2nd Place Finish

Yesterday my two dear Venezuelan sister-in-laws and our dear niece returned to Venezuela.

Fanny had been with us since Mother's Day and Francys and Veronica since July 1.

It was a horrible good-bye.

I have given it 2nd place in light of the other good-byes that we have experienced in our almost nine years of marriage.

Back nearly 8 years ago Pancho and I experienced a similarly horrible good-bye.
Even worse, though.
We were moving from Venezuela to the States in October of 2002.
We had decided to move because of the adverse political and economic climate in Venezuela.
His entire family, papa, mama, 2 sisters and niece, drove us to Caracas with our 6 rubber maid tubs and 3 suitcases filled to the top with those wedding gifts we could transport.
We got checked in and handed over our luggage.
We then made our way to the area where we would have to say good-bye to Pancho's family.
It was absolutely gut-wrenching.
Veronica was only 3 and did not understand what was happening.
She had brought her suitcase along on the 10-hour drive to Caracas and when we unloaded our luggage from the SUV, she proceeded to hand us her Winnie the Pooh suitcase.
We told her she should keep her suitcase in the SUV.
She was so confused.
So, after we checked in, we found a little corner where we could all be together without many distractions so we could pray as an extended family.
Everyone bowed their heads.
But no words were uttered.
Tears began (or continued, some had been falling since we woke up early that morning) to fall freely from each person's eyes.
Pancho, Pancho's dad, cried the hardest of them all.
He and my dad are the most tender men I have ever met on this earth.
Finally Emelys, Pancho's mom, began to pray aloud.
She was the only one among us who could muster up a voice.

Those days are long-gone and yet the memory of that painful good-bye came flooding into my mind yesterday as we stood in a similar position at CWA.
Here we all were (our family of four, Pancho's sisters and our niece and my dad) attempting to say good-bye.
For how long?
We don't know.
When you have family that lives as far away as Venezuela you simply never know when you will see them again.
I definitely think that contributes to making the good-bye so heart-wrenching.

The time came for them to pass through security.
We began to give our parting hugs.
Parting hugs are the worst.
Shaking shoulders.
Tears flowing endlessly.
You say things that you feel in your heart-of-hearts that you would not normally say because they make you so vulnerable.
Things like my dad said to Francys and Fanny...
"I think of you both as my own daughters. Just like Krissy."

Poor Katrina doesn't have many inhibitions yet.
She sobbed loud.
And she sobbed hard.
This was definitely her worst good-bye to date (she was not even born when Pancho and I moved to the States).
She continued to cry as Grandpa held her while I helped holler things to the security people as they went through security (Spanish-English language barrier -- CWA does not have a lot of bilingual security officers).
She cried all the way home.
It is a 20+ minute drive.
The poor thing.
Later in the afternoon I heard her crying upstairs in her room.
She was reminded of the times she and Veronica would go up there to play for hours on end.
Today, after lunch, she found one of "Fanny's hairs" on the living room floor and got all teared up.

The house is sumamente quiet.
We absolutely loved having a van-full.
We adored having to use paper plates and plastic cups at meal times in order to not be running the dishwasher constantly.
We enjoyed the late-night talks and laughs and bowls of ice cream and scrabble games.

We had such a wonderful time and we are so thankful to the Lord for His provision of this time together.
You know, Pancho and his sisters have never been together, just the three of them, apart from their parents.
We will cherish the memories that the Lord has blessed us with from this time together.
Las amamos mas que nunca, Francys, Fanny y Veroniquita!

Los Duran Julio 2010

El amor de mi vida

Kristina & Pancho -- nearly 9 years of marriage

los 4 Duran

Katrina -- nearly 4 1/2 years

Samuel -- 18 months

hermanos, primos, tio, tias

familia

We are so thankful for the time we have had with Francys, Fanny and Veronica this summer.

It has been a wonderful time of memories and blessings.

Thank you, Lord, for family and for time able to spend together.

Noah's Ark Trip

We went to Noah's Ark on Monday.

All 7 of us.

It was the first time for Francys, Fanny, Veronica, Katrina and Samuel.

It was my last time.

No...

Not really, but I really did not care for the rides.

I am not sure why.

I think it is because I am a mother now and I am not cut out for that sort of thrill-seeking anymore.

The 3-car caravan left Wausau at 8:30.

We made it down to the park by about 10:30.

We got ready, made our game plan and started our trek from the parking lot to the

entrance.

During that short time Katrina ran into the rearview mirror of a car and smacked her head SUPER hard.

She developed a giant goose-egg and I felt absolutely horrible about it, as did Pancho.

We got her calmed down, got into the park and tried out one of the kiddie areas.

Little did we know she took off her sandals and left them by the wave pool.

From the kiddie area we made our way to the Adventure River.

Our friends, the Bretl's, lent us a life-jacket that we put on Samuel and Katrina wore floaties.

It was a fun experience all of us together in two tubes.

We left the Adventure River.

Little did we know we left the life-jacket on a deck chair and headed towards the bumper boats.

Noah's Ark seemed so much smaller with no kids.

Finding the attractions with one child in a stroller and another wanting to be carried takes a long time.

We were almost to the bumper boats when Katrina realized she did not have her shoes.

She started wailing and crying and screaming (if you know her you can easily imagine this!).

We told her we would go back and find them after the bumper boats.

Well, she would not stop crying about her shoes.

So, we got out of the bumper boat line and began the long walk back to the Big Kahuna.

On our way there I said, "Where is the life-jacket?"

Pancho had taken it off of Samuel and we laid it down on the lawn chair to get him into the stroller and there it stayed.

I was sick.

We were barely into our day and we had already had one goose-egg, one lost pair of shoes and one lost life-jacket, that wasn't even ours.

Well, we finally made it to the Big Kahuna and Katrina quickly located her shoes.

From there we nearly ran to the place where we loaded into the Adventure River and guess what?

The life-jacket was still there!

Praise the Lord!

From there we went to the van and went home.

No, we didn't.

We went to the van for lunch.

We met up with the rest of our group and discussed our game plan for the afternoon.

My brother Nick and his wife Amber came with the 7 of us in the afternoon so Pancho and I could go on some rides while others took care of Katrina and Samuel.

We enjoyed the Black Thunder two times and then somehow I got talked into going on the Time Warp.

BAD IDEA.

Let's just say that I felt like my heart stopped during what seemed like an endless ride and I will never, never do anything like that again.

Ever.

(the picture of us getting off this ride is in the collage -- thankfully my back is to the camera or you would see me bawling my eyes out, literally)

All in all it was a fun time...

Veronica was voted as "the one who got her money's worth out of the ticket price."

She loved every single ride.

She is a bit of a dare devil!

Katrina and Samuel enjoyed themselves although they did not really do too much.

At the end of the day we found the "Octoexplorer" children's area and they had a blast in there.

Sorry there are so few pictures...

It was more important for me to watch the kids than to snap photos!

Maybe we will go back in a few years when the kids will enjoy it a bit more and I can sit in a deck chair, sip my Coca and take some better pictures.

You get what you get...

This is what our kitchen table has looked like for the past 7+ days.
Samuel has been the pickiest eater known to this family.
He has not wanted his favorite foods (pictured above).
He has not wanted his least favorite foods.
He has not wanted any food.
He is getting quite a few teeth right now.
Eye teeth, molars, etc.
And I am sure that is not comfortable.
Yet, I am getting quite frustrated because I don't know what to offer him.
Apart from emptying the pantry in front of his eyes and then the refrigerator, I am at my wits end...

... until I see this little face when we finally discover what he wants to eat.

When I taught 4K and kindergarten I had a saying.
"You get what you get and you don't throw a fit."
I would say this when handing out snacks, or art paper.
I would say it all the time.
It was my hope to maintain that mantra in this area into my parenting.
So far I have been horribly unsuccessful.

Done Deal

Samuel got tubes put in his ears this morning.
It was traumatic for Mama and Papa but he went through it like it was old hat. He is a bit more ornery today, which is to be expected, but other than that it looks like a done deal.
When the doctor came to speak with us in the waiting room he said that they had to suction out "a lot, and much more in the left than in the right, of rubber-cement pus from behind his ear drums."
He said it was no wonder he failed the hearing test and that he would not be surprised if Samuel was much more sensitive to sound now than he was before.
We are so thankful to God for the blessing of Samuel and we are also so thankful that he came through everything with flying colors.
He is our little man and we love him so very much.

Road Trip

With Francys, Fanny and Veronica here (Pancho's sisters and our niece), we have wanted to do some extra fun things.
So, we got a really nice hotel on priceline and took a two-day, one-night trip to Madison. Here are some highlights...

Thankfully we remembered to bring the innertubes for both Katrina and Samuel.
They both had so much fun floating around the pool.
And both Pancho and I felt so much safer having them in the innertubes.

We had a leisurely Tuesday morning in the hotel room, getting ready to hit the pool again.
It was so nice to just sleep in (a bit!) and then have a good time eating goldfish crackers and laughing while we all got our damp suits back on for one more dip in the pool before we headed to the zoo.

The Henry Vilas zoo is free!
The Henry Vilas zoo is free!
It has been free for years, even when I went to the UW, but I am amazed that it is free.
And now they have this incredible park area that is free and a carousel that is $1/ride (and if you have to go with your child because he is too short they do not charge you to ride as well!).
There were too many good pictures so I made a collage-collage. (translated: real collage)

A fishing she will go ...

Last Wednesday we stopped at my parents house for a bit.
Grandpa took Katrina and Samuel outside while Fanny and I worked on something inside.
When we were ready to leave Katrina came running to tell me that Grandpa had given her some "walleyes."
I was confused but then she showed me some rubber worms and I figured he gave her the worms so she could catch some walleyes.

Well, what Grandpa didn't think about is that 4-year-old girls take everything literally.
So, bright and early Thursday morning, Katrina was ready to go catch some fish with her "walleyes."
She came into my room and asked when Grandpa was coming to pick her up to go fishing.
As far as I knew there was no plan for a fishing trip, but not wanting to disappoint Katrina, we got on the phone to the three finest fishermen we know: Uncle Nick, Uncle Shawn and Grandpa.

DISCLAIMER: The order of our phone calls does not represent their fisherman finery.

No one was available.
Much to my chagrin, Katrina was devastated.
Until...
She received a phone call from Nana saying that Grandpa was able to go now and if she got all ready, Nana would come and pick her up and take her to the house so Grandpa and her could go fishing.
Well, you have never seen a little girl go from sad to happy faster than I saw Katrina!
She ran upstairs, got her "walleyes" into her "most fishing-looking purse" and got dressed in her finest fishing attire.
She went outside on the deck and found her Barbie rod and reel in the toy box and stood at the edge of the driveway waiting 20 minutes for Nana to arrive.

Grandpa took her fishing that afternoon and although they did not catch anything, Katrina was in paradise.
She loves her grandpa and if you must know, her grandpa loves her.
He even gave her a dollar for her good casting.
I have a pretty good feeling neither of them can wait to do it again.

Like Father Like Son

Little Lady -- Literally

This little girl is becoming more and more of a little lady.
This week she was playing in Samuel's bedroom and found a body scrubber that one would use in the shower.
She came to me immediately and said,
"I want to take a shower."
Now, if you know Katrina at all you know that she does not particularly like water in her eyes or face.
In fact, whenever we have taken swimming lessons the showering after the lessons has nearly put me over the edge.
Screaming.
Kicking.
Crying.
More screaming.
Mind you, there are other mamas helping their children get showered at the same time and let's just say,
these moments are not some of my better moments as a mama.
Ahhhhh!
So, back to earlier this week...
Katrina has just shared with me that she wants to take a shower.
I play it cool,
"OK. Do you want to take a shower in your bathroom or our's?"
"Your's."
"Alright. Get your towel and I will get the water going for you. Are you sure you want to take a shower?"
"Yes." And she ran off for her towel.
I got the water running and helped her get in.
I pulled the door half-way closed in anticipation of a lot of screaming.
I waited in the bedroom.
And waited.
Soon I heard her begin singing.
She was singing in the shower while washing herself with the huge body scrubber.
I stood by our bed folding laundry and cried tears of joy.
Not because she was not screaming, although that made me happy.
I cried because I love her so much and I am so blessed having her in my life.
We prayed long and hard for children.
The Lord took us through quite an obstacle course on the way to bless us with Katrina (and Samuel for that matter)
and we could not be more content with what He taught us throughout the course and what He continues to teach us today.
Katrina, tu papa y yo te amamos mas que nunca!

Little Man

This little man is such a joy in our lives.
Two summers ago I was pregnant with him and scared to death that the Lord would see fit to take him home before we were able to hold him in our arms.
Now he is 17 months old and our hearts are exploding with the blessing that he is to us from the Lord.
Next week Wednesday Samuel will have tubes put in his ears.
He has had ear infections on and off for the past year and in the past six months he has had at least four infections,
the last of which do not want to clear up.
So, Wednesday at 7 AM we will take him to the ENT Associates for this minor procedure.
I know they say it is minor and yet, from a mama's perspective,
anytime anesthesia is involved the word minor does not come to mind.
But, we have learned with this life that has been entrusted to us, that he is not our own and whatever happens God is allowing to happen for our good and for His glory.
ALWAYS.
AMEN.