Happy Belated Birthday!

Notice anything different today? Life Silva style got a make-over. Yay! I decided to get a new look since this month marks one year since starting the blog. I considered it a belated birthday gift to myself the blog. (:
Emily from Designer Blogs was fantastic to work with and set everything up for me. Thanks Emily.

Happy Thursday!
xo,

Hola Ciudad Juarez!

I traveled to Juarez, Mexico today with the hubs and my mom!

Ok, well not physically, but I was seriously transported to Mexico at my kids' school today.

The 6th graders organized a fantastic event called "Aztec Market," and let me tell you-they really did a superb job!  I was so proud of them.

Here are some pictures of the event.  They are in no particular order, and I must point out that since my kids just started at this school last week, I don't know any of the people in the pictures, except my Gabriella (2nd from the right):

This was the entrance to the Aztec Market....also known as the gym.  Everyone entering received a cup filled with beans that were to be used as currency (:

The kids and their parents/grandparents did such a great job of providing awesome food....that you could literally buy for....beans.  Yeah.

For those of you that have never been to Juarez, in the center of the city is a large marketplace that has a variety of vendors of different art made by local artisans and little restaurants to get some really good food.  We haven't gone to Mexico in quite a few years now for obvious reasons.  But we really miss going.

Anyway, there were tables with enchiladas:

Handmade beaded bracelets and necklaces:

Tissue roses.....my favorite.  I was planning on paying a few beans for one, but I constantly found myself at the tables that had all of the amazing FOOD. GA! 

So I didn't get one.  Boo.

There were beautiful handmade purses

See?  I told you.  There were so many tables with FOOD.  Ugh..

There was traditional Mexican music playing over the loudspeaker.

And people "selling" quesadillas...

Didn't the kids do a wonderful job with the decorations??!!

Yes, that would be my daughter..

This is what I saw in front of the school as soon as we dropped the kids off at the gate:

 I told ya these pictures were in no particular order..

Here I am with the hubby and our baby girl.  Marko wasn't at the event because it was only for the 6th graders.

 Aren't these little girls in the outfits adorable?!

 Gabriella and her team sold quesadillas and sopapillas!  Yummy (:

 I just had to take these kids' picture!

So that is how we spent our Wednesday morning.  It was so much fun and I was so happy for Gabriella to have participated in this event.

Hasta luego!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to each and every one of you!  Wishing everyone a wonderful day filled with much love and happiness with the people you love.

Today is not only Valentine's day, but it was my Aunt Connie's birthday.  How fitting.  She had such a big heart and all of my memories of her were awesome.  Unfortunately, she passed in November.  She is gone now, but will never be forgotten.

Happy Birthday sweet Aunt Connie!!  Love you.

Fridgidaire, where have you been all my life!? (:

Ok, are you sitting down?  If not, I strongly suggest you do.  You know, to avoid injuring yourself from falling over when you hear what I have to say.

Seriously.

Ok, consider yourself warned.  Oh, and I almost forgot to clarify that this is not a typo:

Ready?!  Here goes:  I L-O-V-E doing laundry!

Yes, you read that right.  And no, I am not going crazy, nor am I going through some weird chemical imbalance nor am I joining a cult or anything of the sort.  And my brain cells are NOT fried from all the homework I get every week.

For those of you who know me personally, you know how I used to abhor laundry.  Yeah, that bad.  Well, not anymore.

In all fairness, I haven't mentioned why my new fondness for clean clothes:

We just recently purchased a new washer and dryer.  I must say that I'm having a blast playing with my new toys.    These are my new babies:

They are pure awesomeness and they have all of the bells and whistles I could ever want.  Seriously.

I have never owned anything Fridgidaire before this washer/dryer, and I must say I am thrilled with their appearance and the performance.

  I decided against purchasing the pedestals because

a) I think they defeat the purpose of raising the washer and dryer, if your bending over to get the soap out of the bottom drawer every load..right?!  and

b)  I'm not that tall.  I can get the clothes in and out pretty easily.

Oh, and if you're looking for me and just cannot find me...try the laundryroom (:

Happy Monday! 

Another star in the sky..

I was incredibly saddened to hear the news of Whitney Houston's death.  She was a beautiful woman with an incredible voice.  I grew up in the 80s and I clearly remember watching MTV back then when it wasn't almost X-rated as it is now.

I always loved her music and I loved the movie "The Bodyguard" in which she starred with Kevin Costner.
She was a very talented lady and she will be missed.
This was my favorite song of hers:

WHITNEY ELIZABETH HOUSTON

August 9, 1963-February 11, 2012

Rest in Peace.

Obsessed (:

You know how I told you of the fact that I don't watch TV?  Well, the hubs got me hooked on a telenovela (Spanish soap opera).  I really, really did not want to get hooked on a novela because it literally feels like a ball and chain.  I have to watch it every day.  Except I've been watching it online, which means on regular cable, it's probably on episode 34 and I'm on episode 138.  Yeah... I've spent many hours on the weekends watching it (obviously!)  and I am completely hooked.  I love it.  It's called "La Que No Podia Amar."  The hubs and I have talked of how various family members could actually play the different characters (especially the evil characters!) to a T.  I won't mention any names in case they happen to read this post. HA!  (:
This is it:

And not only am I hooked on this novela, but, I'm also obsessed with the song from the novela.  It's called "Corre" and it's sung by Jesse y Joy.

It's a beautiful son (in Spanish, of course) and here is the video:

Enjoy!

Big changes.

I'm not sure what what was going on, but for the last few days I wasn't able to log on.  Apparently, whatever it was, it's no longer a problem.  And hopefully, it never happens again.

It has been an interesting last few weeks at Casa Silva.

To start with, school has been fantastic for me, which means my stress has been minimal, which means I've had time to be working on my quilt, so I'm over-the-moon  happy about that.  Plus, I've been in the midst of some super-duper organizing.  More on that later.

A big change happened this week for us.  The hubs and I decided to switch the kids' school.  This was done with some a lot of hesitation and with a very heavy heart because as I've mentioned before, I never had stability as a kid, so my childrens' stability was weighing heavily on my mind.  The kids were a little upset about the move because they didn't want to leave their friends.  Which I completely empathized with.  I hated leaving my friends the 5,298 times my mom would move my brother and me when we were kids.  Since the internet and cell phones didn't exist way back then, I literally lost all contact with my friends the second we moved.  This was not the case with my kids.  They will always be able to stay in contact with their friends.  It was a very hard decision, nonetheless.

I prayed so much about this change and asked God to help the hubs and I make the correct decision regarding our children's future and happiness.  Well, it turned out to be the BEST DECISION of our lives!  My kids used to go to a college preparatory school.  The only reason that came about was the fact that although we lived in a beautiful subdivision at the time they were in elementary school, our home fell within the boundaries for a horrible middle school that not only was very far from our home, but it had a very bad reputation with gang activity.  Under no circumstances was I going to send my children there.  Instead, they were accepted to the prep school.  We were elated at the fact that they were "saved" from the horrible school they were supposed to attend.  Plus, we were equally happy about the fact that the prep school was for grades 6-12.  We thought they would attend that school until they graduated.  WRONG.
It turned out that my children were expected to act like robots at that school and it became apparent very early on that my children were never going to be successful there.  The hubs and I struggled with the fact that my kids would receive a big, fat ZERO for stupid things like writing in their planner in pencil rather than pen, which resulted them dropping TWO letter grades.  Or receiving another big, fat ZERO (and dropping 2 letter grades) for failing to turn in a permission slip signed by either the hubs or myself.  Or my daughter having lunch detention because her  book cover tore when it fell out of her locker, so she threw the cover away with the intention of re-covering it after school.  Or my son receiving a big, fat ZERO for doing a math test in pen because his pencil broke and he grabbed a pen to finish the test.
 
Don't get me wrong.  I'm all for rules and regulations, but it seemed as though the faculty had the freedom to make up rules as they went along.  My kids weren't being graded on their academic abilities, but rather stupid, petty things.  If my kids were failing because they just didn't "get" the work, that's one thing, or if they just didn't "do" the work then I would have accepted the horrible grades.  But to fail them after actually doing their work and doing it correctly, I had a big problem with that.
My son went from being advanced in everything in elementary school to flunking the 6th grade.  And it was obvious that he was going to fail again.
My daughter, who had always been in the gifted and talented program throughout elementary school struggled to maintain a C!  Something had to be done.  Immediately.  So we switched them to the elementary school our 3 oldest kids had attended.  Duh.

Marko's test scores were verified by the new school and was immediately placed back up to the 7th grade (where he should have been since the beginning of this school year) and he's actually taking a few 8th grade classes, one of which is geography.  I can't tell you what this has done for his self-esteem.  It's off the charts!
 
Tita is in advanced classes as well.  And both of the kids LOVE their new school.  They are making new friends and are both happy kids.
And since both of our children are doing great, the hubs and I also doing great (:

Thank you God.  You never fail to point me in the right direction.  May You always bless and protect my children.

Happy Thursday (: