"If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to a state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you'll be going, 'You know, we're alright. We are dang near royalty'."
-Jeff Foxworthy
Wow, I haven't updated this blog in how long?! Since September things have gotten hairy over here, to say the least. Right now I'm on bedrest and will be until the end of the pregnancy (why can't I have a healthy pregnancy for once?!!?) and I'm almost done with school. Yay.
Since I'm terrible at keeping up with this blog, it seems nowadays, I'll just kinda post pictures of what I've taken since last time. I haven't taken any pictures until Thanksgiving, so this should be easy.
We went to Thanksgiving at Elijah's mom's house. I love her meals!
And I've been promising pictures of our new crib to my parents now, so here they are...
I love this picture of Victor... it looks like I caught him in the bathroom in the middle of a big poop. HAHAHAHAHAH!!!
And this is me... pregnant with Andrew. I'm 33w3d. Good thing the picture is blurry :)
We're planning for an early delivery, so we may have a baby before Christmas. I'll definitely put some pictures up when that happens.
This summer was pure chaos. Between finding out we were expecting, having my dad here for 2 weeks, seeing my mom move to Texas, and moving ourselves, volunteering with three different companies, then starting school two weeks later threw me for a spin. I felt like I didn't relax at all!
Now that school started I've been having a hard time getting used to the schedule, while taking care of a toddler and being pregnant. It's been tough. But in the spring, when I was struggling to make it, I always listened to this song by Nickelback- I listened to it especially before I walked into a lecture hall to take a test. It's very inspirational and I hope you find it as well. I know that all these struggles are temporary and are for the benefit of not just me, but my family as well. Don't pass up on great opportunities because you feel inadequate and that you think you can't do it because no one else has. You'd be surprised at how much you can accomplish if you set your mind to do it. I love uplifting songs with words of encouragement! I'll underline my favorite lines to the lyrics as well so you can read it.
My best friend gave me the best advice He said each day's a gift and not a given right Leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind And try to take the path less traveled by That first step you take is the longest stride
If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last
Leave old pictures in the past?
Donate every dime you had, if today was your last day?
What if, what if, if today was your last day?
Against the grain should be a way of life What's worth the price is always worth the fight Every second counts 'cause there's no second try So live like you're never living twice Don't take the free ride in your own life
If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past?
Donate every dime you had?
And would you call those friends you never see?
Reminisce old memories?
Would you forgive your enemies?
And would you find that one you're dreaming of?
Swear up and down to God above
That you'd finally fall in love if today was your last day?
If today was your last day Would you make your mark by mending a broken heart? You know it's never too late to shoot for the stars Regardless of who you are So do whatever it takes 'Cause you can't rewind a moment in this life Let nothing stand in your way 'Cause the hands of time are never on your side
If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past?
Donate every dime you had?
And would you call those friends you never see?
Reminisce old memories?
Would you forgive your enemies?
And would you find that one you're dreaming of
Swear up and down to God above
That you'd finally fall in love if today was your last day?
On June 21st, my dad and his wife, Neiva, arrived from Brazil. It had been over 2 years since I last saw them. It was so fun to hang out with them and take them places! We went to the Red Butte Gardens, drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon, took them to Millcreek Gardens (they own a flower shop in Brazil), and did all sorts of touristy things.
Then on June 25th, we headed back to the airport to see my brother coming back from his mission in Japan! We were so thrilled! It was actually kind of a funny story of what happened at the airport: we were all at Terminal 2 waiting at the bottom of the escalators, as well as some other families that were waiting for their missionaries to come home. Since it was a straight flight from Tokyo, we knew they had to go through customs, and that would take a while. His plane landed around 11:30am. By 12:15, still no missionaries. Then all of the sudden we hear screaming from another family- there was one missionary coming from behind us! What in the world was going on?! We then overheard him saying they were at the International Terminal, so we all took off running to the other terminal to see the rest of the missionaries. As soon as we got there, some of the missionaries had come out already, but Victor hadn't. It wasn't even one minute until he came out! It was so exciting!
Then on July 1st, my dad and his wife wanted to go see the Bellagio water fountains, so we headed to Vegas. We stayed at Bally's (center strip) for next to nothing (avg $51/night)! It was way too hot there, around 110F each day, so we got out mostly at night, but still sweating bullets it was so hot! Vegas is too busy and makes me feel uncomfortable, but the smile on my dad's face while he watched the fountains was worth the whole trip :)
We heard Nathan's had the best hot dogs in the country, so we had to eat there. It just happened to be at the mall inside Bally's. They were okay, I guess. Not that good.
Then on friday we were supposed to go to the Grand Canyon because my dad wanted to see it, but everybody voted "NO" to the 6 hour drive to get there. So we hung out in Vegas. We headed to the pool at Bally's. I couldn't get in the water because of my heart monitor, so I just sat out in the sun sipping on some cold water until I thought my monitor was going to melt - it was #$%^#%$^& hot!!!!
It was a great vacation and it was awesome to see my parents :) We'll miss them!
Yeah. I guess I jinxed myself when I kept saying we were done having kids. Turns out Heavenly Father had some different plans for us.
We found out we were pregnant about a month ago but we kept it a secret for a while because we were supposed to announce it when my brother came back from his mission on the 25th of this month. Apparently with your second child you start showing a lot earlier, so we had to say something before people thought I was growing a tumor. Our family is thrilled. The only person that isn't happy about this whole thing is me.
Think of the hardest thing you've had to do in your life. Maybe something that you wouldn't dare do because it's just too difficult. That's how I feel about motherhood. Preparing for med school is a BREEZE compared to being a mother. I don't like being pregnant, but it beats having a newborn in the house. I don't deal well with sleep deprivation. I'm gonna need some Valium once this kid comes.
As far as what happened when I found out... well, I was trying to rule out pregnancy with a pregnancy test so I could call my doctor to test me for hypothyroidism: I was tired, gained weight, and missed my period. Yeah, didn't make that phone call. I FREAKED OUT, and Jacen came in to see what was going on... I kept saying, "Oh no, Jacen, oh no... oh no... oh no...." I waited until Elijah came home from work to tell him. I had Jacen write him a card saying something along the lines of "I'm sure you'll be a great daddy to my little brother and sister". Elijah laughed for a straight ten minutes... apparently he laughed for 2 hours (I had to leave for work).
Some stats: I'm 9 weeks pregnant, due Jan. 12th. So overjoyed by the thought that it's going to be RSV season. *sigh* And school starts, like, on the 10th. Not sure how I'm gonna pull that off, but I've had a kid through finals, so I'll probably figure something out with this one as well. I've been sick like a dog, but nothing that Phenergan can't do. I've been very fatigued (this is a new symptom for me, last time I didn't have this) as well. It just plain sucks.
Not gonna lie: I'm TERRIFIED of having two kids; I'm already overwhelmed with one. Sign me up for a tubal on D-day.
Last night we took Jacen to see the fourth Shrek movie at the theaters.
At first we were hesistant as to whether we should take him in the first place since he's only two years old, and we were worried we'd be one of those parents everyone frowns upon for bringing little kids to the movies while they're screaming their lungs out for not getting the candy they want. However, Jacen has been watching Shrek at least twice/day for the last four weeks so we thought..."What the heck... let's just take him on opening night."
And we did.
And it was AWESOME.
We got him started with a hot dog, and a big drink. He loved eating his hot dog. But we decided to eat in the lobby because the movie wasn't starting for a while and I didn't want him to make a huge mess. Once he was done with that, we went in. He got to eat his junior sized popcorn bag, and he was doing really good. After six previews (*sigh* how I hate previews; they are so useless, and honestly, to put that many in there, they're lucky none of the families left with their kids. It took forever for the actual movie to start. Stupid previews). Anyway. Enough on that rant! After six reviews, and him being slightly annoyed, and having to reassure him that Shrek was coming, the movie finally started. He would point to and say "Shrek!", "Donkey!", "Kitty!", "Nona!" (Princess Fiona), and dance whenever music came on. He was so cute. He did so well! We were shocked at how well he did. He survived the whole movie without one whine or tear. The movie was hilarious, we highly recommend watching it. It was great!
Next month we'll be taking him to watch Toy Story 3... but we gotta get him hooked on those movies first :)
I've always cut Jacen's hair and every time we cut his hair it's such a battle. He screams at the top of his lungs and cries the whole time. We've tried playing with him, letting him suck on a lollipop, and even have just plainly held him down and tried to hurry as he kicked and screamed some more.
So I decided it was time for someone else to do the work. I heard from friends that Cookie Cutters did such a good job and that they had cool things in the salon for them to do, and because one opened close to my place recently, I took him there yesterday. I thought for sure he'd be such a good boy and not cry, and then he could play in the playground before and get a treat before he sat in the little car, and he could watch Shrek and the haircut would just go smooth.... Totally worth the $13.95 plus the hefty tip for having him stay so quiet, right?
No. I sat him in the little car and he immediately began freaking out. The stylist did her best to keep him happy but he just would not have it. Even with a lollipop in his hand, he would still wail at the top of his lungs. She tried putting a cape on him, but he took it right off; there was hair all over him. I had to sit and practically hold him the whole time while she cut his hair. He got hair all over his lollipop and got lollipop stickiness all over the car. It was such a mess. Then as soon as she gelled his hair, he goes "All done." Gets out of the car, gets his balloon, and life is good again.
Why does he think haircuts are so scary?! She did just as good of a job as I do with him at home, so I'm not gonna take him out for haircuts anymore. It'll save me $13.95, the tip, and embarrassment from happening ever again.
If any of you know me well enough, you know that I don't do "motherly" things. Like, I don't usually do much with him that consists of taking him out or doing something out of the ordinary.
Towards the end of this (long!) semester, and as the weather was getting warmer, I started to take him to Sugarhouse Park to go play at the playground. He LOVES it. I've tried taking my textbooks there to study but it doesn't work out so well. He always wants me around. But anyway. After my last final on wednesday, I took him out for a picnic at the park to celebrate the end of the semester and as a "thank you" to him for putting up with mommy being cranky all semester.
We tried playing soccer but it didn't work out so well. He'd kick the ball once then he'd just pick it up and grab my hand so we could go on the playground slides. Funny kid.
Then yesterday I had my friend Nikki over (we've grown closer in the last two years since my brother is gone; she's waiting for him- YAY!!!) and we baked cookies together. She's a fabulous baker and I wouldn't trust myself rolling out cookies on my own, so she supervised my work. She taught me a lot about baking!
We got Jacen involved. Usually that's out of my comfort zone since I knew he was going to be making a mess, but the only mess he made was on the cookies. He emptied out the whole container of green sprinkles on the first two sheets of cookies; and he used the majority of the pink sprinkles on the next couple of batches.
And here I am rolling out the dough. It was fun, I have to admit!
Some of the cookies had WAY too much sprinkles on them... but at least Jacen had fun :)
Who would've thought that two years after having a child I finally start being a mom?!
After begging and imploring Elijah to upload the pictures onto here, I ended up being the one to do it. Sorry it took me so long, but exams have become a priority :P
So here are some pictures from Easter. Jacen has two outfits because he dumped green coloring all over himself when we were coloring eggs.
This is from Jacen's birthday dinner, the night before his birthday (April 10th). I can't believe he's two!!! We went to Red Robin. That kid cried the whole time.
We took him to The Living Aquarium the morning of his birthday. He loved to look at all the fish!
Birthday Party time!!! He had a bunch of his little friends come over for hot dogs and cake and it was a blast! The theme this year was Winnie the Pooh (or as he calls it "Poopie").
Thanks for all the gifts, everyone! He loves them!
Later that evening, we went out with Mary Beach (Elijah's cousin) and had our first photoshoot as a family (last time we've had professional pictures done was when Elijah and I got married 5 years ago). She was great and I highly recomment her to anyone. Jacen looks grumpy because he had no nap and then he fell on his face and got a bloody lip during the photoshoot. Mary did an awesome job at taking pictures of the total of 0.2 seconds that Jacen smiled. These are just a handful of the many she took; I uploaded all of them on Facebook (it's faster there than here). Enjoy!
UPDATE: I totally forgot to mention Jacen got a cat for his birthday. His name is Hercules, and he's about 1 year old. We've already had to spend $250 on vet bills. The cat decided it was a good idea to take a stroll on top of the hot burner on the stove the day after he got neutered so we had to get it bandaged; then it got a cold and needed meds to get better.
He's back to his hyper self and Jacen loves it to death. Jacen will even sit next to it and read books to him, or he'll bring his big Lego blocks and dump them next to the kitty and pretend the kitty can build blocks with him. So cute. Jacen's behavior has really improved since then and he's more willing to play on his own now, which is always a huge plus. All in all, though, getting a cat is so much cheaper than having another child :P
I purposely did not update this blog with a post about our wedding anniversary that came and went on the 5th of this month because we weren't going to celebrate it until this past thursday and I wanted to be able to write about something, and not just "Well, our anniversary is was on the 5th and we're not doing anything for two weeks because I can't get out of school until Spring Break." haha
For a while now Elijah has been wanting to go out of town for our anniversary and every year I've always managed to get out of it somehow. I just figured why do we need to go out when we can have a nice celebration in town?! So this year Elijah wasn't gonna put up with any more of that, therefore he made reservations at the Peppermill in Wendover for this past thursday (we were supposed to head to Vegas but I didn't want to go that far).
Ok, so Wendover was NOT somewhere I envisioned spending a 5-year anniversary celebration. I've always heard how crappy Wendover is, and honestly, whenever I've driven past Wendover, I had to make sure I didn't blink while we passed it, otherwise I would miss it. Then I shadowed Dr. Labrum this past week and he made sure I knew to be careful and to always keep the door to our hotel room locked because he had a patient and her husband who had been badly assaulted there. Needless to say, I was a bit scared and didn't know what to expect.
We arranged for overnight babysitting (thanks Susan and mom!) and headed to Wendover for the night. Once we got there, I was a bit weirded out by the casinos. I've never been inside one before. It was just plain strange. People really get into gambling, don't they?! I could really see why Vegas is called "Sin City". Since the casino at Wendover is a small representation of what Vegas is really like, I felt sorry for all those people. I can't imagine wasting hundreds and hundreds of dollars on chance games you will never win. We ate at the Grand Buffett and Elijah landed an awesome deal on a suite room. The room was really nice and had a jacuzzi and the shower was a steam shower.
Elijah played some Blackjack, and he won some money! We put in $20 and he won $40, so not too bad! He plays smart and that's the key to winning at casinos. He stayed up until 2am (I went to bed at midnight) to get me some money. What a sweetie.
All in all, it was a great anniversary getaway. For our 10 year anniversary (in 2015) we'll have to do something really small since (hopefully!) I'll be in med school and we'll be very, very poor, but we'll definitely make up for it at our 15 yr anniversary!
Sorry no pictures, because once again, I'm terrible at taking them.
I've been getting weird and somewhat annoying comments on this blog from anonymous people so I'm deciding to make this blog a private one. If you'd like to keep reading it, please add your email to the comment section or send me a message on Facebook.
We'll go private on March 20th.
Good day!
Gosh, time has slipped by and I didn't even make a note of this big event in my life that happened a month ago. I think I mostly ignored it because I had to work that day and I forgot about it until today. HA!
So as of the 31st of January, I've been living in the United States for 10 YEARS! It's insane how my life changed. I came from this
to this
(sorry so blurry)
and it's been quite the change, to be honest. Mountains aren't my thing, you know? They're pretty to look at, but the beach is so much more fun. The waves are constantly changing and the dynamics are awesome. There's a reason my background to the blog is a beach! I love it. And I miss it.
I haven't seen my family in over 10 years now and it makes me sad. I wish it wasn't so darn expensive to go (it's at least $2000 for both of us; $6000 if we go over Christmas time). But one day when I can afford it, I'll definitely go back. My dad's coming with his wife in June though, I'm thrilled. It's been two years since I've seen him and when I did see him, I had just had Jacen and I was sick, and so was he. Daily trips to the hospital for 9 days were not how envisioned spending quality time with my dad!
I still remember being on the plane coming here and just being sick as a dog... couldn't figure out why. When we got off the plane in Newark, NJ, we had the opportunity to experience american food for the first time: McDonald's. And believe it or not, it tastes different than it does in Brazil (in fact, I like the way it tastes in Brazil better than here). But I had something I had never had at a McDonald's in Brazil which was hot chocolate. I was amazed they even served that! I burned my tongue big time because I couldn't read "Caution, the contents may be hot". So lesson learned. Turned out 2 days later I was even sicker and fainted in the bathroom while my mom was brushing my hair. Went to the doctor and found out I had bronchitis and the flu at the same time.
Also that week I experienced snow for the first time. I was disappointed. It's the same stuff that's in old freezers. Nothing new there!
Then on the 29th of February (yeah, leap year!) my little brother was born. He'll be 10 years old this week. I can't believe how time flies. Couldn't speak a lick of English to my neighbor to let him know our car had broken down half a block down from our house and needed him to take my mom into the hospital in his police car. All that came out was "Mom!", "Baby!", "Water!" "Car!", "Broken!". Good times.
I had a rough adjustment, with a bout of severe depression that was undiagnosed for years until I had a major breakdown and landed in the hospital about a year and a half after getting here, but it turned out okay. I met Elijah six months later and things began to take shape.
Graduated from Cottonwood High School with Honors - imagine that! The girl with the thick accent spoke at high school graduation. Who would've thunk?!- and got a scholarship to go to the U. Then I got married. Then 3 years later I had a kid. I graduated from the Community College with Honors, and English isn't even my primary language!!!
Lots have happened in the last ten years. I'm grateful to be here. I love it here. I'm glad my parents gave me and my brother a chance to come here and choose how our lives were going to take place.
One thing I haven't done while living here is skiing and snowboarding. I wish I could do it because I like the cold so much, but just can't afford an expensive habit.
On another note... an update on the crisis of last week: the whole terrible two's issue escalated until saturday night, when Jacen didn't fall asleep until 5am. But since then he's been quieter, sleeping well, and eating better. Maybe it was just one of those weeks that you want to throw the memories of in the garbage of the brain. Strange. Kids are strange sometimes, but we love them anyways! Thanks for the support. Sometimes I don't know what in the world I'm doing.. well, I should say all the time :)
