july grown

I'll be turning a year older this week. Not looking forward to it. I stopped keeping count of how old I am. I really do forget. Went out for a drink Friday night and got IDed. I took it as will I keep looking young.

I am hitting an age where I should actually look old but the first thing that comes to my mind is that the reason that I probably don't is that I haven't been a mom. Mothers always seem to have a look of being older. Well at least the real mothers out there. My biological clock is put away forever now so on to the next step. We have came close to twice having a little one run around the floors of our home but no luck. That doesn't mean we're giving up. As long as there is still an option.  Until then I will continue to show my ID when I ask for a drink.

Birthdays to me have never really been that special. A realization that I'm getting closer to the side of wondering if my knees will crinkle when I get up. Wondering how if any vitamins I should take today. Wondering what amount of respect do I get when I'm in the same room with teenagers. Yes I celebrate the happiness of God giving me another year. The question is how important is it?

As I get older I realize the things like what my first birthday might have been? What I was doing at age fifteen? Did I remember when I hit 21? How my first birthday with Heather was like. That I will never forget. How I managed to reach 30 and let time go by so fast? I love that I'm a Leo. Leo is what helps make me.  All I can think about on the month of July is how my mother must have gone through to have me at the hottest month of the year. Then the week of the big birthday comes and I get happy, I get sad, I get excited, I get depressed.  Then I wonder if I'm the only one that feels this way?

Soon it will come and go and the process starts all over again this time next year. As I get older memories begin to fade. That's when pictures come in place. This week will be filled with surprises and I know I will enjoy them. I will capture memories and go on to the 26th like a regular day.

this is my first shool picture
the years of innocence
the who are they now

This is me Gabriela born on the 25 of a hot month some even years ago.

Some don't get this far and I am grateful that I have.

Keep loving life and the rough edges it brings.

H+G=LOVE

This window holds a piece of evidence that can be erased but hasn't. It has rained but hasn't been washed away. People have passed by it and it's still there. Now that I'm going to reveal the secret it probably will disappear. Eventually it will.

On March 13, 2012 we went to see the exhibit at the Dallas Holocaust Museum "Every Child Has A Name". This place is a sad reminder of what happened. It is also a learning center to teach us what we may not know. If you have a heart you will leave the museum with sadness and wonder how could this have happened for so many years? We've been here before but on this particular visit we did something out of the norm. We started walking when we spotted a window across the street and went to it. We noticed people had left a smear mark on the glass so we decided to do the same. Heather initialled our letters on the glass.

How many of you have left your fingerprints or tag on something? We tend to do it when we are younger. When we are crazy in love. When you grow older you stop doing things like this. Why? Is it because you fell out of love? Is it because you still love but have been loved for a long time? You think well maybe it's childish or silly. Why, because you are older? Heather and I tend to do things out of the norm. When we do things like this it makes us feel young and in love. We've been together for over ten years now and little things like this is what keeps us in love. I love her today even more than before. We met in the summer of 2001 and have never looked back.

We passed by this window this past Saturday to see if  our initials were still there, they were. It's been there almost four months. I glanced over at her and said, how long do you think it will stay there? she replied, i don't know? We both had this stupidly smile on our face. I took a picture so if it ever did come off the window we'll have that reminder of when it was there.
Have you ever left your mark? Do you remember what you were doing? If not try and pick a spot who knows what story will come from it or how it came about.

In actuality we don't need to put our initials anywhere to prove how much we love each other. I just love the little things that set us apart from knowing that she was the one for me.

  

postcards

Yesterday we had what we call a free Saturday. Free Saturday- a day that we don't have to be anywhere in the day time so we look up the paper and see where the estate sales are happening. As you guys know we love to search for treasures. We found quite a few treasures but the ones I love the most are the ones that have a story.
On our third house we came upon a guy that was selling three boxes of postcards. I love the ones that actually have writing on them. He was selling them cheap so we decided to take a box to a corner and go through it. Picture the boxes the size of shoe boxes filled end to end with post cards some blank and some with a note. We were going to go through all the boxes but gave up on just that first one. It took us quite a while but we came home with a few. Some dated back far as 1906 to 1970.

visiting china town san francisco 1949

People rarely write postcards anymore. They just send a text or a picture message. I don't know about you but a letter I felt always cheers anyone up. I love history and what was before today's time. So postcards are always a good find. My favorite is what seems to be a marriage license. How did this pieces of treasure slip out of someones hand and is now in a shoe box? Some are Christmas postcards, some Easter. How many of you even get a Christmas letter in the mail?
Writing letters in the mail are becoming a thing of the past. One postcard was even in keyboard type. I still remember when I was a kid I in the summer would write letters to friends on a typewriter. Brings back memories. When I lived in Kansas for awhile my sisters would write me letters and that was always something to look forward to.

christmas postcard

When was the last time you wrote a note?
Will someone remember you in handwriting?
Postcards what are they?

the fourth

I missed the Irving parade this year.They have the best patriotic Fourth of July parade in the area. Remember I work in a crazy place so I will have to work on certain holidays. Since I missed the parade heather decided that we go see some fireworks to make up for it. In actuality people always say it's just safe to stay home they might be right but it's only once a year that America celebrates her birthday, so why not see fireworks.
She googled and came up with hearing the symphony play some sounds at Fair Park. It was no ordinary symphony but the Grammy nominated Dallas Wind Symphony. The plus was watching the firecrackers over the Cotton Bowl. We arrived in time to grab a blanket and sit to hear the music. There were so many people. To start they played the Star Spangled Banner. Every time I hear this song be it at a game, at a graduation I always tear up. It's an emotional song. I wasn't able to be in the military but had I, I would have chosen the army.
As the people passed by us while the symphony was playing I began to look (I'm a people watcher) I noticed all the different ethnic people there. I was wondering were they there for the fire in the sky show or because they were also glad to be celebrating America's birthday? I just kept thinking WOW. How so many different countries are now in America? So many people want to be here in this land of the free. I don't blame them. It's a great country. We may not like each other as people but we come together in need.

As the last score played they wanted for our military people to stand. When they reached to the air force one man in a wheel chair stood up with the help of a man sitting next to him and that was what I meant when I said we come together.
We walked over to see the fountain dance to the rhythm of music waiting for the fireworks.
As the fireworks went off over the Cotton Bowl one song played "Proud To Be An American" we can only be so lucky. All eyes were on the sky. All ages some for the first time. How this could have felt for a refugee new to America made us feel so proud to have such a great country to be envied.

Think about the people that must wonder what it's like to see the red white and blue fires in the sky.

beer and bones: space cadets

You think beer and bones and say, What? My sister Monica told me about beer and bones then sent me the info. Beer and bones is what the Museum of Nature and Science here in Dallas has come up with to make it more fun for adults June 21, 2012. It's after the museum closes from 7:00 and goes on till 10:00pm. This was there second event. They are going to make it a usual. It's for adults 18 and over.
Why beer and bones let me go into detail. You get to drink while inside the museum. Yes adult beverages at a museum. Who does this?  You get to do the beer part while looking at the bones (the current exhibit) when do they not have bones scattered and organized at the museum. What makes it fun is you get to participate with adults. Experience what kids get to experience when they go to the museum. Have you gone to a museum and felt silly trying to play the games that the kids play but everyone sees you and looks at you crazy for thinking that you can play too? On this night it's totally opposite.

space food

Grown adults if you want to call them adults get to play. They have a DJ playing some music to fit the theme. They have snacks and a cash bar for the beverages. We saw some interesting characters in costume. We got to make our own LED lights, try space food, made constellations, and saw the constellations in a big portable universe planetarium. We also got to see their current shark exhibit. All us adults were being big kids.

inside the portable planetarium

 It was fun I had my own teacher heather. As I looked and asked she had all my answers she could work there. As the person was filling our minds with knowledge heather was saying it before her. I had my own genius. Since it was a shark exhibit they had the movie JAWS playing. Heather was surprised I hadn't seen it yet. I had to repeat it so I'm repeating it again. No, I have not seen the movie JAWS.
We didn't know about the first one but heard it was such a hit that they are going to continue to have them. I can only tell you from my experience that yes we will be going to future ones. Who said kids are the only ones that can have this kind of fun.
Kid you not it was fun. At first I had my doubts but in the end I didn't want it to end. The next beer and bones was for September 2012 but has been canceled.
sign up at
Click here to join the MNS

e-newsletter list. to see when they will have their next beer and bones.

shark fins that were confiscated in New Zealand
and the pacific islands from fisherman supplying the fin trade

 

 

My sister treated us to this and we were so happy that she made our experience a great one.

I now understand why when you take the little ones to the Museum of Nature and Science they don't want to leave.