I Miss You Dad!

I can't believe it's been a whole year since my sweet dad passed away. He wasn't ready to leave us and tried his hardest to stay but his body couldn't do it anymore. What is the saddest part was him leaving my mom. He loved that woman with everything that he had and it's hard for her to keep going without him. Her life isn't as enjoyable as it used to be. She puts up a good front, but on the surface she's just being brave and trying to be happy.

I've come to hate hearing that cliche, "time heals all wounds". A wound is never completely mended, it's masked by a scar, a cover up, but the hurt of missing someone is always present. Really, what hurts the most is having my parents separated by two different worlds, knowing my mom is missing her mate and life long partner.

In their wedding photo from 1953, my mom made her wedding dress and the night before the wedding, my dad helped her sew on the roses onto the veil because she had decided to decorate it. Then, before the wedding, he couldn't contain his excitement and went into the bedroom where she and all the bridesmaids were so he could see her and everyone was trying to shoo him out saying it was bad luck to see the bride before the wedding but he paid no attention to that and went to see his "girl".

November 16th will always be a sad day until they are reunited again.

In the meantime, we reminisce about his wit and humor and funny jokes and antics. We miss his calm nature and easy to get along with attitude, and his never letting things get to him. Most importantly I miss teasing him about the Redskins. A die hard fan to the end who didn't like the Cowboys but never missed a game. It's just not fair that this year the Redskins have a winning season and the Cowboys don't. It's just not fair that he missed that, it would have been a fun football season to have him tease me back this once.

I try not to cry over missing him, but I'll allow some tears this day. It's the first year without him and life was better with him on earth for our own selfish reasons. I know there are many angels laughing at his jokes in the eternal heavens!

I miss you, I miss all your jokes and all your stories. I miss looking out for you and taking care of you, it was always me that benefitted from our extra time together those last 7 years. Thank you for everything Chacho! I love you Dad!

It's Looking Like Fall

We've had a couple of windy days in El Paso and the yellow leaves are starting to blanket the ground. I went outside this morning and took a couple of pictures of our little Brindle Pug in her first fall photo of her life! She posed easily, I think she likes the colors too!

Then Little Ray joined us in the fun and I couldn't help but get a picture of these two best buds!

So, as we say in Texas, "Happy Fall, Y'all!!"

RIP George (Jorge)

Here is a picture of my brother-in-law who passed away Oct 24, 2010 after having a bad reaction to an antidepressant he was recently prescribed. This picture was taken after he got this Chevrolet. He traded in a pick-up truck he had because his new job assignment was far from home and he wanted to save as much as he could on gas. It was a small vehicle for him but it was when gas prices were pretty high and he was very happy with the trade-in. This car was planned to be handed over to his son when the time was right.

There are so many people who are devasted by his very unexpected passing. It was a complete shock and there was no time to help him. He was a great family man, loving husband, friendly and willing to help anyone who asked. One of the best things about him is that he was always making jokes.

He was a police officer at our local community college. It was his dream to become a police officer and he loved his job. His family consisted of my sister, his son and daughter (both kids are teenagers), and plenty of brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, etc. We are very much in shock but have lots of great memories.
God Bless You George!

My Mom has been busy!

Getting ready for our first craft show of the 2010 season. Pulled out the totes from the garage and started sorting to see what we have to work with. Now comes the fun part, pricing!

Since our first show is at an elementary school, I had her make a couple of hat and scarf sets for little girls. plus she has alot of scarves and capes that will be great for teacher gifts.

This lady is non-stop! She's more accurate than a machine!

Her fingers are hurting her more so she's slowing down. It takes her a whole week to knit a sweater coat where it used to take 4 days of good Yankees Baseball to watch.

She says this will be her last year for the shows, she says that every year :-)

Pray for us to have fantastic sales this season!

A whole skein of DMC 3823!

I'm really loving this lady! It's alot of fun to stitch using these beautiful colors. I was able to fill in the background and finished one whole skein of DMC 3823 and took a picture. I've always wondered how far one skein goes and this gave me a great idea since it's pretty much solid stitching.

My camera isn't that great at capturing the detail and then the sun was really bright on the bottom left corner but here's another picture of the whole picture up to the same point:

It's nearly completed and I'll have the backstitching and beads to complete. I've decided to give it to my aunt, her birthday is next week. She'll have to receive it late but I know her reaction will be well worth the wait. Aside from my mom and sister, she is the recepient of alot of my stitched gifts and she has them all hanging on her walls.

Now that nursing classes have begun again, my stitching time has quickly diminished but I am determined to push forward. Keep praying for my endeavors!

Happy 15th Anniversary

We wouldn't have an anniversary if it weren't for our son. He's the glue that has kept us a family unit though all the rough times. He's such an awesome kid that we couldn't break up this family during the toughest times, but we have since made a commitment to stick and stay and so now the rough edges are smoothed out and we have a great family environment now.

I never thought we would make it to 5 years of marriage and here we are celebrating 15 years! The last 10 have been much better. Big Ray has let me know how much he loves me and how much he doesn't want to start over without me. And now, we are beginning (continuing) our medical studies next week and are very comfortable being together round the clock.

We celebrated with dinner at our favorite restaurant, Outback Steakhouse. We are regulars there so even if we're not celebrating, that's our choice to go out for dinner. The staff, although it changes periodically, always remembers us and they gave us a complimentary dessert of a sampler of carrot cake, brownie, and cheesecake. We sat in the bar area so we could watch the first half of the opening NFL game: New Orleans Saints vs. Minnesota Vikings and Bret Farve. Happily, the Saints won.

When we got home, my son and husband gave me an anniversary present. They gave me a medical scrub top that has hearts on it (and really great pockets). That is such a thoughtful and very practical gift and I was completely surprised that they thought that out. They are great guys, worth keeping!

Happy stitching and new pictures will be posted soon!

Look what we ate!

I took a picture of the pineapple upside down cake that I baked for my son's birthday. The first picture is the setting of the pineapples and cherries before I poured the batter in my favorite Pampered Chef 9X13 baker. The next pictures are after it was taken out of the pan, followed by the lighting of the candles.

I also took a picture of the lasagna that I made. He wanted 2 lasagnas because there is never any left over. He was right, there was none left over from one pan and we had a whole pan left for the next day.

Again, I used my favorite Pampered Chef pan for one of them. I cannot tell you how many meals I have made in this pan, and all the pineapple upside down cakes that have been baked in this. It's funny because the men in my family that I bake birthday cakes for all request the pineapple upside down cake. And they also want lasagna: my son, my husband, my brother-inlaw, and my dad before he passed away. My nephew requests the cake but not the lasagna, he prefers to go out for steak. What's wrong with that guy????

I failed to take a picture of the toasted French bread that my husband made in the cast iron skillet. By that point, I was ready to eat and not thinking of pictures. It was delicious!!

I'll go ahead and show you the cinnamon roll I made for breakfast on my son's birthday. (Okay, it wasn't his whole breakfast - it was a treat).

I thought it was funny that my husband stuck a candle in it. We were in a hurry to leave for school. Silly guy!

What a fun day his birthday always is. Here's to many, many more! Susan~