Fitness Blog

ok so Gabe is a different sort of cat. He does things on his own terms and Rob and I have come to grips with this and love him for that. Its actually kinda cute. He beats to his own drum, he is kinda an old man stuck in his old man ways. Well this morning we had to take Sissy to school and so he asked me to put him in his robe. So I did. I snapped this photo of him cuz how many 2 year olds do you see walking around in slippers, and a robe drinking coffee? I hope not many.

Have you ever felt this way? I do more than I would like to admit. How come when someone asks us "How are you?" we feel the need to explain, in detail, how horrible our day is going or tell the graphic story of potty training the two year old. For me this habit is almost like a nervous twitch. I tend to talk way to much when I am nervous. Not only do I talk to much but I also take very fast, and kinda yell a little. I am sure the person on the receiving end of this conversation must think I'm nuts. And according to my husband I am.

Today in a conversation with my husbands coworker, I gave way too much information. And after I had this conversation I wish that I could have taken the words back. Then to top it all off, I told my loving husband what I had done, and instead of getting mad at me and being a jerk about it, he kindly asked me not to do that again. He was so kind about it, it made me feel even worse. Of course I apologized and he accepted my apology and said he loved me anyway.

How did I get this lucky?


Much Love,
monica

Where: California City for motorcycle riding
When: November 26th - 29th
Who: Anyone who can read this

We would love to see you out there for thanksgiving!

much love
the castillos

What a party pooper I have been. It's all Rob's fault. He has me hooked on his laptop. I just sit in bed and drink my coffee and do all my internet stuff, but because he won't let me put in any pix onto his laptop I always think "Oh I'll get to my blog tomorrow," and well as you can see it's not high on my to do list. Let's see what has been going on....

Arianna is cheering her little butt off. She made team Captain and she loves telling all those little girlies what to do.


Nathanael is doing really good in school. He has all these little friends who run up to him every morning and give him a hug. I can't believe he is in preschool.


Gabe, well let's just say.....he's just Gabe. He is my boy who walks to his own drum. He is amazing and can knock a girl off her feet with his cute little smile. We tried potty training, but it didn't work out so well so I have decided to wait after the hoidays.
He is talking less japanese and more english which is super helpful.



Rob and I are doing well. It's been pretty quiet on the home front. We have just been lovin on our kids and lovin that the Brownells are close. I hope all is well with everyone.

I know its been awhile but we have just been busy. With Nathanael in preschool and Ari doing all her cheer stuff I just haven't had the chance to break out the camera all that often. I will work on it though. I promise. Things that are going on here... Let's see....
Bob: work is good and his business is doing well. Just pray for him that he continues to do well and make good business choices. Please pray for his grandpa. He is going through chemo and having a tough time with everything.

Ari: She is loving school and cheer and has really met up with a great group of girls to hang with. She is doing well in her babysitting business and is saving for her first pair of UGGS. I am so proud of her.

Nathanael: He has started preschool and can identify most letters and sounds. He writes his first name pretty good and is working on his last name. He does a great Alfalfa impersonation.

Gabriel: We are working on potty training and praying we will be done be December. You just never know with him. He is saying more words now that brother goes to school 3 days a week. He has become our little latin lover. :)

Me: I am hopelessly in love with Rob. He is truly my best friend in the whole wide world.

much love,
monica

You know you ghetto when you take your towel to the mall and play in the water art after school.


Another day in paradise!

much love,
monica

Well it was the first day of school. Arianna is officially in 8th grade and Nathanael started preschool. I had to take their pictures as its a family tradition. I hope all is well with everyone.

( No Braces!!!)

much love
monica

Or maybe we should call him Don Won. I don't know which is better.

Some of you may be wondering why I set this to private. Well there are a few reasons. One is because I had it on a website for fellow firefighter families and I was a little weary about them knowing all about our family. Second, I am telling a lot about us and I would hate this information to get out in the wrong hands. I love being able to keep in touch with family and friends but I realized that I have to be watchful. I still will be posting often but only a few select will be able to view.

much love
monica

How many of us have wished for a week off. A week off of work, a week off of momma duty, cleaning, cooking... well I had that chance last week. My mom took my kids (thank YOU!) and I closed the daycare down. I told Rob that I would not be cleaning or cooking or even going to the grocery store. I was in seventh heaven... until about Tuesday. I had to get up and clean, I couldn't stand looking at dirty dishes and my floor needed a quick wipe down. Then on Wednesday I started missing my babies. By Thursday I was having a tough time with absolutely nothing to do. I decided to paint the hallway and entry way and then go to our first FireWives meeting. On Friday I was supposed to have the whole day to myself (rob was at work) and I was staring at the four walls, ready to pull my hair out, when I got a call from my mom. My mom needed me (she really didn't but we'll just go with that)! The kids needed me! I was in the car and headed down to the coast before you could blink an eye. I have never driven so fast. So now I know... we as moms have crazy days. Shoot, we have days that we wish we could just erase! But when all is said and done it fills amazing to be needed and missed and loved by my kids. Life is good... but my family is amazing!

To turn off the music on the right hand column to watch the Fresno Fire Department Documentary you will need to find the pause button. It is the first button on the left under the album cover. There might not be the sign for pause but it is there. If you have problems send me a comment and I will fix it.

This is a documentary of Fresno Fire. I think this is awesome. A firefighter and his son made it. This is just a preview and a full documentary is in the works. When Rob and I were watching this I asked him how lucky does he feel to have the best job in the world? He said he takes it for granted way too much but he is very lucky. If you think about it my boys and Tonya's boys are truly one of a kind. There Dad and Uncle fight fire for a living. I guess it is destined that one of our boys will want to become a firefighter. What an amazing legacy that will be.
Much love,
monica

Ok so I changed my template and put the music on here because my sis in law changed her blog up and put music on her blog and I wanted too! Total copycat! She is teaching me so much of this blogging stuff its cool but I know she has to be tired of me being a copycat. So shout to my sis in law! I promise I won't copycat for awhile......unless there is something so cool that I have to use it:) anyways thanks tonya!!!!

Well I haven't written for a while because I wanted to wait and add Arianna's pix from camp but we haven't taken her pix in to be put on disc. So..... I guess no pix today. Rob is still on the wildfires up north but he might be coming home tomorrow. Yeah! I miss him a lot and it is always nice to have another adult to talk to during the day. I had my Mom and Tia come up this weekend and it was such a nice break. I miss having my family around. Well on another note here are some pix of my crazy little boys. They got ahold of the shampoo bottle. Needless to say I had to buy more shampoo the next day.
much love
monica

I haven't written in a day or two because I have been super busy trying to keep my boys occupied in the house because its so hot here! I can't wait for this heat wave to pass. Other than that things have been well. I haven't heard from Ari, which means she's having a blast. I am so happy this year went much better. Rob has been gone the last few days on a strike team to fight the wildfires up north. I talked to him this morning and he is in a small town called lafayette. He sounds good and rested and says the weather isn't bad. I miss him lots. Hopefully he won't be gone to long. Hope everyone is doing well.

much love,
monica

Hume Lake would not be possible for Arianna if it wasn't for Rob's Great Grandma Louisa. I just wanted say thank you to her for the opportunity to send my child to Hume. Every year Arianna comes back completely rejuvinated and with a heart that completely belongs to Jesus. It is amazing to watch Ari turn into a young lady who loves Jesus and isn't afraid to show it. So again a big thank you to The Other Grandma, without your devotion to Christ and thoughtfullness none of this would be possible!

Ari is off to another year at camp. She called today and informed us that this year is much better than last year! Yippee! She is in a cabin with a bunch of girls from San Luis Obispo so she fits right in. Every year I am so rushed to get her out the door and this year was no different, but I feel so sad because I miss her and my goodbyes always seemed so rushed. I was trying to remind her not to forget anything and to hurry up so we wouldn't be late. By the time we were saying goodbye i was so flustered that I was like"OK lets go.... Love you to ......Hurry up.......Ok you got to go....." Looking back on this makes me feel horrible. Why do we do that? Why are parents in such a rush that they miss golden opportunities? I am not going to see her for seven whole days and that's what I left her with? What a complete idiot. Hopefully she knows that I do love her and think of her all the time. I hope that by writing this I will remember to slow down a bit and love on her and the boys.

Gabe got in trouble so big brother gave him so love.

Well another year has passed and my babies are getting bigger. Gabe turned two this fourth of July and he and his brother had some fun on his new jeep. I remember two years ago I was getting ready to have some family over to light fireworks and enjoy a BBQ when my back started hurting. After a few hours I realized that it wasn't back pain from cleaning it was contractions. I told Rob and he told me to sit down and maybe they would go away. But they didn't and around 7 or so that night Gabriel Castillo was born three weeks early and 8lbs 14oz! Thank goodness he was early! I hope you all had a Happy 4th!

Much Love,
the castillos

Ok so recently my sis in law and I have been on a mission to start living more frugally. She is of course way more frugal than I but I'm going to try. She came upon this site: moneysavingmom.com. Love it! It teaches you how to save from clipping coupons to 40/week grocery bill to which bank to use to get a better rate on your savings account! So I am going to see exactly how much money I can save starting this month. I will update you on my endever at the end of the month.

much love,
monica

I am very excited to announce that some of the wives of the department are starting a group to help the wives of Fresno Fire to get together. Please check out our new blog courtesy of Sarah O. If this is something you are interested in please feel free to email us at fresnofirewives@yahoo.com. Let us know if we can be of any assistance!
Much Love,
monica

We were able to go on day trip this weekend! Yeah! We haven't done much this summer so this was much needed. Grammie and Grandpa treated our family on Tonya's family to a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was so much fun! Nathanael enjoyed every bit of it. Gabe just wanted to run around like a crazy but he loved being able to go to the touch tide pools. Arianna loved being on the coast and feeling the breaze. I just loved being with my family. There was once that i looked around and thought, "does life get much better?" It was fun hanging out with Aaron and Sassy, and the Brownells and Debbie.
A beautiful jellyfish

Rob, Debbie, Tonya and Aaron

The love of my life

A couple of days ago we had some exciting things happen here in Fresno. The fresno state baseball team won the national championship. It was the coolest thing ever. People that don't live in fresno don't realize that we are a big city with a small town mentality. Everyone was excited and there were over 11,000 people to cheer them on.
Good job Fresno State!

About 4 months ago rob and I had to purchase a new computer. We hymmed and hummed about what to get a PC or mac. Well we went a looked and I sold rob on a mac desktop. Yippee!!! So fast forward to today. Well rob needed a laptop for his new business so we went to buy a PC and ended up with a macbook (laptop) I love me some mac!!! These computers are amazing and so easy to use. Rob has converted over and now we are die hards.

Today was Nathanael's first day of swim lessons! He did amazing! He listened to his teacher and followed her instructions well. Gaby wasn't as excited as Nathanael. He wanted to get in the pool so bad. Overall, we had an awesome day!



Much Love,
the castillos

Ok how cute is my kid!?! I just love my little Kung Fu Fighter! Seriously, this is what life is all about. Enough said.

I know to most this means absolutely nothing to you. And unless you have known me since I was in fourth grade this would seem down right silly for me to title this entry Hollywood Beach Elementary. But to two very important people this was the best times of our lives. We were the three amigos. We did everything together, we went to the beach, hung out out the corner store, had our first crushes, and played on the monkey bars. This was the school that people dream of. It was right across the street from the beach and we took our class pictures in the sand. Our fourth grade teacher was Mrs. Delong, and our sixth grade teacher was Mr.Caffrey ( I can't rememeber our fifth grade teacher) I was a scrawny little mexican with the two most amazing friends I ever had. But when I moved away I lost touch with them. Danna moved to San Diego and Molly moved back East. I thought of them often but had no idea where they might be now, until today. I feel so blessed to have these two friends back in my life. God knows exactly what you need, and when you need it.

I love my kids. I think that they amazing, talented, bright, sensitive...... but I also know that every parent feels this way. I believe God gives us these little blessings to remind us it's not all about us, it's about living life and to know that every minute in unforgetable. I think He gave me Arianna so that I could learn to love whole hearted and want to become a better person for, not myself, for her. I think He gave me Nathanael so I could see how strong I am and how amazing my husband is, and that my husband will always be the one to love me when I am at my lowest.
I think He gave me Gabriel to remember to smile and enjoy the precious moments, and not to be such a clean freak. With all this said, for those of you who still have little one's or have big one's, thank God for every moment with them.

Ok so I just talked with my sis in law and she said she wouldn't put in on her blog until I started blogging a little more frequently. So here I go..... I have to admit this doesn't come naturally. When I think of my days it consists of very few things. I take care of my husband and kids and help families take care of their children. My week goes something like this: Monday: take care of children, clean house, Tuesday: take care of children, clean house, Wednesday: take care of children.....and you guessed it, clean house. All in all my life is Groundhogs Day (the movie). But when I look a little deeper there are those diamonds in the rough. Things i treasure and hold on too. Like when Ari comes home from school and brings all her friends here because this is the cool place to hang out. Or cracking up because, even though it is completely gross, I caught Gabe drinking out of the dogs bowl. Or Nathanael coming into my room to tell me he misses me after I just put him to bed. Or my husband, in his divine wisdom, tells me how much I lucked out to have found him! With all my little gems I have to admit my life is amazing. I am so fortunate to be home with my children to see the boring days. God is so very good!!