Category Archives: Family

Nevermind… we’re not like Brothers & Sisters

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This morning at 5:38am Gino woke up and announced that his alarm didn’t go off. He was supposed to be to work at 5:00am. Nothing sucks more for me than to be waken up in the middle of my sleep, because I SUCK AT FALLING BACK TO SLEEP!

I layed in bed and pondered on so much. My desk for work is in my room and I kept staring at it thinking about all of the things I needed to get done. Then I started thinking about my post about my siblings and how I referred to the show Brothers & Sisters in that post. Then I started thinking about how they all drink wine in that show, and how I really miss wine. Then I decided my family is nothing like that show, because I can’t drink wine.

I miss wine sometimes. Especially the Principato Roseato from Olive Garden ~ the blush. Now that is some delicious tasting wine.

I’m over it…. I might have to take my friend Jen’s advice that she gave on her blog and take ambien.

Christmas Traditions

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Boy we haven’t even decorated our Christmas tree this year, but I am getting really excited about the upcoming holiday. Today is Works for Me Wednesday over at Rocks in My Dryer, and I haven’t participated in a while, but I’m back!

Family traditions are so important. There comes a time when they stop believing in Santa Claus, and having special traditions for your children to look forward to make the holidays special to them. Hopefully they are traditions that they too will want to continue on with when they have their own families.

Here are a few of ours:

We used to allow Jayden to open up 1 present on Christmas Eve, since that’s what I got to do as a child. We’re changing this tradition this year to something that I think will be much for fun and exciting for the kids. I read this on someone else’s blog and I wish I could give credit to whoever said it, but I have no idea. I will get a box and put stamps on it and address it to the Garibay Children. Inside the box will be Christmas pajamas, ornaments for the kids to put on the tree (somethng that represents them for the year), stickers, and a Christmas book. On Christams Eve I will have my neighbor ring our doorbell and the kids will go answer it and there will be their box. They’ll have no idea where it came from, but it will definitely be something that they’ll get to look forward to every year.

A tradition that Gino and I have started with our family is we buy all the fixings for an ice cream sundae. We all get to choose whatever ice cream we’d like to use, whatever toppings and we make big ice cream sundaes and snuggle up on the couch to watch A Christmas Story. This year, in the middle of us doing this the box will arrive.

We always get an ornament for everyone in our family each year. It’s so amazing to pull out the ornaments every year and reflect on the past years we’ve shared together.

Of course we make Christmas cookies for Santa and Jayden leaves Santa a letter ~ I then enjoy the heck out of eating those delicious cookies.

I would love to hear what other’s do for their Christmas traditions. So, please leave a comment and let me know what you do!!

Siblings

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I live in a very dysfunction family. I really do. I love my family to death, but sometimes I really wonder what’s running through all their minds.

Have you ever watched the show Brother’s & Sister’s? It’s one of my favorite shows, and sometimes I can completely relate to them. I even have the gay sibling. I have a brother who doens’t want to grow up and face the babies that he makes in this world, and I just want to shake him. My sister is Mexican, but she’s white. I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I guess she turned Mexican when my Mexican husband turned white. And I love it – I love her and I’m proud of her and the accomplishments she’s making in her life. I have a 10 year old sister that I don’t acknowledge too often. I need to try harder there, but it’s just weird. Her mom is 2 years older than me. I have a 16 year old cheer leader sister who is like OMG so cOoL! She is probably the only one out of the 3 of my dads that I have connected with and have somewhat of a bond with. She’s a sweet girl and I love her mom.

I have a total of 5 siblings. I’m very active in 2 of those siblings lives, and the other 3 scare the sh*t out of me. I don’t know why, but I almost feel like I have to shut my heart off to the other 3, because I don’t want to take any of my love from the first 2.

My gay sister and I have had issues. I don’t agree with the way she’s living her life and frankly don’t want her lifestyle around my kids. But that’s not fair. She is my sister. She wants a relationship with her only older sister. Other than me she has 4 younger siblings.

How do you just start relationships with these strangers who yearn for your love and acceptance? It’s harder than you’d think. I’ve had to mend things with my father in order to even start thinking about his girls. I have honestly seen an answered prayer happen right before my eyes. I went to my Bishop and talked with him about my father and how I judge him and I got amazing advice from him. I was scared about making the first step in calling and trying to start up a relationship with him again, but I didn’t have to make that first step. Literally 3 hours after my talk with the Bishop my dad called ME! He called just to call and to say that he loves me. In my eyes, that was Heavnly Father showing me that it’s okay to have a non-expecting relationship with my father here on earth.

I now am gaining another type of sister here in Oregon. There’s a girl here that has the same name as my gay sister, so this might get a bit confusing, but she’s carrying my niece or nephew. Unfortunately, my brother and her do not get along at all, and this sucks. I think a few posts ago I was talking about him and my niece’s mom, and here he has yet another baby on the way. I’ve told this girl that I will be there and even go to the doctor’s appointments if she’d like, but I wish Mitch would snap out of this and step up and be a man. Gino’s had some pretty intense talks with him, and hopefully one of them has stuck with him.

I don’t know why God sends babies to sticky situations when there’s so many wonderful, married couples out there that can’t have babies. Or wonderful families, like ours that has lost babies. It’s not fair, but we have to put faith in our Heavenly Father that there is a good reason for it all.

Babies Need BOTH Parents

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My mom left today. She took my brother with her so that he could go and see his baby girl, Alana. He’s coming back tomorrow night on the bus. I honestly was scared that she wouldn’t remember him. Alana is 6 weeks younger than Ella and Mitch hasn’t seen her since the beginning of August. My mom told me that she hugged Mitch and he was crying. She remembered him.

That whole situation upsets me so much. I hate how Carina and Mitch didn’t try hard enough for her. It’s not easy. It’s especially harder when you’re not married. I went through it. I had a baby young just like Carina, and I was in a relationship that was HELL. I didn’t give up. I knew that my son deserved both of his parents and eventually with a lot of ups and downs we’d be okay. Now, here we are married and extremely happy.

Carina and Mitch are just so young and they just don’t realize how important a family is to a child. Living in a split up home is horrible and I wish that they would try. Even if they can’t be together there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to be hostile to one another. There is no reason why they can’t make up a plan to ensure that both of them will be strong in Alana’s life.

Mitch is doing wonderfully here, but I almost wonder if he should move back to Sacramento. For some reason he makes stupid decisions there, but if he could just put his head on straight and live for Alana maybe it would work. I just feel so sad for that baby girl.

I feel especially sad that she’s my niece and I don’t even know her. I’ve seen her once when she was a newborn and that makes me so sad. I wish I could see my niece and nephew more often. I would go to Sacramento more often, but it costs so much money! Especially since we have to stay in a hotel. That’s one reason why I’m sad I don’t live in Sacramento, but I’m so much happier here.

Our Thanksgiving & Black Friday

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Our Thanksgiving turned out wonderfully! It was just our little family, my mom, my brother & the missionaries. I’m happy that they wanted to spend Thanksgiving with us. They got to watch 1 football game & 1 Disney movie, so we watched Wall-E. Elder Foy, who has been her for such a long time and has become one of our favorite missionaries finds out today if he’s going to be transferred. Hopefully he gets to stay a little bit longer. I’m sad that my niece Alana & my nephew Vani & my sister Jessie would’ve been here though.

It was a pretty relaxed day. The food was delicious and even as I type this I’m considering going in the kitchen and making myself another plate….. gotta love those leftovers! I thought about the things I’m mostly greatful for and I think first and formost I’m so thankful for the gospel in my life, my husband & children and all of my family and friends. I was thinking that last year at Thanksgiving I wasn’t even thinking about the Gospel and didn’t have that in my life to be thankful for….. amazing what a year does.

This morning Gino and I were up at 5:30am to hit the madness. I really didn’t expect our Walmart in our little town to be as crowded as it was, but we pushed our way through and got the Blu Ray player that we wanted ($128.o0!) and then 7 1/2 hours later we were on our way home. I was exhausted, but we had fun together. It was nice just for it to be Gino and me ~ no kids with us. One thing I really wanted was deep red curtains for my kitchen sliding glass door and I found the perfect ones at Linen & Things, which is going out of business so they were cheap! Well, I get home and go to put them up and wouldn’t you know it…. they fit my living room window, but they’re way too short for my kitchen. So now my living room is going to have deep red curtains, because all sales are FINAL. Then I went to get Sleeping Beauty out of the Walmart bag so I can see how cool it looks on Blu Ray and we left the fricking bag at Walmart…. so, I was pretty irritated when I got home.

Tonight is the Ashland Christmas lighting festival. I’m not sure if I really want to go, but I have a feeling Gino will be dragging us all out to it.

I’ve been MIA from my blog for a good reason!

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I haven’t been blogging lately, and there’s a reason! I’ve actually been productive. I’m on this kick to be organized all throughout the year of 2009. In order to achieve this new goal I have to start a little early. My office stuff is almost completely 100%, perfectly ORGANIZED! Huge accomplishment! This next week I’m going to be focusing on my closet and the kids’ toys.

I should’ve taken a before picture of my office area, but I will post an after. I’ll do a before & after post of everything else I accomplish ~ the big thing is going to be the garage…. it’s scary.

My mom is on her way up right now and should be in here in about a half an hour. I’m excited to be able to spend time with her. It’s so weird how I went from seeing her at least once a week to only seeing her a couple times a year. Jayden is REALLY excited to see his favorite Grandma. I actually asked him who his favorite Grandma was (I know, I’m terrible) and he told me my mom was. Then I asked who his favorite Grandpa was and he told me that his dad’s dad was his favorite Grandpa.

Friday I’m hitting up the Black Friday sales. I’m going to try to do it small this Christmas, which is going to be SO hard for me. Christmas is a really big thing for us, and I am going to try to bring back more of the spirit. If anybody has any ideas on some Christmas spirit things we can do please, please share with me!! I’m tired of buying a ton of stupid toys that Jayden doesn’t even pay attention to just so he can have lots of presents to open. I want whatever it is that we buy them for them to appreciate it, and I don’t want them to be overwhelmed with so many presents that half of it goes unnoticed. So… this year, simple for us.

Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving ~ I’ll try to come on and give a nice Thanksgiving post about the things I’m thankful for and how our day went. In the meantime I hope that everyone has a safe & Happy Thanksgiving.

2008’s Thanksgiving with the Hurds

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I didn’t really take pictures yesterday, which is kinda sad. It was the annual Thanksgiving with the Hurds. Last year I got MANY pictures. Great pictures, but this year felt more like a zoo than a family.

People invited their friends – we had the hostile families that don’t really get along (me kinda included in that).

Everybody drinking beer. Not too into that.

It just didn’t feel like it felt last year. There were 45 people there, and it was hectic.

I really do love my Grandparents and I’m trying with my dad and I’m trying to not judge and to accept people for who they are. That really is a hard thing. I will say this though. I didn’t care that people were drinking – and I was uplifting and kept a smile on my face and truly tried. It just feel like a zoo.

So, I wasn’t in the picture taking mood. No pictures this year from Thanksgiving with the Hurds.

Our First Baptisms

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I know that I have readers that are not LDS, so I wanted to explain something before I talk about what happened last night.

If you believe in God and you believe that the bible is true, then you probably believe that in order to return to our Heavenly Father you have to be baptized. What about the people that didn’t get a chance? Do you really think that our Heavenly Father would be so unjust that he wouldn’t ensure that eveyone had an opportunity to receive that important ordinance of baptism? I believe this church to be true. I believe that the fullness of the gospel was taken from the earth many years ago, and that through Joseph Smith the fullness of the gospel was restored. I believe that during the time that the gospel was not on this earth that the priesthood, who has the authority to baptize was also not on this earth.

If you’re not LDS I understand that you don’t believe this, but I do and just want to clarify all of this before I elaborate on last night.

I had a friend once explain to Gino about being baptized by the proper priesthood authority like this…. Basically, let’s say you want to get a driver’s license and you decide to go and get it from this guy who makes them in Oak Park (I’m from Sac… it’s ghetto there LOL) instead of going to the DMV and get the proper one. So, you have your license and your driving around, but it’s not a true drivers license… right? It’s the same we think about baptism. So, that’s why Gino got baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints even though he was already baptized once in the Catholic church. He needed to get baptized by someone who had the proper priesthood authority, and on October 11, 2008 he did just that.

Okay… so back to the people that never had a chance to get baptized by the proper authority. That is one of the beautiful things about our temples. We as members can go and get baptized for our ancestor’s who have passed away that never had the opportunity to get baptized. That is what baptisms for the dead are all about.

Last night Gino the honor and priveledge to get baptized for 2 of his uncles that passed away. These uncles were uncles that he was very close to. Last night Gino walked down the steps to the baptisimal font and for his first time ever baptisms for the dead was baptized for Tim & Jorge Garibay. After Gino came out of the water and sat down to get them confirmed and to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, the emotions were strong… even our Bishop stopped because he was starting to cry. It was an amazing.

I had the honor and priveledge to get baptized for a dear friend of mine that was murdered. Melody Hawkins was a close friend to our entire family, and I am so happy that I was able to get baptized for somebody that was truly a special soul.

I’m excited to be able to work on our genaeology and start doing all the work for our ancestor’s who never had the opportunity to receive the ordinace of baptism.

Tuesday Babblings….

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These past few days I’ve felt great. I’m up at the crack of dawn and motivated. I’m loving it!!! I just hope that this motivation sticks around.

Thanksgiving is coming up so soon! I’m just anxious for the day after Thanksgiving sales. I need to go online and start mapping out my day LOL. The plan is that my Grandma will be bringing my Great-grandma Louise and my mom should be coming up as well. That will be 5 generations of girls all together. I hope my Grandma Louise is up to it ~ I don’t think she’s been feeling very well lately. I REALLY want to get pictures done with all of us girls.

Tomorrow Gino and I are going to the temple to do baptisms. I am so excited!!!!!! I have a friend who was murdered a few years ago and I got permission from her father today to be able to do her temple work. I feel honored, because Melody was a very special person to me. I’m sad at what happened to her, and feel happy that I get to do this for her. Gino is going to be doing his uncle’s temple work and I know that’s something special for him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SYDNI

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My cousin has turned 12 today. I’m sad, because we live so far apart and we never get to see each other. I just wanted to wish her a very Happy Birthday and I hope that it’s everything you’ve wished for.

Here’s a picture of Sydni and all her siblings (my other wonderful cousins) We’ll start from the back row on the left. Sydni (birthday girl), then Ryli holding my baby cousin Karson and then in the front on the left is my cousin Seth and Conner!!

I’m really hoping to make it up there to see them soon! I feel so bad that I live so far away!