Happy Memorial Day

We are celebrating our first Memorial Day as Texans!

Today I am especially thankful for all the brave men and women serving our country not to mention the families they leave behind. I can't imagine it. Hope all of you enjoyed your day and let's pray for peace. I heard the other day that at the rate our troops are dying there will no spaces left in the Arlington Cemetery in less than 15 years. What a shame.

Unfortunately, we arrived last night only to leave again this afternoon. We're driving to Houston to visit our wonderful cousins and then leave tomorrow for Costa Rica... for two glorious weeks! Yay! In the meantime, my sister has planned an afternoon BBQ and I am anxiously waiting for the watermelon to get sliced... along with all the kiddos. :)

Goodnight, NOLA!

Tonight was our last night in New Orleans - tomorrow we are off to Dallas to start our new lives. I couldn't help but think of this book today as we drove around the city one last time.

It's a cute little book that pays tribute to all the things that make New Orleans such a unique place to live and visit. It's one of a few New Orleans books that are now part of our home library.

As is always the case, there is never enough time to see and do everything. We managed to get a lot done and until our next visit home, I'll just have to flip through these pages and make a mental list of what I've got to do next time.

Goodnight, Nola!

Yesterday

Yesterday, my first born graduated from Kindergarten - why is life so cruel? :)

Yesterday, I told her how I remembered walking her to her first day of Pre-K 3 and how it's all gone by so fast. She laughed and then asked if she could let go of my hand and walk ahead of me. I told her no and held her hand a little tighter.

Yesterday, she led her class into the gym and welcomed everyone to the ceremony - so cute. She was so excited to hold a real microphone!

Yesterday, I shed a few more tears thanks to this beautiful child of mine.

I was Brought to Tears, Too.

Have any of you seen this? CNN is taking part in a pilot study titled "Black or White: Kids on Race" which is focused on kids and their attitudes towards race. I usually just read CNN's articles and rarely watch their videos. But after I read the following, I had to watch the video, too.

This is part of what was written...
"A 5-year-old girl in Georgia is being asked a series of questions in her school library. The girl, who is white, is looking at pictures of five cartoons of girls, all identical except for skin color ranging from light to dark.

When asked who the smart child is, she points to a light-skinned doll. When asked who the mean child is she points to a dark-skinned doll. She says a white child is good because 'I think she looks like me', and says the black child is ugly because 'she's a lot darker.'

After watching her daughter answer the questions, the mother is brought to tears."

I was brought to tears, too.

I felt bad for the mom. We don't really talk about race in our house, we just let our children see that we treat everyone the same which is probably exactly what this mom is doing. I remember asking Isabella what she thought about having a black baby brother and she said that it was really good. We then asked her why and she said "because I'd finally have a brother." After reading the entire CNN study and watching their many videos, I am now realizing that it's in those moments that I need to take our conversations a little deeper.

You can read the entire article here and the full study here.

Graduation Squared

It is the month of graduation's in our family - today we had a party for two of our graduates!

My sister, Carmen, graduated from UNT with a Bachelor's in Education and her Teaching Certification. She will soon be a high school Spanish teacher! Her graduation was the same as day as Harold's party so she decided to pass on her graduation ceremony to be here with us - how sweet is that?!

Harold graduated a few days ago with a Doctorate in Medicine from LSU. This entire week has been one big celebration - a Dean's Reception on Monday, Hooding Ceremony on Wednesday, Commencement Ceremony on Thursday and today a graduation party.

So proud of these two!

I made both Harold and Carmen put on their caps and gowns for a few pics. They both rolled their eyes at me and dragged themselves upstairs to change. I'm glad they listened because we got some really cute pics of them. The funny part was that after my lil photo session not one of them seemed to be in a hurry to take of their gowns!

I guess they're a lil proud of themselves, too!

My New Boyfriend

I have a new boyfriend. His name is Dr. Harold Jimenez.

I hear he has two cute girls and a wife. I know I should care but I don't.

For four years, I have noticed how determined and intelligent he is not to mention the many sacrifices he was more than willing to make for his lil family.

A few weeks ago he told me he'd take me to Costa Rica as long as his girls can come. You see... always thinking of his family. Of course, I said, "Yes!"

Don't you wish you had a boyfriend like mine? ;)

Mother's Day 2010

My day this year went something like this...

7am: Girls come into our room ready to start the day. I pretend not to hear them and listen as my husband jumps out of bed and quickly ushers them out the room. Usually once I'm awake I cannot go back to sleep but this one time, I do! Yay!!

8:00am: Knocking. Lots of knocking. I wake up and decide my husband can take care of it and roll over. Knocking. More knocking. And even more knocking. I get up prepared to scream at my girls and shoot my husband a mean look only to find both my girls and husband are locked in the office. I laugh to myself as I walk to the living room and realize that on Mother's Day 2010 , I was able to "save" my family.

9:00am: Decide that we have plenty of time to go to IHOP for breakfast and still make it to 10am Mass. Of course, we weren't the only ones that had that idea so it didn't happen. No worries - we we ended up at La Madeleine which is much yummier (per my mommy opinion).

9:30am: Try to read the paper, enjoy my breakfast croissant and ignore my children who are whining to their father over every. little. thing. Seriously, why are my girls incapable of speaking normal?

9:45am: Rush to pick up our table a little and wipe up sticky hands and faces. The whining has not ended so my husband gives me his saddest look and says, "Maybe next year will be better?" I had been thinking that for a good 30min. so I just smiled and said a prayer for it to come true. Notice how I didn't procrastinate on that one? ;)

10am: We made it to Mass and I keep thinking of what my husband said. Next year we may have one (or two) more kids with us and I think to myself that this year just may be the peaceful one of the two. But when I think of all the Ethiopian children I've fallen in love with I realize there is nothing wrong with that!

11am: Mass ends with a special Mom blessing. I was sitting next to an older woman who was all by herself. I know this because I wanted to make sure that my girls stayed quiet enough that they didn't bother her. She stood up for the blessing, too, and my heart just broke. It was Mother's Day and she was all alone. I decide that whining really isn't all that bad.

12pm: I decide that whining really is that bad and kick my girls out of the living room and into the play room. I feel guilty for about 0.3 seconds as I reach for the tv remote, watch a lil tv and take a mini-nap.

6pm: We went out for Chinese with Harold's family.

8pm: It's time for the girl's to go to bed and I realize that not one pic was taken of me with them - as I opened their sweet gifts, while we ate breakfast or laid on the sofa. I asked Harold to take a quick pic of us and thanked God for giving me two nutty girls to love.