This weekend we managed to acquire more than a tan ....

This weekend with temps in the triple digits we didn't do much. Saturday we went yard selling. I don't know if you are aware but there is an app for iphones/ipads called "yard sale treasure map". For free you get the address of all your local yard sales. With gas prices the way they are, no more driving around aimless.

I hit way more yard sales in a less period of time than I did before. Genius..pure genius!!

Now I din't go out looking for anything specific. I just wanted to get out of the house and kill some time. I did find a ton of bras. I don't know what is it with this time of year but I am guessing people buy new bras and decide its perfectly acceptable to try to sell their used ones. Newsflash people...ITS NOT. You don't want to throw them out, donate them to the goodwill but under no circumstances put them up for sale.

Anyways I found these beauties..:




They are not my style, I am more of a moderm person, but for $2 each. Yes you read that right..$2 each, I couldn't pass it up. There is a lot of things that for $2 it won't require me to think too long. Well except bras ;). Even 50 cents for those wouldn't make me give a second thought ;)

Anyways, when the lady told me the price, I had to stop myself from jumping up and down, throwing the money and her and peeing on it to make sure no one else grabbed. I politely said I would take them, they loaded them in my car and I left hapilly.

I have big plans for them. Maybe a bubble gum painting and make one reside in Julie't room and a dark blue painting and the other will reside in Tyler's room. Or maybe I will just put them outside or turn around and sell them for 10 times what I paid for. Who cares?? It was $4. I spend more on a trip to Dunkin Donuts.


The rest of the weekend were spent lazily floating around at my parents pool. All in all a good day :)





Love A

Chick-fil-A will miss us tonight.....

Latetly I have been spending a lot of time at Chick-Fil-A. I am in such a cooking rut, that is caused by absolutely no feed back from another party that doesn't watch NickJR and no one to bounce ideas, I have been either doing very simple dinners or going to chick-fil-A. *Hangs head in shame*

After discovering Pinterest (feel free to add me :)), I have spent countless hours looking at food porn and shinny pretty things and amazing ideas for the house. All those hours didn't go to waste. It got my cooking creative juices flowing and I decided to make 2 things tonight because I couldn't decide.


This was numero 1: mac and cheese muffins
My children love hand food so this is a win win.

and this was 2: Spinach balls

I am not in the mood for pasta.

The only changes I made are I used just fiesta blend shredded cheese and instead of salt and pepper, I used Miss Dash. Oh and I used frozen spinach. Fresh spinach always seems to go bad here, and since Target is having a sale of 81cents for a 16 oz bag of frozen spinach that doesn't go bad, I couldn't pass it up.

(Cooking with spinach is a pain only because 99% of the recipes will require 10oz and most bags comes with 16oz. I always either put too much or too little. Might invest in a kitchen scale just to make it right. Anyone have this problem??)

Growing up watching Popeye, I always felt spinach is the magical veggie. I have since then branched into collard greens, zucchini, and so many others, but in my eyes, by feeding my children spinach, I feel like I am doing a wonderful thing.

Well, to report, it came out amazing. Of course mine wont look as pretty as the picture, and its not supposed to because I am not that skilled in the kitchen and I don't have photoshop ;)

What it lacked in beauty, was definitely made up by taste. The children gobbled it up.

Tomorrow morning, I might even give them the spinach rice balls. I can get away handing them that for breakfast and they will eat it a lot easier than me sitting them down for rice and spinach ;) and that way I will feel a lot better about all those chick-fil-A, trips.

Hooray for going the extra mile in order to redeem ourselves!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"WOW" doesn't even begin to cover it...

Every once in a while, you see something, and it has such a big impact on you, it touches you so deeply, you are definitely not the same person before said thing.
On this random tuesday morning, this was mine :

THE BEAUTY OF LOVE LEFT BEHIND

The progression of Friday nights.....

Friday night when you are 13:

-Sleepover..Oh yeah! Lets crank call people, call our crush and then hang up, stay up all night, giggling and watching 16 candles over and over again.

Friday night when you are 18:

-Coed party. Sneaking beer, making sure there is no cop around, making out with your so cute- totally-perfect-going to- be-together-forever-boyfriend until late hrs of the night.

Friday night when you are 21:

-Praying you are not the DD, hottest club in town, one too many fruity drink, dancing like there is no tomorrow, stumbling into the car with your friends just laughing and having a good old time, trying to decide who you will call tomorrow from all the numbers you collect or praying there is no coyote ugly in the morning if you go home with a guy.

Friday night somewhere in your mid/late 20'

-OMG we finally got this child to go to sleep. Lets cuddle and watch that movie that came out 6 months ago so we can finally be able to talk about it with our friends.

Friday night when you are 30

-The grandparents are taking the kids for the night. OMG OMG what are we going to do with ourself?? I don't know but I love the peace and quiet. Love it. Oh lets go to a club?? No we too old. Lets cuddle and watch a movie then? nah we did that last night. Okay lets have a beer and talk until 3am about the adorable things the kids have done. Sounds awesome ;)

Love A

So deceiving...

You see this little face? This adorable angelic face??

Well don't let her deceive you. Juju is turning out to be a handful. She was in time out 3 times last night for beating her brother, she will spill everything that she finds including half a bag of sugar I left in the counter today. She will drag her little chair all over the house, climb and get into mischief. Wipes are her favorite thing. You leave a box around, she will pull every single one and be so proud of herself.

She is the type of child that after you get her dressed up, get done fixing her hair and turn around for 2 seconds, she will always find a puddle and jump on it. This child has the ability to find a little puddle of water in the dessert.

and I blame it all on her grandfather.

When she was born, she was the sweetest thing. Came home sleeping through the night, was very cuddly, loved attention, and only had eyes for her brother. Just a sweet little thing.

My dad out of nowhere started saying.."OH this one is going to be trouble".

We all laughed and thought he was insane. Ty is the apple of his eyes, and when Ty was born not sleeping through the night, causing chaos everywhere he went, a mile a minute child, papa didn't say anything about it. How the heck can he say this about Ju?? About this child that is just a little angel and doesn't do anything bad but lay there and cuddle and love everyone??

Well lesson learned. Never underestimate the power of the tongue. Her change didn't start overnight, it has been slowly coming. Now its at full force. She will hit her brother, push around bigger in the playground, and keep me on my toes.

She doesn't like talking. Nope that is not her thing, except of course, when to either call us a Bad girl , baby chacha (her brother one day said the kids that were bad are called baby chacha's. Just hearing it once struck a chord with Ju, and it has become her favorite insult when she is mad), and my favorite "bad papa". Whenever he is teasing her or joking around with her, she will stop, scrunch up her lips and say :"BAD PAPA" while waving her little hand, full of attitude.

While trying very hard to suppress our laughter, we end up correcting her and putting her in time out or telling her to say sorry. And while she runs extremely hot, dont dare cross her, she is the first to hand out apologies, and kisses. She is the first to lay down on the couch right next to you and just cuddle the day away.

When her brother is sick, she will lay there, pat him on the head and repeat over and over "shhhh baby shhhh". Anytime we sit down on the couch, she will sit right next to us, pat her lap and expect us to lay on her lap and boy , you better comply, or she will smack you, call you a baby girl/baby chacha and stomp her little feet away.

Oh yeahh this one is going to be a handful. Thanks dad ;)

Love A

Speechless wednesday

Sunday afternoon as we were saying goodbye:

Mother: My sweet adorable daughter child of mine, pain in the arse, why don't you come over on Wed and bring the kids so we can have dinner together.

Me: Okay that sounds great.

Wed afternoon:

Oh I need to call mom and see what kind of yumminess we are having for dinner.

Me: Hi mommy, how are you?? I was just wondering what we are having for dinner tonight??

Mom: Hi, I am fine. What you mean we?? Your father and I are having shark that his friend gave to him.

Me: SHARK??? That sounds horrible, no offense. I thought it was illegal to catch and cook shark. Who eats shark anyways??

Mom: What is your problem? You always call to criticize. Its not you that is eating.

Me: MOm I am not criticizing. You invited me for dinner today remember?? and besides I was just stating I had no clue anyone eats shark. Don't worry we will do dinner another night, I will just give the kids pizza or something tonight. Enjoy your shark.

Mom: Young lady I am so sick and tired blah blah blah blah, attitude, blah blah blah, you could very well cook but yet I have to cook for you guys after we been working 598 hrs and dealing with blah blah blah blah blah. I am not going to put it up with this anymore, blah blah blah, when you are going to grow up, blah blah blah.

and this is how I have come to the conclusion that my insanity is 99% nurture and 1% nature ;)

Love A

No will power----no problemo

I have no will power. None. Dh is extremely afraid of me ever meeting Wentworth Miller because he knows I will just go with him and be like "Husband who?? Kids who??"

What I do have is a sweet soul. Most people have a sweet tooth. My whole soul is sweet. My day is not complete without a piece of something yummy. I feel off balance and usually fix that by making out with the ben and jerrys or chocolates of the world.

While dieting, no will power and a sweet soul is a recipe for disaster. You can't eat healthy until 7pm, and then dive into a whole container of Ben and Jerry's (and don't you just love your skinny friends that will say "OMG I cant eat a whole container of B&J's, I will get sick")

Well ladies and gentleman this is why they are skinny and I am not. I can totally eat a whole container if the mood is all out of whack and I just feel like it without getting a tummy ache O.o

I know I know, shameful. So anyways, while dieting I race past the B&J's and Milanos and go on a search for something just as good that will cure that sweet soul because remember, I don't have much will power to just say no. I have enough will power to say no to the really bad and yes to the replacement IF the replacement is pretty good.

Well I have finally found some good replacements. The 5lbs that have come out of my a$$ will prove that.

Maybe you are also looking for something so here it is:








I have never been a fan of rice cakes, but when I saw these for 90 calories a whole packet it intrigued me. Well if I had to describe crack to a fattie, this is how I would describe it. These are to die for, so so good I have to be careful because eating 2-3 bags would kind of miss the whole point of it. But even if I splurge on 2-3 bags, it will still come out to less calories than my beloved Milanos. So therefore its not a huge blow. They dont have after taste and are just yummy. Give them a try. They also come in caramel and mint.




2nd runner up is this ice cream. I have tried pretty much every single low calorie ice cream in the market today and 99% of them tastes like fake cardboard rubbed on skunk. They are nasty with a chemical taste and a horrible aftertaste. Not normal. Well these pretties are not. I am not a huge fan of dark chocolate, but with the raspberry and not the overwhelming taste of dark chocolate works here. I can have one after dinner and be totally happy. Good stuff.




Now for the salty stuff. Every once in a while I will crave something salty. Not a lot of times but I will. Well these next 2 guys works for that.







The rice cake ranch are so good, I haven't grabbed a bag of chips or pretzels in almost a year. I have no desire to. These are better. 17 of these, with a 100 calorie bagel with some lunch meat makes it for a fulfilling lunch.

The special K crackers are very good too. With some hummus I have felt like I died and went to heaven a million times over. I even got my kids hooked on them.


So next time you are struggling with a sweet tooth and will power, give these a try. You wont be sorry :)

Love A

Is there a Dr House around? Please....

My son is a very very healthy child. My daughter is more prone to colds, but not Tyler. I can count on one hand the time he has been sick and you know when he is sick. He is so hyper always on the go go, that if he is sick he is lethargic, not asking 100's of questions, just laying on the couch and watching tv. He doesn't jump, run or play. Dh and i have joked he is like a toy with its batteries dying when he is sick. You can tell, its like night and day.

Latetly he has this cough. I will put him to bed at 8 by 11pm he will start coughing. It will last about 40-50 minutes and then he will be fine. Most of the time it wont even wake him up. I give him a tablespoon of honey and by the next morning he is absolutely fine. No fever no nothing. He will do this for a night or two, then be fine for 5 nights, then start again. There is really no pattern. Sometimes he will do it for 2 nights and not again until the 7th night, sometimes he will go weeks without coughing.

Lat night, it was 11pm, I was still up watching Criminal Minds reruns and I hear him, he is coming down the stairs and coughing this dry horrible cough. He has never sounded like this before. I am thinking he is stopping breathing. He is coughing coughing coughing after taking a few deep breaths and realizing he is not having an allergic reaction, that his airways is not constricted, I give him something to drink and then he can actually talk. He tells me his throat hurts a bit and that he doesnt like the cough. I give him some honey, something to drink and sit him in the couch to watch him and debate about if I should go to the er or not. The prospect of dragging 2 kids to a south florida er at midnight is depressing. E.R's here are always packed and it takes a long time no matter what. I decide to ride out the night and go see the ped 1st thing in the morning.

I take him to bed with me and he is coughing less frequent but still the same horrible dry sound. He ends up falling asleep and I end up getting only 3 hrs. Not only is his cough waking me up, my son thinks he is an UFC fighter when he is sleeping. Waking up with a bruised rib or leg is not uncommon after sharing a bed with him.

This morning, he is perfectly fine. Running around, jumping around, no fever nothing talking a mile a minute. Great!!!

I decide to take him to the peds anyways because the sound of that cough last night scared me.

I call grab their first appointment of the day and go. I love the pediatrician they see. They have always been extremely nice, recommended me Juliet's ophtamologist, the one that did her surgery, always treat her and him very very good and always asks about dh. Sweet sweet people.

Well he listens to my concerns, listens to his lungs, look into his ears, look into his nose and throat and diagnose me as insane. He didn't really say that, but I know he was thinking it. If I wasn't there last night I would think the same thing.

His tonsils is swollen a bit but there is absolutely nothing wrong with Tyler. Uhhh!! At this point I wished for a tiny second he could projectile vomiting just so I could get some validation and say...look I am not insane. But of course that didn't happen.

I wanted to scream...: Look dragging 2 kids to a pediatrician is not my idea of fun I promise. I am normal but there is something wrong with him, you might not be able to tell but that sound last night is not normal.

The doctor said it might be viral but he is not sure, he prescribed steroids for 3 days and sent me on my way.

I paid our copay and broke down in the car. I am not crazy, this is not normal, something is wrong. I don't think something is major but something is not right. Now I am kicking myself because I should have taken him to the ER last night. Maybe just maybe they would have seen I am not insane.

I am lacking sleep and just feeling like a failure. Talking to my mom she thinks its allergy, my bff thinks its croup and I just had no idea. I am going to keep an eye on everything he eats and go google croup to find out if I need vaporizer, dehumidifier, humidifier for their room.

I hope and pray everything gets better. He is running around, jumping around and being his normal self like last night didn't happen. Maybe with my lack of sleep I imagined it?? I don't know anymore.

I just hope the next 2 1/2 months fly by because I am at a loss for everything...


Love A

Happy birthday my old man ;)

Today is my husbands birthday. He is now a cool 31 yrs old. He celebrated it in Afghanistan with his buddies by going out to dinner at Friday's. I offered him favors and cupcakes, but he chose to go out with his friends instead of getting on a plane, traveling 8k miles and coming to visit me. Oh well!! but don't judge him by that action, he is a pretty neat guy and I am very glad to call him my slave ;)

IF you read my blog, you noticed I just had a birthday, well interesting tidbit about us, we are both cancers and for 8 days we are the exact same age. Ever since we started dating, we call it our golden week. When he is home, we eat whatever we want, dip for dinner anyone??? , splurge, don't do anything we don't want to, and just really enjoy our special week. I am a major believer in celebrating things because when things are going rough, I am the first one to whine and cry and flip a lid, so therefore if we got a chance to celebrate I am going all out to kind of counterbalance everything else. So yes, I am keeping Hallmark in business for a long time to come and I have been known to also celebrate the Brazilian holidays. One big pro of being an import.

Today I wont be able to celebrate my husbands birthday with him, it saddens me a lot, but don't worry, I sent him a box full of junk. From oreos, to tuna packets, to instant coffee, nothing that is important, but everything that is absolutely necessary for him to have a smile on his face. I also paid an exorbitant amount of money to have a birthday cake shipped to afghan because even though it might taste like crap, hubby will get a huge smile on his face and appreciate it.

So without further ado...

Happy birthday my love. I hope you have an amazing day and that the camels are taking care of you, and don't worry, soon enough you will be back home with a huge to-do list to accomplish, some yummy german chocolate cake coming right out of the oven and lots of kids waiting to pounce on you.

Te amo!!!!!!!!!!!!

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(This is the only pictures I have of him on this computer, but its one of my favorite and says a lot about my boo)



Love A