"Wed's Wonderings & Wanderings": BIRTHDAYS!!

With my birthday drawing near I can't help but recall my past birthdays including my first birthday. So I'd thought I'd dig up a few photos and share the memories. I'm sure everyone remembers a few birthdays, but I can clearly recall all my bdays since my 4th birthday. My wonderful parents have strived to make each of our birthdays special and unique, down to whatever theme we would want that year or "destination" we'd chose to go to. Now brother's birthday is in August, so the rule was his birthday comes first, and then we could talk about and plan mine. Lucky for my sis, her bday is in January, so all she had to worry about was Christmas and New Years getting in the way of her bday, Oh and rain, it always rains on her bday.

September is an awesome month to have a birthday because when your birthday falls during the beginning of school it's the perfect time to throw a party before the homework starts piling up. Now, I truly hate the part of being the center of attention, but I love to have parties. So having a birthday is the perfect excuse to have your parents throw you a big bash! And really who doesn't like to party? Or at least gather their friends all in one place to laugh and just have a good time.

Two of my most memorable parties were: my 5th bday party, I had a huge sleepover (like 14 girls huge) were we did nails, facials, baking pizza and cookies, staying up playing board games into the night till we crashed watching a cool movie (at the time) "It Takes Two." It totally had to be an Olsen twins movie back in the day. Then for my 22nd bday I threw a big throw back 2yr old party complete with a bounce house, cake and piñata. Let me tell ya having a bunch of twenty year olds jumping in a bouncer is quite hilarious. Best part was watching everyone try to whack the piñata while blindfolded, a LOT of missed swings, in fact one of our front hedges is still growing back and it's going to be two years now since that party.

All in all at the core of every birthday party the thing I love most is knowing my friends were united in one thing . . . FUN. Basically, I use my parties to unite all my friends from my different areas of my life. It's the one day I can ensure my school friends will meet my cousins who will meet my family friends who will meet my team mates and so on. So now with everyone being all grown-up with various jobs and careers, I love using my birthday as a reprieve from humdrum life and a chance to really reconnect with my friends. So try to make your birthday special either for yourself, someone special or those you love, because birthdays are fun and a party is always something worth planning. Just remember life is life and you should take the time to celebrate making it through another year with the people you love and hold dear.

Birthday Question Quest for Prizes!

Happy Birthday to me!

Feliz Cumplenoes to me! 

I'm still in my twenties, 
So Let's see what this year will unfold. 

Okay so my birthday hasn't occurred yet, but in less than 2 weeks on September 23rd, I will turn another year older. So in celebration of ending my golden year I've decided that I want to end it with a bang. Last year I had my friends do a Neon Dash 4k run with me. It was a lot of fun and messy, my friends text me the next day saying they were really pooped and super sore from all the laughing, dancing and partial running we did. So this year I thought I'd take it easy on them and exercise their brains instead of their bodies. I'm putting us all in a maze room where we have an hour to solve puzzles to get the answer and get out. Oooo I'm super excited!! Anyways, because I can't have everyone, including those interested in my blog, join in on the fun. I decided to make a little quest for y'all to earn a couple gifts.

Prizes Upon Quest Completion

1st Prize:
 $9.23 amazon card, 
plus any ebook of choice

2nd prize:
  Any ebook of choice

**Note: any ebooks I've reviewed are open for choosing, 
NOT including box sets** 

Contest Explanation:
Simply put there will be a total of 9 questions and a bonus question. Answer all, or as many as you can, and send your answers in by midnight on the 22nd of Sept. Those with the highest number of correct answers will be entered into the random drawing to win the 1st and 2nd place prizes. I will then announce the winners on September 23rd via a blog post and by email. 

Starting tomorrow on Sept 11, I will post a new question each day, except for Sundays, which will relate to me and a blog post in someway. If you've read most of my posts the questions will seem easy, if not you may need to search a bit. Hence the quest and brain challenge of the whole "experience". 

When you're ready to turn in all your answers to my lovely questions send your hard work to my blog email address: heyitwasfree@gmail.com 
Make sure you put the heading of "BDay Quest Answers" or something to that affect. I don't want your answers lost amongst the emails.

Good luck y'all!

"Wednesday's, Wonderings & Wanderings": May Just Maybe My Favorite Month

Did you know that May is named after the Greek goddess Maia or the Roman goddess Bona Dea, who was the goddess of fertility. Ironically (and you'll see why later) there is another version where May is named after the maiores, which is Latin for "elders". The birthstone is the beautiful emerald, which is said to be a symbol of love and success. Oh and apparently there is a flower for the month too which is the Lily of the Valley.

Now I should come right out and state that my awesome date of existence aka my birthday is NOT in May. Nope, this month actually costs me a lot of cash, because not only does this month hold both my parents birthdays, it hold my cousins and friends birthdays as well annnnd Mother's day too. Does any one else hear my bank account weeping, cause I do. Also, lets not forget the other special occasions throughout the month. 

Such as:

National ALS Awareness Month (United States) 

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 

Better Hearing and Speech Month

National Bike Month (United States) 

National Brain Tumor Awareness Month. (United States) 

National Burger Month (United States)

Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month.

National Electrical Safety Month (United States)

National Golf Month (United States) 

Jewish American Heritage Month  

International Mediterranean Diet Month 

Mental Health Awareness Month (United States) 

National Military Appreciation Month (United States)

National Mobility Awareness Month (United States, Canada) 

National Moving Month (United States)

New Zealand Music Month (New Zealand)

Older Americans Month (United States)

National Osteoporosis Month (United States)

National Pet Month (United Kingdom) 

National Stroke Awareness Month (United States)

Skin Cancer Awareness Month

National Smile Month (United Kingdom) 

National Water Safety Month (United States)

etc...

Name it, May claims it. One things for sure May, definitely has a lot of character.

Truly the month is fun, I mean you know the month starts with May the 4th, which if you're a geek you know it's all about  . . .

Then the very next day if you're Mexican America, like myself, or a SoCal resident for that matter, it's the holy day of . . .

Now normally in my house we eat rice and beans at least 3 times a week, it's just what we do as 3rd generation Mexican Americans.  However on May 5th, SoCal residents join in on the Mexican spirit and celebrate Cinco de Mayo by eating rice and beans with burritos, tacos, Carne Asada, etc. 

Then there is the day all people either love, loathe or have feelings of heartache over and that day is . . . 

Depending on your relationship with your mother, or as a mother yourself, you can either have it filled with a day of loving moments, or anxiety because you and your mom don't have a good relationship, hence the possible loathing emotion. Then there is the possibility of having the feeling of heartache on Mother's day, because not everyone has a mother to celebrate anymore. I know my mom has her mom, my grandma, but it was her grandma, my great grandma, who was her real mom. My Great Grandma's passing still brings tears to our eyes anytime we think of her sweet face, antics and laugh. And I will not forget to mention those that can not give birth, for any number of reasons, who thusly find mother's day a stark reminder that they can not be mothers naturally, but with adoption or giving their love to a child close to them, they can be a mother in any number of ways by nurturing those without a mother or mother figure. Last but not least, there is those mothers who have had miscarriages, they were mothers for a time, wether it was for a week, month or longer, they still carried life and prepared for motherhood. So mother's day for them too is sometimes bittersweet. My mother had one between my sister and me, I named the baby Rachel and insist she is just waiting for us in heaven with my amazing great grandma.

Okay now that I got myself all teary eyed, I can say the rest of the month for me is focused on P-A-R-T-A-Y-S!!

In total I have 5 friends and 5 family members who were all born in this blessed month. I love giving gifts and getting together, so having all these birthdays ensure my group will get together. My family actually combines the birthdays together because they are so close. My aunt's is on the 16th and my 2 are cousin's bdays are on May 18th & 20th, while my parents are on May 20th & 22nd, they are exactly four years and two days apart. For those two days my mom loves to rub it in my dad's face that he's 5yrs older. Also both my cousins are 10 yrs older than me, so now y'all can see why I'd think the later naming of the Latin version maiores, aka elders, for May seems totally correct to me. 

Anyways, we hold a one day May birthday celebration for them all. It includes a huge dinner and lunch with this delicious big special cake we all enjoy on their behalf, with them of course. We call that slice of goodness our family cake. because it's the only cake we eat together for any birthdays, which is vanilla cake with white frosting cover with strawberries on top and inside and slide almonds on the outside. Yummy! Ugh, I'm getting a craving for that cake just staring at that pic, and here's the thing. I don't even like pastries or cake unless it's that one cake or a red velvet cupcake, but I'm really snooty and only love Sprinkles Cupcakes. (But that's a whole other post to talk about)

Now, the only reason I could come up with as to why I'm only now just figuring out why May is one of my fav months is one word = FINALS! 

I had been in college the last 4 years and finals were always in the last week of May making all the joys of May bothersome and exhausting. I couldn't enjoy anyone's party or gathering while I fretted about the tests I had to study for or the paper I had to write. College sucked the fun out of May but since graduation I can now sit back, breath, and get ready for the next family get together, while I watch my sister stress since she's now in college, the poor dear. Oh well life is life and I'm excited for the next few weeks to hang out with friends and family to celebrate them and how much they mean to me. So if you're born in May chances are you're probably great! 

May your May be 

Marvelous, 

Magnificent, 

Mystifying, 

And 

Yours!