To My Sweet Pea...

Who wants to know what I want for my birthday...

EVERYTHING :)
Just kidding, kinda.

I know you made gift shopping extremely difficult for me on your birthday, but you know me, I'm the least bit difficult. Right??? :)
So I'm going to make this incredibly easy on you and give you a list. Some of these are absolutely ridiculous, but that's me (ridiculously awesome!!!), so deal with it :)

1. New car stereo with iPod adapter
2. Two Justin Timberlake concert tickets in Pasadena, CA (if they're not already sold out?? )
3. A dance battle... You + Me + public place
4. PAINTBALL
5. Ulta / Sephora giftcard
6. White Chucks - low top (cause you know I keep it gansta) -size to be announced soon.
7. Lots of Hugs & Kisses to make everyone around us vomit
8. Weekend getaway to California
9. A clean car (this means either YOU wash it & vacuum it out, or you pay someone to do it)
10. Camelbak for when I hike, dontchu go dying on me!
11. Mariscos & micheladas mmmmmmm :)
12. Seasons 1 & 2 of Happy Endings on DVD
13. Justin Timberlake's new album (available on iTunes on March 19th)
14. TJ Maxx gift card
16. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
17. For you to realize I skipped #15!!!
18. A tennis match... and yes I have to WIN!
19. Spring Training game before it's too late!!!!
20. If it's too late for Spring Training, then tickets to a DBacks game.
21. Jimbos breakfast
22. MEXICOOOOO
23. A golden goose egg, NOW
24. Trip to the Grand Canyon
25. Let me clean up your eyebrows forever :)
26. More gangster gear: Nike shoes -size to be announced soon
27. Love me Forever
28. Booty Jersey

I'm sure you might not have a clue about some of these, so ask Val. 

And keep checking back everyday for new wishes ;) ;)

Time is ticking!!!

Thug Life

About a month ago my twin nephews had their birthday party and at one point of the party I remember walking up to the jumper to look at the kids going crazy in there. Well my nephew runs up to the net I'm standing by and he's all jacked off his candy/cake/birthday adrenaline rush then says "You can't see me!!" while waving his hand in his face. I started laughing then thought to myself "Someones parents are listening to a little too much Tupac while driving their kids around".
After telling my sister the funny story I then found out that he got the saying from a famous wrestler, John Cena, who says that a lot, buuuuuuut I'd still like to think he just likes jammin' out to Tupac.

Happy 100th Birthday Arizona

I am in love with my home state Arizona.
Our summers may be hot & dry, but that just means there's more opportunities for fun things to do outside and the rest of our year is unbelievable weather. We can take a 2 hour drive up North to Sedona or Flagstaff to cool off with a gorgeous scenery or make it an extra couple of hours to see the Grand Canyon. We may not have an ocean front view, but we are 4 hours from a Mexican beach & 5 hours from a California beach. If you're feelin' lucky, Sin City is only a short 4 hour drive away for a weekend adventure.

I've always said I want to travel the world and move to different places, but Arizona will always be my Home. Just the scenery of it all is what makes me appreciate it more... like the sunset, it never ceases to amaze me especially with all of the mountain surroundings.

The only bad thing I can honestly say about Arizona, is the people that move here from out of state and constantly complain about it. So after I kindly tell them to go back where they came from if they hate it that much, I can go back to admiring my amAZing home.

Moving On

 "There's nothing half so pleasant as coming home again."

Margaret Elizabeth Sangster

This weekend, my Sister will be moving out of the home she has built for the last 6 years. I was living with her at the time when she moved into the house, and I remember our first day there like it was yesterday. I even remember recording bits and pieces of that day on a video camera that belonged to my boyfriend at the time. We had a bunch of family members over to help with the move, we used my Uncle's diesel work truck to get everything over in one load and I even got a job down the street that first week there which made our new home that much more exciting. Even though I don't live there anymore and it's just my Sister and her family who have actually been living there day in and day out, the house has been a home to our entire family the last 6 years. There's been numerous barbeques, birthday parties, Christmas Eves, Thanksgivings, and Halloweens in this house. Where all of our family & friends were always welcome even when my Sister and her family weren't there, like recently when she was driving back from Chicago and we all made ourselves at home and hung out waiting for them to get back.

This is definitely going to be a bittersweet week helping her pack and see the walls and rooms empty little by little. I'm happy for my sister that she's found a bigger and nice house for her family. Especially since they grew from a family of 5 to a family of 8. I just realized I seem to be having a hard time letting go emotionally of this house because it feels like when she leaves the house, we're leaving all of the memories behind that were made there. From living there during the passing of my Dad in 2005, then moving to San Diego shortly after only to be back home in less than 3 months. When my very first car was stolen from the front yard too and I remember how upset I was when the cops found it completely stripped down. Remembering how I constantly used my Sister's ID to sneak into bars & clubs to hangout with my brothers & cousins or to buy beer for my friends when we'd hangout all night. Where I experienced my first serious heart break from an old boyfriend and having it broke the second time when our dog Petey ran away. When my nephew Rudy was just a wee little new born, to my Sister finding out she was pregnant two more times, the second time with twins. To just every other day when I stop by after work and hangout with her kids playing Donkey Kong or goofing around on the trampoline.

I've had a key to this house since the first day we moved in and now it's time to give it back. I just gotta keep reminding myself that in your heart is where you carry memories forever. Plus I'm sure we're going to make many more great ones in her new home and her new neighbors will hate us just as much as the current ones do.

Tia Gina

Day 3 of no Facebook: not too bad, I've only wanted to navigate there twice today. Yesterday was ridic, I almost quit on quitting!

Now back to my post.
Today I came across this super cute article about the founder of SavvyAunt.com who is a married woman and has decided her life is complete without children because she has enough nieces and nephews to fill that void of children. I was instantly intrigued in what this woman has to say because I don't have any children and I'm not interested in any at the moment because I also have plenty of nieces and nephews to borrow then return when I'm ready to go back to "me time". Although I can relate a lot about what the founder is going through not having or wanting children because she is an Aunt, I have to say that right now I'm not ready for kids but I'm not sure about not having children at all. I would love to have my own asshole children someday when I'm ready for it... Or at least married, because being single and not even dating anyone special at the moment doesn't seem like having a child would make my life anymore special.

I love it when people come to one of my family gatherings and are in complete shock of all the children running around then they turn to me and say "When are you going to have kids?". I swear my Sister has a 6th sense for when I get asked this question because without a second to waste she instantly yells "Never! She can take one of mine". My initial thought to this question is 'Does this family really need more children running around?' then 'I'm not even married you jackoff!' then 'Well I'm half way to 50 and it's clear that no one even wants to marry me, where's the fucking ice cream!?' and then I'm the one full of rage breaking the piñata. Ok that last part I made up, but you get the gist.

For the time being, my heart is complete with all of the blessings I call nieces & nephews. I love how they get excited to see me every time I come around -probably because they always tell me that I'm like a big kid 'cause I'm always willing to do goofy things with them. I also love it that they confide in me for things they aren't so sure in telling their parents about 'cause they don't want to get whooped and they know I'm going to let it slide. The best part of it all is that I can enjoy the company of children as long as I want then when I'm over it, I go back to my "world" of selfishness and negligence. I'm sure when it's my time to have children or if I ever do, I will be fine... as long as I can learn to not to refer to them as assholes. I've had oodles and oodles of experience with kids and I learned CPR off YouTube so we should be golden ;)

"Here's the truth about aunthood. Unlike parents, aunts have no legal obligations. Aunthood is a gift. It's a gift to the children who never suffer from too much love. It's a gift to today's overburdened parents who can always use more hands and hearts when it comes to their kids. And it's a gift to us because it is one of the wonderful things that fills our lives with joy, love and purpose." -Melanie Notkin

T-T-T-Totally dude!!

Did I ever tell you about the time my family went out one Saturday night to celebrate a few birthdays and everyone got along, danced till the wee hours of the morning, no one got arrested, and there were no fights with strangers or each other??
Most likely not, because that's never happened until this weekend. Congrats family! We're all maturing gradually. Too bad my sister lost her camera with all the pictures and can't spam the Internet with them! Really super sad face!!

Although I wasn't out with everyone for that particular festivity, we had ourselves quite an eventful weekend.

birthday pool parties

Pop Warner games

slushies & Wienerschnitzel

kid Baseball games

face plant the steering wheel

Ortiz vs. Mayweather fight

shrimp 'n cocktail

not being let in Bobby Q's

Hurricane Gay

losing the camera

Jimbo's

football

80's Rock Band party

shotguns

boom box on shoulders

boom!

Repopulation

I have a theory that my family has some sort of evil demon in their head repeating this very word to them... and they do as he says... whenever he says.

My family is super close and are all pretty much in the same age range. I have 5 siblings and we have 4 cousins that we grew up with living within one mile of us, with so we consider each other brothers and sisters. Growing up, birthday parties were a blast and going out to dinner for someone's birthday was always an adventure. We are still really close to this day and that I am extremely thankful for.

Well now that we're all older, they've decided to have children like the world has been wiped out of the human species and God said "I choose this family to repopulate the earth". I have 10 nieces and nephews just from my siblings; my "other siblings" have a total of 7... I think that's right. Don't get mad at me if I forgot someone, use a condom! Now this doesn't include all of the other children in my family; I would have to spend all day doing that because my Dad has 8 sisters and 1 brother and my mother has 2 sisters and 2 brothers and I don't even know how many kids trickle down from that... Now do you understand the title of this post and why I don't have children???

It never fails, our gatherings are a blast. Whether it's bbq'ing on Sundays, holiday celebrations, baptismals or tailgating; we eat, drink, and have a good time. Sometimes there's a nip slip and sometimes we get just a taaaad bit rowdy and get in fights... But when it comes to birthday parties, that is just craziness all around whether it's a kids party or adult outing. I feel like birthday parties are the most hectic gathering for this fam, or really, any large family. Not everyone needs to show up for Sunday bbq's, tailgating, or 4th of July hangouts; but a birthday party, it's like you have to go because your kids will hate you forever if they miss their favorite cousins pinata and jumpy thingamajig. Plus you'll miss out on the delicious food, so you go. Parties at houses usually turn into an adult event with coolers full of beer, adults wrestling each other in the jumper, and the cops getting called at 1am. Peter Piper's are usually overtaken by our family then we all go back to someone's house to continue the adult fun. And then there's the times we decide to go out to sit down restaurants for the adults birthdays...

Normally on one's birthday, you want to go out to your favorite restaurant with the people you love the most surrounding you while eating your favorite meal. Not me, I've decided to opt out of this for celebrating my birthday for 3 good reasons:
   1.) This family is never on time.
Like Joe Pesci says in Goodfellas "Yeah, you were always fuckin' late, you were late for your own fuckin' funeral". My sister has to make 3 different sets of invitations for birthday parties! Three!! One set for her white friends (who are always good at being on time) and another set for my family that usually says the party is at 2pm when it doesn't really start till 5pm. The 3rd invitation is for my aunt who's invitation says party time is at Noon that way she'll be there by 6 the latest. The chances of the restaurant letting us sit down without the entire party there are slim to none.

   2.) Hassling restaurant employees to make room for and serve 24+ people their correct food.
The minimum wait time for a party this big is usually an hour, when you're waiting for one side of the restaurant to leave so you can all sit together. Even if we did make a reservation, we'd still wait till everyone got there so the waiters could take orders. Just looking at the faces of the waiters taking drink and food orders then bring them out to the correct person makes me pity them. Thank God restaurants do that automatic tip for parties of 8 or more.

   3.) Splitting the bill.
This usually takes an extra hour after everyone has finished their meals and is ready to be on their way. Most waiters ask in advance if and how the bill will be split, but it always happens that someone got the wrong items on their bill or was over / under charged. It wouldn't be that big of a hassle for everyone to throw your money on the table and leave, but in this day and age no one carries around cash. So we have to wait for the waiter to correct the bill, then run all of our cards and bring them back to sign. What's worse is just yesterday, my family went out for a few birthdays and the waiter put the bill all together and gave them a pen to figure out their own totals. WOW! What a jerkoff! Apparently my Ma thought the same cause I was told she was about to get fist to cuffs with the staff for pulling that stunt.

Ahhh.... I love my huge family!!!