A Visit From a Friend

This past weekend our friend who now lives in Abu Dhabi came into town.  Conveniently, a few other friends were in town.  We had a jolly good time.  We went to our favorite brewery on three separate occasions to enjoy incredible beer, and what is most likely the best nachos on Earth.

Here we are at the brewery, awaiting our nachos.



Here is Carlos showing his friends his robot arm.

 

 Here we are enjoying drinks at a bar.

Next we will be visiting our friend in Abu Dhabi!



Graduations, NAMI 5k, and Birthday Parties

May 6 we celebrated my sister-in-law's 25th birthday.  My mother-in-law graduated with her bachelor's degree on May 7.  It was a busy weekend with lots of family in town.    After graduation we went to a mantanza!  For anyone who is unfamiliar with what that is:  A mantanza is a celebration that takes an entire day, and consists of slaughtering an animal (in this case a pig), butchering it, and then cooking it all day.  And at the end of the day there is more than enough food to go around.  At this mantanza there was a DJ and dancing also.  In the photo below you can see my mother-in-law with three of her children.  Her other son was unable to come down for graduation.

Last weekend was very fun.  We were originally planning on going up to Albuquerque for the NAMI fundraiser, but it turns out that there was a lot more going on that weekend anyways.

Upon arrival on Friday we dropped off all of our belongings at Carlos' grandma's house and then headed to an American Society of Civil Engineers Younger Member happy hour event.  It was basically how it sounds, just a small gathering of engineers sitting around socializing and drinking cocktails.  The event was at a very nice rooftop bar.  The theme of the bar is the prohibition era, including period cocktails and music.  It was neat.  Following the happy hour we headed to downtown Albuquerque where we enjoyed some New York style pizza.  After pizza we headed to a bar and pool hall to meet some friends for a birthday celebration.  It was good to see our old friends, but could not stay long.

Saturday we got up bright and early and headed to the NAMI walk.  There were a lot of people (and dogs), and the energy was wonderful.  The New Mexico NAMI walk raised about $85,000 for the cause.

After the walk we headed back to Grandma's, showered and packed up.  From there we headed to the Sandia Casino to celebrate my cousin's highschool graduation.  The party was at a delicious buffet.  It was wonderful to see so many family members who I hadn't seen in years... and years.

The photo below includes my Dad, his 3 living siblings (the other 3 were there in spirit), their spouses, my cousin Alicia (who just graduated), my brother, myself, and Uncle Billy's granddaughters, oh yeah, and one young man who snuck into the picture.

After this graduation party, we headed to a surprise party for Carlos' uncle.  It was fun, and he was definitely surprised.  It was a part of Carlos' family that I had never met before.  We then went to my brother's house where we stayed the night.

After a delicious breakfast Sunday morning, we showered, packed up, and headed back to Carlos' grandma's.  We went out to eat with family, and then headed back to Cruces!

Good times... good times!



Camping

Last weekend we went camping at Lake Roberts!  My husband and I drove up early Saturday morning and left Sunday afternoon.  We met my parents and sister there, who arrived on Friday. It was nice and cool out, but windier than we would have liked.  Of course we had a lot of delicious camp food.  And we spent a good deal of time fishing.  I caught a fish! 

Actually it took three of us to catch that one fish.  At some point my line and my husband's line became tangled.  As I was reeling in the fish my line broke!  I thought I lost the fish, since it dropped back into the water.  However, my line was so tangled with my husband's that my husband was able to reel in the fish.  Once the fish was above the deck it somehow got off of the hook.  My dad managed to grab it with his hands just before it would have dropped back into the water.

The fish was delicious!  We are planning on going camping at least a couple more times this year!

6 Years!

Six years ago I started dating my soul mate!

Cheers! ;)

NAMI Walk

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) provides awareness and free support and education about mental illness.  You can read more about NAMI on their national website.

Carlos and I have decided to participate in one of their major fundraising events, a 5k walk on May 14.

We have a goal of raising at least $100 each, and can receive donations online at our individual websites, or via check/cash.  Should any of you wish to donate:  Please contact me if you wish to donate via check or cash.  If you are comfortable and able to make an online donation you can do so at the following locations:

My Website
Carlos' Website

My husband, mother-in-law, and I have been attending a free 12 week course for family caregivers of individuals with severe mental illness.  The course is taught by people who have also been caregivers of a person with mental illness.  The course covers topics such as: information on the illness, medications, communication, workshops, strategies for handling conflicts, locating support and services within the community, gaining empathy, current research relating to the biology of mental illness, etc.  We have also found a local NAMI support group to be quite helpful.

Mental illness is still something that tends to be quite misunderstood and contains a stigma that it should not.  Should your life ever be affected by mental illness, please seek support.  Don't be afraid of what people may think.  The right support can make all the difference in the challenges that mental illness can create.

My Husband's Birthday

My husband had an enjoyable birthday this year, and, of course, I got to enjoy it with him.  On his birthday we ate with family at a local Vietnamese restaurant called Pho Saigon.  We had some meatball Pho, spring rolls, beef rib tips, etc.  For anyone who is unfamiliar with Vietnamese food, a spring roll is similar to an egg roll, but it is wrapped with rice paper instead, and is not fried.  Pho (pronounced fuh) is a rice noodle soup with a choice of meat/shrimp in broth with rice noodles & vegetables.  The Pho is served with a plate of things to be added to the soup (cilantro, bean sprouts, jalapeno, lemon).

The day after his birthday we celebrated with friends.  My husband decided that he wanted to go out to eat and then play laser tag.  The closest place to play laser tag is about 45 minutes away in a different city, so we decided to choose a restaurant near there.  We wanted to do some sort of prank for April Fools Day.  While it may sounds lame, it actually turned out to be pretty funny for us.  We told everyone that we were eating at Olive Garden (which is just next door to the restaurant that we actually ate at).  Initially we were all going to carpool in a van, but that didn't end up happening, which allowed the prank to be funnier.  My husband, a friend, and I were the first to arrive at the restaurant that we were actually eating at.  Two more groups of friends were to arrive.  As they arrived they would text us to see if we were there, and we told them that we had a table.  Anyways... So our friends ended up looking for us in the Olive Garden, and obviously could not find us.  We didn't let them look too long, and were able to state "April Fools", and let them know that we were just next door.  They didn't appear to be too annoyed by it.  We had a very enjoyable meal.

After dinner, we went to play laser tag (although only four of us were able to stick around for that portion).  It was a lot of fun!  There were a lot of players there, which made it extra fun, and our team won. Yea!

After playing laser tag, we spotted an interesting store.  It was called Entertainmart.  The lights were so bright!

It's basically a store that sells used movies, music, and video games.  The prices weren't bad, but there wasn't really any order to the items inside.  It, actually looked very organized.

It was in order by category (movie, game, music), but there was no category or alphabetizing within those categories.  It was at least interesting to check out.

We got to celebrate his birthday a third time last night.  My mother-in-law made beef enchiladas, beans, and a special dessert for Carlos.  Cheesecake!  We also enjoyed a nice night time walk.  :)



Video footage of the weekend can be seen here.

Some Time to Myself

This past week my husband was out of town from Wednesday until 5:00 a.m. on Sunday morning (he was in Phoenix for a high school robotics competition with the team that he mentored).  I enjoyed the time to myself and got to do a lot for myself that I have been wanting to do.  I got the usual chores done (cleaning, grocery shopping, etc), but was able to have a lot of relaxing "me time".  I rented a couple of chick flicks, took a bubble bath, did my nails, finished my book, took a nap, ate a frozen dinner (I can't remember the last time I've had one of those)...  You know, things of that nature.

And yet... the best part of the weekend:  When my husband got home! :)