Ice skating, a nice Christmas surprise and more.....

Happy Thursday ya'll! I'm sitting here on the couch with a blanket, my warmed up rice bag, my trusty box of tissue and the laptop. I'll start out with our event last night. We "adopted" a family for Christmas. We had some very thoughtful and generous people get together and give what they could to this family. We met at their house and were waiting outside for the last person to arrive. It was almost 7pm and I figured we might as well start putting the boxes on their porch (quietly) so that we would be ready for when the last person arrived. As it turns out, she was ALREADY inside the house with the mom. Lol. There we were, waiting out in the cold for about 15 minutes.....and she was super early and inside the whole time! Anyhow, we took in the items and sang Feliz Navidad. We were able to meet a few of the kids and it was just an amazing feeling being able to bring people together for such a great cause. Just like our Christmas caroling, I definitely want to keep this tradition going each year.

Earlier in the day, Calvin told me how he volunteered me to make a fruitcake for his class party. We settled on cupcakes and mini apples. By the time we got home from the store, I started the cupcakes around 9ish or so. I helped the boys put together their gifts for their teachers and finally got them into bed. 60+ cupcakes later, I knocked out, too.

TODAY-
Today was the last day of school for the kids, including myself. Yay! 2 weeks of vacation. Hopefully I'll get to sleep in on one of these days! It sounds like most classrooms have fun days planned for the last day before any vacation. In our classroom, we had the kids decorate gingerbread men cookies. They also played games, played on the computer, watched a movie, helped us deliver things and colored. It was a fun day for sure. Once I got home, we got ready to go ice skating in Walnut Creek. It's been really cold lately so I packed enough warm clothes for the entire winter! We had so much fun! The boys usually go ice skating once a year, which isn't much at all. They have been getting better each year. Tonight, they did so well! They were skating fast, doing turns, etc. Calvin looked like he was trying out for the olympics! Lol. Ok, maybe he wasn't that good, but he was definitely better than last year. While I was skating, I fell pretty hard right onto my butt and felt like I got whiplash!!! Good thing I was wearing my backpack so that kept my back and head from hitting the ice. Ice skating sure is dangerous!
Here are some pics.

One of the boys said that this was THE BEST NIGHT EVER!!!!

Me and my 3 little bears

This is where Mori was posted for the majority of the night.....holding onto the wall!!

Tio James and the boys

Waiting to get back onto the ice while it's being cleaned

After we were done, we headed to Chik-fil-a. Those chicken sandwiches with the pickles inside were SOOOOO good! The boys played in the play place for a bit while James and I got to catch up. It was relaxing for me to sit down and chat with my brother. The boys had a blast in there with their new friends. Carson even met a 4 yr old girl who they nicknamed "Vicious!!!" Lol. Picture in your mind Carson, but skinnier, smaller, younger, darker.....aaaannnddd a GIRL! So the same, but different!
This little girl has older brothers so she was playing with the boys and other kids as if she were a boy. It was funny to watch her play hit Carson harder and harder until she was really hitting him. He was CRACKING UP! I pictured him putting his arm out and pushing her head back with one hand while her arms flailed around. It didn't happen, but that would have been funny.

So, we leave good ol' Chik-fil-a and headed home. Everyone is exhausted. We arrived home to find that someone had delivered a bunch of Christmas presents to our house for US! We have no idea who it was, there were 3 garbage bags full of gifts with the kids name's on them. What a beautiful surprise! It looks like while we were planning a Christmas surprise for one family, someone else out there was planning one for US! Needless to say, I am grateful for whoever put their time, money and love into doing that for us.

Tomorrow will be my official Christmas shopping day. Hopefully it won't be too bad out there with all of the other last minute shoppers. Tomorrow (make that TODAY since it's now 12:02 am) is also my 36th birthday. I've always loved the Christmas season with the beautiful music, feelings of love and service, family time and my birthday of course! Maybe we'll get together tonight with the family for cake and ice cream. All I know is, I'm so grateful to be one year older. I'm grateful for my life, my family, my health, my children and especially my mom. I think that this is the first year that she hasn't been with us for Christmas (she's still in Mexico!)

I'm off to bed now. I definitely need my beauty sleep. Good night friends!

Annual tamale making and spiritual/service Sunday

Ok, so, earlier tonight I actually had about 45 minutes to sit on the couch and put my feet up. I took the laptop with me and started writing in here. I saved it a couple of times, but apparently it didn't REALLY save. I came back to it just now (11pm) and it's gone. I guess I'm starting over. Here we go....

Yesterday/Saturday was our annual tamale making day. We've done it every year around Christmas time ever since I can remember. It's definitely not the same now that my Grandma and Grandpa aren't alive, but we still keep the tradition going. Hopefully one day, my kids will be doing this with their families. My mom and Uncle Niggie are still in Mexico, so they missed out on this one. I'm sure they're getting better tamales over there! Lol. 

Irma and Diana

Anyhow, we got together at my sister's house. Everything was set up outside of their pool house. They have an outdoor/covered kitchen so we got to work in there and in the patio area. It was cold and raining most of the day, but we had a blast. I love, love, love spending time with my family. We had different people putting the masa on the husks, putting the meat/sauce inside and rolling them up. We had cookers and taker-outers. Lol. We even had taste testers! Imagine that! We had pork tamales, cheese and jalapeno tamales and some sweet tamales. We chatted, laughed, watched tv, listened to music, yelled at the kids......you had to know that was coming! I'm sure they didn't mind that we showed up 2 hours after starting time. After dropping off Marquesa at volleyball practice and going to Winco with the boys, we finally arrived. I'm sure out of the 7ish hours that we were there, I spent about 2 hours making tamales.....maybe even a bit less. It's a lot of work looking after those boys. Following them, checking on them, feeding them, yelling at them, stopping arguments, making sure they weren't getting into trouble, etc. They had fun, though. They got to play with their cousins all day long. 

Me and my Nina

Calvin enjoying a snack

Maxwell grubbin on palomitas

So we had a great day. I even got out with my brother and sister for about an hour. That NEVER happens! We went to Kirkland's and Cost Plus World Market. I have to say, Kirkland's was kinda phony. I LOVE CPWM, though! They have so many cute things in there, even in my price range! Lol. In case you forgot what my brother looks and acts like, here's a perfect pic of him in action!

Here he is when I took a pic of him.

I told him that I was re-taking the picture since he flipped me off, and this is what I got! Lol. Gotta love him!

So, that was our day. I missed my mom being there and it brought back memories of having tamale day at my mom's house and having my Grandma there. It also reminded me of how lucky we are to have a family that actually loves each other and enjoys doing things together. It's a lot of work and planning, but so worth it. 

Carson getting a mani/pedi from his cousins and their friend. Look at those monster feet! He's 6!!!

Here he is after his makeover. Lol. He said that he was Nicki Minaj!! Lol.

Today/Sunday- 

We went to church this morning. The kids have a little cold and I almost kept them home, but we missed last week because one of them was sick. So, we got ready for church and went. I was so glad that we did! We heard 2 great talks. One of my bestest friends in the whole wide world gave such a beautiful talk on service and the Savior. It really touched me and I'm sure everyone felt the spirit today! We had great talks during Sunday School and Relief Society, as usual. We came home after church and rested for a bit. We then headed out to help at the Christmas basket program that the Friends of Oakley put on every year. We were able to help out for a little while. There were a lot of volunteers and we did what we could without being in the way.

The boys were excited to serve......for a little while. 

It was slow because they started around 11, I think, so by the time we arrived, they were handing out the last sets of food/gifts. After a while, the boys got bored and started messing around. I took this pic when they were waiting for a job to do.

Calvin, Maxwell, Carson and Marquesa

After I saw that they were playing too much, not listening, etc., I decided that it was time for us to go home. They had a few extra boxes of food/turkeys so we were able to take one with us and deliver it to a family that is in need. That felt good to be able to help someone out. We definitely didn't expect that, but I told the boys that when we serve others, we get blessings. 

Sunday night-

After another bit of rest, we headed out to the Interfaith Christmas Choral Festival at our Stake Center in Antioch. There were people from different local churches singing. It was really beautiful! They also had a Creche Exhibit where they displayed lots of neat nativity scenes from around the world. I took a few pics of the ones that I liked. 

Israel

Alaska

Uganda

On our way home from that, we picked up an extra turkey that someone saved for US. I told the kids again, BLESSINGS! Lol. I really love being able to serve others. After being on the receiving end so much, it feels great to do the same for others. 

So, that was our weekend. It's after midnight, the wind is HOWLING outside and I guess I need to get to bed. It's our last week of school before Christmas vacation. Since I work for the school district, I'm now home with the kids on their breaks. It's the best thing, ever! I LOVE working with the kids in my classroom (I'm a teacher's aide) and I LOVE being able to pick up my boys after school and spend more time with them. I wonder how many people really read through this whole thing????

It really helps me get things out and remember what our family has done. Hopefully it gives you something to do if you can't sleep! 

I'm going to re-heat my rice pack, check on the kids for the last time and them I'm going to bed. Night people!

Christmas caroling- So much more than just singing!

Tonight was our second annual Christmas caroling night. Last year, I planned it very last minute and there were only a few of us that went. We still had a fun time, though. This year, I thought about it earlier so of course we had more people. We all met at my house and I had mexican hot chocolate and desserts for everyone. Different people brought candy canes, lighted toys for the kids and even hand sanitizer!! Lol. You can never have too much with kids around! Even our church Missionaries came along, Elder Clayton and Elder Green. My Aunt Lucy and her husband Joe joined us. Also, their daughter in law Yvonne and her son, Jr. My cousin Gloria and her son, Isaiah. Her sister, Joanna, and her son, Andres (he's the baby in the bear outfit.) Their mom, Estella (my mom's cousin) also came. My friends from church, Jennifer and Sasha also brought their families. Jenn, her husband Dean and their 2 daughters, Audrey and Gabby. Also, Sasha and her 4 kids, Kai, Hali, Roxi and Daisi. Our neighbor Jeanette brought her 2 kids, Arissa and Madison and Jeanette's grandson, Freddy. They also brought along a friend from school, Mariah. Another cousin of mine, Gloria, stopped by with her husband Leo and their daughter Carina. Me and my 3 boys were here, of course, and Mori and Marquesa joined us after her volleyball practice.

So, after eating and drinking and the kids running around the house and me yelling at my boys to get their stuff together and get outside, and everyone else dropping chocolate brownie crumbs everywhere, lol, we went outside and took this pic.

Our caroling band of misfits! Lol.

We then headed out around the neighborhood, armed with just 3 songs. Last year we had a bunch and I thought that it would be easier to only sing a few. We sang Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Jingle Bells and Feliz Navidad. We did try a couple of different songs, but failed! I don't think any of us knew all of the words to Frosty the Snowman!!! Lol. Most of the neighbors seemed grateful. Maybe 1 seemed impatient, but smiled and said thanks. We sang our songs and wished everyone a Merry Christmas or a Feliz Navidad. 

I live in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood and a lot of the original people who built these houses in the 70's are still here. Of course in seeing the older folks, I was reminded of my Grandparents, Nemecio and Sara Munoz. They have both been dead for a few years now, but I still miss them every day. When we came up to the house of one of their best friends, Arcadio and Natalia. Arcadio came outsid and he was so happy to see us. He started touching and hugging the kids. His son and his wife came out with Natalia, who was in a wheelchair. I remember her and my Grandma sitting at our table or at Natalia's table talking about all of their kids, their labors (and who's was longer and harder! Lol,) their jobs, the joys and pains in their lives, etc. They endured so much more than any of us have. I am so grateful to have been around long enough to hear their stories. I cherish them to this day. So, as I'm standing in their driveway singing, I started crying. I was thinking about how much I wished my Grandparents were still her. I was happy to see Arcadio and Natalia still alive and happy. We used to walk over to their house with my Grandma and the boys. They would play on their swing in the front yard. Natalia always had Madeleine cookies for the boys. They LOVED them! It's funny how they always remembered her cookies! One of the boys even asked me tonight if she had any. Lol. So we finished singing and moved on. I got to give them both a hug and wish them a Feliz Navidad. That was definitely the best part of the night. 

Grandma Sara a few years ago around Christmas time. I miss you Grandma!

We moved on and finished caroling around the neighborhood. Mostly everyone went home, except for a few kids that stayed for more hot chocolate and brownies. After they went home, I cleaned up and we started working on homework, dinner, bedtime routine, etc. I don't get on the computer until the kids are all asleep, so it's usually pretty late. Time goes by so fast when I'm sitting here typing away. I have the Christmas lights on and Christmas music playing on Pandora. In writing things down, I'm remembering how much fun we had. I can't sing AT ALL, but I was singing loud tonight! Lol. I'm grateful to all of my friends and family that came out to join us. Before tonight, I was thinking that maybe every year we could carol in a different neighborhood, but after tonight, I want to do it in my own neighborhood. I want to bring Christmas cheer to my neighbors and see the older folks smile. 

I'm trying my best to remember the true meaning of Christmas, which to me means Jesus' birth and remembering his life. It's so much work to have a job, be a mom, take care of the kids and the house, etc. Who really has extra time to be of service to others??? It's work, it takes time and sometimes it isn't that much fun. Well, tonight, it was fun. I felt happy and grateful. I hope that everyone else did, too. Next year, it will be even better. We'll have glow sticks and necklaces for the kids. We'll have a couple more songs to sing. Hopefully, we'll have more people to join us. Maybe we'll hand out candy canes and oranges to the people that we sing to. They used to do that every year during Christmas time. The fire dept. would come around with Santa on a fire truck and he would hand out candy canes and oranges to all of us kids. Those were the good ol' days! 

I'm heading to bed now. I hope that all of you can celebrate our Savior, Jesus Christ, this month. Find something to do in your community. Find someone to serve. Make it fun! I'm already wondering what else we can do to bring smiles to others before Christmas is over with. Any ideas??????

Do you see why I called my blog IF YOU GIVE A MOM A BLOG, kind of like the story IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE. My thoughts lead from one idea to the next to the next, until I finally make it back to my first thought.....but only after telling a long story in between!

Night all!

I love my family!

I've had a lot going through my mind lately and I don't have time to really think and relax until the kids are sleeping. Last night, we were all at home and it wasn't a happy environment. Lots of arguing, yelling, unhappy kids and unhappy mom. There was a knock at the door and it was the youth of our church a.k.a. our ward family. They had a combined YM/YW activity where the young men and young women, along with their chaperones, went Christmas caroling and spread good cheer and beautiful voices to all! It was so nice to feel the happiness that came with them! We are going caroling on Monday night and it made me more excited to spread the holiday cheer after hearing all of them sing on our porch. Marquesa told me that we weren't on their schedule, but she added us. Thank you Marquesa because you know that we always need extra happiness in our home!
The downside for the carolers was:

1. Someone probably went home with crap on their shoes from standing in our yard. The neighbors have TONS of wild cats that love to crap in our yard. BTW, I spefically do NOT have animals because I don't want to care for another living thing OR clean up after their crap! Besides, I'm super allergic. EVERY SINGLE time we walk in our yard, someone steps in cat crap. It's beyond irritating!

Apparently that was just a tangent that I went off on! Lol.

2. The carolers were given candy canes with an extra bonus.......live ants! Lol! We decorated the tree last weekend and put new candy canes on it. The kids broke a couple of them and I told them to put them in the ziplock bag with the rest of the canes. The bag was in our usual 6 ft. high pile of mess by the front door. When the carolers came, I sent them away with some candy canes. Do you know that they now make swedish fish flavored ones?!?! Back on the subject, someone said that they had ants on their candy cane! Oh Em Gee! How embarrassing. Those disgusting little ants found the broken canes and started invading! So Calvin and I took a bunch off of the tree and traded them. I'm sure Quesa heard about it afterwards because she texted me and asked why I gave them candy canes with ants on them! Lol. They gave US memories and I wanted to return the favor to THEM! DUH!!!!
Also, if you want to join us Christmas caroling, we are going to meet in Oakley on Monday night 12/10 around 6 pm. We are going to spread our Christmas cheer to the residents of Oakley! Message me for details!

So, that was last night. Today, we had a busy day as usual. I was tucking Max (8 yrs. old) into bed and talking to Marquesa at the same time from across the hall. We were talking about her mom going into labor in Hawai'i and she said something that I can't even remember right now. I said something about her mom being fat and pregnant because I remember how fat I was when I was pregnant. YIKES! It was said in  a joking way because I have no idea how big her mom is and I wasn't trying to be mean. So, I told Max that I was about twice my normal size when I was pregnant! He was asking why people get so big and I told him that moms eat more to give their babies vitamins to grow. He told me
"That's why Heavenly Father made me a boy. I'm a picky eater and I wouldn't be eating healthy food to feed my baby vitamins!" Apparently Heavenly Father knew that this would happen, and therefore made him a boy! Lol. My kids say the funniest things sometimes, but I thought that this was priceless!

I've also been thinking about my family a lot lately. Monday night I had a talk with the boys in the car about family and family members who have died and what it might be like when we eventually see them again in Heaven. My mom is in Mexico for a couple of weeks and I keep thinking about how lucky I am to have her in my life. I love her so much and appreciate her every day. She has taught me everything and worked so hard as a single mom to raise me, my sister and brother. I put her through so much when I was in high school and of course, never realized how STUPID I was until later! Once you become a parent, you sure do appreciate your own parents and all that they did for you. So, I've been thinking a lot about family and how lucky we are to have a close one. Tonight, I changed the radio station in the car to Mexican music. I was telling Calvin that any time I hear it, I am reminded of my grandparents. It brought tears to my eyes and made me miss them so much! What I would give to have them around again. You never truly appreciate someone and how much love and beauty they bring to your life, until they're gone.

Family, Family, Family. From my mom who STILL takes care of me, my sister who sent me a picture tonight of a cute pair of jeans that she saw for me, and my brother who came by the other night to bring me his traditional Christmas music cd AND saved the songs to my computer AND included all of the song information just like a store bought cd......I have to say that I am truly blessed with an amazing family. Thank you to my brother, who also brought me our family's Christmas angels. Ever since we were little, we've had these silky angel ornaments. One is pink and one is blue. My mom used to put them on our tree every year when we were growing up. We found them in a box 2 years ago and James and I were fighting over who had "custody rights." He took them last year and I was supposed to have them this year. I guess Diana will get them next year. So, he sent us a video last week of his Christmas tree and zoomed in on MY angels at the end of his video. I told him to stop holding them for ransom and to BRING THEM TO ME NOW!!!! When he came to bring me the cd the other night, he walked right in and held up the cd. I reached straight into his front hoodie pocket looking for the angels and there they were. Lol. That made our tree perfect! I love family traditions! I love my family!

In an effort to actually go to bed before midnight (too late,) I'm signing off.

Night friends! Merry Christmas! Or as Eddie Murphy would say in Trading Places..... "Merry New Year!"

Relief Society is SUCH a RELIEF!!!

Shaunika and I

Sister Hertig pushed Jenn and Renee' out of the way to get in on this pic!

Word to yer mutha!

Christmas song quiz #2. I think we need to try #1 next

Wow. Tonight was the best night that I've had in a super long time! Look at me, I'm still up and it's after midnight! Well, not really because of my fun night. I'm usually up till about 11:30ish. Anyhow, tonight we had our Relief Society Christmas dinner at Sister Montgomery's house. We were served with a yummy pear and pomegranate salad and also a chicken dish (with a name that I can't remember,) and some veggies. 
When we arrived, we were given a sheet of Christmas songs and we had to guess the correct names. Instead of saying Silent Night, it said something like Sir Lancelot with laryngitis! Get it, a silent knight!?!?! Lol. We had to decode each one. Shaunika and I started helping each other since it was super hard. We moved on to eat dinner and took our paper with us. We asked the ladies at our table to help us out so that we could be the winners of the imaginary prize that we were hoping to win! There were 8 of us. Myself, Shaunika, Cindy, Rosie, Renee', Marissa, Sasha and Jennifer. We all took turns and between all of us, we answered about 30 of the 36 on the list. We got desperate for the gold, so SOMEONE had the bright idea to pull out a cell phone and search on the internet for assistance. Well, what do you know!!!! The answers in the EXACT order that we needed them were literally at our fingertips! We just double checked our answers......aaaannnddd filled in the few remaining ones that we didn't have. I don't remember the last time that I laughed so hard. It was the funnest quiz ever. We had a blast figuring out the answers. Such as #33 on the list. It read like this: Natal celebration devoid of color, rather albino, as a hallucinatory phenomenon for me. AKA the song title of White Christmas. Shaunika and I were trying to figure this one out before we met up with our groupies! We determined that it meant some white newborns tripping out on drugs.....or something like that!

I can't remember who came up with the idea, but someone suggested doing the duck lip pose with the peace sign being thrown up. So, that's what we did. A house full of about 30+ church going, friendly ladies and a good 10% or more of us were puckering up with what looked to be gang signs. No, not gangnam style dancing.....but maybe that will be at the next event. That's where the above pics came from. Just a bunch of ladies running away from their kids to enjoy a wild night on the town! Lol.
Getting back to the story. After dinner, Monica (Sister Montgomery) talked to us about Christmas. We enjoyed some beautiful music played by Sister Lynn and also by Monica. Kristi sang a beautiful song and the group of us sang together as well. There was a sweet spirit there with us while we talked about our Savior and his birth.

Most of us took a dozen cookies to share, along with our recipe. Mine came out a little crisp around the edges and soft in the middle. They didn't look the greatest! Of course, my first batch is always the worst, but that's all that I had time for before I had to leave. The second batch was a full cookie bar because, of course I realized that the first batch of my cookies always suck, but that was after they were in the oven. So, I pulled the bars out as I was leaving and left them to cool. Those turned out so good. Point of the story- my family (and the kid's teachers tomorrow) got the good stuff! Lol. So we had tons of cookies to munch on for dessert. That's when I started taking pics of everyone. I LOVE having pictures to remember the good times. Just like a journal or a blog, you can look back and  re-live the memories vividly. My memory is awful, so I'm hoping that blogging will help me keep the memories alive.
Later we cleaned up our mess while talking, laughing and even crying! I am so blessed to belong to a church where we have an organization that supports women! It is such a blessing to have these sister to talk to and share memories with. They're just like my family, but whiter! Lol.

It's late. I'm tired. I hear snoring and my stomach rumbling. Time to go to bed.

Night all. See what happened tonight when you gave a mom a cookie......or 3!

So even though yesterday was Sunday and I put my typical sappy, crying, grateful post onto Facebook.......tonight I have yet ANOTHER life story to share! Lol. I started writing this on FB, but then remembered I haven't started to blog like I've wanted to. I decided to pop onto blogspot and start one. Here it goes! My very first one.
Yesterday, the kids and I sat down to talk about doing kind acts daily, starting today and throughout the month of December. I thought that this would help us appreciate the little things and make others happy (including ourselves!) I know that when I am in the service of others, I am blessed more than they are!
 17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn ^awisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the ^bservice of your ^cfellowbeings ye are only in the service of your God.
Mosiah 2:17

So tonight we dropped of Marquesa at volleyball practice in Antioch. We had 2 hours to kill while waiting for her and I needed to go to the grocery store. I usually go to Winco, but it was too far. I decided to hit up Save Mart on E. 18th St. That area is older and I haven't been to that store in a long time. The boys and I went inside and took our time loading up our cart. When we finally got into line, we got behind two men who were probably in their 50's. They reminded me of my dad in so many ways. They were white. Lol. My dad was an okie to the max! He called us Mex-Okie's! They looked a little scruffy/dirty. My dad looked like that all the time. They had all generic items on the counter. I remember taking my dad to the store and him always being on a budget. He bought mostly generic items. For some reason, looking at their generic orange and brown bag of bread reminded me so much of him. 

I took him to that store every once in a while since it was close to where he used to live off of Hillcrest. As a matter of fact, the last time that I saw my dad in person was when I took him to that store. He was sick and could barely push the cart. I wish that I would have known then just how sick he was. I told him that I would take him to the Dr's and he said that he had an appointment scheduled a few days later and that he would be ok. I took him back home after helping him shop, and helped him unload his groceries. I remember being in a hurry because we were feeding the Missionaries that night and I had to go home and cook dinner. 
My dad ended up dying a couple/few days after that. It turns out that he had fluid in his lungs and was having trouble breathing. He went to his friends house to get his hair cut for my sister's wedding in a few days. While he was there, he did drugs (as he had done for years,) and it ended up killing him. It's funny how bad my memory is, but as I'm writing this, I'm remembering so many things. The night that he died, we had spent the night at Mori's sisters house in Hayward because we were going with some of his family to Hawai'i the next morning. Sometime while we were gone between that night and early the next morning, my dad had called my house phone and left me a message asking if I could take him to the Dr's. I don't know why he didn't call my cell phone. I don't know why we had to be gone THAT night. I can only assume it was part of Heavenly Father's plan for him to leave this earth and if I was home and had answered my phone, maybe I would have interfered with that plan. 

Anyways, now you know why I called my blog If you give a mom a blog. Everything I do leads to something else, which leads to something else. Just like in those books, If you give a mouse a cookie or If you give a pig a pancake or If you give a moose a muffin. The mouse wants a cookie, then some milk, then the milk reminds him of something that ends up reminding him of something else, which then reminds him of the next thing, etc. That's how I feel like my life is. I'm at home and start doing something and get side tracked. Then, remember something else and start doing that, then I go back to the original thing until I'm side tracked again!

Getting back to the main story of the guys in Save Mart. SEE!!! Lol. Looking at that bag of bread and seeing them made me think of my dad. I wanted to help them because I know how it is to be broke and buy only the generic necessities. I pictured my dad in his place. I almost said something, but stopped. I waited another minute and spoke up. I told the guy that I wanted to pay for the remaining groceries that he had on the counter. He looked at me in confusion and didn't say anything. Then he asked me why. He didn't say yes right away. I hoped that I hadn't offended him. I told him that the boys and I had just talked about doing kind acts today and when I looked at him, he reminded me of my dad and I wanted to help him. I then asked him if it would be ok and he said yes. Him and his friend looked super surprised. He said that he had to figure out if he was going to tell his roommate about this since he had given them some money to buy the food. Lol. He asked my name and I told him. We shook hands. He said thank you to me and the boys. He kept saying that he didn't believe people did things like that. I was kind of embarrassed and didn't want them to think that it was a huge deal, but it felt really good to help them out. 
We put the groceries in the car and I took the boys back in to play the claw machines. They LOVE them and will spend 100 quarters there if I let them. They each had a couple of bucks and played until they each won a small bouncy ball. They were so happy. I thought to myself, the kids were so lucky to each win a ball (these were small/plastic balls, not the tiny/rubber ones that they usually win.) Then I realized that they too were being blessed from serving others. We all drove away happy and I started telling them about how the guys reminded me of my dad and of course I started crying. I told them about how much I miss my dad and how we can all be a family in Heaven one day if we followed the  gospel of Jesus Christ. I told them that they would be able to see Grandpa Jim in Heaven and that they would know and love him. I talked about how crazy and fun my brother James (Tio Jaime) is. I said that he gets that from my dad. I talked about how if I died tomorrow, my one wish would be for them to ALWAYS live by the gospel of Jesus Christ and to never stray from its teachings. I know that my life has changed for the better because of it. I certainly isn't perfect, in fact, it's harder. Brother Zamora mentioned in his testimony yesterday at church that being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints is a lot of work. Life was much easier before, but it sure wasn't happier. Isn't that funny? True happiness comes from trying to live life as Jesus did. 

So, here we are driving to pick up Marquesa and I'm crying my head off and making the boys cry, too. I'm talking about doing ordinances for our ancestors that have died and didn't get the chance to do them themselves and how important family is and how our choice to come to earth was the best choice that we could ever make. Blah, blah, blah. If you give a mouse a cookie.......

Hopefully my rambling on made some kind of sense. I try to go back and check my writing, but what makes sense to me might sound crazy to you. Thanks for reading. My house is quiet. The Christmas lights are on the window and the tree. My boys are all asleep in bed, healthy and warm. The heater just turned off. I have a warm blanket and rice pack keeping me cozy. 
I have so little, but much more than others, and for me that's just enough. I need to remember that every day. I hope you all have just enough, too. 

See what happens when you give a mom a blog. She'll talk your ear off!

Night friends!