30 Day challenge... Day One

I always get excited about these things because I love learning about other people so if you want to join me on this challenge it would be great.  On the first day you are supposed to introduce yourself and write 15 interesting facts about you.  Here it goes. (Also you are supposed to have a recent picture of yourself).

I was born in Guatemala City Guatemala, I am 34 years old and have 5 children.  We have been married with my husband Dan for almost 13 years and love every minute of it.  We live in Houston TX and have been here for almost 3 years.

15 interesting facts about me:

1.  My parents only have 3 kids and I am the only girl.
2.  I went to Scouts for a few years when I was a little girl and loved it.
3.  I love doing boy stuff (nailing, painting, sanding, building)
4.  My love for sewing started when I bought my first sewing machine at age 19 without having a clue how to make the machine work.
5.  In my last year at school I was exonerated from taking the final exams and on my report I got 100 for each of my subjects.
6.  In my home country I am an accountant but my title does not count here :(
7.  I self taught myself how to sew dresses for my first daughter Shayna and have not been able to stop sewing for her.
8.  I left everything behind (family, friends, job, pet, worldly possessions which were not that many) to come to the USA and get married to Dan.  At the time I was not sad to leave, actually I was not even scared.
9.  I always wanted to serve a mission for my church but didn't.  I am glad I was able to serve a couple of mini-missions back home, even if it was just for 3 days.
10. I did not know any English until I started 7th grade at a Bilingual school back home and they even  taught me some French.  I never thought that I was actually going to have the need to speak English.
11.  I did not speak English to Dan until after we were married for 4 years.  I still feel awkward
  doing that.
12.  I have only had 3 dreams with my Dad my whole life... I want more but they just wont come.
13.  Dan and I met while he was on his mission and I knew I wanted to marry him before he propose.
14.  I have been decorating cakes since I was 12 years old and I hated it back then, now I love it.
15.  I started driving when I was 25 years old and when I got my license a bunch of strangers started to clap and root for me at DMV, it felt good.
 

Jealous much?

I never thought that I was going to have to deal with jealousy with my kids.  I always try to give them all my love the same way and give special time to each one of them.  I do recognize that lately I have been blogging about Victor a lot but I can't help it if he is the one doing all these cool Scout and school activities.  Victor was involved with the Gifted and Talented program at school this year and has been working really hard on a special project about house pets.  He was working at school and some things had to be done at home and from the very beginning I was very excited to help him out since he had never done anything like that before.  This week the big day came and we had to put together the entire presentation, he basically had it all done but left it at school (that is another story), in the end Victor found all his papers at school but needed to print some pictures at home and while trying to figure that out Shayna came to me asking me to help her with her own "project" she came up with... she took a bunch of pictures of outfits to wear to school and wanted to print them right then... After trying to explain to her that the school project took priority she then let all her frustration come out and let me have a piece of her mind.  Turns out that I have been spending way too much time with Victor, it is all about Victor at home lately, in her own words Victor is the most important person in the house right now.  You just don't go there with me because I can tell you that my biggest concern with having so many kids has been exactly that, I do not favor a single one (I tell each one of them they are my favorite) and I do not spend more time with one or the other.  Anyways she was really unhappy about it and it made me feel sad and like a failure.  It is funny how your kids will make you doubt yourself some times.
She came to me later and apologize and said that she knew she was being silly, I appreciate that a lot.  Today I took her on a little girl's get away from home and had some yummy lemonade from McDonald's.  I do enjoy the time I get to spend with her and she has no idea how lucky she was to be the first one or maybe that's why it is so had for her now to share me with everyone.  In any case I will try to be careful about the amount of time I spend with all of them and there will be times when some will need some extra special time with mom or dad and we will always try to make them all feel loved. 

PS.  While working on this projects there were many times when tears were shed out of frustration and I knew Victor was not loving me too much.  While I was trying to explain to Shayna how this was not the funnest part of the week I asked Victor if he was having fun with me and he laughed and simply said no... I don't blame him.  He said to me "I don't understand why Shayna thinks I want the attention, I really don't want it".

Forgiveness

I few months ago while I was beginning my pregnancy I had an encounter with one of the teachers at school.  I probably blogged about it but to make a long story short... this teacher was really rude to me and I reacted badly.  I can see the errors of my way now because I am no longer extremely hormonal (still hormonal but not that bad).  I guess that day I got to a point where I could not  take it anymore, not from her, not from the school people, so at a meeting later on I made a scene in front of a group of parents and kids.  Funny thing is that I was so proud of myself for doing that, I felt empowered and like a battle had been conquered and I was on the winning side.  The thing is that every day I see this teacher, every day she sees me, she is not Aaron's teacher but every once in a while she opens my car door and we kind of ignore each other.
It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that the feeling of power and the idea of me making her feel bad started to make feel bad.  I went over the confrontation over and over in my head and I realized that it was so wrong of me to react that way.  Yes I was hormonal and all that but it was not my place to do what I did.  I felt so ashamed.  So a couple of days ago when she opened the door to let my kids in the car and while she was strapping Aaron in the car seat I asked her to forgive me for what I did months ago.. she looked surprised and I could see that she was going to start to cry.  I told her that I realized how badly I had treated her and that when I am pregnant I tend to turn into a basket case and I really feel bad about it.  She said that she cried for days, that it really affected her.  After I apologized to her again she said it was fine and had a smile on her face and right then I felt forgiven.  It felt good and also embarrassing, I felt humbled down to the ground.  I let pride enter my heart that awful day but I feel better now.  I know there are lots of people I have offended through out my entire life.  I have asked forgives to some, it is a painful path but one that has to be done.  Some have chosen to forgive me and others wont but that is on them.  It really feels different to be on the other side, when you have to accept that you have done wrong... 
After I got home I also realized that it had been a teaching moment for my kids, Shayna actually commented that she was afraid I was going to start yelling at her ... at least now she can see that grownups do stupid things too but we also have to say sorry when we do stupid things.

Dry Pack Specialist.

Yup that's my new calling in the church.  I am up for the challenge but feel very insecure about the whole thing because I am no expert and have no clue what I am going to do with this calling.  I was set apart last Sunday and I have to admit that some ideas started to come to my mind about how to help the sisters and myself get our 72 hour kit ready, how to start our 3 month supply and eventually our 1 year supply.
What I find interesting is that just recently I started to use coupons again and a light bulb kind of went on in my head and finally understand how to shop with them to where I can literally save over 50% on my everyday shopping.  You know me I am the dollar store queen and very proud of it, frugal to the core.  Interesting enough lately I have not been to my regular dollar stores since I have been getting my products at Walgreens, CVS and Target (of all places Target has the cheapest milk out there).  I am getting lots of cereal for cheap, free pasta and other food items that can be used for food storage, water and hygiene items as well.  I think that Heavenly Father was in a way preparing me for this calling so I can help the sisters figure out ways to get ready without spending too much money.
For starters I created a group on Facebook to inform the sisters of good deals at the grocery store and how to get them.  Eventually I want to use that group to give them tips on how to make good use of the space to store the food and things like that.  So far I have had good feedback.  I can only reach so many of them since not all of them are on Facebook but it helps a little.  I have to take advantage of it.
I know that as the specialist I will have to speak in front of the sisters every once in a while and that makes me nervous... that will be a challenge.  All in all I am very excited and willing to learn and take any advice anybody has for me.  Plus it is going to push me to get my food supply to where it needs to be.

I just have to brag about this big shopping trip to Walgreens the other day.  I paid only $10.00 for all of the products you see in the picture.  Brand name stuff!  Just for the records I did not empty the shelves and there were plenty of product left at the store after my trip.  I did have to play around and do 3 different transactions so I could use my register rewards, but it worked out great.  They also have me a $1.50 coupon to spend later on and a free movie rental at the Red Box.  Cool right?

Feliz dia de las Madres!!!

11 years and some months ago I became a mother for the first time, it has been a life changing experience and has brought me so much joy and an understanding of the love my Heavenly Father feels for every single one of his children.  After having my first baby I never thought possible to love another human being as much as I loved my Shayna and I felt guilty for bringing another little one fearing that she would no longer feel loved.  To my surprise that love grew bigger and I understood that you can love more than one child and just as much.  As we kept adding more and more babies to our family my life became overflowed with love, more than I ever thought possible and I am so grateful for it.  Each and every one of my kids has brought me so much happiness and experiences to grow as woman and a mother.  It has been a learning experience for me and though there has been moments when I have not felt fitted to be a mother, at night when they are all asleep and I go to kiss them all is forgotten for a moment and that love makes it all better.

I don't think a woman feels truly a woman until she has become a mother and while I say that I am also thinking of my dear friends who have not been able to have babies of their own. I suffer with them, I cry for them and pray that some day, somehow they will have their wishes come true and share all the love they have.  I know they are meant to be mothers, I know they will be one day.  I don't know why the dream of becoming a mother can't happen for some, I don't understand it and it's really hard to find the words to give them hope and comfort. 

I also think of the mothers that are not ready and have to give up their precious babies up for adoption, how hard it must be to make a decision like that.  How hard it must be to live the rest of your life knowing that out there somewhere is a child of yours that might never know you exist and to wonder what life would be if only you could have kept them.  But also thanks to those people who know that they wont be able to provide the love or the means to bring up that baby somebody, some couple will have the opportunity to give that child what he or she needs in this world.

Then I think of what a powerful thing it is to be a mother, the power to create life, to carry it for 9 months and to have this special connection with that little person inside of you, to feel those little kicks and twists and turns, what a special thing to be a mother.  I am so grateful to be one, to have had the experience to bring my 5 little ones into this world and share with them the rest of my life, I am grateful that I get to see their happy faces every day and kiss them and love them for ever.  Yes it is a big responsibility over my shoulders, to be the best example I can for them but it doesn't compare to anything else and there is nothing I rather be doing that being the mother.

I still cry for my little one that I lost, for the one that I did not get a chance to hold and get to know, it is something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life and even though it was a hard time I have moved on and understand that one day I will get the chance to meet her/him and then our family will be complete.

I love being a mother.

This week's savings

On my trip to Walgreens these were the best deals:
On my first transaction I bought everything you see in the picture except for the Glade kit, the Proglide razor (which works great by the way) and the Lysol spray.
I should had paid over $60.00 But instead I paid $20.47 and on top of that they gave me $10.00 to apply to my next order.
On my next order I bought the items mentioned above and I used my $10.00 (store rewards from previous purchase), $14.00 worth of coupons and in the end I payed $10.23, not bad right?  On top of that they gave me $9.00 for buying these items and I can apply it to anything on my next order.  I was supposed to get some other $4.00 for buying the Cottonelle toilet paper but since I was already using one of those coupons from a previous purchase the register does not print it out again... lesson learned, next time I have to figure out how to use those coupons on different items so I can get all the money back that I can.
I love Walgreens for that reason because if you play your cards right you can get lots of money back.
At CVS (did not take a picture) I got liquid dish soap for $0.39 after using a coupon and two Colgate toothpaste for $5.00 both of them and they gave me $5.00 back to use on the next purchase. On the second transaction  I bought a special they had when you buy $20.00 worth of Digiorno pizza, Skinny cow ice cream or some other freezer meals you get $5.00 back and I had $3.00 worth of coupons to go with  that promotion, so after applying all the coupons I paid $16.00 and got $5.00 back.

At Target they had another freezer meal deal, when you buy 10 items you get $5.00.  I payed $12.00 or so and also got a loaf of bread for free.  I still need to go again because it is really a good deal and the meals are great for my lunches when I don't feel like cooking just for me. Plus I will get another $5.00 gift card and that will make it 3 total ($15.00) and that way I can go buy my two boxes of diapers, they have a special when you buy 2 of the big boxes of Huggies they give you another $5.00 gift card and since I have 2 coupons and the 3 gift cards I will only pay $20.00 for 200 diapers and that my friends is very good indeed... and the extra gift card as well.

At Walmart today I got the items below for $12.82  I had coupons for the toilet paper and the Air Wick only.  The Air Wick is usually $10.00 but was on sale for $7.00... of course it did not ring up at that price but after telling the cashier that the price was on the shelf and I triple checked it, she did not feel like holding up the line and gave it to me.  Next time I will take a picture with my phone to prove it :)  Anyways I had a $4.00 off coupon and the cookie cutters were on clearance for $2.50.  It was a really good deal, specially when I do my numbers and know that I could have paid a little over $30.00, that really is over %50 of savings.

Like I said before I am not extreme and don't want to be but so far I am enjoying my savings.  Just for the record I am just buying the items that we use and if I really think that it is a good deal like the Air Wick then I will buy it, I mean those things are ridiculously expensive but they do work and I like it when they deodorize my bathrooms.

PS. I did buy groceries at the local grocery store (Kroger) and I saved there $30.00 this week and they also payed me $6.00 for my next purchase by simply buying my regular items and on top of that we get $0.10 off when we get gas there.

Shayna the seamstress.

I am trying to update my blog, I tried while pregnant but it was hard finding the time to feel like sitting for a long time and upload pics.  I did not have the chance to do laundry today during the day so I am up late washing shirts for Dan so he can  look nice for work tomorrow.

For Christmas Shayna got her sewing machine and loved it and she immediately got to work with some much needed PJ bottoms.  She did a great job and enjoyed learning how to read the pattern and everything else.  After that project she kept creating things on her own but has not touched the sewing machine for a couple of months now, at least now when she feels the need to be creative she has the sewing machine available to her.  I am sure we will find more stuff to do in the summer time.

"I see dead people"

Not really but Aaron might... it all started last year while driving around in Old Humble on our way to the doctor's office and the stores that we frequent in that area.  We usually drive by this old cemetery and Aaron started to ask question about the place and then one day he started to wave good bye to "his friends".  I thought it was cute but then he kept doing it every single time and would get really upset if I didn't wave too.  Then one day he said he wanted to go in the cemetery and visit his friends... yeah I know.  It took me a while but I finally found the time to take all of the kids to the cemetery,

so there we were weird pregnant mom with 4 kids walking around this old cemetery where we have no relatives but apparently lots and lots of friends according to Aaron.  He asked me to take pictures next to the graves of his friends which were many, the interesting thing is that most of the graves he was interested in were the ones of the little kids that died in the early 1920's or earlier, they were all under 4... or is it creepy??? 
We left "special leaves" for them since we did not have flowers but it made Aaron very happy to go visit the cemetery.
What ever that was it is all over now and he doesn't wave anymore or talk about them.  Who knows maybe they were feeling a little lonely and wanted some company.




We found some interesting looking graves...










This one had Victor's name and also my dad's middle name...