Monthly Archives: March 2010

Crazy Goodness

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This week has been ONE CRAZY WHIRLWIND of a week. But all in a good way. The first thing is my business just took a MAJOR jump this week, and I have just gotta give it to my very, very, very good friends Jen & David for all of their hard work and sticking with something that they saw the value in. *I love you guys!*  I can’t even begin to describe how truly happy I am for you and your future.

Things are really hopping and starting to get busy with me and I just feel so overwhelmingly blessed to be a part of something so wonderful that is really changing our lives. I look at my kids and smile knowing that everything we’re doing right now is going to impact their lives in such a good way ~ and not only their life, but for generations to come. I love that.

Life with 2 toddlers is actually been getting easier and easier. When Alana came with us she had little issues, like not wanting to take a bath, constipation, among other things. Today for the first time ever I was walking up the stairs to give Ella a bath and Alana got all excited saying she wanted to take a bath too. HUGE IMPROVEMENT!

I know that her staying here with us is the best thing ever for her. She has stability, she has structure, she has a family that is a family. She’s been tossed around A LOT in her 2 short years of life, and that breaks my heart. I can’t fathom how my kids would feel being tossed here, tossed there. They NEED stability. They NEED constant love and attention.

The good thing is both of her parents are secure with her staying with us. My brother and Alana’s mom both know that when she’s here she’s being very well taken care of. And she’s happy. Throughout the day she’ll just come up and hug me and have this huge smile on her face, and it warms my heart.

I’m just so happy with the decision that my brother and Alana’s mother made in securing their daughter with me ~ the best place she could be right now.  

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Dear Jayden

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Dear Jayden,

I just want you to know how special you are to me. Your little personality really shines through, and your soul is perfect. So perfect that sometimes I wonder why God put you on this earth. What exactly is your purpose? I think it’s to do great things.

People who have had the absolute pleasure of knowing you know exactly what I’m talking about. Your scouts leader always tells me how special you are, how sweet you are ~ and it just warms my heart, because I know. I don’t know what it is about you that is different from all the other kids, from all the other boys, but it’s definitely special.

We had our parent teacher conference and your teacher absolutely loves you as well, but she is a bit concerned. It’s something I know, and for some reason it’s something I’m scared to get diagnosed, but we are going to start the process of finding out if you are indeed Autistic. I don’t care, because at the end of the day you’re just my Jayden. You are my beautiful little soul that was put on this earth to do great things.

I absolutely know without a doubt that you have Sensory Processing Disorder, and the reasons why your teacher wants to get you tested for Autism is because sometimes you go somewhere ~ nowhere far, but it’s almost like a little imaginary world that you can easily be snapped out of when talked to. So, you may just have a great imagination ~ but I just want you to know that NO MATTER WHAT you are perfect. I couldn’t have had a more perfect little soul bless my life than you. I have never in my entire life met a boy that is as sweet, caring, honest, faithful, and has integrity like you. Never… and I’m not just saying that because you are my son, because I’m not the only one that sees this.

I love you, Jayden ~ I love you forever and always

Love, Mom

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WFMW ~ Double Toddler Trouble

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If you don’t know about Kandi @ Twin-spirations you need to! She is my mentor in life, not only in my business, but literally in my life. I have received by far the BEST parenting advice EVER from her. Luckily she’s not an online friend for me…. she’s a smack dab in real life sister to me. Not biologically, but she might as well be my big sister. Because I’ve never had one {big sister that is}, and she’s been in my life since I was weeeeee little.

SOOOO I wanted to share a bit of advice she gave me with having 2 toddlers {I currently have my niece who is the exact age of my daughter 2.5!}

TIMEOUTS are a very negative thing. However, if your toddler is doing something that needs to be addressed you simply grab their hand and let them know that they need to take a break. Mommy’s can even take a break when they get out of control…. that way they know that sometimes, we all just need to take a break.


So ~ for the break they get 1 minute/their age and they can bring a book, or a stuffed animal and they can take that time to reflect on what they did. It’s been working GREAT for me!

Now here’s the kicker…. if you have twins that are toddlers, or deal with 2 children, and one does something to the other you can put them both on a break. When the break is over having each come to you and tell you why they had to go on a break and the one who you “thought” didn’t do anything and was just the victim tells on themselves! It’s genius!  

So, this is what’s working for me right now… being a “mom” of two toddlers is quite new for me since I’m used to only 1. ~ 


So please if you have any other tips for me… feel free to leave them in the comments 😉

If you want to learn about other things that work for other’s head over to {Kristen’s Blog} ~ lots of good stuff!!
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Finding Patience as a Mom

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I struggle with patience. It’s a fault of mine, and it’s something I wish wasn’t. Patience is the single most important thing for a parent to have, most importantly, a mom to have. Whenever I say my prayers I always ask for more patience, and I’ve really been trying to reflect and pinpoint how I can change myself in order to have more of this virtuous thing.

Being a part of this blog community can really just put things in perspective. When I’m lacking patience I think of mother’s whose babies are no longer with them. When I’m lacking patience I think about the moms who seem to have it all figured out and are Martha Stewart of parenting. But you know what? It’s okay. We’re not perfect, and if we were perfect we wouldn’t be here.

I think my patience has really been tried these past couple of weeks as I’ve had a new little girl in my life. Having 2 toddlers definitely has its challenges. Having 2 toddlers REALLY tests your patience. And sometimes I wonder if God does certain things, to answer your prayers. Recently I heard somewhere to be careful of what you wish for, or pray for. You might be asking God for more strength, so he gives you more trials to strengthen you. I was asking for more patience, so God gave me another toddler to really try my nerves LOL. But I’m thankful for it, because I’m learning and I’m growing.

Lately one thing that REALLY, and I mean REEEEEAAAALLLLY tests this mama’s patience is when Miss Ella Bella locks herself in rooms…. it’s an every day thing and something that SCARES THE CRAP out of me.  What if she’s locked in a room and there’s a fire?  Or what if she shoves something in her mouth and chokes?  When she locks herself in the bathroom she’s getting into my Bare Minerals makeup, which kills me and then finally will come out once her makeup is done.  I have video of this and I have a video of the girls at the park ~ they’re so dang cute when they get along haha.


Untitled from Amanda Garibay on Vimeo.


Untitled from Amanda Garibay on Vimeo.
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Thought I’d add before the mom blog police attack me ~ yes I do know there is cleaner on the toilet and that my daughter was locked in the bathroom with access to it…. I was cleaning my bathroom and literally walked out for a couple of seconds to throw something over by my washing machine when Miss Thang swooped in, slammed the door and locked me out.  I did however know she wasn’t messing with the cleaner as her obsession is with makeup.

AND! Wanted to add that the videos were totally taken from my DROID phone… the video camera is THAT good!

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Just a Motivating Monday – Action

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If you’re just joining in:
-Write a blog post about ANYTHING at all that inspires you, or something you feel will inspire others. 

-Please link back to Garibay Soup 

-Please snag my Just a Motivating button on your post.

-I hope that we can all go and visit each other’s blogs and read what everyone has linked up ~ I hope that this carnival can bring more traffic for you 🙂 So, spread the comment love!


Today I was listening to a wonderful audio CD from Jim Rohn called The Art of Exceptional Living. Oh man, I HIGHLY suggest listening to this. These are the things that I’m trying to feed my mind. Things that will help me to improve me.


Not only am I trying to improve my life in the terms of success, but I’m trying to improve my life as a mother and a wife. I’m trying to be the best that I can be for my family. There’s something I’ve realized that is different about me. The old me would read up on and try to learn through reading so much that I forgot to put it all into action. Heck, I had the best books and systems on keeping your home clean, yet I never really put that into action.

When I started my company I spent a lot of time online watching videos that would help me succeed, but I never saw results until I put what I was learning into action.

ACTION is the key to seeing results! You can read and study up on methods all you want, but until you put your ideas into action you haven’t really begun.

Short and sweet this week.

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Rambling Mess of Sense

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I truly believe that you make your life what it is. I realized this concept back in 2006 when I picked up the book The Secret. I might drive people in my life crazy with my positivity and always looking at the bright side of things….even in the darkest moments, but I believe that this attitude is what makes my life so wonderful.

Don’t get me wrong, life is far from perfect for me.  But thankfully I have learned through reading amazing books from people like Jim Rohn that we set our sail.  The same winds blow on us all…. honestly, the rich experience the same things as the poor.  The happy experience the same things as the unhappy.  The thing is, when that wind hits you, YOU have to choose how you react to it and how you embrace it into your life.  

I know people that are from my past read my blog {hello blog tracker – kinda creepy that I have stalkers from the past}, and I’m sure they’re going to read this and frankly I don’t care.  I have experienced extreme disappointment from MANY people in my life.  And due to that I hold a nice wall perfectly around my heart.  I don’t let many people close to me, because amazingly when I do they can’t appreciate my honesty, and I’m only honest because I love them.  I can’t stand their negativity and I have had to learn how to close my ear to it, because I love my life and I know if I focus on the bad things in life… more bad will come.  I can’t stand their excuses…. every excuse you give to prevent you from growing as a person and stepping outside of your comfortable little world is only hurting you.  

Some of the closest people in my life are no longer in my life, and guess what…. it’s the negative people, the miserable people, the people who can’t stand the positive outlook I see on things.  People, come on!  Complain about being broke over and over and over again without doing a damn thing to do something about it gets really old.  These past few days I’ve actually reflected on some of my relationships with people who are SUPPOSED to be unconditionally there.  I’ve thought hard about what good things they’ve brought to my life and you know what, I can’t think of 1 thing.  I think about my phone conversations with these people and holy negative!  

So, yes, this was one rambling mess, but I’m actually extremely happy with the people that are in my life, the people who are not in my life and what I am doing with my life.  

And for you amazing special people that are so close to me and have an amazing, positive imprint on my life I love you, and YOU KNOW WHO ARE!  Yes, Celeste, you’re included!  You have become one of my very best friends and I couldn’t imagine my life without you ~ we HAVE to always be next door neighbors…. ALWAYS

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The 3 Princesses

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When you add 1 more toddler to the mix things get a bit busy. So busy that I can’t believe that it’s not only been 1 week since I’ve come on my sanctuary, but I also completely forgot about this week’s Just a Motivating Monday.

My sweet little Alana is really fitting in here. A year ago we had her for a while under the same circumstances that we have her now. My heart completely breaks for her, but all we can do is surround her with love and provide her with stability, a schedule and lots of laughter and fun.

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With Alana living with us once again I have been keeping the girls extremely busy, which is important for them. We’ve been spending a lot of time with our BFF’s that live next door ~ Miss Celeste & Ruthie. Watching the three girls play together is probably the cutest thing in the entire world.

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So, we’re all doing well, just SO BUSY!  

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Just a Motivating Monday – Confidence

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If you’re just joining in:
-Write a blog post about ANYTHING at all that inspires you, or something you feel will inspire others. 

-Please link back to Garibay Soup 

-Please snag my Just a Motivating button on your post.

-I hope that we can all go and visit each other’s blogs and read what everyone has linked up ~ I hope that this carnival can bring more traffic for you 🙂 So, spread the comment love!

Confidence is a habit that can be developed by acting as if you already had the confidence you desire to have. ~ Brian Tracy

If you’re a reader of my blog you are probably figuring out that I am on this MAJOR personal development kick. I am constantly reading and trying to do things that will help me to be the person I want to be and the person I feel is what my children deserve to have as a mother.

I have experienced lack of confidence in a lot of things that I set out to do, but you would NEVER know it, because I have taken the above quote and applied it to my life.  If I don’t have the confidence I sure as heck am going to act like I do… and magically I get the confidence!  It really, truly works!


I hope this motivates you to act as if you have the confidence throughout your life, because in acting you will be gaining.

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