Sandoogans' Log

One of my favorite things about hanging out with my friends is seeing our kids interact. It still amazes me each time I'm around them how our kids are now establishing friendships with each other. Sami is at the age I was when I met one of my oldest friends within the group. I'm not sure if they'll make lifelong friendships with each other, which I would totally love, but for now I'm enjoying seeing them grow together. I hope they grow up to have the same love for each other that we do. We might get into it at times, but at the end of day of the day the love remains the same.

I realized not too long ago that Sami is now the age I was when I met some of my closest friends. I have a few friends that I met when I was way younger, but I'm not sure I'd call them friends. We don't text or call, we keep in touch thanks to social media. Not complaining, I'm grateful to still be able to see what they're up to through these forums, but I don't think we'd be considered friends. If that makes sense. I have vivid memories of the few friends that I met at her age. One of them I met at my abuelita's house. I remember going outside to play with him and the rest of the guys. As it has been most of my life, I was the only girl. I didn't mind. I always felt a little too rough around the edges to play with girls my age. It most definitely paid off in adulthood because somehow I always felt ahead of the game when it came to guy bullshit. I remember my abuelita wouldn't let me go outside to play because she said I'd fall and scrap

Group shot! Blurry but cute.   El Billy y Jeff. SP   Super sweaty but happy to finally see The Pumpkins. It's been twenty years since the last time I saw the Pumpkins. Twenty. Fucken. Years. Ok, maybe not twenty, I did win tickets to a secret show thanks to KROQ (back when it was cool) and got to see them in 2000. That's besides the point and does not make for a good blog! Besides it wasn't a true concert, it was a secret show. Ha! Smashing Pumpkins has always been ONE of my all time favorite bands. I remember being a kid, walking into Music+ (that was a magical place where they sold nothing but music; true story) and picking up my first CD: Siamese Dreams. That was the first CD I was able to buy with my own money. I remember I couldn't wait to get home and play it. Even the unwrapping of the CD was a spiritual experience for me. I made sure to be careful as to not to damage the booklet when I took it out of the CD case. I carefully placed

Sami's cowgirl attire was on point. Lots of denim and boots. Sami and the birthday girl! Today was the first official day that we let Sami venture off on her own. She was inviting to go horseback riding with one of her friends. For some reason we thought they were going to Griffith Park. Wrong. They were going horseback riding in the city of Norco. At first Mr. A and I were not going to let her go. We felt it was too far and didn't feel comfortable sending her off. Then we agreed she could go if one us of went along with her. Sami ultimately said she didn't want us to go (are we there now?) and just wanted to go with her friend and her family. After speaking with her friend's mom a few times (we had met in person before) I was convinced. The hard part was going to be convincing Mr. A. I knew I'd be getting my ear chewed off but figured I'd take one for the team. Sure enough, I got my ear chewed off but managed to convince Mr. A to let Sami go. Needle

All after the movie.  Finally took the big step of taking Emma to the movies. I was a little nervous for the most part, I wasn't sure how'd she'd behave but she did well. We watched Hotel Transylvania 3 and all loved it. We're big fans of those movies. Emma sat through most of it. One of her favorite snacks is popcorn so I knew we had to have to that in order her to distract her. Towards the end of movie is when she felt the need to get out of her seat. I think this had to do with Sami moving around in hers a lot. Luckily there was plenty of room for her to move around, and to be quite honest, I think the teenager I was sitting next to was way more annoying than both of my niñas combined.

Blessed. Emma. Preem Supremes. Dad Duty.  Ready for Disney! 1 Party People! Birthday Kids. I can't believe I haven't blogged about anything since February! I think it's combo of laziness, not having much to talk about and having my best ideas at night when I'm about to go to bed lol. Some cool stuff has happened for me and my family. We had some birthdays (Mr. A, Emma and my pops) and Sami went off to rock camp. The birthdays this year were pretty rad. We went out to eat for Mr. A's birthday as is tradition now. That's probably one of my new favorite things that we do now as a family. We get together (parental and siblings included) and go out to eat somewhere. We do the usual embarrassing thing by the telling our server we have a birthday so they can embarrass the birthday kid. Except me, I'm always down for birthday shit. This year Sami finally got to go to rock camp. We had been waiting for this moment for quite some

I am loved. I am funny. I am friendly. I am fun.  I am awesome. I am appreciative. I am loving. I am beautiful. I am pretty cool. I am sympathetic. I am a walking juke box. I am a rockera at heart. I am a mother. I am a wife. I am a daughter. I am a sister. I am a good friend. I am a proud Mexican. I am me. I told myself when I reached my 200th blog I would write one listing my good attributes since the previous one was listing my  least  favorable ones. I don't blog nearly as much as I use to, but it's nice to see I've managed to at least mumble about 200 things. 

El Gran Hotel Templo Mayor Xochimilco Palacio Nacional La Basílica de Guadalupe La Catedral Templo Mayor La Catedral El 420 La Casa Azul  Templo Mayor   Teotihuacan, at the top of the sun temple. El Angel de la Independencia  Meeting point in case of an earthquake. These were located all over the city. Cafe de Tacuba: one of the oldest restaurants in the city.  Frida Kahlo's dresses. Palacio Nacional, Diego Rivera murals.  Never in a million years would I have imagined that I would fall I love in with Mexico City the way I did. I remember being a kid and hearing all these crazy tales about the city. I'm sure there's some truth to them, but the point is I never wanted to go to D.F. I think cause of all the stories I had been told; by multiple sources. I even had a chance to go in my teens but declined the invite. My parents had a manda to pay La Virgen and asked me if I wanted to join them. I told

I'm not one who cares much for New Years resolutions because I feel you don't need to wait for the beginning of a year to improve who you are. I feel you should be able to be a better you regardless of the occasion. For some reason, this year feels slightly different. I'd like to improve certain attributes of myself. Mainly not to sweat the small stuff so much and focus on the ones who care about me as much I care about them. I feel that sometimes we seem to worry less about the ones that are closest to us. Maybe because we know they're there or maybe we don't realize we're doing it. I wouldn't call it a New Years resolution, maybe self reflection. Here's to a great New Year! If you made resolutions I hope they're able to come to fruition.