HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZAC!

Today is Zac's 13th birthday!!! Our oldest grandchild! Yea Zac!!! We love and miss you lots! Hope you had a great birthday!

Questions from Cathy Part #3

1. What is my heritage? Where are my ancestors from? When did they come to this country and why? Where did they settle and what did they do there?
Boy these are long answers…… This is what I know…from Grandma Piñon.
My Heritage is mainly Hispanic… Mexican American…4th generation Texan! Grandpa Piñon’s family is from Mexico a place called El Jarrel de los Barrios, it is in Torreón, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Mexico. All I know is that my grandfather Teodoro and his family came across the Mexican border the early 1900’s . One of our aunts said that they had a horse ranch in Mexico and it was taken by Poncho Via, so was told that they were jockeys. My grandfather Teodoro worked with the railroad most of his life. I remember him as been a sweet grandpa with a raspy voice.
On my mother’s side there is a long history:
My mom has a varied background her Grandfather was James L Daugherty who came from New England to Texas during the Sam Houston era to marry a Mexican lady Adela Lopez and he inherited a large piece of land by marrying great-grandma. His back ground is Irish. Grandma Ciria who is the only daughter from this marriage, married Jose Maria Rueda whose heritage is Spanish. I don’t know much about my grandpa.
Great-grandpa James L. Daugherty was a rancher and some type of a magistrate in South Texas. Grandpa Rueda also was a farmer in Hidalgo County , El Granjeno, don’t know how he got here or where he came from.

2. Tell me about your Mom and Dad (the kids great-grandparents) where did they grow up? When did they get married? How did they earn their living? What’s something you’d like me to know about your mom? About your Dad? What are some of the most important things you learned from your parents?
Mom and Dad both grew up in Hidalgo County… I know my Dad went to school in Mission, Tx and played football in Jr and High School with Tom Landry who became the first Dallas Cowboy coach, Dad was Tom’s favorite receiver. After High School he went to the Job Corp and learned how to be a mechanic. He then joined the Army Air Corp during World War II and served in Guam. After the army he came home and married Mom in 1947 (I think) and as far as I know he has worked as a Civil Servant as an Aircraft mechanic. He was one of the first Hispanics to do that.
I have always admired my Dad because he always strived to better himself. He taught me at a young age that being Hispanic was not my problem it was the people that saw me that way. He encouraged me to always strive to be better and get an education and move forward from where I was born. I also appreciate his overcoming many obstacles he encountered as he tried to be a better person. He made many mistakes but he also learned to move forward. I always knew that my Dad believed in me and expected me to always grow as a person. I can see that now at my age, I am sorry I didn’t see that when I was growing up. I think what I learned from my dad was that we all have choices to make in life and we need to let people live their own lives.

My Mom dropped out of High School when she was pretty young because her father died and she had to work to take care of Grandma Ciria and herself. She says she was 16 but I really haven’t asked her. I know that my mom worked doing many things as we grew up; she was a maid, a sales lady & teacher assistant. Mom always strived to find peace in her life and validate who she is. She taught me to seek spiritual guidance and find a religion that would make me happy. She told me a story about when I was a couple of months old I used to have seizures and when she took me to the Dr, they could not find anything wrong with me. She remembers taking me to the emergency room when I had a very severe seizure and it scared her very badly. She told me that the Dr’s told her to take me home because there was nothing wrong with me. She then went to the Hospital Chapel and prayed to Heavenly Father to take away my seizures and she would make sure that I served Him for the rest of my life. I never had a seizure after that. She taught me to seek spirituality For that I thank her, otherwise I don’t think that I would have accepted the gospel as readily as I did.

Questions from Cathy Part #2

1. Books(or other things you read ie: Blogs, Websites, etc)
Right now I am reading the Twilight Series (again)written by Stephanie Meyers Love it, I love to read stories where goodness wins-regardless of what form they may take. It kind of re-enforces Heavenly Father’s Plan; accepting everyone for who they are. I also love mysteries-my mind goes so fast that I am always anticipating “who did it”. I like to read about people’s thoughts and emotions and figure out what actions they take in different situations and what their results and consequences are. Sometimes I am shocked to see those results but they only helps me get an insight into what the writer perceives as reality.
Blogs: Love to read my families blogs, I enjoy what is happening in each family and some of the small things in life that make them the people they are but sometimes they also make me sad that I am not there being part of their lives.
Websites: All about careers: quintcareers.com, jobstar.com, reslady.com, abkldesigns.com (it has fun holiday clipart), people.com plus I do all the TV channels that way I keep up with my favorite shows and catch up on the episodes…. I have more favorites: about.com, simple recipies.com, deseret.com, lds.org, …etc.

2. Music:
Oldies are my favorite-that would be music from the late 50’s and 60’s…Elvis, Beatles, Motown,…One of my favorites …”.These eyes…theses eyes that seen a lot of love but they‘ve never see another one like I had with you” by The Guess Who takes me back to college yrs. I found a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f25Fs-93HFY

3. Vacation Spot:
The Beach!!! Topsail North Carolina! ….North Carolina had the best beaches…love the South Beaches…warm water, white sand, hot sun...ocean waves breaking and slamming on the beaches and I remember the moon and how it reflects off the water at night time. Wow! Nothing like that! South Padre Island is also a favorite except that reminds me of sunburns and jelly fish.

4. Ways to spend time with friends:
The friends I have now are not the same as when I was younger but right now I don’t have many friends, There are friends from work and we eat out a lot and once in awhile go to a movie or go shopping. My favorite friends are my kids and grandkids….we have much fun bowling, playing out at the park, swimming…lots of fun things.

5. Way to Goof off:
I guess I goof off a lot when I get home after work…I watch TV and go to movies, read, dance to music until it gets to loud for Keary. (Now, I just listen to it in my car)

6. Way to stay fit:
Now that brings lots of guilt! When I do work on getting fit I watch what I eat and go to Curves and exercise. Right now the weather is gloomy so I don’t do much. When the weather is nice I go for walks with Keary and Duke. I play with Duke next door at the soccer field and throw the ball and run with him.

7. Movies or TV show:
Right now I am obsessed with Twilight…I have seen it 5 times and I plan to see it again and again until the video comes out! Other favorites are the Harry Potter movies, The Bourne movies, and my favorite shows on TV are: NCIS, The Terminator, the Sarah Conner story, CHUCK (love that show), The Mentalist and when it is in season Dancing With The Stars!
Oh yea... I never miss Smallville!

8. Foods! Lobster, steak, Mexican, sushi, Pho, shrimp, garden fresh tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash and much more..salads, I loved bananas but they hurt my stomach now and I miss them, I do like papaya but they aren’t as good out here in the Northwest as they are in the South.

9. Things to collect: Turtles and custom jewelry, clothes, shoes …LOL!!!

10. Political, religious or social causes:
I am a republican and am very conservative in my views and people at times think it is because I am a Mormon but it is not. When I was younger and worked for the State of Texas and part of the Food Stamp program under Jimmy Carter ( told you it was a long time age) I was very democratized and liberal in my view points and thought that the government “owed” the people things…but after working with Food stamps that year I found that type of thing creates dependency and does not allow people to reach their potential in many areas not only financial. The more the government gets involved with our lives the more we lose our free agency. I don’t have any organizations I actually belong to (other than committees where I work) that I am actively involved in. Social causes… I deal with those daily Mon thru Friday at work! L and of course I am member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and I try to be a good example everywhere I go.

11. Best part of being my age now….
Seeing my children succeed and have families…not having to struggle with myself to determine who I am…I am a child of God and at times I tend to forget that…but mostly I don’t. Heavenly Father loves me and I am so grateful to have the gospel in my live that gives me a direction!

The worldly answer would be “I dress the way I want!”

Questions from Cathy Part # 1

Tell Me About you
1. Your full Name: Diana Lee Piñon Nield

2. Were you named after anyone:
Not that I know of…however I did have a funny story that is attached to my name: When I was in College (Laredo Jr. College) and was taking Speech we were assigned a speech telling what our name meant…So in doing my research the name DIANA is best known to belong to the Greek goddess “Diana the Goddess of Love”…my middle name I attributed to being from the South and being part of the Confederate Army and the hero from that army was Robert E Lee. And of course my last name at the time was Piñon which is also the name of popular pine nit in the Southwest…so I determined my name meant “Diana the Nuttiest Goddess in the South”

3. Do you have any nicknames? How did you get them?
Prieta (in Spanish it means dark: it was because I was the darkest skin cousin in my mother’s side of the family)
Gorda (in Spanish it means Fatty…just cause it was affectionate or cos I had fat cheeks, don’t know which one)
Mijita (in Spanish it means “little daughter” equal to my “ little sweetheart” in English…to this day my father still calls me that)
Watushi (in my freshman yr in High School my friends called that because of the song that was out “Do the Watushi” I used to trip over when I walked with other people and I was always flying to catch myself so I looked like I was dancing!) LOL!!

4. I call you_____________. Where does that come from?
Does this mean like Grandma Diana Because I don’t want to be called Abuelita?

5. Who are you beside a grandparent? Gardener, businessperson, traveler, committee member, hiker, etc?
I am an Employment Specialist with the State of WA
I am a facilitator and motivator for Return to work WorkshopsI am Vice-President of the Southwest Region International Association of Workforce Professionals IAWP
I am head of the committee for Emergency Unemployment Compensation Workshops
I am a member of Leadership Enrichment Group
I enjoy gardening in my pots…I love colorful Flowers and yellow Zinnias are my favorite and red petunias
I enjoy racing cars when I have the opportunity
I love to read
I am a TV junkie and love Sci-fi movies and Action movies
MY FAVORITE THING TO DO IS BE A GRANDMA AND MOM!!!!