Michelle's 80s Party!

Michelle and I.
The other day my daughter Michelle turned another year so without divulging her age I will just say that she is only two years away from the age that most women get stuck in for a looooooooong time.

To celebrate she threw an 80's kindda party complete with 80's music and we were all asked to get with the program by dressing up very 80's too. I went early 80's with a replica of one of my many outfits that I used to go to the disco, of course back then the beard and hair were brown and not mostly white. lol

My daughter Nikki and I.
Ha, ha, gag me with a spoon! Look at those outfits.
I think stores don't carry Aqua Net anymore, or do they? lol


Thee people had the wrong phones for the 80s.
All in all it was a nice fun party, everyone enjoyed it, we ate some good food, had a few drinks and to we even danced to the tune of some 80s music. Something about dancing to the Wii that kept every one laughing and going.


Wouldn't you know it, they had us dancing to some girly song.


At the end of the night fun was had by one and all. Happy birthday again Michelle! Oh wait your birth month is gone. lol

Haloween Party at the Duckworth's 2

And so just to have a little fun and some good food we celebrated with a kid/fun filled Halloween party at my daughter's house. My little grandson Juanito kept crying at every turn as he hated one and all of the kids costumes. I swoop him up into my arms and told him that those were all his ugly cousin and he told me "I know who they are but they are still scary". It was just too cute and funny to watch, of course I black mailed him with first pick at the candy bucket and that was not scary for him at all. Ha, ha, I imagined that was more scary for his mom. Can you say sugar rush?

The came from everywhere, ghosts, ghouls, Spartans, wolves, lions, comic book heroes, fairy tale princesses, pirates, rock starts, movie characters, and even a mariachi gordo, they were all there. I swear if any of those kids can sleep tonight it will be a miracle, there were no tricks because we certainly put a bunch of treats on the table and the only goal they had in their mind was to sneak up to it grab candy after candy and run away before a parental unit caught them.

For food we had a very delicious chicken pozole, bean tostadas, potato salad, and the oh so good chips and salsa (my special batch), and to wash this all down sodas and the always popular H20. Kudos to one and all the great cooks and chefs that always contribute their culinary talents and make these feasts possible.

Being around the family is always a treat and this time it was sweeter as Alexis our little first year college girl was here from NAU in Flagstaff. Have a very safe and happy Halloween and remember we celebrate that good will always prevail over evil.

Morty, wolfy, and two beautiful princesses.

Freddy and I, then morty, princess Lena, and I terrified on both pictures. And Gene Simmons whom I kept calling Richard Simmons and Juan.

Booooo but they are all too scary, I know they are my cousins but they are ugly. lol
The battle of the monsters, who will prevail?
This Iron Man kept saying quack, quack, I wonder why?


Awesome make up, Jen's was done by my very talented daughter Nichole.

Dia de los Muertos

Next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mark one of my favorite periods in the liturgical year. After the reminder of evil and our own mortality on Halloween and the glorious triumph of good over evil in the lives of those who have conformed themselves to Christ on All Saints Day, we arrive where we always must in this vale of tears: at solidarity with our fellow Christians—in this case, the faithful departed, who are gone from this life but not from our memory. ~ Scott P. Richert

When I was a kid it never failed, once a year we would go and visit my grandmother's grave, had it cleaned, fresh flowers were taken and placed in the flower pots, and we all prayed for her eternal rest. Yet as packed as the cemetery was on "Dia de los Muertos" it was always sort of an eerie feeling. If you,ve never seen a Mexican cemetery trust me it's nothing like the American ones which look like nice manicured parks and have neighborhoods built around them.

But at least once a year we paid respect to our dead by visiting. Then at our house my tia would build an altar where food offerings for our departed would be placed. At the mercados thousands of sugar skulls and coffins were sold which are used to decorate these altars.

It is a dying tradition just as many other traditions have been forgotten as we moved on and adapted to our American way of life and now celebrate Thanksgiving, which to my knowledge is not celebrated in Mexico instead.

A simple altar for some offerings.
But to some diehards such as ourselves certain traditions are always in our minds and in our own way we will still celebrate, so for this coming "Dia de los Muertos" (Day of the dead) we will get together and honor all of our dear departed by offering and eating some home made tamales, maybe some arroz con leche, water, and other essential goodies. It should be a nice celebration that will take us back to our roots and traditions.

This altar is a little bit more elaborate.
Dead should never mean forgotten, so this coming Tuesday take a moment to honor and remember those loved ones that have gone to that better place now.

*Images in this post borrowed from the Internet.

The Firehouse Open House

Walking over to the Fire Station.
The little neighborhood event that we seem to catch year after year. Once a year the Avondale Fire Department has it's open house and it's ususally a blast. From the singing fire man to the free hot dogs and ice cream, kids and grownups enjoy this event.

The firestation is withing walking distance from my house so at around ten in the morning we headed that way, I made sure to take my appetite with me.


I'll have to of those and two of the other ones please. Thank you very much!

After food we went out and admired those always very clean fire trucks. Some more picture taking took place.


Something about those ladder trucks that just captivate me specially when they have the ladders extended in a way that it almost seem they can reach the sky.

Avondle is the home of PIR - Phoenix Internationl Raceway.




Then I asked if I could take Diego and Ducky to the movies and Junior asked which movie was I taking them to, I said "Real Steel" looked like a fun movie for them and it turned out he wanted to watch it too so we asked Loyiel if he wanted to join and he said yes. So we all headed to the 2:00 p.m. show.



The movie was violent in a non violent way, after all the fights were fought by machines and somehow it feels like it doesn't count. The kids and enjoyed it and so did I.

After the movie these two cute little robots were ready to rumble.

Now What?

I was always told "God know best, and He know why He does it" so with that in mind I accept what comes my way weather it's good or bad, understanding that there needs to be a balance sometimes is not easy but it is definitely necessary.

I definitely think it's a blessing to wake up in the morning and to be able to thank Him for the chance of another day, for a chance to better yourself, for a chance to right your wrongs, for a change to struggle through the day, and just plain for the one more chance. It's up to us to accept the challenge and to go after it, He did his part, now we must do ours.

I find myself in one of those moments in time where faith, acceptance, and lots of planning is in my immediate future, and yet I feel so up to the challenge and I accept it with open arms. Looking back God has been nothing but good to me so I know that He has no intention of changing things for me, but once in a while He does mixes it up just to give us a wake up call and to remind us that life should never be a routine, and that each day is a new challenge and a new opportunity.

I am definitely excited and looking forward to see what He has in store for me, but I know He does not want me to sit and wait for it, but to go out and look for it. So with that in mind, I say future, here I come.

Just another random thought.

California... Again!

Traveling in my car always makes me think of Disneyland. I wonder why?
Well as always the weekend came and went way much too fast, but that's OK I will be repeating this trip yet one more time in about three weeks. Both Abby and my lil sister had been here last week so I was going to skip this trip but expected unexpected changes in my life allowed me to just saddle up the pony sort of speak and one more time ride the highway.

This time I left Phoenix promptly at 11:30 a.m. which means nothing but daylight all the way which also translates into lots of stops along the way for picture taking, eating, resting, and just plain ol' relaxing and enjoying the trip. My travel mug was constantly being filled with Mountain Dew and the ice I put in it lasted almost all the way.

It was the middle of nowhere and it had many awesome things to photograph.



It was a nice enjoyable trip and I finally made it to La Puente. My sister had gone out prospecting for a job while Abby was at a stand still somewhere on the 14 and then the 5 highways so I had to kill some time and since I was hungry from the trip I went to eat pupusas at El Salvadoreno. I had been marking my places on facebook so my niece knew of my whereabouts. After eating I got on the car and decided to text my sister, then as I was about to leave I heard a noise on my passenger door and to my surprise my niece was standing there.

"Do you have room for an ice cream date?" She said, I got out of my car and got in hers and we drove to a Basking Robins for some needed desert. Most of you already know that I have a weakness for ice cream. Ummm yummy! This is when I realize that traffic in Hacienda Heights at 5:30 p.m. totally sucks. A mile stretch took us forever to cross and my niece winded up cheating by leaving the boulevard and going through some residential areas.

Ummm Ice cream... Yummy! Abducted by my niece.
The rest of the night was pretty much a routine of what we normally do on a Friday night. Karaoke at Casa Cabral in the City of Commerce to celebrate my sister's birthday. I think one too many Long Island Ice teas and tequila shots were served because my normally happy singers couldn't even follow a line in the songs.

Bottom line, at the end of the night we all agreed we had had a fantastic time even though I fell asleep in the car the last hour or two before turning in. Fun times!

ABC Wednesday -- Letter "K"

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ABC Wednesday, today it's Letter "K"

And the only thing I can think of is:



KARAOKE!

My Birthday Party!

Here I am with my mom and my four sisters. Too bad my brother couldn't make it.
For and impromptu birthday party all the people that matter the most were present with the exception of my brother whom happened to be busy. There was food galore, and the ranchero meat my sister brought was not even cooked. What? No carne asada? Yep, that's exactly what happened and yet we were all full from all the other dishes that materialized on that table.

I had not one but two cakes and everybody seemed to have a great time just eating and being around each other.

Two of my favorite people, my babe and my baby sister being cool enough to hang around this old fool and not only that but they love me, at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. And did I mention they both came from California just to be with me during this my birthday weekend.

Food materialized rather quick and both the kitchen and dinning room tables were filled to capacity with hungry visitors.


Above my son posing with me and with Abby. Bottom picture is a favorite of mine as all my ten grandkids were there on Sunday and they are all in this picture.

My daughter Michelle and I.
My daughter Nikki with Abby and I. A happy birthday indeed.
Thanks to my lil sister for all the images which I very smoothly stole from her Facebook page.