Slow Down

On Sunday night, my body said "slow down there lady!" I felt like an explosion had occurred inside my tracchea, down to my stomach. So much so that I could not lay down, sit up, stand up...I wondered what it could be? I concluded that maybe just maybe 'chile' abuse may have a lot to do with this phenoma.
Everyday, since I can remember, I have peppers with every meal. (except for cereal and pancakes, I am not that psycho!) If we go to a fast food place, out comes the ziplock baggy with 2 or 3 serrano peppers.

I am proud to say that I went all day yesterday without touching or eating for that matter, anything spicy. And today, also. I found that I eat extra when my mouth is on fire. I am trying this chile free life style for a week, and after that I hope to bring it down to about 25% of what I normally ate. Wish me luck! I miss my peppers, but I love my health more!



saying goodbye is hard to do, for this week at least!



time travel

I have decided I love looking back into the past. I started indexing. This means digitizing old records such as a censuses, draft cards, etc.. so that they can be easily accessible.
Because someone did this before me, I was able to find out about grandparents and greatgrandparents on both sides of my family. For example, I learned that on the Castro side, my dad's dad was a big wig landowner, el jefe if you will, and everyone around him worked for him. 
I spoke to my sister who lives in Mexico, and has had conversations with a certain older lady who is a cousin of ours. Mari, my sister learned about our grandfather thru this lady, Teresa. She said he was a mean boss as well as a hardworker. That he treated the people as peons, slave-like almost. Dang it! I didnt like hearing this, but there was a reason why he was on top.
As for Magdaleno, his son, my 'father', she said he was lazy, but ever so good at doing business. She said he could trade a piece of metal, junk essentially for a strong horse. I would like to know more about them, I am sure there is a noble, honest, decent person in there somewhere. I would like to know how they came about to be so 'well-to-do".  So for that, I will just keep on digging for answers!

IT's NOT SUGAR, IT'S A DONUT!

Some of my Favorite Things

I saw this lovely post on my friend Gail's blog. She lists a few of her favorite things. So here I go.



************MY FAVORITES****************

• To get us started off in this list are the expressions on my kids faces. Everyday they make me laugh. They amaze me in how smart they can be and also how much they are a part of me. What a blessing they are to me. I love the whole rest of my family. I am so happy to know that I belong to a very big group of wonderful people.

• FOOD is perhaps my favorite thing in the world. I love to eat good food. I like trying new things, but in the end my biggest love, when it comes to food would have to be my "frijoles de la olla", tortillas de maiz, and chiles to spice up the life.



• FLOWER GARDENS, there's something so fulfilling about seeing beauty come out of the ground to color your surroundings. Love it!

• Basketball, I like you because when I play you, I have fun and dont even realize I am running back and forth as fast as I can. And after about an hour I look like ran a marathon.

• I love a clean house. Is my house clean? No! But I still love a clean house. Nothing better than a clean fresh house to rest your tired body in....ahhh!

• A clean house that smells good is also a great thing. So I like to have good smells in my house.

• A full tank of gas. I really like that. The thought of being stranded without gasoline in the middle of nowehere is a bit terrifying for me.

• I am mad about SUDOKU! I like to do a puzzle almost every night. I am working out my brain muscles, now if only I could be crazy about working out my gut's muscles.

• I love to see kind people in action because it inspires me to try a little harder to make someone else's life more meaningful. Kindness is contagious, I really believe that!

• For the last 2 or 3 years I have come to know the power of coupons! I love to stock up on stuff we need at about a third or less the cost of the product. I love my coupons!!!



• And to end this post I will list a few t.v. shows that I love...

There's something heartwarming in discovering big talent...the auditions are also hilarious!

I'd like to solve the puzzle Pat! "I kick butt at Wheel of Fortune!"

Now, this is more like it, a real family...not like all the super fancy rich, problem free stereotypical sit-com families of the past.

This show is sooooo funny! Who's with me on this one?

And Finally one of the funniest movies of all time, Three Amigos! I love quoting lines from this movie. And others but this one is on the top 5.

I really enjoy my long chats with my younger brother Nacho. It's good to know that eventhough time and distance stood between us for years, we still have a good friendship. I like that my brother is very smart and techy. I like that he's a true friend. I love my brother!

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So Cool, even streets are named after him.

Fun day at the Park

 We had a great day at the park on Saturday, temperature was about 55 degrees Farenheit, the following Tuesday we were blessed with a snow/ice storm. I am glad we went to the park when the weather was kind.

The Saturday before Valentine's Day (2-12-11) Boise was blessed with a beautiful sunny day. I took advantage of this gorgeous weather to take the little monkeys to the park to feed the duckies. We had a blast playing all over the park. The park has an over abundance of geese in the pond, there are a few ducks there, so we mostly feed giant geese. Bella spent most of the time running away from geese, I told her to shoo them away, and all they did was move their long necks back for about 3 seconds, then they were back to begging for bread pieces. When we were done with the bread we walked over the the awesome playground where the kids climbed on all the games there. Then we went over the bridge to the wooden house and finally over to the lake to throw rocks in the Boise River. What a fun day.



Goofy kids by the river

Me and my Boy

The girl pretending to fish

This guy loves to throw rocks in the river

Haircut

It's official, my girl loves to have haircuts. On Feb. 11th Bella got herself a cool haircut. Check it out!

What I learned today

I got to see "Who do You Think YOu ARe" on NBC tonight.  The featured celebrity was Rosie O'Donell. I learned that her mom passed away when Rosie was only 10 yrs. old. All I knew about this lady was that she is a comedian, she's done a couple of movies, she had a talk show, and that she has been pretty controversial. The controversial part of her maybe has to do with the fact that she was left without a mommy at a very tender age. We see famous people on tv get put thru the toilet by the media, the gossip shows, and those ridiculous tacky magazines by the checkout stand in the grocery stores.
This is what I learned from Ms. O'Donnell: No matter who you are, there's always an unknown history behind the person. We can't judge people from just looking at their 'shell'.
  I did not know that Ireland had a famine in the 1800's. And that the poorest of the poor were placed in warehouse-like shelters, where the families were separated. This was the case with O'Donnell's ancestors and for some reason, some benefactors allowed them to be sent to Canada. Basically they were rescued from death because, people who lived in these shelters died from disease and hunger.
I thought about how there are so many nations currently who suffer from oppression, or poverty, war or whatever. Every country has had their struggles, just like every person in the planet has their own battles, but somehow, if there is a willing spirit, or a willing people,  there will always be a triumphant story to tell. Well, I am so sleepy and I am sure this is not making much sense, so I will revise tomorrow and make the necessary changes. g'nite mates!

sleeping horse

Friday, February 18th 2011

The children and I went to the library today after Beli got out of school. We walked there, so as to 'exercise' my biggo body. We normally go all the way to State Street, but today, I decided to take different path, so we could see the lambs. Across the street from the lambs, are 2 horse. We also say hi to them. Today, however, the old white horse was laying down, perfectly still. I kept staring at its tummy to see if it was going up and down, but I didnt see that. It was pretty far from the fence, so I thought, maybe it's asleep. I told Bels that we would come home the same way and check on the little white horse. Well, an hour later, the horse was in the same spot, sleeping still, oh, I forgot to mention, the eyes were open. And the younger brown horse was standing next to the laying down horse. I looked around to see if any of the human neighbors were around, the house across from the horse field had 3 people coming out of it. I looked at them with a concerned face and before I even asked anything, one of the ladies said "SHE IS". She is what? Well, dead, is what she meant. Awww! Darn it! I asked who the owner was and the other lady said she was. She said that no one would be able to take her away until Monday. Today is Friday. She said the mare was 30 years old and that normally they live up to 25 years. So the little white horse went 5 years above the expectations. I was a bit worried that Bel, at her tender 6 years old would have been crushed that a little animal lost it's life, but she seemed fine. Maybe she didnt quite understand the "SHE IS" comment.

So today I saw a dead horse. And it made me sad. I dont think I will ever own a horse but if I did, and it died, I'd be pretty devastated.



Our neighbor: free in horse heaven



I am willing to bet this is the way many a bloggers start their blogs: "It's been such a long time since I last wrote..." So I wont do that, but it's kind of true. Lots of good things have been happening here. I like to write things that the children do that make me smile. I have to say I have some funny kids, not to mention cuter than I dont know what.

The older kid is a girl, and she likes to show that she is older by offering her words of wisdom. This here line made me fall to the ground laughing:

"Franklin, everyone makes mistakes, ok? even me" Well, who knew that my 'perfect' little monkey princess made mistakes? that was news to me! I was thinking she would say "Everyone makes mistakes, even the Bishop" someone that in her little mind seemed perfect in behavior and lifestyle....so I guess it's good that she feels that way about herself.

A few days before that, my honest son, stared at my face as if he were studying it. He was sitting on my lap. And after a few seconds, he looks me straight in the eyes and with a serious tone, he say "Mama, you have a big nose!"

These guys are funny. I do have a big nose and it works perfectly. I told him  "Thanks Franklin!" he responded: "you velcom momma!"

The ninos at a furniture store acting "perfect", yeah right!