My introduction to the Blogging Community

My name is Cristina Lowreley Sierra.  I was born in The Dominican Republic in a beautiful coastal city called La Romana.  I grew up with my Father and his whole family. My father was very young when I was born (14 years old to be exact), my Mother was older (around 19 years old).  Until this day I do not know the exact reasons why all I know about my mother is that she decided to move on with her young life and gave me to my father, well actually my Grandmother (which by the way was 32 years old) the responsibility to raise me. My Grandfather was 61 at the time, he was the head of the family, so as happy as he was because of me, he told my dad that he had to start working on the family business (Trucking, which still is) and he had to attend school at night, and so he did.

I always saw my dad as an uncle (you know that very annoying uncle you have in your family reunions).  I was the baby of the family.  I had two older aunts that treated me like a doll. Taty and Carmen (I called them my aunt Taty Juana and my aunt Carmen Mami), I have another aunt Eliza she was the baby until I got there and my uncle Christian (you will read a lot about Tio Titian).

Mami Negra, Papito Lao, Papi, Juana, Mami Carmen, Eliza, Tio Titian and I lived in a beautiful big house. I remember it was yellow with a huge kitchen, a beautiful Porch (where Papito Lao used to take his naps) and a big front yard. We used to have a Mango Tree, Coconut Tree, Lime Tree, different and colorful flowers and in the middle of the yard four or five oregano trees plant together, it look like one big tree it look so marvelous and it smelled delicious.

My Mami Carmen took pictures of everything. I have pictures of my first haircut, steps, day of school, church, birthday party, that lady loves taking pictures. I remember having the neighborhood friends coming over because I wasn't allow to go to people's houses by myself.  Although, my main entertainment was playing with Tio Titian. I will write lots of stories later on about him and me.

When I was around 7, Mami Carmen got married and my whole family moved to The United States leaving me behind with her.  We moved away from my neighborhood, my school, my friends, everything happen so fast, I lost everything in less than a month. Mami Carmen decided to buy me a dog a gorgeous black Doberman, I named her Yibiri, she was my best friend and she also bought me a very annoying but lovely parrot named Cuca. Mami Carmen bought a huge custom-made cage for her, which she only used to sleep because she used to follow me everywhere I went inside the house.

And finally at age 14, I came to The United States to live in New Jersey with my family again!

Now I am 37 years old, I am married to a wonderful man name Luis (I called him Papa Bear) and I have 4 amazing children Brandon (14), Daniel (13), Rebecca (7) and Luis Jr. (5).  I will refer to them by their nicknames so you can familiarize yourselves with them. So they are Tata, Nonny, Bekika and Gordo in that order. I also have a beautiful Yorkie named Khloe and guess who are my neighbors? Mami Negra, Mami Carmen and Tio Titian LOL... unfortunately my Papito Lao died 8 years ago.

I do a little bit of sewing and crocheting, I cook and LOVE Handmade/Homemade stuff. I make my own sugar scrubs, bath bombs and soaps. I also make pillowcases and hair bows.  I am constantly learning. I love coupons, clearance, yard sale, garage sale, I am literally a sucker for bargains and I do hate paying full price. I work from home.

Since I love to write, I've been contemplating blogging for a while. I used to keep diaries, I used to buy notebooks and write a bunch of stuff about sports, Chicago Bulls and their players, I used to keep up with their stats, injuries even their love live, JESUS! I will find that notebook it is somewhere in my attic and I will post pictures I promise. I still keep notebooks around, I write about my sewing, crocheting, I write about my food and my soaps recipes and how to improve it, I have my own methods of doing things. I hope one day when I am really old my children and grandchildren find my notebooks and said omg how cool is this and maybe try my recipes or just laugh at me who knows.

For now I will blog frequently so you get to know me and since my children are on vacation starting Monday (6/26/17), I will blog about the plan I have for them to enjoy and learn during the summer. I will also be posting some recipe and a bunch of other interesting stuff. Thank you so much for reading I will be happy to answer any of your questions and I will read all your comments that I will must certainly reply. Also if you have any ideas or want me to blog about something of your interest, let me know.

With Love, Lowreley.

"If you educate a man, you simply educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation" - James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey