La Gente del Tocullo

My favorite moment during the time in Houston was listening to Asdrubal (Keren's dad) tell stories about his hometown, El Tocullo. He told us about all the crazy, old people that the neighborhood kids used to mess with. Iris says that most of them have probably passed away by now, but I hope to meet at least one of them when we go. I don't remember any of the nicknames they were given, but they were very entertaining.

Spending those few days in Houston was like getting a taste of what it will be like in Venezuela. We are all very excited for the trip, for different reasons. I'm excited to meet the rest of the family and for the first time truly experience this part of Keren's life; Keren is excited to share this part of her life with me and also to reconnect with her roots; Iris is excited to see family and friends; Asdrubal is excited to see his homeland after 10 years away and more importantly, to sit down and have a good, long conversation with his father over a cup of coffee. Cesar? Not exactly sure what he is excited about yet. I think once we get there that he will find something. I'm excited for him to be there so that I can have a workout buddy. I'll need the exercise as it is going to be all arepas and plantanos, all the time.

Spring Break 2009

Spring Break finally came and went. Much faster than I would have liked! I think I now fully understand why school goes out for 10 weeks in the summer. Being a teacher is stressful! I need ever break. Before break we went about 6 weeks without a break. That's 6 full weeks of junior high students anxious to go on spring break. I love teaching but boy it drains all the energy out of you. Anyway, we had our break a little bit later than most schools April 4-12th. Dave and I decided to spend the first half of our spring break in Aspen, CO with his family (minus Hanna). Which actually meant that I would be the only girl around. The first few days Dave had a blast skiing with his brothers and dad. I do not ski....yet...maybe I'll learn. I got to enjoy lounging around and looking out at the beautiful Colorado sky. I rented a few movies...Bedtime Stories is hilarious by the way and I def. recommend it!! The third day the boys decided to stay back. Danny went home, JP was working and Dave and I went out for a stroll. Here are some pictures of our walk.After our walk we decided to hang out with Dave's dad. We had a blast!!! My favorite moment was probably when we decided to get Chinese foot massages. Now, don't be tricked by the word "massage". This is not your average relaxing message! Instead it is a painful...very painful massage where they put pressure on certain spots in order to stimulate different areas of your body. It's called "reflexology". Don't try it unless you're ready to cry like a baby...which is exactly what Dave did!!! haha. I'm pretty sure I was the only one of the three of us who was not whining the entire time. The pain was all worth it because your feet feel AMAZING when you're done.
We returned home on Wednesday morning. I had class on Thursday that I did not want to miss so we came back for that. Wednesday night we went and saw the movie "Knowing" with Nicholas Cage....what a weird movie. It is by far one of the creepiest movies I have ever seen. Then my brother came over and I gave him a haircut. That's my second haircut and I think it was a success because he loves it!

Friday morning we left for Houston, TX to visit my dad! We had soooooooo much fun in such short time! Friday night my dad took us around town. We visited the hospital he works at. My dad is a CPE supervisor so he works with the University and teaches pastoral students who want to become chaplins or need to complete their clinical pastoral care hours. Here is a picture of him in his conference room...with a very unattentive student!We then had lunch at Central Market, which is just like Whole Foods if you ask me. After that we went and took a walk around town. Here are some pictures from our stroll!

That evening we had dinner at a cozy little Columbian restaurant. The next morning we went to Galveston where hurricane IKE hit this last year. The area is quite interesting as they are still trying to get back up on their feet and recover. Here is a picture of some of the wreckage that is still hanging around.
We visited a different part of Galveston and walked into a few different stores. Here are some of my favorite pictures from there.

(The above picture shows where the water came up to after hurricane IKE hit Galveston, the town was nearly destroyed!)

In the evening my dad took us to a Mexican Cantina which really was only Mexican because of the food. The majority of the people that hung out there were Venezuelans. We had a great time chatting and eating food. Towards the end of the evening we met some of his new friends and then got a chance to show off our dance moves as well. Dave did an amazing job!!! Our trip to Houston ended with a second visit to a Venezulean bakery where we ate some arepas con queso de mano! mmmmmmmmm. There was a huge thunderstorm coming in which caused us to go to the airport earlier to see if we could catch a different flight. Since Dave has status because of all his traveling we got on the flight as first class without having to pay! It was amazing, we got drinks, food and an amazing chocolate chip cookie!

What an amazing time! Praise the Lord and Celebrate today as He rose from the grave and promised to return again!!!! We have an amazing God, I realize more and more each day just what it means to be loved and forgiven by Him.

Enchanted Castle

Dave and I have recently tried to think of places to go to have some random fun. Growing up, my parents used to take me to Enchanted Castle in Lombard. It's basically an arcade for kids. I used to think it was the coolest thing ever and I would definitely start crying if I couldn't stay longer! Dave and I went together a few months ago as a date and decided we had to go back because it was so much fun. Not to mention, it's a lot cheaper than going to Dave and Buster's. This time we invited my brother and his high school friends to come along. Dave and I love hanging out with them! They keep us young or maybe we keep them young!?! I don't know! Anyway, we had a ton of fun! My favorite game to play there is "Deal or No Deal". Dave hates that I play these "chance" games because they take absolutely no skill, just random luck. So he always goes for the basketball hoops or the football games. But me...I stick to plain old luck...I'm in it for the tickets, even if I don't like anything I could get with the tickets. I just like getting them. So.....here was how my luck turned out this last time! I first played "Deal or No Deal", won about 75 tickets and decided I would play another game for the jackpot!

As you can see...I hit the jackpot!!!! 400 tickets!!!!

This was the game! The object is to roll your token on the center line where it says "400". Your coin however must land exactly in the middle without touching any of the black bars. You really have no control over this game but of course I HAD to play it. Dave rolled his eyes at me the first two times and the third time...I hit the jackpot!!!

400 tickets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dave wouldn't try it himself so he stuck to his football game.
My brother didn't even go for the tickets, he played the arcade version of "Guitar Hero"
He looks sad...probably cause he didn't get all the tickets that did!!!!
"Gimme da gold, I want the gold"

Here's the whole gang...as you can see Dave and I were the only "adults" there. We had a ton of fun and ended up trading in all of our tickets for a bunch of candy that I couldn't even eat because I gave sweets up for lent! ha!
Overall, we had a great time! Dave says he'll never take me to a casino because I'll lose all my money on the slot machines. I guess I'll stick with trying to win the jackpot at Enchanted Castle!