Cherry Blossoms

My mother in law is one of the prettiest ladies I have ever met, that's her among all the flowers of that cherry tree. She and my father in law are currently living in Washington D.C. while they serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They sent us a few pictures of the area, the cherry blossoms are so neat, I can only imagine the aroma....mmmmm.

brick houses

I like brick houses. They remind me of old Mexico.

TLC's Extreme Couponers

Last night I finally caught a couple of episodes of TLC's Extreme Couponing.  It was very interesting to see how people in the show were able to obtain so much stuff from the grocery store and pay pennies on the dollar, one lady actually paid 2% of her entire purchase...which was over $1000. This is extreme! I use coupons on a regular basis. I am always looking for deals on the things my family uses. Sometimes, when the item is free, and all I have to pay is 6% tax, I buy as much as I can, which is always, 6 not a 100 or 200!

Because of the show, I am hearing a lot of local ladies say that they get dirty looks at the supermarket when they use the manufacturer coupons, I am guessing because these people, the starers are assuming that us couponers have warehouses chuck full of food and other merchandise that we got for free.
I speak for myself, and some of the folks I know who use couponing as a way to help with tight budgets, we see coupons as a tool that help us save money. Manufacturers send out these coupons so that their product will be sold. We are in a bad economy now,  grocery prices are going up because of fuel costs, to me it just makes 'cents' to use manufacturers coupons to save. Manufacturers reimburse groceries stores the amount on the coupon plus an added compensation for basically advertising their product. I never never never feel bad for using coupons. When I know my checking out is going to take more than normal, I always tell the people that line up behind me that my order will take a while, so far, I just get a thank you and a smile and they go to another register.
So, in conclusion I say, keep on saving.
***if you are going to buy a whole bunch of stuff, which will clear out the shelves, do as my lovely former neighbor did (she got me couponing) she would go to the manager and make a special order, so that other people would not have to suffer. How considerate is that!?

this is not mine...just a pic I found in the internet...Im not this organized unfortunately...some day, I hope!

OK. That's my shpill on couponing. If you have any couponing stories please share...any tips, any worries or concerns, just comment below.

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!