just a little "hello" from alex... this will be his fashion statement for about the next six weeks. he is still trying to figure out a way to lift weights, grout the floor, and do some other household chores without using his right hand. even when he is really hurt, he just can't seems to sit still. he has been getting a bit of cabin fever, and has been wanting to get out of the house, which is really a first for him. we have been taking really good care of him and the girls are adding in some extra prayers any chance they get for daddy's "coco".

as for me, i'm trying to get some stuff done. i haven't been able to get my painting done this week, because of the obvious, so i am hoping to tackle that in the next few days. i'm also trying to get back into my couponing. i've slacked off the last few months, but after seeing how expensive our grocery bills have been, i figured i better get to clipping again. it is fun to see what a great deal i can get when i go to the groceries, and truth be told, it seriously kills me to buy some stuff that i have gotten for virtually nothing in the past. also on the agenda, clean out the closets. get rid of CRAP that we clearly don't need, want or use. i feel the need to purge and just organize. although i should have a garage sale to get rid of everything, i think i may just donate stuff. it is so much easier.

this week we will be celebrating our 10 Year wedding anniversary. amazing that it has already been 10 years. not quite sure what we will be doing yet, but i will definitely be preparing a yummy meal for my fabulous, loving, and injured hubby.

okay, i'm off to work on my "new" blog banner. i had it all finished last night and then BAM, the power went off for a split second and it was all gone. DARN i hate it when that happens.

have a good night.
*ciao*

so i just want to thank you all for the prayers in advance. i really think it helped tremendously. so alex went in for surgery this afternoon. he wasn't so happy about it, especially about being put under completely, but in the end he was happy with the outcome. the surgery only took about an hour, and the surgeon said that his finger wasn't too bad. they were able to put a pin in and use the skin flap that alex almost completely amputated. the doctor is hopeful that the skin will begin to take and said that the most they would have to do in the future is a skin graft. so that is what we had hoped for. of course as soon as alex came to after the surgery, he began unwrapping the bandages from his hand so that he could see what the outcome was. needless to say, he was extremely happy that he wasn't in the Spider Man pose, and is merely "flipping off" the world for a few weeks. he had all the nurses and even the anesthesiologist laughing their tails off with his wise cracks and stories while we were waiting to go into surgery. he was definitely in good spirits.

after coming home from the hospital, he was in quite a bit of pain, but the doctor gave him some REALLY good pain pills. right now he is sound asleep and feeling no pain. Thank goodness!!! i was worried that we would be going through a replay of Sunday night. so now i am off to watch one of my DVR shows and off to bed early. thanks again for all the calls and prayers. we love you all.

by the way, check out my favorite tunes (right in the side bar) that i have on my ipod. some great tunes, most of which are from Grey's Anatomy. can't wait for the new season. they always have such great tunes.

okay, have a great night.
*ciao*

so we hit the theater yesterday for Nancy Drew, and the kids really enjoyed it. It was one of those movies that the kids and adults enjoyed. I thought it was cute. I loved those books when I was little so I was glad to see it on the screen. And I totally love the cute outfits that Emma Roberts is wearing. My sister in love and i kept saying that we hope the style would catch on and that the kids would start wearing stuff like that. Penny loafers, cute dresses, knee high socks. cute, cute, cute!!! Next on our family movie list... Ratatouille. The girls love watching this trailer. There are also lots of Chick Flicks coming out this summer that I am wanting to watch. Evening, Licence to Wed, The Nanny Diaries, plus I really want to see Ocean's Thirteen and August Rush. Lots to put on my Netflix list.

Now an update on Alex's injury. well, we really had our hopes up that he was doing better and that his skin was taking, BUT... after a visit to the hand specialist today our balloon was totally deflated. it turns out that it is not healing well and the biggest problem is that Alex completely cut the bone. The tip of the finger isn't getting any blood flow, so the doctor has to do surgery to find out what is going on in there. Best case scenario... he puts a pin in there to reattach the tip of the finger. Worst case scenario... he has to attach the finger to Alex's palm so that he can attach a blood vessel to the finger and get blood flow going to that part of the finger. Then comes skin grafts, additional surgery, etc. So he goes in for surgery tomorrow. We are praying for the best, and your prayers would help us a lot. In the worst case, he will look like Spiderman for a few weeks... totally the wrong super hero. oh, and i forgot to mention... so we are running out the door Sunday night to get to the emergency room and he tells me to get him another shirt. I run in not questioning this, and on the way over there it dawns on me that the shirt he was wearing was perfectly fine. so when i ask what the shirt was for, he tells me, "Well I'm wearing a Superman shirt. I didn't want people teasing me and saying, Hey Superman what happened to your hand???" Even with his finger hanging off, he is still thinking like this. Only Alex.

by the way, he is totally cleaning up in the treats department. He got brownies and some yummy chocolate muffins from his sisters and niece. can you believe it?
my poor baby, i'll have to make him some yummy meals and treats after he has his surgery.

I'll update you all on his progress tomorrow evening after the surgery.

Your prayers would be greatly appreciated.

Love to you all,

movies, movies, movies... thank goodness there have been so many kids movies released within the past few months. we have made the movies a regular outing lately, not because of the heat, because really it has been quite lovely outside. the rain has hindered some of our outdoor plans, but really the movies is just one of our favorite past times. last week we went with our friends Ansley and Lily to see Shrek 3.. Tori keeps asking to see this at home... not quite understanding that it isn't out on DVD yet. Then Saturday we went to see Fantastic 4, which the girls really liked. Hmm, who'd of guessed that they would follow their daddy's footsteps with the superhero thing. So today we will be going to watch Nancy Drew with all our cousins. This will be the first time we've done this and the girls are soo excited about it. I hope it is a good movie. We went to get Ashlynn yesterday so she could spend the night with us and be ready for the movie today. the girls played and played until almost 11 PM. Needless to say they are tired this morning, yet they still woke up early. Still can't figure out what it take to get them to sleep past 8:00 AM.

so i feel like i am making a little progress on my notorious unfinished projects. I keep seeing new things that I want to work on, only to remember that i have all this other stuff to finish first. the newest thing on my list, however, is my kitchen cabinets. so last week i went to my friend Pippin's house to see her kitchen. she got very bold and decided to paint her kitchen cabinets black. now this is something that i had thought about, but was just too scared to attempt. well, her kitchen is AWESOME!!! it is amazing what some paint can do to a room. I instantly started picturing my kitchen with that color. she said she would come and help me get started, so that is on my list of things to do. but i first have to finish my bedroom. bathroom is pretty much done and looking great i must say. i will finish my bedroom this week and then move on to the kitchen. plus alex said he wants to paint the dining room... which he is completely free to do... BUT!!! we had a serious road block this weekend.

well, both alex and i have been trying to catch up on our projects. he has been working so much with his new project at work and honestly just has been too exhausted to do anything at home. so Sunday, i made him a great Italian meal... to die for actually... and we both were doing things around the house (me painting, him working on the grout). while doing this he started having issues with the vacuum cleaner, and being the handy mr. fix it that he is, he took the vacuum apart to find out what was wrong with it. well, just as he as about to put the thing together the motor on the vacuum went off and caught his middle finger. at first he didn't think that anything had happened, and then he saw the blood and the tip of his finger hanging. WHEN DID I KNOW SOMETHING WAS WRONG? When he told me he needed me to be calm as i was coming down the stairs. so i rushed him to the hospital, which thank God was not packed, and the dr. stitched up the finger. unfortunately he only has a 50 - 50 chance that the tip will take since there isn't much blood flow to that part of the finger. so we are seriously praying that it does. he has to go to a hand specialist tomorrow so we will know more then. but for now, he is in some SERIOUS pain. on a scale from 1-10 he rates is an 8 or 9. he really didn't sleep last night and he says that the pain pills aren't doing much. through all this he hasn't lost his sense of humor though. he says that he has a meeting today and he plans on sitting with all his fingers down and that one prominently displayed... thus proudly giving "the bird". he is also milking this for everything he can. he called both sisters last night and used the "i'm your baby brother, and you're suppose to be taking care of me." line. He is waaaayyy spoiled. he is getting brownies and chocolate cupcakes from them. can you believe he did that?

okay, so i am off to feed the family.

Enjoy the day.
*ciao*

It is amazing to me to think that six years ago you made your entrance into this world, and then as now, it was full of drama. The labor wasn't an easy one, and when you finally were here you gave your daddy and I quite a scare with the chord wrapped around your neck not once but twice. But you quickly recovered and were wide awake and taking it all in. They say that babies can't see clearly when they are born, but you could have seriously fooled us. Your eyes were wide open and you kept turning back and forth from me to daddy and were awake for the longest time. We should have known then that you would be a very observant little one. Just like your mommy, you notice and see everything. Your Abue is always saying that nothing gets by you, and that is absolutely true.

Being a first time mom, I was completely in awe of you and wanted to do nothing more than just sit for hours holding you, which you were completely fine with. I sometimes wish that I could go back to those days, when things seemed so much more simple. Everyone told me to enjoy every moment of every stage you went through because before I knew it you would be grown up and that moment would be gone. They were so right. The last six years have flown by. Before my very eyes you grew and somewhere along the line, you turned into a beautiful little girl. Full of love, spunk, independence, and curiosity. You always want to know why, or how, or when, and although we butt heads once in a while, it is mostly because we are so much alike. Even down to the "weather woman" obsession, which I'm sure is just one more thing your daddy is shaking his head about. But that is you, my mini me, my shadow. I can't remember what my life was like before you and I can't imagine what my life would be like without my little shadow with me everywhere. I depend so much on you my Belle, and I hope that you know how important you are to us and how much we love you. Happy Birthday my girl, and always remember that you are loved from top of your head to the tips of your toes, mucho, mucho.

Love,
Mama

A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart

so after a conversation with my sister today, i started thinking about what my summer vacation was like as a child. for us, summer vacation wasn't filled with all kinds of fun outings to different places, or scheduled play dates. growing up, my mom was a single parent, so summer time didn't change the fact that she still had to go to work everyday. when we were really small we used to go to my grandparents house everyday while she was at work, and our summer day consisted of looking at the "specials", going shopping for groceries, hanging out at home, creating something in the backyard with grandpa, walking to the bakery for fresh baked Mexican sweet bread, and going to the park (Ascarate), well, kind of the park, and feeding the ducks. we were content. we didn't need anything more. as we got older, not much older, we stayed at home and did chores, hung out, played, got into trouble (broke a huge, huge window while playing baseball in the house, and watched tv.

now fast forward to the present. my girls wake up in the morning, and belle asks me, "Mommy, what are we going to do today? Mommy are we going to go to somewhere fun today? Mommy, when can we go to Sea World?" seriously, where do they get this from? they have no idea how lucky they are that they get to stay home with their mommy, and not go to a daycare. we play, do crafts, go to the park, have play dates, go shopping, go to the movies. amazing how times have changed. we look for things to entertain them with during the summer, rather than them entertaining themselves. honestly, there are times when i almost feel guilty. Like i should be doing something more fun with them. is that silly?

anyway, i am off to make some dinner for my hubby. long, long week at work, and looks to be the same this weekend. poor thing.

have a good friday night... maybe a movie night??? hmm that's an idea.

*ciao*

up until about a month ago i had no idea what these creatures were, now i think i am more addicted to them than the girls. some brilliant person realized that there is only so much you can do with a stuffed animal, and decided that since we are part of the technology age, may as well make the stuffed animal interactive. thus the webkin. i have to admit that i actually get on the computer when the girls aren't and play their games. they are seriously addictive. bella has totally gotten into it, however, she can't seem to get the point that it is more important to feed the webkin than to have it in the latest styles. poor puppy is sick and starving. it's a good thing it is only in the virtual world and not real or we would have a big problem on our hands.

okay, off to get my free chipotle. in case you didn't know and have one in your area, (check if you aren't near me), chipotle is giving away free burritos, tacos, bowls or salads if you bring in a non perishable food item today. one per item. how cool is that. so dinner is served. although, i hear there is a line around the building. oh well, it is free dinner.

have a great night.
*ciao*

how nice it is not to have any major plans set in stone each day. not that we weren't busy, or had things to do, but it is just nice not to be watching the clock constantly waiting for the magic hour when you have to go pick up the kids. my sisters in love always told me that although you think you are going to have all this time when the kids are in school, it really goes by very quickly... i totally know what they mean.

sleeping in is getting a little better. the fact that we aren't on a 7:00 PM bedtime helps. so now 7:30 or 8:00 is a successful sleep in time. the girls still can't figure out why i'm not on them to change as soon as they get up. i'm too much into, "Enjoy the summer, relax, don't be in such a rush." i'm sure they are wondering, "who the heck is this woman, and where did our mom go???"

so here is the break down of the last week or so... well to start off with we caught a few flix. don't get overly excited, it was only Spiderman 3 and Shrek 3. they were good, but not the, "wow those were great, i'm so glad i saw them at the theater." good. but hey beggers can't be choosers right? we went to eat some yummy food at Pei Wei, this is after giving Alex the explanation that when we go out to eat as a family, the last thing i want to eat is Chick fil A, since that is a total kids meal place. Luckily everyone though Pei Wei was quite worth it and quickly forgot about the Chick place. Abuelos was also on our meal list, and that was also quite a hit. i must say they have some tasty mexican food, and i'm pretty picky about that. Okay, i just have to mention something that i saw at Abuelos... so i'm in the bathroom, and these two little girls walk in (probably about 7 and 8 years old) and they are both carrying COACH purses. i had to take a double take just to make sure i had seen what i thought i had seen. now granted we happen to go to an Abuelos that is in a rather upscale part of town, but SERIOUSLY!!! who the **** gives their 7 year old a $150 or more purse? I don't even spend that much on my purses!!! i am so not looking forward to having my girls become label conscious. i remember my sister going through that stage and it was so not fun for my mom.

anyway, i'll get off of my soap box now and move on. OH!!! i almost forgot, i made FREEZER JAM... strawberry freezer jam to be exact, and it is the best jam ever. i will never buy jam from the store again, at least not if strawberries are in season. so my very "domestic" friend Rainie taught me how, and it is the easiest thing ever. after learning how, i don't know why more people don't make it. so i think i am well stocked for a while, and i'm thinking it may make some good gifts. HMMM!!!(wheel's turning) and finally, i went scrapbooking this weekend. so much fun. it is so nice to get away every once in a while and hang out with friends and get some stuff done. i actually feel like i am making a dent in my bajillion pictures that i need to crop. i would post, but again, i need to finish journaling, so look for them in a future post.

today i'm off to find some yummy fruit, maybe at the farmer's market, and to look for apron's for a future project. more to follow about that. gotta get stuff done, since tomorrow i'm basically stuck here waiting for our new phones. not that i'm complaining. it will be so awesome not having to worry about the phone dying 2 minutes after taking it off the charger.

okay, gotta go get ready. have a great day.

*ciao*