Brotherly love

Today is my older brother, David's, birthday. Growing up we used to fight like cats and dogs. Years later, it is hard to say why. We are only 16 months apart and we shared a room until I was about 8 years old. So that may have had something to do with it. But now as adults, we have forged a friendship and a mutual respect for each other. My brother is one of the kindest people I know. He is usually one of the first people to step up when a friend or family member is in need. He is quick to forgive and loves to have those in his life around him at all times. He doesn't give up even when he is discouraged and he loves blindly. Best of all, he has a truck and helps people move all the time! Eric, Liam and I are lucky to have him in our lives.

Last year, as we were converting our office to a nursery, I came across some old family pictures. I thought some within our family might enjoy a good laugh. This picture is of David's 7th birthday in the park. Note Nana's carrot cake in its signature metal pan front and center.

The first cousins of the Martinez Family. From left to right, Me (jealous of my mushroom haircut? Yeah - I thought you would be), Matthew, the top of Jason's head, Rachel, David, Melissa, Susan, Jeff and Jonathan.

The smell of autumn is in the air...

Growing up, I fondly remember the smell of autumn in the air. In New Mexico it means the first crisp morning where you wake up and feel a slight chill as you gather the blankets around your body. Where the smell of wood burning fireplaces permeate the air. Pretty soon the leaves are changing color in the bosque - the cottonwoods and aspens turning shades of yellow and orange. Walking into restaurants and coffee houses you can smell the baked goods wafting cinnamon, vanilla and anise through the air. Fresh apples and school supplies line the aisles of the grocery store. One holiday blends into another and with it, the smells.

But one of my favorite memories growing up was my grandparents traveling to Hatch or Escondido, NM to purchase burlap sack upon burlap sack of green and red chile. For those of you not familiar with the Land of Enchantment, chile is a religion. No seriously. We don't joke about these things. In fact, the state question is "red or green?" Peeling roasted chile was a family event. Aunts, uncles, cousins - everybody showed up at the Martinez Household to sit around the yellow and chrome vintage kitchen table....and peel....and peel...and peel. But part of the fun was sitting around, cracking jokes, watching the kids run around. These are the things that you don't appreciate at the time. It was not until later that I realized how much these memories would mean to me. After I moved away to college and later to Dallas, my grandparents would still send me bags of frozen green chile. Even after the deaths of both my grandparents, the smell of freshly roasted chile still takes me back to their kitchen.

Once a year, in August, one of our local grocery stores hosts a Hatch Green Chile Festival. Eric and I take this opportunity to go and sample some of the tasty treats on display. And to buy green chile of course! However, we may have been overly ambitious this year. We purchased an entire bushel of roasted HOT green chile. It was only after we got home and sectioned our culinary gold into freezer bags, and after we sampled the fire, that we realized we may have gotten way over our heads!

Liam could hardly contain his excitement!

Eric and I spent way too much time inhaling the heavenly smell of roasted chile.

Our 15lbs of green chile. Unfortunately our freezer doesn't have much room for anything else. If you are in the neighborhood one night, feel free to drop by for green chile cheeseburgers, green chile and sausage pizza, green chile breakfast burritos, green chile chicken enchiladas, chiptole green chile chicken....I think you get the point. So while we are still quite aways from waking up to the crisp mornings, for now I do believe fall is in the air.

Liam comes to visit

It is a rare occasion these days that Liam comes to the office to visit Mommy. However, his school was closed for an in-service day this past Friday, so Liam came to spend a little time visiting my coworkers. As a bonus, Congressman Johnson was in the office.

This is actually one of my favorite pictures because Liam is so wiggly these days that I like to catch him in "true form."

Updates

Life in the Pate Household these days has been about trying to keep up. Having our house on the market has been a lot of work. As one of my friends put it, "Living clean is hard!" And with a toddler and two dogs, I believe it. However, despite our best attempts to keep our home show-ready, we recently received a surprising call from our realtor.

It appears that there are a record number of foreclosures and short-sales in our area. As a result, our realtor has actually advised us to pull our home off the market until the spring. In our community alone, there are over 60 foreclosures - not to mention all the new construction homes and resales. The only lookers we had ended up going with a foreclosure that was twice our size for the same amount of money. With the housing market being over saturated right now, it appears that our house cannot compete with the houses that are priced way below market value. On one hand we looked forward to a new adventure. However, we feel lucky that we are not in the position where we have to sell right now. So pretty soon, the house will come off the market. And hopefully things will be better in the spring!

In other news, Liam recently moved up to his next toddler class, which has resulted in lots of new changes. He gets to do exciting new things like splash day, petting zoos, and lots of fun hands-on classes and activities. He comes home and has all these developed "talents." You will be tickled to know that Liam dances exactly like his Daddy. Although it is much cuter (and acceptable) from a baby. We had some concerns on how he would transition to his new class where they are required to wear shoes (all the time) and take naps on cots. It is a relief to both me and Eric that Liam is adjusting so well.

For obvious reasons I will be pretty busy with work until the holidays. Eric is also pleasantly busy with work. We are just trying to get through this very long, very hot, very clean summer!

30th Birthday

Eric turned the big 3-0 on July 31. He likes to tell anyone who will listen that he shares the same birthday as Harry Potter had Harry Potter been a real person. As a side note, we are super psyched about the new Harry Potter attraction at Universal Studios (anyone want to babysit an energetic one year old in Florida?).

I always give Eric a really hard time about how he is "my old man." And about how much older he is. About how he robbed the cradle by marrying me. But I also turn 30 in December. So I realize that payback is right around the corner.

I am finally getting a few shots up of Eric's birthday. I have this affliction where I always think I have taken more pictures than I actually have. But in my defense, I took plenty of pictures....just with other people's cameras. HA!


Some of Eric's buddies from college all came together for a joint birthday party at Blue Mesa. It was great to see everyone and how much we have all changed since college. And yet, some things have stayed exactly the same!

One of the gals in my book club mentioned that she had gotten her hubby a subscription to the Beer of the Month Club. But after researching the cost, I decided to opt for a homemade basket of beer. I went to World Market and bought 30 different beers to celebrate his 30 years. I think he will have LOTS of fun drinking his way through the basket!

Plus Liam and I got Eric a new nail gun and compressor. Now I know what you are thinking. Beer, college buddies and a nail gun. Recipe for disaster? Perhaps.

The Beautiful Broken

It is not often that I feel compelled to talk about my church...or even my faith for that matter. I grew up in a Catholic household. But for years I felt like I had a very sleepy faith. Like I was just going through the motions. In fact, if you would have asked me the Monday after Mass what I had learned from the teachings, many times I would have been hard pressed to tell you. And maybe faith and developing a relationship with God are something that just sort of comes with age and life experience.

Eric grew up in a Baptist household, but we met while going to a Catholic high school. So after we got married and moved to Dallas, it was important to the both of us that we find a church that fit both of our needs. And it wasn't easy. But we realized that having a good marriage was going to be based on a foundation stronger than each of us could create on our own. We were probably married for about two years when we first visited the Heights.

The Heights Church feels like home for us. And that is not to say that we don't struggle to keep our faith alive and growing. After all, life is hard sometimes. And when it gets tough it is easy to ask why it is that it feels like God has abandoned you. However, as Christians we are always reminded that God would never turn his back on us, even in our darkest hour. He loves us. Unconditionally. Despite our lapses. Despite our flaws. Despite our brokeness.

Again, I don't usually talk much about our Church, but this next Sunday we are beginning a sermon series entitled "The Beautiful Broken." For those of you in the area who don't have a church, I invite you to attend. It is a reminder that we can always go home. That Jesus will always put our broken pieces back together.