I, I, Sir

Yesterday the kids and I were playing tag at the park. My 5 year old nephew and my 3 year old daughter were chasing each other. Isabel slipped and fell.

Jacob: "Come on get up, take it like a man"

Mother-Birth Day

Every year I get jipped on the gift thing. See my birthday is on May 10 and that either is near Mother's Day or on Mother's Day. So to make it easier on my loved ones, I have complied a list of the perfect gifts.

1. Dixie's (Corner of Randolmill and 360 across from Office Depot)
Name Bracelet
Number of Strands 2
Bracelet Size 7.5
Type of Bead Silver with Fancy Beads
Strand 1 Wording Emma
Strand 2 Wording Isabel
Strand 3 Wording

Total Price $45.00

2. Charms for my charm bracelet from Dixie's
"Jesus Loves You" charm
Your Price : $4.00

"I Love Scrap Books" charm -
Your Price : $8.00

Husky charm
Your Price : $6.00

Letter V charm
Your Price: $4.00

Pink Ribbon charm(enamel)
Your Price : $6.00

Taco charm
Your Price : $5.00

State of Texas
Your Price: $4.00


3. Products from Philosophy
footnotes set $32
rockstars $36

4. Monster iCarPlay FM Transmitter $79.00

How will a church family equip me for life?

Don't have a church to call your own? Afraid of making a commitment?
This is for anyone who isn't currently attending church, or who attends but is not a member.

How will a church family equip me for life?

1. Will help me focus on God
Ps. 34:3, Matt 22:27-38,

3 Glorify the LORD with me;
let us exalt his name together.

2. Will help me face life's problems
1 Thess 5:10-11, 1 Peter 3:8, Galatians 6:2, Romans 12:5

2Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

3. Will help me fortify my faith
Hebrews 6:1, Ephesians 3:10

1Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death,[a] and of faith in God,

4. Will help me find my ministry
Ephesians 2:10, 1 Cor. 12:5, 27

10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

5. Will help me fullfill my life's mission
Acts 20:24, Rom. 10:13-14, Colossians 3:15

24However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.

How do I become a member of a church family?
Acts 2:41-42, 46

41Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
The Fellowship of the Believers
42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,

Grocery Basket Quiz

New Game... Guess what I was going to do with the items in my grocery basket.

2 Oranges
2 games of Dominoes
Vinegar
Tostito Chips
Mild Salsa
Coffee Beans
Coffe Filters

Date Night

Friday night is the big night. Eddie and I are going out on a date. It's been months since we've been out without our girls. I think it's very important that couples continue to date after they get married. Got this from Bowden McElroy

Dr. Scott Haltzman says … “Keeping a marriage thriving doesn’t require much more of you than when you were dating.”

Your mission, Mr. Newlywed, should you choose to accept it, is to direct all your attention to making your wife feel like the most beautiful, bright, and wonderful woman in the world, just like you did when you first met her. Here are some practical tips to bring back that lovin’ feeling.

First, learn to listen.

Second, spend time with your wife.

Third: Show you love her with words and deeds.

Fourth: Think: “long-term dividends.”

I hope date night this becomes a tradition.

A Day of Rest

So this morning I woke up at 5:00 am. Emma still had a fever. So I decided to keep her at home. This of course was wonderful news for Isabel, since she hasn't been wanting to go to "Hermana's House".
I thought this would be the perfect day to wash clothes. Lo and behold I as out of detergent. Great. So, I'm going to cook a pot roast instead. Working from home is a challege, because my NIC isn't compatible with our network, so in order to work, I have to connect straight into the modem, which is in the office, and my girls are upstairs. Besides it's slower anyways, and I hate moving slow. Well gotta run, pray that Emma will get better by tonight.

Cooking Out

For the past 2 weekends we have cooked-out at my in-laws house. Great food. Carne Asada, beans, rice, potato salad, guacamole salad, tortillas. Can't get better than that. This past weekend, my sister brought out the game UNO. The good old-fashioned one. Since none of us had played in a while, we had to read up. Once we got going we had a blast, you remember, Draw 2, Reverse, Skip, and the all powerful Draw 4.
I can say that even though it had been my 5 year old nephews first time, he won the first round. I love this game.
On Sunday, I went to church and dropped off Isabel with my sister. Emma was feeling under the weather. Low-grade fever, and vomitted once. We had a great time though. After 3:00 she awoke and we watched "A Bug's Life" together, played soccer, and played climb over mommy's legs. My mom was great, she brought Isabel home, so that I wouldn't have to get Emma out just to pick up Isabel. Isabel was exhausted. With no nap and a fun filled day at a birthday party, she was out like a light. So it's 8:30, and the girls are asleep. Will this will be the night that I go to bed early? In my dreams.

A Hotdog by any other name.....

A co-worker of mine was telling us about when he worked on a pig farm. I can't go into the details without sounding totally gross. But lets just say, I don't think I'll be eating another hotdog ever again..... One word. Afterbirth.

To go or not to go, that is the question

Eddie and I are debating wheather to go to Mexico in July or not. Well I'm the one doing the debating. See, I've never been to Mexico. It's not like we are going to go to Cancun, or Cozamel, or Puerto Vallarta. No, we would be going to a little bitty town outside of Guadalajara. And I don't know how far from the city it is, my guess 30 min to 1 hour. Anyways, Eddie is telling me horror stories of how when he went to visit his grand-parents in the 8th grade (13 years ago), they didn't have running water, and the toilet was out back. Today I think they have running water, but I'm not sure where the toilet is located. And of course no central A/C. I need more information before making my decision. It's going to be really hot in July. Money is another key factor. Round-trip airfare is $400 a person. We'd have to get 3 tickets, since Isabel isn't free anymore. Eddie keeps reminding me that it's not going to be a vacation. We would just be visiting family. His grandparents did make a trip down here when we got married in 99'. So I want to go, I just don't know for how long.... We'll see.

lin·ge·rie n. 1. Women's underwear

So I was trying to find how to spell the word lingerie. My first stop was the website of Victoria's Secret. To my amazement, I couldn't find the word anywhere. So what do they call their lingerie? Well they have different collections. There is the Body by Victoria Collection, Glamour by Victoria Collection, IPEX, Very Sexy, Angels by Victoria, and then there is The Emma Collection. Wow, they named it after my daughter, how thoughtful of them. I think I'll print out the page, and throw it into her scrapbook.

First Job

The question was posed to me yesterday by my sister-in-law who just turned 16.
"Where should I work?" Now that she's legal to work, she wants too and that is cool.
My first answer to her was "Putt-Putt"....You see when I was sixteen, me and my best friend Dixie went to apply at Putt Putt. The first question they ask is about transportation. How are you going to get to work? I had no idea, since neither of us had cars and our parents work, finding transportation would be hard. No job at Putt Putt for us. So we did the next best thing and that was modeling lingerie. Easy money. $20 for a hour. See, Dixie's furture sister-in-law would have lingerie parties at different womens' homes, and would use us as her models. Now, if my girls ever came up to me and asked me at the age of 16 if they could be lingerie models the answer would definately be no, and not just no, but HELL NO.

Memory.....

Just the other day, Isabel was upset because she didn't want to go home. So she cried and cried in the car. After ignoring her, she quieted down, then she said.

"Mommy, sing Barney to me, I'm sad"

So I sang... in case you don't know the song here goes.

I love you, you love me
We're a happy family
With a great big hug
and a kiss from me to you
won't you say you love me too.

Don't Leave Me

Isabel is starting to be more clingy. Now she cries when I drop her off at the sitters in the morning. So I've been making it a point to spend more one on one time with her. Last night before bed we read her "Little Touch LeapPad" ABC's book, read her bible, sang songs, and watch Diego. I can't wait until she starts pre-school, so that she'll have a more structured day where she is interacting with lots of other kids, and also learning as well. Pray that Temple Days will have an open spot soon (end of May), if they don't I'll have to put them in Children's Lighthouse, which is great just alot more expensive.

Easter 2006

Easter this year was good. We spent Saturday at my in-laws eating fajitas, rice, beans, potato salad, cake, just chillin out back and relaxing.
Emma found a dirt pile and started playing in it. With her two hand she was transfering dirt from the pile to the back door. After she threw a bunch in her face, we decided it was time for a bath for all the kids.
After the bath she crashed, and I wanted to crash too.
On Sunday we awoke, and headed off for church. The drama was awesome, especially since Eddie built the boxing ring that was on the stage. Afterwards we ate more fajitas, rice, beans, potato salad, cake. The egg hunt was a success.
Afterwards we went to eat at Spring Creek with my mom and sister. Before we met them, my mom was hit from behind while exiting I-20. The girls who hit her didn't pull over and just took off. Of course my mom and sister followed them to Razoos. When they got there, the girls had entered the building. So my mom, called the cops. Turns out that the driver had a suspended license. Wasn't going to get charged with hit and run, because there was no damage to my mom's car though. Idiots! Had they pulled over, my mom would have just let them go since there was no damage.
Anyways, the day ended with another easter egg hunt at my sisters, while Eddie attempted to buy some shirts for work. After going to 3 stores that were closed, and changing a flat tire, he came home empty handed.
All in all it was a great weekend.

It's a horse, no a cow, no it's just Emma

The other day, after dinner the girls jumped into the wagon and I began pulling them around. The Isabel preceeded to pull Emma around as Emma kept moving back and forth between seats. Finally I was tired of the wagon, so I got Isabel's bike out, and she rode for a while, as Emma pulled the wagon. She's a strong girl, that Emma.
We played on the slide and then it started to get chilly outside.
That's when I started rounding up the girls. Isabel started to come in, but Emma headed straight for the grass. The tall grass. The grass that Eddie is going to mow this weekend. The grass that probably contains all kinds of bugs and spiders.
The grass that goes up to Emmas waist.

"Emma come here"... no response. She proceeds to sit in the grass, bend forward and take a whole bunch into her mouth and pull. Oh my gosh she's eating the grass. She does this twice as I'm telling her to "come here" At this point I go into the grass to retrieve her. And let me tell you how afraid of the grass I am. 1) I'm allergic to it. 2) Did I mention the bugs 3) I was wearing flip flops.

I can't wait until that grass gets cut.

Spring is in the Air

And so is all the pollen, mold, wagweed, and anything else that aggrevates our allergies. They started yesterday and haven't stopped. Last night I started having nasal drainage, which caused a sore throat. Today, I still have the sore throat, but now I also have a sinus headache.
I've got to get my Allegra and Singular for Isabel transfered over to this side of town so I can pick them up at lunch. Great another $60.
The bright side of today, is that I should get my van back from the shop, and Friday is only 2 days away. Friday, I'll get a free 10 minute chair massage at work, and the week will be over. In the words of Isabal "Horray! Horray!"

I'm no Rachel Ray

So yesterday I decided to cook. I wanted to try something new so I set out to cook pork chops, green beans, and fried zuchinni.

Step 1: Pork chops were easy, I just put some shake and bake on them and stuck them in the oven.
Step 2: Fried Zuchinni... Well not exactly fried. I found a recipe where it described how to bake them instead. I put bread crumbs on them and put them in the oven.
Step 3: Garlic Greenbeans. I opened 2 cans of green beans, since they were 2 different brands, one can was alot greenier than the other. I sprinkled garlic powder on them, and put lots of butter. I put them in the oven.

After about 15 minutes the chops and green beans were done, but the zuchinni wasn't. After about 45 minutes, they had been rotated, and still didn't look quite right. Then I remebered. I forgot to spray Pam on the cookie sheet. Oh well.

Out of the oven they came, and into our stomach they went.
On Saturday, I'll attempt to make home-made tortillas. Keep your fingers crossed.

Our little Brazillian Jiu-Jitzu Fighter

So I was telling Eddie that I might let Isabel try soccar this year, and then maybe tap and ballet next year.
So he suggests that he'd like to enroll Emma into a Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu class. He wants to train her to be the next Ultimate Fighter.(whatever) Well I found a studio in Dallas but they don't start until the age of 5, so she has 3.5 years to go. Actually, Jiu-Jitsu is perfect for girls, because it shows them how to fight in close proximity situations, ie. (someone grabbing you from behind, or someone getting you to the ground hovering over you)
Eddie was telling me on Saturday, they were discussing it a work, and as they watched Ultimate Fighter, one of his co-workers replies "Man, that Emma is gonna be bad"

Google SMS

You can now text message google with questions and get the results on your phone.

Example
Text the message: ice age 94110
The results you'll recieve back would be:

View more: 1 2 3

(1/3)Movies:
* Ice Age: The Meltdown
1hr 30min,PG,Animation/Comedy/Family,3.6/5

AMC Van Ness 14
1:15 1:50 3:30 4:30 6:00 7:00 8:20 9:30 10:30

Cool Huh!!!!

Or try these sample search terms:

Local : hospital San Jose CA
Phonebook : 2122269817
Driving directions : pasadena CA to santa monica CA
Movies : ice age 94110*
Weather : weather dallas tx
Stock quotes : tgt
Q&A : population of Japan
Glossary : define prosimian
Translation : translate coffee in french
Froogle : price mp3 player
Zip code : 94043
Area code : 650
Calculator : 160 pounds * 4000 feet in calories
Currency conversion : 5 usd in yen
SportsNew! : duke, detroit nhl, lakers, sf giants
Help : help
Tips : tips

SMS Quick Start

1. Start a new text message and type in your search query

2. Send the message to the number "46645" (GOOGL)

3. You'll receive text message(s) with results

Tip: For help send the word 'help' as a text message to 46645.

So Observant

Last night I was showing Isabel, the scrapbook pages that I had completed. As she looked at each page, she would call out the persons name of who she saw in the picture.

"Emma, Emma, Emma, Emma, Emma, Emma, Emma, Emma, Emma, Daddy"

Then she asked.

"Hey where's me?"

I had to pull out her book to let her know that she wasn't forgotten.

You give me fever.

Yesterday, Isabel came home with a fever, and continued to have one all night.
Eventhough she was sick, she played and played. While scrapbooking she sat on the other end of the table and was "cropping". I asked her is she wanted to go downstairs. She said "sure, but let me finish this first". I couldn't believe my ears. She talks like me.
As night time crept around, I went to sleep and around 1 in the morning, Isabel wakes up to go potty and then comes into bed with me. She was hot. Eddie gave her some meds and she went to sleep. Around four she wakes up again, I take her to potty and she reminds me that she is sick, and wants me to her hold. Wow, she hot, not so bad, since she is keeping me warm as well. I sure hope her fever breaks, and no other symptoms arise. I hate seeing me little ones sick.

Night Owls

Eddie and Isabel have started a nightly tradition. They both stay up until the wee hours of the night (which for me is 11:00pm) watching Go Diego Go or Dora the Explorer. That give me a chance to just lay in bed and catch up on General Hospital, and to fall sleep. I love it. I'll let them enjoy it now, because once Isabel starts school in the summer, there will be no more late nights.

Veterans Park

I just love Veterans Park in Arlington. They have walking trails, duck pond, japanese gardens, kids playground complete with swings, tire, and jungle gym, frisbee golf and hiking trails. If you've ever experienced Veterans Park, I urge you to go.

Corner of Arkansas and Spanish Trail

What'd you say?

So yesterday we are in Eddie's truck leaving the park. Isabel started mumbling something, but all we heard was f*ck.. We asked her to repeat herself "f*ck".
"What is that?" I asked
"You know fire f*ck"
"Oh... truck"
Eddie and I at this point could not contain our laughter.
"Say taaaaaaaaaa rrrrrr uck" I coach her.
"taaaaaaaa rrrrrrrr uck" she repeats
ok, good at least I can work with her pronounciation.

I remember when I was a kid I would say six but it sounded alot like "sh*t"
I couldn't figure out why older kids would laugh and ask me to repeat myself.
Lucky for me, I was put into speech thearpy, which corrected the problem"

Past vs. Present

Past: Lighters at a concert
Present: Glowing cell phones at a concert. (Smarter and safer choice)

First Day of Baseball

Starting at 11:00 this morning, the traffic was back up on 360 trying to exit to I-30. Then it dawned on me. Ranger Game. When I was in college, my aunt and uncle has seats 29 rows up in between home and 1st. So because of this, we'd go quite often. I remember the day that changed my view of baseball forever. I was sitting there minding my own buisness when out of nowhere, and I mean nowhere, this baseball smacks me in between the eyes, right where my forhead meets my nose. Of course I said "Awwwwwwwwwww" and then tears immediately came streaming down my face. I wasn't crying, but the tears were just flowing, cause it hurt so much. Before I knew it, people were all around me taking me to the baseball nurses station. This happened in the 4th inning.
Fastforward to the 7th inning... I just got back from having cold ice placed on my face, sitting in my seat minding my own business, where out of nowhere this ball starts coming towards me out of the sky. I immediately have flash backs, so I dived over my mom into the seat next to her. I was on the floor in tornado drill position, covering my head. When all of a sudden a friend who had gone with us, reach up right above my head and caught the ball. I wasn't crying, but the tears were just flowing, cause I was so scared.
Fastforward to the present.... I eventually got over my fear of baseball games, after at least 10 games, and other games where I sat in the 2nd balcony where I knew a ball couldn't reach me. It's been years since I've been to a game, and I'm fine with that.

Follower of Christ

Just spent the entire weekend at Acquire the Fire. A conference for teens orgainized and produced by teens. This years conference was of course cool. The theme was "Battle Cry". Basically it talked about how the world is in a battle for our teens hearts and minds. MTV, TV, Music, the Internet, My Space, Zanga... are all becoming the center for teens to get their information. What struck me most about this conference was that the speakers focused on calling us "Followers of Christ", instead of "Christians". See many people can call themselves a Christian, but are they a true Follower of Christ. There were many people in the bible who wanted to follow Christ, but didn't want to give up their worldly things in order to do so. See Jesus says "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Mark 8:34)" Deny yourself, that's a hard one. What does it mean? It means to consider others, even if no one considers you, Christ considered you when he died on the cross for your sins. It means quit being selfish, quit thinking about yourself. It's not about you and what you can get. It's about God, and why you are here on earth. Everyone was made to worship and serve Him. Now wheather they choose to do so, is another issue. Anybody can say they are Christians, but are they Followers of Christ, our Lord, our God, our Savior who lived a perfect life and paid for your sins on the cross, who rose from the dead, who is alive today, and who will come again. When you stand before Him, will you hear the words "Well done, good and faithful servant!" (Matt 5:21) or will you hear the words "I never knew you. Away from me..." (Matt 7:23)

"My heart pounds within me, I cannot keep silent. For I have heard the sound of the trumpet, I have heard the Battle Cry" Jeremiah 4:19