Ropa Vieja

Yessie just called me and she’s trying to make white rice and some ropa vieja. For those of you who aren’t sure what ropa vieja is, it basically stands for two things. Old clothes and it also stands for the name of this very delicious Spanish style shredded beef in seasoned sauce which is one of my kid’s favorite dishes.

So Yessie decided to make dinner today and that’s what’s she’s making tonight.

I guess I really can’t complain. I mean for her to come out of the blue wanting to make something for the whole family is such a nice gesture of hers.

For those who have never tried Spanish food and love beef, you definitely should try the fancy dish of “Ropa Vieja". I know you will absolutely love it!

Where's the Easter Candy?!!

I just finished getting off the phone with Ashlyn’s school. Can you believe that the order of Easter candies hasn’t gotten in yet?! It’s so annoying that they haven’t even bothered to call me and let me know the status. Meanwhile here at work I have all my co-workers and even family members inquiring about their candies which some of them wanted them for Easter baskets. Not much they can do now right?!

Anyways, I left a couple of messages today and hopefully I’ll get an answered or else just hand me back the money so I can reimburse everyone. I mean that’s the least they could do if the candy isn’t in yet. Besides everyone lost their interest already.

Avril Lavigne Concert- April Fools?

April 1st I’m taking my sister and my girls to see Avril Lavigne in concert and NO it’s not an April fool’s joke! I am excited to see Avril as I do think she’s the cutest thing ever.

I got my sister Annie the tickets for her birthday which was a month ago Tuesday, March 1st. I heard the Jonas brothers are opening up for Avril which will be a nice treat since I have been hearing all this commotion about those brothers and I don’t think I’ve listened to their music just yet. Of course if I did listen to it I have no clue that they were.

So the concert is at seven in the evening so I’m hoping we get back early since it’s a school night. Not that the kids ever go by a scheduled sleep hour they usually just go to bed at whatever time they feel like it. I usually try to have them go at a reasonable time, but it just doesn’t work. Hey as long as I can sleep when I want to, I really leave it up to them to decide when they’re tired and when they’re not.

Best of both Worlds

I bought a new pair of Coach Sunglasses and I took a picture for my friend Melissa to look at since she wanted to see it right away. Ok so I took this picture right and then noticed that in the background there’s a can of Goya tomato sauce. I tell you I almost passed out laughing. Coach and Goya isn’t that a pair huh?!

I tell you being Latin there are plenty of delights because you do get the best of both worlds. I get to eat my Goya while wearing my trendy Coach Sunglasses. I can also go celebrate Christmas while Celebrating the Three Kings on January 6th.

You really don’t pay close attention, but it’s so true. Like my girls for instance, they are half Puerto Rican and half Dominican. Puerto Ricans celebrate mother’s and father’s day on the same day as the United States. On the other hand Dominicans celebrate it the last Sunday of the month. Meaning the kids get to do all these celebrations and they still complain that they don’t do much.

At around Christmas time their dad’s side of the family celebrates Christmas Eve like we celebrate Christmas day so it’s quite easy to have the girls go to his house the night before and then spend the whole Christmas day with my family. Then at the beginning of the year there’s another little celebration in tailed. Not a huge one, but usually just a nice dinner at my mom’s or maybe just a nice fancy dessert, but whatever the case may be, we still get the best of both worlds.

Melissa is a Gourmet Chef

Melissa is such an excellent cook. She could basically make anything out of scratch I tell you. She’s always fresh baked bread, cakes, cookies and basically just about anything you can think of.

Thanks to Melissa I learned how to make the candy apples I was so good at making. I ended up making them so gourmet I did a school fundraiser and made 200 apples of a variety of flavors. I made my own caramel and the chocolate was delicious that people have requested that I do more, but it is a bit time consuming and of course hard work especially when you have to melt the chocolates and the colored candies.

I might just do something for Halloween of this year. The ones I did for Halloween last year were so cute. I decorated them with all Halloween colors and the plastic bags were the cutest things ever. You almost didn’t want to uncover them.

Melissa made this awesome rice with glazed chicken and Broccoli for Ashley and I was so upset because she didn’t bring me any!

Oh my Toblerone Chocolate..

My BFF Marcia just got me a treat this morning. A bar of Toblerone chocolate which I’ve never tried in my 33 years until this morning. This chocolate is so delicious that I stopped at the store this afternoon to buy a couple for the girls and another one for me.

It’s insane all the calories I’ve had today, but if you’re a woman you know how it feels especially when you’re on period days. You can eat all the chocolate in the world and not get sick of it.
So I bought three bars at the store this afternoon and I just finished eating another bar. I can’t even begin to add the calories in fat I just had, but who cares I needed the chocolate fix and now I feel so much more relaxed and at peace with life and all the wonders of it.

Ha ha, I think that’s all the chocolate talking…

Dresses for Ashlyn

I was just online searching for a dress for Ashlyn’s 15th birthday. It’s quite hard being that you want the best dress for the occasion, I mean you only have one Quinceanero in your life and you want everything to be the best as possible.

I know Ashlyn has some colors in mind and I have others, but together we can definitely come up to a middle point because overall they’re very nice colors. I do want to have a huge ice sculpture centerpiece and I’m hoping something different like a tiara or scepter or anything that resembles the occasion.

I won’t reveal too much of the festivities because I do want to surprise our guests and if I reveal it here, trust me they will peek and learn all the facts.

Interracial Love...

Talk about interracial relationships. Rachel is half Chinese and half Black because her mom who happens to be Chinese married her husband of many years who is Black and there you got it a little cute mixed interracially Rachel we got.

My sister is doing the same thing. We’re 100% Puerto Rican, but born in the States. My sister is now dating an African guy who is such a nice person. I say go for it to my sister because I would love to see what her baby would look like. I mean friends, my sister is so white she could be Casper the friendly ghost and Abdul is so black you can see blue highlights on his skin. I mean I’m not being racist or anything. I absolutely love Abdul, but yeah they make such a cute little couple I tell you that if they do indeed have a baby together it would be beautiful.

I’m all for interracial relationships because truly love is love and no matter where you came from or who you are, you’re entitled to be happy.

Just thinking..

I was visiting my friend who just had the Gastric Bypass surgery. How scary would it be to make such an amazingly life threatening and changing decision. If you’d ask me if I would sign up for it, I probably would say no. Of course not knowing what reasons people have to make these options in life makes it quite difficult to understand, but I do respect it. I hope the bouquet of flowers I sent her cheered her up because I do know she's in some excruciating pain.

Ok let me change the subject to something a little bit more pleasant. I just realized that my first born will be 19 this coming September and my baby girl will be 15 in December. I’ve already begun the preparations for her Sweet 15, Quinceanero in Spanish. Of course I’m thinking of postponing it closer to the following spring because of the weather. I mean who wants to be running around in fancy gowns in the middle of a winter storm because with our luck that’s exactly what will happen.

I have to be thankful though because the day of Yessie’s Quinceanero it was so beautiful the weather I couldn’t possibly be any grateful. I mean it wasn’t hot or chilly, the sun was out and there were clouds, but it wasn’t beaming in your face like sometimes the sun does. It was just simply a beautiful day! I just hope that Ashlyn’s will be just as beautiful…

Cute little Handbag

My sister likes cute stuff like me and she’s been eyeing this cute handbag which I haven’t been able to locate for the life of me. I just hope that I could find it so I can surprise her with it. I know if I make the effort and do find it, she would absolutely pass out.

I was looking in the infamous Ebay which is one of her favorite online stores, but with no success I signed off. Ebay is too darn busy and slow for me. I’m so used to fast and speedy and Ebay is none of that. Besides, I hate to place bids and the last time I placed an order with them I got charged like five times on my credit card and I got five stupid car chargers for a phone I don’t have anymore. Needless to say, I really dislike shopping at Ebay, but I tried for my little sister.

Tomorrow I’ll try again because right now I’m dead tired and I just want to go and indulge in a bubble bath and after that go to bed. We’ll see what I can find tomorrow….

Don't Drink and Drive.. Please...

Today I went out with Rachel and had a fruity sort of pineapple cocktail with her. It was so good it got me tipsy at like two sips. I had three of them and I was ready to call it a night. Thankfully my sister drove and she was the designated driver. As you all read before, I don’t drink and drive and I don’t promote people who do so. I think it’s ridiculous and people should learn from all the many mistakes others have done.

Some people feel as though it won’t happen to them, but trust me it could. The experience we went through with my parents is something I wouldn’t want anyone to go through. Of course many other people have gone through worse, I’m just really grateful my parents lived to tell us their store and I’m living mine to tell you not to drink and drive.

My NEW BFF

So my dear readers I found myself a new BFF named Marcia. I mean my dear co-worker who I’ve been seeing now for almost two years suddenly we became very close.

Marcia is a very special person. She’s fun, sweet, charismatic and just simply a simple and caring person. It’s really cool when you become close friends with the people you work with because you get to know so much about each other and sometimes find out you have so much in common. Like Rachel and me for instance, her and I have so much in common and the fact that she followed me from our previous job to our new one is a joy.

Yup Rachel is a great friend. We both go over and beyond for each other and I guess that’s what friends are about. So now at work I have my friend and office manager, Melissa and my other friend Rachel and now my new BFF Marcia. Is that not the best?!

Addicted to Tetris!

I’m addicted to Tetris!!! I’ve always heard the girls talking about how cool and how much fun Tetris is, but I’ve never really brought myself to play it until just recently that I downloaded the game to my cell phone. Let me tell you I’ve become a big Tetris freak! I’ve been so addicted to that gave I take it to the potty to keep me entertained, ahaha.

I guess that’s definitely what you call an addiction, but hey as long as it’s not a bad one right?! I downloaded all these games to my cell phone and right now that’s by far my favorite. I’m also a big fan of Scrabble, but I haven’t found that on Verizon games. I swear if I do, I’ll be playing those two games back to back. I used to love Pac Man, but nowadays after downloading it, I noticed that the keys are way too small for me to keep up a good game so I haven’t really played it much. I do have to say, thank God for car chargers because my battery dies immediately!