In Loving Memory of Chuck

So Dave and I have been throwing the idea of getting rid of one of our trucks and getting a more fuel efficient vehicle.  Mine is in great condition so we looked into selling his because although it runs great, it's falling apart.  We realized we wouldn't get enough out of it to get another decent car, and the goal is to save money, not spend more money.  So I finally gave in to just seeing what we could get for mine. 

   We realized that we could sell my truck, get a newer used Toyota and still have some cash left over.  I took it into the dealership and was greatly disappointed with the offer that they gave me.  So I agreed to list it on some free sites to see if anybody would even be interested (I think I only agreed to it after I got on auto trader and saw that there were about 27 other Ford F-150's around the same year on there, so I thought the odds of it even getting considered would be slim to none).  We got a few Spam calls and kinda just forgot about it.

    Last weekend somebody called and wanted to look at it.  He sounded pretty interested so we met him and let him take it for a test drive.  He was looking for a truck for his son who just turned 16.  That was Saturday, on Monday he called and said he wanted the truck, he just wanted to take it to a mechanic first.  So on Tuesday we met him at an auto shop and the mechanic had nothing but great things to say about it.  He called that afternoon and said he could meet us at his bank in a couple hours to buy Chuck.  I couldn't believe it, it all happened so fast!

   Everything went so smooth.  First of all, we sold it for $6,000 more than what that crazy Ford dealership man offered me. (I'm still debating calling him and letting him know) Also, after we officially handed over the truck, the guy asked me if I wouldn't mind moving the truck over to a different parking lot where his wife would be meeting him to drive it home.  I was honored that he trusted me enough to let me and sooo happy to have one last drive with him.  Chuck was such a great truck and has been through so many big things with me.  I really hope that they take really good care of him! 

So we're a one car family now, let the car shopping begin!

Girls Camp

This year I went to Girl's Camp with my Young Women. 

I was never one of those girls that enjoyed girls camp when I went, back in the day.  It's five days of girls wearing funny outfits, doing wacky hair styles, putting on crazy make-up, dancing, cheering, and singing loud, nonsensical songs; six things that I've never enjoyed doing. 

But I put on my tie-dye shirt and my good attitude and went.

All my YW, ready to go.  We went to a camp on the Blanco River just an hour North of us. The coolest part was the Blue Hole, a little lagoon that has this huge water slide (top right of the picture). Sadly, since we're in a drought the water was not flowing and pretty nasty, so the slide was closed.  It was still beautiful to look at.  Thankfully, they had a nice pool that I got to go in every day to keep cool, cause it was HOT!

      I was a cabin mom for the best little group of 1st years.  They were so cute and fun. They were always helping in the kitchen and including others, I loved all of them!
     As a cabin mom I didn't have that many responsibilities but after the first night I learned why.  A few sick and dehydrated girls meant getting up in the early morning hours and not much sleep, so luckily I got to fit in a few naps during my off hours. 

I did find some time in the afternoon to work on the craft.  It was just so cute I had to do it, it's a little recipe holder!  So I have some work to do still, I need to fill it with recipes.  But when I finally finish it, it's gonna look great! We already have no counter or cupboard space in our little kitchen, but I'm sure I can find some room for it. 

Although I did get cell service and I talked to or texted Dave whenever I had a spare moment alone, I really really missed him!

The only thing not horrible about leaving behind my husband is the wonderful welcome home surprises I get.  He's so wonderful :)

Fourth of July Fireworks

So Texas is in a huge drought, one of the worst in San Antonio's recorded history.  All fireworks were prohibited in San Antonio, even at Six Flags and Sea World.  We really wanted to see some fireworks though.  With our TV antenna, we get 2 or 3 good channels (meaning in English and not worship) and one of them had the Macy's firework show on it and it was amazing!!!

There are fireworks over the Hudson River with like seven different lauching points on the river.  The show was probably 30 straight minutes of crazy bursting fireworks put to music and all in sync.  It was so cool!  I'd definitely watch it again next year!

Something cool and new that we saw were smiley face fireworks.  We had never seen them before this.  I don't know how people make fireworks but that is pretty impressive!

Independence Day Weekend with the Jacksons

One of my best friends, Cari Sue, got married in May and she is out here in Dallas for the summer.  Her husband got a great internship there.  Dave and I were very excited! (she's one of the people that introduced me to Dave when I got back from my mission)  So Cari Sue and Sean decided to make the drive down to San Antonio to visit us for the weekend.

 Dave putting the finishing touches on their welcome sign.  We took them out for Dave's favorite, Tex Mex at the unique Alamo cafe.

 We went down to the Riverwalk to walk around.  We love the Texas trinket shops that live up to the phrase that everything is bigger in Texas.

The next day we went out and braved the crazy crowds of the Comal River.  We each shared a tube and went down the shoot a few times.  It was so relaxing!  Then we headed over to Gruene, TX to have lunch on the Guadalupe River and see the sites of the little town.  We went home and ended the night with some Wii and ping-pong.  Such a fun day!

There is a huge fire ban all through out Texas so, sadly, no fireworks were allowed.  We decided to have our own fun, so we made patriotic sugar cookies and ate them all. 

It was so fun having them here!

New Camera

I haven't been posting much because this month our camera died...so we haven't taken any pictures.  I'm a big fan of pictures with blog posts.  I've done my research and found the perfect camera for me, and the perfect color for David.
                                              

It has all the features I want, most importantly you can crop and edit video right on the camera and capture still frames from video, right on the camera.  I can't wait til it gets here tomorrow!!!

BIG SCARE!

Last night, for the first time ever, I lost my wedding ring.  We play basketball every Wednesday night at the church right after our Youth Group activities.  Usually when I walk into the gym I see all men, but last night some of the girls were on the far end playing around.  So I dropped my stuff and ran over to play a couple rounds of knock-out with them before they left for the night.  When I got over there I realized I still had my ring on, so I ran to my back pack.  I had brought a different bag than the usual so I remember debating in my head where the safest place would be to put it.  All the girls were calling me, so I slipped it onto my key chain, something I've never done, and ran back to the game. 

    We left last night around 11 and we walked out to our car through a dark parking lot.  I got out my keys as usual and we left.  It wasn't until I got home and we started getting ready for bed that I noticed.  I went to get my ring and in a matter of one or two seconds my thought process went from, my finger to my keychain to my backpack pocket to pulling out my keychain in the dark parking lot, to the gas station we stopped by on the way home and finally to us pulling into the parking lot of our apartment.  I started to panic, Dave came and helped me search every inch of my backpack.  Nothing, I was so scared.  The scary part was that I kept questioning where it could be, I didn't have a solid memory of where I put it exactly because I was a little distracted when I put it away. We checked the parking lot, then the car and then headed back to the church.  We pulled into the church parking lot around 12:20 and turned on the bright headlights.  It was pitch black in the parking lot, but right where Dave stopped I could see a big bright sparkle ahead.  I jumped out and sure enough, it was my ring.  I couldn't believe it, I thought I had just thrown thousands of dollars down the drain.  I'm so grateful I found it!  Dave said he's really happy he got me such a bright and sparkly ring now.

1st Annual Roderick Roundup

What a fun week!  They rented out a lake house just outside of New Braunfels right on the river.  It was a really nice house and all of the Roderick's were all together under one roof.     

Homer also got us all matching handkerchief's that he wanted us to wear, but he didn't specify how we were supposed to wear them in public.

We spent the week playing with nieces and nephews and having lots of picnics=eating lots of ham sandwiches and sun chips. There were 6 kids under the age of six so we spent a lot of time at the park.  We also went on a glass bottom boat in San Marcos and saw tons of fish and turtles. There we learned how the Edwards Aquifer works and how badly we need rain!

 It gets so hot in Texas, so we spent most of our time near the water.  Dave's gonna be such a good dad someday :)  Us Roderick ladies love the sun and the pool.

 Everyone came down to San Antonio for a day and we got to show them around.  Of course, the Roderick's unanimously voted for Mexican food so we took them downtown.  We celebrated Homer's birthday at Mi Tierra and then showed everyone the beautiful riverwalk.  It was really pleasant in the shade!

We finished up the day with a temple session. I think everyone really enjoyed it and it was fun for us to show everyone around our town. 

We also spent a day at Schlitterbahn's where we ran all over with Dave's parents to all 3 different water parks.  I really wish I had brought a water-proof camera cause there were some crazy rides that would've made for some hilarious pictures.  Dave would've had to take all the pictures because my hands were occupied holding onto my rafts with a death grip.  I was very impressed with myself though for even going on the big, scary rides. 

   We also took Adam and Jill to our church on Wednesday night to play basketball.  Although it was the most crowded night we had ever had there, we had a great time playing together.  I just loved the fact that for once I wasn't the only girl there!  Dave's dream was realized and we had a complete team of 4 Rodericks.  And in case you were wondering, we did win a game, our very last game, so Dave says that we went home the ultimate winners of the night :)

And last but not least, we spent some time hanging out in the back yard, swimming in the river. 

 These are some awesome shots of the kids out back swimming and jumping off the deck.  Seeing the huge weggies that those life jackets gave the girls, Dave and I have decided that we are going to teach our children to swim at a very young age. 

 The last evening we got Homer and Susan out on the rope swing with us.  We had lots of fun taking pictures and videos of eachother and watching Dave attempt to do a backflip.

 I don't know how Dave talked me into it, but Homer gave him this idea to try it backwards so he wanted to try it.  Somehow I got in there too.  We had such a fun night!

Houston!!!

Last weekend I got to go back to Houston and visit my mission.  It's been 2 and 1/2

years since I left and oh how I've missed it!  Everything worked out perfectly.  Dave went on a Boy Scout camp out for a few days and it just so happened that on of my companions, Davita, was flying out here to Texas those same days.  So she drove here to San Antonio to spend a day with me.  I showed her around town, and we went down and ate on the Riverwalk.  It was so fun to have her here and we laughed and shared mission memories and gossip until late. I appreciated the company so I didn't have to stay home all alone!

     The next morning we got up early and headed out to Katy/Bear Creek, the area we served in together.  It was a quick 3 hour drive that flew by, we were both so excited to get there!  Once we got there we stopped for a quick lunch and to make a game plan.  We brought in our planners and journal and started making phone calls.  My Spanish wasn't as bad as I thought, everyone seemed to understand me.  One of the workers came by and took a double look at Davita when he heard her speaking Spanish on the phone, he started talking to us and asking how she learned Spanish.  It just came out, we started telling him about our missions and then asked if he'd like to hear the important message that we taught while we were missionaries.  He said yes, so we got our first referral, fifteen minutes after arriving in Houston.  Everything was great with him until he asked me the ever so common question that I got asked almost every day of my mission, "Where are you from?" "-California", "And your parents?' "And their parents?" They're always fishing for Mexico or some Central or South American country.  After a few weeks in the mission I learned to say, "I'm not Hispanic if that's what you're wondering." We couldn't stop laughing once we left the restaurant, it was great to be back!



Dinner & basketball with Los Gutierrez



From there, it was non-stop visits, running from one house to the next. It was great and we ate so much!!!  I brought my case of mission CD's and we listened to mission music and were loving reliving the experience.

The sweetest lady, Maria

Dinner & sleepover with los Arciniega

          



The trip wouldn't have been complete without getting my favorite popsicles.  I've only found them at this one little market there, they're La Brisa brand and they have real fruit chunks in them and are so delicious.  I really wish that I had brought a little cooler with dry ice to stock up and take them home.   We printed off some pictures of us to leave at people's houses when we stopped by and they weren't home. 

The trip was definitely too short!  Dave's camp was in Galveston, right outside of Houston, so on their way back they stopped off at a Sonic where we met up with them and I got a free ride home. Gaby insisted to accompany us to say goodbye :)  My mouth was aching after speaking so much Spanish and laughing so much. It was such a great weekend and I can't wait to go back again and visit my other 4 areas!