Finality...

There's something about finality. I know the summer of 2008 was a very long time ago, but it does not seem right to leave this hanging! That was one of the most memorable summers of my life. I loved it. I can't wait to return to those precious people.

But that would call for... ANOTHER BLOG. ANOTHER PLACE. ANOTHER TIME.

Thanks and God Bless.

Review...

I am deeply apologetic that this took soooo long, but here are a few more pictures from the trip. There will be at least one more post after this with more pictures, as soon as they are delivered. Many of these pictures were taken by Crystal Mason--Thanks so much!

Someone found a good book!

This is Kyle Mason at the lakeside!
His parents, Michael and Crystal.
The whole group at the lake.
The VBS group on the next to last day. Great Kids--Gotta Love Em!
The Famous Phillip and Collete themselves!
These, uh, lovely creatures are easy to spot along the roads in the countryside.
A lovely shot of Guanajuato by Crystal.
(More pictures of this amazing city will hopefully be posted in the near future)
Crystal made two of these cakes for the last day of VBS

Marjie's Ark

May I tell you a story?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes, you should be honored!

Here I go!

Ok, jump in the van with me, we're going to church...

whoah, this could take a while

fast forward, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr,

After church, I'm waiting around while Bro. Burch and Michael try to hook up the lights to the trailer in the carport. Oh, look! some dark clouds! No big deal...

It starts to rain...um, it's hailing...oh, good, it stopped, now it's just pouring.

No big deal...

Hey, look! The water is up on the sidewalk! Hey, look, it's coming in the door! Hey, it's 2 yards in! Hey, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!

My feet are wet!

Let's step back for some reevaluation...or to get out of the water, whatever. The water is coming up by the second, oh hey! a car's going by! The water's only like, what? a foot high in the street?

TIDAL WAVE!

...and so we learned my friend, to listen for vehicles, because every time they went by, several large but successively smaller waves lapped up my legs, freezing them into big white popsicles..oh, did I mention that?
The water was, in addition to murky and mysterious,well,

a little chilly!

Because the carport is about 14 yards long before you get to the church door, some (we won't mention any names) tried to avoid the inevitable wetness!

Jared, however, had no such idea in mind.
Soon, soggy socks joined his previously discarded tennis shoes, and I (wisely) followed suit.
Brrrrrrrr...

Bro. Burch directed the mechanic department perched atop a lawn chair, armed with the vehicle manual. The rest of us picnicked on Cheddar and PeanutButter Crackers, commented on the 2 1/2 foot high water in the street, and thought the night could not possibly get more exciting...WRONG.

Jared got a huge laugh out of watching a poor would-be-motorist walk his scooter through water nearly above it's tires...strange sense of humor...boys....

When the mechanics were through hooking up the trailer---OH, did I mention that the Mason's were transporting brand new furniture home in that trailer?...in that rain???
Sis Burch convinced her kind hubby to carry her to the van...I was relieved to see her land safely...lol

Because the doors need to be closed behind the vehicles, because the van couldn't sit too long in one place in the street so it wouldn't flood, and
because Jared didn't want to do it by himself ,

him and I hopped on the back of the trailer till it had cleared Lake Garage (the flooded carport) and then jumped off to close the gates in, oh, 1 and 1/2 ft. high water. The plan was to hop back on the trailer and ride to the end of the street where the van would be waiting--hopefully in lower water. Well, the trailer, um, was in a hurry, so, we began the trek on foot--on water,
oh whatever!

Barefooted and gleeful, I began high-stepping through the swirling, freezing, knee-deep murkiness
(fast-high-stepping, I might add)
in my ankle-length jean skirt.
Was I thinking about what was under the water?
What was IN the water?
What was about to be in ME?
hmmm...sometimes thinking about such things is not an option.
Smiles. Aren't teens great? Live a little! That's what you call adventure!!

More later!

Ketchup

Well, I missed a couple of days there! But, as we all know, if I had time to blog everyday, my life would be too boring to write about!

Saturday was beautiful, but then again, so are all the other days down here! After a meeting with several other teens that will be working with the kids and puppets for VBS to practice our lines, one family invited Jared and I to go to the park. Mr. and Mrs. Martinez, their kids Cecleli (18), Nestór (15), Raynaldo (12) were great hosts. After an exciting (and exhausting) game of basketball, I politely accepted a bowl of pozóle (hominy in a chicken broth type soup) and enthusiastically accepted the second bowl!!! We kids walked a couple of blocks to get some "fresco" (coke, pop, candy, anything in the shop that looked good!) and I peppered Nestr with questions about Spanish. He has studied several years of English and understands much of what I say, but he won't speak...We're working on getting him to go to GBS! lol

A darling baby girl was dedicated on Sunday morning ( the proud family pictured below), after which Mrs. Crystal Mason accompanied my violin on the piano...unfortunately, I had to improvise some after my E string decided that it had spent its last day on the bridge of my violin! sniff!

I think Bro. Burch thoroughly enjoyed this ceremony!

This morning, we went to the church to prepare props and run over parts with several of the other workers. Juggling was the main entertainment in addition to some soccer tricks...more on that later :)

Below (listed left to right):

Myself, Ximena, Jared, Ray (mentioned above), and Danny.

This Darling is called Ximena (pronounced he-men-a); she's very sweet...and opinionated!

This is Alexandra (A-leh-han-dra) or Alex...she is very talented with a puppet!

As is this cheery guy, Pablo.

A couple of our wonderful workers... (Margaret Velázquez and Danny and Ximena's mom).

As you can see below, our theme is kind of a medieval castle/school idea. The lessons will be focused on the life of Joseph and relationships with God, family, friends, and one's self.Jared's entertainment can get much more complex than this 3-ball routine but I'll try to get a video of that later.

Poor "Hermana Lety" (Sis. Burch) was rather exhausted this evening, even more than the rest of our bedraggled troupe. Oh, well. A good night of sleep should help that!

Oh, the camera was kindly supplied by Bro. and Sis. Burch! Thanks so much!

Ready, Aim, Squirt!

Hey, folks, I'm back!

The trip down was fairly uneventful, aside from the brilliant
little caper my rememberer pulled! Thinking that I would be
smart and charge my camera for the trip, I plugged it into the
wall and went to bed. Let's just say, I'm not, not, not, not a
morning person, and neither is my rememberer! So, about 45 minutes out I remembered my forlorn and lonely battery stuck
in the wall. Slightly delayed action there, Marjie! So, in several
days I'll be putting pictures on!

Today we visited the church, which, by the way, is beautiful! Because it is the rainy season, the street had flooded several days ago and carried a very fine silt all over the sidewalk.
Armed with brooms and a pressure washer, Jared, Sis. Burch, Sis. Velázquez and I attacked the sidewalk...and the street!

My grimy feet and clothes are begging for a washing, so I'll depart for the moment!

Please feel free to comment!

Testing, testing. . .1, 2,3?

Howdy

from the

GREAT STATE OF TEXAS!

I arrived in Harlingen, TX yesterday morning to spend two nights with my Velazquez "family." Sis. Velazquez, Jared and myself will drive with the Phil and Collette Burch to Salamanca around 5:30 a.m. tomorrow morning (thus, the shortness of this post!)

Here are some pictures I took on the plane. Enjoy!