a little bit of everything and a whole lot of nothing

My mother – My mom was going out to dinner tonight, and she wanted to tell me that I wouldn’t be able to get ahold of her, so she told me she was going to be incognito. I think she meant incomunicado.

Chicken Out - I used to work at a restaurant called Chicken Out. They sold - wait for it now - CHICKEN. Well they had a grilled chicken breast sandwhich, and after about a month of me working there, they got a new supplier. With the new supplier when you ordered new chicken breast filets, you would have to order random breasts. Do you know how much I enjoyed that. I tried to explain to my sister in law why I thought it was funny (it made me laugh because I can just imagine them going around and whacking off random breasts) but for some reason it didnt translate as funny in Spanish.

enriques journey - an awesome book. This book is about a boy from Honduras who takes the trip north to the US. No matter what your thoughts are on immigration - legal or illegal - or anything else, this is a book that I think EVERYONE should read. Its a true story. It comes in English and Spanish

Painted house - My husband painted our house. He wont tell me what color it is. Or what colors it is. All I know is that he is extremely fond of the wine/burgandy color. I hope that I dont have a wine/burgandy colored house. I keep asking him, and he wont tell me. he tells me to wait for the pictures, or maybe he wont send me pictures, maybe he will let me be suprised when I show up. Does he not realize I need to know, because if I don't like the colors, I am bringing my own rollers and my own paint when I come.

They are waiting for me - At least once a day he says that someone from the area stops by to ask if this is where the gringa lives, and when the gringa is coming. The "town" if you can call it that isn't that big. He says the people as the come by the house always ask about the gringa. Even if they just asked him yesterday.

Stair Dance - Man, I am so happy I saw this post. Its called the stair dance - learn it. If you have kids, teach it to them. Make sure you click on the link to read all about it!

Hungry Boy - I think Levi doesn't like my 3-6 month clothing, because it seems he is doing his best to get to 6-9 month clothing. Last night he ate at 8, at 9, at 10, at 11 and at 12. Six ounces each time. Then he ate at 4AM and at 7AM, then at 11AM (he was fussing to eat since 10AM, but I kept shoving the pacifier in his mouth to hold him off, LOL) then at 1:30PM, at 4PM, at 6PM and at 8PM. At this rate I am going to have to get a part time job to keep formula in the house as fast as he is going through it.

Lawyer - I have a lawyer for getting everything fixed as far as my residency goes. I am so excited. I have had him for a while, I just kept forgetting to let you all know. I was given the number and email of 4 different lawyers. I sent each one an email, and the lawyer I have now responded the next day. Two of them have yet to respond, and its been over a month since I sent them an email. The last one waited 10 days sent me an email that said they were busy right now and would send me an email with information at a later time, then after another two weeks sent me another email telling me if I wanted information I should send my husband to their offices so that he could talk to them. Um no. I want to talk to the lawyer myself so that I know what needs to be done. My husband is a typical man, he can be in the conversation and get everythign screwed up. When we went to the consulate, he asked the people there what needed to be in the letter giving me permission to register Levi, since he wouldn't be in the states. I wasn't there when he asked (thank God I thought to ask when I went to the back - but he didn't know I asked) So he called me the other day and asked me what needed to be in the letter. What makes it even worse is that this was the 8th time he has asked me what needs to be in the letter, and the last time he asked me he had already written the letter. See why I want to do this myself, and not my husband?

Johan the cat/dog/vacuum - I dont have a little boy, I think I have a rare type of cat/dog. Johan wanted a cup of milk today. Normally cups are to be drank (drunk?) ONLY in the kitchen. Somehow he got by me and was in my room with his cup of milk. He sat down in front of the TV, poured his cup of milk onto the carpet in front of the tv, then leaned over and started to suck the milk out of the carpet. He told me he didn't want to drink from a cup anymore. WTH?? Maybe he thinks he is a steam vacuum, I dont know.

Hurricane Johan

I was going to post an update on my house in Honduras, but life with kids happened this morning, that I thought you would enjoy hearing about it more... See I am always thinking of my readers, LOL.

Lack of sleep, the beginnings of a cold, (both on the adult) and an unsupervised (sort of) 2 yr old does not a good combination make.

Usually Levi wakes up once a night for me, around 2:30 AM, then he eats and goes back to sleep until around 7:00ish - which is when my alarm is set to go off anyway. And sleep with that one interuption, while not ideal, is good. I can deal with it. Well last night when Levi got up at 2:30 AM, I got up, made his bottle, sat back down on the bed with him, and within him drinking 2 ounces I was asleep. I am guessing he was too, since he didn't cry for more. The only bad thing about that was he didn't get enough to eat. So come 4:30 AM he was up again. I made him another bottle, and this time managed to stay awake long enough (barely) for him to eat all 6 ounces. Well the alarm went off at 7:00, I rolled over turned it off and back to sleep I went. At 7:15 AM Mickey came downstairs telling me I needed to do her hair. (The bus for Mickey and Isa comes at 7:30ish) Still half asleep - think more along the lines of barely alive - I tried to get her to go to school with her hair just brushed, no ponytails, but she got upset because she said her bangs kept getting in her face. So I sent her for the brush, and ponytail holders and sat up, and when she came back, I put her hair in ponytails. Not once did I open my eyes. When she asked about Isa's hair, I told her to tell Jordan to pull it back for me. (can I say as much as her constant hormonal outburts drive me nuts, I love that girl, LOL) The next thing I knew it was 8:10 AM and Levi was ready to eat again. As I stumbled to the sink - still with my eyes closed - well one was half open so that I knew how much water was going into the bottle - I double checked with Jordan that the girls got on the bus (the bus stops in front of our house, so they just have to stand at the front door - I didn't send a 3 and 4 yr old out the door to some bus stop far away all alone, I promise) and made the bottle and went back to bed.

Before I fell asleep again, I called Johan and Lana into my room, turned on cartoons, put Lana in her toy and after feeding Levi, went back to sleep again. Periodically I would hear Dora or Diego say something, and the kids respond, and I would raise my head enough to make sure all was well. Well at 11:00 AM I finally was feeling well enough to open my eyes. (yes a hungry Levi woke me up) And at the foot of my bed, this is what I was greeted with...

Hurricane Johan

Do you see how it sort of looks like what a hurricane looks like on the satelite system on your local tv station? And the poor frog - one had managed to get away, but it seems one was not quite so lucky.

Because my bed is in front of the tv, Johan was on the floor in front of my bed, and while I saw him everytime I opened my eyes to check on him, I couldn't see the floor to see what he was doing, and I assumed (you know what they say about assuming) that he was being good watching cartoons.

Lana watching Blues Clues - my view when I would open my eyes to check on them

It has been a while since Lana had formula, so I forgot how much Johan loved to eat they powdered soy formula straight out of the can. I wish my brain was coherent enough that I would have thought about taking a picture of Johan BEFORE his bath. But since I didn't you just have to use your imagination. Think powdered wig as hair, and a lovely white crustiness all over his face. And while I fussed at him just a tad - reminding him that formula is not for big boys - I really couldn't get that mad at him since I was the one who was not fully awake. He was then put into the bath, and his clothes, along with the big pile already in the laundry room, into the washing machine. He looks so innocent though when he is fresh out of the bath.

Mr Innocent

I figured that my day could only get better right? It sure did. I was done feeding Levi and went to wash out his bottle, and I stepped out of my room into the hallway. Or creek I should have said. It seems that yesterday when Andre stuck Lana in the big sink in the laundry room to wash her hands yesterday he took out the hose that drains the washing machine, and put it on the floor. Then forgot to put it back into the sink. So when he turned on the washing machine this morning, it also cleaned the floor.

I swear the laundry room floor has got to be the CLEANEST floor in the whole house. Two days ago Johan was "helping" me by dumping half a box of Dreft on the laundry room floor, and with a peice of sponge was scrubbing the floor. And that was after we got him dressed because I had to go somewhere. So I had to dump water on the floor and scrub it up then dump more water and towel dry it. Can I tell you that laundry soap - either liquid or podwer - on a concrete floor + water make a nice ice skating rink, without the ice. (I say liquid because earlier this year Mickey and Isa had dumped a whole 2.3 gallons of liquid tide - a brand new container - on the laundry room floor too, and again, we were skating all over the floor trying to get it cleaned up. Although it did make the basement area smell wonderful for weeks!)

My boys taking a nap - well supposed to be taking a nap. One is, one isn't. Can you see the mark on Johan's cheek where he made Isa mad and she scratched him. You would think he would have learned the first time she got him - she is worse than a cat.

nothing much to say today

I had a blog all written out, but I was reading the news online, and I was so disgusted and upset (I cried while reading it) by something I read, so upset that I no longer wanted to post it. I will post it another day.

Instead I just want to hold my children extra tighter so that they know that I love them, and that I would never hurt them. So instead I am just going to post a couple of pictures of my fashion challenged Lana Bear, and of my FAT boy (these pictures were taken at 3 week 4 days. Can you believe how FAT he has gotten - look at those cheeks) Can you believe that at 3 weeks he has outgrown 0-3 month clothing, and is now in 3-6 month clothing.

(by the way, in case you are wondering what exactly is Lana wearing - she has on a lovely flower hat, a white Punta Gorda dress that I have no clue where it came from, the lovely red and black samurai jacket, and some blue sweatpants of her brothers.)

I want some presents...

Ok, I dont know what happened with this whole christmas tree thing, all of my gifts were taken away, then all of a sudden I had 28,400 gifts and they were horrible items - and horrible remarks, so I am going to assume that I was spammed somehow. So I took it off.

But thank you to those who left me a gift anyway.

The Last Thanksgiving (& as requested, more Levi pictures)

First things first - madmad asked me in one of her comments where are the pics of Levi - so just for her, here are a some pictures of him making funny faces. (my favorite one being the sepia toned one. He was sleeping when I took that, and he happened to make a face and open his eyes, LOL)

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. *What? Are you a little confused? Didn't know it was Thanksgiving did you? That would explain all the turkey that was on your table yesterday* It was the last Thanksgiving that I am going to celebrate here in the US. Or at least for a while anyway. I thought I would be somewhat sad, or something. But nope. I am actually happy because with my next Thanksgiving, I will be saying thank you for being able to be with my husband again.

I went to my moms for dinner, it was just us, my mom and Rob, her husband. It was a nice calm dinner- well as calm as it could be with 7 children - 5 of whom are 4 and under. Oh wait, I keep forgetting, I only had 6 kids with me. Jordan was at her fathers house.

I gave my mom the turkey to cook, and she made mashed potatoes, green beans and had applesauce. I sent over some pudding mix, and some graham cracker crusts so that I could make a couple of "pies" for dessert. (can you really call pudding mix in a crust a pie?) I sent it earlier in the week so that it was less that I had to bring. So I was in charge of bringing milk to make the pies, as well as stuffing, or at least the mix to make when I got there.

When I left, I left with the kids, a package of hot dogs and buns (for lunch) and thats it. I didn't bring the stuffing, nor the milk.

The reason why I forgot to bring everything was because I got detained. About 10 minuted before I was ready to walk out the door my husband called, and for once, the day that I wanted to get out the door on time, he wanted to talk for more than 5/10 minutes. It was nice though, I needed to just talk to him for a while. To connect with him, if that makes sense. He had his son Sendi there with him, and by the time I hung up I was in a great mood.

Before I go any further, let me give a bit of background. There are some issues with Sendi and Gisela and I. When they met me, we got along great. They spent a couple of days with Lale and I when I was in Honduras, but the problem was they didn't know who I was. (they just thought I was a friend of their fathers, not his wife. Its a long story and maybe one day I will tell it, LOL) But once they found out who I was, I became the enemy. I became the woman who took their father away from them, and because of me, it really hit home that their mom and dad weren't getting back together. I have never blamed them for that, because I know that the way things were handled the wrong way, by both their mom and their dad. And I have been there and done that as far as being a child of divorce. So I understood. For the longest time they wouldn't even acknowledge Mickey, Isa, Johan, and Lana as their brothers and sister. But they have come around, and with Levi, they were excited for him to be born. Its been a long road these past four years, and with Gisela we are at a better place, but Sendi has never had anything nice to say about me, and has never talked to me after he found out.

Well the last time I talked to Lale, (before yesterday) Sendi was there and he actually got on the phone for a couple of minutes and we talked. Nothing big, just the how are you, hows school etc. etc. Then yesterday when I was talking to Lale, Sendi was in the background joking around with me through Lale. It was nice, and it made me happy. Maybe once we all get there, things wont be as I keep imagining them to be.

I was also happy because this is one less holiday down, and only one more big one to go - which means I got out of spending time with my one brother Dickie and his wife Angie, and their two rotton kids. I love my brother I really do. But I can't spend time with him and his family because they really don't know how to act. My brother and his wife are ignorant and 90% of the time one of them open their mouths they put their foot in their mouth. (I wrote about her in a blog last year - and I was being nice in my blog too) Or someone wants to put a fist in their mouth. Or maybe a bit of both.

I do my best not to be around them because so far I have been able to keep my temper in check, and I have done my best to ignore her, but one of these days I am not going to be able keep my mouth shut, and I am going to end up causing problems (although I am sure I would get a round of applause as well). It is sad too, that my mother doesn't like to spend alot of time with them either. How sad is it that?

So come Christmas time, I just have to be sure not to answer the phone if I see their number on my ID (which I probably wont because I think in the last 12 months they have called me once, maybe twice) and I certainly wont be calling them.