Grandpa Bill's Visit

Grandpa Bill came all the way from Florida for work, but we made sure to see him as much as we could for the few days that he was here. Grandpa Bobby helped out by picking him up in LA and bringing him to our house. He hadn't seen Salvatore since he was 6 months old and had never seen Miss Valentina...

We had a great dinner, lots of laughs and stories, talks of politics, watching the kids show off...

The next night, the kids and I made the drive up to LA to see him again for dinner at his swanky hotel. I was a bit nervous to dine with my two little ones in such a fancy place, but they were great...even at 8 p.m., which was when we finally got our food! We really loved our time together.

We look forward to more visits from him in the future. My mom, the kids' Sita, comes again this June and we can't wait. We are also waiting for our sister Beth and brother Paul to make their ways back here again for more family time.

Our kids are blessed to have the family that they have. Three grandparents on my side. Two on David's side. Two great grandparents on my side. Three great grandparents on David's side. And even a sweet great great grandmother on David's side, whom shall meet the kids when we go visit in October for Tia Fabiola's wedding!

Seriously Good Buttermilk Biscuits

And the picture doesn't lie...these were delicious!

I have been searching, and searching, and searching for a great recipe and most followed the same basic ideas: flour, butter, buttermilk, salt, baking powder, etc. Yet, every time I made them, they were flat, hard and "hockey puck-ish"...sigh...

Until I found this website called Pinch My Salt.

It explained the different amounts of protein in different kinds of flour and it all finally made sense. I broke out my cake flour, followed her exact recipe, and was so surprised that they turned out this good! I almost ate them all right out of the oven. (Be sure to use her recipe listed below the White Lily Recipe, titled My Recipe).

I did not use a rolling pin and I followed her direction to not twist the biscuit cutter.

When I make these again tomorrow morning, I will add a splash more buttermilk.

If you, or your loved ones, love buttermilk biscuits, then you should surely try these! My biscuits will be homemade from now on, thanks to Pinch My Salt!

They are Growing

Time is rushing by, but things just get better and better.

My Bucket List

At 36 years old, my original bucket list was already complete.

I only had three things on there:

1. Graduate college

2. Get married

3. Have children

That was all I ever really wanted and needed in this life. Pretty simple. Sort of. Not that I don't have any other dreams. I'm driven enough to work hard and see things through. It's just that I am pretty content. I love all kinds of things and want to do many things, but none of it seems dire or desperate if it doesn't happen.

I have traveled. I got tattoos. I have hilarious stories from my youth. I have donated and volunteered and surfed (twice), bought a house, taught Sunday School, was asked out by a famous ball player and blah blah blah...

So while my bucket list now consists of hopefully seeing and doing all of the wonderful things that come from numbers 2 and 3 above (like celebrating anniversaries and watching my kids get trophies, school awards, travel, make friends, and also graduate college, get married and have kids), I have had a few simple desires come up recently that I think would be really neat if I could do them this year.

They are:

1. Go on a ride along with a police officer.

2. Get a motorcycle license. Not for David's Ducati, but so I can ride my dad's moped.

3. Run a 5K this year. (This one will be tough...I usually only run if I'm being chased.)

What's on your bucket list?

Feliz Cumpleanos David

Happy birthday, David.

You are 32.

I love you.

And I love having a family with you.

A birthday wish...

A birthday meal...his favorite pambazos.

And I thank these wonderful people for bringing this wonderful person into my life.

Los quiero mucho, mis suegros.

Salvatore Gives Mommy a New Favorite Song

Salvatore has been making up songs lately.

And they are elaborate.

They all start to some familiar tune, but then they just go on and on and on and on.

This afternoon, we were playing in our room and he said he wanted to sing one more song for me, but this time he wanted me to sing along.

He assured me that the song was easy.

"The blessings come down when your prayers go up!"

He repeated this at least 6 times and then I joined in.

Complete with hand motions of "blessings" coming down while "prayers" (with clasped hands together) are going up.

My new favorite song.

Favorite Part of Childhood

A while back, while out with my dear mommy friends, we took turns asking each other fun, interesting and deep questions about our lives. One question that went around the table was, "What was your favorite part of childhood?"

I had my answer instantly.

Brian.

Baby brother. Maid of honor at my wedding. My partner in crime. Darshnoosh! (Remember that, Brian?)

We had a great childhood. We traveled everywhere. Visited almost half of the United States. Super cool dad who made everything fun. Beach and baseball. We moved a lot and learned how to change, make new friends and start over.

And Brian was the best part of all of that.

Brian recently played baseball at our former high school, Sunny Hills, and we went to cheer for him. I haven't walked on that campus in the 20 years it's been since I graduated. The alumni team played against the current varsity team. Varsity won. But Brian had the only RBI.

The picture above is us standing in front of our art class, the only class, we had together (I was a senior when he was a freshman). Our clearest memory of that class is that we were all sitting together working on some drawings when they announced on the radio that Magic Johnson had AIDS. Crazy.

I want my kids to take note and realize that this is the relationship that we are building for them as well, two best friends...