Daycare Search

Parenting is already stressful, and Edison is not born yet.  About a month ago, JR and I went on our daycare search for Edison.  Let's do the math.  About a month ago I was 6 months pregnant.  Which means,  there were 4 months left before Edison would be born and another 2 months before he actually starts daycare.  Why are we looking so early???  This is the norm apparently.  The daycare that we  actually decided on has a wait list and no available spots until February!  So looking 6 months ahead actually wasn't even early enough.  Therefore, the earlier the better :)

Every parent wants the best care for their child, but we also have to remember that every parent has to also pay for that childcare.  So let's amend the earlier sentence to  every parent wants the best affordable care for their child.

JR and I began with setting a parameter on how far we would go for a daycare.  Within the parameter we set, there are about 15 daycares.   So I started to research each one, and narrowed down the list to 8 daycares.  To be honest, the first thing i looked for at each daycare was the price.  Of course, none of the websites have prices!

The next day, we set out to see all 8 daycares.  I had questions and a notebook ready to critique each and every day care.  Of the 8 daycares we drove past 2 and decided to not go in purely based on the look of the building and the play ground.  JR and I didn't even have to discuss it.  We would just look at the building as were driving up, and then look at each other and keep going.

One daycare that we went in to looked decent on the outside, but was extremely sketchy on the inside.  I think we could have turned around and walked right out, if no one had seen us walk in. We took a tour and ended in the infant room.  It was nap time , therefore the lights were off.  One of the teachers was standing between two rooms with a baby in her arms and one in a rocker.  She was feeding the one in her arms and vigorously rocking the one on the floor with her foot.  She actually scared us! As a teacher, I naturally asked about a curriculum.  The response was "We do not have a curriculum for babies.  They just eat and sleep"  This sealed the deal that this was not the right place for Edison...well the deal was sealed with the scary teacher, the lack of lights, the smell of dirty diapers and lots of other things.

After daycare hunting for about 3 hours, we grabbed lunch and headed home to make a decision.  We decided on the same daycare that my niece and nephew attend.  They provide a great curriculum, lots of experienced teachers, diversity, safety, and many other things, including a discount for educators :)

The winner is The Goddard School for Early Childhood Development :)

Thanks for reading,
<3 Jenn

Trimester 2: 17-27 weeks

Hey Friends and Family! It's been a while. There is so much to catch you up on. This entry will be about the BIG ultrasound and other trimester 2 (T2) shenanigans. On the last entry, I spoke about how T2 hadn't been as amazing and enjoyable as everyone said it was going to be. Well, I eventually made it to that honeymoon place. I stopped getting nauseous, rode in cars with ease and stopped wanting to nap every 2 hours. I was back to my old self and moving around with quite a lot of ease. This was great for me, especially with the school year coming to an end. For my non-teacher friends and family, you may think that the end of the school year is a breeze, but it is far from it. I was moving around constantly, packing my room, going on service and field trips, prepping my AP students for their big test, and getting things done around the house. I also finally regained my appetite and then some. This is when I started to eat everything in site. I was always hungry and always snacking. I kept a snack drawer at work and ate constantly during class. I would eat lunch and then leave during my conference periods to get more food. I tried to stay a little bit healthy :) My love was and still is DQ Blizzards. I did learn that I had an aversion to white mushrooms and olives. It was during this trimester that we had our first check everything ultrasound. We had an appointment at 7 in the morning but needed to be there 30 min early. I was told to come with a full bladder and not eat anything past midnight. I woke up and started drinking water. I was so nervous that I didn't drink enough that when we arrived at the hospital, I drank another 2 cups. Well, the joke was on me, because I didn't get in to the ultrasound room until 8 am. By then, my bladder was about to explode. I had to keep my bladder full for the first part of the ultrasound. The ultrasound is more then just checking the gender of the baby. It is to check to see if everything is developing correctly. A tech conducts the ultrasound. She took a lot of pictures and measurements of everything from limbs to organs. The whole time JR and I are just watching the monitor and hoping everything is alright. About an hour later, she leaves the room with the results and comes back in 15 min later to tell us we were done. We were still worried. The tech couldn't really tell us anything. We had to wait for the results to get sent to my OB and then wait for my OB to call us. I can't really describe the feeling. Worry doesn't really describe the knot in my stomach that had formed with the anticipation of knowing whether or not my baby was developing healthily. We were super excited when the tech showed us BR is a boy. He was not shy at all when it came to letting us see his boy parts... After the ultrasound we went to update our registry with boy specific things. We needed to take our minds off of the ultrasound. JR was super excited about the boy factor, and was bouncing off the walls in Target and Babies-R-Us. I had to kind of scold him to get him to focus...may not have been my proudest moment as a wife :/ In the end, everything was fine. The results showed that he was growing nicely and actually ahead of schedule. This did not surprise us at all. JR was almost 10 lbs as a new born....and i have a slight fear that Edison is going to follow in his father's footsteps. Next up: Day Care search <3 Jenn

Trimester 2: Weeks 14-16

JR and I have now entered into trimester 2. This is the trimester I have been looking forward to. Everyone has been telling me that I will be in my pregnant honeymoon stage...but I am not. I have discovered that trimester 2 has brought me motion sickness. I have never had this before. But car rides are a lot more difficult for me. At first I thought it was just other people driving, but last week I had to pull over a few times on the way to work to throw up.

I am also extremely bloated all the time after meals. My doctor told me that it is not going to go away especially for someone my size. Some other things I have discovered about my pregnancy are that fish, tomato juice, and incense make me queasy. I don't really crave anything in particular, but I do have cravings all the time. JR and I also think the dogs may sense something is different, because they have been going potty in the house.

Now let's talk about the doctor visits. No one told me that I have to pee in a cup at every visit. So now I know to drink a large cup of water before I drive to the appointment. I am an expert at peeing in a cup, and have a routine on how to get it done cleanly :) Ladies, you know this is a difficult task for us. Every time JR and I go to an appointment, I get nervous. It's almost as if I hold my breath until the doctor says " Everything looks good" Yesterday we went to the OB for our 16 week check-up and started things off with a sonogram to check BR's heartbeat. The minute it took for the nurse to find BR feels like a lifetime. On my last checkup (4 weeks ago) BR was on the bottom left, this time BR was on the top right. When she found his/her heartbeat, she couldn't keep it for long because BR was constantly moving. So it looks like we are starting off strong and this may be why I feel sick all the time ;) Our next appointment will be the highly anticipated Ultrasound to make sure everything is maturing right. Hopefully BR isn't shy and lets us know if the name will be Ava or Edison (If you read our last entry, you already knew about Ava. Right now we are considering Edison for a boy name :) )

The last thing I want to talk about are baby registries. I thought it was going to be like a wedding registry. I was excited to get a scan gun and scan away at all the cuteness JR and I could find. But baby registries are so much more stressful. I researched everything I came across from cribs to bottles. I also didn't realize how many different types of everything there were. It's not as simple as finding a comfy infant carrier. You need to find one with a five point harness, head support, side impact tested, and energy absorbing foam. I am extremely thorough. So not only did I research what is best right now, I also went on to several sites to read parent reviews and make comparisons. Basically if you want more info and what's out there and what's good for babies, I can share with you! I definitely think a list is helpful to go off of. Babies-R-Us and Target gave us one to use. Feel free to check them out to see what I have spent hours and hours of research on.

Until next time,
<3 Jenn

Please do not judge my spelling or grammar :)

BR Weeks 1-13: 1st trimester

This post is going to be long, I have a lot to cover :)

Alright so a little background first that will answer a lot of questions for all of you. I first noticed something was different about a week after school had started back up in January. I was extremely tired all the time. When I say tired, I mean sleeping whenever I had the chance to. Some of you may be thinking " that doesn't seem different for Jennifer, she sleeps all the time anyways) But let me tell you, I would come home from work and take a nap until JR woke me up for dinner. I would eat dinner then go right back to sleep about an hour later. I was suppose to get my period (we are all adults here)the weekend of Jessica and Daniel's wedding (Jan 14). I had a feeling that it wasn't going to come ,but I didn't want to get my hopes up. That same weekend, JR has a dream that I am pregnant. The following week I took two at home pregnancy test and both came out positive.

At home pregnancy test are not as easy at peeing on a stick. There are very specific instructions on how to hold the stick when you pee on it and how to hold it after you pee and how to lay it down while you wait for the lines to appear. It was actually quite stressful. I immediately make a doctors appointment for the following week. As I am sitting in the doctor's room waiting to hear the results of the test I took there, I had a gazillion things run through my head. I pictured my doctor coming in with a huge smile on her face with balloons and all this crazy fan fare to let me know I was indeed pregnant. Instead, the nurse walks in to tell me that she is dropping off a prenatal care bag for me. and that was it. That was how I found out for sure that I was pregnant. The breaking of the news wasn't exactly how I had imagined it.

I call JR to give him the great news, then go home and ...sleep. And so the first trimester morning sickness begins. I had true early morning nauseousness. I would throw up maybe once or twice a week. Our morning routine became quite tired some. I would wake up around 5 am. JR would wake up let the dogs out and then come ask me what I felt like I could eat. He would fix me breakfast and I would sit in bed eating and get out of bed around 6:15 if I was lucky. After about a week of this, I had to tell my bosses that I was pregnant. Getting to work on time was extremely difficult. I didn't want them to think that I was slacking or anything. So the first people to know I was pregnant weren't my closest family members or friends, but my bosses.

About the second week of February, JR and I go in for our first ultrasound. We were slightly nervous that we could have twins. It runs in JR's family. When flickering kidney bean came on the screen, I was overwhelmed with emotion inside. JR and I didn't cry, but I definitely teared up. The doctor measured BR and calculated that he/she was 7 weeks and 6 days along (1.5 cm in length) She then moved around to make sure there was only one :) and indeed, only one.

As the weeks progressed, I continued to be nauseous and throw up occasionally, I actually lost a few pounds. I snacked all the time, gave up a lot of food I liked, and continued to sleep. At about 9 weeks we began telling our family, and at about 11 weeks we told all of our closest friends. By the last week of my 1st trimester, the tiredness and the nauseousness calmed down. The snacking did not :)

The last downside to being pregnant is how often I have to pee. My record is getting up 3 times in one night to use the restroom.

We also had a sonogram around week 12. We heard the heartbeat after a little scare because the nurse couldn't find BR.

Here are a few questions that weren't answered above:

When are you due? September 23

Were you two trying? We weren't not trying. I had been off birth control for about 3 months.

When and are you going to find out the gender? Any one that is reading this knows me well enough to know that I am a planner. Which means of course we are going to find out the gender. I am not one to be surprised on the day of delivery. We will know at the beginning of May if it is a boy or girl.

Do you care if it is a boy or girl? Like all parents-to-be, we just want a healthy Guatemasian baby, but a boy Guatemasian would be pretty awesome.

Do you have names picked out yet? We have a name picked out for a girl: Ava Mei Reyes. Mei is after my grandmother. As for a boy name, we have nothing! Picking out a name is extremely stressful. BR will also have a Chinese name, but will be given that by my parents after he/she is born.




<3 Jennifer

Reyes News and Updates! Read all about it!

Hey Friends and family! The last entry in this blog was about my grandmother. So I guess I will begin with my grandmother. About a month ago, my grandmother passed away. I am honestly still grieving and think about her often. The last time I saw my grandmother, I was able to tell her that she was going to be blessed with her
13th great grandchild. My last memory of her is filled with love and lots of joy.

So here goes the rest. I received a promotion at work this semester. I am the 10th grade level chair at my school. This essentially translates to an assistant principal type job. The transition has been a bit overwhelming but welcomed with more responsibilities, accountability, and trust. I get to use the school credit card quite often :)JR is still working with USA but no longer works with the shuttle program. He works with the station now and does a lot of planning and programming type stuff. That's about as detailed as I can get with his job description.

Here is the real reason I am blogging again. A lot of friends have asked JR and I to blog about our Baby Reyes (BR) experience. This is the best way for us to keep everyone updated on how things are going. I hope you all enjoy it, and I will try not to forget all the ups and downs about pregnancy. Hopefully JR will get in on this and blog a little about what he is feeling through all of this as well! Please please feel free to call. email and comment. Don't be afraid or embarrassed to ask questions.

<3 Jennifer

My best and worst traits

So I feel like sharing about people in my life. You may or may not read about yourself in my next few entries :) This is in no order of importance, but this one is the most important.

Some of you know but a lot of you don't... recently I have been pretty much off the map. I apologize for that. My grandmother was in the hospital. She had a minor heart attack and fluid filled her lungs. After about 2 weeks in the hospital, she came home.

She is doing alright and living day by day. But this isn't about her illness, this is about her.

My grandmother is the epitome of a strong woman. All the women in my family are independent, courageous, intelligent, stubborn, and determined. We owe all that to her. Some of our best traits...and our worst... come from my grandmother. She raised most of us. When I was young, my family lived in my grandmother's house with my other aunts and uncles and their familes. We were pretty cramped. But from what I remember, I loved it. There was always someone to watch me, someone to hang out with me, someone to take care of me. But at the root of all those someones was my grandmother. She was the one that really took care of me.

After my family moved into our own house, my grandmother was still there to watch me. My parents were the ones to wake me up in the morning, but my grandmother would be the one to tuck me in at night. For her, she is the happiest when the family is all around: her eyes brighten, her smile widens, and her face lights up when generations of us are in her house.

None of us really know how much longer she has on this earth. About 5 years ago she had a major heart attack and triple by-pass surgery. That was 5 years ago and she is still with us. Every year she has something that she says she is holding on for. Right now, its the birth of her 12th great grandchild (my niece Sohphie).

I have to say that my grandmother has lived a pretty great life, filled with lots of love and accomplishment. I know I am selfish when I say that I want my grandmother to live longer. That I want her to be around to hold my child (whenever that may be), but can you blame me? It's hard to let go of the ones we love.

Whenever that day comes, to let her go, I will cry and my heart will hurt tremendously, but I know that it will be her time. I know that she will be watching over us and continue to pass on her best... and worst traits.

<3 Jennifer

Another school year coming to an end

I could sit here and type out how my life has played out in the course of a school year, but that's a lot of typing and story telling that I don't really want to do. To make a super long story short, I started at a new school, teaching a new subject, and teaching a new age group. As the school year is coming to an end (we have about 2 and a half weeks left), I can look back with a smile and excitement.

I learned so much and met so many great people that I am excited to move forward to more changes! I work with a wonderful team of people and friends; I could gush about them and type for days about who they are and how they inspire me, but I won't. I can simply say 'Thank you'. Working at YES with the students and teachers has renewed my energy and passion for teaching. It has reminded me of why I am in education and why I LOVE what I do. Next year I will be back to teaching World History, but I will also be teaching AP! It will be a new set of challenges to face and conquer :)

I am honestly going to try and keep up with this blog. I feel that so much of me is focused on work that I have pushed aside the people that matter most in my life. So hopefully, you all (the people that matter) will read this and feel more connected to what is happening in (JR)^2 life. I also hope that your comments and responses will help me stay in contact with you :)

<3 Jennifer

South Africa Trip - Day 9

Day 9 was our final full day in South Africa. That meant that we had to finish up our shopping and last minute sight seeing. We also had to watch the final game of the first round for the US. So even though we were just about done, we still had a lot to do.

We started out the morning by heading into town to the craft market on the waterfront. They sell a ton of hand made goods. We purchased all of our last minute souvenirs here before we head off to our tour of Robben Island.

The tour started at 1230 when they loaded the boat. We were one of the first ones in line so we shot straight to the top of the boat. As we were walking up, Andy fell behind the group. Once we got up to the top, they closed off the top deck to any more passengers. We saw him down on the second level and he told us that he got stopped by one of the ship's crew because they wanted him to give them his USA jacket.

After we talked to Andy, we noticed that there started to be a lot more commotion on the water. I saw a couple small police boats in the water and a lot of people standing on the walkway close to where our boat was. Then more and more police started showing up, and finally a bigger boat. Once the people on the boat started getting off, I realized that it was the Netherlands National soccer team that was getting off the boat. They were just coming back from their Robben Island tour! I got a whole bunch of pictures of the team and players. It was SO awesome!

Anyways, the trip to Robben island was about a 20 minute boat ride in freezing weather. Didn't get to see any whales either.

Once we got to the island, we hopped on a bus thinking that it was going to take us to the prison. It turned out, later, that the bus was a tour. We were lucky because we got on a bus with one of the best tour guides I have ever seen. He was a GREAT story teller that you just wanted to listen to all the time. I wanted him to tell me bed-time stories! He told us that most of the people working there, including him, were once prisoners on the island. That just made everything he said more interesting and meaningful.

This tour guide took us around the island showing us different areas of the island, like where the prison was, where the governor stayed, where the MP houses/churches were, light house and so much more. It was great because before the tour started, he asked where the people on the tour were because he wanted to incorporate everyone into the story. He was a VERY knowledgeable tour guide. It was just great!

After the bus tour, we were dropped off at the prison where we were given a walking tour through the prison. It was so moving to see where the prisoners were forced to live and in what conditions. We got a chance to see Nelson Mandela's cell just like they did in the movie Invictus. It's crazy to think that these people were forced to live in a cell that is about 5ft x 4ft with only a couple of blankets and a bucket in there.

After the tour, we headed back to the boat and back to Cape Town. We sat as close to the exit on the boat because we needed to make sure that we got off quick and get somewhere to watch the US/Algeria game. We were able to find this place that had some standing room and watch the game. The game itself was pretty terrible. We had a TON of chances to score and we weren't taking advantage of ANY of them. In the end though, as i'm sure you're aware, the US pulled it out in the 91st minute! It was SO awesome... people running everywhere, hugging strangers, slappin' hands!

After that, we went to do a little more shopping and then hung out at Mitchell's, a Scottish bar to watch the Germany game. Nothing special (except birthmark), just the game and a couple beers. Didn't want to be hung over on the plane ride home the next day.

Anyways, today's our flight out of here and we're all packed. This is my last entry as an American African blogger... unless I get bored in Dubai and i'll become an American Dubaiian blogger. We'll see.

Piece.

South Africa Trip - Day 6-8

Alright... so it's been a while i guess. I'm going to see what i can do to fill you in.

Day 5 was not that busy. We decided that we would take a day off and just finish off some sites that we didn't see. We went to The Castle in downtown Cape Town. It was a really interesting fort with some good history behind it. It used to be right on the waterfront during the wars between the dutch and english back in the day. Anyways... now it's about 3 miles from the current water line in the middle of the city. Crazy stuff :)

Anyways, we lost Andy in the castle for about an hour. When we were finally about to leave, we found him. After the castle, we head down to the water front for some shopping and soccer watching. Really, it was a pretty relaxed day that seemed pretty uneventful.

Day 6 was game day! Portugal vs. North Korea. We were starting the day off by meeting Tessa and her friends at Paulaner Brewhaus at 12:30 to head over to the 1:30 game. We decided that we would eat lunch before the game, so we got there at 11. We all ordered a pint of Paulaner to start us off :)

Once Tessa finally showed up, we head out to the game. Unfortunately, we had 2 sets of 4 seats that were in totally different sections. Me, spicer, brian, and andy took the bottom level seats with Jennifer, Tessa and her two friends taking the top level seats. It was so amazing at how it was POURING down rain, but we weren't getting wet at all. We were in the 14th row and nothing! So cool!

Anyways, we had a great time at the game. I mean, 7-0. Hard to beat that. Got to see Ronaldo score! We got to meet Betty from China who we had to befriend after we heard her say this: "That was the biggest penis I've ever smelled!" (Long story)

After the game, we all head back to Paulaner. We had dinner and we were about to leave when our English Hedge House neighbors showed up at the bar. Of course, they had to buy us another round. Then Andy went off and started getting Scotch. We all know what happens when he starts drinking scotch :) We left the bar pretty early, 10pm or so, all drunk and ready to go the next day.

Day 8, today, was rough. Because of our drinking the night before, we were ALL very sluggish. Great way to feel when you're about to jump onto a boat that's heading for rough waters :( We all survived though and got to see thousands of seals resting on seal island just off of Haut Bay. It was all very scary because our captain thought it would be safe to take the boat within 10 ft of the HUGE rocks that the seals were resting on... Anyways, we got out of there with some great pictures and headed on down the coast.

The next stop for us was the opposite end of Haut Bay. They had a great viewing area where we could see the entire bay. From there, we continued down the road to Cape Point. This is basically the southern most point in Cape Town. It was just another place to get great views of the oceans and the mountains. It's also where they do championship surfing, so you know brian was enjoying the sights.

While we were in Cape Point, we had lunch at a really good restaurant there. Me, Jenn, and Spicer tried oysters for the first time. I have to say that it was pretty good. Not at all what i thought it was going to be like. Me and Jenn also shared a seafood feast. It came with fish, prawns, crayfish, calamari, mussels, and curry. It was DELICIOUS!

After lunch, we went to Simonstown where you can see penguins on the beach! They were just walking in the streets of the town and they had a little area where you can go see the penguins up close. Got some good pictures and made a lot of friends :)

After penguin beach, we head home to catch the last parts of the South Africa game and the second game. Now I'm chillin here writing this post. Sorry if it was too short. You can ask questions if you want more details :-D Tomorrow is our last full day in South Africa, so there will probably only be one more update. Enjoy it when it gets here!

South Africa Trip - Day 5

Hey Hey!! This is Jennifer :) So today was going to be a relaxed day. After the England game on Friday we didn't get home until after 1am. I didn't sleep until close to 3. We decided to sleep in a little and then head into the city. We met for breakfast as usual and all of us were dead tired and a little sick. We dug through JRs Russia medicine pack and took cold medicine.

We went into the city to the Waterfront and bought tickets for the "Hop-on, Hop-Off" sight seeing bus. This bus was a double decker that drove around the city to 17 different places and you got off and on whenever you wanted to. The bus would come around about every 15 minutes at every stop. We sat at the top and rode the bus pass the first 3 stops and got off at the 4th which was a city market. JR and I bought a couple of key pieces to put in our house, but Brian and Andy looked a little bored. It was pretty crazy and of course the boys kept comparing it to Ismalova (sp?) I could have walked around there for hours... but everyone was getting hungry. We stopped at a place called Safari Burger. The service was awful and we sat outside and it was cold. It took over an hour to get our food. Between the 5 of us, we had crocodile, prawn, lamb, and mushroom burgers. After lunch we walked to the next stop and then hopped on the bus. Here in Capetown their weekends are Friday and Saturday so a lot of the museums closed early. We didn't get to go in to them which really sucked. We did go to the District Six museum. This was a pretty moving experience for me. Here we learned about District Six and what happened when it was declared a white only area. Andy was particularly moved because the majority of the slaves and colored in this area were Indonesian and Indian. His parents use to come to Africa a lot in the 1980's and he isn't sure how after going t this museum.

We left the museum and Spicer attracted another crazy local. We hopped on the bus and took a drive along the Atlantic seaboard. It was BEAUTIFUL. The sun was setting at this time so it was also pretty cold. Brian wrapped his scarf around his face like an old woman. Pictures are on Picasa. We ended the Hop-on, Hop-Off at the Waterfront and checked out a local music shop then hailed a cab to a game restaurant. Game as in meat not playing. We read about this restaurant in a tourist magazine given to World Cup goers. It was printed this year. When we went to the restaurant it was closed down! I was pretty pissed. So we kept walking and stopped at this cute little Italian place called De Capo. JR and Brian had Impala and Spicer had Springbok and Andy and I had good old fashion cow. It was pretty good and we all voted that the Springbok was the best. We also had 2 bottles of red wine, one called "The Very Sexy Shiraz". Then headed home in a cab that tried to rip us off by taking us the long way home. We just stopped him and got out. We walked the rest of the way and drank another bottle of wine then went to sleep. Andy spilled on himself and was pretty upset. It was quite hilarious.

Alright tomorrow we are off for another laid back day with shopping and a castle! Talk to you all later.

South Africa Trip - Day 4

Alright folks. No need to worry, we're still alive!

So, day 4. Need to remember what happened... Day 4 was game day! We planned to go to the area surrounding the stadium and hang out during the day prior to the games.

We started by taking the train over to the City Bowl area. From there, we walked to the waterfront which was about a 20 minute walk. There were a lot of cool things that we saw. We saw the Paulaner restaurant (for Paul). We also saw Der Anker, Ank's restaurant. We also purchased our tickets for the Robben Island tour for Wednesday.

We also walked through our first market on this day on our way to the Aquarium. The market was interesting and just like any other market you would expect. This is where we purchased our first Vuvuzelas!! Those are the horns of the World Cup. If you watch a game with me, it will most likely be there with me :)

At the aquarium, we got to see a lot of fish/crustaceans common to South Africa. The most amazing thing was the sting ray who's wing span was about 5 feet! Jennifer was able to touch some starfish and sea anemones. We saw penguins and frogs. Overall it was a really fun aquarium.

After the aquarium, we went to the amphitheater to watch the USA soccer game. They had a HUGE screen and a lot of sitting room to watch the game. There, we found a ton of US fans as well as some English hecklers. That's all I'm going to say about the game. We all know how much of a rip-off that game was.

After the US game, we made our way to the Stadium to catch our first game. It was a night game and made the stadium look awesome. Luckily, we have a day game on Monday, so we'll get to see the stadium in both lights. Getting into the stadium reminded me of herding cattle. There were thousands of people trying to get in through maybe 5 different security lanes. That, and there was horse crap in the streets and EVERYONE was stepping in it. It was HORRIBLE! Once we got past the security stations though, everything was pretty easy. We found our seats early and got a chance to meet all the US fans around us. It seemed like they stuck us all in one section or something because there were about 20 of us sitting in two rows.

The game was pretty good. Algeria seemed to play great while England was way off their game. In the end, the 0-0 draw was a GREAT result for the US chances of advancing to the next round. The US team holds its fate in its own hands. That's a great place to be going into the last game of the first round.

After the game, we head home on the train. Riding the train after the game was probably the funniest and scariest part of the day. We got to meet Nathan and his friend, two local drunk guys! They seemed to enjoy telling us how much they hated the English and how stuck up they were. They also kept telling us how they liked American women because they like to hug. Nathan also liked to slap his butt... A LOT. They also invited us back to their place because they were going to show us a REAL party. Don't worry, they promised to give us a ride home (we didn't go). Anyways, they were great. Had some good fun.

At home, we turned on the see if there was any explanation as to why they didn't count the goal in the US game. Nothing. So we went to bed. The end.

South Africa Trip - Day 4

Still J.R. and now day 4. What a day. We thought that we were going to take the day to do all the nature-type things that we could. We were going to climb up Table Mountain and then head over to Lion's Head to watch the sun set.

We heard from Tessa that the climb up Table Mountain wasn't going to be too bad. She told us that it's an easy climb that could be done in about 3-5 hours. Then we heard from Judy that it's REALLY easy, that she climbs it all the time with her dog and that it shouldn't take much longer than an hour to finish.

They were both REALLY WRONG!!! We got to Table Mountain at Kirstenbosch at 10:00 in the morning. After looking around the base at the botanical gardens for about 15 minutes, we headed up the mountain on Skeleton Gorge.

We saw a lot of really cool things! The trail started out as a nice gravel road that wasn't too inclined. Then it got to a slightly inclined trail that consisted of wooden steps mixed in with dirt and rocks. At about this point, some of us started getting slightly tired. Since Judy had told us that it should only take slightly over an hour to get to the top, we pressed on since we had already been going for 45 minutes.

After about an hour and 15 minutes, we finally got to the ladders. If you've been reading the news, a 13 year old Houston kid died while hiking this trail. The area where he fell was shown in the news, and I think this is where the ladders were. Good to know we were about to take on the same ladders :(

So we continued up the ladders which we thought were going to be the end of the trail and the top of the mountain. Boy, were we wrong. The trail continued up through the river running down the mountain. We had to climb through the river, up steep, wet rocks. Once we got through the river, we got to a flatter area where we could see down the mountain. We took some good pictures and continued on.

After about 2 hours, we got to the first marker. It told us that we had just finished Skeleton gorge. Our plan was to take the cable car down the mountain and a taxi home. So we found out that there was still a 3 hour hike to get to the cable cars. So we pressed on taking a slight detour to a reservoir at the top of Skeleton Gorge. It was crazy because it was a lake at the top of the mountain with a sandy beach. We took some more pictures and continued on to the cable cars.

At this point, we were cursing the world for telling us that this was a good idea. We are pretty out of shape and we thought this was going to be an easy adventure to tackle. We were completely wrong. We finally got to the top of the mountain that was marked with a beacon after about 6 hours of hiking.

From here, we were told that it was a short walk to the cable cars, so we kept on. We walked for another hour before we got to the cars to take us down. When we finally got there, we found out that there was a line to take the cars down (since most tourists just go up the cars, take some pictures, then go right back down). The line ended up taking another hour to get through. When we finally got to the car, we were pissed to hear that we would have to stand to get down the mountain.

All in all, our hiking adventure ended up taking about 8 hours. We were so tired by the end of the hike that we decided to come home, order pizza and watch the Mexico vs. France game. That's what i'm doing right now and I'm watching Jenn, Ank, and Brian sleep through the game.

Anyways... we have an early night planned for today. Tomorrow, we're going to try to go to an aquarium, visit some museums, watch the US play Slovenia, then go to the England, Algeria game. Should be a good day! Talk to you tomorrow.

South Africa Trip - Day 3

So, day 3. Started off with a morning breakfast served by the lady of the house. Judy made us some delicious cheese sconces and fresh bread. We also got a little taste of home when she introduced us to her pug, Olive! That was a lot of fun. Much different from Robo, but it still reminds us of home.

We planned to spend the day out in Stellenbosch, which is a big city for wine in South Africa. We headed out for the train station with a little direction from Judy, who was surprised that we were taking the train. She said that she had never done that before which made me feel a little worried. We pressed on however and caught our first train towards Cape Town City Bowl. Strangely enough, we haven't been there yet, and might not go until we head there for the World Cup game.

Our first adventure of the day was trying to figure out how to use the trains and how to know what train to get on. I'm still not sure we know how to use them, but we asked around and were directed to the right one. After we got to our first transfer station, we found out that they had canceled one of the trains out to Stellenbosch, so we had to end up waiting for the next one to come about one hour later.

We finally got on the train and had a really good train ride! After about 5 stops on the train, we were the only ones left in our cab so we opened a lot of the windows and were looking out like happy dogs in a car. We got some good pictures of the mountains and wine country (again, pictures still to come!).

Once we got to Stellenbosch, we decided to ask a "tour guide" what our best option would be for wine hopping. Unfortunately, either they misunderstood them or we misunderstood them because they ended up giving us directions to a restaurant. So instead of following those directions, we started walking our own direction looking for stuff the map pointed out to us. Luckily for us, after about 10 minutes of walking, a nice hotel manager came running up to us. He told us that he had seen us struggling from his window and thought he'd come see if we needed some help. There are some really nice people out here!

We were directed to a wine tour place where they called up a couple of tours so that we could try to get on them. We ended up catching the second part of a day tour with Niel and 2 Dutch couples. Niel took us to lunch first where Ank and I had some REALLY good chicken pie. Spicer and Jennifer had some Grandma's Bootie ;) and Brian had some fried fish. All the food was really delicious. Probably the best meal I've had so far.

Niel took us to three different wineries. He explained to us how they made all the wine and why each winery was so special and unique. We went to Tokara, then Graham Beck, and finally Solms. We picked up a couple of wines that don't import to the US and a wine that we really liked the name to: "Cape Jazz Shiraz". Jenn had fun repeating this MULTIPLE times.

Our guide offered to take us back to town since the Dutch couple was already asking for a ride, so we took him up on it. He dropped us off right at our door! Again, what nice people here! From the house, we decided we were going to take the train to Observatory, a neighborhood closer to the City Bowl, and watch the South Africa game with Tessa. Unfortunately, when we got to the train station, we found out that the train station was closed at 6:30 (it was almost 8 by that point). We decided that we would then try to catch a cab up to there. We walked all the way back to the house without signs of a cab and decided that we would call one from the house. When we asked to use the phone, however, Judy told us that she would just take us because it would be faster and cheaper. So we took her up on the offer.

Once at the Observatory we watched South Africa get screwed multiple times and came away really upset with that game. We caught a cab back to the house and planned our next day before we went to sleep.

That's all folks!

South Africa Trip - Day 2

Day 2 of our trip had us waking up at 5:30 local in Dubai. We headed down for a free breakfast provided by our hotel and to meet up with the rest of the guys. Successfully met up with Ank and Spicer, but after having breakfast and waiting in the lobby, there was still no sign of Brian. Went to call him at the front desk to find out that he was just getting down. Oh well... at least we didn't lose him on the first day like we though we did.

At the airport (a really nice airport btw), we only had to wait about 45 minutes to board our plane. On the plane, we found out that both Jennifer and Ank had empty seats next to them. We thought about letting Spicer know about the seats, but figured he liked sitting in the back of the plane so we let him stay. Besides, he wouldn't have been able to share the stories of the crazy mean lady sitting next to him if he had moved.

This plane ride wasn't bad. It was only 10 hours from Dubai to Cape Town. No interesting stories here except that it went by pretty quickly :)

Finally having arrived in South Africa, we gathered up all our bags and got our World Cup tickets. What a relief! We grabbed a couple taxis and headed for our little B&B. More pictures to come later, but here's a link if you are impatient: http://www.hedgehouse.co.za/

Once we got to the Hedge House and through the gate, Spicer realized that he was missing a bag. We got the B&B owners to drive Spicer to the airport to see if he could find the taxi that brought us there. While he was gone, the driver came back to drop off the bag. It was funny because when he dropped it off I said thanks in a rather sour tone, but he waited there. It was like he was waiting for tip for bringing back Spicer's bag. What a douche! Anyways, nothing was stolen so Spicer was happy.

We met up with an old High School friend, Tessa, and head out to a bar to catch the Brazil vs. North Korea game. We went to a bar called Trench-something. It had a very Reggae/Bob Marley feel to it. It was fun. Had some South African beers (nothing very good). Left the bar after the game and came home to get some much needed rest.

Alright folks. That's it for now. Talk to you tomorrow night! Again, pictures later!

South Africa Trip - Day 1

Hello folks! J.R. here, and it’s the end of day 1 of our trip to South Africa and we’re in our Hotel in Dubai. This is probably going to get posted at the end of day 2 since we don’t have internets in the hotel.

So… I was having trouble getting excited for this trip since Jennifer hadn’t shown any excitement. She kept saying that she would get excited when she got to the hotel, or whenever we finished packing, or when we got past security, etc. Anyways, the day finally came, and Jennifer was super stressed out. We were running around last minute buying shovels, doing some last minute gardening, getting the dogs groomed, etc (don’t ask ;) )

Getting to the airport and checked in was no problem at all. One thing that was getting me a little annoyed was the people checking bags in front of us as the airport. There were about 15 people travelling together and they all seemed to have 2 bags and a carry-on. They also left all they’re stuff right in front of the check-in counters so EVERYONE was crowded. But once we got past all that, everything was fine.

Once on the plane, the guy sitting next to me and Jennifer (in the window seat) was asked to switch seats with the child sitting in front of him. Apparently, children traveling alone aren’t allowed to sit next to men, so they moved the kid next to Jennifer. It all started out being pretty cute. The kid was about 6-7 and generally quiet and shy. He curled up in the seat next to Jennifer wearing his sleep mask and blanket. We figured he would sleep most of the 14.5 hour trip, but, unfortunately, he woke up for food about 30 minutes later. Being the cute kid that he was, he took his napkin and tucked it into his shirt.

Then things turned for the worst. He proceeded to spill his tomato juice over ALL of his stuff! Jennifer helped him clean it. Then he opened up to her and started talking for a long time about him being vegetarian and his parents sending him away for months at a time. I could tell that she was trying to pretend to sleep so he would stop talking, but he didn’t. Just kept going… At one point, he started watching a movie and would laugh EXTREMELY loud and wake everyone. Once the sun came out, he would open and close the blind on the window letting a LOT of light in. When he was asked to stop doing that, he pulled out his flashlight and started flashing it. He had a HUGE backpack that he kept taking stuff out of. Of course, to take things out of it, he would throw it into Jennifer’s lap, and then he would laugh thinking it was the funniest thing in the world. Luckily, Jennifer was finally able to get to sleep when he fell asleep.

The plane trip was pretty good for me though. Each seat had individual TVs with over 600 channels. I was able to watch about 5 movies on the way over. I was pretty surprised with how up to date the movies were. They had things like Avatar out. Good stuff!

After 14.5 hours, we landed in Dubai. The weather was a cool 102 when we landed and you could feel every bit of heat. Once checked in to the hotel, we booked a night tour of Dubai so we could at least see SOME sights. We were able to see some of the bigger attractions like Burj Dubai, the Palm Islands, and Atlantis. Picasa will be updated with pictures as soon as we get time.

For the last stop of the night, we went to Biggles, an English pub just outside the hotel. Lucky for us we were all dressed in non-England soccer gear! I finally got to try a Kilkenny too. Sorry guys… good, but you hyped it too much J

It’s 3am here and I have to wake up in 2.5 hours. I guess it’s a good time to try to catch a nap. I’ll update you guys more tomorrow. On the agenda: 10 hour flight to Cape Town, checking in at Hedge House, possible dinner and a soccer game with an old friend.

Moscow, Russia

Where to begin?! I came to Moscow for work purposes. You see, the flight planning group always has someone stationed in Moscow as a kind of liason between the Houston planners and the Russian planners. These people usually have 3 month stints, but the Shuttle flight planning group usually sends one planner out for the space shuttle missions. For STS-127, they sent ME out.

Moscow was a real shocker for me. From the moment that I left the airplane, everything was different. It seemed dimmer, older, and smellier :) When we left the airport and we were driving down the highway, I would look to the right and left and see cars parked/dead on the side of the highway. People would park wherever they needed/wanted to. It was crazy. I saw a lot of old cars that were broken down on the side of the road.

Once we got further into the city, I wondered to myself where the "nice" parts of Moscow were. Unfortunately, we were driving into the worse parts of Moscow :(

When I finally got to the Volga (my hotel), I didn't know WHAT to expect. I had heard many horror stories about the hotels. Safe to say, it was NOT as bad as what everyone had said. It was probably worse than a Motel6, but not by much :)

Due to the shuttle launch slipping a few days, I got the chance to explore Moscow. For the first couple of days, I just went out to various "night-life" locations around Moscow. Things like restaurants, bars, and a club were all included :D Funny, but I actually didn't have "Russian" food until about my 4th day here! We would usually go to america, mexican, or indian food!

The first sight-seeing place that I went to was the famous Ismailova. It is a flea market where everything is cheap! This is where I bought all of my souvenirs! It was a very interesting place that really reminded me of Guatemala, including the smell! For a while, NASA employees were asked to not visit due to threats to foreigners that entered the area. Fortunately for me, they lifted that ban a couple of days before I got there. They had tons of different stuff including nesting dolls, jewelry boxes, furry hats, DVDs, or just about anythink you might want to get. Attached to it, was this area that had really interesting architecture that we walked through. They also had painters that were selling their artwork, persian rugs... it was crazy! UNfortunately, due to illegal black-market dealings going on, they "closed" the market. We tried going back, and nothing seemed to have changed :D Lucky for us, cuz I had a bit of shopping left to do!

The next place that I went to was the Red Square. This is considered to be the "center of moscow." It's where the president lives as well as where "all roads lead to" in Moscow. It is a very beautiful place with a things like Lenin's tomb and St. Basil's cathederal, as well as the GUM (a pricey mall).

The next place that I visited was the Space Museum! It is marked in Russia by a HUGE tower in the shape of a rocket blasting off into the sky. It had amazing statues around it and images at the base of the tower. Under the tower was the actual museum. Unfortunatly, on the day that I visited, they were closed, so I didn't get a chance to go in :(

That same day, I went to watch the Russian National Dance Show. Just across the street from the Space Museum, in the Cosmos Hotel, it was a VERY interesting experience. I was expecting something in a nice auditorium (thinking Hobby Center nice). When I walked in, however, the place was WORSE than my high school auditorium. The show was very intesting though. They went through the history of Russia and some of the dances in that history. Of course, they did the expected "squat-kick" dancing as well as other dances and flips all over the place!

After that, work started and I didn't get the chance to do much sight-seeing. I worked the night shift (9pm-5am) and slept during the day. Of course, I went out to dinner at various other places, had Abe cook some delicious dinners for me, as well as lived off of Ramen and Coke for a few days!

All-in-all, I say that I would have liked to see more of Moscow, but I'm ready to go home. After almost a month spent in Russia, I'm ready to go home, and see my wife and "kids" again :D

For more pictures, check out my Picasa album here.

Some Changes coming

It's been while... I hope everyone is doing well...first off there are some changes coming our way...I finally submitted my application for grad school at Lamar University. Weirdly enough I haven't heard back from them, but hopefully I will start in July. I am also going back to teaching this coming school year. For me to be able to get my Principal-ship I need a minimum of 3 years of teaching. I only have 2 under my belt. So this will be my third year. I am hoping to get in 4 years and then start applying for assistant principal jobs. Who knows...hopefully in 5 years or so you can call me Principal Reyes! How awesome would that be??? Right now I am teaching summer school. Most of your should know that my certification is in Social Studies...well guess what??? I'm teaching Biology this summer...How crazy is that?? I'm learning a lot though as I teach myself the night before I teach my students. This is my life... JR was suppose to be in Russia right now, but the Russian space people are being slightly ridiculous so JR probably won't be going until November. That means he may miss Christmas or Thanksgiving :(

JR and I recently celebrated our 25th birthdays! Wow we have both lived a quarter of a century...its still kinda hard for me to wrap my head around. We had a huge birthday outing with several other June birthdayers! Happy Birthday everyone!! It was a lot of fun. On my actual birthday I spent a day out with the girls. I wish all of my ladies could have been there. Thank you for those that could take time off to celebrate with me. Alexis, Nicole, Jesii, Carol and I drove to the Blue Bell factory toured an ate deliciousness. We then went shopping at some outlets in Houston! We ended the night joined with JR and other friends for some Italian at Zios ;) Thanks for everyone's birthday wishes :) JR and I got each other bikes for our birthday. When we went out for our first bike ride, I was a wreck. It was almost as if I had forgotten how to ride! I could ride for very long... but now that a few weeks have gone by, I can ride about 5 miles! That is a lot for me and I am pretty proud of myself.

Well that's a quick update on life!

<3
Jenn

10 Commandments, Elegante, and Kegs

I had an awesome weekend with my lady friends and just thought I would share our adventures. JR is still working the mission so he didn't get to go out much. My friends Erin and Jake were having a second wedding reception in Nederland, Tx (near Beaumont). So it was a girls weekend. I'm not going to bore you you and write this huge post. But I am going to hit the high points... We stayed at the nicest hotel in the area called Eleganté. Trust me when I say that eleganté was definitely the word of the weekend. The hotel has a 10ft stone tablet of the 10 commandments out front. The wedding reception was filled with Bud and Miller lite kegs, cheap wine and BBQ :) It is awesome to see friends drunk that you don't normally.. Thanks Nicole, you had me laughing off the wall. After the reception we went to a Beaumont bar called The Pace Setter. This place was filled with a very eclectic group of people. It was interesting just watching all the interactions around me. So I will end with this. As we were leaving the bar at close, I saw a tall white man wearing a long white t-shirt. When he turned around the front of his shirt had just one thing: a black male genitalia. Please only click on the link if you are over the age of 18.
This is what it was --->http://www.linkognito.com/b.php?b=1804

Hope everyone had an awesome weekend! Thanks Alexis, Nicole, Erin, Jennifer and Beaumont for a good laughs and crazy people!

<3 Jenn

J.R.'s Turn

So now that Jennifer has gotten the blog going, I thought it was about time for me to get in on it...

I'm currently working the early morning shift for STS-125 at NASA. 125 is the fourth Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission (HST SM4). At work, I'm a flight controller in the Flight Activities Officer (FAO) group; my call-sign for this flight: Timeline. I make changes to the plan that the crew follows throughout the day. In essence, I tell the crew what to do and when to do it. Unfortunately, I have to work at 3 in the morning to do this :( 125 and its crew will be fixing a few of the components on Hubble. This is going to require 5 space walks in the same number of days... something that hasn't been done for a while. This flight is going to be VERY interesting.

Other than work, I'm not really doing anything. It's about 3 in the afternoon, and I'm trying my hardest to stay awake. Luckily, I only have 10 more days of work left before the mission is over. Two weeks after that, and it's off to Moscow!

Rockets: Round 2, Game 4

This weekend has been awesome with moms, sports and friends! JR and I went with a group of friends to see the new Star Trek movie. It was so good...the movie was about 2 hours long but it didn't feel like 2 hours and I definitely could have sat and watched for another hour or so. Go see it even if you aren't a Trekkie :) On Saturday, we celebrated Mother's Day with JR's mom. We put together this great photo collage of the family to give her. When mom's get to a certain age... it's hard to figure out what to get them, so you have to get creative. She really wanted to eat Chinatown Chinese so we picked some up and drove to her house in north Houston. My mom is in Hong Kong right now.. so I'm going to call her using Skype tonight.

We then headed home to meet up with Abe and Spicer to go to "The Boiling Crab" (see previous entry). Two of my friends (Alexis, Carl) were meeting us there a long with a lot of our other friends from NASA. I called to tell Alexis we were running late. She wanted to go ahead and put down a name but I was afraid someone else in our group had already done so...I didn't mention in the previous entry that this restaurant attracts certain groups of people...asian and black to be more specific. So I told Alexis "find the 4 white people.. they are probably in our group". And that advice helped :) So all 12 of us ate very happily our share of crawfish, shrimp, and crab. JR and I ordered 9 lbs between the two of us...delicious!

Then Abe, Spicer, Menal, JR, and I headed to the Dynamo game. We had 3 extra tickets...Our friend Terence was suppose to go with us, but his cat got sick (hope she's feeling better). So we got our friend Tej (whom we haven't seen in a long time, I'm glad he came) and our friends Jason and Melinda (who recently got married, Congrats!). Abe and Spicer smuggled in some margaritas (14 to be exact) If you don't know what Black Iguanas are then imagine Capri Suns for adults. It was a good time had by all...except JR spilled beer on me. The Dynamos won the game 1-0. There was this hard core 5 year old sitting by me that kept yelling "you suck dallas".

And now I bring us to today (Sunday, Mother's Day). JR and I met up with my family in Chinatown for dim sum. It was delicious as always. If you have never had dim sum before then you should definitely let JR and I know so we can take you...We don't recommend inexperienced dim summers to try and eat on their own :) That's a post for another day that involves our good friend Mark Kiefer from high school...

JR and I along with my sister and brother-in-law then headed to the Rockets game. WOOHOO!!! it was a lot of fun.. Thanks to Abe for getting the tickets...So the weekend is now coming to an end...going to do a little work and relax...Hope everyone had an great weekend as well!

<3
Jenn