Well… let’s see… right now I’m sitting in bed.  It’s 5pm and I’ve only been out of my bedroom once in the last, oh, 17 hours or so.  I’ve got some kind of stomach bug or something.  Not cool.  But, already feeling better… I just ate some toast!

Obviously, I’m not going to be able to get you all of the details of life since the last post.  So, lets go with some highlights.

Work here has continued to go well and life seems to fly by at an uncontrollable pace sometimes.  We have tons of new friends and relationships that we are continuing to develop.  It’s hard to complain when people say things to me like, “My friend is having a really hard time right now… I told him he needs to be praying and he needs God in his life.  I also told him you would be happy to read the Bible and pray with him. Was that an okay thing to say?”  We’ve been helping a friend rebuild her “house” in a poor neighborhood… which has been a sobering blessing.  In the process I was reunited with a long lost friend that I haven’t seen in months, Ephrain!  And we’re continuing to make lots of preparations for a medical campaign in July.  Our plates are full.

While most of our friends and family in the states are now enjoying warm sunny days of baseball and hamburger cookouts, we’ve begun the long overcast and dreary winter of Lima.  Most days now are 100% overcast with surprising bone chilling temperatures in the low 60′s.  It’s hard to understand until you’ve experienced it.  But, when it’s 60 degrees in your house with 100% humidity it can be a lot colder than it seems.

With the end of Peruvian summer also comes the beginning of the Peruvian school year.. and we are mired in the process of looking for a school for our boys.  Peruvian public schools are horrendous and not even an option.  That leaves home schooling or private schools.  We’ve never had the desire or motivation to home school our kids… so, we’re looking for a reasonably affordable private school.  There is a lot more to this that will get it’s own post soon… let’s just leave it to say that this is our biggest source of stress at the moment and could really use prayers.

Another thing, my camera broke.  Again.  So, after waiting a couple of weeks I took it to the shop here… after keeping it for two weeks they told me they couldn’t repair it without a new part that would cost $400!  Well, I said no thanks and brought it home, depressed.  Then, just looking to see if it would work at all… it does!  I don’t know what happened but they didn’t charge me anything but it seems to be fixed… woo hoo!  That being said… not many pics of late.

Oh, a HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY! to Stacy.  Stacy celebrated her first birthday in Peru on April 23rd… wow… exactly a month ago.  Hmm… what else? Stacy’s been taking some new Spanish classes at a school here in Miraflores… that’s been good.

One more thing, we finally went to the zoo here in Lima.  We’ve always enjoyed going to the zoo as a family… not sure why it took us so long.  The zoo was small but pretty good for the most part.  The boys loved it!

Well, obviously, there’s so much more to share.  Just know that we’re alive and well… still kicking down here in the Southern Hemisphere.

For more… Click here for more of Derek being cute and here for more zoo fun.

Preposterous!  I was immediately infuriated… no way.  There’s no way there are that many rabbits in that field.  And, obviously, my question hadn’t been taken seriously.  I don’t remember exactly how I responded… I do remember being deeply offended.

Looking back, I don’t blame my dad at all for his response… in fact, it was quite brilliant.  Because, I don’t remember it, but I’m sure that question was preceded by the likes of… How many mice do you think are in that field?  Why? How many trees are in the world? Why? Why is the sky blue?  Why are leaves green?  What do ducks eat? Why do ducks eat that?  Did Adam have a belly button? Why? What if? How?

That endless stream of questions is just part of my make-up… I can’t help it.  And for better or worse, along with my hands and feet, I passed that on down to Jakob… it’s part of his make-up now, too.  Sometimes that endless stream of “why’s” and “how’s” from the Jakester leads to innocently profound questions like the teachable moment Stacy wrote about.  Sometimes it just makes you want to pull your hair out.

Not sure why I wanted to share that… but our little question asker is getting to be our big question asker faster than it seems possible.

Derek, on the other hand, is definitely in the midst of the language explosion that happens at his age.  It’s incredible to watch it happen in both English and Spanish at the same time.  He has things he knows only in English and stuff he knows only in Spanish… amazing.  When asked, “Como estas?” He proudly replies, “Bien!”  When we tell him to “Say Hi” to somebody new, he carefully looks at them and decides by instinct whether to say “Hola” or “Hi.”  And, he’s always right.

He’s getting so big so fast… and even though he’s got my body and my walk, I think he still looks like a little Stacy.  It’s wonderful how children can be their own unique individuals and yet we can look at them and, at times, see little reflections of ourselves.

Click here for more photos.

]]> http://theyoakums.net/blog/unique-reflections-of-us/feed/ 2 http://theyoakums.net/blog/drs-orders/ http://theyoakums.net/blog/drs-orders/#comments Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:52:13 +0000 Wes http://theyoakums.net/blog/?p=585 I woke up this morning from a very vivid dream that our local supermarket, Wong had formed a partnership with H-E-B in Texas.  As I was walking through the store I came across a whole shelf of “Dr. B” (their Dr Pepper knock off).  I was so excited… then, in my dream, I woke up and realized I was having a dream and went to the store and realized that my dream had come true and they really did have Dr. B and I was excited all over again.  Then I really woke up.

I mean really, does it get more pathetic?  I dreamed about dreaming about FAKE Dr Pepper.

And just to show that I’m not the only pathetic fiend out there, when looking for a Dr. B picture, I came across this site: fakedrpepper.wordpress.com.

Once, when I was in high school I was in a wrestling tournament.  I was going against this other guy… he was HUGE and incredibly strong and probably using performance enhancing drugs.  Ok, probably not huge or really all that strong or on anything.  But, it makes me look better in this story so let’s just pretend. Anyways, he picked me up off the mat… he had hold of me from behind around the waist with both arms trapped by my side… he lifted me up really high and then pretty much tried to punch a hole in the mat with my skull.  I don’t remember a whole lot after that… some blurry images of horrified mat maids (those are wrestling cheerleader… yes, really.  It was Oklahoma.)  Then, the next thing I can remember was the trainer shining a light in my eyes and I was laying down in the stands of the gym.  The first question they asked me was, “What’s today’s date?”

I was all, “Are you serious?  I have no idea.  But I had no idea before my brain got turned into jello.”  But, seeing as how my brain actually was jello, I probably really said something like, “Uhhh… Grr. Schmrble Flruble… What was the question?  Advil.  I need Advil.”

But, I digress, where was I?

Oh, the date… today is May 24.  That means that we haven’t put anything up on this here blog for nearly a full month.  That’s pathetic.  So, I hereby duly declare the next 30 days the 30 Days of Catching Up and Getting Back on the Ball.

Hold us to it.

True Love
Another great thing about Valentine’s is that you can go to the small town East Texas florist with six 4 door trucks parked outside and go inside and here the big ol’ country boy ordering flowers…

Florist Lady: Can I help you?
BOCB: Uh… yeah… I need a flower.
Florist Lady: Ok, what kind do you need?
BOCB: Uh… It don’t matter. Just nothin’ pink and nothin’ with roses. She don’t like pink… and she don’t like roses.
Florist Lady: Ok, sweety, do you want a bouquet or maybe a potted flower?
BOCB: Uh… no, she don’t like plants. She hates plants. Can I just get like one flower. Just somethin’ purdy. And not pink.
Florist Lady: How about a Gerber Daisy?
BOCB: It don’t matter. Is it purdy?

I wonder how many times Florist Lady had a conversation just like that today. Well… Big Ol’ Country Boy ended up with a very nice big orange flower with some green and white stuff all wrapped up in paper with a pretty red bow. I hope it made Big Ol’ Country Girl very happy.

No Love
Finally, I know I threw out a teaser on the last post… But, alas, no love from the doctor. Our visit got cut short because some lady had the nerve to go into labor during our visit. So, new appointment in a couple of weeks and we already have an ultrasound appointment. So, we’ll be finding out that whole runt or runtlette thing next time for sure!

Well… that’s kind of what our life’s been like over the last couple of months. So, we haven’t been posting much and I haven’t been taking many photos… we’ve been too busy trying to find our beach towels. But, without the pictures and writing there’s been a little part of our life that’s been missing. In the coming days and weeks there is plenty of stuff for us to capture and share with the world. So stay tuned. Most immediately, this afternoon Stacy’s got a doctor appointment… AND! if the little runt will cooperate, we might get to find out if its actually a little runt or a little runtlette!

As we’ve mentioned before, we’re moving to Kaufman in January. Where we will be working with the Kaufman Church of Christ who will be our primary support for our mission work in Peru… yay! We are thrilled about this opportunity. We are not what I would describe as “thrilled” about moving again. For those counting at home this is approximately the gazillionth time we’ve moved since getting married. Well, we’re planning on moving in January but we don’t exactly have a place to move to… so this past weekend we made the trek over to Kaufman to do a little house hunting.

So, how’d that go? Well, let’s just say we haven’t been using words like “yay” to convey the feelings we have about this past weekend. We’ve never moved to a small town like Kaufman before… so we have no experience with this sort of thing. So let me tell you, finding a reasonable rental in a reasonable location for a shorter than normal lease term is not as easy as you might think. Seriously, we searched on craigslist, and rent.com and every other website we could google up, we searched in the Kaufman paper and the Terrell paper, we talked with several real estate agents and we literally drove ever single block of Kaufman, Crandall and most of Terrell… we spent 5 full days on the prowl and we came up empty. We looked at ratty old houses, terrible apartments, bug infested smelly old places and nice new houses that I’d have to sell my liver to pay for… we have given it the old college try. So far we’ve located a nice apartment that’s too pricey and too small and more than 15 miles outside of town on the opposite side of where we’d like to be… but it will work if that’s our last option.

So, that’s where we’re at… we’ve decided to hold off a bit… take a step back and see if any good options turn up. If you know of anything, be sure and let us know.

In all of this, we’ve been a bit frustrated at times… but in the end we just have to remember how much we already have… how blessed we are even have a supporting church and we have to remember all of the ways that God has provided for us. We are so thankful. But seriously, if you know of anything, let us know.

So, to completely and randomly change the subject, I have apparently LOST MY MIND. Why? Well, somehow I’ve let my self be talked into torturing myself for the next few months. That’s right… I’m going to run a marathon. Yes you heard me, A MARATHON. That’s 26.2 miles of lung burning, leg hurting, mind numbing self inflicted pain.

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Stupid. Just plain stupid. If I think about it too much I might talk myself out of it. Why would I do this? Well, the thing is that I really don’t want to run a marathon… I want to have run a marathon. Problem is the only way for that to happen is to actually run one. And, well… I’m not getting any younger and it’s not going to get any easier… so, there you have it. I’ve lost my mind.

So yesterday morning as I’m walking out to my car (carrying too many things and not really watching where I’m going) I feel an unfortunately familiar crunching under my feet. Sure enough… glass everywhere. Great. Somebody threw a brick through the window of my car. The first thing I ask myself is, “What’d I leave in there that somebody would want to steal?” Oh, know… my iPod… and my cell phone. But, surprisingly… there still there right where I stupidly left them. So why the breaking of the window? Beats me.

The strange thing is how un-upset I was by the whole deal. I don’t know if it’s good or bad… a jaded view of people or a healthy detachment from my stuff… but for some reason yesterday morning, when not too long ago I would have been thoroughly ticked, I wasn’t. It’s just part of life right? It’s just a car. It’s just money. Nothing that’s really important. I picture some 13 year old kid… he’s not a bad kid, but life is tough these days. His parents just let him know that they’re getting a divorce… his world is ripped in two right down the middle… and the fights not over who gets to keep but who has to keep him. Who can blame him… I’d probably have roamed the neighborhood smashing things in a plea for attention too, if I had been in his shoes.

I don’t know… maybe that’s not what happened. But, for some reason that’s how I’m seeing it. Instead of being filled with rage at the punk that did it, I find myself feeling sorry for the pain that made somebody think this might help.

Now we’ve been parents for almost 7 months… yes, the weather is changing a bit… in it’s own Houston kind of way. Jakob on the other hand, is changing at light speed. It seems like everyday I come home from work and he’s bigger and stronger and doing something new. Every time I look at him he’s a little bit less of a baby and little bit more of a for real deal little boy. It’s incredible. Something I can’t possibly describe. Something I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. Sure the last 7 months have been trying and stressful and sleep deprived at times… but, I think with every passing day all of this becomes more of a joy and the stresses just fade into the background. We are so thankful and just trying to soak it all in and store it away in a place where we’ll never forget it.

It’s hard to imagine what God has in store for the year to come. I can’t wait to find out.