Merry Belated Christmas!

Christmas this year came and went wayyy to fast for my taste! We prepped forever for 1 day and now it's OVER! Santa was VERY VERY VERY good to me this year, thank god! I thought for a minute that I was getting a bag of coal.

Other than the gifts (WHICH I LOVE) I got to spend tons of quality time with the family & that's the best gift I get each year.

I would be lying if i said that I didn't love my purse, wallet, boots, jeans, shirts, perfumes, sprays, lotions, wine, and jewelry that I got this year. I told you Santa was very good to me this year :)

It was also amazing to be able to wish my brother a Merry Christmas via Skype! Thank you lord for modern technology.

Oh goodness and now we're prepping for the New Year! I wonder what 2011 has in store for my little household.. and NO, there will be NO bun in the over for us yet!

So again Merry Belated Christmas!!

Love,

Me!!

Change?

The only constant in life is change

People come, people go, some are born others pass and nothing is really certain in life.. (phew I think i blew neuron with that) 

But seriously everything these days is so fast paced and it seems like I never get a moment to stop and listen to the world.

This year has been full of change for me. The kick off to 2010 was an engagement, the wedding planning, the marriage, moving out, moving in, buying furniture, making ends meet, adjusting to a new like and the clutter in my brain has been non stop and I'd just like a minute to breath and take in all the great changes in my life.

Don't confuse my rantings with complaints, I love change but sometimes I just want a little consistency. 

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

we don't say goodbye we say "see ya later"

Mamita Mira & Dad

Monday afternoon my family was devastated by the news that our grandmother passed away... She is survived by her husband of 70 years, 7 children, 19 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren, we were sad that she didn't pass away in our hometown of Altamira

 Our trips to the hometown will no longer be the same, and our house will always be missing something. Thankfully the last time I saw her she was still in good spirits and I didn't get to see her suffer. I'm thankful she was surrounded by our family that loved and cared for her dearly. 

My mother's mom died when I was about 5, and my father's mother lived in Colombia so I never really knew what it was to have a grandmother all the time. I didn't think her death would affect me as much as it did, and I think it's because I feel my father's pain. I can only imagine the pain he feels and it's for him that my heart aches. 

"Missing someone get easier everyday because even though you are one day further from the last time you saw them, you are one day close to the next time you will"

I know that she's finally resting in piece with our heaving father and soon enough we'll meet again in his glory! So, i'm not saying "chao Mamita" I'm saying "nos vemos pronto"

Cien Dias-pero no de Soledad..

So today is the 100th day of my marriage... 

Ya, I know it's probably pretty dumb that I'm constantly blogging about something wedding related, but if you don't like it them GTFO my blog! :)

 The time has passed by in the blink of an eye. The anticipation building up to the wedding dragged forever, but now it just seems like it's passes be right before my eyes! 

I must say this "HONEYMOON STAGE" (aka: the adjustment period) that everyone talks about has been well bittersweet!

Everything starts off really exciting.. New house, new furniture, everything is exactly how both of us dreamed our own place would one day be like. We've made this empty dull apartment that had tons of potential into our home! Danny leaves most of the decorating to me (even thought he says our house feels like fall all of the time). Any and everything associated with electronics is definitely Danny's department.We finally have a routine and the best part is that surprisingly enough it works! I won't lie every once in a while there are bickering and whining matches that go on, but for the most part we have adjusted really well to our tempers and behaviors. 

 

There really is no "TRUE SECRET" to marriage, the real secret is the yearning to make it work. One of the best gifts that we go on our wedding way was this little book

Every night before I go to bed I try and read 1 or 2 of the stories. The stories are humorous and have really helped me a different outlook on things that would normally drive me up the wall and I think even though Danny doesn't read the book my actions are slowly rubbing off on him. 

There is no better feeling than waking up after a bad dream, turning around and feeling comfort in your husbands arms.

"In a time when nothing is more certain than change, the commitment of two people to one another has become difficult and rare.  Yet, by its scarcity, the beauty and value of this exchange have only been enhanced."  ~Robert Sexton

 

the moments I live for...

82 days and counting!! 

This past weekend my we had our "FIRST DATE" (as husband and wife of course) and it was pretty amazing.. We went to dinner at Portofino- it's a spin off of Anthony Coal fired pizza. Boy oh boy, was this place awesome.

$1.50 Draft and ULTIMATE MARGARITA!!

 Following dinner we met up with two of our favorite people to hang out with My Aunt Nelly and My Uncle Henry (they are truly the funnest couple we've ever hung out with).

Danny, Henry & Tia cheering it up!

That night I had an epiphany and realized that spending time with my husband doing the things we both love to do is what I live for.  

He fuels me with love and happiness and I couldn't have asked for anything better!

The Moment I live for!

I LOVE YOU BABY!!

The best mother in the world!

October 2, 2010- We celebrated my momma dukes 63rd Birthday! That's right 63 years! I think it's safe to say that my father, sisters, brother, & neices & nephews are blessed to have such a wonderful women in our lives... 

“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother”- Abraham Lincoln

Growing up I always had this really weird vision of my mother, I always complained of how "she never understood me" how having me at such a late age was the cause of most of our disagreements (my mom was 35 when I was born) and I found myself relating more with my older sister because she "understood me". So through the years mom and I continued to have more & more fights some petty and some really serious when suddenly something slowly started to happen, something inside of me  started to understand.. I started to understand that it wasn't that my mother didn't understand where I was coming from, it was that she was afraid to let me go and afraid that I might get hurt in a world that maybe I wasn't prepared to handle. I also started to notice that the only constant in my changing world was my MOTHER.. She was there for me through broken bones,  harsh fights, accomplishments, failure and broken hearts.. When I was broken she slowly mended me back together and made me whole again.. 

Her life hasn't been the easiest; A wife at 15 and a mother at 18 she sacrificed her whole youth for her children. Looking back I realize that my parents didn't have much to offer us when it came to luxuries and extras but they did the best they could when it came down to providing for us. Now we're all adults married and my brother & sisters with children I think to myself  "damn mom & dad didn't do too bad". Perhaps they didn't give us everything we WANTED in life, but they did give us everything we NEEDED and most importantly they gave us morals & values and those things could never be bought with any amount of money in the world!

Recently my relationship with my mother has improved more than I ever envisioned it would. I call her more times a day than I think she wants to talk to me, I tell her almost everything that happens to me in my daily life, my job and my marriage... We no longer see things mother to daughter but women to women and I can't even imagine a day without her and everyday before I go to sleep and when I wake up I make sure to thank god for giving her to me and ask him to continue to bless me with many years of her love...

 “The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of
which you will always find forgiveness.”
- Honore de Balzac

 

Married Life..oh boy...

Today I've been married 48 days..Boy has the time just breezed by, but I must admit it hasn't been easy (granted I knew it wasn't). Thus far my experiences have been more filled with joy than with misery but sometimes I really think I'm going to go ape shit on him (poor thing).

Before when you were boyfriend and girlfriend you spent A LOT of time together but as soon as you pissed each other off or got on each others nerves you knew that you had a safe haven where you could go back to. At least that was my case, I always knew that I could go home. The first couple of weeks following the honeymoon were HIDEOUS because I was homesick all the time. I moved close to my parents to try an avoid that feeling but regardless the I missed the comfort of my own home... Slowly that feeling started fading once I created my own home.. My furniture started trickling in and finally I had created my own safe haven..

To my up and coming newly weds I must advise the following

"GET READY BECAUSE THE RIDE IS BUMPY".

I've heard all the advice there is to hear about marriage; communication, love, compassion, selflessness, understanding, patience blah blah blah...None of it helps when you're in the middle of a screaming match over who left the bread bag open (trust me).

I think with my little experience the best advice I can give is "PICK YOUR BATTLES WISELY", sometimes the bickering really isn't worth... Another thing that has helped us a lot is having a two bedroom apartment (THANK YOU BABY JESUS). I think space is important and each one of us having our own area to relax alone and then another area to relax together has helped a great deal. He has his "MAN CAVE" where none of the house rules apply. In other words,  he works and has his own mess and I don't mess with ANYTHING! I have the bedroom and the living room as an area where I can watch TV, listen to music with our without him..So if you can dish out a little extra cash for a spare bedroom trust me it'll be WAYYY worth it!

All in all the married life even though it hasn't been EASY has been a great experience. I love my husband and I'd never change him for anything in this world (though sometimes i want to hang him on our balcony and he probably wants to do the same to me..lol)

We're far from perfect but the magic is that both of us make it work with TONS of LOVE and that is the true secret!

Weekend Getaways....

This past weekend was supposed to be "AMAZING, STUNNING & MAGNIFICENT"...Notice how I say "supposed" to. My family and I have been planning this weekend for months. We were all driving to Cape Coral to celebrate my cousin Carlos's wedding (which was great)..

We all took Friday off to be able to get an early start at the sun and the beach...Needless to say that by the time we arrived the sun was gone the rain was pouring! So we tried to make the best of it and hang out at the hotel...We wrapped up the evening early to try and get chance #2 at the beach... Saturday morning we wake up and we're off to the beach only to notice that I had a flat tire! Great... It wasn't just low, it was completely FLAT! So we changed the tire and off to Pep-Boys we went to try and get it patched.. Hence, we all still had a very positive attitude about making it out to the beach...Apparently tires can't be patched when the gash is too large... To make a long story short $395.00 later, new tires and still didn't make it to the beach...

Sigh! At least yesterday was better but I think i'm done with weekend escapades for a while now..

Day #30

Today I've been officially married 30 days (and still counting).. I was told it would be hard but never did I know what I was in for... Boy oh boy!!!  

28 days ago we were arriving to Cancun Mexico 

Our honeymoon was amazing! 

It was full of delicious food

Before

After

 alcohol

 and entertainment (all inclusive)

Everything about the Valentin Maya Resort was AMAZING!!! The people both employees and guests were really nice... It's nice to know that there are truly nice people out there (Miami residents aren't exactly the nicest people in the world)

One of my most memorable honeymoon moments would have to be when Danny surprised with an amazing breakfast in our suite. 

The scenery at our resort was amazing and not to mention our suite. It was one of the best things we could have upgraded to. It was stunning we had three views (ocean, pool and lake)

But the very best part of my honeymoon was MY HONEY and the amazing start to our marriage.. So yes Marriage isn't easy, it's hard and takes ALOT of WORK, but in the end after all work and frustration the pay off is really amazing..

I love you baby and hopefully the next 30 years will be as great as these last 30 days... :)

<3 your wife!

ps: not alot of people may read this but I know you do!

Happy Birthday Christian...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!!!!

September 03, 1993- My older sister Gloria and my brother in law Jim anxiously await the arrival of their first baby boy...

After spending my whole entire summer torturing my sister to play tennis with me (i was only 11) despite her MASSIVE belly (for those of you that don't know her she's about 5'1 weighed about 125 right before she gave birth- she looked like she had swallowed a bowling ball).
I couldn't wait for the arrival of the second baby of our family (Alex being the first), I rubbed her belly every night, and made her drink terrible homemade teas that  according to our mom would "induce her labor", I'd talk to him and plea with him to please make sure he'd make his "GRAND APPEARANCE" during the day so that I could be close... But of course even in the womb Christian didn't listen to me (still doesn't)... Sometime in the middle of the night my sisters water broke and from what I heard she was very calm (she even showered, I would have ran out of the house butt naked), I remember waking up to my sister and Jim not being there and my mom telling me she had left sometime around 5 or 6 (i was pretty upset, I wanted to be part of the action).

Finally after a long labor  Christian James Borton  arrived 

and boy was he a cutie...

<3Our first little gringo baby boy <3

 He's been an amazing nephew, grandson and most importantly an amazing son (my sister & Jim did something right)..He's grown up to be a man of integrity,honor and humility that loves the lord (i almost cry every time I read this)... What more could this family ask for?


Today we celebrate his 17th birthday (can't wait for 18!!!) but also today we Thank god for giving us such a healthy happy loving man...(Yes, you're a man already)

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 17th BABY 

(yes I still call him baby, I have that right after wiping his dirty booty)

 

 

PS: If your future girlfriend is reading this get ready he's got about 6 women in his life that are going to be very hard to impress and here they are....

 

Mamita Libia

 Ariana (the little sister) 

 Cindy Johana (the cousin)

 Evelyn (the Diva Aunt)

Doris (Diva aunt#2)

And finally the 

GLORIA (THE MOM)

Here are a few pictures of our Birthday Boy.

August 7, 2010 

Summer 2010

Together at last!

They've always been inseparable..

Like Father like son...

Part of the Cartagena Clan (Ecuador)

 

 

 

 

Summer 2010 "the Keys"

Working hard!

Proud Mom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love, Tia Evelyn 09/03/2010

save the drama for your momma!!

Ohhh facebook! God knows we all "LOVE" it and most of us (me included) really can't go more than a few hours without refreshing our page, stalking a friend (or husband) or talking to our friends on facebook chat... 

But I remember a time when AIM was the shiznet... Those of you who are from my era will remember s2r and a/s/l very well..I really don't remember AIM or Miami Chat rooms really ruining anyone's life or relationship...If anything they made most of our lives quite entertaining...That was the extent of my adolescence "social networking"...

But facebook on the other hand can ruin reputations, lives and even relationships... OHHH my arch nemesis..I love to hate you and hate to love you...

But not everything about our dear friend is bad...Keeping in touch with family around the world has been made easier. Sharing memories and pictures is as easy as "tagging" a friend..In our fast paced lives it's easier to post a comment on someones wall and say a friendly hello than to dial their number and catch up..

Status updates really aren't  "whats on your mind" anymore, they are more like "who will I piss off with this status, or how will what I'm thinking be misinterpreted". Forget the days where it was "EVELYN IS AT WORK", now our status updates are mainly jabs at others (that we know are reading)...

But I must say the privacy settings are AMAZING, and categorizing your friends also helps reducing who sees what and when...oh and let's not begin to talk about the "blocking" feature. Talk about disappearing into the abyss! 

I can't imagine how people live without facebook? A friend recently told me "living without facebook is like not having a social security" (makes you wonder huh)

There are times when I think about completely deactivating my page and doing a little disappearing act, but the I refresh the page and read my friends statuses or see their pictures and think "WTF AM I THINKING"!!!

If only we could have all the perks MINUS the drama...

let's start this again...

so i'm going to start ANOTHER blog! It seems my first one was tapped into and now sits in blog heaven..I'm glad I'm able to use this as a forum to vent my frustrations...and lately i'm sure I'll have quite a few...I'm a newly wed (enough said)..

I can't believe I'm able to blog again...(sigh) and all of a sudden all those that I needed to vent about vanished and I find that I have NOTHING to write about...

Maybe I'll start with my wedding... (YAY!!!) I finally tied the knot to the "love of my life" Mr. Danny Casalins...

Almost 7 months of planning, fighting, and stressing passed before me in the blink of an eye.. 

I can honestly say that I can barely remember the ceremony... but i'm thankful for all those that showed up and lit our church and our reception with their great pictures!!.

 In the end I got my fairy tale wedding..(even though we lost our rings) YES! We lost our rings and had to exchange someone else rings at our ceremony...

Fortunately for us there is light at the end of the tunnel and the very next day we found our rings (phew) close call huh!!

Now as a "married women" (eww not sure if i like the sound of that) 

I give all my friends planning to wed soon the following advice:

1. Make sure you have your wedding bands at least 24 hours prior to the ceremony. 

Trust me it'll avoid TONS of stress.

2. In the event that you DO NOT find your wedding bangs 

DO NOT DO THIS 

Whiskey straight will not make your wedding bands magically appear!

3. Don't let ANYONE or ANYTHING seen or unforeseen ruin this day for you...Suddenly, all the little things you worried and fought with people about will no longer matter...

and FINALLY!!!!

4. ENJOY your reception to the fullest! Don't worry about those that didn't eat, didn't have a place to sit, and didn't have fun...Those invited forget they are YOUR GUESTS and they will never be fully satisfied, but it's YOU & YOUR HUSBAND that you have to worry about...

I feel great relief now that it's all over...I don't even want to HEAR a peep about anything corresponding to a wedding...