Funny

I feel so empty

Sometimes Life is Just NOT Fair

Chihuly at Desert Botanical Gardens

We went to the Desert Botanical Gardens today to see the world famous Chihuly exhibit. It was spectacular! We went early enough to get a good look at all the pieces, then waited for sunset and darkness to see them all again lit up. WOW! It was magnificent. We all had a great family time and truly enjoyed the Gardens. I would do it again in a heart beat! A MUST see.
Click on the image to enlarge

FAVORITE THINGS FRIDAY

ILOVE my jewelry tree! I got this for a friend of mine for Christmas, but I loved it so much, I kept it for myself! It's a heavy stand, holds most of my daily necklaces and bracelets. I love it becuase I used to keep all these in my jewelry box, everytime I wanted to wear them I would have to take the time to detangle the piece. Here is a cleaner look of it, they come in a few colors.
I got it at Urban Outfitters on sale for $19.99

Bill came home with some great finds from a local Kitchen Store. He found 4 clay bolws from Pomaire Chile! Pomaire is a town the local Artisans are best known for their clay goods. I encourage you to read the link. I was hoping for Monica to make Pastel the Choclo, which is one of my favorite Chilean dishes, but since corn is not in season right now, she went for the next best thing. Pastel the Papas, which is the Chilean version of a Sheppards Pie, only different. Monica and Bill put their hearts and souls into this meal. YUM! It made me homesick for my mom and my country. I can't wait for corn season!

FAVORITE THINGS FRIDAY

One of my favorite things in our house is our ironing board! For a few years our ironing board would be folded out in our bedroom, taking up space, not to mention that it also became a free landing zone. We iron daily, I know I should just do it one night for the entire week, no thanks! When Sofia and I were in Chile a couple of summers ago, Bill surprised with some great home improvements and this was one of them. It is in our family room at the "bar", it folds and unfolds very easily. We keep the iron on the bottom cabinet (with the booze).
I love it!!

A little Update

I had a little time to kill before picking up Sofia from Church. We have been attending this church for over a year. On Wednesday nights there is dinner for the families and also choir practice for the children and Pioneer Club, an Awana/Sunday school type program for children. One night of the week we don't have to worry about what to make for dinner! It is good fellowship and a good time all around.

Bill is at a Microsoft Awards Dinner. He has been very busy with his job. Lots of meetings on all sides of town. Thank goodness for his Prius as his gas consumption would be way high otherwise. We are grateful for his job and the amount of work and opportunity it provides.

My job on the other hand is really suffering. Our business levels are very low. We depend mostly on conference business and most corporations are not spending the money on large and elaborate conferences. We had many groups cancel in the past few months and I found out today that another big group cancelled their March conference. Ouch

I am confident that things will turn around eventually, in the meantime we have had to let go of some of our luxuries, and we are totally fine with that. (well, I must admit, I miss the housekeeper!).

Sofia is doing great in school. She cruises through her homework and enjoys school overall. The school offers Recorder lessons on Mondays, so she is doing that now after school. I seriously didn't even know what a Recorder was until this year! Since she has piano and reading music experience she is picking up the Recorder very fast. She takes Tap and she also takes Ballet classes. The dance studio is preparing for the spring recital, we can't wait! The dance studio she attends is a Christian based studio, meaning very conservative in the music, lyrics, dance moves and dance costumes. We love it, she has been at this studio since she was 3 years old.

That's it for my little update, must go get the June bug.

Love and Hugs to you all!

P.S. I started posting pictures again on my iPhone blog, check it out, I welcome comments!

Sad Loss

We are proud of the Arizona Cardinals! Sad loss, but we are proud just the same. It was a good Superbowl game.

Kayaking

My best gal pal Suzi bought herself a kayak. Bill and I have been talking about doing the same for a couple of years now. Now we both have the bug. Today I went with Suzi and our pal DougE Fresh to test out her Kayak and rent a couple to try out different types of styles. The Kayak place at Tempe Town Lake was closed due to weather, (gimme a break! it was a little windy!). So we took turns using Suzi's. It was such a good time! I can't wait to be able to get our own kayak, because I am hooked!

P.S. Click on the picture to enlarge

FAVORITE THINGS FRIDAY

I love to share the things I love. Today I want to share my love for this simple yet so time efficient laundry hamper. It truly is one of my favorite things in our home. I know, call me silly, but it is! I never have to sort laundry, it's just the right size to fit in our walk in closet, it has wheels and it makes a not so fun task more enjoyable! Sofia uses it now too, she used to have a laundry hamperin her room, but now she sorts her dirty clothes in our hamper. Darks, colors and whites. On days when I am only doing one load, I can just take out the individual sack and take it to the washer. On days when I do all three loads, I just roll it to the hallway next to the washer. It lets everyone know it's laundry time and to help out! L-O-V-E it!

P.S. got it at Costco for under $30.00

BARISTA SPECIAL

I have always loved a good flavored tea, and was delighted to stumble upon Starbucks' '

London Fog Tea Latte'. Have you tried it yet? It is good. Really. Full leaf Earl Grey tea with steamed milk + vanilla. Perfect for my 2 hour stop at starbucks yesterday. I had some time to kill before an appointment. We live too far west to go home and come back into town, so I often find myself at a coffee shop. (I must admit I love these moments to myself!) Yesterday I found out that several (all?) Starbucks have some 'Barista Specials' where you can try a tea latte for 2 bucks after 2PM!

Another thing I found out from my barista Jill, you can go here on their site and get the nutrional facts of EVERY drink they have. Note to self, switch to non-fat milk! I love Starbucks!

School Field Trip

Sofia's school went on a field trip last week to the Natural History Museum in Mesa. Bill was one of the parent drivers and I think he had more fun than the kids. It is a pretty impressive museum, especially if you like dinasours. Sofia truly enjoyed it.

Family Hike

Sofia's school does an annual famliy hike at South Mountain Park. This is the largest city park in the country. About 40-50 families showed up for the fun event. We all started the trail at about 9am, the weather could not be more perfect, sunny warm, about 77 degrees. It was a spectacular event we hope to participate in years to come.

Happy Birthday Sis!

Tomorrow January 15 is my sister Patti's birthday. In the above picture is her and my nephew Evan, taken when they were both here last spring. It was such a fun few weeks for all of us and Patti always makes everything more fun! I miss her...

Wednesday's with Dad

Aren't they just adorable? Wednesday's with Dad. On Wednesdays I only pick up Sofia (no car-pool) from school. Since Bill only works 3 blocks from her school, we meet Bill for coffee/hot cocoa or a smoothie at Jamba Juice. Sometime we just go up to his office and say hello.

Light Rail

Last week I mentioned that we were going on a family adventure and ride Phoenix Valley Metro's new Light Rail system. I have been excited about the Light Rail system for several reasons. The main reason, Bill and Sofia are down town for work and school, and I thought we may actually get to use the system once in a while. Another reason is the obvious, less cars on the road=less polution=better environment, and I am all for a Green environment. We recycle, we don't use plastic bags for groceries, we drive a Prius, and the list goes on, seriously, we do the best we can to contribute to a cleaner earth. Don't get me wrong, I admit we have a long ways to go!

On with the Light Rail, we go to the parking lot where the system begins. 19th Avenue and Bethany Home Road. This is about 20 miles from our house. We arrive and we realize we were not the only ones who waited after the week end grand opening and opted to go on a Monday when we thought everyone would be at work! I must also mention that from the 27th until the 31st of Dec. it was FREE. We get on, fortunately we got seats, some people were standing, others complaining about standing etc. Sofia was very excited, I wanted to stay positive, but I have a "thing" about public spaces, ie: bathrooms, railing, door handles etc. So, as you can imagine I was a bit out of my element. We decided since we had seats we would take the train to the end of the line, all the way to Mesa. We had planned on stoppin at a few stops on the way back. There were nice people on the train, some call it bus, I will call it train, because it is MY note! There were good experiences on the train and some happy moments. That being said I will write about the negative.

Negative experience #1. The trains had been running for a couple of months, practice runs, no passengers, just getting the system running smoothly before us passengers get on. Getting the traffic in the valley used to the trains running. Yes there were several accidents during this testing period! It didn't feel to me like our conductor had much practice. The system didn't run smoothly, I won't go into detail about it, but I was a bit disappointed in the lack of organization.

Negative experience #2. Half way to Mesa a young man and two men in scrubs get on, the young man had Down Syndrome, he sat dierectly behind me and Sofia. All was good until I saw the young man lift his derrier off the seat and flatulate LOUDLY! Can I just reming you, I was sitting behind him!! Ok. I ignored it, distracted Sofia from saying anything, but by the FOURTH TIME, I was so nautious and ready to be off that train, except for we were pretty much trapped. It was packed like sardines, people trying to get on at the stops could not and we didn't want to get stuck waiting for the train all day, if we got off. Finally they got off, the scrubs didn't even apologize.

We get to Mesa, about and hour and half later. We walked to a place Bill checked out for us. A Vietnamese Restaurant called UnPHOgettable. Pho is a vietnamese soup, but it is so much more than the soup, I highly recommend you find a Pho Restaurant. It was amazing, only I didn't have much of an appetite after that lovely ride on our new and exciting Light Rail system. The restaurant was part of several Asian businessess in a building that used to be a Target, which like many business establishments, went under because of downfall in business during the light rail construction. There is an incredible Asian market there, we spent over an hour looking around. The produce section alone was impressive.

Back on the train. Got on okay, still packed sardines, didn't get seats this time, but it was okay. Sofia liked standing and trying to balance while moving. We got off in Tempe, near ASU, walk around, did a little shopping. Went to the station, PACKED, had to wait for two trains to get on. We were going to stop downtown, but it was getting late.

Bad experience #3. An intoxicated/homeless man gets on the bus, staning room only. We were about 4 feet from him. He would fall asleep, yes, standing. He would wake as he would hit someones shoulder or chest with his drowsy smelly head. I felt sorry for the guy. People were laughing and making fun of him. At one stop some guy tried to push him off the train, he threw a stink, literally, and stayed on. Bad experience #4. The lesser of them, but none the less an unpleasant one. At one point were were completely stopped for about a half hour, that may not seem to be a long time for most people, trust me, it was for me! The train in front of us had a medical emergency, the train in back of us had the conductor pass out, medical emergency #2. What can you do but wait it out. I don't think we will be riding the train much, I hope that a lot of other people do. If it was 10 minutes or less from my house and dropped me off walking distance from my work, I would take it. We will take it to any stadium event down town, and perhaps back to UnPHOgettable, because that restaurant and the Light Rail experience was Unforgettable.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVAN

My nephew Evan is 14 years old today! Happy Birthday Evan! I wish we could all be celebrating together. Evan is an amazing young man, we were so happy to see him twice this year! In the spring, him and his sister Nyssa came for one week. We had so much fun as a family during their visit. Hung out in the pool, bbq'd, went to a hockey game. My sister Patti and Reagan and my Mom were also here. We were thrilled when he announced that he did not want to return with his sister (who had to return to school). He extended his stay an extra week (thank you homeschool!). He is now attending public school, 9th grade and rocking the Debate Team. We are so proud of him.
The second time we got to see Evan was in San Diego this summer. We took the kids to Seaworld and LegoLand, and hung out on the beach. It was such a great time. Evan and Bill went Kayaking on the bay in San Diego, they got to explore some caves and see sharks! The night before he was very excited about going Kayaking, he also confessed that he was concerned about sharks. Bill and I told him he would not be seeing sharks and not to worry. Bruce, my brother in law also told him not to worry about sharks, not a problem. They saw HUNDREDS of sharks! They were small, but none the less sharks! Evan was a good sport, so brave and cool about it. He's just a cool kid, we just adore him.

Meet Poochy

Santa left us a great big dog this year. Sofia loves him. She named him Poochy, don't know why, she just did. The above pictures were not taken all in one night, they are all different nights since Christmas. You will notice that she is not wearing the sparkly pink night gown in one picture only. Aunt Adria made that for her, she loves it so much, I had to hide it so I could wash it! For the past few years Adria makes Sofia night gowns for Christmas and that is the one gift she gets to open (and wear) on Chrismas Eve.

Before going to bed, I go in and check on Sofia, to find Poochy in some interesting pose, I just had to capture it in pictures. Sofia gets a kick out of seeing the picture the next morning when I show her. That Poochy sure takes up a lot of room!

NO MORE SOCCER

Bill and I have decided not to do soccer this winter. After the fall season, we realized that Sofia would just rather run. She is not a competitive child at all. I think that is part of being an only child, the non competive thing. After many years of soccer, we have decided to stop, unless she lets us know that she wants to return. Not to mention the fact that the games were all on Saturdays, not giving us much freedom to get away on the week ends. We did soccer for a few reasons, to learn teamwork, exercise and fun. We hope to put her in another sport soon, right now we have to let her figure it out on her own. She is still taking Ballet, Tap, Piano lessons and choir at church. So far she has not missed soccer!

A JOY TO RIDE WITH MY DAUGHTER!

After a while you look for those "first" moments, like her first steps, her first words, her first day of school, etc. Lately we have not had many of those days, she is growing so fast! Today I was thrilled to have our FIRST bike ride together. It may not sound very thrilling, but I was overcome with joy and pride. I am so glad that she finally learned to ride her bike! When we got home, we stopped at the driveway and she said, "let's go one more time around the block!"

Our Summer Vacation July/August 2008

After spending a couple of weeks in Wenatchee WA with my sister and mom, we headed to Lake Cresent, in the Olimpic National Park. It is certainly my favorite place on earth! We hope to return this summer.

Tapino

Last night Bill and I met our friends Mitch and Judy who are visiting for the holidays, and our friends Doug and Barb. We chose this wonderful place www.tapino.com it's a Tapas Bar. Ever since Bill and I honeymooned in Spain, we have been fond of Tapas, which are basically appetizer size dishes. Rob Porter, the Chef and owner of Tapino used to be a chef at the Biltmore. This place is amazing, the wine list alone was impressive. The food was beautiful and so delicious. The Carpaccio was my favorite, with fried capers, OMG!! We ordered about 10 different dishes and just enjoyed each one. We then went to a Irish Pub to listen to some great live music. Today, we are hurting...

Happy New Year!!

I don't normally make resolutions, but this year I hope to update more on this blog. Some of my family and friends have been complaining about me not keeping this updated. I get stuck because I want to be able to catch you up on what we have been doing. I am not even going to bother! I will just start from today and take you all back as it comes to me.

Our holidays were fantastic. It was quiet and peaceful. Our tree was filled with presents from Santa and those we love. Sofia was a happy girl that morning and my heart fills with joy to think of her excitement and thrill that morning.

LAST year she got a bike for Christams, THIS year she is learning to ride it! In the last couple of days we've taken her to the park to ride. First day Bill took off the pedals and she learned balance and did great, second day, pedals. She rides on her own for a few feet. She has only fallen three or four times on the grass and gotten up and picked her self right up and got back on again. I am so proud of her.

POOL FUN

To MY Dad, Happy Father's Day

Even though my Dad is in Chile, I always feel him so close to me always. His words of wisdom, advice and life lessons are with me daily. I have always know as a child and as an adult that my dad has always wanted me to just be happy. He lives his life that way, if it doesn't make you or someone else happy don't do it. He and my mom both have been great examples of hard work and an incredible work ethic. My dad is adventurous and will try anything once, I love that about him! The best time with my dad was a couple of years ago when we all went to Chile and he and my mom took us on the best vacation of our lives to the south of Chile. Every moment of that trip was incredible. To see my parents in their homeland and be so deep into my culture with my husband and daughter, it was a great experience and I have my dad to thank for that. I have a lot to thank my dad for, but it would take a life time. I love you Daddy, always.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

TRULY, THE BEST FATHER IN THE WORLD

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REAGAN!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE CUTES TWO YEAR OLD ON THE PLANET. MY NEPHEW REAGAN TURNS TWO TODAY! SENDING LOTS OF BIRTHDAY LOVE TO HIM!

MY BABY IS 6 YEARS OLD

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO? SHE CAN'T BE 6 YEARS OLD ALREADY!! WE ASKED HER HOW SHE FELT NOW THAT SHE IS 6 AND SHE SAID "I FEEL TALLER AND OLDER AND HAPPY." SHE HAD A GREAT BIRTHDAY, THE CELEBRATION STARTED ON JUNE 1ST AND SHE IS STILL GETTING CARDS AND PACKAGES IN THE MAIL. SHE HAD TWO BIRTHDAY PARTIES AND GOT LOTS OF SPECIAL GIFTS. SHE IS OUR PRECIOUS GIFT, DAILY.