CHRISTmas

As we prepare for this holiday season, it has become overwhelmingly evident to me each day I am on this earth just how much we are loved by God.


I have been given such a wonderful gift to be a mother to two precious boys. I cannot explain the love I have for these kids. I know they aren't mine; I am just their earthly mother. Put here to guide them in their journey through life and doing my best to show them God's love.


The longer I spend with them, the more I reflect the sacrifice made when Jesus was sent to die for us. God send His ONLY son here to be beat, ridiculed, tortured, and put to death. For my sins. Thank you Lord. I am not worthy of this sacrifice, but I suppose that is what GRACE is all about.

And while there are days when I tire of the tantrums, the boogers, the discipline... I cannot thank God for such a gift. To think I will spend eternity feeling everlasting joy and happiness...

So yes, I am thinking about CHRISTmas. Thinking about the birth of God's son and the ultimate sacrifice made for a wretch like me.

Upcoming forecast...

Is it wrong for me to be overjoyed to see rain in my weather widget?


Most of my friends in the midwest or east would be rolling their eyes right now. 70's and I am complaining. This has to be one of the mildest winters I remember... aside from that week or two where it rained non-stop. Sunny, clear skies have been the norm, and to be honest, I kind of miss having something different.

Here's to hoping our weather people don't mess up Wednesday! (As long as it isn't Tuesday when we are planning to move!)

I fail

Ok. What happened? I don't know if I attribute my lack of blogging to lack of interest or lack of feedback, but maybe I will try to pick it up again. Brenda will be my inspiration.

So what has been going on lately? Same old stuff. Struggling to pay the bills, struggling to have time to connect, struggling to parent. The search for a better life, the search for a better career... it never ends, right?

If you haven't been up to date in my life, I will do a brief catch-up. I work at home. It is a love hate relationship. When I am not watching the kids, I am working. I feel like I never have a time to just relax, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love being at home with my boys.

Matt has explored different career opportunities, but keeps coming back to Gamestop. It isn't a bad thing I guess. His boss loves him, he is now a Store Manager, and is looking forward to opportunities there. Today we came back to schooling. He still has 4 months of the GI Bill left (8 months part time) and when that goes, he has 12 months of the Post 9/11 Bill. He has his Associates, but I think he could get his Bachelors and be even more non-disposable.

The boys are great. Sam is 3, Ben is 14 months. Today I gave Ben his first haircut. He was getting a bit of a tail in the back... After the debacle with Sam (I basically buzzed his head), I decided not to go too short. Hope you are all having a great day!

One... ttoooooo... trreeeeee...

Ok so admittedly it has been a while. Life is busy, not much new. I will make a better attempt. With Facebook though, it is so much easier to spread news and day to day happenings. I will save some gems for my blog though.

Here is a little snapshot of what we are working on with Sam. Mind you, he misses one and four, but I think it is pretty good for 21 months!

Everything is better with the topping.

Sam has recently discovered the "extras" in life. The toppings on the ice cream instead of the ice cream, the whipped cream on the strawberry shortcake, and within the last week, ketchup. I remember my sister's kids going through the whole "dip" stage. I don't really know if Ryan has gotten passed it to be honest.

Well, Sam has decided to love dip. In fact, he has done the whole dip and lick without eating the actual food item. While throwing dinner on the table trying to get ready to work, I zapped some corn dog bites in the microwave (aka emergency dinner/ too lazy or tired to cook dinner), and put them in front of Sam. As soon as he saw the ketchup bottle coming I got the mmMMMMmm!

Can't wait to see him experience all the extras there are in life!

I LOVE MEXICAN FOOD

So as I sit here, working, eating chips and salsa, I am reminiscent of my favorite Mexican restaurant, Chile Peppers. I love Chile Peppers. For those of you who are familiar with my restaurant know that it has recently changed hands. I have been there since, and I was a little disappointed. But right now it is closed for remodeling, so we will see what is going on there.

I would have to say my favorite Mexican food is Flautas. In case you are also not familiar with a Flauta, it is basically a taquito, but made with a flour tortilla instead of corn. I love chicken and cheese flautas. They are the best. Now that I am thinking and blogging about it, I REALLY want one!

Anyone have any favorite dishes or restaurants? I would love to hear about them!

The Bachelor

Ok, so admittedly I got interested in this season. I don't usually watch The Bachelor series, but this time the bachelor was a single dad, and I am a sucker for anything having to do with kids. Along the way my favorites were sent home, Stephanie then Jillian, but when it came down to Melissa and Molly, I must admit I was pulling for Molly. As the final episode went on, I could sympathize with Jason's pick. Melissa seemed like she could be a stay at home mom to Ty; Molly was the one with a real career. But I just didn't like Melissa. She was so immature, too cutesy.

When he picked Melissa at the end, I felt bad for Molly, but understood Jason's pick. On the After The Rose episode though, it was incredible that he, in so many words, changed his mind. Most people are totally outraged at this. I say, who cares?! Jason obviously found out with more time that he and Melissa were never going to make it. Here's to another shot at happiness for Jason. I sincerely hope it works out, though the stats on past couples are not good. Oh, and don't bug me tonight at 10; I will be watching part 2 of After The Rose. ;)

Rub a tub tub, Sam in the tub

I couldn't resist posting this video. It just makes me laugh.

What's Your Sign?

As promised, I took some pictures of Sam signing. Now, my mother-in-law says she tells people that Sam knows some sign language and they ask if he is deaf. No. He hears quite fine. He is a little slow to speak though, so we have taken steps to teach him some of the most basic signs. Here were some we were able to catch on camera before bed tonight. Under Sam's sign, I went ahead and got the expert picture so you could compare.

This sign is milk, shown by clenching and opening your hand. It was probably the easiest to teach, for obvious reasons. We were a little hesistant to get this picture as we just stopped giving him milk before bed. I risked it though, and he was fine without his liquid gold.
The most recent sign he has learned is car. Car is signed like you are driving a steering wheel. Sam absolutely loves toy cars. He picked them up from his cousins who have a million matchbox cars at their house. He leaves with one each time he visits.
All done or finished would be the next sign. Basically you hold up your hands and twist them at the wrist. Good for him to let us know when to stop trying to shove things in his mouth.
Another easy sign to teach was please. Please is rubbing your hand in a circle on your chest. We would withhold things he wanted until he signed it. Easy enough.
Ok so water, this next sign, is not quite like how it is supposed to look, but hey, he is 18 months. Water is a little harder. You take your three middle fingers and tap them on your chin. Sam just takes his whole hand and hits his mouth. We get the picture that he is thirsty. We have tried to teach juice, but basically anything besides milk is water.
Another recent sign learned (and definitely the most challenging) was thank you. Touch your hand to your chin and then point it out. How do you teach something when all collateral you need for the lesson is gone? But he has learned it, thank goodness.
Another very useful sign is more. Tap your fingertips together. More milk, more food, more more more.
He also knows food as of late, but I forgot to get him to sign that for the camera. I hope you have enjoyed the many signs of Sam. Learn them in case you come in contact with him and he starts smacking his mouth!

The many adventures of eating...

I know I have been slacking lately on the blogging. Matt and I moved on the 7th of last month, so we have been busy getting ourself put together here. It feels so nice to be in a place again with all of our stuff. Opening boxes that have been put away for 6 months is like Christmas. You forget what you had!

Anyway, back to topic here. Sam is getting to the age where he likes to do stuff on his own. From climbing on things to feeding himself, it is fun to see where it gets him, except when it gets him into trouble; like times he ends up on top of the kitchen table. But mealtime has been interesting. No longer does he want us helping him out. Nope. Some things are relatively easy for him to do: ravioli, fruit, bite size sandwiches, etc. But there are just some things you have to stay way from.

Now you would think spaghetti would not be too bad. But the problem here was we decided to put a little sauce on it so they wouldn't all stick together. Yeah, mistake.
My suggestion to mothers with this stage coming up: Farfalle pasta. Commonly known as bow-tie pasta, it is finger friendly and does not stick, well, for the most part.


Another item which was in storage was the high chair. My mom had one at her house, so there was no point in having two of them. He is getting too big for it. Friday we are going to pick up a booster seat that attaches to chairs for him. Because this is just NOT safe:
Of course, it makes it pretty evident that he is hungry. After getting him in, he is super happy and ready to munch!
Such a cute smile! I love it. He is not quite talking yet, but he has some sounds we know he associates with stuff. Dogu (doogy) Kuh (Car) KuKu (cookie) and MMhmmhmm! (self explanatory). He signs a lot... I should get some pictures of that. He knows milk, water, please, more, food, car, shoes. He almost has thank you. (That one is pretty hard.) Well, he definitely knows his sweets. Back to subject.
He just loves it when I bake. Here he was with Matt enjoying a cupcake (also called kuku). He still only has the 4 teeth. It just amazes me. I keep looking for more, but to no avail. Makes for a cute smile. This one is a little blurry, but it was a keeper.
Well, hopefully it will not take me over a month for the next blog. Things have been crazy, but are settling down a bit. I guess the life of "MOM" will never slow down! :)

Thank goodness for family :)

So many of you know that Matt, Sam, and I have been staying with my mom. We had originally moved in because we did not want to renew our lease at our old apartment since we thought we may have been moving out of state for a few months. We were interested in going month to month, but they were going to charge about $1899. Talk about highway robbery. So, we moved in with my mom until we found out something concrete about Matt's job. We still haven't, but we are now at the point where we are comfortable signing a lease with a modest apartment.

Sunday morning, Andy Bales of the Union Rescue Mission came to give a report to our church. I was so convicted by some of the stories of people who had ended up on the street and had found hope in the URM. I turned to my mom and thanked her, telling her I don't know where Matt, Sam, and I would be without her. After church, we went over to Angela's house, and I thought about how lucky I was to live near family and to have the support and guidance they give. Here are some pics of the afternoon at her home.

My mom holding Lauren and Sam and Ryan and Aidan with their helmets.
Angela makes sure that Sam does not push the truck into the street.
I wish I had a tree to hang a swing on, but Auntie's house will do.
When Ryan saw Sam, of course he wanted to join in the fun.So they enjoyed it together.Sam did the only thing he knew what to do with the skateboards Ryan and Aidan got for Christmas: pushed it.
There is good news in all of this though. We found an affordable apartment in Walnut we are set to move into on January 7th. We did have a deposit on one set to move in December 26th, but the people decided they were not leaving. Is that even legal? We are finally getting back on track as a family and Matt and I can't wait to get all of our stuff out of storage. He has forgotten what our drinking glasses look like and we really want our winter clothes we put there. :) If you want our new address, email me and I will get it to you. Hopefully we can stay in this place for more than a year!

What do I do all day?

My sister sent me this email. At the beginning I was laughing and at the end I was saying "Hallelujah!" Basically, the article is a lady asking what her friend with kids does all day. If you or someone you know has kids, you will appreciate (and maybe even learn) what we do all day. BTW, it is NOT watching soaps and relaxing on the couch. Sorry about the fuzziness. I don't have time to sit at home and try to format this correctly. HAHA.

Playing or Working?

As I sit here watching Sam, I still cannot believe where Matt is. Monday he started a new part time job he got through a friend. If you can believe it, some company is paying Matt to test out video games. Now, I find this highly annoying. Admittedly the pay is low ($9/hr), but seriously? SERIOUSLY?! Not that my part time job is horrendous or difficult, really quite the contrary, but I wish I could find a job where I could... say... walk. I love to go out walking. I also thought, "Ok, this is going to be good. Now after playing a game 8 hours there is NO WAY that he will come home and head for his XBox as soon as Sam is asleep." Wrong again. Monday he couldn't wait to plug it in since he had been playing (yes, I did say playing) PSP all day. Sigh. At least he is doing something he loves and is getting paid for it. Isn't that the whole purpose? Well, I on the other hand, have got to change a poopy diaper. (grumbles)

Let's Go Outside!

So Sam has figured out that if he grabs your hand, he can basically lead you (or pull you) wherever he wants to go. Well, it seems the only place he wants to go is out the front door. It is pretty annoying because a) the weather has been getting cooler b) Sam is getting quicker c) Sam is getting more brazen d) outside requires a jacket and shoes e) Sam knows no time of day. But how can you resist when your little boy wants to go outside and explore? You can't.

So yesterday he picked a good time to grab my hand and I had time to grab my camera. Here he is on the way out the door.
Not sure what he was looking at here, but I loved the lips. He has started to say "wow" not really knowing what it is though.
I was trying desperately to get this with him looking at the camera. It WOULD have been a perfect Christmas card with the red and green leaves.
Ok, so Sam of course finds the only thing that could get him into trouble: mushrooms.
It was such a nice day, and it is always sad when we can't go outside, especially for Sam. Pull your fingers away from his hand, and you get a face similar to that shown here:
Ah, you gotta love these times. I know I will miss it when he no longer wants to hold mommy's hand and take her with him... so for now, I will savor every moment.

Seven years and counting...

Well, we finally made it to year seven. :) It seems like yesterday when Matt and I were married in that little church in Rancho Palos Verdes, but at the same time, it seems so long ago. We have come so far, so much has happened, and we have a family finally. I must say, at least on my side, that I am as happy as ever. We are going through tough times right now, but there is no one I would rather have struggling with me at my side. We had a very nice Anniversary. We spent most of the time just hanging out with each other. Tonight we got a sitter (aka Grandma) and had a nice dinner at Bucca di Beppo. Great restaurant... sigh. If you ever go, the green beans are a must. Seven down... many more to go!

Religious Hands

Ok so I came upon this video by accident. I was working late into the night, as usual, and I really needed some music. This is when I turn to Youtube due to a lack of music on the computer. (Don't ask, about 3 months ago I wiped my lappy clean) So listening to Casting Crowns, I saw this video and knew I had to share because I thought it was so cool. Kudos to the Oslo UPC Youth Group for a cool presentation. Enjoy!

What a thriller!

So I found it interesting to hear that they are celebrating the 25th anniversary of "Thriller." They had a huge event worldwide to try and break the record of people simultaneously dancing the thriller dance. So secretly, I have always wanted to learn how to do this, especially after seeing the movie 13 Going On 30. So tonight, I downloaded a three step tutorial learning how to dance the thriller dance. I would link the one I did, but the owner states on their website they want permission that I really don't feel like going through the hassle of getting. Just google it, you will find some. So check in on me and see how it is going! BTW, like the pumpkins??

My 'lil pumpkin!

Today we had the pleasure of going to the Cal-Poly Pomona's Annual Pumpkin Festival with my mom and my sister and her family. It has kinda turned into a family tradition almost. We had such a good time, as usual. There were so many pumpkins, but none compared to my little pumpkin Sam. We took Sam last year when he was just a little baby, but now he is my little boy and was stumbling around the patch. It is so hard to get Sam to look at the camera, but what can I expect? I am just not a professional...

We found this stack of pumpkins and knew it would be a great spot to take some pictures.
Sam was bewildered by the surroundings. He got some use out of some Shaq tennis shoes though.
Left to right: Aidan (22 months) Sam (14 months) Lauren (2.5 months) and Ryan (3 years). What a good looking crew!
Sam and I in the pumpkin patch.
It was such a nice day. A little hotter than I expected, but we survived. I look forward to carving them with Matt and Sam, except for the mess that I have to clean up afterwards! Here's looking forward to a great Halloween!