Hello All! I’m sorry it has been so long since my last post.
I actually wrote this about a week ago and haven’t been able to post it. Things
have been terribly busy. Here comes a long update…okay go!
Good news! We finally acquired internet for our apartment.
Sadly, it is only a 3G wireless card, so Skyping is still not possible. The day
we regain normal high speed internet will be a beautiful day. Until then,
Skyping can only happen at church.
More good news is that I got a job. I am a teacher’s aide
for the 1st grade at St. Paul and I tutor after school as well. This
is my first experience in a classroom with children younger than 3rd
grade. They are exhausting but they are also a good deal of fun as well. They
say the funniest things. I wish I could record them all day long.
Here are some of the things they say:
First Grader: (After saying goodbye
to his mom already moves to the doorway as she walks out) Goodbye Mom! I love
you! Then he blew her a kiss... First Grader: (After saying goodbye to his mom
already moves to the doorway as she walks out) Goodbye Mom! I love you! Then he
blew her a kiss...(this one made my heart melt a little)
Miss Schultz: Please give me some examples of "How"
questions.
First Grader: How do you do, partner?
First Grader: How do you do, partner?
Miss Schultz: God is watching you all the time.
First Grader: He knows where we are?
Different First Grader: Like how, with a map?
First Grader: He knows where we are?
Different First Grader: Like how, with a map?
First Grader: (While very intensely staring at his hand) I wish I
had four fingers like Mickey Mouse.
Miss Schultz: Peanuts are a healthy snack, except for Emilia, she
can't have them.
First Grade Boy: She's electric.
First Grade Boy: She's electric.
First Grader: I dropped my pencil box; but it's okay, it didn't
break. It's waterproof.
I do enjoy my time with them and my tutoring but working a
straight 10 hours a day, five days a week, having choir and bells Tuesday
night, small group Bible study Thursday night and Family Fun night on Friday
night is wearing me (and Nate) out and causing our apartment to look like a
warzone. (I am very aware that sentence is very long and most likely
grammatically incorrect.) I keep looking to the first 2 days in November. There
is no school so I should be able to get in some cleaning and possibly some
baking and crafting. Those are high hopes but we’ll see. There’s always
Thanksgiving and Christmas break.
Our weekends have been very busy too. Since we have been here, we
went with the youth to the water park on South Padre Island, Schlitterbahn, (It
blows my mind that they worked that name into a radio jingle). Nate went to the
area’s confirmation retreat. There were several churches there and had a great
time. They buried him in the sand and made him look like a mermaid.
One weekend Matt (the youth director) and I decided we would teach
Brittany, one of the new teachers, how to cook. Our cooking lesson turned into
an all day event. In the morning, I took her grocery shopping and taught her my
secrets of savings. Then, we came back and made 6 meals. We had 3 crock pots
going and did few meals in the oven. One of our oven meals was a very exciting
experience; Matt put some chicken with some oil on it a little too close to the
broiler in the oven. We heard a crackling noise, so I went to see what was
going on. I opened the oven and there were flames. Now, instead of reacting to
the situation, for some reason I saw the flames, calmly closed the oven door
and simply said, “That’s a fire” and walked away. Matt and Nate quickly
responded with “WHAT?!?!” and Matt turned off the oven. I guess the flames shocked me. I made a new
recipe that day, a simple, tator tot casserole that was delicious. I have never
met a tator tot I didn’t like. Here is the recipe:
Tater-Tot Casserole
SERVES 4
SERVES 4
1 lb lean ground beef (I doubled the
meat to make it go farther to feed 4)
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 (10 1/2 ounce) can condensed cream
of celery or cream of chicken soup (undiluted)
1 16oz package frozen tater tots
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
salt & pepper
- Preheat
oven to 375 degrees.
- Brown
ground beef. season with salt & pepper.
- Add
chopped onion, cook until tender.
- In a
casserole dish, combine ground beef mixture & cream soup.
- Top
mixture with tater tots.
- Bake
, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes till bubbly and Tots are golden brown.
- remove
from oven & top with cheese, return to oven until melted.
- Enjoy!
We also had a school pool party one weekend in which I needed to
take a dessert. There is a reason I chose the dessert that I did. As most of
you know, I am a sucker for a deal. The grocery store down here was having a
deal that if you bought a $5 tortilla warmer, you would get 36 tortillas for
free. These tortillas are the best tortillas I have ever had, however it failed
to dawn on me that it would take a really long time for just Nate and I to eat
36 tortillas. This leads me to making the Apple Enchiladas which, if you like
things really sweet, this is your dessert. I could only have a half of one, but
they were delicious.
Apple
Enchiladas
Cherries or peaches can be
substituted for apples. (I used apples)
1 (21 ounce) can apple pie
filling
6 (8 inch) flour tortillas (I
used smaller ones which made them half the size and doubled the tortillas.)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water
- Spoon about
one heaping quarter cup of pie filling evenly down the center of each
tortilla.
- Sprinkle
with cinnamon; roll up, tucking in edges; and place seam side down in
prepared dish.
- In a medium
saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, white sugar, brown sugar and
water. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly; reduce heat and simmer 3
minutes.
- Pour sauce
over enchiladas and let stand 45 minutes.
- Bake in
preheated oven 20 minutes, or until golden.
- Serve with
vanilla ice cream.
Two weekends ago I had the chance to attend the Texas
District Pastors’ Wives Retreat at Camp Lonestar. I was very impressed with the
retreat. The committee did a great job picking topics that were very relevant
to pastors’ wives and engaging speakers. That is a pretty big compliment coming
from someone with the attention span of a first grader. I was able to see some
lovely ladies that I haven’t seen in a while and also meet some new ones. I
also had a great time driving up with the pastors’ wives from the valley. It is
always a good time when you get to cross through a border patrol checkpoint
(this one was not on the border). I left the retreat feeling refreshed and
happy to be in the Texas District with such great women.
This past Sunday and Monday, Nate and I ventured up to San
Antonio for our PALS gathering. PALS stands for Post Seminary Applied Learning
and Support. That basically means that for the first 3 years of your ministry
you come together with pastors and their wives from your area that are also in
their first 3 years and talk about your experiences and the guys also have some
study time. We have a great group from South Texas. We played some crazy bridge
to get acquainted which if you haven’t played it, you really should. One of the
best parts of the trip that had nothing to do with PALS was that there is a
Panera near the church we were at up there and I was able to get a Cinnamon
Crunch bagel. YUM.
That is all for now. God is Good.
No comments