City Creek Apartment

All I can say is that I love this little apartment and it looks better in person than in those pictures we got it  for rent to a good person of couple.

Trip to Salt Lake Spring 2014

Our trip to Salt Lake in April was mostly to attend Hernan's graduation. He received a Masters of Information Systems Management diploma from the Marriott School of Business and  like always we managed to do a lot of other thnings like:
 Attending a multi stake Conference with Andres and family.
We went to a baseball game to watch Danielito play so well. He was able to hit the ball each time.
 Attended Women's Conference and stayed at the Sundance Cabin with Bianca and Cristi.and on Friday we even got to go bowling.
 I hardly saw Mandy because she left with the Morrisons on a trip to Spain.
 I got a spa day thanks to Cristi and Bianca. It was their gift for mother's day and that is how my vacation ended.

Lights, camera, action!

On Saturday April 12, 2014 we had a crew taping Daniel about his thoughts on the new Self -Reliance program of the Church. My husband was asked a few questions like: "What does self-reliance mean to you?  etc. It has been a special project here in the DR because we were chosen to be pilots of this program.

 It changed the way employment centers and the Perpetual Education Fund work. It is more complete now and it includes everyone. I love this program and I am very passionate about it. The message is very clear. Self-reliance is the ability, commitment and effort to provide for the spiritual and temporal well-being of ourselves and of our families. As members we are asked to watch over other members who might be in some type of need.

 Bishops and Stake Presidents need to be aware of anyone among us who might need resources in becoming self-reliant so they can endure times of adversity. The idea is that we should all help each other and be more aware of one another. We need to encourage our members in getting a post secondary education or vocational training, learning to work and living within our means and by avoiding debt and saving money for a rainy day. The main idea of becoming self-reliant is to get ourselves on higher ground so that we can lift others in need. Daniel did a great job explaning the program.

Puerto Rico, our other home!

Any time an opportunity presents to go to Puerto Rico, we go. It is a place I keep dear to my heart. It was my home during many months while Daniel was getting his citizenship and it is the people we also have learned to love.

We found out Nadja and José Toro's daughter was getting baptized on March 15th so we arranged to go and also to kill two birds with one stone I changed my interview with Global Entry for the day before on the Friday March 14th. I had a bad experice in Miami on my way to Chile when I came accross Customs and Immigration. The officer that interviewed me was horrible to me. I was treated like some criminal. He was upset that my husband had gone ahead of me because he had global entry and that he felt that because of that, he shouldn't let me in. I am a US citizen for crying out loud! He asked every question imaginable. What do I do, what does my husband do. Why do we spend so much time in the DR etc. and any time I answered he would reply Really? as if I was lieying. It was so nerve wrecking to not know if he was going to let me into the US or not. What a night and day difference when entering the US at the San Juan Puerto Rico airport. They are friendly and treat you with respect there. I was able to get my interview with them even earlier than plan to get it out of the way so I didn't have to come back, that is how super nice they are. How I wish every time we travel to the US, we do it entering Puerto Rico but who knows maybe they are just as mean and I only got lucky when I go there each time.

Trip to El Salvador

Every trip to El Salvador includes going to the beach and eating as many pupusas as one can handle and this time we even had pollo campero at the beach for lunch. The home is a relaxing place my mom and dad built for our family. I am one who thinks it should be sold because it is hardly ever used and the up keep is expensive but my mom does not believe in letting go of things too easy.

Every five years a new President is elected in El Salvador so I wanted to do my civiv duty and at the same time visit my sister and her family and my mom who was also going to travel from Mexico to vote in this election. I was hoping that Salvadorans would make the right choice but it didn't happen. On March 9 2013 The left wind of rebels won again and they will always manage somehow to win every election because once they are in, they change laws to stay in power. The outcome was too close to call even the night after all the votes were counted. Both candidates claimed victory and the loosing candidate wanted a recount because there was some evidence of fraud and that is why we went out to do a "marcha." to no avail. Once it was over, we would accept the results but they never agree in recounting the votes.

 I had just been to Chile to see José Ignacio's grave and wanted very much to see mamá Hilda's grave as well. I didn't know seven people had been buried there. Even a brother of Lolita and Supi. My grandma had bought eight sites to be used by family members. I am amazed there is only one slot left. This is a tender tipic for me but I sometimes wonder where would my mom want to be buried. I asked her one time and she said, wherever I get to die and now she lives with either Mari or Vane so that means is going to be either in Miami or México, who knows. I hope we don't get to worry about that for a long time.

Trip to Santiago, Chile

We had a chance to visit chile in the month of February for a Cluster meeting with Bishop Davies and as always it was wonderful. The first day we got there was Sunday before the meetings so we went out to see Jose Ignacio's grave. He was born on April 7, 1993 and died July 3, 1993. He was 4 days shy of turning three month. Coming to see his grave was something we wanted to do for a long time and there by this mirecle we were in Chile. I can only imagine the sorrow the family must have felt when this happened in that home where Daniel is standing in front of the gate but what is wonderful to know is that he is in heaven with Jesus and that one day Daniel will get to hug him and I will get to meet him. His life is eternal and he knows he is loved.

The following day, on Feb. 27, 2014 we went to the Church's olive farm to take a tour. What we learned from the tour that the demand for olive oil is greatly increasing so it is profitable. The oil has high level of mono-unsaturated fat compared to vegetable oils and people are becoming more aware of all its benefits. Chile has the perfect climate for these type of plants. The farm is non-labor intensive using the latest technology and the state of the art machinery to do almost all the work to harvest. It is also a welfare reserve. Also US and Chile share a free trade agreement. Chile is a country known for not having corruption, friendly to foreign invetment and very secure. I was amazed at how develoop it has become considering that is in Latin America.

The following days on Tuesday and Wednesday we received the training for the DTA's and their respective wives who attended. We shared a little about our children and Bishop Davies talked about the Proclamation to the Family and Christlike leadership. My favorite part has always been when we have a special ladies meeting. Sister Darla Davies prepared a theme of bees and what they represent. We were given the book by M. Russell Ballard. "One Drop at a Time" a message for women. A quote in the book reads: " There is power in our love for God and for His children, and when that love is tangibly manifest in millions of acts of Chirstian kindness, it will sweeten and nourish the world with the life-sustaining nectar of faith, hope, and charity.

The following day, we checked out of our hotel and again visited the grave. We noticed the flowers we left on Sunday were gone since they clean up and mow the lawn every week so we got another bouquet of flowers. This time we took a knife and a wash towl to clean the dirt from the stone and cut any grass covering the grave.  We left it immaculate and at peace that we had come to see the place this little baby so dear to the family was buried. The stone reads: Jose I. R de Alemeida Bianco 7-4-1993--- 3-7-1993

Los mariachis NO cantaron!

 

 

Daniel's birthday in the D. R. is on January 21 a day of " La virgen de Altagracia!" a Big Holiday. It is so nice because at least that one day he does not have to work right? not a chance. He had to work on some papers for the Elders who are going to have some important meetings but eventually in he afternoon he was free to take a fellow from Salt Lake to dinner while he is visiting the DR I was not going to go to it because I thought it was work related but when I saw another wife going I got ready real fast; after all it was my husbands's birthday. We went out to a restaurant on the beach in Boca Chica, about 40 minutes from Santo Domingo. Driving that far you hope it is real good and it was. This was the perfect setting to have the waiters come to sing happy birthday to Daniel so when I told our waiter we were celebrating my husband's birhday he immediately said NO I don't like that! ok that was akward, but I understand his point of view, this was supposed to be a meeting with this fellow and not a celebration of him turning 59. I have learned to accept him being a little shy and not at all like my family who turns every birthday celebration into a huge party and a big deal!

Los mariachis cantaron

It's my birthday on January 3rd right after the Holidays. My family was still in town so I decided to celebrate it along with a dear friend, Marha Diaz who has a birthday on January 1st and Daniel who has his bithday later in the month. We invited a few of our friends to help us celebrate but the best thing about celebrating birthdays is to actually have a mariachi band sing you las mañanitas. A Flores tradition to celebrate birhdays in a big way!

New years party!

 Happy new year! What an epic vacation it was for Daniel and me to be with Cristi, Brooks, Nixon and Beckett. Bianca and Joe and Mandy and Spencer. I was so happy they finally got to see where we  live and what we do. We didn't even needed to go to another party because we were enough to do our own and we did. Bianca and Joseph's flight got cancelled and had to stay 3 extra days and I was not at all too sorry about that!

Vacation at the beach

You can't come to the Dominican Republic without going to the beach! So far we have gone to Punta Cana, Bayahibe, Cabarete and Juan Dolio. All beautiful and all offer different things. At dreams in Punta Cana I love to cayak. At Cabarete Daniel likes to body board and at Juan Dolio we love to just relax and read a good book. The marbella condos have beds right on the beach to lie down for a nap. They have a nice playground for kids and a huge swimming pool. This was a nice reunion for our girls who live so far away from each other. It was also a nice get away ftom the cold.

Chritmas 2013

On Chritmas Eve we invited the Flakes and the Whitakers for Christmas Eve, made name tags for our guests and had a lot of food prepared. They all excused themselves. Sister Whitaker was ill and the Flakes had been to other places celebrating and could not  come so it was Vale, Daniel an me but we had fun watching movies. As empty nesters living so far away we have to get used to the idea that we might have to spend Christmas by ourselves.

Navidad Brillante!

For the very first time the park accross from our home has night life! Lights come on around 7:00 pm and are off by midnigt. The lights started on Dec. 1 and will continue to Jan. 7th. These are very bright lights and there are thousands of people that come every day to look at them so to say the least it has been a little crazy with cars on a street that never has any traffic. We had the Church choir performed and even brought the bell ringers from Puerto Rico. The Dominicans have never seen anything like this at this park or anywhere in the island.

Spending quality time

This was by far one of the best Thanksgiving days ever. The wheather was so nice around Thanksgiving and that made it possible for Cristi and family to drive from Idaho considering that it got snowy and cold the following week.

We were picked up by Hernan and taken to their apartment on Saturday Nov. 23rd. the next day on Monday went to church with them. On Monday we were closing on our new home/investment at the prestigious City Creek development. Our dream came true finally to own a nice place there. We took a loss on the sale of Park City and were short so had to borrow about $80K but we think in the long run it will be a nice investment for us and we could end up living there eventually.

We brought some of our things from the storage unit and furnished the apartment the best we could. On thursday we spent Thanksgiving with Andres and family and went also to visit Rachaels family in the evening. The next morning we went to do our black Friday shopping to buy a TV dinning room set and the washer and dryer and a lot of our Christmas shopping 14k later we were set.

On Friday we went out to see the lights at Temple Square which is always such a treat. Gave our gifts to the grandkids and sent out the rest of the gifts also. We also met with a woman who was going to install the closets and spoke to a fellow who could look for potential renters but we only want the best people we could possibly find to live in our condo so we are not in any hurry.

99 W. South Temple #1705

Yes, after spending hours and hours looking on line at investments in Miami Vs. Salt Lake City, we opted to invest in Utah for the 4th time. This is it and we are so happy! We got the most beautiful sunset and city skyline views from our living room and bedroom. We are so close to the airport that we can see when planes take off and land. We are next door to City Creek mall, restaurants, Abravanel Hall, Energy Solutions Arena, Salt Palace, Temple Square, Church office building, Conference Center BYU Center, and Gateway mall. We are minutes away from biking, hiking and all the world renown ski resorts. Not to mention the University of Utah museums and the Zoo. All in all we can't beat the location. This is one blessing for sure we will always be thankful for.

Mateo Alejandro Meraz Flores

On November 10th our family wittnessed a miracle. A wish we all had been waiting for the past ten years became a reality. Vanessa and Alejandro became parents for the first time to a precious angel. A gift from God and a testimony that prayers were anwered and miracles do happen. He is so lucky to have been born with a mom and a dad and an extended family who will care for him and love him.

October conference 2013

  What a wonderful opportunity to come every October to listen to General Conference. We were sitted on the plane by Elders Valenzuela's mother from Guatemala who was so proud of her son speaking. I am going to review all talks before the next conference in April to be reminded of their wonderful counsel. I particularly love Elder Soares talk because he had told us that same story of brother Mahlangu in South Africa at a dinner with Tim Sloan and the DTA's. Ulisses Soares is one the nicest guys we know. This as always was a busy time for us, getting to doctor appoitments, signing the closing for the Park City Hotel condo and Daniel's colonoscopy. It was something Daniel was not too excited about and I don't blame him. The night before the procedure, I honestly thought he was going to die but all went well.