Happy Birthday!!!

Happy 21st Birthday to my little sister Audrey!!!

She's one of the most amazing people I know. She really senstive, but she's stronger than she knows. She's super smart even though sometimes she may not think so. She's always putting everyone in front of herself - her giving has [almost] no limits. She's one of the most kind people I know, even though she may not consider herself to be. She's my baby sister, and I love her to pieces!!

Here's an old picture of us when I was taller than she was! :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUDREY!!!

My Return to the Blog World!

So last night I mentioned to my husband how I hadn’t blogged in long time! His response: “Uh I know!”



Point taken. Lol.


So here I am, trying to ease my way back into blogging. The truth is I’ve missed it. It was a way of documenting what has been going on in my life; regardless of how many followers I had or comments I received. I enjoyed it for myself.


Things are rolling right along in all aspects. I finished my temporary period here at work in January and after the first week, I became an official employee! Danny is back in school for the spring semester, he has his senior recital this April!! Smokey has gained a significant amount of weight during his transition into being domesticated! I know Danny will rarely if at all admit, but we both love that pudgy, little punk to pieces. Bella is still being a goofball over at my dad’s. Just the other day I was over there and I noticed how all the other dogs were missing their whiskers! And then Bella came up to me and she has all of hers! Bella has been nibbling all the other dogs’ whiskers off! Ridiculous, right?! Next time I go to my dad’s I will be sure to photograph them so that I can share them on here.


We renewed our lease in our apartment for another year. Hopefully by December we will be moving into a house. The only downside to being more than 20 minutes away from family is – just that. We are farther away so it takes just that much more to visit.


I celebrated my 23rd birthday this past January [17th]. We had a nice dinner with a couple of our friends at our apartment. The day before, Danny and I had gone to my dad’s and celebrated early with him and my sister. They got me a cake and a beautiful charm bracelet.

The cake was delicious!!

I have 3 charms: L-R: A kitchen utensil container thing, a heart that reads "Middle Sister", and a cross.

Danny gave the ok to get iPhone 4’s! I was like a kid in a candy store. I was ecstatic! He got one too since we weren’t able to do anything for his birthday. So now we both have awesome phones! The not so awesome part was closing our Sprint account. Our bill is only about $20 more with AT&T – and I have a phone I love!


Valentine’s Day is coming up just around the corner! I have no idea what we’re going to do. We don’t do presents, it’s usually just out to dinner. And even then. What aggravates me is that no matter where you go it’s packed! Maybe we’ll stay in this year. …. I guess we shall see what happens. Danny got a postcard thing from the florist we used for our wedding. She’s so thoughtful! She reminded him that Valentine’s Day fell on a Monday and she mentioned how it was going to be our first Valentines as husband and wife. And then she said she was going to be calling him, I guess to see if he wanted to put in an order! That would be awesome! I loved her arrangements, and not only is she thoughtful – but she’s very to the point. She asks you what you like and gives it to you. She doesn’t make her own arrangements based on what she thinks looks good. In one word – she’s “awesome”!

Just for fun: here's a recent picture of Smokey and Bella:

***I think I want to change my headline/title. But I haven't quite figured out what I'd like to change it to. For now it's just a thought.

Happy Birthday Jack!

Today marks the day that my first nephew came into this world! lol. Man is he a character! I love and miss him so much and I hope to go up and see my sister, brother-in-law and this special little guy to celebrate his birthday in less than 2 weeks!

Happy 8th Birthday Jack! 

Us in Amarillo last year where he was 6 & 3/4's.

Jack and I at his 7th Birthday Party

Jack - 7 years old

A very, very unbirthday!

So my little sisters birthday is tomorrow. Not today. lol

But because it's on a weekday we decided to celebrate today. And what she wanted to eat: hamburgers.

Homemade hamburgers.

So it was my job to prepare the meat. I used 80/20 ground beef and added an egg, some ketchup, some bread crumbs, a packet of onion soup mix [HCF brand-nothing wrong with generic, besides HEB brand] and a secret ingredient. I can't share. Sorry! lol.

Here they are in all their glory! The patties I mean.

There are 3 more patties underneath those pictured :)

And because they were 80/20 they didn't shrink much at all once cooked on the grill. The burgers were huge!

This was my serving. I could only eat half! I shared with my Danny.

This is what my dad's looked like. I don't think the picture does it justice to show how ginormous it was in reality! I don't know how he finished it all! Or where it goes, lol. He's super skinny!

I also baked my sister a cake, because I love her that much.

Strawberry Swirl cake.

It was delicious! There is just about 1/3 of it left! And I just baked it this afternoon! lol.

These are the presents Audrey got today:

Bouquet of flowers from Mom.

And the above pictured from everyone. We all contributed!

My Birthday Weekend

FYI: This is a really long post! So sit tight :)

Sick. I was sick all weekend!

It all began on .... last week. lol. I was coughing and headachy about Wednesday/Thursday - but then on Friday. Friday the day I look forward to all week! I didn't even make it to work. I had to call, well text, in sick! And it was payday! Needless to say I bet my uncle understood that I really must've been quite ill to miss work on payday! So I didn't really worry about feeling guilty that he maybe wouldn't believe that I was truly sick.

Anyway it is really all a head cold. Cough/congestion and snot! Gross right?

It's all still happening right now. But for now, I think the storm has passed. I'm in recovery and looking forward to being completely healed so that I can start working out! I'm seriously lagging on that. And the wedding is less than 3 months away!!!

Ok well this weekend ... I stayed home all day on Friday - sick. I lived on soup and crackers for about 4 days. lol. Thankfully, that's all done with. Especially since the serving size for Ritz crackers is only 5 crackers! And remember: "I lived on soup and crackers for about 4 days"!! Oh the calories :( We stayed in, my dad brought me some caldo de marisco from Casa de Marisco in Weslaco - delicious! And then we all attemted to watch the Bourne Ultimatum. Audrey and I were the only ones that were successful. My dad fell asleep sometime in the first 30 minutes, I'm pretty sure.

Saturday [Birthday Eve]
Woke up and took my time in the morning. Then we got ready and I tagged along with my little sister as she went to spend her mula! lol. She actually bought a laptop! A really pretty one too. Actually I'm using it to type this blog right now. Right this second. Really! And then we ventured off to Old Navy for a bit of shopping. She was successful. I on the other hand could not find anything. Anything on sale anyway. I've become quite the frugal shopper lately. You know since I've got this big 'ol wedding thing coming up. She bought a couple of shirts there and then she took me to lunch at Which-Wich! It was our first time there too. I had the Shrimp Po-Boy and it was delicious!

Then we ventured off to the mall at a second attempt for shopping. And guess what??! NOTHING! We found nothing! Nothing at all! Unbelievable right?! Well I'm not lying, we could've easily bought something, but we would've regretted it the second we paid for it. So we didn't buy anything. Just a coffee. The whole point of going to the mall was to meet up with my Danny because he wanted to buy me a birthday present. And he actually didn't believe me when I said I didn't find anything I wanted! But I was determined to find something I liked enough so that if he were to buy it, I wouldn't feel guilty. So off to scent chips! Oh the things I could be happy with here! I could find something and actually have it have it's own purpose. They have these burner things that have different themes, one in particular:

I could put this in my future kitchen, with all my fat chef stuff :)

And then we saw this one:

Which could also go in my future kitchen, with the scent of guess?? COFFEE! lol.

Well then they also have a whole section of Jim Shore items! All of which I've been turned to thanks to my older sister Christina. Yes it all started with you Tina! And since I've already got my collection going ... guess what I got?! lol.

The Hey Diddle Diddle one is from my Danny and the Little Red Riding Hood one is from Audrey. I've got the Nursrey Ryhme collection going too. With:

Bonnie thrown in.

Anyway the day ended with a trip to Vitamin World and a early birthday dinner with my mom at Chili's complete with a birthday serenade and a molten chocolate cake a'la mode. It was ok.

Sunday [The Day of]
Still sick. It began with a trip to the flea market where I was on the hunt, and very determined I might add, to find some pie plates. Glass pie plates. It seems that a few of mine have disappeared! Ok I know where they are, but I haven't gotten them back yet. And since I had seen a couple of pie plates at the flea market a few weeks back, I was set on buying them there rather than buying identical glass pie plates at say Wal-Mart for what, $8 a piece?! No thank you. I bought 5. Yep, 5 pie plates. And I've been warned, no more pie plates. I got a double serving of that from Audrey, and then Danny later. :) It's ok, I have 6 now. Well 9 if you include the original missing ones!

Then the day commenced with cleaning, dinner prep and darts. The family was here, complete with my mom. My danny, Merced, and my cousin Robert came too! It was pretty fun. Unfortunately, I was still sick and had a cough attack every so often, but I lived.

Merced actually came with a present! I joked and said he must bring a present to come, but he seriously did! He got me a very personalized card which was really sparkly :) and also a Journey CD!

I do not own one. I mean I have their greatest hits cd on my iPod, but it's not quite the same as owning the cd itself. And now I have one! Thanks Merced! That version of "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" is my new favorite!
My birthday was ok. It was nice and small. Quaint. Overall, good.

So sorry about the long post, again! But it happens, especially when you don't blog for several days. I am going to try and blog every other day or so. Promise!

2009: A look over the past year!

Well this year was really something! Lots happened. So let's begin my recap, and sit tight because it's a lenthy one!


January

My 21st Birthday! I was poor so I didn't do anything too out there like go to Austin or even go to a bar down here. We just had a family get together complete with BBQ and my awesome cake! And to top it off a bottle of patron - as you will notice not pictured here ;) But I did have one!

February

Nothing special here either! lol. I lead a very boring life, or led, this year. All work and school and hardly any play! But Danny did buy me a bouquet of my favorite flowers! DAISY'S!!!

 

March

This was a sad month. My dad's dog [and the family pet] Chula died. It's still unclear as to what she died of exactly, but it was definitely something neural. Poor girl was walking in circles over and over again. She wouldn't even respond to her name being called. It was so bad she would cry when she actually laid down. She lost weight and stopped eating. We had to hold her head just so she wouldn't dehydrate.

This was her last day with us. Don't worry, she was just sleeping.

So after we lost Chula, Bonnie [my spaniel] needed a companion. She got really destructive, tore out the inside soles to my dress shoes - don't ask, I have no idea how she accomplished that. So I went to a shelter to adopt her a new friend. I intentionally wanted a boy, and something not too big, but not too small - something that wouldn't bend over and let Bonnie dominate them. But it had to be a puppy because we had cats and puppies can be trained to get along with cats. And sadly, there wasn't a boy puppy to be found at the time there at the particular shelter I went to. But instead, I found Bella.

 

We brought her home that day, and let me note - completely unprepared! Bonnie didn't like her at first, but as the night went on she warmed up to her. Soon they were inseperable.

 

April

Ok you can't hate me - nothing big happened this month! LOL. Nothing. If it did, it wasn't of significant importance to me.  It was the usual: work, school - ooohhh we did have finals this month ... and that's it.

May

This wasn't a good month either. Danny got Bells Palsay. It was awful. He was really sick and his face got really swollen. His ears were the most apparent apart from the left cheek. Not much else to say about that either. He was able to rest a lot and spend some time with our dogs, so it wasn't entirely a loss.

June

Of all the months this year, June was the worst. My dad had been depressed for a good while due to the loss of his dog. And well for Father's Day my sister and I wanted to get him a new dog. But a breed that he'd been itching for for some time. He wanted a Collie or a German Shepherd. Well we live in a very intensed heated climate so Collie's are extremely rare! I was able to find a German Shepherd mix being fostered through an animal shelter in Alton - about 40 minutes from where I live. So we picked her up one morning and brought her home and cleaned her up. She was disgustingly covered in ticks! All sizes. It was sickening. Poor girl. Who knows what kind of dieseases she could've contracted if she stayed in the environment any longer. Well the whole thing was to be a surprise! And it was! :) He came home just as we were through with her bath! So that morning also happened to be the same day my friend Irazema was getting married! So we all got ready and went to the church mass for the wedding ceremony and then came home to finish watching Defiance and then get dressed again and go to the dinner reception. Some drama ensued at the house and well we got ready and left. My dad was working on his truck and we drove off leaving the dogs outside. And the gate stayed open. That was enough. We didn't even get into town when we got a phone call. We had to turn back around and go home because Bonnie had run out and got hit by a car. She didn't make it. I was crushed. It was really the worst thing I could have ever imagined. I miss her intensely to this day.

RIP BONNIE

 

On a happier note, Irazema's wedding to Gus was beautiful. I feel bad though because I was in the worst mood ever. But Danny and Audrey & my dad were there to help me through it. Plus I had some support from "the guys" that went to the wedding - they're pretty great like that.

July

Nothing happend here either. Just a lot of mourning. Took a summer class. Passed. That's it.

August

This month I started what would hope to be my final semester of college! I was so excited and so determined to finish off my college career with a 4.0 ... sadly, that didn't happen - but I did pass all my classes! We also discovered that my Grandma Lucille [my mom's mom] had a gangrene infection in one of her legs and was moved into a hospice. So my little sister and I scheduled flights to go out and see her before it was too late.

September

We didnt' make it to see my Grandma Lucille in time. In fact, we were 2 days off. She died on a Wednesday and we were not scheduled to leave until crazy early Friday morning. So we attended her funeral. It really is so sad that that is the only time we see our West Texas family. It's been 2 funerals so far. My Grandpa Eustacio's back in 2001 and then Grandma Lucille.

 

The upside was seeing everyone after so long. But again, unfortunate circumstances.

 

And then: two weeks later Audrey and I flew off to Chicago for my nephew Jack's Birthday! He was so blown away! He really enjoyed us visiting them in their new home and I'm glad that he was old enough to appreciate it!

^^^ Jack and I at his birthday party at the Morton Arboretum

^^^ Jack and his Auntee Audrey at the Morton Arboretum

We also had a chance to go downtown and do some extremely quick sightseeing.

Some highlights:

  

 

 

October

We managed to make it over to SPI for the annual Sand Castle Days! Unfortunately, due to red tide the weather was pretty awful! There was a thin layer of sand flying everywhere, people were wearing surgical masks! And they were the smart ones! There we were driving in making fun of all the people wearing them! Boy did we get what we deserved! We were gagging the entire time we were there! But we did manage to take a few pictures of some of the good show pieces!

 

November

We actually took a random trip to Ausin one weekend! It was a girl thing. My sister and I drove up on a Friday afternoon and well of course drove back down that Sunday.

 

I got to see my buddies and went to 6th! LOL Well 6th happened after a trip to Trudy's for Mexican Martini's ... the details are all a little fuzzy if you know what I mean. Well the next morning was a bit rough, but we had planned to hang out and roam Austin with my cousin Annie who is also up there going to UT.

Mount Bonnell

We went down Congress and to Town Lake to see all the dogs play. On our discovery we saw a particular clock that Audrey and I were drawn to - and as you would have it, anyone who loves math would be too!

And our trip was rounded off with a trip to Hey Cupcake! The cupcake trailer on Congress!!!

The red sprinkled one is Red Velvet - the nut topped one is the 24 Carrot - and the one with the chocolate sprinkles is the Michael Jackson.

Then the usual holiday occurred, you know the pig out one :) THANKSGIVING! It happened as usual. Way too much food, and Danny and I were splitting our time between his family and mine. I made a ham! You know the one with the pineapple rings and cherries? But again, I suck - no picture.

December

GRADUATION! I graduated from UTPA! For a more in depth persepective read the blog below. Yes I had a whole blog about my graduation, I had to!

Christmas and New Years are also memorable events ... and there's a Christmas post too!  Although New Year's is occurring as we speak so I'll have to blog about that holiday in it's own entry.

So that's it. My year. I'm sure 2010 will be even more memorable!