Our House

We bought a house in Tucson in December 2007 prior to Cesario deploying. I moved in in January 2008 and lived there until May 2009 prior to our PCS to Okinawa. This is the first home for both of us and I completely love this house. Cesario laughs at how much I love this house. What is my reason? He has bought us lots of things throughout the years but this house was one of the best things we have ever purchased. We are in a gated community and our home is the last house in a culdesac. We have a beautiful view of the mountains. The yard front and back are easy maintenance. I use to love pruning the trees and raking my rocks. I know I am little crazy when it comes to that but I love the look it gives.

We are so thankful that my parents live quite close so they have done a fabulous job of taking care of it while we are away. It was nice to visit Tucson and be able to stay in our home.

Lunch at El Torero

My parents and I decided to spend the day together before we left on Wednesday. One of the places I wanted to eat was El Torero. They have the best Mexican food in Tucson. My parents have been taking us there since we were kids. They opened up for business in 1956. It is a whole in the wall but the food ROCKS!! The ladies that work there have been there as far back as I can remember and when you walk in it is like being with family. My dad and I always go for the ground beef tacos with a side of beans. I got a little adventureous this time and had the lunch combo with 2 tacos, 1 enchilada and a side of beans. We always start out our meal with a cheese crisp which is always the best. My dad and I shared a pitcher as for once I wasn't the DD. It was nice to have some one on one time with the parents as well as enjoying a great meal with old friends.

If you are ever in Tucson you have to try it out.

Jake's Birthday Party

It was great that we could be home to celebrate Jake's 5th birthday! They had the party at Peter Piper Pizza..YUM!! It was great to sit around and see everyone having such a great time. We enjoyed pizza, wings and beer. Jake managed to get a ton of gifts. One of things he got was this cool Iron Man helmet. He seemed to love it but so did some of the adults.

Everyone decided to go out afte the party. Unfortunately, I had gotten sick shortly after our arrival in Tucson so I was not up for much. The party was enough for me. I dropped the boys off on 4th Avenue and headed home for some much needed rest.

Dinner with the Gastelum's

We were fortunate enough to have been able to spend time with our friends, Delcia and Rick. I had not seen them since we left in 2008. Here is a little background on our friendship. I met Delcia in 1996 shortly after graduating from college. We both worked at Pima Medical Institute. Delcia was always very quiet but I managed to converse with her from time to time. At one point I was promoted to Financial Aid Officer and became Delcia's counterpart. This is were I would say our friendship blossomed. We began hanging out more and more. Happy hour at Applebees was one of our favorite places. Her and her then boyfriend/fiance,Rick decided to get married after 11 years (they weren't engaged that long). I was so honored that Delcia asked me to be in her wedding. The rest I would say is history. Since then they have had 2 girls, Ryve and Denae. They have 3 fabulouse Lhasa Apso, Mandi, Riley and Sadie. Delcia has been one of my best friends!! There hasn't been one time that her and I have spoken that it doesn't feel like we just talked yesterday. She is funny, loving and most of all a GREAT friend. I miss them all dearly but know that they are only a phone call away.

With that said.......Cesario and I went to their house so we could see the girls. They are so big now. They were able to get a sitter so we headed out for some food and beers. We had a great time eating, drinking, watching March Madness and most of all catching up on the last two years.

I feel extremely fortunate to have them in our lives.

Bowling Trip

So we thought it would be fun to spend the afternoon at the bowling alley. We all agreed to meet at the bowling alley. The kids got set up on one lane and the grown ups on another. Our nephews and sister in law Sara had never been bowling. We were there for several hours. We were able to bowl, eat and have a few beers. It was fun to watch the kids especially my nephews. They wanted to be big boys and bowl like pros without the helping ramp. It was good to be able to spend time with everyone.

My Neighbor Natalie

My parents bought their original home back in 1969, 2 weeks before I was born. We lived in that house until I was 25. Our neighbors across the street were the Burrola's. Their household consisted of Art, Yolanda and their 3 kids Artie, Tina and Natalie. My sister and Tina grew up together and are still best friends. I was about 15 when Yolanda had Natalie. It was like having a younger sister. She was the cutest little thing. I loved it when she finally reached school age because she always had great stories from kindergarten. From time to time I would babysit Natalie or shall I say I borrowed her for companionship. Natalie and I loved hitting up Carlos Murphy's (bar and grill) for their chicken nachos. So when Fridays would come around Natalie was my happy hour buddy.

Time has gone on but we have never lost touch with each other. They are much like family to us. Natalie is now 26, graduated college and works as a branch manager for Wells Fargo. We were lucky enough to have her over for dinner and catch up. It was so great to see her and what a beautiful woman she has become.

4th Avenue Street Fair and The Buffet

Each spring, Tucson merchants block the streets, open their doors and invite artists and vendors to set up booths along Fourth Avenue. They began doing this in 1970 and have continued ever since. The crowds now range between 200,000 and 350,000. The cool thing about this event is there are lots of restaurants and bars along the street.

We parked about 1 mile away and opted to take the trolley. Mind you I was born and raised in Tucson but never taken the trolley. Definitely was a fun experience. We walked around and enjoyed the vendors. We bought some cool picture frames as well as some beautiful framed pictures. We bought one and my parents bought us a really big one for our home in Tucson.

We stopped off and ate at O'Malleys. I stepped out of my box and had a philly cheese steak and a nice cold bud light. Everything was delicious!! That seemed to be the meeting point because the rest of our family showed up. While everyone who had just showed up decided to eat and watch the games, my mom and I opted to hit the rest of the fair up. The area is very hippy like and I was on a mission to find sage. Most everyone is aware of McKenzie's situation with spirits. I found this great place called the Rustic Candle Company. I explained my situation to the girl and she had lots of information for me. I ended up with 3 bundles of sage, 2 dragon's blood pillar candles and some frankincense and myrrh incense.

We arrived back at O'Malleys and continued to have some beers and munchies. Later into the evening we decided to hit up a dive bar called The Buffet. The Buffet is the oldest bar in Tucson, established approximately in 1934. It really was a dive bar but we had a great time.

Costco and the Break in

We decided to head out to Costco yesterday to do a little shopping. Cesario, Catalina (my mother in law), my mom and I headed out to see what we could find. You know things change around alot at Costco. I was able to find shorts for Cesario and I, 3 pairs of tennis shoes, shirts, a little bit of groceries and of course we looked for dog stuff. Between us all we had 3 baskets full. Just as we are ready to head to the registers my mom receives a phone call that their house alarm is going off and the sheriff was being dispatched. We were going to head to the house but my dad was able to get the neighbor to check out the house. We got back in line to pay and figured since the sheriff nor the neighbor could see anything that could have set off the alarm we were ok. We bypassed the yummy Costco hotdog I was so looking forward too and headed right for home. When we arrive I didn't see a thing. I did however notice some very poor craftsmanship on their house. After making sure everything was okay we proceeded about our day.

This morning my dad goes out the front to get the paper and noticed the door frame was broken. Come to find out the craftsmanship on their home was fine. It was the crazy person who tried to kick in their door in the middle of the day that made it look the way it did. Amazing the things people will do in broad daylight.

NCAA Tournament at Buffalo Wild Wings

The luxury of being on vacation is being able to go to a bar and grill at 3:00 in the afternoon for wings, beer and basketball. We went with Cesario's parents, Jackie (Cesario's sister), John (Jackie's husband), Jake (nepehew), Tyler (Goddaughter and niece), Neve (niece), Manny (Cesario's brother) and my mom. Wings were good as ever as was the company. We sat around ate, drank, laughed and watched the games.

Going to Tucson

The time has arrived that we make our trip to Tucson, Arizona. It's been almost 2 years since I have seen my parents and the rest of our families. We were suppose to leave 11 March 2010 but like most men, Cesario, decided to wait until the last minute to do his COT leave and we had a couple snags. One of them being the purchase of my ticket a week before we leave. When all is said and done we ended up having to leave a week later but that is ok.

I am looking forward to going home but not making the LONG trip. I am also not looking forward to being with our my favorite girls, Kenzie and Maggie for 14 days.

Headed out and will report along the way.

Whale Shark Dive

We went to the Coral Cove last night for a lock down party. They were raffling off lots of free items. One of the raffles was a free whale shark dive. They had enough for 25 people. Unfortunately most of the people there were not certified to dive so we were guaranteed a ticket. I ended up with a couple extra tickets and invited Travis to come with.

Beth also won and several tickets so she invited a couple of here friends. There were about 12 people in our group.


We went to a port where we loaded up our gear and headed out. The funny thing is the are wasn't far from our house and I could actully see it from the boat and water. The day was not too bad. It was partially cloudy but I still managed to get some decent pictures.


It was one of the best experiences here in Okinawa. We had a fabulous time and hope that I get to do it again prior to our departure in 2011.