Emma's note to me

Emma's note to me, let me translate. $ Emma which says,
Emma wants lots of money.

Thank You

1. Thank you God for my salvation.
2. Thank you Mom for giving me life and always being there for me.
3. Thank you Eddie for being a great husband and father.
4. Thank you Felicia for being the best sister of all time
5. Thank you Isabel for keeping it real, and loving me in spite of my flaws.
6. Thank you Emma for just making me laugh when I am feeling down.
6.5 Thank you Jacob for cleaning the playroom over and over again.
7. Thank you Wuela and Wuelo for being the best grandparents in the universe.
8. Thank you Matilde and Javier for giving life to Eddie.
9. Thank you Faby and Lily for treating me like a sister.
10. Thank you Irma and John for your guidance in different areas of life.
11. Thank you Pastor for being a good Pastor.
12 Thank you Noemi for calling several times a week just to see how I'm doing.
13. Thank you Mona for helping me in mission friends. You rock.
14. Thank you Steve for helping me in children's church. You rock too.
15. Thank you Lydia for teaching my kids about racaroni and other fun things. :)
16. Thank you David for being someone that I can talk about old times with.
17. And anyone else out there that I forgot to mention... Thank you for being in my life.

Thankful

You Are 86% Thankful

You're an incredibly thankful person, and everyone around you feels very appreciated. You inspire people to be more optimistic, forgiving, and grateful.

How Thankful Are You?

Leadership

How to be a good leader. This is a tough one. I struggle with it everyday, as I try to lead my children in becoming godly women and responsible adults. As I try to lead at my workplace and at my church.
"You can't lead someone where you've never been before yourself"
I have had some great leaders in the past, I was blessed to have great bosses. I have also served under bad leadership as well. And that is no fun at all.

I gave my husband the Maxwell Leadership Bible over a year ago, and I can see how he has grown in this area. I also see where I fall short.

Just wanted to share what I read today

Relationships: If You Get Along, They Will Go Along. Romans 12:9-21

Many leaders commit the error of separating leadership from relationships. This happens when a person steps into a position of leadership and assumes that everyone will follow his or her ideas because of his or her positon. Some leaders wrongly believer that their knowledge alone qualifies them to lead others.
People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. We cannot separate leadership from relationships. Leaders help themselves by developing good relational skills. Paul instructs us how to lead through relationships.

1. Avoid hypocrisy - be sincere and genuine (v.9)
2. Be loyal to colleagues - treat others like brothers and sisters (v10)
3. Give preference to others - honor the desires of others above your own. (v10)
4. Be hospitable - look for ways to meet the needs of others. (v13)
5. Return good for evil - act, don't react, when others hurt you. (v14)
6. Identify with others - treat others' needs or victories as your own. (v15)
7. Be open-minded toward others - seek to connect with anyone you speak to. (v16)
8. Treat everyone with respect - this is a compliment to any person. (v17)
9. Do everything possible to keep peace. - choose wisely which hill to die on. (v18)
10. Remove revenge from your life. - let God judge others; you love them. (vv 19-21)


My comments:
1. I hope I have this one down. I don't like two-faced people, I strive to be transparent and be myself everywhere I go and to everyone I meet. If I like you, you know it. If I don't like you, you know it as well.
2. I am loyal to my colleagues, and would never throw someone under the bus for my mistakes.
3. I struggle with this one a bit.. sometimes I just want it my way.
4. I love helping people when I can (emphasis on WHEN I CAN), sometimes I just have to say "NO", I've tried to learn what my limitations are. So when I feel like there is too much on my plate I say "NO" to the next request comes along. I feel bad but not that bad. My sanity is important to me.
5. This one is hard, because in my heart when someone hurts me, I so want them to just hurt them back and make them feel just as bad as I do.
6. I love it when people are blessed. I think it's awesome to see God work in others lives. Also it sucks when others are going through bad times, I try to put myself in there postion to see how I can help. This has gotten me in trouble in the past because then some people take advantage of my willingness to help.
7. I try to do this, like this weekend at the movies, we were sitting next to a girl that was by herself and we tried to includ her in our coversations and stuff.
8. I struggle at this as well. It's hard to treat someone with respect when you have lost respect for that person. Did I mention this is HARD.
9. I try to keep the peace, when I've been mean or rude to someone, even if it takes me a day or so I will try to remember to apologize and see what I did wrong in the situation, sometimes I need someone to point it out to me... I call these my knucklehead momements.
10. This too is hard.. see number 5.

So from my comments above, I've got alot of work to do. ALOT! Just wanted to say thanks to my husband for always listening to me and teaching me and lovingly showing me the errors of my ways, and for being a great leader.

Out of town

Isabel's friend was in Amarillo, TX this weekend.

Isabel: Where did Victoria go?
Me: Out of Town
Emma: Where's out of town?
Isabel: Disney World.

Preference

Eddie: Do you want brocolli or brocolli and cheese?
Isabel: I just want brocolli.
Emma: I just want the cheese.

Walt Disney World 2008

So we recently made a trip to Walt Disney World. It was so much fun, we are already planning for next year. First of all, October was a perfect time to go, a tip I got from a friend who lived in Florida for 9 years. Second, I love MISD, which allows time for you to take your kid out of school for family vacations. Third, buying the book "Hassle Free Disney World Vacation 2008", was the smart thing to do, also another tip from a nurse at Eddie's hospital. Durning the next couple of days if I have time, I'll post some of our adventures.

Baby Update: 2 more months to go.... Crib is partially put together, my sanity is still in tact, so far, I feel great.

Drum Roll please

We decided to name our little boy.

Isaac Joël Valenzuela

Joël pronounced Jo-L

My new favorite lipstick

NEW Mineral Power™ Lipcolor
Pure color, weightless feel in 400 Ruby

Wny I love it...

light, perfect hint of color, I don't have to use a mirror to put it on, I don't have to worry if I put too much on... it's just perfect for me.

I'm influencing my daughter

Eddie to Emma: Where were you?
Emma: In my playroom.
Eddie: What were you doing?
Emma: Working on my laptop.

It's a Boy

We found out Monday that we will be having a Baby Boy.
My husband is so excited.

So now the name game. We think we narrowed down the first name.

Ready? It means "God's Gift" .... Jesse
Now all we need is a middle name, so your help is needed.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Michelle

the obvious

Isabel: Mommy did you know I can hear when I'm sleeping?
Me: Wow, how can you do that?
Isabel: I have ears.

First Day of School

August 25th was Isabel's first day of school. She's been doing great.

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The Birds and the Bees

Seeing that I'm pregnant and all, the first question out of Isabel's mouth was "How did that baby get in there?". So we explained that the baby was in mommy's uterus, which is by mommy's tummy. "But, how did that baby get in there?". Oh oh... what do we say???? So we search and search and came up with this. "When a husband and wife love each other, they hold each other in a special way, and make a baby." She seemed to be satisfied with that answer.

Fast forward 4 months....
Isabel is about to start school (public school). A good quality that Isabel has is her stubborness. You ask good??? Yes, because once she gets an idea in her mind she will not back down. She is fully convinced that what she knows to be true is. So our job as her parents is to fill her little mind with truth. Truth about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, what the bible says, what's right and what's wrong, etc....

So back to the birds and the bees... Since we are having a baby it is the perfect opportunity to open the discussion back up so that she doesn't get the wrong information from someone else....

I went and bought 2 books. "Why boys and girls are different" By Carol Greene (ages 3-5) and "Where do babies come from?" By Ruth Hummel ages (6-8). I got both of these at Mardel's... I read them both and I like them. The are part of Learning about Sex: a series for the Christian Family.

Can't wait until my husband reads them and then we'll read the age appropriate book to Emma and Isabel.

Digital Whiteboard

I came across a problem yesterday. I had a list of things on my whiteboard at work and needed to see then today when I worked from home.. I couldn't bring the whiteboard with me so what do I do?

I posted it on www.skrbl.com.. Click here you can see where I published my skrbl online so I can see it anywhere... Also I can login and make changes as often as I want.

Mission Trip 2008 - Tijuana

Here is one of the videos from our mission trip. This video highlights the VBS (Vacation Bible School). We also built a house that week, but that is highlighted in another video. The location for VBS that we chose was a vacant lot behind a vacant yellow store. On the first day we had 35 kids, on the last day we had 117.
It was an amazing trip. This video was produced by Ryan Strong one of the missionaries that on our team that we had the privledge to lead. Enjoy.

Little White Box

Little White Box

(Use fingers to make a box)
I wish I had a little white box
To put my Jesus in
I'd take him out and kiss, kiss, kiss (put hand to mouth and act like you are giving Jesus a kiss)
And put Him back again.

I wish I had a little black box
To put the devil in
I'd take him out and smash his face(clap hands together, and yell smash his face)
And put him back again.

These arms of mine

These arms of mine are burning from wanting you...

Been along time since I've heard this song. This was played on the movie Road House (w/ Patrick Swayze). I heard it again this week on the show "So you think you can dance"

Open Arms-

So now I turn to you with open arms,nothing to hide, believe what I say....
This song was playing at the end of an 80's movie, that at the time considering my age I shouldn't have been watching... This is one of my favorite love songs...

I couldn't embed this video so here's the link.

Open Arms Video