Family News

Two blogs in one day? Well, I should be blogging more often, but just don't always get to the computer as much as I should. This entry is mostly about family, an update if youwill.

Wednesday evening Tio Adrian came over. He is now the director of a school, rather than a teacher. He's very proud of what he's doing with his public school and the innovations he is implementing. This year he wants to start a class of carpentry so the students can repair and make their own classroom furntire. His sons: Enrique is the water director of AquaLand, the main water attraction here in SAnta Cruz. Felipe is now doing his medical internship at a small hospital here. Such a young doctor! (21 years old) Kathira is still in Italy.
Claudia (married to Sandro) has two lovely boys. Grandma Lea, Claudia with Oscar (6) and Bruno (8 mos) came over Saturday afternoon. The dip in the pool was so much fun with the two little ones. Oscar has NO fear of the water and is learning to swim.
Friday Loida and Jorge came over for the evening. We always laugh a lot with them, usually over a bit to eat and a bit of wine. Their sons: Ivan is an accountant with a large pharmecutal company. Very active in his church. His two children are Gabriel (10?) and Natalia (7). Oscar and Wilma have little Valeria - almost three. She has fallen in love with her Tio DAnny. Oscar is doing well with his internet business and continue to do kick boxing/karate. In fact he narrates a boxing show on tv. Of course you can imagine how Valerie likes to 'train' with him! Fernando has just opened his own publicity/advertisement company. And I think there is a young lady in the future:)
We see Ruben, Graciela and the two girls quite often. In fact we had dinner at their house today. You know, the Centellas family has to have big steak cookouts! When we visit there Ruben always gets out his Karoke machine and CD/s and we sing our hearts out. Ruben is building the Alligator refuge just outside of SAnta Cruz. Daniel loves to tag along with him when he goes. They are currently harvesting gator eggs. Fascinating. (Dennis you'd love this!) Alligator meat is very marketable in Europe. He took great pictures so I hope he will put some on the web. The girls , Marcia and Myra, (15, 12) are typical teens.
We don't see German very often but not too long ago Eduardo, now an agronomist, and Daniel, studying accounting, were here for lunch. Eduardo is quite the outdoorsman so hopefully we will have a chance to have him teach Daniel where some good fishing sites are. WE see David and Veronica more often. They are pretty faithful in coming over to see Abuelita. Veronica is quiet, finishing her thesis in Psychology.
So we keep pretty busy with such a large family. We don't always all get together, but we often have family in our house several times a week. Abuelita? I didn't mean to leave her out. Living with her has been an interesting challenge for us. She is generally in good health, but thin and has trouble with depression. So we are working with the doctor on that - not always to her delight. But finally we have convinced her she needs to eat and drink more. So we have made a challenge. I am going to try to lose 2 kilos and she is going to try to gain 2. Let's see what happens! She is attending church with us, but still goes to her ladies group at her 'own' church. Seems content with that for now. WEll, this has been a long blog. I wanted to include everyone's email, but not now.