Christmas at Mom's

Christmas at Nora's

I'm Back!!!

Hello everyone!!! Yes I am back. Like everyone knows Chico and I have had a very lets just say "exciting month." For those of you not aware of what happened...
Two days before Thanksgiving our home got broken into. All our valuables were taken, yes including the computer. So eventhough all that happened we still went on our planned vacation and tried to enjoy it the most that we could. After returning we had to deal with our home insurance and finally yesterday we received our check to replace items that were stolen. So te first thing I did today was go shopping for a new computer!!! I missed writing in my blog, it just made me feel so disconnected from everyone else.
Advice to everyone... KEEP AN INVENTORY OF ALL YOUR VALUABLE BELONGINGS! It is unbelievable how much info. claims requests from you and all the paperwork you need to fill out --Ugh!
But in other notes, we are doing great and can't wait till christmas. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Now you will be hearing from me again!

My Birthday!!

Honorio stopped by my work to spend lunch with me. Melizza made me albondigas for lunch on that day and she had brought a little extra to share with every one else. After lunch look at what my car looked liked, oh yes and you should of seen the inside!

The girls did a little skit while they sang happy birthday, it was so funny!

Nancy Gomez was really kind enough to make me a cake. I thought it was really pretty. Check it out! What do you think?

This is what my office looked like when I got to work on my birthday.

Here are more pictures of our Jamaican vacation, this is a waterfall were you walk up hand in hand with about thirty other people, you also get to take pictures and swim(sorta) and after the waterfall you get to party hardy on the boat with free alcohol, also the other pictures are of Patti and Me jumping off a 15 foot cliff into the ocean after we went ATVing . Well peoples I hope you all take a Jamaican trip sometime in your life and enjoy it like we did.

More Jamaican Vacation

Hello once again people, here is Patti & me on a bamboo raft enjoying a comfortable ride down the river in Jamaica, belive it or not this is very relaxing and if you go and do this make sure to take some beer with you or you can buy it on the side of the river since there are vendors just waiting for people to stop and buy things from them.
P.S. you have to haggle with the vendors for a cheaper price.

Halloween Party

This Saturday Adela had a party to celebrate Halloween. It was after-the-fact but it turned out to be so much fun. We danced, joked around and gossiped (of course). So here are the pictures, there aren't too many since I was too busy fooling around I did not have time to take as many pictures.

Halloween

Octavio's Visit in February

This is Octavio at Irad's house, he was a little wasted by then and fell down. Irad wanted me to share this on the blog, just so that Patti knows what he is doing when she is not around.

Hello!!

Well I just finished helping Chico with the painting of the back side of the house. We did that just so that we may start putting the pavers down (I'm tired of seeing dirt). Remember I'm not going to post pictures of my house because I want to do a before and after thing just so that you guys can see the difference and all the hard work we put into this place.

Here's a little cartoon my friend e-mailed me and I thought it was really funny I just had to share it.

Octavio's Jamaican Vacation

Hello all this is Nancy's brother Octavio, these are just two pictures of our hotel pools (with bar attached) of course from my vacation to Jamaica. The hotel name is Riu Ocho Rios in Ocho Rios, Jamaica and everything was included Patti (my wife) and I got tired of drinking beer by the fourth or fifth day so we started on tropical (fufu) drinks.

I will be posting more pictures from different locations that we have traveled for your pleasure.

Construction Zone (Hard hat area)

Well, we are still working on our backyard. Eventhough we have finished the patio, Honorio decided to work on the BBQ area, and he has finished making that too. We put the countertops, which is not my personal favorite, but his brother gave him the travertine at no cost so I think I can live with that. We however have not painted it, we want to have it match with the house, so this weekend Chico put stucco on all the back of the house. It really looks nice. So now we need to agree on a color. He wants to go with earthy tones and I want to go contemporary. We'll make our minds some day. Oh yes, we also put a window were our dining room is. Yippy!!! I was sooooo excited, I had bugged Chico to put a window since two years ago when we had decided to make that room a dining area but he had always said no. But now after he had to tear the outside of that wall down to do all the gas lines for the BBQ, he gave me the ok, so I was and still am really excited.
So for updates on my house construction, I think that is it for now. It has been some very busy October month, but we have accomplished much. We still have long ways to go on the back, but I think it is safe to say that the backyard will be the last of the construction --- or so I say.

Dad's Birthday Dinner

This Weekend

So this weekend was kind of busy. On Saturday Chico and my family got together to watch a boxing match between Pacquiao vs. Barrera at Ivi's house. We made a carne asada and pretty much just the men watched the fight, which was okay because it was much better being outside gossiping with all the ladies. Some of the pictures are below.

On Sunday we had a dinner for my dad to celebrate his birthday. It is not until Tuesday, but we felt it was better doing it over the weekend since everyone works. My mom had birria, rice and frijoles charros. It was all really good. If you look above you'll find some pictures of his birthday.

Pacquiao vs. Barrera

Too Busy!!

So it has been a while since my last post, but I have just been so busy with the construction at my home and all the problems at work, it just becomes hard to breath sometimes. For those that did not know, Chico and I have been making a patio for our backyard for like 2 months already. Most of the wasted time has been spent on waiting for the city inspector to come by and check our progress and give us his signature so we may keep going. However, after all that frustration we finally finished it like a week ago. Now we are trying to run electricity through it to get some fans and lights going but it has been raining mildly the last few days making our project way slower.
I've been taking pictures when I get a chance and actually remember to do so, but once I download them into my computer I'll make a chance to put it in the blog. Well have to get back and help Chico. SEE YA!!

Johnathan's Birthday

Congratulations on the New Baby!!

Well I just found out today that my very bestfriend Socorro is 2 months pregnant. So Congratulations on your new bundle of joy!! Socorro and I went to the same elementary school and became friends my 5th grade year (her 4th). All this time we've tried really hard to always keep in touch and know what is going on in our lives. The times I've passed through Visalia, I've visited her even for a little while. So I'm really happy for her and her husband. They already have a little girl named Sylvia, hopefully she does not resent the fact that she will be having a little brother or sister.

Omar and Raeven's Visit

To my visitors:

I want to say thanks to all of you that have taken the time from your busy lives to check out our blog. I've gotten many compliments and just one complaint (Hope you like the change Felipa.) Anyways, please keep checking it once in a while and let me know what you think, I just might take in consideration your advice! Oh yes by the way, If you have pictures or stories you would like me to add to the blog please e-mail them to me and I will be glad to post them.
nfigueroa5@cox.net

Build-A-Bear

While Raeven was here, Rose and I took her and Johnathan to Build-A-Bear, we all enjoyed it, it was really fun. Raeven picked out a really cute leopard and we both dressed it up. It came out so cute that I had to post it. Isn't it CUTE??

Updates

Okay, I know most of you know this info. but for those that don't, I'll catch you up from August till now. Well August was a very busy month, my brother Omar and my niece Raeven came to visit for 2 weeks. It was great to see them. The heat was horrible those two weeks they were here, so there weren't many places we could go during the day. That first week they were here we celebrated Irad's, my tia Nena's and Ivette's birthdays. Yes, they were all born on the 16th of August. Rose had a dinner for Irad's birthday and Ivette made a party at her house to celebrate her birthday and her moms. She invited most of the family we have living here, and of course they all showed up. I rarely see them, so it was nice trying to catch up.

Also in August is both my mom's and Chico's mom birthday, yep one after the other. My mother's is on the 27 and my mother-in-law's is on the 28. We took mom out to eat to this Mexican Restaurant called El Torito in Scottsdale, it was actually really good authentic mexican food with really great service. My mom was really happy to have spent the afternoon with us. For my mother-in-law we made a birthday party with just close family. We all had a lot of fun. Women played "loteria" and I won most of the times, now that was great! We usually play 10 cents per card and I think I won $3.20. Hey might not seem alot, but it is better than loosing $3.20. For those of you who don't know what "loteria" is and have no clue what I am talking about, they are cards like Bingo but instead of letters and numbers they have pictures of items or animals (rose, deer, tree, etc.). Some one has flashcards with those pictures on them and is calling them out, the first person to get all their pictures called is the one that wins the $$. Pretty fun game after you get the hang of it.

Will in August we also had the newest addition to the Figueroa family. Geronimo and Dulce's baby daughter was born. Her name is Lili Anne. She was a big baby, but really healthy which is all that matters. She has actually grown really fast, I don't think she even fit in the newborn baby clothes. She is a really cute baby!

Well just last weekend we celebrated Johnathan's birthday. He turned 4. He is so big and adorable of course! Rose invited some of his friends and he had a blast with them.

I think I have caught you up, if I missed anything I'll make sure and let you know later! Hope you guys are enjoying my blog!!!!!

Monsoon Season 2007

This picture is from some weeks ago. Probably at the beginning of August. Anyway, this is right out front of my house, it was raining so hard that it looked like this after it stopped. You look at this picture and think that our tempeture went down, well guess what?? You are wrong. I think that day we reached 110 degrees and after it rained it only dropped to 103 or 102. Yes and it was humid for weeks after that!

(Yes I finally learned how to post pictures, yey for me!)

First Posting!!

I am so excited to start this blog. I hope everyone gets a chance once in while to read it. My main reason in creating this blog was so that all you could be updated in what is going on. No not a gossip column! But I do know that everyone is busy (including me) and we usually lack the time to pick up the phone and call eachother to say "Hey, how are you?" So I thought what better way to do so.
Once I figure out how to post pictures I'll start doing so, so please be patient with me. All complaints in regards to this blog will be sent to the shredder, he,he,he.

Well everyone is doing great in AZ. We are still in the 3 digits, YIKES!!! Yes, the heat is horrible but at least it is not humid anymore. Weather channel said that maybe by next week will hit 101 degrees (yes, that is cooler than what it has been).

Thanks again for visiting our blog spot hope you will enjoy it!