Donna Rose

May has always been a special month in my family because so many of the matriarchal figures shared that month as their birthday month.

My grandmother

My great-aunt who was practically another grandmother

my mom

me

a cousin ironically named June.

It always felt really special to share that month with people who were so important to me.

When I was born, my great aunt turned 50. We always kept up with each other's age that way. Her name was Donna Rose.

When my mom's parents took turns working day and night shift, Donna was one of the people who helped raise her.

She was the kind of person who always took care of other people. 

In our recent move to El Paso, I finally got to empty some boxes out of storage that were too special to move with us around the world. There were so many things in there that reminded me of Donna. A quilt from when I was a baby, then one from when I was a little girl, one from when I liked tigers best, another from when purple and yellow were my favorite colors. One from when I got married and she made one for my husband. One from when I had my first baby and she made her one too... no wonder her hands started giving out. I have the recipe book she put together for me when I got married and a collage of all of the pictures she had of me with family members. Finding all of these things reminded me how much she made me feel loved.

She was my first Sunday School teacher, baby sitter, and person to tell me I was definitely old enough to start wearing deodorant.

She made us grilled cheese sandwiches by lining up cheese-filled bread on a cookie tray and cooking them in the oven. When I asked my mom why she made it that way instead of on the stove, she said "probably because she came from a family of 8 kids, and cooking them on the stove would take too long."

We shared a love of bright colors, good stories, and all sorts of good recipes.

After the oldest child in her family was born, 9 years passed before her parents had any more children. Then, Donna was born. Her 9 year old brother was less than impressed with her ousting him from the only-child category and teased her a lot. 

She never was very self-confident. If you wanted to see self-sacrifice in action, though, she was definitely one to learn from.

I miss her so much.

Unscripted: El Paso, Texas

The theme of this blog has always been the "unscripted" way life tends to happen.

You may, for example, be doing an RV trip to Mexico and all of the sudden life converges, and BAM, you settle down in El Paso. You know, theoretically.

That's what happened to us. I was dealing with Graves' disease, working part-time, homeschooling 3 kids, and nursing the baby while Ben was working on his doctorate, dealing with RV hauling/setting up/repair, and then got a job as a live-class ,online teacher.

Sounds fun, right? Know what's even more fun? Keeping the kids from going crazy in an RV while it's cold and rainy outside and your husband is teaching an online class and SERIOUSLY needs them to stay quiet. I'm sure most people would be great at this, ;) but for me it was a struggle.

Zoe enjoyed playing mini golf for her 2nd birthday.

Ben and I had previously looked at settling in El Paso because it checks a lot of boxes: bilingual/multilingual community, very close to Mexico, dual-language schools, cultural events, universities/colleges, fourth largest city in Texas, mild winters, decent cost of living... you get the point.

Elias is taking apart a lawnmower that doesn't work.

We arrived in El Paso after Ben got hired as an online teacher. My part-time contract job was complete soon after. As we discussed options for me to find another job, Ben decided it was time to enroll the kids in the dual-language program in El Paso so that I could also work teaching Spanish online. Within what felt like a week in November, everything fell into place: the kids started school, we found a house we loved with a yard we could rent, I was hired to teach online, and Ben found a church he liked. It felt like something had exploded, but, in a good way.

We were able to see family for winter break.

So, for now, and probably at least until Ben is done with his doctorate and gets settled with whatever he wants to DO with the doctorate afterwards, we are in El Paso, and it feels nice to be back in Texas after 9 years abroad. There are so many things that are new to us again: Libraries! Public parks! Supermarkets! Local phone calls! A working postal service! I think my favorite things so far have been my mailbox, backyard with grass, and a clothesline... and it's nice to be able to drive and see family when we need to, though it is a full day of driving. I love teaching Spanish!

Monkeys in the backyard...

We like that it's closer to Ben's dad, and that he drives through on business occasionally.

We have pecan trees!

My family jokes that we found the furthest possible place to still be in Texas but still be about 12 hours away from them. At least we're in a closer time zone, though. It's crazy how big Texas is!

I didn't have a 3 and a 7 for Ben's birthday, so I used a 4 and a 7...

Choke Canyon State Park, RV Trip 2018

"Look Talia, a dragonfly!" except it ended up being 2 dragonflies copulating.

Before arriving in Choke Canyon, some important things happened that impacted our stay: On our way to Mississippi (or from? I don't remember now) to see Ben's family, we stopped in Louisiana. The place we stayed had a concrete pad, but with dirt and grass growing on top. This wouldn't have been a problem but for a couple of issues: The starter went out on the truck and it rained a lot. The truck was stuck on the marshy pad and there was nothing to do but for Ben to get under it and fix it. It was super tight and finicky for his beefy hands, but he got it replaced laying on his back in the marsh and after the sun went down and lighting wasn't great and it rained the whole time. The truck starting the next morning was a wonderful sound.

Choke Canyon Reservoir

Choke Canyon National Park is beautiful. It is in Calliham, near Three Rivers, Texas. We appreciated the many trails, showers with good water pressure and hot water, and the friendly staff. And that's just the surface. While we were here our truck messed up again, so we were pretty stuck in the park for almost a month. We used our bicycles to explore all of the trails and to check out the reservoir, basketball courts, and to spot wild animals.

Using downtime to knit my sister's birthday present

Ben thinks the foul conditions of the truck repair lead to a bolt not getting screwed in tight enough. Supposedly it wiggled loose in all of the travel and shorted out the computer. We ended up needing batteries as well. Not fun, but necessary. Because we were park hosts here, we were able to stay for free in exchange for Ben counting cars at differing hours each evening. This could have been extra expensive if we were also paying for a site. I'm thankful for the timing of the issue.

Elias at the basketball court

If you're going to be stuck somewhere, this is a great place to be, minus the distance from any sort of store. I was thankful I had things like lentils and rice in the pantry to cook with, but we really missed eggs for breakfast. Ben figured out how to order groceries from Jet, but still, eggs weren't an option. With the wild turkeys around the park we joked about finding some eggs scavenging, but I'm pretty sure that's a good way to get a fine.

Wild javelinas

The weather was really nice all the way up to the last week and a half that we were there, then it got really cold and rainy. That was the week the kids and I went to my parent's house for my cousin's wedding. It was really nice to be in the States when something like that happened so that we could be with family.

So many butterflies here

Walking on the trails, we saw trees covered in cocoons. They were everywhere. Of course, this meant there were also butterflies everywhere. One evening when we went to play on the badminton/tennis/basketball court they were so thick in the air we couldn't even throw the basketball or it would knock them down.

Butterfly-friendly flowers like Lantana have encouraged the many butterflies

One of the kids' favorite activities at the campsite was to have a bonfire and roast hotdogs and marshmallows. They would spend hours collecting twigs and trash from the campsites and burn it just to watch it disappear.

How to roast marshmallows without a stick

I was thankful we had invested in a RV washer. The downside of these campsites was the lack of sewer/gray water hookups. Instead, you needed a tank with wheels that would attach to a hitch to empty the tanks into, or else you'd have to take the whole camper to the dump station and empty the tanks. As the truck was in the shop and a fine of $500 was the penalty for dumping gray water on the ground, sometimes it was a challenge to keep them empty. Thankfully, since Ben was a park host, he was allowed to take some classes that let him drive a park vehicle: a gator and a van. This was really helpful. It also allowed him to not get eaten up by the millions of helicopter-sized mosquitoes that were thick in the air every evening when he went to count cars.

There's a lot of laundry with 6 people

While we enjoyed our time here, we all breathed a sigh of relief when we got the truck back and could travel to the next location.

Deer are abundant in this park

Flower Philosophy

I used to think flowers were frivolous.

I even told Ben when we were poor(er) and courting to just send me pictures of flowers instead of forking out money for something that would die.

Or even better, spend that money for pizza!

But now I have a different criteria: flowers are beautiful, but I’d rather have some that I can plant.

Seeds or plants with roots create a seasonal beauty that I really appreciate.
Living in deserts and cities has really amped up my love of nature.

I suppose my dream would be to one day be able to settle somewhere I could have a garden, both flowers and vegetables.

When I saw these bursts of color on my visit to Texas during Pchum Ben, I had to take pictures.

Children and flowers fill my phone memory now. I suppose that’s a good thing.

In the Incheon airport in South Korea, there were orchids all over the place.

It was a nice combination of beauty in a sea of functional; like the morning glories I saw climbing up a stop sign. 

Texans in Cabo

My mom and my sister were able to visit us over Christmas break for three and a half days.

We took them to church with us, introduced them to a great taco place, visited the municipal market, taught a cinnamon roll class and went to the beach! I think we crammed a lot for so little time. My mom took this photo of us at the beach (and has the other photos.)

We hope they can come back soon!

Van Horn, Texas to Tucson, Arizona; Texas to Cabo Trip 2015 Part 3

One of the different things about this part of Texas is that we haven't seen a grocery store in several hundred miles, (before entering Van Horn, TX and as we travel into Mountain Time Zone the last hour of driving through west Texas.)

This is mostly what there was to see:

We were reminded that we were still in Texas this morning at breakfast:

We went through El Paso and crossed into New Mexico, a state neither of us had visited before.

In Las Cruces, NM the kids had a blast at a train museum!

And the rock museum in Deming, NM where we got a lesson in which minerals make which colors in rocks, and about different agates.

After which we crossed into Arizona:

Where they boasted all kinds of different jerky:

The kids had a hard time with this stretch of the road getting to Tucson. It was hot, but we made it!

Beautiful Things in Texas

This sunset was so beautiful in person. Pictures never do them justice.

The kids have been enjoying the animals on our friends' farms so much, but this week we also got the chance to go to the zoo. 

They really enjoyed seeing all of those animals! In the river land area this duck flapped his way up to the rail so Talia could pet him. He sat there a while and let her before hopping down.

It's so nice to be here again!

Texas Wildfires are Raging

In Guatemala, the disasters we experienced were earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and swine flu. In Texas, the extremely dry summer has parched the ground making wildfires a huge problem. Add to that the extremely strong winds this week and it was a recipe for fire disaster. There are many burning right now:

According to the Texas Forest Service:


"Wildfire update – Sept. 6, 2011

Current situation:

· Yesterday Texas Forest Service responded to 22 new fires for 7,544 acres, including 10 new large fires.

· In the past seven days Texas Forest Service has responded to 181 fires for 118,413 acres.

· It appears that in the past 48 hours, more than 700 homes have been destroyed. As better assessments come in, we will continue to update the situation report.

· 251 of the 254 Texas counties are reporting burn bans.

· Daily detailed fire information can be found at inciweb.org.

New large fires from yesterday (more than 100 acres in timber, 300 acres in lighter fuels; or where homes were lost):

*Note: Details on many fires are still unconfirmed. The Dispatch Tracker System was down most of yesterday and went down again this morning. Most of the details below are from late last night."

Many people I know have had to evacuate their homes and many more are in danger.

Please keep Texas in your prayers!