Pear Preserves - July 2009

One early weekend morning in July while out having breakfast, I was telling Brad about my plans for the day. I had brought back with me (the weekend before) a couple of sacks full of pears from Mom and Dad's pear trees and had planned to can them hoping to yield maybe a dozen small jars. No big deal, right? But Brad suggested that since we were going to go through the trouble of peeling and slicing, we may as well go back to Mom's backyard and get more. I think I may have given him the have-you-gone-mad look but since he was enthusiastic about my project, I thought I would go along with it. Next thing you know, we were back home with about 8 containers full of pears! It had become a full blown project a-la-Brad process style! I had become the assistant. How did that happen? We peeled, sliced, peeled, sliced days on end with sore fingers and bloody joints (just kidding) but yeah, it was a lot of work but so worth it! What was the yield? 70+ jars (large and small) but it felt like 100s of jars. Yummy!

He never does anything half a**! What a cute Bear!

One of many peel piles! Aaaagh....

Congrulations Little Sister, Ruby!

LaTourneau University Class of 2009 - Bachelors in Business Administration

(Ruby - 4th from right)

Ruby's Surprise Graduation Party - Compliments of hubby Raul

She was truly surprised! How did we pull that off? Her neighbor Rosaura and sister-n-law, Yesenia coordinated everything and made some knock-out food!

Caroline, Alexis, Ben and Ruby looking really surprised.

Dad and Andrew (second Rodriguez nephew)

Ruby's guests

And Ben is asking Alexis if she knew about the surpise party... of course not!

Dad and Mom

Ruby and Daniel

Mat, Nicolas and Daniel

Ruby being congratulated by her friend and the baby... was Ruby pregnant at that point, too?

Benny Anchondo and Ben (my Little Brother)

Rosaura's Sister-n-law -- a proud aunt

Everybody waiting around on Ruby to show up!

Caroline, Katherine and Alexis enjoying the trampoline.

Rosaura's cute girls!

Yes, I am so proud of my Sweet Little Sister! She worked long and hard for this moment and deserves the world.

Acapulco - June 2009

Back to Acapulco 4 years later after hurricanes Catrina and Rita. We enjoyed meeting new folks and meeting with long-time friends in the beautiful paradise of the Beau Theriot Villas. It was fun, hot and drama to be had by all novela-style! The food was delicious and the staff are a 5-star service team. Will Brad and I be back? Yep-- would love to be back! But probably with the family next time. After that, it's probably to Xijuatanejo or some other exotic paradise but only during the U.S. cool season (after hurricane threats, of course). Vacationing in Mexico is for the birds during the summer! The photos were taken mostly by Brad and some by me with his new toy, the Nikon D60 (AZUCAR!). It was a total of 340 photographs so only a fraction are shown.

Happy Hour! Love the Omar!