Temecula Hot Rod Car Show

Last Friday Paul, Matt, Hiedi and us went to the Temecula Annual Hot Rod Car Show. The event takes place in Temecula Old Town. The streets of Old Town Temecula were full of cars of people that are passionate about their cars and have put a lot of time and money in their cars. Some cars were parked on the sides of the road and others were cruising their cars down Main Street. Here are pictures of some of the cars.

"The Four Doctors"

Last Friday our friends Paul, David C. and us went to a great choir/orchestra concert at the Loma Linda University Church. It was the beginning of the annual special weekend honoring the Loma Linda School of Medicine. The concert was by the California Baptist University Choir and Orchestra.

Immediately following the concert we went to the unveiling of S. Wesley Kime's painting "The Four Doctor" at the School of Medicine building. Above is a picture of the painting. The photo is kind of dark so look closely and you can see The Four Doctors.

Sabbath Afternoon

It was great to go out for a short hike and get some sunshine and lots more oxigen than usual into our system!

Our friends Matt and Hiedi called us wanting to go for a hike somewhere and since we had the same desire off we went to the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve Trails. It was fun to go for a hike with friends. Above is a picture I took of Amor, Matt and Hiedi as we hiked.

Midway Museum

The chairs of the airplanes are automatic parachutes. They are designed to shoot out of the airplanes in case of emergencies.

Instrument use to help direct the airplanes landing and taking off the Midway runnway.

We went to the Midway Museum this last Sunday. The Midway is the longest serving aircraft carrier in the United States Navy. Used in War World II and the liberation of Kuwait in 1991. It is a real American aircraft carrier!
The Midway is now a Historical Museum located at downtown San Diego Navy Pier. We learned a lot about Naval-Aviation life and history.

Alden Thomson

Last Sabbath afternoon we had the privilege to attending the Tierrasanta SDA Church in San Diego to listen to Dr. Alden Thompson. Dr. Alden Thomson is a professor of biblical studies at Walla Walla College Washington. He is also a speaker, a seminar presentor and an author of many books.
Amor has read three of his books; "Inspiration" "Who is Afraid of the old Testament God?" and "Escape from the Flames". We had heard him before a few years ago when he visited the Sunnyvale SDA Church. It was very refreshing to hear him again.

Dotty

Last week we had to put our cat Dotty to sleep. She was not doing well at all. We have been taking her to the vet and trying different treatments and she was not getting better. Her health was deteriorating more and more. She was vomiting almost every day (some days even three times) and doing a lot of other things. We think she was suffering.
It was a hard thing to do, especially for Amor. Dotty was his cat for 15 years. We do miss her.

Dad Harty's Surgery

Last week Dad Harty had knee repacemet surgery in both knees. We went to Tracy where they live to be with them the day of the surgery and the first week of his recovery. The surgery went well.
His recovery is also going well. But it's painful and a lot of work because it requires moving his legs right after sugery, doing exercices, learning to walk with his new legs and therapy. Dad Harty is a good patience. He is recovering at home now and doing very well. We keep praying for God to give him strength to continue to make it to his complete recovery.

Taking Nany to San Francisco

Last Monday my siters, Carlos Amor and I took our cousin Nany to San Francisco. It was a completelly clear day!!!! Not a cloud in the sky. As you can see in this picture, the view was incredible clear in any direction. Perfect to go to all the sight seeing places of the city. It was cold but the sun was good in warming us up.
This is the first time we have been in San Francisco with NO FOG all day anywhere not even at night since we could see the moon and even the stars clearly. It was a Great Clear Day in Our Favorite City.

Visiting Elmshaven

Last Sunday we took our cousin Nany to Elmshaven. Elmsheaven is Ellen white last house. It is the house where she died. Nany, like many of us adventist have an interest to visit this place when in the area of Napa Valley and the Pacific Union college. We had a great tour of the house by the two sweetest innkeepers of the house. We love visiting historic sites, this one especially more so since was the house of a great woman used by God, a woman we have been learning about and reading her books all our lives.

Our Visit to the Historic Beringer Vineyards

Us at the Historic Beringer Vineyards We had a great time since we got together with my
sisters, my brother, Carlos and my father there to take our cousin Nany on a visit of the beautiful Napa Valley. It is our cousin's Nany firts time in California. My sister Ada lives in the area up the mountain in Angwin, PUC. Ada gave us a great meal at her home. She has a great place with a view of the Napa Valley.

Taking Nany to The California Napa Valley Wine County

Last sunday we took Nany to the Napa Valley. We took a tour of the historic Beringer Vineyards, one of the many in the Napa Valley Wine County. This winery is the oldest continuously operating winery in the Napa Valley. We learned a lot about the history of the Beringer Vineyards and also about how wine is made. The pictures show one of the stone cellar caves of the winery where wine is store. Very Educational.

Family Together for My Uncle's Jose L. Chavanz Memorial Service

Family that came for my uncle Jose memorial
service. My cousin Yohany (midle) came from Panama. Yohany(we call her Nany) is the only one that came. She came representing the relatives that could not come from Panama. We had not seen her for many years so we had a lot catching up to do. My sister Ada came from PUC, my brother Cesar, my sister Ana and her husband Carlos and my parents came from Sacramento and us from Temecula. Notice even the two family dogs came too.

My aunt Blanca had a house full. She was so greatful that we all came. She was always cooking and wanted us to eat a lot. She made sure we were all at the church an hour before the memorial service started. We are so greatful for aunt Blanca. She took the best care fo our uncle Jose.

My Uncle Jose L. Chavanz Memorial Service

This weekend we went back to Moorpark for
My Uncle Jose L. Chavanz memorial service.
It turned out to be a very special event. Friends
that my parents have not seen for years came.
My parents and my uncle went to the same Adventists
college in Costa Rica and they had friends in common
so it was great to see their friends from collage again.

My uncle's wished was to be cremated. Below is a
picture of his urn, flowers and pictures of him as it
was for his service. His memorial service was
beautiful. There was great music(my uncle loved
music), great testimonies from friends and family,
the reading of a letter he wrote a few months before
his death, a power point presentation with pictures
of his life from his parents to his last year of life, and a
sweet and powerful message from one of my uncle's dear
friend, Pastor Jurado who came from Canada for the
occasion.

My Uncle Jose Chavanz Dies

December 28 at around 5:30 p.m. my uncle Jose Lucio Chavanz dies at his home. He was my mother's younger brother. He had been having problems with his heart and other health problems especially more so the last two years.
It was hard to hear the news of his death. When my aunt Blanca called my parents to tell them that he was dying they packed to fly from Sacramento to Moorpark as soon as they could. My parents have been with her ever since. They were with her when my uncle's body was taken from his house, taken away for ever. They said it was a very hard moment.

Amor and I went to be with them Friday until after New Year. We were glad to be there to help. There is a lot of work to do when someone dies. The above picture shows my Mom, my aunt and a friend working in the details of his memorial service. Notice my uncle's picture in the middle of the table. His memorial service will be Sunday January 7 at 4:00 p.m. at the Simi Valley SDA Church 1636 Sinaloa Rd. Simmi Valley, CA 93065

We ask for prayers for our family as we go through this sad and hard time.

Chirstmas Day With the Harty Family

Christmas Day was a Harty Family Celebration. Mom and Dad Harty were already staying with us then Stew(Gordon's brother) came with his wife Linda and their two boys Erik and Andrew. They live in Texas. It took them two and a half days to drive here. We wish Richard (Gordon's older brother) and his family had come also. We miss them.We cooked, ate, open gifts, listen to music, and played a Christmas vertion of Family Feud that was a lot of fun. We culminated the night by watching the movie CARS. The movie was one of Dad Harty's Christmas gifts.We love it that Christmas Day was celebrated at our place.

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve was a lot of fun! Our group was; Mom and Dad Harty, also our friends David, Matt and Hiedi came and Amor and I.We cooked, had dinner, talked and laughed a lot (Matt is very funny), listen to music and had a great time until about 1:30 a.m. We enjoyed having this gathering at our place. We think we should do gatherings more often

Mom and Dad Harty's Rental Car

Mom and Dad Harty come from Tracy to celebrate Christmas with us here in Temecula. They rented a car for their trip here. The rental car was exactly like our new car we purchase a month ago. The difference was that the rental Matrix did not have a sun roof. See the two cars side by side in our garage.

LADY Is No Longer in the Family

I am sad to announce that LADY in no longer in the family. LADY is Amor's green Acura (it looks black in this picture but LADY is really dark green). It got the name of LADY by Amor's brothers because LADY are the first 4 letters in it's licence plate. It has been in the family for 11 an a half years. It used to belong to Amor's brother Stew. Stew's first son Erik came home from the hospital when he was born in the LADY. Them Amor became the next owner of the LADY for the last 8 years. It was the car he had when we were dating. So many romantic memories of places in the San Francisco Bay Area we went with the car :-) It is also the car we had have now that we are married. It was a very special car.

LADY never gave us any problems since my hubby took good care of it. But lately it was coming to need lot's of mayor maintenance that were worth more than the car. It was also loosing its paint and needed to be repainted. So after thinking about replacing it for a year, it has finally happened. We have replaced LADY with a 2003 Toyota XR corolla Matrix. This one has a CD player so we are enjoying playing music and listening to audio CD books as we drive places.

Following is a quick picture I took of our new Toyota as Amor is backing out of our garage ready to drive it to work for the first time. He loves his new car. It has all the extras with the exception of navigation.

Thanksgiving!

We had our Thanksgiving get together with my family this year. We drove up to Sacramento Wednesday to my parent's house. It was so nice to be there that even after the long drive north(almost 10 hours) we had energies to stay up until midnight just visiting talking and catching up.

The next day, the morning was full of the fun busy activities in preparing the food. My mother cooked some delicious garbanzos and also rice. Amor and I worked in our contribution to the meal which was a zucchini, black bean, cilantro and salad greens salad. We also prepared a home made salad dressing to go with it.

At two we drove to my sister's place to where both the Funes and the Sousa( the sousas are my sisters husband Carlos family) gather. We had a great meal and great fun eating, visiting and playing games until midnight.


We had a lot of food! The meal was; Garbanzos, rice, sliced creamey bake potatoes , vegetables, vegetarian meat, freshly brake home made wheat bread, salad and turkey(Carlos' family is not vegetarian). We also had apple/cherry pie with icecream. We were so full that the next day no one ate until lunch.

Family gatherings are therapeutic and a great blessing. I thank God for giving us a family. It is a great gift from God to have a family that is there to support each other in the good and hard times.