Thanksgiving in A & M

This year, we were thinking of visiting my sister in College Station for the Thanksgiving holidays. (I wasn't sure if she was going to travel anywhere since she is 37 weeks and can go into labor anytime now.) I wanted to see her (our last visit was in Spring 2006) and these holidays were the perfect reason to visit.

Then, we got a postcard from my sister extending an invitation to spend it with them. I knew we were going to spend it with Charlie's family, but I also wanted to go see my sister and my cutie niece, Elena. So Charlie and I compromised. We spent it at his aunt's house and after our Thanksgiving lunch we headed for A&M. We almost didn't make it to "Aggie Land" due to car trouble, but Charlie worked his magic on our vehicle and we were on our way.

Although the visit was short, it was nice to have spent it with family. I especially wanted the cousins to spend time together.

At night, Josie and Omar took us to Christmas in the Park.
It was nice just walking around the park with lights everywhere we turned. The kids of course enjoyed it the most. Thank you Josie and Omar for a great time at A&M!

The WoodHouse Treatment

After celebrating my birthday last week, I have to say that I was very happy and blessed to have family & friends share this day with me. I was happy just being surrounded with the people I love the most in my life. Two of those people are my In-Laws. I am very fortunate to have them in my life. They not only see me as the wife of their eldest son or the mother of their only grandchildren, but as their daughter. So on my birthday they did the unexpected. And although gifts are a tradition on birthdays, I was particularly surprised on the one that I received by them. They gave me a gift card to The WoodHouse Day Spa. There I literally received the "royal treatment". I was catered to the moment I set foot in their spa. From a glass of water, to a soft comfortable white robe, a hot pillow over my shoulders all to the culmination of their Seaweed Foot Facial. I've never been so pampered in my life! Needless to say, it was unusual having people there to accommodate your every need. With the hectic day of the first day of school, this was just what my body and feet needed. Thank you so much Mom & Dad for the wonderful gift!


Enjoying my evening at the spa


Me after the "royal treatment"

First day of school pictures

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Disney Montage

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Even though I am not going to begin this scrapbook anytime soon, I wanted to share a few photos of our trip in the meantime. Enjoy!

Worries of a Mother

When we came back from Orlando, I was ready to take care of things that I needed to do before school starts. Such tasks as buying school supplies, new school uniforms, paying bills, cleaning house and all that entails after a week long vacation. However, I couldn't have expected what I was going to find out in the coming days about my Charlie Brown.

About five days ago, I noticed that Charlie was coming down with something. It started with a regular cough and then he couldn't stop coughing at night. He began complaining about his throat and some chest pains. I gave him over the counter medicine but nothing seemed to cure his long acting cough. As any Mother would, I took him to the doctor so that he could tell me what Charlie had. What I thought was a normal cough turned out to be something else. In the end, the doctor said his chest was congested and his airways were blocked. He said he had symptoms of Asthma and most probably developed these symptoms from the recent changes in the weather(from Orlando and Laredo). He is currently on the Nebulizer (Xopanex) and two other medications.

I have to admit that news like these tend to scare me. The doctor informed me that kids are easily suceptable to these types of illnesses. He assured me that he would outgrow this overtime. I certainly hope so.

Since Charlie has been taking his medications, he has been doing very well. He has a doctor's appointment on Friday for a check-up.

Return from Orlando

Well, after a long week of driving, eating, walking, sleeping and tireless nights- we are back from Florida. We went to five parks! Even if we would have had an itinerary nothing could have prepared us for what was to come while in Orlando. We woke up early every day (we tried anyway)to get to our planned destinations as early as we could. Our goal: to go through every crook and crany of all the parks. After the third day, I have to admit we were exhausted already. There was just so much to do and so little time. The parks were overwhelming with tourists trying to do the same things we and thousands of people wanted to do. At times, the kids got restless and they would take a nap in their strollers. Because we went during hurricane season, we got much of the water while at the parks. It rained everyday of the week while we were there. We had to carry our umbrellas and raincoats daily to prepare for unexpected drizzles and showers. No matter the weather the show went on and we continued as planned. After the third day, we decided to take it slow and just enjoy our time at the parks and the city. Over all, we accomplished the impossible and got to take advantage of all the attractions, rides, and shows.
One thing is certain, we will never forget the good times we had in DisneyWorld.

Keep reading our blog for the latest pictures of our wonderful trip.

Martinez Family Reunion Scrapbook

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Here is a scrapbook of the reunion. Since I can't bring or make a book for everyone, I brought it to you!

Feliz Cumpleaños, Rafa

On July 3rd would have been my older brother's birthday. He would be 36 years old had he not had Leukemia. Although he passed at the very young age of 16, Rafa was full of life. I remember that while he was hospitalized our family was approached by an author by the name of Erma Bombeck. She was on a mission to write a book about children with cancer. Her efforts became a success. She wrote a book titled: I Want to Grow Hair, I Want to Grow Up, I Want to go to Boise. As a result of this, Rafa's drawing of Garfield was published in her book along with many other ill children that contributed with a short story or drawing. His drawing of the silly cat was attached to a machine with bubble thoughts above his head thinking, "I hate this machine". This picture still astonishes me to date. This only demonstrated that even though he was ill he had a sense of humor and only looked at the funny side of life. I own a copy of this book and treasure it with all my heart. They say time heals the pain...and although 20 years seems so long ago, to me it seems only yesterday when I was thirteen and my brother left us...the pain and sorrow is still there. Rafa is the bravest person I ever met. I was privileged to have had him as my brother.

Tu hermana que te extraña y te quiere mucho, Carmen

Disney Bound!

In ten days we will be going on our first family trip to Disney World for an entire week. We will be traveling with Charlie's family. It might turn into a chaotic vacation with my kids, but we are sure to have a blast in the process. Charlie has been there before. On the other hand, it will be a first for me. So you can imagine my enthusiasm and eagerness to meet Mickey and the entire Disney characters-especially Cinderella. The kids are just as enthusiastic about going. They can't wait and are keeping a "countdown calendar" on our fridge to remind them everyday how many days we need until our trip.
As much as we would have liked to have flown to Orlando- we will be driving. Yes, you would think that flying would be a better choice with gas prices hitting the ultimate high this summer, but the cost of flying there would have been more expensive. So Charlie, his Dad, and brothers will be taking turns on our way to Orlando. We will be staying at a wonderful resort - the Sunterra Grand Beach Resort. Click here if you would like to see some wonderful pictures of the resort. Check back with us to see how our Disney Adventure went.

Martinez Family Reunion

On April 14th we gathered at El Ranchito to celebrate a long awaited family reunion. From far & near, they were all there!

Charlie's family had not had a reunion since the passing of his paternal grandmother. Although it was a one day event it turned out to be a weekend they would never forget. I have been very fortunate to meet most of his family throughout our ten year marriage, but I have to admit that I was overwhelmed by the number of Martinez's in the family. They seemed to never end!

Just as there is a begining and an end-the reunion too had to end. It was sad to see everyone leave & return to their hometown. One thing was agreed -that they would do it again in five or ten years. If you'd like to see some pictures, check out the scrapbook above.

New Family Blog

Hello, family and friends. Welcome to our family blog! I am very excited about keeping everyone posted about our everyday happenings.

With so many options out in the world wide web about posting your daily thoughts and interactions with people, I decided to finally create our own in this site. So hopefully you will enjoy what you read and see in our family blog. I will also be adding photos on our photo hosting page.