Trip to Mexico February 6 to the 17th

What an amazing surprise for my mom's 75th birthday! I decided to book a flight down to see my mom who is visiting Vanessa in Mexico.  I was missing her so much so I just decided to surprise her. It was great!  She had no idea. I left on Friday Feb. 6 to Mexico, got there to wait for Vane and Ale to pick me up. They also brought their dog Rocco so he would get used to me and not bark so much. He is a Chihuahua. Later that night Alejandro had to go back to work and the poor guy had to work all night. The next morning we went to Mateo's parent-infant class. It reminded me when I used to take Cristi to all those cute classes from Reid school and the YWCA she even got to learn swam at six months and learn to read at age one, not really but that was the idea. We went to eat breakfast at a restaurant near by and then to buy a few things for the week before Ale had to leave town. Mateo had been invited to a birthday party that afternoon too. Piñatas in Mexico are so fun.


Sunday I took my mom to Church. It was the first time she had attended while in Mexico and I know this made her feel so good. We went to Relief Society to one of the wards first and then to the next one that started at 11:30 am perfect for my mom. The two wards are led by two sons of General Authorities, Bishop Zivic and Bishop Falabela. The meeting only had two speakers, a returned missionary and Bishop Falabela. The returned missionary was from Honduras, elder Sanchez who talked about his mission in Hermosillo.
 He talked to the youth about what He wished he had known before he went on his mission.
He said: Read the Book of Mormon. Know it well. You can't pretend you have read it if  you haven't.
Study Preach my Gospel, that is what you will use when you teach.
Be independently spiritual. You can't borrow someone's light.
Be prepared physically because you have to walk a lot and carry your things.
Be prepared economically, missions are expensive.
Live the teachings of strength for the youth because if you don't you can't be a missionary anyway.
Go out with real missionaries to see for yourself what is it all about.


Bishop Falabela was amazing too. He told of a story from elder Urdoft talk of "are we sleeping during the restoration? " Things that make us sleep during the restoration are:
To be selfish what's in it for me?  attitude. Mattew 25
Addictions
Sins: Two types of sinners, those who want to repent and those who don't. Those who don't want to repent can't be helped.
Priorities in conflict with each other: Which things are truly important to sacrifice for them.
Monday we had the visit of Nelson and Lorena Zivic and their 3 year old daughter. Very cute family. After they left I interviewed my mom and she told us what she remembered of each birth from us.  Tuesday we went down town to Soumaya mouseum of Carlos Slim and another Museum that wasn't too great and to Costco. On Wednesday I had a massage and it was wonderful. My mom wanted to treat me and Vanessa to that. Thursday we went to the Pewter factory and also Claudia and her boyfriend came to see us. He is from El Salvador who went to school with Vane and met via facebook. He seems very nice. Friday I went with Vane to the mall to buy stuff at Zara's and see if I could get something for my mom. Saturday we went to Guanajuato. The town was very lively at night and so festive due to Valentines, we went to a nice restaurant but poor Mateo was very tired the poor thing and was crying a lot. That night I gave my mom her scrapbook album I made and the card with a note saying that I would buy her place ticket to Idaho and back to Mexico. On Monday and last day in Mexico my mom and I went to the mall. I wanted to exchange what I had purchased and exchange it for a gift for Mateo and perhaps some other things at the men's store that had everything 70% off. They supposed to have given us an extra 10% off but didn't do it and had some lame excuse why they couldn't. My mom got Daniel a pair of Jeans and I got him a few things like a belt, socks, etc. enough to spend the money I got at H&M. Went back to the apartment and started to pack. I don't know how I got everything packed away but I did with the exception of two pairs of shoes that I told my mom to take to El Salvador when she goes.


On Tuesday I got ready early to get to the airport and was told to show an immigration paper I was given when I came in. I had no idea I had to do that so I panicked. Looked in my very packed bag and couldn't find it so they asked me to go get my plane ticket and then go to the immigration office to get a new one, this meant paying a fine, of course and I had no money left.  I was so mad because I had to carry all those bags looking for the immigration office and when I got there I opened the door and was told I couldn't go in, I had to wait my turn outside for almost a half hour because someone else was there waiting before me. I decided to look again in my bag to see if I find that paper and I did. I felt so relieved and so happy. I almost thought I would miss the flight.  I quickly left that very unfriendly office and got checked in. Finally sitting in the waiting area, I could once again relax! I was on my way home! Yay!!

All my bags are pack and ready to go!!

Ready to go see my sister Vanessa and mom in Mexico. My mom does not know I am coming so it has been so hard to keep this a secret. This reminds me of a book a used to read the girls by Dr. Seuss and looking what to write about today I found this post by Amy Anderson,  my favorite blogger who is in fact, quoting someone else. This is what she wrote:
 

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You`re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who`ll decide where to go…“ – What a great quote by Dr. Seuss!

"I came across a great article about this quote from Dr. Seuss that was written by a woman named Jacqueline Wales which I wanted to share with everyone. She writes the following:

“You have brains in your head. Stepping out of our own way is the biggest challenge for most people. We over think, or under think, and many times the thinking is completely skewed in the wrong direction. Using our brains is what changing our thinking is all about. Move from the negativity to the positive and learn how to embrace your fearless self, removing doubts and anxieties that are currently stopping you from being your best self now. (This reminds me of my mom, she is  so positive.)

Feet in your shoes. How many of us are standing in our own shoes? It took me years to realize that I was walking in someone else’s. It was a proud day when I could say they were mine. Don’t be walking someone else’s path, and don’t go trying to wear shoes that don’t fit you. Pinched feet are painful. Leave them at home.

Steer yourself in any direction you choose. Choosing a direction is the hardest part. What do you really want for yourself? Where do you really want to go. Once you decide on that, then take every possible action to get yourself where you want to go.

You’re on your own. That much is clear. We are totally responsible for EVERYTHING that happens in our life, whether wittingly or unwittingly, we have made a choice or a decision that brought us into the circumstance or event in our life. Being responsible for each and every aspect of your life means you’re on your own, but you are not alone. Everyone is right there beside you .

You know what you know. It’s all inside of you. The questions and the answers. Trust yourself more. Fear is essentially our lack of trust that we have all the answers, that we can control our life. We are stronger than we think, and we KNOW a lot. Trust you more often.

You are the one who’ll decide where to go. It’s your life. Learn how to embrace it, and allow it to unfold the way you want it to be. Be Fearless: See Where It Gets You! You will be surprised at what you find.”

What a great quote and what a great article! I think we sometimes fall into the trap of thinking we are a victim of circumstance in life and we forget that we may not control all of our own circumstances in life but we certainly control the way we approach them, handle them, react to them, and think about them. My little brother Andy writes songs and there is a quote from one of his songs that I absolutely love. In fact, I liked it so much that I printed it and put it up at home in my home office. It says “Our world tomorrow holds what we’ve done today”. I love it because it reminds me that the choices I am making right now in my life, this moment of this day, are creating my tomorrow. We have complete control of how we are going to view things, handle things, react to things and think about things in our life. When something bad happens in our circumstance we can still choose to see the positive in the situation, even if the positive is simply that we learned a hard lesson and we will be smarter for it in the future. We have our free agency to make every choice for ourselves. We may not always get to choose which options will be presented to us in life, but we 100% get to choose how to handle those options and how to view those options. I think its the viewing part that is the really big key here. Have you ever stopped and listen to your own thoughts? I know that may sound a little weird, but I am totally serious about this. I did. I stopped tonight and listened to my thoughts as I was complaining about having to handle this and that and how stressed I was about several things I needed to get done, and I realized that all my thoughts were doing was making me feel worse about my circumstance today. It wasn’t making me feel good and therefore, life didn’t feel happy. So I decided to stop that line of thinking and refocus my energy. I started thinking about how lucky I was to have the opportunity to work on the project I had been working on today, I started thinking how excited I was to get some work done that had been piling up for a while now,... Suddenly, by just changing my thought process I realized that I started to feel better, even happier. And all I did was change my thoughts. What a powerful lesson to be reminded of. So I thought I would share it with all of you today so you can give it a try and make your day better too!

Today’s challenge is to recognize that you are steering and you are in control of your thoughts and where they will take you in life, so keep them focused on the positive and just see the PLACES YOU’LL GO!"

I am so happy of one place I know I will go tomorrow. Mexico! I have found out that planning trips makes me happy when I know I will be with loved ones. I can't wait!!

 

The 7 up ways to start your day

There are days that I wake up tired because I got the bad habit of staying late the night before working on some project and last night was one of those nights. I stayed up late making an album for my mom who is going to turn 75 this month so today is one of those mornings after that are so hard to get up. I don't even know what I would do if I ever get the call from Carol Morgan school to sub for a teacher who calls in sick because they would usually be calling around 6:30 am So here is a good reminder of 7 up ways to help me get through my day that I am sharing from Amy's blog.  Enjoy!


 I love Amy Anderson's blog because she is so cheerful and so positive in each of her posts and so wise too. I never met her in person but through her writings is like I have known her all my life and she is one of my best virtual friends if there is such a thing. I am happy when she is happy and sad for her when she is sad.