Ted and Becky

  • Laura and Jason,  Maryland,  Ted and Becky

    Shopping with Mom and Laura

    My dad had surgery on his back yesterday. My sister, Laura, and I came up to Maryland to be with my mom and dad for a few days. The surgery went very well, and Dad is resting and recovering. After visiting with Dad today, Mom, Laura and I went over to the mall and went shopping. Laura tried on some fancy gowns. She found a beautiful gown that looked amazing on her. Hopefully some wonderful patron will read this post and donate the money necessary to make the purchase. We left the gown on the rack, but I did get a picture. We shopped for a purse for mom, and…

  • Abroad,  Friends and Family,  North Carolina,  Pennsylvania,  Ted and Becky

    Five states in nine hours

    I previously posted about a crazy drive around Texas, during which we were in three cities in fourteen hours.  Well, this past weekend I completely topped that when I went to see my mom and dad!  I started in Raleigh, North Carolina at around six in the morning.  I flew to Baltimore, Maryland, where my mom and dad picked me up.  We drove through Maryland and Virginia on the way Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, where my mom works. I got to see Mom’s building, office, and classrooms.  We walked around Shepherdstown, and had lunch in a nice tea shop.  I browsed through the shops on the main street…

  • Friends and Family,  George and Nancy,  Home,  Jacob,  Kay,  Laura and Jason,  Lee and Billy,  Ted and Becky,  Troy

    Survived the Holiday Season

    We did not take many pictures this year.  No, not even Joey!  Lee took this one of us together with the dogs on the night we put up our Christmas tree. We went to the Mercado Christmas celebration with Grandma Margaret on 24 December.  We had a lovely Christmas Day meal with the Lupa/Carlson clan, Joan Jones, and the Reads.  It was pot luck, so we didn’t have to do too much cooking, but we wound up with all the leftovers.  Yum!  Joey did make plum pudding, and it was a hit. George and Nancy joined us late in the evening on Christmas Day.  We went to breakfast with the…

  • Friends and Family,  Ted and Becky

    40th Wedding Anniversary

    My mom and dad celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary today. I am so proud of them! They were married at Los Angeles Heights United Methodist Church in San Antonio, Texas on 13 September 1969. The spent the day together at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor to celebrate.

  • Friends and Family,  Home,  Lee and Billy,  Ted and Becky

    Ginger Dogs

    Recently Joey and I have been going to a great bakery that is just on the other side of I-35 from our house.  The bakery is called Pablito’s.  It is a family owned business.  They have awesome empanadas, pan dulce, and all kinds of other baked goods as well.  Joey really likes eating baked goods for breakfast, and their prices are so good that it is reasonable to go there frequently. My favorite item at Pablito’s is a ginger/molasses cookie in the shape of a pig.  The ginger pig is soft, and not very sweet – more like bread than a cookie.  About a week ago, it dawned on me…

  • Abroad,  Florida,  Friends and Family,  Ted and Becky

    That was in your back?!

    OK, I am in Florida again with my dad. He is having more of the laser surgeries for his back. One of the procedures they did was remove hardware from an old fusion that was done on his L4, L5, and S1 vertebrae. When dad told me they would be extracting screws from his back, I thought, small screws. Like the kind they use to put glasses together! That was not at all the reality. The reality is so creepy I have to share it with you! Upon seeing the picture, my co-worker joked that it was no wonder Dad was having back trouble if the package of Kleenex was…

  • Debra and Rachel,  Elanor,  Exercise,  Friends and Family,  Home,  Laura and Jason,  Ted and Becky

    9th day of Christmas

    Laura and I started the morning with a trip to the gym.  We took a Body Pump class.  Laura did great, and even got a compliment on her performance from the lady standing behind her.  The class was at the Hester’s Crossing gym, and I decided I don’t like the group exercise room as much as I like the one at Tech Ridge.  It is much harder to see the teacher, and I am uncoordinated enough to really need to see the teacher!  It was a good class, and we got a great workout. After our workout, Laura and I dropped by to see Rachel, Asher, and Chiara.  Asher was…

  • Debra and Rachel,  Elanor,  Friends and Family,  Home,  Kay,  Laura and Jason,  Lee and Billy,  Lindsay and Don,  Misty and Brian,  Ted and Becky,  Troy

    New Year’s Day

    Yesterday Joey and I hosted our tenth annual New Year’s Day party.  A great group of people showed up!  We ate hoppin’ john, bean soup, and sausage balls (aka meat cookies).  Dad, Asher, Laura and Joey decorated the garage and side walk with chalk.  The Etheredge siblings were all present, and our nephew Daniel was charming, as usual.  Chiara played with Elanor.  Lee and Billy brought their friend Melissa, who talked physics with Dad, and then discussed opera with Laura and Alissa!  We finished the evening with a round of Apples to Apples.  In short, it was a wonderful day, a perfect start to 2009.

  • Elanor,  Home,  Kay,  Lee and Billy,  Ted and Becky,  Troy

    Etheredge Christmas – the third day

    On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me… family, a bell mishap, and a shopping trip. Troy, Kay, Andrew, and Daniel all came over to our house for breakfast on Saturday, 27 December.  Andrew and Dad cooked eggs and sausage.  Joey made sticky buns and hot sauce (not to be eaten together, those are just the things he prepared).  Everyone sat down and we really enjoyed the meal.  Next we opened our presents. I got a perfume, and framed picture of Joey and me from Joey.  Troy gave us a copy of his wedding video, and a gift card to Alamo Drafthouse.  Kay, Andrew and Daniel…

  • Abroad,  Chambersburg,  Friends and Family,  Pennsylvania,  Ted and Becky

    Krista and her Amazing Space – November 2006

    Twas the night before Thanksgiving and we visited a friend of Ted and Becky named Krista. Krista is a creator. She is living in a renovation in progress – a retired trade school in south central Pennsylvania. She is transforming the space from sturdy-single-pane-school-house to fanciful-curvy-found-industrial-restoration. The space is sparkling textures, warm wood floors, pastel paint, futurist appliances, fiber-optic bath fixtures, and comfortable antique farm machines. Click. Look. Enjoy.

  • Abroad,  Chambersburg,  Friends and Family,  Pennsylvania,  Ted and Becky

    Ted’s Haircut, Chambersburg, PA – May 2006

    Work dictated that I travel to Hagerstown, Maryland, and I decided to use the opportunity to visit Mom and Dad in Chambersburg. They were good enough to pick me up at the airport and have me stay with them for a few days. Dad mentioned that he had been thinking of shaving his head and mustache. I told him if he wanted help, I would wield the clippers. Mom had her doubts, and Laura declared, “He has been threatening to shave his head forever, and he is never going to do it!” …that was all it took. We went to CVS to get the proper head shaving supplies: gel shaving…

  • Abroad,  Friends and Family,  Laura and Jason,  San Antonio,  Ted and Becky,  Texas

    Grandpa’s Memorial Services – January 2006

    Sunday January 8, 2006 and Monday January 9, 2006 Lisa Diane and I celebrated Grandpa Louis at two wonderful solemn memorial events. On December 30, 2005, Grandpa Louis Rodriguez passed away. Grandpa Louis was married to Esperanza for 63 years, raised six children – scientists, soldiers, businessmen, teachers, and musicians – and shared his smile and charming character with the world. He was a charter member of the Pan-American Golf Association, sang with the San Antonio Chordsmen for 20 years, and retired from Southwestern Drug Corporation in 1983. His family and friends gathered at the funeral home on Sunday night. Members of the Chordsmen sang, friends told stories about his…

  • Abroad,  California,  Friends and Family,  San Francisco,  Ted and Becky

    Gear Up for San Francisco – July 2005

    Mom had a Gear Up (the grant program that she works for) conference in San Francisco. While she was planning the trip, I was lamenting that I had not been to San Francisco in more than a year. She suggested that I join her and be her activity coordinator for sight seeing in The City. I agreed immediately. We really had a great time seeing the sights, shopping, and visiting. We had a wonderful time, just us girls. Thanks Mom!

  • Abroad,  Chambersburg,  College Park,  Friends and Family,  Laura and Jason,  Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  Ted and Becky

    Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania – November 2004

    Laura played Rosina in the Barber of Seville at the University of Maryland. The last show was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Joey, Grandma Margaret and I decided to travel north to see the opera and celebrate Thanksgiving with the Mercados. Jason Wright, Laura’s boyfriend, and Jason Kaminsky, Laura’s roommate and fellow Barber of Seville star, both joined us for Turkey Day. Of course, we all consumed huge amounts of delicious food, and had a wonderful time.

  • Debra and Rachel,  Friends and Family,  Ted and Becky

    Here be dragons – Halloween 2004

    As many of you know, Joey has a great love of dragons. He has asked me to make him a dragon costume several times over the years. I had never managed to, and sometime around Labor Day I casually mentioned this to my mom… She became a woman possessed. Within an hour of the original phone call she had e-mailed me a picture of the material she was planning to use. Throughout the dragon’s creation she kept saying, “I’ll just do this little bit, and then I will send it to you”, but she continued to work and created nearly the whole thing with design and spacial relations assistance from…

  • Abroad,  Chambersburg,  College Park,  Emily and Scott,  Friends and Family,  Laura and Jason,  Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia,  Ted and Becky,  Woburn

    A Wedding, Our Nation, and The Frog

    Our good friend Scott Howard and Emily Lovejoy were married on Saturday the Twenty First of February at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Woburn, Massachusetts. Scott had just come to serve at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer when he and Emily met (she drove Scott to the pot-luck dinner held to welcome him to the church). Ever conscious of propriety, Scott attempted to conceal his attraction to Emily from Emily and the congregation for months (after-all, he is a priest and she was a member of the congregation). Of course, Emily, being the perfect match for Scott (and a member of his evaluation committee), attempted to conceal…