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August 30 My drug, my TVLast Monday we had some very harsh storms around here and one of the very typical things that can happen is power failing. We thought we were covered because we have the computers hooked to a super backup battery and the rest of the electronics are plugged to special power strips. But with all that, the TV could not take it and it died. We never knew we were so dependent on it. We found ourselves wondering what to do when we would usually be watching TV. We found this guy called The TV and Audio Doctor. We called and they charge $100 for coming to your house (plus the repair cost, of course), but there was no way that Bryan and I could load the TV to the van. It is super heavy and we don't have the time to go there. So we decided today to call see what happens. The "Doctor" is called Arny and he is from Italy. Like any italian man he was very well dressed and not to tall, but he moved the TV like it was nothing. And like any italian person he talked a lot and very fast. In a very short period of time he told me that he has a 7 year old daughter named Evangelina; that his mom lives with them but she doesn't speak any english; that he has a very busy store and it is full of flat screens because they don't last more than 3 years with out breaking; that my "machine" is a very good "machine". Of course in that same period of time I spoke my porcion of the conversation, hehehe. 20 minutes later he tells me he is done and he gives me this little piece of plastic and metal not bigger than a pennie and tells me that was all the problem. We turn on the TV and VOALA, it works. I always wondered why the TV was so big when the same "machine" exist is flat format. So I took the chance when Arny opened the back and took some pictures. Here is him waiving at the camera. August 28 lack of power over one selfHow many New Year resolutions have been about changing something about myself? How many times I've said: "I've had it!! This time I'll make it happen!!” and after a wonderful beginning full of enthusiasm and eagerness things start, slowly but steadily, to go down hill. And it looks like I always have an excuse for myself and the rest of the world. And 1 month later, which felt like 5, I'm back to square one. Also, how many times I've said: "Ah, screw everybody, I am what I am and I have to accept it. And the one who doesn't like it can look the other way...” The problem is that I have to look in the mirror every morning, so I can't look away. I know that my main problem is I can't stick to a new activity when it disrupts my already set up routine. STICK is the magic word here. I can start going to the gym but I can’t CONTINUE going to the gym. And don’t get me started with the fact that I don’t want to spend any money. So here is where I am at right now. I am working every day, drinking about a pitch of water so I can’t avoid getting up and walking every once in a while. I’m drinking coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon. I am having a heavier breakfast so I don’t get hungry at 11am. I am doing stuff around the house, like re-painting the bathroom, mowing the lawn, running around with Eliana. And although I know that this is not enough, for me it is much better than nothing. I don’t know what would happen if I did do those things. I might turn into a super blob. I don’t think I’ll never fully accept my body the way it is now, but I can live with it. Besides I already know that I’ll have surgery once we win the Lotto. August 15 UpdateSo I decided to put my bilingual skills to good use and maybe earn some more money. I've been studing for the last 2 months to take a Federal Court Translator and Interpreter written exam. If I pass I qualify to take the oral exam next year and that means that I can translate and be an interpreter in court.
Based on diferent studies and research there aren't enough "qualified" interpreters and Charlotte and the rest of the United States have a growing non-english speaking population (weather we like it or not). I believe that I can be a very good one. I've allways wanted to do something using my spanish; I like legal and medical matters (but becoming a medical interpreter takes much more studing, maybe attending college). I am very looking forward to see if this is the next turn I need to take in my career. If not, I already now that I am grate at what I'm doing right now, but I can't go much further up with out getting some type of degree and we don't have the money or time right now to do it, unless I decide to be a zoombi for the next two years (to start with).
Bryan keeps working like crazy. More now than ever because he is Project Manager of the IT department of VGEI. He is learning now that managing people is an art. Also we are getting financialy ready for our Christmas trip to Argentina (presents, lodging, time away with out producing money, etc). I had to have a tonsillectomy so I was a week out of work plus the hospital and doctor expenses put a good chunck out of our pockets.
Eliana is growing, getting teeth, having meltdowns and tantrums, and learning to talk... No, I do not talk to her in spanish; only the words that she already says in english.
I keep working on getting the hose decorated to a point where I feel it is completly ours. My last project was the master bathroom. I painted the walls, the cabinets, refinished the tile floors and fixed some things here and there. This is the first thing I do after my surgery so I got a little out of shape after being in bed/sofa for a week. I did some digging on the back yard to get the ground ready to have a concrete patio done and we bought a new grill to go with it (on sale, of course).
Work wise, my company recently changed presidents so I am playing the waiting game to see where things will be going from now on. I mean, I like the people I work with and the work that I do is not that bad, it is just to much and all over the place. Not having a specialty doesn't helpme for future developement. We'll see.
For those people that keep asking us about "are you ready for kid #2?", the answer is: Emotionally yes, financially no.
I'll make an effort to writte more often. Please dont' give up on me  May 09 It's been so long...Since I've written anything on this blog. Not because there is nothing going on, but because my company has blocked my access to this site, and at home I don't have time for pretty much anything any more. So here is a list of things that happened since December: * My department got shrinked to just the manager and me for cost reduction. * Eliana turned 1 year old and now she is walking. * Eliana is showing her true colors as the drama queen we all suspected she would be... ay ay ay!!! * Bryan got promoted and now he is the official manager of his department. Finally he is getting recognized. * My manager still has some emotional issues that she can not control and leave outside the office. Every now and then I have to play "Psicologist". * I've had it with my weight and I started to count calories again, which sims to be the only way I can control what goes into my mouth. * Eliana has been sick a couple of times and she is also teething, and poor Bryan catches everything she brings home. * Now I am sick. Last time I got Strep (Angina) it happened in 12 hours and I had to have a shot of Peniciline and it went away pretty fast. This time I'm not so lucky: I started with fever on Wednesday, my throat is swollen like a toad, I'm already taking Ibuprofen, Aspirin, and now Amoccixilin (Amoxidal). I'm supposed to sing tonight and tomorrow but I don't see how. On last night's rehearsal I had to leave early because I couldn't take being standing for so long. To top it all off, I was told that the best thing to do would be to perform a tunselectomy (extirpacion de amigdalas). * Eliana is no longer sick but she doesn't want to go to bed when told, so she has been crying a lot. I think that's it. Hope everybody is well and happy. xoxoxo January 09 LATEST PICTURESA small compilation of pictures from December 2007. * Eliana playing one of her favorite games: "lets take of my sock as soon as I can". * Eliana after eating avocado. * Eliana "helping me" to put her clothes away. * Eliana enjoying her bath. * Elliana playing in a swimming pool for the first time, and loving it at uncle Greg's house during xmas. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW8xycgl0gU November 26 ELIANA EXTREMIDY WORKEven before crawling, Eliana is crafting. At day care she is creating master pieces for each occasion. Here we have her first three: The first one for Father's Day, the second one for Halloween, and the third one for Thanksgiving. November 19 ELIANA IS GETTING MOBILEWatch out!!! Eliana is starting to crawl. She's still doing some "swimmig" on th floor (very very cute), but she's starting to notice that she doesn't need me any more to get to something, and eventually put that something in her mouth. Needless to say I am investing some money on corner protectors and I'm vacumming like crazy.
We have to hurry and do the hardwood floors soon. Maybe for her first birthday. Do you think that is an apropiate birthday present
 ?Eliana is a very active little girl and it won't be long after crawling that she will reach up, and start pulling things from shelves.
 Oh well. November 16 IT IS GETTING COLD I'm at the office, enjoying the fact that Friday is finally here. We woke up (meaning Eliana woke me up) at 5am and it was 29ºF (-1ºC) out; sun still down and very winy. Now the sun is up with very clear skys, which I absolutely love, and we have 34ºF (1ºC). Some people are complaninig that it is very cold but I love it. Now that we have the outdoor fire pit we can take advantage of our back yard all year arround. And there is nothing better than having the fire place on when outside is a little chilly, and you get to eat lost of warm soup. Yumm!!!November 15 LITTLE RAINAs you can see from my blogs, the last rain we've had in two months as on October 24th. This morning we had some water, but nothing that will bring us out of the water restrictions. Needless to say my lillys are dead and I don't know how am I going to do to make things look wright without resourcing to dangerous desert plants (cactus).
Of course after the several prays that've been going on for rain latelly are taking all the credit for these short showers, with out having in considerations that the weather channel has been saying for a week now that today we would have some rain.  But who am I to say that people are being manipulated?...FIRST SANTA PICTUREEliana had her first Santa picture taken yesterday. She looks very serious but people tell me that most kids don't want to do anything with Santa, so I'm happy with the result.
Santa came to the day care so all the kids could have they picture taken, saving time and stress to the parents that can't or won't go to the mall and stand in line with a screaming child for an hour.
As you can see on previous pictures, this is not the first time she wears this beautiful dress. But it is so pretty, I'm going to dress her in it as much as I can.
Peace and good cheer to everybody!!!
 November 08 OUCH!! Third tooth came out. Eliana has three teeth now. She has the two on the bottom and now one on the top; the first of four.She's not crancky at all, but just in case I'm always ready with the Tylenol.
She is growing so much and so fast I am really trying to enjoy her and not to fall in the crazyness of the holidays; "if I don't get the laundry done, is not the end of the world".
Her hair is getting long and I have to make a little pony tail on the top of her head, Woody Woodpecker stile ("Pajaro Loco" for my spanish speakers). My grandfather's paintingsFor those who don't know, my grandfather is an avid painter. Painting has allways been his passion and you can see it even now with his 86 years of age and still portraiting his thoughs and emotions in what ever canvas he can put his hands on. His paintings have evolved with the years, experimenting with different materials (oil paint, water colors, crayons, chalk, etc), but always going back to his first love, the Oil paint.
My uncle Guillermo has put together his collection of paintings in a slide show in his space for everybody to enjoy. Please take a look at them and leave your comments.
October 24 FINALLY IT'S RAINING!!!!! after two months of intense drought, water restrictions, and getting all the grass and plants burned out with the sun and the lack of water, is raining. There's no way that we'll get as much rain as we've been missing, but any rain is good at this point.The only downside... ? the idiots who think that driving at 20mph is safer than 50mph when raining.   October 23 MY INVENTIONI was getting tired of my small jewelry box, not being able to find what I wanted, to see what I had, or to spend 5 minuted untangeling chains. So I mentioned my situation to one of my coworkers and she suggested maybe to do like a wall display inside the walk-in-closet.
Long story short, look what I did!!!
PICTURE COMING SOON PARTY GIRLEliana went to her first official party last weekend. A couple friends of ours got married and Eliana partied all night (meaning until 8:30pm; that's when she totally fell asleep in the stroller in spite of the laud music playing). You can see her before entering the event, taking a "refreshing" nap, after the 15 min car ride; and then just working the scene, being cute, in arms of Auntie Michele. Eliana is wearing a wonderful design in chocolate brown velvet at the top, and a pleaded skirt with the corresponding bling bling in pinks and greens. At the middle, a beautiful fabric flower bloom matching the colors. The outfit was a very early present from Auntie Tory and Auntie Jill. Needless to say, everybody at the wedding loved her, and I kept getting compliments on how pretty and how well behaved she was. I mean… Hello? What did you expect? September 26 DON'T TELL ME SHE'S NOT FUNNY / NO ME DIGAN QUE NO ES GRACIOSAI was trying to take a picture of her new teeth and she kept making that face. Estaba tratando de sacarle una foto de los dientes nuevos que le salieron pero ella seguia poniendo esa cara. August 27 GRANDPA VISIT / VISITA DE GRANDPABryan's dad, Karl, came for a visit last week to meet Eliana for the first time.
They had a grate time. I got some very cool pictures of the two of them.
One of my favorites is the one attach: I came home from work on Friday and as I open the door I see Bryan, Eliana, and Karl, all three asleep on the sofa. Soooooo cute.
El papá de Bryan, Karl, vino de visita la semana pasada para conocer a Eliana por primera vez.
La pasaron bárbaro. Y yo saqué unas fotos bárbaras de ellos dos juntos.
Una de mis favoritas es la foto adjunta: El viernes llegué a casa del trabajo y al abrir la puerta veo a Bryan, Eliana, Y Karl, los tres dormidos en el Sofa. Suuuuuper tierno. WE HAVE A TOOTH / TENEMOS UN DIENTE Eliana has been showing signs of teething for a couple of weeks, and you could see the two bumps on the front of her gums.
On Friday night, while feeding her, Eliana let me know that her first tooth had come out.
 It bearly shows, and the neighbouring tooth will come out any day now.
ahhhh, she is growing so fast
 Eliana ha estado mostrando signos de estar dentando por algunas semanas, y se podían ver las dos protuberancias al frente de sus encias.
El pasado Viernes a la noche, mientras le daba de comer, Eliana me hizo saber que su primer diente había salido.
Apena se ve, y el diente vecino va a salir en cualquier momento.
ahhh, está creciendo tán rápido. |
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