Only 3 more weeks

I can not believe we are only THREE WEEKS away, it is crazy how fast time went, although some evenings it feels that time is going soooo slow ... hahahahaha.

I can finally say her closet is somewhat ready for her arrival, I still have a big container of clothes Nicolas has outgrown that needs to be moved into the basement, but her dresser is filled with her stuff and so are those little hangers.

I work myself to exhaustion getting this done because I couldn't take it for another day, Sunday was supposed to be the day when I was going to work on all this, my good friend Kristie was coming over and it was going to be a fun lunch with an afternoon filled of work BUT that didn't happened since my throat decided to hurt and so did my head. So much for plans, I stayed in bed all day, slept most of the day thanks to my husband, who also didn't feel good but he took care of our son for most of the day. I have to say I did enjoyed that lazy morning in bed, with my boys, we lay there with our eyes closed while Nicolas watched some cartoons, took turns going into the kitchen to get us some food. It was fun even though we didn't feel good.

My mother-in-law offered to come and help last night so we got things started and after she left I just couldn't stop, it was 11:30 by the time I was done but AMEN for that, it's done. I also washed the car seat covers, yes someone let us borrow one too so this time we won't have to be passing around the one car seat from my car to Matt's truck, this time we'll each have one, we've been beyond blessed with all the things we've gotten. I mean this closet is full and I even had to give some stuff away, most of this stuff are hand-me-downs that were in perfect shape. of course we've also received countless gift from showers that my friends have so sweetly put together for us.

Speaking of showers, we had another one this past Saturday, this one I knew about :0) what I didn't know was that the girls were going to make Scrapbook pages for Emilia's book. It was so much fun and my favorite type of Scrapbooking, you know the kind where you just put the picture on the page that has already been made for you! We had a really good time, yummy food, sweet gifts and great company.

What can I say, I have wonderful friends. God has put each one of them in my life for a reason, just like He is giving us this baby girl we can not wait to hold in our arms.

"Computer Pals"

Dear lady from computer pals:
Stop trying to get my child into your program because he's only 3 and I don't want him to be hook into a computer when we still have 3 more years before he goes to kindergarten. He's smart and we are ok without it.


Yesterday when I picked up my boy from Daycare, he said "Mommy I'm on Computer Pals" and I said "no honey, you are not". He gave me a look and said "YES I AM. I went today and they gave me a sticker that has a computer, see?" As I grabbed the paperwork I see he was treated to a complementary session and of course the letter said how much they would love to have him on their program, how great he did ... bla bla bla. Well you are pushing it people, I understand you are trying to run a business, which I'm sure is suffering like all the other business these days, I see every time you leave me a letter your price has gone down, it used to be $25.00 now we are down to $9.00 but the point of it all is I do not want my child to be in this class at this young age. I feel there's no need for it and I don't feel like paying for an extra service like this when we do have a computer at home and really I don't want my child in front of another screen, you know? If this was "book pal, or music pal" I say SURE please let's develop that, but is just a computer game!!

Respect my decision as a parent and stop telling my child to tell me he needs to be on computer pals. How do I explain a 3 year old this was just a "complementary" session, well son you know what this lady is really trying to convince me to put you on her class so that's why she took you in for free but you are not part of this, sorry. Yeah right ... like he's going to understand all that.

This morning when we went to his cuby he saw the paper work again and remembered once again and I told him he was not on Computer Pals, you don't need to be on this class. I didn't know how else to phrase it. His teacher assure me that he doesn't talk about it any other time then when "the teacher" goes to get the kids (only 2) that go into the class.

So today I called the director of the preschool and voiced my concern about feeling pushed into doing something I had already said in several occasions I'm not interested. What makes me mad is that they are using the innocence of a 3 year old to get the parents to "give in" into something we choose not to do.

I know I'm pregnant and I'm sensitive ... sorry, things are the way they are. ha ha ha

" S U R P R I S E"

No don't worry I haven't had the baby yet, but last night when I walked into the room where we meet once a week with our group to do bible study, lights were off and I open the door ... THERE WERE BALLOONS, YUMMY FOOD, FLOWERS, PRETTY DECORATIONS, GIFTS BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY DEAR FRIENDS who care enough for me to give me a surprise shower!!!

It was a sweet time - talk about sweet ... that's all I ate!! :0)

Emilia got tons of cute outfit, lots of wipes and diapers, bibs, socks, bottle brushes, pacifiers, did I say cute outfits already???? even my Nicolas got a gift too (thank you Amy and Wes!!)

It was so much fun, I got home pumped, ready to put things up but oh wait ... I barely have room to walk in her room because is full of boxes, remember? Yeah, well I did what I could, I hung some stuff, put away the baby bags, wrote some thank you notes and went to bed so excited it took me a while to go to sleep although I was wore out.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU ... Is all I can say.

Someone commented on my Facebook status last night since of course I had to post it there too, she said "two showers in one week (I'm having another one this Sat) you must be loved!!" INDEED I AM!!!! God has put wonderful friends in my life, once again ... Thank You!!

A blink of an eye

In four more weeks - to this day - I'll be holding my baby girl. Unless HE decides something different for her

I have started to wash all the hand-me-downs we've been so blessed to have. Her room is just a big mess, box after box of clothes that are nicely washed now, empty walls, parts of a crib that hasn't been put together yet, some clothes of our son still left on the dresser and so on, you get the picture!

Of course with our first born things were done and in place by now :0) but like you hear over and over again, it is so different with the 2nd child (I'm sure even more with the 3rd and 4th ... I won't know about that b.c for now we are happy with 2).

I have felt so tired, so emotional, so uncomfortable, I'm glad we forget these things because what good would it do, I do remember one bad night when I was expecting Nicolas, when I could barely roll over in my own bed and I started crying because I couldn't take it much longer. I am sure there were plenty more moments like those in my first pregnancy. At that point I was just a few weeks from having him, I was much bigger with him than what I'm with her.

This time the struggles are different, this past Sat. I cried because I couldn't do what my son wanted me to do, he wanted to lay on top of me while we watch TV, which we've always done, well my belly is so big now that is humanly impossible for me to breath carrying both of my babes on top of me! So I was frustrated and I went to wake up my husband so he could go and play with our boy while I cried in bed. After a big cry I was better!

At the end of the day I'm cranky, inpatient, tired, achy, not a good combination. Some days are better than others, like the other day when I got to go home earlier and I was able to take an hour nap before my men came home. I was rested, happy, cooked supper, we ate together, it was a good night!! Those are the ones that I want to remember forever, the ones I want my son to remember forever, I know he won't have many memories of this age, at least that's what my friends tell me when they look back, they don't remember their lives before their brothers or sisters came along. Which is a good thing I guess, I didn't have sibling so I don't know how all this works, to be honest this scares me a little, I won't be able to put myself in my kids' place but that's a good thing, I know how it feels to be an only child - when you are a child is awesome!!!!! when you grow up ... not so much!!!

I'm excited about many things, of course our daughter coming, Nicolas becoming a big brother, us becoming a family of four! I know the years ahead won't be easy, we had just started to enjoy our full nights of sleep again (yes it took our son 3 years to sleep through the night), we are much nicer people when we sleep well, don't we? It was easy to leave him so we could go out on dates, spending time with other couples at night, enjoying a movie together, going out to eat, etc. Having our own time alone too, his night, her night ... and now it all starts back again, interrupted nights therefore cranky mornings, tight money, dealing with an emotional toddler and a newborn baby and the list goes on. The point is we made this choice, we knew what we were getting ourselves into, we've done it before, we survived and we made it and these three years with Nicolas had been a breeze, yes when you are in the middle of it you feel like this is never going to end but when you look back you wonder where has time gone. When did my baby boy became an independent emotional very verbal toddler??? In a blink of an eye --- this reminds me of something Matt told me 15 years ago in a video that my "host parents" brought me to Chile when they visited down there after living with them for a year. He said something along these lines "Hi Baby! by the time you see this Fred & Merle will be in Chile with you, I love you and I miss you very much. I know we need to be separated right now, I know you need to go to school (university) to us it may be a long time but to God is just a blink of an eye" I'll never forget those words, specially because a lot happened after that and yes we are together today, getting ready to have our second child together.

That's life, isn't it?

Precious Water

We've all heard the cliche "you don't know how much you appreciate something until it's gone", right? Well what about when that something is a basic need like Water, something we take for granted, something we assume will be there at the opening of our faucet without any trouble, until temperatures get bellow freezing and you don't even think about leaving your faucet dripping all day long (I do have great reasons for that) and then you get home at night and SURPRISE the bath water you were getting ready for your son is not but an inch high.

This is the scenario my husband had to deal with on Tues night as I was at church having a marvelous time in Bible Study. We talked about the unimportance of our home here but the one that really matters is up there in Heaven. Not meaning like we should trash our stuff but not make it the focus of our life, you know? so with that fresh in my mind, when I walk in the door and I realized what's going on I begin to repeat myself "don't panic, it's OK".

This happened on Sunday morning too when we were getting ready to go to church, I did panic then, I wanted to be on time, we had breakfast Sunday and I know how much our son enjoys it and how much he was looking forward to it and let's just say washing yourself "part by part" like people used to do it years ago takes longer than just hopping in the shower and getting ready, needless to say my attitude was horrible (great way to get ready to teach Sunday school too, right?) so anyway, when all this happened again I knew my attitude needed to be a good one. My husband did the same thing he did Sunday Morning, when it took probably an hour or an hour and a half to get thawed. Let's just say this wasn't the case this time, an hour went by, two hours, all night and NOTHING!! He stayed home to see what we could do, the more I read on the internet trying to understand all this stuff the more it sounded like our pipes underground were frozen and everyone said "there's nothing you can do if that's the case, other than wait". My mother-in-law told me that this happened to them once when the kids were growing up and it took four weeks FOUR WEEKS!!!!!!!!! until it thawed, uhm excuse me I'm getting ready to have a baby in less than 6 weeks, that means if is the underground pipes we'll be lucky to have water when we get home with the baby ...

... ok do not panic, that's not going to help ...

... don't go there, God will take care of it all ...

so that's what I spend the night doing, every time I woke up to see if the water had come back and I didn't hear any water coming through DO NOT PANIC, GOD WILL TAKE CARE OF IT.

Morning came but not the water, I managed to get clean, get out of the house, take our son to his preschool and as soon as I had a free hand I text all my friends to pray for us and this situation. I brought my laundry to work - I do happen to be fortunate to work with family and their house is super close by so I did my laundry there during the day, every hour in the morning I went to switch loads (I only had two) - I knew at the end of the day I was going to buy paper products and plastic silverware and 20 gallons of water to have at home. I called my husband once and he said "still nothing" I kept praying and repeating myself it was all going to be Ok, we would get through it. I already had a plan in mind on how we were going to go take our showers at my in-laws who live next door, have our two gallons of water to flush our toilets once a day and just deal with it day by day.

As I left work I had my little moment of crying in the car, by myself, tears started falling and I told God "I promise I'm not complaining, I just need to have a minute and I'll be fine". As I was walking into the grocery store my phone rang and I realized I had a text too from home "We got water" I wanted to start crying all over again, I texted all my friends again and thank them for praying, "We Got Water Again"

When I got home, after my husband took his shower, I took mine a loooong one, one I thank God each minute I was feeling that warm water running over my shoulders and body. Oh the joy of something so simple, something we do everyday, something I take so much for granted.

This morning our son asked me:
"Mommy, what are you doing with that water??" as he looked at the sink and there's water running apparently for no purpose, I told him we needed to leave it running so our water wouldn't froze again, he got excited and said
"so I can have water for my bath and not be cold"

Thank you Lord for my water today and everyday.

Where Have I Been?

Well we've had a few house projects going on in preparation of our little girl coming in 6 weeks, yes that's right ONLY 6 MORE WEEKS and Lord willing this cutie pie will be here with us.

Nicolas' old room will be her room, our guest bedroom is now Nicolas' room, my old dresser is now Nicolas' dresser and we had to buy a closet for my bedroom since all my clothes were in the guest bedroom closet and in my dresser ... did any of this make sense?? :0)

Now you understand where we've been, working on the house of course.

So here I present you "king Nicolas" new room, new bed,
new paint ... everything else was in his old room :0)

This baby is my new closet, Matt and I started working together on this process and thank goodness his brother came over to finish it, it was totally out of my league by the time they had to lift it up and move and redo and what not. This picture shows the unfinished product, now it has doors and a lot more clothes in it. Thank you honey, what an awesome birthday present!!

I've also been visiting with friends, this past weekend had the awesome chance to see a wonderful group of friends whom I used to see every week for a long time, we used to do bible study together. Lot has happened since then, there are 8 of us pregnant (yeah you know what we've been doing he he he he), some had moved to other states and life goes on but this past Sat. we had a wonderful time together, celebrating one of this girls and the coming of her new baby boy. It was fun, delicious food, lots of talking and laughter and those 2 1/2 hours went by in the blink of an eye, each time we get together (which is not nearly as often as we would like) I realized how much I miss them, how happy I feel when I'm around them and what a blessing is to still have them in my life even though we don't see each other once a week.

Another wonderful friend of mine gave me a couple of tickets to a historical house, very famous, in our area so yesterday my mother-in-law and I skip church (way to start the new year, right?) and went to see it before they took all the Christmas decorations down, these tickets were intended for Matt and I to use but let's be honest, what man wants to go tour a house that is over 100 years old and has vintage decor and details that only a woman can appreciate so I did us all a favor and invited my mother-in-law and we had a wonderful time. Adult time, girl time, fun time, heart to heart time ... it was great.

Where are we going to be from now on? Our next project is Emilia's room, no painting involved since I use a very plain color thinking about this when preparing that room for Nicolas. We do not like to paint so I wanted something that could work both ways - boy or girl - and I'm glad I did because the new bedding stuff we have for her (thanks to a dear friend as well) matches perfectly with the wall color.
If you are wondering if her room is going to be ALL PINK I can assure you to forget that because like I've said here in plenty of occasions I DO NOT LIKE PINK :0) Don't worry I will post pictures when is all done and yes I can take a little pink


No resolutions for 2010 here, just to enjoy every day and do our best like we always attempt to, we may fall many times but we get up and keep going again, right?

May this year be a wonderful one to all of you. I know the famous TWENTYTEN will be a year that will always stuck in our minds, just like 2003 the year we got married and 2006 the year we became parents.

2010 here we come, we are ready for you or so we like to think, at least we have the good disposition, right?