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!

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.....