Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Saturday was a magical day for our family. We celebrated our daughter's 5th birthday with a princess tea party. It was phenomenal.We had 14 little princesses and 2 little boys at the party. It was such an awesome party that the buzz is still going on at her school, at Greg's work and in our family. After the whole fiasco with the park, I decided that we should just consider having the party at our home and doing a tea party. Adryana has been fascinated with tea parties for a little while now and I knew she would really love one. Her only hesitation was when she realized that it would be an all girls party. She felt "bad" about not inviting all her friends from school because she thought the boys would be sad. She's really a very sweet girl and she doesn't like to make anyone sad.

So with only 3 weeks to plan, everything was a bit crazy and overwhelming but I had so much help and support from our family. My best friend spent 2 days at our house helping me organize, clean, watching the kids so I could do the shopping and even helping me decorate and set up the night before the party. Greg's parents and my parents drove up from Ft. Lauderdale and helped set up and prepare for the party and even cooked some of the food. We are truly blessed with our parents' love and support. Thank you all.

Adryana wanted "The Little Mermaid" as the theme for her party. On Friday night my friend and I decorated our dining room ceiling to make it look like a under the sea scene. We used blue streamers for waves, green streamers hanging down for seaweeds and blue balloons for bubbles. Then later Greg's mom and I set up 2 tables (seating for 12 girls) and 1 toddler table table (with seating for 6). We also had a "cake" table which had pictures of Adryana and also some of her dolls and princess stuff. We used real teacups (little cute green ones with "Little Mermaid" stickers) and everything else on the table were blue and green. See photo.

On the invitations I asked all the girls to wear their favorite princess costume and they all came dressed as various Disney princesses. Adryana was dressed as "The Little Mermaid". When the girls got here they mingled for a little while until they were all here. As best as perfect timing could go it went well because the "princess" came exactly at the right time. I went outside to meet here and gave her a gift box for Adryana that had her gloves and wand which I had purchased for the party. I came back inside and had all the girls in our foyer and then opened the door and the "princess" walked in. The girls were all in awe and the best part was when she asked for Princess Adryana. Adryana's voice was barely a whisper when she said "I'm right here" and the princess handed her the box. She said thank you but got all shy and didn't want to open the box. afterwards she did it and we headed upstairs for our "make-over session." We used glitter make-up and lip gloss on the girls. While we were doing that some of the girls were making beaded bracelets and I also gave each girl a beaded necklace. When we were finished upstairs I had all the girls in a line on the staircase and then my little brother escorted each girl one at a time to her seat. I asked Greg's Dad to announce each girl by Princess like Princess Adryana and so forth. I told the girls to give a princess wave as they walked by their mothers(only 2 Dads were brave enough to attend) on their way to their seats. It was absolutely fabulous. The girls were so fantastic. After they were all seated the "princess" spoke to them about tea manners and the girls got a kick out of saying "please pass the sugar." It was so cute! We served chocolate tea (warm chocolate milk) or apple tea (apple juice) to all the girls. They had little teaspoons to use to get 1 or 2 lumps of sugar (white mini-marshmallows in a sugar bowl). We also served mini cookies, grapes, chocolate-covered strawberries and PB&J sandwiches. The girls were adorable, they really got into enjoying the tea party and no they did not break any of the teacups or saucers. It was amazing!!

After the "tea party" we played a few games. We played "pass the wand"(hot potato) and when a girl was "out" I told them that they would be able to take a picture with the princess. That seemed to work except for the first girl who cried. While we were playing that game I asked by best friend to hide one of each girls' slippers and then we played hide and go seek to find the missing slippers. The girls really enjoyed that. Then we started the dancing part, we did freeze dance, limbo and cha-cha-slide. Adryana had so much fun and so did the others. Later we sang happy birthday to you, cut the cake and opened her gifts. It was a fantastic party. We could really tell that she had a lot of fun and so did her friends.

Oh Happy Day!

I know that I have been missing from the blog world for a while now but I've been extremely busy. However, I could not let today come to an end without telling you all about one of the happiest moments of my life. This memorable moment happened on this date approximately 5 years ago...I gave birth to my beautiful daughter.

Adryana Zanae turns 5 years old today...my big girl! Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!!!

The labor was difficult but when I saw my daughter's face it was etched in my memory forever and the pain was already forgotten. I would do it all over again and again and again. She's so adorable and precious. Thank God for blessing us with her.

Happy Birthday sweetheart...I hope that you'll always be blessed by God so that you will always smile that beautiful smile of yours. Stay sweet.

Mommy loves you so much...and no matter how old you get you will always be my baby girl!

Today

I've heard is said many times that Today is a gift. That's why it is called present. I know, very cliche. However, it suits this blog. Today started off just okay for me. There was nothing bad about the day except that I've been really tired. I've been keeping busy planning my daughter's birthday party and just doing a few projects around the house. Saturday was our last major "work" day in the house before Adryana's party. So, it was a long day of doing lots of work around the house.

We didn't have a bad morning or anything like that. In fact, our morning started off quite fine. I even made breakfast and we sat around the table and ate (very rare on Sunday mornings since we have to go to church). I ate a big lunch late yesterday and didn't feel hungry so I skipped dinner. This morning I woke up starving and rightfully so since all I had before bed was a cup of tea. So, this morning I felt like making a big breakfast; I knew I would need the brain fuel too since I was going to teach Arjay's class. That went very well today. We had a good lesson about "the lost sheep" and we did all kind of fun things with cotton balls, Easter grass, cheerios and a lamb puppet. It was actually a lot of fun today teaching the children and we only had 3 little ones.

After we got back from church, we ate our lunch and I just felt so out of sorts. I knew I was tired but I felt like I had so much to do that I just couldn't stop getting stuff done. I even needed to go to the store and get some grocery items (we are out of apple juice and almost out of water, we are never out of water so I'm freaking out!) I really felt overwhelmed.

I finally told Greg how I was feeling and he said come and relax. He did everything he could to help me relax and I finally settled on reading in my bed. This helps sometimes because if I'm tired enough I'll drift off to sleep which is very rare since I don't usually take naps. Today was a rare day! I finally fell asleep and except for the phone waking me up briefly at one point; I was not disturbed for over 2 hours. It felt really good. I needed that nap more than I knew. I woke up feeling refreshed and in a much better mood. I then went right into the kitchen and made Sunday dinner for my family. Dinner was a little late but everyone was understanding and seemed pleased with the dinner.

See my problem is that I keep my mind active with so many thoughts and ideas that I have a hard time sleeping. Even at nights, some times I lay awake for hours just making lists in my head and planning out my whole week even for events taht are months away. I've always had this problem. So now that Adryana's birthday is a week away, I've been having many nights of limited sleep. I stay awake thinking and planning her party. I think about all the things I still have to do and also ideas of what I will do. I'll even "picture" exactly how I want things/events to go way before I attend. I know I have a wandering mind. I also know that the Bible talks about not worrying and that Tomorrow will take care of itself. I know that I need to focus on only Today because I do not know what Tomorrow will bring. God please help me...

Marathon Mayhem

If you have been reading my blog for a while now then you already know that Greg has been training for the Disney marathon. Well, this past weekend we were in Orlando for the long-awaited event. Greg had been training for months now and he was overly excited and anxious about the race on Saturday night. we didn't even sleep that much because we kept watching the clock. The race started at 6am so he left the room before 4am to take the shuttle bus from our hotel to Epcot where the race would begin. Greg's parents drove up from Ft. Lauderdale to watch the race and offer their support. They got up early so that they could get to the start line before 6am. Since I had the kids with me I would join them later. They actually saw Greg at the start line and 2 other times and then they came over to our hotel to get me and the kids. They wanted to help me with the children and I really appreciate their help because it was not so easy with 2 children and going from shuttle bus to monorail and back to shuttle bus to follow Greg. After picking me up we decided that it would be much easier to go straight to the finish line because of all the commuting. We also feared that we would miss Greg based on when we were expecting him to finish. After 45 minutes of anxiously waiting for Greg to get to the finish line we got a phone call from him stating that he's been having some problems for the last hour. This is not a call we wanted to receive but we were happy that we weren't getting worse news. We were very grateful to God that he was alive!

Apparently Greg was having severe cramps in his legs and could not continue to run. He had to go to the medical center at mile 10 in the marathon. After a nurse examined him, he was told that he had over-hydrated his body and depleted most of the electrolytes in his body. I believe the condition is called hyponatremia (which is basically water poisoning, when there's too much water in one's system). Insane!! This was very terrifying. They actually told him to get off the course and not finish the race. If you know anything about Greg then you know that he is very stubborn. Not finishing the race was not an option for him. So he pressed on and decided that he would walk and try to jog until he finish. Folks a marathon is 26.2 miles so yep you got it right. He basically walked, jogged and shuffled for16.2 miles. Unbelievable!!
I did not speak to Greg until he was at mile 20 because when he called me I did not hear my cell phone ringing and neither did his parents. Luckily his friend Chris who was running as well caught up with him and helped him through the race. Chris actually forfeited his chance of finishing the marathon in a decent time to walk alongside Greg. Even though Greg insisted that Chris continue without him so that he could get a good time he wouldn't leave Greg behind. We think that was very heroic of him. Thanks Chris!

So when Greg called me and I spoke to him and heard all that he had already endured and he still wanted to finish the race I had no choice but to support him. When I saw him at mile 24 we shared a very emotional moment as I hugged and kissed him and cheered him on. Of course later I realized just how crazy the whole thing was. I was extremely worried about Greg but when I saw him and saw that he needed my support and encouragement I switched into another mode, not that I wasn't still worried but I knew he needed me to show my caring and supportive side.Later he told me just how much he appreciated it because the whole time he was thinking just how much he had disappointed me. He said that my and his parents' encouragement motivated him to go on. At this point, his mom even asked his dad to join Greg on the course so that he could run along with him to the finish line. Greg said that it was one of his most if not the most memorable moment he shared with his dad. Read Greg's blog here. The whole event was one of the most intense emotional experience that I've had in a while. In the end, all I can do is thank God for his faithfulness. He is an awesome God! Do you know my Lord?

In Case You Are Wondering...

there are STILL some nice people left in this world. The last few days have been kinda crazy for us. On Saturday we realized that our SUV would not start. Since it was the weekend we just drove Greg's car to church on Sunday and said we would take care of the truck on Monday. On our way home from church we thought Greg's car had a flat tire (later it turned out that it just needed air). Still, we just felt so attacked by the devil. First, it was the thing with the waste disposal and then the fiasco with the park reservations. Now, it's car troubles. Needless to say I was really bummed out and so frustrated. I just kept thinking that all this was happening just after such a great message at church on Sunday. Anyways, GOD is good...all the time!
By Monday we got our truck towed to get checked out. It turned out that all we needed was a new battery. Thank you God! We realized that it could have been much worse and we are extremely grateful to God for His help. Although the park situation did not work in our favor, we've decided to have our daughter's party at our home. We're all excited about it too because it's the party she really wants and it will be fun for her. That's all that really matters. Of course it would be nice to not have to do the work that comes with having a party at home. But in the end we know that God sees and knows everything so we have to just trust that this is for the best. God is faithful!
Now for an update on the waste disposal...I tried to reset it several times like some of our friends have suggested. We even tried turning off/on the breakers in hopes that it would start working again. No such luck. However, we finally got a plumber to come and check it out. It turns out that it was just jammed because I probably put something in there that wasn't supposed to go in there. Apparently there is a key (it doesn't really look like a key) but it looks like a hook and if your disposal ever gets stuck you are suppose to stick this device through a small hole in the bottom of the disposal and spin it all the way around (full 360 rotation) and this clears anything jammed inside. Wow! I certainly did not know that. I mean this took him all of 2 minutes. It really is amazing how when you just don't know about something it makes it so much more difficult. Because it was quite simple what he did. Knowledge really is power. The best part of this all is that he explained a lot to me about waste disposal and he also did not charge us for doing what he did. Isn't that amazing? And that is why I say that there are STILL good people left in this world...and that plumber is one of them. BTW his name is Travis Ugarte and he works with Mr. Rooter Plumbing. I told him I would refer him to all my friends so if you need a plumber please call him. Thank you Travis for being a decent human being. Most importantly thank you God for always being faithful! You know exactly what we need. Have you said thanks to God lately?

Out of Hibernation!!

I know it probably sounds strange but today is the first time that I have been out of my house in the last few days. It has been really cold here in Tampa (at least by Florida's standards) and so I have been hibernating(smile). Bu seriously I'm not a fan of the cold weather and since Adryana did not have school and I had no prior commitments I've stayed home and stayed inside the house with the heater on. I'm naturally a homebody so it does not bother me to stay home. No I do NOT get bored. I can enjoy my own company and since I love to read I am always entertained as long as I have a good book.Today I finally went outside just to my backyard because the kids were begging to play outside. It's warmed up today and so I did not mind going out. I will probably even go to the store later to pick up some necessities, milk, eggs,juice, etc.

I'm dealing with some things that is not making my day smooth but I'm not going to drive myself crazy about it. The first thing is that last night I realized that our waste disposer in our kitchen sink is not working. It made a funny sound when I turned it on the first time and so I thought maybe something like a bone was stuck in it. After attempting to clean it out as best as I could and trying it a second time and it made no sound when I flipped the switch I knew something was wrong. Here we go again. We are going to need a service technician to look at it; not even sure if it's plumbing or electrical work that will be required. The worst part about it is that I called a service technician who charges a $75 fee just to come and look at it. I told him our house was only 4 years old and I wanted to know if it would be covered by warranty. Guess what? We only have a 3 year warranty on the disposer. Go figure. I do not want to deal with another plumber. By the way, does anyone know a reasonable plumber?

The second thing is that I'm making arrangements for Adryana's birthday, which is coming up in about a little over 3 weeks and I noticed that our park where we live is reserved for a party and it overlaps with the time that we also reserved. I was hoping to figure out who's mistake it was and what is going to be done about it but sure enough the guy who is suppose to help me is not in the office today. I was told someone would call me back but here I am still waiting and no call yet. One thing that bothers me most is unorganized events. I'm all about organization and so I always plan ahead and so it just peeves me that this man told me everything was fine with our reservations and here I am about to send out invitations when bam...I found a problem. Luckily I decided to go online and check the address of the park, which is when I noticed that another party was booked around the same time as my party. Ugh! Not sure yet what is going to happen but I already have a Plan B so we'll see.

Remember Prayer Changes Things

My husband Greg recently wrote something on his blog that I would like to also share on my blog. Our next door neighbor Zack (6 years old) was diagnosed with ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia) several months ago. Greg is running the Disney Marathon on Sunday January 13th and he's asking for donations in honor of Zack to help support the hospital that Zack receives treatment. Please read Greg's blog for all the information. We've been praying for Zack and his family and we would like to ask everyone to keep praying for them as well. He's about to start another intense treatment of chemotherapy. His mom is very appreciative of all the prayers and says that she knows that it is because of all the praying why he's doing so well.

In addition, please pray for Greg on Sunday January 13th that he will do well in his marathon. I'll be praying that he will come home without an injury. I know that this will be a big accomplishment for him and while I support him 100% I am always worried about him getting hurt so while he's more concerned about finishing with a good time, I'm more concerned about him coming home and not hurt. Thanks for all your prayers and remember to keep God in your hearts and your lives in 2008. Be blessed.