Our grandma Rosie

Some of my earliest memories are from 184 S. Mauer playing under a lemon tree at grandma's house with Sophie, Adrian and Carla and Annette (if they felt like it). Grandma would sit in her kitchen and smoke all the while keeping a close eye on us through her blinds to ensure that we didn't ruin any of her pristine flower beds- afterall, she new Bear, her German Shepherd was on duty. Eventually she would come out and sit in her metal wicker(esque) lawn chair and feed us all the kool-aid (pronounced koolay) we could drink. After hosing us down and letting us dry like the ever-present laundry in her backyard, we were allowed to sit at her table for lunch strictly if we were dry enough to not leave footprints on her floor. She made us her famous recipes including sopa with conchitas, chicken and ginger soup with tortillas, pork chops or any other number of delectable meals and always with an array of side salad and cucumber or nopales. I have vivid memories of napping on the floor LOL not on the bed lest we ruin the hand paved perfection of her sabanas :) We would all settle in together and sleep in the splendor of the swamp cooler in her back room. Grandma's refrigerator was always full of jicama marinated in salt and lemon or the very popular bowl of freshly seeded pomegranate that was up for grabs (when Carla was done) :). I'll always remember our hike to the grocery store over a seemingly tortuous hill in the blazing California heat but it was ok... once we saw 8-10 market we new we were in the homestretch. We would never stop and sit during our trek over the foothills for fear that the lizards... nah nevermind. Grandma taught us to be tough but also to appreciate the world around us. She taught us to fear God and to thank him everyday for anything and everything. Grandma did her best to prepare us all for her passing (I had 25+ years of warning), however it never makes any of this easier. The smell of magnolia and orange blossoms, canela, and atole will stay with me forever. That is a picture of one day in my childhood with such an amazing woman. She always said that we should not cry when she died- rather that we should smile and thank God for all the time we had together. I miss you Nana, I love you, thank you for everything.

Panchito

The Haunted Cauldrons

So I decided to complete some long overdue chores in the back yard... There was 1/4 acre of leaves to rake, fallen limbs to collect and thorny vines to remove that were slowly but surely making their ascent towards complete shrouding of our mature landscaping. This endeavor ended up taking the better part of 3 days!!!

During my battle with the thorny vines, I happened upon something in the ground. Upon closer inspection, I realized that these objects were black spikes made of iron. I ran to the garage (ok, maybe I walked quickly) and grabbed the tools I need to disinter these mysterious treasures. Ends up that these iron objects were two cauldrons that look like they are from the civil war era. One of the iron pots is about 25lb and the other is about 70lb. Although very cool, I

instantly felt like there was something a little spooky about them. Despite my apprehensions and back problems, I brought them into the house after rolling them across the lawn. The story begins:

Alexia and I were really excited about my find and couldn't wait to tell Cass, my mom Diane and my sister Carla about them- as they are all appreciative of things obscure and potentially antique. So there they sit; one on top of a table in our laundry room and the larger one below. Although not a great decoration, they need to stay indoors due to the inclement weather lately.

I spend a lot of time at home given my weekend option status at work so this allows me the luxury of keeping an eye on things. I woke up one morning to my usual routine of coffee and Chorizo (the dog not the sausage). I noticed that it was an exceptionally blustery day out and settled in for a predictable day of homework and laundry. I kept hearing a thumping upstairs and thought nothing of it assuming that it was the wind jostling something attached the house. About an hour later I decided "what the hell" I'm gonna go check this out. I walked upstairs with Chorizo in tow only to find that one of our upstairs closet doors was open. This closet is particularly creepy in that it has a square piece of plaster literally duct taped to the crawlspace opening occluding its passage. Not a huge deal I thought, but the kicker is that the light was turned on. This light is an old-fashioned twist-on light that gets hot after about 20 seconds of being on... when I reached in to turn the light off I found that the bulb was not hot at all. This means that it had turned on shortly before I ascended the stairs. I told Lex and Cass to be on the lookout for spookiness.

Last night Lex and I decided to go see Black Swan in Winterville. While we were waiting to enter the theatre we received a call from Cass in a hurried voice saying "did you guys leave the garage door open?" which of course we didn't. This could be explained by the wind but who knows. Cass proceeded to say "well, I'm not really sure what's going on but the dog won't come to the door- in fact he won't leave his bed." It's important to note that Chorizo always comes to the door and his bed is as far away from the front door as is possible. He was terrified of something. Cass ended the conversation with "you should also be aware that I found the hot water on full blast in your bathroom." In the end, I'm not really sure if there is a correlative relationship between the cauldrons and the strange occurrences lately, however, I am led to speculate that one didn't really happen before the other.... more to follow. These seemingly innocuous cauldrons may have more of a story than we thought.

A Baby On The Way!!!

To those of you who aren't aware, Lex and I have a chalupa (ahem... baby) on the way. I think I'm experiencing more weight gain than she is LOL. I am posting our first ultrasound photo which I believe looks like the baby is doing leg-presses on her uterus. We don't as of yet know if it's a boy or a girl, however, we have an appointment in just over a month that will shed new light on the situation (get it?). Viewing instructions: For the top photo... imagine a picture of a baby sucking his thumb with his head on the right and his right hand up towards his face.

For the second photo, imagine a panned out view of the uterine chamber with the baby's head on the left with his hand up in a quasi-saluting position. This is the "leg-press" photo because you can see the little legs up above everything else looking quite crammed. Hope this helps

PS: The pronoun used does not signify nor does it insinuate sex of the baby.

A Brief Introduction

July 10th began the first day of the rest of our lives together. Alexia and I got married in beautiful Wade, Maine on my parents' property. Six months later, we are expecting our first new addition to the family. Chorizo our dog and our two cats Skid and Dishes keep us busy. Our new home is an ever-evolving project that occupies my time away from the hospital. I am a nurse on a surgical unit and Alexia teaches in a very small family oriented program. Here are a few photos that'll catch you up to where we are today.