A couple of blogs ago, I mentioned that Vicky and Pedro were on a third honeymoon last weekend... so, without further ado, let me tell you why.

On the morning of Friday, May 6, 2010-- two days before Mother's Day, one month after Mom and Dad's 36th Anniversary (ok, it was one month + one day after), and a whopping SIX YEARS after they first were engaged-- Pedro Reyes and Vicky Ibatan Rodriguez were legally wed in a cozy, sunlit room on the second floor of San Diego's City Hall.

Pedrito Reyes served as best man, and Ellina, Tenoch, myself and (you know what's coming up!) NALA were their witnesses :) 

Afterwards, our small party enjoyed brunch at The Mission Cafe (home and birthplace of one of Dad's finest inventions, the "Vincent Vega"!); then, we brought everyone's bouquets over to Mom at the Holy Cross Mausoleum.  That night, Vix and Pedro spent their first night of wedded bliss in a special suite at the Andaz Hotel.  Two weeks later, they spent a weekend at the Wynn in Vegas.  Last weekend, they partied with la Familia Reyes at their favorite set of condos in San Felipe. 

And, this November, they've got plans to hold a church ceremony and throw a big fiesta.  All of us are THRILLED that it's finally official; and we're really looking forward to bringing everyone together for a Rodriguez (y Reyes!) event that's for a HAPPY occasion!  We hope it's the first of many that we'll get to share with you this year :)

Yesterday, I promised that we'd start filling you in on what Vicky and I have been up to since we last posted.  But there's just SO MUCH, I don't know where to begin!!!

So, I'm going to take the same strategy I use when I'm trying to tidy up the house:  I'm just going to get the easy stuff out of the way first.

Why do I suddenly have some time to work on the blog?
I'm on summer vacation!  And it's the first summer break I've had as a newly-minted, tenured professor!  March 15, exactly a week before Dad's birthday (which is kind of weird, since I filed for tenure exactly one week before Dad died), my Dean called to let me know that the University had decided that I should be awarded tenure, and that I've earned promotion to Associate Professor!  The news has made this the first summer I feel like I can really enjoy, without the anxiety of moving, or wondering if I'm doing enough work, in years.

And what did Tenoch do on the anniversary of Mom's death?
The four-year anniversary of Mom's death fell on a teaching-day for me-- Monday, April 4.  So, this made it the first year that I haven't been able to go down to San Diego to be with the family, and visit Mom's grave.  I was really sad and worried about it, especially because Tenoch had to be in Sacramento that day, too.  Tenoch knew this, but I didn't realize how much he understood, until... I walked into my office after a meeting, and saw these:  

The most beautiful flowers I've ever received-- sitting on my desk!  Tenoch had them delivered to work!  (From a local florist called fleur*t-- which I thought was SO crazy.  Get it?  Tenoch Flores = t*flores!)  (Oh-- wait.  I want to mention that I got surprise-flowers from Krys, too, after she heard about my promotion.  Those were gorgeous, too!  Mom's favorites: tulips :) )  Fittingly, since Mom loved when stuff like this happened, since Mom's Anniversary, my female colleagues have been swooning over Tenoch's thoughtfulness-- it even inspired (pressured?) another hubby into having flowers delivered to my office-neighbor. 

* Sidenote: I chose the title of today's blog because Mom also loved singing the theme from Love Story :)

Alright.  That's all the easy stuff for today.  More updates to come, so stay tuned.  It gets gets juicier...

Vicky and I were not in San Diego this weekend (Vix was in San Felipe on, like, her and Pedro's third honeymoon [yeah-- um, we'll get to that in a different post]; and I was with Tenoch and Nala picnicking [and sporting our yellow ribbons!!!] in San Francisco's Presidio for Memorial Day).  So, we weren't around to snag our own copies of the front-page article The Filipino Press ran on Dad in its "Memorial Day Edition" :(  Luckily... our godbrother Gene spotted his ninong smiling up at him from a paper on Saturday, and grabbed an extra copy for Vix; and Tenoch's tia, Ceci, grabbed us four or five (thanks, guys!) :)

So, yeah... we realize that we should explain.  The blog's been quiet for the past couple of months, but Vix and I have been busier than ever.  We're determined to bring you all to-speed; so, in the next few days you can expect us to tell you all about:

• Why Dad's on the cover of the paper
• Why Vicky and Pedro are honeymooning
• What Nala's been up to with the veterans
• What we've been up to with our Congressman and the Veterans' Administration's Office of the Inspector General (VAOIG)
  
• What Tenoch did on the anniversary of Mom's death
• One more reason you could say I'm like Obama
  
• Why I suddenly have a bit more time to work on the blog

For those of you who don't know us personally but wanted to learn more about Dad:  Thanks for visiting, and please come back soon because we're also going to be posting a new page on the site to let folks who are interested learn how you can help us stop M from pulling the wool over the eyes of our VA and military dependents' services, while vets and their real families are still fighting for what they need and deserve in return for the true sacrifices they make to keep us safe.  In the meanwhile, there's lots here that you can read, if you just want to find out more details about what we're fighting for.

See everyone again soon-- we promise!