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...