Monterrey Trip - August 2013

    Registro Civil: This translates to "civil registry." It is a government office that I assume is similar to a justice of the peace. Citizens went to that office to register a birth, death, marriage. The good thing about this entity is that they were very detailed in their documentation. For example, when my grandmother died, my grandfather's brother went to report. Here is some of what was written:
"On November 17, 1925 at 10 am, Manuel Vidales, 50 years old, merchant resident of this city, reports that last night at 8 pm, at 157 Altamirano street, Estefana Vidales died. She was 30 years old and died of an internal tumor. She was the legitimate daughter of Tiburcio Villanueva (deceased) and Brigida Argueta. She leaves a widower, Feliciano, and four children Beatriz, Maria, Fidel, and Cristobal."
     So I have found similar documents about marriages, births and deaths for other folks. The account of my grandmother's death verified that I had an uncle (Fidel), up to now hearsay. It also told me that my grandmother did not die at home, because the address given was her aunt's house. I also discovered that her father had already died.

 I continue to look for family roots. The focus of this trip to Monterrey was to connect with a "cousin" that I have known forever, but that I have not seen in many, many years. He is the son of my grandmother's sister. This is the side of the family, the Villanueva family,  that remains hidden. My grandmother, Estefana, had sisters that I knew growing up and other siblings unknown to me.  As much as I have found about so many people, on the internet and using the Mormon database, the Villanueva Family has been elusive. I have not been able to find baptismal records, nor birth records, nor marriages, nor deaths.

Meeting with this cousin was productive because he was willing to share information and because he repeated family information that I will now believe as true. I have his email address and will use it regularly.

Cousins:
     This folks I recently discovered - last year. They are children of my father's cousin - our grandfathers were brothers. I visit them every time I am in Monterrey. This visit was the fist time to get them all in one house. The oldest is 82 and the youngest is 63.

In the picture below, my sister is wearing purple. The woman in pink is Maria (82). The guy on the far right is Eduardo (63) with his wife next to him. The guy in the wheel chair Roberto (77) will get a hip replaced next month. The woman in the white blouse is Conchita (70), and is the mother to the young guy in maroon (42). Only Eduardo and Conchita and son do not live in that house.

Monterrey Picture:
     What would a post about Monterrey be without pictures. The first one was a shop across the street from the hotel. I find it interesting and odd because we do not see such a sign in the USA.
     This is an opticians store and from top to bottom they sell "prescription glasses, contact lenses, artificial eyes, and apparatus for the deaf."  Next time I will go in and get an eye. Should I get a left eye or a right one???

 Old buildings:
These are from late 1800s (the yellow one) and 1901

Now a bank

Now a museum - was a government building

 I wonder if they had really tall people back then. The "french doors" to the balconey and the doors on the ground level are very tall.



Two views from the hotel window.

Grandview update

My return to Washington for a quick visit went very well. I attended graduation and saw some of my students walk past as Rad Techs, RNs, and university transfer students. I also got to visit briefly with some of my former colleagues.

The trip opened my eyes to how expensive it is in Washington. I filled my gas tank in Weslaco at $2.99, using a discount card. If I had a Safeway card my gas in WA would have been $3.85, no card price - $3.95.  My breakfast at IHOP was almost $3 more expensive in WA. I also thought that the restaurant lunch specials were high around $10.


Here are some pictures of the Grandview Campus, exterior and interior remodel, and downtown Grandview.

The Grandview downtown area was very nicely landscaped.

The Grandview Campus is being remodeled.  The entry courtyard will disappear as will the original entry walkway. The courtyard will become an entry foyer, roofed with some skylights. The space will be furnished with comfy seating. The workers were installing a temporary wall to begin taking down the exterior wall. 

The existing halls on either side of the courtyard will disappear and classrooms will exit onto the vast seating area. I asked about the potential noise levels for those classrooms.

 Where these men are standing is the line between inside the building and out - after the remodel.

The temporary wall in front of the computer labs and room 115.

The length of this hallway, from the ABE wing to the Bookstore wing, will have new flooring and be repainted. 

2013 Projects 3

Patio project:
     One of the first things I did, when I moved back to Texas, was to create a patio. It was working well getting shade from the large ebony tree and a patio umbrella. One day a strong southerly wind had its way with the umbrella. Since was the third umbrella that had met a ghastly end, I decided not to spend the money on another.
    I used shade fabric, steel cables, and this was the result.

 The fabric allows filtered light into the space. In case of strong winds, I can retract the fabric and tied it under the carport. So far it has worked well.

Gazing Ball

You see these in the stores and they look pretty. Not all maintain their color, though. This was one of the poor ones. I have had these before and have tried painting them and filling them with colored foil, but have not had luck in maintaining them.  

This year I tried some thing different. Hobby Lobby was glad to sell me some jewels. Using plenty of hot glue and patience, I liked the end product.

It adds light to a dar spot under the tree.

Genealogy Update

Weslaco Cemetery Family Plots location

1. Prajedis Alanis Elizondo
2. Mateo Elizondo
3. Eulalio Delgado and Romana Elizondo Delgado
4.Venancio Elizondo
5. Beto Garza and Pancha Rodriguez Garza
6. Domingo Elizondo, Maria Vasquez Elizondo, and Ernestina Elizondo
7. Abundio Vallejo and Paula Elizondo Vallejo
8. Reymunda Rodriguez Zambrano and Francisco Zambrano
9. Maria Paula Lugo Delgado
10. Cirila Elizondo Rodriguez
(Delgado = maternal grandfather; Elizondo = maternal grandmother;
Lugo= maternal great grandmother
_____________________________________________________________


I continue to search for the family's past. I have had more success with the folks on my mother's side. Most of them migrated to the USA when Mexico was in the midst of their 1910 revolution.

Maria Lugo Delgado:
I found the grave of my grandfather's mother - Maria Lugo Delgado - here at the Weslaco cemetery. She died in 1952. This past week I met a 2nd or 3rd cousin, also a Lugo, but I do not know the exact connection. I think his grandfather and Maria were siblings. He is 81 and did not have much to share. Hopefully something will pop up in  his memory.



Grandmother's Father:  I also found the grave of my grandmother's (maternal) father. He was Benancio Elizondo and died in 1926. His wife lived another 20 years here in Weslaco. In the picture below, I have determined that the dead man is Benancio.

Maria Elizondo:

Maria Elizondo was married to my grandmother's brother. She lived to the age of 99. She died in Chicago, but was buried in Weslaco. She died in 2001 and the city did not have any record of her death or burial site. The guy at the city office suggested I ask the funeral home to see if they had any information. The funeral home offered that she was buried with her son. I DID NOT KNOW SHE HAD A SON.  I only knew their daughter. The child lived less than a month.                         I continued to bug the folks at City Hall and ultimately found that when Maria died, and her daughter Ernestine was making arrangements, they mistakenly added the name of her daughter Ernestine, as the deceased, rather than Maria. I found the grave site of her son and am waiting for the city to use their "radar/ x-ray" machine to determine that there is more than one buried in the same location.

Bartolo Delgado:
     Another great find was the death registry of my grandfather's grandfather, in Mexico. I was not looking specifically for him. I was looking for records of my grandfather's father. I do not know when or where he died.
This find came from the LDS website, Family Search.org. It was time consuming to go page by page.  Bartolo was born in 1835 and died in 1910.

Grandfather's siblings:
      I only knew of my paternal grandfather's 2 siblings, who lived in the area and I knew them both. As I am looking for my grandfather's father, I find that he had three sibling die in one year, 4 years before his birth. The children were 5 months, 2 and 4 years old. The cause of death was "cough," and "measles." This tragic year was 1897. My grandfather was born in 1901. I am guessing that my grandfather's father died between 1897 and 1910, when Bartolo died. Soon after the family was in Texas.

    My father's family continues to hide in the record books. Beyond, him and his sisters, I have not found record of any of his family. I know that his mother had 5 sisters, and 2 stepbrothers, and his grandmother. This family will be the focus of my next trip to Mexico.

2013 Projects Part 2

This project was an "all of a sudden" project. For a while I had been thinking or buying a cabinet/vanity for the bathroom, to replace the sink hanging from the wall. I needed some counter space for the toothbrush holder, mouthwash, etc. After pricing these at the Lowe's and Home Depot stores, I decided to wait - and wait.

I found some left over pieces from the kitchen counter top project and thought that maybe I could make a "counter" with those. I had some 2X4s and I made the following.

I had my desired space, but I also had the ugly 2X4 frame that I had used. My neighbor collects and sells  junk and cardboard and anything else he finds. He had given me a sheet of pegboard that I had not gotten around to using. All of a sudden I had a cover for the 2X4s.

How do I cover the stuff under the sink? I decided to follow the pegboard pattern and found some fabric at WalMart, along with a tension rod, about $5 for both. I am seeing a pattern.

What to do about the shower curtain. I looked online and locally for something that would compliment the dot pattern. I found some that I could not afford. After much thought, I came up with the solution.

I had found a curtain that my niece had left here when she moved out. I did not want to use an all black curtain so I used the left-over material from the little curtain and the result is this.

 I hand-sewed the strips of fabric. Although they did not turn out completely straight, the effect is there. I added some sparkle to the top, and found the two rugs for less than $10.

A last minute thing was adding the back-splash. These tiles were also left-overs from the kitchen project. I also had some left-over grout.














The final touch was to paint the doors to that storage unit - glossy black. I decided to leave the accent wall untouched.  After it was all done, I think I spent less than $20.

2013 Projects - Part 1

There is always something to do. These things sometimes arise from one day to the next and others lie dormant on a list or in my head waiting to come to life.

Cork wreath - This project has been in my head for a long time, before I left Washington. I had started collecting corks with the idea of replicating a wreath I had seen somewhere. This bag of corks seemed to always be in the way, from this closet to that one, to the storage room. So that I did not wind up tossing them and so that they would be out of the way, I finally got around to making the cork wreath.

If you want to make such a wreath, drink wine and have friends that drink wine. You will need many corks. It does not matter if they are real cork or plastic. I decided to use them in combination.  You will also need a hefty supply of glue sticks..
I saw pictures of such wreaths on the Internet and some had the corks laying flat and orderly, and some had them hap-hazardously glued on.  This is what I did.

 I used a 24 inch straw ring base. I think  foam one would have been better. It took three days, on and off. I waited for the glue to dry thoroughly when I was doing the interior of the ring and the base of it.

I'll drink to that.

Landscaping:
    The east side of the property was weedy and covered with brown dried grass. I may  have chosen the wrong seed last year. I bought a small tiller because it seemed that I was renting one every year. I got rid of the old stuff and bought new grass seed. I watered and I watered and I watered. This is what it looked like.

 I either got dead seeds or ???? After a couple of soaking rains within a week's period, I started to see grass. Did I forget to tell you that I added new seeds? So I do not know if the grass that is growing is the new or the old. In any case, the area is green-looking. I will not allow anyone to do a close inspection of the area.

June 1, 2013

It has been a while since my last post and I am finally getting to do another. This first one is a miscellany of pictures.

 The box was in the carport waiting to be dumped. Simon may have been wishing for a trip to the unknown or was simply sleepy. He used it for 2 days. Simon is old and spends most of his time sleeping.

 I don't know the name of the birds with the orange wings, but they showed up one morning at the feeder. There were up to 20 at one time. The much smaller sparrows did not stand a chance at feeding. They disappeared as quickly as they appeared.

I had been thinking of getting rid of this stump, as it is by the driveway and "in the way." However the thought of hacking, smashing, and sawing motivated me to think to re-purpose. A succulent and a periwinkle now call it home. I was surprised to read that the periwinkle is an "invasive" species. I have it all around because it is heat tolerant and colorful. I welcome the invasion of color.

This flat leaf cactus has had a good blooming year. You have to be an early riser to enjoy the blooms. Once the sun hit them, they are gone.

 The Hackberry tree is very common in this part of Texas. They are tall, provide plentiful shade and produce a small berry that attracts the Mexican parrots, squirrels, and other birds. However, with age, the trees tend to rot from the center and weaken.

This was the latest casualty. The strong southerly winds broke this large branch and luckily there were no pedestrians at the time.

This is the scene after the tree removal guys left.

This is a picture of the tree in 1952 when they were planted. My sister was 13 months old.

The other tree removed was over the back fence. With the start of hurricane season, I did not want to chance it falling over the fence and damaging it. 

Be sure to check out the next installment of this blog, when we will explore the world of "projects."