Here is another post that I took off of my photography blog. This one was from January.

I have been absolutely blessed to go to Mexico with my church. We went again yesterday and took toys down to the kids. It was an amazing trip! God is so good! We left early in the morning and drove down to Tecate. When we got there, we went to the River Invasion. They had opened up the church for us and were there waiting for us and worshiping God. We went in and joined them, and a few of our people spoke (I'm not sure what they said, because I still can't speak much spanish) and several of the people in the River accepted Jesus. We also got a chance to pray with the people. It was such a neat experience for me, because I don't speak spanish fluently, or even close to it, but I was still able to pray with the people and even though they couldn't understand me, God still touched their hearts... and mine too!




After that, we talked with some of the people and passed out the first batch of toys. The kids were so excited! It's amazing how a simple toy can bring an instant smile to a child's face. It was cloudy, but we were incredibly thankful that there was no rain.... yet :)

Somehow I managed to lock the key to the car inside the car. In Mexico. Where we have no cell phone service. And no spare key. I'm brilliant :) But everyone was very good natured about it and we managed to find someone who was able to break into the car. It took quite a while, which I suppose is a good thing for Pastor Moises who owns the car... not easy to break into :) And then we were on our way again.



Oh and another thing about being in Mexico... we can get cell phone service, but it is roaming and costs about $2 a minute. On that note, Javier (my co-youth pastor) still tried to call Pastor Moises to find the code to unlock his car... unfortunately, Moises didn't know it. Bummer.


I was waiting VERY impatiently...

And she finally this lady got it open! Everyone started clapping :)


Next, we headed to a whole new place. I'm not sure where it was, but it was next to some train tracks. We walked around and talked to the people and gave out more toys. We had more than enough toys (which was a huge blessing, because we were worried we wouldn't have enough).

The trip was incredible. I am continually blessed by these experiences. It reminds me of how much God has given me... how much He continually blesses me. And it absolutely humbles me to see these people where they're at. I serve an AWESOME God! :) Here are some pictures I took of the kids getting their toys and some other neat things. Enjoy!

Side Note... many of the above pictures were taken by one of my teens (who also happens to be one of my favorite people ever), Javvy. He is an aspiring photographer and had my camera for most of the trip (which is why I'm actually IN some of the pictures for a change)... and he did a great job taking pictures. Thanks Javvy! :)




This picture was actually taken by Javvy but I just thought it was hilarious... so I wanted to throw it in here:








I'll leave you with one of my favorites that Javvy took of me that day (I might have to start taking him on my shoots with me to help!):

So I have another blog that I have been writing a little longer than this one for my photography. But I used to also add an occasional story of the teens on there. Well I decided that I would take the posts I'd had on there from the teens and put them here... so here is one I wrote about winter camp (even though it's from back in February):

We headed up to winter camp on Friday afternoon and hit some major fog on the way up. Friday night we had a nice big snow storm and with that a very large snow fight... complete with snowball throwing and tackling... and even a few snow angels. It was so much fun to see the teens really experience snow (some for the first time ever!). We got into FULL ON snowball fights... although there weren't a whole lot of snowballs involved... mostly it was just shoving each other down in the snow and throwing handfulls of it into each other's faces... we love each other so much :) Really!

Saturday was a beautiful day and we spent the day playing in the snow again. You'll see the pictures of the kids tackling me and trying to take me out... this is a continual problem I face with being smaller than almost all of my teens. They like to throw me around a lot!

In the afternoon we had some free time, so we decided to go and explore with several of the girls. We found an old abandoned cabin. After we'd had enough of it, we decided to move on. We were walking around the side of it and Javier was leading the way. I was following right behind him. There was a tree branch in the path, so he held it out of the way so it wouldnt come back and smack me in the face. In the mean time, he lost his balance and grabbed a board on the side of the cabin deck to stable himself, but instead the 2x4 came off and hit me in the head. It knocked me down and made me quite dizzy. I had a bump for several days and it was pretty sore. When we got back from exploring I was sitting outside with the girls, and we were talking about what if I died from the bump... we stopped talking when one of the girls started crying at the thought :)

Sunday brought lots of rain and lots of sad teens who didn't want to go home... but we did. We had a wonderful weekend filled with lots of laughs and bonding time!

Here are some of my fav pics from the time... hope you enjoy them :)

... maybe I should explain.

See, this weekend we had something called NYI (Nazarene Youth International) Convention. Basically this is the business meeting for all of the youth on the Anaheim district. It's where we elect our NYI President and Vice President and council for the next year. The way that our district chose to do it this year is to have it Friday night and Saturday and also do some leadership training. Well Javier and I were both nominated for positions on the ballot. We also had two teens (Chrisha and Patty) who were nominated as well. In order to be on the ballot you had to be present, so we decided to take the two girls. So we got there Friday night and everything was going wonderfully. We got done with our sessions early and decided to take the girls to do something fun. After asking for ideas from the current NYI President, Jason, we decided to head over to the beach. After "exploring" (Javier's word for getting lost) the area, we ended up at the beach around 10:15. We "explored" our way down to the beach from the street and found the beach fairly empty with some fires that were still going. We spent about 30 minutes hanging out and sitting by a burning out fire and decided we'd had enough and we should head out and get something to eat instead. So we headed back for the car.

We realized on our walk back that there was a cop standing in the parking lot by where you exit the sandy part of the beach. We kept walking and when we got to him he announced that the beach had closed at 10pm and that they had cleared it out at that time. I explained that we had just gotten there about 20 minutes ago and he told us that he needed to enforce the rules and asked us to please sit on the curb next to his cop car. At that point, two more police cars pull up and one announces to the people still on the beach "Walk toward my car!" When no one moves, he says "If you do not walk toward my car right now I will come out there and arrest you!"

They ended up with about 25 people sitting on the curb. They took ID's (Javier had his, but mine was in the car, and neither of the girls had them) and began writing tickets! At this point I'm panicking a little bit because of the two girls. I wasn't so worried about me and Javier (although I didnt want a ticket, and I'm sure he didnt either) but I did NOT want them to get them. So the cop gets to us and asks if we have state issued ID's (not with us, just at all). The girls both said no. He asked how old they were and they said 14. Then he looked at us. I quickly explained that we are their youth pastors and we were here from another city for a leadership convention. He wrote down my name and told us he'd be back to take care of us.

In the mean time, Patty asks if we can pray. So we start praying.

The three police officers worked their way through everyone else and then came back to us. The cop that said he'd be back told Javier and I that he was going to let all of us go (and rip up the ticket they'd already written Javi) because they knew we weren't trying to do anything wrong.

So we were able to leave without a ticket while the other 20 or so people were ticketed. It really ended up being pretty cool because the girls got to see an immediate answer to prayer. We explained to them that God didn't have to show us Grace, that He could have let us get a ticket. They were so excited!

One of the funniest things that came out of all of this, was when we were sitting on the curb waiting (we were sitting there for more than an hour). Javier looks at Chrisha and says, "So is this your first curb-sitting experience?" To which Chrisha replies, "No, I sit on the curb at home all the time!" She is so funny!

So I know that this is not the typical funny story I share on here, but I also think that when God does something incredible, that people should hear about it. I had debated posting this because I know it could really come across wrong, but again, God deserves recognition for the great things He does! And I'm sure that this will be an experience those girls NEVER forget :) I'm sure I wont!

I love my teens.

I love my teens.

I love my teens.

Even when they mock me.

In fact, sometimes I love them more then!

They are really quite funny.

Here is one instance in particular. Javvy (Javier's almost 16 year old son) probably gives me the hardest time of any of my teens. We took a few of the boys rock climbing the other day, and I took my camera.

I always try to get pictures of me with the kids (because I'm usually behind the camera). So Javvy humored me:
Then I looked at the picture and realized my head was up and I was taking a picture of my neck. I explained this to him and asked if we could take another picture. Here is the result:

Need I say more? :) :)

So as usual... another funny conversation.

Today I dropped off one of my girls after picking her up from school to hang out. I stopped and talked to her sisters (who are also two of my girls) for a bit. One of them was telling me about a cockroach she saw at school... this is how the conversation went:

Katy: "Today, there was a cockroach at school on the bathroom wall and its little antlers were going like this (motions with hands above head)"

Me: "Katy, cockroaches dont have antlers, they have antennas... only Deer and Meese have antlers."

Katy: "Meese? What is a Meese?"

Me: "You know... like a group of Mooses."

Katy: "They aren't called Meese"

Me: "Then what are they called?"

Katy: "Moose."

Me: "No, that's one. You call a group Meese... ya know, like you call a group of Gooses 'Geese'... a group of Mooses is Meese."

Katy: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Me: "You don't say, 'hey look over there, I see some MOOSE'... you say 'I see some MEESE!'"

The conversation went on like this for a few minutes and then we got the other two girls involved and they both agreed that you do not call several Mooses "Meese". I admit that when you say it out loud it does sound quite funny.

But THEN... Katy went and looked it up online... and sure enough, listed as a plural is MEESE!!! Take THAT! :)

...need I say more?

S0 today was just another Sunday...

...another Sunday full of hilarious things said by teens...

We have a game cabinet in the youth room that Javier and I keep locked up so that things dont get misplaced.

Well this morning before Sunday School, the teens were playing ping pong (my mom brought brownies and I blame her for the sugar high!)... well a couple of the kids left the room to go get water from the kitchen... right about that time one of the teens who'd been playing ping pong was going to the game cabinet, and this conversation took place:

Diandra to teen playing ping pong: "Can you lock it?"

Teen sitting on couch to Diandra: "So they wont come back?"

The teen sitting on the couch observing what was happening thought I wanted the other teen to lock the teen room door so that the teens that went to get water wouldnt be able to get back in!

:)

So then in Sunday School we were talking about the spies going into Jericho and the lady named Rahab that they stayed with. Well the teens thought I said "REhab"... so that started some confusing and hilarious conversations as they tried to figure that one out.

:)

Tonight I went to the Spanish service as always. I was sitting talking to one of the boys after it was over, and I was teasing him about a girl he likes. I must have "threatened" to do something or tell someone cuz he said "If you do that I'll kill you..." (NOTE: it was said in a very non-threatening joking tone), and I said, "That's not a very nice thing to say" and he quickly came back at me batted his eyelashes and said "...with my LOVE!"

Funny funny teens!

So I have this one teen girl in my youth group who is just hysterical. She's a freshman in high school and she's a little small for her age. And she always says the most random FUNNY things! You cannot be around her long before something funny comes out of her mouth!

I took her and some of the other girls the the mall the other day and as we were walking through the men's department of Sears (dont ask me why), she blurts out,

"We should try on man clothes! We could act like Manakees!"

?

Trying on man clothes was funny enough, but what the heck is a manikee???

Then we realized she meant the maniKINS... and that was pretty funny too!

So then, a couple days ago Javier and I took lunch to her school and when we got there she was sitting in the office. I asked her what she was doing there and she said she had to see the principal.

Now you need to understand something here, the only time I ever went to the principal was to get an award... so getting in trouble and getting sent to the principals office is kind of a foreign concept to me :)

So back to the office... after she says she has to see the principal, I assume its good, so I say (jokingly), "Aw, are you in trouble???" and she says YES!!! She'd gotten in trouble for talking :)

So Javier and I sat down and talked with her for a while. Out of NOWHERE she asks,

"Why does sometimes your poop come out green?"

!?!?!

I burst out laughing.

Javier apparently didn't quite hear her, so amidst my laughter, he keeps asking her,

"what?"

Teen: "Why does sometimes your poop come out green?"

Diandra: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

Javier: "what???"

Teen: "Why does sometimes your poop come out green?"

Diandra: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

FINALLY Javier gets it. He sits back, thinks for a second and TRIES TO GIVE HER AN ANSWER! It goes something like this,

"Well...um....I think it has something to do with.... um.... I'm not really sure.... but maybe what you eat can make it.... or if you are sick it...."

This is not normal for Javier.

In the mean time I am turning blue from not breathing because I cannot stop laughing.

Then the bell rang.

We never did come up with an answer.

So I have a wall in my office that has a bunch of pictures of the teens, as well as their handprints. I dont have even close to all of their handprints, but I'm working on it.

Today one of my teens was here with his parents, and he was hanging out in my office with me and Javier for a while. Javier asked him if he'd put his handprint on my wall yet. The kid said no, so we decided to add him to the wall. As I'm painting his hand, I asked him if it felt weird, he quickly replied, "No, I did this in kindergarten!" to which I had to stifle a laugh because it was quite funny. Then he said something about how he falls a lot, and since we were talking about how paint felt on his hand, I assumed he meant he fell into paint (don't ask me why that would happen a lot...). So I say, "You fall into paint?", he quickly replied, "No, onto pavement!"

Hilarious.

So I thought I'd share a couple more videos from the past that crack me up!

As I've mentioned before, I have a co-youth pastor named Javier. He has a 15 year old son named Javier Jr (Javvy). Javvy is a riot. He has so much personality and is just a kick in the pants!

He is also a bit of a clown, and likes to pick fights with his dad. Here are a couple of clips of those... from trying to tackle him and take him down, to trying to start fights... just a typical day.









and this one... oh man, this one cracks me up (you can even hear me laughing in the background)... We were going out to go home after locking up the church after youth group... and, well, I don't think it needs anymore explanation...


These crack me up, so I thought I'd share them with you!

I'll leave you with a story... I got knocked down playing games in the gym after youth group a few weeks ago, and Javvy, being the gentleman that he is, came to help me get up. But instead of really helping me get up, he got me up just enough to leg swipe me and knock me right back down. It was quite hilarious and I sat there and laughed for a while... wish I had that on tape :)

I tell you all of these stories about getting thrown around and beat up by my kids, but really they have a lot of respect for me :) I just enjoy playing around with them. They are serious when they need to be and know when to stop. I really have a wonderful group of kids! I am very glad to have the relationships and friendships with them that I do!