Cool pics!

Hi! Sorry, I was just told that we're taking everything down now so I'm needed to help. I just wanted to say that I enjoyed the posts and the pictures!

Ok here's how I really felt about the recumbant bike. Sorry but I'm having trouble posting more than one photo per post.

Hi Chris,

Mom & I really enjoyed our nice long phone chats with you on Friday! Glad to hear you liked the California Russians. Please feel free to invite your Russion friend(s) to stay with us in Naperville when they come to Chicago.

I really hope your knees are healing well. Must say the photos looked really nasty, but I'm also glad to see you're keeping them really clean & protected. A couple people have told me of similar stories (lye in the cement buring their hands and other...body parts). Guess you're having to avoid kneeling for a while...at least you didn't sit in it! Seriously, please take very good care of these burns and seek mediacl attention if you see any signs of infection...sorry, my parenting gene kicked in again.

Several folks at church today told us they got a very nice thank you note from you recently. Everyone is genuinely interested in how you're doing and wishes you well. The bulletin even refers to you and Ashley as 'our missionaries in Mexico'...

My annual sojourn to Oshkosh was great (again)! I flew in right seat of Buba's King Air there & back. Through some real IFR conditions (ie bad weather) so it was treally demanding but exciting! Cool to pop out of the clouds and see my home base runway right in front of me. It was great wandering around the air show with Grandaddy, Bud, Buba, David, and Jim the King Air pilot. I took the video camera for the first time this year, which was a good thing...walked around all the airplanes Grandaddy flew during WWII, and recorded his comments. We even climbed up into a B-25 cckpit (his favorite) where he showed me around & told some cool stories. It was great! I hope to make it a nice mate to the awsome interview you recorded of Grandmother. While staying at Bud & Cece's house, I tried my skills at riding his recumbant bike. I'm guessing 'recumbant' means something like 'rediculous' in spanish. Here are a couple photos of my 'first flight' for your entertainment. riding isn't too hard...but stopping is.

Other happenings around Neighborville last week: Lauren took Brian to the Country Thunder concert last weekend...they had a great time judging by the pictures. Mom & I went to Lauren's graduation party (Brian was already there) at the Kmeicek's lake house in Morris yesterday. It's a really fun place and we had a nice time. Then went to erin Kelleher's graduation party last nite...we're such party animals.

Hey we just got off the phone with you...during your weekly call in from San Diego. Glad to hear your knees are healing ok and things are still going well.

Guess that's about it for now. As alway, please let us know if there's anything we can do for you.

Love you,
Dad

Hmmm...

Well, sorry that my past post is one giant paragraph, but no matter how many blank lines I put in between paragraphs, I can't get it to publish right. Oh, technology and I sometimes do not get along.

5:00 lead-in!

Hola!

Wow, it seems like it's been a pretty busy weekend at home! I'm glad everyone survived the dirt biking adventure, and thanks for all the updates.

Well, I have a later lead in today, so I've been able to get a lot done. I started this afternoon by taking an online Spanish Placement exam for Ecuador. It went okay, but it was pretty hard and I lost 20 minutes out of the hour because I couldn't get the quiz to work. Oh, well, I'm just glad I got it submitted!

This past week was pretty cool. I had a really fun group from Conneticut and in addition to building houses, they sponsered an outreach for the community. They gave the pastors in the community money to plan and host an event, and they organized a carnival-like thing with games and a sermon. There were so many kids and families! The second picture is a quick snapshot of the event. I helped run the "sponge fishing game" where the kids used a fishing pole with a Velcro ball on the end to try and "catch" sponges floating in a kiddie pool. Each sponge was marked with a star, an "X," an "O" or nothing. A star earned the kid 3 tickets, an X 2 tickets, an O 1 ticket, and nothing no tickets. I never realized how popular that game could be, but we were mobbed with kids! I quickly learned how to tell the kids to make a line in Spanish, but it didn't help too much:-) I had a really fun time, but I was sick of sponges and covered in water by the time the game was over!

This weekend we also helped out at a Vaction Bible School at the church Fe y Amor, the church of Luis, the man that Knox built a house for last December. It was really fun to see the family again, especially Leslie, a girl my age. One of our jobs was to get each kid's information, though I accidently kept asking each kid, "Do you have happiness?" (Tienes alegrias?) instead of "Do you have allergies?" (Tienes alergias?) But in the end, I got the answers.

This morning we left pretty early to get to the States because we didn't want to get stuck in the border line. We had time to go to IHop, and a group had donated money to us the week before, so we had an extremely tasty brunch! The first picture is from IHop this morning. I'm sitting with Melanie, Kamar, Stacey, and Emily. We're all wearing the shirts that we wear each Sunday to lead groups in. We look kinda goofy crossing the border with our matching outfits, but so far they haven't pulled us into secondary in the U.S.

Well, that's about all here. I'm told that my group this coming week is a bunch of Russians from California so I'm pretty excited to possibly learn some Russian phrases. Haha, I'll proabably won't learn anything useful, but what's the fun in useful stuff?

I miss and love everyone as always!

Update from Dad

Chris,

We loved your last post about visiting the Cultural Center. So what's the 'elbows up, side to side'? A Mexican dance or some kind of stretching exercise?

Speaking of stretching, are you still able to get some running in? It must be tough considering your work schedule and conditions. Hope you're taking care of yourself & staying healthy.

So back to your last post...I'm so impressed with your great attitude Chris...the world will be a better place when everyone works at 'expanding their likes' like you are instead of their dislikes. Especially tough but even more important when under adverse conditions. And I'm already looking forward to learning some new Mexican food dishes from you! I really like Kelly Clarkson's music too...but I just hope she improves her attitude...her lyrics sound like she's pretty bitter about something.

So Mom mentioned our latest adventure here at home: Riding at Fox Valley Off-road was awesome! Brian Patrick & I did fine (although admittedly in survival mode some of the time!) and the bikes are great! We got separated for a while deep in the woods. Once we met up again we tore around & pulled each other out of countless mud holes (it had rained a lot over the past week), and finally worked our way back to civilization. Funny, we later realized there were no other bikes in those woods....now we know why! But we learned a lot bout riding & bikes & survival & we had a ball!

Well, good luck on your Spanish proficiency exam today! Must be nice to not have to study at all and know you'll do great! We're looking forward to your weekly call from San Diego this afternoon! I miss your voice and miss you!

Take care Christina.

We love you,

Your Dad