About two months ago Pastor Tim used the verse Ephesians 4:29 in a sermon. It had a profound effect on me. At that time some people chose to be negative to spread rumors and otherwise act in unchristian ways. Although I found it very difficult to turn the other cheek, these verses helped me hold on to my own temper and not retaliate! So both David and I have chosen another path. We have tried very hard to be positive and follow Paul's advice to the Ephesians extending from the 29^th verse to verse 32. It is my fondest desire that anyone who I have injured in some way would accept my apology and be able to forgive me. I am trying really hard to forgive those who have hurt me.

Ephesians 4: 29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

One of our friends is a pediatrician in Pearland. She built a "green" office building using the lowest environmental impact materials available at the time she built it. The atmosphere is great, open and child friendly. Even so I, like many parents, dread taking my children to the pediatrician. Small children touch everything! The really sick children just sit quietly with their mom or dad. The children who are sick but not "real" sick are the ones who spread their germs everywhere. The run to the fish tanks, they play with the toys. The outgoing ones run up to other children and talk to them and check out what toys they have brought with them. A lot of children carry in handheld gaming devices. If they are not too sick they will ignore the device and check out the fish.

Older children have mp3 players. Very few children carry books. Reading is becoming a lost pastime. When my children were younger we always carried a bag full of their favorite books wherever we went. We read all the time; in waiting rooms, at the park, in the car line to pick up a sibling. We are still a family of readers. But now everyone carries their own latest read. I am reading several books right now. I start several at one time and finish them at different rates. I don't read as much as I used to, but I am still doing better than the average adult (4-7 books per year depending on the poll, and polling year).

Back to the waiting room, we will arrive 15 minutes early for our 9:50AM appointment. I always expect to wait at least 15 minutes to get into a room. I know that we will get in and receive the same level of care and concern that all her patients get. That is the reassuring part of visiting this office. We will get the advice and help that we need and go one our way. AND because we are being exposed to germs, some of which will be new to us, we can mitigate the damage by washing our hands after we leave the building! In fact, it is good practice to wash your hands frequently all day just to limit your exposure to pathogens lying in wait for you!

I don't really know what to resolve for the New Year. I have spent a lot of time the past few months resolving to be a better person and to be a better friend. I am resolved to keep up the exercise program that I have established. I am thinking about doing a 5k run…we'll see. I am just getting used to running outside, and today it was a balmy 80 degrees and felt too warm! A friend of mine told me that you have to do the "races" without any listening devices. I don't know if I can keep a good pace without the music going. So, here we are 3 days into the New Year and I can't really think of a good New Year's Resolution. I think that I will resolve to take more photographs for pleasure. I would like to spend more time learning how to use Adobe Creative Suites to revamp my website so perhaps I will make that my resolution. Or I can just keep thinking about this and decide later. I think that anything I decide to do will be accomplished with enough effort and training! Lately, I have found that if I keep trying I can learn anything.

The hardest thing about leaving the Guris abode was the look on Zachary's face when he said goodbye to Angelheart (Angel their dog). Zachary wants a dog probably more than anything else. He really enjoyed playing with and loving on Angel. Lynn said that Angel had an equally sad experience. She said that Angel was looking for us.

We said goodbye to the Guris clan and hit the road for home.  Because we started our trip to El PAso with bad coffee, upon leaving the Guris house we made finding a Starbucks our first priority. The magic of GPS sure comes in handy!  We headed east on I10, found a Starbucks, and a McDonalds. With food and coffee in hand we were ready to hit the road and make good time heading home. In the car, we discussed the trip, we talked about our hopes for the New Year and we planned our route home. We decided to go through Fredericksburg and Austin, cutting San Antonio off our route. We didn't eat anywhere interesting on the trip home. We did stop frequently and stretched. I really hope to go back and spend more time with Lynn and Steve (and to have more time to sit and converse with Uncle Bob). There is so much more to do within driving distance of El Paso.  On my wish list for future visits (in no particular order) are

• Camping in NM
• Gila Cliff Dwellings
• Valley of Fire
• City of Rocks
• Hueco Tanks
• Carlsbad Caverns
• VLAs
• Marfa and the lights, and the McDonald Observatory
• Good food, conversation and drinks with Lynn, Steve and Uncle Bob!

So, thanks to Lynn and Steve for opening their home (and refrigerator) to us. We had a great time and enjoyed escaping from Pearland.

  Tuesday was a day that didn't go as planned from the start. We started to pack lunches, didn't have enough thawed lunch meat so we decided to buy some on the way. The plan was to leave in time to drop Emily off at the airport. She was flying out at 11:55AM so that she could be back in Austin for New Year's Eve. After driving along the El Paso, Juarez border and seeing the new border fence, we dropped Emily off at the airport. Then we drove out East of El Paso filled the car with gas, found a grocery store and then headed to Hueco Tanks State Park. The sign at the park road said that the campground was full. That didn't matter to us since we just wanted to spend some time there hiking. We drove down the road and were stopped by a ranger at 10:30AM. The park itself was full, at this time of year they limit the number of people who enter so that they can limit the environmental impact of people on the park. There was a minivan full of young men who were waiting to get in. They had been there since 7AM. We have never been turned away from a state park. So, we changed our plans and headed back towards the Franklins. We stopped at a great used bookstore in East El Paso (the Book Rack, 10780 Pebble Hills Boulevard, El Paso, TX 79935). We found lots of books that needed a new home, a few of the books were ones that we had been on the lookout for but hadn't found at other used book stores.

We made our way back to the Transmountain Highway and decided to eat our picnic lunch at the National Border Patrol Museum. Jon and Zack were quibbling and aggravating each other perhaps the result of too much togetherness over the past week. Lynn, God Bless her was suffering from a full blown cold by this time and took the boy's behavior in stride. I don't know anyone else who has such a positive laid back attitude! She was patient and kind to both boys without choosing sides. The Border Patrol Museum is a privately funded museum that has exhibits teaching the history of the border patrol. It also has confiscated artifacts, homemade vehicles, retired Border Patrol vehicles and a lot of Border Patrol souvenirs for sale in the gift shop. Check out the slideshow to see the variety of vehicles in the museum and a sampling of the exhibits we saw.  

When we left the museum we still had several hours of daylight left. We headed through the Gap and decided to enter Franklin Mountain State Park. We decided to hike up to Aztec Cave. We got our car stuck temporarily on the parking barrier (jacked the car up and drove it off of the barrier). There was still time to hike. Jon stayed in the car, Lynn hiked with us to the primitive camping site (#4) just off the trail up to the cave, and Zack lead the way up the trail from there. We took our time making the climb up to the cave. There were a lot of loose rocks and parts of the trail were steep. Zack is part mountain goat and scrambled his way up very easily. My calves were still suffering from the Guadalupe hike, so David and I moved a lot slower! We made it up to the cave, took some photos and headed back down. When we got back to Lynn we rested for a little while and headed back to the car. Jon in the mean time had locked both sets of keys in the car! The park was closing soon (at 5PM); so Jon went down the hill to get the park ranger. The park rangers were very nice. We called a locksmith and waited and waited. The ranger brought us back some extra jackets. We stood around the remnants of someone's charcoal fire to keep warm. The locksmith couldn't find us (he was looking on the East side of the mountains). He finally got into the park around 6:15PM. It took him 2 minutes to open the car. We drove away around 6:30PM $75 poorer, but with a twisted ending to our adventure with Lynn!

Cranky! That describes most of the crew as we left for our jaunt of the day on Monday. We were going to hit Starbucks, and take a State Highway that follows the Rio Grande River to the town of Mesilla, NM with a stop at Stahman's Pecan Store so that we could purchase some pecan products. The boys each had some Blue Bell ice cream; we purchased some pecans and some pecan butter and continued our journey. We were looking forward to eating some New Mexico style, Mexican cuisine. Lynn had promised us good food and even better atmosphere. Once again she did not let us down! We ate at the Double Eagle. Part of the restaurant is the oldest building in Mesilla. It is complete with a haunted room! Star crossed lovers were murdered in the room by the boy's mother. We actually ate in the very room where this double murder occurred and the food was good! The old part of Mesilla is full of souvenir, arts and crafts shops and galleries. It is a tourist trap but the tie to Billy the Kid and the architecture of the buildings on square make is an interesting town. It is a place that is better to visit without cranky children in tow. The pre-teen and teen were impatient and are always hungry. We left Mesilla and on the way back to El Paso stopped at the new outlet center. Retailers are really discounting to get people into their stores.

From Lynn and Steve's house it is less than a half mile walk to cross the border into New Mexico. Their El Paso neighborhood is north of New Mexico. When David and I do our normal early morning walk, we usually are able to walk about 3 miles in 45 minutes or less. A couple of mornings this week we took Angel with us on our walks. Angel is a very attentive curious dog. She is also well behaved. It was a lot colder in El Paso than we are used to for our morning walks! We bundled up, pulled out Angel's leash, she came running at the sound of her leash, and off we would go towards the Rio Grande and New Mexico. The Rio Grande is barely a river where we were walking. But it makes a scenic place to walk. Both mornings that we took Angel with us we were much slower than normal. Every few steps Angel had to smell all the scents around her, but only when we were covering the territory for the first time for the day. On the way back she knew (remembered) the scents and skipped over the areas where we had stopped on the way. Walking for exercise is much more difficult with a dog in tow, but enjoyable for other reasons.