I'm getting married!!!!

Some of you may have received this picture in an e-mail. If you did not get it than I guess I do not have your e-mail. You should send it to me. smaestas at gmail. :) Wow!! I'm getting married!! I continue to bounce up and down and smile like...I dont know. I am not poetic in the least but here is one of those times I wish I was! Heehee! I am soooo excited! Soooooo happy! Sooooo thrilled! Sooo dorky looking I am sure! But I dont care!!

Well ya'll I hope that everyone is having a wonderful week and will have an awesome day!! Mama you should let us know how the kiln load looks! I am sure that your creations are wonderful! Enjoy the sun! I love you all!!!!
~~~Suz

A new son

Zan said her computer wasn't working this morning so I thought I would get on and share my good news.....I am going to have another son.....ok, son-in-law, but still.......another memeber to our family! and he has weathered some uncles on the Maestas side of the family and he has already spent time with Doug and Kyle, so I think he may stick around for awhile!!! Suzanne is very happy....good thing, and Mike is sick.....I don't think there is any connection! I am rather pleased myself....not that Mike is sick, but that they are engaged.....I was pleased before with them just being a strong couple, so I guess I am just still pleased. Anyone follow that???? I am fairly sure Pam did. I am not sure how you younger ones work. We are more on the line of James Joyce...no periods or connected thought....actually it is connected, but not like you might think and certainly not always in an obvious way. At anyrate....it is a beautiful day today here....bright, beautiful New Mexico Blue skies....I think it is an actual color. Its not that the sky is just blue, it is actually New Mexico Blue!! The sun feels warm, a few crocus are up.....I feel good in the words of the legendary James Brown!! It has been way too long a winter....I feel giddy! And I get to peek inside my kiln this afternoon!!! AWESOME!!!!!!!!! HOpe all of you have felt some Spring today and have a smile on your face. Life is good.....tough a lot of the time, but oh, so good. Thanks for being part of the family you all....you all are great...and the young ones comin' up! What can I say, talent, smarts, good looks (obvious what you all have gotten from US!!)....I think we need a family get together! Take care....laugh alittle....throw your arms back and drink in the sun!! Love you all....Cindy/mom/ Aunt/sister/just general all around great woman!!! yep, I feel good!!

Canada continued

We came back from Canada to nice warm temperatures. I miss the cold and the snow but it was nice to be back in flip flops instead of my heavy hiking boots!

I downhill skied two days and spent a 3rd day on cross country skis (my preference). I spent a couple days walking around cute mountain towns and drinking tea! We saw elk , white tail deer, and little white bunnies but no moose! I was sad about that! We explored hot springs but no one would actually get in one. There was a place we could go and swim/soak in the hot springs and they would rent you a early 1900s swimsuit too! It sounded cool! The others I was with whined about the sulfur smell. Apparently the smell out weighed the novelty. Oh well something for Mike and I to do another time. We ate a very nice dinner at the Maple Leaf in Banff on a recommendation from Linda and Kyle! It was amazing food! I got Alaska King Crab!!!! YUMYUM!!! The last night we were there one of my friends (a classical violinist) convinced use to go to a classical music performance in Banff. We listened to a quartet (cello, violins, and piano), solo cello, and a dulcimer. It was a nice night out.

Not too many nature pictures were taken as it was cloudy and snowy the entire time. The mountains looked beautiful but we could not capture it on film. There are a handful of pictures on Mike's smugmug account if you would like to take a look. If you cant get there let me know and I will email you information about how to access the account. Mike is weary about me putting the link on this site so.....

I hope that everyone is doing well! Let us know what is happening out there! It has been very quiet on the blog lately!
Love you all
~~~Suz

Canada, aye

Greetings from Canmore, AB
Hello family! I am in Canada on holiday for the week! :) I came up with 6 friends including Mike. It is so incredibly beautiful!!! I spent Sunday all by myself while the others went skiing! It was just what I needed. I started reading a book, watched a girly movie, drank a pot of tea, took a long walk along the frozen river and into town looking at the shops in the quaint town, and enjoyed a wonderful lunch looking out onto the mountains covered in snow!! It was so nice to spend the day alone exploring the town. I was a bit bummed when the group came back and it was loud. But this is a group trip not an individual one so solitude will not be found again. It is a good thing that for the most part everyone gets along!
Today was my first day downhill skiing since I was in 8th grade and I had a superduper wonderful day! I will not wait another 20ish years to get back up on a mountain! Mike bought me full day lessons for Valentine's day! Isnt he wonderful!!!! :) There was me and one man from Sydney, Aus. in the group lesson! It was very nice! very personal and we got more in the lesson than normal. The instructor was so sweet and had so much patience! She took us to the top on the mountain and went down some slightly more advanced runs. It was a much better and different experience than my last one! The goal now is to ski two more days if the weather and my legs allow!
I hope that everyone is well. I will write about my adventures as I have them as long as the internet connection behaves! Cheers!
~~~Suz

Here is a quick pic of Grandma's new puppy, Bella Sprenkle. She sure is cute! She is now sporting one dachund ear and one Chihuahua ear and just FYI, the she has her own little snuggle quilt that Grandma made just for her. Will post more pictures later along with some pictures of Teresas new kitty, Buddy. All for now. Love to all.

semester

Hello to all
Just getting back into the semester here. Im taking some really exellent classes this semester, but there really reading and paper intensive. Im taking four classes, 'Doing Feminist Research', Feminist Theory, Interrogating Global Economic 'Development', and 'Sex Change City, Theorizing history in Genderqueer San Francisco'. Im really excited about 'sex change city' because its taught by Susan Stryker, an emmy award winning transgender historian who made a really great film called 'screeming queens' about the compton riots in San Francisco to protest harrisment and violnece against the LGBTTIQQA (and I would say P) community. anywho, she is absolutly amazing and is in the process of helping me get an internship at the Transgender Law center in the city for this semester, Im really exciting and hopefully that will open up some options for next year (jobs or paid internships). Umm lets see, Im starting to write a paper on the disproportionate media coverage of female physical violence (ie Abu Ghraib). Im really excited about my fem theory class becuase were reading only books and article that have been published by feminist theorist here at berkeley...so its really neat to make that connection and meet these amazing people. as many of you might have heard, I severly hurt my ankle about a month ago, running and tripping on a curb, and was in a cast for 10 days then in a walking boot for 2 weeks, and they were considering doing surgery and putting in a pin for 12 weeks but the muscles started to heal enough that they opted not to (thank god) but that is still healing and still swollen and hurts at times. Im going home next week well the 13th for 6 days to visit and get away from school, since I dont know what will happen after graduation. Im trying to plan a trip back east for spring break to visit Harvard, Colombia, NYU, and maybe Georgetown for grad and law schools. Sarkis has relatives in New york (or maybe its new jersey) and Boston...so should I might be hitting you up aimee if we can pack in three cities in about 10 days!!!!. would love to come see you and sarah though!. Also am hoping to go to Europe after graduation, of course my dream would be getting a world ticket and spending the next year traveling and backpacking whenever and whereever I want to. ok I think ive gone on long enough..aunt cindy, this should keep you busy for a few days! LOL JK....ohh Suz, amy lost mikes email so if you can email it to me, nykkifoster@gmail.com or nykki@berkeley.edu. ohhhh and I saw three very desterbing things reciently. 1. Jesus camp (a documentary on the christain movement) 2. Al Gore's 'an inconvient truth' (another documentary) and 3. articles on the new 'real ID' Bill that puts micro trips into the id that can be read via radio frequencies and has be capability to do all this horrible stuff...you can youtube it for a video on it, and the first two you can watch free on Throwawayyourtv.com

my love to all

in peace,
Nicole