On the road again...

...Well we have left! I am writing this from across town at the kid’s grandparent’s house while they are saying good byes. Last minute details have been ironed out and the traveling itch is here. The kids are so excited, they sat in the car for the last hour that I was packing up the van and cleaning the room thinking that if they sat there it would help us leave sooner. So sweet!

Our trip today consists of two short trips each about 3 hrs long. The first will be to drop off the van that was lent to me for the past five weeks. From there we will be meeting up with the rest of our team from Veracruz and heading to the border. We will spend the night there and then travel across the border tomorrow and head for home which is a 16 hr drive.

The kids are excellent travelers and are accustomed to these 16+ hr trips in Mexico, although it’s been about a year and a half since their last one. I had the whole set of Family Funs on VCD and ready to bring to help keep them occupied in the car. But you always forget something and that’s the thing I had to forget. Oh well, I still have a few DVD movies, so it wont be so bad.

Well I am heading out now...will post along the way when I find WiFi's to piggy back on! ;)

D - Day!

Since arriving here almost a month ago to pick up the kids and bring them down to Veracruz for a couple months Jade has been asking me daily, "Daddy today are we going to Veracruz?" each day I tell her, "Not yet sweetie, but really soon." Well I told her today that we will be leaving tomorrow and she is so excited. I'm excited too!

Some of the things I am looking forward too:

Being with the kids for another 6 weeks

Taking them to the beach

Eating nieves with them


Taking them on a boat ride


Starting School

Indian Night

We had an Indian dress up night complete with an Indian dinner. It was fun with lots of fellowship and good Indian food. Here are some pics of Adrian, Jade, Andrea (of Tim and Debbie) and I.

A Friend

Just a little shout out to my good friend Nathan. I love you, man!

Lainey

So I have been on the road now for nearly a month. This past week hasn't seen much blogging due to be out most of the time fundraising or driving someone somewhere. I guess I have found my calling in life. It's amazing sometimes the things you see while on the road, from watermelons rolling down the freeway to a van exploding just 30 yards away. This is not the actual pic (since I don't have a camera) but its close enough to what I was looking at.

Fundraising went well. I am thankful for that. I arrived home from being on the road for 4 days at midnight Sunday night and was going to be driving a team early morning Monday to the border. Not too bad a drive only about 180 miles each way. When I walked into the kid’s room I was sure a tornado had recently decided to meander through. The last thing I wanted to do was clean...I was exhausted so I told myself I would do it when I got back from the border Monday night.

I got up early packed the kids in the van and loaded up the family I drove across the border and heading out on our way. We got there in good time had an easy border crossing with no problems and the day as going good. it was about 4:30 pm by the time we got back on this side and were heading home. So on the 3 hour drive I had plenty of time to strategize as to how I was going to tackle the room and get it back up to what the kids and I are used too.

We made a few stops along the way so didn't get home till about 9 pm. The kids were tired dirty and hungry, so I was mentally prepared for the evening ahead, being one of work and getting the kids into bed as orderly as possible. I walked into the room and turned on the light to find the sweetest act of kindness I have seen in a long time, the room was spotless. Not a thing out of place with vacuum cleaner lines still in the carpet. The room smelt fresh as an alpine mountain side. That totally made my week. Thank you so much Lainey!! There is nothing I could say to adequately express the amazing feeling of being on the receiving end of another person’s consideration that I had at that moment. Here is a pic of the thoughtful Lainey.

Dream Team!

I am on the road fundraising with my favorite partner from the good old days of trudging through the mountains in Ajusco, outside Mexico City!

Kate you rock! We smoked Andy big time......

(Disclaimer from Andy: Ya'll are noobs! And your two!)

Napolean Dynamite 2

For those of you who thought I should learn the ND dance...Check out this link, it's worthy competition.

WARNING: This is complete foolishness! So if you don't aprove of that DON'T click the link.

Thank you Tina!

Thanks Tina so much for your help with the kids this past week.

Have a spare?

At present I am sitting in a parking lot of a TGI Friday's in Houston piggy-backing off their WiFi, waiting for my travel partner while she is visiting with her uncle so that I can drive the 3 hour trip back to San Antonio before it gets too late. It's been one of those days!

Started out at 5:30 am to get half way to Houston and have one of the tires on the van start to shred. TTL, we were noticed it before we had a blowout. I am in a borrowed vehicle while here in the states so when things go wrong it can be discouraging. I didn't have a good jack and no tire iron. Since it was so early I was having a hard time finding the bolt to let down the spare and had to call dear James, the homes mechanic to save me from my predicament. That was embarrassing; being that it was right where I thought it should be, but I had failed to see the seam in the carpet to get to it. Thanks so much James for helping me out.

So I lower the spare and it's flat! As fate would have it the gas station we pulled into didn't have air, so off we go driving on the shredding tire to the next station down the road to put air in it. So we get the spare filled but still have the problem of no tire iron. This is about the time I stared regretting not getting roadside assistance on the insurance policy. So we start asking everyone in the station if they have one, no one does. After about 10 minutes this sweet Mexican guys says, "I work just down the road and I have one there, I will go get it and bring it to you!" So 20 minutes later I am changing the tire, in my flip flops and I am worried I am going to smash another toe to top the day off. Well good news is I didn't, I got my knuckle instead. LOL! So now I have a bruised and swollen knuckle to go with its twin, the toe.

While I am changing the tire the girls are witnessing to this guy and he got saved. This brightens my day and I then see the reason we had the flat. If my misfortune leads to another one of the Lord's children finding there way into His fold then may misfortune "follow me all the days of my life!" But I am praying we can win them without to much mishap! When getting ready to leave the guy gave us the tire iron.

So not having roadside assistance led to a soul and a free tire iron. Not a bad day after all. Unless the roadside assistant looked something like this....

....I would have then gotten another soul saved. After all; two are better then one!

Few site changes.

I have been getting spam comments and am tired of having to keep up with removing them so I have turned on the comment verifier. I apologize for any inconvenience this causes for those of you who like to comment.

I have also added a new link to Andy, my brother from another mother (and father for that matter!)

Busy week!

Sorry I haven't posted much in the last week. I have been really busy but for news about what I have been doing and seeing follow this link

What You Have Come To Be

You could not be touched by
Or feel the way that others feel inside
Or try to understand their fears.
You just couldn’t let your heart break
To the point where you will start to cry
By seeing someone's tears.

But because there, are so few who feel what others go through
God led you on those roads
Those journeys have made you what you have become today
With a heart of sympathy, and not a heart of stone.

But in the loneliness that gripped you,
Those times when you fell apart,
You then reached out and cared.
Only through your misty eyes,
Did you see clearly in to another's heart
And love what you found there.

Oh there are very few who feel what others go through, God led you
On those roads. Those journeys, have made you what you have become today
With a heart of flesh and love, changed by the paths you known

I know the words above were posted on Hope Always not to long ago so I apologize for the redundancy. When these words were written and given to me nearly a decade ago they were a reflection and accurate picture of what I had been going through and who I had become.
Life goes in cycles and sometimes we feel like we end up right where we started. Sometimes this causes us to wonder what we learned and if we retained the lesson.
I was thinking about this the other day and was seeing how life really is like going through school. In each level or grade you have the same subjects...only each new year brings tougher and more complex challenges.
Being able to look back over this past decade it is an encouragement to me the journeys I have embarked upon and survived, the lessons I have learned and the peoples whose paths crossed or walked along side mine. These were not easy years but the Lord held me through them esp. the times when I had no strength to walk.
I want to thank those of you who were also there holding me up, praying for me and being an encouragement.

The Babes List....

.....for those rejoining the Fam is now over 130 ML long. So many good letters on that list to get you back to the basics of fundamental Family beliefs. Just what I needed as a refresher course after spending 1 1/2 years out. I started the list on June 14th and finished it yesterday, August 7th. I am so glad that titles don't really mean much when we look at each other the way the Lord does and that being FD, MM, FM or AM doesn't define us as to what kind of person we are. It is cool though being able to say to people, "I'm a BABE!" and it actually be true...for now at least!

Poetry

It seems a lot of people put poetry on their blogs. I think that’s great and wish I could write poetry. I however am not gifted with the gift of articulation on page and to show you I am posting here the poem that ended my poetry career. I had a crush when I was 12 on this girl I lived with her name was Sara.

Sara is a beautiful name
In my heart it reaches fame
Sara is a beautiful dame
I pray she always stays the same

Two weeks and running…

So this blog has been up for two weeks now.

In the first 14 days I received:

499 unique visitors
259 first time visitors
240 returning visitors
22 different countries

I have no idea if these are good stats or not...but I found it interesting!

Thank you, Cel, Justin, Haven and Ruth for linking to me and helping to make it possible.

I hope that this site continues to be enjoyed by those of you who cross paths with mine in A Notch of Time

Quasimodo Style

Today while with my kids Adrian & Jade and Andrea (of Tim and Debbie) for get out I told the kids the story of how when I was five I injured my left eye in an accident which left me blind in that eye.
Andrea asked very concerned if that is why my eye sometimes looks closed? I explained that I didn't really know but probably that was the reason. She then said she hoped she didn't make me feel bad in asking she was just curious. I told her not to worry as it doesn't bother me at all to talk about it.
Adrian then chimed in saying, "Don't worry Daddy, it's not Quasimodo style!"
Thanks Buddy! I feel so much better now! HA!

I think I broke my toe!

Yes...I really think I did...and it hurts. I was carrying a metal lawn chair today and dropped it on my toe. At first I didn't think it was so bad, but as the day dragged on and I saw the swelling and the bruising continue to grow with increased difficulty walking, a few others in the home said it is probably broken. Man, 28 years without any broken bones to have a lawn chair end the streak, what a way to go.

(UPDATE 8/03: PTL, it turns out I didn't break it after all! Just smashed it really good. but it is getting a little better!)

Water Pumps and Indian Cuisine

On Sunday while out with the kids the water pump went out on the van that I am borrowing while here in the States. I never like having car problems, but when the vehicle is not yours its even worse.
So Monday afternoon I got under the car to diagnose the problem, I am not a mechanic so I didn't really know what I was looking for....basically a hole where the water was coming out. I didn't find any holes on the radiator, the hoses or the engine block but it looked like from what I thought could be the water pump. I do know enough about cars to know that all cars have a water pump. So I then had the homes mechanic take a quick peek to see if I had indeed found the problem. So GBH he did and confirmed that it was indeed the water pump.
I like to get do the work on the cars even though I usually don't know what I am doing. I figure it’s a good way to learn and since the homes mechanic is way to busy I figured that was the fastest and cheapest way to repair it. TTL they had the mechanics guide to the vehicle here in the workshop.
So Tuesday I worked it out for someone in the home to watch the kids so that I could go out get the parts and then fix the car. But since my car was not running I hitched a ride with someone here going into town. So we were out all morning doing all kinds of business and I was started to wonder if I was even going to get the car fixed in one day.

The cool thing about that is she treated me to lunch, an Indian buffet. I don’t know half of what I ate but it was good. It’s been so many years since I had anything Indian.

So we got home at 4:00 pm and I was able to get the water pump replaced by 7:00pm. It turned out to be relatively simple. So I am glad I got the experience in doing so. The car is running great now….at least that I know of. I guess the next few days will tell.