August was STOLEN!!

Yes readers, I was robbed. Somehow August has come and (almost) gone. What has happened this month you ask? Well, I attended my very first BlogHer, went on my first business-vacation with the boys, helped my mother move, helped her pick out appliances for her new place, attended my very fist CONCERT (SADE!!), and am giving my very first "virtual" Spanish classes to a very bright and funny little girl.

I have tons of free time right? (Did I forget to mention my migraines are back due to wonky dental work done back in March... ouch)

Well with that said there is more .. so much more that I am working on, I am researching some things for two more blogs that I will be debuting soon and am finish up another HUGE project. After all is said and done my original blog has suffered :( .. so I am sharing this with you now .. I will be turning thirty next year on March 7th and I have slowly been making some changes in my life:

1. I refuse to feel guilty for doing things that I love. (i.e if I want to go to a concert and dinner by myself and treat myself to dinner.. I will do so)

2. I have cut out my beloved soda from my diet (5 days a week.. :)

3. I will not apologize for things that I have to do for the well being of my children or myself. (Yes there are definitely some feelings that will be hurt)

4. I will NOT allow myself to become a pushover because I want to be nice to everybody (more on this at a later date) -- this has gone on for TOOO long and I refuse to go into my thirties being labeled as such.

5. I will love myself first.. (NO.. this doesn't mean that me being a Mom is not one of the most important and beloved roles that I play) I can't make anyone happy if don't spend some quality time with myself and really come to love who I have become.

Those are my top five -- but there are quite a few more..


I  have really missed my readers and some of the emails that I have gotten from you guys make my day .. seriously.

Please tell me what changes you would make today (email or comments would be awesome!)! Until next time: Be inspired today .. because tomorrow is another chance at happiness and adventures -- meet it with a smile!

Mojitos and Tacones

 Anytime that I get ready to go out I never have a clue what I am going to wear! Since I was leaving from work, cooking dinner, supervising showers for the boys, and dropping them off all BEFORE getting ready I knew that I had to just go with a fail safe outfit (peep-toe pumps, jeans, and cute top), and hope that my hair would cooperate for the dryer. 

Thankfully the boys and my hair cooperated and I was headed to LA Live. I have been there once before to eat at the Yard House (which has some awesome food by the way) but I had never been to the Conga Room. When I got there I was greeted by the wonderfully efficient Mariluz. She totally made me feel like a total VIP!! Look at the room they arranged for us!

Monique, Leslie (and her gorgeous prima), Cynthia, Teresa and I were treated to an awesome time. We hung out for a while (the mojito was great!), chatted and took pictures. Let me tell you, this venue is amazing just look at the floor (whoever designed this place did an amazing job):

*Sigh* -- Look at this view!!

When Tito El Bambino came on the whole place went crazy!! He really is an amazing performer (it does help that he is rather cute :p)..

I am so glad that I was able to meet some amazing ladies and hang out in a gorgeous venue... the entertainment was the icing on the cake for this overworked chica ;) ... sometimes it takes a night out to give you the boost you need to handle the rest of the week; I needed this.. thank you Conga Room!!

Coming up at the Conga Room:

SALSEROS--- Eddie Santiago will be there Thursday, August 18, 2011

Disclosure: AdventuresofThree received complimentary entrance,however, this is not a sponsored post.  

Drive-ins, babies, and wizards...

When my second child was just a baby I was living in Trotwood, OH. Things were so hectic; I was trying to finish my bachelor's degree, taking my other son to preschool, and trying to find a job. I couldn’t believe that I was a single parent. Just the year before I was living in Minot, ND, was married, and had on my figurative rose-colored glasses. What a difference a year made! 

Darion (my oldest son—8 years old going on 40) and I had already started our love affair with movies. He wanted to see the movie “Ratatouille “ that had just come out but because I had no babysitter, not a lot of money, and I was randomly searching Google that night; I discovered that there was drive-in alive and kicking about 10 minutes from where I lived. That was perfect because we could take a restless baby with us, they only charged per car not per person and since it was during the week it was like $8, and most of all it was something I had always wanted to try.

I am not kidding when I say that that was the one of the most memorable nights of my life (as well as my son’s – he still remembers it). Maybe it was a combination of a night of being able to just relax, a warm evening, beautiful skies, and being able to share a “first” with both of my boys. We saw “Ratatouille” and the boys loved it (the baby just cooed and gurgled but hey, he didn’t cry). What I didn’t know was that you could watch two movies for the price of one (yes, legally)! This particular double-feature was joined by “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”. 

That is when Darion and I began our obsession with the young wizard. I had never heard of the books let alone the movies and I was ready to dismiss this movie but Darion said he wanted to stay. Before the movie came on we got to walk around for a little bit. This drive-in was in the middle of a field and could you believe that there were actual fireflies amidst the cars?! I was stunned by the beauty of the huge screen and how it blended with the breeze of the fields and the fireflies that would carelessly fly around us. I had a car with a sun-roof so we got to glance up at the stars as well. *sigh*

By the time Harry Potter actually began, the baby was fast asleep and it was just me and my buddy. We hadn’t been able to spend any one on one time since the baby had arrived so we were pretty psyched about watching a movie together. The movie resonated with both of us for different reasons and to this day is still our favorite movie. 

I enjoyed it because it was definitely something that I would have enjoyed as a kid. Also, since I didn’t know my biological father I identified a little bit with a little boy that hadn’t know his parents. Darion loved it because he liked to imagine that with magic he could make his world “perfect” again. He asked me for the first time that night “Why did Daddy leave?” That movie gave him the courage to ask something that he had probably been wondering for over a year. (More on this particular conversation later..)

We went home that day dazzled by the new world that we were introduced to and listened to all of the audio books over the next couple of weeks. We are so excited about watching the end of the series this weekend but it will definitely be very bittersweet.

Vaccines: Are they really necessary?

It’s one of the moments that every new parent dreads “the first shots”. The first time was definitely the hardest because I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t know that I should give my baby Tylenol about a half hour before the shots. I also didn’t know that if you massage the area immediately after the shots it helps the muscles not hurt as much later. My first-born was left to his devices and I was left a nervous wreck asking the pediatrician the following:

Are they really necessary?

Can immunizations cause Autism?

By the last question I was near tears (I blame the post-pregnancy and breastfeeding hormones. The experienced doctor told me to just take a deep breath. She told me that it is VERY important for children to get their immunizations not just for their health but that of other children as well and that it is just a myth that vaccines can cause Autism. 

I won’t say I was relieved but her answers helped. It got progressively better to take him to get the rest of his shots throughout the years and I found that by keeping up with his regular checkups the nurses usually kept on top of when I needed to bring him in for his shots. 

Upon researching the CDC website I learned that when the boys are teenagers they can even get a shot for the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), although since this is spread through sexual contact just the thought alone that I will one day be looking into this for my boys starts giving me a mild panic attack! 

Here are some links for those lucky parents of teens to look into in regards to HPV. (I was pretty surprised that it was even offered to boys!)

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/who/teens/index.html

 
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/who/teens/for-parents.html

Disclosure: This is a sponsored blog post.

Carlos Nieto III

Visual Candy

That is what I thought about when I saw Carlos Nieto III’s work at the Estilo Con Causa fashion show. We met up at an Italian restaurant a while back to talk about his inspiration, his music, and most of all his art. 

I discovered that he began his love for art at a young age and we bonded over historical facts. He even convinced me that anyone can be an artist. That is when I found out that he teaches art to children and I figured “Wow! What else can this guy do?” Well... it turns out he is also a part of a band. 

It is unbelievable to me that someone can have so many ways to express his talents and be great in all of them. I am inspired by people  that are able to make their passion their entire way of life and no one can do that as well as artists (dancers, actors, musicians, singers, painters, photographers, the list goes on and on).

I could tell you more about him but I feel that his work speaks to his vision, his quirkiness, and his innate attention to the beauty around him:

Looking for something to do tomorrow?  Here is one of his events:

Time-----------------------------------------------------------Tomorrow at 8:30pm - Sunday at 1:00am

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Location

SAC Studios

1734 N. Main Street

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More Info

Please join us Saturday, June 18th for Art, Music and Drinks at the first ever ART BEAT The art and music event benefiting the Children's Hospital Los Angeles Art and music department.
This event will be held at SAC Studios 1734 N. Main St. LA CA 90031
Doors open at 8:30 pm
$20.00 donation at the door
21 and over with ID
Open Bar till 12 am
Over 30 emerging and established LA Artists will be showing their art, featuring artists from:
Disney, The Simpsons, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.
There will be live DJ sets by
DJ Dirty Dave
DJ Mark Hill
DJ Farinheit

plus
Live painters
Live body painting
Live digital painters - (Alex Ruiz from the Simpsons)
The Frysmith truck

Sponsors
Half Off Clothing Store
San Antonio Winery
Tarascos Restaurant
Red Rose Photography
55 Degree Wine
The Coffee Table

Dr. Seuss and Univision

Es el momento

This has been a crazy week! My sons came home last Friday and told me that they were having a Dr. Seuss celebration at their school on Wednesday. The day would begin with a parade and oh by the way.. they wanted me to find them Dr. Seuss-like costumes. So… here I am on Saturday working on their homework (yes.. five and seven year-olds have homework) and then on Sunday we were off on a mad dash to try to find costumes. Finally, I said we could just decorate shirts and they could go as “Thing 1” and “Thing 2”. They were not impressed but to placate me they agreed. WE had tons of other errands so we didn’t have time to get to the t-shirts until later then next day. On Wednesday they had their parade with kids that have artists as parents*side eye* and *sigh*  and I was so excited that the full-on celebration was held in the evening. The school had pizza and apple juice for sale  and were showing “Horton hears a Who” playing via projector in the cafeteria, computer Dr. Seuss games, a reading room dedicated to books, and an illustrators room where they made hats and a variety of other crafts…* insert Mommy falling asleep at the art table here*

I say this to say that although I wished I could have gotten some rest at some point, I wouldn’t trade doing all of these things with my boys for anything because growing up with a single mom.. she was there for none of my academic accomplishments or activities… First I thought it was because while I was in elementary school her English embarrassed her and that is why she didn’t come. Then in junior high I thought it was because her nursing career was taking off and she was just too tired and/or too busy to come. By the time high school came I didn’t have to make any excuses because I was too used to it to put too much thought into it. Most of my friends’ parents used to cheer me on as well... so... that made me feel okay. As I went on to college to Hawaii … I didn’t have the separation anxiety that most of my peers had because I pretty much knew how to function without parental guidance. I got a job, went to my classes, and found some roommates to my first apartment (did I mention I was barely 17 at the time  ... lol). I would change anything because I am proud of who I am today but I knew that when I had children things were going to be WAY different. 

When I was in elementary school I was living in Boyle Heights, a primarily Hispanic neighborhood. There it was very commonplace not to see many parents at meetings, ceremonies, or games. In junior high school I went to medical magnets and the parents there were more present. I would say 80 percent of parents came to all of our different activities.  

When I had children I wanted to be at everything, but due to work I have to pick and choose what events I can go to, but I try to make it as much as I can. We do homework together and while I am cooking I have them take to turns reading to me. Being in constant communication with their teachers also helps me to feel like I am more in the loop. I was very impressed when I learned from LATISM about Univision’s “Es el momento” campaign because they encourage more parental involvement in the education of our children. They also talk about the importance of financial planning for our children’s college education. Please take the time to go to their website. I am so encouraged that such an organization sees the importance of using their influence within our community for such an important cause. 

As parents we are our children’s first cheerleaders. They look to us for support and guidance. We must be able to offer them our time because at the end of the day even if it is an extra 10 minutes to read your kids a bedtime story, believe me, they will cherish those memories and use them as fuel to do better academically. I know it has done wonders in my children. Happy reading!