Farewell ...

I'm linking this picture to Darcy's Sweet Shot Tuesday.  It was taken at the airport just moments before we said goodbye to my husband who left this past Sunday to Afghanistan. I know it is extremely close up, but I chose it because of the emotion on my husband's face.We are so very proud of him and miss him already. He is our HERO! We pray for all our troops and their safe return.

"Together forever, never apart, maybe in distance, but never at heart."

My future granddaughter...

This evening instead of going to the gym I found myself snuggling with Gabe on our recliner watching Deliver Me on Discovery Health. He sat there in amazement as he watched the doctors perform 3 different c-sections. He was quiet...a little too quiet as he sat with his eyes glued to the telly. Then he blurts out...
 "Can a daddy have a baby? "
"No! Do you want to have kids when you grow up and have a wife?"
"Uh...yes. I don't want no boys just a girl."
"Just a girl. What are you going to name her?"
" Abby"
" Abigail"
"No...ABBY"
"Okay"
So we'll see about my future granddaughter Abby since Gabe is a few weeks shy of 5 and fatherhood for him is years from now :)

Opposites do attract

                          

Trent and I in a nutshell:

 I am the iced unsweeten green tea and he is the hot coffee. We are different in many ways, but we are on the same team MOST of the time ;) We compliment each other nicely and he is my best friend.

A small road trip

Our weekend was spent at Ft. Polk, Louisiana visiting my hubby who is training there until mid-May. It is a huge base located in the middle of nowhere, but we had a great time with Trent. Unfortunately, Lesley wasn't able to go due to TAKS testing at school so she stayed behind with my sister Jennifer. We stopped twice in Houston briefly to eat at one of our most fave restaurants Sweet Tomatoes. The boys had fun at the local park, catfish pond, Children's Museum at Lake Charles, and just hanging out with dad.

 Gabe catching up with Trent at our hotel when we first arrived.

The boys at the base catfish pond

Checking out different tanks at Warrior Park on post.

The drive from SA to Ft. Polk is pretty boring, but I'd do it all over again just to hang out with my honey.

Wordless Wednesday........More from Spain

Hello from Spain...

This will be brief, just wanted to say we are having a fabuloso time in Spain. We got here on Monday evening and have immersed ourselves in the culture. Last night we went to the Feria in Jerez and it was one experience I will never forget. I am loving the food, culture, and people here. I'll write more later.


Flamenco dancers in Jerez

Seafood and chicken/pork paella

Sangria

Trent & I at the beach

No medicine mommy...

Trent has duty which means he is in charge for the day and has to spend the night at the hospital. This morning I got a little taste of what my life will be like while my honey is deployed. Hectic and stressful at times, but with the right attitude every thing falls into place.
I was about to drive Lesley to the school bus stop when Gabe started throwing up all over himself in the car. Thankfully I covered him up with a small blanket because most of his puke landed on it and not him or his carseat. I automatically wiped him up and carried him inside to give him a drink of water. The first words out of his sobbing mouth as we walked in the door were "No medicine mommy"....which he repeated in between sobs. Poor thing!!! I placed him with a towel on the couch and tried to make him comfortable.
All this caused Lelsey to miss her bus. I had to deal with a sick toddler who may throw up again soon and trying to get her to school on time. Plus Noah my homeschooler is still in bed so he needs to wake up and get ready so he can go with me to the base 10 miles away to drop Lesley off. {Lesley's bus stop is at the end of our street }
I did manage to get out the door and have Lesley at school just on time. When I got home though Gabe threw up again in the car. At least it didn't happen while I was driving. Currently he has a fever and I was able to give him Tylenol via the suppositories his pediatrician gave me at his last visit. Hopefully this will stablize his temperature.
Get well soon little man.

Mother's Day gift ideas for moi....

Okay everyday with my family is a gift and yes I know you guys love me. BUT if you really want to make me feel extra special and greatly appreciated this Mother's Day here is something I'd really like. ;D

The Ipod Touch:

Mi Familia....

These are pics I hacked off my BIL myspace page.;P I have to say how dare they take a family pic without me!!! LOL Looks like they had fun this weekend in Texas.Introducing my crazy family....
L to R: Russell, Belinda, Rik, Jennifer and my parents sitting.

Cascarones....

Growing up making cascarones was an Easter tradition in my family. I can still vividly remember making them with my siblings. Over the course of many weeks my mom would crack just the top part off of the shell when cooking with eggs. She'd rinse and save these eggshells until we had dozens of them. About a week before Easter she'd round us all up and we'd paint and decorate the eggshells. After they dried we'd fill them up with confetti then seal the tops with squared tissue paper. The cascarones were cracked on our heads at Easter. It was all about sneaking up on someone and cracking that confetti filled egg on their head. LOL What wasn't too fun is when my cousins would fill theirs up with gitter or sand. The glitter sometimes took weeks to wash off...it was a big pain in the ass.


Every Easter was spent at my late uncle Tony's ranch just outside San Antonio. We had a major Easter egg hunt, sack races, egg toss competions, wheel barrow races, volleyball games, and my dad's lemon roll game. There was always lots of food and fun to be had by everyone. AHHH those were some good times. As of today I still try to keep the tradition going with my kids even if others are unaccustomed to the whole cascarone idea.

The boys dyeing their eggs:

Just two of the four dozen we made....ignore the messy table! : D
Let the fun begin...Easter 2009

Gabe running from Dad

Smashing daddy's head....

Happy Easter

Happy Easter family and friends. We started our day off with Mass, ate lunch a la Applebees, then came home to crack our cascarones. Which are confetti filled eggs we made earlier this week. Each of the kids got an Easter basket or small gift. Gabriel was so excited to get his basket. As a matter of fact, he just informed me that the Easter Bunny bought his The Tale of Despereaux movie at the Disney Store. {Secretly.... I can't wait for him to get older and read the book}

Well before I post pics I wanted to include a hymn that we sang at Mass today. It really struck me as I sang it. You see the thought of Trent having to deploy to Afghanistan in January has started to weigh heavily on my mind and heart. As I begin to frequently question myself with "How am I going to make it through?" or the unimaginable "What if something happens to him...how could I go on...?" You know the normal worrying every military wife has only that as the reality of it all begins to set in for me at the possibility of this deployment happening I feel as if my gut has been punched . Lately I have the feeling of panic...like oh no this is really going to happen. Well the point of all this is that as I sang I Know That My Redeemer Lives today I had an overwhelming feeling of calmness come over me. In singing that hymn I knew that if I left it all in God's hands everything would be okay.

I Know That My Redeemer Lives

(Text: Samuel Medley, Tune: Duke Street)

1. I know that my Redeemer lives;

What joy the blest assurance gives!

He lives, he lives, who once was dead;

He lives my everlasting Head!

2. He lives, to bless me with his love;

He lives, to plead for me above;

He lives, my hungry soul to feed;

He lives, to help in time of need.

3. He lives, and grants me daily breath;

He lives, and I shall conquer death;

He lives, my mansion to prepare;

He lives, to bring me safely there.

4. He lives, all glory to his name;

He lives, my Savior, still the same;

What joy the blest assurance gives;

I know that my Redeemer lives!

Time just flies by....

Yep, it's been a while since I last posted. In focusing on my health and fitness I've come to neglect this blog of mine. Now to recap the past month....I've got quite a bit to share. First of all I will show the progress I've made so far with my weight.

Feb. 11th

Now- March 26th I have to say I have consistently weighed between 125-124 lbs. this week until Sunday when I weighed in at 127 lbs. I'm hoping that the increase in weight is due to the fact that I will start my period in a few days and is just water weight. Healthwise I feel better and I am doing a good job at using my PMDD symptom tracker. I say in a month or two I should be able to effectively use the tracker to see any patterns I have. I have already begun to see a pattern in the lack of energy and increase in appetite during the two weeks of the month that my PMDD kicks in. I was also able to prepare myself for the mood swings. I have made the decision to try alternative methods to control my PMDD. This entails using natural remedies, excercise, extra rest, and a better diet. I take Estroven (Soy & Black Cohosh), Evening Primrose, calcium, multivitamins (that include zinc, magnesium, B-12, & B-6), and I include flax seed & eat foods rich in omega 3's. During the two weeks that my PMDD is in effect I stay away from caffeine. Excercise is effective in increasing serotonin levels and relieving daily stress so I work out 5 times a week. One hour or more is dedicated to cardio and the rest of the time I lift weights.

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Homeschooling has been coming along okay. We had to get back into the swing of it after Noah was pulled out. We have our schedule and after tweaking it a couple times it seems to be working for us. This semester we are learning about the human body, The Middle Ages, the basics math, reading, language arts. He is also taking online Spanish, Music, and Art courses which he loves. For socialization he is active in Boy scouts and he starts playing baseball this week through the MWR. He also plays with friends from school.

Working on some math:

Art/Drawing:

Learning about construction:

Gabriel is also learning new things. He has his own preschool program, but I haven't yet pushed him to do any "schoolish" learning. Right now it's all about making learning fun for him and if he feels like using his workbooks...YAY..if not it's no big deal. He's just three anyways.

Here he made pumpkins using playdoh and his cookie cutters. I might teach him about making patterns using these tools. He won't even know he's doing something schoolish, but it'll teach him to recognize patterns. Like red pumpkin, yellow pumpkin, blue pumpkin, red pumpkin, yellow pumpkin, blue pumpkin, etc...Letter and number recognition using cheerios during breakfast.
He wanted to use his workbook here. He is coloring different shapes.
He called me over to show me he found a letter Y in his Cheetos bag. LOL
More coloring
Using his fine motor skills and trying to learn how to tie shoes. He's still too young....but he's trying.
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The weather is getting warm so we have been enjoying the parks here. These are pics from Family Fitness Day at Carney Park.

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We got to see AC Milan play against Napoli last weekend. It was an awesome game and the fans were CRAZY. We actually got to see David Beckham and Ronaldino play in this game. Our seats were great and it was one of the most exciting games I've ever been to. When I say that the fans are crazy I mean like they are fanatics......just look at the fire they started in the stands. Believe me that didn't cause anyone in that section to leave. They just stayed put and continue cheering like nothing....it didn't even phase them one bit.

David Beckham is pictured below:

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Lastly, Noah crossed over and earned his Arrow of Light award. He and Trent spent the weekend at Carney Park, Lesley was away on a retreat in Capua, and my littlest guy and I had the whole house to ourselves for two days. We rented DVD's and enjoyed ourselves.