The Guevara Diaries

White Coat Ceremony

2009-08-07T08:45:00.006-05:00

Jonathan is now a medical student at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA-which they pronounce as a word despite the lack of enough vowels). To start his medical career he was inducted into medical school with a ceremony in which he was robed with a white coat. It's not as big of a deal as graduation will be, but it's still important. It felt especially important to us since we've been on a three year journey to get to that ceremony.

The ceremony itself was long and filled with speakers and welcomers to the school. It didn't really seem that well planned to me as there was not enough room in the auditorium for everyone. We arrived 45 minutes early and had to sit in the overflow area outside the auditorium. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper, especially since when I went to see how many seats there were and over half of them were being saved for people that had not yet arrived. So I was a bit sad to have to watch this moment we'd been waiting for on a projection screen and Jonathan didn't get to see me while his white coat was being put on. That also means that I didn't get any pictures of that moment either. It was a real bummer. They should have given a limited number of tickets or something.

Anyway, we made it through all the speeches, advice and 220 medical students being called in groups of 5 to receive their coats. And now we have this:

Jonathan's Parents:

Siblings:

Grandmother:

And in-laws:

Came to see him off on the great adventure that will be his medical career. He's going to be a doctor!

The move & the beach

2009-08-07T08:22:00.005-05:00

Our actual move date was July 4th. We got lots of weird looks when we told people that, as if we had forgotten that this is a national holiday. We always just responded with "We can get the most help that day!" And we did have some fabulous helpers: our homegroup helped up pack the truck and clean the Dallas apartment that Friday. They were amazing and we got it done in record time. Then early Saturday morning the Williams & the Stillers met us and caravaned with us down to San Antonio. It was so good to have friends make the trip with us. They were amazing help getting all our stuff in the new place and out of boxes, but they were also an amazing emotional support as we venture out on this new journey.

So once we were down here, we had a few weeks off before Jonathan started class. We had grand plans of making day trips, I think like everyday. But we soon realized that we were tired and Charley was tired of being in the car. So we settled for a couple of weekend trips to visit our parents and one awesome trip to the beach. We drove down to Padre Island one day for some relaxation in the sun. It was quiet; there were not a ton of people there. Charley had fun hunting all the birds and playing in the surf. It was a very peaceful day. Here are a few pics from Guevara Family Beach Day 2009:

We've Moved!

2009-08-04T19:58:00.008-05:00

Ok, so yes, I know I'm way, way behind on blogging all the major events that have been happening at the Guevara household, but I'll catch up. Don't worry.

Well, I finished the school year out at good ol' Cesar Chavez Learning Center and had a few weeks off to get ready to relocate our small family to San Antonio. In those few weeks I did the normal moving activities: finding a place to live, changing utiliites, and of course......packing. I did non of these activities alone though. I had a....helper.....

Yes, Charley. She is now much, much bigger (notice her big girl collar). We were not the best of friends during much of these weeks off. She listens to Jonathan much better. However, after much effort and patience on my part (none on hers), we finally got along and she let me get some stuff done.

It was always amazing to me that as soon as Jonathan walked in the door that she'd turn into this perfect, angel-dog that I hadn't seen all day.

We've gotten to do some fun things since we've moved to San Antonio and hopefully in the next few days I can post those things.

The Dog (puppy for now) is Here

2009-04-13T11:03:00.010-05:00

Everyone Meet Charley!

Isn't she adorable? Right now she is playing "chew everything in my crate", a game she came up with the other day. She weighed in at 11 pounds on Easter Sunday, and she is a handful! She is a clumsy package of elbows yet somehow manages to pounce after her tennis ball. Let me bullet this out for you (and yes, please be jealous)

At seven weeks, Charley:
~Prefers her crate when she is tired (victory!)
~Can go up AND down stairs
~Understands potty time (another victory!)
~Is extremely quiet
~Still needs a midnight potty run
~Loves to hang out and be part of the family
~Likes meeting new dogs
~Still needs to be on leash
~LOVES her retriever dummy (see video below)
~Is actually learning not to nip, just give a few licks
~Likes to sleep on her back
~Points at Pomeranians, squirrels and of course birds (Robins are her favorite)
~Is very submissive at bath time
~Is an absolute joy to play with
~Loves to cuddle with Sarah

Playing in the Park

(She is getting used to her leash)

Our new addition

2009-04-09T08:47:00.007-05:00

Charley is here!

We brought our new puppy Charley home yesterday evening. She is 7 weeks old today and so much fun! She did wonderfully during the car ride home although she was a little nervous. But she quickly got used to us and was busy checking out her new home all evening. I went to go hang out with the home group ladies so Jonathan got to acclimate her to her new surroundings. He gave her a bath and took her to the park. All the activity wore her out and she took a few power naps throughout the evening.

Today Jonathan is at home with her working on housebreaking and teaching her what she can & cannot play with. I'm sure he'll have lots of fun stories and more pictures to share of his experiences with Charley!

Here's a picture of her during one of her naps on her first night home with us!

Charley-dog

2009-03-29T11:02:00.007-05:00

So yes, I am way behind on blogs. I'm working on it.

The most exciting thing going on lately around the Guevara apartment is that we are getting ready for one little puppy to be added to our household! We are getting a German Shorthair Pointer in less than two weeks and we are beside ourselves excited. We got to meet her a couple of weeks ago and she's super cute and spunky. Her name is Charley. This is a picture of her from the breeder's website.

Look at how precious she is! She'll be 7 weeks old when we bring her home. When we went to pick her out a couple of weeks ago the breeder (Carol) told us that at 7 weeks she'll be retrieving and pointing. We'll have to take lots of pics of her being cute and learning new things. We went and got all the things she'll need the other day and got her new house (in our house) set up and ready for her.

This crate may not seem that big, but it's HUGE and took some careful planning to find the perfect home for Charley. Here's the view from the couch.

She's got a new collar, lease, water/food bowl, toy, milkbones, food, brush, shampoo & toothbrush all ready and waiting for her. It's going to be hard work at first training her and getting her acclimated to life with us, but it's going to be loads of fun too! I can't wait!!

The end of a delightful break

2009-01-05T14:22:00.005-06:00

So we made it through the holidays. Every Christmas Jonathan and I go on our Texas tour and travel all around the state to see family for Christmas: Houston, Waco, Paris, etc. It's a week of driving and seeing parents, siblings, grandparents and cousins. It's a lot of fun and we get to spend some precious time with people that we love that we never get to spend enough time with.

This year's highlights include:

Seeing our nephew who is now a year old (isn't he precious!):

Opening presents in the car on Friday between Houston and Waco. I gave Jonathan a green argyle sweater vest, a couple of short-sleeve shirts and a cookbook, The Spice Bible. He gave me some delightful perfume (he chose it since he has the more sensitive nose and will smell it way more that I will) and some bubble bath!
Having 4 Christmas meals and 4 present opening sessions.
Spending a delightful New Year's Eve with good friends playing sticks (favorite card game) until 12:00 exactly then running upstairs to the roof of the parking garage to stand on tip-toe to barely see fireworks.
Spending New Year's Day together at home and having friends over that night for yummy roast and good conversation.
Going to the wedding of a friend from nursing school and seeing friends that I haven't seen in a long time.

In all of that, in all the business and presents and driving and listening to Josh Groban's Christmas album for the 14th time, we are trying our best to remember why we are doing all this travel. We are trying our best to remember that the focus of our Christmas is not presents , not even on seeing all the family that we miss and wish we could spend more time with. We do all the crazy Christmas stuff because of Jesus. He's why we celebrate that holiday. He's why there is a holiday to celebrate. It's so easy to get distracted by all the food, all the perfect table settings, the beautiful Christmas decorations, even seeing family. We so want our kids to know why we "do" Christmas. Don't get me wrong, we plan on having a full live tree and giving gifts. We just want to make sure that before all of that, we live our life in such a way that we can't forget why we celebrate Christmas.

Today I got to have breakfast and spend the morning with a friend from nursing school who now lives out of state. She was in town for the above mentioned wedding. She's always been a question asker that asks the difficult, probing questions. I love it! Today she asked me what the hardest part about being married is. I did have to think a little bit, but finally realized that all answers boil down to two sinners living in a room together and walking through our junk and sin together. It's so difficult to be that open and honest with someone, but so worth it to have even a glimpse of the deep kind of love that God meant marriage to have. And again, without Jesus it's all meaningless.

So tomorrow I have to go back to Chavez and see all my kiddos and do the school nurse thing. I'm going to squeeze the last bits of break out of today and not think about tomorrow!

presents under the tree

2008-12-22T20:54:00.006-06:00

Tree? Read "christmas bush".

We are DONE with the wrapping of presents! (as in I just finished wrapping Sarah's gift(s)...stay tuned) A few facts about the holiday:

The ability to wrap gifts in expert fashion has been handed down among Guevara men for generations. Cue Francisco José de Paula Santander y Omaña de Guevara, a man who once wrapped the very gifts of Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios y Blanco, need I go on? My grandfather was an architect...the trait was not lost through the generations. My father assumed the noble task of teaching this time-honored tradition many moons ago-and I will continue the excellence.

A well wrapped present (read: expertly wrapped) will allow unwrapper to open one end with moderate difficulty and slide box out with little to no difficulty. No tape shall bind paper to box (Cue Dad's genes).

It does take more than one piece of tape to wrap a present. If you are convinced otherwise, you are not wrapping well.

I take extreme pleasure in wrapping presents such that all of the above are observed, as well as painstakingly ensuring that no tape is visible to unwrapper at time of unwrapping (Again, Dad's genes).

While wrapping Sarah's gift, I had a moment of introspection (Cue Mom's genes); I realized that this is the most I have enjoyed wrapping a present and I can't wait to give Sarah her gift. Not so much for the gift itself, but because I am more in love with my wife than ever before and just can't wait for the opportunity to bless her.

Wrap and wrap well folks.

-jonathan

wild mustangs

2008-10-26T21:43:00.013-05:00

Sunday
We started this past week with a jelly making event-quite the "empty the freezer of grape juice" project.

Monday
monday.

Tuesday
I drove to H-town for a m-school interview, while Sarah was aprendiendo that espanol.

Wednesday
During that interview-I decided to hang out on the helipad at Memorial Hermann. I was "that guy" with the camera.

Thursday
I kerbey laned it with Patrick, a slow breakfast with great coffee and pancakes thicker than steaks. Highpoint of the week. Can't decide if the gingerbread pancakes had anything to do with that.

Friday
Okay-I wish I had a picture of this. I bought 4 whole beef tenderloins with the chain. Genetically certified, pasture-raised, grain-finished, premium gold, 30 month old black angus steer. So I'm a food nerd, and that's what I get excited about. For the other food nerds out there-I think this was choice-moderate, I've never understood why tenderloin needed to be prime. Remember the "empty the freezer" party on Sunday?

Saturday
Birthday party...cupcakes, bounce house, an appearance by cookie monster. Typical things you would find at a birthday party.

Sunday
More jelly! The grape is called a mustang grape, and they grow wild in Texas. Tomorrow we have to do another one of those monday things.

what have we done lately?

2008-09-28T19:50:00.003-05:00

I'm going to copy Jonathan's blogging style. Let's see...what's happened lately?

Jonathan interviewed at Texas Tech for med school

Jonathan has an interview at UT San Antonio tomorrow & Texas A&M in October

I am still working as a school nurse and it's going really well-very busy, but I feel like I'm getting the hang of things

We got a "new" couch and new barstools that are delightful

We have planned all of our weekends from now until Christmas with activies that we are really looking forward to (Baylor Homecoming, football game with friends, visiting our parents, home group retreat, babysitting our favorite girls, etc.)

I've been taking Spanish classes and now am trying to listen to the news in Spanish via NPR podcasts (I don't understand much at all)

So it's been pretty exciting around here, as you can tell. Maybe some of our upcoming activites will lend themselves to being more interesting and we'll have something to actually blog about. Until then.....

top picks from september 1 --> 14.

2008-09-14T15:01:00.011-05:00

mint
applewood smoked, salt cured pork belly.
shiner 99
austin, texas
two m-school interviews.
5K + ike rain/wind.
2-1.
the huge lime tree leaves.

-j

Restoration

2008-09-01T16:09:00.003-05:00

First, sorry it's been forever since I've posted. This week has been....mmm...what's a good word....hard. More on that momentarily.

So today is Labor Day and I love it. For starters, I think every weekend should be three days. Also, I love when it's Monday that you get off because not only do you have a 3 day weekend to look forward to, but when you do go back to work it's only for 4 days. I love it! It has really been a delightful weekend. On Saturday we got up early and went for a run at White Rock. Later that afternoon we had a friend in town for the afternoon and we got to go to one of our new favorite places (The Crooked Tree coffee house) to hang out. Then we had a relaxing dinner at home. Sunday we got up and went to the grocery store before everyone got out of church and things got crazy busy. We bummed around our apartment the rest of the day until it was time for church. And today has been a lot of relaxing at home. I made a batch of cookies for home group this week and we took a nap this afternoon. Right now Jonathan is out at the store getting a few things we forgot. Sprinkled all in between weekend activies was watching The Office DVDs getting ready for Season 4 which comes out on DVD tomorrow! It's really been a refreshing weekend which is exactly what I needed after last week.

Last week was my first week of school with the kiddos. Some things have developed with my job so I now (thankfully) have a preceptor with me everyday. It's a different person everyday, but at least there is someone there with me helping me to know what to do. I felt pretty lost most of the week, not knowing exactly what to do at any point in time. I'm still learning a lot just about basic assessment skills and then there is the mound of paperwork to do with every person that walks through the clinic doors. And one thing that really struck me was how many kids come to the clinic for things that I can do nothing about: loose teeth, headaches, general malaise, throwing up after eating lunch and running around outside, irritated eyes (not pink eye), crying, fake coughs, toothaches, I mean the list goes on and on. So I'm getting ready to see what this new week will hold. My supervisor is supposed to come by and see me this week and hopefully teach me how to do some of the things that I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to be doing but just don't know how to do them. When I left on Friday I was so overwhelmed and really dreading the coming week. Saturday night I had a break down and ended up just crying but couldn't explain what I was so upset about. My sweet husband was so wonderful in listening to me try to explain what I was stressed about and asked me questions to help me process all the craziness. He prayed for me and talked to me and reminded me that I'm at this job, at this school for a reason that I may not know or understand, and that's ok. It's been a very restorative weekend.

Jonathan and I are also trying to rearrange our living room. My grandmother is giving me her piano whenever we can make room for it in our apartment. In order to do that we have to get rid of one twin bed that is currently posing as a very lame couch. So, does any one need, or know anyone who needs an extra-long twin bed? It's in great shape, comes with mattress, box spring and frame. Also, if you have any suggestions for getting rid of unwanted furniture I'd love to hear that too.

As promised, I did take a first day of school picture. I wasn't going to, but Jonathan said I had to. I tried uploading it, but for some reason it's not working right now. I'll try again later.

That's all for now!

work and play

2008-08-18T17:10:00.002-05:00

I am now officially a school nurse. I've completed a week of new nurse orientation and one day of staff development. The students start on the 25th (and yes, I do plan on taking a first day of school picture) and I have lots to do before then. I'm still trying to get things situated in my clinic, but I don't really know how I want things yet so it's a bit of trial and error for organization. And there are a lot of tasks that I'm supposed to complete before the school year starts, but I'm still not clear on what those are exactly. I think I'll really like it once things get going. I feel a bit like a fish out of water right now trying get the hang of things. Everyone that I met today at my school was super nice and they all asked me if I speak Spanish.

On a totally different note, Jonathan and I went to the Ranger's game last night with our friends Michael and Judy. They hooked us up with some sweet seats (second row behind home plate). It was really fun despite the rain and slow start to the game. I got scared of all the pop fly foul balls. One man did get hit in the face with a broken bat. Eeek! So here's a couple of pics from the game!

new album.

2008-08-10T13:35:00.005-05:00

The internet is not up to date. Yet anyway. Take this internet. We bundled our first anniversary (march oh-eight) with a friend's wedding in Colorado.
-j

weekend...

2008-08-10T12:08:00.006-05:00

What a delightful weekend. It's been a bit of an emotional one for me with the ending of my nanny job. But my husband has been a huge support and let me have pizza and wine for dinner on Friday when I was bummed. We also got dressed up and went for a stroll in Victory Park (super trendy area of Dallas) and did some good people watching while we had gelato. It was very therapeutic. Saturday and today have been normal weekend days: laundry, kitchen cleaning, grocery list, church tonight...normal things.
We did go for a run this morning. We're on week 4 of our 5K training. We've been following this running plan in order to get ready to run our first 5K in September. We also found (thanks to our friend Judy) a podcast that goes along with the plan. Some guy put it all to music and tells you when to run and when to walk. It's great and you don't have to pay attention to a watch or anything. I'm really liking our running routine. We both feel so much better about being in better shape. It's amazing! Today we got all our running gear on and drove over to Katy Trail to do our workout there. We started our 5 minute brisk walk all pumped up when the iPod died, oops! I hadn't charged it in forever. So we kinda had to guess and make up our own thing. Luckily, the trail has quarter-mile markers all along it so we could tell how far we were going.
Tomorrow is the big day when I start my new job. I'll be spending the rest of today making sure my outfit is perfectly ready and that I have all the paperwork I need and such. I'm very excited to see how this grown-up job goes. This week will just be orientation stuff with all the new school nurses. Then I have a week of "staff development" at my school. The kiddos start on Aug. 25! I'm sure I'll have plenty of interesting tales to post about once things get rolling.
For now, pray for me as I start this new adventure!

Hello World

2008-08-09T11:45:00.004-05:00

This is my first post....enjoy. We have some catching up to do, 24 years worth. I am going to tarantino you on this, so we'll start with the most recent bloggable activity. We took a recent trip mid-week trip to Fort Worth. Eventually you'll have all sorts of digital media through which to peruse and snoop your way into our lives. Aren't you excited?
-Jonathan

First Post

2008-08-05T22:21:00.003-05:00

Hello,

We started a blog. It's been a long time coming; We've been talking about doing this for months and finally took the plunge. So here we are. I don't know that we'll always have exciting things to write about. We do sometimes get passionate about a few things and I'm sure those will come out. Mostly this will just be the tales we gather from life. It should be interesting...
-Sarah