Monday, April 28, 2008

Help me figure out....

Who reads this blog? I'm very curious.
Please, just leave me a comment with your first name and location.

Sometimes I feel like I'm rambling to the wall, but then I check out my blog meter and see that I have loyal visitors. It would be nice to put a name with the locations given on the blog meter.

Maybe, if you'd like, I can put up a link to your page (if you have one).

And Thank You for your interest in Our World.

J~

Our Weekend...


This weekend was a pretty low-key weekend. I'm on a mission to take lots more pictures these days. I have tons of Gabe when he was a baby and I need to catch up on taking pictures of Sarah, since she changes everyday! She has taken a liking to the monkey that she gave Gabe for his birthday. It's so cute to see her try to grab him. After monkey "kisses" her, she pulls him to her mouth with her mouth wide open. I don't know if she's trying to kiss him back or eat him!
We went into work with Phillip for a while yesterday. He was doing flight operations for an aircraft that needed to be fixed. Gabe grabbed the camera and took a picture of me. We really need to look into getting him his own camera. I think he's ready for it and he LOVES to take pictures.

How many kids can grow up and tell stories to their own children about going into work with Daddy and doing things like this? We live an interesting life. And I'm so glad for it. Both kids will have lots of stories to tell of places they've been and things they've done. As my Dad calls it, "The University of Life" has lots in store for them.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Whooooo Hoooooo!!!!!

With gas prices at $3.49 a gallon this week, I only put in half a tank on Thursday. I could've filled up, but why? What is this world coming to that we have to worry so much about the price of gas and people are stockpiling rice?

Here's some good news though. Our tax rebate checks are on their way. This means that we can possibly enjoy our cruise without having to worry too much about the extra spending money.

Good, because we are soooooo looking forward to spending time alone together (without much on our minds...I'm sure we'll be worrying about the kids...but they'll be in good hands for that week), which as I 've mentioned before, it's been a while since we've had the chance to do that.

Phillip's parents are true Saints for offering to watch Gabe and Sarah.

I'm rambling, I know.

Friday, April 25, 2008

I need a full day...

to go through my photos. The hundreds, if not close to a thousand, stored on my computer. I need to develop and catalog them. I need to back them up on a CD or DVD. I don't scrapbook; it's just not my thing. But I do keep detailed photo albums and I haven't worked on that in over a year. I also need to update my photo collection to your left (on this page). I need to actually put pictures in the photo frame that I had my husband hang on our foyer wall. It's been there for months and many visitors have commented on it's emptiness. Or maybe I'll not put anything in it so it continues to be a conversation piece.

Because, that's how I roll....

So many pictures, not enough time to play with them.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

On a much lighter note...

Headlines of the week for the Lopez household:
  • But she's too young.. 11-week old baby is teething. Doctor confirms that yes, indeed, those are teeth!
  • Neighborhood Rooster Mystery is solved. Next door neighbors from Ghana kept them in back yard, plucked and ate them!
  • Allergies and Sickness Rule the household...or at least for Baby and Mother.
  • "It's good to be Six." states young man as he walks down the street.
  • Getting Ready for Science Night. Details Later.

What should I title this lovely post?

Okay, I'm gonna get a little, shall we say morbid (?) here. I'm not sure why I'm posting something so personal, but then again I intend on putting all of this blog into a published book one day. I use this blog sort of like a journal of our life. I'm sure that my military friends will relate to what I have to say.

My husband packed recently for his upcoming deployment overseas. I won't post the pictures that I took, but I will tell you why I took pictures of him packing.

We hear that we've just missed the cut-off date for 15 month deployments and with the military, nothing is ever written in stone. So, we are all very bummed that the guys could be gone for so long. So much will be missed; I'm talking about a whole year of first grade, watching the baby take her first steps, etc., etc. I can't tell you how depressing it is.

I took those pictures because Phillip took Sarah into the room so that she could sit in her bouncy seat and spend time with him while he packed. I wanted her to know by seeing the pictures in the future (if God forbid he doesn't come home) that both her and Gabe are very much loved by him, and that he spent as much time as he could with them.

Today, life is so uncertain. I've learned that you have to be as prepared as possible for anything to happen. Call me a pessimist, if you will. But I can remember a time when I didn't have to think about such things as War, and I didn't have to think of the what-ifs. Innocence is bliss. And my children are thankfully, so far, innocent and un-knowing of the dangers of this world. And when the time comes that innocence is lost, they will at least have the pictures to remind them of good times and parents that loved them to Infinity.

Sucks, doesn't it?

Happy Birthday to my Sunshine!





We had a great weekend. Gabe's birthday party was at the same gymnastics place that we've had his birthday party for the past three years. He loves that place. We had a great turnout and as usual, Gabe racked up on toys. My camera batteries died on me and the charger didn't re-charge my spare set, so I had my friend Jennifer take pictures for me. I've posted some of the pictures that I did manage to get. The last one is of Gabe on the morning of his actual birthday; he's already too busy to look at Mom and smile for the camera! (he was playing a Wii game: Bee Movie) Oh, and the monkey in the background of that same picture is his gift from Sarah because she's so thoughtful....

Friday, April 18, 2008

Gabe was not forgotten...

His eyes were still red from crying about the tree incident.

It's hard to believe that Jean Gabriel will turn six years old this weekend. I'm so glad that he's a part of my life. He has been and always will be my sunshine (right along with Sarah).

Tree Climbing





Okay, so I visit some blogs for their entertainment value, or good information. I'm sure you've figured that this blog is about pictures these days. We've got a lot going on over here, with lots of good pictures to show. I hope you enjoy.

The kids had lots of fun at Dad's house. Gabe, thinking that he was a tree monkey, fell out of the tree. Elaine (Gammie) fixed him right up. For the rest of the day, he repeated after his dad "Chicks dig scars!".

Pictures from Reception Part Two

My Mom
Phil's sister Angie, Sarah's Na-Nan (Godmother)
Baby Blue

Pictures from Reception Part One


I LOVE the expression on her face. One thing about her, she takes after me for never being able to have a "poker face". You'll always know what she is thinking. Right here, I'm not sure what she's thinking, but I think it's a cute reaction to her Uncle James (Parrain) talking to her.
My brother, James, checking out the diamond cross that my Dad and Elaine got for Sarah. Dad is so proud of the fact that he bought her first diamonds!

Awwwwwww!

He LOVES his little sister!
Clockwise: Adrian, Brigg, Gabe & Sarah, and Elise

Baptism

I need to get onto Picasa (Photoshop confuses the dickens out of me!) and edit some photos. I love this picture of Gabe. I need to crop it though.
My Dad and Step-Mom
Phil's parents: Manuel and Zella
For Gabe's Baptism, he slept the whole time. Not Miss Sarah! She didn't like the cold water being poured on her head. Mommy at least uses warm water when she does something like that!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Overheard

The scenerio:
We're on the way home from the allergist's office. Gabe and Sarah are in the backseat of my car. Sarah is crying.

Gabe says:
"It's okay. No, really, it's okay. I know it's hard. I was a baby once too, you know."

I had to break really hard to avoid hitting the car in front of me!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

I love this quote...

"flowers bloom in the desert....
only hope can come from that...."

~djm (Dave J. Matthews)---grey street--12 july 00

Saturday Night

This is the aftermath of a full day of playing and partying for these two kiddos. After the reception at Dad's house, my step-mom made our favorite meal: stuffed pork chops with rice and gravy. YUM!!! Gabe filled his belly and passed completely out soon after.
I'll post the in-between-the-morning-and-night pictures soon.

Saturday Morning

I decided that this post will be all about Saturday morning.
If you look close enough, you'll see Maggie the dog, sunning herself in the backyard of Phillip's parent's house.
Clockwise from top: Ken the brother-in-law, Manuel the Dad, Phillip the son and brother, Zella the Mom.
Gabe had so much fun with his cousins this weekend. They spent a lot of time building Lego thingies to crash down the stairs. Adrian (kneeling down) filmed the crashes on his camera. Gabe and Brigg are checking out the video.
This is Elise the Niece. I wish I had her energy and long legs!
Taking a morning nap. Angie will probably wanna kill me for posting this picture. But then again, she'll never know unless you tell her, because she never visits this blog!!!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Great Shot!




On Sunday, we went to visit Mom and my brother, James. As you can see from the above pictures, the guys had some fun. I don't mind telling you that I was really nervous about what they were doing. Phillip asked me if I minded that he teach Gabe a few things about guns and I replied that I didn't mind, I'd rather that his father be the one to introduce him to what will be a definite curiosity soon enough. Don't you worry; we all gave him our bits on gun safety and respect and I even had the guys show him the damage that a gun can do to a person using a milk jug as an example.

It turns out that Gabe has really good aim! Here is a copy of an email that James sent out to close friends and family:

On Sunday April 14th, we decided to put a gun in Jean Gabriel's hands for the first time. The hell with it, almost six is old enough.
The boy was a natural, plinking soda cans left & right from 15 to 30 feet away!
His first shots were appropriately enough with my trusty Daisy Red Rider that my father gave me some 30+ years ago. It still works!
He did so well that his father and I mutually agreed to put my Rossi .22cal Magnum revolver in his hands and you wouldn't believe what happened.
The little shit hit the can on his 2nd shot from some 15 feet away!!! Unbelievable!! This is NO easy shot - not even for a grown man!
Needless to say, we were in shock & awe. We witnessed the shot of a potential expert marksman. We were so proud of him.
Could this be the making of a future sniper?
-james
P.S.- The last pic (#4) is the look on the face of a shocked & baffled father saying, "He HIT it. He actually hit it!"


Great Weekend

It was a great weekend. We have lots of pictures from the Baptism and the reception following etc. Our traveling day on Friday went rather smoothly with both kids still being in good moods at the end of the day; Phillip and I weren't too bad off either (I hate long car rides). Throughout the week, I will post pics and tell you about our weekend.

Yesterday, our traveling day was a bit of a hassle. It took us forever to get home. We woke up late, went to lunch with Phillip's parents at one of our favorite restaurants before we left town (we would not have missed the opportunity to eat at Prejeans), and of course we had to gas up and buy some cajun groceries before we actually got well on our way.

I truly think that we had a bit of a Divine Intervention when we passed Beaumont. Sarah had not eaten since 9 a.m., so Phillip decided to pull off of the highway and stop at Ford Park so that we could stretch our legs and get her to eat something before she turned into a little terror. We went inside and I found some warm water for her bottle, and then Gabe and I went to use the bathroom. As soon as we got out, I looked out of the windows of the building we were in to see traffic backed up for over a mile. It turned out to be a fatal accident. I've linked a Beaumont news station: go here. We had just pulled off of the highway and missed being involved in that accident by mere minutes if not seconds.

The very nice and helpful women at the Ford Visitor's Center gave us maps and directions on how to bypass the stopped traffic and also gave us a hint on how to avoid Houston traffic (which we absolutely hate). All we had to do was take Beltway 8 around Houston; I think it will be an option for our future travels. We finally got home around 9:30 last night. It's only about 6.5 hours of drive time for us, but with stops...it takes much longer. And to think, we will do the same trip again next month!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

I should be packing...

Okay, I should be packing for our trip home to LA this weekend. But instead, I'm catching up on the computer. I'll give you just a quick update.

Sarah had her two month appointment on Tuesday and she has grown 3 inches since birth. She's also 11.8 lbs! The doctor told me that whatever we are doing to keep it up because she's looking good. I told him that her spitting up issue has gotten much better, and his encouraging words on how it will continue to get better was music to my ears. She got five immunization shots that day and the poor little girl turned purple with anger then sheet white! She's starting to smile more and more now. I can't wait for the grandparents to see her this weekend. She's changed so much. I should be taking more pictures of her.

I woke up in the middle of the night a few nights ago (I do a lot of thinking in the middle of the night) to realize that I really need to get on the ball about finding Phillip and I's birth certificates for our trip. I have a very old copy of his, but it's not a certified copy. I called my mom to see if she has my original. Both sets of parents are looking for our certificates and if they can't find them by the end of this weekend, we'll have to get them in a hurry from this website. Meanwhile, we went shopping on Monday for clothes and I was so excited to find stuff that fits; I really needed some dressy clothes and it's so hard to find stuff that I both like and that will fit my unique proportions!

Well, I guess I'd better go get to packing. Ya'll have a good weekend.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Our life this week...

We just returned from an overnight trip to see Phillip's sister, Angie, in Tyler. It was a good practice run for our trip to Louisiana next weekend for Sarah's baptism. All in all, things went pretty smoothly in the way of traveling with Sarah; though I did not pack enough formula, so we were kinda hurrying home today so that we could feed her. We went to a barbecue place today called The Purple Pig Cafe that had some of the best food I've had in a while. Last night, the others had boiled crawfish, which I don't eat, so my Taco Bell had gone down to my toes by the time we ate a late lunch over there today.

I feel the need to tell you a bit about how sensitive Gabe is. Every time he hears a sad story, my little man tends to get a bit emotional. He cried at the story of Jesus at church one night during Lent, and this week I got a comment from his teacher about him being so focused on and crying at the finish of the book The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. He came home to tell me the complete story and it sounds very touching. He also said that he caught himself about to cry so he quickly excused himself to the small bathroom in his classroom so no one would see him; his teacher caught on to what was happening though. Check it out. It's about a rabbit that loses his owner and has an adventure of sorts and learns some good life lessons along the way. It sounds like a story that every person would enjoy. As for Gabe's sensitivity toward sad stories, it makes my heart melt that he cares so much for others and just wants people to be happy. I think it says a lot about our home life over here, and the way we try to teach him to respect and have love for others. We're a tight little family.

We had a bit of excitement in the neighborhood this week. Sarah and I were taking a nap in our big comfy chair when I heard what sounded like a water pipe going full blast. We have a leaky toilet so I figured that it had finally blown a gasket. Well, it turned out to be our front water hose outside that had been mysteriously turned on. So, I go outside to shut it off and my neighbor, Shannon, is in the front yard talking to these other women; and one very mad coach from the highschool nearby is shouting and running down the street. Shannon then tells me that someone had broken into the field house at the school and ran into our neighborhood to escape and found himself in the backyard with Cooper, Shannon's HUGE rottweiler. The thief escaped and hasn't been found (to my knowledge). At the same time, my friend Sandy, passes by and asked us if anyone saw the peacock on the loose in the neighborhood. She was looking for it because it found itself in her yard with her two dogs. Strange!

We also had a bit of a scare a few nights ago. At 2:30 in the morning, we woke to the terrible crashing sound of our coffee cup shelf giving way (on a unit in our dining room). The whole family was a bit shaken from the noise. I calmed Sarah while Phillip cleaned the mess. Quite a few of our favorite, and non-replaceable cups were broken. Que' Bummer!

Whew! What a busy week! Glad it's over.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

What's Happening?

We had our Tuesday morning playgroup this morning at my house and I was told that I needed to update my blog. Lately, the only news that I have is about Sarah, so I really don't have too much else to talk about.

The upcoming deployment has been weighing heavily on my mind. Things are getting easier with the new baby, so I feel somewhat better about that. When Phillip went to Iraq the first time, Gabe and I looked forward to "exploring" on the weekends and I know that this time will be very different; it won't be easy to go out and about with Sarah, so I admit that I feel a little tied-down....and that kinda scares me. I am looking for new ways to pass the time this time around and I think I have some good ideas. The weekdays will be the hardest. I was told by someone that I really trust and respect that maybe I need to go back to work (for a diversion), but I don't think that will be the best answer. I want to be able to stay home and experience the first year with Sarah and if one or both kids ever gets sick, I'll have to worry about missing work. As for as adult companionship goes, I'll have to just try to get out of the house more often and take one day at a time. Still, it will be very lonely without my husband around; he is my best friend.

We are in the process of trying to figure out what needs to be done before he leaves. For example, we need to find a lawn service, finish fixing the hospital's screw-up on Sarah's birth certificate and social security card (they forgot the "H"), get my health insurance to pay for what they are supposed to on the pregnancy (that's been a lovely experience), etc. Lots to do....so little time. Luckily, Phil will have some time off of work to be able to help work on the list of things to do. I also want to find some way that I can have someone watch Sarah while Gabe is in school at least one day a week so that I can go to doctor appointments, or do whatever else that needs to be done that I might not be able to bring her along.

Phillip and I are both looking forward to mid-May, when we will have the opportunity to take a vacation. His parents offered to watch the kids while we go somewhere, so we decided that with time allowed, we will take a cruise leaving out of New Orleans. It will be five days of relaxation and un-interrupted sleep! Gabe said last night "Ya'll will have fun. Sarah and I won't because we won't be with you!". It's been since our honeymoon that we've taken a long vacation being just the two of us. And I'm willing to bet that Gabe will have fun spending the week with his Pa-Pa and Ya-Ya....he gets to take another week off of school for this occasion.

Gabe's kindergarten graduation will be in early June. This morning, I dressed him in a shirt and tie for his graduation pictures. He looked so very handsome. He couldn't wait to show his new tie to his friends... it had dinosaurs on it!

Have a good week. I'll try to post again soon.
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