And if you ever saw him you would even call him names

Does your family have nicknames? Mine sure does and Roger is the head namer. I like names like princess, sweetheart and honey. Roger is a more original kind of guy. He calls me "Ca-Ca" which is Spanish slang for poop. You have no idea how loved I feel when he calls me this. Sometimes he refers to me as "Bad-girl". We call Katherine "mama" which is pretty typical for the Spanish to call a young girl. Even thought Roger is Spanish we don't try to act any certain way, some things just work their way in. We have an American Thanksgiving with Turkey and Ham and a Spanish Christmas with Spanish pork, yuca, and flan. Anyway I call Matthew, "Mattie-moo". Go figure, I am what the Spanish call "Cracker". I think this translates to "white country girl". Gabriel is "Tilly". Don't ask where Roger got that 'cause I have no idea. I call Roger "Fat-boy". I call him that because he called me Fat-girl" when I was pregnant with Katherine, difference is his name stuck. I didn't know until about 3 years ago the Harley Davidson has a bike called a FATBOY. A friend of mine bought him a hat with the logo on it! Once I called Roger at work and his boss answered, I said "Fatboy please". He put Roger down as "fatboy" on all his paperwork and his co-workers got a kick out of it especially since he isn't fat. My children call my mother "grandmommy". Roger changed it to "grandterrible". So if Roger ever calls you a name...don't think anything of it, it means he likes you.

Merriest Christmas

On the street I saw a small girl
cold and shivering in a thin dress,
with little hope of a
decent meal.
I became angry and said to God:
"Why did you permit this?
Why don't you do something
about it?"
For awhile God said nothing.
That night he replied, quite
suddenly:
"I certainly did something
about it.
I made you."

Precious Gifts

Last years Christmas kinda set there like flat Coke. I know there are always things to be grateful for so I guess I wasn't looking hard enough. I have finally figured out WHY God lets us go through tough times... so we will appreciate the GOOD TIMES all the more. 2004 wasn't a great year but if you graded this year "2005" by wines IT WAS A GREAT YEAR! People will be asking for the year 2005 to drink with their dinner for years to come! We bought a house and now it is literally worth double what we paid. Roger got paid much better at work. Lucie asked me to be her child's Godmother, I got more photo jobs, a new van, Jose' is coming home, my mom and I are getting along better than ever, the new friends we have made. I am telling you people, it just can't get much better! Or so I thought... Christmas has been unbelievable. Having the puppies AND selling them, the cruise Roger and I got to go on, my camera broke but Minolta has to fix it for FREE! I feel like I have been at a slot machine and all the coins are coming down and the machine stops and I WON! So I am jumping around acting like a fool because I won a million dollars and thinking IT DOESN'T GET BETTER THAN THIS when the floor manager comes walking up and says, "CONGRATULATIONS!" You are the hundredth person to win on that machine! You have just won a BILLION dollars! Well Roger and I won MUCH more than that today. Roger's daughter Nicole has come back into our lives in a huge way. We have no more brick walls and iron bars standing in our way! We love her with all our hearts and now our family will be complete. Gold, frankincense and Nicole ... WHAT PRECIOUS GIFTS!

Safe, warm and loved!

All of the puppies have a wonderful new home now. Four of the seven are with people I know. I sold the other three on PuppyFind. I turned a few people down so the puppies would have what I thought would be the best home for them. This is a picture of "Snow"(sleeping) who is now known as Caddie. She lives in Bradenton with her new mom and dad who love golf, hence the name. She has 2 cocker spaniel sisters who both came to pick her up and one was wearing a Harley Davidson blue jean jacket! This is a photo Caddie's mom sent me of her sleeping. "Autumn" is now known as Luna. Her mom lives in North Port and came to pick her up in a puppy car seat! "Pumpkin" is now known as "Dooley" and living in North Georgia. He is pictured above too with some of his new family after they were SURPRISED with him! Those smiles did it for me! "Harvest" ended up as a SUPER GIFT. She started out with someone who decided that they didn't have the time they thought to train a puppy so someone else we knew who REALLY wanted her got her for free with $100 in puppy stuff to boot! Her name is Isis now, which means "white and pure" and she is loved and adored. Of course you know Bartholomeu is with us and Loala is living the life with her dad Buddy (the puppies dad). He lets her get away with everything and sometimes when he is laying in the floor she will go to him, curl up in his arms and go to sleep! Last but not least, we have "Casper", our only white male. He is going to live on Marco island in the first part of the New Year. He will have a Boxer brother named Harley and can you even guess what his name will be? DAVIDSON! So glad all the puppies will be safe, warm and loved! Hope you all feel a good as Loala, this wonderful Christmas season! MERRY CHRISTMAS! (View more pic's of the puppies at www.flickr.com/photos/tenea )

And their off! Gone! Outa here!

Okay, Okay, I know I said I would talk more about our cruise, so here we go...It was great! I highly recommend one! Now on to other things...
Every year one of my favorite things to do are my Christmas cards. It's my gift to myself. I pick out my cards with great care, think and think and think about what the kids will wear,(not that the color ended up mattering THIS year because I ended up liking the black & white photo the best)where I will take it, and what type of note to put inside the card. I start thinking about this in July. It can be a newsy letter, a crazy poem or a special story. I put a lot of ME in those cards and if you receive one of these cards, you are getting a part of me... kind of like my left pinky severed and laying on your dining room table... I take A LOT of pictures because kids act a little nuts when you dress them up, fix their hair, and ask them to smile for a straight hour. They do things like in the photo above. THIS IS NOT THE PHOTO I HAVE IN THE CHRISTMAS CARDS! You will not see it until you open YOURS! Your very own piece of me...

Cruising to Cozumel

Have you guys began to wonder if I ate something bad in Mexico and was never going to blog again? Not quite. I almost didn't return but it wasn't because of rotten HORSE MEAT, it was because of Roger and his friend Greg FORCING me to ride on a mo-ped in excess of (what they claimed to be) 75 miles an hour. Other than that, I had a great time. We left on Dec 1st and came back Dec 5th. My mom and cousin came from North Georgia to watch the children and the puppies went to see DADDY (mommy went too). The best advice I can give you for a cruise is:
"RULES TO CRUISE BY"

1. Don't "up-grade" to a room with a view. There isn't anything better than sleeping in a cool, pitch black room with lots of covers and having NO IDEA what time it is.
2. Take walkie talkies, because by the time you find the person you are looking for you will want to toss them OVERBOARD.
3. Don't make long distance phone calls home to check on the children because the call WON'T even go thru and you'll still be stuck with a bill for $13.00 for even ATTEMPTING it.
4. Don't eat much for breakfast or lunch because you will want to CHOW DOWN at DINNER.
5. Buy one soda card for unlimited soft drinks instead of two like the rules say you have too. Trust me, they will never know.
6. And that Cuban Cigar you want to buy? DO IT! Customs doesn't look. (and now I can't go BACK!)
More on the cruise next blog. To view pictures from the trip go to www.flickr.com/photos/tenea