Bitter or Better

I know. I know.  I haven't written for quite a while.  Although I do believe I did write one of Brian's posts.  It's not like I haven't been writing.  I have filled up an entire journal since we have been in Mexico and I'm several pages into my second one.  We have always wanted to be honest with our posts on our blog, but there is a point to censoring some things.  Not that I'm hiding anything, but somethings are best left in a journal and not for all the public eyes to see.  At least not right now.  As I was reading and writing in my journal I thought I should write on my blog so here it goes. 

I've been reading this book by Donald Miller, "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years".  It's not a "super spiritual book", but there are definately things that hit you.  It's a book all about writing a story with your life.  One that would be worthy of reading.  The book is about a lot of things that I have thought about to some extent before.  But so many things that we have thought about or learned, we constantly need to be retaught and relearn. 

I knew moving to another country would not be easy.  Especially with three young children.  There's a difference between "knowing" something and then actually living something.  I'll be quite honest, so many times I have wanted to get on a plane, fly back to the United States, and be done.  As I read this book a couple of things popped out at me.  At a writers conference Robert Mc Kee says this, "You didn't think joy could change a person, did you? Joy is what you feel when the conflict is over.  But it's the conflict that changes a person."  I absolutely hate conflict.  I would avoid it at all cost if I could, but it's the difficult things in life that change us and mold us, not what's easy.  I guess I should take "joy" in that!  (Yes, I have been constantly reminded that Joy cannot change a person, only God can.) 

A second thought is the idea that you can go through difficult times and they do not make you into a better person because you have the wrong attitude.  This was a good reminder.  Hard times can make a person bitter or better.  It's crucial to make sure that during those hard times I focus on the getting better part. 
You can't help, but change through a conflict.  So better make it for the best, not the worst. 

Our Own Little Prison!

We have now been living in our house here in Mexico for about 5 months. One little odd thing about the house is how some of the doors lock, especially upstairs. They tend to lock from the side that would make little sense. One such room is the upstairs balcony/sunroom (pictured below). This is a wonderful room, but the door locks from the inside, not the outside. No doubt this is due to Mexican security issues, but it can lead to some problems. With that being said, it has never been a problem until this week and until Joelle decided to make it a problem.

On Wednesday, I stayed home from school with a sprained ankle. At the end of the day, I was sitting in the sunroom when Joy and the kids came home. We sat up there for a while and talked. Joy, gave me the ankle brace the school was so nice to loan me. As we sat there talking, Joelle came running in and BAM, slammed the door behind her on the way. Somehow she had also turned the lock and there it was, we were locked in.

One really nice feature of the room is that all of the windows slide all the way open to really make it an open air room. After we realized we were locked in, we opened all the windows and tried to yell out to our next door neighbor. Regretfully for us, only one neighbor looked to be home and they weren't answering our calls for help. Luckily, I had my computer in the room recording some verses so we decided to log on to facebook and make a plea for help. Luckily, one of the other teachers was on, and came over. After about an hour of "good family time" we were rescued. We thought we learned our lesson!

We had not! Yesterday, I was home with the kids as it was an off day for students. The kids were playing up stairs and I was reading down stairs. I told the kids to get their shoes as we had to the grocery store. When I said this, David came down with a worried/guilty look on his face. Here is how the conversation went. "Joelle, locked herself upstairs". "What do you mean Joelle is locked upstairs?" "She ran into your room and locked the door". "Well tell her to unlock it." "She can't, she also locked herself on the balcony." "WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE LOCKED HERSELF ON THE BALCONY!".

I was hot. I went up stairs and sure enough, my room was locked and then looking out the small balcony I could see the top of Joelle's head through the glass and hear her crying. I convinced her to calm down and then tried to get her to unlatch the windows. She got the first 3, but the fourth latch was stuck and she couldn't get it. I tried to climb onto the small roof to help, but all I could do was encourage her. I climbed back onto the balcony and tried to think of other ideas.

I first thought, I could unscrew the door knob. Problem, my screwdrivers were all in the laundry room which can only be accessed through our bedroom. That idea was shot! I then thought, I will call Joy at school and ask her to come home with a screwdriver. Problem, my phone was in the pocket of my jeans on the floor of our bedroom. I sat there flustered. I got a little frustrated with David. (I didn't mention that the reason Joelle had locked herself in was because David had stolen the Mexican Flag she made at school and wouldn't give it back. She finally got it and ran into our room quickly to protect it from him.) I told David to go search all the drawers downstairs for a screwdriver while I tried to think of other ideas. David a little while later came to the rescue. He found a tiny toy screwdriver that came with a pack of batteries we bought. It took me a while to unscrew the door knob, but we got it and Joelle was rescued. If I didn't already say, the kids are now banned from the balcony!

Blog for Dogs AKA (Dog on a Hot Tin Roof and American Sissy)

This is my one and only blog for the dogs.   Dogs are a big part of life here.  It is hard to find a family that doesn't have a dog and a house that that doesn't have two in the front yard.   I personally do not care for it a bit.   While some of these dogs are family pets, many of these dogs also offer a bit of protection as they bark menacingly at everyone who passes the gate (namely me).  There are also quite a few strays, which are always harmless, but they still scare me to death.   There are two interesting things about dogs here that makes the experience even more unique. 

First, because of the lack of lawns many people put there dogs on their roofs (as most roofs are flat).   This is quite a site (like above) at first, but you get used to it.   I do always wonder though, when these roofs spring a leak don't you have to worry a little bit about what is dripping into your house? 

Secondly, I think most of the men in our colonia think me to be quite a sissy.  Mexican pay no heed to dogs.   They scare me to death.  Below you will see what a normal walk looks like.  You simply walk down sidewalks right next to every gate.  You never know when a dog is going to jump up (below) from any gate.  It never phases the Mexican men.   I wish I could say the same.  Every time they catch me off guard I jump like a scaredy cat.   On more then one occassion I have seen a group of workers giggling at the gringo scared of dogs.    I am sure they are used to the American Sissy!

Living a Life Lacking Real Relationship

I spend at least an hour a day if not more walking. During this time, in a bustling city like Guadalajara, I literally might encounter 100 people. I say Buenos Dias, or Tardes, or Noches dozens of times and I smile as big as I can hoping to convey the thought that I am a friendly, good natured person to all I meet. I dive in and out of markets and stores, exchanging brief pleasentries with shop owners, butchers, restaurant workers, and the like. Rarely do these conversations go beyond the general "How are you doing/Como Estas". Every once in a while they contain a couple of additional sentences of intrigue "Are you from the States", "Do you live here", "What do you do", etc, etc. I actually enjoy these little encounters. Not only do I get to practice my Spanish, but a little part of me thinks that all of the smiling I do must be paying off in that they think me worthy enough for additional questions. I give money to beggers on the street and can say little more then God Bless and I walk away.

The point I am making is that most of my encounters do not even involve the opportunity for real relationship (School Not Counting) because of language barriers. This got me honestly thinking "Even if I could speak fluently, would I really try to develop "real relationships"". Many have told me that Mexico is a superficially friendly culture. I then ask "What country isn't?". Then I think, am I a superficially friendly person? Did I go out of my way to create real relationship in the States when I had a shared language? The answer, sometimes, but not enough.

So often being here I wish I could have real relationship because I desire to share the gospel with those here. Luckily, Joy and I both get to do this regularly with our students, but rarely ever outside those walls.

I guess the personal challenge I felt issued to me as I walked today was to strive for real relationship when the opportunity at hand. Relationship that can allow for real honesty, compassion, and challenge. Relationship that can lead to change in both yourself and the person you have come to know.  A relationship where where we can impact others for Christ.   I think a lot of us fail to grasp this opportunity regularly outside our close circle, I know I do.

Our Vacation with The President

We had an amazing weekend whale watching. We had wanted to go to Puerto Vallarta to see the whales since we found out about them in September, but hadn't been able to until this weekend. We had planned it a few times and it fell through. We picked out a three day weekend and booked it!

The minute we were able to leave on Friday we were ready. Only problem the taxi wasn't. Luckly we made it to the bus station with 15- 20 minutes to spare. We accidently picked the wrong bus stop, extending our trip about an hour. Once we were on the bus and in our seats Brian and I both thought, "Wow, we really should do this more." That is until the first movie came on. Two "R" rated movies in a row and then a french concert. They were the type of movies that you couldn't let your child even see. It was a very difficult trip trying to keep them preoccupied so that they didn't even look up. Joelle fell asleep towards the end of the trip and woke up and had an accident in the bus bathroom. I kept thinking, "was this REALLY worth it! I better see whales!"

God was gracious to us and did allow us to see Whales the next morning. In fact, we were only in the boat 15 minutes by the time we saw the first ones! We saw more than one baby calf with it's parents. They like to teach the babies to eat and survive at Puerto Vallarta because it's the second largest bay in the world and it's the deepest one. We saw at a distance whales jumping out of the water, fully breached. As we raced to see them closer they continued to jump. Two whales leaped at the same time whole body out of the water. It was amazing. Edan said to me later, "It was like we were in a movie!" One came up out of the water right by our boat to check us out!

Joelle was cold and pouty at first. She leaned over to me and said, "I don't want to swim with the whales!" I laughed and said, "No one is swimming with them this time." She was remembering our trip out to see the turtles and how we had tried to get her to go in the water. Every time she agreed to get in she ended up screaming because it was so cold. At the end of the trip, we went to a reef and fed tropical fish. A couple of the teachers snorkled.

The whales weren't the only excitement on our trip. We stayed in the same hotel as the Mexico's President, Felipe Calderon. We had taken a walk on the beach and were going to wait to watch the sunset. We noticed that the hotel was putting up metal detectors at all the entrances. We also saw two fully armed soldiers at each end of the Marriott's beach property. We then looked out at the water and there was a big navy boat right off shore and then we looked up and saw a army helicopter circling. We found out by our friends that there were also tanks in the front of the hotel. I jokingly said to Brian, "It's the President. He's staying at our hotel." It was hillarious when we found out that the joke was actually true!

The rest of the time we spent lounging (watching) at the pool or the beach as the kids played. Our ride back was much better. We shortened it by an hour (even though our bus got a flat tire and had to fix it). We asked the bus driver if he could put movies on that children could watch and he put on two. Joelle still had another accident, but we were prepared with a change of clothes. I'm sure Brian will get on here and edit, add and change the post, but I was so excited about the video Brian got of the whales I decided to go ahead and hit "Publish Post".

The Power of Negative Thinking

You know the saying "The power of positive thinking" well, I think there is definately power in negative thinking as well.  It's very powerful and controlling!  The problem is it begins to build into bitterness, discontentment, and frustration.  There are definate times that you need to bring things up and challenge people when you see things that are in need of change.  You see this in Acts 6:1 when some believers went to the apostles because widows where being over looked.  That can be very benificial, the problem arises when you start only seeing the negative. 

The last few weeks have been difficult.  There were things that could not be avoided, but my very wise husband had to check me today, telling me that now I needed to start focusing on the positive.  If I didn't then the negative would eat me up and spit me out.  Okay those weren't exactly his words, but my paraphrase.  I knew he was right.  I now need to turn my attention back on being a joyful positive person. 

Here are some of my positive out looks for the day.

1.  I love my 6-2 class they are so great!  They are so much fun and have a great spirit about them!

2.  I had a really great time of prayer with one of the teachers today.

3.  Even on a overcast morning in Mexico it is STILL beautiful!

4.  Brian and I went out for Starbucks today.  We usually get to go out for a few minutes at Starbucks once a week during school.

5.  My husband brought me home a churro!  One of my favorite desserts in Mexico.  (A guy sells them on the street corner a few days a week.) 

6.  We have a three day weekend.

7.  Husband with wisdom in knowing what to say to me.

Mr Young's Dorky Accomplishment

It is not uncommon during class to hear a student say "Mr Young, how many steps are you at today?" Following the question, I look down at my belt and you guessed it, I read my pedometor. Yes, I wear a pedometor every day on my belt. And Yes, it does make me dorky. The students have actually gotten a kick out of it, but we do tend to run into some problems where regurally a student will say, "Mr Young, I have been watching your Pedometor for the last couple of minutes and it missed a couple of steps you took." Of course these 2 minutes the student watched the pedometer also encompassed the time I either explained the day's assignment or gave notes. Educationally speaking it might lack merit, but for me personally it has been great.

While it has turned me into a self professed dork (Those who have known me for a while would probably tell you I have always been one), it has also led to a sort of dorky accomplishment. For the first time in about 5 years, my weight has made it to the 180's. On my weekly weigh in this morning, I registered in at 188. For those of you quick to think the scale might be broke, I weighed in last week at 190 so it's not to far off. While 188 may not still be the goal weight for a guy that likes to say he is 5'10 (That's 1.75 meters here, my students have no idea of inches and feet and I am one of the world's few science teachers who has not mastered the metric system!) it's not bad when just two Christmas' ago I was trying not to break 210!

That has been one of the many blessings I feel I have personally received here in Mexico. The beautiful weather, a beautiful, Mexico before modernization, neighborhood to walk daily, and a local market that rivals any great August Midwestern farmer's market have helped create a healthier lifestyle. If the scale reading wasn't enough encouragment, Edan last night (unprompted and out of context) said "Dad in Mexico your belly has gone from big to regular."

I thought about doing a before and after picture for you as they do in all weight loss commercials, but I couldn't find a bottle of spray on suntan lotion that is a prerequisite for the after photo!

Here's to being dorky, and here's to 188!