2 days to go!!

I got through another day at work. Michelle had a haircut tonight so Jonathan & I hung out. We got him his first big boy bike on Sunday. I put it together in hopes that he could ride it Monday after daycare, but of course, we get several inches of wet, heavy snow. J has been relegated to learning to ride inside on the hardwood floors. Needless to say we have been cleaning the black marks off the floor since Sunday night. Today was a Mommy day so they went to Veteran's Park here in Richfield and he got to ride some there. After dinner and his show (Larry Boy & the Fib) we took a nice walk/ride and were gone for about 40 minutes. When we got back I gave him a bit of a haircut, of course at 3 a bit of a haircut is all that he will allow us to do. He has been rather challenging lately.

Thanks to our friends Nick and Sue from down the street for the free tickets, we took Jonathan to his first MN Twins game last night. He kept demanding to go onto the field but I told him he needs a Major League contract to go down there. Granted, at 3 his has a killer arm and can hit a pitched ball, but he's not quite ready for that. Now he keeps saying that he wanted to go down on the field but the pitcher said no! We made it through 6 innings before heading home. When we left it was 4-1. It ended up being 9-1. As J says, "not to good".

So with 2 days left before we leave, I started packing after the game last night. Fortunately I have been getting organized for the better part of a week now and came up with a packing list so I am probably 80% done packing and it didn't take more than 15 minutes to do. I still have to decide on the dress up clothes and the going out clothes but I'll do that tomorrow night after our last team meeting.

I am very excited about the trip. It promises to be some hard work but it should be a fulfilling time. I really want to make it over to Atenas to see Tim & Dena Stromstad at the Home of Life. It is still questionable if we as a team will get to go there. I would find a way to go alone if need be. It would be such an incredible additional experience I do not want to miss. It is 1 hour west of San Jose so its not that far in the grand scheme of things. If you don't know that much about Home of Life (Hogar de Vida) go to http://www.homesoflife.org/

Well that's all for now. Its off to start packing my carry on bag and get ready for bed. More before I go...

A month later...

I am still here. By the time J goes down for bed and I catch up with my emails, I am too exhausted to do any writing. I have tried at least 3 times in the past week but don't get past the title. I am pretty wiped out tonight but I committed to myself that I would get something written.

In 2 weeks I will be recuperating from our first day of building a concrete wall in San Jose Costa Rica. The plan, as it currently stands, is that we will be building a 20' X 100' concrete block wall that will be a sound barrier between the new gymnasium/auditorium and the neighbors. As with all mission trips, we are going down preparing to be flexible. At our last team meeting we talked about all the concrete tools we are going to bring down with us, and watch, we don't do concrete but end up painting all week. Either way I'm bringing plenty of ibuprofen and a heating pad.

I bought a couple web cams off eBay so hopefully I can get them set up and figured out so that both Michelle & I can use them so we can see each other and Jonathan can see Daddy while I'm gone.

Its taken me about 30 minutes just to write this much and my brain is fading so I will sign off. More to come...

Check-in

Its 10:00 PM & I'm just getting to the "me" time of the evening. It seems to be taking longer and longer to get Jonathan down every night. He likes me to lay down with him while he winds down so its a good time to connect with the little guy.

Jonathan has made some pretty big growing up break throughs lately. He is suddenly potty training. Its fun to see his face just after he announces he needs to go potty, runs into the bathroom and does his business by himself. If you come over to the house be prepared for the sight of a naked 3 year old running around. He is just not into diapers lately, literally, with the whole potty training thing.

A note about the Costa Rica trip. We had a meeting last Thursday. Right now there are 7 of us confirmed on the team. We are about 5 weeks from the trip. The biggest prayer request right now is that down in Costa Rica they are still waiting for the building permits. The building should go up quickly once they get the permits. Everything we are planning on doing in San Jose is dependant on those building permits getting through and the assembly of the building being complete.

As for my funding, things are going well. I've got somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 of the $1425 accounted for with more on the way, at least I've been told.

Well its time to hang it up for the night while I'm still conscious. More to come...

Feb 13

Just sitting in the living room. Michelle & Jonathan are off to bed and I'm updating my podcasts and listening to some music (Dan Fogelberg - RIP - currently).

It was a rough day yesterday. I woke up at 4:45 AM after getting up with J at around 1:30. I was out the door by 5:45 when Jenny & Jim gave me a ride to the airport. Jenny flew out to Delaware via Philadelphia and I was off to Appleton, WI. I conducted a meeting at 11:00 and had another one scheduled at 1:30 in Oshkosh. I found out when I got there that I got bumped by the VP of Nursing at Mercy Hospital there in Oshkosh. I used the rest of the afternoon to deliver our brochures to the Nephrologist offices in the Fox Valley. By 5:00 I was back at the airport in Appleton, returning the rental car - a Ford Mustang, which I will not recommend to anyone over 6' and over 230 lbs (which I got that covered). It was about as comfortable as sitting in the Turbo Prop airplane for the hour long flight. I got in at about 8:00 and Michelle and J picked me up. It was a long day.

On Sunday Michelle & I had a discussion that put the Costa Rica plans temporarily on hold. She went to Cass Lake in Northern MN for work from Thursday through Saturday afternoon. So I was home alone with J. So here he was, missing Mommy and fresh off losing his nummies. There were times when it wasn't pretty. She was thinking that if he was difficult for 3 days without Mom, how is he going to be with me gone for 10 days. Well, we talked it over and she talked to a friend and the plans are back on. I postponed mailing out my support letters until it was resolved so now I have some time to make up for. Guess what I'll be doing during my lunch break tomorrow.

So speaking of Costa Rica. Michelle took Jonathan to Burger King in Richfield for dinner tonight since they have a pretty good kids play area. Jonathan always has a good time going to those kinds of places. I think this was his first time at Burger King. While J was playing, Michelle was talking with another mom. Turns out that they live about 5 blocks away and her son is about 6 months older than J. They go to the Evangelical Free Church on around 49th & Chicago and she is originally from Costa Rica. She emigrated here about 5 years ago. Who knows maybe its providence that Michelle met her at this time. It seems like there have been a few of these instances lately. They hit it off and exchanged phone numbers so there may be some playdates in the future and discussions about Costa Rica.

I'm back

Did you miss me? I thought that I'd move my blogging over to my Yahoo! 360 page. That went about as well as my previous attempts here. So I am back, just in time to start blogging about my preparations for my trip to Costa Rica in April.

I am going with a group of about 10 from Cedar Valley Church in Bloomington. We have been going to CVC since August of 2007. The team is going to San Jose, Costa Rica to help build a gymnasium/auditorium at a Bible College there. There is a missionary family there from Minnesota that we will be working with. They are Jon & Jennifer Dahlager. They lead the national ministry for pastor's kids, pastor a church and teach in the Bible College. They sound busy. If you want to check them out, their website is: www.dahlager.org.

So since the trip is less than 2 months away, I am going to be sending out my support letters in the next couple days and get my application in the mail by Friday so I can actually go on the trip.

Well its been an exhausting day ending in Jonathan going cold turkey on his "nummies". To most people they are know as nuks or pacifiers, but hey they are nummy so why not call them that? He went to the pediactric dentist this morning for his first check-up and they said that his teeth are starting to bow out so the time to give up the nummies is now. It's looking to be a rough night and with Michelle going to Cass Lake in Northern MN tomorrow night through Saturday for work, it'll be a long few days.

All for now. Stay tuned for the on going saga that is life in Mayotopia...

7 Months later...

So Post #3. Exactly 7 months from the last post. Its somewhere in the neighborhood of 5:30 AM. I really don't like this neighborhood but with a 10 month old son who wakes up (only on my nights) what are you going to do?

Since the last post I started work on my MBA. I am 3/4 through my first class and I am loving it. It looks like I may go on-line for my next class since the scheduling doesn't work out for the classroom sessions. I am doing Marketing Management now. Our major project is a Marketing Plan and I am using Midwest Special Ops Paintball as my company. Fortunately I have had a version of a business plan in the works for awhile now so a lot of my research was already done. I've realized that a formal business plan is going to have to be a lot longer. My market plan so far is nearly twice the size as my old business plan and I probably have another 3-5 pages of material left to cover.

Got my new laptop the other day. I haven't got the wireless network up yet but a call to the owner of Mayo Tech Solutions in Tennessee should solve that.

I got contact lens yesterday. I wore them for about 5 hours to get use to them. I think they are going to work nicely. It will be especially nice since Jonathan is in a very grabby stage and my glasses were one of his favorite targets.

More later as I strive for a more perfect Mayotopia...

Only the 2nd Post?

Welcome back to Mayotopia, where its a beautiful day.

There goes that every couple of days idea. Well as anyone with a job and an infant can tell you, there is not much time for much else.

The elections in Iraq were two days ago and showed the world that democracy is a pretty good idea even if you face the possibility of death just for showing up to the polls. Think of it, this is the first time Iraqis could have a say in how they are governed and some 60 - 70% of eligible voters showed up even though they could have very well been killed just for being on the street that day. And in the U.S. we can't even get that kind of percentage in a major election even when people are offering rides to the polls. We have definitely become complacent and rather ignorant in this country of ours. Shame on us. Think of the millions who have died around the world in pursuit of the freedom we don't even think about.

Speaking of shame. Would Senator Kennedy please just shut up already? Can anyone tell any good this man has done while he has been in public office? Sorry I can't be fair and let everyone bring up something that Ted Kennedy has screwed up, words he misspoke, someone he killed, or just proved that he is anti-American and anti-democracy because frankly we don't have that kind of time. If Tom Daschle can be voted out of the Senate then please can Kennedy be next in line after Minnesota's own embarrassment Mark Dayton. Could Dayton try to be anymore like Kennedy? Oh I hope not. Don't worry America, we will have plenty of volunteers to run against Dayton on the next go round, that is if his own party doesn't get to him first.

American is not a country of socialistic beliefs. We are a nation founded on Liberty, Justice and the knowledge that every human can achieve success through their own effort. We are a nation that has morals. Character does matter and our country's leadership must wake up to these principals. Some have and are now occupying the White House, the majority in the House and Senate and can be found across every state in the land. The problem is much deeper that politics, its about your soul. If you love power and money then what you do will reflect that. If you love justice and mercy and walk humbly with your God then your life will reflect that. Which would you rather see in the mirror??????

Good night from Mayotopia. We'll keep the common sense coming.