CASA

So today I completed my very first day of training as a CASA (court appointed special advocate) or guadian ad litem. In two weeks I will be sworn in by the judge here in Collin County and be the official legal voice of an abused or neglected child. I will basically be the only constant in a child's life while he/she/they go through the foster care system/CPS. Ever since I was a college student and volunteering at a battered woman's shelter I have wanted to volunteer with CASA . But since it seemed time consuming and I had work, an infant and full time school I could never commit myself to it. Until now. I feel this is the right time in my life to do this. I feel that if I can just make a difference in one child's life that it will be worth it. The training today was...a LOT...that's all I can say about it. I know that the Lord will give me the strength to complete this task that he has set out for me to do. I only pray that I will be a good advocate for the child they...

Read more »

Happy New Year!

We had a nice relaxing and quiet New Year's eve thanks to a crappy cold I caught. But on New Year's Day I felt a lot better. Sergio and I decided to take the kids for a drive since it was so pretty out. We ended up in Las Colinas at Williams Square. I used to work there a looooong time ago during my marketing days. Sooo I remembered how pretty it was and we decided to go down there after lunch and take some pictures. After taking a nice stroll down the canal, we drove and drove until we ended up at White Rock Lake in Dallas. It is soo pretty there. Took some more pics and people watched. We fantasized that we live in one of those AMAZING homes overlooking the lake then headed to Panera in good ole' McKinney for desert and hot chocolate. It was a great day :) Nothing like spending the day with your family dreaming :D

Read more »

Christmas Eve 2008

This Christmas Eve was magical, to say the least. We had over 30 people in our house! It was wonderful. My mom cooked most of the day and we had a traditional Mexican Noche Buena with tamales, pozole, frijoles charros, rice and many other good foods! We also got a pinata for the kids to break outside. Good fun was had by all. At the end of the evening, the missionaries made their Christmas presentation and read some scriptures. It is very important to my family to remember Christ at this time of year, as I am sure it is in yours. Because of the economy my husband and I decided that our kids would each only get three small gifts for Christmas. For each other, we got things that we really needed, like a new set of Pj's for me, a new belt and new gloves. Sergio got some new Old Navy T-shirts! What a simple guy :) For the kids' stocking stuffers I decided to start a new tradition-magic memory boxes! I bought some inexpensive boxes at Michael's and decoupaged them with each...

Read more »

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Well I finally finished making my Peanuts characters to put on my front lawn. It was so inexpensive and fun. I am going to start a tradition and add one more character each year. Sergio taught me how to use his jigsaw and I am so proud of myself I can now cut wood LOL Each piece of MDF cost about $6.50 and two characters came out of it. Very economical versus going to those road side places and buying some premade ones.

Read more »

Decorating the Tree

I forgot to post these pics. The boys love to help me decorate the tree. We have our MAIN tree in the dining room and the other tree ( a smaller one) is in our family room. The ornaments are all mostly gold colored and I have been collecting them since Ellison was 2. I have quite a collection. We decided to put those on the smaller tree and we bought some new silver and blue ones for the big tree in the dining room. It's a wonderful feeling watching the boys decorate the tree.

Read more »

Cleaning up a VERY messy room!

So today I thought I would clean my boys' very messy room! I had been putting it off for many months. And this is what I had to work with. After 9 hours of work, 2 bags full of trash and 2 boxes filled with toys and old costumes that went to Freecycle I was done! I threatened Josh and Aaron that if they moved any one of those Star Wars action figures I so lovingly placed on their dresser, there would be no more Christmas for them!! Here is the result: I should be a friggin' professional organizer after this task! I also want to point out that this bedroom also had a hideous wallpaper that was peeling at the seams. It took 6 of us to scrape it all off and repaint the walls. I love this new color. It is so soothing. It is called "crisp celery". I love a clean, organized house :)

Read more »

Artsy Family

Josh is also a very good artist. He took some art classes this past summer with Annie Royer who is an awesome artist! Highly recommend her. I am saving up some money to have his paintings framed so I can have them up. Here they are: The first one is my favorite. This was his very first time working with acrylics and learning about colors and composition. He will continue his classes with her probably in the spring.

Read more »