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!

presents under the tree

Tree? Read "christmas bush".

We are DONE with the wrapping of presents! (as in I just finished wrapping Sarah's gift(s)...stay tuned) A few facts about the holiday:

The ability to wrap gifts in expert fashion has been handed down among Guevara men for generations. Cue Francisco José de Paula Santander y Omaña de Guevara, a man who once wrapped the very gifts of Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios y Blanco, need I go on? My grandfather was an architect...the trait was not lost through the generations. My father assumed the noble task of teaching this time-honored tradition many moons ago-and I will continue the excellence.

A well wrapped present (read: expertly wrapped) will allow unwrapper to open one end with moderate difficulty and slide box out with little to no difficulty. No tape shall bind paper to box (Cue Dad's genes).

It does take more than one piece of tape to wrap a present. If you are convinced otherwise, you are not wrapping well.

I take extreme pleasure in wrapping presents such that all of the above are observed, as well as painstakingly ensuring that no tape is visible to unwrapper at time of unwrapping (Again, Dad's genes).

While wrapping Sarah's gift, I had a moment of introspection (Cue Mom's genes); I realized that this is the most I have enjoyed wrapping a present and I can't wait to give Sarah her gift. Not so much for the gift itself, but because I am more in love with my wife than ever before and just can't wait for the opportunity to bless her.

Wrap and wrap well folks.

-jonathan

wild mustangs

Sunday
We started this past week with a jelly making event-quite the "empty the freezer of grape juice" project.



Monday
monday.

Tuesday
I drove to H-town for a m-school interview, while Sarah was aprendiendo that espanol.

















Wednesday
During that interview-I decided to hang out on the helipad at Memorial Hermann. I was "that guy" with the camera.

































Thursday
I kerbey laned it with Patrick, a slow breakfast with great coffee and pancakes thicker than steaks. Highpoint of the week. Can't decide if the gingerbread pancakes had anything to do with that.

Friday
Okay-I wish I had a picture of this. I bought 4 whole beef tenderloins with the chain. Genetically certified, pasture-raised, grain-finished, premium gold, 30 month old black angus steer. So I'm a food nerd, and that's what I get excited about. For the other food nerds out there-I think this was choice-moderate, I've never understood why tenderloin needed to be prime. Remember the "empty the freezer" party on Sunday?

Saturday
Birthday party...cupcakes, bounce house, an appearance by cookie monster. Typical things you would find at a birthday party.

Sunday
More jelly! The grape is called a mustang grape, and they grow wild in Texas. Tomorrow we have to do another one of those monday things.

what have we done lately?

I'm going to copy Jonathan's blogging style. Let's see...what's happened lately?

Jonathan interviewed at Texas Tech for med school

Jonathan has an interview at UT San Antonio tomorrow & Texas A&M in October

I am still working as a school nurse and it's going really well-very busy, but I feel like I'm getting the hang of things

We got a "new" couch and new barstools that are delightful

We have planned all of our weekends from now until Christmas with activies that we are really looking forward to (Baylor Homecoming, football game with friends, visiting our parents, home group retreat, babysitting our favorite girls, etc.)

I've been taking Spanish classes and now am trying to listen to the news in Spanish via NPR podcasts (I don't understand much at all)

So it's been pretty exciting around here, as you can tell. Maybe some of our upcoming activites will lend themselves to being more interesting and we'll have something to actually blog about. Until then.....

top picks from september 1 --> 14.

mint
applewood smoked, salt cured pork belly.
shiner 99
austin, texas
two m-school interviews.
5K + ike rain/wind.
2-1.
the huge lime tree leaves.











-j

Restoration

First, sorry it's been forever since I've posted. This week has been....mmm...what's a good word....hard. More on that momentarily.

So today is Labor Day and I love it. For starters, I think every weekend should be three days. Also, I love when it's Monday that you get off because not only do you have a 3 day weekend to look forward to, but when you do go back to work it's only for 4 days. I love it! It has really been a delightful weekend. On Saturday we got up early and went for a run at White Rock. Later that afternoon we had a friend in town for the afternoon and we got to go to one of our new favorite places (The Crooked Tree coffee house) to hang out. Then we had a relaxing dinner at home. Sunday we got up and went to the grocery store before everyone got out of church and things got crazy busy. We bummed around our apartment the rest of the day until it was time for church. And today has been a lot of relaxing at home. I made a batch of cookies for home group this week and we took a nap this afternoon. Right now Jonathan is out at the store getting a few things we forgot. Sprinkled all in between weekend activies was watching The Office DVDs getting ready for Season 4 which comes out on DVD tomorrow! It's really been a refreshing weekend which is exactly what I needed after last week.

Last week was my first week of school with the kiddos. Some things have developed with my job so I now (thankfully) have a preceptor with me everyday. It's a different person everyday, but at least there is someone there with me helping me to know what to do. I felt pretty lost most of the week, not knowing exactly what to do at any point in time. I'm still learning a lot just about basic assessment skills and then there is the mound of paperwork to do with every person that walks through the clinic doors. And one thing that really struck me was how many kids come to the clinic for things that I can do nothing about: loose teeth, headaches, general malaise, throwing up after eating lunch and running around outside, irritated eyes (not pink eye), crying, fake coughs, toothaches, I mean the list goes on and on. So I'm getting ready to see what this new week will hold. My supervisor is supposed to come by and see me this week and hopefully teach me how to do some of the things that I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to be doing but just don't know how to do them. When I left on Friday I was so overwhelmed and really dreading the coming week. Saturday night I had a break down and ended up just crying but couldn't explain what I was so upset about. My sweet husband was so wonderful in listening to me try to explain what I was stressed about and asked me questions to help me process all the craziness. He prayed for me and talked to me and reminded me that I'm at this job, at this school for a reason that I may not know or understand, and that's ok. It's been a very restorative weekend.

Jonathan and I are also trying to rearrange our living room. My grandmother is giving me her piano whenever we can make room for it in our apartment. In order to do that we have to get rid of one twin bed that is currently posing as a very lame couch. So, does any one need, or know anyone who needs an extra-long twin bed? It's in great shape, comes with mattress, box spring and frame. Also, if you have any suggestions for getting rid of unwanted furniture I'd love to hear that too.

As promised, I did take a first day of school picture. I wasn't going to, but Jonathan said I had to. I tried uploading it, but for some reason it's not working right now. I'll try again later.

That's all for now!