Thursday, January 15, 2015

Hey you all!

I'm back! Yeah, yeah, I know....I'm inconsistent with this stupid blog. The irony of it is that I have so many things I need to say and this is the best way to do it. But, I get lazy and end up doing other stuff that's actually more important.  It's 2015. I want this year to be my break out year. I want my photography business to explode. I want faithful clients.  I want people to stop thinking that I can hand out discounts and cheap prices because they can't or they don't want to pay for my services.  I have spent years educating myself, buying expensive equipment and learning how to use all the equipment, to be treated as an amatuer.  It's disgusting how someone gets a "high end" camera that takes beautiful pictures and right away they think they are professional photographers.  They are clueless. They don't know anything about lighting, aperture priority, shutter priority, manual setting, exposure compensation, ISO....etc.  I can go on and on, but let's leave it there. I have some pictures to edit.  I'll be back later......

Friday, July 2, 2010

I need to get back to blogging really bad!!!

The last time I blogged was May of 2009. So many things and changes have happened in my life since last May. I need to start writing my inner thoughts on my blog. I am need an outlet to release what goes on in my mind and heart and how I truly feel! Lately, I've been getting so frustrated by things that I wouldn't given a second thought years ago. I don't its because of what I experienced during my health crisis or because I'm at that stage in life where I have finally reach maturity and I see everything in a different light or because I'm currently in full blown menopause.

Anyway, I hope this is the first of many entrances in this blog. Whoever reads my blog, please do not judge me when I truly express my feelings. I'm just being REAL! I am not a sugar coater and pretend that my life is picture perfect. I like to express myself honestly. Thats just who I am and should be accepted for it. One thing I know for sure is that I have a passion in my heart to serve Him in truthfully....I love God with all my heart, mind, soul! He is my everything....and I desire to teach, preach and speak His Word wholeheartedly to those who don't know Him, to those who knew him and have left and to the congregants of His church who are "masked christians."

I'll finish for now...but I have so much to say....but don't know where to start! So, until I get my thoughs straight...I'll be posting some deep, inner thoughts. lol

Aileen

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Road Trip to Texas!

Hello all my friends and family.....I am finally in Texas, but not at the final destination. I am currently at Sarah's parent's house in Sherman, Texas. We are spending the day...relaxing, before moving on to Dilley, TX...which will be another 8 hours! The trip has been a tough one, but worth it for me!

Day 1:

On Monday morning we left Connecticut at 10:00 a.m. We got to New York two hours later. We had to cross the Tappan Zee Bridge to connect over to New Jersey. Well, we crossed over the bridge and somehow...according to the GPS....it put us back on the bridge going north! Once on the other side we pulled over to see if the GPS was giving us the right directions. We went over the bridge again and figured out that the GPS was not "up to date" because there had been construction done and we had detour to another exit. Anyways, we figured it out and we were back on the road.

The night before we had bought a lot of "goodies" to take on the road. Well, the night before Sarah told me to put the chocolate stuff in the refrigerator....I told her "let's not put it in the there because we're going to forget to take it out in morning." Sarah said..."I'll put it on my IPhone as a reminder." Well, once we were back on the road, I decided I wanted one of my chocolate cakes. When I saw Sarah's expression....I knew she had forgotten to take the goodies out of my refrigerator....I started 'crying and whining'....I radioed Robb and he started doing the same thing I did....It was going to be a long ride or a least until we get to a Walmart...

At around 2:30, we had entered the State of Pennsylvania when Sarah realized that the car was overheating! We pulled over the car and realized we need to stop a nearest gas station. Robb put the stuff you need to put in when you car overheats. We went back on the road....the car started overheating again! Sarah decided to look up where the nearest AutoZone was at so Robb can buy a "piece" he thought might help the car overheating. He went inside the store and came out with a man who had graduated from East Hartford High School in Connecticut. Wow, talking about being a small world. We were in Lebanon, Pennsylvania...go figure.

Well, the guy told him it was the temperture gauge but wouldn't be able to help him because it was against store for him to work on a car. At this point, Robb was becoming frustrated and put his hand on the car and asked the Lord..."ok Lord, what I am to do...I don't know how to change a tempature gauge....I don't know anyone around here...I need you to guide me." 5 minutes later a young Hispanic man with an older Hispanic man pulled into AutoZone. The young man approaches Robb and asks him what was wrong with the car. Robb explained to him what was going on and the young man told Robb if he could look at the car. He looked into the car and confirmed that indeed the was the gauge. He told Robb he was a mechanic and the he would changed it for him. Robb asked the guy how much would he charge. The young man said $30.00. Robb immediately said ok. The guy started to work on the car and was talking to Robb as he was working on the car. He asked Robb where he was from and where he was going. Robb told him he had worked at a church in Connecticut and was moving back to Texas. The guy looked at Robb and said "Hey, I'm a Christian too....then he pointed towards the older Hispanic man and told Robb...."He's a pastor." Robb then started to tell him the prayer he had said just 5 minutes before they had pulled into AutoZone and the guy told him, "wow, I feel the Holy Spirit....look at man hands my hair is standing up."!

I proceed to talked to the older gentlemen who did not speak too much English and I started to ask him where was he a pastor at. He told he was pastor in Harrisburg, PA. He told me he was Pentecostal. I told him "so are we." He started praising the Lord! He told me that he in the town of Lebanon for the day to do somethings and then he remembered that one of his good friends lived in the area and felt like looking him up because he had not seen him in a while. He called his wife and told her to look up his number. He called him and they had been spending the day together. The older gentlemen asked him if he could take a look at his call because felt he it needed some work to be done. The young man proceeded to check his call and told him need some things to be changed and told him "let's go to AutoZone to pick the parts up." That's how they ended up there! We continued talking and I asked him how long has he been a Pastor and has he always lived in PA. The gentleman told me that he had lived in NY for over 15 years before moving to PA and that he attend had attend a church in the Bronx while he lived there....I just about almost fell over. I knew exactly what church he was talking about and where it was in the Bronx. You see I use to go to that church a lot when I was younger and in my teen years. We had a lot of youth conventions...youth services...etc. at that church...I even knew who the pastor of the church was! The church was a very intregal part of the Spanish Eastern Assemblies of God with whom my home church was afflitated with. My father-in-law was Asst. Superintendent of that district for years.

It was so awesome to see how God sent these two men to help us! The young man change the gauge, but when Sarah went to start the car...the battery was dead. They tried to cable hot wire it....but it was of no use. Robb had to buy a new battery and the guy installed it for him. (just so happen the battery was not in good condition).

by the time everything was finished...battery change...temperature gauge change, it was already 7:30 p.m. Robb thanked thanked the guys profusely. The guys told Robb..."we want to pray for you all...so you can reach you destination safely." We proceed to get in a circle...right there in front of AutoZone...and they started to pray..in Spanish. Let me tell you...the prayer was a powerful, authoritive prayer. The pray that a heavenly host of Angels prepared the way ahead...that no harm can touch us...that God's hands be with us all the way to Texas and that no obstacles stand in the way of God's works and His will! When the prayer was done and we got into the car, Sarah asked me to translate what they had said in their prayer because she had felt the Holy Spirit so strong. When I told her the above...she started to choke up and thanked God for his faithfullness. The older gentleman had given me his business card and told me to give him a call to make sure we had arrived safely. Isn't God awesome....It was an experience we will never forget.

Well, we got back on the road knowing that we had six more hours of travel before we got to Harrisonburg, VA where we had book our hotel for that night. We stopped to eat dinner and got back on the road by 9:30ish. We did not reach our hotel until 2:30 in the morning. We were exhausted but thanking God for his mercies...for we got there safe because of him. Amen!

Continuation....tomorrow...stay tuned...lol

Friday, April 17, 2009

My Son....the next Steven Spielberg!

Andrew mentioned two weeks ago that he had to do a class project for History class. They are studying WWII, in particular Hitler. He told us he had asked his teacher if he could do it in Video form....his teacher readily agree. He mentioned to us the ideas he had and we told him "Go for it honey." Well, all week last and this week, between the play and school, I had been observing him cutting a cardboard box...redoing one of his model cars, and several other things!

One day, I went into the guess room , I saw him sewing something....I asked him what was he sewing? I was so amaze when he showed me he was doing the Robin outfit from the old Batman movies. I told him it looked kind of small for him and he said it was for Jacob. lol. As for the Batman suit, he had us go to several party stores and he couldn't find it. I told him to go online and order it.

Well, I could not believe it when he showed me the final version of the video!!!! We don't have the best Video editing software, since I'm not into videos but pictures, so he had slim pickins to work with. But I couldn't believe how creative and imaginative he his. (it really shouldn't surprise me because when he was little he would build cities out of legos...he love legos when he was younger and he still loves them....he would play with them for hours and end up building his own creations out of them).

Well here is the video so you all can enjoy it as much as David and I have. We're actually are lying in bed and rewinding the video over and over again. It's so rewarding to see our children coming into their own and at the same time knowing they are not babies anymore and how they have become their own "person".....

Thursday, April 16, 2009

NYC on Monday!

Sarah had been wanting to go back to NYC, especially to Chinatown to buy some purses before she leaves for Texas. We had been planning to go since the beginning of March...but something would come up that we couldn't make it. Finally, we were able to go on the Monday after Easter.

I drove my van down to my dad's house in Trumbull, CT, he then drove us to the train station. We got to NYC about 12:30 p.m and headed straight to Chinatown (Canal Street). I had promised Sarah to get her a purse for her birthday and her mother wanted her to get one for her.


Sure sign you have arrived at Chinatown! lol


We got to Canal Street and went straight to look for the purse vendors. Now the purses we get are the Coaches, Dolce and Cabana, Prada, Dooney and Burke, Gucci...etc. If you have not experience going into Chinatown to get these purses, you have not lived! lol. They actual take you through a secret door, which leads to a secret hall way, some with stairs to go down to the basement, some not. They take you to a room and the room is filled wall to wall with all kinds of purses. Some places also have Jewelry and Watches.....Before they let you go back up, they radio the person in the front of the store to see if it's safe to bring us back up. Cops sometimes raid these small places because it's illegal to sell these items.

I ended up buying Sarah a purse that she absolutely feel in love with (dolce and cabana). She got her mother a gucci and bought herself a coach! I brought a beautiful white gucci for the summer. I thought of buying my mom a purse also, since her birthday is next week. But I decided not to because my mother and I are the same...we have sooo many purses.

After we finish shopping, Sarah was starving (she had to feed little peanut). We ended up having lunch a quaint little restaurant in Little Italy. It was wonderful. I felt like I was actually in Italy!


After, lunch we had back to midtown. We decided to go sights that Sarah had not been able to see in her previous visits.

On our way to Rockefeller, we came across the famous "Waldorf Astoria" Hotel.

I took her to Rockerfellar Center and to St. Patrick's Cathedral. (My cousin, Jason, Carlos' brother works at the Rock Cafe...down by the skating ring....I was bummed because he was not scheduled to work that day :-(
I was surprise that they still had the skating rink and not the restaurants out in the open!


We crossed the street to go to St. Patricks Cathedral. I have gone to St. Pat's so many times, but the beauty of it never gets old. Such beautiful architecture and the stained glass windows amaze me! Sarah was in awe of everything.....especially the piped organ!


Front entrance doors...


Took the picture from the entrance of the church.

The beautiful Pipe Organ...


Stained glass windows...



The Altar.....

Sarah was in such awe of the Cathedral that she decided to stay for the Mass! Oy vey....why, or why....they are soooooooooo boring. When I was a little girl, I would sometimes stay over my cousin's house for the weekend and they would go to Mass on Saturday evenings and I would get dragged along. If it wasn't for the "stand up, sit down, kneel down....stand up, sit down, kneel down routinr" I would have fallen asleep! Anyways, we stayed until they started the communion and I started to sing pretty loud......"I know it was the Blood, I know it was the Blood, I know it was the Blood for me..........One day when I was lost He died upon that cross, I know it was the blood for me".....she immediately said....OK Aileen let's go...lol..lol...lol!


We got home around 11:30 p.m and I was very happy that I was able to spend the last day together in NYC doing girly stuff.....*sniff* My friend forever Sarah....I will miss you dearly!

Resurrection Weekend!!

On Good Friday, we did our last performance of the Passion of the King! My aunts and cousins came up to see the play! I'm always stoked when I get to see family....especially when they live in North Carolina. I don't get to see them as often as I'd like. It was an extra treat to have my mom's two younger sister come up together.

Jacob had asked if Jacob Leamy could sleep over the house on Friday night. Both Jacobs are great friends and they love to sleep over each other's house. Well, at 4:00 a.m in the morning, Jacob Leamy woke up running to the bathroom to upchuck! Of course I didn't hear anything....(David tells me a bomb can hit the house and I wouldn't know it hit) Whatever! Anyway, David got up and help Jacob L. to the bathroom. At around 7:00 a.m., my Jacob gets up to upchuck too! He quite didn't make it to the bathroom, he left a trail down the hall and into the bathroom. (Mind you, I'm still not aware that this is all going on and David decides to let me sleep and not tell me anything). When I woke up...I woke up to the smell of Pinesol. I walked out of my room and I see that David had mopped the hall and the bathroom. I knew something was up because I'm usually the one who mops around the house. I asked David what possessed him to mop and he told me about the boys throwing up! He also said that he had called Joyce to let her know about Jake. Joyce told him that Caity was up all night throwing up and that her niece(who was visiting and staying over) had gotten up early in the morning to throw up also.....A STOMACH VIRUS...GREAT! UGH! We were suppose to go to my cousin Carlos' house for Easter dinner that day.

We decided to go to Carlos' house anyway, since his sisters and nephews came up from NC and my aunt was cooking. We left Jacob in bed...he had develop a slight fever. Joyce came and picked up her Jacob and off we went to Carlos and Rosies.

We had a wonderful dinner.....I love my aunt's food...she cooks soooooo good. Yum! After dinner, we had a Easter egg hunt for the younger kids. I kept on telling Carlos that he was not hiding the eggs good enough. I told him that the kids were going to find them fast. He told me not to be fool by "those little ones"....they may look smart, but their not.....he's so mean! LOL....boy when those kids came downstairs and started looking for the eggs, they were having a hard time to find them....I couldn't believe it. I guess Carlos was right...hahahahahaha. I decided to help them and give them hints and....boy did I get chastized by Carlos and his sister Lisa....geez...(I still did it with out my cousins seeing me....hehehehehe). I helped them by giving them hints....for example....they hid an egg on the back of the chair my aunt was sitting on. I told Caleb...."go give Grandma a bit hug and kiss".....lol...he found the egg!

We had a wonderful day, but I felt soooo bad my baby was home in bed! (also, I forgot my camera and I didn't get pictures.....wuah....wuah...:0(

On Sunday morning, we went to church and enjoyed the service! I especially love when they sang "Celebrate Jesus C'mon." Now that's what I'm talking about...lol. We were suppose to go to Stratford, to my brothers house, but with Jacob under the weather we dediced to stay home. Jacob just wanted to go back to bed and Andrew was also exhausted and need to work on a school project.

David and I decided to go by the Shulls' and leave the boys home resting....

My wonderful family:


My baby girls, Savannah and Makynzie


My boys and girls!


The Shulls!


My cousins, Carlos and Rosalie


The Gang!


The girls hunting for their eggs.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Passion of the King!

After 2 1/2 month of rehearsals and 7 performance...it was finally over! It's a grueling schedule, but at the end, doing the show is an awesome experience! I love the stage, especially if it has to do with the work of the Lord!!!

About 5000 people came to see the show and I absolutely know with out a doubt that many people came to the Lord and those who had knew him and left him came back to him and many others were touch and the seed was planted! We won't know the physical number here on earth, but when we get to heaven, I'm sure there will be some who will come to all of us who participated and say..."I'm here because I went to see the Passion of the King, thank you for giving to the Lord, I was a life that was saved." AMEN!

Here are some pictures from the show: