the best christmas present

it's been a tough few weeks. my grandfather passed away the day after thanksgiving and within the next twelve days and aunt passed and also my father in law after being in the hospital for almost three months. between rosaries, funeral preparation, work and taking care of the baby there was little time to actually grieve. if you happened to be stopped next to someone bawling in the car next to you at a traffic light in the past few weeks, chances are it was me.

the numbness is finally starting to subside and it's mostly because of my wonderul son. he's 23 months old and deserves a merry chrismas so we've been trying hard to make sure that the holidays have been cheerful for him. i guess we've been doing a good job because last night before bed, he looked at me and for the first time said, "mommy, i love you." and it was the best present ever.

may we all find peace, comfort and love during the holidays and in the coming year.

eternal rest grant unto them, o Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. amen.

broken pipes, crooked spines and lavatory dreams

my husband decided that our bathroom needed an upgrade. it did. so we bought a new sink, toilet and easy to assemble flooring. the major project was supposed to be a built in shelf and the whole thing was supposed to take one weekend. that was three weeks ago.

when he removed the old sink he broke a pipe. it was the last of the old galvanized pipes in the house so we decided we might as well change it out but to do that he'd have to open up the wall. opening up that wall was was like opening up pandora's box. the next thing i know my entire bathroom has been completely gutted- floor tiles, wall tiles, bathtub, all walls, door...EVERYTHING. and since we only have one bathroom, we had to move out.

i'm closer to work but i miss our house, our space and especially our bed. all the money i'm saving on gas has been going to tylenol and chiropractic. i don't want to complain though because he's working so hard on it and it's going to be beautiful.

so...i guess i have enough pills to last a few more days.

how many best friends does a person really need?

i think i might be done with making friends. i had a discussion with an old friend the other day about this. turns out the last good friend she made was about ten years ago. and the last time i added a new friend was about six years ago. of course we meet new people all the time but we're talking about good, true, talk to on an almost daily basis, probably going to see them later, got them on speed-dial, share your secrets with, bail you out of a jam no matter how big or ridiculous kind of friends. (you know you're one of my true friends if you can actually think of a ridiculous situation that i've been in or one that you've actually had to bail me out of. haha!)

so the last one of those i made was about six years ago and quite frankly...i kind think i'm pretty solid in that department. is that weird? i mean is it weird that i don't really want to make anymore friends? doesn't that make me sound kind of horrible? i realize that some people move around a lot so they have to constantly start over and make new friends all the time but i've lived on guam for twenty-eight years and i have no plans on going anywhere. some of my good friends go back as far as elementary school. then i have a few from middle school, another few from high school and my volleyball club, a small group that i held onto from the college years and a couple from work. the more i think about it, the more i'm convinced that i'm pretty set in the friend department.

if you made the cut, lucky you!!

lol. actually...lucky me. i love my friends!!

:)

lunch of champions?

yum, yum yum!

(insert mouthful of cap'n crunch)

sometimes you just want to eat cold cereal and sometimes it's noon when that craving comes around. and even though it costs an arm and a leg per toyless box these days, i always make sure we have some on hand. here is a list of my favorite cereals: (in no particular order)

1. lucky charms- as a kid i'd eat all the marshmallows and ignore most of the rest of the cereal. i'm not sure when it was but i eventually learned to appreciate the balance between the two.

2. cap'n crunch- just the regular ol' cap'n. no crunch berries.

3. frosted flakes- this must have been my dad's favorite cereal because it was the only one he ever bought. they're delicious. they're a classic. they'rrrrrrrrrrr.....GREAT!

4. fruity pebbles- this one makes me bounce off walls but that fun fruity crunch is worth the inevitable sugar crash. (cocoa pebbles would receive an honorable mention if this list wasn't ridiculous enough and i had added runners up.)

5. frosted mini-wheats- this is about as serious as my cereal choices get. when i was a kid i thought this was a grown up cereal and i wasn't interested. now that i'm an adult i actually have a hard time considering any "frosted" cereals as grown up.

well that's my list of favorite cereals and why. what are your favorites?


and i'm suddenly 100% certain that i named this blog appropriately :)

(cough cough)

i've been fooling myelf for over a week and now my immune systemis showing me who is really running the show. not me apparently. but i have at least one trick up my sleeve.

i got the flu once when i was in the 9th grade. my mom bought me this long, flannel tweety bird nightgown. it looked a little ridiculous on me when i was 14 years old and even more so twenty years later but...it always makes me feel better.

i tried rest and meds to no avail. so we're going ol' school,,,

ahhh...i feel better already :)



cranky.

my son is teething. he has something like 6 or 7 teeth coming in. i can't really get an accurate count because they're mostly in the back. he's not happy about it. oops, gotta go.

new blog?

for any of my friends and family members who might read this and are wondering...yes this is a new blog.

the old blog: http://mommyonguam.blogspot.com/ is still floating around in cyberspace but i can't seem to log back into it for some strange reason. that's why i stopped posting. and though a lot of what i'm posting here will be about my mommy adventures, it's not limited to that so it got a fresh new name.

about me

i'm a wife, a mommy, a teacher and a lousy poet. i'm longwinded, freckled,  accident-prone and too sarcastic for my own good. i'm consumed by my family and my work and i probably won't get around to blogging as often as i hope to. and if you're reading this then you've probably got too much time on your hands, you should go out and get some fresh air or something.

still here?

ok. i wasn't born on guam. my family is from guam but i was born in hawaii and we moved here when i was six. i am an only child. i graduated from the university of guam with a degree in english literature and became a middle school reading teacher. my husband and i got married in 2006 and had our son in 2010. i've been playing competitive volleyball since i was sixteen. my hobbies include reading, video games, singing and painting. except for reading, i'm not particularly good at any of my hobbies, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying them.

i mentioned earlier that i'm too sarcastic for my own good. it's true. i mean, sometimes it's funny and we all have a good laugh but the people who don't know me well enough sometimes become unsuspecting targets of random bits or sarcasm and just don't get it. if it happens to you go ahead and just walk away from me don't worry, i won't be offended.

that's all for now. thanks for stopping by.

potty like a rockstar!

we used to party like rockstars...literally. my husband was a gigging musician, front man even! and i was his #1 fan. i always had the front row seat. i always got my drinks for free. people would walk in and kiss me like i could, "make them an offer they couldn't refuse." we sang, we laughed, we had a blast. then we had a baby.

at one point, before we had our son, he was gigging six nights a week. but after the baby came, he decided to take a break from the scene altogether. it was a complete lifestyle change but one we were ready to make. our son was born in january, 2010. he's taken over...everything including this blog :)