First Day Of School! First Day Of School!

Enough filler - as funny as it may be. The girls were very excited for their first day of school! They are both at the same school now, which is a lot more convenient for us. Even more convenient is that Sonya works at the church now, so we walk them to school, I walk Sonya to work and then head back to the house for my truck. Unfortunately I do not work within walking distance. I do all this for the company and the exercise.

We also went to the San Antonio Botanical Garden on Labor Day. Nana & 'Buelo took us as their guests. There we saw the displays for Terrific Treehouses:

From traditional to fantasy, Terrific Treehouses will feature up to nine locally designed treehouses intended to delight and stir the imagination of our guests. Terrific Treehouses encourages guests to experience the wonder of our extensive plant collection, as well as to learn about the beneficial aspects of trees. Designed for fun adventure, Terrific Treehouses is for the young at heart, no matter the age

We had a lot of fun there. The garden is beautiful, and there is a lot of art throughout.





In other news, we have finally gotten some more chickens. We have 4 hens now - no eggs yet. We converted our old shed to a luxury chicken condo, complete with screened windows.

Favorite Newton

more graph humor and song chart memes

I Can Has Cheezburger?

more cat pictures

Mother's Day

Sonya made some neat gifts for her mom, for Mother's Day. Here are the pics:

Sonya recently got promoted to managing her department. She is excited about that, but it stresses her a bit. She also got a cool hair cut and it rocks. It looks really nice.

The girls are nearly done with school. They've started swim lessons, so they'll have something to do in the summer. The pool is right down the street from us, so it is very convenient. They love swim lessons. I haven't seen them practice yet, but they are thrilled when they get home. The lessons are taught by college competitive swimmers. Gabriel has started taking piano lessons on Saturdays, and Uriel is going to visit a ballet studio this Saturday, to see if she likes the teacher. She decided to do ballet instead of Irish dance.

At last, here is a photo of my new Utilikilt. I got it at the Celtic Festival and Highland Games last month. I love it! It is very comfortable. The majority of complements I've gotten have been positive. I've got a black one in a different style (the Mocker) coming this week. They were discounted so much, I couldn't refuse.

You can also see in the photo of me that I've gotten my hair cut. I've gotten a lot of positive complements on that, too. I couldn't stand the long hair any more. This is so easy to take care of, and I like the look.

Return of Underdog!

Well, its been a while. Here is a picture that Uriel drew of herself in her Underdog costume last halloween. I hadn't seen it before. I was cleaning out a basket of junk and I found it. They loved those costumes.

We didn't go to the St. Patrick's Day parade this year. The girls both had sore throats, so we stayed home and watched DVDs. Sonya and the girls took me to the San Antonio Celtic Festival and Highland Games last weekend, for my birthday (the big four-oh!). It was a lot of fun. I even bought a Utilikilt. It rocks. As soon as I get a picture taken of me in it, I'll post it.

Sonya is running the scrapbooking department at Hobby Lobby now. Its more fun than being cashier.

For My Girls...

A cute and fuzzy bunny.

木こり

I've written a haiku, inspired by my lumberjack post:



私はガレージでから見ている私の妻の驚きに傷を得なかった





Kidding! I didn't write it in Japanese. Here it is:


I didn't get hurt,
to the surprise of my wife
watching from in the garage.

Gabi's Birthday 2007

Our Kitchen

Sonya did some cool paint work in the kitchen. Our theme is 'French Country'.

I'm running out of witty titles...

The girls groom a goat at the zoo.



Uri or Gabi took this of Gabi's stuffed dog 'Smelly'.
Uri took a shot of Sonya enjoying a tasty homemade popsicle

These Go Way Back

These shots were taken by Uri on one of our first visits to the San Antonio Zoo. These are from before we bought our house, probably around Christmas time, 2006.

Gabi and I are caterpillars.

7th Anniversary

Sonya & I celebrated our 7th anniversary yesterday. I gave her a ton of flowers and she made me this really cool card. It rocks. She also had the mariachis play 'El Rey' for me when we went out to eat. At our engagement party, my future uncle had the mariachis play "El Rey"; he told me it would be my theme song. Its basically about a guy who's been kicked out of the house, but still claims to be the king. Pretty funny.

I am amazed that its been 7 years. Sometimes it seems like it was just last year. I pray for many happy years with her.

I'm a Lumberjack, and I'm okay...

The girls took these photos of our efforts at cutting down a tree. If you look back at the photos I posted of our new house, you can see a tree growing right on the edge of the drive. I was getting tired of driving around it, when it became infested with aphids that dropped (pooped) sticky goo all over my truck. Said goo turning black with mold rather quickly, and difficult to clean off.

Out came the axe!

Chainsaw, really, but the tree is gone. And, I didn't get hurt, much to the surprise of my wife and children watching from the garage.

Parking Bliss!

Easter 2007

The girls are posing here with the lamb cake Sonya made for Easter last year. It was kind of rainy, so the cascarones (bottom picture) weren't the huge event they've been in the past. The girls had fun, tho'.

Fiesta San Antonio

Working our way forward in time (it won't last - I've got a really old roll of film somewhere) to April '07 and the Battle of Flowers Parade. With us is Sonya's aunt & uncle, her cousin (orange shirt) and his daughter.

New Post, Old Photos

St. Patrick's Day is coming up, and I thought that would be a good time to post photos that I've finally developed...from last St. Patty's Day!!! I wish I could say that's the oldest roll of film I had, but I'd be lying. :)

Sonya had the camera on this outing, so no shots of her, although you can see her shoe here...
These are Sonya's parents...

Ninjas are everywhere.

Happy New Year! We entered the new year peacefully, and relatively quietly. I say relatively, because people here in Texas like to shoot fireworks off on New Year's Eve, so it can get pretty loud. I could probably sleep through it, but for the crazy dog that lives in our house. He can't stand loud noises. Makes him vibrate and pant. Tries to climb in bed with you. That kind of thing. Sonya and I took turns keeping him quiet and off the girls beds. That lasted about 2 hours. That and watching a DVD was the extent of our celebrations.

Sonya and I started training again. We have our little family dojo now, and are teaching the girls taijutsu. The saw a karate demonstration at school and got excited about it. Sonya said, 'Heck, we can train them ourselves.' And so we are. Its all starting to come back to me. It feels good to train again. Sonya and I hadn't trained for about 5 years.

In other martial (sort of) news - I went deer hunting last weekend with an acquaintance from church. We saw a young buck, but decided not to shoot him. If he makes it another couple of years, he'll be really nice. We were hunting on a private ranch, and they try to actively manage the deer, so it could be that he'll make it.

A friend sent us this a while back, and I just found it. It makes me smile. (The picture is of Ogata Shuma Hiroyuki later known as Jiraiya, a ninja in a Japanese folk tale, with a heavy gun, overcoming a huge Snake which has preyed on his friends the Toads):

Ninjas are everywhere. Ninjas are in movies, ninjas are on TV, there is probably a ninja clinging to the bottom of your desk right now. With their roots in the battlefields of 14th century Japan, ninjas were assassins who practiced the are of ... oh, who cares? It doesn't matter where ninjas came from. All you need to know is that ninjas can totally kill you without even thinking about it. In fact, ninjas are so lethal that it takes an enormous effort of will for them not to kill you. YOU are only alive because a ninja is trying very hard not to shoot a blow dart through your neck right this minute. Ninjas are being kind to us and yet we haven't returned the favor. Even so, ninjas have stealthily taken over the planet in the last few years and no one over 30 saw it coming.

Las Posadas