Too Busy To Think of a Title For This :)

 

 

This is exactly how I've been feeling for a while ... running on empty!

There's never enough time to do the things I have in mind to do (like clean the inside of my car, as you can very much tell on this pic) ... or going to the beach for a long weekend with friends and leaving my kids and husband at home ... :)

Today is a rainy day and I never finished all my desired summer posts on my blog but oh well, there are more important things in life ...

Things such as ...



my son going to Kindergarten!!!!



Or the fact that my daughter believes that she's ... I don't know ... 12? 15?




Life is good, I can't complaint, I'm just tired, trying to "adjust" back to being at work
and
having a new job
and
having a child in school
and
having a daughter who decided that throwing tantrums is the coolest thing ...

Help wanted folks ... send prayers my way :)

2nd update of our summer - Sweet Times with Dear Friends

I feel like summer is running out through the back door and my mind is still feeling like I don't have to go back to work for another month and in fact I am only a few weeks away ... what did I do with our time?!  May be writing about our summer adventures will help me realized that we did in fact enjoy our time together! :)

Few weeks back our good friends from South Carolina came to see us for a few days!!  The guys have been friends for years, the girls became friends when Matt and I got married, Heidi and I just clicked and we've been friends ever since!  I was in the birth of their first son while my first son was still in my belly, we have special memories together that go 9 years back!  We made some more memories this summer.

We took the children to the local kids museum and they had a blast.

Ice cream buddies

 

Nicolas showing his Lego car

This customer wasn't very excited with her order :)

After two hours of play we all head it to our favorite local restaurant, it was pouring at the time so hassling with four kids, umbrellas and what not was a little crazy but we managed and during our lunch the storm went away, sun came out and we went back to Main St.

Did some little shopping, walking around by 3:30 our kids and myself included were wore out so we started to head home.  It was a fun filled day.  That night the guys went out and we girls took care of the kids while trying to squeeze some conversation and girl time.

Saturday we went to a birthday party, had a blast and that night Heidi and I went out.  This is a friend who stays at home with her children and hardly takes time for herself, so I invited her to a place that I thought would be awesome, it was awesome while we were there but as soon as we got home we realized that whatever we ate wasn't as awesome, thank goodness for two bathrooms because that's where me and her spent our night!  Before we went out to eat we spent some time trying on funny looking shoes just like we used to do before we had kids, I remember going to Greenville back in the day when we didn't have certain store around here and that's how we used to spend our Saturday mornings, we would go and try on shoes, browse around and eat lunch together.  For a moment it felt like we were 9 years younger and we didn't have kids. I treasure our time together, it was fun, it had its moment (sickness) but such is life.

On Sunday it was our church's VBS musical so I had to make myself get up and go to church, I wasn't going to miss my sweet boy presentation for which he had spent every Sunday afternoon practicing for it and boy am I glad I went.  The kids did an awesome job!!!!!!! 

When they first walked through the stage he looked terrified

Quickly he got into his role and had a blast 

 This move was my favorite, at this point people were cheering and laughing, it was sweet!

 Another sweet moment

"A-M-A-Z-I-N-G ... that's what My God is to me, He showed me how to ABC so I can live eternally"

What can I say, it was perfect!!  They were adorable and did a tremendous job!!

This week we are having our VBS so we've been busy getting ready for that each night.  I'm teaching Kindergarten class and the kids are attending their classes too.  I'll have to post about that another time.

'til then, I'm off to enjoy what's left of summer (this morning it was storming so bad it was perfect to stay in bed all sunggle up)

1st catching up of the summer - Mission Trip

A lot has happened since I posted last, my friend Karen and I decided to go on Mission Trip with our children (we each have two) but without our husband, not because we didn't want to go with the men (trust me, when an F1 went through where we were that first night oh how much I wish my husband was there with us) but because they couldn't leave work for different reasons, the wonderful woman who organizes these trips told me "if you still want to go and serve I know you are capable of doing it with your kids and without your husband" that was enough for me to say "sure I'll do it, as long as I can find a partner to share the road trip" so Karen came on board and off we went.  We left the last Friday in June early in the morning, along with several other vehicles loaded with people of all ages, we went to Mallory, West Virginia.  Mine country, pretty similar to the place we went last year (Lynch, KY). Had an awesome time, it was hot, we slept on air mattresses, Emilia slept on her pack-n-play for the last time in her life because she could only fit there if she slept diagonally :) but I knew it was the only way to keep her contained and asleep so we did what we had too.  If you would have told me you will be sharing a room with another mom and her twins that are 6 years old and one more lady I would have said NO WAY, my kids will never fall asleep in those circumstances but you know God can do anything, these kids not only felt asleep each night, they even took naps at the same time.  Nothing is impossible to God!!  We worked on different assignments, like watching our kids so the other moms could go, we had a total of 6 children that were too young to be working but even as that the first morning we were all cleaning tree branches from the ground as that tornado went through.  That was a scary moment but I put on my brave face to keep my children calm.  God put His arms around us and the building we were staying was intact.  It still gives me chills when I think about what could have happened, Emilia and I were in the playground outside a while before this happened and I finally told her we had to go inside, if we would have stayed out there those winds would have done a number on us ... Thank you Lord for keeping us safe!!!!!!!!!!!  The rest of the week was somewhat normal, we had lots of rain one night and the other building got flooded, bats came out of the gym where lots of our youth were sleeping and you know how it goes, it's mission trip!!!  Have you ever been? you should try it, you get to know your group in such a different way, it grows you closer, you grow tremendously, you appreciate everything 100 times better when you get home, although Nicolas didn't want to come back home, for some reason he just loved it there, 107 degree weather, no AC in some of the buildings, showering in a little shower, but for some reason he had the best time and asked me the last night as we were getting ready to go to sleep "mom, why can't we just stay here?" I said "well what about Daddy?? wouldn't you miss him?" he said "well he can always move in with us!" Love that simple mind of a child.

There were a couple of funny moments, if you are traveling with kids you know there will be plenty of those ... as we were getting ready to take a shower one night, there was a lady in the shower next to us and Nicolas decided to take a peek, thankfully it had a shower door so you really couldn't see much but you could see enough to know there was a naked lady there, he said "mommy!!!!!!! Look at this, it is so funny!" GREAT!  I calmly told him that it wasn't nice to peek on people when they were taking showers and thankfully the lady that was in the shower was so sweet about it ... phew!

Another night in the shower he said "mommy, this shower is nice but my daddy couldn't fit in it" :D

The funniest of all - the last night we were there we had "Mexican food" for dinner (I put it between " " because I'm sure a true Mexican would have a heart attack if they saw what we ate, it really wasn't Mexican but I guess the American version of Mexican food) and another lady and i sang a song in Spanish, it was fun.  It brought back sweet memories of my childhood because it was a song that I used to sing in church growing up, all this to say that when Nicolas realized I was going to sing and on top of that in Spanish, he said "mom, I'm going to my room, come get me when you're done!" :D :D

Emilia did excellent considering she is a determined 2 year old who hates to be confined in one space, she went right along with the big kids and she wasn't afraid to speak her mind. One day in the van when we were coming home from our July 4th celebration (we went to a national park that had a pool with a huge slide, it was tons of fun, then we had hamburgers and hot dogs) the older kids were being loud, by then they were so comfortable with each other they were playing/joking/fighting like brother and sisters, she told them "GUYS! Be quite!! I'm trying to sleep!!" my little girl will always make sure her opinion is known ... uh oh :)  She didn't mind working, she helped wipe tables after meals, she attempted to sweep floors and if it was up to her she would have done everything she thinks she is capable of doing LOL

The last night we were there I thanked Nicolas for going with me on this trip, he hugged me and said "I couldn't survived without you Mommy!!" my heart totally melted, sweet boy!!!!

It was so much fun to go with the kids, learn, grow, work and burn up in 100+ weather all for the good cause of working for the one we believe!!!!!!

Can't wait 'til next year!

 Handsome boys!

 Cuties at breakfast

 Big kids getting ready to jump in the pool together

 Mother and son going down the big slide together

 Catching our breath afterwards - Nicolas did it by himself over and over and over again ..

 Fun at the park

 my sweaty little girl at the park on July 4th

 Our bed for the week

One tired Momma!

A Perfect Day

After a week of being home I finally can say we had a perfect day!!  There was no TV watching until after lunch; normally Nicolas gets to watch some early in the morning since he's my early bird :)  This Momma needs some time to get going these days! but for reasons that we shouldn't discuss I can tell "someone" didn't get to watch TV at night for 3 days in a row and on top of that the early morning tv watching was out today too.  I don't know if it was that or what but boy oh boy he was awesome today!!!!!!!!!!

We had breakfast on the back deck, Nicolas wrote letters on his board and then we went around the house looking for things that started with that letter, God send us an airplane when we started and it was super exciting, the sweetest thing was Emilia looking up and waving Abuelita bye, I taught both of my children to remember their Abuelita each time they see an airplane because that's the only way she can come see us :)  We also did some painting, played store, Nicolas and Emilia played Mom & Dad, my favorite lines from that pretend play was this:
Nicolas "Millie, you know you are going to have to wake up early because I wake up late!"   When I was telling Matt this tonight, Nicolas heard us and say "yeah I was trying to be like Daddy!" that made it even better!!!!!!!! 

Emilia working on her 3rd painting project

 Nicolas concentrating on his work

Projects done!



We went on a walk to the mail box or what it is now called "a nature walk" because we look at details that we normally don't pay attention when we walk by or at least I don't, I'm pretty sure Emilia always takes the time to look at little rocks, flowers, sticks, etc. but busy mom here doesn't take time to look down except when I remember there could be a snake around and then I really pay attention.
After that I pushed them in the swing for a little bit, thank goodness Nana came by to see us because it was super hot outside and I didn't want to stay out that long so she gave us a good excuse to go back inside.  Nicolas jumped over the sprinkler and Emilia refuses to get wet like that, she doesn't like splashing (just like her daddy) Nicolas is a water-lover!

Everyone got along today, there was no screaming on their part (or mine) ... and the cherry of this cake was Nicolas' prayer tonight "Father, thank you for giving me the power to be good for my mommy today!"  

Matt and I spent time together while we watched the 6 o'clock news and that was a nice little break for us.

After everyone went to bed I watched Chilean news and some more tv, chatted with friends on FB and called my mom.

PERFECT DAY! Praising God for it!!

Eventful day

Well today has been a day filled with events, started with Matt coming to tell me as I was half awake in bed that Romeo (our cat we got a few weeks ago from a friend) was dead under our apple tree, he put it in the basement so it wouldn't stink or swell through out the day so he could buried it tonight.

Nicolas had his first ever Dental appointment and he did wonderfully!!!!!! I had mine yesterday (no not my first, thanks!) and he went with me so he could see what a dental cleaning was like, he asked many questions and behaved great considering how long it took to get my teeth all clean!

After that we went to pick up Daddy so we could all enjoy a lunch with his mom and our nephews, it was fun but crazy, 3 adults, 3 kids and 1 teen in a little booth at the pizza place, all hungry, all ready to go to our next chore, a drink was spilled the second after we got there but we managed, we ate, we enjoyed, we laughed, we talked, we left.  Nana took all the boys to the park to kill time before the movie started as they couldn't make the original time because the pizza order took too long.

Emilia and I went to Sam's to buy a salad (yes I go to Sam's to buy just one item sometimes, I'm weird like that), when I told her where we were going she got so excited, I thought Wow that's impressive, right after that she said "yay! I want to bounce" then I realized she thought we were going to our friend Sam's house not the store, I tried to explain to her we were going to the store and not our friend's house but I figured she'll get it once we got there and she did, she put her sunglasses on, grabbed her baby and we walked through the store, I let her check the stuff she wanted to look and touch, she looked at dresses and fuzzy sleepers, what a girly girl so not like her momma! :)

When we got home I forced my child to take a nap even though she was extremely tired she was fighting a nap so badly, she cried for a while, threw her pillow and covers away from her crib, took her diaper off and after all that fit I went back for the 3rd time since this all started and made her pick up all her stuff, put it back in the crib, put a pull-up on and pat her back a few minutes and she went to sleep, I had to put one of those heavy things on my eyes to help my headache.

Nicolas got home super excited after the movie, he invited his cousin Daniel to stay and they played outside.  Then Matt came home and broke the news to him, he came inside and said "Mom, I need to tell you something ... it's about Romeo" and then Daniel quickly said "He's dead!" I pretended I didn't know, I told him I was sorry and I asked him how he felt, he said he was OK, so I went and gave him a hug and Nicolas stretched his arm to the side where Daniel was standing and all 3 of us hugged, it was a sweet moment!  Daniel told him "It's OK Nicolas, I've been through this, you'll be fine" what made it funny was that Nicolas wasn't even sad but Daniel was being so supportive and trying to tell him the right thing, you had to be there ... :)

Now I'm off to bed, it's after midnight again ... what can I say I do enjoy some alone time watching TV and checking stuff on the computer.

Good Night!

PS: Pics will be added later

Last day at the office

Today is my last day at the office, I'm taking a break of 8 weeks so I can stay at home and enjoy my children and let me tell you as excited as I am the feeling of panic invades me as well.  I've NEVER been with my children 24/7 for EIGHT WEEKS!!!!!!! This is scary for me in a way, I mean ... don't take me wrong I love my children, I really do but patience is not one of my most known qualities, so this is why I'm scared.  I keep telling myself that we'll be fine, I tend to get worked up about stuff before things happen, the anticipation kills me and then the events get here and I look back and I'm fine, so I'm really hoping and praying this will be one of those occasions again ... right??? (please say yes!).

I believe the fact that we don't have to get up early, get ready, head out the door at a certain time to go to work and school is going to be enjoyable.  We already have lined up some activities that I'm totally looking forward to like the visit of my sweet friend Heidi with her two boys (whom by the way were born on the exact same day but different years, the first birth I was right there with her, holding her hand and cheering for her as my oldest was still in my belly; the second birth I didn't witness but the day before he was born I was with her working on her first son's birthday party) so they are coming to stay with us for a few days and we'll make the best of it, our children love each other and well, as you can tell we are close so it's going to be a blast!!  Two members of my family from Chile are coming to see us too and I'm beyond thrilled to have them here, a week is not going to be enough time to share but I'll take it and I'm thankful for them, I love them dearly and my goodness it's a piece of my country, my family, my roots, my people coming here ... oh the joy!!!!!!!!!!!!  We'll be busy with VBS one week, which is going to be exciting for me to do it without having to rush to church after work, this time I'll have my day all for me (and our two children) and then I can calmly go to church (OK I know that's stretching it but you know I tend to be an optimistic or a high expectation person that's why I get frustrated so easily hahahaha).

There are still a couple of other plans that are in the planning period and we are not sure if they are going to materialized but we'll see.

I'm heading out to a staff meeting/end of the year celebration now and I'll be back here to share some moments, may be to pour my frustrations or my joys or both.

Ta-ta

Buddy ... we miss you!!

Tomorrow will be two weeks since the day we believe our Buddy went away to go to a better life.  Matt realized it on Thursday, he took the day off, called me at work and asked me if I had seen Buddy, I knew right then and there what this meant, my Buddy was gone!!  I knew this day was coming, I could tell he was getting older, a long time ago I noticed how it took him a lot longer to come running through the front door when I clapped my hands outside, we also noticed that he had been coughing a lot, it was almost like a human cough and it made me feel so guilty that we never did anthing about it.

Buddy was such a good guardian, he always warned us when a car was pulling in the driveway (an airplane was flying, a bird was going by, someone was walking by the road, anything that he felt was unusual for us he let us know), there are so many wonderful stories that he starred :)

I remember coming home with him, he was a tiny puppy, I held him up against my shoulder, he was like a baby; he chew the door frame in our front door :), he was my companion when I first move to this neck of the woods, he knew when I was sad, he was with me at all times until I became a mother, I couldn't take a crying baby and a barking dog so that day Buddy started to spend more time outside the house than following me around inside the house.  He was never too excited about having the kids around, I think he could tell he was put aside when Nicolas came and when Emilia came he just ran away from her, literally which of course was so funny to us!!

This past weekend (long weekend) was a constant reminder of how much we miss him.  His bowls are still by the front door, I can't bring myself up to taking them out (what if he comes back?!), I just can't do it, his toys are still out in the yard, I can't put them up, it kills me to see those there but I just can't ... we saw a wild turkey in our yard yesterday, Matt said "you know we didnt' realized how many animals Buddy kept away from the yard", I started to clean up our flower beds this weekend, the bushes have taken over and I'm so afraid that snakes are pilling up down there since our guardian is not around anymore.

Everyday we came home from school/work Nicolas would say "Mom!! May be today is the day Buddy will decide to come home" of course that made me cry everytime, or when he prayed "God please make Buddy come home, even if he is far far away in another country, send him home to us quickly" :/  Now he didn't like to go outside to play with friends when Buddy was out there because Buddy loved to jump so that scared him but I guess Nicolas can tell how much we miss our Buddy.  If you ask Emilia where Buddy is she'll tell you "we lost Buddy!" ... I've cried over this dog more than I ever thought I would, he was our baby before we had babies so I figured since I had my two precious children I wasn't going to be so sad ... eeeeeeeeh ERROR!  I've been super sad, every night after the kids go to bed I find myself thinking "it's time to let Buddy in" and nope, no more Buddy!!!

We Love You Dearly and We Miss You Even More!!!!!!!! Thank you for teaching me that I could love a pet!!  You were my first one, you will always have a special place in my heart!!!  I know we need to get a new dog but it is just so hard right now ...

The one where I talk about too many different things

Hello, my name is Claudia and I am a Compulsive Perfectionist ... you can clap now if you want :)

This discovery has taken me years to assumed, lately I've been driving myself and my family crazy so I decided to take charge of it and went back to therapy ... yes I've been to therapy before

I'm the kind of person that would recommend therapy to everyone, I know not everyone agrees with me but that's ok, I still think everyone should go :)  We all have unresolved issues, it is so good for you to talk to someone that you trust but yet is not emotionally connected with you, you are not going to hurt his/her feelings if you tell her that you feel a certain way about something.  She has the capability to put things in perspective for me, we can talk about anything and before I know it I'm spilling the beans about something I haven't though about in a long time.  I love Jennifer She is a God sent into my life, I wish I was a millionaire and I could see her every week for the rest of my life ha ha ha ha.

This time around I've discovered that as much as I hate to admit I manage my time poorly, I am a control freak when it comes to our children (in my mind no one can do thing the way I can and therefore it's hard for me to delegate or I have to check things after someone else has done a perfectly fine job), this is also the reason why is so hard for me to accept the fact that Nicolas is starting public school and will be in Kindergarten in a few months (see I have issues!! I told you!!).  I've also learned that  I enjoy the comfort of my home too much so I find excuses not to go out and have a good times with friends!  Which I truly enjoy once I've done it but the process to get it workout and do it is so hard for me, you would never know that about me because I am a social butterfly, I have lots of friends, I feel that I invest on my friendships, I take time to check on them, send a text, I pray for my friends, I'm thinking about ways to be an encouraging friend, etc.  I may not divide my time among friends very wisely but I try (time management again UGH).

I've learned so many things about myself ... and confirmed the fact that I'm a compulsive perfectionist, I want to do it all and I want it to be done perfectly.  I wish that would show on my housekeeping skills, I wish I was OCD and my house was always spotless but unfortunately is a big mess, toys are everywhere, pills of laundry are scattered in different places, etc but in my head I want to do it all and I want it done with perfection, of course I'm never going to achieve that so I become frustrated easily, I'm working on it, it's a work in progress, I'm thankful that my husband is still with me and my children still want to spend time with me is all I can say right now ...

In other thoughts, last night when I was laying down with my boy, for our daily snuggling session -which some nights is just a few minutes and some nights is longer and some nights daddy snuggles with him- he told me I didn't spend enough time with him today, I told him I'd like to spend some time with Daddy, he said "You  ALWAYS spend time with Daddy, it's not fair! (that's his new favorite phrase ... it's not fair!) I asked him if he remember the time we spend together at the store (I truly enjoyed our weekly grocery trip yesterday, he was awesome, I was calm, he had fun, he even offered to help unload the groceries from the car which he has NEVER done before, he even told Mat "C'me on Daddy, let's go get more stuff out of the car, hurry up! I thought it was a great time together), the time we spend while I washed him in the bathtub, the time we spend reading a few words in his dictionary book (he has one with pictures, it's really fun!) but yet that wasn't enough, I knew what he meant, I feel it too but I work, I only see him a few hours a day and I feel guilty about it and that's why I CAN NOT WAIT UNTIL SUMMER COMES!!!!!!! Because I won't HAVE to go to work or anywhere for that matter, I'll be at home with them, staying in our PJs all day if we want to, coloring our back porch with chalk all over if we want to, eating popsicles while we put our feet in the water in the hot afternoons and all those fun things.  Yes I know I'm going to have to cook, clean, do laundry and all of that too but see, I'll have time!!!!  In my mind is going to be so awesome!!!!!!!!! (unrealistic expectations?!?!)  So even though I named the times we spend together, none of those times were exclusively his, I was doing my errands and trying to spend time with him, I was washing him while spending time with him ... but isn't that the way families spend time together?  Hold on my sweet boy, summer is around the corner and we'll get to spend time together doing fun stuff, doing what you want to do at times and doing errands and housework that needs to be done together!  






I feel this is long enough for now, I better stop my thoughts for now (yeah that's another thing sometimes my thoughts keep going faster than I can catch them ... have I said compulsive already?)

Where have I been?

Oh my, what did just happened?  The last time I posted on here was in 2011, where is time going? what am I doing with my life? Someone make it stop right now!!!!!!!!!!

  Well, let's see ... Nicolas will be going to Kindergarten this fall (Imagine me falling down a big cliff, that's how I feel every time I think about it, that will be food for another post, the explanation I mean).  Emilia is two, she used the potty successfully for the first time last night, I say successfully because she keeps asking to go and she sits and all but nothing happens :) but last night it happened, she did use it - and if you must know it was #2, sorry this is a big deal!! -

  I'm excited (and scared) about having the summer off, I haven't had one off since I was in college, so it's been 12 years of having a summer "off" but this time I have two little ones (I know they are not but in my heart of hearts they still are little) to entertain and care for so I'm excited for running around in our PJs all day - we are home buddies - eating ice cream outside, finger painting on the back porch, etc, I have great ideas in my head but I'm scared because I know there will be days that I wish I was at work talking to adults and having moments of stability instead of the insanity of emotions that it means loving your children one second and feeling like you are getting ready to pull your whole head of hair off :)  Anybody knows what I'm talking about?

  Matt and I recently celebrated 9 years of marriage.  If I must said this past year has been the hardest, worrying over money, challenges in life, life with two children and parents working full-time is stressful but at the same time we are so very blessed to be the family we are today and I praise my Lord for it, He is the one who gives me strength to face the hard days and enjoy the perfect ones!  Yes there are moments in our days that are perfect!! :)

  So giving the future events coming up and the fact we just bought a new laptop (our anniversary present) hopefully I'll be posting more often, I have tons of phrases that our kids have said that are so funny and I want to share those too, hopefully make a little book of those one day for them to have and share with their children one day!  What can I say, I'm a dreamer!!!

  Good day everyone! 'til the next time I feel somewhat inspired to share any thoughts, silly, crazy, funny, sad whatever-kind of thoughts I'm having!