San Pablo Makeover

So basically these are the busiest two weeks of the year, and there will be a bunch of blogs coming soon, but I wanted to put this up really quick. We had a group from Maryland doing a bunch of revitalizing the mission work this week, and this was their final touch. I wanted them to try and get the church painted, one of the guys asked me about the painted on cross, and I said maybe we could do an LCMS cross like the one at San Lucas in Anapra, so at 11 pm, the final touches were put on the cross and this is what the front of newly painted San Pablo looked like this morning at 7 AM, after we got back from taking the Maryland Maniacs to the airport. Off to Gaby's quincenera tonight. Enjoy your weekend.

Close up of the cross

How good does that look?

I'm not the only one that is putty

This should have been with the pictures of Viviana, but I forgot to go to the bottom of the memory card and get the video. Enjoy.

More Goddaughter fun

Needed to take a little break from the hectic day, and put up some cute pics of the goddaughter Viviana. She is more vocal and screams "MAMA" a lot, but I am trying to get her to say "NINO". No luck yet, but soon hopefully. She will probably be walking soon to. It is awesome whenever I come in the room that she is, she wants me to pick her up, and if I don't she gets mad. Hope you like the pics, blessings on your holiday weekend.

Hanging out at my house watching baseball. Even though it is the Cardinals game (because they won't show the Rockies on ESPN), she is a Rockies fan.

This was yesterday, she likes in when I lift her around in the air. Look at that smile :)

Climbing around on things at her Nina Erin's house.

Christmas in July

To celebrate the near completion of Mariachi San Pablo's new Christmas CD, YLM is launching a Christmas in July initiative. Our goal is to raise awareness of YLM, it's programs, and the new CD. You can pre order your cd now, and make a donation towards the many great programs at YLM, including the drive to distribute over 1000 backpacks full of school supplies, and partner with others to support the food basket distribution every Saturday that numbers well over 100 baskets.

Here is a picture of the CD cover, and a link to the page. Also check out the YLM overview video on the homepage, you might see someone you know :) http://ylm.org/christmas-in-July.html

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.