this day totally snuck up on me. with tobey starting kindergarten and my uncle passing away, this was the most hectic week. early saturday morning, yes, my butt did wake up at 4:30am to get ready and head down to tourney central. tobey and i slept the whole way down (hehe) and woke up just in time to see neil, ivan and allan driving right beside us with their heads sticking out the windows to get our attention hahahah

for more details on the tourney, check out www.betergolf.com

yeah i know….hahahahha

two birthday parties today:

jeremy - our friend’s son had his 6th birthday party at the new park in evergreen. pretty park! it was a warm day filled with lots of activity and tons of food. we hadn’t seen ray and the guys in awhile so it was great to catch up even if it was only for a little bit. these kids are growing so fast!

jaryd - right after jeremy’s we headed to jaryd’s 5th birthday at lunar golf in milpitas. everything glowed in the dark in there..even my pedicure! hahaha the kids had an awesome time running around and playing with all the glowing things! tied off the evening by hanging out at my sister-in-law’s house and of course more eating…burp! hahaha

we had intended on having a quiet 4th of july and were just going to swing by robbie and jenny’s house for a bit to help them move a few things. we arrived close to noon i think and left close to midnight! hahaha by the time we arrived, a lot had been done already since they started the day before. it seemed like it was only the little things left but having moved 4 times myself i should have known it’s moving the little things that take longer than you think! while ramel was helping robbie, martie and jenny, i stayed at the rental with doll to help watch the kids.

the kids decided to go swimming and tobey really wanted to get in the water so i let him. he started by sitting down and just getting his feet wet. then he started walking on the step that runs across the 4 ft end of the pool. while he was doing a thought entered my mind - what if he misses the step and accidentally falls in…he is 40 inches tall while the pool was 48 inches deep. and of course just as i thought it, it happened. everything happened so quickly but yet seemed like it was going very slow. as he was waving his arms in the air trying to stay afloat, i looked around to see if any of the other kids would grab for him to pull his head above water. no one really did, probably out of sheer shock at what we were seeing so without even thinking i jumped in to pull his head above water. it was probably literally 5 seconds of watching him before i realized what was going on and jumped in. luckily it was 4 feet deep otherwise someone would have had to come in and pull me out too hahahha! he wasn’t freaked out, he was more confused kind of wondering “hmm, how did that happen?” and i realized i was in denim shorts, a t-shirt, watch and jewelry on when i jumped in. we just cracked up because i was soaking wet just standing there trying to get dry!

i watched tobey and he seemed a little hesitant to go back into the 4ft side and opted to stay in the jacuzzi side. when i was little, a similar thing happened to me and since then i’ve been afraid to step in a pool deeper than my height. not wanting the same thing for my child, i jumped back in fully clothed to encourage him to get back into the water to try swimming around. he was a little scared at first but jumped back in anyway as we practiced floating and kicks and just trying to get him more comfortable with the water. i know he won’t forget what happened because he now says that he doesn’t want to go back to kuya paolo’s house for awhile hahhahah. i told him he didn’t always have to go into the pool everytime he goes back there and that we will slowly get back into the water to get him comfortable again.

i went home to change and when i got back they had talked about BBQing for dinner. neil and rowena had arrived as well to pick up some things jenny was passing on to them and for some more help for robbie. we ended up staying for dinner, watching the fireworks from their backyard and literally shooting the s— for the next few hours until we realized it was 1130pm! hahahaha so much for our quiet and simple 4th - spontaneous gatherings are the best!

omg..the longest week ever started last friday, 6/20 when i received some bad news from one of our closest friends who miscarried. as i listened to her tell me what happened, i could not hold back my own tears. it’s never an easy thing to hear your friends be in pain, even harder to find the words to try and comfort them. all we can say is that perhaps God had a different plan and believe in that.

later that friday afternoon, i drove to tobey’s pre-school graduation..an event i thought was suppose to be on 6/27! where the heck was my momagenda?!!? it was a potluck so i prepared something quick and headed to the school. it was a hot friday, luckily we were inside for the program…then some einstein decided to put all the food outside! wtf..i mean seriously, it was like high 90’s! it was no surprise people grabbed their food and went back into the school to eat! after the program, ramel was going to drive the suv home…uh, not…the car wouldn’t turn on! the battery had died…waaaaaa! so here we were, outside 95 degrees, waiting for the AAA guy to come in 1 hour. luckily it didn’t take him that long and he replaced the battery quickly. thinking we were out of the woods, he left and when hubby started the car, he realized the AC, windows and radio controls DIDN’T WORK!!! we called back the guy he had no idea what happened so we had to drive the car to my parents house! ramel drove it with the windows closed..poor guy..10 minutes in a closed SUV that had been sitting in the sun was ugly! we were going to bring it into the dealership so i made a call…uh, ok so the dealership closed in may 2008 due to bankruptcy! OMG at this point it’s like really…really…who’s playing a joke on us? the car eventually got fixed on monday (we brought it into a AAA garage) - thank goodness it was only a blown fuse!

we then received news on sunday that one of our friends had passed away. he was only 37 years old. we were not sure at the time about what happened but eventually learned he may have passed from a heart attack as he had 85-90% blockage in one of his arteries. as we attended the viewing and the funeral this week, we saw a few faces from high school…faces we hadn’t seen in 20+ years…it’s just so unfortunate that it was through these circumstances that we had this type of reunion. i pray for his family that they will get through this difficult time…RIP Dennis Aquino.

the week started to turn around as tobey attended his first gymnastics class. he did so great! at his trial class last week, his teacher told us that she had the competitive coach check him out as tobey had shown advanced skills than the toddler class we had him enrolled in. we brought him back on wednesday to take a full class with coach paul in his developmental class but when it was time to go to the class, tobey started crying — i think he was a little intimidated. he attended his normal toddlers class then at the last half hour, he got comfy enough to do the last set with the competitive class. as his teacher and i watched him, she told me that although he would be the youngest in that class, it looked like he could hold his own! after class, the coach told us that the spots in his class were by invitation only and that he would like to see if we were interested in putting tobey in his class! he said “tobey’s really strong for his age, has good body control and is very coordinated” …that was nice to hear… (for all you haters out there that roll your eyes when you read the previous line, shame on you - find it in yourselves to be happy for others…) anyways, ramel and i will have to talk to tobey to see what he would like to do!

i also learned this week that another dear friend of ours is prego! sooo excited for her and hubby…it’s about time! i can’t wait to see her as i left before she arrived! congrats to them both!

and then to end this week…we finally got our garage door fixed! when we first moved in our garage door would sometimes keep opening and we would have to stand there for a few minutes before it would stay down. for the longest time, ramel thought it was me not knowing how to press the buttons properly..uh, really wtf? even using the remote, it would happen to me sometimes. when it finally started doing it to ramel, he goes “oh, there’s something wrong with the garage door opener.” …oh you mean it couldn’t be you dude? so we got it checked and when the garage guy arrived this morning, the first words out of his mouth were…”you’re getting a free upgrade on your garage door opener today!” turns out there was a manufacturer’s defect and he’d had to replace at least 20 garages in our community alone! he completely replaced the garage door motor and i am officially relieved!

told ya it was the longest week ever…ups and downs emotionally, i am completely drained. i can’t wait for the weekend!

this has been quite the day in the planning! it gets harder and harder to plan events with each other since family life and parties consume all of our schedules. the day started with lunch at paesano’s, an italian restaurant with a simple but tastefully packed menu! we chose the following: salami and cheese sandwich, stromboli calzone, gorgonzola and fuji apples pizza and various salads - talk about full *burp*…hahaha dessert was a no brainer - chocolate torte…YUM!!!

we all headed to the spa for our treatments…massages and facials! talk about a relaxing day! we were also treated to a couple of surprises as our friends announced they were pregnant!

as if the day couldn’t fly any faster, we headed to a high school graduation party for my cousin’s daughter, rachel. after a jaw dropping entrance into their 3,800 sq ft house, we stayed a bit to munch on the usual flip grub and dessert then headed home to pack for our vacation, which was to begin the next day! talk about last minute everything!

we were invited to a baby shower for friends that have been trying to get pregnant for 12.5 years. they have been blessed with a baby girl - how do we know? they gave birth early and instead of a baby shower it was a welcome baby party! we are so excited for them and can see how proud they are! baby zoe is doing well and is slowly gaining weight - she sounds like a trooper and gains weight every day! we can’t wait to meet her! congrats leah and sandro!

the next party was for our dear friends mark and jennine’s son, aiden! he is a very cute 2 year old boy with the cutest smile! it was a disney themed party and boy did his mom do a great job! she had disney plates, cutouts with the kids names on it and disney inspired crafts as well! while the adults had cake, the kids had mickey shaped cookies from cookies by design…yum! tobey was so tired from the days activities, he fell asleep on the way home!

that seemed to be the theme this weekend!

our first stop was at a baby shower at pasta pomodoro in san jose. it was held in their outdoor patio and with the beautiful weather complementing the location, it made for a very enjoyable lunch. yummy pastas all around and the big hit….strawberry lemonade served in these cute carafes. and what makes a co-ed baby shower even more interesting for guys attending? vodka mixed with strawberry lemonade served in these cute carafes…hahaha

our next stop was a 7th birthday party for myles in elk grove. it was at a community clubhouse and boy was there hecka grub! the kids were entertained by “nature’s critters”, a traveling entertainment unit that had the weirdest insects, snakes, etc…eeks! tobey, justin and sebastian all held a live snake too! aack!

we didnt stay long because we had to rush home to meet up with friends that were sleeping over that night. they arrived shortly after 1045pm and the kids were still up! they spent the night playing the wii until about 2am!

the next day we all headed to a 6th birthday party for nate. more reason to grub and chat with friends that we just saw the night before..hahaha

it was a crazy but exciting weekend celebrating how quickly these kids grow up and finding out that 2 of our friends are pregnant! congratulations!

i’m sure you all have heard this word before…it means “congenial or like-minded” or “Of like mind or temperament”….i don’t normally hear it in every day conversation but often think of the word when i’m talking to certain family members and friends:

* rona - i swear she and i can finish each other’s sentences without discussing the topic first and there are times where we just use the word “thing” so many times in a sentence everyone around us is confused and she and i look around and go “what, you guys didn’t understand that?” we will be at the mall and head in the same direction to the same store without telling each other that’s where we want to go. we will crave a food, beverage, etc. almost exactly at the same time when we’re hanging out and know that we can go pretty much anywhere, anytime and any place and the other person won’t complain…

* jenn - she has the gift of knowing exactly where my train of thought is going! not to many people can do that, trust me i’m all over the board! i will be talking about something, think the rest in my head, start in a different direction and she’ll know where i’m going with it. it frustrates the heck out of my family and hubby because they’re like…”uhh, WHAT?!?!? how did you get there? you were just talking about….”

* renita - she is the friend, spiritually, where we see almost eye to eye on the reasons why things are the way that they are, why things go the way they go and almost have identical beliefs with it comes to family, friendship…

* rowena - we trip each other out sometimes…there are times where we ping each other about something and literally go..”OMG, i was just about to talk to you about that” or “i was just thinking about that”. this morning, i IM’d her for lunch and she’s like “that’s weird, i was just gonna see if you could do lunch today” or she was thinking of having dinner at campo di bocce tomorrow and hubby and i have literally been talking about stopping there for dinner on the way home one day. and then there are those times where she’ll mention a particular “topic” and i SWEAR i would have had a conversation with hubby about that topic literally a day or two before she and i talk about it! i.e “omg, we were just talking about….blah blah…”

* jenny - our conversations are soooooo out there sometimes that i swear the things we talk about people would be like WHAT THE HECK are you guys thinking or talking about? she is the friend that will listen to a statement or question that i have about someone or something and will equally be like “yeah, i was wondering that too but thought people would laugh if i asked!”

it’s no surprise that 3 of the people above are virgos…simpatico is our middle name…hahaha

* my other gal pals - i should probably add that CHOCOLATE is definitely the common factor with the rest of my gal pals!

we trekked up to EG this weekend to visit family and friends…first my bro and sis-in-law, then chet and cat, then mike and rona. it was a totally nice day!

first stop - visit edison, jenn and joshie — since i had to go into the office that morning (ugh) we got to their place shortly after lunch. we weren’t even 2 minutes in the door and noside and wifey were cooking up burgers and fries! now burgers are burgers but these particular ones remained big in diameter and were extra yummy! we were joined by their friends chris and febe, who is a few months prego. highlight of that visit? me asking tobey if he’ d like to touch auntie febe’s tummy…he says yes…then proceeds to pat the belly…or rather the two things above the belly..hahahahha thank goodness febe was a good sport about it!

second stop - visit chester, cathy and the kids — we just chatted it up a bit since we had not seen them in a few weeks. kids do grow very fast! lindsay got taller, allie gets even girlier than before and benny was just walking around all over the place! we hung out for a bit until we headed over to mike and rona’s together.

third stop - visit mike and rona — they were making dinner for us and invited the above mentioned as well. on the menu? chicken enchiladas! YUMMY!!! mike’s cooking skills are always inspiring…rona, you lucky b—- you…hahahaha the kids were very behaved and spent the evening watching a video and playing with missy, rona and mike’s doggy.

we were so full from eating all day i was HECKA sleepy driving home!

my sister in law, venus and i had dinner with a good friend recently. being as it was friday during lent, we opted for a restaurant that could serve something other than just meat…so we went to chili’s..hahaha! jenny and venus hadn’t seen each other in awhile so it was great that we could chat it up a bit at the restaurant. dinner was yummy…i had the salmon and boy, did i clear my plate! we ended up having dessert at jen’s house since she had to go pick up katie-kate.

we were suppose to only stay a little while for dessert but ended up tsismissing for about 3 hours! well what do you expect when 3 women get together, no hubbies around and 2 kids that kept themselves somewhat entertained while we talked. we left about 11pm i think because jen had class the next morning. venus spent the night at our house and we ended up talking until almost 4 am..lots of topics to cover! poor thing had work the next morning…she says she was fine but totally crashed later that night! getting older sucks…i spent the whole weekend trying to catch up on lost sleep!