Happy New Year

Have a wonderful New Year from my family to yours!!!

I've been busy- at least that's my excuse

I hadn't blogged in a while because I'd been busy.

Busy with last minute Christmas stuff.

Busy with parties. (kids)

Busy with dentist appointments and other appointments.

And just busy baking.

We made these blueberry thumbprint cookies.
Then we made these Oreo truffles. Or Oreo balls as I call them.

And we even made these little Mexican shortbread cookies in 6 different shapes.

I was even able to make some tamales this year. It had been a couple of years since I'd made any. They are a lot of work for just one person. But boy are they sure yummy.

So now that I have eaten all that I made, I think it's time to get some exercising done so that my hips don't become wider loads.

Any ideas on how to get my workout started?

The polyester navy blue 'marry me suit'

When AB was 4 and my neighbor's little girl E was 5, AB decided he was going to get a 'marry me' suit. He bugged and bugged me until I took him to the store to find a 'marry me' suit.

Him and E were going to get married. Since I didn't want to spend lots of money on a suit I knew AB would never wear, I took him to Goodwill.

We looked and looked and no suit was good enough. Until he found this navy blue polyester suit that was 4 sizes too big and looked like it was from the 70's.

It had the matching jacket and pants. The pants were bell-bottomed on the bottom and narrow on top. Can you say Welcome Back Kotter?

So I splurged and paid $5 for this 'marry me' suit. AB was so proud of his purchase. We got home and he put it on. Of course it was way too big, but it didn't matter to him.

Across the street he went to E's house. She would always play dress up with her Cinderella dress or whatever she had. AB went to show her his new 'marry me' suit. I'm not sure if he asked her to marry him, but he came home with her trailing him.

As the years went by, this suit was used for dress up. Never left the house. Until one time that AB decided he wanted to wear it to church. He had grown up some so it wasn't as big as it used to be.

Here he is with his suit on last year. On the way to church.
Since the pants had to be rolled up, it didn't really matter that they were bell bottomed.

Fast forward one year. AB has found this suit again and tried it on last week. He was quite happy that this 'marry me' suit fit him perfect now. The bell bottom of the pants are quite wide. The tightness of the upper part of the pant fits perfectly. The jacket is a little tight, but to AB it fits perfect.

So perfect that he wanted to wear this polyester hideous suit to church last week.

I distracted him and he forgot all about it.

I'm going to have to get rid of this suit before he decides to wear it out of the house again.

A tradition

During the Christmas season, I always try to do things with the boys. You know, traditions.

When I was growing up, our tradition was finding that perfect 'live' tree, then bringing it home, decorating it and then watching that 'live' tree die because we always forgot to water it.

Of course, we also had other traditions. Like baking cookies, making candy, making tamales and eating.

I still do all those with the boys. I sometimes get so behind on what I'm doing that I end up making it all myself.

But one thing that we have done for the last three years is put their hand print on a tree skirt.

I bought some red muslim and cut it out. You Martha's out there would hem and haw and whatever you do to sew and make it look pretty.

I don't. I just cut it. And left it that way. Without being hemmed up. So there.

Anyway, the boys then play with the silver or gold paint before the decide that they have enough paint on their hands and place it on the fabric. AKA the tree skirt.

They have fun doing this and since I'm a sucker for hand prints, I have fun watching it.

Wordless Wednesday

Gifts from my Secret Santa

Kori was hosting a Secret Santa Shindig and I signed up. I never do these kind of things, but thought this might be fun.

She sent out the information for my person that I was to be a Secret Santa and then yesterday I get mine in the mail.

When the doorbell rang, I had to beat the boys to the door for fear that it would be their Christmas presents. All three of us running and fighting to see who would get to the door first.

My secret Santa was Dawn.

I open the box and find these two wrapped presents in there.


Since I hardly ever get to open presents, I didn't let the boys open them for me. It was mine. All mine!!!!

I opened the big gift and found this beautiful glass platter.

And then off to the second present to open and I find this.

Barefoot Contessa. How cool is that? I loooove Barefoot Contessa. I've made some of her recipes and they are wonderful. This contains all the stuff to make these peanut butter bars. I can't wait to make them and put them on my new snack tray.

So thanks Dawn for the wonderful gifts and thanks Kori for hosting this.

Am I truly listening?

I had been feeling sort of guilty for not doing more during this Christmas time. It being the most wonderful time of the year. I didn't even want to put a tree up. I know, I'm a scrooge, so what.

Anyway, the boys helped put up and decorate the tree and it was fun. They even took out a little one that they have taken over and use it as their 'toy' tree. I will post later on this.

The craziness and business actually was dominating my life. Doing this, doing that. Going here, going there. Getting this, getting that. Well, you get the picture.

I hadn't been feeling the spirit of getting ready for Christmas.

Along this line, there were other issues that were arising in my life.

I had been asking God to show me what it was that He wanted me to do. I took the quiet and the no response as a sign that maybe He was not ready to reveal His plan to me on these certain issues.

Yesterday at church, our pastor was taking about these issues that I had been dealing with. How not to let the business take over our lives because we would miss what God wanted us to see.

He even said that God sometimes wanted us to be alone. Alone with Him.

Have you ever felt like the sermon is speaking directly to you? Well, it couldn't have been any plainer than if the pastor put my name on that sermon yesterday.

I then realized that God was talking to me. I just wasn't listening to Him. Not because I was too busy, but because it wasn't the answer that I wanted to hear.

I felt much better with what I knew God had been telling me and it felt great to know that I wasn't a scrooge.

I had lost focus on the reason for the season. I had allowed the business and craziness to take control of my life.

I am concentrating on making sure that my kids know the true meaning of Christmas. And that they understand it all.


Anyway, I just wanted to relay that message to you out there.

There is a difference between being alone and being lonely, but maybe God is trying to get you alone with Him.

Pepita and her Chocolate cake

Pepita looked in the cupboard for the cake mixes. She had to make a cake for the cake walk. They asked her about it a month ago.

"Where are my cake mixes?" she asked the kids
"Remember Mamita?" said one of the kids "we said we wanted to make a birthday cake for the dog and we asked you if we could use the cake mixes. You told us yes."

Oh, Pepita remembered alright. But she thought they had made a cake out of dog food, not cake mix.

"We mixed the cake mix with the dog food and that was the birthday cake" said the children

That could explain why the dog was sick for a month.

"I guess I'll have to make one from scratch" she sighed.

After she kicked all the kids out of the house and locked them out, she started making the cake.

A decadent double layer of chocolate cake made with creamy chocolicius frosting. All made from scratch.

She was finishing up her masterpiece when the baby of the family, Jr., named lovingly after his father Pepito, came asking if he could lick the beaters.

Actually, after 10 kids, names just didn't matter anymore. The last four kids were named Jr. And two of them were girls.

So Pepita gave Jr. the beater and finished frosting the cake.

"Mamita," said Jr. "there is stuff all over your carpet in your bedroom. I tried to clean it but it's not working."

Pepita goes to take a look. Chocolate frosting all over the carpet.

She leaves the finished masterpiece and sets out to take the stains out of the carpet.

When it was time to leave to drop the cake off at the school, Pepita gave it one last lovingly look. Martha Stewart would be proud of her. But not really because she didn't put fancy shmancy stuff on top like Martha would probably do. But then again, Martha doesn't have 10 kids, so there.

She tells the kids to get ready to go run some errands after they drop the cake off. They all gather their coats and bags for fencing class.

Pepita goes to the kitchen to put plastic wrap over the cake when she notices a smudge on the side of the cake. All the way from the top layer to the very bottom of the cake.

She looks around and who is standing there looking at her with the most innocent eyes around?Why Jr. of course.

"Did you lick the frosting off?" she asked

"No" he says shyly with innocence

"Why did you lick the frosting off?" she rephrased the question

"Because it's so good Mamita"

She shooed him off before she would lock him up in the closet for a long time. With his own chocolate cake.

Pepita fixed the cake and put the plastic wrapping on. She then loaded it in the very back of the van.

"It will be safe here" she exclaimed

The kids were loaded in the van and she drove to the school. The lady in charge came out to receive the cake.

When Pepita opened the back of the van, she is dismayed at what she finds.

One of the kids had thrown their bag with their fencing equipment in it, on top of the cake.

The plastic was looking very chocolaty by that time. It no longer protected the cake, it was the cake.

Pepita looked over to the lady who looked at the cake.

Pepita picked up the plastic off of the cake as much as she could and then handed the cake over to the lady.

Smiling, Pepita said, "I hope you enjoy. Gotta go."

And with that Pepita made her grand exit out of the parking lot.

She didn't know why, but she had a feeling that they wouldn't be asking her to make anymore cakes for the cake walk.

The lizards in my house

Last week, AB brought home a toy lizard from church. The instructions on the lizard said to put it in water, leave in there between 3 to 7 days and it would grow to be 36 inches.

So we put it in a bowl and watched it grow.

And grow.


UB wanted one too. He found a lizard in his toy box and put it in a cup of water.

We watched it. And watched it.

AB's lizard had to be moved into the bathtub. It was getting too big for the bucket. This thing grew and grew.

When it was ready, the boys took it out of the tub and has now been used as a weapon. A weapon to hurt each other. Their logic? "It can't hurt too bad mom, it's soft and wet."

AB twirls this thing by the tail. He throws it by the legs. He grabs it from the head and whacks UB with the tail.

Meanwhile, UB is very optimistic that his lizard will grow to be 9 feet long. So we are still waiting.

He has big plans for his lizard. The lizard that will never grow. The lizard that is actually not there anymore.

Plans that include whacking AB with the tail. Or throwing it while it is still wet, up against the wall to see the water splat out.

Poor UB is going to be disappointed when he finds out that I threw the water away because I was tired of it hanging around my kitchen counter.

It's all my fault that I prevented this little lizard from growing to be 9 feet tall.

I think I'll just tell him that AB's lizard ate it.

Funny Spanish T'was the night before Christmas

This is for my Spanish understanding wannabe's.



T'was the night before Christmas, and all through the casa,
Not a creature was stirring- Caramba! Que Pasa?
The work was all done, and the tired old nanas
Had tucked all the children away in their camas.
The stockings were hung in their places con cuidada,
When all of a sudden I heard such a grito.
I jumped to my feet like a frightened cabrito!
I ran to la ventana to look para afuera.
And whol in the world do you think que era?
San Nicolas in a trineo and a big red sombrero,
Came flying along like a crazy bombero!
And, pulling the sleigh, en vez de venado,
Habian ocho burritos, approaching volados;
I watched as they came, and this quaint little hombre,
Was shouting and whistling and calling my nombre:
"Ay, Pancho! Ay, Pepe! Ay Licha! Ay, Beto!
Ay Nato! Ay, Memo! Maruca y Neto!
Then standing erect with his hand on his pecho,
He flew to the top of our very own techo!
With his round little paunch like a bowl of jalea,
He struggled to fit down our own chimenea;
Then huffing and puffing at last in our sala;
From bags full of trinkets and toys from Guatemala.
He filled all the stockings with lovely regalos,
For none of the children had been very malos.
Then chuckling aloud (he seemed very contento)
He turned like a flash and was gone like the viento.
But I heard him exclaim- and this is the verdad-
SALUD Y PESETAS! FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Shopping at 4am? I am insane.....

We went to St. Louis for Thanksgiving. We caravan ed with Hubster's brother and sister and cousins and Aunt to get there. We started off early and 12 hours later, we end up at his sister's house. It was fun. That's all I'm going to say about that.

We wake up the next morning and AB is excited to go spend the morning with my brother-in-law. The same one that broke his arm last year. AB woke up early. At 5am. To tell me that he was going to go wake up his Aunt and Uncle so that he and his Uncle could go 'shopping'.

Since I had just gone to bed at 1am, waking me up at 5 was not really a good idea. I tell him to go back to sleep since there is no movement in the house. He insists that he is getting up. I insist he go back to sleep.

I win. After he falls asleep crying.

He then wakes up at 7 when he hears voices in the kitchen. He gets dressed, tells UB that he needs to get dressed as well and off he went to wake up the other little cousin. When they are all dressed, they tell us that their Uncle D was taking them to IHOP and then shopping.

Uncle D had a 5, 6 and 7 year old boy with him. He took them to eat a big breakfast at IHOP then off they went shopping at Wal-Mart. They each came back loaded with toys.

They then went outside to play in the leaves with Uncle D.
While the boys were outside playing, my organized sister-in-law was looking at her list that was posted on her fridge, to see what needed to be put in the oven first. She had gotten all the casseroles ready the day we were traveling and so all she had to do was put them in the oven. She even had all the dishes out with a sign in each one telling what food item went in it. She is so like me. NOT! I wish I were like that, but I'm a procrastinator.

We did have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Even if we did eat 3 hours after we originally said. But I was Thankful for all the family there and no one hurting each other.

We went to bed at 1:30am. I was exhausted and wanted to sleep in, but my sister-in-laws wanted to go shopping with the other 4,000 people in the neighborhood. I get up at 3:30 and we load up (I'm the driver) and drive to Kohl's. All I can think about when I see that the line to get in the store is 2 miles long (no lie) is that I am insane. Insane to be out in the cold and with all those people.

Since I used to work in retail for 12 years, I vowed that I would never be like those crazy people fighting over cheap toys. That is why I went as the driver. Besides, I got to hang out with my 3 sister-in-laws.

My sil M that lives there and I decided we didn't need to go to Kohl's, so I drop off my other two sil's and we drive to Target because there was some stuff there that we were wanting. We park, see the short line and talk to stay awake. The 2 sil's show up and get in the car with us. It is 5 minutes to 5 and we think we have a good chance of getting stuff at Target. Until we realize that they don't open until 6.

Off to Wal-Mart we go. We have 5 minutes before they open the doors. They have no Supercenters there so it is a small regular Wal-Mart. I again drop off the shopping queens and I go find a parking spot in a neighboring town.

Can I just say that it is insanity? INSANITY!!!!!!!!!

It seemed like there were thousands of people there in a small store. Lines everywhere just to get down the aisles. People fighting over who was there first. Even fighting over the computers. People throwing stuff on the floor because it wasn't what they wanted and not to mention, people invading my space. MY SPACE. I don't like it when complete strangers want a piggy back ride down the aisles. I need my space.

My sil's are like competing for the supermarket sweep contest. They do good. They got all they wanted, with the exception of one thing. We get out of there and drive back to Target. Almost 6 by this time, had to make it there in time.

In time we did. We got there just as they were opening the doors. We park, run in and look for what we wanted.

We get home by 7 and go back to bed. We were tired. All that fighting the crowds gets a girl tired.

It was a fun time, but not something that I enjoy doing. I only went to hang out with my sil's. That was the main reason I went. But I am insane for going out that early instead of staying home under the warm blankets and sleeping.

INSANE I tell you!

Wordless Wednesday

The questions that arise at the grocery store while checking out

Because the boys are always with me, they end up going grocery shopping with me. Most of the times they like it, every once in a while they complain.

But, since I don't give them an option, they have to go where I go.

We went to the Toy Shop to pack up boxes for families. The Toy Shop is a place where people donate toys and this place then gives the toys away to families that need them. The boys like to go pack boxes for kids.

The only problem with that is that they want to 'try out' every toy there to see what it sounds like. So at one point, there were all these toys making noise. I think the old ladies were ready for us to leave.

After we left the Toy Shop, we had some time to go to the grocery store before UB had karate. We did our shopping and were waiting in line. In a long line. But in the grocery stores defense, they only have 5 or 6 registers and they did have 3 of them open.

Apparently, that wasn't enough for the impatient older man behind me. He was not happy that there were more than 4 people in line.

Some poor employee was walking past him and he asked her if they had any more cashiers. She looked at him calmly and said that she thought they were getting some more.

He was still complaining and moved from behind me to another register.

They finally open up 2 more registers and people start moving to those newly opened registers.

He of course doesn't move fast enough and still doesn't get to the front of the line. The 2 people in front of me decide to move and so I am next in line.

I can hear him complaining and I look at the line where he is and ask him if he would like to go before me. No, he says, I'll just wait. So wait he did.

While we were in line, AB was reading all those headlines on the magazines.

You know, the drama headlines of Hollywood.

The "Brad and Angie fight because of Jen" or "How to lose 30 lbs in 4 days" or "Eat all you want and still lose weight" or "Brad finally apologizes to Jen and Angie get jealous" or "Vanessa (from High School musical) shows you how to get in shape for the Holidays"

AB was reading all the magazines and was telling me about them.

He then says, "Mom, I don't understand what this means. Come look."

I tell him to just read it to me as I was pushing the shopping cart to the register.

Out loud he says "How to get big cleavage, What does that mean mom?"

I look around to make sure no one was listening.

"Umm," I said "help me unload these groceries."

"But mom, what does that mean?"

"What does that other magazine say?" I ask

"Patrick Swayze is still sexy. Who is Patrick Swayze and what is sexy."

I hurry up and pay and get out of there. I'll have to distract him next time with a candy bar.

Will the magic eraser clean a marked up car?

Well, I'm back!

I do have lots to tell, but it's going to have to wait.

We arrived home late on Saturday night. We then did nothing but rest yesterday. So while I was resting and reading the paper, the boys decided to 'paint' a little car toy. With sharpies.

They then decided to 'take off the paint' with water. So this morning I look in their bathroom and there is a sink full of water and bubbles. The car toy is somewhere in there. Along with a magic eraser.

The boys thought that if they put a magic eraser in the water with the car, the magic eraser will magically clean the car.

This is the reason I can't blog right now. I've got to go clean up lots of little magic eraser pieces that disintegrated in the sink. Along with making sure the boys clean up the 5 gallons of water that are all over the floor and the counter top.