Early Birthday Gift

A few weekends ago while I was visiting my grandma she surprised me with an early birthday gift. The card had this great and beautiful prayer on the inside that just blessed me by reading it. As I opened the gift, I realized what it was an started to tear up immediately. She had given me a small old rolling pin. Let me explain . . .
When I was younger, my mom, grandma and I would make tortillas together, as well as many other cousins and children. She had this small rolling pin for us that was about 10 inches long and solid wood. Nothing fancy, no handles, just a wooden rolling pin that was just our size. I remember my mom and grandma teaching me and my other cousins how to roll out the dough just right for the tortillas. We would go back and forth in many directions to make it just right! And then the adult would put it on the skillet or on the stove top and cook it for us as we anxiously waited.
Grandma doesn't make homemade tortillas anymore, its something that I only get to have in my childhood memories, so for her to give that to me, it was like passing on a tradition to another generation. I love my family more then anything else, and I understand that I am getting older each year but I'm not ready for them to age as well.
But she gave me a wonderful gift that I hope to pass on to my children in the future and to my grandchildren as well. She has given me a wonderful gift that has many great memories attached to it. I could have asked for anything better!

Happy with a tear in my eye

107 Years, 10 month and 4 days ago, on Christmas eve 1900, a beautiful baby girl was welcomed into this world and was named Anita Gonzales. She grew up to be a strong willfull young lady and introduced women's lib before it existed (Left a note for her husband while he was at work "Dear Ben, Melba needs me" before she hoped on the train to help out her daughter with a sick child) . . . She was married to the same man (Ben) for 62 years before his death. She gave birth to 12 children, seven of which are still living, and has 43 grandchildren, 102 great-grandchildren, 86 great-great-grandchildren and 30 great-great-great-grandchildren.

I was blessed and honored to call her my great grandma

When Jonathan and I went to visit her this year, I said "Your going to be 108 this year Grandma, are you excited?" Her reply was "I'm going to be 108, what do you think?" and laughed. She was an amazing woman who did so much with her life and touched so many people. She always said that she would keep going until God wanted her back with Him.

Well this past Tuesday, I guess God decided that she had waited long enough. My grandma Dimas went to sleep for her afternoon nap and passed away peacefully in her sleep.

She was an amazing woman that has lead a full and wonderful life and we all knew that it was a matter of time before she passed on but I still don't think that ever makes us ready for when it happens! I am so blessed that she was able to meet and approve of my husband earlier in the month and that she was able to see how happy I am and continue to be! I guess all in all, I could not have asked for a better goodbye!

Last part of the Anniversary Celebration

One of Jonathan's gift was tickets to the Jeff Dunham show. So Friday night we freshed up and pick up our good friends Josh and Krystal and off to Katz 21 for dinner. After an amazing dinner and great conversation off we went to watch the Jeff Dunham show. His opening act was amazing but nothing could beat Jeff. We had an amazing time and our abs were sore from so much laughter! It was a great time and an amazing way to end our anniversary week celebration! Yippee onto Year 2!

1 Year

Yesterday we celebrated one year of marraige. I pieced together a simple dinner for two and we celebrated with a bottle of wine. I kinda got myself my gift before Mia got it for me...I got Mia tickets to Wicked when it comes to San Antonio next June. Yeah that's a long way off but you gotta get em early to get good seats. We talking over dinner about life and where we might be in a few years. Then we spent the rest of the evening curled up on the couch catching up on some of the shows we're addicted to. There's not enough time or blog space to write about all that I have learned over the last year. It has gone by so fast and I have grown so much. I could go on and on about alot of things but I'll just say this. My wife is the most beautiful, intelligent, forgiving, amazing, perfect woman on earth.

Anniversary Recap Day 4

Our last day in New Mexico, I finally got the chance to sleep in a bit. Of course Mia was up with the kids bright and early, making waffles and cutting up fruit! Uncle Mark convinced her to let me sleep as long as I could. And off the girls went again to do a little art and craft fair stuff, grocery shopping etc. Now Isaac is in private school and they are required to keep up with physical fitness stuff so he needed to practice his mile run! So off we went to the park and did a mile run (completely different in high altitude) and tossed around the football for awhile. Came back home, showered up and off we went again to set up Grandma's house for family dinner. Once we got there I got to meet Uncle Jeff, Tia Kim, Katie and Ryan for the first time and caught up with them for awhile. Then came the most awesome dinner! Red chili casserole, corn, roast, pasta salad, tortillas, beans and then cheesecake and pear white cake. I think I ate like 5lbs of Tia Sophie's enchilladas! After dinner I caught up with grandpa again and he told me some of his military stories! Grandma then gave Mia her birthday gift which she will blog about later. I felt very blessed to be welcomed so wonderfully into Mia's extended family. They were all very excited to get to spend time with me. I especially enjoyed watching a few touching momments between Mia and her grandma. We called it a night around 6ish and headed back to Mark and Sandi's to do some laundry and pack up for the trip home. We spent some quality time with Mark and Sandi and the kids and then called it a night around 9. Not so bright and early at 530 we were up and off to the airport for the flight home. Got to see my family for breakfast at IHOP during our layover in Houston, enjoyed getting to do that. Got to the house around 3 unpacked and crashed out. What a trip, wish we coulda been there longer. Mia's family in Albuquerque is awesome and I can't wait to go see them again! A special and huge thanks goes out to Tia Sandi Uncle Mark, Robyn and Isaac who let us crash in their place, use their car and take up their family time. Also to Tia Sophie who squeezed in time with us with her busy schedule and her family. Mia's family is amazing and I am so glad we got to spend our anniversary with them!

Anniversary Recap Day 3

Day 3 started at 5am, since the balloons lift off in the cool morning air! We woke up early, got dressed and bundled up and off we went to the field again. This morning was the special shapes launch. My favorite was the Eagle and Mia's favorite were the two bubble bees that hold hands in the beginning and then once in the air turn to kiss each other! There were so many balloons that it looked like they were inflating on top of each other! Once all the balloons were in the air, the competitions begin! When they cleared the field for the competitions we were lucky enough to end up right in front of the key grab field. The balloons have to glide in at the exact right spot and try to grab an envelope off the top of a 20ft tall pole set in the ground. It was awesome to watch all these balloons try to navigate in and grab the envelope, since they can only control the balloon in the up and down motion, they have to plan their attack very far out. We even got to see a few eat it and crash a little as the came down. We saw two balloons get the envelopes, which was pretty cool becasue some years they have no one get the envelope. So once those activities were over we scanned the chainsaw carvings and the craft fair one more time and then headed home, for a little nap :) After we rested up, off we were again with Tia Sophie this time, to see her house, another craft fair, a small snack and then the Tram :) We saw the most beautiful sunset over the valley of Albq while we were waiting in line. Once we got into the tram, it was getting dark,making the cliffs and valley seem a little more dramatic from that high up. Once getting to the top it was 20 degrees cooler, making it 40 degrees, but the view was spectacular! Coming back down was an adventure again, picking up a little more speed on the way down made for an interesting ride down. Afterwards we grabbed some delicious green chili quesadillas and enjoyed some family time with Tia Sophie, Rich and Jeremy. All in all another great day!

Anniversary Recap Day 1 and 2

Wednesday afternoon we whisked away to start our anniversary weekend in New Mexico. We got picked up from the airport Wednesday evening by Uncle Mark and spent the evening catching up with family (Uncle Mark, Tia Sandi, Robyn and Isaac) and settling in. The following day we woke up and headed out to Grandma's house. Mia walked in first getting a few tears from her, and then I got to meet Grandma! With flowers in hand, for her of course, she hugged me with all the love of one of her own grandchildren. We sat down and looked at wedding pictures and relaxed. Grandpa came in and found a new person to re-tell his military career too :) After catching up, off we went to Great Grandma's house! She is a hoot, all 5 feet of her (Mia says that the Olona women shrink as they get older), she showed me all around the house, showed me all the pictures, knick knacks, furniture that was made by her husband and father, etc. It was a wealth of history and memories. After a quick visit there, off we went to lunch and the new Indian cultural center. All in all a wonderful day spent with the grandparents. Shortly after we sped back to Mark and Sandi's to ready for the evening special shapes Balloon glow, we lucked out because Tia Sandi's dad had a crew pass so we didn't have to wait in any lines, pay anything and then arrived right on the field. We quickly walked around to see as many shapes as we could and oohhhed and ahhhhed when they all lite up at the same time. Afterwards, we grabbed a few snacks (including a much deserved funnel cake) and watched the fireworks. Spectacular once again! We met up with Tia Sophie, Jeremey, Jenny and little Joshua for a quick second (enough time to engage in some lightsaber sword fighting action) and then headed home to start again the following morning!