Since April...

...I haven't post an enty? Sheesh I have completely neglected this blog. Ever since I created my baby blog I've been posting there. 

In May I gave birth to a healthy baby boy. This is Luciano less than 24 hours old.

In August we flew out to visit my mom in Arkansas. 

We spent a week with her except for R. We flew in on a Fri and R left on Tues. He couldn't take a whole week off because he had his week off in May. We had fun and this time we had a lot more time to do some sightseeing. The picture above with the fam was taken in Eureka Springs, AR and the one with LC was at Lake Atalanta. Minus the guy with the hat, here they are trying to fish.

The weather there was very muggy...ew. The last couple of  days it was raining so we didn't do much. Overall, our visit was great with mom. She enjoyed her time with her grandchildren especially with LC.

Also in August one of my aunts passed away. She was a striving human being. She had struggled almost 23 years with pain and suffering. At the age of 22 she was diagnosed with Leukemia and a year later was cancer, but she had encountered other health issues that many tims she was hospitalized. But with all that she never gave up the will to fight for her life. This last time she was hospitalized with sever pneumonia. The next day she went into a cardic arrest and from that point on she wasn't able to fight this one off. She had been died for almost 10 minutes before she was revived. We were close and this time around I couldn't bring myself to see her in her room. I couldn't see her lifeless and with a ventilator on her. I did see her the day she was rushed to the hospital. That day she didn't look right and I really didn't want to leave her. I knew something was wrong. 

Before all this happened she was suppose to go with us to Arkansas to visit my mom. She's been wanting to visit her new home and state. My mom and her were really close and my mom got to see while she was in the hospital. My mom flew in the next day she had the cardic arrest. It's been very painful these last few weeks, but I know that she's free and in a much better place. No more wheelchair, meds and dialysis, she's FREE!

While I was pregnant she would alway take pictures with her hand over my belly. She couldn't wait for LC's arrival. When I reached my due date she was the only aunt who called me to check if I had LC yet. She was excited she adored him so much!

May she rest in heaven. She's so missed!! 

This month my in laws were suppose to come from Italy for a few months, but they didn't make it. The day before their flight my mother in law was rushed to the hospital because she couldn't breath. She was gasping for air and they called the ambulance. After being examined her dr told her that she couldn't leave. So they had to forfeit their flight and now they have to wait until the dr gives her the o.k. to fly. When that happens someone is going to need to fly to Italy to get them. There are a lot of volunteers right now. This month was also suppose to be LC's baptism. We pushed it to Feb. and hopefully they'll be here. 

Not that I have a lot of readers, buuuut I will try to post more often.  

Jammed Pack Weekend

This weekend is so packed with commitments and parties. Tomorrow at 7 am I will be getting my pregnant ass ready to walk the 3 mile at Expo Park for a good cause, the March of Dimes. This will be my 2nd year walking. R thinks I shouldn't because I'll be 37 wks, but oh well. Last year I walked with daughter, son and a niece. This year I will be walking with daughter, cousin and nephew will be strolling. Although I haven't reached my goal yet, I'm hoping that I at least get close.
After the walk we have a graduation party to go to. One of R's nephew graduated from the Sheriff's dept. Before that I have to find a good gift to give to him. I don't know what to give him. Then, on Sunday we're doing a very very belated birthday for daughter. The reason we're doing it so late is because we were in the middle of moving, then the weekend we had her it was raining. Then, we had a death in the family so that was a no go. I suck, I know. At least she's understanding about the situation.

Hello...

It's been awhile since my last post. A lot has happened. The last few weeks we've been spending a lot of time with one of R's uncles who was dying. His uncle was diagnosed with Alzheimer in 2004 and he lost his battle to this disease last Wednesday. A very sweet man who was suffering is now at peace. This last year he has lost all memory of his children, grandchildren and great-granddaughter. The one person he wasn't able to forget was his wife who pasted away in 1984. He is now with her by her side.

May he rest in peace.

Long & Lazy Weekends

Since we moved I've noticed that my weekends have been long and lazy. My time seems to move much slower even R has noticed. Before my weekends were always full mainly with chores. It was a couple of hours at the market, about 3 hrs at the laundry mat, several hours cleaning & then sometimes lite shopping at Target. Then, on top of that there's communion class on Sat with daughter and church & confirmation class with son on Sun. The one thing I'm glad right now is that soccer has finished. My weekends were pretty exhausting and by Monday I just couldn't get my ass out of bed to get ready for work.

Now, my cleaning isn't as much as my apt was. My MIL has all hardwood flooring and tiles, so I just sweep and dry mop. Laundry is done at home now. The apt had it's own washer and dryer, but I hated washing there. The dryer was a piece of shit and it was quite expensive. As for grocery shopping, I really haven't done my usual shopping since we've moved in. On Sundays after church I'll just do a lite shopping, but not enough for the week. I just hit Fresh n' Easy every night or Vons and pick up something for dinner.

With some free time on Sun I took the kids to see the Jonas Brother in 3D. It was mostly for daughter because she's in love with the Jonas Bros. After, we spent some time at R's uncle's house with some cousins that live up the street. It was a nice Sunday.

Anyways, with so much extra time, at least until the baby is born, I'm really considering of doing some gardening. My MIL has an out of control lettuce and spinach garden. This is what half of her garden looks like right now.

I've been doing some researching and for this season and I think I'm going to grow tomatoes, strawberries and maybe zucchinis. Wish me luck.

A (late) Survey of My Wedding

I got this survey from G & A and I thought I would do one too.

Here's a little survey.

1. Where/how did you meet? We met a work. I started at a realty office in 1999 and he came in as a realtor 6 months later. According to his story, he decided to accept the position because of me.

2. How long have you known each other? We've known each other for almost 9 years. Wow...that's long.

3. How long after you met did you start dating? After 2 years.

4. How long did you date before you were engaged? 4 years.

5. How long was your engagement? 1 year and 2 months.

6. How long have you been married? 1 year 8 months.

7. What is your anniversary? June 16, 2007 (wedding) June 09, 2002 (dating)

8. How many people came to your wedding reception? About 240 people. It was all family. First picture was during the tarantella dance. This was fun!! This was danced about 3 times and at one point everyone joined in and everyone got tangled. We had a blast, could you tell? The group picture was taken at 11:30 p.m. We still had a good amount of people in the hall.

9. What kind of cake did you serve? White cake with strawberries and peaches.

10. Where was your wedding? The ceremony was held at his family church, St. Peter's Italian Catholic Church. This was a must. Everyone has gotten married at this church. The reception was held at the church's banquet hall, Casa Italiana. It's really nice inside.

11. What did you serve for the meal? Antipasto, Pasta, Chicken with vegs, fruits & Italian pastries. It was pretty much an Italian feast.

12. How many people were in your bridal party? We had 8 pairs + flowergirl (my daughter) & ring bearer. At the end I included R's niece from Italy, so one of our groomsmen had 2 girls.

13. Are you still friends with them all? Yes we are.

14. Did your spouse cry during the ceremony? Well...we both got teary eyed.

15. Most special moment of your wedding day? Walking down the aisle and seeing him waiting for me at the alter.

16. Any funny moments? We had a quite a few. First, when I was getting dress I put on my crinoline inside out...d'uh. Then my draw string was pulled off by SIL. Since we didn't have time to put it back in we used a saftey pin to hold it up. Towards the end of the night I lost it and had to take off my crinoline. My dress was a croset back and it was tied wrong by my SIL and one of my BMs. I had no ideas until I saw pictures.

During the ceremony we had a shrek moment. During the ceremony all of a sudden a baby started to cry, loudly. All I thought was, OH MY GOD!!! I was too embarrassed to turn and see who's kid was crying. Later that day I found out it was my cousin's daughter from Texas. Another one, my ring bearer decided to have tantrum at the end of the aisle. His father called out his name and that was it. He yelled, tossed the pillow up in the air and knocked daughter's flower to the ground. With all that daughter wouldn't let him ruin her moment and she started to pull him to keep walking. Although some of these might sound more like disaster moments, they were the funniest for us.

17. Any big disasters? A fight towards the end of the reception. There's always a drunk relative who's going to make your party a nightmare and that was one of my cousins.

18. Where did you go on your honeymoon? Sad to say, but we had a mini moon. We spent a few days in Vegas with out of towners a week after the wedding. We had so many out of towners that I couldn't just leave and not be with them. So after everyone left we headed to Vegas with some relatives that were still here from Italy.

19. How long were you gone? 4 days :(

20. If you were to do your wedding over, what would you change? Although I had some unexpected things happened, I wouldn't change a thing. It was perfect!!!

21. What side of the bed do you sleep on? I sleep on the left side.

22. What size is your bed? We have a queen, but right now we're on a full.

23. Greatest strength as a couple? Our love and friendship!

24. Greatest challenge as a couple? We're ALWAYS right in any discussion.

25. Who literally pays the bills? I do. I was thinking of having him take over, but nah. I write everything down with dates and stuff.

26. What is your song? My song will always be our wedding song.

27. What did you dance your first dance to?

By Your Side by Sade

28. Describe your wedding dress. It was a Mori Lee with a corset back.

29. What kind of flowers did you have at your wedding? My BMs had a lighter green of Hydrangeas in their bouquets. R and GMs had ivory roses.

30. Are your wedding bands engraved? No. We still want to engrave our wedding bands. Since R got another band last week, we're going to bless it and maybe get them engraved after.

Mom's Front Yard

Here's another pic mom sents me. This is her front yard. Click on the pic to see it better. That's not snow on the ground, that's ice.

Mom's First Ice Storm Experience

Look at my mom's roof. She's in a middle of a ice storm. This is her first time in something like this. She was telling me that she took her dogs outside to take care of their business and in the short amount of time they had icicles hanging off their bodies. So could you image on a person?
In the city where she lives about 100,000 people have lost power, my brother is one of those people. Mom has some power, but her cable is not on. A person she knows had one of their big trees freeze and fall over and knocked out the cable wires. Her neighbor has no power what so ever. She says it's freaking cold. Right now it's 19 degrees. Since last week she's been experiencing freezing weather. Last week it was about 9 degrees. Because of the ice storm businesses and schools have been closed for a couple of days now. It's recommended that no one tries to drive because of the icy roads. They received 3 inches of ice last night. Crazy huh? I was looking at pictures from a local news channel and I have to say that some of the pictures look so amazing. Check them out!