The Queen of Hearts...

Okay so I thought it was time for me to post about my mom’s 50th “unbirthday” celebration I hosted with my sisters this past weekend at our place in Corona.

My mom’s birthday lands on Valentines Day so we had to do something big for the 50th birthday and tie in Valentines Day without the party being to much about V-day…so I came up with the idea of doing the Queen of Hearts since she is the Queen in our family and she is a heart baby. My mom did not like the idea of turning 50 so we thought we would continue with the theme of Alice in Wonderland and have an “unbirthday” which was perfect.

My sister Cassie made the invitations and let me know tell you they were a big hit everyone loved them….aren’t they cute, they were postcards…

Anyway we had a great cocktail party; all the drinks were red, everyone was asked to wear either white or black and of course our Mom wore red…lots of red/heart shaped inspired desserts and a pink candy bar. Everyone had a great time and I was so happy when it was over I was exhausted, thank goodness for my sisters who helped out so much with the party. Here are a few photos taken by my sister Cassie the photographer, production artist and designer (http://cleverblue.net/) by the way she is great for parties.

My mom called with good news….

Its great news for the current situation my family is in…. “The doctor removed everything they had hoped to and the surgery went great… everything is good…”

This past weekend I got call about my Nina/Tia (godmother, my mom’s sister), her doctors had found some breast calcifications…a few clusters. I was told that the clusters found were cancerous and that this Wednesday (Today) she would have surgery to have the clusters removed. Once the clusters have been removed she would start one round radiation therapy to be on the safe side. I was told that she is basically at stage 0 of breast cancer….0??? That means what? Well that they found it in time, any more time that would have past she would be at any one of the 4 stages of breast cancer. When my grandmother was diagnosed in 2000 she was in stage 4, was given a few months to live and started treatment right away and had lived a few more years before she past away in 2003.

Well first thought that came to mind was “What?!?!?…Why?!?!...Another family member within 8 months!!! Mind you it’s scary to have a person in your family die from cancer but to now have two more members of your family with cancer. I have talked about it before in October when I did the Breast Cancer walk in Temecula; my Tia’s who are dealing, living and fighting breast cancer. These women are close to my heart, they are my mom’s sisters, my Tia’s (aunts) and special people with big hearts.

So I am writing this post more as a venting session for myself and for my girlfriends that read this…make sure you get checked out…push the women in your family to get checked and donate to whatever breast cancer cause you feel most comfortable with to help raise awareness and research. October is breast cancer month but women who have breast cancer don’t have it for just one month, and families don’t have breast cancer as a member of their family for a month so don’t just think about it the month of October…think about it every month because I know I do every time I think about my family.

Holiday Parties!!!

I love the holidays, Christmas is my favorite time of year. I have the best memories from Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family.

Already into the third week of December and so much has happened…Jose and I celebrated our One Year Wedding Anniversary and we had two Holiday Parties in one weekend. This past Friday we headed to Yucaipa to celebrate with some of my Alpha Phi sisters for the Alumni party. We had a great time chatting and did an ornament exchange, I ended up with a really cute ornament that fits perfect with my Christmas décor at home. Saturday we had my work’s Employee Association’s Holiday Party at Café Sevilla in Riverside. It was so much fun, open bar, great food and music to dance to all night. Next up is the Keromy’s Christmas party…We can’t wait!!!

Here are a few pictures from Café Sevilla.

One Year Wedding Anniversary!!

So this past weekend Jose and I celebrated our One year wedding anniversary. We just can't believe how quickly the year went it feels just like yesterday we got married. I guess that is a good sign to a fun marriage.

Well to celebrate our one year of married bliss Jose planned a night in San Louis Obispo at the Madonna Inn, one of the many places I have wanted to stay at. The down side was that I had to work Saturday morning and I had been sick with a nasty head cold of over a week, we almost cancelled the trip (hasn’t gone away).

We made the trip up the 101 freeway in great time and when we got to the Madonna Inn it was all deck out in Christmas décor, one plus to celebrating during the Holiday’s is all the decorations and cheer…it’s my favorite time of year!!! The people there were so nice and excited for our anniversary, they had a bottle of champagne for us in our room plus our great friends Kerry & Jeromy had another chilled bottle and flutes ready for us in our room. We had dinner at the Gold Rush Steak House which is such a lovely place; everything is pink (I mean pink) and gold plus heavily decorated for Christmas and live music playing all night. We had a great dinner and a night of finally spending time together.

We get so busy and with Jose traveling all the time we really don’t get to spend a lot of quality time together. But we make every effort to enjoy the time we do have together. By the way the Madonna Inn has the best breakfast I have had in a lone time. If you ever get a chance make it up there you should defiantly go. On our way down we stop in Solvang to check out the area and to eat, it is such a lovely place…Jose really enjoyed it. And to end the night I had the cake company who did our wedding cake recreate our topper so we could have our cake and drink the champagne we bought at our honeymoon.

It was a great One year wedding anniversary and we are so excited to celebrate many more to come.

http://www.madonnainn.com/index.php

October = Breast Cancer Month

Will every year I try and do something involving the support of breast cancer research. Back in late 2003 my grandmother past away from a rare form of breast cancer that she was diagnosed with in 2000. In 2000 they told her she had maybe 8 months to live after a series of experimental treatments and chemo she lived past those 8 months. Cancer has always been in my family as if another member of the family, I have known cancer for a very long time and with a strong family history it’s not leaving our family anytime soon. My Tia has been in remission of cancer for almost two years now and we just found out that my other Tia (my mom’s sister) has been diagnosed this past Monday, lucky it’s still in the early stages and now we move forward with the next step, treatment.

It’s hard to think about how you grow up with a member of your family living and dying with cancer and the numbers of family members increase with cancer, the chances of yourself being diagnosed increases as well. In a way you become numb to the cancer and the negativity that comes with it and you just move forward and support the members of your family in any way you can.

On October 18th, I walked at the Susan G. Koman Race for a Cure in Temecula with Jose and a new friend, an Alpha Phi from Chicago that is now living here locally, Thanks Erin for joining us. Knowing that my Tia is going to have to fight breast cancer, the race was different for me than in the past. Before it was about the memory of my grandmother and now it’s in memory of my grandmother and in support of my Tia’s that are fighting. During the walk I thought about the women I am walking for and the thousands that were walking for their family members, for themselves and for research. It is a very overwhelming feeling when you are surrounded by thousands of people in PINK!!

Sweet 16.....

Well a few weekends ago I helped my mom with my youngest sister’s sweet 16…yes I have a sister who is still in high school. I can’t believe she is already 16 and now is asking if she can drive my car…lets think this through a little…umm no (well not sure yet). Anyway she had a great party with a “Taco Chef” according to Jose, a candy bar, partying in the pool house and swimming in the pool. There were about 40 kids from her club swim team and high school. The POOL will for those of you who have been to my parents know the story behind the famous pool, my dad has been designing, digging and building this pool for the last 5 or so years and he finally finished his project September 23rd 2009 and he is so proud to show it off, actually we all are. It’s done and looks awesome. Here are a few pictures from the party and of the pool at my parents.

Setup before the party started

My youngest sister blowing out her candles

My sisters friends in the pool house

The Candy Bar i put together for her...

Dad's projects

The POOL!!!

The POOL pic #2

What a month...August!

So I have had a lot going on this summer and have totally left my blog on the sidelines. So I will do my best to update you all on what’s been going on in our life…it's been alot!

August was a really big month for us, we went to Mexico to visit the in-laws, our best bud and fellow Leo, Jeromy turned 30 (palm springs trip), Jose turned 30 (had a big party) and I snuck in turning 27…and I can’t believe we are already half way through September. Check out the posts below for all the details!!!

ENJOY!