Dollar Store Queen

I know I am cheap and I won't deny it. It is kind of thrilling for me to see how much money I can save every week when I go shopping. Through all the years of shopping for my family I have come to discover that there are things that you can buy without having to spend the money for it. Having four kids and 2 adults in my house I have to figure out ways to stay within my budget and try to get the best deals, I do make 3 stops during the week and they don't take that long. Walmart of course is the one place where I buy my diapers and wipes, clothing and some times shoes for the kids, also the 3 pounds of chicken breasts and most of my vegetables and fruits. Krogers is where I buy my frozen vegetables, cereals, eggs and cheese. Dollar Tree is where I get some interesting deals and so I made a list of the things I get every other week (except for the toothbrushes).

Top ten buys from the dollar stores


Dollar Store / Krogers or Walmart
Frozen waffles $1.00 / $2.50
Garlic Bread $1.00 / $2.50
Frozen french fries $1.00 / $3.00
Sandwich bags $1.00 / $2.00
Hand soap (dial) $1.00/ $2.00
Toothpaste (Colgate) $1.00 / $3.00
Toothbrushes 4 x $1.00/ $2.50 (each) $10.00
Tomatoes 2 lbs. $1.00/ $3.00
Bell peppers (red or green) 4 $1.00/ $6.00 ($1.50 each some times $2.00)
Graham crackers $1.00/ $2.25

Total $10.00 / $36.25

We have a 99c. store in our area and they bring in all kinds of vegetables and fruit every week. I always go there before I go to Walmart, I love that I can buy my bell peppers there all 4 for a $1.00.
My best find this week was the Airwick scented oils the kind that you plug into the wall. The warmer was $1.00 and the refill was also a $1.00. I bought 5 warmers and 10 refills, all together $15.00 but a big savings of $24.25, I love it when my house smells nice, so this is a product I buy on a regular basis and I always pay full price.

There are many more things that I can list but probably too boring for you. I am not saying that all of you should go do what I do, but I like to share my experiences and in case you have a tight budget then you know where to go to save some money. This is what works for me and it makes me happy to tell Dan how much money I can save.

Pictures of my Granpa and Grandma

Yesterday when I opened my Facebook account I found an invitation to join this new application or whatever it was, the name of it is Geni and as curious as I am I decided to go see it and to my great surprise I found a huge family tree for my entire Gonzalez Soler family (my father's side of the family). I was in tears when I dragged the mouse all over the page and the family tree would not stop, all my uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents, and their grandparents. It was too much to take in and I have to admit that I was up until 2 in the morning looking at pictures of my family. The two pictures that I am so excited to have is the one of my grandpa and grandma. My grandma Carmen died way before my parents got married, so I didn't get a chance to meet her and the only picture I have of her is one where she was already in her old age. My Abuelito Papa Juan (that's is what we used to call my grandpa) was a very nice guy, I remember him a little, I was like 4 years old when he passed away. I think you can understand how excited I am about all this. There are some dates and information on my ancestors so that is great for our genealogy, which I know needs to get done at some point.


This is my beautiful Abuelita Carmen, wasn't she gorgeous? What a classy lady, look at the hairdo, I don't have the info right now, but that seems to be a picture from like the 20's


My grandpa is the man sitting on the left, the little boy by him is his son Oscar (some of the Browns met him when he visited me in VA, he is still alive), the rest of the ladies are my grandpa's sisters except for the one in the middle, that is his mother.

Friendship at last...I hope

So most of you that have been following my blog know about how I have been feeling since we moved here. I still feel like I live in a whole new world and it is kind of hard to get to know people. I have been trying really hard to get some friends for my kids too and luckily for all of us I think we havesucceeded!!!
I am so happy that there are two families in the ward that have young kids and they are same ages as mine, except for Shayna but she is so good at playing with younger kids that is not really an issue. These two families (the Locks and theWashburns ) are not from around here and have moved from different places just like we have. One of the families moved in probably the same week we moved in the ward also.
So Spring brake was a great opportunity to spend more time with all of them and have my kids play with their kids. On Wednesday my friendLucrecia who is really nice and I love talking to her because we speak in Spanish and we have a lot of things in common, invited my kids over for a day of playing and eating so basically we spent like 4 hours at their house, she and I talked while the kids played on the water slide and jumped on the trampoline. We had hot dogs, chips, fruit and some brownies (I need my chocolate). The kids all had fun and got wet and cold, but mostly had fun.

Tristan enjoying the Lock's trampoline, it has been a while since they got to jump on one :(

Tristan had fun playing with his little girlfriend Daina
Here are all the kids eating their lunch, Dalton is the tallest boy, but he is only seven (he is taller than Shayna)

On Friday Iarranged a pick nick with Tiffany and her kids, she has three boys, one that is Victor's age, one that is Aaron's age and a cute little baby. We went to herneighborhood that has a lot of nice playground and found one that had shade and lots of space for the kids to run and we spent a good 3 hours there just letting them play and of course we the moms talked non stop. It was really nice to get to know Tiffany and to discover that there is some hope and there are some nice normal people in my ward. They were so nice and brought a present for Victor which he has been enjoying a lot.
On Saturday one of the sister form the Primary presidency stopped by to drop off some snacks for the nursery and she asked if we wanted to go to the park with her, I took all my kids while Dan stayed home and I lost track of time, I think we were gone for almost two hours. Michelle is also a very nice person and she recently had a baby (a very cute chubby baby) and I think she was looking for some grown up conversation. I enjoyed the time I talked to herimmensely and hope we can do it again some time. She speaks English, French and Spanish (she is married to a Hispanic guy).
On Sunday we went to the Washburn's house for dinner, the elders were there too and we had a wonderful dinner. I brought my famous Salsa which was a hit as always and they had home made hamburgers that were very good. Thehot dog were just the way we liked them. After the elders left we played a board game and the kids were enjoying playing with their new friends.
So basically I am very happy to see that patience pays off and that when I go to church now at least there are some people that I actually now something about.
Here are the kids who decided to sit on the grass to have their pick nick, we were able to find a spot with no fire ants around it. Look at all the different hair colors :) Eli is in the yellow shirt, he is my senior nursery and he is just so good and well behaved, I absolutely love him :)

My Victor is 7... WOW

Today 7 years ago my cute boy Victor was born. I was so excited to know that I was having a boy and even with the all day sickness that I had to deal with for 5 months and then the gestational diabetes it was all worth it. His delivery was the scariest one of all my kids, specially since it was all natural (not by choice might I add). He was born without a doctor and did not cry right away, there was something wrong, but in the end he was OK. I am so grateful for this little boy who no matter how much he grows he will still be my first baby boy. He is a difficult child, but we love him so much and now that he is a very special child... very SPECIAL :) I honestly think that the fact that he had a speech problem from a very young age made him the way he is, shy, quiet and keeps to himself most of the time. My Victor is a very sweet boy who will love you no matter what, he was given the gift of forgiveness and to forget anyone who hurts him. I wish I could be more like him. He is not like other boys who are into skate boarding or doing scary and daring things, but for me that is fine, I can be happy that he will be safe and wont be getting hurt anytime soon. I don't care if he is different from other boys, that is what makes him who he is.
Dan was in charge on getting him presents this year and I think he did a great job, he got a couple of books, strategies games, a chemistry set, a Batman figurine and a Helicopter that already got broken, but it was fun while it worked. Yesterday we met some friends at a park so he could have some one to play with for a long time, his friend Connor gave him the toy Batman and he was very happy to get it.
Here we are at the park trying to figure out how the helicopter works.
Here is Victor with his Batman cake.
I wanted a picture of the entire family and it didn't come out that great, but at least we are all together.
Dan kept putting a french fry in front of the camera every time I tried to take a picture, this one is not so bad..

Today we gave him presents in the morning, went to the park to try out his new toy and then went out for lunch, we ended up skipping Denny's today but we opted for a McDonald's with an indoor playground and Victor had lots of fun. We also had cake, I made him a special Batman cake since that is what he wanted and I think it turned out really good. All in all I think he had a great day!!!

PS. Uncle Steven and Aunt Amber came by later today to drop off a present for Victor.

Growing up

If there is one thing you need to know about me is that growing up was very different from the way kids grow up in this country.
Back home this is all I knew and grew up hating it. Lets start with the most painful memories:

School: I attended an all girl school during the elementary school years. The school was funded by some Israeli people and we used to get visits from the Ambassador and it was all very weird. My first grade teacher was super nice but then my mom decided to change teachers and I didn't like it, but the new teacher turned out to be really good and I learned to love her, Graduation day (6th grade) Maestra Orfelinda

but she was very strict. All the teachers seemed to be mean and had very strange ideas on how to deal with misbehaved kids. If you talk in class you have to chew on a corn cob, if you do more than that then you pick up you desk over you head and stay like that for an hour. You only get to go to the bathroom during recess and not during class (that is why I peed on myself one day... so embarrassing). One day I was sick and didn't want to go to PE, the teacher noticed my absence and looked for me, found me and punished me by hitting me with his metal whistle, I was so hurt by it and told my mom and the next day she came to the school to complain about it and said if it happened again she was going to sue the school or something... I never got in trouble with that teacher again. They had a Catholic class at the school and made us all sit there and listen to a catholic teacher, I was raised to respect all religions, but also wanted people to respect mine, I asked them to let me skip the class, but they wouldn't. I just sat there and learned their songs (which I still remember by the way). After 6Th grade I went to a Bilingual private school "Saint Francis", it was a scary experience since there were boys and I didn't know how to talk to boys. End of 7th grade, my cousin Sabrina and me

The school was new and there were only 7 kids in my class. I took English for the first time and I hated it. The English teacher spoke in English all the time and I had no idea what she was saying, I had to learn how to say "may I go to the bathroom" very quickly. The English classes were hard but I am grateful for it now, we took Spelling, Grammar, Literature and we also took French. After 9Th grade you get to choose a career. I chose to be an accountant, so for the next three years I devoted myself to study really hard and did internships 3 years in a row, that meant work full time during our school brake in November and no pay, but I did learn a lot. I worked for Chiclets Adams all three years, the last year was the hardest because I had to do it for 2 months, again no pay and a full time schedule. I went to an all girl school again Last week at school with my entire class, except my best friend who got really sick

and wore a horrible uniform (private or public school make you wear uniforms), there were 8 young ladies in my class and only 3 of us graduated (sooo not fair). The principal was a psycho. Happy day, my brother Nefi, my mom and brother Abinadi

After school I worked at our family company and went to the university part time, but then had to look for a full time job to help the family, so that was that. No more school for me since then and I miss it :(
Being in an all girl school I had no dances to go to, no prom, no boyfriend... no fun :(

CHURCH: Church was my life and I loved being in the Young Women program, my family and I were less active for 2 years and when we came back I was already 13 and felt out of place at the beginning but after a while the church people became like my family and that was all I wanted to do. I loved seminary and was very good at the scripture search meetings, I was the champion for the whole Stake and went to the regionals which was a very big deal. I ended up in 4Th place but my stake was very proud of me. Dances at the church were so much fun and I even went to a couple of Young Adults dances with my Young Women president (who was my best friend).
My friend Sandra and her pregnant belly, she was like my sister.

My mom was always there with me, which was fine but when the boys want to ask you to dance and your mom is sitting right by you, doesn't really work and they stay away. That happened many many times... that being said lets move on to DATING!!!

DATING: Not much of that going on really :) I didn't date because I was not allowed, my Mom thought somehow that being the only girl I was going to mess up my life by having a boyfriend or just friends that were boys, so I was not allowed to talk to any boys at all. As soon as I was seen talking to somebody I was going to be reprimanded right there on the spot. It was so embarrassing and frustrating... did I like any boys? Of course I did, I was a young woman and there were a lot of guys that I was interested in, but I had to obey my mother's wishes and didn't do anything about it. My mom didn't know about the boys I liked and she even thought that I didn't like anybody. I finally met somebody at age 17, my first boyfriend. I now understand why my mom let me go out with him, he was in the NAVY and was in Guatemala for a couple of weeks and then he left... yes my 1st boyfriend was a long distance relationship. The whole thing was a joke really, he was younger than me, he didn't really go to church that much and after he left we wrote for a couple of months and then I broke up with him. Two years later he came back and we saw each other again, this time he proposed to me, but I said no. By this time I had already met Dan and I think he was the reason I didn't want to marry him. My boyfriend left and a couple of months later and I broke it off for good. My skinny ex boyfriend, I was 20 at the time

BOYS THAT LIKED ME: It is kind of funny to think about this because I didn't date much but there were a lot of guys who wanted to date me. I wasn't really interested in them but for some reason they were obsessed with me. There was a guy who I know since I was little girl who had a crush on me since I was 16, he went on his mission, came back with the hope of marrying me and I turned him down like 3 times. He stated that he had a revelation and I was to be his wife... poor guy. He now is married and we keep in touch and laugh about the old days :) There was another guy who I thought I liked but after realizing I didn't it told him to leave me alone, he went on his mission, he came back and was after my little bones for years, I also turned him down like 3 times, even in the middle of the dance floor and after that I was known as the lady who left guys dancing by themselves on the dance floor . There was a missionary who just before he finished his mission was looking for a wife (I was 16), I guess he just wanted a Guatemalan girl, obviously that was not going to happen.

BEING A GIRL: In my culture it is so sad to see the injustice of being a girl. The "macho" traditions have been around for centuries and I was SO LUCKY to experience it. I am sure that my brothers don't think it was unfair since they didn't have to be the ones doing all the housework. From a very young age I remember how we girls needed to grow up to be a good wife so we were taught how to clean, how to do laundry (by hand), how to cook and take care of the boys. Meanwhile the boys played, played and played, didn't move a finger and it was so not fear. I don't mind learning how to be a good wife but the boys also need to learn how to do everything we do.

So I guess that growing up I hated my life, thought that my mom was so unfair and everything was horrible. I don't really think that way anymore, sure I wish that I could have had the experiences that were stolen from me. The opportunity to go out with friends after school, date a little, but then again maybe my life would have turned out a totally different way and I love my life now. I am grateful to my mom for the things that she taught me and I can take what I learned and teach that to my kids but one thing is for sure no MACHO business around here :)

Dentist Appointment :)

Here is the crazy mom and the crazy kids waiting for Victor to get out.


I had this crazy idea that if I took all the kids to the dentist at the same time it was going to be better than to take them one by one... yeah crazy idea. It wasn't so bad but Aaron woke up kind of under the weather and did not want to sit still and also missed his nap time and it was a little crazy. The guys did great and I think it was because we did some practice at home last week before going today. I told them what they were going to do and I explained about the X-rays, etc. It was actually kind of fun, they all took turns being the dentist, the receptionist, the patient and even the mom :)
The whole experience for me today was kind of weird because I was not in the room with them when they were doing the cleaning, plus Shayna was in one room, Victor in another one and Tristan was getting the X-rays done all at the same time. Shayna cried a little bit but she is all better now (she says she was scared for Victor and Tristan). Shayna had 4 cavities, Victor had 5 and Tristan had none YEAH FOR TRISTAN!!! Victor came out all numbed and it's kind of funny to hear him talk and he now thinks he wont be able to go back to school because he can't talk :)
The other funny thing about the whole experience was to be in a place where everybody was Latino and they thought Aaron was just the cutest guy ever, and kept commenting on the blue eyes, finally somebody asked me if their dad was "gringo" and I showed them pictures so they can see that we are all a family and he is not my second husband which is usually the case in my culture with having kids with different skin color.
Now we are home and I am sitting here looking at my house all neglected because it has been insane here for the last two days, but we'll get to it eventually.
By the way, everybody liked the cake I made yesterday and Dan was very proud of me. Victor had lots of fun at the party and we are happy for him. Poor guy he us just too shy even if we are not around.



Shayna showing off her x-rays in the background.
A very proud Tristan with his new Shrek Toothbrush, he was very proud of himself for doing his first visit without mom in the room. I honestly didn't care, as long as it got done :)

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Victor has a St. Patrick's Day party today and I decided to make a cake, maybe all the kids will think he is so cool for bringing this cake (just kidding!!!). I am so proud of myself, normally I hate the cakes I make, but this one is a Hyde original and it was so much fun making it, the kids were all standing around me learning how to decorate and trying to play with my tools and the rolled fondant, which they discovered is not only fun to play with but also very tasty :)
Have a great St. Patrick's Day Every one!!!

Sad and happy :)

OK, so this might be a strange post... The reason for it is the show Ghost Whisperer. I love the show and the stories they have an how the main character (Melinda Gordon) is always helping all the spirits go to where they need to go but not before they take care of unfinished business on earth. I haven't had any problems watching the show but the last one that we saw for some reason made me so sad and I ended up thinking about my dad again. It is so weird how this happens to me every once in a while. Believe me I don't like being depressed and sad all the time, but some times I can't help but to think about how it would have been to have more time with him and to learn from him. Even after all this time it still hurts and moments like last night can make me get into a weird mood. Dan caught me crying after the show was all done and I felt pretty silly, but he is a really cool guy and he knows exactly what is going on with me, he tried to get the covers off me (because I was hiding) and then he hugged me, he doesn't need to say anything I know he understands.
In planning the lesson for Family Home Evening for tonight I was telling Victor the story about how my parents sold their fridge to get money to go get sealed in Arizona with my older brother and me, it makes me so happy to know that because of their big sacrifice we are an eternal family and will be together again, I am grateful to know that I will get to hug him again and talk to him and tell him all about my life and the things that I have accomplished, I am also grateful that Dan and I have our own little family and we also are an eternal family. My heart is so full of emotions today and I don't know if I'll be able to get through the lesson tonight, but I'll try anyways, for some reason I feel the need to teach this topic tonight and I better listen to the promptings of the Spirit. Lately in my life I have been feeling a lot of different emotions and I have been working on a lot of personal issues, I feel the need for more guidance in my life and have had a couple of experiences that show me how much my Heavenly Father is trying to communicate with me, it has been a wonderful feeling and I can't really explain it, but just know that I feel the love of my Heavenly Father in my life and the love of the ones close to me. I can't ask for anything else in my life that can make it better at this point in my life. The trials we go through help us get stronger and I know we need to deal with them in order to gain more knowledge and experience. I have said it before I am a simple woman that wants a simple life, don't ask for much just to be with my happy family and make the best of our situation. I have a wonderful husband (who can drive me crazy some times) and four beautiful, smart, kind and loving kids that mean more to me than anything else in my life.
My life has been an adventure so far, perhaps it might not seem that way to other people, but it has been to me. I love life, I love my family and friends and want to enjoy every moment I have with them.

Dr Appointments and gardening

I finally took Victor to the doctor to see why he wont stop coughing and basically just being sick all the time. He has been sick for like a month now, he got a high fever last week for two days, it got up to 102.9 and he was feeling really crappy. Turns out that he probably had the flu last week which makes sense. The thing that always scares me about Victor is his nose bleeds, he gets them every 3 to 4 months and it is crazy, he really bleeds a lot and for no reason. The doctor thinks that it is because he has allergies, and his nostrils are always so dry, so she gave him 2 prescriptions and now we spray his nose with Veramyst (expensive medicine $125.00) once a day, put some saline in there to keep his nostrils from getting dry and he is taking Loratadine too. I took all four kids to the hospital to get some lab work done, they needed to do a blood cell count and I had no other option than to bring them all with me. Yes it was crazy but who can blame the poor kids for sitting in such a small room for almost three hours. Poor Victor was poked twice on each arm and they were not able to get blood from him, finally a very nice nurse came and poked him a fifth time on the left arm and by this time Victor was in tears (who wouldn't be) and she was able to get all four vials of blood. They felt so bad for Victor he got a huge bag of candy afterwards. So now we just wait for the results and hopefully there is nothing wrong with him and the nosebleeds are just because of his allergies.




Last year when Dollar General had an end of season sale 90% off on all their gardening items I was very excited


and got a lot of things that I needed, specially since I got them for $0.20 a piece. I bought two medium pots for flowers, 6 long rectangular planters, a bunch of little pots and then two weeks ago Dan got two huge pots for my tomato plants. This week I went to Walmart and bought my tomato plants and worked on my garden project all afternoon two days ago. I was thinking that since it was getting hot enough it would be a good idea to start working on it, but it got kind of cold today, hopefully the tomato plants wont die. There is a lot of rain and that is always a good thing. So here is what we planted with the kids: 2 Roma tomato plants, 1 upside down tomato plant, 1 cherry tomato plant, cilantro, parsley, a bunch of flowers, strawberries that grow hanging from a basket :) If the tomatoes do well, then I will get more planters for the rest of the summer. We always get very excited about our garden and this year it will be different since Texas has fire ants everywhere and I am not going to be planting directly on the ground were they might end up building their ant hills and then we wont be able to go pick the tomatoes because we are scared of them :)




Here is my creation, an upside down tomato plant. The 3 cherry tomato plants are on the top and three Roma tomato plants growing from the bottom.

The green bag with whole that is on the ground in one of the pictures is the strawberries, they are supposed to stay like that for two weeks and then we hang them up.

This week my sister in Law from VA , Heather came to stay with Steven and Amber to have a little vacation and help them out with the new baby. Dan and her had lunch on Thursday and then came over to our house to see the new place, she liked it :)
She came back later that evening with Steven and Amber to have dinner at our house. I made fish and rice and made up a new salsa that turned out pretty good. We all had enough to eat and then had some fun showing Heather Rock Band and American Idol. I had fun holding my little niece Carmen, she is so cute and a very happy baby.
Saturday we went looking for our new favorite store in Houston and we found like 7 of them, the kids got lucky with a couple of things and even I got a new dress for 7.99, you can't beat that!!! In the afternoon Dan wanted to play Rock Band and I wasn't in the the mood for it, so I decided to work on a dress for Shayna, it was partly my invention and I had help from a pattern, but I think it turned out great and Shayna loves it. It took like 2 1/2 hours and I love quick projects to work on, so it was great.

I did take a little break to play Rock Band with Dan and Steven for a little while.
Today we went to Carmen's baby blessings so we had a long day at church and kind of stressful, but we were happy to go and be part of their special day. Amber made a cute dress for Carmen and I took a picture of the happy family before church started.

Here are a couple of funny pictures, I found Shayna sleeping one morning with her foot stuck inside her sleeve, I have no idea how long she was in that position but it look funny. Then here is Aaron after Dan changed his diaper he was laying down in a funny position which made us laugh because we noticed that in the movies and TV shows when people fall off a building they end up in the same position, so I couldn't resist to take a picture of it.

Count your blessings...

I know my last post was kind of long, I didn't realize how many things I had written down until I read the whole thing. Well I was thinking about all the bad luck and then decided to concentrate on one of the good things that has happened to our little family.
8 years ago Dan, Shayna, Victor and I were living in a little two bedroom apartment in West Virginia when we got a phone call from Dan's mom, she told us about the possibility of buying a town house in VA. That phone call changed our lives forever. Dan had told me in the past that we would never afford to buy a house and I honestly didn't think we would, although I really wanted to buy one. Dan got a raise a little after that phone call and we were able to get approved for a loan. We only saw the house once on the inside and maybe twice on the outside. It was a complete mess and very old but Dan and I were able to see endless possibilities, if there is something I have learned in this life is that you should never be picky. Like everything else we do in our lives, we packed our little apartment and drove to VA on the day of the closing date October 30Th(Dan's birthday). We closed on the house, got the keys and headed straight for our new home. It was raining and dark and cold, my in laws offered us to spend the night at their place but we insisted to stay. After the first day we realized that the house was going to need a lot of work, the AC was dead, the furnace was from 1976 and had to be on 90 the whole time or it would turn off, the only full bathroom was a huge mess and the floor was caving in from water damage. We managed to survive the first year before we could start making improvements. The bathroom was the first thing, then the next year we got rid of the carpet, we got new siding, new roof, new windows and painted the entire second level. New opportunities opened up for us and after visiting Utah during our vacation in 2005 we decided to sell at what seemed to be the best time. Our house sold 4 days after we put it on the market, we got more than 3 times of what we paid for it and again just packed our lives away and moved to Utah, the best part about that was the driving almost across the United States. Those were fun days. In order to move I had to get rid of a lot of furniture and stuff but it felt really good to give our stuff to a family who needed it. Dan also gave away his car to his niece, that seems to be our tradition with every move. That is one of the things that I admire a lot about Dan, he is a very giving person and I love him for that. So now you know the story about how we ended up living in Utah. For me the entire experience of buying the townhouse is one of the biggest blessing we have had as a family and I know that ending up in Texas somehow is going to bring a lot more blessings that we could not have been able to get before. I am very grateful for what I have and I do count my blessings :)
Sadly the townhouse is a foreclosure now, since the family that bought it pay way too much money for it and the economy is so bad. My brother in Law who still lives across the street from my townhouse took pictures of it and I can recognize that the big pile of trash there is what used to be my kitchen. I painted the cabinets black to give the kitchen a new look (I liked it). The stove that we bought when we first moved in is there too, how sad :( My sister in Law call me to tell me about the stove and that it was just sitting there and we were all sad since she took me shopping for it. You can still see the security latch thing on the side of the oven door. So here is a picture of our first house.

My broken list

So Dan has this idea that there is a dark rainy cloud hanging over him and that it has been there for years, he says that thanks to him I also get affected by it. I keep telling him that he has to think positive and good things will come to him. Anyways we always laugh about all the things that we buy that are broken and during the last 10 years we have a pretty long list. I am sure other people have had the same problem I am sure that we are not the only ones with this kind of luck. So here it goes:

1. First car we ever bought and I don't even remember what kind it was, it was our first car and we were excited, we drove away from the dealer and our little baby Shayna in the back. We drove on the freeway for a while and as we were getting on the exit we heard a noise then saw a tire bouncing on the side of the car and then the car leaned to the side and those were one of the scariest seconds in my life. Dan being the good driver that he is was able to make the car get to the side of the road safely and then we checked on Shayna to make sure everyone was OK, Dan kept laughing and I was crying the entire time. We realized then that the entire thing that holds the tire had come off and there we were with an useless car. We got the money back and the guys wanted to fix the car and give it back to us, but why would we want it back?

2. Second car that we bought, we bought it from a mechanic in West Virginia thinking that because it was a mechanic the deal was great. He even gave us a warranty on the car for 30 days. Sadly exactly 30 days after we bought it the car died and we had no idea why. A mechanic told us that the seller knew exactly what he was doing. So no car again. We eventually got a good car :)

3. We bought a floor lamp that was broken and back then Dan hated going to the store to exchange stuff so we kept the broken lamp for a long time, it was very annoying.

4. Dan got me a Jewelry box that was really cute, he came home all excited after work (at 3 am) and made me open the present and the first words that came out of my mouth were "it's broken", he was so mad and and that is when he decided that we were going to go the store the next day and exchange it. I got a new one and I have had ever since.

5. Surround sound system that we bought about 5 years ago lasted for like 2 months and then it started having issues, luckily I had saved the receipt and and were able to exchange it for another one.

6. The many times we have gotten food from the drive thru at MacDonald's, Wendy's, BK (too many to list)

7. The first table we bought at Walmart for $150.00, it was great it had 6 chairs and a decent size table, we put it all together and when we got to the last chair one of the pieces was broken. I knew the store had another box so I went back with the broken piece hoping they would just replace it with one from the box (it made total sense to me), the customer service rep told me to bring back the entire set, I explained to her that it was all put together and the box was destroyed, she kept insisting, so I asked to talk to the manager who agreed with me and I got my part exchanged.

8. My beautiful fridge we bought back in Utah after a while it didn't work properly anymore so we had to get it fixed and it probably works better now. This happened of course after the warranty had expired. They had to come back and fix it again because the guy who fixed it didn't do it right.

9. When we bought Rock Band the one guitar that came with the kit didn't work so we had to contact them and ask for a replacement which took like a month to get to our house.

10. More recently Dan bought me not only one but TWO hair straighteners when we first moved to Texas from a website that has really good deals. He made a mistake on the order that's how we ended up with two and he would not return the second one so we kept both. I was going to give my mom the second one but after using it for a month mine started smoking while I was using it and the thing started to melt on my hair. It was supposed to be one of those very expensive ones and really good, but it didn't work, so I opened the second one and guess what? It was broken too, on that one only the one side would get hot and the other one didn't.

11. An NFL game Dan bought back in 2002 didn't have the game inside, instead it came with a little demo thing, when we took it back to the store they didn't know what had happened, the game was sealed and there was no way they put it in there, that was a packaging mistake I guess.

12. My beautiful sewing table that I got for Christmas, it was beautiful but they put these stupid little plastic rollers for such a heavy table and one of the wheels came off and we could not put it back in. I of course got my money back on that. Joan's customer service is really bad, when I called them the lady on the phone was so rude but he people at the sore were super nice and understanding.

13. We bought two sets of window covers to get the sun out of the kids faces, there were two in each package but out of four only one worked, I exchanged them for something better.

14. We recently bought a pick up truck for Dan so that I could keep his car during the week. The guy that sold it to us was not a very nice guy, we discovered we were going to have to pay over two thousand dollars to fix it, so it had been sitting on my driveway since December, we bought it just 4 days before Christmas and two days later after getting it we found out about the problems it had so I called the guy to ask him to give us the money back since he wasn't very honest with us, of course he didn't and kept saying that the car was in very good condition. We finally sold it yesterday, we lost money but it is gone now.

15. Our dinning set had a chair that was missing one of the holes to put the screw in it. I tried to fix it but couldn't do it. That same night we took it back and the people at IKEA tried to put it together, the guy came out half an hour later with the chair all put together but Dan asked them to give us another one, since that one was so hard to put together.

16. The medicine the pharmacy gave me for Aaron when he was really sick and he ended up getting an overdose of his medication.

17. When Victor was born (we didn't buy anything but we payed for services) the doctor had a student working with him and he put something on my cervix to soften them and that is when I heard him say "oops", he put it way more than he was supposed to and tried to fix it :) 4 hours later I was in intense labor having trouble getting Victor out, Dan barely made it and I didn't get any medication for the pain. Victor came out with the cord wrapped around his neck and he didn't cry or made any kind of noise. The nurses kept saying everything was fine but they kept pushing the emergency button and giving him oxygen, he finally cried after a while. The doctor got there like 10 minutes later and was very disappointed. We are so glad Victor was fine after all.

The list goes on and on and on but I keep thinking about all the good luck we have had in the past too and that list is even bigger. Anyways I just think that it is kind of funny that these things happen to us (years after they happen), we are probably just plain stupid with the car issues but there is no other we are going to change the way we shop for cars, we don't like making car payments so we rather pay cash for them, we do take a big risk and we expect people to be honest just like we are, but we realized that is not the case.

Another busy Saturday

My nephew Joshua from Utah, sent me a letter with a Flat Stanley in it. We were supposed to take a picture with him in front of a famous place Texas is known for. Dan as always went the extra mile and had the cool idea of going to different places and having each of the kids pose for a picture with Flat Stanley. We found different places online and Amber told me about this place where you can go feed the police horses downtown and so we added that place too. It was all very fun and exciting even if we didn't actually go inside every single place. We drove by the Galleria, went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science (we will go back this week when it is free for everybody), the Houston Garden Center where they have this beautiful garden full of all kinds of trees, flowers, plants and also statues of famous people, we made a quick stop by the Houston Zoo and then we went to the Memorial Park which is huge and they had a marathon going on so we couldn't take a picture there. We went to the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center and that is also another interesting place that we will have to go back to because they have trails and a lot of cool things for the kids.



We went to feed the horses after that and the kids had lots of fun feeding three nice horses, we fed them carrots and apples. We drove back home but then decided to go look for one more shot, we drove over the Houston Lake and took a picture of it and then we went for lunch at DQ, they have a special Texas menu (a very expensive one if you ask me). Texans seem to be very proud of their state and they make a big deal out of everything, we took a picture of the soda cup and french fries bag because we thought it was appropriate for the theme. You can see the slide show right under this post.
After all the driving around we went out on a date with Dan, since we are trading babysitting with some friends from the ward that have three kids, their turn was on Friday. If this works out then we will be going out more often :)


Dan got the kids some critters from the Arboretum Center

I also worked on a cake for Amber this week, since her birthday was two Sundays ago and we were so sick I couldn't bake the cake and decorate it. I made the flowers out of gum paste which you can eat and covered it with rolled fondant. I think it came out really cute. I am including a close up of the flowers so you can see the details. I am a bit rusty on the flower making department but it felt really good to be creative.

Flat Stanley's Houston adventure