White Coat Ceremony

Jonathan is now a medical student at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA-which they pronounce as a word despite the lack of enough vowels). To start his medical career he was inducted into medical school with a ceremony in which he was robed with a white coat. It's not as big of a deal as graduation will be, but it's still important. It felt especially important to us since we've been on a three year journey to get to that ceremony.

The ceremony itself was long and filled with speakers and welcomers to the school. It didn't really seem that well planned to me as there was not enough room in the auditorium for everyone. We arrived 45 minutes early and had to sit in the overflow area outside the auditorium. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper, especially since when I went to see how many seats there were and over half of them were being saved for people that had not yet arrived. So I was a bit sad to have to watch this moment we'd been waiting for on a projection screen and Jonathan didn't get to see me while his white coat was being put on. That also means that I didn't get any pictures of that moment either. It was a real bummer. They should have given a limited number of tickets or something.

Anyway, we made it through all the speeches, advice and 220 medical students being called in groups of 5 to receive their coats. And now we have this:

Jonathan's Parents:

Siblings:

Grandmother:

And in-laws:

Came to see him off on the great adventure that will be his medical career. He's going to be a doctor!

The move & the beach

Our actual move date was July 4th. We got lots of weird looks when we told people that, as if we had forgotten that this is a national holiday. We always just responded with "We can get the most help that day!" And we did have some fabulous helpers: our homegroup helped up pack the truck and clean the Dallas apartment that Friday. They were amazing and we got it done in record time. Then early Saturday morning the Williams & the Stillers met us and caravaned with us down to San Antonio. It was so good to have friends make the trip with us. They were amazing help getting all our stuff in the new place and out of boxes, but they were also an amazing emotional support as we venture out on this new journey.

So once we were down here, we had a few weeks off before Jonathan started class. We had grand plans of making day trips, I think like everyday. But we soon realized that we were tired and Charley was tired of being in the car. So we settled for a couple of weekend trips to visit our parents and one awesome trip to the beach. We drove down to Padre Island one day for some relaxation in the sun. It was quiet; there were not a ton of people there. Charley had fun hunting all the birds and playing in the surf. It was a very peaceful day. Here are a few pics from Guevara Family Beach Day 2009:

We've Moved!

Ok, so yes, I know I'm way, way behind on blogging all the major events that have been happening at the Guevara household, but I'll catch up. Don't worry.

Well, I finished the school year out at good ol' Cesar Chavez Learning Center and had a few weeks off to get ready to relocate our small family to San Antonio. In those few weeks I did the normal moving activities: finding a place to live, changing utiliites, and of course......packing. I did non of these activities alone though. I had a....helper.....

Yes, Charley. She is now much, much bigger (notice her big girl collar). We were not the best of friends during much of these weeks off. She listens to Jonathan much better. However, after much effort and patience on my part (none on hers), we finally got along and she let me get some stuff done.

It was always amazing to me that as soon as Jonathan walked in the door that she'd turn into this perfect, angel-dog that I hadn't seen all day.

We've gotten to do some fun things since we've moved to San Antonio and hopefully in the next few days I can post those things.

The Dog (puppy for now) is Here

Everyone Meet Charley!

Isn't she adorable? Right now she is playing "chew everything in my crate", a game she came up with the other day. She weighed in at 11 pounds on Easter Sunday, and she is a handful! She is a clumsy package of elbows yet somehow manages to pounce after her tennis ball. Let me bullet this out for you (and yes, please be jealous)

At seven weeks, Charley:
~Prefers her crate when she is tired (victory!)
~Can go up AND down stairs
~Understands potty time (another victory!)
~Is extremely quiet
~Still needs a midnight potty run
~Loves to hang out and be part of the family
~Likes meeting new dogs
~Still needs to be on leash
~LOVES her retriever dummy (see video below)
~Is actually learning not to nip, just give a few licks
~Likes to sleep on her back
~Points at Pomeranians, squirrels and of course birds (Robins are her favorite)
~Is very submissive at bath time
~Is an absolute joy to play with
~Loves to cuddle with Sarah


Playing in the Park

(She is getting used to her leash)

Our new addition

Charley is here!

We brought our new puppy Charley home yesterday evening. She is 7 weeks old today and so much fun! She did wonderfully during the car ride home although she was a little nervous. But she quickly got used to us and was busy checking out her new home all evening. I went to go hang out with the home group ladies so Jonathan got to acclimate her to her new surroundings. He gave her a bath and took her to the park. All the activity wore her out and she took a few power naps throughout the evening.

Today Jonathan is at home with her working on housebreaking and teaching her what she can & cannot play with. I'm sure he'll have lots of fun stories and more pictures to share of his experiences with Charley!

Here's a picture of her during one of her naps on her first night home with us!

Charley-dog

So yes, I am way behind on blogs. I'm working on it. 

The most exciting thing going on lately around the Guevara apartment is that we are getting ready for one little puppy to be added to our household! We are getting a German Shorthair Pointer in less than two weeks and we are beside ourselves excited. We got to meet her a couple of weeks ago and she's super cute and spunky. Her name is Charley. This is a picture of her from the breeder's website. 

Look at how precious she is! She'll be 7 weeks old when we bring her home. When we went to pick her out a couple of weeks ago the breeder (Carol) told us that at 7 weeks she'll be retrieving and pointing. We'll have to take lots of pics of her being cute and learning new things. We went and got all the things she'll need the other day and got her new house (in our house) set up and ready for her. 

This crate may not seem that big, but it's HUGE and took some careful planning to find the perfect home for Charley. Here's the view from the couch.

She's got a new collar, lease, water/food bowl, toy, milkbones, food, brush, shampoo & toothbrush all ready and waiting for her. It's going to be hard work at first training her and getting her acclimated to life with us, but it's going to be loads of fun too! I can't wait!!

The end of a delightful break

So we made it through the holidays. Every Christmas Jonathan and I go on our Texas tour and travel all around the state to see family for Christmas: Houston, Waco, Paris, etc. It's a week of driving and seeing parents, siblings, grandparents and cousins. It's a lot of fun and we get to spend some precious time with people that we love that we never get to spend enough time with. 

This year's highlights include:

• Seeing our nephew who is now a year old (isn't he precious!):
  

• Opening presents in the car on Friday between Houston and Waco. I gave Jonathan a green argyle sweater vest, a couple of short-sleeve shirts and a cookbook, The Spice Bible. He gave me some delightful perfume (he chose it since he has the more sensitive nose and will smell it way more that I will) and some bubble bath!
  
• Having 4 Christmas meals and 4 present opening sessions. 
  
• Spending a delightful New Year's Eve with good friends playing sticks (favorite card game) until 12:00 exactly then running upstairs to the roof of the parking garage to stand on tip-toe to barely see fireworks. 
  
• Spending New Year's Day together at home and having friends over that night for yummy roast and good conversation. 
  
• Going to the wedding of a friend from nursing school and seeing friends that I haven't seen in a long time. 
  

In all of that, in all the business and presents and driving and listening to Josh Groban's Christmas album for the 14th time, we are trying our best to remember why we are doing all this travel. We are trying our best to remember that the focus of our Christmas is not presents , not even on seeing all the family that we miss and wish we could spend more time with. We do all the crazy Christmas stuff because of Jesus. He's why we celebrate that holiday. He's why there is a holiday to celebrate. It's so easy to get distracted by all the food, all the perfect table settings, the beautiful Christmas decorations, even seeing family. We so want our kids to know why we "do" Christmas. Don't get me wrong, we plan on having a full live tree and giving gifts. We just want to make sure that before all of that, we live our life in such a way that we can't forget why we celebrate Christmas. 

Today I got to have breakfast and spend the morning with a friend from nursing school who now lives out of state. She was in town for the above mentioned wedding. She's always been a question asker that asks the difficult, probing questions. I love it! Today she asked me what the hardest part about being married is. I did have to think a little bit, but finally realized that all answers boil down to two sinners living in a room together and walking through our junk and sin together. It's so difficult to be that open and honest with someone, but so worth it to have even a glimpse of the deep kind of love that God meant marriage to have. And again, without Jesus it's all meaningless. 

So tomorrow I have to go back to Chavez and see all my kiddos and do the school nurse thing. I'm going to squeeze the last bits of break out of today and not think about tomorrow!