Booty Shakers...

What does the Hanks fam do on the weekend? Watch the video to find out!

We watched Evan Almighty in our hotel room on Sunday afternoon. As the credits roll, they play C+C Music Factory's Gonna Make You Sweat. (Yes, I know that because I am cool like that...)

Everyone has their own style:
- Mia: Elaine from Seinfeld + breakdancing = awesome
- Ethan: Rave-ish arm movements + funk = awesome
- Ella Kate: head bob + clapping = awesome

Stop sign

Do you ever feel like you need a pause button or stop sign for your life. If so, I can relate over the past few days (and Heather can to.) Wow, this week is ridiculous...

I have had this thought on the brain ever since Sunday. "You cannot truly serve God or be a servant to others if your schedule is 100% full at all times." (I think I stole that from Keith or Ted.) Uh-oh, that describes me too well.

Even with the end of the Team D Forest Green Covenant Lawnscapes 'Scapers season, life is crazier than ever. If I wasn't pimpin' around in the 98 Camry with its mind-boggling speed, I don't think I would be at point B after point A.

Frankly, I am not sure if I need to make some major changes OR need to understand that this is the life of a grown up.

Third option just in....I am just going to go play the lottery and commit to tithe on my millions.

Things I Have Learned....

Here are a few hypothetical things I have learned in the past few days. These may or may not be too specific to apply to your life. Your call...

1) If you are filling in for Jonathon Clarke for Extended Care (or whatever the name) at TSC on Sunday, do NOT anticipate that the mother of a very cute, blonde child has left the building even though it is well past the end of the "class." If you do make the reasonable mistake of anticipating that the parents have left the facilities and make the fateful decision to throw away their soon-to-be-award-winning craft project, you will regret your decision. The child's mother will promptly return and discover that you have disposed of her child's project in the nearest trash receptacle. This parent may also be able to see the craft in the trash can which makes the situation all the more incriminating. You will need to diffuse the situation with humor. You will fail.

2) If you are a trainer for Lexis Nexis (law school and legal search company), do NOT turn off all lights in a potential Nashville School of Law classroom as you are doing your enthralling "How to Search the Internet" training class. The students will likely all surf the internet and listen to none of your spill.

(Actual Shawn in actual classroom.)

3. Do not answer a question by your spouse (possibly wife) with the return query "Who cares?" This is improper because, since she asked you the question, she probably cares. If you do this, you are a jerk for at least one day. Call her and apologize.

Reminder: These are mere hypotheticals....

Hanks Family Chattanooga Extravaganza 2008

We decided last night that we could not spend the holiday weekend at
Cool Springs Galleria. So, we jumped online and found a special at The
Chattanoogan. The kiddos LOVE the aquarium and science museum.

They are most excited about staying in a hotel. Tonight is pool time
with museum, aquarium and IMAX tomorrow.

We may have to go bowling tonight. They bowl so much on the Wii that
it will be fun to see if they can actually do it.....

The Office Wii

What's this? It is the PSB office Wii! Our back area has become home to a Wii and flat screen. Luckily, we are all mature enough to not allow it to interfere with our daily work schedules. Productivity - UP!

American Idle

I was asked for the fourth time (total) this morning if I watched American Idol this week. Apparently, there was some kind of finale. I was asked by this person, "How in the world can you not watch AI? EVERYONE watches AI. It was the finale, for pete's sake!"

OK, here's the deal.

1) Not everyone watches the show. As a matter of fact, very few people actually watch. There are 300 million Americans. Less than 30 million watch the show according to Nielsen. This means that 90% (9 out of 10!) Americans actively chose to NOT watch the show. 1 in 10 people you know watch the show.

2) If I have no interest in watching the entire season, why would I watch the last show? Watching two effeminate boys named David fight to the death while singing re-makes of Celine Dion songs is not a good way for me to use the night.

This same person also said, "Well, be glad you didn't watch. It has just become a big commercial. They have almost lost the purity of the show." OK, I get that I am one of the more sarcastic, jaded people on the planet. But, well, never mind....

Have a good day!
Shawn

I am Iron Man...

I just saw Iron Man. Never has a movie been MORE made for men to love and women (Heather) to hate. The lead character is a flamboyant billionaire who gives up his playboy ways to defeat international terrorrists and global destruction. It is basically Steele Magnolias and Pretty Woman rolled into one movie!

Guys, if you have two hours and $20 to waste on a movie, go see this one.

TSC ladies, I know some of you, including my hottie wife, are doing a girls' night tomorrow night at the movies. Have some guts and go see Iron Man. I can tell you exactly how all eight of the love stories at the theatre will end....

Boy meets girl, girl loves boy, boy loses girl, dramatic development, boy and girl reunite for passionate kiss on beach.***

Chick movie....kissing and no defeat of international terrorism
Guy movie...ONLY defeat of international terrorism by super human armored suit

Whose a real American, huh?

***(you can insert "boy returns home from war to kiss girl" or "boy dies in tragic accident but his ghost pursues girl and ultimately leads her to the surprise new love interest at end of movie" as other possible endings.)

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Amazing Mia....

Mia accepted Christ last week....i am very proud of her and her sweet heart. Read details here.

The Wii Test

Ethan and Mia understand more about the Wii than me and Heather put together. Ethan can navigate through the menus and fly to the game he wants to play within seconds. I think he is officially obsessed...

I was in the bonus room this morning doing my devo's before anyone else woke up. He came stumbling in the room at about 6:45 AM with a serious case of bed-head. He was not fully awake and could barely put one foot in front of another. His first words to me were, "Daddy, I GOTTA do my Wii test!"

Since he has not completely grasped the concept of "tomorrow", he is constantly asking me and Heather, "is it tomorrow yet?" We have told him that you can only do the Wii Test once per day and then you have to wait until tomorrow. "Is it tomorrow? When will it be tomorrow? (Pause for a few minutes) Is it tomorrow now?"

Full disclosure...I love the Wii Test too. I hit 27 late last night (too late to mention a time lest you think I have a Wii sickness.) For once, H is married to a younger man.

What is your Wii age?

By the way, add the Hanks Family to your friends. Our Wii number is:
2091 2876 7199 3741

Guard your iPods.....

Scoreboard:
iPod - 1
Hanks family - 1

We have very clean electronic toys in our family. By that, I mean that
we have now officially WASHED two iPods. The first "situation" was
created when we accidentally washed my iPhone. (Ethan, who loves
electronic toys as much as me, had put it in the towels to keep it
safe!) The guys at the Apple Store made my month by replacing it for
free when they did not have to do so.

I hid my 30 gig iPod in my tennis shoes for the trip back from
Nicaragua. Heather had no reason to know that fact. Since my shoes
were unrecognizably dirty, she was kind enough to wash them (and
"it".) After letting it sit in a bowl of rice overnight to absorb the
moisture, it would not even power up. We finally gave up and chalked
it up to me being a bonehead.

Guess what....Mia was playing with the iPod on Saturday and said,
"Hey, daddy. I fixed your iPod." I loved two things about that
statement....

1) she fixed my iPod,
2) she was so flippant and casual

I asked her, "what did you do?" She answered, "Uhm, I fixed it."
Right you are, kiddo....

Sent from my iPhone

And it is done....

I took a leap in agreeing to coach 3 year old soccer as I have NEVER played soccer in my life. I have to admit that I was very intimidated on the first day or two of practice. Hey, I was "coaching" something that was completely foreign to me....and, with nine 3 year olds. So, I am thrilled to say that I had a great time this season.

We had a great group of parents and kiddos. The team was great and worked very hard. We were UNDEFEATED for (half of) the season. :) We owned the opposing teams the first half of the season, but we lost some mojo on the second half. Luckily, no one except for everyone at the games kept score per the YMCA's rules.
Our team sponsor, Covenant Lawnscapes, was fantastic. They bought everyone pizza after the last game today so we had a little party for the team. We gave each kid a trophy which seemed to be the highlight. I am glad I did it and glad it is over. Forest Green Team D Covenant Lawnscapes 'Scapers, thanks for a great season!
I was very proud of Ethan today. He played more than half the game, and, at one point, actually asked to come back out on the field. Each kiddo is at a different level of understanding, and Ethan is completely content to run up and down the field. The actual "soccer" part of soccer is 100% foreign to him. You know what...that's cool. He's my boy.

Brett Michels and Poison were right.....

We have a fun, full weekend on the docket. Heather is partying hard
(in a churchy way) at a girls' night out tonight. She said she will be
back at 9 which I find hard to believe. (I told her you can't have
enough fun by 9.)

Unfortunately, I start back my study routine tonight. NNNOOOOOO!!!!!!
I will be at my station from 9-12 PM tonight enjoying a pot of
Nicaraguan coffee and not enjoying Restitution/Remedies.

The trip was amazing and has definitely made a huge impact on me. I
was so excited about the trip that I forgot I had another week of
break from school. It has been great to be "normal" for a few days and
come home to hang with the fam. But, I will be paying for those days
off for the next week. Best word to describe....suck.

As a great American philosopher once said....

"Every rose has its thorn,
Just like every night has its dawn (aw-aw-awn),
Just like every cowboy sings the same, sad song,
Every rose has its thorn."

(If a Cecile de Mile guitar solo did not play in your head after
reading those words, you did not grow up in the 80's. I pity you, my
friend....)

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Rodeo round-up

We hit the rodeo at 7 PM. On the whole, Ethan had no clue that anything occurred on the dirt floor in front of him. He did watch the cowboys/cowgirls ride in at the very beginning as they saluted the flags. After that, the concrete steps next to our seats were apparently the most appealing part of the massive, untamed animals tossing men around like rag dolls in the squared circle.

Ethan did get a "light saver" which he thinks is amazing. The emcee riding a horse around the arena actually stopped by Ethan during the show and said, "Everyone, look at Luke Skywalker here. He is gonna cut someone in half with that light-sabre." Ethan promptly struck a pose like Luke holding his light sabre up in the air. The guy proceeded to talk about Ethan for about 3 minutes...Ethan had NO idea.

Mia and Sophie both looked incredibly cute. They both got pink cowgirl hats. This is a pic of them on the rail watching the rodeo up-close. It has been many years since I have been to a rodeo, and it was pretty impressive.

The Hanks Family + Rodeo = BLOG

The Jones' were kind enough to hook us up with rodeo tix for the evening. I finally have an excuse to wear my Nicaragua hat again!

We are hitting the rodeo, and it is going to be a blast. I am
confident that the kiddos, along with mom and dad, have NO clue what
to expect. Ethan may either freak out or run out to tackle a bull.
Either way, his response will be interesting. (Longtime readers will
note that Ethan's response to our trip to the mind-bogglingly awesome
moto-cross was, "Can we go home yet?")

How can a rodeo not be fun? If they have funnel cakes, my cholesterol
will peak over 300 before 7 PM.

Sent from my iPhone

For us analytical types....

"the surest way of spoiling a pleasure is to start to analyze your
satisfaction. "
- CS Lewis

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Life is good....

It only took me 34 years to figure out that life is too short to be
stressed. ( And, I will probably forget it tomorrow morning.)

Walking in the front door to three kids and H after a long day is THE
best feeling in the world. :)

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The chair of shame....

Ah yes, the chair of shame. All men know it well. It is the chair, or bench in this case, that sits outside every ladies' dressing room. They are typically the most uncomfortable chairs manufactured in the free world. I am luck tonight as mine is a double-padded, happenin' Euro bench.

Heather and I ended going for sushi rather than Red Pony. The second half of our date is shopping for birthday clothes, and the other schedule would leave little time for Ann Taylor and her trendy Loft. We are loading up on trendy for our anniversary trip to NYC in June. Ann has some cool stuff in here...OK, that was more than a little gay...

There are two kinds if people in here (three if you count the Shawn on the Chair of Shame). There are women in here buying for themselves and the mom/daughter combo's buying for the daughters. The second types remind me that Heather and Mia will soon be out doing that kind of
thing, and I don't like the thought at all. Mia can wear Garanimals from Baby Gap for the rest of her life if it were up to me. (For those of you who don't know, I am in complete denial that she will one day grow up!)

I will be occupying my chair (bench) until all 27 dresses that were brought into the dressing room have been properly examined. :)

The Dirty Version of Jonah and the Whale....

Aha, that got your attention, huh? Well, I meant that I am extremely dirty in this pic while telling the Jonah story. This was our VBS time on Tues afternoon. We told the story of Jonah (while Guillermo translated,) and it was a blast. The kids are doing the ocean wave in this picture. I seriously needed a bath....

Catch up....

Thanks to Jeremy, I did not come back to a week's worth of undone work. But, there us still much to be done. I currently have 63 items that need some kind of attention in my inbox. (see picture) It is a huge improvement over the 382 emails I started with yesterday!

Many of you know the story of how my law school two week break coincided with the trip. God worked it out in a cool way. I had forgotten that I have one more week off. I will actually have to
start back my reading schedule on Friday, but, until then, I am enjoying my life of leisure.

Last night looked like this...

- Coach Shawn ( not ethan who would not play) had a 6 pm game
- put kids to bed
- eat a rare private dinner with H
- put kids to bed again
- H goes to kroger to buy Ben & Jerry's
- put kids to bed again. (at this point, I gave the "if daddy has to beat you, he will go to jail, and you will have to live with the government" speech)
- eat ENTIRE pint of ice cream and watch recorded BSG
- love life
- fall asleep while drooling on poor wife

Tonight...
- take H to dinner at Red Pony for bday
- shop til we drop for dresses for her present
- fall asleep while drooling on poor wife

-Sent from iPhone

Back to work...

Back to work or, as I should call it, the other stuff. We had an
amazing sat night and Sunday together as a family. It was so good to
be home. :)

On top of Mothers Day, we had Heather's birthday on Sat. Obviously, I
was only with her for about 2 hours of her birthday, and she deserved
much more. We are doing dinner at the Red Pony tomorrow night and then
a shopping trip.

Thanks again to everyone who kept up with our trip thru the blog.
Please keep the team in your prayers as we all go back to work as
changed people. What an awesome experience.....

God bless...shawn

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HOME!

We are on the ground. :)

We have been remarkably blessed with constant life-changing
experiences and safe travel through some situations

Thanks to each of you that have able to keep us in your prayers. You
will never know how much we appreciate your commitment.

Most importantly, thank you Jesus for an amazing experience. Please
continue the work in Nicaragua.

God bless you,
Shawn

Goodbye Houston....hello home!

US Customs

Customs is nutty but moving quickly....

We're in Houston!

USA USA USA !

We just had a smooth landing and are on the ground.

Houston, we love you....

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USA, we are on our way.....

We are sad to tell the guys goodbye but could not be more excited to
be headed home. I just passed thru security in Managua. We were
blessed to have no problems with blockades this morning.

Everything is a go!

Amanda, jesse says hello.... :)

Thursday

the work at the site has come to a close. a few of us went back early this morning to pick up the scaffolding. We are going to do some fun stuff today....go into El Chague and give out food. There are several families that are the list to present the gospel. i guess they have expressed some interest to the local pastor.

perspective....the day worked that worked with us walked about 1.5 hours (or, if lucky, rode their bikes about 1 hr) to work with us each day. After learning that my buddy Nesto (probably 17 or 18 yr old guy) had rode an hour to GET to work, i couldnt feel tired anymore. :) i did give him a lecture about not skipping church to play soccer. He attends Salinas Grande but was not there on Sunday because he was playing soccer. CHURCH SKIPPER!

We will be checking out of the luxurious Hotel America this morning. Thgey have been good to us, but we will be returning to Massai today after lunch. It is about 2.5 hour drive back.

breakfast....eggs, rice, beans...

The team is rested and ready to roll. Going into the villages, handing out food, giving kids candy, playing with kiddos...that is the most fun we can have! :)

have a good day....

Wednesday....

i think it is wed. actually,i am not really sure. time seems to operate very differently here but in a good way.

we did a very early start to the morning today. Breakfast was at 5:15....that is AM, by the way. After breakfast, we hit the ground running at the job site. Sift sand, add concrete mix, stir with shovels for 10 or so minutes, put in buckets for the guys laying block. i have yet to lay a single block but have had every other job so far. There are machines to do the work that we are doing, but, for this week, we are the machines. :)

it was exciting to see the last peak finished right before devotions/lunch today. We have to work on a roof this afternoon and haul much more dirt/sand into the other partially completed structure to get it ready for a floor. Today has seemed exceptionally hot, but we agreed that we are probably just getting tired. Either way, it seems hotter...

God has been very good to us to provide energy and stamina. We have had not work injuries and energy levels have been high. We do earn our nights sleep though...

We did have one injury yesterday during a soccer game with kiddos. One of the guys, who shall remain nameless as he may or may not have told his wife, cut his toe pretty good. yep, all of this hard labor with shovels, pick axes, tossing cinder blocks around and one of us gets hurt playing soccer. Guys are boneheads. :)

We did have a devotion time with the church from Salinas Grande. They were the workers that joined us for the day. At the end, Brent presented them with three bikes for them to ride. (For a long time, they had been walking several miles a day to reach their churches and people.) The Nicaraguan people seem very conservative in showing emotion, but you could tell that they were pumped!

I think each of us is having a great time getting to know one another and working hard. it is hard work, but it does feel good to see a building standing where there was a slab two days ago.

one of the coolest moments of the day was Eric Davis buying ice cream from the ice cream man (who peddles up at 7 AM because he knows gringos are here). He bought enough for the whole team from Salinas Grande. More importantly, one of the three kiddos that he and his family support was there. He sat in Eric´s lap for about 30 mins while they handed out ice cream. He dripped more ice cream than he ate on Eric´s lap, but Eric couldn´t care less. :)

We have discovered a few bakeries and ice cream shops around our luxury hotel. ladies, be prepared for some chubby guys to return from our missions trip....

PS - this internet cafe is rocking some nicaraguan remakes of 80´s songs. awesome...

Tuesday in nicaragua

Again, i am typing on a nicaraguan keyboard....

we had a great day today that started with our version of sleeping in. Breakfast was at 7 (as opposed to 5:30 am tomorrow morning.) We were able to get right through the picket lines and get to work. We worked until probably 1 pm and came back to the luxurious Hotel America for lunch. we did take a long detour around the picket lines as we came back for lunch. it involved a long dirt road. Again, i think the whole picket situation is awesome but that´s just me. By the way, lunch was very good!

i got to talk to heather and the kiddos again today which made my day. We went to El Chague later in the afternoon. Speaking of dirt roads, it is at least 20 mins down a dirt road to get to this very rural, small church. We did a short VBS type of deal, and i got to do a short story on Jonah. Speaking through a translator, Guillermo, is fun. :)

We got back to the luxurious Hotel America tonight to find no running water...problem. Filthy does not begin to describe us. They are working on the water pump. We do have large buckets of water in our showers so, worst case, we are taking bucket showers.

I am headed back to the hotel for dinner. We are having an amazing time at work and with the people.

shawn

Update

warning...i am typing on a mexican keyboard....everything is different...

The trip has been great so far. We were able to go to a remote village for church on sunday. the living conditions there are amazing. most families live in plastic wrapped wood frames. the plastic is the construction plastic used in the states to cover things....they build a wood frame and wrap it around the frame. they typically will have 4 to 5 people living in that one 10 by 10 house. the people are wonderful. we had a great service in their small little church that the ministry has built for them. the pastor of that small church has already planted four other churches in that area!

The construction started sun afternoon. We hauled a few thousand cinder blocks from one area closer to the site. A fork lift would have done it in about 10 mins. it only took us a few hours. :)

We hit the ground running at 6 AM yesterday. We worked until about 6 pm. We did take a lunch break, and eric davis and i took some kiddo breaks. :) the kids love any small snack or treat you give them, but they love sports even more. For about 45 mins, we pushed them in the wheel barrow and played kick ball (michael clarke was the kick ball stud.) just like my kiddos, they are very ticklish. We chased them all over the construction site.

The hotel is doing well. We found a small internet cafe down the street which we have hit the past night or so. they hav an ip phone which means we can make calls for less expensive than our sat phone. I was able to call heather last night which was great! :)

We did have one interesting moment last night. The entire country is shut down b-c all drivers of public transportation are boycotting gas prices. They have parked their buses, cars, etc in the middle of all roads and refuse to leave. we were caught last night. After about 30 mins of negotiation, Guillermo was able to get one truck through because Roger, the driver, had picked up a woman hit by a car. But, they would not let us through. We ended up walking past the picket lines after dark (which was very cool!)

shawn

Doh! Delay....

We just had word from the pilot that a small issue was detected on the
walk-around before departure. I am glad he found it. I am sure I would
have spotted it on my walk around.

We will be delayed for about 30 minutes while they locate the
replacement part which he says is in the way.

It is actually a good thing. One of our guys is having passport
problems. The delay is buying us some valuable time.

It reminds me of the standup by Brian Regan where he says that pilots
never come on the air to give good news. Just once, I wish they would
come on and say...

"Sorry, folks, but we are gonna be delayed this morning. We found some
huge bags of money that we are dividing up amongst the passengers.
Unfortunately, the stacks are so big they keep falling over. And, the
rubber bands we are using keep breaking." :)

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Nicaragua, here we come....

We are pulling away from the airport as I type. I probably won't have
any more reception from this point. Thanks again for your support and
prayers. Have a great week....

Shawn

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We're off!

This plane is filled with blue shirts from TSC. We have taken over the
airport and this plane

Everything has gone to plan so far....