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