Cherish your loved ones

The last two weeks have been both exciting and challenging: exciting because I am finally done travelling and can be home every night with Keren; challenging because my new project, while being local, is very intense and stressful and requires late nights.

This has caused me to think about how I need to cherish each moment with Keren that God gives me. At times I am very impatient with Keren; at times I am rude; at times I don't want to listen to her. I have been coming home from work tired and feeling that I don't have much left to give. At those times, as well as in the many good moments, I ask God that He remind me of the amazing gift He has given me in my wife. That I would cherish and honor my gift, mi chama. Thank you, Lord!

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!

Dave's new haircut!

Yesterday, Dave let me cut his hair for the first time!! I was a bit nervous, after all Dave had been going to "Black Daniel's" for years and years and I certainly didn't want to mess his hair up and then lose my first and only customer. For those of you who don't know "Black Daniel's" is acutally Dave's brother Danny who has been cutting just about everyone's hair for years. Danny has been giving me some quick lessons on how to cut hair so I thought that I would try it myself! How hard could it be right?! Well, luckily I have a husband who doesn't really care about what his hair looks like. I'm reminded of the first time he chopped his long hair off and didn't really care if it had any particular style. So anyway, I began to cut his hair...knowing that if I messed it up really bad, I could always just buzz it. I even had to cut his hair with a pair of dull paper scissors...which I don't recommend! I do have to say that the results weren't half bad. I was so proud of my very first haircut ever that I made Dave do a photo shoot to show it off. What you are about to see are some very rare photos of Dave smiling....I guess he can get serious sometimes!!!

I don't think he actually wanted me to show this one to anyone... but I think it's hilarious! He was trying so hard to be serious!!!

And that only lasted for so long...of course I had to post some silly ones, as 90% of the pictures I took had Dave making a ridiculous face!

This next one reminds me of Zoolander!

Hansel: "I wasn't like every other kid, you know, who dreams about being an astronaut, I was always more interested in what bark was made out of on a tree. Richard Gere's a real hero of mine. Sting. Sting would be another person who's a hero. The music he's created over the years, I don't really listen to it, but the fact that he's making it, I respect that. I care desperately about what I do. Do I know what product I'm selling? No. Do I know what I'm doing today? No. But I'm here, and I'm gonna give it my best shot. "

Watch out "Black Daniel's" I may be putting you out of buisness! :)

A Birthday Party!

Last weekend Dave and I attended a surprise birthday party for our friend Samantha. Samantha and her husband Ron are our neighbors. We met Ron at the clubhouse gym when we first moved in and a few weeks later we met Samantha at an event that our building had. We've had a lot of fun getting to know these two! Anyway, Dave and I had soooo much fun at this birthday party. We didn't know anyone but it was great to meet new people and learn a little bit more about our friends. Here are some pictures from that night!

Here is the birthday girl Mrs. Samantha Wright!

Look at that cake...it was sooo good!

The dancing at this event was a blast! I caught these really sweet pictures of Ron and Samantha dancing.

Then someone caught a group of us dancing the two step!


Here's Dave chilling by himself at the table.

It's Been a While!

So I know I haven't blogged in a while but boy does time fly by. Lots of things have happened and since I'm sitting around after getting my wisdom teeth pulled out, I thought this would be a good time to look back at some of the events that have happened recently. A few weeks ago we went up to Dave's parent's house and hung out with some Glenview folk! It was a blast. We were celebrating having Jasmine back with us. This a week or two before JP came back from China...and of course I forgot my camera when JP made it back so I have no pictures to show from his return. I do have to say that we are all glad to have him back home...although he isn't quite home home as he is in Colorado. Anyway, here are some pictures of us hanging out at the Chookaszian home in Glenview.

I'm not quite sure what's going on here but I think we were tyring to figure out all the amazing features on the Macbook.

Dave and his dad!

The following weekend we went to Glenview for the international food event that they were having at church. This was one of the best events ever! You could have food from all over the world in one shot. Here are two of my favorite food shots from that day!

Look at all that delicious sushi!

Besides taking pictures of food, I really enjoy taking pictures of children! Here is little Annalie Johnson. I took these pictures while she was sleeping at Kate's birthday party.

This weekend we also had got to hang out with Danny's friend Dale. Also known as "Shundo" (I hope I spelled that right). Here is Shundo and his buddy Don! I think he's happy because he got to eat soooooooo much food that day!