Mission San Antonio: Finale Part 5

Mission Nuestra Senora de la Purisima Concepcion de Acuna ( Mission Concepcion) was moved to San Antonio from East Texas in 1731. At over 250 years old, it is one of the country`s original stone churches. This mission combined the teachings of Spain`s Catholic religion, and the culture of the natives, to become the culture of modern day South Texas.

On October 28, 1835 it was host to the Battle of Concepcion. This battle was fought between Colonel Domingo Ugarechea`s Mexican troops and the Texan insurgents led by James Bowie and James Fannin. Although it was only a 30 minute engagement some say it was the first major engagement of the Texas Revolution.  

Mission Concepcion`s Chapel

James Bowie

James Bowie a great knife fighter, and the namesake of the Bowie knife, was later killed at the Alamo. James Fannin also had a very sad end. On March 19, 1836 Fannin led the Texans in retreat from Goliad`s Fort Defiance. While stopping to rest their animals, Fannin and his men were attacked by the Mexican Calvary. Fannin was wounded and out numbered, so he surrendered at the Battle of Coleto. The Mexicans took Fannin and his men back to Fort Defiance and the 40 men that could not walk, because they were wounded, were all executed.

Colonel Fannin, had to watch his men killed as he was the last to be executed. His leg was wounded, so he was sat in a chair, blindfolded and put in the courtyard in front of the Fort`s chapel to be executed. Fannin had three requests of his executioners: he

James Fannin

wanted his possessions sent home to his family, he did not want to be shot in the face, but in the heart, and last, that he be given a Christian burial. The Mexicans did not heed his wishes, he was shot in the face, they took all his possessions, and he was buried with the rest of his men. 


Both of these men entered into Texas` fight for independence at the battle at Mission Concepcion.

Mission Concepcion was run the same as the previous Missions I have talked about in previous blogs. The Franciscan friars through the Catholic teachings of sacraments, baptism,  communion, reconciliation, confirmation, and marriage brought harmony and a sense of community to the natives that joined the Mission. The Friars taught the natives that at baptism the parents will choose godparents for their children. This created a shared responsibility for the people of the Mission and a connection to the community.

Alter in the chapel

The outside of the mission was painted in elaborate fresco (mural painting on wet lime plaster) and after over 250 years some is still present. The paintings on the inside were restored on the walls and ceiling in 1988. These paintings have elements of Christian, Spanish and Native art. Religious services are still held at Mission Concepcion today.

One of the fresco paintings on the wall in the Chapel 

This is the end of my Mission series. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did sharing it with you. San Antonio is a great vacation spot and is filled with rich Texas history. I am so looking forward to going back to visit.

March 5th

My Mom went to Heaven 6 short days ago,

How can this be true, please say it is not so.

She has now joined my Pop for eternity.

On March the 5th my 32nd Anniversary.

How will I reconcile, these two separate events?

How to define what March 5th, now represents?

The joy of a union, of husband and wife.

Or, the lose of still having my Mom in my life.

March 5th has brought such joy for 32 great years.

My fear is that it now will only be remembered with my tears.

Where the two pictures that sat by her bed a sign?

One was of her Wedding, the other her dancing with Pop at mine.

I leaned to her ear the night before that day.

Told her that I loved her, and begging her to stay.

It may sound selfish of me to make such a request.

I was just not ready for her eternal rest.

As morning came on my Anniversary day.

My Mom in her bed slowly slipped away.

I picture my Pop holding his hand out to his wife.

Asking, "Can I have this dance, for our eternal life?"

How will I reconcile, these two separate events? 

The special two occasions, March 5th now represents.

With the love of my husband, for the rest of my life.

And the memory of my Pop dancing with his wife.

Mom and Pop I love you and miss you,

Gigi

Mouse?

After returning from a visit with our son in Ohio a few Sundays ago, we got a call the following Monday evening from our son telling us he has a mouse in his apartment. He said he was sitting on his couch and heard a scratching noise behind it and when he moved the couch, a 3 to 4 inch mouse ran into the kitchen. He was creeped out and not sure what to do.

Now we are 1000 miles away, and my husband and I were not sure how we were going to help him. I asked him where it was right now, and he said it was behind the dishwasher. As we were talking it was moving around in the kitchen from the dishwasher to the stove. He was afraid to move from his position in the doorway of the kitchen, because he thought standing there was the only thing keeping it in the kitchen, and he didn`t want to lose track of it.

Do you hear that scratching?

Being a parent you want to do anything you can to help your child, but we had no idea how to help. We suggested he go to the hardware store and get a mouse trap, but he was under a winter storm warning, and didn`t want to go out in the weather. The maintenance hot line, told us it was not a maintenance issue, and we needed to call the office in the morning. I am sure you can imagine how well I took that answer. Our Son did not want to sleep in the apartment with a mouse running around.

We suggested he put peanut butter in some kind of container and wait and see if it comes out and catch it. My husband suggested he beat it with a hockey stick. Both of us knowing that a mouse would be way too fast for either of those scenarios. I hung up with him and called a exterminator to see if they would come over and get rid of it, but they could not come until the next day either. I am sure that was a weather related decision.

When I called our son back he said it was now on the counter top. This was all so weird to me because I have never known a mouse to come out in the open when there were people present if they could stay safely behind the appliances. I was so ticked off that I was paying for a really nice, second floor apartment, and he was having to deal with a mouse in the middle of winter.

A house mouse

As we were talking he said he was able to put a bowl over it while it was on the stove top and then put a jar of peanut butter on top of the bowl to hold it in place. I guess that was one way to use the peanut butter, right?

Now how was he going to get it out of the apartment? New plans and all shot down! Do you have a piece of cardboard you can slide under the bowl? No, and it would be too stiff because the stove has a lip around it and he would have to lift the bowl too high risking the mouse getting out. Can you use one of your flimsy plastic cutting boards? No, they would be too flimsy to hold under the bowl to lift it up. Can you hold a box at the end of the stove top and push the bowl towards the box dropping the mouse in the box? No, it is not flat because of the lip around the top of the stove, so the box would lift up letting it escape. The only other thing we could think of involved actions we wouldn`t do, like turn on the stove top, or spray some type of poison into the bowl. Both would leave him with a big mess and not really viable choices. He just had to wait and have the office come over in the morning and remove the mouse.

Tuesday morning our son stopped into the office of the apartment complex and told them he had a mouse under a bowl on his stove and wanted someone to get it out of his apartment.  He then went to class.

Hours later we get a text from our son "It wasn't a mouse, it was a mole".

WHAT!!!!!

He made the mistake of sending that text to his siblings too. Let the games begin!
Dad: Is that better?
Mom: They are gross looking, couldn`t you tell the difference?
Dad: Ooooooh, they have mole paws!
Son: I knew it didn`t look like a mouse, but I didn`t know how to identify it, so I just went with it.
Dad:












Son: And no creepy tail
Sister:

Son: why......
Sister:

Mom: Lol
Son: I un friend you
Mom: That`s not how this works. That`s not how any of this works.
Son: Dakota (sister`s dog) would have thought it was delicious
Dad: Was the mole from (name of business competitor)?
Son: No, but I kid you not, I was eating guacamole when I saw it.
Sister: You caught it in the guacamole bowl?
Mom: lol
Son: No, I caught it in the pierogi bowl.
Dad: Mom and I think it was a hockey bag stowaway.
Sister: Sends the Austin Powers mole scene at https:/m.youtube.com/watch?y=rc5G04nJecl
Sister: He is a mole and he has a mole
Sister: Moley moley moley
Son: (to Brother in Tucson): Can you send me a snake for pest control, a ring tailed cat would probably work too.
Brother: A roadrunner would do the trick. We'll grab the next one we see.
Dad: Do moles have any natural enemies?
Son: Cold and Pierogi bowls
Brother: Also the CIA
Son: If he had not died, I would have named him Edward Snowed-in.

That is the the last word on the Mole/Mouse situation.



                                                                                                                                                                              

Mission San Antonio Part 4

Mission San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo,  was called Mission San Jose or "Queen of the Missions" because of its size and number of Indians living there. Father Margil de Jesus, a Franciscan missionary living in the Alamo, saw a need for a new mission. He requested permission from the governor of the Province of Coahulila and Texas to build a new mission in San Antonio. Permission was granted and they started building on February 23 1720.

The church is on the left and the guest quarters are on the right

The church construction began in 1768 and at that time there were 350 Indians living in 84 two room apartments. The Friars jobs were to convert the Indians into Catholic, tax-paying subjects of the King of Spain. As in all the missions the Indians had many changes to entail, including changing their names and learning two languages, Latin and Spanish. Their lives in the mission also included church bells that called them to worship three times a day. There were over 2000 Indians baptized in the 104 years that San Jose was a mission.

The Indian`s apartments

On February 29, 1824 San Jose ceased to remain a mission. Complying with orders from the Mexican government, the mission was fully secularized. Father Diaz turned the mission over to the Indians that were living there and Chaplain Maynes. The mission was neglected and fell into ruins following the Benedictines, Redemptorists, and the Holy Cross Fathers ministering there. The Franciscans returned in 1931 and are still there currently.

The side of the church with the Rose Window

The chapel in the Mission is very ornate and there is gold everywhere. The religious statues are beautiful and the ceiling is gorgeous. The beauty continues outside the enormous wood door with the carvings and architecture around the entrance.

The Chapel in Mission San Jose.

The Alter up close.

Ceiling in the Chapel.

Carving around the Entrance to the Church

There is a window on the side of the church called the Rose Window. They say it is a premier example of Spanish Colonial ornamentation in the US. They do not know who sculpted the window or why. The folklore about the window says that Pedro Huizar, a carpenter and surveyor from Spain, was waiting for his sweetheart, Rosa, to join him from Spain. On her journey Rosa was lost at sea. Pedro then carved the window as a declaration of his love. The more reasonable and less romantic theory is that it was named after the first saint of the New World, Saint Rosa of Lima.  Personally, I am going with the love story.

Rose Window

In the back of the Mission was a Grist Mill that was functioning in 1794 when the people of the mission were eating more than corn and wheat. The mill ran on the water from the irrigation system and aqueducts.

The Mill at Mission San Jose

The water system that worked the mill

This was my favorite of the missions. It was the largest, most intact, and it had a gift shop!

Hockey Stick Headboard

My youngest son has been playing hockey for close to 20 years. He is a senior in college and will have one more year of eligibility before it is off to Men's league. I think he would be a great coach one day, and I know that he will always ice skate.

When we moved to Indianapolis, from Fort Wayne, our son was in the 7th grade and I decided to make him a hockey headboard. We still use it today with a quilt that was made with all his jerseys and t- shirts from all the teams he has played for.

To make the headboard I bought a package of mite orange sticks and 4 adult sticks. All the sticks are wood. I cut the small sticks just at the end of the Sher-Wood label and the large sticks to the length that worked for the bed.

I laid the small sticks on the floor face side down in the pattern I wanted, and then laid the large stick on top of them spacing them in the pattern I liked. You can then put a dab of hot glue to hold them in place in between the spot where they intersect. I just got out the drill and drilled a hole through the back of the large stick and part way into the small stick. I then screwed the pieces together.  I drilled holes through the large sticks in four inconspicuous spots to screw them into anchors in the wall. It was all very easy!

The headboard started out on a twin bed and is now on a queen. They both looked great!

Hockey Weekend

Last weekend my Husband and I made the journey to the Midwest to watch our Son play college hockey. We went from sunny Texas to the freezing Midwest and saw three great games of hockey. This was the first time we have seen our son play this year, and we were not disappointed.  We were supposed to make the same journey last October, but he broke his arm in September, so we had to postpone the trip until this February. After being out for 4 months, and only back playing for 3 weeks, he looks to be back at 100%. I really missed seeing him play and was so glad he is back playing the game he loves.

This is the only picture we have of our Son during the first half of the season. 

My husband took pictures all weekend, and my Son's girlfriend and I  sat in the stands and watched three awesome games. I have sat in hockey ice rinks for the last 18 years, and this rink is one of the only ones that actually had the heaters working above the stands. I cannot tell you how many games I have left and needed to thaw out. Since it was 4 degrees outside with a wind chill of -30 it was nice to not freeze while inside too.

Three games played and three games won. Each game unique with the first a regulation win, the second an overtime win, and the third a shootout win. Like I said, three great games of hockey.

Our Son plays defense and has the perfect personality for the position, because nothing said to him gets under his skin, Yet, he certainly knows how to get under the opponent`s skin. His "signature" in front of the net is to push down on the back of the opponents pants. It is very effective and the other player tends to move out of the way, or risk maybe losing his pants, lol.

Pushing down on the back of the pants is a effective move.

The only person that gets to my Son, and everyone else, is the Referee. There is nothing worse in any sport than when poor refereeing can change the outcome of any game. There were certainly some questionable calls, one of the refs went a little ballistic on some of the college fans during the first game. In the second game one of the Refs shoved a player which is not OK, but most of the calls were maybe one sided, but did not change the outcome of the games.

I am sure the Referee is complimenting our Son on how well he is playing

For many this was the best play of the game

After the third game we went straight to the airport for our trip home. When we arrived home it was in the mid 60`s. I love Texas!

Mission San Antonio: Part 3

Mission San Juan Capistrano was the third Mission on our tour. Originally built in East Texas in 1716 this mission was called Mission San Jose de los Nazonis to serve the Nazonis Indians. Because they were not successful, they moved the mission to the San Antonio River and renamed it San Juan Capistrano on March 5, 1731.

Map of Mission San Juan Capistrano.

The mission had serious battles with epidemics of smallpox, measles and other European diseases along with being terrorized by bands of Apaches and Comanches. The mission still grew, and by 1762 there were 203 Indians living in the mission. The Indians were very industrious, and with a granary and textile shops, along with the aqueduct for watering, agriculture became the basis of their economy. The crops they grew included corn, beans, sweet potatoes, chilies, melons, cotton, sugar cane and squash. Outside the walls of the mission were orchards that grew peaches, pumpkins and grapes too. In 1762 there was said to have been around 3500 sheep and almost as many cattle at the mission. This was all possible because of the fertile soil, and the water supply from the irrigation system.

The church was constructed in 1772 and the exterior is covered with plaster. It was weather stained, cracking and in need of better support beams. The chapel went through a stabilization and preservation project in 2012 and was covered in an eggshell white plaster.

San Juan is still an active church and services are still held here. This would be such a neat place to be married. In the year 2000, three Spanish Colonial period pieces were stolen from the alter. These 3-4 foot statues are painted carved wood. These artifacts are not considered priceless because of their value as art, and they were not carved by someone famous, but they are priceless because of their religious history, and their importance to the people of the mission.

This was the site of an unfinished church started in 1780. In the Ruins lies the remains of the indigenous people that built the mission. The sign reads "Sacred Earth".

The chapel at this mission looks so beautiful with the white plaster. My husband took his favorite picture above with the sun behind the bell towers. Screen Saver!

Next Stop, Mission San Jose