Rough days

This past week was a very difficult one for us.  I left my house on Tuesday San Diego bound.  With a hesitant feeling and uncertainty we waited for information on the funeral services.  

On the fourth of July we crossed the border to Mexico and visited Popotla a rustic and picturesque village of fisherman that bring in their goods from the ocean.  Locals and tourists alike come down to the shore to get the freshest fish you can possibly get or you can enjoy it in a restaurant. It was a cold grey day.

I apologize for the lack of pictures on the fried fish I had, also beans and rice, handmade flour tortillas and fresh salsa. But I can certainly tell you it was delicious.

We crossed the border to the US again because Sophia was to be at my brother's Wednesday night, she was San Francisco bound to our family reunion on a RV with my brother, his wife pj their dog and four cousins.

I know Xavi is missing her as we stopped at a bakery and wanted to get a piece of bread for her.  On the car Sophia's favorite song was playing and he certainly remember and mentioned it to us.  Also he wanted to catch a butterfly and save it for her.  News is she is having a lot of fun but she has been dearly missed specially these days.  She will be back on Wednesday.

 

Even though Teto my husband's cousin lived in Bonita, California he was laid to rest in Tecate, Mexico.  This is where he was to be wed and start his new family.  We spent two days there, it was very hard to see my husband saying goodbye to his dear cousin (my husband is the one of the right).  We got back home Saturday night drained with an awful feeling of helplessness and emptiness but I know we will see him again one day. Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts.

Tweet

A reminder

That was the plan Teto's wedding on August 18, 2012, he is my husband's cousin.

But the world changes in  the blink of an eye.  We got a call Saturday night ...nobody calls at 10:00 pm to say hello :(  He had been in an accident and died that same Saturday.  His life had been cut short.  Sadly, now instead of his wedding we will attend his funeral. 

Damn deadly grass.

I cannot image his fiancee's pain...his mom's pain.

For the rest of us life must go on but not without a wake up call, a reminder of  how short this life is and how fragile our bodies are.  A reminder to be thankful for the things we have, the people we love.  A reminder to tell them everyday how much we love them, to hug tighter and kiss longer. Simply because today we are here and tomorrow we don't know.

You will always live in our hearts Roberto Medina.

Tweet

Jury duty... a new experience

I was summoned for Jury Duty a couple of months ago and I postponed it till the kids were out of school so that my sister could watch them while I went.  So I went yesterday, my first experience as a prospective juror.  I left  my house at 6:00 am had to drive 20 minutes to my sister's house on the east side of Hemet and drive back 20 minutes back to the west side where I live.  Then start the journey to the Courthouse in Corona CA 50 minutes away from Hemet. I hate driving to a place where I've never been before...even more on a Monday morning during rush hour it just stresses me out so much... awful traffic!

My husband googled directions and he even showed me Goggle Earth aerial views so that I had an idea as to where I was going.  But I am so bad with maps and directions.  I will admit  I made a right where I was supposed to make a left, I was worried about timing but I made it to the Court on time.  I was to report at 8:00 am and got there at 7:50 am.

So I was going through the security checkpoint, a beep and a red light no biggie just my belt.  Then the officer noticed that I had a small pocket knife on my key chain and told me to go leave it on my car...hello all the way to the parking lot??  thanks a lot!  For a minute I thought of trowing it away, but no it is a very useful item to me.  Besides a small knife it has a small pair of scissors that I use to cut open a bag of chips or whatever it needs to be cut for the kids maybe clip a coupon.  It also has an emery board for chipped nails  I just could not part with it.

Anyways after about 2 1/2 hours, a video and orientation and bathroom breaks and lots of sitting we were called to the jury room.  I say 100 prospective jurors were there.  About half of them were excused and  the rest of us were called to come back at 11:00 am They called the first 18 people I was # 4 and sat us on the jury box.  We had to introduce ourselves, our name, profession, marital status, children or no children, whether we've served as jurors before and whether or not we felt we could be fair on the case.  Unfortunately this was a child abuse case and I had to speak my mind I told the judge that having young kids myself I didn't think I could be fair on this case. I felt very uncomfortable. My mind automatically is set to think that if the guy has been accused of sexually molesting a child I would not want my kids around him.  Then after a lunch break the prosecutor and the defense came and asked a bunch of questions, used lots of words that were hard to understand.  Played with our minds with hypothetically situations just like on a TV show.  I didn't make the cut and was excused hours later. Sure enough they didn't want a biased person on the jury panel. Honestly I was relieved.

Meanwhile my kids were behaving extraordinary well at my sister's.  She said they were well behaved, they ate all of their food. Sophia was being a mom and a protector to Xavi  what?  where those really my kids you know the ones that fight, scream, jump on beds, trow toys all over the house and refuse to eat their food!  yes they were, I guess I've taught them well...at least they act on it when I am away from them.  I should be proud of them I know that.

They told me they missed me. Sophia said she shed a tear and missed my hugs and my warm feeling when I dropped them off in the morning.  I missed them too.  Back at home and things back to routine I wondered where were those well behaved kids that were at my sister's all day??

Tweet

*sigh*

I am having bug issues
really our desktop is so slow...
one laptop screen is totally black, 
I can't download any pictures on the other laptop! 


I am also having issues that bug me.
Things that don't make me happy at this very moment.


I wanna keep blogging but I can't right now.
I want to blog about happy things.
I hope I am back soon.


I think I owe this line to you my friends.  I will take a break.  I need to find the light at the end of the tunnel.


xoxo


Claudia

Tweet

January's winner from moncy3

The month of January went by so quickly!  Do you remember when you were a kid and it took forever for your Birthday to come??  I do!  Now, for me it's like oh no!!  another Birthday :/

Also, last week I was very busy.  I feel sometimes like I do a lot but accomplish very little :(
Last week I myself had a dental emergency.  Can you believe I bit a fork while eating?  Have you ever done that?  It hurts a LOT!!  I immediately knew something was wrong...yup my tooth chipped right in one corner and has a small fracture in the form of a line :( NO BUENO   I was on the down side.  Thank goodness it's nothing noticeable but something I really need to take care of if I don't want it to fracture more and break in one thousand pieces :(  Claudia, welcome to the forties.  I do have a dentist appointment scheduled for this month which translates into $450 oh well...

Anyways, we picked the moncy3 winner for the month of January.  I do it every first of the month and talking about birthdays it so happened that February 1st was her Birthday.  What a surprise for her!  I made her day with the news and she made mine with the surprise!   Happy Birthday to:

esmelouw from South Africa

and this set was her free choice!

These are the two artist featured this past month!

greenRstudio

 QuietDoing

Don't forget to answer my Feb survey! it's on the upper left corner.

Tweet

My tips on saving and stretching the green

Just an example of what I told you recently:

My husband writes everything.

This is where my work comes in.  With only one income I do my best to reduce 

the monthly expenses and stretch  the incoming money. 

My friend and new pen pal recently told me that she wants to be more frugal and more careful with money this year.  I think that is an awesome goal and very easy attainable with some discipline.

She made me start thinking of all the things I do to help the household.

I thought I'd write about some of the little things I do on this subject.

• I shop at the 99 cents store at least once a week and are not ashamed of it.
• I stock up when things we use often are on sale.
• I buy store and generic brands on most things.
• I prepare most of the food, and only eat out once in a while.  With a family of five it can get expensive.
• I use coupons now and then but I'd love to start using them more often and of course get better at it.  Have you ever seen extreme couponing TV show!!
• I love shopping at Khols, this is one I really love and actually take it as a stress reliever!  I shop clearance, I use discount coupons they send you and they also give you 'Khols cash' $10 dollars off.  I come home and tell my husband "look honey how much I saved you".
• I also brake for every clearance sign! trying not to be compulsive buyer...It's hard though :/
• I shop at thrift shops.
• I hate trowing food! ( I am a vacuum at finishing off the kids leftovers I should stop that I know!!)  That's the reason I want to eat smaller portions :/
• I ride my bike and I take a bag with me I brake for cans and plastic and I am not ashamed of it either!  This really does not bring any income to the family but it gives me the opportunity to sustain the habit of buying craft supplies and paper for my envelopes.
• my etsy shop also helps me on the above.
• I've never liked video games, too much money there, we cannot afford it so no video games, x-box, Nintendo, Atari ( I know that is way too old school!)  but really we can't afford it and it's hard enough to get the kids off the computer!
• We have basic plan phones nothing added to them...I mean nothing!!
• I do have to say often "NO" at the store to the kids, man they just want everything!  Sophia has always been a good sport.  When she was smaller, she would ask me "Mom do we have the money to buy this"  I'd tell her "no honey we don't" and she was fine.  Xavi on the other hand is another story! 

I've been on the work force before, so I know that money does not come for free and that you have to earn it.  So really why waste it? When we were newly weds we made the decision that I'd be a stay home mom (except for that year I went back to work) then we decided again that I'd be back home taking care of the kids.  We've lived a modest life although  I won't deny that some times we wish we had more financial freedom but every night each of us can thank God for a roof over our heads, food on our table and clothes. 

I know these tips are no brainers and a lot of people do them.  I'd really like to know what you do and your tips for saving money?  Would you like to share??

Tweet

via

Sometimes it is not easy...

Glossary of terms:

They
Sophia and Xavi
He
My husband
We
The whole family
I
Claudia

• I buy and prepare the veggies, they don't eat them and he says it's ok.
• He works hard for the money, I do my best to budget and they only think of buying toys.
• He stresses, I stress too.
• We go shopping, they want junk food and he says "they're children".
• They play, I clean.
• I feel blue, they want my undivided attention.
• I want to take a nap, I gotta prepare food, they say "I don't like it".
• I prepare want they like, they say "I am not hungry".
• I talk and they don't listen.

I can surely add more to this list!

Can I get a witness??

I am not complaining, it's only that sometimes  

I need to let it out.

It's a good thing we love each other.  Unconditional love is what keeps us together (and patience of course).

Tweet

Cloth napkins

I recently read that over the course of a person's life

he or she might use a grand total of 76650 paper napkins!
doing the math 3 meals a day for
365 days over a life span of 70 yrs

Statistics in my personal opinion are just that...numbers

True or not that sounds like an awful lot of paper napkins!

I am trying to make a change on our daily habits, we are converting from using paper napkins to cloth napkins.  I've been toying with the idea for a couple of months now and yesterday I finally bought some cloth napkins!  My only concern was the laundering system...but I guess I have to stock up on them and I will trow them in with my regular loads. I do laundry very often anyways!

I found these colorful napkins at one of my local thrift shops.  They were new (except for two that seemed to have been washed before) I paid a total of $4.65 for 16 napkins including the six rings those weren't new but I thought they went perfectly with the color napkins I found.

I am not sure if my 16 cloth napkins will make a change in my effort to go greener and leaving less footprints behind in this world but the kids are 

sure enjoying this change and I am happy I did!

What about you paper or cloth??

Tweet

Dreadful Medical appointment!

So I started my summer vacation with one of the most dreadful

medical appointment a woman can have... a pap smear!  

I called last week

to get an appointment on 

a Friday and they called early yesterday morning

with a opening for 4 o'clock ok I'll take it I said :(

So I got ready and decided it was time to wear a dress.  

You know I've been wanting to wear dresses. 

You can see Xavi's sword in the mirror, 

yeah the aggressive little guy!

I am pretty good at keeping up with routine appointments

(we have a dentist appointment next Thursday) 

It is one of those things you know you have to do anyways, 

so why procrastinate on that?

So here I am in the room waiting and waiting, 

it wasn't that long of a wait really

but just watching the little table ready and the medical instruments made me more nervous!

I always wear my socks to this type of appointments 

I just hate feeling so vulnerable.

"relax and open wide"  yeah right!!

I was even ready to make an appointment for a mammogram

but the nurse practitioner said Kaiser starts 

them at 50 years old

unless a history or breast cancer is in the family.

I told her I hardly do the self breast exam because 

I don't know what  to look for.  

She patiently taught me how to do it, when to do it

what to look for, she showed me what normal feels like, 

and when something does not feel normal 

or it feels different, that's when 

I contact a doctor even

if I am not sure.

I feel more confident now.

It wasn't that bad really!

So, no news is good news.  Hopefully I won't get a 

call from them and will be back for 

a pap smear in three years. 

Now I need to get to work on my tan!

I am making a habit to carry my camera to  

document things and as a service to my community 

and you my lovely lady friends

I glently ask you when was your 

last pap smear, and breast exam?

I  once heard that there are two types of women:

the ones that have breast cancer 

and the ones that are afraid to get it!

Do yourselves a favor and get regularly checked. 

Hope your having a great weekend!

Tweet

Who says a zero is nothing??

Yesterday was not my day really...everything was wrong and going from bad to worse :(

Late at night while my husband was online reviewing our checking account he yells at me Claudia we've been robbed!! checking account showed zeros.  But no we weren't robbed...have you ever made a mistake writing a check?? well I haven't until now.  I made a ten thousand dollar mistake!  My husband was,  let me say 'upset' and no he didn't want to kill me I wanted to kill myself.  Yes, I added and extra zero on a one thousand dollar check.  We have overdraft protection and the check was cashed for 10 thousand dollars.  So I called the bank Thursday morning and thanks to the almighty God and after a sleepless night the amount of the check was fixed and the fees reversed to our account.  Things got back to normal.  Now I can blog about it and smile not yet laugh!!  oh! and I have to be more careful while writing checks...
Thank you all for your support and your love!  It helped me a lot!

Claudia

Tweet

find a happy place

find a happy place, find a happy place  : (  ...this is my happy place

Tweet