Un día cómico

That means "a comical day," which it sort of was.  A lot of fun and funny things went on.

This morning we all were in a much better mood, ready to handle the extra demands of having the group here.  I was ready when they asked for coffee, and I had a fresh ability to focus and be polite while serving the breakfast.  It was still a lot to do (Josefina finally waved at me to sit down and eat--she's like a mom to everybody, not just to her boys), but this time I was at least mentally and physically prepared to take on the challenge.  Though I still was exhausted when I went back to my room after breakfast was finally over!  I had to take another catnap before lunchtime.

You know you have too many bagels when . . .

The bagels from that elderly couple are endless.  We served the sweet ones (fruit, cinnamon raisin, pumpkin spice, etc.) for breakfast along with the eggs, beans, tortillas, and fruit.  I didn't much care for the savory ones last night, but the fruit and nut ones this morning were awesome!  We still had SO many left over after breakfast though, plus all the leftover savory ones from last night.  Tonight we reincarnated some of the savory ones as garlic cheese bread with the spaghetti, but a lot of people still passed on them.  Peggy just threw the rest of those away after dinner.  But we still have two giant bags left of probably 20 each, sweet and savory.  We discovered during breakfast time that an onion sourdough bagel had somehow found its way onto the support screw of the ventilation hood over the stove.  The weird part was, it hadn't been cut as far as we could tell, but it was looped around that vertical screw, which is attached at both ends.  Nobody knew how it got there, and nobody would 'fess up to it, but a lot of us are pinning it on either Joshua or Sammy. 

Josefina was around all day today too, which made everything more hilarious.  She laughs a lot, especially when she or somebody around her makes a mistake, and she’s great at laughing with people rather than at them.  She makes everybody feel like they’re a part of the joke.  It was fun helping prep the lunch today, because she was in the kitchen working with me and Juanita and she kept telling funny stories and laughing at herself when she accidentally put the carrots into the compost bowl rather than the salad bowl.  When she went to cut the garlic cloves for the enchilada meat, I told her she’d better be careful not to put those in the salad by mistake!  She totally cracked up.

The visiting group did a lot of good work today!  The moms and kids cleared away brush and weeds in the morning and cleaned the walk-in fridge in the afternoon, and now both the walkway by the office and the fridge look WAY better.  Doug said the guys helping him up at the old auto shop (they’re clearing the floor in prep for starting a new building) worked super hard too, and some of the other ladies made new curtains and aprons for the kitchen.  Pretty incredible how much extra can get done with 20 more people.  I was thinking the kids seemed to be reasonably good workers and REALLY healthy eaters (they keep skipping the meat and bread at meals and asking for fruit and veggies instead!), and I found out tonight that they’re mostly homeschoolers.  That explains a lot!  (In case any of you happen to not know this, I was a proud K-12 homeschool kid.)

I spent the afternoon making thank-you cards (to give out later in the week), baking the birthday cake for tomorrow's monthly celebration (a job which Josefina commissioned me to do) and making more school snacks (I had to redeem those burnt cranberry bars and make a better batch so the kids don’t have to eat the blackened ones).  I thought I’d have a little bit of time to take a walk before dinner, but by the time I got everything done it was time to help Doug & Peggy make those garlic bread bagels.  So I sneaked in a walk after dinner cleanup was done.

Me and Janet showing off our little creations

The group brought a craft for all the kids to do.  It was these things called Shrink-Ups (I think), which were transparent plastic sheets you could draw on.  Everybody drew things and punched holes in them with a hole punch, and then Martha, one of the group leaders, put them in the oven on parchment paper and they shrank down to about 20 percent of their original size and got hard.  With holes, they could be made into earrings, key chains, window decorations, etc.  They were cool, but it took a long time to bake them all because everybody made so many!  A lot of them either curled up or wrinkled too, which sometimes made them more interesting but other times sort of messed them up.  I got inspired and tried doing a pair of earrings, but they curved a lot and I don’t think they would work as earrings now.  They’re kind of cool little art pieces on their own, though.  Anyway, I think everyone had a really fun time.  The sewing ladies hung up the new curtains (they brighten the kitchen so much compared to the old ones!) and brought in the new aprons.  All the dorm girls (especially Gladis) kept showing off and practicing their new moves from the basic self-defense class one of the ladies had done with them in the afternoon.  It was pretty cool.  Some of the group people invited me and some of the other staff to go get tacos in town with them afterward, but it was already getting late and I was getting tired, so I declined.  Turned out they started their group meeting so late that they didn’t leave for the taquería until 10:45!  I heard them come by to tell Howard they were ready.  Glad I didn’t agree to go, because it’s a bit late for tacos or tortas at this point . . .

Also helped Josefina frost and decorate the birthday cake.  I had made the white cake into Funfetti cake by adding sprinkles, and we used pink cherry frosting for the base coat and decorated it with purple frosting and more sprinkles.  Josefina wrote and drew on paper what she wanted the cake to say, and we put purple frosting in a Ziploc bag and cut the corner to make a pastry bag.  I wrote “Feliz Cumpleaños Gladis y Evalynn” and added some flowers, dots, and swirls.  It came out looking gorgeous—perfect for a month with only girl birthdays.  I’ll have a picture of it in tomorrow’s post!

Tomorrow is Sunday (which I think is my favorite day at RSM because of the dual church services), and also the Feliz Cumpleaños celebration at lunch and Griselda’s baby shower tomorrow afternoon!  Gonna be another fun one, I think!

Oh, and here’s some more staff people for you to meet . . .

RSM Staff Profile

Names: Johnny & Amber
Hail from: Ventura County, CA (Newbury Park & Simi Valley)
Kids: Juan José, or JJ (age 9), Evalynn (age 3) and Baby Thompson (coming early 2017)
Roles at RSM: Principal & teacher; interpreter & mom
Have been here for: 8 years
Favorite thing about serving here: They both like how they get to work with other Christians and how the job is always God-centered, not secular.
Fun fact: They met in acting class at CSU Northridge (which ironically has one of the best programs for deaf out of all the CSU schools, though neither of them majored in sign language or deaf studies!). They're also major board-game nerds.