Weekend Recap/Monday Rewind

This weekend felt nice. Which sort of hurts to write. I shouldn't be feeling nice/good/fine. 

Friday was tough. My mom went to visit my sister in the hospital and... well it's just not good news. I broke down at work. I broke down on Saturday with my husband. I broke down on the phone with my eldest sister. 

The day ended in higher spirits. My niece and nephew's school was having a Family Fun Night event and my dad and I took them so they could play games, jump, and generally have tons of fun. 

Daddy and me selfie.

That's Jonathan up there! 

Nikki had a blueberryItalian Ice, can you tell?

Jonathan with his best friend, Evan!

Playing  a carnival game.

Mmmmm, yummy quesadillas for dinner!

On Saturday morning I took my momma to the dentist and then met my friend at the park with the kids for the opening of a new playground which includes a water area - a total cost of $1.8 million!

Mitchell Englander, our city counsel member.

Ribbon cutting ceremony.

We ended up staying at the park for a good 2 to 3 hours. The kids had a blast. 

I spent the afternoon and evening relaxing and slowly cleaning some parts/areas of the condo. Slowly but surely! 

I did get the "Always Kiss Me Goodnight" decoration up over our bed...

On Sunday Thomas and I took our mom's out to lunch.

I look soooo small! 

His mom invited us over for dinner Sunday night, along with his sisters and brother-in-law. 

I finally got the items that our neighbors lent us back to them Sunday night as well. I also packed all my clothing on Sunday night. I need many more items to pack, but it's a start. I'm frustrated because since my things aren't put away and organized I can't find things that I need for the trip (ie: sneakers). I'm also starting to feel stressed about being able to get everything ready before Friday. This includes actually planning the itinerary. 

While I already have the flights reserved and paid for as well as the hotels, I really want to have it organized and written out. I'll work on that this week during work (so that means less blogging!). As with everything it will all work out, but the in between sucks.

Happy Monday!

Mami's Day!

We all have amazing mom’s and mine is no exception.

She is one of the strongest and most valiant persons I know. When I stop to think about everything that she has gone through in her life I am in complete awe of how she was able to go through all of it and come out the way she has. Simply amazing.

My mom is the third eldest of 8 children and began playing the mommy role when she was very young. Her youngest sister had some medical issues that left her needing close care. Since my grandma had so many kids to take care of my mom took on the responsibility of caring for her baby sister.

That's me inside my momma!

My mami got married when she was 24 years old (my dad was 33, almost 34) and got pregnant soon thereafter. Their wedding date is July 19, 1968 and my sister was born on May 3, 1969. (That’s almost 46 years of marriage!). My brother came not 2 years later on October 24, 1970, and then my other sister (the one who is in the hospital) was born on April 1, 1972.

By the mid ‘70’s she had 3 little ones running around her feet.

As I’ve mentioned previously my sister Gabriela got sick when she was 9 months old and from then until this very minute my mom has not only been a mom but she has been a nurse and doctor. She has also been an organ donor to her daughter – the most selfless thing a mother can possibly do in my opinion.

Awwwww.

My first bath!

I’ve seen many posts over the past few days about mothers and daughters not getting along too well during teenage years but that was not the case for us. Although I wouldn’t have considered my mom my best friend 10-15 years ago, we always got along. We went shopping together often and I accompanied my parents grocery shopping every Sunday until I started working retail and had to work on Sunday mornings.

Nap time with my mommy!

Today, at almost 30, my mom is definitely my best friend. If I could take her everywhere with me I would. I e-mail her constantly (she doesn’t text, but she’s good at e-mailing on her iPad!) and I call her multiple times a day (she would probably prefer I didn’t) and she and I go out shopping at least a couple of times a week(much to both our husbands’ dismay).

She is the person I confide in and the person who will give me the advice I really don’t want to hear. She’ll listen to me and not say anything or simply agree with me because she knows I like to have the last word. I’ve just recently realized how she does this for me and I don’t think she knows how much I appreciate it. Still, she knows when to put me in my place and let me know when I had to just shut up.

On an airplane on the way to Argentina.

She was there for me 100% for my wedding. She went shopping with me for my dress and paid for all of it because she knew how much it meant to me (even though she disagreed with it). She was willing to be a part of the wedding ceremony even though she is very shy and doesn’t like to be the center of attention. She also (along with my dad) are paying for our honeymoon.

(I’m such a nerd, I’m crying just writing this – I love her so much!)

My mom, grandma, and my paternal grandmother's friend from long ago.

La Plata, Argentina - 1994

My mom helped me do the majority of my moving and guides me in becoming a good wife (either by telling me do something she does or by doing something she doesn’t do :).

My mom and I in the apartment my siblings grew up in.

La Plata, Argentina

I hate going shopping without my mom (and I can’t stand to think what I’ll do when she is no longer here with me). We had grown a tradition of going shopping on weekend mornings. On Saturday’s we’d go to the mall with my niece and get some Starbucks (her favorite! Coffee addict!) and just stroll the stores – even if there was nothing for us to buy. On Sunday’s we generally did grocery shopping together.

My mom and I (along with my sister-in-law's and niece) at my Bridal Shower.

Simi Valley, CA - 2014

Mom and me on a shopping trip.

I’m really hoping these weekend traditions will come back in some way (they have been suspended due to my sister being in the hospital).  We have been doing errands in the evenings which I love. Shopping is our thing. We also used to take long walks in the evenings around the neighborhood and talked about just about anything. I can’t wait for life to settle down so we can get back to that as well.

Dinner with my mom and dad.

My mom is 70 years old and I hope to get many, many, many more mother’s days with her. She is my heart and she means so very much to me.

I love you Mami!

Pit & Peak Friday

It’s been a non-exciting week. I guess that’s a peak?

PEAKS / /

/ / We bought new TV’s on Sunday and they look amazing in our bedroom and in the living room.

/ / I have been able to get things organized and put away in our bedroom. We hung some curtains in the bedroom and dining room –although I think I might need to change the dining room ones.

/ / I unclogged our toilet! We almost had a plumber do it. Close as in he was in the condo but wanted to charge us $125 and we refused to pay more than $100. After he left we went to Lowe’s, bought a snake, and back home I put it down in the toilet and pushed the excess toilet papers down the drain. This was after we tried every other method known to unclog it. High five for me!

/ / I have cooked dinner for my man this week. On Wednesday night I made him some steak, rice, and asparagus. It was pretty darn good.

/ / I found the hamper I was looking for in the last place I thought would have it. I searched everywhere – Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Wal*Mart, Ross – no one had one that I needed. I went to JC Penney one night and it was there! Plus, from $36 it was on sale for $26, and I had a $10 off coupon! Also? I had a gift card!

/ / BIG PEAK! I was able to find a travel agency which reserved my flights inside of Argentina for the honeymoon. I am also super grateful for my aunt Stella who did me the HUGE favor of picking up the money for the flights with my parents’ management company there and then take the money to the travel agency. She let me know on Thursday morning that she even got the tickets so that I don’t even have to go to the agency myself when I get there – saving me a ton of time!  My brother is also working on hotel reservations.

PITS / /

/ / My sister continues to not do too well. On Wednesday night (nearly 11pm) after I had gone to sleep I got a call from Anna (our favorite nurse in the ICU) asking for me to authorize them to begin dialysis and put an arterial line in her. This dialysis is temporary and due exclusively due to the infection in her abdomen. IF her kidney fails and she needs dialysis for that she is refusing it. She made us promise her that we would not allow them to put her on long-term dialysis.

/ / I had some pretty nasty allergies at the beginning of the week which interfered with breathing, sleeping, and being comfortable. Also I ran out of tissue. It’s on my ever expanding shopping list

TBT (on Friday): Siblings

I am the waaaayyy youngest of 4 children. I have 3 siblings – 45, 43, and 42 years of age.

The big age difference between us (I’m 29!) made it so that I didn’t really grow up with them. By the time I was only 2 or 3 my eldest sister and brother had moved 5-6 driving hours away to go to UC Berkeley.  Gabriela, the youngest of the three, was the sibling I spent most of my time with – still she is 12 years older than me. She was very good to me when I was little. She played with me and took care of me. I’ll always be grateful for that. Especially as I think back on it these days…

I’m told, though I don’t remember, that my eldest sister, Margarita, did move back home temporarily after college. My brother, David “Ramon”, also moved back (permanently) and he has become the sibling I am closest to. To this day we speak on an almost daily basis and generally e-mail back and forth during the work week.

When I was 8 my sister got married to Mike – who has become as close to me as a sibling could be, so in general I leave out the “in-law” part from his name. From the time they got married until very recently (when I ran out of summer vacations) I spent a week or two visiting them in Northern California. It was almost like I was their child and they spoiled me with trips I will never forget.

I don’t have my wedding pictures back yet, so here is the newest picture I have of the three of us (my other sister is not generally in photographs).

Here is my brother (in-law, Mike) at my wedding – this is a perfect example of his personality.

We might have a large difference in age, but I love my siblings dearly.

Procrastinator vs Doer

Jesse had a great post on her blog the other day! She listed all the ways she procrastinates while she should be studying.

I am great at procrastinating. It might even be considered a hobby of mine.  But I only procrastinate when I have to be doing something I really hate. When it’s for something I want to get done, I’ll put everything else aside (IE: getting wedding things taken care of).

I’ve been out of school for almost 3 years now (after 9 years of post-high school college) and how I hated working and how I found so many ways to avoid anything school related. I am SO glad that part of my life is over. To avoid studying I would, of course, discover the ends of the Internet and even Blog (way back in the Live Journal days). It was pre-Facebook days so that wasn’t a time-waste, but the Internet was still full of distractions. Wikipedia! YouTube! Email! So many pretty colors!

Of course there was also TV. No DVR or Netflix, but plain ol’ TV.

These days… I haven’t been procrastinating on many things. Mostly that has been because I had a lot to do in very little time and I was very invested in things turning out well. House buying and the wedding things had to be completed timely… now I have a little more time to procrastinate.

My house is currently a mess. I have TV boxes full of trash that have to get taken to the dumpster, boxes from the move that need to be unpacked, clocks that need to be hung on the walls, carpets that need to be vacuumed, clothes than need to be put away and just general tidying that needs to be completed. I was full steam ahead until a few days ago. I. Am. Drained.

Between the wedding and actually getting things to the new condo I don’t have much energy left for unpacking. Part of the problem has been that on the 3^rd I came down with some allergies that continued to kick my butt well into the week. My nose was running and the sneezing didn’t seem to cease. All which made sleeping at night uncomfortable and kept waking me up.

Do you know that feeling when you breathe in and the inside of your nose feels so cold it hurts? That’s what I’ve been dealing with. Then, also while sleeping, my lips would become so chapped they hurt and in the midst of the night the last thing I wanted to do was get up looking for chap stick (*adds chopstick to shopping list*). The allergies, though, I blame on the bipolar weather we are having in Los Angeles at the moment. We went from rain the day before the wedding, to a gorgeous wedding day, to extreme heat, to cold, to wind, to colder weather, and heat is coming back. I keep having chills and sweats throughout the day!

Since the honeymoon is coming up quickly on us I really want to do everything to avoid getting sick and feeling weak, which I am already starting to feel. I want to hit Argentina straight on and be able to do everything we have planned without needing a nap in between (okay, maybe a couple of naps – it is our honeymoon after all).

Does this make me a procrastinator or a doer? I don’t know. Maybe somewhere in between?

To be perfectly honest I began this post thinking I was a procrastinator and then realized that maybe I’m not so much one anymore. I might update this in a few months if anything has changed.

Wedding Wednesday - Thursday, April 24, 2014

Wow. My wedding day was beyond amazing. I cannot tell you how happy I was that day and how I wish I could live it all over again. But I can’t, so I’ll tell you about it so that I can at least try and remember everything.

I think the best way to do this is to break it down by days, because it wasn’t just Saturday, it started on Sunday which was the first day I took off work and ended on Monday my last day off.

THURSDAY – APRIL 24^th 2014

On top of the wedding I still had a lot I had to get done for our new home. While I had moved a lot of things over prior to this date, there were still things that I needed to move so that I had them available when I finally moved in on Sunday. My mom and I took the kids to school and then began running errands. I had to do some returns and then make some purchases. I still didn’t have trash cans, sheets, and other necessities. We were lucky in that Jonathan’s friend asked him over for a play date that afternoon, which gave us some more time to run errands and to move things to the new place. Have I mentioned that my condo is less than 2 blocks from my parents place? It has made moving very convenient. Since we don’t have a truck, we’ve been working one Toyota Corolla filled with items at a time. During the errands I also headed to the market to pick up some food items (and FRUIT! I was craving fruit!).

It was a long day. And still it wasn’t over. My maid of honor arrived from Washington (state) at 5:30 that evening and we went from the airport to a restaurant for some drinks. I hadn’t seen Lauren since 2012 and it was great seeing her. She is getting married on 5-10-15! She actually got engaged a few months before me!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I don’t know what I would have done without her! After dinner we picked up my niece and headed to the condo to start getting organized for the next couple of days. At the last minute I decided to make jello shots for the party so she helped me get started on that. My fridge was full of jello shots by Friday night!  Beyond that I basically gave her the to-do lists I had created so that she knew what had to get done. She had to expand on the list as the night went on and well into Friday, but it was a good starting point. It was such a relief to have someone helping me and not having to carry or figure it all out on my own. Handing over the reins was so nice.

My sister, along with her husband and the kids were driving down on Thursday night but didn’t make it in until past midnight, so they went straight to my parents’ house. Laurent, Nikki, and I went to sleep around11pm.

Next week will be part two…

Weekend Wrap Up 5/5/15

I had another busy weekend, as could be expected. While the wedding is finally over there is still a lot of work today. We leave on our honeymoon in less than 2 weeks (OMG! It hasn't really hit me yet because of moving, but I get to go to Argentina so soon!) and our house is a disaster! 

We did take a few steps forward and maybe a couple back this weekend with the delivery of all the furniture for our home.

A pre-look into our living room as seen from master bedroom.

Looking from where the bed is, before bedroom furniture was delivered. 

Sleep Number people blowing up our new California King mattress.

The view of our living room from the front door - before furniture (obviously).

Living room from the dining room.

Dining room from the living room.

We've made progress! The couch has been delivered! (View from the front door, bonus Thomas in picture)

View of the living room from fireplace - I love my couch!  Thomas does not like the coffee table anymore, so it may be sold off.

Yay! A dining room table! 

California King all blown up!

Finally a bedroom set! 

Dresser with the small TV on it - now there is a 60"!

A chest of drawers that we definitely needed to put our clothes away.

No before pictures - this is the office. This is my desk!

Thomas' desk! 

I cannot wait until I have everything put away and organized. I'm hoping I can at least get all the clothes put away before the honeymoon - that is my goal. If I can have everything except the bar and the office organized before 5/16/14 I'll be happy. 

In between all that I did run some errands... again. On Saturday I went with my brother to Wal*Mart and then on Sunday I went to Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohl's and Anna's Linens. Unfortunately I only remembered to take one picture.

Oh! And of course on Friday night Thomas and I headed to Fry's where I bought a new camera! I'm excited to use it for our honeymoon - all the pictures in this post (minus the TV one) were taken by the new Canon Powershot. 

On Sunday Thomas and I went to Costco and picked up two 60" Vizio TV's - one for the bedroom and one for the living room. We have a third TV, which will go in the office, that is a small 32". 

How was your weekend?