Motivation.....

Well, I was going to take a break from blogging today but then I got some motivation..

I'm a naturally curious person.. I always have been even if it doesn't seem like it.. If  I hear about something on the news I'm curious to know the why's and how's not so much the who, what, when, and where. I feel that if you think of things in a who, what, when, where fashion then your mind tends to form bias' in that matter. 

Take 9/11, now I'm using this as an example because it's the first thing that I thought of and it just passed so don't get your chonies in a bunch just yet.. When 9/11 happened people were so fixated on the who and what there was such a negative attention brought against the culture as a whole. I'm not saying everyone thinks or feels this way but I've seen my fair share of negativity towards the Middle East since 9/11. It's like everyone was so mad over what Bin Laden did, since they couldn't get to him, they took it out on everyone associated with that culture. Did we have a right to be mad?? DUH.. At the same time though the emotion needed to be placed in the correct direction. For the longest time and even now this is the conversation I have with some people regarding my cultural heratige: "Are you JUST Mexican because you look different? Well, no, I'm not JUST Mexican, I'm also Lebanese. What's Lebanese? Middle Eastern.. You mean like where Bin Laden's from? That would be the Middle East.. Oh, eww, ok.." Oh eww ok?? Really?? Are you that ignorant to place everyone that may have ties to that culture in the same melting pot? That's the type of answer that makes me want to punch someone in the face..

Ok, back to me being curious... So where I work, my Dr. is Muslim and one of the girls that volunteers here is also Muslim and I LOOOOVE learning about different cultures and religions because I like to see the different points of views people have. She sent me this message to motivate me to keep blogging and I think it's amazing... Read on.......

"...I would like to thank all of you for taking the time to follow along with my posts this past month. God-willing they were of some benefit to each of you; writing them were definitely of benefit to me, alhamdulillah and I'll definitely keep doing it for myself. I would recommend to all of you to keep a journal as well. It can be a very beneficial experience for a variety of reasons. You just have to be honest and open with your words. Don't write what you think you are supposed to write, but write what actually exists within you. It doesn't have to be seen by any eyes other than your own. It will also give you a means to look back at how far you have come, how you may have taken steps back, or perhaps haven't changed at all. It's helpful to see the way you speak to yourself, how you perceive the world and what kind of things are on your mind. A year from now, I can look back at these posts and see if the year in between brought any change to my life, or if I just stayed the same."

Amazing I know, and because of that message, that's exactly what I'm going to do and what my blogs are going to reflect. I'm going to take my curiosity and use it to open my mind and hopefully yours.. The world isn't just black and white.. There's a million in betweens and if you just take the time to see, those in betweens can be the most amazing, enlightening thing or person you've ever come across.

What the???

Day 2....

I must say, a lot of people have taken interest to my idea to blog.. The question on everybody's mind seems to be, "What are you going to blog about?" My answer? Whatever my mind thinks of that day! My mind is constantly going a million miles a minuet. I wake up thinking, I go to sleep thinking, I dream about what I fell asleep thinking about.. See my dilemma? I could say I'm going to blog about my kids and how nuts they can drive me but I know I'll stray and start talking about some sort of randomness like last night.....

So after a long day at work, Josh picks me up and we need to go to the store to finish getting dinner stuff since my husband is an AMAZING cook and loves making my tummy happy! He hates when I tell people that but I don't care.. I find it amazing that he can watch someone cooking something on TV, go to the store and get the stuff he thinks will taste good and then duplicate it for dinner... I on the other hand go to kitchen and always seem to think there's nothing to eat haha... He hates when I say that and then wanders into the kitchen and 30 minuets later.... SHABAM!! There's a 3 course meal sitting on the table.. Geez I'm blessed..

Anywho back to the story.. So we go to the store and of coarse having 4 kids, we only get a limited time per day to talk about our day, if we even have the energy to do so.. The other night we had one of those long married couple conversations about our likes and dislikes. You know, the one where I stayed up WAAAAY to late and didn't want to get up the next morning for work because of.. We've only been married 3 years, but we've been together 6 and have known each other since sophomore year so mind you, I know him better then he knows himself. I know what he wants before he knows what he wants.. He hates that but he's learned to live with it! See, I strayed again.. We talked about a lot in that conversation and one of the things we talked about is my dislike for the outdoors.. I can hear you guys laughing and I can see you shaking your heads. We went camping and stuff when I was a kid but I've never been a pee in the bush type of girl and plus, that whole thing with my mind, I'm always thinking about all the impossible things that could happen but probably won't. It's worse now that I have kids because naturally I want to kill anything that could have the potential to hurt them and bears is a pretty big thing on my list hahaha.. So after digesting everything that we talked about I realized that he was right.. Ok, kind of right, he'll never be 100% right :) So last night while he's grilling before I even realized what I was saying, organized a spur of the moment camping trip next weekend... WHAT THE?? Ok, so now I've said it and can't take it back.. I tell my parents and sister and they're laughing at me because they know how much I despise it but they agree to go.. What did I get myself into?? I think once we're there, and I find my mansion tent that I've requested my husband and dad to find, and I see my kids having a blast doing what they do best (getting dirty) I'll start to relax.. I hope.....

Oh and one other thing I found funny.. So as I finish telling my dad about camping he tells me, with this face:

"By the way, I just killed a wolf spider and I when I pulled back the towel, about 100 little babies scattered everywhere." WHAT THE?!?! So then I ask, "What happens if you get bit?" My dad's response? "Oh nothing your skin just starts to eat away at itself.. You have to get to the hospital pretty quick."

See... There goes my mind again, flesh eating spiders on the loose...

My 1st Attempt @ Blogging...

This is me.... Mrs. D...

Well, my real name as most of you know me is Julia... I came into this world as Julia Esquivias and if all goes well, I hope to leave this world as Julia Esquivias-Duarte... Why did I keep my maiden name? A lot of people ask me that because now my name is ridiculously long but I guess that goes with the whole traditional Mexican culture to have a million names that we're all expected to know how to pronounce.. Ok, I strayed back to my answer.. The reality of it is, my name represents the people that I love most. I don't think that getting married means that you HAVE to get rid of the name you've had your whole life.. What if your family has no boys to carry on the name?? Where does it go then?? I have a brother so I know the name will go on but I just felt like it was the right thing to do I guess..

I've never done this whole blogging thing so pardon my knowledge on this.. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it sooner or later.. I tend to say what's on my mind so I'm sorry in advance if you ever get offended but I think that's the point of a blog... It's mine and I don't care... Or am I wrong?? Well, whatever the answer is, I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.. TTFN...