Gordos Birthday

For the first time ever we celebrated Jose's birthday. He's not big on doing that, hence the lack of celebrations. This time around, considering everything he'd gone through the past year, we decided to at least have family over. His brother, sister and cousin with their families came over and my family did too. We had an awesome time. Jose's brother-in-law (Jose's sisters husband) made chicharones, which were OMG good. I made some frijoles a la charra, Jose's sister made rice and we had some aguas frescas. The food was good.

We, of course, also had some desert. I made my Gordo a cake. I had been contemplating on what kind of cake I should make for him. All kinds of images came to mind, jailbird cake (yeah I know it's not funny but that's what came to my sarcastic mind), construction cake...but then it hit me..."I know! I'll make him a pool table cake!" He's really good and playing pool. I found out the hard way several years ago :) Well here is it. Not to toot my own horn but I'm kinda surprised at how well it turned out.

I made a cream cheese filling, it was really good. I don't like using frosting as a filing. I like using cream cheese or strawberry jelly or something else.

I'm going to be an Auntie!!

About a week or so ago I called by sister-in-law (my brothers wife), I don't remember why I called her but our conversation went something like this:

MeL Hey!
SIL: What are you doing after work today?
Me: umm....I was thinking of stopping by mom and dads for a bit. Why?
SIL: So you are going?
Me: Yeeaa I think so.
SIL: You are sure you are going?
Me: Yea, why?
SIL: Ok we're gonna be there too. *click*

She sounded kinda weird and the whole conversation was weird so of course I called Jose:

Jose: Jello!
Me: Gordo, I just talked to Ester and she sounded funny.
Jose: Ok
Me: No, really *explained the conversation I just had with her*
Jose: hhmmmm that does sound suspicious, maybe she's up to something?
Me: This is what I'm saying!
Jose: Well I'm calling Chris *my brother* so he can pick up Cairo, it's raining.
Me: ok, bye
Jose: bye

Five minutes later *riiiing*

Me: Gordo?
Jose: I just talked to Chris, he's picking up Cairo
Me: Did he say anything?
Jose: Nothing, but he did say they didn't have car seats for the monkies *the kids my SIL babysits* and that we're meeting at your moms.
Me: hmmm ok

*BEEP - my SIL on the other line*

Me: I gotta go it's her!
Jose: ok bye

*switch*

Me: Hello?
SIL:  Hey, I have to tell you something.
Me: ok, what's up?
SIL: I'm pregnant
Me: What?!?!
SIL: yeah I went to the Dr. and I took a test, it came out positive

*pause - replaying what Jose said about the car seats, she wouldn't take them without car seats*

Me: I don't believe you...you're messing with me
SIL: I'm serious, I took a test!

She's crying the whole time and then it sinks in...

Me: OMG!! How? I mean I know how but why? I mean GREAT!! but how?

She started explaining how she hadn't been feeling well and she left the kids with my brother while she went to the clinic for an hour to take the test. It came out positive and she was planning on telling us at my parents house but since my brother was going to see Jose, he wasn't going to be able to hold back so she decided to call back.

Before I get yelled at for sounding like a total 'B' on the phone I have to explain. My SIL had lost a precious baby over 4 years ago, my niece only lived for 2 weeks before she passed. My SIL had developed preclampsia which made her go into an emergency 'C' at 5 months. It was a very difficult time for all of us but especially my SIL and brother. Shortly after that she was told it was a total fluke she got pregnant in the first place and she had a 1% chance of ever getting pregnant again. I totally apologized for not believing her and of course I am eternally happy for them both, in fact I hope they have twins but I am so looking forward to being an Auntie!!! I can't wait for Cairo to have a cousin from my side of the family! (It's just my brother and myself) I'm super excited and can't wait to meet my little niece or nephew!!!

Safely Spooky

Our park district sponsors a yearly event called Safely Spooky.  The idea is to give the kids and adults a safe place where they can hang out for Halloween.  This was our first time participating in the event.  I figured it would be a cool thing to do for Cairo and it would get us out of the house for a bit.  I invited my sister-in-law and she joined us. When we got to the park the line to get into the park wrapped around the entire park.  Look!   Can you see the long ass line?? This park is huge, about the size of two neighborhood blocks and the line almost wrapped around the entire block!

I was a little concerned about Cairo, I wasn't sure if he was going to be freaked our or not.  I spotted some guy with a mask a bloody machete making his way towards us so I told Cairo  "hold my hand" and he goes "why" and I said "just remember it's all fake and not real", so he quickly grabbed my hand, just as the guy was a few feet away.  I was glad the pretend murderer didn't yell at us. Cairo was calm and collected.

We decided to paint our faces like catrinas.  Cairo too.  He didn't have a costume, but we had tons of face paint.  As we walked to the back of the line to get into the park people kept looking at us.  I'm not sure if they were looking at us cuz they thought "oh cool!" or "cheap costume", either way I think it was cool.  Although I wish the paint was better, the stuff we used was too oily and smeared easily.  Here's Cairo, doesn't he look like he's having a good time?

Here are the two of us....yeah he's still having a good time.

So the idea is you walk through the park and they have spooky decorations all around.  There were a doctor couple who were all bloodied up with organs in jars and body parts in hand.  Some prisoner girl who wanted help getting out and this nifty inflatable organ player, it had a rotating dancing couple!!

All along the place there were stands were the kids could get candy, some stands gave out full size candy bars!  Others gave you a piece of gum or starbursts bleh!  It got dark kinda quick and eventually we got to a tent, which was supposed to be a haunted house type tent. Cairo refused to go in...he quickly started to back away.  So he and I walked around it while Auntie went in on her own.  I'm happy to say she survived it.  Further down the road was a haunted grave yard and guess what?  Yep, Cairo refused to go through it so this time Auntie walked around with Cairo while I went through the graveyard/maze alone.  I made it out ok....or did I?

At the end of the whole thing they had 3 fogatas going.  They were huge.  Here's a pic of one, see how excited Cairo looks?

Aaaand here's a pic of Auntie....

Aaaaand here's a pic of me with Cairo.....OMG you can just see the excitement in this kids face.

I tried to get  a good picture but the light from the fogata was just to strong.

Instead of going on a hay ride we sat to eat some burgers and hot chocolate!

AND we found Waldo!!!

All in all Cairo did have a good time, even though he was a party pooper in the pictures.

We're going to the Circus!!

Being the disorganized  mother I am Cairo arrived late to his first Cub Scouts meeting this week,  UGH I felt horrible, the kids were already finishing up working on their first patch.  So to make it up to him we're going to the circus!  Thanks to Cairo being a Tiger in the Cub Scouts we were offered a deal on Ringling Brothers tickets.  $17 a ticket and there is a pre clinic where the kids can hang out with the circus peeps before the show, how sweet is that??

I had to put it on the credit card though.  I don't have the cash for it now.  As a bonus my cousin and her husband will be here visiting from Mexico and they will be joining us.  I haven't seen them, or any of my family members, in 3 years.  I'm looking forward to seeing them and talking to them.  They will give me a better feel about moving to Monterrey and about getting a job down there, if it comes down to it.

Cairo and the Cub Scouts

This week Cairo and I went to a Cub Scout meet and greet event. It was pretty low key, just a few parents checking in and asking questions.  It all seemed great.  The kids get to do projects, work on badges and go to events.  When I was reading the info and their oaths I have to admit that I was a little concerned at how much God plays a role in the Cub Scouts.  Not so much because my views on God and religion are very different from most but because that is something, in my opinion, that should be handled at home.  Even though I was a little reluctant, Cairo got signed up.  I figure it's a good way to spend quality time with him and I know he's going to have fun, he'll make new friends.  Plus after explaining to Cairo that the Cub Scouts are like the boy version of the Fire Site Girls, well there was no turning back!

I'm really looking forward to the weekly meetings.  I think Cairo is going to enjoy being a cub scout and I really like the idea of having this time that is just "Cairo time".  I'll be able to focus entirely on him, what he's doing and working on stuff together.  At home, even though we do do stuff like watch movies and pop popcorn or go on walks or go to the park on the weekends we really don't do much during the week. It's always a rush rush thing.  We rush home after work/school, we do home work, he watches T.V. while I wash dishes and/or do some laundry.  Then it's shower time for him then bedtime.  What saves me a a ton of time is the fact that we usually have dinner at my moms during the week. Since she picks him up after school for me it's just easier to give in to her offerings of some good Mexican cooking.

Our meetings are Monday nights so they won't get in the way of therapy on Tuesdays and we have our first fundraiser!  We are selling popcorn! Can you say YUM?  Wish us luck!!

Guards arrest that girl!!

This morning was an emotional one.  As I'm driving Cairo to school all he could talk about was his dad.  That in itself was difficult to deal with but then we got to the school yard.

Usually I let Cairo mingle with his classmates while they wait for their teacher. I stand in front of the line while he goes off and talks with his little friends.  Today though one moment he was with a small group of kids then I didn't see him anymore.  I started to walk down the line looking at every child to find him.  It didn't take long, he was in the front of the line with his head down.  I crouched down and asked him what was wrong.  He had tears rolling down his cheeks then he just buried himself in my arms.  I asked him:

 "What happened pappi??"

 He didn't respond and I asked him again.

Then he responded "She yelled at me".

I immediately thought "Who was the bitch that yelled at my baby?!?!?", so I asked "Who did pappi?".

"The girl over there"  I turned and wanted to growl like lioness protecting her cub, it was another first grader, so I held back the growl.

"What did she say to you?"

"She said to get in line"

Of course, I relaxed at this but my instinct was to yell out "Guards arrest that girl!!"

I held my cuddly cub until his teacher came out. She asked what had happened so I explained.  Cairo had tears just rolling down his cheeks and was holding on to me. I'm sure he was upset but now he was also embarrassed. Even the teachers heart broke, she asked him if he wanted to go with her while holding out her hand. He said yes and took it.

I did my best to explain to him that some kids just want to be bosses and tell other kids what to do but all we can do is ignore them and we shouldn't let them get to us.  That's easier said than done.  Cairo is not one for confrontations, he can't handle them and I can't handle having little monkeys, that barely learned how to wipe their own butts, pushing him around. What is a parent to do?

Transformers Cake!!!!

Cairo's birthday was earlier this week.  My chunka munka turned 6 and even though Jose is not here right now we tried to not bring the birthday boy down.  My brother in law offered to have a cook out for Cairo at his home and how could I say no?  I said sure, but I'm bringing the cake.  So I made Cairos birthday cake and here is how it went.

I didn't take pictures of the process of baking the cake because quite frankly I'm not that talented to bake a cake made from scratch.  I bought a couple boxes of Duncan Hines French Vanilla Cake Mix and just followed the instructions.

Here is the bottom layer of the cake with the well:

I filled the well with cream cheese frosting.  It's basically whipped cream cheese with sugar:

Added the top layer and ready to frost:

Finished frosting.  Normally I would be upset about the crumbs but since this cake is getting Transformed I didn't care all too much.  I think I need to find some other none stick spray or some other way of lining the pans.  I keep getting this thin cake skin that comes off and makes the cake crumbly when I frost it:

The last few times I've made cakes (I'll post pictures later) I've colored the frosting.  This time I left it white because I decided to try Duff's Cake Graffiti I used the blue and silver.  I really liked the silver, it's totally metallic, I want to make a car cake or something.  This is how it turned out:

I made some buildings out of the extra cake batter, I colored them a gray color.  They looked purple in the kitchen but when I brought them out into the sunlight they were really gray:

I figured the buildings needed some windows, doors and green foliage and I added the "Happy Birthday Cairo!".  I tried to make the letters look Transformery and they kinda grew as I wrote them but I'm ok with how they came out:

I made some blue frosting for the swirlys at the bottom:

Cairo wanted stars lining the top:

I bought some transformers to add as toppers and wah-lah!! :

We tore into that cake, you can kinda see the cream cheese filling:

Cairo seemed to have liked it very much, check out his new Mohawk hair cut:

I was really nervous about making this cake, but I'm really glad I did. Cairo really liked it.  The height of the cake prevented me from covering it while it was in the fridge. I thought the frosting was going to dry out and get hard but I was pleasantly surprised, it was soft and the cake was still moist also...double bonus!  Next time I will make a larger cake.  This cake was enough for 9 adults and 4 kids, I'm glad there was enough for every one, it was a pretty close call though.

Rare Visitors

We got some visitors at my dads house.  Let's just say they're related somehow and depending on what the future holds, I'll reveal how they're related.  They...let's call them Kit and Kat...came over during the day on a Friday.  It just so happens I was there because of some crazy stomach virus, my brother was there because he had the day off and my sister-in-law was there cuz she needed to use the computer.  Everyone was there, my parents, us and Cairo.  I'm not sure that they wanted to see us all considering the timing but we were all there none the less,on the defensive and speculations were flying like bees in a flower garden.

"What do you think they want?"

"You think they want money"

"It's just weird after all this time"

"It's just them two?"

"Maybe someone died?"

It turned out to be a pleasant experience....until we got into politics AND religion.  I could tell that both were very Christian but I was not quite sure what branch they fell under.   Still don't know but I smelled fundi and I didn't like it.

Let me make it clear, I'm all about tolerance and productive dialogue.  I have no problem with sharing notes and comments and being all peaceful but as long as I don't try to convert you and you don't try to convert me, we'll get along just dandy!  These ladies were not into converting but they were into some weird stuff, in my opinion.  We started with politics....generally agreeing with each other I'd say about 80-90% of the time but then the comment was made how children should be allowed to pray in school when they wanted to and that the word "God" should be kept in the pledge of allegiance and part of the oath people need to take in court.

I believe in God, but that doesn't mean every one does.  Plus, my views of God may be very different than others and I'm ok with that.  I'm not ok, on the other hand, with people telling me what view of God I should have and that Religion needs to part of our government.  Sorry, but I agree with the separation of church and state.  No religion has any right to mess with our laws and our laws has no business messing with peoples right to their own faith.

Needless to say the discussion got heated.   They stated how it's because of Jesus Christ that we have Easter and Christmas.  (really?  It's not because Christians made up holidays around pagan holidays to easily convert pagans to Christianity?) What blew mind was when one said "I know some people with money and they're Jewish, you know not even American"....WTH???  Not only were they ignorant of other religions but I was surprised at the their ignorance of their own religion.  It was at this point that I decided to shut my mouth because I knew there would be a lynching.  Then one said, you should never talk about religion or politics at  a party.  Over all we peacefully said our good byes with hugs, but I'd be surprised if they came around again any time soon.  The whole time everyone else watched, it was me and them and even though my dad tried to get into the conversation his knowledge is narrow and limited and kept him on the side lines.

Looking back I think I should have said what I thought, like" you can be Jewish and American! Jesus was a Jew!"  "Those holidays have pagan roots and have nothing to do with Jesus!"  "If I knew I was going to die tomorrow I would not become wicked and go on a killing spree!" Yes, the last thing they said was God doesn't let us know when we're going to die because if he did we'd all give in to our wickedness and sin then ask for forgiveness the day before.

Till next time, I suppose.