Proud of our son and his wife

I have to take a break to tell about my son and daughter-in-law. This is our middle son. He has worked hard for several years for a medical testing establishment and his wife has attended medical school. She is finishing her internship this week and is very fortunate to have obtained a fellowship in La Jolla, California. My husband and I will fly up to where they are living now and we will caravan with them beginning on Friday, out to La Jolla. We are so proud of our son and daughter-in-law. It has been as they say, "a long haul". She is a dermatologist and will be working with some outstanding derm doctors/surgeons. They plan to settle in Houston when she has completed a year of work with the doctors. We just couldn't be more proud.

The painting begins

Rancho Don Pedro really started taking shape when the painting began. It was so exciting to see our project developing. Rancho Don Pedro is located about eight miles outside of Tecoman, Colima, Mexico where we lived for three years. Even though we do not live there anymore, it is truly a joy to visit and know that we will always have roots there. It won't be long and I'll have the finished product to show you.

An Iguana with a message

My Iguana-friend here says I need to start speeding this up. In his spare time he enjoys eating the mangos that fall from the trees at Rancho Don Pedro. They're so yummy! My husband actually declared Rancho Don Pedro an "Iguana Sanctuary". He sure did. The workers kept catching them and eating them for lunch during their lunch break. Even though the green ones are more attractive than the black and white ones, there are also Iguanas that are almost gold. They are huge and massive and very territorial. When angry they will fight, hiss, and the spikes on their back will stand up. The neck will bulge and they can be a frightening sight. I have yet to get a good picture of a gold Iguana... someday.

Rancho Don Pedro gets a bath house

Needless to say, the house had been gutted and all structures given extra support even though it had been through major earthquakes and was still standing with no real damage. The building to the right was added... a bath house. The left side is for the ladies and the right for the men.

Progress on the house and pool

You can really see the progress on the pool and, of course, the house. That is my husband and the architect in on the porch.

The "Palapa"

A "palapa" is generally used for social events. Ours is made with a tile roof, which you will see in photos to come.

Our pool

The only way to really cool off in the hot Mexico temperatures is to take a dip in a pool. My husband loves to swim and we certainly wanted a pool for our guests. Our little granddaughter swims like a fish.

"Aquaducto"

My husband and I love the "aquaductos" that can be found in many of the old cities of Mexico. We decided that this would make a very special entrance to the entertaining area of Rancho Don Pedro. It is wired and piped for running water that we will have added at some point.. hopefully soon.

Another "before" picture at Rancho Don Pedro

I can't resist adding one more picture of the house at Rancho Don Pedro. I have to had it to my husband for being such a visionary. The structure was sound. It had been through a major earthquake, several small ones and many, many tremors. Watch as we changed this house into a place for fun, entertainment and business gatherings.

The Well

One of the greatest assets on Rancho Don Pedro is the historic well. When we took our architect out to the ranch to see what possibilities he saw, he could not get over the well. He felt sure that it would have been documented by the Mexican government as historical. There are actually steps that lead down into the well. Being the mother I am, the first thing I worried about were children falling in. This prompted a serious discussion about how to deal with the well. It was decided that it must have high walls and evenutally a grill of some sort over it. It might destroy the historical value, however, there would be many children at the ranch in the future and it was a serious concern. The well, is one of the first features when one walks onto the grounds.

Rancho Don Pedro

My husband decided that he wanted a place for the family and our young business partners to bring their families for fun and recreation. This was the place he chose. It would be a stretch of the imagination to turn this into an retreat, but slowly we did.

The first thing my husband did was name this "lovely" spot, Rancho Don Pedro, after his father who was called "Pete". (What Peterson is not called "Pete" at some point in their life? We warned our sons about this...)

Visit my site as often as you can to see how Rancho Don Pedro became a site for family parties, business meetings and even a wedding reception.

Super Starr, International

November 11, 2005 and this crop of honeydew was looking good! We had a good start and it was a very successful year for us. The re-organization was challenging but working. My husband, son and employees had years of experience to draw upon and that made the transistion as smooth as could have been hoped for. It had been a sad time watching the original company close, but the excitement of the new company lifted our spirits. A new adventure was at our doorstep and for that we were so grateful. A pioneer spirit was all that we needed, and that we had.

A little history

I've hopped across the border to my other life... wife of a man doing business in Mexico. I had no clue when my husband and I dreamed up this idea of doing this about twenty years ago how this would affect our lives forever. I eventually moved to Guadalajara, put our two younger sons in the American School, and drove three hours south to see my husband every weekend. He was busy starting a farm down there as part of a large farming operation that his family was a part of. Almost four years ago we, along with our oldest son, bought the Mexico division of this company. Again, we packed our bags and headed south... this time for three years. We are farmers. We grow honeydew, papaya, watermelon and have a small acreage of mangos. We have returned to our homebase in Texas, however, our son remains in Mexico running the production operation. More to come in the next "episode"...
-- We are located just south of Guadalajara and close to Manzanillo

Lance, Marcela, Carmen... Young David in a suit

I can hardly wait to see my son, his wife and their two children tomorrow. If you know where Manzanillo, Mexico is then you just about know where they live.

Leaving on a jet plane...

We will fly to Mexico on Thursday to see our oldest son and his little family. He is our business partner and a good one at that! We'll be back either Monday or Tuesday.
On June 25th we will fly to Lubbock, Texas to help our middle son and his wife and their two Great Danes with their drive to San Diego where they will live for one year. She is a dermatologist and will have a fellowship with a group of fantastic doctors. We are so happy for them!

Oh-oh... I've been tagged!

My friend on http://www.whitespraypaint.blogspot.com/ tagged me wanting to know 6 uninteresting facts about myself. ONLY six? Well, let's see...

1. Fall is my favorite time of the year and I am promising myself that this year I will decorate thoroughly and ease into Christmas decorating with huge success. Okay... so I am dreaming... but that's okay. I'm at least going to try.

2. I love, love, love genealogy and recording family history. Wish I was a scrapbooker but there has never been that sort of time to do it. My passion is collecting stories from the past. So glad my father's family were all such good letter writers.

3. Our deer lease "casa" is my favorite get-away. It is a duplex. It's not so rustic. We have cable tv and before too long we should have an internet connection. We have great friends who are out there nearly every weekend, so there is always great visiting.

4. I enjoy fixing up my home. The going has been extremely slow this year due to the loss of both of my parents last year. I'm trying to incorporate many of their beautiful things into my home, thus, in some cases changing some of the color themes. It's so nice to pick up an item that was displayed in their home and enjoy the memories.

5. I want to work on a schedule where I can stay home every day of the week except for two days. One day would be to get hair or nails done or do some grocery shopping. The other day would be for errands for my home and wardrobe. Another dream, I suppose...

6. I love to entertain but it makes me terribly nervous. I want to have a dinner party on my patio and use my Mexico memorabilia and recipes. I bought lots of Mexican table decor in Tlaquepaque. Ceviche would be high on the menu list. We have some coconut candies for sure. I'm flying down there this week so may want to pick up some fresh items. Wonder when I'll get around to hosting this party I keep dreaming about??

So that is me for now....