Updating....

I can get so lazy about updating my blog! I didn't even realize it's been almost a week since I last posted.

There's been an unexpected change in our lives and Elijah is now back home with us. I'm glad he is...because I really missed him during the week when he was with his dad and I always worried if he was okay, getting enough to eat, taking his medicine...all those things, but I'm very sad, hurt and disappointed in the chain of events that took place that brought us here. So much has been weighing on my mind over the weekend, but I have decided that there is nothing "I" can do about it and I am handing it over to God and know that he can see the bigger picture and has His plans in mind, so I am just going to sit back and let whatever is to be unfold. Miguel has been a HUGE support for me. It's funny how alot of times I complain about the little things he does or doesn't do, but there are times when I really need him and he is there for me with just what I need. Thank God for him because sometimes I feel like he is my calm in this storm that goes on in my head. Either way, Lij is back home and happy, as am I. I went to bed Friday night with a HUGE sense of peace and thankfulness that he was sleeping only a few feet away and that he was not going to be leaving me any time soon :) Of course, the weekend that followed was full of shouting and refereeing fights between him and Mikey, but who cares! He is home and even if I have to yell all day...it's okay :)

On Saturday, Miguel had some stuff to do for this woman whose yard he cuts who just happens to live on the street we used to live on when we lived by Chon's. So we made plans to spend the day hanging out over there while Miguel worked. We went to M's, Hobby Lobby, Wal Mart and Target I believe. I got the kids some arts/crafts stuff...some pipe cleaners to make those Cheerios bird feeders on Estee's blog and I bought some things to make my own version of Estee's fishing game. I'm too lazy to sew...lol..so I got a couple of wooden dowels,a bunch of foam sheets, some self adhesive foam letters, and magnets to do my fishing game. I think I need to get some stronger magnets on my fish because you have to pick them up a certain way right now for the magnet to "take". And some of the google eyes keep falling off even though I used Glue Dots which SAY they are SUPER strong...NOT! Mikey really loves it. I have a deck of alphabet flash cards and what I do is show him a card, ask him what the picture is and then flip the card over and ask him what letter it is and then have him find it for me. We've played it like three times in the past few days and he is getting better at it :)

I also got these CUTE boxes they had in the M's dollar bins to put my pens/markers in. I used Velcro to hold them together. I think they look really nice and are very accesible to me now. I had also moved some stuff around on my tables on Friday so some stuff has a new home :)

Today was my first day getting up early in a LONG time. I set my alarm for 6:15, but didn't wake up until 6:30...VERY hard to get up that early again, but I knew I had to get Lij up and out the door by at least 7:15. I didn't wake up Miguel until 7:00 after Lij was dressed and had eaten breakfast. Miguel said they left with just enough time so now we know when he has to leave the house.

So since I got up so early, I started my day early and got all my cleaning done by noon. I did a little scrapping and did my bike workout and finished just in time to get lunch done so Miguel could eat after he dropped Lij off afterschool. I did end up "dragging" around four p.m. and ended up taking a two hour nap while my mom took the kids outside to play. Boy, I did NOT want to wake up, but I knew I had to get the kids dinner and start the night time routine. I know it's going to take a few days for my body to get used to this early rising so hopefully, I won't feel so tired tomorrow. I guess I should get to bed then, huh because it's almost one a.m. Miguel just got home a bit ago and is eating and watching tv so I think I'm going to hit the sack because six o'clock will come around all too quickly. Nighty night :)

Sidenote:My pages are lacking journaling...so any "empty" spots still need it. It's always hard for me to think of what to write, but I feel like I have to.

Exercising. Scrapbooking. Soup.

Today is my third day doing the bike. Yesterday was a good day...did 35 minutes/10.0 miles. Today, the same. I used a thicker towel on the seat and it wasn't so bad. It really is a very uncomfortable seat! Other than that, I really like it. My ankle is still hurting...not as much as that first night and I'm thinking...maybe the more I use it, the less it will hurt? It's just a theory :)

I was able to do a page today with some silly pics of Mikey I took a few weeks back. I used one of Stephanie Howell's pages for inspiration on my placement and can't remember who...someone I have bookmarked on 2 Peas, for color inspiration. I am very happy with it :)Oh, I also took a pic of my scrapbook area with my new table setup. I really like it :)

Today I made some homemade chicken soup...I've made it before and everyone just LOVES it! Too bad it wasn't a cold day. It was still super YUMMY :)

Mikey is on his third day of antibiotics and seems to be doing better. Last night, there was very little, if any, coughing and we got to sleep on the bed...HOOORAY!! I really needed some good sleep. I was so thankful that Mikey slept well too. I'm sure he was just as tired as I was and feeling pretty crummy I'm sure. So, he's getting better :)

That's all for now!

Back in the saddle again...

Yesterday, I put my exercise bike together. I was waiting for Miguel to do it, but he hadn't had time yet, so I figured I'd open it up and give it a try. He was the one who put my treadmill together and that was a long, hard process. I didn't think I'd be able to do this, but after pulling out all the parts which weren't too many and reading the instructions, it seemed easy enough. And it WAS! It only took me about thirty minutes. I think it might have taken me less time if Mikey hadn't been right there in the middle of it. It's not a big machine or heavy at all. It fit right into a corner I had cleared in our bedroom with room to spare, but it is "so" light, that I just pulled it out into the livingroom today when it was time for my work out. The seat is a bit uncomfortable...even for a "cushy" butt like mine! :D I tried "padding" it with a towel over the seat and that helped a tiny bit. Anyway, it's a very quiet machine and my ankle didn't even hurt until almost the end and even then it was very little...thank God. I did 35 minutes and I was able to do TEN miles! Funny how I can do 10 miles on a bike in 35 minutes, but on the treadmill in that time, I could only do 2 and a half miles at the most. So, today is my first day on my road back to getting fit. I have "felt" it these past months and SEE it too. I feel it in the way my clothes feel, the way my body feels....it has not made me very happy. But today, is the start of feeling better about my body again. It has been so hard these past three+ months not being able to do anything and just feeling my body "go". I hope and pray that my ankle will not be bothered by this. Working out today made me realize how even though I always hated it. I feel so much better when I "do" exercise and I really did miss the physical activity. So, I'll keep updated on how that is going.
Nothing else for now. Mikey is sick. He'd been coughing since Saturday night and that night was rough. I slept on the couch with him. Although "slept" is not the right word because we hardly got any sleep at all. Poor Mikey kept coughing the whole night long and I kept waking up every time he did thinking he was going to puke. And I was in an upright sitting position with him sitting in my lap too because for some reason, he seemed to cough less this way. Last night was a repeat of the night before and I told Miguel sometime in the wee hours of the morning, that I thought we should take Mikey to the doctor today. So we did. Throat infection and his ears were just starting too. Good thing we caught it early on. So he's on antibiotics and thankfully today, he hasn't coughed as much as he had the other days. I bought him a cough suppresent to give him later before we go to bed so hopefully we can both get some sleep tonight...LAYING DOWN because I am dragging. I got all my cleaning done today...good thing...nothing left to do all week except laundry and my "daily" chores. Maybe I'll get some scrapping done later in the week. I went by Home Depot this past weekend and got that 4 ft. table for my scrap area and I put my Cricut and paper trimmer on there for kind of a "cutting station". It looks nice. Now I have kind of a "c" shaped working area :)
Okay, I think I need to go lay on the couch. I tried to get Mikey to nap with me earlier, but he wasn't having it. I wish I had his energy! More later :)

My new glasses and some LOs

Chon came over yesterday and spent the night with the kids because Steve was out of town with work in Oklahoma. Lij came over last night too so we had a full house of kids. We ordered pizza and the kids played and watched tv while we scrapped. I got two pages done...yay! And it's two pages that I absolutely LOVE! We had a good time :)

This morning, after we had breakfast and we all got dressed, we headed out to Target just to get out of the house for a bit. I bought myself one of those hair straightener things like the one Chon has because I used hers in the morning and really loved it. I don't normally need a hair straightener to make my hair straight because I can get it that way by drying it with the blow dryer. But I usually do that at night after I shower and if I sleep on my hair...which of course I do...lol...it doesn't always look very good in the morning after I brush it out. So, this will help to straighten the parts that go all wacky! I didn't buy anything else really. We came back home, had lunch and then Chon and the kids went home.

I don't know what we have planned for tomorrow. I think I want to go to Wal Mart to get that small table for my scrap area and I need a set of bed risers to put it on too. We also need to do our grocery shopping, but other than that...nothing planned really. Maybe we will go to church. I want Miguel to put my exercise bike together so I can start using it next week, so hopefully, he can get that done.
Well, that's about it for now :)

This puts my LO count at 25.

Almost a week...

since I last blogged. Not much going on to talk about I guess. Let's see..over the weekend, I went and picked up my glasses. Oh, I need to get a good pic of myself with them on. They are just some simple, black, oval-ish metal frames. I like them well enough. There weren't too many I liked. I hate the way I look in glasses to begin with so...Miguel thinks I look "sexy" with them on, so bless his heart for that! :D
Went to my Uncle Frank's wedding on Saturday night. It was nice. Got to see our cousin Ruby who we haven't seen for a while. My uncle looked happy. His now wife is a very nice person from what I know of her. I hope they will be happy together :)
On Sunday, we took Lij back to his dad's and did our grocery shopping. Nothing exciting there...Monday, I spent the whole day cleaning, REorganizing and purging. I think I've got a cleaning bug! But I got ALOT done, got rid of some stuff and I'm very happy with the way I moved things around. Oh, and yesterday the UPS guy brought my exercise bike, so I'm just waiting for Miguel to assemble it for me so I can get back on the ball! I made some space for it in a corner of our bedroom so now it doesn't have to be out in the livingroom. I hope that works for me being able to work out in there while Mikey is out in the livingroom. I also freed up some space under a window in my scrap area where I can fit another one of the smaller four foot tables, so I'm going to hopefully try to get that this coming weekend. I always feel like I don't have enough table space!
Other than that, not much else has been going on. Haven't done any scrapping this week nor have I even gotten to use my Cricut Expression...not ONE time! What has it been now...two weeks since I got it? I think so! Chon is coming over with the kids on Friday since they are on Spring Break right now. Lij is not...don't know when his is for sure, but I talked to his dad yesterday and asked him if he would bring him over Thursday night so he could be here to spend the day with us on Friday. Lij had missed school on Monday because he didn't feel well so I didn't know how his dad would feel about him missing two school days in the same week, but he said that was fine. So, I'm saving my scrappy "mojo" for then.
Ooo, also got my free DCWV 8x8 stack in the mail today. Chon did that video demo thing for me and she picked the Whimsy Stack for me and The Garden one for herself. We're going to split the pads and swap :) Okay, that's all for now. Mikey is waiting for me to watch Shrek The Third with him and Miguel called a bit ago and said he was out of work and on the way home with food and possibly a movie for us to watch later...YAY! It's only 7:30 and he's coming home :)

The Man in My Life....

or ONE of the men in my life because I do have three :) I was due to make a page about Miguel...it's been a while. I saw this LO on scrapbook.com on the Bo Bunny blog and I just LOVED it. I don't have any of the Bo Bunny Flirty papers so I just improvised and used what I DID have which I think looks pretty darn similar to their page! I drew the birds freehand and then cut them out of scrap pieces of paper....love the way they turned out! I see these birds on a card :) Everything else I used was mostly MME papers, some old Daisy D's, Paper Studio, some MM Whimsy dimensional flower stickers, and some M by Kay dimensional heart stickers. I really LOVE the way this one turned out. Take a look at the Bo Bunny gallery @ scrapbook.com if you want to see what the other LO looks like. BTW, this puts my LO count at 23...what number are you on, Chon?

WHEN??

Will Mountain Cedar season be gone? Or whatever is in the air that has been aggravating my allergies! I can't even remember how far back it's been that my allergies WEREN'T bothering me! It's been WEEKS I'm sure! The sneezing, itchy eyes, sinus pressure headaches...and NOW the cough...the nagging cough that kept me awake last night until the wee hours of the morning. I got up and took this cough medicine Miguel had left over from when he was sick a while back. I took it at TWO different times because it just wasn't helping. I took allergy meds, sprayed my throat with Choloraseptic (that numbing spray). I finally fell asleep in a sitting position..for some reason the coughing was less if I was sitting. I guess I must have "slid" down onto my pillow because when I woke up this morning I was laying down. AND it wasn't even "morning" anymore...it was 11:45!!! Mikey kept telling me that Miguel wasn't on the couch or in his bed nor in the bathroom, so I finally got up to check. And sure enough, both him and my mom were gone and then I looked at the clock and realized it was almost noon! I didn't even hear Miguel get up or go into the bathroom...NOTHING! I must have been crashed out!!

So, after I got Mikey's breakfast...lol..should have been lunch, I did my little bit of cleaning up and started a load of laundry. I haven't done much today other than sit here, fold towels and played a couple of games of Candyland with Mikey. Which btw, he cheats at that too! LOL

Oh, and I moved a couple of things around on the tables of my scrap area. Moved my little media shelf up onto one of the tables. I was trying to make room for an exercise bike I just ordered on line from Wal Mart last night. I have decided that enough time has gone by and enough is enough. Whether my ankle hurts or not, I NEED to get back into some kind of shape. I feel like a pig...no offense to pigs...I love bacon..lol :D I'm thinking...more like hoping...that an exercise bike will be less impact on my foot than walking/running would have been, but we will see. No matter, I am doing it even if I'm in pain afterwards. So in making room for my bike, I happened to realize that between two of my tables, another small table would fit PERFECTLY. And it's right under the window which I love because I just love to have natural light inside. SOOO, I think I will wait until I get by bike and have it assembled to see where I will put it and decide if maybe I can get another small table. If it's easy to move...the bike I mean...there's a corner in our bedroom where I think it will fit nicely and still be out of the way. And then I can just pull it out to the livingroom when I'm going to use it.

I did a page yesterday...very simple...all me..no lift, but I really like it. I need to do some journaling on it...on the pink flower...just haven't done it yet. I want to scrap some more later...we will see.
Umm...think that's all for now.

Today I Am...March already??

Today I Am:

Reading: Men are Like Waffles, Women Are Like Spaghetti

Listening to: Matthew West's "Through The Motions"

Obsessed With: My new Cricut Expression :)

Thinking About: Mine and Miguel's future together...things are looking good :)
Planning To: Get a new exercise bike and start getting my butt back into SOME kind of shape!

Dreaming Of: a wedding :)

Enjoying: my life :)

Vowing To: Stick to my sacrifice for Lent and NOT shop for scrappy stuff until Easter.

Working On: Purging....and organizing...everywhere. Maybe I'm getting Spring Fever??

Excited About: getting some new Unity Stamps I ordered BEFORE Ash Wednesday..so it's Okizay :)

A Silver lining...

To the not shopping thing, could be that maybe I get lots of scrapping done and use of some of my stash. I was sitting here yesterday looking at my stuff and was thinking of maybe purging some more. I never did sell my lot of paints/glazes, the lot of ribbons, or my stamp set/eyelet setter. So if anyone is interested...let me know. I was thinking of looking through my sticker bin and my rubons bins.

I have found the time to make two LOs in the past week. It pretty much takes me a whole day to finish one because I keep getting up, doing something else, come back to it. Either way, I got them done. Both are "lifts". The one of me and the kids was inspired by a LO in a 2Peas neighbor's gallery...apeainthepod is her username. The second page, I used a Page Maps sketch from the latest issue of Memory Makers. It was a half map, but I did 12x12 and flipped the sketch on its side. I'm really loving both of them! This puts my LO count at 21 I believe.

What else? Tonight we have a dinner at Mi Tierra to go to. It's some kind of "reunion" thing for the Catholic school Miguel attended. I don't really want to go because I have nothing to wear. Don't you ever feel like that? My body is feeling the whole not working out thing and nothing I try on seems to look right or make me feel good. I HATE that! And I HATE shopping for clothes when I feel like this too. I was looking on Craigslist last night for an exercise bike. I found one for $75 and I'm waiting for a reply. I was thinking that maybe that "step" thing I wanted to get might not be the best thing right now since my ankle still hurts when I go up and down stairs. I'm wondering if maybe it wouldn't be easier for my foot to just "pedal". I really didn't feel like my 30-45 minutes a day on the treadmill were doing anything because I wasn't losing as many pounds as I wanted, but I can see and "feel" now that it was doing SOMETHING. Funny how your life can change in just an instant. I wouldn't have thought that night that I was going to slip and fracture my ankle, have to be put out, in pain and immobilized for weeks, then three months later, STILL be in pain. Well, can't change the past...must make the best of it and move on.

Lij comes home today. Don't know what our plans are for the weekend. That bbq we were going to has been postponed for next weekend. We still need to run some errands and I want to go get my glasses...don't know what else.

Okay, that's all I can think of...lol...more later :)

Blogger isn't letting me upload pics right now, so I'll try again later :)

A Sacrifice

Since today is Ash Wednesday and Lent begins, I thought I would look up some of the many questions I have about it. I "was" baptized "Catholic" and have attended only Catholic chuch my whole life, but I can't say that I agree with all Catholic beliefs or understand them all. Which is why I chose to look some of it up. For Lent this year, I decided to give up buying scrapbooking supplies (except for glue...lol). In my understanding, I thought that when we gave something up for Lent, we were "sacrificing" something we loved for God just as he sacrificed His life for us. In what I read, I learned that it is instead, a practice to train our wills to refuse "bad" pleasures.So, "by disciplining the will to refuse pleasures when they are not sinful, a habit is developed which allows the will to refuse pleasures when they are sinful". I understand that...I "get it", but I don't know...I thought it was more "significant" for me to think of it as giving up something for my God...who has sacrificed so much for me, as a sign of my gratitude for His sacrifices. I know nothing I can do it worthy of Him, but as a human person, it is all I am capable of doing. I hope I'm explaining myself correctly. I always find it hard to find the words when it comes to God and religion. I guess because alot of these things to me don't have "words"...it's alot of feelings, alot of undescribable emotions. I'm sure somewhere out there, there is someone more eloquent than me who can possibly put these feelings into words, but that isn't me! lol Anyway, here are a few of the questions I looked up and their answers. If anyone is interested in learning more, I got all this information from a site called
http://www.holyspiritinteractive.net/features/lent/24_asidefromash.asp

Why are foreheads marked with a cross on Ash Wednesday?
Because in the Bible a mark on the forehead is a symbol of a person's ownership. By having their foreheads marked with the sign of a cross, this symbolizes that the person belongs to Jesus Christ, who died on a Cross. This is in imitation of the spiritual mark or seal that is put on a Christian in baptism, when he is delivered from slavery to sin and the devil, and made a servant of righteousness and Christ (Romans 6:3-18). It is also in imitation of the way the righteous are described in the book of Revelation: "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads." (Revelations 7:3)

Why is Lent 40 Days long?
Because 40 days is a traditional number of discipline, devotion, and preparation in the Bible. Moses stayed on the Mountain of God 40 days (Ex 24:18, 34:28), Elijah traveled 40 days before he reached the cave where he had his vision (1 Kings 19:8), Nineveh was given 40 days to repent (Jon 3:4), and most importantly, prior to undertaking his ministry, Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness praying and fasting (Matt 4:2).
Since Lent if a period of prayer and fasting, it is fitting for Christians to imitate their Lord with a 40-day period. Christ used a 40-day period of prayer and fasting to prepare for his ministry, which culminated in his death and resurrection, and thus it is fitting for Christians to imitate him with a 40-day period of prayer and fasting to prepare for the celebration of his ministry's climax, Good Friday (His crucifixion) and Easter Sunday (His Resurrection).
Thus the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "'For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning' [Heb 4:15]. By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert." (CCC 540).

Is the custom of giving up something for Lent mandatory?
No. However, it is a good and beneficial custom, and parents or caretakers may choose to require it of their children to encourage their spiritual training, which is their prime responsibility in the raising of their children.

Why is giving up something for Lent such a good and beneficial custom?
By denying ourselves something we enjoy, we discipline our wills so that we are not slaves to our pleasures. Just as indulging the pleasure of eating leads to physical flabbiness and, if this is great enough, an inability to perform in physically demanding situations, indulging in pleasure in general leads to spiritual flabbiness and, if this is great enough, an inability to perform in spiritual demanding situations, we when the demands of morality require us to sacrifice something pleasurable (such as sex before marriage or not within the confines of marriage) or endure hardship (such as being scorned or persecuted for the faith). By disciplining the will to refuse pleasures when they are not sinful, a habit is developed which allows the will to refuse pleasures when they are sinful. There are few better ways to keep one's priorities straight than by periodically denying ourselves things of lesser priority to show us that they are not necessary and focus our attention on what is necessary.

On to other things, yesterday I spent the day out shopping with Chon. Yes, I had to get one "good one" in before I gave it up! I'm so weak..lol Anyway, we went to the Target at The Rim where I was told last weekend that all the new sb stuff would be put out on Monday. Well, we went and nothing. All they had was the older stuff they were still clearancing and a whole side of empty shelves where I assume all the new stuff like be going. We waited around in that area for about an hour or so, but they never put anything new out. Oh well! Now I'm going to have to wait until Easter to get anything if they put it out before then! It can be my Easter gift :D I did manage to find some cute creepers for only $1!! I got a few for Miguel's friend's wife who just had a baby girl a couple of weeks ago. I also found Lij one of those Cadet hats like the one he already has only in different colors, for only $3.74 from $15! I'm sure he will love it! Also got Mikey a DVD, "Elmo in Grouchland" because they had an end cap of movies for only $5.50. He really loved it and sat and watched the whole thing when we got home. We also went by the M's there, but neither of us bought a thing. We went by Scrapbook Heaven at their new location...I'd never been to the new store, and I picked up a "few" things...only spent $13. They really don't have the newer products and selection the way Scrapbook 911 does. I'm always pretty disappointed when I shop there. We picked up McD's and went and ate at Chon's house before we left to pick up Victoria. Afterwards, we went by WM because Chon said they would price match the price of the little Cricut machine and carts there. So we went and didn't find any small bugs. And they only had the Graphically Speaking cart I wanted, but when I got to the checkouts, the cashier gave me a hard time about how the cart I wanted to buy wasn't pictured in the J's ad. My sis and I tried to explain to her just as it said in the ad, that there are various carts/styles...those were just examples. After speaking to the manager myself, who said the same thing, I just gave up. It wasn't worth it to me to make a big stink over something like that. BUT...I did, at the last minute, decided to spluge and treat myself to the Cricut Expression! I had to mentally convince myself that I deserve it to not feel guilty about spending all that money on it. I was originally going to get one for Christmas when Miguel got his Christmas bonus, but I opted not to and told myself I was going to wait until we got our income tax refund and get it then. So I did :) It also turned out just perfect that I didn't get the cart at WM because a sweet sb.com neighbor had given me the links to two online sites that had Cricut carts for great prices. So I checked them out and was able to find both the Graphically Speaking and the Storybook...one I believe was $34 and the other was $39. I averaged it out with shipping and each cart came out to $41 which was like $4 less than I would have paid for them if I was lucky enough to find them at J's. This saved me the searching and driving to J's. So that was my last big splurge! Oh wait...not true..lol I ordered two stamps from Unity Stamp Co. a few days ago and put in a pre order for this new line Fancy Pants line called Kraft Cuts or something like that. So I'm sure I'll get those sometime "during" Lent, but they were not "bought" during Lent. It's a technicality! Me and my sis also lucked out at WM and found these cute black dresses (I was looking for something to wear to my Uncle's wedding next week). They are just simple, A line black dresses...sleeves, but very nice. They were from $20 and we got them for $5! I also got this nice long sleeved button down blouse...like one of those "fitted" ones for only $5 too (from $15). On Friday, we have this reunion dinner thing. It's something with a whole bunch of Miguel's friends from his school...from the Catholic school he attended growing up. It's at Mi Tierra downtown so I'm thinking I might wear that white blouse with these slacks I had gotten around Christmas time but never wore. On Saturday, I think we are invited to a bbq at Miguel's friend Juan's house so I'm going to give his wife the baby clothes then. Hmm...I think that's all going on here lately. I know this is a really long post, so if you read it all and stayed until the end..."thanks" :) I have some laundry to do today, but I'm hoping I can squeeze in some time to scrap or play with my Cricut. Also have to make some chili for lunch...I'm in the mood for it :) More later :)