All the names have been changed.

In Mexico - a child goes by his given name his fathers last name and his mother's last name (maiden).

When my mother, let's call her Victoria Anderson, was visiting she got SO confused when they asked her for her full name. She wouldn't be an Anderson at all - But a Victoria Smith(her father's last name) Johnson (her mother's maiden name).

For example:
Oscar Jones Apple marries Juliana Anderson Temple, they have a boy Alex Jones Anderson and a girl Juana Jones Anderson.
Alex gets married to Fulana Gomez Hernandez - she doesn't change her name but their baby boy's named Ricardo Jones Gomez.
Juana gets married to Marco Polo Zorro - she doesn't change her name but their baby girl is named Linda Polo Jones

And that is just how it is. Got it?

In Egypt - so my cousin tells me - it's the fathers first name that gets passed on. She is known as Kay Mike even though she is a Kay Smith state side. Her hubby's name is Joe so now their boy is Mike (named after grandpa) Joe. There is more to that name thing but that's the only part I know.

All this stuff intrigues me. I'd like to learn more about how names are done in different cultures - or I should say, how children are identified, 'cause that's really what names are - identifiers.

Can you help Owlhaven? From your ABC of the word I know we could get some answers if we ask. And if anyone else can give some information I think it could be a lot of fun seeing how names get passed on one generation to the next.

Peek inside me Weekly

A CheerioButt idea

This weeks theme:

a FIRST MEMORY of your hubby or whoever is the love of your life

(This will be a fun one , and I hope many others will participate so I can read all these "firsts", PLEASE PLAY! If you do, let me know so I can check it out.)

I was a missionary before I was a wife. Working at a school for the deaf in Mexico that receives a lot of visitors. Usually the people who come a) are family or friend to a student b) are family or friend to a staff member or b) with some visiting group C) using the RV campsite across the street. In fact I can't think of a time when this wasn't the case - except once:

A fellow staff worker and I were walking towards the playground when saw a man on his hand and knees all by himself on the basketball court. This stuck us a a bit odd.

Here's the dialogs as best as I can remember it:

Questions from us: Hi, what'cha doing?

Filling in the cracks in the cement. [cualking]

You a friend of Luke? [the school director]

no

You visiting with someone?

no

You here with a group?

no

Do you know a student here?

no

So your just down here by yourself working and you don't know anyone?

yes

How long are you gonna be here?

I think to Sunday

Who you staying with?

no one, just in my truck

And he started to show up every other weekend. Just working on whatever needed to be done, usually involving plugged up toilets. We'd see him outside a window working, or hear that he was working on something because he usually didn't (as other working groups would) come in at meals and hang out with the kids or staff. He would just come down, work, leave. Very unusual!

This impressed us all very much. This impressed me. Then I asked for a light switch to be placed at the front of the classroom to be able to get the deaf children's attention by flickering the lights on and off. So here he comes, working with the wiring while I was in there grading papers.

I saw him looking up at the loose wires, look down into a book, look up, look down . . Repeat.

I asked - "Do you know what your doing?" (subtlety is my middle name!)

"No, but I'm learning, and we'll soon find out if I got it wrong"!

When I asked him later what motivated him to come down every other weekend all by himself for no applause, and for no fellowship -just.to.work.! He said that when he came down with his church for a visit God really spoke to his heart to use his skill as a"handyman-or-I'll- learn- it" to help others. Put his skill into God's service. He continues doing that to this day.

Wordless Wednesday

Those are some big boots to fill!

Mom at the wheel!

See mom drive back from prayer meeting.

See mom get kisses *smooched* to her from road workers.

See mom be humorously tickled, since they have no idea! Never mind the baby in the back seat!

(you know, back in the day this would have had me in a feminist huff, today it made me laugh)

Tackle it Tuesday!

I'm tackling this task today, Tuesday - I'm working in my bedroom, my overall goal is to make this my personal bed&breakfast type, beautiful corner.

Today's task, the dresser: The BEFORE

It is finished!: The AFTER

Much better!*Aahh*

Out of the mouth of babes.

I don't think my brothers read this, but if you do, maybe you would like to stop now since this is addressing Granny's (aka: Mom's) Fanny -

Background: since Princess was a baby I would give her rump a pat and coo "Princess has a cute butt!!!" I was surprise one day when getting ready for a bath I saw her take her diaper off and walk towards the bath tub patting her own behind with both hands coo-ing "cute butt, cute butt"

This has now developed to patting other family members butts and saying the same "daddy cute butt" "mommy cute butt" and so forth. Even if a bare bottom was sighted whom-ever saw it would comment on it's cuteness!

Scene: Grandma, who has been a widow since I was 3 years old, is staying with us for the weekend. We are sitting down for dinner.

"I was getting out of the shower just when Princess walked in" Grandma started (by now I knew what was coming!) "and she surprised me by patting my behind and telling me I had a cute butt!"
silence
"It's been 30-odd years since someone has admired my butt!"

Captivating Beauty

Chapter 2

I've been hearing this similar theme from different sources, and one thing I've learned in this life is that I've got to pay attention 'cause God is trying to teach me something. Perhaps it is to get in touch with my feminine side?

"Perhaps I, too, was part of royalty but my position had been lost." Is anyone else having LBY flashbacks? Where Beth Moore said that the secret of the kingdom is there is a kingdom! And we are a part of it! It all speaks to me not of condemnation, but of gentle calling back to what is ours!

"This is not some weakness or insecurity on the part of a woman, that deep yearning to be desired" "It is a glory . . . that reflects the heart of God."

"A woman's struggle with her sense of worth points to something glorious she was designed to be" echoed for me the quote found on Cheerio Butt's blog site "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." C.S. Lewis

Then it just floored me to learn that Eve was made a ezer, which is used only 20 other times in the bible where the person being described is God himself when they needed him to come through for them desperately! It spoke to me of my necessity! Wow!

"The reason a woman wants a beauty to unveil, the reason she asks, Do you delight in me? is simply that God does as well. God is capivating beauty."

My *ah-ha* moment - the string that threads all these pearls together is this: We are looking and learning about God while /through learning about ourselves. We are looking in to a mirror and seeing the reflection of GOD in us! How awesome is that?! How Beautiful!

!Gaby, Te quero mucho, ya lo sabes!

Let me introduce you to Gaby -

She has been working at Rancho Sordo Mudo (RSM) for . . What now . . . 4 or 5 years? She just found my blog (he he) and so - Gaby - you let me know if that is wrong. She is amazing!
She is the only hearing one among her three siblings. Her eldest brother Carlos is our deaf pastor. She came to RSM to help, became a teacher, became my friend, learned English, and is now the principal of the school. She's got a good head on her shoulders.

Next spring she is getting married to this guy- - also deaf and a GREAT lip reader in Spanish or English. He also works at RSM as a dorm parent, school pastor and staff bible study leader. Omar really is a good guy, I've got some bragging rights since when I worked at RSM he was a student and calls me mom to this day. Guess that makes Gaby my future daugter-in-law. ;-) Here he is again at the bottom of the pile:

Doesn't he look like a dark-haired Calvin of Calvin & Hobbs?

Once they are married they plan to continue with a fire and a passion for Jesus at RSM. I told you that she was amazing! So Gaby, congratulations, and don't let the wedding planning drive you too crazy!

Ah, this is picture of Gaby with my little princess when she was almost 2. I can't tell who's cuter! ;-)

Mmmmm, a Coffee meme!

Shannon tagged me with this meme and it is my pleasure

What does your coffee mug look like?

Go here to find out.

The Chaotic Home, flying through my crazy days. did something like this, and she has threatened to collect the pictures and use them for a Thursday Thirteen. I still hope she does!

Tag! Your it!

Thursday Thirteen

Last week I did 13 things I didn't like about my house, and so for balance, here's 13 things I do like.

1. It is 2 blocks from a Mexican Starbucks twin.
2. The surrounding wall and imposing gate do make a safe place for my daughter to go play - even without any "nature" around.
3. Since my children have gotten used to the thundering traffic, they sleep though anything. Once we did have a pick-the-house-up-and-drop-it type thunderstorm (VERY RARE here) and it made my hubby and me sit up straight in our beds, but the kiddies must of thought it was just a convoy of trucks cause they slept - well - like babies.
4. The rent is WAY CHEAP even for Mexico.
5. The tub, albeit ugly green and not a jacuzzi, is huge and a girl can really get a soak on.
6. I love the granny suite, we tore up it's bathroom because it was all set up wrong and was molding, but otherwise it is a complete little studio apartment. Sure is nice to have a place like that for visitors and grandma!
7. We have 3 functioning toilets, so there's never a line
8. One of said toilets is outside on the "patio", it's the one bathroom that people who stay in the granny suite use. It's separate from the house. I like that. It provides more privacy for both visitor and us.
9. Said bathroom has a urinal in it :-)
10. I find the inside of this house is lovely.
11. It has lovely windows in the kids room and the living room.
12. Since it is walled off from the world, we don't need/use curtains.
13. It is 10 blocks from the ocean.

Something you wouldn't of guessed

From www.childrenandcheeriosontheloose.blogspot.com [blogger problems, don't ask] we get the peek-inside-me weekly . . . This weeks topic is "Something others wouldn't have guessed or a secret"

Well, my secrets are exactly that, so I will tell you something that doesn't usually come up and you probably wouldn't have guessed of me.

Back in the day I served my time in the Army National Guard. Some old pictures here, back when I actually RAN 2 miles or so on a regular basis. Long, looooong time ago.

um - no, I do not have a scanner . . . sorry.

Memory

All alone in the moonlight,

I can smile at the old days.

I was beautiful then.

(Memory, from the musical "Cats" Loyd Webber)

Tackle it Tuesday!

The kid's room had gotten bad, and the worse it got, the less I wanted to deal with it. They say that cleaning with kids is like shoveling snow when it is snowing. I pretty much let it snow me in.

Did you see the baby camouflaged in there? I thought I could have kiddos in there with me while I was cleaning - HA! - no! They are the ones that decorated it this way!!! ('sept the basket of clean clothes) What was I thinking?!?!

This actually took me a couple of days, because not only did I put away but sort, toss, and return items that didn't belong. Not able to devote hours to the job, I had to do it between diapers and dishes, a few minutes at a time.

Done! Yeah! The floor still needs to be vacuumed, but I will take success where I can find it! :-)

Want to join in? You can find information at 5 minutes for mom.

!GOOAALL! (or lack of it)

Mexico is caught up right now in FOTBOL fever (aka: soccer) while Mexico is competing for the World Cup. My hubby and I are not sports fans of anything so we kind of just live by in peaceful unaffected sports bliss, but here it is getting kinda hard. People are wearing their fotbol t-shirts everywhere and dragging their 27 inch T.V.'s to construction work sites!
Yes, you heard me right.

*blogger is not letting me post this picture, so use your imagination*

HAULING A TWENTY SEVEN INCH TELEVISION SET TO AT A CONSTRUCTION SITE SO AS NOT TO MISS THE GAME!

Part of our ministry to the deaf on my hubby's part is to take men and apprentice them in construction skills. So he is heading up construction now on a building for a neighboring ministry with some deaf men and some men from that community when yesterday he recounts this scene.

Lunch time rolls around and a fellow pulls out his TWENTY SEVEN INCH TELEVISION SET(!) and places it on a make shift table of cinder blocks and wooden planks covered by (at his wife's insistence I am sure!) a pink table cloth (see what I mean, wife's involvement, no doubt) and sets up a large tarp to provide shade for all 10 or so guys, who are sitting on buckets, cinderblock and other misc. items typically found at a construction site!

That's devotion!

This is a small town (so said aforementioned wife could walk by and check that the T.V. wasn't just sitting on DIRT!) and the roads are not paved. LOTS OF DUST! When hubby comes home he is COVERED in dirt because the dust sticks to his sweat creating a sort of automatic mud mask. The white band on his arm is where his watch usually is, so the difference is part tan, part mud . . .Sorry it's blurry- I couldn't stop laughing.

Anyway - Mexico tied in their last game 0 to 0, thus the reference to lack of goal in the title.

The "new" me!

THANK YOU! Isn't this beautiful what ChaoticHome did! YOU ARE AWESOME!!! That's me in the window peeking out at you all!

The heart of a woman

Capivating: Chapter one.

"There is something fierce in the heart of a woman." That resonated with me.
"God has set within you a femininity that is powerful and tender, fierce and alluring." What a beautiful mix! It's harmonious!

When I was in college I was buying into all the feminist garbage. By nature I do not have a domestic bone in my body - so it was easy to get wrapped up in this. I sure didn't need to be laundering someone else's socks, washing someone else's dishes!!! For love?!?! I knew what "love" was, the emotion, it was fleeting, temperamental and deceiving - so SELF-acculization, that's the goal! Be all you can be!

But I was also seeing that this mind set has destructive tendency - particularity in the home. It became clear to me that a HOME couldn't work unless there was someone there to tend to it. Then it hit me! John 15: 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" Greater love I couldn't have than to lay down my life (my self-acculization, life possibilities, potentials, possible careers) for another - a husband, children! That is a verse about marrage, people!

"How sad, what a loss" society might say, but Jesus said "whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."(Matt 10:39)

It was then that STRENGTH and BEAUTY started to co-exist for me and the mystery of woman.

I love that: THE MYSTERY OF WOMAN
I am Mystery!
How cool is that! (guffaw!)

It makes me ANGRY when I hear jokes or asides that make woman sound like a bad thing. You know what I mean?!

Yet even with our strength, to be with someone and not have to be strong, instead be taken care of, romanced, treasured . . . *sigh*

The king is enthralled by your beauty Ps 45:11
The KING is ENTHRALLED by our beauty!
THE-KING-IS-ENTHRALLED-BY-MY-BEAUTY!

-and this is just the beginning-

Thursday Thirteen

Banner by Chaotic Home

The house we rent was put together and added on to without much planning, if any. I am grateful to God for the CHEAP RENT!!!, but my list today is:

Thirteen gripes I have with the house.

1. I think that we have one, maybe two outlets that are upright. ALL the others in the house are either sideways or upside down, which is no fun for pooh, or me who likes her Wallflowers!
2. The floor in our bedroom is at a noticeable slant. I think I lay about an inch higher than my hubby when I'm laying next to him. (OK, maybe an inch is an exaggeration . . . )
3. There are light switches to mystery things - cause after a year of living here we have NO idea what they're for.
4. Speaking of light switches, notice in the picture how entry to kitchen is on the OTHER side of table to light switch for said kitchen . . . Yes this is a lot of DARK nights I'm stumbling around t get to it! Or reaching WAY over countertops to shut if off after mopping . . .
5. In the kitchen the sink is one big basin. Since I hand wash (no dishwasher: another gripe there) I like two basins for wash and rinse, you know?!
6. Also in the kitchen we have an industrial size stove (HUGE) with like 8 burners on it or something, two ovens, BUT it leaks gas so we have to manually turn the gas of and on from outside the house if we want to use the burners. Can't use the ovens because (of the leaks) the pilot lights are a burning bush size!! And we just get an house full of smoke. The gas being off during non-use hours does mean we have no hot water unless we go turn on the gas and then light the water heater.
7. But that's ok, since this two bedroom house with one granny studio has 4 bathrooms, but only ONE working shower. And we just CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHY THE OTHER SHOWERS ARE NOT GETTING HOT WATER!!!!
8. In the bathrooms there is an ugly green counter top that shows EVERY leftover spit and goop, that matches an ugly green mirror and has no near by towel rack. And do you see the white cord crossing the counter to behind the mirror-the only outlet in the bathroom .(upside down!)
9. And the bathrooms generally are designed with Huge shower space, narrow toilet space. For my broad shouldered hubby, he jokes that he backs in *beep, beep, beep*
10. In our master bathroom there is a jacuzzie - except if you try to turn on the bubbles/jets you get a shock (not good, not good), so it just serves us as a BIG bathtub - ugly green.
11. We live on a busy street that semi's and all sorts of traffic roll - ha!- THUNDER down. If we ever have had or have an earthquake, we would never know because those trucks RATTLE our windows and shake our floors enough.
12. This is our yard. The trucks are not ours, but the owners and mastermind behind this house. And the tree is fake.
13. This fortress is surrounded by a big cement wall enclosed by a HUGE red gate that is HEAVY and HARD to open. Not for the faint of heart!

Why isn't some of this fixed yet? Good question! My hubby is pretty handy at repairs too, but I've heard it said that a burnt out light bulb is the last thing to get fixed in an electricianss house. Honestly, it's that these 13 things are just a few of the MUCH MORE, also, my hubby has already fixed up several things already! And if it involves money or someone besides himself to become involved (and it otherwise doesn't directly affect him) like the stove would, it gets put to the bottom of his list.

Next week I will do 13 things I like about the house . . . Got to have balance!

Wordless Wednesday

There's more than one way to get some computer time! ;-)

Tackle it Tuesday!

I really enjoy this, a good kick in the butt for all those jobs that are easy to put off indefinitely like my daughters closet. Everything just got thrown in there. I present you as evidence:

BEFORE:

And *TA DA!* AFTER!:

Yippy! :-)

An oldie, but goodie!

If you haven't read this story, please do. It's my first blog and a story I think worth sharing. :-)

A game for you

You know that game MindTrap? I've got one for you:

It's raining, so mom thinks it would be nice to treat princess and prince to Burger King. They have a play place (real motivation, you moms know what I'm talking about). Its real close by, and so mom grabs 9mo olds baby bag and purse and out the door we go. They order their lunch, get their food, napkins, drinks, baby high chair . . . .And nest at a table near play area. Princess who was hungry has now forgotten all about food and is anxious to start climbing. OK, shoes off, and she's gone!
All goes well for about 5 minutes when all of a sudden "Oh no! Moooommmmy!"
Mom turns to see Princess walking towards in a spread eagle fashion . . . Oh no in deed!
Mom grabs baby from the high chair, grabs Princesses arm and (leaving purse behind!) runs to the bathroom. Why she bothered we don't know, but by then it was way too late.
Here's the dilemma. Mom didn't bring an extra panties or pants, 'cause we were only going to be gone a little while (why does she believe these lies!), and the baby bag is in the car.
Food is on the table, Princess still wants to get back to playing.
What is mom going to do?

Answer at the end of this meme.

This one gives me a chuckle:

1. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your father's side, your favorite candy): Mendez Truffles

2. YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of first name followed by izzle", first two or three letters of your last name followed by "dizzle"): Mizzle Pfidizzle

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal): Burgundy None

4. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your name- last 3 letters of mother's maiden name, first 3 letters of your pet's name repeated twice): Micter Sugsug

5. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The", your favorite color, the automobile you drive): The Burgundy 4Runner

And what did that poor mother do? She stripped her daughter of her wet pants and panties, stripped her son of his sweatpants (streachy!) and put them on her daughter, left baby in diapers, gave princess's rump a loving pat and sent her off to play! His sweatpants fit her like caprice, and if I had a camera I would have taken a picture, but that would have involved some foresight and obviously on that day I didn't have any.

Still, I thought the solution was pretty clever. It must be all that college education in action. ;-)

Another question: How do you know your daughter has a cold (from all those germs encountered at the play place)?

Answer: When in the early morning twilight you find smeared booger on her cheek after giving said cheek a kiss.

Wordless Wednesday

Tackle it Tuesday!

This whole morning I've been out running around. But I got to do one of my most favorite type of interpreting - for a deaf lady who is almost 3 months along in her pregnancy at her doctor's appointment. The doctor visits here in MX that I've been to ALWAYS have an ultrasound in their little rinky-dink office that smells of too much disinfectent spray. Again I am struck by the little life within - wow - moving, completely human, we even got to see the 12 week fetus suck it's thumb . . .*awww* Absolutely amazing! Now I'm home, it's 3:58, kiddos are napping (BOTH AT ONCE!!, again, absolutely amazing) so I am ready to begin my


I am going to tackle half the laundry (the kids clothes) and the dishes.

Well, I went to grab my camera and it is missing it's battery. Now I remember that the charger is in the car with the battery in it, and my hubby is off at work . . .With the car. Really, I am not trying to get out of posting my dirty laundry for all to see!

So, verbal description: - Sunday was all about church and visiting family, and then Monday we were running around doing errands and doctor appointments so both dishes and laundry have had all this time to PILE UP!! The adjectives to use are mountainous, huge, grandiose, mas que plethora, mucho, and eewww - (who left their sippy cup half filled with milk in the sink???)
Please be mindful that I have no dishwasher or dryer so that puts more time on the equation. But I will let you know once I'm done! :-)

*he he he he* :-D

I just noticed that Tackle it Tuedsday is about any job DURING THE WEEK, not just today (some of you ladies were REALLY impressing me what you could co in a day!!!)! Hey, I'm new at this! ;-) Oh well, I'll be ready for next week!

OK, got the dishes done and a load hung up, but got interrupted with dinner, a couple of diapers and potty breaks (for my 2 year old), and the house was straightened for when my hubby got home. So, yeah for me!

Traditions

My family gets together on Sunday after church for lunch - it's cool, and today we had roast beef with carrots, potatoes and hot buns . . .mmmm
Honestly I haven't had that particular meal in years, but I know that my family in MN does the same tradition and they ALWAYS have this for their lunch.

I'm curious what traditions your families have?

Ten Significant Words that Start with the Letter "G"

This was assigned to me by Yewnorkbabe:

God - sovereign, omniscient, omnipresent, three in one, the "I AM" and
"Abba" loving Father

Godiva chocolate - I may be spelling this one wrong, but those out there
KNOW this is a SIGNIFICANT word(s)

Grace - grace in my body, grace in my speech, Grace given to me by Jesus! I've had it explained to me this way: Justice is getting what we deserve, Mercy is NOT getting what we deserve and Grace is getting what we do not deserve.

Glory - one day we will SEE IT! And his Grander and Greatness!

Gentleness - I'm working on it!

Gentlemen - we need more of them, I am blessed to be married to one, yes,
very significant, if not almost lost word

Gifts - are my love language, not that it needs to be expensive or flashy, a
note will do - that speaks love for me. (like here)

German Chocolate Cake - actually my husbands favorite, not mine, I only like
the chocolate . . . :-)

Guidance - I seek it by those wiser than me, and try to give it to my
children . . . Ask for it by the Holy Spirit

Gratitude - For so much, for the above, for the future, for what has been
given me!

Our newest family member

OK, so, I am NOT a dog person, and this little thing is on probation. He's here under the condition that Hubby takes care of him. We will see how that goes. None the less he's sweet and the kiddos love him.

Happy June!

Well, yesterday I got to catch up with a bunch of friends and e-mail, so glad to, too! But at just about 3 or 4 pm as I was sitting at my computer I started to feel real funny. Like a low sugar drop - but it wasn't, it was the stomach flu coming on. My hubby was working so I was by myself with the kiddies.
What do stay at home moms do when they get the flu?
-Tend to our babies a best as we can,
-put on videos for toddler
- repeat yourself "not now, honey, mommy's sick"to any requet
-Let 9 month old wail, because he is just fine, but would rather be playing with mommy.

I feel horrible - but you've been there so I won't go into details. You know! Mommy takes care of the sick ones, she brings in the "sick" food, the gatoraid, and now when mommy is sick mommy envisions dishes ever growing - spills being left un-cleaned, whatever toddler took out, messed up, strewn - left. No bathing, no cooking , no nothing! Just means more work once I feel better.
Then to top the day off, little toddler gets BIG PUKE SICK in MOMMY'S bed! Over and over and over again. Lovely.
So today - I called in the help of my mommy!

Since she now has laundry under control and entertaining 9 month old, I'm gonna rest.