Updates on life....

I'm sorry that I haven't posted for SUCH a long time... here's a rundown of what's been happening since I last took the time to update here.

The holidays were great and we've been surviving winter. We were able to celebrate both with Chris' family and with my family in Iowa. The few days before Christmas are always spent with Chris' family making home-made Tamales. Chris is the mole (mo-lay) king and succeeded once again this year by making one of the best pots ever. The day before Christmas Eve we missed Ann and Mike, but the rest of us spent the evening putting the tamales together. Barb soaks the corn husks ahead of time so that they are moist and ready to go. She also mixes the masa so that it can be spread on the husks to form the outside of the tamale. I graduated to being able to help mix the masa this year. WOW is that ever hard. I think I've decided that I'm not "Mrs Mendez" enough to take responsibility for that job! :) Barb can keep that one for a while! When the first bowl of masa is ready, we all spread the masa with spoons on the husks, pile them, and give them to Vicky. Vicky is both quality control and the "filler." She ensures that each tamale is filled and has at least two pieces of pork. The tamales are then all placed in a huge pot to steam for about 3 hours. All in total we made about 300 tamales. Some are eaten right out of the pot that first night, but the majority of them are eaten on Christmas Eve after church. The rest are frozen to enjoy later. What a great tradition that we'll be able to share with our children someday!

Most of New Years Eve weekend was spent at my parent's in Iowa. We got to see a lot of my family and shared a great meal with them as well. It was nice to have a longer weekend to really spend time with my parents. I wish we were able to see them more often than we are able to. We also were able to see many of my siblings and their family's as well. One of my personal highlights was to be able to see my niece Nicole just before baby Chloe was born! What an AMAZING thing!

We drove back to the cities on New Years Eve day and spent the evening at Mike and Ann's with friends! Good snacky food, good people, adorable little ones, and the Nintendo Wii!!! How much more fun could you ask for? I'm a bit ashamed to admit, but we didn't make it to midnight! I think we actually went to bed around 10pm. Are we old or what? :)

We've had a great visit with our friend Steven who also is a proud owner of the Wii. He brought it along with him and we literally spent ALL weekend playing it. We took a short break for meals, but spent the majority of the time playing Rayman rabbits. (I think that's the name!)
Ohhh and Guitar hero! We can't wait to see Steven again and play again! We are SO close to getting enough plungers so Rayman can get out of his cell at the collaseum!!! PLEASE come back soon Steven!!! :)

Work is going well. It seems like with the economy being unfortunately what it is right now, that work for me is SUPER busy. However, Chris isn't working right now. No one is building and so there isn't a huge need for electricians. We're praying hard and trying to discern what God has for him. He's an amazing electrician and it's hard to think about doing something else but God's plan is perfect. We're willing to follow it, we just have to decide what that is! :) He is faithful and won't leave us stranded. Please pray for wisdom for us and direction.

Tigo is good. Funny and loveable as ever. He's enjoying Chris being home and has been taking FULL advantage of it. I'm not sure if he or Chris will have a harder time being apart from one another when Chris begins working again. :) Maybe you could pray for both of them in this as well??? :)

Well, that's about it as far as an update. I was a TERRIBLE picture taker and we actually don't even have a picture of our Christmas tree this year! I promise to get some more pictures on here as soon as I can! We've charged our camera and it's ready to go! Read on... I'm going to blog separately for the most important thing that's going on in our life!

Blessings to you!