Genny's Birthday..yay yay...

Today was my mother's forty something birthday, I actually know how old she is, but I don't want to embarass her by saying her age.

She woke up to the sounds of Isaiah saying "...happy birthday gramma." and some breakfast with flowers and devil's chocolate cake with french vanilla ice cream with strawberries.

Next we hung out and took her to late lunch at CPK, it was good. Still we needed a little sweetness in our lives and headed to Cold Stone's for some real dessert:

Reinaldo had, 1/2 banana ice cream 1/2 coffee topped with pineapple and strawberries.

Genny had, cheese cake ice cream with bananas and strawberries on a chocolate waffle cone.

Ashley had, 1/2 mint 1/2 chocolate ice cream, topped with M&M's

Angie and I had, banana ice cream topped with light almonds and strawberries.

Last but not least...

Isaiah had, chocolate ice cream topped with colored sprinkles, of course he was only interested in the colorful sprinkles.

There were no streamers or carne asada or fancy wrapped gifts but there was a lot of love between gramma, grandson, mother, daughter, son, daughter-in-law, husband love for my mom.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GENNY

Training day…

Today Isaiah and I decided to meet Angie in Downtown Los Angeles. We hopped on the train in Norwalk, the Green Line and headed west. We took the Blue Line north towards Los Angeles. We got off at Hope and 7^th and luckily and coincidentally met up with Angie upon arriving in downtown. We all headed to Macy’s, and bought some MAC for Angie, cause my baby gots to look good.

We parked our car in a spot that only charged 3 bucks for the whole day and in was a single level parking lot too, the perfect spot. We got the stroller and jumped on the Red Line subway to Union Station. We finished our ride there and walked over to the Gold Line and headed northeast towards Pasadena.

We had some lunch at the Cheesecake Factory but we didn’t have cheesecake, hmmm???. Next we walked around Colorado Blvd in the beautiful 70-degree temperature with a hint of a cool westerly wind. By this time Angie and I were getting tired but Isaiah seemed to have Energizer batteries.

It had been a day full of fun. I like to see Isaiah’s face light up when he sees a train. I like to hear him tell me that he wants to go on the train one more time. I like to see his little look of confusion when he sees something he has never seen before, even more, I like to explain things to him. Children are little sponges that are looking for answers to the world they are learning about.

I hope that Angie and I never stop teaching him new things; or encouraging him find new adventures, even in every day life such as train ride.

Time For School...

Now that Isaiah Daniel Reyes is 3, he feels he is ready for school. On the way home he asked Angie to take him to school. In an attempt to appease him she simply said "Yes", then Isaiah asked, "mom, where's my homework?" only if he knew what homework was. Later going to Granma Maria's house he seemed to have remembered school and got his camouflaged backpack put his essential toys in their and told Angie "mom lets go to school"

Isaiah is not yet ready for school, but if he keeps up this desire for education another 25 years he'll be successful.

Isaiah is learning to drive, in this picture he is on the trainer course at the Santa Monica Pier.











This picture was taken the same day at Angelato Italian ice shop in Santa Monica too.











This picture was taken at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.

Isaiah's 3rd Birthday Party

On September 3 Angie and I put a little birthday party together for Isaiah Daniel Reyes. The theme of the party was dinosaur/safari, it was more like Jurassic Park though because it was a bit hard to get cool dinosaur stuff.

It seems everyone had a good time. The ceviche was really good and there was plenty to go around.

We missed a few people at the party, still it was nice crowd mix. The DJ was a clown literally and the other clown was a face painter. I'll post pictures in the future.

July the Fourth

One more year of Independence Day. Hurray for fireworks! It's the difference maker in this holiday. It seems that unless you are affected by Memorial Day or Veteran's Day those day are just days off work. The Fouth of July, with all of the possibilties to make some cash, brings at least in my case, my family, friends and me together.

This holiday we found out that our friends David, Matti and baby Gabriel are about to move to Colorado on July the 19th. It will be sad to see them leave but that only gives us an opportunity to visit them in the mountains.

After visiting our friends in Sherman Oaks, we headed to South Gate to my suegrita's house for some carne asada. As always, Justin and Isaiah find a way to entertain themselves and make us laugh at the same time.

Isaiah sings his last name...

I might be the subject of a new book, wow thats cool.

Isaiah continues to grow and starts to put together phrases, for example:

What happened?

What is it?

I wanna go gramma

That mine

Oh the wonderful joys of teaching children.

Angie is continuing her P.A. practice, her patients sometimes call her "La Doctora", she reluctantly accepts because its better to accept it that to explain she's a like a doctor but not really a doctor.

Life is good!!!

Thanksgiving..

Give thanks to some one you love or appreciate, tell them one way your life is different because they are in your life, it may make their day.

I know I am thankful to the Lord for taking care of me and guiding me where it is most suitable to him. I'm thankful for all the good friends and family I have. Most of all I thank God for allowing me to meet Angie. She is not only me wife and friend. Angie is able to see beyond my faults and love me the way I am, although she influences me in a very positive manner. I am also thankful because we have very handsome son. He's got my toes but we're not all perfect.

Happy thanks giving to all.

Isaiah Daniel Reyes and Kofi 

The truth and nothing but the truth...

Today was a big day for PHL. This was the day when the railroad was supposed to hammer the final nail on my coffin.

On Nov. 8th @ about 5:00am my conductor, a.k.a. assistant engineer should have seen a rail car on the same track we were traveling on but did not and we collided with it. Perhaps he was not all there since his drug test was positive.

On Nov 11th @ about 2:00am, with my locomotive only, I pulled up to converging tracks and was struck by another locomotive that was pulling about 30 rail cars.

Immediately I was taken out of service and have not worked for the railroad since. Today the company cited me to come to a "formal" hearing on each charge. There was the court reporter: Debbie, the crew in question: Me. The company officer presenting evidence against the crew: Bill. The Jury: Russell T. The prosecutor: Russell T. The executioner: Russell T. The "Author" of General Code of Operating Rules: Russell T. Did I forget to mention that Russell will determine where fault lies and what the punishment will be and that he also gets a paycheck from the company. Yeah. A bit lobsided huh?

I feel the company has made its mind who the guilty party is and what type of discipline will be administered if not termination of employment. For reference, one person in six years has been exonerated by PHL. So I guess when the transcripts come in, they will be set aside and without opening and envelope a termination letter will be mailed to my address.

On the brink of bordem...

It’s amazing we survived a whole 30 minutes stuck in the elevator. As we were leaving for grocery shopping Angie got out of the elevator to charge our laundry card at the lobby and Isaiah and I continued down to “P3” to encounter and new dimension in thrills. Of course the elevator company said there was someone on the way, he was supposed to take 40 minutes to arrive. Guess what I have one life to live and I can’t wait on this kind of drama. I decided to help the process and called 911, there was no way I’d give the elevator repair guy a chance to make me wait so he can have lunch and come rescue us. Besides it was getting boring in there. Luckily I had my cell phone and Angie’s Ipod so Lil' Ice and I started to play games so he can stay entertained. When the firefighters arrived there was an awkward silence, I didn’t know what say or do, I even started to reach into my pockets for a tip. I guess thanks should've been enough.

Moving on. Iraq bound Jesse went to our church today in his Army fatigues and made his decision to accept Jesus Christ as his savior. The congregation also prayed for him and the rest of our youth in Iraq. We are so glad for Jesse, now we hope he stays safe and come back home well. Wecouldn't be there to see the events. One of my aunts has conjuctivitis and came to pick up an RX from Angie. So after chatting away we realized it was better to hang out and enjoy Isaiah.

Sunday mounin'...

9:00am...and already watching Shrek 2. I love being a daddy to Isaiah. Right now he's sitting next to me with his wooden blocks around him. We stack blocks as high as we can and sw stack until they fall, or when he feels ready the urge to kick them to see how they colapse.

Here again...

It's a little late, I'm trying to set up my e-mail and of course I tend to have internet A.D.D. Isaiah won't go to sleep because he woke up from his late nap at 8:00pm, so here we all are. It was nice to see Jesse and hear him tell stories about his tour of duty, we hope he stays safe.

After leaving Lynwood we tried going to grand-ma Genny's house so she could see Isaiah but she was not there. So we went to Santa Monica and walked on Third street. Isaiah was looking at the street performers do what they do over people's head as I lifted him over my shoulders. He was also looking for toys on the street vendor carts so he could play with them. At Z-Gallerie he managed to open up a deck of playing card and wanted them but he already has his own deck at home.

well here we are back in downtown with slippery wet roads.

Just another post.

Today Isaiah and I woke up at 6:45am. We had to go to Woodland Hills to select some furniture for the office. My co-worker's friend took us to his company’s storage to pick out a few desks, chairs and other office furniture. Isaiah of course was inspecting everything by running circles around the furniture and us.

Angie did some time at Los Angeles Mission near Skid Row. Every other Saturday she clocks in four hours to help out at the non-profit. Of course there is monetary compensation, but not many people want to be around the homeless and drug addicts. We all know Angie can't solve all our problems but we need more people who are willing to just do something for others, including myself.

As I write Isaiah is playing in the bathtub, I think he's trying to swim in 5" deep water. Later today we'll be headed to Lynwood to say farewell to Angie's cousin. Jesse is leaving for Iraq, we think, he's been there once with the U.S. Army and we think that’s where he's going to end up. There is much to say about war and peace, but the family is showing support for Jesse, may the Lord guard him.

Please leave comments so I know to continue writing.

Angie's night job is to fight for justice as "Batmanwoman" 

Hi...

Hello friends and family,

I have finally posted picrtures of Isaiah's b-day party on 9/11. I am not as big a blogger as thought.
We hope you all had a good time with us and Lord willing we can see next year. Your gift were all really nice Isaiah and I are having so much fun with them.

Take care DRM

Thank you for coming out to the party guys, Isaiah says thank you. 

Josh P. and Isaiah stick around for the after party. 

I think I'm more excited about this padded swimsuit than Isaiah, thanks Marlon & Sharon. 

Thank you all for the nice gifts, thanks Miguel V. 

There's always room for cake, yummy huh Ashley?