Found Treasures

So I have been missing in action.  Although I am not sure that is the correct terminology since I have only posted a few times.  So here I am back trying to write. 

I was busy substituting for my best friend.  I forgot how much fun teaching was, and I am so looking forward to my new job this year!  My faith in sophomores has been restored thanks to the classes I taught, so I am actually looking forward to them this year!  Cross your fingers for me!

Now summer has started, and I have been busy with wonderful trips and keeping my kids busy while trying not to let the house fall apart.  Not an easy task when you are out at the pool in the evenings and keeping them busy during the day!

Loving this pic of my guy!  

Nothing beats hot evenings in the pool watching your little one wearing purple goggles  figure out how to swim and jump and pretend to be Esther Williams.

 



And trips up north to see trains upon trains for my train fanatic kids.  Placing pennies and dimes and quarters on the tracks to squish them is the best. 

 

One of the best parts about us is that we enjoy little side trips.  We love the history, the architecture, and the memories we make.  Usually they are unexpected and unplanned.  And along our journeys we always find treasures like La Posada in Winslow.

It was a Harvey Hotel (hotels and restaurants for the Santa Fe Railroad).  La Posada was to be the grandest.  During the 1930's it was quite the place for jet setters.  The location was fantastic because it was a one day drive to anything in the northern part of the state.   It remained open for 27 years before being shuttered and turned into offices for the Santa Fe Railroad.  It was shuttered in the 60's and faced demolition numerous times.  However, that never happened. Thankfully in 1997, restoration begun to restore La Posada to its original state. 

Everyone always asks what we do on vacations, and they are always surprised.......which is funny when you consider that my husband loves to plant and garden. But we really love to visit amazing gardens.  I am not sure if it was the Spanish architecture that I was crazy about, but this has to be one of the most beautiful gardens I have seen.  I loved the enclosed feeling, the beautiful shades of green, and the quietness.  I was captivated by the comfort of it all.

Isn't it magnificent to have a garden with walls of Hollyhock!  

I could just imagine all the travelers rushing to and from their train for a wonderful meal or walking to go and check-in.  How many travelers walked these paths? 



I think I am going to blow this up and have it in my classroom!

We had read and heard that it is was beautiful, but we really had no idea what to expect.  I have to admit I think it was one of my favorite places to see in AZ.  I am lucky that I have a husband who likes to see old buildings with me and appreciates them just as much as I do....and my kids are learning to see the beauty in all of it.  

More Wishes

1.  I wish I could take tap dancing lessons again.

2.  I wish I was a fabulous photographer like Teresa of Meadowbrook  farm.

3.  I wish I could just put anything together in a bowl, and it taste as delicious as my moms.

4.  I wish I was a fabulous writer like my friend Liz.  She just knows how to say it. 

5.  I wish I was better at painting my own fingernails.  Seriously, how hard can it be?

6.  I wish I was the world champion of porch swinging.  I need a swing!

7.  Oh and painting  - my straight line needs work but my kids are fantastic!

8.  And piano playing

9.  and singing would be fabulous

10.  And I really wish I had a little bit more patience.

The Porch Swing Dream

I think I came from a different time period.  I have always wanted a porch swing.  Maybe because my grandparents have one.
 Maybe because it is so soothing after a long day. I could sit on it and watch the rain and listen to the crazy sounds of thunder.  This one is perfect.  And anyone who knows me knows that I love the color turquoise, any shade of blue green.   

There are only two problems.  One I have kids, and two since my porch is surrounded by windows on all three sides, I will never be able to have a swing.  I can just hear the crash now as my kids push it through the window as they try to see how high it can go…..guess I need to find a sky blue glider. ….. or maybe I could have a beautiful ramada built just for it.  Oh someday….

Doesn't it just make you smile?  Will you come and sit a while with me?

Staying Home

For the past four years I have been a stay-at-home mom.  When I stayed home with my first, I only managed to do it for two years.  I went back to work, and we moved back into the city.  Then she came along, and I decided to try it again.  Maybe this time it would be different.  I had no idea what to expect. 

The first time we lived way out of the city, and I was lonely.  Honestly, I think he was too.  He was turning three, and he needed to have that interaction.  I tried to keep him busy, but there were days that it just seemed impossible.  We would walk for hours and count the rabbits, look under rocks, and search for someone to talk to.  He would push his yellow and blue truck so far and fast that at night his legs would ache.  I had a wonderful play group who kept my sanity, but we would only meet once a week.  The worst part was we lived so far from each other.  During the beautiful months, we would go to the zoo.   I would take him to the library which was a half hour long, but there were not people there who I wanted to be friends with.  We would grocery shop, go to the gym, and every Wednesday we would eat pizza at Costco.  My husband worked long hours, and the days never seemed to end. 

Now the days seem to go so fast.  This time my experience has been totally different.  We still go to the gym and Costco, but it seems as if with two, there is never enough time for anything.  I have a wonderful set of friends who we do play dates with quite often.  We trade days and dates and meet at the park.  A few have moved farther away, but I still have them to count on.  This has been a much happier staying-at-home experience for me.  I have friends and places close by.  I do work from home now and that does take a few hours out of my day.  Yet, I feel as though I have missed out on some of the little things.  How have I managed to do that?  How have I not taken her to the zoo as many times as I did him?  How do we not do the library?  Then I realize that our friends, mine and hers, have allowed us to have great play dates without having to go far.  This time I wasn't the only one searching friends out; this time they found us… and what a great blessing they have been.   

I feel as though every moment is taken up with laundry and dishes and just plain picking up toys and Legos and doing homework.  Now I am looking for a position for the next school year and wondering, how in the world is it all going to fit into one day?  It will have to, but she is ready for a full day of friends and learning, and I think I am too.    

Spring in the Desert

The desert in spring has to be one of the most beautiful places to be.  I know many of you would argue, but it is all I have ever known.  The rain blowing across the desert is one of the most beautiful sights, and the smell of the creosote bush is something that I love.  For me, it is the smell of comfort.   I wish they could bottle it or make it into a beautiful candle.   And I have to admit that the lightning storms during the summer are the best...especially in Tucson.  The way it echoes off of the mountains.  The way it shakes the whole house, and the best storms are those that just make me want to sit on my back porch and soak it all in. 

The problem with loving the spring is that it never seems to stay long enough for a great visit.  And summer in the desert is just....well... miserable. 

Dear Spring,

Please stay a little longer this year.  I am so not ready to visit with Summer, but if she must come, please let her bring lots of rain and beautiful and bright lightning.  

Love Always,

ME

Holding Hands

So this blog really is not supposed to be about love, but so far it is.  I guess it is because I spent last weekend with my grandparents.  It was Papa Joe's 90th birthday and Magui's 85th.  Who could ever imagine!  The best part of the weekend was watching Papa Joe and Magui sit next to each other with all of us around them.  They were so happy to be surrounded by all of us.  We told them all the things we love about them.  Could you ever imagine a sweeter gift? 

I told them that I loved them for teaching me to love unconditionally.  They love all of us with all of our faults and our imperfections.  They love my husband, and welcomed him into their home the first time he met them.  They told him, at 18, that their home was now his.  I sometimes wonder if he fell in love with me because of them.  Everyone loves them.  All of us, but also all of the friends and family we have taken to meet them.  There home is open… to everyone…no questions asked.  They give you food, but more importantly they nourish the soul.  They care that you are there, and they are happy that you are there.  They have lived in that same house for at least 65 years.  If you listen quietly, you can hear the laughter and the nights of dancing, and the piano playing, and maybe just maybe you can smell the gorditas cooking. 

They taught us about culture and the love of music.  I could listen to Magui play her beautiful piano all day.  When she graduated from the Mexican Conservatory of Music, she was the youngest at the time to ever to do so.  She took me to see Ballet Folklorico.  She taught me about the Mexican culture, and I fell in love with it.  When we were little, they would show us all the old movies with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly and Betty Grable.  I love to dance I am sure because of her and her beautiful old movies.  I show the movies to Lili and Cade now.  "Singing in the Rain" is my favorite, and Lili loves Carmen Miranda and is so happy when her arms are covered in bracelets "like the girl with the big hat."

They taught us the importance of pride in everything.  Take pride in your work, in your ownership, in your family, and in each other. 

The best thing they taught us was to hold hands.  Papa Joe said they have been holding hands for 70 years.  He told us of how they met and how they married.  There was no formal "Will you marry me?"  Just a ring and then a wedding.  They hold hands when they sit next to each and when they stand together.  (As Papa Joe says, now there is just a cane in the other hand).

As I sat in the movie theater today holding my husband's hand, I made a wish that I could do this for another 60 years.   Next time I see them I need to take a picture of their hands.  Holding on to each other.    

Here It Goes

So here I am starting this blog and wondering if this is really the thing for me to do.  I LOVE to read my friend's blogs and really get to know them better than just what we discuss on play dates at the park,  and I have met a beautiful photographer/farmer that I adore and wish I could be.  I get to see other's beautiful homes and dream what I might be able to do in my own home.   I get to see what makes others creative and great and fabulous and find all sorts of things that I love.  Now you might think I spend hours reading other's blogs, but I don’t, just when it is quiet or I need an escape.  It is like picking up a short story or a novel and reading a single chapter.  The only problem is sometimes, just sometimes, you wind up reading the whole novel because it is just that delicious. 

I think I am just trying to find my own voice and tell my own story.  We will see what happens.  Are you ready?  Here it goes.

A little bit about me might be necessary; I can expand later on the details.  I am my high school sweetheart's wife and a mother, and so many other titles that I can't fit them in here.  We fit the all American mold which to me is not always as cute as others may think.  He was the football player; I was the cheerleader.  I am a teacher; he works for the city.  I have a boy and a girl, a mini-van, a house with a small garden, and we are waiting to find the perfect pet and dreaming of our dream house. 

I am an English teacher by career choice, and a stay-at-home mom because it is what is best for us.  I do love it, and I know that I will miss it when I return to teaching.   Writing this blog will hopefully improve my writing habits and my voice…..maybe I will learn something that I can teach my kids (students).

"Promise on Us" has always been a saying my husband and I have said to each other.

 It is asked when he thinks he is being funny, and I think he is not. 

Him:  "I just ran over so-and-so's bike."

Me:  "Seriously."

Him:  "Yeah, so and so didn't pick it up."

ME:  "Really?"

Him:  "Yeah"

Me:  "Seriously?......Promise on Us."

Him:  Smile, smirk, laugh, "No!  But so-and-so should have picked up the bike."

It is said when something serious has happened, and I can't or don't want to believe it.

Him:  So and so was hurt today at work.

Me:  Promise on us

Him: Yes.

It is the proof of trust and loyalty and all the things we are together.   I can't remember the first time we said it, or who said it first, but it has always been that special thing between us.  It might be said once a year or five times a month.  It is just our thing.