Mom is so great because she is the epitome of unselfishness. She's always been generous of her time and talents and most importantly, has never met a stranger. Few people leave mom's grace without feeling better about their entire outlook on the world. She just has that high level of positivity that has been imparted to both my sister and I, as well. Several years ago, she was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Despite being reliant to her wheelchair (and she's still, very, very young, less than 60, in fact), she's very grateful to be mobile in her chair instead of "having to be confined to a bed." (Which she, consequently, experienced a couple of years ago for about 6 months.) Mom volunteers with a local girl scout troop and has traveled to Europe and Washington, DC with them. She cheered me on in the NYC marathon, as her wheels gave me wings to fly. She also participates in an arthritis walk to raise money. Even though she can't walk, she's determined to complete the race with the help of someone pushing her. I'm gladly volunteering for that honor (but I think Dad has stepped in).

Growing up, we were immersed with ideal TV moms. These were mothers who didn’t work, stayed home with the kids and in some cases, they even had a maid to help out. Mom was always there for us, but she did work. When I was really young, she worked the graveyard shift for Levi’s. She’d be awake for us at home, and when we were going down to sleep for the night, Mom was clocking in, getting off in time to make us breakfast, pack Daddy a lunch, then sleep for a few hours. On cold, winter mornings’, we’d wake to freshly made hot chocolate, and there was never a shortage of marshmallows. More often than not, she’d have some sort of fresh baked cookies, especially during the Autumn. When I was older, mom went back to working in the food service industry. She worked for Furr’s Cafeteria and our school cafeteria. When I was in Middle school, I was happy to be able to see her in the middle of the day. Many times, I was able to see my mom, and through the doors, I could peek in and see my brother too (our schools were connected by the cafeteria). I don’t know where mom found all of the energy for it. Because on top of work and home, she was an active PTA volunteer, was a Girl Scout Troop leader, taught Sunday School, coached our volleyball/softball/soccer teams, played in her own adult sports leagues, and managed to do it all looking beautiful and graceful throughout. Oh, and let’s not forget that not only would mom look gorgeous, but my sister and I were always presentable, hair done, dressed like little ladies. Having a daughter and trying to get ready myself and then having to get Mari ready and be finished on time, well, that’s a feat I was totally unaware of until recently. (Now you know why I keep going and going and going!)

But despite the many things that mom did, the biggest gifts she gave us were things you can’t buy and were really hard to give. Mom enriched our Faith and led by her own example. She has a very personal and enriched relationship with God and I’m glad she introduced us to it so early on. She really fostered our creativity. We may not have had an entire craft room filled with paints and what not, but she made do with what we had. Early on, I was happily constructing kites from leftover yarn, sticks from the yard, and old newspaper. We would “color” the sidewalks with the crabapples that fell from our crabapple tree. My Barbie didn’t have a fancy Barbie pool, but the silver bucket we used to wash the car doubled as her pool. And the stories, oh the stories I would write…and she never tired of reading or listening to them. She would always make extra effort to read in voices, theatrically infusing each character with a very different personality. Growing up as a middle child, I would often get tired of wearing my sister’s hand-me-downs. Many times I didn’t mind, but I would get jealous of my classmates that had new clothes practically every week. Mom would tell me that she loved me too much to just give and give and give. That I needed to know what it meant to earn something and to value what I had. Telling me No was going to pay volumes in the long run. At the time, I didn’t like it. Not one bit. As a mother, now I know what she means.

Thank you mom for fresh baked goods, constant patience, cultivating creativity, fostering hope, spreading joy, and especially for teaching us the importance of enjoying life. Happy Mother’s Day!

*I'm about 2 years old in the picture and my mom is 27.

15 Months!

Time has flown by! Today, Mari's personality was really glowing!! This morning, I kissed her goodbye on my way to the Habitat for Humanity volunteer day. On my way there, Don sent me a picture of Mari-Jul petting our decorative frog out front. She loves to help out, so you can see her trying to carry Daddy's lunchbag too.

I picked her up from school early and she danced all around me while I relaxed. All of a sudden, things were too quiet. I found her behind me, smiling a big fat chocolate-y grin. She found the chocolate stash. I forgot that I'd left it within reach (her reach has increased quite a bit recently!). She was happily munching away, smearing the chocolate every where within reach. I laughed and laughed and snapped this picture. That's my girl!

Milestones:

• She's talking up a storm. She doesn't really speak English, but he's very effective at communicating.
  
• For example, she'll pucker her lips and smack them when she's hungry.
• She also likes to communicate with a series of growls and eeeeees.
• Tantrums are full-fledged. The funny ones are around dinner time when we're trying to feed her. If we try to give her something she doesn't like, she'll throw herself on the floor and "hide" while wailing for a few seconds, then pop back up smacking those little lips, and will continue to do this until we take off the piece of food she doesn't like.
• She's in love with buttons. The TV button, the remotes, the DVD player, radios, computers, phones...anything that has a button, she'll want to press it.
• We tried to transition to sippy cups, but haven't been 100% successful. She still takes two milk bottles each day, but all other liquids are in a cup.
• She starting to "hide" when she poops.
  
• She really enjoys stacking. We've had a lot of fun with her blocks lately.
• Her teachers say that she loves to climb. Even though she's the smallest in her class, she's the first one to race to the slide, climb up and go down. I let them know that she's quite a climber and has been climbing since she was 6 months.
• She also likes to climb on Momma! No matter where I am, she insists on climbing on me like I'm her personal jungle gym.
• She LOVES to dance!!! We watched High School Musical 3 and I swear I've never seen a little baby move like that. She owned the living room and was dancing so fast and so much, she had to brace herself against the couch to keep from falling down.
  
• She's quite the slick baby. She knows how to get in and out of things and to get around the obstacles I put in her way. Crafty...
• No really, she loves crafts! Painting and coloring...Mari enjoys giving the world a little bit more color.
• She has the most infectious laugh. We'll have our little wrestling matches, and she just cracks up and we crack up with her.
• I think my favorite thing she does is she'll wiggle herself into my lap, my arms, anywhere she can find a spot!
  

I'm certain there are a few others, but these are the ones I remember right now. She's such a joy to be around and so much fun! Ahhh...I love her so much!

1st Communion

Many of you know me in real life and those of you who are in near enough proximity know that I've been out of blogging commission because I've been sick. No swine flu here, but I have been feeling like death crawled into my belly and died. Blehhhh...

Anyway, this past weekend, we went to my niece's first communion and stepped in to act as her Godparents. We were very, very honored and happy to be a part of the day. I got up early that morning feeling all sorts of out of wonk, but I sucked it up and knew this was too important to miss. These photos were taken a few hours before my body took over and forced me to stay in bed. I've consumed mass quantities of Gatorade, Jello, and yummy broth! On the bright side, I've lost some weight that my clothes are fitting a little loose. Woohoo! This is just the jump start I needed before the work weight loss challenge. Get fit, stay fit! Yaaay!!! (is it me, or every time I read or type yaaay, I think of Animal from the Muppets? Can you picture it?) I love seeing First Communions and it makes me excited thinking about Mari's First Communion. I wonder what kind of dress she'll want. I wore a veil, white gloves, and this lacy dress that I remember being itchy. I didn't love the dress, but Mom loved it, so I wore it. I remember going to have my photo taken for it. Mom sent it to Grandma and she had all of her grandchildren's First Communion portraits lined up together. EVERY single one was serious, pious, then there was mine, smiling a thousand kinds of kool-aid! I never knew how to take a proper serious portrait. (Honestly, there only exists a small handful out there.)

I digress, enough of me, on with the lovelies! Here's my niece with one of her fellow first communicants. She's a tall gal, but her friend is also small too. Aren't they sooo cute?
They have this amazing fountain in their church's courtyard, and back when I would go to church with them more often, I always gave my nephew a coin to throw in the fountain, because it is a crime for a child to walk past a fountain without making a wish! On this day, I gave her a coin to throw as well. Isn't this a fun shot? Ada took it and I love the look on everyone's faces! I also love how happy Zeni is.
Afterwards, we headed to the luncheon. Mari was in love with the first communion doll. I can't believe how big she looks in this picture!
That's my girl! I loved how her hair turned out! So cute and curly!!

I'm still consuming excessive amounts of Jello and Gatorade. Although, I fear I'm losing the hydration battle. :( Poor Mari and Don have had this nasty cough too, so we're all a little over being sick. Here's to hoping that we're in top shape for the weekend. Not only Mother's Day weekend, but Don's birthday too!

When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew.

cheers to anniversaries!

Victims of Mass Media Hysteria

For the past couple of days, Mari has been cranky, somewhat feverish, and had a runny nose. We figured she was just cutting another tooth. No big deal right.

This morning when she awoke, Don thought she had fever. I had her wait a bit and just before we left, there was no fever. Again with the runny nose, so I thought, yep she's cutting a tooth. What really prompted that thought wasn't the massive chewing she's been doing on the furniture or on her toys, but when she leaned right on over and bit my toes. Yes, she thought my toes were chew toys for her whim! Anyway, off she went to school.

When I got home from work, she was back to cranky Mari. She refused to sleep or nap, insisting on being held, then pushing away, then swatting, followed by crying. We were told that she had some diarrhea or loose bowels. Naturally, I was concerned, but chalked it up to teething. Again, a symptom for it, right? Well, when she didn't want to eat much of dinner I was concerned. She'd been coughing some, so I gave her some diluted OJ and a yummy earth lollipop to help soothe her throat. Well, moments after finishing her OJ and two licks into her lollipop, she projectile vomited copious amounts of mucus. Gross, I know, but part of parenthood. Don calls Mari borrachita and I call her our frat sister. College memories of vomit infused with pizza and wobbly walking makes me think I'm reliving those hazy days. ha ha!

In all seriousness, though, I had an emotional breakdown. I scared Mari, freaked out Don, and in my blubbering mess, I managed to pull myself together long enough to grab my purse, her diaper bag, and a blanket to head out to Acute Care for Kids. (Love them!) It was pouring down rain about as hard as the tears were flowing down my face. I sent out a text asking for prayers because, really, I had no idea what was wrong. I said a prayer asking for God to watch over Mari and for her to not have N1H1 aka Swine Flu. God doesn't give you more than you can handle, but I wasn't sure if I was strong enough to handle this. I laced my nervous fingers inside of Don's, as the wipers thwacked away at the wet windshield. I nervously chatted about the day, doing my best to ward off another crying spell.

We arrived to the clinic and they got us in immediately. No fever! She checked her ears and no ear infection. Her stomach sounded fine. Then she checked her throat and saw redness. They swabbed her for strep and the results came back negative. She did have swollen lymph nodes near her throat, and coupled with the redness in her throat led to a simple sore throat diagnosis. We just have to keep her hydrated. Whatever it is, it is probably viral and we have to let her strong, little immune system fight it off. I took great comfort in it and I breathed a great sigh of relief. I wanted to hug the doctor and the nurse. I got a little choked up, but again, fought of the urge.

Thanks for all of the prayers for those of you readers who are on my phone tree. A little overreaction, but it is better to be safe than sorry, right? All that hype surrounding N1H1 got the better of me.

A special thanks to Superstar Don who remained calm and not only cradled us both, but caught most of the mess and cleaned it up, as well. He's so awesome. High five, babe!

2....6....4

I sit here typing, tears streaming down the face simply because I saw a movie that has moved me so much (as I knew it would, hence the reason I put off wanting to see it) that I felt the need to spew a bit of word vomit.

I have been very fortunate in my life to have been loved, truly loved, and adored. Yet, there has only been one whom I've completely and totally returned the favor. Every day I wake and give thanks to God for letting me live another day with this man. Amongst my greatest fears is not having him next to me to hold tight, or laugh with, or eat my cooking adventures, or hold my hand and comfort me as I watch our daughter grow more and more each passing day.

Happiness doesn't begin to describe my life. Complete. Cheesy, I know, but really, it's true. I always felt a bit left. There were constant differences from me to the rest of the world. My family accepted (tolerated) me. Loving me unconditionally. I dated...and with each heartbreak (theirs and mine) I learned another lesson that brought me closer to my beloved: Self-Acceptance. Adventure. Tolerance. Patience. Faith. Creativity. Willingness. Dialogue. Laughter.

And on that fateful day six years ago. God's grace shone down on him and opened my eyes to my future. I felt it and it shook me at the core, so much so that I dared to utter the words aloud: That's the man I'm going to marry. And I did. Life, as I knew it, changed.

People say all the time that the person you should be with makes you want to be a better person. How does that person have that affect on you to begin with? Is it because we allow it to happen? It's easy to get caught up in all of the inner conversations. With him, I learned to let go and just enjoy it all. Because life by his side is a fun adventure.

We celebrate four years of marriage tomorrow. We're going to 6 Flags because my company had free tickets to get in, parking, and dinner. Inexpensive, far from extravagant, but the best thing is that I get to be with him and the best gift he ever gave me: Marisabelle.

Today, go out and hug your significant other tighter. And if you don't have a significant other, no worries, you will. You just might not be aware of that person just yet. Spread the love!

Spring Means Color

After gardening was over, I pulled out my acrylic paints to get all kinds of craftastic up in our house. My niece and nephew were hanging out with us and I like getting all crafty when they are around. They are so much fun and they say they like it, so we do it. Since Mari loves to do what her older cousins do, she was insistent on doing some painting of her own.

I took an old shirt of mine and put it on her backwards. I used clothespins to tighten it up and let her loose. She sat on the floor with paintbrushes in hand having all sorts of fun. She painted the plate, the paper, the outdoor furniture, and even the wall! I didn't fret about the wall. It actually needs painting, well, it needs replacing entirely, but having her "art" on the wall makes it that much brighter.

And speaking of painting all things, this included her hands, her arms, her legs, and yes, her hair and face too.
This is with the yellow. I later added blue, red, and purple. I forgot to grab a picture of the wall and the finished product on the paper. I added my own touch and the art piece is our first mommy-daughter painting. I need to frame it. :)
And here are the asiatic lilies that have made an appearance in our yard. We really enjoy them. Last year they were bold and bright and this year isn't any different. I love to look at them, but we can't cut them and bring them inside because I'm allergic to them. Oh well, they are still pretty. Enjoy.

Triathlon Hero

Early Sunday morning arrived pleasantly, and each of us was in a good mood. The kids didn't put up any kind of fuss. Even Mari woke up in a happy mood. Then again, she always wakes up happy when I sing to her right before she opens her eyes. So sweet.

Anyway, we loaded up the car and were on the road at 6:15 AM. Everyone was kinda zoned out and there I was jamming out to Jock Jams blaring on XM. We pulled into McD's and even after I ordered it, I was mad that I didn't pull over to Whataburger instead for taquitos. Oh well.

We found the place and had to park a few blocks away. We trekked through the the mighty winds and the clouds threatened to pour down rain.

We settled in near the bike area. Here's a picture of Mari playing in the wind. See how her curls are flattened out? She loved swatting at it, then clapping afterwards.

Here she is, the superstar in the flesh. This is just before the start of the race. I was so excited and nervous for her!
Pushing through that last bit of the swim. Looking great after that 300 meter swim!
Alright, she has her biking and running gear on, ready to power through that 11 mile ride.
This kid is 12 years old and this is his 3rd triathlon!!! Here he is finishing strong.
Alrighty, she finished the bike ride and is pulling her hair back to run the 5k. She made up some SERIOUS time on the run portion.
Here I am yelling at her. I ran the last 400 up the hill with her. You can see Zeni in the blue shirt in the background. She also ran with is. It was so hard to tell her motivation words without choking up. And for those of you who are creeped out by my Vibram 5 Fingers, don't look at my feet, because here they are in action.

Finishing strong. I love this photo (good job, Don!). She has so much strength, poise, and grace. RAIDER POWER!!!

Woot!!! 1 hour and 48 minutes. Amazing!!!
Her motivation, these awesome kiddos. Love them and we had so much fun hanging out with them. Thanks Sam for letting us watch them. They were such a help with our garden.

Sisters. And look at my hair...I had the keratin treatment done and even though it is still wild and crazy and ridiculously wind blown, my hair is looking pretty good. This is just a was straight from the shower with no product. Woohoo!! Lovesit.

And I love my sister. Ever my hero.

Garden 101...Thanks Jenna

In honor of Earth day and our annual garden planting, I set out to contribute to our garden. I normally just tell Don what I would like to have and magically, a few months later, we'll have fresh product from our very own backyard. It's really cool, but I feel bad that Don does all the work. This year, he told me that he wasn't going to grow and tomatoes and it kinda broke my heart. Every year we've lived in this house, Don has attempted to grow tomatoes and while we haven't had many tomatoes, it is just a staple of our garden.

Anyway, I was catching up on my reading and came across Jenna's post. I was inspired to embark on the gardening journey. After we ran our 5K, we stormed to Lowe's and loaded up on some other goodies. Here's the original paper with my plans. You can see my clay wormie to remind me to water. I love that little guy and so did Mari.
There's wormie again! Also, you can see the awesome potting mix and seeds that Jenna gifted me. There are my tomato plants and that teeny guy in the front is a habanero. Habaneros seem to be the only thing I can grow with any consistency. Odd isn't it?
This stuff is liquid gold. Liquid seaweed. I used it on all of our plants and they seemed super duper happy! I also bought a bag of Texas seeds. I meant to scatter them all over our backyard. Maybe next weekend (although, I think they would've LOVED the rain we're supposed to get this week).
Here's my table of supplies. Your eyes don't deceive you, that is a silver serving spoon. I didn't have an adequate shovel and well, I needed a scooper, so when in need, why not? (Similar to my cake server that I used as a trowel when I helped out with the brick laying.) Look, there's wormie again!
Ok, first you cut an X through the coco liners.
I carefully put in my tomato plant upside down. Hello plant!
Here I am mixing the soil. Don had some soil from Calloways, so I mixed Jenna's soil with the Calloways soil. I felt like I was playing mother nature mixing the soils. It was just like making a cake. A cake for my plants and they thought it was yummy!
So I scooped in the dirt to the hanging plant, then at the top I planted peas. Here they are. I said, c'mon peas, grow, grow, grow!
Mari wanted to help. She took the spoon and mixed too. And then she put a handful in her mouth. No honey, that is food for the plants!!! Not chocolate. I turned my back and there was another mouthful hanging out. Blech! Do you think she has pica??? I think it serves me right. When Brother was younger, I told him that dirt was chocolate and he ate it.
Give me the soil, baby! Let's give it to the plants.
Here' take it out of my hand and put it in the pot. (See Guapo? He was out there too!)
Yaaaay!!! Putting the dirt in the pot.
So that's it. I need to grab some pictures of Don's fancy garden. Oh and to let you all know, my plants are thriving. A couple of hours later, those tomato plants already started curling forward and the tiny bloom on one of the plants had gotten bigger. INCREDIBLE!

Plant a seed and it'll grow!

2nd Annual Seton Soles 5K

Saturday morning we woke up early and headed out to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Both Don and I were struggling to get up, but we'd committed to each other that we'd run this race. Don wanted to get in another 5K race before his triathlon in May and me...well, here's the story.

Last year, when I was getting out and about after having Mari, I had enough confidence to attempt a race. Don had recently purchased a jogging stroller for me and I wanted to see how I'd be able to use it in a race setting. At this point in time, I hadn't decided to run the NYC Marathon, I was just testing out my new mommy legs. I found the Seton Soles 5K and since it was the inaugural year, I figured, 'eh, why not. Will was in town and he decided to run it with us too.

This was the race that started it all. The running, the training, the catalyst to dreaming big! Little did I know that a race would have such an impact on my life. And not just my life, but other's as well. Don is going to be doing his first triathlon. My sister just completed her triathlon, a half marathon, and plans to run her own marathon this year!! Will not only shaved 6 minutes off his 5K race, but he won one too!!! Incredible.

There we were bright and early, happy as could be. The wind pounded down on us at every hill, but I powered through. Mari is a lot bigger, and let me tell you, pushing her is quite a bit harder than it used to be. I don't know how my time was, but I was happy to know that I could wake up and bust out a 5K, even after a few months off of running.
And I have to say that Mari ate an entire banana and half a large orange before the race. She's definitely eating more and I think it may be a growth spurt. Who knows, maybe next year she'll be running with us...nah, she'll need to ride in the jogging stroller a little longer.