Kelly and Christian are getting ready for a celebration of sorts. The party games have started to arrive. They are not horseshoes, but similar and we already have an amazing croquet set we got for our wedding and has been used for only seminal events like this one. Lorena and I are pretty much the hired servants, but our buddies Al and Michele will be here to suffer with us, so it is all good.
Category: Family Page 7 of 18
Every time Lorena visits Christian in Tempe, she washes all of his unwashed clothes, irons and/or folds them and puts them away, does a deep cleaning of the entire house, but especially the bathroom, buys him more bottled water than he could drink in three months (you need to stay hydrated in Tempe), makes a Costco run because Christian does not have a Costco card, and generally is an organizing/cleaning whirlwind for the entire time she is there. The thing my very sophisticated and world-wise older cousin Merle said about his dear older sister is that “the mothering instinct in that woman has gotten way out of hand.” This, I think, is certainly true of Lorena–in a good way (of course)!
Christian picked Lorena up at the airport for a short visit to Tempe. Lorena loves to be there and Christian loves to have her. She is an insanely neurotic neat freak and the apple did not fall far from the tree with Christian. Christian is in the middle of preparation for his comprehensive exams. Lorena is down there to help him out a little, but more than that, just to hang out together, go to the best taco house in phoenix, drink good coffee, and make it through the incredible Phoenix summer heat. Christian will be up to Washington for a week or two in the late summer before he starts what we hope will be his final year (or two) before he graduates.
Christian flew in from Tempe on Monday night, then took Amtrak down from Seattle to Centralia with Kelly after she got off work on Tuesday. It will be a whirlwind trip because they have a friend flying into Seattle on Friday to hang out with them. Our time together has been very relaxed time with them and, as usually, has centered on cooking, food, conversation, reading, and music, not necessarily in that order. Exercise has been on hold for a couple of days which affects all of them, but (shame) me because they all work out at least five days a week while I give lip service to working out five days a week. Is there such a thing as a Fourth of July resolution?
Yesterday, Lorena and Kelly picked 15 pounds of blueberries while I worked on some stuff for my new job and Christian worked on his dissertation research and comprehensives preparation. We spent a lot of time doing similar things growing up so it was very nice and relaxed. As for the blueberries, my understanding is that there will be pie sometime before they get back on the train to head back to Seattle later tonight.
After the blueberries picking, we all headed off to Bible study in Olympia. It truly is a gift to be in that Bible study and with our new church community here in the Olympia-Centralia-Chehalis area. We really think this is a good place for us to be for the foreseeable future. God might have other ideas, but we are certainly happy with where we decided to settle in.
We got home at between 9:30 and 10:00 PM last night. The Centralia neighborhood fireworks that were so spectacular last year had already started, but I have to admit we were a little disappointed relative to the experience we had last year. Maybe it is because it was on a Wednesday night. We are hoping for more next year when it happens on a Thursday with a possibly a bridge day off for a four day weekend.
It was great to be in Puerto Vallarta with half of Lorena’s family, but it is great to be home now, too. This was my first real vacation in the last several years. It turned into a time for reflection that I hope Lorena and I can repeat more frequently now. We talked a lot about the fact with the kids grown, on their own and paying there own way for over four years now, we have the freedom and responsibility to set some new goals. The difficulty of giving up control of one’s kids is not diminished by the fact that, if you did your job right as a parent, it is going to happen whether you want it or not.
There is a lot that happened over the week, but one of things that cast a pall over some of the vacation is the looming election of a new president in Mexico who appears to have plans to push the country along a similar path as is currently being followed by Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. That happened the day after we returned to Washington. Everyone is pretty worried, but there is nothing to be done about it other than wait to see what happens and hope for the best.
Lorena and I planned to go to Mexico for our 25th wedding anniversary (only we are a year and a half late). We are having a great time. We are going to do more, maybe in Monterrey, but this has been a super time just to be with family when there is no pressure. We miss Grandpa Lauro a LOT. We are at a place where we have all been together before–with Doug and Sheila, Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah and most of Lorena’s family. This is OUR place.
By complete accident, I have been in Mexico for at least part of this and the two previous World Cup’s. I am not that much of a soccer fan, but this is definitely and iconic event. Today, because of my delicate skin, I sat in the lobby next to the Starbucks, drank coffee and sparkling water and watch Argentina squeak past Nigeria (Argentina does not deserve to be where they are) and France play to a 0-0 tie with Denmark (what do you expect from France). Tomorrow morning it should be pretty fun here with Mexico playing Sweden. Definitely not a fan of Sweden and have great hopes for Mexico. Not knowing anything about soccer I just go by my most recent feelings about the countries playing and the people watching to help me to decide for whom to root. It is also kind of fun to be the foil for all who wish to pontificate about the intricacies of the game in general and this World Cup series in particular–EVERYONE here, including the little kids, knows more than me about this stuff. It is all professional wrestling to me (especially Argentina).
Lorena has really wanted a bigger wedding band for a long time. So for her 25th wedding anniversary, I got her one. Of course I am over a year and a half late if this is for our 25th, but who is counting. AND, Bonnie is holding down the fort for us here at home so we can go down to Puerto Vallarta to celebrate all of this with half of Lorena’s family. This is really only the first half of the celebration, because the real celebration needs to be in Monterrey with the entire family. Still, PV is a pretty nice place to celebrate and, thankfully, Grandma Conchita, Tio Lauro, and Tio Jorge and his family all like to celebrate the same way us by sitting around and eating too much.
We were very grateful to have Kelly come visit us for Father’s Day this weekend. She rode Amtrak down on Saturday morning. She even packed the new pink pantsuit she bought on Friday so she could model it for us. Lorena is getting better at taking pictures. You will notice in this shot, she cut off the feet instead of the head–that is a marked improvement.
We did all the normal stuff. We went to Denny’s for breakfast (Now that I get the really good Senior discount there!), then just hung out and ate Lorena’s Zoodle Kung Pao chicken for dinner and Kelly’s fresh peach galette. On Sunday, we went to McDonald’s for a breakfast Egg McMuffin and then to Burgerville, USA for a lettuce wrap burger and my free Father’s Day strawberry sundae. Fine dining is always a major feature of the time we spend together as a family! Christian called to wish me happy Father’s Day and schedule a trip up here for a week later this summer. All that was really nice.
We talked a LOT about a LOT of stuff. It is a hard thing to realize that your kids really do not need you so much anymore. It is pretty nice when you realize their decisions (social, moral, spiritual, and financial) are often better than the decisions you might have made for them if it were yours to make. The good, but kind of melancholic reality is that it became obvious several years ago that neither is it my choice nor do I have to worry too much about this.
Lorena had a ball at the opera last night. It all sounded quite interesting. One innovation that is new to me, but probably not to anyone else in the world, is the digital sign above the stage that provides real time translation of the lyrics. It was so good of Rich and Julia to take her along. She has been listening to opera since she was a little girl, but this was only the second opera she has ever attended. Grandpa Lauro was a huge opera fan. She said the singing was just incredible, the costumes were amazing, it was a great opera (Faust) and she wants to go again soon.
Lorena went to the opera tonight with my brother-in-law Rich, Aunt Julia, and our beautiful niece Mariah. The opera is Faust and I KNOW they are having a great time. Kelly was supposed to go with them but had a work event so we asked if Lorena could go in her place. We are very grateful that they graciously said yes and Lorena is like a kid in a candy store. This is her second opera. She went to one other with her father, Grandpa Lauro, who was a huge, huge opera fan. We hope you have a great time.
Here are a few pictures from Lorena’s recent trip to visit Christian in Tempe. Notice all the clothes neatly ironed, folded, and stacked on Christian’s bed through the door. Lorena is genetically incapable of not putting things in order wherever she is. It is one of her superpowers. 
The one on the right shows her dropping Christian off at Cartel Coffee by the Arizona State campus. That and the closest Starbucks are his satellite offices.
The stack of water beside the sofa where Christian is playing the guitar is Lorena’s idea of a half day supply of water for one person in the Arizona summer. That is probably not too far from the truth.Christian continues to take classical guitar lessons from his Spanish instructor. I think it is a good diversion from his studies. He has finished 
all his classes now so all he has left is his comprehensives which he is scheduled to compete early in the fall and his dissertation. That is a lot, but the end is now in sight. A photo montage of Christian would not be complete if it did not include him reviewing some technical paper so that is why I added the last, after breakfast picture at Butters Pancakes. We are normally an IHOP family, but maybe that was too far away.
Hopefully, I will be able to make it down there myself again before too long. It is a really easy and fairly inexpensive trip to make. The airport is less than a half an hour away and right off the light rail line. Phoenix really is a paradise in the winter and it is easy to run up the hill to Flagstaff or Prescott for heat relief in the summer.
I thought I was going to have to miss the Wednesday night bible study last night to go pick up Lorena at the airport, but her plane went out an hour and a half late. On one level that was kind of bad, but it allowed me to go to a great Bible study on Isaiah 53-55. She was glad to be home, but even more excited for having gone to see Christian. They did a lot of stuff and hung out together and plan to do it again soon. I hope I can go, too. Also, she took a ton of pictures, but I will save them for a later post, hopefully, today.
I thought this was a great picture of Lorena and Christian. They are headed to eat lunch. Word has it they are planning on a very big steak either for lunch or for super. They are looking pretty sharp and smug. I am not sure they are smug because they are going to get a steak or because they got all dressed up and made a selfie GIF.
Our new nephew, Mateo Pedraza Martinez, was born this morning in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. This could very be the last one on either side. Mateo was born to Lorena’s baby brother Rigo and his wife Minita. It was a difficult pregnancy, but the baby was very healthy and the mother is doing very well. We are very excited to meet him soon.
Lorena and I were looking through some old pictures yesterday and found a Norman Rockwellesque classic. We had several nostalgic moments going through those pictures. Mostly, we are grateful for the amazing, Godly support we received from both sets of grandparents during the kids growing up years. Kelly posted this photo on Instagram and added the caption, “When you don’t get the attention you know you deserve.” Exactly right.
We put the deck furniture out after Sunday lunch yesterday because of the crazy good weather. We had spent the weekend with the kids in Arizona last week so that was our early Mother’s Day celebration, but Lorena and I talked with both of them and with Grandma Conchita (and Tio Lauro) last night. Mexico celebrates Mother’s Day on May 10th no matter what is the day of the week, so they had actually had there big carne asada with the whole family down at Tio Jorge’s house last weekend, too. It was a very nice, relaxed day–which we really needed after several weeks
of upheaval. We did eat out of the house a couple of times yesterday for our own two-person Mother’s Day celebration. Lorena made me were a tie to meeting on Sunday morning and I have finally lost enough weight so it does not just kill me to do that.
The next few weeks could lead to some pretty big changes for our little household with the re-engagement with our friend Troy at U
niversity of Nebraska Lincoln and some work opportunities. It has nothing (or at least very little) to do with where we live, but could mean we have a little more mobility on a less onerous schedule. So there are on-going talks about which I cannot say much through May. I hope to know something before Memorial Day.
Our friend Bonnie took care of Kiwi the surviving twin cat sister when Lorena and I went on vacation and trips last week. When we returned, Kiwi was not happy. This picture shows the concept. After dinner last night, I was sitting at the table reading a book on my new Pixel 2 XL phone. Kiwi likes to get close and crawls into whichever spot she can find to be close. She lightly extends her claws to make sure I am not going away. When I am at my office chair working, she repeatedly attempts to get my attention by standing on her hind legs and touching my arm with her paws until I pick her up or run her away. Even when I run her away, she tries again within a few minutes. I have had to lock her out to get any work done. Slowly, she is starting to calm down and sleep in the sun by the window, but I think it will take a couple more weeks to get her back to normal.
We are home from our trip to Casa Grande, AZ and Burnaby, B.C. We are grateful for our friend, Bonnie’s, help with Kiwi the surviving, twin cat sister. It was a trip for which to be thankful. We had the family all together for a few days, we spent some quality time with our friends, the Rizos, we got some new spiritual insights, we got new Pixel 2 XL cell phones, and when we got home, our new phone cases were waiting for us in the mailbox. Fortunately, neither of us dropped our phones hard enough to make them break (an unusual source of satisfaction) before we got them into the protective cases. Even more cool, the cases have the piece of metal in them that allows them to mount on the windshield fixture we have in our car. We are a little worn out, but plan to hit the hay early tonight and reengage at the salt mines in the morning.
We got this selfie snapshot as Kelly and Christian dropped us off at the airport and then ran out to Casa Grande to get there in time for the baptism of one of our very good friends. We had a great time and decided we really need to get the family together in Arizona more frequently. We made new friends, hung out with old friends, ate lots of good food, saw lots of beautiful scenery (and dust). Starting in May, Kelly works a four day week, every other week, so we are trying to spend more time with Christian. Maybe it makes more sense to have Christian come up to Washington during the winter, but this fall, we hope to head south way more frequently.
