Saturday, November 29, 2008

Hey Chuck Salas

Good to hear from you, and glad to hear that the family is doing well.

Can you please pass the URL for this blog to other members of the San Diego clan. You are our only contact there so far.

Many Thanks!

Mark

Chuck Salas checking in...

Greetings to all Lopez-clan Bloggers, and their non-blogging family members. I am not a Blogger, but after receiving the invite, felt compelled to give it a shot.


All is well with the Salas clan here in SD. Everybody is healthy and the family is well.
Recent news?
Maria's daughters just took first place CIF for doubles in tennis. Elena is a Jr and Sophia is a freshman. They are terrific kids and they acquired Maria's competitive gene.
Charlene (my wife) and I have two in college. Greg is in his first yr at Cal Poly - SLO. Brit is in her second yr at UCSB. My two older ones are married (no kids yet) and we still have one in high school.
Our photo of Nana sets above the tv and I reflect often upon our quiet Matriarch.
And yes, it is all too often that we talk, let alone see one and other. I speak to Cousin Chuck about biz and ask after the clan, but it is indeed a weak substitute for a shared smile, memory and adult beverage.
Greetings to all.
CJS in SD

More fond memories of Nana

I remember eating tortillas fresh off the stove- with our without melted butter-mmmmmmm!
.....playing and jumping off the porch in the front yard of Kentucky St. ....the sound of the trains at night..... the hot, hot days...the kitchen bench that was storage for all sorts of stuff....her love of screwdrivers and beer... making sure everyone had something to eat.....her stories and quips.. her nightly prayers..her smile and laugh...

Friday, November 28, 2008

my life

Hey everyone!
well im just gonna start off by saying the picture my father posted of me was bad so heres a better one [=
my life has been going great. From just school to hanging out with friends. just a heads up, my volleyball season is coming up, so if anyone wants to come see me play you can just email me at kmessimer@yahoo.com. i should be starting in a couple months so im excited about that! like my dad said yes i am very social. my friends come over almost every weekend and we have a blast!
this picture is of me and a couple of my friends on topsey turby day at our school. this day is just pretty much a spirit day where girls dress up as guys and guys dress up as girls[=
these r only a couple of my friends. latley i have been just hung up on school and hanging with friends. right now i am doing well in school [= i got on honor roll for the first quarter and i hope to stay on it.
every quarter we have different alectives, my first elective was spanish! i did pretty well but ended up with a C in the class.. the teacher said i talked to much.. OPPS [=
but my latest elective is drama. so far im doing well. our first assinment was a mime, im pretty sure i aced it!
well thats my life so far

My Memories of Nana


Watching the trains from her front porch on Kentucky Street.

The ever-present aroma of fresh tortillas and beans coming from her kitchen.

Looking forward to her making her annual, 2 week summertime pilgrimage to Northern California was like waiting for Santa to come.

LB says hi....


Hi to all, and Happy Thanksgiving!
I think this is a terrific idea, and am really looking forward to reading updates and seeing pix of the Lopez gang.

My life is not quite as exciting as Mark's. My days of sleep overs and chauffeuring are a thing of the past as my girls are grown and living in Washington.

Cassie, now 30 - and yes, that does make me feel old , is the very happy mom to Raelyn, 3, and is expecting another child in May. She received her AA- she was on the 10 year, diverting to the Navy for 6 year plan- in September, and is currently working towards her bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering and Electronic Communications- or something like that. All I know is that when she tries to explain it to me, I think I understand what she is saying, but when I am asked to regurgitate the information, I realize I really didn't understand afterall. She is working her way through school at Applebee's Restaurant, but is interviewing for a job in her career field next month. She, her fiance Casey, and Raelyn live in Bremerton, Wa., which is directly across the Sound from Seattle.

Carmen, 28, was the assistant manager of Safeway, also in Bremerton,for 3 or 4 years, but decided that was really not what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. So, she applied for a 911 dispatch job with Kitsap County. After a really, really long interview process, she was selected for one of the 9 positions available. She is now in her glory. She loves her new job. Loves it! She has completed her training, and is now working as a Emergency Telecommunicator, taking all those wacky 911 calls. She bought her first house - all 580sf of it- last summer, and lives there with her partner, Britt.

As for me, I stay busy helping as a caregiver to Mom and Dad- Mark already gave an overview of how Mom and Dad are doing, so I won't go into that- I will let Olivia give the bigger picture, as she is the main caregiver. I am in the throws of getting a non-profit off the ground, and spend quite a bit of time working on that. - More about that later - I also volunteer at a ranch that provides therapeutic horseback riding lessons to disabled children- great fun!! - and am involved with a women's investment club, along with Mom. Gaston is quite supportive of all of my activities even though it seems as though we hardly see each other.(could it be that is why he is supportive?!) He is doing well and leads a much quieter life than I. He spends lots of time on the phone and computer with his family and friends all over Africa and Europe. He is going to go visit his family in Africa in 2010, and I am hoping to be able to go with him.

I am really looking forward to hearing from everyone. I'd like to start a birthday list of everyone to post as well as one of email and snail mail addresses. As you post your information, I will compile it and keep it current. I think it will be fun to see how big this clan has grown..Let's get this off the ground and reconnect!

Be well, and Happy Holidays to all..
Laura.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Mark Messimer's Family Update

(Mark & Kimba, June '08)


Well...where to start? How about...lately I've been feeling like a over-dosed lab rat in an estrogen research center. Between Kris (perpetually 30 y.o.), Alli (15 y.o.), Kelsey (12 y.o.), all their girlfriends and Kimba, my German Shepard, I am challenged, overwhelmed, and perplexed on a daily basis.

As you can see from the picture, after 10 years of bites, bruises and gooey canine slobber, I'm still training dogs. The one shown with me is our GSD, Kimba, when she was still a pup. She's a little over 1.5 years old now and a loyal and true protector. (Please call ahead if you're planning to stop over. She doesn't take kindly to unannounced guests) Most of my Saturday's are spent training family obedience classes, with a few police K9's to keep up the adrenalin levels. I'm the guy that gets to dress up in the padded jumpsuit and tries to run as fast as possible. Haven't outrun one yet. In fact, lately they seem to be catching me sooner and sooner into my attempted escapes. Gettin' closer to 50 is a real bitch sometimes.

(Mark attempting another failed get-away)

Monday through Friday I play in the corporate world as the Director of Education and Media Services for MLSListings Inc. We're the technology company that manages all the real estate listings for most of Northern California. Even with all the turbulence in the RE market, we're still going strong and I stay plenty busy keeping my trainers / divas in line, and a multi-media studio pumping out training videos, podcasts and webinars.

(Kris and Alli, Nov '08)
Kris spends a lot of time with the girls moving them from one event to another. Between school stuff, volleyball games, running athletic booster programs and weekends full of teenage social events, she's always on the run. She has become the second-mom to many of the girl's classmates and it's not uncommon that she gets calls from single-dads asking her "take their daughters to the drug-store for girl stuff" or rookie-moms asking her advice on dealing with the daughter's boyfriends and young teens dating.

During the week she works as Sales Exec for OneCoast, a representative organization that works in the gift and homewares markets. She has a large, South Bay Area territory but works out of a home-office situation. The market has been a little tough lately, but she has recently picked up some very strong home decor lines and is busy getting them introduced to her clients.

Alli is a Sophmore at San Lorenzo Valley High School. This is her with her boyfriend, Alex (1 year together and going strong). Alli is the part-time jock, full time social-butterfly, and some-times student in the family. She just came off a tough season on the JV Volleyball Team where she played a lot of defense, greatly improved her over-hand serve and learned to shoot the kill-shot like a Marine sniper.


Now that the season is over it's all about The Boyfriend (Varsity Football Placekicker and Team Captain), filling the house with girlfriends every weekend, and waiting until the last minute to complete whatever school report or project is due the next morning. (A chip off the old block)

For years she used to join me on the K9 training field every Saturday morning. Now I have to tip-toe through a carpet of teenage girls covering my living room floor every Saturday morning as I head out to training on my own. If I'm lucky there are a few food scraps left in the pantry when I return. Nothing destroys a food budget like 8 or 10, fifteen year old girls ripping through the kitchen at Mach 5.

Kelsey is flourishing in 7th Grade at San Lorenzo Valley Middle School. Her circle of friends continues to expand almost as fast as her monthly text-messaging volume on her cell phone.

Kelsey is our American Idol candidate in the making. Always sing her way through the day, her chores, her homework and certainly in the shower. New Country, Pop, R&B, and classic rock, you name it, she belts it out.

Another of her budding talents is photography. She has a unique eye for interesting perspective and color content. She's dying for a 35mm digital camera for Christmas. I thinking more along the lines of a massive external harddrive so she can deal with the hundreds, if not multiple-thousands of pictures already stored on the family laptop.

Mom and Dad are doing OK right now. It's been a tough few years for Dad ever since he had that fall that injured his back and neck. That made it hard for him to stay as mobile as he used to be, which in turn didn't help him with keeping strong and limber. Mom is recovering well from her operation that removed a small sub-dural hematoma a few months back. But like all of Bita's girls, she was up and busy way too soon, running the kitchen, keeping the gardens fresh and nursing Dad through many challenges. Those Lopez women are as tough as they come.

I'll let Olivia and Laura Beth catch you up to date on the happenings at Mama Lu's and Papa Hal's place.

I'm looking forward to reading about what's going on in your lives these days. If you are blog-challenged (I feel your pain. I myself just started doing this, this morning with the setup of this site) feel free to email me your post, along with any pictures you may want included, and I'll be happy to cut-n-paste them onto this site.

You can reach me at: markmessimer@comcast.net

Hoping that all is well throughout the Land of Lopez and that Thanksgiving left you full, sleepy and buried in leftovers.

Best Wishes to All,

Mark

Reconnecting The Lopez Tribe


It seems like every time the Messimer's and Grijalva's get together, someone asks the question, "What's going on with the rest of the family?"

Between the size of the extended Lopez Tribe, the expanse of geography we occupy, and the sometimes frantic and always hectic pace of life, we seem to only be able to group-up for occasional reunions, and the inevidable end-of-life celebrations.

But how we have The Web. Maybe we can fill in the gaps between family events to stay in touch and connected.

We all share the blessing of a common family bond, bestowed upon us by Gregorio and Augustina. Their dedication to, and love of family should not be neglected.

So let us know what you're up to these days. Tell us about family happenings and accomplishments. Post a picture or video of the family so we can all see how well we've all aged.

Most of all...let's reconnect.