A whole new world

Mateo started kindergarten last week and I'm home alone with Tomás for the majority of the day. Freddie lives and works in Norfolk, VA so we don't see him very often. Once again, I have to adjust. Not that I have loads of free time, but the time I do have is much more flexible since I don't have to co-op at Mateo's nursery school, pick him up, coordinate playdates and activities, entertain and feed him. Chayla is at school as well so Tomás and I play, run errands and -during his naps - have time for myself. I never thought I'd see the day! I'm trying to be productive with that time by reading, surfing the internet, getting caught up with the rest of society and writing. I don't like writing, but it's something I need to work on so this is a great place to do that. I'm keeping this blog as well as starting a blog geared towards helping other military spouses. It's really just posts about some of my experiences and what I've learned. I hope it can help others in my situation. Please feel free to check it out and share it! http://nyams-notyouraveragemilitaryspouse.blogspot.com

Back on the horse

It's been more than a year since I last posted and a lot has happened. Primarliy, I had my second son, Tomas. His birth was an incredible journey. He's six months old now and the journey continues. We bought a house in MD and I am finally laying down some roots. Freddie is living in Norfolk while we maintain our lives in MD. Chayla is in full pre-teen mode and Mateo is in full-on crazy mode. Motherhood is a whole other experience when you are juggling more than one child, a husband who is not around, deciding to settle down and doing it all alone. The hardest part to navigate is not having time to myself. That's why I decided to start posting to this blog again. It's probably the only outlet I have.

So here I sit at 10:30 at night "talking" to no one instead of just going to bed and trying to rest before Tomas starts his nightly torture test. As soon as I close my eyes that kids wakes up. I probably would feel better about everthing in life if I just could get a full nights rest.

Hopefully I will be able to keep this up because I need the outlet. Now, I'm off to my other outlet - TV!

Calm before the storm

Let's face it. I can't keep a routine for crap. It's been a month since Freddie went underway and it is only now that I pick up the blog again. It's ok. It has taken me a month to readjust to life with out Freddie. It's hard to sleep at first. It's also hard to make less food and have no one to talk to late at night. On the positive side, the need to keep busy has given us the chance for new adventures. Chayla is in a fencing class. While she fences Mateo & I play (hopscotch, kickball, sprints). Mateo is in a sports class which he loves this time around. I've started a diet. We are looking forward to lots of traveling this summer (FL, MA, VA, NYC, DC), but also the quiet of being home & enjoying each other.

Today is a cool, quiet Sunday. Chayla is with her BF, Ariel, and Mateo is napping. My Dad is in the hospital (nothing serious, thank goodness), and so the house is completely and utterly quiet. Boy, do I appreciate this! It's rare to have quiet. It allows me to think; thinking that is not frenetic nor interrupted and therefore much more productive. I have about 30 minutes more of this so I will end my entry for today and go lay down to soak in the quiet. The storm will wake from his nap soon.

Round 2

And so it begins...again. Freddie was deployed. He left on Easter Sunday and will not be back until September. Again he leaves during one season to return in another. Again, I will try to keep a blog while he's gone so that he can keerp up and catch up with us when he does get to a port. Luckily, I finally downloaded Skype and will be able to video call him when he has internet access on land.

After our Christmas vacation in Puerto Rico Freddie had been in CT pretty regularly preparing for this mission, so it never really felt like he was home. We knew early on that he was going to leave in April but we didn't know when. Then without much notice, he told he'd have to leave sooner than he even expected. We had to cancel our Spring Break trip to FL and I scrambled to plan mini-trips with the kids all week while he was at work. We actually had a great time with him last week, but his departure day came way too soon.

Now I am in single-mom mode until the Fall, although my Dad is still here to help us. I'm anxious for warm weather and new adventures with the kids. I'm worried about my job coming to an end, but excited about the possibilities even if there are none to be seen as of now. I will travel this summer, visit my friends and family, and fight the good fight against the worry and sadness that can so easily take over when your partner is not around to talk to, to comfort you, and to reassure you are doing an amazing job. I'm not alone in this endeavor. Thousands of military spouses endure much worse for much longer. I'm glad to have supportive friends and family. So if I drop by your house this summer without warning, just remember--the Navy sent me.

non-triumphs

clearly, I do not know how to stick to a plan. I wanted to blog every day, but there is nothing to share or I can't remember it. My work out routine was derailed by a cold. Now I have to start the 32 days all over again. Boo.

At 5pm I realized I completely and utterly forgot to coordinate a meeting time and place for the group of girls I (try to) mentor. They were going to a college workshop and I forgot to call them last night. Luckily it worked out but I felt like such a dumb ass. To boot, when I checkd my email I realized I forgot to cancel with a friend who had invited me over tonight. Not that she was waiting for me, but I it's pretty rude not to respond to an invite. I don't know where my head has been these past few days. Perhaps my brain isn't functioning properly due to the pressure I feel from this head cold. Maybe I need a Blackberry.

I was feeling pretty down. Then Freddie took me shopping this evening. I hate shopping. I'm too short and "stout" (as I like to put it) to make clothes shopping an enjoyable experience. My husband is great because he dragged me to a few stores, pointed out nice things and never gave up on me. I'm pretty near impossible to go shopping with. I happily report I bought an outfit. I even bought some accesories. Oh wait, just one. In any case, it was a small triumph in a day full of non-triumphs.

State of the Union

I'm too much of a fan of Obama to be genuinely critical of his speech today. I know he tried to be honest and hopeful. I'm realistic, yet optimistic. I agree with Bobby Jindal that Americans can do anything and appreciate his insight, even if it wasn't all too clear to me.

For eight years I watched Bush's speeches, not in their entirety of course, I had to read them b/c I couldn't stand his smirks or laughter. Never did he make a genuine plea to the kids in this country, but tonight Obama did. It doesn't take much to make me cry, so it's no surprise that I teared up during Obama's speech. Tomorrow I get to go to work armed with a new mantra for me and more ammo to use on the kids I work with: "when you drop out of high school, you not only quit on yourself, you quit on your country!"

The challenge

I'm pretty sure I am stealing someone else's idea, but I don't think they'll mind. I am going to share some of my goals with anyone who's interested. The idea being that I will feel more obliged to follow through with the goals since others will supposedly be paying attention to my progress. I already mentioned I wanted to keep up with this blog. The 2nd goal on my list is my 32 day challenge. Starting on my 32nd birthday I plan on going to the gym/workout for 32 days in a row! 2/32 down. While I hope to lose weight and feel stronger, the real goal is merely to make it to 32 days of physical activity. I'm not very good at maintaining anything for longer than 2 weeks so this challenge will be multifaceted.

Hopefully I can make a habit of this work-out thing. My high school friend, Angela, is a triathelte and her blog is a great inspiration and reminder to me that my pitiful 1/2 hour run is a drop in the bucket! I don't plan on an Iron Man competition in Hawaii, but I do plan on a few 5K's this year, starting with #1 on Sunday.

Wish me luck!

32

So today I turn 32. I want to use this opportunity to start and continue a few things, one of which is this blog.

This weekend was one of the nicest birthday weekend's ever! We had a wonderful family dinner on Friday, followed by family game night. We are trying to plan family events and outings every weekend since we already know when Freddie will deploy again (end of April until August). Friday we attempted family bingo & pizza night at Chayla's school. It was too crowded so we left and opted for Armands pizza followed by Trivial Pursuit- Lord of the Rings edition. I know it's cheesy, but we are big fans of the movies.

Freddie made an appointment for me at a nice hair salon and I finally got a haircut that I love. Last year's haircut made me look like a soccer mom and I came home crying. Later that evening when I got in the car for our dinner date I came across a box with a beautiful pair of pearl earrings. We had a delicious dinner at Ceviche, a place in downtown Silver Spring. Then today I got a delicious breakfast, beautiful cards from the kids and a pair of gold earrings from Chayla. After an awesome workout I came home to birthday cupcakes and they all sang for me. Mateo was so excited for me. I wish I would've taken video. The final present was a beautiful book published by the NY Times that documents Obama's historic road to the White House. The book was a reminder to me of all the change the country has experienced and the good things I have in my life.

I'm grateful I had such a wonderful birthday with my beautiful family. Here's to many more! Cheers!

Vegging out

Mateo was sick since Thursday and I thought I had avoided catching it, but alas, I did not avoid it. I woke up feeling like crap but since we had accomplished so much this weekend I decided it was ok to veg. We all woke up late and eventually we all snuggled up in bed to watch The Incredible Hulk. I think Chayla and I enjoyed it more than Mateo. He likes the nicer version of the Hulk; the one that gets excited about "weekends, sunny days, and the ice cream truck." It really is a quote from his book.

No word from Freddie yet. These last few days are going by so slowly. Since I haven't heard from him even by email, I'm worried that he won't be back for a while more. He just better be back by Dec 23rd because we have tickets to PR and I am getting the heck out of Dodge and on to tropical paradise!

ABC's and F

How good it feels to have a clean and organized house. First room to suffer a purge was Mateo's room. I hadn't done anything in his room since...I don't know when. He still had 12M clothes in his drawers and baby gear in his closet. I made a nice pile of stuff to give my sister-in-law who will add another Santiago to the family next summer. I sorted clothes by size and what I would keep for the next boy (which I am determined to have) and stuff to give away. As I was putting stuff in the attic I found a whole other bin full of clothes a friend had sent to me when Mateo was one. I had forgotten about it and now he has twice as many clothes as he'll ever need for a two year old. I rearranged his room to make the most of the very small space and I finally hung up the wall decorations I bought before he was born. As I laid him to bed last night he said, "thank you for cleaning my room mami." He finally has a room.

I continued the furious cleansing in my room, except there was so much s$*%t everywhere that I only managed to pick up my clothes & change the bed sheets as I watched Big Love, the HBO series on polygamists. I love cable shows like Six Feet Under, the Tudors, and Dexter, especially b/c they are on demand. I digress.

Chayla was very intrigued at my ability to organize. She is quite the organizer herself so she pays attention to that type of stuff. I offered to organize her room as long as she promised not re-organize everything the minute I left the room, which used to be the case in Austin. So I spent the better part of the day transforming her room and discovering that she isn't as organized as I thought. It was all superficial! She had a wide variety of bags full of junk stuffed in various containers. The bookshelf did not have books on it and her floor was littered with remnants of her arts & crafts projects. Lord. I told her that the key to keeping organized is patience. Instead of stuffing to get things out of sight, she had to think about what she was doing and putting items in their place. We'll see how long this lasts.

Mateo played around the house as Chayla and I worked. He was pretty good today. We found out that he could sing the alphabet song by himself. I'll post the video as soon as he lets me take it! I also discovered that he picked up the unsavory language I use in the car. I hate driving in DC- people are SLOW! I guess Mateo figured out that the F-word is used after a moment of frustration. When he couldn't find his magnetic letter A that flew into the living room after Chayla kicked it, he expressed his frustration with a big, "F*#%, I can't find it mom!" Boy, did I underestimate his speaking abilities.

Post Thanksgiving

Yesterday was a bit hysterical. At first it was smooth sailing as I cooked up a storm. I was so inspired by the Puerto Rican dishes I was making, I put on some music and was dancing in the kitchen. As the pernil roasted in the oven, I fried up the plantains for mofongo (which eventually just turned into Puerto Rican stuffing b/c I couldn't make it into balls). I really got into mashing up the platanos with the bacon and garlic in the pilon I got in Brazil. What a great time. Until Mateo rolls up into the kitchen as I was trying to cook the arroz con gandules. The first step to this dish is vital. If you don't get the seasoning right, the rice just taste like rice. So in walks Mateo and begins having a fit, pulling my leg, screaming, hitting me. I don't even know why. I eventually put him in time-out until I could finish. Then I go "talk" to him but he was not interested in what I had to say. Then Chayla was skulking about since she was annoyed too. She was trying to figure out what I had told her to do earlier in the day so she could be allowed outside to play. I was so frustrated with telling her to do the same thing everyday that I simply told her that when she remembers what I asked her to do and does it then MAYBE she can play (eventually she made a list of all these things to which she must refer before she asks me to do anything). It's funny how quickly she "remembers" to brush her hair when playtime depends on it. So as Mateo was hysterical and Chayla frustrated I tried to deal with the cooking, which had been going so well up until then. Luckily I finished and even got to rake the front yard before finally getting to shower. Mateo only took a 30 minute nap (part of the bigger problem too) so I wasn't able to do much else but shower. Then we sat down to our sad little dinner. I say sad, not because of my food (it was actually delicioso) but because it was just us 4, minus Freddie. This is the 1st Thanksgiving I can remember that he wasn't around. Except for the fact that we were dressed nicely, it just felt like a regular ol' dinner. We gave our thanks, ate our food, yet we were still bummed about Freddie's absence.

After Mateo had 2 slices of pumpkin pie we went to my coworker's house to hang out and meet another Puerto Rican family. That was nice given that we weren't with our own extended family. Mateo got along fantastically with her family, giving hugs, talking, and sharing nicely. I could hardly believe my eyes. He was a perfect angel. I figured it was because he thought all these loud, brown people speaking Spanish were family. Leave it to Mateo though to not disappoint. He had a massive break down right as we were leaving to go home. He squirmed all over the floor and screamed as I tried to put on his puffy coat. I thought I had almost made it out of there having given the impression that I had these two well-behaved, cute kids. Just kidding.

He fell asleep in the car and we got home safe and sound (there were some seriously deranged drivers on the Beltway last night). As I laid him down in his crib he said he loved me very much. While I had been angry earlier, his little voice melted my heart. I went to bed last night thankful for having this love in my life and BEGGING for a little patience and guidance to get through the terrible two's. 7 months to go.

Another day in November

This weekend I had to work the craft.bake sale at Mateo's nursery school. It's the annual fundraiser and it was actually much more fun than I expected. I was glad to see so much spending in support of local crafters and our neat,little co-op. All our baked goods sold, which is AWESOME considering how much effort parent's out into it. I wasn't the only one up until the wee hours of the night baking. I'm a little over baking, but I realize that it's not so bad and I can actually do it pretty well. All from scratch too!

Mateo has been cracking me up. He just gets funnier and funnier (altho he can be a pain in my butt just as much). It's a daily occurence that I tell him I am going to eat him up. Lately he's taken to protesting it. Yesterday when I asked him if I could him up he said, "no! You can kiss me mom," as he placed his little finger on his lips and smiled at me.

Today I was looking at the Victoria's Secret catalog that we randomly got. I flipped through regular Pj's, perfumes, sweaters. When I got to the lingerie part Mateo looked at it and exclaimed, "yuck, mom. Catwoman, yuck!" It's pretty hysterical that he associates lingerie with the 1960's version of Catwoman and that he doesn't like it! I think that my Dad was a little sensitive after I made this comment to him because when he saw Mateo with a book about ballet, in the shape of a ballerina's bag, he said he shouldn't hold it, "it's for girls." Well, I snapped my neck as I turned to stare down my Dad and proceeded to remind him that Mateo is allowed to like any book he wants!

Chayla's bday party is all set. I decided to just pay for it! I will have a clean house and no planning headaches! Chuck E. Cheese is getting a sweet check from us on Dec 6th and in return will provide 10 kids with pizza, tokens, and all around fun!

Krispy Kreme Kraziness

I really should start watching the local news. Apparently this weekend there was another incident involving one of our students (playing with a gun, someone got shot). Luckily the student is ok, but you can sense the community's growing concern about our school. In my humble opinion, our school is pretty awesome. We have kids from all around the world who manage to get along pretty well on a daily basis. There are plenty of resources and lots of staff who gives a damn. That's more than in other places just a few miles away. I went to a high school that was on the opposite end of the diversity spectrum. I was one of a dozen or so "Spanish" kids in the school and I was the only one in all of my advanced classes. Today I created a list of Hispanic kids who were former ESOL and I was beside my self when I saw over 600 kids in our school who fit the bill. This doesn't even count the students, like me, who never needed English as a 2nd language. We have kids from Nepal, Cameroon, Haiti, Colombia, Albania...you name it. Everyday these kids get along just fine, but some community members get in a panic when there is a streak of violence OUTSIDE of school. I repeat, it takes a village to raise our kids. Instead of complaining, I wish more people would dedicate some time to our school and come by to check out the amazing work of our staff & students .

Sadly, I don't know if I will be back in 2009. My position is grant-funded. The money comes from a MD Dept of Ed School Improvement grant. When our school's academic performance improves, the grant is cut, or parts of it are. My pay is part of the deal. I think our school did improve, thank goodness, but now I might not be able to come back. It's hard to get too invested when I don't know if all my work will be of use. I'd love to create more programs to get the community involved in our school and to continue addressing certain communication gaps, but alas, it all depends on the grant. Can my school get a piece of that bailout plan???

On a lighter note, I took Chayla for her yearly physical and found out upon arrival that the appointment is for tomorrow. I was so mad, until I saw the Krispy Kreme next door. Chayla and I sat down to a delicious donut and some chit chat w/o that annoying little brother :). After dinner I gave Mateo his donut. Why did I do that? He was literally jumping off the bed. My brother told me I should've just given him some smack! Fortunately for me, he jumped on that bed so much he wore himself out. Still, my kids are night owls like me and they can't fall asleep until 10pm. I'm hopeful that when Freddie returns he can help me put these kids down a little earlier. These are the days I wished I followed a schedule like most of my friends who have little ones.

Fish fight

I have avoided writing because I know that when I get online I spend far too much time in cyberspace.

Mateo reached a whole new level of maturity today. Instead of "no" he now says "i don't want to." I'm in for a whole new world of hurt. He also fought me for 1/2 an hour about putting away his fishing game. He had thrown the fish all over the floor. Later he asked for juice and I told him I wouldn't give it to him unless he cleaned up. He refused, screamed, kicked, yelled, hit. You name it, he did it. I had to clean up the damn fish and put him to bed. He said he was sorry, but I didn't care at that point. After he finished his milk I brought him to my bed to hold him for a few minutes, as I like to do these days before he get any bigger, and when I took him back to the room I asked him to help clean up the toys in his room. He did a wonderful job. As I laid him down he looked up at me with those droopy eyes and told me, "I don't want put away pish mom." I don't know what he has against those fish.

Yesterday Mateo & I went to Stacey's house to watch Kung-fu Panda and play with her dog. He loves that dog, and in turn, adores Stacey. He's come a long way with her. The first time he met her he screamed bloody murder and thereafter would avoid her by creeping along the walls instead of walking next to her. Last night though, he gave her a kiss, sang (I like to move it , move it!), and danced for her. He also did a little Kung-fu with her. Chayla wasn't with us because she decided to go across the street to partake in a memorial dinner and ceremony for her friends' grandmother who passed away 40 days ago. She was unfazed by attending a ceremony for a dead person which was officiated in Chinese (???), in a house full of Vietnamese speakers and food. I'm so impressed that she is being exposed to such a variety of cultures at such a young age.

I know that most of my friends don't have children as old as Chayla so it's hard to find good advice as to how to deal with her. She has already reached the stage I thought she'd reach when she's 12 or 13. My older coworkers who have teenagers have told me they believe she may get her period soon. Can I just express how terrifying this is to me? Imagine how Freddie will feel when I share this theory with him.

I made homemade chili and oatmeal-carrot cookies from scratch today. I forgot how good cooking makes one feel. I wished I liked cooking more. In any case, Thursday I will spend many hours baking for Mateo's school's fundraiser and for Thanksgiving, I will make pernil and mofongo. I'm gearing up for two-weeks of serious cooking.

Tempered happiness

I awoke with joy in my heart and puffiness of the eyes. I cried last night for several hours -- from when his victory was projected until he left the stage after his speech. I went to work today and yelled out to Chayla as she left the car, "it's a great day to be an American!" to which she rolled her eyes in embarassment.

I got to work and yelled the same thing to my office mates. My coworker said that she too was excited but our happiness had to be tempered by our grief. Grief? I said, "yeah, I've been grieving for 8 years." Little did I know that the reason they barely smiled at me after my proclamation was because of the immense tragedy our school was enduring. This weekend one of our students was shot and killed as he rode the bus home Saturday night. He was a sweet, cute, fun, popular, 14 year old honors student who I had briefly worked with. I had even met his grandmother before. I was already emotional so I just let the tears flow. I felt bad for the loss of such a young person and I felt incredibly retarded for not having heard about it earlier. On any normal day I deal with sad events in the lives of my students. This was the first time I've had to deal with the loss of life. It borders on unbearable.

So I take stock of what I have and what I do. While I worry about not making enough money to better my family's quality of life, I know we are fine and that my work serves the greater good. I love my job and believe, for now, it's where I need to be. I just wish I made enough to cover my graduate school loans :)

Rest in peace Tai.

Divine Intervention

I found myself awake last night, filled with anxiety about today. I waited until after the morning rush to cast my vote. The kids went with me and together we touched the screen for the Obama/Biden ticket. My eyes welled up with tears as I saw my "X" by that name. After 2 years of talking to friends, family, and total strangers, I felt like my part was done. I remember demonstrating at W's inaugration on a cold January afternoon 8 years ago. I was so mad and filled with disbelief, but that paled in comparison to how I was to feel over the next 90+ months. The first time I heard Obama speak, I KNEW this day was inevitable. So to all my friends and family who listened to me and bore with my love for politics, THANK YOU! I'm especially grateful to think that my children will grow up seeing a beautiful, intelligent, pregressive family of color living in the White House and think that ANYONE can live there--ANYONE!

Yes we can!

If tonight isn't an example of Divine Intervention, I don't know what is!

Halloween

I've slowed down on my posts because life has sped up. As I stated when I first began this thing, I'm not a good writer. Given I lack this elusive talent, it takes me a lot longer than I'd like to write a post. Can I just mention how much I love the Fall? Living in Texas made me forget how beautiful trees become during this time of year:



Our kitchen was completed in the nick of time. I was able to bake the cupcakes for Mateo's Halloween party at school on Thursday 10/30. Wed nite I also had to translate for an open house at school, come home and help Chayla finish her Power Point on the Pueblos, bake cupcakes, and put together a Halloween costume for Mateo. Exhaustion doesn't begin to explain what I felt. Chayla goes to school early on Tues and Thurs so I can take Mateo to school on time. I had to co-op for the Halloween party so I had to be there early, but I got to partake in the festivities, which is a bonus. Here is Mateo and friends in all their glory:





After his party we booked it to Chayla's school to hear her presentation. She worked so hard over the last few months to learn and create with such detail and care. I'm so proud of her:





Halloween was so much fun. I invited the neighbors over for dinner. The adults helped the kids get ready and then we separated into two groups:





Sarah and I took the "babies" out and these novices performed like veterans. They rolled up to the first house and without prompting yelled, "Trick-or-treat!" They were so cute as they looked up at the candy-givers in such disbelief. They almost couldn't believe they were getting all this candy without a fight from mom. The best part was their reaction when no one answered the door: "WAKE UP!" Talk about persistence! Mateo & Audrey managed to hit up at least twenty houses and could barely wait to dig in when they got home, well past their bedtime:



Luckily for me the election coincides with the end of the grading period so I have had a long weekend. Knowing this I was able to put aside quite a bit of time to hang out with the kids on Sat and Sun. We went to the park on both days and also took a little field trip to the nearby stream. The weather was amazing, the foliage gorgeous, and the kids had a blast with the rocks. Mateo threw every "rocky-rock" (as he called it) in his peripheral and Chayla collected them- very telling of their personalities.







Here's a neat video of the kids as they enjoyed a day of outdoor exploration and just being kids:

Shake your booty

No kitchen until Wed (I hope it doesn't last longer). This sucks b/c I have to bake cupcakes for Mateo's class party on Thurs and for the Halloween party I promised the kids on Friday. This is nothing compared to the mess in my house and the fact that we can't use the kitchen to wash dishes or make food! The only sink I can use is in the bathroom, and that one was recently replaced and I don't wanna push my luck. I hope my bad luck ends soon.

Mateo was fighting sleep tonight. He ended up calling me over because he had to go potty. I didn't know if I should believe him because he is capable of lying at this point. So I gave him the benefit of the doubt and took him to the potty and sure enough he peed in the potty!!!

At dinner he was being silly. He kept getting out of his chair and singing, "shake your booty, shake your booty." He would shake his booty as he sang and cracked himself up. He managed to get Chayla and I to participate as well. I wish I had the camera on me!

Commissary debacle

Boy was I happy to sleep in. Mateo didn't really wake up until 10am!!! This was because he didn't nap very well yesterday and still went to bed late. I digress.

I went to the commissary today to buy all the baking supplies I'll need for Halloween (the actual day and the school parties in between) and Mateo's school's bake sale. I planned on shopping today b/c I have little time for it during the week. I had gotten everything on my list and went to stand in the check-out line. This was the most monstruous line I've ever seen, and to boot, Mateo decided he'd had enough. While I waited for 30 minutes, Mateo got increasingly hystercial. He was sprinting up and down the aisles and then screaming just for the heck of it. I was 1/2 way through the line when he lost it completely and I had to leave. I was so mad. I wasted two hours of a perfectly good Sunday. Mateo knew he was in trouble and did not protest when I put him in his crib for his nap. He tried to win my affections when he woke up by saying, "I'm so sorry mami." It warmed my heart a little.

Chayla had warned me not to put our jack-o-lanterns outside. When Mateo & I came home from the store I witnessed a squirrel, as fat as a cat, munching on the eyebrows of our pumpkins. Dang squirrels.

And for those moms who can appreciate...I made it to the gym tonight!

Domestic bad luck

Today was a lot of fun. I've made it a routine to have pancakes on Saturday mornings and the kids can eat loads of them. No sports class today so we took a field trip to the dreaded Walmart. I knew this was the place to buy all the Halloween crap I wanted at a reasonable price. This meant a trip out to the boonies where I found gas at $2.39/gallon--woowhoo! Everytime Halloween goes by I wish I would've decorated and had more fun with it. This time I decided to go for it and even plan a little party for the kids on Friday; something special while Dad is gone. We bought so much fun stuff: pumpkin garland, window clings, a table cloth, door mat, spiders, candies, cupcake decorations. We carved pumpkins, hung up garland and lights, and decorated the pictures on the wall with spiders and webs. Then we played "Let's Go Fishing":

BEFORE


DURING


AFTER (Mine is on the left, Chayla's is on the right)


FISHING


This is why Mateo's pumpkin was not carved


After all that fun I tried to make dinner but, the oven caught on fire! This did not happen because I don't know how to use an oven, but because of the bad luck I have had in my house for the past few weeks. The kitchen floor is being redone and I've had one issue after another. The last of which was that the contractors spilled a frying pan full of oil (gross, I know) all over the stove and didn't bother cleaning it or telling me. When I tried to bake a pizza today the oven caught on fire. The grease was burning and I tried to put it out by blowing at it! I thought it was a piece of bread or something that fell through the cracks. I turned off the gas and then called my Dad to help. He had the brilliant idea of using the fire extinguisher. That worked much better than trying to blow it out (ha!).