Saturday, February 27, 2010

Saturday (or is it Monday? or Sunday?)

This morning when I woke up i was so convinced it was Monday I told Beto he didn't have to go help out my uncle Bruce becuase it was raining out. then a few minutes later sitting on the couch giving Santi his bottle I thought, "oh, yea! the Sunday paper comes today with all the ads!" I was very confused for the first 30 minutes of my only February 27,2010! Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DINO MAISANO AND LAYLA BRISCO! TWO VERY SPECIAL AND LOYAL FRIENDS. MAY YOU LIVE TO SEE MANY MORE HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!


Last night I went to church for a leadership meeting learning about FriendSpeak. It is exactly like Let'Start Talking but for use in the States. Our church is ready with about 15 members who want to be 'workers" who will read with international people seeking to improve their English. This is such an awesome program. I am really excited about it and how we will be able to reach out into the community more using it, making more relationships with people with the aim of bringing them to Christ.
This morning we had another session from 8-12, a training session for church members who want to work with readers.
Afterwards I went to lunch with my mom and aunts. Thanks to my wonderful husband who took great care of Santi at home. We went home and picked up Santi and then went to see my uncle Orval.
I've just recently gotten to know my great uncle Orval Hoover since being in the States since last June. He is such a positive sweet man whom I love visiting with and wish I had more time with him in the past. He's my Grandma Walker's brother. Even being in the hospital now with breathign problems and constantly on oxygen mask, you ask him how he's doing and he says,"Oh, just fantastic!". and today because the news in his room was focused on hawaii, I found out that he took a vacation there 30 years ago with his late wife. Please pray he gets well soon so we can take him downtown on the train again and eat out. he loves that! usually because it means he can have a beer, which i guess they don't let him have in the nursing home (where he lives when he's not sick in the hospital). he's 89 years old.

After that Beto,Santi and I went to visit our 'sister' marta who's been attending the spanish speaking group on Sundays. She's been sick with stomach pains. The other night she and her husband showed up at our house out of the blue. she brought me a bag of beans she promised me awhile ago that i forgot about. i promised to make the Honduran specialty "baleadas" tomorrow for our small group so she donated the beans for that. Anyway, that night she was complaining a lot about her colon pain. we prayed for her and that night she went to the ER. But they found out what she has and it's treatable! she said another girl went in at the same time and came out being diagnosed with cancer, so she felt grateful that her condition isn't is as serious.

we visited with her at her apt. today and prayed with her again.

we went to the store and came home for dinner. Our aunt Glenda is staying with us a couple nights and that's always fun.
right now she and my mom are trying to remember how to play cribbage. it hurts my brain jsut to watch them play.
good night!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Another baptism

Last Sunday another sister from New Life Beginnings was baptised during our small group. We've been going to New Life nearly every Wednesday for a few months now. Beto gives a Bible lesson on one chapter of John and then I teach English to two residents there. Those two have been coming to our spanish-speaking small group for a while now too at our church in the afternoons on Sundays. We have lunch and then our time of singing, teaching, and praying.
Beto was priveledged to be asked to baptize our new sister.
Of course, I brought the camera! and then left it in the diaper bag which went with Santi and my family who babysat him not at church! So i'm waiting for pictures to be sent. Sorry! But praise God and please pray with us for this small group to grow. Thanks!
Oh, I must add that our dear brother and friend David Cron gave the lesson at our group on Sunday. His spanish is very good and we were very blessed by his teaching on the beatitudes. He really knows his stuff and gave a lot of interesting historical background information. Hopefully he will be able to teach again "pronto"!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Tea with Sylvia and Laura

last Saturday my mom took us all out to tea for a late (or early?) Birthday present for Sylvia who's bday is in May.
It was a lot of fun! anyone living in or near Bixby Knolls in Long Beach should definately visit Elise's Tea Shop on Atlantic.



Russian Submarine and Shoreline Village


Last Friday we had some extra free time after a very busy week and decided to spend a relaxing after noon down by the Queen Mary and Shoreline Village. We visited a Russian submarine which Beto had never been on. It was pretty amazing how many men could live in such tight places.
At Shoreline Village we tried hats on Santi, ate funnel cake and enjoyed hot drinks. It was a most beautiful day. beto said it's his favorite place of all the places he's been so far!


































My Son Guido





A very special necklace made by "uncle Seth" that earned him the name "guido".

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Spanish Small Group

Our church has seen more and more latinos coming in the last 9 months since we've been here. Not that their coming has anything to do with us but everything to do with God and his perfect timing.

It's been about a month now since we started the spanish speaking small group. We started out with about 10 adults plus 7 kids at our house and met there for a few weeks. We were too big though for the house and the kids had to play in the front room which is small for that many kids and loud being so close to the room where we were meeting.
We started meeting at the church a few weeks ago. it's going really well and works out better to have lunch together right after church and then have the Bible study.
Two members of the mother's home where we volunteer have been coming. Two of our church members work at the home so the two young ladies were coming with them. One of them was bapized last Sunday! Sadly we didn't have our camera as it was a surprise to us!
Usually Beto or another brother, Cesar, teaches the lesson. They switch off and take turns.
Praise God for His blessings and please pray with us that this group continues to grow.
Oh, I want to add that two of the members of our group, Gregorio and his wife Marta, who are from Guatemala, don't attend our church and weren't attending anywhere when we met them. Beto actually just started up a conversation (Guatemalans can spot each other anywhere!) with Gregorio last July in a thrift store and they exchanged numbers. we didn't make any contact until he called us late December out of the blue about a week before our first small group meeting. So we invited him and he and his wife have been very faithful members. I love God's timing. It's always perfect!



Santi with Marta and Gregorio.
We enjoyed a visit from two "gringos" who know spanish as well, David and Linda Cron. (David you should use this at the next Fifth sunday presentation.)

Agosto is also from Guatemalan and so full of life!

Santi reading

Santi discovered books awhile ago but has just recently really gotten into them. He liked to have someone read to him a long time ago but now he chooses his faves and brings them to me or someone else to read to him. we got out my old rocking chair from the garage that someone made for me when i was a baby in San Bernardino! It just needs a few nails tightened but Santi already sits in it as his "reading chair". I know he's going to love having his cousings from Boston and Africa read to him when they come in May!
santi is walking really great now, pretty fast, and loves to play "hide and seek". he hides behind one couch in the front room and sits real quietly. We call him and pretend we can't find him and he scoots back even more behind it and stays quiet until we get real close. When we see him he crawls out real fast and tries to "scare" us.
In just three weeks he'll be a year. any ideas for a party?


Here also are pics of him crawling up the fireplace which habit we've had to break him and obviously having been with Seth who likes to hike up his pants. Lovely.










Saturday, February 06, 2010

Let's see...
Today up at 5;30am with Santi. It just gets earlier and earlier!
After everyone else was up, Beto,Santi and i did a lot of errands.
We went to Home Depot first. We had to buy more rope to tie down our tarp on the roof. I remember now that i got up at 2:30am becuase of my cough and the ceiling in the kitchen was leaking. I felt bad because I had asked Beto to remove the tarp from the skylight to let the sunshine in better. And then Beto felt bad for not putting back the tarp, and then mom felt mom since she got a little mad at us for both of those things!
then we went to the Lkwd. mall to Target. Two stories! I didn't like it b/c I hardly ever go and didn't know where to find the one thing i needed to buy, but I found the baby bottle dept. in about 1 minute. then we went to Michael's where Beto didn't buy any expensive paint but I found some finger paints for Santi. He's a little young still but it was a fun little five minute activity to do with him. maybe next time i won't do it in the afternoon when he's really tired.

I do remember now that mom and I started to day off at 10am getting mani/pedis, and I got my eyebrows waxed for the first time since katy Baucum YATES got married!I havn't felt so female in quite awhile. I think i lost five pounds in eyebrow hair!

After michael's Beto and i got a snack at mcDonald's and went home. The night was a usual...dinner, bath for Santi, bottle to bed, TV and computer.

Tomorrow we all go to church for the first time in a few weeks b/c we all finally feel well! yea! Praise God!

Friday, February 05, 2010

Today....and yesterday

Yesterday (i'll start chronologically), was a pretty good day. Santi and I took a long walk and he fell asleep during most of it. I thought it would start to rain on our walk but it didn't rain at all yesterday.
In the afternoon I could tell that Santi was ready for another nap but he does not like to give up so easily! So i put him in the stroller and about half a block out he was a bobble head once again. So I turned around and went home quick and put him in his crib. Then I headed to the store. aaahhh...a trip to the grocery store now for me is like a mini-vacation. I was taking my time when RING ! (although, my phone doesn't RING, you know, like that. It plays some kind of asian sounding song, but techno-y) Anyways...my mom said Santi woke up as soon as I drove out of the drive-way and wouldn't stop crying. She didn't know what was wrong. She thought he had a stomach ache. He didn't want to be held but when he got down off her lap he just laid down and put his head on the floor. So I come home and as soon as I take him he stops crying and just looks at G.ma like, "Ha ha...I got my mommy now." ugh, I so didn't want him to ever go through this stage. But I guess better now than when he's 20,right?

So after calming him down, I take him to the store with me and he was fine the whole time! He loooves the store and waves at all the people.

Today we took Aunt Cindy to one of her appointments and then went out for a little snack and did an errand, and now I'm home. It's raining and we're just waiting for Santi to wake up so mom and I can go to Costco. YEA! So exciting! I'm sure Santi won't know how to control his excitement.

Oh, and by the way. He'll be one year in just a little over a month! I can't believe it! I still think of him as three months.

Manhattan Beach






We had too much cream cheese in the fridge, and NO BAGELS! That's how this whole day got started. I decided to take a day trip to Manhattan Beach Bread Co. where they have really great bagels and cream cheese, which we didn't need but of course I had to get their strawberry flavored one. So since Beto was free and we were going all the way out there anyways, we went down to the beach for about an hour. It was Santi's first (or second?) time feeling sand and he didn't much like it, but he loooooves looking at the birds and even attempts to say "bird", which kind of sounds like "bvvvvvvf". Not bad!

Learning from Dada



Santi meticulously watching Beto transplant his apple seeds.