For the grandmas...dancing Sage

Houston April 2010

Empanada girls

Oh how we love empanadas in this house.

Homemade dough with a little bit of wheat flour...yum.

Chicken, onions, olives and spices...yum yum!

Only ONE bite dad.

Thank you Smitten Kitchen for a lovely recipe.

Soon Sage will be able to join in the yummy eating fun. Although, she is all sorts of yummy cuteness all by herself. It's hard for me not to eat her up everyday. Gosh, I love this baby.

Happy Birthday me! (so this was over a month ago, but oh well.)

German bought cake and decorations.

Kai and Ian enjoying some cake!

Shaunna and Kiersta...I mean Brinlee and Faryn

Thanks for stopping by to visit with the kiddos!

Happy Birthday daddy!

waffles for breakfast

cheesecake for dinner

~We sure love dad~

Sage lately...

loves to make messes...

loves eating & doesn't like teething

Got to love biter biscuits!

She is by far the most snuggly and very stranger shy lately

bathing with the big girls

crawling and standing...We sure love you Sage!

Little hands

Lately, the twins have been coming up to me, asking for my hand, and insisting that I follow them somewhere saying, "C'mon dad, let's go." The final destination can be any number of places: the kitchen for a snack, the bathroom for potty-time, or even the family room dance floor where you'll hear "Hakuna Matata", "Under the Sea", or the Sesame Street theme song. No matter what I'm doing, it's a request that's impossible to turn down.

Yesterday, we went to the Children's Museum in downtown Bryan, TX to give the girls a much deserved outing. At one point, Lucy came up to me, asked for my hand, and walked me over the the paint workshop. The camera was fired up and I managed to take this shot as we both walked, Lucy leading the way of course. I'm a sucker for these cuties...

I think we're alone now...

Are you all excited about this? It's like a private club now...only for members. I have a few reasons why we went private, I'll share more later. Have a great day!

I love my baby Sage

Having the twins is wonderful, but lately German and I are really enjoying the moments we have to just enjoy one little baby. To be able to give our undivided attention w/o feeling like we need to fairly distribute how much we give. And this baby Sage has been just SOOO adorable. I can't believe how fast she is growing. She is so talkative and so fast.

FYI: March 1st is private day.

Part 6--The wedding

Our wedding announcement and our first picture as a married couple

Our first apartment was in a quaint little "gay friendly" neighborhood called North Park. It was only a little bit ghetto and very close to Balboa Park and the zoo. If you ever go to San Diego, visit Balboa Park, it's free and IT IS Beautiful! I moved in January 1st to the upstairs back one bedroom apartment of an old lime green fourplex building. Not that great, but much better than my ol' RV living space.

The day after I moved in I was watching the news and they announced that a serial rapist was attacking women in our neighborhood...like two streets over. I was scared to death. I made German come check out the closets everyday before I'd go inside. Luckily, the guy was caught a few days later. Then about a week after I moved in German was dropping me off and there were lots of police cars and an ambulance parked in front of the building. Our landlady saw us drive up and asked if I'd seen the neighbor since I'd moved in. The neighbor whose door I passed EVERYDAY to get to my door. I hadn't seen him and I noticed his car hadn't moved either. Apparently, he was a middle aged man who lived alone and kept to himself. The landlady was worried because he hadn't paid rent yet and he was normally never late. She came by to check on him and found him. Sadly, he had died of an aneurysm and nobody knew. He had been laying there dead since I'd moved in. It was really sad, but also very creepy at the same time. I quit my night job, so I wouldn't have to get home so late at night and prayed that our wedding day would come quick. It was the only time in my life that I've ever lived alone and I NEVER want to do it again.

A week before we were married German realized his resident INS card was missing. A card he hardly ever used and actually didn't need anymore because he was in the process of applying for U.S. citizenship. Yet, it was a card he needed to be able to leave the country and go on our cruise. He had to wait in line all night long outside the San Diego government building to apply for a new one. He paid over 300 bucks to get his old Argentina passport stamped, stating that the new card was on its way, so that he could go on our honeymoon. Don't know why things happen sometimes, but it was not fun.

My mom, sister and some girlfriends finally joined me a few days before the wedding and we were all busy with wedding preparations. We planned a small luncheon at the UCSD Institute building in La Jolla and that evening the Spanish Branch offered to throw together a reception.

*SIDENOTE* I did NOT want a reception. I especially didn't want a church gym reception. I wanted to be done celebrating after the luncheon and not bother with paying and planning for a reception. Looking back I still wish we had not had a reception, but certain family members (on German's side) were adamant about the need for a reception. I am very thankful to the ward members that paid for a beautiful second wedding cake, who brought food and who helped set up, serve food and clean up. Oh and there were people who offered to find and pay for the DJ (a DJ from Tijuana that couldn't cross the border and never actually showed up). Anyway, that said, I conceded to a reception and had very little to do with the planning. I did go help set up tables and string up lights in the gym the night before.

Then the dreaded night before...

Maybe it is common knowledge, but no one told us we needed a form signed by our bishop and stake president in order to be married in the temple. We thought all we needed were our temple recommends but this is sooo not the case. After a few phone calls we were able to meet with our bishop in the afternoon and our stake president that evening. Luckily.

Then we went to help set up the gym and finished around 10pm. We were all getting ready to drive home and get to bed. I went to get my purse from the front foyer. My purse, which contained my car keys, my planner/wallet with my I.D., my temple recommend, credit cards, multiple giftcards (two of which were valued at $100), all my addresses and phone numbers, my calendar, tons of personal information & mementos, had vanished. It also contained my nice fairly expensive camera, the only camera we owned, the camera I was going to take on our honeymoon. And it ALMOST contained my passport and our cruise tickets, but luckily I hadn't put them in my purse yet. Luckily. Yes, I realize it was stupid of me to leave it unattended with all that stuff inside, especially when the young men were having an activity in another part of the chapel. But we were in a church and I was extremely scatter-brained the night before my wedding...ok maybe I was a scatter-brain the whole month before. I really didn't even remember where I had left it until the next day. Everyone (about 7 people) squeezed into German's sedan and drove home. Then I lost it. I freaked out to say the least! I sobbed and felt sorry for myself and poor German tried desperately to console me, telling me we'd find it. He even drove 20 minutes back to the chapel that night to look around again. No luck. But my sweet friend Muriel loaned me her camera so we could take pictures on our honeymoon. I love that girl!

Some of my favorite wedding pictures (some people were also not very happy about my choice of wedding shoes, but I stuck to my guns and wore my flipflops)

The beautiful San Diego temple--someday German and I hope to move back.

I think I got about four hours of sleep that night. Muriel dropped me off to get my hair and makeup done and thank goodness they did I great job at JCPenney. I was very happy with it. (I'm not even going to write about having to get my nails done twice.) The morning went well and the temple ceremony was by far the best part of the day. I should thank again my mom and sister, Muriel and Lauren, Tia Norma & Betty for all they did to set up for the luncheon. It was perfect and exactly what I wanted. OH and German's institute director/instructor, Marty for putting together my bouquet and singing at the luncheon and the reception. He was put on the spot and made our day even more special.

Our luncheon cake, my colors were pale yellow and lavender

A shot of my hair at the luncheon--German was having a pretty awesome hair day himself. I actually had a veil and completely forgot to put it on.

We took some pictures after the luncheon down at the beach and then headed back to our jam-packed apartment for an hour, so I could call and cancel all my credit cards. Some punk kid had already charged about 50 bucks at a gas station the night before. Not fun.

Our ghetto green apartment (we are actually in front of the dead guy's door on our way to ours at the end). That's me on the floor calling all my credit cards to report them stolen. Got to love the brown shag carpet...

I was so exhausted and did not even want to go to the reception, but I did. And it went ok, except for the DJ not showing up. Someone in the ward went home to get their karaoke machine and German went outside to grab some CDs from our car. The music blared and people danced, so I guess they had fun. But then somehow the wrong CD was placed in the machine--A CD we did not own and all of sudden the stereo blasted a voice which said, "Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house not a creature was stirring not even a mouse..." Awkward.

We finally left the reception around 11pm...don't we look totally exhausted? I think I was about to pass out. And isn't German's grandpa adorable? I think German is going to look just like him when he gets old. At least I hope so. We drove to LA the next morning to embark on our blissful 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise. We were so happy to finally be married, but we'll be sure to pack some sunscreen next time. Ouchy...that wasn't fun, but everything else was awesome. I sure love my husband!

Above are some pictures from our cruise. He won 2nd place in the table tennis competition and to prove that he's a romantic, German sang "You've lost that lovin' feeling" to me at the karaoke bar. It was the only song on the list he knew and I loved it! The pic is from the "baby baby I get down on my knees for you..." part.

I've been avoiding making our blog private for some time now,

...but we've decided to do so. We both feel more comfortable knowing who's visiting our blog. If you'd like an invite just post a comment with your gmail address or email it to me. The plan is to go private on March 1st.

Thanks.

P.S. I'm going to try and finish Part 6 by next week sometime in case anyone was wondering.

Part 5--Engagement stories

Our engagement photo

You probably noticed that I skipped over the mushy first kiss and first I love you moments because well, I think I would gag just trying to write it. Don't get me wrong I love me some good romance, but those stories are personal and I want them to stay that way. Besides there isn't anything funny about them and I prefer to make y'all (some Texas talk for you) laugh.

The proposal happened pretty quick, but when you know--you know, ya know? We had brought it up in casual conversations and both of us knew our relationship was heading in that direction. And since German's mom had decided way back before we started dating that the family was going to move to Georgia, time was limited. She was planning to move July 1st with ALL of her children. When she found a house to live in, she decided to show me pictures of the interior and said, "And look Sara, that is going to be German's room." Yeah, she wasn't very fond of me, to say the least.

On June 18th, 2001, after dinner German and I went outside to chat and be alone. We were sitting in the back patio chairs, holding hands and saying all sorts of mushy ooey gooey stuff to each other. And then quite suddenly he says, "I love you Sara and want to be with you forever. Will you marry me?"

"Huh?" what the heck...

"Will you marry me?"

Silence...Is he really asking me right here on his mom's patio, right now? Isn't he supposed to kneel or something? And where's the ring? Hmmm.

"Um yeah I will."

"Really?"

Smiles, big hug and kiss and I love yous exchanged, "Sorry I can't give you a ring yet."

"Ohh. That's ok...soooo, when you do have the ring you're going to ask me again for real then right?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure."

It really was such a sweet and memorable experience, we were both so happy.

We had one of his younger siblings take these pictures of us that night. Such happy goofballs.

Two weeks later, I moved to another cheaper apartment, so I could save money. I quit my job at the paper store because my boss wouldn't give me more than 30 hrs/week and I got a job at a call center. German helped his mom pack up the truck and drove across the country to Georgia. He planned to stay for two weeks to help her get moved in and then fly back to live with a family from the Spanish branch until we got married. We talked on the phone everyday except one (it was a sad day). I also quit the call center job after a week. Call center work wasn't my thing.

Then German and I had our first argument over the phone. I have no recollection of what we argued about, but I remember crying and thinking German was so mad at me and that he didn't want to marry me anymore and wouldn't come back to California and feeling like the world was crumbling to pieces around me and more drama drama drama. (Why are we girls so dramatic?) Since I had no job and no other obligations, the best thing for me to do, obviously, was buy a next day plane ticket to Georgia for $600. I mean when you are already in debt, isn't it wise to get into more debt? Besides, I missed my fiancee WAY too much to go out and look for another job. Although, I'll admit that it was not too smart at the time to spend so much money on a plane ticket, the memory I have of seeing him in the Atlanta airport is one I'll always cherish. We'd only been apart a week or so, but it felt like FOREVER. Let's just say when people saw us in the baggage claim area they were either smiling or disgusted and I'm pretty sure I overheard someone say "Get a room."

German special ordered my ring while he was in Georgia. He drew a picture of what I'd been describing and had it custom made. The day after I arrived German and I went to the mall to do a bridal registry at Williams-Sonoma. I used to work there and LOVE that place. So as I was clicking away, he turns to me and says, "Hey, I'll be right back ok." I figured he was just going to the bathroom or something, so I continued registering. After 30 minutes or so I started getting annoyed, where the heck did he go? I wanted to do this together. He finally returned and was acting all weird and nervous.

"Where did you go?" I asked.

"Uh nowhere, I just had to go check something."

"What?" I inquired.

"Oh nothing. Are you done here? Should we go back home?"

"Well, I did want to do this registering thing together and I thought we could walk around the mall some more, but whatever."

"Oh yeah, sorry. Well, ok. Uh, let's go then." Weird, what is wrong with him?

It was around 11am and as we walked to the car, I noticed he had his hand in his pocket and he looked like his mind was a million miles away.

"Are you ok? Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Um, I want to show you something." When we arrived to his mom's minivan, he opened the trunk and told me to sit down. He took the velvet ringbox out of his pant pocket and sat down next to me.

"Here, tell me if you like it." He opened the box and handed it to me.

Silence again...Is he really giving me this right here in the mall parking lot, right now? And again no kneeling down on one knee. Oh well, forget it, I give up. Doesn't really matter anyway, right?

"Yes, I love it! It's perfect. Thank you."

A makeout session ensued in the back of his mom's minivan. I know sooo romantic, huh. I still tease German about his two proposals, but to his credit he had no one to offer him advice or suggestions on how to propose. He was also super stressed dealing with his family, none of them were very happy or supportive of us getting married. He really is such a romantic guy.

We flew back to California together and started discussing a date for the wedding. We thought about setting it for November 16th, since we both returned from our missions that day. Then reality hit. It was late July, he had no job and no money. I had no job and negative money. We decided sometime in February would be a bit more reasonable. German worked full-time at The Home Depot and also got a job a few days a week cleaning swimming pools in the mornings at 5am. I got two jobs as well. I worked M-F from 8am-5pm as a receptionist at an insurance company then 6pm-10pm at Sportmart (now Sports Authority) as a cashier four nights a week. We hardly ever saw each other and when we did we were always so tired.

Then in October I moved out of my cheaper apartment into somewhere even cheaper and much more ghetto. A family in German's ward had an old RV parked in their backyard and they offered to let me stay in it. They lived just a few blocks away from the family German was living with, so I was excited about us living closer to each other. They plugged in the electricity for me and I used a bathroom in the house AND it only cost me $100 a month. Eventually, by mid-November it was getting too cold for me at night, so they let me sleep in the house as well. Looking back I must have been deliriously happy and foolishly in love because it should have been a nightmare. (Ok, so some nights I did cry myself to sleep wishing we were just married already.) The spiders that lived with me in that RV were huge and there were a ton of them, too. (Darlene you would have died of fright.)

My RV home for three months. Oh, how I love the ghetto life.

But after three months I got out of debt and was able to move into our first apartment on January 1st (a little less ghetto than an RV, but still quite ghetto). And now I'll be able to tell my daughters, "Hey, if you want a big fancy wedding with ice sculptures, caviar and pony rides then you'll have to get two jobs and live in an RV to pay for it yourself!" They'll hate hearing it...muwha ha ha!

German's aunt kept us pretty well fed with her amazing cooking. Mate, pastafrola and panettone, yum yum yum!

Thank you, tia! And isn't abuelo the most darling old man you've ever seen?

And for your laughing pleasure, you get to enjoy more silly photos of us. Which engagement photo would you consider the MOST awkward? I think the middle one is the absolute worst, although the bottom right is a close second. They are all pretty bad, huh?

*Our photographer is an awesome family friend. He takes photos as a hobby and he took our engagement and wedding pictures all for free. German and I just didn't know how to pose properly. AND he even flew down to San Diego with his wife for our wedding and did such an amazing job! Thanks Bill.

Part 6 will contain a few stories about the days prior to the wedding and our wedding day. We had a very small budget and so many people helped us out. Luckily, I wasn't one of those girls who had envisioned the details of my wedding day since I was 12, so when things went haywire I was fine. As long as I was marrying German I was happy.

Lunch of Love

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches w/ apples and cheese.

And if I could've made hearts out of baby food I would've.

I really do love my girls.

Part 5 will be posted tomorrow.

Our story...Part 4 of 6 (I think)

*Ok, for some reason I really thought I'd get everything out and written down in just three posts, I just finished this post and I keep thinking of more and more stuff that I want to write down before I get dementia. These girls are slowly sucking out all of my brain power, so my memory loss could come sooner than I think. Not sure how many posts I will write or when I will get them done, but I am going to keep plugging away until I get to our wedding day.

Don't worry mom, I will also posts more pics of the girls in between.

German picked me up about 30 minutes later and had to wait for me to finish getting ready (again, some things never change). I wore some jeans and a white Gap short-sleeved cotton blouse. He had on a navy blue Argentina striped soccer polo shirt that he still wears and some khaki cargo pants. I could tell he had dowsed himself in cologne and it was quite overwhelming. I have never been a huge fan of colognes/perfumes, I prefer fresh clean scents. I love good smelling shampoos and deodorants.

(this is a pic taken in '08 of German wearing the same shirt)

The drive to SDSU Institute from my apartment took about 10 minutes, we didn't talk much. I remember feeling a little worried wondering if he could dance or not because sometimes tall guys look goofy trying to dance. Of course, I should have realized that this guy was LATINO. The ability to groove and move is in their blood. We danced together the whole night and we both had so much fun. The dance ended around 11pm and we chatted quite a bit as we drove back to my apartment. We found out we had alot in common.

We both returned from our missions on the same day, November 16th, 2000.

Both of our birthdays were in March (although I was bummed to find out he was a year younger than me, but I got over it pretty quick).

Our families moved around alot when we were younger and both of our parents divorced when we were teenagers (he was 16 and I was 14).

And we both liked mountain biking.

When we arrived to my apartment I asked if he wanted to come up and see my Gary Fisher mountain bike. He oohhed and aahhed at my XT components, then we sat and looked through my mission pictures from Argentina. It was so great to be able to share our mission stories together. It was almost 1am before we decided to call it a night, I thanked him for coming to pick me up and gave him a big hug. He told me he'd look for me Sunday at church.

The next morning my roommate wanted to hear all the details and I remember her telling me how he seemed like one of those 'diamond in the rough' kind of people. I thought she was probably right and knew he was really sweet, but being a somewhat vain girl I said, "But what about his braces and that strong smelling cologne!" Then she said something I'll never forget, "Oh no, honey, those things are temporary and can be fixed. Don't let him get away just because of that."

*Bytheway, I grew to LOVE the Gucci cologne. When it was gone, I asked him to give me the empty bottle and I kept it in my car for a couple of years. I wish I still had it. The smell would drive me crazy if you know what I mean. (And I know you know what I mean!)

The next day (Saturday) he sent me this email:

Hey Sara!!!‏

From:	Galasoinc
Sent:	Sat 4/14/01 2:10 PM

Che Piva, como te va??? I found your mission homepage and wanted to drop you a line. It wasn't easy though, my computer has been acting up. Well, I loved seeing your mission pics last night, Next time I'll show you mine...all 10
albums!
Portate Bien y no cometas ninguna macana!
Chaucito
German

I thought it was so sweet. I called him from work that night, but he didn't answer, so I left him a message. I told him not to forget to bring his mission photo albums with him tomorrow to church and that I looked forward to seeing all 10 of them. Our church meetings started at 11am and I took FOREVER to get ready. I was pretty dang excited to see him. I left a nice open space next to me in the pew and all throughout sacrament meeting I kept looking back at the door to see if he was there. The whole 75 minutes went by and he was a no show. The meeting ended and I walked down the hall to Sunday school feeling a bit glum and also pretty stupid for getting my hopes up so high. Then right as I was about to reach the classroom door, I looked up and there he was smiling at me. Gosh, he's cute...

He said he went to church with his family earlier that morning and everyone was at his aunt's house for lunch. He asked me if I wanted to come meet all of them and have lunch. Then he paused and said "We can stay for Sunday School if you want?" And being the staunch church goer that I am I replied, "Um, nah that's ok. Let's go."

Hey don't judge me ;o)

Eating lunch with his family was like being back in my mission. We ate asado (Argentine BBQ), everyone was speaking Spanish and drinking mate. I loved it, I especially fell in love with his sweet grandpa. The next day (Monday) I had the day off, so we watched Remember the Titans in my apartment complex clubhouse. It was a great movie, but all I remember is that I wanted him to hold my hand and he didn't. I was bummed. You see, guys usually considered me a friend, a cool chick. I was used to it and my insecure self was afraid that our relationship was headed in that direction. He sent me the email below that same Monday night. It is in Spanish, but I don't need to translate it because all you need to know is that it contains nothing exciting, it's nice and sweet, but also a bit blah. To me it says "just friends."

RE: Hey Sara!!!‏

From:Galasoinc

Sent:Mon 4/16/01 11:01 PM

Che flaca (te molesta que te diga flaca?), como te va??? no me habias dichoque me mandaste una cartita. Que linda sorpresa. Recien llego y estoy re-agotado pero contento porque me fue mas o menos en mi clase de biologia marina. Por lo menos no me quede dormido. Te gusto la pelicula de hoy??? Me alegro que la pudimos ver. Me encanto el lugar donde la vimos...vamos a tener que hacerlo mas a menudo. Te cuento que si he escuchado la palabra papichulo pero solo en Miami (de cubanos) nunca de un argentino, pero como te dije vos sos mas argentina que yoasi que sabras mas. Bueno piva, te dejo...despues charlamos mas...chaucito! Portate bien!

El Chungo

We continued to hang out almost everyday. We both really enjoyed being together, but the next Friday night our date went just OK. I came home and told my roommates that it wasn't going anywhere, I was pretty sure we'd just be good friends. Finally, after about three weeks, we went on a date up to Carlsbad to go to church and visit families that he had met while serving as a missionary. It was Sunday, May 6th and the day was perfect in every way. I was able to see him interact with people who adored him and goof off with old companions who were still serving their missions. It was really fun to watch him and it was then that I decided "Man, I really like this guy!" That evening as we were driving home, I took a bit of initiative. He had his hand on the stickshift and instead of taking his hand, I pointed to it and asked "Can I have that?" (I know--cheeseballorama, huh?) But luckily, he said 'Sure.'

The best way to eat ice cream

It took until Thursday, May 10th for him to kiss me and from that point on we were kissing fools. I'm sure NONE of you out there know what I am talking about right? A few weeks later he told me he loved me and on Monday June 18th, he proposed, but that's a whole other story.

This picture is from the first time we attended a temple session together. My mom came with us, we weren't engaged yet, but from the moment she met him she knew he was a keeper and that I was a goner.

I bought two tickets to see Dave Matthews Band at Dodgers Stadium before I even met German. My roommate was going to go with me, but she bailed out and I took German instead. When German's family emigrated from Argentina, he was five years old and they moved to Los Angeles. We took the whole day to visit his elementary school and see where he used to live. We also walked around the L.A. temple and took some pictures.

I made German take this picture of me...can you say hint hint?

"Hey German, LOOK, I am a precious jewel, you should marry me."

Part 5 will contain the proposal and some engagement stories (we were engaged about 8 months). And hopefully Part 6 will be the wedding story. It's kind of funny. Sorry if this is getting boring, but I'm actually really glad I am finally writing it all down.