Welcome to my blog!

As you can see, this is the jumexnation. The story goes that when Stu and I first moved in together, my brother's friend (and mine too) Jimmy brought us a can of Jumex, the delicious fruit beverage, because that's what our family was going to be - Jew+Mexican=Jumex. So we sort of ran with it, we both thought it was funny and put the can above the sink in the kitchen of our first home together. We giggled when we looked up and saw it and slowly the name started to grow on us - and our friends.

I don't remember when or how it happened but soon Jumex was the title by which Stu and I were referred to collectively. Once someone called us the Jumex Nation and when we bought our house and were trying to settle on a name for our new home we decided on Jumex Acres (our home sits on an acre and a half - not quite 2 acres but more than one!).

On MySpace, I would use the Jumex bottlecap as my default photo. On our Christmas/Hanukkah cards I used a can of Jumex in the photos. When we were married the pastor that married us called us the Jumex Nation. It's sort of stuck and taken hold.

Now, I am fully aware that when pronounced properly Jumex is said HU-mex. But where's the fun in that? Besides, everyone in America calls it Jumex - and that's sort of what we are - this merging of a Jewish man with Candadian (and Polish and Russian) roots and a Mexican-American woman whose grandparents came here from Mexico. The blue can that holds various tropical fruit beverages sort of suits us.

When I started my blog on MySpace it was called "Random Musings by Maria" - and then when I started THIS blog I was including my new husband and the beginning of our journey together - and whatever stories happen along the way, hence the jumexnation.

Now last night as I was working on the fancy new artwork you see on top there (not fancy but it is new and I did all by myself!) I was trying to think of the subtitle for the blog. Up until yesterday it had been "The goings on of a Mexican and Jewish Family in Oklahoma". Eh, it was okay. Then Mr. Jumex and I were playing around with several others - it was important to me that the subtitle not only conveyed our union but also the merger of the Mexican and Jewish cultures, which even though we are both 2 generations removed from parts of our roots - they're still there. So we tossed some ideas out there and partially due to sleepy silly's - we settled on "mary meets moses in a final smackdown". It made me laugh really hard (and it was totally Stu's idea, he really is quite funny).

So the question I pose to you is - is this a suitable subtitle? Do you have any other ideas? Is anyone even reading this? Some others I've entertained were...

- A Jewish boy falls in love with a Mexican girl in Oklahoma
- A Mexican/Jewish family in Oklahoma
- The goings on of a Mexican Jewish family in Oklahoma

See, not too exciting, huh? So far - I still like mary meets moses, but I'd like to know what you think.

I heard an interview with John Grisham yesterday where he said in order to be a serious writer you have to commit to writing one page a day. I'm certainly not looking to get published or anything, heck I'm not even looking to get anyone but my friends to read this, but I would like to write more. I like it, and sometimes I say mildly humorous things that I look back on later and think, "ha, that was cute". And maybe some day I can share it with my kids too - one never knows.

So here's a page for today - I'm not sure that there's anything too note worthy but at least I have checked one more thing off my list. Tonight I look forward to an evening full of sitting on the couch, watching American Idol and snuggling with Mr. Jumex. Oh, and here's hoping for a SNOW DAY tomorrow! Maybe the cold and snow will kill the congestion in my head - ugh, THAT is miserable indeed!

Wishing you unexpected surprises and happy endings...
Maria