Our Day at the mayan ruins!

Pronounced Choo= non- nu- witch! So beautiful. The drive from where we were staying was about an hour away. Our tour van comes the side of the river and our guide Gabe says, "Okay get out." A little bewildered having no idea what to do we walk down and see this wooden raft with a cable attached to it coming toward us.

Just as we begin to noticed the one man standing on the raft working HARD to crank it toward us our guide drives our van down the hill on to this little raft. I'm thinking ... is that sturdy enough and then he yells hop on. :(

Adventuresome Ele, who later today will eat a live termite simply because the guide says it's good protein, hops right aboard and sticks his hand out like come on' honey jump. In the spirit of adventure I did and went right ahead without concern for safety drowning or things such as weight capacities since we are on this thing with a van and about 30 people. Again: One man hand cable crank... he must have some guns in those sleeves.

We get across the river pheew.... and get back in the van, drive a little way up the mountain and then begin to hike. Its absolutely beautiful and lush and green. I'm thinking I don't see any huge ruins, little beaten down used to be something here and there and then BAM! Turn the corner and there it is... now the climbing begins.



According to our guide Mayans were very short. i.e. like Ele's Lola and Armenia would be giants. These ruins have steep stairs to climb so that anyone who would ever climb them would have to go on hands an knees before the gods and the Shamans.

It's steep with no rails El says, "go on ahead honey I want to get a good picture of you up there." :0 aaaahhhhhh uh gee thanks for the nomination of going first sweetheart. I climb. He snaps a few pics and then joins me.
We made it all the way to the top. Wahoo! Its so beautiful from up there you can see the other ruins in the distance. According to our guide this was the central communication tower where they would take shiny rocks or gold and face them into the sun to create a glare and send light messages to the other Mayan temples.

And then now to get down....

Finally time to sit down and write a little bit. So much has transpired since our "moving day." Well first of all WE GOT MARRIED!!! wahoo I love this man... **** !!!! Then we went on our honeymoon!!!!! Wahoooooo!!!!!!!!! God is good and his plan for marriage is perfect! Came home from Belize and wouldn't you know we had one day to attempt to "settle in" and then it was Christmas Eve with his family until 3 am and then Christmas Day with my family. Then the 26th more family came to visit that had been spending time with my Grandparents in NorCal and came to spend a few days with us. I've got some cute pics from out trip to disneyland. My cousins first trip since they were 8& 5 years old. They're from Oklahoma and wanted to soak up some California fun and adventure. From then on it's been back to work, lovely dates here and there and working on the house. We went to The Melting Pot restaurant in Irvine. (Both of our first time) It was a lot of fun but would you know we didn't take a single picture even though we got dressed up and fabulous. I need to work on this. Maybe if I get an SLR it will motivate me to document our lives more efficiently... maybe :)... What do you think El will say...
Anyway here are a few pics from lovely Belize on our honeymoon.
This is our little hut complete with a grass roof and everything.
The place was so relaxing the first day we just relaxed and enjoyed hammocks and umbrella drinks! One thing I loved about Belize was the food. Ele and I both LOVE seafood. So a country on the Caribbean was a perfect choice for us. Staples for them are spiny lobster, shrimp, conch (mmmnnn conch curry so good!). One night we had the sea bass that our honeymooning friends had caught earlier that day on an excursion. This is spiny lobster cooked in a wine cream sauce, with an appetizer of ceviche. So good!

Moving Day: Tuesday November 20th

I never thought this day would come...moving into a new place, a place that Heather and I could call our own...even if it is only for a year. This truck, this ugly yellow truck as PJ would say, did its job.

We got a desk & a bed from Heather's parents & a bed. My parents gave us a dinning table and the dresser. It was very generous of them and for that we are grateful to God.

Elijah was so helpful that we rewarded him his own room.

Heather and Derrick, THE BOY COUSIN, messing around for the camera. Thanks again for the help. We praise God for you.

After we got everything in the house, we took PJ, Francis, Elijah, and Derrick to the petting farm at downtown San Juan Capistrano located by the mission.

There we saw and met new friends...

...Mr. Donkey...

Mr. Piggy, whom we found out that their names are...

Oreo is the black pig and the white one is Ruby! They had a ball in their play pen. Oreo would jump on top of it, smashing it, the would run around in a circle and then go back to the ball to smash it. Oreo did this a couple more times then started chasing around Ruby. Well, he tried. Ruby just stood her ground and they started to grunt at each other. After some more grunting they separated. Oreo went back to the ball and Ruby went back to the stack of hay to look pretty for her audience.

We then got hungry so we drove in traffic to go to Stonefire. Let's just say that this was worth the trip. We got the usual BBQ and Lemon Butter tri-tip and BBQ & lemon garlic chicken with Caesar salad and bread sticks. We spiced it up by adding a mesquite BBQ pizza, half tri-tip, half chicken. It was delicious! We were so hungry that we forgot to take pictures. Sorry...but if anyone wants to go, I found one in Costa Mesa off Broookhurst, west of the 405.

After that, we went for desert at Coldstone.


Heather, Elijah and I ended up sharing a strawberry blonde ice cream creation. We all had our own spoon. It was so tasty!



To recap...we had a great day of moving stuff into our home with the help of friends and family, followed by a fun time meeting new friends, to end it with dinner and desert. What a blessing to have fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to come to our aid. We are very grateful for their help and we know that God will repay them accordingly with his riches. Praise God for his grace and good times! We are looking forward now to settle in and eventually move in together. Only 20 more days to go...

We HAVE a house!!!

Well were leasing one... but praise God we have a place to live after we get married which is only in about 28 days! Ele's going to live there for now. We'll come up with better pictures These are our originals from our first walk through. The place is nice, safe, quiet and feels brand new! Ele loves the garage and backyard for barbequing but I love the tub and walk-in closet... priorities people... priorities!






We just found out that it is ours for the next year and we started moving in today. My productive little husband-to-be got busy and got the water, electric and cable all set-up before I even got home from Anthropologie. (I like saying that "Home" :) we have a home to come "home" to )

We were pretty tired after getting some of our things moved in after busy work day for Ele and wedding preparations for me; so once we had unloaded we decided to go out to treat ourselves to dinner. This decision to go out was secondary to the fact that our electricity will not be in effect until Wensday and we only had one flashlight. Otherwise we were considering pizza or something take-out from the Farmer's Market down the street by candlelight on the kitchen floor. Romantic huh? would be if we had candles... no so much though with just a flashlight... not exactly the right ambiance we were going for. We headed out to explore our new town some more.

Well what do you know there is a mall five minutes up the street from our new house! Uh oh trouble Nordstroms is the first store on the left.... :0
We had yummy PF Changs we shared the crab wontons with plum sauce, and then I ordered the Kung Pao Scallops and Ele had the Orange Peel Beef. But as always we just shared everything and it was absolutely delicous.

I really praise God for our safe place to live. I had concerns about securing a place in such a short time after Ele came home from Iraq and when we actually were to get married. I'm so happy God knew that I needed him to come home sooner. Just goes to show you that he knows the desires of our hearts.

FYI Please pray for the rest of Ele's squadron they are coming home this Sunday. Pray for a safe return and travel of these men and women. He was sent home early because of leadership and good behavior to set up the shop and get everything ready for the rest of the guys when they get here. SO GLAD HE'S HOME and that they are beginning to see in him what I see everyday.

Details for our Wedding Guests

This is our wedding web page. Click on the link below to find out information on when, where, and other important details pertaining to our special day.

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/HeatherLinder&EleazarNepomuceno

Love Eleazar and Heather

It's True! He's home! Early and Safe!

So Ele called me on Monday mid day I was sleeping (or least trying to) before going to work that night. He seemed extraordinarily happy. I could figure out why. I told him the woes of wedding planning without him and how much I loved him and wished he were here. We talked for a bit and then he told me his time was up and he had to go...

Went to work... ordinary night... nothing eventfull... no one coded... had some interesting patients.

Came home mom was giving me a list of things to do for the day we were on #5 when she started hyperventilating. I knew she had seen something outside because I saw her look out there before she started breathing so hard. I had never seen this strong of a reaction from her by the impression I got from her I thought it was an axe murderer or somthing. I turned around to look and nothing was there.

Suddenly there was knock on the door and she ran to open it. I had no idea what was going on. The door opened and there he was with a big smile. I could not breathe, and then I started crying which made it even harder to breathe. There were hugs and smooches exchanged, but I was in such shock and still could not breathe.

I'm breathing now. I still look at him sometimes and wonder if I'm dreaming or not. I'm not though it's such a blessing he's really here.

We've just been enjoying one another company. Getting things done and having a blast spending time together. We'll make our way around to see as many as we can or we'll see you all at church and others possibly on the 21rst.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support. I'll post pics of his arrival when I figure out how to work our new photoshop system.

Whahoooooooooooo!

stress and decisions

Please pray for me and the plans God has for our future little family so many things need to get done within the next month or so and it's all starting to pile up.

Ele should be home in 33-37 days and I'm excited but I'm trying to get everything done before then so that when he comes home we can just relax and enjoy one another's company.

... I miss him I wish he was here to walk beside me in all of this and lend his ears, shoulders and hugs. :(