Me time?

"Me time" is so close I can taste it!  I have been looking for a babysitter.  I met with a potential babysitter today.  She is an 18 year old college student studying art at MSU.  She was very nice and good with the boys.  She and Christian had lots to talk about regarding art and creativity.  He drew her some pictures of a teacher and a librarian.  I only intended to have her over for about 30 minutes but Christian invited her to come to the park with us.  That was fine, I didn't mind the company.  We got some bread and headed over to feed the ducks.  The boys always have fun doing that plus it gave me a chance to see how she interacted with the boys.  She was very quiet and reminded me of myself a little.  I think I will have her babysit on Thursday for an hour so I can go get a pedicure.  Getting a pedicure is not something that I have ever done on a regular basis, in fact I am lucky to get one per year, but its time.  Its time for me to do something for myself, alone.  I need it, I deserve it and I am ready for it.

100 Things About Me

I am a wife and mother, I have 3 beautiful boys, I am a stay at home mom, I have low self-esteem, I love to bake, I laugh every single day, I lived in Iceland for 2 years and England for 3 years, I didn't have the wedding of my dreams, I am a statistic in so many ways, I drive a minivan, I like to be organized, I love lists, I don't smoke, I miss my mom more every day, I love to shop but have trouble spending money on me, I love jammies, I love ice cream, I want to have my own Harley someday, my husband is my true love, I can't quote movies, I try to be creative, I love the smell of methanol exhaust, I had Lasik eye surgery, my dream car is a 53-57 VW Bug, I don't watch or play sports, I hate tomatoes and onions but I love salsa, I have three tattoos, I have horrible luck with digital cameras and printers, I didn't have a traumatic childhood, my parents showed me how a family should be, I have the most beautiful big sister, I know how to crochet, I will go to heaven when I die, I have only ever been with my husband, I help our planet by using cloth diapers, I wish I lived near family, I wanted to be a surgeon when I grew up, I can't brush my teeth with warm water, I am very much like my dad, I wear toe rings on both feet, I always keep my photo albums up to date, I have a very passive personality,  I want to see the earth from a hot air balloon, I am very conservative, I have a horrible time making decisions, I love the ocean, I met my best friend in third grade, I am left handed, I collect magnets from he places we've visited, I've been to Stonehenge, I bought my first car for $50.00, I have friends all over the country, I love having family traditions, I hate walnuts, I want a bigger house, I was present in an open-heart surgery, I gave birth naturally, I love caramel, I am so proud of my little brother, I have always wanted to learn to play the piano, I hate confrontations, I suck at math, I've eaten haggis, I miss real fish and chips, I'm still not sure what to do with my life, I can't eat before I fly, I used to clean surgical instruments, my favorite flower is the sunflower, I love frozen yogurt, I don't like seafood, I have a secret, I want big things for my boys, Dominic knows me the best, Amanda understands me the most, I like vanilla and candles but not vanilla candles, I don't have a closet full of shoes, I'm ready for a new tattoo, corned beef and cabbage is my favorite meal, I have a journal, I will always cherish Christmas 2007, I am deathly afraid of octopus' (irrational, I know), I am getting healthier one pound at a time, I am trying to wear more dresses, I wish I had a swimming pool, I love country music, I know how to fire a handgun, Lake Tahoe is my favorite place to be, I don't like to watch cartoons, I like chocolate covered fruit, I have no credit card debt, I had my own ATV as a kid, I have many precious things, I always do laundry from beginning to end, I have never had a hangover, I have the most amazing friends, I hope to do some traveling soon, I hated school, I love camping, I have a chocolate lab named Lilly...I am truly blessed!

Walking!

Mason is on his way.  He is 11 months old and walking!  It started on Friday last week when he took his first two steps.  Now almost a week later he is walking halfway across rooms!  He's doing great!  He is the first of the three boys to walk before their first birthday.  It's so cute to watch him toddle around.  He is so proud of himself.

Dominic seems to be doing well.  He got taken off of his mission to Africa this week but will probably get another chance to go soon.  He says he has a long mission tomorrow.  He got our package.  We sent more candy and snacks.  Also razors, and DVD's.  

I will be spending the day doing laundry.  I am falling behind this week and need to get back on track.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is Dominic's and my 9th wedding anniversary.  

Happy Anniversary babe!

I love you more everyday.

Frozen like popcicles

We had a major cold front come thru today with freezing temperatures and rain.  It would rain, sleet and as soon as it hits the ground, car, tree leaves it freezes.  Our cars were covered in 1/4" of ice.  I couldn't even open the car doors today.  I looked on the local news channel to see that most places were closed including schools.  Christian got to stay home today and the way things are looking right now, maybe even tomorrow.  We'll see.

Its been a tough day.  Mason woke up at 2 am last night with a poopy diaper.  I knew that he wouldn't just lay back down after I changed him so we came out to the living room and watched cartoons for an hour and went back to bed at 3 am.  So far today, he has slept 15 minutes in my arms.  That's it!  He just cries when I lay him down.  He doesn't have any teeth coming thru so I really don't know what's going on with him.  He doesn't seem to be getting sick.  I guess its just one of those days.

I made some homemade chili today that we've had for lunch and dinner.  It was perfect for a day like today.

Pictures Dominic Sent

Price and Dominic

Dominic's bunk.

Dominic in front of one of Sadaam's old palaces.

Dominic listening to his iPod.

Birthday Laughs

I finally got the email I had been waiting for. Dominic saying that he got the birthday card that we sent him. I guess it has been there for quite some time but that and several other pieces of mail that I sent him were on the bottom of a stack of papers (or something). According to Dominic the ladies that are in charge of getting their mail aren't so good at their jobs.

For Dominic's birthday I took his truck to have nerf bars installed. For those of you that don't know what those are, they are the bars on both sides of the truck that you step on to get in the truck. Without them, its very tough for the boys to get in and having them makes getting in and out of the truck much easier. We had talked about getting some and both decided it would be a good idea.

I took the truck to a local truck shop and had them installed. They did it in 20 minutes which was great considering that I had the two little boys with me at the time. When we got home, I took a picture of the truck, printed out a copy and put it in his birthday card. I wrote "Happy Birthday Babe" on the picture right above the nerf bars because I knew he wouldn't notice them right away.

So he sends me an email saying that he got the card but that he showed the picture to someone else and they complimented the nerf bars. He said he never even saw them :) Dominic never has been one to LOOK at pictures. He usually just flips through them, so I have to say, I am not surprised that he missed it. He loves them and was very happy.

No good news?

Okay, so today was all about bad news I guess. I won't go into all the details but it was one thing after another.

Dominic had a really long day flying (14 hours) and said he felt like sh*t. I'm not exactly sure what that meant but hopefully it doesn't mean that he's getting sick. I know he was tired.

I got a phone call from Christian's teacher followed by a phone call from the director of Sylvan. Neither one of them had any good news. I had a talk with Christian.

I'm ready for this day to be over. I will wake up renewed! I hope.

See, I told you!

I told you he loves me! A bright and shiny package showed up on the front porch this morning. Okay well the box itself wasn't bright and shiny but you get where I'm going with this.
I knew that I could be expecting a gift from Dominic for our 9th wedding anniversary. He told me it would be coming. Dominic bought me an 8G iPod in my favorite color, yellow. I was so surprised and excited. I just wish I could have called to thank him.
I have been playing with it all day. I can't wait to get all of my favorite songs on it.
Thanks babe!

He loves me, he loves me not

He totally and completely loves me. Don't get me wrong, I have never doubted Dominic's love, but in this time away from each other he proves to me daily how much he truly and completely loves ME! He defends me, respects me, comforts me, protects me and makes me feel safe. He knows everything there is to know about me. He is my very best friend. Dominic is kind and gentle. He makes me smile. He makes me laugh even by email :) Dominic is a hard worker and is still grateful for my hard work too. He gave me three amazingly bright and happy kids. I am happy to be married to my one true love. Our 9th wedding anniversary is in 7 days. Nine years! We have done so much in nine years. I just can't wait to see what we can be in another nine years.

Long weekend over

Whew!  It was a long three day weekend.  We didn't do much, again, but that was fine.  Yesterday was Dominic's birthday.  He said that everyone had pitched in and got him a PSP game, an AF combat action figure, a zippo lighter, a nice cigar with "Operation Iraqi Freedom" on the tube, a non-alcoholic beer and one of those microwavable cakes.  It was so sweet of them to do that.  

Christian has a doctors appointment later this afternoon to check up on his allergy shots.  They have been wonderful!

Dominic and I talked this weekend.  We made a decision about our vacation.  We are going to spend our vacation in Las Vegas.  We are still going to go to Disneyland also because its only a 4 1/2 hour drive from Vegas.  We will go to Disneyland as a family with the Cash family also.  Then we will leave the boys with them and spend a few nights in one of the casino hotels.  There is so much to do in Vegas that doesn't include gambling, so thats what we will do, plus there are lots of family things we can do there.  We are so looking forward to it.  Dominic is already so tired of flying so I don't think he wanted to fly anywhere, which is fine.  We will be close to the boys if needed, so that will be good.  And we will get to spend time with our friends.  Sounds like a perfect vacation to me.

No Plans

Its Saturday morning and we have no plans for the day, or weekend for that matter.  The boys let me sleep in until 8:40 this morning.  I needed that.  I have trouble going to bed at a decent hour because I like to have several hours to do what I want to do, or need to do after the boys have all gone to bed.  Most often I find myself in bed but still awake at 11 pm.  I need to stop that because I have a hard time getting up in the morning.

I ordered a cord of mesquite firewood that will be delivered this evening.  The best part is that they deliver AND stack it for me.  I wonder how much longer it will be cold.  It didn't get cold until late in the season so we'll see.  

Dominic sent some pictures on Cd's in the mail early in the week.  I am so anxious to get them.  I can't wait to see them and I hope they get here today!  I miss him so badly.  I can't believe that we have 4 1/2 more months to go.  It seems like he's been gone for so long already.  I just can't wait until he's back and we can go on our vacation.

Speaking of vacation, nobody posted any ideas.  We are looking into Alaska still but their summer prices go up big time because that is their peak season.  We are still open to other places.  Also, since we don't technically know when he will be back he says that I can't book anything.  Okay, so that's sort of tough.  Does anyone know if travelers insurance covers full refunds on things that you have already booked?  

The plan at this point is that we will drive to Las Vegas, pick up the Cash family and head to Disneyland for a couple days.  Then drive back to Vegas and leave the boys with Amanda and JR.  They are the best!  They will keep the boys so that Dominic and I can fly somewhere for a romantic week long vacation, just the two of us.  We will fly back to Vegas, pick up the boys and their two girls and drive back to TX.  We will drop the girls off with Amanda's parents and head home after that.  Doesn't that sound like a great vacation?  We will get to be with our friends, have a family vacation and some alone time.  Now we just have to figure out where to go.

Derby time!

Its Derby Time!  

This is Christian's Pinewood Derby Car.  We worked on it together and we are proud of how it came out.

I don't have any idea when the race is because I don't get much communication from anyone at Cub Scouts.  I sent a note with Christian this week for his den leader and gave him my email address and phone number so we'll see what happens.  I was really frustrated with the whole thing over the holidays.  We showed up both weeks for his meeting and no one was there.  Nobody told me that there wasn't a meeting...for two weeks.  Christian didn't get to participate in their holiday gift exchange because no one told me that he needed to bring a gift.  I really felt like it wasn't fair to Christian.  We are new to the whole Scouting thing and still learning.

Dominic called yesterday.  He was up at midnight there because he had to go pick up some of his guys that were coming in from their mission.  We didn't have much to talk about oddly enough.  I think that since we email each other several times per day sometimes, we don't have much to say when we talk.  It does seem odd though.  He did say that its warming up there but that it is still cold at night.  He got our package with the mattress pad.  He said that it was much more comfortable but he wasn't sure yet if it was going to help with his back pain.  We will have to wait and see I guess.  He ordered me an anniversary gift too.  It will be sent to the house so I'm excited to get that.  His birthday is on Monday.  I sent him a card with a picture of his gift inside.  I think he's going to be happy.

It is really cold this morning.  It was 25 degrees when we got up.  I am running out of firewood too.  I guess I will have to buy some more.  There are a bunch of people that sell firewood in the paper and they will deliver and stack it for me.

I made Mason's 12 month well baby check up yesterday.  It will be the week before his birthday.  I really cannot believe that he is already almost a year old.  So much has happened in his first year and I feel like he's still my baby.  He's getting ready to walk soon and is much more steady on his feet.  I don't know what to do for his birthday.  I would like to have a small get together but I just don't know yet.

I am going to dinner tonight with my friend Leslyn.  It has been a while since we've seen each other, so I thought it would be nice.  We will go while Christian is at Sylvan.  I'm looking forward to some adult conversation.

Is it my lucky day?

Okay, that's it!  I'm done!  I have had an eye infection that started in my left eye 6 days ago.  Two days ago it spread to my right eye.  I have been using Erythromycin because I have it and didn't have to go to the doctor to get it.  I had an eye infection when I was pregnant with Mason and since I was pregnant they wouldn't give me the drops.  Erythromycin is the nasty, goopy gel stuff that you use for babies and kids typically.  Anyhow, I have been using that only it hasn't been working.  I REALLY didn't want to have to go to the doctor but as of this morning, I had had enough.  I woke up with both eyes "glued" shut...again!  So I called the appointment line to get a same day appointment.  They had one at 8:40am which was fine, it just meant that I had to hurry.  We got to the clinic on base at 8:40 exactly.  So much for being 15 minutes early.  I get checked in and go to sit down.  About 20 seconds later I hear "Mike-us....Mike-us".  I'm thinking...honestly, is that her best rendition of my last name?  REDICULOUS!  Well apparently it was because when I went up to her and said "Macias?"  She said "Brianna?"  Yep, thats me.  And she had an attitude!  So we get back to the room, the boys are being great.  She takes all of my information, the doc comes in, asks me a few questions, looks in my eyes and sends me off to the pharmacy.  This is by far the most painful part of the whole thing.  In most cases we sit in the pharmacy for close to an hour.  Not this time.  We were in and out of the clinic with my eye drops in 20 minutes.  I never saw it coming, but I couldn't be happier.

A great day!

Hi all,

I got an early morning wake up call from Dominic this morning.  He called at about 7:40.  For some reason we got cut off and since that was his second call of the week, he couldn't call back.  We talked for maybe 10 minutes.  He said that he will be going on a mission tomorrow night and will be in Iraq for two days.  He's also hearing that he will get to go to Africa at the end of the month.  He sounds good and seems to be staying sane although he is easily annoyed by some people.  That hasn't changed :)

The boys were all still asleep when our phone call was abruptly ended so I decided to take a shower.  By the time I was done all of the boys were awake.  We got ready to go run a few errands.  I needed to get dog food and fish food, so we went to the pet store and Walmart which are right across the way from each other.  The other good thing was that the stores were quiet because most everyone (except us) was at church.  That made it much less stressful for me and the boys behaved themselves...this time.

I ordered all of the pictures that my sister took of the transformation that has taken place at my moms house.  It was almost 200 pictures.  I picked them up and a photo album to put them in.  When we got home Mason went down for a nap which turned out to be almost 3 hours.  That gave me so much time to get things done.  I was able to put all of those pictures in order then into the album.  What a change!  The house looks amazing!  I also did a couple loads of laundry.

I asked Dominic what was the most exciting thing he had done this week.  He said that he and another guy got to take pictures in front of one of Saddams palaces/compounds.  He said the AF has converted it into offices or something.  He also said that he got to eat at KFC and it tasted good.  He said "that is on the exciting list".

Dominic said that there is a medal for having 60 non-consecutive days in Iraq.  After his two days this next week he will have 11 so far.  He carries the Easter picture of the boys in his flight suit every time he flies and he carries an American flag in his backpack.

I am going to make a quick dinner tonight and finish up some laundry after the boys go to bed.  Sounds like a relaxing evening to me.

I must be crazy!

What was I thinking?  Taking the boys out to dinner, alone?  Ugh!  I should have known.

Yesterday when I picked Christian from school, he presented me with his Free Pizza coupon for Pizza Hut.  He earns things like this often because he reads so much.  They have to read either two chapter books or ten easy books per month.  Well, Christian often reads three chapter books per week!  So needless to say, he got a coupon for a free pizza.  Of course that meant he wanted to go that night.  I decided that since the coupon is only good for one month we should just do it and get it over and done and that way I couldn't forget about it.  I knew that it would be an experience but I was feeling optimistic.  After we picked Christian up from Sylvan we went to Pizza Hut.  We stood there waiting to get seated for maybe 6 minutes which by the way is more like 15 when you have a diaper bag loaded down with everyones toys and video games, juice cups and snacks in one arm and a twenty pound baby in the other...and the two big boys can't keep their hands off of each other and Ayden thinks he's a race car running in circles.  Yeah, I know.

So we finally get seated, thank goodness where no other patrons were seated.  I let Ayden and Christian sit next to each other because that is where they both sat to begin with.  Big mistake!  Ayden was on the open end of the booth, another big mistake.  He climbed all over the seat, squished Christian, climbed under the table, got out of the booth and ran into the booth next to us (which was empty).  All the while Christian is not helping the situation by hitting Ayden and egging him on.  I had had enough by that point and we didn't even order yet!  So I moved Ayden over next to me where I could be on top of his behavior.  He did fine after that.

Once we got our food, everything was fine.  The boys ate their pizzas and I had some pasta.  I couldn't wait to get out of there and back home.  Too bad you can't use those coupons for take out.

Such a nice voice

Dominic called today.  It is always so nice to get to talk to him, even if its only for a few minutes.  We caught up a little bit.  He said that TSgt B is supposed to be sending me some pictures today.  I hope so but that's what he said yesterday and she didn't do it then.  So we'll see.  We talked about going on vacation.  We have been planning on going on vacation together for a while.  We will go after he gets back.  We just have to decide where to go and what to do with the boys.  I think we should go to Alaska.  We can stay on base there and save big money on hotels although billeting isn't as nice as a real hotel would be.  Anyhow, Alaska is a place that I don't want to miss out on and Dominic wants to go there too.  I don't know, its just an option.  Its sort of strange though, I have no idea where to start for planning a vacation.  We've never done this before.  We are anxious to be able to go somewhere together.  We deserve it I think :)

Anyone have any good ideas?

Sylvan Report

I had my second meeting with Sylvan today.  Christian has completed 28 hours of tutoring with them.  He mastered all of the second grade skills and is now working on the third grade skills.  He has only mastered one skill so far.  The director expects that Christian will master two more skills between tonight and tomorrow night.  His progress has slowed on paper but at home and based on his progress report, he is doing amazingly well.  His math grade went from a 77 (C) to an 85 (B).  They started doing multiplication in school yesterday which he has already been doing at Sylvan, so he is one step ahead of the game which is great.  I am proud to see the accomplishments that he's made.

Kuwait Camel

This is "camel" 

From the mouth of babes

Yesterday was a good day.  Christian went back to school and had a good day.  I sent with him a letter to his teacher to inform her about the whole ADHD thing.  I didn't get a response which doesn't surprise me.  I don't get much feedback from her unless its negative.  I went thru Christians binder on Sunday to get it ready for school.  I found a thank you card that had been torn into about 6 or 8 pieces then taped back together.  I read what I could and it was a thank you card for the candy.  When Christian saw that I had it, he took it to go throw it away.  He's still upset about that whole thing.  I'm just not sure if I should talk to her about it or if I should just drop it.  The easy thing would be to just drop it for sure, I'm just not sure what she'll say.  I guess he ripped up the note in class and she made him tape it all back together.  She told him that it wasn't her fault because he just put the candy on her desk and didn't tell her what it was for, so she assumed it was for her.  It just seems to me that when you have a food assignment that would be what it was for.  I don't know.

I have another meeting at Sylvan tomorrow to check in on Christian's progress after another 12 hours of instruction.  I am anxious to hear how he's doing even though I KNOW he's doing amazing!  The other day he asked me if 5x5 was 25....uh yeah!  He gets it!  He totally gets this whole math thing now and I couldn't be more excited!

I was pulling a few things out of the fridge to make some dinner for the boys last night.  Ayden walks up and says "mom, you don't have a pee pee".  Oh great!  Well he's too young for that conversation so I quickly agreed and moved on.

We had our neighbor girl over to play over the weekend for a little while.  She and Christian were playing with playdough at the kitchen table and she was making food items with it.  Christian was making robots.  Well, she said something about making meatballs to put in her burrito and it made me chuckle to myself when Christian said to her "I'm pretty sure that you don't put meatballs in burritos".  That's my boy!

Time to move on?

My dad left this morning to drive back to California.  The boys and I are going to miss him.  Ayden especially.  He and Papa have a special bond.  I was sitting in my chair relaxing after I put the boys in bed and I all of the sudden missed having my dads company.

The boys and I just hung out at the house for most of the day today.  We ran a couple of errands later in the afternoon, nothing major.  I think we will go to Walmart tomorrow for a few things.  I need to get Christian new school supplies for the next half of the year.  

I've been thinking a lot about moving.  This house is great and its special because it is our first home however I am NOT emotionally attached to it.  Dominic on the other hand IS.  He would have a hard time moving because we have done a lot to our house.  We put new windows in, we updated the bathroom, painted all the rooms, built a deck, changed all the lighting fixtures...etc.  In my mind, those things just add to the value.  The fact is that we have outgrown this house.  We have a lot of furniture and every wall has something on it.  The house looks cluttered now and I don't like that.  Here's what we need:  at least 4 bedrooms, a dining room, two living areas, maybe a bigger garage or a small piece of land and a bigger kitchen for sure.  I am going to use this time while Dominic is away to make some improvements/updates to areas that I feel are going appeal to a buyer and hopefully I can convince Dominic when he gets back that we NEED a bigger house.  Now that we have no credit card debt we could probably qualify for a bigger loan too.  The homes here haven't lost value like they have back home.  I think the biggest problem is that unless we buy something that is newer, we will have to do some work.  It seems that people spend more money so they can drive a new car than on their homes here.  We had that problem when we were looking for a home when we got here.  It was a frustrating roller coaster of emotions that we were on.  Anyhow, we'll just see what happens.  There's no huge rush.

I'm going to hit the sack.  Mason is back in his crib tonight so hopefully he and I will both sleep good.

Only God knows what is to come in 2009!

Happy New Years!

Yesterday was a pretty good day.  We went to the mall so that we could go to the Cowboys Pro Shop.  They were having a sale so that was good.  We found a few things.

Then we went to JCPenneys to find a foam mattress pad for Dominic.  He called yesterday and said that his back has been hurting pretty bad.  The seats on the planes are basically jump seats.  They are just nylon straps, there is no cushion at all.  I am going to send him a cushion too.  He also said that the beds are awful.  I asked him if he wanted me to send him a mattress pad.  He seemed to think that might help.  So we found a nice one, Memory Foam.  

We got a package from Dominic yesterday too!  That was exciting.  He sent Ayden a big camel with a boonie hat on.  Mason got a little teddy bear with an AF shirt on.  Christian got two snowglobes one from Philly and the other from Ireland.  They are great.  He sent me two magnets.

We ate a good dinner last night then just settled in to wait until midnight.  I let Christian stay up, but Ayden was sent to bed at dinner.  He fell asleep around 8:30pm.  It was hard for me to stay awake until midnight...I really just wanted to go to bed.  We watched the re-run of the ball drop then went to bed.  Christian slept on the couch in front of the fire.

I got three emails from Dominic this morning.  One was really exciting!  Our friend Ben who has been deployed for several months is on his way home and came through the base where Dominic is.  Ben asked around and found Dominic at his desk.  Dominic said that he looks good and is glad to be on his way home.  He said they talked for about an hour and took a picture together.  It made my heart happy to see that they got to hang out for a bit.  How exciting!

One of the other emails was to say that he got my Christmas card (he still hasn't gotten our packages) and he got a card from Aunt Betty.  He said to tell her thank you!