The Negrete Family

Hi, Ya'll!

Wow! What a week we had with Nichole visiting from Copenhagen. Ellen took a couple of days off from school while she was here. It was great fun to have time to spend with Nichole during the day. On Wednesday evening, the Negrete clan all came over to the house. There were twenty of us. When the Negretes get together, there is much laughter and silliness that goes on. One of the most important places in the house is the kitchen. We had all the food in there!

This is Margaret and Scott. They are the body building gurus of the family. (They are also doctors!)

Mary and Monica are admiring Mary's first great grandson! Monica is the proud mom!

Benjamin is now 7 months old. He is such a good little guy!

Mary and Maria were enjoying a little snack.

Nichole and her three nieces were inseparable the whole evening!

Of course the BIG brothers demanded a little time too!

Here are the six of them in birth order. Joe may be the youngest, but he is the tallest!!

Three cousins, all Coronado T-birds, had six weeks' finals the next day! They did not want to go home and study.

Thursday was Nichole's last evening home. Ellen fixed dinner that evening. It was great to see Joe more than usual, too!

The week passed all too quickly. Hopefully, we will be together again before too much time passes! Thanks to Sharon, we have all of these pictures to share. She was behind a camera most of the evening. Wait until you see her newest piece of technology!

Until next time. . . . . .

Twice As Nice!

Hi, Ya'll!!

First, we must congratulate the Coronado T-Birds for their win over the Franklin Cougars! Although Polk is a feeder school for Franklin and we know many of their players, we are Thunderbirds at heart, and always will be. Our children went to Coronado and we both have many happy memories of our time there. We were involved in Booster Clubs for CHS Orchestra and Band.

Since Coronado and Franklin are neighboring schools, there is a rivalry that will always exist. A few years ago, the game was moved from the high school to the Sun Bowl. The stands at the high school could not hold all the fans, so they had to find a larger venue. What better place than the Sun Bowl?!

We made it to Albuquerque without any problems. It was a beautiful drive up here. We are staying at our favorite place, The Residence Inn North. We arrived early and the General Manager checked us in. She welcomed us and then said, "Ladies, I'm in a good mood today. I'm going to upgrade your room selection." We usually stay in a Studio Suite. We figured she was going to give us a One Bedroom Suite. Here is a picture of the bedroom.

This picture looks similar to the one above, but it is in the second bedroom! She gave us a two bedroom suite!! We were stunned. Not only do we have two bedrooms, it also means two bathrooms!

The kitchen has a stove/oven, rather than just a cooktop.

To top it off, there is a lovely fireplace in the corner of the sitting room. It is just perfect for the chilly weather up here. Did we mention that we have three televisions, three phones, one large dining table with four chairs, a separate computer table with wireless access, and (the best part) SIX wine glasses???? We love Residence Inns!!

We will spend most of the day at ABQ Uptown. It will be nice to not be in a hurry to get anywhere or to do the normal Saturday activities such as grocery shopping, cleaning house, etc.

Of course this evening will find us back at the hotel watching the Texas Tech game. Too bad we didn't bring the TT flag with us. We could have run it up the flag pole out front! :o) Maybe next time!

Until next time. . . . .

Flying High!

Hi Ya'll!

Most of you probably know that we are NOT night owls. Every now and then an occasion comes along that keeps us upright later into the evening. Yesterday was one of those special times. Nichole was flying in from Copenhagen and her plane was landing at 8:30P.M. We ate a light dinner and then headed over to the airport.

Two planes landed about the same time and they were coming down opposite escalators! Sharon was stationed at one of them and Ellen was on the lookout at the other. Nichole came down the one where Sharon was waiting, but it didn't take Ellen long to make her way over to where they were!
When Sharon said smile, Nichole immediately gave the guns up sign!! The Tech vs UT game is still a hot topic around here.

This is the flag in the main lobby of the airport. We have many people in the military who arrive here and this is a huge "Welcome Home" symbol.

We stayed up much later than our normal bedtime, but had a great time just talking and sharing. Joe came over for a little while. He got off work later than expected, so instead of going to the airport with us, he went home to take a little nap. Nichole brought a wonderful little surprise for us to share when she got here. Hand carried all the way from Denmark were fresh Danish rolls. Oh my, they WERE wonderful. We polished those off in record time.

We are not sure if this picture really does justice to the tasty little treat, but there were not even crumbs left by the time we finished.

Nichole is going to be busy with her friends and Joe this weekend, so we did not cancel our little trip to Albuquerque. We'll be leaving tomorrow, but will return on Sunday.

Nichole was in the air at 33,000 feet for many hours, but her mom was flying just as high because both of her "little ones" are at home!

Until next time. . . . . .

Our Flowers' Winter Home!

Hi Ya'll!

It seems our blogging has become a weekly post rather than day to day happenings. We often think and say to each other "We need to post that", but then we don't get around to it. We shall try to be better, but we are not making any promises.

Our temperatures are finally beginning to cool down a bit, but the highs have still been in the 70's. It's not quite cold enough to put our greenhouse to use, but it is ready whenever Mother Nature wants to send some cold weather our way. Here are some pictures of us getting the greenhouse all put up.

Here is Sharon and her trusty little hammer putting a stake in the ground.

This is looking in through the front door. What you see is the back door!!

Ellen is 5'6", so you can see how tall the house is! We think it was like putting up a tent, but since Ellen has never gone camping in her whole life, and Sharon went camping in an RV, we don't know that from first hand experience!

Here's our "handylady" hard at work! Sharon always thinks that Ellen doesn't get her best side. This one really shows how thin her hair is getting. By the way, she really shouldn't be on her knees, but Ellen can't keep her off of them when the need arises.

It's all up and ready to use! Sharon has already installed the shelves and be sure that there is a thermometer inside.

So that is the story of our little greenhouse. We should have a few more things to share over this next week or so. Nichole is arriving from Denmark on Wednesday evening. She is coming for her 10-year reunion from Coronado High School. We can't believe it is 10 years already!! It will be great to have her home.

Until next time....... . . . . . . . . .

Our Saturday Project!

Hi, Ya'll,

We thought we would tell you how our Saturday went today. First, we actually put
our new greenhouse up over the floor that Paul made last week. We had a slight problem when we came to the stakes and the tie downs. Now we are smart women! (No laughing allowed!) We got those little suckers hammered into the rocky ground. Ours is the one on the bottom of this picture.
That took us until nearly noon. Then, we headed to the other side of town. We wanted to go to lunch at BJ's so we could watch the rest of the Texas Tech Red Raider game. They slaughtered Kansas. While we had lunch, the Texas Longhorn game came on. They beat Oklahoma State, but not by much. The score was 28 to 24. That was a closer game than we thought it would be. Mrs. McCoy's son, Colt, is just a wonderful quarterback.

After BJ's, we went over to Bed, Bath, and Beyond! We were looking for just a few things, then headed to Lowe's. We wanted to buy a little ceramic heater for our greenhouse, and some shelves for the inside of it to hold some of the smaller plants. Ellen bought some pansies for the front entryway.

This week we learned that Bed, Bath, and Beyond is going to open up a store on our side of town. That just thrilled us, since Linen 'N Things is closing.

We will post a picture of our new little project when we get the shelves put inside.

The Last Day With Miss Kate!

Hi, Ya'll!



We wanted to share a few more pictures of Katelyn. She wanted to see some more of herself!! This first picture was one of her modeling poses.

We were just playing around!

These were all taken on her last day at Polk.

Mrs. Peeps loved to write her notes on the white board. Kate always had something to write back! This is the one she wanted us to show because she was clowning around, and tried her bug-eyes! (Such a silly girl!)

Lots of work goes on in the nurse's office, but the children know it is a fun place to go!! There is always a hug or two just waiting to be given.
This last picture is the one that she wanted to stand alone and strike her "Model Pose." She balanced herself without her crutches, and strutted! When she saw the picture and noticed that her feet were crooked, she told us to straighten her feet.

Katelyn's mom has started a blog. We will have the link on our side bar with the other blogs that we read. It is titled, "Our Lives in Switzerland." She already has taken some beautiful pictures. The leaves of the trees are just gorgeous. The whole family looks so happy in their new country! We can't wait to see pictures of snow.

We all miss them.

Until next time . . . . . . . . ......

Finally--New Lamps !

Hi, Ya'll!

How are you? We are fine, and decided to show you Sharon's new lamps today. We finally found them. We found them at (Are you ready for this?) Lowe's! We had to have a little help to get them down from a high place. After the young man climbed up the ladder to get them down for us, Sharon took a good look at him. It turns out that he is a former student of hers. We find former students all over! He is going to college, and this is a part time job for him.

Because the end tables are smaller than the other ones, we decided to get smaller lamps. Paul isn't too happy with them, but I guess he will just have to get over it.

Yes, the pictures in the background are indeed Sharon at three different times in her life.
Everything at school is going well. Today was Ellen's first "Open Airways" class for a select group of students at school. It went very well. This summer, she did some training with the American Lung Association. The Open Airways For Schools program helps teach students how to recognize their asthma symptoms and how best to manage this chronic illness. She will have a total of six classes for students with asthma.

Not only are the days flying by, it seems one weekend is running into the next! Some days we just want to shout, "Slow down!" Before we know it, Nichole will be here and gone! These are times that we really wish time would slow down.

Until next time. . . . . . . ......

Touched By An Angel !

Hello, Everybody!


As you may remember, we have some friends who are moving to Switzerland this week. In fact, today we will say good-bye to our special angel. This is Katelyn. She and her family are moving to Switzerland. Her dad works for Johnson and Johnson. What a nice company. They have made every consideration for a family moving from the United States to a foreign country. Miss Katelyn is in second grade and has two older brothers; one of them is in fifth grade and one is in sixth grade. Do you know who is the queen? Of course, it is our Miss Kate.



She had surgery this past summer to correct a problem with her foot. She had to wear a brace that kept her from walking. Did we hear one little peep from her about being unable to walk? NO! She wore that brace and had a cast on her foot for weeks. When they took the pins out of her foot, she brought them to school to show us. They were this long _______________________! Maybe even longer.

She has had to sit in her wheelchair more than she wanted to, but her spirits remain undampened. She is such a precious child. She always wants to push herself to the highest level. Here she is with her Nursie Pooh and Miss Marissa, her paraprofessional. Miss Marissa helps Katelyn maneuver around the campus.

As soon as the doctor told Kate that she could walk with her crutches again, she was off and running. (We mean RUNNING!)

Nursie Pooh is going to miss her more than any of us. It is going to be a very sad day for the entire school to have this family leave us.

This is Katelyn when her true personality shines through. We asked her what this was about and she told us that she was a bull! What a honey she is. She can't wait to ski down the Swiss Alps with her family. They have bought all of the gear that they will need.

So, now she is tired, and pretending to be asleep. She is such a "Ham." After all, picture taking makes one tired.

Put a halo on this little one. She has such a personality that just brings a smile to your face. People can't talk to her without feeling happy that they have encountered her today. Sometimes, she would tell Mrs. Peeps that she needed to be all "stickered up." It was one of Mrs. Peeps' great pleasures to find a new place to put a sticker--either on her, her wheelchair, or her crutches.

She will conquer the world, we have no doubt. If you tell her, she can't, she says, "Oh, yes, I can." She was born into a world that has tremendous challenges for her. She will always set the bar for those with or without physical disabilities. She is looking forward to living in her new country. She tells us about her new home with elevators, and her new school where she will study French. (Mind you, she already knows lots of Spanish.) She will be tri-lingual. The following picture can only have one caption. "Look out world, here I come!!"

Dear, dear, Katelyn. We will miss you terribly. You have enriched our lives more than you will ever know. God sent us an angel when He introduced us to you. Please stay in touch with Nursie-Pooh and Mrs. Peeps! Maybe we can talk on SKYPE sometime soon. We will always love you dearly. And to your mom and dad, we thank you for letting us share Miss Kate. You all have blessed us and enriched our lives more than you know.

Until next time . . . . . . . . . . . . ......