The Balloon Dog

I was out all day. In the evening I went to take a nice hot shower to get ready for my night out. As I was washing all the shampoo out of my hair, I started thinking. "I wonder why my lights were on in my house when I got home." All of the sudden, I heard my dog going crazy. I jumped out real fast.

I'm on the third level, I looked downstairs to the second level, as my dog was looking at the first level. My dog was barking, growling, and his hair stood up. I tried to tell him to stop, but he would not listen. I thought, "Thank God my son is on the third level with me." I snuck downstairs to where my dog was.

At the corner of my eye, I saw something moving. I almost passed out that's how scared I was. I was ready to grab our gun to protect my family. Since I was so scared, I froze.

I took another look.....

My dog was protecting me from a Spongebob Squarepants balloon! Man I started laughing. I bought that balloon for my son because he was not feeling well. My baby loves balloons.

I will always know that I am in good hands because my dog will protect me from anything, including a balloon.

Christmas with my family

There are about thirty family members sitting in an oval. We are all in the living room. The age group is two months to 80 years old. The adults are sitting in chairs, and the younger kids get kicked out of the chairs, for the teenagers to sit in. The teenagers have sat on the floor for years. It was time for them to finally get a chair. I was thirteen at the time and finally in a chair.

My grandma is now standing in the middle saying a prayer. Then she said, "Lets get started with the gift exchange." She took my uncle's hat off his head, and she put numbers in it to pass around. Everyone took a number. We started with number one of course. A gift exchange is where eveyone grabs a present when it's their turn. there is a catch however, whenever someone grabs a present, and the person who goes next likes the gift that they got,that gives them permission to take the gift. Then that person has to choose another gift.

One year my seven year old cousin knew what a gift was and wanted it. However, my older cousin got it before she did, and she started to cry. It was her favorite bird chirping clock. When it was her turn she ran over and snatched the clock and
said, "Mine! pick another gift!!" Everyone laughed, so did my little cousin.

When the gift exchange was done everyone received hot cocoa. The adults put peppermint schnapps in theirs, while the younger kids got marshmallows. We all sat around the tree and sipped our hot cocoa.

We also enjoyed the family members we were with. I will always remember this Christmas when my cousin got the clock she always wanted. Also as the time I actually got to sit in a chair instead of on the floor.

My Skin Color

When I was a little girl, kids and adults in Mexico, hurt my feelings when they called me "NEGRA". They laughed at my color. That bad experience made me feel sad. At that time, I didn't understand why the people did that to me.

I remember when my son Dario was born. The people came to my house to see the baby's color because they thought he would be dark like me. You can believe so? I had to fight every day with them, but guess what? when I came here and the white girls told me they would like to have my color because they have to be in the sun for a long time, or pay to get some color on their skin.

When I saw black and white people together I just understand that I have to be strong, so now when the people try to say something bad to me I just smile and ask for respect! I'll never let them call me NEGRA and hurt my feelings again. If they do I'll tell something back to them. I don't think that is good to do because no matter what color, nationality, or religion you are, we are humans.

We have feelings, we live over the same earth and under the same sky,right? We always have something to share with the others.

LITTLE MIRACLE

The life gives to you gifts that sometimes surprise you.

When I knew I was pregnant for a second time, I felt a tremendous happiness.

My husband and I were trying to get pregnant since the last year, and we were a little sorrowful because nothing happened. We both had many desires to have another baby, but it was passing one month, and then another..., and... nothing. I don't remember how many pregnancy tests I did myself, but it was several.

Until one day I decided: "I'm not going to feel sad or anxious anymore. Always exist a purpose in life and the baby will arrive at our lives just in time."

And so it was! One month later I was pregnant. I was like if all the universe was conspiring with me to realize my dream. I couldn't believe it!!! I was looking at the pregnancy test for a long period and asking my husband: "Is it true? The test has the two lines on it, right?" "Yes," he told me, patiently. "This is true. We are pregnant."

Wow! At that time I felt so many emotions, because I had been waiting for that moment for a long time; and suddenly, there we are, pregnant!
We are expecting a beautiful boy.

My husband, my son (today he's 6 years-old), and I, we were waiting for this little angel. And finally, he is inside of me. Growing every day, and making us happy with his presence.

We are waiting the blessed and joyful moment when he sees the light of the world for the first time, and we can see it, too.

I believe now that the miracles take this exact form; they come in the precise time. Never before or after. My little miracle did exactly that. He came to me in the right time.

Fighting with the Ink

I will always remember the day when I decided to find a job.I was 16 years old.

I dressed up with a blue mini skirt, white blouse, and high heels.
I got my friends together. We were six, and the search began.

We rode the public bus to a place surround by factories and restaurants.
After filling applications in every place around us we got tired, so we decided to find a place to sit for a little while. We saw a park where guys were playing basketball.

We were dressed up pretty, and we were at the age of flirting, so we decided to sit by the guys. We sat on a bench close to them, and I started chewing the end of my pen. Just then the ink leaped all over my face, neck and my pretty white blouse.
There were not restrooms around us, and we did not have any Kleenex or anything I could use to clean my self. Meanwhile the guys saw the incident, and one of them took off his shirt and gave it to me, so I could clean up.

I was so embarrassed that I cleaned my self, and gave the shirt back with out even thanking him.

Finally I started walking leaving my friends behind, and I never looked back.

My husband and Me

This story started in 1994, when I was just 16 years old and was studying the high school.

One ordinary day; early in the morning, our teacher came into the classroom and told us, "Attention class here is a new guy in our class." He was seated in back quietly and wore sunglasses into the classroom. Finally he stood with vain expression and said: "Hi, my name is Angel".

I looked at him thinking he really looks so handsome but vain also. Anyway he was in our class now. The days in school ran normally and he needed past notes, so he asked me for them. He copied all my notes also my style of notebook; therefore, we started to talk about ourselves and; consequently, started a beautiful and great friendship.

For the next few months we began to be partners, friends and confidants. Literally we were together all day. Early in the morning we were in school, next we did our social service together. Also in the night we talked on the phone several times. The inevitable succeeded. We got engaged!

Four years after that, we got married. And we are still together, with five beautiful kids.

The Dark

There are many things in this world that we fear whether it's something supernatural, the unknown or losing someone we love. Ever since my second sister Guadalupe passed away, I have been terrified of the dark.

It all started 10 years ago. On March 3, 2000, my mom gave birth to my sister Guadalupe. She was born in Denver, Colorado, at the General Hospital. My mom was happy to see her, and so was my dad and I. Then the doctor told my mom and dad that my sister had a problem in her heart and in her brain, and that she wouldn't live for too long.

He said it was better to just leave her at the hospital. We were all sad, crying, hugging one another. The doctor also told us that we had to baptize her right away because she did not have much time.

The following day we had her baptized at the hospital. There were 8 people in the room and my sister. The priest, her 2 godparents, the doctor, my parents and myself. The room was small, the walls were colorless and the 2 big windows on the side. The doctors had my mom dress my sister up in adorable little pink dresses. They took a couple of pictures of her in them.

Later on the doctors told my mom and dad we could take her home. They really disagreed to let her go, but my parents just couldn't stand seeing her there around machines and doctors. Everything was going perfect because she had been with us for 3 months already. We even started doubting what the doctors had said about her dying so soon.

Suddenly one day it happened! You know that feeling you get when you sense something bad is going to happen? Well that's what happened to me. I was nervous, shaking and just felt sick to my stomach, I knew something bad was going to happen. That day was cloudy; the sky was gray. It was a sad day.

My mom, dad sister and me went to Home Depot to buy some wood. My mom was holing my sister in her arms. She had her covered with a warm, pink blanket. My mom kept checking on her to see if she was OK. Then she was going to check again to feed her, but she noticed she was pale and cold. My mom cried, and I ran to get my dad. We rushed to the hospital, but the doctors gave us no hope in her coming back. She was dead.

We did what we had to do. We had a funeral at our house. All our family and friends went. They were all coming in the house with flowers and hugging my parents crying, telling them how sorry they were. There were around 50 people or more that day. We all just sat down praying and looking at my sister in her small white coffin in the living room. I just left to my room and cried.

That night after everybody left, I tried to get some rest. No matter how much I tried to fall asleep I couldn't. All I could do was stare at her crib and imagine her sleeping in there or just crying in the dark. She had a Minnie Mouse crawling doll in her crib that if you touched it it moved.

Then I noticed she started to crawl. I was so scared. So I got the screwdriver my dad kept in my room and walked up towards the crib and pick her up. I opened her and noticed a battery was missing. I knelt down to the ground and cried, wondering if it was a sign. That maybe she was still with us. I ran to the living room to go be by my sister's side. Everything was dark, then I heard her cry and I turned and glanced at her and it was as if her eyes were open half way, I started to shout, "She is alive!"

My mom and dad came running to me and picked me up and held me close to them. I told them what happened and they cried too telling me she was gone and not coming back. Then I tried to sleep in my room, but I couldn't, so I slept with them from that day forward and up to now I have to use a nightlight.

The next day early in the morning we got ready to go bury her. Again family and friends joined us all wearing black- such a depressing color. When that was over my parents noticed I wasn't OK. So my mom and dad got me a psychiatrist for a couple weeks to help me with my sister's death. She never did.

One day she left to another state. And I was left the same.

Alone in the dark room with so many memories.