Catch up August 26, 2010

It’s been 3 weeks since I blogged last. A lot has changed in our daily routines since then.

Trey started school for the 1st time and LOVES it! Most days he doesn’t want to leave. This was a big adjustment for me for most of the 1st week, especially the 1st day. Louie picked him up on his 1st day because he wasn’t able to go with us to drop him off. So I was super anxious for him to get home. 5 hours seems to last an eternity! He is doing really well at school, he did get in trouble one day for pinching a boy that took a toy away but other than that he is doing great. We went to the store so I could get a huge cork-board to display all his work since our fridge isn’t magnetic :0) It’s mommy’s “brag wall” and he reminds me every day that we need to hang the new work on it, except when I told him we needed to start taking things down to make room for the new stuff he said we just needed to buy more cork-boards ha! We wouldn’t have any wall space left. Trey is also going to an after school program a few days a week when I have volleyball practice. He LOVES this even more. Jupiter Christian’s preschool program is any kids heaven! Toys, movies, play dough, art time, playground time, all in a peaceful (very) air conditioned environment. He can’t get enough and asks me every day if he gets to go to “volleyball school” too.

Speaking of volleyball, this has been the biggest adjustment for us so far. I have practice 5 days a week, last week we practiced right after school so this was rough because I have Leilani with me because she is not old enough for the after care program yet. I was pretty nervous and intimidated on my first day, in addition to Leilani being clingy and bratty, it didn’t go as I had hoped. Once I got the first day jitters out of my system things have really started to improve, especially on days that I don’t have Leilani. This week has been great because every day except Wednesday we practice from 5-7 so Louie gets the kids and the girls have my undivided attention. We are having fun and getting better at the same time. Don’t get me wrong, there are still challenges, ones that I am still not sure how to handle, but we are all learning together. I am learning , probably as I will learn as a parent, that I can’t always be there friend. I need to discipline and call them out on their bull. My practice schedule has drastically changed our evening routines. On days when I practice early I have to rush home to get dinner ready, on days when we practice late, I have to have dinner ready before I leave so louie can just heat it up and get the kids fed. He has really stepped up in this area. Getting them fed, bathed, and ready for bed. Even reading to them which he never really does. Which kind of brings me to the biggest changes in our routines since the start of school. Since we are waking up before the sun ( we never used to wake up before 8:00 ) the kids are ready for bed by 7:30. Leilani comes with me to take Trey to school and then goes back to bed for a nap around 9:00am. I was hating this new routine the 1st couple days before I realized she should take a nap early. We are really get in to the swing of things, which I am sure will all change once we add game days into the mix.

I try to take the kids some place for a special treat every couple days. We went for cupcakes with the Hobbies, smoothies another day, the dollar store once and to my all time favorite treat place Annie’s Italian Ice. I had a strawberry gelati and the kids each had cookie monster ice cream. It was as fabulous as I remember it. The last time I had it was the night before Trey was born when I was in the hospital starting the inducing procedure. SOOOO yummy and refreshing on these hot, humid August days! Speaking of inducing, my best friend Leah is going in tonight to start her induction. Cervadil tonight, petocin tomorrow. CAN’T WAIT!!!

Comfort August 5, 2010

I’m kind of having “blogger’s block” right now so I decided to try another Plinky Prompt .

I decided on What’s your favorite comfort food, and why?

Ironically, I was thinking about doing a post about this yesterday, as I was in need of some comfort food this week. I’ll give you the back story first. Monday morning I had my yearly gyno appointment. Always so fun because my doctor continuously reminds me of how overweight I am. This time he did not, thankfully. However, he found a lump/mass in my breast and wanted me to get a mammogram and ultrasound on it asap. I held it together pretty well as he was telling me about his youngest patient to have breast cancer and the amounts of people who have had cancer recently. Even made it through making the appointment with the receptionist. Got out the door and started walking to the car and the flood gates opened. Every possible worse case scenario started running through my head. My kids growing up with out me. My husband doing life without me by his side. My parents having to bury me first ( I’d be cremated btw but thats off subject). So one else raising my kids. Etc Etc Etc… I called Louie when I got in the car and couldn’t even form a coherent thought much less get the words out. When I finally managed to tell him, he was so supportive and encouraging. He offered to take off work to go with me to the appointment, if you know Louie this is huge because he hates taking time off work. I drove straight to my moms because I needed comfort. I was supposed to go do a cleaning job right after but couldn’t pull it together, I’m still shocked I even made it to my moms safely. My mom and her husband were also very supportive and encouraging and prayed with me and for me through out the day. I was kind of in depression mode for most of the day. Sat on the couch listening to music all day when I came across my cousin’s friend Karla Davis ‘s version of Temporary Home by Carrie Underwood. It hit me… obviously I don’t want to die. I don’t want to leave my loved ones behind. I don’t want to miss all the important things in the lives of my kids… but this is my temporary home. If it is in God’s plan for me to leave and enter my real home then so be it. I had to let go of the fear and give it all to him and trust that whatever the results, it was HIS plan. Coming to this realization did not make me any less terrified, just gave me some peace I guess.

Anyway, before any of this happened on Monday my mom invited us for dinner at her house, but I couldn’t because I have started a coaching gig at JCS and had open gym that night. She ended up taking out some of her home made spaghetti sauce for me to take home and heat up for the family while I went to the gym. My kids love love love spaghetti and ate huge portions of it! For me, coming home and eating my mom’s spaghetti was one of the biggest comforts of my day. She has made some tweaks to her recipe since I was a kid but nevertheless it tasted like “home”. I can’t even describe how it makes me feel, I just love it and could eat it all day every day. I could eat it cold or hot, with our with out noodles. It doesn’t matter.

I went for my mammogram and ultrasound early Tuesday morning. The ladies were so so so nice and made me feel very comfortable through a pretty intense and scary situation. And even they are not supposed to tell me any of the results they both told me that it looked like nothing to worry about just some built up tissue and that the doctor would call and confirm these results in a day or two.

Sure enough, I got the call yesterday morning that the tests came back clear and I would not have to get a biopsy. But that they would like me to come back in a month to recheck everything to make sure. Praise GOD! After taking Trey to his 1st dentist appointment (that lasted about 2 hours, UGH), we came home and I indulged in some more of my comfort food. Boy, did it hit the spot! I can eat it in happy times, in sad times, in scary times or in times of celebration.

What’s your comfort food?

Cruise Series- “Firsts” August 3, 2010

I want to do a couple of posts about our cruise that we went on in June. I want to document all the things that we did, all the places we went and all the fun that we had while it is still semi-fresh in my mind.

This trip was filled with a bunch of firsts for our family. It was our first real family vacation outside of Orlando and New York when we visit more family. It was our first extended family vacation with my side of the family. It was the first time Louie and the kids got passports. It was the first time Louie and the kids have left the country, aside from PR back in March. It was our first time on a cruise. It was my first time visiting Key West, even though I am a 3rd generation NATIVE Floridian.There were some other things too but these are what sticks out in my mind right now.

Of all the amazing things we did and all the firsts that we took part in, one first that wasn’t so amazing might haunt me for the rest of my life.

On our second or third day on board, Louie, the kids and I were headed back to our room to get them changed and take them up to “Camp Carnival”. Our stewards were in the process of turning down our room for the night so they asked us to hang out for a few minutes while they finished up. So we went to sit on the stairs by the elevators and wait until they were finished. Trey was acting up and being really disobedient and out of control so I was dealing with him and Louie was supposed to be watching Leilani. After I was done talking to Trey I asked Louie where Leilani was and he said she went up the stairs ( HERE’S YOUR SIGN!) I was dumbfounded that he was still sitting there and went up after her. Got up to the next level… no Leilani. Went up another level…. still no Lani. Are room was on deck 7 in the rear of the ship. I ran up and down decks 7 -8 & 9 a good 10 or more times. Calling out her name. Asking crew members if they had seen a little girl ( none of which spoke very much english) and beginning to become pretty frantic. I finally ran back down to deck 7 to find Louie still sitting in the same spot playing on his phone as calm as could be. I asked him if she came back he said no. I kind of flipped out on him and grabbed Trey and ran to our room to ask our room stewards for help. I had held it together pretty well until I actually had to say ” Please help… my daughter is missing!” At this point I LOST it COMPLETELY!!! I couldn’t form a rational thought, I couldn’t speak clearly and I was just a sobbing mess. Our head steward ran to the stairs to see what he could do while the girl steward sat with me and Trey to calm me down. After another few minutes, and my mind running through every possible worse case scenario only making matters worse I got up and started walking back to the stairs. The head steward was walking back towards us saying that they found her. Louie came around the corner holding her and she looked terrified. She knew what she did was wrong… I was elated just to see her again but still gave her a good reprimand where we were both crying. The rest of the trip, and even to this day, she reminds me about how she went away from mommy on the big boat. She told my mom about it and how she made mommy sad and she was scared. This does not mean that she has stopped wandering off because she still does and each time I freak out just as much now knowing how scary it is. By far the scariest 15 minutes of my life! It felt like eternity.

I promise the rest of the posts about our cruise will be happy ones that share insight on why you should take one too. I just wanted to get that one out for memories sake.