What are you facing today...hurdles, pebbles, cracks, maybe a BOLDER?

It's Friday night and we don't have much going on and so I sign on to my facebook. You the know, the usual, latest posts, what my family and friends are up, nothing out of the ordinary. At least that's what I thought....I guess I should start with that on Thursday afternoon I talked to my sister Elsa. She told me about her participation in the Relay for Life(American Cancer Society). I was touched of how she talked about it and how fun it is. So with that on my mind, thinking of Mom and all my friends that have left us and those that are cancer survivors....I thought, I want to do this, I want to be a team captain. Mentioned it to a friend of mine, who is true catholic and she said she'd join me only if their monies did not go to planned parent hood, etc.....FYI, I sort of researched it and I couldn't find that they do support things of that nature, will have to do a more thorough research. So back to my surfing FB.... I come about my ex neighbor and friend Kelley's latest post that read along the lines

Friends & family, Deryl & I have created a blog so we can keep everyone informed and updated as we travel this journey. We welcome you to "follow" it because it has been extremely overwhelming trying to contact so many people and keep telling this story. If you choose to read it, please go to the very 1st entry which i...

Yes I was wondering what was going on and immediately went to read the blog. I started balling. Within a matter of days she was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Why am crying like this? IDK. Yes, I consider her a friend and Briana loves her daughters as they do her. We weren't the best of friends and I don't have a bad thing to say about them. Well maybe they were glad when we stopped being neighbors...J/K What do you say when everything possible to say has probably been said to her by the many friends and family that surround them. Why do I feel such sadness? Could it have been me? Am I next? Who is next? Is it because it hits close to home? Is it anger?We are surrounded by this illness that only God knows who is next. It breaks my heart and I break down in tears in the slightest thought of her and the family. She seems positive at times but I'm sure she has her moments like she mentioned in this mornings blog. I think after they've done a complete examination of tissue, MRI's etc. and they know what they are up against, will they be able to place themselves in a frame of thought. It must be terrifying knowing the unknown. I, can only imagine. I have prayed for them, I haven't contacted them because like I said, what could I possibly say that hasn't been said? WHAT? What can I do? I still don't know. I'll have to pray for myself in that matter.

So we are individually faced daily with hurdles, pebbles, cracks, or bolders... God's plan is what will YOU allow those obstacles to become of you. Stronger, smarter, believer, hopeful, faithful, angry, fighter, lover....only YOU can make that choice! Prayers for Kelley and family!

Christmas Without Family

So you decide to spend Christmas at home with your immediate family...Husband, kids and whoever you consider close enough to invite over. It is a feeling of relaxation but then you realize...you miss the chaos. Yup! Unfortunately, you can't make the trip back home since you've spent money on the Thanksgiving trip. Ohh, that Thanksgiving trip you can't forget...The sense of being a family, regardless of whether you want to kill each other or not, love one anthter or not. Then you have the neice telling you about her "experience on the blow up matress next to her mother's bed" OMG! is all you can think. The staying up late and having a midnight snack with your sisters and nieces. Those were some great moments! You smile at the thought that bring tears. Such is life.

So you stay home, and you feel that you are the only one that stayed behind to miss the fun and time with your family, your dad. God only knows if it will be his last one. Sniff, Sniff!! I'm at home now and thankful for the time I have, even if means the kids fighting or a few moments of a good time. They act ungrateful and sometimes grateful of being here with you. They also miss their cousins, aunts, uncles, grandpa, godparents, and make believe cousins(you know your compadres kids that you just tell them to call cousins, aunts and uncles even though they are not related). Us Mexicans, everybody is family. You also have that Brazilian cousin that's married to your real cousin who claims he always has to live by "his wife's rules and yaddi yaddi yadda". Poor guy, makes you wonder if he'll stay sane in this family.

I grew up always spending holidays with family, even if it meant to get there first so you wouldn't be "the one they would be talking about". I will miss them dearly and sadly and will not be part of making those memories. I'll be at home making my own memories without them. I will think of everyone of them and smile as I do. As I realize now, we grow up and have to make "grown up" decisions. The ones that consist of staying at home because you can't afford to travel. With pain in my heart because I will be missing them, but lots of joy because I know they are still smiling this Christmas hopefully thinking of us as we are of them.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!
xoxo

Sharing: A Two Way Street

Now Now, let's not be so hasty in the sharing. I totally agree about sharing the meals and having that extremely small print at the bottom of the menus. However, when the both of us love to eat and try new things, well it's standard that we order 2 different things so we can taste a variety of plates. Sometimes we end up swapping plates because we liked the other one's plate better. So yes, in America, ALL portions are meant for sharing.

As for lesson #2, yes you will share "EVERYTHING", but honey, that's a two way street. When we marry, we didn't know we'd be sharing our "Gina's" on a "as needed basis", drive me to/from airport service, cook for me abilities, our laundry service, our dusting, sweeping, mopping, dish washing capabilities(among many, many other things) even our uterus is having to be shared with some stranger that ends up growing up to hate you at some point in their lives that got their in the first place because we had to "share our Gina's".....So don't come tell about "me" about you having to share meals, strolls, savings accounts, frustrations, friend problems or any of that sort. If you tally it all up, my friend, my nephew, you end up in the Red.....Should I go on?

Wife Driving Does Not = Suicide/Murder

97% a guy driving? Where did you get those statistics? You don't get the choice?? I'm sorry but if you had enuf cajones you'd pretty much be grabbing those keys and driving yourself. I pretty much have to shove the keys into his hands and run to shot gun the passenger seat so

I

don't have to drive. You can say that I'm the "husband's personal choffer". Besides the fact that I have become a more aggressive driver and he's become the more passive one. It doesn't matter if I'm furious or not, I just am a more furious driver. Just today he's telling me..."If the light is red, you know, you start pumping the brake, you don't keep your foot on gas" No shit Sherlock, when did you learn that? Mind you, I wasn't furious and attempting to drive off the bridge into the Trinity River(that's what we have here in DFW)in the attempt of a Suicide/Murder.

Driving is absolutely not a man thing!! So what happens to all those women who don't have a "Man" in their lives? Do they just call you so you can have your "manly" moment? If you seem to feel the driving is the only moment that you are completely in power, Nasa, we have a problem? Inconceivable that you feel that is your only moment of power to make decisions. Ja! If driving you off a bridge is a way of telling you she is unhappy, again, Nasa, we have a problem? Aren't you the one with a PhD? So are you chosing your battles more wisely o' wise man?

Wife Methology Challenge

Monday, November 16, 2009
Eight Girls......Lordy, Lordy, Lord!



Come on it took longer than that to be a really part of the family. Wela took a good while to warm up to you
despues que te enpiernabas a su nieta
Oh well, such is life. As for carne asadas and a few beers, yes, everyone becomes family/compadres. Now when you decide to have the entire female family population stay at your home.....HATS OFF TO YOU DUDE!! I can only say that the 9 year old is mine and that's about all the female hormones I can put up with in my household. No more!!! Milk, you must inform me what you put in it since here at home she doesn't drink much milk. Poor cows, those hanging tittis. As to avoid trips to the grocery store, I have learned from new friends that if you keep your groceries on a budget and make one trip a week and whatever is gone towards the end of the week, so sorry too bad. I use to think that was cruel, but then thinking about, I realized I grew up on pitchers of Kool-Aid(chingos) of sugar and Tang and homemade lemonade also with(chingos) of sugar. I survived. I did even without a bike helmet, without a seatbelt, riding the bus and walking to Nuevo Laredo at age 12-13.

As for that infamous joke: how many mexicans can you fit in one car? Well it depends. Are they on a whole milk and chocolate chip cookie diet? I think these were. As for the 5 adult full size Mexican women and 1 slender male Brazilian, boy are you courages! And yes, it sucks to be a minority in the middle of so many Mexican chics who are sooo much like their mother and don't even realize it, or do they? Pero te gusta andar en la punta del pedo, verdad?!

The Husband Can ONLY Speak For His Wife: "Action Sports are ...Overrated?"

Not all wives think like your wife. Even though she's a good sport and joins you on some of the "stuff" you like to do and would rather be "errr shopping" does not by all means speak for all of us. For example:
BIKING- SATISFYING
SNOWBOARDING-ALWAYS WANTED TO TRY
KAYAKING-SCARED SHITLESS, BUT LETS GET WET
RAFTING-GET YOUR SAFETY VEST
SKYDIVING-ABSOLUTELY "ONCE IN A LIFETIME"
HIKING-CAN'T GET ENOUGH, ESPECIALLY IF THERE'S HILLS TO CATCH AWESOME VIEWS
CAMPING-ALWAYS AN ADVENTURE AND ONLY IF I CAN GO FOR MORE THAN 1 NIGHT
SHOPPING-ONLY IF I'M ALONE WITHOUT ANYONE TO PRESSURE ME AND IF I'M GETTING A HELL OF A DEAL!!

As for the chic sports, well count me out....can't seam to keep my interest tennis, and polo....lets see.....(1)bunch of stuck up snobs and goody to shoes (2)shit I dropped my drink AND broke a fr'gin glass and ooops I got it all over the snob...RUN (3)the smell of horse shit, might as well go to a farm and (4)game....you mean pay attention to "polo", do you mean Marco Polo???? Where's a real game?

So if in this world if everything is about perspective, I guess what you mean is "who's perspective?"

PTA Reality Check

If you have served on the PTA Exec. Board you know what LOT stands for. And you probably gained office by a landslide, right? So you join PTA for various reasons. To be involved in your childs education environment, your new to the school so this is a great way to meet other parents, make a difference, etc. So you're on the Exec. Board now and you've driven to Austin to complete the "required LOT"(Leadership Orientation Training). You spend 3 days with other moms you seem to have alot in common with. Fortunately, you guys hit it off. You survive the training and return with an abundance of information and 'procedures'. Now, I failed to mention that on this Exec Board, some members are returning members, but at different posts. They have sworn up and down that they will help and guide you thru this. They do fail to tell you that what they mean by help and guide, it really means that they are going to show you and pretty much want you to do things "the way they've always done them!" In the meantime, you have come back with all this information that will help you and allow you to have a successful and "law abiding PTA". Now I don't mean breaking the law in a crucial manner, just that if your PTA would ever be auditted, you have means to cover your pettute!!!

Need some rest, will continue tomorrow. I have ALOT to share!!!