Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankful for...
• My husband and girls
• My health
• My family
• My friends
• My home
• My life

I really need to start taking the camera out of Harold's hands - couldn't find any pics of Harold and the girls. Oh, well. Still thankful for him, too! ;)

X-Ray Love

This is for my hubby. I mean, really, who else can properly appreciate an x-ray picture of me blowing a kiss? Only a husband that's in med school, that's who!

Darn You, Sky Mall Magazine!

I flew back to New Orleans over the weekend for a wedding. Got to hold a 4 week-old baby and listen to a very, very good homily. It was a great trip.

Once I landed, for some reason I started having a pain in my chest when I took a deep breath. As some of you know, I had a pulmonary embolism after I gave birth to Lucia. Every time I have any type of pain in my chest or legs, I start this whole little dialogue in my head. "Go to the hospital. No, it's nothing. Really, call someone. It's nothing. Is the pain constant or only when you breath in? Just forget about it." All while I'm taking these exaggerated breaths to see if they will make me cough or feel light-headed.

Whenever someone finds out that I've had a P.E., they flip out, tell me a story about someone they knew or heard about that died from a PE and finish it off with, "You are so lucky!" And as much as I know that I am, and as thankful as I know I should be, I just can't be. It's hard to be thankful when you're busy worrying. When I try to focus on being thankful, I start feeling lucky, then question if I will get lucky again and go back to worrying. It's really very stupid.

During this particular worry session, I was trying to remember if changes in air pressure, from flying. increases a persons chances for a blood clot. Then I started with the deep breathes and wondering if every flight would now make me worry even more... all while cursing myself for not getting up and stretching my legs - darn you, Sky Mall magazine!!!

Lunch With the Cool Cousins

Tomorrow, we will have been in Dallas for four weeks. Almost every day, I thought to myself that I needed to pack up my girls to go have lunch with their cousins at school. My sister predicted that time would fly by and she was right. Yet further confirmation of why she was in the GT (Gifted & Talented) Program at school and I was not. :)

Today is the last day of school before the kids are off for Thanksgiving break and we head back home. Can you guess what we did today? Yup.... had lunch with the cool cousins.

We only ate with Joshy - his class has the first lunch break. It was a great day to meet for lunch - pizza day! When there is only 10 min left before the bell rings, the teacher announces that it's "chow time" and all the kids really get down to eating, no more talking allowed. So funny... and it works, too!

Then we met up with Sophia. We all just talked while she ate her lunch. Once she was finished, she treated the girls to ice-cream cones so she wouldn't have to eat dessert without them. Is that sweet or what? And my sister wasn't even there telling her to do so! My girls got lucky - I hadn't allowed them to get ice-cream during their lunch with Joshy.

On the way out, we snapped a quick pic with Alex, just as he was walking into the cafeteria. Perfect timing and "Lunch with the Cool Cousins" was declared a huge success!

Geaux Saints!

Our city is going crazy over our football team, the New Orleans Saints! And they should... we're undefeated so far and playing great. Fans are coming out of the woodwork and screaming "Who dat? Geaux Saints!" at anyone that walks by. There is something about the New Orleans Saints doing well that just makes the whole city feel better. I love it!

This billboard, in front of a local church, makes me smile at the catchy play of words and makes me wonder what the whole city would feel like if we all were fans of the true Saints. I'd love that, too!

Feliz Cumpleanos!!!

Feliz cumpleanos, Mami!

Te quiero y te extrano muchisimo!!!!
- laura

Happy Birthday, Carmen!

Another perk to being in Dallas was helping my sister celebrate her 34th birthday... happy birthday, Carmen! The party was a success and we didn't run out of food. :) One of Carmen's biggest worries.

We were all so busy making sure everything was going smoothly that we didn't take any pics! Ughhh!!! One of Carmen's friends took some and when I get them, I'll be sure to post. Carmen looked great - not a day past 33!!! ;)

One of my favorite memories from this trip will be Harold and I staying up late and watching Carmen and Robbie practice this fancy number! It was both fun, hilarious and touching - can't wait to show this at their 50th wedding anniversary.

(PS: I'm still a lil aggravated that the party goers chose to get into place AFTER the music started and not before like I kept insisting! Why does no one ever listen to me? Grrrr!!)

Care Bear

So much for my post a few days ago about trying to have a more "saintly" attitude. Today I had to get the girls dressed and out the house in about 3 minutes flat. As usual, they decided that today was the day all the stuffed animals owned by my niece, Sophia, needed to tag along.

I quickly explained to them that this was going to be a short trip, we did not have time to take care of so many stuffed animals, that they could only take one each and that we wouldn't be gone too long.

As I started checking all the rooms and corners for my shoes, purse and keys, I turned to see Isabella walking down the stairs with an arm full of stuffed animals. Grrrrr!!!

Me: Isabella, you cannot bring all those toys with you.
Isabella: Well, I want to so I am because I'm going to take good care of them.
Me: No, Isabella, you can only choose one.
Isabella: But Moooooooooooooom, I really want to take them all.
Me: I don't care, Isabella! You can only take one.
Isabella: No, I want to take more.
Me: I don't care! Let's go - we need to go!!!!
Isabella: You never care! I wish you cared! I wish you were a Care Bear! Then that way you would care more!
Me: Me, too, Isabella. Me, too.

Yes, I know that "I don't care" is not an appropriate response but I had no energy to think of a better one and honestly, at that precise moment, I didn't care! A good Saint never lies! :)

I Want to be a Saint

I once heard someone say that they hoped to make it to heaven and hear God say to them, "Well done, my faithful servant." I used to just worry about just getting into heaven much less what I would be told. Those words have stayed with me for years. It's a shame I can't remember where I heard them.

Yesterday's homily was about today's "All Saints Day" holiday. The priest said a lot of wonderful things but since we have the honor of going to mass with a 5 and 3 yr-old, a lot of his message was lost on me. The part that I do remember was how we should all want to be Saints. He said that when asked what we wanted to be, our response as Catholics should be, "I want to be a Saint." If our ultimate goal is to make it into heaven, then our only earthly goal should be to be a Saint.

I have thought about that all day and especially today when I remember family members who have passed away. My Memere, Abuelito Florencio, my Aunt Celeste and of course, my parents. I think about the day that we will all be together again. I want to see God. I want to see my family and friends. I want to finally understand what this whole adventure has been about.

So now I have a whole new set of words to focus on... I want to be a Saint.

PS: Being a Saint's football player does not count! :)

* Image from HauntedNewOrleans.com

Halloween 2009

We've been knowing for a while now that we were going to be in Dallas for Halloween. The plan was for all of us - kids and adults - to dress as Star War characters. That didn't happen. Oh, well. At least my nephews and niece kept up their end of the bargain!

And checkout my niece... she totally got into character!

Costume shopping this year was a nightmare between my daughter's indecisiveness and the ridiculous costume prices! Isabella and Lucia ended up using costumes that were laying around my sister's house and her friend lent us one so all we had to buy were the crowns. Not bad for a costume that was bought on Halloween Day!!! I love how Isabella isn't wearing shoes in her pic - very Cinderella of her, don't ya think?

Happy Halloween!