Thanksgiving

I think I'm pretty clear on this blog, about what I'm thankful for, but here are a few more recent ones.

1. I'm thankful that I wasn't up to full speed as I drove into a 10 police car speed trap yesterday.

2. I'm thankful that Makiah's blood tests came back negative for diabetes!

3. I thankful I don't have a bad back. I just went this morning to help a friend into a car because his back was out. He didn't look like he was going to have a comfortable day tomorrow.

4. I'm thankful gas prices are down to a price I can afford, I filled up the other day for $1.51 a gallon, JEALOUS?

5. I'm thankful that I have family/friends that believe in my missions and have sent me money.

6. On that note, I'm thankful that airfare to El Paso dropped from $512 to $390. A little tip though, after you book your flight, don't go back to see if prices went any lower, you might not be happy with what you find. (My flight dropped another $90)

Have a great Thanksgiving and God bless!

Cooking Cajun

I recently went down to B&B Supermarket in DSM, a little neighborhood grocery store with a deli in the back, for a sandwich. This is the store owned by my ex-inlaws, that I always recommend to people if they are looking for a place to eat or to by meat. One of the sandwiches they serve is called Dad's Killer, which is loaded with meat, cheese and everything else they have access to. I love this sandwich, it's better than anything else in DSM, my opinion and the opinion of a recent poll. You have the option of having your sandwich toasted, which is always a nice touch, but I'm not sure why. You tell me, why is a sandwich better if it is slightly warmer and the bread has a bit of a crunch? Anyway, this got me to thinking that I should now toast my sandwich that I made at home on Saturday. We have a little toaster oven, so I figured I was set. I made my sandwich on a hoagie bun and carefully placed it in the oven. After a minute or two, I decided I would check on it, since I was inexperienced in oven sandwich making. I was slightly surprised, when I opened the door to the oven, that flames came shooting out of the oven. I was a bit more concerned when I noticed that my hoagie bun was indeed, on fire. As I stared at my hoagie bun, the first thing that went through my head was, "That is going to taste bad." I now realize my first thought should have been to put the flames out, but my priorities are typically based on my stomach, so this was no different. I finally snapped out of it and wondered to myself, how will I put the flames out? Water wasn't an option, this is an electric appliance and I'm sure the following fire would be much worse than the small one I had now. A fire extinguisher seemed a bit of an over kill, seeing as how the fire was the size of a half a hoagie bun. The mess the extinguisher would make would be far worse than the small fire I have now. You will be happy to know that the fire burned it's self out and I was able to replace the top with another and eat my lunch. I will say that a burnt hoagie smells a bit like a dirty ash tray, so that was a bummer. I think I'll leave the toasting to a professionals and just eat mine cold next time.

Trigger pulled, times two

I finally did it. I have been contemplating a switch from my cable provider, Stealfromyoucom, to DirecTV. (It's really Mediacom, but after the bill rose again, I re-named it) I ordered and had DirecTV installed, moved my phone and internet to Qwest and returned my equipment to Stealfromyoucom. I've had DirecTV before and always liked it, despite the cable companies claim that I will not be able to watch TV if the wind blows more than 4 mph or there is even a prediction of sprinkles. I just couldn't keep up with the bills. I've cut $80 a month off my monthly bill for the next 3 months and $60 beyond that. My internet will be a bit slower, but I'll manage. The boys actually gained channels that they like, so they are all for it. We'll see what happens the first time it goes out. I say, read a book.

The second trigger pulled wasn't by me, but makes me every bit as happy. If you read this blog consistently, and that means all 4 of you, you have seen me beg my friend Chad to come to South Africa with me. Today, he has posted on his blog that my badgering has worked and he will be joining in on the fun. I haven't been this excited since they brought the McRib back.

Sad

I just witnessed something that I wish I hadn't seen. There may be a funny comment in this post, but by no means is this funny. I was sitting in my car today, having my lunch, when I witnessed two guys that appeared to be homeless walking down an alley to my right. They approached a dumpster, lifted the lid and began moving trash bags around. This dumpster was behind a small office building, so I was wondering if they were looking for cans to recycle, old computer equipment to try and sell or just looking to see if there was anything "good" in there. They found a bag that they found particularly interesting, so they ripped it open. They then proceeded to eat out of the bag. I've heard of people eating out of dumpsters behind restaurants, especially fast food, because they throw away food that is perfectly fine and still wrapped in the wrappers. Since this was behind an office building, I'm guessing this was neither fresh nor wrapped up. I'm not sure if that was a sign of the economy or just the way they live, but makes you wonder what you would be willing to do to survive, if you had too. I'm not sure I could eat out of a dumpster. I pray I don't loose my job so I have to find out my limits. I pray you don't loose yours either.

Why do I live in Iowa?

Today is November 7th, the temperature at 10am is 35 degrees and it is snowing. Is winter almost over?

Doing my duty

I went out to vote yesterday and was happy to see a constant flow of people in and out of our local voting place. I'm not a very political person, but I do vote. I figure, people in other countries walk for miles and risk their lives to vote, and all I have to do is go 2 blocks and only risk a possible 2 minute wait to vote, seems like I could at least make the effort. I also don't usually watch the 5 hours of election coverage, mainly because I get bored, but decided to watch this year. I was amazed at all of the graphics, statistics and interviews, it was very interesting. I'm really not sure how they can award a state to a particular candidate when only 23% of the precincts are in and the vote still appears to be close, but it usually turns out right, so they must know something. I know there were problems last election with them calling states, only to find out they had to un-call them. I'm guessing they refined there system after that. The funniest thing I saw was on NBC last night. The came back from a break and were going to update us on states that they have called. They went through their list until they got to Arkansas. The put the state graphic up, which said 0% precincts reporting, 0 votes for Obama and 0 votes for McCain, then, had to tell me that it was too early to call that state. You think? Maybe you want to get 1 precinct closed, then call it for whoever won that. To hear the TV guy stumble for what to say when 0% popped up on the screen made the whole night better. Mason and Makiah voted in their class rooms and it was interesting to get a 2nd graders and a 1st graders view on the election. Mason was going for Obama and Makiah was for McCain, even though neither one could tell me why they had chosen their particular candidate. Obama won in both rooms, which made Mason very happy and devastated Makiah. It took a little pep talk to bring him back up with the "Maybe in 4 years your guy will get in" speech. I'm hoping that in 4 years, the country will be in such good shape that the Republicans don't even throw out any opposition, because they know it would be a slaughter. I'd have said the same thing if McCain had won. I just want this country back on its feet financially, in the worlds eyes and in Americans eyes. I could care less who gets the credit.

One door closes, another opens up.

As you know, I've been going to Juarez, Mexico for the last four years on a mission trip. This year, because of the violence there, we won't be crossing the border into Mexico. I'm sad about this, but I'm also aware that the safety of the missionaries has to be top priority. I'm pretty sure it would be really difficult to get people to go on the next trip, if we lost several members of the team on this one. It's a hard sell. If we tell people we have a few extra spots open next year, due to the untimely deaths of a few the previous year, people might think twice about plunking down the money it costs to go.



So what will we do? Well, that isn't set in stone, and I'll tell you from past experiences, it's best to plan what you can, and then listen to what God says. Our leaders are always well prepared, but sometimes things happen that are out of our control, and you have to go with the flow. God has a plan, and we just have to listen, then follow. Right now, it looks like we will do some work for a mission that currently takes people on what they call Border Immersions. What they do is, take people across the border and show them how the people live in Juarez. They visit some of the same missions that we work with when we are there. I really can't explain all that they do, but you can go to their site and check it out. http://www.rmselca.org/cristo_rey.htm

I'm excited to see what happens, what we do, and how we can impact the people of Juarez, without ever crossing the border. I'm certainly glad we are going down to do something and not just cancelling the trip. We know that these Border Immersions work, because our leaders were introduced to Juarez through this program. By us helping them, they can expose more people to the need in Juarez, and in my mind, we are doing every bit as good in that mission as we would have done if we crossed. I will miss the experience we have in Juarez. I've said it before and I'll say it again, it takes you out of your comfort zone and I think that adds to the experience. I'll miss the people we see every year and especially the kids. I won't have anyone to call me "Americano," so I guess I'll have to assign that job to someone, so I feel more at home. It will be weird to be State side for this year, but I think we are going to do our best to keep it a mission trip, no movie runs, no trips to the mall and certainly no TV.

Trick or treat

I forgot to put any pictures of Halloween, so here you go.

Piquachu (sp?), the little yellow thing in the front, is a friend of ours, the other three monkeys are mine. Max had all of the women giving him the "AAAWWWWW, isn't he cute." It must be the uniform, a chick magnet. Here are a few pictures at the park today.

And finally, here are a few of one of our beautiful trees.

Accidental death

Let me tell you a story about today, that you are going to want to laugh at, but I promise you, it wasn't funny. I'll start it with a little set up. Our neighbors had a garage sale today, I didn't need a sample of shampoo or a used pair of shoes, so I stayed clear of the shopping extravaganza. The boys, however, decided to run over and see what they could find that might be worthy of a piggy bank raid. They came upon a snake, not a real one mind you, but a 7 foot stuffed animal that appears to have been won at a carnival or similar place with "quality" prizes. Mason decided that he HAD to have it, so he inquired as to the price. I was actually proud of him for that, he usually would go right for the "Can I have this" approach, but this time, he appeared ready to bargain. He isn't one to spend his money frivolously, no he'd rather spend mom and dad's apparent endless supply of the green stuff. He has asked me on several occasions if I could just write him a check? Kids these days, give me the money and I refuse to do anything to earn it. Anyhoo, the lady of the house decided that the $.50 she was going to get for it from someone else wasn't as big of a prize as a smile on a child's face, so she gave it to him. Hurray for us, more shit in the house, dad couldn't be happier. I know Marcy will say, "At least it didn't cost anything." Yeah, that makes it better. (HUGE sarcasm in previous sentence.) So they bring "snakey" as he is now known, into the house and proceed to fight over him, big surprise. There is finally a lull in the commotion, so I head upstairs to work on a few things. Not 5 minutes after I get upstairs, I hear crying, which isn't unusual in our house. It's either Makiah because Max is sitting too close to him, or it's Mason because one or both of his brothers have done something as tragic as move a toy from one place to another. I ignore the crying. Now I hear the crying coming up the stairs, but I can't tell who it is, and I continue to ignore the crying. It's getting louder and coming to my door and SURPRISE, it's Mason. I try to calm him down and ask him why he is crying. He says "I was mad at Max, so I hit him and jklshfiyihvuirhfiowhguwfiwhowjh." Yeah, I didn't get that either, so I asked, "You hit Max?" He says yes. Funny thing, Max isn't crying, so this story is bound to get better. Mason continued, "I got mad at Max, so I hit him and snakey broke open." HOLY SHIT, that can't be good. I run down stairs with Marcy right behind me and what do I see when I get to the bottom of the stairs? The front room covered in little Styrofoam beads, that of course, 2 of the boys are scooping up and pouring onto other toys, chairs and each other. You maybe asking yourself, "Where are the pictures of that." Well, you can go to hell. I had only one thought at that time and that was to stop the bleeding, from snakey of course. I grabbed him up and squeezed the neck back together to stop the flow of static, powder, Styrofoam beads. I asked Marcy, rudely I'm sure (sorry baby), for a body bag (aka garbage bag) to place the remains of snakey inside. During this waiting period, Mason is standing next to me crying that he wants to keep snakey and put all of these beads back into him. My response of choice would have been, not a chance sparky, but that would have fueled the crying, so I refrained. I don't know my exact words, but again, they were probably rude (sorry buddy). All I saw was that I was going to spend the next 2 hours cleaning an area I hadn't anticipated cleaning today. My mind works in steps, you do this, then this, then this, until you get the desired result. I had all ready done step one, stop the bleeding. Step two was to dispose of the body, which I did when the body bag arrived. Step three, de-foam the 2 kids covered from head to toe in little, teeny tiny, itsy bitsy, little foam beads. Did I mention they had static? I believe I did, so out comes the vacuum. You may have a dog or a cat that likes to be vacuumed, but I can tell you that Makiah and Max are a bit too ticklish for that. I had to hold Makiah with one hand, vacuum him with the other, all while yelling at Max to stop throwing handfuls of beads around. I finally got Makiah done and started the same procedure with Max, this time yelling at Makiah not to get back into the mess. With both boys relatively clean, I sent them into the other room with the still crying Mason. I start vacuuming up the beads on the floor, when I hear Max behind me crying. Why you may ask? Because he wants a toy that is yet to be uncovered in the front room that now looks like the North Pole. I'm an asshole, so I deny the request, which is like throwing gasoline on the fire, he is up in flames. I don't care, I have bigger problems to deal with than another tantrum, I'm so used to those they just roll off me. Makiah has now decided that he wants to help me clean, but I've decided that I have all ready cleaned him off once and was unwilling to do it again, request denied. Now we have fit number 3 going on in the other room, Mason because snakey is dead, Max because I refuse a search and rescue of a plastic dinosaur and Makiah because I refuse to clean up another mess, both him and when he "helps" me clean. I'm happy to say that the room is as clean as its going to get. I know we will be finding those damn beads for the rest of my life, but there is only so much a guy can do. I hope you enjoyed a look into my day, but if you laughed at any of this, I hope the same thing happens to you, then see how funny you think that shit is.