family chit chat | Revolution of Love

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

This week’s {pretty, happy, funny, real} will be like last week’s. I wanted to share a few photos from Matthew’s birthday. Since they could be considered in more than one category, I’ll just lump them as one big {p,h,f,r} category.

{pretty} {happy} {funny} & {real}

We had a small party for Matthew on his birthday. I love the birthday sign that Bella made to go with the circus theme.

While I was decorating the family room Matthew kept himself occupied by decorating our long hallway. I think he mistakenly took a roll of toilet paper for streamers.

On every first birthday we make cupcakes and let the birthday boy eat one on his own. (Once the child really gets into it Brian says, “Come one! Do you have to let him make such a mess?!” My mind immediately start playing the song “Tradition” by Tevia and I respond, “Of course, sweetie! That’s half the fun! And think what a fun post this will make.” 😉

Matthew points out which cupcake he wants.

He digs right in.

He says, “Wow, this cupcake is bigger than I thought. I need a breather.” (And so you don’t think I am an abusive mother, I do remove most of the cupcake from his hand so he won’t get too full.)

He is one happy camper and I must say the neatest of all our baby eaters. He didn’t want to waste any of the yummy goodness on his hair. (Brian was relieved.)

I also wanted to get photos of the kids and when I was taking Andrew’s picture he was more concerned that he had to keep an eye on John Paul so that he wouldn’t eat his cupcake when Andrew wasn’t looking.

Lastly, here is the birthday boy playing on his new birthday toy. 🙂

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

This week’s {pretty, happy, funny, real} is going to be a little different. I wanted to share a few photos from the trip Bella and I took with her class last week. They could be considered in more than one category so I’ll just lump them as one big {p,h,f,r} category.

{pretty} {happy} {funny} & {real}

Bella’s fourth grade class has been learning about California history. She is working on her Missions project right now, which is special since Bl. Junipero Serra is buried at the Carmel Mission. (Our family parish.) Last week her class took a two day trip to Sacramento and the Gold Country.

Here is the state capital in Sacramento.

After our stay and tour at the capital, we headed to our camp in Coloma, CA. The surrounding area was so pretty and the camp was situated right along the American River.

Here are our tent/cabins.

The view from our deck

Bella the happy camper. (It was so sweet that throughout the weekend she kept hugging me and thanking me for joining her on the trip. I’m so glad I went!)

We stopped at various places and museums – Sutter’s Mill, Sutter’s Fort, A Gold Mine, etc.

Bella and her friends are panning for gold.

One of my favorite visits of our trip was to the California State Railroad Museum. It was amazing! I told Brian we have to go back and bring the boys with us. They would love it.
We learned all about the First Transcontinental Railroad. They actually had the Central Pacific Railroad No. 1 Gov. Stanford, which was Central Pacific’s first excursion train in the 1860’s.

This is what is looked like back then.

And how it looks today refurbished.

I liked this train just for the female model in coveralls. She rocks it!

I hope you enjoyed this tiny peek into California. :- )

Please say a prayer for me and for Bella. We’re going to her class trip to Sacramento and the Gold Country. We’ll leave at the crack of dawn and will be gone for a couple of days. I’d appreciate it if you prayed that we have a safe journey…and that Brian survives caring for the boys while we’re gone. (Thankfully my mom flew up from So Cal to help out.) I’ll post pics next week. 🙂
In the meantime, in honor of RoL’s 9th bday, here is a flashback post from 2003 that also has to do with traveling.

I Was Almost Arrested While Eating A Taco

Man, I love visiting my family for these week-long trips but I hate all the packing and unpacking. Brian can always manage to put all his stuff in one small suitcase but Bella and I have loads of bags of things we “need” to take with us! I tell you, if God answers our prayers for another child soon we’d also better add “and a mini-van” to the prayer because I don’t know how I’m going to fit another human being in our car on these 400 mile long trips! But I guess that’s another story.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, really touching. (Except for the fact that my sister EL was missing! But we’ll ALL be together during our Christmas visit. 🙂
Oh my gosh, then the day after thanksgiving we girls hit the malls for all those insane bargains you’ll get if you arrive at 3am and stand on your head while reciting “Twas the Night before Christmas” in Spanish. I refused to stand on my head but I did manage to get $100 worth of savings before making morning Mass. But that’s not the story I’m meaning to tell…
At the end of the day my two sisters and I were tired and hungry. We stopped at a fast food place to grab a quick bite for the drive home (which would take an hour). We’re sitting in the parking lot passing out the food and straws when a cop circles around my sister’s truck. My sister jokingly says, “Hey, that cop thinks we’re suspicious; he’s checking us out.” I told my other sister to hold up her pepsi so he can see we’re just eating. They laugh until the cop parks behind us and gets out of the car.
He walks slowly over to us and shines his flashlight into the backseat where I was sitting. It was not yet dusk but the windows are tinted. He asked where we were headed. My sister told him but he just looks suspiciously at us. I noticed that he also looked a little nervous so I told him, “We’ve been shopping all day and we just stopped to eat our dinner, officer.” Obviously he has nothing to worry about unless we decide to attack him with the pair of pajamas and slippers I got on sale.
Well, in the meantime, we hadn’t noticed that there was a whole gang of policemen driving up and surrounding our car. We were blocked in making it impossible for us to “escape”. Finally the cop realized that we were not dangerous. (I should have offered him one of our tacos). He apologized and explained that someone just called in that there was a silver truck (same as ours) with some guys and a girl (so now I look like a guy?) and they had a gun. (Okay, no wonder he looked a little freaked.) My sister then let him know that we had just seen that truck and the kids he was talking about. They took off when we entered the parking lot a few minutes ago. The cop thanked us and he and all his buddies removed their cars so we could leave in peace. (Thanks be to God. )
When we got home and told our family the story my mom just shook her head and half-jokingly said, “You see what happens when you take Bobbi with you. She always has a way of being involved in some kind of escyndalo!”
Hmmm, I prefer to think of it as more like adding a little spice to life. haha!
Have a great weekend!

Thirteen years ago on this day, after five months of writing, emailing and phone calling Brian and I shared our first meet, first date, and first kiss. Since then, he has given me a little taste of heaven every day that we are together. I love you, Sweetie! This song always makes me think of you. xoxo

Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.

– 1 –

Rain, Rain Go Away… – This month we are definitely getting the April showers that bring May flowers but I don’t remember every having such a wet April before. Having lived in Southern California for the first three decade of my life, I am used to one kind of weather pattern – sunny. Now that I am living on the central coast of California, I am used to two kinds of weather – sunny or cool and foggy. So having four days in a row of rain and a thunder and lightning storm last night, well, that worthy of its own Quick Take! I just hope that the rain stops by next week because Bella is going on a two day trip with her class to Sacramento and the Gold Country to learn about California history. I’ll be one of the chaperones and although we won’t be sleeping in tents (I think it’s more of a primitive cabin) I’d rather do it in sunny weather!

– 2 –

The Family Tree Grows – It may be grey and dreary but we received joyous news this week – my sister EL gave birth to her fourth child, a little girl named Harriet Rose. Congratulations, sis! And I am an aunt for the fifth time. Yay! Just call me Auntie B. 😉 Look at her…how sweet is she?!

– 3 & 4 –

(This Quick Take is long so it counts as two.)
Accidents, Threats & Videotapes – Unfortunately that bit of news was hampered a couple days later when I got into a car accident. Remember what I said about the rain? On Tuesday, I dropped the boys off at pre school. Bella was on Easter break so she, Matthew and I were driving home. Just as we turned around a bend in the highway there was a pile up from a previous accident. I hit the brakes and the car seemed to slide all over the road but I was able to stop in time. I breathed a sigh of relief and just as I was thinking, “I hope the guy in back of me stops in time…bam! We get slammed from behind. I move to the side of the road and the woman (60ish?) was very apologetic. We see that no one is hurt and the damage doesn’t look too bad etc. As we exchange info some guy comes up and starts videotaping us. She walks over to him and tells him to turn off his video camera (it was a larger one), that the accident is over, this is a private matter etc. They sort of get into it and I hear the guy yell, “I know my rights… don’t touch me… I’m suing… assault… ” and the like. I’m thinking what kind of crazy guy is this and why is she talking to him and not ignoring him so we can get out of here?
I finish writing my info down (I already had hers) and I see the lady talking and gesturing to the guy as he is walking backwards videotaping her, sort of egging her on. Soon they have walked so far down the road I can’t see them anymore. I look around. Am I being punked? Should I leave? I left my info in her car and got back into my van and out of the rain. I am sitting there wondering if I should make a u-turn and go find the lady. I don’t want her to get hurt. Thankfully, just then some cops stopped to make sure I am okay. I explain to them what happened and they said I could leave and they’d go and check on the guy and the lady. To make a long story short (oops, too late!) the lady came back safely. (And she has been more than generous in making sure we are okay.) She told me later that the guy likes to videotape people and threatens to sue but he has no case here. Meanwhile, my Sienna is in the shop to see what kind of damage has been done. However, if you are browsing the internet and you find a YouTube video of an older woman arguing with some random guy on the road and you see a short, chubby Hispanic mom with a WTH? look on her face in the background, you’ll know that’s me. 😉

– 5 –

Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti – After that harrowing accident, Bella and I decided to go home and make a cup of hot chocolate, warm up some cinnamon rolls for breakfast and watch an old movie. We’ve been on a musical kick and it all started when she said they were singing songs from the Sound of Music in her music class. I told her we should watch the movie together since every night when the boys are going to sleep and Brian is showering or getting things ready for work the next day, Bella and I have a half hour window where we cuddle up on the couch and watch a movie (well, a portion of it) together. Sometimes it will be a Disney tween movie or an episode of Good Luck, Charlie (which I, ahem, actually enjoy) but last week I put on The Sound of Music instead. She loved it! We watched a little each night, completing it twice. This week we finished watching Meet Me in St. Louis with Judy Garland. Tonight we are going to start the 1949 version of Little Women with June Allyson. It’s not actually a musical but it is such a sweet movie, I think she’ll like it. Any other suggestions of what we should watch? (She prefers color and is not really into black and white, which is a bummer since ¾ of my movie collection is in B&W.)

– 6 –

Birthday Contest – I also wanted to mention, if you haven’t been reading the blog regularly (What? Am I the only one with 500 posts in my Google reader waiting to be read??) that we are celebrating the blogs 9th birthday with a contest. You can win an RoL care package that will include your choice of books (selections include Style, Sex and Substance, The Catholics Next Door, The Book of Saints for Catholic Moms and The Catholic Girl’s Survival Guide for the Single Years) as well as a Divine Mercy icon, Mystic Monk coffee or tea and, of course, chocolate. Get the details here.

– 7 –

Flashback Friday Five – Back in 2003, bloggers looked forward to filling out “The Friday Five” at the end of the week. I’ll close with a flashback of what I posted nine years ago, almost to the day.

Friday Five: Music Edition

1. What was the first band you saw in concert? Let’s see, years back it was a big Rock for Life concert in Orange County, CA. I think that first really got me into Christian alternative/hardcore music. But one of the first concerts I most vividly remember was when I drove to Santa Barbara, CA with my sister BC to see the hardcore band Focused. Oh, those guys were so awesome and so in love with God. They were the first band I ever interviewed (for the underground music zine I used to do.) Ah, such memories!

2. Who is your favorite artist/band now? Okay, you can tell I am a mommy now because at the moment I am listening to “Wags the Dog” by the Wiggles. (It is Bella’s Wiggle’s hour; that is the only time I am guaranteed some uninterrupted computer time!) But as far as I’m concerned, I have been listening to a lot of Jeremy Camp, Kutless, and Sixpense None the Richer. But I must say that I also loooove 80’s alternative music – The Cure, The Smiths, Morrissey, New Order, Psychedelic Furs, etc. Plus, good old classics like Dean Martin (reminds me of our honeymoon. Sigh.)

3. What’s your favorite song? This is a tough one. The song that always reminds me of Brian is The Cure’s “Lovesong.” I never tire of it.

4. If you could play any instrument, what would it be? Um, I always wished I could play the guitar, write my own music and sing my own songs. I may be able to get away with writing lyrics but the only instrument I can play is the Fisher-Price toddler drum set and my voice it not fit for anyplace other than the car while driving or perhaps in church if the choir sings real loud and drowns me out.

5. If you could meet any musical icon (past or present), who would it be and why? Back in my teen days I may have said someone like Morrissey from the Smiths but now I just see musical “icons” as regular joes and can’t think of one in particular that I’d single out. So I’ll have to think about that one.

LOL! Have a great weekend!

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Category Archives: family chit chat

{pretty, happy, funny, real} – vol 30: Matthew’s 1st Birthday Edition

{pretty, happy, funny, real} – vol 29: California Gold Country Edition

Traveling & Flashbacks: I Was Almost Arrested While Eating a Taco

“My Idea of Heaven…”

7 Quick Takes (4/13/12): Accidents, Musicals, & Flashback Music Weekend