Homecoming weekend!

Last weekend was tons of fun.  It was Homecoming weekend at my university and there were lots of activities!  One, of course, was the Homecoming parade.  I apologize for the terrible quality of the pics.  I packed my camera and took it with me, but didn't realize until I took it out to start taking pics that my memory card was in my computer!  I had to resort to using the Iphone....bummer.

 These are all the Stryker ladies and our families..
 For some reason, Iphones make you look chestier then you really are.  I didn't know that beforehand, or I just might have taken more pics!  HA!  (:
 My hubs and kiddos.  I asked Laura to take Julian and Lynette to march with us, but they didn't make it..

 I spotted this fairy walking toward the parade and I really wished I had my memory card..
 This is me and my Stryker sister, Trina.
 Trina's little boy (:


Even Peditos marched the parade route with us!  He looked so cute with his bandana...Awww.

Later, we were able to catch the amazing fireworks display on campus.  It really was fantastic!  Even the "huge" 4th of July display our city puts on doesn't come close!


 The UNC Bears lost the game, but there is always next year...right??  Even with the loss, it was an awesome weekend!
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Rock, Paper, Scissors....no, wait! Feathers, rocks, etc.

Do any of you remember the Pet Rock craze from the 70s?  Some guy was at a bar one night and he and his buddies' conversation turned to pets and all the hard work involved with caring for a pet.  This guy mentioned that a pet rock would be easy to care for.  No need to feed, bathe or walk it because it was...well, a ROCK.  So this guy went home and actually came up with plan to sell "Pet Rocks."  He became a millionaire!  Yeah, crazy!
 The box it came in even came with holes so it could "breath!!"

And a manual! 

And I may or may not have had one.
You didn't??!!

In my defense, I was like....8 years-old. HA!

Anyway, I remember bugging my mom for one.  And I mean, I bugged her!!!
Well, Karma came and bit me in the butt.  Literally.  My baby Gabriella had been bugging me...relentlessly...about wanting the latest trend amongst pre-teen girls.  No rocks this time, now, the latest trend is those feathers in their hair.  Yeah,  like real feathers!  I now know what my mom felt like when I bugged her like crazy for that rock.  I finally gave in because:

a) She really wanted them; and
b) She brought home straight A's, so I figured she deserved them (:

I let her schedule her appointment and off we went.
She chose 3 feathers and excitedly sat down to have them put in:


 Pretty!!
 So yes, I can now officially say that I have a child with feathers out of her head!

I will definitely check that off of my bucket list....you know, since I already checked off that pet rock! (:

Is it Friday yet??

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'Ol Blue

Well, I'm back....and I must say that it feels like this hiatus I've been on sure felt like a million years!  In reality, it was only a little over a week, but so much has happened in that time.  I will definitely be posting very regularly now just to catch up!

One thing we did just recently was buy an old pickup.  And we all love it!  The kids only want a ride to school in 'Ol Blue, and I'm not kidding when I say that whenever we're ready to go somewhere anywhere, Peditos runs and waits right by the truck!  He loves riding in the front with us, then having the freedom to move to the box.

I'm so glad we bought it because we needed an older model pickup for important things...you know...like to be able to go cRaZy on that awesome list Craig has! (:
Besides,  I'm definitely a truck kinda girl.  Always have been.  In fact, my grandpa had a truck just like the one we got, and that is what I learned to drive in when I was 12!  My dad just handed me the keys and sent me to run an errand for him.  Just like that! I kinda had to learn all by myself!
I think that experience may have been a deciding factor in buying this old Ford.  You know how sometimes an old vehicle has a special place in your heart??  Well, this truck sure brings back good memories.......And it's in awesome shape and runs great too! 


When I said we all loved it, I really meant ALL of us! (:


 Peditos thinks he's a big, bad, bad doggy riding in the back of the truck! He's even started to pee on mailbox poles and trees with his leg up in the air!  True story! HA!


Have an awesome Thursday!

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Professor Johnson (:

I did not look forward to yesterday.  Yesterday was Thursday, which meant I had my Geography class.  My Geography professor is the one that had her glasses completely and utterly
S-Q-U-I-S-H-E-D by moi.  Yesterday was also the first time I would have to face her since it happened.  I really did not want to go to class!  But I did.  I knocked on her office door before class and she sweetly said "Come In!"  HA!  She didn't realize it was me..
I entered her office and apologized again for her glasses and offered again to pay to get them replaced.  She said "Absolutely Not!"
I reached out to her with a $20 gift card from here:



Her response?  "On one condition......That I use it with YOU!"

Now you see why I felt so horrible??!!  She really is amazing.

Oh, and when the day comes that I sit down to have coffee with her, I will be EXTRA careful so I don't SPILL it on her!

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Friday, wait..... Tuesday the 13th..

I have had good days, bad days, excellent days and even days that are downright sh.......well, you know where I'm going..  These days are just so bad you just cannot adequately describe those days....right??  Well, today definitely fits into that latter category.
This was my day:
Everyone woke up late.  Of course, giving full credit to Murphy's Law, today happened to be picture day!  It was bad.
So bad, in fact, that I didn't even get to my first class, which is my French class.
Time got away from me again and with fighting the horrible traffic at lunchtime, I walked into my afternoon class 5 minutes late.  And of course, my professor is very punctual.  Today also happened to be the day that the attendance sheet was started on my side of the class.  It's always started on the other side of the class....except today, so I didn't get to sign it.
After class was over, I hurried over to the professor's office to make sure I was marked as having attended class today.  I expected her to hand it to me so I could just sign it and leave.  Instead, she places it on her desk in the far corner of the room and asked me to sign it.  I walked over to the desk and wouldn't you know it?  I felt something crunch under my foot.  I instantly felt dread literally wash over me.  I moved my foot and realized that just as I was taking my step, my professor's glasses fell to the ground and I CRUSHED them into a million pieces!!  I was so upset and honestly do not have a memory of feeling so horrible about anything else in my life!  Especially because my professor made a statement a few weeks ago of not being able to see without her glasses!  I offered to pay for the damages  for a new pair but she kept telling me that that was not necessary.  I felt so bad for her.  I apologized profusely and I walked out of her office wanting to crawl under a rock.  I should have ran to the car at that moment and gone home.  Instead, as I walked down the stairs, I suddenly remembered that I had my French homework in my backpack and since I was going to walk right past that professor's office, I would slip my folder under her door.
This professor is very sweet and approximately my mom's age.  Imagine my surprise to find her in her office!  I knocked on her door and she sweetly said "Come on in!"  She was sitting at her desk grading homework, so I reached my hand into her office to hand her my folder.  She must have been sitting way toward the front of her chair because as she reached out to get my folder from me, she just fell onto the floor... and while she was falling, she tried to catch herself on her desk, so she pulled E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G on her desk down with her!  And by "everything," I mean: tons of homework she was grading, her gradebook, her printer and even her coffee!  I threw my backpack to the floor to try to "catch" her from falling.  Instinct, I guess.  There really wasn't anything that I could do because it happened so fast.  She is slightly over-weight, so I was only able to somewhat help her get back to her feet.  Again, I felt miserable!!  I literally cried all the way home.

How am I going to face these ladies at my next class??

Oh, and by the way....I know today's date is the 13th, but it's not FRIDAY!!!!

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Colgate smile (:

Today was a big day for Marko!  After what seemed like F-O-R-E-V-E-R, he got his braces removed this morning.  And here is my son with the gorgeous smile.  He had a beautiful smile before, of course, but now?  WOW! (:

This was last night:

 Signing in..
  Wait for it..
 Wait for it..
 And they're off!! 
 What a bEaUtIfUl smile!

That would be my most-absolute-favorite-12-year-old (almost 13!) boy in the whole world (:

 I love you Marko!

Mom.

Where were you?

Ten year ago today, I sat in front of the television in shock and disbelief as I witnessed pure evil.  At the time, I couldn't wrap my brain around the fact that our nation was literally being knocked to its' knees.

But it was.

I remember seeing the cloud of smoke pouring out of the North Tower and wondering how on earth an airplane hit that.  As I sat there with Armando and watched as the second plane crashed into the South Tower, the realization that we were under terrorist attack was overwhelming.

Images of America's darkest day will forever be seared into my memory.  I will not post those pictures on here.  I decided that the only image I wanted on this post regarding 9/11 is this one:

And here is Alan Jackson's song of 9/11, with lyrics:



May all of the innocent victims of 9/11 rest in peace.  May God bless the victims' loved ones and may God bless America!!
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Reminiscing..

Walking to my English class today, I noticed the sign from afar taped to the door and knew instantly that class was cancelled.  I couldn't leave campus because a) The hubs had given me a ride to school today; and b) I had one more class after the cancelled class.  So I sat in the rain and chatted with 3 classmates from French class.  We talked about lots of things.  One subject that came up, and I really can't remember how the subject got to this, but we suddenly started talking about "weird" cravings.  I had them all beat by a long shot!  I'm not kidding.
Ok, here goes.  And I pinky-promise that this is a true story!
Now, I'm sure you've heard lots of pregnancy cravings...weird combinations such as this:
 PLUS:

or how about craving THIS:

...with lots TONS of sugar  PLUS:

AND:






Yes...a can of sardines.  With the Cheerios AND the onion!  I'll give you 3 guesses of who that weirdo was..

That weird pregnant lady was moi, moi and moi (:
And I must say that that is the best breakfast I ever ate in my entire life!  I actually woke up craving exactly that!  It was dee-lish!! (:

That isn't the worst of it! Throughout both of my entire pregnancies, I craved ice and dirt! I clearly remember driving to the fields at the edge of town with my ziplock bag so I could put my dirt clods in.  My cravings were so bad that...Thank God it never happened!, but had someone actually wanted to mug me, I would have said "Take the purse with money/credit cards, just leave me with my ziplock full of dirt clods!"  I would suck on those dirt clods and actually lick my fingers when I finished them! 

For those of you that "clean" beans so you can cook them, you know how you find small clusters of dirt from the field in a bag of beans?  Wow.  That was like finding gold to me!  I would eat them right up.  I would savor the taste!!

And the ice?? Wow. I L-O-V-E-D it!  I didn't just crave any 'ole ice either. You know these freezers you see at the gas stations or at Wal-Mart that are open on top and the ice collects all the way around the inside of the freezer?


  Yep. That was the ice I just had to have.  I had the hubs buy me a very old model of refrigerator for our house so I could eat the ice that collected all around the freezer.  And I never gave it time to actually collect ice.  I hate to admit it, but I actually broke the freezer one day that I poked it with a knife to get all of the ice off.  I KNOW!  So my sweet hubby bought me another one...

My cravings were so bad that when I was pregnant with Tita, and Marko was just a baby, he would actually wake up from his naps and crawl straight to the refrigerator because he was so used to seeing me standing there eating ice!  I used to carry one of those huge cooking spoons in my purse, just in case I ran across one of those freezers, I would have the spoon to be able scrape the ice off of the sides!   I remember sweet Laura helping me gather the ice.

Looking back on that, I can't believe my doctor never thought anything of that when I would tell him what I would do.  He never seemed concerned, so I didn't think I needed to worry about it either.  I didn't know it at the time, of course, but my body actually craved those things because I was anemic!  I had no idea!!
I thank God that my children were born healthy.  I'm not sure how, but they were.

Needless to say, I never struggled with losing my pregnancy weight after giving birth.  How could I gain weight with living on ice and dirt??!!  I ate during my pregnancy, of course, but I ate tons of dirt and ice.  Every single day.   Within 2 days, I would drop to below my "before pregnancy" weight.  My cravings were very real and I hated it because I would constantly worry about my unborn baby, but I couldn't help myself.  And again, my doctor never told me that this wasn't normal.

These are some other weird tidbits of my pregnancies:
One thing that I definitely was not a fan of, was the fact that my feet would grow one shoe size after each pregnancy.  Again, I promise that this is true.
Another thing I must mention is that I am very grateful to not know what morning sickness is.  Never had it.....Don't hate!

I love my children dearly, and I always wanted more biological childen, but I believe God only blessed me with 2 biological children so I wouldn't end up with feet like Paris Hilton.  And for that I am very grateful..    (:


Happy Thursday!!

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Disclaimer:  All photos via google.

Thankful for all I'm blessed with...

I posted yesterday of stressing big time over something that I finally realized wasn't really "stressworthy."  And boy, did I stress!
 I also wrote of how I was just going to leave it in God's hands and not give it another thought.  So I didn't.  Instead, I just showered and went to bed and had a really good night's sleep!

Well, 'lo and behold, God took care of it.  First thing in the morning...just as He always does!  God is so good and He blesses me with so much!

I thought I would include 10 things I am grateful for in this post:

1)  My family.  I have a great family: My hubby, all of the kids, my mom and brother (:
2)  Each of my family member's HEALTH!
3)  The opportunity to go back to school (even though I feel like the grandma in each of my classes.....although, it could be worst.  At least I'm not older than my professors! HA!)
4)  My hubs' job.  Especially since he's back "home" now.  I'm so happy for him!
5)  My scholarship and the privilege of being part of the Stryker Institute.
6)  Gena. (:  I will forever be indebted to this beautiful lady.
7)  The support I have been shown with regard to school.
8)  The support Laura has unselfishly given to us.  I love you.
9)  My marriage being stronger than ever.
10) Finding my French book $54 cheaper than I thought, and finally being able to start on my 60 assignments due Monday! (not kidding!)


 I can't say that I'm surprised God took care of everything I was stressed about because He always has my back.

We're tight like that (:

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Grain of sand..

With being so incredibly busy with the kids and their school activities, the hubby and his job and my obligations with my family, my school and house, sometimes it's difficult to really pause for a moment and thank God for all of the blessings you really do have.  I am the first to admit to being guilty of that sometimes.

So Small, by Carrie Underwood:
"What you got if you ain't got love
the kind that you just want to give away
It's okay to open up
go ahead and let the light shine through
I know it's hard on a rainy day
you want to shut the world out and just be left alone
But don't run out on your faith"



Today, for instance, was a very stressful day for me.  Nothing seemed to be working out just the way I had hoped, and if you were to ask those I love more than anything in the whole world, they would probably say that my mood wasn't the best.  I hate to admit it, but it really wasn't.  As a matter of fact, my baby girl actually asked me if I was mad at her!  She asked me a few times in the afternoon why I was so quiet and not talking at all.  I wasn't mad- and certainly not at my kids, of course, but just having her ask me, made me feel bad.  I guess because since I am always loving on my kids.  I mean, all of the time.  So, I guess she misunderstood my "not" doing that as being mad at her.  I finally decided to not waste the rest of my day on stressing over something that I cannot do much about anyway.....OK, I decided this about 10 minutes ago.....that still counts, right?! (:

[Chorus]
'Cause sometimes that mountain you've been climbing is just a grain of sand
What you've been up there searching for
forever is in your hands
When you figure out love is all that matters after all
It sure makes everything else
seem so small


The reason I decided this was because I had been stressing over something so insignificant...well, it was something big to me, and I know it sounds like a classic cliche, but I really just had to stop and look around to realize that it really wasn't worth worrying about.  There are horrible things happening everyday in the news, so I decided I'm not going to stress about it anymore.  God never lets me down, so I will put it in His hands and I know and trust that everything will work out for the best.  It always does.

[Verse 2]
It's so easy to get lost inside
a problem that seems so big at the time
it's like a river thats so wide
it swallows you whole
While you sit around thinking about what you can't change
and worrying about all the wrong things
time's flying by
moving so fast
you better make it count 'cause you can't get it back


Take, for instance, my cousin Enrique.  I posted about him a few months ago that he'd been diagnosed with throat cancer.  He was stage 4.  And he was literally scared for his life!  I prayed for him daily, along with others in our family.  I spoke with him after one of his horrible rounds with chemotherapy and he told me how very sick they would make him.  He said that he would barely get "better" from the chemo when it was time for another round.  I remember I told him to think of every chemo treatment as a step toward his future with his new bride, and to remember that everything worth having doesn't come easy.  Well, he just found out last week that he is Cancer FREE!!  God is so good!  I am very excited for him and his wife Michelle and their future.  May God bless them with many, many years of health and happiness!

[Chorus]
Sometimes that mountain you've been climbing is just a grain of sand
What you've been up there searching for
forever is in your hands
When you figure out love is all that matters after all
It sure makes everything else
Seem so small


So, now that I am totally embarrassed of what I was stressing about.  Seriously.  I won't even mention what it was.  Suffice it to say that God will never give us more than we can handle.  I trust in Him completely.

Sometimes that mountain you've been climbing is just a grain of sand
What you've been up there searching for
forever is in your hands
When you figure out love is all that matters after all
It sure makes everything else
Oh it sure makes everything else
Seem so small

Yeah, Yeah



If you are like me and stressing about something you think is huge, just look around.  You'll be surprised at how that mountain you've been climbing really is just a grain of sand!

Here is Carrie Underwood's video for her wonderful song, So Small:



Have a wonderful day.
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Random pics..

This post is about as random as they come.  Since it's Labor day and the kids and I are home from school today, I was organizing my memory card again and came across pics that I wanted to share.  It's amazing how quickly the SD card gets full and disorganized!  So here goes.  And there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the order in which these pics are in.. :

 This would be Marko and Tita swinging....on my patio chair!  Seriously.

 Tita put these glasses on Peditos. Lori told me he looks like the Shaggy DA.  I think so too. (:
 Tita and her BFF Claire.  Silly girls..

 Secrets..
 This is Tita at her locker.  She has it decorated nice and pretty..
 BFFs..
 This picture is from Laura's high school days..
 Pretty!
 This next pic was taken at a Nuggets game.  It was Marko's 12th birthday!
 Brothers (:
I told you they weren't in order.. (:
 All of the kids at the Nuggets game.
 I love this picture.  Armando and I had gone to Denver one Saturday night and stayed at a hotel while the kids stayed with grandma.  We picked the kids up Sunday morning and found Tita dressed just like her dad!
 This is Marko at age 10!
 This is a puppy we had.  His name was Gus and he was adorable.
 Me and the hubs..
 Love the look on Marko's face!
 Me and Gus.
 This is Laura right after giving birth to Julian!
 This is Marko, Tita and my nephew Gerardo at Estes Park.  I could never get Gerardo to look at the camera because he kept looking back in case they were charged! 
Marko and Armando in front of the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile in Loveland, Colorado!!
 Me and Marko..

  All of us, except Ivan at Laura's graduation..
 This is Armando and Gerardo after we I pulled Laura and Albert out of the ditch.  It was raining real hard and Laura was literally stuck in mud about a foot deep!  This is just one of our many misadventures..   (:
That's it until my SD card needs organizing again..

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