Middle School Drama

Ok, ok...I realize it's been <cough>...a while since <cough> I was in middle school.  So long, in fact that at the time, it wasn't even called middle school.  At that time it was called jr. high. Ha!

Anyway, I clearly remember hanging out with my friends and having so much fun.  My group of friends would talk and laugh about everything under the sun while we walked to and from school.  And we really did, since we had to walk about 5 miles to school, uphill both ways, through the desert,....ok, I'm kidding.  But only about the desert part  (:   
If memory serves me right, my best friends and I only had one disagreement.  One.  Uno.  That's it!

Things in middle school sure are different now.  At least for my daughter.  Gabriella has always been very smart, beautiful, popular, outgoing, and every other adjective that pretty much = awesome.  Even in elementary school she always had lots of friends and her friends usually bickered back and forth amongst themselves because "so and so" is "hogging Gabriella."  She was always caught up in the middle of this stupid bickering.
Well, unfortunately, not much has changed.  She is once again faced with this petty nonsense.  And it irritates me to no end.  This time it went on for almost a couple of months (!)  She got to the point of telling one of her best friends that tried again and again to make her choose between her and another of her best friends.
I must say I am very proud of her for standing her ground.  She simply told this friend that they, and a handful of other girls were all her best friends and that she would not choose one over the other.  She also told her that with her birthday coming up, she was inviting a few of them and if someone didn't come because of others invited, so be it.

Well, it worked.  This friend told her today that her parents had yelled at her for acting stupid with Gabriella and basically that friends like Gabriella are hard to come by.  And she apologized.  Even better?  She made a sincere attempt to befriend the other girl.  And that made Gabriella so happy.

I must say that I wholeheartedly agree with those parents.  And I sincerely hope this is the end of it because it was causing my baby lots of grief.

Marko, on the other hand, asked me a few times why girls have so much drama.  He mentioned how he has never, ever had any disagreements with any of his friends.  Ever.
I just whispered under my breath, "Because boys are so flippin' easy."

Is it the MSG?

Can someone please clue me in to this craziness with teenagers insisting on wearing summer attire all the freaking time, even during the winter?!  I just don't get it.  Call me old, but I distinctly remember being their age and having the brains to wear, oh, I don't know...a COAT when it's freezing outside!
Was my generation really the last one that gets the connection of cold weather = bundling up?
Kids nowadays are just not born with the part of their brain that determines that appropriate clothing must be worn in cold weather.
I am appalled at seeing kids in freezing weather wearing shorts, flip-flops and a thin Aeropostale sweater.  And these are the kids that actually had the brains to put on a sweater!

Seriously, when did it become uncool to wear a coat? 

For example:

My mornings usually always begin like this:
Marko: "Mom, the temperature today is going to be_____ today.  Can I wear shorts?"
Me (half asleep): (yawn..) "What?"
Marko: (Repeats the question)
Me (annoyed): "What is the temperature now?"
Marko: "Well, right now it's 34, (not kidding!), but it's supposed to get to 48 today."

Really?!
I get annoyed with this rude awakening because I am woken up every.  single.  day.  the same way.  

I've told you how our weather can completely change within a matter of hours.  It can be sunny, not warm by any means, but sunny on the way to school, and by 10 a.m., we could be having a full-blown blizzard.  You just can't trust the weather.  Ever.
And I can't tell you how many times I've gone to pick the kids up from school loaded down with coats, hats, scarves, etc., because it was sunny and 35 degrees that morning(!)


To be honest with you, these kids may think they are too cool for a coat, and again, call me old, but they don't look very cool when they're standing in front of the school waiting for their ride home, or walking home shivering the whole way.
Just saying.


Could it be the MSG in food??!!  Someone please tell me, because I just don't understand.  Also...am I the only parent with this issue?

Hope your Thursday has been awesome!

Picture pillows!

I have been working my butt off studying for a major test in my dreaded science class besides the mountain of homework for all my other classes and a huge assignment that took about 3 weeks to complete for that same science class.  It seriously was very hectic and stressful.
But it was all worth it in the end because I totally aced my test and my assignment! (:

Anyway, to reward myself, I allowed myself the luxury of one evening of no homework (!)  Well, it wasn't an entire evening, because I didn't get home from school until almost 8:30 p.m., but it was enough.

And since I don't watch TV, I did this instead:

I printed these old pics on a piece of a flat white sheet I bought at Walmart (ironed first).  I was freaking out/praying my printer wouldn't jam up with a sheet being fed through it (!!), but it worked just fine.  Wow, was I relieved.  How would I ever explain that to a repairman if something had gone wrong?
I let the ink dry and then I sealed the pics with a few thin coats of clear acrylic so the ink wouldn't smudge.

 Then I sewed them onto a nice, thick scrap of fabric I had in my stash.
This one below is of me and my beautiful mom when I was almost a year old:

 This next pic of of my beautiful grandmother, her sister-in-law, and their babies.  These "babies" in the pic are about 70 years old, BTW, so that's how old this pic is, and I absolutely treasure it!

I finally sewed the border on them and voila!

These pillows are early Mother's Day gifts for my mom.  Easy Peasy and so fun to make!  The internet is inundated with wonderful tutorials on making similar projects, BTW.

Have a fantastic day!!
XO,

List of Eleven Random Things...

I read an article the other day about a celebrity's 25 random things, so I thought I would list 11 random things about me that even those that know me well probably don't know!  I originally was going to list 10 things, but I came up with 11. Oh, well... Here goes:

1.  I was that weird kid that wanted to be a pathologist when I grew up.  Even as an adult, I considered it and can remember having lunch while reading books on autopsies!

2.  My first language was Spanish.

3.  I am currently in school working on my bachelor's degree in journalism, but I didn't discover my love for writing until I started my blog!

4.  I am technologically challenged.  Big time.  I own an Iphone and I only know how to make and receive calls.  I don't have music, apps (other than the ones on it when my husband bought it for me) or games, etc.  Oh, but I do know how to text on it too (:

5.  I am addicted to Coca Cola.  Addicted, I tell you.

6.  I can drink lots of tequila and not get drunk or even hungover.....Not that I do that often (:

7.  I love to dance.  I also wished to become a professional dancer as an adult.  Didn't happen.

8.  I have had a pet rooster and a pet goat.  And I kept them indoors.  But I didn't own them at the same time, I wouldn't want you to think I had an indoor farm or anything.

9.  I can cook just about anything, but not with a recipe.  I'm not cool enough to follow those damned things.  Kudos to those that can though...seriously!

10.  Throughout my entire childhood, I always had the same nightmare: I was chased and eaten by a gigantic marshmallow.  I would wake up terrified of stupid marshmallows!
I wish I were kidding.

11.  And this is perhaps the weirdest tidbit about me, but I'm one of those weird germaphobes that has to wash their hands like 853 times a day.  And it's worse while cooking, for example, if I'm cooking, I have to wash my hands after opening the microwave door, and again after cracking eggs, and again after pouring milk from the gallon, and again if I open the drawer to get a spoon, fork, etc.  Yeah, my phobia is that bad.  Well, even weirder than that is the fact that I cannot look at my hands while washing them because I literally freak out. You know how you lather up your hands and rub your hands together fast under the running water to rinse?  Well....from moving my hands so fast, it gives me the illusion that my hands are attached to my wrists backwards and it really makes me panic!
Ok, now that I've admitted that, can someone please tell me if there is an actual term for this weird thing going on with my hand washing?  Or is this simply a Silva thing?? Ha! 

Have a great week!  Have I mentioned that in three weeks I'll have one more semester completed?  Not that I'm counting or anything!

xo,

Proud mama (:

There are many adjectives to describe our daughter Gabriella:  Amazing, beautiful,  leader, confident, popular, intelligent and just plain awesome.

Well, our little girl was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society this week and we are so proud.  She certainly possesses all of the leadership traits for NJHS, that's for sure.

I'm so excited to watch her grow and become the successful woman I know she will be.  God has big plans for this young lady!

 My beautiful Gabriella.  She looks so grown up (!):

 Reciting the pledge:

Now, this is totally off-subject, but as I watched the kids parade in to the gym, I suddenly thought of Tom Hanks!!  Weird.

May God bless and protect her always.

Special Easter memories

While we were at my Tio Pablo's for Easter, I was so excited when I found out that my aunts had shown up with photo albums (!)
Anyone that knows me knows my passion for old pics of the family.  I love, love, love them.
Well, two pictures in particular caught my attention.
This first picture is of my grandmother, Ama (at about age 18) with my Tio Pablo next to her, and her sister-in-law Libe (Libertad) with her baby, Maye; and my Tio Marcos is the little boy standing in front of the picture.  I love this picture because it captures this moment in time of these two beautiful young mothers with their kiddos and they both look so happy.  I mean, just look at their fabulous smiles  (:
I was almost giddy when I ran across it!  I am so grateful to whomever took this treasure.

This next picture is also so precious to me.  This picture, unfortunately, was actually taken at Ama's funeral.  My Tia Lupe is on the left, my great-grandmother, Micaela, and My Tia Minga is on the right.  Micaela is Apa's mother and she is so flippin adorable!
I've written a post about how Apa incredibly found her Here.  Apa is also in the picture on the far right.

All I could think of as I was going over these old pics was..."Oh, the pictures I would take if I could go back to my childhood and take pictures from back then"...

Haunting.

I think I've mentioned in a previous post that I'm taking a documentary class this semester.  And as we all know, a documentary's purpose is to inform, or educate the audience on whatever the topic happens to be.  I've really learned a lot about, well, a lot, by watching these films.  Some are very short, like maybe 15 minutes long, while others are up to 2 hours long, but they are all well done and very informative.

This class is one of my favorites, but it is also one of my least favorites.  Let me explain.  I like everything about my class, except that it runs from 5-8 p.m., so it is a really long class.  Many days we've literally watched documentaries the entire time and it's very tiring.
Next week we all get assigned different responsibilities to actually make a documentary.  Should be interesting!

Well, of the many we've watched in class, perhaps the one that bothered me the most was one we watched regarding a sting on child pornography.
Now, even though the video we watched didn't contain any, of course, (this is a classroom, after all!), it was still a very difficult video to watch because it was about children!  I won't go into detail on my blog about the video itself, but as you can imagine, it was very upsetting.  I actually walked out of the room at one point during the documentary.
Even though the documentary was actually focused on the scum that produce, distribute and actually buy this garbage, it is something that will haunt me forever.
It is amazing how these people don't give a damn who they exploit, or how many people they destroy for the almighty dollar.  But the market is there, so they continue.

I think anyone that has anything to do with this garbage is garbage and I wish tougher laws existed for all involved in this market so we could eliminate it once and for all.
And people, I beg you to please keep an eye on your children and don't trust anyone that comes in contact with your babies.
One pervert featured on the film was a damn clown hired for a child's birthday party!

Easter 2013

We all spent Easter at my Tio Paul's house this year and I loved visiting with family, laughing until our cheeks hurt, talking for hours on end, eating really good food and of course, taking lots and lots of pictures (:

We had family come down from Nebraska and Wyoming and I don't get to see them too often, so it was awesome to have spent the weekend with them and catch up.

The entire weekend was beautiful, so I guess that can only mean that Mother Nature's menopausal tendencies were under control.  I've mentioned how we literally have all four seasons within the same week, usually.  But not this weekend!

We also had an Easter miracle happen.  My two aunts, whom I love dearly, had a feud going from 30 years back.  Yes, thirty years passed with them not speaking to each other!  Well, they reunited this weekend and it was very obvious they had missed each other terribly, but they both had been too stubborn to have settled it before.  So it continued for three long decades.  I thank God they finally made up.
My mom is in the middle of her two sisters and it really warmed my heart seeing the three of them being silly and of course, it was awesome for everyone to have my two aunts in the same room finally!

It was very hot Easter day (not that I'm complaining at all!), so whenever I was taking pictures, everyone headed off to the shade.  That's ok, because the pictures look awesome.  This is my beautiful Gabriella:

My beautiful niece, Daneka:

My great-nephew, Matthew and the pup:

My Marko and Daneka:

My niece, Victoria with her son, Matt:

Peditos loved being on the hammock with the kids:

I'm not sure why the hubs was sitting on Danny's lap...ha!

My cousins, my brother and moi:

Rose x2:

  
What an awesome weekend it was!  I am truly blessed to have such a large, awesome family.  May God bless every one of them.

Chapstick misadventures

The following is a conversation I had with my daughter, Gabriella today:

Gabriella: "Mom, I did one of those green facial masks yesterday while I was at grandma's house!"
Me: "Oh, cool!"
Gabriella: "Yeah...and then I got some chapstick from ________'s room (NOT my mom's, BTW) and I put it on my lips and it felt like a plumper.  I didn't like the way it felt, so I read the label on the back."
Me: "What did it say?"
Gabriella: "It said something about being an adult novelty product and that it was for nipples!"

<Picture me trying to maintain my composure>

Gabriella: "Oh, and it was raspberry flavor."

Yeah.  It's Monday, and NO, this is NOT an April Fool's Joke!