August Birthdays !

Hola Familia !!

Ok so these are the August Birthdays that I have been sent ! I would love it if you California Primos could send me your birthdays too ! Please Please I know I am missing people and some dont like their Bdays known but I think it would be good to have as many Bdays known as possible ! It will help to keep us close !

Linda's ~ 2nd
Cissy ~ 8th
Andy ~ 21st
Shanna ~ 28th
Little X ~ 28th
Michelle ~ 30th

AND
Happy Wedding Anniversary's to:
Larry & Cissy on the 3rd ! ! ! !
Chata and Lupe's Anniversary on August 6th ! ! !

Luv Y'all Like Cuz's..
Cuz Andy & Cuz Marjorie

La Familia Port A Edition ! 7/29/08

Hola Familia.....



Its been two days(for some only one) since we have all been back to reality after our Family Coast Trip and we are ready to go back! Not knowing what to expect, we all got to our home for the weekend at Seashell Village, and were greeted by the Welcoming Committee of Chata, Lupe, Greg, Terri and the kids! We were all REALLY pleased with how nice our weekend home was! I will tell you about it from our point of view (Andy, Mar, Hannah, Faith and Thelma) to make it easy! Once we got into our place and unpacked the car we all headed out for some souvenir shopping lead by none other than Chata and Terri!!! We visited a couple of the local shops and got boogie boards, shirts, necklaces, and shot glasses. While in one of the shops Homer, Rose, TJ, and puppy showed up along with Alyssa, Nanie, Julian, and Little Alissa! After an exhausting time shopping, we rounded everybody up and got back to the Village. The kids got on their swimsuits and went swimming FOREVER! They literally went swimming for like 4 hours nonstop! Meanwhile Greg, Lupe and the gang were BBQing up some of Greg's famous "Texas Thick" hamburgers and hot dogs! Cuz Thelma and Cuz Marjorie broke out the Margerators and whipped up some Pina colodas for everyone. Joe, Nena, and Aidan arrived about that time, and the gang was all there! Once we got everybody out of the pool, changed, and the BBQ was done, we all got together in one room to celebrate Cuz Thelma's birthday! We sang for her and had some yummy cupcakes! After a while the big boys wanted to do some night fishing so we packed up all the kids and went to Horace Caldwell Pier to see what we could catch! It was still kind of windy and the surf was choppy so the fishing wasn't so good...we caught a few "hardhead catfish" but nothing worth keeping! The kids all had a blast running up and down the pier! That was pretty much the end of the first day !!

The early morning crew of Thelma, Andy, and Marjorie woke up about 7am on saturday and leisurely had coffee on our porch until the rest of the tribe woke up. Then it was Chata and Nena making chorizo and egg tacos, and sausage and egg tacos, in two rooms just like a restaurant! About that time Terri's sister and brother-in-law, Rudy and Vickie, with their kids showed up and they joined us finishing up a hearty breakfast! We all got ready for a day at the beach and headed out! We found our spot and Rudy and Vickie had a great pop up gazebo they shared with us. We lined up the cars around it to put up tarps for shade! It was like our own little Mexican fishing village! There was a lot of seaweed on shore but it didn't bother anybody! The kids hung out ALL day in the surf, we played football, threw the frisbee, swam, collected seashells, did a little fishing, (still no luck) and just had a great time being together! Once we all had enough of the beach we headed back and washed off a little of the sand and seaweed, and the kids went swimming at the pool AGAIN!! Greg fired up his grills again and this time it was Jalapeno sausage, chicken, and beef fajitas! Of course we had the beer and Dr. Pico on the Margerators running full blast! By the time we all finished eating we just hung out and talked. The kids were running around from room to room, and keeping themselves occupied by making Paul Adrian look like coolio! We were all completely exhausted so everyone headed to their rooms and passed out!

Sunday morning again the morning crew was up before everyone else drinking our coffee! Before we realized it it was 9:30am, so I texted Greg to see if they were awake yet and I woke them up to start getting breakfast ready! I went to their place and got their coffee going and we had eggs and bacon and leftover fajitas and sausages! We all had to be packed up by noon so everybody got their stuff packed in the cars, and checked out. We also booked the WHOLE building for next year already, (more info on that to come) took a family photo for the First Annual Familia Coast Trip, and headed off to the beach again! This time we went further south on Mustang Island and thanks to Rudy and Vickie, found a really nice beach that we set up our little Mexican village at again! The kids all immediately headed out to the surf and Faith and I found an area next to our camp that had tons of hermit crabs! The boys did a little more fishing in the jetty next to us, (still no luck) and we saw sea turtles, and gulls taking Greg's bait! We all had leftover fajitas and chips and salsa for lunch, played some more, and for those of us who had to go, packed it all in and headed back to S.A. with smiles on our faces and love in our hearts for being together as a family!

We had a lot of people taking pictures, and most of y'all know how crazy Marjorie is when she gets a camera in her hand so bear with us, we have a lot to show....Marjorie was on the computer ALL day monday and thanks to Pico and Thelma sending their pics and our share, we have a way of showing you whats in store for EVERYBODY next year! Plan now because the 2nd Annual Familia Coast Trip is next year same time, there will be a separate blog explaining it more coming up! Click here to see all the great memories we made!

I just want to add that I really hope I didn't miss anybody with the announcements for this trip and all the details leading up to it! I have tried over and over to ask everybody that I DO have emails for to make sure they let me know who I might be missing so I can add them! I will do it again right now....if any of you who receive this, have a family member that would like to receive this, PLEASE send me their email to either ajdlp1@att.net or losprimos@att.net !!!!

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I also wanted to include something that Cuz Leti sent to us! I kept it in her words.

"Check out Rob in action at a 3 alarm fire in ATX Sunday. Look for him on top of the truck working the pump at the 0:47 mark and again at the 0:58 mark.....I know he does this for a living and sees fires often, but I have never seen him in action at a fire before....so it's exciting for me and the kids....and it's proof that they don't just sit around all day long playing Nintendo and basketball.

Just thought I'd share...."


Click here

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Ok, that's it I think for now...this was an AWESOME trip and I know we will ALL make it 100 times better next year!


Luv Y'all like Cuz's.....

Cuz Andy & Cuz Marjorie

La Familia Newsletter ! Busy Weekend 7/19/08

Hola Familia !

WOW !

We had a busy, fun, family filled weekend so let me try and break it all down and throw in some picture links too !

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First I would like to promote a family business owned by Robert and Leti Maldonado ... its a pest control business and the link to the website is http://www.ezpestcontrolcompany.com/ I will add it to the links to the side of the blog also ! Ora Ley familia if you have cucharachas or pulgas make sure you use http://www.ezpestcontrolcompany.com/ !!!

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BIRTHDAYS ! Cuz Thelma's is coming up on the 25th and Cuz Nicole (Terri's daughter) is on the 27th !!

Thanks to "Aunt" Gloria we helped "Uncle" Carlos celebrate his 75th Bday at their house! As usual Aunt Gloria worked really hard in the kitchen to have all sorts of good food! There was brisket that was awesome, potato salad, beans, rice, chips and dip, and two delicious birthday cakes that you will see in the pictures. All the usual suspects were there from our side of the family, and there were also family from Aunt Glorias side. Proud parents Matthew and Adrianna, and proud grandparents Lucy and Craig, showed off new Cuz Amadea ! Everybodies favorite older Cuz X was there too, helping out by watching some of the kids playing football in the front yard! We also were lucky enough to have a private viewing of Cuz Fabian and Erin's wedding video. Please click here to see more pix of the party>>>>>Carlos' Birthday

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Cuz Greg's Bday was on the 20th and Los Primos Vball team helped him celebrate by winning our games on Sunday AND "Mijo Santos" Godmother Cuz Thelma brought some cupcakes! Alyssa, Nanie, and kids showed up, Pico, AND Cuz Sara, Cuz Sophia, and Cuz Olivia...... Cuz Sara was caught by suprise because just as she showed up we called her into action. We were one player short. Not dressed for volleyball, Cuz Marjorie and Cuz Terri publicly stripped and Marjorie gave Sara the shirt off her back, and Terri gave her her shorts!!! Thanks to Sara's great play we were able to win against both the teams we played!

Here are some more pix from the game >>> Greg's Birthday

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So far Cuz Homer has been the first one to step up to my request for personal memories that we could share and pass on to each other... he sent us some good pictures of when they went to check out the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center display of a photo history of the Westside. The pictures of Grandma Rosa and Aunt Bitsy were displayed on Guadalupe Street, and the one of Aunt Bitsy was displayed on San Jacinto street. The pictures of Aunt Bitsy and Aunt Carmen as well as Uncle Filbert were displayed on Brazos street on the walls of buildings. All pix comments were narrareted by Homer! Thanks for sharing the great pix!

Here is a link to more of the pictures >>> La Familia

Just a reminder whenever y'all have a little time write me a quick email with memories of our family that stick out in your mind, it should be interesting to see what we all remember in different ways !

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1st Annual Family Trip..... only 3 more days until the Family Rowdies head down to Port A !

If anybody wants to join us last minute y'all are more than welcome to catch up with us ! It will be fun I promise !!!

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Well, I think that just about does it for this edition.... this will probably be the last one until after the Coast trip which I am sure I will have lots to write about and LOTS of pictures !

Luv Y'all Like Cuz's

Cuz Andy & Cuz Marjorie

"Los Primos" Volleyball Team Raffle Results...

Here are the official Raffle Drawing Winners as drawn out of a bag at Time Warner Park by an official employee of Time Warner Park !

1st Prize ~ $100 Gift Card ~ Inez Farias

2nd Prize ~ $25 Gas Card ~ Melody Perez

3rd Prize ~ $25 Gas Card ~ Rita Farias

4th Prize ~ Ice Chest ~ Alyssa "little digga" Maldonado

5th Prize ~ Lottery Tickets ~ Barbara de la Rosa

To collect your prize please contact the person that sold you the ticket !
Any questions you can contact me at losprimos@att.net

Pre-Weekend Post 7/18/08

Hola Familia....

This is just a little pre-weekend post to fill in everybody on what has happened and what will be happening ......

For those far away I wanted to fill you in on "Aunt" Carmen's services.......

The Rosary and Visitation were held at Porter Loring in San Antonio on July 16th Wednesday, lots of familia showed up and as is usual there was a lot of catching up with family from out of town, old friends of Carmen and the family, and also the "rowdies" of the family! It was very nice because the memories of Carmen and Solomon and peoples lives they were a part of started to get everybody relaxed and the jokes and the laughter followed. Thelma, Louie, Mary Jane, and family and friends did a wonderful job with the services which included a "photo collage" of Carmen that at the end of the service allowed everyone to take off their favorite photos and keep it. Here are just a few that we got. Carmen's favorite music "Big Band Music" was playing in the background (people were dancing to it by the end) and a family friend created a slide show that they showed on a screen that showed even more pictures and how Carmen enjoyed life. Carmen "LOVED" Roses so they also passed out a single rose to everyone that was there. The Church service was held Thursday at St. Ann's and primos Rose Vallejo, Chata, Rev. Larry Wong, T.J, "Uncle" Charlie, and Nena were all part of the services. The burial was at Ft. Sam Houston where she was laid to rest with her "loving" husband Uncle Solomon. There was a reception afterwards at the Ft. Sam Golf Club. Thank You Thelma, Louie, Mary Jane, and grand kids for letting us say our goodbyes.......

I hope this brief readers digest version gives those who couldn't make it an idea of what happened and know that we missed you there.

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Before Carmen had passed away I had already been thinking of something for this blog that I thought would be kind of "cool" for everyone...... I wanted to see if I could get as many Primos as I could that read this blog to send me some of their childhood or adult memories of doing stuff with the whole familia or even just individual memories of a place, a time, event or person that stays with you and is important. I want to see if I can put these together and depending on how much I get put it on here or something else that we can keep maybe share these memories we have with the younger generation AND add some of theirs to it, kind of like an Indian tribe passing on the history of our family. It doesn't have to be long and I want to keep it in your words. See what you think and if you want to do it just email it to me at ajdlp1@att.net !

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End of July Birthdays............. "Uncle" Carlos , Cuz Greg and Cuz Thelma !

(if i am missing anybody let me know)

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Coast Trip !

Its coming up fast now ! Next week July 25th will be the First Annual La Familia trip and this 1st one will be down on the Texas Coast in Port A (ahhh memories of Spring Break in high school hahaha)! We will be there from July 25th to July 27th! So if anybody else wants to go last minute thats where we will be at the seashell village (click here to see website). COME ON ! You know you want too!!

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For those of you who were not able to attend Matthew & Adriana Stribling's wedding on May 18th, Here are some pictures. We would like to send out a HUGE thank you to TJ for sharing his pictures of the wedding and some for the slide show with everyone! Click here to view them!

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The Los Pimos Volleyball team would like to Thank Cuz Greg's friend Orlando Sanchez, the owner of the "El Chile Cafe y Cantina" in Austin Texas for coming up with a way to help the Los Primos Vball team with their raffle and also helping him with donations to his MS Valero Bike to the Beach event. Orlando went one for one with us on tickets and donations! If you would like to support him check out his web page (click here)

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Well....that ends another entry in our blog..as usual if I forgot anything or have anything you want me to add please send it to me and I will be happy to post it !!!

Luv Y'all like Cuz's .....

Cuz Andy & Cuz Marjorie

New Cuz Baby News ! News about Carmen.....

Hola Familia !


Announcement by Grandma Lucy !


Good morning all,

Well, she has arrived!! Our granddaughter was born yesterday at 9:09am, weighing in at 7lb 15oz, 20” long. Mom and daughter are doing great; Matthew is the proud papa. Here are also pictures of the great grandparents, us, Laura & the girls and Uncle Mark.

Enjoy these pictures (click on the word)

Lucy



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News about one of our Elders !



I have an update on Carmen Hapshie........
they have taken her off all medication.
At this time she is drinking only two shakes a day with very little to no water.
Hospice has given us about 3 to 4 weeks at most.
We will be visited by hospice 2 a week from now on. She is asleep most of the time. We are just keeping her comfortable. It is only a matter of time. if you plan on visiting please let us know ahead because the caregiver that is with her when we are at work will not let you in if we do not tell her you are coming. Some one is with her 24 hrs a day.
thanks

Mary Hapshie



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And I got a text picture from Cuz Nena last night
in Chicago and they were at a Cubs game vs the
Reds at WRIGLEY FIELD ! A piece of living history !






Well thats it for today..if anyone has any pictures or info I should post let me have it !!!




Luv Y'all like Cuz's ......
Cuz Andy & Cuz Marjorie

July 4th Weekend !

Hola Familia !!

Hope everybody had an AWESOME and safe July 4th Weekend !

Just want to remind EVERYONE that this weekend July 5th was Fabian Farias's Wedding in Chicago to Erin Flynn who should now officially be Erin Farias !! WELCOME TO THE FAMILIA CUZ ERIN !!! Cuz Helen , Cuz Robert , and Cuz Thelma went up and hopefully we can get some updates from them on the festivities !!! May you guys have a Long and Prosperous Marriage !

Los Primos Volleyball was off for the weekend but was busy with a garage sale that was a success thanks to the efforts of a select few ...heres a quick recap !

Just wanted to let everyone know that we did very well this weekend with the garage sale and raised $256.00. We did so well that we started to pack early and it is a good thing we did because as soon as we got everything packed into the van and stepped inside it started to pour down rain. GREAT TIMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Terri

This is written by one of our players who's house the garage sale was held at ! Orie Salinas:

Hello ALL!!! I personally want to thank all that came over to my house for the yard sale. Greg's mom & dad were a HUGE help Friday & Saturday and I'm so happy that they stayed. It was a lot of work but it was crazy fun. We got slammed for the first couple of hours & Terri & I were making all sorts of deals. For a minute there I thought we were paying people to take things. ha ha just kidding. But we were literally stepping on top of each other going from one end to the other. Money was stuffed in all our pockets and shoved in the money bag. Again . . . crazy fun! Hooray . . . we got rid of the "green monster" (chair) for a whopping $10.00!!! Terri said to get rid of it and I agreed. She priced it $10, I called a bluff price at $15 and the guy bid $10! Yipee, we got what we wanted! What a team!!! The guy also bought the entertainment center (the one that had already been sold before but left behind) and said that he would come back with his truck. Well guess what is still sitting on my porch?!?! CRAZY!!!! Andy and Marjorie . . . we missed you but we understand, gas, drive, work, girls . . . still we missed you! Thelma hope your trip was fun! Paul sorry you had to work, but Paulett (sp?) was a great helper. I really believe we could have made more but we were in the frame of mind to just get rid of everything and as busy as we were . . . some people were giving us prices and we were saying . . . SOLD!Terri forgot to mention that we also sold $70 in raffle tickets at the yard sale. Scared of us!!! Go Primos Go!

As was mentioned above we have the girls, Hannah and Faith with us... we had a great 4th watching the fireworks locally....we missed coming into San Antonio but with gas prices and Marjorie working on Saturday we couldn't be going back and forth....here are some of our pix from watching the Fireworks (click on the word and it will take you to the pix.) in Kyle, Tx where Marjorie is a Rural Carrier..we got to park in their parking lot and hang out..it was really relaxing. The cows serenaded us for the firework show!

I also have to mention again our raffle Los Primos Volleyball is having..I will post below what has been written by Terri ......

OK- we have a challenge brought to our attention and it would benefit everyone involved. Greg's friends in Austin are in a bike ride to raise money for MS and have stated the following: They will match us dollar for dollar on the raffle tickets if we donate to the MS bike ride they are participating in.

During my great thoughts of thoughts- I was thinking that if everyone could donate $5.00 to the MS bike ride for those guys not only would it benefit MS but it would benefit LOS PRIMOS volleyball team because we are helping each other out. And also because the Multiple Sclerosis Society is a great way for us as a team and family to help out. So if there is anyone out there is wanting to donate please let me know and we will try and collect money on Saturday.

Greg and I are donating: $10.00- $5.00 from Greg and $5.00 from me.

Thank you-love
Terri

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All right that should be it for now.....as always if I have forgotten something PLEASE let me know !!!

Luv Y'all Like Cuz's

Cuz Andy & Cuz Marjorie !!!