Last Saturday my brother, me and a bunch of awesome dudes helped an elderly lady from Quail by tearing down some stuff in her back yard and hauling it off. We got some nails in our bobcat tires so on Monday I put it up on a trailer and took it to get fixed.
On my way home I had just merged onto the highway and the trailer started moving on me. Basically when you don’t have the load on the trailer balanced right, that’s what happens.. So all of the sudden it started whipping around and moving my truck in between two lanes. In this situation sometimes you can accelerate and the trailer will quit being a douche bag.. Well I was only going 55 at the time so I floored it. But maybe I didn’t do it soon enough or it was just too off loaded, but either way, the trailer had it’s way with me.. I started heading towards the left side which had concrete barriers lining it.. Luckily the trailer was across the other lane so far that it hit the water barrels on the other side. It jack knifed the trailer and pulled the truck off of the road.. In short, it was an excruciatingly long day.. I’m fine by the way, buckled up, all good and so is the bobcat. My dad’s truck on the other hand, a little banged up.. The bed is janked.. And the trailer is going to be out of commission for awhile.. Sorry pops.. Sorry Choice Exteriors..

You guys know by boy Ted Harrison right? Works at IThemes, goes to the Baylor University, and has actually made a hefty number of websites including his blog/video/what-ever-he-wants-on-it site called TedVid.Com. If you are wondering what the Vid part of that is all about it’s video (Because he’s gonna make movies one day). If you are wondering what the Ted part of TedVid.Com is, then “Tommy here’ll come along and hit you in the head with a tack hammer, cuz you are a retard..” Any way, he’s kind of a big deal. The reason I’m talking about Mr. Harrison so much is because he recently made a website called MockUpTheDraft.Com, it’s basically a sports bloggers website. Me, Jared (my brother), Jonathan Kennedy and Ted Harrison blog about sports on it. It’s basically a bunch of guys that love sports talking about whatever is going on in sports at the time. And as footbally season gets underway we’ll start blogging more, even though there is quite a bit of content on there already.

But if you are expecting us to be un-biased, politically correct and fun for everyone, you might as well go read a pop up book because we can’t help you there..

So check it out, thanks for listening and good day!

Any ways, back to my life:

I’m reading Chasing Daylight by Erwin McManus and it is fantastic. Thanks to Kallye Bell and Kyndal Hawkins for telling me to read it. I was saying the other day that every line is tweet worthy, So good! (and if you don’t know what tweet worthy means, then no offense but you’re too old- Hahaha, JK JK). Seriously though, it’s just talking about how we don’t need to live our lives passively and stuff. Erwin is a legit writer (oh, and Erwin, if you wanted to comment on my blog, that’d be really cool..)

My job has been absolutely nuts lately. We’ve all been running around like crazy.. I told my mom this morning that I actually had a dream about filing job number 4107.. If that’s your job number and you’re reading my blog, you should comment and let me know if everything is alright with your roof because I worry about you in my sleep.. But I did kind of get promoted recently. Just so everyone knows though, when you work for your parents and you “get promoted” you don’t make more money.. You just get more responsibility.. I know you’re all wondering what my fake promotion was, so I’m about to tell you, just hold your horses. You are now looking at the words of Choice Exteriors new “Guy that talks to the Gutter Guy”.. Ya, try and put that on a business card.. I was going to call myself the new Gutter Guy, but that would be misleading seeing as I don’t actually do the guttering, I just make sure that the gutter guy has work to do.. Do I get a desk? No.. Do I get more money? Already answered that one.. Do I get to work more hours and get actual business phone calls? Oh ya I do! And if you’re wondering what the difference is between actual business phone calls and “business phone calls” Let’s act this out.. Call from David (Actual Business Call) David- “Hey man, I got that job over on Blah Blah road done, do you have any more jobs for me?” Me- “Yeah man, I’ll fax them over right now.” Call from Jonathan (this one is a fake business phone call) JK- “Hey man, you done with work yet?” Me- “Dude it’s only 2:30..” JK- “Oh is it that late already? I just woke up..” Me- “Hey, my dad’s staring at me and he looks pissed, gotta go!” You probably already could envision me being on a non business call, but it also gave me a chance to rag on JK.

Even though I’ve been working a lot, there are some fun things that go on while in the office. The other day me and my brothers got into a pen fight while “working”. Pens were flying everywhere for about 30 seconds before my mom yelled that her walls were going to get scuffed up. But wouldn’t you know that the moment she said something, one more pen went flying, Jimmie dodged and it scratched the paint off of the wall.. I’m not going to tell you which twin it was, but it wasn’t me.. Haha, suck it Jared. I blame the boss lady for that one, because no walls were scuffed until she opened her mouth.. Strait up jinxed us right there.. Aside from the pen fights, sometimes my dad will get reminded of a story, and those are always funny. He’s a pretty good story teller, plus, he was raised in Mississippi, so all his stories have a red necks in them, and my dad has that accent down pat. And there are always the stories about getting lost or mixing up appointments (both of those happened to me last week..).

As far as the other stuff goes Church has been great lately, but I’m not sure if most of you have heard or not, but we had a water main bust and like messed up a bunch of junk. So everything is going to be under construction for like the next couple of months. So lift us up to the Big Man if you will. On a more positive note, Scott let me do the welcome for the first time since I’ve been back this morning. I started out fine, but then Britt muted me because he foresaw me saying something that was borderlined inappropriate.. At first I was slightly offended, but later replayed it in my head and realized he’d just jumped on a land mine for me. Haha. You’re the man Vaughan.

That’s pretty much it, now I just have a few prayer requests- For my friends that I met in Mexico (Dave, Sheree and Corwin), for me and Carder and JK as we look for a house and get ready to move, for the ole J O B.. And this next one, don’t only pray this for you, but for me as well, that we’re courageous in our walks with ole J C  (Jesus Christ) and if you don’t know him or have any questions, you’re more than welcome to leave me a comment or email me at jpuckett5@uco.edu!! Thanks for reading and Ver cuando te veo! (I’ll see you when I see you!)

First day I got here, I was on my way to the supermarket and I was texting on my phone.. I dropped it (for the first freaking time!!) and broke the screen.. Thanks NOKIA for making the worlds least idiot proof phone..

Luckily I brought a “spare” phone, which was my old one that I’d dropped a kagillion times.. If you’ve ever seen it lying around, you’d know it belonged to me because the screen was strait up spiderwebbed. And all of my friends knew never to borrow it to make a quick phone call because you can’t hear a thing.. (Which is why I got the new one..)

Right when I got here I bought a bike that even homeless people wouldn’t borrow from me.. The thing cost me like 25 bucks, complete with dry-rotted padding on the handle-bars, fat boy seat and a basket on the front.. It took me two weeks to break, but while I was driving it to the pier for a dive,  one of my pedals fell off in the middle of the street..

Like 4th day here I looked like the worlds laziest person because I missed a dive that was at 11 o’clock in the morning.. The thing was, Sherief normally tells me the night before if I’m diving, but since he didn’t pass on the message, I ASSUMED I wasn’t.. I woke up at 10:30 but didn’t step out of my door until 1:30, where I found his note that told me I was diving.. Still haven’t lived that one down.

When Kallye, Kyndal, and Matt got here, I spilled a half-gallon of paint on the tile of our “front porch” and all over my feet/favorite sandals that I’ve had since the 8th grade. And none of the girls brought finger nail polish remover, so this oil based paint has clung to my toe nails for over a month.. Luckily, since my nails are covered up, I haven’t had to trim them in awhile, and still can’t tell if they’re too long. The next “morning” (12 noon) I saw that the paint had been cleaned up, so I went and showed the landlord my paint covered feet/sandals and payed him for cleaning up after me..

The night after the paint spill, I went to use my “spare phone” and the screen was a little bit glitchy.. I didn’t think anything of it.. But by the end of the day, the entire screen quit working.. So not only did I break one phone on vacation, my spare phone went capoop as well.. Thank you Mexico.. (I just picture Vince Vaughn in Dodge Ball saying, Thank you Chuck Norris)..

In Mexico, the Cheetos are amazing! They’ve got this special flavor that has just a hint of spice to it. So I bought the extra big bag. I never buy the extra-big anything, because that’s just more for me to spill. But I thought, I’ll just be really careful with this one. Really careful doesn’t mean anything when you are destined from birth to spill things, and for things to go horribly wrong when you’re around.. I think it’s actually one of my spiritual gifts, testimony enhancer really.. Which means: Bag of Cheetos, Meet girls kitchen floor.

I also shattered my favorite mug.. I’ve dropped it before and it just made a horrible sound and didn’t bust.. But eventually it couldn’t take the abuse and fell apart.. All the kings horses and all the kings men, couldn’t put Justin’s favorite mug back together again..

I blogged a few weeks ago about the night from hell, before I preached.. I felt like I was actually in Egypt, when Pharaoh wouldn’t “let my people go” and the plague of locusts rained down from the heavens. Except in my case, it was fleas, coming up from the depths of hell.. Nice try satan, luckily I’m like the energizer bunny on crack when it comes to lack of sleep on a Sunday morning.. Sucker..

Oh, and I blogged last time about not only missing my dive the night after the scooters.. But also I hung Matt out to dry during the hurricane force winds that are the scooter-rental-people, when they took him for all that he was worth because I was too embarrassed about not diving..

Now, for the latest screw-ups/things that have just gone plain wrong:

The other day, I thought it would be funny, when everyone else was out at the pool to jump in with my scuba mask and snorkel.. Turns out, they don’t pay attention to me anyway, so I took the mask off and laid it on the side.. Have you heard the phrase “out of sight, out of mind?” Yup, forgot about my goggles, and when I finally remembered to go get them, they were gone.. So then I got to go wake up Sherief, which was becoming like a weekly thing, and tell him what happened.. He told me not to worry, that he had a spare.. So for atleast the time being, no harm no foul.. Right?

Wrong.. I went diving with Sherief’s extra mask, and it worked great for me all dive.. Second dive, same story, awesome mask. But an awesome mask, doesn’t fix the moron problem we got going on behind the mask.. We surfaced, got on the boat and left the dive site. I started breaking down my gear, and realized I couldn’t find Sherief’s mask, and again, was too embarrassed to say anything, so I didn’t.. When I got back to Blanquita’s I told the posse and we started brain storming about how we were going to break the news to our friend, who probably already feels like our babysitter.. I had gotten him a shark tooth necklace just like mine a few days earlier, so I figured I’d, you know, slip in the present, and then maybe casually ask him how much his awesome mask was (Like I was intending on getting one), and then when he spilled the beans, I’d bust out the cash/bad news.. I asked Matt to be my wing-man, and after bringing up the fact that I wasn’t his the other day, he still came. Thanks buddy!! But anyways, the plan still backfired.. Right when I knocked on his door last night, after telling us that we weren’t diving tomorrow he casually asked where his mask was.. You can probably imagine what was going on in my head: Throw him the necklace, Throw him the necklace!! (Reminds me of friends when Rachel and Joey’s little sister Gina were telling Joey that Gina was pregnant.. They brought him the meat ball sub.. Good episode..).. So I told him the bad news, then told him the plan to smooth him over with the gift.. He laughed and said, This wouldn’t have helped.. He wasn’t that mad, but I have been informed that we’re going by a dive shop today to purchase him another one.. Oh and by the way, he told me it was his favorite mask by the way.. Could’ve done without that information buddy..

All of us were talking the other day about how much our responsible dive instructor was going to miss us when we’re gone.. I think the correct comparison would be about the same as the way I miss my strep throat that I had in the 6^th grade.. Kyndal mentioned that this is probably helping make the decision of whether or not he wants kids when he gets married..

SO after that long list, my screw ups have ceased for the mean time.. Even though my last one was yesterday, and I’ve only been up for 3 hours so far..

Oh, but by the way: There were a lot of people saying before I came here that I just better be ready to be sick the whole time. Up until the last two weeks, I’d thought that they were wacko.. Then Montezuma came to seek his vengeance on my entrails.. (If you’re confused by that statement, Montezuma’s Revenge is a phrase used to describe a bowel movement that is less than satisfactory..) For the last 2 weeks Pepto Bismol has been my Mucho Grande Amigo. Again, thanks, Mexico, for your hospitality..

Thanks for reading guys, All of us come home Wednesday, so ready or not, here we come!!

And by the way, right as I was unplugging my computer and getting ready to leave the coffee shop, I grabbed my charger and then reached to shut my computer. Knocked the sugar container (made of glass) off of the table, almost caught it, and then it landed on the floor.. Just like my mug, in a million pieces.. I couldn’t even keep from spilling something until tomorrow.. Sugar is all in my Chaco’s and stuck to my feet.. I tried to get the waitress to let me clean it up.. No go.. I can’t even clean up my own mess.. Thank you Destiny, for choosing me, worthy of coming home more clumsy than I left..

The scooter-rental-guys were dropping them off at 8 o clock, so I decided to wake up at 7:30 and get ready to meet them.. We got out there and the rental guys were great. They showed us how to use everything, lock the steering wheels, and even gave us a “really good deal” on the LIABILITY insurance.. That means, if someone hits us, that someone covers it. If we hit someone, we pay for the damage to the scooter and the rental place pays for the damage done to the other person. That was the best they could do, so we got it and started getting mentally prepped.. Because, Like I said in my previous blog- Matts motorcycle experience included riding three wheelers when he was younger. Mine included that my brother has his motorcycle license. If you kinda see what I’m hinting at, just stay tuned..

So we went into the girls room, got some breakfast and bragged about how we already knew EVERYTHING about the scooters because the guys had just spent all of 10 minutes showing us..

Little did we know that in the 10 minutes, they neglected to tell us that the accelerators can be a little finicky.. You barely rev them and the things freakin go!

So we all get out of the door, after a prayer or two, and tell the girls that we should probably take a spin around the block before they entrust their vacations/lives/medical bills to the guy that spilled an entire bag of cheetos on the kitchen floor, and the guy that, at one point didn’t know how to spell ESPN.. They definitely agreed that maybe a few laps would do us some good.. So we put down the kick stands, strapped on our Mandatory helmets, and fired’m up.. To start them, you turn the key, HOLD THE BREAK, and rev the engines.. This reminds me of a similar story:

One time in high school, I was like a freshman and Simon was a sophmore.. He was picking me and Jared up for like 2-a-days or something. Simon went in to talk to my dad or drop a deuce or something, so I decided to start his standard truck.. From the passenger seat.. I soon found out, that like the scooters, with a standard truck, you have to press in the break or make sure it is in neutral so it doesn’t lurch forward.. I did neither, and the truck shot into our open barn.. I don’t remember what it hit, but our barn is never clean, and I know it broke a few things.. I felt retarded.. Now for the scooters:

So though this could have happened to me, as Matt later pointed out, it didn’t.. I started my scooter up and started walking it off of the curb.. Well when Matt started his up, he didn’t Hold the Break, so his scooter did what Simon’s truck did.. It lurched forward.. Matt was standing to the side of the scooter, so what did he do? He jumped on.. I’m sure it was just reaction, and I’m sure a lot of guys would have reacted this way as well.. Try to stop it before it messes something up..

I was yelling “squeeze the break! Squeeze the Break!!” He had one side squeezed, but while trying to reach the other side, he was accelerating instead.. Matt was yelling “I’m trying!! I’m trying!!” He never found the other break..

His Scooter wasn’t pointed down the street luckily, and he wasn’t going faster than 10 miles an hour, but in a 10 foot area, that thing went from not moving to Holy Piss he’s going to die!! So his scooter jumped the curb on the other side (and by the way, got significant amount of air), killed/uprooted this baby palm tree (2-3 foot tall, and maybe 3-4 inches thick), dodged the park bench, and was side ways about 2 inches off the ground when the bottom of the moped hit the metal light pole..

My first reaction right when he jumped on the moving vehicle, was to laugh.. After I saw the remnants of the wreck and my friend breathing and getting up, it was something a little different (By the way, a local construction worker saw the entire thing and there is no telling what he was thinking..). So we all ran over to Matts aid and made sure he was alright.. He stood up, I’m sure going down the checklist to see that all of his bodily functions still worked, and walked a little bit.. Once I realized he was okay, I stood up the scooter and we all inspected the damage.. Nothing was bad wrong, but there was some definite cosmetic damage.. The front end paint job was pretty janked.. I’m not sure if it was from the tree, the light, or the pavement.. There was some plastic pieces missing.. And the speedometer disappears  to be working (any one notice the office reference? “Stanley, we’re not always going to be there to coddle your heard back when it disappers to be working”).. And Matt had a few scrapes and bruises.. On his leg, and on his pride.. Haha..

So, after a long talk, some neosporen and a few band aids, we, that is me and Matt, decided to go for round two.. Hoping this time to make a lap around the block.. The girls weren’t on board quite yet..But we insisted..

So I lead, and Matt followed.. We were quite wobbly, and I had my own little scare with the finicky accelerator.. But off we went. At first, both of us were as close as you can get to holding the wheel at 10 and 2 on a mo-ped.. But by the end, we relaxed a little but, and got to enjoying ourselves.. I let Matt lead a little bit (so I could watch to see who was better, It was still me). But I was comfortable enough to take the girls if they were willing, and ole Mathew was too. He reminds me of the little engine that could.. But more like, a hulkish, buff guy that could.

The girls were still saying heck no to the riding double. So I jumped on with Stover to show them that it was alright.. I rode one lap around the block not knowing where to put my feet, just letting them dangle on each side while trying not to skin up my chacos.. Finally a local woman, riding a scooter as well, told me in perfect SPANISH where to put my feet. Matt told me that made it significantly less wobbly, so we took another lap. Then I took a lap with him on it (cute right..) and we headed home..

The girls still weren’t convinced, but after some coaxing, Matt got Kallye to “willingly” hop on for a lap or two.. After seeing Kallye on it Kyndal was ready to hop on and head to the other side..

We went to the store, got some refreshments and headed on our little “vacation”.. It was like a 30 minute drive, although we were going 55 the whole time.. And when I say 55, you may be thinking, Holy Crap 55 M/H?! No.. That’s 55 KM/H..Which means means we were going like 35 M/H.. But none of us knew that, we just thought we were dare devils (And when I say say “we” I really mean “me” because I was the only one with a speedometer).. We found out later the speed difference..

Other than our minor discrepancy at the beginning, we had an awesome day. Went to an awesome beach, played in the waves, got in some nappage. On our way home we went around the whole island, which the guy at a restaurant told us would take 2 maybe 2 1/2 hrs.. Took us and hour and a half.. On the way back, Matt lead, and we remembered later that he didn’t have a speedometer, so our average speed was somewhere between 70-90 KM/H..

I also found out later that Kallye wasn’t happy with him and his driving and the whole way back was telling him to slow down, or watch out for that taxi, or let these people pass you. Hahaha.. Kyndal either really trusted me, didn’t want to distract me, or was so desperately scared that she was closing her eyes in prayer that we would make it home.. I asked her later and she said it was a combination of the three.

So we got home, took some showers, and then went out to eat at a place that’s a long taxi ride normally. But since we had our scooters, we could go. Then we went back home and Matt wanted to go cruising some more.. The girls had already sworn never to don another scooter in this lifetime.. So me and Matt went out.. We only had a little bit of gas so we had two options: just cruise for a little bit, or make use of our rental and fill those man machines up. So we headed to the gas station. After driving the wrong way on 2 streets (which the locals quickly informed us of our mistakes each time, nice people down here), we got there.. Then we were set for hours of fun.. The other day when I tweeted that my 3 Amigos were taking the island by storm, that was an exaggeration at that point.. When me and Matt mounted up on our almost faithful steeds, that statement is the only one fitting enough.. Those Mexicanos were not ready for these 2 gringos and our lead feet.

We went around/in and out of the square like 5 times. We went to the airport, by the gas station again, and even back to the restaurant that was too far normally.. We were weaving in and out of traffic, passing scooters, taxi’s, and dog walkers.. I lost Stove Top twice.. Once he got caught in traffic, and once we drove by a hoard of police men who made their siren noise at us.. I pooped myself and kept driving.. Matt pulled over because he actually thought he was getting pulled over.. Awesome night!!! You guys will look at our face book pictures of us with our little helmets on and think, how can you feel manly in that?.. My answer- I have no idea, but it happened.. I think it may have been the fumes from the gasoline, but I was number one for a couple of hours.. Hahahaha

The next morning I was supposed to dive.. I forgot to set my alarm, but woke up like 45 minutes early.. So I figured I’d go to sleep for another 20.. I woke up an hour and a half later and realized how big of a moron a was once again.. So when the people got there to inspect the damage of their scooters I was hiding my face in embarrassment and left my boy in the trenches taking grenades all alone.. (real cool Justin..). So Sherief saw them trying to screw Matt over with the prices and started arguing with them.. Then Guadalupe, our awesome landlord, went to bat for Stover as well.. Nothing worked.. The only funny thing about this I’m sure was that Matt ended up having to ride double with the owner of the scooter to the ATM so he could pay for his riding lesson.. All the while, I was hiding my face/wallowing in my shame.. When I finally got up, everything was over with and all the homies were in the girls room.. So I joined, and got to listen to the circus antics that went on with out me..

Thursday was an awesome day, after the rocky start.. Friday started rocky as well, but also ended up being good.. Thanks for the prayers guys, and we’re all praying for you too! We may rent scooters again, if the girls are up to it. The girls are thinking seriously about getting certified, and Matt’s doing his advance as we speak.. Got like 11 days left, so we’re making the most of it! Love you all, and if you’re reading this because of Matt, Kyndal or Kallye, they love you too!!

But anyways, now for the updates!

We’ve tried cooking a few times.. Some failed miserably.. One night we tried to make Mac and Cheese.. From scratch.. First we had to get the girls stove top working.. So we talked to Guadalupe and he “fixed” it for us.. It was going great at first, we were soaking noodles in one pot, and cheese melting in another.. But when you’re here, and not in the states, you don’t have Velveta readily available.. So the cheese, though we added “milk” (it’s like this organic crap that comes from a box), was not melting very well.. So half way through making dinner, the girls stove top quits working completely.. Matt was ticked (but we forgive his pre-meal-anger because the big guy is just hungry..), so we ran over to mine and his apartment and used our 1 burner to, first finish the noodles, then “melt” the cheese.. We also decided it’d be fun to put tuna in the pasta.. That was a bad idea, if we’ve ever had one.. It turned our already grossly melted cheese into like a paste, that clumped on a few noodles and didn’t even get on all the others.. I was so hungry, I went for seconds.. But believe it or not, Matt was even too grossed out to eat a second helping.. #epicfail…

The second time to cook wasn’t even on the same scale as the Mac-And-Cheese-Massacre.. We found some freshly made flour tortillas in the bakery of the super market the locals use.. AMAZING is the only word that comes close to describing how good these things are… I’m serious, if Jesus was from Cozumel, he’d've ditched the “unleavened bread” and busted these bad boys out.. Suck on that 12 disciples, Judas, if you’d've had these that night, we’d be readin a different Gospel now-a-days! (I dunno if you guys think I’m sacrilegious or something, but I’m crackin up at my own jokes right now..) So anyways you get the picture, the tortillas are good.. Well we used those and some delicious local cheese to make ques0dillas and they were bomb.. (Pictures soon to be up of me flipping these on the frying pan!!) So we’re definitely making those again.

Other than that we’ve been eating a lot of Pineapples and other awesome fruit.. Miss my strawberries though, in a bad way.. Lots of Granola and Yogurt, lots of nutella, peanut butter and jelly!

We’ve been playing a lot of cards.. Me and Matt are really competitive.. Kyndal try’s to win, but if she doesn’t, no love lost.. Little did I know, Kallye Bell is so competitive, she makes JK’s punching of the wall look like Big Bird playing patty-cake with Kermit the Frog.. If Kallye was on Sesame Street while playing cards, she’s easily Oscar.. Haha!! And like I said, we play a lot of cards, so things get pretty interesting.. Sometimes when it’s really late, the only thing that keeps us from being on the Mexican version of cops is the fact that Sherief is sleeping next door and we don’t wanna wake him up.. Really fun though, we’ve been keeping score on our wall.. Not to worry though, there was writing on there when we got here and we didn’t use our real names.. Just initials of our new nicknames.. That’s one code even the CIA couldn’t break..

The diving has been really good! Our boy Mathew is turning into quite the little diver! We both went on a deep dive the other day, and it didn’t even phase him. He was even showing me stuff! Knew you could do it all along Bro Montana!

Tomorrow morning we’re all renting scooters and going to the other side of the island. Should be pretty fun, and interesting considering the following facts: Me and Matt are driving. His motorcycle credentials include driving a 3 wheeler and that is it.. My motorcycle credentials include the fact that my twin brother (more responsible) drives a motorcycle and I got my drivers license because I cried and the lady felt sorry for me.. Yes, interesting indeed.. But now that I think about it, we may reconsider getting that insurance after all..

Finished reading More than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell. The 3 Amigos are reading it as well and I’m still working on the notes to give to the diver trainees as their departing gift. Me and Matt had a really good talk with Corwin after church Sunday, and he seemed excited about reading it.. (I can’t keep secrets..) So I’m glad about getting that ready for them. I’m about halfway through Come Thirsty by Max Lucado and it’s really good so far. Thanks Alexa for putting me on to it!!

That’s it for now, but please continue praying for me (especially tomorrow) and stay classy! If you’re reading this, you’re awesome!! If not.. You probably aren’t question Mona and Troy Pucketts accidental twin pregnancy right now.. Stay Classy!!

Saturday, we went to the Villa again, so I could do my rescue skills. The other trainees had to be tested for some of their skills so they came too. Sherief told me that they were all doing a swim, and a snorkel on the surface for their test. So I decided to do it with them. It was ridiculously hard. The snorkel swim was with fins/mask/and snorkel- and we had to swim like 60yds (Sherief said it was 50 but I told him to get out his measuring wheel and re-check his measurements.. Roofing joke.. That was for you @ChoiceExteriors- Check us out on Twitter!) down and back 10times.. Then had to take the fins and snorkel off and free swim half of that distance.. Sherief told us the first one we had to finish in 10min (he knew we wouldn’t do it, I think he just told us that so we would try to go fast), I got last, and got double lapped by everyone. Luckily I don’t get embarrassed easily and knew/told everyone going in that I’m a horrible surface swimmer. The “Straw-Boss” also told us during the snorkel that if we popped our heads up at any time we failed.. So I had to swallow my “indigestion” a few times and keep on swimming.. The only reason I didn’t cramp up, is because our legs were strait the whole time. Ole Mathew is so competitive that he was making fun of me even after I had gotten done with my 45 minutes of strait swimming.. Thanks man.. (Oh and by the way guys, Matt let me have a week of no wrestling, but wrestled me Monday.. You really were glad to see me weren’t you!!)

So after the “day at the beach” all the guys wanted to go see Prince of Persia (Which I absolutely loved by the way), so I got dragged to that, even though I was fretting over speaking the next day. So I told’m that I really needed to be back in time to get some stuff checked over and get a good nights rest before church.. So naturally, when we finally went to see the movie, it was the 10:15 showing.. Got back at 12:30 or 1 and started checking over my notes.. Well I had forgotten that I didn’t have a printer, and I’d done them all on Word.. I had like bolding, font changes and bullet points, I mean the thing was ready.. So Instead of printing it, I got to transfer it over on notebook paper.. I used blue and black pens to color code it instead, it was real cute.. By the time I got done it was like 2:30 or 3. I was tired. What I didn’t realize is that when I took my computer outside earlier so that I could check movie times, fleas had gotten all over it.. And where was I doing my sermon notes? My bed.. With my lap top.. So now, not only was it 3 o clock, but Satan had put fleas everywhere.. I stripped by bed sheets down one layer, jumped in the shower.. Then got back in bed, realized that hadn’t done the trick and repeated the process.. Realized that hadn’t done the trick, prayed for sleep, was pissed at the world for about the next hr, fell asleep for 2hrs before I preached..

The next morning, I took a long hot shower, which was the most relaxing thing I’d done in about 20 hours, put eye drops in my eyes, and went off to church. All the trainees walked with me down there, and the 3 Amigos met me up there. Luckily I got there early, so I could realize that the one thing I had forgotten was a bottle of water.. So I called Candle (which is what the Spanish people call her) and she snagged one for me.

The speaking went pretty good. I was surprised, because I was absolutely exhausted.. Jokes on you Satan/Fleas! The only thing that wasn’t a positive thing was the fact that I barely even used my notes (which, you can blame the sermon notes or the movie for the fleas), and about halfway through some water went down the wrong pipe and I  had to take a second and cough it out. It actually made for a good joke though. The church was really awesome, made me feel good and made everyone that came with me feel really welcome. If any of you are reading this (I’m assuming somebody is reading this..), Thanks so  much for being awesome. For some of my friends it was the first time they’d ever been to church and it was a positive experience.

So, at home, I had to take care of the fleas, so I went looking for a bug bomb.. Can’t find them anywhere here, actually, and people- when they hear the word bomb, tend to get scared.. Apparently it’s the one universal word in our entire language.. #epicfail (twitter joke).. Then we went to the Villa to get some R and R and I didn’t get out of the hammock for the first 3 hours, so I can’t complain.. Then we went out to Kinta- awesome restaurant (have to use spell check to spell restaurant right every time.. RESTARANT? RESTURANT? RESTAURUNT?- A. D. D. moment), for Kallyes Birthday.. And if you’re thinking, wait, her’s is on Monday.. Ya, I told EVERYONE it was on Sunday, so Corwin was awesome and made reservations. Really thoughtful by the way bro, even though I told you the wrong day.. And it was great!

Then we the 3 Amigos +me bunked up in the girls room (flea free), and pushed all the beds together.. Oh, and by the way, like Friday night, me and Matteo locked our key (1-singular) in our room at like 1:30 in the morning and had to do this then too.. The two worse people to trust someone with keeping up with something, are trying to survive in Mexico.. Awesome.. (The verdict is still out on who actually left the key by the way) The first time Kallye slept on the crack so that Kyndal wouldn’t have to worry about me “accidentally thinking she wanted to cuddle” or everybody’s favorite story “prom night mistake”.. Well Sunday night, Kallye was not about to sacrifice AGAIN for my mistake.. So I got crack.. Luckily for Kyndal, I was so relieved that I actually got to sleep in a bed that wasn’t covered in itchy bugs, and that I was as tired as I’ve ever been on any night in my life, I went right to sleep..(I actually thought there was fleas in their bed for a little bit- I blame the lack of sleep, but Matt Kallye and Kyndal all slept right through, so I did too)..

So Monday first thing, we go tell the landlord Blanquita (Guadalupe’s wife) that we needed a “bug bomb” or something equivalent.. Then I stripped both beds, because Matt’s was covered as well by that time, and went on my way.. They did a great job of cleaning/spraying insecticide on everything (I have no idea what that kind of thing does to somebody when they inhale it, but I woke up this morning, so I’m not too terribly worried).

And it was Kallye’s actual birthday yesterday, so we were gonna throw her a party just for us! While Matt took her to lunch and shopping (better man than I am bro), Kyndal and I got a cake, pinata, and party favors! The party was great, had a fun night last night, and slept amazing!!! (Till 12, be jealous)!

Crazy last couple of days, but if me and my brothers are going to write a book one day (which’ll probably never happen), about all of the stupid/funny stories in our lives, then we gotta go through stupid crap like this.. Don’t worry bro’s, got more content waiting for ya!! All we gotta do is copy and paste. Love all of you so much, and am praying for you! Thanks for reading! Oh and by the way, pray for my friend Lisa, she’s over seas spreadin the word!!

But before I get into the awesome times I’ve been having with them, I wanted to tell you about my embarrassment, diving on Monday.

I was diving with Raul’ who is always a blast to dive with; He was leading about 4 costumers and I was following after. The first dive was an absolute ridiculous drift. So about the only thing you can do in a situation like that is go along for the ride. So that’s what we did.

The 2^nd dive was a lot better. We were diving in a lot of really cool reef formations that we’re tall, like columns. So they blocked most of the current. This was totally my kind of dive, because there are just tons of swim throughs. Well Raul’ was leading the group, and I was going behind, because if somebody got lost, I’d get lost with them, and I’d trust myself in a situation like that more than I would the customer to get back to the group. That’s exactly what happened.. The guy right in front of me slowed down to take a picture of a fish and so I was behind him, right as the rest of the group turned a corner.. So when he finally got done they were nowhere in sight.. So I passed him, and made sure he was following me, and was going to go above the reef so see where there air bubbles were at. The only problem with my “solution” is that if they’re in a cave, then the bubbles wont come up for me to see.. So after a bit of searching, I was beginning to worry. But I was worried more for the old guy that was with me, So I turned around behind me to ask if he was alright and he darted forward because he saw our group.. So it turns out that since he saw the group first that he was the “savior”.. Oh well, I live to dive another day..

So when the 3 Amigos (I’ve never actually called them that to their faces..) arrived in Houston, they texted me, and told me when their next flight was leaving to get here. Then an hour later, they told me their flight was delayed. Then another hour went by and they texted me again.. Turns out, their plane, the previous day, had gotten struck by lightning.. So naturally they were having a bit of trouble getting everything in working order.. I would have figured Airlines would have extra “back-up” planes that they just sub in.. You know, send in the lefty.. But even if they did have some back-ups in the bull pen, they had plenty of faith they could get this one working.

But they ended up making it here fine, despite the set backs. I was relieved, to say the least. For awhile I was feeling like Tom Hanks in Cast Away.. Even though there is a few more people on my Island, I still kind of felt like Wilson was my only friend.. Haha.

So when they got settled in, I wanted to show them around and what not. So we headed off to the farthest walk they’ll make all vacation, the Mega Mart. We started planning out these awesome fish tacos that we were going to make, and I realized that making that walk isn’t quite as bad when you have your homies from the 4-0-5 there to keep you laughing. Good to have them here.

We came back “home” and unloaded the groceries. Matt and Kallye hurried out to the pool to take a dip. Then Kyndal followed suit. So I’m in the girls house all by myself and so I went and grabbed my book and came back in their door and started reading.. Then I realized, in the movie Cast Away, that Tom Hanks also had trouble “integrating back into society.” So after getting hit with this thought, I ran out side happily to be with my friends.

So when we got all our ingredients, we hopped on a taxi and headed back to the Departmentos (Apartments in Espanol’).. We went in to the girls room (which they named “Spice World” in honor of the Spice Girls, Ours is Graceland- Elvis reference) we started getting all these awesome ingredients ready to cook. We were about ready to throw the fish into the frying pan, when we realized something.. Just because a stove top has 4 burners, you aren’t going to do much cooking on them if not one of them works.. (Like I said- Not-So-Luxurious-Side of Cozumel.) SO.. We take the stuff over to Graceland where one of our 2 burners works and made dinner. Poor ole Matteo barely got food in his mouth in time.. He didn’t eat much fish, because it wasn’t ready in time.. But before any of us had taken a bite, I think Matt had already consumed 2 P B and J’s and half a bag of chips (which he, in desperation I’m sure, maliciously ripped open) and half a dealy of salsa. But I enjoyed my fish tacos. They were all laughing about how they didn’t eat much, or weren’t really satisfied. But me, I hadn’t eaten so good since I left momma. Haha.

Wednesday, after sleeping amazingly late, we went and got coffee, then saw about getting every one some bikes. We went to the same shop I’d purchased mine from three weeks earlier, and severly gotten our bubbles burst when they guy, through Kallye’s amazing translating (She took 4 years of Spanish in high school) told us that they only had new bikes.. So.. We walked back home..

Thursday was another great day.

I had to go to the Villa to practice some rescue skills, so every body came down to the shop with me and started meeting people. Even though they hadn’t intended to dive (Matt wasn’t going to till next week) by the time they were done at the shop, they were out fitted in gear and “just gonna breath through the regs in the pool. Matt ended up getting all the skills done in the ocean (never even did any breathing in the pool!! Which, when me and my family got certified, we went in the pool the entire first day!!) And by the time Corwin was done training the girls, he had them in the freakin ocean! And they loved every second of it. Ridiculous! But it absolutely made my day. Haha.

Taxi Drivers are douche bags

Never trust the dependability of having your water actually work.. Always plan ahead.. And never trust that you’re going to have internet at any given time.. If you need the internet for sure, go to StarBucks

Anything that you can put Peanut Butter on, can become dinner.. Including: Ritz Crackers, Oreos, Granola Bars

Imagine an Oreo that instead of cream in the middle, had cookies and cream ice cream. Amazing Right? That’s what these Cookies and Cream Oreos that you can get down here taste like. Even better with Peanut Butter

When telling someone, who doesn’t speak your language anything. Never trust that they got the message, no matter how good you think you are at Charades

When you buy a bike for 30 bucks and the guy brings it out from the back, never trust that everything on it will stay working.. Things are going to fall off..

If you use the A/C as much as I do, be prepared to be asked by your land lord for a deposit halfway through the month.

If you think something looks like Cheese Dip, smell it first. It’s probably something else.

Bring Pepto. Always

Haha, That’s all for now, but expect more of those from now on, because that was fun!

So, Wednesday about 7 o clock, I was driving my two wheeler to Starbucks. My excuse to go was that my internet wasn’t working, but I really went for my Grande Java Chip Frappuccino in a Vente Cup with Extra Whip. #nohomo (if you’re wondering why I put the pound sign infront of that, it’s a twitter thing) Haha. So anyways, I’m cruising down main street and there is a cyclist in front of me, we were dodging the cars together. It’s a two lane street, but normally on the outside lanes, people park, including the taxi’s, and the taxi’s harass people. Literally the line up, like 20 Taxi’s in a row and as someone is walking down the side walk, each one, individually will ask that person if they need a Taxi, completely ignoring the fact that their buddy 3 feet away just got shot down. So me and my cyclist Amigo (whom I don’t really know) are passing one particular pack of drivers. One of them was sitting in his car, must have just parked, and w/out checking to see if anyone was behind him, swung open his door and completely took out the guy in front of me.. Like, If you are imagining this in your head, it was worse.. Pretty dang brutal.. All the cars, scooters and bikes behind us slammed on their breaks so they didn’t turn the guy into road kill. I jumped off my bike to help him up. The Taxi driver, shut his door and just sat there with the “I’m-not-going -to-help-you-and-I-have-no-friends” look on his face. I yelled at him, “You’re not even going to help him up Amigo?!” He said “No Amigo” like it was the bicycle guys fault. I was so pissed, if I’d known any Spanish Curse Words I’d have used them. I had to use every bit of control I owned not to reach in through his open window and punch him out. But instead I yelled “You’re freakin Ridiculous!” and made sure my friend was okay and rode off..

When I got up to Starbucks, Memo was there, we always run into each other, and I told him the whole story. I was still mad. He told me that all the Taxi drivers think they own the streets. I have half a mind to hitch a really long and expensive ride w/them and when it ends open the door and run away. That’ll show the douch bags. But we all know, I’ll have the whole thing planned out and chicken out at the last second because I have a conscience, unlike them. Any ways, Rant over..

Thursday-

I dove with Nitrox finally. For those of you that don’t know what it is, its basically a mix of air that has a higher blend of pure Oxygen than what we normally breath everyday (Which surprisingly is only like 21% Oxygen). It’s better for diving because it has less Nitrogen in it. I had to work out all of this theory and stuff, and get certified before I could start diving with it. The good thing about it is, it lets you stay down deeper, longer. There is a reason for that, but if you want me to explain it, then email me because we would be here a lot longer. Haha. But it also makes you less sluggish or tired after your dive. I felt so good yesterday, it didn’t matter what I did, I was happy. Somebody could have spit in my face, and I probably wouldn’t have gotten mad..

My dive- We dove a place called Barracuda. When diving somewhere with a hard core name like that, please, mentally prepare yourself, because the current is probably going to be really bad, or there will be something really scary down there, or some dangerous place you have to go.. That being said, I wasn’t mentally prepared.. And neither was any of the other costumers. We were all advanced divers, and they all had like 100+.. Monday night, I had done my 37th dive. So they were good, to say the least. Our dive master, Edgar, told us later he has overr 14000 dives. But lets me honest, with a name like Edgar, you better be really good at Something..

So we get down there, and this is a reef is a flat place, where the reef drops down like crazy on both sides, and we’re supposed to stay on top. That sounds easy enough, but it’s also on the tip of the Island, so the current is freakin movin.. Well at the very beginning, I got pushed off on one side, while the group got pushed off on the other, so we all knew where each other were because we could see the bubbles, but I couldn’t get back on top for awhile. I finally fought the current enough to mount this reef again (Thought it was gonna mount me for awhile.. Can I say that?).. But we had sucked down most of our air at that point.. Edgar was still doing fine I’m sure, and I thought the other divers were as well, but I wanted to cry to my mommy, even though the Nitrox was doing it’s best to keep me happy, I wasn’t.. You’re supposed to look down at your air periodically, and I hadn’t in awhile, so I took a peak. We start out with 3000 psi and I looked and I was down to 800, and we were only like 35 minutes in to the dive (which should be halfway). So I was sucking it down way too fast. I swam up to Edgar, and told him how much I had, and he looked pissed.. I don’t even know if he’d asked the other customers (which he’s supposed to do) because I later found out that they sucked theirs down as well.. So he pulled out his secondary hose, which was embarrassing because I was supposed to be the “Dive Master Trainee”.. But today, I’m telling you, I checked my ego at the door.. I was beat.. So about ten minutes later we went up..

When we got on the boat, every one told me they had just as hard of time as I did, so that made me feel a lot better.

So the next dive, was a lot better. Thank the Lord, other wise, I’d have quit. Haha. It was another dive site that I hadn’t been to. It was really cool because it was just green with all these shallow water plants for as far as you could see. I actually felt like they just sank Ireland and I was diving there. We saw tons of turtles, and a few Lobsters. It was a good second dive. After the dive, I had completely forgotten about the disastrous (spelled that right on the first try!!) first dive, and felt like a million bucks (that was probably the Nitrox speaking). Felt so good, I didn’t even need a nap.. But when has that ever stopped me right?

Friday (Today)- I dove with Raul’, who is probably one of the happiest/funniest individuals I’ve ever met. While we’re at the beach he always makes sure to take an extra long look at the “scenery” if you know what I mean. But he loves diving, so he makes it really fun. One thing I’ve noticed, is that even on gorgeous days like we have today, when there are tons of other boats out, we never run into other divers on the reef. He’s really good about taking us somewhere that most people wont be.

So he takes us to the Devil’s Throat.. Another one of those hard core names, I’m sure you noticed. This time, I was ready. If you dive this site, and don’t have a good boat captain, then it sucks for the divers, because you have to fight the current to get to the site. But my boy Marcello put us right on-freakin-top of it today. Drove like a champ. There were two things I messed up on this dive. I forgot to turn my dive computer on before we started diving.. After the sensors feel you going deep, they wont turn on.. So, I had no reference of how deep I was or how long we were down there, I just knew we were deep (ended up being like 120 or so).. And, I forgot my flashlight, which was a huge mistake, since we were going in a cave.. This cave was a giant swim through tunnel that went on for like ever. That means that only one person at a time could go, and you had to follow everyone in a line. I went last, so I was behind John.. It was sooooo dark down there, for some of it, so me I basically hugged John’s butt the entire time. Really sweet dive though. I wish we could’ve recorded my thoughts underwater, because you guys would be rolling right now. I’m a little scared of the dark.. I’m a spooked about scuba, just because of the potential to see some scary crap down there. That combo was real good.. Not.. But the fear also added to the excitement and novelty of it all. Not to the point that when next time I dive there I’m going to forget my light again, but enough that this dive didn’t suck. After the huge caves, we saw some really cool reef formations and a bunch of awesome fish. We ended up seeing like 3 sand rays, and like 3 eagle rays. I got really close to one eagle, and you could actually see that it almost had a beak. Yes, a sting ray is the animal that killed the guy from Animal Planet.. But he was a little too close, like petting them and junk.. Me, I’ll observe them from a short distance. It was an awesome dive. And, I know I already said this, but I really like Raul’. Have a lot of respect for guy.

Second dive we went to Santa Rosa Wall, but we stayed shallow-ish so we didn’t get into decompression (which is another problem in diving that I don’t want to get in to right now). Really good dive though. I was following everyone else again, and for some reason I was just going really slow. At one point they were leaving me and then went through a swim through. When they got through it, they didn’t know that I was swimming through the same deal, all they knew is that I wasn’t there. So they waited, and I finally caught up to them.. I was a little embarrassed, but oh well.. So we went through some more really cool swim throughs and we saw just some really massive fish. Like normally you just see a “big fish” but some of these things wouldn’t fit in a five gallon bucket, really massive.. There is one customer that dove with us that reminds me of Kevin Howze, really cool guy. But he had mentioned that he hadn’t seen a shark all trip.. So he really wanted to see one.. At the very end of the dive, we came around the taller section of the reef and boom. Really big nurse shark. It was like 7 to 9 feet long. The cool thing was that it looked like it was chasing something, like really whipping his tail to go fast, it was sweet.

And that was end of the diving lately!

So, I’ve been trying to get the stuff together for when I speak at the church ahead of time, so that I’m not cramming it all down on paper the night before (aren’t you proud of me Scott? little justin is growing up.. Haha). It’s been going really well. Right now, my idea is to talk about the Journal Entry that I mentioned a few posts back, and about 2 Corinthians 8. It may change between now and when I’m at the pulpit, but I’ll keep you guys updated. Let me know if you have any Big Ideas that a bunch of Americans in Mexico would enjoy hearing. I’ll try and work it in some how, unless it’s racist.. Then I’ll leave it for the tourists to blurt out.

Well, Thanks for listening to me rant and think! I’ll leave with you words of a very wise person- “Rock and Roll aint noise pollution”. -AC/DC (Just popped up on my IPOD which is on shuffle)

We were all sitting around the table. At this place on Saturday Nights, Divers either get ½ off whatever they are drinking, or 15% off of what they are eating. Needless to say, Belen didn’t do a whole lot of eating anything. Well, Actually, I was the only person that even ordered food. Now I know, that when they say we’re going out to a place where the food is discounted, they don’t mean that’s why they are going. Haha. So some of them were drinking heavier than others. I told them I wanted a Coke, but that I was going to the bathroom, so they could order it for me. When I came back, I had one of those party cups that are a yard tall, with the extra long straws. I looked at everybody else who got their Pina Coladas or whatever they got in their yard tall glasses. Me, I had coke in mine. No one should ever drink that much soda.. But I killed it! So I ordered the ribs, which was a bad idea because I was wearing a white t-shirt. But they did give me a bib, so not only did I look classy, but my shirt stayed white as well. There were only a few of us with the mind set of not getting wasted, So we settled down and started talking. We ended up getting onto the subject of eternity. I soon found out, that Sheree, from Australia, is an atheist who believes in Evolution. Same with Dave, from England. They both have degrees in Marine Biology, and they said that the belief in science was kind of key for them.

Everyone there already knows the direction I want to go in my life. But they know other things about me too. We’ve gotten to know each other quite well over the past couple of weeks. Be praying for them, because I’m definitely going to continue trying to share the Gospel with them, but they are in fact smarter in most aspects than me, so this could be interesting.

Now for Sunday:

I woke up, got a quick shower and ate breakfast. Church starts @9 so when I got ready to leave it was about 8:30. Yes, that is very early, but my bike was out of commission at the moment, and I’d never made the walk before so I wanted to leave some room, just in case. It was lucky I did! I got there in like 10 minutes, not a long walk at all. So I came in, sat down, and listened to them practice some songs that they were going to sing. When they were done, the lady, Alba, that runs the church came and talked to me. She asked me where I was from and I told her. I also informed her that I wanted to be a Minister some day. She got really excited and told me that this was a volunteer church. I then asked if I could speak, She said of course! (by the way, the conversation went way easier than I had expected.. I dunno if I thought that I was going to have to interview or anything, but I definitely thought she’d have to know more about me than the fact that I was from Oklahoma and that I wanted to preach some day). So after the service, we talked some more, and I’m speaking there on June 5^th! Thanks for your prayers, now if you would please pray that I don’t suck it up royally, that’d be fantastic.

Later, I talked to Sherief, Dave, Corwin, and Sheree, and they all would love to come listen, so that’s definitely another avenue in which they can hear the Gospel!

Sherief knocked on my door later Sunday Night and told me to be at the dive shop at 9:30. So Monday morning I woke up at 8 and got ready. Left for my walk at 8:30, and got there about 9. Belen, who was working at the time, asked me why I missed my dive that morning.. (at this point I was wondering, did he say 7:30?! Maybe there was some miscommunication. But either way, I was pissed). She said I still had a night dive to do that night at 6:15. After I made her repeat the time to me again, I went home. I was fuming mad, I couldn’t believe how irresponsible I was being. I was thinking, there is not enough time in my trip for me to miss a dive a week and still get my Dive Master. I wasn’t in the door 10 minutes before my phone rang. It was Sherief, and I just knew he was pissed at me for never listening. I answered, and was about to start apologizing when he started explaining to me that all the trainees were meeting at the shop at 9:30 to do a training session, and no one at the office knew it. Everyone likes me up at the office, so every time they see that I’m not diving, and can squeeze me in on a boat, they do it. That’s why they thought I’d missed my dive. So Sherief told me they were on their way, in the old beater F150 that Al Dora owns by the way, to come pick me up. I was so relieved that I didn’t even care that Belen sent me home.

Training:

We went diving off of the dock of the Villa’s that Al Dora owns. All the trainees sat down while we got briefed about what all skills we were going to practice, then we hopped in. We were only in about 15 feet of water, which you’d think would make it easier. But that means we  were still close to the beach, so the tide came in and out constantly and beat us to death the entire time. We had to practice all these skills like we were teaching them, because we already know how to do the skills, now we need to be able to teach them to others. We had to levitate about 3 feet from bottom and teach people how to take off their masks, put it in their hands and swim a lap around the group, while trying to see. Basically, that was simulating the fact that you aren’t dead if your mask comes off. You can still swim, and see somewhat, plus you can put it back on. Then we had to do a “panicked diver rescue” and simulate someone freaking out while under water, and you had to swing around behind them, while they were swimming towards you, and shove their regulators (thing that you breath out of) back into their mouths, purge the water out. Then you got to fix any problems that they may have caused you while panicking. Sherief pulled my regulator out and my mask off, real cool dude. Then we got to do this thing called torture chamber, where the instructor gets to do whatever the crap he wants to you, while you can’t attack him back, you just have to fix the problems he causes (Kids, don’t try this at home). He did all of the following: Pulled out my regulator, pulled off my mask, unstrapped my fins, unhooked my weights, aired up my BCD (Buoyancy Control Device, basically the thing that you can put a little bit of air into, while diving so you can keep off the bottom. And also fill all the way up at the top to stay afloat). Ya, he filled mine all the way up, twice so I would shoot to the surface.. All of this was, yes, really fun. But at the same time, When you get your oxygen pulled out of your mouth, when surrounded by water, the chances of you drowning are much greater. Trust me on this. All of us passed the test, none of us panicked. So that was good. By this time, I was worn out (most of you know, that working out, is not a huge priority of mine at this point in my life, I’m totally out of shape). Then, our psycho instructor decides to spring an exercise on us that he neglected to brief us about on the surface. So, while remaining under water, using hand signals, he informs us of a game we are going to play. It’s like musical chairs, except with our BCD’s (which also hold our oxygen tank, regulators, pretty much our entire gear package). We take them off, while still holding onto them, and still breathing from the Regs. We still have on our weight belts, masks and fins. We all separate, about 20 yards between each of us, in a circle. We look at Sherief and he counts to three and we all, spit out the regs and swim to the persons gear to our right. All the while, trying not to float to the surface, or panic and swim to the surface. 20 yards may not seem like much, but when there is a lack of oxygen involved and like I said earlier, the ocean is moving, It’s a long dang way. So we all were playing the game. Sometimes you couldn’t find the persons main hose, so you snagged the secondary. I tried to breath Dave’s oxygen with the mouth piece upside down. I was out of air by the time I got to his gear, so I had to press the purge button (which sprays the oxygen out at a high pressure) to get any air at all, so I wouldn’t die, before I realized that it was upside down. This “game” might be the worst invention of all time. I watched Sherief struggle at one point thought, which was really satisfying. He didn’t want to breath out of the secondary hose, so he took extra time looking for the Primary hose. You could tell when he ran out of air, he got in a hurry at that point. Although this was a horrible game, it was kind of satisfying, testing the skills and not getting too freaked out.

Next Training Session, I’m sure I won’t be quite as eager to jump in the water. In fact, I may be sick that day, we’ll see. I still had my night dive to do. Had to be at the pier at 6:15, so I got to eat, and get a quick nap in before more diving. I was there at 6, just in case.

I was pretty freaked out about the night dive to be honest. The reason I didn’t have a blast getting certified 5 years ago was because we did it in an Oklahoma lake and the visibility was about 6 feet. In Cozumel, diving is a blast because the visibility is like 100 feet, you can see everything from far away, you can know if something looks scary so you can stay away. But on a night dive, if you turn off your light, then all you can see is like 20 feet. Still better that 6 feet, so I could see if something was about to eat me, but I don’t know, if it was 20 feet from me, that I could stop it. You do have a light, but you can only see what the light is shining on. It didn’t help my nerves that, when we went to lunch earlier, all the guys going on the night dive were trying to scare the piss out of me. They even told me that there were reef sharks that came over from the main land at night, that were bigger and more aggressive. I only believed them for like 10 minutes.

During the briefing, before the dive, Sherief told us that he were diving in two separate groups. Sheree was guiding the group of trainees, and Sherief was guiding the other 3 customers. Sheree is a trainee, like me.. Awesome.. He wanted us to stay at least, 5 yards behind his group, and told us not to mix in. So, I guess, Sheree wanted to descend slower than them. So we waited for a couple minutes, until we saw that they were all down. Then we started descending. I had a little bit of trouble getting my ears pressurized so, I went down a little slower. So when we got down the current had already swept group 1 out of sight.. This dive was just more and more fun, every time I thought about it. The whole dive, I was thinking that when it got over with, the boat wasn’t going to be able to find our group and we were going to have to swim on the surface a half mile to shore. Luckily, I brought my compass, so I knew where shore was, because it was pretty dark. It was really eerie because of the lack of light. But they didn’t lie about one thing, all the huge crabs and lobsters and big fish that hide during the day came out. The drift was really bad, so even if you saw some cool things, your dive buddies had to be right beside you,  or you weren’t going to be able to get their attn in enough time to show them anything. We ended up catching up with group 1, which I was supremely relieved. Then we got separated from them again. Their group consisted of 2 Open Water Divers, and 1 Advanced Trainee. So while we still had plenty of air, we knew they would be ascending pretty soon after we caught up w/them.  When we had about 1500 psi of air left, Corwin saw their lights and pointed out that they were going up. So we knew we weren’t going to stay down much longer (I was totally fine with that). At the very end of the dive, I saw an eel, which you see quite often in day dives. But this eel was out of its hole and swimming around. Probably 2 feet long, pretty dang sweet. And I saw a 2 foot long shark cruising through the reef. When we surfaced, the boat was right there. All my worries were gone.

Over all, I think Night Dives are cool, and if you’re going to be diving for a while, then it’s a good switch up. I know I’ll at least go one more time, because I’m sure Mom, Pop, Jared and Jimmie’ll want to at least try it out. And guys, if we don’t split up into two teams, then I’ll have nothing to worry about.

Thanks for reading guys, I’m praying for all of you, and reading some cool junk. I just got done w/Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller (only took me 4 days, I’ve got Way too much down time), and I started Desiring God by John Piper. Also got done w/2 Corinthians during my Bible study and am gonna start Galatians today.

I wrote this in my Journal a couple of days ago, and I thought I could share some insight with each of you. –                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 I just got done reading 2 Corinthians Chapter 8 (you should read it too, really good)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Lately I’ve been getting hit w/a few big thoughts. God asks us to give 10 % of what we earn. As Christians that live in America we know that we have, not only money but to name a few: The peace of mind that we live in a free country, having a roof over our heads, a means of transportation, family (whether you have kids, or not, or you are one), Freedom of Religion (Which is why God gave us free will in the first place), freedom of speech, and many more that I’m sure you could think of in no time.. God doesn’t ask us to give 10% or our earnings because that’s the number he needs to keep Christianity afloat or anything like that. He asks that of us because he wants us to be ever conscious of where those provisions came from. Not only the money, but all those things just mentioned above. We are supposed to use everything that he provides us with as a ministry tool. How often do we open our homes up for God’s work to be done? How often do we lose sight of the way we need to build each other up, or raise our children? We need to do these things, not for the immediate satisfaction, but for the long term/eventual product. Not so our friends will do what we want them to now, but so they’ll be there for us when we need somebody to lean on, and pray for us and lift us up. Not so our kids will clean their rooms now so you are not embarrassed when your friends come over. But so when they grow up, they’ll respect/love others, and spread the Gospel, and make disciples, and be able to make healthy decisions for themselves. As believers, we are given a certain amount of time, to live as the bible tells us we should. We are given a certain amount of time to make disciples of all nations.                                                                                                                          Jesus was in Heaven before he came to earth. Heaven is, for most of us, the pinnacle, the ultimate reward . And Jesus was already there! He was comfortable, I’m sure. But he gave up riches and luxuries that we could never imagine to be sacrificed, so that we could meet him back in Heaven one day. When offering plates are passed, I think a whole new mind set should come along with these realizations we’re thinking about right now. Put our lives in the plate. Jesus wants us, not or money; our hearts. He’s already rich; he just wants us to love others enough to help them discover the same riches that he gets to celebrate. All our Savior wants from us, is to get up off the couch, put down the remote, put on our tennis shoes and go share the gospel. He wants us to invest in something that won’t fade. Is that what we want? I know for me, sometimes all I want to do is take off my tennis shoes and sit on the couch.

I’m definitely not perfect, which is kind of the point of having a Savior in the first place. I know I won’t always do what is right. But every time I say yes to Jesus’ calling on my life, it gets easier and easier to say it again. And every time I say no to his calling, it gets easier and easier to do it again. I just want to quit being so freaking selfish with all of my decisions.

Alright, moving on-

I want to encourage you guys, as you read books for educational purposes, to research the authors ahead of time. Not necessarily to keep you from reading something because the writer doesn’t believe exactly the way you believe, and not so you know whether he’s agreeing with the way you live your life. But I think this is important because it’s vital to know what from what reference point you read your words. If you find out something about the author, it can completely change your taste about the book, which may make you want to quit reading. I had a similar experience this week, and it has caused me to postpone reading the book, and restarting when I do. Even though the author has a lot to offer me, I was going about it in the wrong way.

God has been making some cool realizations to me, hopefully these make sense to you.

Blue like Jazz (book I just started taking a crack at)- The author, Donald Miller keeps talking about all the awesome ways that he’s seen people become Christians and the way he became one. Those are all awesome, but what I want to harp on here. He (the author) intended for the reader to hear all of the awesome testimonies he tells. But I think that the author definitely intends the purchaser, of any book to get the message, but what about when that person is done? Here is how I found this book, or God lead me to it. Even before I started it, I noticed 3 names in the front cover. I thought it interesting that someone would write their name in a non-text book. But I have often done that with like a cd that I let someone borrow, or a movie. They obviously intended to get it back. But the person that bought the book had to either read it and pass it on, or start reading and realize they hated it and pass it on or throw it  to the way side, for someone else to pick up.. But either way, it ended up in my hands. God doesn’t do things on accident. Jimmie read the book and then put it somewhere. I now live in Jimmie’s old room (yes, with my parents, rub it in). But the book wasn’t in his old room, It was on the shelf of my old room. It would never have caught my eye if Jared had not been talking about it to me and my dad a week or two ago, because there are books in closets everywhere in our house.                             The book isn’t the thing I want to make the big deal about. I’m enjoying it, but that isn’t the big thing. It’s God. The Lord intended me to read this book, probably for some thought or idea that is in it. But either way, God intended for me to read that book, just like he intended for me to meet every single person I know, Christian or not. Everyone I know, that is a Christian, have people in their lives that they look up to or learn from in different ways. They all met them in different ways.                                                                                                                                                                                                      Simon Collard I’ve known for my entire life, almost half of my parents lives. But we never would have met had my parents not moved around and eventually settled in Piedmont Oklahoma, of all places. My parents  are from Mississippi, and lived in Colorado and Houston before OK. And they lived in Yukon before Piedmont. So, there are a lot of puzzle pieces that had to fall into place for me to have met Simon.                                                                                                Syed Musab I met in class at UCO. I almost went to SNU. Not a big change but still, maybe we never would have met. Syed’s parents had to move to Edmond Oklahoma from a town in Pakistan! That’s a big change. Like I have proven in the past, I don’t even know where that is. It’s not by Thailand, that is for sure (Inside Joke). God is so AMAZINGLY GINORMOUS that after all of that, he still hasn’t even broken a sweat. Still! I’m sweating just trying to empty my mind of these huge revelations.                                                                                                                                                                                              The people I mentioned above are both my dear friends (and don’t feel left out, I just talked to them recently, that’s why they were on my mind and how I met most of you is also crazy and a God thing I’m sure) that I’ve known for different amounts of time, and God uses us in different ways.  We learn from each other and build up on each other. What’s an even cooler thought, is that there will be more people in the future, good Lord willing I live to be past 42, that I meet and will also have a huge impact or their lives and vice versa.

All that stuff has been rattling around in my brain (if you didn’t understand it, that’s probably why) and I just wanted to share it with you. Now, for the past couple of days.

Alright, So I got to dive Monday and Tuesday. I told you guys about that already. I was supposed to dive Thursday, but Sherief never told me I was (he normally tells me at 9-10 the night before if I’m diving in the morning). So I was kinda bummed, but I just figured I’d do some other stuff. So my alarm went off like I was diving at 6:30. I woke up, turned it off and reset it for 9:30. Woke up then, turned it off and went back to sleep. I woke up at like 10:30, did some dishes, read some stuff, got my laundry ready to take to the cleaning place and stepped out the door. There was a note that said- Hey, this is Sherief, I knocked but you didn’t answer so I figured you were out. You’re diving today so be at the shop at 11. I looked at my phone, 1 o clock.. I felt horrible so I went and apologized to everybody, but no one was mad, so then I just got to kick myself for missing out on diving.

The next day no diving either. But Sherief did stop by my apartment and told me that all the Dive Master trainees were going to she this Myan Show tonight at so and so. I went, it was only me and Sherief and Sheree that ended up going. It was lame, they all were speaking in Spanish and we had a horrible view. Sherief hated it too, so me and him were just standing in the back talking. I’d already shown him some stuff I’d been reading, so we started talking about those and then the conversation switched to spiritual stuff. I’d already known that he was a Christian through previous encounters. But basically he was telling me that  he was having a really rough time trying to find his path in life. His words “I see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I see the road leading up to it. But I don’t know how to get to the road.” So please be praying for him. We talked a bit about prayer and his prayer life and what not. He said he didn’t pray enough and we haven’t talked about how he’s doing as far as bible study goes. But he does read books, so if you guys know of any good books that can help a Christian get back on the right path or anything or find where there spot in helping the Church/God’s people prepare for the second coming, that would be awesome. And also, if you have any scripture that comes to mind on that sort of thing as well, that’d be good.

Oh, and by the way, when I go to church tomorrow, I’m going to ask if I can preach for them one Sunday. So pleasing be praying for that opportunity.

And now to tell you about today (By the way, It Was AWESOME!!)

It started out horribly. I was supposed to be at the pier at 7:15. I woke up a little late, ate a granola bar and headed out the door. I was pedaling like crazy trying to make it to the pier on time. Right as I turned the corner on Main Street I heard something pop and my foot hung limp. I looked back, and laying there on the road was not only the plastic part of my pedal but also the metal part that hooks it to the inside of the bike (that comment was full of technical Lance Armstrong-esk bicycle lingo, I know). So.. I went and picked it up, walked my bike to the pier. Was more than a little late, but all Memo said to me was “vominos Justeen”. By the way, he says my name really funny.

So, we left, and picked the father/daughter couple that was diving with us. In the boat were Sheree-smokin hot Australian, Belin- Smokin hot Argentinian, me, David- Mexican dive instructor, and the customers. Not a bad start after all .. By the way, Puckett family, I’m using a 100 cubic feet tank (small one) and coming up w/a grand of air every time. And I’m only using 2 lbs of weight. I predict by next week, I won’t need any. That’s right, get owned. Who’s the best diver now Jimmie? Jared? What, not much to say? Hahahaha!

First dive- We dove at Palancar Horse Shoe, really cool reef formations and some good fish. A couple of decent size lobsters and at the very end, we saw a school of literally 1 million sardines, swimming amongst the coral. All these huge groupers and other big fish were swimming in and out, eating them.

Second dive- We dove Delilah, and for some reason today, maybe it was because of the past 4 days of rain and today being sunny, but the reef was absolutely swarming with all kinds of fish. Belin claims to have seen a Shark right when we descended. I saw 3 lion fish!! David killed 2 of them (For those of you that don’t know and feel bad for the lion fish at this moment, don’t. Somehow, they came to Cozumel and were dumped in the ocean. There is no natural predator here for them, so they’re killing all the baby fish and are way over populated. But a side not, they are absolutely the coolest looking thing in the water, I’ll post a picture on facebook). All 3 were juvenile, none as big as the one we saw in the shop in January. But it was so sweet. And at the end of the dive, Belin, Sheree and I all saw 2 Humongous Lobsters, 1 Humongous Crab, and as we were doing our safety stop a really big sea turtle. The turtle was just chilling on the bottom (only 15 feet deep where we were), eating a sponge, and I got to get fairly close before the current took me away. Awesome dive!!

The Biggest thing that happened though, was not all of those “too legit to quit” things that we saw diving. It was on the boat ride back. Belin started pointing out into the ocean and screaming like a child. We were all trying to figure out what she was so excited about. Then we saw it; A school of Dolphins, which are extremely rare to see in Cozumel. So we stopped the boat, and were just looking at all these Dolphins, any where from 50 yards to 20 from us. Then Belin tells the driver something and starts yelling swim! Swim! At first I didn’t understand, but right as the boat started moving in front of the big school, Belin grabbed her mask and Sheree and I grabbed ours. The boat pulled about 20 yards in front of the school and we dove in! No fins, no we suits, just masks. And by the way, The water pressure from the dive knocked my mask off despite my holding it, so as I swam as fast as I could towards them, I was putting it back on and clearing out the salt water. I got there first, w/in 10 feet of 11 gorgeous bottle nosed Dolphins. And these aren’t like the Sea World Dolphins that think you have food or anything and will just come right up to you. So for us, (myself, Belin and Sheree) to be as close to them as we were was a real treat. It was hard to swim/breath/observe with no fins, snorkel or life jacket. But it also kind of added to the novelty of it. Boats all over were gathered around us (jealous I’m sure) watching us chase after them! Coolest thing ever, by far.

Some awesome stuff is going on over here. I’m thankful that you guys are sharing in the enjoyment with reading this blog, as much as I’m enjoying sharing this trip with all of you. At times, my blog will be funny, at times exciting and at times humbling. But through it all, I hope you continue reading. And even if you can’t read all the time (which I completely understand), I hope you guys are continuing to pray for me and my new friends I’ve made here. I definitely think the Holy Spirit can make an impact on each of their lives. From a wise Lindsey McMullen- “Just keep in mind that when God created the beach you walk on, the reefs you swim over, the sharks and beautiful fish you see…He knew that many years later He would bring you to that exact place and time just to show you how amazing He is.”