100th post

Wow, this has come up so fast.........I can't even believe this is actually my 101st blog post! how time has gone by.  Nonetheless, it has been a great experience having this personal blog were I've been able to share my creative thought with the world, were I have made some amazing friends, and were I have become inspired to keep going on.  Life is still as bright and beautiful to me as the day this all started.  Thank you for reading my entries and for having a positive mind as well.  Hope for many more postings in the future.  To all, keep on reading and enjoying. Keep living and enjoying life and the people around you.  Make each day matter.  THANK YOU!!

Halloween

That time of the year again, Second week of October, time for some Halloween preparations.  I personally could wait till the day of, but I still have my little Andrew who plans ahead and urges me to bring out the decorations.  As promised to him by me, we would get it done this weekend, so that is what we did with our Sunday.  Went under the house to dig out all of our decorations.  We are on the frugal side, so we recycle our decorations from one year to the other.  Not such a good time to be wasting money on new stuff.  Any ways, I think it turned out great, and my Andrew was so happy with the end result.  I want to enjoy this as long as I can.  Someday it will be my little Andrews son out there decorating my house.........yes I do look forward to grand kids. For now, I enjoy my own children.  Childhood, what a valuable treasure it is.

Pepe Aguilar concert

How exciting, going to a concert tonight! Pepe Aguilar, such a great Mexican singer.  My husband and I have enjoyed his music for years now.  It will be so awesome to hear him live.  We don't go out to concerts much, it's different once you have a family and sometimes it's just not in the budget to go to a concert.  But this time it was a super deal.  Marcial got some tickets from work and with that we only paid an additional $20 each to get good seats.  We are pretty lucky to have some really cool amphitheaters here in San Diego.  The one we are going to is called Cricket Amphitheater.  It's so cool because you are enjoying music under the stars.  I can't wait to be there at the concert, so fun for mommy and daddy today, a little fun date.

Moments are to be lived

Moments are to be lived and savored. Don't wait till tomorrow, or the next to say you love someone.  To express how very important that person is to you.  Bring out the good china, set yourself an amazing table.  Buy flowers, or pick some from your garden.  Let your table be a celebration of being in the moment with the ones you love.  I used to do something really dumb before.  I would keep my table real simple. Nothing special about it. Always thinking my children were too young and wouldn't appreciate something nice.   Back then we were doing a once a month dinner, all my girl cousins and myself.  When it would be my turn to host the dinner, I would bring out the nice plates and utensils.  I would buy flowers for the center of the table.  When I would  really want my table to look amazing, I would even put some candles for ambiance.  All this was beautiful and my cousins enjoyed sitting at such a nice table, but then it hit me one day.....why don't I do this for the people who really mean the world to me? why do we do things for others and not for our own family?.  Hopefully that's not the case with you.  But sadly with me it was.  Nowadays, my table always has a cute centerpiece, I have brought out the beautiful plates permanently, and every dinner is enjoyed at our beautiful table.  There is nothing better in life than enjoying a meal surrounded by the ones you love.  That might just be my favorite part of the day.  When I sit by my husbands side and look around at my children, and listen to their beautiful words.  I'm grateful to God because he brings light into our lives so we can see where we are doing wrong and how easy it is to change things.  God is Love.

Birthday dinner at Phils

I can't say enough about this delicious BBQ place.  The food is so good, the meat falls of the rib good.  For this birthday I picked this place because I usually pick Italian food, but last night we made pasta at home, so it was too early for me to eat Italian again.  Phils BBQ was the best choice.  The kids enjoyed it and they had never been there before, so it was great taking them with us.  The funniest thing happened when we were leaving, it relates to the last picture you see here.  We asked one of the waiters to take a picture of our family right outside the restaurant, but while he took the picture he mentioned that "phil turned around".  Which sounded weird at the time, but then walking out came this man and we started hearing something about Phil, so we turned and asked if he was Phil, and yes it was the famous Phil, owner and founder of Phils BBQ.  We shook his hand and looked very excited about meeting him, you would think we were meeting the president of the United States, goes to show you how big we are on eating good food.  It was a nice ending to our dining experience at Phils.  If you ever come to San Diego, make sure and stop in for some of the countries best ribs and chicken.   Great Food........Great People........Great Service.
Thank you to my children for their presents.  Two of my favorite movies and some yummy dark chocolate.... I love dark chocolate........they know.  Thank YOU.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

It's my birthday today and I'm full of joy and gratitude for all that I've lived in this past year.  I'm happy to be turning 42, I feel no worries about it.  Unlike some women who don't like to age.  I have enjoyed and savored every single year because each year has brought something special and has given me a little more wisdom.  Life is a big giant school and I'm enjoying all it has to offer.  What plans do I have for my birthday?  We are going out to dinner with our children.  Phil's BBQ.  That is yummy and I know the kids will enjoy it.  I know my husband thought it would be him and me together......all alone in a romantic dinner, but this is my philosophy:  I feel that you teach your children what you expect from them.  And this might sound selfish but I want my children to value me and love me and know that birthdays are special.  I hope they will grow up and at least call me on the day of my birthday.  I feel if we don't celebrate and include them now that they are young, someday they will grow up and not care about my special day.  I don't want them to look back and say "well we never used to celebrate your b-day, we didn't know you cared about it so much".  So there, that is my philosophy on teaching children that you are special and they need to value you.  Moms are very special people. And I'm a MOM.

Quinceañera, Mardi Gras style

Daddy and Gilie

Moni and Natalia at the masquerade party

These girls know how to party!

The beautiful birhday girl (center)

Mommy and Daddy

We attended my nieces quinceañera this past weekend.  In the Mexican culture it is a big party thrown for the young girl when she turns 15.  It's a celebration that goes back ages, when people would marry their daughters off at a very young age.  So they would throw these elaborate parties and get the girls looking so pretty, as to attract an appropriate suitor.  But now, they don't marry young, they still have fun with their big party, surrounded by all their family and their very close friends.  We all had a wonderful time at the party.  There was lots of dancing, and I got to see my kids doing some dancing of their own.  It was lots of fun.