As I asked myself the questions in goal #2 of Integrity I realized I was failing almost all of them.
Do I avoid gossip, innapropriate jokes, cussing, and making light of sacred things? Am I completely truthful, moraly clean, honest, worthy of trust in my studyies and other activities?
I realize that I have a lot to change, a lot to progress, a lot to do. I'm so thankful that I am able to serve in the Young Woman presidency because it has given me motivation to work harder to live rigthously and to have the help of the Young Woman Personal Progress.
As I went over these questions I realized that I am not living with Integrity. I really want to try harder to break my bad habits that make me not worthy of answering these questions without guilt. I really want to focus on not gossiping as much as I do. It's sad but it's a habit that is deeply woven into my daily living. I easily critize others and in turn gossip about them. I really need to learn to keep somethings to myself, even if I think I'm right I need to just stay quite. I know it's going to be super hard, but I'm going to try to remember my goal wheneve I'm tempted. And I will try to pray whenever I'm in a situation where I might gossip, even if it's just a prayer in my mind but I will ask for strength to overcome this temptation.
I also need to work hard at not laughing or joining in on innapropriate jokes or taking sacred matters lightly. It's a habit I picked up when I became inactive and I haven't been able to quite rid of myself of this habit. I will try very hard to remember that such things are an abomination to my Heavenly Father. I need to remember my goal and the type of person I want to become.
I need to have true faith and not have one ounce of doubt that I can do this. I need to truly believe that through my effort and Heavenly Father on my side I can overcome these flaws of mine. Perfection will not be reached in this life, but I know that I can make it so that I can be more good than bad!
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The Good Old Days of Halloween
When I was a kid, Halloween was almost as cool as Christmas. I loved it. It was perfect. It meant the beginning of my favorite season, FALL. With the air feeling crisp, the trees starting to become bare, colorful leaves all over the floor. Then we had our cool Halloween party at school to look forward to. Free candy galore. Even church parties were fun.
A lot has changed since then. Mostly for worse. Schools banning candy for so called healthier choices! WHAT? Really people, this seems logical to you? It's like banning presents on Christmas. I mean I'm all for healthier kids, blah blah blah, but do you really think that taking candy away from the one day dedicated to candy, is really going to change anything. It's so sad how the days of taking your costume with joy to school are gone. The days were you could wear some paint on your face (example. clown make-up), and wear your costume for most of the day, and then pass out candy to all your classmates. Now they only get to wear their costumes for like the last 15 minutes of the day, do a parade outside, and then that's it. NO CANDY, only trinkets! Really? Yeah cause what they love is pencils and erasers for Halloween!
Second complaint, I don't ever ever ever remember anyone in church complaining about Halloween or making some big deal or statement against it when I was growing up. If someone didn't agree with it or didn't like it they simply didn't participate and that's it. I always remember sometimes having church costume parties and they were so much fun. Now all of a sudden these past years, there seems to be such a contreversy among the members against Halloween. What?! Yeah, we all know we shouldn't encourage devil costumes, or ghosts, or evil things, blah blah blah.......but what if we love dressing up as angels, clowns, doctors, etc. and then getting FREE candy!!!!? And I'm sorry, if my bishop says it's okay with him that we celebrate than why should YOU attack me for celebrating it. As long as our Prophet doesn't come out and tell us that we are NOT to trick or treat or that we are not to have ward costume parties than darn it, I'm going to get my Halloween ON! BUt don't come and attack everyone else who chooses to celebrate.
Phew, feels nice to get it off my chest. Now moving on, the only good thing that has changed is the weather. Well hopefully it's not Global Warming cause then I guess it's not a good change. But I'm loving that my kids get to show off their costumes while trick or treating. I remember the cold, breezy, and sometimes rainy days that we had on Halloween. Not that it stopped me from going. But hahahaha, I remember my mom telling me to put my coat on, and my gloves, and my scarf and sweat pants over my costume. To the point that you couldn't see a piece of it, you could hardly make out what my costume was. Now they get to prance around with their costume all out!
This Halloween was one of the best for my kids. It was so funny how Jaime was excited about it all day. He had been wearing his Green Lanterns Costume for over a month now and today was no exeption. He wore it all day and was ready to go trick or treating since early in the morning. I had to keep reminding him that we had to wait for Natalie. Now this costume comes with a ring that we had very carefully watched so that we wouldn't loose it for the big day. He actually amazed me how watchful he was of his ring, whenever he was done playing he would put it back into his costume bag. But ofcourse, life has a way of playing with us, that ofcourse he had to loose it hours before going out to trick or treat. Well this boy would not leave without it. He was crying up a storm for it. Here we were, two crazy parents looking for a needle in a haystack. We looked and looked, and moved everything and nothing. I had given up and was ready to just call it a day, when like a hero David comes down with it. It had been hidden in our closet inside one of my shoes. And like magic, Jaime's tears were gone and off we went.
Him and Natalie were quite the scardy cats though. They were pretty much scared of all the scary costumes. But unlike other years they did last longer and walked until it was dark. We came home with two full bags of goodies. Still, they can compeat with their mother's record of walking all of Blue Island and filling tons of bags of candy with her sister Alma.
The other cute and addoring thing that happened is that Jaimito met his heroes. He's been really into all the superheros this year. He's loving Wolverine, Green Lantern, Hulk, Batman, Spider Man, Iron Man, Captain America and Thor. But he LOVES Wolverine and Hulk. Well as we arrived to a church costume party he spotted none other than Wolverine. His reaction was priceless. He couldn't believe it, he couldn't stop saying his name and ran over to him. It ended up being one of his cousins. To him this was WOLVERINE. He couldn't stop staring at him. As you can see in this picture, he just stared at him in amasement.
Then cam BATMAN. Another cousin of his. He was in love with him. The funny part is that they were born one day apart, they looked so cute together. He would not leave Batman alone the whole night, he basically became his shadow.
To him he had really met his heroes. It got me thinking how much I would've loved to have experience this too. When I went to Disney World I was already like 8 or 9 years old, and even though I was a very innocent kid, I still knew that these were costumes. Ofcourse, I played along for my dad's sake. Didn't wanna brake his fantasy that I still truly believed in these characters. But I wish I could've been Jaimito's age, cause then maybe I could've felt what he felt. I would've really thought I was standing in front of Snow White or Cinderella. He probably won't remember his experience, but I will and it's priceless.
A lot has changed since then. Mostly for worse. Schools banning candy for so called healthier choices! WHAT? Really people, this seems logical to you? It's like banning presents on Christmas. I mean I'm all for healthier kids, blah blah blah, but do you really think that taking candy away from the one day dedicated to candy, is really going to change anything. It's so sad how the days of taking your costume with joy to school are gone. The days were you could wear some paint on your face (example. clown make-up), and wear your costume for most of the day, and then pass out candy to all your classmates. Now they only get to wear their costumes for like the last 15 minutes of the day, do a parade outside, and then that's it. NO CANDY, only trinkets! Really? Yeah cause what they love is pencils and erasers for Halloween!
Second complaint, I don't ever ever ever remember anyone in church complaining about Halloween or making some big deal or statement against it when I was growing up. If someone didn't agree with it or didn't like it they simply didn't participate and that's it. I always remember sometimes having church costume parties and they were so much fun. Now all of a sudden these past years, there seems to be such a contreversy among the members against Halloween. What?! Yeah, we all know we shouldn't encourage devil costumes, or ghosts, or evil things, blah blah blah.......but what if we love dressing up as angels, clowns, doctors, etc. and then getting FREE candy!!!!? And I'm sorry, if my bishop says it's okay with him that we celebrate than why should YOU attack me for celebrating it. As long as our Prophet doesn't come out and tell us that we are NOT to trick or treat or that we are not to have ward costume parties than darn it, I'm going to get my Halloween ON! BUt don't come and attack everyone else who chooses to celebrate.
Phew, feels nice to get it off my chest. Now moving on, the only good thing that has changed is the weather. Well hopefully it's not Global Warming cause then I guess it's not a good change. But I'm loving that my kids get to show off their costumes while trick or treating. I remember the cold, breezy, and sometimes rainy days that we had on Halloween. Not that it stopped me from going. But hahahaha, I remember my mom telling me to put my coat on, and my gloves, and my scarf and sweat pants over my costume. To the point that you couldn't see a piece of it, you could hardly make out what my costume was. Now they get to prance around with their costume all out!
This Halloween was one of the best for my kids. It was so funny how Jaime was excited about it all day. He had been wearing his Green Lanterns Costume for over a month now and today was no exeption. He wore it all day and was ready to go trick or treating since early in the morning. I had to keep reminding him that we had to wait for Natalie. Now this costume comes with a ring that we had very carefully watched so that we wouldn't loose it for the big day. He actually amazed me how watchful he was of his ring, whenever he was done playing he would put it back into his costume bag. But ofcourse, life has a way of playing with us, that ofcourse he had to loose it hours before going out to trick or treat. Well this boy would not leave without it. He was crying up a storm for it. Here we were, two crazy parents looking for a needle in a haystack. We looked and looked, and moved everything and nothing. I had given up and was ready to just call it a day, when like a hero David comes down with it. It had been hidden in our closet inside one of my shoes. And like magic, Jaime's tears were gone and off we went.
Him and Natalie were quite the scardy cats though. They were pretty much scared of all the scary costumes. But unlike other years they did last longer and walked until it was dark. We came home with two full bags of goodies. Still, they can compeat with their mother's record of walking all of Blue Island and filling tons of bags of candy with her sister Alma.
The other cute and addoring thing that happened is that Jaimito met his heroes. He's been really into all the superheros this year. He's loving Wolverine, Green Lantern, Hulk, Batman, Spider Man, Iron Man, Captain America and Thor. But he LOVES Wolverine and Hulk. Well as we arrived to a church costume party he spotted none other than Wolverine. His reaction was priceless. He couldn't believe it, he couldn't stop saying his name and ran over to him. It ended up being one of his cousins. To him this was WOLVERINE. He couldn't stop staring at him. As you can see in this picture, he just stared at him in amasement.
Then cam BATMAN. Another cousin of his. He was in love with him. The funny part is that they were born one day apart, they looked so cute together. He would not leave Batman alone the whole night, he basically became his shadow.
To him he had really met his heroes. It got me thinking how much I would've loved to have experience this too. When I went to Disney World I was already like 8 or 9 years old, and even though I was a very innocent kid, I still knew that these were costumes. Ofcourse, I played along for my dad's sake. Didn't wanna brake his fantasy that I still truly believed in these characters. But I wish I could've been Jaimito's age, cause then maybe I could've felt what he felt. I would've really thought I was standing in front of Snow White or Cinderella. He probably won't remember his experience, but I will and it's priceless.Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Natalie turns 9!
So my Natalie is now 9 years old. WOW! It had been awhile since I had made her a big party with a lot of guest and a big theme. So this year I have to say we really did go all out.
Ofcourse the theme was SOCCER! She's so into it. She's been playing for like the past two years non stop all year. So it wasn't difficult to find a way to incorporate soccer into her party, starting with this piñata that Lucy made for her.
This was around the beginning of the day. We were preparing for the party. I love this picture because even though my gramma didn't want to take a picture, it ended up looking so sweet. I really like it. And this one of my two babies is another favorite. I can't believe how different they look yet at the same time they look so alike. Look at those eyes! Can anyone say "SMIZING" haahaha!
I really have to give my mom all the credit for the food. She worked so hard. She had been working on food since the night before and woke up very early the next day to start cooking. She made carnitas, rice, green spaghetti, potato salad, and the list could go on and on.
Look at these carnitas. Nothing can taste better than being cooked in lard! haha MMMMM!
We all wore our soccer jerseys. Here's her daddy with a Guatemala jersey and Natalie with her jersey that her gramma brought her straight from Mexico.
Ofcourse she had to show off that her jersey was from el CHICHARITO the best player in the world right now!
I didn't have my jersey on yet, but I ended up wearing a PUMAS jersey.
The party was slowing getting started. Here she is with her BFF Celina! They're so cute together!
Here's some of her many guests. They played tons of soccer in my mom's yard. Poor grass, my mom was crying over it! hahaha!
Then instead of having official birthday games we decided to go behind the baseball field by our house and play soccer games. It ended up being the best idea ever. Everyone loved it. It was 4 teams of kids and adults playing soccer. Everyone had so much fun.
Afterwards our piñata was one of a kind because we didn't break it the regular way. We kicked it open. Instead of hitting it with a stick, we had the kids kick it. They really enjoyed it, and I thought it was much safer than having a kid swinging a stick around! :)
Ofcourse like always the piñata falls off the rope before it gets broken so it has become our favorite tradition to make it rain with candy!
And my brother is the best at it! We always hand him the candy and he starts to throw them.
Now I don't recommened everyone to do this because it's a dangerous sport, but our kids are use to it already. But if you do maybe you should pass out some head gear because in the process there will be some swollen heads and one or two kids crying. hahahaha! But it's so much fun!
The cake was delicious. My sister Alma brought it. It was almost too pretty to actually cut.
Here are all the kids at her party. More than half of them are all family!
It was such a fun and successful party. Some people think that it's a waste of money to make this types of parties. But I have to say that every cent spent was worth it. Seeing the anticipation in my daughter for her party. Then being able to have so many friends and family together. Sharing a good dinner, laughing, talking, and celebrating together has no price. I think that all the adults had as much fun as the kids, I know I did! And thanks to a wonderful husband who was wonderful and so helpful the whole day. I couldn't have done it without him. I got to reunite with old friends and got to meet new ones. All in all, it is now such a wonderful memory!
Ofcourse the theme was SOCCER! She's so into it. She's been playing for like the past two years non stop all year. So it wasn't difficult to find a way to incorporate soccer into her party, starting with this piñata that Lucy made for her.
This was around the beginning of the day. We were preparing for the party. I love this picture because even though my gramma didn't want to take a picture, it ended up looking so sweet. I really like it. And this one of my two babies is another favorite. I can't believe how different they look yet at the same time they look so alike. Look at those eyes! Can anyone say "SMIZING" haahaha!I really have to give my mom all the credit for the food. She worked so hard. She had been working on food since the night before and woke up very early the next day to start cooking. She made carnitas, rice, green spaghetti, potato salad, and the list could go on and on.Look at these carnitas. Nothing can taste better than being cooked in lard! haha MMMMM!We all wore our soccer jerseys. Here's her daddy with a Guatemala jersey and Natalie with her jersey that her gramma brought her straight from Mexico.Ofcourse she had to show off that her jersey was from el CHICHARITO the best player in the world right now!I didn't have my jersey on yet, but I ended up wearing a PUMAS jersey.The party was slowing getting started. Here she is with her BFF Celina! They're so cute together!Here's some of her many guests. They played tons of soccer in my mom's yard. Poor grass, my mom was crying over it! hahaha!Then instead of having official birthday games we decided to go behind the baseball field by our house and play soccer games. It ended up being the best idea ever. Everyone loved it. It was 4 teams of kids and adults playing soccer. Everyone had so much fun.Afterwards our piñata was one of a kind because we didn't break it the regular way. We kicked it open. Instead of hitting it with a stick, we had the kids kick it. They really enjoyed it, and I thought it was much safer than having a kid swinging a stick around! :)Ofcourse like always the piñata falls off the rope before it gets broken so it has become our favorite tradition to make it rain with candy!And my brother is the best at it! We always hand him the candy and he starts to throw them.Now I don't recommened everyone to do this because it's a dangerous sport, but our kids are use to it already. But if you do maybe you should pass out some head gear because in the process there will be some swollen heads and one or two kids crying. hahahaha! But it's so much fun!The cake was delicious. My sister Alma brought it. It was almost too pretty to actually cut.
Here are all the kids at her party. More than half of them are all family!It was such a fun and successful party. Some people think that it's a waste of money to make this types of parties. But I have to say that every cent spent was worth it. Seeing the anticipation in my daughter for her party. Then being able to have so many friends and family together. Sharing a good dinner, laughing, talking, and celebrating together has no price. I think that all the adults had as much fun as the kids, I know I did! And thanks to a wonderful husband who was wonderful and so helpful the whole day. I couldn't have done it without him. I got to reunite with old friends and got to meet new ones. All in all, it is now such a wonderful memory!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Young Woman Personal Progress
I never finished my Young Woman's Personal Progress and I had never really thought about finishing it now. But ever since I've been working with the Young Woman I've been motivated to work on it.
For some reason is seems like such a hard thing to do. I remember that as a youth it was hard for me to work on the goals. Like our girls, I would too, look for the easiest ones that only required to read a scripture and write in your diary. Sadly now, I find myself doing the same thing. Our Y.W. president keeps telling them that it's such an easy thing to do that they should be working on it easily. But I can relate to the girls so much. I mean it should be an easy thing to do, to live the gospel. If we're living the gospel than the goals should be easy to complete. BUT just as in my youth, I find myself not being able to commit to the goals. They require a committment, they require a desire to truly live the gospel in every aspect. That's why this program is so important. So important that we help our youth follow through with it with our support. Because if I choose to actually do these goals they'll help me break bad habits and form good ones. It requires me too choose today "to whom I'll serve". And it's sad that many times I skip over a goal because it requires me to do more than just sit here, say I believe in Christ but not truly live Christlike. Maybe if I would've had more support in my youth to actually try to do my Personal Progress and I would've put more effort into it, maybe just maybe, I would've made better decisions or atleast had some "personal progress".
But now I'm here, in present time. I look at this book and realize that there should be a Adult Woman Personal Progress!!! I realize that I need this just as much as I needed it when I was 15. Can I finally choose to push myself to truly make changes to live more Christlike? Can I finish my Personal Progress?
Well I start today. After reading the scriptures required for the first goal in Virtue, I will now write my thoughts in my "journal".
I now realize the blessing I could've received if I would've worked harder to be a woman full of Virtue. But now that I'm married, I realize that I can still try to be a woman of Virtue. Sadly in the past I have failed at this again and again. The temptations of the world can sometimes be more alluring when our spirits are weak. But I need to focus in the present and realize that through God's grace it's never to late to live virtuously. As I read Proverbs 31:10-31 I realized that to be a Virtouse woman is not just refering to being sexually clean but that it encompasses a lot more. Being a good wife and mother, being worthy of our husband's love. Always speaking kind words, being ready to always lend a helping hand. So many other traits that I thought of as I read these scriptures. I hope that as I strive to be brave and complete my Y.W. goals I can truly make progress in the way I live my life. I hope that I can be a good example to my daughter as she prepares to one day also be in Y.W. I hope that I can one day give her the right support and motivation so that she can accomplish her Y.W. goals and hopefully have life learning moments.
For some reason is seems like such a hard thing to do. I remember that as a youth it was hard for me to work on the goals. Like our girls, I would too, look for the easiest ones that only required to read a scripture and write in your diary. Sadly now, I find myself doing the same thing. Our Y.W. president keeps telling them that it's such an easy thing to do that they should be working on it easily. But I can relate to the girls so much. I mean it should be an easy thing to do, to live the gospel. If we're living the gospel than the goals should be easy to complete. BUT just as in my youth, I find myself not being able to commit to the goals. They require a committment, they require a desire to truly live the gospel in every aspect. That's why this program is so important. So important that we help our youth follow through with it with our support. Because if I choose to actually do these goals they'll help me break bad habits and form good ones. It requires me too choose today "to whom I'll serve". And it's sad that many times I skip over a goal because it requires me to do more than just sit here, say I believe in Christ but not truly live Christlike. Maybe if I would've had more support in my youth to actually try to do my Personal Progress and I would've put more effort into it, maybe just maybe, I would've made better decisions or atleast had some "personal progress".
But now I'm here, in present time. I look at this book and realize that there should be a Adult Woman Personal Progress!!! I realize that I need this just as much as I needed it when I was 15. Can I finally choose to push myself to truly make changes to live more Christlike? Can I finish my Personal Progress?
Well I start today. After reading the scriptures required for the first goal in Virtue, I will now write my thoughts in my "journal".
I now realize the blessing I could've received if I would've worked harder to be a woman full of Virtue. But now that I'm married, I realize that I can still try to be a woman of Virtue. Sadly in the past I have failed at this again and again. The temptations of the world can sometimes be more alluring when our spirits are weak. But I need to focus in the present and realize that through God's grace it's never to late to live virtuously. As I read Proverbs 31:10-31 I realized that to be a Virtouse woman is not just refering to being sexually clean but that it encompasses a lot more. Being a good wife and mother, being worthy of our husband's love. Always speaking kind words, being ready to always lend a helping hand. So many other traits that I thought of as I read these scriptures. I hope that as I strive to be brave and complete my Y.W. goals I can truly make progress in the way I live my life. I hope that I can be a good example to my daughter as she prepares to one day also be in Y.W. I hope that I can one day give her the right support and motivation so that she can accomplish her Y.W. goals and hopefully have life learning moments.
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