Trip to Toronto

At the end of August, I was able to go to Toronto, Canada on a business trip. Now, I had never been on a real business trip before and so I was pretty excited to go. I had never been to Toronto as well and thought this would be a great opportunity for me. I stayed in the town of Guelph and worked in Waterloo. These towns were located about 30 to 40 miles west of Toronto. These towns were not too small (pop. 200,000 to 300,000) but definitely had a small town feel to them. I really liked it. There was a group of software engineers that belonged to a small company that Intel had bought and I was asked to go and configure their new laptop systems to work on the Intel domain and network. As it turned out, the transition went very smooth and there were only a few minor issues that needed attention. The people I worked with were excellent and very helpful and accommodating. During my stay I was able to take in a couple of sites. The CN Tower and a Blue Jay major league baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Toronto is a huge bustling city with modern skyscrapers. There is a lot of building going on, mainly condos in the downtown business district. My trip up the CN Tower was just awesome. Very impressive. What a view. Looking out over Lake Ontario and the marina and the city skyline with the Rogers Centre directly below. I just loved it. The only thing I was missing was my sweetheart of a wife, Doris. I really did wish she was there with me to enjoy the sites. The CN Tower observation area is over 1,000 ft. above the ground. It also sports a glass floor you can stand on and look straight down. It was a very odd feeling when you first step out on the floor and look down. It was funny to see all the reactions of the visitors who experienced that. After enjoying that I made my way down to the game. I always enjoy a major league game. I really don't care who's playing. To see that level of baseball is a joy for me to watch. I got to sit right down near the front row along the third base side between third base and the left field fence. The night was nice and cool and the roof was open and rising up in front of me above the stadium was the CN Tower. I had seen this view many times on TV and I was finally here enjoying it. I imagined in my mind, Joe Carter's game winning 1993 World Series homerun just over the left field fence and him jumping up and down as he rounded the bases. Then reality hits and this is just another of many games being played that day and Toronto ended up losing to the Rays. The third base coach for the Rays was a guy named Tom Foley. I got to play with him many years ago when we were both young and coming up in the Cincinnati Reds organization. I wouldn't say we were best of friends, but good teammates and it was nice for me to see him still in baseball at some capacity. I remember him being a very talented young kid who had great hands and played the game very well. He had a good bat and put the ball in play and made things happen. It brought back many memories of when I was younger. All-in-all the trip was great and I enjoyed the stay very much. I enjoyed Toronto and could live very easily there, (except maybe the winters!).

Changes.....

Monsoon season is upon us again in the “Valley of the Sun”. The days are hot and humid. Then in the evening when the sun is setting it begins to "cool" a little. In the distance you see monster storm clouds forming and the winds begin to pick up. Then the dust storms roll in before the rain. Here are a couple of pictures I took from my cell phone showing our typical dust storm that rolls in during these monsoons. These have always impressed me for as long as I have lived here during the past 30 years.

Change continues……..
Doris and I just found out yesterday our bid to buy a home was accepted.
We are now selling our home that we are in currently. We've had it on the market for some time now. We heard through our realtor that some people who recently saw our home had high interest in buying. We’ll keep our fingers crossed. We love our home but circumstances have forced us to sell and get into something more manageable financially. It looks like we have succeeded in doing so but the downside is this home puts us further away from work and will double the commute time. Yes, the downside of living in the “big city”. We have been house hunting for the past several months and this is one of the homes we liked. In fact, it is very similar to our house. The layout is similar and the neighborhood is nice. The house is in very good condition and I would expect we could move in with no real fix up. The realtor told us they hope to close by October 1st. Wish us luck!

This is the Story of a Lovely Lady and Three Kids

This is the story of a lovely lady with tree kids (does this sound like the Brady Bunch?) who met a loving caring man with five kids......To begin this part of my writing lets go back few years when I was about twenty-two, worked at the University in Lima, Peru, South America, single, nice figure (no kids...), and was full of life (I still feel the same). I have a good family, friends and a beautiful home. My sisters settled in Mesa, Arizona and invited me to go visit them and go to school. We met a nice LDS family who introduced us to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They sent Spanish speaking missionaries to teach us about the church and the first day we attended church we went in blue jeans (like the Catholic church). We were wondering why everyone was looking at us so strange...
After few months we made the most important decision that changed our lives forever and became members of the Church. As we attended the University Ward, we met fantastic and fun people. We had parties at our house every week with permission of the Bishop (sometimes he/his family attended).
As things happen in life, I got divorced and decided to search for my eternal companion. As Craig indicated we found each other online and on the first date I felt nervous but comfortable. We had few more dates and started to know him better but I wanted to wait for while to give more time to our relationship. He is very sweet, calm and very polite, has good parents and family and has a big heart and loves his kids so much. At this time I just wanted to give myself and my kids more time and we separated for a while. Few years later we reconnected again and the loving feeling started to grow back. I had the soft voice in my heart that told me that this was the time and he was the man that I would share my life for eternity. Craig is a sweet little kid in a man's body, funny, smart and kind, caring for others and very loving. He is my best friend. He makes me laugh so hard that I have to run to the bathroom fast or in other occasions I run out of breath. I do respect him as a Priesthood holder, because I believe he has the authority to guide me and my family and protect and love us as his own. Every time I learn new things from him, his sense of humor, his loving touch, his soft voice gives me calm in my heart. I just can't imagine living another life. We complement and respect each other all the time and we are still getting to know each other. I believe this is the beginning of a eternal marriage. I would like to grow older with him and see my grandchildren around us, getting to know them better. I believe I have been blessed (sometimes we have to go through a lot pain in life to realize how much we have learned and count our blessings) to have my kids and found Craig in my life.
I love you Craig.

How We Met

As Doris and I start this blog, I often ask myself what I am going post here. I basically have no clue what to write and I have gone to my children’s blog to find some guidance. I am sure I will ask for their help at times. With that said, I will just start. I guess I will randomly add posts about my life individually and my life with Doris. I am sure that Doris will do the same. It will be interesting, especially for me, to see what she posts.

I started dating Doris around November of 2003. I personally knew by the second date that she was a good woman and she is someone I would definitely want to get to know better. She is a beautiful Latina woman (dark hair and eyes with olive colored skin) who was born and raised in Lima, Peru. She moved to the United States, along with her two sisters when she was around 23, then her parents moved to USA few years later. She has been in the US for some time now and speaks fluent English. I found her sweet, kind and affectionate. We dated and our relationship grew but it seemed to me that after about six months it stalled. We dated for a year and a half before breaking up. She wasn’t ready to get married and I didn’t want to wait. How long this would take, I didn’t know. We had met on the web through an on line service for church members. When I tell most people that, they give me this “cross-eyed” look like I must be crazy or something. I have to admit, when I was first introduced to this, I was not “too thrilled” about the idea either. In fact, I felt a deep sour pit my stomach. Not good. At first I rejected it when it was suggested to me by a friend. He said it was a great way to meet women and he was having some success at it. I thought I would take my chances at the adult singles ward of the church I attend. This congregation caters to singles ages 31 to 45. You cannot have minor children living with you to be a member of the ward. The church wants you to attend “family” wards if you still have children under 18 living at home. But you can come as a visitor if you like. After a year in the ward I realized there was no women there, that either, I was interested in to get to know better or they were not interested to get to know me better. It wasn’t too long before I left the ward and had my membership records moved back into the “family” ward where I lived. So……. since no women were knocking at my door wanting to get to know me better and I didn’t go to singles bars and the singles activities were attended by the same singles all the time and the singles dances were attended by the same singles all the time, the only thing I could do was give this a try. I didn’t give myself much hope that this would work. I made many mistakes (go figure) in my first few dates and it was tough to get back into the dating scene. At my age and having been married at 19 and recently divorced a couple years prior, marriage was really all I could relate to. But slowly I learned from my faux pas and I worked out a system to meet women on line. I learned not to rush things. Nothing was going to happen without the woman’s approval. I just let her make the decisions of how fast getting to know each other was going to take. However, I found a book that was invaluable to me. It is called “The Dating Dictionary” by Doc Love. I know it sounds weird, but this book is written mainly for men. It cuts though all the debris in relationships and gives men true meaning in woman actions in the relationship. It is a “straight shootin’” book and helps men find a good woman to build a relationship with. It really helped me “weed out” the ones that truly weren’t interested in me and the ones that were. It helped me save a lot of time and money dating women. I recommend it to any man who is looking for a woman to spend the rest of their life with. It’s tough on the man’s ego, but we men have to remember we do have an ego and we should be able to get over that.

Moving on…… Doris and I reconnected in January of 2007. It was a chance meeting and having exchanged a few cordial emails we decided to give us another try. This time I was not as open to Doris. I was still a little timid getting back together but this time she was ready to make that commitment. She said some things that really impressed me. She truly expressed her feelings for me and to back that up, she proved it by her actions. That thought stayed in my mind and I thought about it all the time. After a couple of weeks I felt impressed deeply in my heart that she was the one I wanted to be with and we both made that commitment to each other. She told her children and her extended family and in June, I officially proposed to her. In November, we married in the Mesa Arizona Mormon temple. Our relationship is getting better and better all the time. We’re still getting to know each other but I feel calm and at peace, both in my mind and in my heart, with my decision to marry her. She has so many wonderful qualities I could go on and on and probably bore you to death but to me she really is my love, my friend and companion. She treats me so good. We have fun together and she really thinks I am funny. She has never raised her voice to me, (going on two and a half years, four years altogether) even when we disagreed on an issue. She truly practices the art of having the “soft voice” or “answer” as President Hinckley describes. I am so blessed. I will tell you that God answers prayers. She is an answer to one of my prayers that is for sure. I want everyone to know that. “Te quiero, Doris.”

Our Jouney Together

Our eternal journey together began on November 17th, 2007. My wonderful wife, Doris, wanted me to start this blog with that date so that I would not forget. I have to admit, with a little bit of embarrassment, she is correct. She said that in case I do forget, then I can come here and see the date. She really does have a great sense of humor and laughs at my jokes and shortcomings. This is one of the pictures we took together for our wedding announcement. I felt calm and was very happy that I found someone that was willing to spend her life with me. I think she's amazing!