Honesty Survey

Had a friend post this on facebook so I thought I’d try it out since I’m bored and wanted to blog about something…

Can you fill this out without lying? You’ve been tagged, so now you need to answer all the questions HONESTLY.

1. What was the last thing you put in your mouth?
Red Gatorade

2. Where was your profile picture taken?
At the park by Bruce’s townhouse where we used to live. I think it’s time to update seeing as Leilani will be 2 this mont and it was taken when she was 10 months lol.

3. Can you play Guitar Hero?
Yup, I’m better at Rock Band though. Love it!

4. Name someone who made you laugh today?
Leilani. She started singing “I’m so excited!” and “Shake, Shake, Shake your body.”  into a microphone

5. How late did you stay up last night and why?
1 am. Was working on a slideshow project for my cousin’s wedding all week so I didn’t start all my shows until late and I couldn’t go to sleep so I watched a lot of them.

6. If you could move somewhere else, would you go? Depends… if it was some place awesome and everyone I know was going too. :0) Specifically my mom lol.

7. Ever been kissed under fireworks?
yes

8. Which of your friends lives closest to you?
Katie and Kathleen are both very close. All my other friends are in WPB,Wellington and Stuart.

9. Do you believe exes can be friends?
I think they can be if all parties involved are ok with it.

10. How do you feel about Dr Pepper?
YUCK!

11. When was the last time you cried really hard?
Yesterday while working on the slideshow I was listening to Kris Allen’s version of Make You Feel My Love and for some reason I lost it lol.

12. Who took your profile picture?
I did.

13. Who was the last person you took a picture of?
My kids trying on their Halloween Costumes.

14. Was yesterday better than today?
Not really… not that yesterday was bad but woke up with a nasty migraine.

15. Can you live a day without TV?
Honestly… it would be hard. I did it a lot this summer when i was reading 12 books. But now that fall TV has started it would be VERY hard.

16. Are you upset about anything?
If I’m being honest… I would love to not have a dog so that upsets me on a daily basis. She’s getting better but its still frustrating.

17. Do you think relationships are ever really worth it?
Of course.

18. Are you a bad influence?
I hope not. I think I was considered on in high school and college. I kind of had a bad attitude and a problem with authority.

19. Night out or night in?
Night out. Taking the kids to see the Double feature of Toy Story tonight!

20. What items could you not go without during the day?
air condition and entertainment for my kids

21. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital?
huh… its been a long time… I think the last time I was at the hospital period was when Lani was born. But I honestly can’t remember.

22. What does the last text message in your inbox say?
I deleted them all today because Louie is getting me and Iphone and sending my phone to his mom.

23. How do you feel about your life right now?
Thankful and blessed

24. Do you hate anyone?
no, people irritate me but I don’t hate them

25. If we were to look in your face book inbox, what would we find?
a few random messages

26. Say you were given a drug test right now, would you pass?
absolutely

27. Has anyone ever called you perfect before?
my parents 

28. What song is stuck in your head?
Glee Cast- Don’t Stop Believin’ …. been listening to all their songs on youtube all day.

29. Someone knocks on your window at 2:00 a.m., who do you want it to be?
My husband or one of my cousins

30.Wanna have grandkids before you’re 50?
Why not…. seems to be working well for my mom

31. Name something you have to do tomorrow? 
Get a birthday present for my mom and then head to Miami for the UM/OK game…. Go Canes!

32. Do you think too much or too little?
Too little… i don’t really focus on things that are important like I should.

Bonus Round…

34. How many hours a day do you spend on the computer?
a lot

35. If you could be anyone else for a day, who would you be?
hmmm…. don’t know…. maybe Reese Witherspoon. don’t know why though.

36. Facebook or Twitter?
I spend more time on facebook but twitter is cool to see a glimpse into the lives of celebrities
37. Chicken or Beef?
Chicken

38. Mac or PC?
Mac all the way!!!!! Once you go Mac you never go back!!!

Ah, to be talented.

While watching the VMA’s the other night, a young kid came out to introduce Taylor Swift for her performance right after the whole Kanye West fiasco. He came out with a girl who stars on the Disney channel or Nick or something so I thought he was an actor or something. Ya know a little teen heart throb working his way up thru the tween channels like Shia Labeouf. He quickly defended Taylor and I was intrigued.

Later that night, I saw a friend of mine’s facebook status about the VMA’s. He was attending them and he mentioned this kid in his status. My friend is in the music industry so I thought ok maybe he sings or something. So then today I was watching the VMA preshow that I recorded but hadn’t watched yet and there he was again, being interviewed standing with P. Diddy. Ok, I have to know who this kid is. Went to wikipedia and searched Justin Bieber. Turns out he’s a 15 year old singer who was discovered via Youtube. So I went to youtube and searched… I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Not only that he was an amazing singer, but he can play guitar too. I love hearing your everyday person cover famous songs… especially when they seem to be better. There is something about seeing a talent live and unedited that just gets to me.

This brings me to my point… I am so thankful for the life that I had. I played sports and that enabled me to travel all over the place. But what I wouldn’t give to have a little hidden talent. I would love to be able to play piano or guitar ( Justin self taught himself several instruments).  Even to be artistic would be amazing. Oh well… I guess I’ll just have to make sure my kids have the opportunities to explore those avenues.

Please, Please, Please check this kid out!

Guess Who’s Back…

Not that anyone reads this anymore as it has been almost 3 months since my last post, but I’m back!

When we finally moved into our house we splurged on a MAC desktop as an investment for the kids really. Trey has already pretty much mastered web browsing and plays tons of learning games on the nickjr and disney websites. Anyway, because we got the new desktop, I gave my laptop to my mom because her computer was stolen a few months before that. I was so used to my routine on my own laptop that it was hard to transfer it over to one of our other 2. I had all my favorite sites book marked that I visited on a daily basis… yahoo, facebook, wordpress, twilight obsession sites (guilty pleasure), and recipe sites, youtube, wikipedia etc.

Anyway, because I got rid of my computer, I got rid of my easy access and I am just now getting reacquainted. So, until I can find something worth posting about, I thought I owed all 2 of you that actually read my blog an explanation of where I have been.

I spent a lot of time reading this summer. I read all 4 and a half twilight books and all 7 Harry Potter books. It was nice to have a break from internet and tv while I was reading. It also gave me a lot of material to focus on while I was going to the gym everyday and riding the bike for 40 minutes.

We’ve also done a bit of traveling around FL in the last couple months. 3 trips to Orlando, 1 trip to Daytona and our little day get away to Tallahassee for the UM/FSU game. All this traveling has taken it’s toll on my body. My back is completely out of whack and I haven’t been to the gym since early August. I miss it VERY much. I’ve been sick ever since we came back from Orlando almost a month ago and I am just plain FED up with this HEAT!

Just a few things to catch you guys up. I’ve got more to share I’m sure just running alittle empty right now.

Glad to be back.. looking forward to catching up on all your blogs!

Some updates…

I figured because it has been a month since my last post I should probably do some updates. 

We moved almost all of our things into the new house on May 25th. When we arrived we found that there had been a fire in the laundry room.

Thankfully it was contained to just the one room, so we thought we would just have to remodel the laundry room, get the A/C cleaned out and we’d be moved in by the end of the week. WRONG! Here we are a month later, living with my mom and her husband while the house is pretty much completely remodeled from floor to ceiling. All the word that we did the month before we moved in had to be completely re-done, with the exception of the floors. They will need to be resealed though. It has been increasingly frustrating to be living under some one else’s roof, not having all our our belonging, and not knowing where a good majority of them are, but in the end this has been a huge blessing. Our new house, which was built in 1997, will be pretty close to entirely brand new when we move in this weekend! I picked out my new washer and dryer last night, as well as al new light fixtures and ceiling fans. We are also getting new vertical blinds in the living room ( they were the old school cloth material before… YUCK!) New hardware for the kitchen cabinets. The insurance company is footing the bill for this entire remodel and we had the funds to re-do the whole kitchen but decided to put that off until a later date just so we can get in our house before the kids start college :0)

Because we didn’t think that we would be out of the house for more than a week, we left all of our furniture and everything in the house. This caused everything to smell like a fire place. Part of the renovation was to have everything professionally cleaned. I’m really hoping this worked well because having our furniture smell like that kind of irks me. Before any of this happened though we were planing on having out seafoam couches cleaned, so I am stocked about seeing them and hoping they look brand new again. 

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Change of subject

This post is turning out much longer than I had anticipated. One positive thing about staying at my mom’s is she has her own personal pool. The kids and I have been taking major advantage of that. Trey has been able to swim since he was 15 months old but kind of developed some bad habits in the last year. In the past month he has taught himself how to use his arms when swimming, come up for air with out having to roll over into a float, do minimal tricks when jumping in and starting to dive down to pick up toys. Leilani is also pretty much fearless in the water. She hasn’t been sticking to the swim-float-swim routine exactly but she is a fish regardless. She even jumps in off the hot tub as well.

In other Leilani news, she is talking up a storm. probably 80% of it is babbling but she is speaking pretty clearly for a lot of other words like I love you, Please, Thank you, Trey, Lani, swim, Brooklyn and so on. She is also doing great going to the bathroom on the big potty. I have contemplated doing our 3 day potty training on her while we are at my mom’s on the tile but I just don’t think she is quite there yet. Maybe another 2 months.

I think that’s it for now. We are FINALLY moving into our home this weekend and I could not be more thrilled. I’m hoping to have a open house/house warming with a month or so. I’ll keep you posted :0)

STAY COOL!

ABC’s

I saw this on Katie’s blog and decided maybe it would be a fun way to get myself back into the swing of things. Not that I haven’t had plenty to blog about lately, just lacking the motivation and the time.

this went around FB a few months ago and i’ve been waiting for a good time to put mine here.  this is a good time because i want to write a post but really have nothing to say.  feeling lazy and tired.

A – Age: 25 and a half…. tomorrow is my half birthday, growing up my best friends and I actually celebrated our half birthdays… we should bring that back :0)

B – Bed size: king and it still doesn’t feel big enough lol

C – Chore you hate: all of them… haha… mostly mopping… very much looking forward to not having to mop wood floors!

D – Dog’s name: Brooklyn Sky

E – Essential start your day item: My kids… they are pretty much the only constant

F – Favorite color: Sea foam green

G – Gold or Silver: White Gold

H – Height: close to 5′10

I – Instruments you play: nothing… i took lessons for piano, drums and trombone

J – Job title: Domestic Engineer 

K – Kid(s): Trey (3), Leilani (19 mos.)

L – Living arrangements: Not soon enough… 3 bedroom 2 bath 2 car garage with a fenced in yard with a swing set, two streets away from a huge park…. ahhh I can’t wait!

M – Mom’s name: Sara

N – Nicknames: Lyss, Lyssa, Aly G, Alice, Lissy loo loo… the list goes on and on pretty much all annoying though a

O – Overnight hospital stay other than own birth: um, I think I stayed overnight when I had my tonsils taken out but I don’t know.. and giving birth twice

P – Pet Peeve: ohh I have to many to pick just one, but one that has really been bothering me this week is the toilet seat not being put back DOWN!!!

Q – Quote from a movie: ”There’s a monster outside my window, Can I have a glass of water?”

R – Right or left handed: right

S – Siblings: Grant

T – Time you wake up: I’ve been waking up at 7 to get the kids up and ready for the gym by 8 but this week that got put on the back burner because of colds, out of town guests, and more and more house renovations.

U- Underwear: none right now… ditto Katie lol

V – Vegetable you dislike: collard green however you spell it… just the smell makes me want to gag

W – Ways you run late: my husband’s lack of respect for other people’s time ( should have put this under P)… or maybe Trey has to go potty right as we are walking out the door.

X – X-rays you’ve had: teeth, wrist, spine, ankle, knee, shoulder

Y – Yummy food you make: corn or potato casserole

Z – Zoo: too hot and my kids aren’t that interested.

8 Things

Taking a few minutes to relax after a hectic last few days.

8 Things I’m Looking Forward To:

1. The last day of school! I started my last week today! wuhoo. Praying I pass my budget class.
2. Everything being packed.
3. The floor being installed and the paint on the walls in the new house!
4. Spending quality time with my family and not having to worry about what I have due on what day and all the other stressful thoughts that come along with school. 
5. Joining the gym next Monday! Katie, maybe we can coordinate and be work out buddies and hit up the beach sometimes together. Well once I’ve worked out long enough to be comfortable going to the beach lol
6. Going to the doctor for the first time since Leilani was born. Hoping to get my thyroid issues taken care of. ugh!!
7. SWIMMING with my kids!!! It’s my favorite part of the summer. It bring me so much joy to see my little ones swimming better than their daddy :0)
8. Being moved into our new place, everything in it’s place and planning a house warming/graduation party!

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. Slept in! My mom kept the kids Saturday and Sunday night so we slept in until 10 am!!!
2. Took Trey to the mall while Lani napped at my mom’s.
3. Bought a pretty cute dress for a wedding from Forever 21 for under $30. Dressy enough to wear to a wedding but still casual enough to rock whenever I want. I’m majorly into dresses right now as pants are NOT my friends!!!
4. Enjoyed the quiet while Trey and Louie napped so I could get dolled up for the wedding. Lani was still with my mom so I took my time to pamper myself.
5. Drove to Miami for the wedding of a college buddy of ours. It was beautiful!
6. Fought back tears at the beauty of the wedding plus the memories of all our good times in college. 
7. Received one of the greatest/weirdest compliments of my life haha. The groom told me he remembers the first time he saw me 7 years ago at the beach and he and his buddies thought I was sexy. He then went on to say how lucky my husband was to have caught me and that he has turned out to be a great dad. It made me blush but it was also one of the most nicest things he’s ever said to me :0)
8. Danced my butt off, had a great time with old friends and really enjoyed the weekend with my hubby and very little time with the kids, even though I missed them like crazy.

8 Things I Wish I Could Do: ( I’m gonna steal a couple of yours Katie)

1. Cook
2. hire a maid!!! I actually am going to have to when we move out of Bruce’s but I would love to on a permanent basis. 
3. figure out how to be really good at “call of duty”, This is also Louie’s new obsession, not that we have the time to be playing right now and he has been asking me to play with him. It gives me motion sickness.
4. get a mani and a pedi once a week
5. get my 2002 body back. A buddy at the wedding yesterday suggested we all join biggest loser lol
6. Travel… a lot… there are 3 places I REALLY want to go.. Hawaii, Alaska and Australia. Plus one of my good friends and I want to travel to all the places from the Beach Boys song Kokomo. 
7. Eat healthier because its easy not because I have to.
8. Spend more time with my girlfriends

8 Shows I Watch: I can only put 8??? lol I’ll group them together based on genre lol

1. One Tree Hill & Gossip Girl
2. Grey’s & Private Practice
3. LOST & Survivor & Real World/Road Rules Challenges
4. jon&kate plus 8
5. Entourage
6. american idol and america’s next top model 
7. Law and Order SVU & CSI: NY
8. Brothers and Sisters

3…really???

Happy 3rd Birthday BABY  Big Boy! I still cannot believe my precious little first born baby is 3 years old today… can some one pinch me???

Quite Possibly the Craziest Weekend Ever

I’ve got an extremely busy weekend coming up! So busy that I can’t seem to calm my thoughts enough to fall asleep even though I am unbelievably tired! So I thought I’d write a post about all that I have to do.

I have not had my house to myself in almost 3 weeks. My sister-in-law and her son are staying with us indefintely so for the most part, my house in not my home right now. EVerything is out of order, including sleeping arrangements and schedules. Trey and Lani have been sharing a room for almost 2 weeks now and it is taking a toll on their attitudes. Regardless of the bad side effects, it has been great spending quality time with Christine. She has matured into a responsible young woman and I am so proud of her. Plus she has been a great help around the house. I know this isn’t really part of what needs to be done, it just adds to my manic state.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we close on our house, well technically today since it’s 1:00am. We close at 2:00pm. I have rehearsal and rehearsal dinner for my best friend’s wedding starting at 5:30. Louie has to take Brooklyn to get her check-up sometime tomorrow but I have a feeling it might end up being pushed off on me, hopefully not.

I need to figure out a way to get Trey to take a nap tomorrow, get to sleep early and be well rested come 4:30 saturday bc I will be mortified if he continues his outrageous behavior during the wedding ceremony… he’s the ring bearer. Speaking of which I need to iron his outfit. Today I had to go pick up new reefs for the both of us for the wedding… (it’s at the beach).

Saturday I’m getting my hair done at 11:30, then make-up at my cousins house, then to another bridesmaid’s house for preparation and pictures. I haven’t decided if I should bring trey with me for these pictures or leave him at home to make sure he is well rested. I also need to get my car cleaned before al of this because I am the bride’s ride in place of  a limo. After pictures I have to swing back by my house and pick you Louie, or convince my mom and step dad to pick him up. Then it’s off the wedding. There’s something about weddings that make me so nervous, plus the fact my son is in it too… i could just bite off all of my freshly manicured nails. I’m sure I will have to help clean up and tear down the reception. 

Sunday I will have to finish up any schoolwork that is not done yet, do laundry and ironing for the week as well as try to squeeze in time for some friends that want to come meet Brooklyn. Church has been taking the back burner since the beginning of the year because of sickness, now that the kids are finally better I am just getting more and more stuff piled on my plate, such as the unexpected arrival of my sister in law.

We have no plans for our anniversary and Trey’s actual birthday as of yet, but I am sure we will do something on both days. Either way, just more things to remember and organize and juggle.

I am longing for the next 5 weeks to fly by so that I can be done with school and packing to move into our first home! Oh and hopefully by then Brooklyn will be trained. Speaking of training, Leilani is doing pretty well with PRE-potty training stuff. She loves to go peepee on the potty so I’m looking forward to training her in the near future.

Well that’s all I can remember that I have to do for the time being. Good night!

Oh and if you guys have a chance check out Mycharmingkids.net and lift them up in prayer! It’s a pretty amazing story if you aren’t familiar with it.

Brooklyn Sky

Thought I would give everyone, besides Tina who was here when she came home for the 1st time, their first look at the newest addition to the Ramos clan.

Brooklyn Sky.

She is our 10 week old boxer puppy. Louie has been begging for a dog since Leilani was born and I always told him I had 3 stipulations… Trey needed to be talking, Leilani needed to be walking and we needed a house with a yard. Well the last of the three things is becoming official as of 2:00pm on Friday so we took the plunge. Like the process of deciding on names for our kids, we couldn’t agree. Although we both really liked the first 2 names we came up with… Pebbles and Sky. I liked Pebbles because my best friends dog’s name is Bam Bam and I really like naming dogs names that you can’t use on humans. And Sky was just something simple, unique and pretty except Louie heard a story about another dog name Sky and changed his mind. Louie has always wanted to name something Brooklyn and I had to fight tooth and nail to not have it be one of our kids’ names and I forgot that I made a promise that we could name our dog Brooklyn as long as I didn’t have to name my kid that… so alas, her name is Brooklyn… but it’s already growing on me. The picture really doesn’t do her justice, she is too stinkin’ cute and I can’t get enough of her. Trey loves her and refers to her as “my dog”… “mommy I go kiss MY dog, I go walk MY dog, I go wake up MY dog”. I should video tape him saying this to prove it when he is older and doesn’t want any of the responsibility right?! Leilani on the other hand is going through a rough stage right now. My sister-in-law and her son are staying with us for an extended period of time and I think she is having a hard time not being the baby anymore, now a puppy on top of that… let’s just say she isn’t being very sweet these days no matter how cute she is.

If anyone has any pointers on training and what not… please keep the tips coming. Mommy stuff has come pretty easy to me but dogs are not my area of expertise.

Closing Time …

Kathleen, I swear I was coming on to post about our new house and moving when I noticed you wrote a very similar post today as well :0)

Louie and I, (more Louie,less I) have been looking for a house for over a year now. With the market the way it is, the tax credit, the low interest rate and the FHA loans… we had to join the home owners club. Louie has been dead set on buying in a community, like where we live now… in a townhouse. Where I have always wanted to own a house with a yard. I would love to own out in Jupiter Farms with lots of land, but that’s just not possible right now.

We have almost pulled the trigger on like 4 different townhouses but things just never lined up. On February 28th, I was laying in Trey’s bed searcing Yahoo Real Estate while the kids played blocks on the floor and came across a beautiful home in the Heights, in our price range. I e-mailed the link to Louie right away so he called it when he got home later that afternoon. The realtor was shocked that we even found the listing because it didn’t officially go on the market until the following morning, March 1st. We made an appointment and were the 1st ones to see the house, another couple came in while we were there but left rather quickly. We both fell in love and made an offer right then and there. Within 2 days we learned they had accepted our offer and things started to move forward with what looked like a closing date of April 30th. 

Last week my mom and I were talking and she said she was going to be praying that God would either keep the doors open for this house or close them before the process got to far along. The following day we received a call from the realtor that the current owners had found a new house and needed to close on ours much sooner in order to use the equity for the new one. We took that as God’s answer to our prayer… the doors were open… WAY OPEN! 

We’ve already completed the inspection and the appraisal, our interest rate is locked in at an incredibly low rate and we close NEXT FRIDAY! March 27th! 

Even though we close next week, we won’t be moving in until Early-mid May because the sellers won’t be able to move into their new place yet so they will be renting from us. And then after they move out, Louie is going to rip out all the pergo flooring and install the real deal, because lets face it… what kind of hardwood flooring salesman would he be with fake wood floors. I can’t wait to take before and after pictures!!!

My favorite things about our new house is the back yard, with swing set included and the fact that we are only 2 streets away from a great park!!!! I’m looking forward to meeting more moms! Where we live now isn’t exactly family oriented! Oh yea… and a 2 car garage!!!! 

This all seems so surreal, especially how it feels like God totally placed this right in our laps and how quickly everything is falling into place. The realtor keeps telling us how he has never had anything go so smoothly and quickly. There is one thing I am not looking forward to… PACKING for the 9th time in 6 years… but I am so grateful it will be the last time!!!

Please pray for us as we venture in to the new role as home owners! I’m going to have to teach my husband how to mow a lawn! lol