A True Friend

Define friend please.

What does this word mean to you? What do you expect from a person who you call friend? What does it mean to you to be a true friend? 

I am convinced that everyone yearns for friendship, whether they admit it or not. I'm sure you can think back to the time when you were 4 and making friends seemed as easy as pie. You know, when nobody cared about the superficial things and you could just play carefree. 

Of course it is still possible to have friends as an adult, but it seems to take a little more effort on both sides of the friendship. Then again, things only get complicated when you decide they are. Oh, what am I trying to say? 

It seems like now that I am an adult, wife, mother, I don't expect the same type of friendship relationship that I had when I was younger. Not that I don't think it's important or that it can't be done, but I think that life is just different now. We all have responsibilities, things need to be done, etc. and it doesn't allow for the exact same kind of one on one interactions as frequently as before (you know, when we were young and free). 

Just to be specific, I am referring to girlfriend relationships.  Women being friends with other women. 

So what does make a person a real friend? You know, when I think of the people who I call friend, I think of people who are willing to listen. More than anything else, if I have something I need to talk about and they are willing to hear my heart, then we can have those intimate conversations and that is what makes us connect and feel close to one another.

I am curious though, how often do you have one on one time with a girlfriend/s? What has been your experience with friendships at this stage of your adult life?

Ultimately, even though it may not be as it once was, I think it is important to have time spent with friends and to have heartfelt conversations, but like anything else, it just takes a little effort on my part. It doesn't have to be my main priority, but if I want to feel like I have friends that I can talk to, then I have to make that happen with the time I do have. 

"Be that friend, be that kind, that you prayed you might find, and you'll always have a best friend, come what may."

18 days ago

Another semester had ended for Roberto and he triumphed with all A's. We packed our car and left to see our loved ones in Utah.

Samuel had fun finding plastic eggs in the backyard. 

I practiced my baking skills so everyone could have cookies on Easter. 

And it ended with our precious child catching a virus and having a fever that went up to 106 one day. When we got back home, all Samuel wanted to do was this:

This was the first time Samuel had ever gotten sick like this, with fever and all. I'm not going to lie, the first couple of days my heart was broken, and I couldn't believe how much it bothered me. I'd never seen him so clingy and lethargic, ever.

Around the same time we got home, I was coming down with something too. It was just a head cold, but it was a pain to have it at the same time that this was going on. Roberto was kind and made some homemade chicken noodle soup for us the night we got home. :) I love him.


Now, I'm glad to say that we are all good and healthy! Roberto is back at school and we are back to the daily routine.


P.S. While in Utah, we also got a new car. It is a Toyota corolla 2012. We traded in our car and got some cash back and are leasing the corolla. We needed the cash. We hope leasing will be a good experience.

Change is GOOD

Hello!

Take a look at these.

This is a picture of the first successful batch of chocolate chip cookies (as far as I know) that I made completely on my own. They were GOOD.

Now if you know me, you'll know that I don't bake. Not naturally. I don't get these sudden urges to just bake like some do. If by some miracle I do, it's because Roberto is begging. Anyway, a couple months back, a friend of mine (who LOVES to bake) and I decided that we would get together and bake. I'm so glad we did. :)

After all this time, I have come to realize that my attitude towards baking changed because I actually chose to do it and came to appreciate it. (Don't worry I'm not going to get caught up on cookies, this is where I stop talking about cookies)

My point is, there are plenty of things that I naturally don't like doing, or don't consider myself good at. I think a lot of times we stop ourselves from doing things just because it's not what we're into or we don't feel comfortable.

Another reason why I'm thinking this way so much is because of my new adventure as a business woman. You know, the bottom line is, if you really wanted to do something, you would do it. Half the time we don't know what we want because we don't even bother trying it out! Ultimately I know that God put us on earth to change and that is my daily battle, to overcome my mortal body/emotions and reach my spiritual potential.

Change is GOOD. We are here to change for the better, to make our weaknesses our strengths, to overcome all pessimistic thoughts of ourselves. We just need to face it one cookie at a time.

Samuel says hi!

The haircut that lingered

About two weeks ago Roberto needed a haircut. The last time he got his haircut, we decided that I would cut it the next time, since I figured it wouldn't be so hard to do it at home. So I watched very attentively when his hair was cut last time so I could at least have an idea of what I was going to do.

Now you have to understand that I used cutting shears not clippers. So it took a lot more effort and time than it would have just using clippers. So the day finally came and I cut his hair. It turned out a lot better than I anticipated. Roberto was okay with going to school the next day, so I knew it was fine. (Sorry I didn't take pictures :( )

What I didn't think about was how the hair was going to get EVERYWHERE. Afterwards, our clothes were covered with hair. The next day I thought to myself, maybe I'll just put them in the washing machine and the hair will go away? HA! Do NOT make this mistake. I didn't have my head on straight. I was left with clothes that still had hair on them AND a washing machine that had hair in it. Ugh.

So then I get REALLY annoyed. Roberto looks at me and says "You should have just took the clothes outside and shook off the hair while they were dry." I'm thinking, sure you tell me this now. Whatever. The only thing I could think of was to dry the clothes in the dryer and then try to shake off the hair like he said. But I also had hair in the washing machine, what was I going to do about that?

I ended up taking the vacuum and used the extension thing to suck out the hair from inside. Never in a million years I thought I'd have to vacuum the inside of my washing machine. Not such a fun thing to do I tell you. You can go ahead and laugh, that's why I'm posting this. Even though at the time I was definitely NOT laughing.

In the end, the clothes were dry and most of the hair got off of them. Except for my shirt, which was getting kind of ragged anyway so I didn't feel bad about tossing it. Lesson learned, DON'T put clothes that have hair on them in the washing machine. Ever.

Feliz Navidad!

Christmas.

Last year it was spent with our beloved family in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Christmas morning, Samuel and I were the first ones awake. We went upstairs and opened up some of his presents while everyone else lay asleep. Seems kind of selfish I know, but hey it wasn't that early and he was ready!

A little later the rest of the family joined us since one of Samuel's presents made noise and eventually woke them up.


Here are some pictures of his first real Christmas. It was so fun to watch him. I can't wait for this year's Christmas when he's more into it.

Our cutie pie

Love these grins!

Yeah, I ripped that open, not him

His nifty Sunday suit

His first Christmas pj's

Toys of course

This smile is priceless

We also had Christmas dinner with both families at my parents' place. On Christmas Eve, we spent it with my parents and made Gingerbread houses (graham cracker style) for the first time ever! (Yeah we're Hispanic) Roberto even made a car. It was fun!

Family

Grandma (believe it or not) lovin' on Samuel

"Cheese!"

Dad's turn

"Gingerbread" creations

Our son, the boy who had 2 birthday parties

Hello again!! It's almost the end of January and here I am about to post about the middle of December. Yeah, life is that good. :D

So our little man Samuel turned a year old this past December and we had a great time celebrating. Since his birthday landed on a Saturday and was right after Roberto was done with his semester of school, we decided we would have his official birthday party in Utah with our family since we were planning on being there for Christmas.

But we live in Idaho and have some great friends here as well, so I couldn't just blow them off, I had to give them a chance to party with us too. So we had a get together at our place a week before his actual birthday.

Funny thing is, he enjoyed himself a lot more at the pre-birthday party than at the actual big party we had at Utah. He totally dug into his cake at the first party and then at the second party he didn't even touch the cupcake I put in front of him. Roberto ended up just putting frosting on his face to see if he'd get into it, but nope. But all in all, everything turned out great.

Pre-birthday party pics

Official birthday party pics

We love this little guy with all our hearts.

What he's getting into these days

Ever since he could pull himself up, he has been getting into anything he can. All of these photos were taken in the moment he was getting into stuff, except for the last two, we actually put him on the chair for those.

He is SO close to walking all of the time. I can't believe we are about two weeks away from his birthday!!

Citizens of Rexburg you have been warned!! He is on the move!