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.

Each Painting is a Sermon

Last week I worked as a substitute receptionist/taking orders for Hart Classic Editions. Hart Classics sells Nathan Greene's art work. Nathan Greene is a Seventh-day Adventist well know artist from Michigan. His studio is in Berrien Springs near Andrews Uninversity. I enjoyed talking to the people that called to ask questions and take orders. People are impress with Nathan Greene paintings for different reasons and sometimes they want to talk about it when they place their order. So I heard all kinds of stories.

I invite you to visit the website that shows the art work by Nathan Greene at www.hartclassics.com The paintings are just beautiful! Each painting is a sermon.
I have one, a print of the one title Storytime (Jesus sitting among the children in a classroom listening to the teacher read a story). I had it in my classroom when I was teaching.

TAGnet and Hart Classic are in the same office, this means I got to come to work with Amor, my dear husband every day(Amor works at TAGnet/NetAdventist). I was glad to have the experience to help sell this paintings. I did not know it will be this interesting. It was a blessing.

Panama independence Day!

Today, November 3 is the independence Day Celebration of Panama! A day like today, my country of Panama declare it's independence from Colombia (not from Spain)

The Spanish explorers arrived in Panama at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Colonization followed and Spain ruled the region for three centuries.

In 1821 Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela got their independence from Spain and formed the Republic of Grand Colombia.

Grand Colombia dissolved in 1830 and Colombia and Panama became Nueva Granada. But in November 3 of 1903, Panama declare independence from Colombia after a civil war that lasted from 1899-1903.

In 1903 the United States supported Panama in their independence and bought the rights to build the Panama Canal, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Here is a link to pictures of Panama, enjoy.

San Diego, Miramar Air Show

Last Sunday we went to the San Diego Air show in Miramar. I have seen the Blue Angels show over the San Francisco Bay area two times but have not really attended an all day Air Show before until last Sunday. I am not into airplanes but Amor is (he is a pilot). Amor looked forward going to the Air Show for months and I was excited because he was. So we took some water, our chair, ear plugs and off we went. Our friends David and Allan came too. The event was bigger than what I had ever imagine! It was pack with people, there were all kinds of great exhibits everywhere and always some demostration show flying over the sky. We did not know where to look or be. When at the exhibits, we were missing the airplane shows. Since the exhibits had long lines we decided to go find a good place to sit and enjoy the Air show. We found a place with a good view of the the runway, I could not believe we were that close to the runway. The airplanes went by us slowly at first which allowed us to take a good look at the airplanes when going to get ready for take off, then they went by fast and loud as they took off. It was so great to watch the airplanes as we hear information about the pilot, the history of the airplane(s) and the different demostrations and simulations they were doing. The Blue Angels were the culmination of the show. This year is the Blue Angels 60th Anniversary Celebration so they did an extra long demostration. I was fantastic! We decided we come again next year but not for just one day, we will come one day to see the exhibits and the other day to enjoy the air show. The San Diego Fleet Week runs for a month so we could go two Sundays easily.

Taking Anas to San Francisco

Just before our fly to Sacramento to help in my father's recovery from his stroke, Amor got notice that one of the engineers that he help trained while in India three years ago was in Berkeley for a few weeks on a work assignment. His name is Anas. He did not know anybody and did not have a car so we decided to show him around before Amor had to go back south to work. My sister and her husband let us use their car and we had a day in San Francisco with Anas. It was Anas first time in the US. We had a lot of fun showing him around. Like always the city was beautiful. He loved San Francisco.
Anas is back in India now. He said that the only time he went out sight seeing during his days in the US was the day we took him to the city. We were glad we did that for him. Being back in San Francisco was a treat for us as well. Being there once more reminded me that San Francisco is my favorite city. I miss living in the area.

A Little Taste of L A

I had a great time visiting my parents. I was sad to leave because it was so rewarding to help them and they still need someone to drive them to the store when they need something, to their doctor's appointments and to church. As I was in the plane flying back I wishsed I was not leaving them. But once I saw Amor at the airport I felt better. He was so sweet in welcoming me back. He had come early and waited for over half an hour in the packing lot(my plane was not late). It is so good to know that he loves me so much. He is the greatest blessing from heaven for me!!!

Saturday afternoon we dediced to escape to Los Angeles. Since we moved here we have gone to San Diego many times but not to L A. Amor lived in Glendale when he was a little boy and remember some of L A from a child's perspective. But I don't know L A at all. By the time we got there was already Saturday afternoon a so we only had the afternoon to explore the big city.
After we found a place for lunch, we decided to go to Holywood. Holywood was very busy and full of people so we decided to go to Beverly Hills; it is a gorgeous neiborhood! Since it was a beautiful day, we decided to go up to the Holywood mountains(hills). We took a scenic drive that had many stops to view the city. The sky was blue and clear, there was still some smog over the city but people told us it was less than usual.
It was so good go get away, get some good air, oxigen and know a new place. It was also very refreshing. Great times are always good and healthy for the soul and spirit.

"The heavens declare the Glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork" Psalm 19:1

Prayers For My Father

The past two weeks I have been in Sacramento. My father had a stroke so I went to help in his recovery. It affected his speech and some vision and motor skills. He is doing better but life is not the same for him. There are things he can't do any more and this is very hard for him and us the family. I enjoyed learning more about how my parents live the day to day routine and also taking them to the different doctors appointments and to the stores as my father can't drive. If he keeps improving hopefully he will be able to drive again. My father takes a daily walk around his neighborhood, I went with him some days, the days that he was able. One of the great things about visiting my parents is my mother's food. Her food it's simple rice and beans with vegetables and salad, but it is so good. She cooks low salt and uses olive oil but her seasoning is so good. It is also very healthy food. I was eating tree meals a day and I lost ome pound, I think it has to do that her food is low in calories. I felt like I was having a feast every day(this does not happened when I cook). They also eat lots of grains and fruits for breakfast. I ask for prayers for my parents; for my father's recovery and strength for my mother's as she needs it to take care of him.