I will be back soon!!

Hello everyone!!! Yes, I am still alive. Sorry been missing these past few months. Life has been very hectic since the move to our new state Texas and having a Kindergartner and a Toddler now keeps me busy and active. I will be blogging and scrapping again, I really miss it and it does keep me sane and keeps me stress free, which I so need it. I have been working on Becky Higgins Project Life album, even though I am behind in putting it together I have not missed taking a single photo everyday. Thanks for stopping by and understanding. Now to start all over on this blogging and scrapping. See you soon.

Where did November Go!!

Oh gosh can not believe its December already, where did November go. Well lets see....we've all been sick most of the month of November. First it was Briana with the stomach flu, then Christopher, then me and George. We all went down. As we were getting better, we were all doing good for a week and then bam...there we go more sickies in the house. Christoper had fever and ear infection and then Briana a day later with a blister ear infection, can you believe she had a blister on her ear drum, never heard of such a thing. Then you guessed it, Mommy got a bad sinus infection that had me down from 2 days. I started feeling almost human again after a few days. Thanksgiving was not what we had planned since George also got sick. We stayed home and had a small meal together and watched movies. It was kind of nice for a change, just bad that we were all sick.

Hope December is a much better month for us.

September!!

Wow, I can not believe its September. Time has flown by for me, so many things has changed for us this year that its just crazy. Here is just a few things that has kept us busy since the move to Texas.

First, there is that crazy move. Lucky it was smooth, truck came in time, only a few things broken and some furniture scratched these were expected. Lots and lots of boxes to unpack and organize the things with the 2 kids is just crazy. 7 months and we still have boxes to unpack.

The house, I love and hate right now. George did good in picking out the neighborhood and the house, love the floor plan. We have had a few issues with the house and dealing with the builder to fix them is just been awful, always e-mailing them and on the phone with them just to get things done. Luckily, the issues are not really major but they are problems. The 2 major issues we are fighting with them is the side of the house drainage, there isn't any and it gets flooded really bad and the media room. Media room has no a/c vents at all. George somehow missed this in the walk thru. But come on...no vents in a media room.... Ugh!!!

We've had the in-laws come visit us in the beginning of May, that was real nice and sometimes not so nice. They were a handful to say the least. I am just glad Briana had blast with them. I know she misses them. Just sorry we couldn't really show them around as I had no idea where to go and what to do as we have not been able to explore our surroundings. I did not have a car for 3 months and George not able to get time off work, it was a little boring for them. Oh well.

In March, my nephew (Brandon, lived in Dallas) ended up living with us, after breaking up with his girlfriend. Long story. Its good and bad having him here. I love that he helps me with the kids (sometimes) and bad cause, he is not motivated to do anything. He is looking for work and so far nothing has sticked. I have no idea what his goals are, seems at 21 years old he would have more motivation to do something. I have no idea what he plans on doing. Can't/won't maintain him. I just hate having people live with us, I feel uncomfortable in my own house.

Briana loves Texas. She has missed California, she keeps asking to go to the beach and go see her cousins. This kills me, I also miss the beach and seeing family gatherings, parties being held on facebook just makes it worse. But we are hanging in there. We have made some great friends with our neighbors and some of George co-workers have been awesome. She just started Kindergarten and doing great. She has made friends and I love seeing her so happy when I pick her up.

Christopher is going to be 9 months!! Can you believe it. He is keeping me really busy. He is a handful. I see the difference between him and Briana already. Its so true what they say, having a boy is so different. He is already climbing out of his playpen, exersaucer, and trying to get out of the crib. He crawls up the stairs like a lighting bolt, especially when he sees me going after him. That little booger. Love him.

Lets see what else, George is doing good a work, he will be there a year already in a couple of weeks. He has been dealing with some health issues for a few months now and they finally figured out that he has to remove his gallbladder, well they have to find it first, yup that is right. The ultrasound they did could not find it, so we are waiting for the results on the MRI to see where its at.

I am sure there is a lot I have missed covering. I've been a ball of nerves since all the changes. I am hanging in there and being strong for the kids. I really miss my friends and family back home. I have not really scrapped for a long time. I hope this will change now that some things have settled and having Briana in school now frees me up a little bit.

Well, that about it for now. Thanks for stopping by. XOXOO

Still Here

Hello, Everyone.

I can not believe its been this long since I've blogged anything. So many changes has kept me busy. I just wanted to let everyone know I am still here and everything is going well. I will blog again this week-end and give everyone an update of our comings and goings.


Hope everyone is doing well. I'll be back. :D

Today

Today I am.....

Today I Am: unpacking and breaking down the millions of boxes we have from the move, and watching the little snow fall we are having right now.

Listening: Briana playing upstairs.

Reading: Nothing interesting yet, just catching up on reading all my magazines that are about a week behind in arriving to the new address.

Obsessed With: Finishing unpacking and organizing this house.

Thinking About: How crazy it is to pack everything and move to another state, where you know no one.

Planning To: start a list of many things we have to do here, DMV, register Briana for kindergarten...yikes!!

Dreaming Of: Summer.

Enjoying: Watching Olympics.

Vowing to: start scrapbooking and taking pictures like I used to. I've placed it in the back burner for awhile, time to get creative again.

Working on: unpacking these boxes.

Excited About: learning and meeting new people here in Texas.

Sunday Seven

1. Was finally getting some good sleep in the morning, until it hit. A 2.9 earthquake at 8:39am woke me and Briana up, Ugh! I was sleeping so good, very rare these days that I sleep in that late. Oh well, just glad it was a small shake.

2. We are finally having some fall weather. Its not to cold nor to hot, just right. Today's high was 71 and cloudy, but the low will be about 45 tonight. Its also suppose to rain on Tuesday and Wednesday, lets see if they are right.

3. On Thursday, Briana and I went shopping. I wanted to buy me some fall shoes that I can just slip on. Its getting pretty hard to bend over and tie my shoe laces. We ended up at Kohl's and found some comfortable shoes and a great sale on baby clothes. Was not going buy any, but you can't beat 60% off of some cute baby clothes. I also bought Briana a blouse and her first Levis jeans. She did not want me to buy her anything, she kept dragging me to the baby side to buy her baby brother some clothes...Love it!!!

4. I am now 30 weeks pregnant, we are getting there. So far so good. I did have to go take the 3 hour glucose test....yuck!!! Hopefully, the results will be good. Please pray that it does.

5. Well, its been a month since George started his new VP position. So far they love him, they seen his department changes going rapidly. He has a few bad apples, but there will always be some. So far we are adjusting okay. Can't wait to do the final move, so we can all be together. Briana and I miss him a lot, just like I know he miss us too.

6. I tried to scrap something yesterday and today, but didn't. I have absolutely no scrappy mojo. None. Nada. I even went through the massive of photos that we have to see if any would do the trick, nope. none. I will keep trying, I need to get my mojo back before the baby comes and the move happens. Sigh!

7. I'm totally being lazy today watching TV, playing on the computer, playing with Briana. It's nice to just chill out. Well, that is not completely true. I did bag all of Brianas summer clothes and took out her fall/winter clothes. I did the same with my summer maternity clothes and found my fall/winter ones and placed them to wash. So really not a complete lazy day. Right?

Have a great week everyone! {{HUGS}}

A trip to the Hospital

No not me.....I am doing good, baby doing good. It was George. He was up most of the early morning with abdominal pain, he did not want to wake me up or get me all worry, so he waited as long as he could. Well, at 6am he was as pale as a ghost, clammy and hunched down in a lot of pain. Finally he was convinced to call 911, they came pretty fast and took him for a ride to the hospital. I got Briana up and got her in the car. Well, after being there for 3 hours just waiting for the test results, George just wanted me to come home with Briana, as she was being impossible and she was cranky (I don't blame her). I couldn't find anyone to come get her or watch her. The girls I use to babysit were either at work or class. Did not want to call his parents, cause they will just get on our nervous and they don't do well in emergency situation.

George finally called after 1:30pm and said he was still in a little pain, but not so much they had given him something much stronger than morphine, he can't remember the name of it and he had fallen asleep all this time. The doctor said all his tests came back good and now he wanted to do a ultrasound to check his stomach. Well, the result of the ultrasound was that he has Gallstones. Yup, after like 2 years that we went through the same thing, this doctor finally gave us the news, why couldn't they (the other hospital and Dr) tell us this 2 years ago.....I have no idea!! I was pissed and relieved at the same time.

Home after 4pm, he is doing good. I made some bland rice and chicken for him to eat. No more fatty foods for him, which we really do not eat anymore. That big fat Carl's Jr hamburger he at on Sunday for lunch was his last. Hope he enjoyed it.....LOL! Oh, that hamburger was what had triggered the abdominal pain. Now to re do our dinner menu and find new recipes that he will like and are not to greasy. You know for this Cuban girl, its going to be hard leaving my roasted pork!

Love ya babe.

Here is a website with some info about Gallstones.

http://www.gastro.org/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5680

New Sofas for us.

Today we bought a new sofa and love seat for the family room. We so needed them. I love the old ones, but they are worn out after almost 13 years. The old sofa was the first purchase we made when we got married. They have been through a lot with us.....6 moves, a crazy cat, sickie's and dirty hands from babies and toddlers......LOL! It was time to say good-bye.

Anyways, the new sofas will be delivered on Tuesday, can't wait. Here are some Internet pictures I found. The colors here look a little bit lighter than in real life, but it does state the color we choose, the Cocoa color. Now I am wondering how it will look....darker or lighter. Ugh, I hate showroom lighting.

Doesn't it look comfy? We wanted something we can rest comfortably while watching television, it is after all for the family room.

This one is the sofa.

This one is the love seat.

Close-up of the sofa.

Working Working Day and Night

Well, Hello! Everyone. Not much has been going on these past few days. Just got real busy with work, which is a good thing. I have no idea what has happened, but boy it feels good to busy. We have not been this busy in a very long time. I hope this means things will get better with us and the world.

Also, still unpacking and trying to get the house organized, especially the garage, dying to park the cars inside their.

Anyway. Hope all is well with everyone. Will be back real soon.

Thank you for stopping by. {HUGS}

Happy Birthday, George!!!

Today, he turned 45, so he decided this morning, that he wanted to have a Hugh Hefner day. He lounged around in his pj's all day and did nothing, but watch the news and played a little computer war games online with his friends. He ignored the pile of work he had to do and did not answer his clients when he called. I took care of them. :D

Briana and I got him a chocolate cake and a balloon for tonight. She gave him a bag of M&M's (I kept asking her what she wanted to buy him for his present and this is what she wanted to give him.....its his favorite....actually any chocolate is his favorite....LOL!) I cooked a nice dinner and had some wine with him. Tried to have a little bit of a romantic dinner, as romantic you can get with a 3 year old...LOL! I think he still had a great time.

Love you Honey.

Finally.......The Move Is Over

We moved on Thursday and turned over the keys to the old house on Sunday. Wow! What a move....we had a 26 ft moving van and took 2 loads to get almost everything out from the house. Remember now, we also had to move our office and the house was 3200 +/- square feet, so we had a lot of stuff to move. I am glad I had already went through and de-cluttered a lot of stuff and still need to do some more.

Overall the move went well, we had people, family and friends help us. Only a little scratches here and there, nothing major and nothing broke. Well, I broke a mug....LOL! The weather was in our favor, was raining like crazy all week, stopped on Thursday and began to rain again on Friday. Someone must love us.

Now the fun part begins, the unpacking and reorganizing part. As of today, the office is fully operating, the kitchen and Brianas room are some what organized. TV are fully functioning (very important...:D ). Still living out of boxes till I can get things to where I want them.

Well, just a little update for everyone. I will be back in a few days with pictures....got to find the camera and install my printer so I can upload the pictures.

Thanks for stopping by {HUGS}

Moving Moving Moving

It's moving week. All this week we have packed and moved things to our new home and tomorrow, Thursday is the official move, moving the big furniture. I am so tired of seeing boxes everywhere. So far, George and I have done alot of the moving ourselves, his parents came over yesterday and help us with Briana and move a few things. So glad, the rain has stopped for now, suppose to start again on Friday, which will be so much better, won't have to worry about the things getting wet.

Just a little update from us. Will be back next week.

Thanks for stopping by. {HUGS}

Got keys???

Today we got the keys to the new house. We can start moving boxes and the office in a few days. Hopefully, this raining cats and dogs will stop for us to do the official move next week-end. We close escrow on the 12th and we have til the 15th to get everything out from the old house. I am excited and sad at the same time, I have become real good friends with my next door neighbors and will miss them alot. The exciting part, is that we start a new chapter in our book of life and I can't wait to start living in a single story house.....Yup!! no more up and down that hurts my knees.

I think the new house will be great for us, not so big, but not to small, just perfect for us. Love that the kitchen has a double oven and walk-in pantry. Also, love that the house has a water softener, great thing to have when your little one suffers from eczema, her doctor has told us a few times that having this will help her skin. Love also that it has a 3 car garage, so we can have the single car garage to store some of our stuff that we just can't or won't get rid of and still can park both of our cars in the garage. I can't wait.

I know. I know. You want to see pics. I will put these up once I get them uploaded into the computer, I left the camera in the car and its parked outside, and well its raining really really hard right now. Sorry.

Anyways, this is why I've been MIA for a bit. Busy. Busy. Busy. Packing. Packing. Packing.

Miss you all.

Finally!!!!

It's been official for several weeks now... She's potty trained!

Argh! She was really hard to potty train, I have tried for several months and nothing. She just refused to go. I did everything, from reading books, seeing videos, open door policy, searched for advice and ideas on the net, sat with her and had heart to heart talks about the potty. I was so frustrated! I cried! I was mad at myself, thinking I have failed. I finally, just let it be and waited for her and several weeks ago, I do not know how it happened she just asked and went on her little potty we have.......she went and was so happy......LOL!! Success!!!

She has had few accidents, she would forget she had no diapers on....LOL! But just 2 or 3 of them, not bad at all. Thank goodness.

No more diapers.
No more wipes.
No more diaper pail.

Thanks for stopping by {HUGS}

Earthquake

Ah yes! The first earthquake of the year. It was a 4.9 not to far from us, about 30 miles away. We felt a pretty big jolt and it woke Briana up. She was not scared this time. I tried putting her to sleep, but we had a few small aftershocks and she was a little scared.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Happy Christmas Eve !!!

This year we decided to stay home, just the 3 of us and make a fun family day. We really want to start some traditions with Briana, as our families never really had any. Also, because, we still have our coughs and sniffles, the day is cold (45 degrees, I know for some of you its a heat wave, but for So. California its freaking cold) and heavy rains.

So tonight, I cooked our traditional meal of the pork roast, white rice, & black beans (well this year we had red beans, cause that's what the little girl wanted) and a chocolate silk pie for dessert. After dinner we went and drove around a neighborhood, less than a mile away, the majority of the homes have there are all decked out and lights galore. It was awesome and to hear Brianas gasps and shout out what she has seen and at everyone home we drove/or walked sometimes she would say how beautiful it was. She did not want to come home, she wanted to see more lights and we would of like to, but all of sudden it started to pour rain and we had to run back to the car.....LOL!!! It was fun. After coming home we had some snacks and saw the Get Smart movie we have had sitting at the kitchen counter for days. I totally loved that movie, gonna see if I can find a good price on it this week-end.

Today, was also a Christmas Wish come true. We, finally sold the house, we've been trying to sell it for a while. We've had lots of Realtors and their clients come in and out and they loved the house, but the people now and days prefer to buy a REO, Short Sale priced homes, instead of a hassle free home. We have gotten a few offers and then later on fall thru, I was really praying for someone who really wants the house and just buy it. This economy is so messed up, that we really needed this. Now, a new adventure and new chapter in our lives begin.

Please pray that the transaction goes smoothly and we close escrow with no problems.

Thank you my friends. {HUGS}

Fire Story

Thank you everyone for all the prayers and thoughts you have said for us. I am happy to say our house is fine. This is something that we will never forget.

Lets start the day of the fire. Saturday November 15th.

I had woke up very early for a Saturday and so did Briana. I was up at 5am and Briana at 6:30 am. We were in the office/bonus room, Briana playing and I was on the the internet. We waited til George got up around 9am. It was a great morning, we were all laying in bed watching cartoons. We decided to go downstairs to get breakfast and get our day going. I was going to wrap my friends/next door neighbor little boys birthday gift for the party in the afternoon. All of sudden, the door bell rings like crazy, it was one of our neighbors advising us to leave now. We were in shock when we saw what was going on. When I opened the blinds from the kitchen to see our backyard, it was full of smoke. Less than a minute later the firemen and policemen were at our door giving us less than 2 minutes to leave. I grabbed Briana and her little stuffed puppy, a suitcase and just throw somethings in there for all three of us, George got Balty (the cat), all of our computers. We left in both cars, our street was full of firetrucks, ambulances and policemen.We meet up by the new Sports Park down the street from us and see what the game plan was. While we were just sitting and watching the flames and smoke around our house, we prayed to God that our house was going to be okay and got the camera to take some pictures, at first George was getting upset with me, til he realized this was my sort of savior, it kept me occupied.

I called my brother-George to let him know what was going on, he lives in Las Vegas and he is our emergency contact. He then called everyone and everyone called us on our cells, offering there home. The only problem with going to any of there homes was they were in Riverside, Corona, Mira Loma, Redlands and all the roads, freeways we had to take to get to them were all shut down. We could of gone to Georges moms house, but it was an hour away and really, we wanted to stay as close to the house as possible. In the late afternoon, we did stay at one of our friends moms house for a few house. She was great and provided us with whatever we wanted. But, she only had a small TV and it was in her bedroom, so we felt a little lost and a little awkward staying there. So we decided it was best for us to go to a hotel where we can see the news and be a little more comfortable. We did not get much sleep, George kept going to the fire area every 2 hours, at one time he went to the house at 2:30am. Briana all night kept saying she wanted to go home, she would not fall asleep, as soon as she did she would wake-up to say she wanted to go home, it just broke my heart more. I just kept tossing and turning and watching the news and at times found myself crying.

Sunday, November 16th --Day 2

We got up, showered, and checked out of the hotel at 10am. My friend, next door neighbor called me to tell me they were heading to the Evacuation Center in Brea. We met up there. We checked in to the American Red Cross and they gave us some information. We met with the La Habra Police Chaplin-Caleb Beller, he gave us all the information about our house and the area. We had a section with our neighbors, we just all sat around and watched the kids play and we watched the news. At lunch time, we were provided with food from the Olive Garden, Pizza Hut, and other local restaurants. Ralphs supermarket provided all the water, sodas, coffee, apple juice, orange, juices. Brea volunteers were great with the kids, they gave them coloring books with crayons, balloons, toys. You name it they provided it to all of us. At around mid afternoon, George was coughing so much more than the other day. I convinced him to have the Red Cross Health doctors check him out. They said he was wheezing a lot and they call his doctor and told George to go see him at Urgent Care. A doctor saw him and told him he now has Asthma and gave home an inhaler.

At around 5pm we were allowed back to our house. We all got up and rushed home. I was so happy to see my home all in one piece. Within less than 5 mins all of our neighbors arrived, we all gather together and just hugged one another and made sure we were alright. This fire was really to close for comfort for all of us. Firefighters pass by every hour to check the hill behind our house and to check up on us. When I saw one of the firetrucks coming toward us, I ran inside and grabbed some things to give to them. We gave them a 5lb bag of coffee to take with them and gave them cold water bottles and thanked them for their services. They were so grateful, we made their day, the guy we gave the coffee to apparently is a coffee addict.....LOL!. I remember the firetruck said Presidio of Monterey, which I have no clue where that is.

When checking around the area and backyard, we realized how close we came to losing our home, winds were up to 50 miles and just one little ember would of destroyed our home and our tract. We are grateful and thankful for all the prayers everyone did for our family and to all the firefighters that came from all over of California. I remember seeing firefighters from the City of El Monte, Glendale, Santa Ana, El Segundo, Lodi, Montery, Stanton, Stanislaus, Carmel Valley, many of them came from Northern California.

At night, I made a nice home cooked meal and we watched the news. I went around the house spraying some Fabreze to get some of the smoke smell from inside the house. We ran the a/c for a long time, recommend by the fire department. We had no phone or DSL connections. After a while, we went to bed.

Monday, November 17th --Day 3

This day, I had mixed emotions one minute full of gratefulness next minute full of anger and sadness. Six years ago today, I lost our baby boy Adrian. I had planned on going to the cemetery this day to place some balloons and flowers. Sadly, I was not able to go. I will go once we get things back to normal. Instead of going to the cemetery, we ended up cleaning up all the ashes and debris from the backyard, wash down the outside of the house, clean the windows and figure out a way to get the smokey smell from inside of the house. We were also trying to get some information from the phone company to see when our lines will be up and running, they told us one of the poles got damaged with the fire and it will take a few more days or worst case scenario until the 24th....OMG! I freaked out, told them we have a home business, so if there is anything they can do would be great. George was able to go to the Community Center and use their WiFi and get some e-mails out to our clients. I was able to leave a outgoing announcement on the companies voicemail advising them of the situation and left our cell numbers for them to contact us.

All through out the day, we would hear and see the firemen come down the street to refuel the truck with water by the fire hydrants. We also saw them cleaning up and checking for any hot spots in the hill behind us. It was a very long day for them.

Tuesday, November 18th --Day 4

A little back to normal, we finally got our phone and DSL lines back up in the late afternoon. Was able to reply to some e-mails and get some work out to our clients. Did some laundry and errands. I did go around the neighborhood to check out the aftermath and was able to take some pictures. The police still has Carbon Canyon closed, only residents can pass by to check their homes. Some homes up in the canyon were damaged or a total lost, my heart goes out to them, many of them are elderly and have lived in their home for well over 20 years. Firefighters are still passing by our street to check up on things and refuel by the fire hydrants.

It has begun, solicitors are all out in full force. Duct cleaners, Air purifier salesmen, Power washers, window cleaners, Fire Restoration companies. Argh!

Well I will leave you for now, we are just exhausted, stressed, have a headache, and i am tired.

I will be back with some pictures.

City of Brea Is Shaking!!!!!

We just had a 5.8 magnitude earthquake at 11:42:15am. I have not felt such a strong earthquake in such a long time. My poor little girl was so scared, she was playing in our room when everything was shaking and I got really nervous when I saw the fear on her face. The cat stayed under Brianas bed, we are okay. Somethings fell off the shelves and some paintings are now crooked.


So far as of 12:49pm we have had 27 aftershocks with the biggest one being a 3.6. We are only about 3 miles for the fault line where it started.

Our Weekend

Well , not much to report so I will bore you all with our week-end......LOL!


Saturday

George had some inspections to do and we had some showings in the afternoon. So I just mostly cleaned and made sure everything was in order and presentable. Later on, we took Briana to the park, we were there for about 2 hours and she still did not want to come home. She made some new friends, she is so friendly and just having too much fun with the other kids, so we stayed a little bit longer and had some ice cream.



In the evening, my neighbor came by with 3 bags full of clothes for Briana. Briana is set for the rest of the summer, fall and winter!!! I was so shocked and grateful at all the clothes she gave us.




Sunday

We just stayed home and filled up Briana's pool, she had lots of fun playing and splashing everywhere, while George and I just read and soaked up some sun....LOL! We later had some pizza for lunch and watched a movie and finished up some paperwork.

That was our week-end very relaxing and no scrapping.

Happy Mail Day......

It came faster than what I expected. I got this
in the mail the other day. I've been wanting a DSLR for a long time. I've been wanting a Nikon, but this will have to do, as I got it for free. Yes, FREE!!! George got a letter and a catalog from his Sony card and stated his Sony points were going to expire. So since, we had a lot of points, He told me to go ahead and order the camera, so I did. We paid nothing, no even for the shipping and handling.

Here are some info on the camera and its gotten some good reviews.

Sony Alpha A200 Specifications

10.2MP APS CCD Sensor; 23.6 x 15.8 mm
0.83x magnification viewfinder with 50mm lens at infinity; 95% coverage
ISO Auto/100/200/400/800/1600/3200
Shutter speeds 30 - 1/4000 sec, Bulb
3fps continuous shooting speed
Unlimited continuous shooting in JPEG mode, 6 frame buffer in RAW mode, 3 frame buffer in RAW + JPEG mode
40 segment metering plus spot and center weighted patterns
Built-in flash, GN 12 (m @ ISO 100), auto pop up
Uses Compact Flash memory (can also use Sony Memory Stick with adapter)
2.7in "Clear Photo" LCD
Size (WHD) 5 1/4 x 3 3/4 x 2 7/8 in (133 x 95 x 71 mm)
Weight 1 lb., 3 oz (545 g) body, not including battery, lens and media

I've played a little bit with it and so far love it. I wish Miss B would cooperate so I can take some test shoots. I hope to take some nice pictures on Fathers Day so we will see.