Just what I needed...

My mom and I went out yesterday...just us. We dressed up went to The Grand America Hotel to this cute place

La Bonne Vie Pattisserie

It was nice, we had a couple of yummy desserts, but we were a little disappointed and thought it would have more of a European influence....but it was still good. Then we went to the movies to see this

What an awesome movie. We both enjoyed it so much! It was nice to spend some time with my mom. We have fun and laugh a lot. I love her deeply. We will have to go watch this movie again, next time with my sister, because she will be sad she was not with us....but she's in the Caribbean so she cannot complain.

Who am I?

My life is completely unbloggable lately....sad! But today I was asked the question
                                                       Who am I?
Jen and Aubry blogged about it....so I am doing the same, and encourage all that are reading this to do it, and blog about it, because I would love to know more about WHO YOU ARE?

I am a mother, I've been a mother since I was fifteen years old, yet I'm still learning and still feel very inadequate to be raising 4 amazing children, they teach me more than I can teach them. I am a wife, I love my husband more than I show, and sometimes feel like I need to be tougher than I really am, and show him that I can do it all on my own, when deep inside I know I cannot. I am a sister and I love my siblings so much, I know they would do anything for me, and I would do the same for them. I am a daughter and my parents have turned their lives upside down for me, they are my heroes and I love them deeply. I am a good friend, and thrive on good relationships with people. I am an emotional person, I cry over anything. I am someone that drives herself crazy being worried about what others think of me.  I am someone that hates letting people down. I love food, It makes me happy, yet hate the feeling of guilt that comes after I eat whatever I want, and then beat myself up when I gain weight. I am Argentine, Italian, and Spanish and I have great pride in where I come from. I am a hard worker, and would love to work and have my own money to do whatever I want with, yet I also want to be home with my kids, so right now my kids win. I love a clean home, and love the feeling I get when it is organized, and clean, yet I am obsessive about it and don't allow myself to enjoy anything if my house is messy. I am extremely loyal. I am smarter than I give myself credit for. I am someone that will protect those I love with my life if I have to, and have a hard time forgiving people if they wrong someone I love...(it's that whole loyalty thing I have inside me) I am honest.  I am happiest with the simple things in life. I love vacationing. I am someone that likes a plan, and have a hard time when things don't go as planned.  I love summer, and would rather live in 80 degree weather everyday, and never see snow or experience cold again. I am obsessed with makeup and wish I had limited funds to buy all I wanted. I am a crafter, not a good one but I love it. I love to dance. I love parties. I am not someone that cares very much about politics, but my views on some things, I know would make many of my fellow LDS people cringe....it make my father in law cringe many times hahaha..so we don't talk politics :) I am someone that loves to meet new people. I am a daughter of God, and I have a strong testimony. I am a work in progress....

I think I could go on and on...but this is what I've got. I'm sure I will think of something else that I think is important, but I've got dinner in the oven and need to get dinner on the table for my family!
                                             

Roman's 3rd!

This school thing has not allowed me to even think much about anything other than what is due next, what chapter am I on, finals, tests, quizzes etc etc it's ridiculous! I find myself a week and a half away from Roman's birthday...it's May 1st, Sunday, so that means that we need to figure out if we want to do the party on the Friday or Saturday before his birthday. I don't like birthdays on Sunday because with church, it feels like the birthday gets lost in the day, that's how I feel anyway. Last year we took the family and cousins to Boondocks, we did it more for the cousins since the majority are older, we thought they would have fun...which they did, but now Roman knows what a Birthday Party means, and he is so excited about it. He tells me all the time "mom, my birthday is coming!!" in such an excited voice that he makes my day, and I want to make his day special for him. I have problems with decision, I question and question myself over and over. I have come up with a list of things that Roman loves...here they are:

He loves Cars

and Thomas the Train

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Candy



and Balloons

So now my problem is putting all that together....it will be all kinds of Randomness, but he loves it all and I cannot pick just one thing. I found the coolest cake pan, I have to take this cake pan and make the cake

Wilton 3D train pan

look like Thomas the Train, oh and he loves this cake pan, he says it is his train, I had to hide it because he would not stop playing with it, and he also told me that he wants Percy which is one of Thomas' friends, so I have to make two trains and frost them, and make faces for them with fondant or gum paste...not sure which I will use yet...then I thought, well the train can be going around another cake with Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse, then I will buy a Cars Lighting McQueen piñata and fill it with tons of candy, and fill my house with balloons, and that pretty much covers his favorite things. Talk about random, but I think I can pull it off and I'm getting so excited for this party...I'm not excited about him turning 3 years old though, this is our baby and I don't want him to grow up!

The day has come....

my sister and her hubby are leaving tonight on their two week honeymoon...late honeymoon, they got married over a year ago, but when they do things they do it big, so since they got married so fast and then had to move 3 hours away, and my sister had to find a job, they decided to save up money and GO BIG for their honeymoon. So I'm going to be the Raquel and Danny blogger, since my sis doesn't have a blog...I've tried, she doesn't have time...so she says :)  The whole family, my side and my brother in law's side of the family are all coming to my house tonight, to see them off. I know we are weird like that, we have to have a get together to see them, and to say goodbye, kisses, hugs all that. So, their trip will be two weeks. They are going to my brother in law's hometown in New Jersey, then they are off to NYC, then to Puerto Rico to board their cruise to the Caribbean...Barbados, St. Lucia, St Maarten....and somewhere else but I can't keep track of all the places their cruise will take them, very cool places though! Yes, I'm jealous, I thought my sister would come to her senses and ditch her hubby and take me instead, but apparently she wants to go with him....pfff, she would totally have more fun with me...JK JK...ok anyway. She is going to be going to cool places on her trip, so she will be texting/emailing me great pics, so I will do little posts of Where in the World are Danny & Raquel! Mostly so the moms will not be stressed about where they are and if they are safe, and all those things moms worry about...we have worry moms in our family.

 Here's to you Danny & Raquel! Have fun!!

Cromar Family Update

I've been mostly blogging about me lately, so I wanted to write and update about the family. Nothing too exciting going on, just general Cromar stuff.
I'm officially a soccer mom again....yesterday (Tuesday) was the girls' first soccer game of the season. Andres made that comment, as I was taking everything out of the car that I could possibly need, and more like hand sanitizer, treats, water bottles, sweaters, chairs to sit on...he looked at me and said "mom you are a "soccer mom" and I'm going to get you a sticker to put on your car" so we had to park about a block away from the field because everyone and their dog was there! The field was wet, muddy, squishy and it smelled like a swamp! After the first 5 mins of being on the field they had splatters of mud all over their uniforms and their face, I wore the wrong shoes, my feet were completely soaked and my shoes were muddy, Roman took off his shoes after they got all muddy and decided to run around with no shoes on.....it was my worst nightmare...cold, wet, mudd, kids dirty, no shoes on....ahhhhh!!!! But I actually was pretty relaxed about it, I mean, that's what washing machines are for right? Baby steps Magali, baby steps.
The girls were awesome. Summerlin was the only girl in her team, and there was only one girl on the other team, so it was her against all the boys and she was the best!
Mic is also in a coed team, but her group is 9-11 year olds, and she's pretty tall but the difference between a 9 year old and an 11 year old is pretty drastic, there was a very big girl on the other team, Mic was almost as tall as her but not quite. She is usually my aggresive player, but I think she a little intimidated yesterday. I'm sure she will pick it up and be my awesome player that she always has been.
The girls are doing well in school. They have had some pretty awesome field trips lately, Summerlin was a little sad a couple of weeks ago that she missed her field trip to the Tree House museum, she got so sick in the evening just before going to bed and spent the whole night throwing up. Her teacher said that she was the 4th one that week, so it must have been something going around in her classroom....gotta love germs, YUCK! Summerlin has been doing really well in school, her grades were really great this last term, she worked hard and improved in everything that she needed to improve. She has lots of friends, and she plays well with both girls and boys. She's a friend to everyone, she's very nice, loving and she's our rule follower.
Mic has been going through a lot of changes lately, emotionally and physically. she's so tall! We've been helping her with her feelings (which is exhausting sometimes) but she's holding up well, considering everything she has to deal with. She's the tallest in her class! She's very smart, she has been getting very good grades, her teacher loves her and always tells us that she is a great leader. Everyone wants to do what Mic does, so we tell her that being a leader is a big responsibility because she has to be an extra good example. She's my rule bender though....or my envelope pusher whatever you want to call it :)
Andres has been working in our townhomes, he was the snow shoveler of the walkways for all the units and he was able to earn some money. He saved up and got himself a longboard....it's a skateboard but longer, I don't get it, but he's pretty excited about it and has been spending lots of time with his friends perfecting his longboarding skills. I'm just excited that he's excited about something, because lately he's been a little antisocial and not wanting to do much....teenagers! He also thinks he knows everything, and apparently I'm not cool anymore :( make me sad, but he's a good kid. He is involved in church and he's excited for the scout camp in the summer. He's still playing the clarinet and will be in band again next year, but will play the Sax. We got to go pick out his 9th grade schedule last month, we spoke to his counselor and went over a high school plan...I almost cried! HIGH SCHOOL!? Are you kidding me? We were trying to get him a job at lagoon for the summer, but he would have had to work on Sundays so we decided it was best that he didn't. He will be helping my parents at their house with all the work that needs to be done in their house and backyard.
Roman is the funniest boy ever!! We all have so much fun with him. He will be 3 years old in a couple of weeks. He keeps us all entertained, and he's got his siblings and parents wrapped around his finger. He's the baby of the family, the last one....so he may be slightly spoiled. Well his siblings are all a lot older than him, they are so great with him, and they all help me so much. I honestly do not know what I would do if they were all close in age! I could not do it! Roman is talking more and more everyday. Everytime we take his sisters to school, he says "mom I want to go to school" so I started to look into preschool for him, this task was stressing me out. I didn't know what to do, or where I should take him or if he even really needed to go yet. We decided to keep him home, for another year and in the fall when school starts again for the older kids, I will have "Learning Time" with him. We will focus on a topic every week, and Rick and I will take him on educational field trips once a month. I will also have play groups so that he doesn't miss the socializing part of preschool. I'm excited for this time with him, he will be the first one that I do this with. When the other kids were little, I still worked so I was not able to do this with them, I wish I would have. 
Rick just started a new job, so he's been pretty busy. He is almost done with school for the semester, but like me also decided that full time school is just not an option for us right now. We need to focus on our family and maybe just do one class at a time. I may take another math class in the fall, because I see the benefits of being able to help the kids with their math homework.
We are all looking forward to a nice summer, we will be spending lots of time at Lagoon. My in laws are so great! Instead of buying each of us birthday gifts throughout the year, she gives us something that we can all do as a family, she gets us Lagoon passes. I'm so excited! This will be the first year we have lagoon passes since Roman was a baby, the last two years we've had her get us Rec Center passes because Roman was still too little to go to Lagoon with. We are excited for family time, and hopefully some family vacations coming up.

My thoughts after General Conference....

Wow....what an amazing conference, and WOW I definitely need to improve! As I had mentioned in a previous post about General Conference, I love to write at least one thing from each of the speakers...I try to anyway. Roman was extra hyper this weekend and so I did the best I could to get as much as I could out of each speaker. So here it is... my thoughts
Saturday morning session

President Thomas S. Monson- Spoke on the re dedication of the Laei Temple. This is such a beautiful Temple. Rick and I went to Oahu in 2009 and the Temple was closed, but we got to walk around the grounds and visit the visitor Center. I loved it. He also spoke on the ground breaking of the Rome Temple, which words cannot describe how exciting this is. Italy is the land of my ancestors. My mother is the first and only of all her family to have accepted the Gospel. We have done the work for many of her family member now, including my grandparents, her parents. This is truly amazing and I will be there in 2013 for the dedication....guaranteed!

Kent F. Richards
- Pain brings you to humility
Quentin L. Cook-(loved his talk)
 -Women should not be questioned or made feel bad for choosing to be home and raise their children, and not work.
- Families are mostly TV rich and family time poor (oops, this definitely has to change)
Pres. Henry B. Eyring
- Have I done any good today
-Church welfare program (We Rock!)
-Turn sympathy into action!
-involve children in service opportunities
-teach children the principle of fasting

Saturday afternoon session
Russell M. Nelson
-The future is as bright as your faith! (thank you, I really needed this)
Dallin H. Oaks
-Desires dictate our priorities, our priorities shape our choices, and our choices determine our actions!
LOVE IT!
M. Russell Ballard
-Great things are wrought through small and simple things

Sunday morning session

Dieter F. Uchtdorf (did I spell it right?)
-Preach the Gospel
-Do not wait too long on your road to Damascus
Paul V. Johnson
               -Afflictions

• build our character
• tests our faith
• makes us stronger
• allows personal growth
• purifies our heart

H. David Burton
-Feed the hungry
-Clothe the naked
-Visit the sick and afflicted
-Self reliance
Silvia H. Allred
-Mercy
-Charity
-Compassion
David A. Bednar
-Revelation is granted upon us by our desire, our worthiness and our preparation
President Thomas S. Monson
He spoke on Temples and gave a beautiful story of a family that had 10 children from an Island by Tahiti, but the nearest Temple to them was in New Zealand 2500 miles away and could only get there by plane. He told of how the father and two sons left far away to work for four years to raise enough money to go to the Temple. We hear of these amazing stories all the time, of people all over the world that want so bad to go to the Temple and they make such incredible journeys to get there. It reminds me of my parents, when they got married they traveled 40 hours by bus to be able to get sealed in the Temple. They got sealed in the Sao Paolo, Brazil Temple because there wasn't a temple in Argentina at that time. Instead of gifts, they asked for money so that they would be able to buy bus tickets to get there. Then a year after they were sealed, they wanted to go back to the Temple, they left me with my grandmother, they sold their wedding bands to buy bus tickets and they made the 40 hour trip again. When I was three years old, the stake in Argentina decided to make a trip altogether. They faced many trials, took them about 4 days to get to Brazil, having to stop for a day and a half because when they passed through a small town, they could not buy gasoline for the bus so they had to sleep on the bus, and on the street until they could buy gasoline....such awesome stories that I need my children to hear about so that they understand how blessed we are to have Temples 5-20 mins away from us.

Sunday Afternoon Session

Richard G. Scott
-Eternal families
-marriage
And he also told beautiful stories of his marriage...when he stated that they did not argue with each other...I had to lower my head, even my kids gave Rick and I this glare! I know, we need to improve in this department definitely! I need to be more humble and submissive, but submissiveness is very hard for me!
D. Todd Christofferson
Amazing talk!!
-God has high expectations
-Willingly seek and accept correction
-Correction may come through others
-exercise meekness
-parents can and must correct their children
-self correct
Carl B. Pratt
-Promises to those who faithfully pay their tithing
-be honest and pay our debts to the Lord
-the Lord's richest blessings are spiritual ones
Lynn G. Robins
-"To be or not to be" is actually a great question!
-To do without to be is hypocrisy
-Be without do is hypocrisy to oneself
-To do are things checked off a list, but being is never done
Benjamin De Hoyos
-The Lord will sustain us through our short comings and trials
C. Scott Grow
-Miracle of the Atonement of Christ
-Access it through repentance
-Christ has "Borne our griefs"
-the Atonement heals the innocent for others' transgressions
-If ye will not repent, ye will suffer and feel guilt
Jeffrey R. Holland
I always get so emotional with his talks. Love the way he speaks!
-The phenomenon of General Conference
-Salvation can only come his way (Jesus Christ)
-Teaching by the spirit, and listening by the spirit
-Wave the Ensign of the Gospel to the world!

Someone once told me to always listen carefully to the Prophet's closing remarks, he gives us instructions on what to do....until we meet again.
Here are President Monson's instructions
-Remember the messages heard
-read and study the talks when they are published in the magazines
-seek Him through prayer and keeping his commandments
-may we be good citizens and good neighbors
-reach out to others, even those not of our faith
-be examples of honesty and integrity in wherever we go and in whatever we do.