Last business day of the year

Today is Pat's last day of official work as the market closes. It is always an important day in our house. And to celebrate we are having dinner out.

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Little man

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Tryng out blogger by phone

Ahhh.. Christmas :)

Christmas was so much fun! The girls got so much stuff and Miguel really apprecited the concept this year and got so much into it. It was too cute!

I got a power cordless drill and I'm itching to use it already! The kids also got me various little presents that were awesome, like Pj's, a snowglobe and a music card from Walmart :)

I gave Pat a Red Sox watch, a watch valet, which is like a jewerly box for watches, a grooming kit, a little wooden thing that says "If you live to be a hundred I want to live to a hundred minus one, so I never have to be without you" I thought it was so beautiful.

We've had family and friends over for Christmas Eve and visited with family that is in from out of town. the kids are thrilled with their stuff and now we have a little get together on the 31st planned and then comes Three Kings day which is a much smaller giving day for our kids.

On the 9th of January Miguel has surgery scheduled for a Hernia, please keep us in your thoughts that everything goes very well and he recovers quickly, the little man in question is presently playing with his massive Thomas the Tank Engine train track which he loves!!! He actualy will play all by himself for a really long time!!

Ok gotta go put some gas (batteries) on the trains.

I'll put up some pictures later :)

Changes

I've changed some of the order and stuff in the blog to see how I like it.

Do you?

And for Christmas Miguel got ....

a Mohawk!! LOL, I swear he asked for it. So here he is, looking very very cute, though I shocked the socks out of a lady at Walmart that literally stared at us with mouth wide open! Here he is. Everyone thinks he looks a lot like Angelina Jolie's cute little boy Maddox, I think Miguel is cuter but I'm sure Angelina feels the same way about her boy :)

more pictures

Jumping in the leaves, everyone had fun but Miguel had the most jumping over and over again.

Pictures

Here's the kids with Santa

Christmas is almost here!

Vacation is starting today for us. The weather this week is supposed to be mild so I want the kids to spend as much time outside as possible, I'm planning on going to Tulsa to take them to the Zoo.

I haven't heard yet from the furniture people so Pat is asking me to call them, I figured it will get here when it's ready. I'm knitting this really cool shawl for myself its done with this "suede" yarn and it's heavenly, I can't wait to finish it. :)

Yesterday Santa came to our church and it was so cute, Miguel was the first one up and he sat on Santa's lap and told him his list "Star Wars, Fire Truck and Candy" LOL

Pat took the girls to see Eragon at the theatre and they thought it was pretty good, it's going to be rental for me because I'm not a terrific theatre person, but I've read the books and I think the author is such a gifted person, it's an awesome story.

I'm reading one of my favorite authors: Janet Evanovich, Hard Twelve, I got it for free at the Library :D She cracks me up so bad...

Ok, I'm going to start the day, the kids should sleep well, Miguel rode his bike and got utterly filthy digging and throwing rocks and went to sleep pretty easily last night and I never heard a peep out of him. The kid plays hard. Larisa also got 2 hamsters this weekend, 2 little dwarf hamsters, the first one is very sweet but the 2nd one is more aggressive and it bit her and she was broken hearted but he has been a lot better, poor guy was at Petco and has not been handled much.

On the 12th day of Chrismas...

my true love gave to me... a partridge in a pear tree (disguised as a breakfast nook table set, and china)

Yep we got the furniture. No date yet on the delivery but who cares I just want to know I will have one in the near future. :D

I mailed my Xmas cards today and my present for my secret Santa. I hope she likes it, I did some of it and bought the rest.

I bought a DVD set called Yoga, Ballet, Booty. And boy the work the booty part... I ended up with a cramp. The abdominal workout is fierce but it felt good. I've managed to remain good in my diet and I have stayed at 118 lbs pretty evenly. I think I will join the next challenge again so I can stay motivated to exercise and diet properly.

It's mild around here today, school got done early and the house is in pretty good shape, I'm knitting and learning to crochet.

We are not really finished with shopping but I hope we can get done this weekend.

Ok, gotta work on more laundry... yippee....

WEll, well...

I'm back!

Its been a few weeks since I last wrote. WE've done so much in that time frame and the month promises to be busy also. All kinds of Christmas activities, end of the year things, parties, yada yada...

I was sick over thanksgiving, then Larisa got sick last week. We had a week off Schoolwork which the girls loved ;)

Let's see, Pat and I had our 16th Wedding Anniversary and it flopped badly but we are recovering, LOL. He surprised me a few days ago and told me had set up an account and saved money for me to order a casual dining set and china cabinet for the breakfast area. I was very surprised and ver excited. It took me a few days but I found the set we like and can afford (boy furniture can be expensive!!) and I'm ordering it today, it could be here for Christmas but I"m not counting on it. I'll post pictures when I can.

It's cold her in Ok and promises to be colder tonight, a balmy 17 degrees. I better get going since my alarm clock didn't go off and I got up 45 minutes late today.

bye for now :)

Vacations, doctors and Thanksgiving

This week our school system is off so we follow it for the girls to have the same vacation as their friends. Needless to say they are thrilled, and so is mommy who was starting to burn out and needed a little break.

Today Miguel has his doctors appt to verify his possible surgery which I expect will be the end result. WE will try to schedule for January since it's not emergent and then we can apply the cost to next years deductible.

Thanksgiving will be intersting this year as Pat and I will be on our last day of Body for Life, then we leave on Friday for Dallas for a weekend away with the kids. They are going to see the Mavericks play and Miguel and I will be seeing friends. Fun!!!

I haven't done a quote in a few days:

here's a few quotes:

Happy We-Stole-Your-Land-and-Killed-Your-People Day!
~Thanksgiving toast, from the movie Sweet November

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Gabi's birthday

Yesterday we had Gabi's birthday at the dance school, here's some pictures.

Happy Birthday

To my sister Carolina, she is 36 today :)

Also to my baby Gabi who is not yet truly 10 but tomorrow is her party. Her birthday gifts all arrived and we will have at least 11 girls at the party tomorrow. I'm so excited for her :)

On a side note my dog Sam has been whinning incessantly, everytime Miguel has food he whines and whines to get his food, he is driving me insane...

you wouldn't believe what I'm doing today

We are putting up Christmas decorations and tree... sigh... Larisa is insistent that this must be done ASAP (does she think Santa will come sooner?)

Anyhow we're in process....

Here's some pictures

 

Sam is doing some drag ;)

 

Miguel's breakfast of champions

 
 

Scooby the cutest little rodent in the world, I never thought I would like to have a hamster but he is too cute for words. 

hello :)

Had a busy weekend, very busy!

This week promises to be busy too, as we have girl scouts, dance, birthday party, brownies sleepover and that is just above and beyond schoolwork, housework, laundry and breathing, :P

I bought a Vanity Fair last week for light reading (LOL) and found a new charity I think I will be donating to besides our sponsored people in Guatemala. It's called keepachildalive.org It provides medicine to AIDS ravaged areas of Africa. Africa is a country so dear to my heart, I've never been there but my heart is crushed with pain when I hear of the horrible conditions, abuses and blatant violence these people live with every day. That of course is not even considering illness, starvation and poverty above and beyond anything we could imagine. So I'm trying to do research on this charity and figure out if my money will be well spent.

I'm going to go and continue laundry, clearning, dishes and such, I also have to take Patty to the vet, she is having a skin tumor removed, her teeth cleaned, ear tattooed and nail clipped. She's going to come a real happy camper tomorrow, LOL, I bet you she will puke on purpose on the carpet to show me who's boss....

Here's a quote from the website to that charity, so true...

"AIDS is an absolutely tragic disease. The argument about AIDS' being some kind of divine retribution is crap." - Calvin Klein

my cell phone

broke :P I'm not having a lot of technological luck lately. Thankfully one is on it's way from Cingular as we speak and should be here today. Now the most critical part is whehter my ring tone I just downloaded which is "The best day ever" from SpongeBob will be on my sim card so I don't have to download it again.

Funny looking dogs....

 
 

We might have to add a bulldog, a chinese sharpei and some other wrinkled dog to complete the family. I love the wrinkles and mugs on those goofballs... 

Ok you won't believe this...

Britney Spears filed for divorce!!! Now THAT is a shock!

Ok yeah I'm procrastinating, I don't want to do laundry!! ok!!

Try this it's cool

You enter a date of your choice and it gives you results of what happened that date.

Google date

This is really cool

The Extra Degree Go check it out.

Today I'm going to get my dry sockets packed and hopefully be on my way to no pain.

What am I reading:

Helen of Troy by Margaret George.

It's pretty good, I wouldn't call it masterful but it's interesting with all the Greek Gods and Godesses and twists and turns.

:P

Dry Sockets should be illegal and punishable by incarceration....

Halloween pictures

I've tried to load photos twice

and it hasn't worked so I'm going to try again

Here they all are. Miguel's pinky, hot air balloons from the fest and some artistic nature stuff I took.

Free!

Its my free day today!! Woo Hoo, Pat woke me at 6 am (though I was pretty much awake) and I had 3 bowls of Peanut Butter capt crunch, uuummm huuummm yummmy!! LOL
At 7:30 i/m taking the migueli to the hot air balloon race. He's so excited!!!

The finger

We took Miguel to the doctor yesterday and they did x-rays. His finger is not broken, Thank God!!

It still look terrible but I'm so comforted that he only has the nail and skin trauma, nothing else.

Today and/or tomorrow we are going to a Hot Air Balloon Festival in town, I'm so psyched about this. Miguel loves Hot Air Balloons and is just beside himself, last night he said "Hot Bombas?" and I said yes tomorrow and he ran and gave me this huge excited hug. Talk about melting your heart!

Nothing much else going on, Pat and i have 4 weeks left for the Body for Life Challenge. We have both lost so much size, I've lost 10 lbs which I don't think it's a huge amount but it has turned into about 3 pant sizes. Both Pat and I will need whole new wardrobes if we stay like this (which I'm planning because I like the way I look and feel!)

Allright, chores call and I'm making invites for Gabi's B-day party :)

And before I leave, Wow that little guy Madonna is adopting is a DOLL!!! He is way too cute!

OUCH!

Last night Larisa slammed the deck door to close it and in the process smashed Miguel's pinkie finger and ripped the nail clear off the bed. Oh boy it was horrible. I don't know if the nail will ever grow back as I found the entire thing under the door. He was traumatized.

Surprise, surprise...

Well I know you will be shocked but my sweet computer has crashed again. I know it's so unexpected, really I'm SHOCKED! ::sarcasm inserted:: Anyhow Toshiba is now saying they will have their "Engineers" ::wooooooo:: check it and see if it's a manufacturers problem (really???) and if it is then they will send me a new computer (how generous!) if it isn't they will just continue to repair my hard drive over and over and over so it will crash over and over and over and then they can keep sending me UPS boxes and pay shipping, and pay techinicians to "fix" my computer and in the end probably some day replace my $500 computer after they've spent $1K trying to fix it first. A corporation at it's best.... Make yourself a notation here research the posibility of additional warranty if you are purchasing a Toshiba computer because at in my NOT SO HUMBLE OPTION they are a piece of SH*T My apologies to my friends that don't appreciate cursing, I'm so sick of this I have reached the pinnacle of exasperation with these people. What a freaking crappy product they've put out.

I'll try to update while the computer still ocassionally connects until I have to send it back AGAIN then hopefully from the children's computer. At least I was able I think to back up the newest pictures and my itunes.

Ta ta!

Yaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwnnnn

Oh i'm so tired. Last night Miguel finally crashed at around 7 pm, not without giving me a huge fight over it. I worked out and then bathed in my tub and soaked for a while. That was nice.

Until Miguel woke up at around 1 am, and then at 3:15 am and by 4 am he was still up, NOT GOOD, so I took him to my bed and laid him down, I had forgotten a tiny flash light I use for reading and yep you guessed it at 4 am in the morning he found it and turned it on, ugh!!! He did eventually fall asleep and didn't wake until almost 8 am. Of course by then my night had been thoroughly disrupted and then I found I had no milk for my coffee :P So I had to have an expresso, no milk :P again!

Gabi did end up catching up to her school work that was behind and that made me feel good, they both went to dance and I went walking at the park with Danielle, a super girl that is the mom of a friend of Gabi's. She has the most cutest kids including a 6 week old darling called Peyton ( I think I spelled it right )

Now i'm home and ready to crash and Miguel is not even asleep yet.

Anyhow I wanted to share what we are reading and listening to.

I'm reading: Sandstorm by James Rollins, almost done, really loving it.

We are listening on CD: Gregor and the curse of the Warmbloods. this is book 3 of a series that begins with Gregor the Overlander the Author is Suzanne Collins.

Gabi and I are both reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond. Interesting even though Gabi is not truly loving it.

Ok better put the tank to bed.

Goodnight!

The party!

 
 
 
 


Oh it was so much fun!! The kids had a blast as you can see in the pictures. I would definitely recommend that as a choice for a birthday party. They did most of everything, except that I had to help the litle ones to make choices in the budget.

Enjoy the pictures! 

Birthday party!

Today is Larisa's Birthday Party at Build a Bear Workshop. All her friends are excited and ready to go, all jumping at the chance. Afterwards we are going to On The Border to eat, yummy!!!

Wish me luck, I'll be in the car with 5 girls under the age of 9 for about 2 hours! :: shiver :: maybe I'll bring my Ipod, LOL

again

ok so I'm in blogging mode today :)

Larisa unlike Gabi is a very structured mathematical person, which in turn has challenged her in reading. Of course Gabi is a major reader, scoring as high as High School junior in her reading level.

today Larisa had her first spelling test. And we had so much fun! She did all the ones I first dictated and we went over her mistakes, she confused pretty much only the b's, d's and p's but amazingly it didn't bother her she asked me to dictate 6 more words and did another great job. My little smarty pants :D

allright, just had an argument with Gabi over school work which i hate to have and we are in a stand still :P

Larisa at 4

 

That's the oldest one I have in digital. She has changed much since then :) 

Sniff!

My little girl is 7, how in the world.... My mother in law was here last night and she said, "it's impossible that she is 7" which were my thoughts exactly. My inlaws were with us when we discovered I was pregnant. My husband so candidly walked up to them and said "I knocked up Maria" what a poet he is.... Anyhow, my mother in law had never even seen a home pregnancy kit and we showed her the 2 pink lines, LOL. What a day. And now she is 7. I didn't realize how hard this one was going to hit me. With Gabi it was when she turned 5 and was "kindergarden" age, that one was hard too for me.

I'm going to see if I can find an old picture of Larisa to post, such a cute little baby she was :)

Birthday Girl!

 
  

Happy Birthday Larisa!

7 years ago at this particular time I was laboring at a Hospital in Wellington, FL and by 2 pm I had a beautiful little baby girl in my arms. She was 8 lbs 14.5 oz and she was named Larisa Sofia. That beautiful baby girl is 7 today and is such a smart, amazing, stubborn yet delicious little girl. She is such a great kid, with so much going for her and such a disarming smile and personality. She is also shrewd and calculating, LOL.

She got her wish and got Littlest pet shop toys including a very, very wanted pair of pandas that I had to hastily order thru Ebay since they are not available in stores and thanks to the generosity of the Ebay seller they got here with plenty of time. Sometimes we just get lucky to run into someone like that, I hope someday someone does the same for her.

I will take pictures of her with her toys. Oh and I got her a kids digital camera which has her eyes twinkling with excitement since she is a picture hound like her mama.

I better go check on her, thankfully she woke up feeling tons better than she felt last night.

May the force be with you...

A miniature Darth Vader, LOL

Arg!!!

Not again!! Larisa is sick again! Darn it, what the heck is up with that? She has a fever again, and red eyes again, and she is not hungry and her ribs are showing. Last year she did this and ended up with pneumonia at the hospital.

Good morning!!

Started out the morning in a really good mood! I have a face mask on to beautify myself and I'm working on the info to turn in the pictures to the contest. I bought frames yesterday and they are all ready to go. I just have to name them. And I thought picking them out was hard...... :P

I found this blog that belongs to one of the jurors of the contest I'm entering. It's a pretty neat blog so I'm going to post it.

Kelly Shipp blog

Tomorrow is Larisa's birthday and she is already trying to milk it. Oh Miguel woke up, better go!

sick, sick, sick....

Well it appears this sick bug is here to stay. Gabi started compaining of a dry throat last night and by 2 am she had a fever and very hoarse throat. I wonder what is going around here. We need to keep at least Larisa well because her birthday party is Saturday and I don't want her to get sick and miss it!! This party has been in the works for over 6 weeks!

Apparently I also worked my shoulders way good yesterday because they are killing me! oyyyy!

Quote of the day

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
- Anatole France

I have chosen 2 pictures for printing for the contest, even though I might still print others to see if in printing them they hit me differently.

I chose Gabriela in the water with goggles
Miguel's 2nd black and white in the beach.

I'm thinking of the hummingbird ones too just in case.

It's free day and I started out my day with Peanut Butter Captn Crunch! LOL

 

 

 

Pictures

I want to enter a photo contest (local) and need help choosing from the photos I loaded! Please tell me the 2 most favorite ones, I'm having a terrible time choosing.