My first pool!

Who knew at $15 pool from Walgreens would be so popular!

Weekend fun at Grammy and Grampy's...

Memorial Day weekend continued with a fun trip to Grammy and Grampys (or mammy and p if you're Alexander). We had a great time hanging out with the fam, eating yummy food, and watching Alexander entertain himself. We learned he can climb stairs on his own and he really loves taking baths at Grammy's house.

Beep...peese

That'd be "Jeep Please" in Alexander speak. My child knows a Jeep every time and by Jeep I mean a Wrangler. He gives me a scowl when I say anything about my Jeep or Ricardo's Jeep like...um those aren't real Jeeps lady! So, once again my child is constantly reveling over his encounters with MeMe's Beep and his repeated opportunities to "take it for a spin"! I guess after his "drive" he needed wear MeMe's glasses and then take a little break watching TV. I'm not real sure what occurred here because I found all of these pics on my camera. HMM!

Bike Trailer...what a ride

This afternoon we headed up to Ft. Ben with bikes and bike trailer in tow. It took only a minute to get used to pulling it on the bike but quite a long time to get over the fact that I had not ridden a bike UP HILL in years let alone with probably 35-40 extra pounds on the back. The fact that we didn't check the seat heights on the bikes after Mel and ChaChi had them was a harsh reality very quickly. So, Ricardo and I traded bikes and stuck it out for a few miles around the park on the bike trail. We decided next time we'd just stick with flatter surfaces until we got a little more used to riding. Ricardo was probably agreeing more for me since he works out like 23 of the 24 hours a day (UGH!). Alexander refused to wear his helmet and was clearly hot sitting in the trailer. After we rode we stopped and let him play on the playground...big mistake. Once we stuck him back in the trailer all he wanted to do was throw a fit. But, we made it back to the car with a promise to see the horses. He loved them! The only way we got him to leave that area was to act like we were chasing him back to the car. He was asleep before we left the park. :)

Memorial Day Weekend

Our Memorial Day weekend started off like any other...went grocery shopping Friday night, laid in bed this morning with little manny and played and watched cartoons, then Ricardo headed off to Karate. Well, during the morning I stepped outside to save a bug's life and throw him outside when I discovered a rather strange package on our front porch.

Yes, a coconut lay on our front porch just as you see it in the picture...not wrapped, not packed in Styrofoam peanuts...no just a coconut with a shipping label taped to it almost as if it had been sent out as a distress signal. It sat on the porch next to a package that had also been mailed. I would have reluctantly picked up the items but I saw the handwriting on the package and the name...it was made out to Sir Alexander Guerrero. No one else would do that but Aunt Mary. Indeed I was right. They had mailed us a coconut and a package to Alexander straight from Florida. They got him an outfit with a funny saying on the front. I had to crack up and then put the shirt on Alexander immediately. Since the shorts were a little big he just wore the shirt with his cut off bermudas.

The shirt says I (heart) mommy and daddy but my Aunt and Uncle are the best! Key West FL.

This was the first nice weekend we’ve had in I don’t know how long and we took full advantage. Saturday we headed to Broad Ripple for ice cream after I spent a good majority of the day in the yard working. Of course, we made a pit stop along the way to get Alexander his…well like 20th haircut…I’ve actually lost count at this point. He did not shed one tear the entire time which was a first. He is definitely getting bigger! Sunday, we headed to the Ft. Ben State Park and walked the park and had a picnic and let Alexander play ball with his Dada. Gotta love the sunshine!

Date Night

Tonight Gracie and Melissa came over to hang out for a while. We ordered Chinese and sat around and watched the kids play and chatted. I felt really bad though because it was almost like he was a little put off by someone in his space. Even though he likes Gracie a lot, he isn't used to playing with someone his own size since most of the kids at the karate school are at least 3 or older. Gracie was as cute as ever running around and talking up a storm. She's really got an awesome vocabularly...very impressive! Hopefully as she and Alexander hang out more he'll get better. Thankfully we've got a few years before they get married so we have to work out the kinks now. And, since they kissed before parting...I think we'll be ok. hehe ;-)

Surprise Ricardo!!!

Most everyone knows we had a surprise party for Ricardo on Saturday to celebrate his citizenship. We actually pulled it off...he was totally surprised. When he arrived about 90% of our guests were there already playing soccer, frisbee, and having fun. When he got out of the car he looked around and saw me and then said, what's going on? I said, it's a party - For You! He was just so excited. He said as he pulled up he wondered if it was just a coincidence that there was a parent and karate student at the state park then he realized there were a lot of people there that he knew...about 30! There were many of his students there and some parents from his parent committee, our neighbor and her daughter, family, and friends. Just a great time! We had lots of food, fun, played soccer, frisbee, and horseshoes. Ricardo has done a lot of firsts over the past few weeks from riding the mower to horseshoes. There are a lot more pics on mom and Steve's camera so I'll post more later but here are a few that we took. Of course, one of the highlights was seeing Gracie and Alexander interact. Seriously, it was so cute. She just looked at him and smiled and tried to chase him around. Had it been earlier in the day they probably would have had more fun but much needed nap times ended up causing a lover's quarrel over Alexander's bubble mower. I had to give him a motherly speech about how we don't hurt feelings, especially Gracie's! It all worked out but they might need counseling to work it out. LOL!

Mother's Day

Alexander had to present me with my card and balloon first thing in the morning on Mother's Day. So sweet! (Yes, I know he looks like a walking candy cane. Don't judge...they're organic cotton and warm!)

Broccoli-God's Wonder Veggie!

My heavenly child loves broccoli but I am concerned that some might be trying to sway his love of this wonderful food. My best friend, well former best friend, has formed a union of broccoli hating Nazis. Only two of her three children like the veggie and I am concerned that she might force them into the darkness. Her broccoli loving children are clearly following God’s will…the rest of them…oh it’s too horrible to say.

So with this picture I say HAIL ALL BROCCOLI LOVERS…let us unite!

After daddy headed to Karate on Thursday Alexander and I had fun in the back yard with the hose. You can see he's drenched. Aunt Mel took him for a spin on the mower too and then we went to her house to play with Bandit and the rest of the cats and the fish in the pond in her back yard. He loved it!

Proud to be an American!

Most everyone knows that this past week my awesome husband became a US Citizen. This was a huge accomplishment for Ricardo and I’m sure many of the other naturalized citizens that attended. What many people don’t know is how difficult it is to become a US Citizen and how very different a legal immigrant’s rights are from ours. Ricardo came here nearly 12 years ago to attend college in Minnesota. He completed his Associates while learning English and then went on to complete his Bachelor’s Degree there as well. During that time he was here on an F-1 VISA which means he had to attend school full time (if not he could have been deported), only work when authorized, and pay for everything out of pocket. Our government does not help these students with Financial Aid at all! Ricardo completed his degree, got an H-1, or authorization to work VISA, and was allowed to stay in the US. Then he met me! We had to pay almost $1000 to apply for his Permanent Residence, get fingerprinted, submit all sorts of documentation including our marriage pictures, honeymoon pictures, and our marriage licenses to the Immigration Office, and then go through an interview to make sure it was legit. He had to do that again when his Permanent Resident Card expired this time with information about Alexander included. Finally after the allotted number of years passed he was able to apply for citizenship. We had to pay again and go through the same rigmarole as before only minus the interview with both of us but instead he had a to study very hard and take a US History test. He passed with flying colors and then was able to attend his ceremony this past week. This has been a long and arduous journey for him. Every time we travel he gets photographed, fingerprinted, and questioned at the airport. We had to worry if they ever decided to kick everyone out of the US that wasn’t a US citizen because he’d have to leave. Now, that’s all over. He’s a fortified US Man and can come and go as he pleases with no hurdles to jump. He can vote and never has to return to INS again for another fingerprinting or test! He said the best part of all of this is he has the power to chose if he wants to be Latino or American depending on his situation. HAHAHAHA! After we got done we ate lunch at his favorite resturant with Uncle Rick. He and Aunt Mary were kind enough to take time out of their day to watch the ceremony which was so nice! After we got home Melanie and I insisted that since Ricardo was a "real" American now he had to ride the lawnmower. The neat flag pic is compliments of Aunt Mel and Alexander. The pictures speak for themselves!

One Year Anniversary

Today marks the completion of year one for me at Ivy Tech. I can hardly believe time has passed so quickly. We have made huge strides in our office for improvement and it definitely shows. I have an awesome staff of hard working people that I have grown to love and have made some lasting friendships with and for that I am very thankful. I believe God has given me an opportunity to do something I am trained to do and a job that I have grown to really enjoy. As thankful as I am for my position and for those that work for me, I am equally if not more thankful for the Director that supervises me. She has become a friend and is always giving me positive and uplifting feedback on my performance. I am SO thankful to finally have been given the opportunity to work for someone that has very similar work ethics as I do and thankfully a similar humor. Over the past year we have continued to joke that we have done so much for this place that they were going to present us with a major award. I have many times grabbed my bottle of water and pretended it was an award and thanked the board as I faked tears and wafted my hand in front of my face hoping to dry them. Of course, my boss has nearly peed her pants every time. Well today, I got my "major award". I nearly fell over laughing!

This past weekend before Ricardo left for his tournament we went shopping for a much needed new lawn mower. Ricardo wouldn’t let me buy another push mower and insisted we find a nice rider so I could mow with ease…remember he HATES yard work. Anyway, we did find a new mower which was totally fun to use…hehe. My mom and Steve came down Saturday and I believe my mom took some pics of me on the mower…thankfully I have not seen them because I’m sure they’re horrible.

While we were shopping though Alexander took it upon himself to try on a cowboy hat in the Tractor Supply store. Hysterical! This kid is clearly not the cowboy type nor does it even come close to matching his personality but it was too cute to pass up the photo opportunity.

Karate Superstar

This weekend Ricardo and his school headed to the National qualifier tournament in Mason Ohio. All of his students qualified to go to the National tournament and Ricardo got first and will be competing as well. We're so proud of him! Now, we're on the countdown to July!!!