Mother Dear come for a visit

Before going to Houston to visit our little niece, Puyin (a.k.a. Mother Dear) came to visit us for a couple of days. We had a lot of fun going to the outlets, Sea World, Enchanted Rock, Fredericksburg, etc. It was so quiet in the house once she left. No worries, she's coming back for the 4th of July and bringing Mariu and Wally with her :)

Just call us Tio Kike and Titi Laura...

Last week Enrique's brother, Wally, and his wife, Rebecca, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl - Isabel Eugenia Carlo. Today, on her one week birthday, we were able to drive to Houston and see her. She's absolutely adorable!

"Bracing" down the Guad with Co.

It was wonderful having Megan and Christina here for the long Memorial Day weekend! The five cumulative days of their visit was filled with lots of outlet shopping, movie watching, much needed R&R, floating down the Guadalupe River, etc. Luckily, Enrique was able to come with us after purchasing a smaller knee stabilizer and remembering we had a long float that would enable him to keep his leg straight!

Having to cancel our summer vacations was difficult, but things are looking up - I've decided to call it our "2009 Summer Staycation" because we're very fortunate to be having lots of family and friends coming to visit throughout the summer!!! They're coming to visit my adorable patient --->

We hope everyone's enjoying their summer so far. Love ya!

Don't cry for me Costa Rica...

Sundays are Enrique's day to play soccer in the morning and enjoy his favorite sport and "guy time." Unless I'm sick, I'm there with my little AU chair watching him play. It's nice to see him so happy. This past weekend, however, he hurt his knee after slide tackling and having the opponent accidentally kick his leg along with the ball. He usually has the "walk it off" mentality when he gets hurt, but he knew something wasn't right this time.

After waking up with no improvement on Monday morning, we found an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in knee injuries and has amazing staff who were nice enough to fit him in between their full patient load that afternoon. Based on the physical examination, the doctor guessed it was a partial tear on his MCL (medial collateral ligament.) He gave Kike a large knee immobilizer, and ordered an MRI for that afternoon and another appointment with him two days later.

After a Tuesday filled with movie rentals, catching up on our DVRed shows, and NBA games, Wednesday (today) came and we were ready for some definite answers. After looking at the MRI results, the doctor determined that it is, in fact, the MCL that is partially torn. The good news is that is all. Nothing else is damaged and it's definitely not surgical. Thank God.

Kike will have to continue wearing the same brace (that he hates) for three more weeks before they make him a new brace that will give him slightly more mobility. Then, he'll have to wear that one for three more weeks. The worse part for him is that he'll have to refrain from doing lots of physical activities -if any- for 6 months.

He's so bummed this happened at the beginning of the summer - no wake boarding, no water skiing, no soccer .... not even our trip to Costa Rica with my family where we had lots of activities planned (horseback riding, hiking, mountain biking, zip lining, rafting, etc.) [Interesting side note: last year we had a trip to Italy planned with my family and my mom broke a bunch of bones in her foot. My family did not make it to the trip. Trips with the Lugo fam were apparently not meant to be - bummer!]

Looks like we'll have to find other ways to entertain ourselves this summer. At least day trips to theme parks will include quick ride entries with a wheel chair! Oh, and visitors...lots and lots of visitors - our doors are always open!!!!

Summer time when the living is eeeaaasssyyyyy....

Things have kind of settled in the Carlo household since our last trip. We were both working very hard for two weeks straight - Kike at work and me painting every white wall in sight - so we treated ourselves to a night off and went to celebrate with our fellow Texans downtown! "Fiesta" is such a wonderful time of the year here in San Antonio. Imagine the Mexican version of Mardis Gras...that's FIESTA! Sooooo fun!

This last week, we've been spending a lot of time working on the house, yard, & just enjoying time together and with our doggies. Our 3rd year anniversary of our first date was May 1st! I bought Kike a Juniper Bonsai tree. He'd been asking for one for about a year now, and so I surprised him! It came via UPS and was a lot of fun to see his face as he opened the box!

We don't have too much planned for the summer. Right now I'm focusing on finishing up the painting. Once it's all finished I'll post pictures. My goal is to have it finished before Megan & Christina come visit for Memorial Day weekend. The weather is getting hotter and it's absolutely perfect for trips to the lake/river, riding around in the Jeep, spending the day at Sea World, walking around the parks, oh and trips to Costa Rica - can't wait for that in June!

Summer is so much fun!!! Love!

And now back to your regular programming....

We are finally back in San Antonio! I'm putting away the suitcases and refuse to see them for a few months. We've been doing a lot of traveling since our last post. In a month we've managed to make it to Puerto Rico, Orlando, Birmingham, & Charleston. We had some serious fun!

One of my best friends from childhood was getting married in PR, so Kike and I took advantage of being over there and visited our families too. Considering some stressful events surrounding us as of lately, we decided to spend a few nights together in Culebra. We rented a Jeep and drove around the island to see its beautiful views, went to almost all of its beaches, and even went to Culebrita to do some snorkeling. Of everything we did, though, nothing was as awesome as hitting up Flamenco beach and enjoy its amazing sand and water! 

Click on this picture link to see the entire album!

Raul & Maria's Wedding

After 3 days of relaxation together, we went back to San Juan and met up with my family and childhood friends. During our days on the East coast we had lots of fun adventures including walking around El Viejo San Juan & hiking down to La Mina Falls in PR's beautiful rain forest, El Yuque. Of course, we can't forget Raul & María's wedding. The ceremony was very traditional with everything done in Spanish and at the beautiful cathedral in OSJ. Afterward, the reception was held at El Convento Hotel - everything from the flowers, to the music, to the food, to the company was awesome. They say all good things must come to an end - well not for us :) We went to the West coast to visit Kike's family in Yauco and Mayagüez. We visited with family, went to Bahia Sucia (one of our faves beaches!), and went horseback riding in Isabela.

Kike had to go back to San Antonio to take care of the dogs and go back to work, but I had another wedding to attend in Orlando. A while back, María asked me to sing the Ave Maria at her wedding - what an honor! I truly hope I did OK. The ceremony was at a beautiful cathedral in Sanford. We then all headed downtown for the reception which was awesome as well! The only problem was me missing my hubby!

Another picture link to see the entire album!

Andy & Maria's Wedding

After arrive in San Antonio, both Kike and I got pretty nasty head colds. Thank goodness Kike got home first and had time to recover before going back to work! A week after arriving in SATX, we packed up and left again. First, we drove to Birmingham, AL and saw Kike's mom & dad for a night. She was so sweet and made me a delicious amaretto and almond cheesecake for my birthday! The next day Noel & Joanna came up from New Orleans and the four of us went on a little road trip to Charleston, SC to see Patrick and Brooke! We had a fun-filled time with home cooked meals, birthday cake, music, the beach, Easter, & just hangin' around with good friends.











Now it's back to reality and painting. Wipeee!!!!

Love!

Our First Full House

We had been very excited for this past weekend to come, so we could spend time with Enrique's parents. We had not yet been able to coordinate a time for this visit on his off week, so this was kind of like a first timer! The weekend ended up being much different than expected!

Puyin (Kike's mom) arrived on Thursday, followed by a trip to the outlets. Kike was a terrific sport throughout the entire 4.5 hours of shopping! That afternoon we found out that my grandfather passed away. He was my dad's biological father who lived with his family here in Texas - between Houston and San Antonio to be exact. He was already into his 80's and having lots of problems that caused him to be hospitalized the last 6 months. Papa, Mama, and Manolo booked a flight to come the next day to pay their respects and spend time with our extended family. Wally (Kike's dad) was coming in Friday night, so we were going to have a full house!

I had baked a cake to celebrate Puyin's birthday on Friday, but since my dad's birthday was Thursday, we got double use out of it! We also took a trip to the San Antonio Missions - these churches have incredible history and still have Masses during the week! We had a wonderful dinner in the Hill Country, went to downtown SATX and the Riverwalk, ate Mexican food (OBVS), went to Kike's soccer games, etc. Let's just say we are incredibly fortunate to have two sets of parents who have been friends for years and always have a good time together! Although my parents attended funeral-related events during the day, we all gathered at night and, aside from the unfortunate circumstance, had a really great time together!









Little by little, the house got quieter. My dad and Manolo left on Sunday. Puyin and Wally left on Monday. I dropped my mom off at the airport this morning. Kike is still sleeping. The house is incredibly quiet.

Here's to a full day of cleaning!

Love!