Flooded again!

Okay, since February of 2006 we've rented three houses, had three great sets of landlords and had three flooded houses. What is up with that? In our previous 33 years we've never had a flooded house!!

Yep, the garage of our rental flooded today. I had a load of laundry in the washer and Ralph opened the door to the garage and found the floor covered with water. When I came to check it out I also noticed that the washer was full of dirty water and the utility sink was also full of of the same. So we called our landlords and they came out within a couple of hours along with a Roto-rooter guy.

Turned out the sewer line between the house and the street was partially blocked in a few places with tree roots which caused the line to back up to the lowest spot in the system, the garage. So the Roto-rooter guy went to work with a big snake thing, a camera and a blade to cut the roots out. It took about three hours to do the job, including treating the line with a root killing substance of some kind. Which meant I had to wait another three hours after that to use any water in the house. Finally, I was able to re-wash the laundry, twice more actually. Once with hot water and double soap and then a regular wash and dry.

We are hoping this is our last bit of water in a house for a while. Have to say our landlords were great! They reacted right away, stayed through the whole process and even brought me a bouquet of roses from their garden. We certainly have been blessed by them!!

Time flies

A friend noted the other day that I haven't blogged in a long while and I thought yes I have, then I looked today and found it had indeed been a month. Doesn't seem that long...

We've been busy concentrating on finding jobs. It's interesting because the vast majority of the jobs offered now-a-days are offered online. No more schlepping around town banging on doors!! All city, county, state and federal jobs are advertised online as well tons of jobs from local companies. In fact, some don't even keep applications on hand in their businesses they just refer you to their web site. Even if they advertise in the local paper the ad often refers you to their web site to apply. That's a big change that we've never encountered before. Makes it kind of interesting. Still takes hours and hours, but at least we aren't out there wasting gasoline!

The state of Washington has a new E-recruiting system, and personally, I can't stand to use the thing and I consider myself a pretty technical person. It's just hard to use!! I'm on at least my fourth password and I've used their tech line for help a few times, so I try to avoid using it at all. Apparently a lot of state agencies are avoiding it too. More and more are posting jobs on their individual agency sites rather than using the new all-encompassing system. So rather than having a "one stop" job site it's all fragmented again. Oh well. Keeps things interesting. We continue to apply for anything that seems relevant and we still need your prayers to find the jobs we need. Thanks!

Also keep our health in your prayers as our medical coverage expires on September 30! We've both had checkups and are fine, although our doc is doing a little follow-up with Ralph this week and then we both should be done for a year or two.

We've been so blessed to have this house, the peace and quiet when we are home is fabulous and we have had lots of visits from friends and family. We've also done a fair piece of visiting others too. My old office even invited us to their monthly potluck lunch...it was a Mexican theme and they figured I might have a good new recipe or two. Good thinking. I made pollo en mole de cacahuate...one of Ralph's and my favorites. That's chicken in peanut sauce. There was a ton of really great food there. This group has always had a great crop of great cooks and it was wonderful to visit and catch up with everyone.

We've had some sad things happen too. Our friends and former neighbors, the Krumlands, lost their youngest son in a car crash at the end of August, just before his 46th birthday. We are friends not only with them, but with one of their daughters, MerrieLynn and her family, too. Please keep these families in prayer as they are still struggling with this great loss. The Krumlands spend a month in Mazatlan each year and are known in that community as well.

Our fellow worker in Mazatlan, Mary Ann, also lost her mom. She'd been diagnosed with cancer earlier this spring and thankfully the Jackson's were on furlough so Mary Ann was able to be with her mom for her last months. Please keep the Jacksons and their family in prayer.

My cousin Donna, who visited us this past spring in Mazatlan, fell while volunteering at church and broke her hip! She's had surgery and is now in rehab, hoping to get back home in a couple of weeks. It's been a struggle for her because she's one busy woman and likes her independence. She misses her camera club, book club, exercise classes at the Y every day, etc. She can't wait to get home!! We were kind of hoping and praying that she'd be home for her 75th birthday on October 2, but it doesn't look like that will happen. So, we'll be celebrating with her there!! Can't let that milestone go by without some sort of shindig!

We were able to trade our truck for a nice newer Hyundai and we are so thankful! It is cheaper to drive (gas here has been hovering between $2.75 and $3.05) and cheaper to insure. Plus...I CAN DRIVE IT!!!! I've driven three times in the last two weeks!! Woohoo! It's nice to get behind the wheel again.

Our new telephone service allows us to make long distance calls to the US and Canada at no extra charge, so we have been taking advantage of that luxury! Even got to talk with my friend Brenda twice while she was on furlough in Canada. We can only e-mail usually when she's in Pakistan so it was nice to talk with her. We've talked with loads of other friends and family members too, so that's been nice.

Bottom line is we are happy to be home!! Thanks so much for your prayers for us and others! What a great blessing you are to us!

A God thing

Before we left Mazatlan Ralph had been looking for a rental house for us without much luck. Most were beyond our budget or the landlords were not interested in renting to two unemployed former missionaries! Then there were those who would be happy to rent to us unemployed folks, just needed first and last months rent in advance and triple the normal deposit. Whoa! So we figured we might be imposing on the kids for quite a while, at least until one or both of us got a job.

Just as we were getting ready to leave town though Ralph saw an ad for a house that fit our needs and was within our budget and asked our friends Carolyn and Robyn to check it out for us, as it was in their neighborhood. They tried for several days to connect with the landlord before they themselves had to leave town, but they had no luck reaching them. So they passed it off to our friends Bob and Sue and they finally did connect with them and did a preview for us. They sent us an e-mail while we were on the road and said it was a nice house, the only thing was it was a little dated (love the 70s) and had a really steep driveway. So as we were passing through Olympia on our way to the kids' house we stopped and took a look ourselves, liked what we saw and called the landlords. They came out and met us and the rest is history!! We signed the lease this past Monday and have officially moved in as of Friday night!!

We are so thankful to have this house and it is truly a God thing. Even without either of us having a job the landlords rented to us and we only had to pay the rent and a small deposit. It's really big, about 1900 square feet and is in the Ken Lake neighborhood in Olympia. We even have a peek-a-boo view of the lake from the living room. Here are some pictures.

The house itself:



The front entry:



This is the living room:



Looking from the living room to the dining room:



The nook off the kitchen:



Standing in the nook looking through the kitchen to the dining room:



The family room off the kitchen:



The master bedroom:





The master bedroom, dining room and family room all open out to a nice patio in the back:



The back yard is terraced because we are on a hill:



The office:



The guest room:



And Ken Lake, just across the road and a little down the hill:



We both had job interviews this week too. I had a phone interview a week or so ago, and then had a second interview with them this past Wednesday. Ralph also had an interview on Wednesday. We are both hopeful and hope to hear early this next week. Please continue to pray about jobs and a second vehicle for us.

Thank you so much for your prayers!! We love you guys!!!

The trip home

We had a completely uneventful trip home to Washington and we are thankful to you for your prayers for us. We drove pretty much straight through, but I still managed to snap a few pictures along the way.

This is one of our last Mexican sunsets for a while:



One of about 8 or so military checkpoints as we headed north to the border. Trucks were backed up for MILES at each one of them. We were thankful we were not a trucker. There were also a few inspections for fruit and veggies along the way too.



Crossing the border was pretty easy, though there was about a 45 minute wait to actually get to the border. They took one look at the truck and pointed us to the inspection lanes. Bummer. But they simply had us open the back and then they rummaged around in the stuff in the back seat and cooler and sent us on our way. Woohoo!!

Sadly a Mexican family in the lane next to us didn't disclose that they had a mango and it cost them $300 USD in fines and the agents were pretty much taking their car apart to search it more thoroughly as we were leaving. Homeland Security keeping us safe from mango smugglers.

We did stop overnight at Lake Havasu City in Arizona so I could see the famous London Bridge. I had wanted to do that when we lived in Arizona but never made it over there. It was a nice break.

The lake itself is backed up behind Parker Dam.



It was 113 degrees as we strolled down near the lake to view the bridge. It really is a pretty sight!





The mud swallows apparently like the bridge structure as there are hundreds and hundreds of nests on the bridge.



We continued on our journey north and were shocked at how low Lake Shasta was and how very little snow there was on Mt. Shasta. Never seen it quite like this.







And I couldn't resist this shot of a rubber ducky as we stopped to get gas. He was HUGE! They were having a charity duck race in this town and he was part of the promotion for the race.



It's good to be back in America!!

Our neighbors in Mazatlan

As we are finishing up here it dawned on me that we have never taken pictures of the neighbors who have been dear to us here in Mazatlan! So I snapped some pictures as they visited with us today.

First are Roberto and Virginia. They are the first people we met when we moved here and they are the sweetest couple. They are both teachers, though she has officially retired. She still tutors students though. The live right across the street from us.



Next are Henry and Maribel and their girls Stefany and Angelica. They are right down the block from us and have been most helpful in learning all the ins and outs about Mazatlan. They have been terrific neighbors!



Oscar, while truthfully is not a neighbor, has been with us constantly the whole time we've been in Mazatlan! He's been remodeling the house right next door to us for the last three years!! His work has sometimes driven us flat crazy with all the pounding and clanging and banging, but he's a dear, sweet Christian guy and has been a blessing to us in many ways.



Emma lives one block over from us and has visited us several times. She's also a member at Cristo Redentor so we see her at church too. She prepared a lovely farewell comida for us, really yummy chicken gorditas!!



Yolanda is a couple of houses down from Roberto and Virginia and is a really tiny, really lively little Christian lady who makes KILLER empanadas!! She also has been a frequent visitor and as we have been selling things off in preparation for our move she's been our number one salesperson! She's brought several people by to take a look and most of them have bought something!



Last, but certainly not least, clan Ramirez!! Carmen, Genaro, Genaro Jr. and Fanny. They were our original host family back in January of 2006 and they have been our neighbors here in Mazatlan. They are the most wonderful, loving and kind family and we could not have survived here in Mexico without them. They taught us what we needed to know to make a go of it here and we shall be forever thankful for their love and friendship. Genaro Jr. was off working this day, so he's not in this picture.



These are just some of the folks who have made our life very interesting and colorful while living here.

One last visit to El Rosario

On our last visit to Rosario we finally took a few minutes to explore their famous Catholic church. The church was built by mine owners in this community in the late 1800s. Eventually they had to move the church to it's present location because the criss-crossing of mine shafts under the original location was weakening the church building!!

The church's back altar is covered with gold, again, a gift of the mine owners. Many guide books say that the altar was a gift from the miners themselves but one of the parishioners straightened me out on that one. He said the miners were far too poor to afford such a thing. He also said many guide books say the altar is solid gold, which it is not. Just layers of gold over wood. It is still a magnificent back altar, really beautiful.



In the courtyard of the church there is a large stone cross and opposite it is a large statue of Lola Beltran, one of Mexico's most famous singers who made Rosario her home. There is a Lola Beltran Museum here too.





For being a tiny little town, Rosario certainly has some interesting things!!

Saying goodbye

We've begun saying our goodbyes. The toughest one was probably with Carmen and Genaro, they have been our closest friends here and we will miss them terribly. We still have a few more visits with them before we go and a dinner out with them (Tortas Kuwait!!) but it has been difficult to say goodbye. Pastor Lupe has been by a couple of times and all of our neighbors have been weighing in and telling us how much they will miss us.

Last Sunday night after two and a half hours of church in a little windowless building stuffed with 60 plus souls and no air conditioning we were all hot and tired and ready to go home. But a very enterprising push cart vendor parked his cart across the street from the church and he was selling ice cream cones for four pesos each. Talk about an entrepreneur! He was instantly overwhelmed and nearly everyone from church got a cone. We just about wiped out his entire supply of ice cream. We all milled about on the street and sidewalk visiting in the warm night air. Jose Miguel and Jazmin had their wedding pictures from two weeks ago so we were passing those around and admiring them and just generally visiting with one another. It was one of those moments when I thought, hmmmm, this won't be happening in Olympia!!!

One of our neighbors, Yolanda, is a tiny, sweet, yet rambunctious little Christian lady and she came by and was admiring our plants on the patio. She particularly loved one of the weird little cactus plants that Ralph had and I would have loved to have given it to her but another neighbor had just bought the whole lot. The next day when Maribel came to pick up all the plants I mentioned how much Yoli liked that particular cactus but she didn't comment on it at all and I thought oh well. Last night Yoli came by and said Maribel had given her the plant as a gift. She was thrilled to death to have it!!

We've been selling things off, trying to get back down to what will fit in the back of the pickup again. That is really our toughest challenge!! We do have most things sorted and many of them packed at this point, essentially just the basics that we are using every day left to pack. I think we'll be okay getting it all in at this point.

The selling of stuff has been kind of a riot. We had several people vying for our living room set and one lady wanted it saying she would return last Thursday with the cash, but she didn't show up so we sold it to someone else. The first lady showed up after that and was upset that it was sold, so I took her number and said if the other lady changes her mind for some reason it's yours, never thinking the other lady would change her mind. But last night she showed up and had done just that. She decided it's too big for her house and could she please have her money back! So we did that and then called the first lady to let her know it was hers if she still wanted it. We should know today if it goes back on the block or not. Too funny.

One lady gave us a deposit on our washer in dollars but said she needed to keep the dollars and wanted to have them back when she came to pay in pesos and pick it up. No problem. Others have paid and picked up their stuff already and the house is beginning to look a little sparse.

And our landlords came by yesterday afternoon and wanted to let us know how much they would miss us...they even wanted us to come over to their house for dinner but we won't have the time to do that unfortunately. When was the last time your landlord invited you for dinner?

Our truck gave us a bit of a scare on Monday too...several of the guys came over to help Ralph get the canopy back on the truck and discovered that transmission fluid was leaking out! And our 30 day warranty on the transmission work was long gone. So we prayed a bunch on Monday night and got up bright and early Tuesday and took the truck back to the Ford dealer. Bless his heart, our neighbor Henry followed along to give us a ride back to the house and to interpret if we had the need of that. Ralph explained the problem to the service adviser and he took a look at all our paperwork and announced that it was likely just a seal but that the would have to keep it for a few days. Turns out it was a seal, praise the Lord, and even though the warranty was expired they did not charge us for the repair, again praise the Lord, and we had the truck back in two days!! Now it's in the shop at Dakota for the road worthiness check, belts hoses, brakes, etc. and we should have it back tonight. One more thing off the checklist of things to do before we go.

Through all of this we've been trying to squeeze in some online job hunting and have both applied for a few things. I even have a telephone interview scheduled for August 13th! Amazing what technology can do! A few years ago this would not have been possible at all due to delays in mail and whatnot. Now they can just e-mail and set things up. Please keep the job hunt and the house hunt in prayer!

Life here is winding down and life in Washington is beginning again, little by little. We are thankful for all we have learned here and all the people we've met. God is good!!