Busy! Busy! Busy!

Well it's time for another update..yeah! Last weekend was spent putting together a slideshow for this weekend's Jaycees convention. After working on it for 10 hours on Sat. and tweeking it on Sun...it's finally done complete with animations, backgrounds, and music. It looks great! (my opinion)

This has been one of those weeks. Mom is away at a Mariachi convention, in which she left for on Wed. and I have not seen dad since Tues. I've been prepping for finals and getting my projects in; I had to present a lesson plan on Mon. for my ECD314 class (Child Development). It was fun! I did mine on the story, "The Greedy Triangle" by Marilyn Burns. I got great reviews and encouragement to keep up the hard work. Speaking of hard work...I was given a certificate at the COE (College Of Education) banquet on Wed. night for my dedication towards the Mesa Grow Your Own Teachers Club on ASU campus (MGYOTC). Also I was informally informed, remember it's not set in stone, but rumor has it that at the end of the fall semester I will be given presidency of the club. What a shock that came to me!

On Thurs. I attended a fabulous jazz concert at Cafe Boa down on Mill where I had a Billini (peach juice with champagne), salad, pasta, and of course tiramisu. My two favorite tunes were played, their version of "Come Away With Me" by Norah Jones and "Take 5". I've never heard "Come Away With Me" done with just a keyboard, bass, drums, and euphonium. It sounded so relaxing, calm, and smooth. The leader of the group's son, whom is only 12, accompanied him in clarinet for "Take 5"...wow! I also took off of work yesturday to get two of the three papers I need to write done and finally finished laundry. So that brings me to the present, in which I am catching up on some things and then going to get ready for this weekend. Tonight is casual night, tomorrow will be filled with meetings, followed by an evening banquet where Phil and I will present the slide show, and then have a closing on Sun. Should be both exciting and fun. :)

Well that's it for now...hope everyone is hanging in there. Good luck to those of you who have finals and remember to SMILE!!

Until next time,
Monica

Happy Easter!

Tia Connie playing pin the tail on the Rabbit
(Look where she's putting it)
Robert said, "Of course you would put it there." :)


Jr.
I had to take this one. He has been threatening that he's going to show some pictures he has of me when I was one year old eating a chocolate cake at my wedding. I told him I was going to elope :)


Alicia pretending to hit dad with the ball
That's all we need is for him to say "I have a head injury" again


We also celebrated Dana's 19th birthday
Happy Birthday!


The Easter Bunny's helper


The kids waiting while the eggs were being hidden


Isaik taking helpful hints from Jimmy to find eggs


Precious ~ 1yr.
(Clarissa's little girl)


"Two of a Kind"

What a fun day! We had games for the kids to play with prizes for the winners, a water balloon toss, and of course an easter egg hunt. Hope your easter was a much fun as ours!

~Monica

¡Felicidades Quinceañera!

This Saturday Suheil celebrated her Quinceañera


Suheil Estrada
(Jonathan's sister)


Suheil and her father during the ceremony
Baldemar is famous for giving inspirational and very touching speeches. To be able to hear what he told his daughter in this moment is an honor.


Suheil and her mother
After the ceremony family and friends were invited to take pictures with Suheil. Her parents also sat with her individually and gave her words of wisdom.


Congratulations Suheil!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Since April 13th was on a Thursday this year, we celebrated Mom's birthday on Friday by taking her out to eat at Abuelos.


Mom and Tia Joyce
Look it's Glenda the Good Witch :)


Tio Kenny and Tia Sheri


Dad...after he got the bill...just kidding, it wasn't that bad


Me and Mom
I had bought my mom a Princess crown to wear, but I forgot it at home, and didn't remember untill I sat down at the table. So thankfully we were across from Chandler Fashion Mall and they have a Claire's. In case you can't tell, her crown says, "Birthday Girl".

Love you Mom!

Aloha!

Look what your gift card bought me Lisa! Now I have summer attire so I can look cool and not be too hot :)

Thanks,
Bluey Blue

*Note to Everyone

Just a quick note to everyone...I appreciate those of you who leave comments and I enjoy reading them, but please don't forget to sign or type your name after your comment so that I know who the comment is from.

Thank you!
Monica

Tiger Cruise

This past week has been spent running around and gathering information so I could finish filling out the forms for the Tiger Cruise. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's what my dad went on last summer with Carlos. For this deployment, Carlos has asked me to join him on the Tiger Cruise aboard the USS Ronald Reagan from Hawaii back to San Diego. For six days I'll be on board ship with him. This should be both fun and interesting!

The last time I got to spend time with Carlos, just the two of us was when I went to Puerto Rico almost two years ago. We didn't know it at the time, but mom and dad made a bet that we would start fighting within two hours of my arrival. Well, 1 hour and 45 minutes later we were at a resturaunt having a discusion about movies and we couldn't remember the name of a director. We knew that mom would know so we decided to call her. "Hun you owe me five dollars", plus tons of laughing was all we heard on the other end of the phone.


This is a picture from the USS Ronald Reagan last week during a lightning storm.

Well gotta run now. Have to prepare a project that's due next week and study for two tests. Hope everyone is doing great and please remember to keep in touch!

Love Always,
Monica

Happy Birthday Nina Olga!

We celebrated my Nina Olga's 60th brithday on Sunday with a home cooked lunch, cake, and rainbow sherburt.


Marisella sang "Happy Birthday" to her with her purple guitar


I was finally introduced to the newest members of our family...


Alexandria Grace


John (Little John)
~I got to hold him and he fell asleep on me :)


Marisella playing with noodle in pool


Little Ricky showed us how to float and what he's been learning at swimming lessons.


Aaron jumping into pool
(big slpash...got wet)


My cousin Gina holding her new son, John.

Westwood Latino Club Dance

Two weeks ago I was asked to shaparon the Latino Club Dance again and of course I said yes. It was tons of fun and some of the students really surprised me by how well they could dance.


Andrew is 6'5" and I'm 5'1"
It was a funny sight to see!