Yummy Beef kabobs!!!

so I've had the BIGGEST craving for beef kabobs for a while now!!! I decided that they sounded good for dinner today, so I went ahead and attempted to make them!!! I must say that they tasted just as good as they look on these pictures!!! :-P

I started by poking the meat and veggies through a stick.... I must say that that was the most time consuming of the whole process!!!

Mike was nice enough to BBQ them for me!! I would of done it but he offered!! ;) I marinated the meat in the sauce over night, we think that was what did the trick!!! :)

and for dessert, we had watermelon.... It was so good that I think I may of consumed half of it myself!!! :) Here's to a tasty and healthy dinner all around!!! :)

God works in mysterious ways!

I've been doing a lot of soul searching lately.... God and I've been chatting a lot in the last couple of weeks.... mostly in the early mornings when I'm all by myself at work in the cold!!! hahaha!! I've noticed that lately there have been a lot more things that "irritate" me, I seem to have less patience, I've also often wondered about the place that I'm at in my life, is this where I need to be?? and a few weeks ago, after someone stated that I might not be "saved" if something were to happen, I started wondering if there was something I was doing wrong, and YES, I asked.... I put the questions out there while the thoughts were fresh in my mind, in the dark, QUIET mornings..... and what do you know he answered EVERY single one of my questions, in very OBVIOUS ways, of course it took me a little while to figure it out..... Let me share them with you... A while ago I signed up to receive these daily inspiration quotations, I NEVER received them, until recently, it seemed everyday we'd have a talk I'd get a quote, one that made sense to the situation in my life that I was questioning, now remember they only come on the days that I had a "concern"..... I think the first one I got was one that said that "good multiplies when focused upon, negativity multiplies when focused upon, the choice is ours, what do we want more of??? WOW!!! This painted a WHOLE new picture for me!!! he was telling me to stop being negative, whether it was at work, at home or with friends, I needed to go back and concentrate on the "positive" I think this one came at the beginning, during one of those "short" on patience days! Then there was this one, which is COMPLETELY true.... "Accept - then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it." followed by a quote I saw in a random newsletter that I had never before read, it said that, "If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow," Now this one is so true, it is our actions that determine how we will feel, we are the only one's that can decide how much "sorrow" we're willling to bring upon ourselves..... I could go on and on..... but i will save us all the time, :) Now all of these quotes kept coming in, and yeah they made sense to me, but I don't think I was "grasping" their message at least not right away..... and maybe that's the reason that I saved them on my email, I did "hear" the message eventually, it came on sunday, and it was the most AMAZING thing I have ever experienced, I was at work, a little annoyed, because friday had been a long day, I was behind on saturday, and it was a holiday weekend..... It seemed EVERYONE and their mom needed help, and to top it all off I kept having to go up to check all weekend, sunday was a little better though, after lunch I was trying to get as much done as I could because I needed to write an order and they called me up for what seemed like the hundredth time, and it happened, right then and there, I put what I was working on down, and started my treck to the front end, while reciting the serenity prayer in my head, now I've known the Serenity prayer for YEARS, but it's never ever come to me like that in a moment of "frustration".... It was the best feeling better, suddenly I felt better, all the frustration was gone and I truly felt like everything was going to be ok...... and that day's quote you ask??? "If you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint yourself." hahaha.... seems I had set myself up to fail on friday!!! hmmmmm...... needless to say I have learned in the last few weeks that God really is looking out for me, and I am doing what he expects me to do!!! :-D

and suddenly it all makes sense!!!

...... So for the last few months I've been going around in circles wondering where I went "wrong". I kinda felt like I've been in sort of like a funk, almost like I wasn't myself. I've been trying to figure out when and where the transformation happened, actually I know exactly when it happened, one of my close friends told me that I was a horrible friend, somehow it stuck and I actually believed it for a little while...... It's funny I had actually been thinking and talking to God about it, and suddenly it hit me the other day while I was sitting around another friends living room, I'm not that bad of a person, for years I've made it a point to make EVERYONE else feel special, while never expecting anything in return, and I still don't.... That's just the person that I am. But I think after the "horrible" friend comment was made I decided that I was gonna try being a 'horrible friend" and well let's just say that I didn't like where it put me in my life, it made me a person that I am not, so the other day I decided that I'm just going to go back to being the person that I used to be, while not feeling badly about having to say no here and there.... I've realized that it's ok to miss an event here and there, if nothing else to keep my sanity.... sometimes I feel like I'm going in 25 different directions, and that's just in one day.... :)I've also come to the conclusion that everyone is entitled to their own opinion of me, and that is perfectly ok. It's taken years and a variety of people in my life to realize that those people that really care about us will ALWAYS be just a phone call away, whether it's been an hour or a year since we've last talked to them, AND these are the one's that love us for who we are.... :-D So here's to me being me, I made a "horrible" friend anyway!!! hahaha ;)

a basketball lesson..... from my mom!!!

Isn't it funny how we learn the most random things from our parents???? here we were sitting down for dinner today.... I made hamburgers!!! ;) My dad was still at work, (and he doesn't like sports!) so the TV was ours for the taking tonight.... in the wake of the NBA finals, and because I felt like giving basketball ONE more chance, I decided that we should watch the Lakers game while we ate.... Mike was excited!!! ;) hahaha!!! here I was trying to understand what was going on on the TV when I hear my mom start to clap and go YEAHHH!!!! right along side of Mike.... My sister and I looked at each other WTF???? and then we looked at my mom, who was sooooo excited for the game!! hahaha.... then I remembered SHE used to play when she was younger, now it all made sense.... Then during the commercial she preceds to tell us that back in the day when my uncles were MUCH younger, and athletic, they used to go by the name of the "elastic" brothers!! hahaha!!! It makes sense to me, both my uncles are like 6'4" (I know that's how I got to be so tall ;) It's funny 'cause I haven't seen either one of them in like 20 years, but I could totally picture them playing when my mom was telling us stories about how they used to play basketball all the time when they were kids!!! It really made me miss all of my family back in Guatemala, even though we talk to them often, it's not the same as seeing someone in person!!! SO today I finally watched a FULL game of basketball along side my mom, and SHE was doing all the explaining..... GO FIGURE!!!! Oh yeah and GO LAKERS!!! I think???

The worst present EVER..... as of yet!!! ;)

Hahaha!!!! This is by far the worst present I've ever given.... and the video totally confirmed it!!! :-) when I got it I couldn't help but laugh!!! I have a feeling that this present/video is going to follow me FOREVER!!!! ;)

My cousin only got the end part of it..... so I will explain.... My God daughter Vides LOVES curious George, so for Christmas I found these AWESOME monkey slippers..... She LOVED them, but for some reason she never was able to walk in them!!! She kept putting them on and trying only to fall over in them EVERYTIME!!! now my brother being the nice person that he is thought this was hilarious so he made it a point to continue to make her try, eventually she gave up and threw them at him, saying she couldn't do it!!! Then they went home, my cousin said the baby found them again the other day in her closet and decided to give it a whirl once again..... only to FAIL once again.... and this is the only part that she got, needless to say, that I think the "George" slippers have been safely put away for fear that they may hurt someone...Oh yeah, and thanks to the invention of camera/video phones EVERYONE got to relieve a little piece of that fateful evening a few months ago, when I may have gone down as giving the worst present yet!!! hahaha!!! at least it's been entertaining for all the adults!!! ;-)

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime® 6.5 or higher is required.

Hi

Pinapple chicken!!! YUMMMM

I have always loved to cook, but I didn't used to do it often because for a LONG time my mom didn't work, so I always came home to a home cooked meal..... which meant I didn't have to cook!! I know pathetic!! :-) hahaha!!! Well good ol' mom went back to work a few months ago, so I've had to use my fantastic cooking skills to whip up a dinner here and there!!! Today I was at work racking my brain about what sounded good... I wanted something easy though, and something that wouldn't require much shopping time!!! I know... picky,picky! ;) I started to pick things up that we needed and while in the produce department I ran across a recipe magazine/book thing titled Best ever chicken cookbook recipes made in 30 minutes or less!!!! WHAAAATTTT??? I immediatly picked it up thumbed through it and decided on dinner right there on the spot!!! hahaha It was actually really easy to make, below are the ingredients that it took, all pretty basic I think!!! There are ingredients there to make banana cream pie too!!! the pie crust jumped in my basked as I was walking down the bake aisle!! ;)

This is what the chicken looked like after it was all done and ready to eat.... sorry the presentation isn't the best.... but I was feeling lazy, and I didn't want to do more dishes!!! hahahah

I served it on top of white rice!! It was delicious!!! :) And my parents approved!!! WHOOHOO!!!

I was feeling adventurous and decided that I should make dessert too!! I never realized how easy making a pie was..... all it took was some banana pie pudding, two sliced bananas, and some cool whip... I poured it all into the ready made nilla wafer crust and WAA - LLA!!! Dinner in literally less than 45 minutes...... I had to add time for the pie too!! :)

interested in the recipe?? I can email it to you!! I have no idea how to post the recipe on here!! :( anyone wanna give bloggin' lessons??

flowers anyone!!! ;)

So Jessica had a Cinco de Mayo thing for Ella and her friends..... and me!!! ;) after a delicioso almuerzo of home made chicken enchiladas, we prepared to make a craft...... Now I'm not really the "crafty" type...... until I get into it, It's not something I would "choose" to do, I'm more of the scrapbooker, sower, croche-er, knitter type!!! hahaha!! There's a little trivia for everyone! ;) But let me tell you guys that I thoroughly enjoyed myself making this bouquet of flowers!!! I started out helping little Kaelyn with her "craft", we made two of two of them for her I think, maybe three.... and then she moved on!!! hahaha
The pink one in front with the dark pink edges is my favorite I think!! and the one of the bottom looks AWESOME too!!! I like the two different types of paper put together!!! This is what my bouquet ended up looking like...... I kinda liked it!!! Just ask Jessica I told her I did!!! hahaha!!! and with Jessica's final touches it was done!!! Now I h ave a super cute bouquet of flowers for my room!!! YIIPPPEEE!!!! and YES! I did enjoy the craft very much!! :) I think I may even attempt to make another!! ;) And what is a Cinco de Mayo party without two children running around in sombreros??? ;)

just a thought!!!

So here I am having this conversation with yet another person who questions if my life is a "happy" one!!! hahaha!!! This was sometime last week, so I've had time to really think it out ;) Now I think that for the most part I've lead an amazingly full life..... It's true I'm not married and I don't have kids, but I have the love of my family and the friends that surround me, and most importantly I have the love of all of the kids that come with them, and they get to go home eventually!! ;)
This weekend was an indication of all of the "LOVE" that I am surrounded with in my daily life... on friday we went to celebrate Mike's birthday and there was a big group of us, it's weird to see all those "kids" that my sister grew up with be "grown-ups" They've all grown up, gotten married and had children!! hahaha!!! I think there was like 8 kids there, at one point I took 2 of them out for a "walk" they needed to release some much needed energy and I needed to vacate the premisses of a crowded booth and restaurant... so off we went down the tunnel at Dos Lagos, THEY LOVED IT!!! at the end of the path we found a concert which they both insisted that we stay and watch, Bryan the 6 year old was too funny, he kept trying to convince me that this was his FAVORITE band, while Makailyn was off to the side dancing by herself.... a very nice couple sitting sort of next to us turned to me and said.... WOW!!! your kids are full of energy today..... as I started to reply that they werent mine, Bryan jumped up gave me the BIGGEST hug and said this is our aunt Maria and WE LOVE HER!!! :) hahahaha!!! all I could do was smile at the couple and say, how can I argue with that??? :) the song ended and that was our cue to go, as we walked down the path holding hands I couldn't help but feel a little proud!!! Bryan had jsut made my day!!! :)
On sunday it happened again..... This time at Bryce and Catherine's performance at Church.... It was funny I went in and sat down.... and suddently I see the hand of a blond 5 year old boy waving frantically at me and pointing!!! as I waved back he had the biggest grin on his face... That's my aunt Mimac he said.... I couldn't help but feel a little embarresed.... I was in a room full of people BUT he was so happy to see me!!! as we waited for the performance to begin I could see him telling his friends that I was there!!! hahaha!!! CHEESY.... I know but once again my day was complete, and then there was Paige who told me she loved me, on our way to the dessert table at lunch!!! hahaha!!! a girl after my own heart! dessert..... ;)
Now on to monday..... when I met Jessica and the kids for ice cream and the park!!! It's always fun to see the look on Ella's face when she sees me, she gets so exctied and I love hearing her call my name.... And now Luke's starting to do it too... which is totally awesome!!! (that's totally my cousins saying, hahaha) Then there's the play with me Mia, and the ice cream eating that comes with it too!!! and just a little while ago, I talked to V, my god-daughter she told me that she missed me, and loved me, then she gave me a kiss and a hug through the phone!!! once again... day's complete!!! hahaha!!!
I sit here writing this and I think, how could my life not be almost complete? and I say almost because I know there is more out there for me.... It just doesn't appear to be in the cards right now, and I'm ok with that, because I know that when the time does come it will be AMAZING!!! In the mean time I will continue to be someone's "Aunt Mimac, someone's Mia and V's Tia MJ"...... All I can say is that I'm thankfull that God has allowed me to be surrounded by my amazing friends who have allowed me to be a BIG part of their kids lives, and theirs too..... hahaha!!! I wouldn't want to sound like a creepy creep!! ;) here's to more happy and fun filled times surrounded by loved ones!!! :)

Yep!!! I've done it again.....

..... Why is it that electronics and I don't get along well?? I seem to LOVE to put them in or near water.... why is that??? First it was my camera, I took into the pool with me, on PURPOSE!!! hahaha!!! I thought maybe I could take some "action" shots from inside the pool!!! hahaha.... Then it was my phone which I thought should go swimming, first at the beach, yes that's what happens when your friends try to fling you in the water.... note to self, keep phone out of pants pockets anywhere near the beach/water! Then it was the phone again, this time it fell out of my pocket and decided to go swimming in unforbidden water... I will let you guys guess! ;) and the latest victim was my Ipod...... :( sad news I know..... I was so excited it was a Christmas present, something that I wanted but that I wouldn't buy for myself.... somehow it jumped in with my laundry and had itself a bath!!! I was devastated when I was moving my laundry from the washing machine to the dryer, and saw it there on the side of the washing machine.... almost like it tried to save itself but it failed!!! I didn't learn a lesson here, since I haven't yet figured out what article of clothing it was in.... I mean I thought it was in my car the whole time!!! :( so sad.... I guess the only lesson learned here is that Maria+electronics+water= no bueno news!!! I guess now is as good a time as any to go out and get a new dry Ipod!!! :)