Summer 2013

Wow, haven't blogged in a while!  I sure do miss it.  Guess I will have to get on more often. Let's see, I love being a mom.  Having two children under the age of two and only 11 months apart is basically like having twins i'm told.  Sure feels like it anyways.  I love being at home with them.  Lately i've been contemplating quitting my full time job and opening up a small at home daycare.  I don't know how that would work.  Where they go now is montessori based and they are learning a lot!! The lady speaks predominantly spanish so they are beginning to understand it. At least Noah is and well, i'm just a White Oreo Cookie with Chocolate in the middle so he won't comprende anything I may try to teach him in Spanish.  haha 

Noah is talking so much.  He sat on the couch with us last night and tried his hardest to hold a conversation with his father and I.  Pretty much his extensive vocabulary involves, Tank tu, How are you doing, What and Woah!  haha  I asked him on Saturday if he was ready to take a nap and he said No Mom, My MIL said, he said no Mom. He ran up to me and looked at me sqare in the eye and said No Ma'am!  Just sounded more like mom. My baby is growing up so fast. 

Kaleb is my little character.  He likes to make funny faces and giggles pretty much about anything.  I hope he's not like me and starts to giggle everytime he's getting in trouble making the corrector furious.  Poor baby, God help him control his laughter! lol  He is still at an army crawl but we've been practicing standing up.  Unfortunately for him, he thinks he's supposed to stand on his toes!  If he's ever in football may have to put him in ballet first to teach him how to control his feet! 

My hubby is the best.  He's always putting his family first.  I hate that he has to work weekends but I see how he needs to be able to go above and beyond for us.  He thinks that's his calling so I just let him be a man even when I want to beg him to stay in bed at 4:30 every Saturday morning.  I'm very proud of him, I see how he is praised for all his hard work and god given knowledge.  If God is for him who can be against him is his scripture.  He has favor with the Lord, therefore he has favor with man.  I love it!  He's a true man after God's own heart. 

We recently went to Destin, Florida.  It was beautiful.  My hubby has pretty much had to work his whole life and hasn't had the opportunity to travel so I thought i'd plan a special trip for him this year.  We stayed at the Sandestin Hilton Golf and Beach Resort.  It was amazing!!!  Our hotel room, the awesome pool, the bluest blue beach, the manicured lawns.  It was perfect!  We ate out on the patio, we swam all day, we only went to the beach once cause we were afraid our non scared children were going to pretend to be real life Bubble Guppies.  Oh no, when Kaleb ate the sand and enjoyed it, that was it, time to go to the pool.  Kaleb fell asleep in his stroller and we parked him under a portable tent.  It was cute!  Noah thinks he's Michael Phelps (minus the bong) haha. 

So I had a blessed summer and I was so excited to see the tears fill my babe's eyes that someone would do something so special just for him.  HE DESERVES SO MUCH MORE!!!  I wish I had all the money in the world to spoil him the way he does me.  Destin was fun and we'll definitely be going back. But i'm thinking Gulf Shores Alabama for next year with a weekend get away to the JW Marriot San Antonio Hill Country Resort in between somewhere.  Vegas is next!  Celebrating Bigg Papa's birthday this year in style!   Get ready baby...we're going all over the world, I can promise you that!  #servants of the Lord

And My Promise is Here...

Augusto Chapa!

So...he's not anything I prayed for or saw myself with and now I can't picture myself without him!! =)

He's the love of my life, my other half, the best part of me! My ribcage! My HAPPY!

A year ago I blogged a post named, So Happy, how my promise was just around the corner but there was nothing I could do to bring it forth...well HE BROUGHT IT FORTH!!! On September 29th, 2009 I got my SUDDENLY!

So for the past year i've been getting really close to a new old friend. He says he wasn't my friend and never introduced me as his friend but he was! I've liked him a few times over the past 7 years that i've known him and when I say liked I mean a moment of wow, did you see what he just did? He's sooo nice...but NO! I'm so not his type, which yes means the exact opposite! haha Not that he was a bad looking guy, but he was sooo mean to me!!! I was the brunt of all his jokes. He was rude and good at it!! Mind you, only to MEEEE!!! >:-o Well he says he never liked me but over the past two years, I could feel he did! He says he never did anything to let me see it, but I told him if he were closer to DADDY (to GOD) he would of known that I had liked him at different points and that Daddy would let me know he liked me too! ;p Guess what??! Daddy let me know! ha ha!

Well, on the 24th of September I felt I needed to talk to him about all this to clear the air of how I once liked him but if he liked me, he better STOP cause it would never work!!! LOLOL...i'm glad he didn't listen to me! He left two days later to protect our Pastors on Evangelical trip to Mexico City, we text non stop! By day 2 there was an I miss you on day 3 I was filled with an OVERWELMING LOVE for this man who was once only my friend and out came an I love you! By the end of the night he slickly proposed without proposing and we were making wedding plans by 9 o'clock!! DORK!!! I quickly wrote back and said btw...this does NOT get you out of a real proposal...he said doesn't matter...I ALREADY KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO SAY!!! RUUUUDE!!!! >:-o LOLOLOL

This is a prophetic relationship, it's not us who put us together, it was The Lord. Well I couldn't of asked for all I got! GOOD GIFTS COME DOWN FROM THE FATHER OF LIGHTS!!! =D And its better than anything I could of ever asked for, hoped or imagined!!

PRAY GOD'S WILL...IT'S BETTER THAN RUBIES!!! =)

I LOVE YOU AUGUSTUS CHAPA!!

GOD KNOWS

So, I get a phone call last night and i'm heartbroken as my dad tells me that a friend of mine stopped by to tell me that another friend of mine had passed away. I'M FLOORED!

Felo was my best friend from 1993 to 1996, yeah...Pre-Jesus! Once I went Holy, they fled like flies! I loved my felo. His real name was Orfelio...but we didn't like that...so Felo was born! =)

Felo was cute...just my type, tall, skinny, soft hands, GREAT Dresser and smart...he worked in a shoe store, so girls...YOU KNOW! I could of easily been in LOVE! ok..."LOVE" LOL. But it wasn't like that, he was like a girlfriend, my BEST FRIEND!

I met Felo when he worked at the Cinema 8, my cousin Becky was the Assistant Manager there and we were there every night watching free movies, he was an Usher. I remember thinking..."wow, he's cute!" Becky was always trying to hook him up with the little winches that worked there, he'd never fall for it! I used to call him one of the kids even though he was only a year younger than me. I would pick him up from work, mother him a little bit and ride him all over town in my little Mustang...LOL...Mustang Sally. The Rosenberg Cops named us the NIGHT RIDERS...so we never got busted for breaking curfew. It was forever Alicia, Felo, Becky and me . Riding around town non-stop hitting all the hot spots; Whataburger (so the cops could see us), The Colonia (to make sure no one was partying w/o us), The Heights (to see what Wicho was up to) and the Tropicana (to make sure Hector was still FINE!). What idiots!!! LOL...We referred to this as, "Busting a Cruise".

Once I became a nanny and moved, we still spoke daily. We gathered at Alicias just about every weekend. We were family! He was the sweetest person you'll ever meet. He would listen to me and all my boy drama, tell me I could do better! And the way we would all ramble, we all knew each others stories like the back of our hands. I call this the Merry-go-round effect! JUST JUMP OFF ALREADY! But i'd always jump right back on! LOL...we were so s t o o p i d!

I always use Felo as part of my salvation story, see...my Felo was gay. I've learned that when things happen to you as a child more than likely your going to fall into one of the following 3 categories: Drugie, Promiscuous or Homosexual! I fell into the 2nd, my Felo fell into the 3rd! Don't ever a judge a person without knowing their full history!!! I mean that!!!

So, back to the story. I remember always dragging him with me to my clubs; El Dorado Ranch in Pasadena, The one on Richmond and Hillcroft and to Crystals our Salsa hang out! And he'd always go, no questions asked (like who are we stalking tonight!) LOL...no hesitation. Well one night he said, "why don't you come with me to one of my clubs since I always go with you!" By now, i'd been hearing the voice of the Lord telling me to come serve him from time to time (me still refusing over and over!) well I said..."surrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre...why not!!!" But I was thinking...O heck no!!!! Well one night we pull up to Riches in my little Ford Probe (I thought I was all that in it! pfff) We get out and I remember muttering under my breathe...LORD, IF YOU'RE REAL, PLEASE GET ME OUT OF THIS...DO NOT LET ME GET IN!" I'm leading the pack as if this is my idea, we get to the door and i'm looking at guys leading guys in pulling them by dog collars!!!!!!! oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap!!! (i'm only thinking this!) The guy looks at everyone and says..."you can go in, you can go in, you can go in, but YOU CANNOT GO IN!" I'm like "what the dot dot dot dot what do you mean??? How you gonna turn me away"...I didn't speak this nice back then so i'm sure I was flowing him a Parental Cautioned version of a rap song I'm sure I had just listened to but was secretly thinking...I KNOW NOW THAT YOUR REAL...PRAISE YOU GOD, PRAISE YOU GOD, PRAISE YOU GOD...THANK YOUUUUUUUUUU!!! Hence goes my story!

I ran into a former boss of his today at the wake and she said, "I'll take you back...did you own a little white convertble"...I just laughed. She said, "I remember you pulling into Famous Footwear to drop him off, long hair just flowing" and she swayed it back and forth...i'm dying by now. She said, "I 20 questioned him soo fast...Who is she?? Your girlfriend?? She's cute...you should get with her!!"..."NO, SHE'S JUST MY FRIEND!" (To this day, I HATE those words!!! LOL)

He once told me, "you and I should just get married so my parents can get off my back!!" I was like "oh heck no...I like MEN!!! YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN BUDDY!"

Once I went Jesus, I was left solo! I lost all my friends...they all abandoned me and thought I was crazy and possibly in a cult or something...so we all lost touch! I ran into him from time to time at Rack Room where he worked, but we never hung out again! LOL...now I was the converter...LOL...so there's no way I can roll with you! I missed my Felo!

We were told he got Pneumonia in December and was even hospitalized a couple of times. He got better and all of a sudden relapsed last week. His lungs collapsed and he went into a coma. Doctors said he would never recover and he was pulled off of life support on Friday!

I tell you this story cause he's been on my mind for a couple of months now! So strong!!! I've been asking everyone who knew him if they had seen him. No one knew anyting! I've tried researching him on the internet...NOTHING...with his name, how many can there be??? Well come to find out...NOT ONE!!! LOL. I didn't know what was going on, just that I wanted to find him. To get in touch with him. Now I know why. I remember praying for his salvation when I first gave my life to the Lord and i've prayed for him every now and again. But what if this was my clue from GOD himself to intercede from HIM and I failed??!! I don't want this to happen to any of you, if someone pops into your head...PRAY FOR THEM RIGHT AWAY! Don't wait, Don't put it off till later. People need people sometimes to bring them to where GOD is...that was our lesson in church today. Life is not perchance...its predestined! GOD KNOWS what's going to happen before it happens and uses us for intervention sometimes...Me knowing this should of tried harder to find or pray for him. Not that i'm blaming myself...but its a lesson...life is precious! We're not promised tomorrow. Maybe it was just so I could get my good bye in and have no regrets...but now I have a regret and its going to take some time to get over it! So tell the ones you love you love them. Say goodbye as if you really care about that person so they'll know. And don't hesitate to pray for someone when they pop into your mind. GOD KNOWS and wants to fill you in sometimes! Isn't HE great?!

I will always hold you in my heart Felo! Love-Your Friend

Two Trees and Tibb

Have you ever had friends who were just too great for words? I have those! A lot of those actually, but two stand out that I want to tell you about. My Peggy and my Jennifer!

I met them both around the same time in 1998 at our home church named Spirit of Praise at the time. Peggy was a freshman in college and Jennifer was her best friend that she would drag along to youth group with a chubby little fellow named Matt that was just too cute for words. Matt, now Adrienne's husband, is Jennifer's brother. He serves no point in this blog other than he's just tooo cute for words and now has a daughter with those same little cute cheeks you still want to pinch even though he's all of 23 years old now.

Peggy was a snob! Let me rephrase that...a SPIRITED YOUNG THING (who thought she knew it all!) We bumped heads immediately, me being on the LOL...colorful choir i was in could see every MOCKING face she would make from center stage. I sure didn't like her and she sure didn't like me.

I recall being in a play where i played a DOG! But a dog named...PRINCESS ;) LOL I remember being in the back room dressed and ready to go on and she came to me saying..."I owe you an apology!" Blew me away!!! ME??? AN APOLOGY??? OK! I still don't like you...but OK! LOL. Her mom would beg me to call her..."You need to call Peggy. You should get together." Oh...OK! As to say...THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! But smile and nod politely and move on.

I remember a few years passing and she really needing someone to be there for her. Seeing as Jennifer had become my new found best friend of two years and no longer hers, i reached out to her, she hugged me as if i knew her for years. As i began to speak with her i realized we had more in common than even she had thought! Aw heck, this girls done experienced everything i've been through...SHE'S MINI ME!!!! AS IF TO SAY...Crap now i have to like her. ;p

Her and Jennifer immediately rekindled their friendship and Peggy was given a job with me in Houston. Yup...I taught her how to turn on a computer! Glory days, glory days i tell you!!! That lasted all of 9 months and she began the position she still holds till today at another company. But she will always be a little tree of righteousness planted by the waters whose leaves never wither! Me...well, she calls me BIG OAK! LOL So that makes me a BIG TREE of Righteousness!

Jennifer was a wild child. She came with Peggy like i said, but usually reaking of smoke! No bueno in the Christian world. As i got to know her i just fell in love with her positiveness! She's amazing, loving, giving, wise. She was the bomb from the get go, of course still reaking of Smoke! LOL

I say she became my best friend of two years (RACHEL DON'T FREAK YOU'VE ALWAYS BEEN MY BEST FRIEND SINCE THEN, BUT KAY AND HER WERE BEFORE YOU!) but really, she was everyones best friend. I like to call her the Networker...you know those Verizon Commercials with the whole networks behind the spokesman??? Jennifer's that spokesman, "can you hear me now??" LOL Just a very caring person who gives the best hugs! We call her Tibbs cause she's so irresisTIBle...but i like to spell it with two B's. (so sue me!)

For a long time, i needed no help, (ok, i'm going to wink that other eye.) I was the counselor, the strong one if you will, the go to girl for prayer. For a long time I held such a high position (probably only in my own little mind) that if i hung around any of the youth, they would stop respecting me, you know once they saw how immature i really was! ;) ok, now you wink your eye too! So i felt seperated from the flock...I like to think of it as EAGLE status! (pfff) So somewhere along this path, I must have lost all respect in GOD's eyes cause i'm now just a regular old Joe with a bunch of friends i don't even have enough time to hang around! haha...wink again!! (And i mean that!)

These two girls have seen and prayed me through so much! Whenever i was lonely, they went out of their way to make me feel loved. Whenever i was hurting all they had to say was...ITS GOING TO BE OK!!! And that's all i needed to hear! Everytime my dad went into that hospital...well they joined together in there only little Corporate prayer and BELIEVED! I love them so much and am blessed the LORD gave them to me (AND YOU TOO RACHEL...No te pones selosa!) ;p But seriously, i don't know where i would be without two such wonderful people in my life!

YOU'RE THE BEST!!!!

Just want to Screeeeeeeeeeam

Have you ever felt like just so frustrated? Like your promise was just right there but there was nothing you could do in your physical power to make it happen? ? ? I'm telling you...I'M RIGHT THERE!!! There is nothing I can do but be still (remaining in place or at rest; motionless; stationary: to stand still) and know HE IS GOD! =)...hmmmm...OK! I lay down frustration and all anxiousness Lord!! (Is Anxiousness a word?!?? idc!!)

Yesterday Balta gave a demonstration of how the Lord will help you get your gifts. And he had Pastor Robert and Juan hold up a scarf full of gifts. Then he had Tony Q, Tony E and Kat be the people trying to get their gifts but obstacles stopped them (in this case it was Jorge and Ram) Kat slipped through got on her knees and prayed the gifts came down to her and she reached in and got hers. Tony E. was next and he pushed his way through and had to step on a chair to be able to reach his gift. Then there was Tony Q…after all the pressing it just wasn’t going to happen for him…his enemy was too strong so the Lord had mercy, the enemy was destroyed and he got to get on a step ladder to help him reach for his gift.

This morning I woke up thanking GOD for my step ladder! LOL

Are You Loved???

As far as I can remember my parents have bought me jewelry from Helzberg Diamonds. I remember everytime I would go to the mall I just had to stop and put on one of those I Am Loved Buttons. No rhyme or reason...I just loved them! My family didn't say I love you much...they were more of the 'I buy so you know' kinda people. So Helzberg was my source for affection you could say??? LOL...jk.

About two years ago wow...almost 3 now! I was having a self esteem issue because someone was treating me poorly. I thought one day..."Come on!!! If my FATHER in HEAVEN loves me and doesn't treat me this way, why should I let anyone else treat me any differently??" So after crying and coming to the conclusion of what I had to do, my cousin and I headed to the mall...passing the Helzberg Diamond Store I said..."If no else loves me, I KNOW I love myself!! And fersho I know GOD Loves me" and I stuck on the button. I can not explain how a silly little button helped boost my confidence, but it did! There is a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt probably addressing women or racial minorities about attitude and self esteem (I got it from the Princess Diaries LOL)

" No one can make you feel inferior without your permission." --Eleanor Roosevelt

I'm partial to the Old Testament, my favorite stories are of David. I've come to the realization his life was favored, but he always did something to screw up the instructions (i'm probably related to him!) LOL He had to encourage himself in the Lord...and often! Especially if faced with death, I think most of us would of crawled in a corner balled up and lie there waiting to die, but not David...read the Psalms, a majority of them were songs he wrote to encourage himself while facing anguish. Someone was always out to get poor David or he was repenting like the dickens cause he just done sumpin bad! LOL...I feel like that sometimes.

Point is, theres a new mercy everyday, a new beginning on the horizon, a break at the dawn of the new day! Hold on to who you know you are! Do not give someone permission to make you feel inferior...You are HIS and HE loves you and someone else will too. Pick up a button and wear it till you believe it!

LOL just thought i'd share where I get the I am Loved from (let you know its not coming from concete!) LOL...later!

So Happy!!!

Have you ever felt like the tides were turned in your favor and G-D was just swooping in blessings ocean wide? I feel like that is exactly what is happening right now in my life. I'm in the 'favor' season! Its like before i even ask for it the thoughts are being published! Its an awesome feeling!

This past year has been hard! I mean, new job, lost love, unanswered questions, lots and lots of stress...yet, the Keeper of the Stars has never once told me He was not with me and working things out together for my good. For those of you who don't know...yes...i am a big country buff! Its like in the midst of everything He was telling me, Hold On...Just Believe...Do Not Fear, Go, Go, Go...YOU'LL MAKE IT...I PROMISE! And guess what...I did! PRAISE BE TO GOD!

This past month has been awesome! I injured my achilles tendon not at dance class but at church mind you and I was unable to walk for a week! The following Sunday morning, contemplating how I would sit or not do praise and worship at church at all, I was listening to Rod Parsley interviewing Darlene Bishop, a Cancer Survivor, and she said while washing blood out of her night gown Praising G-D, tears splashing in bloody water how if her breast rotted and fell off and fell in that water she would still preach and proclaim that He was Jehova Raffi! I was tearing up thinking wow...thats FAITH! She also said...while praying for another couple who were going through a hard situation that the Lord told her..."Tell them when I get my Praise, they'll get their promise!" That interview blew me away...so on the way to Walmart I was speaking to our Father saying, "You know...I thank you for my healing in advance and when I get off this truck, i'm just going to walk as if nothing is wrong with me!" So I got off and my immediate reaction was...OW!!! LOL...I reminded myself, no...your HEALED by those STRIPES! and as I headed for the aspirin isle I sensed the pain leaving, by the time I got to the Aspirin I looked at them and said, "I don't even need them anymore!!!" Praise GOD!!! He healed me on the way to the Pain Reliever! LOL...One of my favorite songs is Love Heals your heart by Third Day...well, he heels your Achilles Tendon too! ;)

I'm just like really blown away...Not only that...but the week before I got blessed with a $100 by volunteering at a Christian TV program, I turned around and planted it, cause unexpected money is called SEED money. A week later still limping across town I got favor picking up my camera that had been held captive for three months with no problem and when I left the Lord put on my heart to go to Marshalls, me the debater I spoke back and said, "I don't want to go to Marshalls I was just in there Sunday and there was...N O T H I N G!" But as my Pastor Linda would say (to me only) (over and over and OVER again) "Obedience is better than Sacrifice!!" So I said..."Ok Lord...I will." I went in and N O T H I N G! "See Lord, I told you there was going to be nothing here..." So I immediately repented and said, "Maybe you just protected me from a car accident...thank you Lord, NOW ON TO THE GALLERIA!!!" See I had a date with American Eagle Outfitters that had been prolonged all week! So here I am on Black Friday at 2pm, traffic crazy, hitting every stop light Westheimer and Richmond had to offer, parking garage outrages, cars lined up for miles and I see the door at Macy's and think man that walk is going to HURT! Low and behold a shopper leaving with 12 bags in their hands (see the good deals stop at one...had I not had an injury, I would of been done by 10 am!) They are on the 2nd level 5 parking spaces away from Handicap! WOW...an attendent comes and lets them leave and instructs me to park there...YES...PRINCESS PARKING!!!! Praise you G-D, Praise you G-D, OW...I still thank you for my healing...no time to stop and look at jewelry, you need to go to American Eagle...do not stop at handbags...you can smell perfumes on your way back...I get to American Eagle and heres a lady handing out scratch offs..."Scratch off and win an extra 15, 20 or 30% on your entire purchase! Everyone's a winner." I scratch it off and it says see attendant. I say, "Excuse me, what does this mean? He rushes me to the front counter and says, "we have another one!" YOU JUST WON A $100 SHOPPING SPREE!!! My G-D, My G-D, MY G-D...tears welt up and I was the happiest girl hobbling through the store for TWO hours!!!

Needless to say...I PRAISED HIM ALL THE WAY HOME!!! ;)