Canada style!

The last group of the summer left this morning...at 4:00am! Nothing like going out in style...Canada style(Bethel Lutheran Church in Sherwood Park, Alberta, to be more specific)! No worries, I had plenty of practice getting up early; this was the 3rd week in a row with somebody on the 6:00 am flight. They were the biggest group of the summer with 28, but they divided into 3 crews: a Mexico crew that began rebuilding a warehouse at Santisima Trinidad, an El Paso house crew that did a full build for the Terrazas family in Sparks, and a tile crew that laid 700 sq. ft. of ceramic tile for a San Pablo member who lives in San Elizario. The Mexico crew pretty much stayed consistent all week because only part of the youth had permission to travel to Juarez, but the other two fluctuated quite a bit so I got to know most everyone. I suppose I would have anyhow because I was on the house crew but spent plenty of time with the tilers driving them to their worksite each morning on our way to Sparks, and picking them up every afternoon before returning to the mission. Here is what my week looked like:

Cut team on day 1...I love convincing as many girls as possible that power tools rock.

Liquid nailing the first wall.

We were way spoiled because Maria and her sister cooked for us every day. They always included fresh fruit, although these were actually from Maria's neighbor Norma--you might remember that I first met Maria while the group from St. Paul Chicago/St. John Edgar was working on Norma's roof.

Happy Tuesday morning--1 dead battery and 1 flat tire! Thanks Tim and James!

Chris's truck toolbox, post Kelsey's mad organizational skills.

She had a great time organizing away, as did I on the buckets and toolboxes later in the week as the jobs dwindled.

Had to throw this one in there...it's taken from the driveway of the house that was being tiled. See how close the border fence is? NO zoom, I promise.

Tim's professional drywalling skills provoked us to leave him a series of notes over the next couple of days when he wasn't there. In case you can't read this one, it says "CHRIS IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS," which later turned into "MATT," which became "JAMES." I'll admit, I am the true culprit. There aren't any grevious mistakes, it's just nowhere near as pretty as Tim's and it took me all day.

The new house is bigger in every dimension than the trailer that Maria and her family were living in.

Painters :)

I'm not sure why I'm included in this shot, but I'm standing with the owner of the trailer that was tiled, Emily, and Friday's tile crew. I picked them up early so they could be there for the key presentation ceremony too. The Mexico crew was going to try and make it but they never did.

After a brief speech with lots of crying on Maria's part, Jonathan handed her the keys to her house and then everyone lined up to give her hugs.

Checking out her new home...like the wall decor we added thanks to James?

It just so happened to be Maria's birthday...pretty good present huh? We even had birthday Hawaiian pie that Emily had given the tile crew.

Just the Mexico crew is missing...

So yeah...they don't have Sonic in Canada. All week the kids freaked out every time we drove way, which was every morning on the way to Emily's trailer. Finally on Friday we made a stop, and some of them had their picture taken with our carhop.

Everyone happy with their drinks, complete with whipped cream and cherries that apparently make Sonic the best restaurant ever.

Of course Chris didn't mess with the fire extinguisher Friday night at Andale... ;)

I guess it's back to the office this week. That whole concept sounds a little strange since I've been working from my apartment for a couple of weeks now except for checking my mailbox and using the printer. I may take tomorrow off completely, although that is hard for me since I always need something to do and I can't really relax until everything on my to-do list is crossed off. It's all little stuff though, nothing really pressing. And I know I need a break after essentially going nonstop since May 25. My body told me that yesterday when I took a 3ish hour nap in the middle of the afternoon, which NEVER happens unless I'm sick. I didn't realize I was so beat until I had time to do something about it! I think I'll practice relaxing right now by reading my book until dinnertime. I've never read the Chronicles of Narnia series, so I decided to read them all in order; right now I'm about 2 chapters into the 1st book.

Until next time, blessings!