"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen."

6.27.2005

Astros game and eye candy!

We went to the Astros game on Saturday. We had kick-ass seats, right above the VIP section. I had only planned on staying *maybe* an hour, with 4 kids, I didn't want to get my hopes up on enjoying the game. To my surprise, the kids were so well behaved that we stayed all the way until the 7th inning! To top it off, we saw Rob Reiner and James Denton, Mike, from Desperate Housewives! How awesome does that sound?? To say the least, it was the best game we've ever been to. It was also Nicky and Valerie's first game too. And, we made the big screen TV!! WOOHOO!!

Here are some pics from the game:
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James and Rob
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Nicky
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Olivia and Seth
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Gabriel and Seth
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6.21.2005

Then and Now

I was browsing at pics of Nicky back when Valerie was born and couldn't believe how much he has changed these past months.

Here he is in January 2005 @ 11 mos
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Here he is today @ 16 mos
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Out of nowhere, his head exploded curls! LOL! He gets that from Gabriel, who has pictures of when he was a kid with an afro. LOL!

Here is Olivia and Seth back in 2001!
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Here they are 4 years later!
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I think Valerie still hasn't changed...much...Here she is in January 2005
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Here she is today
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Ok, I'm done reminiscing. LOL! I swear it was just yesterday that Olivia was Valerie's age. Can I call a time-out to catch my breathe? ;-)

Family Pictures - June 20, 2005

Here is Seth feeding Valerie last night...
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Here is Miss Olivia striking a pose...
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And our newest family member, Otis our fearless boxer mix...
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6.16.2005

Otis, O tis, O it is....

I can thank the movie, Son of the Mask for naming our dog. Ever since Olivia saw it, she fell in love with the dog who happens to be named...Otis. So, what are her suggestions for puppy names? Otis, of course! Well, afer days of countless suggestions we literally ran out of names. LOL! Otis it is. I must say, he is one heck of a dog. I'll post a pic this weekend of him and the kids. Crate training is going wonderfully well, we are even sleeping all night long! YAY!!

Things that irritate me. Today, I had one of those days. Here goes:
1) People who are late....I am the most punctual person you will ever meet, I hate it when other people think they are their own time zone.
2) Road Rage at 7 o'clock in the morning. C'mon people, the sun is just rising. Do you have to ride my ass and then swirve around me? Don't you see me putting on my makeup? ;)
3) People who have their boyfriend call in sick for them. If you're going to play hooky, have enough balls to call in yourself.
4) Husbands who can't give their child medicine as prescribed. Honey, it says to give 4x a day, not just the one time I am doing it.
5) Family members who call past 9 p.m. Ummm, did you forget we have 4 kids all under the age of 5?!? I cherish this time, I don't need a ringing phone waking them up.

6.13.2005

Babies and puppies, what's the difference?

Babies are cheaper! LOL! We just adopted a dog from the Houston SPCA over the weekend. His description read a retriever mix, we just don't see it. He is definitely a boxer mix, which the vet confirmed today, $70 later. Ok, difference #1: Baby visits are 100% covered, puppy visits are not. He goes back next week, then 2 weeks following that. Where's that link for pet insurance?....

Overall, he is a great dog. We've been crate training him, and lucky for him I'm used to getting up every few hours to make a bottle, change a diaper, and now we can add going outside butt-ass naked too, to do his business. Lucky for us, he doesn't bark or whine while he's in the crate. Puppy is still nameless. I like Lucky (because he's one lucky dog, and we are one lucky family!), followed by Dollar (meaning all the dollars we will be spending on him for the next decade - LOL!). Who knows when he will have a name. His poor file at the vets still reads Vargas Dog. Difference #2: Babies get named before they go home, puppys can still go nameless after going home. Think crate training will work on my 16 mo? And how about offering obedience classes for toddlers? Hey, maybe they can combine the two. Bring a kid, get the dog trained for free! People think we are crazy for adding a pup to our family with two little ones, and now I can see why they think that! Of course, I think it's the perfect time to add to our family. We're already living on little sleep as it is, so it's not like I'm sacrificing any more beauty sleep. You know???

We took the kids to see shark boy and lava girl, it was alright. The last time I saw a movie wearing 3D glasses was Jaws 3. What a PITA they were as an adult! I can't believe how friggin expensive the theaters are. And that' s because we only had 2 of the kids with us. Luckily, we only do this 1-2x per year. lol! The kids had a great time, and Seth did really well. It was money well spent. :) I can't wait until we get to drag them to our movies to sit through, though.

6.06.2005

Weekend Happenings

What a busy weekend. Olivia, Seth and Nicky spent the night at grandma's Friday night, and what do Gabriel and I do? We went to the mall, then came home and watched movies until 2 a.m.! Meet the Fockers is hilarious and then we went to the other extreme, Saw - that was a good thriller. Gabriel was such a good sport, he HATES scary movies and yet he laid there with me watching it. Then we couldn't sleep and cheked all our doors and windows before going to bed. LOL!

Saturday morning was my big appt. I was supposed to get my hair done at 9:30 and then colored at this fancy, schmansy hair salon. I knew a cut was going to cost $80, I was assuming the color would be at least $100 since it was a one step color. I did what I always do and I backed out. Mother's Guilt. ugh! The more I pondered the costs, the more I didn't want to go. Hair Cut or Coach Bag? Hair or Bag? Hair or Bag? LOL. Not like would go buy a Coach bag, but it was the same price range and I didn't feel comfortable doing it. The problem is my hair. It's naturally curly, wavy, straight up front, super thick and combine that with Houston's humidity and I lose. I know if I pay the $$$, I walk out a happy lady. I don't go home, re-wash my hair and style it the way I always do. But, what do I end up doing? I go to the mall (mistake #1) and I go to Visible Changes (mistake #2). I left there looking alright. She took about 30 minutes to straighten my hair, but she did it. It wasn't until Sunday morning, after I showered and am ready to style my own hair that I burst into tears. I specifically said I wanted a style where I could wear my hair curly or straight. Well, I can't wear it curly at all. Now, I have to straighten my hair every morning, which means I need to get up earlier and blah, blah, blah...I am NEVER going back there! UGH! I am going to go get this fixed in a few months. By then, my hair should be longer and I'll have more options.

Ok, enough about me. LOL! The pool party was so much fun. Olivia did all sorts of jumps with her vest and Seth attempted to swim without his! He's a natural in the water. He swims better underwater only because he's still working on getting above it. LOL! Nicky didn't care for the water. He preferred to stay by the steps. And Valerie, well she slept most of the time there. :) When we got home, we bbq pork chops and then we all crashed! LOL.

Sunday, more BBQing. Nothing like BBQing every weekend. I swear, we do it every Sunday. lol. My dad came over and brought some steaks, then we went to go see his new house he's having built. It was a HOT weekend, I am so ready for October and November. :)

6.02.2005

Me, the Liberal - Go figure!








Liberal
You scored 33% Gender-Abolitionist, 100% Sexually Liberal, and 40 % Socialist
You are the Liberal Feminist. This means that you tend to think the women's movement would best succeed through legislative changes to the system as opposed to radically restructuring our governments or ideas on gender. You tend to be mainly concerned with sexual liberation, and think that much of the oppression of women is leveled against them as a result of oppressive sexual morality. Men who sleep around are pimps and women are whores. You would claim that the negativity associated with a female's sexual freedom is only a blatant attempt to repress femininity into a submissive role. Also, you probably believe women should have access to reproductive controls such as abortion and contraception. You most likely embody the ideals of the typical American Democrat: you are pro-choice, sexually liberated, and politically active (though your political views aren't very extreme).

The other feminist types:

The Housewife

The Marxist

The Liberal

The Liberal Extremist

The Gender Abolitionist

The Radical

The Gender-Liberal

The Revisionist








My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
















free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 7% on Gender





free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 53% on Sexuality





free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 56% on Class
Link: The Feminism Test written by saint_gasoline on OkCupid Free Online Dating

Woohoo! 100% Sexually Liberal. This would not surprise my closest friends or husband for that matter. LOL! I love this quiz, it was right on the money.

My Linguistic Profile



Your Linguistic Profile:



60% General American English

25% Dixie

10% Yankee

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern


That was fun! Ok, so I got this off Brandy's Blog. You think 'ya'll' really upped my Dixie speak? LOL! I thought it was interesting, some words I had never heard of. Yes, Kleenex refers to any tissue that catches my boogers and Coke is anything carbonated. As well as Band-Aids, any bandage, any cartoon, that goes over a boo-boo. :) hmmm...I wonder if my schooling in IL contributed to the Yankee/Upper Midwestern part? And, where is spanglish. I can't forward this to my family because I don't think they would even register on this chart. ROFL!