One More Angel in Heaven...

I am so sad to say that my dear friend Michelle lost her husband last night. I'm a believer that God always has a purpose for us, be it that we usually don't know what it is, I know he has a plan for Marshall, Michelle and their kids. I pray that he sends them comfort during this trying. I ask if you could all please pray for her and her family.

Merry Christmas...

Everyone. Hope you get all the things you wished for. It has been a hard Christmas for me since I keep missing my buddy, Sparky. I promise next year, I'll go back to updating my blog to at least once a week. I'm really excited and can't wait to see my parents open their presents. It should be such a shock for them what my brother and I got them this year.

In the middle of this holiday, I have a special request, one of my dear scrapbooking friends, her husband is in the hospital right now having heart problems, can all of you that read this please pray for her and her family that this holiday brings them health to them. Thanks.

Today, I'm going into work and delivering 7 dozen cookies to all my co-workers that have to work today, since the satellites don't take breaks from holidays. I hope that they enjoy them.

Happy Holidays.

So long good old friend...

We had to put Sparky to "sleep" today. It was very difficult but we all know this day would come. May he be happy in heaven where he is no longer suffering. Sparky was with us since he was 3 months old. He was loved so much. We will miss him dearly.

Long Time Coming...

I know it has been more than 2 months since my last update. But trust me it seems to have only been a week to me. So much has happened, too bad I didn't write it down so I can share it all.

This past weekend (Thanksgiving Weekend) I went a little crazy trying to organize my hobbies stuff that we donated a 2 trucks full of stuff to 2 different charities. I have some stuff still left that I need to purge and continue to clean up but I have been going crazy and needed a break. So the cleaning will have to continue in two weeks. I also have some stuff that I'm going to donate to my church for Catechism and some stuff that I want to sell at the Garage Sale at Picture Me Perfect whenever we have one. Hopefully soon. If you girls want some good paper packs make sure to get there first. I'll post as I know information. But let me tell you I have Basic Grey paper (complete lines) stashed into ziplock bags and I'll be selling those.

So to continue with my goals for '09, as Ululani said she wanted to keep track of my progress. I'm working on cleaning my mess and if anyone sees me shopping for stuff. Stop me. REMIND ME of all the product that I have at home that needs to be used. I have no room for anything else. Yeah and no buying any cardstock. I have tons and tons of cardstock. So please help me out. Need to use my stash, so then I can shop some more. I need nothing right now, not even adhesive, have too much.

So a few more tid bits, my dog, Sparky is not doing so well. We have been having issues with him since April. About 2 weeks ago we finally got an answer as to what is happening to him. He is 12 years old, 84 in dog years, and he is a large dog, a boxer/pitbull mix. The most adorable dog ever. He is just so good. So back in April we noticed that his right eye was droopy and his 3rd eyelid would stay closed when his eye was open, so we took him to the vet and she thought it was allergies. So we got an ointment and it helped him, but not completely cured him. In September, we noticed he wasn't eating and he looked really thin, so we took him again to the vet, he had lost 6 lbs in 4 months, too much for him, so we got him in a high protein diet and he got his weight back in a week. This is right before I left to France last time. Since then he's been up and down on his health. Two weeks ago, I took him in again because we felt something wasn't right and his arthritis was getting worse, his back legs were giving up on him. He also kept circling to the right. All the time. So the vet now thinks that has a partial facial paralysis probably back in April (this is why his 3rd eyelid is staying closed and eye is droopy) and he also now is showing signs of dementia (circling). So now, we have to be very careful with him, make sure he eats and drinks, he forgets to eat even if he was just eating a few seconds earlier. He goes for his walk and takes his arthritis meds. He is healthy otherwise, his coat is so shiny, so we are just watching him. So if you could all please say a prayer for him my family and I would really appreciate it. Pets are like family, and we have been with him since he was 3 months old. We understand we may loose him soon. But I hope if we have to, we can tell when it's his time to go and that we can make the decision to make sure he doesn't suffer. Thanks!


Another big note, is that this Friday, my mom and I are going for our citizenship interview. After this interview all we have left is the oath and we will be US citizens, I'm thinking sometime early next year. I will keep you all posted as to how things go.

Also, I'm leaving to go to France again, I know 3rd time this year, this Saturday and I come back on next Thursday. I'm excited to go see Toulouse in the winter and Christmas time. Not looking forward to the cold, the weather says Lows of 32 degrees highs of 45 degrees. FREEZING. I must take my heavy jacket, sweaters, warm shoes, scarfs, hats and gloves. I'm sad I will miss my daddy's birthday. In all my years, I believe I have only missed my dad's birthday one year back when I was 3 years old. I'll have to call him, but it will be weird not being there. I'm not looking forward to the 18 hours of travel time. I hurt my lower back last week lifting Sparky, so I'm not looking forward to being confined to an airline seat for 12 hours. Luckily I picked the aisle for my cross-Atlantic flights.

Also, checkout my class coming up next month at picture me perfect, it's a dates to remember organizer. It lets you keep track of all your important dates and you even get 2 cards. It's using the Basic Grey Urban Prairie line. So cute. I can't wait to get it back. Here is the link if you want to see more info.


Lastly, I do remember one of my favorite moments in October, I went to a NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK CONCERT with Suzy. Had tons of fun. It was dream come true. I really want to go to another one. They still got the right stuff.




Thanks so much for keeping up with my long post. I leave you with the last two months worth of layouts. Have a great week.

I can spill the beans now...

So you know that secret assignment I couldn't talk about that I had to get done. Well the Garage Girls from Picture Me Perfect where featured on Page Maps for this month. Go and check out all the wonderful LO's everyone submitted. I'm so lucky to work so many wonderfully talented group of girls. Here is my LO that I submitted:




I had tons of fun creating this LO. I love flowers and I just have way too many prima flowers so I had to used what I had. Thanks Becky for including us in you Newsletter. I'll update on my trip to France later in the week.

Have a great week.

Bonjour de Toulouse...

Well I arrived yesterday. It was a very tiring trip. I had a big sinus headache while on the plane and had no Advil to help me relieve the pain. So I could hardly move without the pounding. But after I arrived at Frankfurt, the headache was a little less pronounced. I could move. I waited 3 hours to be hauled by a bus to my tiny plane that fits like 40 people. It was crazy that it can still fly at 35000 feet. I took a nap yesterday after I arrived at the hotel. Nothing special on the hotel. The were a few things that are missing like an alarm clock, iron and the worst thing is the smell of smoke. GRRRRRHHHHHHHH I hate the smell of cigarettes. I don't think I'll stay here again. But what could I do since it was such late notice trip. I do love the location of the hotel. It's all within walking distance. It does suck to travel all this way without knowing anyone. I didn't want to have a sit down dinner, as I don't speak the language and I was quite jet lagged. So I went to McDonalds and eat a French Big Mac. Off to bed and I didn't have a good night sleep thinking that my alarms (both cell phones) wouldn't work so I woke up early 5am (could be the fact that I'm so screwed up from the travel) and I'm getting ready to go to work early.

So hopefully today everything works out and I can have some time to travel around town.

I'll take some pictures and post.

'till later.

Almost done with all the things on my list...

Well the last few weeks have been so crazy. Here is an update on things I still have to finish:

1. Anniversary Crop on the 20th and 21st at PMP - That's this weekend
2. Attend orientation for Confirmation class for Gabriel on the 23rd - Can't attend
3. Back to School Night, on the 24th - Can't attend more on that later
4. Clean my mess in the garage and my scrap area (it continues) - Yeah haven't done a thing
5. Might have to travel for work - Leaving on Monday and coming back on Friday

That's life. I finished all other things. I'm so excited to be traveling again but this was such a late notice that I just booked hotel today and my flight was booked on Tuesday. Wow less than a week notice. I should have internet access while in France but will be there for so little time I'm not sure I'll have time to do anything else.

I have been so busy that I didn't even have a chance to update my blog when Erin told me that another episode of Scrapbook Memories showed the other two projects I had designed for MLS. They were the shown on episode 1305 - Favorite Colors. I haven't seen the show, I think it will be shown in two weeks here in the bay area on another PBS channel. But I did see this snapshot from the Scrapbook Memories website


You see the Sierra project is shown at the start of the episode. So exciting!

George Lopez comedy show was so funny that my stomach hurt the next day from laughing too much. I just can relate to all his jokes. Way too funny.

I leave you with some of my recent work for garage girl assignments.






Have a great weekend.

I have a list so long of things to do...

Not only in work but also in the house and my scrapbook hobby. I have tons of stuff to do and no time to do it. I don't know where the time goes.

Gabriel is now a Freshman, he started High School yesterday. Never, ever go try to find school supplies one week before school starts. Specially a pad lock, it took us 3 hours to find it. Never, ever go the day school starts to get the supplies his teachers want him to have and we hadn't bought. It took us 3 different stores to find those supplies, two hours later. He is really excited about taking Art this year, it's probably his favorite class. So the only thing he is missing for school is a portfolio. So here is to hoping that he can do the best in the next four years (which are going to fly) so that he can go to college and find a career of his choice.

So back to my rant about too much to do. Here is a list of my upcoming events:

1. Go to a Giants Game this Friday night
2. Catechism starts this Saturday, I have 19 kids to teach.
3. Teach my class, This is Me at PMP on the 9th
4. CJ Crop on the 13th
5. George Lopez on the 15th
6. Anniversary Crop on the 20th and 21st at PMP
7. Attend orientation for Confirmation class for Gabriel on the 23rd
8. Back to School Night, don't even remember the date
9. Garage Girl Assignments
10. Secret Assignment that I can't share until the 1st of October. LOL
11. The demo for Anniversary Crop
12. Clean my mess in the garage and my scrap area (it continues)
13. Work and work
14. Finish my citizenship form
15. Get my car fixed
16. Attend a baby shower on the 14th, that I'm helping out at
17. Might have to travel for work

and the list goes on. I think I might forgotten a few things, but this is only September.

True lots of things are fun, but still no time to do anything else. I'm going to be so exhausted pretty soon.

My car was out for repairs last week, new clutch and motor mounts. But it has gone back again for another check out, we think my AC is going bad. And we are in the middle of another heat wave in the Bay Area, no way can I drive that car in this heat with no AC. Done and almost passed out yesterday.


Welcome to my crazy life.

Rocio

Toot...

So a few months ago I was asked to design three projects for My Little Shoebox. They were for a TV show. The show is Scrapbook Memories and it runs on PBS. Well today, my TiVo finally recorded it. I'm so excited to share that one of my projects was shown it's this one:


I'm so excited to see my work on TV. I'm also so proud to work with a wonderful group of inspiring women that are in Suzy's design team. Erin, Krista, Michelle, Nichole and Pattie all have projects/layouts shown during the show. Way to go girls.

I love My Little Shoebox, seriously, they are the coolest collections I have seen, I love all their colors. My favorite new line right now is "A Little Birdie Told Me" I worked on some projets again for MLS and were displayed at their booth in CHA-Summer. Since I was in a rush, I didn't get to take a picture of them. I'm so bummed, but maybe I'll get to take them soon and share with you all.

Back to my toot, if you have DirecTV search for it. Here in the Bay Area is on DirecTV channel 22, PBS will show it again on Saturday August 23rd at 1:30pm, the title of the episode is "Favorite Vacations" episode #1302.

Here are the other two projects I did for Helen earlier in the year,




Have a fun weekend.

Busy Bee...

I have been busy since my last update. I attended Scrapbook expo on August 8th and 9th. I helped out with 2 classes for Scrap for a Cure. I helped out on the Friday's class and taught the Saturday class. Wow it was tons of work and fun. I haven't taken a picture of the projects but those projects were so cull and the Scrap for a Cure girls are awesome. They give tons of product and always have neat techniques. I did go over my budget at expo, thanks to Maria who told me to pick up some nestabilities for her and then I ended getting some for me too. It was great to see so many people. I love this hobby because I have gotten to meet so many wonderful friends, I'm so lucky. I was so exhausted after the expo that I didn't want to do anything. But we had our CJ crop, good thing that I'm done so I only had pass the CJ to Veronica. I got energy after dinner, but still I was exhausted that weekend.

I have also continued to clean my mess, and slowly but surely I'm making progress. Still have tons to do until I finish and have a clean scrap area. So my aunt is in town this week, she is my dad's oldest sister so they are having tons of fun together.

I have also done my PMP's Garage Girl assignments. I'm having so much fun doing LO's. Next on my plate is creating my class for the Big Event at PMP in November. My class for September is now available for sign ups. I have gotten so many beautiful comments. Like I tell many, this is a book all about me at 31. Who I am today. So that when I read it or my family reads it later much later in life, they can see all that I was involved right now. I wish I had something like that from my mom. Wow that would have been awesome. If you click on the image on the left bar for THIS IS ME, you can sign up online.

I leave you with my assignments:






Have a great week.

Working, working....

working. Really that's all I have been doing in the last week. I finished my class for September. Now I have to start working on my BIG EVENT Class in November. And my regular work has been busy too.

I did went to John Mayer's Concert last Saturday with Erin, Suzy and Janice. It was tons of fun. I had never been on the lawn at Shoreline Amphitheater. The concert was great. I needed to hear two more songs and it would have been totally AWESOME. But wow is he an AWESOME GUITARIST. He did this on one of his songs:



I was at AWE, granted we could barely see him. But we were having so much fun us girls enjoying his music. Fun times.




Have a great Thursday!

What to give the person who has given you everything...

You give him THIS:



This was the best picture I could find on the net, I'll update with my own photo once I have a chance to take one.

My dad has always been there for me. Pushing me to be the best that I can be. Along with my mom, they both are my foundation. Without them I wouldn't be here today. I wouldn't have been able to pursue my dreams. So for that he got a brand new spanking 2008 Toyota Tundra Crew Max. My dad has never owned a brand new car of his own, they have always been used cars. It's also my mom's but since she doesn't drive, he'll have to take her everywhere. We had been shopping around for a few weeks or so and had walked out on deals which just weren't working for us. But yesterday was a good day, we went to Gilroy Toyota, and found that puppy just like we wanted, with all the options we wanted and the options we didn't want weren't there. It was meant to be. The only funny part is that we have way too many red cars now. It took a while to get the deal, but it was done, and my dad has now a new truck to use. Not to worry about getting broken down and him not able to fix it because he's not allowed to be near a running engine with his implanted defibrillator. We left to Gilroy around 11am and didn't get back home until 7pm. Since it took so long to settle everything, from bargaining the price of the truck and them washing it and detailing it. But my dad finally got a hold of his truck, which he has already nicknamed "Rogelio" as in rojo in Spanish or red in English.

My brother and I followed them on his new truck and he was all smiles on the drive home. My mom was too, I was surprised she wasn't crying a river, as she is really emotional, but she was just happy to see my dad so proud and happy. My brother told me something that really stuck, in his words: "Your dad isn't happy about the fact that he got the Tundra, for him it could have been a new bike, it was the fact that you bought it for him that has him so happy." It makes me so happy that I have been able to give something back to him for everything they have given me.

Thanks Papi for always believing in me and helping me be the best person I can be.

Love you both.

A Crazy Tornado...

has hit my house. OK, I admit, I'm a shopaholic "Step 1". Since I love to shop it goes for everything that I'm involved. I have been shopping scrapbook supplies way too much and haven't been organizing. Really not enough time in the day. I'm way too busy. But it has gotten out of control. I swear it was a fire hazard. So last weekend was a long weekend due to the 4th of July holiday. I took a few extra days off from work so I can clean up the mess I have made. I thought 3 days will be enough to clean up. Yeah, so not the case. My family room is a mess and my bedroom is still a mess. But not fire hazard anymore. LOL. I will not be posting pictures as I'm too embarrassed that it was so out of control. I still got tons of things to organize and put in it's place, then I have to start sorting thru the things that I don't want. Yeah, it will be another month before I can even say that I'm close to being done with my scraproom.

On Tuesday, I was so fed up with the cleaning that I didn't get much done. I instead had plans to go see American Idol on Tour with Suzy. I didn't hold much for it. But it was actually pretty good. I was in love with Michael Johns, Seysha Mercado, Jason Castro, Brooke White, David Archuleta and David Cook. It was a fun concert. We were in nose bleed sections of the HP Pavillion, but had center of the stage view, not so bad.

I also posted all my LO's that I have been doing lately:









Have a great weekend.

I have been TAGGED...

I was tagged by Sue. Here we go...

Each player answers the questions themselves. At the end of the post the player then tags 4 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know that they've been tagged and ask them to read your blog. Then you let the person who tagged you know when you posted your answers.

Ten Years Ago:

July, 1998 - WOW, I thought that I had great a memory, but nothing stands out. I was probably working at Mervyn's for the summer. Taking a break from college. I lived in Redwood City, CA at the time. Yeah nothing really stands out.

Five things on today's to-do list:

1. Go to work
2. Clean my tornado mess!
3. Clean!
4. Drop off the luggage scale for Erin at PMP
5. Clean some more!

Snack I Enjoy:

Skittles

Things I would do if I was a millionaire:

1. Travel all over the world.
2. Buy a house with a huge bedroom for me, a walk-in closet and a huge craft room. Also make sure my parents, brother and cousin had their great rooms too.
3. Hire someone to sort to my stuff and help me clean and organize my scrap room.

Places I have lived:

San Salvador, El Salvador (12 years)
Redwood City, CA (12 years)
Fremont, CA (1 year)
Newark, CA (6 years)

4 People I am tagging:

1. Suzy
2. Erin
3. Laurie
4. Kent

5 times in SF in less than 14 days...

Yeah, I have never been to the city this much in so little time. On Wednesday June 18th for the concert. On Thursday June 19th Sailing and stayed overnight with the CJ group. On Sunday, June 22nd for my mother's birthday dinner. Last Saturday, June 28th for a crazy night with Suzy, Erin, Janice, Pattie and Becky Fleck. We walked from Pier 39 to Ghirardelli Square, just for ice cream at 10 o'clock at night. I kept telling Suzy, I was just there and that Ghirardelli square is really far away, I think it's about a mile away.

But let me back track a little, I wasn't feeling really well that night, I was tired and I went just because we had planned this little get together for a while. So I'm seating in the back seat of Suzy's van. Yeah, bad place to sit, because as anyone who knows Suzy, knows she's full of energy, well she's also full of energy while driving and the car is really moving around. And in the back, yeah not good. I ended up getting car sick. It was bad. Then we walked and walked to get ice cream. Suzy and Erin together, what more can I say. We kept saying that people would think that they were drunk. But no even a single drop of alcohol near them. They are just crazy together. We had to help Suzy go up the hill, since she has a bummed knee. Overall it was a great crazy night in the city.

Then last Tuesday, July 1st my brother got tickets to the Giants. I loved the seats we had great seats. And the Giants won. It was a great game.



After the game my brother was called into his office. Which is in the city. So we went in, his office is in the 15th floor. While he worked, I took awesome pictures of the city. So it was worth the wait.



Have a great 4th of July!

I know, I know, but I said I would be very busy...

So now that the craziness that is my life has calmed down. I'm back to being able to blog. So here is a little recap of my last few weeks.

On June 7th, I taught at PMP, the "Home is Where the Heart is" class. It was such a technique oriented class that everyone went home with something new they had learned. I was so happy that everyone enjoyed it even after the little manufacturing delay. Thank you ladies for attending my class.

On Monday, June 9th, we had an issue at work that kept me busy until last Friday, 20th. So on top of my craziness of schedule, I now had to be on my toes at work, so we can all work together to fix it. I know not much info, but so is life with my work, but the good news is that I work with pretty amazing "Rocket scientists" (LOL) that are truly ala Apollo 13, if you have seen the movie, I'm referring to the part where the engineers have to make sure that the astronauts have oxygen to breathe and have to build a filter with duck tape and such supplies that were available to the astronauts on the spacecraft. I was at awe. That was really how I felt watching everyone brainstorm. It's amazing how brains working together can fix things. Truly happy to be able to learn from these guys. So I was pulling 10-12 hours shifts every day.

But I was lucky enough that I got to Gabriel's graduation. We were so proud of him. He won 4 awards at the ceremony. His awards were in Math, Social Studies, ELD-English Learning Development, and Honor Roll. He looked totally like a young man now, not the little boy we took under our wings 2 years ago. I will post a photo of him at graduation later. He even asked to go to his graduation dance party. I'm sure he had lots of fun.

So my birthday was on June 15th, which was also Father's Day. My parties began on Friday the 13th, which because of work, I almost missed. I didn't get to my "SURPRISE" party until 9pm. So they waited for me to eat cake. I'm truly blessed that I have friends that thought of me on my birthday and were willing to throw me a surprise party. Thanks, Suzy, Erin, Pattie, Christiane, Angel, Janice, Lonae, Maria, Linda, Jeani, Karen, and Gwen for a wonderful surprise. Oh yeah, and Suzy even sang a "special" birthday song for me...LOL

Saturday, 14th, we have our monthly CJ crop and I was so lucky again to have cake and celebrate my birthday again with all the CJ ladies. It was so much fun. Plus I scrapped again, and did 3 more LO's. I'll post those later too.

For the special day, I was woken up by a serenade of Happy Birthday songs in Spanish that my dad was blasting thru out the house. And guess what else, another birthday cake. My mom was so emotional, that she was crying. She is such a sweet woman, I'm so lucky to have her as a mom. I got to play Guitar Hero all day long, that I got blisters again. I'm getting so much better, I'm almost done with the "EASY" level.

On Monday Suzy, Janice, Erin, Maria, Pattie and Kent (who shares my birthday with me) and I went to La Fondue to celebrate our birthdays. We had tons of fun. Here is a photo of us at La Fondue.


On the 18th, I went to a Camila concert in SF. I had so much fun, this band is so great live, they are up and coming Mexican band. I love their music and I was so close to the stage. It was a great evening.


The next day was the beginning of our CJ Get Together from people who I had met via Patty, everyone was finally in one place so we can all meet and spend tons of time together. We started by sailing in the bay. What a gorgeous day. I so loved it. What a beautiful city. Oh, it was great. For sailing it was Lisa, Patti, Toni and Libby (owner of the sailboat) and her friend who helped us sail. Debbie, couldn't go sailing with us as she gets motion sickness. Here so photos from sailing in the bay:






After sailing we meet up with Patty and Kristi and had dinner at Cioppino's. Such awesome food. We stayed in a SF hotel and started our full day of LSS shopping on Friday. We began in Berkeley and ended in San Jose, after visiting 9 LSS stores. Rhonda met up with us in Berkley, and I was her passenger seat driver. We had so much fun and I got tons of loot. Now I just need space to keep them. Almost at the end of the shopping, Sue met up with us (she flew in from Colorado) and our group was complete. After the LSS shopping we headed down to MJ's beach house.

This house is gorgeous. Right on the beach, just a little walk over to the back from the backyard. Take a look:







Saturday was dedicated to all of us learning from each other. We ended up doing 6 classes during the day, and taking breaks in between. It was a great day full of fun and excitement. The only problem is that I got a cold. I was sick, Monday was the worst day, but now I'm better.

Sunday, June 22nd, was my mother's birthday and we took her to SF to her favorite Salvadoran Food restaurant. She was so happy. Her Birthday present was a 26" LCD TV. I'm so jelous. I still have an old tube TV. OK granted she still had the 19 year old TV we bought when we first moved to the US. I think I'm getting a 32" LCD TV for Christmas. My family has 6 months to save up for it. I'll even pitch in. Once you go widescreen, you can't go back. I'm having a hard time going back to my regular TV after playing the WII in my brother's LCD TV. On the WII note, I am so in love, we got the Rockband game and it is so much fun. I can't wait to play it more. It involves the whole family. My dad even played it and he got motion sickness. It was pretty funny. I don't think he will be playing anytime soon.

So this brings up to this week, which has been kinda slow, other than getting better from my cold and trying to catch up on everything else.

So, this weekend Suzy, Erin and a few other will be crazy and go spend an evening in SF. This should be so much fun.

Also, remember how I said that I have been creating layouts, here are this month's assignments for PMP Garage girls, I'm so excited to be scrappin' again. Here are my LO's. You can check them out at the store.




Everyone have great weekend.