Merry CHRISTmas!

Hope everyone had a very Merry CHRISTmas! Hope it was filled with family, friends and love! I can't wait to upload pictures! I think that should be my new year's resolution -start uploading pictures again! anyway, hope everyone had a beautiful day and left their cares away :)

joey and i went to midnight Mass together and then went to Denny's with Joey and Ritanna and didn't sleep til 4 AM. got up to go and opened our stockings - we had to fill each other's stockings in the house (he even got a tea kettle to fit in mine - just kidding - he added a backpack and put a tea kettle inside) and then went to his parents' house to open presents, went to my parents' house to eat, watch the Lakers game and take lots of pictures, went back to Joey's parents to eat some more and play the Wii, went to Grish's restaurant to have Christmas with friends, then went back to Joey's parents' a third time to take family pictures. Then we finally got to go home and sleep. what a day! but filled with family and friends! MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!

needed an update

so my blog was looking too brown for me. so i changed it. apparently reg is very protective over her template. sheesh. just kidding reg! anyway, i needed some color. and a picture. and some links. i think it's ok now. anyway, happy wednesday!

CHRISTmas is coming

CHRISTmas is coming all! let's not forget: Jesus is the reason for the season! Hope you're all having a good season!

so many things going on ...

there have been. last week i think was the craziest.
sun: work
mon: work
tues: book club
wed: work
thurs: bridal shower
fri: vince's bday
sat: liwanag 10-year gala
sun: work
mon: work
every night was full of something. and hence we've done no christmas shopping yet. actually, no. we have got the boys something. but that's it.
so i had yesterday off and just kind of vegged for the first time in a while. did some laundry. cooked dinner for the hubby. watched my retarded show that i'm addicted to - i'm kind of embarrassed to admit what i watch but i am so addicted. anyway, the past two days have been better. actually time to slow down and breathe.
i got to pick up our wedding dvd today. we tried to get it delivered to the house but since we're not on the map yet, they called us for directions on thursday. i called them back on friday and gave them directions. monday rolled around and they still hadn't delivered so i called them back. they said they would check and call me back and still nothing. so i called this morning and they asked if we coudl pick it up in ontario. so we finally have it =)
the liwanag gala was cool - very interesting to see everyone again. it really is amazing because praise and worship was awesome - i wish i knew the songs though. we were stuck in the front - thanks fran - and i didn't know the words. but all the same, it was still awesome.
so at banquet we saw ray and ann and milani. then on tuesday i saw them at costco.
the pablos: hi!
me: hey!
me: so where do you guys live:
p: in chino, you?
me: in college park
p: us too!
me: which one?
p: auburn
me: no way! that's the one i live in too! we're neighbors
they really live down the street! small world. yay we have neighbors besides the cows!
anyway, that's all for now. talk to you all later.

stuck

sometimes it's hard because there comes a point where you ask yourself where do you draw the line? faith and hope play a big part in this life. but working in the icu is so hard. we've had patients that have been in the hospital since september and october - specifically in the icu - and are so sick - their bodies rotting from the inside out or wasting away to a cachectic state yet their families still pray for a miracle, something that will help them turn the corner. as a clinician you want them to say it's ok to let them go because they really are rotting from the inside out. but in your heart, with all of your faith and hope, you do hope that they can somehow get better. how do you balance? that's when it's hard. where do we come in? and hence i get stuck.

life changes

so i was talking to j mo last night and we were talking about life changes. so many people around us are going through life changes right now and it's crazy how we're all caught up in it - some good, some bad, but definitely life changing. i always come to realize more and more how we can't ever take things for granted in this life. we do have to take one day at a time. and it's much easier when we have support.
in brighter news, thanksgiving and christmas are almost upon us! how fun! can't wait for the holidays! i think we're supposed to have a housewarming some day soon but that takes planning that i have yet to do =)

seeing grey

so i finally watched grey's anatomy this afternoon before i went to Mass and then work. i really love our DVR - i get to watch my grey's all over again. i didn't like one episode this season - the one when momma burke came and cristina wouldn't talk to her. but all of the rest of them have been great. so this afternoon i watched grey's and i cried like a baby. especially when bailey was talking to george about things being in black and white. marriage or any relationship can't be black and white - they have to sometimes be gray or grey in this matter. it's kind of where we're stuck and you have to see things from the other person's point of view. like bailey said, it takes two. now what side the other person sees is up to the other person. maybe they don't want to see gray. i don't know if i like the izzie/george storyline too much. i like that dr. hahn is back and there will again be a ct surgeon. and i don't know what i would do if i needed a heart transplant if i could take my child's - that must have been so hard. and that callie and cristina have somewhat bonded. i guess they have a common bond. wasn't sure if i liked the alex/ava thing because that was a bunch of adultery too. so i don't know if i like that part but so far it's been a good season. there's so many other things that i need to write about. congrats to dorothy and henry on their wedding! i have to post up pictures soon. and the housing market sucks right now but that's a whole different story. anyway, my break's done. talk to you later.

signs

so i've asked myself if i believe in signs ... not the mel gibson movie that i saw with the o's and dana years ago, but kind of like real signs. i guess i should explain. there's two instances right now that i can think of. i was at work last week and talking to one of the girls about going back to school, maybe i think i'm ready to start again. and then i went to pick up my mail at my parents' house and lo, and behold, there's a flyer from the ucla school of nursing for their applications to the bridge program. i brought the mail home and we've had a lot of mail that hasn't been sorted through so i told joey to take a look at it on his day off and to see what we need or what we can throw away. i told him i had a question for him and he says "you want to go back to school?" i said, "how did you know?" and he said that was the first thing at the top of the pile. we have to see - we're not sure yet because we need to think about family planning.
our next sign was a conversation with gomez the other week. he said he had a proposition for days. he asked if we would be interested in going on a mission trip to jamiaca - similar to what mustard seeds do. actually, going down to the mustard seed place in jamaica. i thought about it. and then joey and i were at Mass yesterday and the homily was about prayer and action. how we could pray and pray but if there was no action to what we were doing, then what are we really doing. so what do you think guys? anyone interested in going on a mission trip? we would have to do some fundraising but it would be "fun"draising! think about it and let me know

fires across the southland

it's crazy how one fire starts and then it just spreads. first it was malibu and agua caliente, and then irvine/ portola ranch / santiago canyon, and then ontario. i called my sister to see how they were and she said that they could see the flames prety far away so they were ok. apparently you could see the fires from our stairwell at work last night. then when i saw the news where there was a fire in ontario off of schaeffer i thought about our house (schaeffer is about 4 main streets away from us). so i called joey and he said that he didn't see or hear anything. so he took a stroll outside and it was mass wind and dust/ ash but he didn't see flames but all of the little trees that they planted in our neighborhood have blown over. as i was driving home this morning, the sky was completely gray - it was so nasty. and then the sky was red again - just like in lord of the rings - when legolas notices the red sky and says "blood has been shed this fortnight" he's so hot when he says that ... anyway, hopefully these things get contained because it's seriously getting hard to breathe.

these are a little delayed.... sorry

i haven't been posting on gbox lately because my hard drive crashed and we only have joey's laptop right now so i can only really go online when he's home. and when he closes, i don't really use the computer until after midnight and then i'm too tired to post hence the lack of pictures so that's why you've been seeing more pictures on this thing ...
this was joey's 29th birthday ... if you've been following along, we usually play poker. i think joey's last 3 birthdays have been poker parties, ever since he got chips at the penn house. so it was no different this year, we played poker, if you lost you played wii in the loser lounge, and then there was flip cup during the intermission so you could get lightly tossed before playing the second game. i really sucked at that game so i don't know if i'll ever play that one again =)

hawaii in a nutshell

our week in waikiki ....
weddings and birthdays in paradise ... good times ...
these pictures posted all out of order but i think you get the picture ...

congratulations!

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Rob Duran!




Welcome to the club!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Happy 29th Birthday Bubba!!!






Hope you have an awesome birth week! Love you!

happy one month!

wow! i've been married for a month ... time really does fly when you're having fun! i tell joey every day "it's fun playing house!"
and he always looks at me and says "playing?" well, you know what i mean.
i've been amazingly blessed with great family and friends and a wonderful husband to share the rest of my life with. in two weeks will be the anniversary of our engagement. i asked joey if he thought that when he proposed last year, did he think we'd be married and playing house in a year. he said no. i had no clue either. but God has really blessed us. so much happening still ...
joey turns the big 2-9 tomorrow ...
we leave on thursday for hawaii ...
rob and lauren get married on saturday ...
then finally next week the real work starts again ...
i've been playing way too long. it's been fun =)

i miss ....

first fridays ...

i was at holy family yesterday for mark's lola's funeral and there i sat at holy family and i really missed first fridays... then i was there with pia and jerome reminiscing about first fridays ... those were fun ... all those late night singing nights and then eating the nice yummy grub that all of the aunties would prepare. it was yummy ... wow ... that was over 5 years ago ... crazy how time flies!

we're leaving for hawaii on thursday! yay! can't wait to see waikiki and honolulu and be able to hang out with everyone to celebrate rob and lauren's wedding! yay destination weddings!

sisters

i always used to look at those "sisters" frames and wonder. there are never any "brothers" frames. and then i thought about it. the connection's different. i also saw other cards that say "sisters are the best friends." and they are. it's just that unwritten law somewhere. the past few months have been pretty crazy and through it all, my sister's been right beside me. i really have been blessed.


we clean up well huh? hahaha