Top 10 Things to Love About Being Back in BC

 

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•  All you can get done in 15 minutes-- I wanted to get a card for my nieces shower before I went to help decorate and of course, I didn't think about it until fifteen minutes before I was supposed to be at the church.  I went halfway across town to CVS, picked a card (and we all know picking a card can take time especially since I am if one is indecisive) and got back across town to the church all in 15 minutes.  I made it!  Ok, Ok, some may say I was a minute late, but I say our time pieces were just unsynchronized. 
• Going to WalMart and finding front row parking by the garden center--Ahhh, that's the best.  There is actually a very good chance the very first parking space by the garden center will be open and waiting just for you!  Dickinson? Fuhgit about it.
• Taking the same routes I took 28 years ago when I started driving--I guess my subconscious takes me by the same routes as back when and I love it.  I love that 6th street doesn't have that many stop signs (shhhh...don't tell the city), and all the trees that line both sides of Avenue K, near Marguerite St.  I love going into the neighborhood off Marguerite and seeing the house on the corner where my friend Mark used to live and driving by Avenue L on that side to see the house my friend Denise lived in.  Oh the memories of stalking the cute guy across the street pitching tents, playing Atari and walking all the way to the corner store on Avenue F.
• 50 Pot Holes in every cubic yard of practically every street--Ok, that is really just a subtle hint to someone who might be reading from the City of BC.  Is there not a budget for street repair?  And please don't think adding more stop signs will make said potholes less evident.
• Running into old friends that used to be close with my brother, Chris, and hearing their memories of him--I saw an old friend today that he adored.  We reminisced about how long it had been, she shared a story about him and another friend that was in the same room laughed because the story was "so Chris".  It is quite comforting that others still remember him and that he made an impact on their lives.
• Mama's breakfast/cooking--One never tires of their Mama's cooking!  When we first moved here from Corpus Christi several years ago, Mom cooked for us everyday.  I remember back when I was a kid, she would make huevos(eggs), bacon, pappas(potatoes), pork chops, ranchero sauce....  Now-a-days, breakfast is usually eggs and bacon and coffee.  We don't try to stop her from making breakfast unless she looks like she isn't feeling well.  I can sense that it means a lot to her to feel useful.  She will always be useful to me even if the time comes when she can do nothing, but you cant convince her of that. 
• Family--Our Bay City people never went to visit us in Dickinson. Well, they did go to our house when my nephew was staying with us but, obviously that doesn't count because they went to see him we were just by product :D.  After he left nobody went except Mom.  Reckon there is a subtle hint there?  Who knows...they may not come to our house here either.  We dont mind doing the visiting, at least we wont have to drive an hour now.  We can just drive up the road.  I plan on visiting my Aunt Mercy more and my cousins are just 15 minutes away.  I hope and pray we can make the time to spend some time together.
• Did I mention the parking at Walmart????--Well, it bears mentioning again.  Oh no, I almost forgot!!  THE FISHING--Cant wait till Big Brother and Ol' Dawg are able to go chunk a lure.  We were somewhat busy w/the remodel last week and the water was muddy on Friday, but the time is coming.  They did go shoot guns today.  As long as they are having a little fun :)
• We are one hour and a half closer to San Antonio and Corpus Christi--Our San Antonio people went to visit us about twice a year and our Corpus person...well...the fish are always biting, the deer are always moving, the girls are always hot and the beer is always cold...anyway...since we have to drive to see them too, at least it will not be via the Houston freeways and traffic.  That will be much better. 

And the NUMBER ONE thing I love about being back in good ol' BC...........................

• Being here for Mom--It really is a blessing to be here to take her to doctor appointments, the Dollar Store, WalMart, out to eat, to McDonald's to get an ice cream (shhhh...don't tell Dr. Neret), drink coffee with her, watch QVC and CNN.  I am open to whatever it is the Lord has planned for us to enjoy. I am painfully aware that Mama wont be here forever, none of us will, for that matter.   This time with her is precious and I am so very thankful for it.  I cant wait til spring when, the good Lord willing, we will go to the Local Nurseries and look at all the beautiful plants. 

Do you have a top ten list of loves??  If so, please share! We would love to read them. 

Until we meet again...many blessings, joy and love to you!

 

Sell Your House, but Save Your Marriage

Trying to sell our house has been hard on us.  Especially since we have never had a problem with selling in the past.  We have never waited more than three weeks for an offer or a contract.  In our attempt to sell this time, we have been on and off the market a few times this year.   This last go round has been the only time we have had any lookers and that is probably for a contract on a lease, since we have it listed for lease also. 

Selling your house in a market such as todays can by trying on the soul...both souls, if you are married.  For my practical husband, it is about money.  How long will it last?  And it isn't like one can just go out and get a job in these economic times.  Especially a funny looking. bad interviewee like me.  So, he sits on edge and worries.

For me it is about the emotions.  Always about the emotions with me.  It is the emotional battery that comes along with opening up my haven to the critcal eyes of others only to have someone comment that what they noticed was some of the paint was scratched off the moulding by the back door. Uh, hello, we can (and now we will) paint that.  Big Freakin' deal.  That is what they noticed?  Not a word about the beautiful architecture?  Nothing about the large master bath with two separate vanities and a gorgeous garden tub.  No comment on the humongous master closet or tons of cabinetry in the open kitchen?  I personnaly liked the comment from the buyer that said, "it was the perfect layout and clean and showed beautifully".  Unfortunately, she did not like the surrounding area.  I'll give her that.

We live in a sweet little neighborhood.  All the homes are beautiful and none older than five years.  There is one way in and one way out.  It is a cozy community with only four streets plus the one connecting them all.  But, this cozy little community is set in the middle of a less attractive surrounding area.  It isnt a horrible surrounding area.  I mean, it doesn't bother us.  We did notice the area is not pristine and all country club like, but it just didn't make a difference to us. Our neighbors are good people.  That is what mattered to us.  Some might say that some of the homes in the surrounding area may be occupied by...hoarders, lets say.  I happen to have it on good authority that one gentleman that lives up the road leading to our neighborhood lost his wife a couple of years ago.  He has never recovered from that.  He just cant get the "get up and go" to carry on.  So, the maintenance on his house has suffered.  So sad.  Also, some might consider a trailer park behind their neighborhood a problem.  It hasn't been.  Anyway, I know it is silly and I am being too sensitive, but I feel hurt and angry. 

So you combine hurt and angry with on edge and worried and it makes for a sometimes explosive combination.  Little things become a nuisance and annoying.  Patience runs thin.  Suddenly, tv shows you have endured because your loved one loves them, irritate the be-jeebers out of you.  Dont get me wrong...we are not on the rocks (although an Absolute and Tonic on the rocks sounds good right about now).  It is just more discomfort than we have ever felt in our 14 or 15...or 150 years together.

But there is ONE thing.  You are a "pair".  You are a "pair" blessed with love and each other.  And, remembering that as a "pair" faith, hope and love will pull you through anything.  I cannot wait until the timing is right for the perfect family to come and buy their perfect home.  We are a-waitin'!! 

Holiday Traditions

!! CAUTION:  Nostalgia Ahead!!

I've been saying, "Christmas is just around the corner" since July but guess what...Christmas IS JUST around the corner and Thanksgiving REALLY IS just a hop, skip and a jump away! 

I have vivid memories of the Holidays.  I can still see myself as a child, sitting on the dark wood floor playing my little 45 records in the heat of summer singing along to Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, Jingle Bells, Silent Night...the list goes on and on.  Mom would come in and make me put them away saying those were special songs that we only listen to at Christmas time.

In the beginning, according to mom, when she and Dad first started out it was more of a rule than a tradition that they have their own Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner at home and then go out to visit family.  That rule translated into a beloved tradition for me.  Not only the dinner at our house, but the tradition of going to my Aunt Mercy and Uncle John's house afterward.  They lived one block over and we would just walk over to gather with the rest of the aunts and uncles and cousins that were there.  I remember lots of laughter and everyone being happy...maybe my child like mind just could not conceive any worry, anger or tension that may have been present.

Even after we grew up the Holidays was a time when the family came together.  When my oldest brother, Leo, married my sister-in-law, Pam, in Louisiana, it meant they would travel home to see us.  There was a special buzz around the house with Mom cleaning and preparing for the visit and knowing they were coming into town.  I think we actually even went to Louisiana one Thanksgiving, also.  The best part for me being getting out of school early--give me a big "woo-hoo"!  When my other brother, Chris, went to college at Texas A&M he joined the Band and the Corps, so he spent most weekends at football games and just trying to survive as a freshman at A&M in the Band and the Corps!  I had undergone leg surgery that year (actually, the day) he left for college and was stuck in a body cast for six months.  We had a home made calendar at the end of my hospital bed to mark off each day until he came home on Thanksgiving.  I missed him terribly and remember how happy I was when we finally got to the last box without a big X in it!  Then it came time for me to move away.  My first year at Texas A&M was a real adjustment for me.  Thanksgiving break was a double edged sword...finally, a nice, four day, relaxing weekend...on the flip side, not so relaxing because the long, sleepless nights studying for finals would start the next week.  I can not even begin to explain the feeling of going home from college for the Holidays for the first time.  All of those memories are full of happiness, excitement, joy and just plain anticipation of being home with the most important people in my life, my family.  My heart swells just thinking of it.    

Every year Mom and I would decorate the tree and a little on the inside of the house.  The decorating was complete when we placed the old fashioned Santa face with the nose that lit up on the front door.  I can remember sitting by myself in the living room illuminated only by the lights on the tree, after my parents had gone to bed.  I would crank up the Kenny Rodgers Christmas album and just stare at and bask in the beauty of the decorations . Although, he seldom got involved in the preparation, the gift giving and all the hoopla of Christmas was special to Dad.  Once I got older he would give us a $100 dollar bill every Christmas Eve day so we could go shop.  He was quiet, strong and kind.  

Riding around the "rich" neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights was also something we did every year, several times a season.  Even though many of the families put up the same decorations year after year it was still a special time riding around with my mom and dad.  Once my niece and nephews came along I remember loading them in the car to take them to look at lights.  Again, even though they had seen them the year before (heck, even the week before) they always had that amazement in their voices and their little brown eyes.  Once they grew too cool to do that we would take my cousins children and they too had the same reaction.  

Of course, Christmas always included baking and making tamales!  We have made tamales every year either before Thanksgiving or before Christmas.  More on that in another post.  I remember so many years Chris would spend hours baking cookies and preparing baskets for the special people in his life.  Then, we would go all over town and deliver them.  What fun that was, especially if it was nice and cold and a little drizzly.  He and I used to get together early in the day every Christmas Eve to finish up our shopping together (that $100 bill Dad gave us was burning a hole in each of our pockets) and then we would go have nachos at any Mexican Restaurant that was still open!  At first it was just us and then as the years went on our family started joining us.  Next, the rush home to try to wrap all the gifts before our traditional Christmas Eve get-together at 6pm. 

Ah, the Christmas Eve get-together.  Sometimes we would have it at Mom and Dad's and sometimes at Pam and Leo's, house.  It was always a small intimate gathering with lots of food and family togetherness and after much talking and laughter with each other, ripping the paper off of presents we had just wrapped hours before!!  You should have seen the spread of food.  We always had ham and cheese sandwiches, chicken salad sandwiches on a croissant roll,  roast beef sandwiches on croissant rolls, a veggie tray, a fruit tray, tamales.  Oh, and don't forget the chips and dips and all the different cookies!!  I remember one year, early in Leo and Pam's marriage, we all waited for Leo to get home from work.  We waited and waited.  Then we waited and worried.  Finally, he made it home, a little uh, shall I say "well-oiled" from celebrating with his works buddies.  Needless to say, he got in a little bit of trouble.  Once Ronnie came into my life I would not budge on Christmas Eve.  My husband is a saint because he always allowed me that.  He knew how important that particular tradition was to me so no matter what, we were in Bay City for Christmas Eve.  Even the year our yellow lab was bursting at the seams with puppies.  She ended up having TWELVE puppies that Christmas Eve! 

Of course a Hispanic, Catholic Christmas wouldn't be complete without memories of Midnight Mass.  I remember many a Midnight Mass the church so packed there would be people standing out in the cold (hence the term Easter/Christmas Catholic).  Sometimes we would be those standing outside, my dad holding me in his arms trying to keep me warm and sometimes we were the ones inside, sitting falling asleep in the warm, comfortable uncomfortable pew.   Even though I could not stay awake for Mass I was definitely awake enough to open presents afterward.  My very favorite Christmas Mass was the last one I went to with my dad, Chris and my then fiance, Ron.  For some reason we went to the children's Mass in the early evening of Christmas Eve so mom couldn't make it with us because she was preparing for the Christmas Eve get together, but her being there is the only thing that could have made that evening more perfect.  What rich traditions.  I remember feeling the connection among the family these traditions brought about.   

I am sad that lately, I just haven't been able to get that warm, fuzzy feeling for the Holidays.  I cant explain it...cant put my finger on it. The last few years I have said I am not going to Bay City for the Holidays because it just isn't the same, but I love my family and wont see them unless I go.  So, I go.  So, I just need to reconcile what I want things to be and what things really are, to put new traditions in place and begin new memories.  It is so hard to do and I don't really see it happening this year.  In a way I feel like I am being a spoiled brat.  Maybe I am.  I don't know.  What I do know is that I feel a great sadness that things have changed and will continue to change.  But, at the same time feel grateful to have these memories to pull me through these times when I feel so disconnected.  And no matter what, I will always celebrate and be comforted by the greatest gift of the Season, the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

What a Jerk

We are a May/December couple excited about journaling a new phase in our lives.  First, though, a little background to bring us up to date.  

Ronnie and I met when he was working in my home town.  My parents had a family restaurant and he happened to walk in for breakfast one morning.  This was fate in itself in that we normally did not open for breakfast, but my high school aged nephew convinced us we should open for breakfast in the summer and he would work the early shift.  We must have just sniffed glue, because we actually fell for that.  Guess who ended up stepping in when sleep became more important to him than  a new business endeavor.  You got it, me.  I was quite annoyed at the time because a passion for sleep seems to be a "family trait" (that is, according to Ron).  I am NOT a morning person, but diligently went to work every morning.  Little did I know there was a prize in store for me. 

Because we were a small establishment, there was no budget for two wait staff in the morning. On one particularly busy day as I gathered breakfast plates to deliver to a table, this guy walks in wearing a green tee-shirt and grey coaching shorts.  He stands at the "Please Wait to be Seated" sign for about a second before grabbing a menu and proceeding to seat himself.  What a jerk.  Strike one.  Now remember, I am already a bit grouchy, it being A.M. and all, plus I was a little stressed from tending to several tables by myself.  I am almost done caring for the table at hand when the guy obviously doesn't like what he sees on the menu and wanders up to the counter to snoop around for one with something he likes.  Strike two.  He sits back down at his table and I approach.  As I do, I look into the sweetest, most compassionate, most beautiful eyes that just melt me and instantly make me wish I has spent more time on my make up that morning.  Home run!  That is it.  That is where it started.  That is the moment my whole life changed.  One moment I am a sleepy, overworked waitress, the next I am love struck.  Step back - sleepy and overworked.  Step forward - love struck.  Just goes to show every moment is full of possibilities. 

Fast forward twelve years.  We are back in my home town, as Ron got tired of me crying every time I left my home town saying, "Ronnie...I wanna move back home".  An opportunity came up for him to transfer to an office in a town about an hour from the little town I grew up in.  We jumped on it.  But, a joy ride, it was not.  Rough office.  Yet another opportunity for another job arises.  This one requires us to move to the "Big City".  Actually, it is in the Metroplex of Houston, but still the "Big City" to us.  Ron always said he would NEVER move to Houston...NEVER say NEVER.  We found an incredible house we love.  It had everything on our list.  Most importantly a garden tub and a huge back yard for our "fur babies", to be introduced in the future.  We added a huge cement patio for family get togethers (we had only one), made a cozy space to corral the dogs into when we had company (which, the one time they went into it, they dug themselve out and would never get caught on the other side of that gate again as long as we were around).  We have been here two years and for the first time in my forty something years I don't cry, "Ronnie...I wanna move to back home".  Ironically, now, we must, kind of.   

Ron is finally ready to be retired.  He has not worked now for about a month and we are both loving it.  I have not worked since we moved here and am finding it difficult to get a job in Bay City.  But, we have decided Bay City is our best option.  We will move into the building my father built to house his dream of being a photographer.  Not only was that building a prosperous photography studio for Dad and my brother, Chris, but it was also a very successful bakery for my brother Leo and his wife Pam.  Now, it will be a home.  We renovated the home we purchased in Bay City and actually took pictures of the process, but not pictures of the end result before we sold it (I have since found a few afters).  I wish we had - just fun for me to go back and look at all the changes we made. I'm glad we have decide to do this blog and cant wait to be able to look back on it 10, 20 years from now.  Hopefully, we can capture some life moments for Ron's grandchildren and children to look back on and remember and know their PaPaw, too. 

So, anyway, that is where we started and where we are at now.  There are many other stories about us that will help others get to know us which I will post along the way.  That's it for now, though.