My Destiny

Live & Learn

2011-09-25T13:31:00.002-05:00

Well, it's been awhile since my last post and alot has happen. I switched jobs twice and now have left insurance in the past. I am now working as an admin assist at a boot & hat store and couldn't be happier! Only thing is learning the sales part, cashiering is almost like riding a bike, you never forget however, selling the merch is something that is out of my universe and will have to learn it.

I have learned to never give up on someone until they show you otherwise. I truly believed in my cousin and that he could do better with himself. I believed him when he would sit there with me and we would have talks BUT he showed me otherwise 8 months after moving in on my offer for room and board.

You know it's hard to understand people sometimes and seems like it's harder to understand family at times. But for whatever reason he chose his path and will walk it alone. I'm not going to say I won't be there for him, becuase he's family but there comes a point in life where you just can't help family sometimes because you have to think & take into consideration your own immediate family. I love you Jay and will pray daily for you, for God to keep you from harm and help you wake up.

Ex's & Ex's:
Well, I talked and have been talking to my "husband". Yes after 20+ years I'm still married to the first love of my life but only becuase I've tried to divorce but for some reason I just can't seem to get it finalized. :( He has told me how much he appreciates me for "sacar nuestros hijos adelante" teaching them to hold their own. He has told me how he is regretful for everything, not being there for the boys and especially for me. I just told him that everything happens for reasons, we weren't meant to be is all.

Dancing almost every weekend for the past month, I have runned into Alonso and smile when I see him dancing with someone. I am so happy for him, he still tries to bother me via text but i simply ignore them so the text have become less & less. I loved that man like no other and he truly broke my heart but I'm ok now and hope he finds happiness and love with someone who he deserves and deserves him as well. I can look at him and feel nothing but happy for him being with someone and happy for myself knowing that I'm not hurting any longer.

I have lived and learned these past few months and have learned quite a bit more about myself. I have learned that you can't fix people but you can help them and be there for them when they need somewhere to lean their weary bodies or simply lend them an ear. No matter what I will never give up on Jay or anyone else I may know suffering from addiction. I will try my best not to judge and simply ask "is there anything I can do for you".

I love my family ----NO MATTER WHAT!

First Choice Power....at their BEST again!

2011-07-08T14:41:00.002-05:00

So yesterday I blogged that First Choice helped me figure out my pay history and I pointed out to them that there was a glitch in the system.

Well, today after lunch I check my emails and find an email from FCP that they have credited my account $50 for my trouble from yesterday.

FIRST CHOICE POWER ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!

First Choice Power - My Prepaid Acct

2011-07-07T16:08:00.002-05:00

Back in Sept of 2010 I blogged about my new electric service with First Choice Power. A pay as you go service. Well after almost one year of service I couldn't be happier!

This week I requested a pay history for the month of June. After reviewing that summary I found a few discrepancies so I emailed my contact person and she had someone call me to help me figure this out.

Well, after much discussion, we found that there was a glitch that caused my payments on some occassions to double (catching this helps them correct a problem that could have otherwise gone unnoticed).

For the month of June 2011, a month that my AC never turned off during the day, never cooled my house below 80, I paid a whopping $270! BUT I never saw it because I made a total of 7 installments throughout the month of June.

I love this prepaid thing!

2011...Alone......Again

2011-01-28T16:10:00.002-06:00

Well, I began this year single again. I'm getting through slowly but surely. At 8:32a.m. rec'd a text message "como has estado?".....ignored it. At 8:42a.m. rec'd a 2nd one "no te puedo preguntar como te va?".....answered this one with the following: No porque asi empieza y luego me quebras mi corazon, es mejor que lo dejamos asi.

His response: "disculpa si te moleste adios"

Well, I tried to ignore it all completely but couldn't so I wrote him the following and finally released everything I've been holding inside since we 'BROKE IT OFF' last October.

no es q me molestas si no q tu sabes q tu y yo no puedemos ser ni amigos xq
a ti no te parece mis amistades ni parte de mi familia. quisiera mas que
nada poder saludarte cuando te veo pero no es posible contigo. yo soy una
persona que me tenta el corazon por otras personas y tengo mis razones xq.
tu no tienes idea todo lo q yo ha sufrido con mis hijos y toda la gente q si
me ayudo en eso años q no tenia carro. hasta un vecino me prestaba su
carro de vez en cuando. no sabes toda mi historia. yo agradezco de muy
adentro y prometi q si yo un dia le pudiera ayudar a alguien lo iba hacer
sin pensarlo pero tu me quitas mucho de eso y tambien por un hombre que no
valio nada quieres q deje de hablar con familia de mis hijos ellos no tiene
la culpa. no es que me interesa esa familia si no que los quiero xq son
familia. familia y amistades son mi vida y algun dia un hombre sera parte
de esa vida tambien. uno que sepa ser agradesido por la vida que tiene y
poder compartirla con familia, amistades, y estranjeros igual. tu ponte en
lugar de uno que es el unico hijo nacido sin hermanas, sin hermanos, sin
papa, sin madre y mas que nada sin amistades y ponte a pensar como te fueras
a sentir.

His Response: En mi vida no te buelvo a molestar ?disculpa ? Ahora si adios fui mui feliz con tigo ok honey adios adios adios

My final:
ni tan feliz xq no me aceptas asi como soy......como quien dice....tu quieres que sea nada mas para ti y yo no le puedo dar la espalda a nadien mucho menos familia. espero que un dia tu mismo te puedes querer lo suficiente para poder dejar tu corazon querer a alguien como se lo merecen...SIN CONDICIONES XQ EL AMOR NO TIENE CONDICIONES. yo te amo sin verguenza como debe de ser y aunque nunca dejastes de tomar sigui de tu lado y tambien todo le que me dijistes en frente tu familia sigui a tu lado.........eso es querer tu te quierias casar fijate que un matrimonio dice amar por lo bien y lo malo, en pobre y ricos......yo lo hice sin casarme contigo te ame en lo bien y lo malo.....pero al fin perdi y acepto por vencida. yo tengo todo lo mejor en mi vida...familia, amistades y mas que nada mi salud. gracias por desearme lo mejor pero lo tengo cumplido ya y la verdad no necesito un hombre para tener lo mejor, necesito un hombre solamente que me acompañia en ese camino tan bonito que Dios me ha puesto en frente de mi. pero a ti si te deseo lo mejor xq tienes tanto rencor por otros que yo la lleve y paque muy caro.

So 2011 here I come.........Single :)

40

2010-11-23T08:11:00.002-06:00

This year was my 40th birthday. I celebrated by going to school. I have accomplished many things in my first 40 years and blessed along the way. Along the way I have met hundreds of people who have stayed by my side since meeting them, who have come and gone and leaving a mark on my life and those who have truly inspired me. I have endured hardships as well as blessings from above.

I have watched my three children grow from babies, to toddlers, to young children, to teenagers into young men and a young lady. I lost someone who meant the world to me and gave me life and thinking nothing but positive going forward always, making sure we kept our heads up....my friend, my mother, Lupe Rios.

I have had a career for the past 17 years that happen to fall into my lap. I never thought for once that I would be able to say I have a career but anything is possible. I have strived to always make myself better with each passing year. I reflect back and think..what can I do different?

This year I decided to try again to go back to school for one of my most desired studies.......LAW. I made it! I got in to become a Paralegal with funding and loans and have been studying since June. I plan on graduating in October 2012, a few months before my youngest graduates from high school. So in five years from now I see myself in a law firm.

I see myself traveling to see my grandson in Georgia more often. I see myself living out in the country where I have dreamed of living since I can remember.

Yep my first 40 have been quite a ride and I only hope I live long enough to see my next 40 and say I have no regrets.

Happy 40th to me :)

Prepaid Electricity?

2010-09-17T16:35:00.007-05:00

First Choice Power – Prepaid

Finally, something that works in my favor! Being a single parent it’s hard to budget from one check to the next, especially when you have teenagers in school doing the extra curricular stuff such as band.

One day I had received my electric bill in the mail and it was $265 and it was due in a matter of days to avoid a disconnection, again. So I called up the company and asked for an extension to my next pay date and it was declined because they simply don’t do that.  The Rep that I was talking to then told me to try a prepaid service. So I looked up prepaid and found First Choice Power Prepaid (pay as you go).

The service rep @ First Choice Power explained the program to me and it sounded like something that I could handle. So I made my first “installment” and the best part is no credit check and NO DEPOSIT. That just made my day.

So I began this so call “pay as you go prepaid service”. The initial amount I paid was $50 to get started. According the cost per kwh at .129 I would have an estimated 5 days worth of electricity.

ALERT! ALERT! My cell phone rec’d a text message about 3 days after I started the new account and lo and behold it’s from First Choice Power telling me that I had a low balance remaining and what my estimated number of days were left on the account. It told me how much I had used on a given day as far as funds and kWh.

I loved it! So I called up with my debit card and made a payment. No sooner I had hung up the phone that I get another text telling me my payment had been rec’d. Any faster would have burned my phone – LOL.

Since signing up with First Choice Power Prepaid, I have a better control over my electricity usage and can avoid any interruptions in service. I also am more aware of leaving my lights on so now when I walk out of a room I automatically reach for the switch. Switching to First Choice Power Prepaid has made me switch my habits from money consuming to money saving and energy saving.

Make the switch!

School

2010-07-02T10:45:00.002-05:00

I am going to school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does it sound like I'm excited? Well I am! For the longest I can remember I have always wanted to work in an attorney's office. Well, now I'm going to get that opportunity. I start school July 12th at ACI in Grand Prairie to study to become a Paralegal. I am so happy that I have yet to stop crying, I just found out yesterday that my application was accepted and all I have to do is show up for class.

I'm actually going to be someone in two years I wll graduate and I will actually get to wear a cap and gown.

I can't give enough thanks to my God up above for answering my prayers. As I was taught in church prayers are always answered in one of three answers: no, yes and wait.

It's true, good things come to those who wait.

On Hold

2010-06-21T09:27:00.003-05:00

Well, I recently broke up with my boyfriend about a month or so ago. Since then I have kept busy and I find that I started doing things again. By that I mean things that I stopped doing to be in a relationship. I don't blame him because he didn't 'make' me stop doing anything but I stopped because I knew that it would make him happy so to say. So basically I put my life on hold for him and that's wrong. I promised I would never do that and I did.

I stopped going dancing (my favorite thing to do second to movies), I stopped washing my truck every weekend (he didn't like doing that), stopped seeing friends, stopped going for drives just because, I stopped caring about myself but most importantly I stopped caring about others and helping others when I could.

I loved him with all my heart and I know that he will continue to have a special place within me but I could no longer be that person he wanted me to be.

There were several times we were invited to parties of my friends and what not but he never wanted to go because he didn't know anyone. However, on his side we attended several 15's, weddings, baptisms, birthdays..etc and I hardly knew people but I would never tell him no because I didn't know anyone. That's what couples do but I was happy, or so I thought.

What brought all this to light is that I visited my best friend of 25 years. We have been through ups and downs, laughs and crys, relationships and life. She is my sister at heart. He didn't approve of my visiting her one day after her husband of 11 years left. She needed me at a time like that, she is an only child and we have always been there for each other.

I wish him all the best in what ever he may do and I wish him happiness with whomever he choses to love.

I find that I'm happier these days and I feel free when I call someone just to say Hi! or can visit them and talk over a cup of coffee. A relationship with someone shouldn't make you feel like a prisoner of that person's heart it should make you feel happy in whatever you do and not have to look back and ask 'is it ok'. Maybe living on my own for twenty years has something to do with it but just as I compromised for our relationship he should to. I was taught to put others first but that means he should too and that would mean putting me first rather than himself. Relationships are a give and take but if you take and not give anything in return then your relationship doesn't grow. It stands neutral.

I will continue to put others first however when it comes to a relationship I will make sure they are putting me somewhere at the top with others. :)

Me, Myself and I

2010-04-12T08:13:00.005-05:00

Very rarely do I get to spend a weekend where it's just me and not have to worry about getting home. Well, this weekend I did just that.

Friday headed to bingo took my neighbor with me and we had a good time. Saturday morning had a nice yard sale, made enough to hopefully repair my truck. I decided to splurge a little and bought me a new outfit. Headed home, showered, put a little makeup on and headed over to get my nails done. Something I haven't done in almost a year! After I finished headed over to spend some time with my best friend of 24 years to watch her husband's soccer game. After seeing myself in this picture, I wanted to cry. LOL I need to do something!

They lost 0-1, took my son to get him a pizza for late dinner. Slept really well that night, I've been tossing and turning alot lately and don't know why. Sunday I treated myself to bingo, then cashed in my free movie ticket to see "Why Did I Get Married Too". I swiped my movie watcher card and rec'd my 100th point again which meant a FREE NIGHT AT THE MOVIES! Woohoo. I rec'd another free ticket but this time with free popcorn and free drink. So after watching the Tyler Perry movie I cashed in my 2nd free ticket and watched Bounty Hunter. OMG Geard is so damn good-looking and that smile makes his eyes have this look woooooooo.

Finished my Sunday watching Celebrity Apprentice at my cousin's house. Afterwards, headed home and had a very sound sleep again. Maybe that's what I need is some more me, myself and I time. :)

Have a great week!

Yoplait Greek Yogurt Giveaway

2010-03-31T08:27:00.005-05:00

I don't know about any of you women out there but I like to nourish my inner Goddess and Yoplait Greek yougurt is one of the best way to do just that. :)
With 12 grams of protein -- twice that found in leading yogurts-- new Yoplait Greek nourishes from the inside out. Available in four delicious flavors, Strawberry, Blueberry, Honey Vanilla and Plain, the brand’s newest offering has a unique thick and creamy texture with the unmatched taste expected of Yoplait.

To celebrate its new Greek yogurt and to encourage women to nourish their inner goddess, Yoplait has teamed up with actress Izabella Miko, who plays Greek Goddess Athena in the epic adventure new Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ film “Clash of the Titans,” in theatres April 2 in 3D.

Yoplait has generously given me a gift pack to pamper myself and made it possible thru MyBlogSpark. They have both given me an extra gift pack to giveaway to one of my readers as well.

All you have to do for a chance to win is tell me how you get in touch with your inner goddess or what's your favorite flavor yogurt.

One comment per person, all duplicates will be deleted. Must be 18 and over, USA only. Ends April 6, 2010 10am Central. Winner will be chosen by random.org. Please include your email address in the comment if its not visible in your profile. This is the method you will be notified if you are the winner. Winner will have 24hrs to respond. Thanks!

Seventh Generation Giveaway

2010-03-24T08:44:00.005-05:00

When it comes to cleaning, I find that Seventh Generation gets the job done! Not only that but without the harmful toxic chemicals. Seventh Generation is eco-friendly and safe for the evironment.

Seventh Generation has partnered with eco-lifestyle consultant and author, Alexandra Zissu, whose new book, The Conscious Kitchen, discusses what’s good for your health, what’s good for the planet and what tastes great. Her book also includes great tips on maintaining a green and healthy kitchen, including:

Change is Good
Choosing cleaning products without indoor air pollutants like volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, is a simple and effective way to reduce your indoor air pollution. If you’re not prepared to switch everything overnight, start by swapping out the one product you use the most, and moving forward from there.

Think before you spray
Residues from cleaning products can last on a surface for longer than we we’d like to know and travel to areas that we sometimes don’t intend them to. Don’t contaminate your food by prepping it on a surface that may contain harsh chemical residues - rinse cleaning products from food preparation surfaces carefully or use botanical disinfecting cleaners that do not require a rinse step.

Home is Where the Clean Is
Your standard cleaners are good for removing soils and dirt from kitchen surfaces, but to tackle germs you need a cleaner that is effective against microbes like bacteria and viruses. Many cleaners contain ingredients that have antimicrobial properties such as vinegar or hydrogen peroxide, but the germ killing power of these is not necessarily guaranteed. To be sure you are killing germs, use an EPA registered disinfectant. Seventh Generation tapped into the disinfecting power of the common garden herb thyme, to provide a disinfecting cleaner that kills germs* naturally.

Make the Old New Again
Think twice about the items that you’re using to clean and dry your kitchen equipment and dishes. Use rags (like old t-shirts and washcloths) instead of paper towels. If you aren’t prepared to kick your paper towel addiction just yet, use only recycled versions that are unbleached or haven’t been whitened with chemicals containing chlorine and see how long you can make a roll last.

The Writing is on the … Sponge
Be sure to read the fine print on sponges and only purchase those that do not contain antimicrobial pesticides. Remember to store sponges in a dry place and frequently clean them by popping plastic sponges wet in a microwave for two minutes or boiling sponges for three minutes in water.

Mom Was Right, Wash Your Hands
Wash your hands with soap and water before and after prepping food, and always before eating. So much of what can be potentially harmful in a kitchen can be reduced by this simple act that doesn’t require any harsh chemicals whatsoever.

I just rec'd a gift pack and information made possible from Seventh Generation through MyBlogSpark.

you can also win a gift pack of your very own. Simply comment how you keep your family safe from chemicals? What is the best thing you have done for the environment this year?

One comment per person, all duplicates will be deleted. Must be 18 and over, USA only. Ends March 30, 2010 10am Central. Winner will be chosen by random.org. Please include your email address in the comment if its not visible in your profile. This is the method you will be notified if you are the winner. Winner will have 24hrs to respond. Thanks!

Betty Crocker Giveaway

2010-03-24T08:18:00.004-05:00

When it comes to cooking and baking, I take after my mom, I love kitchen stuff. I especially love stainless steel and baking cakes and cookies and brownies OH MY!

Me and my daughter made some delicious Betty Crocker brownies with our new gift set from Safeway and Betty Crocker made possible through MyBlogSpark.

Right now from March 24th through April 6th, visit the Safeway family of Stores to purchase Betty Crocker SuperMoist Cake and Traditional Brownie Mixes at the special price of $0.69! check BakeSweetMemories.com for great coupon offers that download right to your Safeway Club card. This Spring, Betty Crocker makes life a little sweeter. You can also get some really great recipes to make some fun desserts for your whole family.

Safeway, Betty Crocker and MyBlogSpark are also giving me an extra gift pack to giveaway to one of my readers.

In order to win this giveaway, please leave a comment and share which spring recipes from the Bake Sweet Memories website you would most likely try or what your favorite part about spring is.

One comment per person, all duplicates will be deleted. Must be 18 and over, USA only. Ends March 30, 2010 10am Central. Winner will be chosen by random.org. Please include your email address in the comment if its not visible in your profile. This is the method you will be notified if you are the winner. Winner will have 24hrs to respond. Thanks!

Family

2010-03-15T08:24:00.003-05:00

This weekend, started like any other, Saturday I got up, loaded the truck to go set up a yard sale. It was such a gorgeous day! Finished up aobut 2 and headed home. Decided my truck had a long over due wash to give it and I also, asked my cousin if she wanted her truck washed.....of course :).

Alonso showed up just as I finished cousin's truck up and told him he could help with mine :)

Afterwards headed to the store to find curtains for daughter's room, we headed to the thrift store seeing as they usually have some really great stuff for some really low prices. She found her a couple of school pants and shirts and her curtains. Next door to the thrift store is a new grocery store in the area, headed in for some basics for Sunday breakfast eggs, bread, milk etc.. Well, found a 10lb. bag of papas for only $1.00 and the bread for 2 for $1.00 and some pork chop end cut for only .77 a lb. OMGatos! So I turned to Alonso and said let's cook out tomorrow some chops. OK, said let's invite Daniela for dinner...ok, called her and in my head I'm like she may not feel up to coming over why not take it to her. Yep, anyway they were expecting company as well.

So Sunday morning got up did a couple of loads of laundry, hung them on the line, cleaned my kitchen, mopped, headed out to help Al look for some work pants, came back on beans on the fire, prepared meat, and all the fixins I needed, loaded up the car and headed to sister's. Of course I called my younger sister to join us and then Daniela invited her brother Albert and family.

Had a great time, we all saw the season premiere of Celebrity Apprentice with Sinbad, Sharon Osborne, Cindi Lauper, among other big names.

I hope we have many more weekends together as a family. I love my FAMILY!

To Dialysis or Not

2010-02-23T11:33:00.003-06:00

I visited my sister this past weekend and she looked so much better.

Back in 2005 when I walked into my uncle's hospital room I saw my grandfather laying there and not my uncle. My uncle was the spitting image of my grandfather to the T. Last year, several times when I would walk into my mother's hospital room I saw my grandfather at times (she had his nose) and even though I don't remember my grandmother, my mom looked like her at times (I know my grandmother by pics).

This past weekend as I walked into my sister's room, I opened the door slowly and she looked just like my momma. She has my mother's mouth/lips, her hands. She was eating a tamale I had brought her and as she began to wipe her mouth I happen to turn to look at her and exact same movements as my mother.

I have never been told that I look like my mother but alot of people who know me and have met my sisters have always stated that Daniela looks like my mom. :)

My sister told me that the doctor wanted to insert a perm line for dialysis. She says no and wants to leave and see what happens. I asked her if she leaves and finds down the road that she doesn't feel right or something is bothering her, would she hesitate again to be seen? She said no but it wasn't a confidant no.

I feel that we have a second chance with my sister and I intend to make the best of it.

So to my sister I say.......if you feel bad and you mention it to me don't be surprised if I'm trying to drag you out of the house to take you to see the doctor :)

I love you!!!

My Inspiration

2010-02-15T14:47:00.004-06:00

I called a company today to discuss a client renewal premium. While on hold the song "You're my Inspiration" happen to play on their hold music. I love Chicago and the songs they sing. I was singing along and realized that not once have I ever given thought to anyone or anything being my inspiration in life.

Many kids in school are asked to write an essay at some point as as assignment asking "Who inspires you?" I watch Ugly Betty without missing an episode. Yes I read her blog on their website (http://forums.abc.go.com/binspiredblog). I use to feel how Betty used to dress. Confused, mixed thoughts, didn't know where my life would go. Just the other day, I was thinking to myself and I realized that I never thought I would have a career so to say.

My first job was at McDonalds, making $3.25 an hour and going to high school. I worked for McD's for about 5 years, worked for Ace Cash Express, Print shop, North Texas Food Bank, Albertsons, Sears Portrait Studio, Construction, Fiesta, Cocktail waitress, office manager and Insurance agent.

Insurance is the one that stuck without looking for it. I just happen to pick up on it, researched, learned, and appreciated the fact that I worked with helping people understand a very important product to protect their investments in their lives.

During all the jobs I've had, I raised three children. At times I worked two jobs. I have been blessed for the past 15 years I have only had to work one job to make ends meet while raising my children. There were some very rough bumps along that road. But I made it and I admit there were several people who I have to thank that reached out a hand to help me cross those bumps. My sisters are two of them. One more than the other (not afraid to say it). Three sisters, I'm the middle. Daniela, my older sister helped by putting up with my kids while I worked. Of course mom taught me that if I could pay a total stranger to watch my kids then I could pay family, so I paid my sister and mother to babysit my children while I worked. She loved them in her own strange ways. Victoria was her Monkey LOL, I can't quite remember what she use to call Gabriel or Michael.

Mom of course was always there to lend a helping hand. But Mom and Daniela did inspire me. The fact that they didn't make it easy for me by watching my children as a 'favor' or mom didn't let me live in her apartment rent free is inspiration enough to make myself say "I can do this".

I see Ugly Betty and it inspires me as well. That no matter what people think of you or say, do you own thing. As long as you are happy with yourself then the heck with everyone else. :P Mom use to say the same thing but I never did listen but seeing it with my own eyes it hit me. Betty dresses to her liking not everyone elses, she does what she likes and eats what she likes.

Like mother like daughter

2010-02-12T14:29:00.002-06:00

My sister is in the hospital to have a huge abcess removed. I have been bugging her to go to the ER to have it looked at but just like my mother did when she refused to go get her foot checked out, my sister kept refusing or making faces. Again, I feel a bit of guilt as I did with my mother. I am able to make them go by calling an ambulance and putting them on the spot that way but I don't because I'm afraid of what my sister my say to me or rather maybe not even speak to me.

Well, surgery was done to remove the infection and she was told that they would have to do surgery again in a couple of days to remove the remainder of it. WHAT?? yep apparently too much to remove in one shot. See if my sister had gone when I suggested or rather urged her to, she wouldn't be suffering as much right now. What makes it even worse is her being diabetic. Yep, just like mom she is diabetic.

So when it comes to any of us three being like mom, well I think we are all like her in one way or another but I think D takes the biggest part of refusing medical attention.

I pray that she heals, I pray that when she feels the least bit sick or sees the need to be seen by a doctor that she take one look at her daughter and says to herself, if for no one else I'm going and do it.

I know that this post may cause her to be upset with me but I'm glad she finally went and next time I think I'll just put her thru the embarrassment of calling an ambulance because i rather she be mad at me than not have her here at all.

I'm not ready to lose a sister and my big sister at that. :) I love you!!

Yoplait Winner!

2010-02-09T13:35:00.002-06:00

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:

1
Timestamp: 2010-02-09 19:34:54 UTC

my winner for the $50 gift card giveaway is number 1! MIranda has 24 hours to reply to my email with her address.

Congrats and thanks to everyone.

Yoplait Giveaway

2010-02-03T14:14:00.004-06:00

Did you know that Yoplait Fiber One has 5 grams of fiber, that's 20 percent of the Recommended Daily Value and only 50 calories!! Lisa Lillien, a food expert and best-selling author AKA Hungry Girl has given her seal of approval. check out what she has to say at hungry-girl.com.

Between now and Feb 9th you can run out and buy 2 4-pack of Yoplait for only $4!

Thanks to Myblogspark,Safeway and Fiber One I received a VIP coupon good for a free 4 pack of Fiber One yogurt AND a $50 Safeway gift card so I can stock up my fridge with all the healthiness :). Gift card is also good at Dominick’s, Tom Thumb, Randalls, Vons, Genuardi’s.

Also thanks to Myblogspark,Safeway and Fiber One I'm giving away a $50 gift card to Safeway (also good at Dominick’s, Tom Thumb, Randalls, Vons, Genuardi’s). All you have to do is comment what is your favorite flavor of yogurt.

One comment per email, open to all U.S residents only, any and all duplicates will be deleted. Winner will be chosen using random.org on Monday Feb 8, 2010 at 1pm CST. please include your email address in the comment if its not visible in your profile. This is the method you will be notified if you are the winner. Winner will have 24hrs to respond. Thanks

Good Luck and healthy eating!

Military Ball 2010

2010-01-29T08:45:00.015-06:00

Tobi had her high school JROTC Military Ball the weekend after her party. She was like Col said we could leave after the ceromony. I thought to myself, she is not going to want to leave. And I was right. Again, she danced almost every song just like she did at her party and had a 'ball'. I am a chaperone for JROTC so I was there the whole night and got to witness my daughter having fun. I also saw my niece, Nathalie. When I saw her she commented "I don't feel like being here". Well this ball is manadatory for all cadets and so I'm like ok she won't be staying for the dance. Was I wrong!She was having the time of her life as well. Also saw my cousin, Tommy Jr. having fun as well.We finally left about 11pm, got home and Tobi is like whew! I'm tired. LOL

Jan 2010

2010-01-29T07:53:00.015-06:00

Well, my year of 2009 ended with family and 2010 began with family. Is there any other way to start? January has been a full month for me. We entered new year at my house and my daughter had some friends over for a sleepover so they could wish her a happy birthday at midnight. She chose a snickers cake and rec'd presents that only she could appreciate. Like a jar of dirt, monster drink, wristband that says I love zombies. yep that's my daughter, she rec'd a mp3 player and a brand new casio keyboard with a stand.

On Friday the 1st she went with her dad for the weekend and me and my sisters had breakfast, again at my house. headed over to a thrift store to see what we could find. Later me and Mira headed to the casino in Okie. No luck but had fun.

During the two weeks that followed, I had alot to get done in time for Tobi's 15th birthday party which was on Jan 16th. There were decorations to buy, cake to pay, and centerpieces to make. I finally decided on centerpieces after much looking around and trying to think of something to put together. So I bought all the decorations and had everything done.

Well, the big day arrived and I was up at the crack of dawn, loaded my truck with all the stuff i needed for her party, decorations, centerpieces, all my 'banquet' untensils, coolers. Headed to my first stop, pick up the cake by 9am.

Why did it not surprise me that the first thing of the day and it didn't turn out the way it should have. The cake I ordered and the cake I was looking at were different and by that I mean in size. So I explain to the lady and she fixed me up with a 1/4 sheet cake right away so that I could have enough for everyone. I got the cake at Lakeview Bakery in Rowlett on hwy 66. Good job on the cake!

Next, headed over the the Days Inn in Mesquite to decorate the dance hall. Tobi's stepmother and sister were going to meet me there to help me out. Well, next upset was that Sonny the manager had told me not to worry about tablecloths he would provide them. I'm like ok where are my tablecovers? He says no I said to bring your own and I'm like no and the look on my face showed that I can cancel this and move it fast. So he piped up, I'll give you some money and you can go buy them and just bring me the receipt. FAIR

I wanted to finish everything by 2pm so I could get home and cook the food for the party, pasta and garlic toast. Got home, sister Daniela, arrive shortly after and helped me make the toast. I think we made like 8 or 9 loaves of bread LOL. Made the pasta penne and rotini with some ground meat mixed in with sauce. I noticed that I wouldn't finish cooking all the pasta by 5 so headed next door to ask my cousin to cook a pot of pasta for me, whew what a life saver. We finished and i jumped in shower.

the invitation said 6pm and i was jumping in shower at 5! Finally arrived at 6:05, DJ was set up, people had already arrived too. Set up food table and everything went smoothly.

My daughter looked so beautiful. I have never seen her look more beautiful than she did that night. What I think every daughter should have is a daddy daughter dance and she got hers :)Thanks to my sister, Daniela and her husband Gabino, I have pictures to look back on and a video :)

She had a head table with 14 of her friends to accompany her. All of her friends are so awesome. They all had a blast on the dance floor too.

I love cereal!

2010-01-04T10:42:00.005-06:00

General Mills cereals graciously sent me 4 free coupons for some cereal and this was made possible through MyBlogSpark :).

I went out and got our cereal. My daughter loves it with no milk while I have to have my milk. Breakfast has always been known as the most important meal of the day. Did you know that with a good breakfast you tend to remember things, are more alert and function better overall.

Cereal is one of the healthiest breakfast choices you can possibly make. Ready to eat cereal also has fewr calories than most other common breakfast option. if you click here you can read all about cereal and breakfast.

http://www.generalmills.com/corporate/health_wellness/pdfs/Benefits_of_Cereal.pdf

Thanks General Mills and MyBlogSpark!!

Another 15

2009-12-14T14:49:00.002-06:00

Enjoyed music, food, dancing at my sister's neice's 15 on Saturday. She is so beautiful!

Virgen de Guadalupe

2009-12-14T14:32:00.004-06:00

Dec 12 of every year is celebrated on the eve of this day. It's the day that the Virgen of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego on his cloak in 1531. That was 478 years ago. This year is my first year to attend the midnight mass in her honor. I've always been curious to know what exactly this day meant to the Catholic community and why they would say it was my mother's "dia de su santo". Well, the history behind this is that the Virgen of Guadalupe appeared to this pheasant miraculously on his cloak after gathering flowers on her request to take back as a sign of what he had seen that early morning. My friends would tell me that my mother was a special woman having the name Lupe. Until this past Friday did I understand what they meant. The song goes to say 'ser Guadalupana es algo especial' ('being Guadalupan is something special'). My mother always believed in the powers and miracles of the Virgen. She would always tell me if you pray to her and promise something in return you have to hold your end of the promise. I have heard of stories where people walk on their knees to her shrines all over the world to fulfil their promises of taking her flowers on knees for answering there prayers.

Wedding

2009-12-01T10:08:00.008-06:00

No not my wedding, wish it were but oh well. :) We traveled to Oklahoma City, OK on Saturday for a cousin's wedding on Al's side of the family. We left at about noon and arrived at 3pm, showered, changed and headed out to the reception hall. Before we headed out, we took a photo of me and my inlaws. :)

(l-r) Chuy(BIL), Mari(SIL)& her husband Alex, Miguel(BIL), Isabel(MIL), Me, & Alonso(Mis ojos) LOL and believe it or not but me and my mother-in-law get along great. Actually, from what I heard she gets along better with me than with her other two daughter-in-laws :)

We were the first ones there and the first thing I saw was the cake. It was gorgeous, IMO, I loved the way it was tiered separately and the colors, the whole set up was really beautiful and next to it sat a table with fruit displays. The tables each had two bottles of champagne with a picture of the couple kissing and stated "Recuerdo de nuestra boda" "memory of our wedding" along with a hurricane lamp cover center piece.

The single men formed a snake line and danced around the dance hall and the girls did the same thing. I have never seen this before but I really enjoyed watching.

My little nieces were dancing about and posing when they would catch me with the camera. silly girls

Over all, we had a great time dancing and laughing, but after all these days of getting to bed late it caught up with me and I headed to my truck for a nap while everyone else continued parting and dancing. Everyone finally came out about 1am and we headed back to the house. Arrived home sunday and I was completely worn out. headed to bed early. My Thanksgiving holiday was loaded with family, friends and people I haven't seen in 20 years at the wedding.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T10:44:00.004-06:00

Well, we had our thanksgiving, our first one without mom in person. I know she was with us in spirit but just not the same. Thanksgiving was mom's favorite holiday with christmas right behind it. Mom loved all the food we would cook, her stuffing, her mac'n'cheese homemade style with velveeta. While at my sister's, i could smell my mother's scent, as if she were there. I smiled really big when I smelled it, I knew she was there with us. We had a great time, my sister put mother's wheelchair at the head of the table and every once in while I would glance that way and i could picture her. we had fun laughing, food, cowboys and they won woohoo. Afterwards when the cleaning of everything and putting tables and chairs up, my sis was moving my mother's wheelchair to put it up in the garage it was then that I stopped what I was doing, loading my truck and looked over at my sister brushing off the wheelchair and I pictured my mother waving bye to me and I heard a faint whisper telling me it's ok. I lost it, I didn't want to but I couldn't hold back the tears. I cried hard. When we were ready to leave, me and my two sister were standing next to each other and my our big sister was between me and Mira and she hugged us, I knew right there that everything is going to be ok. I needed that hug from her, I love you!

Quince

2009-11-19T09:11:00.003-06:00

My daughter will be 15 come this New Year and we are going to have a party for her. Not a traditional quince but a party nonetheless. DJ has been booked, if you in the Dallas/Ft Worth area and need a DJ send him an email at djalexlopez@yahoo.com, he gave me a really good deal for 6 hours of non-stop music. We have the dance hall booked :) as well. Next is making the invites, dress package, cake, decorations. Seems like time will fly by but I know that I can do this. Thanks to my family and friends who have agreed to be 'padrinos' for her party.

Her colors will be red and black. Her dress that she picked out is a 3-pc with a little jacket, and the bottom of the dress is actually a removable to turn the dress into a party dress. Pics will be posted later.

Jiffy Giveaway WInner

2009-11-18T12:57:00.001-06:00

Here are your random numbers:

52
Timestamp: 2009-11-18 19:01:21 UTC

Nancy said...
I find it interesting that they no longer state a number of miles between your oil changes, but say refer to your manual. It seemed like for decades it was always 3000 miles.

Congrats!!!!

@ the drive in :)

2009-11-16T15:01:00.005-06:00

I remember when my mother and step-father would take us to the drive in at Gemini in Dallas.

The Gemini Twin Drive-In opened in 1965. This was a large drive-in with a capacity for 2,000 cars. In later years a third screen was added. The Gemini Drive-in was located at the northeast corner of the Forest Lane/Central Expressway intersection in Dallas. It was demolished in the late 1980s.

This past Friday me and my sisters went to a drive in in Ennis, TX and took our kids. I enjoyed it so much and it brought back alot of memories for me. :)

the cost is only $6 per person for a double feature, we watched 2012 and Stepfather. Both were good movies and the food is very inexpensive!

Update on Orienteering results

2009-11-16T14:09:00.004-06:00

Vica's times are as follows as of her third meet this past weekend

1st Meet @ Samuell Crawford Park 09/26/2009
33rd out of 40 Victoria N WF1415 North Mesquite H S 0:59:24

2nd Meet @ Harry Moss Park 10/17/2009
16th out of 18 Victoria N WF1415 North Mesquite H S 01:33:38

3rd Meet @ All Saints Camp & Conference 11/14-15/2009 by class
day 1 - YF-15 (13) 2.5 km 0 m 12 C
10 / 13 1376 N, Victoria 95 North Mesq North Mesquite H S 2:46:35

day 2 - YF-15 (13) 2.6 km 0 m 14 C
6 / 13 1376 N, Victoria 95 North Mesq North Mesquite H S 1:23:44

Final
10 / 13 1376 N, Victoria 95 North Mesq North Mesqu 4:10:19

By competing in her 3rd meet she earned her BDU pants! WTG baby!!

Orienteering - Love it!

2009-11-16T09:55:00.019-06:00

This weekend I went to Pottosboro, TX with NMHS O Team. My daughter competes as well. We headed over to the All Saints Camp and Conference for a two day meet.

Orienteering is where you have a map, compass and find your way from point 'A' to 'B'. In this case our map has 12 points and we have to navigate thru the woods, up some small hills, maybe cross a small creek or two in some cases and find our control points. Each control is numbered so on our clue chart our control points are 1 thru 12 but each one has a number, so if we come across say control number 150 for point 1 then that means we are not at the correct point per our map. So our point one on our map

is actually control number 127 which we found and decided to take a picture of each control as we found them.. Here I am at point 8 can you tell I'm sweating and tired? LOL We lost 10 minutes due to my fault of reading the map. Where i thought we were suppose to cross a bridge and really shouldn't of to find point 11. After point 11 I walked between some trees and felt a big spider web and looked over to my right and found this spider haning from a tree limb climbing. Thank God it wasn't on me. can you see him?

We finished a White course in one hour and 8 minutes. Not bad for our first time, we didn't get timed but we both agreed we would register for the Dec meet. :)

NMHS rec'd several medals as you can see here below:

Me and Al decided to camp Saturday night, we walked by the lake, hike a trail, sat on a wooden swing set overlooking the lake and watched for stars but too cloudy. There is much to do there, Volleyball, swim, camp, hike, bike, rope courses. we loved it!

Here are some random pics as well:

TACO NIGHT GIVEAWAY - WINNER

2009-11-11T13:23:00.002-06:00

Congratulations to my winner
Helen S said...
Our favorite is Taco Salad and Chips with Salsa.
helencutie06@aol.com

Oil Change Giveaway

2009-11-11T08:11:00.011-06:00

I recently made a trip to Jiffy Lube and thanks to my $35 giftcard from Shell Lubricants and MotorOilMatters.org and the information thru MyBlogSpark I only paid $5.00 out of pocket. The total for my big truck was actually $45 but I found a $5 coupon on Jiffy's website.
http://www.jiffylube.com/specialpromos/specialpromotions.aspx

I love working on my truck, I can change my brakes, spark plugs, alternator, radiator, a flat tire and believe me my truck has some heavy tires. :) but when it comes to changing the oil, I know how but I prefer not to. I also visited MotorOilMatters.org and realized that I know some about vehicles but I also had some wrong answers on the M.O.M game. But I learned some new helpful information as well.

And you can win a complimentary $35 Jiffy Lube gift card thanks to Shell Lubricants and MotorOilMatters.org and MyBlogSpark. Simply leave a comment in regards to one of the following or all of them :)

*What you found most interesting on the Motor Oil Matters site
*What motor oil misconception did you have that was put to rest through the site’s info?
*What your score was on the M.O.M. Knows Best game

One entry per email, all duplicates will be deleted. This game is only open to U.S. residents. The winner will be chosen by random.org on Wednesday Nov 18th at 12 noon CST. One entry per person, please leave your email address if not in your blogger profile. The winner will have 24 hrs to repsond to my email or another winner will be chosen. Good Luck!

TACO NIGHT GIVEAWAY

2009-11-06T07:05:00.007-06:00

Thanks to Blogspark me and my family enjoyed a Taco Night and we played games. And you could win a prize package of your own to have your very own Taco night. We enjoyed playing games like 'Say Cheese', 'In the Limelight', Albert was our El Tacodor. Congrats Albert!

My giveaway will included the following: (2) two coupons to purchase Old El Paso dinner kits and a $10 gift card to purchase any additional meal needs (i.e. meat, cheese, lettuce, etc).

Just leave a comment with your favorite mexican dish and randonm.org will determine the winner. One entry per person, please leave your email address if not in your blogger profile. Winner will be picked on Wednesday Nov 11th 12pm noon CST. Winner will have 24 hrs to contact me or another winner will be chosen. Good Luck!

Homecoming, Tailgate, Marching

2009-11-02T09:48:00.002-06:00

I haven't posted in a bit so I'll play catch up with these photos. :)

Revisiting......

2009-10-26T07:51:00.002-05:00

a place that I rather not but I know there will probably be other times like this one. I accompanied Al to Gonzalez funeral home on Saturday. One of his cousins that lived in St Louis, MO. was shot to death and his body was brought to Dallas for family and friends to attend a memorial before they were to take him back home to Durango Mexico.

Mr. Octavio Contreras was only 33 years old when he was fatally shot by a 17 yr old girl. Motive unknown at time of my blogging, only good thing is that with the help of the survellance cameras, they caught her and arrested her on a $1 million dollar bond. Charged with 1st degree murder. May he rest in peace knowing she was caught and may his mother and father have some kind of peace of mind as well.

I have never lost a loved one to a senseless death, as of yet. Anyone that has passed that I have known or is family have died of natural causes.

Saturday we found out his body would be at Gonzalez til four in the afternoon instead of Monday as previously planned. So we headed over. As we drove, all I could think about was Mom. In my head I could hear her say it's ok don't worry you will be fine, just be there for him. I prayed as we entered the funeral home, which was completely full of family and friends for this young man. About 200 people showed to pay respect to him and his family. I prayed that his body would be in the room opposite from where mom's was. But it wasn't. I walked into the room right behind Al and a picture flashed in front of my eyes. A picture of the day my mother was there laying at rest, very peaceful. The day that my sisters and I were mourning the loss of our mother and greeting family and friends as they arrived. But as that picture flashed before my eyes I also felt a very light pat on my back and faint whisper "it's ok mija". I had a tear rolling down my face not for my mother but for Al and his family of cousins.

I have been praying for this young man's family for a while now, back about 2 mths ago this young man's brother was brutally beaten by eight men who left him for dead. He recovered and has pulled through but just as he has almost completely recovered his brother was shot. We can't ask why just wonder.

Don't let me see you

2009-10-21T14:23:00.002-05:00

Last night me and my son, Michael stopped at a Valero to put gas in my truck, as we are entering the store I noticed 4 boys walking towards the station as well. When they walked in I noticed one stood real close to me, the other three stood close by the door and down the first aisle. I took my little wallet I carry around my neck/shoulder and removed it to the other side of me. I wasn't waiting in line, I was waiting for my son who happen to be at the counter.

Now I don't automatically assume someone is going to do bad just by looking at them but I had this weird feeling inside me. So I stepped outside walking between two of the boys. Once of them had a couple of packages of T-shirts in his hand from the Dollar Gen store and another had a box of Little Debbie snacks, opened.

I went and stood next to my truck and got my keys out in my hand. As I watched one cmoe out the store, I could tell he was holding something. Sure enough when he slightly turned my way he was hold a 1/2 gal of ice cream in front of him with two hands as to where no one would see him. I walked right over and told him to 'take that back right now!' He turned and said 'ok' started to hand it to me and then just took off with ice cream in hand. You little Shit! I yelled after him, "that's ok, I know where you live, I'll be by in a bit with the cops!" OF course I didn't know where he lives but I thought maybe, just maybe that might scare him into coming back.

Anyway, I went straight into the store and told the clerk to call the police and what happen and I told his friends that they needed to stay put til the police arrived. They all three started with "why is it on us, we didn't do it?" I said "well because you are all with him and know him and all came in together" I held the door so one couldn't leave and he looked at me, I wished he had tried something. I let the door go and they left walking off, I yelled at them and told them that if they leave they are just as responsible as the one that took the ice cream. Called the cops gave my info, and description, got in my truck and hell yeah I went to looking. Stopped 4 boys who were walking away from Albertson's just to make sure that wasn't them, told them that if the police stop them to let them know a lady in a suburban has already stopped them and that they are not the group. Came across the police going up and down the streets and asked me questions and took off in one direction and I took off in another looking for these little thugs.

Don't let me see them because I will beat the hell out of them, sit on their ass til the police arrive. I also found out they attend NMHS Don't let me see them!

Nate is a FIGHTER

2009-10-20T14:22:00.001-05:00

He is in remission!!!! MRI yesterday shows clear. OMGoodness, GOD is awesome!! I just rec'd the following email from my boss, Wes.

Praise God, Nate's MRI is clear and he is in remission. This is truly an awesome thing that God has done. Nate has been through so much, but keeps bouncing back thanks to our LORD. He will get MRIs every three months for the next two years. His cancer is aggressive and could pop back up at any time in the next five years, so continued prayers are critical. We are so very thankful for all of your prayers, and want everyone to know that we serve a very big God. God can take even the smallest percent of survival and perform a miracle. It has been a long road and will continue to be, but today we are victorious. Please continue to pray for the cancer to stay away and for him to recover physically with his walking, talkingan and cognitive skills. May God bless you all.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Praise be to God!!

Orienteering, Rifles & Vica.......Oh my!

2009-10-15T10:01:00.004-05:00

Well, Vica has taken up orienteering at NMHS for her freshman year. Her first meet was back in September and she ran the beginner course, White. Seeing as she has never done anything like this, I thought to myself ok, winning times for this course are anywhere from 35-40 minutes. I set a goal of one hour. She completed the course in 00:59:24, YES she did it in under an hour!!! When she completes her three meets, my understanding is she will recieve her fatigue pants and O shirt.

She also tried out for the rifle team as well. Each target is a max 10 points with 6 targets to hit. She hit 3 at 8 pts, 1 at 10 pts, and 2 at 4 & 6 pts. She has only shot a rifle once or twice when her dad took her hunting. Really proud of her.

This coming Saturday, Vica has another orienteering meet in Dallas. I will be there as well since at the last meet one of the NTOA members asked if I could help out at the next one. I loved it! Watching everyone to see how long it took them to run their course. There were several older people like in their late 40's, early 50's and so forth. You have to finish your course in under 3:00 hours or you're disqualified and everyone I know of finished with that time limit. Whew!

For me

2009-10-05T08:32:00.002-05:00

My sisters gave me a surprise birthday dinner Sunday. :)

Me and Mira had planned to go shopping for homecoming mum supplies on Sunday and apparently her and my other sis, Daniela, planned a dinner at Mira's house. After we went shopping, we stopped at her house to pick up some items that I was going to give to someone for there birthday. I knocked on the door because I knew that her daughter and son were there. I hear commotion and told Mira "what the hell is going on" I could hear someone saying 'hide' 'wait' and so forth.

As we walked in I see my sister Daniela at first and thought to myself "oh you're still here" then she moved to one side and I saw Gabino and then heard "Mananitas" playing. I started crying and they said happy birthday. My sister took some pics of me while i was crying and Lord do I look pitiful. As I stood there and cried for some time I hid my face in my sweater and then I felt as if someone were hugging me. Mira's house is where my mother is resting high on a shelf where she can see everything. So her presence is there and I really believe that my mother was hugging me in spirit.

We enjoyed italian crusted chicken strips with my favorite, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, rolls and ranch style beans. then desert was a chocolate cake that my brother-in-law made.

Don't know how many candles were on the cake but I blew them all out, with one blow. :)

I love my family.

39 years ago this very day

2009-09-30T09:07:00.008-05:00

I came into this world. At the age of 15 I began life as a young adult. My years prior to that age I enjoyed very much like any other kid. Playing with my friends down the street, Alexis, the tripletts, Brian and Rachel, Went to church on the Joy Bus at Casa View Church of Christ, later to be renamed Meadowview Church of Christ. I was baptized at the age of 14, feeling that I finally had found the Lord. Afterwards, events in my life came to light and my life took a turn towards becoming a young adult, working, school and helping out at home. I don't regret not one minute of any of events that took place in my life after the age of 15. If not for any of that I wouldn't be as strong as I am today.

My adult life has been rewarded with children, grandchildren, cousins, aunts and uncles that have given me advice and my friends which have pretty much all lasted a lifetime and I hope will continue to last my lifetime that remains. The best reward in my life second to my children are my sisters. We have had our arguments, ups and downs and believe me plent of disagreements between us. But my love for them never fades it gets stronger. My Mother taught us that no matter what happens, family is family in the end.

My birthday wish for this year is that my children too learn the value of family and friends. With those two in your heart, you can't go wrong.

My weekend

2009-09-28T10:45:00.001-05:00

My Problems are minimal........

2009-09-28T10:33:00.003-05:00

compared to what my boss is going thru. I arrived at work and had this update from him on his son, Nate.

""Nate has had a strange few days. He has been more playful and seems to have more energy. There just have been some things that still are not right. He goes back to Children's on Tuesday and I am sure they will run tests on him as a result of some symptoms. He has a bowel movement with suppositories, but not really any other time. He throws up occasionally and complains of headaches (both signs of tumor), but then ten minutes later wants to eat and is laughing and playing. His walking is horrible, but he crawls great and is climbing on everything. This could all be swelling from the radiation that will go away, complications from all of his procedures that may or may not go away, or it could be the cancer spreading again. It is frustrating, because some things tell you he is fine and everything is running its course, but then there is always that fear wondering why did that just happen or there has to be a reason for this not happening and you can't help but to think the worst. In many ways we don't want to know any more, we have been told that what has been done for him already is all that can be done and we just want to believe that it is all up to our precious LORD what happens from here. I know that God is good and HE has a plan for how HE wants to use us all. I believe that Nate will make it through this and will grow up to do even greater things for HIS kingdom. All of that said, I still have fears and I still struggle to understand why and how through all of this. At the end of the day, he is still my little three year old boy who I love beyond words, my heart aches, please continue to pray for him, he needs it now more than ever. May God bless you all -- Wes""

I find as I sit at work that my problems and anyone whose is not experiencing CANCER is nothing compared to that of my bosses son and the entire family that it's taking it's toll on. When a person has cancer the entire family has it just because you never know which way it's going to go.

I pray every day when I wake for several things but my prayers lean 80% to his son. I am asking anyone and everyone who reads this blog to please, please include him and his family in your prayers. For peace, healing, support, strength, faith, hope. Just know that I send this prayer out to all the Cancer patients and survivors. For the patients that they find healing rapidly and the survivors to allow them a full life without the thought of this ugly disease returning.

State Fair of Texas

2009-09-25T14:45:00.002-05:00

Well, it's here and it doesn't feel like it. Mom always made it a point to go even if for one day out of the three weeks. She loved the fair, Fletcher's was her favorite item. If I went without her i made sure to bring her two or three back. Mom always enjoyed the fair when all of her girls and grandkids could go together. she made sure she had money to treat all of us to something, even if it was just a drink.

This year will be different, Mom won't be with us physically but I know that she will be with us spiritually. I don't care much for the corny dog but I will eat one for her. :) only no mustard. I know that going to the fair without her just won't be the same.

My Boys

2009-09-23T08:44:00.002-05:00

Well, Mike found a job :), he seems to like it. He was excited the first day because as he stated "I actually got to use my hands" lol the best part is that it's right down the street from where we live, maybe a mile or so.

Gabe is back home, for how long? Just don't know. Apparently Jane has some issues to work out and he thought some apart time would be the thing they both need right now.

I just hope that both my boys girlfriends can open their eyes to see that my boys really want to have a relationship with them and care for the babies and be there. I know my boys aren't perfect but the are far from what most boys or men are today. they dont' smoke, don't drink, don't do drugs and they don't run around 'chasing girls' and i pray each day that they remain that way. They also are aware of their obligations when it comes to their sons. Michael has been looking for a job for 3 or 4 mths and finally found one, his number one concern was making sure he gave money to his girlfriend for Fabian. Gabriel, has worked since he moved to Georgia, enrolled in college rec'd his driver license and would drive himself and jane back and forth from college. He provided for her and the baby.

The only thing I can do is pray about all of this each and everyday.

head is spinning

2009-09-21T13:36:00.002-05:00

i'm so confused at the present with my own relationship, my children, my family overall. I pray every morning, then when i get home i sit in my room and pray again and talk to mom about everything. I know that everyone deserves chances at anything and everything but my question is how many do you give in order to not regret later in life not giving that one extra chance. How do you know someone won't change if you don't give them that one more chance to show they can or at least try. I've always made my decisions with the regret factor in mind and of course talking it out between me and mom and at times with some prayer. But this time around for some odd reason my prayer hasn't been answered quite as fast as other times. A sign or something that will lead me in the right direction. I just don't know which way to go on some things that are coming my way at this moment in my life, it's like I'm at a 4-way stop and dont' know which direction to take. I guess this time around my patience is being tested and I just have to keep looking for the sign that says which way to go.

STALLIONS

2009-09-15T12:42:00.001-05:00

Stallions are 3-0............woohoo

10:52 p.m.

2009-09-15T12:19:00.003-05:00

Here lately I've been going to bed rather early. Wake up and out the door by 6:30 a.m. give or take a few minutes. This past week or so, I've been having trouble falling asleep, usually head hits pillow and i'm out. But here lately I've been doing alot of tossing and turning, getting up pacing my bedroom floor, I also noticed that the little red light on my fan gives off a brighter light than before I rearranged my room and the way it points I now see my shadow on the wall during the night. As I step our my front door in the mornings I have had this sense of feeling like something is going to happen.....to me. I have a habit of walking around my truck to check tires and windows every morning and as I'm doing this I get the same feeling again and again. It's gotten to the point where I re-think about leaving my house or I get behind the wheel with extra caution.

Last night I fell asleep fast. I looked at my clock and it read 9:45 p.m. I never look at my clock as I close my eyes almost like never. But for an odd reason I did last night. I don't remember anything from that point......until 10:52 p.m. My nightstand sit at the head of my bed, so to see my clock, i have to turn my head up.

At exactly 10:52 p.m. my eyes opened looking straight at the clock and a question came out of my mouth loud and clear, not question like in my head but loud and clear like I'm asking someone this question. "What if I don't wake up tomorrow?" The I started to ponder that question in my head. I started saying things in my head and asking questions in my head looking at the clock the whole time. What if I dont' wake up, some people never do, it happens all the time, am I going to be here for my daughter and my sons, is it ok to close my eyes, have I served my purpose.....just going on and on and on.

I turned over and noticed my shadow on the wall. At first I was like is that my shadow and I moved my head or so I thought I did and the shadow didn't move so I got up and this time it moved with me.

The one thing that has really made any sense to me in the past week is that Saturday night at about 10:30p.m. I left a friends house and sat my truck for 3 hours crying like a big baby and calling for my mother, Ama, Ama. Nothing triggered this from what I can remember but I was able to let a lot out of what I have been holding inside. For some odd reason that night since she passed away, I have yet to cry, I talk to her as if she were here next to me, when I walk into my sister's house I say the usual "Hey momma" as if she were sitting there. Well, Saturday I did what I have been wanting to do, accept that she is with me in spirit rather than in person. Before letting all this out, I was ready to call and tell my sisters that I would not be coming to Sunday dinner, just because I felt strange and didn't want to be around family, for no reason just because I didn't feel up to it. But I think that mom has been behind everything I'm feeling and I know she was behind me letting it all out Saturday night so that I could be with my family.

This morning I woke up, dressed and walked out the door. I again had the same sense of feeling like something is going to happen. I got in my truck asked my usual prayer as I do every morning behind the wheel but this time I gave thanks. Thanks for allowing me one more day.

Truly Amazing Man who says 'Yes I Can!'

2009-08-24T07:54:00.002-05:00

weekend to weekend

2009-08-21T10:16:00.010-05:00

I went to Oklahoma City last weekend and spent time with Alonso's family. Cute niece and nephew.

Later we went to the memorial in downtown, back in 2005, me and my family visited in the daytime but this time I got to visit at night and to see the chairs lit up was really a site to see.

Last night Vica and Nathalie had their first performances. Vica as a Big Blue Band member, she plays the french horn.

and Nathalie as a Pacesetter!

Even Julissa was cheering right along with everyone :)

They are both excited about being high school together, even if it is for only one year.

updating........

2009-08-10T13:33:00.003-05:00

Me and Al have been talking and taking things a bit slow and trying to get together again. :) I found that I truly am in love with this man and he has broken that 'strong' woman into a soft hearted one. I had my first experience of jealousy about 3 weeks ago when I saw him with someone else and it just blew my mind that i could feel like that. Anger never came to mind but hurt, I felt really hurt.

The next day we talked and decided we would try and see what happens so we've been taking it slow and one day at a time.

Victoria asked me on Saturday about going to the mall to meet up with and hang out with a 'friend' she had met a few weeks back at the mall when she and her friends were hanging out. His name is Joey. Yes I said 'his'. I know, she's only 14 but also know that my daughter makes very responsible choices when it comes to friends. So Saturday was out of the question after we sat and waited 4 hours for band uniform fitting. OMGatos, had no idea it took that long.

Sunday when I got home from the lake from our Sunday family gathering, she opted out of this one, she asked if she could meet up with Joey at Celebration Station. The only reason I said yes is because she was ok with Michael, big brother, going along to hang out while they hang out.

Now I'm going to try and describe what happen next without laughing my ass off.

First, Michael wanted to go to the bank and Joey called to see if we were on our way. Vica says yes and hangs up and states "Hmm punctual, I like that" I don't want to get there too early it won't look good, she says. OK

When we arrive, we walk in and here comes this 'kid' down the stairs and Michael is already sitting in the little diner area looking towards those stairs he's coming down. LMAO - I have never seen Michael move so damn fast, next thing I knew he was standing right next to me looking this guy up and down with total disbelief. LOL - this 'kid' stood 6'4" and weighed a good 230 - 250 of muscle, so to say. he looked like an NFL linebacker. I shook his hand and he was very polite, yes the whole time I'm thinking ok how old are you again. So the question came out and he answered 14, will be freshman in Poteet this coming year. OMGatos - he was taller and BIGGER than Michael and I'm thinking no way in hell Michael gonna protect his little sister. Too funny. So i headed home but then headed back up there and played some pool and other games while keeping an eye on him and I saw that he was very attentive to Victoria and respectful, for now.

Later I went downstairs and met up with them and he was just nice as could be. Found out he already has a job working at Sonic, whose owner is a long time family friend of theirs. As, I turned away to go find another game I heard him talking to Victoria and stated 'wish i has brought more money so you could keep having fun. I only brought $70 with me.' That was very sweet of him. I approve, for now. Vica was smitten from the word yes when i said ok you can go to Celebration Station. She was nervous and changed and tried on 4 shirts before picking one out. LOL

Cancer

2009-07-30T14:42:00.002-05:00

I have never had the experience to have someone in my famiy be diagnosed with any type of cancer. This year, you could say was my first experience with this disease, when i went to work for an insurance agency owner who's little 3 yr old was diagnosed last december. That was the closest I had come to this disease being present in my life.......until today.

I received a call about 2pm, my good friend who I have known now for about 5 years, Maribel called to 'talk'. She never calls just to talk, she is always calling to see when I'm coming by to make a payment on my loan or to check something out for her on the internet. She calls me her 'detective'. For example, two weeks ago she called, Help she says. I need to get internet going in the house again and I don't know how. So I called Warner and had them get it set up. When Marco Antonio Solis came to town she was going crazy trying to find out when tickets were on sale and how much then she said she stopped and said to herself "belinda" she can find out. LOL

Today she needed someone who she valued to talk to she said. I felt so honored that she considers me that find of friend. I also found out that she doesn't have but 2 or 3 really good friends and she mentioned I was one of them. :) Thank you Maribel.

Her doctor in Mexico tooks some pics and found a lump. She brought everything back home and will be getting second opinions. Monday is when everything begins to get into motion. Mari, you're in my prayers every day and I know with my support and your other friends we'll help you fight this. I love you!

WOW What a rush

2009-07-20T09:07:00.002-05:00

I finally was given a ride on a jet ski! I loved it so freaking much! Sunday started out with a soccer game for my brother-in-law, JR. Then we headed out to the lake. there were a couple of guys next to us that were riding a seadoo. I asked if they give rides on that thing and next thing I knew I was out in the middle of the lake. What a rush! I loved it and I have checked one more thing off of my life's list to do. :)

:( WHY?

2009-07-17T09:56:00.003-05:00

I sit at work and look out my huge front window and everyday since last Monday I see a pretty 2001 Kia Sportgage sitting there in the parking lot with a for sale sign. I finally went over today to get a look at the price, only $2995 and it's a stick shift!

Why is my luck always like this? If only I had the $3000 that would be sitting in my driveway. Maybe I can find someone who will finance it for me, here's to wishful thinking.

Breaking up was never hard.........til now

2009-07-16T12:39:00.004-05:00

Over the years as a single person I have made myself strong and become determined in life. When I left my husband, I returned three times to try and make the relationship work. All three times I left my job, lost my aparment, and lost all my furniture. All three times ended up with the same result - leaving him. So I vowed that I would never fall in love again with anyone. Vica's dad was a bit different, I loved him but I wasn't in love with him so when time came to break up, I was able to let him go and I didn't look back.

Since then I have dated but I have not been involved in a serious relationship since. Til I met Alonso in Dec 2007. He was different and I noticed it right away. I kept telling myself 'this can't be'. We dated and we decided to make it official and I changed in a way I swore I would never change when it came to men. I let go of all my male friends with the exception of one who I worked with on the side and even that one I was letting go of slowly but surely just because I knew it bothered Alonso and also because one day we discussed this issue and we argued over it and I told him that no I would not stop my communication with Martin for him because we were good friends. But after that argument, I stepped back and looked at it from his point of view and made a decision. I would cut ties because I loved Alonso and I know that when you love someone, you change. So I did.

Well, I guess I'm a little late. We broke it off about 3 weeks ago now and it's not due to any of what I just wrote but maybe if he had known everything that I was going thru and doing, he may have acted a bit different towards me to where we wouldn't have broken it off. I'll never know. Do I regret not telling him about my changes? No. I try not to regret things but instead learn from them. I never want a man to know I'm changing because the majority of them will think "yeah I told her to change, it was either this or me". I change because I want to not because someone wants me to. I also do it out of love. When I do things like this, it's because I really truly love someone and made a decision that only I can make. I honestly thought this would be the guy after being single for 18 years but I guess I was wrong again, as usual. I'm sorry momma that it didn't work out, I know you were so happy for me to have finally found someone who 'socialized' with the family.

Yes this breakup has taught me that breaking up is hard to do, but as once before, I will get over this. For now, til I am over it, I'll continue to live as I can. Trying to keep myself busy and not think about him, I try not to listen to the radio either, too many songs that we both liked and tears start to fill my eyes. I think what makes it even harder is that I don't have my mother to see or call and talk to her about it. Hell I can't even get through typing this without crying. LOL I'm glad to see that I'm not as hard as I thought, deep down I do have a very soft side when it come to men, but it takes alot to bring that out in me and Alonso did just that, what no other man has done.

Pics say a 1000 words

2009-07-15T08:13:00.003-05:00

My boss has a 3 yr old son who in Dec of '08 was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. In April a MRI confirmed it had cleared. In July another MRI showed 3 new spots on the brain and a few days later he was rushed to ER. A CAT and another MRI confirm the worst fears, the cancer had returned.

I have been sitting at my desk everyday praying for him, his family and trying to concentrate on my work. I can't imagine what this family is going thru. I saw little Nate just last week here at the office zooming down the hall with his new walker :)

This morning I arrived at work with an email from Wes. It contained a link to a slideshow of his children and I honestly don't know if I can work today from the crying just from watching this. I hope you see what I see, 3 handsome boys who are living life to the fullest knowing what lurks ahead.

ipray for little nate
http://www.mattnicolosi.com/slideshows/Oxfords/iframe.html

:)

2009-07-13T08:23:00.002-05:00

This weekend was my Aunt Ramona's brithday party and my turn to host Sunday Family dinner.

To catch up a bit, I am now a single woman again. :( :) Yes I'm somewhat upset over the fact but at the same time happy because I rather be single than put up with some man and his bullshit and stupidty. I refuse to have a man in my life who doesn't understand the meaning of respect for himself, me and others.

Anyway, Friday I was invited out with some friends I hadn't seen in a while, lo and behold, he was there. As I was walking to the bathroom, I saw him coming out but he didn't see me. Later as we're walking to the bar, he is walking the opposite direction and notices me with my friends. He looked as if he had seen a ghost. Well, I guess he didn't like the idea of me being there and left. OH well!

Saturday, I helped my cousin clean and decorate for my aunt's party. My aunt was taking a nap in her bedroom when she called for Juanita and said she wanted to come into the living room. Juanita had her thinking that no one was coming over til Sunday and when when she came into the living room, she was surprised by all the decorations. They had such a good turnout and the Mariachis were really good (and cute).

I left that party about 7pm, showered (again) and headed to my friends party invite. There was a ranch to be blessed by the Priest and afterwards food, and live band. It was really nice and something different. Got home about 10, ate a bit and off to bed.

Sunday, woke up, helped Sabrina move, again. She moved in with a married couple who she's known. Erica got that bedroom and Michael is now back at home. :)

I cleaned my house from top to bottom, literally! Got the chicken in the oven and made homemade flour tortillas, rice and just as the rice finished my sisters show up :)

My sister D, actually showed up on time. LOL too funny, she says that she wants it to rain. Just might :)

Carmen showed up too, I see her as part of our family she's known us for 20 years if not more.

Everyone left about 9pm, got my house to myself, popped in a movie and just sat back to relax, didn't last for long here comes Michael knocking on the door at about 9:50.

I love it when I can spend my entire weekend with family. It makes me so happy to see their smiles and hear them laugh. God is good!

An Official Author

2009-07-07T08:58:00.003-05:00

Vica submitted an original poem titled "Daydreaming" to a poetry contest and yesterday she rec'd a letter from the America Library of Poetry stating that her submission into the 2009 Poetry contest has been accepted. The other great news is that they are asking her permission to publish her poem in a new book coming out this fall titled "Inspired". She is an official Author!!!

Grand Prize is a $500 U.S Savings Bond and many other prizes for runner ups and just for participating.

I have goose bumps!

Country Folk

2009-06-26T15:30:00.002-05:00

Working out in the country has made me open my eyes. I eat lunch at several different area restaurants and visit the gas stations and convenience stores and not once have I ever been treated less than friendly.

I have come to realize that my dream of living in the country is even more important to me than ever. When I compare the city restaurants, gas stations, convenience stores I see that the city locations are all too busy to attend to you or carry their personal problems with them or have attitudes I just don't care to deal with. In the country and by this I mean Rockwall, TX, everyone says good morning, hello, how is your day going. I visit a gas station every morning to get my daily paper and the young man there knows me by name now and knows what I like to drink, read and eat. My usual routine is a DMN paper, Dr Pepper or Big Red, and a $5 lottery scratch off. He'll point out the new ones and also will comment if I don't get anything but a paper things like, No DP today? or Got some big red's on ice for you. I love the way I'm treated!

As much as I have complained in the city stores I patronize, I have yet to complain in any store here since I started my employment in the area.

the Country is for me!

Fab's Baptism

2009-06-22T09:47:00.002-05:00

I have officially attended my first ever church service baptism, well other than my own. My grandson, Fabian was baptized Sunday.

He had on his white tux with cumberbun and all. He is just so precious. I was not in attendance when he was born nor was my son. Perla's family at the time had some issues with Michael and with me as well but because of Michael. When the baby was born, mom was in the hospital so things were crazy. Well Fabian was actually born a mth early and doctors didn't know if he was going to make it. I thank God every day for this precious miracle.

One of my prayers to God each night since my oldest was born is that he allows me the time to meet my grandchildren from each child of mine. I would love more than anything to watch them grown into young men. I'm know I'm young enough but you know the saying "when He's ready to call you home, you go"

God is Good!

Why can't they listen

2009-06-22T08:38:00.004-05:00

My niece moved in last Tuesday with her baby. Before moving in we had gone over some rules. The biggest and main rule of all was that her boyfriend, Rene, the baby's daddy was not allowed to my house without my permission. If you have read my previous posts you'll notice that he is violent and has actually laid a hand on her a couple of times. I am against all this and as Madea would say "I will go to jail!"

Ok so my weekend started out really good. Friday night I met up with one of my best friends and we went dancing. It's been so long since I've been and I really enjoyed myself. Afterwards we headed to my sister's house in Grand Prairie. My son, Mike, is housesitting while they are on vacation in Virginia and he had to be at work at 6am so I went over to stay so that I could take him to work. Her house is closer to the club than mine.

So I took him to work, luckily I headed back to my sisters house again to sleep a bit more but I got a call from Mike about 10, "can you come pick me up?" I'm like what? Well, Mike sleep walks and he sleptwalk and sprayed a bug spray into his mouth. He wasn't feeling very well. So i go get him, oh and all the while my good friend is with me, she decided to hang out with me the whole day :). Take Mike to Baylor and test are done, mouthrinse, IV fluids, blood drawn. Everything checks out ok, just made him really sick to his stomach. As we walk in the door to the house, my phone rings. Sabrina (niece) asks if she could give our address to her boyfriend's mother so that she could come drop off a check. I said "I'll take you when I get home". Ok so headed home to unload my truck so that I could make room for tables and chairs for my grandson's baptism. Not once did Sabrina mention, can you take me to get my check or anything. No I didn't remember at the time, I just knew that I had to go pick up tables and chairs and get them to Irving. So I left got tables and chairs, headed to Irving and then headed over to my friends house. As I sit down to eat dinner with her phone rings. Sabrina, "tia Julie locked the door and I can't get in". I'm like huh? Well, apparently, Sabrina stepped outside to get her check from her boyfriends mother and julissa shut the door and locked it. Julie is only 2 yrs old. So I tell her, ok Erica, other niece who moved in, will be there in 3 mins with a key, still hadn't gotten around to making Sabrina a key. Erica was about 10 blocks away. Phone rings again:

Sab: tia I have something to tell you
me: what sabrina?
sab: well rene's brother in law got me into the house but
me: (already mad because those people weren't suppoe to be there) what happen sabrina?
sab: well, he pushed the back door in and it broke the frame
me: WHAT?!?!?!
sab: well julie was crying
in background: lady says i'll fix it
me: sabrina all i know is that that door better be able to get locked when i'm going to bed TONIGHT!
CLICK

I got home and this is how i found my door.

I'm beyond mad at this point. I get onto Sabrina about not listening and the first thing she says is "well then kick me out" I'm like you ungrateful brat!

Sab: yeah kick me out, i'm not going thru this shit everytime
me: damn right because it's not going to happen again

I told her that is she had just waited til i got home I would take her like I told her earlier. but she is so impatient and just can't wait. well, I allowed Rene over to fix what he could for the night. Screwed in long screws to hold and tonight they come and fix it.

1st chance, last chance. I don't want his family there. Now my sister's house was broken into when Sabrina lived there and funny thing is the people who broke in happen to know where Sabrinas stuff was. Both me and my sister have our suspicions. All I know is that if my house is broken into, all hell will break loose.

I feel ESTUPID!!

2009-06-16T08:54:00.003-05:00

Ok call me stupid, dumb, pendeja if you will. Sunday at lake I went into the water with my phone, then yesterday I locked myself out of my damn house! Anything else could happen this week it's just beginning. :)

2ND GRANDSON

2009-06-16T08:14:00.001-05:00

Back on my sister's surprise party I got to meet my 2nd grandson who is only 4mths old at the time. He looks just like his daddy and his uncle and has my mother's eyes.

This is Fabian

He is just so precious!

Water logged weekend

2009-06-15T10:37:00.003-05:00

I had such an awesome weekend! Spent with my family. Friday me and my sister, Mira, met up at the LaserQuest and took in three rounds of laser tag, claire my leg, my leg. :) The maze in that place has ramps to go up and down and my legs felt it after we got home Friday night. I had such fun, Nally, my neice won a 2-4-1 pass on her next visit. WTG Nally!

Saturday, met up with Mira again with Nally and Mario. We decided we would go to the Brazos river and go tubing. Never been but I'll go again. I loved it! so relaxing and soothing. Got plenty of sun, after a 3 hour trip on the river, headed back to get our cars, headed over the river under hwy 67 bridge and ate some turkey sandwiches, man did they taste good! From there Mija headed home and me and Al headed over to Ft Worth for a birthday dinner. My Tia Cuca turned 90 years old and her family gave her a dinner at a Seniors Rec Center. The food was good, saw some relatives I hadn't seen since our last family reunion. When I got there went up to my tia Cuca and said hello and she was like "who are you?" I said "hija de Lupe Rios, la de Chona", she's like oh si si. gotta love her.

I sat back in my chair and reflected as the photographer was taking pics right in front of where i was sitting and then next to the cakes. there were two big balloons, one was a 9 and the other a 0. I started to tear up, I didn't want anyone to see me but I did tear up. I sat there thinking how great it would have been to celebrate 90 with my own mother. I was watching Tia's 3 daughters, Teri, Christina, and Delores move about to get groups for pictures, serve people dinner, cut cake and make sure everything was going smooth. I pictured me, Daniela and Miranda doing the same thing. How I miss my mother. She was such a strong person and I really expected us to celebrate 70 years together. It's funny how one can go from one day of feeling fine to the next day being in the hospital and on a respirator. I love you momma and I hope that I can wake up on what would have been your 90th birthday and sing Happy Birthday to you!!

Sunday, Daniela's turn to host Sunday Dinner. Got the message, FINALLY, that plans changed to move dinner to Joe Pool Lake. OMG it was an awesome day. Daniela made the ground meat for our tostadas and it was GOOD! Stupid me, I completely forgot that I had my freaking phone in my short pocket and after being in being in the lake for about 30 mins, found out and well no more phone. I'm estupid!

We stayed til about 930, my son Michael and Perla with my baby Fabian were able to join us and I think they had fun. I had such a blast and the water felt great! Found out that there's camping available at JPL. :)

Quiet

2009-06-11T10:59:00.002-05:00

It's been so quiet at home. My two grown boys have moved out and now have their families and my daughter is spending a month with her dad. So now at home is ME. Well, Al stays there (when i feel like it). Yesterday i got home cleaned, what my daughter and son left behind of a mess. I'm taking it slow to clean my house. Decided I would get some McD's for dinner, sat down to watch SYTYCD and the news had weather reports going, severe storms in area for an hour. :(

Erica has moved in but she's not home much. Sabrina will be moving in in about another week. So in the meantime, I'm chilling at home with the entire place to myself. Is this what it feels like to live the single life?

New Chapter

2009-06-05T10:54:00.002-05:00

Today marks a new chapter in my life. My middle son, Michael, has moved out, again. I called him at his girlfriends and asked if he was really moving out seeing as he mentioned to me a couple of days ago that he was and last night he didn't come home. So he ask his GF, and he says "yes her parents say I live here now." Ok so I mentioned ok then I will pack your stuff for you because I need to clean your room for Sabrina. He starts to tell me no, no have Vica do it because I don't trust you, you forget....click. I hung up. I'm tired of him talking to me in a way that he believes is ok. He calls back and I answer and tell him, you're not going to talk to me like that. I'm the only one that has tried to help you and make sure no one rips you off so I think I deserve a little bit more respect, your stuff will be packed and ready for you.

This morning I also picked up my niece, Erica, from rehab. She actually is my best, best friend's daughter and we are more like sisters than friends so her daughter and now son call me aunt. I lost communication with them a few years back and we found each other again and now we are dealing with erica and her prior addiction problem. I say prior because she has cried to me and has told me she doesn't want that life for her. She has been clean now 6 or 7 mths. I decided that when she came out of rehab she was moving in with me. Both her mom and grandmom think that would be best. so today she moves in and begin a new chapter in her life as well.

Now for Sabrina, my real niece. She will be moving in too. She has a 2 yr old daughter whose father has caused nothing but trouble and doesn't really have a care in the world. His parents spoil and baby him. Now I have set the rules in my house with her. HE is not allowed to step foot in my house, but only because of the things that she has told me he has done. Now if me and him should ever cross paths again, there will be a major need for ambulance to haul his ass off and police to get me off of him. :)

His last episode was back on a Sunday when me and Mira, Sabrina's mother, my sister, were at a concert and we get a call that Rene is pushing Brina and pulling on the baby and all hell broke loose. Daniela, older sister and aunt to brina, gets a call from Brina and police are called, D goes and gets Brina and Brina presses charges. well, just this week the court date came up and he was a no-show, therfore he now has a warrant for his arrest. According to Brina he overslept. HA!

So my rule is simple, he does not step foot in my house. He can come pick her up if that's what she wants, but the minute I hear he's mistreating her and she sits there and crys to me, that is when she will have to make her major decision, either cut him off 100% or take his shit and move in together. I'm not there for bullshit like that, I'm there to help her get on her own feet and I don't mean while she's being abused by an asshole and she's allowing it to happen.

My prayer is that Sabrina will open her eyes to her life being much better off without him, unless he changes, which I don't see it happening anytime soon and for Erica to stay clean and see that she can do so much more with her life if she will just take that right turn down the road.

Another school year gone by

2009-06-04T08:23:00.004-05:00

Well, tomorrow marks the last day of school for Vica completing 8th grade. Next year she will become a freshman at NMHS. She has been accepted into AP English and will also join the Big Blue Band. She has a full schedule with summer projects for AP English and band rehearsals starting in July. She has some very awesome friends who will also be following her to NMHS and so I know she will enjoy her high school years.

Everyday of my children's lives that they attended school and I was able to take them myself, my final words to them as they got off the vehicle are "bye baby, have a good day at school, see you after work, I Love you!" My boys always responded "ok bye" but Vica has always responded differently. She always says "you too" As she steps out of my truck, she has always made it a point to look back and wave goodbye at me. Moving into high school, I can only pray that the tradition I have become accustomed to doesn't die. I look forward to her looking back at me and waving at me. Every once in a while, when she's in a good mood lol, she even blew me a kiss. There was a couple of times that she didn't look back and I honked at her and she came back and I said "you didn't wave at me" She would say "I'm sorry, leave and look back and wave" I know this may not seem like much to lot of people but it means the world to me.

I know that as she grows into a young lady and enters high school, she will begin to set her goals and grow relationships that I hope will last a lifetime. I just pray that she doesn't forget she's Mom's little girl. :)

What a month of May!

2009-06-02T10:33:00.003-05:00

I am so freaking happy! Our agency wrote $46,498 in premium for the month of May. Our goal was $30,000. WOOHOO!!! It feels good when you have an agency you work for with 100% positive attitude.

Surprise!!!

2009-06-01T09:27:00.003-05:00

Me and Mira, younger sister, set out to give our older sister a surprise 40th birthday party and it worked. We had told her a couple of weeks ago that we wanted to take her to dinner and she was like ok. So Mira and I shopped on Saturday to get all the deco and food we needed to pull this off. We were at Party City for what seemed like hours just to order freaking balloons. Party City re-organized and IMO I don't think they did a very good job of it. There is only ONE line for ordering balloons even if you're not picking right then and there. ARGH.

headed over to Vet to pick up Cocoa, then headed to to pick up food for party. Sunday I woke up early, headed over to get table and chairs and then to Mira's house to get started. needed to get cake in oven for Julissa (celebrating her 2 yr b-day too), Serena, cousin, was bringing my Aunt Pat's chocolate cake mmmmmmmmm.

We prepared all the fixins, celantro, onions, limes, made the rice, had beans cooking in slow cooker all morning. Sabrina and Nathalie started decorating and me and Mario helped out, in the meantime Guicho and Al were outside mowing the lawn, edging and killing weeds. Then we moved to the patio to set up tables and decorate outdoors, this was the Luau part.

Invitaiton said 4pm, Daniela was suppose to meet us at Mira's house at 530 or 6 "to go out to eat." I saw them pulling up so everyone came to the front door, sisters house has double door entrance. So Mira opened one door and I opened the other and everyone yelled SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!! and then we all sang Happy Birthday as loud as we could. She was surprised. What I loved most is that all three of her best friends were able to make it.

Everyone had a good time and good food. happy birthday Daniela I'm so glad you enjoyed it and I hope we can do it again in ten years. I love you!

BREAK IN

2009-05-26T09:50:00.002-05:00

Ok so there is a pawn shop that is moving in next door to us. NOT GOOD! We are attached but not attached and someone broke in thinking they could access the pawn shop. Not a smart move on their part!

Nothing missing from our stuff, thank God.

Memorial Weekend

2009-05-26T08:28:00.002-05:00

Well, talk about a busy weekend! Friday, got together with my cousins and hit a couple of stores. Saturday gave my first coupon class to a group of ladies at a church. It was so much fun, my two cousins, Jacque and Juanita, went with me and helped me out. The ladies were excited to get started, well at least I think they were. Afterwards, my cousins treated me to lunch at Tino's in Mesquite and the food was great! My cousins are so good to me :)

So seeing as my cousin John, Jacque's husband, was sitting with Tia we took advantage and had a girl's day of being out and about doing some shopping find some deals. CVS was the place to be for make-up. The Loreal brand was on clearance for no more than $2.49 on lipsticks, lip gloss, eye shadows, mascara, eye liner. Now when we shop, we are actually shopping for six people, all women. There are 6 of us in our coupon club and so when we find a deal we try to buy for everyone. Loreal on clearance for no more than $2.49 and our coupon was $2.00 off 1 loreal product. OMG that's only .49 at the most for makeup!

By the end of the day we had purchased $1500 worth of LOREAL makeup for only $80! So we each had some great makeup!

Then we headed home and I had about an hour before I had to dress for a wedding reception. Al showed up and we're off to Fort Worth to meet up with my cousin Elena who is the one that invited me to the wedding. Well, when we arrived, she was out on the porch and here comes this beautiful young lady and I hardly recoginize her, it's Bianca! Man has she grown!

So, Elena says ok we're going to National first and I'm like huh? yeah we have two weddings tonight. Damn! Elena is known throughout Ft Worth and just about every month there is a party of some sort that she's inviting me to. :)

So we get to National, very nice reception hall. This wedding is a "Tejano" wedding. The band was good, good DJ everyone having fun and dancing Tejano, Cumbias, laughing and children running about dancing as well. Everyone was well dressed.

2nd wedding - My god talk about day and night weddings. The 2nd wedding was a "Pachuco" wedding. All the groomsmen were wearing their chains on their pant belt loops with the long coat, stacy adams, hats. Don't get me wrong they looked nice as usual but the atmosphere is completely different. Music is reggaeton, hip-hop, oldies. You have people yelling across the room y que orale cabron! Funny.

Ok so we head home about midnight, long drive to Mesquite.

Sunday, I had my yard sale at a friends house, made some good money and packed up, left my truck at home and headed to my sisters for a cookout. We had a blast, Sharon was there with mom, Sabrina was there with Juju. Later in the evening we headed to the Casino, no luck got home about 1am from casino.

Monday, well, Vica has spent the entire weekend with her girlfriend so I had my whole weekend Vica free :) j/k

Anyway, on Monday me and Al decided to drive to Big Rocks in Glen Rose. we enjoyed some time swimming in the Brazos River and found this awesome spot where we can camp right on the river! Our plan? Be back in two weeks to camp out.

Today is Tuesday........back to work.

Refer'd, Applied & Accepted

2009-05-20T13:29:00.002-05:00

Vica was refer'd by her English teach for Advance Placement English, basically Honors class. She wrote her essay and completed her application and submitted. She rec'd the news that she has been accepted!!!!!

She already has an assigment due the first day of school in August. Has been given four book titles to check out at library and read over the summer and do a story board on. this is a major grade for the 1st six weeks.

I know you can do it mija!

My new blog

2009-05-20T09:31:00.002-05:00

http://insuranceworld2009.blogspot.com/

I decided that I would try to help people by giving, in my opinion, very important insurance information to my fellow texans. Not every state has the same rules and regulations for insurance but hopefully this can help you know what to look for and what questions to ask.

If you have any questions in regards to insurance feel free to contact me at beli1970@gmail.com, i will be more than happy to help you even if you're not my client.

Ok I give up

2009-05-20T09:26:00.003-05:00

Well, again this morning I woke up to take my son to work, so early for me now that I've changed jobs and don't get up til 645 or 7, :)

I decided to ring "the bell" (remember, my mother's day gift), Vica, as usual never misses a beat, "my shift hasnt' started yet".

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

895.....let's see if I win

2009-05-20T09:18:00.003-05:00

Ok so Albertsons had a Monopoly game going on. Yesterday was the last day you could get a game piece and you have until May 31st to redeem/claim your prize. I only lack one stamp on each section to win something with the smallest prize being a $2 cash game.

Well, I went out to Albertsons to grab some Flipz Chocolate covered pretzels on sale for $1.25 and with my coupon they were only a whopping .25 cents each! what a deal!

Well, I actuall went to four different Albies seeing as the first one didn't have any but I did purchase an item to get my game piece. Lo and behold the manager on duty grabs a bag and fills it up with game pieces.

On my second store they were out of Flipz and games pieces as well. So on the third and fourth store I scored a total of 16 of the white choclate and 24 of the chocolate covered and paid only $10.83! That's a savings of 80%! So ok back to the game pieces, in the third and fourth store they too gave me stacks of games pieces.

I got home and counted my GP's, a total of 895! So today I will open each one and match them up, yes i grabbed an extra two boards just in case you never know. LOL

Wish me luck!

Mother's Day

2009-05-13T15:20:00.002-05:00

I rec'd Gabriel's card yesterday and he just made my day! He sent me a $25 GC to AMC movies. I love the movies and back when they were younger, we use to go watch the new releases once or twice a month and each time I think we average about $70-$80 for tickets and food. We just couldn't see a movie without our hot dogs, candy and drinks. it's been a while since i've gone to AMC30 to watch a new release but I'll be going to one tonight!

Review to come

The Bell, Vica and Al

2009-05-12T12:19:00.003-05:00

Ok so last Thurs my daughter asked Al for a ride to the store, I was busy cutting coupons as usual.

Well, on Mother's day morning as we prepared for our trip to Bridgeport, my daughter comes out to the driveway where I'm cleaning my truck out and Al is backing his vehicle out of the drive to park in front of our house. Vica gives me an envelope with a card in it and a bell.

Her words: "This is for you, when you need something just ring it and either me or Al will come." LOL LOL LOL

As we stood there, I rang the bell just to see what would happen. Victoria turns and yells at Al, "it's for you!". Too funny.

Then while we were in Bridgeport, I rang the bell and Al looks over at me and acts like he's running as fast as he can. LOL

Today as I was taking Vica to school, I still had the bell in my truck and I picked it up and rang it as Vica was getting off for school, as I rang the bell, without missing a beat she says "I'm on break".

Damn bell!

Happy Birthday Momma!!

2009-04-29T08:30:00.002-05:00

I love you so much and I miss you more and more. I know that I should be smiling and happy as mom would want me to be but it's so hard. It's hard to not be able to call her and wish her a happy birthday. The first time I gave mom a birthday party, was back in 1994 at Kim's apt. I ordered a cake in the shape of a torso and hired a dancer for her. We videotaped it. This was before she was bound to a walker and wheelchair. Miranda was big and pregnant with Mario and I barely showed my pregnancy with Vica.

I know that mom had alot of fun that day. Since then I made sure that if I could afford it I gave her a party of some sort, even if it meant dinner only.

I love you!

ME, Kroger & Corporate - Part One

2009-04-27T10:07:00.002-05:00

Kroger Store
1014 Vine Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-1100

Re: Kroger #
East Regional
3600 Gus Thomasson
Mesquite, TX 75150

To whom it may concern:

I visited your above-mentioned store location on Saturday 4/25/2009 shortly after 7pm. I was accompanied by my sister and cousins. We each did some shopping together, however proceeded to the checkout with each our own items to purchase. As I waited in line to reach the cashier, there were still two customers in front of me, I noticed that three managers came over to the cashier and just stood there as if they were observing her, which I assumed they were.

A bit of information before I proceed to explain my complaint. I use coupons and have been shopping at this store for the most part of 20 years if not longer. I am a regular shopper and so is my entire family. I have been using coupons for a good part of those 20 years. I made it a point a few years ago to ask about the coupon policy for this store, seeing as each store can pretty much make up their rules from what I have seen. I have been abiding by these rules since. I was instructed that I could complete up to three transactions in one visit to your store, I could only double or triple up to three coupons of a like item per transaction.

As I approached the cashier, I was attacked by the three managers, no let me correct myself by two of your managers. The main one was a Michael, Mr. Edward, who is usually there when I usually shop late at night, didn’t say more than two words. The other one didn’t get his name however name tag had Co-Store manager, decided to take over after Michael yelled at me and was ugly about me taking my items.

As Diane, your cashier who knows your coupon policy and has always followed it and has always corrected me when I do happen to have a wrong coupon, was accused of not abiding by the coupon rule, proceeded to scan my items, Michael is yelling at me stating “You can’t take all that!” I said “excuse me”, “you can’t have all that, there is a limit of one item per coupon” I said “yes I know that and I have one coupon for each one.” Then he took my coupon and stated that on the coupon it says “one per purchase”. I said “Yes, and I’m purchasing three of them and have three coupons”. Your co-store manager goes to state “Yes purchase and transaction means the same thing”, I explained to him, “No, one item is a purchase and everything on the same receipt is a transaction.” He says “well, we can’t allow you to make three transactions” Diane looks at him and says; well that’s how we were told that they could allow them up to three transactions.

I explained to the Co-Store mgr. well, then if you’d like I can take my things and put them in the car and then come back for my second transaction, once I step out that door, I’m making a new visit. He allowed the cashier to proceed with my transaction. Michael, from what I could see apparently just came over to yell at me and then he went back to a register and began to check customers out.

I wish I could say this was the end, however, at about 10 or 10:30pm that same night I had to return to purchase 10 boxes of the Capri Sun drink pouches. As soon as I get to the cashier, there is Michael ready to pounce on me again. Your Capri Suns are on sale for $1.79 and I have a manufacturer coupon for $1.00 off of one making them only .79, what a deal. Michael comes over and yells at me again “We can’t let you take all those, you’ve already been here today” “You can only use coupons once a day and we know what you’ve been doing! You’re abusing coupons!” Now mind you, this is being yelled at me in front of several other customers in your store, AGAIN. Now another manager, Paul, comes over and mentions to me, “ok you can only use coupons on one transaction in one day.” I’m like WHAT!?! “Yes, mam’am, you are only allowed to make a purchase with coupons on one transaction in one day.” “Are you serious?”

I said, “you know apparently neither of you know what you’re talking about and I will contact corp. to get this straighten out.”

Now, I go home, I’m in tears from being
1. Yelled at
2. Embarrassed along with your cashier being embarrassed
3. Accused of abusing coupons – I don’t use printable coupons off the internet and all my coupons say manufacture coupons on them with exp dates, redemption addresses
4. Pretty much not welcomed in your store after shopping there for more than twenty years.

On Sunday 4/26/2009, I decided to make a call to the store and talk to the Store mgr, Mr. Docktrie. I asked if I could come and talk to him about what happen in his store the day before and he says “Well, can’t you tell me over the phone?” I said well yes but ok here’s what happen. So I explained the whole situation to him and told him I had decided to talk to him first before reporting to Corporate Office and he said ok. Well, I feel that his apology was not sincere in the least bit and he said he would talk to Michael to see if there was something wrong.

I’m not looking for anything in return except an apology from the entire management team. I feel that I was singled out, my cousin was using coupons and had some of the same things I was purchasing and not once did they go over and mention anything to them.

I expect a response to my letter along with an apology. I would also like your coupon policy in writing on your letterhead. I requested this from the managers who took it upon themselves to yell at me and all of them denied my request. So I feel if I were in the wrong then why was my request denied? And seeing as you accept coupons the coupon policy is open record of policy, therefore making it available to the public upon request.

Sincerely,

The Hernandez Family

2009-04-27T08:05:00.003-05:00

Well, my oldest sister is now a homeowner as well. congrats to her and her family. We went over Sunday and had our first meal there together. I thought it would be a good idea for everyone to have a prayer so that we could ask for the blessing of their new home.

While I said the prayer, I could feel that Mom was right there with us. So now both my older and younger sister are homeowner and now I'm the only one left to jump into that boat. I'm not quite ready.

Roses

2009-04-23T15:22:00.002-05:00

This beautiful rose bush happen to bloom in my backyard. Just gorgeous!!

>

I met HIM!

2009-04-20T15:42:00.013-05:00

I finally got to meet my grandson, Phoenix. He is so so so so so so cute! Not just because he is my grandson but he really is cute. He has chunky cheeks, a look to die for. He looks at people with a look that seems to say "and you are?" LOL He's a very good baby, doesn't hardly cry. Doesn't mind being held by strangers. I just did not want to come home.

Since Al went with us this time, I again hiked up Black Rock to show him this beautiful view.

Also, when me and Vica went last year in July we took a pic together on the way there and did the same this year. Have we changed in a year's time?
**************************************************************************
Al made it to the summit point of Black Rock Mountain, I did too again, however, I promised I won't be doing it again unless my sisters go for a visit and that will be the last time. And only if they go together. LOL

Gabriel hasn't changed any and Jane has filled out and matured since I last saw her. They are so good to Phoenix and Diane mentioned to me that Jane has brought up her grades and is trying harder than ever to graduate this year. I'm so proud of her and she finally got her license too.

Please pray for Nate

2009-04-16T11:42:00.001-05:00

He is very weak and sick with fever and infection. Please be in prayer for Nate. He is not doing well. The Dr's did not release him to go back home because of his condition. Wes just called and said that Nate's fever is high and he has not eaten at all and they will likely need to put him back on the feeding tube. Wes, Jackie,Jake and Luke have gone down to Children's to be with him. Because of Nate's condition, he is susceptible to sickness now. Psalm 34:4 "I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.

Wes just sent this update and wanted to forward it out, please continue our prayers on Nate's behalf.

"Nate will most likely be up at Children's the rest of the month. His immune system is down to nothing and he caught some sort of infection with a fever. What we can get over in a day or two takes him weeks while on chemo. They will monitor him closely and procede forward with the necessary measures to get his weight back up and help him fight off infections which will take awhile. He will continue on the same path as far as the chemo is concerned because they want to keep fighting the cancer. It is a double edged sword chemo makes it to where you have no immune system and sick but cancer kills you so you need the chemo. Please continue to pray for his MRI on April 27th that the results show no trace of any cancer. He will still continue chemo through the rest of the year, but the four month MRI being cancer free prevents any medical need for radiation which is terrible for his age and causes lots of learning problems. May God bless you all."

PHOENIX

2009-04-13T12:59:00.003-05:00

My oldest son and his soon to be wife, gave birth to a beautiful son on September 17, 2008. His name is Phoenix Sinclair. I have yet to meet him as of this posting, however, we are hoping to make the trip to Georgia this weekend to visit my new grandson.

He will be 7 mths this Friday as we begin our trip at about 6pm. We are hoping to make this a monthly trip once a month. We found that it's only about 13 hours so it's like taking a weekend trip to Monterrey. We'll leave Friday about 6pm and be there in time for breakfast, spend all day Saturday, leave Sunday about lunch time.

Can't wait to see him!!

Sunday Dinner

2009-04-13T08:23:00.005-05:00

LOL - Well, this month was suppose to be my month to host our Sunday dinner and it was Easter also. One sister already had plans and we cancelled our trip to Bridgeport thinking it was going to rain.

Friday my sister, Mira, calls me, "can you change the time for Sunday dinner?" I said "Why?", well, I just won two tickets to the Joan Sebastian concert and it starts at 6pm. I said "I'll see" I love Joan Sebastian and the other group that was opening for him, Conjunto Primavera.

Friday, Vica was off school and a friend of hers invited her to stay the night on Thursday so that on Friday they could go to her family's huge egg hunt. Saturday, I put up my sale at a friends house and then did someone's tax return, then headed home and cooked some chicken fajita tacos, some rice and homemade tortillas. Sunday morning I had planned on sleeping late, which i did but my sister called me at about 10am, hey you wanna go to the concert with me, I said hell yea, why what happen. Well, her boyfriend doesn't like that kind of music. So we went, and remember I mention from time to time she works for Mary Kay Corp office? Well, yes we got to sit in the Mary Kay Suite. We had a pretty good view.

Joan has such pretty horses and they are all trained to dance.

He was diagnosed with throat cancer a few years ago and today is singing strong. He still has a great voice and still just as gorgeous. What a show!

Witnessing

2009-04-10T16:28:00.002-05:00

One of the things about having an office on the service road is being a witness to accidents. Well, I happen to be looking out when BAM, this Ford Escape rearended another vehicle who was at a stand still in traffic. The little 5 year old boy was sitting directly behind the driver and was 'smushed' as he put it. I got to talk the young couple who were in this vehicle and helped them out. It's a miracle all three of them walked away with a minor scrape on her knee.

1st of many 1st

2009-04-10T08:19:00.004-05:00

This Easter will be the first Easter without my mother. Every year we tried to drive to Bridgeport to lay flowers on my grandmother's gravesite, on Easter and on Mother's Day. There were some years we couldn't make the trip or just didn't make the trip due to weather. But each year that we did make it, we would clean her gravesite and lay flowers, then move on to clean up the other gravesites for her mother and so forth.

Afterwards, we would gather at a local park and have a nice picnic by eithering having sandwiches or cooking burgers and hotdogs on thr grill. Last year was the first year that I actually had a significant other join me. We all had a great time. We played volleyball, listen to music and ate some good burgers.

My mother told me afterwards that she was so proud of us and that she was happy that we all had someone in our lives to love us and take care of us (well somewhat take care of us, we are very independent women, LOL).

We don't have any pics of us with our mother because when we were growing up, she didn't like her picture being taken and even before she passed she didn't like it. Well, as grown women, we took her picture everytime we could and I'm glad we did, otherwise, we wouldn't have any to reflect back on. Well, this weekend will be the first of many first for me and my sisters. I know that thru the years, it will not get any easier. Even though mom didn't have many traditions that we did as a family, what tradtions we did have, we always enjoy getting together, laughing, arguing as families do, crying, and playing some good ole Texas Hold'em. I know that I for one will try to keep those traditions for as long as I can.

100!

2009-04-08T08:18:00.003-05:00

I love free but it's different when you don't expect it. I love Chick-fil-A, I could eat Chick-fil-A everyday and never get tired of it. Once a week I treat myself to a really good breakfast or lunch and usually I pick lunch. Today I decided to treat myself to breakfast and remembered there is one close to where I now work.

I drive up to order and my total was $9.00. Get to the window and the girl repeats my order and asked if I would like anything else to which I respond 'no thank you'. Then she proceeds to ring this 'cow bell', I'm looking at her like ok something new they must have started. Then she yells out for everyone to hear her, 'we have our 100th customer of the day everyone!' She looks over at me and says you're our 100th customer and you get your order FREE!

OMGatos! I get it FREE! How awesome is that. The cows have just made my day!!!! I'm really stuck on Chick-fil-A for life.

So now I can treat myself to my lunch as well and yes it will be Chick-fil-A. :)

ECW, WWE, RAW

2009-03-31T08:16:00.002-05:00

Well Vica rec'd her TAKS test results for the reading portion and she missed it by two for a perfect score. So I treated her to a night of wrestling at American Airlines Center. We had awesome seats and perfect view of everything. She got to see Jeff Hardy who is one of her favorites, Big Show, John Cena, Mr. McMahon, Triple H. We had so much fun. I'm glad we were able to get tickets. All day yesterday I was searching and searching and nothing. So I said the hell with it, I'll just go to the box office and see if they have any left and Bingo! Got 4 tickets at what I consider the 50 yard line. :)

Whew what a weekend!

2009-03-30T08:56:00.001-05:00

Friday night not much, Juanita, Jacque, John and myself headed out on a "run". We went to Albertson's to get our .45 sugar with our coupons, they each scored 8 bags and I scored 20! Can you imagine not having to buy sugar for months? Next we headed to Rockwall to check out Walgreens for some women's razors that with our coupon combined with the store coupon would have cost us $1.

From there, there was a CVS across the street and we decided to stop to see if this store had any of the Depends for Adults on clearance, since Daniela had told me she found some. Well talk about a shopping trip in this store. They were having a 90%, yes 90% sale!! John and Jacque scored 4 Wireless indoor/outdoor speakers regular price $79.99 on sale for only $4.99! Found lots of Rubber Maid containers for only .47!

Saturday morning I woke to bundles of coupons on my front door. All in all we had 398 books of coupons, so we, Juanita, John, Jacque, Maria and myself spent all and I mean ALL day separating coupons.

Headed to Casino Saturday night with a friend of mine who had never been, made it home by 4:45am and started to load my truck for the bazaar sale at St Edwards. Made it to St Edwards by 6:45am and started to set up.

John and Jacque made it about 7:30 or so and we set up everything and were ready by the 9am start. Let me tell you, anyone who has not had the pleasure of being around this couple, they are just too funny. I love to be around them, never a dull moment, never. They had me laughing all day.

I scored a $50 mountain bike almost brand new there at the bazaar from the lady set up next to us. Made it home by 4:30 headed to Juanita's at 8 to watch Celebrity Apprentice and next thing I know Juanita is waking me up. LOL

Got back to the house and headed straight for bed!

Frieday

2009-03-27T16:48:00.003-05:00

yes I spelled it that way! I feel fried, tired and just pooped out. LOL Well, hope to get some beautiful weather this weekend. I hope everyone who stops by my blog has a wonderful weekend.

New Family Member

2009-03-23T16:26:00.002-05:00

Boots has a new brother. I will post a pic asap. I went to Tere's little son b-day party downt the street and a cousin of theirs was there who unfortunately has been abused by her husband and dedcided to leave him. She is currently in a shelter and they had just gotten a baby chihuahua, 6mths old. Well, the shelter doesn't allow pets and so they had to find him a home. She asked if I could keep him and I said ok then she said but only til I find a place to live in about 3 or 4 mths. I said I'm sorry but if I take him it's for keeps but you can have pick of the litter if they have babies. Deal!

He is completely brown and very adorable. his name is Charro.

Bio Essentials by Kay

2009-03-23T08:21:00.005-05:00

I did some web surfing for some info on this Bio Essentials by Kay that I'm going to sell at my booth next Sunday and here is what I found.

https://www.kaycasperson.com/cart.php

The bag I have put together is valued at $114 for only the Body Wash, Revitalizing Serum, Masque if you were to purchase it from the website. Seeing as I came across this at a very low cost to me i can pass it on with trendmendous savings to you.

A small gift bag with a Hair Gel included will only cost $15.00!!

BAZAAR 3/29/2009

2009-03-19T08:43:00.006-05:00

Ok everyone that knows me, mark your calendar. I am going to join my cousins, John & Jacque, at a bazaar on March 29th at St Edwards in East Dallas on Elm Street to sell stuff and have I got some good stuff.

Professional Steam Irons only $13 or 2 for $20
Mini Steam Irons only $5.00!!
Professional Portable Steam Cleaners $12 or 2 for $20
Beauty Bag - Bio by Kay for only $15 or 2 for $25.00
includes: 1 -Body wash, 1-mask, 1-revitalizing serum, 1 hair gel
I have name brand health and beauty aids, shampoos, conditioners, toothpaste, alum foil, air freshners, candles. Hope you come out and see us!!

Other exciting news!!

2009-03-18T16:09:00.001-05:00

My niece, Nathalie, made North Mesquite Pacesetters!!!! I am so proud of her and I know that her mom and other aunts are just as proud.

Rapping Flight Attendant

2009-03-18T16:04:00.002-05:00

Southwest Airlines has been known to do some very weird things and fun at the same time and this video goes to prove that.

What an awesome way to make everyone feel comfortable and he hit everything that needed to be told to the passengers.

Big Difference

2009-03-17T14:42:00.003-05:00

As I'm working today, I realize what a difference from each office I've ever worked at. When I first started working insurance back in '93, I began with a Farmers agency which was a Husband and Wife "partnership". That agency taught me alot about insurance and basic office skills. I had no experience at anything to do with an office much less insurance. All applications were processed via regular mail service, fax, speed memos. I took a leave when Vica was born and returned in '96 to the second agent working in that same office. He was a smaller agency and again I began to learn, however this time I learned to talk to people over the phone and expalin policies as well. In late '97 I began to look for new employment because he could no longer afford my salary, well I interviewed with one of my favorite agents that I could have worked for, Bernie Garcia. He interview me and doubled my salary and hired me on the spot. This was pretty much a husband/wife team as well. However, she wasn't in the office quite as much. At this point in my 'career' I had learned quite a bit. This is when Farmer's started using computers to complete apps, memos, underwriting issues, etc. At Bernie's I felt at home. I could talk openly with him, we treated each other like best friends, and we could joke with each other and not think about 'oh no i'm being harassed'. I left that agency due to differences between me and his wife who was not in agreement with my new pay. They switched me from salary to hourly and she wanted to do away with the bonuses that Bernie had been giving me for Life policies and the extra time I would put in early or late for clients to come in. So moving forward, I worked basically on a contract basis with other agents and during all this I learned that I like to be a very organized person in my office so that I can give people the time of day to explain their policies and make sure they understand exactly what they are signing.

So back in 2004, when mom had her leg amputated, I worked for my last Farmer's agent in Richardson. He was a great guy and tried to really give me the flexiblity I needed but then my situation changed and I had to leave that agency. I was unemployed from office work for 6 months however, I had a bit of income with Martin Masonry. Not much, went thru very hard times those few months. Then in May of 2005, I began my very first independent agency, this also was a husband/wife 'partnership' WOW! The difference of having to learn, retain info. I had to hold in underwriting guidelines for 40 companies vs 1 company. Forty different applications vs one, and so forth. Well, I did it! In the first two weeks, my boss made me the office manager. Now according to her, in her 17 years of having her agency, she had never had an office manager. Well, I guess I did good. :)

This office was no where near organized or running efficiently. The staff hardly knew the ins and outs of policies. So my venture began. I decided to change how things were done and my boss was in agreement with me. Everytime I showed her how I thought something should be done, she liked my ideas. So I ended up changing the filing system, the handling of clients payments, the way we process change requests, I made sure we didn't leave ourselves open for E&O exposures. I recently left that agency after 3 1/2 years. When you look at it today, according to several clients of theirs, you can hardly recognize it's the same agency. Now I start with another agency. This one too is an independent agency and it too can be called a husband/wife team, she is licensed, however, she is a full-time teacher and she doesn't deal with the agency unless it's an emergency. For the past two weeks that I have been here, I find that we are extremely busy quoting and selling. We have sold 15 policies just in two weeks for both auto and home with 90 of the auto on electronic funding. However, the agent is not stressed nor is our producer and I come to realize that none of the past employers were stress free and I believe that part of that may be from having the 'wife' or the 'husband' there too. I have reorganized this office as well with open arms from both the agent/owner and the producer and they really like it and see that things are running smoother for them and not so hectic as before. We moved the producer's office around so that she can work with less work, LOL. I don't have my own office as before with a window and my name on the door BUT I find that I missed working at the front of the office because I make sure everything gets done right and I get to greet each and every one of our policyholders. I still have a huge window to look out and every day I see the best view anyone coulde have, the American Flag.

Free to 50 cents!!

2009-03-16T08:29:00.003-05:00

Ok Friday night not much, got home from work and watched a couple of movies. Saturday, got up, Sheila came by, hit a couple of Wags for some more of my favorite shampoo seeing as with my coupon it was free. :) At about 6pm headed to Juanita's, went with her, John and Jacque to hit some Wags for final day sale of the Garnier. Talk about jackpot. None of the stores we went to imposed the limit!!! Juanita was able to get enough for her and Maria! We made out like bandits, John was able to score his mousse, lol. Also, found earlier in the day the Boost Smoothies for Tia Ramona, priced at 3.29 coupon was for $2.00 off making them 1.29 BUT at the register it rang up the current sale of B1G1 1/2 off!! Juanita paid $3.15 for 5 6-pks of Boost Smoothies!!!

We also, hit the Kroger to use up our Catalinas, each of us had $7 worth. Well, I hadn't gotten the sale ad for the week and to my surprise what a sale. We got the following

$12.96 - 9 bottles Purex Laundry Detergent 32 Loads W/free fabric softner
$7.50 - about 15 4-pks of the Dannon yogurt drinks

Then on Sunday, me and Juanita hit Walgreen's again to get our gum. Trident came out to .25 cents and found the peppermint on sale for .65 so that was free. Headed to Kroger, got some more Dannon, Purex and found other things on the sale, so headed back home to search for Q's and then back out again.

This trip, final trip, got Chex Mix snacks for .50 each, Gorton's Fish $1.95 a box, what a steal, coffee filters .25 for the 40 ct., Quaker rice cake snacks Free, Country Crock spread Free. This next week we'll get Irish Spring bar soap 3 ct FREE!! And we love FREE!!

Summary:
Free - Quaker Rice Snacks
.50 4-pk Dannon Yogurt Drinks
1.95 Gorton's Fish (18 sticks, 5 fillets)
1.44 Purex Laundry Detergent (32 loads)
.25 Coffee Filters (40 ct)
.25 Gum
Free - Gum - Peppermint
Free - Country Crock Butter (15 oz)

Weekend

2009-03-13T15:28:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Funny

2009-03-10T16:57:00.004-05:00

People say that when you are in jail, hospital or pass away you find out who your friends are. Well, read this and you'll see that I was taken to jail around this time last year. http://beli-mydestiny.blogspot.com/2008/01/why-cant-people-think-of-anyone-but.html

Well, now that I no longer work there, it's funny how they tend to turn things around. A friend of mine came by my new office where I am now working and was surprised to see me working here. She was really happy to see me too. She said that she had tried to get my info from my prior employer but nothing. She was thinking that she needed to get a hold of me quick and put me with an agent that could use my skills because she thought very highly of me. That was so nice of her to tell me that too. She said she asked about what had happen and of course David made it look like I was the cause of the whole thing and I know Randa thinks the same way and as for Ana, well, I really thought she was my friend. Had I known any better I would have never covered her ass on the mistakes, which were several, that she made. Not that Randa would have fired her for any mistakes she made. Anyway, so the conversation that took place between my friend and David, well per David Randa had told me that I better be back in the office by a certain time and that I refused to show up to work. Now before I said anything to her, she told me "What kind of people are they?"

Now David is nice when he wants to be but, it's sad when he sits there and tries to tell me about the Alpha Male and that he is an Alpha Male, well I guess in his case it's only when he's with his Fantasy Football guys because in his family Randa wears the pants. Now for anyone who wants to leave a comment please do but I ask you, what employer do you know will call your family looking for you when they already know that you're at a funeral. What employer do you know will not allow you the day off to attend a funeral, unless of course you have time to get back to the office or it's a distant relative or friend that you feel just attending the church service is enough of paying respects. BUT this was my fiancee's "father". Like I said before I have forgiven them.

Oh and on the good side, I found out that this agency was #4 in her district last year from all her agencies that she has under her. WOOOOWOOOOOWOOOO!!!

What a weekend!!

2009-03-09T09:16:00.003-05:00

I had such a great weekend! Saturday I had my little sale at Martin's house, he's in Mississippi so it was me and Ana, his wife. Then her friend came over and set up sale too. Made enough to pay a bill, woohoo. Then packed up about 1pm, headed home. Stopped and bought the early Sunday paper to check out coupons and sales for Sunday.

Headed to Juanita's when I got home to check out HCW (Hot coupon world), also reviewed sales for CVS and Wags. Well, found that Garnier shampoo and style products would be on sale for .99 at Wags, John and Jacque were at Juanitas and i suggested we do a Midnight run.

At midnight we, John, Jacque, Daniela and myself headed out, hit the Garland Wags first and scored about 6 or 7 bottles each of shampoo, conditioners, gel, mousse all for FREE!!! Also, got 5 boxes of the Perfect 10 haircolor, each one on clearance for $3.59 and my coupon was for $5 off of one = FREE, a few boxes of Ritz crackers, love them, also Colgate toothpast for 25 cents!!

In total we hit 5 Wags and a couple of CVS's. I'm not sure how many my sister got in the end but between me, Jacque, Maria, Juanita and Irene we divided everything and each made out with about 7 shampoos, 6 conditioners, 3 or 4 sytle garnier products they each got 6 colgates, 7 Ritz crackers all for $1.00!! I got 15 of the Perfect 10 haircolor, 18 Colgates, 6 Ritz, 9 bracelets, 9 small bottles of perfume, 8 shampoos, 8 conditioners, about 4 style products (mousse, gel, etc.) for $17.00!! On March 29th, me, John and Jacque are splitting a booth at the St Edwards bazaar. Everything we sell we get to keep the profits. So I have to stockpile and make it a good sale. Still have all week to get some more Garnier for free, it's a popular sale at my yard sales.

We made it back to the house about 6 a.m. slept for three hours and headed with a $5 bill to bingo for the first morning session on a Sunday, 32" TV giveaway, didn't win. I heard my sister say Sunday dinner would be at 6pm but she called and said it was at 1pm, and that then she had to go to meet with her loan officer for house she is trying to get at 3:30, well we didn't makt it to Sunday Lunch/Dinner, Vica was with dad and she didn't get home til about 2:30 so no sense in driving to Irving and turning right back around, especially since money is short for gas right now.

Watched a couple of movies, cleaned some, last week me and Juanita, maria started working out on Tues, Thurs and Sunday. So yesterday we worked out for 50 mins nonstop and I feel great. We do a 20 min warmup to music, then we do a set of 10 of each, jumping jacks, way backs, rocking chair, windmills, opp toe touch, picking grass, then one of us will do 50 on the ab lounger while the others just keeping moving, after that person completes her 50 then we do a second set of the above, then the 2nd person does ab lounger, then we do a third set and then the 3rd person does her ab lounger. It was a great workout! Well, I was the last one to do the ab lounger and this song came on and Juanita and Maria tell me keep going beli til the songs finishes. LOL I did a total of 130 on the ab lounger. can you say huff and puff?!?! Tia had rolled herself in the living room and she watched us work out, I think she got a laugh from it. LOL I'm so glad to see her move herself around.

afterwards we weighed ourselves, I think we should weigh ourselves each time before we work out but we forgot to so we did it after and my current weight is 230 lbs., my goal is at least 160 - 170. So I need to lose 60 lbs to start.

Afterwards, i went home to shower and headed back, Juanita invited me to watch Celebrity apprentice with her, Scott got fired :(, headed home and actually went to bed before midnight.

I woke up refreshed, full of energy. We agreed to change our workouts to Tues, Wed, Thurs., seeing as the weekends we usually have something come up. So tomorrow we start for three days straight, after work. So I figured if I can do 100 on the ab lounger each night I should have a small belly come new year's eve. LOL