Zant and Gill Girls!!!!!

At my great aunt's funeral I had all of the girl cousins take a picture together. Those Indian genes are some strong ones! Seriously what differences can you see? I just thought that it was interesting. Hmmmm?

Just thought you might like to see my weemi. We had to make it for school for our campus wiki. I know, it's cheezy!! But honestly, what did you expect? I am in South Lake, Texas right now for a conference. There are some really cool stores down here. They're crazy expensive though. I didn't get to buy anything. My father-in-law painted some of the buildings here. They're really pretty! I got to come for the WOW conference (Working on the Work). It's really interesting and it pushes me to try to do better to teach my kids. All in all, school is going well (with my kids and grad school). My intern is taking more risks and trying to speak more Spanish (and that's always a good thing). Today I got a new student while she was there and I was in . . . you guessed it. . . . South Lake. She

This is just a random post, but I just wanted to update a little. So there!

Yeah, over a week ago but I'm still celebrating Labor Day.

Guess who went to Texas Stadium in Irving, TX to go watch 5A Texas State Champion Euless Trinity Trojans play Louisiana's River Ridge John Curtis on Labor Day. Yep, Amy's Dad, Rick; Rick's buddy, Billy Ferg; Amy, and I treked on over to watch some good HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL.

And now a planned side commentary:

We went in Rick's Foreign Import SUV that allows him to reduce the amount of Middle Eastern dependent fuel he uses. He's a happy man in that thing. I do often remember July 4th, 2008. Rick told me in the most determined voice he could produce that he was not going to by a foreign vehicle period. I now know that period was more like a comma! I know he was being 100% honest then. It's just that after looking for an American gas sipper, he realized he had to budge. I'm proud of the guy. Why not buy foreign? I do. You can take $20 out of your pocket right now and buy a share of GM & Ford and maybe get back some change. In the future, they may not be around to even buy parts from if you need them. Perhaps I may have offended or startled some of you GM and Ford lovers. I probably scared some of those people that bought old Ford pickups to fix them up. I'm playing with ya'll. Calm down.

Back to scheduled programming:

We did have a run in with a crazy fan though. Kickoff was moments away and we did what everybody knows to do! Drum roll please...Stood up for the kickoff! That's just understood. People that spend their whole day drooling know this and have no problem when you stand up in front of them. Guess what! Mr. "Hey can ya'll sit down so we can see the game too?" didn't know that! I was offended. He said that if we stood up, everybody else would...um, YEAH! Amy defended the cause and told him we are only standing up for the kickoff, don't worry. I stood behind her in case he punched. Even Billy Ferg chimed in to tell him the same. SURE ENOUGH, LIKE CLOCKWORK. The ball is placed on the tee, EVERYBODY, EVEN ELVIS, stands up in front of us, we stand up, and Mr. Football stood up too! Never heard anything else from him for the rest of the game...although he did drop a nacho on my arm when I had it around Amy.

The game was okay. Euless Trinity played not up to their #1 national ranking but still won. John Curtis is a LA powerhouse and has won countless state titles and if it wasn't for 3 mistakes that Trinity converted to 3 touchdowns, they would have run all over Trinity. John Curtis could run consistently & efficiently because they had some big beef on the line. In all honesty, I felt John Curtis had the best offensive & defensive play. Euless Trinity scored when the opportunities were best and survived (the score didn't indicate survival, 28-12).

Afterwards, we went to Chipotle (Aggies calm down!) to eat a tasty burrito. I likes the Chipotle quite a bit. I even think Rick may have liked it, maybe. Rick & Billy Ferg were first timers. We had a great time and look forward to more great football games at Texas Stadium!

The Good Dentist

So we are behind on the blog. Can't say we have a lot that goes on except the updating of the blog. On Thursday, August 21st, my mother, Chavela, & my brother, Michael, followed Amy's recommendation to go see the dentists of the stars, Jay & Clint Spencer. My mom had all sorts of problems with her teeth and had to get a couple of fillings. Mike hadn't had his cleaning in a while...don't worry he was scolded by the nice people at their office. Oh, in case you don't know, my mom & Mike drove from Fort Worth to Paris to see the dentist. Puzzled? Yeah, well, we had a family dentist (not in the family but you know what I mean) in Fort Worth that was one of the GOOD ONES. He always did what he could to keep your teeth in your mouth. You always felt like he was taking his time to get it right. The cleaning lady was great too, super thorough and an expert picker. Well, time passed and they decided they would rather retire. Ever since we have had the hardest time finding a good dentist or cleaning lady (must be a lady, sorry guys). In our opinion, new school dentist conglomerate offices like Monarch just don't do it for us. My family needs people that want to get dirty! Enter in, Jay & Clint. If they ain't dirty at the end of the day, they don't take a check! It's that serious for them.

Originally, we didn't know if Mom would be able to actually get worked on since she was a new patient and usually you have to have an exam first. I asked the staff at the Spencer clinic if at all possible they could squeeze her in to a slot to be worked on that it would be greatly appreciated since mom & Mike were coming from so far away. Sure enough, they saw how bad my mom needed to be worked on and found the time to work on her. Mike told me how they were so thorough and Jay & Clint would tag team to make sure the work was up to their standards. He told em that the staff was nicer than nice to them. Mom was super impressed that they treated her well & fixed her up. They probably spent 3 or 4 hours on her.

Anyways, I say all that to say this. First, if you've read this far with no pictures, you don't have anything else to do and it is sad. Second, THANKS JAY, CLINT, & ALL THE NICE PEOPLE AT THE SPENCER CLINIC! You guys are some of the GOOD ONES! I know they didn't just treat my mom & Mike special; they would do the same for others with a big need. Amy knows this and that is why she & I go an hour from our home to go see them. We are both heading back for cleanings soon and will definitely take some more homemade (from scratch) cookies to them.

Here's some free advertising:

Spencer Dental Clinic
2900 Pine Mill Rd
Paris, TX 75460
(903) 784-7893‎


~jorge

My Grass, People!

Nobody has really asked for an update on our new lawn so I figured e-mail or the phone lines must be down. So here goes. My lawn is A-W-E-S-O-M-E! Really is. I want to take a moment to just thank the great Japanese people that provided the world with this Empire Zoysia! Well, God had a huge part in it but those friendly Japanese let us take some.

We watered twice a day for almost 3 weeks...still don't have the bill. It's okay; I'll just pay with a check. I had the grass mowed about 8 days ago and it is grown again. Zoysia is typically a slow grower but I've (Amy really) been watering plenty. Also, I was worried about how the grass would grow in the shade with our big oak trees and have been very pleased with how it has done. I have not seen any slow growth as a result of the shade. Once the lawn is good and in, we will focus a garden under the front lawn trees and also in front of the porch.

Well, hope ya'll get e-mail/phone back working so ya'll can ask more about my lawn's progress.

~jorge

Tomorrow at 8:00 AM, my summer ends. As sad and terrible as that sounds, I am a little excited. I have had a wonderful summer, but I'm ready to get going. This will be my 10th year teaching and my second year of grad school. I love the challenge each new year brings. When I get my class list and finally meet those faces. . .well, there's just not much better! So here we go!! My list keeps growin'. I'm doing staff development for our campus this week too. I say all of that to say this: I'm gonna stick to my guns this year and be more organized (neat) in my room. That's right, I've said it, and I mean it this time. I let you know how it goes. : )

Thank You God for SISTERS!!!!

So, today I went to work in my classroom again. It's just one of those things that you never finish, even when the kids come. But today, unlike other days I had a friend come with me to help. My sister-in-Christ, Hermana Tania put up word walls in two-languages, did boards outside, recovered shelves, and used a massive amout of creativity! She has five children. Three of them came with us today and they really helped! She refused $, although I know it could always help. She really enjoyed being there and having her kids be free to have fun and be needed. I was blown away. Honestly, I thought that today was going to be more of a mess that I had time for at this final quarter before the buzzer. But, I was wrong. I'm so glad that God made sisters (family ones and ones in the faith).

El Paso City. . . By the Rio GRANDEEEEEEEEEE

Maybe you don't know that song. On Friday we picked up my brother-in-law, Michael and headed to El Paso. Really, we were headed across the Rio Grande a la Ciuidad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico . It was H O T! Pretty, but hot.

This is Jorge with his brother Michael who is holding a picture of their grandfather, Pedro. So, Clay, there WAS a PEDRO PEREZ! (Thanksgiving past)

These are Jorge's relatives and his dad, Jose.

The GENE POOL is VERY STRONG!!! YIKES!!!!! We laughed. This little boy is Jorge's cousin (same grandfather/different grandmother). I think he's cute as a bug!

The real reason that we went to Juarez was to be with Jose and Jorge's grandmother, Dona Lupe when her husband, Pedro died on Thursday. The funeral was Friday. Jose was really glad that we were there. Since we are members of the Church of Christ, we haven't much experience with Catholic funerals. Pedro (Jorge's Grandfather) was Catholic. Dona Lupe (Jorge's Grandmother)is a member of the Iglesia de Cristo como nosotros. So at 11:00 Saturday morning we headed to the chappel to view the body. There was a sheet of glass over the body, odd. Then several ladies came to do the "roseries" .?. They continued to do this for about 45 minutes. After the ladies stopped chanting, the funeral director came to inform us that the Catholic church was ready for us to begin. . . . After that statement. . . . you would've thought that a bomb went off. People scampered and jumped out of their seats, grabbed the banners off of the flower sprays, picked up the flower sprays and headed outside. It looked like a Chinese fire drill. No kiddin'! It was nuts!!

Meanwhile, the funeral home loaded the casket into the hurst and headed a few blocks over to the catholic church. Jorge and Michael helped load the flower sprays into a pick-up.

We got into the car and headed to my personal first. . . a double funeral! NO kiddin'! There were two caskets, two sets of family and friends and one priest who didn't know the deceased names. He had to go over and get his card to read and find our their names. I thought that that was a little funny! After the funeral was over, again. . . folks jumped up and rolled those caskets quickly down the aisle, followed by two groups of families and two groups of friends all mixed together. One of Jorge's uncles had to grab onto the casket so that it didn't hit the pews or smash into the other casket. Whoa! I kept thinkin' where am I?!?!

Outside, Jose thought it would be a good idea to take one car to the gravesite. Since Jorge's grandmother lived closeby we were going to leave the car there. We quickly left my car and jumped into Jose's car and headed toward what we thought was our cemetery. Wrong. We drove all over Juarez. For 2 hours we drove. Not a cell phone in the car worked. The tower was down. So Jose missed the burial. I was really sad for him. He took it well. We went to Dona Lube's house to eat and then we headed to the gravesite to see.

So we headed back to Dona Lupe's house and we laughed and talked and she showed us old pictures and we laughed some more. Here we are with her. She said that she's a free lady now and that she could come and visit. I wouldn't put it past her. . . and I hope she does!

Atlanta, el segundo parte

These pictures aren't in order, but that really doesn't matter. We went to the Atlanta History Museum. It was like a living history place. Here I am churning butter. Churn baby churn. Too bad I didn't know that there wasn't any cream inside. Bummer!

Jorge (the opportunist) found a Georgia Peach tree and it happened to have some small peaches nearby that had fallen from the branches. He snuck in the garden and grabbed those peaches up! I love you my peachy little robber! You're always thinking of great deals!!

Step away from the HAM!!

I'll say this, "it ain't no Serta!

Right outside of Atlanta there is a small park called Stone Mountain. This is a granite mountain carved with the "heros" of the South on it. It's really gigantic! We saw a 3D interactive show, heard a story like they used to tell in the south, rode a train, saw the top of stone mountain, and saw a wonderful lazer show.

Chavela wasn't sure about the gondala ride to the top of the mountain.

These hands are folded and being very patient! Notice the rain drops on my shirt. After the stone mountain photo opp., a huge thunderstorm came and we were trapped. Sheets of rain and thunder and lighting sounded and made their presence known. I wasn't scared, but there were some wierdos that were crying and acting like clowns. We were safe and fine.

Two hours later we were cleared to come back down from the mountain. The sky still looked just awful! But we made it down fine. We had a pinic supper right out of the trunk of the car and watched the most awesome lazer light show ever. You should really see it!!

No, you've gotta kiss the frog!

This the botanical garden in Atlanta. I have no idea why we went. It was really pretty and green, although the whole area is in a drought. Felt pretty humid and hot to us!


Then we took a 3 hour drive to Savannah! Wow!! We were going to go the The Lady and Sons (Paula Deen's restaurant) but after reading many computer reviews and talking to several locals, we decided to go to Mrs. Wilkes boarding house for lunch. We heard it was much better! The wait for lunch was long and hot. You would go inside 10 at a time and sit a large table with people you didn't know. The food was alread on the table before we sat down. We sat with some people from Alabama. There were 23 bowls of food on our table!! It was great. I loved all of that home cookin'. After we finished dessert, we had to take our plates to the window in true "boarding house" style. It was neat. No frills just good stuff.


Here's what my peeps thought about the whole experience.

We made it to the Atlantic Ocean!! I had never seen it!! Well, it looks like the ocean. We had a great time. .. . no sunburns and we ate some great seafood.

Oh, this is the spot that Forrest Gump sat on the bench eating chocolates. There's no bench there but that's where it went down. Also there is a church with a tower just down from there where they dropped the white feather that flew all around at the beginning and end of the movie. We had a blast!!

I DO WORK!some
I just wanted you all blog readers to know that I do work for the Man for 3-4 days a week. I am working Liaison...fancy word meaning that I roam the hanger and help electricians with questions concering our instructions and design. Sometimes there are a lot of questions, other times I evaluate the contents of my belly button. I regularly work 3-12 hour shifts and get paid for 40 hours. Typically it's M-W or W-F. I enter work at 10am and usually commute home (3 miles) around 12 midnight. Now, we are being asked to work overtime, another day! So, now I am 4 days 48 hours or more. 4 on 3 off, not bad at all.

Please send monetary donations (US currency) to 505 Marita Rd.

Back to my Grass
Kiss it. Anyways, nobody has really asked about what kind it is, idiots. It is empire zoysia. EMPIRE Zoysia, a selected native cultivar of Zoysia Japonica, chosen specifically for its ability to reduce production costs while demonstrating very desirable growth characteristics. Reduced production costs are achieved by EMPIRE's rapid expansion rate, reproduction from rhizomes, and its natural chemical resistance for easier weed control.

That last part is straight from the web, take me to jail if you want to. What I learned in my research is that everybody copies the same thing from everybody. What a harsh world.

So why did I go with it? If you guessed, Texas Monthly, you are obviously my wife. I read an article about the major issues facing Texas in the next 50 years. I figure I might be around for some of that so for once, I want to be part of the solution. awww. Just got a kiss from my wife, with lengua. She's nuts. So, the article totally talked about H2O, water. Pretty much I found out that North Texas has a bunch of water-mongers? We dump over 60% of our water on our lawns. Of course, St. Augustine (not a real saint) is the culprit. So they talked about how people should choose drought tolerant grasses or landscapes. That started my search. Zoysia was the best choice since it could live in heavy drought, was disease resistant, insect resistant, shade tolerant (lots of large oaks to shade the place), and was a popular choice for golf courses. I was sold and spent a ton of time picking out which one I wanted.

Palisades, Jamar, & Empire were my choices. Jamar & Empire were the closest to me. Empire was finer bladed...and in Rockwall, sold! That's what we got, hope one day you can see it when it's all set in. Pray that it lives!

Donations for my water bill next month can be sent to 505 Marita Rd, CASH ONLY.

Atlanta, Georgia ????

A few months ago Jorge suggested that we go on a vacation to Atlanta. Atlanta?? What? Isn't it hot and humid there, you might ask. Well, yes. But, do you know what is in Atlanta? The World of Coke!! Yep, that's right the Coca-Cola museum is there. That was enough for me! So, Jorge's parents, Jose and Chavela went with us in my Honda Civic. Yep, Civic. Do the numbers on space per person would ya! We really made it just fine. We went to a Braves game (they were playing the Astros). The game was 17 innings long!! We had fun. Here are some pictures.

She smiles! I should get a journalism award for capturing that on camera!

The little drummer boy with the GIGANTIC drum! Jorge even bought the foam hatchet thing.
Check out Downtown Atlanta!
World of Coke!!! This was the best part!!! The only bad thing is that my camera ran out of batteries. I though that I had packed extra batteries in my purse. . . but I was wrong. So, I don't have as many pictures of the world of Coke as I would like.

I took pictures of the signs so that I could have my favorite father-in-law paint a mural for me in my dining room. Yes, I'm cheezy like that!!

Of course the Coke store was a must. But before we went to the store, there was a HUGE coke tasting area. Africa, Asia, North America, South America and Europe had their own circular fountain areas and you could go and taste any coke product that is sold in that part of the world. It was awesome. I liked North and South America and some of the European products. I didn't like ANY of the Asian or African ones. They were awful!! You could go and taste as many times as you wanted. Super cool.

So we bought some trays and plates. And. . . wished for much more!

The next day, we went to the World Aquarium. If you ever go to Atlanta you must do this!! They had 4 touching pools. Jorge is touching a stingray. They had sharks, sea anemones, shrimp, starfish, and horseshoe crab. I know that's more than 4, but some of them shared a tank. You could touch these animals. The sharks felt like rubber and the stingrays. . . . like SNOT. The coolest thing to touch was the sea anemone. I though that it might sting, but our skin is too thick for it to sting us. God's so smart! Jorge is touching a stingray.

That tank behind us has more than 600 species of fish in it. You can scuba dive for $200 for 2 hours. There are sharks in there. I'm just not gonna do it!! It was however, awesome!

This was another tropical tank. Chavela hates cameras. She really was having a good time. . . she just acts terrible when a camera's around. There were fresh water tanks there too. Some tanks went over your head and twisted around. It was really something to see.

I just thought these jellyfish were cool looking.

I'll post more later.