Strike two

I know Dan wont be very happy about me writing this on my blog, but I feel that it needs to be written down and let my feelings out, which I am still trying to figure out what they are. Yesterday was a tough day in fact the last 4 weeks have been an emotional roller coaster for me. Let's start from the beginning, about 4 weeks ago I found out that I was pregnant again, I promise you that we did not intend to get pregnant this quick, we were going to wait at least a month so when I noticed that I might be pregnant, went to the store and got a pregnancy test which came back positive. For the next few days I did 4 more tests and each one came back with the same answer. When I told Dan he was just as surprised as I was. Time came to go have an ultrasound done at the doctor to check on the cysts they found back in August. The ultrasound was showing something in my uterus and since the doctor didn't know I was expecting again she freaked out a little bit, I did explain to her that I had taken 5 pregnancy test at home, so she then asked me to go and have some blood work done so they can make sure that I was indeed pregnant. I got it done on a Monday and then on a Wednesday, from there things just got weird. I kept getting calls from the doctor's office telling me to go a get another ultrasound done because the results were not what she was expecting, so I did, then the ultrasound was not showing what they wanted to see so then sent me to get my blood work done again, then the results were to high and finally yesterday morning they call me to come in ASAP to confirm that the pregnancy was happening in the uterus. When I went in yesterday the doctor told me that two thing might be happening, either I was carrying twins or it was in fact an ectopic pregnancy. My first thought was cool, let it be twins that sounds more fun, the second one was the one that had been clouding my thoughts for a while now and I just did not want it to be it. The doctors proceeded to look at my uterus and there was a sack, a beautiful and perfectly shaped circle, but the face of the doctor when she told me she saw the sack was not happy at all, she then told me that there was some fluid in the left tube and she was 100% sure it was an ectopic pregnancy and then told me I needed to make a decision about the next step. Surgery the next day or taking a shot that would dissolve the pregnancy. I felt like a huge weight was placed on my lap and it was up to me in the next few minutes to decide, I sent Dan a text and let him know what was going on and he freaked out just as I did, he managed to leave work early so he could go get the kids from school for me and I started making phone calls to see who could babysit for me, of course it was one of those days when people did not answer their phone :(
I made the decision and opted for the shot instead and the doctor sent me straight to the hospital to get it done, Aaron was with me the entire rime and he was such a good boy, never cried or anything, he just sat where I told him to and did not move. At the hospital I was sent to the postpartum area and they put me in a room and was in a gown waiting for the shot to be given to me, Dan finally came to get Aaron home and I was able to see the guys in the room for like 10 seconds, they all look concerned and had no idea what was going on, I could not stop crying because their faces looked so sad, when Aaron got home he told Dan "so we are not going to see mami anymore?", too sad. They gave me the shot and I had to wait for hours, they brought me dinner and I watched TV the entire time, tried to sleep but there was no luck. They were going to keep me over night to keep an eye on me but my vitals were normal the entire time so they let me go home, plus they knew I needed to be home with my family. The whole experience was so nerve racking and stressful, the medication did not hurt and I was in no pain, I have been feeling great physically for the last weeks and did have some kind of night sickness the entire time, other than that, I was fine. It is so depressing having to go through all this and not being able to get pregnant like I have in the past, why is this happening to me now? As I was driving back home last night a feeling of comfort came over me and I just knew that everything would be fine, I know in my heart that we are supposed to bring one more baby into our family, I felt it last night again. I don't know why this happened and I wont question it anymore but I know we are meant to have one more little one in our lives. With the shot they gave me last night I was advised strongly not to get pregnant in the next 6 months so we will stick to that and try again next year.
Dan has been great and was making sure that I was OK, I can tell he is suffering with me as well and that it is a tough time for him emotionally, he has been attending to my needs and the kids and I just love him so much. I try to be strong and tough but I really appreciate all the help he gives me.
So now you know what kind of day I had yesterday.

Our Anniversary/new ward

So the weekend is over and we are back no normal, well I have a sick child but everything else seems normal. The weekend was not what I was hoping for but we managed to make the best of it. We were planning on going out on Friday but my babysitting plans did not work out so we stayed home Friday night and since I was not in a very good mood Dan went and got me a card and a couple of presents, we had decided to get something simple for each other. I gave him a cute snow globe with a couple of penguins inside and it says "Friendship is the best gift of all", since we are best friends :) He came home with a mouse for my laptop and an or a MP4 player that I so desperately needed. The card he got me was super cute and he wrote all these inside jokes on it, it was just too cute. He also got Chinese food for the two of us to eat. On Saturday he had to go and take a test so we were left at home for a few hours and I decided to go to the Botanical Gardens again and take pictures of the kids to put up on my wall, some of them turned out cute and I will post them later. I sent Dan a text to come join us but by the time he got it he was already home and we never got together. I was just frustrated that things were not going my way so I came home kind of grumpy, poor Dan, he had to put up with me for a while. We ended up going out with the kids and just driving all over the place and finally decided to go to the Golden Corral, the food was great and the kids ate a lot.
We also went to get a laptop for Dan for his school projects and that was kind of exciting, now we both have a laptop and can be once again in the same room enjoying conversation while playing online :)
We ended up not going to the conference because we found out our old ward Summerwood was taken out of our stake so their conference was not for us. On Sunday morning we were able to sleep in and that was lovely, we got up at 9:00 am can you believe it? The kids were quiet and it was just great. We got ready to go meet with the Humble ward bishop, we had a 10:30 am appointment. So we showed up at the church all dressed up and waited for a long long time, the bishop was nowhere to be seen and we were starting to get annoyed. Finally when it was about to be 11:00 am we see him coming in and walked right past us and he didn't say a word, he went out again and Dan is looking at me like "what the heck is going on?", eventually he made it back and once again walked right by us and did not say anything or even looked at us. I kept telling Dan to go inside and talk to him when we hear him on the phone with his secretary saying "I went to the Browns and they were not there.... they had a couple of newspapers in the front yard and it seems like they have not been home for a while", by then Dan went and knocked on the door and did not get an answer, then the bishop kept complaining about the whole thing and Dan stuck his head in the office and said "We are the Browns", the bishop started laughing and then we were able to finally sit down and talk for a while. Too funny right? If you know me or have read about my complaining I was so ready to leave that church building and Dan was thinking about just going to the Spanish branch for good, but thankfully we were able to sort things out :)
The new ward seems very normal and we don't know anybody yet but people are nice and I am glad that we are not the only new family in there. Hopefully things will go smoothly for us and the kids will get used to the kids in the primary, Aaron did great and loved it but he missed going upstairs to his old nursery.
Thanks for all your nice wishes for our Anniversary by the way.

Our Story

I don't think that I have actually written down the whole story about how Dan and I met. Sorry if this is too long, but I have to include the details and explain this very well so it doesn't seem like I was a crazy young woman waiting for a white guy to come get me out of my country :)
Everything began around November 1996 (we have known each other for a long time), we had sister missionaries in our area and they decided to take them out and bring elders in the area instead. One day they just showed up and introduced themselves. Dan did not talk much and I didn't make an effort since he didn't look very happy to be there. I didn't like him at first, he became good friends with mom in the next few months and with my brothers. It wasn't until my brother Nefi became very ill and my mom had to have emergency surgery that I got to know him and actually noticed that he was a great guy. He came everyday to check on my brother, he would sit by his bedside and give him blessings, I even saw him crying for him a couple of times. When my mom was gone they came to make sure we were OK, it was the simplest thing but it meant so much to me and my family. After that I decided not to be so mean to him and actually joked around and little by little I started to get excited about him coming over to my house, I would call every Monday from work knowing that he was going to be at my house writing letters to his family and the phone happened to be by the computer, he always answered the phone, after a while I stopped myself because of course that was just plain silly. One time I took his film to get developed and since I knew the missionaries didn't have a lot of money I didn't charge him and told him that it was fine. He just could not let it go and one day he brought me a bag of Skittles. I used to be one of the seminary teachers for my ward, and the kids just would not show up in the morning, I guess at some point I told him this and a few weeks later my students started to show up every day. I was so happy to have them there but had no idea what the change was, so one morning I heard some footsteps in the front of the house and after that a knock on my door, this happened every day, I opened my window one morning and realized that it was the elders dropping off the young men at my house and then they just took off running. I was so grateful for this great service and a part of me thought that maybe he was just doing that to impress me, but that is just the kind of guy he is.
When I realized that I was starting to have feeling for him, I decided to stay away from him, first because I didn't want him to see that I was interested in him, second because he was a missionary and there are rules and I just didn't want get in the way of his work and of course I was not going to tell him "Elder Brown I think I love you"... Anyways, I became colder and would not talk to them anymore, as soon as I got home I would go to my room if they were there. I guess after a while he got sick of it because he would do the same thing. One time I came back from work and he and his companion took off as soon as I came in the house. I was so sad because I really thought he disliked me. We still talked every once in a while but I tried to avoid him as much as a I could.
He finally ended up getting a transfer and we were all very sad, I thought it was for the best and just decided to try and forget him all together. My brother Nefi went on a mission and kept in touch with Dan for a long time, one day I got a letter from my brother asking me what my thoughts were about Elder Brown, I was in shock that my brother even brought it up, he said that Dan sent him a letter telling him about his feelings for me and since he was about to finish his mission he wanted to know what kind of hope was there, if it was even worth persuing some kind of relationship or something. I just could not believe it, my brother sent me the original letter and I probably read it a hundred times that day, I told my mom right away of course and she asked me what my feelings where, obviously I told her that I never thought he would be interested in me that way, but that I did have some feelings for him. I wrote my brother back and opened my heart to him, letting him know about my fears, my hopes and told him basically to tell Dan not to worry about the issue and just concentrate on his mission, to wait until he was all done an see what could happen. I spent the rest of the time daydreaming and at the same time told myself to put my feet back on the ground and realize that this guy was going to go back to home, to his country and would forget all about me. Well his mission ended and guess what, he came to my house with his parents, we had never talked about anything, we actually didn't even talk face to face the first time after he was released, his Dad was the stake president so he released him in Guatemala and he called me on the phone and he asked what I thought about what Nefi told me, he then informed me that my brother had sent him the letter I wrote to him in confidence, I felt like dying because I really had opened up my heart and told my brother in that letter everything. To Dan's surprise I also informed him that I had all the communications between him and my brother so we knew everything at that point. The next day they came to my house and I met his parents, I was so nervous but it felt good to see that it was not a dream and that he was really interested in me. We dated for a week, if you can call that dating, we were with his parents at all times, he could not propose, he would not propose to me out of respect for his parents but told me that he wanted to marry me and he was going to work really hard and come back for me. It was like a fairy tale, it was just perfect really.
After he left I was afraid he would not fulfill his promise, but he did, after a few months he sent a box with a friend and it had a little stuffed kitty cat, an engagement ring and a card where he proposed, it was so cute. I had to wait 9 months to see him again. He could not come back but he sent for me. I would never regret making that decision, I didn't think about anything else but seeing him again, we talked weekly and wrote to each other daily, thank goodness for the World Wide Web. There was never a doubt in my heart that he was the guy for me and the day I left home I was more happy than sad, I was not afraid for my future and was happy to make it all the way to Virginia on September 5th 1998. I will never forget coming out of the arrival doors at the airport and seeing him standing there talking to some guy and then when he looked at me he jumped over the metal fences and ran to me to hug me, it was just like in the movies. Then our journey together began. It has now been 11 years, I still get excited thinking about our love story and how everything developed, I am so grateful to have met him and that he served a mission, we are two pieces of a puzzle that just fit together perfectly and locked in place to never get separated again.
We have been through so much together and have grown so much together, we are not the same people we were 11 years ago, we are not wiser but we have learned so much and are proud of the things we have been able to do together. Our love is stronger and more special than it was then. If you ask me if we would do anything different a second time around the answer is no, not a single thing. So thanks again for all the wonderful years Dan, to all the people who didn't think we were going to last... we have definitely proved to them that we were meant to be together.

Grandpa and Grandma came to town

My father and mother in law came to visit Houston for a couple of weeks. They stayed with Steven and Amber and kids for a week and then came over to our house for another week. I must say that my little ones had a great time visiting with their grandparents and showed off as much as they could. We had not seen them for over a year which doesn't seem that long but so many things change in that time, the kids get bigger, funnier, sillier. All in all it was a great time and we tried to make them feel like at home. Here are a few of the things that we did together while they stayed with us:

We had the birthday celebration for Aaron.
We went to the Mercer Arboretum and Botanical Gardens (again, I just can't get enough of that place)
We went to an indoor yard sale and grandma got the kids a bubble gun, which they love.
Had a great time at a pumpkin patch and were joined by Steven and family.
Watched a few movies, a couple of them with the kids.
I took them to the Woodlands yesterday, that is where Dan works, then we went down to the Houston Lake and drove around town to give them and idea of what is like living here.
My mother in law and I went shopping a couple of times and went out for lunch one day.
We appreciate them coming out here, taking a little time out of their busy lives and come spend time with us and the kids, they will miss them terribly.
Bye grandpa and grandma!!!

Do I have to?

We will go and we will do the thing the Lord commands, those are the words that come to my mind right now. We were asked to go early Sunday morning (very early if you ask me) to the church for a special meeting. There we were greeted by three different bishops and some members of the Stake Presidency. To make a long story short, they are changing the boundaries and my neighborhood is being asked to attend now the Humble ward. It came as a big surprise to us and we are still not sure about this new situation. Just when I was starting to learn the name of the people in my ward and getting more comfortable they make us leave :( Shayna is the one that took it the hardest, poor thing, hopefully she will find some good friends in the new ward.
I want to try and go to the Spanish branch but for some reason something tells me that we need to go to the new ward and just see what happens. I have found a couple of good friends in the ward and I am not planning on loosing them, hopefully we can still get together every once in a while.

My baby is 3

Where did the time go? I have no idea but all of the sudden Aaron my baby is no longer a baby, he told me stop calling him "baby" today :) He is so grown up and excited to be three. We had a nice day of celebration taking him out to lunch with his siblings and grandparents who happen to be in Houston visiting Steven and Amber at the moment (our turn comes Wednesday night). I just realized that I did not take pictures of Aaron with his grandparents today or with his Dad, but we'll get some more during the next week.
He got lots of cool presents and the thing that he wanted the most was his Bumble Bee transformer, he has been dying for one of those since his friend Eli got one for his birthday. So now he has a car and a soccer ball with Bumble Bee on it. We had an ice cream cake in the evening and we shared with the rest of the family.
Aaron is an awesome little dude, he is loving and caring and such a smart little boy. He can be nice and playful and he is very dramatic, his favorite thing to say to me when he gets mad at me is "You made me sad" with a really sad sad face.
He is doing great with staying dry at night, he decided not to wear pull ups anymore, so now I have a box full of pull ups that I wont be able to use for a long time.








Here is a list of his favorite things:

-Bumble Bee (any yellow car on the street will do)
-Sippy cup with chocolate milk
-Bob the Builder
-Handy Many
-Once There Was a Snowman song from church
-Chicken nuggets and french fries
-Mom's soda
-Thomas the Engine bedding
-Cars
-Playing soccer
-and last but not least.. to suck on this thumb all the time.

We love you little guy and are so happy to have you in our family!!!

Conference Weekend

I am not the best conference watcher, lets be honest why does it have to be so long? Anyways, I do enjoy watching and learning from the authorities but I wish my entire family would just sit there with me to watch it.
We always record it even if we don't watch it right then, we end up watching it later on in the day. We have the last session to finish this afternoon for FHE, which is good. we did have the kids sit through the first two sessions and they had their little booklet to fill out with their thought about what the General Authorities said and what talks left an impression on them. Victor had a lot to write about and so did Shayna. I also took down some notes during the first session which helped me feel like I was paying more attention. As usual the talks felt like they were directed to me at some point or another and reminded me of what I am doing wrong and what I should work more on.
I am so grateful for our Prophet and his counselors, the seventies and every one else that has been given a call in the church, I know they are there for a reason and to help us become a better person.
I know that every time after Conference I feel like I will do better, that I can do better and it lasts for a while, of course it is kind of fading away by the time the next conference comes up, but I guess that is why we have them every 6 months.
Anyways, I feel bad for not being able to give a better example to my kids, I try, I am not perfect but we do what we can. I do remember as a little girl going to see the conference session at the Stake Center and sitting there all that time watching it in this tiny TV with a person translation for us. I should be more grateful that we don't have to walk long distances and sit in hard bench at church trying to maintain the kids quiet for hours.
One of the talks that I really enjoyed and happened to take notes on was by Elder Uchtdorf, he said something like "What seems difficult becomes possible and then that which becomes possible becomes a habit", he also said that we need to be known as a people who love God with all our hearts and also love our neighbors just the same. He is a great speaker.
My kids also enjoyed the "Warm Fuzzies" part of President Monson's talk, and I am going to introduce that idea to our family this week, so we can all produce acts of kindness to one another and also people we don't know, we'll see how full the jar can be by next conference.

Halloween is official at my house

As usual my kids and I decorated our house today and made it look a little bit creepy with bones sticking out of the ground and a graveyard, also a few ghosts along the sidewalk. It is always fun to do this with the kids.
I also found a cool kit that had 4 animal faces to decorate your pumpkins and I got it for the kids. It was so cheap, under $3.00 and it had all we needed for each one of the kids. It was like a Mr Potato Head type thing and the kids also loved it.
You can see their little creations below.