This cracked me up

My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint.
~Erma Bombeck

Bottom of the 9th Boston 8, Toronto 6, if we don't win this one I'm having a fit. These guys have beat us everytime this year so far I think :P

Here is Melvin

Pray that he has a family soon. He is so beautiful, oh my heart will break :(

  

My heart is breaking....

My friend came back from Guatemala from meeting her gorgeous daughter Mya. She is just on the moon she is just so happy. So she sends me pictures of some of the kids that are in the orphanage and this one little 3 year old guy caught my heart, he doesn't have a family and is in the process of abandonment which means nobody in his family claimed him to raise him (I just want to cry!)

I wish I could adopt him. He is so absolutely gorgeous, I'm oging to post a picture of him so you can pray for him that he finds a family soon. I think I will cry myself to sleep tonight thinking of him. What a sweet little guy.

So put Melvin in your prayers because I know we cannot adopt him, well Pat doesn't want more chidren (which I understand, I really do, but my heart doesn't :( )

yummy fruit

Let me recommend to you Schwans Frozen Golden Fruit Blend. It has the sweetest mangoes in it. Oh man my kids and I fight over it!

4 am is too early to be awake

First I got up after hearing something, then Larisa came into my bed wanting to sleep with me, then it was Gabi turning on every light in the house. She had a nightmare... I ended up letting Boo out of his cage to sleep with her.

I'm kinda tired now so I will try to get some extra sleep time. Yawwwnnn...

please pray

A friend's daughter who has multiple allergies had a severe reaction to latex yesterday. Please keep her in your prayers. How scary for her and her family!

Funny

I bought this picture at Silver dollar City. I had to because it was so hilarious to see Gabi's face as she was sliding down. For the record she claims the ride was a blast.

  

2 days

Mami comes in 2 days, the house is taking shape so I'm less nervous.

Pat has decided to jump with me while we are in Vegas. Oh boy that's going to be fun! Here's a video I keep watching online, I wonder what mine will be like....

Tandem jump video

I've been kinda getting scared about the jump so here is the quote of the day:

Panic at the thought of doing a thing is a challenge to do it.
~Henry S. Haskins

AWWWWWwww...

Ok, is this not the sweetest group of pictures ever? Patrick got Miguel a baseball book and they were reading it together. I thought they looked so sweet like that. I also thought Pat really needs to work on his tan, weeeoooo he is like a dang ghost next to Miguel! ;)

 
 
  

Floating doggie.

 
 
 
  

Cleaning time

My mom is coming on Thursday (my kids are delirious with happiness!) My house has been so gross I'm embarassed, so i'm cleaning and doing laundry. Tomorrow our housekeeper will come and do a good cleaning, something i'm eternally grateful for, and then we can continue to tackle other stuff like steam cleaning carpets, organizing stuff and then setting up the guest room for visitors.

Pat and the girls are swiming and we threw Sam and Boo in the pool, Sam sunk like an anvil and Boo floated. Not large surprise since Sam is all swinnew (did I spell that right?) and Boo is just so fat that he floats easily. Sam now officially stinks of wet dog, pewwwww....

I officially reserved for my tandem jump in Vegas and boy I'm like already getting butterflies in my stomach. The other night I dreamt the whole night of the jump.

I'm going to post some pictures of Boo, he's just so freaking useful...

Woo Hooo!!

The grand total between today and yesterday is $280.00, adding dh's matching money is some serious shopping mula for Vegas ::doing a happy dance:::

We have a baptism so we gotta get ready.

Saturday

Today is day 2 of the yard sale. Wish me better luck this time. I'm still hoping for a big turn out and lot's of things to go.

I have to go and set up a new sign because someone ripped out one of the signs I had done, arghhh... I have an appt at 10 to paint my hair and we have a baptism this afternoon.

Last night the girls went to a game and we got to go eat just the 2 of us with Miguel and it was fun, it felt weird to be honest but it was nice to get to pay attention to only one child and have a pretty uninterrupted conversation.

I'm almost done with the book of Enrique's journey and I'm devastated, what a terrible injustice it is to be poor in Central America, that people will choose a trip that they have such a great posibility of death, maimming and rape among other things is just heartbreaking to me.

Quote of the day:

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. ~Leo Buscaglia

Almost 6 am, time to get busy again :)

the yard sale...

I'm positively exhausted, the sale didn't go as I planned and so far only netted out $105.00, I was hoping for $300. I will set up again tomorrow and hope to get more traffic and sales. All the baby toys were left untouched, totally surprising me 'cause they are in perfect shape and look like they just came out of the box. I also had to chase Miguel the entire time.

We are off to dinner, the girls went to a ball game with a friend so it's only 3 of us tonight.

Fire Sale!

I start selling at 7:30 am. Brownies are in the oven, juices are in the fridge, signs are ready but not up yet.

I hope to make at least $300, my sweet husband said he will match whatever I make today for spending money in Vegas, now that is some encouragement!!

Am I forgetting something?????

Sweet quote:

The only thing worth stealing is a kiss from a sleeping child.

~Joe Houldsworth

Brownies are ready!!!!

Feeling Refreshed

I gave Miguel Motrin last night and the kid slept like a rock! Woo Hoo! I love waking up rested, it's such a great feeling! Today I get to finish working on the Yard Sale! Wish me luck I want to take my money for shopping in Vegas.

My quote for today:

"It's a question of discipline," the little prince told me later on. "When you've finished washing and dressing each morning, you must tend your planet."

~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943, translated from French by Richard Howard

Send a little thought or prayer out today for my friend Amy, today she meets her 6th child, Mya, in Guatemala.

i wanted to post a picture of the three kids cuddling in bed but then as I took pictures Sam (the boxer) decided to join them and step of Miguel's face, OUCH! Needless to say Miguel is now in a funk :P

One more for today

I wanted to share 2 more things today before I have to leave again.

What am I reading?

Enrique's Journey
The Story of a boys dangerous odyssey to reunite with his mother
by Sonia Nazario

It has started very nicely.

What am I listening to?

Now that dh gave me an Ipod for Mother's day I bought a new album from a group called:
Bacilos
It's music in spanish and I'm really liking it. I particularly like "Sangre Americana" it's a great song.

I'm also listening to one of my favorite groups, it's from Mexico and it's called Maná, it's not mariachi music, it's more I guess modern music, it's beautiful and has such beautiful lyrics, some of it is political and it's really touching. I really love "Rayando el Sol" I don't tire of hearing that song.

Funny of the day: Miguel is suddenly loving applesauce but he cracks me up because he calls it "apple ass" LOL

Dance recital will not come up soon enough

Oh man, I'm going to be glad for a break in dance this summer. Next weekend (June 3rd) is the girls recital. Gabi auditioned and got a lead part for the "little girls show" but is still also participating in the "big girls show" one is at 2pm and the other at 7 pm,the same day. Gabi has been practicing a minimum of 6-12 hours per week. It's just friggin exhausting to do all this driving, call me "Mama Chauffer" Frankly I'm glad she is so involved in something that promotes a healthy lifestyle, YK, exercising, good diet (not that I haven't caught her teacher eating chocolates and cheetos ;) That's ok it's good to see that she is not obsessed with food ) and she really loves the enviroment there. She is happy and always wants to do extra practice and stay longer if asked. So there it's a good thing but boy the "beam me up, Scotty" machine would be so handy!

It was so hot out today that we took a swim in the pool. It was so refreshing! It took me 3 days of hard work to get the pool going, it was YUCKY, and it's now blue and clear and oh so inviting! We've been spending lot's more time outside and have all turned a nice shade of brown, except Miguel that looks like a scrumptious dark chocolate shade. The kid has a dreamy tan.

Gabi is obsessed with the Neopets PS2 The Darkest fairie game. And before you think this an evil game, it's got an E grading so it's not like some of those XBox 360 war games or anything like that. She is pretty good at it, the kid's got talent.

Today the girls went to horseback riding after a 6 week or so hiatus and both did so well. On the last lesson we had Gabi got spooked because the horse went nuts when she was grooming it and started bucking and kicking. She managed to get away from him but not 10 minutes later another horse threw a hissy fit too and she wouldn't quit talking about it. Today she was a bit hesitant at first but she settled and when I got back to see her she was posting and looked very nice (she rides English) She has such good posture and seems to have a natural talent on the horse. Larisa was her usual goofy, smartypants self and played all her favorite games on the horse, like Simon Says, Mother may I and Red light Green light.

Miguel decided to continue on his sleeping vein and took a fabulously short 20-30 minute nap in the car.

I gotta go get everyone ready for the next round of car driving insanity. Gabi is going to dance at 4:30, then I come back and get Larisa ready for Gymnastics, leave Miguel with Pat, take Reese to Gym and then after 7 pm Pat goes with Miguel and picks up Gabi from dance.

I wonder if they have anymore of that Rooster Wine at the store.....

sleep deprivation is bad...

I think my Migueli is sick or something is wrong with him :( He woke up 3 times between midnight and 5am and he wet his bed and then mine also when I brought him to bed. That is so rare I cannot explain it. I'm going to see how he acts today but he might have to go to the Dr. and get checked, my head feels all cottony from lack of sleep.

Remember that movie that I wanted to mention it's X-men 3. I have liked all X-men movies so far and hope the last one is not a dissapointment.

Quote of the day:

Without enough sleep, we all become tall two-year-olds.
~JoJo Jensen, Dirt Farmer Wisdom, 2002

another one:

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


And the last one:

"Fight one more round. When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired that you wish your opponent would crack you one on the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round – remembering that the man who always fights one more round is never whipped."

James Corbett

Time for breakfast and to run away from Miguel that has a light saber and is comanding me to Run!

Please vote on my poll!

I'm setting up for a yard sale and just came in to check and only 2 people have voted. Come on guys! :)

Take my poll!!!

 
 
 
 

Free Web poll for your Web site - freepolls.com

 

Such a beautiful thought

I loved finding this quote today.

The true measure of a man is not how he behaves in moments of comfort and convenience but how he stands at times of controversy and challenges.

Martin Luther King Jr

Bubbles!

I love it when kids are playing with bubbles, they always have so much fun!


 
 
 
  

feeling hot, hot, hot

Oh boy it's hot outside today.... I cleaned the deck, cleared and cleaned and organized the garage and I'm working on the pool also. I'm so tired and still have laundry to do.

The girls were so cute, they did my bed and did the dishes for me, because, they said, i've done so many things for them. Awwwwww.... I don't deserve these children, they are the best.

Did I mention I'm hot and tired?

Anyone do Sudoku?

Challenge your brain!

Sudoku

a variety of thoughts

Today I have not one thing to talk about but just a couple of short things, for those with ADHD like me that is the best thing ever! LOL

First my inspirational thought today is from Princess Diaries:

Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all.

The movie review:

We saw Nanny McPhee and loved it. What a sweet movie, the kids were quite naughty but the message was so beautiful and my kids loved it. I also really enjoyed the music. I do like Emma Thompson and Collin Firth is so cute in a big brother kind of way.

Cassanova, really liked it, so funny.

Movies I want to see: Da Vinci Code, I really enjoyed the book and while I know the movie won't be as good I'm sure it will be entertaining.

The Barnyard, coming later in the summer, looks hilarious!

Cars, for Miguel

I know I'm missing a movie I had in mind, I'm sure I'll rememember as soon as I hit "Publish Post"

Miguel and the girls slept like Superstars last night, I got so much rest I feel like cleaning and doing laundry. Maybe Pat slipped some drug in me that creates a false sense/desire to do mindless housework.....hmmm....

I did some shopping this week to make my house pretty before my mom and sister come to visit, I was pleased with how much I got for so little. Have I mentioned I really like Tuesday Mornings? Lovely store!

Ok, i'm going to make pancakes and get the day going. Kids are out of school so lots to do.

TTFN

thoughts today....

I tried a new wine yesterday, good stuff it's called:

Rex-Goliath Giant 47 Pound Rooster. It's a California Pinot Noir. Really Smooth! We enjoyed this bottle of wine. And it has a very pretty rooster painted on the front so it's on the top of my cabinets as part of my rooster themed kitchen :)

Here is the inspirational thought for the day:

Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath"
Author Unknown, from "A Great Life Lesson"

Today we had a birthday party for Larisa and Miguel and apparently I'm incapable of reading invitations because it was clearly stated the party started at 1 pm and I managed to "read" 2 pm. So we were an hour late. Irregardless of my faux-pas Larisa nd Miguel had a great time and I enjoyed myself talking to the party giver and the other guests.

Rant of the day: Why can't there be a Dunkin Donuts near us? I love DD, they have a great donuts and great coffee. That said my waist doesn't need donuts.

I'm so lucky!

Larisa with her Daisy Girl Scouts friends. She is the one in the middle. There is a reason we call her the sweetsie. She has perfected the sweet angel look, i think she owns it.
Gabi my very big girl after the log ride, she had a wonderful time. And Miguel who is not one to be denied sweets, doing what every kid loves to do; stuff his face full of junk food. What a cutie!
 

Thought of the day

"In life you can never be too kind or too fair; everyone you meet is carrying a heavy load. When you go through your day expressing kindness and courtesy to all you meet, you leave behind a feeling of warmth and good cheer, and you help alleviate the burdens everyone is struggling with." Brian Tracy

Quote of the day

"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."

Jack London
American Author

I'm tired folks

Last night I put Miguel to sleep which took a while since he "napped" from 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Ideal timming huh? He did actually request to go to sleep but it took about 1 hour. It was 10pm before I even got to take a bath. Pat was asleep when I got to bed and I spent the entire night until about 15 minutes ago (it's 3:30 am) waking every hour freaking out that I will sleep thru 5 am and miss getting to the meeting place for the Amusement Park today. So I'm awake for the day, mind you I'm driving to Missouri today and Miguel will be all chipper and thrilled because he is getting a great night sleep, LOL

Tomorrow I think I will nap with Miguel or else, knowing myself, I will be a bear from being so tired.

A message to my friend Amy: If you are reading this please know you are in my thoughts and you and Mya are in my prayers. It's going to be fine. Hugs.

What am I reading?

I started a new book another one by Harlan Coben, "The Innocent"

Today I had a really wonderful conversation with my father, he said really sweet things to me that made me almost cry. Now I miss him and want him to come visit me. So I told my sister Elena in Indiana, who is coming to stay here around June 5th. So what we have done is conspire to say this in my Blog so that my dad will come and visit us both in June. LOL

Sooooo... papi if you are reading this one, buy the ticket and come see us :D We want Paella!!!

She's ok!

We took Gabi to the doctor and all appears ok but they did do an EKG to make sure somehow it's not related to her heart. So far it seems like it was an isolated thing.

I don't know if I mentioned that sweet dh got me an IPOD Nano for Mother's day, it's so awesome! I love the darn thing. Do you know you can load audiobooks to an ipod? Is that not great? I can listen to books too, the thing is like made for me!

Ok, today we got horseback riding after about a 4 week hiatus, then it's gymnastics and then tomorrow we go to Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. It's one of those amusement parks. The girls are just itching to go!

2 week from tomorrow my mom arrives and 1 week later we leave for Vegas, YIPEE!!!!

I ordered from Schwans to see if I like their products, they arrived yesterday and the driver is a really nice friendly guy, tried to sell me everything short of the truck, I think he gets a cut of the sales, LOL.

ugh chiggers

Have you ever seen a chigger?
Those little monsters are the most irritating things, they will literally send you into scratching insanity. NOt even mosquitos can make me scratch so much.

I will literally get bruises and blood spots from the itch. And they bite in warm areas like were your belt or underwear elastic is, your neck, ears, head and underarms. THey seem to be everywhere this year and my kids have been going nuts.

Here is a picture of one for your nightmarrish pleasure..

chiggers

A bit about my day

Today we pretty much hung out at home. I did go to the hospital to get records for Gabi because she has to go to the doctor tomorrow. Yesterday she fainted in church, it was awful. Thankfully she was fine but she had felt dizzy and weak the day before but felt better later on but then on Sunday in church she was an altar server and the father was working on a prayer right before we did the peace I looked at her and she just looked so pale, her lips were just colorless and I tried pointing her to get down and I guess she just didn't get it and I had to go up and get her down, as we go to the bathroom she says she feels like she is going to vomit so I take her in and she just goes down and tells me she can't hold herself up. She is just limp, i'm mentally freaking out but holding it together. We took her to the ER and she was ok after all but it was just darn scary.

Otherwise we just played outside and then my BIL came over with his son Connor and the kids just played and played, Miguel is just worn out. We are watching the Red Sox beat the Orioles, pretty ugly 8 to 1.

I'm going to get the boy to bed and go take a relaxing bath.

By the way I finished Incubus Dreams and well I think it was sort of so-so just too much descriptive and plain weird sex. Too bad...

I have 3 books waiting to be read, a vampire one, another about a boy that goes to the US looking for his mom that leaves him to go work in the US and then another Harlan Coben book.

Thursday we go to Silver Dollar City. Cool!!!

oopps!

Here is the last picture, I don't know why it didn't show up.

  

More hummingbirds

I finally got a picture of the male hummingbird. The last picture is blurry but you can see the red throat

 
 
 
  

More hummingbirds

I got some more pictures this morning, I got really close, so close you can see individual feathers. The one from yesterday was a very young one as she still had some fuzz, but this one is more of an adult. She is beautiful.

I still haven't gotten a male. They are very skittish and if I park myself close by they take longer to trust me.


 
 
 
  

Here's the hummingbird

This is a picture of one of the females that visits the feeders. She is a ruby throated hummingbird but only the males have the red throat. I'm going to try to get a picture of one of the males. They all come and fight over the feeders.

 
 
 
  

Happy Mother's Day!

To my mother
To my Grandma
To my Mother-In-law
To my friend Amy
To all my friends
And last but certainly not least to my son's birthmother. May she be safe.

thi is the place where i want to sky dive

extreme skydiving

go ahead make my day, LOL

  

it's a sprain

It's official my flying adventure sprained my hand and I'm typing one-handed because it's splinted, OTOH my hand hurts a lot less :)

So I can't type much, I will post some links while I'm less than 100%

ttfn

It's been an interesting week

Where should I start.

The girls both had ballet pictures this week, meaning make up hair, etc.
Miguel quit sleeping thru the night - had him checked yesterday - Strep, Yipee... (can you sense the sarcasm?)
Get home and one of the toilets overflows, there were floaties in the water that was falling onto my floor ::shudder::
Clean the toilet, floor, bathroom, mop the floor.
Sister calls and I'm chatting up, the floor I guess was still very wet from the mop and I flew off and fell on my chest but mainly on my right hand. Hurts a lot.
Wake up and my hand is bruised and feeling very sore, pain shoots up to the elbow.
The girls have a girl scouts activity so I have to drop them off and cannot take Miguel since he has strep, so then I have to go to the doctor to check my hand.
I'm buying wine today....

Hummingbirds!!!!

The Hummingbirds are here and in full force!!

I love Hummers, they are like the most gorgeous bird, IMO. I have 3 feeders out and they are going to town. One of them is a really cool one I'd never seen before, it attaches do the window so you can see them upclose and personal.

I love taking pictures of them and they let me get very close, like within a foot or two. Today I was trying and one of them, a female, was very distressed by me. She came and fed but decided to check me out and flew in front of me for a good amount of time facing me, almost like trying to figure me out. It was awesome!

A website to check out, I fell in love with this guys work, it's breathtaking.

www.ashesandsnow.org

Check out the cheetah pictures. All I can say is WOW!

boy I've been busy

As you can see I never did load pictures. Didn't find any that i liked so I never put any up.

We had a really busy weekend weekend and this month is only going to get better. The girls have dance pictures, dance, planning date for the girl scouts Silver Dollar City, Gabi should be done with school work within 10 days.

I want to add another author that I like to read:

Laurell K. Hamilton

She writes about a Vampire Hunter/Executioner. It's a very interesting plot line. There are many books and I'm on the last one. I didn't start with #1 The first one I read was Bloody Bones, I really liked that one, then I read Narcissus in Chains, then Cerulean Sins and I'm now reading Incubus Dreams.

The first one I read was weird but thrilling, since then the other ones have including a lot more S-e-x. I really don't find it necessary but the story line is so interesting to me that I can bypass all the sex.

The books include all kids of "were" animals which is really cool and all the guys ar e some kind of gorgeous animal. It's just a very interesting world she has created.

If you are weirded out by "descriptive sex" bypass the books but if you can look past it, I think the whole story is just cool.

diinndiinn, mama, dinndiinnn....

I have a 2 year old saying this over and over and over.

Translation: candy, mama, candy

ugh, I hate candyand I hate that he loves candy. He will eat the stuff all day long. The thing is that he is really a very good overall eater. Loves, salad, veggies, fruit, pasta, meat. But the candy thing, oh my gosh, it can drive me bananas, he just begs and begs and begs. And let me not forget, Couke! He also begs for coke....

I think i'm changing Miguel to a different gym class because his first one is just so far away, it really ruins my routine and there is one in town that would probably work better. I will have to look into the times for it.

I'm going to load some pictures in a minute because I like doing it. LOL

Spring cleaning

Time for spring cleaning and yard sale collecting and organzing. the house is driving me crazy and the kids appears to take advantage of this to make even more elaborate messes.

I can't believe it's already May, my mom will be here in less than a month and things will get really busy by the middle of this month, they will stay that way until at least the end of June. Yikes!

Useless informaion of the day: Dh took the blowdrier from the hotel thinking it was mine. :P Now I have to mail it to them or they'll charge me for it. What a pain.

I have to do a To Do list, there is so much to do, I'm forgetting what I want or have to do.

Fun for today: The hummingbirds are back so I set up my feeder. :D YES! I love hummingbirds :)

Red Sox 7, Yankees 3

ahhh, sweet victory....

(Laura BZ if you are reading this, I'm sorry your Yankees lost!)

I felt sorry for Johnny Damon, he was booed, which is no fair but you gotta admit the guy swore he'd never go with the Yankees, that money was not everything and that is exactly what he did. The Team though were nice to him and said he is still the same nice guy he always has been.

I wish he didn't have to cut his hair and shave his beard, he definitely looks better shaggy.

May Day

I'm happy and excited to see the huge rallies and walks happening today for and by immigrants. Immigration policy really frustrates me and it must be changed.

I'm a citizen by virtue of birth but take my citizenship not as a right but as a priviledge, one that must not be abused or taken by granted. I know too many "law breakers" that are the most honest, hardworking and awesome people in the world but they are grouped under the "illegals" title as if they mean nothing to this society.

I'm just thrilled that they are marching today!