Just because she is adorable..

In a family of completetly straight hair, how she got hers is beyond me. Hubby blames the mailman ;)







ps. You might be wondering what that is one her hand in picture number 2. Well she loves to cuddle and rub my hair. So my friend had the bright idea to go into walgreens and get this hair tie that has hair in it. I guess people like it because it makes their poneytail look bigger. She bought it for Ju and its her absolute favorite toy. She carries it around everywhere, rubs on her face to sleep, tries to rub on our face. Its crazy. Why couldnt she just like a blanket instead of hair its beyond me...lol

Roar...

Hear me roar....in pain. It started friday night with my parents and friends helping me move. Their idea?? Take every single box from the truck and pile into my living room. While dealing with 2 kids over the weekend, I have completetly unpacked us, gone up and down these stairs 2000383884 times, cussed getting a place with stairs more times than I can count, spent tons at target on stuff I was sure I had (where did my kitchen rug went is beyond me???), made millions of trips to the dumpster, a couple more to goodwill, but finally is all done. I did it. I am in extreme pain, everything hurts, I am dreaming about paying someone the next time we move, my foot is cut, I still need to spend more money on shit we had for sure but have no clue where it went, I have tons of laundry to do and my closet to put back together,
but its our place and I love it. Made it all worth while, but I never want to do this again.

These boxes will go and everything will be beautiful until the next time ;)

Wow just wow.....

Every generation wants to do more than the one before. We want to give our children the best and for them to have so much more than we did.

Well this is pathetic, from a mom that had 3 or 4 toys growing up, how that grew into this :






is beyond believe. It makes me happy and sad at the same time. My excuse is that everything was spread out. Some at my parents some at storage and so forth. Now that all has come together I am absolutetly shocked. They dont need all of this, how did we get here??

ps: This is after donating 2 big bags

ps2: Dont mind the play area. I just threw everything in one corner while fixing up the rest of the house. Everything will be set up better. Or I might just donate it all and not have to worry ;) sounds very tempting.

ps3: Needless to say not another toy enters this house. DID YOU HEAR THAT GRANDPARENTS?????

25 things about me

I stumbled on this in facebook and its a tool to help learn facts about each other. Can I come up with 25 things?? I am not sure but here it goes :)

1. My biggest fear in life is my kids never understanding or knowing God. I feel its my most important job as a mother to teach them.

2. I daydream about a house in country, surrounded by 10 kids, growing my food and veggies living very naturally. Except I love the city, 2 kids is the max for my patience, and I have a black thumb that can easily kill a cactus. Coming to terms with fantasy and reality is hard.

3. I never re read books. I feel like there is so many books out there no way I want to spend my time re reading the ones I already read.

4.I want a diploma so bad. Even if I am never use it, I just want that dang piece of paper.

5. I am double jointed in both of my arms and have broke 1 4 times and the other 3.

6.I love organizing. Drawers, papers,cabinets, the fridge, my children toys. Anything at all.

7. I am addicted to chocolate. I have at least one piece a day. Chocolate makes me happy.

8. I puffy heart Oprah and think she is pretty awesome (go ahead laugh)

9. I wish I could have a surgery to lower my voice. No matter how much I try, ever since I was a kid as I am talking my voice gets louder and louder. I am sick and tired of people telling me to stop screaming when I am really not.

10. I am an only child and I am extremely jealous of people with siblings and even more of ppl with siblings but treat them bad. You don't know how lucky you are.

11. I want stability but if I stay in one place, I get bored too quickly.

12. This world today scares me. Raising my kids in a world like today?? I dont know where God found all this trust to put in me...

13.I am only 29 but ever since I was 20, I feel like time is flying and I am in a race to keep up with it.

14. Its absolutely sickening how I feel my body relaxing after a sip of diet coke

15. I drive around for no reason. Driving gives me joy. I cant tell you how many times I drove by the beach or got lost in neighborhoods.

16. I love seeing the inside of peoples houses. How they live, how they decorate. I read tons of blogs and when someone posts a picture of their house, makes me so happy.I use to hate cleaning houses, but stuck with it for so long just to see peoples house.

17. I don't have a funny bone. I like Carlos Mencia and the blue collar guys, but besides that nope. Most comedy films are more stupid than funny.

18. I love movies. Nothing is more romantic than a picnic in the living room while watching a movie.

19. I wish I could write my parents off my life. I really do, but unfortunately I cant and one of the main reasons I love the military is that I had to live far away from them.

20. If I could, I would pack up our bags and move to either Switzerland or Italy forever in a heartbeat. Never been but would love to live there.

21. I love toes. I think most feet are pretty.

22. I will shop at the most expensive store/goodwill/ and even pick up trash. I just spent a fortune on sheets at Nordstrom because I think they are necessary in order to have a good night sleep, picked up a brand new office chair that I saw on the trash, and got a bookcase from goodwill. Depending on what it is, I will either splurge or be extremely thrifty.

23. Growing up in a third world country, I went with out a lot. I absolutely cant throw away food. No matter what. I will give it to the birds before I throw it away and I look down on people that just waste food without a care.

24.I love tv shows and have no guilt spending hours watching reruns of my favorites.

25. I speak 3 languages, have over 20 stiches,rips, tears, 14 broken bones, and 6 staples, but its me and slowly I am learning to love all of me. Imperfections and all. That doesn't mean I don't want a tummy tuck ;)

I wasnt expecting that

You know before hubby left the Army, I expected a lot of things, majority of what happened I didnt expect it and kind of hit me hard but I wasnt so shocked because deep down, I kind of did prepare for it, just didnt want to admit.

But anyways husband left the Army in january, and ever since august, he has been a civillian contractor. This new chapter in our lives is very exciting. The money rocks, so does the benifits, we are in control of our lives, he is a lot safer not having to go outside of the wire, we talk at least 3 times a day. List goes on and on. Not saying its better than the Army. I miss base housing, all that it provided for us, our friends, the adventures and so forth. So its better in some ways different in others. Its where our lives is right now and I am extremelly happy.

What I didnt expect was the dirty looks I would get from people when they find out husband is not military anymore and is actually a civillian contractor. Asides from our friends, everyone got a stupid comment and its usually mean.
People end up finding out he is overseas by accident.The lady at the post office stamping the 10 custom forms with the apo address, the rental company, random people ds informs "daddy is working on santa's truck" so therefore I have to explain.

People take it badly. He was military, he did his service, what he is doing right now is not illegal, not taking anything from our forces, he is actually saving lives (majority of the trucks he is fixing is the ones they use to roll out, having a truck break down in the middle of the dessert with insurgents and ieds all around is not something you want to happen). So just like every soldier, every clerck, or fridays worker that are over there, they are helping alonside our soldiers to not only make their lives easier, safer and more enjoyable. The fact that most of the world doesnt understand that saddens me a lot :(

Biiig dreams do come true :)

After all the rain and all the storm, we are getting our gift for surviving. Dh got his first full paycheck today and wow it was pretty :). We are making more in 2 wks than we did in a whole month in the army. We got excellent insurance (got to try it out today. DD has been sick. Well insurance picked up the whole tab today for her ped appt, and more than half of her 2 rx). Life is good.

The kids and I move out at the end of the month into our new place. After 9 months of living with people I cant tell you how sweet that sounds, we are paying our bills again, going to buy a new car, and everything is going in the right direction.

I dont mean to sound shallow but after living with below bare minimum for so long, having an extra $ or 2 in your wallet after everything is paid feels good.

Of course it will take a couple months for everything to go back to normal (gosh I need new bras ;) but we are moving in the right direction.

Hubby is finally proud of himself again for providing for his family, he is doing a job he loves, he is safe, doesnt have to leave the base, he got a fridays, latte and ice cream, and skype with us anytime he wants.

Life is so good and its about damn time :)

Love A

Almost wordless wednesday...

I knew South Florida was hot, but I didnt think it was this ghetto ;)

Cemetery tour+gift card+milkshake= Bragging rights!

Last week we moved back to my parents house. We are getting along great with them, they are in Brazil for 2 wks ;) anyways, dh and I stumble upon this flier from Publix (local grocery store), saying that if you go visit a cemetery and tour, you get a free gift card. Didnt think much of it and life continued as we unpacked.

The next day we had a full day of errands to run, while in the car dh and I have the best conversations ever. Well we were talking about something and he says I am a scary cat. I pouted told him that was not true. He utter the words "BET??"
Ohh that was definetetly a challenge, those are fighting words, I cant back down. We always have little wagers going on between us. We are both cancers, we both think we know it all, nothing like a good wager to prove who is right/wrong. All in good fun.

Well dh tells me "If you go to the cemetery tour do it, ask questions, get the gift card and take pictures, I will buy you a milshake from Steak and Shake.

Back up a bit...I have never been to a cemetery before. I am scared, extremelly scared and since steak and shake was having a happy hour on their milshakes, I could easilly afford one without doing this, but sometimes in life, bragging rights are important. I couldnt let dh call me a scary cat, chicken for the rest of our relationship. Yeahh he would!, so I called the number on the flier made an appointment for 2 pm and sent a small prayer up.

We got to the cemetery at around 1:45 with enough time for me to back out but nope I was going to do this. Dh still didnt believe me. He was sure I was going to chicken out.

Well I didnt :) The guy that gave me the tour was extremelly nice. He asked me what brought me here??

Uhhhh.... if I told the truth, a gift card/bet, that would surerlly send me to hell on an express jet. SO I told him I have a sick grandmother and I would like to be prepared (I do have a sick grandmother except she is in Brazil and I do like to be prepared...except when it comes to funeral and stuff) so half lie/half truth??
Sorry Lord !!!

Anyways the tour continued. I asked him to please concentrate on cremations. I dont mind cremations, being burried is what really freaks me out. He went through the whole process with me and prices.

Cremation without the service is around 2500 bucks, with the service is close to 3k. At the service you can decide if you want an open casket or just a picture with the ashes. I had no clue. I am glad I decided on cremation long before knowing the prices. Burials can be extremelly expensive. Cremations is the cheapest option.

Then you can decide what to do with your ashes. You can have them in a urn at home, have an urn on the ground with a tombstone, be placed on the inside of this beautiful marble wall, or be placed inside a book. You can also decide if you want to be outside or inside. Something to think about as the temps around here climb to over 100. I had absolutetly no idea about any of this stuff, but I learned a ton. Inside they have this beautiful library full of books and you can be placed inside the book. I asked a bunch of questions, and really felt at ease. I ended up spending way more time than I had planned. I was looking at everything. Inside there is this little windows were by the ashes you can put pictures, or little momentos. I thought that was neat.
I thanked the guide, got my gift card, took my pictures and left.

As I walked back to the car, I could hear dh snickering. He was sure I had probably peed my pants from fear, but walking back I know it started as a bet but I am very glad I conquered one of my fears and felt completetly at easy and peaceful.

Dh was extremelly proud of me. On the way to get my milkshake, I told him everything in detail and of course, after visiting a cemetery, the converssation is bound to turn into "what do you want to happen at your funeral??". Yeahh he is leaving its morbid but we have to talk about it. We had some converssations before about it, but never really made a specific plan, and since I learned so much today, I could ask more specific questions about his wishes.

Yeahh kind of morbid, he is leaving soon, and I go visit a cemetery and we talk about funerals and wether you want open casket closed, here or in PA and so forth. But instead of feeling sad or depressed, I was feeling at ease. I now know fully what my husband wants without a doubt. If GOD forbid something happens, I know his wishes will be carried out because I love him and honor him and I know he will do the same for me.

All good and worth it :)

Here are the pictures I took:

Getting ready to say "see you later" again.

After months on top of months of stress, worry, too little money, too much drama and too many curveballs to last a lifetime, hubby leaves for his new job. He will still be in the US for the next 2 weeks while training and doing paperwork, and then to overseas he goes. He was deployed once. Iraq I know, we are old buddies. Because the hubby was there before, I kind of feel Iraq is safe. This new place called Afghanistan scares me. The news doesnt help. Casualty rate is high, war is raging, the country is unstable. Blah blah blah. I dont want to think about it. I like to believe that if one is going to die, they are going to die chocking on a M&M or in war. You are exactly where you are supossed to be. God knows what HE is doing and I trust Him (or try to ;)

But anyways even though this new job brings back old fears and separation, it also brings stability, moola and a chance for me once again to prove that I can do it alone and do a damn good job that my husband halfway across the world can be proud. He knows he doesnt have to worry, that everything will be taken care of. He knows all that and I also know all the sacrificies he is making for us. Our love will grow, we will grow separatetly and it will be good.

Until "see you later" there have been many trips to the park, various ice pops before lunch, too many tickling sessions, kite flying, water splashing and so forth. The moments we all live for. Soaking it all up to helps us get through the next 6 months or so until we see him again.

Love A

Checking in...

The days are long, too long, full of stress, decisions, worry, wonder, hope and so forth. No time to sit down and really share everything that is going on. Until then I am sorry. I miss my outlet as much as you guys miss having something to read at 3am ;)

Soon enough I shall be back. I promise.

Love A