Did you know?

That today is the last day of May. Where did the time go? It just flew by and now summer is here.

What to do, what to do?!?

Hot!

Yeah, it's hot outside.

I don't want to be out there!

Goodbye POC...

POC - that is the name of the old Ford Focus I used to drive. I bought it when I first moved to San Angelo and have owned it ever since. It is the first car I have ever purchased myself. I was very proud of POC. But lately, POC had been giving me problems and although they might just be due to old age, I did not want to be with POC during her last moments. So I let her go.

And now, after many many years of waiting, I bought what I wanted. I got a new Rav4! I love it and I knew I would. It's not too big, but then not too small. I also did lots and lots of research on it before deciding on it and it seemed to get good reviews everywhere I read. So... I'm excited. It's nice and roomy and it drives so well... and the best part is... my brakes don't squeak anymore!

I should post a picture, but I haven't taken one of it. I should though while it's still nice and shiny.

And the winner is... DAVID!!!

But will it be Archuleta or Cook??? That's the big question. My mom has been voting for David Archuleta and I have been voting for David Cook. They're both so good, and I agree with Simon when he said that this is the best Idols final yet.

I guess we will have to wait until tomorrow...

And did you know that...

...there are less than two weeks of school left?!

I have got to get going and find Diamond a place for the summer! Aah!!!

Power of Prayer

Tonight more than 10 of us gathered, on the front yard of a friend's house, and we prayed. A friend of ours is in need and there we stood, hand in hand, praying for their needs. It was awesome to feel God's amazing presence there, knowing that He is listening to each one of us lift up a friend.

It's such a wonderful feeling knowing that if ever any person was struggling with a situation, we would do the same thing. All of these people, taking time out of their busy schedule, to be with you and encourage you.

Thank You, Jesus for friends, all of them. Thank You for bringing each one of them into our lives. I pray we continue to lift each other up in prayer and just be there for each other through the times of need. It is always nice to be there during the good, but I pray that even through the bad, we don't give up. Each one of our lives is in Your hands. You will take care of us and although the road may be difficult, it will be well worth it. Thank You, Jesus for loving us unconditionally.

Unprepared

One of my pet peeves: being a working mother.

Not much around that though. Today, Diamond's school celebrated their 20th year building anniversary. They called it Dia de Los Ninos Celebration y Street Dance. It was going to be a special day. They were having this big parade, showing off their projects they made during enrichment week, and a talent show.

This was going to be Diamond's first talent show. A talent show I hesitated for her to be in because I did not want her to get discouraged (which I know we, as parents, should never do.) We cannot protect our children from being hurt all the time and I am glad I signed the permission slip and allowed her to do it because it was a very proud moment for me. She did very well. All of the kids did, even the ones who just did hula hoops around their neck to the tunes of High School Musical were adorable.

It's 5:15 and I leave work and get home to get everything ready. I am rushing because we have to be at the school at 5:45 in order for her to be in the parade. I grab the digital camera and the video camera and push my parents out the door and we're on our way. We make it to school on time and all of the parents patiently wait for their kids to show up in the parade. Here comes Diamond's class and I'm looking all over for her and there she is in front of me. I was so blind. So I'm trying to snap a picture and it keeps giving me an error message... I open the camera and there is no memory stick in it. Great, just great, Pauline.

Later in the evening, the talent show starts. We watch all of the cute acts and here I am saving all of my video camera's battery power for Diamond's act. She is called and approaches the piano. Again, I turn on the video camera to record her performance, hit record, and a stupid icon keeps flashing through the LCD. Goodness gracious, Pauline, there isn't a tape in there!

So, all I have is a memory and this blog post to help me remember my child's first performance in front of a large audience. She played beautifully, but I could tell she was nervous. At the end of her performance, she scurried off stage. I wish I had it on tape... or maybe even just a photograph...

Another year older...

Today was my birthday... 26 is not a very exciting year to turn, but I really enjoyed my day today. Well, actually, my celebration started last night.

Last night, one of my friends planned an ice cream party for me. It was so sweet. They had all sorts of ice cream and every possible topping you could think of. I love me some ice cream! Then, they surprised me with one of the mini mother's day cakes they baked the night before. It was a cute little heart shaped carrot cake. We didn't have any candles, so they lit matches, and there were so many on there that by the time they got around to the last ones, the ones that were lit first were burning to the bottom. It was funny. I didn't even have time to make a wish! Dorinda even hand made a card for everyone to sign... and in it were the words Happy Birthday in Malaysian. It was so funny.

Today, after dropping Diamond off from school, I went back to sleep. I had to take advantage of my day off. When I woke up, it was a total relaxing and peaceful day. It's kind of nice to have the house all to yourself sometimes. I was able to do laundry, do a little workout, dishes, watch some Gilmore Girls, and finally I decided I would go to the mall. I just enjoyed the day. This evening, after Chapter 1, we decided we would go to Chili's. I have some of the greatest friends out there. If you are ever having a bad day, they are always good to cheer you up. They even got me presents. I got a movie, a good smelling candle, and a flat wallet (I think it's the cool new thing out there.) And our server, she gave me a chocolate shake on the house because they couldn't sing for me, which I was totally okay with. She even stood on one of their booths to take our picture. Ah, what a day! Tomorrow it's back to that thing called work...
Tomorrow, my family is going to take me out to dinner... He-he... They already gave me my presents though.

Happy Mother's Day

"Praise her for the many fine things she does." Proverbs 31:31

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there!!!

When I got out of the shower, waiting for me on my TV tray was this...
She made it all by herself. It was adorable!

What a weekend!

This was a busy weekend that seemed to just fly by. Luckily, tomorrow I'm still off for my birthday. Thank you credit union management for that.

On Friday, the day started with a birthday breakfast at Kozy Kitchen with my co-workers. As our tradition, the birthday person gets to pick the location and breakfast is on our boss. Well, the funny thing is, my boss and I share the exact same birthday. We also picked the same location (we secretly put our choices in a bowl and made someone draw for it.) They gave the Gilmore Girls Season 7! I was so excited because this is all I need to complete my collection and they know how persistent I was during Christmas to buy other seasons I needed when they were on sale that weren't in stock. I visited Target everyday asking, "Do you have the Gilmore Girls?" and everyday, they would tell me no. If you've never eaten at Kozy Kitchen, I would definitely recommend it.
Then in the evening, we went to a friend's house and baked cakes for all of the mothers at their church. They had to do 90 cakes... and when I left, we were up to 70 something. That was a lot of baking. Well, Dorinda, who was going to graduate on Saturday, wanted to do something crazy before she officially had to become part of the real world. Me and some friends were giving her ideas like jumping in the lake with all of our clothes on, push each other in carts up and down the Wal-mart parking lot, and stuff like that. Dorinda's idea of crazy = Going to Sonic at 10:30 to drink slushes. Oh, what a crazy night!!! LoL!

Saturday, was our church's annual Mother Daughter Tea Party. I love going to this event. It's just so fun, and it's like playing tea with a bunch of adults. We had the most beautiful table decorations. The little snacks are yummy, my favorite being the cream puffs, and the hostesses of the tables do such a lovely job. It's just always a very enjoyable time.
Embarrassing moment of the day: During the prize drawing for a tea set, they yell out Pauline (or so I thought.) Everyone at my table and the surrounding tables were like, "Yay, Pauline." So here I am, surprised and happy that they chose me, walking up to the stage. And then I realized that they were drawing for the little girl prizes and knew my name was not in that basket. As I approach the stage, I realize in my head, "Oh no! They called Colleen!" So I walk back to my seat pretending that I was just trying to tell Diamond something.

Thank you, Diamond!

Today, Diamond had her Mother's Day Breakfast at school. Her teacher provided muffins, danishes, fruit, juice, and coffee for all of the moms and grandmothers. The room was decorated very elegantly and the kids were asked to dress up. It was absolutely adorable.

The past week, Diamond was asking me a lot of questions about moments that changed her life and for pictures of the family. I didn't know what they were for, just that they were for a project that she was working on. Today, I received that project. Wrapped up in a brown envelope was a hard cover autobiography about Diamond. It was the cutest and sweetest thing ever. She was so proud of all of her hard work. There were several stories in there about her life and even dreams of her future. She even wrote me a poem. I couldn't help but tear up after this. Then, as my mom and I read more into the book, we started laughing because Diamond wrote about things we didn't even know about.

Thank you Diamond for your wonderful Mother's Day present. I know you worked so hard on it and I am very proud of you. I love it and have already showed it off to many people. It's the best Mother's Day gift ever!

Hmm...

Not sure what I am still doing up at this hour. I should be in bed and asleep already.

Good night!

After school snack

I come home to find Diamond eating this...
Yes, she ate the whole quarter of a watermelon all by herself. And she was proud... I wondered what was growing in her tummy.

We should do this every whenever we can!

Girls nights... I love them. Last night, we all got together and watched a movie. It's about 10 at night, and someone is hungry... Hee-hee... So, let's go to the store and buy stuff to make something. How about a midnight breakfast? And that's exactly what we did. Beth had this idea of making pancakes (which had to be Pioneer brand), bacon (which had to be Black Label), orange juice (which had to be no pulp Tropicana), and some Hill Country Fare syrup (which we had debate back and forth on.) I love grocery shopping with other people. It's just so fun and funny sometimes! So we got back to the house and Beth made us some really good fluffy pancakes. It was so delicous! I want to tell the story about the "special pancake" but I'll just keep that one between the girls who were there!
I think we should start cooking nights every whenever we can. It's such a good learning experience for us and we had a blast doing it. We made it to 1 o'clock girls!

Funny moment of the week...

For about three weeks now, we have started a new Friday ritual at work. We try to remember REALLY funny moments through out the week and vote on which one was the funniest. I know it probably sounds really silly, but my boss loves to do it, and it's a little something to make our Fridays a little more exciting.

This week, after having the supposed rice shortage, I told my co-workers that I was going to start a rice field in my back yard. We have to have rice on a regular basis and there is probably not a day when we don't have rice in our rice cooker. I thought this really wasn't a serious matter, but when my mom went to the commissary, they were COMPLETELY out of rice. Well, the kind we eat anyway. Uh-oh. So I wanted to grow my own rice. And they pictured me and my mom with our little triangle bamboo hats gathering rice in the pond with water up to our ankles. Ya, I know, not very funny... But my boss makes a comment and says, "I could live without the rice. I can just eat Tay-pa Ray-men." (And say that just how it is spelled...)

Taypa Raymen? What is Taypa Raymen?

You know, the crunchy noodles that you boil in water.

OH... TOP RAMEN!!!

HA HA HA!!!

DisneyWorld, here we come!

It's finally official! Our reservations are made ...flights and hotels are booked... we're ready to go! In exactly 75 days, my family and I are headed to Florida for a week long trip to DisneyWorld! I can't wait... um, I mean, Diamond can't wait!

You have to do something for the kid inside of you every now and then!

You know what today is?

It's the 1st of May... which means 12 more days until my birthday. Woo-pee!