GONZALES FAMILY UPDATE

Well, the Gonzales Family has started the New Year off with a BANG!

New Year's Eve we were busy getting things ready for our little New Year's Day Dinner Gathering. Sandy and I went to the Vallarta Supermarket to do some shopping with the gift card that Lucy gave me. (I spent less than $50 out of the $100 on the card).

When we got back to the house we made Pork Tamales.

We stayed up watching Eagle Eye until midnight (paused the movie) jumped around like crazy people in the front yard and honked the car horns!!!!!! We finished the movie and went to bed around 1:30 a.m.

New Year's Day was spent preparing the rest of the food and cleaning. As the day progressed, there were more and more people invited to spend the evening with us. We had Bishop Lovestedt and his family; Manuel Lara (Stake YM Presidency) and his family; Wayne Hotchkiss (Elder's Quorum President) and his wife Karen; and Sandy and her family. Andy Nakai made a cameo appearance and apparently fell asleep in his car and left at the crack of dawn this morning.

Victor was traveling to El Monte this morning when his work truck blew a tire and he slammed into the center divider; totalling his work truck. As usual Victor left the scene nearly unscathed. He was thrown around in the cab of the truck because he didn't have his seatbelt on - but he claims that he had an iron grip on the steering wheel. Victor is still the 1st conselor in the YM Presidency. He continues to add various animals to the "gonzales farm" We have two new Road Island Red Hen and two new roasting hens (still babies). He will be traveling to Bakersfield tomorrow morning to pick up another pig. Victor had his second set of blood panels done and he has lowered his triglicerides from 4500+ to 451. Major improvement.

I have been called as the Activities Day Leader and the Primary Pianist. I am really excited about both. The previous leader has not done anything to help the girls earn their Faith in God and the Primary President told me Tuesday that I will have to start from scratch. This is going to be fun. I had oral surgery on Tuesday before Christmas and have just finished taking my antibiotics and the last of my vicodine. My face was so swollen on Wednesday I was releave that I had decided to take that day off. Today is the first day that my face looked normal. Monday I go back to the OB/GYN for my follow-up visit and will probably have another procedure to confirm that the abnormal cells have not returned.

Devlyn has moved back with her husband, Drew, and living at his parent's house.

Elliott is currently unemployed and going to school full-time. I think I am going to try to talk to him about going on a mission. I feel that he is more receptive than he was a year ago.

Vincent is huge and is attending another High School during his Senior Year and will be graduating this summer. He is still trying to decide exactly what he wants to be when he grows up.

Alex spends almost every weekend with us and loves it when we go to Barnes and Noble on Friday nights.

Evan is trying to be the tallest in the family. He is almost as tall as me. He is definitely taller than Alex. Evan is working on his science fair project with Aislyn.

Aislyn is taller than Alex too. She will be participating in the Activity Days and will be turning 12 this year; going into YW's. Aislyn also had oral surgery the Tuesday before Christmas. She had two molars removed. Her recovering was smooth. She needs to return for consultation with the orthodontist about moving teeth into place. Normally they would shift the teeth forward and move the wisdom teeth to fill in the space. Aislyn does not have any wisdom teeth on the bottom. So, the options could be to put spacers in while her teeth are still forming and putting braces in to keep the other teeth from moving out of place. This could prove to be very interesting...

Allisa is stretching out again. I don't think she will be as tall as Aislyn but she will be tall. She is doing well in school and her teacher thinks she is the best. He says that she is always cheerful and helpful. Allisa will probably be seeing an orthodontist in the next year or so.