Muffin Top

You know how babies are exposed to different foods when they reach the mushed-up baby food and finally solid foods age?  And you know how new mamas excitedly try the different fruits and vegetables to experiment with their baby to see which one the baby prefers?
And you know how those mamas may or may not sneak a taste of that baby food while feeding said baby?  Especially the mushed-up bananas??
What?!  You didn't?  You know you did!
Well anyway, apparently, my mom never received that memo.


Seriously.  I'm not sure why, but I never grew up tasting very many things as a kid.  My taste buds were deprived BIG TIME.
I sure as heck remember tasting different candy though, and I definitely had my favorites.  This I know because I actually remember it.  One of my earliest memories had me on the bike with my uncle Joe and he was taking me to the little store about half a block away to buy candy.    It's surprising I didn't grow up obese with my weird eating habits!
I think, well, actually I remember eating beans, rice and tortillas a lot growing up.  HA!
First of all, I wish to clarify that I was very, very blessed to have been raised with my Ama (grandma).  She was the epitome of what a grandmother should be and I absolutely know how very lucky I was to have spent so much time with her and to be able to still have vivid memories of her smile, laugh and hugs.  I have lots of cousins that don't have one memory of her because either they were babies when Ama passed, or they simply were born after she passed.  Anyway, beans, rice and tortillas were on the table in some variety at every single meal.  We ate meat, of course, but we ate it with the rice, beans and tortillas.  Plus, we'd eat lots of veggies from Ama's garden.


This is probably difficult for you to believe and you're probably thinking "Yeah, whatever!" or "That isn't possible!" when I tell you just how deprived my poor taste buds were.


I was almost 4 years old the first time I tasted marshmallows.  I wish I were kidding!  This I clearly remember because I ate almost the whole damned bag!  I was in the car with Ama and Apa, aunts, uncles and cousins and we were driving to the mountains.  One of my cousins had the bag and I just couldn't get enough of it.  I also remember getting sick on that stupid bag of marshmallows.  I'll spare you the details.
Growing up, I'm sure I ate an enchilada or two because, I mean, I'm Mexican. HA!
I remember not caring for the cheese in them.  And I remember the cheese being the half-circle, dark orange cheese.  Not very appealing if you open the fridge to get a snack, right?
So I wasn't a huge fan of cheese until I was 15 and living with one of my favorite aunts in Alliance.  Her name is also Rose and she was gracious enough to allow me to stay with her and her family for a while.
I clearly remember (and I'll bet even she remembers if you ask her!) about how I used to eat ALL of her sandwich cheese.  I did.  She just couldn't keep any in her fridge.  Just as soon as she'd buy it, it was gone.
It was entirely Aunt Rose's fault though because she always bought this one:

This stuff is flippin' delicious!  I remember I was instantly in love.  I had honestly never, ever tasted it before.  Weird?  Ummmm YEAH!
One thing I don't remember is if I was big-time constipated during this cheese-eating binge.  I probably was, just don't remember it (:


I can honestly say that up until that time, I had never had a slice of sandwich cheese.  WTH?
Another way my Aunt Rose hooked me up for the first time was, are you ready for this?
Macaroni and Cheese.
That's right.  I had never tasted Mac & Cheese.  Ever.  And by this time, I was sixteen years old!!  I mean, come on, kids grow up on this stuff!  But I didn't.
It was Thanksgiving and my Aunt Rose made dinner and everything was so good.  I remember being passed the big bowl of Mac & Cheese and saying I didn't want any because "It looked gross."
Well, I went ahead and took a little taste and my love affair with cheese started all over again.  Thanks, Aunt Rose!  I think of you each and every time I serve Mac & Cheese to my family or when I see the display of Kraft Singles in the grocery aisle. Seriously.


Years later, the hubs introduced me to his beloved poppy seed muffins.  Again, I thought those looked nasty and never wanted any when he'd offer me one.
Oh Em Gee are those suckers GOOD.  Again, I had never tasted it before.  And I never would have taken it upon myself to try them


Well, my little Betty Crocker, aka Tita made these today: 

 Poppy seed Muffins!!!

I allowed myself to eat one (or two) because my taste buds still have lots of catching up to do.  I'm just wondering, was I the only person raised with my taste buds so deprived??  Please tell me!


Never mind the horrible quality of these pictures, I took them with Marko's Ipod because I didn't have my camera on hand.


Oh, and just to clarify: These were the Muffin Tops I was referring to by the title of this post, and NOT something else...just in case you were wondering.


Have an awesome day! (:

Pets

The other day the kids and I were talking about pets I had as a kid and the ones we've had throughout the years and Tita asked me which one was my favorite.
I told her that since I really grew up at my grandparents' house and they always had a dog, I considered them my dogs too.  I never really got attached to them though and once I grew up and moved out on my own, I had an array of pets.
I told my kids of a puppy I bought that I named Dallas (Yes, after the nighttime soap opera.  I was THAT obsessed.  Speaking of which, I am totally re-obsessed with the remake of Dallas 2012, but that's another post.)
Dallas was a purebred Collie.  I don't have any pictures of him because, well, I didn't even own a camera. HA!, but he looked like this:

(via Google)

He was adorable, but he certainly wasn't the brightest color in the box.  I remember one time a friend I used to call Diamond Dave told me I should look for a roommate because "it's safer."  I told him I didn't need a roommate because I had Dallas to protect me.  He reminded me that Dallas wasn't too bright.
Diamond pretended to be hitting me and I was play screaming.  You want to know what my "guard dog" did?!  He got very angry and started to attack me!  That's right!  Dallas was trying to bite me.  Stupid dog.  I felt real safe and secure with my "guard dog" after that, let me tell ya!
Not too long after that, I was going on vacation and Diamond offered to keep Dallas for me while I was gone.  Well, a couple weeks after my vacation, Diamond came over to apologize because Dallas was going to be a daddy to his mutt's litter.  Diamond owned a mutt that as far as we could guess, was at least part weiner dog.

(via Google)

Yeah, you can only imagine what the litter looked like.  They had faces (and bodies) that only a mother could love.  They were down-right UGLY.  Diamond ended up keeping my "guard dog."

Later, someone gave me a baby goat.  Yes, you read that right, a goat and I bottlefed it and kept it at my house (!)  That didn't work for long.

I didn't have another pet for a few years until my dog Bonnie.  She was a few years old when she was given to me.  She was a doberman and she was so incredibly smart.  She was awesome.  I remember trying to breed her a few times, but it never worked because she would beat up any male dogs that ever came near her.  It just wasn't going to happen.

She died a virgin.

She looked like this:

(via Google)

After Marko and Tita were born, we got a Cocker Spaniel we named Austin.  Yeah, I'm from Texas...can you tell? (:

Austin looked like this:

(via Google)

Austin was great with the kids.  He had so much patience with them and never, ever snapped at them.  Not even when both babies were climbing all over him and pulling his tail and ears.  Austin loved to dig though and he managed to get out of the back yard one day and was never to be seen again.

A few years later, we got Sulley and Boo.  The kids named them after the characters from Monsters, Inc.  They were Labrador brother and sister that the kids loved.  Boo got Parvo and died immediately.  I seriously took Boo to the vet the very day she got sick and she died that evening.  Poor Sulley hung on for a few weeks and it was so heartbreaking to watch him suffer.  Even with IV and meds, he just couldn't fight that dreaded disease.  He died also.  It was so sad.

Sulley and Boo looked like this:

(via Google)

I didn't want pets after that because it was so hard to see Sulley and Boo suffer the way they did.  But the kids kept bugging us for another dog when they were older.

The kids got a fish at the carnival one year and we had that fish for almost 6 years.  It was itty bitty when we got it, it was probably about an inch in length then.  When we moved to the farm last year, for some reason it died the very next day after moving.  I'm not sure why.  That was sad because we had had it for so long.

The kids also had 2 Hermit Crabs.  Those were gross.  'Nuff said.

The kids later got 2 sharks that we bought for them.  We got home and put them in their own fish bowls and went to bed.

The next morning, Tita woke me up crying, telling me that one of the sharks was gone.

WHAT?!

I jumped out of bed to see where the shark could have "gone."

Sure enough, it was GONE.

Ok...shark cannot just.......... "leave," right??!!  There was water spilled all over the counter, but no shark.

I had no idea what to do or what to tell her.

For some reason I looked to the floor and about fell over when I saw the shark flapping around on the floor!

I thought maybe Tita had tried to get the fish bowl and the shark fell out.  But she didn't.

Apparently, the salesperson "forgot" to tell us that shark, even the ones that are 3 inches in length jump out of the water like this:

(via Google)

I wish I were kidding!!

So I scooped him up with 2 envelopes to put him back in the bowl because it was the only thing I could find at that second, because, well, it IS a shark and if this 3 inch shark could leap that far out of the water, it could possibly bite my arm off...right?!  I just couldn't take the chance that this shark would attack me.... in my house!

Anyway, he was never the same after that.  He was apparently blind because he kept slamming into the glass.  He wouldn't eat anymore and two days later, we found him floating at the top of his bowl.  Poor thing.

I told the kids that we usually had a cat at my mom's house.  They weren't my cats, that's for sure.  I had never really been a cat person until Sidney:

Some lady at the hubs' work was giving away a litter and I instantly fell in love with Sidney.  He scratched the crap out of me the first week.  But he soon got used to us and loved us.


He was S*P*O*I*L*E*D rotten.  He knew his name, of course, but he knew I always called him Baby and he loved to cuddle with me. He was awesome.  One day he disappeared and even after looking high and low for him, we just couldn't find him.  And we were crushed.


Then we got a Blue Heeler pup and we named him GusGus because he was so fat, just like the mouse from the movie Cinderella.  He was awesome too.  Here's a pic of me with GusGus.  Isn't he a cutie?!

The kids were small at the time and our house had one of those modern picket fences in the back.  The kids lifted one of the pickets one day and forgot to put it back right and GusGus got out.  We never found him either.
And now, we have Peditos.  He is by far, my favorite dog in the whole world.  He seriously thinks and acts as if he were one of my kids.  And I think so too.  We love him and he fits in our family just perfectly.
He's even included in our family pictures!

Because he IS family (:

Just desserts..

My baby Gabriella has been a little Betty Crocker ever since she was very little.  She lOvEs to bake and unfortunately for our diets, she suddenly whips up these delicious desserts for us to enjoy. UGH..


She certainly doesn't have to twist our arms to eat her creations because they always taste fantastic..


Well, today she decided to make something "a little healthier"...HA!  (Try saying that to my shorts that suddenly start feeling a little snug!)


Today she made these and it didn't require the oven:

 She gathered the few ingredients she needed and started

  

 She was literally finished in 5 minutes, just like the recipe said.

 And after a little over an hour later: 

As Dora would say: "Mmmm....Delicioso!" (:


Have a beautiful weekend!!

July 4th 2012

Since our beautiful state has had all of those horrible fires the last few weeks, fireworks were banned.  This was not only smart, but so necessary because of the dry conditions we've had.
My family was packed on the 4th and ready to head to Nebraska to get together with family, but with the incredibly hot weather conditions, we had a change of plans and instead only made it as far as Cheyenne, Wyoming.
We stopped to get some fireworks in Cheyenne and learned of a free shooting range they have for people to shoot their fireworks.  The kids were instantly excited!

We got to the field by 8:30 and waited in line.  There were hundreds of families and it was lots of fun.  The fire department, ambulance and police were stationed at the event all night long, so it gave us old folks peace of mind (:

The way they had it set up was that they had 30 "stations" for the families to light their fireworks.  The families were picked up in little utility trucks and taken to their station and then they would pick them back up when they were finished and drop you off at the gate and pick up another family and so on.  This meant we literally watched the world's longest fireworks display.  I'm NOT kidding!  There was a large concession stand and port-o-potties too, although, I'm VERY glad that none of us had to use one. (:

Here is the kids' stash:  I had this swimming bag in the car and had to go get it when the cheap "Walmart" type bags ripped open with the fireworks..

While waiting in line, the hubs told me he thought the city's official fireworks display was also going on behind us, so I just had to check it out:

So glad I did!


The kiddos anxiously waiting their turn:

Finally, it was the Silva's turn to load up into the little utility truck thing.  The kids hopped on first and sat cris-cross, so that meant that the hubs and moi had to ride on the mini tailgate! Now, I'll be the first to admit that the hubs and I both have quite a bit of junk in our trunk and thought we would be thrown off at any bump we hit. HA!

The driver almost left without me as I was taking these pics!

God is good and nobody was hurt with the big fireworks, except that Marko got a small burn on the tip of his thumb while lighting a Sparkler for Tita!  That only happened because they sure don't make punks like they used to, so he used a lighter.  I remember using one punk all night long as a kid as long as we blew on it to keep it lit.  Not anymore.


We had a really great time and we'll definitely be back next year!


Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe 4th!

Dinner flop

Last night we dressed up somewhat and went to what we thought would be a nice dinner.  We didn't dress up dress up, but we didn't wear our usual summer attire of shorts, tank tops and flip flops, that's for sure.  We ended up deciding on going here:

We've been to this restaurant once, maybe 12 years ago when we lived in Amarillo, Texas.  I somewhat remembered it as a nice dining experience, so off we went.


The chips/guacamole/cheese we ordered when we first got there were good.
The food was horrible.  The service was horrible.  We were freezing the entire time because the AC must have been set to at least 35 degrees!
The experience was, yep, you guessed it: horrible.  The whole thing was one big, fat fiasco.  The hubs and I were even on the brink of a stupid argument because everyone was on edge. (Just keepin' it real!)
Oh, and the straw that broke the camel's back?  I had an entire glass of ice water spilled all over my blouse and pants.  People probably thought I walked out of there because I peed my pants.


Yeah.


Oh, and I'd be remiss to mention that we all left with horrible stomach aches.  I think next time we'll just drive down the street to McDonald's and get a Big Mac.
I think the only member of our household that had a decent dinner last night was Peditos!  He ate his normal dinner of dog food that he eats day in and day out.


Let it suffice to say we will never go anywhere near the border again!

Father's Day 2012

Today we celebrate all the wonderful fathers in our lives!


First of all, the hubs:

Even though he didn't grow up in a traditional home with a mother and father, he somehow learned to be a great father all on his own.   My mother-in-law (RIP) would be very proud of him and the job she single-handedly did in raising him.  We are!
I chose this pic because it best shows his personality (:
Thank you for working hard to provide for your family and being a great dad.  We love you!  May God bless you today and always.


And since I had a dead-beat dad, I salute the awesome people who were my father figures:


To continue with awesome father figures in my life:

My mama.
She always worked so very hard to provide for us kids.  And for that I will always be grateful.  Thank you mom for all your hard work, dedication to your kids and teaching me how to work hard.  She also single-handedly raised us kids and selflessly worked jobs that usually only men worked.  For this, I am eternally grateful.  We joke with her that all those years of working "men's" jobs kept  her so healthy.  I am proud to say that my mom is now retired and takes absolutely no medications whatsoever.  That's right!   She's as healthy as a horse.  I thank God for keeping her so healthy and may He continue to bless her with great health for many years to come.  I love you Mom!


And this post just wouldn't be accurate without mentioning my uncle Joe (RIP):

Uncle Joe is the one in the middle.
One word to describe him? Excellence.
He really was amazing.  I love him and will treasure all the memories I made with him.  I have not one single bad memory of him.  Every single moment I was blessed with him was wonderful.  He would come into town tons of times and drive around and pick up all of his nephews and nieces and take us to the lake, out to eat, to the theater, to the park, driving around, you name it, uncle Joe took us. And all of us kids loved it.   Nobody every wanted to go home!
My favorite memory?  It's really hard to choose just one, but if I had to, it would probably be one day he showed up at my house very early and it was a weekday and we had gotten DUMPED with tons of snow.  I used to walk about a mile to school (no lie!) and I did not look forward to walking in all that snow to school.  I didn't know he was coming, but he showed up and asked me to get ready quickly because he had a surprise.  I didn't know what the surprise might be, but knowing uncle Joe, it had to be pretty awesome.   I rushed to get ready and imagine my surprise when we walked outside and I saw a snowmobile parked on the street!  We left the house about an hour before I had to be in school and he drove me all over Alliance.  It was awesome.  I almost talked him into excusing me from school that day.  Almost. (:
Thank you so much for all the memories, uncle Joe.  The mold truly was broken when you were born.  Nobody could ever take your place.  I miss you so very much.
He raised 4 great kids and between them, they have 7 kids that would have loved their grandpa.  And he would have absolutely adored them!


Then of course, Apa, my grandpa (RIP) is also on this list.

He had his faults, so I hear.  I never witnessed them.  He was the perfect grandpa.  And he was so smart and could fix anything!  And I knew he loved me. I loved to tag along with him as much as I was allowed to.  I remember feeling so special when he took me to work with him when I was about 9 years old and he drove a bus.  I thought I was the shizz!
I'd run to sneak the salt shaker out of the kitchen and sit in his massive garden and eat tomatoes freshly picked.  Yummy!  And if I wanted one of the cucumbers from the garden, he was always available to peel it with the pocketknife he always carried in his overall pocket.  These are awesome memories for me.
Well, now that I think about it, I guess he did have one fault.  He chewed this gum:

I didn't like the smell back then and to this day, I abhor the smell!
Although, my kids love this gum and whenever I smell it when they chew it, I remember Apa.  Thank you for all the memories and love, Apa.  I love you very much and miss you so much too!


Last, but not least, I have to salute this person:

This is my MIL (RIP).  She raised her kiddos by herself also.  And she did an excellent job working all her life to provide for her family.  


So I wish Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful men and women who stepped up to the plate and loved and nurtured kids, whether they actually were your children or you were/are a good man/woman and actually chose to.  People like me truly appreciate you!  May God bless you always.


My greatest wish is that my son Marko inherited the best qualities each of these amazing people have.  Because sooner than I'd like, he'll grow up, get married and if God blesses him with children, he'll be awesome in his role as daddy.


Psalm 103:13 
As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

Accents and Languages

When I was a kid, there used to be a television show called "Kids Say The Darndest Things" and that's all it basically was:  Kids saying the cutest, most unexpected and well, darndest things.  It was a fun, family show.
Well, as any mom can tell you, this really does happen with kids, and unless you document it somewhere, unfortunately, many times, it is forgotten.
Even with my kids being the ages that they are, we will still have a good laugh about something they say or have said.
This happened twice with Marko in as many days, so I want to document it so it isn't forgotten, so if this isn't your cup of tea, or in our case, sweet tea, I apologize.


Part 1:


Anyway, I walked into Marko's bedroom Thursday and he happened to have Family Guy on the TV.  I don't know the characters too well, but Brian the dog, Stewie,  and a man and Jillian were all seated in a French restaurant.  The man at the table and the waiter were having a conversation in French.  Brian  commented that he didn't know the man spoke French, to which Jillian replied "He also speaks Orange!"  The man corrected her and said "It's called Mandarin, Dear."


Marko and I laughed and I left.  Marko couldn't believe how funny it was.


Well, the next day, Marko was drinking orange juice and he asked Tita if she spoke Orange.  Tita didn't know what Marko was talking about, so I asked him to tell her about Jillian.


Marko proceeds to tell her how they were seated in the restaurant, blah blah blah,  the man and the waiter conversing in French and Jillian saying that the man also speaks Orange.
Than, Marko said: "The man corrected her and said "It's called Tangerine, Dear."


Oh my gosh, I laughed at him so much and it took me a couple of minutes to be able to tell Tita what Jillian really said.  Needless to say, we didn't let him live it down!  It was even funnier than what Jillian said!


Part 2:


Well then last night we were driving to King Soopers for some snacks and Marko and Tita were sitting in the back seat.

This is the conversation I heard:

Tita:  "Let's put a shrimp on the barbie!"  (and she said it a la Jim Carey in the movie Dumb & Dumber)
Marko: "Tita, I'm tired of you and your British accent!" (coincidentally, also a la Jim Cary in the movie Dumb & Dumber!)
Tita:  "Ummm, it's Australian, Marko!"
Marko: "Oh."


We laughed and gave him a really hard time about that one too.  All in good fun, though.


Here's the clip for those of you unfamiliar with this scene:




I love my kids and I love all the hilarious things they've said and done.  Kids really do say the darndest things and I am truly blessed with the amazing kids God blessed me with. (: