The last week of 2011~

Four days after Christmas and all through the house, not a creature is stirring, except for the mouse ... or should we say, mice! We have now captured and killed four mice. One by one they keep finding our warm trailer and, unfortunately for them, coming inside. We wish they wouldn't ... we don't like killing them.
The gate has been relatively quiet lately. Most of the traffic is around 5:30 a.m. when a ton of guys come in and then around 4:30 p.m. when they all leave. Other than that, guys just dribble in here and there during the day. Wayne has been able to get a fair amount of sleep between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., which means he gets plenty of sleep since he goes to bed 8:30ish and sleeps until 2:00ish in the afternoon. Sleep is important, not only for safety but for mood! All of us do better when we get enough sleep.
We had a visit from one of our company men yesterday ... finally! Hess bought out ZaZa here at La Corona Ranch just before we arrived, and Jamie from Hess visited with both of us. Nice guy! Cody from Hess also came by yesterday and today, and is arranging to fix our gate. It drags on the end when it is opened up due to wear on the hinges. That's supposed to happen this afternoon. Another positive for us: the landowner was here at the same time as Jamie yesterday and they had an impromptu meeting right at our gate. The landowner was complaining about all the trucks (really very few) that come in late at night and early in the morning. He said they were having trouble hunting the deer as the noise was scaring them away. Apparently they are going to suspend trucks after 6 or 7 at night until 5 or 6 in the morning. We really don't mind the trucks, since we knew it was a 24/7 deal coming in, but it still will be nice. We won't complain!

Jon, Julie and Joe

We got to Skype with ALL of our kids and grandkids on Christmas evening. It was awesome to get to see them all together having a nice time, even if we weren't physically there. We got to talk with each one ... it was such a blessing. On top of that, they took pictures!! We finally have a picture of our three children with promises of more pictures to come of the whole family. Yeah!
Yesterday we made a huge commitment. Sue has been reading some blogs of a group of women who went to the Philippines at the end of May. Each of their families sponsors at least one child in the Philippines through Compassion. They were able to visit each child and their families on the trip and actually see their homes and the country. We talked about it a couple of times and decided this was something we wanted to do as well. Whether we will ever have the money to actually visit the Philippines, only God knows, but we can at least help. We may not be able to feed all the needy children in the world, but we can certainly feed one! Anyway, his name is Elmer and he just turned 5 on October 11th. We are looking forward to watching him grow up and hopefully learn to love Jesus. Sue wrote him a letter yesterday as soon as we signed up, and will be sending him a couple of pictures of our family when she can. These kids treasure the letters and pictures from their sponsors, and we want him to know we care about him and pray for him and his family. If you want to know more about Compassion and how you can help, you can access it right here at the top of our blog.

Elmer Angelo Villasenco