well, the cars are a no go, at least for this week. they're doing something in ensenada on sunday to help one of the guys whose son is in the hospital. he asked me to come back next week to plan a time for them to come, because they want to be able to bring the really nice cars from ensenada and a snack for the kids. he kept saying they want to do it the right way. so nice! i hope he follows through...the kids will LOVE it.

this afternoon i went to maricruz's house for a party. she works here and invited me a while ago...i totally forgot about until i asked someone this morning and found out it was today! she's a single mom with 5 kids and lives in a 2 room house with no electricity. we got there at about 5, and she goes oh no! everyone just left because it was getting dark and we don't have electricity! it was a little awkward at first but after her kids realized i spoke spanish they were hanging all over me. literally. one was playing with my hair, one was sitting on my lap, one was holding my hand, and the other two were sitting at the table telling me jokes. it was hilarious. they kept asking me to take them to the states until i explained how much snow we have in new york. it's so fun - i used to be able to only ask kids how their name, how old they were, and if they had brothers and sisters or not. now i get to tell jokes with them! except i need to learn more...i only know one.
what did one traffic light say to the other?
turn around; i'm going to change! hahahaha

i spent the morning at the immigration office...yikes. i shouldn't have let me visa expire, but it's not like i did it on purpose. i'm convinced it was my spanish that saved me and made them be just a little bit nicer...
the immigration officer asked me how old i was, and when i told him 22, he goes, 'and how could you forget to check your visa's expiration date?' and i said, 'look buddy, i've got almost 40 kids. there are a lot of things in my head right now.' he laughed and then we became friends. kind of.

it was a fun afternoon...the preschool kids were so cute today. josue went with his mom to the doctor, and to have one less kid made suuuuch a difference. i LOVE josue but it was noticeably different without him.

yesterday i was at the boys' house after dinner and somehow we got to talking about how God is coming back someday soon. i think we were talking about the earthquake in haiti and i said 'God's coming back, you know.' and teddy goes, 'no. no he's not.' and i was like oh snap - sunday school here we come. we talked about how everyone needs to hear God's word before he will come back, but how that has almost happened. teddy asked in a really quiet voice if there would be soldiers, and then i got into explaining what will happen after He comes the first time, while keeping it pg. i ended up reading a story from revelation to them from a kid's bible we have here, and we started talking about heaven. i was telling them that whatever they dream of doing, they'll be able to do in heaven. or they'll do something even better that we can even understand right now. alex asked if he would be able to ride a bike, and i was like, 'yes! and you'll walk, and dance, and sing, and talk, and all of that!' and then we talked about how rosa, who died almost a year ago, is in heaven now, doing all of that stuff. it was great to be able to talk like that with them. they were so eager to hear it. i LOVE the kid bibles we have here...it makes the bible a lot more accessible for them.

on the micro yesterday i was sitting next to a man who had a 5 gallon bucket full of bloody, severed fish heads. they smelled delicious. really.

tomorrow i go to talk to the man with the classic cars to see if he can come on sunday. if he can, great. if he can't, i'm taking the boys to church with me! it's going to be awesome.

we made some good gains with alex, jose, and tonio today. alex and tonio wrote their own stories! they're not able to write independently, so sounding out every word makes their stories that much better. i asked them to bring their stories to lunch and have at least 2 people read them and they were SO excited to share their stories. it was a lot of fun for them.

i went downtown to get my visa renewed this afternoon and after an hour long bus ride and 20 minute walk i found out they closed half an hour before i got there. grr! i'm going back first thing tomorrow morning so i can be here legally. eek!

i walked into lunch today and saw this: thelma sitting at a table, by herself, FEEDING herself. you may not understand. this is just huge. she is perfectly capable of feeding herself, but she can make a mess and it's a lot faster if someone else feeds her. but it's waaaay better for her to feed herself, obviously, especially since she CAN! there are lots of things that are worth fighting for at gabriel house, things that you could drive yourself crazy fighting for. this is one of the things that i tried fighting for but gave up after awhile. i had started trying to be the one to feed thelma and i would help her feed herself. i don't know if the ladies saw this, or if they just decided to let her feed herself, but AWESOME. so happy.


i went to calimax today and brought sergio with me! it was so fun. he loved to be out but was scared of some things. think about the world through the eyes of someone who rarely leaves his own cul de sac. this is him on the bus. we bought stuff to make ice cream...

adele bought us an ice cream maker...that purple ball. we put ice and rock salt in one end, and milk, vanilla, and sugar in the other end. then we played with the ball for half an hour. it was deeeelicious. and they had to work for their treat!

here are some videos of the ice cream madness...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1nl_PYCP18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmsHO3VeBJA

i had a great talk with renie about some things, which was an answer to prayer. i also talked to a guy who owns a shop nearby about bringing his classic cars to gabriel house, which he might do on sunday! i'm going back on thursday to talk to him. aaaand i found the public library, which was closed today because of the holiday, but is surrounded by a great park with wide walkways (perfect for wheelchairs!) and well shaded. i finally got my driving insurance, and so we are going to have a fun couple of months going different places!

whew! what a weekend. saturday morning, instead of the class that we usually have, we went to a woman's house to help with the kid's class. mimi, david, martha, davisito, and leti did a muppet show about noah's ark. it was funny, and the kids loved it...
then we went to a park (and by park i mean concrete slab) and played soccer for awhile with the kids from the class. it reminded me so much of vbs at our old ministry site!

i went to roca de salvacion this morning and it was awesome (as always). pastor cande talked a little bit about his trip to new york (where he saw my parents!) and how great that was for him and his wife. he mentioned how our church is more than 250 years old, and iw as thinking about that later...this september mexico is celebrating its 200th anniversary. a church that's 250 years old, then, is really old if you're in mexico!
in the young adult class, pastor cande's wife, angelica, was talking about when jesus entered the temple and became angry because people were using it as a marketplace. she was saying he was mad because it was a holy place, it was supposed to be...and then couldn't think of the word she wanted to say. i said 'santificado' and she just looked at me and goes, 'yeah!' they still don't believe that i can understand as much spanish as i do. it's so funny!
then we went to lunch downtown in this mexican place that was packed. that's always a good sign...the food was delicious. tostadas, enchiladas, flautas, posole, and hibiscus water...

then eliseo, the pastor's son, was going to drop rocio and i off at a park to hang out (there's always singing and dancing in parks on sunday afternoon) but ended up staying with us. we went downtown by the flag, where apparently every sunday there's a clown show at the harbor. eliseo is scared of clowns so he kept his distance, but rocio knew them somehow (she knows everyone) and when one of the clowns came by asking for money, he said hi to her and she introduced me. he asked where i was from, and when i said new york he got super excited and went to tell his clown friend. eliseo and i slowly started sneaking away because i knew he was going to do something embarassing...but he caught us. he goes, 'everyone, meet my friend from the homeland!' and he ran after me and gave me a big hug. it was funny.

while we were there i saw this kid that i ALWAYS see...he was in a kids camp skit several years ago and lived in washington for awhile so he speaks english. he's been to kids camp every year since then, and last year i saw him in april at a site iwas visiting with barnabas. then i saw him a couple months ago at a youth group in porvenir. crazy! he thinks i'm so weird because everytime i see him i get so excited and expect him to remember me...he's like 15 so i'm sure i embarrass the heck out of him hahahaha.

we went back to the park and watched a band...usually it's just older people singing traditional (and i mean traditional) mexican music, but today there was a band of younger guys singing a different type of music...easier to dance to! it was a huge band - drums, trumpets, euphoniums, singers, a tuba, and a clarinet. it was lots of fun.

no class tomorrow, because it's a national holiday. the signing of the constitution, i think. i'm going to talk to renie about taking the kids to a park this weekend. can't wait!

omar making sure he gets every last bit of chile from his bag of chips...

i worked one on one again today...very exciting for the kids. it's fun to be able to give them specific praise when they are working with me as well as constructive criticism. every kid would learn better in a 1:1 setting, though, wouldn't they? :)

omar and teddy earned their trip to the store today after proving to me that they could correctly count money and buy things in our classroom store. i've taken them to the store tons of times but this time they knew it was for something special - something they earned. lots of fun.

marisol found a dog yesterday while we were walking that has become her new best friend and she talks about it all the time. she knows it misses her and wants her to live at gabriel house :)

it was a great couple days in the states, but weird to be back to soon. i met up with krista, my college roommate, and hung out with her on tuesday. that was so fun! then yesterday i got a bunch of work done for school. i also had the opportunity to talk with jan at mexican medical for a long time, which was great. she gave me some great counsel and helped me to figure a lot of things out.

chuy was at his monthly conafe retreat today, so i worked with the kids for half an hour each all day long. it was great. i feel like i can get so much more done and they are so much happier when it's a 1:1 setting.

i walked with marcos and marisol today, and marcos was trying to convince me to buy him a dirtbike. he had seen some drive by and i tried to explain that they were a lot of money. he goes, 'like 100?' and i go no, a lot more. and he says, 'whoa, like 110?' and then he told me becky had a lot of money and would buy him one. hahaha! kids. hilarious.