky Hotel, trying to get him to participate in the “Sponsor a Book” program, and I was sweetly asked to avoid dressing too nicely. Well, I definitely needed to dress formally, I still needed to look sharp, but I was actually asked to not look attractive - like wear dull colors that wouldn’t bring out my eyes, don't put on makeup that makes me look hot (ha - as if I actually put make up on with the intention of "ok, today I want to look normal, tomorrow extremely hot, and then the day after just"...yeah, no, I just wear some makeup and that's that), or do something with my hair that would make it stand out, brings out my features, hair, height, etc.

I really didn't know how to react to that request! Usually you have some occasions where you tell some girls (ahem - younger, of course) to perhaps put more clothes on so they're not so "slutty", but that's not what they were telling me, they were actually telling me to try to look plain.

It seems that people like me could be intimidating for people like him. – He’s Japanese! To any of you who lived/worked in Japan, did you find that tall blondes can intimidate them? I always think their stares and looks are the usual “you match my bimbo fantasy” look, which I get from basically every other starer, but hey, I might have misunderstood and oh my gosh, I was wrong all along. Perhaps they resent that you're taller than them (HA - one reason I never went to Japan) but to actually be intimidated to where you don't like them, are scared of them...wow! - I've been enlightened.

I ended up wearing mainly black, and yeah...I don't think I managed to actually find anything dull - since when do you hold on to clothes (formal at that) which make you not look good. - I honestly had to think hard. I don't think I managed to do anything other than look like a tall, sharp blonde. HA! Oh well, he seemed okay, and I just pray he had no resentment towards me. ;)

I'm really a nice person though folks - don't let my height fool you, much less intimidate you (definitely my looks couldn't - HA!). I'm nice! I promise...someone back me here! Please!!!