New Tutorial!!

Hello, dear friends!! All eleven of you!! hehe... Today I uploaded some pics for a tutorial on covering a paperback book with sturdy cardboard. Go check it out!! I am also uploading some pics of out Thanksgiving celebration here at home, with my hubby's family. 8-)

I know, I lnow...

It's been a looong time since my last entry, tons of things have happened, and no word from me... 8-(
Don't worry, I'll update you ASAP. First, let me link you to a vacation my hubby & I had during the month of October. We went to Spain & France. Follow the link & you'll see all the places we went to. Nice, cool weather, but extremely dry, which caused my sinuses to dry up & want to die for the whole length of the trip. Such is life. The pictures are not completely in order, Picasa played some trick on me, but I'll place them in order...eventually. For now, just enjoy the pics and the captions. 8-)  

New Knitted Stuff!

I just uploaded some pictures to my Picasa album, please feel free to go look at them! I made some church scripture bags for carrying, you guessed it, scriptures to Church!! You can find my page here... Enjoy!
8-)

Today I became a MOM!!!

A day like today, 27 years ago, my baby was born. He was born two days "late", as per doctor's calculations. After 13 hours in labor, Pedro Guillermo Acevedo-Vargas blessed my husband and me with his presence. Back then, no sonograms were performed, at least not in the Army bases we lived in. So we didn't know whether we were having a boy or a girl. Well, we 'knew". From the beginning, we talked about the baby as a boy. We had even chosen a name long before we were even  married, let alone pregnant. I always "knew" I was having a boy. I had even had a dream about him that I didn't remember until it "came true" about a year later. It was one of those "deja vu" moments, and I realized it was the dream I had had while I was pregnant, and that I didn't remember.

He was a colicky baby. We were first time parents. Not a good combination, but we all survived. He cried, and cried, and cried...and I'm sorry to say I didn't know how to soothe him. 8-( Anyway, after the first three months, he became happy, bubbly, chubby, and oh, so mega cute!! He still is,...cute, not chubby. 8-)

So, for the past 27 years we've had gymnastics, Boy Scouts, music lessons, art lessons, and all sorts of lessons and summer camps, and ...oh, well, you can imagine.

I wouldn't change it for ANYTHING. My boy, my son, my kid. My joy & satisfaction.   

Dehydrating...

Not that it isn't hot enough here in Puerto Rico, but I enjoy dehydrating stuff. I mean, fruit. Here I share with you pictures of my dehydrator full with bananas from our backyard. Yumm!!! Since it is so humid here, they need to stay on for a few hours longer than it would be needed somewhere else. I also flip them every six or seven hours, so that they won't stick to the plastic rack as they dry. 8-P

Up on my soapbox...

I usually keep my thoughts to myself, that's why writing this blog has always been so difficult for me. Today, however, I don't have a problem... I am getting SICK & TIRED of people's rudeness!! Have the phrases, "please", "excuse me" and "thank you" been erased from our language? Yielding to a pedestrian would merit a "thank you" because otherwise I would run you over. Exactly! Because people cross the streets as if they belonged to them, or if they had a license plate stuck on their behinds! 

The same with people inside stores. Hey, just because you have a shopping cart doesn't mean you can zoom by in between aisles without even a short "'scuse me". Come on!!! Common courtesy!!! If I am looking at something on a rack, and you have your cart and want to cross to the other side of the aisle, just say "excuse me, please", and I will gladly give way for you. But don't just push your cart and expect me to move over because you're the king or queen of the store! And after I let you through, not even a smile or a "thanks". 

Maybe I'm getting old and stuff like this bothers me more than before, or maybe it is happening more often than before. In any case, I would like to see and hear people use courtesy phrases more often. You can't be too courteous! But you can be plenty rude!!! 

So there! I'll put my soapbox back in the corner where it was. And by the way, thank you for listening... 8-)

Take it easy...

That's what my hubby & I do on Saturdays. He usually gets up before I wake-up, feeds the horses, and sometimes goes to El Mesón, to have breakfast. Other times, he waits for me to wake-up, we go to have breakfast together, and then he goes to the gym while I go visit my mom. THEN, the adventure begins. We get home, he takes a shower, sometimes we take a nap, and off we go!!! By then we are hungry, so we have to find a place to eat. And for that, we go inland! Here are some pictures of some of the places we have been to.

This is a "lechonera" in Barceloneta. A lechonera is a very common place in Puerto Rico where you go and eat roast pork, usually cooked on a stick, on top of charcoal.

http://rokadurapr.com/

This place is in Orocovis, on top of a mountain. My husband RARELY goes back to a place. We have been here twice, and are looking forward to returning!

This was my plate, mofongo de churrasco. heavenly!!!!!!!!!!

My hubby's; mofongo con costillitas.

Dessert!!!!!! 8-)

  And so, my friends, this is how we spend Saturdays. I am seriously thinking of changing the name of this blog to "Mormoneater", instead of Mormonknitter. hehe

...Did I tell you about Mothers' Day?...

Well, on the Saturday previous to Mothers' Day, my hubby took me on a "tapas" tour. I think tapas is the Mexican word for appetizer, or something. Anyway, we started on La Boca, in Barceloneta, PR, eating alcapurrias. Only one each, because our trip had just begun. Then we took the beach road to Arecibo, another town in Puerto Rico. Beautiful sights all the way. Once in Arecibo we had pinchos by the lighthouse. Pinchos are the Puertorican version of kabobs. These were made of pork and chicken...yummmmmmmmm. 8-) After that, we had "empanada de ceti". Ceti is a tiny, tiny fish that comes to the shores of Arecibo once a year. When I say tiny, I mean TINY! About the length of a fingernail. Tiny!!! The "empanadilla" was full to explode with these little fishies. mmm nice! After that, we headed home, but first we stopped at the local IHOP, recently opened, and enjoyed chocolate chip and strawberry/banana pancakes...at 2:00 p.m....what an end to a great day! 

On Sunday, he prepared fried sierra with yuca. What a guy! That's why I love him so much! Because he has creative forms of celebrating the most common of holidays.

And that, my friends, is how we celebrated Mothers' Day. How did you celebrate it? Let me know! 

See ya!!
8-)

...on turning 50...

Not me, I still have a few months to go. My husband turned 50 yesterday. Wow! We have been together, including our dating years, for over 30 years! Time does fly! The thing is, I don't remember "growing to be 50." We met on our second day at the ROTC, on our fourth day of college. No biggie! Our professor, Cpt. Vega, had randomly chosen the first and last names of the student list to be the class leader and the assistant class leader. Those names "happened" to be mine and his. His was the first, mine the last. So I was appointed class leader.

The day we actually met, two days later, I asked him, "do you know who this so and so is?", and he told me it was he. We had to work together to plan class activities, PE's, and things like that. That was on August of 1979. By April of next year we were going steady. The rest, as they say (I have never known who "they" are) is history. We were both 18 when we met. Well, actually, I turned 18 about a month later.

Now, 30+ years later, I love him more than ever. 

I remember reading a story with my sixth grade students. It was titled "Eleven", by Sandra Cisneros. In it, the girl who tells the story is turning 11, and she says that it doesn't feel any different from being 10. Well, I guess it's the same whether you are 11 or 50. It doesn't feel any different...or so my hubby said. It's not like you suddenly get more gray hairs, or more wrinkles... it's just another day. It so happens that on that day, you add one to your birthdays... and you can apply for AARP...hehe

So, I'll let you know what 50 will feel like to me. And maybe you can tell me what turning whichever age you are felt to you.

Sad day....

Last Sunday, Patrick, the little lamb who I was nurturing because his momma was desperate & didn't know what to do, died. The last time I tried to feed him, he just kept his mouth open, didn't swallow nor tried to suckle. Poor baby...I'm glad to know that all animals do have spirits, and that he is in a spirit world, happy and strong...

Hey, there!!!

Spring is here and so the new lambs, as you can see from my previous posts... The one who was born the latest, Patrick, needs to be nurtured also. His mom is a wonderful mom, but I think there is something wrong with him. He seems to have a tiny hernia right next to his belly button. BTW, he lost the piece of umbilical cord way too soon. He tries to suckle from his momma, but it's as if he didn't know how. And he's already a week old!! Today, his momma has "adopted" the other two babies I posted about, and has ignored this one...I guess I'll have to bring him inside the house and keep him until he gets bigger...poor Patrick!

I have also been uploading some pictures to Picasa, please feel free to hop over & take a look at them. 8-)

Gotta go now check on baby Patrick. Rosita & Baby Huey are doing fine, as is Patricia. 

Hug someone today!!!!

8-)

New Babies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have been blessed with two new babies, yesterday & today. A girl yesterday, and today a boy.

Here are the pics...

This precious girl lamb was born on March 16, 2011...8-)

And this cutie, a boy, was born today, March 17, 2011. Maybe I'll name him Patrick.

Brand new babies...8-)

Last month one of our ewes gave birth to what my hubby & I consider to be a preemie lamb. Yup, a preemie!! She was born on Feb. 7. Usually, all our moms give birth by the end of February. This little one was so tiny, it couldn't reach up to suckle. Poor thing!!!! I immediately declared, "my sheep gave birth to a chihuahua!!" She was the size of a 20 oz. bottle of water....hehe

So I have been nurturing the microscopic sheep, named her Rosita, and she is thriving! So cute! 

Like the headband I made for her?

After that, our oldest mom gave birth to a humongous lamb!!! Quite a contrast! Look at the size of those legs!! Huge!She is not being herself, she has diarrhea, and is not eating very well, though, and I am afraid I'll end up nurturing this one as well...

I'll let you know some more as time goes by.
Have a fun day! 

Topsy-Turvy

That's exactly how the world seems right now. I know I haven't blogged in a long time. However, here I am once again, trying to think what to say.
Things around the world have suddenly turned violent; both in humanity and in nature. You have the winter weather here in the States, heat waves in South America, then you have Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Wisconsin, Puerto Rico, and I can go on and on...oh! I just got the breaking news from CNN about the barrel of oil hitting $100.
Things are not looking good. As a matter of fact, they will get even worse BEFORE they get any better. So I have to ask; Are YOU ready? For anything?
By "ready" I mean, do you have food stored in case you lose your job or some natural disaster happens? Do you have money stashed away for the same reasons? Do you have a small garden in which you can plant some veggies?
Some people think this way of thinking is too "gloom & doom"...well, IT IS!! Life is not getting any cheaper with higher food prices, gas, electricity, etc. The time for preparedness is, well, almost over. I want to encourage you to, as I said, store food, tons of water, medicines, first aid stuff, money, some fuel... because it will not be a matter of "if", but "WHEN".
I am giving you some links to help you get started. Please do SOMETHING! Even an extra box of macaroni is something...

http://www.survivalblog.com/2010/10/good_planning--did_you_remembe.html
www.totallyready.com
www.providentliving.com
http://www.iwillprepare.com/
http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/survive-anything-chapter-2-food-crisis_12052010

These are only a few, just Google "emergency preparedness", or any similar words, and you'll find zillions of links. Read them, and may you find peace knowing that you are ready.

A word about...

That is why neither education, nor disarmament, nor armament, nor negotiation, nor all of them in combination are likely to create a world or a neighborhood of lasting peace. To do that, a change has to come into human hearts. The change must be in what people want. Almost everyone in the world has heard of what that change is, because it is common to religions and philosophies across the world and across the centuries. It is said differently in the scriptures and writings of others, but the words you will recognize best are these: "Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets" (3 Nephi 14:12). Blessed Are the Peacemakers HENRY B. EYRING -Henry B. Eyring was commissioner of education and a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this fireside address was given at Brigham Young University on 6 February 1994.