Elvis Christmas

The Elvis Christmas album was big at our house. I hear it now and I swear I can still hear my Dad singing. Amazing. My heart swells with love and pain at the same time. Singing was big in our car! Everyone sang. I loved to just drive and sing. Still do. I really miss hearing my dad sing.

So I failed

the blogging once a day in November. I plan to keep up the blogging as long as possible. I still want to do one of those blog books Andrea told me about.

Today is Saturday. I keep thinking it is Sunday. I was off work this whole week. Weird how you start to think, what job? I don't have to go anywhere or do anything but what I want too. Yeah, and then you think, this is it? My kids are all in school, what would I do all day? You can only watch so much MONK and Ghost Whisperer. hee hee

I was home when Krystal and Bradley were real little until I went back to school. I didn't work so I was still home with them most of the time. That was nice but all my friends worked. I didn't have any money so I couldn't really do anything and there weren't as many activities as there are now. (That was a LONG time ago)

Ah, but there is today and tomorrow. I hope to enjoy them. At least there are many days off in December and I will be off a week again in January. My kids have THREE weeks off for Christmas. Is this the norm now? I decided to wait until January to give everyone else the time off those two weeks (we are close Thursday and Friday of each week anyway).

Krystal will finish up with this semester in two weeks. She will be home-working or at work-working (hopefully).

Enjoy your Saturday.

It's official

Diego can now tie his shoes. WOO HOO! He has been really lazy about it as have we. I sat down with him the other day and showed him in steps. He was doing fine but not really getting it and then wal-la, he did it! YEAH

Giving Thanks

There is always much to want, wish and hope for. But there is always much to give thanks for as well. I have four healthy children. I have a husband who loves me beyond belief and who, after 16 years, am still very much in love with. We have our own home. We have jobs that we love (which I am just about done with that student loan!). We have loads of friends by our side. We still have our Mom's. Our Dad's are both in heaven, probably enjoying a drink together. Our Grandparent's are gone as well, but they all lived loved and full lives.

We have love and happiness. We know the gift of travel. Of learning of other cultures and seeing the beauty of old buildings. We have the desire to travel more. Our love of learning hasn't ended.

I could list things all day. There is so much to be thankful for, but I am most thankful this year, in particular, for forgiveness.

Stealing from Julie

Because that is what friends do. Birth stories. I will cut mine short, hopefully.

Krystal-THREE weeks after her due date on August (yes AUGUST) 7th, I went in to be induced. After two whole hours of labor she was born at just after midnight on the 8th.

Bradley-a week after his due date I was induced on November 15th. A two day thing. They put something on your cervix and see what happens. I went back in because something was going on. Stayed all night, nothing. Started the inducing in the morning, at 2:30 they said they might send me home. Nurse came in at 3:30 to check me, told her my water broke (nothing had happened up till then), she checked me, slammed the call button and said "tell the doctor to get here NOW she is at 10". He was at another hosiptal a few miles away. I remember them moving me when he walked in, and I said "You better hurry up" My mom said he didn't have time to scrub or anything. Born 45 minutes later.

Siobhan- I thought I was leaking, so I went in, they said they would go ahead and induce me since it was my due date and I was there ( I think something else was going on). Her labor was the worst. I think it was only 4-5 hours but they broke my water pretty early on. There she was!

Diego-I was having monitoring for low fluid. I was taking Siobhan with me. They called me. I felt it was like in Toy Story "Farewell my friends, I go off to a better place". I was the chosen one. I went downstairs to get induced. It was my due date. I called Eric and Siobhan watched cartoons until he got there. They couldn't start the inducing for two hours, I needed meds first, so Eric and I watched a movie. They started finally and it was fine. I remember joking between contractions. Taking phone calls. Frankly I was quite funny, and there he was.


Summary-two kids late and two born ON the due date ( I throw that 5% statistic way off)
four kids and four times to be induced.
No drugs

Getting prenant, pregnancy and having the baby is easy for me. I guess I just don't go into labor on my own. We could have had two more but I am so glad we didn't. Those two adorable, cute, loving little kids will be teenagers one day in the not to far distance. Teenagers=heartache and headache

My sweet sleeping boy

One the way and the way home from the LA Galaxy game.

True Love

My husband and I have been together for 16 years. We have been married for 9. There have been ups and downs and some bad patches, but overall, I truly think we are blessed. Most of the time I feel as though I have just fallen in love with him. I look at him and think "I love him so much". I want to kiss and hold him as if we just met, but only better because there is so much love and history there.

I know how things can be and I am not going to say we have never been there. A lot of things happen in 16 years. I grew very distant when my Dad passed away. Although I don't think you ever fully recover, I have learned. I am in love with my husband. There are so many things to love about him. He doesn't think so which just makes it easier to love him.

I just consider myself lucky and blessed. Very blessed.

so I forgot

Who cares. I was tired last night

Word Verification

My friends and I have been doing this for a while now. Does your blog have word verification? Does mine? When you write a comment on someone's blog, make your comment, then write the word verification word (the word "word" used loosely) and then write a sentence using it.

It's fun and sometimes quite difficult.

nice night

Tonight was a good night. While dinner was cooking Diego got his shower. (He always seems to need to shower). Siobhan completed her homework. We ate dinner. I put in a load of laundry and Daddy took a quick nap. Diego fell asleep on the couch. Siobhan unwrapped some little ceramic dolls from her Nana. When Eric woke up Siobhan read us a story "Mr Sugar Comes to Town". How perfect is that? All the while, Diego sleeps on the couch.

All in all a really great, peaceful and relaxing night.

not for the little one's ears

the website is down

Monday Monday

Today started out pretty crappy, got worse but then tapered off. Eric made a nice pasta dinner and I got to watch a MONK. I am going to have clean sheets in about 5 minutes and nothing can go really bad when you have clean sheets.

I made Diego clean off the toothpaste on the bathroom door. How the heck it got there, I have no idea but I am quite sure it was him! brat! Good thing he is SO cute.

Looking forward to next week. The kids and I are off the whole week. I am sure I will be going out of my mind come Thanksgiving but it will be nice to sleep in and relax. Not sure what we will do but hang out around the house.. Any ideas? We might take Diego to Disneyland. Poor baby still hasn't gone. We are neglectful parents. 5 minute drive makes it easy to put off. I just know he isn't going to want to ride anything!

That's the night that the lights went out in Carson

Friday night was the LA Galaxy game. Started at 8pm. We arrived about 6:45 since you never know how traffic is going to be and the last game we parked far away. We did our pre-game stuff. Got our free hot dogs and soda's and sat down to watch our guy's practice.

We got our seats near where we usually sit so we got to talk to Tammy and Phil.

About 15 minutes into the game, the lights went out. All the field lights. They were out for about 20 minutes. It was actually kinda cool. They came back on and they played. There was no score at the half. They started playing again and about another 15 minutes into the second half, darkness. Again. For another 20 minutes. They game went into overtime. We scored in the first 15 minutes overtime and then again in the second 15 minute overtime. We won! Hot diggy dog. We thought about going to Seattle for the final game but tickets are pretty expensive.

Last night we watched to see who the Galaxy is going to play. Real Salt Lake won in a shoot out. They played 90 minutes, two over time 15 minutes and usually there are 5 kicks on each side but last night, I believe it went to 7.

Next week La Galaxy will win. If we can't be there we hope to be at a watch party somewhere. Unless we have one here, hmmm.

My trip for produce

There is a store called Superior. I wish it were closer but I drive to Santa Ana for it. It is worth it.
Check out the deals I got!

2.4 lbs onions =.60
loose carrots 3.28lbs=1.09
10lbs potatoes=1.79
hot house tomatoes 1.97lbs= .99
navel oranges 5.17lbs= 2.59
bananas 5.29ils=3.65
AND
red delicious apples 13.10lbs=2.62

Yes 13.10 POUNDS of apples. I almost thought "is this too much?" but we go through fruit like crazy.

I love that store for produce. Everything else, eh. But what deals they have! It is worth it to drive the 6 miles or so. (There are THREE in Santa Ana, time to move out into another city guys!) Plus it is bag your own which the little one's love and since all I get is produce it makes it pretty easy.

hi there

hello

mas about me

I like black licorice, not red
I love to read and I read very quickly but I do not know how to spell
I enjoy going to the movies but think it is so over priced that I don't do it often
I wish I could hire a cook (dinner would be ready when I get home)
I would love to have my house completely decorated for Christmas but never actually manage to get it done
I think the Thanksgiving meal is over rated. How much food does any one person need in one sitting?
I would really like to have a convertible (well who wouldn't?)
My friend Melissa has been my friend for 38 years. How has she hung in there?
My husband and I have been together for 16 years. Still in love!
I look forward to seeing my children every night but don't mind going to work in the morning.
I have worked at my job for almost 11 years and I still love it.
I have an apple most nights at bedtime
My friends think we have too much computer "stuff"
I don't see my mom or brothers as much as I would like
I thought I would be a better Aunt

Kids school pictures

Siobhan-2nd grade Diego-Kinder

re-posting my very first post

This was my very first post. Written on Friday August 6, 2004. FIVE years ago. Thought it wouldn't hurt to re-post. Diego was about 2 months old and I was still on my four month "vacation" from work.

whaaa

Sometimes I feel as if I am going to go out of my head being at home with four kids. I count the hours until my husband is home, an adult, someone to help spread the madness. How can they be so dang cute and so annoying all at the same time? So, as I think, wow I need to run away, I think a I only have 55 days until I go back to work. Yikes! I love my job, don't get me wrong, I love my kids too. But too much of a good thing.....
I try and remember that I probably (although I don't see how) get on their nerves as well. If we decide to go to the park, everyone is excited. If we go to the dog beach, woo hoo. If we go shopping, all right! But somewhere between the going and the being there, the outing loses some of its appeal and someone is complaining. So, easy enough to fix, hey you don't like it stay home and do chores. Ha! I showed them.

For Conner (mostly)

My screen name on just about everything is Cucsmom.

Pronounced kooksmom

My chocolate lab is named Cucui. Cucui means boogeyman in Spanish. I love Cucui. I love Cucui more than (most) of the kids.

Therefore, my screen name is Cucsmom

It's a great big beautiful wonderful incredible...

You have to LOVE the internet. About 20 years ago Mad Magazine put square records in the magazines. There was one song that stuck with me all these years. I sing it often. It has eight different endings to the song. I found someone who had blogged them all. Check it out! Click on the title to take you to the website.

barium enema x-ray

Although I have yet to have the joy of having one, I was lucky enough to witness Siobhan having one. She has had problems with constipation for well over 2 years. She has been on one adult dose of miralax per day every day and still she has problems.

The Pediatric GI doctor recommended a barium enema x-ray to see what was going. Of course, I checked online right away to see what we were in for. What the heck?

I didn't tell her until that morning what was actually going to happen. Didn't want her to dwell on it too long (and believe me, she would have). The x-ray tech we had was very friendly, helpful and great with Siobhan. She explained everything to her so she would understand. The doctor came in and inserted a tube into her bum. From there we were able to watch on the screen her colon fill with barium. She was GREAT! They filled her up with more, more, and more. They got another bag (probably twice the size of an IV bag) and continued. Once that one was almost all the way in, she was in tears. She was moving side, front, side, back, side, etc. They were in the other room looking at something and Siobhan had so many tears coming out of her eyes. Poor baby. I called the tech in and said, she is in pain now. They moved the bag to the floor where the barium should have come out of her body and back into the bag. That didn't happen. They untaped her bum and removed the tube and I carried her to the restroom. Once she emptied most of it, another x-ray.

She did so well. I was so glad Daddy waited in the lobby. It was breaking my heart and I know it would have killed him. I told her "You did SO well." She said "No, I cried". Oh my gosh, I tried telling her how that didn't matter because she did what needed to be done. Anyone would have cried.

We took her out for a really big breakfast because she hadn't been able to eat and she was fine after that. Daddy had to take her for a follow up x-ray the next day. She was okay since it was a regular one! The tech told us to come while she was working and she would take care of Siobhan.

We haven't heard from the doctor yet. I don't know how we will proceed from here. I will let you know when we find out!

Random facts about me

I do not like my hair dirty, so I wash it daily
I do not like putting away dishes but I don't mind washing them
I prefer to only cook on Sundays
I am the youngest of four, my other siblings are all male
I love dogs AND cats
I hate country music and rap
I get car sick unless I drive
I first dyed my hair in 8th grade, it was my mom's idea
I would like to start skating again
I still like to drive with the windows down and the music loud (without the kids of course!)
Eric I agreed it was mandatory that our house had a fireplace and no swimming pool
I don't remember too much about growing up. I don't really have a good memory at all

This will probably go on all month. Geez, I will never run out of things to write about

Piece of sh*t

Picked my car up, fixed finally. yeah. Fixed. Finally that dang Check engine light was out. Oh, until this morning. WTH? Taking it in tomorrow. Hoping it is free to fix it. Seriously rethinking public transportation. Or a scooter like Krystal? Or hers? ha ha better yet!

This weekend, LA Galaxy game. Oh yeah. Looking forward to it! We have some stuff to do around the house/yard too. Not so looking forward to that, but you have to do what you have to do. Right?

Time Change

I love when the time changes and it seems so much later than it really is. The long days are great too. Lots of outside time but darkness. ahhh. I feel like I get so much more done because it is still HOURS till bedtime although it feels like it already.

I wonder how I would do if it were dark all the time or light all the time. Who could forget those days on Northern Exposure. I would go nuts for sure.

Watching V

It just started and I just want to say it better not be set in California. There is no way people here would make a big deal of some shaking. Not to mention the dumbass lady who tried to hold her books in her bookshelf. Shez

No shame in public transportation

And I think I might need to start taking it. My car is in the shop again! We are looking at about $1150 this time. Nice. Damn imports. Let's see, work is 3.8 miles away. I could take the bus or give gas to carpool. hmmm, nice thought. I DO have a bike but ick, I would be nasty by the time I got to work plus in the dark coming home. Californian's are not known for being nice to bike riders.

What does a bus pass costs these days?

side note

If your also doing blog once a day during November. Leave me your link and I will make a special link page!

Day one of NaBloPoMo 2009

There is no theme for this year, or rather the theme is no theme. I decided to have one for those days when my brain just isn't working. This is year three for me. I shall not be defeated. My theme is medicine/health. I will use various body parts/medical info/etc to get me through if needed.

Today we are going to pick up Krystal's scooter. She is very excited although she doesn't have a license and can't ride it anyway. You need a M1 (motorcycle) license to ride one. She still has to get that and take a safety course (scheduled for next week).

Loving the extra hour of sleep although I didn't get to sleep until late as our neighbor's had a kicking party well past 1am.