My Grass, People!

Nobody has really asked for an update on our new lawn so I figured e-mail or the phone lines must be down. So here goes. My lawn is A-W-E-S-O-M-E! Really is. I want to take a moment to just thank the great Japanese people that provided the world with this Empire Zoysia! Well, God had a huge part in it but those friendly Japanese let us take some.

We watered twice a day for almost 3 weeks...still don't have the bill. It's okay; I'll just pay with a check. I had the grass mowed about 8 days ago and it is grown again. Zoysia is typically a slow grower but I've (Amy really) been watering plenty. Also, I was worried about how the grass would grow in the shade with our big oak trees and have been very pleased with how it has done. I have not seen any slow growth as a result of the shade. Once the lawn is good and in, we will focus a garden under the front lawn trees and also in front of the porch.

Well, hope ya'll get e-mail/phone back working so ya'll can ask more about my lawn's progress.

~jorge

Tomorrow at 8:00 AM, my summer ends. As sad and terrible as that sounds, I am a little excited. I have had a wonderful summer, but I'm ready to get going. This will be my 10th year teaching and my second year of grad school. I love the challenge each new year brings. When I get my class list and finally meet those faces. . .well, there's just not much better! So here we go!! My list keeps growin'. I'm doing staff development for our campus this week too. I say all of that to say this: I'm gonna stick to my guns this year and be more organized (neat) in my room. That's right, I've said it, and I mean it this time. I let you know how it goes. : )

Thank You God for SISTERS!!!!

So, today I went to work in my classroom again. It's just one of those things that you never finish, even when the kids come. But today, unlike other days I had a friend come with me to help. My sister-in-Christ, Hermana Tania put up word walls in two-languages, did boards outside, recovered shelves, and used a massive amout of creativity! She has five children. Three of them came with us today and they really helped! She refused $, although I know it could always help. She really enjoyed being there and having her kids be free to have fun and be needed. I was blown away. Honestly, I thought that today was going to be more of a mess that I had time for at this final quarter before the buzzer. But, I was wrong. I'm so glad that God made sisters (family ones and ones in the faith).

El Paso City. . . By the Rio GRANDEEEEEEEEEE

Maybe you don't know that song. On Friday we picked up my brother-in-law, Michael and headed to El Paso. Really, we were headed across the Rio Grande a la Ciuidad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico . It was H O T! Pretty, but hot.

This is Jorge with his brother Michael who is holding a picture of their grandfather, Pedro. So, Clay, there WAS a PEDRO PEREZ! (Thanksgiving past)

These are Jorge's relatives and his dad, Jose.

The GENE POOL is VERY STRONG!!! YIKES!!!!! We laughed. This little boy is Jorge's cousin (same grandfather/different grandmother). I think he's cute as a bug!

The real reason that we went to Juarez was to be with Jose and Jorge's grandmother, Dona Lupe when her husband, Pedro died on Thursday. The funeral was Friday. Jose was really glad that we were there. Since we are members of the Church of Christ, we haven't much experience with Catholic funerals. Pedro (Jorge's Grandfather) was Catholic. Dona Lupe (Jorge's Grandmother)is a member of the Iglesia de Cristo como nosotros. So at 11:00 Saturday morning we headed to the chappel to view the body. There was a sheet of glass over the body, odd. Then several ladies came to do the "roseries" .?. They continued to do this for about 45 minutes. After the ladies stopped chanting, the funeral director came to inform us that the Catholic church was ready for us to begin. . . . After that statement. . . . you would've thought that a bomb went off. People scampered and jumped out of their seats, grabbed the banners off of the flower sprays, picked up the flower sprays and headed outside. It looked like a Chinese fire drill. No kiddin'! It was nuts!!

Meanwhile, the funeral home loaded the casket into the hurst and headed a few blocks over to the catholic church. Jorge and Michael helped load the flower sprays into a pick-up.

We got into the car and headed to my personal first. . . a double funeral! NO kiddin'! There were two caskets, two sets of family and friends and one priest who didn't know the deceased names. He had to go over and get his card to read and find our their names. I thought that that was a little funny! After the funeral was over, again. . . folks jumped up and rolled those caskets quickly down the aisle, followed by two groups of families and two groups of friends all mixed together. One of Jorge's uncles had to grab onto the casket so that it didn't hit the pews or smash into the other casket. Whoa! I kept thinkin' where am I?!?!

Outside, Jose thought it would be a good idea to take one car to the gravesite. Since Jorge's grandmother lived closeby we were going to leave the car there. We quickly left my car and jumped into Jose's car and headed toward what we thought was our cemetery. Wrong. We drove all over Juarez. For 2 hours we drove. Not a cell phone in the car worked. The tower was down. So Jose missed the burial. I was really sad for him. He took it well. We went to Dona Lube's house to eat and then we headed to the gravesite to see.

So we headed back to Dona Lupe's house and we laughed and talked and she showed us old pictures and we laughed some more. Here we are with her. She said that she's a free lady now and that she could come and visit. I wouldn't put it past her. . . and I hope she does!