Happy Birthday, Joanna! And the USA!

Happy Birthday, Joanna!

You should read about Joanna on my blog.  Here is a link to some of the posts:
https://jocastilloartblog.blogspot.com/search?q=joanna

I will copy part of the birthday post from 2009:

It is Joanna's birthday today. Happy Birthday, Joanna!

Does it fall to the oldest to be the responsible, caretaker child? Joanna has been the person we call on for taking care of our house, money, other children, etc. She took care of Jennie during Jennie's Junior and Senior year of high school and our house. And much, much more. She takes care of friends and co-workers, too.

She is our tech support and adviser in our computer world. We started out with hand me down computers from Joanna. We can complete each others sentences. I can't say enough good things about her.

Here are all the kiddos in Bolivia, just a few years ago.  Ha.  David, Larry, Joanna and Jennie.

We all love Joanna.  We will see her and celebrate with a brisket lunch after while.

Happy, Happy Birthday!

Also to Cody and Jerry.......(cousins)

Happy Independence day to the good old USA!  So proud to be an American!!  Thanks to those that keep us free!

 

Home Front 

Pastel, 11 x 14 on Pastelbord

Happy Birthday, Joanna! Happy Independence Day, USA!

I have posted about Joanna and her birthday a few times.  You can look back at some memories here.

https://jocastilloartblog.blogspot.com/search?q=Happy+birthday+Joanna

You can see in those memories that I love the photo of Joanna at about 1 year old.

Gene and I cannot say enough good things about Joanna.  She has watched out for us ... all of us since she was small.  She is the adult in our family.  She is smart, caring and a loving person.  She has a great birthday date, too!

Jo, Jennie, Joanna

Joanna

Jo, Gene, Joanna

Joanna and Larry will be here today for her birthday.  We won't celebrate her day with cake and all until next weekend.  Jennie and Brandon can't be here.  It is getting to be a habit to celebrate birthdays whenever we can.  A good part of that is the celebrations are extended. 

Happy Birthday to Cody and Jerry!  Nephews that celebrate today as well.

Happy Birthday to the USA!! I'm proud to be an American!

Happy Birthday, Joanna!

It is Joanna's birthday. We won't say how many.

Happy Birthday, Joanna!

We celebrated  on Sunday.  We went to lunch at the Texican http://texicancafe.com/ , where they serve a flat enchilada with an egg on top.   It is the only place we have found even close to New Mexico style.   Then Joanna, Gene and I were off to Strange Brew http://www.strangebrewaustin.com/ to listen to George Ensley.  They have a good room for music and coffee shop food.  They have gluten free bread and snacks.  Yay!  Super show. 

It was fun to get together with the "kids".  Age is creeping up on all of us.  You will find other posts with photos of Joanna as a youngster, etc., if you put Joanna in the search box top left of my blog.

Jennie and Joanna took this selfie of us.  Brandon, Larry Gene, Jennie, Jo and Joanna.  It was a good time. 

The Fourth is a birthday of two nephews as well.  Happy Birthday to Cody and to Jerry!!

I hope your Fourth of July is lots of fun and a good celebration of our grand old country!!  Happy Birthday USA, too!!

Happy Birthday Joanna and Happy Fourth of July to the rest!

Happy Birthday Joanna!

Joanna, a little over a year old.

Happy Birthday to our nephews, Jerry Rawdon and Cody Castillo as well.

We talked to Joanna to say Happy Birthday a short time ago and I realized I hadn't put up a post for her birthday. It is such a special day for us as Joanna is the first born. She will be out later to have a little more celebration and help us get ready for our trip. We had her big party last Saturday as Larry couldn't be here today.

Joanna is our right hand when we are away from home. She has taken care of our house since 1989 when we went to Bolivia the last time. She went through a lot with the homeowners association where we lived in Austin. She is a caregiver and takes care of all us old folks! We love her and hope she has a super day!

Happy Fourth of July!

Hope all of you have a great day and remember how wonderful our country is and thank all the troops, policemen, firemen and others who put their lives on the line for all of us every day so we can let freedom ring.







Jennie loves to come to Bastrop for the fireworks. They have them here either before or after the fourth so that the Austin Symphonic Band can come play. This year it is on the fifth and we will be gone. So here are a few memories for Jennie. Joanna is posting some photos, too, check them out.

Happy Birthday, Joanna!! And, Happy Independence Day to All.

Happy Birthday, Joanna!  Sorry not to be with you.  I hope the day is super nice and you have a good year, old as you are.  Hmmm.

I don't think I have any new photos of Joanna so will post the Thanksgiving photo of the six of us.  You can look back at my blog and read more about Joanna.

Joanna, David,
Larry, Gene, Jo and Jennie

I like this photo so will post it again.  Joanna was about a year old.  Such a sweet baby.

Happy Birthday Joanna!!

We will miss being with you today!!

We usually go to the fireworks in Bastrop to celebrate.  This was last year.

The Austin Symphonic Orchestra performs, an annual tradition.  Some of the younger folks having fun with some listening and dancing.

And a few fireworks!!  Happy Independence Day!

Happy Birthday, Joanna!!

It is Joanna's birthday today. Happy Birthday, Joanna!

Does it fall to the oldest to be the responsible, caretaker child? Joanna has been the person we call on for taking care of our house, money, other children, etc. She took care of Jennie during Jennie's Junior and Senior year of high school and our house. And much, much more. She takes care of friends and co-workers, too.

She is our tech support and adviser in our computer world. We started out with hand me down computers from Joanna. We can complete each others sentences. I can't say enough good things about her.

She is also a great photographer as a hobby. One of my favorite photos is one she took here in the back yard when we first moved here, so that is about 12 years ago, right? How time flies.

Our Backyard
Photo and copyright, Joanna.

You can see a baby photo and some fireworks from her birthday last year. Another thing that is fun is go to her home page and click on her photo on the upper left of her page. I love it! And, I love Joanna! I hope her day is so special.

P. S. It is also Cody Castillo's birthday and Jerry Rawdon's birthday, a couple of nephews in the family. I hope they have good birthdays as well. Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Joanna!

Happy Birthday, Joanna!

Your Dad and I hope you have a great birthday!

I love this picture when she was just over a year old. Luckily I scanned it and posted for her birthday a few years ago.  Everyone says she was one of the few babies that was pretty when she was born.  Yes, not just the mother talking either.

We don't have too many pictures anymore.  She doesn't care to have her photo taken (takes after her mother) and is always behind the camera taking our photos.

Joanna near Magdalena on the Augustine Plains in New Mexico.

Larry, Jennie and Joanna near Red River in New Mexico.

We had a good time when the three of them came to see us in Angel Fire.  David and Lisa came out a few days before.  We just couldn't get them all there at the same time.  We will take what we can get.  Ha!

If you have been around my blog for a while you will know how much Joanna means to us and how we all depend on her.  You can put "Joanna" in the search box, upper left, and discover more about her.  She is mentioned in many posts.

Happy Birthday to Jerry and Cody our nephews, too!   We have a bunch of firecrackers!

For you others out there, Happy Fourth of July! 

Happy Birthday, Joanna!

Happy Birthday, Joanna! I hope you have a great day! We will see you and Larry at dinner. A good plan, don't you think?

We are always rushing around for Joanna's birthday. Some of her birthdays are spent here and we go to the fireworks. We hardly ever get to actually see her on her day. This year will be special!

You can read more about Joanna and her birthdays starting with last year's post.

I don't think I've ever posted this photo of Joanna and Gene at her graduation in Chile. We won't say how long ago that was.

Joanna is always taking care of us old folks and we do appreciate her TLC. We love you, Joanna!


(Previous post for 4th of July..Have a Happy Fourth, all!)

Back Home Sketches- Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day!

Jennie and Brandon brought the balloon and Joanna put my glitter on the mailbox.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOANNA!!!

We made it back to our home on Saturday afternoon.

I drew in the big sketchbook with the Micron 01 on July 2 and 3.  Wonder why it always feels like we haven't been gone?

For Scavenger Hunt 502
http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1430029

Number 1, door
Number 2, bottle - wine bottle with Bolivian topper, very bright colors.

When we got back on Saturday evening, we went to the fireworks with Joanna, Jennie and Brandon.  Larry was working out east Texas someplace.  Bet he was hot and tired, taking photos of Little League and not sure what else.

Some of my iPhone photos put together.  I have an old phone, before the fancy cameras, not too bad.

It was a pleasant evening at Fisherman's Park.  Bastrop holds the fireworks on a separate day from the 4th so that the Austin Symphonic Band will come play.  They play patriotic tunes and show tunes for an hour before the fireworks start.  The city provided so much more to do all day.  Games, a water slide, lots of food and entertainment.  The local businesses sponsor the day, with the HEB Grocery store being the largest sponsor.  Very nice for a small town.  The beautiful fireworks last about 15 - 20 minutes.

You can see a fun time lapse on Joanna's Instagram here:  https://instagram.com/p/BWC0ULTAnkH/

This is where you come on to Highway 60 in Clovis, New Mexico, from Texas when we go through Lubbock.  We have been through there umpteen times!

The Colorado mountains just before we got to Walden.

Typical views after you leave the mountains.  I think they are Wyoming, Texas and Oklahoma respectfully.

 A mine and coal train just outside of Gillette, Wyoming.

I think this was in Texas, but I didn't check...... just picked a photo of the many I took.

The girls on the horses are my cousin, Pat's, granddaughters.  They practice breakaway roping, pole bending and barrel racing.  They are very good at it considering they are 8 and 12 years old.  They can really ride and love their rodeo life.  It takes lots of time practicing and caring for their horses and other livestock.  We watched for two evenings.  Applause to them, Lilly and Helen!!  This is in Gruver, Texas, about as far north as you can get in the Texas panhandle.

Our first summer trip covered nine large states.  We spent an overnight in Texas, both coming and going.  We tried to keep driving to under 5 hours a day.  Our first day out to Lubbock was the longest.  It is good to be home.  Tomorrow (July 4)  is Joanna's birthday and two nephews, Cody and Jerry.  Happy Birthday all!  And Happy Birthday to the good old USA!!

Happy Birthday again, Joanna

I wrote Joanna's birthday post earlier and stayed up to post it at 1200 midnight for her birthday today. Blogger put it at the time I wrote it so it is dated July 3 and is not my latest post. Irritating!!!!! Please scroll down to see the birthday post!

Happy Birthday Joanna!

Happy Fourth of July to the rest of you.....

Oh, Happy Birthday to Cody and Jerry, too.

**Note on the 4th in the evening late:
I just deleted the earlier post and reposted so it would be on the 4th. Then I read Rose's comment. Too late. :)

Belated Happy Birthday to Joanna! and Sketches

I did not post for Joanna's birthday!  Shame on me.  It is on the fourth of July so I usually post for both occasions -- not always, but usually.  We had a good time for her birthday.  We went to live music with Joanna and saw some favorites, Jenny Reynolds http://www.jennyreynolds.com/  on Thursday and Byrd and Street http://www.byrdandstreet.com/ on Friday.   On Saturday the family got together for lunch at Mama Fu's in Austin.  Very good and some nice birthday celebrations.  So again, Happy Birthday, Joanna!

I made her a quick birthday card and she took a photo for me so I could show it to you.  I forgot as usual.  It is watercolor on a watercolor postcard and put on a note card.

Blues for Joanna

4 x 6 inches

Watercolor

I sketched this morning in the living room.  It was a bit warm and muggy outside.  I sketched a page in the large sketchbook with a Micron 05 and a purple Micron 005.

For Scavenger Hunt 411
Number 8, ear buds
Number 9, something that starts with B - book
Number 10, something I love - Gene
Number 11, plant - on the table
Number 12, secret pleasure - dark chocolate Kisses

Gene and I both came down with colds and prevented our leaving tomorrow.  We are better and will be packed and ready to leave on the weekend!  No Palo Duro again!  All these years in Texas and we haven't been there even when we lived in Lubbock.    We will make it one of these days.  Really!

Happy Birthday, Joanna, and Happy Independence Day 2021

Happy Birthday, Joanna.  Yep, another year of celebrating Joanna's birthday.  Hope she has a nice day.  We did the celebrating last night because Bastrop had Patriotic Day yesterday.  It looked like they had a great time with games, food, contests, music and ending with the great fireworks.  They go all out for a small town.  For the fireworks, we found a new vantage point by the library which seemed cooler on the hill and not right down at the river.  We could hear the Elvis impersonator and the recorded music for the fireworks.  They had a choir for the patriotic songs just before the fireworks but they were not boosted by speakers so we couldn't hear them very well.  We do miss the Austin Symphonic Band, they used to come every year to Bastrop.  Miss the trombones and cymbols. 

We still had a good time with our New Mexican food dinner as requested by the birthday girl, uh woman.  Doesn't seem possible.  How time flies.

Here we are.  Gene doesn't like the noise and crowds so he stayed home and watched the house.  He said there were lots for fireworks very close by.  We had a couple of inches of rain in the afternoon so at least there shouldn't have been any fires.

The evening was beautiful after the rain.  You can see the roofs of the food area down below us.  The fireworks were right over the middle trees.  Beautiful.

These are some shots from a video Joanna took.  Came out pretty good, don't you think?

 

Hope you all have a great day!  So thankful for our troops and first responders!  We thank them for our freedom.

 Here is the Marine Corps band's version of Stars and Stripes Forever.  Love it!

https://youtu.be/a-7XWhyvIpE

Home Front, Too
Pastel, 11 x 14 inches on Pastelbord

Happy Birthday, Joanna! Happy Fourth of July! Sketches for the road....

Happy Birthday, Joanna!  Hope it is great.  

(We will see you for dinner!)

Happy Birthday to Jerry and Cody, too! (nephews)

Happy Fourth of July to the rest of you in the good ole USA!  and the troops and other Americans protecting our country, where ever you are!

We are loading up the trailer today.  I did a couple of sketches for Scavenger Hunt 228.

#10 cereal - well a substitute. I pulled out a list in the sketchbook and saw "fruit" and thought I would sketch the bananas with peanut butter and cream cheese on my rice cake. Then I looked for the next item and thought, "I don't remember putting so many things on the list from the last list." Sigh..... I was on the wrong list. So, since I don't eat cereal I will sub the rice cake for rice crispies. Ha.

#11 - step, the little step up from the porch to the dining room.

So gotta get with it.  See y'all down the road.