All is finally well in the Garza Household....Emma is finally over the strep and going back to school tomorrow.
The strep hit her hard, she's been down since last Wednesday. We've had several sleepless nights of constant fever monitoring and middle of the night cold baths. The fevers finally broke on Sunday and our little trooper requested to go for a drive and for some ice cream. That's my girl, she's back...almost.
Today she had one more day of rest and slept until 11:45!! Definitely not typical Emma!! She ate better today (still not great) and watched a lot of tv. She's now snoring away excited about going back to school tomorrow. I may still pick her up early, don't think she's ready for a full day yet.
So it's off to the office I go, have lots and lots of work to catch up on. And I have to get us ready for a 4 day road trip this weekend. Yikes! Better get to it!!!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The Mommy Mafia
I love this article because it isn't something I ever thought about until I became a Mom. I cringe now to think of comments I made "pre-mommy" about other people's children and do try to stay out of the mafia.
I wonder why we as women do this to one another? Is it really insecurity?
Anyway, it's a very insightful article.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/wayoflife/04/13/mommy.mafia.jen.klein/index.html?hpt=C2
I wonder why we as women do this to one another? Is it really insecurity?
Anyway, it's a very insightful article.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/wayoflife/04/13/mommy.mafia.jen.klein/index.html?hpt=C2
Monday, April 12, 2010
And so it begins....
It's time. Been time. Overtime. Past time......We have been waiting patiently, counting pennies, working crazy hours, purging junk, living partially in boxes and it's finally here. It's time to build the new house!
Unexpected, but I guess God knows what he's doing. For all our planning, we decided to go ahead and build rather unexpectedly and quickly. But I am still scared, okay really terrified! These are the thoughts that have been keeping me up at night
Unexpected, but I guess God knows what he's doing. For all our planning, we decided to go ahead and build rather unexpectedly and quickly. But I am still scared, okay really terrified! These are the thoughts that have been keeping me up at night
- It's a BIG house
- It's in the boonies
- We are building it ourselves
- How are we going to have time for this, we already work crazy hours (see above)
- What if I pick something ugly and it doesn't look right?
- Gulp, the mortgage!
- Driving Emma to Edinburg every day to finish out next school year
- My health, will it hold out??
- My new scrap room is too small :(
- I still have alot of purging left to do
- Did I mention the mortgage???
Is it always this way? Would we ever be truly ready? Me, no. I will always have my fears, always. That's why I love my husband. He's the risk taker, the one with perpetual confidence. He has the strongest faith in us as a couple and family. For him, it's not should we build? it's when can we get started?
We have worked hard to get to this point. We sacrificed vacations, new things and time to pay off bills and loans. Our credit score is so good now, it really surprises people! :) But it took work, lots of spreadsheets, planning and pinching pennies.
And you know what Carlos told me today? He said "You deserve this house sweetheart, I am going to build this house for you." Sniff!
And so it begins, here we go...hand in hand and I know that in the end it will all be worth it.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Two posts in a row!!!!
Wow! Another entry so soon!
After last night's post, I was reading my favorite blogs today and came across this post from Kevin and Amanda. It's about starting a new week, new month, new year and new decade on Monday, January 4th and the freshness that comes with a new start. Of course this was my birthday and fit so well with what I am feeling about starting a new year with a new attitude.
Enjoy the article and subscribe to her blog, she is a very talented artist and awesome blogger!
http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/
After last night's post, I was reading my favorite blogs today and came across this post from Kevin and Amanda. It's about starting a new week, new month, new year and new decade on Monday, January 4th and the freshness that comes with a new start. Of course this was my birthday and fit so well with what I am feeling about starting a new year with a new attitude.
Enjoy the article and subscribe to her blog, she is a very talented artist and awesome blogger!
http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/
Monday, January 11, 2010
New Year, New Age, New Prayer
Well here it is, 2010. Wow!
The New Year brought a new birthday, number 34. I spent the entire weekend before and several days after sick in bed. Great, what a way to start the year! But, in all my misery I was secretly rejoicing that it was just a cold...just a cold, not unexplained seizures, or heart problems, or some weird virus taking over my life. Just a cold, what a wonderful cold!
So while ringing in the new year and another birthday, this is what was on my mind. It was of how I'm going to take on the challenges that the new year presents. If anything that I learned last year, it's that I may not be able to control the bad things that happen in our lives, but I can control how I react to and deal with these things. Some say "Well gee you would figure she would already know that". And I do and I did, but living that truth is much different than knowing the truth.
Control....
That's almost the word that I used to use to describe myself. I liked to be in control...I would always volunteer, want to be the group leader, or do the task myself because I could control it. I could control how my husband did the laundry, how my toddler put away her toys, how my dishes were arranged and how my home was run. I was on top of it, in charge, in control and then...I wasn't. I lost control, my body wouldn't function the way I wanted it to and thereafter my home, my family, my life...I lost control. I think for the first few months that was my deep frustration, I couldn't control what was happening to me and no medical professional could figure out how to give me back that control I so desperately wanted.
Every time I thought that I had made a decision to help take back that control I was seeking, I was reminded that I wasn't in control. I blamed God, genetics, the environment, stress, anything and everything for making me sick. I was sick, lonely, lost and angry. And then something happened.... Right before I left for a hospital stay, a new friend and her husband reached out to me and prayed with me. They prayed and said something to me that I knew deep down in my heart but was too hurt to admit. "God doesn't punish and he wasn't making me sick". It was in the days after that while visiting a speciality hospital that I really thought about what he had said. I started thinking about those words, God loves me and doesn't want to see me hurt or sick. He has the power to heal and to heap on us blessings that we don't deserve, but he doesn't punish his children. And that marked the change, the change that shaped the rest of my year. I started to pray, really pray for the Power of God to Heal me, Healing, not control became my focus.
Blessings -
I began to search for those special blessings around me and found way more than I ever thought I had. I found solidarity, support and strength in my marriage and truly realized the love of a child for an imperfect parent. I found laughter and love in our little family even on my worst days. Those two people keep me sane, make me giggle and enrich my life everyday. And from there the blessings multiplied. I made new friends, real friends, real women, that care for me, support me and encourage me. And from that came new family friends, friends for Emma and now friends of friends. I made "scrapbooking" friends, silly friends, faithful friends, fun friends and friends that needed me. So many blessings in just one short year, blessings that came right when I need them.
Relationships -
Last year also marked what I would consider several turning points in my family and friend relationships. I have many "old friend" relationships that are now pretty much gone, when the going got tough and I needed help, some people didn't or couldn't answer the call. And I have had some family members do the same and it has changed my relationships there as well.
Through all of this came the answer to my prayer of healing.
Healing -
A "new" friend said something to me the other day that got me thinking about what we pray for and how prayers are answered.
My friend Vanessa is dealing with infertility and was telling me about how she had been praying and praying that God would bless her with the baby girl she so desperately wants. And how it was through the power of new friendships in her life that she found God had answered her prayer not yet with the baby she wanted but rather with what she needed.... the love and support of new "girl"friends to help her through a very rough time in her life.
I sat and thought about what Vanessa had said and about the prayers I had been asking God to hear. And I have to agree with her, that although I haven't yet found the medical healing I am looking for, what I received in bounty was personal healing in the form of new friends, closer family relationships and spiritual healing. I realize that my life is in his hands and I have to trust in him to lead me. My eyes have been opened to the true meaning of friendship and the true love of a family. I have seen my true friends rally to support me and love me for who I am. I've had friends and family send prayers and offers for every kind of small task imaginable. I've cried many a tear about how wonderful these people have been to me and how blessed I am to have them in my life.
So I did get the healing I prayed for and being the God that he is, he blessed me with exactly what I needed in my life. As I start 2010, my prayers are changing. I think that my New Year's resolution will be to not pray for things that I want, but rather to pray for God to touch my life and those around me with the blessings that we need. Because I'm not in control and that's okay with me because I know I am blessed with everything I need.
The New Year brought a new birthday, number 34. I spent the entire weekend before and several days after sick in bed. Great, what a way to start the year! But, in all my misery I was secretly rejoicing that it was just a cold...just a cold, not unexplained seizures, or heart problems, or some weird virus taking over my life. Just a cold, what a wonderful cold!
So while ringing in the new year and another birthday, this is what was on my mind. It was of how I'm going to take on the challenges that the new year presents. If anything that I learned last year, it's that I may not be able to control the bad things that happen in our lives, but I can control how I react to and deal with these things. Some say "Well gee you would figure she would already know that". And I do and I did, but living that truth is much different than knowing the truth.
Control....
That's almost the word that I used to use to describe myself. I liked to be in control...I would always volunteer, want to be the group leader, or do the task myself because I could control it. I could control how my husband did the laundry, how my toddler put away her toys, how my dishes were arranged and how my home was run. I was on top of it, in charge, in control and then...I wasn't. I lost control, my body wouldn't function the way I wanted it to and thereafter my home, my family, my life...I lost control. I think for the first few months that was my deep frustration, I couldn't control what was happening to me and no medical professional could figure out how to give me back that control I so desperately wanted.
Every time I thought that I had made a decision to help take back that control I was seeking, I was reminded that I wasn't in control. I blamed God, genetics, the environment, stress, anything and everything for making me sick. I was sick, lonely, lost and angry. And then something happened.... Right before I left for a hospital stay, a new friend and her husband reached out to me and prayed with me. They prayed and said something to me that I knew deep down in my heart but was too hurt to admit. "God doesn't punish and he wasn't making me sick". It was in the days after that while visiting a speciality hospital that I really thought about what he had said. I started thinking about those words, God loves me and doesn't want to see me hurt or sick. He has the power to heal and to heap on us blessings that we don't deserve, but he doesn't punish his children. And that marked the change, the change that shaped the rest of my year. I started to pray, really pray for the Power of God to Heal me, Healing, not control became my focus.
Blessings -
I began to search for those special blessings around me and found way more than I ever thought I had. I found solidarity, support and strength in my marriage and truly realized the love of a child for an imperfect parent. I found laughter and love in our little family even on my worst days. Those two people keep me sane, make me giggle and enrich my life everyday. And from there the blessings multiplied. I made new friends, real friends, real women, that care for me, support me and encourage me. And from that came new family friends, friends for Emma and now friends of friends. I made "scrapbooking" friends, silly friends, faithful friends, fun friends and friends that needed me. So many blessings in just one short year, blessings that came right when I need them.
Relationships -
Last year also marked what I would consider several turning points in my family and friend relationships. I have many "old friend" relationships that are now pretty much gone, when the going got tough and I needed help, some people didn't or couldn't answer the call. And I have had some family members do the same and it has changed my relationships there as well.
Through all of this came the answer to my prayer of healing.
Healing -
A "new" friend said something to me the other day that got me thinking about what we pray for and how prayers are answered.
My friend Vanessa is dealing with infertility and was telling me about how she had been praying and praying that God would bless her with the baby girl she so desperately wants. And how it was through the power of new friendships in her life that she found God had answered her prayer not yet with the baby she wanted but rather with what she needed.... the love and support of new "girl"friends to help her through a very rough time in her life.
I sat and thought about what Vanessa had said and about the prayers I had been asking God to hear. And I have to agree with her, that although I haven't yet found the medical healing I am looking for, what I received in bounty was personal healing in the form of new friends, closer family relationships and spiritual healing. I realize that my life is in his hands and I have to trust in him to lead me. My eyes have been opened to the true meaning of friendship and the true love of a family. I have seen my true friends rally to support me and love me for who I am. I've had friends and family send prayers and offers for every kind of small task imaginable. I've cried many a tear about how wonderful these people have been to me and how blessed I am to have them in my life.
So I did get the healing I prayed for and being the God that he is, he blessed me with exactly what I needed in my life. As I start 2010, my prayers are changing. I think that my New Year's resolution will be to not pray for things that I want, but rather to pray for God to touch my life and those around me with the blessings that we need. Because I'm not in control and that's okay with me because I know I am blessed with everything I need.
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