This is a report on my... VACATION!

Exactly, I've been on vacation since last friday, and somehow I managed to stay away from the computer until last tuesday, a new record for me... WOOHOO! I came back to find a few post on my facebook wall asking where I was and if I was still alive or away on a trip hehe that is not a good sign... means I spend too much time there.... it's just so much fun! haha
Well.... though we had planned going to Petén or Panajachel (lake Atitlán), it hasn't happened yet! both places are probably full of people, but hey... you got to get out at least for a bit right? we all want to go to Pana though, we've been to Petén way to many times and just to imagine how hot it must be there makes me start sweating! ugh!
Anyway... we've been relaxing at home... cleaning (my mom freaks out because the puppy its messing with her clean floors... it drives her crazy... as you might have guessed he's not 'potty trained' yet and every morning there's poop and pee somewhere, exactly why I kept telling my sister a dog was not a good idea for this small apartment, we adore him anyway, he's just sooo cute and funny!) visiting grandma, having fun with my little cousins Diego and Mariana, speaking of them, they are both such big kids, they look older than what they are and incredibly intelligent! it's amazing.
We haven't gone to see any procesions, maybe this weekend, every time we try to leave the house it's like hell because most of the streets and avenues are closed, either because of the procesion or people making rugs! a drive that usually takes about 20 min or less can take about an hour if you're lucky.
I haven't read anything for school... I really don't want to right now... hehe
We got an email from Angelina's mom saying my baby girl has been asking for us! How sweet is that???? AND my mom had just had a dream about Angelina that same day, she was very emotional about it. We think about her and her family everyday but it's hard now to get on the computer on time for the skype call with school and all! We'll figure out a way to talk to her this week!
Weather has been great, a little bit too HOT, but still nice, blue skies and flowers everywhere, what a nice time!
If we do leave, I promise I'll take a lot of pictures!

Meet the new babies in the family!

Hey! so.. I'm still alive! hehe it's been very busy as you can imagine, but... I think it was about time to write a post and even add some pics!
As I mentioned in the previous post, baby Marianna joined the family last January and she is now 2 months old! she's a big and precious curly girl, seriously, it might be that I have weak arms again since I haven't hold a baby for quite a while now, but Man! she is heavy!
And now... for a big surprise, we now have a new and furry baby! It's a puppy! Well, it's my sister's puppy... her boyfriend brought it home during one of his visits. I have to say that I am not a pet lover, I mean it's not that I don't like pets... it's just that I know they are a big responsability and I realize we live in a small apartment and spent most of our time out!
Anyway... my sister kept making comments about how she wanted one, of course... she got one.
Goodness, the puppy is so cute and tiny!! I am now drooling for him, he's our new baby now. I guess we needed something like that. Though is a lot of work because he needs to be potty trained, and meanwhile that happens we have to clean all of his messes (you know what I mean :s ) and try not to spoil him too much. He's already a brat, a lovely one by the way!
In other news... there were several protest today, bus drivers around the city joined to close most of the roads and obviously very few busses were working... meaning that.... We all had a day off! and that... violence is becoming too much to bear and things can get wild. This fear we live with is turning people into savages. At least that's how I see it.

Let's see how the coming Holy Week goes... concerning me... I can't wait for some vacation and family time, not to mention all the hours of sleep I will recover! And I will actually have decent breakfasts, no more chips, cookies and peanuts because I didn't have time to eat cereal or fix anything to eat later! That diet is not helping at all, even if I have to climb four flights of stairs both to get home or to our classrooms.

Now, on to the pics... (it's late and I need to get as much sleep as possible and a mosquito has eaten most of my leg!)

Meet Toby, the puppy!! isn't he adorable??

Me and my mom holding Mariana, I think she was 1.5 months then

This is a birthday party, from last saturday, here I am with four of my bff's!
Monica and Ana Jose in the sides and Ana Lucia and me in the middle

This is a cute pic of Diego (age 5) and his baby sister Mariana (2months old) they both look alike and they are both big!

This is Diego holding the puppy, we named him Toby, though everybody seems lo call him different names!!

This is me, holding Mariana, it's hard to notice her curly hair in this one.

By the way, school is going great! ;) Oh and I can't forget to mention that we haven't seen Angelina and her family for a little while now and that kills me but really free time is really narrow these days. I have to figure out a way to see her SOON! I miss her!

yep... school has kept me THAT busy

Well, it's been... many weeks? I have no idea, but one thing I know for sure, it's been BUSY!
I have the biggest dark circles under my eyes, and almost every day I get a comment like... "you've been really busy don't you?" or "you sure didn't get much sleep last night", it's a little annoying but then I think of the time when I have to stay for 36 hours in the hospital (next year!) and wonder what will the patients think when they look at my pretty face lol!

I have learned a lot, done and touched so many new things. Every day I marvel at how perfect we are made, there is a God out there and he loves us SO MUCH! and man! there are some nasty diseases out there, so lets keep everything clean, lets have a healthy lifestyle and hope for the best. So far so good, grades are good, in fact, I have one of the best grades of my group in the last Pathology test! Woohoo! Now, I have a Microbiology test next Friday so I'm working on that, though it makes me nervious to know that it's one of the most difficult ones according to the teachers!

We have a new member of the family, little Marianna was born January 20th. She is just the cutest baby girl and she has curly hair! Diego is now a big brother and loves his sister to death, he's so protective of "his baby girl". She is one month old now and getting prettier by the day!
Speaking of months... that's how long it has been since the last time we skyped with Angelina and her family. I miss her so much!! sometimes I think I am over the fact that she is gone but we all miss her so much. She marked our lives in a big way, specially for me and my mom, and it's not easy to let go of the strong feelings towards that little girl, 'cause she is no longer the baby we took care of. School has kept me busy even on the weekends, that or we just use that free time to go out together as a family, or simply rest! The girls are so beautiful, and I just wish I could hold them in my arms and kiss their chicks and tell them how much I love them in person, but that just seems so far away... I keep thinking that I won't have much free time as the years go by and this dream is not looking any closer to reality :'(

Ok, it's late and I better go to bed, I might not sleep at all tomorrow, to end up this post... we had two earthquakes on Tuesday, one at 5:00 am and the other one around 10:00am, the second one was the most scary, it was 5.7 degrees in the Richter scale, how I hate earthquakes... I freak out everytime and it's just awful, specially after what happened in Haiti, we had one like that in 1976 and it was just as terrible. Anyway... I'll try to post more often... won't make any promises but next time I'll try to post pictures as well!

had a crappy fist day at work

yes, it was awful! I had NO IDEA of what I was doing!! I kept getting calls I didn't know what to do, I was in panic, I wrote down everything and said I was going to send their money back, redelivery, whatever the system told me to, but have no idea if I actually did!?
I scored a 100 in all the training tests, but those where nothing compared to actually taking calls!
I left the place horrified, I felt like a big failure, and the worst part is that I am dreading the time to go back for another 5 hours of hell!!
I might be exaggerating , but I feel like I dont need to go thru all that but I don't want to be a quitter though by this thoughts I already am!! It never crossed my mind that it would be so hard!
Jesus!!! Help me!!!!!

Ok, I took a little time while writing this post, and decided I'm going to face my fears, at least for today, maybe it will be better right? (please God make it better!!). I don't want to feel like a loser and regret the fact that I didn't try. (big sigh...) Let's do this.

And for a personal record... Silvia Navarro my fav actress inspired me not to give up on this kind of issues.

This blog neglecting girl has a job

Yes, this was my 3rd day. I am on training for 1-800-flowers.com, did my interview last wednesday, another interview on the phone with a new yorker (that went very well, I had compliments on my english!) and I was hired on friday. They are offering temporary positions since it's a high season for sales and costumer service, so instead of the 3 week training we are going to have 1 week and they we are thrown to the "platform" to recieve calls from all over the world, especially the US.
I will probably work there for 3 weeks, at least I can earn some money to buy my books for next year, and maybe, just maybe some clothes and shoes?
I am not aware of many things happening outside since I will sit for 8 hours (2 to 10pm) in front of a computer and talking on the phone, but we are having very nice weather, traffic is starting to be a problem with the holidays getting closer and we set our tree and Chirstmas stuff until today, it looks really pretty...
I feel bad because my mom has to stay up until 10pm to pick me up, I will have to work even on sundays and probably Christmas day or New Year's Eve! :s

feeling the winter

winter is showing its face around here. It's been a few days now with rain, cold, clouds, you know, that kind of day when all you want is to stay in bed all warm and cozy. Not my kind of weather really, this year has been pretty hot, the rainy season is coming waayy late. It means we are using sweaters, scarf, boots or sneakers, I even wore gloves yesterday... GLOVES!! and I am Miss I.Always.wear.Sandals for Christ sake!
Anyway, we did have a couple of hours of sunshine today, then the rain came back :( , this is all because of a hurricane near Nicaragua that is now heading north. They said in the news the rain will be over by the 10th and then we can expect more cold. Great! ¬¬

I got a call from the call center I was trying to work for, they wanted to hire me!! too bad the schedules they were offering were way different from the times my mom can drive me. And as dangerous as it has been around lately, I rather stay home with no money but safe. I mean seriously, there have been attacks to police cars and 17 to 20 people are killed every day due to violence. I had to say no.


News from the US, little Angie, my sweet girl, it's going to school now with her sister. Her mommy told us that according to her teacher, Miss Megan (she has mentioned her on skype talks), she is the smartest in her group and is really good paying attention in class and follows instructions very well! Believe me she is sooo smart, I mean she had words at 9 months old! and at age 2 she has 4 and 5 words sentences! God I love this child to pieces.
We get to see both babies every friday now, which is great, though within a week there is not much to talk about, our life is not that exciting. lol!

Have a great week!

xoxo

the pics... finally

I am so sorry it took me so long to upload the pics, I've been using the laptop lately and I have no pics or anything there yet.

I'll let the pics do all the talking and show the fun. I'm doing a double post and I'm adding pics from my night out last week and some from November 1st, when we celebrate "Dia de todos los Santos". Families gather, visit the graveyards to put flowers to their gone loved ones and eat Fiambre a delicious dish with all kinds of ingredients and it's yummie!!
For some reason some pics are a little grainy but I think they do the job...


Now, here are some pics of November 1st at my grandma's. I have no pics of the graveyard because my sister took the camera, we went there on the 31st because it gets way too crowded on the 1st, even if it was a day before the holiday there was a lot of peoples and flowers where everywhere, pretty nice! Abuelita Mary made a beautiful flower arrangement for my uncle's grave.

we had a little photoshoot right before eating, we are all so grown up! He looks so proud!

Abuelito Tuti ROCKS!!

Grandchildren

a close-up to the Fiambree! DELICIOUS!

we really enjoyed the time together, we bought this Fiambre from my uncle's mother in law. My grandma used to make it herself but it takes time and money to accomplish this.

with our bellies FULL!


NIGHT OUT WITH FRIENDS!!!

"little" Max being funny ¬¬

sipping some "playa azul" - those were good!

MARGARITAS!!

I don't know about you but I think the waiters shirt's were AWFUL!!!

I think we look cute in this one, I love the blouse I was wearing (thanks daddy!)

Can you tell we were having fun??!!

cute gurls!! Those drinks are "sex in the beach"... what a name!

After four rounds of drinks and food, we headed (well not all of us, just me and 3 more girls) to Ana Lucia's house for a sleep-over night. I wont post any pics of that since all the glamour was gone and we just chatted until 3 am. My mom showed up at 8:30 am when we were just waking up... the woman can live without me lol... we are inseparable.


Hope you liked them!


xoxo

wondering what happened?

Well, no job, my guess is that they didn't like the fact that I am a med student and I am most likely to quit after a couple of months. They didn't want to give me neither the full time nor the morning part time schedule! arghh! They did point the fact that my english and accent is pretty good and that if I stayed I could be promoted quickly... anyway what they were offering did not work well for us, the whole idea was to drop both me and my sister in the morning and then pick us up at night... Anyway... I don't know if you picked it from the last post but I didn't really want to work! (don't tell my mom! and...was it really obvious?) Oh and please don't think I screwed up my own interview, Im just not that kind of person, I gave my best, they didn't want me.
It was a call center for a Texas Energy Company, basically they answer calls from people who has trouble with their electric bills, whose energy service was cut or whatever... my sister said you get yelled at all the time and people are very rude. As soon as she noticed what account it was she said "This account sucks! don't take the job".... my answer? ¬¬

In other news, I opened a facebook account for my mom today, a lot of her childhood are showing up and they all ask for a fb account, she had to have one! we spent over an hour searching picture files and picking pics to upload to her profile! she picked 8, she wanted more but I was starting to get exasperated, seriously we have tons of pictures!

It's little Andrea's Birthday today so a BIG

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY!!

for her, she is such a beautiful child, inside and out.
We love her so very much!

I'm sorry I will leave the pics for tomorrow, this thing just won't upload them and it's making everything go super S-L-O-W!


xoxo

Night out , Update & New Job??

I got my grades today and I am oficially off of school for this year, I am on vacation (finally!!!)
I was really longing for some free time and so I thought this next two months I would be home with my mom and brother and keep feeding my internet addiction as long as I could until it was time to put full focus on my studies again... WRONG!
I have a job interview tomorrow, if they hire me I'll be working full time for the next two months doing costumer service in a call center getting calls from all over America... this call center has several accounts that provide different assistance of which I have no idea. I have to go under a training period of time and then I'll start answering calls. Not my idea of a vacation to be honest but at least I will have my own money for the first time, and I can even get Christmas presents for my family and some clothes for myself which I really really need! Ooohh! and save money so we can get our visas! I HAVE TO SEE MY BABY GIRL!!
I'll let you know how the interview goes... I got the call like an hour after I sent the email, so now can you tell how much the fact of speaking english can help you when you want a job??



I so enjoy seeing Angie and her family every friday night, I guess that will have to change. Angelina is getting so big, she's going to school now with her big sister. They are both so smart! I love the fact that she knows who we are and that we love her beyond words.
She is quite the dancer let me tell you, and LOVES her mommy, she gets prettier by the day and her temper is the same than when she was here with us. Little Andrea on the other hand is full of energy, she never stops but is the sweetest little girl, LOVES her mommy and sister and has a crush on my brother LOL she goes wild every time she sees him. They are both super cute!

Oh I went out with some friends yesterday, we went to this place called LaPlaya (the beach) they pull this thing on tuesdays and thursdays where all the drinks are 4x1 for women!! we had to take advantage of that! LOL we were celebrating we are on vacation and free of school for long enough, next year will be rough and only to get even more rough in the years to come... living in the hospital and stuff... (sigh).... long and hard road ahead. Lets pray for the best.
Pictures are to be posted tomorrow! stay tuned!


xoxo

August Birthdays part 1

August 12th is my uncle's birthday. I have to admit I have no idea of how old he is but we sure love him a ton! He is my mom's brother, the only one since uncle Byron passed away a few years ago :,(
Tio Marito (as we call him) has a great sense of humor and it's a great dad, they are now expecting their second child (fingers crossed hoping it's a girl! My sister and I are the only girls in my mom's side of the family).

Ok, his mother in law cooked a very special dinner for him, so they invited the rest of our family and tia Sofi's family, well... enough talking let's get to the pics!

first of all, the kids! can you tell they love the Power Rangers?

The Family of four

Birthday boy and his pretty nieces! ;)

after the fabulous dinner!

Thank God for Skype!

(First, I am sorry to be away for so long... school and life are keeping me busy and this post has been actually hanging since almost a week ago!)

That's right! Thanks to skype I got to see my baby girl and her family LIVE!!
OMG!!! we were sooo excited! as usual I had tears in my eyes, Angie is getting soo big! she's talking and now she can do and say so many new things. If talking with them on the phone was incredible seeing her LIVE and hear her saying "I love you" and blowing kisses was the best thing on earth!
Now, we have been using skype for about 5 days straight and you might find it odd but sometimes it seems like there is not much to say but to stare at Angie with a huge smile on our faces... I mean... the fact that I am pretty much the only one talking in this side of the screen doesn't help much, but it's awesome!
At least now Angie actually knows who we are again, not only and pictures or from what her mommy tells her about us or from the phone calls.
I wish I could get thru the screen and hold her! and her sister is the most adorable little girl!
She is sooo active. I find it unbelievable how kids show their personality at such early ages, Angie is the same girl we met at 3 days old, so calm, smart and loves to cuddle.

Now, if I could only get to visit them!! I have high expectations on that!!

FFF - Mommy!!

So I scanned these old pics from me and my mommy just for this special post!
I so love my mom, she is the greatest mom ever. I have mentioned my love for her in previous posts but I never get tired or saying it and hugging her every chance I have.
I thank God everyday for sending her to be my mommy and my brother and sister's mom of course. She rocks!
Oh and HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the mommies and grandma's around the world! You definitively deserve more than one day a year.




This one is from my baptism, I think I was 6 months old :)



This was taken by my uncle Byron (rip), he was the official photographer lol
I was about 18 months old.

And the next couple of pics are from our past Holy Week vacation.


At my uncle's house for a BBQ


Showing some love :)

It's been a while huh?

I am such a lousy blogger, sure it gets crazy around here some times but some others I just don't feel like writing a post, some other times MSN or Facebook keep me too busy to turn to blogland :s

Believe or not, we are enjoying a very rainy SUMMER!! It's been raining every evening for about 3 days now. It's that kind of weather that makes you feel all gloomy and want to stay in your bed 24/7. It can also make you want to die if you are far away from your house or stuck in traffic, Oh and this doesn't mean it isn't hot at noon. Go figure...

Anyway, it has been a while since my last post and a few events that I'm going to separate in a few post to make up for the lack of attention to my blog. lol!
The main event for today is....

We had a Call from my baby girl's family!!!

I mean what could be better than that??? We got to talk to her mommy and even hear her on the phone saying "I love you Eva" "i love you Molly" and "I love you Samara" (my mom) and her prayer! aaaaww! her little voice melts my heart!
we only got to hear a little bit of it since she was only saying a few words when she left.
That really made my day :)

Karaoke Contest!

So it all starts last week, last Monday to be exact, my mom and I were coming back from my grandma's house so I was changing the radio station and a karaoke contest came on but it was just finishing, as you might know I LOVE TO SING! My mom told me we should call and I said yes. On tuesday I did the call and sang... and a few minutes later I hear the radioman saying my name! I was the winner of the day!!
Men! I was so excited! you should have seen me jumping around in the living room LOL!
So I was supposed to go to the radio station for a live karaoke contest with all the winners from the rest of the days. And that was not it... there was going to be some special judges to pick out the week's winner... it was a national group (VERY FAMOUS IN GUATE AND MY FAVORITES!)... MALACATES TREBOL SHOP! OMG!!! I couldn't believe it!

On Friday, I dressed up nicely and though I was nervious I really wanted to win a new LG Karaoke system with 1800 songs!!!
So my mom and I were the first ones there. Then 3 other girls showed up, (I have to mention they were so young! it was a little bit embarrasing but I didn't care, they were very nice).
We had to sing 3 different songs each, Malacates was there (well only 2 of them because the rest of the guys were not in Guate... the singer was there and that was enough for me HA!), not many people in my family were listening but I was so happy and excited to be there, it was one of my dreams coming true.
And at the end.... I WON!!!! Jesus Christ I was sooo happy! I made my momma and my family proud and that felt so good!
Now ... on to the pics and video!!

this is me, when I found out I was the winner of the day! :)


these are the other contestants and the guitar man of Malacates Trebol Shop


My turn to sing!

I think my mom was even more excited to meet him than I was! LOL


And this is me! the proud winner with her favorite Guatemalan Band!
They are sooo nice! and Páez (the one in the stripes shirt, he's the singer) is sooo handsome :)

Living in the city of FEAR

Well, once again I must say what a lousy blogger I am.
The past days have been chaotic, lots and lots of things to do, places to be... just so many things there is not enough time!
First of all I had two big exams for this week (yesterday and today) and so I became "book face" once more and along came the lack of sleep which can make me really fussy.
Good news is that as far as I know most of my answers where right and I will have some decent grades.

On other things, I want to say a belated Happy Women's Day! to any wonderful women reading this post anywhere.
This past weekend was nothing but heartwrenching, there where so many people killed! The police found 2 young girls dead, one was found burned and the other was cut in pieces and the body parts where in plastic bags in a large area.
3 bus drivers were shot and died. I have to mention this is something that has become somehow common in GC. Only in the first 3 months of 2009, more than 20 bus drivers have been murdered in the same circumstances. So everytime you get on a bus or someone close to you gets on one you can only pray and pray that he gets to wherever he/she is going safe and sound (though they might get safe it doesn't mean they didn't get robbed while in the bus!)
It is very frightening to live this way. Robberies happen everywhere now, we are literally afraid of driving in our cars with the windows open because the robbers now drive motorcycles and use the red lights to point guns to the drivers and take their stuff away!!
There were also 5 police chasing incidents all over the country the drug cartels are trying to get the control of the country to pass drugs! There are dozens of people dead because of this, there have been several masacres in the past months.

Besides all of the mess we have to live with here, summer is here and that also means that fires are a threat in many parts of the country. AND from sunday to this day we have had 3 earthquakes!! (I HATE EARTHQUAKESSSS!!) According to the newspaper there have been 17 earthquakes since sunday but only 3 where sensitive all over the country.

Anyway, I just keep praying and praying that this violence ends very soon because it can't get any worst than what it is. When there are teenagers killing people just to be accepted in a gang or just because they are going to receive a meal or clothes in return something is seriously wrong with the society.