Snowstorm 2011

Remember the snow storm we were blasted with on Wednesday?  Our city was dumped with thirteen inches of snow!!  Yeah.  It was bad.  Schools everywhere in the area were cancelled (well, THAT part wasn't bad :), but half of the city was without power for quite a long time.  My mom's house being one of them, so she and my brother spend the night here at our house. 

Everywhere in the city there were massive trees split in half with the weight of the wet snow and unfortunately, some of those humongous branches fell onto houses and cars (!)  The trees that didn't split down the middle were literally draped over fences and left hanging on for dear life. (see the photos below).   Had the fence not been there to support the trees, they would have been laying on the ground!  It was a mess.

But at Casa Silva, Gabriella and Peditos braved the bitter cold to go outside to play...  I KNOW!
Here's Tita starting her masterpiece:

What masterpiece you ask?  Well...
13" of snow + one feisty 11-year-old with tons of energy = a SNOWMAN! (:

 She had lots of fun and I may or may not have helped her lift the huge snowballs..

 Love that girl!

 Peditos had CLUMPS of snow stuck to his legs, but he would not go inside!!  Are you kidding?  He was having too much fun in the snow too.

Peditos had a nice warm bath after coming indoors and Tita snuggled under a blanket to watch a movie.
Thank you Mother Nature! (:

A birthday letter to my handsome son, Marko (:

October 27, 2011


Dear Marko,


Today is such a wonderful day for many reasons.  For example, today marks the most beautiful and meaningful day of my entire life.  That's right!  Thirteen years ago, after such an incredibly hard, difficult labor--so hard, in fact, that you and I almost didn't make it -- Your dad and I finally welcomed you into this world at 10:55 a.m.
My labor was so hard on you and I because you got stuck in the birth canal for hours, and you were born completely black because you didn't have any oxygen.  I almost lost you.  But God is so good.  The doctors performed an emergency C-section and were able to free you and get you out.  Your being stuck caused you to be born with an epic cone-head.  Like massive.  In my eyes, you were the most beautiful baby in the whole world.  They immediately wisked away because of all of the problems you had being born, but before they took you, the nurse brought you to me so I could introduce myself to you, kiss you and tell you I loved you so very much.  I think you already knew, because I told you "I Love You" every single day of my pregnancy.  I loved you from the second I knew you existed! 

Within a few hours of your birth, your color returned to normal and your head shrunk to a normal size as well.  You were brought to my room and I never let you go back to the nursery.  You were my baby and you belonged with me.  It was hard moving around with just having the C-section done, but having you near me made me forget the pain.  I didn't get much sleep at the hospital because the only thing I wanted to do was stare at you, take your pictures and love on you.  I just couldn't get enough of you  (:

Of course, every "first" baby memory is with you.  The first time I felt you hiccup, or the time I felt your foot when you stretched real hard while in my womb.  The firt time I breastfed, the first time I bathed a newborn, the first time I loved another human being more than my life, the first time I cheered on with all of my heart when you learned to roll-over, crawl and finally walk.  The first time anyone called me mama.  The first time I dropped you off at pre-school. And I cried all the way home.  My first plumpkin plie blizzard was with you too (:

You were such a good baby and everyone loved you so much!
 I was pregnant with Tita soon after (!), and you were an awesome little brother to Ivan, Laura & Lynette, and a great big brother to Tita.

Here we are 13 years later and I really can't believe it.  The time really has flown by.  You have grown into such a fine young man and your talent blows me away.

My birthday wishes for you today are that you are always immensly happy, healthy and successful--in whatever you decide to become.  I also wish that you never forget the morals I have taught you.  To always work very hard, say please and thank-you and to always respect yourself first, and to always respect your elders and women.  Always.
My wish is also that you fiercely follow your dreams.  And to dream BIG.
One more wish--that you stay a kid as long as possible.  You have plenty of time to be an adult.  Enjoy your childhood now that you are still a child.
Oh, and just so you know: You weren't the only one born on this beautiful day.  A mama was also born on October 27, 1998:

Me!


hApPy BiRtHdAy mArKo!!!!!!!  I love you to the moon and back a million times over.

May God bless you and protect you today and always.

Sincerely,
Honey (mom)  (:

Snow Day!

Some of you, depending on where you lived as a kid, may recall that feeling you'd get when you would wake up to get ready for school, look out the window and see this:

 And suddenly, the thought of heading out in this weather to go to school isn't too appealing??  Especially if you had to walk a couple miles --uphill, both ways--to get to school??  (:

And then you'd find out schools in most of your area were cancelled for the day.  So, you'd go back to your warm bed dileriously happy because you could??


Yeah......I'm feeling THAT this morning!

And yes, I'm posting this from the comfort of my bed! HA!


Thank you Mother Nature for dumping a FOOT of snow in my city......    (:

Happy Snow Day!!

TBTN

A couple weeks ago I gave a speech before....oh, about 5 hundred people.  Yeah, imagine that!  It was the international event of "Take Back The Night" (TBTN).  If you aren't familiar with TBTN, it is a rally held at most college campuses to bring awareness of abuse to women.    The first TBTN was in Belgium in March 1976.  Women marched while holding candles to protest against violence against women worldwide.  The first TBTN event held in the United States was in San Francisco in 1978.  They are now held not only in big cities, but also at smaller college campuses as well.  I was asked to share an experience I had some years back, and I'll admit, I was very nervous.

I decided to share my experience because I felt it was important to let people know how easily you could be targeted for violence. This happened to me before Armando and I even met, so of course, this was before I had children.

My experience was very terrifying and I wouldn't want anyone to ever have to experience this. That is the reason I decided to speak at the TBTN, after I was asked to share my story. I need women to understand that this can happen to anyone. Anywhere.

It all began Mother's Day 1995, at Wal-Mart. A man was walking out as I was walking in and he said "Hello." I said "Hello" to him and continued walking in to the store. I was in the store for about 90 minutes and found him waiting at the door as I was walking out.
He said "Hello" to me again, but this time, I ignored him and walked to my Jeep pretty fast and locked my doors.
He followed me to my friend's house (who was not home) and actually tried getting me out of my car after I parked in my friend's driveway! I pleaded with him to leave me alone and was able to bluff him into thinking we were outside my parents' home and that my dad was coming out of the house with a gun. He ran to his car and drove away.
As I drove away, I noticed him following me again, but he sped away when he saw me drive into the police department parking lot.

The next day, I hadn't noticed, but he again followed me to a breakfast meeting and again, I struggled with him because he tried getting me to forcefully get me to his car again!  I was able to get away from his grip and run inside the restaurant.  He wasn't arrested because he took off.

A few months later, he killed his wife.

The police weren't able to collect enough evidence for a conviction, so he wasn't charged with her murder. Until 2009. He was arrested at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada and brought to Colorado to face a murder charge. The jury convicted him for his wife's murder and he was sentenced to life in prison.  He will never have the opportunity to hurt anyone ever again.
Justice was a long time coming for his wife and her family, but they finally got the justice they deserve.

You know, I'll never know what triggered him stalking me, but one thing I do know: I am well aware of the fact that had he suceeded in getting me to his car one of those two terrifying days, I might have also disappeared.

He stalked many women. One of the women he stalked actually found him hiding in her bedroom closet! Of the women he stalked, I was one of the lucky ones.

Again, I urge all women to always be aware of your surroundings.  And you must report anything like this  to the police if it happens to you!

I never thought something like this would happen to me. But it did.  And I thank God that I was able to get away from him.

After the event, I got lots of comments from different students at school. Mostly, they told me how grateful they were that I spoke at the event because they never thought something like that could happen with just a simple "Hello." They now realize that it can and it is my hope that they will be just a little more cautious.

And if you get the chance to attend a TBTN events, do it. They really are powerful.
Oh, and it meant a lot to me to have my hubby, my BFF Lori, my oldest step-daughter Laura and some of my Stryker sisters there. You all are awesome!
Here are some pictures taken at the event:

  This is me and the hubs right after we arrived..

Again, I was very nervous because there were so many people there!  When it was my turn to go before the crowd, I looked out and realized that without my glasses, the only people I could see were the people in the front row!  HA!  I wasn't nervous anymore!

After I gave my speech, I was given roses and a t-shirt.

My handsome hubs:

Gabriella's 1st band concert!

My baby girl had her first band concert last week and I had the privilege of hearing her play her saxophone.  And I was so proud!

 I was tearing up.  Bad.  You know the cliche I'm gonna use, right?  Yeah.  Where did the time go? 

Seriously, just yesterday she was sitting in her high chair at the brown house with her little "fountain" pig-tails! (sigh..)

Hard to believe the baby of the family is in middle school.  Wow.

Her band teacher, Mr. Reed is just awesome with all of the kids.  I really don't know how he does it..

This concert consisted of the kids playing the scale (: , and even Old McDonald!

Gabriella's best friend, Claire is in Orchestra and plays the violin, so we stayed to listen to them also.

They have a Christmas concert scheduled sometime in December.  I can't wait!  It'll be exciting to hear how much they've learned from now until then (:

Last week was also parent/teacher conferences, and let me tell you how proud these kiddos made me and the hubs.  Every single teacher raved on my kids.  And it felt great!

Oh, and Marko's concert is this Tuesday!  Yay!

I hope you have a GREAT week!

Thank you Lord!

A few months ago I excitedly posted of Scotty McCreery being crowned the new American Idol winner.  I anxiously awaited the release of his CD and planned on buying it.

Well, my wonderful, thoughtful hubby recently came home and surprised me with it!:

I must say that I am NOT disappointed at all!  I love it.
His first single "Love You This Big" was my favorite song.......that is, until I heard track 9.
The song is called "Dirty Dishes," and I'm sure it brought tears to his mama's eyes when she heard it.  It sure choked me up!

Here are the lyrics:

Dirty Dishes

Performed by Scotty McCreery 

Mama hollers “Suppertime!”  And don’t make me tell you twice

Wash your hands and wipe your face

The table is no place for your toys, And try to use your inside voice

And don’t dig in ‘til we say grace, So we put down our forks and bowed our heads

And then she prayed the strangest prayer ever said 

“I want to thank You Lord For noisy children and slammin doors

And clothes scattered all over the floor

A husband working all the time, Draggin’ in dead tired at night

A never ending messy kitchen, And dirty dishes…" 

We all got real still and quiet

And Daddy asked “Hon, are you alright?”

She said “There aint nothing wrong, Noisy kids are happy kids

And slammin doors just means we live in a warm and loving home” 

Your long hours and those dishes in the sink means a job and enough to eat

So I’m gonna thank You Lord

For noisy children and slammin doors.  And clothes scattered all over the floor

A husband working all the, Draggin in dead tired at night

A never ending messy kitchen 

For my little busy bees beggin mama “Mama can we please?”

Always wantin’, needing, calling me

Loads of laundry piling up, Crayons crushed into the rug, And those little sticky kisses

And dirty dishes, And dirty dishes…

And here is the video:  Enjoy!

Thank you babe for that wonderful surprise!  It was perfect.

And thank you Lord for all the beautiful, wonderful blessings in my life.  They are absolutely perfect too (: