ALMOST ON OUR WAY!

We are leaving in less than one month to Spain.  We are leaving March 18, 2013 and will be gone until June 17, 2013.  We are so excited!  Can't wait to walk the Camino and work on a MAPS project in Spain.  I have set up a separate blog just for our camino so that those who go after me in the world can link on my blog and get some information on how to prepare and what to expect.  I know blogs of others that have gone before us helped us a lot in preparing for this trip.  My camino blogspot is www.cranecamino.blogspot.com.  Check it out if you want to keep track of our camino.

We went to Houston today to meet our son, Matthew, and take a class on treasure hunting for Jesus.  What an awesome way to get past that fear of stepping out and witnessing to people for God!  This is going to help us a lot while we are in Spain.

WHAT THE NEW YEAR HOLDS

What do the Cranes have planned for the new year?  Well, Kevin is presently working on a MAPS project in Waxahachie TX, while I am preparing for our trip to Spain in March.  It is a lot more work getting ready for a 3 month trip then I thought.  I have to get my taxes done for one.  Blah! 

The first 3 months of this year will be spent working at Lakeview Camp and Conference Center in Waxahachie TX.  The next 3 month will be spent in Spain.  The first 6 weeks will be walking the Camino de Santiago and the next 6 weeks will be working on an overseas MAPS project in La Carlota, Spain.  We are anxious to leave, but too much to do yet to prepare.   

Most of my friends and family know about our past bed bug experience from our last European trip, and because of how horrible and expensive that was to get rid of them, we will be packing light and bringing back nothing.  So planning what to take that we can leave behind is a challenge.  But leaving things behind is cheaper than the possible expense if we bring back bed bugs.  

We are not backpacking it across 500 miles, just walking.  We are having our bags transferred from town to town.  I'm not up for lugging 50 lbs 500 miles. Neither is Kevin.  We have our hotels reserved.  We are also not up for staying in hostels and sharing a bathroom with who knows how many people.  Although the company would be nice, sleep is something I enjoy and need each night, especially if I am walking all day! 

We are hoping and praying to meet a lot of people who we can give a good word to and pray for on our walk.  So everyone be praying for God to show us those people and give us words that God would have them hear to help and encourage them.

Our second half of our trip is to refurbish a Bible school.  We don't have a lot of details about the job yet, but are again hoping to meet students that we can encourage and pray for.  We want to do more for the kingdom of God than just build while we are there.  Our work in MAPS consists of a lot more than just building buildings to give pastors and other leaders a place to lead, but we are there to build lives as well.  We hope to bless people along the way, and we always get blessed in the process.  We seem to do better at this with strangers than with family.  

After we get back in June from our trip, only God knows where we will go from there.  But I'll keep you all informed as God informs me.  

I miss my kids and grandkids.  I hope to see all of them sometime this year.

Written by Angie

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

What a wonderful Christmas Eve we had last night!  We are in San Antonio awaiting our business meeting/Christmas Party today, Christmas, and when searching for a Christmas Eve service last night we located Max Lucado's church and had the honor of hearing him give the message.  I love Max Lucado's books, and was so blessed to hear him give the Christmas message.  We sang all the old Christmas carols remembering the blessing God bestowed on us that day in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

OUR ADVENTURE AT THE CHRISTMAS TREE LOT

Well, how do I start?  We thought it would be fun working a Christmas Tree Lot this year.  Hmmm.....

Fun is not the word I would use.  Work, hard work, extremely hard work, those are words I would use to describe our experience.  I have never worked so hard in my life.  I didn't get any pictures after the sales started because it was so busy I didn't have a second to take one.  I have some I'll attach when we got our first shipment of 350 trees and were ready for sale.  We ended up selling 2260 trees.  That's not to mention the wreaths, garland, stands and other sundrees.  I can honestly say, I would never do this again.  I don't think I could get paid enough to work this hard (well maybe if I was broke).  No free time.  24 hour work.  Only 5 weeks but seemed like a lifetime.

It started with the set-up of the circus tent.  We had to string lights, water lines; attach signs on the poles, fences; put together an office and everything that goes in it; put together 1000 stands, garland reels, netting table, work tables; set up a flocking tent the same way including the flocking machines, tables etc.  Try doing that 3 times (we had to help two others put theirs up).  We thought this would be the end of the hard part (the joke was on us).

Now comes the trees at 8 in the morning or during the busiest time of day around 5 p.m.  350 trees in a semi-truck that have to be unloaded, stumps cut and drilled for the stands (the stands have a spike in the middle where the tree sits on); hammer a stand in each tree, stand it up, water it, cut the bailing string from around the tree, and tag it with a price.  Times that by 2260 trees.  Every two days receiving 2-300  trees.

Now that trees are up, its selling time.  Try hundreds of mostly cranky people wanting a tree.  Picking one out, then we have to take the stand off, put the tree on a shaker, shake it, and then carry it to the netter, net it, and then either in a truck bed, or the dreadful top-of-car tie on.  At the same time trying to sell these people a stand and several other sundrees. Remember these are not Walmart trees.  They are from a tree farm in Oregon and weigh 150-300 pounds.

The worst part was handling of employees that didn't want to work, just wanted to get paid.  It was more tiresome to try to get these employees to work rather than just do it yourself.  Of course, if they wanted to work why would they be working at a tree lot for 5 weeks a year?  Exhausting!  A bunch of government handout people who have enjoyed too much free money!  We had 3 good employees and the rest were lazy.

Now you think when we closed at 9:00 p.m. we could go to bed. NO!  First we have to water 300 trees, then I had to do all the bookkeeping.  Count the trees that were left by size and species, every sundree that was sold, how much money paid to employees, balance the credit card charges, checks, cash etc.  That was a 4 hour job every night.  Just to wake up at six to water more trees, get another shipment of trees and start all over again.

Just to add some excitement Kevin got bit by a spider and it got infected and his entire hand was turning read and swollen and the spider bite got red, then black, then kept extending.  Had to get IV antibiotics and go the doctor 3 times.  Geez!  I attached a picture of the bite after it was almost healed up.

Would I do this again?  NEVER!  This was a nightmare!  People are not happy at Christmas!  They are crabs!  Why buy a tree if you are so crabby?  Stay home and shut the door!  Don't come to the Christmas tree lot and take it out on the cashier!

With that said, MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!  The tree lot is closed and I will have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS.  Off to a Christmas concert, then to a Christmas Eve celebration on Monday.  So glad the tree selling business is over, and so glad my Savior was born and died for my sins!  So glad I get to spend Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Our Adventure in Christmas Trees - Week 1

     Well, we have been on this Christmas Tree lot in Corpus Christi, Texas for 1 week.  The weather has been wonderful.  A bit humid, but not as bad as in San Antonio.  We have a constant breeze.  Today is supposed to be a little chilly.  69 degrees (lol).  We are working for Holiday Hills Christmas Trees (you can check out their website).  They had people come in and put up a tent the size of a circus tent.  We had to string lights, electrical, build a booth, run water lines, hang signs, etc etc.  They had a company put a fence around the lot.  We are parked right on the lot inside the fence and they provide water, sewer and electric.  We placed a huge sign on one side of the fence and the wind blew from that direction so hard that it ripped the fence right off the stands.  We fixed the fence and moved the sign.  Once good suggestion to Holiday Hills is - put air holes in your signs!

     We are now waiting on 351 trees that should be here this weekend. We hired a few guys to help with the workload.  Looking forward to a fun Christmas season with a bunch of Christmas trees!  (Pictures coming next post).

**Note to self:  Watch out for those tent stakes surrounding your tent!

4 MORE YEARS OF OBAMA - CAN WE AFFORD IT?

I don't know how much better Mitt Romney would have done, but I do know that he believed in the American dream of coming to this country or being born in this country and making a better life for yourself and your family on your own terms.  Our country was built on the idea that everyone has the right to make a life for himself as he choses.  Either he choses to become wealthy with very hard work, become part of the middle class by hard work, or remain poor with no work at all.  Obama's "share the wealth" plan has already turned us into the poor rather than the middle class.  I can no longer afford great health insurance because my premium has risen so high in order to pay for others who did not work for 32 years in order to have the benefit of good healthcare, that by 2014 Obama will have succeeded in forcing me to lower my standard of healthcare to that of the poor.  I could have chosen to work harder to be wealthy.  I didn't want to work that hard, but I wanted to work hard enough to support myself and my family and to retire with good healthcare.  I chose not to be poor.  Just because I chose to be part of the middle class, does not mean I expect the wealthy to give me what they worked much harder for.  People poorer than I should not expect me to give them what I worked so hard for. As Jesus said, the poor will always be with us.  It is for us to help them by giving out of love, not for us to be forced to give them an equal share (or more) of what we worked so hard for.  I should not have to give such a large hand-out that I now become equal to the poor and need a hand-out myself.  Four more years.  Can we afford it?  Can I afford it?

SELLING CHRISTMAS TREES!

We have arrived in San Antonio, Texas.  Soon to be setting up our Christmas tree lot.  Don't know where exactly the lot will be yet.  We go to training Friday, November 2, 2012.  Looking forward to doing something that reminds me it is Christmas time.  Haven't had a family Christmas in so many years.   Hopefully this will allow us to celebrate with other families helping them choose their Christmas tree!

UPDATE:  Looks like we are selling Christmas trees in Corpus Christi, Texas, instead of San Antonio, Texas.  Cooler, less humid, and a nice breeze. . .