Wednesday, May 30, 2007

To the "Western Europe plus Mexico" Posse :)

The picture below flashed across my computer today (I have a random pictures screensaver) and made me smile. These girls (plus the lovely Carrie Stallings who is, sadly, missing from this picture) are incredible and I miss them greatly. Some of us met at the Journeyman conference and then went through orientation together. Those 7 or 8 weeks were some of the hardest, most intense, most wonderful, most exciting, scariest, most fun weeks ever. We laughed together, cried together, made many trips to Chick-fil-a, Starbucks, Borders, Target and even to a tattoo parlor together. We played late night games of Taboo, Sardines and Mafia. We drank lots of coffee, were late to meetings, and played crazy games to stay awake during some of our classes. These girls mean the world to me, even though they are half a world away (they're all in Western Europe). This picture was taken the night before commissioning. It was absolutely FREEZING, but we figured a picture in the fountain was probably quite necessary (though I'm not so sure why!). Anyway, this one's for you girls. I love you (and the priceless looks on our faces!)!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

just somethin i read and liked. enjoy!

A Franciscan Benediction...
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy. And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

Bella

in other, less eventful news, david and becky's dog, bella, has been staying with us this week while they are on vacation. she really seems to love our red couch. but even more, the pillows i made to go on it. she's not spoiled at all! ;)



well, the past few days have certainly been eventful to say the least! on sunday, laura, her friend briana (from the states), jorge, ceci and i went to a street market after church. while there, we encountered a squirrel in a cage. as we looked at it and tried to play with it, the lady at the table behind the cage told us she would let us take it out and take pictures with it for only 10 pesos (about $1). of course we paid her and promptly took it out! she put it on my shoulder and i was a little freaked out, but it was funny.

then she put it on jorge's shoulder. i guess this made it a lil nervous because it quickly relieved itself all over his shoulder! i think we all thought it was much funnier than jorge!



monday and tuesday weren't too exciting. i taught on monday, and we went to the mall with our friend adrianna. adrianna is a teacher and had off in honor of "dia de los maestros" (teacher's day).

yesterday was when the really crazy stuff started....it all began with this amazing mullet:


we did a bunch of shopping for the team coming on saturday. on our way back to the student center to drop off all of the groceries, we had an "incident" with a man on a motorbike. we were parked at a redlight and he was driving down the sidewalk. well, he hit a curb and went flying over his handlebars....right into the side of the van! luckily he was fine and got right up and walked away. nothing hurt but his pride!

later that evening, we were on our way home. there was a lot of traffic and i was driving the ginormous 15 passenger van. the truck in front of me stopped suddenly and, with great force, i rear-ended him. not a happy moment. laura and i really had no idea what to do, so we moved both vehicles to the shoulder and called another missionary. he helped us locate the number for the insurance man, who arrived about 30 minutes later. also, another missionary showed up to help us out. everything worked out fine, and the insurance man wrote out a check for the man whose truck i hit.

we decided that a day like yesterday called for some comfort food, so on our way home, we went by KFC. it really was the perfect ending to such a day....when we ordered at the drive-thru, they told us they were out of CHICKEN! how does that even happen? do they realize what the "C" in KFC stands for?!?

today, we decided to make some yummy chicken-broccoli-cheese-rice casserole. we picked up "half a chicken" at the grocery store, thinking it would contain just the meat parts. we were oh so WRONG! the pictures below depict our reaction. as does the video in my last post.





chicken feet

just another "slice of life" in mexico...

Friday, May 11, 2007

ok, these pictures are way out of order, but it's late and i don't feel like rearranging them! :)
i wish this picture were less blurry! this is me and my sweet Ulysses. i try not to have favorites, but if i did, he would be one of them!
gotta love the fact that we were still playing in the street at 10:15 at night and this was considered perfectly normal!
these guys keep things interesting for me when i'm out in canal 58!
on monday, we had a class on "paint talks." basically, you have a painting started and finish it while telling a story. it's pretty cool and great here in mexico where most people are visual learners. here is one of my paintings after i gave a talk and completed it.
laura and i passed this sign the other day while out exploring (and trying to find the shoe mall, which we did!) we weren't quite sure what to think, except that it has got to be the craziest road sign ever!
mexicans LOVE their hot dogs! it's so funny! this is only part of the vast selection at our local grocery store :)
my sweet Ulysses and the marshmallow flower for his mom. these flowers are popular gifts for anything, so we made them tonight with the kids to give to their moms for mother's day (which was celebrated today here in mexico)
Paola (from Canal 58) and I at the going away party for Jim and Peggy Stokes on sunday
laura and i w/ paola and jorgito on the giant inflatable slide at the party
more of my sweet ulysses
my camera was not cooperating, so i couldn't get a good picture of these two smiling. but they were grinning and laughing like crazy while i was pushing them on these swings. they loved them!
leanne working on one of her paintings at our paint talk class
these trees are blooming all over the place right now. i love them!
me and a sweet baby at the party. if you happen to remember the picture i posted in february of me and a baby wearing a santa hat, this is the same baby
laura, etel and i. etel is one of our favorite friends here. she is so kind and an AMAZING cook!
more of me playing with the kids at the party
of course, laura and i had to get a lil time in on the merry go round!
becky giving a paint talk in canal 58 tonight. she did a great job!

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

so, one day last week, i lost my burt's beeswax. luckily, i found it the next day. unfortunately, bella (david and becky's dog) got to it first. this was the result. haha! thank goodness i've got a few backup!

my parents recently sent me a few things, including this amazing shirt. i know a couple of my texas friends will just love it ;)

i got my haircut today for the first time here. i was a bit concerned because i've heard quite the horror story! luckily things worked out fine and it looks pretty good. :)

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

so, laura and i recently ventured over to Chili's for a celebration dinner. we celebrated her 6 months on the field and my 3 months. good times. i was really hoping for some mango tea, but had to settle for strawberry lemonade. which was still verrrrrrrry good!

on thursday night, i took some cupcakes out to Canal 58. my kids loved them! so much that they wore the remnants for the rest of the evening!
we also passed out balls in celebration of "dia de los ninos" these girls had lots of fun decorating them. funny story...the one on the left actually bit my nose last week. it was crazy! i was holding her and talking to another kid and all of a sudden she just leaned in and bit the end of my nose! of course, i put her down VERY quickly! lol
these are some of the older kids in canal 58. so sweet and so much fun!
on saturdays, we sometimes go to david and becky's church where there is a feeding center. on average, they feed 35-40 kids each saturday. this week there were 85! i had a lot of fun playing with this little girl. don't let her sweet face fool you though, she was trouble!

this is her cousin. there were about 8 of them that were related and they were all a lot of fun!
more cousins!
after the feeding center, we went out to Santa Fe which is an area i first got to visit when i was here with mfuge in 2005. this is francisco and luz and their son, max. i met them that summer, just a month or so before their wedding. when i was here in jan. 06 luz was pregnant, and now they have a beautiful family!
it was so fun to finally meet max! isn't he a cutie?? just look at those eyes!
this is my friend, angeles, and i. we also met when i was here with mfuge in 2005. we don't get to hang out as often as i would like, but she is a sweet friend and i really enjoy it when we do get to hang out!in other, random news, we lost water in our house on friday. we thought it was because we paid our water bill a couple of days late, but it turned out that our entire neighborhood was without water. things got interesting, but it finally came back on late last night. i don't think i've ever enjoyed a shower as much as i did this morning!!