Blog#12 My Thanksgiving

I am going to be talking about my Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving was really fun, and I enjoyed it to the fullest because it was spent with the most important people in my life; which is my family, Thanksgiving morning I helped my mom cook and make the stuffing, my mom made the turkey, and Honey Ham. This was so delicious by the way. This Thanksgiving I didn’t spend it with my mom’s whole side of the family and didn’t even spend it with my dads side of the family, which kind of sucked. I spent it with close uncles, aunts, and cousin, my grandparents, and my great grandmother. We had our Thanksgiving feast in the evening like most families do. So in the morning after I was done making my stuffing I went shopping. I know it’s usually Thanksgiving night is when you go shopping (Black Friday) but I went in the morning and I got some things for really good prices.

The evening finally came, and my family started showing up to my house. As everyone was arriving I was helping my mom set up the table and get all the food ready. Some family member that came over I felt like I haven’t seen them in a while because my little cousins didn’t look like babies anymore, time goes by so fast!!! Finally everyone arrived to my house and we gathered around the table to say our prayer before we ate. What I loved the most was that we each said what were thankful for this year, and it was actually the first time we had ever done that. Some were funny, and sad but it was nice to hear what everyone had to be thankful about. The food was so delicious, there was Turkey, Ham, my stuffing, greens, mashed potatoes, roast beef, salad, macaroni and cheese, corn bread, and a whole bunch of desserts. There was so much food, I though I was going to be going for seconds but surprisingly I didn’t. I was so full off my first plate, and all I had left was dessert and I couldn’t even eat it because I was so full. While we were eating, there was a bunch of laughter because we were talking about the old times and when my cousins my age were younger. It always feels good to be with family, because there is just so much joy in the room. Everyone was done eating, and watching the football games while we let our food digest. At every family get together we play Sherades (I don not know how to spell it) but it is a game where someone has to choose a word from a hat and has to act it out without saying anything, and whoever guesses it right they gi next. That game can go on and on with my family, it is HILARIOUS! Overall my Thanksgiving was a blast, I love it when the holidays come around because of all the family time. Well I hope everyone else had a good Thanksgiving. Happy Holidays!!!!

Blog #10 A Few Things I Like (:

My Favorite TV Shows:

Do any of you watch Criminal Minds or CSI: Las Vegas or CSI: New York? Well I do, I love these shows. Criminal Minds is my favorite out of the three. Not only because one of the FBI’s are cute but because it’s just so good. Nothing looks fake like in the other shows. Those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s about people committing crimes and the FBI have to find out who it was. It’s not easy, and it’s so interesting watching what they go through to find the criminal. My parents got me into watching it and now every Wednesday and Sunday you will find me in the living room watching Criminal Minds and CSI: Las Vegas. I would love to major in criminal justice to become a FBI, but I wouldn’t want to take the risk and never be home. I will probably look into this If I don’t end up liking my major which is Nursing. I can’t believe that things like what happen in the show do happen in real life. It’s really scary. I can watch all these shows all day even if they show re-runs, I never get tired of them. 

Criminal Minds Cast(:

Animals except Reptiles:

I love animals, but I’m not a big fan of reptiles. I would say my favorite animals would be dogs and horses. Every animal is smart and are all so cute. But I love dogs and horses. If I were to see a homeless dog I would want to take it home or take it to a shelter. That goes for every animal that I see that are homeless. I have a Chihuahua and his name is Theo short for Theodore, and I love him so much. My uncle has a ranch and I have a horse that I named Snow White when I was little. I don’t visit my uncles ranch as much because he lives all the way in Corona, but once I get better driving on the freeway I would love to go visit my horse Snow White. Anyways, I really don’t like reptiles; I hate snakes, scorpions, and all those other things that fall under the category reptiles. Well lizards are kind of cute in way so they will pass.

My Dog Theo<3 (He Kissed My Nose.

Other random things I like,

When it comes to music, I listen to R&B, Hip Hop, Pop, and Alternative music. My favorite artist right now would be J.Cole he’s a Hip Hop rapper. I love football, so every weekend I would be with my family watching very game that is on that day. I go for the Philadelphia Eagles, but there season ended today so for the rest of the season I’m going for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I’m hoping next season I will go take a trip to Philadelphia to watch my Eagles play some football. I love to cheer, I’m thinking about joining an all star cheerleading team. And when I transfer to a 4 year college I will definitely try out for the cheer team if they have one.

My Philadelphia Eagles

Blog#9 My Favorite Time Of The Year!

I’m so excited; my favorite part of the year is finally here! I love Thanksgiving and Christmas. I mean who doesn’t love these holidays, unless you celebrate something different? Once Halloween is over I become one of the happiest people on earth. First comes Thanksgiving; all that yummy food that’s served on the table that day. One thing you should know about me is that I love food! So, weeks before Thanksgiving my mom, aunts, and I go shopping for our feast that we have every year. The night before, we all stay up cooking the food and tasting everything. The dish that takes the longest to make are the tamales, I think the most I ever done was forty tamales and I’m done. Making tamales is so tiring and so boring. Sometimes they come out perfect and sometimes they come out sloppy; they will never come perfect in a row. So the food is all ready for the next day to eat and all I can say is the food comes out delicious. There’s: tamales, honey ham, turkey, roast, chicken, stuffing, home made macaroni, greens, green beans, salad, corn, cornbread, and so much desserts. Just talking about it makes my mouth watery, I can’t wait to get together with my family and feast on the yummy food the women in our family make. I also am very thankful that my family is able to always get together on Thanksgiving and spend quality time with one another.

Then its Christmas, another holiday I love. One reason why I love this holiday so much is because I love to shop. Shopping is something I can do everyday and never get tired of it. I especially love shopping for people, my parents, aunt, uncles, cousins, and friends. Besides the shopping, there’s also so much food. Since I talked about the yummy food already I don’t need to talk about it again. When your driving down the streets, all I see is Christmas lights on houses, everyone’s Christmas tree’s through the windows. It looks so pretty when you see all the different decorations and creativity people have when it comes to Christmas. Every year my family goes to Griffith Park for the light show, and that will never get old. Ever since I was a little girl, my cousins and I would always go to either ones house to make cookies for “Santa” and a gingerbread house. Now my little cousins still do it, and its so much fun, sometimes I wish I was little again to have fun making cookies thinking Santa really comes and eats them. Those were the good days.

Finally, it’s the Christmas Eve and that’s when my family get together. We eat and laugh at funny times when we were younger and just talk the night away. We always have our little secret santa so those are the only presents we get to open before Christmas day. I love it because the kids get all excited and even I do sometimes. We all stay up until 12am, but before then the kids are “sleeping” so while they sleep we put the presents under the tree. And their faces in the morning are priceless. I love Christmas!

I love this time of the year!!

Blog #7 Homecoming 2011

So this Friday was Arleta’s homecoming, and all Alumni’s were invited to come back. I have been waiting to go back and cheer again for my old high school since I graduated. was even more excited to see all my friends I haven’t seen since we graduated and the ones that left to universities. So that morning I tried on my cheer uniform to see if it fit and surprisingly it fit but kind of loose, so it was good news. When I was getting ready, I was kind of nervous to cheer again because I wasn’t sure if I remembered all the cheers and dances. Luckily, we were able to go to school early and practice with the squad so we would refresh our brains of all the cheers. It was really nice seeing all my teammates that I used to cheer with the year before. Also the fireworks at halftime were amazing.

So, at every homecoming there’s a parade and they do it at halftime, but this time it was at the beginning of the game. Some of the Alumni’s were part of the float and it was good seeing everyone, and especially the close friends that left to universities or the ones I haven’t seen since we graduated. Everyone was so happy to see one another, and it was just exciting. We were riding on a truck and we were just having a blast while we were going around the track. Finally’ it was time for us to get off and go into the stands. Since I cheered 3 years in high school I never experienced sitting in the stands on homecoming because I was always on the sidelines. But, wow it was crazy. It was so packed and it was hard trying to find some where to sit. It was fun cheering in the stands with all my friends which are really fun by the way.

It was time for the Alumni cheerleaders to join the squad and I was a bit nervous. But I had a lot of fun. It felt good being in my uniform and cheering again with my friends. I didn’t mess up as much when we were doing cheers or dances so I was happy. The only thing I missed about high school was cheering and being with my friends that I missed so much. After the game my friend was having a little get together at her house since she was back in the valley for the weekend and it was nice spending time with her. I saw my friends baby for the first time and she is gorgeous. I didn’t long at the get together but I was glad to have one of those “parties” again. It brought back a lot of memories from the football season of my senior year because we would always hangout Friday nights after the football games. I’m hoping we can do that again soon.

Blog #6 My Weekend

During the weekend I went horseback riding and it was so much fun. I went to Griffith Park and it was so amazing. I love horses, and I always loved going horseback riding since I was little. I remember when my family would go to San Felipe, Mexico, and we went horseback riding on the beach. The last time I went to Mexico was probably 5 years ago, it’s been a really long time. I really want to go back just to go horseback riding on the beach as the sun went down. It was the most beautiful scenery ever. But I was so glad that I was able to go horseback riding again with my family and reminisce on those days in Mexico.

As we were on our way to the top of the mountain, I saw lots of bunnies. I wish I could of taken one home with me. I love animals. It felt so relaxing and the mood felt calm so it was just perfect. I love going on little adventures and experiencing new things. The best part of my little adventure was arriving to the top and overlooking the San Fernando Valley. It was beautiful, I was able to see all the city lights shining so bright. The cars on the freeways, and it looked like a river coming down mountains. The sky was filled with different colors, purple, pink, and blue. It was just so beautiful. I wished I took pictures but I was so fascinated on how beautiful everything looked, I didn’t even bother taking out my phone. We stayed at the top for a bit and had our little snacks and were just having family time, and laughing at the funny moments we had when we were younger.

It felt so good hanging out with family and just relaxing and having a good time.

Finally, we were on our way back down the mountain and it felt so fresh as the wind blew. As we were heading down all you can is the horses galloping down the mountain.

We reached our destination, and when I got off I will admit I was kind of sore. It’s been a while since I ridden a horse. It wasn’t just me but my cousins were also walking all funky as we were headed to the car. It was hilarious but I knew I wasn’t walking that funny, well at least I hope I wasn’t. Now I know that I have to go horseback riding more often, because I missed it so much. Especially with my cousins and how funny they are. Family always makes the best of everything. But I’m hoping one day I will go with friends and it will definitely be something to remember. Hopefully one day I will own my horse.

My Family

I love my family so much and how much different they are to each other, because my mom is Mexican and my dad is African American. Many people when they first meet me think I’m African American because of my skin color or the type of hair I have (which is really curly) but little do they know I am Mexican as well.

When it comes to holidays or special celebrations there are different ways it’s celebrated between the two cultures. The cooking is different, the music, and religion in some way. I am blessed with a family that loves to cook, because both families cook tons of food when it comes to holidays. When I’m with my moms side of the family there’s: tamales, rice, beans, posole, mole, enchiladas, and much more. On my dads side of the family there’s: chicken, greens, cornbread, stuffing, homemade mac & cheese (which is so delicious), ribs, and so much more. So when it comes to the Holidays I love it because I always get to have all this (which is so delicious), ribs, and so much more. So when it comes to the Holidays I love it because I always get to have all this yummy food in my tummy.

My dad’s side of the family is really loud, meaning there very outgoing and so much fun. At parties or family reunions there’s music playing and everyone is dancing; not one person is shy. On my mom’s side of the family there very quiet, at family reunions there is music playing as well but no one dances because that side of my family is shy I know that’s where I get my shyness from. But no matter how different my family is from one another I enjoy being with each one of them. I am blessed to have two cultures to learn from. Everyone in my family always have the right things to stay.

My family is very supportive and so loving!! Every time I’m with them all I get is encouragement and so much love. On both sides of my family school is very important, so I get all the help I need when it comes to school. I’m pretty sure every family is like that. Family is always a big part in ones life.

Cheerleading

I cheered for three years during high school; I cheered my Sophomore year all the way to my Senior year. Ever since my first year joining cheer I wished I was in it all my four years of high school. Cheering was really fun, and it also helped me break out of my shell. I was a really quiet person, and my family couldn’t believe that I was interested in cheering because of how quiet I was. Even to this day I’m a bit of a quiet person. Well I’m glad to say that cheerleading has changed that because its also something I love to do.

Once I started cheer, the cheer squad started learning how to stunt and stunting is something I love to do when it comes to cheer. Learning all the cheers, dances, and stunts during summer vacation was so tiring but worth it. I loved going to summer practices, even though it was so tiring. When I joined the team I became close to people that I would have never thought I would become so close too. That was another opportunity for me to make friends because I was so shy. I was in the Junior Varsity Squad my Sophomore year and it was fun because I had all my friends cheering with me as well. I remember we didn’t like our captain because she was so stuck up, but we had to deal with her for 1 more year so we had to get over it. But other than that my Sophomore year cheering was so fun; and that year our football team made it to the championship and so we cheered for them. That was another great experience I had, The bleachers were crowed with Mustang fans and it was just so much fun; our football team won the championship too! My Junior year I went up to Varsity; cheering was fun too, but not as fun because there was so much drama.

Senior year I became Captain of the Varsity squad so I knew that this was going to be a good year. Three of my closest friends also became Captains of the squad so we were going to make the best of our senior year. The squad wasn’t just a squad we became like a family. It felt really good knowing that our team didn’t have problems like last years team. We made up a lot of our dances that we performed and they were dances that are squad actually liked. I can honestly say that I was close to every single girl and guy on that squad. I loved how we worked as a team and everyone was so dedicated to getting things done. Even the principal of our school said that we were the bet squad she had ever since she became a principal overall. We went to competition that was way out of our league; but as a team we wanted to go to have a challenge, And we gout 4^th place out of 6 teams that were in our division group. We didn’t have tumbling we just had round off’s and car-wheels, I was so proud of my team and loved them even more. My point is, a team can be more than just your teammates they become family. I was so happy that I was able to have a GREAT cheer Family my senior year cheering. (:

 Captains :)

 My Cheer Family<3

 Arleta High School

2010-2011 Cheer Squad(:<3

Best Year Ever!!

Graduation Day (:

I couldn’t have been anymore proud of myself graduating Arleta High School with high honors. My parents were also so proud of me. My senior year passed so fast I couldn’t believe it was already time to graduate. I’m pretty sure everyone else felt that way. The graduation was at College of the Canyons also known as just COC. School ended at 12 for seniors that day because we had to get ready for graduation. I remember we had to go to school in the morning just rehearse the “ceremony.” At rehearsal people were already crying so I couldn’t even imagine in the actual graduation how many people were going to be crying. Anyways, when my dad picked me up from school he was even so excited, and when I got home the house was decorated with Arleta colors, red, black, and white. There was huge Arleta poster in the dining room wall. There was a bunch of pictures on the walls, and they were pictures since I was a baby until now. My parents went all out on decorating the house for my graduation dinner. I was getting ready because it was getting closer to the time that I had to be at COC.

Finally, it was time to leave my house and go to COC for graduation. The first person I saw when I got there was one of my really close friends Marielle Guevera. When we saw one another we just gave each other a huge hug and we didn’t want to let go. Then it was time to go into the gym to meet up with our teachers and the rest of the graduates. Everyone was so excited and was ready to graduate and receive their “diplomas.” Then it was time to line up and get ready to walk onto the field. As we were waiting in line we were all so nervous and happy. As we got closer to the field I heard the senior song playing, which was “Clocks” by Coldplay. I also heard the crowd yelling and cheering us on as we walked onto the track. We finally got into our lines so we could take our seats, and once the graduation song started playing we started walking. I must admit I did start crying for a bit but then stopped. We all took our seats and listened to everyone speak.

The crowd was just cheering for us, and signs were up in the air and air horns were being blown as we walked the stage. When it was time to receive my diploma I got so nervous just for no reason, but after I shook Mrs. Rickmans hand, my diploma was in my hands. ‘Yay! I we did it!!” my friend Maria said. It felt so good and accomplishing. After everyone received their diplomas, Dr. Calvo, our principal said a few words which were, “As the graduating Class of 2011 you guys were my FAVORITES!” That’s why our class name was The Favorites.

Lastly, it was time to switch our tassel to the right, and celebrate. There was a bunch of pictures with many close friends and family, but it was time to go celebrate with my family at home. I had such a blast that night with my family and my mom made some really good food and  my uncle which was the Dj, played all my favorite music which kept me on the dance floor. Graduation was a blast!

My parents who I love so much, I thank them for everything!!

                                                      My closest friend Marielle Guevera(:

                                                      The Favorites, Class of 2011 !!

                                                                        Party Time!

                                 

Family Camping Trip to Lake Nacimiento

During the summer I went camping with my family to Lake Nacimeinto up North. I was really looking forward to the trip because we rented a RV and I was happy because I don’t like sleeping in the tents. The drive there was about 5 hours, but it was all worth it because we were able to stop at the gas stations and they were right by the beach. It was our first time going camping all together as a big family. So once we were getting closer to Lake Nacimeinto, my phone didn’t have signal. Driving up that huge mountain was scary because the turns were so sharp and we were in a huge RV, I felt like we were going to drive off the mountain. But thank God that didn’t happen, especially because it was my uncle’s first time driving a RV.

Finally we got to the top where the camp ground was located, safely. Once we found our campground spot, we started unloading everything from the RV. My uncles were putting up all the tents, and the kids were ‘trying’ to put up their tent. (Didn’t go to well) They had all the sticks in the wrong places, it just looked a mess. Finally, our campground looked nice and set for the rest of the days we were going to stay there, and let me say we stayed for a whole week. The kids wanted to go in the lake so I took them to the lake while everyone else was getting ready. The water was cold but as soon as you got into the water it felt fresh, especially since the sun was jus beaming on our bodies. The sand felt weird, it wasn’t mushy it was a rocky feeling. As we were enjoying the lake fishes would actually swim up to the shore and just swim in between my toes. That was nastiest feeling ever, it felt so slimy and just disgusting. Later on I got on the jet ski’s and it was so fun, there was a huge wave and the wave was so strong that it made me loose control of the jet ski and I flew off, it was scary but fun at that same time. The food we ate was so delicious. One thing that I will always remember about that camping trip; the first night we slept there we forgot to put the food away in the coolers and containers. The deer’s came a attacked our campground. I had heard something walking around in our area at night, but I was too scared to lookout the window but I did anyways and the deer’s were eating out food that we left out. The next morning all we did was laugh about it, and went to go buy more groceries. Throughout the week we went to the lake, the pool, and played volleyball. The boys were so competitive in volleyball; they would complain about every little thing and would want a rematch if they lost. So it was like if we had a volleyball tournament, but it was fun to have a competition between the girls and the guys. As the nights passed we would see the deer’s just walking around and they weren’t scared of us. We were in their home anyways so they had the right to walk all over our property. Camping all together as a big family was so much fun, now we know what to bring and will be more experienced the next camping trip that we do.

A New Experience

Who knew coaching cheer would be so much fun! The first year I started coaching youth cheer was in 2009, I seriously thought I wouldn’t be able to handle it because these little girls were so much to handle. As I began coaching I stared learning how each girl had there own personality, which ones were the quiet ones, loud ones, the most talkative, the ones that were good in everything and those that were going to need help. I knew from the start I got myself into something I would have to be dedicated to and not shy. I am not the type of person to yell or punish someone, but as the days went by I started using my voice, (yelling).

The girls started liking me they would come up to me calling me coach and  it did feel good being called coach. The other cheer coaches liked me as well and liked all the cheers, dances, and stunts I was teaching them. So I became a competition coach, and when you get offered to be a competition coach it basically means they want you to be a permanent cheer coach. I was happy, I felt like I did my job better than they expected knowing that I am a very quiet person around them.  They gave me my age group that I would be coaching for competition and they were 8 year olds, I was getting nervous because I didn’t think I would have been able to handle them but surely and slowly I did. The girls loved everything I taught them and they like me. We would practice cheer competition 2 days out of the whole week, and I didn’t think that I was going to be able to get everything I wanted done on time. So as a coach I had to be productive and call a practice of my own. Coaching them took a lot of hard work, patience, and dedication. As the days passed the competition routine started coming along, and I was getting nervous because I knew other teams were going to have better stunts than my group. Finally, competition day came.

When I arrived to the stadium I was so nervous, maybe even more nervous then the girls. I still had a lot of time until it was my team turn to go up on stage, so I took them to practice their routine. As they were practicing the routine there was a bunch of mistakes, I was getting even more nervous/anxious. I gathered my girls together, and we all took deep breathes and just thought positive. Finally, they called us up and I cheered my girls on as they ran onto the stage. They were set waiting for the music to start, I had never felt my heart pounding so hard and so much butterflies in my stomach. The music stared and they started the routine, wow they surprised me. The whole crowd was on their feet cheering for them and even the judges wereon standing up. I couldn’t have been any happier, and excited. Then, it was time to announce the winners; 3^rd place The Cowboys (our biggest competition) , 2^nd place The Braves, I heard my girls screaming, 1^st place, Mid Valley Titans!!!! (my team). I was a proud coach that day. Since that day, I loved coaching my girls.