The States

OK...So I've really been wanting to get this blog back up to date....but once you get behind it sure is hard to catch up...so here goes...

I was in the States for six weeks and got back on November 30. Again there wasn't too much time for play. I was really sick for the first week and a half, stuck in bed, freezing cold but sweating, and shivering with the chills. Not too much fun. After that I started my job I came for and demolished and remodeled a bathroom...Out with the tub, toilet, floors, walls, lighting, etc... A week and a half later and all done. It came out really nice and once again I had some really high end materials to work with which always makes it a good thing.

As you can see this is a pretty small bathroom. It had some old tile in it with these huge grout lines. The shower door was pretty much uncleanable and the lighting wasn't that great. It also had one of those vent fans that sounds like a small jet when you try to get some of that "Number 2" smell out of the bath or steam from a hot shower. So we decided to fix all these problems. Out with the old and in with the new. I didn't get any demo pics just this one before and the following afters.


As you can see we put in a nice marble floor. I laid them on an angle centered up with the toilet. We finished it all with a nice relaxing paint job. You can also see a new GFCI outlet we had put in so that we could mount the poopy fan switch near the toilet. :)


Here you can see the new can lights we threw in and that nice shiny vent fan above the toilet. It's a light/night light/vent combo. It'll suck anything out of this room. I had to run a new vent house in the attic for it from the vent out to the eaves to get the moisture out of the shower. The can lights were the only nice ones we could find with PAR lamps for the shower but they were non-ic so I framed out some boxes around the cans in the attic to keep them up to code. You also get a preview of the shower tile. Marble 4"x12" with a beveled edge. I loved this stuff. And what about those ceiling patches...what, what patches, I don't see any patches/repairs...exactly what I'm going for. :)


You can see the shiny new tub we threw in. Now here we have the crown jewel of the shower...That beautiful tile. These homeowners can really pick out some pretty materials. On one wall we have the really nice plumbing fixtures and on the back wall we have the "Glass Waterfall". 1"x1" glass tiles from the tub lip up the wall into the niche up the back of the niche around the top of the niche and then back up the wall to the ceiling. This was the time eater of the job. The design, layout, and the details of the work took sometime. Sometimes I wish I didn't pay so much attention to detail because I spend a lot of time making sure things are just right. But in the end it makes me happy as well as the homeowner.


Here is another shot of the "Glass Waterfall". I wish I could say I was really good but it's not me. When you are working with beautiful materials it's hard for the complete job to not look good. I must say though I really loved these marble tiles, they cut like butter. They did have more natural fracture lines and were prone to crack a bit on small cuts but they came out beautiful. There is nothing like natural materials and that natural color they contain. A lot of these pieces had color lines that matched up across pieces, greens, browns, greys, and blacks. Beautiful beautiful material.



From North Carolina I was able to shoot down to New Orleans for a week. We rented a car, A SEBRING (Michael Scotting it up). We drove down to New Orleans and spent the week with my family there. What a great week, nothing to do and all week to do it. Now this is how vacation is suppose to feel right? I got to meet my new nephew too... how cute is he?!?!

And here are they boys!!!

It was great to see the family and actually have a week out of my six week stay in the States that wasn't consumed by work. After New Orleans we headed back to North Carolina with only a little less than two weeks left. I spent a couple of days up at Dani's moms to visit with them. Definitely not enough time for fun but just enough time to work. She wanted me to build a pergola, so as quick as I could I took my measurements, drew something up, and we got it constructed in one day. I couldn't believe I actually got it finished that quick. Big big thanks go out to CJ (Dani's brother), Riley (CJ's boy, for his sanding help), Nicky and Erv for their help, and of course Bird for the hot chocolate. Thanks guys!!!

So here's a good before...

And then the after...

Here's a shot from the door...not bad for a days work.

Another month gone by...

Well I guess I'm really neglecting this blog...from what should be daily or weekly posts has become what seems to be monthly updates. Here we are already near the end of August...I can't believe it. The sad part about a month going by is that I can't remember what's happened a month ago...I better catch myself up and read the last post...brb

Ok, I'm back. So let's see...I finished those tile floors. Here's a before of what they looked like...they weren't in the greatest shape..

And here is an after...much better. They actually look wet now. They were really happy with them so that was a good thing. It was a lot of work but well worth the final product.

As for other work, things are picking up a bit. I might actually make enough this month to cover rent or at least get close to it. I guess we'll see. I've had small computer jobs here there. I did spend some time updating the website, www.BelizeComputerGuy.com so you can now find a few graphic jobs that have been done, (many thanks to Bobby J for his work). As for fishing...not much there either. I haven't been since the last blog so no big updates there...and I'm pretty sure there won't be any fishing pics until December. I'll be busy for the next couple of months and won't have any time for fishing.

So let's see, what has been going on around here?? I spent a few days on the mainland of Belize this month doing some remodel work at the missionary home in Ladyville. There was a fire there some weeks back. A faulty A/C unit caught fire and caused a lot of damage. The spot I had to repair was were the A/C unit had fallen to the floor and the heat from the melting plastic actually cracked the tile floor. So I had to chip out about 25sq/ft of tile with a demolotion hammer and re-tile it. We couldn't find an exact match for the pre-existing tile so we decided to put a border down to make it look like it suppose to be that way. Here's the damage.

And here is the final product...

So I finished the job at the missionary home and then had to get to the boat to get back to the island. They offered me a ride into town but I didn't want to take them away from the work they were doing so I figured I would just catch the bus as I normally do. So I walk out to the main highway and normally would catch a bus since they run by every 30 minutes or so. But for some reason this day, the buses didn't run by for about an hour and a half. So end up walking from the missionary home a good ways down the main highway. A taxi stopped to pick me up and I wasn't going to jump in being that a taxi is 50 bucks and the bus is $1.50...so the taxi guy told me $5 to town...can't beat that. It wasn't a complete waste of walking though because I found a mango tree growing on the side of the road. So dug it up since it was just a small tree and brought it home. So I'm currently trying to get this thing growing. We'll see what happens.

I'm trying to think of any good experience's lately. Dani still has a handful of studies regularly attending meetings each week. One walks about a mile and half to the meeting with her 3 year old and 6 month old. She's commenting at the meetings and everything. She has another study that she actually went out in service with the other day. Her study is now an unbaptized publisher so that's encouraging. I had a study of mine at meeting the other Sunday also. I had the public talk in Caye Caulker Sunday morning and then at our hall Sunday evening. He was at our meeting and stayed for the WT also. It's so nice to see the results in the ministry. There's nothing more encouraging than seeing people make progress. Here's a quick pic I snapped of our service group the other day heading to the territory. There's a few sisters on the right walking, Dani in the red shirt, and our new sister on the three wheel bike. The new sister is from a small village from the mainland called Sartaneja (Sar-tah-nay-hah). She's an American who has been in Belize for years. She's in her 80's, I want to say 87 if I remember correctly. She peddles that bike all morning on these bad roads. She's so sweet and encouraging and just a book of wisdom. She's been here for about a month and we really love her.

I think that's it for now...I'll be in the States in October so I'll get to see some of you. Oh yeah, one other thing...I got a company in the States to donate an amp for our sound system at the Kingdom Hall. A friend of ours, Rob, happened to be visiting the States so he was able to pick it up and bring it back with him. This thing is killer heavy, like 35 pounds which is a lot for an amp. Although being donated, it cost $180U.S. between the heavy baggage and the import duties paid on it. Not a bad deal considering the cost of a new one. So I spend a few hours at the hall wiring it up and it doesn't work...only one microphone input works...Talk aobut make me mad...Now after being $180 bucks in the hole and having Rob lug this thing here from the States and the hours wasted on hooking it up and even worst having to re-hook up our old amp after realizing this one wasn't going to work you can imagine I was pretty heated up. So I guess I'll be lugging it back to the States later this year to see if the manufacture can fix it. Oh well, no good deed goes unpunished right????!!!!

Well that's it for now...it's midnight here and I only got a few hours of sleep last night so I'm pretty tired. I hope all is well with ya'll.

And this posts random pic is from about three years ago when my brother came down for a visit...here's me, Romeo, a few tuna and his nice mahi mahi...and with all the pics, click on them to enlarge them...Take care...

Exactly one month since...

Wow...it's been one month since my last post on here...What a slacker!!! Actually I've been super busy with service, not feeling good a few days, and actually a bit of work. So where do I begin? It's been a little over a month since I got my work permit and I'm actually getting a little bit of work. Not enough to pay rent or groceries yet but it's work. I'm still doing a little bit of work via the Internet for a company in the States so that's still helping us out. And most recently I'm doing some floors for a friend of mine. Mexican terracotta tile floors that need some refinishing. That's where the not feeling so good comes in. I was spraying some sealer on these floors and the chemical got to me for a few days. I felt like I was going to die...man, this stuff had me hurting so bad and feeling so sick. I'm so glad that it's finally done...well almost complete. I actually will be there tomorrow for a few hours moving the furniture back in place. I'll take some pictures so you can see the finished product. It looks really really good. I've also spent some time working on a website for my computer work here in Belize. Check it out and tell me what you think...www.BelizeComputerGuy.com Any constructive criticism would be great so let me know what you think. I've also had to the privilege to go over to Caye Caulker to help out with the meetings there. Conduct book study, Watchtower, and two service meeting parts really forces you to be on your toes. The good news is from what I hear there is suppose to be an elder and MS moving there later this year... and the best part is they are suppose to be there long term I think. Again these are just plans and as we know these things can change. Two permanent brothers there will help the congregation tremendously. There is still room for more help so feel free to come on down. I mean if you're going to struggle in the States you mind as well struggle here on an island and be happy. Dani has 15+ studies, two of which have been consistently attending the Sunday meeting, she had six bible students at the meeting the other night. The only thing that makes the ministry better is seeing results. I've actually had a few voicemails on my phone of people calling me to come call on them. How sweet is that!! The congregation here in San Pedro is doing really good too.

As for fishing, I haven't been spearfishing or lobstering since opening day in June so it's been over a month. So I've been itching to get out there. So I had to jump on the opportunity yesterday afternoon to go deep sea fishing. It was a good day...we caught three spanish mackerel, a mahi mahi, and about seven tuna...one of which was about 25-30 pounds. You gotta love tuna. We got four huge fillets out of that one tuna and a nice plate full of sashimi...after filleting it I cut what I could off of the carcass and we had some tasty sushi. It was so good. So here are some recent pics of things from the past month.

Here we go....

Here's a pic out of the window of the place I've refinishing the floors. I've been working like a dog for two weeks but the view does make it a little easier.

Here's a pic of the actual house.

I felt like taking a break and was super thirsty. What better way to quench your thirst and get a snack.


Here's a pic from yesterday's fishing trip. This would have been my prize fish but on the way pulling this one in it went from prize fish to bait. On the way to boat something came up and hit it... If you click on the pic you'll see what I'm talking about. Something big bit off more than half...


Here's the catch of the day. This tuna was huge. It looks like a torpedo. When you look at it you can tell that these tuna are built for one thing and one thing only...SPEED!


And here's a few more. We hit a big school of tuna and they started striking. You gotta love a good day on the water.


And for this post's random pic...here's one from my favorite thing to do back home in NC. Too bad we don't have any twisty roads on this island...or roads in general I guess.

A Good Day...

Well where do I begin; It's been 9 days and my last post wasn't much of a post at all, just that video. For the past couple weeks we've had a house guest, Suzanne. So we've been having a lot of fun while she's been here. Since she's here that means that Dani has a pioneer partner who is in for the long haul day to day. Dani has been doing great with her time for this month. She's a machine and is determined to get her time this year so it was only the 10th and she had 60 hours...whew...She's awesome.

So let's see what else has happened recently. Rob and Beth had some family in town. So I went out with them one day while they were here. I went out spearfishing and we shot some stuff...good lunch. We caught a shark and got it on the boat for a picture...and then we quickly got him back in the water so he could relax...here are a few pics from that day... Gabe is ready to go spearing!!!



















Another big event was the fact that Dani's dad got married last weekend. It was moved up to Sunday and there was no way we could have afforded to go....being that we're broke and all!!! But we found out the wedding was moved up on Monday. Wednesday we get a call from some of our good friends back in NC and they want us to be there for wedding. So what do they do, they email a confirmation number for a flight home!!!! We couldn't believe it, well, they are amazingly generous so let me rephrase, we could believe it but we were so excited to be able to make it home, especially for the wedding. So we received the confirmation number Wednesday afternoon and flew out Thursday morning. We could only be gone from Belize for five days so it was a quick trip, but a great one. I crammed in as much as I could and only got a few hours of sleep over the five days. The wedding was amazing!!! It turned out so nice...PERFECT! We were also able to see friends and some family while we were there. We got to see Dani's mom and her brother and nephews. I was able to shoot pool at Bobby J's house til 4am....I had Popeye's Chicken at the airport in ATL and Brixx Pasta in Charlotte...a tuna melt at Earthfare...it was the perfect quick trip.


And finally that brings us to today...which was a good fishing day. Rob and I went out and shot some lobster and crabs. We got a few monsters...like this one. This guy took up the entire kitchen sink.















And then tonight Suzanne took us out for dinner since it's her last night. We went up north to a restuarant. They have a boat that picks you up and the boat ride was beautiful, at least on the way back home in the dark. The starry sky here is so pretty. It makes you feel so small. So here are a few pics...The first one is of us leaving the house for dinner. If you look down to the left, you'll see an old bottle I found today on the reef while we were spearfishing. The wood to the right is for some picture frames that I made for Dani.






And here we are on the boat to dinner.


This is the place we ate at. If you look in the background you can see the ocean. How nice!!!



Here's Dani and I relaxing for a few minutes while we wait for our table.








Here is Suzanne just lounging around.

Now if you look closely in the picture above of the resturant, you'll see in the back left corner a pool table. I couldn't pass this up...This is actually my first time shooting pool on the island. A pool table, a hot tub, the ocean, the breeze...this table definitely pulls a close second to Bobby J's man cave back home. So it was a nice night. We took the boat back home and watched the glowing night sky. What a great night with great food and great company. Going out was a nice treat since we don't do it often, only for special occasions and since Suzanne leaves tomorrow then there you go, special occasion.

Here's a new feature to the blog...I'm going to start doing a random pic...The picture below is of Dani and I at the top of a volcano in Guatemala. It was so cold and windy up on the mountain...but only a few feet from this the temperature sored...so much so that if you stood in one spot too long my boots would melt. Yikes!!!! Don't forget, clicking on the pics makes them larger. Until next time....

Interesting Video

Saw this on the web today....thought it was interesting...

It's official...

Well Ladies and Gents...

It's official. I received my work permit!!! I can officially work in Belize and try to make a living now. I can now do my computer work and start bringing in some money...well at least I hope so. Now I just have to get some customers. So besides service and stuff that's been the activity for the past few days...working on advertisements, passing out business cards, spreading the word that I can now work. So we'll see how that works.

Besides that not a whole lot has been going on. I haven't been fishing lately so no good stories there. Lobster season opens on the 15th so I better have some nice pics of lobster when that roles around.

I did get to work on my bike today...I had a broken spoke and needed to replace a brake cable so that's fixed. We're suppose to be back in the states for a few days later on this year but we'll see how that works out. We're trying to get residency here so we have to be in Belize for 50 of 52 consecutive weeks...so we can't really leave until after October if we want to meet the requirements for residency.

I think that's it for now. Hopefully something exciting happens around here...

I'm going to try to get Dani to post something on here one of these days...she has some great experiences in the ministry. So I'll see if I can get her to take a break and post something.

Good night...

Long Week

I can't believe it's almost been a week. Time flies when you're busy. This past weekend I was over in Caye Caulker. Since the Houghton's are back in the States they have no elders there now so our body handle's that congregation also. So two brother's from our hall go over there on the weekends. One brother in our hall goes every Sunday to do the WT and TMS. The second brother is rotated among the brother's in our hall. This past weekend it was my turn to head over there. So I had to conduct the CBS and had two parts on the Service Meeting for that Saturday night. Then Sunday morning I had the privilege to conduct the WT since we had no speaker so the other brother gave the public talk instead of the WT. Then it was back to our island on the afternoon boat and then our meeting Sunday night. It was a long weekend and tiring but it's so nice to be able to have the privilege to help out in Caye Caulker. It's a small island with a small congregation but they are doing good and it's always nice to be there.

As for field service, we've both been very busy. It's so nice to have people that actually listen and appreciate things. I mean Dani has 13+ studies right now. I accompanied her on a study yesterday where she studies with these five little girls. They are so cute and they take turns reading paragraphs in the bible story book. There are two that can't read yet so the older ones that can read will read a word and the younger girls repeat it all the way through the paragraph. It is so cute. Dani's a great teacher. I went on another one with her yesterday too where she is teaching a lady the bible and at the same time teaching her to write and read. It's so nice to see people appreciate what they are learning. I had a study the other day also with these four little boys. One studies from the "Learn to Read and Write" brochure while the others go over the bible story book. It's a job trying to keep them focused but they do well.

Besides meetings and service not a whole lot has been going on... Dani's bike broke the chain yesterday so I had to repair that. I oiled up the bikes today and cleaned them a bit. I need a few parts for mine but it's holding together pretty well. Just need a gear cable and a few spokes but it gets me around. We have a new friend at our hall too... Someone crashed a golf cart into the fence so now this dog climbs in through this hole in the fence. He's found a new shade tree as you can see here...

Oh yeah....there is a big sink hole north of us from the earthquake. Dani and I jogged up there yesterday. It's about a 15 minute run from our house up to where it's at. It is so cool. It's about 30 feet in diameter and we're not sure how deep yet. People have said it's at least 30 feet but I think they are going to cave dive it with SCUBA to see where it goes. There are cave syst

ems all under this island. We actually spear fish a few caves openings around here...they are more like cracks in the earth but they lead to caves. This picture doesn't really do it justice but it's about 6 or 7 feet from the grass down to the surface of the water. It's pretty cool to see.

I think that's about it for now though. Nothing too crazy going on. The weather has been windy so no great fishing days. My fishing buddy has some family coming for a visit in a week or two so I'll have a few good fishing days while they are here. I should have some pics of nice fish soon. Lobster season opens on the 15th so I'll have pics of lobster at least...well I hope so.