King Leonidas were are you?

Where are the men that keep their word?

Their words are to be feared and trusted, because they are prophetic promises.

Where are men that know who they are are, that stand as kings?

They fear nothing except God.

Where are men that can be trusted?

They search their souls fo truth and honor it.
They are for justice and freedom.
They love their families and country and will fight to the end for it and never retreat,
to defend all that they are and all that is good.

I need a man I can admire and adore. Maybe I'm too picky or expect too much, but I will not settle or marry a man I can't admire. I can not settle with just any man, if I want to be the women I'm striving to be.

The Birth of Chirst by Carl Bloch

To my friends and my country...

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. - Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address

i do portraits sometimes

this is the Carlson family.

"To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one's self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - this is to have succeeded."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Maison Pestea" for you abuelito

Last month I was in France, in the basque country. I got to visit the village of Hasparren where my ancestors are from, and I found the house where some of them lived and died. It was in the family for a few hundred years and was built around 1700, it still stands as you can see. Is pretty incredible to me, that I was able to find this house. I have many records from my research that mention the " Maison Pestea" as the place of birth and death. My grandfather spend 2 years traveling in France and lived in Paris for a while, he liked it so much he added to his pen name " Tito Paris". He went there in search for his family and never found them. I feel like I completed the task and even though my grandpa has been gone for a while, I hope he can see how much I have worked on his French genealogy.