Birthday Bash!

I went to Lubbock the weekend of September 15 - 16 to celebrate my 46th birthday with my family. My oldest sister, Lilly, and her husband, Clyde, threw a birthday BBQ for me with some help from my older sister, Eva. I get a huge satisfaction out of calling them oldest and older! :) It was well attended and I saw folks I had not seen in 9 years! I even met a great nephew that I thought was still a baby, and he is 8 years old! That is what happens when you have a large family. You forget who was born and who got married, who got divorced and who turned what. As life goes along, I expect folks to continue looking as they did the last time I saw them. I could not get over the changes just since May when I was there last. One nephew moved to Austin, a great-nephew flew to China to study, another great-nephew moved to El Paso and another great-nephew to San Antonio, Texas. The last three, all from one niece's family! So she must feel as if things are really changing for her! A baby was born, prematurely, but is not in the pictures because he was not made aware of my coming to Texas. That was the official excuse! ;) A great-niece started walking, although I never witnessed this, since she was carried the whole time I was there. This time around, no one had gotten married or divorced and no one was pregnant. A nephew and his live-in girlfriend got baptized in a swimming pool and we almost missed that! My mother insisted on witnessing the event but there were no wheelchairs and trying to figure out how to get her to the poolside was a challenge and took lots longer than we ever thought it would! Anyway, here are some pictures of the weekend and baptismal.

This is a picture of me with my oldest brother, Gilbert, younger
"middle" brother, Manuel, and Eva. We took these photos outside Manuel's home. He just purchased a 3-bedroom/1 bath home and Eva drove me over to see it. By chance, Gilbert was there and I seized on the moment to take pictures because we RARELY see Gilbert. His wife is one of those sisters-in-law that has to be in a good mood to allow him to visit, you know the one, every family has one! ;)

This is my oldest brother's widow, Maria, her daughters, Frances and Annette, but we call her Nette, and Nette's husband, Juan. I had not seen Maria in 9 years! The last time we saw each other was at a nephew's wedding. These family members came to Albuquerque, NM a few weeks ago, NOT to see me, but to gamble! Maria won $25,000 in the lottery, bought herself a newer used car and they drove to NM to gamble and sight-see! Isn't her luck wicked awesome?

OK, this is the now infamous birthday cake! You can tell it was purchased by someone not close to me cause they did not spell my name as I do, but as it is customarily spelled by the general public. Still, I thought it was a sweet thought and I do appreciate having a birthday cake at all! :)

This is a picture of Lilly, my 87 yo mother, Felipa, (but everyone calls her Lipa or Ama), Manuel and Eva. By the time we took this photo, the party was winding down. The party was at Lilly's home, as are most of our family gatherings. Not necessarily because she has the largest home, but because she's the oldest sister and that's just a burden she has to carry all her life! :) I LOVE telling her that! That she's the oldest I mean! :b

I forgot my camera on the day of the baptismal. I know, I know! What kind of aunt am I? I took this picture with my camera phone. This is my nephew, Richard, (Lilly's son, but we've always called him Ricky even though he's something like 35 years old now!) and his girlfriend, Leslie at their baptismal. The church is a young church. And by that I mean, they've not been around long AND all the members are really, really young! They've grown to a population of a little over 100 and the pastor is 25 years old! Praise God!

This picture was actually taken back in April before I moved to New Mexico and after coming home from New Hampshire for the first time in 5 years. This is Eva, Maria, Fred's wife, older "middle" brother, Fred, Jimmy, the youngest brother, (but still way older than me, I tell him!), Manual and his very young wife, Priscilla. I think she's 28 (maybe younger) and he's 60! Let's just not go there, ok! :) You know there's one in just about every family too! ;)

This picture was taken in May when I went home for my mother's 87th birthday bash. This is Lilly, her daughter, Brenda from New Mexico, (she's the one with the three children that moved away to El Paso and San Antonio and studying in China!) Eva, Ama, and Jon, Lilly's son, from Dallas. This is in my mother's kitchen. Notice all the distracting objects in the background? Her entire apartment is like that. She's also a clothes horse! We have NO idea what to buy her anymore and so we give her cash, which is her favorite thing! :)

I hope you've enjoyed looking at pictures and reading about my family as much as I enjoyed telling you about them. I could have gone on and on about them too, but, please, there's just so much you can add on these blogs! And truthfully, just how long do you have?! :)