Wednesday, June 30, 2010

GOOD RIDDANCE!


Nowitzki Shooting for Free Agency

A person familiar with the decision tells The Associated Press that Nowitzki has notified the Dallas Mavericks he is opting out of the final year and $21.5 million on his existing contract. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team wasn't planning to announce Nowitzki's decision.
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Donnie Nelson is flying out to Germany to get Dirk not to opt out but to return to the Mavs. I hope Dirk is serious about leaving the Mavs, because I'm very serious about becoming a Mavs fan again! Dirk just sucks!!!
Dirk is much better known for singing David Hasselhoff's songs and almost marrying a convict than winning championships! And that's just my personal opinion.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Raquel's Corner

Eva and Raquel sharing the spotlight. Raquel not sure of what's happenning.

Raquel: Mami, Eva is invading my space. Can you ask Daddy to put Eva down please?

Raquel: Whatever you said it wasn't funny. You see me laughing? No!

Raquel: Mami! Tell Eva I don't know how to kiss yet. Remind her she's two weeks older than me and I'm not there yet!

More of Gardening 2010

This year has been very successful for John. He's got lots of corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, and green beans. We are still waiting on the cantaloupes, watermelons and of course pumpkins.

We got tons of tomatoes this year! The most ever!

5 Things About Me Today

1. Why watch the World Cup anymore since the U.S is out? Well, because I'm hoping that Brazil doesn't make it and I would love to watch them crush and burn! I'm going with Uruguay, Portugal - Final.

2. We are scheduled to take our new family picture this week. I need to find Raquel a very cute dress for her solo picture.

3. I still can't run and I still can't lose the weight I want to lose.

4. Is it October yet? We have had the hottest June ever!! I can't even imagine what August will bring.

5. If you leave your checkbook on top of your car and you send your husband off to the store make sure you ask him to retrieve the checkbook before he drives off or you will spend 2 hours the next day (like I did today) at your bank changing bank accounts before the checkbook thieves steal your money.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

USA! USA! USA!


For the last week and a half, we have been watching the beautiful game of Football or in Spanish, Futbol, or in America, Soccer.

Today, the U.S. played against Algeria a must win game for us to advance to the second round. We were on the edge of our seats all 90 minutes until Landon Donovan scored in extra time!!! The next thing I know I was on top of mom crying out of joy!

I was very upset that they canceled out our first goal in the first half of the game, they said our player was off side and we just couldn't see that he was after the replays, neither did the commentators, but at any rate, WE WON!!! and no, it wasn't a lucky shot! It was a goal!

We move to the second round as leaders in our group, England got second. This is our first time to lead our group since 1930. Ouch! But we are here and now we face Ghana who played England today and got beaten by them 1-0. It will be a tough game and another high emotional roller coaster edge of your seat type of game.

I LOVE THE U.S. OF A!!!!!!

Monday, June 21, 2010

My Situation

I visited my therapist last Friday to talk about my dad's passing. It wasn't easy but I needed to talk to someone who knows my history with my dad and offer me guidance. I guess, I can always go to a priest but it will take too long to explain my situation.

Things to do before I go see her in two weeks:


  • Write about my feelings. Not here, but on my journal. I have been internalizing it and it is beginning to affect my marriage.
  • Visit his grave. I did not visit him yesterday (Father's day) because I figure everyone else was going to go and I was not going to have enough time to be alone with him.
All my life, I have strive to be different, I have always disliked following the pack and that has put me in a very bad light among people who think of me as rebellious. There is nothing wrong with following what you think its right for you, but I have rubbed off people the wrong way by acting this way.

This was the problem between my father and I. He liked me with long hair, I cut my hair really short. I figured if he loved me, he was going to accept me for who I was, not for who he wanted me to become. I'm still angry, I'm still sad. I have to write about these feelings.

My therapist asked me to talk to him whenever I wanted to express myself to him. I don't feel I have closure yet. I'm seeking closure and peace. I was left with too many unanswered questions. It is not fair but it is what it is. Fear kept me away from him. Fear of rejection. Fear of not being accepted. I fear dreaming about him. I must have closure, peace and forgiveness.

-Sandra.

Friday, June 18, 2010

The Seaman Girls

Raquel: "See Sofia! I can do it!" It's easy just sit and push!"

Here's my mom doing some curls on Sofia's hair.

Auntie Yesenia with Raquel

Here's Raquel on Sofia's pony. She loved it!

Love this picture! Raquel just woked up from her afternoon nap!

My Beautiful Stars!

Of course, we got World Cup Fever!!! GO USA!!!!!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Marriage As Therapy or Covenant?

By Chuck Colson:

What's marriage all about, anyway? Well, like almost everything else, that depends on your worldview.

Last week, another prominent couple made headlines by announcing the end of their marriage. It was former vice president Al Gore and his wife. I know both of them and always thought they were a perfect couple.

I am disappointed for them and saddened. Indeed, that seems to be the overwhelming reaction from the public and the media. Many, who saw the Gores as an ideal, loving couple who enjoyed and endured the ups and downs of public life together, wondered aloud if the Gore’s couldn’t keep going after 40 years, who can?

Well, that depends, as does so much, on your worldview.

And a perfect case in point is an article from last Friday’s New York Times entitled, “What Brain Scans Tell Us About Marriage.”

Author Tara Parker-Pope reported on recent research into the neuroscience of happy marriages. She cites one study in which 17 madly-in-love couples underwent a brain scan. When an individual was shown a picture of his or her spouse—ta-da!—the scan showed activity in that part of the brain associated with romance. In older couples, Parker-Pope writes, “researchers spotted something extra: parts of the brain associated with deep attachment were also activated.”

The researcher, Dr. Bianca Acevedo explained, “They have the feelings of euphoria, but also the feelings of calm and security that we feel when we’re attached to somebody.”
Dr Acevedo added, “I think it’s wonderful news.”

And I do, too. Parker-Pope, after highlighting the key to a happy marriage, asks two questions that highlighted for me exactly why marriages today are crumbling. One, “how much does your partner provide a source of exciting experiences?” And two, “how much has knowing your partner made you a better person?”

What do these two questions have in common? They are the epitome of the postmodern, therapeutic worldview—the worldview that asks one and only one question: What’s In It For Me?

Thus Parker-Pope can end her article on a happy postmodern note, quoting a Wharton School Economist: The Gores “had 40 years of marriage . . . The fact that they both can look forward and see a promising future by not being married [is] a celebration about how much optimism they have for the rest of their lives.”

Well, I cannot put such a happy face on divorce, nor do I mean to single out the Gores for criticism. Far from it, because I know all too well the pain divorce creates.

But I can’t stop from noticing how far our culture has drifted from the faith that founded it. Even 40 years ago, marriage was seen as a covenant, a sacrament in some traditions—a promise before God between a man and a woman to be faithful to one another until death did them part. Not seeking the good for one’s self, but the good of the other.

But in our therapeutic culture, as Parker-Pope’s questions illuminate so brilliantly, this has been turned 180 degrees. Marriage is now just another path, or obstacle, to self-fulfillment.

Please don’t tell me worldviews don’t matter. Or that they can’t shape a culture. We’ve gone in 40 years from the Christian belief in a lifelong commitment to seeing divorce as the start of a promising future. Please.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

9 Years

At 7pm tonight, John and I marked our 9th wedding anniversary.

We have known each other for 11 years total. Both of us still can't believe we have known each other for that long and it feels like we just met yesterday. But when we start looking at our photo albums then we realise that we have done so much together.

These 9 years have not being easy and the next years to come will not be easy either but with a renew commitment and trust in the Lord everything is possible.

I am looking forward in the years to come to celebrate our wedding anniversaries with our daughters. I want them to look at us and see that even though the marriage road is a tough one with many sacrifices along the way that it is also a blessing from the Lord to share your life with the one the Lord chose for you to spend the rest of your life with.

We pray that other couples can continue on in their marriage and keep the family union as one.

-Sandra.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Movies We Watch

These two movies I'm about to write about I did not choose. John did. Maybe I should not write about it because in my opinion they were below average.

Movie: Sherlock Holmes

Directed by Guy Ritchie the same guy who directed Snatch. Remember the fight scene in Snatch? Well, the same fight scene is in Sherlock Holmes. Remember how fast the characters in the movie Snatch talk? Well, it seems all English people speak so very fast that trying to read the subtitles and still be able to watch the movie can be exhausting and gives you a headache.
Robert Downey, Jr. is always fun to watch, not sure I give him an A for his British accent, not that I have an English accent but I do speak with an accent and I can certainly identify someone with an English accent as fast as I can identify an Englishman with bad teeth, no pun intended.

At any rate, Sherlock Holmes was taken somewhat out of context, don't recall reading Sherlock ever fight like that in his stories, at any rate the plot was interesting, again I could have done without the ring fight, John loved it, perhaps doable in Iron Man, who knows, however, if you want to see an English movie, with a fight scene watch Snatch, again the fight scene had absolutely no relevance to the story line and if you like Downey, Jr. in any movie, then rent it. Surely, I'm glad we didn't decide to spend extra time and money to watch it on opening night.
I rate this movie a C+ or 2 stars out of 5. No nudity. Well, unless you count Downey's shirtless fight scene.

Movie: Monsters Vs. Aliens

I'm yawning just typing the title of this movie. What a bore! The good thing it didn't last two hours! Very short synopsis: Aliens come to earth to collect some green specimen that fell on earth through a meteorite. The meteorite fell on this chick's wedding day and she grew like 20 feet, therefore she was now called a Monster who later fights Aliens trying to take over the world.

I rate this movie D- or 1 star out of 5. A couple of funny parts here and there but nothing to make me want to own it or watch it again.

-Sandra.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Five on Friday - Oops

1. In the past month, what was your biggest OOPS?

- I thought Sofia was ready for potty training and I was wrong. Big oops!

2. In the past month, what inspired you to let out your most heartfelt WHEW?

- Believe it or not when Sofia pooped this past Tuesday after being constipated for 5 days. Big WHEW!

3. In the past month, what caused you to say, "HUH?"

- When President Obama said, "I'm going to kick someones A$$. Not very presidential speech. I guess it is his way of showing toughness. Who knows.

4. In the past month, what influenced the most ZZZZZZZZs?

- Getting up at 6am even on weekends.

5. In the past month, what was most GRRRRRR-worthy?

- Seeing all the sea animals covered up in oil and no ONE doing anything about it to control the situation.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Freedom from Porn

One CEO Takes a Stand
By: Mark Earley

Here's some refreshing news. A major corporate executive takes a stand against pornography.

In the never-ending battle of the technological titans, score one for Steve Jobs. No, the CEO of Apple hasn’t come out with yet another groundbreaking iProduct, at least not since the iPad.

But he’s done something even more extraordinary—he’s brought good values into the mix.

Jobs has made it clear that he wants to keep pornography off Apple products as much as possible. Obviously Apple can’t control everything its users do, but it can make porn scarcer on its products, and it has done just that.

A British newspaper, The Guardian, reports, “So insistent is Apple [on this policy], many magazine publishers developing ‘apps’ for the new iPad . . . have had to self-censor.”

As you might expect, this has triggered a frenzy among some critics. Ryan Tate, a writer for the Gawker website, sniped at Jobs about suppressing his customers’ “freedom,” prompting Jobs to respond, “Yep, freedom from programs that steal your private data. Freedom from programs that trash your battery. Freedom from porn. Yep, freedom.”

When Tate replied that he didn’t want “freedom from porn,” Jobs answered, “You might care more about porn when you have kids.” In a correspondence with a consumer, Jobs went even further, speaking of his company’s “moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone.”

How refreshing it is to see someone who actually gets it—that yes, there are those of us who prefer to be free from the storm of smut that assaults us from every television, computer, and phone screen. The supply of pornographic material is so overwhelming that access to it is certainly not an issue of “freedom” anymore, if it ever was.

Jobs has pointed out that people who want to see porn on their phones, and who want easier access to it on their computers, can easily get all they want if they buy other companies’ products. But as he said in a press conference, “That’s a place we don’t want to go—so we’re not going to go there.”

What Jobs seems to understand, and what his critics seem to be ignoring, is that there’s so much more to pornography than just issues of economics or free speech. It shouldn’t even need to be explained, but apparently for some people it does: Pornography is an ugly, poisonous, degrading business for everyone involved, whether they’re making it, using it, or selling it.

As my colleague Kim Moreland recently mentioned on our blog, The Point, new studies are demonstrating yet again just how dangerous and addictive it can be. It tears at the fabric of marriages and families and of society itself. Its use is connected from everything to higher divorce rates to human trafficking to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Aside from the occasional reference to protecting kids (which is enough), Steve Jobs didn’t go thoroughly into the reasons for his policy. But for whatever reason, he truly is demonstrating corporate responsibility, the kind that we desperately need more businesses to show in this sex-obsessed society.

May he continue to stand by his principles, and may his tribe increase.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Potty Stress

I'm stressed how about you!? We started potty training Sofia and unfortunately she's got "potty stress." She has peed in the potty but not without showing stress and being all scared about it. But my biggest stress is that she hasn't "pooped" in 4 days.

I don't want to quit but I wasn't expecting this much stress. We got her pull ups and they are great but they don't help communicate what we are trying to accomplish because she treats them like regular diapers, therefore, we went cold turkey and put her in underwear.

I called the nurse this morning and all she said was to give her more fiber and I'm like, ma'am, I have been doing that and nothing! Then she started reading from the website on what I should do. She was no help. Sofia loves veggies and fruits. I know she has poop stress but I don't know how much longer she'll hold it before she starts feeling pain. The nurse that I like who has helped me the most comes in tomorrow. I will call and ask her what to do. She doesn't read from the Internet to advice parents.

I want to quit but I don't want to throw what we have been doing just yet. I just want her to poop!!!! POOP!!!!

I place her in her diapers while she naps and at night and she wakes up dry. I don't know what to do.

-Sandra.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Five on Friday - Control

1. When did you take time this week to play?

- I'm not doing good at taking time to play, if you call going to bed and sleep playing time so be it.

2. This past week, what would you have liked to rewind so you could experience it again?

- BED TIME!

3. What happened this week to give you pause?

- Sofia's starting to potty train this week and it made me cry because she's growing too fast!

4. From what situation this week would you have liked to eject yourself?

- Office Work.

5. In what situation this week did you cede power to someone else?

- To God. I must trust Him to what's coming ahead for me. Trust.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Raquel's Corner

Raquel turned 7 months today. She's growing right before my eyes.

Here's Raquel sharing the spotlight with ther sister Sofia.

Not happy together anymore.



Raquel: Mom, let's refocus this camera and get the camera in front of me not my sister, please!


Raquel: There mom! now click away!!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Swimming 2010

We did not go to the pool this Memorial Day weekend, instead we brought the pool to our back yard!!! Check it out!
Sporting her brand new swimsuit - 3T size!
Raquel sporting her very first swimsuit. I bought this for Sofia when she was 6 months and it didn't fit. But Raquel, rocked it!


The Cash Family

The Cash Family invited us for some RIBS this past weekend. Andra and Hollis warm my heart. I truly love them.
Eva and Raquel 2nd time they meet! I love Eva's hair!

Memorial Day Weekend 2010

John and Sofia went to the Ft. Worth Zoo. Raquel and I stayed home. I wanted to go but with so much heat, I will not do that to my baby. So, John and Sofia had lots of fun.


She smiled!!!!
Because she felt like a princess!!!!






The Seaman Girls

Here's a few things my girls have been up to since mid April.
 
Auntie Wendy came to visit and exchanged sunglasses.

Sofia's potty.
.

"Where's my potty?" Said Raquel "How come she gets everything!"

Their brand new patio chairs!

Relish fromt John's garden. He planted them specially for my mom, since no one else likes them.

Rain, rain go away, come again another day....

Playing with daddy.

Get me outta here!

Sofia's crib was turned into a day bed.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Pounds

Today, I stand at 141 pounds. I had to write this in order to commit myself. My next weight in will be July 1st. I am not committing to lose 5 or 10 pounds. I will lose whatever I can to lose so that I won't disappoint myself. However, if I gain then I will have to re-access my workout plan.

However, today, I did run a MILE on the treadmill. My FIRST RUN since February of 2009. According to my mathematical calculations that turns out to 15 months of no running whatsoever!

I ran it very slow, in fact, it was more like trotting at 3.3 speed. It took me 18 minutes to run a mile. I take it, though. It is better than not running at all.

My Plantar Fasciitis is feeling much better, although I still need to take it easy but it is such an improvement from 6 months ago. My overall weight goal is to reach 130 pounds by September 1st. Oh my. I know I can do it. I got to get my mind right.

-Sandra.

5 Things About Me Today

1. I missed my Therapist appointment again for the THIRD TIME this morning!!! Actually, this was the first time, I totally forgot. The first time, I had to cancelled, the second time it was Sofia's cold, and today, I just simply forgot. I suck today.

2. Today is the first day of my workout regime. Totally. I must get out of this yuckiness that I have been since May 7th, or to be exact April 15th. I don't feel good about my weight. John wrote my workout regime last night. I must follow. MUST LOSE WEIGHT.

3. It is going to be 100 degrees today here in Dallas.

4. I am still depress even though I may not look it.

5. I still love my short hair!