HAPPY NEW YEAR :)

2010 was a crazy year. From leaving the military, to living with my parents, to dh going to Kuwait, coming back, being out of job, living with our friends, to going absolutely insane, to having our patience tested, our love, our faith, to dh scoring a quick arse job in Afghanistan, to moving alone with 2 kids, to spending Halloween, thanksgiving, Christmas and now New Years alone, to paying off bills, to try to stabilize ourselves in a shaky ground. Its been crazy to say the least.
2011 is looking very good. Dh will come home for R&R, I will once start school again, we will completely be out of debt, and I will turn 30 eeek!!!!

I hope 2011 brings everyone extremely amazing things. I am hopeful and I hope you are too :)

Love A

Merry Christmas =)

When you are doing the chicken bow wow, you never think that the happy moments will lead to a pregnancy, that will lead to a child, that the child will be 4 and ask you questions about Christmas and you have to somehow convey to a 4 who still believe in dinosaurs that there is a God, a Jesus, today is Jesus birthday and that there is also a jolly fellow that brings presents. How to explain all that that they will one day

A. Dont think you flat out lied to them


B. Keep focus on what is important about Christmas

and C. Keep the magic alive



Its a hard task. So on the way to my parents we tackled the conversation again


Me: You know where we are going and what we are doing right Tyler??

TY: Yes mama. We are going to nana and papas to celebrate Christmas. Jesus birthday, get presents from santa and eat a lot.

ME: (this is going good). Yes today is Jesus birthday, son of God. We love him very much he loves us, so he wanted us to have presents on his birthday. But presents is not the really important thing. The fact that is his birthday today is what is important.

Ty: My video game that santa will bring is important.

Me: yes it is important to you but not as important as having a love Jesus that loves you.

Ty: Yep and if you die you see God

Me: uhh yeah you are right

Ty: Yep when you die like Pepe (my mothers dog that just passed away) balloons come up and take you up to the sky, high and high and high. You will see dinosaurs and live with God.

ME: Uh very true

Ty: and when I die, and when baby dies balloons will come to take us up to the sky. When you die we will need a lot of balloons too.

ME; Yes because I am bigger but I am hoping its not for a long long time.

Ty: not too long because I want to meet God. OH and if daddy or papa misses us, they can just throw some beans in the ground, grow a big tree climb up and go see us.

Me: uhh okay that is true..

TY" and if nana misses us, she can either climb the tree too or use the airplane to go to brazil and stop over

ME: Sounds like a plan but not for a long long time away.

Ty: Oh mommy I hope not too far. I soo want to meet God and this son of his that have a birthday and likes us to have his presents. He is a very cool guy because on my birthday I dont love anyone enough to give my presents..

So yep, that was our conversation. I dont know if its mission accomplished or mission failed , all I do know is that I had to bite my tongue from laughing so hard. To me it was funny and when I tell dh tonight, he will also laugh and I will laugh again.

Just for the comedy grade I give it a 10. The rest only time will tell!




Much love and Merry Christmas everyone

There is always a bright side....

You know what is the bright side of having a deployed husband and double inner and outer ear infection a couple days before Christmas?? No one expects you to do anything.

Any other year and I would have a list of things to bake since my parents dont like to bake and the husband requests a couple of american traditions because even though he loves our traditions, sometimes he just has to have a peanut butter burger on Christmas eve to kind of not loose a sense of himself.

Also Christmas eve brings in slave labor from my parents. I have to peel garlic, pounds and pounds of garlic (where do you think my mentality of "there is never enough garlic comes from??"), peel lbs of onions, dice tomatoes, hundreds of green peppers, enough potatoes to feed a small army do loads and loads of dishes.

My father is a jack of many trades. For a while, one of his jobs was cooking for a restaurant. He already had no concept of how much food is really necessary for 4 adults and 2 children,and after that job it just got worse. He doesnt understand we do not need a 12 lb ham, 9 lbs of cod, and a tender for just the 6 of us. Growing up very poor with 3 siblings and never enough food does that to a person I guess.

So anyways back on track, I have a lot of slave labor every Christmas eve.

This year dh being deployed pilled on to the fact I have this nasty: no fever-havent been sick in a while-how the fuck do I have a ear infection- thank God its not a bug that decided to take home in there-for the 20th million time "No Tyler I didnt stick anything in my ear unlike you -is beyond me, I have been informed I had to do absolutely nothing. I just had to show up with an empty stomach.

Angels are singing and the people of Nepal heard my joyous screams. For the first time in my 29 yrs I get to be lazy on Christmas eve. I am going to enjoy every second of it and not feel guilty at all. I use to dream of this day many year ago, thousands of miles away, when I was an 8 yr old crying because I had a cut in my hand and 22lbs of onions to peel. So yep I will enjoy it :) My only task will be to dodge my mother and her insane year after year chasing us with her fruitcake thinking that if we just take one bite we will love it so much like her.

Now I wish I didnt bake anything, but looking at other peoples plan, got me excited so I decided to make brownies for the kids. It would be a shame if I didnt bake at least one thing for Christmas. I wouldnt feel right in the world. So I made brownies for the kids, and my children sat in front of the stove and watched it. Its their favorite pass time. Too bad for them that was the only thing I was going to make ;)





Love

A

PSA of the day!!!!!

I know we waste a lot, I know we should all try to be green and so forth but when the intheknowmoms posted this about paper towels:

http://intheknowmom.net/?p=8572

full of statistics, I was shocked. I did some research and they are absolutely correct. Its not over dramatic, or inflating numbers to make an impact. Its the absolute truth. I am extremely responsible for this waste. I use paper towels for so much, and go through so many rolls its not even funny. So I placed my order today and encourage all of you to do the same. Maybe together we can start to be more green and share tips. Just a little bit can go a long way :)

Christmas tree, cards, ornaments, santa picture..

You get the deal. Here is one more year of keeping up traditions..

Dont you just love my new ornament?? If dh was here he would so make fun of me..lol






This is what they look like this year:

I love a good sale...

I been looking at a patio set for a while but no way I was going to spend $400 bucks. Well one day browsing craigslist I found one for $60. Perfect, after coordinating with a friend that has a truck (why didnt I buy a truck???) I got it and its awesome :




So because I was awesome and saved money I splurged on an amazing pair of boots:




I been wanting a pair of boots for a long time. I have fat calfs so nothing looked right, well while browsing Dillards I saw these Uggs, decided to try it on and fell in love. Inside its like there is fluff so you truly feel like you are walking on clouds. Amazing! if anyone is looking for a pair of boots check these out.


So that was my couple days, trying to find the balance between saving and splurging :)

I hope everyone is having a good week leading up to Christmas and is actually enjoying the holiday season without being too stressed.

Loved A

Priceless...

50 degree weather+ one cranky mommy+thousands of people pushing and shoving+one mommy that is going to blow her lid+$5 for pizza+ $2 for drinks+ $7 for light saber that will be broken tomorrow+ more waiting= a beautiful look on your kids face when they see santa land. PRICELESS!!!!!

Santa has landed. At that moment the look on my kids faces made me realize I would have probably done a lot more, because that look is a look of innocence, of believing. Sometimes we get so wrapped up we forget whats important. I just got a little reminder to stop, slow down, believe and appreciate.

So many people....













Today we met up with my parents for some yummy dinner, and a trip to the local little fair that they set up by the mall.
The kids had a blast. My dad even rode the bear with Tyler. I rode the carousel with the kids (seconds away from a huge barfing fest), no matter how much we tried to convince my mom, she wouldnt ride anything. Oh well! Ds won a blown up Diego and my mom got dd a huge butterfly spinny thing that she will probably go in a trance from all the lights. All in all a wonderful day. Tomorrow is the parade and I cant wait for. I love holiday activities :)

Thank you..

I love the company my husband works for now. Not only do we get all the perks of insurance, travel paid for, uniforms paid for and so forth, we get a generous paycheck from them every two weeks that is helping us put our lives back on track and pay off some bills. But they truly won me over by sending me this :



Its a fruit/chocolate basket. They sent it to me as a thank you gift for Thanksgiving. How cool is that?? Inside they had these delicious chocolate covered cranberries. I didnt know I liked chocolate covered cranberries, now I am on a search for more.

I just thought it was so sweet. Never have I gotten a gift from the Army, but I did now and it truly touched me.

So thank you Mantech. You got my vote :)

Love A

Mama bear and a glass of wine before 9am!

Once upon a time in a village not far away,
there was a pregnant mama bear.
The old ladies of the village always filled her head with stories.
"Sweetie, carrying a boy you know you are in for broken bones, stiches, toys up their noses, trying to fly out of stairs, and so forth. It will be extremely wild".

That mama bear was scared, and looking at the history of mama bear (4 broken bones, 13 stiches, and one ripped ear all before the tender age of 6) and papa bear (3 stiches and one pellet still stuck on the back of his head), with odds this high, that fear never subsided.
For the next couple years, everything was great. A busted lip here, a banged head there, nothing major. Mama Bear was actually beginning to believe she had beaten the odds. She cared so tenderly and took such good care of her cub, the ladies in the village were wrong and her little cub was going to survive childhood without any major injuries.
Well, who says bears are very smart anyways??

On a bright sunny morning, while mama bear was still sleeping her little cub came to her and told her his ear hurt. Mama bear rolled over with sleepy eyes and told baby cub it was probably a pimple.
Little cub not satisfied with that response said "No mama its something different in my ear".
That sure peaked mama bears curiosity. She jumped out of bed to examine. Upon further examination, she saw a metal piece.
All the warnings from the village ladies came back to her.
Without much thougth process, she got the kids dressed in a hurry, got herself dressed, and to the doctors they went.
After a big futuristic machine took a picture of the inner workings of little cubs ear, and the kind old man with a pair of tweezers pulled out the metal piece, mama bear finally heard herself let out a breath. One she had been holding on to since this morning.
Stickers were handed out with promises of not sticking anything in ears again.
And the little bear family left the hospital.

The ladies at the village turned out to be right, like they always do, and even though mama bear was thankful for their stories. Because I mean what is a piece of metal in a ear when so and so's son stuck a beetle in his. Or when other have stuck legos or bead on theirs.

One more time we dodged the worse, and little cub will survive childhood and hopefully adulthood, but only because mama bear has wine and have no problem drinking it before 9am. IF she didnt one couldnt be sure about little cubs future.


The END

Happy Thanksgiving :)

Today we celebrated our Thanksgiving. No we are not weird, from a different religion, or just dont like to follow tradition. The reason we celebrated today and not on Thursday was because my mom was at the hospital with some chest pains. Everything turned out to be okay and after a huge fight with my dad about when to eat (he said thursday night without mom, I said today with mom because thanksgiving is about family) you can see who won that argument right ;)

Everything held up good in the fridge. By the time she had gone to the hospital on Wednesday I had cooked the majority of everything and prepped the rest.

This year we had :

Turkey: courtesy of the Hone Baked Ham (I loved it and they will be providing turkey for us for many years to come. My kitchen is too small, no one likes dark meat, so this turned out perfectly. Maybe next year hubby will deep fry a turkey. I always wanted to try one)

Red mashed potatoes: I just learned this year to add sour cream to them. Kids and parents raved about it.

Homemade cranberry sauce: Pioneer woman provided this recipe. It was cranberries, pom juice and sugar. All on sauce pan until it boils. Absolutely delish and mom said from now on she will never eat the can kind with the rings again.

Green bean casserole: The kids chowing down on veggies and asking for seconds. What more can you ask for??

Stuffing: Cortesy of stove top in a box because I dont know how to make stuffing.

Paula Dean trifle: This one I picked because I dont like pumpkin pie. I switched her recipe from gingerbread cake to french vanilla because again I am not a fan of gingerbread. So good. Definetly going into the recipe book.

I also wanted to make a pumpkin cheesecake, but with only us and hubby not here, I could not trust myself to that much leftovers. Maybe for Christmas.


I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Love A

Almost wordless Tuesday...

No day is completed without trying on one, or two, maybe 3? head accessories at party city ;)

What do I do all day??

It all started with me posting a question about prices on facebook about getting a housecleaner. I got some pretty mean comments about being a stay at home mom with 2 kids and that its just me being lazy.

So here is a look at what this stay at hom mom does ;)

2-4am: Tyler is chattering his teeth and dealing with night-terrors so bad it wakes me up. I go and console him until he is back asleep.
6am: Tyler comes to wake me up. I plea and offer him a pony to let me sleep in a little bit more no such luck.
6:30: roll out of bed extremely exhausted
6:30-7am : Teeth brushing, hair brushing, making my bed, getting dressed, pick up clothes off the floor of my closet.
7-7:30- teeth brushing for kids, changing and dressing both kids make Tyler's bed.
7:30-8: breakfast, separate everything I need for the day
8-9: drop Ty off at school
9-9:30: Errands for my parents (bank, post office)
9:30-10/11- Phone call from hubby then straight to the Gym
11-11:30: head home take shower, Juliet lunch, eat lunch, pull meat out for dinner, vaccum
11:30-12 : put her down for her nap.
12-12:30: Throw laundry in, translate documents for my parents, call around for prices for wood and granite or call around for whatever else they need.
12-1- time for myself (internet, phone calls to friends or family)
1-2pm: Pull laundry out, fold it, clean kitchen,
2-3: Juliet up from her nap more phone calls for parents
3-4: snack Juliet, dinner cooking
4-4:30- Grab everything else I need out the door to pick Tyler up from daycare
4:30-5- pick up Tyler from daycare stop at bank or post office or whatever else I need before end of the day
5: Tyler swimming lesson
6pm: Head home, feed the kids dinner, put away the clothes, bath, milk. kitchen cleaning.
7-7:50: watching cartoons with kids,
8pm: teeth brushing, 2 book reading, prayers,lights out both kids sleeping
8-10: time for myself, fighting to stay awake
10:30pm- phone call from husband
11pm- drag myself up the stairs and go to bed to start all over the next day.

That is when I dont have to do something else. Last night I had to go buy an entertainment center and a new dishwasher to replace the old one for the landlord. Didnt get home until almost 9:30 pm.

Starting in January I am adding going to school online. It usually takes 4 wks doing it 10-15hrs a week per class. Because I still have 10 classes to take and don't want to wait 10 months to finish, I am going to try to do it faster while Ju naps and at night after the kids go to bed.

So yeah, its not easy. I know everyones life is not easy and hectic and with a deployed husband, its harder. I don't get a day off. I don't get to take a shower in peace, I dont even get to pee in peace. I been dying to go to the movies or to have a drink with friends. It won't happen until he gets home. Its the life we chose and I love it, yeah there are things that sucks about it but I can handle it. But just because I want a house-cleaner doesnt mean I sit at home all day eating bonbons. I havent been able to watch Oprah in 3 months because of ds's swimming after school. So please the next time you think stay at hom moms do absolutely nothing, ask them. They will gladly tell you ;)

". I wish I may, I wish I might,: Have the wish I wish tonight...

Christmas is coming and since I love all holiday talk, I am following the lead of Karen (www.mygoalissimple.com ) (who followed the lead of someone else) such is the world of blogging, and if money was no object here is my Christmas list.

Take notes mom :)

1. I want him doing exactly that :



but even Santa is not that skillfull. So...

2. I would love to know that he got a job offer here :



3. An all inclusive trip to here would make me kiss each and every single reeindeer. Heck I only been dreaming about going there for the past 21 years of my life.



4. One of these to replace the 8th of a carat I got and lost when we got married would put a huge smile on my face:



5. One of these would make me run around in circles screaming (if I get this it will be 15 inches bigger than anything I ever had. 15 inches is a lot. I would actually be able to watch it without glasses. How cool would that be?? :)



6. The reason I want one of these is for my health. Being stressed out, getting frustrated and screaming at my :"I will always overheat and shutdown when you are doing something important just to enjoy you turning red" laptop, is bound to be bad for my health. So its a necessity. Right??




So that is my list. I think one or two I will get it after Christmas and after we are debt free, but even if I don't get any, I am alive, healthy, my husband got a job, my kids are healthy, I will still have a smile on come Christmas morning. So its all good. I wont stop believing or wishing :)

Love A

Keeping it busy...

While he is learning to do this (Which is taking him a long time might I add) :





I am keeping it busy by doing this :

Today is good, real good...

Every couple days I been getting complains about ds in school. He is not listening, he is not napping, he is always asking to drink too much water, he is going into the bathroom with the girls, all the norm. I been on him about it. Bribbing, threating to take him to jail,threating to pull him out of school, phone calls to his father, phone calls to his grandfather, phone calls to santa, nothing is working.
He has an amazing teacher who melts for his smiles, but even so he was driving her nuts.
I was completely out of option and ideas. Well today I went to pick him up and his teacher while starting to talk to me had tears in her eyes. Insane thoughts ran through my head. What did he do now??

Well to my surprise it was good really good. The teacher was telling me this new little girl just started class 3 days before because her parents went through a nasty divorce and now her mom had to go back to work. All she did was cry, cry and cry. She wouldn't eat, wouldn't sleep, wouldn't play. Nothing. Her mom was worried teacher was worried everyone was worried.
Well my son, my big boy, whispered something into this little girls ear. She stopped crying, started laughing, sat down ate lunch with him, laid down on her mat right next to him, played with him the whole time and even started to play with the other kids too. When I went to pick him up, he wasn't allowed to leave without giving her a big old hug and promising her that he would be back tomorrow.

I about lost it when his teacher told me. We were sitting there both crying tears of happiness. That is by far one of my most proud mommy moments. Somehow a ease came over me and it was the little reassurance from up above that I need. Reassurance that even though I am not perfect, I loose my temper, my patience,I make a ton of mistakes, somehow I am raising wonderful, caring kids.

What more could anyone ask for??


ps. Dont even bother asking. His teacher have asked him, I have asked him repeatedly what he said to this little girl. What those magic words were and he wont tell. He said its a secret. He could never keep a secret but I guess this one he can and its fine by me :)

Love A

Easily amused...

My kids loves balloons. At the local grocery store they always give them out when you go through the cashier. I don't like the tears that comes after their balloons pops. Its inconsolable crying. Sometimes he opens the car window and out it flies. Just a pain.

Well browsing through etsy, I cam across this :

http://www.etsy.com/transaction/37012662

and I love it. It just came in today and its so cute. Works great, dd has been a happy camper playing all afternoon with her balloon (yeah yeah it was supposed to be a stocking stuffer, but with us going home fro Christmas , she was home she saw it I said why not?).

So if you are easily amused like me and want cute cheap stocking stuffer that they will actually play with it instead of little junk, head over to etsy.

They have this adorable octopus : http://www.etsy.com/transaction/37012660

all different kinds of magnets, wooden little cars. Just neat little stuff that will be perfect for stocking stuffing and it will actually get played with :)

I love moments like these...

You can be 4 yrs old, on top of the world,
think you know it all,
too big to let your mom buckle your seatbelt,
too big to let your mom pick your clothes,
you are always saying you can do it,
you want to pick what you eat,
what you drink,
Suggestions from mommy are boring.
You know it all,
but as you just learned that are moments when you still need mom,
it makes her very happy,
and guess what??
She will always be there for you (even if she starts laughing and runs for the camera first) =)

Almost wordless Thursday.

Finally got my camera =)




and already need a baseball bat ;)

Let the celebration begin...

Halloween marks the beggining of holiday season. The kids were both pirates this year. Ds had a party at school on friday, dd threw a fit so she also wore her costume on friday while running errands with me.
On saturday we went downtown to the Ave to get candy and see the parade. Downtown ave is 2 lanes of traffic each going one way filled with little shops, outdoor cafes, some cool clubs, restaurants, kilwin's, the most delicious cupcakes ever, art store, and so forth. Its about 2 miles of it that ends on the beach. We love going down there, there is always people browsing, walking their dogs, shopping, just a fun area to be with a great vibe, I could do away with the thugs that drive by with their cool convertible tops down blasting the latest rap, but it cant all be perefect ;) . During Christmas they light up this humungous tree and also have a parade. For halloween all the kids could go up and down the ave and get candy from the stores. No one really needs anymore candy, but its just for the experience.

We were supossed to have a cold front that didnt show up. Its a nice 89 degrees. Toasty!!. Anyways parents should have some common sense when buying their halloween costume. After hours of walking, you could see some little kids soo red and about to pass out from heat exhaustion. I cant imagine how they felt walking on almost 90degree weather with a big bear suit. Broke my heart for them :(

But we had a good day. My friend her mom and 3 kids showed up, so did my parents. The extra hands helped a ton.

Tomorrow we are supossed to go trick or treating with my friend, but they already got so much candy I think I might bypass it. We will see :)





*pS my camera is still not here ..urgghgh so I only have the pictures of them trying out their outfits from before. Its actually good you see this one. Their outfits are already dirty with leftover cupcake and lots of sticky candy ;)

*ps ps: Dont even ask. Nope I didnt dress up, I havent dressed up since I was 13 and dont plan on starting again ;)

Superstitious???

I am not really superstitious but today has made me rethink that.

All I need to go home is an american passport. I got my citizenship last year and still havent applied for an american passport. I figured I better do it now since I want to go home beginning of december and stay over Christmas and they take 4-6 wks.

Well this morning I drop ds off school and go get my pictures done. 1st walgreens machine is broken. No biggie. 2nd Walgreens the guy brighten my picture so much, my hair looks blonde. I tell him that is unaceptable since the main thing about passport is eye color and hair color. He tells me its okay and I should just try. Uhh nope. Either take another or I am not paying for this. He tells me this is the best they can do. SO I walk out. I am already starting to fume at this point. Deep breath, trip to starbucks and I decide lets try CVS. It takes her almost 30 minutes to take my picture and try to get the machine to work. Finally I walk out of there with my picture. Next is to the ATM to pull some money out. 6 atms later I find one that is working. By this point I am boiling. Okay deep breath, drive 20 minutes to the only post office in town that does passport pictures and as soon as I walk in the door, the fire alarm goes off. We all have to stand outside for 15 minutes. Its just a drill. Walk back inside and stand in line. By this point Ju is misserable. We have been out for over 4 hours and no amount of snacks can keep her happy. Another 40 minutes in line and the lady tells me I need original documents not copies. Are you kidding me?? YOu loose my naturalization certificate and I am F*ed 10 ways into sunday. Do you not realize what a burocracy nightmare that would be to get a new one??

I am soo frustrated I have a mini breakdown thinking this is signs that I am not suposse to go home. Visions of crashing airplane is swirling through my head and God saying..I warned you. Mini breakdown turns into huge breakdown. What am I going to do??

I drive home, feed Ju let her nap, get the original document and call around. The courthouse close to me does passports also. Ju wakes up, we drive over there. We go through the xray machine she is all happy and flirting with everyone. I get my ticket not even 5 minutes later the guy calls me. As soon as I go to the window and sit down to dig all the paperwork and money to give to him, Ju starts freaking out. Like arching back crying like a nutcase. I pull her out of the stroller, try to soothe her, and nothing is working. This child is crying like someone is torturing her. I hand her my phone, keys, glasses, everything and nothing is helping. She is just crying and crying and crying. Everyone is looking at me, the guy is trying his harderst to hurry up. I have to lift my hand and swear over her screams.

20 minutes later he is done, all the paperwork is done and my naturalization certificate is on its way to the department of defense full of prayers they dont loose it and she is still bawling. I leave there as soon as we are outside she starts smiling. Uhh now I am freaking out. Are these signs or just God testing me?? I dont know. So now I dont know what to do. I have to buy our tickets next week, I dont even know what could happen and if maybe I am not meant to go. IF I dont go my grandmother and whole family would be heartbroken. They havent met Ju yet, havent seen me or Ty in 2 yrs and this will be my 1st Christmas back home in 16 yrs. I have to go.

So now is the major life dillema. I am going to pray and pray about it and ask God to be more clear. Hope for the best.

So that was my wonderful day. I am sitting here drinking a beer and hoping for a better tomorrow.

Love A

Its that season again..

Latetlly I been on a funk. I dont know why but I just dont feel like doing anything. This deployment is kicking my arse. Anyways on Sunday morning, I decided to try to shake this funk, in a attempt to find something to do with the kids, I stumble upon a pumpkin patch not that far away from us. A couple phone calls and I recruit our friends and their 3 kids to go with us. We show at about noon and omg! half of S florida is at this place. It was kind of hard to get into the spirit since it was 85 degrees, I was sweating and the kids had on shorts, sandals and sundress, but hey this is S . We did the hayride, skipped the face painting (mile long line), had some ice cream, picked a pumpkin, took loads of pictures, and just had a really good day. After that we decided to have a very late lunch at a local bbq place. It was very delicious and a good day overall.