EVERYONE...MEET LULU

As my girlfriend Alyssa would say about her Charlotte, here is Lulu in all her glory:

Isn't she a beauty?!? I miss her already. I took her out for a quick test drive yesterday and after the horrible day I had at work, it felt so liberating to let my hair fly in the wind and let go of all worries. It really felt that way. I can't wait to take her out for a full day of riding! I plan to buy a cute lining for my basket so I'll be sure to add pictures of anything additional I get for her. But for now...she's home and she's all mine.

Speaking of work, yes, I have had a very rough week, particularly the last couple of days but I'm hanging in there. I had the husband chill a bottle of white wine last night and I drank a glass before curling into bed and falling asleep. I'm SO happy it's Friday.

On the family front, Henry is doing well. I am anxious to have his MRI taken after he completes radiation. I am confident that there will be no sign of his tumor but please pray for that too. Tomorrow is Erik's birthday party so that should be fun. Have a great weekend everyone!

FINALLY GOT MY BIKE!!!

Woo-hoo!!! Pictures will come soon. We weren't prepared with a truck but it's sitting inside the Long Beach Sport Chalet as we speak. It's yellow, it has a white basket, it's perfect and her name is Lulu. Yes, she has a name. :) I can't wait to ride her soon. The hubby is still on the search for his. I also got brand-spankin' new running shoes yesterday! My husband was in a giving mood! Pictures to come soon of Lulu. I love her already.

"DON'T YOU READ MY BLOG???"

Ever since I shared the news about my dear BIL Henry to my close friends, a lot of them e-mail me from time to time to ask how he is doing. Or I have other friends who e-mail me to ask how my husband I are doing in general. I feel like telling most of them, "don't you read my blog?" Because everything I do lately is documented on here. I know it's silly but sometimes it's the easiest thing to do...direct people to your blog! Call is laziness but I think it's perfectly normal for bloggers to send their friends and family to their blog to have them catch up on their daily lives...or is it just me?

This cartoon made me laugh. I stole it from Becker's blog. Totally sums up the thought of some friends I'm sure. :)

Things went very well with Henry yesterday. His forehead is healing well (thank God) and the end to his radiation treatment is approaching. Slowly...but surely. There IS a light at the end of the tunnel!

THE GOOD AND THE BAD

The Good:

- I worked out at my parent's house yesterday. It felt good. I can't wait to go back on Thursday to do it again.

- Today is my nephew's (who is also my godson) birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIK!!! Have a wonderful day today. I can't wait to celebrate with you on Saturday! I'll call you later...you might still be asleep right now. :)

The Birthday Boy

Erik and Mommy Erika (my sister)

- I'm leaving work early today to spend some time with Henry. Looking forward to that.

- The boss is out today.

The Bad:

- My girlfriend K, who happily shared the news with me that her and her husband were expecting their first baby, found out yesterday that there will be no baby. Her pregnancy was never viable. I know she'll be okay but I can't help but feel heart-broken for them.

- It's only Tuesday.

WEEKEND RECAP

Another Monday upon us. *sigh* I am officially restarting my workouts after work today. I am hittin' the treadmill at my parents house. I'm fed up of having every single pair of jeans fit snug and every summer skirt unable to be buttoned. This is it! I am really doing this. Bye-bye 7 pounds! Wish me luck.

Friday night we didn't do much. I was anticipating an early start to my Saturday morning for the garage sale so I prepared by going around my sister's neighborhood and posting fliers up hoping it would lead more customers our way. So we woke up at 5:40 *yawn* on Saturday morning and got ready for the sale. I must say, I was disappointed in the crowd...in that, there was no crowd. Maybe it was bad Saturday to have a garage sale, maybe people in that city don't tend to shop garage sales, maybe the piles of clothes and books and toys weren't appealing enough. Who knows. But the end result...a measly $65. But on the bright side, it was $65 my sister didn't have before and the rest of it will bring many families and children great happiness since it was donated to Goodwill. We kept some of the bigger items and I posted them on Craigslist this morning so I'm still hoping to end up with a nice little pot of money for them. :) The good news is that after starting with a very messy garage, we ended up with this...

There's actually room to walk in it now! We managed to put all seasonal items in boxes and neatly stored them on the shelves. Such satisfaction!

After that, I went back home to shower and get ready and attended a birthday party for one of my nephew's little friends, who is also a neighbor of Emma and Henry. The theme was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. From the jumper to the Turtle character, I could tell this birthday party was nothing short of a pretty penny! But we had a good time. After a couple hours, Gerric and I left and headed towards Fullerton to have something my husband has been raving about for weeks! The Pinkberry's of the world are getting some tough competition with the creation of Yogurtland. The decor isn't as trendy as that of said competitor but the taste, price and topping choices make it for me the obvious winner. I would definitely go back! In fact, I may just go back this weekend for more! Check it out if you're in the area.

After we indulged in our frozen yogurt, we finally saw the movie Waitress. It's an independant film written and directed by Adrienne Shelley, who passed away last year. Waking up at 5:40am that morning made it difficult to stay awake, but I thoroughly enjoyed the movie very much. In fact, I will definitely add it to my collection of DVD's once it's released. I give it two thumbs up! I won't ruin the plotline for those that plan to go see it. I did get teary-eyed when the main character finally gives birth to her baby. I immediately thought of my nephew, Diego and turned to my husband with tears in my eyes and told him I wished he was hear with us. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of him. Continue to watch over us little angel.

After the movie we called it a night and went home. The next morning we went to our usual 10:30 mass, then we headed to Long Beach to meet up with some friends from college. It was so good seeing them all. Two of our friends brought their babies, little Charlize and Cole. We all had such a great time and the kids are adorable!

After we left, we stopped by a couple bicycle shops and then went home to take much-needed 2 hour nap! It was pure bliss. Now here we are...another Monday. Well, at least it's half-way over.

PILLOW FIGHT


Place: Our bedroom

Time: 6:07am

Me: (as I see my husband's pillow on the floor) Why is your pillow on the floor honey?

Him: (half-asleep) We had a fight...and it lost.

Me: (chuckle)

My husband has another day off of work today to spend it with my BIL, Henry. We're still counting down the days until his radiation treatment is over. I can't wait. With Summer officially here, my sister has been reminiscing about the summers when Henry would go on his deep-sea fishing trips, when he would take the day off to take the kids to Soak City, when he would plan weekend getaways with the kids or with the whole family. I pray to God that he will be able to do those things again soon. In my heart, I know he will.

Yesterday was the end of the Wholesale Seminar I attended for my company. I was dreading it at first but truthfully, it turned out to be a great experience. It kicked off on Monday night with a wholesale dinner held at Spago Restaurant. I hadn't been feeling well the night before or during the day leading up to it but I ended up having a great time. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with the food but all in all, it was a nice evening.

Cristina, myself and Danise

Yolanda, Jessica, Cristina, myself and Danise

Lily and myself

Danise, Jackie, myself, Yolanda and Cristina

The next day, I went to the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood to attend Day 1 of the seminar. The morning started off with a number of speeches, ranging from our President of Wholesale (who's my boss), the President of the company and the CEO and Founder of or company. That was a little hard to stay awake for! But the gears changed when the afternoon activities began. The 50 or so attendees were split into 8 groups and we participated in a Team-Building activity humorously called "Project Funway." We were each given a theme (they varied from a banana, an orange flashlight, a Rubix Cube, and other random items. My team received a picture of two penguins?!?!!! So basically, we were to create a design based on this theme using items that we purchased during an auction they held. The items that were auctioned off were ridiculous! But with the fake money we were given, we were all desperate to think of creative ways to make our sketch become a reality. In the end, all of the "models" had a fashion show. Here are just some of the finished creations...they were quite hilarious! (Sorry for the bad quality, I had to lighten up in order for them to be visible) Let's just say that Halloween came early!

It was a blast...that is, until I got in my car to drive home at the end of the day and it took me 2 HOURS to get home!!! Damn you 101 freeway!

The next day starting off with a fashion show, which showcased some of the best items from our Fall/Holiday 2007 line. Everything looked amazing. That afternoon, we were broken up into smller groups yet again but this time, we rotated between 3 workshops, Time Management, Attitude is Everything and Leadership Skills. All three had an amazing facilitator so I got a lot out of each one. Now it's up to me to apply them to my everyday life. Another great day which ended in another 2 hours to get home.

Finally, yesterday I attended a denim workshop where we were shown the tedious process in actually making denim washes. It was very cool! In the end, each of us got a raw pair of denim jeans and we got to create our own wash based on the techniques we had just learned. We'll see how mine turns out. I will be sure to post pictures!

So that was my experience...and that explains my absence for the past few days. This weekend we're having that garage sale at Emma and Henry's house and Gerric and I are having brunch with some good college friends. Look out for pictures next week!

BLOGGING HIATUS

I hadn't realized just how much I would miss blogging! I attended a work seminar for the past couple of days and was at another for most of the morning today so I am behing on my blogging! I still have some catching up to do at work but will post about this seminar as soon as I can...perhaps tomorrow. Look out for updates then!!!

...AND THE SEARCH CONTINUES


...for bicycles that is. I think we're almost ready to make our purchase but we have a few more places to check out before we take the plunge. This weekend was a good one - but of course, it went by in the blink of an eye.

My lovely husband brought home "just because" flowers for me on Friday so I found them waiting for me when I got home from work. I never get tired of receiving flowers. :)

Saturday morning was our "cleaning day." We try to dedicate every other Saturday morning to cleaning our apartment because nothing makes me happier than a clean apartment. After that, I got ready and drove to my brother's house in Lake Forest to celebrate my niece's 7th birthday. Gerric met up with me later. It was birthday party galore. The theme was "Polly Pocket" so we had goodie bags, a pinata, birthday cake and everything else the little Princess desired. Emma and Henry were also able to make it out for a little while which was great. Here's the birthday girl in her best "It's MY birthday party" pose:

and here she is with a couple of her little girlfriends...

We all had a great time. Her actual birthday isn't until tomorrow so I'll send a special shout out to her then. :)

Yesterday after church, we met up with my father-in-law and his wife and my sister-in-law to have Father's Day lunch at Red Lobster. After that, I drove to my parents' house to spend some time with my own father. Then I stopped by Emma and Henry's house to drop off some groceries that my mom had sent for them. After that, I met back up with my husband and we continued out search for our bikes to no avail. We did manage to come home with some Golden Spoon and watched another episode of 24. Something must've not settled very well in my tummy because I was tossing and turning all night feeling horribly nauseated. I finally woke my husband up at about 3:30am to have him give me something for my stomach. Well, that's what managed to bring it all back up. UGH. Disgusting. I managed to feel a little better after that and was able to finally get some sleep. When it was time to get up at 5:30am, I felt like I had gotten NO sleep whatsoever so I called into work and finally made it in at 9am. What a night.

I'd say that I was going home tonight and catching up on some sleep but I have a work dinner I need to attend. So instead of driving home and slipping on my favorite jammies, I'll be changing into a cocktail dress and putting on a fake smile all evening. Wish me luck.

THE AWFUL EFFECTS THEY DON'T TELL YOU ABOUT


I unexpectedly went to go spend some time with my BIL last night since my sister needed to run some errands with my 13-yr old niece. She's graduating 8th grade this year and is going on to high school. I can still remember when she was just a toddler - my how time flies. I know I will cry when she goes to prom and graduates high school and has her first boyfriend. But that's another story.

Anyhow, I was able to visit with Henry and decided to take some pictures of his forehead. I told him I was taking them so as to remember this time in the future and he could look back at them and say "wow, I remember when I went through that." Henry has such a fighting spirit. He still manages to smile whenever I point a camera at him, no matter how he's feeling. It's that spirit that will get him through this. I just know it will. He's an amazing person and I'm incredibly fortunate to have him be a part of our family.

You hear of the typical radiation and chemo side affects all the time - fatigue, nausea, loss of hair. I was personally prepared for that. What I wasn't prepared for was a blistered forehead from the aggressive radiation he's been getting five days a week. Have I mentioned I can't stand cancer? I hate you cancer. Leave our Henry alone!

BABY MICAH PATRICK

Yesterday I left work promptly at 4:30 to fight rush hour traffic and headed down to Newport Beach. I was going there to visit my girlfriend Katie who just had her first baby almost one month ago. I met my other girlfriend Kelly there too. The three of us worked together at Quiksilver Corporate in 2003. In fact, that's where Katie met Micah's daddy, Michel. It was wonderful spending time with little Micah. He's such a beautiful baby! I am officially in love with him. :) The three of us caught up and got to bask in the sun with little Micah. I'll preface this by saying...get ready for some cuteness...

Kelly and Micah

...and baby makes 3

Katie and Michel - Micah is just gorgeous. That little man is going to be a major heartbreaker. I can't wait to see you all again.

On another note, my wedding photographer, Marlin Munoz, who is amazing at what he does, was nice enough to post a message today on his blog about Henry's website. There are still some really good people in this world, and Marlin and his wife Marlene are two of them. Thank you Marlin.

HAPPY HUMP DAY

Thank goodness it's the middle of the week. I left work early yesterday and this week has still dragged on. Ugh. Anyhow, my afternoon with Henry yesterday went very well. He took a nap for about an hour and half, I cooked lasagna for dinner, I took little Leila a bath and the rest of the evening went by in a jiffy. I tried to make Henry smile and kept checking in on him without trying to make him feel like I was babysitting and for the most part, I think he enjoyed my company! I left the house at 8:00pm or so and I felt pretty good about things. Henry got some rest, he ate some of the lasagna I made, the blisters on his forehead seem to be doing better and he managed to laugh at my dorky jokes throughout the afternoon. :) He's getting a break from radiation the rest of this week. The doctors told my sister that it shouldn't interfere with anything - and we're all praying that it doesn't.

This morning, my best friend Coral called me from Nevada. She and her husband moved there a couple years ago. I wished so much to have her near me so many times but especially this year when things have been really tough. Well this morning, she called to tell me she had gotten into a car accident! I would normally be alarmed but after making sure she was okay, she proceeded to tell me that she had hit a deer head on! oh no! Poor little deer! I couldn't help but chuckle a little because you would never really hear that story from someone living in Southern California! Thankfully she's okay. Rudolph on the other hand - officers couldn't find him anywhere but the fact that Coral found remains of his fur on her bumper, tells me he didn't make it. May he rest in peace.

WHY, OH WHY, MUST I WORK?

I came into work and just 5 minutes into it, was having a hectic morning. My job isn't usually stressful but there are days when I just want to walk out and quit! Call me dramatic but it's true. I think I do a damn good job at what I do but there's only so much I can do to please the clients I work with. I wish I didn't have to work. I should've married rich. (Just kidding honey :)

I had dinner last night with my two girlfriends at CPK in Cerritos. We don't do it very often but it's always so nice to see them. I love having girl time. I don't enjoy anything more than being with my husband but I also love girl time. I need that once in a while. :) Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera out so no pictures from last night but I will grace you with a picture the three of us took when we met up a few months ago and went to Castaways in Burbank.

Gema, myself and Jamie

I'm leaving work early today. I have the afternoon shift to be with Henry. I hope it all goes well. It will be nice spending some time with him just the two of us. I'll report back on how things went tomorrow.

Happy Birthday to my girlfriend Ruby! Have a wonderful day today hun!

24, BOHEMIAN DINNER PARTY AND MORE PINKBERRY

That's pretty much what my weekend consisted of. My husband is an avid 24 fan. In the beginning, I refused to watch with him. It just didn't seem like something I could get into. Now however, although I still can't watch certain gory scenes, I can officially call myself addicted. I've only watched Season's 1-3 and currently watching the 4th. So that's what we did on Friday night. We relaxed in our living room and surrounded ourselves with Jack Bauer and Tony Almeida...who is back this season! Woo-hoo!

Saturday as promised, we woke up bright and early to be at Emma and Henry's house at 8am to clean out their garage. We had three piles: keep, garage sale and trash. The trash pile consisted of the biggest pile which was a good thing and after 8 (yes, 8!) hours of cleaning and organizing, our mission was accomplished! I will only post the before pictures for now...I will post the after pictures once we get rid of the sale pile which we plan on having the 23rd of this month. Are you ready for the piles and piles of chaos??? Here goes...

I can tell you that it doesn't look like that anymore! With the efforts of my brother, my sister and her husband, as well as my husband, we battled the swarms of spider webs and the collection of dusk and made that space somewhat liveable! I was proud. :)

After our work was done there, Gerric and I ran home to get ready to spend the evening at my girlfriend Kay's dinner party. We had a fabulous time. She was born to be a host. Everything from the amazing appetizers to the decadent dinner was perfect and the company just topped it all off. She went for a bohemian chic theme and the table set up was beautiful!

Her husband Steve's home-made ice cream was something worth drooling over! Kay and Steve - thank you both for hosting a wonderful evening. Gerric and I had a great time. We can't wait to see you again.

Sunday began with 10:30 mass. Gerric then went to go shoot some hoops with his cousins so I took advantage and napped for a couple hours. Did I mention I LOVE to sleep? When I woke up, I went to go visit my nephew at the cemetary and saw my sister and BIL there. After that, I drove back to treat myself to a mani/pedi. They were long overdue. When I got home, my husband was all showered up so we drove to Belmont Shores and had Pinkberry for the 2nd time. This experience was MUCH better than the 1st! This time around, I opted for the original flavor with coconut, granola and Cap'n Crunch! It was delicious! I think I found my perfect mix! My husband got the same one as he did before...in his words, "if I like it, why mess with a good thing!" Well said!

After that, my romantic hubby drove to the location where our wedding reception was held, Old Ranch Country Club in Seal Beach. It was so nice to be back there. It brought back nothing but great memories. The times when nothing but happiness surrounded my life. There was no cancer, no news that my nephew would be stillborn...just pure happiness. I would do anything to go back to that life. But I'm trying to deal with this life now. I decided to take a few pictures of the outdoors...just for old times sake.

It was the best feeling going down memory lane. What a fun-filled weekend it was.

As for my dear brother-in-law Henry, he's doing okay. He was fighting a fever all weekend and his forehead is so blistered up from the radiation that they are starting to pop. It's so excruciatingly painful seeing him go through this...but I continue to pray that each day gets easier. Please continue to pray with me.

I have dinner plans tonight with two of my girlfriends so look out for that post tomorrow. Until then...

DEPRESSION

I'm in a little bit of a depression mode this morning. I planned on stopping by Emma and Henry's house last night to drop off some boxes I had gotten from work that would help us sort things out for Saturday. We plan on cleaning out their garage...which has accumulated junk throughout the years. We planned on having a garage sale tomorrow to help them raise some money as well as get rid of some things they don't need anymore. To my dismay, I wasn't aware we needed a permit for this garage sale so since I can't get one today anymore, the actual sale will be postponed for another date. Such a disappointment.

Well, when I arrived, I could hear Henry raising his voice. When he opened the door, my niece was crying. Apparently, Emma was out and Bianca had not done her evening chores yet...it was close to 9pm already. So Henry was upset. Truth be told, my niece is a little difficult. It's very hard to get her to clean her room or do something as simple as clean the table after dinner. But it sucks that she's only 13 and has to see her daddy going through what he's going through. No child should have to see their mommy or daddy sick like that. Henry looked very weak. I asked him what was wrong and he said it hadn't been a very good day for him. He's developed a cold, it looks as though he may have pink eye in both eyes, his forehead is all red and blistered up from the radiation and he's starting to lose some hair since he has a bald spot on the side of his head that wasn't there the night before. It just depressed me. It really did. So since my sister had run out to attend a function at Andrew's school and then ran to the pharmacy to get Henry some cold medicine, I stuck around and helped to clean up the kitchen a little.

Why is life so unfair sometimes? Not only is Henry battling the toughest fight of his life with brain cancer, but now he's having to fight a cold too?!? Life is just so fucking unfair sometimes. Then, my sister gets home to a house with screaming siblings and her ailing husband. So after seeing him that way last night, I just woke up depressed this morning. He's about half way done with his radiation treatment and his last one CANNOT come soon enough.

I hope this is the worst of it. It's SO hard seeing Henry this way. I can't imagine what my sister must feel or what Snickolett must've felt seeing their husbands at their weakest. I continue to pray for Henry's healing. I also pray that he's able to go back to work soon because financially, things have been tough. I HATE CANCER.

I'VE BEEN TAGGED BY NANETTE

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write their own blog with their 7 things as well as these rules. You need to tag 7 others and list their names on your blog. Remember to leave a comment for them letting them know they have been tagged and to read your blog.

1. I write and eat with my left hand. I cut and throw a ball with my right.
2. My husband and I have this secret language we call "CV" for short. We use it all the time...in person and over e-mail. It's pretty funny.
3. I used to have a pet bunny when I was little girl. My brother gave her to me for Christmas one year so I named her "Chrissy." We had to give her away when she started tearing my parents' yard apart. Till this day, I think about her a lot and wonder what became of her. I miss you Chrissy!
4. I worked at the mall for years when I was younger. I started with my first job at Sweet Factory for 5 months, then I moved to Wet Seal (I thought it was the coolest store back then!) for 2 1/2 years and then I moved to Victoria's Secret for about 4 years. Just call me a mall whore.
5. I still don't know East from West for the life of me. And if you tell me to head North or South, it's over. I am horrible at directions. And after many frustrating arguments with my husband (then-boyfriend), I purchased a car with a pretty little navagation system in it. Now, I can't live without it.
6. I have a relationship with my stuffed animals. I think they are like real people. I gathered up so many throughout the years but I had such a hard time getting rid of them that my dear husband put them all in a big bag and they are tucked away nicely at my father-in-law's house in a spare room. Bless his heart for understanding my feelings! I'm 29, married and still have a giant Winnie the Pooh in a corner of our bedroom and 2 big bumble bee stuffed animals that my mommy and my husband gave to me. Ridiculous, I know! I promise I will grow up eventually.
7. People never know I'm Mexican. I always had a lot of fun when people used to try to guess my ethnicity. I certainly don't have any kind of exotic look to me but I've gotten that I'm from Argentina, Puerto Rico, that I'm Russian, Polish! I used to have fun when I worked retail and customers didn't know I spoke Spanish so they used to talk about me! Those were the days...

I tag Snickolett, Alyssa, and Kay. I suck! Those are the only people I can think of! Does 3 count??? :) I need more friends in the blogging world.

In other news, I used to go to a trainer before I got married in 2005. I found her through my boss who has been going to her for years. Bonnie is amazing and we hit it off great from the beginning. She got me in tip-top shape for my wedding! She's actually trained some celebrities and is very close friends with Marcia Cross. In fact, since the birth of Marcia's twin babies, Bonnie and a partner, Diana are responsible for getting Marcia back into TV-worthy shape! Bonnie and Diana, along with Marcia were recently on Good Morning America to promote their new DVD, Brava Body. I wish Bonnie all the success in the world with this because she deserves it so, so much. She's a wonderful person and I'm privileged to know her.

Last night, my sister and I debuted Henry's website to him and we got very emotional. He loved it and was extremely grateful for the messages of support. It was a nice moment.

That's all for now. I'm off to go grab some lunch! Thanks Nanette for the fun exercise!

HENRY'S BATTLE FOR LIFE

Two posts in one day. Don't know if I've ever done that. But this is something worth writing about. For those of you that have actually taken the time to read this blog, you know about my brother-in-law's sudden brain tumor diagnosis. Life is very cruel sometimes and although Henry continues to stay strong throughout his treatment, it's so hard seeing him go through this every day. We have created a website in his honor...and we're hoping that many years from now, we will continue to share with you all that he's beat his battle with cancer and is still doing very well. If you have the time, please take the time to learn about him and what a wonderful person our Henry really is:

http://www.henrysbattle.org/

Thank you and may God Bless you all.

MY BLOG IS GETTING SOME ATTENTION!

I am addicted to blogs...finding them and reading them daily. Sometimes more than once a day. I think that's what where the interest began to start my own. I have a morning ritual that I go through every.single.morning. I turn on my computer, turn on my personal heater, check my yahoo e-mail, then go through each of the blogs I have bookmarked. I'm actually genuinely disappointed when I don't see a new post from someone in a few days. Anyhow, one of the blogs I read every morning added MY little blog to her blogroll. Isn't that cool?!? Of course, now the pressure's on to keep this interesting but I was quite excited to see my little blog name on her post. So...whenever you find yourself bored, check out the following blogs which are some of my favorites:

Nanette's Blog (the awesome blogger that added mine to her blogroll!)
Blame it on the babymaker (this is an awesome blog written by a male who's wife is currently pregnant)
Boey's Blog (this is about a little girl who is battling cancer...she's amazing)
Snickollet's Blog (about a single mother who just lost her husband to pancreatic cancer...also an amazing person)

There is also a number of photographer blogs I read religiously but I'll save those for another post.

When I had dinner with my friends Alyssa and Rob on Saturday night, she mentioned to me that she was a volunteer for the Make-A-Wish foundation. I thought it was a such a wonderful thing to do and I've always had a special place in my heart for children with terminal diseases so I went ahead and signed up to be a volunteer myself yesterday. I checked off "Intrepreter" (I'm fluent in Spanish) and "Wish Granter." I'm excited to get my first call. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Oh how I wish this June gloom would just go away. I'm excited for the summer sun when hopefully, my husband and I will be riding our bicycles. But that search is still going on.

WEEKEND RECAP

My weekend started on Friday after work when I drove to my sister's house to visit Henry and the kids (and Leila!). My dear husband had been there since 7:30am to take Henry to his radiation treatment and keep him company the entire day until my sister got home in the early evening. When she got there, she asked Henry if he wanted to go to Andrew's baseball game. It turns out we all went and watched Andrew's team take home a victory!

Andrew up to bat...look at that stance! haha!

Running to 1st!

After his game, we all went to have dinner at The Loft. Unfortunately, I had made my way to the snack bar during the game and my husband splurged on some cheese nachos. Ugh my tummy was paying for it the rest of the night so I only nibbled off of my sister's plate at the restaurant. My nephew decided to invite himself over to our place for the evening (annoying? No, not at all...quite funny actually!) so we set up a comfy spot on the floor for him in the office next to our bedroom and he slept there the whole night. By the time I woke up Saturday morning, Gerric had already given him breakfast! So I started cleaning the apartment with my trusty assistant, Andrew (Gerric had gone to go keep Henry company while my sister went to an eye doctor follow up appointment). When that was said and done, I showered and got ready for the day. Andrew and I drove to Pet City to buy little Leila a crate. You see, we're starting the difficult task of trying to potty train her. After a quick decision on which crate to buy her, we headed to Rubio's to pick up food for everyone.

A little later, my other sister Erika arrived with her husband and my mom and all the girls went to the Mall. I decided to not join the fun. I was truthfully exhausted and preferred to relax at home with my hubby. So the girls left but Gerric and I stayed there to keep Henry company while my other BIL went to go buy Leila a collar. When he left, my sister called me to tell me to give Henry one of his medications. I followed her instructions and filled the little measuring cup to 5ml. Henry was outside with Gerric and I took the medicine out to him. Henry got frustrated and insisted that Emma had already given him that medicine! In fact, he was getting a little angry and was arguing with me! I went back inside to call my sister to make sure she had not, in fact, given him the medicine already. Of course she said she hadn't...so outside I go again. I tried my luck again and gave him the medicine. He took it in his hands but didn't take it. He was still insisting that it was given to him already. I told him it had been a different one. Truth be told, Henry takes numerous medications throughout the day so it's natural for him to forget what he's been given already. I don't know what it was about the situation. I think it was just the simple fact that I felt out of control. That I couldn't even handle giving him one medication and the fact that he was arguing with me...something he's never done pre-brain tumor. So with tears in my eyes, I begged him to take the medicine...that it was for his own good. So...he took it. But I went back inside the house and started crying. I hadn't cried in a long time but it was something that just overwhelmed me. Henry saw me crying and apologized for everything. I told him there was no need to apologize...that I understand he takes somuch medication and that I wished he didn't have to take any of it. So all was okay again. Gosh, such a drama queen! Henry is the one having to take tons of medicine throughout the day, he's the one with the tumor in his brain, the one that's been given a not-so-promising prognosis for the type of tumor that he has, and I'M the one that's crying. Go figure. I'll try to never do it again. :(

Later that night, Gerric and I had dinner plans with our friends Alyssa and Rob, who have been newlyweds for almost 4 months now. I unfortunately missed out on their wedding since my family and I were just going through the loss of my nephew so Gerric went for the both of us. I hadn't seen them in months and I can honestly say that marriage looks good on both of them. Alyssa is as beautiful as ever and both of them radiate such happiness together. They were made for eachother.

Above were some pictures from their AMAZING photographer, Natalie Moser. I think Alyssa and Rob are one of the most beautiful couples I have ever seen. We dined at Le Creperie in Belmont Shores...one of my favorites! It was a long wait but the time flew by catching up with the two of them. When we finally got seated, Alyssa asked how Henry was doing. I gave her the quick update and she said a little prayer for him and my family before we started eating dinner. It was a such simple gesture, yet one that I will never never forget. It meant the world to me. It brought me to tears. After dinner, we strolled down 2nd street for a bit and then said our good night's. Thank you Rob and Alyssa for a much-needed night out. It was wonderful to see you both.

Sunday started off as usual...12:00 mass at our church, trip to the cemetary to go visit my nephew and Gerric's mommy. After that, we had lunch at Kabuki restaurant and followed with dessert at Goldilock's. We had my favorite, Halo-Halo...it was delicious!

Then we started with the hunt for our latest obsession...new bicycles. We had a real eye-opener when we realized that bikes nowadays are expensive! But we're hoping to find something soon. Okay, I'm off to grab some lunch now. I didn't realize how long this post had taken me! Until the next time...