Oct. 6th... Goat ... Stat

Mom: What should we get Yaya for her birthday?
Christina: A goat. A real one. Not a fake goat.
Mom: Well, how are we going to get a goat. It's not like I can buy one at Smith's or Target. Or Macy's.
Christina: Ok really, what is the problem. You go to a barn and buy one.

Christina is now randomly saying, "Rock off."
Mom: Time to go. Get your shoes on.
Christina: Rock off man!
Mom: What?
Christina: Let's rock off man.
Mom: Do you mean rock on?
Christina: No. Rock off...like blast off a rock.

Christina: Mommy's sexy.
Hmmmm.... where'd she get that one daddy.

The Space Party IV

The greek cousins!!

Maria enjoying the purse Kaeli got Christina.

Our party favors included saucer shooters, pop rocks, milky way bars and an "alien" (one of those stringy rubbery balls that I glued eyes to). **And I have to admit, I was very happy with the deals I found. EVERYTHING about the party favor totaled up to $1.30ish per bag.

The menu: Port-o-Subs (Christina's favorite), fruit, chips and lots of cake and candy.
We found this amazing pinata at Smart and Final. Thanks Yaya and Papa, it was a huge hit!!
I read some space books during lunch and then Christina opened gifts. Talk about fantastic, thoughtful friends and family!!! From a DQ gift card to a gorgeous (and I mean gorgeous) gap ensemble (for Christina and Maria) to Barbie's Diamond Castle to Hello Kitty Backpacks to make it yourself craft kits and of course the astronaut costume!! We will have toys to last us for the next 10 years!! A big thank you to everyone!!
Games we played: Pin the part on the alien, star star comet (like duck duck goose), astronaut says (like simon says), pop the planet (popping balloons), black hole drop (dropping a paper space ship into a black can standing on a chair) and the ultimate game "planet popcorn". I found on a baby pool for $2 at the walgreens clearance, filled it with popcorn and they dug with spoons for moon rocks (marshmallows). They loved it!

After the party Maria must have sat in the popcorn at least 1 hour eating straight. We changed a record 11 diapers full of poo. Yummy. Not really. Quote Christina.

There were about 14 children and 8 adults. It was a blast!! It was high energy and the kids had a lot of fun. One of the kids found a worm and they were fascinated of course! Just really a great time. Christina was in 7th heaven.

Behold... the Space Cakes

Christina is all about being awesome. As her mother, I feel like I need to raise myself up a level to her awesomeness. So this year... I did. And I succeeded. The space cakes were a total hit. It took about 2 1/2 hours total and I thought my back was going to give out at any moment. But every moment of "squeeze, turn, up" was worth it. Her face lit up, all the kids thought it was great and I know now that using a cake box mix is OK because it tastes better than anything I make from scratch.

4 Years of Blissful WOW!!!

Yes. I'm posting this 8 hours early.

My life is just one happy dream. I must say I never knew the meaning of life until I had my sweet Christina. The day I knew she was growing inside my belly was the happiest day of my life... yet it seems like every single day with her is the happiest day of my life. She and Maria have brought me closer to heaven. They are my angels.

Christina is the most beautiful little girl in the entire world. She is striking. She is kind. She is clever. She is full of love. She is thoughtful. She is perfect in every way.

Whenever I am hurt, she is by my side. Whenever I get riled up about a topic, she is backing me up and saying "Yeah Mommy! No animals died! Hooray for the vegetarian meal!" She is fun. She is so much FUN! "Let's go kill the aliens! Mommy I never get to ride horses so can I ride you? Maria let's GO! (And Maria runs off to play!)"

She is brave. She is shy. She can scream and giggle loudly. VERY loudly. Everyone adores her.
I was in the hall at church talking to another mom and I told her you have to give my your secrets when I have little boys, I want them to turn out just like yours. To which she replied, I would want my sons to marry little girls like yours in a heartbeat. Truly, my girls are gems.

I was trying to think of some favorite memories of Christina. But really, every single day is a favorite memory, because every day is truly wonderful with her and Maria. When she first said, "Protest." at 17 months. When we used to ride the bus together and go for adventures in the city. Having her be able to name all the stores we shopped at, at around 18 months. Going to the Oakland flea market together. Dancing to crazy music together. Watching her watch The Touch of the Master's Hand, seeing her get teary eyed over the way the violin was treated. Her vacuum... she loves to take everywhere. Her breastfeeding "her child" at night, right next to me while I breastfeed Maria.

I love you Christina. You are in every fiber of my soul. You make me complete. I adore you more than words could ever say. You are my everything. Happy Happy Birthday my baby!

Word Updates

Christina always is entertaining and constantly coming up with new things that make me chuckle. Her latest phrases are, "Just Joking." or "Not really."

Mom: What did you do at preschool today?
Christina: I played with Austin. But he fell.
Mom: You played with Austin and he fell?
Christina: Not really.

Mom: I dare you to go outside in the dark.
Christina: Not really. (Emphasis on Not)

Mom: I need to pluck your eyebrows.
Christina: Yeah, I don't want my friends to think I'm a horse.

Mom: Did you grab from your sister?
Christina: No.
Mom: Why is she crying then?
Christina: Just joking.

Then my sweet Maria. She does not like to share me. If Joe comes over to give me a hug, she will start crying or try to push him away. She tolerates Christina hugging me though, so who knows what's going on there. Maria is using words really well now. She loves to scream "Opa!" or "Help me!!" She reads books and points to the pictures and says words like "ice, door, bubble". She uses please and thank you. Just a real sweetheart.

The BEST Birthday Gift EVER

We got this in the mail today for Christina's Space party.

The party has just been upped a level.

This is so awesome.

Aunty Ramya... thank you thank you thank you!!! You are cooler than beyond words. To quote, "My Aunty Ramya sure does love me. I love her too...she doesn't let the pit bulls bite Amyra."

I was debating whether I was more excited over this gift or Mr. F (Ram's dad) joining facebook. It was close...very close, but the costume took the cake. Although if Mr. F becomes friends with Julio Baptista I might, just might, change my mind.

In Black, Behind the Stage (I was hoping to publish on the 15th but I was too excited)

These "Birthday" images were found on flickr.com. Under the creative commons free to use licensing agreement.

Honestly Christina. I don't remember the moment we met. I want to say you were a stagehand for A MacBeth, because that would be so much more meaningful but alas. Memory fails me. Like the judicial system. But I digress. I'm sure it was magical anyhow.

What would I have done without you in my life?

When "Selin" stole my car, who was my info? Thank you, you took an oboe beating for me and we are forever bonded through "I'm a gay teen and have issues" violence.

Snazzy blue dresses, twirling and whirling to tunes such as "Go Grease Lightning" "Rose, Up poor bird"... Forever Altos Intermezzo.

First boyfriends that really should never ever be reminisced about. But we have to. Because they both ended up in prison. Ok. Prison. PRISON. PRISON!!

Nights out and about then dropping you off at yo' downtown apartment. Can you ever feel safe after living there?

Your baptism. :) Balto. Neilson.

You WERE Reed High Band 1998. There was never a band before or after you. Because I was never a band member I have self pity. I never was able to be inspired by your leadership. To be led by your wand. To march to the sound of your heartbeat. Oh the woe. The terrible wishing for what never was.

Sharing the same house and parents. You nursing the elderly (as in my parents) back to health when they struggled with kidney problems and leprosy. Thank You... Thank You...

Wanting you to marry R.Romero. But since you ended up with an Asian man it's fully OK. You two seem better suited and are in love, so even though I've never met Chris I feel like my heart can be at ease and peace.

Being able to watch your spectacular children grow up... from a distance. You are by far one of the best mothers I know. You ooze love and kindess from every part of your being. You are wise, patient and honest. You are steady and stalwart. You are humble and diligent.

Happy 34th birthday my dear Stina. Happy 34th.

D-Nell D-scussions

It was a busy, but fun weekend. We had 2 dinners at our house with wonderful company. We also had a missionary discussion in our house which was fantastic. I don't know if the missionaries felt that way, but I highly enjoyed it. Highlights from the lesson include, "What. You worship Joseph Smith? Oh no... that ain't right." "Boy, I thought you was stupid, but you ain't." and then a 10 minute conversation on hypothetically killing yourself.

I was really impressed with our Tony and Kevin. They were bold, honest and fairly well versed. D-Nell came to church (his second time) and it's just an exciting process. To see everyone grow and just be happy.

After dinner, the boys and Joe got into the olds. I shouted out, at the door, to buckle up to which Christina chimed in "Yeah! You don't want the cops to get cha!"

The Motha Land

There are moments when I love Reno. Usually it's when I cross the state line from California after hours spent in traffic or paying $4.50 for gas over there. But again, I stress moments. It's not like a wave of motha-land pride, more like a ripple.

Because really, Reno is Reno.

I'm a positive person but when I'm out on a Friday night at WinCo Foods I often find myself wondering why did my family have to settle here?

First off, being out on a Friday night in Reno means you will have to hear the F Bomb at least 50 times within 5 minutes (not exagerating) if you are lucky enough to survive not being hit by a drunk/doped up driver.

Then there are the slots EVERYWHERE. A woman in line had worked a 12 hour shift at WinCo and then went straight to the slots by the door.

Yesterday, I'm not even joking, Silky Fine was on the radio. If you don't know what I'm talking about consider yourself blessed. I have 2 children and feel like all I can listen to is the oldies and spanish stations. Sheesh.

Every other car has someone smoking in it. Every other car has someone smoking in it with a child. Every 1 out of 20 cars has a small child in it without being in a car seat. Every 1 out of 3 cars will be blasting a song that has the F bomb in it.

Virginia Street. For at least 5 blocks I can't drive on it with my children because of the X rated shops. AND at the Wells Ave. Family to Family Connection center (where families can come to an indoor play place to spend time FREE) there is... you guessed it! Another X rated shop right next door with not so fun to explain window displays.

Taxi Cab advertisements of Mustang Ranch. Casino "pool party" advertisements, thank you cleavage. Although I don't mind the thunder down under advertisements too much. But I digress.

Wearing sweat pants is acceptable. In public.

VULGAR!! VULGAR!! license plates and license plate borders. Seriously the sleeze level is 100 on a scale of 1 to 5.

So what do I do. I know every place has its quirks. Sometimes it's just overwhelming knowing I'm raising my daughters in such a filthy world. Which brings me to the gorgeous depiction of Reno pictured above.

This man depicts Reno because:

1.He looks better in his jeans that I do.

2.He cut in front of children to see the helicopter.

3.He had meth mouth.

4. The way he strutted his hips making John Travolta look like an amateur.

International Hot Air Balloon Races

We woke up at 5:00 AM to go see the dawn patrol. But first we stopped at the doughnut shop which turned out to be the best part of the excursion. Mmmmm.... fresh. When we got there, there were 4 balloons, so lesson learned, show up at 8 AM. It was nice to look at but not too much excitement- Hence, I post a 5th dimension video to liven thangs up or perhaps add flair.

On a side note, once the nugget casino balloon went up, this guy behind us started going crazy shouting over and over, "Yeah baby, the nugget, that's right!!". Ummmm... good thing there wasn't a silver legacy employee nearby. Christina like the bee balloon and my favorite was the del taco balloon, just because I didn't know del taco made enough money as a business to get a balloon.

International Camel Races at Virginia City

Did you notice any camels? Neither did we. Of course, we weren't really willing to pay $25 so maybe that was the problem. Viriginia City is expensive and odd. Would I need to go there within the next 7 years, probably not. Also, I am neither for or against Obama. I need to do my research and figure facts out before I make a commitment. But I guess VC has some beef with the man, hence their intelligent slander "Obama sucks!". Papa was a champ though and it was nice to have our usual exciting excursion with him. Highlight including the beer and pee pioneer history marker.

Hike at Galena Forest

Off to the woods for adventure! I wish we had a more "mountain friendly" umbrella stroller. Alas. The girls had fun and we even saw a truck dumping fish into a pond. Very entertaining. I must say, it is so nice to just breath fresh air and have peace around you. There is so much to look at and find.

Bad Apples

We found these at a local park. The girls wanted to try them, but we soon found out looks can be deceiving. They were terrible apples, obviously not ripe enough!!

Pretty Bloody Bad- The Scorpion King 2

Trailers can be deceiving.

Thanks to some dear friends, Andrew and Marie, we have spent many an hour watching horrible movies. The type where they thought they were making a good movie, but the movie was so dreadful that it was pure entertainment. We call them B movies.

B movies include, but are certainly not limited to:

heavy metal music/ butt-rock

horrible special effects

off the wall names like "Akivasha or Makalleelabooba"

leather costumes

dreadful acting meshed with lame dialogue

all credits given before the movie starts

an unexcited crowd of people representing the "kingdom"

little or no plot

after you watch the movie you feel like a dumber person

Examples of B movies:

Feeders

Kull the Conqueror *classic

Scorpion King 2

Chuck Norris Movies

And really, I can't remember any more because they were that dreadful.

Since our B movie glory days in Provo, we really haven't watched any. But we had a wonderful surprise last night, thank you SCORPION KING 2. Now I must admit, I somewhat enjoyed Scorpion King the original. I mean, who doesn't love the Rock? So when Joe said, let's stay up till 1 AM to watch it, I was game. I was not disappointed.

Here is one's review Vio 232, "Even if you thought "Beastmaster" was great drama, you'll STILL think Scorpion King 2 is dreadful. The acting is surpassed in dreadfulness only by the dialog, although the muddy, on-the-cheap special effects also cannot be excluded from the race for the bottom.We expect a sequel to be worse than the original film, and SK2 does nothing to dash our expectations -- even if it's a prequel. One finds it hard to imagine how the immensely boring and slightly soft hero played by Michael Copan ever could grow up to become "The Rock," whose Brooklynesque charm made the original "Scorpion King" worth watching.Everything, yes, absolutely EVERYTHING in SK2 is derivative -- and NOTHING is done nearly as well as it's been done in previous sword and sorcery epics. In brief, skip it -- even if the only other choice at 3 A.M. is an infomercial for ceramic steak knives. SK2 is as bad as they come."

If I had to narrow it down to a favorite part, it would have to be the ending... definitely. Not because I wanted it to end, even though I did, but because it was a horrible twist paralleled in lameness and future Scorpion King III hopefulness.

Mermie And Fro Celebrating 27 Glorious Years

(Image Courtesy CDW on Flickr.com)

On Sept. 4, 2008 my Indian sister and BFF since 8th grade (official though only in 9th grade when S.J. was ditched at a football game) turned the blessed age of 27. I was planning to leave her 27 messages on her phone that day, but I got tired after 3. Instead I recap 27 fond memories, not necessarily in order of importance or favor.

1. When I threw a doughnut in a guy's truck and he chased you in the paseo. Panic.

2. Throwing pennies at Ryan, Mr. Cabito and Miss Benke.

3. When you won the quilt at the Prison Volunteer Dinner.

4. The lady bug that supposedly "peed" on you and then you screamed in the hall.

(Image Courtesy Hamed Saber on Flickr.com)

5. Classic: Ryan stalking us at Carson Key Club meetings. The eye through the glass window.

6. Hour (or longer) phone conversations, the difficulty of going to different colleges. Thank you beaches.

7. Road trips: Phoenix to Reno (When a women's fed up??), SLC for Heidi's wedding (annoying my mother) Bus trip to San Fran for french club. Do you love that we still can remember so much french.

8. Key Club conventions: Long Beach bomb scares, Disneyland that I can't really remember except that Bianca got to see her boyfriend. And really, what ever happened to Bianca.

9. Being in the Drama Guild presidency together.
10. $1 theatre, an experience EVERY time.

11. Our many concerts and paraphernalia. Speaking of which, do you still have that hat?? I think I ended up giving the shirt to goodwill.

12. Driving around with nothing to do.

13. Our hair in highschool. Yours was decent, but seriously... what was I thinking.

14. Going to Lake Tahoe and you crying and your dad looking at me with nervous glances.

15. Playing Mortal Combat at lunch.

16. Holding Niecey and loving her as much as my own children.

17. Girls Camp- the cane, kimonos and you swimming the lake.

18. The rainbow scarf you crocheted me. I still wear it to this day.

19. Yuri.

20. Kinko's.

21. The dinosaur video we made with Malia and your twitch.

22. That one Greek guy from San Fransisco, was his name Dino??

23. Sitting in the room before the wedding and you and Lateef being so relaxed. Or was that after?? I think it was before though. I just remember you guys being really calm. Except Ryan was sweating for some odd reason.

24. Facebook gifts.

25. Tony! Tony! Tony!/Cameesha Lewis

26. You surviving cancer. Or odd health problems I can't really remember.

27. And you won a million dollars on the Benefactor.

Here's to at least another 27 more years. Just think in 3 years I'll be able to add fun trips to Disneyland or Hawaii with the kiddos. Happy Birthday Ramya.

Food Reject Hopeful

I am not a talented cook.

I try.

It's hit and miss, usually more miss than hit.

But there is a glimmer, a spark, a tender inkling...

And all of it is possible because of these

wonderful wonderful woderful

amazing

fantastic

ladies rich with culinary wisdom.

Visit their blogs. Your family will thank you for it.

http://www.pleaseholdtheonions.blogspot.com/

http://www.thedinnerbelles.blogspot.com/

I have now tried 3 recipes. All of them have turned out amazing. I am a follower.

(One was the spinach pizza, my Christina ate 3 large slices. This may become a weekly favorite.)

Para Mi Madre

Photos I took at the wedding reception the old folk had for Erica and... the groom? I love my not so intact memory.