This is the Part Where You Say Awwww!

Roses from my hubby.

So, he plucked them off of the bushes in front of the house. So what?

Ivy League All The Way

Are my kids bound for Harvard or what?

Ever since the Olympics they can frequently be seen fencing...in full armor I might add. And their favorite bathtime activity is to mix up imaginary chemical compounds that they have named "Soylene" and "D2R". (I'm hoping they're imaginary anyway.)

They're never going to get dates are they?

Mexico: Dos y Media

I realize this doesn't exactly give you any insight in to my recent trip to Mexico but I hadn't posted an entry in this series in quite a while and it is one of the favorites of all my relatives that read this blog. Also...I thought it fit somehow.

I promise part three in the series tomorrow, but for now here is Mexico: Two and a Half.

At Grandma and Grandpa's House.....

....they would have never gone to Mexico.

They would have supported me and been proud of me but they would have been nervous about my trip. It is something they never would have considered doing themselves...for two reasons.

#1) Grandpa refused to go to St. Louis even. He did travel very occasionally to South Dakota, where he liked to look at farmland just for fun, and once he drove all the way out to Utah to visit his brother. But he didn't like cities and he took two lane roads whenever possible. Even my sister living there had no influence over his decision to NEVER go to St. Louis...and his grandchildren usually had a pretty strong pull over him.

He based his decision on the one time he did go to St. Louis. For his 8th grade class trip they took all the kids to St. Louis. They rode all the way there (a 2 hour trip) in the back of a truck and had an awful experience. Even when we reminded him that he could now travel there inside a comfortable and air conditioned car he didn't want to.

#2) Grandma travelled more often. She went to California and Arizona and Detroit to see her sisters. She took the bus and she even flew, something else my Grandpa never did. But she wouldn't have gone to Mexico because of ....well, the Mexicans. My Grandma is prejudice; not in the sense that she would ever be cruel or degrading to anyone, but in the sense that she has very strong and stereotypical opinions about various groups of people.

She believes some of the standard ones like "southerners are lazy" and "the Irish drink to much", but she also has some of her own very unique theories. She believes that people who have horses will go broke and are always on the verge of financial ruin. She believes that young men who get married while in medical school do so to get some woman who can work and put them through school and then when they finally become doctors they dump their wives and run off with nurses. She expounded on these theories on more than one occasion...which is why I remember them.

But the one that takes the cake is one I heard her say only once, 20 years ago, but it was so outrageous that I remember it to this day. My aunt and her family were moving to Bloomington. A "northern" city over 3 hours away from Grandma's southern Illinois home. They had purchased a house but it needed new carpet. My aunt had arranged for the carpet to be installed before they moved up there, meaning while no one was home. My Grandma was lecturing her (mind you she was approx. 40 years old, but you're never too old for a lecture from Grandma) on the dangers of letting strangers into her house. She topped off the whole discourse with the phrase, "You know how those northern carpet layers are!"

I wish I could remember what happened after that. Did my aunt laugh out loud? I can't imagine how she kept a straight face. I laugh every time I think about it. But knowing my aunt she probably just said, "Oh, mother" and moved on. She was kind of used to it by that point.


On August 28, 1979*:

My aunt Amy started school that day and so did Grandma. She was studying to become a nurse. Grandma's college schedule was 8-11, I.N.S (whatever that is), 11-12:15, English Comp, 2-3:50, Anatomy and Physiology, which she notes sounds interesting. My parents and sister and I took a load of beans to St. Louis (I guess we were just sitting on the floor in the truck cab. I know it only had two bucket seats.). Grandpa worked around the farm and Uncle Shannon killed 2 grey squirrells for Grandad (my Great Grandpa) for his birthday. He turned 78 that day.

*I realize that this is supposed to be an "on this date in 1979" feature but on Sept. 4, 1979 my Grandma was sick and threw up. (Maybe it was the squirrell meat?) I didn't think that would interest most of you. So I gave you an entry from a different date.

Mexico: Dos

Well, today is Works for Me Wednesday and since I'm in the middle of my series about my recent trip to Mexico I thought I'd share with you all how mission trips work for me.

La Mision (The Mission)

Ninos* de Mexico is a non-profit mission directly supported by churches in the U.S. and Canada. In 1967 they began taking in children from the Mexico City area that have been abandonded, abused and/or orphaned. They then care for these children until they are adults and out on their own. They have children's homes, a Christian school, a medical outreach and a church plant within their mission.

In addition to donations from churches that pay for the teachers' salaries, facilities and other needs, Ninos also operates on a sponsorship basis. Through their H.U.G.S. (Helping the Underpriveleged Get Started) program individuals sponsor a specific child. This involves corresponding with the child and sending a monthly support check...usually around $25. Each child needs at least 6 sponsors in order to cover his/her room and board, clothing, shoes, and other basic needs.

My church is one of the many churches that supports the Ninos mission. Within my church there are several people who participate in the H.U.G.S. program and sponsor children that are currently living at the home. So we take a trip to Ninos every other year in order to:

#1 complete some much needed work projects at the facility

#2 show the staff and children at Ninos our support and love

#3 show the members of our congregation exactly what Ninos is all about and encourage their continued support

#4 to allow sponsors to visit the children they have been supporting over the years.

For me personally the trip was a chance to use my education and my skills as a Spanish teacher and Spanish speaker and serve God at the same time. I knew very little about Ninos when I went. I knew that it was an orphanage and a school, but that's about it. This is what I learned:

Ninos is located in Chicoloapan, a "suburb" of the gigantically sprawling metropolis of Mexico City. It is an orphanage in the sense that they take in and care for orphans, but it is so much more than that.

Ninos is committed to raising these children and caring and supporting them until they are mature adult Christian professionals. They are raising Mexicans to be Mexicans. They are not americanizing the kids. Their goal is for their children to be productive members of their own society and culture, who can also further the cause for Christ in their own country as ministers and as lay workers. For this reason, children who are placed at Ninos cannot be adopted. Once they arrive at Ninos they will not leave (unless by their own choice) until they have accomplished the goals stated above. This does bring about some unique issues, however.

First of all, the Mexican government is on an adoption kick right now and only wants to place their children in orphanages where they can be adopted. This comes and goes with the whims of the government officials, so it will likely change before too long, but in the meantime the government is reluctant to place children at Ninos.

Secondly, there are "children" living in the homes that are up to 23 years old. There are no age limits at Ninos. As long as a child wants to continue his/her education he/she can remain at Ninos. So there are houses with children ranging in age from 5 to 23. This is quite a challenge for the houseparents as you can imagine.

In addition to the homes, there is a Christian school on the campus of Ninos. All of the children in grades pre-K through 9 attend this school. Right now there are approximately 30 children in the school. High school students attend a local private high school. Ninos strives to give the children a basic education that will allow them to continue on to the university or technical school of their choice after graduation. The school faces many struggles as they educate the children.

When the children arrive they have usually been abused in some way (physically, mentally, sexually, or all of the above) and/or abandoned. Some have been shuffled around through other children's homes while others have lived alone on the streets for years. I met children who were chained up during the day while their parents worked. I met 5 children who were abandonded into the care of their oldest sibling...an 8 year old girl. I met children who had watched their parents die before being taken in by the state and placed at Ninos. These children have not been to school. Sometimes they don't even know the alphabet or how to read or write...and they might be 10 or 12 years old.

This makes "school" as we know it an impossibility. Students can't be placed by age or size. Their instuction has to be very individualized. That is why there are 23 year olds entering high school, and that is why Ninos is so special.

No child at Ninos will be left without a spiritual or academic education. He/She can achieve as much as they desire with the full support of Ninos. They always have a home, siblings and houseparents standing behind them as they strive for success...no matter how long it takes. Dr. Noe is a good example.

Dr. Noe came to Ninos in its early days along with his 9 brothers and sisters. He lived and studied there until he was 30 years old. He then went away to college where he became a doctor. He is now the physician for Ninos and their medical clinic out in the mountains. His sister, Isais, is the Spanish teacher at the school. These children were raised by Ninos and now use their lives to help other children just like them. And they aren't the only ones. Lorena, one of the houseparents, is also a former Ninos child, and her husband, Luis, is the son of former houseparents so he grew up at Ninos too.

Ninos is an incredible organization that, like all missions, faces extrordinary challenges. They are changing so many lives for the better, and introducing so many children to the love of Jesus Christ while rescuing them from a life of poverty and abuse. I absolutely fell in love with the children and the mission.

The theme verse at Ninos is Psalm 27:10 "Though my mother and father forsake me, the Lord will receive me." The kids all have shirts that say "RECEIVED" in big bold letters on the back to remind them that they have been received by their heavenly father and he will never forsake them.

Please pray for the children and staff at Ninos. If you are interested in sponsoring a child go HERE. If you just want more information go HERE.

Whatever else you do, never miss an opportunity to go on a missions trip. You will not come back the same. Your view of God and his work will be forever changed. We all need to see His hand at work in far off places to remind us of his immeasurable love and power.

More on my Mexico series coming up later this week, so stay tuned.

For more Works For Me Wednesday go to Rocks In My Dryer.

*It drives me crazy that I couldn't put the tilda over the "n" each time I wrote "Ninos" in this post. Just know that it is there in my mind and that the word is pronounce [neen-yos], NOT [nee-nos]. If anyone knows how to do this in blogger please let me know. (For the record Mexico should have an accent mark over the "e" too, but we'll let that slide for now also.)

Mexico: Uno

La Comida (The Food)

Since this is Kitchen Tip Tuesday I thought I'd tell you about the food I experienced on my recent trip to Mexico and leave you with a recipe too.


First let me say that Mexican food is not spicy. Salsas of varying degrees of heat are served alongside every meal...but the food itself is just well seasoned, not hot. Unlike Panama where I had pretty much nothing but chicken and rice for 3 weeks straight, we had mostly beef in Mexico. We did have beans at almost every meal and rice pretty often too. When the week was over I realized that I had eaten sour cream on practically every meal while I was there. (Mexican sour cream is runny and more like yogurt than our sour cream. It is a really great flavor.)

Of course the fresh fruit there is amazing and so delicious. One day we had nothing but fruit for our "snack". We ate mango, pineapple, apples, bananas, grapes, oranges and cantloupe that we had purchased fresh from the market the day before. Which brings up two topics of interest; #1 the market and #2 the "snack".

The open air market in San Vicente was quite the experience. It was loaded down with fresh produce of all types....including fresh meat. There was no shortage of animal apendages and organs. There were mountains of fresh chiles and fruits. There was a knife sharpener and a flower girl trying to make a living. It was noisy and smelly and everything you would expect from a market in Mexico. I loved it. The pictures scattered throughout this post are all from the market.

The "snack" is a small meal eaten at noon everyday. In Mexico you eat breakfast in the morning and then a "snack" at noon. Then around 3:30 you eat lunch and around 7:30 you eat supper. On our first full work day there we were all hungry at noon so we chowed down on our "snack" of tuna salad and crackers. So when lunch rolled around at 3:30 we were not really all that hungry for the plates full of tostadas topped with refried beans and italian beef and Sopa Codojito (macaroni noodles in a tomato broth) on the side. Of course Victoria, the sweet little cook, had been so nice as to fix us this feast that we had to eat it. After that we learned that no matter how much food was offered at "snack" we needed to eat just a little of it. There was a whole lot of eatin' goin' on down there.

I liked absolutely everything I ate while I was in Mexico. The Mexican oregano that we used was especially delicious. You dump a little of it in your hand and then you grind it between your palms and let it fall on your food. It was so good that I brought a bottle of it home with me. It is a lot more flavorful than our dried oregano. I also brought home Tajin Salsa En Polvo (which bascially means 'salsa powder'). It tastes a lot like seasoning salt and they eat it on their fruit, especially on fresh pineapple. It was very good but a little too salty for fruit in my opinion.

I can't say that I really tried anything new (except cactus, which tastes like asparagus kind of), but everything was cooked or combined in a different way. One day we had tuna salad....but their tuna salad has fresh cilantro, tomato, and onion in it. It was super delicious. We also ate "Alambra", which is shredded beef, bell peppers, carrots, and onion all baked with cheese on top then served over beans. Of course we also ate the standard tacos, burritos and quesadillas too.

My three favorite meals were Tamales, Cilachiques and Picadillo. I'm not normally much of a tamale fan but these were really good. We purchased them from a local pedaller and ate them for breakfast. I had a strawberry and a pineapple tamale. They were excellent. If I can ever find a recipe and way to make them I definitely will. Chilaciques is shredded chickened (very well seasoned) over homemade tortilla chips and rice and covered with cheese, green salsa (made from tomatillos) and sour cream. Picadillo is basically a beef stew without the broth served over rice. Beans were offered as a side dish with both of these meals.

As a matter of fact beans were served in some form or another with every meal. And if we had them one day we had the leftovers "refried" the next day. Literally you throw the beans into a skillet of hot grease and fry them as you smash them with a big spoon. I actually got to do this when it was my turn for breakfast duty.

We all took turns cooking breakfast for our team. Sometimes it was Mexican food and sometimes it was french toast and bacon. No matter what we always had yogurt on the side. (The bacteria in the yogurt helps keep your stomach on the straight and narrow.) The day I cooked we made Molletes. They were very good but they seemed like more of a lunch food than a breakfast food to me. Here is the recipe I promised you.

Molletes

hoagie rolls
leftover beans

butter, melted

swiss cheese

Cut rolls in half and brush insides of each piece with melted butter. In the meantime "refry" the beans in a hot skillet. Then spread beans generously over rolls and top with a slice of cheese. Bake in a 350 oven until hot all the way through and cheese is melted. Serve with salsa and of course, sour cream.

Que te gustes! (I hope you like it!)

More in my Mexico series tomorrow. Stay tuned!!

Recipes Galore

I just found a great new site.

recipezaar.com

It is basically the same as allrecipes.com with one majoy improvement. It gives you the nutritional information on every recipe!!! I mean, it shows you a label exactly like the ones on the packaged products you buy. It's great!

This is a huge thing for those of you on Weight Watchers or any kind of diet. Now you can check out the calorie, fat, sugar and fiber content of your homemade foods. Cool, huh?

Happy LABOR Day!

I've never participated in a meme (sounds like 'dream') before, but this one was sent to me and sounded fun. So in honor of Labor Day.....

How long were your labors?

Ryker: 8 hours
Cainan: 12 hours*
Kinley: 2 hours

*My doctor had another looooooong surgery to perform before he could get to me so he kindly asked the nurses to turn off my pitocin and let me "rest"...doctor code for wait for 8 hours.

How did you know you were in labor?

The doctor said, "We're going to induce you today," and they plugged in the pitocin.

Where did you deliver?

St. Luke's Hospital in Chesterfield, Missouri....I highly recommend it....although when I had Kinley they had no air conditioning...so maybe avoid going into labor immediately after city wide power outages.

Drugs?

ABSOLUTELY, WITHOUT A DOUBT!!!*

*Except for #3. When you give birth 17 minutes after your water breaks there really isn't time for an epidural. The last words I said before I started screaming incoherently were, "I'm not doing this without an epidural!!!!" I guess I was wrong.

C-section?

Nope...I'm really good at dilating. I've made it to 5 cm without noticeable contractions and while going about my daily life none the wiser every time. (Contractions somehow always eluded me though. I've never had one that wasn't pitocin induced. Weird, huh?)

Who delivered?

Dr. Houck*

*Except with Kinley. She was delivered by the first nurse, or resident, or orderly that got to my room after I let out a blood curdling scream as she came zooming into this world. I have no idea who it was. Someone very fast.

So yes, I gave birth in a plain old bed, in a room with no air conditioning or lights, without any anesthetic, and without a doctor. How very pioneer of me. Brian just wishes he would have remembered to bring the stick for me to bite down on.

If you want to play along with this meme, just cut and paste the questions into your own blog, then go to Rocks in My Dryer and leave your link.

Music To My Ears

As I sit here typing this I can hear the roar of the lawn mower outside the window. When I turn and look out at the nearly completed lawn I see Ryker buzzing along happily as he mows off the last section.

I've been waiting 25 years for someone to take over my lawn mowing job.

Hallelujah! The day has finally come.

Now how will I ever get a tan?

Manic Monday

This just reminded me too much of recent events. I couldn't pass it up.

I'm Healed

My computer is healthy again and I'm ready to start bloggin'.

Sorry for the week's absence. I've got a lot to tell you about my trip to Mexico starting tomorrow.

Unfortunatley Brian's laptop is still at the doctor's office, poor guy.