Short Update

So I know I have said I would do this a long time ago... but here is a short update.  Dalan's family came to visit again in October... here are a few pics from Six Flags.. Magic Mountain... only a few because the camera then broke on the Terminator ride!

The kids are growing wayyyy too fast, not quite sure how it happened, but Dalan is quite a bit taller than me these days, and Isabel is turning into a young lady for some reason, even though she is only 10!!!

I'm thankful to have a job still, and have no complaints... still planning to go to school next fall, anyone who wants to help me with that process, I would be forever grateful too... I'm too old to know how to do any of this stuff anymore!

Hope to get better at this still!

 

More

Well something happened with that last post... so here are a few other shots.... priceless story first though.... while on the boogie boards at Santa Monica.... Dalan lost his trunks! His big brother was nice enough to hand over his extra pair under the water! sooooooooooo funny!!

Then of course... they realized that now that there was 5 of them, they could make a star!...

And this last shot... they wanted me to catch them with all their feet in the air! man... I'm good! ... although we can't see Marc!

Visit from Dalan's family from Phoenix

Well I guess it was going to happen at some point in time, Dalan has met some of his extended family. His biological father has not had any contact with us since he was 2. It was all a little crazy, but thanks to facebook...... I connected with relatives and Dalan's half brothers and sister all talked, and decided they wanted to know their little brother! Well it has been quite a month for me with all of this, the car, my kids.... it has been crazy, but this past weekend it all came together and was great. We had a lot of fun, it was neat to see all of the similarities with Dalan and his half-siblings. Their toes are the same... their hair is the same, and oh my.... most of their personalities are the same! it is CRAZY... how they can grow up in completely different environments, yet be soooooo much alike! Victor and Isabel were great about it, I know it is all kind of strange to take in... and kind of scary, them not knowing anything about us, and us them. It turned out to be wonderful though! We hope to have many more get togethers with all of them. So anyway... here are some pics!

Stuff

Ok, so I guess since I'm on here... I may as well get all of my frustrations out and inform everyone on what has been going on with us... I've had a very emotional week or two.... Not quite sure where to begin.... but here it is...

Root Canal... never had one before, now I never wish to have one again! Floss, floss, floss, is all I have to say! ... oh yeah... and make sure you have your wisdom teeth pulled before you are 35 and they are causing issues with your other teeth!

Cars..... don't buy one through a friend... or you will not only NOT have a car anymore, but not have a friend either! ... You see, after paying over $9,000.00 on my little Aveo.... someone didn't bother to pass my payments along to the bank, and as you can see in the photo below, some very nice bald man came to my home and took my car from me! Yeah... isn't that nice... Thankfully, we had a great lesson on forgiveness at church on Sunday, so that is helping me with the issue.... pray for him... it's not about him, it's about me....isn't that right?... still working on the process.... Oh... yeah... and fix your credit now... so you don't have trouble getting another car!

Youth - Not only did Dalan suddenly get the attitude of a teenager when he became one... but my precious little Isabel who just turned 10 became a young lady this week! UGHHHH enough said about that.. (I'm near sobbing now)

Children - My kids left me and went to Oregon for a few weeks with their grandparents... you can see below a pic of my kids with my Dad when he came to get them last week....

Families - Ok, we all come from different types of families, big, small, mixed, crazy... etc. Well my son is finally going to be able to meet some of his other family! After 13 years, it has all come about. He has got 3 half brothers and a half sister, and several other members of his biological father's family who have learned about him. We have been in contact with eachother and I am soooooooo excited for him! Two of his "big" brothers have asked to come and meet him next month! You see, I've never even had one single picture of his biological father... so he has never quite understood where he comes from... I mean, let's face it... he looks NOTHING like me!!! How exciting it is to know that they look like him, and that they want to know my beautiful son! I'm scared of all of it... truly, but believe, that Heavenly Father had a hand in this and these kids are really great, funny kids from what I have learned, and think it is all going to be GREAT!

So anyway... yeah that has been my past week.... I'm hoping that the only event coming up this week will be the purchase of a new (new to me) car!

Dalan's Birthday!

Well.. yes, you are seeing (reading) correctly... they both had Birthdays! Dalan's was on the 1st of June... and he is...... yup... officially a TEENAGER!! 13... I mean, really? Am I old enough for this?! Last I checked, I was just turning 19... but anyway.... here we all are... and here are just a couple pictures I have from his day.... he wanted to head to Six Flags... we did the same last year, except went to Hurricane Harbor... this year Victor took him and some friends to Magic Mountain, Victor is too scared for the rides, so he just snapped pics when they met to eat together!! We went to John's for dinner also... so I got him eating ice cream!

Isabel's Birthday....

Ok, so I didn't get a chance to write anything when I posted pictures. Here's the thing.... We had a GREAT time... the kids got really wet, threw many water balloons, and there was plenty of food to eat! It was great to see that near everyone we invited were able to come and thanks to all of my friends who dropped their kids and ran!!! Can't believe that my baby is 10!!!

Isabel's Birthday!

Once again....

I know it has again been forever, I keep forgetting to bring my camera in to download pictures... but I do have a few to plug in here... Isabel wanted a perm... of course didn't turn out very well because he hair is sooooooooo bone straight!! Life has been interesting, we are adjusting to Victor not working, although he is searching so diligently, and not having any luck. My hours have now also been cut, though it is nice to have a day during the week which I can get things done... the money sure does make a difference. I'm trying to find a way to go back to school, but I just can't do that until he is back working again.... This is truly a test of his faith... not so sure how he is doing thus far!

We have been working on getting to the Temple to be sealed.... (Victor has put MUCH effort into this).... It's great to have a husband who has his priorities figured out for the most part! :) We have ran into a problem though... you see I located Dalan's biological father... and now that I have found him, we cannot have Dalan sealed to us without his permission, which he doesn't want to do... he just chooses not to respond in any way at all.... this is very frustrating and sad for all of us, as we don't want to go forward with anything unless Dalan can be a part of it.... so that's where that stands.

I have become very grateful for a few things lately... one of which is my health... I may be very fat, but I am healthy... and working on the weight... I'm so thankful for this.... I am able to do sooooo much that others can't, and I need to be doing more!

I'm grateful for my calling that I've had.... I've got great women to work with who teach me a lot, and I've been able to talk with women and get to know women that I wouldn't have if not for this calling.... there are some AMAZING women in our ward!

Dalan is almost done with basketball... he's now on the 8th grade team for some reason, and doing YM basketball... tournament is this weekend, so that is going to be fun!

Isabel has started her hip/hop/gymnastics class and loves it!! I wish I could afford to have her there every evening, it is so great to see her enjoy something, it's fun for me to watch!.... not to mention, it gives me time to walk through and find great deals at Gottschalk's.... and now that they are closing... I'll find even better deals!!

I'm glad American Idol is back on... just love this type of entertainment! I'm thinking that Lil Rounds will be in the top 3.

Anyway... all I have time for right now..... oh yeah... and I LOVE facebook... I have found so many old friends!

Update

Ok, Ok,

I know it has been forever, and I have plenty of things to catch up on... I will post pictures soon, I promise... but here are the facts that you all may have missed out on if we don't talk much....

1. Home computer is dead and gone, Victor tried to get online, has no idea what he clicked... but I no longer have a computer functioning at home.

2. Isabel had to get a "real" bra... thought Victor was going to faint in the store! lol

3. Dalan seems to be growing a mustache..... yuck!

4. I still have not lost any additional weight....

5. Christmas and New Years were fine...

6. Victor is laid off ... yuck!

7. Dalan is in basketball.. first game tonight.... ( I know... I will have pictures soon)

8. Shelley and I have joined the local biggest loser battle.... I honestly don't know how anyone could think they would win competing against us... but whatever... good luck to all!

I don't know how many more numbers I want to type... I'm so busy all the time, kind of tired.... anyway, I miss reading about all of you.... so hope you all wanted to read a min. about us... thanks and watch for more soon!!!

Here we have all of us together.. Isabel's caricature, and Dalan eating a bug as we ride.... sorry to bore you all with pictures this way... I need that blogger 101 class!

Dalan and I had a GREAT time sitting in the front of California Screamin!!! This is truly one of my favorite rides.... Isabel took some great pictures while Dalan and I were riding of the lights on the pier...

First things first.... they all have to pose of course..... on our way to Tower of Terror.... I wanted to see Aladdin... but there weren't any shows yesterday :(

Daddy and his little girl resting for a moment before heading over to California Adventure..

So here are Dalan and Isabel smiling (for Grandma) while waiting for Finding Nemo... this is the first time we waited in that long line to go on this ride... it was nice, but not one of our favorites!

Our Day at Disneyland & California Adventure

So I won tickets to go, so we of course HAD to, right?! Well it was crazy, we planned, then almost didn't go due to the car being hit, but we got a rental just in time!!! WHoooo HOooo!!

So even though it was hot, we went, and had an alright time... we barely made it back through all of the fires down south today, but after a long ride in the pretty new rental car all is well and we were home in time for Victor to go to work! I'm trying to figure out how to put pictures on here and explain each of them... but I haven't got it down.... OBVIOUSLY....

Hope all of you are well, and ready to begin this Holiday season which I love, I've already started watching the Santa Clause movies... and even "The Grinch" was on TV tonight!!! Apparently I'm not the only crazy one who loves this time of year!

Anyway... hope you all enjoy the pictures.... and by the way... Miss Cindy... I did see that you tagged me... just haven't had time to respond... I will work on that tomorrow!!!

A different kind of ticket!!!

Well.... there I was, just sitting at work last Friday Morning... listenin to "The Groove".... and it was time to call!!!

Well, I called, and it was busy busy busy... then I heard a "HELLO"... no ring... nothing... just a "hello".... and I was caller 25!!!!!!!

I am now the holder of a family 4-pack of Disneyland Tickets!!!! Whoo hooooooooo!!! I don't have to buy them... (which I was planning to do that day)

I'm just so very excited about that!!!


However.... this whole Prop 8 thing is so overwhelming to me... I'm so worried that people just don't understand how they should vote... especially after talking to so many people here in Arvin... They all tell me they are voting "no".... which to them really is a YES vote.... it's just sad that they don't quite understand, so of course I explain in the best spanish I can speak.... I just hope they are listening. This is SO important. I don't even know what more to say... I really hope we will all do what we have been asked and devote EVERY bit of energy, finances, and time to this campaign. I think this is one of those things that we could all "step up" a little more in.....try to be a better example... and help lead others.....

well... that's all I can say .... let's help eachother get this done!!

Feeling frustrated

Ok, so I don't even know if people are reading this... but I wanted to share my frustration... and if anyone at all can relate... I'd love to hear what advice you may have.

I'm really really fat.

That's just a fact... not being mean, or anything like that... I'm just really fat....

Some of you may know that I've struggled with this pretty much my whole life.. gone back and forth a few times, but mostly, just been fat!

Some of you may also know that I have been trying very hard to change this over the past year/year and a half. Well, I'm tired......

So VERY tired.... I'm tired of eating like a freak.. when everyone else is eating whatever they want pretty much... I am so careful, very rarely cheat... even when I go out... I choose the better choice... yuck! Who wants to do that after all this time... because to be honest... after coming down 70 pounds... I still have another 100 to go at least!

I have only lost 2 lbs. in the past 3 weeks... this after changing trainers.... paying a FORTUNE.... (I mean honestly, by the time I'm done... I will own a good portion of the East Hills 24hr fitness) I workout for an hour EVERY day... it's getting to be very frustrating to not see results...

Before, I was just fat... didn't gain, didn't lose... so why in the world should I continue to torture myself to stay the same? As far as I can figure today.... I should just go back to the old ways... it was a lot easier, and I got the same results...

I guess I might just be having a bad day... but gosh, it sure is hard! Stress from work and everywhere else doesn't help.... I just want to give up!!!

We all know there is no magic pill for this weight problem... but right about now, I sure wish there was! I looked online and it shows that to maintain my weight... I would have to be eating 2300 calories a DAY!!! Holy Cow!! I am at 1200 a day... plus the hour workout.... JUST INSANE!!!!

I'm thinking I really need to get that darn bodybugg to see what is going on.... but who can afford to spend more money on something... when I've already spent so much... anyway... enough about my rant... I'm feeling better now...

I am so grateful for my children and my husband who try to understand and sacrifice themselves so that I can work on this for me. They hardly ever see me, and eat meals from the freezer nearly every day.... except when Victor cooks.... (which is always something GREAT... that of course I can't eat)...

They really are great... and Victor just keeps reminding me that although I may not see it in my clothes.... my health has got to be so much better than it was... and we all know that is important!

Thanks for listening!

Dalan - again!!

Yup... he did it again... team lost... but the one and only touchdown was scored by MY SON!!!

The rest....

It was Desiree's birthday... so she had a "birthunnel cake" with chocolate chips.... (ewwww) ... anyway... and then you see myself with Maria (Oscar's mom) and Victor...

A little late.... our trip to the Kern County Fair!

Well, I hate to say we went, but we did. Victor loves to go for the food... and this year the kids went for the rides.... we took Isabel's friend, Desiree and their cousin Oscar and his Mom and Uncle.... they had some fun!