A Rainy Christmas.....

So apparently when you live in the Fraser Valley you don't get white Christmas, you'd think I would know that after living here for 13 years. But sometimes wishful thinking helps you be less dissapointed. It snowed a little this past week and I was finally getting into the Christmas season and then bam the freakin rain started to pour! Christmas is coming up so soon and I still have a few gifts to buy...eeek! I love Christmas with all my family bustling around the house and of course seeing my sweet niece and playing lots of games with my family at our annual Christmas Eve party....LOVE IT!! I hope you are all getting excited for the holidays!!!<3

FINAL!!!!:(

Well the semester has come to an end and unfortunately that brings exams! I am so glad to be done with this semester and can't wait for Christmas time!! But I really do hate studying....but who really likes it??? So these next few weeks are gonna be crazy, and I could use all the finger crossing and praying I can get from you all!
Thanks in advance!

21 Years ago today.....

On a cold blistery December evening while one Mr. P was out doing the evening milking of the cows, Mrs. P 9 months pregnant expecting her 5th child,was labouring over a hot stove making her signature dessert butter tarts. When she figured she was in labour she called the mid wife and she headed on over and told Mrs. P that she was going to give birth any time tonight. But Mrs. P showed her dedication to her buttertarts and wanted to finish them before. Mr. P rushed home to me by her side and in the next room the older P children were all huddled together with excitement awaiting the arrival of a new sibling. After many hours of being in labour Mrs. P managed to deliver a baby girl....who was me:). This is the story my mom tells me every birthday. I always enjoy hearing it and can't wait to tell my kids how their mom was born. Its a pretty cool story because not many babies were being born at home anymore. Thanks mom for bringing me into this world and loving me sooo much!

Blah!

Well nothing too new and exciting is going on these days, just the same old school and work and school and work. I am really looking forward to Christmas, and being with all my family and my sister also finds out what she is having before Christmas so that will be cool! But until then there isn't much to look forward to:( So thats pretty much my update.....

Psychology Midterm

So as I mentioned in an earlier post I had my psychology midterm last wednesday and I got the mark back today...I got a b+....almost an A but one percent away:)! This is a huge relief.....now I just need to do good on my other two midterms...think of me on tuesday and thursday when I am writing them.

My motivation...

This past weekend when my niece was up visiting for Thanksgiving, she said something so sweet to me that just melted my heart and I possibly would have cried but there was too many people around.....we were gathering around to eat dinner and I came and sat down at the table across from her and she was sitting next to Grandpa(my dad) and she said to him out of no where, " I really love Auntie Melissa !" *TEAR* that totally made my month and almost year. I was just reminded of her statement today when I was trying to calm myself down before my Psycholgoy midterm, and it totally made me feel sooooo much better and peaceful. Children can say the sweetest things sometimes and you know they mean it, because they have such innocence and aren't yet influenced by all the negative crap that goes on in our world. So this next week when I am rushing around studying and stressing out I am going to try and remember that moment and hopefully it will motivate me to focus and get done what needs to be done!.....So thank you to my sweet niece who helped me get through a crazy day!

I Love you, my little roo!

Thanksgiving Weekend

So this weekend we had all the family at home for Canadian Thanksgiving. It was a very busy weekend but always is when all the family is around. We had a very yummy dinner, thanks to my mom and sisters....I would have helped but I worked in the morning and then we had kind of a late lunch or early ish supper, so it was nice to just sit down and enjoy! Boy am I exhausted now, I worked very early shifts this weekend on top of already being tired from a busy week of studying for midterms......and then to have the house full, which I love. But I am definitely feeling the fatigue now! This week coming up I have a midterm that I am fairly worried about, lots of things to memorize and try to understand for it. I am hoping to get a lot of study done tomorrow because its the holiday, can't wait to sleep in!!!! Well I hope you all had a great weekend!

Just a few family pics

me and my younger sister(fun times)

Auntie and Mila <3>Mila with her baby, so sweet!

Cuteness

Just a video of my niece thats pretty cute. I've been missing her the last few days :(

Love love love GLEE!

So have any of you been watching the new show Glee, I absolutely love it!:) Its such a fresh show, there is all these crime shows and reality shows, that its really refreshing to watch something different. Its based on the story of highschool students and it mainly focuses on the different clubs in highschool, cheerleaders etc. Its has the elements of a musical but nothing like that stupid Highschool Musical..worst show ever! Anyways I suggest that you watch it!:)

Growing up isn't all its cracked up to be...

Well its the third week classes and I am so far really digging all my classes, except for maybe history...which is kind of slow to start out. But psychology and sociology I find really interesting. I am in my second year of university and I have always known what I wanted to do, it has always involved working with children, first I wanted to be a social worker but then realized that its a very emotionally draining job and I wouldn't be very good at leaving my work at work, which most people say is a key thing. So I picked the next best thing being a teacher, manly a elementary teacher, But I have been a little conflicted as of late if I really would make a good teacher and if there is a lot of job security in teaching. I have talked to many people all with a different opinion on the matter, my sister is a teacher and she is only in the first 2 years of it as a substitute, which I know most new teachers have to do for a while. So I have her telling me, that right now its not a good job to have, and then another person tells me to stick with it because so many teachers are going to be retiring in the next 5 years, which is about the time I would be graduating. I have often thought that if I didn't do teaching I would still want to work in a school as a counselor, because psychology has always been one of my interest. WHAT TO DO... WHAT TO DO! I always said I wasn't going to be one of those students who went to school and kept changing there focus or major....and here I am trying to make a decision that may turn me in another direction. At least I haven't declared a major yet...but its almost scary to think I could be changing how I thought things would turn out. I don't like change!!! But I don't want to be stuck in a job that makes me miserable or unhappy with my life when I am 80 . Anyone have a helpful opinion that could point me in the right direction???? OPEN FOR SUGGESTIONS!!:)

Busy season is here!

Well its been a while since I wrote on my blog, things have been soooo busy! Summer went too fast but I am looking forward to the next few seasons. We have two big "events" coming up in the next year. My sister Jo is expecting her second baby around the middle of April and my little sister is graduating from highschool. I am really looking forward to the new challenges and expieriences of the next bit of the year. I hope you all have had a easy transition into fall!

Summers almost gone :(

I can't believe that summer is almost over, it went by way too fast! I didn't really do anything exciting this summer like last when I went to a family reunion near the end of August, now that was fun I meet a few of my cousins wives and families and such. I wish we were all back at Camp Wakonda...good times!! But this summer I have worked a lot and done litte trips down to Seattle to see my sis's family. I am oddly enough looking forward to school starting back up....and just getting back to normal. I can't believe I am actually gonna say this but, I really want some fall weather this summer has been ridiculously hot and I love to be all comfy in my sweaters and stuff instead of being all hot and sweaty, trying to stay cool. And the sooner fall comes the closer we are to Christmas which is my favorite time of year and its going to be my 21st bday on the 1st of December:)...PARTY!!! Well don't have anything to big planned for the weekend my sis and her fam are coming to visit today till sat sometimes to that will be a treat!
Hope everyone has a good weekend !

My BFF

Just wanted to take the time to acknowledge my best friend who means the world to me, her name is Miranda. Our families have been friends forever, we became best friends probably around the age of 5sh....we had always played together when we were younger but we truly became..as Anne Shirley would say "kindred spirits" at 5 or 7. We share a few differences that oddly enough balance our friendship, for example she is very adventurous and does things very spur of the moment, as I plan things out more and am very content to stick to the things I know rather than try a bunch of new things. But one thing we both share is our very loud, giddy personalities, we can be talking about absolutely nothing and make it into something funny. People just don't get us sometimes. But that's what best friends are for, they get what everyone else doesn't take time to get. We have many funny stories that we could both tell at the drop of a hat, but I think one we would both hold out at the number one spot is the Idaho road trip. It was a very random road trip we took to meet some old friends of both of our families in the summer of 2007. We had planned to be there at around 12pm....but with the border line ups and the late start we were still driving and not even close to our destination around 12. So we had the music blaring, playing a bunch of stupid games...stopping at random rest stops, oh and let me tell you we stopped at the best rest stop on the planet. We drove in and there was a whole whack of fire fighters...........like I mean 20 trucks of them. It was definitely a sight to be seen :) Even though nothing special happened other than meeting some interesting people along the way it was just a fun random trip that will always be one of the best memories I have of! Miranda is an awesome friend because she listens when I need to talk is always a phone call away or a 10 minute drive away. Your the best Mirph, and I will always appreciate you as a friend!

Fun Weekend!

This weekend my niece Milana stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house(my mom and dad). It was a lot of fun, my sister and her bubby drove up from Seattle on Saturday and dropped her off. They needed a little bit of a break and we always love having her stay with us, she is a lot of fun! And it gave my sister and her hubby time to relax and sleep in the following morning:).....I know she will repay me when I have kids in the years to come! Anyways so M woke me up promptly at 630 am on Sunday morning.....but she is too cute so how could Auntie be mad lol! We had a fun day on Sunday went for breakfast at good ole Tim Hortons, then we went to the lake for the afternoon.....she was pooped after the afternoon, I recommend going to the lake if you want to ware a 3 year old out! Then my sis came back up sunday night and we had a bbq with the family, and the today I got to spend sometime with my sis(Joanna), it was a really good weekend! I won't be seeing my sis and her family for a month or so because they are going to Colorado for a week to see her in laws and M will get to play with her 2 cousins, so it was nice to see them once more before they go away.

Hope everyone else had a great relaxing weekend!

Have a good week!

Something new!

Well today I am going to try a new recipe, I was inspired through a friend to try it and it looks simply delicious. It's probably something so simple that most of you have tried but I have never had all the ingredients all together so I thought I would give it a try. My mom and dad are not going to be home this evening so I am having my sister Mary and her better half over for a little dinner!:) I hope it turns out okay, as my sister Mary is the queen of making nice Sunday night dinners in our family. She usually has our folks and usually me and whoever else wants to come, over for dinner every Sunday night. We haven't had one for a while because her and Ben(better half) have been in the process of renovating and moving the past two months, so things are hectic! So cross your fingers that I can impress her, because she knows I live to impress her ha ha!
Here goes nothing!!!

Milana's 3rd Bday festivities....a smash hit!

Birthday Sweetie

M's birthday party went just as planned the weather was awesome, very warm for the water park. Lots of friends and family around and she had a huge smile on her face the whole day pretty much....until she got tired and grumpy around bed time, its a lot of work to entertain guest :) So heres just some of the pics that were taken, hope you enjoy! She is a pleasant 3 year old so far lol, love ya Mila roo!

Reflecting On Milana's 3 Years

My sis and her princess (1 hour old)

Me and Mila roo (5 days old)

3 months

1 year

2 and a half

Well tomorrow is my sweet niece's 3rd birthday! Can't believe I just wrote those words, it has gone so fast...and I'm sure its even gone faster for my sister..seeing as she is with her day in and day out. Milana is my little roo, that is my own special nickname for her ,one that just Auntie Missa is aloud to use :). I remember when my sister found out she was pregnant I was absolutely ecstatic! I have always loved kids, and anyone that knows me knows this is true! But it was going to be something special to have a nephew or a niece, when I found out that my sis was having a girl I was super excited. Since I come from a female dominated family I knew my little roo would fit in perfectly.I didn't know how perfectly though until she came into the world. I remember the night/morning perfectly, I had just started my new job at Safeway(BLAH!) and it was my first night of closing, my dad and my lil sis came in 10 mins before I was off and let me know that my mom had driven down to Seattle earlier that day because my sis Jo, was sure she was going to have the baby soon. So I rushed trying to get things done at work, and we rushed home to get the "for sure" phone call. My sister Jo wanted all her sister to be there around the time she gave birth, so we were all going to be there. My mom was going to call us when the doctors knew what was kinda going on. I got home and we got a call that it probably wouldn't be happening till later the next day, so we all went to bed around 11pm....and just as we were falling asleep the phone rang and my mom said we better get moving, my sis and her hubby live in Seattle so we had a lil drive from Abbotsford to get there...about 2 hours going the speed limit. So we got ready made some tea(a must) and headed across the boarder....it was fairly easy getting across because it was 12 am the next morning, and no one was around. I remember the boarder guard asking ,"why we were going across so late", we responded "with our sister is having a baby!"He asked us,"do you have any plants"...my sister Shelley responded with,"OH NO!"(thinking he meant drugs) and he said," well thats rude!" Anyways that gave us a good laugh and off we went, and just our luck we got stuck behind a train crossing! But we were soon enough on our way, at about 130am my mom called and let us know we better hurry if we wanted to be there before she was born, and then about 30 mins later we got the call that she was born, at 2am on July 18th. We were only 20 mins away from the hospital, so we still got to see her when she was fairly new. I remember how exciting it was to hold her, my sister didn't want us to know the name until we got to the hospital and we were all pleasantly surprised. Milana Alexandra Quintero was introduced to her Putman Aunties....can't imagine how overwhelming it was for her....but she has fit into our family very well, she is a social butterfly and loves being around people and parties! So that is the very long story of Mila roo's birthday! :) Hope you stuck around for it, because this sweet little girl deserves a spot in my blog. She has brought so much to my life, can't even explain it!

Mila Roo's Profile:

Name: Milana Alexandra Quintero

Age: 3 in 15 hours

Grandparents: Paul and Cathy Putman(Gappa and Gamma:), Judy and Fernando Quintero

Mommy and daddy: Joanna (Putman) and Samuel Quintero

Putman Aunts and Uncle: Shelley, Mary , Melissa, Jessica, and Chris

Favorite Colour: Purple

Favourite Princess: Cinerella

And last but not least a ray of sunshine, and my little roo!

I'll post pics and a summary for her 3rd bday party later!...hope you all have a good weekend, cause mines gonna be fabulous :)

Happy Birthday big brother!

So today is my brother Chris's birthday, he turns 36 today(old mans club). Well as some of you are probably thinking, "I didn't know she had a brother"? Well I do, he sort of gets lost in the action coming from a family of 5 girls.....not gonna lie we run the show! But he is still very special to me in many ways. Can't say we are super close, we use to be more so when I was younger. But over the years I have gotten busy with life and haven't spent as much time with him as I would like to. Chris is a very caring brother and is always asking how I am doing. I know if I needed him for anything he would be there in a heartbeat. So cheers bro, I hope you have a great year full of new expieriences! XOXO!

Up next my niece Milana's 3rd birthday in Seattle with my fabulous family, should be an absolute blast!

Stuck in my head

Well I don't know about you but I constantly get songs stuck in my head! At the moment I have two songs holding that position in my head, the first one is by U2 and it's called "If I don't go crazy"...such a good song! Besides always loving Bono's voice this song has a great beat that instantly sticks with you. The second one is by The Killers, "Dustland Fairytale"...again LOVE IT! Brandon Flowers is amazing, I will never forget going to their concert, it was fantastic :). I have been listening to these two songs on repeat for the past 4 days. I know I will get annoyed with them soon enough and then I'll need a break from them but for now these songs are where its at :).

Next: I will most likely be dedicating a couple blogs this week to two special family members who's birthdays happen to be this week, so be on the look out for those!

Disapointments suck!

Well I went for my roadtest today, and I was feeling pretty confident. I had a lot more practice since my first time, when I didn't get a lot of practice before taking it and it was kinda a hasty decision to make the appointment to take it anyways. So this time I had a lot more practice, was able to drive more and felt very confident. I checked in for my exam and was still feeling oh k a little nervous, I was hoping I would get a guy, and I did I got the very nice guy who took all my information when I checked in. That was a huge relief, and he was a super nice guy. I had all these thoughts running through my head, like I would be able to go here and there this weekend, when I got it and so on. And even throughout the test I felt good, I felt like I was being cautious and safe and doing all the right manouvers. But when it was over he told me that I had failed and then continued to tell me why and such, now I did a lot better than the first time. So there are jsut a few things I need to work on and he said I would be good to go again in 14 day! I was very level headed and calm at that time when he was telling me all this, but as soon as my mom came into the car, I lost it......I cried for a good 20 minutes yelled a bit and then I just got pissed off, because they make you pay all this money before the test and then when you fail it seems like such a huge waist of money! I hate when the instructors say things like, " don't get discouraged" I always feel like screaming at them and telling them," how can I not get discouraged when all these stupid drivers are out there getting into accidents and such....and you gave them their license but yet someone who drives carefully etc.....has such a hard time getting it." Not very rational thinking happens when your in the heat of the moment, so i'm glad I didn't say it :) But none the less, its very annoying and I hate when you work yourself up for something, go into it not knowing what to expect and then getting a bad result.......VERY ANNOYING! Well I hope you bared with me through my ranting, now I'm gonna go out with some girl-friends and forget about this test and be positive for the next one :) I THINK I CAN ,I THINK I CAN!!!! :)
Next up a fun filled weekend with my sister Mary, hanging out in her new place, consuming mass amounts of WINE ! lol

Shout out to my momma....

Well a couple weeks ago it was my mom's birthday and lately I have been thinking about how special she is to me. My mom is a mother to 6 kids......yes thats right she's crazy! I often wonder if she still has her sanity standing beside her anymore. She is a very caring, sensitive mom. If any of us need her she is there in a heart beat, she carries her children with her in her heart everday. If I was to describe my mom in one word it would have to be worry. If any of you know her you know she is famous for worrying. When I go out the door this is what I hear from her," Make sure you are safe, call me if anything happens, I love you have a good time". She stays awake at night till me and my little sister are safe in the house. Even though we always tell her "just go to bed we will come and tell you when we are home". It never fails she always says,"I can't go to sleep unless you are both here safe". Now sometimes my little sister will get so irratated with her because she worries so much ,she finds it annoying. But as I have gotten older I have realized that I wouldn't trade my over caring, worrying mother for anything, some daughters and sons out there have a mother who could care less where they are or what they are doing. I have come to appreciate my mom for who she is. My mom and I are very much a like, for one I look a lot like her, more so when she was younger, but everywhere we go people know we are mother and daughter. I am proud to look like such a remarkable women who has always put her family first. She started out as a young mom, and didn't get the chance to go out and do those wild and crazy things young adults do in their twentys and such. She loves her children immensly and for that I admire her. Cheers momma, you are the glue that holds the big crew together! I love you to the moon and back! :)

Next blog, talking about another special person in my life:)

Princess Sarcasm at your service!

So I never realized how sarcastic I was! My manager at work always used to tell me, "gosh your so sarcastic" and I never really read into it. But recently I started realizing how sarcastic I am. The dictionaries definition of sarcasim is,"remarks that mean the opposite of what they seem to say and are intended to mock or deride. " Now thats a pretty harsh definition that makes sarcasim seem like such a negative thing. When I use sarcasim a lot of the times I am not saying things to mock, truthfully a lot of times I just say things sarcasticly because I dont' want to say things that would make someone angry with me, again the whole people pleaser thing comes into play. For example if someone at work ask me to do something I would say, "Oh sure I would love to!"....because what I really want to say is "hell no" :) So I guess I use sarcasim to mask my true feelings about certain things. So I say the world needs to change their definition of sarcasim, I'm writing my own definition of it so I don't feel so bad about being the sarcasm princess! :)
Ta ta for now!

Bad Day!

Well today was one of the worst days I have had in a while. It started out like any other day, got ready for the day headed off to work and started my shift. Everthing was fine and dandy until I went back to work after my first break. A few machines weren't working and hungry people wanted there deep fried food(YUCKY!). I was stuck with one the whole day, trying to cook up many variaties of stuff. So I had to deal with all these bitchy people complaining etc. Although I know my boss doesn't blame me for all that wasn't working, i'm a people pleaser and always feel like they she is mad at me because things weren't getting done. I kept thinking things would get better, but I guess sometimes when your having a bad day you just have to believe that tomorrow will be better and just give up on trying to go out of your way to make today better....and just file it in the BAD DAY folder and move right along :)
Hoping for blue skies tomorrow !