A little bit of normal.

This year 2020, has been a rollercoaster, has it not? I mean to be honest the last three years have been a rollercoaster, we sold a house, we built a house, we moved twice in three months but that did not come smoothly and everything that happen in between made it even more challenging. Now we have this crazy year full of uncertainty and COVID and face masks but somehow we have managed to keep doing what we do. Somehow you can’t slow down the months and keep them from coming and going although sometimes you want to just stop and wait a minute. You want to get a better handle on things and plan things out better but nope although many claim that we are in year five of 2020 we find ourselves at the end of month 10.

To me that means the holidays are here and jeez that was fast. I am one that feels like, how we can be ready for the holidays if it was just March yesterday.

This past weekend we went to the pumpkin patch, bought a cart full of pumpkins and we carved them up. It’s a family tradition that we carve pumpkins the weekend before Halloween, partly because my dad’s birthday is on the 24^th and it makes for a great get together and also because it’s hot. Try carving a pumpkin any sooner and you will have mush (in some cases fuzzy green mush) before you make it to Halloween.

It was a touch of normal to go out to the pumpkin patch with a side of face mask and lots of hand sanitizer but it was worth it.

Liam was so cute but like lots of toddlers he really did not want to participate and was really a grouch when it came to smiling for the camera. I am truly thankful for my son and his awesome skills at catching just the right moments – in between on the crying and temper throwing that was really going on!

He even caught some great shots of me as a grandma – see that’s pure talent right there!

From Halloween we take nose dive into birthdays for loved ones every single weekend until Thanksgiving followed by more birthdays and then Christmas! Somewhere in all that craziness I will do my best to decorate accordingly and go shopping for all of it and then we can finally say good bye 2020 and hope to god that 2021 will be better. Just remember that no matter what, the months keep rolling by and life keeps happening. Welcome back to a Weekend Rewind of sorts :)

On the other side.

I’ve thought about coming back to my blog for a long time. Each time I think about how on earth I would start it, what I would say and how do I explain being away for so long.

I’m still not sure what to say or where to start. I do know if I don’t do it one day it just won’t happen, so here I am on the other side of a really long break. One so long I’ll have a lot of catching up to do and for those of you wanting to know all the details, I promise I’ll fill you in at some point.

Today I wanted to share with you my current view.

At this point in time my life looks dramatically different, I’m not only a mother of two anymore, our little family of four grew to family of six! I now have the most beautiful daughter-in-law and handsome grandbaby I could ever ask for. My little bear is becoming a grizzly bear aka a pre-teen (LOL I joke I joke!)  My big kid is a husband and a father (and he is really wonderful at doing both!). We have moved from the home that holds all the most amazing memories into a home we’ve built from scratch.

I know what you are thinking and you’re right, I am way too young to be grandmother. It’s okay by me, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. After being a young mom at the age of 17, I have always been young for a lot of what comes my way. 

Here is a memory from my past (one I wasn’t expecting to share with you today). My son was in elementary about 10 years old and he wanted a sleep over for his birthday. I invited a few boys from his class and planned his little get together, just like any mom would. On the big day as the kids were being dropped off one mom rang our doorbell and when I opened the door she asked to meet my mom. At first I was confused because my mother didn’t live with me, once I realized why she was asking for my mom, I laughed and explained to her that I was Christian’s mom. She then did something I will never forget, she took her son home.

Although I am not sure why this story come to mind today, on my welcome back kinda day. I think it’s because what I’ll be sharing with you isn’t always everyone’s cup of tea. My life hasn’t happened according to someone else’s idea of what order life is supposed to happen.  What I’ll be sharing with you is our way of doing life.  Knowing fully that this life is not my own.  Nor is it according to my plans – at all.  Despite all of that my view is pretty amazing – not perfect but beautiful though it all. Welcome back! 

Go Boldly | Building Dreams

Over the weekend, my husband and I finalized and signed on something big. How big? About 130,680 square feet big! We have been looking for and praying about the possibility of buying land and Friday afternoon we did just that! I have been beyond excited and ideas about everything we want to do have been running around my brain like crazy. What on earth are we going to do with all of that land?

Well it’s not a crazy amount of land, so the cattle farm we wanted is out of the question! Just kidding no cattle farming for us, although the idea of having more pets have crossed our minds.  My husband keeps talking about little goats and I have been teasing him about a little pet pig. Of course he probably is thinking more along the lines of dinner options while I would be more likely to name each one.

Meet Paul, Ringo and John! Just kidding... these are not mine!

For over a year we have known that our current, beautiful and perfect to us for the since the moment we bought it home is not our forever home. Our house is where I labored for hours while we waited for little bear to be born, it’s the place where my son and his friends hung out and celebrated the high school years. It’s a place for countless Friday night barbecues with friends and family. Our house has been our beloved home for 8 yrs and we have lived in it fully, you can tell because each room holds the proof that friends and family have been welcomed here.

Why? Right now we know that we have out grown our space, not the house itself but garage and outdoor surroundings. We both (husband and me) love to work in our garage and we are constantly climbing over each other trying to make our space work. We both may not have a clue what our house will ultimately look like but we each have a whole workshop planned out in our minds.

Timing. As we set out to look for the next place to call home, we found what we believed to be the one more than a couple of times. We have come across one possible lot of land or one perfect looking house after another each time to understand that it wasn’t the one. The whole time we have counted on one for sure thing. God’s timing, not ours. We have prayed about our plans and we always felt that if we would found something it just fall into place. After evenings of taking a drive aka looking for property, in our area lots of people don’t believe in listing their land. They are old school and they go out and put up a sign “For Sale by Owner” therefor we have seen one beautiful sunset after another driving around to see what we could find. In the end it was about the right conversation at the right time with the right person. Simple no long drives or realtor apps to make it happen.

What comes next? I have no idea, really the easy answer is – we build a house - but of course we have many steps to take before that becomes a reality.  So today I ask you to join us as we begin to understand exactly what we have gotten ourselves into.

Are you a Woman of Influence?

This past weekend I was fortunate to attend a Woman’s Event at my church, this year is was called “Woman of Influence”, and I feel as though it was the perfect title to the stage in life that I find myself in these days. Although truth be told, we are all in that stage in life no matter our age. During this event they had giveaways and if you won something you were encouraged to whoop and holler in excitement, a 92 year old women won something and she joined in and even gave a little dance. She dressed up in a purple flowery blouse with a purple hat and her joy of life was evident, later I glimpsed her with her walker which was also decked out.  Her personality was vibrant and all I could think about was how she was influencing so many of us in that very moment. WOW!

92 years old and loving life!

I struggle and have struggled as a mom so many times, I wonder if I’ve done anything right this whole time and if I will ever get the motherhood down or if by grace somehow I manage to be a woman of influence – mind you with the right kind of influence. I think back to my son when he was three years old and at the time he didn’t call me “mom” or “mommy” he called me “Yvonne”. As I started to go to church and change my life and my priorities, one day Chris got behind me in the crowd as we exited the church and just like that his voice cut through the crowd and he called out to me “Mommy!” The whole world stood still and my breath was caught. What a change in the influence my life was having on him.

Guest Speaker - Pam Tebow

I was able to attend this event with a couple wonderful ladies I love very much and in the moment you realize the influence they have on your life. Momma Rachel (my best friends mom) and anyone else’s mom if you so need her to be or my daughters other grandmother in my case. Her influence has impacted my life for more than 15 years showing me her unconditional love.

Connie from Momma of Dos, is a woman of influence in the blogging world leading and paving the way for so many bloggers that have followed her footsteps. In so many ways a woman of influence showing me that hard work and consistency pays off – follow your dreams and don’t let someone tell you it can’t be done or that (worse) it’s a waste of time. There is a good chance that she’ll take you up on that offer and show you otherwise.

What kind of influence are you? Do you inspire, encourage and love? Maybe you are a teacher,  protector and nurturer - I hope you are and I hope you realize that years from now you’ll step into the knowledge that you have inspired someone along the way. 

Women of Influence 2016

Weekend Snapshots | Jellystone Park

Hello everyone and welcome to the 4^th week of school! Hallelujah we made it! I know I’ve been a little MIA but the beginning of school is always a rough time for me at work, to add on to it we’ve had family member in the hospital and time has been scarce. Thankfully we’ve made it through, my family is at home recovering and the roughest time of year is settling down – YAY!

So of course we should totally go camping right? I know, maybe not the best time, but we did it anyway! Actually we had booked this little trip back in June but it was rained out and moved to this past weekend. So we packed up and headed out and let me tell you it was a welcomed chaos, to completely detach and worry about packing, food, supplies, and clothes and camping gear, was a total de-stressor!

We didn’t head far just an hour or so away to Waller, TX to Jellystone Park, the perfect place to go if #1 you don’t like camping and #2 if you have kids (or you’re a big kid yourself!). Why is it the perfect place to go camping if you don’t like camping? You can rent a cabin! A cabin with a bathroom, bed, kitchen, couch and a TV! See easy-peasy, we decided to use our tent so we booked a tent camping spot, minus some of the luxuries of the cabin the “tent camping” includes water, electrical outlet, one picnic table and a fire ring. Bathrooms and Showers are not far away and super clean, believe me I have been camping all my life and I’ve seen some bathrooms and showers that make you want to pee outside and you feel perfectly fine being stinky so this is a major plus!

At Jellystone there is something for your kids to do all day long, they have the swimming pool area, with kid’s slides and they have a few grown up slides too, they have a lazy river and a splash pad. Out of the water they have miniature golf, a playground, human fooseball, giant tetherball, a craft center and a stocked lake for fishing. The park organizes something to do all day, like free craft time and a train ride twice a day. You can take the kids to meet Yogi Bear (although Hailey really didn’t know who he was!!) and they throw in things like a Foam Party and a Fire Truck that comes out to spray the kids down! Really you will not be bored, they also plan events all year round for Halloween, Christmas, Easter and even Mardi Gras! 

We ended up using our trip to celebrate my little bears best friend's birthday and it turned out to be awesome! Just before the trip I made some shirts for the girls to celebrate their "wild" side and they had a blast. Even my 19 year old was able to have a good time, he even ended up have a little fishing lesson with the girls and they all did so great. Hailey was able to cast her line several times but most of all she was able to bond with her big brother. This crazy weekend was just what we all needed after some very stressful weeks in the real world. Little Bear says her favorite part of the trip was spending time with her fiends and family, sound like a girl after my own heart.

Finally being able to sit down and re-cap my Weekend Snapshots feels super good, remember to check out the other ladies at 3twentysix & The Reinvention of Jessica to see what they were up to this weekend! 

Yummy Breakfast! Eggs, bacon and pancakes! 

Yogi who?

Besties having fun! 

Human Foosball! 

Fun in the Sun

My little bear fishing! 

The girls just hanging out :)

My whole world...

The much needed group selfie!

A great feeling of accomplishment when you get the tent to fit perfectly back in its bag! 

Bloom where you are planted

A few months back Pastor Tim preached to us about praying BIG AUDACIOUS PRAYERS, since then when faced with decisions or a chance to do something or go somewhere – we take a deep breath and we remind each other – BIG AUDACIOUS PRAYERS. Over the past few months we have been faced with some decision making, some dreaming and some big ideas to bring change into the lives of our little family, in the midst of this before the outcome was revealed or before things have had a chance to be finalized I was reminded of something else – I was in my backyard, my little piece of heaven on earth and I was reminded to BLOOM. I was reminded to bloom right here, right now, to bloom right where I was planted in this very moment at this very time.

This has been a continuous way of life for my husband and I, over the past few years, when faced with an opportunity for a promotion. During the turmoil of who and when, we had to pause and be reminded to bloom right where we were planted. In other words to be grateful for our blessings – I remember talking to my husband and saying “you do your (current) job fully and honorably, don’t worry about anything else”. In my own job I’ve wondered sometimes “why”, why here and why now, over and over again I’ve realized I am where I need to be in this moment and time.

In all of our plans and dreams recently I’ve lost track again of where I am currently planted – or have I? Thankfully, I haven’t, my mind wonders and runs wild sometimes but my heart is right here. I was working in my little piece of heaven on earth the other night, checking on my plants, watering the yard, treating for bugs and cleaning up. I got carried away and before I knew what time it was, my husband was taking little bear a bath and I was outside in the silence of the evening, the sun just finished setting and I turned on the lights to our patio I sat there and just listened. Where are we going, when are we going, how are we going… to take the next step. Pray big audacious prayers, but take care of what’s around you right now, right here – take care of the blessings daily don’t take them for granted. How can you ask for more, dream for more when you are not being a good steward of what’s laid out before you now.

Not only should I bloom in the right here and now, but live life in full bloom. Make the most of where you are take care of it as if were the bigger and the better because truly it is bigger and better than where I’ve been before. 

My current chalk art for my home, as a reminder to live life in full bloom.

A special thanks to Angie Makes for beautiful watercolor flowers! 

You & Me

Hello my blogger readers :) I am having one of those “moments”, one of those I have something muy importante going on and my first reaction is to close up, shut down. In January I made the decision to change the format of my blog from sharing my running and weight loss to sharing with you my daily crazy life. I promised to share more and I’ve tried to do just that. It’s easy when things are fun and exciting and we are just goofing around but I am out of my comfort zone when it comes to the dig deep and share with you what’s really going on. {insert deep breath here}

For Spring Break my little family is planning an awesome trip from Seattle down to Sacramento. We are so excited because we have never been to the west coast. We are more excited because the biggest part of our trip consist of a three day stop in Portland Oregon, to visit what is most likely where Chris will be going to school next fall.

The most asked question in the past week –“Uh-oh momma are you ready for that?”

My answer is indisputably “yes.” I get in return a blank stare or the “yeah right” look. Trust me I will more than likely want to fall apart the minute I leave Chris in Portland and I have no idea what it’s like to even be me without Chris. For those of you who don’t know my story, I’ve been a mom to Chris at this point in my life longer than anything else I have ever done or ever have been. I became a mommy at 17 years old, which be it crazy and not something I recommend, I wouldn’t change it for anything in the whole world. If offered to go back in time – knowing what I know now – I would do it all over again as long as it means that “Titan” “kiddo” “Gigantor” “Christian” would be my son and I would have the amazing experience and the honor of raising him.

Early on just like most parents I wanted to make sure that Chris would do more and be more than I ever have. I’ve told him to fly. Chris is a free spirit an old soul, if you know him you know. He has struggled with the fact that he was never quite sure about what he wanted to study or maybe he did, he just didn’t realize it was an option. I’ve told him to be himself, to do something that he loves and not be afraid if it didn’t fit the mold or if it didn't match what everyone else around him was doing at the time. He has a love for photography and not in a family portrait kind of way. He sees photography as a complex art form and he wants to pursue that passion. 

Around the time I meet my husband I fell in love with a song from the Dave Matthews Band “You & Me” and it was the song not just because it was a love a song but because I felt Jose and I believed this song truly before we had Hailey.  My husband was ready to join me and help me teach Chris to “fly” from the very beginning.

Am I ready for Chris to go to Portland this fall, yes I am, you see I’ve told my son to fly all his life and I can’t clip his wings now. What will I do while he is away? Well I guess God planned that out long ago because I have this crazy 6 year old spunky little girl and her flying lessons are daily. 

CHI en Espanol | Farouk Systems

** This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Farouk Systems and Lopez Marketing. **

Blogger life lately has been so much fun! Recently I joined my fellow Houston Latina Bloggers in a wonderful campaign with Farouk Systems “CHI en Español” and as part of our campaign we were invited to visit the Farouk headquarters! {insert happy dance here}

Why CHI en Español? Farouk Systems has been a major player in Hispanic community for quite some time and let me tell you from the moment you walk to the front desk to the tour through the warehouse you get a sense of this right away.

The Farouk Company provides jobs for about 2000 employees the majority of these employees are Hispanic. We saw many Hispanic ladies and gentlemen driving the forklift through this warehouse, they were in the offices and they are part of the CHI Academy.

I believe in backing up a company or product that I really do use in my crazy daily life and if you are like me at some point in my life I’ve used CHI (Farouk Products).  I remember being a teenager and just gushing over the latest and greatest flat iron CHI had to offer; and hoarding my Biosilk© like you hoard water during a hurricane!! As I’ve grown up I’ve tried different products just like anyone else, about four years ago I went through two different flat irons that died way before I felt they had done their job. So, I bought a new CHI flat iron and I haven’t looked back since. It’s my go to styling tool almost every day… but what if my tour disappointed? I was weary to go through with our tour and come back disappointed.

My very own go to - CHI G2

Disappointed I was not! The most honest thing I can tell you about my feelings after the tour is that they have a customer for life! I may not be famous and my opinion may not be a big deal but as a voice for women and Latina women at that, I was impressed with everything I saw and learned during our tour.

Words that were repeated during our tour – quality, health for your hair in every aspect from designing styling tools to hair products, opportunities for the community, investing in organizations and keeping their customers best interest at the forefront.

Did you know??

·         Farouk decided to not renew their contract with Miss Universe contest when the respect for Latino’s was in question?

·         Farouk has been breaking ground since 1987 being the first company to have an Ammonia free hair color? That’s not all, very soon you will see an even more environmentally focused company.

·         The CHI Academy believes in empowering stylist by not only allowing for someone to aCHIeve their license but also by earning an associate’s degree in the process, so continuing your education is always an option. (You might want to get a business degree to go that beautifully awesome saloon you are dreaming of having one day!)

·         2016 is going to be an awesome year for Farouk (sorry most of its top secret…) but keep on the lookout for new products, new style and more awesomeness!

Picture provided by CHI en Español

At the end of our tour we sat down for lunch with Basim Shami, CEO of Farouk Systems, himself. He answered all the questions we could throw at him, he gave us background information, and expressed his true passion with us about an hour later I was mostly impressed that this amazing man leading a company that is known around the world was still talking to a bunch of crazy Latinas. He was at ease and was ready to share all kinds of information while making us laugh.  He personally continued the tour and you could see how proud he truly is when it comes to the work his employees do at Farouk Systems. It was a wonderful experience and I am so glad I didn’t miss out on this opportunity. I got a pretty cool swag bad of goodies – I’ll fill you in on those soon!

Weekend Snapshots| Weekend of Love

Busy weekend much? Yup this one was another crazy weekend and I was fighting a cold the whole weekend that is still trying to get me down. I almost didn’t recap this weekend because I feel like poop but I have tons of pretty pictures so I’ll share! I'm linking up with 3twentysix with Weekend Snapshots the perfect way to recap all the weekend fun!! 

Friday Night: We played it low key and grilled some shrimp and potatoes and sipped some vino while we chilled in our own backyard. No fuss no muss just us :)

Saturday: We took the bear to Froberg's Farm in Alvin, TX to pick strawberries!! This is something we do every year and it was time to get picking. I think the warm winter made for a not so great strawberry picking season but the girls had a great time and we still filled a whole bucket.

In the evening we went on a double date with my bestie Clari and her hubby and we had a great time. I didn’t take pictures of our dinner so you’ll have to take my word on it. We decided to live on the edge and we all ordered the “Chef’s Tasting Menu" at the Rainbow Lodge here we were at the mercy of the chef and had a six course meal with a little bit of everything on the menu from swordfish to venison (YUM). It was an experience and it was delish! For some after dinner fun we headed to Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar as always it was a good time :)

Sunday: The crud started to really hit me :( we made it to church and had a nice breakfast with our family but I just wanted to crawl into bed and not move fortunately with the bear things don’t always go as planned. We made chocolate covered strawberries and homemade bubbles that the bear could catch and bounce! Thank you Pinterest! (again)

We wore cute matching shirts "All you need is Love" 

So not the cute picture I was hopping for :( I just felt so blah I just wanted to cuddle on the couch with my bug. 

I figure strawberries are full of vitamin C - so it's okay!  

Monday: Presidents' day aka a day of no school for the little one. We tried to go to work but after only two hours we were done. We came home and took it easy, we worked on some crafts and I made some soup. I don’t know about you but soup makes me feel better. 

Creamy Wild Rice and Chicken Soup - Warm and Yummy

Free Printable | Valentine's Love Bug

Is love in the air at your home? With Valentine’s Day right around the corner we should all be googly eyes and loveable kisses :) Unless you have kids, right? That Valentine’s Day Party for school is about to go down!! LOL

At my house it’s about the same, I just have one little one and she just makes everyday life interesting. To find her Valentine’s Day card/craft I headed over to Pinterest (as always) to find the one. I came across this cute LoveBug Valentine from Shanty2Chic and I was pretty much sold. If you know my little one she loves bugs. She is the fastest at catching lizards in our back yard not to mention the fact that she made me read her a book on Spiders that made me gag. So “Love Bug” was a go – until I made that mad dash to Hobby Lobby to grab paper and little baggies for the worms. The bags I grabbed were a bit too small for the labels :( 

My wheels started turning and I came up with my own little design, the bear loved them!

Click here to download

I am kind of excited to share my first Free Printable with you!! If you love it just as much as we did it would be super awesome sauce if you pinned it ;)

I also finished up my entry way Valentine’s Chalk art! I think it turned out pretty cool :)

It’s my birthday month along with a bunch of my beautiful friends so adding “and a little bit of Cake” was quite fitting for us! 

Houston Auto Show Game Changer

Both just so happen to look good one me ;)

Funny how something so small can make you realize that life is very very different from what you imagined it would be right about now. For the past few years I’ve felt with every inch of my being that I am simply right where God wants me to be. I haven’t questioned it (much) I just go with the flow and time after time I’ve felt the confirmation of the “this” is why I’m here.

This weekend I went to the Houston Auto Show, I’ve been going year after year with the hubs. We happen to like jumping in and out of cars, trucks and SUV’s. We dream of our future vehicles and we actually plan out the idea of what our next vehicle might be. We’ve gone with the kids and we have them get in and out of something we have on our radar to make sure it works with our lifestyle.

This year we headed out again (minus the kids) and about five minutes into the show a crazy reality started to sink in. My direction has changed. All this time sitting here thinking I was headed in one way and God has started to set the stage for something else.

Twin Panel Moonroof - I love it! I need it!

I used to think that my next vehicle was going to be a convertible, my bream convertible BMW M4 realistically BMW 2Series. I was ready to take on a used one if only that meant getting my most coveted convertible.

Now about 5 minutes into the Auto Show, I sat in a shiny new Ford 150 4X4 King Ranch. I knew then what I know to be true now. I am in love and I will be holding on to my current Ford 150 Lariat until the day comes when I can make that trade.

Turns out the more spinning my brain does, the less a fancy convertible fits in my life. Maybe one day it will fit or maybe I’ll forever be a move it, haul it, and pick it up truck kinda girl. It also turns out that I’m okay with that.

I’m not sure what’s coming but apparently I need something to be able to carry it around with. :) 

...and this would not do the trick, so I had to scratch it off my wish list!