A very Merry Christmas

Christmas. There's nothing like it. It seems to take so long to get here, and then when it does, it seems to go by so fast.

Rebeca and Jason arrived on Christmas Eve, after spending several days in Dallas visiting Jason's family. We were so happy to have them with us, and the dogs felt right at home again.

Even with as much planning as we thought we did, we still had to get out there with the masses on Christmas Eve and look for last-minute Christmas gifts. So, Guillermo, Rebeca and I went out and shopped a little bit, and it was actually a lot of fun! We had Brian (Jason's brother) and Katrina spend the night with us on Christmas Eve and we were so happy to be able to have them here with us.

On Christmas morning, we opened one present, and then stopped for a while to get the turkey in the oven. When that was done, we went back to opening gifts. Guillermo was really excited about the seeds that Rebeca gave him. When he opened that gift, the two of them spent a lot of time looking over and discussing each seed. It was amazing to see banana seeds!!

 The dogs loved opening their gifts, too, and it was funny to see Duke so protective of his ball.

In the afternoon Amanda (Jason's sister)and her husband Dmitry stopped by for a visit with their 3 month old son David. How fun it was to talk with them and hold a little baby again!

 Shortly after that, more family started arriving. It was a nice warm day, so it was easy to spend time either indoors or outside. We had our Christmas dinner, opened presents, took a walk down the street, and then enjoyed coffee and dessert. After everyone left, Rebeca, Jason, Guillermo and I spent a relaxing evening cleaning up the kitchen, and then sitting around the tree just talking.

I have to say, it was a very Merry Christmas - one which we enjoyed very much! The only thing missing was that Fernando and Eva weren't here with us. That would have made the whole thing absolutely perfect. We are grateful that we at least had Rebeca and Jason with us. :-)

As I'm writing this, it's two days after Christmas and Rebeca and Jason left in the morning. They should just be about to arrive in Tucson. As is always the case, Guillermo and I feel a little lost and sad, but we still have excitement coming up, so that helps somewhat! Martina will be here in exactly one week, and Fernando will be here in 9 days!! So, now THAT is what we are looking forward to!!!

Happy New Year!!

The best time of the year

Oooh, we are excited and happy about Rebeca and Jason's arrival tomorrow!!

Of course, their arrival also means the Energumeno will be here too. Well, his malodorous pal has been anxiously waiting for him. This thoughtful pal has been fixing up the yard, digging as many holes as he can to impress his new found friend from the last visit. But most of all, he can't WAIT to share his unique scent with his very best friend again! And I'm sure the Energumeno feels the same way because it's almost one hundred percent certain that he will try to seek out and reconnect with his old buddy as soon as he can. Heaven help us all!

We raked all the leaves in the front yard the other day (spending practically all day doing that) and the yard looks so nice. So, I'd say we pretty much are ready for Christmas! The rooms are all ready for our family and guests, we've started some parts of the Christmas dinner, the presents are under the tree, (although Guillermo is in there right now wrapping presents!), the house looks lovely inside and out and there just is no doubt about it. This IS a most wonderful time of the year!

Rebeca's room to Guillermo's office to guest room

We have been really busy these past two days. Yesterday, we started the process of rearranging Rebeca's room (which is now Guillermo's office, but don't tell Rebeca that) :-)

Today, we moved the recliner out of our room and did some other little changes to FOUR rooms of our house. Rebeca's room (a.k.a. Guillermo's office) is now ready for Rebeca and Jason, and when they leave, the room becomes Martina's room a few days later.

We are so excited and happy about Rebeca and Jason coming for Christmas. That only leaves 2 other people that we are sad won't be with us. Fernando and Eva. But, we are extremely happy for them to be spending Christmas in Borneo. Fernando wrote us today and it sounds like the two of them are having a wonderful time. Here is some of what he had to say:

--We're in a town called Lahad Datu for tonight and I just thought I'd write now before we head off again. We'll be out of contact again for a few days, so for now I'll say both happy anniversary and merry christmas! We've been having a good time. Gunung Mulu was great, the caves were really impressive and we saw a few nice birds. So after Gunung Mulu we stayed one night in Kota Kinabalu again. From there we went to Kinabalu National Park for a night. It's at around 5000 feet elevation on the slope of Mount Kinabalu, so the weather was cool and cloudy and the forest was very pretty, a bit like Monteverde. From there we went to a place called Sepilok, which had an orangutan rehabilitation center where former pets or orphans live semi-wild and show up for daily feedings. It was good seeing them but a bit zoo-like, even if they were completely free to roam around. Yesterday we went to a "jungle camp" on the Kinabatangan river and spent one night. We saw four kinds of monkeys (proboscis, long-tailed macaque, pig-tailed macaque, silverey langur), tons of birds, and a few crocodles, snakes and lizards. No orangutans, gibbons, or elephants though, but it was still very cool. The wildlife spotting reminded me of cruising the rivers in the Amazon lodges, but I think we probably saw more here (especially for only one night). Lahad Datu is nothing special, we're just here over night so that we can catch transportation to the Danum Valley conservation area tomorrow. The forest and wildlife are supposed to be really good there -- hoping for some gibbons and orangutans and a few more birds. We'll be there for two nights, then leave on Christmas day for the coastal town of Semporna. I'll probably write again from there. Hope all is well, and say hi to Rebeca for me whenever she comes.--

So, that's the latest from here. Christmas always brings exciting things and we've got quite a lot of excitement coming up!

31 years!!

Today Guillermo and I celebrated our 31st anniversary. We spent a good day; although the weather was cold and wet, we were warm and happy thinking of our day so many years ago. We are so happy we met each other, and Rebeca and Fernando added immeasurable joy to those years!

We were going to celebrate with a nice dinner at Cha-Cha's Mexican Restaurant, but we ended up pulling out of their parking lot and driving over to Red Lobster. For the occasion, that turned out to be a much better choice. Red Lobster was a place that we used to take Rebeca and Fernando quite often when they were little. So, we had an enjoyable evening reminiscing about our wedding day, and also reliving the memories of all the dinners we had there with the kids.

About our trip yesterday to Fredericksburg, that also was very enjoyable. The weather was very cold, there was ice in the fountains in Fredericksburg, but we thought the weather felt great. We did some Christmas shopping, ate German food for lunch, and then took the back roads back to San Antonio. Something we have always loved doing. We had a VERY nice day that day also.

We are off for a while!

Fernando and Eva are now in Borneo, they arrived in Kota Kinabalu on Friday, and this weekend are visiting Gunung Mulu National Park. Rebeca will be here in a little over a week!!! :-)

Guillermo and I are planning to go back to the hill country on Tuesday, since we are off now until mid-January. We are going to Fredericksburg this time, have some good German food for lunch, and take in a few of their neat little shops. And if we find some neat little place, we may even spend the night up there!! We were thinking Tuesday was going to be cold and rainy (which is what we want), but now the forecast is for the day to be warmer, with sun. Last year, when we went, it was cold and rainy, and sitting in the German restaurant, looking out the window at the fine mist, (which almost looked like snow!) it sure seemed (and felt) like we were in Leipzig or some place like that. My mother went with us last year, and she hasn't decided yet whether she will go again this year. We hope she does!

All the Christmas decorations are finally up. It took way longer this year for some reason. Here are some pictures of our tree and little village. I tried to take pictures without the flash, but they came out too blurry. The one of the tree without the flash was the "least blurry" one, but it's still a little fuzzy.

Two margaritas and white pumpkin

Quite a busy day today!! In the morning, I finally set up the Christmas tree.

For lunch, I met with my former school colleagues at Pericos Restaurant. We sure had a wonderful time. As we all sat down at our table, I asked the group if anyone was going to get a margarita, or was it too early in the day. Someone said, "I'll have one if YOU have one". Then someone else chimed in, "To show my support, I'll have one, too". That went on and on, with almost everyone getting a margarita. Later in the lunch, a second round of margaritas was had, "just to show true support". It was hilarious, and we all had a great time. But I did wonder if there was some young person there in the restaurant making a comment to her parents along the line of: "Must be teachers". Rebeca (and probably even Fernando) knows EXACTLY what I'm talking about there. ;-)

When I got home, I made two pies out of a white pumpkin. We had no idea how that would be, but it was something we just wanted to try, to see how it would turn out, and it was absolutely delicious!

What a nice surprise!!

Should have posted this yesterday, because it happened Friday, but better late than never.
I had to work a full day yesterday in Accounts Payable, and all morning I was wondering what Guillermo and I would have for lunch, since we didn't have all that much "lunch stuff" on hand. I decided we could at least have some soup, the rest of the chicken wings, tomato, carrots and the rest of the cranberry pie. Sounded good enough. So, at 12, I start heading out of the building. Looking through the glass windows, I could see a truck that looked like ours. But I figured it was just a coincidence, someone has a truck just like ours. I step outside and start walking down the steps, taking a quick glance at the truck and I see Guillermo sitting inside of it, just waiting for me!!! I stopped and just looked at him in disbelief, wondering what was going on. He rolls down the window and says he was thinking we could go get some lunch somewhere. I could not have been more surprised, and more grateful to him for thinking of doing this. He suggested going to Bill Miller's, like we did several times back when I first started in AP. We decided, after all, to go ahead and have lunch at home, but how nice it was to have him meet me, drive me home and then drive me back to work. I will NEVER forget how surprised and happy I was to see him waiting there for me. Hugs and kisses to him!!

Our Thanksgiving

We left home on Thanksgiving morning, headed for Comfort, TX. We planned on staying at a Bed and Breakfast there, but we just couldn't find it. So, we decided to drive towards Blanco, which was what we had also planned on doing anyway. We wanted to drive by the places that hold special memories for us, see the beautiful countryside (which was VERY dry) and maybe have a nice Thanksgiving meal at a Cracker Barrel somewhere (on Rebeca's suggestion). We got to Blanco and drove to Tejas Trails, where we used to spend a lot of time 32 years ago. We took a few pictures, reminisced about so long ago, and enjoyed some tuna and crackers in the car. The place, of course, is a lot different now, it's all fenced off and there are more structures nearby.

From there, we drove to Wimberley and enjoyed the beautiful scenery along River Road. We didn't see any places to stay there in Wimberley, so we figured we'd head on to San Marcos, eat at Cracker Barrel and then head back to San Antonio. As we were headed out of Wimberley, we passed Mountain View Lodge and on a whim, turned around to see if they had any vacancies. Amazingly enough, they had two rooms left so we took one! The view was beautiful from our room, and after checking in, we promptly took a walk on their nature trail, which was very interesting - it even had dinosaur tracks!

The lodge where we stayed in Wimberly

 Walking along the trail

After walking the trail we drove to San Marcos, had a great Thanksgiving meal and then headed back to the lodge and took it easy the rest of the evening.
The next morning we had breakfast at the Wimberley Cafe, and there was a place close to the Wimberley Cafe where they were selling those wooden/metal animal sculptures. I could not BELIEVE they had a platypus there and wanted to, but didn't dare look at the price. Some of the other smaller things were over $600 so...... But they were all so precious.

We had a wonderful and very memorable Thanksgiving.

With John and Elaine

Over big plates of Greek food, we enjoyed a very pleasant evening with John and Elaine. Afterwards, we all came back to our house and looked at a few pictures of the South America trip and had a wonderful Pear Tart accompanied by rum-laced eggnog. Delicious!!

Thank goodness for Skype

Whew, it's been a busy week. As luck would have it, I WAS able to work 3 more days at Elrod, so this past week ended up being a 5-day work week for both of us.

When we got home last night, we talked with Fernando on Skype. The time difference between us is 15 hours. So, he was just starting his day as ours was winding down. He is doing fine, spending long hours at the lab, and looking forward to his trip to Borneo. He says he has enjoyed the food there in Japan well enough, but is looking forward to some new food in Borneo. From what I've read of the place, Borneo is, among many other great things, a food-lover's paradise.

First freeze

Every plant we could move is now back in the greenhouse, so our yard looks really bare. It has its "winter look" again. Guillermo put the last of the plants in yesterday afternoon and just in time, because we got our first hard freeze last night. The Cannas and Firebush are all brown, the bananas that we couldn't move into the greenhouse because they're in the ground are all brown, and the Lantanas, Brazilian Sky Flower and Coral Vine look badly singed. Probably next weekend we'll have to spend time cutting away all that dead stuff.

Last Friday, I got to work at my old school! In my old job! How good is that??? It was really good being back there. Pulling up into the parking lot, parking in the same slot that I always used to park in, walking the hallways that I walked for 15 years - all of it was great. So many kids would say to me, "You look so familiar!", or, "Do I know you from somewhere??" Of course, these kids were in kinder when I worked with them, and now they're in second grade. It was something to see how much they had changed. It was a lot of fun, also, catching up with the people I had worked with on a daily basis. The day was a wonderful change of pace from working in Accounts Payable, and I hope I get more calls to go back to that school! I had forgotten how much I enjoyed working with kids!

All of our plants safe inside from the cold.

I'm actually surprised that Guillermo got all our plants to fit in both greenhouses. There are more plants in our smaller greenhouse.

Quote: Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home. ~Edith Sitwell

Really nice weekend

This is such a beautiful time of year. The trees are starting to turn colors and lose their leaves. The air is cooler and the days are just so pretty! Looking towards our Ash tree this afternoon, it was lovely watching the wind blow through the branches, causing the leaves to fall. It made it appear as if it was raining leaves! Fall is a beautiful season!

Bougainvillas seem to love this weather.

When the leaves start falling, our driveway gets covered with a beautiful blanket of brown and yellow. It hasn't gotten cold enough to make all the leaves fall, yet, but the driveway is starting to disappear.

Of course, with all these leaves falling, quite a few manage to end up in our gutters. Guillermo decided to go up on the roof today, since they are forecasting rain in our area the next two days. Here's hoping they're right.


Dumping the leaves out.

Quote:
Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~Albert Camus

Texting

Yesterday, I did something that most people already take for granted. I sent and received a text message on our cell phone. A friend at work helped me with this, because I had no idea how to begin, or even what a text message would look like when it came in. After trying and being unsuccessful, a quick call to Sprint revealed that we had texting blocked. So, they unblocked it and my friend sent me a text and I responded!! Really, it's the little things.
When we were in Buenos Aires, everytime we rode the subway, we would see people all around us with their cells, texting to other people. While they spent the time traveling in those dark tunnels communicating with people in other places, I thought it was quite amusing, because suddenly you'd see them chuckle or look really focused and then start right away on their answer to whoever. It seemed as good a way as any to pass the time in the "subte".
What got this "texting" thing going here was that Fernando wrote us that Eva might send us a text message from Africa. See, she also had trouble with her plane tickets to Japan. Hers actually got canceled by her credit card company because the charge made in Africa seemed "suspicious". The card company tried to contact her parents to verify the charge but could not, so they rejected and canceled her purchase of the ticket to Japan. This meant she had to go into Kumasi at her next earliest convenience to attempt to buy those tickets again. Since it might have been too late for her to get to an internet cafe to write Fernando to let him know how it went, and it would be a week before she'd be able to contact him again, they were thinking she would just text us the info from the field site using the phone.
BUT, things work out. Having to repurchase the tickets allowed Eva to get the same new return date as Fernando, so at least now they will both be leaving Tokyo on the same day. Eva will be returning to Ghana, and Fernando will be coming through here on his way back to Calgary.
Oh, and Guillermo and I got our flu shots today, finally.


Quote:
Lo! Men have become the tools of their tools. ~Henry David Thoreau

The video is on!

We've spent the past few days working, and trying to get Fernando's return ticket from Japan changed. Originally, he was scheduled to come back on Dec. 15, but it turns out that Eva IS able to visit him in Japan during the Christmas holidays after all. So, she'll be arriving there some time after Dec. 15. After a few hassles, we were able to get Fernando's return ticket changed to a date that was real close to the date that Eva will be returning from Japan back to Africa. We are so happy that Eva is going to be joining Fernando in Japan for the Christmas holidays. Fernando will be back here in January, and at that time, he'll pack up his stuff and drive up to Calgary.

Before Fernando gets back, we have a visitor arriving!!! Right after New Year's, Martina (Andrew's wife) will be arriving from Switzerland to stay with us for about 3 months. During that time, she will be attending a local college, where she will study English as a Second Language. As luck would have it, Guillermo will probably be teaching some flex-course ESL classes at that time, so it's possible he may have her in one of his classes! Anyway, we look forward to her arrival, and having her stay with us for a little while.

I have FINALLY uploaded my first video to YouTube. The music is A-La-Ke by a group called Sacred Spirits and that music is basically set to a series of pictures of flowers.


Quote:

Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you. ~Author Unknown

Some week it was

Last week was the first full week back at work part-time. I would say we are kind of in shock. Yeah, that would be a good way to put it. At least now, when we see on the news that "the stock market fell by 500 points" or whatever, we just shrug and say, "At least we're working a little bit". Anyway, hearing that people are losing their jobs or not even able to find one, makes us thankful that we are not in THAT boat.

We are looking at this as just temporary. Guillermo wanted to start teaching part-time again in the spring, but as soon as he walked in the door to his old department two weeks ago, they asked him to start teaching the following Monday. Talk about a surprise!!! He literally hit the ground running.
And if I do enough substituting this school year, I can "buy" a year and get one year closer to getting my retirement!
There are plenty of cons, but some pros, to working again, and we are just going to stay focused on those pros!!

The good part about Guillermo's job is that he is home by noon everyday. The good part about mine, (even though I have to work 8-5) is that I get an hour for lunch, (so Guillermo and I can still eat lunch together everyday) and that I usually just work 3 days a week.
Enjoy these latest pictures.

The Coral Vine along our front fence was beautiful this year.

Quote:
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. ~Robert Brault

In happy contrast

Today, 30 years ago, Rebeca was born. What an incredibly happy and magical day that was!! We could not have been any happier. Bringing her home was such a wondrous occasion and it was, has been and is an absolute joy to have Rebeca in our lives. Watching her grow was so exciting, every step of the way. She brought so much joy into our lives, so many exciting experiences, and tons of beautiful memories that we will be forever grateful for.

So, Rebeca, we are very thankful you came into our lives!!! Happy 30th Birthday!!

We love you very much!

October 17, 1998

10 years ago today, Guillermo and I were living a true nightmare. Unrelenting thunderstorms, which dumped 4 inches of rain an hour in our area, ended up flooding our home with 2 inches of water in the main part of our house within a span of 3 hours. It was unreal. Here is a brief version of events of that day:
4:30am - rain starts falling incredibly hard. We're not worried, it has rained hard
before.
5:30am - it is still raining as hard as it was at 4:30am. Twinges of worry start to
be felt. We aren't sleeping anymore, that's for sure.
6:00am - it is still raining exactly as hard as it was at 4:30 and at 5:30. I am
starting to feel like maybe we should start picking things up and putting
them up higher. I ask Guillermo to help me move the computer from the "red
room" up in to Fernando's room. He tells me I'm over-reacting, but he does
it anyway. :-) Water is starting to come into our garage.
The garage is the lowest room of our house, the red room is on a higher
level, and the rest of our house is slightly higher than the red room. I
feel a sense of gratitude that we had just mailed Fernando's brand new
computer to him at Caltech just one week earlier. And I'm also thankful
that just a few weeks earlier, I had packed away all of Rebeca's dolls that
were on the floor in her closet.
6:30am - It is still raining exactly as hard as it was at 4:30. We know now that
this is not going to be good. Guillermo is working feverishly in the
garage, because the water is starting to run through it. We move a
brand-new bag of dog food up into the red room but the bottom is already
wet. The water is rising higher and it's getting scary.
7:00am - It is still raining just as hard. The water in the garage looks like a
river. I move the bag of dog food from the red room into the kitchen.
Several minutes later I look at Guillermo who is peeking in the doorway to
the garage and he notifies me that the water is now starting to come into
the red room. I can still remember the exact way I felt when I heard those
words. My heart sinks - we ARE going to flood. I lift the bag of dog food
off the kitchen floor to place it in an even higher place and as I do so,
the soggy bottom gives way, spilling dog food all over the kitchen floor.
I look at the mess all over the floor, look in disbelief at the water
starting to come into the red room and knew that I simply HAD no choice but
to spend time picking up all that dog food.
7:30am - Once that was finally done, I walked
to Rebeca's bedroom and hoped the phones were
still working. I called my mother and called Rebeca and told them what was
happening. They were in shock. I look out the windows, and our house is
totally surrounded with very deep water. I remember thinking, "We could die
today". Guillermo wades out to the backyard because he sees Moo, our dog,
swimming away from the house. He grabs him and puts him in the bed of our
pickup truck. He didn't see Clia (our other dog) anywhere, but decides to
go look for her one more time, and finds her standing on top of a pile of
boards by our back fence. He also puts her in the back of the pickup.
Then I notice wet spots popping up all over the bedroom carpet and the
living room carpet and I knew then that the water was now in the main part
our house. The water didn't come in through the front door, it came in
from underneath the house. We called the Fire Department but all they
could say (and they sounded frantic, too) was that they were trying to save
themselves!!! We and all the neighbors leave our homes, wade through the
water and meet in the street, where the water is halfway up our thighs. It
is now not raining as hard, but we had no idea at the time how high the
water was going to end up rising. Fortunately, that was the worst of it,
but the damage had been done. We got two and a half inches of water in the
main part of our house.

So, that's how it went. The city now has sirens installed that warn us of the danger of flooding. But we actually don't need them. When the level of water gets to a certain point in the ditch alongside our house, I take one of our cars and leave till the threat is gone. The sound of those sirens is very disturbing. I was talking to my brother-in-law, Charlie, on the phone one morning two weeks ago, and those sirens went off. For one second there, my heart jumped into my throat. But I looked out the window, saw that the sun was shining, there was no rain in sight and things were ok. It was just a test. I asked Charlie if he could hear those sirens over the phone and he said he could!!

This was a day we will never ever forget.

Pak Choi and Chrysanthemums

This beauty of a Pak Choi went in to our dinner this evening. We had delicious stir-fry with this Pak Choi that Guillermo grew. And there are several more of them in the garden, so we look forward to more good stir-fry to come.


Our little Chrysanthemums look so beautiful this year!! It sure has been a great year for our flowers.


One of our favorite quotes:
"What kind of a shirt is that???" -RC

All's quiet

It's quiet around here again. So, I just thought I'd share these pictures of flowers around our house right now.

Some great news!!! Rebeca called us this evening with the exciting news that she passed her first two licensing exams for Landscape Architecture!!!! Of course, we never doubted that she would pass them, we have all the confidence in the world in her. But it's nice to have that confirmation! She says she is now 2/5 done with her exams, she has three more to take. Congratulations on the first two, Rebeca!!

Quote:
Out of the strain of the doing,
Into the peace of the done.
~Julia Woodruff, Gone