Something's not quite right....

....about having all our windows open and it's 70+ degrees outside on December 29. Not for the northern hemisphere, anyway!

Love letter from my husband

I worked 3-11 tonight and when I got home, there was the sweetest note on the bathroom mirror from the sweetest man I know. (Christmas Day is also his birthday; this year he turned 35.) So anyway...it was written in Spanish, as that's the language of his heart, but I loved it enough to translate it so you all can catch a glimpse of the man I'm married to.

Thank you, BethAnn, for making me a birthday cake. Thank you so much for putting up with me all these years we've been married. May God bless you always.

You know, you're a precious woman, and I'm a not-so-good man [which I, BethAnn, totally disagree with]. You're a woman that perhaps many men would like as a wife and I know that I don't always value the beautiful things in you [yes, he does].

Thank you so much for all the ways you have helped me. Sleep well. I love you.



Merry Christmas, all, and Happy Birthday to the love of my life. Will post pictures when I get them uploaded.

This week's LOTR funny

Stupid, stupid, stupid

I just don't have words for this. It makes me so freaking angry.

I've got nothing against Border Patrol per se, and surely this is a very small minority, but it is absolutely unconscionable.

Christmas Daniel

Thanks, Photobucket!

I have been diddling around on Photobucket.com and this is what I found. I have many more saved to my 'puter but this is a small sampling.....enjoy. I'm guessing you've figured out that I did a LOTR search. :)

New (cool) immigration website

I just found a new website on immigration and it full of very useful information, even to someone like me who kind of knows a little bit about the issue. I've posted a link to it here also.

Daddy comes home tomorrow! Daniel and I will be so happy to see him!

La Virgen de Guadalupe

Today in Mexico is El Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe - Virgin of Guadalupe Day. Arguably, it's the 'highest', most important holiday in the Mexican calendar, as she is Mexico's patron saint. Mexicans often refer to her as La Morenita - the little brown one.



Several centuries ago, in 1531 to be exact, she supposedly appeared to an Indian peasant named Juan Diego (who was later canonized by John Paul II) over the course of 3 days from 12/9-12/12. According to the story, Juan Diego was walking from his town into the city (close to what's now Mexico city) where he saw the apparition of Mary and she spoke to him in Nahuatl (language of the Aztecs) telling him to build a church in her honor on that spot. He took this message to the city's priest, who then asked him for a sign. Mary supposedly told Juan Diego to gather some flowers from the site where she'd instructed the church be built. He did so, and took them back to the priest in his sack, the flowers fell out of his sack and the imprint left on the cloth supposedly looked something like this:

There are several different theories about this: 1) this image of Mary is darker skinned than the colonizing Spaniards depicted her, so Mary spoke to the indigenous peasants of Mexico and appeared to them in a form they could relate to; or that 2) this was their way of combining Catholicism and indigenous religions, as this image supposedly looked somewhat like the Aztec goddess Tonantzin.

Personally, we don't celebrate it as we're not Catholic, and we believe that there is only one mediator between God and man. But to understand Mexicans, you have to understand this holiday and the story behind it. The great Mexican writer Octavio Paz once said that "the Mexican people, after more than two centuries of experiments, have faith only in the Virgin of Guadalupe and the National Lottery."

Where do you see the Virgin of Guadalupe today in Mexican culture? Everywhere. She is on license plates, calendars, car air fresheners, jewelry, on the front of Mexican stores, T-shirts, hats, belt buckles, car window decals, you name it. Probably the most poignant reference I've ever seen to her was on the back on an oil painting depiction of a Mexican migrant crossing the border into the US; there was a prayer to her for protection. She's mentioned in songs of all genres, and if you watch the Latin Grammys, Mexican artists thank la Virgen for their success the way people here thank God. Good Mexican Catholic parents, if they are lucky enough to give birth on December 12th, name their children (boy or girl) Guadalupe.

So....to end this, I'm wishing my sister-in-law Guadalupe in Veracruz a very happy birthday (Felíz Cumpleaños). Seriously. Today is her birthday!

(some of this info I already knew, but credits to wikipedia for making up the difference!)

Quite by accident (though with God, who can really say it was an accident), I found the blog of a pair of doctors working in Uganda as missionaries with World Harvest Missions. It is absolutely riveting, and worth your time to read. After reading about HIV+ mothers, sick children, and Ebola, I realize that by comparison, I/we have it made. I've added a link so you can read it too.

On an unrelated note, Jesús is out of town doing some work for my parents, so Daniel and I are flying solo this week. Single parents and military families, I salute you!

Pubs Debate in Spanish

Ok, so in English but with Spanish voice dubbing, real-time interpretation, and it was broadcast only on Univision. We watched it to see what they would have to say...and not surprising, Tom Tancredo declined the invitation to debate. We didn't really miss him, quite frankly.

Like every debate there were many direct questions asked, very few directly answered.
We were least impressed with Mitt Romney, and it had nothing to do with the fact that he's Mormon. (I know that is what throws a lot of mainstream evangelicals.) It had to do with the fact that he did not answer a single question asked of him. He used it as a platform to defend a) the fence on the border; b) the fact that he didn't dismiss the undocumented Guatemalan workers doing landscaping work at his house until recently, though they had been working there for quite some time; and c) the war in Iraq. Dude, nobody asked you about the Guatemalans!

We were most impressed with John McCain, as we (or at least I) have been for some time. He seems to be forward-thinking, reasonable, and moderate. And, he actually answers the dang questions. He realizes that people need healthcare and until healthcare is affordable, we are going to keep having the same problems over and over again with insurance. He realizes that a border fence is only part of the solution to the immigration issue. He sees that these are real human beings that are affected by this issue. He's willing to admit that Congress failed to pass realistic immigration reform this year. (what?! A member of Congress willing to admit that?!) I respect his opinion on the war even if I don't fully agree with it because he too fought in a very unpopular war and was a POW.

We liked hearing more about Mike Huckabee. He's kinda come out of nowhere and seems to have some pretty moderate views for a Southern Baptist minister! Dang, if he would support the immigration reform brought up earlier this year, he'd have my vote in a heartbeat.

Fred Thompson does seems to be an 'aw, shucks' kind of candidate, and I agree with those who say he doesn't seem like he's taking it seriously. (Possum!)

Views on Giuliani, Hunter, and Paul didn't really change much.

(P.S. Dems have already debated on Univision. We found out after the fact, hence no commentary.)

Link to the story.
Ah, and we have almost a year of this left.

Serious

Happy Chanukah!