party of five

Holy crap! Where to begin on updates???

First, we are now a party of five. Brayden Matthew Martinez was born on 9/26 at 8:02am, weighing 7 lbs 10 ounces. It was a great delivery. I'm not sure if I ever shared my very intense anxiety about my last C-section but to sum up - it was one of the worst experiences of my life. This one, though, was VERY different. The anesthesiologist was amazing and made all the difference. She asked me about my previous experiences and what I would change. I told her about my high anxiety and she said she would do anything possible to make it a better experience. During the whole thing she told me exactly what was going on and kept me distracted enough from my own thoughts. I told Vincent to talk to me to keep me distracted too. His distraction talk? He told me he was going to clean the house. Then he told me he was going to clean the carpets with the carpet cleaner. Sad, but it actually made me happy and kept me distracted for about 2 minutes while I envisioned my house completely clean. After becoming huge and EXTREMELY uncomfortable these last few months- lots of things were not being done. One being the upkeep of once daily/weekly chores- like vacuuming, cleaning the carpets, making sure laundry was put in the right place (i.e. making sure my husband put away clothes correctly). It was sad how embarrassed I was of our home. And of course everyone came to visit right after the baby was born and Vincent had had no time to clean. Darn.

Anyway, back to the operating room. Anesthesiologist was amazing and so the delivery was very low anxiety. I had my tubes tied because there is no way we can ever do this again. I have 3 children- all under the age of 4. I am a retard. Tristan has really blossomed and been great. He loves his big brother role and takes it very seriously. Caleb, on the other hand, is seriously becoming a very real candidate for temporary foster care. He has entered his terrible twos (great timing, bud!) and it's even worse than Tristan's. He touches everything we tell him not to and he everything is followed by a "No!" from him. We had the worst first week together as a family of five because I put off making Tristan and Caleb sleep together until the baby came. That's because every time I tried to make them sleep together in the same room, Caleb would play for hours. I am not exaggerating- hours. He would be up till 11 or 12 until I would give up and throw him back in his room/ Brayden's new room. I spanked him so much my hand hurt. He was being so bad that I would spank him and then he would blatantly disobey right after I spanked him so I would come back to spank him again. He would see me and then take his hand and spank his chunky thigh himself- as to say "See? That doesn't hurt me. I dare you to do it again". Vincent and I didn't know what to do. Avoiding the issue of them sleeping in the same room seemed best. So when it finally happened, we had no back up solutions. Caleb was literally staying up till midnight the first week. Then, one night after Caleb kept turning off the TV that Tristan was trying to watch, I took Tristan out of the room and put him in our room to watch his 30 minutes of TV. I left Caleb in the room by himself with no lights or TV and he fell asleep within 10 minutes. So, that's where we're at. We put Caleb to bed 30 minutes before Tristan and he falls asleep no problem. I think Caleb just gets too distracted with anyone in the room with him. That's fair. At least we know now.

Brayden is sleeping 5 hours at a time right now and it's been good because Vincent has been home this whole time. This Monday Vincent goes back to work and I'm scared because it's on me. Plus I have 3 doctor's appointments to go to next week and it's really hard to go anywhere with a baby- yikes!

Alright well now I'm exhausted and I'm up for the next shift for Brayden. I'll try to update again soon.

Floors Update

So a little over 2 weeks ago we started the project of staining the concrete on the living room floor. I say started because it was a week-long project. First, Friday night we removed all the furniture from the living room. This was a project in itself because I am pregnant and Vincent didn't want me to strain something. So we moved things creatively. Like with the help of a rolling chair. And those 'EZ Sliders' - those things really do help. Then Saturday the hard work began. My brother David and sis-in-law, Becky came over to help. First, carpet was removed. Then we had to clean the concrete. And this was no easy feat. There was the adhesive from the carpet plus random spray paint all over it. First we took soap and water, cleaned it, and then sucked up the dirty water with a shop vac. That took forever. Then we went to Home Depot and rented a buffer machine. This was what got the glue and paint off the concrete. We had the machine for 4 hours and it took all of that time. Then, of course, we had made plans that Saturday night so we had to stop to get ready. The next day was cleaning the concrete with soap and water again but this time we got smart about it and rented a Rug Doctor from Home Depot to suck up the dirty water. Much faster. After cleaning it completely it had to dry, which took about 4 hours. Of course, Tristan’s birthday party was Sunday so we went to that right after cleaning. Then we got home from the party and were exhausted so we decided Vincent would take that Monday off and work from home as well as work on the floors. Well, he got up and started on the stain. It was supposed to be sprayed on by one of those spray containers that looks like you use to put pesticide on your lawn. It was supposed to be 1 can for the whole floor. Vincent put it on really thick so we ended up using 3 ½ cans on the floor. I was freaking when he called me to tell me that he ran out of stain about a third of the way in. I thought it was going to look awful. But, thankfully, it just made the layer thicker and probably less likely to peel off in the future. I’ll take it. Then we had to wait for the stain to dry. Since he put it on so thick, it took a lot longer than normal. Since we had to continue our work week as normal, we just decided to put off putting on the sealer until the weekend. Did I mention that we decided to put the dining room table in the kitchen?? And that the dining room table fits the kitchen with about 8 inches of room to walk around it? It was awful to try to use the kitchen for Tuesday and Wednesday. Finally I couldn’t take it. On Thursday, I went to Home Depot, got a high-tech mask and put on the sealer myself. I also bought this “non-skid” additive to add to the sealer to make the floors not so slippery. It was easy to do. You put it on with a roller that is the same length as a mop. It took me about 30 minutes. But it took about 12 hours to dry so Friday we were able to move the furniture back in. But the floors look great. The only thing that is annoying is the acoustics right now. The TV has a slight echo because we have yet to buy a rug for the room. I read online where other people mentioned that once they had a rug in there; it really helped out with the acoustics.

Right after we cleaned up everything leftover from the project on Saturday we went to my Aunt’s for the Masdon swim party where my Grandpa from Georgia was the guest of honor. He came back to Texas last year for the first time in like 10 years and this year he came again. It was awesome, since we hardly get to see him. We had a great time besides being exhausted from cleaning up the garage from our project.

Oh and did I mention that while we were storing our living room furniture in the garage during that week, it also happened to hail? I mean, seriously hail?? Like slightly larger than golf balls hail? Yeah, Vincent and I could only sit and watch as both of our cars were destroyed by the hail. That was the closest to crying I’ve ever seen Vincent get. It lasted about 10 minutes but caused some serious damage. Good timing.

And although I don’t have pictures from the living room project, I do have pictures from Mother’s Day. My brother, sis-in-law, nephew, sister and the 4 of us went to brunch thrown by a friend that has a catering company. It was delicious. My sister Naomi took some great pictures. Here are those pictures. She's really good at pictures. I always steal hers  :)

Act your age, not your shoe size

So a bunch of us at work were talking about those type of moms. You know, the ones that are insisting on living like they're between the ages of 18-25 but they're actually between the ages of 32-44. The ones that don't want to be moms but rather "cool moms".

Don't get me wrong, I am totally down with keeping up with fashion as a mother. I'm not saying that once you become a mom you have to trade in the 7 jeans for mom jeans. No. Moms are allowed to still look good and still be moms. In fact, they more than others need to feel good about themselves and I have learned in the past few years that my happiness can be bought :) I will spend some money on my clothes and purses and not think twice about it. I also believe in what a good hairstyle does for your self esteem and the cost is worth it. No, it's the moms that are in complete denial of being moms. That wear shorts IN PUBLIC while with their kids where half their butt cheeks are hanging out. These moms are usually (and this is not true for all) the ones that didn't get to live like a normal twenty-something for whatever reason. A lot of the women that I have seen/hear about got pregnant or married early and never lived a normal life after that. So, instead of suffering the consequences of their decision, they make their kids suffer. So, these moms in their 30s and 40s decide to live like they're in their 20s with obvious consequences on their kids. Yes, it is inappropriate to wear revealing clothes when your son and his friends are 13 and only think about sex 24 hours a day. That's not a weird impression on them. No, not at all. Great, you have a good body for someone who has kids but does EVERYONE have to see your body? Can you not keep that body for 1 person to share with? I certainly don't need to see that you work out and keep your butt toned. It does nothing for my life. Yes I'm jealous for the 30 seconds or so that I see you at the grocery store. But after I admire, I move on and forget about you because I am happy, even if my butt doesn't show it like yours.
And you can bet your last dollar that I will be that parent to rip the head off the "cool" parent of a child that my kids hang out with when they're older. The minute I hear about drinking or skinny dipping or whatever else and my kids are 11 and the "cool" mom let it happen cause "at least she was home while it happened". Nuh-uh. Yeah, I will beat her *ss. I don't care how "cool" kids think she is and how "uncool" I will be after that, I will be a mom. My job, ultimately, is to raise my children to be able to live a full and complete life. Not a life where they make stupid decisions early that will ruin the rest of their life and their children's life. I mean, let's be honest, my kids will make a lot of dumb decisions but hopefully at ages appropriate to understand the consequences. My goal: get them to that age. Not to be best friends, or party pals but to get them to the point in life where they understand most of their decisions and the consequences. Then, I'll be their friend. Probably right around the time they give me some grandchildren- (this can happen after they get married). Anyway, with all that rambling I think you get the point. Our roles as parents are important and a way to make a child's life better- not your life better by teaching someone to bring you and your friends beer. Kids are not accessories. They are miniature humans waiting for direction from you. Sure it's a lot of pressure but don't give up before it even starts. Also, put some clothes on  :)

Confessions

So I have started this book called “Confessions of a Scary Mommy”. It’s hilarious! It's a woman writing about the topics of motherhood but being brutally honest. She started off with a blog and let people anonymously donate their comments on the subject as well. I’m not even a stay at home mom but I can relate to most of the stories in the book. It makes me sad that I didn’t write a book like this because truth be told- in real life the woman who wrote the book probably was talked about behind her back and her very opinionated views on child raising. But she wrote a book about these views (and it is hilarious!) and now is making millions on it. I am jealous. I have the exact same opinions but all I get is dirty looks and judgment from other moms for actually speaking out loud my views. Oh well. She’s obviously smarter than me- she deserves it J Anyway, it does mention a lot of things that moms don’t want to talk about but are totally true about raising kids. Raising children is not pretty 99.9% yet some moms want to act like it is. So annoying. I used to envy those type of women but now that I know that 100% of those women who pretend to have it together are actually miserable- um, no thanks. I’d rather just be the wife/mother that I am all the time rather than putting on some game face that doesn’t get me anything except false envy. Yes I have yelled at people in the airport security line for rolling their eyes and groaning at me for carrying my child and trying to shove the stroller into the X-ray machine at the same time and taking too long. It is extremely difficult to do by yourself. So I told those people annoyed to either help or keep their comments to themselves. Yes, that was me. I don’t care. People with no children occasionally need to be reminded that they may not understand parenthood but they need to respect it. I could go on and on about every subject in the book.  Bottom line- I agree with her point of view on life. The book is really great and very well written. She’s a very entertaining writer.  I would highly recommend it. At the very least, read the summary of it on her blog- it’ll give you an idea of what it’s about.

http://www.scarymommy.com/confessions-of-a-scary-mommy/

Other than that, life is busy. This pregnancy is miserable. I don’t know if it’s because my mind knows it’s the last one or because it really is miserable. I have had body aches like having the flu for about 4 days straight now. But no other symptons- just the aches. Oh and I get migraines every day. It’s delightful. I’m counting down the days for this one to be over….

Tristan is turning 3 next month and I can hardly believe it. His vocabulary is incredible and he gets smarter every day. Caleb is going to be 1 ½ next month and he’s actually talking now. Not full blown talking but 1 word at a time to express what he needs/wants. The only thing that makes me sad is that he is so shy around new people. He has the greatest personality ever with us- making faces to crack us up, being goofy, etc but when he’s around people that he hasn’t been around at least 20+ times, he stays still and just watches. I wish he would open up more because his personality is just so great and most people don’t get to experience it. L

Oh and I’m pretty sure I have convinced Vincent to stain the concrete downstairs and upstairs in the hallway instead of installing new carpet or wood floors. I really, really, really did not want to pay to get carpet or wood floors because I did not want to waste more money on this house. Then I came across this blog of these people that stained the concrete in their living room and it looks great and it’s a heck of a lot cheaper. For those of you judging the whole concrete thing, it’s not what you think. Check out this website that shows the living room that they did.

http://www.savingwithaplan.com/2011/01/diy-stained-concrete-floors/

We are also trying to get Caleb to sleep in a toddler bed soon. After he accomplishes that we are moving Caleb and Tristan into a room together. I don’t know how that’s going to work out. I will post once it happens because I’m sure it won’t be a smooth transition. J

Table for 5

So for those that haven’t heard…..we’re expecting…..again. This was actually a little bit of a surprise and not exactly when we had planned but these things happen. This actually will be the 3^rd and final child of this family. We have decided that 3 is a great number.

Right now I am 17 weeks along. At 13 weeks we had a sonogram done and the doctor said with “80% certainty” it was a girl. We will have another sonogram done at 19 weeks that confirms if it’s a girl or not. I haven’t really announced officially that we’re having a girl just because it’s not 100% yet.

The pregnancy has been good so far and I haven’t really been sick. But I have been VERY exhausted. I mean, sleeping all the time. Vincent was super worried about this side effect especially with the new job and all. But I have been all about Vitamin B and its natural energy boosting and it seems to help a little bit. The exhaustion has lasted longer than my other pregnancies. I think I am just now getting over it but have had it from the beginning- it’s been a long freaking time of being exhausted. I think Vincent was getting annoyed with me coming home from work and going directly to bed. J

The new job is great. It is definitely going to be tough. Basically, to sum up my job- I write software. For each company that signs up for benefits enrollment through our company, we have to write software specific to their company. Definitely that is “dumbing” it down but that’s what I do in a nutshell. So at this point I am learning JavaScript. I knew a little bit before but this is full-blown writing software programs so it’s intense with a lot of information. I will be a nerd before long J

I thought this job would be awesome but it has exceeded my expectations, for sure! I will be able to work from home whenever I want as soon as I catch on and get experience – about 4-5 months. They are all about the latest and greatest technology (duh!) and providing this to each and every employee. And, most importantly, everyone that works here is smart. It’s such a relief to work with smart people. My brain actually hurts from learning as much as I have been. But I’ll take it any day.

Anyway, it looks like I may be able to blog more than I thought I would. We’ll see. I will honestly try to though J

News

So finally after a very long time of looking, I have found another job! YAY!! I will be working in McKinney as an "Implementation Analyst". The pay increase is huge- over 50% and we couldn't be happier! I will be able to work from home alot and actually use my MBA (and my brain). The job will be super hard and I will be super busy which will definitely be a change from now. But our #1 goal right now is to sell our house. We have decided to save our money and then just WAY undersell the house. All along Vincent's goal was to not lose that much money on it (he is super cheap) but I think I have finally convinced him that it's just not worth hanging onto in order to not lose that much. Plus I'm threatening death if we don't move within the next year  :)

So I start my new job on April 16th and can't wait. It'll be a drive at first until I can work from home or we move. Also, probably won't be blogging. I will try to blog but if I will be as busy as I think I'll be and I have an almost 3 year-old and a 1 1/2 year-old- I doubt my spare time will be spent blogging. I don't even have time for Facebook right now. I try to update photos on there when I can but I definitely don't have time to upload on Facebook and then turn around and upload on a blog. If you're not on Facebook- you should get on there (hint, hint) and look for more photos and updates there :)

Organized Chaos

My goodness! A lot has happened since the last time I wrote.....

First, I graduated with my MBA on December 18- WHOO-HOO!! I am finally done with school. I had planned to have a lot more time available for blogging but our house has been more than a little chaotic recently. Here are some pictures from the graduation.

 (Hat decorated by Lauren Watkins- thanks, Lauren!!!)

Next, my brother, Nate and his wife, Nicole and their son Ethan came into town, right after Christmas. Well, they just had a layover on their way to Florida. Since we hardly see them, we made plans to hang with them at the airport. Here are the pictures from that visit.

 Oh and for Christmas we got pictures with Santa. Caleb ended up being my cranky baby the minute he hit Santa's lap. Look at that lip.....