Wonder

More updates from my trip back home!

Okay so here are more beach pictures and a fun story to go with them. :D

To begin, I must confess, I am known by my family as the aunt who spoils my niece, Vanessa, rotten. I do. Ever since she was a baby she had me wrapped around her little fingers. I bought her so much stuff and every time I babysat her, we went shopping together. We've made about 4 Build-A-Bear bears together. She says, "I want that." and I say, "Here, have TWO!" I am the bad aunt. I always give her fun toys and sweet treats . . . when you're 'love language' is gifts . . . it can be a scary battlefield to trot. I am slowly learning to draw lines in right places. I kind of picked up on my treacherous training when I was last at home. I went to go see her and she says, "Are you going to take me shopping and get me a lot of cool new toys? Are we going to get new clothes? Let's go!!"

Oy Vey—the monster I've created. So now I'm moving toward teaching her limits and choices when it comes to gifts. After she said that, I took her shopping, but I told her she could only get 2 things. She kept begging for like 8 different things, but I only let her have 2 and I told her she had to choose, that way when all was said and done, it was her choice. I, too, am learning.

So one of my favorite things is that she now knows that when I come home, I'm going to bring her books . . . and she LOVES to read! And that makes me way happy! In fact, I was on the phone the other day with my mom and she was telling me how much like me Vanessa is. She told me how Vanessa likes to read and draw and will just spend lots of time sitting by herself with a nose in a book, consumed. She loves stories and she loves being adventurous. And that also makes me happy :D Last time I visited, I bought her Where The Wild Things Are, which was one of my favorite books as a kid. My mom says that she requests to read that book the most! So this time I brought her home another one of my favorites, Knots On A Counting Rope. She was really excited to get new books :D

On Saturday night at the hotel, I had one of the best conversations with Vanessa. I talked with her about giving to others and about loving people no matter what they look/sound/act like. I also told her an important secret: "You don't always have to do what adults tell you to do." I explained to her that one day there will be something she will really love to do and there will be people who tell her she shouldn't do it, and I reiterated—"You don't always have to do what adults tell you to do." Most would think this is a terrible thing to tell a kid. But she's got a good head on her shoulders. She has a good heart and I am trusting and believing that as she grows, she will learn to test and set limits based on her own judgement and not define her life solely based on what others say or do. I never want her to lose sight of her dreams that she will want to chase as she grows into an amazing little lady.

Shortly after that, she and I had a FUN pillow fight and we were both jumping on the hotel beds and hitting each other with pillows and tackling one another. It was the BEST EVER!! :D I love spending time with her and I know that the things I teach her, she will pass on to her baby sister, who she and I absolutely adore! :D

With that, here are more fun pictures from the beach:

Vanessa was trying to wash the dirt off of the jellyfish
(dont' worry, we made sure she didn't touch the jellyfish)

The family all gathered around chillaxin' at the beach

A cute pic of my sister and my niece, Annabelle

My sister doing a jello shot . . . i don't think she has decided whether she likes it or not. This is going in my weird family face collection . . . the fact that I even have such a collection says something about my family ;) PS: most of the pics in that collection are of me. :O

Vanessa's cousin Sable after Vanessa & Major buried her in the sand

Vanessa & her cousin Major playing in the sand

Vanessa was so intrigued by the fish. She loves their bright colors and she kept pointing to the clownfish, automatically naming him Nemo. ;)

You I Wind Land And Sea

Proof that I still play with my food. :D

I'm so sorry I've been MIA for the past few days, but this vacation was truly jam packed! I was having WAY too much fun hanging out with my friends and family live and in person!! woo hoo! I didn't have much time for any tumblr or blogspot updates! So, to hold you over until my mega update/adventure post tomorrow, here are a couple of pictures I took (more will be added tomorrow and in the following days) and a video that I took from the reunion! Primarily, these are of the grandkids (not my grandkids, duh, just in general they are grandkids). I love capturing their fun interactions on camera. I hope they never outgrow it.

Sable, Major, & Vanessa creating castles and other fantastic things.

Annabelle playing with a fun learning toy

Sweet dreams for my two princesses—i love my nieces!

Every year for our family reunion, we make family t-shirts. My mom's side of the family is the Arroyo family. They asked me to make the design for the shirts this year with simple guidelines: it has to have the family name on it and it has to have the UT Longhorns logo on it. Since my family is heavily involved in sports, primarily baseball, I made our shirts resemble baseball shirts, with a complete "team roster" on the back of the shirt! The kelley green with white lettering shirts were for the adults/older grandkids and the white shirts with the green lettering were for the smaller grandkids who couldn't fit into the bigger sizes. They all liked them a lot! :D

And here is a video that will probably be shown to their respective boy/girlfriends when they get older, to show just "what cute kids" they were ;)

Major and Vanessa spaz dancing! :D

Mi Vida Loca

Sometimes I like to pretend that I'm at least a little bit mexican. hahahahahaha! Even though I'm probably the most "white" mexican you'll ever know. But here's what I love about my family... we are like, the epitome of "that mexican family."

Every Easter, we have a family reunion. Sadly, I haven't been able to go for the past few years due to scheduling conflicts and the fact that, well... I live in Seattle now.

But as part of this reunion, everyone gets together at the park with all the other "branches" of our family. Like my grandma's cousins and their families... and their family's families...and so on... and so on... and ... well you get the point. We EVEN have Family Reunion shirts made up to help distinguish our family from the rest (ha!).Here are some pics from said reunion that might help you understand what a giant undertaking Easter is for our family:


This one is a bonus. It's from the day before. They go to the bar and sing Karaoke! And you better believe it's a sight to see! I heard that this year my cousin JJ called up my mom and all my aunts to help be his backup dancers...and he busted out with I LIKE BIG BUTTS AND I CANNOT LIE! Hilarious! I also have the vid. Hopefully I'll be able to post it later.




all the grandkids and their children... minus myself, my brother, my sister, her boyfriend, and their 2 kids


This is the whole family minus myself, my brother, my sister, her boyfriend and their 2 kids

To Know That You're Alive

Easter is here!  Easter is here!  Easter is here!

Easter is my FAVORITE holiday...yes, I even prefer it over Christmas (as rotten eggs and fruit fly towards my face).  But I promise you, it's for good reason that Easter is my favorite.

I mean, aside from the fact that it symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus Christ and freedom for me personally, and the fact that there's LOTS OF CHOCOLATE involved... Easter means so much to me.

When I was in the 6th grade, my family and I were all gearing up to go to Pasadena for our annual family reunion.  But I wasn't feeling well at all.  2 and a half weeks prior to the time we were supposed to leave, I started getting intense stomach pains.  I couldn't even laugh—it was that bad.  We went to the doctors a couple days after the pain started—for all we know, I could've just eaten something bad.  So we went and the doc said nothing was wrong, it's just a stomach flu that's going around.  

So we went home, and the pain just kept getting worse and worse.  It got to the point where I could barely walk.  Easter weekend was creeping up and we were going to make the drive the Friday of Easter weekend to Pasadena for the reunion and we decided that just to be sure, we should go to the docs to see if everything was still okay and if there was any meds I should take.  We saw a different doc this time, and he was quite worried.  We did X-rays on the spot and discovered that the pain I had been experiencing was because 2 and half weeks before, my appendix had burst and all of the bile was seeping out to my other organs.  :( 

I went in for emergency surgery and woke up to my mom sitting there waiting for me.  :D  

The doc  came in and said that it was a good thing we came in before we left out of town, because the bile had spread so much that if I had waited another 24 hours, I would have died immediately.  The bile had burned some of my other organs but they were able to stabalize me and I had a long recovery.  10 days in the hospital.  My mom started calling it my second home.  
Now every time I think of Easter, I'm so grateful to be alive.  24 hours.  Seems like forever.  But knowing that we would have been out of town, believing I had a simple stomach virus, things wouldn't have turned out so well.  

I am so grateful to be alive.  Truly.  To be able to be alive and living my life... is AMAZING.  

That time in the hospital was so good for me.  My family came and saw me and showered me with gifts and love and hope.  My mom's co-workers even bought me my first Calligraphy set and my first Drawing Pad with paints and color pencils and such.  It was the time that I watched PHILADELPHIA a bazillion times a day, crying each time.  It was the time I got to hear All 4 One's I SWEAR over and over again.  It was the time that the youth ministry leaders came to see me and give me hope.  It was the time that I remember being so grateful for life.  

Easter is my FAVORITE holiday!

Happy Easter!