News!!

Sooooo, I've been lost in the blogging world. I've just been so busy with life.

First of all, Sophia is walking, running, climbing and just being a crazy, fun, giggly little girl. She's just non-stop from the moment she wakes. She's so much fun and a great "conversationalist". She's into saying Yeah! a lot so most of my questions for her go like this: Sophia do you love mami? Yeah!; Are you mami's cuteness? Yeah!; Do you think mami's cute too? Yeah!; Do you love daddy? Yeah! Now she also says cheese and has the cheesiest, biggest smile in her face. she also sticks out her tongue- Yes, I admit I taught her that. My mom's not too happy about it.

Then in November we moved. Yes, we left the city and moved a short train ride away. I still come into the city for work with Sophia, and the commute is not bad. The apartment is brand new, but needs a whole lot of work. We're dealing with it very calmly (which means I go into screaming fits when the hetaing system doesn't work) Not to worry I scream at the heating system not at poor John.

Then as you know I work in a church and December means LOTS and LOTS of work. But hey, I have a great boss, great coworkers and lots of fun. Yes, I admit it I enjoy my job and the people I work with are just crazy and fun.

In terms of my crafty side. I created a new blog to track that (this one I'll leave for family and crazy random stuff). The new blog is still not running but I'll let you know soon. I am participating in a challenge on sb.com that my cute friend Fabiola is hosting. Check out her blog and see if I get to meet my goal of 3 LOs before 1/31/09. Also, you get to see all the great stuff my talented friends are making.

I did make our Christmas cards this year. I must apologize because I didn't send out that many, but the time just ran out on me. but I love the cards and they smell great. Yes, they smell just like a pine tree thanks to this wonderful thing called "cardscents".

will post pics someday. Maybe before 2009 is over. hahahaha

So on that note. To all my friends I wish you a wonderful new year with God's blessings. Enjoy your families and stay safe.

Random Thoughts & Advertisement

So, since I've been making this more of a journal than a scrapbooking blog I just want to share some crazy thoughts and things that are going on right now.

Sophia had her first haircut. (Stay tuned for pics). She was such a good girl, she didn't cry and was more interested in watching the TV attached to her seat than in anything else.

I am currently working on 2 swaps and making thank you cards for my cousin's baby shower. All those pink clothes have been making me itchy for another baby, but not to worry Sophia, there won't be another heir to our fortune for the next couple of years. In the meantime I get to enjoy Sophia being a crazy ONE and in October I get to smell fresh baby breath when Kaylin Marie makes her appearance.

Speaking of babies I laughed so hard when I saw these. They are called "Heelarious" get it?. hehehe. When I first heard the announcement it said high heels for baby and I was distressed by the idea of Sophia wearing high heels, but then realized that they are for babies 0-6 months which means they don't walk yet. They're expensive $35!! but oh so cute and funny!

They have 6 styles and these pink satin ones are called "Sophie". Awww.

In other news, there will be a Scrapbooking store opening up in Manhattan I believe at the end of the month. I'm so excited!!! It'll have a portrait studio also, and a tool cafe- where you get to try out tools before you buy them. They also have a design team with 6 very talented young ladies. Cool!

Gosh, I sound like an advertisement for all of these stores, but hey they make me smile. Another thing that makes me smile is that I'm finally serious about losing weight. I cannot blame it on Sophia, since I was skinnier after giving birth to her than when I first got pregnant, but then the lbs just started piling on BUT now they're coming off. Yay for me!!

Stay healthy,

I've been tagged!!

I've been tagged by my friend Carmen

The rules are .....
1. Link to the person who “tagged” you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know your entry is posted on your blog.

Here it goes, 6 random things about me

1. I read like a maniac.
2. I'm taking pre-req classes for my Master in Occupational Therapy.
3. This one is a family fact. But my little family: DH, Sophia and myself are all Taurus.
4. I must have complete darkness in order to sleep. But,
5. I can't sleep by myself. LOL
6. I love dark chocolate... Hmmmm

My "Tagees" are......Liz, Ive, Leelee, Mire, Yuyis, and Zazil.

Ladies, You've been tagged!!

Some cards I've made

I have made some cards for friends and family for various joyous occassions. Here are some of my latest creations.








Father's Day card for Sophia's grandpa Joe (My FIL)












Engagement card congratulating my friend Ive who snatched the last good Dominican man. Don't hate I'm Dominican I know what I'm talking about. LOL. Green is also Ive's fave color.

Remember Eric and Ive- I'm the flower girl!









For my friend Sheila, to welcome baby Sabrina to the world.
















This is a card holder for our friends Desiree, Kelvin and big sister Samantha who welcomed baby Logan. I can't fid the picture of the card.

My Latest LOs

As I wrote before I took a BPS class called "a Baker's Dozen" and loved it. so much fun.
Here are some of the LOs I got to make. Hope you like....

This is one of my favorites. Is my mom's first picture with Sophia. Did you guys know that Sophia and her Mama (my mom) share a birth day. She always tells me I gave her the best birthday present ever: her princesa Sophia.

In honor of my Latin Scrap Divas. This is a pic we took during our "annual" reunion in Orlando.
I LOVE these ladies. And while we might be busy with work, family and other things I know we'll always be friends.

Sophia on Easter Sunday. Don't you just love those Bunny ears? (I really need to learn to take better pics. LOL)

Last year's Mini-vacation at the Jersey shore. I wanna go back........

A family picture at Sophia's baptism on 5/25..

That's all for now. Stay tuned

I've been working...

Believe it or not. I've been scrapping a lot (for me) lately. I took a Big Picture Scrapbooking class titled A Baker's Dozen. Just as the title suggests I made over 13 LOs. Well actually more than 13 since a couple of them were double. I LOVED this class and I'm so excited because I actually scrapped something. I didn't get to finish the 13 LOs, so I'm still looking forward to completing 2 or 3 left.

I might complete them at a crop on the 19th. Yes, you read that right me, yo, moi will be attending a CROP. My very first and I'm so excited. It appears it'll be just a couple of girls so that'll be even nicer. This is being hosted at one of my Meetup groups. What? you don't know what meetup is and you live in US? Girllllll, get yourself to http://www.meetup.com/ and look around you might be able to find a group of crazy women just like you. Yeah, I'm speaking for myself. LOL no, seriously I love meetup. I'm a member of 4 scrapbooking or card making groups and 1 soap making group. Since I'm with Sophia by myself on weekends I haven't been able to attend any of the classes but as my DH is in hiatus from nursing school last w/e I attended one soap making class and I LOVE it!!!

Gosh, I'm just going to go crazy, so much fun, crafty stuff to make and so little time and $$.
Speaking of $ I'll be making crafty stuff for a big sale my building complex is having. All 9 buidings will participate. I already reserved my table. Hopefully I'll finish everything I plan to sell.

What?? Ohh were are the LOs? well, I haven't finished my Baker's Dozen yet, so once I'm done you'll be able to look at them. Have some patience as I have a one year old who's ready to walk any minute now so John and I have no peace until she goes to sleep. I love my baby girl.

Come back soon....

Some Crafty Stuff

Since this blog is becoming more of a "my life as a mom and wife" I am posting some pics of some of the things I made for Sophia's B-day party. I want to thank my friends Ive for selling me her Cricut Expression (I still haven't even paid her), Liz for sending me the wire for the invites (even though I didn't use it), and my friend Leelee for making and printing the beautiful labels for the souvenirs. You ladies made this birthday a success.

Invites

These are the souvenirs with the labels that my friend Leelee designed and printed. Gracias mi compa!






Supplies for ladybug hats



Decoration





Ladybug "light fixtures"

Centerpieces (they weren't finished- missing the "grass")

Seeing Spots (literally)

NOTE: Just wanted to add that Sophia does NOT have Chicken Pox. She has a virus that causes little spots on hte skin. Thank the Lord!

We had Sophia's BIG birthday bash on the 24th. We had many friends and family over. It was a great day (weather-wise) and so we made use of the garden. I made the invites, centerpieces, got all the pieces for kids to make their own ladybug hats, and my dear friend (sister) Leelee made the labels for the souvenirs.



It was a wonderful day. The only problem was that Sophia was not feeling well and I had twisted my ankle so we were both in bad shape. But our little girl looked adorable in her red, halter dress (I giggle when I picture her in that dress).



Our computer is acting up, so these pictures are courtesy of my friend Angie. Enjoy the ladybug party pics.

The cake was delicious

Say Cheese!




Sophia hamming it up for the camera



What's a Birthday without a piñata?








Can you see the family resemblance? LOL





These Pics were taken on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday afternoon we took Sophia to the ER as she was running a fever and had some red spots on her belly. Her Pediatrician told us to take her to the hospital. She was diagnosed with Chicken Pox. Now we're really seeing spots. She's back to her sunny, happy self, just with spots. hehehe

Proud Owner

Of a ONE year old little girl!! Actually she owns us (me and her daddy, lol)

Sophia turned the big 1 on Friday May 16th. We have her big party planned for the 24th, but John got a cake at Stew's and had some friends and family over at my job to sing Happy Birthday to her. She loved it!! the singing, the cake. She ate chocolate cake and made Hmmm noises. It was hilarious.

Then she started feeling crappy on Saturday night, and by Sunday night she had a small fever. We got her to the doctor on Monday and were told that she seems to be ok, but might be fighting some bug. This morning she woke up and started hanging from our bedframe, so that means she's doing well.

Thank God she's back to her old self- crawling, singing (yes, she sings!), dancing and just being her sweet, happy self.

Pictures from both birthday celebrations wil be posted soon. Stay tuned!

Busy Times

So Sophia is almost 1 year old. And I've been so busy with gettign everything ready for her day that I haven't had time to cry (well, maybe a couple of times). I can't believe my little baby is almost ONE.
I've been making the invites, centerpieces, getting all the stuff together for her part, working full time, taking care of Sophia and DH and I'm exhausted. To top it all off, Sophia has now decided that she will not go down to sleep without a fight- a BIG fight! then once she goes to sleep she'll wake up a couple of times throughout the night. John and I believe she's just keeping us in our toes.
She's still the sweetest little girl, so I guess the lack of sleep hasn't bothered her. She is now crawling al over the place and I have no idea where to hide all of my scrapbooking stuff for when she starts walking.

Just an update on our crazy lives.

Some pics from our trip.

Because my "friend" Leelee threatened me with my life. I am compelled to post some pics from our trip Pre-Leelee's arrival. After she got there my camera went into a deep deep sleep. LOL Thanks Leelee. I love you too Super Cute Big Sister.


Here's Sophia and I with Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty for those Disney Neophytes, lol)



Sophia and Belle (from Beauty and the Beast)



Sophia and Cinderella



Sophia, Mami and Minnie



Sophia and Mami at Mickey's Toontown fair



Sophia and daddy outside daddy's favorite ride: Pirates of the Caribbean.



Sophia riding in one of the teacups at the Mad Tea Party ride.



Sophia at the Dumbo ride. She loved it.



Sophia and mami at Fun Spot, where mami and tia Leelee had a blast, while titi Ive, daddy and the Calle sisters and their dad rode on Go-karts.



All the ones with the Disney Princesses are especially dedicated to my friend Liz who loves Sophia and calls her "my princess". Liz te adoro roomie bella!

TFL.

Tag, I'm IT!!!!!

My friend Sheila from sb.com tagged me to say 7 things about me that people might not know. Here I go:

1. I'm an only child (on my mother's side). I have a younger brother and sister on my father's side.

2. I have a VERY big family. Over 40 cousins at last count.

3. My dream is to be an Occupational Therapist.

4. Since having my daughter I'm in love with anything PINK and GIRLIE.

5. I'm a lazy butt. LOL

6. I have a Bachelors in Hospitality Administration, but never worked in the field.

7. I was a Foster Care CaseWorker for over 5 years.

Link to 7 other girls and tag them...

1. Leelee

2. Ive

3. Mire

4. Aroa

5. Zazil

6. Naida

7. Tahi

Disney Vacation

Sooo, we just got back from Orlando were we had been since Easter Sunday. We had a blast. I was going to meet my scrapbooking friends fro a couple of days, but since I was taking Sophia with me, John decided to tag along and I'm so glad he did.

We got there on Easter Sunday. We visited Magic Kingdom two days and then the rest were spent in the company of my wonderful friends. They spoiled Sophia rotten and her schedule got so out of whack that I was dreading coming back home. But she has surprised me and seems to be getting back into the swing of things already. I can't help but thank God for such a wonderful, easy, perfect baby. (I'll come back to this post once she gets to the terrible 2s. lol)

My friends and I shopped like mad women at the scrapbook expo and at Joanns, AC Moore and Michaels. I got to meet my friend Wandy in person and most of them, except Emmaly, met Sophia for the first time.

Sophia loved all the attention and got to meet her new love: Cinderella. Yes, you read that right- Cinderella and Sophia had the most wonderful time when they met. Which was great considering we had to carry her 20+ lbs. for about 45 minutes. She loved everyone else including her titis: Leelee, Ive, Wandy, Emmaly, Ine, Brenda, Tahi and Karla. She also played with Leelee's husband Ignacio who is about to legally adopt her. hahahahaha and Leelee's daughters Ashley and Lauren are her 2 BFFs. She also met Karla's daughter Kamilla and they alternated between wanting to hug each other and poking each other's eyes out.

I met 2 other ladies from sb.com: Dolores and Lisi. So sorry I didn't take pics with you guys. I was about to faint from hunger when we ran into each other. So glad to have met you and of course, that you met Sophia. Lisi, I hope you can recognize me if you see me without Sophia- hahahahaha

I will be posting pics sometime in the next century so stay tuned. To my divas I love you all and I'm so glad we got to spend time together.

Leelee- Everything was Super-Cute. LOL

GET OFF MY PAGE!!!!!!

Sorry, I don't mean to be rude to my true friends who read this blog to find out how my life is going or leave me uplifting comments re: my scrapbooking or just life in general.

The deal is that I have a trio of cyberstalkers- Yes, I know who you are and you really need to get a life you pathetic maniacs!!!!

This trio of psycho-stalkers have been monitoring all of my websites/blogs/my page on sb.com. I mean don't you people get tired of spreading your hatred around? Seriously, I have a great life- My suggestion to you is: GET YOURSELVES A LIFE!!!!!! One that has nothing to do with us. I don't want this to get ugly, but I think it might and I'm sure I will not be on the losing end. This is a warning!!!!!

STOP checking my blog, my website, Sophia's website, anything that has to do with me, or Sophia is off-limits to you sickos... GET A LIFE!!!!!!!

I'm sorry if I sound crazy, but trust me I'm not. They have been checking my whole life for the last 6 years and they still haven't had enough. Well, I HAVE, so I want you to stop. Leave us alone.

Now, let's continue with the show.......

A Good Laugh

So, going thru my friend Liz's blog I noticed she has this translator on her page and "stole" it to use it on mine. I haven't laughed so hard in ages (well, maybe since yesterday, LOL) but using this translator is the funniest thing ever. It uses words literally and if it doesn't know the word it actually makes it up.

It literally translated "scrap" (as in scrapbooking) into "desecho" or garbage. And for a person like me, that's not too confident in her scrapbooking skills that's a joy-killer. LOL

So, if you read/understand Spanish click on the translator and get ready to laugh.

Getting off to a good start

(Note: So, when I started this blogging thing I didn't want to get too personal, but this layout did me in and I must share personal information with you. Hopefully this will help any woman out there longing for a child. Keep the faith up)

If you know me, you know how lazy I am especially when it comes to scrapbooking.


Well, I surprised myself not to mention almost caused a couple of my scrapbooking divas to have heart attacks (are you reading this, Leelee and Ive?) I have completed 3 LOs already. Well, one was for a Christmas challenge- double, BUT that still counts, right? and the other one is the first LO for my pregnancy album. yipeee!! It was very emotional for me to complete it. Is not the greatest LO, but it meant so much to me to finally get started on my PG album. And most importantly I have the most beautiful proof that the test was right. Sophia is almost 9 months. And this is not something I share every day, but I had two emotionally painful miscarriages before Sophia, so when I took these pictures of the tests, all I could tell myself was: Don't get your hopes up, but then again how could I not hope and pray for a healthy, full-term baby? and guess what? John and I got our prayers answered. Thank you Lord, each and every day for giving us this tiny piece of heaven to raise for your honor.


Without further do, here's my Layout. Is titled What???
















I also wanted to reming everyone in the USA to get your butt off the couch and GO VOTE!!! Every vote counts, people. I'm not telling you who I'm voting for, but maybe we'll cancel each other's votes off, wouldn't that be fun?? LOL

Fear

I think FEAR is one of the things that's keeping me from scrapbooking more.

Fear of:
Messing up
Not being perfect
Using the "cute" papers (you all know what I'm talking about here)
Cutting up the pictures by mistake

BUT I've been thinking (yeah, I do it on occasion) that perfection is overrated and that the main purpose of scrapbooking is so that my daughter can look back and know more about me, about herself, her roots, her family. And I seriously hope she won't look at the layouts of me at 39 weeks pregnant and think: Wow! mami was FAT!, instead of: Wow! my mami looks HOT! or even Mami looks happy and I can't believe she made the sacrifice of waiting for me for 41 (yeah! 41!) weeks for me to come out of her belly only to find out her belly stayed the same size. But I digress.

I don't like New Year's resolutions- must be the fact that by January 2nd I have already broken them, but this year I made a few resolutions and darn it I'll try my best to keep them.

Scrapbook more
Worry less
Go to the gym
Eat better
Not get discouraged if I don't lose weight
Laugh more
Argue/fight less (John's dream come true)
Enjoy each and every moment I spend with Sophia and John
Not give a rat's-you-know-what about what other people think about me (I'm doing really good on this one)
Be a better person
Get more in touch with my spiritual side

I dedicate this post to new and old resolutions.

My First Post

Woohooo!!! Finally my blog has underwear (inside joke, lol).

If you're reading this it means you have quite a bit of free time on your hands. Or it means you're a gorgeous friend who took the time to come see this "craziness in a bottle" I call my blog. Thank you very much.

I hope to finally get the hang of this posting thing and start writing and most importantly posting pictures of my completed LOs. I know there's a group of ladies out there in cyberspace that are just holding their breath to see what "monster" I come up with. Thank you ladies. I Love You!!!!

So here's to many completed LOs.