Bad News...

I have been a bad blogger but at least I have a good excuse this time. My brand new son has fallen ill. We have been at Texas Childrens Hospital since Sunday morning after being transfered by ambulance from our local hospital. We are supposed to be in the hospital till Tuesday if everything goes as planned (cross your fingers).

Harrison is in good spirits and doing well, but we will all rather be home. Wish us luck. I will be back soon.

St. Pat's...

May your pockets be heavy
and your heart be light.
May good luck pursue you
each morning and night.
-Old Irish Blessing



Happy St. Paddy's Day

What Ever Happened To...

As I sat there this morning pumping away (ouch, ouch, ouch) I could not help but wonder what ever happened to music videos.

At around 8am this morning I made my way to the couch and started flipping around looking for a pumping-mood kinda show and I stumbled on VH1 Classic. They were playing 80's music videos. I must say that watching the videos again was kinda nostalgic, they took me back and memories came rushing in. I saw Erasure, The Cure, John Waite, Prince, the only thing that would of made it complete would of been to see a Men At Work video.

The only time I hear of music videos now days is when Madonna or Britney Spears has a new one coming out and MTV milks it for all it is worth.

Yes, 80's music videos were cheesy, most of them consisted of the singer and well, that was it, but I, as many of us did, grew up with them and can even remember a show called Friday Night Videos. I was a pre-teen then and my TV was all I had on a Friday night. Videos are not what they used to be, whether that is good or bad, I don't know, but I am glad that there is still a channel out there that can make me remember what it was like to be young and stupid.

I'm In Love With A Boy...

I just met him and I am completely in love. It is funny how things work like that.





Harrison Antonio
March 2, 2005
6:19 PM


I am doing well and will be posting my adventures of being a two-kid mom soon.

The Oscars

Everyone looked breathtaking last night in Hollywood. The dresses, the tuxes, the jewelry, the hairdos, and the bodies inside those dresses looked just amazing. Natalie Portman is just so pretty. Orlando Boom and Johnny Depp - MEAOW!!

I don't know if I liked the new format of having people stand onstage and wait for the announcement of the award, this was only done for behind the scenes work not for the actors, but I think it would have been more interesting to have the actors up there. I think it would have looked like the Ms. Universe pageant. Imagine...all the 5 finalists on stage waiting to hear who will be named the next Best Actress. All of the sudden a name is called - Hilary Swank - everyone yells and runs to hug her, she starts to cry and saying no, no, no, me?! me?! while shaking her head in disbelief. Finally someone gives her the statue and she makes her speech. Maybe next year.

Did anyone notice the amazon woman given out the statues on stage? I swear she towered over everyone by a foot. I was hoping they would stand her next to Prince, but they sent out someone else, this girl was still taller than Prince, who wouldn't be?, but at least she wasn't three feet taller than him.

Another thing that I was able to capture and re-watch thanks to the magic of TiVo was in two separate occasions see two separate individuals in the background totally asleep. Their heads were actually bobbing and the guy’s mouth was actually open. The other was a girl, how embarrassing. I guess that Josh Groban can put anyone to sleep.

TV...

One question I asked myself yesterday was "Who the hell watches The Simple Life?" Does anyone out there find these girls endearing or entertaining in any sort of way? I mean if they were some off the street people with no real future I would say ok, maybe they are making a fool of themselves for the money, but no! You would think that with all the money they have, all they places they have been, all they can have, they would not come across as so annoying and ignorant. Are these girls 12?

American Idol - I was incredibly surprised that Melinda Lira was voted off the show. I actually thought she had done a good job, but I think she was right when she said that she had not received that much exposure on previous shows. I am glad she said something because that was exactly what I thought!! I remember seeing Judd Harris a couple of times and not seeing Jared Yates at all and they were both voted off!!

Also, what happened yesterday as Ryan announced the last male voted off? I thought the whole thing, if not a mistake, was kinda cruel. He told a row they were safe, made the other row get up, and then said that a guy (I think Jared) that was sitting down was off the show. The whole thing was weird to me.

I Am One Of Those People...

I am one of those people, well, weird. I will put off listening to a new CD, from an artist I already love, to the last possible minute. I don't know why that is. I guess I just do not want to be disappointed.

I have had the new Rabanes CD since it came out, but had refused-?? to listen to it until a month a go. The only reason I finally listened to it was because I could not find the other Rabanes CD - Money Pa' Que - I was dying to hear.

I must say that the Rabanes did not disappoint this time around. I just love Ecolecua, their new album. It is a little more laid back than Money, but it still has the same mix of rock, funk, reggae, and folkloric sounds that I have just come to love from Rabanes.

Most of the songs are great, well, I could do without the one titled Panama, but I just love Pastilla del Amor and Sinverguenza.

If you guys are looking for something different to listen to I highly recommend Rabanes and you do not have to understand or even speak Spanish because most of their songs are a mix of Ingles y Espanol.

A Little Strange Thing Called Love

Love is a strange thing. There is no concrete meaning to the word love, it means different things to different people. I have been married for almost 10 years and I can tell you that the meaning changes all the time. Love sometimes means having someone there to share your life with, or make you feel better when the world is against you, or even having to carry you when you are down.

Love is also the hardest job I have ever had. I sometimes think that the whole love thing is a practical joke that got out of hand. I can just hear some one saying "let's put two people together from different places, different backgrounds, with different thoughts and opinions, and have them try to make a life together...ha, ha, let the games begin".

Some people compare love to a roller coaster, I compare love to driving. There are paved roads, rocky roads, hilly roads, some times you even make a wrong turn, leave the road before your exit comes, or just plainly run out of fuel. The worst is when you exit early, get lost, reach a dead end and have to find your way back to the main road and hope, with all your heart, that your partner did not get lost too and is waiting for you when you get there...and he always is. That, my friends, is love.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Women Getting Killed For Their Babies? WTF???

There is an epidemic going on. I am afraid to even talk to anyone (strangers) about my pregnancy and was told to keep it as quiet as possible on the internet. That is crazy to me. Gone are the days that you could have an innocent pregnancy talk with a stranger at the mall or while shopping for your unborn's clothes. Now days that person that innocently asks how far along you are and where you live can follow you out, kill you, cut you open and steal your baby.

So far, within 3 months, I have heard and read two news stories of this type of thing happening. The first one, back in December, was about an innocent pregnant lady that meet someone online after she placed an ad for a puppy. The perpetrator very innocently got the lady's info flew to her house, killed her, and took her baby! Read the whole story here.

The other perpetrator was not so lucky. The would be killer lured the pregnant women to her apartment by telling her a package had been mistakenly left there for her. After a struggle the nine month pregnant lady ended up killing the woman. Story here.

This is some crazy stuff.

BO-RING!!!

If Janet's saggy titty fiasco was too much for family television I think that Paul McCartney's part in this year's Superbowl was completely the opposite.

I was emailing some friends when I decided to check out the half time show, well, to my surprise it was over before I could see it. I was listening to it and heard only four songs played. The whole thing sounded pretty mellow to me.

I hope this year's half time show does not set a new precedent for things to come. I think that one "wardrobe malfunction" or a singer's bad choices should not ruin it for everyone. Afterall, the only reasons I watch the Superbowl are for the commercials and the halftime show. Football game?!, what game??

Do not get me wrong I do like Paul McCartney and at times have had to defend him for his "Wings" phase.

I just think the Superbowl did a 180 degree turn in coming up for the enterntainment for this year's half time show. Who are we going to see next year? Barney?

A Sad, Sad Day in TV History

On Friday the last episode of Grounded for Life aired. Yes, I know that I am being overly dramatic with my entry title, but after 4 years of being a fan of the show it is a little sad to see it go.



I am a little bummed that my TV watching has been decreasing, this it is not because of a lack of shows, but it is because it seems that most TV time is being taken up by reality tv. I have always said - acting and drama should be left to the professionals! Yeap, I do not watch reality tv. The only "reality" show I watch is American Idol and that is because I like the singing or bad singing for that matter. I hate any show that when I turn it on till the time it ends there is people yelling at each other, talking bad about someone, or stabbing someone in the back. How is that entertainment?!!!

There are only two shows that I am religiously watching now days. They are Arrested Development and Life As We Know It. From what I have been reading Life is in hiatus and will not be returning. Great!!!

My other TV time has been spent watching the History and Discovery channels. It could be worse. At least I am learning something.

Who Said Eight Was Enough??

A couple of nights ago I stayed up to watch 14 Children and Pregnant Again! on the Discovery Health channel. I guess I wanted to see what would possess a person, in today's world, to have 15 children.

The name of the show intrigued me enough to watch, but it did not prepare me for what I saw. First of all, as the title implies, there are 14 children!!!! OMGsh, lets put it this way, I have a hard time handling one kid! The strangest thing was that the mom and the dad seemed really, really laid back, too laid back to have 14 children.

I guess what saves this family from chaos is their deep believe in god. The mom and dad said that after their first kid they just decided to let god give them as many kids as he wanted. So, I take it that there will be many more kids to come. Also, because of their beliefs the girls do not wear pants and wear their hair long, oh yeah, they also make all their own clothes.

The weirdest part of all this, well, I should not say weird - different strokes for different folks, is that they HOME SCHOOL all their children!!! bam, bam, BAMMMM. More power to them.

After the show I felt a little too materialistic. Wouldn't it be nice to live life without worrying about what you are wearing or how people are seeing you? Wouldn't it be nice to be 100% involved in your kid's life and not feel, as a mom, like you have to work to achieve personal and financial goals? All this made me think a lot about life, of course until I went to the Galleria and found this pair of Louis Vuitton shoes I must have. Sigh, oh well.

A New Year - A New Post

Hello all. I hope you all had a great Christmas, New Year and are now well rested and back to work. As you all have seen I have taken a month sabbatical from blogging. At first I was just very busy running around getting the house ready for the holidays, then I was thinking that since I had not blogged in so long I better have a new/improved site. Well, the more I thought about improving the site the less creative I got. Later, I started thinking about the content of my blog, could it change? Should I introduce a cast of characters? You all know, those crazy people we see in our everyday life that give us something to talk about. I thought and thought about the possibilities and outcomes; finally a month later the site still looks the same so I just had to face the fact that I have just been lazy.

2004 – The holidays were great. We had a good Christmas and a great New Year. For New Year we had some family friends from out of town visiting so it was nice to be able to spend New Years with them.

Resolutions –The New Year came and went and I did not make any New Year's resolutions. All of the sudden, during one of those 75 degree January Houston days, I decided that it would be nice if I had at least one. I thought about it and came up with one that I thought would be easy to keep up with. Anyway, less than 24 hours later I failed miserably at my lone resolution. The resolution? you ask, well it was to try and be more patient with stupid people.

Pregnancy Update – I have 6 weeks to go. Baby Girl was 2 weeks late, so I am not sure when the Sequel will show up. Oh, yeah, the Sequel is a Boy!

Work – Since I am over 7 months pregnant I am no longer traveling for work. It is nice to know that for the next 5 months I will be home. I have not decided what I will do after the Sequel gets here, after my three month leave, but my boss seems pretty open to me staying at home with some very light travel.

Shopping – Since the end of this pregnancy is finally in sight I have started to look at clothes with new found enthusiasm. Yes, there is the weight issue to consider (it is supposed to take 9 months to go back to your pre-pregnancy weight), but buying awesome clothes will be an incentive to workout. Weight will be a major topic of conversation as 2005 progresses.

Cast of Characters – Yes, the only thing that came out of the month sabbatical. You all know the following:

• Chica – Yours truly
  
• J.R. – Husband.
  
• Baby Girl – Daughter, even though her nickname should really be smartass.
  
• Sequel – My soon to be born son.
  
• Loca – My sister, you will not be reading much about her since she does not like to be talked about, but for anyone interested she is single and super cute. I can provide references from people that have met her.
  New Character:
  
• David Koresh or just “Koresh” for short – Many people think that Koresh died in Waco, but that is not so. Why would he kill himself?? Anyway, he has turned up in my neighborhood.
  

Ok, guys that is it for me. I promise to be back posting on a regular/or irregular basis, but posting none the less.

A Little of Everything

Wow, it just dawned on me; I have not posted anything since November 30th. What is up with that? Well, I guess I better tell you guys what I have been up to for the past 12 days.

Boston - Boston was great. The work part was ok; you guys know, meetings, lunches, talking to the managers, that type of stuff. On Friday we did have our Christmas Party. That was ok, but it seems that I have had a better time in past years (could be that I consumed no beer? huh, maybe). On Saturday we visited the greatest place ever, and a new mandatory stop every time we visit Boston, the Wrentham Village Premium Outlets, omg!, the greatest place EVER. They have tons of outlet stores like bebe, Arden B, Polo, and get this, brace yourself, a Burberry outlet store, yeah!!! I was in heaven. I even got a pair of Gucci sunglasses for, get this, $69.99!!

After all the shopping we headed for the Custom House in Boston. They have an awesome observation deck and I was able to snap some pics.



On Sunday we hung out in Boston walked from Fanuiel Hall through the Public Garden to Newbury Street. Later that afternoon we headed for the airport to make our way home.

Houston: Mon. to Fri. - I have been so lazy this past week. I pretty much had the whole week off, and was supposed to get so many things done, but when I looked at the calendar it was Friday already. On Thursday our neighborhood had its annual Christmas lights walk through. Pretty much people walk around the neighborhood looking at the lights. This was the second year of the event and the second year that we have been a Host Home. We pretty much set up a table outside with drinks and cookies/cakes and people stop by and get a refreshment.



Saturday - Watched Maria Full of Grace. The movie was ok.

Sunday - I finally realized that my husband is not allowed to go out by himself. I swear every time he hits the town by himself something happens. Today he went to the Colts vs. Texans game. He has been gone for 12 hours, well, guess what, he was pick pocketed. Someone tried to use our ATM! We had to call around and cancel all his cards. Believe me weird things happen to that boy. Lesson learned, he is no longer allowed out of the house unescorted.

Scott Peterson

I don't think Scott should get the death penalty. Do not get me wrong I do believe in putting people to death for crimes, but I think that Scott will suffer far more in jail for the rest of his life...death is just too easy.

The realization that he killed his wife and his child , and the way they were killed, will sink in eventually and then he will wish he were dead.

As I looked at the Court TV highlights of the sentencing phase I was close to tears. All those pictures of Laci when she was little. She could be MY daughter. I just hope that I, as a mother, never have to go through something like that. I feel so bad for her family.

I think Laci's mother summed it best by saying "I hope the screams of my daughter begging for her life and begging for the life of her unborn child are herd by the killer for the rest of his life". I wish the same thing.

Thanksgiving Wrap Up

I really hope you all had a great Thanksgiving week and were able to find all those Thanksgiving deals on Friday.

Our Thanksgiving was typical, the usual, we had Thanksgiving BBQ at J.R. parents and then drove to see my family.

On Friday I had in mind to get up at the crack of dawn to go shopping, but decided against it after I did not find anything too cheap to pass up in the paper. Instead we got up and were out the door by noon. We went to Toys R Us and were still able to find the two sale items they were advertising (yippie!!). After that we went to Office Depot were I bought me a new 19 inch flat screen monitor, they had a $170 rebate (too good to pass up). I gave my old 17 inch flat screen to Baby Girl. She loves it, plus it gives her more room on her desk.

Saturday was light day. We put up tons of Christmas lights. We are now ready for our neighborhood Christmas walk through. I need to take a pic and post it.

Sunday was wash day. I am leaving for Boston tomorrow and need to get some things ready. So far the weather outlook is saying it will be high 40s to low 20s, NO SNOW, but I bet you guys that as soon as my plane lands the weather gods will change their mind just like they do every year.

Last year the weather called for no snow, but it ended up being the first snow storm of the season with the worst storm of the winter. We were stuck inside for 2 days. Ok, cross your fingers and wish me luck.

Great Movies

Hello there boys and girls. I am coming to you guys live from Youngstown, Ohio. Yeah, yippie for me (sarcastic). What are you doing there you might ask, well, I am working, but will be home back tomorrow.

While I am here I thought I would share with you guys some movies I saw this weekend. The first one is Osama. I really, really, really enjoyed this movie. If you think we women have it bad now days you need to see how women under the Taliban regimen live. The movie follows the life of a young girl that has to become a boy to help her family out (only men are allowed to work). The movie is in Pashtu, but has English subtitles.

This movie made me realize that the Taliban is not about Muslim fundamentals, but about oppression. Baby Girl watched the movie with me and asked "why are they all covered up?" I proceeded to explain to her about a woman's role in that society. All of the sudden a man is seen on screen. Baby Girl asks "why is he not covered up?". If my three year old can see the injustice why can they?

The other movie I saw was Super Size Me. We are all guilty of eating fast food more than we are supposed to, if you are not please let me know what you do, so this movie hit close to home. The dieticians in the movie say you are only supposed to eat fast food one time per month, ouch!!

Overall I really liked the movie and I specially liked the paintings that they showed at several points throughout the film. Oh, yeah, they did mention that in 2002 Houston was the #1 fattest city in the US and the second in 2003. I guess that is a title we do not want to have.

I Must Blog...

I need to blog about something today, but do not know what exactly. I have been thinking about doing a 100 things about me page, but I always decide against it. I just think I will come across as too psycho or weird. Maybe I can do one of those new lists where people highlight what they have done. I dunno.

I can talk about what shows I am watching, but it has been a lame fall, even for nov. sweeps, and the only show I have been religiously keeping my eye on has been Arrested Development.

I can talk about this year has gone incredibly fast. It is already November! The New Year will be here before we know it.

I can talk about my pregnancy, everything is great, I am due in February, but do not want to bore anyone to tears.

I can talk about work. I will be once again going to Boston the last week of the month. The bad thing is that it is already snowing up there and all of you know that cold weather and I do not mix. Plus, I am hoping my belly does not grow anymore. I have a winter coat that still fits and I am not about to buy me a down maternity jacket just for one visit to Boston knowing I will never wear it again. The good thing is that JR is coming up mid week. We are also staying at the Custom House Hotel right in the city so it should be lots of fun.

The Word of God

The other day I was driving around and a bumper sticker I saw made me think of how every person and religion interprets every word written in the Bible differently. I think it is amazing that there are thousands of Christian religions and sects based on a single book.

Well, back to the bumper sticker. The sticker just said "Thou Shall Not Kill - Become Vegetarian". Huh, food for thought.

Too Funny