Month: May 2018

I’m so overwhelmed, let me explain why.  In my blog entitled: “Improving My English”;  I mentioned my love of reading and how at the time when I could barely understand the language, much less read it, I got a hold of a book my husband Bill had.  The title was  “The Mark of the Lion”, book which I tried to read but understood very, very little; however, Bill would read and explain it to me as best as he could, his Spanish was just a little better than my English!  The book, written by Kenneth Sandford, tells of the real life events of a man  named Charles Upham and it covers his life since childhood in New Zealand, to his WWII exploits.   I was enthralled and never forgot the little bit that I understood.  Once I was able to understand English, I started looking for the book because I wanted to take my time to read and really understand the story; however, my search was fruitless because in looking for The Mark of the Lion, I was looking for the book believing the author to be Charles Oopham, that’s how his name was written in the edition I saw  and tried to read.  I didn’t recalled that the story had been written by Kenneth Sandford and didn’t know that the last name had been changed from Oopham to Upham.  I attribute my error on the fact that I didn’t understand what I was “reading”

Well, one evening a few weeks ago, my son came up to my room and after knocking and me saying “come in”,  he went in and handed me a parcel.  I had not ordered anything and was puzzled as to what was inside that parcel and kept turning it over and over trying to see who the sender was, until my son said:  “mom stop wondering who sent it and what it is and open the thing”, not necessarily in those words!  O yeah, silly me!  When I tore open the parcel and saw that it was a book, which I had turned upside down and to the back cover, didn’t take the time to read, but when I turned it to see the front, believe me, I started jumping and squealed so much and even had tears for I had tried to find the book and had never been successful in finding it.  When I learned to read English, I wanted to read that book and be able to understand it.  After my joyful jumping, squealing and crying, I grabbed my phone and sent a text message to my 8 children asking which of them had sent me the book, I was so sure that one of them had sent it to me.  My children love teasing me and I got back several messages saying:  Me, immediately followed by messages saying NOT.

Needless to say, those messages left me confused and my poor brain was in turmoil, I could not imagine who had sent me such a gift and given me so much joy; then one day looking at my FB page I see a message from a dear friend with whom we recently re connected (she and her husband live in the Dallas area)  Her message read:  “Did you received the book I sent you, see, I read your blog”  I was blown away and my heart swelled in thanksgiving and love for this lady who thought so much of me that she took it upon herself to find the book and have it shipped to me from England where she found it.

Carol, I know I sent you a message thanking you for your thoughtfulness and kindness, but I wanted to share with everyone who reads my blogs that because of you, I now have the opportunity to sate my desire to really read this book that impacted me all those years ago, even though I could barely understand it.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

‘Till next time!

Winter with those dark, gray skies, howling-bone chilling winds, heavy-wet and drifting snow were miserable for me.  One particular Saturday when the forecast was for heavy snow starting that evening, my husband decided to go into town to get some provisions and be back before the bad weather hit, or so he thought.  He got in the car and off he went; however, Mother Nature had other plans.  It started getting very dark quickly and soon a heavy, wet snow began to come down, it was such heavy snow fall that the snow drifts came to the middle of the back windows.  My husband, his name was Bill, had been gone for more than three hours, the temperature had dropped and I was worried that something may have happened to him; I was pregnant with my last child and had been ordered to bed rest.  Finally some five hours after Bill had left, there was a knock on the door and when our eldest son opened it, there stood my husband with icicles literally hanging off his nose, eyebrows and beard, he dropped the bags and collapsed on the couch beside me.  Under those miserable weather conditions, the car died on him and the wretched looking man had to walk about a mile to get home, and that became our last winter in Michigan.  Everything was not so bad during the winter months though, sometimes my husband’s boss would invite us to his home to have apple cider and other warm beverages and to ride on snowmobiles.  On one occasion, it was my turn for a ride and this very tall, broad man was driving and I, of course, was the passenger.  We had been riding for about an hour when the man asked me if I was cold, I said no.  I didn’t feel the wind because this man was so big, and me being economy size, the man’s size shield me from the wind so I didn’t feel cold; however, he was freezing!

After what seemed an eternity, the dark, cold days of winter became less cold and started giving way to the crisp, brighter days of spring when the air was filled with the aroma of different fruit blossoms, roses and other flowers.  I enjoyed spring time when we’ll go into the pine forest and hunt for morel mushroom and white asparagus by the railroad tracks.  I would cook those mushrooms with butter and what an awesome aroma, so delicious!   Very soon there came the long, humid, warmer days of summer.  Those long days were a novelty to me because in my country of Guatemala is 6 p.m. and is as if someone closes the shades and becomes dark, while in Michigan it was 10 p.m. and is bright day light.  During some of those lazy, warm summer days, we would go camping and we’ll let the kids play in the lake.  Some weekends, we would visit friends and grill, or just drive around the country roads.

The previous year we had made a trip and visited a town in the Gulf Coast of Texas,  we had been there four days when there was an order to evacuate because a hurricane had entered the gulf.  Upon arriving home, we learned that the hurricane had caused devastation in the town where we had been, phew!

After that miserable winter when we decided to move south, my baby was four months old when we packed and took a vacation before settling down in Texas.

Our choice for the vacation was to take our children to go see Niagara Falls.  Everything was going well until we were driving through Pennsylvania.  My husband was a very cautious driver and opted to drive the side roads so that we could see the country side of the places we were going through.  We had a station wagon, remember that those had side sitting in the back?  Well, the two older girls and two boys were riding there and all was well until my husband noticed in the rear view mirror that a state patrol car was chasing us with lights flashing…. I was scared and my husband told me that there was nothing to be afraid about because we had not been going fast….. well, the officer came asked for license and insurance, then the first question he asked was:  “Are all these children yours”  to which we both answered yes; then he asked the older boys if we were their parents and they said yes.  At that point the officer asked Bill to come to the back of the vehicle to open the tail gate, my husband did as he was asked and to his surprise one of the kids had a piece of cardboard where was written “HELP, I’M BEING KIDNAPED”  the sign had been put on the glass to be seen and read by whoever was behind us!!!   And this before we had reached our destination.  Needless to say, this child was moved to the middle of the back seat, directly within arm’s reach.

When we finally arrived first to Buffalo, we spent the night and the next day we headed to Niagara Falls, those spectacular, impressive falls – what a sight!  We visited the American side first then we crossed to the Canadian side where with me having some small kids, had the bright idea of putting dog leashes on my kiddos; of course, people gave me dirty looks but I didn’t care, I had my kids safe with me.  We spent two days in the area and then went back home to get our belongings and head south to the place we had chosen to become our new home.