2 Brothers and a Sister

I have two brothers, Ken who lives in Colorado and Phil who lives in Wisconsin.  When we grew up, we had very little other then our parents in common mostly because they are 'several' years older then I.  As the years have passed, we started growing little by little closer together, where today, not only are they my brothers, they are my friends.   I now like hanging out with them, sharing dreams and ideas with each of them. 

Ken & Ruth arrived Jan. 3rd and stayed until Feb. 5th.
Phil & Charla arrived Jan. 25th and will be here until Feb. 23rd.

My brothers and I!

The Italian came out in me tonight and made my best ever Spaghetti Bolognese.

Great memories of my brothers and I.



El Qulite for lunch

Ruth taking her break from walking all around.

All about peace!  

Ken & Joel hanging out.

Joel tequila tasting  from the jug!

Tres Hermanos Tequila Sipping

Phil preparing his chili for the winning recipe  for the Super Bowl party.

Janice preparing her chili recipe for the Chili Cook-off

Family dinner celebrating Ruth, Phil & Joel's birthdays

Celebrating Ruth's 72nd Birthday at El Aljibe

Celebrating Phil's 70th Birthday with his favorite Banana Pie at El Aljibe

 

 Super Bowl & Chili Cook-Off party and we gathered around the tv to see the exciting game and enjoyed a variety of chili, corn bread, appetizers and we enjoyed a great birthday cake brought in by Dennis for Sandy's birthday the next day.

Spanish Coffee
Prepared Table Side












 

There were plenty reasons to celebrate with each other and this evening I found myself with a Spanish Coffee and both of my brothers ordered Irish Coffees with a Mexican spin.  Ken and Ruth were to leave the next day for Colorado and we toasted a great time with the 6 of us before they took off.

Phil & Charla
Breakfast crepes with Smoked Bacon and notice the tulips (Charla's favorite)
Feb. 6th, 48th  Anniversary

While they were here, Carnaval was also in full swing. The previous post has all the pictures of that event.

We've celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, good health, beautiful view, magnificant sunsets, a win or two at Mexican Train Dominoes, you name it, we celebrate it.  Phil also had the experience of driving our van a few times here in Mazatlan, although with some trepidation. He did a great job and one certaily learns their way around a new city by putting them behind the wheel. Now I don't know if it was because of this experience of driving or just that margaritas taste much better here in Mazatlan but Phil even knows now how to make a perfect margarita.  He's had enough practice, so he better know how, right?

 

We've been to so many restaurants in the last 2 months that we've really done a fantastic job supporting our local economy. Most meals have been great, and there have been a few that now we would never reccomend again unfortunately.  We are sorry, but they've missed the mark.  However, for those very few, there are many many more that do rise to the occasion.  In a later post, we will share what some of our favorites are and why.

 

While my brothers and wives were here, we have made a plan, thanks to my brother Phil and wife Charla, to have a family cruise in September to Alaska from Vancouver, BC, Canada.   It will be a week long cruise with an additional tour on a train to Denali ending up in Fairbanks.

 

Phil and Charla have stayed with us, while Ken and Ruth rented a condo about 1 1/2 miles north of us.  While Ken and Ruth were here, they were here many times where the 6 of us were together, or we all jumped in our van and went for drives, shopping, or of course out to eat again.  With Phil and Charla staying here, that gave Phil and I many chances to have some great conversations on many subjects.  It has been a great time together that we will both cherish as long as our fading memories will allow.  Our little Ollie loved his snuggle times with Charla. She has a very tender heart toward him and gave him lot's of affection.  A dog can never get too much of that.

 

Tomorrow we take Phil and Charla to the airport and say good-bye to them until September.  For me, their younger sister, it has been a very special time which I will think back on fondly and be thankful to not only my husband for agreeing to have family stay here for this amount of time, but also to both my sister-in-laws for sharing their time and their husbands with me. Somehow I believe that they also enjoyed themselves and were able to enjoy our pace of life, but like Joel and I, they all will be glad to get back to each of their "normal". 

 

Here's to Health & Happiness,

Janice & Joel

and Ollie too!

I Choose to Live ~ A note to well-meaning friends and family!

A note to well meaning friends and family;

As many of you know I had a stroke 1 1/2 years ago and had an operation 10 months ago that allowed me to walk without a limp.

Over this time people who know and love me and want nothing but good for me have made suggestions that I have decided to reject. I have started to run again and am now running five miles, albeit slowly, three times a week. Some people who care about me have suggested I don't run again as it was old running injuries that put me walking with a cane and finally needing an operation where three joints were fused, some bone was taken from my tibia and three pins were placed in my ankle. I have listened to everyone, but my goal is to run another Marathon. My Dr. is amazed, but also is cautiously supportive.

The other advice I am going to reject is that I shouldn't do things like scuba diving and climbing on pyramids because I have had a stroke. Fortunately, I didn't receive this advice until I had already gone scuba diving twice and climbed up the pyramid at Coba. Had I received this advice prior to these adventures, I may not have gone or been worried while participating in these adventures and not had the extreme pleasure of doing something I've never before done.

I turn 66 less than two weeks away. I have decided I am not going to live life as an invalid for as many years as possible and I will not live in fear. I choose to live life with vigor and spare my wife the care of having to nurse a grown man. I am going to enjoy my time on Earth enjoying my time with my wife, enjoying visits with my friends over cold cerveza, (Lite due to Dr's advice) and continuing to seek out new experiences.

To my many good friends and family members; I value your advice and concern, but I plan to continue to do things that make you question my sanity. This is who I am and, I love you all. Be happy for me that I live this life of adventure and will not be held back from the goals in my life.
Joel, i.e. Ducky

Carnaval in Mazatlan ~ 2013

Carnaval started for us unofficially January 19th with the Cats n' Jammer Jazz Mardi Gras night.  Joel is out of town right now so it was just me at this event.  We've not missed it for 3 years in a row.  Saturday night however my friend Nadine agreed to be my date. Thanks Nadine. We did have fun!

February 7 - 12 will bring Mazatlan's annual Carnaval event. Big, Beautiful and Befitting of a new queen. Each year a new queen is voted in. It is a international event including the participation of the Queens from Central and South America and the United States adds to the international flavor of the Carnival festivities. The visiting beauties participate in the spectacular Carnival parades, and also compete for the title of Pacific International Queen.

We live right on the parade route and host a Carnaval party at our place. Our guests will be able to see the parade up close and personal. This highly-anticipated event of Carnival is the carriage float (or "allegorical" carriages) parade, which takes place on Sunday. The waterfront is somehow transformed into a sea of thousands from all over. Mazatleco families and visitors gathering to enjoy the parade of fantasies. This is the first of two parades. The second one follows on Tuesday also in front of our condo. We've not seen this one yet, so it will be fun to see the difference between the two.

Another one of the traditions of Carnaval is the Naval Combat ."On Saturday evening the harbor skies will glow with stunning fireworks displays, the air filled with the sights and sounds of the laser show, Naval Combat, a re-creation of the harbor's successful defense against French invasion by Mexican forces. The pyrotechnic bangs and shots simulate cannonades exchanged over sea and land during the battle between the Mazatlecos and the French man-of-war, "Le Cordeliere." "
[taken from Go Mazatlan] Please go to http://tinyurl.com/Go-Mazatlan to see some of the beautiful pictures of past Carnavals.

The Malecon [where we live] is being adorned with lights stringing for miles. At night time it is wonderful to see these all lit. Also erected on the malecon are 10 of what's called monigotes which means puppets and are actually very tall statues. The theme for 2013 is La Linterna Mágica, The Magic Lantern and the malecon has these very tall, 20+ foot statues of famous film stars of the past. As my brother Ken and my s-i-l Ruth and I were riding around yesterday my brother snapped a picture of these monigotes/statues to post here.  Not easy to do in traffic.

Next year, maybe you will think about visiting Mazatlan for this exiting and historical event. Until next time, La Vida Es Buena!

..and the beautiful
Marilyn Monroe

RUMBERA

TIN TAN

CHARLIE CHAPLIN

EL PADRINO

CANTIFLAS

MARCEL MARCEAU

EL TORITO

MARILYN DIETRICH

EL SANTO

AL JOLSON

Memories of Cosmetology School

Back in the late 1970's I [Janice] decided I needed a skill to help supplement the family income and give me something to do while the young children were in school.  I didn't want to spend a lot of time going to college and wanted to pick up on something quickly to bring additional money into the home.  Since I was a young girl, I started playing around with my own hair, and I'd fix neighbors hair. I'm not sure now what it looked like, but I liked it.  I can remember the first time I colored my hair, yes in 6th grade. My parents were off on a full day trip and I decided to use my mother's hair color and color my own hair. Mind you I was a blonde and mom was a brunette. My sister-in-law 'to be' at that time immediately called her girlfriend when she saw me and they tried to "fixed" my hair. I'm sure it looked terrible after I colored it, and then they tried to color correct it. Well you can imagine the surprise when my parents came home and saw my hair.
That wasn't the last time by any stretch of imagination. Why wasn't I satisfied with blonde hair? There are women that spend thousands of dollars every year to have their hair colored the way mine was. But by the time I graduated high school I was back to being a blonde. After I got married and had a couple daughters and one son, I played beauty shop with them also, so it wasn't any surprise when I thought what I wanted to do when I 'grew up' that I'd go to cosmetology school. I won't boar you with all that I learned in school and cut right to the chase about what prompted this particular blog.
Tonight I am going to our local Mardi Gras dinner/dance/jazz and this morning I colored my hair a beautiful shade of red. Earlier in the week I also cut my hair, however I've had the flu this week and did not feel like styling it so I called for an appointment and had my hair washed and style by this lovely young Mexican gal who speaks no English and I speak very little Spanish. At least not enough to tell her what I want and don't want. She proceeds to wash, towel dry, mouse it up, blow it dry and then use a curling iron on my hair. Once she is finished with that, she takes a teasing comb and teases my short, fine, thin hair where all you see are little strands of red hair sticking straight up. If that isn't enough, she sprays it with hair spray and begins to 'pick out' my hair into a style. My head is bobbing from side to side with every pick of the comb since there is so much spray in it and this hair that is teased down starts coming out. I think I must have lost 100 more strands of my already thin hair. All the while smiling [I'm sure she is thinking I like what she is doing] as I'm recalling learning the exact same thing in cosmetology school when I was in my 20's on old ladies that had blue hair. Tease the heck out of it, because we new it would be like that until the next week when they came in again. I saw myself as one of those old ladies, only with red hair, and guessed she must have recently gotten out of school for the same thing. I get one more thorough shot of hair spray and I'm on my way. 

 

Follow up to the story.  Mardi Gras was a blast.  Joel is down visiting his cousin in the Yucatan Pennisula and so I went with very good friends and danced the night away.  There were so many of us ladies on the dance floor having such a great time. 

Wonderful women friends! Thanks all for a great night for this

Red Head gone wild.

Christmas Greetings from the Whitakers, 2012

We take this time to tell all of you how much we care about each of you and what you have meant in our lives. Following is a little photo journal of our year. Have some great times this season with those you love and may your New Year bring health, happiness and much success!

Merry Christmas from Joel and Janice

Our lovely view from our Ivory Towers
here in Mazatlan!

December 2011

Our first company of the year was my 

brother Phil

and our sister-in-law Charla.

April

Post surgery for Joel's ankle. Almost 9 months later and the scar is very faint and better yet, no more cane, Joel walks miles everyday and occasionally runs a bit.

March

We took a 3 - week driving trip to San Miguel Allende and had a lovely time see more Mexican history and for Janice a lot of art.

June 

Bruce, Jackie and kids arrive for a week in June to visit from Seattle area.

 Jackie, her son Jelani came for a week and treated them to fun in the sun in Mazatlan in June and then Jordyn stayed for an 
additional 4 weeks.

June - July
Our granddaughter Jordyn came to visit
for 5 weeks after school let out.

June - July
At the same time, our grandson Kenny
visited us here for the 5 weeks.

                July
My daughter, Joanne, surprised her son Kenny and me with a visit for a week. Here, Joanne, Jordyn and I get ready for the 4th of July with pedicures.    

Joel treated Bruce, Jelani and Kenny out to a full day fishing trip, where they caught many fish of various types. 
*only 2 got sea sick

Aug. - Oct. 
Janice sitting on one of the many mosaics
along the shore of Lake Chapala.

Joel's daily job. Getting enough
r & r by our
pool in Ajijic this summer.

 Again, one of the beautiful scenes from Lake
Chapala, our home away from home this summer.

November
Janice in Spokane for Thanksgiving 
with some of the family.


Take care,
With love,
Joel, Janice and our little Ollie!