THE FAMILY

OK...here are some pictures taken at a first comunion we had at the lake this weekend! You can see the whole PRADO FAMILY as it is!!! (look at Miranda's face...)
JAvier has two older kids, Javi Jr (15) and Veronica (17).... not easy to entertain them all at once!!!! NOT EASY AT ALL!!!!! It is really a challenge....... but they are good kids. And they are wonderful with Isabella & Miranda.
They stay with us every other weekend and come over for dinner twice a week....it's crazy when they are all in the house....but we have a good time.....
and of course I had to send you the picture that Javier took of me! He really likes it!

ISABELLA & MIRANDA

Just some pictures to show you the what the crazy girls were doing this week! Isabella decided she wanted to to run erands with me dressed as a Spanish dancer! The cute 'Sevillana' started itching all in the midle of our errands....not a good idea...
Miranda....no coments.....The pictures speak for themselves.... They have both started summer camp in club very close to our house and they are having a blast!!!!!

FELT LIKE A ROCK STAR!!!!

I have to tell you one more thing that hapened on my trip to Miami.
After my mom wnt back to Guatemala, I stayed one more night waiting for Javier to come back from Canada. We were suposed to spend one night in Miami then fly back to Salvador together. So after I droped my mom off at the Airport I went to check in the hotel where we had our reservations. It is one of the best, if not the best hotel in Miami and we get a very special rate through the bank.... (Normally it's $500 a night and we get it for $170!!!) ....so as soon as I arrived the lady at the front desk says: YOU'RE SO LUCKY! THERE ARE NO MORE ROOMS AVAILABLE.....I'M GOING TO HAVE TO UPGRADE YOU TO A SUITE!!!!!!......so here are the pictures of my $170 suite!!!! wich normally costs $3,000 a night!!! I dont' have to tell you that I did not leave the suite for a long time and watched the sunset in my own balcony with the view of Miami.... It was amazing!!! I felt like a star! When Javier arrived I opened the door and said: 'Welcome.....to our new home!!!!' He totally flipped!

BARMITZVAH!

Ok! I am back.....well I've been back for a week but I've been so busy...also spending lots of time with the girls after I left them for a week!
My trip was wonderful!!!! I spen 4 days with my mom....basically shopping all day....and on the last day we went to her friends grandson 'BARMITZVAH'...wich is the reason why this whole trip started!!! and that was one of the most amazing experiences in my life!!!!!!!! I LOVED THE BARMITZVAH!!!!!!!!!!! I have always loved the jewish culture but now I love it even more!!!! If my familiy was arab I am sure I would CONVERT!!!! (...I seriously believe that I was a jewish woman in the holocaust in one of my past lives.....sorry guys.....but I DO BELIEVE IN REINCARNATION......Sorry.....)..
Ok...coming back to 'this' lifetime.....the event was so inspired and it tought me SO much on how to raise my kids that at the end I went to talk to the RABI and I have to mention it SHE was a woman Rabi!!! The sinagogue is a very reformed sinagogue and the Barmizvah was VERY diferent from the traditional ones.....at least that is what she said at the begining.
I was SO moved that she gave a copy of their service books wich have totaly inspired me to start painting a new series of paintings....one page reads like this:

' Our contract was for nurturing, and we exploited.
Our covenant was with simplicity, and we complicated.
Our actions betray our tue longings.
Not for peace do we labor, but for power.
Not for compasion, but for control.
Not for self, but for selfishness.
Each of us comes into the world with a task all our own,
yet so much of our time is spent imitating others.
Remind us of our uniqueness, chanllenge us with the pash
that only our feet can follow.
Then shall we renew our covenant
and take up the task of redeeming the world.

...and after all that spirituality.....and the amazing party afterwards....we went back to more shopping!
But the message was there...
I also saw my good friend Guillermo and we went to CAlvary on Sunday.....we also went to his nutritionist!!! He's lost 17 pounds in a month!!! So I couldn't pass on that one...Needless to say I was back on the plane carrying all kinds of giant bottles with all kinds of protein shakes in them!!!!!!!! And now my mood is horrible...this diet really sucks....IT IS SOOO HARD.....but it reallyl works! I think I've lost 3 pounds in 4 days! Amazing! But that's another blog entry...

GOODBYE...for a while

ok...this is my goodbye...just for a while since I am returning in a few days..... I have enjoyed bloging with you but tomorrow I leave to Sunny Miami for a few days...I don't think it's too sunny these days dough...
I am going with my mom to a BarMitzvah.....I told a friend who lives in Miami that I was coming and she said: "To what BAR are you guys going??? Maybe I can join you!! :)
How about that??? So for her I am coming to Miami for some good old shopping and to go a Bar with my mom!'
Talk to you soon....keep writting!!!

VIEWS FROM MY TREMBLING VOLCANOE

OK...here they are....I promised to send views from my trembling volcano so you decide for yourselves if it's worth risking it and living here.....The volcanoe is still active but has not errupted in 100 years...(actually I think that make it all worst!)...anyway everytime it has erupted all the lava & stuff goes to the other side of the volcanoe..not to my side.... Mitch saw it.....ask him! So...would you risk it???

MIRANDA/ PART II

OK...these are more pics of Miranda...I really just want you know if you can see her personality through the pictures....PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!! (F.......k!!! I just felt a really ugly tremor!!!!!! this things really freak me OUT!!!!! Too bad you were not here Mitch! I would have loved to see your face!!!!)

TERRIBLE TWO'S!!!!!!

OK! THIS ONE IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My two year old Miranda is driving me nuts!!! What is going on!!!! It's been 3 days that seem like she's on some kind of 'hyper defiant drugs'!!!! Is that normal??? I guess I did not go through this with Isabella....she is a saint!~
Please help! HOW DID KAREN DO IT WITH 6 OF THESE???????????

LAZY TOWN FAMILY

Hey...I just wanted to post a picture of the whole family, all dressed up for Isabella's 6th birthday party!! Of course all of you that have kids know about LAYTOWN......the rest of you don't have NO IDEA...like Mitch....he had no clue...
Far left: JAVI, my husbands teenage son as ZIGGY, ANDRES my brother as Robin Rotten: . ISABELLA: birthday girl.TITI, the Other Stephanie: like a niece to me. JAVIER my husband as SPORTACUS. ME as Miss Bessy and Miranda as little Stephanie.

MEA CULPA...I'VE BEEN A PERFECTIONIST

On a more serious note, as I mention in my profile I read all the 'child raising' books you could buy on Amazon and last night while reading the latest one: 'The Price of Privilege' I came across to this piece on PERFECTIONISM:
There is no perfect Christmas, child outfit, familiy, vacation, home, marriage or friendship. This is real life, and we would do well to cast the notion of perfectionism out of our lives and ge on with the real business of living with stregths and weaknesses, abilities and deficits, accomplishments and faliures. This is how we help our children learn the art of living: by encouraging them, to take pleasure from their efforts and successes and to tolerate their limitations.
CHASING PERFECTION IS A GOOD WAY TO HAVE YOUR LIFE PASS YOU BY. It keeps you focused on the future, and out of the moment. It means you miss small pleasures as you chase larger ones. And it means that your own life is stripped of real feeling, love, and connection as you pound yourself and those round you with fantasies instead of welcoming realities. The pursuit of perfection is a diversion from the messiness of real life. If your real life isn't working, don't push yor children, push yourself to make a change. ONE CANNOT E PERFECT AND VULNERABLE AT THE SAME TIME. To truly love, to truly nurture and protect both ourselves and our children we need our eyes open to the people in front of us, real people with varying degrees of talen and ambition and capacity and desire. We need to understand that often, CLOSE IS GOOD ENOUGH, AND PERFECT IS FAR TOO COSTLY!

Since I don't know how to upload my pictures in Mitch's blog to show some of the art work that we got at that village in El Salvador, I am displaying them in mine, because there were a couple of pieces I had to show you! The first one, the one of the turtles was bought originally to be a gift for Karen from me! Mitch and I thought of the whole family with mom & dad in the front and a bunch on little turtles in the background...but honestly we forgot to put it in Mitch's suitcase and the thing is sitting on my desk now reminding me of that everyday!!! Sorry Karen!!! The second one, sideways....is one of the best drawings I have seen that looks EXACTLY like ME!!!! It was so funy when I saw it I HAD TO GET IT!!! (Small boobs, looong neck and a big butt...)I am including a couple of pics so that you can see the resemblance...since I am NOT going to send you a picture in my bikini...this is the closest you will get....Last but not least...in that picture I look pregnant....BUT I AM NOT PREGNANT!!!!!! It was all the 'yuca' I ate while Mitch was here!!!!

I do have another daughter....her name is Miranda...here are a couple of pics...one very serious and the other funny.... she's quite a character...that's for sure...you'll see.

Just for you Mitch...I do look like a cow!

Last night was Isabella's Dance Show....she danced the POLKA! How about that....a half Nicaraguan/Salvadorian and half Arab/Guatemalan dancing the POLKA!!! She did a great job though....

ISABELLA & I

OK!!!! I DID IT!!! DON'T ASK ME HOW....BUT I DID IT!!! THE PICTURE SAYS IT ALL...
I AM STILL TRYING TO RECOUPERATE ALL MY ENERGY AFTER MITCH VISIT....IM EXHAUSTED!!!!!