The Essential Man Library

So I have been talking a little bit on Facebook about how I plan to read through the essential man library. Of course certain friends, I am not going to name any names, but her initials are Kristine Neu, have wondered what type of books may make up this man library. Perhaps she is thinking about titles such as Green Eggs and Ham, or some sports book, but actually, there really is an essential man library. http://artofmanliness.com/2008/05/14/100-must-read-books-the-essential-mans-library/

Ever since a group from Michigan State University was here in the Spring of 2009, and one of the members grabbed by big framing hammer, and said "you have to MAN hammer it", we have had this ongoing joke about MAN things. Like a liter size soda is a MAN soda, or the 2 pound t-bone at Cattleman's is a MAN steak. So, you could see why some friends might give me a difficult time.

Since I took the literature class, and liked some of the short stories we read, I decided to try and find some other classic literature books that I might like, so in my search I stumbled across the library from the art of manliness. It doesn't have the books ranked, so I decided that as I read them, I am going to rank them in the bookcase I am going to keep them in. So far, I have read 4, even though The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was not on the list, it is definitely a MAN book, so I added it to the list. The 4 I have finished, and the way I have them ranked right now are:

The Bible

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The Great Gatsby

I didn't care too much for Gatsby, probably because I was forced to read it for class, so it may forever dwell on the bottom of the rankings, but oh well. I am thinking about starting Don Quixote next, after I finish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo from the library, and then read a couple on the nook.

Some other titles I currently have for the MAN library are Frankenstein, The Rough Riders, Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, and Moby Dick. Barnes and Noble has this classic series that are priced just right, and they were having a sale for buy 2 get one free, so that was nice. Hopefully most of them are in that style to save a little cash. I could download them for my nook that my mama got me for my birthday (early present, for my textbooks), but I think it is kid of cool to have the actual books in the bookcase all ranked by me once I finish it.

Wish me luck.

It's official

I got an email today from my advisor (for lack of a better term) at Concordia St. Paul, and it contained a list of all my classes for my Family Life Education major through the online program at the school. Basically every Monday night from September 20th to December 20th 2012 from 7:00 to 7:45 central time, I have online class. Then a bunch of reading and discussion boards will fill out the week.

In total, I will receive 43 credits through this program, and when I add them to the 43 I will have once I finish my History class at the end of July, I will need 42 more general education credits, which I hope to take at the same time as the FLE (Family Life Education) cohort. From there, it will be to the DCE colloquy program, and maybe a Lutheran teacher colloquy as well, who knows? Well the Big Guy upstairs knows and I am sure he will make his plan known to me as I go. Here are a list of the classes in my major program:

Intro to Family Life Ed

Overview of Contemporary Families

Family Systems

Family Decisons

Family Communication and Relationships

Intimate Relationships

Methodology in Family Life Education

Growth and Development in Children

Adolescent Development

Development in Adulthood

Parent Education

Parent Education: Methods

Biblical Christianity (Krysia, did you say you have this book?)

Family Law Public Policy

Portfolio and Synthesis

Not real sure what the last one entails, but I don't have to worry about that for a couple more years.

I plan to try and take some psychology and counseling courses as well, because I think they would be a good fit with the major. Who knows, like I said, He will let me know the plan when he is ready. Have a great week, Man Library blog coming soon.

That's some good Texas Brew right there

Last week I worked with a group from my home congregation, Our Father Lutheran Church in Centennial, CO. Everyone on the trip had been here before, either over the summer or to serve Thanksgiving meals, or both. The original plan was to pour a slab on Monday, let it dry on Tuesday, get some framing and roofing done, and some little projects around the mission done for the rest of the week.

I went over to the Wildfire house on Saturday to do some prep work, in hopes that it would help us get done faster in the 106 degree heat expected for Monday. I installed the drainage for the toilet, shower, and 2 sinks, as well as some piping for the water to come into the house, and ran enough out that when we go to finish the plumbing, we will not have to chip out the slab. I then leveled out the area for the slab as best as I could until I realized I had already drank a quart of gatorade, a liter of Mexican diet coke, and 2 quarts of water. (It was only 103 that day). I felt we were set up well for Monday, so I headed back, and because I was super thirsty, I stopped at Jorge and Elvira's house for a glass of water. That glass of water turned into a nice brunch of ham and eggs, juice, soda, and even ice cream, plus some time to play around with their 4 girls, including Viviana. Nothing wrong with going for water and getting a bonus meal out of it as well.

We went to pour the slab on Monday, and thankfully the big fella upstairs was looking out for us. The planned 106 degree temps were no where to be found, and instead we had cloud cover and a great breeze for most of the day. We started out mixing the concrete by hand, but soon realized that would make it impossible to finish, so Looooooooooomis (there really is only 2 o's but i like to drag it out when I call him) went to Lowe's and got a concrete mixer. The rest of the day went well, except I had to leave at 5:20 so I could be back in time to start my History class, while the group stayed another hour to mix the last couple batches of the good Texas/North Mexico concrete brews.

We headed to San Lucas in Anapra on Tuesday with the intention of finishing the tiling, after prepping everything and laying a couple tiles, we realized that if we continued to lay the tile, it would look awful, break, and not set well, thus forcing another group to tear it up and we would have completely wasted time and materials. I took a few minutes thinking of options, and presented some to the group. Ultimately, we decided to stop by the market on the way back to the mission and then work on some more tiling in the dorms on campus. Mike was already working on room G, so we just joined up with him and knocked out the kitchen as well.

The rest of the week we were able to frame, roof, and insulate the bathroom and kitchen addition to the wildfire house, and it looks like one of our other groups in July will be able to put the finishing touches on a wonderful new addition to the Wildfire house. The best part of the week was when members of the group were interviewed for a new video the mission was making, and to see the witnessing done to Mayra and showing her the great love that our Lord has for her and her family. This was a family that was living in a rundown trailer with no floor or window's, kitchen, bath, or water, and now they are the verge of being able to enjoy a home cooked meal around a dining table in their soon to be new kitchen, and not have to go to their relative's house for a shower or to use the facilities. Such a wonderful feeling to see the love so many have for their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Volcano #1...

Assembling the concrete mixer I went and bought after we realized that there was NO possible way we would come close to finishing without some sort of fancy help. We tried to borrow one from a family, but it kept breaking down and slipping the belt before we could even finish one batch.

Water girl!

Looooooooooomis pouring out a nice batch of north Mexico style concrete brew

Kids playing under our shade tent.

Putting on the finishing touches for the slab.

We fully intended to finish the tile that day.

Fireworks before we figured out this was not going to work

Elise holding the tile down. I think she was a little tired by this time.

Ann and Looooooooooomis in room G.

Mike working on the new tile in room G

The shade tent turned into the cutting tent.

Erin sawing out the doorframe on the interior wall.

Erin sawing extra siding off the side of the exterior door frame. She was making some sort of really funny face but I couldn't get a good picture of it.

Loooooooooooos's tarring technique.

The roof team, they all stayed pretty clean except for Looooooooooomis.

Lot's of fiberglass dust after the final sweep

Didn't think about it so well when we did the first house, this window is going to be taken out and put in the kitchen, the space is going to be a door connecting the two sections of Mayra's house, and we didn't really need to paint this side.

The OFLC team plus Mayra and her 3 kids.

Happy Birthday Viviana

Last Friday, my goddaughter Viviana turned one. Erin (her godmother) and I gave her presents to her on Thursday night because we didn't know if we would see her on Friday or not, and then we would have had to wait until Tuesday because of Memorial Day Weekend. We got her a gray stuffed koala from me and a pink stuffed pig from Erin. There are some pictures below, but not of the koala, just the pig (I wonder who was taking pics :)).

Viviana is trucking all over the place with her super crawl and should be walking soon. I am also trying to teach her to say nino, which is easier for kids to say than padrino, so I am cool with that, although only she can call me nino. Have a blessed weekend.

I don't get it, what is this?

It is bigger than me

What happens if I do this?

She is almost smiling. She smiles all the time, and does cute things until the camera comes out, then she looks at you like you are crazy?

Opening it up

I think I could like that

With her Mom and Dad

How cute is that? Yes I used the word cute twice in one blog, only because it is Vivi

1 house, 1 floor, and 1 day of fun

These past days we hosted a group from St. John's in West Bend Wisconsin. They are the group that set the record for fastest house build from last year, at 2 2/3 days. When they told us that they wanted to come from Tuesday until the following Thursday, we got a little scared. I told them that they were absolutely NOT allowed to attempt to break their own record. They definitely wanted to build another house in Juarez and then they said they would do whatever else we needed after the house, and one fun day. This time we put the house up in a leisurely 4 days, we had some opportunities with a sloped slab again, but luckily we are old pros at that. After the house was done, we began to transform the floor at San Lucas. A very generous group member from Nebraska is in the process of fundraising to put tile down on the floor of the new sanctuary. With some of the funds she had raised thus far, we were able to completely tile the raised portion of the sanctuary floor. Hopefully with a group from my home church next week, we can finish one of the sides and fix the edging, because it didn't do what I wanted it to, so we are going to plan B.

Finally, on their last full day, we went to White Sands National Monument and played around for the day. We did some sledding, but it didn't work so good because we forgot to buy some wax at the visitors center, so we ended up burying each other. When you do that, sand gets EVERYWHERE!!!. We had lunch at the park, did a cool nature hike where we saw some lizards and lots of tracks, then ate the best pizza in the United States. It really is, he won best pizza in the country at the World Pizza Expo in Las Vegas in March, and 5th best in the world. YUM!!!

Enjoy the pics and look for a couple more blogs soon. Have a blessed weekend.

She was trying to pull out a nail and smacked her leg with the handle of the hammer. Can you see the bump?

They wore me out last year, this year it was my turn

Hello Becky

Creepy looking Zombie dude

Hanging some rafters, it was only 98 that day

Nobody move, I got it. Just get the drill and hurry.

El Chango (The Monkey)

A couple of the kids from the family

Nice Sheetrock

What a great view

She likes to sand the drywall, but is not a big fan of the dust

Team Wisconsin

First quadrant is coming along nicely

Professional Team, say it with a Spanish accent like Genaro does

Don't glue yourself into the corner

Put the adhesive down, wait until it gets tacky and dry, then go to town with the tiles

WOW. See Erin on the side? I didn't when I uploaded this picture

It was actually quite relaxing

They were wishing for a dump truck to move all that sand. :)

Mission Needs, Can You Help?

In our staff meeting today, Pastor Tovar spoke of one of his mission sites in Chihuahua, San Esteban. There, he has about 20 children who are very interested in playing baseball. We are looking to support our mission site by gathering the needed equipment for them to begin their own little league. Please check your closets and garages for any extra gloves, bats, balls, helmets, bags, etc. and please send to me at the mission so I can get them to Pastor Tovar.

Additionally, at the end of august we will be holding our annual school supply distribution. We are looking to fill up over 1000 backpacks this year. Would you please prayerfully consider a donation of pencils, pens, notebooks, folders, glue, scissors, rulers, paper, markers, crayons, coloring pencils, etc. Or possibly consider sending a cash donation or gift card so we can purchase them locally. You can send those to my attention or Elvira.

Please send anything to:

301 S. Schutz Dr.

El Paso, TX 79907

May God bless you as you begin to enjoy the summer season.

Semester Summary

Well, my first semester is winding down. I just have 2 more psychology classes and the door closes on my semester. For those of you who don't know, these classes run a little different than traditional classroom style. We meet once per week in a chat room setting and then the other work is done in the form of papers and discussion board posts. These classes cover the same amount of material as a traditional setting, just without exams and with many more papers and posts, and in a quicker time frame. I guess that is why they call it the accelerated bachelor program. For example, I had literature class meet for 6 chats, did 3 papers and 6 discussion board posts, had to read 2 novels, 10 chapters of understanding poetry, 200 poems, and like 5 chapters of short stories. For this work, I received 4 credits, same as I would have in a traditional setting.

My actual cohort starts in September, when I must visit the campus for a few days to meet my advisor, classmates, and instructors. We will all be together in the online classes for the entire program, and then depending on our general education credits, we may all graduate together as well. I will then do the DCE Colloquy, and then be a DCE (I hope.) :). Depending on the cost of classes, financial aid, and my sanity, I may try and take some general education credits at the same time as the Family Life Education program, to help speed up the process. I am constantly looking for avenues of financial aid, so if you know anything, please let me know. I really hope to not have to pay off student loans for the rest of my life.

As far as the spring semester, I took 5 classes, Communication, College Writing, Contemporary Math, Literature, and Psychology. I have finished 4 of the classes and believe I have received 4 A's as my grades. Psychology will end next wednesday the 26th, and then on June 7th, American History I starts. This covers like the pilgrims through 1877 I think. I saw that American History II is offered starting in September and that covers 1877 to present. I hope to be able to take that class as well, but I have some other things in October that may prevent that. Hopefully it will work out to take it some time.

Thanks for all the prayers and support as I continue on this journey. who knows what will happen or where it will lead, (well, He does), and I will try and keep you all posted as I go.

Oh, one other thing, Erin has like 187654238 different Drury University things, so she wrote me a list of all the Concordia things I need to be equal with her, because I said I was going to get all that stuff, so we will see what the bookstore has when I am on campus and how much room my suitcase has. If you know anyone in the rental car business that would like to give me a discount for when I am in Minnesota, please let me know.

Blessings on your week.