Happy Easter and Buen Viaje!

Easter was a beautiful day!

Mr. Neat and I began the day, at 6:00 AM at church, attending the Great Vigil, a celebration in our church which begins in darkness and moves into the light. The service was very inspiring, the Easter flowers were beautiful, and the celebratory music was so welcome after the somberness of Holy Week.

This is the altar of our church. Thanks to my friend, Barbara, for giving me the photos.

Easter Sunday is a special day for baptisms. The baptismal fount is in the foreground of the picture below. During special activities for the kids before the 11:00 service, the Sunday School children "flower" the cross that can be seen in the background.

Following the service there was a continental breakfast in the parish hall where we welcomed a hot cup of coffee and good conversation with friends.

Having entered the church in the darkness, as we left the church, the sun was shining brightly. We experienced a wonderful celebration of the holy day in the Christian church.

We continued to have gorgeous weather for the rest of the day. Our family: MJ, Z and C, AE, C, MA and MD all came straight from their church service dressed in their Easter finery! They all looked very handsome! We missed having CA with us but she had gone to visit her Mom and Dad in Florida for the weekend.

I wish I had a picture of MD's face when he saw the dining room table, set with the spring colors of our Fiesta dishes and decorated with Easter grass, eggs, and bunnies! He tore off his little Eton jacket, hung it on the back of his chair, and climbed up ready to eat! I think everyone enjoyed the pork tenderloin, asparagus and Easter cake with Dulce de Leche ice cream for dessert!

After dinner, was naptime for some, a walk for others, and video gametime for still others. (You can guess just who did what, can't you???!!) Everyone left about 6:00 since Monday is a school day for all.

It was a very blessed Easter day for our family.

I am anxious to hear from my Mexican friends how they celebrated their Easter. I will receive emails from them, but soon I will be able to ask them in person how they celebrated the holiday.

I will be returning to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for six weeks on April 8th. Last November and December I was working with the public school teachers who are teaching English to the kindergarten, 1st and 2nd graders in the new English program that my friend, Lety, began this year. I will continue to work with them, helping them with strategies for teaching English, pronunciation, and English grammar.

These are teachers at the Cipactli kindergarten in Puerto Vallarta, all of whom are now studying English!

I am looking forward to seeing everyone again and working on the language program for next year so the children will continue to have the opportunity to learn English.

Here I am, once again, trying to decide what to take with me and packing the suitcases! I will share with you, by way of this blog, my tasks, activities and life adventures in Puerto Vallarta and I hope you enjoy spending a few minutes with me ocasionally.

Hasta luego.

What A Difference A Day Makes!

About 9:30 in the evening of Friday, March 14th, a tornado hit the city of Atlanta and did a lot of damage to many buildings in the center of town. Two people were killed and 27 were injured. The pictures of the destruction in the city are frightening. Fortunately, Gainesville was spared the terrible storm----until Saturday.

Saturday afternoon severe thunderstorms with hail and 2.3" of rain raged through our town. Tornados touched down around us but Gainesville was spared. Nellie, who hates thunder, was the first one to go to the basement! Mr. Neat and I followed her downstairs and we spent the afternoon reading and watching the NCAA basketball games on TV. Fortunately we didn't lose the electricity.


The hail and rain pounded down. This is our deck with the hail.

It was marble-size, BIG marbles!

In front of our house, the hail collected on the bush and sidewalk.

The next day...

Sunday dawned with beautiful sunshine, blue skies, and warm temperatures.

Here is the bush that had the ice on it yesterday. I was afraid that our camillas would freeze, but they are still pretty.

The pink camillas, on the right, are almost finished blooming, but they made it through the icy weather too.

Look at the beautiful blue sky!

And the forsythia is blooming in the side yard too.

Wow! What a difference a day makes!

Stay tuned for more news about Mexico.

Hasta luego.

Dr. Seuss, Kids and Flowers

Hello everyone! I'm back at it again! It has been 2 months since I
posted a blog. Have you missed reading about my escapades?!! I've missed our communication: my writing and your comments. Thank you for your enthusiastic remarks about my blog. I am glad that you enjoyed learning a little about Mexico.

Since I arrived home from Mexico just 3 days before Christmas, the family holiday celebrations began immediately. I didn't even finish unpacking my suitcases for 2 weeks! After the New Year, I decided to enjoy my "retirement" and some "down time": sleeping late, visiting with the grandkids, organizing my photos from Mexico, and I even joined a gym so I can use the treadmill and bicycle during the wintertime!

When I visited Guadalajara, I saw a poinsettia tree for the first time and fell in love with it. At Christmas, AE, C, M and M gave me my very own "poinsettia tree"! It is in our sunroom and Nellie and I are enjoying it!





For Valentine's Day, Mr. Neat brought me these pretty yellow tulips. Even though it was still cold outside, they made it feel like spring was near. They brightened our kitchen table for a long time.






Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as "Dr. Seuss", is an author of many children's books and this week was his birthday. Elementary schools usually have some fun and celebrate it. Teachers, parents, and even a few community leaders read Dr. Seuss stories to the schoolchildren, occasionally even dressing up as a character from one of the books. I visited Jones elementary school today and all the classroom doors were decorated in a Dr. Seuss book theme. The hallways looked great!

His stories are characterized by rhyming words and unusual illustrations. They are great books for early readers to use. "Green Eggs and Ham", "Horton Hears a Who", "Fox in Socks", and "The Cat in the Hat" are some of his famous books, but the picture shows several more of the Dr. Seuss books that kids love.





Even the IHOP restaurant got into the Dr. Seuss theme with "Whoville pancakes" and "Green Eggs and Ham"! M and M came to visit on Saturday and guess what they ate?

From the smiles, you can see they enjoyed them!

Here is a closeup of the green eggs and ham and the pancakes. They were a big hit with children!

That's all for now but there are some exciting projects being planned so I will be keeping you posted.

Hasta luego.