Happy Valentine's Day!

Our Valentine's Day is winding down. It was very simple and low key and spent with my two boys. We spent the morning running errands and then we went to the movies. We saw Confessions of a Shopaholic. It was adorable. The Goob came with us and was behaving beautifully until the last 15/20 minutes and then J had to walk him around in the hallway. Now we've spent the afternoon at home. Goob is fixing to head to bed and J and I are going to enjoy a steak dinner. We've refused to go out since we're sure lines will be ridiculously long. And we also picked up some chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. Yum.

Happy Valentine's Day!

February 23rd

J will start work on Monday, February 23rd...in San Antonio. That's about 5 hours away. And since I'm under contract until June 5th. We'll be apart. For 15 weeks.

I'm trying to not stress about this, but it's hard, especially since J is so excited to start his new job.

So many changes so fast

To make a long story short, since the last time I posted, my husband lost his job and our world flip flopped. He got laid off last Friday (1/9).

After spending a weekend in shock, he got to work looking for another job. He's got great experience, but he's been considering a change...out of the world of retail. Besides, the retail world is so scary lately with all the big box stores closing (Bye, Circuit City!). So he's exploring other options. Right now, he's got 5 big prospects. 3 are retailers. 2 are not. The 2 that are not are located in San Antonio, about 3 hours away.

Right now he's in San Antonio staying at his parent's house because he has an interview tomorrow. This was a job recommended to us by my grandfather. It's a management training position. There is a lot of growth in this company.

I think we both really want him to get one of these San Antonio jobs (the other he applied for last week and is waiting to see what they say). We've been living down here in south Texas for 4 years. We've always talked about moving and now it really looks like the opportunity might be presented to us.

Him getting the job is going to be a major change for us. He'll mostly likely have to start ASAP. We've discussed that he'll probably move to San Antonio and live with his parents while I stay here and finish up my year of teaching and put the house on the market. Then we've talked about not looking for another house for awhile. We'd like to live with his parents (they have a HUGE house) for about a year and save enough to pay off some of our debts and for a down payment for another house.

Lots to think about. Lots of new possibilites. If you can, please send us some positive thoughts for DH's job interview tomorrow and for our fresh start.

Now and Then

May 2008

January 2009

New Year's Resolution

I've made several resolutions. I'm really going to work towards sticking to them.

For my family:
I'd like us to go to church more often. We're going to try to go once a month, and if that works out, we'll increase it.

For my household:
I'm going to do 1 load of laundry per day. I hate having to do massive loads on the weekends. It ruins my whole day. So one per day. I think I can handle that. And I'm going to try to follow the Fly Lady more than I have been.

For our finances:
I'm going to try and work on paying down our debts. I'd like to be able to pay off several credit cards.

For my blog:
I'm very hot and cold. I'll blog a lot one week and then not at all for 3 weeks. I'm going to try to post at least 3 times a week.

For myself:
I'm going to try and be more health conscious. I'll think twice about what's going into my body and how much activity I'm getting. I'm going to start a food log and document everything.

A Trip to the SA Zoo Last Month

At the beginning of last month, we went to visit my inlaws in San Antonio. We decided to visit the zoo. Here's a few pics.

We'll see

So J and I did some talking.

I think we're going to start trying for #2 next August. The only condition is that we need Jose to get some sort of pay raise between now and then. He's due for one so that shouldn't be a problem.

Goob will be 16 months old when we start trying and 2 years old when new baby is hopefully born.

I hope it all works out. We'll see. Only time will tell.

Goob's solids

So far we're mastered:

• bananas
• carrots
• pears
• sweet potatoes
• peaches
• applesauce
• squash

We still need to get through:

• peas
• prunes
• green beans (Goob didn't like this when we first tried them, so we're trying again in a few days!

After we get through these, we're moving on to stage 2! My baby's growing up WAY TOO FAST!

In other news, we're traveling to Houston this weekend to visit my family. We are leaving super early Friday morning (~4am) because I have an eye doctor appt that I can't miss. And Jose's working Thursday night, so it's going to be up to me to get everything packed and ready to go for Friday morning. I'm betting that I'm going to have to drive too. Ugh. I'm going to start making my packing lists at school this morning. I always do better when I have a list. We'll see how it goes.

I have some awesome pics to post later today. Goob went on a bear hunt!

Off to work!

Goob's day at the beach!

Last weekend, Goob's grandparents were in town (J's parents). On Saturday evening, we went down to the island to meet some of their friends. It's a real shame that we live 30 minutes from the beach and we haven't been in forever. Anyways, it was Goob's first trip to the beach. Too bad we didn't go a bit earlier to enjoy more daylight.

Here are some pictures:

Goob getting his toes wet.


Goob with Mommy and Daddy.


Goob with his grandparents.

Short update

I started back to work last week. And today was Goob's first day at day care. So sad. He was only there from 1 to 4 and he was fine when I got to pick him up. Tomorrow will be his first full day at the day care from 7 to 4. Hopefully, he'll only have 2 or 3 long days a week. One of the other days will be a short day (1-4) and the other 3 will be spent with mom or dad.

He's going to be 4 months on Friday. Where has the time gone???? He has his 4 month appt next Monday for a well baby visit and more shots. Boo hoo. This time though Daddy will be coming along.

Goob got a visit from his grandparents last week. And he had his first visit to the beach. I'll post the pictures soon. Plus the weekly pics from the past couple weeks.

The Wrath of Hurricane Dolly

A recap:

Hurricane Dolly hit us Wednesday morning. Early that morning, J was called into work to help prepare. I decided to tough it out and stay at the house to weather the storm. Well that lasted until around 9 am when our power went out and I heard the wind crack one of my neighbor's trees. Within 10 minutes, Goob and I were packed up and on the way to my aunt's home. I figured that we'd be there for a few hours and then come home. (Ha!)

My aunt lost power around 2 pm and that's when things got really interesting. The wind was horrible! It was bending her trees so much that they practically touched the ground. Their fence (which has steel beams going 3 feet underground) toppled. Their neighbors trampoline ended up on top of the neighbors roof. Since we had no power, we all just sat and looked out the windows. The rain was continuous for 8 hours. That was the absolute worst part. When it rains here, it floods! My aunt had no flooding because her house sits high. But my truck was parked in the street and the water was about 1/2 up my tired.

Around 8pm Wednesday night, I needed to go home. I needed diapers and formula for Goob. Plus, J was on his way home. Just as I was leaving, J called to warn me about flooded streets. I thought he was exagerating, but nope. I tried to get home but as soon as I got to the main road, I had to turn around. I probably could have made it in my truck but I was too scared. J thankfully made it home.

Goob and I headed back to my aunt's house for the night. My cousin just had a baby on Tuesday night and they were sent home on Wednesday afternoon (in the middle of the hurricane! but that's another story!) so my cousin has some formula samples and extra diapers. THANK GOODNESS!!! At my aunt's house we still had no power so Goob and I had a rough night. He was so hot he couldn't sleep. Plus it didn't help that my cousin's newborn baby was in the next room. (Can you imagine spending your first night at home with a new baby in a hurricane!?)

As soon as the sun came out Thursday morning, Goob and I headed home. The water had gone down enough that I was able to make it home okay. And there was debris everywhere!!

We were extremely lucky that our house made it through without any significant damage. We lost a few roof shingles and most of our backyard fence. But everything else was okay. We had no flooding. Our next door neighbors actually lost half of their roof!

Thursday afternoon we received word that power would not be restored for approximately 72 hours!!!!! So J and I packed up and headed to the ILs who live a few hours away. As we were leaving town, we could see how extensive the damage was. North of us in some of the more rural areas, it looked like lakes! The flooding was horrible. Cars were halfway underwater. We could see fire fighters on boats going from house to house. We spent the whole ride saying how lucky we were. It was also pretty cool to see how many disaster relief trucks we saw going down to help out.

Our power came back over the weekend so we came home Sunday morning. Everything was fine here at first. I was SOOO glad to be home.

I survived the weekend!

We arrived to San Antonio on Friday morning around 11. We were the first out of towners so Goob's grandparents had him all to themselves. Once everyone else arrived and cooed over my gorgeous baby, we pigged out on barbeque then headed to J's grandparents (Goob's great grandparents) house to introduce everyone to my baby. (For some reason, I don' have any pictures of Goob meeting his aunts and uncles. My ILs have them so I'll put them up when I can.)

Goob enjoyed meeting his great grandparents.


Here's J, Goob, and the great grandparents.


Then I got the 4 generations pic that I bugged J about.


Then grandma scooped him up and wouldn't put him down again.


Finally after we got back from the great grandparents and had more barbeque, it was time for Goob's bath, especially since he was passed around and around and around and he now smelled like everyone else's perfume. Ugh. After his bath, Goob went right to sleep and slept for 8 hours. It was AMAZING!


The next morning Goob was again passed around and around and around from aunt to uncle to grandma to aunt to grandpa to dad to uncle, etc, etc. All that passing around makes a little boy exhausted. So while J and I got dressed for J's dad's retirement party, my baby passed out.



Then it as off to the retirement party. 100 people showed up. And again my baby was oohed and aahed over (of course!) and passed around and around and around. I really wantedd to bust out my hand sanitizer, but then I worried that the ILs, et al, would think I'm a nut case. As the dinner was wrapping up, my BIL managed to take a nice picture of my little family. It's one of the few that we have since usually one of us is taking the pictures. (forgive the cleavage, oh the joys of breastfeeding!)


The next morning, we trekked a hundred miles to see MY family (YAY!) at "the River." Every year my grandparents and aunts and uncles "camp" at the Frio River for 3 weeks. I've been going every year since I was born (I think I missed one year). They "camp" with the same group of people every year (my grandparents have been "camping" here for 30+ years. Everyone is really good friends with everyone else. So my Meme was dying for me to come out so she could show off her great grandson. (I say "camp" because it's not like tent campings with no running water. Everyone usually has a big 5th wheel trailer with personal restrooms/showers. It's not exactly "roughing it.") Anyway, here's my Papa with Goob.


Me and Goob




This is Goob and my Meme (my hero!). And look we are in her big ole trailer! It's definitely not "roughing it"!


Then we had to take a picture overlooking the River. It's a tradition. Every year everyone takes pictures here. (In fact, J and I took our engagement pictures about 50 feet from here! Wow, that was 2 years ago.)


Here's our beautiful River.


Another tradition we have is the "River Dunking." Every family I have that was born after my grandparents started coming to the river has been "River Dunked": my uncle, Mike, me (at 3 mos), my cousin Caitlyn (14 mos), my cousin Chandler (2 mos), my cousin Mason (11 mos), my cousin Rylee (9 mos). Now it was Goob's turn. Here's Daddy preparing to River Dunk Goob. A River Dunk is just putting your feet in the water!


And here's the dunk! As soon as Goob's feet touched the water, the crying began. He didn't like. I think it's cause the water was a little chilly or maybe we just surprised him. The tears didn't last long cause as soon as I got to him, he was fine.


A few hours later, he was happily playing in his new bouncy seat at the ILs.


Then J went off to hang out with his brother and left Goob and I to play by ourselves.


Monday afternoon we headed home. As soon as we got home, I realized that I left my beloved bottle brush at my ILs and had to go get another. J had a little too much fun with it.

Fourth of July

Happy 232nd birthday, America!

J, Goob , and I are on our way to San Antonio to spend the weekend with the inlaws.

I'm having mixed feelings about it. I'm excited to see my SILs and niece. I'm excited for Goob to meet J's family. I'm not looking forward to spending the weekend in my IL's house with 10 other people. (that's just J's immediate family, plus spouses and kid. ) My ILs live in a huge house but I'm just used to the 3 of us. I'm not looking forward to seeing my BIL. We've got issues. I'm not looking forward to not getting to hold my son. I just know they're not gonna put him down the whole weekend.

We'll see.

Happy 4th!

(sent from Centro)

I hate packing...

...especially when I have to pack for my husband, a 2 month old AND me.

We're going to the inlaws on Friday for the holiday weekend. It's my FIL's retirement party as well. Plus it'll be the first time most of J's family gets to meet our little guy.

Now I can catch my breath...

Wow. I feel like I've been on the go this whole weekend. My parents and cousin came down from Houston on Friday morning. They left Houston at 4 am and I had my phone ringing at 9 to tell me that they were just getting into town. (Usually when my parents visit, they go to my grandma's house and I go over there. Not anymore. Their grandbaby is the first priority now.) Well, Goob was asleep still. So I jumped in the shower. I barely had time to put on my clothes before the doorbell rang. I let them in and my mom just barged into my room to the pack 'n play to get Goob.

They hung out for a few hours at the house just playing and holding Goob. He's changed so much since the last time they saw him. They were shocked. He was smiling and talking to them. (He's so cute!) Then we went out to lunch and to see my grandma.

I talked my mom and cousin into going to Babies R Us with me. My parents owed me a birthday present so I told them I wanted a jogging stroller. Plus I wanted to look for some shoes, books and toys for Goob. Plus, I needed to get a gift for my cousin's girlfriends baby shower in a few weeks. (Goob's first little friend!)

So we went to BRU and spent some serious money. My mom bought the stroller and a high chair for my Annie (cousin's girlfriend), plus a bunch of rompers and shoes for Goob. My cousin (who adores Goob!) got him a ton of toys. And I got him 2 Baby Einstein tapes and some books, plus a contour pad for Annie. Now the funny part was trying to fit it all in my poor little SUV. It was hilarious. There were two huge boxes, plus my big ole normal stroller, plus a car seat, plus the three of us. My mom had to squeeze between Goob and the stroller.

Before we started home my Aunt Stella called and since we were close to her work she wanted us to stop by. So we did. Goob was oohed and aahed over. (He's so cute!)

Finally made it back to my grandma's house, 4 hours later and about $500 poorer. J finally got out of work and we all went to dinner. I had a strawberry daiquari (sp?). Delicious!! And over dinner, my parents start in on me about letting Goob stay the night with them on Saturday. They were staying with my grandma. I'd told them I'd think about it. And they kept going on and on and on and on.

After dinner, my parents went back to my grandma's, J, Goob, my cousin and I went home. We put Goobto bed. And the rest of us watched Supersize Me. Ugh. Not a pleasant movie. Halfway through the movie, Goob got lonely and J went and got him. He came out of the bedroom all smiling and happy. J held him for a few minutes and he fell right back to sleep.

Saturday morning my dad and J took a trip to Home Depot and did a bunch of home repairs. We added wooden blinds in our dining room and kitchen and Goob's room. What a difference. The house is so much cooler. It's amazing!!! They also replaced the toilet in our bathroom. Our original toilet was turquoise and was put in by the builders of the home over 25 years ago. J spent a bunch of money at Home Depot, but I think it was all worth it. The blinds should help us save on our eletricity bill and the toilet is supposed to conserve water. We'll see. Oh and I made J use a $5 off Home Depot coupon. Yay!

J went to work and Monica (my cousin) and I watched Sex and the City most of the afternoon. My parents and Monica finally convinced me to let Goob sleep over. So I started packing everything he would need. I packed 5 4 oz bottles, plus I packed 2 frozen packets of breast milk. I was so worried about him not having enough to eat. We took him over to my parents, had a delicious dinner that my mom made. Homemade chicken enchiladas with Spanish rice. Yum!!!

When it came time to say goodbye, my parents had to practically force me out the door. Goob was being so good and happy and smiley. I almost started crying. Almost.

Monica and I went to play Bingo. I've never been but Monica went last weekend in Houston and wanted to go play again so we found a bingo hall. IT was crazy. It was packed. It cost us $20 each to play bingo from 7 to around 10. They had some really good jackpots ($250 or $500) and some crazy bingo games. I didn't win. Boo. But we had a blast laughing at all the people. IT was mostly old folks and they certainly take this game seriously. Once woman had a specially made Bingo Bag! And we would get dirty looks for talking or laughing too loudly which only made us laugh more. I had a really good time.

After Bingo, I called my mom and she said that Goob sounded congested. Since I didn't pack his drops, I ran to Walgreens and went back to my grandma's house to give it to him. I seriously considered just taking him home but my parents wouldn't let me.

We came home and watched more SEx and the City. We finally called it a night around 12:30.

J called and told me he was on his way home. So I decided to pump right then so when he got home, we could just go to bed. And I had alrady decided that I wasn't gonna wake up to pump, I was going to try and get some uninterrupted sleep. The longest sleep I've gotten in the past two month is about 5 hours. So I pumped and J got home around 1:30 and we went to bed.

I woke up at 8......and was in agony. My boobs were like rocks. I pumped 12 ounces! I've never pumped 12 ounces. The most I've ever pumped in a pumping session was 8 ounces. And afterwards I felt so much better. And I felt so accomplished. :D

And then I threw on jeans and brushed my teeth and picked up my son. He was sleeping but I couldn't resist picking him up. And the best part was when I was holding him and he woke up, he gave me the biggest smile!!

My parents and cousin left around 2 to go back to Houston. J went to work at the same time so I've been alone all afternoon. Goob was used to everyone holding him all weekend and didn't want to be set down so I didn't get much cleaning or laundry done. Okay, I didn't get ANYthing done.

I just put the boy to bed. And I'm hoping that he'll go to sleep quickly. J should be home around 12 or 1 to feed him so I'm hoping he'll stay asleep until then. Fingers crossed.

Visitor Tomorrow

My SIL is coming to visit tomorrow. It'll be her first time to see Goob. I'm excited for the company and for J being off for the weekend! Yay!

36 weeks and in pain!!

I was having a wonderful pregnancy so far. I had no complaints. Things were great.

Then I hit 35 weeks. Ugh. Here comes insomnia, back aches, pubic bone pain, major cramps. And each day they've gotten worse. Now I'm sitting at 36 weeks and a day and I can barely stand up without having pain in my pelvis. I feel like Goob is gonna pop out anytime I'm on my feet. I've gotten kind of worried.

Thankfully, I have my check up tomorrow afternoon so I'll be sure to get all my questions answered. It's the start of my weekly check ups. So she'll be giving me internals and we'll see if I'm making any progress.

You know, with all my aches and pains in the past week, I've experienced no contractions. Or at least none that I'm aware of. I mean, I could be having contractions and just not realize it, right? Who knows?

Now it's just a waiting game. And pretty much everything is coming along:

At school: all my lesson plans are done. I've put away pretty much everything that I dont want a sub routing around in. I've made all the copies my kids will need. My lesson plans don't start until April 7th so no baby until then!! Plus I still need to get the paperwork straightened out with my leave. Hopefully that will be done on Tuesday.

At home: Goob's room is all ready. I've got tons of clothes, plenty of diapers, and most of the supplies that I'll need. Plus J and I've spiffied up our bedroom since that's where the little guy will sleep most of the time. We rented a Rug Doctor last night and have cleaned the carpets. (Our carpet was horrible!!!!! You should have seen the dirty water. It was black!!!!) We moved the furniture to make room for the pack and play/bassinet. I bought a little cheapie night table. It's kinda crazy. Our room looks more homey. Before it just had a bed and a tv. Seriously. Now it's more cozy.

With family: It seems like everyone is ready to drop everything and head down here when they get the call. My parents were here last weekend and my mom was here this weekend. So the next time I'll see them is when I'm at the hospital getting ready to deliver. We haven't seen J's parents since early February. And we got a phone call from them last night, that they want to visit us next weekend. Why? Why now? Why come when I'm 37 weeks pregnant. It's not like I'm gonna wanna to be entertaining. Jeez, I can't barely walk and they want to come and visit. Why not just wait until the baby's born? It seems strange to me to drive all this way to visit next weekend and then they'll have to come back up in a week or two for the baby's birth. Weird.

Whirlwind Weekend

Our weekend got off to quite a bang on Friday morning. J went to work super early so that we could leave for Houston as soon as I got off of work. But on his way to work, J's car broke down AGAIN! (A few months ago we spent abou $2500 to repair the car!) Once he called me, it was clear that we needed to do something. Well, we've been talking about getting an SUV forever. So it was time to take the plunge. We decided to just leave for Houston that morning (I called in sick!) to go car shopping.

Once we got to Houston, we dropped off our dogs and luggage at my parents' house and started shopping. We started with the Ford dealership and found an Edge. It was love at first sight. We talked with a kid there for about 20 minutes and then headed to the next dealership.

We stopped by a few other place, but nothing compared to the Edge. And since my parents have a deal with their employers when they buy a car they told us to wait for them to go talk to the salesmen. Plus they've been dealing with a certain salesman for a few years now when they've been buying their cars. My mom called him and let him know we were coming and to get a good deal ready.

Let me just say THANK GOODNESS that my parents were with us. J and I have never done anything like this before and probably would have gotten eaten alive. But my parents were able to get us a fabulous deal!!!

We are now the proud owners of a Ford Edge. It'll be perfect for all of Goob's stuff. And J and I are already fighting over who will drive it. (I'll win!)

Baby Shower this weekend!

My inlaws are giving me my first baby shower this weekend!!! Yippee!!

Trip to the In-laws, Work, Goob

Our trip was fun. We got to see J's parents, his brother, one of his sisters and her hubby, his grandparents, and a few of his aunts and cousins. A great time was had....with one exception. I'm going to kill my brother-in-law. I feel like he's jealous of my unborn son. It's really weird. and a long story that I'll bore your with later.

I go back to work tomorrow, and I have my 24 week appt and glucose test tomorrow afternoon. Exciting.

Goob has been kicking up a storm lately. I'm enjoying it. And J is finally able to feel it. Life is good.