Family Birthday's

Happy Birthday to Michael V. , our nephew on the Rowell side :-), who turned 14 on June 25th.

Happy Birthday to Karla, my niece on the Salazar side, who turned 15 on July 3rd...we share our birthday :-)

7 Days and Counting...

I have 7 days left of class!!! Graduation was last weekend and now it's count down. I have to admit, I wasn't planning on turning in my last assignment, but since it's a team paper that's due I am now obligated to do so!! I was hoping to just call it good this week, but for that reason I have 7 more days of class...7 more days and then no one will have to hear me complain that "I have to go home and do homework" or that "we can't have company over since I'm concentrating on a paper!" or "I can't go out of town cause I have a BIG paper due!" It will be nice for a change!!! :-}

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to our Dad's!

And, Happy Father's Day to my husband Jason, the father of our 3 beautiful children ;-)

Here are a few pictures we took on Sunday.

Jason reading his card from Meagan...it made him cry ;'-(

Daddy's Girl

Here we are trying to take a "Family Picture" on Father's day...and we have 2 silly boys making faces

This is the card Ryan made for Daddy at school...it came with a booklet of redeemable tickets... I hate to say this, but that evening Korbin got a hold of scissors and it was in pieces by the time he was done cutting...We have to hide the evidence, since Ryan will be very upset with Korbin...I may try and tape it together!!

MBA Graduation

Today was the big day...Graduation...WOW...what an amazing event!! I graduated with a master's degree in business. There were two ceremonies that day. I was part of the am one and there were approximately 2,000 graduates per ceremony. The arena was full...with about 7,000 or 8,000 guests in the stands).

Thank you to my dear family for coming to the ceremony and to those that tried :-) ... My Mom & Dad (Salazar), my sister Nancy & her husband Sergio, and kids; my sister Isabel & her kids, Mom & Dad Rowell; my dear husband and our kids.

Here are some pictures of the ceremony...Thanks Meg for taking good pictures (and some not so good ones either...like the family one...and guess what? You forgot to get in the family picture!) Love, Mommy ;-)

Pictured with my Mom & Dad

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Getting Ready for the Graduation Party!

Most of Friday was spent getting ready for the graduation party. Stephanie, a sweet Sister and friends, from the church came over to help and she brought her friend along too. We made salsa, pasta, and baked... :-) it was nice having their help. We set up tables and chairs and put up a few decorations too...I think the pictures were all about me yesterday...we didn't get any pictures of Jason and the boys getting the yard all ready :( We'll be sure to get pictures of them on Saturday, especially during the clean-up!

8th Grade Graduation

Congratulations to our beautiful daughter, Meagan, who was promoted from 8th grade today. She received Principal's Honor Role Recognition.

She was also nominated by her Science Teacher for recognition and inclusion in the 2009 U.S. Achievement Academy National Yearbook, Who's Who in Science. Wow, we were impressed! This opens the doors for elgibility to 400 educational cash grants awarded annually.

Here are a few pictures from today's promotion.

Meagan...enjoying her moment!

Family Picture

Ryan...showing off the flowers

Daddy and the boys

Meagan and Auntie Jodi

Meagan with Pappa & Mamma

Happy Birthday

Ok, so I have to admit...I've been bad about keeping up with birthday posts...and as I'm typing this one I just realized I missed my sister Yesi's birthday last month!!! This is terrible!!! I'm going to call her right now and send her a card ;-\

Happy Birthday my dear sister Yesi. We love you :-)

Also, today is our Mom's b-day. Happy Birthday Mom. Hope you have a great day! We did remember to call her early this morning...Korbin half way sang happy birthday to her, but with no cake and candles in sight he had a hard time getting in to the song ...lol...!!

Ready for Church

Yesterday before leaving for church, Korbin walked in to the kitchen to let me know he was ready for church...he had his hands full of toys! and notice the hotsticks..A.K.A. "drum sticks" in his hands...by the time he got to church none of it made it inside since he forgot all about it on the 5 min drive there.

Friends & Food

Last week Friday we had our friends Rachel & Silas over. It was kind of potluck style, they brought Juan Pollo chicken & their famous potato salad. We also BBQ'd and I made homemade salsa and even baked a chocolate cake (I really wanted to use my new cake plate :) that I bought here!! This is a home decor store you must visit if you are in to decorating your home...my favorite store ever!!

It was nice having them over. We hope to have other couples over soon. I do have to say, they have no children and ours were all over the place...lol... At one point the boys were playing by the pool and splashed us with a little bit of water and oh yeah, Korbin hit Rachel with the pool noodle (accidentally of course...and he did apologize(after Mommy made him))...hopefully we didn't run them off or from accepting any future invitations to our home...lol... Silas did go home with a bowl of my homemade salsa, so hopefully that made up for it :-)

(I did take a few pictures (of the cake on my cute cake plate) that I had planned on posting, but they are M.I.A!! I think Meg got her hands on my camera since she was probably making room for her "photo shoot" pictures.)

45 Lessons in Life...

Here is an e-mail forward that I received from a friend that is worth sharing!

Written By Regina Brett, a 90 years old, of Cleveland, Ohio

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me… It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer (age) rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more”:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone...
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first pay check.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?'
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

Great Finds

I wouldn't normally brag or tell you or anyone that I've gone to the Goodwill looking for some great finds! However, this is the moment...earlier today I was passing by a Goodwill and decided to stop. I found the cutest lamp stand, table, and iron seat for Meagan's "Paris" theme bedroom, a world globe/with stand for the boy's travel (airplanes, vintage cars) theme bedroom, and a table for our kitchen (considering it's been a tough decision to lay down several hundred for a new one!) and I only paid 49.99 for this one at the Goodwill! I was there for about an hours and the guy kept coming out with cute stuff from the back. I sat at the kitchen table for like 30 min trying to decide if I should buy it. I called Jason and he said I could do whatever I wanted to...but he just didn't want to hear it later that he made me do it! I also tried calling Mom for her opinion but of course her cell ph went straight to v-mail (sorry mom). At the end, I ended up buying it. It was ONLY 49.99 and like I said, it's hard paying several hundred dollars in cash for a new one (by all means it's not new and there is wear on it, but it will do for a while)...so, I'll use this one until I get my new one, right :-)

Here is the table...it's black and made very cute ... it was 7.99!

Here is the lamp stand. It's made of iron and brass, with crystals~similar to a chandelier...Adorable!! And it was only 15.99!!!! This stand weighs like 30lbs (maybe a bit exaggerated but it's heavy and made VERY well! I'm sure the original price was in the hundreds.

Here is a close up...I'm telling you, it's adorable!...

...And with the lamp shade on it

The cute iron bench ... this one was 3.99!

And with Korbin trying it out :-)

And here is the 49.99 table with 4 chairs. I'm going to fix it up with cushions and place mats (or something...we'll see ;-)